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diff --git a/old/11313-8.txt b/old/11313-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab9771e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11313-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18660 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A School History of the United States +by John Bach McMaster + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A School History of the United States + +Author: John Bach McMaster + +Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11313] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +A SCHOOL HISTORY + +OF THE + +UNITED STATES + + +BY + +JOHN BACH McMASTER + +PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY +OF PENNSYLVANIA + +1897 + + + + +PREFACE + +It has long been the custom to begin the history of our country with the +discovery of the New World by Columbus. To some extent this is both wise +and necessary; but in following it in this instance the attempt has been +made to treat the colonial period as the childhood of the United States; +to have it bear the same relation to our later career that the account +of the youth of a great man should bear to that of his maturer years, +and to confine it to the narration of such events as are really +necessary to a correct understanding of what has happened since 1776. + +The story, therefore, has been restricted to the discoveries, +explorations, and settlements within the United States by the English, +French, Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of the French by the +English; to the planting of the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic +seaboard; to the origin and progress of the quarrel which ended with the +rise of thirteen sovereign free and independent states, and to the +growth of such political institutions as began in colonial times. This +period once passed, the long struggle for a government followed till our +present Constitution--one of the most remarkable political instruments +ever framed by man--was adopted, and a nation founded. + +Scarcely was this accomplished when the French Revolution and the rise +of Napoleon involved us in a struggle, first for our neutral rights, and +then for our commercial independence, and finally in a second war with +Great Britain. During this period of nearly five and twenty years, +commerce and agriculture flourished exceedingly, but our internal +resources were little developed. With the peace of 1815, however, the +era of industrial development commences, and this has been treated with +great--though it is believed not too great--fullness of detail; for, +beyond all question, _the_ event of the world's history during the +nineteenth century is the growth of the United States. Nothing like it +has ever before taken place. + +To have loaded down the book with extended bibliographies would have +been an easy matter, but quite unnecessary. The teacher will find in +Channing and Hart's _Guide to the Study of American History_ the best +digested and arranged bibliography of the subject yet published, and +cannot afford to be without it. If the student has time and disposition +to read one half of the reference books cited in the footnotes of this +history, he is most fortunate. + +JOHN BACH McMASTER. + +UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA +II. THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES +III. ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD +IV. THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND +V. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES +VI. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY +VII. THE INDIANS +VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA +IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 +X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" +XI. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE +XII. UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION +XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION +XIV. OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 +XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES +XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY +XVII. STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" +XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE +XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 +XX. SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES +XXI. THE RISING WEST +XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE +XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 +XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA +XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL +XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 +XXVII. WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 +XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA +XXIX. THE COST OF THE WAR +XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH +XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870) +XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 +XXXIII. GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST +XXXIV. MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS +XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880 + +APPENDIX + +DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE +CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES +STATE CONSTITUTIONS +INDEX + +LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS + +DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA +EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1650 +FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700 +BRITISH COLONIES, 1733 +EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS, 1763 +THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764 +BRITISH COLONIES, 1776 +RESULTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE +THE UNITED STATES, 1783 +THE UNITED STATES, 1789 +DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790 +SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790 +THE UNITED STATES, 1801 +THE UNITED STATES, 1810 +NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824 +DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1820 +FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820 +THE UNITED STATES, 1826 +TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845 +THE OREGON COUNTRY +ROUTES OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS +TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO, 1848 AND 1853 +RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 +THE UNITED STATES IN 1851 +EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860 +DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850 +THE UNITED STATES, 1861 +WAR FOR THE UNION +INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES + + + + +A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE +UNITED STATES + + * * * * * + +_DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_ + + +CHAPTER I + + +EUROPE FINDS AMERICA + +%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States +became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various +portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England +claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held +Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of +Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland +once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New +York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes +had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession. + +Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is +necessary, therefore, to tell + +1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it. + +2. How these parts passed from them to us. + +3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on +our history and institutions before 1776. + +%2. European Trade with the East; the Old Routes.%--For two hundred +years before North and South America were known to exist, a splendid +trade had been going on between Europe and the East Indies. Ships loaded +with metals, woods, and pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria +and Constantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins, +dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This +trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the two Italian +cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of Genoa sent their ships to +Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea, where they took on board +the rich fabrics and spices which by boats and by caravans had come up +the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf. The +men of Venice, on the other hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and +carried on their trade with the East through the Red Sea. + +[Illustration: Routes to India] + +%3. New Routes wanted.%--Splendid as this trade was, however, it was +doomed to destruction. Slowly, but surely, the Turks thrust themselves +across the caravan routes, cutting off one by one the great feeders of +the Oriental trade, till, with the capture of Constantinople in 1453, +they destroyed the commercial career of Genoa. As their power was +spreading rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt, the prosperity of Venice, +in turn, was threatened. The day seemed near when all trade between the +Indies and Europe would be ended, and men began to ask if it were not +possible to find an ocean route to Asia. + +Now, it happened that just at this time the Portuguese were hard at work +on the discovery of such a route, and were slowly pushing their way down +the western coast of Africa. But as league after league of that coast +was discovered, it was thought that the route to India by way of Africa +was too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then came the question, Is +there not a shorter route? and this Columbus tried to answer. + +[Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a +way to India, in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. 274-334.] + +%4. Columbus seeks the East and finds America.%[2]--Columbus was a +native of Genoa, in Italy. He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and in +the intervals between his voyages made maps and globes. As Portugal was +then the center of nautical enterprise, he wandered there about 1470, +and probably went on one or two voyages down the coast of Africa. In +1473 he married a Portuguese woman. Her father had been one of the King +of Portugal's famous navigators, and had left behind him at his death a +quantity of charts and notes; and it was while Columbus was studying +them that the idea of seeking the Indies by sailing due westward seems +to have first started in his mind. But many a year went by, and many a +hardship had to be borne, and many an insult patiently endured in +poverty and distress, before the Friday morning in August, 1492, when +his three caravels, the _Santa Maria_ (sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the +_Pinta_ (peen'-tah), and the _Niņa_ (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of +Palos (pah'-los), in Spain. + +[Footnote 2: There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 A.D. +the northeast coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager named +Leif Ericsson. The records are very meager; but the discovery of our +country by such a people is possible and not improbable. For an account +of the pre-Columbian discoveries see Fiske's _Discovery of America_, +Vol. I., pp. 148-255.] + +[Illustration: Santa Maria] + +His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned and went +directly westward. The earth was not then generally believed to be +round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the only parts of it known to +Europeans were Iceland, the British Isles, the continent of Europe, a +small part of Asia, and a strip along the coast of the northern part of +Africa. The ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which in our +time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly unknown, and was +well named "The Sea of Darkness." Little wonder, then, that as the +shores of the last of the Canaries sank out of sight on the 9th of +September, many of the sailors wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned their +cruel fate. After sailing for what seemed a very long time, they saw +signs of land. But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to fear, +and they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return. + +[Illustration: Niņa] + +But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could not +understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and kept steadily on +westward till October 7, when a flock of land birds were seen flying to +the southwest. Pinzon (peen-thon'), who commanded one of the vessels, +begged Columbus to follow the birds, as they seemed to be going toward +land. Had the little fleet kept on its way, it would have brought up on +the coast of Florida. But Columbus yielded to Pinzon. The ships were +headed southwestward, and about ten o'clock on the night of October 11, +Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made by the +inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring coast. At dawn the +shore itself was seen by a sailor, and Columbus, followed by many of his +men, hastened to the beach, where, October 12, 1492, he raised a huge +cross, and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and +Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied him with caravels +and men.[1] He had landed on one of a group of islands which we call the +Bahamas.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn +sahl-vah-dor', Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it was +discovered, was so named in the Spanish calendar.] + +[Footnote 2: Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings, have +rival claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present, Watlings +Island is believed to be the one on which he first set foot. Read an +account of the voyage in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. +408-442; Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I., Book III.] + +[Illustration: Coat of arms of Columbus] + +During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, turning southward, +he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, and so to Haiti, which he +named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There the _Santa Maria_ was wrecked. +The _Pinta_ had by this time deserted him, and, as the _Niņa_ could not +carry all the men, forty were left at Hispaniola, to found the first +colony of Europeans in the New World. Giving the men food enough to last +a year, Columbus set sail for Spain on the 3d of January, 1493, and on +March 15 was safe at Palos. + +Of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus had not the faintest idea. +That he had found a new world; that a continent was blocking his way to +the East, never entered his mind. He supposed he had landed on some +islands off the east coast of Asia, and as that coast was called the +Indies, and as the islands were reached by sailing westward, they came +to be called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and the +native races of the New World have ever since been called Indians. +Although Columbus in after years made three more voyages to the New +World, he never found out his mistake, and died firm in the belief that +he had discovered a direct route to Asia.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493, and +discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co), and the islands of the +Caribbean Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of +Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America at the mouth +of the Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage, 1502-1504, he +explored the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama in search of a +strait leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he did not find it, and, +going back to Spain, he died poor and broken-hearted on May 20, 1506.] + +%5. The Atlantic Coast explored.%--And now that Columbus had shown +the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 and 1498 came John and +Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing under the flag of England, and +exploring our coast from Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and Solis, +with Vespucius[2] for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along the +shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, and +northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese +navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same +ground as the Cabots. For the time being, however, these voyages were +fruitless. It was not a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian +Ocean, and the spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore, +in 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, passed around the end of +Africa, reached India, and came back to Portugal in 1499 with his ship +laden with the silks and spices of the East, all explorers turned +southward, and for eleven years after the visit of the Cortereals no +voyages were made to North America. + +[Footnote 2: As this man was an Italian, his name was really Amerigo +Vespucci (ah-ma'-ree-go ves-poot'-chee), but it is usually given in its +Latinized form, Americus Vespucius (a-mer'-i-cus ves-pu'-she-us).] + +%6. Why the Continent was called America.%--But some great voyages +meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a Portuguese fleet of +thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, started from Portugal for the +East. In place of following the usual route and hugging the west coast +of Africa, Cabral went off so far to the westward that one day in April, +1500, he was amazed to see land. It proved to be what is now Brazil, and +after sailing along a little way he sent one of his vessels home to +Portugal with the news. + +[Illustration: %DISCOVERY% ON THE EAST COAST OF %AMERICA%] + +He did this because six years before, in June, 1494, Spain and Portugal +made a treaty and agreed that a meridian should be drawn 370 leagues +west of the Cape Verde Islands and be known as "The Line of Demarcation" +All heathen lands discovered, no matter by whom, to the east of this +line, were to belong to Portugal; all to the west of it were to be the +property of Spain. Now, as the strange coast seemed to be east of the +line of demarcation, and therefore the property of Portugal, Cabral sent +word to the King that he might explore it. + +Accordingly, in May, 1501, the King sent out three ships in charge of +Americus Vespucius. Vespucius sighted the coast somewhere about Cape St. +Roque, and, finding that it was east of the line of demarcation, +explored it southward as far as the mouth of the river La Plata. As he +was then west of the line, and off a coast which belonged to Spain, he +turned and sailed southeastward till he struck the island of South +Georgia, where the Antarctic cold and the fields of floating ice stopped +him and sent him back to Lisbon. + +The results of this great voyage were many. In the first place, it +secured Brazil for Portugal. In the second place, it changed the +geographical ideas of the time. The great length of coast line explored +proved that the land was not a mere island, but that Vespucius had found +a new continent in the southern hemisphere,--off the coast of Asia, as +was then supposed. This for a time was called the "Fourth Part" of the +world,--the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. But in +1507 a German professor published a little book on geography, in which +he suggested that the new part of the world discovered by Americus, the +part which we call Brazil, should be called America. + +As Columbus was not supposed to have discovered a new world, but merely +a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed very proper, and soon the +word "America" began to appear on maps as the name of Brazil. After a +while it was applied to all South America, and finally to North +America also. + +%7. The Pacific discovered; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored.%--A few +years after the publication of the little book which gave the New World +the name of America, a Spaniard named Balboa landed on the Isthmus of +Panama, crossed it (1513), and from the mountains looked down on an +endless expanse of blue water, which he called the South Sea, because +when he first saw it he was looking south. + +Meantime another Spaniard, named Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'), +sailed with three ships from Porto Rico, in March, 1513, and on the 27th +of that month came in sight of the mainland. As the day was Easter +Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua (pas'-coo-ah) Florida, he called +the country Florida. + +[Illustration: Map of 1515][1] + +[Footnote 1: Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and position +of the newly discovered lands.] + +Six years later (1519) Pineda (pe-na'-da) skirted the shores of the Gulf +from Florida to Mexico. + +%8. Spaniards sail round the World.%--In the same year (1519) that +Pineda explored the Gulf coast, a Portuguese named Magellan (ma-jel'-an) +led a Spanish fleet across the Atlantic. He coasted along South America +to Tierra del Fuego, entered the strait which now bears his name, passed +well up the western coast, and turning westward sailed toward India. He +was then on the ocean which Balboa had discovered and named the South +Sea. But Magellan found it so much smoother than the Atlantic that he +called it the Pacific. Five ships and 254 men left Spain; but only one +ship and fifteen men returned to Spain by way of India and Cape of Good +Hope. Magellan himself was among the dead.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Magellan was killed by the natives of one of the Philippine +Islands. The captain of the ship which made the voyage was greatly +honored. The King of Spain ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was a +globe representing the earth, and on it the motto "You first sailed +round me."] + +%9. Importance of Magellan's Voyage.%--Of all the voyages ever made +by man this was the greatest.[2] In the first place, it proved beyond +dispute that the earth is round. In the second place, it proved that +South America is a great continent, and that there is no short southwest +passage to India. + +[Footnote 2: By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in +his _Discovery of America_, Vol. II., pp. 190-211.] + +%10. Search for a Northwest Passage; our North Atlantic Coast +explored.%--All eyes, therefore, turned northward; the quest for a +northwest passage began, and in that quest the Atlantic coast of the +United States was examined most thoroughly. + + +SUMMARY + +1. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Turks cut off the old +route of trade between Asia and Europe. + +2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began to +explore the west coast of Africa. + +3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought that +such a route was too long. + +4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by +sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some islands +which he supposed to be the East Indies. + +5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new +continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India. + +6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage +through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and +Pacific coasts. + +7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus. + +8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES + +%11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest.%--Now it must be noticed +that up to 1513 no European had explored the interior of either North or +South America. They had merely touched the shores. In 1513 the work of +exploration began. Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519 +Cortes (cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of men, and +marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city where lived the +great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes took the city and made +himself master of Mexico. This was most important; for the conquest of +Mexico turned the attention of the Spaniards from our country for many +years, and finally led to the exploration of the Southwest. But the +first explorers of what is now the United States came from Cuba in 1528. + +[Illustration: Map of 1530, Sloane MS.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: Notice that the two continents begin to take shape, and +that as the result of Magellan's voyage is not generally known, North +America is placed very near to Java.] + +In that year Narvaez (nar-vah-eth), excited by Pineda's accounts of the +Mississippi Indians and their golden ornaments, set forth with 400 men +to conquer the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. At Apalachee Bay he +landed, and made a raid inland. On returning to the shore, he missed his +ships, and after traveling westward on foot for a month, built five rude +vessels, and once more put to sea. For six weeks the little fleet hugged +the shore, till it came to the mouth of the Mississippi, where two of +the boats were upset and Narvaez was drowned. The rest reached the coast +of Texas in safety. But famine and the tomahawk soon reduced the number +of the survivors to four. These were captured by bands of wandering +Indians, were carried over eastern Texas and western Louisiana, till, +after many strange adventures and vicissitudes, they met beyond the +Sabine River.[1] Protected by the fame they had won for sorcery, and led +by one Cabeza de Vaca, they now wandered westward to the Rio Grande[2] +(ree'-o grahn'-da) and on by Chihuahua (chee-wah'-wah) and Sonora to the +Gulf of California, and by this to Culiacan, a town near the west coast +of Mexico, which they reached in 1536. They had crossed the continent. + +[Footnote 1: Now the western boundary of Louisiana.] + +[Footnote 2: Rio Grande del Norte---Great River of the North.] + +%12. "The Seven Cities of Cibola."%--The story these men told of the +strange country through which they had passed, aroused a strong desire +in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they +believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the +Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many +followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them +founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story +of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the credulous +and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly +believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country +traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected +Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few +followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose +villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuņi +(zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were +inhabited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of +them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed +by the Zuņi, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the +name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the +pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year +(1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the +rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on eastward, and for +two years wandered to and fro over the plains and mountains of the West, +crossing the state of Kansas twice.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Do not fail to read a delightful little book called _The +Spanish Pioneers_, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great +journeys is told on pp. 77-88, 101-143.] + +[Illustration: The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the +Rio Grande valley.] + +[Illustration: CORONADO'S EXPEDITION 1540] + +%13. The Spaniards on the Mississippi.%--In 1537 De Soto was +appointed governor of Cuba, with instructions to conquer and hold all +the country discovered by Narvaez. On this mission he set out in May, +1539, and landed at Tampa Bay, on the west coast of our state of +Florida. He wandered over the swamps and marshes, the moss-grown +jungles, and the forests of the Gulf states, and spent the winter of +1541 near the Yazoo River. Crossing the Mississippi in the spring of +1542 at the Chickasaw Bluffs, he wandered about eastern Arkansas, till +he died of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. His followers then +built rude boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, steered along the +coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, reached Tampico, in Mexico. + +More than half a century had now gone by since the first voyage of +Columbus. Yet not a settlement, great or small, had been established by +Spain within our boundary. Between 1546 and 1561 missionaries twice +attempted to found missions and convert the Indians in Florida, and +twice were driven away. In 1582 others entered the valleys of the Gila +and the Rio Grande, took possession of the pueblos, established +missions, preached the Gospel to the Indians, and brought them under +the dominion of Spain. But when Santa Fé (sahn'-tah fa') was founded, in +1582, the only colony of Spain in the United States, besides the +missions in Arizona and New Mexico, was St. Augustine in Florida. + +[Illustration: A Spanish mission] + +%14. St. Augustine.%--St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in +order to keep out the French, who made two attempts to occupy the south +Atlantic coast. The first was that of John Ribault (ree-bo'). He led a +colony of Frenchmen, in 1562, to what is now South Carolina, built a +small fort on a spot which he called Port Royal, and left it in charge +of thirty men while he went back to France for more colonists. The men +were a shiftless set, depended on the Indians till the Indians would +feed them no longer, and when famine set in, they mutinied, slew their +commander, built a crazy ship and went to sea, where an English vessel +found them in a starving condition, and took them to London. + +In 1564 a second party, under Laudonničre (lo-do-ne-ar'), landed at the +St. Johns River in Florida, and built a fort called Fort Caroline in +honor of Charles IX. of France. But the King of Spain, hearing that the +French were trespassing, sent an expedition under Menendez +(ma-nen'-deth), who founded St. Augustine in 1565. There Ribault, who +had returned and joined Laudonničre, attempted to attack the Spaniards. +But a hurricane scattered his ships, and while it was still raging, +Menendez fell suddenly on Fort Caroline and massacred men, women, and +children. A few days later, falling in with Ribault and his men, who had +been driven ashore south of St. Augustine, Menendez massacred 150 +more.[1] For this foul deed a Frenchman named Gourgues (goorg) exacted a +fearful penalty. With three small ships and 200 men, he sailed to the +St. Johns River, took and destroyed the fort which the Spaniards had +built on the site of Fort Caroline, and put to death every human being +within it. + +[Footnote 1: The story of the French in Florida is finely told in +Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_; also J. Sparks's _Life +of Ribault_; Baird's _Huguenot Emigration_.] + +[Illustration: Gateway at St. Augustine[2]] + +[Footnote 2: Remaining from the Spanish occupation of Florida.] + +SUMMARY + +1. From 1492 to 1513 the Europeans who came to America explored the +coasts of North and South America, but did not go inland. + +2. In 1513 exploration of the interior of the two continents began. +Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, 1513, and Cortes conquered +Mexico, 1519-21. + +3. In 1528 Narvaez made the first serious attempt to enter the +Mississippi valley. He died, and some of his followers, under Cabeza de +Vaca, crossed the continent. + +4. When the Spanish governor of Mexico heard their story, he sent Fray +Marcos to find the "Seven Cities of Cibola"; and began the exploration +of the southwestern part of the United States. + +5. In 1539-1541 De Soto and his band explored the southeastern part of +the United States from Florida to the Mississippi River. + +6. By 1582 two Spanish settlements had been made in the United States +--St. Augustine, 1565, and Santa Fé, 1582. + + + +EUROPE FINDS AMERICA. + +DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS, 1492-1600. + +ATLANTIC COAST. + + 1492. Columbus. Islands off the coast. + 1493. Columbus. Islands off the coast. + 1497. John Cabot. North America. Labrador. + 1498. John and Sebastian Cabot. Labrador to Cape Cod. + Pinzon and Solis. Florida to Chesapeake Bay. + 1500. Cabral. Discovers Brazil. + 1501. Vespucius. Explores Brazilian coast. + 1500-1502. Cortereals. Explore coast North America. + 1513. Ponce de Leon. Discovers and names Florida. + +GULF COAST. + + 1498. Pinzon and Solis. Explore Gulf of Mexico and + coast of Florida. + 1519. Pineda. Sails from Florida to Mexico. + 1528. Narvaez. Florida to Texas. + 1543. Followers of De Soto sail from Mississippi River + to Mexico. + +THE INTERIOR. + + 1519-21. Cortes. Conquers Mexico. + 1534-36. De Vaca. From the Sabine River to the Gulf + of California. + 1539. Fray Marcos. Search for the Seven Cities. Wanders + over New Mexico. + 1540-42. Coronado, Gila River, Rio Grande, Colorado + River. + 1539-41. De Soto. Wanders over Florida, Georgia, and + Alabama, and reaches the Mississippi River. + 1582-1600. Spaniards in the valleys of the Gila and Rio + Grande. + +PACIFIC COAST. + + 1513. Balboa. Discovers the Pacific Ocean. + 1520. Magellan. Sails around South America into the + Pacific. + 1578-1580. Drake. Sails around South America and + up the Pacific coast to Oregon. (See p. 26.) + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD + +%15. The English Claim to the Seaboard.%--After the Spaniards had +thus explored the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and what is now Arizona, +New Mexico, and Texas, the English attempted to take possession of the +Atlantic coast. The voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498 +were not followed up in the same way that Spain followed up those of +Columbus, and for nearly eighty years the flag of England was not +displayed in any of our waters.[1] At last, in 1576, Sir Martin +Frobisher set out to find a northwest passage to Asia. Of course he +failed; but in that and two later voyages he cruised about the shores of +our continent and gave his name to Frobisher's Bay.[2] Next came Sir +Francis Drake, the greatest seaman of his age. He left England in 1577, +crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the South American coast, passed +through the Strait of Magellan, and turning northward coasted along +South America, Mexico, and California, in search of a northeast passage +to the Atlantic. When he had gone as far north as Oregon the weather +grew so cold that his men began to murmur, and putting his ship about, +he sailed southward along our Pacific coast in search of a harbor, which +in June, 1579, he found near the present city of San Francisco. There he +landed, and putting up a post nailed to it a brass plate on which was +the name of Queen Elizabeth, and took possession of the country.[3] +Despairing of finding a short passage to England, Drake finally crossed +the Pacific and reached home by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He had +sailed around the globe.[4] + +[Footnote 1: For Cabot's voyages read Fiske's _Discovery of America_, +Vol. II., pp. 2-15.] + +[Footnote 2: See map of 1515.] + +[Footnote 3: The white cliffs reminded Drake strongly of the cliffs of +Dover, and as one of the old names of England was Albion (the country of +the white cliffs), he called the land New Albion.] + +[Footnote 4: For Drake read E.T. Payne's _Voyages of Elizabethan +Seamen_.] + +%16. Gilbert and Ralegh attempt to found a Colony.%--While Drake was +making his voyage, another gallant seaman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was +given (by Queen Elizabeth) any new land he might discover in America. +His first attempt (1579) was a failure, and while on his way home from a +landing on Newfoundland (1583), his ship, with all on board, went down +in a storm at sea. The next year (1584) his half-brother, Sir Walter +Ralegh, one of the most accomplished men of his day and a great favorite +with Queen Elizabeth, obtained permission from the Queen to make a +settlement on any part of the coast of America not already occupied by a +Christian power; and he at once sent out an expedition. The explorers +landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina, +and came home with such a glowing description of the "good land" they +had found that the Virgin Queen called it "Virginia," in honor of +herself, and Ralegh determined to colonize it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For Ralegh read E. Gosse's _Raleigh_ (in English Worthies +Series); Louise Creighton's _Sir W. Ralegh_ (Historical +Biographies Series).] + +%17. Roanoke Colony; the Potato and Tobacco.%--In 1585, accordingly, +108 emigrants under Ralph Lane left England and began to build a town on +Roanoke Island. They were ill suited for this kind of pioneer life, and +were soon in such distress that, had not Sir Francis Drake in one of his +voyages happened to touch at Roanoke, they would have starved to death. +Drake, seeing their helplessness, carried them home to England. Yet +their life on the island was not without results, for they took back +with them the potato, and some dried tobacco leaves which the Indians +had taught them to smoke. + +Ralegh, of course, was greatly disappointed to see his colonists again +in England. But he was not discouraged, and in 1587 sent forth a second +band. The first had consisted entirely of men. The second band was +composed of both men and women with their families, for it seemed likely +that if the men took their wives and children along they would be more +likely to remain than if they went alone. John White was the leader, and +with a charter and instructions to build the city of Ralegh somewhere on +the shores of Chesapeake Bay he set off with his colonists and landed on +Roanoke Island. Here a little granddaughter was born (August 18, 1587), +and named Virginia. She was the child of Eleanor Dare, and was the first +child born of English parents in America. + +[Illustration: Roanoke Island and vicinity] + +Governor White soon found it necessary to go back to England for +supplies, and, in consequence of the Spanish war, three years slipped by +before he was able to return to the colony. He was then too late. Every +soul had perished, and to this day nobody knows how or where. Ralegh +could do no more, and in 1589 made over all his rights to a joint-stock +company of merchants. This company did nothing, and the sixteenth +century came to an end with no English colony in America.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Doyle's _English Colonies in America_, Virginia, pp. 56-74; +Bancroft's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 60-79; +Hildreth's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 80-87.] + +%18. Gosnold in New England.%--With the new century came better +fortune. Ralegh's noble efforts to plant a colony aroused Englishmen to +the possibility of founding a great empire in the New World, and +especially one named Bartholomew Gosnold. + +Instead of following the old route to America by way of the Canary +Islands, the West Indies, and Florida, he sailed due west across the +Atlantic,[2] and brought up on the shore of a cape which he named Cape +Cod.[3] Following the shore southward, he passed through Nantucket Sound +and Vineyard Sound, till he came to Cuttyhunk Island, at the entrance of +Buzzards Bay. On this he landed, and built a house for the use of +colonists he intended to leave there. But when he had filled his ship +with sassafras roots and cedar logs, nobody would remain, and the whole +company went back to England.[4] + +[Footnote 2: By thus shortening the journey 3000 miles, he practically +brought America 3000 miles nearer to Europe.] + +[Footnote 3: Because the waters thereabout abounded in codfish. For a +comparison of Gosnold's route with those of the other early explorers +see the map on p. 15.] + +[Footnote 4: Bancroft's _United States_, Vol. I., pp. 70-83. Hildreth's +_United States,_ Vol. I., p. 90.] + +%19. The Two Virginia Companies.%--As a result of this voyage, +Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Virginia, and this +enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others that, in 1606, King James +I. created two companies to settle in Virginia, which was then the name +for all the territory from what is now Maine to Florida. + +1. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles square; that is, +100 miles along the coast,--50 miles each way from its first +settlement,--and 100 miles into the interior. + +2. The First Company, a band of London merchants, might establish its +first settlement anywhere between 34° and 41° north latitude. + +3. The Second Company, a band of Plymouth merchants, might establish its +first settlement anywhere between 38° and 45°. + +4. These settlements were to be on the seacoast. + +5. In order to prevent the blocks from overlapping, it was provided that +the company which was last to settle should locate at least 100 miles +from the other company's settlement.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Over the affairs of each company presided a council +appointed by the King, with power to choose its own president, fill +vacancies among its own members, and elect a council of thirteen to +reside on the company's lands in America. Each company might coin money, +raise a revenue by taxing foreign vessels trading at its ports, punish +crime, and make laws which, if bad, could be set aside by the King. All +property was to be owned in common, and all the products of the soil +deposited in a public magazine from which the needs of the settlers were +to be supplied. The surplus was to be sold for the good of the company. +The charter is given in full in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, +pp. 1888-1893.] + +%20. The Jamestown Colony.%--Thus empowered, the two companies made +all haste to gather funds, collect stores and settlers, and fit out +ships. The London Company was the first to get ready, and on the 19th of +December, 1606, 143 colonists set sail in three ships for America with +their charter, and a list of the council sealed up in a strong box. The +Plymouth Company soon followed, and before the year 1607 was far +advanced, two settlements were planted in our country: the one at +Jamestown, in Virginia, the other near the mouth of the Kennebec, in +Maine. The latter, however, was abandoned the following year (see +Chapter IV). + +The three ships which carried the Virginia colony reached the coast in +the spring of 1607, and entering Chesapeake Bay sailed up a river which +the colonists called the James, in honor of the King. When about thirty +miles from its mouth, a landing was made on a little peninsula, where a +settlement was begun and named Jamestown.[1] It was the month of May, +and as the weather was warm, the colonists did not build houses, but, +inside of some rude fortifications, put up shelters of sails and +branches to serve till huts could be built. But their food gave out, the +Indians were hostile, and before September half of the party had died of +fever. Had it not been for the energy and courage of John Smith, every +one of them would have perished. He practically assumed command, set the +men to building huts, persuaded the Indians to give them food, explored +the bays and rivers of Virginia, and for two dreary years held the +colony together. When we consider the worthless men he had to deal with, +and the hardships and difficulties that beset him, his work is +wonderful. The history which he wrote, however, is not to be trusted.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Nothing now remains of Jamestown but the ruined tower of +the church shown in the picture. Much of the land on which the town +stood has been washed away by the river, so that its site is now +an island.] + +[Footnote 2: Read the _Life and Writings of Captain John Smith_, by +Charles Dudley Warner; also John Fiske in _Atlantic Monthly_, December, +1895; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 31-38. Smith's _True +Relation_ is printed in _American History Leaflets_, No. 27, and +_Library of American Literature_ Vol. I.] + +[Illustration: All that is left of Jamestown] + +Bad as matters were, they became worse when a little fleet arrived with +many new settlers, making the whole number about 500. The newcomers were +a worthless set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the +jails, and utterly unfit to become the founders of a state in the +wilderness of the New World. Out of such material Smith in time might +have made something, but he was forced by a wound to return to England, +and the colony went rapidly to ruin. Sickness and famine did their work +so quickly that after six months there were but sixty of the 500 men +alive. Then two small ships, under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George +Somers, arrived at Jamestown with more settlers; but all decided to +flee, and had actually sailed a few miles down the James, when, June 8, +1610, they met Lord Delaware with three ships full of men and supplies +coming up the river. Delaware came out as governor under a new charter +granted in 1609.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read "The Jamestown Experiments," in Eggleston's _Beginners +of a Nation,_ pp. 25-72.] + +[Illustration: Vicinity of Jamestown] + +%21. The Virginia Charter of 1609% made a great change in the +boundary of the company's property. By the 1606 charter the colony was +limited to 100 miles along the seaboard and 100 miles west from the +coast. In 1609 the company was given an immense domain reaching 400 +miles along the coast,--200 miles each way from Old Point +Comfort,--and extending "up into the land throughout _from sea to sea_, +west and northwest." This description is very important, for it was +afterwards claimed by Virginia to mean a grant of land of the shape +shown on the map.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 74, 75.] + +[Illustration] + +%22. The First Representative Assembly in America.%--Under the new +charter and new governors Virginia began to thrive. More work and less +grumbling were done, and a few wise reforms were introduced. One +governor, however, Argall, ruled the colony so badly that the people +turned against him and sent such reports to England that immigration +almost ceased. The company, in consequence, removed Argall, and gave +Virginia a better form of government. In future, the governor's power +was to be limited, and the people were to have a share in the making of +laws and the management of affairs. As the colonists, now numbering 4000 +men, were living in eleven settlements, or "boroughs," it was ordered +that each borough should elect two men to sit in a legislature to be +called the House of Burgesses. This house, the first representative +assembly ever held by white men in America, met on July 30, 1619, in the +church at Jamestown, and there began "government of the people, by the +people, for the people." + +%23. The Establishment of Slavery in America.%--It is interesting to +note that at the very time the men of Virginia thus planted free +representative government in America, another institution was planted +beside it, which, in the course of two hundred and fifty years, almost +destroyed free government. The Burgesses met in July, and a few weeks +later, on an August day, a Dutch ship entered the James and before it +sailed away sold twenty negroes into slavery. The slaves increased in +numbers (there were 2000 in Virginia in 1671), and slavery spread to the +other colonies as they were started, till, in time, it existed in every +one of them. + +%24. Virginia loses her Charter, 1624.%--The establishment of popular +government in Virginia was looked on by King James as a direct affront, +and was one of many weighty reasons why he decided to destroy the +company. To do this, he accused it of mismanagement, brought a suit +against it, and in 1624 his judges declared the charter annulled, and +Virginia became a royal colony.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the Virginia colony in general read Doyle's volume on +_Virginia_, pp. 104-184; Lodge's _English Colonies in America_, pp. +1-12; of course, Bancroft and Hildreth. For particular epochs or events +consult Channing and Hart's _Guide to American History_, pp. 248-253.] + +%25. Maryland begun.%--A year later James died, and Charles I. came +to the throne. As Virginia was now a royal colony, the land belonged to +the King; and as he was at liberty to do what he pleased with it, he cut +off a piece and gave it to Lord Baltimore. George Calvert, Lord +Baltimore, was a Roman Catholic nobleman who for years past had been +interested in the colonization of America, and had tried to plant a +colony in Newfoundland. The severity of the climate caused failure, and +in 1629 he turned his attention to Virginia and visited Jamestown. But +religious feeling ran as high there as it did anywhere. The colonists +were intolerantly Protestant, and Baltimore was ordered back to England. + +Undeterred by such treatment, Baltimore was more determined than ever to +plant a colony, and in 1632 obtained his grant of a piece of Virginia. +The tract lay between the Potomac River and the fortieth degree of north +latitude, and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to a north and south +line through the source of the Potomac.[1] It was called Maryland in +honor of the Queen, Henrietta Maria. + +[Footnote 1: It thus included what is now Delaware, and pieces of +Pennsylvania and West Virginia.] + +[Illustration: ORIGINAL BOUNDARY OF MARYLAND] + +The area of the colony was not large; but the authority of Lord +Baltimore over it was almost boundless. He was to bring to the King each +year, in token of homage, two Indian arrowheads, and pay as rent one +fifth of all the gold and silver mined. This done, the "lord +proprietary," as he was called, was to all intents and purposes a king. +He might coin money, make war and peace, grant titles of nobility, +establish courts, appoint judges, and pardon criminals; but he was not +permitted to tax his people without their consent. He must summon the +freemen to assist him in making the laws; but when made, they need not +be sent to the King for approval, but went into force as soon as the +lord proprietary signed them. Of course they must not be contrary to the +laws of England. + +%26. Treatment of Catholics.%--The deed for Maryland had not been +issued when Lord Baltimore died. It was therefore made out in the name +of his son, Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, who, like the +first, was a Roman Catholic, and was influenced in his attempts at +colonization by a desire to found a refuge for people of his own faith. +At that time in England no Roman Catholic was permitted to educate his +children in a foreign land, or to employ a schoolmaster of his religious +belief; or keep a weapon; or have Catholic books in his house; or sit in +Parliament; or when he died be buried in a parish churchyard. If he did +not attend the parish church, he was fined Ģ20 a month. But it is +needless to mention the ways in which he suffered for his religion. It +is enough to know that the persecution was bitter, and that the purpose +of Lord Baltimore was to make Maryland a Roman Catholic colony. Yet he +set a noble example to other founders of colonies by freely granting to +all sects full freedom of conscience. As long as the Catholics remained +in control, toleration worked well. But in the year 1691 Lord Baltimore +was deprived of his colony because he had supported King James II., and +in 1692 sharp laws were made in Maryland against Catholics by the +Protestants. In 1716 the colony was restored to the proprietor. + +The first settlement was made in 1634 at St. Marys. Annapolis was +founded about 1683; and Baltimore in 1729.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Scharf's _History of Maryland_; Doyle's _Virginia_; +Lodge's _English Colonies_; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation,_.] + +%27. The Dutch on the Hudson.%--Meantime great things had been +happening to the northward. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sailor in +the service of Holland, was sent to find a northwest passage to India. +He reached our coast not far from Portland, Maine, and abandoning all +idea of finding a passage, he sailed alongshore to the southward as far +as Cape Cod. Here he put to sea, and when he again sighted land was off +Delaware Bay. In attempting to sail up it, his ship, the _Half-Moon,_ +grounded, and Hudson turned about. Running along the Jersey coast, he +entered New York Bay, and sailed up the river which the Dutch called +the North River, but which we know as the Hudson. Hudson's voyage gave +the Dutch a claim to all the country drained by the Delaware or South +River and the Hudson River, and some Dutch traders at once sent out +vessels, and were soon trading actively with the Indians. By 1614 a rude +fort had been erected near the site of Albany, and some trading huts had +been put up on Manhattan Island. These ventures proved so profitable +that numbers of merchants began to engage in the trade, whereupon those +already in it, in order to shut out others, organized a company, and in +1615 obtained a trading charter for three years from the States General +of Holland, and carried on their operations from Albany to the +Delaware River. + +[Illustration: View of New Amsterdam in 1656] + +%28. Dutch West India Company.%--On the expiration of the charter (in +1618) it was not renewed, but a new corporation, the Dutch West India +Company (1621), was created with almost absolute political and +commercial power over all the Dutch domains in North America, which were +called New Netherland. In 1623 the company began to send out settlers. +Some went to Albany, or, as they called it, Fort Orange. Others were +sent to the South or Delaware River, where a trading post, Fort Nassau, +was built on the site of Gloucester in New Jersey. A few went to the +Connecticut River; some settled on Long Island; and others on Manhattan +Island, where they founded New Amsterdam, now called New York city. + +All these little settlements were merely fur-trading posts. Nobody was +engaged as yet in farming. To encourage this, the company (in 1629) took +another step, and offered a great tract of land, on any navigable river +or bay, to anybody who would establish a colony of fifty persons above +the age of fifteen. If on a river, the domain was to be sixteen miles +along one bank or eight miles along each bank, and run back into the +country as far "as the situation of the occupiers will admit." The +proprietor of the land was to be called a "patroon," [1] and was absolute +ruler of whatever colonies he might plant, for he was at once owner, +ruler, and judge. It may well be supposed that such a tempting offer did +not go a-begging, and a number of patroons were soon settled along the +Hudson and on the banks of the Delaware (1631), where they founded a +town near Lewes. The settlements on the Delaware River were short-lived. +The settlers quarreled with the Indians, who in revenge massacred them +and drove off the garrison at Fort Nassau; whereupon the patroons sold +their rights to the Dutch West India Company.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The patroon bound himself to (1) transport the fifty +settlers to New Netherland at his own expense; (2) provide each of them +with a farm stocked with horses, cattle, and farming implements, and +charge a low rent; (3) employ a schoolmaster and a minister of the +Gospel. In return for this the emigrant bound himself (1) to stay and +cultivate the land of the patroon for ten years; (2) to bring his grain +to the patroon's mill and pay for grinding; (3) to use no cloth not made +in Holland; (4) to sell no grain or produce till the patroon had been +given a chance to buy it.] + +[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 295-311; Winsor's +_Narrative and Critical History_, Vol. III., pp. 385-411; Bancroft's +_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 501-508.] + +%29. The Struggle for the Delaware; the Swedes on the Delaware.%--And +now began a bitter contest for the ownership of the country bordering +the Delaware. A few leading officials of the Dutch Company, disgusted at +the way its affairs were managed, formed a new company under the lead of +William Usselinx. As they could not get a charter from Holland, for she +would not create a rival to the Dutch Company, they sought and obtained +one from Sweden as the South Company, and (1638) sent out a colony to +settle on the Delaware River.[1] The spot chosen was on the site of +Wilmington. The country was named New Sweden, though it belonged to +Maryland. The Dutch West India Company protested and rebuilt Fort +Nassau. The Swedes, in retaliation, went farther up the river and +fortified an island near the mouth of the Schuylkill. Had they stopped +here, all would have gone well. But, made bold by the inaction of the +Dutch, they began to annoy the New Netherlanders, till (1655) Peter +Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, unable to stand it any +longer, came over from New Amsterdam with a few hundred men, overawed +the Swedes, and annexed their territory west of the Delaware. New Sweden +then became part of New Netherland.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Sweden had no right to make such a settlement. She had no +claim to any territory in North America.] + +[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 205-210; Bancroft's +_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 509, 510; Hildreth's +_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 413-442.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. After the discovery of the North American coast by the Cabots, +England made no attempt to settle it for nearly eighty years; and even +then the colonies planted by Gilbert and Ralegh were failures. + +2. Successful settlement by the English began under the London Company +in 1607. + +3. In 1609 the London Company obtained a grant of land from sea to sea, +and extending 400 miles along the Atlantic; but in 1624 its charter was +annulled, and in 1632 the King carved the proprietary colony of Maryland +out of Virginia. + +4. Meantime Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the +Delaware and Hudson rivers (1609), and the Dutch, ignoring the claims of +England, planted colonies on these rivers and called the country New +Netherland. + +5. Then a Swedish company began to colonize the Delaware Bay and River +coast of Virginia, which they called New Sweden. + +6. Conflicts between the Dutch and the Swedes followed, and in 1655 New +Sweden was made a part of New Netherland. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND + +%30. The Beginnings of New England.%--When the Dutch put up their +trading posts where New York and Albany now stand, all the country east +of New York, all of what is now New England, was a wilderness. As early +as 1607 an attempt was made to settle it and a colony was planted on the +coast of Maine by two members of the Plymouth Company, Sir John Popham, +Lord Chief Justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of +Plymouth. But the colonists were half starved and frozen, and in the +spring of 1608 gladly went home to England. + +Six years later John Smith, the hero of Virginia, explored and mapped +the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He called the country New +England; one of the rivers, the Charles; and two of the promontories, +Cape Elizabeth and Cape Ann. Three times he attempted to lead out a +colony; but that work was reserved for other men. + +%31. The Separatists.%--The reign of Queen Elizabeth had witnessed in +England the rise of a religious sect which insisted that certain changes +should be made in the government and ceremonials of the Established or +State Church of England. This they called purifying the Church, and in +consequence they were themselves called Puritans.[1] At first they did +not intend to form a new sect; but in 1580 one of their ministers, named +Robert Brown, urged them to separate from the Church of England, and +soon gathered about him a great number of followers, who were called +Separatists or Brownists. They boldly asserted their right to worship as +they pleased, and put their doctrines into practice. So hot a +persecution followed, that in 1608 a party, led by William Brewster and +John Robinson, fled from Scrooby, a little village in northern England, +to Amsterdam, in Holland; but soon went on to Leyden, where they dwelt +eleven years.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 50-71. The +teacher may read "Rise and Development of Puritanism" in Eggleston's +_Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 98-140.] + +[Footnote 2: Read Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 141-157; +Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 71-80; Doyle's _Puritan +Colonies_, Vol. I., pp. 47-81; Palfrey's _New England_, Vol. I., +pp. 176-232.] + +%32. Why the Separatists went to New England%.--They had come to +Holland as an organized community, practicing English manners and +customs. For a temporary residence this would do. But if they and their +children's children after them were to remain and prosper, they must +break up their organization, forget their native land, their native +speech, their national traditions, and to all intents and purposes +become Dutch. This they could not bring themselves to do, and by 1617 +they had fully determined to remove to some land where they might still +continue to be Englishmen, and where they might lay the foundations of a +Christian state. But one such land could then be found, and that was +America. To America, therefore, they turned their attention, and after +innumerable delays formed a company and obtained leave from the London +Company to settle on the coast of what is now New Jersey.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 159-176.] + +This done, Brewster and Bradford and Miles Standish, with a little band, +sent out as an advance guard, set sail from the Dutch port of Delft +Haven in July, 1620, in the ship _Speedwell_. The first run was to +Southampton, England, where some friends from London joined them in the +_Mayflower_, and whence, August 5, they sailed for America. But the +_Speedwell_ proved so unseaworthy that the two ships put back to +Plymouth, where twenty people gave up the voyage. September 6, 1620, +such as remained steadfast, just 102 in number, reëmbarked on the +_Mayflower_ and began the most memorable of voyages. The weather was so +foul, and the wind and sea so boisterous, that nine weeks passed before +they beheld the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Having no right to settle +there, as the cape lay far to the northward of the lands owned by the +London Company, they turned their ship southward and attempted to go on. +But head winds drove them back and forced them to seek shelter in +Provincetown harbor, at the end of Cape Cod. + +[Illustration: The Mayflower[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From the model in the National Museum, Washington.] + +[Illustration: THE MASSACHUSETTS COAST (map)] + +%33. The Mayflower Compact%.--Since it was then the 11th of November, +the Pilgrims, as they are now called, decided to get permission from +the Plymouth Company to remain permanently. But certain members of the +party, when they heard this, became unruly, and declared that as they +were not to land in Virginia, they were no longer bound by the contracts +they had made in England regarding their emigration to Virginia. To put +an end to this, a meeting was held, November 21, 1620, in the cabin of +the _Mayflower_, and a compact was drawn up and signed.[1] It declared + +1. That they were loyal subjects of the King. + +2. That they had undertaken to found a colony in the northern parts of +Virginia, and now bound themselves to form a "civil body politic." + +3. That they would frame such just and equal laws, from time to time, as +might be for the general good. + +4. And to these laws they promised "all due submission and obedience." + +[Footnote 1: The compact is in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, p. +931, and in Preston's _Documents Illustrative of American History_, pp. +29-31. Read, by all means, Webster's _Plymouth Oration_.] + +[Illustration: Plymouth Rock] + +%34. The Founding of Plymouth%.--The selection of a site for their +home was now necessary, and five weeks were passed in exploring the +coast before Captain Standish with a boatload of men entered the harbor +which John Smith had noted on his map and named Plymouth. On the sandy +shore of that harbor, close to the water's edge, was a little granite +bowlder, and on this, according to tradition, the Pilgrims stepped as +they came ashore, December 21, 1620. To this harbor the _Mayflower_ was +brought, and the work of founding Plymouth was begun. The winter was a +dreadful one, and before spring fifty-one of the colonists had died.[1] +But the Pilgrims stood fast, and in 1621 obtained a grant of land[2] +from the Council for New England, which had just succeeded the Plymouth +Company, under a charter giving it control between latitudes 40° and +48°, from sea to sea.[3] It was from the same Council that for fifteen +years to come all other settlers in New England obtained their rights +to the soil. + +[Footnote 1: In the trying times which followed, William Bradford was +chosen governor and many times reëlected. He wrote the so-called "Log of +the Mayflower,"--really a manuscript _History of the Plymouth +Plantation_ from 1602 to 1647,--a fragment of which is reproduced on the +opposite page.] + +[Footnote 2: This grant had no boundary. Each settler might have 100 +acres. Fifteen hundred acres were set aside for public buildings.] + +[Footnote 3: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 80-87; Palfrey's +_New England_, Vol. I, pp. 176-232; Thatcher's _History of the Town of +Plymouth_.] + +[Illustration: Fragment of _History of the Plymouth Plantation_.] + +%35. A Puritan Colony proposed.%--Among those who obtained such +rights was a company of Dorchester merchants who planted a town on Cape +Ann. The enterprise failed, and the colonists went off and settled at a +place they called Naumkeag. But there was one man in Dorchester who was +not discouraged by failure. He was John White, a Puritan rector. What +had been done by the Separatists in a small way might be done, it seemed +to White, on a great scale by an association of wealthy and influential +Puritans. The matter was discussed by them in London, and in 1628 an +association was formed, and a tract of land was bought from the Council +for New England. + +%36. The "Sea to Sea" Grant%.--Concerning the interior of our +continent absolutely nothing was known. Nobody supposed it was more than +half as wide as it really is. The grant to the association, therefore, +stretched from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles +south of the Charles River, along these rivers to their sources, and +then westward across the continent from sea to sea.[1] + +[Footnote 1: You will notice that when this grant was made in 1628 the +Dutch had discovered the Hudson, and had begun to settle Albany. To this +region (the Hudson and Mohawk valleys) the English had no just claim.] + +As soon as the grant was obtained, John Endicott came out with a company +of sixty persons, and took up his abode at Naumkeag, which, being an +Indian and therefore a pagan name, he changed to Salem, the Hebrew word +for "peace." + +%37. The Massachusetts Charter, 1629%.--The next step was to obtain +the right of self-government, which was secured by a royal charter +creating a corporation known as the Governor and Company of +Massachusetts Bay in New England. Over the affairs of the company were +to preside a governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen to be +elected annually by the members of the company.[2] + +[Footnote 2: The charter is printed in Poore's _Charters and +Constitutions_, pp. 932-942, and in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 36-61.] + +Six ships were now fitted out, and in them 406 men, women, and children, +with 140 head of cattle, set sail for Massachusetts. They reached Salem +in safety and made it the largest colony in New England. + +%38. Why the Puritans came to New England.%--It was in 1625 that +Charles I. ascended the throne of England. Under him the quarrel with +the Puritans grew worse each year. He violated his promises, he +collected illegal taxes, he quartered troops on the people, he threw +those into prison who would not contribute to his forced loans, or +pressed them into the army or the navy. His Archbishop Laud persecuted +the Puritans with shameful cruelty. + +Little wonder then that in 1629 twelve leading Puritans met in +consultation and agreed to head a great migration to the New World, +provided the charter and the government of the Massachusetts Bay Company +were both removed to New England. This was agreed to, and in April, +1630, John Winthrop sailed with nearly one thousand Puritans for Salem. +From Salem he moved to Charlestown, and later in the year (1630) to a +little three-hilled peninsula, which the English called Tri-mountain or +Tremont. There a town was founded and called Boston. + +The departure of Winthrop was the signal, and before the year 1630 +ended, seventeen ships, bringing fifteen hundred Puritans, reached +Massachusetts. The newcomers settled Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, +Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now Cambridge). New England was +planted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 75-105. +Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 188-219.] + +%39. New Hampshire and Maine.%--When it became apparent that the +Plymouth colony was permanently settled, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose +interest in New England had never lagged, together with John Mason +obtained (1622) from the Council for New England a grant of Laconia, as +they called the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers, +and from the Atlantic "to the great river of Canada." Seven years later +(1629) they divided their property. Mason, taking the territory between +the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, called it New Hampshire because he +was Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in England. Gorges took the region +between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and called it Maine. After the +death of Mason (1635) his colony was neglected and from 1641 to 1679 was +annexed to Massachusetts. The King separated them in 1679, joined them +again in 1688, and finally parted them in 1691, making New Hampshire a +royal colony. + +Gorges took better care of his part and (in 1639) was given a charter +with the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County of Maine, +which extended, as before, from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and +backward 120 miles from the ocean. But after his death the province fell +into neglect, and the towns were gradually absorbed by Massachusetts, +which, in 1677, bought the claims of the heir of Gorges for Ģ1250 and +governed Maine as lord proprietor under the Gorges charter. + +%40. Church and State in Massachusetts.%--Down to the moment of their +arrival in America the Puritans had not been Separatists. They were +still members of the Church of England who desired to see her form of +worship purified. But the party under Endicott had no sooner reached +Salem than they seceded, and the first Congregational Church in New +England was founded. + +Some in Salem were not prepared for so radical a step, and attempted to +establish a church on the episcopal model; but Endicott promptly sent +two of the leaders back to England. Thus were established two facts: 1. +The separation or secession of the Colonial Church from that of England. +2. That the episcopal form of worship would not be tolerated in +the colony. + +In 1631 another step was taken which united church and state, for it was +then ordered that "no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body +politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the +limits of the same." + +This was intolerance of the grossest kind, and soon became the cause of +troubles which led to the founding of Rhode Island and Connecticut. + +%41. The Planting of Rhode Island.%--There came to Salem (from +Plymouth), in 1633, a young minister named Roger Williams. He dissented +heartily from the intolerance of the people of Massachusetts, and, +though a minister of the Salem church, insisted + +1. On the separation of church and state. + +2. On the toleration of all religious beliefs. + +3. On the repeal of all laws requiring attendance on religious worship. + +To us, in this century, the justice of each of these principles is +self-evident. But in the seventeenth century there was no country in the +world where it was safe to declare them. For doing so in some parts of +Europe, a man would most certainly have been burned at the stake. For +doing so in England, he would have been put in the pillory, or had his +ears cut off, or been sent to jail. That Williams's teachings should +seem rank heresy in New England was quite natural. But, to make matters +worse, he wrote a pamphlet in which he boldly stated + +1. That the soil belonged to the Indians. + +2. That the settlers could obtain a valid title only by purchase from +the Indians. + +3. That accepting a deed for the land from a mere intruder like the King +of England was a sin requiring public repentance. + +In the opinion of the people of New England such doctrine could not fail +to bring down on Massachusetts the wrath of the King. When, therefore, a +little later, Endicott cut the red cross of St. George out of the colors +of the Salem militia, the people considered his act a defiance of royal +authority, attributed it to the teachings of Williams, and proceeded to +punish both. Endicott was rebuked by the General Court (or legislature) +and forbidden to hold office for a year. Williams was ordered to go +back to England. But he fled to the woods, and made his way through the +snow to the wigwam of the Indian chief, Massasoit, on Narragansett Bay, +and there in the summer of 1636 he founded Providence. About the same +time another teacher of what was then thought heresy, Anne Hutchinson, +was driven from Massachusetts, and with some of her followers went +southward and founded Portsmouth and Newport, on the island of Rhode +Island. For a while each of these settlements was independent, but in +1643 Williams went to London and secured a patent from Parliament which +united them under the name of "The Incorporation of Providence +Plantations on the Narragansett Bay in New England." + +%42. Connecticut begun.%--In the same year that Roger Williams began +his settlement at Providence, several hundred people from the towns near +Boston went off and settled in the Connecticut valley. For a long time +past there had been growing up in Massachusetts a strong feeling that +the law that none but church members should vote or hold office was +oppressive. This feeling became so strong that in 1635 some hardy +pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness and settled at +Windsor. A party from Watertown went further and settled Wethersfield. +These were small movements. But in 1636 the Newtown congregation, led by +its pastor, Thomas Hooker, walked to the Connecticut valley and founded +Hartford. The congregations of the Dorchester and Watertown churches +soon followed, while a party from Roxbury settled at Springfield. During +three years these four towns were part of Massachusetts. But in 1639, +Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a constitution and formed a +little republic which in time was called Connecticut. Their "Fundamental +Orders of Connecticut" was the first written constitution made in +America. Their republic was the first in the history of the world to be +founded by a written constitution, and marks the beginning of democratic +government in our country. + +%43. The New Haven Colony.%--Just at the time these things were +happening in the Connecticut valley, the beginnings of another little +republic were made on the shores of Long Island Sound. One day in the +summer of 1637 there came to Boston a company of rich London merchants +under the lead of an eloquent preacher named John Davenport. The people +of Boston would gladly have kept the newcomers at that town. But the +strangers desired to found a state of their own, and so, after spending +some months in seeking for a spot with a good harbor, they left Boston +in 1638 and founded New Haven. In 1639 Milford and Guilford were laid +out, and Stamford was started in 1640. Three years later these four +towns joined in a sort of federal union and took the name of the New +Haven colony.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 134-137.] + +[Illustration: NEW ENGLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND] + +%44. "The United Colonies of New England."%--There were now five +colonies in New England; namely, Plymouth, or the "Old Colony," +Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven. +Geographically, they were near each other. But each was weak in numbers, +and if left without the aid of its neighbors, might easily have fallen +a prey to some enemy. Of this the settlers were well aware, and in 1643 +four of the colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New +Haven[1] united for defense against the Indians and the Dutch, who +claimed the Connecticut valley and so threatened the English colonies +on the west. + +[Footnote 1: Rhode Island was not allowed to come in, for the feeling +against the followers of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson was still +very strong.] + +The name of this league was "The United Colonies of New England," and it +was the first attempt in America at federal government. All its affairs +were managed by a board of eight commissioners,--two from each +colony,--who must be church members. They had no power to lay taxes or +to meddle with the internal concerns of the colonies, but they had +entire control over all dealings with Indians or with foreign powers. + +%45. The Year 1643.%--The year 1643 is thus an important one in +colonial history. It was in that year that the New Haven colony was +founded; that the league of The United Colonies of New England was +formed; and that Roger Williams obtained the first charter of +Rhode Island. + +%46. New Charters.%--During the next twenty years no changes took +place in the boundaries of the colonies. This was the period of the +Civil War in England, of the Commonwealth, of the rule of Cromwell and +the Puritans; and affairs in New England were left to take care of +themselves. But in 1660 Charles II. was restored to the throne of +England, and a new era opens in colonial history. In 1661 the little +colony of Connecticut promptly acknowledged the restoration of Charles +II. and applied for a charter. The application was more than granted; +for to Connecticut (1662) was given not only a charter and an immense +tract of land, but also the colony of New Haven.[1] The land grant was +comprised in a strip that stretched across the continent from Rhode +Island to the Pacific and was as wide as the present state.[2] In 1663 +Rhode Island was given a new charter. + +[Footnote 1: In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II., Edward +Whalley and William Goffe (the regicides, "king-killers," as they were +called), two of the judges who had condemned Charles I. to be beheaded, +fled to New Haven and were protected by the people. This act had much to +do with the annexation of New Haven to Connecticut.] + +[Footnote 2: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 192-196. Many +of the New Haven colonists were disgusted by the union of their colony +with Connecticut, and in June, 1667, migrated to New Jersey, where they +founded "New-Ark" or Newark.] + +In 1684 the King's judges declared the Massachusetts charter void, and +James II. was about to make New England one royal colony, when the +English people drove him from the throne. William and Mary in 1691 +granted a new charter and united the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, +Maine, and Nova Scotia, in one colony called Massachusetts Bay. This +charter was in force when the Revolution opened. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The first colony established by the Plymouth Company (1607, on the +coast of Maine) was a failure. + +2. Captain John Smith explored the New England coast and mapped it +(1613), but did not succeed in planting any colonies. + +3. The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of a +body of Separatists in the _Mayflower_ (1620), who founded the colony +of Plymouth. + +4. The Separatist migration from England was followed in a few years by +a great exodus of Puritans, who planted towns along the coast to the +north of Plymouth, and obtained a charter of government and a great +strip of land, and founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay. + +5. Religious disputes drove Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson out of +Massachusetts, and led to the founding of Rhode Island (1636). + +6. Other church wrangles led to an emigration from Massachusetts to the +Connecticut valley, where a little confederacy of towns was created and +called Connecticut. + +7. Some settlers from England went to Long Island Sound and there +founded four towns which, in their turn, joined in a federal union +called the New Haven Colony. + +8. In time, New Haven was joined to Connecticut, and Plymouth and Maine +to Massachusetts; New Hampshire was made a royal colony; and the four +New England colonies--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and +Connecticut--were definitely established. + +9. The territory of Massachusetts and Connecticut stretched across the +continent to the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES + +%47. North and South Carolina.%--You remember that away back in the +sixteenth century the French under Jean Ribault and the English under +Ralegh undertook to plant colonies on what is now the Carolina coast. +They failed, and the country remained a wilderness till 1653, when a +band of emigrants from Virginia made the first permanent settlement on +the banks of the Chowan and the Roanoke. In 1663 some Englishmen from +Barbados began to settle on the Cape Fear River, just at the time when +Charles II. of England gave the region to eight English noblemen, who, +out of compliment to the King, allowed the name of Carolina given it by +Ribault to remain. In 1665 the bounds were enlarged, and Carolina then +extended from latitude 29° 00' to 36° 30', the present south boundary of +Virginia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. + +[Illustration: CAROLINA AS GRANTED BY King Charles II] + +There was at first no intention of dividing the territory, although, +after Charleston was founded (1670), North Carolina and South Carolina +sometimes had separate governors. But in 1729 the proprietors sold +Carolina to the King, and it was then divided into two distinct and +separate royal provinces. + +%48. New York.%--An event of far greater importance than the +chartering of Carolina was the seizure of New Netherland. After the +conquest of New Sweden, in 1655, the possessions and claims of the Dutch +in our country extended from the Connecticut River to the Delaware +River, and from the Mohawk to Delaware Bay. Geographically, they cut the +English colonies in two, and hampered communication between New England +and the South. To own this region was therefore of the utmost importance +to the English; and to get it, King Charles II., in 1664, revived the +old claim that the English had discovered the country before the Dutch, +and he sent a little fleet and army, which appeared off New Amsterdam +and demanded its surrender. The demand was complied with; and in 1664 +Dutch rule in our country ended, and England owned the seaboard from the +Kennebec to the Savannah. + +The King had already granted New Netherland to his brother the Duke of +York, in honor of whom the town of New Amsterdam was now renamed +New York. + +%49. New Jersey.%--The Duke of York no sooner received his province +than he gave so much of it as lay between the Delaware and the ocean to +his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and called it New +Jersey, in honor of Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the +island of Jersey in the English Channel. The two proprietors divided it +between them by the line shown on the map (p. 56). In 1674 Berkeley sold +West Jersey to a company of Quakers, who settled near Burlington. A +little later, 1676, William Penn and some other Quakers bought East +Jersey. There were then two colonies till 1702, when the proprietors +surrendered their rights, and New Jersey became one royal province. + +%50. The Beginnings of Pennsylvania.%--The part which Penn took in +the settlement of New Jersey suggested to him the idea of beginning a +colony which should be a refuge for the persecuted of all lands and of +all religions. + +[Illustration] + +Now it so happened that Penn was the son of a distinguished admiral to +whom King Charles II. owed Ģ16,000, and seeing no chance of its ever +being paid, he proposed to the King, in 1680, that the debt be paid with +a tract of land in America. The King gladly agreed, and in 1681 Penn +received a grant west of the Delaware. Against Penn's wish, the King +called it Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woodland. It was given almost +precisely the bounds of the present state.[1] In 1683 Penn made a famous +treaty with the Indians, and laid out the city of Philadelphia. + +[Footnote 1: There was a long dispute, however, with Lord Baltimore, +over the south boundary line, which was not settled till 1763-67, when +two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, came over from England +and located it as at present. In later years, when all the Atlantic +seaboard states north of Maryland and Delaware had abolished slavery, +this "Mason and Dixon's Line" became famous as the dividing line between +the slave and the free Atlantic states.] + +%51. The Three Lower Counties: Delaware.%--If you look at the map of +the British Colonies in 1764, you will see that Pennsylvania was the +only English colony which did not have a seacoast. This was a cause of +some anxiety to Penn, who was afraid that the settlers in Delaware and +New Jersey might try to prevent his colonists from going in and out of +Delaware Bay. To avoid this, he bought what is now Delaware from the +Duke of York. + +The three lower counties on the Delaware, as the tract was called, had +no boundary. Lawfully it belonged to Lord Baltimore. But neither the +Dutch patroons who settled on the Delaware in 1631, nor the Swedes who +came later, nor the Dutch who annexed New Sweden to New Netherland, nor +the English who conquered the Dutch, paid any regard to Baltimore's +rights. At last, after the purchase of Delaware, the heirs of Baltimore +and of Penn (1732) agreed on what is the present boundary line. After +1703 the people of the three lower counties were allowed to have an +assembly or legislature of their own; but they had the same governor as +Pennsylvania and were a part of that colony till the Revolution.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For Pennsylvania read Janney's _Life of William Penn_ or +Dixon's _History of William Penn_; Proud's or Gordon's _Pennsylvania_; +Lodge's _Colonies_, pp. 213-226.] + +%52. Georgia.%--The return of the Carolinas to the King in 1729 was +very soon followed by the establishment of the last colony ever planted +by England in the United States. The founder was James Oglethorpe, an +English soldier and member of Parliament. Filled with pity for the poor +debtors with whom the English jails were then crowded, he formed a plan +to pay the debts of the most deserving, send them to America, and give +them what hundreds of thousands of men have since found in our +country,--a chance to begin life anew. + +[Illustration] + +Great numbers of people became interested in his plan, and finally +twenty-two persons under Oglethorpe's lead formed an association and +secured a charter from King George II. for a colony, which they called +Georgia. The territory granted lay between the Savannah and the +Altamaha rivers, and extended from their mouths to their sources and +then across the country to the Pacific Ocean. Oglethorpe had selected +this tract in order that his colonists might serve the patriotic purpose +of protecting Charleston from the Spanish attacks to which it was +then exposed. + +Money for the colony was easily raised,[1] and in November, 1732, +Oglethorpe, with 130 persons, set out for Charleston, and after a short +stay there passed southward and founded the city of Savannah (1733). It +must not be supposed that all the colonists were poor debtors. In time, +Italians from Piedmont, Moravians and Lutherans from Germany, and +Scotchmen from the Highlands, all made settlements in Georgia. + +[Footnote 1: The House of Commons gave Ģ10,000.] + +%53. The Thirteen English Colonies.%--Thus it came about that between +1606 and 1733 thirteen English colonies were planted on the Atlantic +seaboard of what is now the United States. Naming them from north to +south, they were: 1. New Hampshire, with no definite western boundary; +2. Massachusetts, which owned Maine and a strip of territory across the +continent; 3. Rhode Island, with her present bounds; 4. Connecticut, +with a great tract of land extending to the Pacific; 5. New York, with +undefined bounds; 6. New Jersey; 7. Pennsylvania and 8. Delaware, the +property of the Penn family; 9. Maryland, the property of the heirs of +Lord Baltimore; 10. Virginia, with claims to a great part of North +America; 11. North Carolina, 12. South Carolina, and 13. Georgia, all +with claims to the Pacific. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The English seized New Netherland (1664), giving it to the Duke of +York; and the Duke, after establishing the province of New York, gave +New Jersey to two of his friends, and sold the three counties on the +Delaware to William Penn. + +2. Meanwhile the King granted Penn what is now Pennsylvania (1681). + +3. The Carolinas were first chartered as one proprietary colony, but +were sold back to the King and finally separated in 1729. + +4. Georgia, the last of the thirteen English colonies, was granted to +Oglethorpe and others as a refuge for poor debtors (1732). + +BEGINNINGS OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES + +_English_. + + Failures: + + 1579. Gilbert. + 1584. }Ralegh, Roanoke Island. + 1587. } + + Successes: + + 1606. London Company, Plymouth Company. + 1607. Virginia settled. + 1609. Boundary of London Company changed. Origin of + Virginia claim. + 1620. Landing of the Pilgrims. Plymouth colony. + 1622. Grant to Mason and Gorges. + 1628. Land bought for Massachusetts Bay colony. + 1629. Mason and Gorges divide their grant into Maine + and New Hampshire. + 1632. Maryland patent granted. + 1639. Connecticut constitution + (Windsor. Hartford. Wethersfield) + 1643. New Haven colony organized + (New Haven. Milford. Guilford. Stamford.) + 1643. Rhode Island chartered. + 1662. Connecticut chartered. + (Connecticut. New Haven.) + 1663. Rhode Island rechartered. + 1663. Carolina patent granted. + After 1729 North and South Carolina. + 1664. New Netherland conquered and New York founded. + 1664. New Jersey granted to Berkeley and Carteret. + 1681. Pennsylvania granted to Penn. + 1682. Three counties on the Delaware bought by Penn. + 1691. Plymouth and Maine (and Nova Scotia) + united with Massachusetts. + 1732. Georgia chartered. + +_Dutch_. + 1613. Begin to colonize New Netherland + +_Swedes_. + 1638. South Company makes settlement on the Delaware. + 1655. Conquered by the Dutch. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY + +%54. The Early French Possessions% on our continent may be arranged +in three great areas: 1. Acadia, 2. New France, 3. Louisiana, or the +basin of the Mississippi River. + +ACADIA comprised what is now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and a part of +Maine. It was settled in the early years of the seventeenth century at +Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), at Mount Desert Island, and on +the St. Croix River. + +NEW FRANCE was the drainage basin of the St. Lawrence and the Great +Lakes. As far back as 1535 Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence +River to the site of Montreal. But it was not till 1608 that a party +under Champlain made the first permanent settlement on the river, +at Quebec. + +The French settlers at once entered into an alliance with the Huron and +Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence River. But these +tribes were the bitter enemies of the Iroquois, who dwelt in what is now +central New York, and when, in consequence of this alliance, the French +were summoned to take the warpath, Champlain, with a few followers, +went, and on the shore of the lake which now bears his name, not far +from the site of Ticonderoga, he met and defeated the Iroquois tribe of +Mohawks in July, 1609. + +The battle was a small affair; but its consequences were serious and +lasting, for the Iroquois were thenceforth the enemies of the French, +and prevented them from ever coming southward and taking possession of +the Hudson and the Mohawk valleys. When, therefore, the French +merchants began to engage in the fur trade with the Indians, and the +French priests began their efforts to convert the Indians to +Christianity, they were forced to go westward further and further into +the interior. + +[Illustration: EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS 1650] + +Their route, instead of being up the St. Lawrence, was up the Ottawa +River to its head waters, over the portage to Lake Nipissing, and down +its outlet to Georgian Bay, where the waters of the Great Lakes lay +before them (see map on p. 63). They explored these lakes, dotted their +shores here and there with mission and fur-trading stations, and took +possession of the country. + +%55. The French on the Mississippi.%--In the course of these +explorations the French heard accounts from the Indians of a great +river to the westward, and in 1672 Father Marquette (mar-ket') and Louis +Joliet (zho-le-a') were sent by the governor of New France to search for +it. They set out, in May, 1673, from Michilimackinac, a French trading +post and mission at the foot of Lake Michigan. With five companions, in +two birch-bark canoes, they paddled up the lake to Green Bay, entered +Fox River, and, dragging the boats through its boiling rapids, came to a +village where lived the Miamis and the Kickapoos. These Indians tried to +dissuade them from going on; but Marquette was resolute, and on the 10th +of June, 1673, he led his followers over the swamps and marshes that +separated Fox River from a river which the Indian guides assured him +flowed into the Mississippi. This westward-flowing river he called the +Wisconsin, and there the guides left him, as he says, "alone, amid that +unknown country, in the hands of God." + +The little band shoved their canoes boldly out upon the river, and for +seven days floated slowly downward into the unknown. At last, on the +17th of June, they paddled out on the bosom of the Mississippi, and, +turning their canoes to the south, followed the bends and twists of the +river, past the mouth of the Missouri, past the Ohio, to a point not far +from the mouth of the Arkansas. There the voyage ended, and the party +went slowly back to the Lakes.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great +West_.] + +%56. La Salle finishes the Work of Marquette and Joliet.%--The +discovery of Marquette and Joliet was the greatest of the age. Yet five +years went by before Robert de la Salle (lah sahl') set forth with +authority from the French King "to labor at the discovery of the western +part of New France," and began the attempt to follow the river to the +sea. In 1678 La Salle and his companions left Canada, and made their way +to the shore of Lake Erie, where during the winter they built and +launched the _Griffin_, the first ship that ever floated on those +waters. In this they sailed to the mouth of Green Bay, and from there +pushed on to the Illinois River, to an Indian camp not far from the +site of Peoria, Ill. Just below this camp La Salle built Fort Crčvecoeur +(cra'v-ker, a word meaning heart-break, vexation). + +[Illustration: %FRENCH CLAIMS% MISSIONS AND TRADING POSTS IN +MISSISSIPPI VALLEY %in 1700%] + +Leaving the party there in charge of Henri de Tonty to construct another +ship, he with five companions went back to Canada. On his return he +found that Fort Crčvecoeur was in ruins, and that Tonty and the few men +who had been faithful were gone, he knew not where. In the hope of +meeting them he pushed on down the Illinois to the Mississippi. To go on +would have been easy, but he turned back to find Tonty, and passed the +winter on the St. Joseph River. + +From there in November, 1681, he once more set forth, crossed the lake +to the place where Chicago now is, went up the Chicago River and over +the portage to the Illinois, and early in February floated out on the +Mississippi. It was, on that day, a surging torrent full of trees and +floating ice; but the explorers kept on their way and came at last to +the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There La Salle took formal possession +of all the regions drained by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their +tributaries, claiming them in the name of France, and naming the country +thus claimed "Louisiana." The iron will, the splendid courage, of La +Salle had triumphed over every obstacle and made him one of the grandest +characters in history. + +But his work was far from ended. The valley he had explored, the +territory he had added to France, must be occupied, and to occupy it two +things were necessary: 1. A colony must be planted at the mouth of the +Mississippi, to control its navigation and shut out the Spaniards. 2. A +strong fort must be built on the Illinois, to overawe the Indians. + +In order to overawe the Indians, La Salle now hurried back to the +Illinois River, where, in December, 1682, near the present town of +Ottawa, on the summit of a cliff now known as "Starved Rock," he built a +stockade which he called Fort St. Louis. In 1684, while on a voyage from +France to plant a colony on the Mississippi, he missed the mouth and +brought up on the coast of Texas; and, landing on the sands of +Matagorda Bay, the colonists built another Fort St. Louis. But death +rapidly reduced their numbers, and, in their distress, they parted. Some +remained at the fort and were killed by the Indians. Others, led by La +Salle, started for the Illinois River and reached it; but without their +leader, whom they had murdered on the way. + + +SUMMARY + +1. After the settlement of Quebec (1608) the French began to explore the +regions lying to the west, discovered the Great Lakes, and heard of a +great river--the Mississippi. + +2. This river Marquette and Joliet explored from the mouth of the +Wisconsin to the mouth of the Arkansas (1673). + +3. Then La Salle floated down the Mississippi from the Illinois to the +Gulf of Mexico, took formal possession of the valley in the name of his +King, and called it Louisiana (1682). + +[Illustration: Starved Rock] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE INDIANS + +[Illustration: A typical Indian] + +%57%. When Europeans first set foot on our shores, they found the +country already inhabited, and, adopting the name given to the men of +the New World by Columbus, they called these people "Indians." + +They were not "Indians," or natives of Asia, but a race by themselves, +which ages before the time of Columbus was spread over all North and +South America. + +Like their descendants in the West to-day, they had red or +copper-colored skins, their eyes and long straight hair were jet black, +their faces beardless, and their cheek bones high. + +%58. The Villages.%---East of the Rocky Mountains the Indians lived +in villages, often covering several acres in area, and surrounded by +stockades of two and even three rows of posts. The stockade was pierced +with loopholes, and provided with platforms on which were piles of +stones for the defenders to hurl on the heads of their enemies. +Sometimes the structures which formed the village were wigwams--rude +structures made by driving poles into the ground in a circle, drawing +their tops near together, and then covering them with bark or skins. +Sometimes the dwellings had rudely framed sides and roofs covered with +layers of elm bark. Usually these structures were fifteen or twenty feet +wide by 100 feet long. At each end was a door. Along each side were ten +or twelve stalls, in each of which lived a family, so that one house +held twenty or more families. Down the middle at regular intervals were +fire pits where the food was cooked, the smoke escaping through holes in +the roof.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Vol. I., pp. 17, +18.] + +[Illustration: Buffalo-skin lodge] + +%59. Clans and Tribes.%--All the families living in such a house +traced descent from a common female ancestor, and formed a clan. Each +clan had its own name,--usually that of some animal, as the Wolf, the +Bear, or the Turtle,--its own sachem or civil magistrate, and its own +war chiefs, and owned all the food and all the property, except weapons +and ornaments, in common. A number of such clans made a tribe, which had +one language and was governed by a council of the clan sachems. + +[Illustration: Seneca long house] + +%60. The Three Indian Races.%--With slight exceptions, the tribes +living east of the Mississippi are divided, by those who have studied +their languages, into three great groups: + +1. The Muskhogees, who lived south of the Tennessee River and comprised +the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw tribes. + +2. The Iroquoian group, which occupied the country from the Delaware and +the Hudson to and beyond the St. Lawrence and Lakes Ontario and Erie, +besides isolated tracts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The chief +tribes were the Iroquois proper,--forming a confederacy in central New +York known as the Five Nations (Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, +and Mohawks),--the Hurons, the Eries, the Cherokees, and the Tuscaroras. + +[Illustration: Moccasin] + +3. The Algonquian group, which occupied the rest of what is now the +United States east of the Mississippi, besides the larger part of +Canada. In this group were the Mohegans, Pequots, and Narragansetts of +New England; the Delawares; the Powhatans of Virginia; the Shawnees of +the Ohio valley, and many others living around the Great Lakes. + +[Illustration: Flint Hatchet] + +%61. Weapons and Implements and Clothing.%--All of these tribes had +made some progress towards civilization. They used pottery and +ornamental pipes of clay. They raised beans and squashes, pumpkins, +tobacco, and maize, or Indian corn, which they ground to meal by rubbing +between two stones. For hunting they had bows, arrows with stone heads, +hatchets of flint, and spears. In summer they went almost naked. In +winter they wore clothing made from the skins of fur-bearing animals and +the hides of buffalo and deer. For navigating streams and rivers, lakes +and bays, they constructed canoes of birch bark sewed together with +thongs of deerskin and smeared at the joints with spruce-tree gum. + +%62. Traits of Character.%--Living an outdoor life, and depending for +daily food not so much on the maize they raised as on the fish they +caught and the animals they killed, the Indians were most expert +woodsmen. They were swift of foot, quick-witted, keen-sighted, and most +patient of hunger, fatigue, and cold. White men were amazed at the +rapidity with which the Indian followed the most obscure trail over the +most difficult ground, at the perfection with which he imitated the bark +of the wolf, the hoot of the owl, the call of the moose, and at the +catlike tread with which he walked over beds of autumn leaves the side +of the grazing deer. + +[Illustration: Ornamental pipe] + +[Illustration: Quiver, with bows and arrows] + +Courage and fortitude he possessed in the highest degree. Yet with his +bravery were associated all the vices, all the dark and crooked ways, +which are the resort of the cowardly and the weak. He was treacherous, +revengeful, and cruel beyond description. Much as he loved war (and war +was his chief occupation), the fair and open fight had no charm for him. +To his mind it was madness to take the scalp of an enemy at the risk of +his own, when he might waylay him in an ambush or shoot him with an +arrow from behind a tree. He was never so happy as when, at the dead of +night, he roused his sleeping victims with an unearthly yell and +massacred them by the light of their burning home. + +%63. The French and the Indians.%--The ways in which French and +English colonists acted towards the Indian are highly characteristic, +and account for much in our history. + +From the day when Champlain, in 1609, joined his Huron-Algonquin +neighbors and went with them on the warpath against the Iroquois, the +French held to the policy of making friends with the Indians. No pains +were spared to win them to the cause of France. They were flattered, +petted, treated with ceremonial respect, and became the companions, as +the women often became the wives, of the Frenchmen. Much was expected of +this mingling of races. It was supposed that the Indian would be won +over to civilization and Christianity. But the Frenchmen were won over +to the Indians, and adopted Indian ways of life. They lived in wigwams, +wore Indian dress, decorated their long hair with eagle feathers, and +made their faces hideous with vermilion, ocher, and soot. + +%64. Coureurs de Bois.%--There soon grew up in this way a class of +half-civilized vagrants, who ranged the woods in true Indian style, and +gained a living by guiding the canoes of fur traders along the rivers +and lakes of the interior. Stimulated by the profits of the fur trade, +these men pushed their traffic to the most distant tribes, spreading +French guns, French hatchets, beads, cloth, tobacco and brandy, and +French influence over the whole Northwest. Where the trader and the +_coureur de bois_ went, the priest and the soldier followed, and soon +mission houses and forts were established at all the chief passes and +places suited to control the Indian trade. + +%65. The English and the Indians.%--How, meantime, did the English +act toward the Indians? In the first place, nothing led them to form +close relationship with the tribes. The fur trade--the source of +Canadian prosperity--and the zeal of priests eager for the conversion of +the heathen, which sent the traders, the _coureurs de bois_, and the +priests from tribe to tribe and from the Atlantic halfway to the +Pacific, did not appeal to the English colonists. Farming and commerce +were the sources of their wealth. Their priests and missionaries were +content to labor with the Indians near at hand. + +In the second place, the policy of the French towards the Indians, while +founded on trade, was directed by one central government. The policy of +the English was directed by each colony, and was of as many kinds as +there were colonies. No English frontier exhibited such a mingling of +white men and red as was common wherever the French went. Among the +English there were fur traders, but no _coureurs de bois_. Scorn on the +one side and hatred on the other generally marked the intercourse +between the English and the Indians. One bright exception must indeed be +made. Penn was a broad-minded lover of his kind, a man of most +enlightened views on government and human rights; and in the colony +planted by him there was made a serious effort to treat the Indian as an +equal. But the day came when men not of his faith dealt with the Indians +in true English fashion. + +Remembering this difference of treatment, we shall the better understand +how it happened that the French could sprinkle the West with little +posts far from Quebec and surrounded by the fiercest of tribes, while +the English could only with difficulty defend their frontier.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A fine account of the Indians, and the French and English +ways of treating them, is given in Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, +Vol. I., pp. 16-25, 41-45, 46-56, 64-80.] + +%66. Early Indian Wars.%--Again and again this frontier was attacked. +In 1636 the Pequots, who dwelt along the Thames River in Connecticut, +made war on the settlers in the Connecticut River valley towns. Men were +waylaid and scalped, or taken prisoners and burned at the stake. +Determined to put an end to this, ninety men from the Connecticut towns, +with twenty from Massachusetts and some Mohegan Indians, in 1637 marched +against the marauders. They found the Pequots within a circular stockade +near the present town of Stonington, where of 400 warriors all save five +were killed. + +%67. King Philip's War.%--During nearly forty years not a tribe in +all New England dared rise against the white men. But in 1675 trouble +began again. The settlers were steadily crowding the Indians off their +lands. No lands were taken without payment, yet the sales were far from +being voluntary. A new generation of Indians, too, had grown up, and, +heedless of the lesson taught their fathers, the Narragansetts, +Nipmucks, and Wampanoags, led by King Philip and Canonchet, rose upon +the English. A dreadful war followed. When it ended, in 1678, the three +tribes were annihilated. Hardly any Indians save the friendly Mohawks +were left in New England. But of ninety English towns, forty had been +the scene of fire and slaughter, and twelve had been destroyed utterly. + +%68. The Iroquois.%--Elsewhere on the frontier a happier relation +existed with the Indians. The Iroquois of central New York were the +fiercest and most warlike Indians of the Atlantic coast. But the fight +with Champlain, in 1609, by turning them into implacable enemies of the +French, had rendered them all the more tolerant of the Dutch and the +English, while their complete conquest and subjugation of the Delawares, +or Lenni Lenape, prepared the way for the easy settlement of New Jersey +and Pennsylvania. + +%69. Penn and the Lenni Lenape.%--These Indians were Algonquian, and +lived along the Delaware River and its tributaries. But early in the +seventeenth century they had been reduced to vassalage by the Five +Nations, had been forbidden to carry arms, and had been forced to take +the name of Women.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Vol. I., pp. 30-32, +80-82.] + +When the Dutch and Swedes began their settlements on the South River, +and when Penn, in 1683, made a treaty with the Delawares, the settlers +had to deal with peaceful Indians. No horrid wars mark the early history +of Pennsylvania. + +%70. The Powhatans in Virginia.%--Much the same may be said of the +Virginia tribes. They were far from friendly, and had they been as +fierce and warlike as the northern tribes, neither the skill of John +Smith, nor the marriage of Pocahontas (the daughter of Powhatan) with +John Rolfe, nor fear of the English muskets, would have saved Jamestown. + +[Illustration: Powhatan Indians at work[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a model.] + +On the other hand, the destruction of the tribes in New England and the +feud between the French and the Iroquois saved New England. For the time +had now come for the opening of the long struggle between the French and +the English for the ownership of the continent. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The inhabitants of the New World at the time of its discovery, by +mistake called Indians, were barbarians, lived in rude, frail houses, +and used weapons and implements inferior to those of the whites. + +2. The Indian tribes of eastern North America are mostly divided into +three great groups: Muskhogean, Iroquoian, and Algonquian. + +3. In general, the French made the Indians their friends, while the +English drove them westward and treated them as an inferior race. + +[Illustration: THE BRITISH COLONIES AND EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS 1733] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA + +%71. Louisiana, or the Mississippi Basin.%--The landing of La Salle +on the coast of Texas, and the building of Fort St. Louis of Texas, gave +the French a claim to the coast as far southward as a point halfway +between the fort and the nearest Spanish settlement, in Mexico. At that +point was the Rio Grande, a good natural boundary. On the French maps, +therefore, Louisiana extended from the Rocky Mountains and the Rio +Grande on the west, to the Alleghany Mountains on the east, and from the +Gulf of Mexico on the south, to New France on the north. This confined +the English colonies to a narrow strip between the Alleghany Mountains +and the Atlantic Ocean. As the colonies were growing in population, and +as the charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and Carolina +gave them great stretches of territory in the Mississippi valley, it was +inevitable that, sooner or later, a bitter contest for possession of the +country should take place between the French and the English in America. + +The contest began in 1689, and ended in 1763, and may easily be divided +into two periods: 1. That from 1689 to 1748, when the struggle was for +Acadia and New France. 2. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was +not only for New France, but for Louisiana also. + +%72. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "King William's +War."%--In 1688-89 there was a revolution in England, in the course +of which James II. was driven from his throne, and William and Mary, his +nephew and daughter, were seated on it. James took refuge in France, and +when Louis XIV. attempted to restore him, a great European war +followed, and of course the colonists of the two countries were very +soon fighting each other. As the quarrel did not arise on this side of +the ocean, the English colonists called it "King William's War"; but on +our continent it was really the beginning of a long struggle to +determine whether France or England should rule North America. + +The French recognized this at once, and sent over a very able +soldier--Count Frontenac--with orders to conquer New York; but the +colony was saved by the Iroquois, who in the summer of 1689 began a war +of their own against the French, laid siege to Montreal, and roasted +French captives under its walls. Frontenac was compelled to put off his +attack till 1690, when in the dead of winter a band of French and +Indians burned Schenectady, N.Y. Salmon Falls in New Hampshire was next +laid waste (1690), and Fort Loyal, where Portland, Me., is, was taken +and destroyed. A little later Exeter, N.H., was attacked. The boldness +and suddenness of these fearful massacres so alarmed the people exposed +to them that in May, 1690, delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, +Connecticut, and New York met at New York city to devise a plan of +attack on the French. Now, at the opening of the war, there were three +French strongholds in America. These were Montreal and Quebec in Canada, +and Port Royal in Acadia. In 1690 a Massachusetts fleet led by Sir +William Phips destroyed Port Royal. It was decided, therefore, to send +another fleet under Phips to take Quebec, while troops from New York and +Connecticut marched against Montreal. Both expeditions were failures, +and for seven years the French and Indians ravaged the frontier. In 1692 +York, in Maine, was visited and a third of the inhabitants killed. In +1694 Castine was taken and a hundred persons scalped and tomahawked. At +Durham, in New Hampshire, prisoners were burned alive. Groton, in +Massachusetts, was next visited; but the boldest of all was the +massacre, in 1697, at Haverhill, a town not thirty-five miles from +Boston. In 1696, Frontenac, at the head of a great array of Canadians, +_coureurs de bois_, and Indians, invaded the country of the Onondagas, +and leveled their fortified town to the earth. + +[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF ACADIA] + +%73. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "Queen Anne's War."%--In +1697 the war ended with the treaty of Ryswick, and "King William's War" +came to a close in America with nothing gained and much lost on each +side. The peace, however, did not last long, for in 1701 England and +France were again fighting. As William died in 1702, and was succeeded +by his sister-in-law Anne, the struggle which followed in America was +called "Queen Anne's War." Again Port Royal was captured (1710); again +an expedition went against Quebec and failed (1711); and again, year +after year, the French and Indians swept along the frontier of New +England, burning towns and slaughtering and torturing the inhabitants. +At last the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, ended the strife, and the first +signs of English conquest in America were visible, for the French gave +up Acadia and acknowledged the claims of the English to Newfoundland and +the country around Hudson Bay. The name Acadia was changed by the +conquerors to Nova Scotia. Port Royal, never again to be parted with, +they called Annapolis, in honor of the Queen.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. I., pp. +1-149.] + +%74. The French take Possession of the Mississippi Valley; the Chain of +Forts.%--The peace made at Utrecht was unbroken for thirty years. But +this long period was, on the part of the French in America, at least, a +time of careful preparation for the coming struggle for possession of +the valleys of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Lakes. In the +Mississippi valley most elaborate preparations for defense were already +under way. No sooner did the treaty of Ryswick end the first French war +than a young naval officer named Iberville applied to the King for leave +to take out an expedition and found a colony at the mouth of the +Mississippi, just as La Salle had attempted to do. Permission was +readily given, and in 1698 Iberville sailed with two ships from France, +and in February, 1699, entered Mobile Bay. Leaving his fleet at anchor, +he set off with a party in small boats in search of the great river. He +coasted along the shore, entered the Mississippi through one of its +three mouths, and went up the river till he came to an Indian village, +where the chief gave him a letter which Tonty, thirteen years before, +when in search of La Salle, had written and left in the crotch of +a tree. + +Iberville now knew that he was on the Mississippi; but having seen no +spot along its low banks suitable for the site of a city, he went back +and led his colony to Biloxi Bay, and there settled it. Thus when the +eighteenth century opened there were in all Louisiana but two French +settlements--that founded on the Illinois River by La Salle, and that +begun by Iberville at Biloxi. But the occupation of Louisiana was now +the established policy of France, and hardly a year went by without one +or more forts appearing somewhere in the valley. Before 1725 came, +Mobile Bay was occupied, New Orleans was founded, and Forts Rosalie, +Toulouse, Tombeckbee, Natchitoches, Assumption, and Chartres were +erected. Along the Lakes, Detroit had been founded, Niagara was built in +1726, and in 1731 a band of Frenchmen, entering New York, put up +Crown Point.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Parkman's _A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. I., pp. +288-314. For the French posts see map on pp. 74, 75.] + +The meaning of this chain of forts stretching from New Orleans and +Mobile to Lake Champlain and Montreal, was that the French were +determined to shut the English out of the valley of the Mississippi, and +to keep them away from the shores of the Great Lakes. But they were also +determined at the first chance to reconquer Annapolis and Nova Scotia, +which they had lost by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. As a very +important step towards the accomplishment of this purpose, the French +selected a harbor on the southeast coast of Cape Breton Island, and +there built Louisburg, a fortress so strong that the French officers +boasted that it could be defended by a garrison of women. + +%75. The Struggle for New France; "King George's War."%--Such was the +situation in America when (in March, 1744) France declared war on +England and began what in Europe was called the "War of the Austrian +Succession"; but in our country it was known as "King George's War," +because George II. was then King of England. The French, with their +usual promptness, rushed down and burned the little English post of +Canso, in Nova Scotia, carried off the garrison, and attacked Annapolis, +where they were driven off. That Nova Scotia could be saved, seemed +hopeless. Nevertheless, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts determined to +make the attempt, and that the King might know the exact situation he +sent to London, with a dispatch, an officer named Captain Ryal, who had +been taken prisoner at Canso and afterwards released on parole.[2] + +[Footnote 2: The reception of that officer well illustrates the gross +ignorance of America and American affairs which then existed in England. +When the Duke of Newcastle, who was prime minister, read the dispatch, +he exclaimed: "Oh, yes--yes--to be sure. Annapolis must be +defended--troops must be sent to Annapolis. Pray where is Annapolis? +Cape Breton an island! Wonderful! Show it me on the map. So it is, sure +enough. My dear sir [to Captain Ryal], you always bring us good news. I +must go and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island."] + +Although Shirley applied to the King for help with which to defend Nova +Scotia, he knew full well that the burden of defense would fall on the +colonies. And with that determination and persistence which always +brings success he labored hard to persuade New Hampshire, Connecticut, +and Rhode Island to join with Massachusetts in an effort to capture +Louisburg. It would be delightful to tell how he overcame all +difficulties; how the young men rallied on the call for troops; how at +the end of March, 1745, 4000 of them in a hundred transports and +accompanied by fourteen armed ships set sail, followed by the prayers of +all New England, and after a siege of six weeks took the fortress on the +17th of June, 1745. But the story is too long.[1] It is enough to know +that the victory was hailed with delight on both sides of the Atlantic, +but that when peace came, in 1748, the British government was still so +blind to the struggle for North America which had been going on for +fifty years, that Louisburg was restored to the French. + +[Footnote 1: Read Samuel Adams Drake's _Taking of Louisburg_; Parkman's +_A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. II., pp. 78-161.] + +%76. The French on the Allegheny River; the Buried Plates.%--With +Louisburg back in their possession and no territory lost, the French +went on more vigorously than ever with their preparations to shut the +British out of the Mississippi valley; and as but one highway to the +valley, the Ohio River, was still unguarded, the governor of Canada, in +1749, dispatched Céloron de Bienville with a band of men in twenty-three +birch-bark canoes to take formal possession of the valley. Paddling up +the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, they carried their canoes across to +Lake Erie, and, skirting the southeastern shore, they landed and crossed +to Chautauqua Lake, down which and its outlet they floated to the +Allegheny River. Once on the Allegheny, the ceremony of taking +possession began. The men were drawn up, and Louis XV. was proclaimed +king of all the region drained by the Ohio. The arms of France stamped +on a sheet of tin were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which a lead +plate was buried in the ground. On the plate was an inscription claiming +the Ohio, and all the streams that run into it, in the name of the King +of France. + +[Illustration: [1]Half of one of the lead plates] + +[Footnote 1: Now owned by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, +Mass.] + + * * * * * + +TRANSLATION OF THE ENTIRE INSCRIPTION + +In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, +Céleron, commander of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la +Gallissoničre, commander in chief of New France, to restore tranquillity +in some savage villages of these districts, have buried this plate at +the confluence of the Ohio and ... this ... near the river Ohio, alias +Beautiful River, as a monument of our having retaken possession of the +said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the +lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as well as +of those of which preceding kings have enjoyed possession, partly by the +force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, +Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. + + * * * * * + +A second plate was buried below the mouth of French Creek; a third near +the mouth of Wheeling Creek; and a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum, +where half a century later it was found protruding from the river bank +by a party of boys while bathing. Yet another was unearthed at the mouth +of the Great Kanawha by a freshet, and was likewise found by a boy while +playing at the water's edge. The last plate was hidden where the Great +Miami joins the Ohio; and this done, Céloron crossed Ohio to Lake Erie +and went back to Montreal.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read T. J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_, +pp. 9-23, 187-197; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 36-62; +Winsor's _The Mississippi Basin_, pp. 252-255.] + +%77. The French build Forts on the Allegheny.%--This formal taking +possession of the valleys of the Allegheny and the Ohio was all well +enough in its way; but the French knew that if they really intended to +keep out the British they must depend on forts and troops, and not on +lead plates. To convince the French King of this, required time; so that +it was not till 1752 that orders were given to fortify the route taken +by Céloron in 1749. The party charged with this duty repaired to the +little peninsula where is now the city of Erie, and there built a log +fort which they called Presque Isle. Having done this, they cut a road +twenty miles long, to the site of Waterford, Pa., and built Fort Le +Boeuf, and later one at Venango, the present site of the town +of Franklin. + +%78. Washington's First Public Service.%--The arrival of the French +in western Pennsylvania alarmed and excited no one so much as Governor +Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia. He had two good reasons for his +excitement. In the first place, Virginia, because of the interpretation +she placed on her charter of 1609, claimed to own the Allegheny valley +(see p. 33). In the second place, the governor and a number of Virginia +planters were deeply interested in a great land company called the Ohio +Company, to which the King of England had given 500,000 acres lying +along the Ohio River between the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers, a +region which the French claimed, and toward which they were moving. + +As soon, therefore, as Dinwiddie heard that the French were really +building forts in the upper Allegheny valley, he determined to make a +formal demand for their withdrawal, and chose as his messenger George +Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, and adjutant general of the +Virginia militia. + +Washington's instructions bade him go to Logstown, on the Ohio, find out +all he could as to the whereabouts of the French, and then proceed to +the commanding officer, deliver the letter of Dinwiddie, and demand an +answer. He was especially charged to ascertain how many French forts had +been erected, how many soldiers there were in each, how far apart the +posts were, and if they were to be supported from Quebec.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read T.J. Chapman's _The, French in the Allegheny Valley_, +pp. 23-47; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 128-161; Lodge's +_George Washington_, pp. 62-69.] + +With that promptness which distinguished him during his whole life, +Washington set out on his perilous journey the very day he received his +instructions, and made his way first to Logstown, and then to Fort Le +Boeuf, where he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the French +commandant. The reply of Saint-Pierre--for that was the name of the +French commandant--was that he would send the letter of Dinwiddie to the +governor of Canada, the Marquis Duquesne (doo-kan'), and that, in the +meantime, he would hold the fort. + +[Illustration: The French and the English Forts] + +%79. Fort Duquesne.%--When Dinwiddie read the answer of Saint-Pierre, +he saw clearly that the time had come to act. The French were in force +on the upper Allegheny. Unless something was done to drive them out, +they would soon be at the forks of the Ohio, and once they were there, +the splendid tract of the Ohio Company would be lost forever. Without a +moment's delay he decided to take possession of the forks of the Ohio, +and raised two companies of militia of 100 men each. A trader named +William Trent was in command of one of the companies, and that no time +should be lost, he, with forty men, hurried forward, and, February 17, +1754, drove the first stake of a stockade that was to surround a fort on +the site of the city of Pittsburg. While the English were still at work +on their fort, April 17, 1754, a body of French and Indians came down +from Le Boeuf, and bade them leave the valley. Trent was away, and the +working party was in command of an ensign named Ward, who, as resistance +was useless, surrendered, and was allowed to march off with his men. The +French then finished the fort Trent had begun, and called it Fort +Duquesne, after the governor of Canada. + +%80. "Join or Die."%--Meantime the legislature of Virginia voted +Ģ10,000 for the defense of the Ohio valley, and promised a land bounty +to every man who would volunteer to fight the French and Indians. Joshua +Frye was made colonel, and Washington lieutenant colonel of the troops +thus to be raised. As some time must elapse before the ranks could be +filled, Washington took seventy-five men and (in March, 1754) set off to +help Trent; but he had not gone far on his way when Ensign Ward met him +(where Cumberland, Md., now is) and told him all about the surrender. +Accounts of the affair were at once sent to the governors of Maryland, +Pennsylvania, and Virginia. + +[Illustration: JOIN, or DIE.] + +In publishing one of these in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, Franklin +inserted the above picture at the top of the account.[1] + +[Footnote 1: There is an old superstition, then very generally believed, +that if one cuts a snake in pieces and allows the pieces to touch, the +snake will not die, but will live and become whole again. By this +picture Franklin meant that unless the colonies joined for defense +against the French they would die; that is, be conquered.] + +%81. Albany Plan of Union.%--The picture was apt for the following +reason. The Lords of Trade in London had ordered the colonies to send +delegates to Albany to make a treaty with the Iroquois Indians, and to +this congress Franklin purposed to submit a plan for union against the +French. The plan drawn up by the congress was not approved by the +colonies, so the scheme of union came to naught. + +%82. Washington's Expedition.%--Meanwhile great events were happening +in the west. When Washington met Ensign Ward at Cumberland and heard the +story of the surrender, he was at a loss just what to do; but knowing +that he was expected to do something, he decided to go to a storehouse +which the Ohio Company had built at the mouth of a stream called +Redstone Creek in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pushing along, cutting as +he went the first road that ever led down to the valley of the +Mississippi from the Atlantic slope, he reached a narrow glade called +the Great Meadows and there began to put up a breastwork which he named +Fort Necessity. While so engaged news came that the French were near. +Washington thereupon took a few men, and, coming suddenly on the French, +killed or captured them all save one. Among the dead was Jumonville, the +leader of the party. Well satisfied with this exploit, Washington pushed +on with his entire force towards the Ohio. But, hearing that the French +were advancing, he fell back to Fort Necessity, and there awaited them. +He did not wait long; for the French and Indians came down in great +force, and on July 4, 1754, forced him, after a brave resistance, to +surrender. He was allowed to march out with drums beating and flags +flying.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge's _George Washington_, pp. 69-74; Winsor's _The +Mississippi Basin_, pp. 294-315.] + +%83. The French and Indian War.%--Thus was begun what the colonists +called the French and Indian War, but what was really a struggle +between the French and the British for the possession of America. +Knowing it to be such, both sides made great preparations for the +contest. The French stood on the defensive. The British made the attack, +and early in 1755 sent over one of their ablest officers, Major General +Edward Braddock, to be commander in chief in America. He summoned the +colonial governors to meet him at Alexandria, Va., where a plan for a +campaign was agreed on. + +%84. Plan for the War.%--Vast stretches of dense and almost +impenetrable forest then separated the colonies of the two nations, but +through this forest were three natural highways of communication: 1. +Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence River. 2. The Hudson, +the Mohawk, Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River. 3. The Potomac to Fort +Cumberland, and through the forest to Fort Duquesne. + +It was decided, therefore, to have four expeditions. + +1. One was to go north from New York to Lake Champlain, take the French +fort at Crown Point, and move against Quebec. + +2. Another was to sail from New England and make such a demonstration +against the French towns to the northeast, as would prevent the French +in that quarter going off to defend Quebec and Crown Point. + +3. The third was to start from Albany, go up the Mohawk, and down the +Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and along its shores to the Niagara River. + +4. The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Pennsylvania to Fort +Duquesne. + +%85. Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755.%--Braddock took command of this +last expedition and made Washington one of his aids. For a while he +found it impossible to move his army, for in Virginia horses and wagons +were very scarce, and without them he could not carry his baggage or +drag his cannon. At last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy +postmaster-general of the colonies, persuaded the farmers of +Pennsylvania, who had plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to +the general. + +All this took time, so that it was June before the army left Fort +Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through the woods to Fort +Duquesne. The march was slow, but all went well till the troops had +crossed the Monongahela River and were but eight miles from the fort, +when suddenly the advance guard came face to face with an army of +Indians and French. The Indians and French instantly hid in the bushes +and behind trees, and poured an incessant fire into the ranks of the +British. They, too, would gladly have fought in Indian fashion. But +Braddock thought this cowardly and would not allow them to get behind +trees, so they stood huddled in groups, a fine mark for the Indians, +till so many were killed that a retreat had to be ordered. Then they +fled, and had it not been for Washington and his Virginians, who covered +their flight, they would probably have been killed to a man.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., Chap. 7, pp. +162-187; T.J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_, pp. 60-72; +Sargeant's _History of Braddock's Expedition_.] + +Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died a few days +later. + +%86. The Other Expeditions.%--The expedition against Niagara was a +failure. The officer in command did not take his army further than +Oswego on Lake Ontario. + +The expedition against Crown Point was partially successful, and a +stubborn battle was fought and a victory won over the French on the +shores of that beautiful sheet of water which the English ever after +called Lake George in honor of the King. + +%87. War declared.%--Up to this time all the fighting had been done +along the frontier in America. But in May, 1756, Great Britain formally +declared war against France. The French at once sent over Montcalm,[1] +the very ablest Frenchman that ever commanded on this continent, and +there followed two years of warfare disastrous to the British. Montcalm +took and burned Oswego, won over the Indians to the cause of France, and +was about to send a strong fleet to attack New England, when, toward the +end of 1757, William Pitt was made virtually (though not in name) Prime +Minister of England. + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 318-380.] + +William Pitt was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived. He +could see exactly what to do, and he could pick out exactly the right +man to do it. No wonder, then, that as soon as he came into power the +British began to gain victories. + +%88. The Victories of 1758.%--Once more the French were attacked at +their three vulnerable points, and this time with success. In 1758 +Louisburg surrendered to Amherst and Boscawen. In that same year +Washington captured Fort Duquesne, which, in honor of the great Prime +Minister, was called Fort Pitt. A provincial officer named Bradstreet +destroyed Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. This was a heavy blow to the +French; for with Fort Frontenac gone and Fort Duquesne in English hands, +the Ohio was cut off from Quebec. + +An attack on Ticonderoga, however, was repulsed by Montcalm with +dreadful loss to the English. + +%89. The Victories of 1759; Wolfe.%--But the defeat was only +temporary. At the siege of Louisburg a young officer named James Wolfe +had greatly distinguished himself, and in return for this was selected +by Pitt to command an expedition to Quebec. The previous attempts to +reach that city had been by way of Lake George. The expedition of Wolfe +sailed up the St. Lawrence, and landed below the city. + +Quebec stands on the summit of a high hill with precipitous sides, and +was then the most strongly fortified city in America. To take it seemed +almost impossible. But the resolution of Wolfe overcame every obstacle: +on the night of September 12, 1759, he led his troops to the foot of the +cliff, climbed the heights, and early in the morning had his army drawn +up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, as the plateau behind the +city was called. There a great battle was fought between the French, led +by Montcalm, and the British, led by Wolfe. The British triumphed, and +Quebec fell; but Wolfe and Montcalm were among the dead.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Chaps. 25-27; A. Wright's +_Life of Wolfe;_ Sloan's _French War and the Revolution_, Chaps. 6-9.] + +[Illustration: European Possessions 1763] + +Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured a few weeks before. +Montreal was taken in 1760, and the long struggle between the French and +the English in America ended in the defeat of the French. The war +dragged on in Europe till 1763, when peace was made at Paris. + +%90. France driven out of America.%--With all the details of the +treaty we are not concerned. It is enough for us to know that France +divided her possessions on this continent between Great Britain and +Spain. To Great Britain she gave Canada and Cape Breton, and all the +islands save two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the +United States, she drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River +from its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great Britain +she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To Spain she gave +all her possessions to the west of this line, together with the city of +New Orleans. But Great Britain, during the war, had taken Havana from +Spain. To get this back, Spain now gave up Florida in exchange. + +At the end of the war with France, Great Britain thus found herself in +possession of Canada and all that part of the United States which lies +between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, the little strip at the mouth +of the river alone excepted. + + +SUMMARY + +We have now come to the time when the third European power was driven +from our country. The first was Sweden when New Sweden was captured by +the Dutch. The second was Holland when New Netherland was captured by +the English. The third was France. + +1. The struggle for the French possessions in America may be divided +into two periods: A. That from 1689 to 1748, when the contest was for +Acadia and New France. B. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was +for Louisiana as well as New France. + +2. The first war, "King William's," was indecisive, but the second, +"Queen Anne's," ended (1713) in the transfer of Acadia to England. + +3. After the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the French began seriously to take +possession of the Mississippi valley, and began a chain of forts to +stretch from New Orleans and Mobile to Montreal. + +4. "King George's War" interrupted this work for a few years +(1744-1748), but in 1749 Céleron was sent to bury plates in the valleys +of the Allegheny and Ohio and claim them in the name of France. + +5. The next step after claiming the valleys was to take armed +possession, and in 1752 the French began to build forts. + +6. This alarmed the governor of Virginia, who sent Washington to bid the +French leave the Allegheny valley. When they refused, troops were sent +to build a fort on the site of what is now Pittsburg; but these men, +under Trent and Ward, were driven away, as were also the reinforcements +under Washington (1764). + +7. Braddock (with Washington) was next sent against the French, who had +built Fort Duquesne. He was surprised by the Indians (July 9, 1755), +defeated, and killed. + +8. The "French and Indian War" thus opened was fought with varying +success till 1760, when the British held Quebec, Montreal, Fort +Duquesne, and all the other French strongholds in America. In 1763 peace +was made, and nearly all the French possessions east of the Mississippi +River were surrendered to the British. + + * * * * * +THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA: + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND ACADIA: + +King William's War: + + 1690. Sir W. Phips takes Port Royal. + Sir W. Phips attacks Quebec. + Montreal attacked. + 1690-1697. The New York and New England frontier ravaged by the + French and Indians. + 1697. Peace of Ryswick. Port Royal given back to the French. + + +Queen Anne's War. Acadia lost to the French: + + 1702-1713. Frontier of New England ravaged. + 1710. Port Royal again taken. + 1711. Quebec again attacked. + 1713. Peace of Utrecht. Acadia held by the English. + + +King George's War: + + 1744. French attack Canso and Annapolis (Port Royal). + 1745. Louisburg (Cape Breton Island) taken. + 1748. Louisburg given back to the French. + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA. + +Occupation of Louisiana: + + 1699. The French at the mouth of the Mississippi. + 1701. The occupation of the valley begun. + 1701-1748. The chain of forts joining New Orleans and Montreal. + 1749. The French on the Allegheny. Céleron's expedition. The buried + plates. + 1753. The French fortify the Allegheny valley. + + +The French and Indian War: + + 1754-1763. The struggle for final possession. + 1758. The capture of Louisburg. + 1759. The capture of Quebec. + 1760. The capture of Montreal. + 1763. The French abandon America. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 + +%91. Things unknown in 1763.%--Had a traveler landed on our shores in +1763 and made a journey through the English colonies in America, he +would have seen a country utterly unlike the United States of to-day. +The entire population, white man and black, freeman and slave, was not +so great as that of New York or Philadelphia or Chicago in our time. If +we were to write a list of all the things we now consider as real +necessaries of daily life and mark off those unknown to the men of 1763, +not one quarter would remain. No man in the country had ever seen a +stove, or a furnace, or a friction match, or an envelope, or a piece of +mineral coal. From the farmer we should have to take the reaper, the +drill, the mowing machine, and every kind of improved rake and plow, and +give him back the scythe, the cradle, and the flail. From our houses +would go the sewing machine, the daily newspaper, gas, running water; +and from our tables, the tomato, the cauliflower, the eggplant, and many +varieties of summer fruits. We should have to destroy every railroad, +every steamboat, every factory and mill, pull down every line of +telegraph, silence every telephone, put out every electric light, and +tear up every telegraphic cable from the beds of innumerable rivers and +seas. We should have to take ether and chloroform from the surgeon, and +galvanized iron and India rubber from the arts, and give up every sort +of machine moved by steam. + +[Illustration: Lamp and sadiron] + +[Illustration: Postrider (Footnote: From an old print, 1760)] + +%92. State of the Arts, Sciences, and Industry.%--The appliances left +on the list, because in some form they were known to the men of 1763, +would now be thought crude and clumsy. There were printing presses in +those days,--perhaps fifty in all the colonies. But they were small, +were worked by hand, and were so slow that the most expert pressman +using one of them could not have printed so much in three working days +as a modern steam press can run off in five minutes. There was a general +post, and Benjamin Franklin was deputy postmaster-general for the +northern district of the colonies. But the letters were carried thirty +miles a day by postriders on horseback, and there were never more than +three mails a week between even the great towns. Every Monday, +Wednesday, and Friday a postrider left New York city for Philadelphia. +Every Monday and Thursday another left New York for Boston. Once each +week a rider left for Albany on his way to Quebec. On the first +Wednesday of each month a packet boat sailed from New York for Falmouth, +England, with the mail, and this was the only mail between Great Britain +and her American colonies. We put electricity to a thousand uses; but in +1763 it was a scientific toy. Franklin had just proved by his experiment +with the kite that lightning and electricity were one and the same, and +several other men were amusing themselves and their hearers by ringing +bells, exploding powder, and making colored sparks. But it was put to no +other use. If we take up a daily newspaper published in one of our great +cities and read the column of wants, we find in them twenty occupations +now giving a comfortable living to millions of men. Yet not one of these +twenty existed in 1763. The district messenger, the telegraph operator, +the typewriter, the stenographer, the bookkeeper, the canvasser, the +salesman, the commercial traveler, the engineer, the car driver, the +hackman, the conductor, the gripman, the brakeman, the electrician, the +lineman, the elevator boy, and a host of others, follow trades and +occupations which had no existence in the middle of the +eighteenth century. + + Run away, the 23d of this Instant _January_, from _Silas Crispin_ + of _Burlington_, Taylor, a Servant Man named _Joseph Morris, _by + Trade a Taylor, aged about 22 Years, of a middle Stature, swarthy + Complexion, light gray Eyes, his Hair clipp'd off, mark'd with + a large pit of the Small Pox on one Cheek near his Eye, had on + when he went away a good Felt Hat, a yelowish Drugget Coat with + Pleits behind, an old Ozenbrigs Vest, two Ozenbrigs Shirts, a pair + of Leather Breeches handsomely worm'd and flower'd up the Knees, + yarn Stockings and good round toe'd Shoes. Took with him a large + pair of Sheers crack'd in one of the Bows & mark'd with the Word + [_Savoy_]. Whoever takes up the said Servant, and secures him so + that his Matter may have him again, shall have _Three Pounds_ + Reward besides reasonable Charges, paid by me _Silas Griffin._ + + From a Philadelphia newspaper + +%93. Labor.%--On the other hand, if we take up a newspaper of that +day and read the advertisements, we find that a great deal of what +existed then does not exist now. The newspapers were published in a few +of the large towns, and appeared not every day, but once a week. In the +largest of them would be from seventy-five to eighty advertisements, +setting forth that such a merchant had just received from England or the +West Indies a stock of new goods which he would sell for cash; that the +_Charming Nancy_ would sail in a few weeks for Londonderry in Ireland, +or for Barbados, or for Amsterdam in Holland, and wanted a cargo; that a +tract of land or a plantation would be sold "at vendue," or, as we say, +at auction; that a reward of five pistoles would be paid for the arrest +of "a lusty negroe man" or an "indented servant" or an "apprentice lad," +who had run away from his owner or master. Very rarely is a call made +for a mechanic or a workman of any sort. + +[Illustration: From a Philadelphia newspaper] + +The reason for this was two fold. In the first place, negro slavery +existed in all the thirteen colonies. In the second place, there were +thousands of whites in many of the colonies in a state of temporary +servitude, which was sometimes voluntary and sometimes involuntary. + +Those who served against their will were convicts and felons, not only +men and women who had been guilty of stealing, cheating, and the like, +but also forgers, counterfeiters, and murderers, who were transported by +thousands from the English prisons to the colonies and sold into slavery +or service for seven or fourteen years.[1] Advertisements are extant in +which the masters from whom such servants have run away warn the people +to beware of them. + +[Footnote 1: One act of Parliament, for instance, provided that persons +sentenced to be whipped or branded might, if they wished, escape the +punishment by serving seven years in the colonies, and never returning +to England. Another allowed convicts sentenced to death to commute the +sentence by serving fourteen years.] + +But all "indented" or bond servants were not criminals. Many were +reputable persons who sold themselves into service for a term of years +in return for transportation to America. Others, generally boys and +young women, had been kidnaped and sold by the persons who stole them. + +%94. Indentured Servants.%--In the case of such as came voluntarily, +carefully drawn agreements called indentures would be made in writing. +The captain of the ship would agree to bring the emigrant to America. +The emigrant would agree in return to serve the captain three or five +years. When the ship reached port, the captain would advertise the fact +that he had carpenters, tailors, farmers, shoemakers, etc., for sale, +and whoever wanted such labor would go on board the ship and for perhaps +fifty dollars buy a man bound to serve him for several years in return +for food, clothes, and lodging. Not only men, but also women and +children, were sold in this way, and were known as "indented servants," +or "redemptioners," because they redeemed their time of service with +labor. Their lot seems to have been a hard one; for the young men were +constantly running away, and the newspapers are full of advertisements +offering rewards for their arrest. + +What we call the workingman, the day laborer, the mechanic, the mill +hand, had no existence as classes. The great corporations, railroads, +express companies, mills, factories of every sort, which now cover our +land and give employment to five times as many men and women as lived in +all the colonies in 1763, are the creatures of our own time. + +[Illustration: Wigs and wig bag] + +[Illustration: Flax wheel] + +%95. No Manufacturers.%--For this state of things England was largely +to blame. For one hundred years past every kind of manufacture that +could compete with the manufactures of the mother country had been +crushed by law. In order to help her iron makers, she forbade the +colonists to set up iron furnaces and slitting mills. That her cloth +manufacturers might flourish, she forbade the colonists to send their +woolen goods to any country whatever, or even from one colony to +another. Under this law it was a crime to knit a pair of mittens or a +pair of socks and send them from Boston to Providence or from New York +to Newark, or from Philadelphia across the Delaware to New Jersey. In +the interest of English hatters the colonists were not allowed to send +hats to any foreign country, nor from one colony to another, and a +serious effort was made to prevent the manufacture of hats in America. +People in this country were obliged to wear English-made hats. Taking +the country through, every saw, every ax, every hammer, every needle, +pin, tack, piece of tape, and a hundred other articles of daily use came +from Great Britain. + +Every farmhouse, however, was a little factory, and every farmer a +jack-of-all-trades. He and his sons made their own shoes, beat out nails +and spikes, hinges, and every sort of ironmongery, and constructed much +of the household furniture. The wife and her daughters manufactured the +clothing, from dressing the flax and carding the wool to cutting the +cloth; knit the mittens and socks; and during the winter made straw +bonnets to sell in the towns in the spring. + +Even in such towns as were large enough to support a few artisans, each +made, with the help of an apprentice, and perhaps a journeyman, all the +articles he sold. + +[Illustration: Hand loom[1]] + +%96. The Cities.%--If we take a map of our country and run over the +great cities of to-day, we find that except along the seacoast hardly +one existed, in 1765, even in name. Detroit was a little French +settlement surrounded with a high stockade. New Orleans existed, and St. +Louis had just been founded, but they both belonged to Spain. Mobile and +Pensacola and Natchez and Vincennes consisted of a few huts gathered +about old French forts. There was no city, no town worthy of the name, +in the English colonies west of the Alleghany Mountains. Along the +Atlantic coast we find Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, New Haven, New +York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alexandria, Williamsburg, Charleston, +Savannah, and others of less note. But the largest of these were mere +collections of a few hundred houses ranged along streets, none of which +were sewered and few of which were paved or lighted. The watchman went +his rounds at night with rattle and lantern, called out the hours and +the state of the weather, and stopped and demanded the name of every +person found walking the streets after nine o'clock. To travel on Sunday +was a serious and punishable offense, as it was on any day to smoke in +the streets, or run from house to house with hot coals, which in those +days, when there were no matches, were often used instead of flint and +steel to light fires. + +[Footnote 1: From an old loom in the National Museum, Washington.] + +[Illustration: Colonial mansion in Charleston] + +Travel between the large towns was almost entirely by sailing vessel, or +on horseback. The first stagecoach-and-four in New England began its +trips in 1744. The first stage between New York and Philadelphia was not +set up till 1756, and spent three days on the road. + +%97. The Three Groups of Colonies.%--It has always been usual to +arrange the colonies in three groups: 1. The Eastern or New England +Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). +2. The Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and +Delaware). 3. The Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, +South Carolina, and Georgia). Now, this arrangement is good not only +from a geographical point of view, but also because the people, the +customs, the manners, the occupations, in each of these groups were very +unlike the people and the ways of living in the others. + +[Illustration: New England mansion] + +%98. Occupations in New England.%--In New England the colonists were +almost entirely English, though there were some Scotch, some +Scotch-Irish, a few Huguenot refugees from France, and, in Rhode Island, +a few Portuguese Jews. As the climate and soil did not admit of raising +any great staple, such as rice or tobacco, the people "took to the sea." +They cut down trees, with which the land was covered, built ships, and +sailed away to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland for cod, and to the +whale fisheries for oil. They went to the English, Dutch, and Spanish +West Indian Islands, with flour, salt meat, horses, oxen; with salted +salmon, cod, and mackerel; with staves for barrels; with onions and +salted oysters. In return, they came back with sugar, molasses, cotton, +wool, logwood, and Spanish dollars with which the New England Colonies +paid for the goods they took from England. They went to Spain, where +their ships were often sold, the captains chartering English vessels and +coming home with cargoes of goods made in England. Six hundred ships are +said to have been employed in the foreign trade of Boston, and more than +a thousand in the fisheries and the trade along the coast. + +[Illustration: Dutch House at Albany[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print.] + +Farming, outside of Connecticut, yielded little more than a bare +subsistence. Manufactures in general were forbidden by English law. +Paper and hats were made in small quantities, leather was tanned, lumber +was sawed, and rum was distilled from molasses; but it was on homemade +manufactures that the people depended. + +%99. Occupations in the Middle Colonies.%--In the Middle Colonies the +population was a mixture of people from many European countries. The +line of little villages which began at the west end of Long Island and +stretched up the Hudson to Albany, and out the Mohawk to +Schenectady---the settled part of New York--contained Englishmen, +Irishmen, Dutchmen, French Huguenots, Germans from the Rhine countries, +and negroes from Africa. The chief occupations of those people were +farming, making flour, and carrying on an extensive commerce with +England, Spain, and the West Indian Islands. + +[Illustration: Shoes worn by Palatines in Pennsylvania] + +In New Jersey the population was almost entirely English, but in +Pennsylvania it was as mixed as in New York. Around Philadelphia the +English predominated, but with them were mingled Swedes, Dutch, Welsh, +Germans, and Scotch-Irish. Taken together, the Germans and the +Scotch-Irish far outnumbered the English, and made up the mass of the +population between the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna rivers. Both were +self-willed and stubborn, and they were utterly unable to get along +together peaceably, so that their settlements ran across the state in +two parallel bands, in one of which whole regions could be found in +which not a word of English was spoken. Indeed, then, and long after the +nineteenth century began, the laws of Pennsylvania were printed both in +English and in German. The chief occupation of the people was farming; +and it is safe to say that no such farms, no such cattle, no such grain, +flour, provisions, could be found in any other part of the country. +Lumber, too, was cut and sold in great quantities; and along the +frontier there was a lively fur trade with the Indians. At Philadelphia +was centered a fine trade with Europe and the West Indies. Had it not +been for the action of the mother country, manufactures would have +flourished greatly; even as it was, iron and paper were manufactured in +considerable quantities. + +%100. Occupations in the Southern Colonies.%--South of Pennsylvania, +and especially south of the Potomac River, lay a region utterly unlike +anything to the north of it. In Virginia, there were no cities, no large +towns, no centers of population. At an early day in the history of the +colony the legislature had attempted to remedy this, and had ordered +towns to be built at certain places, had made them the only ports where +ships from abroad could be entered, had established tobacco warehouses +in them, had offered special privileges to tradesmen who would settle in +them, and had provided that each should have a market and a fair. But +the success was small, and Fredericksburg and Alexandria and Petersburg +were straggling villages. Jamestown, the old capital, had by this time +ceased to exist. Williamsburg, the new capital, was a village of 200 +houses. There was no business, no incentive in Virginia to build towns. +The planters owned immense plantations along the river banks, and raised +tobacco, which, when gathered, cured, and packed into hogsheads, was +rolled away to the nearest wharf for inspection and shipment to London. +In those early days, when good roads were unknown and wagons few, shafts +were attached to each hogshead by iron bolts driven into the heads, and +the cask was thus turned into a huge roller. With each year's crop would +go a long list of articles of every sort,--hardware, glass, crockery, +clothing, furniture, household utensils, wines,--which the agent was +instructed to buy with the proceeds of the tobacco and send back to the +planter when the ships came a year later for another crop. The country +abounded in trees, yet tables, chairs, boxes, cart wheels, bowls, birch +brooms, all came from the mother country. The wood used for building +houses was actually cut, sent to England as logs to be dressed, and then +taken back to Virginia for use. + +[Illustration: Tobacco rolling[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum, Washington.] + +Maryland was in the same condition. Her people raised tobacco, and with +it bought their clothing, household goods, brass and copper wares, and +iron utensils in Great Britain. + +In South Carolina rice was the great staple, just as tobacco was the +staple of Virginia, and there too were large plantations and no towns. +All the social, commercial, legal, and political life of the colony +centered in Charleston, from which a direct trade was carried on +with London. + +[Illustration: %An old Maryland manor house%] + +Labor on the plantations of Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia was +performed exclusively by negro slaves and redemptioners. + +%101. Civil Government in the English Colonies.%--If we arrange the +colonies according to the kind of civil government in each, we find that +they fall into three classes: + +1. The charter colonies (Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island). + +2. The proprietary colonies (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland). + +3. The royal, or provincial, colonies (New Hampshire, New York, New +Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia). + +The charters of the first group were written contracts between the King +and the colonists, defined the share each should have in the government, +and were not to be changed without the consent of both parties. In +colonies of the second group some individual, called the proprietary, +was granted a great tract of land by the King, and, under a royal +charter, was given power to sell the land to settlers, establish +government, and appoint the governors of his colony. In the third group, +the King appointed the governors and instructed them as to the way in +which he wished his colonies to be ruled. + +With these differences, all the colonies had the same form of +government. In each there was a legislature elected by the people; in +each the right to vote was limited to men who owned land, paid taxes, +had a certain yearly income, and were members of some Christian church. +The legislature consisted of two branches: the lower house, to which the +people elected delegates; and the upper house, or council, appointed by +the governor. These legislatures could do many things, but their powers +were limited and their acts were subject to review: 1. They could do +nothing contrary to the laws of England. 2. Whatever they did could be +vetoed by the governors, and no bill could be passed over the veto. 3. +All laws passed by a colonial legislature (except in the case of +Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland), and approved by a governor, +must even then be sent to England to be examined by the King in Council, +and could be "disallowed" or vetoed by the King at any time within three +years. This power was used so constantly that the colonial legislatures, +in time, would pass laws to run for two years, and when that time +expired would reënact them for two years more, and so on in order to +avoid the veto. In this way the colonists became used to three political +institutions which were afterwards embodied in what is now the American +system of state and national government: 1. The written constitution +defining the powers of government. 2. The exercise of the veto power by +the governor. 3. The setting aside of laws by a judicial body from whose +decision there is no appeal. + +%102. The Colonial Governors.%--The governor of a royal province was +the personal representative of the King, and as such had vast power. +The legislature could meet only when he called it. He could at any +moment prorogue it (that is, command it to adjourn to a certain day) or +dissolve it, and, if the King approved, he need never call it together +again. He was the chief justice of the highest colonial court, he +appointed all the judges, and, as commander in chief of the militia, +appointed all important officers. Yet even he was subject to some +control, for his salary was paid by the colony over which he ruled, and, +by refusing to pay this salary, the legislature could, and over and over +again did, force him to approve acts he would not otherwise have +sanctioned. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the people elected the +governors. This right once existed also in Massachusetts; but when the +old charter was swept away in 1684, and replaced by a new one in 1691, +the King was given power to appoint the governor, who could summon, +dissolve, and prorogue the legislature at his pleasure. + +%103. Lords of Trade and Plantations.%--That the King should give +personal attention to all the details of government in his colonies in +America, was not to be expected. In 1696, therefore, a body called the +Lords of the Board of Trade and Plantations was commissioned by the King +to do this work for him. These Lords of Trade corresponded with the +governors, made recommendations, bade them carry out this or that +policy, veto this or that class of laws, examined all the laws sent over +by the legislatures, and advised the King as to which should be +disallowed, or vetoed. + +In the early years of our colonial history the Parliament of England had +no share in the direction of colonial affairs. It was the King who owned +all the land, made all the grants, gave all the charters, created all +the colonies, governed many of them, and stoutly denied the right of +Parliament to meddle. But when Charles I. was beheaded, the Long +Parliament took charge of the management of affairs in this country, and +although much of it went back to the King at the Restoration in 1660, +Parliament still continued to legislate for the colonies in a few +matters. Thus, for instance, Parliament by one act established the +postal service, and fixed the rates of postage; by another it regulated +the currency, and by another required the colonists to change from the +Old Style to the New Style--that is, to stop using the Julian calendar +and to count time in future by the Gregorian calendar; by another it +established a uniform law of naturalization; and from time to time it +passed acts for the purpose of regulating colonial trade. + +%104. Acts of Trade and Navigation.%--The number of these acts is +very large; but their purpose was four fold: + +1. They required that colonial trade should be carried on in ships built +and owned in England or in the colonies, and manned to the extent of two +thirds of the crew by English subjects. + +2. They provided a long list of colonial products that should not be +sent to any foreign ports other than a port of England. Goods or +products not in the list might be sent to any other part of the world. +Thus tobacco, sugar, indigo, copper, furs, rice (if the rice was for a +port north of Cape Finisterre), must go to England; but lumber, salt +fish, and provisions might go (in English or colonial ships) to France, +or Spain, or to other foreign countries. + +3. When trade began to spring up between the colonies, and the New +England merchants were competing in the colonial markets with English +merchants, an act was passed providing that if a product which went from +one colony to another was of a kind that might have been supplied from +England, it must either go to the mother country and then to the +purchasing colony, or pay an export duty at the port where it was +shipped, equal to the import duty it would have to pay in England. + +4. No goods were allowed to be carried from any place in Europe to +America unless they were first landed at a port in England.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Edward Eggleston's papers in the _Century Magazine_, 1884; +Scudder's _Men and Manners One Hundred Years Ago_; Lodge's _English +Colonies_.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. The men who began the long struggle for the rights of Englishmen +lived in a state of society very different from ours, and were utterly +ignorant of most of the commonest things we use in daily life. + +2. Labor was performed by slaves, by criminals sent over to the colonies +and sold, and by "indented servants," or "redemptioners." + +3. Manufactures were forbidden by the laws of trade. Nobody was +permitted to manufacture iron beyond the state of pig or bar iron, or +make woolen goods for export, or make hats. + +4. Taking the colonies in geographical groups, the Eastern were engaged +in fishing, in commerce, and in farming; the Middle Colonies were +agricultural and commercial; the Southern were wholly agricultural, and +raised two great, staples--rice and tobacco. + +5. As a consequence, town life existed in the Eastern and Middle +Colonies, and was little known in the South, particularly in Virginia. + +6. Over the colonies, as a great governing body to aid the King, were +the Lords of Trade and Plantations in London. Under them in America were +the royal and proprietary governors, who with the local colonial +legislatures managed the affairs of the colonies. + + +LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763. + + + +_Social and Industrial Condition_. + + +Population. +Implements and inventions unknown. +The printing press. +The postal service. +Trades and occupations then unknown. + +Labor.}The apprentice. + }The "indented servant." + }The redemptioner. + }The slave. + +No manufactures. }Iron making +Acts of trade regulating. }Cloth making. +The cities. }Hat making. + +Travel. +The Navigation Acts. +State of agriculture. + + + +_Government_. + +The charter colonies. +The proprietary colonies. +The royal colonies. +The colonial governor. +The Lords of Trade and Plantations. +The King. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" + +%105. The New Provinces.%--The acquisition of Canada and the +Mississippi valley made it necessary for England to provide for their +defense and government. To do this she began by establishing three new +provinces. + +In Canada she marked out the province of Quebec, part of the south +boundary of which is now the north boundary of New York, Vermont, New +Hampshire, and Maine. + +In the South, out of the territory given by Spain, she made two +provinces, East and West Florida. The north boundary of West Florida was +(1764) a parallel of latitude through the junction of the Yazoo and +Mississippi rivers. The north boundary of East Florida was part of the +boundary of the present state. The territory between the Altamaha and +the St. Marys rivers was "annexed to Georgia." + +%106. The Proclamation Line.%--By the same proclamation which +established these provinces, a line was drawn around the head waters of +all the rivers in the United States which flow into the Atlantic Ocean, +and the colonists were forbidden to settle to the west of it. All the +valley from the Great Lakes to West Florida, and from the proclamation +line to the Mississippi, was set apart for the Indians. + +%107. The Country to be defended.%--Having thus provided for the +government of the newly acquired territory, it next became necessary to +provide for its defense; for nobody doubted that both France and Spain +would some day attempt to regain their lost possessions. Arrangements +were therefore made to bring over an army of 10,000 regular troops, +scatter them over the country from Canada to Florida, and maintain +them partly at the expense of the colonies and partly at the expense of +the crown. + +[Illustration: THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764] + +The share to be paid by the colonies was to be raised + +1. By enforcing the old trade and navigation laws. + +2. By a tax on sugar and molasses brought into the country. + +3. By a stamp tax. + +%108. Trial without Jury.%--In order to enforce the old laws, naval +vessels were sent to sail up and down the coast and catch smugglers. +Offenders when seized were to be tried in some vice-admiralty court, +where they could not have trial by jury.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This is one of the things complained of in the Declaration +of Independence.] + +%109. The Sugar Act and Stamp Tax.%--The Sugar Act was not a new +grievance. In 1733 Parliament laid a tax of 6_d_. a gallon on molasses +and 5_s_. per hundredweight on sugar brought into this country from any +other place than the British West Indies. This was to force the +colonists to buy their sugar and molasses from nobody but British sugar +planters. After having expired five times and been five times reënacted, +the Sugar Act expired for the sixth time in 1763, and the colonies +begged that it might not be renewed. But Parliament merely reduced the +molasses duty to 3_d_. and laid new duties on coffee, French and East +Indian goods, indigo, white sugar, and Spanish and Portuguese wines. It +then resolved that "for further defraying the expense of protecting the +colonists it would be necessary to charge certain stamp duties in the +colonies." + +At that time, 1764, no such thing as an internal tax laid by Parliament +for the purpose of raising revenue existed, or ever had existed, in +America. Money for the use of the King had always been raised by taxes +imposed by the legislatures of the colonies. The moment, therefore, the +people heard that this money was to be raised in future by parliamentary +taxation, they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed +their business agents in London to protest. + +This the agents did in February, 1765. But Grenville, the Prime +Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 1765, Parliament +passed the Stamp Act[1]. + +[Footnote 1: The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in +_American History Leaflets_, No. 21. For an excellent account of the +causes and consequences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's _England in the +Eighteenth Century_, Vol. III., Chap. 12; Frothingham's _Rise of the +Republic of the United States_, Chap. 5; Channing's _The United States +of America, 1765-1865_, pp. 41-50.] + +%110. The Stamp Distributors.%--That the collection of the new duty +might give as little offense to the colonists as possible, Grenville +desired that the stamps and the stamped paper should be sold by +Americans, and invited the agents of the colonies to name men to be +"stamp distributors" in their colonies. The law was to go into effect on +the 1st of November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every +piece of paper, on which was written any legal document for use in any +court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three pence to ten +pounds sterling. After that day, every license, bond, deed, warrant, +bill of lading, indenture, every pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of +cards, must be written or printed on stamped paper to be made in England +and sold at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the +case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.[2] + +[Footnote: The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed +to fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and +printed documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which +were the words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were +stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used +at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum +and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the +parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass. A design was then +impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used +by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal +documents. When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a +little piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp. On this +white piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second +picture on p. 113, the monogram "G. R." meaning Georgius Rex, or +King George.] + +[Illustration: Stamps used in 1765] + +The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to England, but was to +be spent in America for the defense of the colonies. Nevertheless, the +colonists were determined that none should be raised. The question was +not, Shall America support an army? but, Shall Parliament tax America? + +%111. The Virginia Resolutions.%--In opposition to this, Virginia now +led the way with a set of resolutions. In the House of Burgesses, as the +popular branch of her legislature was called, was Patrick Henry, the +greatest orator in the colonies. By dint of his fiery words, he forced +through a set of resolutions setting forth + +1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them "all the +privileges and immunities that have at any time been held" by "the +people of Great Britain." + +2. That their descendants held these rights. + +3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared +entitled to all the rights of Englishmen "born within the realm +of England." + +4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed "by their own +Assembly." + +5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent +of their Assembly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's manuscript +copy, are in Channing's _The United States of America, 1765-1865, _pp. +51, 52. They were passed May 29, 1765.] + +Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York +city. + +%112. Stamp-act Congress.%--To the congress thus called came +delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North +Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, on the 5th of +October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the +delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Massachusetts, New +York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a +"Declaration of Rights and Grievances." [1] + +[Footnote 1: This declaration is printed in full in Preston's _Documents +Illustrative of American History_, pp. 188-191.] + +%113. Declaration of Rights.%--The ground taken in the declaration +was: + +1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown. + +2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes +unless he had a voice in laying them. + +3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament. + +4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt +to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of +self-government. + +%114. Grievances.%--The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation +without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty +courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade. + +%115. The English View of Representation.%--We, in this country, do +not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a +vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals +but classes were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the +bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who +had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the +commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few +Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities +like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When +the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because +they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that +they were represented, because they were commoners. + +%116. Sons of Liberty.%--Meantime, the colonists had not been idle. +Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech +by a member of Parliament (named Barré) friendly to their cause, they +began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were +content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial +agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the +people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New +London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at +Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and +more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced +to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and +no stamps." + +%117. November 1, 1765.%--As the 1st of November, the day on which +the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared +decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary +notices. The _Pennsylvania Journal_ dropped its usual heading, and in +place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this +motto, "Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again." In one +corner was a coffin, and the words, "The last remains of the +_Pennsylvania Journal_, which departed this life the 31st of October, +1765, of a stamp in her vitals. Aged 23 years." The _Pennsylvania +Gazette_, on November 7, the day of its first issue after the Stamp Act +became law, published a half sheet, printed on one side, without any +heading, and in its place the words, "No stamped paper to be had." +During the next six months, every scrap of stamped paper that was heard +of was hunted up and given to the flames. Thus, when a vessel from +Barbados, with a stamped newspaper published on that island, reached +Philadelphia, the paper was seized and burned, one evening, at the +coffeehouse, in the presence of a great crowd. A vessel having put in +from Halifax, a rumor spread that the captain had brought stamped paper +with him, and was going to use it for his Philadelphia clearance. This +so enraged the people that the vessel was searched, and a sheet of paper +with three stamps on it was found, and burned at the coffee-house. + +%118. Non-importation Agreements.%--Meantime, the merchants in the +larger towns, and the people all over the country, had been making +written agreements not to import any goods from England for some +months to come. + +The effect of this measure was immense. Not a merchant nor a +manufacturer in Great Britain, engaged in the colonial trade, but found +his American orders canceled and his goods left on his hands. Not a ship +returned from this country but carried back English wares which it had +brought here to sell, but for which no purchaser could be found. + +%119. Stamp Act repealed.%--When Parliament met in December, 1765, +such a cry of distress came up from the manufacturing cities of England, +that Parliament was forced to yield, and in March, 1766, the Stamp Act +was repealed. In the outburst of joy which followed in America, the +intent and meaning of another act passed at the same time was little +heeded. In it was the declaration that Parliament did have the right to +tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." + +%120. The Townshend Acts.%--If the people thought this declaration +had no meaning, they were much mistaken, for next year (1767) Parliament +passed what have since been called the Townshend Acts. There were three +of them. One forbade the legislature of New York to pass any more laws +till it had provided the royal troops in the city with beds, candles, +fire, vinegar, and salt, as required by what was called the Mutiny Act. +The second established at Boston a Board of Commissioners of the Customs +to enforce the laws relating to trade. The third laid taxes on glass, +red and white lead, painter's colors, paper, and tea. None of these +taxes was heavy. But again the right of Parliament to tax people not +represented in it had been asserted, and again the colonists rose in +resistance. The legislature of Massachusetts sent a letter to each of +the other colonial legislatures, urging them to unite and consult for +the protection of their rights. Pennsylvania sent protests to the King +and to Parliament. The merchants all over the country renewed their old +agreements not to import British goods, and many a shipload was sent +back to England. + +%121. Colonial Legislatures dissolved.%[1]--The letter of +Massachusetts to the colonial legislatures having given great offense to +the King, the governors were ordered to see to it that the legislatures +did not approve it. But the order came too late. Many had already done +so, and as a punishment the assemblies of Maryland and Georgia were +dismissed and the members sent home. To dissolve assemblies became of +frequent occurrence. The legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved +because it refused to recall the letter. That of New York was repeatedly +dissolved for refusing to provide the royal troops with provisions. That +of Virginia was dismissed for complaining of the treatment of New York. + +[Footnote 1: One of the charges against the King in the Declaration of +Independence.] + +%122. Boston Riot of 1770.%--And now the troops intended for the +defense of the colonies began to arrive. But Massachusetts, North +Carolina, and South Carolina followed the example of New York, and +refused to find them quarters. For this the legislature of North +Carolina was dissolved. Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave +great offense; but in Boston the people were less patient than +elsewhere. They accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the +town; of desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of striking +citizens who insulted them; and of using language violent, threatening, +and profane. In this state of feeling, an alarm of fire called the +people into the streets on the night of March 5, 1770. The alarm was +false, and a crowd of men and boys, having nothing to do, amused +themselves by annoying a sentinel on guard at one of the public +buildings. He called for help, and a corporal and six men were soon on +the scene. But the crowd would not give way. Forty or fifty men came +armed with sticks and pressed around the soldiers, shouting, "Rascals! +Lobsters! Bloody-backs!" throwing snowballs and occasionally a stone, +till in the excitement of the moment a soldier fired his gun. The rest +followed his example, and when the reports died away, five of the +rioters lay on the ground dead or dying, and six more dangerously +wounded.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by +John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. The +rest were acquitted. On the massacre read Frothingham's _Life of +Warren,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Kidder's _The Boston Massacre_; Joseph Warren's +Oration on March 6, 1775, in _Library of American Literature_, Vol. +III., p. 256.] + +This riot, this "Boston Massacre," or, as the colonists delighted to +call it, "the bloody massacre," excited and aroused the whole land, +forced the government to remove the soldiers from Boston to an island in +the bay, and did more than anything else which had yet happened, to help +on the Revolution. + +%123. Tea sent to America and not received.%--While these things were +taking place in America--indeed, on the very day of the Boston riot--a +motion was made in Parliament for the repeal of all the taxes laid by +the Townshend Acts except that on tea. The tea tax of 3d. a pound, +payable in the colonies, was retained in order that the right of +Parliament to tax America might be vindicated. But the people held fast +to their agreements not to consume articles taxed by Great Britain. No +tea was drunk, save such as was smuggled from Holland, and at the end of +three years' time the East India Company had 17,000,000 pounds of tea +stored in its warehouses (1773). This was because the company was not +permitted to send tea out of England. It might only bring tea to London +and there sell it at public sale to merchants and shippers, who exported +it to America. But now when the merchants could not find anybody to buy +tea in the colonies, they bought less from the company, and the tea lay +stored in its warehouses. To relieve the company, and if possible tempt +the people to use the tea, the exportation tax was taken off and the +company was given leave to export tea to America consigned to +commissioners chosen by itself. Taking off the shilling a pound export +tax in England, and charging but 3d. import tax in America, made it +possible for the company to sell tea cheaper than could the merchants +who smuggled it. Yet even this failed. The people forced the tea +commissioners to resign or send the tea ships back to England. In +Charleston, S.C., the tea was landed and stored for three years, when it +was sold by South Carolina. In Philadelphia the people met, and having +voted that the tea should not be landed, they stopped the ship as it +came up the Delaware, and sent it back to London. + +%124. The Boston Tea Party.%--At Boston also the people tried to send +the tea ships to England, but the authorities would not allow them to +leave, whereupon a band of young men disguised as Indians boarded the +vessels, broke open the boxes, and threw the tea into the water. + +%125. The Five Intolerable Acts.%--When Parliament heard of these +events, it at once determined to punish Massachusetts, and in order to +do this passed five laws which were so severe that the colonists called +them the "Intolerable Acts." They are generally known as + +1. The Boston Port Bill, which shut the port of Boston to trade and +commerce, forbade ships to come in or go out, and moved the customhouse +to Marblehead. + +2. The Transportation Bill, which gave the governor power to send +anybody accused of murder in resisting the laws, to another colony or to +England for trial. + +3. The Massachusetts Bill, which changed the old charter of +Massachusetts, provided for a military governor, and forbade the people +to hold public meetings for any other purpose than the election of town +officers, without permission from the governor. + +4. The Quartering Act, which legalized the quartering of troops on the +people. + +5. The Quebec Act, which enlarged the province of Quebec (pp. 111, 124) +to include all the territory between the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, +the Mississippi River, and Pennsylvania. This territory was claimed by +Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia under their "sea to sea" +charters (pp. 33, 46, 52, 156). + +%126. A Congress called.%--When the Virginia legislature in May, +1774, heard of the passage of the Boston Port Bill, it passed a +resolution that the day on which the law went into effect in Boston +should be a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" in Virginia. For +this the governor at once dissolved the legislature. But the members met +and instructed a committee to correspond with the other colonies on the +expediency of holding another general congress of delegates. All the +colonies approved, and New York requested Massachusetts to name the time +and place of meeting. This she did, selecting Philadelphia as the place, +and September 1, 1774, as the time. + +%127. The First Continental Congress.%--From September 5 to October +26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every colony except +Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at Philadelphia, and issued: + +1. An address to the people of the colonies. +2. An address to the Canadians. +3. An address to the people of Great Britain. +4. An address to the King. +5. A declaration of rights. + +%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]--In this declaration the rights +of the colonists were asserted to be: + +1. Life, liberty, and property. +2. To tax themselves. +3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances. +4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the +colonial charters. + +[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 192-198. The best +account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's _Rise of the +Republic of the United States,_ Chaps. 5-11.] + +These rights it was declared had been violated: + +1. By taxing the people without their consent. +2. By dissolving assemblies. +3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace. +4. By trying men without a jury. +5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts. + +Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress +should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of +the petition to the King. + + +SUMMARY + +1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the +Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did +three things: + +A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, +and the Indian country. + +B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the +Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial +governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west +of this line. + +C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take +possession of the new territory and defend the colonies. + +2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by +taxing the colonists. This she had never done before. + +3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the +colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it. + +4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that +body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts." +But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed +all the Townshend duties except that on tea. + +5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India +Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to +which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back. + +6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed the +Intolerable Acts. + +7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First +Continental Congress. + + + /---------------------------------------------\ + France Spain + /----------------\ /-------\ + Cape Breton. Florida + Canada. + Louisiana east of + the Mississippi. + \-------------------------------------------- + and cuts the new territory (1763) into + Province of Quebec, + East Florida, + West Florida, + Indian country, + and draws proclamation line + limiting colonies in the west. + \-------------------------------/ + New colonial policy necessary. +/----------------------------------------------\ +Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops. +Cost of troops to be paid + | + |--------------------------------------------- +Partly by crown. Partly by colonies. + | + /---------------------------------- + Share of colonies to be raised by + Enforcing acts of trade and navigation. + Taxes on sugar and molasses. + Stamp tax (1765). +/---------------------------^--------------------------------\ +Resisted. Principle involved. +Action of Virginia and Massachusetts. +Stamp Act Congress. +Act repealed (1766). +Declaratory Act (1766). +--------------- / \ + | | Glass. | + | | Red and white lead. | +--------------- | Painters' colors | Resisted and repealed (1770) +Townshend Acts | Paper. | + (1767). | Tea. / + \ + /--------^-------\ + Enforced. + Resisted (1773). + Resistance / \ + punished by | Five Intoler- | Continental + | able Acts. | Congress called(1774). + \ / + + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE + +[Illustration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord] + +%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to +petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts +Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of +Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly +to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the +people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city, +and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly +could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation, +but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At +Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out +the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military +stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were +ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be +ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be +enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number +to 20,000. + +[Illustration: Map of Country around Boston] + +%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went +actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and +military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and +at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18, +1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town +some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition +secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became +known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men +in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at +Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people, +the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North +Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights +were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do +their work.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has +become best known because of Longfellow's poem, _Paul Revere's Ride._ +Read it. ] + +The road taken by the British lay through the little village of +Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about +sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a +little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting +house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a +volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to +Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and +powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse, +and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had +indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men +came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and +from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the +retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight +would have ended in capture had they not been reënforced by 900 men at +Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by +sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from +every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were +gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British +in Boston. + +[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, _Concord Hymn._ ] + +[Footnote 3: Force's _American Archives,_ Vol. II.; Hudson's _History of +Lexington,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's _Battle of Lexington;_ Shattuck's +_History of Concord,_ Chap. 7. ] + +When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys +of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort +Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. + +%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%--The first Continental +Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views +of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and +Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed +May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to +consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came, +Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and +Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and assume +the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing +body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself. + +%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%--After a month's delay it did +adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the +Continental Army, and elected George Washington, then a delegate in +Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military +skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was +thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then +the most populous of the colonies. + +Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June +21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met +by the news of Bunker Hill. + +%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%--On a narrow peninsula to the +north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile +wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills. +The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was +Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the +British ships lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much +importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the +hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of +June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott +passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a +large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British +opened fire from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in +spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of +intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the +water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in +the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from +Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep +side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not +to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a +shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then +a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew +away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great +effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second +time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted +the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up +for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with +gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It +proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible, +and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight. + +[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British +troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.] + +[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.] + +%134. Washington takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle +Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath +an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a +plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many +men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and +sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for +eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained +and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies. + +%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy +Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of +Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard +Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another, +under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine, +and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined +Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted +Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually +entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack +failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada. + +[Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument] + +%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight +months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized +Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so +gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for +the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to +attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed +with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the +British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April, +1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills. + +%137. Independence resolved on.%--Just one year had now passed since +the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the +colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had no thought of +independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the +King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any +reconciliation: + +1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels. + +2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade +with them. + +3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them. + +[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small +German states.] + +These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15, +1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of +authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments +of their own and so become states. + +On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from +Virginia, offered this resolution: + + Resolved + + That these United Colonies are, and of + right ought to be, free and independent states, that + they are absolved from all allegiance to the British + Crown, and that all political connection between them + and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, + totally dissolved. + +Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and +Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin +Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were +appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in +case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the +committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July +2, Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United +Colonies became free and independent states. + +[Illustration: Campaigns of 1775-1776] + +[Illustration: %The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From the _Columbian Magazine_ of July, 1787. The tower +faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For +the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's _Independence Hall._] + +%138. Independence declared.%--Independence having thus been decreed, +the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says +in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events, +it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands +which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the +opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which +impel them to the separation." It was this "decent respect to the +opinions of mankind," therefore, which now led Congress, on July 4, +1776, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to +the states. Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it +was read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.[1] When +the reading was finished, the people went off to pull down the royal +arms in the court room, while the great bell in the tower, the bell +which had been cast twenty-four years before with the prophetic words +upon its side, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof," rang out a joyful peal, for then were announced to +the world the new political truths, "that all men are created equal," +and "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable +rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness." + +[Footnote 1: The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up +there in 1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit +of Venus.] + +[Illustration: The royal arms] + +%139. The Retreat up the Hudson.%--A few days later the Declaration +was read to the army at New York. The wisdom of Washington in going to +New York was soon manifest, for in July General Howe, with a British +army of 25,000 men, encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to +Long Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn +Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Washington, leaving his camp +fires burning, crossed with his army to New York. + +Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from New York to +White Plains; carried Fort Washington, on the New York shore, by storm +(November 16, 1776); and sent a force across the Hudson under cover of +darkness and storm to capture Fort Lee. But the British were detected in +the very nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning +and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N. J. + +%140. The Retreat across the Jerseys.%--Washington, meanwhile, had +gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New Jersey, leaving 7000 men +under Charles Lee in New York state at North Castle. These men he now +ordered Lee to bring over to Hackensack, but the jealous and mutinous +Lee refused to obey. This forced Washington to begin his famous retreat +across the Jerseys, going first to Newark, then to New Brunswick, then +to Trenton, and then over the Delaware into Pennsylvania, with the +British under Cornwallis in hot pursuit. + +[Illustration] + +%141. The Surprise at Trenton.%--Lee crossed the Hudson and went to +Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobedience speedily +overtook him. One night while he was at an inn outside of his lines, +some British dragoons made him a prisoner of war. The capture of Lee +left Sullivan in command, and by him the troops were hurried off to join +Washington. Thus reënforced, Washington turned on the enemy, and on +Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the Delaware, +marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of Hessians, took 1000 +prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania. + +The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the people could not +believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians had to be marched +through the streets of Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to +Baltimore (whither Congress had fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in +the hall of Congress. When the people were convinced of the truth of the +report, their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the +Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the New England +troops, whose time of service was out, were persuaded to stay six weeks +longer, and, December 30, 1776, Washington again entered Trenton. + +Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the Hessians, came +thundering down from New Brunswick with 8000 men and hemmed in the +Americans between his army and the Delaware. But on the night of January +2, 1777, Washington slipped away, passed around Cornwallis, hurried to +Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to rout three +regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was not aware that the +Americans had left his front till he heard the firing in his rear, fell +back to New Brunswick, while Washington marched unmolested to +Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter. + +%142. The Capture of Philadelphia.%--Late in May, 1777, Washington +entered New York state. But Howe paid little attention to this movement, +for he had fully determined to attack and capture Philadelphia, and on +July 23 set sail from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its +progress was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the news +of its position was carried inland by messengers. At the end of a week +the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to +sail up the river, the fleet went to sea and was lost to sight. +Washington, who had hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss +what to do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard +that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once marched to +Wilmington, Del. + +[Illustration] + +It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and began moving +toward Washington, who, lest the British should push by him, fell back +from Wilmington, to a place called Chadds Ford on the Brandywine, where, +on September 11, 1777, a battle was fought.[1] The Americans were +defeated and retreated in good order to Chester, and the next day +Washington entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that +another battle should be fought before the city was given up, and after +a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again faced the enemy. A +violent storm ruined the ammunition of both armies and prevented a +battle, and the Americans retreated across the Schuylkill at a point +farther up the stream. + +[Footnote: 1 Among the wounded in this battle was a brilliant young +Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, who, early in 1777, came to America +and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer without pay.] + +Congress, which had returned to Philadelphia from Baltimore, now fled to +Lancaster and later to York, Pa., and (September 26, 1777) Howe entered +Philadelphia in triumph. October 4, Washington attacked him at +Germantown, but was repulsed, and went into winter quarters at +Valley Forge. + +[Illustration] + +%143. New York invaded.%--Though Washington had been defeated in the +battles around Philadelphia, and had been forced to give that city to +the British, his campaign made it possible for the Americans to win +another glorious victory in the north. At the beginning of 1777 the +British had planned to conquer New York and so cut the Eastern States +off from the Middle States. To accomplish this, a great army under John +Burgoyne was to come up to Albany by way of Lake Champlain. Another, +under Colonel St. Leger, was to go up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario +to Oswego and come down to Mohawk valley to Albany; while the third +army, under Howe, was to go up the Hudson from New York and meet +Burgoyne at Albany. True to this plan, Burgoyne came up Lake Champlain, +took Ticonderoga (July 5), and, driving General Schuyler before him, +reached Fort Edward late in July. There he heard that the Americans had +collected some supplies at Bennington, a little village in the +southwestern corner of Vermont, whither he sent 1000 men. But Colonel +John Stark met and utterly destroyed them on August 16. Meanwhile St. +Leger, as planned, had landed at Oswego, and on August 3 laid siege to +Fort Stanwix, which then stood on the site of the present city of Rome, +N.Y. On the 6th the garrison sallied forth, attacked a part of St. +Leger's camp, and carried off five British flags. These they hoisted +upside down on their ramparts, and high above them raised a new flag +which Congress had adopted in June, and which was then for the first +time flung to the breeze. + +[Illustration: Flag of the East India Company] + +%144. Our National Flag.%--It was our national flag, the stars and +stripes, and was made of a piece of a blue jacket, some strips of a +white shirt, and some scraps of old red flannel.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The flags used by the continental troops between 1775 and +1777 were of at least a dozen different patterns. A colored plate +showing most of them is given in Treble's _Our Flag_, p. 142. In 1776, +in January, Washington used one at Cambridge which seems to have been +suggested by the ensign of the East India Company. That of this company +was a combination of thirteen horizontal red and white stripes (seven +red and six white) and the red cross of St. George. That of Washington +was the same, with the British Union Jack substituted for the cross of +St. George. After the Declaration of Independence, the British Jack was +out of place on our flag; and in June, 1777, Congress adopted a union of +thirteen white stars in a circle, on a blue ground, in place of the +British Union. After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted, in 1791 and +1792, the stars and stripes were each increased to fifteen. In 1818, the +original number of stripes was restored, and since that time each new +state, when admitted, is represented by a star and not by a stripe.] + +[Illustration: Flag of the United Colonies] + +[Illustration: British Union Jack] + +%145. Capture of Burgoyne.%--When Schuyler heard of the siege of +Fort Stanwix, he sent Benedict Arnold to relieve it, and St. Leger fled +to Oswego. Then was the time for the expedition from New York to have +hurried to Burgoyne's aid. But Howe and his army were then at sea. No +help was given to Burgoyne, who, after suffering defeats at Bemis +Heights (September 19) and at Stillwater (October 7), retreated to +Saratoga, where (October 17, 1777) he surrendered his army of 6000 men +to General Horatio Gates, whom Congress, to its shame, had just put in +the place of Schuyler. Gates deserves no credit for the capture. Arnold +and Daniel Morgan deserve it, and deserve much; for, judged by its +results, Saratoga was one of the great battles of the world. The results +of the surrender were four fold: + +1. It saved New York state. +2. It destroyed the plan for the war. +3. It induced the King to offer us peace with representation in +Parliament, or anything else we wanted except independence. +4. It secured for us the aid of France. + +[Illustration: %Flag of the United States, 1777%] + +%146. Valley Forge.%--The winter at Valley Forge marks the darkest +period of the war. It was a season of discouragement, when mean spirits +grew bold. Some officers of the army formed a plot, called from one of +them the "Conway cabal," to displace Washington and put Gates in +command. The country people, tempted by British gold, sent their +provisions into Philadelphia and not to Valley Forge. There the +suffering of the half-clad, half-fed, ill-housed patriots surpasses +description. + +But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Then it was that an able +Prussian soldier, Baron Steuben, joined the army, turned the camp into a +school, drilled the soldiers, and made the army better than ever. Then +it was that France acknowledged our independence, and joined us in +the war. + +%147. France acknowledges our Independence.%--In October, 1776, +Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to persuade the French +King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne surrendered and Great Britain +offered peace, Franklin found all his efforts vain.[1] But now, when it +seemed likely that the states might again be brought under the British +crown, the French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent +nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce (February 6, +1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us. + +[Footnote 1: For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's _With +the Fathers_, pp. 253-270.] + +%148. The British leave Philadelphia.%--Hearing of the approach of +the French fleet, Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had succeeded Howe in +command, left Philadelphia and hurried to the defense of New York. +Washington followed, and, coming up with the rear guard of the enemy at +Monmouth in New Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have +gained a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in +command.[2] Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, which was +fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by Washington, who came on +the field in time to stop it. + +[Footnote 2: After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from +December, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a +British officer.] + +After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where Washington +partially surrounded them by stretching out his army from Morristown in +New Jersey to West Point on the Hudson. + +%149. Stony Point.%--In hope of drawing Washington away from New +York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to plunder and ravage the +farms and towns of Connecticut. But Washington soon brought it back by +dispatching Anthony Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July, +1779) by one of the most brilliant assaults in military history. + +%150. Indian Raids.%--That nothing might be wanting to make the +suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians were let +loose. Led by a Tory[1] named Butler, a band of whites and Indians of +the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations[2] marched from Fort Niagara to +Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, and there perpetrated one +of the most awful massacres in history. Another party, led by a son of +Butler, repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y. + +[Footnote 1: Not all the colonists desired independence. Those who +remained loyal to the King were called Tories.] + +[Footnote 2: By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras +to their confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations.] + +%151. George Rogers Clark%.--Meantime the British commander at +Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the West to attack the +whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of this, George Rogers Clark +of Virginia marched into the enemy's country, and in two fine campaigns +in 1778-1779 beat the British, and conquered the country from the Ohio +to the Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi. + +%152. Sullivan's Expedition%.--In 1779 it seemed so important to +punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres that +General Sullivan with an army invaded the territory of the Six Nations, +in central New York, burned some forty Indian villages, and utterly +destroyed the Indian power in that state. + +%153. The South invaded%.--For a year and more there had been a lull +in military operations on the part of the British. But they now began an +attack in a new quarter. Having failed to conquer New England in +1775-1776, having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they +sent an expedition against the South in December, 1778. Success attended +it. Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal governor +reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a French fleet to help +him, attempted to recapture Savannah, but was driven off with dreadful +loss of life. + +These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the British that in the +spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition against South Carolina, and +(May 12) easily captured Charleston, with Lincoln and his army. By dint +of great exertions another army was quickly raised in North Carolina, +and the command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit for it, +and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost destroyed at +Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole course of the war had the +American army suffered such a crushing defeat. All military resistance +in South Carolina was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant +bands of patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens. + +%154. The Treason of Arnold.%--The outlook was now dark enough; +but it was made darker still by the treachery of Benedict Arnold. No +officer in the Revolutionary army was more trusted. His splendid march +through the wilderness to Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that +city, the skill and courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him +out as a man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage without +which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was put in command +of Philadelphia, and while there so abused his office that he was +sentenced to be reprimanded by Washington. This aroused a thirst for +revenge, and led him to form a scheme to give up the Hudson River to the +enemy. With this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the +command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, obtained it, +and at once made arrangements to surrender it to Clinton. The British +agent in the negotiation was Major John André, who one day in September +met Arnold near Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to +New York, three Americans[1] stopped him near Tarrytown, searched him, +and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting of Arnold. +News of the arrest of André reached Arnold in time to enable him to +escape to the British; he served with them till the end of the war, and +then sought a refuge in England. André was tried as a spy, found guilty, +and hanged. + +[Footnote 1: The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van +Wart.] + +%155. Victory at Kings Mountain.%--After the defeat of Gates at +Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and in the course of their +marauding a band of 1100 Tories marched to Kings Mountain, on the border +line between the two Carolinas. There the hardy mountaineers attacked +them (Oct. 7, 1780) and killed, wounded, or captured the entire band. + +[Map: %CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH 1778-1781%] + +%156. Victory at the Cowpens%.--Meantime a third army was raised for +use in the South and placed under the command of Nathanael Greene, than +whom there was no abler general in the American army. With Greene was +Daniel Morgan, who had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a +British force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a place +called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost destroyed. + +Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and hurried to +attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began a masterly retreat of +200 miles across Carolina to Guilford Courthouse, where he turned about +and fought. He was defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further, +and retreated to Wilmington, N.C., with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving +the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Carolina, and by +September, 1781, had driven the British into Charleston and Savannah. + +Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Petersburg, Va. A +British force during the winter and spring had been plundering and +ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor Arnold. Cornwallis took command +of this, sent Arnold to New York, and had begun a campaign against +Lafayette, when orders reached him to seize and fortify some +Virginian seaport. + +%157. Surrender of Cornwallis.%--Thus instructed, Cornwallis selected +Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was early in August, +1781. On the 14th Washington heard with delight that a French fleet was +on its way to the Chesapeake, and at once decided to hurry to Virginia, +and surround Cornwallis by land while the French cut him off by sea. +Preparations were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington had +reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed he was about to attack New +York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut to burn New +London, in the hope of forcing Washington to return. But Washington kept +straight on, hemmed Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781, +forced the British general to surrender. + +%158. The War on the Sea.%--The first step towards the foundation of +an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775. Congress, hearing that +two British ships laden with powder and guns were on their way from +England to Quebec, ordered two swift sailing vessels to be fitted out +for the purpose of capturing them. Two months later Congress ordered +thirteen cruisers to be built, and named the officers to command them. + +Meantime some merchant ships were purchased and collected at +Philadelphia, from which city, one morning in January, 1776, a fleet of +eight vessels set sail. As they were about to weigh anchor, John Paul +Jones, a lieutenant on the flagship, flung to the breeze a yellow silk +flag on which were a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake, with this +motto: "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag ever hoisted on an +American man-of-war. + +Ice in the Delaware kept the fleet in the river till the middle of +February, when it went to sea, sailed southward to New Providence in the +Bahamas, captured the town, brought off the governor, some powder and +cannon, and after taking several prizes got safely back to New London. + +Soon after the squadron had left the Delaware, the _Lexington_, Captain +John Barry in command, while cruising off the Virginia coast, fell in +with the _Edward_, a British vessel, and after a spirited action +captured her. This was the first prize brought in by a commissioned +officer of the American navy.[1] + +[Footnote 1: John Barry was a native of Ireland; he came to America at +thirteen, entered the merchant marine, and at twenty-five was captain of +a ship. At the opening of the war Barry offered his services to +Congress, and in February, 1776, was put in command of the _Lexington_. +After his victory he was transferred to the twenty-eight-gun frigate +_Effingham_, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware) with +twenty-seven men in four boats captured and destroyed a ten-gun schooner +and four transports. When the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took +the _Effingham_ up the river; but she was burned by the enemy. In 1778, +in command of the thirty-two-gun frigate _Raleigh_, he sailed from +Boston, fell in with two British frigates, and after a fight was forced +to run ashore in Penobscot Bay. Barry and his crew escaped, and in 1781 +carried Laurens to France in the frigate _Alliance_. On the way out he +took a privateer, and while cruising on the way home captured the +_Atalanta_ and the _Trepassey_ after a hard fight. As Barry brought in +the first capture by a commissioned officer of the United States navy, +so he fought the last action of the war in 1782; but the enemy escaped. +When the navy was reorganized in 1794, Barry was made senior captain, +with the title of Commodore. In 1798 he commanded the frigate _United +States_ in the war with France. He died in 1803.] + +In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, or licenses +to citizens to engage in war against the enemy; and then the sea fairly +swarmed with privateers. + +In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European +waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in +France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around +Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not +then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did +so; but one of them, the _Lexington_, was captured by the British, and +the other, the _Reprisal_, was wrecked at sea. + +%159. Paul Jones.%--Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin +Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the _Surprise_. +She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with +a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she +was seized. But another ship, the _Revenge_, was quickly secured, which +scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports +before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of +other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul +Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from +Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of +Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval +history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the +Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the +port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner +_Drake_, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France +in safety. + +For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given +command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France. +Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north +end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel +after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in +his ship, named _Bonhomme Richard_ in honor of Franklin's famous _Poor +Richard's Almanac_) fell in with the _Serapis_, a British frigate. The +two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought +one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three +hours the _Serapis_ surrendered, but the _Bonhomme Richard_ was a wreck, +and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first +to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the _Serapis_. + +[Illustration: Benjamin Franklin] + +In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the +Americans lost 24--most of their navy. + +%160. Revolutionary Heroes.%--It is not possible to mention all the +revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. We should, +however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and DeKalb, foreigners +who fought for us; Samuel Adams and James Otis of Massachusetts, and +Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke for freedom; Robert Morris, the +financier of the Revolution; Putnam who fought and Warren who died at +Bunker Hill; Mercer who fell at Princeton; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy; +Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots whose +names have already been mentioned. + +%161. The Treaty of Peace.%--The story is told that when Lord North, +the Prime Minister of England, heard of the surrender of Yorktown, he +threw up his hands and said, "It is all over." He was right; it was all +over, and on September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by +Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris. + +Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary treaty of peace +signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving the country, till on +November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed from New York.[1] Washington +now resigned his commission, and in December went home to Mt. Vernon. + +[Footnote 1: They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a +week later. For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's +_With the Fathers_, pp. 271-280.] + +%162. Bounds of the United States.%--By the treaty of 1783 the +boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is the +present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine +to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to the Mississippi (which +was, of course, an impossible line, for that river does not rise in +Canada); then down the Mississippi to 31° north latitude; then eastward +along that parallel of latitude to the Apalachicola River, and then by +what is the present north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic. + +But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic struggle. As soon +as France joined us in 1778, she began to persuade Spain to follow her +example. Very little persuasion was needed, for the opportunity to +regain the two Floridas (which Spain had been forced to give to England +in 1763) was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain +declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower Louisiana into +West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, Mobile, Baton Rouge, and +Natchez. Made bold by this success, Spain, which cared nothing for the +United States, next determined to conquer the region north of Florida +and east of the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of +1763. (See map of The British Colonies in 1764.) The commandant at St. +Louis[2] was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake +Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and taking possession +of the country in the name of Spain, carried off the English flags as +evidence of conquest. Now when the time came to make the treaty of +peace, Spain insisted that she must have East and West Florida and the +country west of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it. +France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country north of the +Ohio she proposed should be given to Great Britain, and the country +south to Spain and the United States. + +[Footnote 2: It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the +country west of the Mississippi. (See Chapter VIII.)] + +[Illustration: RESULTS OF THE %WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE% BOUNDARY DEFINED +BY TREATY 1783. AND TERRITORY HELD BY GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1796., AND +SPAIN 1783-1795] + +The American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to bound the +United States on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, made the treaty +with Great Britain secretly, and secured the Mississippi as our +western limit. + +Spain at the same time secured the Floridas from Great Britain, and +insisting that West Florida must have the old boundary given in 1764,[1] +and not 31° as provided in our treaty of peace, she seized and held the +country by force of arms; and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved +over Baton Rouge and Natchez.[2] + +[Footnote 1: See Chapter X.] + +[Footnote 2: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 170-191; McMaster's +_With the Fathers_, pp. 280-292.] + +The area of the territory thus acquired by the United States was 827,844 +square miles, and the population not far from 3,250,000. Apparently an +era of great prosperity and happiness was before the people. But +unhappily the government they had established in time of war was quite +unfit to unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace. + +[Illustration: Washington's sword] + + +SUMMARY + +1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became +governor of Massachusetts in 1774. + +2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted +to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington and +Concord, which opened the War for Independence. + +3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned +to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and assumed +the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, and made +Washington commander in chief. + +4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, which +taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he besieged the +British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city by water, and +Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of New York. + +5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson +River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to be +driven across the state and into Pennsylvania. + +6. On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and +the next morning won a victory over the Hessians. Then on January 3, +1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the remainder of +the winter at Morristown. + +7. In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which +city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at the +Brandy wine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Washington passed +the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge. + +8. Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by getting +possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New York city, and +an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. He and his troops were +captured at Saratoga. + +9. In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent +over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left +Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley Forge, +overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. The British +then went on to New York, while Washington stretched out his army from +Morristown to West Point. + +10. So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked +the Southern States. They conquered Georgia in the winter of 1778-1779. + +11. In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured +General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and succeeded +by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British forces in South +Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savannah, during 1781. + +12. Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to +fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded by +Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender. + +THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE + +CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776 + +_In New England_. + +1775. Concord and Lexington. + Continental Army formed. + Washington, commander in chief. + Battle of Bunker Hill. + +1775-1776. Siege of Boston. + +1776. Evacuation of Boston. + + +_In Canada_. + +1775. Arnold's march to Quebec. + Montgomery's march to Montreal. + Capture of Montreal. + +1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec. + Americans return to Ticonderoga. + +1776. Howe sails for New York. + Washington marches to New York. + The Declaration of Independence. + Capture of New York. + Retreat across the Jerseys. + Surprise at Trenton. +1777. Battle of Princeton. + Washington at Morristown. + Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to + capture New York state and cut the colonies in two. + St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix. + Burgoyne captured at Saratoga. + Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and + moves against Philadelphia. + Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia. + Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. + Philadelphia captured by the British. +1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge. +1778. Alliance with France. + Fleet and army sent from France. + Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York. + Washington follows him from Valley Forge. + Battle of Monmouth. + Washington on the Hudson. + +CAMPAIGNS CHIEFLY IN THE SOUTH, 1778-1781. + +1778. The South invaded. + Savannah captured and Georgia overrun. +1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away + from the Hudson. + Wayne captures Stony Point. + Lincoln attacks Savannah. +1780. Clinton captures Charleston. + Campaign of Gates in South Carolina. + Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain. + Treason of Arnold. +1781. Greene in command in the South. + Battle of the Cowpens. + March of Cornwallis from Charleston. + Battle of Guilford Courthouse. + Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South Carolina. + Cornwallis goes to Yorktown. + Washington hurries from New York. + Surrender of Cornwallis. +1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris. +1783. Evacuation of New York. + + + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT + + +CHAPTER XII + +UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION + +%163. How the Colonies became States.%--When the Continental Congress +met at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, a letter was received from +Massachusetts, where the people had penned up the governor in Boston and +had taken the government into their own hands, asking what they should +do. Congress replied that no obedience was due to the Massachusetts +Regulating Act or to the governor, and advised the people to make a +temporary government to last till the King should restore the old +charter. Similar advice was given the same year to New Hampshire and +South Carolina, for it was not then supposed that the quarrel with the +mother country would end in separation. But by the spring of 1776 all +the governors of the thirteen colonies had either fled or been thrown +into prison. This put an end to colonial government, and Congress, +seeing that reconciliation was impossible, (May 15, 1776) advised all +the colonies to form governments for themselves (p. 132). Thereupon they +adopted constitutions, and by doing so turned themselves from British +colonies into sovereign and independent states.[1] + +[Footnote 1: All but two made new constitutions; but Connecticut and +Rhode Island used their old charters, the one till 1818, the other till +1842. Vermont also formed a constitution, but she was not admitted to +the Congress (p. 243).] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES WHEN PEACE WAS DECLARED in 1783 SHOWING +THE STATE CLAIMS] + +%164. Articles of Confederation.%--While the colonies were thus +gradually turning themselves into the states, the Continental +Congress was trying to bind them into a union by means of a sort of +general constitution called "Articles of Confederation." By order of +Congress, Articles had been prepared and presented by a committee in +July, 1776, but it was not till November 17, 1777, that they were sent +out to the states for adoption. Now it must be remembered that six +states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South +Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from sea to sea" charters +gave them lands between the mountains and the Mississippi River, and +that one, New York, had bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio +valley. It must also be remembered that the other six states did not +have "from sea to sea" charters, and so had no claims to western lands. +As three of them, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, held that the +claims of their sister states were invalid, they now refused to adopt +the Articles unless the land so claimed was given to Congress to be used +to pay for the cost of the Revolution. For this action they gave +four reasons: + +1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, settled, and +owned by France. + +2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded the country +in 1763. + +3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew the +"proclamation line," turned the Mississippi valley into the Indian +country, and so cut off any claim of the colonies in consequence of +English ownership. + +4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, and now +that the states were in arms against him, his lands ought to be seized +by Congress and used for the benefit of all the states. + +For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by +these arguments. But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not +to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to +yield. In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in +January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the +Ohio River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781, +her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As all the other +states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made +them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a +form of government the states were pledged to obey. + +%165. Government under the Articles of Confederation.%--The form of +government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to +end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge +to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature. +Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected +each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to +Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each +state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years +out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent +them. Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became +members of a secret body. The doors were shut; no spectators were +allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken +down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on +deliberating day after day. All voting was done by states, each casting +but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had. The affirmative votes +of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was +called, "ordinance." + +To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress could declare +war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract +debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between +states. But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay +any tax for any purpose. + +%166. Origin of the Public Domain%.--In 1784 Massachusetts ceded her +strip of land in the west, following the example set by New York (1780), +and Virginia (1781). + +As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 given their +land to Congress, that body came into possession of the greater part of +the vast domain stretching from the Lakes to the Ohio and from the +Mississippi to Pennsylvania.[1] Now this public domain, as it was +called, was given on certain conditions: + +1. That it should be cut up into states. + +2. That these states should be admitted into the Union (when they had a +certain population) on the same footing as the thirteen original states. + +3. That the land should be sold and the money used to pay the debts of +the United States. + +[Footnote 1: The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress +in October, 1789, but not accepted. It still belonged to Connecticut in +1785. In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and +accepted.] + +Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to the tracts +ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states would cede their +western territory in time, passed a law (in 1785) to prepare the land +for sale by surveying it and marking it out into sections, townships, +and ranges, and fixed the price per acre. + +%167. Virginia and Connecticut Reserves.%--When Virginia made her +cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of land north of the +Ohio. One, called the Military Lands, lay between the Scioto and Miami +rivers, and was held to pay bounties promised to the Virginia +Revolutionary soldiers. The other (in the present state of Indiana) was +given to General George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. A third piece was +reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786. This, called +the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched along the shore of Lake +Erie (map, p. 175). In 1800 Connecticut gave up her jurisdiction, or +right of government, over this reserve in return for the confirmation of +land titles she had granted. + +[Illustration: TERRITORY OF THE %UNITED STATES% NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO +RIVER %1787%] + +%168. Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories.%--Hardly had +Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number of +Revolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and sent an agent +to New York, where Congress was in session, and offered to buy 5,000,000 +acres on the Ohio River: 1,500,000 acres were for themselves, and +3,500,000 for another company called the Scioto Company. The land was +gladly sold, and as the purchasers were really going to send out +settlers, it became necessary to establish some kind of government for +them. On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed another very +famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which ordered: + +1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from +Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called "The Territory of the +United States northwest of the river Ohio." + +2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five +states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had +60,000 free inhabitants. + +3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude except in punishment for crime. + +4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants +twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a +governor and three judges. They could not make laws, but might adopt +such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states. After +there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were +to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten +men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council. The house +and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in +Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The governor, the +judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress. The council +and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to +Congress for approval. + +Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the +state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few +months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country +west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition +that it _should_ be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is +now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of +them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery +was allowed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The only remaining land-holding state, Georgia, ceded her +claim in 1802 (p. 246).] + +%169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation.%--While Congress at +New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787, a convention of delegates +from the states was framing the Constitution at Philadelphia. A very +little experience under the Articles of Confederation showed them to +have serious defects. + +_No Taxing Power_.--In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of +any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to +pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of +the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so +disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the +states for $6,000,000, only $1,000.000 was paid. + +_No Power to regulate Trade_.--In the second place, Congress had no +power to regulate trade with foreign nations, or between the states. +This proved a most serious evil. The people of the United States at that +time had few manufactures, because in colonial days Parliament would not +allow them. All the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods, +linen, muslin, and a thousand other things were imported from Great +Britain. Before the war the Americans had paid for these goods with +dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, and +with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now Great Britain forbade +Americans to trade with her West Indies. Spain would not make a trade +treaty with us, so we had no trade with her islands, and what was worse, +Great Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United States +unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, very little lumber, +fish, rice, and other of our products went abroad to pay for the immense +quantity of foreign-made goods that came to us. These goods therefore +had to be paid for in money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and +shipped to London. When the people found that specie was being carried +out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 none was in +circulation. + +%170. Paper Money issued.%--This left the people without any money +with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing, and led at once to a +demand that the states should print paper money and loan it to their +citizens. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and +South Carolina, and Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued +than the merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it, +whereupon in some of the states laws called "tender acts" were passed to +compel people to use the paper. This merely put an end to business, for +nobody would sell. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to +issue paper money, many of the persons who owed debts assembled, and, +during 1786-87, under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier, +prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money owed or +loaned.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. I., pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340; Fiske's _Critical +Period of American History_, pp. 168-186.] + +%171. Congress proposes Amendments.%--Of the many defects in the +Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and it had many a +time asked the states to make amendments. One proposed that Congress +should have power for twenty-five years to lay a tax of five per cent on +all goods imported, and use the money to pay the Continental debts. +Another was to require each state to raise by special tax a sum +sufficient to pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress. +A third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole power to +regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided that in future the share +each state was to bear of the current expenses should be in proportion +to its population. + +But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all +thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none +of these amendments were ever made. + +%172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail.%--In the +meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. New York +laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania taxed a long list of +foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island passed +acts imposing heavy duties on articles unless they came in American +vessels. But these laws were not uniform, and as many states took no +action, very little good was accomplished.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. I., pp. 246-259, 266-280; Fiske's _Critical Period of American +History_, 134-137, 145-147.] + +%173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis, +1786.%[2]--Under these conditions, the business of the whole country +was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do anything to +relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a circular letter +to her sister states. She asked them to appoint delegates to meet and +"take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States." +Four (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and +their delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in +September, 1786. + +[Footnote 2: The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in +_Bulletin of Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State_, +No. 1, Appendix, pp. 1-5.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +MAKING THE CONSTITUTION + +%174. Call for the Constitutional Convention.%--Finding that it could +do nothing, because so few states were represented, and because the +powers of the delegates were so limited, the convention recommended that +all the states in the Union be asked by Congress to send delegates to a +new convention, to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into +consideration the situation of the United States," and "to devise such +further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the +Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of +the Union." + +%175. The Philadelphia Convention.%[1]--Early in 1787 Congress +approved this movement, and during the summer of 1787 (May to September) +delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent none), sitting in secret +session at Philadelphia, made the Constitution of the United States. + +[Footnote 1: All we know of the proceedings of this convention is +derived from the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by +James Madison, the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther +Martin of Maryland. They may be found in Elliot's _Debates_, Vol. IV.] + +[Illustration: Independence Chamber[2]] + +[Footnote 2: The room where the Constitution was framed.] + +%176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans%.--The story of that +convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.[1] But +some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the delegates were +assembling, a few men, under the lead of Madison, met and drew up the +outline of a constitution, which was presented by the chairman of the +Virginia delegation, and was called the "Virginia plan." A little later, +delegates from the small states met and drew up a second plan, which was +the old Articles of Confederation with amendments. As the chairman of +the New Jersey delegation offered this, it was called the "New Jersey +plan." Both were discussed; but the convention voted to accept the +Virginia plan as the basis of the Constitution. + +[Footnote 1: For short accounts, read "The Framers and the Framing of +the Constitution" in the _Century Magazine_, September, 1887, or +"Framing the Constitution," in McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. +106-149, or Thorpe's _Story of the Constitution_, Chautauqua Course, +1891-92, pp. 111-148.] + +%177. The Three Compromises.%--This plan called, among other things, +for a national legislature of two branches: a Senate and a House of +Representatives. The populous states insisted that the number of +representatives sent by each state to Congress should be in proportion +to her population. The small states insisted that each should send the +same number of representatives. For a time neither party would yield; +but at length the Connecticut delegates suggested that the states be +given an equal vote and an equal representation in the Senate, and an +unequal representation, based on population, in the House. The +contending parties agreed, and so made the first compromise. + +But the decision to have representation according to population at once +raised the question, Shall slaves be counted as population? This divided +the convention into slave states and free (see p. 186), and led to a +second compromise, by which it was agreed that three fifths of all +slaves should be counted as population, for the purpose of apportioning +representation. + +A third compromise sprang from the conflicting interests of the +commercial and the planting states. The planting states wanted a +provision forbidding Congress to pass navigation acts, except by a +two-thirds vote, and forbidding any tax on exports; three states also +wished to import slaves for use on their plantations. The free +commercial states wanted Congress to pass navigation laws, and also +wanted the slave trade stopped, because of the three-fifths rule. The +result was an agreement that the importation of slaves should not be +forbidden by Congress before 1808, and that Congress might pass +navigation acts, and that exports should never be taxed. + +%178. The Election of President.%--Another feature of the Virginia +plan was the provision for a President whose business it should be to +see that the acts of Congress were duly enforced or executed. But when +the question arose, How shall he be chosen? all manner of suggestions +were made. Some said by the governors of the states; some, by the United +States Senate; some, by the state legislatures; some, by a body of +electors chosen for that purpose. When at last it was decided to have a +body of electors, the difficulty was to determine the manner of electing +the electors. On this no agreement could be reached; so the convention +ordered that the legislature of each state should have as many electors +of the President as it had senators and representatives in Congress, and +that these men should be appointed in such way as the legislatures of +the states saw fit to prescribe. + +%179. Sources of the Constitution.%--An examination of the +Constitution shows that some of its features were new; that some were +drawn from the experience of the states under the Confederation; and +that others were borrowed from the various state constitutions. Among +those taken from state constitutions are such names as President, +Senate, House of Representatives, and such provisions as that for a +census, for the veto, for the retirement of one third of the Senate +every two years, that money bills shall originate in the House, for +impeachment, and for what we call the annual message.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the sources of the Constitution, read "The First Century +of the Constitution" in _New Princeton Review,_ September, 1887, +pp. 175-190.] + +The features based directly on experience under the Articles of +Confederation are the provisions that the acts of Congress must be +_uniform_ throughout the Union; that the President may call out the +militia to repel invasion, to put down insurrection, and to maintain the +laws of the Union; that Congress shall have _sole_ power to regulate +_foreign trade_ and _trade between the states._ No state can now coin +money or print paper money, or make anything but gold or silver legal +tender. Congress now has power to lay taxes, duties, and excises. The +Constitution divides the powers of government between the legislative +department (Senate and House of Representatives); the executive +department (the President, who sees that laws and treaties are obeyed); +and the judicial department (Supreme Court and other United States +courts, which interpret the Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the +treaties). + +The new features are the definition of treason and the limitation of its +punishment; the guarantee to every state of a republican form of +government; the swearing of state officials to support the Federal +Constitution; and the provision for amendment. + +Among other noteworthy features are the creation of a United States +citizenship as distinct from a state citizenship, the limitation of the +powers of the states; and the provision that the Constitution, the acts +of Congress, and the treaties are "the supreme law of the land." + +%180. Constitution submitted to the People.%--The convention ended +its work, and such members as were willing signed the Constitution on +September 17, 1787. Washington, as president of the convention, then +sent the Constitution to the Continental Congress sitting at New York +and asked it to transmit copies to the states for ratification. This was +done, and during the next few months the legislatures of most of the +states called on the people to elect delegates to conventions which +should accept or reject the Constitution. + +%181. Ratification by the States.%--In many of these conventions +great objection was made because the new plan of federal government was +so unlike the Articles of Confederation, and certain changes were +insisted on. The only states that accepted it just as it was framed were +Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland. +Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia +ratified with amendments. (For dates, see p. 176.) + +%182. "The New Roof."%--The Constitution provided that when nine +states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so +ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the +friends of the Constitution were named, had called it "the New Roof," +which was going to cover the states and protect them from political +storms. They now represented it as completed and supported by eleven +pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had not +ratified, and so were not under the New Roof, and were not members of +the new Union. Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to +fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be +chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. This +the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the +electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that +they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in +February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first +Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month. +Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of +the Presidents begin and end.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go +into force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of +nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this +Constitution between the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire, +the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the +constitution was "established" between the nine.] + +%183. How Presidents were elected%.--It must not be supposed that our +first presidents were elected just as presidents are now. In our time +electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote. In 1788 there was no +uniformity. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a +complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In +Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the +electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New York the two +branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen. + +As the Constitution required that the electors should vote by ballot for +two persons, such as had been appointed met at their state capitals on +the first Wednesday in February, 1789, made lists of the persons voted +for, and sent them signed and certified under seal to the president of +the Senate. But when March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate. Less than +a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be +done. When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still +without one, and remained so till April. Then, in the presence of the +House and Senate, the votes on the lists were counted, and it was found +that every elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who +was thus elected President. No separate ballot was then required for +Vice President. Each elector merely wrote on his ballot the names of two +men. He who received the greatest number of votes, if, in the words of +the Constitution, "such number be a majority of the whole number of +electors appointed," was elected President. He who received the next +highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice President. In +1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts. + +[Illustration: Federal Hall, New York[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print made in 1797.] + +[Illustration: G Washington] + +%184. The First Inauguration.%--As soon as Washington received the +news of his election, he left Mount Vernon and started for New York. His +journey was one continuous triumphal march. The population of every town +through which he passed turned out to meet him. Men, women, and children +stood for hours by the roadside waiting for him to go by. At New York +his reception was most imposing, and there, on April 30, 1789, standing +on the balcony in front of Federal Hall (p. 171), he took the oath of +office in the presence of Congress and a great multitude of people that +filled the streets, and crowded the windows, and sat on the roofs of the +neighboring houses.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Full accounts of the inauguration of Washington may be +found in _Harper's Magazine_, and also in the _Century Magazine_, for +April, 1889.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. When independence was about decided on, Congress appointed a +committee to draft a general plan of federal government. + +2. This plan, called Articles of Confederation, Maryland absolutely +refused to ratify till the states claiming land west of the Alleghany +Mountains ceded their claims to Congress. + +3. New York and Virginia having ceded their claims, Maryland ratified in +March, 1781. + +4. These cessions were followed by others from Massachusetts and +Connecticut; and from them all, Congress formed the public domain to be +sold to pay the debt. + +5. The sale of this land led to the land ordinance of 1785 and the +ordinance of 1787, for the government of the domain and the new +political organism called the territory. + +6. The defects of the Articles made revision necessary, and produced +such distress that two conventions were called to consider the state of +the country. That at Annapolis attempted nothing. That at Philadelphia +framed the Constitution of the United States. + +7. The Constitution was then passed to the Continental Congress, which +sent it to the legislatures of the states to be by them referred to +conventions elected by the people for acceptance or rejection. + +8. Eleven having ratified, Congress in 1788 fixed a day in 1789 (which +happened to be March 4), when the First Congress under the Constitution +was to assemble. + +9. The date of the first presidential election was also fixed, and +George Washington was made our first President. + + + /1776. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode +The Colonies adopt | Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, +Constitutions and --| Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North +become States. | Carolina, South Carolina. + |1777. New York, Georgia. + \1780. Massachusetts. + + /Framed by Congress 1776-1777. + |Adopted by the states 1777-1781. +Articles of |In force March 1, 1781. +Confederation --|Kind of government. + |Defects. Result of the defects. + |Trade convention at Annapolis. + \Constitutional convention called. + + /Proceedings of the convention. + |The three compromises. +Constitution of |Sources of the Constitution. +the United States.-|Original features. + |Derived features. + | Ratification by the states. + \The Constitution in force. + + + /Land claims of seven states. + |Demands for the surrender of \ + |the western territory. | +The Territories. --|The cessions by the states. |--The Public + |Ordinance of 1785. | Domain. + |Ordinance of 1787. | + \Territorial government created./ + +The President. /Manner of electing. + \Inauguration of Washington. + +The Congress. /Organization of the First + \under the Constitution. + + /The Supreme Court +The Judiciary. --|The Circuit Court + \The District Court + + /Secretary of State +The Secretaries. --|Secretary of Treasury + |Secretary of War + |The Attorney-general. + \Origin of the "Cabinet." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 + +%185. The States.%--What sort of a country, and what sort of people, +was Washington thus chosen to rule over? When, he was elected, the Union +was composed of eleven states, for neither Rhode Island nor North +Carolina had accepted the Constitution.[1] Vermont had never been a +member of the Union, because the Continental Congress would not +recognize her as a state. + +[Footnote 1: The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below: +1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787 +2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 +3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 +4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 +5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 +6. Massachusetts Feb. 7, 1788 +7. Maryland April 28, 1788 +8. South Carolina May 23, 1788 +9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788 +10. Virginia June 26, 1788 +11. New York July 26, 1788 +12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 +13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790] + +[Illustration: The %UNITED STATES% March 4, 1789] + +%186. Only a Part inhabited.%--Three fourths of our country was then +uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people lived near the +seaboard. Had a line been drawn along what was then the frontier, it +would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run along the shore of Maine, +across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, then south to the +Mohawk valley, then down the Hudson River, and southwestward across +Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Ridge Mountains to +the Altamaha River in Georgia, and by it to the sea. How many people +lived here was never known till 1790. The Constitution of the United +States requires that the people shall be counted once in each ten years, +in order that it may be determined how many representatives each state +shall have in the House of Representatives; and for this purpose +Congress ordered the first census to be taken in 1790. It then appeared +that, excluding Indians, there were living in the eleven United States +3,380,000 human beings, or less than half the number of people who now +live in the single state of New York. + +%187. How the People were scattered.%--More were in the Southern than +in the Eastern States. Virginia, then the most populous, contained one +fifth. Pennsylvania had a ninth, while in the five states of Maryland, +Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia were almost one half of the +English-speaking people of the United States. These were the planting +states, and, populous as they were, they had but two cities--Baltimore +and Charleston. Savannah, Wilmington, Alexandria, Norfolk, and +Richmond were small towns. Not one had 8000 people in it. Indeed, the +inhabitants of the six largest cities of the country (Boston, New York, +Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and Salem) taken together were +but 131,000. + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES FIRST +CENSUS, 1790/] + +[Illustration: Boston in 1790[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From the _Massachusetts Magazine_, November, 1790.] + +%188. The Cities.%--And how different these cities were from those of +our day! What a strange world Washington would find himself in if he +could come back and walk along the streets of the great city which now +stands on the banks of the Potomac and bears his name! He never in his +life saw a flagstone sidewalk, nor an asphalted street, nor a pane of +glass six feet square. He never heard a factory whistle; he never saw a +building ten stories high, nor an elevator, nor a gas jet, nor an +electric light; he never saw a hot-air furnace, nor entered a room +warmed by steam. + +In the windows of shop after shop would be scores of articles familiar +enough to us, but so unknown to him that he could not even name them. He +never saw a sewing machine, nor a revolver, nor a rubber coat, nor a +rubber shoe, nor a steel pen, nor a piece of blotting paper, nor an +envelope, nor a postage stamp, nor a typewriter. He never struck a +match, nor sent a telegram, nor spoke through a telephone, nor touched +an electric bell. He never saw a railroad, though he had seen a rude +form of steamboat. He never saw a horse car, nor an omnibus, nor a +trolley car, nor a ferryboat. Fancy him boarding a street car to take a +ride. He would probably pay his fare with a "nickel." But the "nickel" +is a coin he never saw. Fancy him trying to understand the +advertisements that would meet his eye as he took his seat! Fancy him +staring from the window at a fence bright with theatrical posters, or at +a man rushing by on a bicycle! + +[Illustration: Philadelphia in 1800 (Arch Street)] + +%189. Newspapers and Magazines.%--A boy enters the car with half a +dozen daily newspapers all printed in the same city. In Washington's day +there were but four daily papers in the United States! On the news +counter of a hotel, one sees twenty illustrated papers, and fifty +monthly magazines. In his day there was no illustrated paper, no +scientific periodical, no trade journal, and no such illustrated +magazines as _Harper's, Scribner's_, the _Century, St. Nicholas_. All +the printing done in the country was done on presses worked by hand. +To-day the Hoe octuple press can print 96,000 eight-page newspapers an +hour. To print this number on the hand press shown in the picture would +have taken so long that when the last newspaper was printed the first +would have been three months old! + +[Illustration: A Franklin press] + +[Illustration: A fire bucket [1]] + +[Footnote 1: Original in the Pennsylvania Historical Society.] + +%190. The Fire Service.%--the ambulance, the steam fire engine, the +hose cart, the hook and ladder company, the police patrol, the police +officer on the street corner, the letter carrier gathering the mail, the +district messenger boy, the express company, the delivery wagon of the +stores, have all come in since Washington died. In his day the law +required every householder in the city to be a fireman. His name might +not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies, he might not help +to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire +engine, but he must have in his hall, or beneath the stairs, or hanging +up behind his shop door, at least one leathern bucket inscribed with his +name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at +the dead of night by the cry of fire and the clanging of every church +bell in the town, he seized this bucket and his bag, and, while his +wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set +off for the fire. The smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom +of indicating the place by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet +come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle +spectators. Every one was busy. Some hurried into the building and +filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some +joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the +full buckets to those who stood by the fire. Others took posts in a +second line, down which the empty buckets were hastened to the pump. The +house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the +engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank +the water from the buckets was poured, and it was pumped thence by the +efforts of a dozen men. + +[Illustration: Fire engine of 1800[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old cut] + +%191. The Post Office.%--Washington sees a great wagon or a white +trolley car marked United States Mail, and on inquiry is told that the +money now spent by the government each year for the support of the post +offices would have more than paid the national debt when he was +President. He hears with amazement that there are now 75,000 post +offices, and recalls that in 1790 there were but seventy-five. He picks +up from the sidewalk a piece of paper with a little pink something on +the corner. He is told that the portrait on it is his own, that it is a +postage stamp, that it costs two cents, and will carry a letter to San +Francisco, a city he never heard of, and, if the person to whom it is +addressed cannot be found, will bring the letter back to the sender, a +distance of over 5000 miles. In his day a letter was a single sheet of +paper, no matter how large or small, and the postage on it was +determined not by weight, but by distance, and might be anything from +six to twenty-five cents. + +At that time postage must always be prepaid, and as the post office must +support itself, letters were not sent from the country towns till enough +postage had been deposited at the post office to pay the expense of +sending them. Newspapers and books could not be sent by mail. + +%192. The Franchise.%--Taking the country through, the condition of +the people was by no means so happy as ours. They had government of the +people, but it was not by the people nor for the people. Everywhere the +right to vote and to hold office was greatly restricted. The voter must +have an estate worth a certain sum, or a specified number of acres, or +an annual income of so many dollars. But the right to vote did not carry +with it the right to hold office. More property was required for office +holding than for voting, and there were besides certain religious +restrictions. In New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, South +Carolina, and Georgia, the governor, the members of the legislature, and +the chief officers of state must be Protestants. In Massachusetts and +Maryland they must be Christians. All these restrictions were long since +swept away. + +%193. Cruel Punishments.%--The humane spirit of our times was largely +wanting. The debtor was cast into prison. The pauper might be sold to +the highest bidder. The criminal was dragged out into open day and +flogged or branded. From ten to nineteen crimes were punishable with +death. No such thing as a lunatic asylum, or a deaf and dumb asylum, or +a penitentiary existed. The prisons were dreadful places. Men came out +of them worse than they went in. + +%194. The Condition of the Laborer; of the well to do.%--Men worked +harder and for less money then than now. A regular working day was from +sunrise to sunset, with an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner. +Sometimes the laborer was fed and lodged by the employer, in which case +he was paid four dollars a month in winter and six in summer. Two +shillings (30 cents) a day for unskilled labor was thought high wages. + +[Illustration: %Washington's flute and Miss Custis's harpsichord at +Mount Vernon%] + +Even the houses of the well to do were much less comfortable places than +are such abodes in our day. There were no furnaces, no gas, no +bathrooms, no plumbing. Wood was the universal fuel. Coal from Virginia +and Rhode Island was little used. All cooking was done in "Dutch ovens," +or in "out ovens," or in the enormous fireplaces to be found in every +household. Wood fuel made sooty chimneys, and sooty chimneys took fire. +In every city, therefore, were men known as "sweeps," whose business it +was to clean chimneys. + +[Illustration: %Earthenware stove--Moravian%] + +[Illustration: %Dutch oven%[1]] + +[Footnote 1: The bread, or meat, to be baked was put into the pot, and +hot coals were heaped all around the sides and on the lid, which had a +rim to keep the coals on it.] + +[Illustration: a foot stove] + +Washington was a farmer, yet he never in his life beheld a tomato, nor a +cauliflower, nor an eggplant, nor a horserake, nor a drill, nor a reaper +and binder, nor a threshing machine, nor a barbed wire fence. + +[Illustration: Kitchen in Washington's headquarters in Morristown, +N.J.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: This shows a fine specimen of the old-fashioned fireplace. +Notice the andirons, the bellows, the lamp, the spinning wheel, the old +Dutch clock, and the kettles hanging on the crane over the logs.] + +[Illustration: A plow used in 1776] + +His land was plowed with a wooden plow partly shod with iron. His seed +was sown by hand; his hay was cut with scythes; his grain was reaped +with sickles, and threshed on the barn floor with flails in the hands of +his slaves. + +%195. Negro Slavery.%--No living person under thirty years of age has +ever seen a negro slave in our country. When Washington was President +there were 700,000 slaves. When the Revolution opened, slavery was +permitted by law in every colony. But the feeling against it in the +North had always been strong, and when the war ended, the people began +the work of abolition. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire the +constitutions of the states declared that "all men are born free and +equal," and that "all men are born equally free," and this was +understood to abolish slavery. In Pennsylvania, slavery was abolished in +1780. In Rhode Island and Connecticut gradual abolition laws were passed +which provided that all children born of slave parents after a certain +day should be free at a certain age, and that their children should +never be slaves. The Ordinance of 1787 had prohibited slavery in the +Northwest Territory. But in 1790 New York, New Jersey, Delaware, +Maryland, and all the states south of these were slave states. (See map +on the next page.) + +Though slaves were men and women and children, they had no civil rights +whatever. They could be bought and sold, leased, seized for a debt, +bequeathed by will, given away. If they made anything, or found +anything, or earned anything, it belonged not to them, but to their +owners. They were property just as oxen or horses were in the North. It +was unlawful to teach them to read or write. They were not allowed to +give evidence against a white man, nor to travel in bands of more than +seven unless a white man was with them, nor to quit the plantation +without leave. + +If a planter provided coarse food, coarse clothes, and a rude shelter +for his slaves, if he did not work them more than fifteen hours out of +twenty-four in summer, nor more than fourteen in winter, and if he gave +them every Sunday to themselves, he did quite as much for their comfort +as the law required he should. + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE AREA OF %SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790%] + +If the slave committed any offense, if he stole anything, or refused to +work, or ran away, it was lawful to load him with irons, to confine him +for any length of time in a cell, and to beat him and whip him till the +blood ran in streams from the wounds, and he grew too weak to stand. +Old advertisements are still extant in which runaway blacks are +described by the scars left upon their bodies by the lash. When such +lashings were not prescribed by the court, they were commonly given +under the eye of the overseer, or inflicted by the owner himself. + +%196. Six Days from Boston to New York.%--Our country was small when +Washington was President. The people lived on the seaboard. The towns +and cities were not actually very far apart; but the means of travel +were so poor, the time consumed in going even fifty miles was so great, +that the country was practically immense in extent. Now we step into a +beautifully fitted car, heated by steam, lighted by electricity, richly +carpeted, and provided with most comfortable seats and beds, and are +whirled across the continent from Philadelphia to San Francisco in less +time than it took Washington to go from New York to Boston. + +[Illustration: Old mill at West Falmouth, Mass.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: In many parts of the country where there was no water +power, as Cape Cod, Long Island, Nantucket, etc., flour was ground at +windmills. The windmill shown in the picture was built in 1787, and is +still in use.] + +If you had lived in 1791 and started, say, from Boston, to go to +Philadelphia to see the President and the great city where independence +had been declared, you would very likely have begun by making your will, +and bidding good-by to your friends. You would then have gone down to +the office of the proprietor of the stagecoach, and secured a seat to +New York. As the coach left but twice a week, you would have waited +till the day came and would then have presented yourself, at three +o'clock in the morning, at the tavern whence the coach started. + +The stagecoach was little better than a huge covered box mounted on +springs. It had neither glass windows, nor door, nor steps, nor closed +sides. The roof was upheld by ten posts which rose from the body of the +vehicle, and the body was commonly breast high. From the top were hung +curtains of leather, to be rolled up when the day was fine, and let down +and buttoned when it was rainy and cold. Within were four seats. Without +was the baggage. Fourteen pounds of luggage were allowed to be carried +free by each passenger. But if your portmanteau or your +brass-nail-studded hair trunk weighed more, you would have paid for it +at the rate per mile that you paid for yourself. Under no circumstances, +however, would you be permitted to take on the journey more than 150 +pounds. When the baggage had all been weighed and strapped on the coach, +when the horses had been attached, and the waybill, containing the names +of the passengers, made out, the passengers would clamber to their seats +through the front of the stage and sit down with their faces toward the +driver's seat. + +One pair of horses usually dragged the coach eighteen miles, when a +fresh pair would be attached, and if all went well, you would be put +down about ten at night at some wayside inn or tavern after a journey of +forty miles. Cramped and weary, you would eat a frugal supper and hurry +off to bed with a notice from the landlord to be ready to start at three +the next morning. Then, no matter if it rained or snowed, you would be +forced to make ready by the dim light of a horn lantern, unknown now, +for another ride of eighteen hours. + +If no mishaps occurred, if the coach was not upset by the ruts, if storm +or flood did not delay you at Springfield, where the road met the +Connecticut, or at Stratford, where it met the Housatonic, each of which +had to be crossed on clumsy flatboats, the stage would roll into New +York at the end of the sixth day. + +%197. Two Days from New York to Philadelphia.%--And here a serious +delay was almost certain to occur, for even in the best of weather it +was no easy matter to cross the Hudson to New Jersey. When the wind was +high and the water rough, or the river full of ice, the boldest did not +dare to risk a crossing. Once over the river, you would again go on by +coach, and at the end of two more days would reach Philadelphia. In our +time one can travel in eight hours the entire distance between Boston +and Philadelphia, a distance which Washington could not have traversed +in less than eight days. + +[Illustration: Stagecoach and inn[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a print of 1798.] + +%198. The Roads and the Inns.%--The newspapers and the travelers of +those days complained bitterly of the roads and the inns. On the best +roads the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the passengers +were often forced to get out and help the driver pull the wheels out of +the mud. Breakdowns and upsets were of everyday occurrence. Yet bad as +the roads were, the travel was so considerable that very often the inns +and taverns even in the large cities could not lodge all who applied +unless they slept five or six in a room. + +%199. A Steamboat on the Delaware.%--Rude as this means of travel +seems to us, the men of 1790 were quite satisfied with it, and +absolutely refused to make use of a better one. Had you been in +Philadelphia during the summer of 1790 and taken up a copy of _The +Pennsylvania Packet_, you could not have failed to notice this +advertisement of the first successful steamboat in the world: + + %The Steam-Boat + + Is now ready to take Passengers, and is intended to + set off from Arch Street Ferry in Philadelphia every + _Monday, Wednesday_ and _Friday_, for _Burlington, + Bristol, Bordentown_ and _Trenton_, to return on _Tuesdays, + Thursdays_ and _Saturdays_--Price for Passengers, 2/6 to + Burlington and Bristol, 3/9 to Bordentown, 5/. to + Trenton. June 14. tu.th ftf.% + +This boat was the invention of John Fitch, and from June to September +ran up and down the Delaware; but so few people went on it that he could +not pay expenses, and the boat was withdrawn. + +%200. To the Great West.%--From Philadelphia went out one of the +great highways to what was then the far West, but to what we now know as +the valley of the Ohio. The traveler who to-day makes the journey from +Philadelphia to Pittsburg is whisked on a railroad car through an +endless succession of cities and villages and rich farms, and by great +factories and mills and iron works, which in the days of Washington had +no existence. He makes the journey easily between sunrise and sunset. In +1790 he could not have made it in twelve days. + +%201. Towns beyond the Alleghany Mountains.%--Though the country +between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi had been closed to +settlement from 1763 to 1776 by the King's proclamation, it was by no +means without population in 1790. At Detroit and Kaskaskia and Vincennes +were old French settlements, made long before France was driven out of +Louisiana. But there were others of later date. The hardy frontiersman +of 1763 cared no more for the King's proclamation than he did for the +bark of the wolf at his cabin door. The ink with which the document was +written had not dried before emigrants from Maryland and Virginia and +Pennsylvania were hurrying into the valley of the Monongahela. + +In 1769 William Bean crossed the mountains from North Carolina, and, +building a cabin on the banks of Watauga Creek, began the settlement of +Tennessee. James Robertson and a host of others followed in 1770, and +soon the valleys of the Clinch and the Holston were dotted with cabins. +In 1769 Daniel Boone, one of the grandest figures in frontier history, +began his exploits in what is now Kentucky, and before 1777 Boonesboro, +Harrodsburg, and Lexington were founded. + +[Illustration: %Model of Fitch's steamboat%[l]] + +[Footnote 1: Now in the National Museum, Washington.] + +%202. State of Franklin.%--Before the Revolution closed, emigrants +under James Robertson and John Donelson planted Nashville and half a +dozen other settlements on the Cumberland, in middle Tennessee. After +the Revolution ended, so many settlers were in eastern Tennessee that +they tried to make a new state. North Carolina, following the example +of her Northern sisters, ceded to Congress her claim to what is now +Tennessee in 1784. But the people on the Watauga no sooner heard, of it +than under the lead of John Sevier they organized the state of Franklin, +whereupon North Carolina repealed the act of cession and absorbed the +new state by making the Franklin officials her officials for the +district of Tennessee. In 1789 she again ceded the district, and in May +of that year Tennessee became part of the public domain. + +%203. Squatters in Ohio.%--The cession to Congress of the land north +of the Ohio led to an emigration from Virginia and Kentucky to what is +now the state of Ohio. As this territory was to be sold to pay the +national debt, Congress was forced to order the squatters away, and when +they refused to go, sent troops to burn their cabins, destroy their +crops, and drive them across the Ohio. The lawful settlement of the +territory began after the Ohio and Scioto companies bought their lands +in 1787, and John C. Symmes purchased his in 1788. + +%204. Pittsburg in 1790.%--At Pittsburg, then the greatest town in +the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains, were some 200 houses, +mostly of logs, and 2000 people, a newspaper, and a few rude +manufactories. The life of the town was its river trade. Pittsburg was +the place where emigrants "fitted out" for the West. A settler intending +to go down the Ohio valley with his family and his goods would lay in a +stock of powder and ball, buy flour and ham enough to last him for a +month, and secure two rude structures which passed under the name +of boats. + +[Illustration: %The first millstones and salt kettle in Ohio%] + +%205. A Trip down the Ohio in 1790.%--In the long keel boat he would +put his wife, his children, and such travelers as had been waiting at +Pittsburg for a chance to go down the river. In the flatboat would be +his cattle or his stores. Two dangers beset the voyager on the Ohio. His +boat might become entangled in the branches of the trees that overhung +the river, or be fired into by the Indians who lurked in the woods. The +cabin of the keel boat, therefore, was low, that it might glide under +the trees, and the roof and sides were made as nearly bullet-proof as +possible. The whole craft was steered by a huge oar mounted on a pivot +at the stern.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See the boats in the pictures on next page.] + +[Illustration: Map of Ohio] + +%206. Towns along the Ohio.%--As the emigrant in such an ark floated +down the river, he would come first to Wheeling, a town of fifty log +cabins, and then to Marietta, a town planted in Ohio in 1788 by settlers +sent by the Ohio Company. Below Marietta were Belpre and Gallipolis, a +settlement made by Frenchmen brought there by the Scioto Company. Yet +farther down, on the Kentucky side, were Limestone (now Maysville) and +Newport, opposite which some settlers were founding the city of +Cincinnati. Once past Cincinnati, all was unbroken wilderness till one +reached Louisville in Kentucky, beyond which few emigrants had yet +ventured to go. + +[Illustration: %Cincinnati in 1802 (Fort Washington)%] + +%207. Cotton Planting.%--The South, in 1790, was on the eve of a +great industrial revolution. The products of the states south of +Virginia had been tar, pitch, resin, lumber, rice, and indigo. But in +the years following the peace the indigo plants had been destroyed year +after year by an insect. As the plant was not a native of our country, +but was brought from the West Indies, it became necessary either to +import more seed plants, or to raise some other staple. Many chose the +latter course, and about 1787 began to grow cotton. + +[Illustration: %Farmers' Castle (Belpre) in 1791%] + +%208. Whitney and the Cotton Gin.%--The experiment succeeded, but a +serious difficulty arose. The cotton plant has pods which when ripe +split open and show a white woolly substance attached to seeds. Before +the cotton could be used, these seeds must be picked out, and as the +labor of cleaning was very great, only a small quantity could be sent to +market. It happened, however, that a young man from Massachusetts, named +Eli Whitney, was then living in Georgia, and he, seeing the need of a +machine to clean cotton, invented the cotton gin.[1] Till then, a negro +slave could not clean two pounds of cotton in a day. With the gin the +same slave in the same time could remove the seeds from a hundred +pounds. This solved the difficulty, and gave to the United States +another staple even greater in value than tobacco. In 1792 one hundred +and ninety-two thousand pounds of cotton were exported to Europe; in +1795, after the gin was invented, six million pounds were sent out of +the country. In 1894 no less than 4275 million pounds were raised and +either consumed or exported. Of all the marvelous inventions of our +countrymen, this produced the very greatest consequences. It made +cotton planting profitable; it brought immense wealth to the people of +the South every year; it covered New England with cotton mills; and by +making slave labor profitable it did more than anything else to fasten +slavery on the United States for seventy years, and finally to bring on +the Civil War, the most terrible struggle of modern times. + +[Footnote 1: The word "gin" is a contraction of "engine."] + +[Illustration: %The cotton gin% _A_. Whitney's original gin. _B_. A +later form.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. When Washington was inaugurated, the United States consisted of +eleven states, with a population of about 3,380,000. + +2. These people lived not far from the Atlantic coast. Few cities +existed; not one had 50,000 inhabitants. Even the largest was without +many conveniences which we consider necessaries. + +3. Travel was slow and difficult, and though a steamboat had been +invented and used, it was too far ahead of the times to succeed. + +4. West of the Alleghany Mountains a few settlements had been made +between 1763 and 1783. But it was after 1783, when streams of emigrants +poured over the mountains, that settlement really began. + +6. In the South cotton was just beginning to be cultivated; there all +labor was done by slaves. In the North slavery was dying out, and in +five of the states had been abolished. + +State of the Country in 1790 + +- _On the Seaboard._ +The population. {Number. + {Distribution. + {Movement west. +The cities {Size. + {Absence of many conveniences known to us. + {Newspapers and magazines. +Communication between states. {Bad roads. Slow travel. + {The post offices. + {The stagecoaches. The inns. + {The early steamboat. + +- _In the Ohio Valley._ {Population. Squatters. + {Pittsburg in 1790. + {A trip down the Ohio. + {Towns in the valley. + +- _In the South._ {Slavery. + {Cotton planting. + {Whitney and the cotton gin. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +THE RISE OF PARTIES + +%209. Organizing the New Government.%--he President having been +inaugurated, and the new government fairly established, it became the +duty of Congress to enact such laws as were needed immediately. The +first act passed by Congress in 1789 was therefore a tariff act laying +duties on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States. +Customhouses were then established and customs districts marked out, and +ports of entry and ports of delivery designated; provision was made for +the support of lighthouses and beacons; the Ordinance of 1787 for the +government of the territories was slightly changed and reenacted; the +departments of State, War, and Treasury were established; and a call was +made on the Secretary of the Treasury to report a plan for payment of +the old Continental debt. + +%210. The United States Courts.%--The Constitution declares that the +judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court +and such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain +and establish. Acting under this power, Congress made provision for a +Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief Justice and five Associate +Justices, and marked out the United States into circuits and districts. +The circuits were three in number. In the first were the Eastern States; +in the second, the Middle States; and in the third, the Southern States. +To each were assigned two Justices of the Supreme Court, whose business +it was to go to some city in each state in the circuit, and there, with +the district judge of that state, hold a circuit court. The district +courts were thirteen in number, one being established in each state.[1] +Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Justice of the +Supreme Court. + +[Footnote 1: For later changes, see Andrews's _Manual of the +Constitution,_ p. 183.] + +%211. The Secretaries.%--During the management of affairs by the +Continental Congress three great executive departments had gradually +grown up and been placed in charge of three men, called the +"Superintendent of Finance," the "Secretary of the United States for the +Department of Foreign Affairs," and the "Secretary of War." These the +Constitution recognized in the expression "principal officer in each of +the executive departments." Congress by law now continued the +departments and placed them in charge of a Secretary of the Treasury, a +Secretary of State, and a Secretary of War. Washington filled the +offices promptly, making Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, +Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, and General Henry Knox Secretary +of War. + +%212. The "Cabinet."%--It has long been the custom for the President +to gather his secretaries about him on certain days in each week for the +purpose of discussing public measures. To these gatherings has been +given the name "Cabinet meetings," while the secretaries have come to be +called "Cabinet officers." The Constitution, however, never intended to +give the President a body of advisers. Indeed, a proposition to provide +him with a council was voted down in the constitutional convention. But +Washington at once began to consult the Chief Justice, the Vice +President, his three secretaries, and the Attorney-general on matters of +importance. At first he asked their opinions individually and in +writing, but toward the end of his first term he convened a general +meeting of the heads of departments, and by so doing set a custom out of +which, in time, the "Cabinet" has grown. + +%213. The Origin of the National Debt.%--As soon as Hamilton was made +Secretary of the Treasury, it became his duty, in accordance with an +order from Congress, to prepare a plan for the payment of the debts +contracted by the Continental Congress. When that body was unexpectedly +called on, in May, 1775, to conduct the war, it had nothing with which +to pay expenses, and was forced to use all sorts of means to +raise money. + +[Illustrations: Continental money] + +%214. Paper Money.%--The first resort was the issue, during 1775 and +1776, of six batches of Continental "bills of credit," amounting in all +to $36,000,000. These "bills" were rudely engraved bits of paper, +stating on their face that "This bill entitles the bearer to receive +---- Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof in gold or silver." +They were issued in sums of various denominations, from one sixth of a +dollar up, and were to be redeemed by the states. The amount assigned +each state for redemption was in proportion to the supposed number of +its inhabitants. + +%215. Loan-office Certificates.%--In 1776 Congress tried another +means. It opened a loan office in each state and called on patriotic +people to come forward and loan it money, receiving in return pieces of +paper called "loan-office certificates." Interest was to be paid on +these; but after a while Congress, having no money with which to pay +interest, was forced to resort to another form of paper, called +"interest indents." + +%216. The Congress Lottery.%--The loan office having failed to bring +in as much money as was needed, Congress, toward the close of 1776, was +driven to seek some other way, and resorted to a lottery. A certain +number of tickets were sold, after which a drawing took place, and all +who drew prizes were given certificates payable at the end of +five years. + +%217. More Bills of Credit.%--But the sale of tickets went off so +slowly that Congress had to go back to the issue of bills of credit. In +1777, therefore, the printing press was again put to work, and issues +were made in rapid succession, till more than $200,000,000 in +Continental paper were in circulation. + +%218. The "New Tenor".%--Then the Continental bills ceased to +circulate, and in March, 1780, Congress called in the old money and +offered to exchange it for a new issue, giving one dollar of the new +paper money, or "new tenor," for forty dollars of the old. But the +attempt to restore credit by such means was a failure, and by the end of +the year 1781 all paper money ceased to circulate. + +%219. Certificates.%--Long before this time officials had been forced +to pay debts contracted in the name of Congress with other kinds of +paper, called certificates, and known as treasury, commissary, +quartermaster, marine, and hospital certificates, according to the +department issuing them. To these must be added the "final settlements," +or certificates given to the soldiers at the end of the war in payment +of their services. + +%220. Foreign Debt.%--Besides the debt thus contracted at home, +Congress had borrowed a great sum in Europe. + +%221. The National Debt in 1790.%--Thus the debt contracted by the +Continental Congress consisted of two parts. 1. The foreign debt, due to +France, Holland, and Spain, and amounting, Hamilton found, to +$11,700,000. 2. The domestic or home debt, of $42,000,000. But the +states had also fallen into debt because of their exertions in the war. +Just how great the state debts were could not be determined, but they +were estimated to be $21,500,000. + +%222. Assumption and Funding.%--For the redemption of this debt +Hamilton prepared two measures,--the funding, or, as we should say, the +bonding, of the foreign and Continental debt, and the assuming and +funding of the state debts. This was done, and Congress ordered stock +bearing interest to be issued in exchange for the old debts, and so +established our national debt, which in 1790 amounted to $75,000,000. + +%223. The National Capital.%--Funding the state debts was strongly +opposed by many congressmen, and was not carried till a bargain was made +by which it was agreed that if enough members from Virginia and +Pennsylvania would support the measure to secure its passage through the +House of Representatives, the national government should be removed from +New York to Philadelphia for ten years, and after that to a city to be +built on the Potomac. This was faithfully carried out, and in the summer +of 1790 the government offices were removed to Philadelphia, where they +remained till the summer of 1800, when they were removed to Washington +in the District of Columbia. + +%224. The Bank of the United States.%--The troublesome questions of +funding and assumption thus disposed of, Congress called on Hamilton for +a report on the further support of public credit, and when it met in the +session of 1790-91, received a plan for a great National Bank, with a +capital of $10,000,000. The United States was to raise $2,000,000; the +rest was to be subscribed for by the people. The bank was to keep the +public revenues, was to aid the government in making payments all over +the country. To do this, power was given to the parent bank (which must +be at Philadelphia) to establish branches in the chief cities and towns, +and to issue bank bills which should be received all over the United +States for public lands, taxes, duties, postage, and in payment of any +debt due the government. Great opposition was made; but the charter was +granted for twenty years, and in 1791 the Bank of the United States +began business. + +The effect of these two measures, funding the debt and establishing a +bank, was immediate. Confidence and credit were restored. Money that the +people had long been hiding away was brought out and invested in all +sorts of new enterprises, such as banks, canal companies, manufacturing +companies, and turnpike companies. + +[Illustration: The first Bank of the United States] + +%225. "Federalists" and "Republicans."%--When the Constitution was +before the people for acceptance or rejection in 1788, they were divided +into two bodies. Those who wanted a strong and vigorous federal +government, who wanted Congress to have plenty of power to regulate +trade, pay the debts of the country, and raise revenue, supported the +Constitution just as it was and were called "Federalists." + +Others, who wanted the old Articles of Confederation preserved and +amended so as to give Congress a revenue and only a little more power, +opposed the Constitution and wanted it altered. To please these +"Anti-Federalists," as they were a large part of the people, Congress, +in 1789, drew up twelve amendments to the Constitution and sent them to +the states. + +With the ratification of ten of these amendments, opposition to the +Constitution ceased. But as soon as Congress began to pass laws, +difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, and even as to the +right of Congress to pass them, divided the people again into two +parties, and sent a good many Federalists into the Anti-Federalist +party. + +A very large number of men, for instance, opposed the funding of the +Continental Congress debt at its face value, because the people never +had taken a bill at the value expressed on its face, but at a very much +less value; some opposed the assumption of the state debts, because +Congress, they said, had power to pay the debt of the United States, but +not state debts; others opposed the National Bank because the +Constitution did not give Congress express power in so many words to +charter a bank. Others complained that the interest on the national debt +and the great salary of the President ($25,000 a year) and the pay of +Congressmen ($6 a day) and the hundreds of tax collectors made taxes too +heavy. They complained again that men in office showed an undemocratic +fondness for aristocratic customs. The President, they said, was too +exclusive, and owned too fine a coach. The Justices of the Supreme Court +must have black silk gowns, with red, white, and blue scarfs. The Senate +for some years to come held its daily session in secret; not even a +newspaper reporter was allowed to be present. + +As early as 1792 there were thus a very great number of men in all parts +of the country who were much opposed to the measures of Congress and the +President, and who accused the Federalists of wishing to set up a +monarchy. A great national debt, they said, a funding system, a national +bank, and heavy internal taxes are all monarchical institutions, and if +you have the institutions, it will not be long before you have the +monarchy. They began therefore in 1792 to organize for election +purposes, and as they were opposed to a monarchy, they called themselves +"Republicans." [1] Their great leaders were Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, +John Randolph, and Albert Gallatin. + +[Footnote 1: This party was the forerunner of the present Democratic +party.] + +%226. The Whisky Rebellion, 1794.%--One of the taxes to which the +Republicans objected, that on whisky, led to the first rebellion against +the government of the United States. In those days, 1791, the farmers +living in the region around Pittsburg could not send grain or flour down +the Ohio and the Mississippi, because Spain had shut the Mississippi to +navigation by Americans. They could not send their flour over the +mountains to Philadelphia or Baltimore, because it cost more to haul it +there than it would sell for. Instead, therefore, of making flour, they +grew rye and made whisky on their own farms. This found a ready sale. +Now, when the United States collectors attempted to collect the whisky +tax, the farmers of western Pennsylvania drove them away. An appeal was +then made to the courts; but when the marshal came to make arrests he, +too, was driven away. Under the Articles of Confederation this would +have been submitted to. But the Constitution and the acts of Congress +were now "the supreme law of the land," and Washington in his oath of +office had sworn to see them executed. To accomplish this, he used the +power given him by an act of Congress, and called out 12,900 militia +from the neighboring states and marched them to Pittsburg. Then the +people yielded. Two of the leaders were tried and convicted of treason; +but Washington pardoned them. + +The insurrection or rebellion was a small affair. But the principles at +stake were great. It was now shown that the Constitution and the laws +must be obeyed; that it was treason to resist them by force, and that if +necessary the people would, at the call of the President, turn out and +put down rebellion by force of arms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. II., pp. 189-204; Findley's _History of the Insurrection +in Pennsylvania_.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. As soon as Washington was inaugurated, Congress proceeded to organize +the new government. + +2. The Supreme Court and circuit and district courts were established. + +3. The departments of State, War, and Treasury were formed. + +4. Twelve amendments to the Constitution were proposed. + +5. Three financial measures were adopted: + A. A tariff act was passed. + B. The debts of the states were assumed, and, with that of the + Continental Congress, funded. + C. A national bank was chartered. + +6. The price of funding was the ultimate location of the national +capital on the Potomac. + +7. The first census was taken in 1790. + +8. The result of the financial measures of Congress was the rise of the +Republican party (the forerunner of the present Democratic party). + + THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL PARTIES +/--------------------------------------------------------------------\ + + Funding the + Continental Debt. + /------------\ + / Money borrowed in \ Shall it be \ + Foreign debt. | France, Holland, | funded at | Yes ------+ + \ and Spain. / face value? / | + | + / Bills of credit. \ | + | Loan-office | | + | certificates. | Shall it be \ | + | Lottery | funded at | Yes ----+ | + Domestic debt. | certificates. | face value / | | + | Interest indents. | or market \ | | + | New tenor. | value? / Yes --+ | | + | Certificates of | | | | + | officials. | | | | + \ Final settlements. / | | | \ + | | | | +Assumption of / Yes ---------------------------------------+-+ |[1] + state debts. \ No ----------------------------------+ | | | + | | | / +Establishment / Yes -----------------------------------------+ + of a national | | | + bank. \ No ------------------------------------+ | + | | | +Internal revenue / Too heavy ----------------------- \ | | | +taxes. \ | | | | + | | | | + / / President too | | | | + | | exclusive. | | | | \ + | Aristocratic | Secret sessions | | | | | +Administration | customs. | of the Senate. |--+-+-+ |[2] +not democratic. | | Gowns of the | | + | \ justices. | / + | Monarchial / Great debt. | + | institutions. | National bank. | + \ \ Heavy taxes. / + + \ / Leaders. + [1]---| Federalists | Washington. + / | Adams. + \ Hamilton. + + \ / Leaders. + | | Jefferson. + [2]---| Republicans | Madison. + | | Monroe. + | | Randolph. + / \ Gallatin. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY + +%227. Trouble with Great Britain and France.%--From the congressional +election in 1792 we may date the beginning of organized political +parties in the United States. They sprang from differences of opinion as +to domestic matters. But on a sudden in 1793 Federalists and Republicans +became divided on questions of foreign affairs. + +Ever since 1789 France had been in a state of revolution, and at last +(in 1792) the people established the French Republic, cut off the heads +of the King and Queen (in 1793), and declared war on England and sent a +minister, Genet, to the United States. At that time we had no treaty +with Great Britain except the treaty of peace. With France, however, we +had two treaties,--one of alliance, and one of amity and commerce. The +treaty of alliance bound us to guarantee to France "the possessions of +the crown of France in America," by which were meant the French West +Indian Islands. When Washington heard that war had been declared by +France, and that a French minister was on his way to America, he became +alarmed lest this minister should call on him to make good the guarantee +by sending a fleet to the Indies. On consulting his secretaries, they +advised him that the guarantee applied only when France was attacked, +and not when she was the attacking party. The President thereupon issued +a proclamation of neutrality; that is, declared that the United States +would not side with either party in the war, but would treat both alike. + +%228. Sympathy for France; the French Craze.%--Then began a long +struggle for neutrality. The Republicans were very angry at Washington +and denounced him violently. France, they said, had been our old friend; +Great Britain had been our old enemy. We had a treaty with France; we +had none with Great Britain. To treat her on the same footing with +France was therefore a piece of base ingratitude to France. A wave of +sympathy for France swept over the country. The French dress, customs, +manners, came into use. Republicans ceased to address each other as Mr. +Smith, Mr. Jones, Sir, or "Your Honor," and used Citizen Smith and +Citizen Jones. The French tricolor with the red liberty cap was hung up +in taverns and coffeehouses, which were the clubhouses of that day. +Every French victory was made the occasion of a "civic feast," while the +anniversaries of the fall of the Bastile and of the founding of the +Republic were kept in every great city.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. II., pp. 89-96; _Harpers Magazine_, April, 1897.] + +%229. England seizes our Ships; the Rule of 1756%.--To preserve +neutrality in the face of such a public sentiment was hard enough; but +Great Britain made it more difficult yet. When war was declared, France +opened the ports of her West Indian Islands and invited neutral nations +to trade with them. This she did because she knew that the British navy +could drive her merchantmen from the sea, and that all trade between +herself and her colonies must be carried on in the ships of +neutral nations. + +Now the merchants of the United States had never been allowed to trade +with the French Indies to an unlimited extent. The moment, therefore, +they were allowed to do so, they gladly began to trade, and during the +summer of 1793 hundreds of ships went to the islands. There were at that +time four questions of dispute between us and Great Britain: + +1. Great Britain held that she might seize any kind of food going to a +French port in our ships. We held that only military stores might be +so seized. + +2. Great Britain held that when a port had been declared to be +blockaded, a ship bound to that port might be seized even on the high +seas. We held that no port was blockaded unless there was a fleet +actually stationed at it to prevent ships from entering or leaving it. + +3. Great Britain held that our ships might be captured if they had +French goods on board. We held that "free ships made free goods," and +that our ships were not subject to capture, no matter whose goods they +had on board. + +4. Great Britain in 1756 had adopted a rule that no neutral should have +in time of war a trade she did not have in time of peace. + +The United States was now enjoying a trade in time of war she did not +have in time of peace, and Great Britain began to enforce her rule. +British ships were ordered to stop American vessels going to or coming +from the French West Indies, and if they contained provisions, to seize +them. This was done, and in the autumn of 1793 great numbers of American +ships were captured. + +%230. Our Sailors impressed.%--All this was bad enough and excited +the people against our old enemy, who made matters a thousand times +worse by a course of action to which we could not possibly submit. She +claimed the right to stop any of our ships on the sea, send an officer +on board, force the captain to muster the crew on the deck, and then +search for British subjects. If one was found, he was seized and carried +away. If none were found, and the British ships wanted men, native-born +Americans were taken off under the pretext that one could not tell an +American from an English sailor. Our fathers could stand a great deal, +but this was too much, and a cry for war went up from all parts of +the country. + +But Washington did not want war, and took two measures to prevent it. +He persuaded Congress to lay an embargo for thirty days, that is, forbid +all ships to leave our ports, and induced the Senate to let him send +John Jay, the Chief Justice, to London to make a treaty of amity and +commerce with Great Britain. + +%231. Jay's Treaty, 1794.%--In this mission Jay succeeded; and though +the treaty was far from what Washington wanted, it was the best that +could be had, and he approved it.[1] At this the Republicans grew +furious. They burned copies of the treaty at mass meetings and hung Jay +in effigy. Yet the treaty had some good features. By it the King agreed +to withdraw his troops from Oswego and Detroit and Mackinaw, which +really belonged to us but were still occupied by the English. By it our +merchants were allowed for the first time to trade with the British West +Indies, and some compensation was made for the damage done by the +capture of ships in the West Indies. + +[Footnote 1: The Senate ratified this treaty in the summer of 1795.] + +%232. Treaty with Spain.%--About the same time (October, 1795) we +made our first treaty with Spain, and induced her to accept the +thirty-first degree of latitude as the south boundary of our country, +and to consent to open the Mississippi to trade. As Spain owned both +banks at the mouth of the river, she claimed that American ships had no +right to go in or out without her consent, and so prevented the people +of Kentucky and Tennessee from trading in foreign markets. She now +agreed that they might float their produce to New Orleans and pay a +small duty, and then ship it wherever they pleased. + +%233. The Election of Adams and Jefferson, 1796%.--Washington had +been reëlected President in 1792, but he was now tired of office, and in +September, 1796, issued his "Farewell Address," in which he declined to +be the candidate for a third presidential term. In those days there were +no national conventions to nominate candidates, yet it was well +understood that John Adams, the Vice President, was the candidate of the +Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson, of the Republicans. When the votes +were counted in Congress, it was found that Adams had 71 electoral +votes, and Jefferson 68; so they became President and Vice President. + +[Illustration: John Adams] + +%234. Trouble with France.%--Adams was inaugurated on March 4, 1797, +and three days later heard that C. C. Pinckney, our minister to the +French Republic, had been driven from France. Pinckney had been sent to +France by Washington in 1796, but the French Directory (as the five men +who then governed France were called) had taken great offense at Jay's +treaty: first because it was favorable to Great Britain, and in the +second place because it put an end for the present to all hope of war +between her and the United States. The Directory, therefore, refused to +receive Pinckney until the French grievances were redressed. + +The President was very angry at the insult, and summoned Congress to +meet and take such action as, said he, "shall convince France and the +whole world that we are not a degraded people humiliated under a +colonial spirit of fear and sense of inferiority." But the Republicans +declared so vigorously that if a special mission were sent to France all +would be made right, that Adams yielded, and sent John Marshall and +Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney as envoys extraordinary. On reaching +Paris, three men acting as agents for the Directory met them, and +declared that before they could be received as ministers they must do +three things: + +1. Apologize for Adams's denunciation of the conduct of France. +2. Pay each Director $50,000. +3. Pay tribute to France. + +When the President reported this demand to Congress, the names of the +three French agents were suppressed, and instead they were called Mr. X, +Mr. Y, Mr. Z. This gave the mission the nickname "X, Y, Z mission." + +%235. "Millions for Defense, not a Cent for Tribute."%--As the +newspapers published these dispatches, a roar of indignation, in which +the Federalists and Republicans alike joined, went up from the whole +country. "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute," became the +watchword of the hour. Opposition in Congress ceased, and preparations +were at once made for war. The French treaties were suspended. The Navy +Department was created, and a Secretary of the Navy appointed. Frigates +were ordered to be built, money was voted for arms, a provisional army +was formed, and Washington was again made commander in chief, with the +rank of lieutenant general. The young men associated for defense, the +people in the seaports built frigates or sloops of war, and gave their +services to erect forts and earthworks. Every French flag was now pulled +down from the coffeehouses, and the black cockade of our own +Revolutionary days was once more worn as the badge of patriotism. Then +was written, by Joseph Hopkinson of Philadelphia,[1] and sung for the +first time, our national song _Hail, Columbia!_ + +[Footnote 1: The music to which we sing _Hail, Columbia!_ was called +_The President's March_, and was played for the first time when the +people of Trenton were welcoming Washington on his way to be inaugurated +President in 1789. For an account of the trouble with France read +McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, Vol. II, pp. +207-416, 427-476.] + +%236. The Alien and Sedition Acts.%--Carried away by the excitement +of the hour, the Federalists now passed two most unwise laws. Many of +the active leaders and very many of the members of the Republican party +were men born abroad and naturalized in this country. Generally they +were Irishmen or Frenchmen, and as such had good reason to hate England, +and therefore hated the Federalists, who they believed were too friendly +to her. To prevent such becoming voters, and so taking an active part in +politics, the Federalists passed a new naturalization law, which forbade +any foreigner to become an American citizen until he had lived fourteen +years in our country. Lest this should not be enough to keep them +quiet, a second law was passed by which the President had power for two +years to send any alien (any of these men who for fourteen years could +not become citizens) out of the country whenever he thought it proper. +This law Adams never used. + +For five years past the Republican newspapers had been abusing +Washington, Adams, the acts of Congress, the members of Congress, and +the whole foreign policy of the Federalists. The Federalist newspapers, +of course, had retaliated and had been just as abusive of the +Republicans. But as the Federalists now had the power, they determined +to punish the Republicans for their abuse, and passed the Sedition Act. +This provided that any man who acted seditiously (that is, interfered +with the execution of a law of Congress) or spoke or wrote seditiously +(that is, abused the President, or Congress, or any member of the +Federal government) should be tried, and if found guilty, be fined and +imprisoned. This law was used, and used vigorously, and Republican +editors all over the country were fined and sometimes imprisoned.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Alien and Sedition acts are in Preston's _Documents_, +pp. 277-282.] + +%237. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.%--The passage of these Alien +and Sedition laws greatly excited the Republicans, and led Jefferson to +use his influence to have them condemned by the states. For this purpose +he wrote a set of resolutions and sent them to a friend in Kentucky who +was to try to have the legislature adopt them.[2] Jefferson next asked +Madison to write a like set of resolutions for the Virginia legislature +to adopt. Madison became so interested that he gave up his seat in +Congress and entered the Virginia legislature, and in December, 1798, +induced it to adopt what have since been known as the Virginia +Resolutions of 1798. + +[Footnote 2: Kentucky had been admitted to the Union in 1792 (see p. +213).] + +Meantime the legislature of Kentucky, November, 1798, had adopted the +resolutions of Jefferson.[3] + +[Footnote 3: E. D. Warfield's _Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions_. The +Resolutions are printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 283-298; +_Jefferson's Works_, Vol. IX., p. 494.] + +Both sets declare 1. That the Constitution of the United States is a +compact or contract. 2. That to this contract each state is a party; +that is, the united states are equal partners in a great political firm. +So far they agree; but at this point they differ. The Kentucky +Resolutions assert that when any question arises as to the right of +Congress to pass any law, _each state_ may decide this question for +itself and apply any remedy it likes. The Virginia Resolutions declare +that _the states_ may judge and apply the remedy. + +Both declared that the Alien and Sedition laws were wholly +unconstitutional. Seven states answered by declaring that the laws were +constitutional, whereupon Kentucky in 1799 framed another set of +resolutions in which she said that when a state thought a law to be +illegal she had the right to nullify it; that is, forbid her citizens to +obey it. This doctrine of nullification, as we shall see, afterwards +became of very serious importance.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The answers of the states are printed in Elliot's +_Debates_, Vol. IV., pp. 532-539.] + +%238. The Naval War with France.%--Meantime war opened with France. +The Navy Department was created in April, 1798, and before the year +ended, a gallant little navy of thirty-four frigates, corvettes, and gun +sloops of war had been collected and sent with a host of privateers to +scour the sea around the French West Indies, destroy French commerce, +and capture French ships of war.[1] One of our frigates, the +_Constellation_, Captain Thomas Truxton in command, captured the French +frigate _Insurgente_, after a gallant fight. On another occasion, +Truxton, in the _Constellation_, fought the _Vengeance_ and would have +taken her, but the Frenchman, finding he was getting much the worst of +it, spread his sails and fled. Yet another of our frigates, the +_Boston_, took the _Berceau_, whose flag is now in the Naval Institute +Building at Annapolis. In six months the little American twelve-gun +schooner _Enterprise_ took eight French privateers, and recaptured and +set free four American merchantmen. These and a hundred other actions +just as gallant made good the patriotic words of John Adams, "that we +are not a degraded people humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and +sense of inferiority." So impressed was France with this fact that the +war had scarcely begun when the Directory meekly sent word that if +another set of ministers came they would be received. They ought to have +been told that they must send a mission to us. But Adams in this respect +was weak, and in 1800, the Chief Justice, Oliver Ellsworth, William R. +Davie, and William Vans Murray were sent to Paris. The Directory had +then fallen from power, Napoleon was ruling France as First Consul, and +with him in September, 1800, a convention was concluded. + +[Footnote 2: For an account of this war, read Maclay's _History of the +United States Navy_, Vol. I., pp. 155-213.] + +%239. The Stamp Tax; the Direct Tax and Fries's Rebellion, +1798.%--The heavy cost of the preparations for war made new taxes +necessary. Two of these, a stamp tax very similar to the famous one of +1765, and a direct tax, greatly excited the people. The direct tax was +the first of its kind in our history, and was laid on lands, houses, and +negro slaves. In certain counties of eastern Pennsylvania, where the +population was chiefly German, the purpose of the tax was not +understood, and the people refused to make returns of the value of their +farms and houses. When the assessors came to measure the houses and +count the windows as a means of determining the value of the property, +the people drove them off. For this some of the leaders were arrested. +But the people under John Fries rose and rescued the prisoners. At this +stage President Adams called out the militia, and marched it against the +rebels. They yielded. But Fries was tried for treason, was sentenced to +be hanged, and was then pardoned. Thus a second time was it proved that +the people of the United States were determined to support the +Constitution and the laws and put down rebellion. + +%240. Washington the National Capital.%--In accordance with the +bargain made in 1790, Washington selected a site for the Federal city +on both banks of the Potomac. This great square tract of land was ten +miles long on each side, and was given to the government partly by +Maryland and partly by Virginia.[1] It was called the District of +Columbia, and in it were marked out the streets of Washington city. + +[Footnote 1: In 1846 so much of the District as had belonged to Virginia +was given back to her.] + +Though all possible haste was made, the President's house was still +unfinished, the Capitol but partly built, and the streets nothing but +roads cut through the woods, when, in the summer of 1800, the +secretaries, the clerks, the books and papers of the government left +Philadelphia for Washington. With the opening of the new century, and +the occupation of the new Capitol, came a new President, and a new party +in control of the government. + +[Illustration: The National Capitol as it was in 1825] + +%241. The Election of Thomas Jefferson.%--The year 1800 was a +presidential year, and though no formal nomination was made, a caucus of +Republican leaders selected as candidates Thomas Jefferson for +President, and Aaron Burr for Vice President. A caucus or meeting of +Federalist leaders selected John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as their +candidates. When the returns were all in, it appeared that Jefferson had +received seventy-three votes, Burr seventy-three votes, Adams sixty-five +votes, Pinckney sixty-four votes. The Constitution provided that the man +who received the highest number of electoral votes, if the choice of +the majority of the electors, should be President. But as Jefferson and +Burr had each seventy-three, neither had the highest, and neither was +President. The duty of electing a President then devolved on the House +of Representatives, which after a long and bitter struggle elected +Jefferson President; Burr then became Vice President. To prevent such a +contest ever arising again, the twelfth amendment was added to the +Constitution. This provides for a separate ballot for Vice President. +March 4, 1801, Jefferson, escorted by the militia of Georgetown and +Alexandria, walked from his lodgings to the Senate chamber and took the +oath of office.{1} He and his party had been placed in power in order to +make certain reforms, and this, when Congress met in the winter of 1801, +they began to do. + +[Footnote 1: For a fine description of Jefferson's personality, read +Henry Adams's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 185-191. As +to the story of Jefferson riding alone to the Capitol and tying his +horse to the fence, see Adams's _History_, Vol. I, pp. 196-199; +McMaster's _History_, Vol. II., pp. 533-534.] + +%242. The Annual Message.%--While Washington and Adams were +presidents, it was their custom when Congress met each year to go in +state to the House of Representatives, and in the presence of the House +and Senate read a speech. The two branches of Congress would then +separate and appoint committees to answer the President's speech, and +when the answers were ready, each would march through the streets to the +President's house, where the Vice President or the Speaker would read +the answer to the President. When Congress met in 1801, Jefferson +dropped this custom and sent a written message to both houses--a +practice which every President since that time has followed. + +%243. Republican Reforms.%--True to their promises, the Republicans +now proceeded to repeal the hated laws of the Federalists. They sold all +the ships of the navy except thirteen, they ordered prosecutions under +the Sedition law to be stopped, they repealed all the internal taxes +laid by the Federalists, they cut down the army to 2500 men, and +reduced the expenses of government to $3,700,000 per year--a sum which +would not now pay the cost of running the government for three days. As +the annual revenue collected at the customhouses, the post office, and +from the sale of land was $10,800,000, the treasury had some $7,000,000 +of surplus each year. This was used to pay the national debt, which fell +from $88,000,000 in 1801 to $45,000,000 in 1812, and this in spite of +the purchase of Louisiana. + +[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson] + +%244. The Purchase of Louisiana.%--When France was driven out of +America, it will be remembered, she gave to Spain all of Louisiana west +of the Mississippi River, together with a large tract on the east bank, +at the river's mouth. Spain then owned Louisiana till 1800, when by a +secret treaty she gave the province back to France.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Adams's _History of the United States, _Vol. I., pp. +352-376.] + +For a while this treaty was really kept secret; but in April, 1802, news +that Louisiana had been given to France and that Napoleon was going to +send out troops to hold it, reached this country and produced two +consequences. In the first place, it led the Spanish intendant (as the +man who had charge of all commercial matters was called) to withdraw the +"right of deposit" at New Orleans, and so prevent citizens of the United +States sending their produce out of the Mississippi River. In the second +place, this act of the intendant excited the rage of all the settlers in +the valley from Pittsburg to Natchez, and made them demand the instant +seizure of New Orleans by American troops. To prevent this, Jefferson +obtained the consent of Congress to make an effort to buy New Orleans +and West Florida, and sent Monroe to aid our minister in France in +making the purchase. + +When the offer was made, Napoleon was about going to war with England, +and, wanting money very much, he in turn offered to sell the whole +province to the United States--an offer that was gladly accepted. The +price paid was $15,000,000, and in December, 1803, Louisiana was +formally delivered to us. + +%245. Louisiana.%--Concerning this splendid domain hardly anything +was known. No boundaries were given to it either on the north, or on the +west, or on the south. What the country was like nobody could tell.[1] +Where the source of the Mississippi was no white man knew. In the time +of La Salle a priest named Hennepin had gone up to the spot where +Minneapolis now stands, and had seen the Falls of St. Anthony (p. 63). +But the country above the falls was still unknown. + +[Footnote 1: In a description of it which Jefferson sent to Congress in +1804, he actually stated that "there exists about one thousand miles up +the Missouri, and not far from that river, a salt mountain. This +mountain is said to be one hundred and eighty miles long and forty-five +in width, composed of solid rock salt, without any trees or even +shrubs on it."] + +%246. Explorations of Lewis and Clark.%--That this great region ought +to be explored had been a favorite idea of Jefferson for twenty years +past, and he had tried to persuade learned men and learned societies to +organize an expedition to cross the continent. Failing in this, he +turned to Congress, which in 1803 (before the purchase of Louisiana) +voted a sum of money for sending an exploring party from the mouth of +the Missouri to the Pacific. The party was in charge of Meriwether Lewis +and William Clark. Early in May, 1804, they left St. Louis, then a +frontier town of log cabins, and worked their way up the Missouri River +to a spot not far from the present city of Bismarck, North Dakota, where +they passed the winter with the Indians. Resuming their journey in the +spring of 1805, they followed the Missouri to its source in the +mountains, after crossing which they came to the Clear Water River; and +down this they went to the Columbia, which carried them to a spot where, +late in November, 1805, they "saw the waves like small mountains rolling +out in the sea." They were on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. After +spending the winter at the mouth of the Columbia, the party made its way +back to St. Louis in 1806. + +%247. The Oregon Country.%--Lewis and Clark were not the first of our +countrymen to see the Columbia River. In 1792 a Boston ship captain +named Gray was trading with the Pacific coast Indians. He was collecting +furs to take to China and exchange for tea to be carried to Boston, and +while so engaged he discovered the mouth of a great river, which he +entered, and named the Columbia in honor of his ship. By right of this +discovery by Gray the United States was entitled to all the country +drained by the Columbia River. By the exploration of this country by +Lewis and Clark our title was made stronger still, and it was finally +perfected a few years later when the trappers and settlers went over the +Rocky Mountains and occupied the Oregon country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Barrows's _Oregon_; McMaster's _History_, Vol. II., pp. +633-635.] + +[Illustration: Mouth of the Columbia River] + +%248. Pike explores the Southwest.%--While Lewis and Clark were +making their way up the Missouri, Zebulon Pike was sent to find the +source of the Mississippi, which he thought he did in the winter of +1805-06. In this he was mistaken, but supposing his work done, he was +dispatched on another expedition in 1806. Traveling up the Missouri +River to the Osage, and up the Osage nearly to its source, he struck +across Kansas to the Arkansas River, which he followed to its head +waters, wandering in the neighborhood of that fine mountain which in +honor of him bears the name of Pikes Peak. Then he crossed the mountains +and began a search for the Red River. The march was a terrible one. It +was winter; the cold was intense. The snow lay waist deep on the plains. +Often the little band was without food for two days at a time. But Pike +pushed on, in spite of hunger, cold, and suffering, and at last saw, +through a gap in the mountains, the waters of the Rio Grande. Believing +that it was the Red, he hurried to its banks, only to be seized by the +Spaniards (for he was on Spanish soil), who carried him a prisoner to +Santa Fé, from which city he and his men wandered back to the United +States by way of Mexico and Texas. + +[Illustration: %EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTHWEST% BY ZEBULON M. PIKE +%1806-1807%] + +%249. Astoria founded.%--The immediate effect of these explorations +was greatly to stimulate the fur trade. One great fur trader, John Jacob +Astor of New York, now founded the Pacific Fur Company and made +preparations to establish a line of posts from the upper Missouri to the +Columbia, and along it to the Pacific, and supply them from St. Louis by +way of the Missouri, or from the mouth of the Columbia, where in 1811 a +little trading post was begun and named Astoria. This completed our +claim to the Oregon country. Gray had discovered the river; Lewis and +Clark had explored the territory drained by the river; the Pacific Fur +Company planted the first lasting settlement. + + +SUMMARY + +1. In 1793 France made war on Great Britain. The United States was bound +by the treaty of alliance of 1778 to "guarantee" the French possessions +in America. + +2. This treaty, and the coming of the French minister, forced Washington +to declare the United States neutral in the war. + +3. His proclamation of neutrality was resented by the Republicans, who +now became sympathizers with France. The Federalists, who were strongest +in the commercial states, became the anti-French or English party. + +4. When France declared war on England, she opened her ports in the West +Indies to the merchant trade of the United States. + +5. England held that we should not have a trade with France when at war, +for we had not had it when France was at peace. This was an application +of the "Rule of 1756." In 1793-1794, therefore, England began to seize +our ships coming from the French ports. + +6. This so excited the Republicans that they attempted to force the +country into war with England. + +7. To prevent war, Washington sent Jay to London, where he made our +first commercial treaty with Great Britain. + +8. This offended the French Directory, who refused to receive our new +minister and sent him out of France. + +9. War with France now seemed likely. But Adams, in the interest of +peace, sent three commissioners to Paris to make a new treaty. They were +met with demands for tribute and came home. + +10. The greatest excitement now prevailed in the country. The Navy +Department was created, a navy was built by the people, and a +provisional army raised. The old French treaties were suspended, and a +naval war began. + +11. The popular anger against the Republicans (the French party) gave +the Federalists control of Congress, whereupon they passed the Alien and +Sedition laws. + +12. Against these Virginia and Kentucky protested in a set of +resolutions. + +13. In the election of 1800 the Federalists were defeated, and the +Republicans secured control of the Federal government. + +14. In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France, whereupon the Spanish +official at New Orleans shut the Mississippi to American commerce. + +15. The whole West cried out against this and demanded war. But +Jefferson offered to buy West Florida from France. Napoleon thereupon +offered to sell all Louisiana, and we bought it (1803). + +16. The new territory as yet had no boundaries; but it was explored in +the northwest by Lewis and Clark, and in the southwest by Pike. + +17. The discovery of the Columbia River in 1792, the exploration of the +country by Lewis and Clark, and the founding of Astoria established our +claim to the Oregon country. + + FRANCE A REPUBLIC, 1792. + ------------------------ + | + ______________|________________ + DECLARES WAR ON ENGLAND (1793). + | + ______________________|___________________________ + | | + | | + Opens her ports | + to neutral trade. Sends a minister to the United States. +------------------------- --------------------------------------- +1. England asserts rule This brought up the questions: + of 1756. 1. Shall he be received?--Yes. +2. Seizes our ships in 2. Is the old alliance applicable + the West Indies. to offensive war?--No. +3. Impresses our sailors. 3. Shall the United States + | be neutral?--Yes. + | + | Washington issues a proclamation + | of neutrality. + | | + -------------------------------- + | + Struggle for neutrality. + ----------------------------------------------- + | | +Republicans oppose it. Federalists support it. +Attempt retaliation on Great Britain. Lay embargo. +Are aided by Federalists. Prepare for war. + | | + ----------------------------------------------- + | + Washington sends Jay to England. Jay's treaty made (1794). + | + ------------------------------------------- + | | +1. France takes offense. Violently opposed by the Republicans. +2. Rejects Pinckney. +3. Republicans demand a special mission. +4. Adams yields and sends X, Y, Z mission. +5. Insulted by Directory. +6. Excitement at home leads to + | + _________________________|__________________________________ + Establishment of Navy Department. Creation of a navy. + Provisional army. Washington, Lt. Gen. + Naval war with France. + Alien and Sedition laws. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. + Increased taxation. The direct tax. + Fries's rebellion. + Defeat of Adams and election of Jefferson (1800). + | + ---------------------------- + Introduces reforms. + Annual message. + Buys Louisiana. + Exploration of the Northwest. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" + +%250. France and Great Britain renew the War.%--The war between +France and Great Britain, which had been the cause of the sale of +Louisiana to us, began in May, 1803. The United States became again a +neutral power, but, as in 1793, was soon once more involved in the +disputes of France. + +Towards the end of the previous war, Great Britain had so changed her +ideas of neutrality that the merchants of the United States, according +to her rules, + +1. Could trade directly between a port of the United States and the +ports of the French West Indies. + +2. Could trade directly between the United States and ports in France or +Europe. + +3. But could not trade directly between a French West India island and +France, or a Spanish West India island and Spain, or a Dutch colony +and Holland. + +To evade this last restriction, by combining the voyages allowed in +numbers 1 and 2, was easy. A merchant had but to load his ship at New +York or Philadelphia, go to some port in the French West Indies, take on +a new cargo and bring it to Savannah, enter it at the customhouse and +pay the import duties. This voyage was covered by number 1. He could +then, without disturbing his cargo in the least, clear his vessel for +France, and get back from the collector of customs all the duty he had +paid except three per cent. He was now exporting goods from the United +States and was protected by number 2. This was called "the broken +voyage," and by using it thousands of shipowners were enabled to carry +goods back and forth between France and her colonies, by merely stopping +a few hours at an American port to clear for Europe. So universal was +this practice that in 1804 the customs revenue rose from $16,000,000 to +$20,000,000. + +In May, 1805, however, the British High Court of Admiralty decided that +goods which started from the French colonies in American ships and were +on their way to France could be captured even if they had been landed +and reshipped in the United States. The moment that decision was made, +the old trouble began again. British frigates were stationed off the +ports of New York and Hampton Roads, and vessels coming in and going out +were stopped, searched, and their sailors impressed. Before 1805 ended, +116 of our ships had been seized and 1000 of our sailors impressed. + +%251. Orders in Council, 1806.%--In 1806 matters grew worse. Napoleon +was master of Europe, and in order to injure Great Britain he cut off +her trade with the continent. For this she retaliated by issuing, in +May, 1806, an Order in Council, which declared the whole coast of +Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the river Elbe, to be blockaded. This +was a mere "paper blockade"; that is, no fleets were off the coast to +keep neutrals from running into the blockaded ports. Yet American +vessels were captured at sea because they were going to those ports. + +%252. The Berlin Decree.%--Napoleon waited to retaliate till +November, 1806, when he issued the Berlin Decree,[1] declaring the +British Islands to be blockaded. + +[Footnote 1: So called because he was at Berlin when he issued it.] + +%253. Orders in Council, 1807.%--Great Britain felt that every time +Napoleon struck at her she must strike back at him, and in January, +1807, a new Order in Council forbade neutrals to trade from one European +port to another, if both were in the possession of France or her allies. +Finding it had no effect, she followed it up with another Order in +Council in November, 1807, which declared that every port on the face +of the earth from which for any reason British ships were excluded was +shut to neutrals, unless they first stopped at some British port and +obtained a license to trade. + +%254. The Milan Decree, 1807.%--It was now Napoleon's turn to strike, +which he did in December, 1807, by issuing the Milan Decree.[1] +Thenceforth any ship that submitted to be searched by British cruisers +or took out a British license, or entered any port from which French +ships were excluded, was to be captured wherever found. + +[Footnote 1: So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it +from that city.] + +As a result of this series of French Decrees and British Orders in +Council,[2] the English took 194 of our ships, and the French almost +as many. + +[Footnote 2: On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams's +_History of the United States_, Vol. III., Chap. 16; Vol. IV., Chaps. 4, +5, and 6; McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 219-223; +249-250; 272-274.] + +%255. Jefferson's Policy; Non-importation Act.%--The policy by which +Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of three parts: + +1. Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by a number of +small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one gun in the stern. In time +of peace they were to be hauled up under sheds. In time of war they were +to be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers. Between 1806 and +1812, 176 of these gunboats were built. + +2. Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made by Jay in +1794 was to expire in 1806. Under the instructions of Jefferson, +therefore, Monroe and Pinckney signed a new treaty in December, 1806. +But it said nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about the +right of our ships to go where they pleased, and was so bad in general +that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate.[3] + +[Footnote 3: No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President +and two thirds of the Senate.] + +3. The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we should call +"boycotting." He wanted a law which would forbid the importation into +the United States of any article made, grown, or produced in Great +Britain or any of her colonies. Congress accordingly, in April, 1806, +passed what was called a "Non-importation Act," which prohibited not the +importation of every sort of British goods, wares, and merchandise, but +only a few which the people could make in this country; as paper, cards, +leather goods, etc. This was to go into force at the President's +pleasure. + +%256. The Chesapeake and the Leopard.%--Such an attempt to punish +Great Britain by cutting off a part of her trade was useless, and only +made her more insolent than before. Indeed, just a week after the +President signed the non-importation bill, as one of our coasting +vessels was entering the harbor of New York, a British vessel, wishing +to stop and search her, fired a shot which struck the helmsman and +killed him at the wheel. + +About a year later, June, 1807, an attack more outrageous still was made +on our frigate _Chesapeake_. She was on her way from Washington to the +Mediterranean, and was still in sight of land when a British vessel, the +_Leopard_, hailed and stopped her and sent an officer on board with a +demand for the delivery of deserters from the English navy. The captain +of the _Chesapeake_ refused, the officer returned, and the _Leopard_ +opened fire. To return the fire was impossible, for only a few of the +guns of the _Chesapeake_ were mounted. At last one was discharged, and +as by that time three men had been killed and eighteen wounded, +Commander Barron of the _Chesapeake_ surrendered. Four men then were +taken from her deck. Three were Americans. One was an Englishman, and he +was hanged for desertion.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Vol. I., pp. 305-308; +McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 255-259.] + +%257. The Long Embargo.%--The attack on the _Chesapeake_ ought to +have been followed by war. But Jefferson merely demanded reparation from +Great Britain, and when Congress met in December, 1807, asked for an +embargo. The request was granted, and merchant vessels in all the ports +of the United States were forbidden to sail for a foreign country till +the President saw fit to suspend the law. The restriction was so +sweeping and the damage done to American farmers, merchants, and +shipowners so great, that the people began to evade it at once. They +would send their vessels to New Orleans and stop at the West Indies on +the way. They would send their flour, pork, rice, and lumber to St. +Marys in Georgia and smuggle it over the river to Florida, or take it to +the islands near Eastport in Maine and then smuggle it into New +Brunswick. Because of this, more stringent embargo laws were passed, and +finally, in 1809, a "Force Act," to compel obedience. But smuggling went +on so openly that there was nothing to do but use troops or lift the +embargo. In February, 1809, accordingly, the embargo laws, after +fourteen months' duration, were repealed. Instead of them the +Republicans enacted a Non-intercourse law which allowed the people to +trade with all nations except England and France.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 279-338; Adams's +_History_, Vol. IV., Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 15.] + +%258. Jefferson refuses a Third Term.%--During 1806, the states of +New Jersey, Vermont,[2] Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, +Georgia, and North Carolina invited Jefferson to be President a third +time. For a while he made no reply, but in December, 1807, he declined, +and gave this reason: "That I should lay down my charge at a proper +period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some +termination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be not fixed by the +Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, +will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that +degenerates into an inheritance." This wise answer was heartily +approved by the people all over the country, and with Washington's +similar action established a custom which has been generally followed +ever since. + +[Footnote 2: Vermont was admitted into the Union in 1791 (p. 243).] + +As Jefferson would not accept a third term, a caucus of Republican +members of Congress met one evening at the Capitol in Washington and +nominated James Madison and George Clinton. The Federalists held no +caucus, but agreed among themselves to support C.C. Pinckney and Rufus +King. Madison and Clinton were easily elected, and were sworn into +office March 4, 1809. + +[Illustration: James Madison] + +%259. The Macon Bill; Non-intercourse.%--When Congress met in 1809 +one more effort was made to force France and England to respect our +rights on the sea. Non-importation had failed. The embargo had failed. +Non-intercourse had failed, and now in desperation they passed a law +which at the time was called the "Macon Bill," from the member of +Congress who introduced it. This restored trade with France and England, +but declared that if either would withdraw its Decrees or Orders, the +United States would stop all trade with the other. + +%260. Trickery of Napoleon.%--And now Napoleon came forward and +assured the American minister that the Berlin and Milan Decrees should +be recalled on November 1, 1810, provided the United States would +restore non-intercourse with England. To this Madison agreed, and on +November 1, 1810, issued a proclamation saying that unless Great Britain +should, before February 1, 1811, recall her Orders in Council, trade +with her should stop on that day. Great Britain did not recall her +Orders, and in February, 1811, we once more ceased to trade with her. + +Trade with France was resumed on November 1, 1810, and of course a great +fleet of merchants went off to French ports. But they were no sooner +there than the villainy of Napoleon was revealed, for on December 25, by +general order, every American ship in the French ports was seized, and +$10,000,000 worth of American property was confiscated. He had not +recalled his Decrees, but pretended to do so in order to get the +American goods and provisions which he sorely needed. + +It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days were. But their +patience as to Great Britain now gave out, and our minister at London +was recalled in 1811. This alarmed the British, who promptly began to +take steps to keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the +_Leopard-Chesapeake_ outrage which had occurred four years before (June, +1807). They agreed to replace the three American sailors on the deck of +the _Chesapeake_ and did so (June, 1812). But the day for peaceful +settlement was gone. The people were aroused and angry, and this feeling +showed itself in many ways. + +%261. The President and the Little Belt.%--In the early part of May, +1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New York with her +name _Guerričre_ painted in large letters on her fore-topsail, and one +day her captain stopped an American vessel as it was about to enter New +York, and impressed a citizen of the United States. Three years earlier +this outrage would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now, +the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to Captain +Rogers of the frigate _President_ to go to sea at once, search for the +_Guerričre_, and demand the delivery of the man, Rogers was only too +glad to go, and soon came in sight of a vessel which looked like the +_Guerričre_; but it was half-past eight o'clock at night before he came +within speaking distance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger +became unmanageable, when the _President_ stopped firing; and the next +morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty-two-gun ship, +_Little Belt_. + +%262. The War Congress.%--Another way in which the anger of the +people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn of 1810, of a +Congress which met in December, 1811, fully determined to make war on +Great Britain. In that Congress were two men who from that day on for +forty years were great political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of +South Carolina; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky. + +Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his +lead preparations were instantly begun for war, which was finally +declared June 18, 1812. There was no Atlantic cable in those days. Had +there been, it is very doubtful if war would have been declared; for on +June 23, 1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the +proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled. + +The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were: + +1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on +the frontier. + +2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council. + +3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels. + +4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in the British +service. + + +SUMMARY + +1. One reason which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana was his determination +to go to war with England. This he did in 1803. + +2. Renewal of war in Europe made the United States again a neutral +nation, and brought up the old quarrel over neutral rights. + +3.In 1806, Napoleon, who was master of nearly all western Europe, cut +off British trade with the continent. Great Britain in return declared, +by an Order in Council, the coast from Brest to the Elbe blockaded; that +is, shut to neutral trade. + +4. Later in the year 1806 Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin Decree, +declaring the British Islands blockaded. + +5. Great Britain, by another Order in Council (1807), shut all European +ports, under French control, to neutrals. + +6. Napoleon struck back with the Milan Decree. + +7. Our commerce was now attacked by both powers, and to force them to +repeal their Decrees and Orders in Council, certain commercial +restrictions were adopted by the United States. + + A. Non-importation, 1806. + B. Embargo, 1807-1809. + C. Non-intercourse, 1809. + +8. Each of them failed to have any effect, and in 1812 war was declared. + +[Illustration] + +%1803. Renewal of War between France and Great Britain% +-----------------------------+------------------------------- + | + -------------+-------------- + The United States a neutral. + -------------+-------------- + | + +----------------+-------------------+----------------------------------+ + | | | + _British views of _American views._ _Napoleon's view._ + neutrality._ ------------^----------- ------------^---------- +------------^------------------ Free ships, free goods. Shall be no neutrals. +The broken voyage. No paper blockades. -------------^------------- +The new Admiralty ruling. No search. Attacks neutral commerce by +Stations vessels off our ports. No impressment. -------------v------------- +Retaliates for French Decrees -----------v----------- | + by | | +--------------v---------------- -----------^----------- | + | / Non-importation. \ French decrees. + | | Long embargo. | -------^------- + Orders in Council. }---------< Non-intercourse with >-------------/ 1806. Berlin. + | France and Great | \ 1807. Milan. + \ Britain. / + -----------v----------- + | + +---------------------------+ + | + ---------------^--------------- +Great Britain denies that French \ / France pretends to lift Berlin + Decrees are lifted, and / -- -------------------- < and Milan Decrees. +Refuses to revoke the Orders \ \ Trade with France is restored. + in Council. | +Tampers with Indians. > --------------+ +Insists on the right of search | | + and impressment. / | + | + %DECLARATION OF WAR BY UNITED STATES, 1812.% + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE + +%263. Fighting on the Frontier.%--"Mr. Madison's War," as the +Federalists delighted to call our war for commercial independence, +opened with three armies in the field ready to invade and capture +Canada. One under Hull, then governor of the territory of Michigan, was +to cross the river at Detroit, and march eastward through Canada. A +second, under General Van Rensselaer, was to cross the Niagara River, +take Queenstown, and join Hull, after which the two armies were to +capture York, now Toronto, and go on eastward toward Montreal. Meantime, +the third army, under Dearborn, was to go down Lake Champlain, and meet +the troops under Hull and Van Rensselaer before Montreal. The three were +then to capture Montreal and Quebec, and complete the conquest +of Canada. + +The plan failed; for Hull was driven from Canada, and surrendered his +army and the whole Northwest, at Detroit; Van Rensselaer, defeated at +Queenstown, was unable even to get a footing in Canada; while Dearborn, +after reaching the northern boundary line of New York, stopped, and the +year 1812 ended with nothing accomplished. + +The surrender of Hull filled the people with indignation, aroused their +patriotism, and forced the government to gather a new army for the +recapture of Detroit. The command was given to William Henry Harrison, +who hurried from Cincinnati across the wilderness of Ohio, and in the +dead of winter reached the shores of Lake Erie. General Winchester, who +commanded part of the troops, was now called on to drive the British +from Frenchtown, a little hamlet on the river Raisin, and (in January, +1813) tried to do so. But the British and Indians came down on him in +great numbers, and defeated and captured his army, after which the +Indians were allowed to massacre and scalp the wounded. + +[Illustration: The Canadian Frontier and Vicinity of Washington] + +And now the British became aggressive, invaded Ohio, and attacked the +Americans under Harrison at Fort Meigs, and then at Fort Stephenson, +where Major Croghan and 160 men, with the aid of one small cannon, +defeated and drove off 320 Canadians and Indians. + +%264. Battle of Lake Erie.%--Again the Americans in turn became +aggressive. Since the early winter, a young naval officer named Oliver +Hazard Perry had been hard at work, with a gang of ship carpenters, at +Erie, in Pennsylvania, cutting down trees, and had used this green +timber to build nine small vessels. With this fleet he sailed, in +September, in search of the British squadron, which had been just as +hastily built, and soon found it near Sandusky, Ohio. His own ship he +had named the _Lawrence_, in honor of a gallant American captain who had +been killed a few months before in a battle with an English frigate. As +Perry saw the enemy in the distance, he flung to the breeze a blue flag +on which was inscribed, "Don't give up the ship" (the dying order of +Lawrence to his men), sailed down to meet the enemy, and fought the two +largest British ships till the _Lawrence_ was a wreck. Then, with his +flag on his arm, he jumped into a boat, and amidst a shower of shot and +bullets was rowed to the _Niagara_. Once on her deck, he again hastened +to the attack, broke the British line of battle, and captured the entire +fleet. His dispatch to Harrison is as famous as his victory: "We have +met the enemy, and they are ours--two ships, two brigs, one schooner, +and one sloop." + +%265. Battle of the Thames.%--Perry's victory was a grand one. It +gave him command of Lake Erie, and enabled him to carry Harrison's +soldiers over to Canada, where, on the Thames River, Harrison defeated +the British and Indians. These two victories regained all that had been +lost by the surrender of Hull. + +Along the New York border little was done during 1813. The Americans +made a raid into Canada, and to their shame burned York. The British +attacked Sacketts Harbor and were driven off. The Americans sent an +expedition down the St. Lawrence against Montreal, but the leaders got +frightened and took refuge in northern New York. + +%266. Campaign of 1814.%--In 1814 better officers were put in +command, and before winter came the Americans, under Jacob Brown and +Winfield Scott, had won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane, and +captured Fort Erie. But the British returned in force, burned Black Rock +and Buffalo in revenge for the burning of York, and forced the Americans +to leave Canada. + +The fighting along the Niagara River, by holding the army in that place, +prevented the Americans from attacking Montreal, and enabled the +British to gather a fleet on Lake Champlain, and send an army down from +Quebec to invade New York state just as Burgoyne had in 1777. But the +land force was defeated by General Macomb at Plattsburg, while Thomas +McDonough utterly destroyed the fleet in Plattsburg Bay. This was one of +the great victories of the war. + +%267. The Sea Fights.%--While our army on the frontier was +accomplishing little, our war ships were winning victory after victory +on the sea. At the opening of the war, our navy was the subject of +English ridicule and contempt. We had sixteen ships; she had 1200. She +laughed at ours as "fir-built things with a bit of striped bunting at +their mastheads." But before 1813 came, these "fir-built things" had +destroyed her naval supremacy.[1] With the details of all these +victories on the sea we will not concern ourselves. Yet a few must be +mentioned because the fame of them still endures, and because they are +examples of naval warfare in the days when the ships fought lashed +together, and when the boarders, cutlass and pistol in hand, climbed +over the bulwarks and met the enemy on his own deck, man to man. During +1812 the frigate _Constitution_, whose many victories won her the name +of "Old Ironsides," sank the _Guerričre_; the _United States_ captured +and brought to port the _Macedonian_; and the _Wasp_, a little sloop of +eighteen guns, after the most desperate engagement of the whole war, +captured the British sloop _Frolic_. + +[Footnote 1: One reason for the success of the American navy was the +experience it had gained in the clash with France, and also in a war +with Tripoli in 1801-1805. At that time the Christian nations whose +ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea were accustomed to pay annual tribute +to Tripoli and other piratical states on the north coast of Africa, +under pain of having their ships seized and their sailors reduced to +slavery. A dispute with the United States led to a war which gained for +our ships the freedom of the Mediterranean.] + +When these sloops were some two hundred feet apart, the _Wasp_ opened +with musketry and cannon. The sea, lashed into fury by a two days' +cyclone, was running mountain high. The vessels rolled till the muzzles +of their guns dipped in the water. But the crews cheered lustily and +the fight went on. When at last the crew of the _Wasp_ boarded the +_Frolic_, they were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and +three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul was +visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire of the +_Wasp_. Scarcely was the battle over when the British frigate +_Poictiers_ bore down under a press of sail, recaptured what was left of +the _Frolic_, and took the _Wasp_ in addition. + +During 1813 the _Constitution_ took the _Java_; the _Hornet_ sank the +_Peacock_; the _Enterprise_ captured the _Boxer_ off Portland, Maine. +These and many more made up the list of American victories. But there +were British victories also. The _Argus_, after destroying twenty-seven +vessels in the English Channel, was taken by the _Pelican_; the _Essex_, +after a marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two +frigates. The _Chesapeake_ was forced to strike to the _Shannon._ + +The _Chesapeake_ was at anchor in Boston harbor, in command of James +Lawrence, when the British frigate _Shannon_ ran in and challenged her. +Lawrence went out at once, and after a short, fierce fight was defeated +and killed. As his men were carrying him below, mortally wounded, he +cried, "Don't give up the ship!" words which Perry, as we have seen, +afterwards put on his flag, and which his countrymen have never since +forgotten.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the naval war read Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Part +Third; Roosevelt's _Naval War of 1812_; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 70-108.] + +%268. The British blockade the Coast.%--Never, in the course of her +existence, had England suffered such a series of defeats as we inflicted +on her navy in 1812 and 1813. The record of those years caused a +tremendous excitement in Great Britain, all the vessels she could spare +were sent over, and with the opening of 1814, the whole coast of the +United States was declared to be in a state of blockade.[1] In New +England, Eastport (Moose Island) and Nantucket Island quickly fell. A +British force went up the Penobscot to Hampden, and burned the _Adams_. +The eastern half of Maine was seized, and Stonington, in Connecticut, +was bombarded. + +[Footnote 1: All except New England had been blockaded since 1812; and +in 1813 the coast of Chesapeake Bay had been ravaged.] + +%269. Burning of Washington.%--Further down the coast a great fleet +and army from Bermuda, under General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, came up +the Chesapeake Bay, landed in Maryland, and marched to Washington. At +Bladensburg, a little hamlet near the capital, the Americans made a +feeble show of resistance, but soon fled; and about dark on an August +night, 1814, a detachment of the British reached Washington, marched to +the Capitol, fired a volley through the windows, entered, and set fire +to the building. When the fire began to burn brightly, Ross and Cockburn +led the troops to the President's house, which was sacked and burned. +Next morning the torch was applied to the Treasury building and to the +Departments of State and War. Several private houses and a printing +office were also destroyed before the British began a hasty retreat to +the Chesapeake.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 5, 6; McMaster's +_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 135-148; _Memoirs of Dolly Madison_, Chap. 8.] + +%270. Baltimore attacked.%--Once on the bay, the army was hurried on +board the ships and carried to Baltimore, where for a day and a night +they shelled Fort McHenry.[2] Failing to take it, and Ross having been +killed, Cockburn reëmbarked and sailed away to Halifax. + +[Footnote 2: Francis S. Key, an American held prisoner on one of the +British ships, composed the words of _The Star-Spangled Banner_ while +watching the bombardment.] + +%271. The Victory at New Orleans.%--The army was taken to Jamaica in +order that it might form part of one of the greatest war expeditions +England had ever fitted out. Fifty of the finest ships her navy could +furnish, mounting 1000 guns and carrying on their decks 20,000 veteran +soldiers and sailors, had been quietly assembled at Jamaica during the +autumn of 1814, and in November sailed for New Orleans. + +News of this intended attack had reached Madison, and he had given the +duty of defending New Orleans to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, one of the +most extraordinary men our country has produced. The British landed at +the entrance of Lake Borgne in December, 1814, and hurried to the banks +of the Mississippi. But Jackson was more than a match for them. +Gathering such a force of fighting men as he could, he hastened from the +city and with all possible speed threw up a line of rude earthworks, and +waited to be attacked. This line the British under General Pakenham +attacked on January 8, 1815, and were twice driven back with frightful +loss of life. Never had such a defeat been inflicted on a British army. +The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 2036 men. Jackson lost +seventy-one men. Five British regiments which entered the battle 3000 +strong reported 1750 men killed, wounded, and missing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 12-14; McMaster, Vol. +IV., pp. 182-190] + +%272. Peace.%--For a month after this defeat the British lingered in +their camp. At last, in February, the army departed to attack a fort on +Mobile Bay. The fort was taken, and two days later the news of peace put +an end to war. The treaty was signed at Ghent in December, 1814; but it +did not reach the United States till February, 1815. + +In the treaty not a word was said about the impressment of our sailors, +nor about the right of search, nor about the Orders in Council, nor +about inciting the Indians to attack our frontier, all of which Madison +had declared to be causes of the war. Yet we gained much. Our naval +victories made us the equal of any maritime power, while at home the war +did far more to arouse a national sentiment, consolidate the union, and +make us a nation than any event which had yet occurred. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The land war may be divided into: + + A. War along the frontier. + B. War along the Atlantic coast. + C. War along the Gulf coast. + +2. War along the Canadian frontier resulted in a gain to neither side. +In 1812 Americans were beaten at Detroit and at Queenstown, and failed +to invade Canada. In 1813 the Americans were beaten at Frenchtown, but +defeated the Canadians at Forts Meigs and Stephenson, and at the Thames +River, and recovered Detroit. Perry won the battle of Lake Erie. The +Americans failed in the attempt to take Montreal. In 1814 the battles of +Chippewa and Lundys Lane were won, and Fort Erie was taken. But the +British burned Buffalo and Black Rock and drove the Americans out of +Canada. McDonough won the battle of Lake Champlain. + +3. During 1812-13 the British blockaded the coast from the east end of +Long Island south to the Mississippi. New England was not blockaded till +1814. Then depredations began, and during the year Washington was taken +and partly burned, and Baltimore attacked. + +4. Later in the year the British, after the attack on Baltimore, went +south, and early in 1815 were beaten by Jackson at New Orleans. + +5. The navy won a series of successive victories. The defeats were about +half as numerous as the victories. + +6. Peace was announced in February, 1815. + +[Illustration] + + / / / / 1812. Hull surrenders Detroit. + | | | | 1812. Harrison attempts to recover it. + | | | Detroit . . < 1813. Frenchtown. + | | | | Battle of Lake Erie. + | | The | | Harrison invades Canada and wins + | | expeditions | \ the battle of the Thames. + | | against | + | | Canada. < / 1812. Van Rensselaer repulsed. + | War | | | 1813. York taken and burned. +Second | on < | Niagara . . < 1814. Battles of Chippewa and Lundys +War for | land | | | Lane, and capture of Fort Erie. +Independence < | | \ Americans driven from Canada. + | | | + | | | / 1813. Expedition against Montreal. + | | | St. Lawrence < 1814. British come down from Canada. + | | \ \ Defeated on Lake Champlain. + | | + | | / 1812. Blockade of the coast south of Rhode Island. + | | War on | 1813. Ravages on the coast of Chesapeake Bay. + | | the | 1814. Entire coast blockaded. + | | Seaboard. < New England attacked. + | | | Washington taken and partly burned. + | | | Baltimore attacked. + | \ \ 1815. Victory at New Orleans. + | + | War on / The ship duels. + \ the sea. \ The fleet victories on the Lakes. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 + +%273.% Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington was +inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country had made +wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was bounded west by the +Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana had been purchased, the Columbia +River had been discovered, and the Oregon country had been explored to +the Pacific. In 1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less +than four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 there were +but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. In 1815 there +were eighteen states and five territories. + +%274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration.%--Sparse as was the +population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already seized the +people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pouring over the +mountains in three great streams. One, composed of New England men, was +pushing along the borders of Lake Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A +second, chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself +over the rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky. +Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Virginia and +North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was creeping +down the valley of the Tennessee River.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For an account of the movement of population westward along +these routes, see _The First Century of the Republic_, pp. 211-238.] + +For months each year the Ohio was dotted with flatboats. One observer +saw fifty leave Pittsburg in five weeks. Another estimated that ten +thousand emigrants floated by Marietta during 1788. As this never-ending +stream of population spread over the wilderness, building cabins, +felling trees, clearing the land, and driving off the game, the Indians +took alarm and determined to expel them. + +%275. The Indian War.%--During the summer of 1786 the tribes whose +hunting grounds lay in eastern Tennessee and Kentucky took the warpath, +sacked and burned a little settlement on the Holston, and spread terror +along the whole frontier. But the settlers in their turn rose, and +inflicted on the Indians a signal punishment. One expedition from +Tennessee burned three Cherokee towns. Another from Kentucky crossed the +Ohio, penetrated the Indian country, burned eight towns, and laid waste +hundreds of acres of standing corn. Had the Indians been left to +themselves, they would, after this punishment, have remained quiet. But +the British, who still held the frontier post at Detroit, roused them, +and in 1790 they were again at work, ravaging the country north of the +Ohio. They rushed down on Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept +it from the face of the earth. St. Clair, who was governor of the +Northwest Territory, sent against them an expedition which won some +success--just enough to enrage and not enough to cow them. + +%276. St. Clair; Wayne.%--Not a settlement north of the Ohio was now +safe, and had it not been for the men of Kentucky, who came to the +relief, and in two expeditions held the Indians in check till the +Federal government could act, every one of them would have been +destroyed. The plan of the Secretary of War was to build a chain of +forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan, and late in 1791 St. Clair set +off to begin the work. But the Indians surprised him on a branch of the +Wabash River, and inflicted on him one of the most dreadful defeats in +our history. Public opinion now forced him to resign his command, which +was given to Anthony Wayne, who, after two years of careful +preparation, crushed the Indian power at the falls of the Maumee River +in northwestern Ohio. The next year, 1795, a treaty was made at +Greenville, by which the Indians gave up all claim to the soil south and +east of a boundary line drawn from what is now Cleveland southwest to +the Ohio River. + +%277. Kentucky and Vermont become States.%--These Indian wars almost +stopped emigration to the country north of the Ohio, though not into +Kentucky or Tennessee. For several years past the people of the District +of Kentucky had been desirous to come into the Union, but had been +unable to make terms with Virginia, to which Kentucky belonged. At last +consent was obtained and the application made to Congress. But the +Kentuckians were slave owners, were identified with Southern and Western +interests, and cared little for the commercial interests of the East, +and as this influence could be strongly felt in the Senate, where each +state had two votes, it was decided to offset those of Kentucky by +admitting the Eastern state of Vermont. + +What is now Vermont was once the property of New Hampshire, was settled +by people from New England under town rights granted by the governor of +New Hampshire, and was called "New Hampshire Grants." In 1764, however, +the governor of New York obtained a royal order giving New York +jurisdiction over the Grants on the ground that in 1664 the possessions +of the Duke of York extended to the Connecticut River. Then began a +controversy which was still raging bitterly when the Revolution opened, +and the Green Mountain Boys asked recognition as a state and admission +into the Congress, a request which the other states were afraid to grant +lest by so doing they should offend New York. Thereupon the people chose +delegates to a convention (in 1777), which issued a declaration of +independence, declared "New Connecticut, alias Vermont," a state, and +made a constitution. In this shape matters stood in 1791, when as an +offset to Kentucky Vermont was admitted into the Union. As she was a +state with governor, legislature, and constitution, she came in at once. +Kentucky had to make a constitution, and so was not admitted till 1792. +Four years later (1796) Congress admitted Tennessee. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES July 4, 1801. +TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE] + +%278. The New Territories; Ohio becomes a State.%--The quieting of +the Indians by Wayne in 1794, the opening of the Mississippi River to +American trade by Spain in 1795, coupled with cheap lands and low +taxes, caused another rush of population into the Ohio valley. Between +1795 and 1800 so many came that the Northwest Territory was cut in twain +and the new territory of Indiana was organized in 1800. The acceptance +by Spain in 1795 of 31° north latitude as the boundary of the Floridas, +gave the United States control of the greater part of old West Florida, +which in 1798 was organized as the Mississippi Territory. Hardly a year +now elapsed without some marked sign of Western development. In 1800 +Congress, under the influence of William Henry Harrison, the first +delegate from the Northwest Territory, made a radical change in its land +policy. Up to that time every settler must pay cash. After 1800 he could +buy on credit, pay in four annual installments, and west of the +Muskingum River could purchase as little as 320 acres. This credit +system led to another rush into the Ohio valley, and so many people +entered the Northwest Territory, that in 1803 the southern part of it +was admitted into the Union as the state of Ohio. + +[Illustration: Cincinnati in 1810[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print.] + +In 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands, which were added to the +Mississippi Territory. From the Louisiana purchase there was organized +in 1804 the territory of Orleans, and in 1805 the territory of Louisiana +(see p. 247). In 1805, also, the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off +from Indiana and organized as Michigan Territory. In 1809 the territory +of Illinois was organized (p. 247). In 1812 the territory of Orleans +became the state of Louisiana. + +The third census showed that in 1810 the population of the United States +was 7,200,000, and that of these over 1,000,000 were in the states and +territories west of the Alleghanies. + +%279. Indian Troubles; Battle of Tippecanoe.%--As the settlers north +of the Ohio moved further westward, and as more came in, their farms and +settlements touched the Indian boundary line. In Indiana, where, save a +strip sixty miles wide along the Ohio River, and a few patches scattered +over the territory, every foot of soil was owned by the Indians, this +crowding led to serious consequences. The Indians first grew restive. +Then, under the lead of Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, they founded a league or +confederacy against the whites, and built a town on Tippecanoe Creek, +just where it enters the Wabash. Finally, when Harrison, who was +governor of Indiana Territory, bought the Indian rights to the Wabash +valley, the confederacy refused to recognize the sale, and gave such +signs of resistance that Harrison marched against them, and in 1811 +fought the battle of Tippecanoe and burned the Indian village. For a +time it was thought the victory was as signal as that of Wayne. But the +Indians were soon back on the old site, and in our second war with Great +Britain they sided with the British. + +[Illustration: The United States and Territories in 1813] + +%280. Industrial Progress.%--In 1789 our country had no credit and no +revenue, and was burdened with a great debt which very few people +believed would ever be paid. But when the government called in all the +old worthless Continental money and certificates and gave the people +bonds in exchange for them, when it began to lay taxes and pay its +debts, when it had power to regulate trade, when the National Bank was +established and the merchants were given bank bills that would pass at +their face value all over the country, business began to revive. The +money which the people had been hiding away for years was brought out +and put to useful purposes. Banks sprang up all over the country, and +companies were founded to manufacture woolen cloth and cotton cloth, to +build bridges, to construct turnpike roads, and to cut canals. Between +1789 and 1795 the first carpet was woven in the United States, the first +broom made from broom corn, the first cotton factory opened, the first +gold and silver coins of the United States were struck at the mint, the +first newspaper was printed in the territory northwest of the Ohio +River, the first printing press was set up in Tennessee, the first +geography of the United States was published, and daily newspapers were +issued in Baltimore and Boston. It was during this period that a hunter +named Guinther discovered anthracite coal in Pennsylvania; that Whitney +invented the cotton gin; that Samuel Slater built the first mill for +making cotton yarns; that Eli Terry started the manufacture of clocks as +a business; that cotton sewing thread was first manufactured in the +United States at Pawtucket, R.I.; and that the first turnpike in our +country was completed. This extended from Philadelphia to Lancaster, a +distance of sixty-two miles. + +%281. The Period of Commercial and Agricultural Prosperity.%--Just at +this time came another change of great importance. Till 1793 we had +scarcely any commerce with the West Indies. England would not allow our +vessels to go to her islands. Neither would Spain, nor France, except to +a very limited degree. It was the policy of these three countries to +confine such trade as far as possible to their own merchants. But in +1793 France, you remember, made war on England and opened her West +Indian ports to all neutral nations. The United States was a neutral, +and our merchants at once began to trade with the islanders. What these +people wanted was lumber, flour, grain, provisions, salt pork, and fish. +All this led to a demand, first, for ships, then for sailors, and then +for provisions and lumber--to the benefit of every part of the country +except the South. New England was the lumber, fishing, shipbuilding, and +commercial section. New York and Pennsylvania produced grain, flour, +lumber, and carried on a great commerce as well. So profitable was it to +raise wheat, that in many parts of Virginia the people stopped raising +tobacco and began to make flour, and soon made Virginia the second +flour-producing state in the Union. Until after 1795 the people of the +Western States were cut off from this trade. But in that year the treaty +with Spain was made, and the people of the West were then allowed to +float their produce to New Orleans and there sell it or ship it to the +West Indies. Kentucky then became a flour-producing state. + +As a consequence of all this, people stopped putting their money into +roads and canals and manufactures, and put it into farming, +shipbuilding, and commerce. Between 1793 and 1807, therefore, our +country enjoyed a period of commercial and agricultural prosperity. But +with 1807 came another change. In that year the embargo was laid, and +for more than fifteen months no vessels were allowed to leave the ports +of the United States for foreign countries. Up to this time our people +had been so much engaged in commerce and agriculture, that they had not +begun to manufacture. In 1807 all the blankets, all the woolen cloth, +cotton cloth, carpets, hardware, china, glass, crockery, knives, tools, +and a thousand other things used every day were made for us in Great +Britain. Cotton grown in the United States was actually sent to England +to be made into cloth, which was then carried back to the United States +to be used. + +%282. "Infant Manufactures."%--As the embargo prevented our ships +going abroad and foreign ships coming to us, these goods could no longer +be imported. The people must either go without or make them at home. +They decided, of course, to make them at home, and all patriotic +citizens were called on to help, which they did in five ways. + +First, in each of the cities and large towns people met and formed a +"Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures." Every +patriotic man and woman was expected to join one of them, and in so +doing to take a pledge not to buy or use or wear any article of foreign +make, provided it could be made in this country. + +In the second place, these societies for the encouragement of domestic +manufactures, "infant manufactures," as they were called, offered prizes +for the best piece of homemade linen, homemade cotton cloth, or +woolen cloth. + +In the third place, they started "exchanges," or shops, in the cities +and large towns, to which anybody who could knit mittens or socks, or +make boots and shoes or straw bonnets, or spin flax or wool, or make +anything else that the people needed, could send them to be sold. + +In the fourth place, men who had money came forward and formed companies +to erect mills and factories for the manufacture of all sorts of things. +If you were to see the acts passed by the legislatures of the states +between 1808 and 1812, you would find that very many of them were +charters for iron works, paper mills, thread works, factories for making +cotton and woolen cloth, oilcloth, boots, shoes, rope. + +In the fifth place, the legislatures of the states passed resolutions +asking their members to wear clothes made of material produced in the +United States,[1] offered bounties for the best wool, and exempted the +factories from taxation and the mill hands from militia and jury duty. + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. III., pp. 496-509.] + +Thus encouraged, manufactures sprang up in the North, and became so +numerous that in 1810, when the census of population was taken, Congress +ordered that statistics of manufactures should be collected at the same +time. It was then found that the value of the goods manufactured in the +United States in 1810 was $173,000,000. + +%283. Internal Improvements: Roads; Canals; Steamboats.%--But there +was yet another great change for the better which took place between +1790 and 1815. We have seen how during this quarter of a century our +country grew in area, how the people increased in number, how new states +and territories were made, how agriculture and commerce prospered, and +how manufactures arose. It is now time to see how the people improved +the means of interstate commerce and communication. + +You will remember that in 1790 there were no bridges over the great +rivers of the country, that the roads were very bad, that all journeys +were made on horseback or in stagecoaches or in boats, and that it was +not then possible to go as far in ten hours as we can now go in one. You +will remember, also, that the people were moving westward in +great numbers. + +As the people thus year by year went further and further westward, a +demand arose for good roads to connect them with the East. The merchants +on the seaboard wanted to send them hardware, clothing, household goods, +farming implements, and bring back to the seaports the potash, lumber, +flour, skins, and grain with which the settlers paid for these things. +If they were too costly, frontiersmen could not buy them. If the roads +were bad, the difficulty of getting merchandise to the frontier would +make them too costly. People living in the towns and cities along the +seaboard were no longer content with the old-fashioned slow way of +travel. They wanted to get their letters more often, make their journeys +and have their freight carried more quickly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States,_ +Vol. III., pp. 462-465.] + +About 1805, therefore, men began to think of reviving the old idea of +canals, which had been abandoned in 1793, and one of these canal +companies, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, applied to Congress for +aid. This brought up the question of a system of internal improvements +at national expense, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, +was asked to send a plan for such a system to Congress, which he did. +Congress never approved it. + +%284. The National Pike.%--Public sentiment, however, led to the +commencement of a highway to the West known as the National Pike, or the +Cumberland Road. When Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state in +1803, Congress promised that part of the money derived from the sale of +land in Ohio should be used to build a road from some place on the Ohio +River to tide water. By 1806 the money so set apart amounted to $12,000, +and with this was begun the construction of a broad pike from Cumberland +(on the Potomac) in Maryland to Wheeling (on the Ohio) in West +Virginia.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 469-470.] + +[Illustration: Phoenix[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an oil painting.] + +%285. Steamboats.%--This increasing demand for cheap transportation +now made it possible for Fulton to carry into successful operation an +idea he had long had in mind. For twenty years past inventors had been +exhibiting steamboats. James Rumsey had exhibited one on the Potomac. +John Fitch had shown one on the Delaware in 1787. (See p. 190.) In 1804 +Robert Fulton exhibited a steamboat on the Seine at Paris in France; +Oliver Evans had a steam scow on the Delaware River at Philadelphia; and +John Stevens crossed the Hudson from Hoboken to New York in a steamboat +of his own construction. In 1806 Stevens built another, the +_Phoenix_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Preble's _History of Steam Navigation _, pp. 35-66; +Thurston's _Robert Fulton_ in Makers of America Series.] + +These men were ahead of their time, and it was not till the August day, +1807, when Robert Fulton made his experiment on the Hudson, that the era +of the steamboat opened. His vessel, called the _Clermont_, made the +trip up the river from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours. + +[Illustration: Model of the Clermont[2]] + +[Footnote 2: Made from the original drawings, and now in the National +Museum.] + +Then the usefulness of the invention was at last appreciated, and in +1808 a line of steam vessels went up and down the Hudson. In 1809 +Stevens sent his _Phoenix_ by sea to Philadelphia and ran it on the +Delaware. Another steamboat was on the Raritan River, and a third on +Lake Champlain. In 1811 a boat steamed from Pittsburg to New Orleans, +and in 1812 steam ferryboats plied between what is now Jersey City and +New York, and between Philadelphia and Camden.[3] + +[Footnote 3: On the early steamboats see McMaster's _History of the +People of the United States_, Vol. III., pp. 486-494.] + +%286. The Currency; the Mint.%--Quite as marvelous was the change +which in five and twenty years had taken place in money matters. When +the Constitution became law in 1789, there were no United States coins +and no United States bills or notes in circulation. There was no such +thing as a national currency. Except the gold and silver pieces of +foreign nations, there was no money which would pass all over our +country. To-day a treasury note, a silver certificate, a national bank +bill, is received in payment of a debt in any state or territory. In +1789 the currency was foreign coins and state paper. But the +Constitution forbade the states ever to make any more money, and as +their bills of credit already issued would wear out by use, the time was +near when there would be no currency except foreign coins. To prevent +this, Congress in 1791 ordered a mint to be established at Philadelphia, +and in 1792 named the coins to be struck, and ordered that whoever would +bring gold or silver to the mint should have it made into coins without +cost to him. This was _free coinage._ As both gold and silver were to be +coined, the currency was to be _bimetallic_, or of two metals.[1] The +ratio of silver and gold was 15 to 1. That is, fifteen pounds' weight of +silver must be made into as many dollars' worth of coins as one pound of +gold. The silver coins were to be the dollar, half and quarter dollar, +dime and half dime; the gold were to be the eagle, half eagle, and +quarter eagle. Out of copper were to be struck cents and half cents. As +some years must elapse before our national coins could become abundant, +certain foreign coins were made legal tender. + +[Footnote 1: The first silver coin was struck in 1794; the first gold, +in 1795; the first cent and half cent, in 1793.] + +%287. "Federal Money."%--The appearance of the new money was followed +by another change for the better. In colonial days the merchants and the +people expressed the debts they owed, or the value of the goods they +sold, in pounds, shillings, and pence, or in Spanish dollars. During the +Revolution, and after it, this was continued, although the Continental +Congress always kept its accounts, and made its appropriations, in +dollars. But when the people began to see dollars, half dollars, and +dimes bearing the words "United States of America," they knew that +there really was a national coinage, or "Federal money," as they called +it, and between 1795 and 1798, one state after another ordered its +treasurer to use Federal money instead of pounds, shillings, and pence; +and thereafter in laying taxes, and voting appropriations for any +purpose, the amount was expressed in dollars and cents. The merchants +and the people were much slower in adopting the new terms; but they came +at last into general use. + +%288. Rise of the State Banks.%--Had the people been forced to depend +on the United States mint for money wherewith to pay the butcher and the +baker and the shoemaker, they would not have been able to make their +payments, for the machinery at the mint was worked by hand, and the +number of dimes and quarters turned out each year was small. But they +were not, for as soon as confidence was restored, banks chartered by the +states sprang up in the chief cities in the East, and as each issued +notes, the people had all the currency they wanted. + +In 1790, when Congress established the National Bank, there were but +four state banks in the whole country: one in Philadelphia, one in New +York, one in Boston, and one in Baltimore. By 1800 there were +twenty-six, in 1805 there were sixty-four, and in 1811 there were +eighty-eight. + +In that year (1811) the charter of the National Bank expired, and as +Congress would not renew it, many more state banks were created, each +hoping to get a part of the business formerly done by the National Bank. +Such was the "mania," as it was called, for banks, that the number rose +from eighty-eight in 1811, to two hundred and eight in 1814, which was +far more than the people really needed. + +Nevertheless, all went well until the British came up Chesapeake Bay and +burned Washington. Then the banks in that part of the country boxed up +all their gold and silver and sent it away, lest the British should get +it. This forced them to "suspend specie payments"; that is, refuse to +give gold or silver in exchange for their own paper. As soon as they +suspended, others did the same, till in a few weeks every one along the +seaboard from Albany to Savannah, and every one in Ohio, had stopped +paying coin. The New England banks did not suspend. + +%289. No Small Change.%--The consequences of the suspension were very +serious. In the first place, all the small silver coins, the dimes, half +dollars, and quarter dollars, disappeared at once, and the people were +again forced to do as they had done in 1789, and use "ticket money." All +the cities and towns, great and small, printed one, two, three, six and +one fourth, twelve and one half, twenty-five, and fifty-cent tickets, +and sold them to the people for bank notes. Steamboats, stagecoaches, +and manufacturing companies, merchants, shopkeepers--in fact, all +business men--did the same. + +In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie for their +notes, people who did not know all about a bank would not take its bills +except at very much less than their face value. That is, a dollar bill +of a Philadelphia bank was not worth more than ninety cents in paper +money at New York, and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of +things greatly increased the cost of travel and business between the +states, and prevented the government using the money collected at the +seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318.] + +%290. The Second Bank of the United States.%--Lest this state of +affairs should occur again, Congress, exercising its constitutional +"power to regulate the currency," chartered a second National Bank in +1816, and modeled it after the old one. Again the parent bank was at +Philadelphia; but the capital was now $35,000,000. Again the public +money might be deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be +established wherever the directors thought proper. Again the bank could +issue paper money to be received by the government in payment of taxes, +land, and all debts. + +The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to charter a +bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, when Maryland +attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch at Baltimore. The case +reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which decided that a +state could not tax a corporation chartered by Congress; and that +Congress had power to charter anything, even a bank. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west +along three highways. + +2. As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), +Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union. + +3. The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to +7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000 +square miles. + +4. The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of +great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this time +that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and bridges were +built, and that the steamboat was introduced. + +5. A national mint had been established. The charter of the National +Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its +place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the government had +been forced to charter a new National Bank. + +PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1709 TO 1815 + +_Territorial Changes. 1790-1812. + +_ Movement of Population into the West._ + +Northern Stream. Checked by Indian war. + Indians quieted by Wayne. + Population again moved westward. + +New states. 1791. Vermont. + 1792. Kentucky. + 1796. Tennessee. + 1803. Ohio. + 1812. Louisiana. + +New Territories. 1798. Mississippi. + 1800. Indiana. + 1802. Mississippi enlarged. + 1804. Orleans. + 1805. Michigan. + 1805. Louisiana (called Missouri + after 1812). + 1809. Illinois. + +_Expansion of Territory._ 1795. Spain accepts 31° as the boundary. + 1802. Georgia cedes her western territory. + 1803. Louisiana purchased from France. + +_Industrial Progress_ + First carpet mill. + First brooms. + First United States gold and silver coins. + First press in Tennessee. + Daily newspapers. + Discovery of hard coal. + Cotton gin. + Manufacture of clocks. + Sewing thread. + Rise of manufactures. + Dependence of United States on Great Britain before 1807. + Effect of the embargo. + Manner of encouraging manufactures. +_Agricultural Progress_ + Effect of the French war. + State of agriculture in + New England. + New York and Pennsylvania. + The South. +_Improvements in Transportation_ + Demand for roads and canals. + The national pike. + Steamboats. + Early forms. + Fitch's. + Fulton's. + Stevens's. + Rapid introduction of. +_Financial Condition_ + Federal money. + The United States mint established. + Free coinage. + Bimetallism. + Coins struck. + Federal money comes slowly into use. + State Banks. + What led to the chartering of state banks. + Their rapid increase. + Effect of the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the + United States. + General suspension in 1814. + Reason for chartering the second Bank of the United States. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES + +%291. Monroe inaugurated.%--The administration of Madison ended on +March 4, 1817, and on that day James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins were +sworn into office. They had been nominated at Washington in February, +1816, by a caucus of Republican members of Congress, for no such thing +as a national convention for the nomination of a President had as yet +been thought of. The Federalists did not hold a caucus; but it was +understood that their electors would vote for Rufus King for +President.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In 1816 there were nineteen states in the Union (Indiana +having been admitted in that year), and of these Monroe carried sixteen +and King three. The inauguration took place in the open air for the +first time since 1789.] + +[Illustration: on the right of the previous paragraph, with caption +"James Monroe"] + +%292. Death of the Federalist Party.%--The inauguration of Monroe +opens a new era of great interest and importance in our history. From +1793 to 1815, the questions which divided the people into Federalists +and Republicans were all in some way connected with foreign countries. +They were neutral rights, Orders in Council, French Decrees, +impressment, embargoes, non-intercourse acts, the conduct of England, +the insolence of the French Directory, the triumphs and the treachery of +Napoleon. Every Federalist sympathized with England; every Republican +was a warm supporter of France. + +But with the close of the war in 1815, all this ended. Napoleon was sent +to St. Helena. Europe was at peace, and there was no longer any foreign +question to divide the people into Federalists and Republicans. This +division, therefore, ceased to exist, and after 1816 the Federalist +party never put up a candidate for the presidency. It ceased to exist +not only as a national but even as a state party, and for twelve years +there was one great party, the Republican, or, as it soon began to be +called, the Democratic. + +%293. The "Era of Good Feeling."%--A sure sign of the disappearance +of party and party feeling was seen very soon after Monroe was +inaugurated. In May, 1817, he left Washington with the intention of +visiting and inspecting all the forts and navy yards along the eastern +seaboard and the Great Lakes. Beginning at Baltimore, he went to New +York, then to Boston, and then to Portland; where he turned westward, +and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, made his way +to Ogdensburg, where he took a boat to Sacketts Harbor and Niagara, +whence he went to Buffalo, and Detroit, and then back to Washington. + +Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet him; but nowhere +was the reception so hearty as in New England, the stronghold of +Federalism. "The visit of the President," said a Boston newspaper, +"seems wholly to have allayed the storms of party. People _now meet in +the same room_ who, a short while since, _would scarcely pass along the +same street_". Another said that since Monroe's arrival at Boston "party +feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but one great +_national feeling_ has animated every class of our citizens." So it was +everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston Sentinel_ called the times +the "era of good feeling," the whole country took up the expression and +used it, and the eight years of Monroe's administration have ever since +been so called. + +%294. Trouble with the Seminole Indians.%--Though all was quiet and +happy within our borders, events of great importance were happening +along our northern, western, and southern frontier. During the war with +England, the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama had risen against the +white settlers and were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to +take refuge with the Seminoles in Florida. As they had been the allies +of England, they fully expected that when peace was made, England would +secure for them the territory of which Jackson had deprived them. When +England did not do this, they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began +to make raids over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and +children. In order to stop these depredations, General Jackson was sent +to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact that the Creeks and +Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered West Florida, took St. Marks +and Pensacola, destroyed the Indian power, and hanged two English +traders as spies.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chaps. 34-36; McMaster's +_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 430-456.] + +%295. The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel.%--This was +serious, for at the time the news reached Washington that Jackson had +invaded Spanish soil and hanged two English subjects, important treaties +were under way with Spain and Great Britain, and it was feared his +violent acts would stop them. Happily no evil consequences followed, and +in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line between the +United States and British America. + +When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and +fifteen years had been allowed to pass without attempting to establish +one. Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south +from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the +forty-ninth parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the +summit of the Rocky Mountains. + +%296. Joint Occupation of Oregon.%--The country beyond the Rocky +Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the +United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years +to come the country should be held in joint occupation. + +%297. The Spanish Boundary Line.%--One year later (1819) the boundary +of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us +East and West Florida for $5,000,000. Till this time we had always +claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande. +By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the +Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32°, then a north line to the +Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then +northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky +Mountains; then a north line to 42°, and then along that parallel to the +Pacific Ocean.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. IV., pp. 457-480.] + +%298. Russian Claims on the Pacific.%--The Oregon country was thus +restricted to 42° on the south, and though it had no limit on the north +the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51°, which he +declared should be the south boundary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to +extend from 42° to 51°, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But +Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be +preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all +this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the +Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant +colonies in either North or South America. + +%299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%--This was a +new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the +boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration +regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas. + +Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality +(p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in +European wars, nor meddle in European politics. This had been asserted +repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the +wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed, +of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World +nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822 +it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously. + +[Footnote 1: See Washington's _Farewell Address_; Jefferson's _Inaugural +Address_, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803; +Monroe's _Inaugural Address_, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817, +Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also _American History Leaflets_, +No. 4.] + +[Illustration: %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%] + +Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and South America +(Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, formed republics, and in +1822 were acknowledged as free and independent powers by the United +States. Spain, after vainly attempting to subdue them, appealed for help +to the powers of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for +the purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while these +powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. But in 1823 they +decided to help Spain to get back her old colonies, and invited Great +Britain to attend a Congress before which the matter was to be +discussed. But Great Britain had no desire to see the little republics +destroyed, and in the summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked +the American minister in London if the United States would join with +England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to meddle with the +South American republics. Thus, just at the time when Adams was +protesting against European colonization in the Northwest, England +suggested a protest against European meddling in the affairs of Spanish +America. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in +persuading President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation +against both forms of European interference in American affairs. Monroe +thought it best to make the declaration independent of Great Britain, +and in his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced +three great guiding principles now known as the + +%300. Monroe Doctrine.%-- + +1. Taking up the matter in dispute with Russia, he declared that the +American continents were no longer open to colonization by +European nations. + +Referring to the conduct of the Holy Allies, he said, + +2. That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of +Europe. + +3. That European governments must not extend their system to any part of +North or South America, nor oppress, nor in any other manner seek to +control the destiny of any of the nations of this hemisphere.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 1-54; Tucker's _Monroe +Doctrine_.] + +The protest was effectual. The Holy Allies did not meddle in South +American affairs, and the next year (1824) Russia agreed to make no +settlement south of 54° 40'. + + +SUMMARY + +1. At the presidential election of 1816 the Federalist party, for the +last time, voted for a presidential candidate. Party politics were dead, +and the "era of good feeling" opened. + +2. Many important matters which were not settled by the Treaty of Ghent +were disposed of: + + A. The forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary from a + point south of the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. + + B. Oregon was held in joint occupation. + + C. The line 54° 40' was established. + +3. The boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions +was drawn, and Florida was acquired. + +4. The Monroe doctrine was announced. + + * * * * * + +SOME RESULTS OF THE WAR. + +_Death of the Federalist party_ ... + + End of the European war. + Disappearance of old party issues. + Monroe elected President. + The "era of good feeling." + +_Seminole War_ ... + + Creek Indians join the English. + Driven out of Alabama by Jackson. + Take refuge with Florida Seminoles. + After the war rise against the settlers in Georgia. + Destroyed by Jackson. + +_The boundaries_ ... + + 1818. Northern boundary of Louisiana + settled to the Rocky Mountains. + 1819. Treaty with Spain settled the south + boundary of Louisiana. + 1818. Joint occupation of Oregon. + 1824. North boundary of Oregon established at 54° 40'. + +_The Monroe Doctrine._ + + The Holy Allies. + The South American republics. + Proposal of the Holy Allies to reduce the + South American republics. + The Monroe Doctrine announced (1823). + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +THE RISING WEST + +%301. Rush into the West.%--The settlement of our boundary disputes, +especially with Spain, was most timely, for even then people were +hurrying across the mountains by tens of thousands, and building up new +states in the Mississippi valley. The great demand for ships and +provisions, which from 1793 to 1807 had made business so brisk, had kept +people on the seaboard and given them plenty of employment. But after +1812, and particularly after 1815, trade, commerce, and business on the +seaboard declined, work became scarce, and men began to emigrate to the +West, where they could buy land from the government on the installment +plan, and where the states could not tax their farms until five years +after the government had given them a title deed. Old settlers in +central New York declared they had never seen so many teams and sleighs, +loaded with women, children, and household goods, traveling westward, +bound for Ohio, which was then but another name for the West. + +As the year wore away, the belief was expressed that when autumn came it +would be found that the worst was over, and that the good times expected +to follow peace would keep people on the seaboard. But the good times +did not return. The condition of trade and commerce, of agriculture and +manufactures, grew worse instead of better, and the western movement of +population became greater than ever. + +%302. Rapid Growth of Towns.%--Fed by this never-ending stream of +newcomers, the West was almost transformed. Towns grew and villages +sprang up with a rapidity which even in these days of rapid and easy +communication would be thought amazing. Mt. Pleasant, in Jefferson +County, Ohio, was in 1810 a little hamlet of seven families living in +cabins. In 1815 it contained ninety families, numbering 500 souls. The +town of Vevay, Ind., was laid out in 1813, and was not much better than +a collection of huts in 1814. But in 1816 the traveler down the Ohio who +stopped at Vevay found himself at a flourishing county seat, with +seventy-five dwellings, occupied by a happy population who boasted of +having among them thirty-one mechanics of various trades; of receiving +three mails each week, and supporting a weekly newspaper called the +_Indiana Register_. Forty-two thousand settlers are said to have come +into Indiana in 1816, and to have raised the population to 112,000. + +Letters from New York describe the condition of that state west of Utica +as one of astonishing prosperity. Log cabins were disappearing, and +frame and brick houses taking their place. The pike from Utica to +Buffalo was almost a continuous village, and the country for twenty +miles on either side was filling up with an industrious population. +Auburn, where twenty years before land sold for one dollar an acre, was +the first town in size and wealth west of Utica, and land within its +limits brought $7000 an acre. Fourteen miles west was Waterloo, on the +Seneca River, a village which did not exist in 1814, and which in 1816 +had fifty houses. Rochester, the site of which in 1815 was a wilderness, +had a printing press, a bookstore, and a hundred houses in 1817.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. IV., pp. 381-386.] + +%303. Scenes on the Western Highways.%--By 1817 this migration was at +its height, and in the spring of that year families set forth from +almost every village and town on the seaboard. The few that went from +each place might not be missed; but when they were gathered on any one +of the great roads to the West, as that across New York, or that across +Pennsylvania, they made an endless procession of wagons and +foot parties. + +A traveler who had occasion to go from Nashville to Savannah in January, +1817, declares that on the way he fell in with crowds of emigrants from +Carolina and Georgia, all bound for the cotton lands of Alabama; that he +counted the flocks and wagons, and that--carts, gigs, coaches, and +wagons, all told--there were 207 conveyances, and more than 3800 people. +At Haverhill, in Massachusetts, a train of sixteen wagons, with 120 men, +women, and children, from Durham, Me., passed in one day. They were +bound for Indiana to buy a township, and were accompanied by their +minister. Within thirteen days, seventy-three wagons and 450 emigrants +had passed through the same town of Haverhill. At Easton, Pa., which lay +on the favorite westward route for New Englanders, 511 wagons, with 3066 +persons, passed in a month. They went in trains of from six to fifty +wagons each day. The keeper of Gate No. 2, on the Dauphin turnpike, in +Pennsylvania, returned 2001 families as having passed his gate, bound +west, between March and December, 1817, and gave the number of people +accompanying the vehicles as 16,000. Along the New York route, which +went across the state from Albany to Buffalo, up Lake Erie, and on by +way of Chautauqua Lake to the Allegheny, the reports are just as +astonishing. Two hundred and sixty wagons were counted going by one +tavern in nine days, besides hundreds of people on horseback and +on foot.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_. Vol. IV., pp. 387, 388.] + +%304. Life on the Frontier.%--The "mover," or, as we should say, the +emigrant, would provide himself with a small wagon, very light, but +strong enough to carry his family, provisions, bedding, and utensils; +would cover it with a blanket or a piece of canvas or with linen which +was smeared with tar inside to make it waterproof; and with two stout +horses to pull it, would set out for the West, and make his way across +Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then the greatest city of the West, with a +population of 7000. Some, as of old, would take boats and float down the +Ohio; others would go on to Wheeling, be ferried across the river, and +push into Ohio or Indiana or Illinois, there to "take up" a quarter +section (160 acres) of government land, or buy or rent a "clearing" from +some shiftless settler of an earlier day. Government land intended for +sale was laid out in quarter sections of 160 acres, and after being +advertised for a certain time was offered for sale at public auction. +What was not sold could then be purchased at the land office of the +district at two dollars an acre, one quarter to be paid down, and three +fourths before the expiration of four years. The emigrant, having +gathered eighty dollars, would go to some land office, "enter" a quarter +section, pay the first installment, and make his way in the two-horse +wagon containing his family and his worldly goods to the spot where was +to be his future home. Every foot of it in all probability would be +covered with bushes and trees. + +[Illustration: Distribution of the Population of the United States +Fourth Census, 1820] + +%305. The Log Cabin.%--In that case the settler would cut down a few +saplings, make a "half-faced camp," and begin his clearing. The +"half-faced camp" was a shed. Three sides were of logs laid one on +another horizontally. The roof was of saplings covered with branches or +bark. The fourth side was open, and when it rained was closed by hanging +up deerskin curtains. In this camp the newcomer and his family would +live while he grubbed up the bushes and cut down trees enough to make a +log cabin. If he were a thrifty, painstaking man, he would smooth each +log on four sides with his ax, and notch it half through at each end so +that when they were placed one on another the faces would nearly touch. +Saplings would make the rafters, and on them would be fastened planks +laid clapboard fashion, or possibly split shingles. + +An opening was of course left for a door, although many a cabin was +built without a window, and when the door was shut received no light +save that which came down the chimney, which was always on the outside +of the house. To form it, an opening eight feet long and six feet high +was left at one end of the house, and around this a sort of bay window +was built of logs and lined with stones on the inside. Above the top of +the opening the chimney contracted and was made of branches smeared both +inside and out with clay. Generally the chimney went to the peak of the +roof; but it was by no means unusual for it to stop about halfway up the +end of the cabin. + +[Illustration: Log cabin[1]] + +[Footnote 1: The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, restored (reproduced, +together with the first picture on the next page, from Tarbell's _Early +Life of Abraham Lincoln_, by permission of the publishers, S.S. +McClure, Limited).] + +If the settler was too poor to buy glass, or if glass could not be had, +the window frame was covered with greased paper, which let in the light +but could not be seen through. The door was of plank with leather +hinges, or with iron hinges made from an old wagon tire by the nearest +blacksmith or by the settler himself. There was no knob, no lock, +no bolt. + +In place of them there was a wooden latch on the inside, which could be +lifted by a person on the outside of the door by a leather strip which +came through a hole in the door and hung down. When this latch string +was out, anybody could pull it, lift the latch, and come in. When it was +drawn inside, nobody could come in without knocking. The floor was made +of "puncheons," or planks split and hewn with an ax from the trunk of a +tree, and laid with the round side down. The furniture the settler +brought with him, or made on the spot. + +[Illustration: Hand mill [1]] + +The household utensils were of the simplest kind. Brooms and brushes +were made of corn husks. Corn was shelled by hand and was then either +carried in a bag slung over a horse's back to the nearest mill, perhaps +fifteen miles away, or was pounded in a wooden hominy mortar with a +wooden pestle, or ground in a hand mill. Chickens and game were roasted +by hanging them with leather strings before the open fire. Cooking +stoves were unknown, and all cooking was done in a "Dutch oven," on the +hearth, or in a clay "out oven" built, as its name implies, out +of doors. + +[Illustration: Corn-husk broom [1]] + +[Illustration: Kitchen utensils [1]] + +[Footnote 1: From originals in the National Museum, Washington.] + +%306. Clearing and Planting.%--The land about the cabin was cleared +by grubbing the bushes and cutting down trees under a foot in diameter +and burning them. Big trees were "deadened," or killed, by cutting a +"girdle" around them two or three feet above the ground, deep enough to +destroy the sap vessels and so prevent the growth of leaves.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For a delightful account of life in the West, read W. C. +Howells's _Recollections of Life in Ohio_ (edited by his son, William +Dean Howells).] + +In the ground thus laid open to the sun were planted corn, potatoes, or +wheat, which, when harvested, was threshed with a flail and fanned and +cleaned with a sheet. At first the crop would be scarcely sufficient for +home use. But, as time passed, there would be some to spare, and this +would be wagoned to some river town and sold or exchanged for +"store goods." + +If the settler chose his farm wisely, others would soon settle near by, +and when a cluster of clearings had been made, some enterprising +speculator would appear, take up a quarter section, cut it into town +lots, and call the place after himself, as Piketown, or Leesburg, or +Gentryville. A storekeeper with a case or two of goods would next +appear, then a tavern would be erected, and possibly a blacksmith shop +and a mill, and Piketown or Leesburg would be established. Hundreds of +such ventures failed; but hundreds of others succeeded and are to-day +prosperous villages. + +[Illustration: Mississippi produce boat[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum at Washington.] + +%307. The New States._--While the northern stream of population was thus +traveling across New York, northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into +Michigan, the middle stream was pushing down the Ohio. By 1820 it had +greatly increased the population of southern Indiana and Illinois, and +crossing the Mississippi was going up the Missouri River. In the South +the destruction of the Indian power by Jackson in 1813, and the opening +of the Indian land to settlement, led to a movement of the southern +stream of population across Alabama to Mobile. Now, what were some of +the results of this movement of population into the Mississippi valley? +In the first place, it caused the formation and admission into the Union +of six states in five years. They were Indiana, 1816; Mississippi, 1817; +Illinois, 1818; Alabama, 1819; Maine, 1820; Missouri, 1821. + +%308. Slave and Free States.%--In the second place, it brought about +a great struggle over slavery. You remember that when the thirteen +colonies belonged to Great Britain slavery existed in all of them; that +when they became independent states some began to abolish slavery; and +that in time five became free states and eight remained slave states. +Slavery was also gradually abolished in New York and New Jersey, so that +of the original thirteen only six were now to be counted as slave +states. You remember again that when the Continental Congress passed the +Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory lying between the +Ohio River and the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania and the Mississippi River, +it ordained that in the Northwest Territory there should be no slavery. +In consequence of this, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were admitted into +the Union as free states, as Vermont had been. Kentucky was originally +part of Virginia, and when it was admitted, came in as a slave state. +Tennessee once belonged to North Carolina, and hence was also slave +soil; and when it was given to the United States, the condition was +imposed by North Carolina that it should remain so. Tennessee, +therefore, entered the Union (in 1796) as a slave state. Much of what is +now Alabama and Mississippi was once owned by Georgia, and when she +ceded it in 1802, she did so with the express condition that it should +remain slave soil; as a result of this, Alabama and Mississippi were +slave states. Louisiana was part of the Louisiana Purchase, and was +admitted (1812) as a slave state because it contained a great many +slaves at the time of the purchase. + +Thus in 1820 there were twenty-two states in the Union, of which eleven +were slave, and eleven free. Notice now two things: 1. That the dividing +line between the slave and the free states was the south and west +boundary of Pennsylvania from the Delaware to the Ohio, and the Ohio +River; 2. That all the states in the Union except part of Louisiana lay +east of the Mississippi River. As to what should be the character of our +country west of that river, nothing had as yet been said, because as yet +no state lying wholly in that region had asked admittance to the Union. + +%309. Shall there be Slave States West of the Mississippi +River?%--But when the people rushed westward after the war, great +numbers crossed the Mississippi and settled on the Missouri River, and +as they were now very numerous they petitioned Congress in 1818 for +leave to make the state of Missouri and to be admitted into the Union. + +The petitioners did not say whether they would make a slave or a free +state; but as the Missourians owned slaves, everybody knew that Missouri +would be a slave state. To this the free states were opposed. If the +tobacco-growing, cotton-raising, and sugar-making states wanted slaves, +that was their affair; but slavery must not be extended into states +beyond the Mississippi, because it was wrong. No man, it was said, had +any right to buy and sell a human being, even if he was black. The +Southern people were equally determined that slavery should cross the +Mississippi. We cannot, said they, abolish slavery; because if our +slaves were set free, they would not work, and as they are very +ignorant, they would take our property and perhaps our lives. Neither +can we stop the increase of negro slave population. We must, then, have +some place to send our surplus slaves, or the present slave states will +become a black America. + +%310. The Missouri Compromise.%--Each side was so determined, and it +was so clear that neither would yield, that a compromise was suggested. +The country east of the Mississippi, it was said, is partly slave, +partly free soil. Why not divide the country west of the great river in +the same way? At first the North refused. But it so happened that just +at this moment Maine, having secured the consent of Massachusetts, +applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a free state. The +South, which had control of the Senate, thereupon said to the North, +which controlled the House of Representatives, If you will not admit +Missouri as a slave state, we will not admit Maine as a free state. This +forced the compromise, and after a bitter and angry discussion it +was agreed + +1. That Maine should come in as a free, and Missouri as a slave, state. + +2. That the Louisiana Purchase should be cut in two by the parallel of +36° 30', and that all north of the line except Missouri should be free +soil[1]. This parallel was thereafter known as the "Missouri +Compromise Line." + +[Footnote 1: The Compromise was violated in 1836, when the present +northwest corner of Missouri was taken from the free territory and added +to that state. See maps, pp. 299 and 348] + +[Illustration: AREAS OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820] + +The admission of Maine and Missouri raised the number of states to +twenty-four.[1] No more were admitted for sixteen years. When Missouri +applied for admission as a state, Arkansas was (1819) organized as a +territory. + +[Footnote 1: For the compromise read Woodburn's _Historical Significance +of the Missouri Compromise_ (in _Report American Historical +Association_, 1893, pp. 251-297); McMaster's _History of the People of +the United States_, Vol. IV., Chap. 39.] + +%311. The Second Election of Monroe.%--This bitter contest over the +exclusion of slavery from the country west of the Mississippi shows how +completely party lines had disappeared in 1820. In the course of that +year, electors of a President were to be chosen in the twenty-four +states. That slavery would play an important part in the campaign, and +that some candidate would be put in the field by the people opposed to +the compromise, might have been expected. But there was no campaign, no +contest, no formal nomination. The members of Congress held a caucus, +but decided to nominate nobody. Every elector, it was well known, would +be a Republican, and as such would vote for the reëlection of Monroe and +Tompkins. And this almost did take place. Every one of the 229 electors +who voted was a Republican, and all save one in New Hampshire cast votes +for Monroe. But this one man gave his vote to John Quincy Adams. He said +he did not want Washington to be robbed of the glory of being the only +President who had ever received the unanimous vote of the electors. + +March 4, 1821, came on Sunday. Monroe was therefore inaugurated on +Monday, March 5. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The dull times on the seaboard, the cheap land in the West, the love +of adventure, and the desire to "do better" led, during 1814-1820, to a +most astonishing emigration westward. + +2. The rush of population into the Mississippi valley caused the +admission of six states into the Union between 1816 and 1821. + +3. The question of the admission of Missouri brought up the subject of +shutting slavery out of the country west of the Mississippi, which ended +in a compromise and the establishment of the line 36° 30'. + + +MOVEMENT OF POPULATION. + + _Northern Stream._ + + Effect of hard times in the East.-- + Scenes along the highways.--Arrival + of the emigrants in the West.--The + half-faced camp.--The log cabin.-- + Household utensils.--Clearing the + land.--Growth of towns. + + _Middle Stream._ + + Moves down the Ohio valley, + across southern Ohio, Indiana, + Illinois, and pushes up + the Missouri. + + _Southern Stream._ + + The defeat of the Creek Indians + opens their lands in + Mississippi Territory to settlement. + + * * * * * + +This settlement of the West leads to: + + Admission into the Union of: + + 1816. Indiana. + 1817. Mississippi. + 1818. Illinois. + 1819. Alabama. + + Admission of these states brings up the question of slavery. + + 1820. Maine. + 1821. Missouri. + + Organization of new territories. + + 1819. Arkansas. + 1822. 1823. Florida. + + +_Status of slavery after 1820_. + + FREE STATES. + + N.H., + Vt., + Mass., + R.I., + Conn. + N.Y., + N.J., + Pa., + Ohio, + Ind., + Ill., + Maine. + + SLAVE STATES. + + Del., + Md., + Va., + N.C., + S.C., + Ga., + Ala., + Miss. + La., + Ky., + Tenn., + Missouri. + +_Country west of the Mississippi._ + + 1804. Not settled. + 1819. Attempt to make Missouri a slave state. + 1820. The compromise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE + +%312. Improvement in Means of Travel%.--We have now considered two of +the results of the rush of population from the seaboard to the +Mississippi valley; namely, the admission of five new Western states +into the Union, and the struggle over the extension of slavery, which +resulted in the Missouri Compromise. But there was a third result,--the +actual construction of highways of transportation connecting the East +with the West. Along the seaboard, during the five years which followed +the war, great improvements were made in the means of travel. The +steamboat had come into general use, and, thanks to this and to good +roads and bridges, people could travel from Philadelphia to New York +between sunrise and sunset on a summer day, and from New York to Boston +in forty-eight hours. The journey from Boston to Washington was now +finished in four days and six hours, and from New York to Quebec in +eight days. + +[Illustration: Bordentown, NJ.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old engraving. Passengers from Philadelphia landed +here from the steamboat and took stage for New Brunswick.] + +[Illustration: map: OLD ROUTE FROM NEW YORK TO PITTSBURG] + +In the West there was much the same improvement. The Mississippi and +Ohio swarmed with steamboats, which came up the river from New Orleans +to St. Louis in twenty-five days and went down with the current in +eight. Little, however, had been done to connect the East with the West. +Until the appearance of the steamboat in 1812, the merchants of +Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and a host of other towns in the +interior bought the produce of the Western settlers, and floating it +down the Ohio and the Mississippi sold it at New Orleans for cash, and +with the money purchased goods at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, +and carried them over the mountains to the West. Some went in sailing +vessels up the Hudson from New York to Albany, were wagoned to the Falls +of the Mohawk, and then loaded in "Schenectady boats," which were +pushed up the Mohawk by poles to Utica, and then by canal and river to +Oswego, on Lake Ontario. From Oswego they went in sloops to Lewiston on +the Niagara River, whence they were carried in ox wagons to Buffalo, and +then in sailing vessels to Westfield, and by Chautauqua Lake and the +Allegheny River to Pittsburg. Goods from Philadelphia and Baltimore were +hauled in great Conestoga wagons drawn by four and six horses across the +mountains to Pittsburg. The carrying trade alone in these ways was +immense. More than 12,000 wagons came to Pittsburg in a year, bringing +goods on which the freight was $1,500,000. + +[Illustration: Boats on the Mohawk[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print.] + +[Illustration: THOMAS HARPER, AGENT FOR INLAND TRANSPORTATION] + +With the appearance of the steamboat on the Mississippi and Ohio, this +trade was threatened; for the people of the Western States could now +float their pork, flour, and lumber to New Orleans as before, and bring +back from that city by steamboat the hardware, pottery, dry goods, +cotton, sugar, coffee, tea, which till then they had been forced to buy +in the East[1]. + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. IV., pp. 397-410, 419-421.] + +This new way of trading was so much cheaper than the old, that it was +clear to the people of the Eastern States that unless they opened up a +still cheaper route to the West, their Western trade was gone. + +[Illustration: The Erie Canal] + +%313. The Erie Canal.%--In 1817 the people of New York determined to +provide such a route, and in that year they began to cut a canal across +the state from the Hudson at Albany to Lake Erie at Buffalo. To us, with +our steam shovels and drills, our great derricks, our dynamite, it would +be a small matter to dig a ditch 4 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and 363 +miles long. But on July 4, 1817, when Governor De Witt Clinton turned +the first sod, and so began the work, it was considered a great +undertaking, for the men of those days had only picks, shovels, +wheelbarrows, and gunpowder to do it with. + +Opposition to the canal was strong. Some declared that it would swallow +up millions of dollars and yield no return, and nicknamed it "Clinton's +Big Ditch." But Clinton was not the kind of man that is afraid of +ridicule. He and his friends went right on with the work, and after +eight years spent in cutting down forests, in blasting rocks, in +building embankments to carry the canal across swamps, and high +aqueducts to carry it over the rivers, and locks of solid masonry to +enable the boats to go up and down the sides of hills, the canal was +finished.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 415-418.] + +[Illustration: Model of a canal packet boat] + +Then, one day in the autumn of 1825, a fleet of boats set off from +Buffalo, passed through the canal to Albany, where Governor De Witt +Clinton boarded one of them, and went down the Hudson to New York. A keg +of water from Lake Erie was brought along, and this, when the fleet +reached New York Harbor, Clinton poured with great ceremony into the +bay, to commemorate, as he said, "the navigable communication opened +between our Mediterranean seas [the Great Lakes] and the +Atlantic Ocean." + +%314. Effect of the Erie Canal%.--The building of the canal changed +the business conditions of about half of our country. Before the canal +was finished, goods, wares, merchandise, going west from New York, were +carried from Albany to Buffalo at a cost of $120 a ton. After the canal +was opened, it cost but $14 a ton to carry freight from Albany to +Buffalo. This was most important. In the first place, it enabled the +people in New York, in Ohio, in Indiana, in Illinois, and all over the +West, to buy plows and hoes and axes and clothing and food and medicine +for a much lower price than they had formerly paid for such things. Life +in the West became more comfortable and easy than ever before. + +In the next place, the Eastern merchant could greatly extend his +business. How far west he could send his goods depended on the expense +of carrying them. When the cost was high, they could go but a little way +without becoming so expensive that only a few people could buy them. +After 1825, when the Erie Canal made transportation cheap, goods from +New York city could be sold in Michigan and Missouri at a much lower +price than they had before been sold in Pittsburg or Buffalo. + +%315. New York City the Metropolis.%--The New York merchant, in other +words, now had the whole West for his market. That city, which till 1820 +had been second in population, and third in commerce, rushed ahead and +became the first in population, commerce, and business. + +The same was true of New York state. As the canal grew nearer and nearer +completion, the people from other states came in and settled in the +towns and villages along the route, bought farms, and so improved the +country that the value of the land along the canal increased +$100,000,000. + +A rage for canals now spread over the country. Many were talked of, but +never started. Many were started, but never finished. Such as had been +begun were hurried to completion. Before 1830 there were 1343 miles of +canal open to use in the United States. + +%316. The Pennsylvania Highway to the West.%--In Pennsylvania the +opening of the Erie Canal caused great excitement. And well it might; +for freight could now be sent by sailing vessels from Philadelphia to +Albany, and then by canal to Buffalo, and on by the Lake Erie and +Chautauqua route to Pittsburg, for one third what it cost to go +overland. It seemed as if New York by one stroke had taken away the +Western commerce of Philadelphia, and ruined the prosperity of such +inland towns of Pennsylvania as lay along the highway to the West. The +demand for roads and canals at state expense was now listened to, and +in 1826 ground was broken at Harrisburg for a system of canals to join +Philadelphia and Pittsburg. But in 1832 the horse-power railroad came +into use, and when finished, the system was part railroad and +part canal. + +%317. The Baltimore Route to the West.%--This energy on the part of +Pennsylvania alarmed the people of Baltimore. Unless their city was to +yield its Western trade to Philadelphia they too must have a speedy and +cheap route to the West. In 1827, therefore, a great public meeting was +held at Baltimore to consider the wisdom of building a railroad from +Baltimore to some point on the Ohio River. The meeting decided that it +must be done, and on July 4, 1828, the work of construction was begun. +In 1830 the road was opened as far as Ellicotts Mills, a distance of +fifteen miles. The cars were drawn by horses. + +The early railroads, as the word implies, were roads made of wooden +rails, or railed roads, over which heavy loads were drawn by horses. The +very first were private affairs, and not intended for carrying +passengers.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The first was used in 1807 at Boston to carry earth from a +hilltop to a street that was being graded. The second was built near +Philadelphia in 1810, and ran from a stone quarry to a dock. It was in +use twenty-eight years. The third was built in 1826, and extended from +the granite quarries at Quincy, Mass., to the Neponset River, a distance +of three miles. The fourth was from the coal mines of Mauchchunk, Pa., +to the Lehigh River, nine miles. The fifth was constructed in 1828 by +the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to carry coal from the mines to +the canal.] + +%318. Public Railroads.%--In 1825 John Stevens, who for ten years +past had been advocating steam railroads, built a circular road at +Hoboken to demonstrate the possibility of using such means of +locomotion. In 1823 Pennsylvania chartered a company to build a railroad +from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna. But it was not till 1827, when the +East was earnestly seeking for a rapid and cheap means of transportation +to the West, that railroads of great length and for public use were +undertaken. In that year the people of Massachusetts were so excited +over the opening of the Erie Canal that the legislature appointed a +commission and an engineer to select a line for a railroad to join +Boston and Albany. + +At this time there was no such thing as a steam locomotive in use in the +United States. The first ever used here for practical purposes was built +in England and brought to New York city in 1829, and in August of that +year made a trial trip on the rails of the Delaware and Hudson Canal +Company. The experiment was a failure; and for several years horses were +the only motive power in use on the railroads. In 1830, however, the +South Carolina Railroad having finished six miles of its road, had a +locomotive built in New York city, and in January, 1831, placed it on +the tracks at Charleston. Another followed in February, and the era of +locomotive railroading in our country began. + +%319. The Portage Railroad.%--As yet the locomotive was a rude +machine. It could not go faster than fifteen miles an hour, nor climb a +steep hill. Where such an obstacle was met with, either the road went +around it, or the locomotive was taken off and the cars were let down or +pulled up the hill on an inclined plane by means of a rope and +stationary engine.[1] When Pennsylvania began her railroad over the +Alleghany Mountains, therefore, she used the inclined-plane system on a +great scale, so that in its time the Portage Railroad, as it was called, +was the most remarkable piece of railroading in the world. + +[Footnote 1: Such an inclined plane existed at Albany, where passengers +were pulled up to the top of the hill. Another was at Belmont on the +Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, and another on the Paterson and Hudson +road near Paterson.] + +The Pennsylvania line to the West consisted of a horse railroad from +Philadelphia to Columbia on the Susquehanna River; of a canal out the +Juniata valley to Hollidaysburg on the eastern slope of the Alleghany +Mountains, where the Portage Railroad began, and the cars were raised to +the summit of the mountains by a series of inclined planes and levels, +and then by the same means let down the western slope to Johnstown; and +then of another canal from Johnstown to Pittsburg. + +[Illustration: Inclined plane at Belmont in 1835] + +As originally planned, the state was to build the railroad and canal, +just as it built turnpikes. No cars, no motive power of any sort, except +at the inclined planes, were to be supplied. Anybody could use it who +paid two cents a mile for each passenger, and $4.92 for each car sent +over the rails. At first, therefore, firms and corporations engaged in +the transportation business owned their own cars, their own horses, +employed their own drivers, and charged such rates as the state tolls +and sharp competition would allow. The result was dire confusion. The +road was a single-track affair, with turnouts to enable cars coming in +opposite directions to pass each other. But the drivers were an unruly +set, paid no attention to turnouts, and would meet face to face on the +track, just as if no turnouts existed. A fight or a block was sure to +follow, and somebody was forced to go back. To avoid this, the road was +double-tracked in 1834, when, for the first time, two locomotives +dragging long trains of cars ran over the line from Lancaster to +Philadelphia. As the engine went faster than the horses, it soon became +apparent that both could not use the road at the same time; and after +1836 steam became the sole motive power, and the locomotive was +furnished by the state, which now charged for hauling the cars.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the early railroads see Brown's _History of the First +Locomotives in America._] + +[Illustration: The first railroad train in New Jersey (1831)] + +The puffing little locomotive bore little resemblance to its beautiful +and powerful successors. No cab sheltered the engineer, no brake checked +the speed, wood was the only fuel, and the tall smokestack belched forth +smoke and red-hot cinders. But this was nothing to what happened when +the train came to a bridge. Such structures were then protected by +roofing them and boarding the sides almost to the eaves. But the roof +was always too low to allow the smokestack to go under. The stack, +therefore, was jointed, and when passing through a bridge the upper half +was dropped down and the whole train in consequence was enveloped in a +cloud of smoke and burning cinders, while the passengers covered their +eyes, mouths, and noses. + +%320. Railroads in 1835.%--In 1835 there were twenty-two railroads in +operation in the United States. Two were west of the Alleghanies, and +not one was 140 miles long. For a while the cars ran on "strap rails" +made of wooden beams or stringers laid on stone blocks and protected on +the top surface, where the car wheel rested, by long strips or straps +of iron spiked on. The spikes would often work loose, and, as the car +passed over, the strap would curl up and come through the bottom of the +car, making what was called a snake head. It was some time before the +all-iron rail came into use, and even then it was a small affair +compared with the huge rails that are used at present. + +%321. Mechanical Inventions.%--The introduction of the steamboat and +the railroad, the great development of manufactures, the growth of the +West, and the immense opportunity for doing business which these +conditions offered, led to all sorts of demands for labor-saving and +time-saving machinery. Another very marked characteristic of the period +1825-1840, therefore, is the display of the inventive genius of the +people. Articles which a few years before were made by hand now began to +be made by machinery. + +Before 1825 every farmer in the country threshed his grain with a flail, +or by driving cattle over it, or by means of a large wooden roller +covered with pegs. After 1825 these rude devices began to be supplanted +by the threshing machine. Till 1826 no axes, hatchets, chisels, planes, +or other edge tools were made in this country. In 1826 their manufacture +was begun, and in the following year there was opened the first hardware +store for the sale of American-made hardware. + +The use of anthracite coal had become so general that the wood stove was +beginning to be displaced by the hard-coal stove, and in 1827 fire +bricks were first made in the United States. It was at about this time +that paper was first made of hay and straw; that boards were first +planed by machine; that bricks were first made by machinery; that +penknives and pocketknives were first manufactured in America; that +Fairbanks invented the platform weighing scales; that chloroform was +discovered; that Morse invented the recording telegraph; that a man in +New York city, named Hunt, made and sold the first lock-stitch sewing +machine ever seen in the world; that pens and horseshoes were made by +machine; that the reaping machine was given its first public trial (in +Ohio); and that Colt invented the revolver. + +%322. Condition of the Cities.%--Yet another characteristic of the +period was the great change which came over the cities and towns. The +development of canal and railroad transportation had thrown many of the +old highways into disuse, had made old towns and villages decline in +population, and had caused new towns to spring up and flourish. +Everybody now wanted to live near a railroad or a canal. The rapid +increase in manufactures had led to the occupation of the fine +water-power sites, and to the creation of many such manufacturing towns +as Lowell (in Massachusetts) and Cohoes (in New York). The rise of so +many new kinds of business, of so many corporations, mills, and +factories, caused a rush of people to the cities, which now began to +grow rapidly in size. + +[Illustration: New York in 1830 (St. Paul's Chapel, on Broadway)] + +This made a change in city government necessary. The constable and the +watchman with his rattle had to give place to the modern policeman. The +old dingy oil lamps, lighted only when the moon did not shine, gave +place to gas. The cities were now so full of clerks, workingmen, +mechanics, and other people who had to live far away from the places +where they were employed, that a cheap means of transportation about the +streets became necessary. Accordingly, in 1830, an omnibus line was +started in New York.[1] It succeeded so well that in 1832 the first +street horse-car line in America was operated in New York city. + +[Footnote 1: Many did not know what the word "Omnibus" painted along the +top of the stages meant. Some thought it was the name of the man who +owned them. It is, of course, a Latin word, and means "for all"; that +is, the stages were public conveyances for the use of all.] + +%323. The Owenite Communities.%--The efforts thus made everywhere and +in every way to increase the comforts and conveniences of mankind turned +the years 1820-1840 into a period of reform. Anything new was eagerly +taken up. When, therefore, a Welshman named Robert Owen came over to +this country, and introduced what he considered a social reform, numbers +of people in the West became his followers. Owen believed that most of +the hardships of life came from the fact that some men secured more +property and made more money than others. He believed that people should +live together in communities in which the farms, the houses, the cattle, +the products of the soil, should be owned not by individual men, but by +the whole community. He held that there should be absolute social +equality, and that no matter what sort of work a man did, whether +skilled or unskilled, it should be considered just as valuable as the +work of any other man. + +All this was very alluring, and in a little while Owenite communities +were started in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York, +only to end in failure.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Noyes's _History of American Socialism._] + +%324. The Mormons.%--But there was a social movement started at this +time which still exists. In 1827, at Palmyra, in New York, a young man +named Joseph Smith announced that he had received a new bible from an +angel of the Lord. It was written, he said, on golden plates, which he +claimed to have read by the aid of two wonderful stones; and in 1830 he +gave to the world _The Book of Mormon_. + +After the book appeared, Smith and a few others organized a church. Many +at once began to believe in the new religion. But the West seemed so +much better a field that in 1831 Smith and his followers started for +Ohio, and at Kirtland established a Mormon community. There the Mormons +lived for several years, and then went to Missouri, whence they were +expelled, partly because they were an antislavery people. In 1840 they +settled on the banks of the Mississippi in Illinois and built the town +of Nauvoo. At Nauvoo they remained till 1846, when, having adopted +polygamy, they were driven off by the people of Illinois, and, led by +Brigham Young, marched to Council Bluffs, in Iowa. There they stopped to +look about them for a safe place of abode, and finally, in 1847, left +Council Bluffs for Great Salt Lake, then in the dominions of Mexico.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Kennedy's _Early Days of Mormonism_.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. The rise of the new states in the West, and the appearance of the +steamboat on the Mississippi, were the causes of a great revival of +public interest in internal improvements. + +2. The first to build a great western highway was New York state, which, +between 1817 and 1825, built the Erie Canal. + +3. This cut down the cost of moving freight to the West, led to +settlement along the banks of the canal, and made New York city the +metropolis of the country. + +4. It was during this period, 1815-1830, that many inventions, +discoveries, and improvements were made in the arts and sciences. + +5. The railroad was introduced, and the steam locomotive successfully +used. + +6. The cities grew, and in New York the omnibus and the street car began +to be used. + +The movement of population into the West.--The formation of new states +there.--The rise of manufactures in the East.--The fine market the West +offers for the products and importations of the Eastern States. + + * * * * * + +Lead to great rivalry between the Atlantic seaboard cities for Western +trade. + + * * * * * + +This rivalry leads to the development of three routes to the West. + +_The New York Route._ + + 1807. Steamboats on the Hudson. + 1817-25. Erie Canal + 1818. Steamboats on the Lakes. + Chautauqua Lake and Allegheny valley. + Effect of Erie Canal. + +_The Pennsylvania Route._ + + Old Conestoga wagons. + Effect of Erie Canal. + 1827. Pennsylvania state canals and railroads. + The Portage Railroad. + +_The Baltimore Route._ + + 1828. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad commenced. + + * * * * * + +The expansion of the country.--The development of the steamboat, the +railroad, and manufactures, and the increased opportunities for +doing business. + + * * * * * + +Lead to demand for labor-saving and time-saving machinery. + + Hard-coal grate and stove. + Fire bricks. + Paper made from straw. + Brick-making machine. + Planing machine. + Platform scales. + Reaping machine. + Colt's revolver. + Sewing machine (Hunt). + Steel pens. + Threshing machine. + Telegraph (electric). + Steam printing press. + Matches, etc., etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 + +%325. New Political Institutions.%--Of the political leaders of +Washington's time few were left in 1825. The men who then conducted +affairs had almost all been born since the Revolution, or were children +at the time.[1] The same is true of the mass of the people. They too had +been born since the Revolution, and, growing up under different +conditions, held ideas very different from the men who went before them. +They were more democratic and much less aristocratic, more humane, more +practical. They abolished the old and cruel punishments, such as +branding the cheeks and foreheads of criminals with letters, cutting off +their ears, putting them in the pillory and the stocks; they partly +abolished imprisonment for debt; they established free schools, +reformatories, asylums, and penitentiaries. They amended their state +constitutions or made new ones, and extended the right to vote, and +introduced new political institutions, some of which were of doubtful +value, but are still used. + +[Footnote 1: John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were born in 1767; +Henry Clay, in 1777; John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, +and Thomas H. Benton, in 1782.] + +%326. Political Proscription; the Gerrymander.%--One of these was the +custom of turning men out of public office because they did not belong +to the party in power, or did not "work" for the election of the +successful candidate. As early as 1792 this vicious practice was in use +in Pennsylvania, and a few years later was introduced in New York by De +Witt Clinton. Jefferson resorted to it when he became President, but it +was not till 1820 that it was firmly established by Congress. In that +year William H. Crawford, who was Secretary of the Treasury and a +presidential candidate, secured the passage of a "tenure of office" act, +limiting the term of collectors of revenue, and a host of other +officials, to four years, and thus made the appointments to these places +rewards for political service. + +Another institution dating from this time is the gerrymander. In 1812, +when Elbridge Gerry was the Republican governor of Massachusetts, his +party, finding that at the next election they would lose the +governorship and the House of Representatives, decided to hold the +Senate by marking out new senatorial districts. In doing this they drew +the lines in such wise that districts where there were large Federalist +majorities were cut in two, and the parts annexed to other districts, +where there were yet larger Republican majorities. + +[Illustration] + +The story is told that a map of the Essex senatorial district was +hanging on the office wall of the editor of the _Columbian Centinel_, +when a famous artist named Stuart entered. Struck by the peculiar +outline of the towns forming the district, he added a head, wings, and +claws with his pencil, and turning to the editor, said: "There, that +will do for a salamander." "Better say a Gerrymander," returned the +editor, alluding to Elbridge Gerry, the Republican governor who had +signed the districting act. However this may be, it is certain that the +name "gerrymander" was applied to the odious law in the columns of the +_Centinel_, that it came rapidly into use, and has remained in our +political nomenclature ever since. Indeed, a huge cut of the monster was +prepared, and the next year was scattered as a broadside over the +commonwealth, and so aroused the people that in the spring of 1813, +despite the gerrymander, the Federalists recovered control of the +Senate, and repealed the law. But the example was set, and was quickly +imitated in New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. This established the +institution, and it has been used over and over again to this day. + +%327. The Third-term Tradition.%--Another political custom which had +grown to have the force of law was that of never electing a President to +three terms. There is nothing in the Constitution to prevent a President +serving any number of terms; but, as we have seen, when Washington +finished his second he declined another, and when Jefferson (in +1807-1808) was asked by the legislatures of several states to accept a +third term, he declined, and very seriously advised the people never to +elect any man President more than twice.[1] The example so set was +followed by Madison and Monroe and had thus by 1824 become an +established usage. + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers,_ pp. 64-70.] + +%328. New Political Issues.%--The most important change of all was +the rise of new political issues. We have seen how the financial +questions which divided the people in 1790-1792 and gave rise to the +Federalist and Republican parties, were replaced during the wars between +England and France by the question, "Shall the United States be +neutral?" It was not until the end of our second war with Great Britain +that we were again free to attend to our home affairs. + +During the long embargo and the war, manufactures had arisen, and one +question now became, "Shall home manufactures be encouraged?" With the +rapid settlement of the Mississippi valley and the demand for roads, +canals, and river improvements by which trade might be carried on with +the West, there arose a second political question: "Shall these internal +improvements be made at government expense?" + +Now the people of the different sections of the country were not of one +mind on these questions. The Middle States and Kentucky and some parts +of New England wanted manufactures encouraged. In the West and the +Middle States people were in favor of internal improvements at the cost +of the government. In the South Atlantic States, where tobacco and +cotton and rice were raised and shipped (especially the cotton) to +England, people cared nothing for manufactures, nothing for internal +improvements. + +%329. Presidential Candidates in 1824.%--This diversity of opinion on +questions of vital importance had much to do with the breaking up of the +Republican party into sectional factions after 1820. The ambition of +leaders in these sections helped on the disruption, so that between 1821 +and 1824 four men, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of +Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, John C. Calhoun of South +Carolina, were nominated for President by state legislatures or state +nominating conventions, by mass meeting or by gatherings of men who had +assembled for other purposes but seized the occasion to indorse or +propose a candidate. A fifth, William H. Crawford, was nominated by the +congressional caucus, which then acted for the last time in our history. + +Before election day this list was reduced to four: Calhoun had become +the candidate of all factions for the vice presidency. + +[Illustration: John Quincy Adams] + +%330. Adams elected by the House of Representatives.%--The +Constitution provides that no man is chosen President by the electors +who does not receive a majority of their votes. In 1824 Jackson received +ninety-nine; Adams, eighty-four; Crawford, forty-one; and Clay, +thirty-seven. There was, therefore, no election, and it became the duty +of the House of Representatives to make a choice. But according to the +Constitution only the three highest could come before the House. This +left out Clay, who was Speaker and who had great influence. His friends +would not vote for Jackson on any account, nor for Crawford, the +caucus candidate. Adams they liked, because he believed in internal +improvements at government expense and a protective tariff. Adams +accordingly was elected President. Calhoun had been elected Vice +President by the electoral college. + +[Illustration: The United States July 4, 1826] + +The election of John Quincy Adams was a matter of intense disappointment +to the friends of Jackson. In the heat of party passion and the +bitterness of their disappointment they declared that it was the result +of a bargain between Adams and Clay. Clay, they said, was to induce his +friends in the House of Representatives to vote for Adams, in return for +which Adams was to make Clay Secretary of State. No such bargain was +ever made. But when Adams did appoint Clay Secretary of State, Jackson +and his followers were fully convinced of the contrary[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chap. 10; Schurz's _Life of +Clay_, Vol. I., pp. 203-258] + +As a consequence, the legislature of Tennessee at once renominated +Jackson for the presidency, and he became the people's candidate and +drew about him not only the men who voted for him in 1824, but those +also who had voted for Crawford, who was paralyzed and no longer a +candidate. They called themselves "Jackson men," or Democratic +Republicans. + +Adams, it was known, would be nominated to succeed himself, and about +him gathered all who wanted a tariff for protection, roads and canals at +national expense, and a distribution among the states of the money +obtained from the sale of public lands. These were the "Adams men," or +National Republicans. + +%331. Antimasons.%--But there was a third party which arose in a very +curious way and soon became powerful. In 1826, at Batavia in New York, a +freemason named William Morgan announced his intention to publish a book +revealing the secrets of masonry; but about the time the book was to +come out Morgan disappeared and was never seen again. This led to the +belief that the masons had killed him, and stirred up great excitement +all over the twelve western counties of New York. The "antimasons" said +that a man who was a freemason considered his duty to his order superior +to his duty to his country; and a determined effort was made to prevent +the election of any freemason to office. + +[Illustration: Andrew Jackson ] + +At first the "antimasonic" movement was confined to western New York, +but the moment it took a political turn it spread across northern Ohio, +Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and +was led by some of the most distinguished men and aspiring politicians +of the time[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Stanwood's _Presidential Elections_, Chap. 18] + +%332. The Election of Jackson.%--When the presidential election +occurred in 1828, there were thus three parties,--the "Jackson men," the +"Administration," and the Antimasonic. But politics had very little to +do with the result. In the early days of the republic, the mass of men +were ignorant and uneducated, and willingly submitted to be led by men +of education and what was called breeding. From Washington down to John +Quincy Adams, the presidents were from the aristocratic class. They were +not men of the people. But in course of time a great change had come +over the mass of Americans. Their prosperity, their energy in developing +the country, had made them self-reliant, and impatient of all claims of +superiority. One man was now no better than another, and the cry arose +all over the country for a President who was "a man of the people." +Jackson was just such a man, and it was because he was "a man of the +people" that he was elected. Of 261 electoral votes he received 178, +and Adams 83. + +%333. The North and the South Two Different Peoples.%--Before +entering on Jackson's administration, it is necessary to call attention +to the effect produced on our country by the industrial revolution +discussed in Chaps. 19 and 22. In the first place, it produced two +distinct and utterly different peoples: the one in the North and the +other in the South. In the North, where there were no great +plantations, no great farms, and where the labor was free, the marvelous +inventions, discoveries, and improvements mentioned were eagerly seized +on and used. There cities grew up, manufactures nourished, canals were +dug, railroads were built, and industries of every sort established. +Some towns, as Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Cohoes, Paterson, +Newark, and Pittsburg, were almost entirely given up to mills and +factories. No such towns existed in the South. In the South men lived on +plantations, raised cotton, tobacco, and rice, owned slaves, built few +large towns, cared nothing for internal improvements, and established no +industries of any sort. + +This difference of occupation led of course to difference of interests +and opinions, so that on three matters--the extension of slavery, +internal improvements, and tariff for protection--the North and the +South were opposed to each other. In the West and the Middle States +these questions were all-important, and by a union of the two sections +under the leadership of Clay a new tariff was passed in 1824, and in the +course of the next four years $2,300,000 were voted for internal +improvements. + +The Virginia legislature (1825) protested against internal improvements +at government expense and against the tariff. But the North demanded +more, and in 1827 another tariff bill was prevented from passing only by +the casting vote of Vice President Calhoun. And now the two sections +joined issue. The South, in memorials, resolutions, and protests, +declared a tariff for protection to be unconstitutional, partial, and +oppressive. The wool growers and manufacturers of the North called a +national convention of protectionists to meet at Harrisburg, and when +Congress met, forced through the tariff of 1828. The South answered with +anti-tariff meetings, addresses, resolutions, with boycotts on the +tariff states, and with protests from the legislatures. Calhoun then +came forward as the leader of the movement and put forth an argument, +known as the South Carolina Exposition, in which he urged that a +convention should meet in South Carolina and decide in what manner the +tariff acts should "be declared null and void within the limits of +the state." + +%334. May a State nullify an Act of Congress?%--The right of a state +to nullify an act of Congress thus became the question of the hour, and +was again set forth yet more fully by Calhoun in 1831. That the South +was deeply in earnest was apparent, and in 1832 Congress changed the +tariff of 1828, and made it less objectionable. But it was against +tariff for protection, not against any particular tariff, that South +Carolina contended, and finding that the North would not give up its +principles, she put her threat into execution. The legislature called a +state convention, which declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were +null and void and without force in South Carolina, and forbade anybody +to pay the duties laid by these laws after February 1, 1833.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Houston's _A Critical Study of Nullification in South +Carolina_; Parton's _Jackson_, Vol. III., Chaps. 32-34; Schurz's _Life +of Clay_, Vol. II., Chap. 14; Von Holst's _Life of Calhoun_, Chap. 4; +Lodge's _Life of Webster_, Chaps. 6, 7; Rhodes's _History of the United +States_, Vol. I., pp. 40-50.] + +Jackson, who had just been reëlected, was not terrified. He bade the +collector at Charleston go on and collect the revenue duties, and use +force if necessary, and he issued a long address to the Nullifiers. On +the one hand, he urged them to yield. On the other, he told them that +"the laws of the United States must be executed.... Those who told you +that you might peacefully prevent their execution deceived you.... Their +object is disunion, and disunion by armed force is treason." + +%335. Webster's Great Reply to Calhoun.%--Calhoun, who since 1825 had +been Vice President of the United States, now resigned, and was at once +made senator from South Carolina. When Congress met in December, 1832, +the great question before it was what to do with South Carolina. Jackson +wanted a "Force Act," that is, an act giving him power to collect the +tariff duties by force of arms. Hayne, who was now governor of South +Carolina, declared that if this was done, his state would leave +the Union. + +A great debate occurred on the Force Act, in which Calhoun, speaking for +the South, asserted the right of a state to nullify and secede from the +Union, while Webster, speaking for the North, denied the right of +nullification and secession, and upheld the Union and the +Constitution.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. I., pp. 196-212; +Webster's _Works_, Vol. III., pp. 248-355, 448-505; Rhodes's _History +of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 50-52.] + +%336. The Compromise of 1833%.--Meantime, Henry Clay, seeing how +determined each side was, and fearing civil war might follow, came +forward with a compromise. He proposed that the tariff of 1832 should be +reduced gradually till July, 1842, when on all articles imported there +should be a duty equal to twenty per cent of their value. This was +passed, and the Compromise Tariff, as it is called, became a law in +March, 1833. A new convention in South Carolina then repealed the +ordinance of nullification. + +%337. War on the Bank of the United States%.--While South Carolina +was thus fighting internal improvements and the tariff, the whole +Jackson party was fighting the Bank of the United States. You will +remember that this institution was chartered by Congress in 1816; and +its charter was to run till 1836. Among the rights given it was that of +having branches in as many cities in the country as it pleased, and, +exercising this right, it speedily established branches in the chief +cities of the South and West. The South and West were already full of +state banks, and, knowing that the business of these would be injured if +the branches of the United States Bank were allowed to come among them, +the people of that region resented the reëstablishment of a national +bank. Jackson, as a Western man, shared in this hatred, and when he +became President was easily persuaded by his friends (who wished to +force the Bank to take sides in politics) to attack it. The charter had +still nearly eight years to run; nevertheless, in his first message to +Congress (December, 1829) he denounced the Bank as unconstitutional, +unnecessary, and as having failed to give the country a sound currency, +and suggested that it should not be rechartered. Congress paid little +attention to him. But he kept on, year after year, till, in 1832, the +friends of the Bank made his attack a political issue[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Roosevelt's _Life of Benton_, Chap. 6; Parton's _Life of +Jackson_, Vol. III., Chaps. 29-31; Tyler's _Memoir of Roger B. Taney_, +Vol. I., Chap. 3; Von Hoist's _Constitutional History_, Vol. II., pp. +31-52; Schurz's _Clay_, Vol. L, Chap. 13; _American History +Leaflets_, No. 24] + +%338. The First National Nominating Convention; the First Party +Platform.%--To do this was easy, because in 1832 it was well known +that Jackson would again be a candidate for the presidency. Now the +presidential contest of that year is remarkable for two reasons: + +1. Because each of the three parties held a national convention for the +nomination of candidates. + +2. Because a party platform was then used for the first time. + +The originators of the national convention were the Antimasons. State +conventions of delegates to nominate state officers, such as governors +and congressmen and presidential electors, had long been in use. But +never, till September, 1831, had there been a convention of delegates +from all parts of the country for the purpose of nominating the +President and Vice President. In that year Antimasonic delegates from +twenty-two states met at Baltimore and nominated William Wirt and +Amos Ellmaker. + +The example thus set was quickly followed, for in December, 1831, a +convention of National Republicans nominated Henry Clay. In May, 1832, a +national convention of Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren for Vice +President[1]; and in that same month, a "national assembly of young +men," or, as the Democrats called it, "Clay's Infant School," met at +Washington and framed the first party platform. They were friends of +Clay, and in their platform they demanded protection to American +industries, and internal improvements at government expense, and +denounced Jackson for his many removals from office. They next issued an +address to the people, in which they declared that if Jackson were +reëlected, the Bank would "be abolished." [2] + +[Footnote 1: It was not necessary to nominate Jackson. That he should be +re-elected was the wish of the great body of voters. The convention, +therefore, merely nominated a Vice President] + +[Footnote 2: For party platform see McKee's _National Platforms of all +Parties._] + +%339. Jackson destroys the Bank.%--The friends of the Bank meantime +appealed to Congress for a new charter and found little difficulty in +getting it. But when the bill went to Jackson for his signature, he +vetoed it, and, as its friends had not enough votes to pass the bill +over the veto, the Bank was not rechartered. + +The only hope left was to defeat Jackson at the polls. But this too was +a failure, for he was reëlected by greater majorities than he had +received in 1828.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Of the 288 electoral votes, Jackson received 219, and Clay +49. Wirt, the Antimason, secured 7.] + +%340. Jackson withdraws the Government Money from the Bank.%--This +signal triumph was understood by Jackson to mean that the people +approved of his treatment of the Bank. So he continued to hurt it all he +could, and in 1833 ordered his Secretary of the Treasury to remove the +money of the United States from the Bank and its branches. This the +Secretary[1] refused to do; whereupon Jackson removed him and put +another,[2] who would, in his place. After 1833, therefore, the +collectors of United States revenue ceased to deposit it in the Bank of +the United States, and put it in state banks ("pet banks") named by the +Secretary of the Treasury. The money already on deposit was gradually +drawn out, till none remained.[3] + +[Footnote 1: William J. Duane. ] + +[Footnote 2: Roger B. Taney. ] + +[Footnote 3: Parton's _Jackson,_ Vol. III., Chaps. 36-39; _American +History Leaflets,_ No. 24; Sumner's _Jackson_, Chaps. 13, 14; Von +Hoist's _Constitutional History,_ Vol. II., pp. 52-79; Roosevelt's +_Benton_, Chap. 6. ] + +For this act the Senate, when it met in December, 1833, passed a vote of +censure on Jackson and entered the censure on its journal. Jackson +protested, and asked to have his protest entered, but the Senate +refused. Whereupon Benton of Missouri declared that he would not rest +till the censure was removed or "expunged" from the journal. At first +this did not seem likely to occur. But Benton kept at it, and at last, +in 1837, the Senate having become Democratic, he succeeded[1]. + +[Footnote 1: When the resolution had passed, the Clerk of the Senate was +ordered to bring in the journal, draw a thick black line around the +censure, and write across it "Expunged by order of the Senate, January +16, 1837."] + +%341. Wildcat State Banks.%--As soon as the reëlection of Jackson +made it certain that the charter of the Bank of the United States would +not be renewed, the same thing happened in 1833 that had occurred in +1811. The legislature of every state was beset with applications for +bank charters, and granted them. In 1832 there were but 288 state banks +in the country. In 1836 there were 583. Some were established in order +to get deposits of the government money. Others were started for the +purpose of issuing paper money with which the bank officials might +speculate. Others, of course, were founded with an honest purpose. But +they all issued paper money, which the people borrowed on very poor +security and used in speculation. + +%342. The Period of Speculation.%--Never before had the opportunity +for speculation been so great. The new way of doing business, the rise +of corporations and manufactures, drew people into the cities, which +grew in area and afforded a chance for investors to get rich by +purchasing city lots and holding them for a rise in price. Railroads and +canals were being projected all over the country. Another favorite way +of speculating, therefore, was to buy land along the lines of railroads +building or to be built. Suddenly cotton rose a few cents a pound, and +thousands of people began to speculate in slaves and cotton land. Others +bought land in the West from the government, at $1.25 an acre, and laid +it out into town lots,[1] which they sold for $10 and $20 apiece to +people in the East. In short, everybody who could was borrowing paper +money from the banks and speculating. + +[Footnote 1: Sometimes ten such lots would be laid out on an acre] + +Under these conditions, any cause which should force the banks to stop +loaning money, or to call in that already loaned, would bring on a +panic. And this is just what happened. + +%343. The Specie Circular.%--Speculation in government land was so +general that the annual sales rose from $2,300,000 in 1831, to +$24,900,000 in 1836.[2] Finding that these great purchases were paid for +not in gold and silver, but in state bank paper money, Jackson became +alarmed. Many of the banks were of doubtful soundness, and if they +failed, all their money which the government had taken for land would be +lost. In 1836, therefore, Jackson issued his "Specie Circular," which +commanded all officials authorized to sell government land to receive +payment in nothing but gold or silver or land scrip. A great demand for +specie and a removal of it from the banks in the East to those in the +West followed, which of course hurt the Eastern banks, because it took +away some of their money, and that kind of money which they were holding +for the purpose of redeeming their paper. + +[Footnote 2: Shepard's _Van Buren_, Chap. 8; Sumner's _Jackson_, pp. +322-325] + +Another thing which hurt the banks, by forcing them to stop loaning and +to call for a settlement of debts, was the distribution of the surplus +revenue among the states. + +%344. The Surplus Revenue.%--What caused this surplus revenue? Many +things. + +1. The United States had no debt. The national debt, you remember, was +created in 1790 by funding the foreign and Congress debt and assuming +those of the states, and amounted to $75,000,000. When Jefferson was +elected President in 1801, this debt had risen to $80,000,000; but +during his administration it fell to $57,000,000. The war with England +raised it to $127,000,000, after which it once more decreased year by +year till 1835, when every dollar was paid off, and the United States +was out of debt[1]. + +[Footnote 1: As bonds, etc., to the value of $35,000 were never +presented for payment, the United States appears to have always been in +debt. This $35,000 probably represents evidences of indebtedness lost by +the owners] + +2. The expenses of the government were not large. + +3. There was a heavy importation of foreign goods, which produced a +great revenue under the tariff act. + +4. The immense speculation in government lands already described +produced a large income to the government[1]. + +[Footnote 1: The land sales were $4,800,000 in 1834, $14,757,000 in +1835, and $24,877,000 in 1836] + +In consequence of these causes, the government on June 1, 1836, had in +the banks $41,500,000 more than it needed. + +What to do with this useless money sorely puzzled Congress. It could not +reduce the tariff, because that was gradually being reduced under the +compromise of 1833. Some wanted the money derived from the sale of land +distributed. But at last it was decided to take all the surplus the +government had on January 1, 1837, subtract $5,000,000 from it, and +divide the rest by the number of senators and representatives in +Congress, and give each state as many parts as it had senators and +representatives[1]. + +[Footnote 1: One state, New York, was to receive $4,000,000, three +states over $2,000,000, six over $1,000,000, and eight over $500,000] + +On January 1, 1837, the surplus was $42,468,000, which, after +subtracting the $5,000,000, left $37,468,000 to be distributed. It was +to be paid in four installments[1]; but only three of them were ever +paid, for, when October 1, 1837, came, the whole country was suffering +from a panic[2]. + +[Footnote 1: The days of payment were Jan. 1, April 1, July 1, and Oct. +1, 1837] + +[Footnote 2: Bourne's _History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837_] + +%345. The Panic of 1837.%--Now, when the banks in which the +government surplus was kept were suddenly called on to give it up in +order that it might be distributed among the states, (as they had +loaned this surplus) they were all forced to call it in. More than that, +they would make no new loans. This made credit hard to get. As a +consequence, mills and factories shut down, all buying and selling +stopped, and thousands of workmen were thrown out of employment. As +everybody wanted money, it followed that houses, lands, property of +every sort, was offered for sale at ridiculously low prices. But there +were no buyers. In New York the distress was so great that bread riots +occurred. The merchants, unable to pay their debts, began to fail, and +to make matters worse the banks all over the country suspended specie +payment; that is, refused to give gold and silver in exchange for their +paper bills. Then the panic set in, and for a while the people, the +states, and the government were bankrupt[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren_, Chap. 8.] + +%346. Election of Martin Van Buren; Eighth President.%--In accordance +with the well-established custom that no President shall have more than +two terms, Jackson [Illustration: Martin Van Buren] would not accept a +renomination in 1836. So the Democratic national convention nominated +Martin Van Buren and R.M. Johnson. The Whigs, as the National +Republicans called themselves after 1834, did not hold a national +nominating convention, but agreed to support William Henry Harrison. Van +Buren was elected, and inaugurated March. 4, 1837[1]. + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Chap. 7.] + +%347 The New National Debt; the Independent Treasury.%--But scarcely +had he taken the oath of office when the panic swept over the country, +and his whole term was one of financial distress or hard times. The +suspension of specie payment and the failures of many banks and +merchants left the government without money, and forced Van Buren to +call an extra session of Congress in September, 1837. Before adjourning, +Congress ordered the fourth or October installment of the distributed +revenue to be suspended. It has never been given to the states. +Congress also authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue +$10,000,000 in treasury notes, and so laid the foundation for the second +national debt, which one cause or another has continued ever since. + +The experience the government had thus twice passed through (1814 and +1837) led the people to believe it ought not to keep its money in state +banks. But just where the money should be kept was a disputed party +question. The Whigs insisted on a third National Bank like the old one +Jackson had destroyed. Van Buren wanted what was called an "Independent +Treasury," and after four attempts the act establishing it was passed +in 1840. + +The law created four "receivers general" (one each at Boston, New York, +Charleston, and St. Louis), to whom all money collected by the United +States officials should be turned over, and directed that "rooms, +vaults, and safes" should be provided for the safe keeping of +the money.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren,_ Chap. 9.] + +As might be expected, the people laid all the blame for the hard times +on Van Buren and his party. The Democrats, they said, had destroyed the +National Bank; they had then removed the United States money, and given +it to "pet" state banks; they had then distributed the surplus, and by +taking the surplus from the state banks had brought on the panic. +Whether this was true or not, the people believed it, and were +determined to "turn out little Van." + +The campaign of 1840 was the most novel, exciting, and memorable that +had yet taken place. Three parties had candidates in the field. The +Antislavery party put forward James Gillespie Birney and Thomas Earle. +The Democrats in their convention renominated Van Buren, but no Vice +President. The Whigs nominated W.H. Harrison, and John Tyler of +Virginia. The mention of the Antislavery party makes it necessary to +account for its origin. + +%348. The Antislavery Movement%.--The appearance of the Antislavery +or Liberty party marks the beginning in national affairs of an +antislavery movement which had long been going on in the states. When +the Missouri Compromise was made in 1820, many people believed that the +troublesome matter of slavery was settled. This was a mistake, and the +compromise really made matters worse. In the first place, it encouraged +the men in Illinois who favored slavery to attempt to make it a slave +state by amending the state constitution, an attempt which failed in +1824 after a long struggle. In the second place, it aroused certain men +who had been agitating for freeing the slaves to redoubled energy. Among +these were Benjamin Lundy, James Gillespie Birney, and William Lloyd +Garrison, who in 1831 established an abolition newspaper called the +_Liberator_, which became very famous. In the third place, it led to the +formation all over the North, and in many places in the South, of new +abolition societies, and stirred up the old ones and made them more +active.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _James G. Birney and his Times_, Chap. 12.] + +For a time these societies carried on their work, each independent of +the others. But in 1833, a convention of delegates from them met at +Philadelphia, and formed a national society called the American +Antislavery Society.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Its constitution declared (1) that each state has exclusive +right to regulate slavery within it; (2) that the society will endeavor +to persuade Congress to stop the interstate slave trade, to abolish +slavery in the territories and in the District of Columbia, and to admit +no more slave states into the Union.] + +%349. Antislavery Documents shut out of the Mails.%--Thus organized, +the society went to work at once and flooded the South with newspapers, +pamphlets, pictures, and handbills, all intended to arouse a sentiment +for instant abolition or emancipation of slaves. The South declared that +these were inflammatory, insurrectionary, and likely to incite the +slaves to revolt, and called on the North to suppress abolition +societies and stop the spread of abolition papers. To do such a thing by +legal means was impossible; so an attempt was made to do it by illegal +means. In the Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Utica, Boston, +Haverhill, mobs broke up meetings of abolitionists, and dragged the +leaders about the streets. In the South, the postmasters, as at +Charleston, seized antislavery tracts and pamphlets going through the +mails, and the people burned them. In New York city such matter was +taken from the mails and destroyed by the postmaster. When these +outrages were reported to Amos Kendall, the Postmaster-General, he +approved of them; and when Congress met, Jackson asked for a law that +would prohibit the circulation "in the Southern States, through the +mails, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to +insurrection." From the legislatures of five Southern states came +resolutions calling on the people of the North to suppress the +abolitionists.[1] Congress and the legislatures of New York and Rhode +Island responded; but the bills introduced did not pass.[2] + +[Footnote 1: South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and +Georgia.] + +[Footnote 2: _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 184-194.] + +This attempt having failed, the mobs again took up the work, and began +to smash and destroy the presses of antislavery newspapers. One paper, +twice treated in this manner in 1836, was the _Philanthropist_ published +at Cincinnati by James Gillespie Birney. Another was the _Observer_, +published at Alton by Elijah Lovejoy, who was murdered in defending his +property.[1] The _Pennsylvania Freeman_ was a third. + +[Footnote 1: Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Vol. +II., Chap. 27; _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 204-219, 241-255.] + +%350. The Gag Rule%.--Not content with attacking the liberty of the +press, the proslavery men attacked the right of petition. The +Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... +the right of the people ... to petition the government for a redress of +grievances." Under this right the antislavery people had long been +petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and +the petitions had been received; but of course not granted. Now, in +1836, when John Quincy Adams presented one to the House of +Representatives, a member moved that it be not received. A fierce debate +followed, and out of it grew a rule which forbade any petition, +resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery, or the abolition of +slavery, to be received. This famous "Gag Rule" was adopted by Congress +after Congress until 1844.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Morse's _Life of John Quincy Adams, _pp. 249-253, 306-308.] + +%351. The Liberty Party formed%.--The effect of these extreme +measures was greatly to increase the antislavery sentiment. But the men +who held these sentiments were largely members of the Whig and +Democratic parties. In the hope of drawing them from their parties, and +inducing them to act together, the antislavery conventions about 1838 +began to urge the formation of an antislavery party, which was finally +accomplished at Albany, N.Y., in April, 1840, where James G. Birney was +nominated for President, and Thomas Earle for Vice President. No name +was given to the new organization till 1844, when it was christened +"Liberty party." + +%352. The Log Cabin, Hard Cider Campaign%.--The candidate of the +Democrats (Martin Van Buren) was a shrewd and skillful politician. The +candidate of the Whigs (Harrison) was the ideal of a popular favorite. +To defeat him at such a time, when the people were angry with the +Democrats, would have been hard, but they made it harder still by +ridiculing his honorable poverty and his Western surroundings. At the +very outset of the campaign a Democratic newspaper declared that +Harrison would be more at home "in a log cabin, drinking hard cider and +skinning coons, than living in the White House as President." The Whigs +instantly took up the sneer and made the log cabin the emblem of their +party. All over the country log cabins (erected at some crossroads, or +on the village common, or on some vacant city lot) became the Whig +headquarters. On the door was a coon skin; a leather latch string was +always hanging out as a sign of hospitality, and beside the door stood a +barrel of hard cider. Every Whig wore a Harrison and Tyler badge, and +knew by heart all the songs in the _Log Cabin Songster_. Immense mass +meetings were held, at which 50,000, and even 80,000, people attended. +Weeks were spent in getting ready for them. In the West, where +railroads were few, the people came in covered wagons with provisions, +and camped on the ground days before the meeting. At the monster meeting +at Dayton, O., 100,000 people were present, covering ten acres of +ground.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren_, pp. 323-335.] + +[Illustration: William H. Harrison] + +%353. William Henry Harrison, Ninth President; John Tyler, Tenth +President%.--Harrison was triumphantly elected, and inaugurated March +4, 1841. But his career was short, for on April 4 he died,[2] and John +Tyler took his place. Tyler had never been a Whig. He had always been a +Democrat. Nevertheless, the Whigs, confident of his aid, tried to carry +out certain reform measures. + +[Footnote 2: His death was a great shock to the people. Two vice +presidents, George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry, had died in office. But +nobody seems to have thought it likely that a president would die.] + +[Illustration: John Tyler] + +%354. The Quarrel between Tyler and the Whigs%.--The first thing they +did was to repeal the law establishing the Independent Treasury. This +Tyler approved. They next attempted to reëstablish the Bank of the +United States under the name of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States." +Tyler, who was opposed to banks, vetoed the bill, and when the Whigs +sent him another to create a "Fiscal Corporation," he vetoed that also. +Then every member of the cabinet save Webster resigned, and at a meeting +of the great Whig leaders Tyler was formally "read out of the party." + +%355. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty%.--Webster was Secretary of State, +and though a Whig, retained his place in order that he might complete a +treaty which determined our boundary line from the source of the St. +Croix to the St. Lawrence, thus settling a long dispute between Maine +and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Canada. The difficulty +arose over the meaning of terms in the treaty of 1783, and though twice +submitted to a joint commission, and once to arbitration, seemed further +than ever from a peaceful settlement when Webster and Lord Ashburton +arranged it in 1842. The treaty ratified, Webster soon resigned. + +[Illustration:] + +The people meanwhile had recovered from the excitement of the campaign +of 1840, and at the congressional election of 1842 they made the House +of Representatives Democratic. There were thus a Whig Senate, a +Democratic House, and a President who was neither a Whig nor a Democrat. +As a consequence few measures of any importance were passed till 1845. + + +SUMMARY + +1. During 1789-1825 a marked change had taken place in the ideas of +government, and this led to new state constitutions; to an extension of +the right to vote; to the belief that no President should have more than +two terms; to the belief that political offices should be given to +political workers; and to the introduction of the "gerrymander." + +2. The disappearance of issues which divided the Federalists and +Republicans; the loss of old leaders; the appearance of a new generation +with new political issues, destroyed old party lines. + +3. First to disappear were the Federalists. In 1820 there was but one +presidential candidate (Monroe), and but one political party (the +Republican). + +4. During Monroe's second term the new issues began to break up the +Republican party, and in the election of 1824 the people of the four +great sections of the country presented candidates. For the second time +a President (John Quincy Adams) was elected by the House of +Representatives. + +5. In 1828 the Republicans again supported Jackson, and his opponents +under Adams were defeated. In 1827 the antimasonic party arose. + +6. The issues now before the people were the tariff, the recharter of +the National Bank, and the use of the surplus revenue, and these became +the leading questions of Jackson's eight years (1829-1837). + +7. The general use of the steamboat, and the good roads, so reduced the +cost of transportation that it was possible to introduce a new piece of +political machinery--the national convention--to nominate candidates for +President and Vice President. + +8. In Jackson's second term the antislavery movement began in earnest; +the Whig party was organized and named; the national debt was paid off, +and the surplus distributed. + +9. Jackson was followed by Van Buren, in whose administration the great +panic of 1837 occurred. Because of this and hard times a second national +debt was started. A new financial measure was the establishment of the +Independent Treasury. + +10. This the Whigs under Tyler destroyed. They attempted to replace it +with a third National Bank, but were prevented from doing so by +Tyler's vetoes. + + * * * * * + +THE INDUSTRIAL, MECHANICAL, AGRICULTURAL, AND SOCIAL PROGRESS +OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1800 AND 1840 LEADS TO + +_New political ideas_ + + Gerrymandering. + Extension of the franchise. + No third term for a President. + No nomination by congressional caucus. + +_New political issues_. + + Use of public lands. + Tariff. + Internal improvements. + + * * * * * + +These issues and ideas break up the Republican +party into factions led in 1824 by + +Crawford and Gallatin, Caucus candidates. + +Anti-caucus candidates. + + Clay, + Calhoun, + Adams, + Jackson + +Elected + + Adams by House of Representatives. + Calhoun by electoral college. + +Renominated in 1828. + + Adams defeated. + Jackson and Calhoun elected. + + ________________________________|____________________ + | | 18|32 + | | ______________|_________________________________ +Tariff. | | | | +Of 1824, opposed | Clay defeated. Jackson reëlected. 1827, Rise of Antimasons. + by the South. Finance Van Buren Vice President 1831, Originate national +Of 1828, \ ________________ | nominating convention. +Of 1832, / Nullified | | ________________|___________________________________ + by South Attack on the | | | | | + Carolina Bank of the Removal of the Surplus. Specie | Speculation + in 1832. United States. deposits. Cause of Circular | + |___________| Renewal of Censure of the amount. | +--------+ + | charter vetoed. President. "Deposit" or | Payments of the + Compromise Censure distribution | national dept, + of 1833. | expunged. among the | 1835. + |_____________________| states. | + | |____________| | + Great increase of | | + state banks. | | + |______________________________|__________|_________| + + Van Buren elected in 1836. + Inaugurated, March, 1837. + Panic of 1837. + _______________________________|__________________ + | | + Causes of the panic. Great opposition to the Democratic party. + Suspension of the banks. Union of this opposition in 1840 with the Whigs. + New national debt. ___________________|______________________________ + Suspension of distribution of | | | + the revenue. Democrats. Whigs. Antislavery + Establishment of Independent Issue their first Issue no platform. party. + Treasury. party platform. Nominate Harrison. Origin of. + Nominate Van Buren. Elect him. Nominates J. + Are defeated. G. Birney. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA + +%356. Texas secures Independence.%--The fact that Tyler now belonged +to no party enabled him to commit an act which, had he belonged to +either, he would not have ventured to commit at that time,--to make a +treaty of annexation with Texas. + +[Illustration: %TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS% WHEN ADMITTED INTO THE +UNION %1845%] + +In 1821 Mexico, which for years past had been fighting for independence, +was set free by Spain, and soon established herself as a republic under +the name of the United States of Mexico. The old Spanish provinces were +the states, and one of these provinces was Texas. As a country Texas had +been very attractive to Americans, and the eastern part would have been +settled early in the century if it had been definitely known who owned +it. Now that Mexico owned it, a citizen of the United States, Moses +Austin, asked for a large grant of land and for leave to bring in +settlers. A grant was made on condition that he should bring in 300 +families within a given time. Moses Austin died; but his son Stephen +went on with the scheme and succeeded so well that others followed his +example till seventeen such grants had been perfected. + +For some years the settlers managed their own affairs in their own way. +But about 1830 Mexico began to rule them harshly, and when they were +unable to stand it any longer they rebelled against her in 1833, and in +1836 set up the republic of Texas. At first the Texans were defeated, +and on two memorable occasions bands of them were massacred by the +Mexican soldiers after they had surrendered. Money and troops and aid of +every sort, however, were sent from the United States, and at length +Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, who commanded the Mexicans, was +defeated and captured and his army destroyed by the Texans under Samuel +Houston at the battle of San Jacinto (1836). The victory was hailed with +delight all over our country, and the independence of Texas was +acknowledged by the United States (1837), England, France, and Belgium. + +%357. Texas applies for Admission to the Union.%--As soon as +independence was acknowledged, the people of Texas became very anxious +to have their republic become a state in our Union; but slavery existed +in Texas, and the men of the free states opposed her admission. + +At last in 1844 Tyler secretly negotiated a treaty of annexation with +the Texan authorities, and surprised the Senate by submitting it +in April.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Senate rejected the treaty] + +The politicians were very indignant, for the national nominating +conventions were to meet in May, and the President by his act had made +the annexation of Texas a political issue. The Democrats, however, took +it up and in their platform declared for "the reannexation of Texas," +and nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee for President and George +Mifflin Dallas of Pennsylvania for Vice President. + +%358. The Joint Occupation of Oregon is continued.%--But there was +another plank in the Democratic platform of 1844 which promised the +acquisition of a great piece of free soil. We left the question of the +ownership of Oregon at the time when the United States and Great Britain +(in 1818) agreed to hold the country in joint occupation for ten years; +and when Russia, the United States, and Great Britain had (in 1824 and +1825) made 54° 40' the boundary line between the Oregon country and +Alaska. Before the ten-year period of joint occupation expired, Great +Britain and the United States, in 1827, agreed to continue it +indefinitely. Either party could end the agreement after a year's notice +to the other. + +%359. Attempts to end Joint Occupation.%--Before this time the men +who came to the Oregon country were explorers, trappers, hunters, +servants of the great fur companies, who built forts and trading +stations, but did little for the settlement of the region. After this +time missionaries were sent to the Indians, and serious efforts were +made to persuade men to emigrate to Oregon. Some parties did go, and as +a result of their work, and of the labors of the missionaries, Oregon, +in the course of ten years, became better known to the people of the +United States. + +Efforts were then begun to persuade Congress to extend the jurisdiction +of the United States over Oregon, order the occupation of the country, +and end the old agreement with Great Britain. Petitions were sent +(1838-1840), reports were made, bills were introduced; but Congress +stood firmly by the agreement, and would not take any steps toward the +occupation of Oregon. In 1842, Elijah White, a former missionary, came +to Washington and so impressed the authorities with the importance of +settling Oregon that he was appointed Indian Agent for that country, and +told to take back with him as many settlers as he could. Returning to +Missouri, he soon gathered a band of 112 persons and with these, the +largest number of settlers that had yet started for Oregon, he set off +across the plains in the spring of 1842. At the next session of Congress +(1842-1843) another effort was made to provide for the occupation of +Oregon at least as far north as 49°, and a bill for that purpose passed +the Senate. + +Meanwhile a rage for emigration to Oregon broke out in the West, and in +the early summer of 1843, nearly a thousand persons, with a long train +of wagons, moved out of Westport, Missouri, and started northwestward +over the plains. Like the emigrants of 1842, they succeeded in reaching +Oregon, though they encountered many hardships. + +%360. "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight."%--So much attention was thus +attracted to Oregon, in 1843, that the people by 1844 began to demand a +settlement of the boundary and an end of joint occupation. The Democrats +therefore gladly took up the Oregon matter. Their plan to reannex Texas, +which was slave soil, could, they thought, be offset by a declaration in +favor of acquiring all Oregon, which was free soil. The Democratic +platform for 1844, therefore, declared that "our title to the whole of +Oregon is clear; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to +England or any other power; and that the reoccupation of Oregon and the +reannexation of Texas" were great American measures, which the people +were urged to support. The people thought they were great American +measures, and with the popular cries of "The reannexation of Texas," +"Texas or disunion," "The whole of Oregon or none," "Fifty-four forty or +fight," the Democrats entered the campaign and won it, electing James K. +Polk and George M. Dallas. + +The Whigs were afraid to declare for or against the annexation, so they +said nothing about it in their platform, and nominated Henry Clay of +Kentucky and Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The real question of +the campaign was of course the annexation of Texas, and though the +platform was silent on that subject their leader spoke out. In a public +letter which appeared in a newspaper and was copied all over the Union, +Clay said that he believed slavery was doomed to end at no far away day; +that the admission of Texas could neither hasten nor put off the arrival +of that day, and that he "should be glad to see" Texas annexed if it +could be done "without dishonor, without war, and with the common +consent of the Union and upon just and fair terms." + +[Illustration: James K. Polk] + +Language of this sort did not please the antislavery Whigs; and in New +York numbers of them voted for James G. Birney and Thomas Morris, +candidates of the Liberty party. The result was that the vote for Birney +in New York in 1844 was more than twice as great as he received in the +whole Union in 1840. Had half of these New Yorkers voted for Clay +instead, he would have received the electoral vote of New York and would +have been President. + +[Illustration: %THE OREGON COUNTRY%] + +%361. Texas annexed to the United States.%--Tyler, who saw in the +result of the election a command from the people to acquire Texas, urged +Congress in December, 1844, to annex it at once. But in what manner +should it be acquired? Some said by a treaty. This would require the +consent of two thirds of the Senate. But the Democrats did not have the +votes of two thirds of the Senate and so could not have secured the +ratification of such a treaty. It was decided, therefore, to annex by +joint resolution, which required but a majority for its passage. The +House of Representatives accordingly passed such a resolution for the +admission of Texas, and with her consent for the formation of four +additional states out of the territory, those north of 36° 30' to be +free. The Senate amended this resolution and gave the President power to +negotiate another treaty of annexation, or submit the joint resolution +to Texas. The House accepted the amendment. Tyler chose to offer the +terms in the joint resolution. Texas accepted them, and in December, +1845, her senators and representatives took their seats in Congress. + +%362. Oregon.%--By the admission of Texas, the Democrats made good +one of the pledges in their platform of 1844. They were now called on to +make good the other, which promised the whole of Oregon up to 54° 40'. +To suppose that England would yield to this claim, and so cut herself +off entirely from the Pacific coast, was absurd. Nevertheless, because +of the force of popular opinion, the one year's notice necessary to +terminate joint occupation was served on Great Britain in 1846. The +English minister thereupon presented a treaty extending the 49th +parallel across Oregon from the Rocky Mountains to the coast, and +drawing a line down the strait of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific. Polk and +the Senate accepted this boundary, and the treaty was proclaimed on +August 5, 1846. Two years later, August 14, 1848, Oregon was made a +territory. + +%363. General Taylor enters Texas; War with Mexico begins.%--When +Texas came into the Union, she claimed as her western boundary the Rio +Grande from its mouth to its source and then a line due north to 42°. +Now this line was disputed by Mexico, which claimed that the Nueces +River was the western boundary of Texas. The disputed strip of territory +was thus between the Nueces and the Rio Grande (p. 321). + +President Polk, however, took the side of Texas, claimed the country as +far as the Rio Grande, and in January, 1846, ordered General Zachary +Taylor to march our army across the Nueces, go to the Rio Grande, and +occupy the disputed strip. This he did, and on April 25, 1846, the +Mexicans crossed the river and attacked the Americans. Taylor instantly +sent the news to Washington, and, May 12, Polk asked for a declaration +of war. "Mexico," said he, "has passed the boundary of the United +States; has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American +soil." Congress declared that war existed, and Polk called for 50,000 +volunteers (May 13, 1846). + +When the Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande and attacked the Americans at +Fort Brown, Taylor was at Point Isabel. Hurrying southward to the relief +of the fort, he met the enemy at Palo Alto, beat them, pushed on to +Resaca de la Palma, beat them again, and soon crossed the river and took +possession of the town of Matamoras. There he remained till August, +1846, waiting for supplies, reinforcements, and means of transportation, +when he began a march toward the city of Monterey. The Mexicans, +profiting by Taylor's long stay at Matamoras, had gathered in great +force at Monterey, and had strongly fortified every position. But Taylor +attacked with vigor, and after three days of continuous fighting, part +of the time from street to street and house to house, the Mexican +General Ampudia surrendered the city (September 24, 1846). An armistice +of six weeks' duration was then agreed on, after which Taylor moved on +leisurely to Saltillo (sahl-teel'-yo). + +%364. Scott in Mexico.%--Meantime, General Winfield Scott was sent to +Mexico to assume chief command. He reached the mouth of the Bio Grande +in January, 1847, and called on Taylor to send him 10,000 men. Santa +Anna (sahn'-tah ahn'-nah), who commanded the Mexicans, hearing of this +order, marched at once against Taylor, who took up a strong position at +Buena Vista (bwa'-nah vees'-tah), where a desperate battle was fought +February 23, 1847. The Americans won, and Santa Anna hurried off to +attack Scott, who was expected at Vera Cruz. Scott landed there in +March, and, after a siege of a few days, took the castle and city, and +ten days later began his march westward along the national highway +towards the ancient capital of the Aztecs. It was just 328 years since +Cortez with his little band started from the same point on a precisely +similar errand. At every step of the way the ranks of Scott grew thinner +and thinner. Hundreds perished in battle. Hundreds died by the wayside +of disease more terrible than battle. But Scott would not turn back, and +victory succeeded victory with marvelous rapidity. April 8 he left Vera +Cruz. April 18 he stormed the heights of Cerro Gordo. April 19 he was at +Jalapa (hah-lah'-pah). On the 22d Perote (pa-ro'-ta) fell. May 15 the +city of Puebla (pweb'-lah) was his. There Scott staid till August 7, +when he again pushed westward, and on the 10th saw the city of Mexico. +Then followed in rapid succession the victories of Contreras +(con-tra'-rahs), Churubusco (choo-roo-boos'-ko), Molino del Rey +(mo-lee'-no del ra), the storming of Chapultepec (chah-pool-ta-pek'), +and the triumphal entry into Mexico, September 14, 1847. Never before in +the history of the world had there been made such a march. + +[Illustration: %CAMPAIGN OF GEN. SCOTT%] + +%365. The "Wilmot Proviso."%--In 1846 the Mexican War was very +hateful to many Northern people, and as a new House of Representatives +was to be elected in the autumn of that year, Polk thought it wise to +end the war if possible, and in August asked for $2,000,000 "for the +settlement of the boundary question with Mexico." This, of course, meant +the purchase of territory from her. But Mexico had abolished slavery in +1827, and lest any territory bought from her should be made slave soil, +David Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved that the money should be granted, +_provided_ all territory bought with it should be free soil. The proviso +passed the House, but not the Senate. Next year (1847) a bill to give +Polk $3,000,000 with which to settle the boundary dispute was +introduced, and again the proviso was attached. But the Senate rejected +it, and the House then gave way, and passed the bill without +the proviso. + +%366. Conquest of New Mexico and California.%--While Taylor was +winning victories in northeastern Mexico, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny was +ordered to march into New Mexico. Leaving Fort Leavenworth in June, +1846, he went by the Upper Arkansas River to Bents Fort, thence +southwest through what is now Colorado, and by the old Santa Fe trail to +the Rio Grande valley and Santa Fe (p. 330). After taking the city +without opposition, he declared the whole of New Mexico to be the +property of the United States, and then started to seize California. On +arriving there, he found the conquest completed by the combined forces +of Stockton and Frémont. + +%367. The Great American Desert.%--But how came Frémont to be in +California in 1846? + +If you look at any school geography published between 1820 and 1850 you +will find that a large part of what is now Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, +Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas is put down as "THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT." +Many believed it was not unlike the Desert of Sahara, and that nobody +would ever want to cross it, while there was so much fertile land to the +eastward. This view made people very indifferent as to our claims to +Oregon, so that when Thomas H. Benton, one of the senators from +Missouri, and one of the far-sighted statesmen of the day, wanted +Congress to seize and hold Oregon by force of arms, he was told that it +was not worth the cost. "Oregon," said one senator, "will never be a +state in the Union." "Build a railroad to Oregon?" said another. "Why, +all the wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient for such a work." + +[Illustration: ROUTES OF THE %EARLY EXPLORERS% of the West] + +%368. The Santa Fé and Oregon Trails.%--Some explorations you +remember had been made. Lewis and Clark went across the Northwest to the +mouth of the Columbia in 1804-1805, and Zebulon M. Pike had penetrated +in 1806 to the wild mountainous region about the head waters of the +Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande and had probably seen the great +mountain that now bears his name. Major Long followed Pike in 1820, gave +his name to Longs Peak, and brought back such a dismal account of the +West that he was largely responsible for the belief in a desert. The +great plains from the sources of the Sabine, Brazos, and Colorado rivers +to the northern boundary Were, he said, "peculiarly adapted as a range +for buffaloes, wild Goats, and other wild game," and "might serve as a +barrier to prevent too great an expansion of our population westward;" +but nobody would think of cultivating the plains. For years after that +the American Fur Trading Company of St. Louis had annually sent forth +its caravans into Oregon and New Mexico. Because the way was beset by +hostile Indians, these caravans were protected by large and strongly +armed bands, and in time wore out well-beaten tracks across the prairies +and over the mountain passes, which came to be known on the frontier as +the Santa Fé and Oregon Trails. In 1832 Captain Bonneville[1] took a +wagon train over the Rocky Mountain divide into the Green River Valley, +and Nathaniel J. Wyeth led a party from New England to the Oregon +country, and in 1834 established Fort Hall in what is now Idaho. Still +later in the thirties went Marcus Whitman and his party. + +[Footnote 1: Bead his adventures as told by Washington Irving.] + +%369. %Explorations of Frémont.%--By this time it was clear that the +tide of westward emigration would soon set in strongly towards Oregon. +Then at last Benton succeeded in persuading Congress to order an +exploration of the far West, and in 1842 Lieutenant Frémont was sent to +see if the South Pass of the rocky Mountains, the usual crossing place, +would best accommodate the coming emigration. He set out from Kansas +City (then a frontier hamlet, now a prosperous city) with Kit Carson, a +famous hunter, for guide, and following the wagon trails of those who +had gone before him, made his way to the pass. He found its ascent so +gradual that his party hardly knew when they reached the summit. Passing +through it to the valley beyond, he climbed the great peak which now +bears his name and stands 13,570 feet above the sea. + +Though Frémont discovered no new route, he did much to dispel the +popular idea created by Long that the plains were barren, and the +American Desert began to shrink. In 1843 Frémont was sent out again. +Making his way westward through the South Pass, where his work ended in +1842, he turned southward to visit Great Salt Lake, and then pushed on +to Walla Walla on the Columbia River (see map on p. 330). Thence he went +on to the Dalles, and then by boat to Fort Vancouver, and then, after +returning to the Dalles, southward to Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento +valley, and so back to the States in 1844. + +In 1845 Frémont, who had now won the name of "Pathfinder," was sent out +a third time, and crossing what are now Nebraska and Utah, reached the +vicinity of Monterey in California. The Mexican authorities ordered him +out of the country. But he spent the winter in the mountains, and in the +spring was on his way to Oregon, when a messenger from Washington +overtook him, and he returned to Sutter's Fort. + +%370. The Bear State Republic.%--This was in June, 1846. Rumors of +war between Mexico and the United States were then flying thick and +fast, and the American settlers in California, fearing they would be +attacked, revolted, and raising a flag on which an image of a grizzly +bear was colored in red paint, proclaimed California an independent +republic. These Bear State republicans were protected and aided by +Frémont and Commodore Stockton, who was on the California coast with a +fleet, and together they held California till Kearny arrived. + +[Illustration: %TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO 1818 and 1853%] + +%371. Terms of Peace.%--Thus when the time came to make peace, our +armies were in military possession of vast stretches of Mexican +territory which Polk refused to give up. Mexico, of course, was forced +to yield, and in February, 1848, at a little place near the city of +Mexico, called Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty was signed by which Mexico +gave up the land and received in return $15,000,000. The United States +was also to pay claims our citizens had against Mexico to the amount of +$3,500,000. This added 522,568 square miles to the public domain.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This new territory included not only the present California +and New Mexico, but also Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and parts of Colorado +and Wyoming.] + +%372. The Gadsden Purchase.%--When the attempt was made to run the +boundary line from the Rio Grande to the Gila River, so many +difficulties occurred that in 1853 a new treaty was made with Mexico, +and the present boundary established from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of +California. The line then agreed on was far south of the Gila River, and +for this new tract of land, 45,535 square miles, the United States paid +Mexico $10,000,000. It is generally called the Gadsden Purchase, after +James Gadsden, who negotiated it. + +Much of this territory acquired in 1848, especially New Mexico and +California, had long been settled by the Spaniards. But the acquisition +of it by the United States at once put an end to the old Mexican +government, and made it necessary for Congress to provide new +governments. There must be American governors, American courts, American +judges, customhouses, revenue laws; in a word, there must be a complete +change from the Mexican way of governing to the American way. To do this +ought not to have been a hard thing; but Mexico had abolished slavery in +all this territory in 1827. It was free soil, and such the +anti-extension-of-slavery people of the North insisted on keeping it. +The proslavery people of the South, on the other hand, insisted that it +should be open to slavery, and that any slaveholder should be allowed to +emigrate to the new territory with his slaves and not have them set +free. The political question of the time thus became, Shall, or shall +not, slavery exist in New Mexico and California? + +%373. The Free-soil Party.%--As a President to succeed Polk was to be +elected in 1848, the two great parties did their best to keep the +troublesome question of slavery out of politics. When the Whig +convention met, it positively refused to make a platform, and nominated +General Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, and Millard Fillmore of New York, +without a statement of party principles. + +When the Democratic convention met, it made a long platform, but said +nothing about slavery in the territories, and nominated Lewis Cass of +Michigan and William O. Butler. + +This refusal of the two parties to take a stand on the question of the +hour so displeased many Whigs and Wilmot-Proviso Democrats that they +held a convention at Buffalo, where the old Liberty party joined them, +and together they formed the "Free-soil party." They nominated Martin +Van Buren and Charles F. Adams, and in their platform made four +important declarations: + +1. That Congress has no more power to make a slave, than to make a king. + +2. That there must be "free soil for a free people." + +3. "No more slave states, no more slave territories." + +4. That we will inscribe on our banners "Free soil, free speech, free +labor, and free men." + +They also asked for cheaper postage, and for free grants of land to +actual settlers. + +The Whigs won the election. + +%374. Zachary Taylor, Twelfth President.%--Taylor and Fillmore were +inaugurated on March 5,1849, because the 4th came on Sunday. Their +election and the triumph of the Whigs now brought on a crisis in the +question of slavery extension. + +[Illustration: %Zachary Taylor%] + +%375. State of Feeling in the South.%--Southern men, both Whigs and +Democrats, were convinced that an attempt would be made by Northern and +Western men opposed to the extension of slavery to keep the new +territory free soil. Efforts were at once made to prevent this. At a +meeting of Southern members of Congress, an address written by Calhoun +was adopted and signed, and published all over the country. It + +1. Complained of the difficulty of capturing slaves when they escaped to +the free states. + +2. Complained of the constant agitation of the slavery question by the +abolitionists. + +3. And demanded that the territories should be open to slavery. + +A little later, in 1849, the legislature of Virginia adopted resolutions +setting forth: + +1. That "the attempt to enforce the Wilmot Proviso" would rouse the +people of Virginia to "determined resistance at all hazards and to the +last extremity." + +2. That the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia +would be a direct attack on the institutions of the Southern States. + +The Missouri legislature protested against the principle of the Wilmot +Proviso, and instructed her senators and representatives to vote with +the slaveholding states. The Tennessee Democratic State Central +Committee, in an address, declared that the encroachments of their +Northern brethren had reached a point where forbearance ceased to be a +virtue. At a dinner to Senator Butler, in South Carolina, one of the +toasts was "A Southern Confederacy." + +%376. State of Feeling in the North.%--Feeling in the free states ran +quite as high. + +1. The legislatures of every one of them, except Iowa,[1] resolved that +Congress had power and was in duty bound to prohibit slavery in the +territories. + +[Footnote 1: Iowa had been admitted December 28, 1846.] + +2. Many of them bade their congressmen do everything possible to abolish +slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. + +The struggle thus coming to an issue in the summer of 1849 was +precipitated by a most unlooked-for discovery in California, which led +the people of that region to take matters into their own hands. + +%377. Discovery of Gold in California.%--One day in the month of +January, 1848, while a man named Marshall was constructing a mill race +in the valley of the American River in California, for a Swiss immigrant +named Sutter, he saw particles of some yellow substance shining in the +mud. Picking up a few, he examined them, and thinking they might be +gold, he gathered some more and set off for Sutter's Fort, where the +city of Sacramento now stands. + +[Illustration: %Sutter's mill%] + +As soon as he had reached the fort and found Mr. Sutter, the two locked +themselves in a room and examined the yellow flakes Marshall had +brought. They were gold! But to keep the secret was impossible. A Mormon +laborer, watching their excited actions at the mill race, discerned the +secret, and then the news spread fast, and the whole population went +wild. Every kind of business stopped. The stores were shut. Sailors left +the ships. Soldiers defiantly left their barracks, and by the middle of +the summer men came rushing to the gold fields from every part of the +Pacific coast. Later in the year reports reached the East, but so slowly +did news travel in those days that it was not till Polk in his annual +message confirmed it, that people really believed there were gold fields +in California. Then the rush from the East began. Some went overland, +some crossed by the Isthmus of Panama, some went around South America, +filling California with a population of strong, adventurous, and daring +men. These were the "forty-niners." + +[Illustration: %San Francisco in 1847%] + +%378. The Californians make a Free-State Constitution.%--When Taylor +heard that gold hunters were hurrying to California from all parts of +the world, he was very anxious to have some permanent government in +California; and encouraged by him the pioneers, the "forty-niners," made +a free-state constitution in 1849 and applied for admission into +the Union.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For an account of this movement to make California a state, +see Rhodes's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 111-116.] + +%379. Clay proposes a Compromise.%--When Congress met in 1849 there +were therefore a great many things connected with slavery to be settled: + +1. Southern men complained that the existing fugitive-slave law was not +enforced in the free states and that runaway slaves were not returned. + +2. The Northern men insisted that slavery should be abolished in the +District of Columbia. + +3. Southern men demanded the right to go into any territory of the +United States, as New Mexico or Utah or even California, and take their +slaves with them. + +4. The Free-soilers demanded that there should be no more slave states, +no more slave territories. + +5. The North wanted California admitted as a free-soil state. The South +would not consent. + +So violent and bitter was the feeling aroused by these questions, that +it seemed in 1850 as if the Union was about to be broken up, and that +there were to be two republics,--a Northern one made up of free states, +and a Southern one made up of slave states. + +Happily this was not to be; for at this crisis Henry Clay, the +"Compromiser," the "Pacificator," the "Peacemaker," as he was fondly +called, came forward with a plan of settlement. + +To please the North, he proposed, first, that California should be +admitted as a free state; second, that the slave trade--that is, the +buying and selling of slaves--should be abolished in the District of +Columbia. To please the South, he proposed, third, that there should be +a new and very stringent fugitive-slave law; fourth, that New Mexico and +Utah should be made territories without reference to slavery--that is, +the people should make them free or slave, as they pleased. This was +called "popular sovereignty" or "squatter sovereignty." Fifth, that as +Texas claimed so much of New Mexico as was east of the Rio Grande, she +should give up her claim and be paid money for so doing. + +%380. Clay, Calhoun, Seward, and Webster on the Compromise.%--The +debate on the compromise was a great one. Clay's defense of his plan was +one of the finest speeches he ever made.[1] Calhoun, who was too feeble +to speak, had his argument read by another senator. Webster, on the "7th +of March," made the famous speech which still bears that name. In it he +denounced the abolitionists and defended the compromise, because, he +said, slavery could not exist in such an arid country as New Mexico. +William H. Seward of New York spoke for the Free-soilers and denounced +all compromise, and declared that the territories were free not only by +the Constitution, but by a "higher law" than the Constitution, the law +of justice and humanity.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Henry Clay's _Works_, Vol. II., pp. 602-634.] + +[Footnote 2: Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. II., pp. 123-219, for +the speeches of Calhoun, Webster, and Clay.] + +After these great speeches were made, Clay's plan was sent to a +committee of thirteen, from which came seven recommendations: + +1. The consideration of the admission of any new state or states formed +out of Texas to be postponed till they present themselves for admission. + +2. California to be admitted as a free state. + +3. Territorial governments without the Wilmot Proviso to be established +in New Mexico and Utah. + +4. The combination of No. 2 and No. 3 in one bill. + +5. The establishment of the present northern and western boundary of +Texas. In return for ceding her claims to New Mexico, Texas to receive +$10,000,000. This last provision to be inserted in the bill provided +for in No. 4. + +6. A new and stringent fugitive-slave law. + +7. Abolition of the slave trade, but not of slavery, in the District of +Columbia. + +Three bills to carry out these recommendations were presented: + +1. The first bill provided for (a) the admission of California as a free +state; (b) territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without any +_restriction_ on slavery; (c) the present northern and western boundary +for Texas, with a gift of money. President Taylor nicknamed this "the +Omnibus Bill," because of its many provisions. + +2. The second bill prohibited the slave trade, but not slavery, in the +District of Columbia. + +3. The third provided for the capture and delivery of fugitive-slaves. + +During three months these bills were hotly debated, and threats of +disunion and violence were made openly. + +%381. Death of Taylor; Fillmore becomes President.%--In the midst of +the debate, July 9, 1850, Taylor died, and Fillmore was sworn into +office. Calhoun had died in March. Webster was made Secretary of State +by Fillmore. In some respects these changes helped on the measures, all +of which were carried through. Two of them were of great importance. + +[Illustration: Millard Fillmore] + +%382. Popular Sovereignty.%--The first provided that the two new +territories, New Mexico and Utah, when fit to be admitted as states, +should come in with or without slavery as their constitutions might +determine; meantime, the question whether slavery could or could not +exist there, if it arose, was to be settled by the Supreme Court. + +%383. The Fugitive-Slave Law.%--The other important measure of the +compromise was the fugitive-slave law. The old fugitive-slave law +enacted in 1793 had depended for its execution on state judges. This new +law of 1850 + +1. Gave United States commissioners power to turn over a colored man or +woman to anybody who claimed the negro as an escaped slave. + +2. Provided that the negro could not give testimony. + +3. "Commanded" all good citizens, when summoned, to aid in the capture +of the slave, or, if necessary, in his delivery to his owners. + +4. Prescribed fine and imprisonment for anybody who harbored a fugitive +slave or prevented his recapture. + +[Illustration: %Results of the COMPROMISE of 1850%] + +No sooner was this law enacted than the slave owners began to use it, +and during the autumn of 1850 a host of "slave catchers" and "man +hunters," as they were called, invaded the North, and negroes who had +escaped twenty or thirty years before were hunted up and dragged back to +slavery by the marshals of the United States. This so excited the free +negroes and the people of the North, that several times during 1851 they +rose and rescued a slave from his captors. In New York a slave named +Hamet, in Boston one named Shadrach, in Syracuse one named Jerry, and at +Ottawa, Illinois, one named Jim, regained their liberty in this way. So +strong was public feeling that Vermont in 1850 passed a "Personal +Liberty Law," for the protection of negroes claimed as slaves.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the Compromise of 1850 read Rhodes's _History of the +United States_, Vol. I., pp. 104-189; Schurz's _Life of Clay_, Vol. II., +Chap. 26. Do not fail to read the speeches of Calhoun, Clay, Webster, +Seward; also Lodge's _Life of Webster_, pp. 264-332. For the rescue +cases read Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, +Chap. 26.] + +The North was now becoming strongly antislavery. It had long been +opposed to the extension of slavery, but was now becoming opposed to its +very existence. How deep this feeling was, became apparent in the summer +of 1852, when Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe published her story of _Uncle +Tom's Cabin_. It was not so much a picture of what slavery was, as of +what it might be, and was so powerfully written that it stirred and +aroused thousands of people in the North who, till then, had been quite +indifferent. In a few months everybody was laughing and crying over +"Topsy" and "Eva" and "Uncle Tom"; and of those who read it great +numbers became abolitionists. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The Mexican state of Texas revolts and in 1837 becomes independent. + +2. President Tyler secretly negotiates a treaty for the annexation of +Texas to the United States, but this is defeated (1844). + +3. The labors of Elijah White and others lead to the rapid settlement of +the Oregon country. + +4. The annexation of Texas and the occupation of the whole of Oregon +become questions in the campaign of 1844. The Democrats carry the +election, Texas is annexed, and the Oregon country is divided between +Great Britain and the United States. + +5. The question of the boundary of Texas brings on the Mexican War, and +in 1848 another vast stretch of country is acquired. + +6. The acquisition of this new territory, which was free soil, causes a +struggle for the introduction of slavery into it. + +7. The refusal of the Whigs and Democrats to take issue on slavery in +the territories leads to the formation of the Free-soil party. + +8. The discovery of gold in California, the rush of people thither, and +the formation of a free state seeking admission into the Union force the +question of slavery on Congress. + +9. In 1850 an attempt is made to settle it by the "Compromise of 1850." + + + + +THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM OF 1844 CALLED FOR + +The reannexation of Texas. + + Texas annexed, August, 1845. + Rio Grande asserted as boundary. + Disputed territory, Nueces to Rio Grande. + +1845-46. Taylor sent to occupy the disputed territory. +1846. Attacked by Mexicans. +1846. War declared by the United States. + +The reoccupation of Oregon to 54° 40'. + + Our claims to Oregon. + Colonization of Oregon. + "Fifty-four forty or fight." + Notice served on Great Britain. + The parallel of 49° extended to the Pacific. + Oregon a territory (1848). + +The Mexican War. + + _Taylor_. + + 1846. Wins battles of Palo Alto. + Resaca de la Palma. + Matamoras. + Monterey. + 1847. Buena Vista. + + _Scott_. + + 1847. Vera Cruz. + Cerro Gordo. + Jalapa. + Perote. + Contreras. + Churubusco. + Molino del Rey. + Chapultepec. + Mexico. + + _Kearny_. + + Santa Fé. + Conquest of New Mexico. + + _Frémont. + Stockton._ + + Conquest of California. +PEACE 1848. + +Territory acquired from 42° to Gila River; from Rio Grande to the Pacific. + +Effort to make the territory slave soil. + + 1848. _The Whigs._ + + No platform. + Elect Taylor and Fillmore. + + 1848. _The Democrats._ + + Nothing in platform as to slavery in new territory. + Defeated, 1848. + Complaints of the South against the North: + + Popular sovereignty + + 1. Fugitive slaves. + 2. Slavery in District of Columbia. + 3. Territory acquired from Mexico to be open to slavery. + + Discovery of gold in California, 1848. + Rush to California. + The three routes. + Free state of California, 1849. + +Effort to keep the territory free. + + The Wilmot Proviso, 1846, 1847. + The Free-soil party, 1848. + Demands of the party. + Defeated in 1848. + Demand-- + 1. California a free state. + 2. No slavery in District of Columbia. + 3. No more slave states. + No more slave territories. + +Whigs attempt a compromise. + + COMPROMISE OF 1850. + + 1. California a free state. + 2. Popular sovereignty in territory acquired from Mexico. + 3. No slave trade in District of Columbia. + 4. Texas takes present boundaries. + 5. Two new territories, Utah and New Mexico. + 6. New fugitive-slave law. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL + +%384. Franklin Pierce, Fourteenth President.%--Although the struggle +with slavery was thus growing more and more serious, the two great +parties pretended to consider the question as finally settled. In 1852 +the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce and William E. King, and +declared in their platform that they would "abide by and adhere to" the +Compromise of 1850, and would "resist all attempts at renewing, in +Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question." The Whigs +nominated General Winfield Scott, and declared that they approved the +fugitive-slave law, and accepted the compromise measures of 1850 as "a +settlement in principle" of the slavery question, and would do all they +could to prevent any further discussion of it. + +[Illustration: Franklin Pierce] + +So far as the Whigs were concerned, the question was settled; for the +Northern people, angry at their acceptance of the Compromise of 1850 and +the fugitive-slave law, refused to vote for Scott, and Pierce was +elected.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Pierce carried every state except Massachusetts, Vermont, +Tennessee, and Kentucky.] + +The Free-soilers had nominated John P. Hale and George W. Julian. + +%385. The Nebraska Bill.%--Pierce was inaugurated March 4, 1853. He, +too, believed that all questions relating to slavery were settled. But +he had not been many months in office when the old quarrel was raging as +bitterly as ever. In 1853 all that part of our country which lies +between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, the south boundary +of Kansas and 49°, was wilderness, known as the Platte country, and was +without any kind of territorial government. In January, 1854, a bill to +organize this great piece of country and call it the territory of +Nebraska was reported to the Senate by the Committee on Territories, of +which Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was chairman. Every foot of it was +north of 36° 30', and according to the Missouri Compromise was free +soil. But the bill provided for popular sovereignty; that is, for the +right of the people of Nebraska, when they made a state, to have it free +or slave, as they pleased. + +%386. The Kansas-Nebraska Law.%--An attempt was at once made to +prevent this. But Douglas recalled his bill and brought in another, +providing for two territories, one to be called Kansas[1] and the other +Nebraska, expressly repealing the Missouri Compromise,[2] and opening +the country north of 36° 30' to slavery.[3] The Free-soilers, led on by +Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Seward of New York, and Charles Sumner of +Massachusetts, did all they could to defeat the bill; but it passed, and +Pierce signed it and made it law.[4] + +[Footnote 1: The northern and southern boundaries of Kansas were those +of the present state, but it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains.] + +[Footnote 2: It declared that the slavery restriction of the Missouri +Compromise "was suspended by the principles of the legislation of 1850, +commonly called the compromise measures, and is hereby declared +inoperative."] + +[Footnote 3: The "true intent and meaning" of this act, said the law, +is, "not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to +exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to +form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject +only to the Constitution of the United States." Read Rhodes's _History +of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 425-490.] + +[Footnote 4: May 30, 1854.] + +%387. The Struggle for Kansas.%--Thus was it ordained that Kansas and +Nebraska, once expressly set apart as free soil, should become free or +slave states according as they were settled while territories by +antislavery or proslavery men. And now began a seven years' struggle for +Kansas. "Come on, then," said Seward of New York in a speech against +the Kansas Bill; "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states. Since +there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it on behalf of freedom. +We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God +give the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers as it is in +the right." + +[Illustration: %THE UNITED STATES in 1851 SEVENTY FIVE YEARS AFTER +INDEPENDENCE Showing Railroads and Overland Routes] + +This described the situation exactly. The free-state men of the North +and the slave-state men of the South were to rush into Kansas and +struggle for its possession. The moment the law opening Kansas for +settlement was known in Missouri, numbers of men crossed the Missouri +River, entered the territory, held squatters' meetings,[1] drove a few +stakes into the ground to represent "squatter claims," went home, and +called on the people of the South to hurry into Kansas. Many did so, and +began to erect tents and huts on the Missouri River at a place which +they called Atchison.[2] + +[Footnote 1: At one of their meetings it was resolved: "That we will +afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler of this country." +"That we recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in +this territory, and advise stockholders to introduce their property as +early as possible."] + +[Footnote 2: Called after Senator Atchison of Missouri.] + +But the men of the North had not been idle, and in July a band of +free-state men, sent on by the New England Emigrant Aid Society,[1] +entered Kansas and founded a town on the Kansas River some miles to the +south and west of Atchison. Other emigrants came in a few weeks later, +and their collection of tents received the name of Lawrence.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The New England Emigrant Aid Society was founded in 1854 by +Hon. Eli Thayer of Worcester, Mass., in order "to plant a free state in +Kansas," by aiding antislavery men to go out there and settle.] + +[Footnote 2: After Amos A. Lawrence, secretary of the Aid Society. It +was a city of tents. Not a building existed. Later came the log cabin, +which was a poor affair, as timber was scarce. The sod hut now so common +in the Northwest was not thought of. In the early days the "hay tent" +was the usual house, and was made by setting up two rows of poles, then +bringing their tops together, thatching the roof and sides with hay. The +two gable ends (in which were the windows and doors) were of sod.] + +What was thus taking place at Lawrence happened elsewhere, so that by +October, 1854, that part of Kansas along the Missouri River was held by +the slave-state men, and the part south of the Kansas River by the +free-state men.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The proslavery towns were Atchison, Leavenworth, Lecompton, +Kickapoo. The antislavery towns were Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, +Waubunsee, Hampden, Ossawatomie.] + +In November of the same year the struggle began. There was to be an +election of a territorial delegate[1] to represent Kansas in Congress, +and a day or two before the time set for it the Missourians came over +the border in armed bands, took possession of the polls, voted +illegally, and elected a proslavery delegate. + +[Footnote 1: Each territory is allowed to send a delegate to the House +of Representatives, where he can speak, but not vote.] + +%388. Kansas a Slave Territory.%--The election of members of the +territorial legislature took place in March, 1855, and for this the +Missourians made great preparations. On the principle of popular +sovereignty the people of Kansas were to decide whether the territory +should be slave or free. Should the majority of the legislature consist +of free-state men, then Kansas would be a free territory. Should a +majority of proslavery men be chosen, then Kansas was doomed to have +slavery fastened on her, and this the Missourians determined should be +done. For weeks before the election, therefore, the border counties of +Missouri were all astir. Meetings were held, and secret societies, +called Blue Lodges, were formed, the members of which were pledged to +enter Kansas on the day of election, take possession of the polls, and +elect a proslavery legislature. The plan was strictly carried out, and +as election day drew near, the Missourians, fully armed, entered Kansas +in companies, squads, and parties, like an invading army, voted, and +then went home to Missouri. Every member of the legislature save one was +a proslavery man, and when that body met, all the slave laws of Missouri +were adopted and slavery was formally established in Kansas. + +%389. The Topeka Free-State Constitution.%--The free-state men +repudiated the bogus legislature, held a convention at Topeka, made a +free-state constitution, and submitted it to the popular vote. The +people having ratified it (of course no proslavery men voted), a +governor and legislature were chosen. When the legislature met, senators +were elected and Congress was asked to admit Kansas into the Union as +a state. + +%390. Personal Liberty Laws; the Underground Railroad.%--The feeling +of the people of the free states toward slavery can be seen from many +signs. The example set by Vermont in 1850 was followed in 1854 by Rhode +Island, Connecticut, and Michigan, and in 1855 by Maine and +Massachusetts, in each of which were passed "Personal Liberty laws," +designed to prevent free negroes from being carried into slavery on the +claim that they were fugitive slaves. Certain state officers were +required to act as counsel for any one arrested as a fugitive, and to +see that he had a fair trial by jury. To seize a free negro with intent +to reduce him to slavery was made a crime. + +Another sign of the times was the sympathy manifested for the operations +of what was called the Underground Railroad. It was, of course, not a +railroad at all, but an organization by which slaves escaping from their +masters were aided in getting across the free states to Canada. + +%391. Breaking up of Old Parties.%--Thus matters stood when, in 1856, +the time came to elect a President, and found the old parties badly +disorganized. The political events of four years had produced great +changes. The death of Clay[1] and Webster[2] deprived the Whigs of their +oldest and greatest leaders. The earnest support that party gave to the +Compromise of 1850 and the execution of the fugitive-slave law estranged +thousands of voters in the free states. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, +opposed as it was by every Northern Whig, completed the ruin and left +the party a wreck. + +[Footnote 1: June 29, 1852.] + +[Footnote 2: October 24, 1852.] + +But the Democrats had also suffered because of the Kansas-Nebraska law +and the repeal of the Compromise of 1820. No anti-extension-of-slavery +Democrat could longer support the old party. Thousands had therefore +broken away, and, acting with the dissatisfied Whigs, formed an +unorganized opposition known as "Anti-Nebraska men." + +%392. The Movement against Immigrants.%--Many old Whigs, however, +could not bring themselves to vote with Democrats. These joined the +American or Know-nothing party. From the close of the Revolution there +had never been a year when a greater or less number of foreigners did +not come to our shores. After 1820 the numbers who came each twelvemonth +grew larger and larger, till they reached 30,000 in 1830, and 60,000 in +1836, while in the decade 1830-1840 more than 500,000 immigrants landed +at New York city alone. + +As the newcomers hurried westward into the cities of the Mississippi +valley, the native population was startled by the appearance of men who +often could not speak our language. In Cincinnati in 1840 one half the +voters were of foreign birth. The cry was now raised that our +institutions, our liberties, our system of government, were at the mercy +of men from the monarchical countries of Europe. A demand was made for a +change in the naturalization law, so that no foreigner could become a +citizen till he had lived here twenty-one years. + +%393. The American Republicans or Native Americans.%--Neither the +Whigs nor the Democrats would endorse this demand, so the people of +Louisiana in 1841 called a state convention and founded the American +Republican, or, as it was soon called, the Native American party. Its +principles were + +1. Put none but native Americans in office. + +2. Require a residence of twenty-one years in this country before +naturalization. + +3. Keep the Bible in the schools. + +4. Protect from abuse the proceedings necessary to get naturalization +papers. + +As the members would not tell what the secrets of this party were, and +very often would not say whom they were going to vote for, and when +questioned would answer "I don't know," it got the name of +"Know-nothing" party.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Rhodes's _History of the United States_, Vol. II., pp. +51-58; McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 87-106.] + +For a time the party flourished greatly and secured six members of the +House of Representatives, then it declined in power; but the immense +increase in immigration between 1846 and 1850 again revived it, and. +somewhere in New York city in 1852 a secret, oath-bound organization, +with signs, grips, and passwords, was founded, and spread with such +rapidity that in 1854 it carried the elections in Massachusetts, New +York, and Delaware. Next year (1855) it elected the governors and +legislatures of eight states, and nearly carried six more. Encouraged by +these successes, the leaders determined to enter the campaign of 1856, +and called a party convention which nominated Millard Fillmore and +Andrew Jackson Donelson. Delegates from seven states left the convention +because it would not stand by the Missouri Compromise, and taking the +name North Americans nominated N. P. Banks. He would not accept, and the +bolters then joined the Republicans. + +%394. Beginning of the Republican Party.%--As early as 1854, when the +Kansas-Nebraska Bill was before Congress, the question was widely +discussed all over the North and West, whether the time had not come to +form a new party out of the wreck of the old. With this in view a +meeting of citizens of all parties was held at Ripon, Wisconsin, at +which the formation of a new party on the slavery issue was recommended, +and the name Republican suggested. This was before the passage of the +Kansas-Nebraska Bill. + +After its passage a thousand citizens of Michigan signed a call for a +state mass meeting at Jackson, where a state party was formed, named +Republican, and a state ticket nominated, on which were Free-soilers, +Whigs, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats. Similar "fusion tickets" were +adopted in Wisconsin and Vermont, where the name Republican was used, +and in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. + +The success of the new party in Wisconsin and Michigan in 1854, and its +yet greater success in 1855, led the chairmen of the Republican state +committees of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin +to issue a call for an informal convention at Pittsburg on February 22, +1856. At this meeting the National Republican party was formed, and from +it went a call for a national nominating convention to meet (June 17, +1856) at Philadelphia, where John C. Frémont and William L. Dayton were +nominated. + +The Free-soilers had joined the Republicans and so disappeared from +politics as a party. + +The Whigs, or "Silver Grays," met and endorsed Fillmore. + +The Democrats nominated James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge and +carried the election. The Whigs and the Know-nothings then disappeared +from national politics. + +[Illustration: James Buchanan] + +%395. James Buchanan, Fifteenth President; the "Bred Scott +Decision."%--When Buchanan and Breckinridge were inaugurated, March +4, 1857, certain matters regarding slavery were considered as legally +settled forever, as follows: + +1. Foreign slave trade forbidden. + +2. Slave trade between the states allowed. + +3. Fugitive slaves to be returned. + +4. Whether a state should permit or abolish slavery to be determined by +the state. + +5. Squatter sovereignty to be allowed in Kansas and Nebraska, Utah and +New Mexico territories. + +6. The people in a territory to determine whether they would have a +slave or a free state when they made a state constitution. + +Now there were certain questions regarding slavery which were not +settled, and one of them was this: If a slave is taken by his master to +a free state and lives there for a while, does he become free? + +To this the Supreme Court gave the answer two days after Buchanan was +inaugurated. A slave by the name of Dred Scott had been taken by his +master from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois, +and then to the free soil of Minnesota, and then back to the state of +Missouri, where Scott sued for his freedom, on the ground that his +residence on free soil had made him a free man. Two questions of vast +importance were thus raised: + +1. Could a negro whose ancestors had been sold as slaves become a +citizen of one of the states in the Union? For unless Dred Scott was a +citizen of Missouri, where he then lived, he could not sue in the United +States court. + +2. Did Congress have power to enact the Missouri Compromise? For if it +did not then the restriction of slavery north of 36°30' was illegal, and +Dred Scott's residence in Minnesota did not make him free. + +From the lower courts the case came on appeal to the Supreme Court, +which decided + +1. That Dred Scott was not a citizen, and therefore could not sue in the +United States courts. His residence in Minnesota had not made him free. + +2. That Congress could not shut slave property out of the territories +any more than it could shut out a horse or a cow. + +3. That the piece of legislation known as the Missouri Compromise of +1820 was null and void. This confirmed all that had been gained for +slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and opened to slavery Oregon +and Washington, which were free territories. + +%396. Effect of the Dred Scott Decision.%--Hundreds of thousands of +copies of this famous decision were printed at once and scattered +broadcast over the country as campaign documents. The effect was to fill +the Southern people with delight and make them more reckless than ever, +to split the Democratic party in the North; to increase the number of +Republicans in the North, and make them more determined than ever to +stop the spread of slavery into the territories. + +[Illustration: %EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL IN THE UNITED STATES +1790-1860%] + +%397. Struggle for Freedom in Kansas.%--We left Kansas in 1856 with a +proslavery governor and legislature in actual possession, and a +free-state governor, legislature, and senators seeking recognition at +Washington. In 1857 there were so many free-state men in Kansas that +they elected an antislavery legislature. But just before the proslavery +men went out of power they made a proslavery constitution,[1] and +instead of submitting to the people the question, Will you, or will you +not, have this constitution? they submitted the question, Will you have +this constitution with or without slavery? On this the free settlers +would not vote, and so it was adopted with slavery. But when the +antislavery legislature met soon after, they ordered the question, Will +you, or will you not, have this constitution? to be submitted to the +people. Then the free settlers voted, and it was rejected by a great +majority. Buchanan, however, paid no attention to the action of the free +settlers, but sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress and urged it +to admit Kansas as a slave state. But Senator Douglas of Illinois came +forward and opposed this, because to force a slave constitution on the +people of Kansas, after they had voted against it, was contrary to the +doctrine of "popular sovereignty." He, with the aid of other Northern +Democrats, defeated the attempt, and Kansas remained a territory +till 1861. + +[Footnote 1: The convention met at the town of Lecompton; in consequence +of which the constitution is known as the "Lecompton constitution."] + +%398. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.%--The term of Douglas as senator +from Illinois was to expire on March 4, 1859. The legislature whose duty +it would be to elect his successor was itself to be elected in 1858. The +Democrats, therefore, announced that if they secured a majority of the +legislators, they would reelect Douglas. The Republicans declared that +if they secured a majority, they would elect Abraham Lincoln United +States senator. The real question of the campaign thus became, Will the +people of Illinois have Stephen A. Douglas or Abraham Lincoln for +senator?[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Republican state convention at Springfield, June 16, +1858, "resolved, that Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of +the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate as the +successor of Stephen A. Douglas."] + +The speech making opened in June, 1858, when Lincoln addressed the +convention that nominated him at Springfield. A month later Douglas +replied in a speech at Chicago. Lincoln, who was present, answered +Douglas the next evening. A few days later, Douglas, who had taken the +stump, replied to Lincoln at Bloomington, and the next day was again +answered by Lincoln at Springfield. The deep interest aroused by this +running debate led the Republican managers to insist that Lincoln should +challenge Douglas to a series of joint debates in public. The challenge +was sent and accepted, and debates were arranged for at seven towns[1] +named by Douglas. The questions discussed were popular sovereignty, the +Dred Scott decision, the extension of slavery to the territories; and +the discussion of them attracted the attention of the whole country. +Lincoln was defeated in the senatorial election; but his great speeches +won for him a national reputation.[2] + +[Footnote 1: One in each Congressional district except those containing +Chicago and Springfield, where both Lincoln and Douglas had already +spoken. For a short account of their debates see the _Century Magazine_ +for July, 1887, p. 386.] + +[Footnote 2: Rhodes's _History of the United States_, Vol. II., pp. +308-339. Nicolay and Hay's _Life of Lincoln_, Vol. II., Chaps. 10-16. +John T. Morse's _Life of Lincoln_, Vol. I., Chap. 6.] + +%399. John Brown's Raid into Virginia%.--As slavery had become the +great political issue of the day, it is not surprising that it excited a +lifelong and bitter enemy of slavery to do a foolish act. John Brown was +a man of intense convictions and a deep-seated hatred of slavery. When +the border ruffianism broke out in Kansas in 1855, he went there with +arms and money, and soon became so prominent that he was outlawed and a +price set on his head. In 1858 he left Kansas, and in July, 1859, +settled near Harpers Ferry, Va. (p. 360). His purpose was to stir up a +slave insurrection in Virginia, and so secure the liberation of the +negroes. With this in view, one Sunday night in October, 1859, he with +less than twenty followers seized the United States armory at Harpers +Perry and freed as many slaves and arrested as many whites as possible. +But no insurrection or uprising of slaves followed, and before he could +escape to the mountains he was surrounded and captured by Robert E. Lee, +then a colonel in the army of the United States. Brown was tried on the +charges of murder and of treason against the state of Virginia, was +found guilty, and in December, 1859, was hanged. + +[Illustration: Harpers Ferry] + +%400. Split in the Democratic Party.%--Thus it was that one event +after another prolonged the struggle with slavery till 1860, when the +people were once more to elect a President. + +The Democratic nominating convention assembled at Charleston, S.C., in +April, and at once went to pieces. A strong majority made up of Northern +delegates insisted that the party should declare--"That all questions in +regard to the rights of property in states or territories arising under +the Constitution of the United States are judicial in their character, +and the Democratic party is pledged to abide by and faithfully carry out +such determination of these questions as has been or may be made by the +Supreme Court of the United States." + +This meant to carry out the doctrine laid down in the Dred Scott +decision, and was in conflict with the "popular sovereignty" doctrine of +Douglas, which was that right of the people to make a slave territory or +a free territory is perfect and complete. The minority, composed of the +extreme Southern men, rejected the former plan and insisted + +1. "That the Democracy of the United States hold these cardinal +principles on the subject of slavery in the territories: First, that +Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the territories. Second, +that the territorial legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any +territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any +power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any right to destroy or impair +the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever." + +2. That the Federal government must protect slavery "on the high seas, +in the territories, and wherever else its constitutional +authority extends." + +Both majority and minority agreed in asserting + +1. That the Personal Liberty laws of the free states "are hostile in +their character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in +their effect." + +2. That Cuba ought to be acquired by the United States. + +3. That a railroad ought to be built to the Pacific. + +Their agreement was a minor matter. Their disagreement was so serious +that when the minority could not have its way, it left the convention, +met in another hall, and adopted its resolutions. + +The majority of the convention then adjourned to meet at Baltimore, June +18. 1860. As it was then apparent that Douglas would be nominated, +another split occurred, and the few Southern men attending, together +with some Northern delegates, withdrew. Those who remained nominated +Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson. + +The second group of seceders met in Baltimore, adopted the platform of +the first group of seceders from the Charleston convention, and +nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon. + +[Illustration: A Lincoln] + +%401. The Constitutional Union Party.%--Meanwhile (May 9) another +party, calling itself the National Constitutional Union party, met at +Baltimore. These men were the remnants of the old Whig and American or +Know-nothing parties. They nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward +Everett, of Massachusetts, and declared for "the Constitution of the +country, the union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws." + +%402. Election of Lincoln.%--The Republican party met in convention +at Chicago on May 16, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, and Hannibal Hamlin +of Maine. It + +1. Repudiated the principles of the Dred Scott decision. + +2. Demanded the admission of Kansas as a free state. + +3. Denied all sympathy with any kind of interference with slavery in the +states. + +4. Insisted that the territories must be kept free. + +5. Called for a railroad to the Pacific, and a homestead law. + +The election took place in November, 1860. Of 303 electoral votes cast, +Lincoln received 180; Breckinridge, 72; Bell, 39; and Douglas, 12. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the question of slavery in the +territories, and an attempt to organize Kansas and Nebraska brought +it up again. + +2. In the organization of these territories a new political doctrine, +"popular sovereignty," was announced. + +3. This was applied in Kansas, and the struggle for Kansas began. The +first territorial government was proslavery. The antislavery men then +made a constitution (Topeka) and formed a free state government. +Thereupon the proslavery men formed a constitution (Lecompton) for a +slave state. This was submitted to Congress and rejected, and Kansas +remained a territory till 1861. + +4. In the course of the struggle for free soil in Kansas the Whig party +went to pieces, the Democratic was split into two wings, and the +Know-nothing or Native American party and the Republican party arose. + +5. The Republican party was defeated in 1856, but the Dred Scott +decision in 1857 and the continued struggle in Kansas forced the +question of slavery to the front, and in 1860 Lincoln was elected. + +[Illustration: ] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 + +[Illustration: Chicago in 1832] + +%403. The Movement of Population.%--The twenty years which elapsed +between the election of Harrison, in 1840, and the election of Lincoln, +in 1860, had seen a most astonishing change in our country. In 1840 +neither Texas, nor the immense region afterwards acquired from Mexico, +belonged to us. There were then but twenty-six states and five +territories, inhabited by 17,000,000 people, of whom but 876,000 lived +west of the Mississippi River, mostly close to the river bank in +Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The great Northwest was still a +wilderness, and many a city now familiar to us had no existence. Toledo +and Milwaukee and Indianapolis had each less than 3000 inhabitants; +Chicago had less than 5000; and Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit, each +less than 10,000. Yet the rapid growth of cities had been one of the +characteristics of the period 1830 to 1840. + +The effect of new mechanical appliances on the movement of population +was amazing. The day when emigrants settled along the banks of streams, +pushed their boats up the rivers by means of poles, carried their goods +on the backs of pack horses, and floated their produce in Kentucky +broadhorns down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, was fast +disappearing. The steamboat, the canal, the railroad, had opened new +possibilities. Land once valueless as too far from market suddenly +became valuable. Men grew loath to live in a wilderness; the rush of +emigrants across the Mississippi was checked. The region between the +Alleghanies and the great river began to fill up rapidly. During the +twenty years, 1821 to 1841, but two states, Arkansas (1836) and Michigan +(1837), were admitted to the Union, and but three new territories, +Florida (1822-23), Wisconsin (1836), and Iowa (1838), were established. + +So few people went west from the Atlantic seaboard states that in each +one of them except Maine and Georgia population increased more rapidly +than it had ever done for forty years. From the Mississippi valley +states, however, numbers of people went to Wisconsin and Iowa. + +In consequence of this, Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846, and +Wisconsin in 1848. Minnesota and Oregon were made territories. Florida +and Texas had been admitted in 1845, and the number of states was thus +raised to thirty before 1850. The population of the country in 1850 was +23,000,000. Two states in the Mississippi valley now had each of them +more than a million of inhabitants. + +%404. The First States on the Pacific.%--Until 1840 the people had +moved westward steadily. Each state as it was settled had touched some +other east, or north, or south of it. After 1840 people, attracted by +the rich farming land and pleasant climate of Oregon, and after 1848 by +the gold mines of California, rushed across the plains to the Pacific, +and between 1850 and 1860 built up the states of California and Oregon +(1859), and the territory of Washington (1853). Minnesota was admitted +in 1858. The population of the United States in 1860 was 31,000,000. + +[Illustration: %DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES +SEVENTH CENSUS, 1850%] + +%405. Immigration to the United States since 1820.%--The people whose +movements across our continent we have been following were chiefly +natives of the United States. But we have reached the time when +foreigners began to arrive by hundreds of thousands every year. From the +close of the Revolution to 1820, it is thought not more than 250,000 of +the Old World people came to us. But the hard times in Europe, which +followed the disbanding of the great armies which had been fighting +France and Napoleon from 1789 to 1815, started a general movement. +Beginning at 10,000, in 1820, more and more came every year till, in +1842, 100,000 people--men, women, and children--landed on our shore. +This was the greatest number that had ever come in one year. But it was +surpassed in 1846, when the potato famine in Ireland, and again in 1853, +when hard times in Germany, and another famine in Ireland, sent over two +immense streams of emigrants. In 1854 no less than 428,000 persons came +from the Old World; more than ever came again in one year till 1872. + +%406. Modern Conveniences.%--When we compare the daily life of the +people in 1850 with that of the men of 1825, the contrast is most +striking. The cities had increased in number, grown in size, and greatly +changed in appearance. The older ones seemed less like villages. Their +streets were better paved and lighted. Omnibuses and street cars were +becoming common. The constable and the night watch had given way to the +police department. Gas and plumbing were in general use. The free school +had become an American institution, and many of the numberless +inventions and discoveries which have done so much to increase our +happiness, prosperity, and comfort, existed at least in a rude form. + +Between 1840 and 1850 nearly 7000 miles of railroad were built, making a +total mileage of 9000. This rapid spread of the railroad, when joined +with the steamboats, then to be found on every river and lake within the +settled area, made possible an institution which to-day renders +invaluable service. + +%407. Express Companies.%--In 1839 a young man named W.F. Harnden +began to carry packages, bundles, money, and small boxes between New +York and Boston, and thus started the express business. At first he +carried in a couple of carpet bags all the packages intrusted to him, +and went by boat from New York to Stonington, Conn., and thence by rail +to Boston. But his business grew so rapidly that in 1840 a rival express +was started by P. B. Burke and Alvin Adams. Their route was from Boston +to Springfield, Mass., and thence to New York. This was the foundation +of the present Adams Express Company. Both companies were so well +patronized that in 1841 service was extended to Philadelphia and Albany, +and in 1844 to Baltimore and Washington. Their example was quickly +followed by a host of imitators, and soon a dozen express companies were +doing business between the great cities. + +%408. Postage Stamps introduced.%--At that time (1840) three cents +was the postage for a local letter which was not delivered by a carrier. +Indeed, there were no letter carriers, and this in large cities was such +an inconvenience that private dispatch companies undertook to deliver +letters about the city for two cents each; and to accommodate their +customers they issued adhesive stamps, which, placed on the letters, +insured their delivery. The loss of business to the government caused by +these companies, and the general demand for quicker and cheaper mail +service, forced Congress to revise the postal laws in 1845, when an +attempt was made to introduce the use of postage stamps by the +government. As the mails (in consequence of the growth of the country +and the easy means of transportation) were becoming very heavy, the +postmasters in the cities and important towns had already begun to have +stamps printed at their own cost. Their purpose was to save time, for +letter postage was frequently (but not always) prepaid. But instead of +fixing a stamp on the envelope (there was no such thing in 1840), the +writer sent the letter to the post office and paid the postage in money, +whereupon the postmaster stamped the letter "Paid." This consumed the +time of the postmaster and the letter writer. But when he could go once +to the post office and prepay a hundred letters by buying a hundred +stamps, any one of which affixed to a letter was evidence that its +postage had been paid, any man who wanted to could save his time. These +stamps the postmasters sold at a little more than the expense of +printing. Thus the postmasters of New York and St. Louis charged one +dollar for nine ten-cent or eighteen five-cent stamps. This increased +the price of postage a trifle: but as the use of the stamps was +optional, the burden fell on those willing to bear it, while the +convenience was so great that the effort made to have the Post-office +Department furnish the stamps and require the people to use them +succeeded in 1847. + +[Illustration: St. Louis postage stamp] + +%409. Mechanical Improvements.%--No American need be told that his +fellow-countrymen are the most ingenious people the world has ever +known. But we do not always remember that it was during this period +(1840-1860) that the marvelous inventive genius of the people of the +United States began to show itself. Between the day when the patent +office was established, in 1790, and 1840, the number of patents issued +was 11,908; but after 1840 the stream poured forth increased in volume +nearly every year. In 1855 there were 2012 issued and reissued; in 1856, +2506; in 1857, 2896; in 1858, 3695; and in 1860, 4778, raising the total +number to 43,431. An examination of these inventions shows that they +related to cotton gins and cotton presses; to reapers and mowers; to +steam engines; to railroads; to looms; to cooking stoves; to sewing +machines, printing presses, boot and shoe machines, rubber goods, floor +cloths, and a hundred other things. Very many of them helped to increase +the comfort of man and raise the standard of living. Three of them, +however, have revolutionized the industrial and business world and been +of inestimable good to mankind. They are the sewing machine, the reaper +and the electric telegraph. + +[Illustration: The first Howe sewing machine] + +%410. The Sewing Machine.%--As far back as the year 1834, Walter Hunt +made and sold a few sewing machines in New York. But the man to whose +genius, perseverance, and unflinching zeal the world owes the sewing +machine, is Elias Howe. His patent was obtained in 1846, and he then +spent four years in poverty and distress trying to convince the world of +the utility of his machine. By 1850 he succeeded not only in interesting +the public, but in so arousing the mechanical world that seven rivals +(Wheeler and Wilson, Grover and Baker, Wilcox and Gibbs, and Singer) +entered the field. To the combined efforts of them all, we owe one of +the most useful inventions of the century. It has lessened the cost of +every kind of clothing; of shoes and boots; of harness; of everything, +in short, that can be sewed. It has given employment to millions of +people, and has greatly added to the comfort of every household in the +civilized world. + +[Illustration: The Wilson sewing machine of 1850] + +%411. The Harvester.%--Much the same can be said of the McCormick +reaper. It was invented and patented as early as 1831; but it was hard +work to persuade the farmer to use it. Not a machine was sold till +1841. During 1841, 1842, 1843, such as were made in the little +blacksmith shop near Steel's Tavern, Virginia, were disposed of with +difficulty. Every effort to induce manufacturers to make the machine was +a failure. Not till McCormick had gone on horseback among the farmers of +Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and secured written orders for +his reapers, did he persuade a firm in Cincinnati to make them. In 1845, +five hundred were manufactured; in 1850, three thousand. In 1851 +McCormick placed one on exhibition at the World's Fair in London, and +astonished the world with its performance. To-day two hundred thousand +are turned out annually, and without them the great grain fields of the +middle West and the far West would be impossible. The harvester has +cheapened the cost of bread, and benefited the whole human race. + +%412. The Telegraph.%--Think, again, what would be our condition if +every telegraph line in the world were suddenly pulled down. Yet the +telegraph, like the reaper and the sewing machine, was introduced +slowly. Samuel F. B. Morse got his patent in 1837; and for seven years, +helped by Alfred Vail, he struggled on against poverty. In 1842 he had +but thirty-seven cents in the world. But perseverance conquers all +things; and with thirty thousand dollars, granted by Congress, the first +telegraph line in the world was built in 1844 from Baltimore to +Washington. In 1845 New York and Philadelphia were connected; but as +wires could not be made to work under water, the messages were received +on the New Jersey side of the Hudson and carried to New York by boat. By +1856 the telegraph was in use in the most populous states. Some forty +companies, but one of which paid dividends, competed for the business. +This was ruinous; and in 1856 a union of Western companies was formed +and called the Western Union Telegraph Company. To-day it has 21,000 +offices, sends each year some 58,000,000 messages, receives about +$23,000,000, and does seven eighths of all the telegraph business in the +United States. + +%413. India Rubber.%--The same year (1844) which witnessed the +introduction of the telegraph saw the perfection of Goodyear's secret +for the vulcanization of India rubber. In 1820 the first pair of rubber +shoes ever seen in the United States were exhibited in Boston. Two years +later a ship from South America brought 500 pairs of rubber shoes. They +were thick, heavy, and ill-shaped; but they sold so rapidly that more +were imported, and in 1830 a cargo of raw gum was brought from South +America for the purpose of making rubber goods. With this C. M. Chaffee +went to work and succeeded in producing some pieces of cloth spread with +rubber. Supposing the invention to be of great value, a number of +factories[1] began to make rubber coats, caps, wagon curtains, of pure +rubber without cloth. But to the horror of the companies the goods +melted when hot weather came, and were sent back, emitting so dreadful +an odor that they had to be buried. It was to overcome this and find +some means of hardening the gum that Goodyear began his experiments and +labored year after year against every sort of discouragement. Even when +the secret of vulcanizing, as it is called, was discovered, five years +passed before he was able to conduct the process with absolute +certainty. In 1844, after ten years of labor, he succeeded and gave to +the world one of the most useful inventions of the nineteenth century. + +[Footnote 1: At Roxbury, Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, +and Staten Island.] + +%414. The Photograph; the Discovery of Anaesthesia.%--But there were +other inventions and discoveries of almost as great or even greater +value to mankind. In 1840 Dr. John W. Draper so perfected the +daguerreotype that it could be used to take pictures of persons and +landscapes. Till then it could be used only to make pictures of +buildings and statuary. + +The year 1846 is made yet more memorable by the discovery that whoever +inhaled sulphuric ether would become insensible to pain. The glory of +this discovery has been claimed for two men: Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson. +Which one is entitled to it cannot be positively decided, though Dr. +Morton seems to have the better right to be considered the discoverer. +Before this, however, anaesthesia by nitrous oxide (laughing gas) had +been discovered by Dr. Wells of Hartford, Conn., and by Dr. Long +of Georgia. + +%415. Communication with Europe; Steamships%.--Progress was not +confined to affairs within our boundary. Communications with Europe were +greatly advanced. The passage of the steamship _Savannah_ across the +Atlantic, partly by steam and partly by sail, in 1819, resulted in +nothing practical. The wood used for fuel left little space for freight. +But when better machinery reduced the time, and coal afforded a less +bulky fuel, the passage across the Atlantic by steam became possible, +and in 1838 two vessels, the _Sirius_ and the _Great Western_, made the +trip from Liverpool to New York by steam alone. No sails were used. This +showed what could be done, and in 1839 Samuel Cunard began the great +fleet of Atlantic greyhounds by founding the Cunard Line. Aided by the +British government, he drove all competitors from the field, till +Congress came to the aid of the Collins Line, whose steamers made the +first trip from New York to Liverpool in 1850. The rivalry between these +lines was intense, and each did its best to make short voyages. In 1851 +the average time from Liverpool to New York was eleven days, eight +hours, for the Collins Line, and eleven days, twenty-three hours, for +the Cunard. This was considered astonishing; for Liverpool and New York +were thus brought as near each other in point of time in 1851 as Boston +and Philadelphia were in 1790. + +%416. The Atlantic Cable%.--But something more astonishing yet was at +hand. In 1854 Mr. Cyrus W. Field of New York was asked to aid in the +construction of a submarine cable to join St. Johns with Cape Ray, +Newfoundland. While considering the matter, he became convinced that if +a cable could be laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, another could be +laid across the Atlantic Ocean, and he formed the "New York, +Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company" for the purpose of doing +so. The first attempt, made in 1857, and a second in 1858, ended in +failure; but a third, in 1858, was successful, and a cable was laid from +Valentia Bay in Ireland to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, a distance of +1700 geographical miles. For three weeks all went well, and during this +time 400 messages were sent; but on September 1, 1858, the cable ceased +to work, and eight years passed before another attempt was made to join +the Old World and the New. + +%417. Condition of the Workingman%.--Every class of society was +benefited by these improvements, but no man more so than those who +depended on their daily wages for their daily bread. Though wages +increased but little, they were more easily earned and brought richer +returns. Improved means of transportation, cheaper methods of +manufacture, enabled every laborer in 1860 to wear better clothes and +eat better food than had been worn or consumed by his father in 1830. +New industries, new trades and occupations, new needs in the business +world, afforded to his son and daughter opportunities for a livelihood +unknown in his youth, while the free school system enabled them to fit +themselves to use such opportunities without cost to him. When our +country became independent, and for fifty years afterwards, a working +day was from sunrise to sunset, with an hour for breakfast and another +for dinner. After manufactures arose, and mills and factories gave +employment to thousands of wage earners, fourteen, fifteen, and even +sixteen hours of labor were counted a day. Protests were early made +against this, and demands raised that a working day should be ten hours. +At last, late in the thirties, the ten hours system was adopted in +Baltimore, and in 1840, by order of President Van Buren, was put in +force at the navy yard in Washington and in "all public establishments" +under the Federal government. Thus established, the system spread +slowly, till to-day it exists almost everywhere. Indeed, in many states, +and in all departments of the Federal government, eight hours of work +constitute a day. Thus, by the aid of machinery, not only are articles, +formerly expensive, made so cheaply that poor men can afford to use +them, but the wage earners who operate the machinery can make these +articles so quickly that they to-day earn higher wages for fewer hours +of work than ever before in the history of the world. Not only did wages +increase and the hours of labor grow shorter between 1840 and 1860, but +the field of labor was enormously expanded. In 1810, when the first +census of manufactures in the United States was taken, the value of +goods manufactured was $173,000,000. In 1860 it was ten times as great, +and gave employment to more than 1,000,000 men and women. + +%418. Few Manufactures in the Slave States%.--From much of the +benefit produced by this splendid series of inventions and discoveries, +the people of the slave-owning states were shut out. They raised corn, +tobacco, and cotton, and made some sugar; but in them there were very +few mills or manufacturing establishments of any sort. While a great +social and industrial revolution was going on in the free states, the +people in the slave states remained in 1860 what they were in 1800. The +stream of immigrants from Europe passed the slave states by, carrying +their skill, their thrift, their energy, into the Northwest. The +resources of the slave states were boundless, but no free man would go +in to develop them. The soil was fertile, but no free laborer could live +on it and compete with slave labor, on which all agriculture, all +industry, all prosperity, in the South depended. The two sections of the +country at the end of the period 1840-1860 were thus more unlike +than ever. + + +SUMMARY + +1. Between 1830 and 1850 the rush of population into the West continued, +but, instead of moving across the continent, most of the people settled +in the states already in existence. + +2. This was due to the effect of such improved means of communication as +steamboats, railroads, canals, etc. + +3. As a consequence, but six new states were admitted to the Union in +twenty-nine years, and one of them was annexed (Texas). + +4. The period is also noticeable for the number of foreigners who came +to our shores. + +5. After 1849 the existence of gold in California brought so many people +to the Pacific coast that California became a state in 1850. + +6. As population grew denser, and transportation was facilitated by the +expansion of railroads and steamboats and canals, business opportunities +were increased, and new markets were created. + +7. Labor-saving and time-saving machines and appliances became more in +demand than ever, and a long list of remarkable inventions and business +aids appeared. + +8. The South, owing to its own peculiar industrial and labor condition, +was little benefited by all these improvements, and remained much the +same as in 1800. + +CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY, 1840-1860. + +_The People_. + +Immigration Causes. + Number of immigrants. + +No. of people in 1840. 17,000,000 +U. S. 1850. 23,000,000 + 1860. 31,000,000 + +Movement New States Arkansas, 1836. Slave. +Westward .. Michigan, 1837. Free. + Florida, 1845. Slave. + Texas, 1845. Slave. + Iowa, 1846. Free. + Wisconsin, 1848. Free. + California, 1850. Free. + Minnesota, 1858. Free. + Oregon, 1859. Free. + + Territories New Mexico, 1850. + Utah, 1850. + Washington, 1853. + Kansas, 1854. + Nebraska, 1854. + +_New Social and Business Conveniences._ + + Gas. + Plumbing. + Paved streets. + General use of anthracite. + Free schools. + Railroad expansion. + Express. + Postage stamps. + Ocean steamships. + +_New Inventions._ + + Number of patents. + The sewing machine. + The harvester. + The telegraph. + India rubber. + Daguerreotype. + Anaesthesia. + Atlantic cable. + +_The South._ + + Little affected by new industrial conditions. + Few manufactures. + Increase of the cotton area. + No immigration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 + +%419. South Carolina secedes%.--The only state where in 1860 +presidential electors were chosen by the legislature was South Carolina. +When the legislature met for this purpose, November 6, 1860, the +governor asked it not to adjourn, but to remain in session till the +result of the election was known. If Lincoln is elected, said he, the +"secession of South Carolina from the Union" will be necessary. Lincoln +was elected, and on December 20, 1860, a convention of delegates, called +by the legislature to consider the question of secession, formally +declared that South Carolina was no longer one of the United States.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "We the people of the state of South Carolina, in +convention assembled, do declare and ordain ... that the union now +subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of +the United States of America, is hereby dissolved."] + +%420. The "Confederate States of America."%--The meaning of this act +of secession was that South Carolina now claimed to be a "sovereign, +free, and independent" nation. But she was not the only state to take +this step. By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, +Louisiana, and Texas had also left the Union. Three days later, February +4, 1861, delegates from six of these seven states met at Montgomery, +Ala., formed a constitution, established a provisional government, which +they called the "Confederate States of America," and elected Jefferson +Davis and Alexander H. Stephens provisional President and Vice +President. + +Toward preventing or stopping this, Buchanan did nothing. No state, he +said, had a right to secede. But a state having seceded, he had no power +to make her come back, because he could not make war on a state; that +is, he could not preserve the Union. On one matter, however, he was +forced to act. When South Carolina seceded, the three forts in +Charleston harbor--Castle Pinckney, Fort Sumter, and Fort Moultrie--were +in charge of a major of artillery named Robert Anderson. He had under +him some eighty officers and men, and knowing that he could not hold all +three forts, and fearing that the South would seize Fort Sumter, he +dismantled Fort Moultrie, spiked the cannon, cut down the flagstaff, and +removed to Fort Sumter, on the evening of December 26, 1860. + +[Illustration: CHARLESTON HARBOR] + +This act was heartily approved by the people of the North and by +Congress, and Buchanan with great reluctance yielded to their demand, +and sent the _Star of the West,_ with food and men, to relieve Anderson. +But as the vessel, with our flag at its fore, was steaming up the +channel toward Charleston harbor, the Southern batteries fired upon her, +and she went back to New York. Anderson was thus left to his fate, and +as Buchanan's term was nearly out, both sides waited to see what +Lincoln would do. + +%421. Why did the States secede?%--Why did the Southern slave states +secede? To be fair to them we must seek the answer in the speeches of +their leaders. "Your votes," said Jefferson Davis, "refuse to recognize +our domestic institutions [slavery], which preexisted the formation of +the Union, our property [slaves], which was guaranteed by the +Constitution. You refuse us that equality without which we should be +degraded if we remained in the Union. You elect a candidate upon the +basis of sectional hostility; one who in his speeches, now thrown +broadcast over the country, made a distinct declaration of war upon our +institutions." + +"There is," said Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury of +the United States, "no other remedy for the existing state of things +except immediate secession." + +"Our position," said the Mississippi secession convention, "is +thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery. A blow at slavery +is a blow at commerce and civilization. There was no choice left us but +submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union." + +Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederacy, asserted +that the Personal Liberty laws of some of the free states "constitute +the only cause, in my opinion, which can justify secession." + +The South seceded, then, according to its own statements, because the +people believed that the election of Lincoln meant the abolition +of slavery. + +%422. Compromise attempted%.--The Republican party in 1861 had no +intention of abolishing slavery. Its purpose was to stop the spread of +slavery into the territories, to stop the admission of more slave +states, but not to abolish slavery in states where it already existed. A +strong wish therefore existed in the North to compromise the sectional +differences. Many plans for a compromise were offered, but only one, +that of Crittenden, of Kentucky, need be mentioned. He proposed that the +Constitution should be so amended as to provide + +1. That all territory of the United States north of 36° 30' should be +free, and all south of it slave soil. + +2. That slaves should be protected as property by all the departments of +the territorial government. + +3. That states should be admitted with or without slavery as their +constitutions provided, whether the states were north or south of +36° 30'. + +4. That Congress should have no power to shut slavery out of the +territories. + +5. That the United States should pay owners for rescued fugitive slaves. + +As these propositions recognized the right of property in slaves, that +is, put the black man on a level with horses and cattle, the Republicans +rejected them, and the attempt to compromise ended in failure. + +%423. A Proposed Thirteenth Amendment%.--One act of great +significance was done. A proposition to add a thirteenth amendment to +the Constitution was submitted to the states. It read, + +"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or +give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with +the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to +labor or service by the laws of said states." + +Even Lincoln approved of this, and two states, Maryland and Ohio, +accepted it. But the issue was at hand. It was too late to compromise. + +%424. Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President%.--Lincoln and Hamlin were +inaugurated on March 4, 1861, and in his speech from the Capitol steps +Lincoln was very careful to state just what he wanted to do. + +1. "I have no purpose," said he, "directly or indirectly, to interfere +with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists." + +2. "I consider the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I +shall take care ... that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in +all the states." + +3. "In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there +shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority." + +4. "The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess +the property and places belonging to the government and to collect the +duties and imposts." + +[Illustration: Fort Sumter] + +%425. Civil War begins.%--One of the places Lincoln thus pledged +himself to "hold" was Fort Sumter, to which he decided to send men and +supplies. As soon as notice of this intention was sent to Governor +Pickens of South Carolina, the Confederate commander at Charleston, +General Beauregard (bo-ruh-gar'), demanded the surrender of the fort. +Major Anderson stoutly refused to comply with the demand, and at dawn on +the morning of April 12, 1861, the Confederates fired the first gun at +Sumter. During the next thirty-four hours, nineteen batteries poured +shot and shell into the fort, which steadily returned the fire. Then +both food and powder were nearly exhausted, and part of the fort being +on fire, Anderson surrendered; and on Sunday, April 14, 1861, he marched +out, taking with him the tattered flag under which he made so gallant a +fight.[1] The fleet sent to his aid arrived in time to see the battle, +but did not give him any help. After the surrender, one of the ships +carried Anderson and the garrison to New York.[2] + +[Footnote 1: "Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until +the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the +gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and +its door closed from the effect of heat, four barrels and three +cartridges of powder being available, and no provisions remaining but +pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard . . . +and marched out of the fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with +colors flying and drums beating . . . and saluting my flag with fifty +guns."--_Major Anderson to the Secretary of War._] + +[Footnote 2: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. I., pp. +60-73.] + +%426. The Life of the Republic at Stake%.--Thus was begun the +greatest war in modern history. It was no vulgar struggle for territory, +or for maritime or military supremacy. The life of the Union was at +stake. The questions to be decided were: Shall there be one or two +republics on the soil of the United States? Shall the great principle of +all democratic-republican government, the principle that the will of the +majority shall rule, be maintained or abandoned? Shall state sovereignty +be recognized? Shall states be suffered to leave the Union at will, or +shall the United States continue to exist as "an indestructible Union of +indestructible States"? As Mr. Lincoln said, "Both parties deprecated +war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; +and the other would accept war rather than let it perish." + +%427. The South better prepared%.--For the struggle which was to +decide these questions neither side was ready, but the South was better +prepared than the North. The South was united as one man. The North was +divided and full of Southern sympathizers. She knew not whom to trust. +Officers of the army, officers of the navy, were resigning every day. +The great departments of government at Washington contained many men who +furnished information to Southern officials. Seventeen steam war vessels +(two thirds of all that were not laid up or unfit for service) were in +foreign parts. Large quantities of military supplies had been stored in +Southern forts. All the great powers of Europe save Russia were hostile +to our republic, and would gladly have seen it rent in twain. The South, +again, had the advantage in that she was to act on the defensive. + +[Illustration: The United States July 1861 Showing the greatest +extension of the Southern Confederacy] + +%428. Results of firing on the Flag.%--Not a man was killed on either +side during the bombardment of Sumter. Yet the battle was a famous one, +and led to greater consequences: + +1. Lincoln at once called for 75,000 militia to serve for three months. + +2. Four "border states," as they were called, thus forced to choose +their side, seceded. They were Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and +Tennessee. + +3. The Congress of the United States was called to meet at Washington, +July 4, 1861. + +4. After Virginia seceded, the capital of the Confederacy, at the +invitation of the Virginia secession convention, was moved from +Montgomery to Richmond, and the Confederate Congress adjourned to meet +there July 20, 1861. + +%429. West Virginia.%--The act of secession by Virginia was promptly +repudiated by the people of the counties west of the mountains, who +refused to secede, and voted to form a new state under the name of +Kanawha. They adopted a constitution and were finally admitted in 1863 +as the state of West Virginia[1]. + +[Footnote 1: A state made out of part of another state cannot be +admitted into the Union without the consent of that state first +obtained. But as Congress and the people of West Virginia considered +that Virginia consisted of that part of the Old Dominion which remained +loyal to the Union, the people practically asked their own consent.] + +%430. The Call to Arms.%--Lincoln held that no state could ever leave +the Union, and that therefore no state had left the Union. Those which +had passed ordinances of secession were to his mind states whose +machinery of government had been seized on by persons in insurrection +against the government of the United States. When, therefore, he made +his call for 75,000 militia to defend the Union, he apportioned the +number among all the states, slave and free, north and south, east and +west, according to their population. Those forming the Confederacy paid +no attention to the call. The governors of the border slave states +(Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri) returned +evasive or insulting answers. + +But the people of the loyal states responded instantly, and tens of +thousands of troops were soon on their way to Washington. To get there +was a hard matter. Baltimore lay on the most direct railroad route +between the Eastern and Middle States and Washington. But Baltimore was +full of disloyal men, who tore up the railroads, burned bridges, cut the +telegraph wires, and as the Massachusetts 6th regiment was passing +through the city from one railroad station to another, attacked it, +killing some and wounding others of its soldiers. This forced the troops +from the other states to go by various routes to Annapolis and then to +Washington, so that it was late in April before enough arrived to insure +the safety of the city. + +Though none of the border and seceded states sent troops, the response +of the loyal states to Lincoln's call was so hearty that more than +75,000 men were furnished. The President decided to turn this outburst +of patriotism to good purpose, and May 3, 1861, asked for 42,034 +volunteers for three years unless sooner discharged, and ordered 18,000 +seamen to be enlisted, and 22,714 men added to the regular army. +Baltimore was now occupied by Union troops, and communication with +Washington through that city was restored and protected. + +On July 1, 1861, there were 183,588 "boys in blue" under arms and +present for duty. These were distributed at various places north of the +line, 2000 miles long, which divided the North and South. This line +began near Fort Monroe, in Virginia, ran up Chesapeake Bay and the +Potomac to the mountains, then across Western Virginia and through +Kentucky, Missouri, and Indian Territory to New Mexico. + +This line was naturally divided into three parts: + +1. That in Virginia and along the Potomac. + +2. That occupied by Kentucky, a state which had declared itself neutral. + +3. That west of the Mississippi. + +%431. The Battle of "Bull Run" or Manassas%.--General Winfield Scott +was in command of the Union army. Under him, in command of the troops +about Washington, was General Irwin McDowell. Further to the west, near +Harpers Ferry, was a Union force under General Patterson. In western +Virginia, with an army raised largely in Ohio, was General George B. +McClellan. In Missouri was General Lyon, aided by all the Union people +in the state, who were engaged in a desperate struggle to keep her in +the Union. + +In northern Virginia and opposed to the Union forces under General +McDowell, was a Confederate army under General Beauregard, and these +troops the people of the North demanded should be attacked. "The +Confederate Congress must not meet at Richmond!" "On to Richmond! On to +Richmond!" became the cries of the hour. General McDowell, with 30,000 +men, was therefore ordered to attack Beauregard. McDowell found him near +Manassas, some thirty miles southwest of Washington, and there, on the +field of "Bull Run," on Sunday, July 21, 1861, was fought a famous +battle which ended with the defeat and flight of the Union army[1]. + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp. +229-239.] + +General George B. McClellan, who had defeated the Confederate forces in +western Virginia in several battles, was now placed in command of the +troops near Washington, and spent the rest of 1861 and part of 1862 in +drilling and organizing his army. Bull Run had taught the people two +things: 1. That the war was not to end in three months; 2. That an army +without discipline is not much better than a mob. + +%432. Fort Donelson and Fort Henry%.--While McClellan was drilling +his men along the Potomac, the Union forces drove back the Confederates +in the West. The Confederate line at first extended as shown by the +heavy line on the map on p. 390. In order to break it, General Buell +sent a small force under General Thomas, in January, 1862, to drive back +the Confederates near Mill Springs. Next, in February, General Halleck +authorized General U. S. Grant and Flag Officer Foote to make a joint +expedition against Fort Henry on the Tennessee. But Foote arrived first +and captured the fort, whereupon Grant marched to Fort Donelson on the +Cumberland, eleven miles away, and after three days of sharp fighting +was asked by General Buckner what terms he would offer. Grant +promptly answered, + +[Illustration: Handwritten note of Grant] + +No terms excepting unconditional and +immediate surrender can be accepted. +I propose to receive immediately upon +your word. + I am Sir: very respectfully + your ** ** + U. S. Grant + Brig. Gen. + +Buckner at once surrendered (February 16, 1862), and Grant won the first +great Union victory of the war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. I., pp. +398-429; Grant's _Memoirs_, Vol. I., pp. 285-315.] + +%433. The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing.%--After the fall of +Fort Donelson, the Confederates, abandoning Columbus and Nashville, +hurried south toward Corinth in Mississippi, whither Halleck's army +followed in three parts. One under General S. E. Curtis moved to +southwestern Missouri, and beat the Confederates at Pea Ridge, Ark. +(March 6-8). The second, under General John Pope, coöperated with Flag +Officer Foote, from the west bank of the Mississippi, in the capture of +Island No. 10 (April 7). Pope then joined Halleck in the movement +against Corinth, while the fleet went on down the river, attacked Fort +Pillow three times, captured it (June 4), and two days later +took Memphis. + +Meanwhile the third part of Halleck's army, under Grant, following the +Confederates, had reached Pittsburg Landing, where (April 6) he was +suddenly attacked by General A. S. Johnston and driven back. But General +Buell coming up with fresh troops, the battle was resumed the next day +(April 7), when Grant regained his lost ground, and the Confederates +fell back to Corinth.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol., pp. 465-486.] + +[Illustration: Driving back the Confederate line in the West] + +At this point General Henry Halleck arrived and took command, and at the +end of May occupied Corinth. Memphis then fell, and the Mississippi +River was opened as far south as Vicksburg. After the capture of +Memphis, Halleck went to Washington to take command of the armies of the +United States. + +%434. Bragg's Raid into Kentucky.%--The Confederate line which in +January, 1862, had passed across Kentucky had thus by June been driven +southward to Chattanooga, Iuka, and Holly Springs. The Union line ran +from near Chattanooga to Corinth and Memphis. Against this the +Confederates now moved, with the hope of breaking through and driving it +back. Gathering his forces at Chattanooga, General Bragg rushed across +Tennessee and Kentucky toward Louisville. But General Buell, perceiving +his purpose, outmarched him, reached the Ohio, and forced Bragg to fall +back. At Perryville (October 8, 1862), Bragg turned furiously on Buell +and was beaten. + +%435. Iuka and Corinth.%--While Bragg was raiding Kentucky, Generals +Price at Iuka and Van Dorn at Holly Springs, knowing that Grant's army +had been greatly weakened by sending troops to Buell, prepared to attack +Corinth. But Grant, thinking he could fight them separately, sent +Rosecrans to Iuka (September 19). Price was not captured, but retreated +to Van Dorn, and the two then fell upon Rosecrans at Corinth (October +4), only to be beaten and chased forty miles. + +%436. Murfreesboro.%--For these successes Rosecrans (October 30) was +given command of Buell's army, then centering at Nashville. Bragg went +into winter quarters at Murfreesboro, and thither Rosecrans advanced to +attack him. The contest at Murfreesboro (December 31, 1862, and January +2, 1863) was one of the most bloody battles of the whole war. Bragg was +again defeated, and retreated to a position farther south. + +%437. Arkansas%.--In January, 1862, the Confederate line west of the +Mississippi extended from Belmont across southern Missouri to the Indian +Territory. Against the west end of this line General Curtis moved in +February, 1862, and after driving the Confederates under Van Dorn and +Price out of Missouri, beat them in the desperate battle at Pea Ridge, +Arkansas (March 6-8, 1862), and moved to the interior of the state. +Price and Van Dorn went east into Mississippi (see § 435), and when the +year closed the Union forces were in control north of the Arkansas +River, and along the west bank of the Mississippi. On the east bank the +only fortified positions in Confederate hands were Vicksburg, Grand +Gulf, and Port Hudson. + +%438. Farragut captures New Orleans.%--While Foote was opening the +upper part of the Mississippi, a naval expedition under Farragut, +supported by an army under Butler, had cleared the lower part of the +river. These forces had been sent by sea to capture New Orleans. The +defenses of the city consisted of two strong forts almost directly +opposite each other on the banks of the river, about seventy-five miles +south of the city; of two great chain cables stretched across the river +below the forts to prevent ships coming up; and of fifteen armed vessels +above the forts. New Orleans was thought to be safe. But Farragut was +not dismayed. Sailing up the river till he came to the chains, he +bombarded the forts for six days and nights, while the forts did their +best to destroy him. Then, finding he could do nothing in this way, he +cut the chains, ran his ships past the forts in spite of a dreadful fire +(April 24, 1862), destroyed the Confederate fleet (April 25), and took +the city. General Butler, who had been waiting at Ship Island with +15,000 men, then entered and held New Orleans.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Farragut, after taking New Orleans, went up the river and +captured Baton Rouge and Natchez.] + +%439. The Peninsular Campaign against Richmond.%--The signal success +of Grant and Farragut in the West was more than offset by the signal +failure of McClellan in the East. The wish of the administration, and +indeed of the whole North, was that Richmond should be captured. Against +it, therefore, the Army of the Potomac was to move. But by what route? +The government wanted McClellan to march south across Virginia, so that +his army should always be between the Confederate forces and Washington. +McClellan insisted on moving west from Chesapeake Bay. The result was a +compromise: + +1. Forces under Frémont and Banks were to operate in the Shenandoah +valley and prevent a Confederate force attacking Washington from +the west. + +2. An army under McDowell was to march from Fredericksburg to Richmond. + +3. McClellan was to take the main army from Washington by water to Fort +Monroe, and then march up the peninsula to Richmond, where McDowell was +to join him. + +[Illustration: The Peninsula Campaign] + +This peninsula, from which the campaign gets its name, lies between the +York and James rivers. Landing at the lower end of it, McClellan was met +by General Joseph E. Johnston, who caused a long delay by forcing him to +besiege Yorktown. McClellan then advanced up the peninsula, fighting the +battle of Williamsburg on the way. At White House Landing he turned +toward Richmond, extending his right flank to Hanover Courthouse, where +McDowell was expected to join him. But this was not to be, for General +T. J. Jackson ("Stonewall" Jackson) rushed down the Shenandoah valley, +driving Banks over the Potomac into Maryland, and retreated south before +Frémont or McDowell could cut him off; during this campaign he won four +desperate battles in thirty-five days. Jackson's success alarmed +Washington, and McDowell was held in northern Virginia. McClellan's +army, meanwhile, advanced on both sides of the Chickahominy River to +within eight miles of Richmond. At Fair Oaks and Seven Pines (May 31) +his left flank was almost overwhelmed by Johnston; but the latter was +wounded and his troops defeated. Johnston was then succeeded by R. E. +Lee, who, joined by Jackson, attacked McClellan at Mechanicsville and +Games Mill, and forced him to fall back, fighting for six days (June 26 +to July 1, 1862)[1] as he retreated to Harrisons Landing, on the James +River. There the army remained till August, when it was recalled to +the Potomac. + +[Footnote 1: The "Seven Days' Battles" are these and one fought June +25.] + +%440. Lee's Raid into Maryland; Battle of Antietam, or +Sharpsburg.%--While the Army of the Potomac was at Harrisons Landing, +a new force called the Army of Virginia was organized, and General John +Pope placed in command. At the same time General Halleck was recalled +from the West and made general in chief of the Union armies. Pope +intended to move straight against Richmond. But when McClellan in +obedience to orders left Harrisons Landing and took his army by water to +the Potomac, near Washington, the Confederate army was left free to act +as it pleased. Seeing his opportunity, Lee moved at once against Pope's +army, whose line stretched along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers to +the Shenandoah valley in western Virginia. Near the Rapidan at Cedar +Mountain was General Banks. He was first attacked and beaten; after +which Lee fell upon Pope on the old field of Bull Run, and put the army +to flight. Pope fell back to Washington, where his forces were united +with those of McClellan. Pushing northward, Lee next crossed the Potomac +and entered Maryland. But he was overtaken by McClellan at Antietam +Creek, near Sharpsburg, where, September 17, 1862, a great battle was +fought, after which Lee went back to Virginia. + +McClellan was now removed and the command of the army given to General +Burnside. He was as reckless as McClellan was cautious, and on December +13 threw his army against the Confederates posted at Fredericksburg +Heights and was beaten with dreadful slaughter. Thus at the end of 1862 +Richmond was not captured, and the two armies went into winter quarters +with the Rappahannock River between them. + +%441. Emancipation of the Slaves%.--More than two years had now +passed since South Carolina had seceded, and during this time a great +change had taken place in the feeling of the North towards slavery. When +Lincoln was inaugurated, very few people wanted the slaves emancipated. +But two years of bloody fighting had convinced the North that the Union +could not exist part slave, part free. As Lincoln said in his speech at +Springfield in 1858, "It must be all one thing, or all the other." +Seeing that the people now felt as he did, Lincoln, in 1862 (March 6), +asked Congress to agree to buy the slaves of the loyal slave states, and +urged the members of Congress from those states to advise their +constituents to set free their slaves and receive $300 apiece for them. +This they would not do; whereupon he decided to act upon his own +authority, and declared all slaves within the lines of the Confederacy +to be freemen. + +For this he had two good reasons: 1. So far the war had been one for the +preservation of the Union. By making it a war for union and freedom the +North would become more earnest than ever. 2. The rulers of England, who +wanted Southern cotton, were only waiting for a pretext to acknowledge +the independence of the South. If, however, the North engaged in a war +for the abolition of slavery, the people of England would not allow the +independence of the Confederacy to be acknowledged by their rulers. + +The time to make such a declaration was after some victory gained by the +Union army. When McClellan and Lee stood face to face at Antietam, +Lincoln therefore "vowed to God" that if Lee were defeated he would +issue the proclamation. Lee was defeated, and, on September 22, 1862, +the proclamation came forth declaring that if the Confederate States did +not return to their allegiance before January 1, 1863, "all persons held +as slaves" within the Confederate lines "shall be then, thenceforth, and +forever free." The states of course did not return to their allegiance, +and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was issued setting the +slaves free.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Nicolay and Hay's _Life of Lincoln, _Vol. VI., Chaps. 6, +8.] + +Now, there are three things in connection with the Emancipation +Proclamation which must be understood and remembered: + +1. Lincoln did not _abolish slavery_ anywhere. He _emancipated_ or _set +free the slaves_ of certain persons engaged in waging war against the +United States government. + +2. The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to any of the loyal slave +states,[1] nor to such territory as the Union army had reconquered.[2] +In none of these places did it free slaves. + +[Footnote 1: Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.] + +[Footnote 2: Tennessee, thirteen parishes in Louisiana, and seven +counties in Virginia.] + +3. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his power as commander in chief +of the army of the United States, "and as a fit and necessary +war measure." + +%442. The Battle of Gettysburg.%--After Burnside was defeated at +Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he was removed, and General Hooker +put in command of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker--"Fighting Joe," as he +was called--led it against Lee, and (May 1-4, 1863) was beaten at +Chancellorsville and fell back. In June Lee again took the offensive, +rushed down the Shenandoah valley to the Potomac, crossed Maryland, and +entered Pennsylvania, with the Army of the Potomac in pursuit. On +reaching Maryland, Hooker was removed and General Meade put in command. +The opposing forces met on the hills at Gettysburg, Penn., and there, +July 1-3, Lee attacked Meade. The contest was a dreadful one; no field +was ever more stubbornly fought over. About one fourth of the men +engaged were killed or wounded. But the splendid courage of the Union +army prevailed: Lee was beaten and retired to Virginia, where he +remained unmolested till the spring of 1864. Gettysburg is regarded as +the greatest battle of the war, and the Union regiments engaged have +taken a just pride in marking the positions they held during the three +awful days of slaughter, till the field is dotted all over with +beautiful monuments. On the hill back of the village is a great +national cemetery, at the dedication of which Lincoln delivered his +famous Gettysburg address. + +[Illustration: Part of the battlefield of Gettysburg] + +%443. Vicksburg%.--The day after the victory at Gettysburg, the joy +of the North was yet more increased by the news that Vicksburg had +surrendered (July 4) to Grant. After the defeat, of the Confederate +forces at Iuka and Corinth in 1862, the Confederate line passed across +northern Mississippi, touched the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, +and then swept off to the Gulf. As the capture of these river towns +would complete the opening of the Mississippi, Grant set out to take +Vicksburg. Failing in a direct advance through Mississippi, Grant sent a +strong force down the river from Memphis, and later took command in +person. Vicksburg stands on the top of a bluff which rises steep and +straight 200 feet above the river, and had been so fortified that to +capture it seemed impossible. But Grant was determined to open the +river. On the west bank, he cut a canal through a bend, hoping to divert +the river and get water passage by the town. This failed, and he decided +to cross below the town and attack from the land. To aid him in this +attempt, Porter ran his gunboats past the town one night in April and +carried the army over the river. Landing on the east bank, Grant won a +victory at Port Gibson, and occupied Grand Gulf. Hearing that Johnston +was coming to help Pemberton, Grant pushed in between them, beat +Johnston at Jackson, and turning westward, drove Pemberton into +Vicksburg, and began a regular siege. For seven weeks he poured in shot +and shell day and night. To live in houses became impossible, and the +women and children took refuge in caves. Food gave out, and after every +kind of misery had been endured till it could be borne no longer, +Vicksburg was surrendered on July 4. + +[Illustration: The Vicksburg Campaign] + +Five days later (July 9, 1863), Port Hudson surrendered, and the +Mississippi, as Lincoln said, "flowed unvexed to the sea." It was open +from its source to its mouth, and the Confederacy was cut in two. + +%444. Driving the Confederates eastward; Chickamauga and +Chattanooga%.--While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Rosecrans by +skillful work forced Bragg to retreat from his position south of +Murfreesboro; then in a second campaign he forced Bragg to leave +Chattanooga and retire into northwestern Georgia. Bragg here received +more troops, and attacked Rosecrans in the Chickamauga valley (September +19 and 20, 1863), where was fought one of the most desperate battles of +the war. So fierce was the onset of the Confederates that the Union +right wing was driven from the field. But the left wing, under General +George H. Thomas, a grand character and a splendid officer, by some of +the best fighting ever seen held the enemy in check and saved the army +from rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of "the Rock of +Chickamauga." + +Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, and taking +position on the hills and mountains which surround the town on the east +and south, shut in the Union army and besieged it. For a time it seemed +in danger of starvation. But Hooker was sent from Virginia with more +troops; the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman was summoned from +Vicksburg; Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, and Grant was put in +command of all. Then matters changed. The forces under Thomas, moving +from their lines, seized some low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, +east of Chattanooga (November 23). On the 24th, Hooker carried the +Confederate works on Lookout Mountain, southwest of the city, in a +conflict often called the "Battle above the Clouds"; and Sherman was +sent against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, but succeeded only in +taking an outlying hill. On the 25th Sherman renewed his attack, but +failed to gain the main crest, whereupon Thomas attacked the Ridge in +front of Chattanooga, carried the heights, and drove off the enemy. +Bragg retreated to Dalton, in northwestern Georgia, where the command of +his army was given to Joseph E. Johnston. + +%445. "Marching through Georgia"; "From Atlanta to the Sea."%--As the +Confederates had thus been driven from the Mississippi River, and forced +back to the mountains, they had but two centers of power left. The one +was the army under Lee, which, since the defeat at Gettysburg, had been +lying quietly behind the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, protecting +Richmond. The other was the army at Dalton, Ga., now under J. +E. Johnston. + +[Illustration: WAR FOR THE UNION Breaking the Confederate Line] + +Early in the spring of 1864 General U.S. Grant--"Unconditional Surrender +Grant," as the people called him--was made lieutenant general (a rank +never before given to any United States soldier except Washington and +Scott), and put in command of all the Federal armies. General Sherman +was left in command of the military division of the Mississippi. + +Before beginning the campaign, Grant and Sherman agreed on a plan. +Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was to drive back Lee and take +Richmond. Sherman, with the armies of Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, +was to attack Johnston and push his way into Georgia. Each was to begin +his movement on the same day (May 4, 1864). + +On that day, accordingly, Sherman with 98,000 men marched against +Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and step by step through the +mountains to Atlanta, fighting all the way. Johnston's retreat was +masterly. He intended to retreat until Sherman's army was so weakened by +leaving guards in the rear to protect the railroads, over which food and +supplies must come, that he could fight on equal terms. But Jefferson +Davis removed Johnston at Atlanta, and put J. B. Hood in command. + +Hood, in July, made three furious attacks, was beaten each time; +abandoned Atlanta in September, and soon after started northwestward, in +hope of drawing Sherman out of Georgia. But Sherman sent Thomas and a +part of the army to Tennessee, and after following Hood for a time, he +returned to Atlanta, tearing up the railroads as he went. Then, having +partly burned the town, in November he started for the sea with 60,000 +of his best veterans. + +[Illustration: SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA] + +The troops went in four columns, covering a belt of sixty miles wide, +burning bridges, tearing up railroads, living on the country as they +marched. Early in December the army drew near to Savannah; about the +middle of the month (December 13) Fort McAllister was taken; and a few +days later the city of Savannah was occupied. During all this long march +to the sea, nothing was known in the North as to where Sherman was or +what he was doing. Fancy the delight of Lincoln, then, when on the +Christmas eve of 1864, he received this telegram: + + SAVANNAH, Georgia, December 22, 1864. + +To His EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, D.C. + +I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one +hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also about +twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. + + W. T. SHERMAN, MAJOR GENERAL. + +Sherman had sent the message by vessel to Fort Monroe, whence it was +telegraphed to Lincoln. + +%446. Sherman marches northward.%--At Savannah the army rested for a +month. Sherman tells us in his _Memoirs_ that the troops grew impatient +at this delay, and used to call out to him as he rode by: "Uncle Billy, +I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond." So he was; but he did not +wait very long, for on February 1, 1865, the march was resumed. The way +was across South Carolina to Columbia, and then into North Carolina, +with their old enemy, J. E. Johnston, in their front. Hood, in a rash +moment, had besieged Thomas at Nashville; but Thomas, coming out from +behind his intrenchments, utterly destroyed Hood's army. This forced +Davis to put Johnston in command of a new army made up of troops taken +from the seaport garrisons and remnants of Hood's army. In March, +Sherman reached Goldsboro in North Carolina. + +%447. Grant in Virginia.%--Meantime Grant had set out from Culpeper +Courthouse on May 4, 1864, crossed the Rapidan, and entered the +"Wilderness," a name given to a tract of country covered with dense +woods of oak and pine and thick undergrowth. The fighting was almost +incessant. The loss of life was frightful; but he pushed on to +Spottsylvania Courthouse, and thence to Cold Harbor, part of the line of +fortifications before Richmond. He would, as he said, "fight it out on +this line if it takes all summer," and went south of Richmond and +besieged Petersburg. + +%448. Early's Raid, 1864.%--Lee now sent Jubal Early with 20,000 +soldiers to move down the Shenandoah valley, enter Maryland, and +threaten Washington. This he did, and after coming up to the +fortifications of the city, he retreated to Virginia. A little later, +Early sent his cavalry into Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg. + +Grant thought it was time to stop this, and sent Sheridan with an army +to drive Early out of the Shenandoah valley. "It is desirable," said +Grant, "that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return." + +Sheridan set out accordingly, and on September 19 he met Early in battle +at Winchester, and a few days later at Fishers Hill, beat him at both +places, and sent him whirling up the valley. Sheridan followed for a +time, and then brought his army back to Cedar Creek, after burning +barns, destroying crops, and devastating the entire upper valley. + +%449. Sheridan's Ride.%--And now occurred a famous incident. About +the middle of October Sheridan went to Washington, and while on his way +back slept on the night of October 18 at Winchester. At 7 A.M. on the +19th he heard guns, but paid no attention to the sounds till 9 o'clock, +when, as he rode quietly out of Winchester, he met a mile from town +wagon trains and fugitives, and heard that Early had surprised his camp +at daylight. Dashing up the pike with an escort of twenty men, calling +to the fugitives as he passed them to turn and face the enemy, he met +the army drawn up in line eleven miles from Winchester. "Far away in the +rear," says an old soldier, "we heard cheer after cheer. Were +reinforcements coming? Yes, Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a +host." Dashing down the line, Sheridan shouted, "What troops are these?" +"The Sixth Corps," came back the response from a hundred voices. "We are +all right," said Sheridan, as he swung his old hat and dashed along the +line to the right. "Never mind, boys, we'll whip them yet. We shall +sleep in our old quarters to-night." And they did.[1] Early +was defeated. + +[Footnote:1] Read Sheridan's account in his _Personal Memoirs, _Vol. +II., pp. 66-92. + +%450. Surrender of Lee.%--At the beginning of 1865 the situation of +Lee was desperate, and in February, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice +President of the Confederacy, met Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a war +vessel in Hampton Roads to discuss terms of peace. Lincoln demanded +three things: 1. That the Confederate armies be disbanded and the men +sent home. 2. That the Confederate States submit to the rule of +Congress. 3. That slavery be abolished. These terms were not accepted, +and the war went on. Sherman marched northward through the Carolinas and +was reënforced from the coast; every seaport in the Confederacy was soon +in Union hands; Sheridan finally dispersed Early's troops, and joined +Grant before Petersburg; and the lines of Grant's army were drawn closer +and closer around Petersburg and Richmond. + +Plainly the end was near. On April 2 Lee announced to Davis that both +Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned at once. The rams in the James +River were immediately blown up, and on the morning of April 3 General +Weitzel, hearing from a negro what was going on, entered Richmond and +found that Lee was in full retreat. Grant followed, and on April 9 +forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, seventy-five miles +west of Richmond. Grant's treatment of Lee was most generous. He was not +required to give up his sword, nor his officers their side arms, nor his +men their horses, which they would need, Grant said, "to work their +little farms." Each officer was to give his parole not to take up arms +against the United States "until properly exchanged"; each regimental +commander was to do the same for his men; and, "this done, each officer +and man will be allowed to return to his home." Immediately after this +surrender 25,000 rations were issued to Lee's men. + +[Illustration: The house in which Lee and Grant arranged the surrender] + +%451. End of the Confederacy.%--What little was left of the +Confederacy now went rapidly to pieces. On April 26 Johnston surrendered +to Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina. A few days later the victorious +army started for Richmond, and then went on over battle-scarred +Virginia to Washington. May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured. When Lee +fled from Richmond, Davis hurried to Charlotte, N.C., with his cabinet, +his clerks, and such gold and silver coin as was in the Confederate +Treasury. But the surrender of Johnston forced Davis to retreat still +farther south, till he reached Irwinsville, Ga., where the Union cavalry +overtook him. + +%452. The Grand Army disbands.%--As this was practically the end of +the Confederacy, the great Union army of citizen soldiers, numbering +more than 1,000,000 men, was called home from the field and disbanded. +Before these veterans separated, never to meet again with arms in their +hands, they were reviewed by the President, Congress, and an immense +throng of people who came to Washington from every part of the loyal +states to welcome them. During two days (May 23 and 24, 1865) the +soldiers of Grant and Sherman, forming a column thirty miles long, +marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and then, with a rapidity and +quietness that seems almost incredible, scattered and went back to their +farms, to their shops, to the practice of their professions, and to the +innumerable occupations of civil life. + +Of the Confederates not one was molested, not a soldier was imprisoned, +not a political leader suffered death. Davis was ordered to be +imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years, but he was soon released on +bail, was never brought to trial, and died at New Orleans in 1889. + + +SUMMARY + +1. After the election of Lincoln seven states seceded from the Union, +and formed the "Confederate States of America." + +2. Four other states joined the Confederacy later. + +3. The refusal of the United States to recognize the right to secede led +to the refusal to give up Federal forts in Charleston harbor. The +attempt to take Sumter by force led to the appeal to arms. + +4. The line which separated the troops of the two governments ran from +Chesapeake Bay, across Virginia, and through Kentucky and Missouri, to +New Mexico. + +5. While the Union troops held the Confederates in check on the eastern +end of the line, they broke through the line in the West, and, aided by +the Union fleet, opened the Mississippi River. + +6. The Confederates were thus driven from the Mississippi and forced +back to the mountains of Georgia. Sherman was sent against them, and in +1864 marched eastward through the heart of the Confederacy to +the Atlantic. + +7. Marching north from Savannah, across Georgia and South Carolina, to +Goldsboro in North Carolina, he was now in the rear of the Confederate +army in Virginia. + +8. Grant, meantime, with the Army of the Potomac, had fought a series of +battles with Lee, and had besieged Richmond and Petersburg; and +Sheridan had cleared out the Shenandoah valley. + +9. Lee was thus forced, early in 1865, to leave Richmond, and while +retreating westward he was forced to surrender. + + SECESSION AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION + | +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + _The South_ _The North_ +The cotton states secede. Attempts to compromise. +The Confederacy formed. Buchanan's attitude. +A constitution adopted. The Crittenden Compromise. +Unites States property seized. A Thirteenth Amendment proposed. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + | | + ------------------------------------------ + | + ------------------------------------------ + Buchanan attempts to provision Fort Sumter + _Star of the West_ fired on. + ------------------------------------------ + | + ------------------- + Lincoln inaugurated. + ------------------- + | + ------------------------------------------ + Lincoln attempts to provision Fort Sumter + The fort bombarded. The surrender. + ------------------------------------------ + | +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +Arkansas, North Carolina, The call to arms. + Virginia, and Tennessee secede. The march to Washington +Richmond made the capital Fight in the streets of + of the Confederacy. Baltimore. ------------------------------------------------------------------ + | | + ----------------------------------------- + | + ------------------ + _The war opens_ + ------------------- + | +----------------------------------------------------------------- +_Fighting in the West._ _Fighting along the Potomac and in + Virginia_ +_1861-1862._ Breaking the _1861._ The attempt to take Richmond. + Confederate line. Battle of Bull Run. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +1. Line broken at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and driven out of +Kentucky and West Tennessee. + +2. Driven out of Missouri and North Arkansas. + +3. New Orleans taken. + +4. Mississippi River nearly open. + +_1863_. 1. Vicksburg and Port Hudson taken, and Mississippi River open +to the Gulf. + +2. The Confederacy cut in two. + +3. Arkansas and East Tennessee recovered. + +_1864_. Driving the Confederate line eastward. + +1. Sherman's march to Atlanta; to the sea. + +2. The Confederacy again cut in two. + +_1865_. Driving the Confederate line northward. + +1. Sherman marches northward from Savannah to Goldsboro. + +2. Surrender of Johnston to Sherman. + + +_1862_ The attempt on Richmond renewed. +------------------------ ------------------------ -------------------------- +1. Frémont and Banks to 2. McDowell to move from 3. McClellan to move up + hold the Shenandoah Fredericksburg. Peninsula from Fort + valley. ------------+----------- Monroe. +------------+----------- | -------------+------------ + | ------------+----------- | +------------+----------- Jackson's success in the -------------+------------ +Defeated by Jackson. Shenandoah valley leads McClellan, left without +------------------------ to recall of McDowell. support of McDowell, + -------------------------- is defeated, changes base + to James River, and in + August is recalled north. + -------------+------------ + | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Removal of McClellan's army leaves Lee free to act. +He attacks Pope and defeats him on old field of Bull Run. +After defeat of Pope, he rushes into Maryland, where, at Antietam, he is + defeated, and goes back to Virginia. +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- + | +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- +1. Union victory at Antietam leads Lincoln to issue the Preliminary + Emancipation Proclamation. +2. McClellan relieved of command and Burnside put in his place. +3. Burnside attacks Lee's army and is beaten at Fredericksburg. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +_1863_. 1. Burnside removed and _1864_. Grant in command. + Hooker in command. 1. The Wilderness and other battles. +2. Hooker defeated at Chancellorsville. 2. Early sent into the Shenandoah +3. Lee runs past and enters Pennsylvania. valley, where Sheridan defeats him. +4. Meade put in command. Battle of _1865_. Richmond taken. + Gettysburg. 1. Lee evacuates the city. +5. Lee beaten and goes back to Virginia. 2. Surrenders to Grant. +6. The turning-point of the war. ------------------+----------------- + | +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + %END OF THE WAR.% + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA + +%453. State of our Navy in 1861.%--On the day our flag went down at +Sumter, the navy of the United States consisted of ninety vessels of +every sort. Fifty of these were sailing ships. Forty were propelled by +steam. Of the steam fleet one was on the Lakes, five were unserviceable, +seventeen were in foreign parts, and nine laid up in navy yards and out +of service. Eight steam vessels (one a mere tender) and five sailing +vessels (a fleet of thirteen) made up the naval force of the United +States that was available for actual service on April 15, 1861. + +%454. The Work before the Navy.%--The duty of the navy was to + +1. Blockade the coast from Norfolk in Virginia to the Bio Grande in +Texas. + +2. Capture the seaports and forts scattered along this coast. + +3. Acquire control of the sounds and bays, as Chesapeake, Albemarle, +Pamlico, Mobile, and Galveston. + +4. Assist the army in opening the Mississippi, Arkansas, and other +rivers. + +5. Destroy all Confederate cruisers and protect the commerce of the +United States. + +To accomplish this great work, most of the vessels abroad were recalled +(a slow process in days when no ocean cable existed), more were hastily +built, and in time 400 merchantmen and river steamboats were bought and +roughly adapted at the navy yards for war service. + +%455. %The Blockade of the Southern Coast.%--The war on sea was +opened (April 19-27,1861) by two proclamations of Lincoln declaring the +coast from Virginia to Texas blockaded. This meant that armed vessels +were to be stationed off the seaports of the South, and that no ships +from any country were to be allowed to go into or out of them. To stop +trade with the South was important for three reasons: + +1. The South had no ships, no great gun factories, machine shops, or +rolling mills, and must look to foreign countries for military supplies. + +2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost all of +which was sold to England and the North, and if this cotton should be +sent abroad, the South could easily buy with it all the guns, ships, and +goods she needed. + +3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and would sell for +it everything the South wanted in exchange. + +The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies of the +South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great commercial nation, +wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless the blockade were rigorous +and close, cotton would be smuggled out and supplies sent in. + +%456. Blockade Runners%.--This is just what did happen. The blockade +in the course of a year was made close, by ships stationed off the +ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places the hulks of old whalers were +loaded with stone and sunk in the channels, and to get in or out became +more difficult. As a result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a +pound in the South (because there was nobody to buy it) and rose to +fifty cents a pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then +"running the blockade" became a regular business. Goods of all sorts +were brought from England to Nassau in the West Indies, where they would +be put on board of vessels built to run the blockade. These blockade +runners were long, low steam vessels which drew only a few feet of water +and had great speed. Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and +were painted a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the +deck, and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They would +leave Nassau at such a time as would enable them to be off Wilmington, +N.C., or some other Southern port, on a moonless night with a high tide, +and then, making a dash, would run through the blockading vessels. Once +in port, they would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark +night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of all kinds were +captured or destroyed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor's _Running the Blockade, _pp. 16-32, +44-54.] + +%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%--While the North was thus busy +destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the +enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships +were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent +a class of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business +it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a +sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The +first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the _Sumter_, which +ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and +within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to +capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped +them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of +Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture. + +%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%--One of the vessels sent in pursuit of +the _Sumter_ was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While +at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate +government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners +to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British +mail steamer _Trent_; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station +in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the _Trent_ came +steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and +Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was +exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever +since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in +1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another +English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in +this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice +of her demand prevented war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Harris's _The Trent Affair._] + +%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%--The loss +of the _Sumter_ was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a +fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the +full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the +_Florida_, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in +the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured +by the United States cruiser _Wachusett_ in the neutral harbor of Bahia +in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and +it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an +unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe,_ Vol. I., pp. 152-224.] + +The next to get afloat was the _Alabama_. She was built at Liverpool +with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of +the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During +two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of +Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even +in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant +vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by +the _Kearsarge_, to which Captain Semmes of the _Alabama_ sent a +challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864, +after a short and gallant engagement, the _Alabama_ was sunk in the +English Channel.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. _Battles and Leaders of the +Civil War,_ Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.] + +The _Shenandoah_, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed +at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and +cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the +China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the +downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe_, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.] + +%460. The Ironclads.%--To blockade the coast and cut off trade was +most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were +seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays +and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was +very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware +of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers +and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These +were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then +covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of +them was the _Merrimac_. + +[Illustration: %Remodeling the Merrimac%] + +[Illustration: %The U.S. steamer Merrimac%] + +%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%--When Sumter was fired on and the +war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at +Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and +immense quantities of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in +charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the +yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, set +fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once +took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer +called the _Merrimac_. made an ironclad ram, which they renamed the +_Virginia_ and sent forth to destroy the wooden vessels of the United +States then assembled in Chesapeake Bay. + +Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our war ships, the +commander of the _Merrimac_ went leisurely to work and began (March 8, +1862) by attacking the _Cumberland_. In her day the _Cumberland_ had +been as fine a frigate as ever went to sea; but the days of wooden ships +were gone, and she was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the +_Merrimac _like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under +steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through which the +water poured. Even then the commander of the _Cumberland_ would not +surrender, but fought his ship till she filled and sank with her guns +booming and her flag flying. After sinking the _Cumberland_, the +_Merrimac_ attacked the _Congress_, forced her to surrender, set her on +fire, and, as darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of +the Confederate batteries. + +[Illustration: Monitor, side and deck plan] + +%462. The Monitor.%--Early the next day the _Merrimac_ sailed forth +to finish the work of destruction, and picking out the _Minnesota_, +which was hard and fast in the mud, bore down to attack her. When lo! +from beside the _Minnesota_ started forth the most curious-looking craft +ever seen on water. It was the famous _Monitor_, designed by Captain +John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw propeller and +the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron hull, on top of which +rested a boat-shaped raft covered with sheets of iron which made the +deck. On top of the deck, which was about three feet above the water, +was an iron cylinder, or turret, which revolved by machinery and carried +two guns. She looked, it was said, like "a cheesebox mounted on a raft." + +[Illustration: HAMPTON ROADS] + +The _Monitor_ was built at New York, and was intended for harbor +defense; but the fact that the Confederates were building a great +ironclad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton Roads. The +sea voyage was a dreadful one; again and again she was almost wrecked, +but she weathered the storm, and early on the evening of March 8, 1862, +entered Hampton Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning +_Congress_ and to hear of the sinking of the _Cumberland_. Taking her +place beside the _Minnesota_, she waited for the dawn, and about eight +o'clock saw the _Merrimac_ coming toward her, and, starting out, began +the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither ship +was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now +proved that no wooden ships anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of +wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were +forced to build their navies anew. The _Merrimac_ withdrew from the +fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May, +1862). The _Monitor_ sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort, +N.C. (January, 1863).[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp. +719-750.] + +[Illustration: %An encounter at close range%] + +%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%--Operations along +the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the +mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the +capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862) +control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of +Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and +of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor. +McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the +hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the +end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to +the Gulf was in Union hands. + +Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower +Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in +May, 1862. + +In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was +carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August, +1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that +guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and +took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as +the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the +entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port +of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land +and naval force in January, 1865. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast +of the Confederate States. + +2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco +being sent abroad in return for materials of war. + +3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent. + +4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in +England, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They +inflicted very serious damage. + +5. But the great event of the war was the battle between the ironclads +_Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, which marked the advent of the +iron-armored war ship. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +THE COST OF THE WAR + +%464. The Cost in Money.%--When Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861 and +Lincoln made his call for volunteers, the national debt was $90,000,000, +the annual revenue was $41,000,000, and the annual expenses of the +government $68,000,000. As the expenses were vastly increased by the +outbreak of war, it became necessary to get more money. To do this, +Congress, when it met in July, 1861, began a financial policy which must +be described if we are to understand the later history of our country. + +%465. Power to raise Money.%--The Constitution gives Congress power + +1. "To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises." + +2. "To borrow money on the credit of the United States." + +3. To apportion direct taxes among the several states according to their +population. + +%466. Raising Money by Taxation; Internal Revenue.%--Exercising these +powers, Congress in 1861 increased the duties on articles imported, laid +a direct tax of $20,000,000. and imposed a tax of three per cent on +all incomes over $800. The returns were large, but they fell far short +of the needs of the government, and in 1862 an internal revenue system +was created. Taxes were now imposed on spirits and malt liquors; on +manufactured tobacco; on trades, professions, and occupations; till +almost everything a man ate, drank, wore, bought, sold, or owned was +taxed. The revenue collected from such sources between 1862 and 1865 was +$780,000,000. + +%467. Raising Money "on the Credit of the United States."%--Money +raised by internal revenue and the tariff was largely used to pay +current expenses and the interest on the national debt. The great war +expenses were met by borrowing money in two ways: + +1. By selling bonds. + +2. By issuing "United States notes." + +%468. The Bonded and Interest-paying Debt.%--The bonds were +obligations by which the government bound itself to pay the holder the +sum of money specified in the bond at the end of a certain period of +years, as twenty or thirty or forty. Meantime the holder was to be paid +interest at the rate of five, six, or seven per cent a year. Between +July 1, 1861, and August 31, 1865, when our national debt was greatest, +$1,109,000,000 worth of bonds had been sold to the people and the money +used for war purposes. + +%469. United States Notes.%--The United States notes were of two +kinds: those which bore interest, and those which did not. Those bearing +interest passed under various names, and by 1866 amounted to +$577,000,000. + +United States notes bearing no interest were the "old demand notes," the +"greenbacks," the "fractional currency," and the "national bank notes." + +The greenbacks (a name given them from the green color of their backs) +were authorized early in 1862, were in denominations from $1 up, bore no +interest, were legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, +except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. In time +$450,000,000 were authorized to be issued, and in 1864, $449,000,000 +were in circulation. + +%470. Fractional Currency.%--The issue of the demand notes in 1861, +and the fact, apparent to every one, that Congress must keep on issuing +paper money, led the state banks to suspend specie payment in December, +1861. As a consequence, the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces (and +of course all the gold) disappeared from circulation. This left the +people without small change, and for a time they were forced to pay +their car fare and buy their newspapers and make change with postage +stamps and "token" pieces of brass and copper, which passed from hand to +hand as cents. Indeed, one act of Congress, in July, 1862, made it +lawful to receive postage stamps (in sums under $5) in payment of +government dues. But in March, 1863, another step was taken, and an +issue of $50,000,000 in paper fractional currency was authorized. + +%471. The National Banking System.%--Yet another financial measure to +aid the government was the creation of national banks. In 1863 Congress +established the office of "Comptroller of the Currency," and authorized +him to permit the establishment of banking associations. Each must +consist of not less than five persons, must have a certain capital, and +must deposit with the Treasury Department at Washington government bonds +equal to at least one third of its capital. The Comptroller was then to +issue to each association bank notes not exceeding in value ninety per +cent of the face value of the bonds. It was supposed that the state +banks, which then issued $150,000,000 in 7000 kinds of bank notes, would +take advantage of the law, become national banks, and use this national +money, which would pass all over the country. This would enable the +government to sell the banks $150,000,000 and more of bonds. But the +state banks did not do so till 1865, when a tax of ten per cent was laid +on the amount of paper money each state bank issued. Then, to get rid of +the tax, hundreds of them bought bonds and became national banks. + +%472. The National Debt and State Expenditures.%--On the 31st of +August, 1865, the national debt thus created reached its highest figure, +and was in round numbers $2,845,000,000. + +Besides the debt incurred by the national government, there were heavy +expenditures by the states, and we might say by almost every city and +town, amounting to $468,000,000. But even when the war ended, the outlay +on account of the war did not cease. Each year there was interest to +pay on the bonded debt, and pensions to be given to disabled soldiers +and sailors, and to the widows and orphans of men killed, and claims for +damages of all sorts to be allowed. Between July 1, 1861, and June 30, +1879, the expenditure of the government growing out of the war amounted +to $6,190,000,000. + +Many men who served in the army made great personal sacrifices. They +were taken away from some useful employment, from their farms, their +trades, their business, or their professions. What they might have +earned or accomplished during the time of service was so much loss. + +%473. The Cost in Human Life.%--While the war was raging, Lincoln +made twelve calls for volunteers, to serve for periods varying from 100 +days to three years. The first was the famous call of April 15, 1861, +for 75,000 three-months men; the last was in December, 1864. When the +numbers of soldiers thus summoned from their homes are added, we find +that 2,763,670 were wanted and 2,772,408 responded. This does not mean +that 2,770,000 different men were called into service or were ever at +any one time under arms. Some served for three months, others for six +months, a year, or three years. Very often a man would enlist and when +his term was out would reenlist. The largest number in service at any +time was in April, 1865. It was 1,000,516, of whom 650,000 were fit for +service. In 1865, 800,000 were mustered out between April and October. + +Of those who gave their lives to preserve the Union, 67,000 were killed +in battle, 43,000 died of wounds, and 230,000 of disease and other +causes. In round numbers, 360,000 men gave up their lives in defense of +the Union. How many perished in the Confederate army cannot be stated, +but the loss was quite as large as on the Union side; so that it is safe +to say that more than 700,000 men were killed in the war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A table giving the size of the armies and the loss of life +will be found in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. IV., pp. +767-768.] + +%474. Suffering in the South.%--The South raised all the cotton, +nearly all the rice and tobacco, and one third of the Indian corn grown +in our country, and depended on Europe and the North for manufactured +goods. But when the North, in 1861 and 1862, blockaded her ports and cut +off these supplies, her distress began. Brass bells and brass kettles +were called for to be melted and cast into cannon, and every sort of +fowling piece and old musket was pressed into service and sent to the +troops in the field. As money could not be had, treasury notes were +issued by the million, to be redeemed "six months after the close of the +war." Planters were next pledged to loan the government a share of the +proceeds of their cotton, receiving bonds in return. But the blockade +was so rigorous that very little cotton could get to Europe. When this +failed, provisions for the army were bought with bonds and with paper +money issued by the states. + +This steady issue of paper money, with nothing to redeem it, led to its +rapid decrease in value. In 1864 it took $40 in Confederate paper money +to buy a yard of calico. A spool of thread cost $20; a ham, $150; a +pound of sugar, $75; and a barrel of flour, $1200. + +%475. Makeshifts.%--Thrown on their own resources, the Southern people +became home manufacturers. The inner shuck of Indian corn was made into +hats. Knitting became fashionable. Homespun clothing, dyed with the +extract of black-walnut bark or wild indigo or swamp maple or +elderberries, was worn by everybody. Barrels and boxes which had been +used for packing salt fish and pork were soaked in water, which was +evaporated for the sake of the salt thus extracted. Rye or wheat roasted +and ground became a substitute for coffee, and dried raspberry +leaves for tea. + +Quite as desperate were the shifts to which the South was put for +soldiers. At first every young man was eager to rush to the front. But +as time passed, and the great armies of the North were formed, it became +necessary to force men into the ranks, to "conscript" them; and in 1862 +an act of the Confederate Congress made all males from eighteen to +thirty-five subject to military duty. In September, 1862, all men from +eighteen to forty-five, and later from sixteen to sixty, were subject to +conscription. The slaves, of course, worked on the fortifications, drove +teams, and cooked for the troops. + +%476. Cost to the South%.--Thus drained of her able-bodied +population, the South went rapidly to rack and ruin. Crops fell off, +property fell into decay, business stopped, railroads were ruined +because men could not be had to keep them in repair, and because no +rails could be obtained. The loss inflicted by this general and +widespread ruin can never be even estimated. Cotton, houses, property of +every sort, was destroyed to prevent capture by the Union forces. On +every battlefield incalculable damage was done to woods, villages, +farmhouses, and crops. Bridges were burned; cities, such as Richmond, +Atlanta, Columbia, Charleston, were well-nigh destroyed by fire; +thousands of miles of railroad were torn up and ruined. The loss +entailed by the emancipation of the slaves, supposing each negro worth +$500, amounts to $2,000,000,000. + + +SUMMARY + +1. When the war opened, and the army and navy were called into the +field, Congress proceeded to raise money by three methods: A. Increasing +taxation. B. Issuing bonds. C. Issuing paper money. + +2. Taxation was in three forms: A. Direct tax. B. Tariff duties. C. +Internal revenue, which included a vast number of taxes. + +3. Paper money consisted of treasury notes, United States notes +(greenbacks), fractional currency. + +4. Besides the cost to the nation, there was the cost to the states, +counties, cities, and towns for bounties, and in aid of the war in +general; and the cost to individuals. + +6. There is again the cost produced by the war and still being paid as +pensions, care of national cemeteries, etc., and interest on the +public debt. + +6. The cost in human life was great to both North and South; there was +also a destruction of property and business, the money value of which +cannot be estimated. + + + + +"_THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES._" + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH + +%477. The Reëlection of Lincoln%.--While the war was still raging, +the time came, in 1864, for the nomination of candidates for the +Presidency and Vice Presidency. The situation was serious. On the one +hand was the Democratic party, denouncing Mr. Lincoln, insisting that +the war was a failure, and demanding peace at any price. On the other +hand was a large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr. +Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had done things +they thought the Constitution did not permit him to do, and because he +had fixed the conditions on which people in the so-called seceding +states might send representatives and senators to Congress. Between +these two was a party made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who +insisted that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men held a +convention, and dropping the name "Republicans" for the time being, took +that of "National Union party," and renominated Lincoln. For Vice +President they selected Andrew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat +from Tennessee. + +The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention and nominated +John C. Frémont and General John Cochrane. They demanded one term for a +President; the confiscation of the land of rebels; the reconstruction of +rebellious states by Congress, not by the President; vigorous war +measures; and the destruction of slavery forever. + +The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and George H. +Pendleton. The platform demanded "a cessation of hostilities with a view +to a convention of the states," and described the sacrifice of lives and +treasure in behalf of Union as "four years of failure to restore the +Union by the experiment of war." McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, +repudiated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace +first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, and then +peace. "No peace can be permanent without union." The platform said the +war was a failure. McClellan said, "I could not look in the faces of my +gallant comrades of the army and navy ... and tell them that their +labors and the sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren +had been in vain." + +The result was never in doubt. By September Frémont and Cochrane both +withdrew, and in November Lincoln and Johnson were elected, and on March +4, 1865, were sworn into office. + +%478. The Murder of Lincoln%.--By that time the Confederacy was +doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; Savannah and Charleston +were in Union hands, and Lee hard pressed at Richmond. April 9 he +surrendered, and on April 14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the +evacuation of Fort Sumter, Anderson, now a major general, visited the +fort which he had so gallantly defended, and in the presence of the army +and navy raised the tattered flag he pulled down in 1861. + +That night Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington, and while he +was sitting quietly in his box, an actor named John Wilkes Booth came in +and shot him through the head, causing a wound from which the President +died early next morning. His deed done, the assassin leaped from the box +to the stage, and shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis" (So be it always to +tyrants), the motto of Virginia, made his escape in the confusion of the +moment, and mounting a horse, rode away. + +The act of Booth was one result of a conspiracy, the details of which +were soon discovered and the criminals punished. Booth was hunted by +soldiers and shot in a barn in Virginia. His accomplices were either +hanged or imprisoned for life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The best account of the murder of Lincoln is given in "Four +Lincoln Conspiracies" in the _Century Magazine_ for April, 1896.] + +%479. Andrew Johnson, President.%--Lincoln had not been many hours +dead when Andrew Johnson, as the Constitution provides, took the oath of +office and became President of the United States. Before him lay the +most gigantic task ever given to any President. + +%480. Reconstruction.%--To dispose of the Confederate soldiers and +politicians was an easy matter; but to decide what to do with the +Confederate states proved most difficult. Lincoln had always held that +they could not secede. If they could not secede, they had never been out +of the Union, and if they had never been out of the Union, they were +entitled, as of old, to send senators and representatives to Congress. + +[Illustration: Andrew Johnson] + +But whether the states had or had not seceded, the old state governments +of 1861, and the relations these governments once held with the Union, +were destroyed by the so-called secession, and it was necessary to +define some way by which they might be reëstablished, or, as it was +called, "reconstructed." + +Toward the end of 1863, accordingly, when the Union army had acquired +possession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Lincoln issued his +"Amnesty Proclamation" and began the work of reconstruction. He +promised, in the first place, that, with certain exceptions, which he +mentioned, he would pardon[1] every man who should lay down his arms and +swear to support and obey the Constitution, and the Emancipation +Proclamation. He promised, in the second place, that whenever, in any +state that had attempted secession, voters equal in number to one tenth +of those who in 1860 voted for presidential electors, should take this +oath and organize a state government, he would recognize it; that is, he +would consider the state "reconstructed," loyal, and entitled to +representation in Congress. + +[Footnote 1: The Constitution gives the President power to pardon all +offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.] + +Following out this plan, the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, and +Louisiana made reconstructed state governments which Lincoln recognized. +But here Congress stepped in, refused to seat the senators from these +states, and made a plan of its own, which Lincoln vetoed. + +%481. Johnson's "My Policy" Plan of Reconstruction.%--So the matter +stood when Lee and Johnston surrendered, when Davis was captured, and +the Confederacy fell to pieces. All the laws enacted by the Confederate +Congress at once became null and void. Taxes were no longer collected; +letters were no longer delivered; Confederate money had no longer any +value. Even the state governments ceased to have any authority. Bands of +Union cavalry scoured the country, capturing such governors, political +leaders, and prominent men as could be found, and striking terror into +others who fled to places of safety. In the midst of this confusion all +civil government ended. To reestablish it under the Constitution and +laws of the United States was, therefore, the first duty of the +President, and he began to do so at once. First he raised the blockade, +and opened the ports of the South to trade; then he ordered the +Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior, the +Postmaster-general, the Attorney-general, to see that the taxes were +collected, that letters were delivered, that the courts of the United +States were opened, and the laws enforced in all the Southern States; +finally, he placed over each of the unreconstructed states a temporary +or provisional governor. These governors called conventions of delegates +elected by such white men as were allowed to vote, and these conventions +did four things: 1. They declared the ordinances of secession null and +void. 2. They repudiated every debt incurred in supporting the +Confederacy, and promised never to pay one of them. 3. They abolished +slavery within their own bounds. 4. They ratified the Thirteenth +Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery forever in the +United States. + +%482. The Thirteenth Amendment%.--This amendment was sent out to the +states by Congress in February, 1865, and was necessary to complete the +work begun by the Emancipation Proclamation. That proclamation merely +set free the slaves in certain parts of the country, and left the right +to buy more untouched. Again, certain slave states (Delaware, Maryland, +West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri) had not seceded, and in them slavery +still existed. In order, therefore, to abolish the institution of +slavery in every state in the Union, an amendment to the Constitution +was necessary, as many of the states could not be relied on to abolish +it within their bounds by their own act. The amendment was formally +proclaimed a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part +of the Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures +of three fourths of all the states. In 1865 there were thirty-six states +in the Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states +ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the +Constitution. When an amendment has been ratified by the necessary +number of states, the President states the fact in a proclamation.] + +%483. Treatment of the Freedmen in the South%.--Had the Southern +legislatures stopped here, all would have been well. But they went on, +and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, apprentices, and +paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of involuntary servitude, if +not in actual slavery. + +To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant negroes would +refuse to work, these laws seemed to be necessary. But by the men of the +North they were regarded as signs of a determination on the part of +Southern men not to accept the abolition of slavery. When, therefore, +Congress met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because the +President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in his own way +without consulting Congress, and because these states had made such +severe laws against the negroes. + +%484. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction%.--As soon as the two +houses were organized, the President and his work were ignored, the +senators and representatives from the eleven states that had seceded +were refused seats in Congress, and a series of acts were passed to +protect the freedmen. + +One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the "Civil Rights" Bill, which +gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for +any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts. +This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law +enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest +this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights, +Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the +Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a +condition of readmittance to Congress. + +Finally, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land +to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their +rights, was passed over the President's veto, just before Congress +adjourned. + +%485. The President abuses Congress%.--During the summer, Johnson +made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he +abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; "a +factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress," "a Congress violent in +breaking up the Union." These attacks, coupled with the fact that some +of the Southern States, encouraged by the President's conduct, rejected +the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866, +more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes the right to vote +in the territories and in the District of Columbia. By another it +compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General +Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in +the South to protect the freedmen. But the two important acts were the +"Tenure of Office Act" and "Reconstruction Act" (March 2, 1867). + +%486. The Reconstruction Act%.--The Reconstruction Act marked out the +ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been admitted to Congress in +March, 1866) into five districts, with an army officer in command of +each, and required the people of each state to make a new constitution +giving negroes the right to vote, and send the constitution to Congress. +If Congress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it +ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators and +representatives to Congress, and not before. + +To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, +Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in June, 1868, they +were readmitted to Congress. Their ratification of the Fourteenth +Amendment made it a part of the Constitution, and in July, 1868, it was +declared in force. + +%487. "Tenure of Office Act"; Johnson impeached%--By this time the +quarrel between the President and Congress had reached such a crisis +that the Republican, leaders feared he would obstruct the execution of +the reconstruction law by removing important officials chiefly +responsible for its administration, and putting in their places men who +would not enforce it. To prevent this, Congress, in 1867, passed the +"Tenure of Office Act." Hitherto a President could remove almost any +Federal office holder at pleasure. Henceforth he could only suspend +while the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, +the man was removed; if it disapproved, the man was reinstated. Johnson +denied the right of Congress to make such a law, and very soon +disobeyed it. + +In August, 1867, he asked Secretary of War Stanton to resign, and when +the Secretary refused, suspended him and made General Grant temporary +Secretary. All this was legal, but when Congress met, and the Senate +disapproved of the suspension, General Grant gave the office back again +to Stanton. Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of +War, and ordered him to seize the office. For this, and for his abusive +speeches about Congress, the House of Representatives impeached him, and +the Senate tried him "for high crimes and misdemeanors," but failed by +one vote to find him guilty. Stanton then resigned his office. + + +SUMMARY + +1. In 1864 the Republican party was split, and one part, taking the name +of National Union party, renominated Lincoln. The other or radical wing, +which wanted a more vigorous war policy, nominated Frémont and Cochrane. +The Democrats declared the war a failure, demanded peace, and nominated +McClellan and Pendleton. + +2. The gradual conquest of the South brought up the question of the +relation to the Federal government of a state which had seceded. + +3. Lincoln marked out his own plan of reconstruction in an amnesty +proclamation. Congress thought he had no right to do this, and adopted a +plan which Lincoln vetoed. His death left the question for Johnson +to settle. + +4. Johnson adopted a plan of his own and soon came into conflict with +Congress. + +5. Congress began by refusing seats to congressmen from states +reconstructed on Johnson's plan. It then passed, over Johnson's veto, a +series of bills to protect the freedmen and give them civil rights. + +6. Six states accepted the terms of reconstruction offered, and their +senators and representatives were admitted to Congress (1868). + +7. Johnson, in 1866, traveled about the West abusing Congress. For this, +and chiefly for his disregard of the Tenure of Office Act, he was +impeached by the House and tried and acquitted by the Senate. + + * * * * * + +RECONSTRUCTON. + +Lincoln's plan ... + +States cannot secede; only some of their people were in insurrection. +Amnesty proclamation. +Recognizes Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. +Thirteenth Amendment. + +Johnson's plan ... + +Provisional governors. +Ratify Thirteenth Amendment. +New state constitutions made. +Congressmen chosen. + +Congressional plan ... + +Congress refuses them seats. +Civil Rights Bill. +Freedmen's Bureau Bill. +Tenure of Office Act. +Reconstruction Act. +Fourteenth Amendment. + +Johnson _vs._ Congress ... + +Vetoes Civil Rights Bill. + Freedmen's Bureau Bill. + +Denounces Congress. +Violates Tenure of Office Act. +Impeached. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +THE NEW WEST (1860-1870) + +%488. Discovery of Gold near Pikes Peak.%--In the summer of 1858 news +reached the Missouri that gold had been found on the eastern slope of +the Rockies, and at once a wild rush set in for the foot of Pikes Peak, +in what was then Kansas. + +[Illustration: Crossing the plains] + +During 1858 a party from the gold mines of Georgia pitched a camp on +Cherry Creek and called the place Aurania. Later, in the winter, they +were joined by General Larimer with a party from Leavenworth, Kan., and +by them the rude camp at Aurania was renamed Denver, in honor of the +governor of Kansas. In another six months emigrants came pouring in from +every point along the frontier. Some, providing themselves with great +white-covered wagons, drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, joined forces for +better protection against the Indians, and set out together, making +long wagon trains or caravans. All were accompanied by men fully armed. +Such as could not afford a "prairie schooner," as the canvas-covered +wagon was called, put their worldly goods into handcarts. + +By 1859 Denver was a settlement of 1000 people. They needed supplies, +and, to meet this demand, the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell put a +daily line of coaches on the road from Leavenworth to Denver. This means +of communication brought so many settlers that by 1860 Denver was a city +of frame and brick houses, with two theaters, two newspapers, and a mint +for coining gold. + +%489. The Pony Express; the Overland Stage.%--By that time, too, the +first locomotive had reached the frontier of Kansas. But between the +Missouri and the Pacific there was still a gap of 2000 miles which the +settlers demanded should be spanned at once, and it was. In 1860 the +same firm that sent the first stagecoach over the prairie from +Leavenworth to Denver, ran a pony express from the Missouri to the +Pacific. Their plan was to start at St. Joseph, Mo., and send the mail +on horseback across the continent to San Francisco. As the speed must be +rapid, there must be frequent relays. Stations were therefore +established every twenty-five miles, and at them fresh horses and riders +were kept. Mounted on a spirited Indian pony, the mail carrier would set +out from St. Joseph and gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay +station, swing himself from his pony, vault into the saddle of another +standing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every third +relay a fresh rider took the mail. Day and night, in sunshine and storm, +over prairie and mountain, the mail carrier pursued his journey alone. +The cost in human life was immense. The first riders made the journey of +1996 miles in ten days. Next came the Wells and Fargo Express, and then +the Butterfield Overland Stage Company. + +%490. The Union Pacific Railroad; the Land Grant Roads.%--Meantime +the war opened, and an idea often talked of took definite shape. +California had scarcely been admitted, in 1850, when the plan to bind +her firmly to the Union by a great railroad, built at national cost, was +urged vigorously. By 1856 the people began to demand it, and in that +year the Republican party, and in 1860 both the Republican and +Democratic parties, pledged themselves to build one. The secession of +the South, and the presence at Denver of a growing population, made the +need imperative, and in 1862 Congress began the work. + +Two companies were chartered. One, the Union Pacific, was to begin at +Omaha and build westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to begin +at Sacramento and build eastward till the two met. The Union Pacific was +to receive from the government a subsidy in bonds of $16,000 for each +mile built across the plains, $48,000 for each of 150 miles across the +Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 a mile for the rest of the way. It received +all told on its 1033 miles $27,226,000. The Central Pacific, under like +conditions, received for its 883 miles from San Francisco to Ogden +$27,850,000. But the liberality of Congress did not end here. Each road +was also given every odd-numbered section in a strip of public land +twenty miles wide along its entire length. + +%491. Land Grants for Railroads and Canals.%--Grants of land in aid +of such improvements were not new. Between 1827 and 1860 Congress gave +away to canals, roads, and railroads 215,000,000 acres. This magnificent +expanse would make seven states as large as Pennsylvania, or three and a +half as large as Oregon, and is only 6000 acres less than the total area +of the thirteen original states with their present boundaries. + +Although the roads were chartered in 1862, the work of construction was +slow at first, and the last rail was not laid till May 10, 1869. + +%492. The Silver Mines; New States and Territories.%--What the +discovery of gold did for California and Denver, silver and the railroad +did for the country east of the Sierras. In 1859 some gold seekers in +what was then Utah discovered the rich silver mines on Mt. Davidson. +Population rushed in, Virginia City sprang into existence, the territory +of Nevada was formed in 1861, and in 1864 entered the Union as a state. +In 1861 Colorado was made a territory, and what is now North and South +Dakota and the land west of them to the Rocky Mountain divide became the +territory of Dakota. Hardly was this done when gold was found in a gulch +on the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri River. Bannock City, Virginia +City, and Helena were laid out almost immediately, and in 1864 Montana +was made a territory. In 1860 and 1862 precious metals were found in +what was then eastern Washington; Lewiston, Idaho City, and the old +Hudson Bay Company's post of Fort Boise became thriving towns, and in +1863 the territory of Idaho was formed, with limits including what is +now Montana and part of Wyoming. In 1863 Arizona was cut off from New +Mexico, and in 1868 Wyoming was made a territory. + +%493. Population in 1870.%--Thus in the decade from 1860 to 1870 +gold, silver, and the Pacific Railroad gave value to the American +Desert, brought two states (Nevada and Nebraska) into the Union, and +caused the organization of six new territories. More than 1,000,000 +people then lived along the line of the Union Pacific. Our total +population in 1870 was 38,000,000. + + +SUMMARY + +1. What the discovery of gold did for California in 1849, it did for the +"Great American Desert" in 1858. + +2. The consequences were the founding of Denver, the establishment of a +stagecoach line from the Missouri to Denver, the pony express to the +Pacific; the overland coach; and the Pacific Railroad. + +3. Gold, the railroad, and the silver mines led to the organization of +Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and the admission of +Nebraska and Nevada into the Union. + +4. Other causes led to the organization of Arizona and Dakota. + +New States (1860-1870). + + Kansas, 1861. + West Virginia, 1863. + Nevada, 1864. + Nebraska, 1867. + Total number of states in 1870, 37. + +New Territories (1860-1870). + + Colorado, 1861. + Dakota, 1861. + Idaho, 1863. + Arizona, 1863. + Montana, 1864. + Wyoming, 1868. + + + + +_THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE_ + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 + +%494. New Issues before the People.%--Five years had now passed since +the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on Sumter. During these +years the North, aroused and united by the efforts put forth to crush +the Confederacy, had entered on a career of prosperity and development +greater than ever enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came +new issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some out of +the development of the country. + +%495. Amnesty.%--In the first place, now that the war was over, the +people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking advantage of this, +certain political leaders began, about 1870, to demand a "general +amnesty" [1] or forgiveness for the rebels, and a stoppage of +reconstructive measures by Congress. + +[Footnote 1: In 1863, Lincoln offered "full pardon" to "all persons" +except the leaders of the "existing rebellion." Johnson, in 1865, again +offered amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons; and, +though in the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left +a great many men unpardoned.] + +%496. The National Finances.%--A second issue resulting from the war +was the management of the national finances. January 1, 1866, the +national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, including (1) the bonded debt +of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the unbonded or floating debt of +$1,620,000,000, that part made up of "greenbacks," fractional currency, +treasury notes, and the like. Two problems were thus brought before +the people: + +1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt? + +2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and "specie payment" +resumed? + +As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as +possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more than $500,000,000. + +As to the second question, it was decided to "contract the currency" by +gathering into the Treasury and there canceling the "greenbacks." This +was begun, and their amount was reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to +$356,000,000 in 1868. + +By that time a large part of the people in the West were finding fault +with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making +money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded +to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and +that there should not be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks. + +%497. "The Ohio Idea"; the Greenback Party.%--But there was still +another idea current. To understand this, six facts must be remembered. +1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of certain 5-20 bonds; that is, +bonds that might be paid after five years, but must be paid in twenty +years. 2. The interest on these bonds was made payable "in coin." 3. But +nothing was said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the +principal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, the law +said they should be "lawful money and a legal tender for all debts, +public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports +and interest as aforesaid." 5. This made it possible to pay the +principal of the 5-20 bonds in greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing +that payment of the principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on +future loans, Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) for +borrowing money, provided that _both_ principal and interest should be +paid in coin. + +At that time and long after the war "coin" commanded a premium; that is, +it took more than 100 cents in paper money to buy 100 cents in gold. +Anybody who owned a bond could therefore sell the coin he received as +interest for paper and so increase the rate of interest measured in +paper money. The bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or +municipality. + +Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war for two +things--taxation of the bonds and payment of the 5-20's in greenbacks. +This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 1868 that it was called the "Ohio +idea," and its supporters were called "Greenbackers." + +%498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads.%--Much fault was now +found with Congress for giving away such great tracts of the public +domain. In 1862 a law known as the Homestead Act was passed. By it a +farm of 80 or 160 acres was to be given to any head of a family, or any +person twenty-one years old, who was a citizen of the United States or, +being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a citizen, +provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated it for five years. +Under this great and generous law 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres +were made between 1863 and 1870. This showed that the people wanted land +and was one reason why it should not be given to corporations. + +%499. The Election of 1868.%--The questions discussed above (pp. +437-439) became the political issues of 1868. + +The Republicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax and declared for the +payment of all bonds in coin; for a reduction of the national debt and +the rate of interest; and for the encouragement of immigration. + +The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, and +demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; "one currency for the +government, and the people, the laborer, and the office holder"; the +taxation of government bonds; and no land grants for public +improvements. + +The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college Grant had 214 +votes, and Seymour 80. + +%500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan.%--Grant and Colfax +began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and soon found that the +reconstruction policy of Congress had not been so successful as they +could wish, and that the work of protecting the freedman in the exercise +of his new rights was not yet completed. Three states (Virginia, +Mississippi, and Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions +imposed by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and +Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the Reconstruction Act of +1867, and given the negro the right to vote, than a swarm of Northern +politicians, generally of the worst sort, went down and, as they said, +"ran things." They began by persuading the negroes that their old +masters were about to put them back into slavery, that it was only by +electing Union men to office that they could remain free; and having by +this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were made governors +and members of Congress, and were sent to the state legislature, where, +seated beside negroes who could neither read nor write, but who voted as +ordered, these "carpetbaggers," [1] as they were called, ruled the states +in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people. + +[Footnote 1: As the men were not natives of the South, had no property +there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called +"carpetbaggers," or men who owned nothing save what they brought in +their carpetbags.] + +Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro +voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more +black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still +disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were +property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of +the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined +to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from +the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed +secret societies, called "The Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan." +Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode +at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their +wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders, +or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the Southern whites who supported +the negro cause were called. + +%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%--To secure the negro the right to +vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth +Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after +ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in +March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing +the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or +"Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted +of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or +the votes, when cast, from being counted. + +[Illustration: U. S. Grant] + +%502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%--This legislation and the +conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of +amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise +of a new party, which received the name of "Liberal Republicans," +because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From +Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and +into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders +to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May, +1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil +service reform, and no more land grants to railroads, nominated Horace +Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal +leader of Missouri, for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley +displeased a part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nominated +W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans met at Philadelphia +in June, and nominated Grant and Henry Wilson. The Democrats pledged +their support to Greeley and Brown; but this act displeased so many of +the Democratic party, that another convention was held, and Charles +O'Conor and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field. + +%503. The National Labor-Reform Party.%--From about 1829, when the +establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the +growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of +emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class, +the workingman had been in politics. But it was not till the close of +the war that labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the +first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky. In +1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth +at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform +agitators. The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great +National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded + +1. Lower interest on government bonds. + +2. Repeal of the law establishing the national banks. + +3. Withdrawal of national bank notes. + +4. Issue of paper money "based on the faith and resources of the +nation," to be legal tender for all debts. + +5. An eight-hour law. + +6. Exclusion of the Chinese. + +7. No land grants to corporations. + +8. Formation of a "National Labor-Reform Party." + +The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily approved, +that a national convention met at Columbus, O., in 1872, denounced +Chinese labor, demanded taxation of government bonds, and nominated +David Davis and Joel Parker. When they declined, O'Conor was nominated. + +%504. Anti-Chinese Movement.%--The demand in the Labor platform for +the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to say a word concerning +"Mongolian labor." + +Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of gold in +California, but received little attention till 1852, when the governor +in a message reminded the legislature that the Chinese came not as +freemen, but were sent by foreign capitalists under contract; that they +were the absolute slaves of these masters; that the gold they dug out of +our soil was sent to China; that they could not become citizens; and +that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete +with them. + +The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted to stop their +immigration by taxing them. But the Supreme Court declared such taxation +illegal, whereupon, the state having gone as far as it could, an appeal +was made to Congress. That body was deaf to all entreaties; but the +President through Anson Burlingame in 1868 secured some new articles to +the old Chinese treaty of 1858. Henceforth it was to be a penal offense +to take Chinamen to the United States without their free consent. This +was not enough, and in order to force Congress to act, the question was +made a political issue. + +%505. The Prohibition Party.%--The temperance cause in the United +States dates back to 1810. But it was not till Maine passed a law +forbidding the sale of liquor, in 1851, and her example was followed by +Vermont and Rhode Island in 1852, by Connecticut in 1854, and by New +York, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Iowa, in 1855, that prohibition +became an issue. The war turned the thoughts of people to other things. +But after the war, prohibition parties began to appear in several +states, and in 1869 steps were taken to unite and found a national +party. In that year, the Grand Lodges of Good Templars held a convention +at Oswego, N.Y., and by these men a call was issued for a national +convention of prohibitionists to form a political party. The delegates +thus summoned met at Chicago in September, 1869, and there founded the +"National Prohibition Reform party." The first national nominating +convention was held at Columbus, O., in 1872, when James Black of +Pennsylvania was nominated for President, and John Russell of Michigan +for Vice President. + +%506. Campaign of 1872.%--At the beginning of the campaign there were +thus seven presidential candidates before the people. But some refused +to run, and others had no chance, so that the contest was really between +General Grant and Horace Greeley, who was caricatured unmercifully. The +benevolent face of the great editor, spectacled, and fringed with a +snow-white beard, appeared on fans, on posters, on showcards, where, as +a setting sun, it might be seen going down behind the western hills. "Go +west," his famous advice to young men, became the slang phrase of the +hour. He was defeated, for Grant carried thirty-one states, and +Greeley six. + +In many respects this was a most interesting election. For the first +time in our history the freedmen voted for presidential electors. For +the first time since 1860 the people of all the states took part in the +election of a President of the United States, while the number of +candidates, Labor, Prohibition, Liberal Republican, Democratic, and +Republican, showed that the old issues which caused the war or were +caused by the war were dead or dying, and that new ones were +coming forward. + +%507. Panic of 1873.%--Now, all these things, the immense expansion +of the railroads, and the great outlay necessary for rebuilding Chicago, +much of which had been burned in 1871, and Boston, which suffered from a +great fire in 1872, absorbed money and made it difficult to get. Just in +the midst of the stringency a quarrel arose between the farmers and the +railroads in the West, and made matters worse. It stopped the sale of +railroad bonds, and crippled the enterprises that depended on such sale +for funds. It impaired the credit of bankers concerned in railroad +building, and in September, 1873, a run on them for deposits began till +one of them, Jay Cooke & Co., failed, and at once a panic swept over the +business world. Country depositors demanded their money; the country +banks therefore withdrew their deposits with the city banks, which in +turn called in their loans, and industry of every kind stopped. In 1873 +there were 5000 failures, and in 1874 there were 5800. Hours of labor +were reduced, wages were cut down, workingmen were discharged by +thousands. + +%508. The Inflation Bill.%--In hope of relieving this distress by +making money easier to get, a demand was now made that Congress should +issue more greenbacks. To this Congress, in 1874, responded by passing +the "Inflation Bill," declaring that there should be $400,000,000 in +greenbacks, no more, no less. As the limit fixed in 1868 was +$356,000,000, the bill tended to "inflate" or add to the paper currency +$44,000,000. Grant vetoed the bill. + +%509. Resumption of Specie Payments.%--What shall be done with the +currency? now became the question of the hour, and at the next session +of Congress (1874-75) another effort was made to answer it, and "an act +to provide for the resumption of specie payments" was passed. + +1. Under this law, silver 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces were to be +exchanged through the post offices and subtreasuries for fractional +currency till it was all redeemed. + +2. Surplus revenue might be used and bonds issued for the purchase of +coin. + +3. That part of an act of 1870 which limited the amount of national bank +notes to $354,000,000 was repealed. + +4. The banks could now put out more bills; but for each $100 they put +out the Secretary of the Treasury must call in $80 of greenbacks, till +but $300,000,000 of them remained. + +5. After January 1,1879, he must redeem them all on demand. + +%510. The Political Issues of 1876.%--The currency question, the hard +times which had continued since 1873, the rise of the Labor and +Prohibition parties, the reports of shameful corruption and dishonesty +in every branch of the public service, the dissatisfaction of a large +part of the Republican party with the way affairs were managed by the +administration, combined to make the election of 1876 very doubtful. The +general displeasure was so great that the Democratic party not only +carried state elections in the North in 1874 and 1875, but secured a +majority of the House of Representatives. + +%511. Nomination of Presidential Candidates.%--When the time came to +make nominations for the presidency, the Prohibition party was first to +act. It selected Green Clay Smith of Kentucky and G.T. Stewart of Ohio +as its candidates, and demanded that in all the territories and the +District of Columbia, the importation, exportation, manufacture, and +sale of alcoholic beverages should be stopped. Two other demands--the +abolition of polygamy (which was practiced by the Mormons in Utah), and +the closing of the mails to the advertisements of gambling and lottery +schemes--have since been secured. + +Next came the Greenback or Independent National party, which nominated +Peter Cooper of New York and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, and called for the +repeal of the Resumption of Specie Payment Act, and the issue of paper +notes bearing a low rate of interest. + +In June, the Republicans met in Cincinnati, and nominated Rutherford B. +Hayes of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of New York. They endorsed the +financial policy of the party, demanded civil service reform, protection +to American industries, no more land grants to corporations, an +investigation of the effect of Chinese immigration, and "respectful +consideration" of the woman's rights question. + +The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and +called for reforms of every kind--in the civil service, in the +administration, in expenditures, in the internal revenue system, in the +currency, in the tariff, in the use of public lands, in the treatment of +the South. + +%512. Result of the Election.%--While the campaign was going on, +Colorado was admitted (in August, 1876) as a state. There were then +thirty-eight states in the Union, casting 369 electoral votes. This made +185 necessary for a choice; and when the returns were all in, it +appeared that, if the Republicans could secure the electoral votes of +South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, they would have exactly +185. In these states, however, a dispute was raging as to which set of +electors, Republican or Democratic, was elected. Each claimed to be; +and, as the result depended on them, each set met and voted. It was then +for Congress to decide which should be counted. + +Now, the framers of the Constitution had never thought of such a +condition of affairs, and had made no provisions to meet it. Congress +therefore provided for an + +%513. "Electoral Commission,"% to decide which of the conflicting +returns should be accepted. This commission was to be composed of five +senators, five representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court. +The Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats; the House, three +Democrats and two Republicans. Congress appointed two Democratic and +two Republican justices, who chose the fifth justice, who was a +Republican. The Commission thus consisted of eight Republicans and seven +Democrats. The decision as to each of the disputed states was in favor +of the Republican electors, and as it could not be reversed unless both +houses of Congress consented, and as both would not consent, Hayes was +declared elected, over Tilden, by one electoral vote; namely, Hayes, +185; Tilden, 184. + +[Illustration: Rutherford B. Hayes] + +%514. Financial Policy of Grant's Administration.%--The inauguration +of Hayes was followed by a special session of Congress. In the House was +a great Democratic majority, pledged to a new financial measure--a +pledge which it soon made good. + +The financial policy of Grant's eight years may be summed up briefly: + +1. (1869) The "Credit Strengthening Act," declaring that 5-20 bonds of +the United States should be paid "in coin." + +2. (1870) The Refunding Act, by which $1,500,000,000 in bonds bearing +five and six per cent interest were ordered to be replaced by other +bonds at four, four and a half, and five per cent. In this refunding, +the 5-20's, whose principal was payable in greenbacks, were replaced by +others whose principal was payable "in coin." + +3. (1873) The act of 1873, by stopping the coinage of silver dollars, +and taking away the legal tender quality of those in circulation, made +the words "in coin" mean gold. + +4. (1875) All greenbacks were to become redeemable in specie on January +1, 1879. + +5. To get specie, bonds might be issued. + +%515. Bland Silver Bill; Silver remonetized.%--Against the +continuance of this policy the majority of the House stood pledged. +Before the session closed, therefore, two bills passed the House. One +repealed so much of the act of 1875 as provided for the retirement of +greenbacks and the issue of bonds. The second was brought in by Mr. +Bland of Missouri, and is still known by his name. It provided + +1. That the silver dollar should again be coined, and at the ratio of 16 +to 1; that is, that the same number of dollars should be made out of +sixteen pounds of silver as out of one pound of gold. + +2. That silver should be a legal tender, at face value, for all debts, +public and private. + +3. That all silver bullion brought to the mints should be coined into +dollars without cost to the bringer. This was "free coinage of silver." + +The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the "free coinage" +provision and substituted the "Allison" amendment. Under this, the +Secretary of the Treasury was to _buy_ not less than $2,000,000, nor +more than $4,000,000, worth of silver bullion each month, and coin it +into dollars. + +The House accepted the Senate amendment, and when Hayes vetoed the bill +Congress passed it over his veto and the "Bland-Allison Bill" became a +law in 1878. + +%516. Silver Certificates.%--Now this return to the coinage of the +silver dollar was open to the objection that large sums in silver would +be troublesome because of the weight. It was therefore provided that the +coins might be deposited in the Treasury, and paper "silver +certificates" issued against them. + +A few months later, January 1, 1879, the government returned to specie +payment, and ever since has redeemed greenbacks in gold, on demand. + +%517. Foreign Relations; the French in Mexico.%--The statement was +made that with the exception of Russia the great powers of Europe +sympathized with the South during the Civil War. Two of them, France and +Great Britain, were openly hostile. The French Emperor allowed +Confederate agents to contract for the construction of war vessels in +French ports,[1] and sent an army into Mexico to overturn that republic +and establish an empire. Mexico owed the subjects of Great Britain, +France, and Spain large sums of money, and as she would not pay, these +three powers in 1861 sent a combined army to hold her seaports till the +debts were paid. But it soon became clear that Napoleon had designs +against the republic, whereupon Great Britain and Spain withdrew. +Napoleon, however, seeing that the United States was unable to interfere +because of the Civil War, went on alone, destroyed the Mexican republic +and made Maximilian (a brother of the Emperor of Austria) Emperor of +Mexico. This was in open defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and though the +United States protested, Napoleon paid no attention till 1865. Then, the +Civil War having ended, and Sheridan with 50,000 veteran troops having +been sent to the Rio Grande, the French soldiers were withdrawn (1867), +and the Mexican republican party captured Maximilian, shot him, and +reëstablished the republic. + +[Footnote 1: See Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe_.] + +%518. The Alabama Claims; Geneva Award.%--The hostility of Great +Britain was more serious than that of France. As we have seen, the +cruisers (_Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida_) built in her shipyards went to +sea and inflicted great injury on our commerce. Although she was well +aware of this, she for a long time refused to make good the damage done. +But wiser counsel in the end prevailed, and in 1871, by the treaty of +Washington, all disputed questions were submitted to arbitration. + +The Alabama claims, as they were called, were sent to a board of five +arbitrators who met at Geneva (1872) and awarded the United States +$15,500,000 to be distributed among our citizens whose ships and +property had been destroyed by the cruisers. + +%519. Other International Disputes; the Alaska Purchase.%--To the +Emperor of Germany was submitted the question of the true water boundary +between Washington Territory and British Columbia. He decided in favor +of the United States (1872). + +To a board of Fish Commissioners was referred the claim of Canada that +the citizens of the United States derived more benefit from the fishing +in Canadian waters than did the Canadians from using the coast waters of +the United States. The award made to Great Britain was $5,500,000 +$5,500,000 (1877). + +In 1867, we purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. + + +SUMMARY + + +_Financial History, 1868-1880_ + +1. When the war ended, the national debt consisted of two parts: the +bonded, and the unbonded or floating. + +2. As public sentiment demanded the reduction of the debt, it was +decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible, and contract the currency +by canceling the greenbacks. + +3. Contraction went on till 1868, when Congress ordered it stopped. + +4. The payment of the bonds brought up the question, Shall the 5-20's be +paid in coin or greenbacks? + +5. The Democrats in 1868 insisted that the bonds should be redeemed in +greenbacks; the Republicans that they should be paid in coin,--and when +they won, they passed the "Credit Strengthening Act" of 1869, and in +1870 refunded the bonds at lower rates. + +6. In the process of refunding, the 5-20's, whose principal was payable +in greenbacks, were replaced by others payable "in coin." In 1873, the +coinage of the silver dollar was stopped, and the legal-tender quality +of silver was taken away. The words "in coin" therefore meant "in gold." + +7. In 1875 it was ordered that all greenbacks should be redeemed in +specie after January 1, 1879 (resumption of specie payment). + +8. In 1878 silver was made legal tender, and given limited coinage. + + +_The South and the Negro_ + +9. In 1869, three states still refused to comply with the Reconstruction +Act of 1867 and had no representatives in Congress. + +10. Such states as had complied and given the negro the right to vote +were under "carpetbag" rule. + +11. This rule became so unbearable that the Ku Klux Klan was organized +to terrify the negroes and keep them from the polls. + +12. Congress in consequence sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the +Constitution, and in 1871 enacted the Force Act. + +13. These and other issues, as that of amnesty, split the Republican +party and led to the appearance of the Liberal Republicans in 1872. + +14. In general, however, party differences turned almost entirely on +financial and industrial issues. + +[Illustration: INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST + +%520. Results of the War.%--The Civil War was fought by the North for +the preservation of the Union and by the South for the destruction of +the Union. But we who, after more than thirty years, look back on the +results of that struggle, can see that they did not stop with the +preservation of the Union. Both in the North and in the South the war +produced a great industrial revolution. + +%521. Effect on the South.%--In the South, in the first place, it +changed the system of labor from slave to free. While the South was a +slave-owning country free labor would not come in. Without free labor +there could be no mills, no factories, no mechanical industries. The +South raised cotton, tobacco, sugar, and left her great resources +undeveloped. After slavery was abolished, the South was on the same +footing as the North, and her splendid resources began at once to be +developed. + +It was found that her rich deposits of iron ore were second to none in +the world. It was found that beneath her soil lay an unbroken coal +field, 39,000 square miles in extent. It was found that cotton, instead +of being raised in less quantity under a system of free labor, was more +widely cultivated than ever. In 1860, 4,670,000 bales were grown; but in +1894 the number produced was 9,500,000. The result has been the rise of +a New South, and the growth of such manufacturing centers as Birmingham +in Alabama and Chattanooga in Tennessee, and of that center of commerce, +Atlanta, in Georgia. + +%522. Rise of New Industries in the North.%--Much the same industrial +revolution has taken place in the North. The list of industries well +known to us, but unknown in 1860, is a long one. The production of +petroleum for commercial purposes began in 1859, when Mr. Drake drilled +his well near Titusville, in Pennsylvania. In 1860 the daily yield of +all the wells in existence was not 200 barrels. But by 1891 this +industry had so developed that 54,300,000 barrels were produced in that +year, or 14,900 a day. + +[Illustration: Scene in the oil regions of Pennsylvania] + +The last thirty years have seen the rise of cheese making as a +distinctive factory industry; of the manufacture of oleo-margarine, wire +nails, Bessemer steel, cotton-seed oil, coke, canned goods; of the +immense mills of Minneapolis, where 10,000,000 barrels of flour are made +annually, and of the meat dressing and packing business for which +Chicago and Kansas City are famous. + +%523. The New Northwest.%--When the census was taken in 1860, so few +people were living in what are now Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho that +they were not counted. In Dakota there were less than 5000 inhabitants. +The discovery of gold and silver did for these territories what it had +done for Colorado. It brought into them so many miners that in 1870 the +population of these four territories amounted to 59,000. Between Lake +Superior (where in the midst of a vast wilderness Duluth had just been +laid out on the lake shore) and the mining camps in the mountains of +Montana, there was not a town nor a hamlet. (There were indeed a few +forts and Indian agencies and a few trading posts.) Northern Minnesota +was a forest, into which even the lumbermen had not gone. The region +from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains was the hunting ground of the +Sioux, and was roamed over by enormous herds of buffalo. + +%524. The Northern Pacific Railroad.%--But this great wilderness was +soon to be crossed by one of the civilizers of the age. After years of +vain effort, the promoters of the Northern Pacific began the building of +their road in 1870, and pushed it across the plains till Duluth and St. +Paul were joined with Puget Sound. As it went further and further +westward, emigrants followed it, towns sprang up, and cities grew with +astonishing rapidity. + +%525. The New States.%--Idaho, which had no white inhabitants in +1860, had 32,000 in 1880; Montana had 39,000 in 1880, as against none in +1860. Kansas in twenty years increased her population four fold, and +Nebraska eight fold. This was extraordinary; but it was surpassed by +Dakota, whose population increased nearly ten fold in ten years +(1870-1880), and in 1889 was half a million. The time had now come to +form a state government. But as most of the people lived in the south +end of the territory, it was cut in two, and North and South Dakota were +admitted into the Union as states on the same day (November 2, 1889); +Montana followed within a fortnight, and Idaho and Wyoming within a year +(July, 1890). The four territories, in which in 1860 there were but 5000 +white settlers, had thus by 1890 become the five states of North and +South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with a population of +790,000.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, Washington in +1889 (November 11); and Utah, the forty-fifth state, in 1896, under a +constitution forever prohibiting polygamy.] + +%526. Wheat Farms and Cattle Ranches.%--Such a rush of people +completely transformed the country. The "Great American Desert" was made +productive. The buffaloes were almost exterminated, and one now is as +great a curiosity in the West as in the East. More than 7,000,000 were +slaughtered in 1871-1872. In lieu of them countless herds of cattle and +sheep, and fields of wheat and corn, cover the plains and hills of the +Northwest. In 1896 Montana contained 3,000,000 sheep, and Wyoming and +Idaho each over 1,000,000. In the two Dakotas 60,000,000 bushels of +wheat and 30,000,000 of corn were harvested. Many of the farms are of +enormous size. Ten, twenty, thirty thousand acre farms are not unknown. +One contains 75,000 acres. + +[Illustration: A typical prairie sod house] + +Over this region, the Dakotas, Montana, Kansas, and Nebraska, wander +herds of cattle, the slaughtering and packing of which have founded new +branches of industry. The stockyards at Chicago make a city.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read "Dakota Wheat-Fields," _Harper's Magazine,_ March, +1880. Also a series of papers in _Harper's Magazine _for 1888.] + +%527. Oklahoma.%--The eagerness of the "cattle kings" to get more +land for these herds to graze over had much to do with the opening of +Oklahoma for settlement. Originally it was part of Indian Territory, and +was sold by the Seminole Indians with the express condition that none +but Indians and freedmen should settle there. But the cattle kings, in +defiance of the government, went in and inclosed immense tracts. Many +were driven out, only to come in again. Their expulsion, with that of +small proprietors called "boomers," caused much agitation. Congress +bought a release from the condition, and in 1889 opened Oklahoma to +settlement. + +%528. The Boom Towns.%--A proclamation that a part of Oklahoma would +be opened April 22, caused a wild rush from every part of the West, till +five times as many settlers as could possibly obtain land were lined up +on the borders waiting for the signal to cross. Precisely at noon on +April 22, a bugle sounded, a wild yell answered, a cloud of dust filled +the air, and an army of men on foot, on horseback, in wagons, rushed +into the promised land. That morning Guthrie was a piece of prairie +land. That night it was a city of 10,000 souls. Before the end of the +year 60,000 people were in Oklahoma, building towns and cities of no +mean character. + +Within fifteen years Oklahoma had a population of over half a million; +and Congress provided (1906) for the admission, in 1907, of a new +forty-sixth state, including both Oklahoma and what was left of the old +Indian Territory. + + +SUMMARY + +1. One important result of the Civil War was a great industrial +revolution. + +2. Mining for precious metals, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and other +causes led to the admission into the Union of Colorado (1876), North and +South Dakota, Montana, Washington (1889), Idaho, Wyoming (1890), Utah +(1896), and Oklahoma (1907). + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS + +%529. Mechanical Progress.%--The mechanical progress made by our +countrymen since the war surpasses that of any previous period. In 1866 +another cable was laid across the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, and worked +successfully. Before 1876 the Gatling gun, dynamite, and the barbed-wire +fence were introduced; the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, +the Westinghouse air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable-car +system, the self-binding reaper and harvester, the cash carrier for +stores, water gas, and the tin-can-making machine were invented, and +Brush gave the world the first successful electric light. + +%530. Uses of Electricity.%--Till Brush invented his arc light and +dynamo, the sole practical use made of electricity was in the field of +telegraphy. But now in rapid succession came the many forms of electric +lights and electric motors; the electric railway, the search light; +photography by electric light; the welding of metals by electricity; the +phonograph and the telephone. In the decade between 1876 and 1886 came +also the hydraulic dredger, the gas engine, the enameling of sheet-iron +ware for kitchen use, the bicycle, and the passenger elevator, which has +transformed city life and dotted our great cities with buildings fifteen +and twenty stories high. + +The decade 1886-1896 gave us the graphophone, the kinetoscope, the +horseless carriage, the vestibuled train, the cash register, the +perfected typewriter; the modern bicycle, which has deeply affected the +life of the people; and a great development in photography. + +%531. Rise of Great Corporations.%--That mechanical progress so +astonishing should powerfully affect the business and industrial world +was inevitable. Trades, occupations, industries of all sorts, began to +concentrate and combine, and corporations took the place of individuals +and small companies. In place of the forty little telegraph companies of +1856, there was the great Western Union Company. In place of many petty +railroads, there were a few trunk lines. In place of a hundred producers +and refiners of petroleum, there was the one Standard Oil Company. These +are but a few of many; for the rapid growth of corporations was a +characteristic of the period. + +%532. Millionaires and "Captains of Industry."%--As old lines of +industry were expanded and new ones were created, the opportunities for +money-getting were vastly increased. Men now began to amass immense +fortunes in gold and silver mining; by dealing in coal, in grain, in +cattle, in oil; by speculation in stocks; in iron and steel making; in +railroading,--millionaires and multi-millionaires became numerous, and +were often called "captains of industry," as an indication of the power +they held in the industrial world. + +%533. Condition of Labor.%--Meanwhile, the conditions of the +workingman were also changing rapidly: 1. The chief employers of labor +were corporations and great capitalists. 2. The short voyage and low +fare from Europe, the efforts made by steamship companies to secure +passengers, the immense business activity in the country from 1867 to +1872, and the opportunities afforded by the rapidly growing West, +brought over each year hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe +to swell the ranks of labor. Between 1867 and 1873 the number was +2,500,000. 3. Bad management on the part of some corporations; +"watering" or unnecessarily increasing their stock on the part of +others, combined with sharp competition, began, especially after the +panic of 1873, to cut down dividends. This was followed by reduction of +wages, or by an increase in the duties of employees, and sometimes +by both. + +%534. Labor Organizations; the Knights of Labor.%--Trades unions +existed in our country before the Constitution; but it was at the time +of the great industrial development during and after the war, that the +era of unions opened. At first that of each trade had no connection +with that of any other. But in 1869 an effort was made to unite all +workingmen on the broad basis of labor, and "The Noble Order of Knights +of Labor" was founded. For a while it was a secret order; but in 1878 a +declaration of principles was made, which began with the statement that +the alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and +corporations, unless checked, "would degrade the toiling masses," and +announced that the only way to check this evil was to unite "all +laborers into one great body." The knights were in favor of + +1. The creation of bureaus of labor for the collection and spread of +information. + +2. Arbitration between employers and employed. + +3. Government ownership of telegraphs, telephones, railroads. + +4. The reduction of the working day to eight hours. + +They were opposed + +1. To the hiring out of convict labor. + +2. To the importation of foreign labor under contract. + +3. To interest-bearing government bonds, and in favor of a national +currency issued directly to the people without the intervention +of banks. + +%535. The Workingman in Politics%.--As these ends could be secured +only by legislation, they very quickly became political issues and +brought up a new set of economic questions for settlement. From 1865 to +1870 the matters of public concern were the reconstruction measures and +the public debt. From 1870 to 1878 they were currency questions, civil +service reform, and land grants to railroads. From 1878 to 1888 almost +every one of them was in some way directly connected with labor. + + +SUMMARY + +1. Great inventions founded and developed new industries. + +2. These in turn expanded the ranks of labor, and led to the rise of +corporations and labor organizations, and a demand for a long series +of reforms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + +POLITICS SINCE 1880 + +%536. Candidates in 1880.%--The campaign of 1880 was opened by the +meeting of the Republican national convention at Chicago, where a long +and desperate effort was made to nominate General Grant for a third +term. But James Abram Garfield and Chester A. Arthur were finally +chosen. The platform called for national aid to state education, for +protection to American labor, for the suppression of polygamy in Utah, +for "a thorough, radical, and complete" reform of the civil service, and +for no more land grants to railroads or corporations. + +The Greenback-Labor party nominated James B. Weaver and B.J. Chambers, +and declared + +1. That all money should be issued by the government and not by banking +corporations. + +2. That the public domain must be kept for actual settlers and not given +to railroads. + +3. That Congress must regulate commerce between the states, and secure +fair, moderate, and uniform rates for passengers and freight. + +Next came the Prohibition party convention, and the nomination of Neal +Dow and Henry Adams Thompson. + +Last of all was the Democratic convention, which nominated General +Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English. The platform called for + +1. Honest money, consisting of gold and silver and paper convertible +into coin on demand. + +2. A tariff for revenue only. + +3. Public lands for actual settlers. + +%537. Election and Death of Garfield.%--The campaign was remarkable +for several reasons: + +1. Every presidential elector was chosen by popular vote; and every +electoral vote was counted as it was cast. This was the first +presidential election in our country of which both these statements +could be made. + +2. For the first time since 1844 there was no agitation of a Southern +question. + +3. All parties agreed in calling for anti-Chinese legislation. + +Garfield and Arthur were elected, and inaugurated on March 4, 1881. But +on July 2, 1881, as Garfield stood in a railway station at Washington, a +disappointed office seeker came up behind and shot him in the back. A +long and painful illness followed, till he died on September 19, 1881. + +[Illustration: James A. Garfield] + +[Illustration: Chester A. Arthur] + +%538. Presidential Succession%--The death of Garfield and the +succession of Arthur to the presidential office left the country in a +peculiar situation. An act of Congress passed in 1792 provided that if +both the presidency and vice presidency were vacant at the same time, +the President _pro tempore_ of the Senate, or if there were none, the +Speaker of the House of Representatives, should act as President, till a +new one was elected. But in September, 1881, there was neither a +President _pro tempore_ of the Senate nor a Speaker of the House of +Representatives, as the Forty-sixth Congress ceased to exist on March 4, +and the Forty-seventh was not to meet till December. Had Arthur died or +been killed, there would therefore have been no President. It was not +likely that such a condition would happen again; but attention was +called to the necessity of providing for succession to the presidency, +and in 1886 a new law was enacted. Now, should the presidency and vice +presidency both become vacant, the presidency passes to members of the +Cabinet in the order of the establishment of their departments, +beginning with the Secretary of State. Should he die, be impeached and +removed, or become disabled, it would go to the Secretary of the +Treasury, and then, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, the +Attorney-general, the Postmaster-general, the Secretary of the Navy, the +Secretary of the Interior. + +%539. Party Pledges redeemed.%--Since the Republican party was in +power, a redemption of the pledges in their platform was necessary, and +three laws of great importance were enacted. One, the Edmunds law +(1882), was intended to suppress polygamy in Utah and the neighboring +territories. Another (1882) stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers +for ten years. The third, the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), was +designed to secure appointment to public office on the ground of +fitness, and not for political service. + +%540. Corporations.%--These measures were all good enough in their +way; but they left untouched grievances which the workingmen and a great +part of the people felt were unbearable. That the development of the +wealth and resources of our country is chiefly due to great corporations +and great capitalists is strictly true. But that many of them abused the +power their wealth gave them cannot be denied. They were accused of +buying legislatures, securing special privileges, fixing prices to suit +themselves, importing foreign laborers under contract in order to +depress wages, and favoring some customers more than others. + +%541. The Anti-monopoly and Labor Parties.%--Out of this condition of +affairs grew the Anti-monopoly party, which held a convention in 1884 +and demanded that the Federal government should regulate commerce +between the states; that it should therefore control the railroads and +the telegraphs; that Congress should enact an interstate commerce law; +and that the importation of foreign laborers under contract should be +made illegal. + +This platform was so fully in accordance with the views of the Greenback +or National party, that Benjamin F. Butler, the candidate of the +Anti-monopolists, was endorsed and so practically united the +two parties. + +[Illustration: Grover Cleveland] + +%542. The Republican and Democratic Parties%.--The Republicans +nominated James G. Blaine and John A. Logan, and the Democrats Stephen +Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. The Prohibitionists put up +John P. St. John and William Daniel. The nomination of Blaine was the +signal for the revolt of a wing of the Republicans, which took the name +of Independents, and received the nickname of "Mugwumps." The revolt was +serious in its consequences, and after the most exciting contest since +1876, Cleveland was elected. + +%543. Public Measures adopted during 1885-1889.%--Widely as the +parties differed on many questions, Democrats, Republicans, and +Nationalists agreed in demanding certain reform measures which were now +carried out. In 1885 an Anti-Contract-Labor law was enacted, forbidding +any person, company, or corporation to bring any aliens into the United +States under contract to perform labor or service. In 1887 came the +Interstate Commerce Act, placing the railroads under the supervision of +commissioners whose duty it is to see that all charges for the +transportation of passengers and freight are "reasonable and just," and +that no special rates, rebates, drawbacks, or unjust discriminations are +made for one shipper over another. In 1888 a second Chinese Exclusion +Act prohibited the return of any Chinese laborer who had once left the +country. That same year a Department of Labor was established and put in +charge of a commissioner. His duty is to "diffuse among the people of +the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor." + +%544. Political Issues since 1888%.--Thus by the end of Mr. +Cleveland's first term many of the demands of the workingmen had been +granted, and laws enacted for their relief. These issues disposed of, a +new set arose, and after 1888 financial questions took the place of +labor issues. + +%545. The Surplus and the Tariff.%--These financial problems were +brought up by the condition of the public debt. For twenty years past +the debt had been rapidly growing less and less, till on December 1, +1887, it was $1,665,000,000, a reduction of more than $1,100,000,000 in +twenty-one years. By that time every bond of the United States that +could be called in and paid at its face value had been canceled. As all +the other bonds fell due, some in 1891 and others in 1907, the +government must either buy them at high rates, or suffer them to run. If +it suffered them to run, a great surplus would pile up in the Treasury. +Thus on December 1, 1887, after every possible debt of the government +was met, there was a surplus of $50,000,000. Six months later (June 1, +1888) the sum had increased to $103,000,000. + +Unless this was to go on, and the money of the country be locked up in +the Treasury, one of three things must be done: + +1. More bonds must be bought at high rates. + +2. Or the revenue must be reduced by reducing taxation. + +3. Or the surplus must be distributed among the states as in 1837, or +spent. + +%546. The Mills Tariff Bill.%--Each plan had its advocates. But the +Democrats, who controlled the House of Representatives, attempted to +solve the problem by cutting down the revenue, and passed a tariff bill, +called the Mills Bill, after its chief author, Mr. R. Q. Mills of Texas. +The Republicans declared it was a free-trade measure and defeated it in +the Senate. + +%547. The Campaign of 1888; Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third +President.%--In the party platforms of 1888 we find, therefore, that +three issues are prominent: (1) taxation, (2) tariff reform, (3) the +surplus. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, +and demanded frugality in public expenses, no more revenue than was +needed to pay the necessary cost of government, and a tariff for revenue +only. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, +and demanded a tariff for protection, a reduction of the revenue by the +repeal of taxes on tobacco and on spirits used in the arts, and by the +admission free of duty of foreign-made articles the like of which are +not produced at home. + +[Illustration: Benjamin Harrison] + +The Prohibitionists, the Union Labor party, and the United Labor party +also placed candidates in the field. Harrison and Morton were elected, +and inaugurated March 4, 1889. + +%548. The Republicans in Control.%--The Republican party not only +regained the presidency, but was once more in control of the House and +Senate. Thus free to carry out its pledges, it passed the McKinley +Tariff Act (1890); a new pension bill, which raised the number of +pensioners to 970,000, and the sum annually spent on pensions from +$106,000,000 to $150,000,000; and a new financial measure, known as + +%549. The Sherman Act.%--You remember that the attempt to enact a law +for the free coinage of silver in 1878 led to the Bland-Allison Act, for +the purchase of bullion and the coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of +silver each month. As this was not free coinage, the friends of silver +made a second attempt, in 1886, to secure the desired legislation. This +also failed. But in the summer of 1890, the silver men, having a +majority of the Senate, passed a free-coinage bill (June 17), which the +House rejected (June 25). A conference followed, and from this +conference came a bill which was quickly enacted into a law and called +the Sherman Act. It provided + +1. That the Secretary of the Treasury should buy 4,500,000 ounces of +silver each month. + +2. That he should pay for the bullion with paper money called treasury +notes. + +3. That on demand of the holder the Secretary must redeem these notes in +gold or silver. + +4. After July 1, 1891, the silver need not be coined, but might be +stored in the Treasury, and silver certificates issued. + +%550. The Farmers' Alliance%.--This legislation, combined with an +agricultural depression and widespread discontent in the agricultural +states, caused the defeat of the Republicans in the elections of 1890. +The Democratic minority of 21 in the House of Representatives of the +Fifty-first Congress was turned into a Democratic majority of 135 in the +Fifty-second. Eight other members were elected by the Farmers' Alliance. + +For twenty years past the farmers in every great agricultural state had +been organizing, under such names as Patrons of Husbandry, Farmers' +League, the Grange, Patrons of Industry, Agricultural Wheel, Farmers' +Alliance. Their object was to promote sociability, spread information +concerning agriculture and the price of grain and cattle, and guard the +interests and welfare of the farmer generally. By 1886 many of these +began to unite, and the National Agricultural Wheel of the United +States, the Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America, and +several more came into existence. In 1889 the amalgamation was carried +further still, and at a convention in St. Louis they were all +practically united in the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union. + +The purpose of this alliance was political, and as its stronghold was +Kansas, the contest began in that state in 1890. At a convention of +Alliance men and Knights of Labor, a "People's Party" was formed, which +elected a majority of the state legislature. Five out of seven +Congressmen were secured, and one United States senator. Before Congress +met (in December, 1891), another member of the House was elected +elsewhere, and three more senators. The support of fifty other +representatives was claimed. Greatly elated over this important footing, +the Alliance men marked out a plan for congressional legislation. +They demanded + +1. A bill for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. + +2. The subtreasury scheme. + +3. A Land Mortgage Bill. + +%551. The Subtreasury Plan of the Alliance Party.%--The idea at the +base of these demands was that the amount of money in circulation must +be increased, and loaned to the people without the aid of banks or +capitalists. It was proposed, therefore, that the government should +establish a number of subtreasury or money-loaning stations in each +state, at which the farmers could borrow money from the government (at +two per cent interest), giving as security non-perishable farm produce. + +%552. The Land Mortgage Scheme% provided that any owner of from 10 to +320 acres of land, at least half of which was under cultivation, might +borrow from the government treasury notes equal to half the assessed +value of the land and buildings. + +%553. The People's Party organized.%--That either of the old parties +would further such schemes was far from likely. A cry was therefore +raised by the most ardent Alliance men for a third party, and at a +conference of Alliance and Labor leaders in May, 1891, a new national +party was founded, and named "The People's Party of the United States +of America." + +%554. Party Candidates in 1892.%--When the campaign opened in 1892 +there were thus four parties in the field. The People's party nominated +James B. Weaver and James G. Field. The platform called for + +1. The free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 +to 1. + +2. A graduated income tax. + +3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. + +4. The restriction of immigration. + +5. A national currency to be loaned to the people at two per cent +interest per annum, secured by land or produce. + +6. All land held by aliens, or by railroads in excess of their actual +needs, to be reclaimed and held for actual settlers. + +The Prohibitionists nominated John Bidwell and J. B. Cranfill, and +declared "anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture, sale, +importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic liquors as a +beverage." + +The Democratic party selected Grover Cleveland for the third time and +chose Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice President. The platform condemned +trusts and combines, advocated the reclamation of the public lands from +corporations and syndicates, the exclusion of the Chinese and of the +criminals and paupers of Europe, denounced "the Sherman Act of 1890," +and called for "the coinage of both gold and silver without +discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage," with "the +dollar unit of coinage of both metals" "of equal intrinsic and +exchangeable value." + +The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, expressed +their sympathy with the cause of temperance, their opposition to trusts, +and called for the coinage of both gold and silver in such way that "the +debt-paying power of the dollar, whether silver, gold, or paper, shall +be at all times equal." + +%555. Grover Cleveland reëlected.%--The election was a complete +triumph for the Democratic party. Mr. Cleveland was again elected, and +for the first time since 1861 the House, Senate, and President were all +three Democratic. + +Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated March 4,1893. Never in its history had the +country been seemingly more prosperous; the crops were bountiful; +business was flourishing, manufactures were thriving. But the prosperity +was not real. Business was inflated, and during the following summer an +industrial and financial panic which had long been brewing swept over +the business world, wrecking banks and destroying industrial and +commercial establishments. + +To understand what now happened, two facts must be remembered: + +1. Under the Resumption of Specie Payment Act of 1875, the Secretary of +the Treasury was authorized to buy specie by the issue of bonds and keep +it to redeem United States notes. + +2. In May, 1878, it was ordered that when a greenback was redeemed in +specie, it should "not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but shall be +reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation." There were then +$346,681,000 in greenbacks unredeemed. + +%556. The Gold Reserve.%--Meantime, under the law of 1875, and before +January 1, 1879, the secretary issued $95,500,000 in bonds, the proceeds +of which, with other gold then in the Treasury, made a fund deemed +sufficient to redeem such notes as were likely to be presented. This has +since been called our gold reserve, and has been fixed by the +secretaries at $100,000,000. January 1, 1879, the reserve was +$114,000,000, and though it often rose and fell, it never went below +that amount till July, 1892. By that time there were other gold +obligations. The silver purchased under the law of 1890 was paid for +with notes exchangeable for "coin"; but as the secretaries always +construed "coin" to mean gold, and as by 1893 these notes amounted to +$150,000,000, our gold obligations--that is, notes exchangeable for +gold--were nearly $500,000,000 (greenbacks, $346,000,000; silver +purchase notes, $150,000,000). This immense and steadily increasing sum +caused a doubt of our ability to pay in gold, and a fear that we might +be forced to pay in silver. Now silver, since 1873, had fallen steadily +in value from $1.30 an ounce to $0.81 an ounce in 1893, so that the +bullion value of a silver dollar was about 67 cents. The fear, then, +that our debts might be paid in silver (1) led foreigners to cease +investing money in this country, and to send our stocks and bonds home +to be sold, and (2) led people in this country to draw gold out of the +banks and the Treasury and hoard it, so that in April, 1893, the gold +reserve, for the first time since it was created, fell below +$100,000,000 (to $97,000,000). + +%557. The Panic of 1893.%--Business depression and "tight money" +followed. Over three hundred banks suspended or failed, manufactories +all over the country shut down, and a period of great distress set in. +People, alarmed at the condition of the banks, began to draw their +deposits and hoard them, thereby causing such a scarcity of bills of +small denominations that a "currency famine" was threatened. + +%558. The Purchase of Silver stopped.%--Believing that the fear that +we should soon be "on a silver basis" had much to do with this state of +affairs, and that the compulsory purchase of silver each month had much +to do with the fear, the President assembled Congress in special +session, August 7, and asked for the repeal of that clause of the +Sherman Act of 1890 which required a monthly purchase of silver. After a +struggle in which both of the old parties were split, the compulsory +purchase clause was repealed, November 1, 1893. + +%559. The Silver Movement.%--The steady fall in the bullion value of +silver was a serious blow to the prosperity of the great +silver-producing states,--Colorado, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, +Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and the territories of Arizona and New +Mexico,--where silver mining was "the very heart from which every other +industry receives support." In Colorado alone 15,000 miners were made +idle. To the people of this section, some 2,000,000 in number, the +silver question was of vital importance; and, alarmed at the call for +the special session of Congress and the possible repeal of the +silver-purchase clause, they held a convention at Denver, with a view to +affecting public sentiment. A few weeks after, the National Bimetallic +League met at Chicago. Both opposed the repeal, and demanded that if the +government ceased to buy silver, the mints should be opened to free +coinage. This the friends of silver in the Senate attempted in vain to +bring about. + +%560. The Industrial Depression; the Wilson Bill.%--The industrial +revival which it was hoped would follow the repeal of the +silver-purchase law did not take place. Prices did not rise; failures +continued; the long-silent mills did not reopen; gold continued to leave +the country, imports fell off, and, when the year ended, the receipts of +the government were $34,000,000 behind the expenditures. With this +condition of the Treasury facing it, Congress met in December, 1893. The +Democrats were in control, and pledged to revise the tariff; and true to +the pledge, William L. Wilson of West Virginia, Chairman of the House +Committee on Ways and Means, presented a new tariff bill (the Wilson +Bill) which after prolonged debate passed both Houses and became a law +at midnight, August 27, 1894, without the President's signature. As it +was expected that the revenue yielded would not be sufficient to meet +the expenses of government, one section of the law provided for a tax of +two per cent on all incomes above $4000. This the Supreme Court +afterwards declared unconstitutional. + +%561. The Bond Issues.%--We have seen that in April, 1893, the gold +reserve fell to $97,000,000. But it did not stop there; for, the +business depression and the demand for the free and unlimited coinage of +silver continuing, the withdrawal of gold went on, till the reserve was +so low that bonds were repeatedly sold for gold wherewith to maintain +it. In this wise, during 1894-95, $262,000,000 were added to our +bonded debt. + +%562. Foreign Relations; the Hawaiian Revolution.%--when Cleveland +took office, a treaty providing for the annexation of the Hawaiian +Islands was pending in the Senate. In January, 1983, these islands were +the scene of a revolution, which deposed the Queen and set up a +"provisional government." Commissioners were then dispatched to +Washington, where a treaty of annexation was negotiated and (February +15) sent to the Senate for approval. In the course of the revolution, a +force of men from the United States steamer _Boston_ was landed at the +request of the revolutionary leaders, and our flag was raised over some +of the buildings. When these facts became known, the President, fearing +that the presence of United States marines might have contributed much +to the success of the revolution, recalled the treaty from the Senate, +and sent an agent to the islands to investigate. His report set forth in +substance that the revolution would never have taken place had it not +been for the presence and aid of United States marines, and that the +Queen had practically been deposed by United States officials. A new +minister was thereupon sent, with instructions to announce that the +treaty of annexation would not be confirmed, and to seek for the +restoration of the Queen on certain conditions. But President Dole of +the Hawaiian republic denied the right of Cleveland to impose +conditions, or in any way interfere in the domestic concerns of Hawaii, +and refused to surrender to the Queen. + +%563. The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute.%--During 1895, the boundary +dispute which had been dragging on for more than half a century between +Great Britain and Venezuela, reached what the President called "an acute +stage," and made necessary a statement of the position of the United +States under the Monroe Doctrine. Great Britain was therefore informed +"that the established policy of the United States is against a forcible +increase of any territory of a European power" in the New World, and +"that the United States is bound to protest against the enlargement of +the area of British Guiana against the will of Venezuela"; and she was +invited to submit her claims to arbitration. Her answer was that the +Monroe Doctrine was "inapplicable to the state of things in which we +live at the present day" and a refusal to submit her claims to +arbitration. The President then asked and received authority to appoint +a commission to examine the boundary and report. "When such report is +made and accepted," said Cleveland, "it will in my opinion be the duty +of the United States to resist by every means in its power, as a willful +aggression upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by Great +Britain of any lands, or the exercise of any governmental jurisdiction, +over any territory which after investigation we have determined of right +belongs to Venezuela." For a time the excitement this message aroused in +Great Britain and our own country was extreme. But it soon subsided, and +on February 2, 1897, a treaty of arbitration was signed at Washington +between Great Britain and Venezuela. + +%564. The Election of 1896%.--By that time the presidential election +was over. When in the spring the time came to choose delegates to the +party nominating conventions, the drift of public sentiment was so +strong against the administration, that it seemed certain that the +Republicans would "sweep the country." Little interest, therefore, was +taken by the Democrats, while the Republicans were most concerned in the +question whether Mr. McKinley or Mr. Reed should be their presidential +candidate. But as delegates were chosen by the Democrats in the Western +and Southern States, it became certain that the issue was to be the free +and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1. + +The Republican convention met in June, nominated William McKinley and +Garret A Hobart, and declared the party "opposed to the free coinage of +silver except by international agreement," whereupon thirty-four +delegates representing the silver states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, +Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah) seceded from the party. The Democratic +convention assembled early in July, and after a most exciting convention +chose William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall, and declared for "the free and +unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ration of +16 to 1, without waiting for the aid and consent of any other nation." A +great defection followed this declaration, scores of newspapers refused +to support the candidates, and in September a convention of "gold +Democrats," taking the name of the National Democratic party, nominated +John M. Palmer and Simon B. Buckner, on a "gold standard" platform. + +Meanwhile, the Prohibitionists, the National party (declaring for woman +suffrage, prohibition, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, +an income tax, and the election of the President, Vice President, and +senators by direct vote of the people), the Socialist Labor party, the +Silver party, and the Populists, had all put candidates in the field. +The Silver party indorsed Bryan and Sewall; the Populists nominated +Bryan and Thomas E. Watson. + +[Illustration: William McKinley] + +%565. McKinley, President.%--An "educational campaign" was carried on +with a seriousness never before approached in our history, and resulted +in the election of Mr. McKinley. He was inaugurated on March 4, and +immediately called a special session of Congress to revise the tariff, a +work which ended in the enactment of the "Dingley Tariff," on July +24, 1897. + +%566. The Cuban Question.%--Absorbing as were the election and the +tariff, there was another matter, which for two years past had steadily +grown more and more serious. In February, 1895, the natives of Cuba for +the sixth time in fifty years rebelled against the misrule of Spain and +founded a republic. A cruel, bloody, and ruinous war followed, and as it +progressed, deeply interested the people of our country. The island lay +at our very doors. Upwards of $50,000,000 of American money were +invested in mines, railroads, and plantations there. Our yearly trade +with Cuba was valued at $96,000,000. Our ports were used by Cubans in +fitting out military expeditions, which the government was forced to +stop at great expense. + +%567. Shall Cuba be given Belligerent Rights?%--These matters were +serious, and when to them was added the sympathy we always feel for any +people struggling for the liberty we enjoy, there seemed to be ample +reason for our insisting that Spain should govern Cuba better or set her +free. Some thought we should buy Cuba; some that we should recognize the +Republic of Cuba; others that we should intervene even at the risk of +war. Thus urged on, Congress in 1896 declared that the Cubans were +entitled to belligerent rights in our ports, and asked the President to +endeavor to persuade Spain to recognize the independence of Cuba; and +the House in 1897 recommended that the independence of Cuba be +recognized. But nothing came of either recommendation, and so the matter +stood when McKinley was inaugurated. + +During the summer of 1897 matters grew worse. A large part of the island +became a wilderness. The people who had been driven into the towns by +order of Captain General Weyler, the "reconcentrados," were dying of +starvation, and our countrymen, deeply moved at their suffering, began +to send them food and medical aid. + +%568. The Maine destroyed.%--While engaged in this humane work they were +horrified to hear that on the night of February 15, 1898, our battleship +_Maine_ was blown up in the harbor of Havana, and 260 of her sailors +killed. Although our Court of Inquiry was unable to fix the +responsibility for the explosion, many people believed that it had been +perpetrated by Spaniards, and the hope of a peaceable settlement of the +Cuban question rapidly waned. The sum of $50,000,000 was voted to the +President for strengthening our defenses and buying ships and munitions +of war. After declining to recognize the Cuban Republic, Congress +adopted a resolution, on April 19, declaring for the freedom of Cuba, +demanding that Spain should withdraw from the island, and authorizing +the President to compel her withdrawal, if necessary, by means of our +army and navy. Spain severed diplomatic relations with us on April 21, +and the war began on that date, as declared by an Act of Congress a few +days later. Two hundred thousand volunteers were quickly enlisted, out +of the much larger number that wished to serve. + +%569. War with Spain.%--The Battle of Manila.--While one fleet which +had long been gathering at Key West went off and blockaded Havana and +other parts of the coast of Cuba, another, under Commodore George +Dewey, sailed from Hong-kong to attack the Spanish fleet at the +Philippine Islands. Dewey found it in the Bay of Manila, where, on May +1, 1898, he fought and won the most brilliant naval battle in the +world's history. Passing the forts at the entrance, he entered the bay, +and, without the loss of a man or a ship, he destroyed the entire +Spanish fleet of ten vessels, killed and wounded over 600 men, and +captured the arsenal at Cavité (cah-ve-ta') and the forts at the +entrance to the bay. The city of Manila was then blockaded by Dewey's +fleet, and General Merritt with 20,000 troops was sent across the +Pacific to take possession of the Philippines, which had long been +Spain's most important possession in the East. For his great victory +Dewey received the thanks of Congress and was promoted to be +Rear-Admiral, and later was given for life the full rank of Admiral. + +[Illustration: Admiral Dewey] + +[Illustration Rear-Admiral Sampson] + +%570. The Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--Capture of +Santiago.%--Meantime a second Spanish fleet, under Admiral Cervera, +sailed from the Cape Verde Islands. Acting Rear-Admiral Sampson, with +ships which had been blockading Havana, and Commodore Schley, with a +Flying Squadron, went in search of Cervera, and after a long hunt he was +found in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba (sahn-te-ah'go da coo'bah), +which was promptly blockaded by the ships of both squadrons, with +Sampson in command. The narrow entrance to the harbor was so well +defended by forts and submarine mines that a direct attack on Cervera +was impossible. In an attempt to complete the blockade, Naval +Constructor R. P. Hobson and a volunteer crew of seven men took the +collier _Merrimac_ to the harbor entrance, and, amid a rain of shot and +shell, sank her in the channel (June 3). The gallant little band escaped +with life, but were made prisoners of war, and in time were exchanged. + +[Illustration: General Shafter] + +[Illustration: Rear-Admiral Schley] + +The capture of Santiago was decided upon when Cervera sought refuge in +its harbor, and about 18,000 men (mostly of the regular army), under +General Shafter, were hurried to Cuba and landed a few miles from the +city. On July 1 the enemy's outer line of defenses were taken, after +severe fighting at El Caney (ca-na') and San Juan (sahn hoo-ahn'); and +on the next day the Spaniards failed in an attempt to retake them. So +certain was it that the city must soon surrender, that Cervera was +ordered to dash from the harbor, break through the American fleet, and +put to sea. On Sunday morning, July 3, the attempt was made; a desperate +sea fight followed, and, in a few hours, all six of the Spanish vessels +were sunk or stranded, shattered wrecks, on the coast of Cuba. The +Spanish loss in killed and wounded was heavy, while Admiral Cervera and +about 1800 of his men were taken prisoners. Not one of our vessels was +seriously damaged, and but one of our men was killed. When the battle +began, the American war ships were in their usual positions before the +harbor, as assigned them by Admiral Sampson; but Sampson himself, in his +flagship, was several miles to the east on his way to a conference with +General Shafter. Commodore Schley's flagship, the _Brooklyn_, was at the +west end of the line, and as the enemy tried to escape in that +direction, she was in the thickest of the fight. Another war ship which +especially distinguished herself was the _Oregon_, a Western-built +ship, which had sailed from San Francisco all the way around Cape Horn +in order to reach the seat of war. + +[Illustration: General Miles] + +After the naval battle of July 3, all hope of successful resistance by +the Spaniards vanished, and on July 17, General Toral surrendered +Santiago, the eastern end of Cuba, and an army of nearly 25,000 men. A +week later General Miles set off to seize the island of Porto Rico. He +landed on the southern coast, and had occupied much of the island when +hostilities came to an end. + +571. Peace.--On August 12, 1898, a protocol was signed by +representatives of the two nations, providing for the immediate +cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Spain from the West Indies, +and the occupation of Manila by the United States till the conclusion of +a treaty of peace, which was to be negotiated by a commission meeting in +Paris, and which was to provide for the disposition of the Philippines. + +News of the cessation of hostilities was instantly sent to all our +fleets and armies. But, on August 13, before word could reach the +Philippines, Manila was attacked by General Merritt's army and Dewey's +fleet, whereupon the Spanish general surrendered the city and about +7000 soldiers. + +A formal treaty of peace was signed at Paris December 10, 1898, +providing that Spain should relinquish her title to Cuba, and cede Porto +Rico, Guam (one of the Ladrones), and the Philippines to the United +States; and that the United States should pay $20,000,000 to Spain. The +treaty was then submitted to the governments of the United States and +Spain for ratification; but in both countries it met some opposition. In +our country objections were made especially to the taking of the +Philippines without the consent of their inhabitants, many of whom, +under the leadership of Aguinaldo, had previously rebelled against Spain +and were now demanding complete independence; but the prevailing view +was that our immediate control was necessary to prevent civil war, +anarchy, and foreign complications there. Accordingly, on February 6, +1899, the treaty was ratified by the Senate by a vote of 57 to 27. Spain +also accepted the treaty, which was formally proclaimed April 11. The +$20,000,000 was promptly paid to Spain, and ordinary diplomatic +relations were resumed. + +%572. The War Bonds and War Taxes.%--For the expenses of the war with +Spain Congress made ample provision. The Secretary of the Treasury was +authorized to issue $400,000,000 in 3 per cent bonds,[1] and borrow +$100,000,000 upon temporary certificates of indebtedness. Stamp taxes, +an inheritance tax, and a duty on tea were laid, and the silver in the +Treasury was ordered to be coined at the rate of $1,500,000 a month. + +[Footnote 1: $200,000,000 of the war bonds were offered for popular +subscription, and $109,000,000 were subscribed in sums under $500. All +was taken in sums under $5000.] + +%573. Hawaii annexed.%--But in few respects was the effect of the war +so marked as in the changed sentiment of the people toward Hawaii. +During five years the little republic had been steadily seeking +annexation to the United States, and seeking in vain. But with the +partial occupation of the Philippines, and the impending acquisition of +Porto Rico, and perhaps Cuba, the policy of territorial expansion lost +many of its terrors, and the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by joint +resolution of Congress, signed by the President July 7, 1898. The formal +transfer of sovereignty took place August 12. The islands continued +temporarily under their existing form of government, with slight +modifications, till June 14, 1900, when they were organized as a +territory. + +[Illustration: (World Map)] + +[Illustration: General Otis] + +%574. The War in the Philippines.%--While the treaty with Spain was +under consideration, the city of Manila was held by General Otis, +Merritt's successor; but native troops, under Aguinaldo, were in control +of most of Luzon and several other islands. On the night of February 4, +1899, the long-threatened conflict between them was begun by Aguinaldo's +unsuccessful attack on the Americans at Manila. War now followed; but in +battle after battle the natives were beaten and scattered, till by the +beginning of the year 1900 the main army of the Filipinos had been +completely broken up, and the only forces still opposing American +authority were small bodies of bandits and guerrillas. These held out +persistently, and continued the warfare for more than a year. In 1900 +the President sent a commission to the Philippines to organize civil +government in such localities and in such degree as it should deem +advisable; and in 1902 Congress enacted a plan of government under which +the Philippines are constituted a partly self-governing dependency. + +%575. Porto Rico and Cuba.%--After the close of the Spanish war, both +Porto Rico and Cuba remained under the military control of the United +States for many months. For Porto Rico, which had been ceded to our +country, Congress provided a system of civil government which went into +effect May 1, 1900. This organized Porto Rico as a dependency. + +Cuba, however, had not been ceded to the United States. It had passed +under our control only for the restoration of peace and the +establishment of a stable government there; for Congress, in its +resolution of April 19, 1898, asserted its determination, after the +pacification of Cuba, "to leave the government and control of the island +to its people." In June, 1900, the local city governments were turned +over to municipal officers that had been elected by the people. In the +following winter a constitution was framed by a convention of delegates +elected by the Cubans. Then, after certain provisions had been added to +this, to govern the future relations between Cuba and the United States, +and after the first officers of the Cuban Republic had been elected, the +United States troops were withdrawn and the new government took charge +of the island, May 20, 1902. + +%576. Disorders in China.%--Early in 1900 a patriotic society of +Chinese, called the Boxers, began to massacre native Christians in the +north of China, and to drive out or kill all missionaries and other +foreigners. The disorder soon spread to Pekin, where the foreign +ministers and their countrymen (including some Americans) were besieged +in their quarter of the city by Boxers and regular Chinese troops; for +the Chinese government, instead of suppressing the Boxers, acted in +sympathy with them. + +President McKinley sent warships and soldiers to China, where they +coöperated with the forces of Japan and the European powers in rescuing +the imperiled foreigners in Pekin. War was not declared against China, +though she resisted the invading troops, making it necessary for them to +capture several towns and to fight several battles before Pekin was +taken. A treaty was then negotiated with the United States, Japan, and +the European powers, providing for the restoration of order and a +settlement of the various claims against China. + +%577%. At home during 1900 our population was counted; a President +was elected; and a currency law of much importance was enacted. In the +United States and the territories there were found to be about +76,000,000 people, and in the one state of New York more inhabitants +than there were in all the United States in 1810. + +By the currency law, known as the Gold Standard Act, it is provided:-- + +1. That the gold dollar shall be the standard unit of value. + +2. That all forms of money issued or coined shall be kept "at a parity +of value" with this gold standard. + +3. That United States notes and Treasury notes shall be redeemed in gold +coin. For this purpose $150,000,000 of gold coin or bullion is set apart +in the Treasury. + +%578%. When the time came to prepare for the election of a President +and Vice President, eleven conventions were held, as many platforms were +framed, and eight pairs of candidates were nominated. There were the +Democratic and Republican parties; the People's Party (Fusionists) and +the People's Party (Middle of the Road Anti-Fusionists); the +Prohibition, United Christian, Silver Republican, Socialist Labor, +Social Democratic, and National parties; and the Anti-Imperialist +League. The things opposed, approved of, or demanded by these parties +were many and various; but a few should be stated as showing what the +people were thinking about: Trusts, the gold standard, the free coinage +of silver, a canal across Nicaragua or the isthmus of Panama, election +of United States senators by the people, repeal of the war taxes, +statehood for the territories, independence for the Filipinos, aid to +American shipping, irrigation of the arid lands in the West, public +ownership of railways and telegraphs, desecration of the Sabbath, +equality of men and women, exclusion of the Asiatics, the +Monroe Doctrine. + +%579. McKinley Reëlected.%--The Populist (Fusionist) convention +nominated William J. Bryan and Charles A. Towne. But the Democrats named +Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson. Thereupon Towne withdrew, and Bryan and +Stevenson were made the candidates of the Populists and the Silver party +as well as of the Democrats. The Democratic platform denounced +imperialism and trusts, and reiterated the demand for the free coinage +of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republicans renominated +President McKinley, and nominated Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President, +on a platform indorsing McKinley's administration and favoring the gold +standard of money. McKinley and Roosevelt were elected. + +%580. McKinley Assassinated.% On March 4, 1901, the President began +his second term, which six months later came to a dreadful end. In May a +great fair--the Pan-American Exposition--was opened at Buffalo, and to +this exposition the President came as a guest early in September, and +was holding a public reception on the afternoon of the 6th, when an +anarchist who approached as if to shake hands, suddenly shot him twice. +For several days it was thought that the wounds would not prove fatal; +but early on the morning of the 14th, the President died, and that +afternoon Mr. Roosevelt took the oath of office required by the +Constitution and became President. + +[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt] + +%581. Public Measures adopted in 1901-1904.%--The events connected +with our large island possessions had directed much attention to our +military and naval forces. As a result, Congress passed several measures +to increase the efficiency of the army, and appropriated large sums for +additions to the navy. For the reclamation of the arid parts of the Far +West an important law was enacted (1902), setting aside the money +received from the sales of public land in that part of the country and +appropriating it for the planning and construction of irrigation works. +In 1903 a ninth member was added to the President's cabinet in the +person of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The new department was +made to include the Department of Labor established fifteen years +before, and a number of other bureaus already existing; at the same time +the Bureau of Corporations was newly established, and was given the +power to investigate the organization and workings of any trust or +corporation (except railroads) engaged in interstate or foreign +commerce, and, with the President's approval, to publish the +information so obtained. + +A long-standing dispute as to the eastern boundary of southern Alaska +was referred to a British-American tribunal, which decided chiefly in +favor of the United States (1903). By a reciprocity treaty with Cuba +which went into effect in 1904, the duties on Cuban trade were +somewhat lowered. + +%582. The Isthmian Canal.%--A French company many years ago began to dig +a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, but it failed through bad +management before the work was half done. A United States commission +made a survey of this route and also of the Nicaragua route across +Central America, estimated the cost of building each canal, and gave +careful consideration to the advantages of each route. The owners of the +French canal having offered to sell for $40,000,000, Congress in 1902 +authorized the President to buy and complete it, provided satisfactory +title and permanent control of the route could be secured. In all, about +$200,000,000 was provided for this work. In 1903 a treaty was negotiated +with Colombia, giving the United States a permanent lease of a six-mile +strip across the isthmus, for an annual rental of $250,000 and the +payment of $10,000,000, but Colombia rejected the treaty. The Colombian +province of Panama thereupon seceded (November 3), and its independence +was recognized by the United States and other nations. A treaty was soon +made whereby the United States guaranteed the independence of Panama, +and Panama ceded to the United States a ten-mile strip across the +isthmus for the sums rejected by Colombia. The rights of the French +company were then bought, and a United States commission began the work +of completing the canal (1904). + +%583. Election of Roosevelt.%--There were almost as many parties as ever +in the campaign of 1904. The Republicans indorsed the existing +administration, demanded the continuance of the protective tariff and +the gold standard, and nominated Roosevelt for President and Charles W. +Fairbanks for Vice President. The Democrats nominated Alton B. Parker +and Henry G. Davis, and declared for a reduction of the tariff and +against militarism and trusts, but were silent on the money question. +Roosevelt and Fairbanks were elected by a large majority. + +%584. Interstate Commerce.%--In spite of the act of 1887 and some +later laws, favored shippers were still given various unfair advantages +in the service and charges of railroads. In 1906 Congress greatly +enlarged the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to supervise +railroads, express companies, and other common carriers operating in +more than one state, and even authorized it to fix new freight and +passenger rates in place of any it deemed to be unjust or unreasonable. + +Besides this law to regulate interstate transportation, Congress passed +several acts to regulate the quality of goods entering into interstate +commerce. Efficient inspection of meat-packing establishments was +provided, at a cost of $3,000,000 a year. Adulteration or misbranding of +any foods, drugs, medicines, or liquors manufactured anywhere for sale +in another state, was forbidden under heavy penalties. + +%585. Intervention in Cuba.%--One of the provisions added to the +Cuban constitution gave the United States the right to intervene "for +the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, +property, and individual liberty." This right was first exercised in the +autumn of 1906, when the Cuban government failed to suppress an +insurrection in the island. Efforts were first made, in vain, to bring +about peace in Cuba without armed intervention; then the Cuban president +resigned, our envoy Secretary Taft proclaimed himself provisional +governor of Cuba, United States troops were stationed at various points, +and the insurgents peacefully disbanded. The work of completing the +restoration of order and confidence, preparatory to the holding of a new +election under the Cuban constitution, was intrusted by the President to +Charles E. Magoon, who became provisional governor in October. + +%586. The Panic of 1907.%--For several years our country had enjoyed +unusual prosperity. Never had the business of the country been better. A +distrust of banks and banking institutions, however, was suddenly +developed. Belief that the money of depositors was being used in a +reckless way became widespread, and when a run on some banks in New York +city forced them to suspend, a panic swept over the country. People +everywhere made haste to withdraw their deposits, and the banks for a +time were forced to refuse to cash checks for large sums. Business +depression and hard times followed. + +%587. The Currency Law.%--In the midst of the panic the Sixtieth +Congress met and in the course of its session enacted (for six years) a +currency law. This is an emergency measure by which the national banks, +when currency is scarce, may issue more under certain conditions. The +total amount put out by all the national banks must not be greater than +$500,000,000. Those using this currency must pay a heavy tax, which it +is believed will lead to its prompt recall as soon as the emergency +has passed. + +%588. Election of Taft.%--For the thirty-first time in our history +electors of President and Vice President were chosen in 1908. Seven +parties placed candidates in the field. The Republicans nominated +William H. Taft and James S. Sherman; the Democrats named William J. +Bryan and John W. Kern. Candidates were also presented by the +Prohibition, Populist, Socialist Labor, Socialist, and Independence +parties. In many respects the Republican and Democratic platforms were +alike. Both declared for revision of the tariff, postal savings banks, a +bureau of mines and mining, protection of our citizens abroad, a better +civil service, improvement of our inland waterways, preservation of our +forests, and the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states. +The Democratic platform called for an income tax, the publication of the +names of contributors to national campaign funds, legislation against +private monopolies, and full control of interstate railways. Taft and +Sherman were elected. + +One of Taft's first acts as President was to call a special session of +Congress, which met March 15 to frame a new tariff act. + +[Illustration: William H. Taft] + + +SUMMARY + +1. The political issues before the country since 1880 have been of two +general classes--industrial and financial. + +2. The industrial issues led to the formation of certain great +organizations, as the Farmers' Alliance, Knights of Labor, Patrons of +Industry, etc.; and to the enactment of certain important laws, as the +Interstate Commerce Acts, the Anti-Chinese laws, the Anti-Contract Labor +law, and the establishment of the Labor Bureau. + +3. The financial issues were in general connected in some way with the +agitation for free coinage of silver. + +4. These issues seriously affected both the old parties and produced +others, as the Anti-monopoly party, the People's party, the Silver +party, the National, the Socialist. + +5. In 1893 financial questions became so serious that a panic occurred, +which forced the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman Act. In +1907 there was another panic. + +6. Among our foreign complications during this period were the question +of the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, the Venezuela boundary +dispute, the Cuban question, which finally involved us in a war with +Spain, and the trouble with China arising from the Boxer outbreak. + +7. The chief events of the war with Spain were Dewey's naval victory in +Manila Bay, May 1; the battles of El Caney and San Juan, near Santiago, +July 1; the naval battle of July 3 off Santiago; the surrender of +Santiago, July 14; the invasion of Porto Rico, near the end of July; and +the capture of Manila, August 13. + +8. The war resulted in the cession of Porto Rico and the Philippines to +our country, and in Spain's withdrawal from Cuba. + +9. The withdrawal of Spain from the Philippines was followed by an +uprising of natives led by Aguinaldo; but the insurrection was soon +suppressed and a system of civil government established. + +10. By peaceful negotiation a treaty was perfected giving the United +States control of the route for the Panama Canal. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776 + + * * * * * + +IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. + +THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF +AMERICA + +When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people +to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, +and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal +station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a +decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should +declare the causes which impel them to the separation. + +We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; +that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; +that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, +to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving +their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any +form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of +the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, +laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in +such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and +happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long +established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, +accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed +to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by +abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long +train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, +evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their +right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide +new guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient +sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which +constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history +of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries +and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an +absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be +submitted to a candid world. + +He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for +the public good. + +He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing +importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should +be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to +attend to them. + +He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large +districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of +representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and +formidable to tyrants only. + +He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, +uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, +for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with +his measures. + +He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with +manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. + +He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others +to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of +annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; +the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of +invasion from without, and convulsions within. + +He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that +purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing +to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the +conditions of new appropriations of lands. + +He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent +to laws for establishing judiciary powers. + +He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their +offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. + +He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of +officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. + +He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the +consent of our legislature. + +He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, +the civil power. + +He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to +our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to +their acts of pretended legislation: + +For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: + +For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders +which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: + +[Transcriber's note: This is an excerpt. Please see Project Gutenberg's +complete text.] + + + +CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES--1787[1] + +[Footnote 1: This reprint of the Constitution exactly follows the text +of that in the Department of State in Washington, save in the spelling +of a few words.] + +We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect +union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the +common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of +liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this +Constitution for the United States of America. + + +ARTICLE I + +SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a +Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House +of Representatives. + +SECTION 2. 1 The House of Representatives shall be composed of members +chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the +electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for +electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. + +2 No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the +age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United +States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State +in which he shall be chosen. + +3 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the +several States which may be included within this Union, according to +their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the +whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a +term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all +other persons[2]. The actual enumeration shall be made within three +years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and +within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall +by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for +every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one +representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of +New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, +Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York +six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, +Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and +Georgia three. + +[Footnote 2: The last half of this sentence was superseded by the 13th +and 14th Amendments. (See p.16 following.)] + +4 When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the +executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such +vacancies. + +5 The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other +officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. + +SECTION 3. 1 The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two +senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof for six +years; and each senator shall have one vote. + +2 Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first +election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. +The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the +expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of +the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth +year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if +vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the +legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary +appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then +fill such vacancies. + +3 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of +thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and +who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he +shall be chosen. + +4 The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the +Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. + +5 The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president +_pro tempore_, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall +exercise the office of President of the United States. + +6 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When +sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the +President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall +preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two +thirds of the members present. + +7 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to +removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office +of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party +convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, +judgment and punishment, according to law. + +SECTION 4. 1 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for +senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the +legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or +alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. + +2 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such +meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by +law appoint a different day. + +SECTION 5. 1 Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and +qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall +constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn +from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of +absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House +may provide. + +2 Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its +members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two +thirds, expel a member. + +3 Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to +time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment +require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on +any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be +entered on the journal. + +4 Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the +consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other +place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. + +[Transcriber's note: This is an excerpt. Please see Project Gutenberg's +complete text.] + + +STATE CONSTITUTIONS + + +We have seen (page 155), that in 1776 the Continental Congress advised +the people of the colonies to form governments for themselves, and that +the people of the colonies accordingly adopted constitutions and became +sovereign and independent states. Of the thirteen original state +constitutions, none save that of Massachusetts is now in force, and even +that has been amended. Changes in political ideas, changes in the +conditions of life due to the wonderful progress of our country, have +forced the people to alter, amend, and often remake their state +constitutions. + +All our state constitutions now in force divide the powers of government +among three departments,--legislative, executive, and judicial. + +_The Legislative Department_--called in some states the Legislature, in +others the General Assembly, and in still others the General Court-- +consists in every state of two branches or houses, usually known as the +Senate and House of Representatives. In six states the legislature meets +annually, and in all the rest biennially; the members of both branches +are everywhere elected by the people, and serve from one to four years. +In most states a session of the legislature is limited to a period of +from forty to ninety days. The legislature enacts the laws (which must +not conflict with the Constitution of the United States, the treaties, +the acts of Congress, or the constitution of the state); but the powers +of the two houses are not equal in all the states. In some the House of +Representatives has the sole right to originate bills for the raising +and the expenditure of money, and in some the Senate confirms or rejects +appointments to office made by the Governor. + +_The Governor_ is the executive; is elected for a term of years varying +from one to four; and is in duty bound to see that the laws are +enforced. To him, in nearly all the states, are sent the acts of the +legislature to be signed if he approves, or vetoed if he disapproves. In +some states the Governor may veto parts or items of an act and approve +the rest. He is commander in chief of the militia; commissions all +officers whom he appoints; and in most of the states may pardon +criminals. + +_The Judicial Branch_ of government is composed of the state courts, +whose judges are appointed, or elected for a long term of years. + +These three branches of government--the executive, the legislative, and +the judicial--are distinct and separate, and none can exercise the +powers of the others. No judge can enact a law; no legislature can try a +suit; no executive can perform the duties of a judge or a legislature. + +When the thirteen colonies threw off their allegiance to the British +Crown, the government set up by each was supreme within the limits of +the state. Each could coin money, impose duties on goods imported from +abroad or from other states, fix the legal rate of interest, make laws +regulating marriage and divorce and the descent of property, and do +anything else that any supreme government could do. + +But when the states united in forming a strong general government by +adopting the Constitution, they did not give up all their powers of +government. They intrusted part of them to the Federal government, and +retained the rest as before. In other words, the people of each state, +instead of continuing to have one government, adopted a double +government, state and Federal, according to the plan laid down in the +Constitution. It is the Federal Constitution that makes the division of +powers between the nation and the separate states. The Constitution, for +instance, gives the Federal government the powers of coining money and +laying import duties, and forbids these powers to the states; but the +rate of interest, marriage and divorce, and the descent of property are +matters not mentioned in the Constitution, and concerning which the +states retain the power to make laws. + +In many cases it is hard to decide whether a state has power to do a +certain thing. Whenever the question turns on the interpretation of the +Federal Constitution, it is decided by the United States courts. The +Federal Constitution and the laws and treaties made in accordance with +it are supreme in case of any conflict with a state constitution or law. + +The powers of government exercised by the states are more numerous, and +affect the individual citizen in more ways, than those of the nation. +The force of contracts; the relations of employer and employed, husband +and wife, parent and child; the administration of schools; and the +punishment of most crimes, are matters controlled by the state. A much +larger amount of taxes is imposed by the states than by the nation. + +_Local Governments._--Moreover, the local government of counties, towns, +and cities is entirely under the control of the state. State +constitutions contain many provisions in regard to this local +government, but the legislature can make laws affecting it more or less +greatly in the various states. In the local government of a city, town, +or county there is to some extent a distribution of powers among +legislative, executive, and judicial officers. The legislative function +is exercised by the city council or board of aldermen, the town trustees +(or by the whole body of voters), and the county board of supervisors or +commissioners; the executive, by the city mayor, the county sheriff, and +other officers; and the judicial, by various city courts, justices of +the peace, and county courts. + +_Political Rights and Duties._--The political rights and duties of +citizens depend chiefly on the state constitutions and laws. Elections, +both state and national, are conducted by state officers. The state +prescribes who shall have the right to vote, and the various states +differ greatly in this respect. Congress grants citizenship by a uniform +rule of naturalization; but some states allow aliens to vote (on certain +conditions), and some provide that a naturalized citizen can not vote +until a certain period has elapsed after his naturalization. In some +states women may vote; in some only those men who have certain property +or educational qualifications. + +The right to vote is the qualification for holding most offices; +additional qualifications are prescribed for very important offices, in +the Federal and state constitutions. Thus, none but a native may be a +President or Vice President of the United States, nor may a citizen +under thirty years of age be a member of the United States Senate. +Besides voting and office holding, the most important political rights +and duties of citizens are to sit on juries and to serve in the army. +The qualifications of jurors in state courts are prescribed by state +authority, and in national courts by national authority. Congress has +the exclusive power to raise armies, and in the Civil War hundreds of +thousands of citizens came under national authority in connection with +the duty to bear arms. The militia, however, is commanded by state +officers, and in time of peace is under the control of the +separate states. + + + + +INDEX + +%A% + +Abolition, laws; + societies; + opposition to; + Compromise Bill; + issue of Civil War. +Acadia, extent of; + struggle for. +Act, of 1870; + of 1873; + of 1875. +_Adams_. +Adams, Alvin. +Adams, Charles F. +Adams, John, defends soldiers; + Declaration of Independence; + negotiates treaty; + vice president; + president. +Adams, John Quincy, opposes European colonization; + presidential nominee; + president; + opposed to slavery. +Adams, John Q., vice-pres. nominee. +Adams, Samuel. +Adams Express Company. +"Adams men". +"Administration men". +_Alabama_. +Alabama, admitted; + secedes; + readmitted. +Alabama claims. +Alaska, boundaries; + purchased. +Albany, Dutch at; + colonial congress at. +Alexandria. +Algonquins. +Alien and Sedition laws. +Allegheny River, French on. +Allen, Ethan. +Allison amendment. +Amendments to Constitution, ten; + twelfth; + proposed thirteenth; + thirteenth; + fourteenth; + fifteenth. +America, discovery of; + naming of. +American Antislavery Society. +American Fur Trading Company. +American party. +American Republican party; + disappears. +Amherst. +Amnesty, proclamation issued; + political issue. +Anaesthesia discovered. +Anderson, Robert. +André, Major John. +Annapolis, Md., founded; riot at; + trade convention at. +Annapolis, Port Royal called. +Annual message. +Anti-Chinese movement. +Anti-Federalists. +Anti-Nebraska men. +Antietam, battle of. +Antimasonic party. +Antislavery movement. +Appomattox Courthouse. +Arbitration, policy; + between England and Venezuela. +Argall, Governor. +_Argus_. +Arizona, territory; + silver interests. +Arkansas, becomes territory; + admitted; + secedes; + Confederates in; + reconstruction; + readmitted. +Army of the Cumberland; + disbanded. +Army of the Potomac, peninsular campaign; + at Gettysburg; + in Wilderness campaign; + disbanded. +Army of Tennessee. +Army of Virginia. +Arnold, Benedict, attacks Quebec; + at Saratoga; + treason of; + in British service. +Articles of Confederation. +Ashburton, Lord. +Assumption of state debts. +Astor, John Jacob. +Astoria founded. +Atchison settled. +Atlanta burned. +Atlantic cable. +Auburn settled. +Aurania settled. +Austin, Moses. +Austin, Stephen. + +%B% + +Bahama Islands. +Balboa. +Baltimore, founded; + in colonial times; + Congress at; + attacked; + route to the West; + convention at; + insurgents in; + labor congress in. +Baltimore, Lord, +Banks, United States, see National Bank; + state, see State Banks. +Banks, N. P., presidential nominee, in + Civil War, +Bannock City founded, +Barry, John, +Barron, Commander, +Baton Rouge, captured, + Spaniards claim, +"Battle above the Clouds," +Bean, William, +Bear State republic, +Beauregard, General, +Bell, John, +Belmont, +Belpre settled, +Bemis Heights, battle of, +Bennington, battle of, +Benton, Thomas II., senator, +Bents Fort, +_Berceau_, +Berkeley, Lord, +Berlin Decree, +Bidwell, John, +Bienville, Céloron de, +Big Bottom massacre, +Bills of credit, +Biloxi settled, +Bimetallism, +Birney, James Gillespie, presidential nominee, + abolitionist, +Black, James, +Black Rock burned, +Bladensburg, battle of, +Blaine, James G., +Blair, Francis P., +Bland-Allison Silver Bill, +Blockade, of 1814, + Southern, +Blockade runners, +Blue Lodges, +Bonded debt, of 1866, + of 1894, +Bonds, United States, +_Bonhomme Richard_, +Bonneville, Captain, +Boom towns, +Boone, Daniel, +Boonesboro settled, +Booth, John Wilkes, assassinates Lincoln, +Bordentown, +Border states secede, +Boscawen, +_Boston_, +Boston, founded, + in colonial times, + riot, + massacre, + tea party, + Port Bill, + occupied by British, + evacuated, + in 1790, + fire, +Boston Neck, +_Boston Sentinel_, +Boundary, of United States in 1783, + in 1815, + Canadian, + Spanish, + of Alaska, + of Texas, + map showing territorial growth of United States, +_Boxer_, +Braddock, Edward, +Bradford, William, +Bradstreet, +Bragg, +Brandywine, battle of, +Brazil discovered, +Breckinridge, John C., vice president, + presidential candidate, +Breeds Hill, battle of, +Brewster, William, +British, see English. +British Columbia, boundary of, +British Guiana, +Brown, B. Gratz, +Brown, Jacob, +Brown, John, +Brown, Robert, +Brownists, +Brush, +Bryan, William J., +Buchanan, James, president, + attitude toward seceded states, +Buckner, General Simon B., +Buell, General, +Buena Vista, battle of, +Buffalo burned, +Bull Run, battles of, +Bunker Hill, battle of, +Bunker Hill Monument, +Burgoyne, John, +Burke P. B., +Burlingame, Anson, +Burnside, General, +Burr, Aaron, +Business depression of '93, +Butler, +Butler, A. P., +Butler, Benjamin F., +Butler, William O., +Butterfield overland stage. + +%C% + +Cabinet, first, +Cable, Atlantic, +Cabots, +Cabral, +Calhoun, John C., in War Congress, + vice president, + favors nullification, + on slavery, + on Compromise Bill, + death of, +California, Frémont in, + independent, + slavery in, + gold discoveries, + applies for admission, + settled and admitted, + Pacific Railroad to, +Calverts, +Cambridge settled, +Camden, battle of, +Canada, ceded to British, + boundary of, + fisheries, +Canals, +Canonchet, +Canso attacked, +Cape Ann colony, +Cape Breton, +Cape Cod named, +Cape Fear River settlements, +Captains of industry. +Caribbean Islands. +Carleton, Sir Guy. +Carolinas, settled; + see North and South Carolina. +Carpetbaggers. +Carson, Kit. +Carteret, Sir George. +Cartier, Jacques. +Cass, Lewis. +Castine massacre. +Castle Pinckney. +Catholics in Maryland. +Cayuga Indians. +Cedar Creek, battle of. +Cedar Mountain, battle of. +Céloron de Bienville. +Census, first; + of 1810; + of 1870; + of 1900. +Central Pacific Railroad. +Cerro Gordo, battle of. +Certificates, national. +Chadds Ford, battle of. +Chambers, B. J. +Chambersburg burned. +Champlain. +Chancellorsville, battle of. +Chapultepec, battle of. +Charles I., grants Maryland; + persecutes Puritans; + beheaded. +Charles II., grants Connecticut; + grants Carolina; + grants Pennsylvania. +Charleston, founded; + attacked; + in colonial times; + opposes tea tax; + captured; + nominating convention. +Charleston harbor. +Charlestown, settled. +Charlestown Neck. +Charter colonies. +Charters, of 1606; + of 1609; + of 1629. +Chase, Salmon P. +Chattanooga, battle of. +Cherokee Indians. +Cherry Creek. +Cherry Valley massacre. +_Chesapeake_. +Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. +Chester. +Chicago, Republican conventions; + in 1832; + in 1840; + labor congress; + convention of '69; + fire; + meat packing; + Bimetallic League. +Chickahominy River. +Chickamauga, battle of. +Chickasaw Indians. +China, disorder in. +Chinese Exclusion acts. +Chinese immigration. +Chippewa, battle of. +Choctaw Indians. +Church of New England. +Churubusco, battle of. +Cincinnati, in 1802; + in 1810; + convention of 1872; + labor congress; + convention of 1876. +Circuit courts. +Civil Rights Bill. +Civil service reform. +Civil War; + cost of; + results of. +Clark, General George Rogers. +Clark, William. +Clay, Henry, speaker; + presidential nominee; + secretary of state; + Compromise Tariff; + Infant School; + Compromise Bill; + death of. +_Clermont_. +Cleveland, population in 1840. +Cleveland, Stephen Grover, president. +Clinton, George. +Clinton, Governor De Witt. +Clinton, Sir Henry, campaigns. +Cobb, Howell. +Cochrane, General John. +Cockburn, Admiral. +Cohoes founded. +Coin at a premium. +Coinage of gold and silver. +Cold Harbor, battle of. +Colfax, Schuyler. +Collins steamship line. +Colonial, life; + forms of government. +Colonies, Spanish; + English; + Dutch; + Swedish. +Colorado, acquired; + a territory; + admitted; + silver interests. +Colt. +_Columbia Centinel_. +Columbia River discovered. +Columbus, Christopher. +Columbus, Ky., evacuated. +Columbus, O., population in 1840; + conventions. +Commerce, in colonial times; + about 1810; + destroyers; + See also Trade. +Committee of Safety. +Compromise, Missouri; + tariff; + of 1850; + of Crittenden. +Compromises in Constitution. +Comptroller of the Currency. +Concord, battle of. +Confederate cruisers. +Confederate States, formed; + during civil war; + capital of; + end of; + military supplies of; + debts and losses of; + congress dissolved. +_Congress_. +Congress, under Articles of Confederation, and see Continental Congress; + reconstruction plan of; + gives land grants; + acts of 1862 and 1863. +Congress, National Labor. +Connecticut, settled; + in colonial times; + Reserve. +Conscription, Confederate. +_Constellation_. +_Constitution_. +Constitution of U.S., + amendments to, see Amendments. + Printed in Appendix, +Constitutional Union party, +Continental army, +Continental Congress, +Continental debt, +Continental money, +Contract labor, +Contraction policy, +Contreras, battle of, +Conway cabal, +Cooper, Peter, +Corinth, + battle of, +Cornwallis, Lord, +Coronado, +Corporations, rise of, + opposition to, +Cortereal, +Cortes, +Cotton gin, +Cotton industry, +Cotton-seed oil, +Council Bluffs, Mormons at, +Council for New England, +_Coureurs de bois,_ +Court of Admiralty, +Courts of U.S. established, +Cowpens, battle of, +Cranfill, J.B., +Crawford, William H., +Credit Strengthening Act, +Creek Indians, +Crittenden's Compromise, +Croghan, Major, +Crown Point, founded, + English at, +Cuba, +Culpeper Courthouse, +_Cumberland_, +Cumberland Road, +Cunard steamship line, +Currency, U.S., +Curtis, Gen. S.R., +Customs Commissioners. + +%D% + +Dakota Territory, formed, + population of, +Dallas, George Mifflin, +Dalton, battle of, +Daniel, William, +Davenport, John, +Davie, William K., +Davis, David, +Davis, Jefferson, president of Confederacy, + capture of, +Dayton, William L., +De Soto, +Deane, Silas, +Dearborn's expedition, +Debt, national, after the Revolutionary War, + in 1790, + in 1801, + in 1835, + new national, + during Civil War, + in 1866, + in 1887, + in 1894, +Declaration of Independence, + in Vermont, + See Appendix, +Declaration of Rights, +DeKalb, +Delaware, claims in, + sold to Penn, + in colonial times, + slavery in, +Delaware, Lord, 32. +Delaware Indians, 68, 72. +Delegates, territorial, 162, 351 n. 2. +Democratic party, +Democratic Republicans, +Denver, settled, + convention at, +Department of Labor established, +Detroit, settled + surrender of, +Dewey, Commodore, +Dingley Tariff, +Dinwiddie, Governor Robert, +Direct tax, +District courts, +District of Columbia, + slavery in, +Dixon, Jeremiah, +Dole, president of Hawaiian Republic, +Donelson, Andrew Jackson, +Donelson, John, +Dorchester settled, +Dorchester Heights captured, +Douglas, Stephen A., Nebraska Bill, + debates with Lincoln, + elected senator, + presidential nominee, +Dover riot, +Dow, Neal, +_Drake_, +Drake, Sir Francis, +Draper, Dr. John W., +Dred Scott decision, +Duane, William J., +Duluth founded, +Duquesne, Marquis, +Durham massacre, +Dutch, possessions, + settlements, +Dutch West India Company. + +%E% + +Earle, Thomas, +Early, Jubal, +East India Company, +East Indies, trade with, +Eastern Colonies, occupations, etc., +Eastport captured, +Edmunds Law, +Electoral college, +Electoral commission, +Electricity, +Elizabeth, Queen, +Elizabeth City captured, +Ellmaker, Amos, +Ellsworth, Oliver, +Emancipation, agitation; + Proclamation; + cost of. +Embargo laws. +Emigration, western. +Endicott, John. +English, possessions; + settlements; + relations with France; + relations with Indians; + government of colonies; + attitude to colonies; + war with colonies; + at war with French; + disputed right of trade; + favor South American republics; + favor South; + Venezuelan boundary question. +English, William H. +English fur companies. +_Enterprise_. +Era of Good Feeling. +Ericsson, Captain John. +Ericsson, Leif. +Erie Canal. +Erie Indians. +_Essex_. +Europe, claims in America; + attitude during Civil War. +Evans, Oliver. +Everett, Edward. +Exeter massacre. +Explorations, European; + French; + Western; + Northwestern. +Express, pony. +Express companies formed. + +%F% + +Fair Oaks, battle of. +Fairbanks. +Farewell Address of President Washington. +Farmers' Alliance. +Farragut, Admiral. +Federal Hall. +Federal money. +Federalist party, +Ferdinand, King, aids Columbus. +Field, Cyrus W. +Field, James G. +Fifteenth Amendment. +"Fifty-four forty or fight". +Fillmore, Millard, vice president; + president; + presidential nominee. +Financial, distress of '37; + condition after Civil War; + policy, Grant's; + questions after '88. +First Continental Congress. +Fiscal Bank of United States. +Fiscal Corporation. +Fishery question. +Fitch, John. +Five Nations, or Iroquois Indians. +Flag, national; + American naval. +Flamborough Head, 148. +_Florida_. +Florida, discovered; + a British possession; + East and West; + a Spanish possession; + purchased; + a territory; + admitted; + secedes; + readmitted. +Foote, Flag Officer. +Force Act, of; + Jackson's; + of 1871. +Foreign labor. +Foreigners, see Immigration. +Fort Assumption built. +Fort Boise. +Fort Chartres built. +Fort Crčvecoeur built. +Fort Cumberland. +Fort Donelson captured. +Fort Duquesne built; + captured. +Fort Edward. +Fort Erie captured. +Fort Fisher captured. +Fort Frontenac captured. +Fort Hall founded. +Fort Henry captured. +Fort Le Boeuf built +Fort Leavenworth. +Fort Lee attacked. +Fort Loyal massacre. +Fort McAllister captured. +Fort McHenry bombarded. +Fort Macon captured. +Fort Meigs, battle of. +Fort Monroe. +Fort Morgan. +Fort Moultrie. +Fort Nassau built. +Fort Natchitoches. +Fort Necessity built. +Fort Orange built. +Fort Pillow captured. +Fort Pitt. +Fort Rosalie founded. +Fort St. Louis built. +Fort Stanwix besieged. +Fort Stephenson, battle of. +Fort Sumter; + battles of. +Fort Ticonderoga. +Fort Tombeckbee built. +Fort Toulouse founded. +Fort Venango built. +Fort Washington captured. +"Forty-niners". +Fourteenth Amendment. +Fractional currency. +Franchise right; + interference with. +Franklin, Benjamin, during the French War; + experiments; + Declaration of Independence; + ambassador to France. +Franklin, state of. +Fray Marcos. +Fredericksburg, in colonial times; + battle of. +Free coinage, of gold and silver; + of silver. +Free-soil party; + joins Republicans. +Freedmen, treatment after war; + vote. +Freedmen's Bureau Bill. +Frelinghuysen, Theodore. +Frémont, John C., in California; + presidential nominee; + in Shenandoah valley. +French, possessions; + explorations; + relations with Indians; + relations with English; + and Indian War; + abandon America; + acknowledge our independence; + republic established; + war with English; + trouble with United States; + during Civil War; + in Mexico. +French Directory. +Frenchtown, battle of. +Fries's Rebellion. +Frobisher, Sir Martin. +_Frolic_. +Frontenac, Count. +Frontier life. +Frye, Joshua. +Fugitive-slave laws. +Fulton, Robert. +Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. +Funding of national debt. +Fusion tickets. + +%G% + +Gadsden, James. +Gadsden Purchase. +"Gag Rule". +Gage, General Thomas. +Gaines Mill, battle of. +Gallatin, Albert. +Gallipolis settled. +Gallissoničre, Marquis de la. +Gama, Vasco da. +Garfield, James, president; + death of. +Garrison, William Lloyd. +Gates, General Horatio. +Gates, Sir Thomas. +Genet. +Geneva awards. +George II, grants charter. +Georgia, settled; + in colonial times; + annexed territory; + conquered; + cedes land to Congress; + secedes; + Sherman's march through; + again in the Union; +Germantown, battle of. +Gerry, Elbridge. +Gerrymander. +Gettysburg, battle of. +Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's. +Gila River. +Gilbert, Sir Humphrey. +Goffe, William. +Gold, discovered in California; + at Pikes Peak; + in Northwestern States; + payments suspended; + sole legal tender; + standard. +Gold Democrats. +Gold reserve. +Goldsboro. +Goodyear. +Gorges, Sir Ferdinando. +Gosnold. +Gourgues. +Government, colonial; + under Articles of Confederation; + of territories; + control of railroads, etc. +Grant, General U. S., in Civil War; + relations with Johnson; + president; + third term proposed. +Gray, Captain. +Great American Desert. +Great Britain, see English. +Great Lakes explored. +Great Salt Lake. +_Great Western_. +Greeley, Horace. +Green Mountain Boys. +Greenback party. +Greenbacks. +Greene, Nathanael. +Grenville, Prime Minister. +Groesbeck, W. S. +Groton massacre. +Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of. +_Guerričre_. +Guilford founded. +Guilford Courthouse, battle of. +Guinther. +Guthrie. + +%H% + +_Hail, Columbia!_ written. +Hale, John P. +Hale, Nathan. +_Half-Moon_. +Halleck, General Henry. +Hamet. +Hamilton, Alexander. +Hamlin, Hannibal. +Hampton Roads, peace conference at; + Confederate cruiser sunk in; + _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_. +Hancock, General Winfield. +Hand loom. +Hand mill. +Hand press. +Hard cider campaign. +Hard times of '73; + of '93. +Harnden, W. F. +Harpers Ferry. +Harrisburg convention. +Harrison, Benjamin, president. +Harrison, William Henry, in War of 1812; + delegate in Congress; + at Tippecanoe; + presidential candidate; + elected; + death of. +Harrisons Landing. +Harrodsburg settled. +Hartford settled. +Hatteras Inlet. +Haverhill massacre. +Hawaiian annexation. +Hayes, Rutherford B., president. +Hayne, Governor. +Helena founded. +Hendricks, Thomas A. +Hennepin. +Henry, Patrick. +Hessians. +Highways of trade. +Hispaniola colonized. +Hobart, Garret A. +Hoe octuple press,. +Holly Springs. +Holy Alliance. +Home manufactures defended. +Homestead Law. +Hood, General J.B. +Hooker, General. +Hooker, Thomas. +Hopkinson, Joseph. +_Hornet_. +House of Burgesses. +House of Commons. +House of Lords. +House of Representatives, formed, + elects president + Houston. Samuel. +Howe, Elias. +Howe, General William. +Hudson, Henry. +Hudson Bay Company. +Hull's surrender. +Hunt, Walter. +Huron Indians. +Hutchinson, Anne. + +%I% + +Iberville. +Idaho, a territory + admitted + silver interests. +Idaho City founded. +Illinois, a territory + admitted. +Immigration, Chinese, see Chinese; European Western, + see Emigration. +Impeachment of Johnson. +Impressment of sailors. +Income tax. +Indented servants. +Independence Chamber. +Independence, Declaration of. +Independence Hall. +Independent National party. +Independent Treasury law. +Independents or Mugwumps. +India rubber. +Indian country. +Indiana, a territory; + admitted. +_Indiana Register_. +Indianapolis, population in 1840. +Indians, alliance with French, + traits of + wars + in French and Indian War + during Revolution + in 1790 + in 1812, + troubles with + in Oregon + territory sold. +Industrial revolution +Inflation Bill. +_Insurgente_. +Interest indents. +Internal improvements, political issue. +Internal revenue system. +Interstate Commerce. +Intolerable Acts. +Inventions. +"Invisible Empire,". +Iowa, a territory + admitted, 366. +Ironclads. +Iroquois Indians. +Irwinsville. +Isabella. Queen, aids Columbus. +Island No. 10 captured. +Isthmian Canal. +Iuka, battle of. + +%J% + +Jackson, convention at + battle of. +Jackson, Dr. +Jackson, General Andrew, at New Orleans, + defeats Indians + presidential nominee + president, 301-811. +Jackson, General T.J. +"Jackson men," +Jalapa, battle of. +Jamaica discovered,. +James I., creates Virginia Company; + annuls charter. +Jamestown settled. +_Java_ captured. +Jay, John, treaty of Paris, + ambassador to London. +Jay Cooke and Co.'s failure. +Jefferson, Thomas, writes Declaration of Independence + secretary of state, + Republican leader + vice president, + opposes Alien and Sedition laws + president + favors political proscription. +Jerry. +Jerseys, see New Jersey; + retreat across. +Johnson, Andrew, vice president + president + amnesty policy. +Johnson, Herschel V. +Johnson, R.M. +Johnston, Gen. A.S. +Johnston, Gen. Joseph E. +Joliet. Louis. +Jones, John Paul. +Julian, George W. +Jumonville. + +%K% + +Kanawha state. +Kansas, struggle for + slavery question in, + admitted + rapid growth + Farmers' Alliance. +Kansas City. +Kansas-Nebraska Law. +Kaskaskia settled. +Kearny, Colonel Stephen. +_Kearsarge_. +Kendall, Amos. +Kentucky, + settled; + resolutions; + admitted; + Confederates in; + slavery in. +Key, Francis S., writes _Star-Spangled Banner_. +Kickapoo Indians. +King George's War. +King Philip's War. +King William's War. +King, Rufus. +King, William R. +Kings Mountain. +Kirtland. +Knights of Labor. +Know-nothing party. +Knox, General Henry. +Ku Klux Klan. + +%L% + +La Salle, Robert de. +Labor, in 1763; + in 1790; + questions in 1860; + after Civil War; + slave and free; + foreign and convict; + parties. +Labor department established. +Laconia. +Lafayette, Marquis de. +Lake Champlain, battle of. +Lake Erie, battle of. +Lancaster, Congress at. +Land grants, free; + to railroads; + opposed. +Land Mortgage scheme. +Lane, Joseph. +Lane, Ralph. +Larimer, General. +Laud, Archbishop. +Laudonničre. +_Lawrence_. +Lawrence settled. +Lawrence, Amos A. +Lawrence, James. +Leaven worth. +Lecompton constitution. +Lee, Charles. +Lee, Richard Henry. +Lee, Robert E., campaigns in Civil War; + surrenders. +Lenni Lenape Indians. +_Leopard_. +Letters of marque. +Lewis, Meriwether. +Lewiston founded. +_Lexington_, 148. +Lexington, battle of. +Lexington, Ky. +Liberal Republican party. +_Liberator_. +Liberty party. +Limestone settled. +Lincoln, Abraham, debates with Douglas, +in Illinois senatorial contest; + elected president; + during Civil War; + inauguration speech; + Emancipation Proclamation; + Gettysburg Address; + peace conference with Stephens; + reflected; + assassinated. +Lincoln, General. +Line of Demarcation. +_Little Belt_. +Livingston, Robert R. +Loan-office certificates. +Log cabin campaign. +Log cabins. +Log of the Mayflower. +Logan, John A. +Logstown. +London Company. +Long, Dr. +Long, Major; + discovers Longs Peak. +Long houses, Indian. +Long Parliament. +Lookout Mountain, battle of. +Lords of Trade. +Lottery, Congress. +Louis XV. claims Ohio region. +Louisburg, built; + captured by English; + restored to French. +Louisiana, La Salle in; + extent of; + French in; + struggle for; + Spanish; + purchased; + admitted; + boundary; + secedes; + reconstructs government; + readmitted. +Louisville, settled; + labor congress at. +Lovejoy, Elijah. +Lowell founded. +Lundy, Benjamin. +Lundys Lane, battle of. +Lyon, General. + +%M% + +McClellan, General George B., campaigns; + presidential nominee. +McCormick reaper. +McDonough, Thomas. +McDowell, General Irwin, campaigns. +McKinley, William, president. +McKinley Tariff Act. +_Macedonian_. +Macomb, General. +Macon Bill. +Madison, James, on the Constitution; + Republican leader; + favors Virginia Resolutions; + president. +Magellan. +Mails, see Postal System. +Maine, settled; + part of Massachusetts Bay colony; + admitted. +Maine Law. +Manassas Junction, battle of. +Manhattan Island. +Manila, battle of. +Manufactures, in colonial times; + about 1800; + infant; + in slave states; + during Civil War; + since Civil War. +March to the Sea, Sherman's. +Marcos, Fray. +Marietta settled. +Marion. +Marquette. +Marshall. +Marshall, John. +Martin, Luther. +Mary, Queen, grants Massachusetts charter. +Maryland, colonized; + in colonial times. + slavery in. +Mason, Charles. +Mason, James M. +Mason, John. +Mason and Dixon's Line. +Massachusetts, Bay Company; + religious intolerance in; + Bay charter granted; + in colonial times; + opposes Stamp and Townshend Acts; + Bill; + cedes land to Congress. +Matagorda Bay +Matamoras, battle of +Maximilian +_Mayflower_ +Mayflower Compact +Mayflower Log +Maysville settled +Meade, General +Mechanical improvements +Mechanicsville +Memphis captured +Mendoza +Menendez +Mercer +_Merrimac_ +Mexico, becomes republic + wars + French in +Miami Indians +Michigan, a territory + admitted +Michilimackinac, trading post +Middle Colonies, occupations, etc. +Milan Decree +Milford founded +Military lands +Mill Springs, battle of +Mills, R. Q. +Mills Tariff Bill +Milwaukee, population in 1840 +Minneapolis mills +_Minnesota_ +Minnesota, slavery in + a territory + admitted +Mint established +Minute men +Missionary Ridge, battle of +Mississippi River, explored + French forts built on + right of navigation + slavery west of + campaign in Civil War +Mississippi, a territory + admitted + secedes + convention in + opposed to Reconstruction Act + again in the Union +Missouri, admitted + opposes Wilmot Proviso + elects Kansas delegate + slavery in +Missouri Compromise +Missouri River, gold discovered on +Mobile, in colonial times + captured +Mobile Bay explored + British in +Mohawk Indians +Mohegan Indians +Molino del Rey, battle of +Money, see Currency, Gold, and Silver. +_Monitor_ +Monmouth, battle of +Monroe, James, Republican leader + treaty with England + president +Monroe Doctrine +Montana, a territory + admitted + silver interests +Montcalm, General +Monterey, Cal., Frémont at +Monterey, Mexico, battle of +Montezuma +Montgomery, Confederate capital +Montgomery, Richard +Montreal, attacked + captured + attacked in 1813 +Moose Island captured +Morgan, Daniel +Morgan, William +Mormons +Morris, Robert +Morris, Thomas +Morristown, Washington at +Morse, Samuel F.B. +Morton, Dr. +Morton, Levi P. +Moultrie +Mount Desert Island settled +Mount Pleasant settled +Mount Vernon. Washington's home +Mugwumps +Murfreesboro, battle of +Murray, William Vans +Muskhogee Indians +Mutiny Act. + +%N% + +Nantucket Island captured +Napoleon, consul of France + issues decrees + seizes American vessels + loses power +Napoleon, Louis, in Mexico +Narragansett Indians +Narvaez +Nashville, settled + evacuated + battle of +Nassau, blockade running +Natchez, in colonial times + captured + claimed by Spaniards +National Agricultural Wheel +National Bank, First + loses charter + Second + proposed Third +National banks +National Bimetallic League +National debt, see Debt. +National Democratic party +National Labor Congress +National Labor Reform party +National notes, see Bonds +National party +National Pike +National Prohibition Reform party +National Republican party, see Republican. +National Union party +Native American party +Naturalization law +Naumkeag settled +Nauvoo built +Naval warfare, + in Revolution + in French War + in War of 1812 + in Civil War +Navigation Acts +Navy department +Nebraska Bill +Nebraska, + struggle for + admitted + rapid growth +Neutrality, + Proclamation of + policy +Nevada, + acquired + territory and state + silver interests +New Albion +New Amsterdam, + founded + becomes New York +New England, + early settlements + occupations in colonies + English victories in +New England Emigrant Aid Society +New France, + extent of + struggle for +New Hampshire, + settled + in colonial times + grants +New Haven, + colony + in colonial times + riot at +New Jersey, + settled + in colonial times + plan for Constitution +New London, + riot at + burned +New Mexico, + Spanish explore + conquered + slavery in + bought from Texas + silver interests +New Netherland, + becomes New York +New Orleans, + founded + in colonial times + battle of + captured +"New Roof" +New Sweden +"New tenor" +New York (state), + New Netherland becomes + in colonial times + English in + cedes land to Congress +New York (city), + convention + in colonial times + colonial congress at + evacuated + national capital + the metropolis + in 1830 + labor congress at +New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company +Newark, + founded + riot at +Newbern captured +Newfoundland, + granted to English + fisheries +Newport, Ky. settled +Newport, R.I., + settled + riot at +Newspapers, + in colonial times + in 1790 + about 1810 +Newtown settled +_Niagara_ +Niagara, + founded + expedition against +_Niņa_ +Nipmuck Indians +Nominating conventions +Non-importation, + agreements + Act +Non-intercourse Law +Norfolk evacuated +North, Lord +North American party +North Carolina, + settled + in colonial times + cedes land to Congress + secedes + Sherman in + readmitted +North Castle +North Dakota admitted +Northern attitude toward slavery +Northern Pacific Railroad +Northwest, + exploration of + the new +Northwest passage to India +Northwest Territory, + surrendered + Indian troubles in + slavery question in +Notes, United States, see Bonds. +Nova Scotia, + part of Massachusetts Bay colony + struggle for +Nueces River +Nullification doctrine. + +%O% + +_Observer_ +O'Conor, Charles +Oglethorpe, James +Ohio, + Settled + Admitted + currency plan +Ohio Land Company +Ohio River, + struggle for + settlements on +Oklahoma +Old Demand notes +_Old Ironsides_ +Olmsted, F. L. +Omnibus Bill +Omnibuses +Oneida Indians +Onondaga Indians +Orders in Council of 1806 and 1807 +Ordinance, + how passed + of 1785 + of 1787 +Oregon, + settled + joint occupation of + boundaries of + trail + a territory + slavery in +Orleans Territory +Ossawatomie settled +Oswego burned +Otis, James +Overland stage +Owen, Robert. + +%P% + +Pacific Fur Company +Pacific Ocean, + discovered + named +Pacific railroads, +Pacific States settled, +Pakenham, General, +Palmer, John M., +Palmyra, Mormons at, +Palo Alto, battle of, +Panic, of 1837, + of 1873, + of 1893, +Paper currency, +Parker, Joel, +Party platforms, see Platforms. +Patent office, +Patroons, +Patterson, General, +Paulding, +Pea Ridge, battle of, +_Peacock_, +_Pelican_, +Pemberton, General, +Pendleton, George H., +Pendleton Civil Service Act, +Peninsular campaign, +Penn, William, settles New Jersey and Pennsylvania, + relations with Indians, +Pennsylvania, granted to Penn, + in colonial times, + opposes Townshend Acts, + Declaration of Independence in, + Confederates in, +_Pennsylvania Freeman_, +_Pennsylvania Gazette_, +_Pennsylvania Journal_, +_Pennsylvania Packet_, +Pennsylvania route to West, +Pensacola captured, +Pensions, +People's party, +Pequot Indians, +Perote, +Perry, Oliver Hazard, +Perryville, battle of, +Personal Liberty laws, +"Pet banks," +Petersburg, in colonial times, + Cornwallis at, + besieged, + evacuated, +Petroleum, +Philadelphia, founded, + in colonial times, + First Continental Congress, + captured, + Congress at, + evacuated, + constitutional convention at, + in 1800, + national capital, +_Philanthropist_, +Philippines, +Phips, Sir William, +_Phoenix_, +Photographic discoveries, +Pickens, +Pickens, Governor, +Pierce, Franklin, president, +Pike, Zebulon, +Pikes Peak, +Pilgrims, +Pinckney, C. C., minister to France, + Federalist candidate, + treaty with England, +Pineda, +_Pinta_, +Pinzon, +Pitt, William, +Pittsburg, founded, + in 1790, + rebellion at, +Pittsburg Landing, battle of, +Plains of Abraham, +Platforms, party, +Platte country, +Plattsburg, battle of, +Plymouth, charter, + Company, + settled, + part of Massachusetts Bay colony, +Pocahontas, +_Poictiers_, +Political issues, see Platforms. +Political parties, beginning of, + see Federalists, Democrats, Republicans, etc. +Polk, James K., presidential nominee, + president, +Polygamy, +Ponce de Leon, +Pony express, +Pope, General John, campaigns, +Popham, Sir John, +Popular sovereignty, +Population, in 1790, + in 1815, + in 1810, + in 1820, + increase in, + of Oregon, + western immigrant, + between 1840 and 1860, + in 1870, + of northwestern states, + of Oklahoma, +Populists, see People's Party. +Port Gibson, battle of, +Port Hudson, battle of, +Port Royal, settled, + French stronghold, + captured, + called Annapolis, +Port Royal, S. C., captured, +Portage Railroad, +Porter, at Vicksburg, +Porto Rico, +Portsmouth, settled, + in colonial times, + navy yard, +Portuguese in Brazil, +Postage stamps, +Postal system, in colonial times, + in 1790, + in 1840, + in 1860, +Powhatan Indians, +Prairie schooners, +Prescott, Colonel, +_President_, +Presidential election, method of, + proposed method of, +Presidential succession, +Presque Isle built, +Price, General, +Princeton, battle of, +Printing press, +Proclamation, line, + of neutrality, + Emancipation, +Progress, from 1790 to 1815, + from 1840 to 1860, + since Civil War, +Prohibition party, +Proprietary colonies +Proscription, political +Proslavery movement +Protection + South opposes + Clay favors + political issue +Providence + founded + in colonial times + riot at +Provincial colonies +Public domain + granted + additions to + grants, see Land grants +Puebla +Puerto Rico + see Porto Rico. +Pulaski +Punishment + forms of +Puritans + persecution of + in New England + become Separatists +Putnam. + +%Q% + +Quaker settlements +Quartering Act +Quebec + boundaries of +Quebec + settled + French stronghold + attacked + surrendered +Quebec Act +Queen Anne's War +Queenstown, battle of +Quincy, Josiah. + +%R% + +Radical Republicans +Railroads + early + Western + Northern Pacific + in 1887 + land grants to +Ralegh, Sir Walter +Randolph, John +"Receivers general" created +Reconstruction Act +Reconstruction policy +Redemptioners +Refunding Act +Reid, Whitelaw +_Reprisal_ +Republicans + old party + new party +Resaca de la Palma + battle of +Restoration + English +Resumption of Specie Payment Act +_Revenge_ +Revolutionary War +Rhode Island + settled + charter + in colonial times +Ribault, John +Richmond + Confederate capital + campaign against + captured +Rio Grande +Ripon + convention at +Rittenhouse, David +Roads + improvements + Western +Roanoke + colonized + captured +Robertson, James +Robinson, John +Rochester settled +Rogers, Captain +Rolfe, John +Roosevelt, Theodore +Rosecrans, General + campaigns +Ross, General +Roxbury settled +Royal colonies +Rule of 1756 +Rumsey, James +Russell, John +Russia + possessions + claims on the Pacific + complies with Monroe Doctrine + attitude in Civil War + Alaska purchased from +Ryal, Captain. + +%S% + +Sacketts Harbor + battle of +Sacramento +St. Augustine founded +St. Clair's defeat +St. Croix River settlements +St. John, John P. +St. Joseph captured +St. Lawrence River explored +St. Leger, Colonel +St. Louis +St. Marks captured +St. Marys founded +St. Paul +Salem settled +Salmon Falls massacre +Saltillo +Sampson, W.T. +_San Jacinto_ +San Jacinto, + battle of +San Salvador +Santa Anna +Santa Fe + captured + trail +_Santa Maria_ +Santiago, battles of +Saratoga, battle of +_Savannah_ +Savannah + founded + in colonial times + captured +Schenectady massacre +Schley, W.S. +Schools, free +Schuyler, General +Scientific discoveries +Scioto Company +Scott, General Winfield + in 1814 + in Mexican War + presidential nominee + in Civil War +Sea to sea grants +Secession, of Southern States + states refuse troops + reconstruction plans +Sedition Law +Seminole Indians +Senate formed +Seneca Indians +Separatists +_Serapis_ +Seven Cities of Cibola +Seven days' battles +Seven Pines, battle of +Sevier, John +Sewall, Arthur +Seward, William H. +Sewing machine invented +Seymour, Horatio +Shadrach +_Shannon_ +Sharpsburg, battle of +Indians +Shays, Daniel +_Shenandoah_ +Shenandoah valley, war in +Sheridan, General Phil., campaigns +Sherman, Roger +Sherman, General W.T., campaigns +Sherman Act + silver-purchase clause repealed +Shiloh, battle of +Ship Island +Shirley, Governor +Silver, specie suspended + mines discovered + demonetized + remonetized + certificates + free coinage of + movement + party +"Silver Grays" +Sioux Indians +_Sirius_ +Six Nations +Slave trade forbidden +Slavery, established + in colonial times, + in territories + at time of Constitution + in 1790 + affected by cotton industry + in Kentucky + in early states + beyond Mississippi River + issue between North and South + area expanded + in Texas + in New Mexico and California + in Kansas + in 1857 + in 1860 + Civil War + Emancipation Proclamation + during Civil War + abolished in Confederate States + position of negroes after war +Slidell, John +Smith, Green Clay +Smith, John, at Jamestown + explores New England coast + among the Indians +Smith, Joseph +Social conditions, in 1790 + about 1890 +Socialist Labor party +Society for Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures +Solis +Somers, Sir George +Sons of Liberty +South American republics +South Carolina, settled + in colonial times + cedes land to Congress + Railroad + Exposition + favors nullification + secedes + Sherman in + readmitted +South Dakota, admitted +silver interests +South Pass +Southern Colonies, occupations, etc. +Southern States, English in + attitude toward slavery + form Confederacy + at end of 1860 + at beginning of war + coast blockade + cost of war in + reconstruction of + troubles in + the New South +Spanish, possessions + settlements, etc. + claims + boundary line + Florida bought from + war with United States +Spanish America +Specie Circular +Specie payments +Speculation in 1836 +_Speedwell_ +Spottsylvania Courthouse, battle of +Springfield, settled + Republican state convention at + Lincoln's speech at +Squatter sovereignty, see Popular Sovereignty +Squatters +Stagecoaches +Stamford founded +Stamp Act +Stamp tax +Standish, Miles +Stanton +_Star of the West_ +_Star-Spangled Banner_ +Stark, Colonel John +State banks +State debts +State department +Staten Island evacuated +States, formed + thirteen original + trade laws + powers of + new constitutions in + sovereignty of + government in seceded, +Steamboats +Stephens, Alexander II. +Steuben, Baron +Stevens, John +Stevenson, Adlai E. +Stewart, G.T. +Stillwater, battle of +Stockton, Commodore +"Stonewall" Jackson +Stonington bombarded +Stony Point captured +Stowe, H.B. +Stuart +Stuyvesant, Peter +Sub treasury plan +Sugar Act +Sullivan, General +Sumner, Charles +_Sumter_ +Sumter +Sumter, Fort +Supreme Court + established + gives Dred Scott decision + on Wilson Bill +Surplus revenue + in 1837 + in 1887 +_Surprise_ +Sutter +Sutter's Fort +Swedish + possessions + settlements +Symmes, John C. + +%T% + +Taft, William II. +Taney, Roger B. +Tariff + of 1789 + bills of 1824, etc. + of 1861 + for revenue only + Mills Bill + McKinley Act + revision of 1896 +Tarleton, Commander +Taxation + in colonies + of 1861 + of bonds demanded + of Chinese + a political issue +Taylor, General Zachary + in Mexican War + president + death of +Tea tax +Tecumseh +Telegraph +Temperance party +Tender Acts +Tennessee + settled + part of public domain + admitted + opposes Wilmot Proviso + secedes + reconstructs government + readmitted +Tenure of Office Act +Territory formed +Terry, Eli +Texas + becomes independent + annexed to United States + boundaries of + New Mexico purchased from + admitted + secedes + opposed to Reconstruction Act + again in the Union +Thames River + battle of +Thayer, Hon. Eli +Third-term tradition +Thirteenth Amendment + proposed + adopted +Thomas, General George II. + campaigns +Thomas, General Lorenzo +Thompson, Henry Adams +Thurman, Allen G. +Ticket money +Ticonderoga +Tilden, Samuel J. +Tippecanoe, battle of +Toledo + population in 1840 +Tompkins, Daniel D. +Tonty, Henri de +Topeka +Topeka free-state constitution +Tories +Townshend Acts +Trade + in colonial times + in original states + convention at Annapolis + regulated by Congress + with West Indies + regulations of English and French + facilities for + trades unions +Transportation Bill +Travel + in 1790 + in 1810 +Treasury department established +Treasury notes +Treaty + of Penn with Indians + of Utrecht + of Ryswick + of Aix-la-Chapelle + of Paris + with France + Jay's + with Spain + of Ghent + of Greenville + of 1818 + of 1819 + Webster-Ashburton + with Mexico + with Texas + of 1846 + with China + of Washington + with Hawaii + between Great Britain and Venezuela +_Trent_ +Trent, William +Trent Affair +Trenton + battle of +Tripoli + war with +Trusts + see Corporations. +Truxton, Captain Thomas +Tuscarora Indians +Twelfth Amendment +Tyler, John + vice-presidential nominee + president + +%U% + +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_ +Underground Railroad +Union Labor party +Union Pacific Railroad +United Colonies of New England +United Labor party +_United States_ +United States Bank + see National Bank. +United States bonds + see Bonds. +Usselinx, William +Utah + Mormons in + acquired + slavery question in + admitted + silver interests + +%V% + +Vaca, Cabeza de +Vail, Alfred +Valley Forge +Van Buren, Martin + birth + vice-presidential nominee + president + presidential nominee + favors 10 hours system +Van Born, General +Van Rensselaer's expedition +Van Wart +Venezuela boundary question +_Vengeance_ +Vera Cruz + battle of +Vermont + admitted + passes Personal Liberty Law +Vespucci, or Vespucius, Amerigo. +Vevay settled. +Vice-admiralty courts. +Vice president, manner of electing. +Vicksburg captured. +Vincennes settled. +_Virginia_. +Virginia, named; + settled; + charters; + a royal colony; + defends Ohio valley; + in colonial times; + opposes Stamp Act; + cedes land to Congress; + Reserve; + Plan of Constitution; + resolutions of 1798; + resolutions of 1849; + Brown's raid in; + secedes; + coast blockade; + opposes reconstruction policy; + again in the Union. +Virginia City, Mont., founded. +Virginia City, Nov., founded. +Virginia companies. +Volunteers during Civil War. + +%W% + +Wabash River, Indians on. +_Wachusett_. +Wages, in 1790; + in 1860; + in 1873; + in 1880. +Walla Walla. +Wampanoag Indians. +War department. +Ward, Ensign. +Warren. +Wars, Indian; + colonial; + French and Indian; + Revolution; + with France; + with Tripoli; + war for commercial independence (War of 1812); + Mexican; + Civil; + Spanish. +Washington, George, in French and Indian War; + commander in chief; + in Revolution; + president constitutional convention; + president; + social conditions at time of. +Washington, national capital; + burned; + Confederates near. +Washington, slavery question in; + a territory; + settled; + boundary of; + admitted. +_Wasp_. +Watauga Creek settlements. +Waterloo settled. +Watertown settled. +Watlings Island. +Watson, Thomas E. +Wayne, Anthony, at Stony Point; + in Indian warfare. +Weaver, James B. +Webster, Daniel, birth; + opposes nullification doctrine; + secretary of state; + speech on Compromise Bill; + death of. +Webster-Ashburton treaty. +Weitzel, General. +Wells, Dr. +West Indies discovered. +West Point, Arnold at. +West Virginia, admitted; + slavery in. +Western movement. +Western Reserve of Connecticut. +Western Union Telegraph Company. +Wethersfield settled. +Whalley, Edward. +Wheeler, William A. +Wheeling settled. +Whig party. +Whisky Rebellion. +White House Landing, battle of. +White Plains, battle of, 135. +White, John. +White, John. +Whitman, Marcus. +Whitney, Eli. +Wildcat state banks. +Wilderness campaign. +Wilkes, Captain. +William, King, grants Massachusetts charter. +Williams. +Williams, Roger. +Williamsburg, in colonial times; + captured. +Wilmington, Del., Washington at. +Wilmington, N. C., British at; + captured. +Wilmot, David. +Wilmot Proviso. +Wilson, Henry. +Wilson, William L. +Wilson Bill. +Winchester, General. +Winchester, battle of. +Winthrop, John. +Wirt, William. +Wisconsin territory and state. +Wolfe, General James. +Woman suffrage. +Workingman, see Labor. +Wyeth, Nathaniel J. +Wyoming massacre. +Wyoming, acquired; + a territory; + admitted; + silver interests. + +%X% + +"X, Y, Z mission." + +%Y% + +Yates. +York, Canada, burned. +York, Me., massacre. +York, Pa., Congress at. +York, Duke of. +Yorktown, surrendered; + captured. +Young, Brigham. + +%Z% + +Zuņi pueblos. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A School History of the United States +by John Bach McMaster + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. *** + +***** This file should be named 11313-8.txt or 11313-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/3/1/11313/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/11313-8.zip b/old/11313-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b88de78 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11313-8.zip diff --git a/old/11313.txt b/old/11313.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f78c7d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11313.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18660 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A School History of the United States +by John Bach McMaster + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A School History of the United States + +Author: John Bach McMaster + +Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11313] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +A SCHOOL HISTORY + +OF THE + +UNITED STATES + + +BY + +JOHN BACH McMASTER + +PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY +OF PENNSYLVANIA + +1897 + + + + +PREFACE + +It has long been the custom to begin the history of our country with the +discovery of the New World by Columbus. To some extent this is both wise +and necessary; but in following it in this instance the attempt has been +made to treat the colonial period as the childhood of the United States; +to have it bear the same relation to our later career that the account +of the youth of a great man should bear to that of his maturer years, +and to confine it to the narration of such events as are really +necessary to a correct understanding of what has happened since 1776. + +The story, therefore, has been restricted to the discoveries, +explorations, and settlements within the United States by the English, +French, Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of the French by the +English; to the planting of the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic +seaboard; to the origin and progress of the quarrel which ended with the +rise of thirteen sovereign free and independent states, and to the +growth of such political institutions as began in colonial times. This +period once passed, the long struggle for a government followed till our +present Constitution--one of the most remarkable political instruments +ever framed by man--was adopted, and a nation founded. + +Scarcely was this accomplished when the French Revolution and the rise +of Napoleon involved us in a struggle, first for our neutral rights, and +then for our commercial independence, and finally in a second war with +Great Britain. During this period of nearly five and twenty years, +commerce and agriculture flourished exceedingly, but our internal +resources were little developed. With the peace of 1815, however, the +era of industrial development commences, and this has been treated with +great--though it is believed not too great--fullness of detail; for, +beyond all question, _the_ event of the world's history during the +nineteenth century is the growth of the United States. Nothing like it +has ever before taken place. + +To have loaded down the book with extended bibliographies would have +been an easy matter, but quite unnecessary. The teacher will find in +Channing and Hart's _Guide to the Study of American History_ the best +digested and arranged bibliography of the subject yet published, and +cannot afford to be without it. If the student has time and disposition +to read one half of the reference books cited in the footnotes of this +history, he is most fortunate. + +JOHN BACH McMASTER. + +UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA +II. THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES +III. ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD +IV. THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND +V. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES +VI. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY +VII. THE INDIANS +VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA +IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 +X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" +XI. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE +XII. UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION +XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION +XIV. OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 +XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES +XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY +XVII. STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" +XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE +XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 +XX. SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES +XXI. THE RISING WEST +XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE +XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 +XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA +XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL +XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 +XXVII. WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 +XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA +XXIX. THE COST OF THE WAR +XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH +XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870) +XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 +XXXIII. GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST +XXXIV. MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS +XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880 + +APPENDIX + +DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE +CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES +STATE CONSTITUTIONS +INDEX + +LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS + +DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA +EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1650 +FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700 +BRITISH COLONIES, 1733 +EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS, 1763 +THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764 +BRITISH COLONIES, 1776 +RESULTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE +THE UNITED STATES, 1783 +THE UNITED STATES, 1789 +DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790 +SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790 +THE UNITED STATES, 1801 +THE UNITED STATES, 1810 +NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824 +DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1820 +FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820 +THE UNITED STATES, 1826 +TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845 +THE OREGON COUNTRY +ROUTES OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS +TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO, 1848 AND 1853 +RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 +THE UNITED STATES IN 1851 +EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860 +DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850 +THE UNITED STATES, 1861 +WAR FOR THE UNION +INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES + + + + +A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE +UNITED STATES + + * * * * * + +_DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_ + + +CHAPTER I + + +EUROPE FINDS AMERICA + +%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States +became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various +portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England +claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held +Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of +Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland +once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New +York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes +had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession. + +Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is +necessary, therefore, to tell + +1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it. + +2. How these parts passed from them to us. + +3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on +our history and institutions before 1776. + +%2. European Trade with the East; the Old Routes.%--For two hundred +years before North and South America were known to exist, a splendid +trade had been going on between Europe and the East Indies. Ships loaded +with metals, woods, and pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria +and Constantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins, +dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This +trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the two Italian +cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of Genoa sent their ships to +Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea, where they took on board +the rich fabrics and spices which by boats and by caravans had come up +the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf. The +men of Venice, on the other hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and +carried on their trade with the East through the Red Sea. + +[Illustration: Routes to India] + +%3. New Routes wanted.%--Splendid as this trade was, however, it was +doomed to destruction. Slowly, but surely, the Turks thrust themselves +across the caravan routes, cutting off one by one the great feeders of +the Oriental trade, till, with the capture of Constantinople in 1453, +they destroyed the commercial career of Genoa. As their power was +spreading rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt, the prosperity of Venice, +in turn, was threatened. The day seemed near when all trade between the +Indies and Europe would be ended, and men began to ask if it were not +possible to find an ocean route to Asia. + +Now, it happened that just at this time the Portuguese were hard at work +on the discovery of such a route, and were slowly pushing their way down +the western coast of Africa. But as league after league of that coast +was discovered, it was thought that the route to India by way of Africa +was too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then came the question, Is +there not a shorter route? and this Columbus tried to answer. + +[Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a +way to India, in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. 274-334.] + +%4. Columbus seeks the East and finds America.%[2]--Columbus was a +native of Genoa, in Italy. He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and in +the intervals between his voyages made maps and globes. As Portugal was +then the center of nautical enterprise, he wandered there about 1470, +and probably went on one or two voyages down the coast of Africa. In +1473 he married a Portuguese woman. Her father had been one of the King +of Portugal's famous navigators, and had left behind him at his death a +quantity of charts and notes; and it was while Columbus was studying +them that the idea of seeking the Indies by sailing due westward seems +to have first started in his mind. But many a year went by, and many a +hardship had to be borne, and many an insult patiently endured in +poverty and distress, before the Friday morning in August, 1492, when +his three caravels, the _Santa Maria_ (sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the +_Pinta_ (peen'-tah), and the _Nina_ (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of +Palos (pah'-los), in Spain. + +[Footnote 2: There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 A.D. +the northeast coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager named +Leif Ericsson. The records are very meager; but the discovery of our +country by such a people is possible and not improbable. For an account +of the pre-Columbian discoveries see Fiske's _Discovery of America_, +Vol. I., pp. 148-255.] + +[Illustration: Santa Maria] + +His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned and went +directly westward. The earth was not then generally believed to be +round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the only parts of it known to +Europeans were Iceland, the British Isles, the continent of Europe, a +small part of Asia, and a strip along the coast of the northern part of +Africa. The ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which in our +time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly unknown, and was +well named "The Sea of Darkness." Little wonder, then, that as the +shores of the last of the Canaries sank out of sight on the 9th of +September, many of the sailors wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned their +cruel fate. After sailing for what seemed a very long time, they saw +signs of land. But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to fear, +and they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return. + +[Illustration: Nina] + +But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could not +understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and kept steadily on +westward till October 7, when a flock of land birds were seen flying to +the southwest. Pinzon (peen-thon'), who commanded one of the vessels, +begged Columbus to follow the birds, as they seemed to be going toward +land. Had the little fleet kept on its way, it would have brought up on +the coast of Florida. But Columbus yielded to Pinzon. The ships were +headed southwestward, and about ten o'clock on the night of October 11, +Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made by the +inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring coast. At dawn the +shore itself was seen by a sailor, and Columbus, followed by many of his +men, hastened to the beach, where, October 12, 1492, he raised a huge +cross, and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and +Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied him with caravels +and men.[1] He had landed on one of a group of islands which we call the +Bahamas.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn +sahl-vah-dor', Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it was +discovered, was so named in the Spanish calendar.] + +[Footnote 2: Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings, have +rival claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present, Watlings +Island is believed to be the one on which he first set foot. Read an +account of the voyage in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. +408-442; Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I., Book III.] + +[Illustration: Coat of arms of Columbus] + +During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, turning southward, +he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, and so to Haiti, which he +named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There the _Santa Maria_ was wrecked. +The _Pinta_ had by this time deserted him, and, as the _Nina_ could not +carry all the men, forty were left at Hispaniola, to found the first +colony of Europeans in the New World. Giving the men food enough to last +a year, Columbus set sail for Spain on the 3d of January, 1493, and on +March 15 was safe at Palos. + +Of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus had not the faintest idea. +That he had found a new world; that a continent was blocking his way to +the East, never entered his mind. He supposed he had landed on some +islands off the east coast of Asia, and as that coast was called the +Indies, and as the islands were reached by sailing westward, they came +to be called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and the +native races of the New World have ever since been called Indians. +Although Columbus in after years made three more voyages to the New +World, he never found out his mistake, and died firm in the belief that +he had discovered a direct route to Asia.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493, and +discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co), and the islands of the +Caribbean Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of +Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America at the mouth +of the Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage, 1502-1504, he +explored the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama in search of a +strait leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he did not find it, and, +going back to Spain, he died poor and broken-hearted on May 20, 1506.] + +%5. The Atlantic Coast explored.%--And now that Columbus had shown +the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 and 1498 came John and +Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing under the flag of England, and +exploring our coast from Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and Solis, +with Vespucius[2] for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along the +shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, and +northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese +navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same +ground as the Cabots. For the time being, however, these voyages were +fruitless. It was not a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian +Ocean, and the spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore, +in 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, passed around the end of +Africa, reached India, and came back to Portugal in 1499 with his ship +laden with the silks and spices of the East, all explorers turned +southward, and for eleven years after the visit of the Cortereals no +voyages were made to North America. + +[Footnote 2: As this man was an Italian, his name was really Amerigo +Vespucci (ah-ma'-ree-go ves-poot'-chee), but it is usually given in its +Latinized form, Americus Vespucius (a-mer'-i-cus ves-pu'-she-us).] + +%6. Why the Continent was called America.%--But some great voyages +meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a Portuguese fleet of +thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, started from Portugal for the +East. In place of following the usual route and hugging the west coast +of Africa, Cabral went off so far to the westward that one day in April, +1500, he was amazed to see land. It proved to be what is now Brazil, and +after sailing along a little way he sent one of his vessels home to +Portugal with the news. + +[Illustration: %DISCOVERY% ON THE EAST COAST OF %AMERICA%] + +He did this because six years before, in June, 1494, Spain and Portugal +made a treaty and agreed that a meridian should be drawn 370 leagues +west of the Cape Verde Islands and be known as "The Line of Demarcation" +All heathen lands discovered, no matter by whom, to the east of this +line, were to belong to Portugal; all to the west of it were to be the +property of Spain. Now, as the strange coast seemed to be east of the +line of demarcation, and therefore the property of Portugal, Cabral sent +word to the King that he might explore it. + +Accordingly, in May, 1501, the King sent out three ships in charge of +Americus Vespucius. Vespucius sighted the coast somewhere about Cape St. +Roque, and, finding that it was east of the line of demarcation, +explored it southward as far as the mouth of the river La Plata. As he +was then west of the line, and off a coast which belonged to Spain, he +turned and sailed southeastward till he struck the island of South +Georgia, where the Antarctic cold and the fields of floating ice stopped +him and sent him back to Lisbon. + +The results of this great voyage were many. In the first place, it +secured Brazil for Portugal. In the second place, it changed the +geographical ideas of the time. The great length of coast line explored +proved that the land was not a mere island, but that Vespucius had found +a new continent in the southern hemisphere,--off the coast of Asia, as +was then supposed. This for a time was called the "Fourth Part" of the +world,--the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. But in +1507 a German professor published a little book on geography, in which +he suggested that the new part of the world discovered by Americus, the +part which we call Brazil, should be called America. + +As Columbus was not supposed to have discovered a new world, but merely +a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed very proper, and soon the +word "America" began to appear on maps as the name of Brazil. After a +while it was applied to all South America, and finally to North +America also. + +%7. The Pacific discovered; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored.%--A few +years after the publication of the little book which gave the New World +the name of America, a Spaniard named Balboa landed on the Isthmus of +Panama, crossed it (1513), and from the mountains looked down on an +endless expanse of blue water, which he called the South Sea, because +when he first saw it he was looking south. + +Meantime another Spaniard, named Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'), +sailed with three ships from Porto Rico, in March, 1513, and on the 27th +of that month came in sight of the mainland. As the day was Easter +Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua (pas'-coo-ah) Florida, he called +the country Florida. + +[Illustration: Map of 1515][1] + +[Footnote 1: Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and position +of the newly discovered lands.] + +Six years later (1519) Pineda (pe-na'-da) skirted the shores of the Gulf +from Florida to Mexico. + +%8. Spaniards sail round the World.%--In the same year (1519) that +Pineda explored the Gulf coast, a Portuguese named Magellan (ma-jel'-an) +led a Spanish fleet across the Atlantic. He coasted along South America +to Tierra del Fuego, entered the strait which now bears his name, passed +well up the western coast, and turning westward sailed toward India. He +was then on the ocean which Balboa had discovered and named the South +Sea. But Magellan found it so much smoother than the Atlantic that he +called it the Pacific. Five ships and 254 men left Spain; but only one +ship and fifteen men returned to Spain by way of India and Cape of Good +Hope. Magellan himself was among the dead.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Magellan was killed by the natives of one of the Philippine +Islands. The captain of the ship which made the voyage was greatly +honored. The King of Spain ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was a +globe representing the earth, and on it the motto "You first sailed +round me."] + +%9. Importance of Magellan's Voyage.%--Of all the voyages ever made +by man this was the greatest.[2] In the first place, it proved beyond +dispute that the earth is round. In the second place, it proved that +South America is a great continent, and that there is no short southwest +passage to India. + +[Footnote 2: By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in +his _Discovery of America_, Vol. II., pp. 190-211.] + +%10. Search for a Northwest Passage; our North Atlantic Coast +explored.%--All eyes, therefore, turned northward; the quest for a +northwest passage began, and in that quest the Atlantic coast of the +United States was examined most thoroughly. + + +SUMMARY + +1. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Turks cut off the old +route of trade between Asia and Europe. + +2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began to +explore the west coast of Africa. + +3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought that +such a route was too long. + +4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by +sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some islands +which he supposed to be the East Indies. + +5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new +continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India. + +6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage +through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and +Pacific coasts. + +7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus. + +8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES + +%11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest.%--Now it must be noticed +that up to 1513 no European had explored the interior of either North or +South America. They had merely touched the shores. In 1513 the work of +exploration began. Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519 +Cortes (cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of men, and +marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city where lived the +great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes took the city and made +himself master of Mexico. This was most important; for the conquest of +Mexico turned the attention of the Spaniards from our country for many +years, and finally led to the exploration of the Southwest. But the +first explorers of what is now the United States came from Cuba in 1528. + +[Illustration: Map of 1530, Sloane MS.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: Notice that the two continents begin to take shape, and +that as the result of Magellan's voyage is not generally known, North +America is placed very near to Java.] + +In that year Narvaez (nar-vah-eth), excited by Pineda's accounts of the +Mississippi Indians and their golden ornaments, set forth with 400 men +to conquer the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. At Apalachee Bay he +landed, and made a raid inland. On returning to the shore, he missed his +ships, and after traveling westward on foot for a month, built five rude +vessels, and once more put to sea. For six weeks the little fleet hugged +the shore, till it came to the mouth of the Mississippi, where two of +the boats were upset and Narvaez was drowned. The rest reached the coast +of Texas in safety. But famine and the tomahawk soon reduced the number +of the survivors to four. These were captured by bands of wandering +Indians, were carried over eastern Texas and western Louisiana, till, +after many strange adventures and vicissitudes, they met beyond the +Sabine River.[1] Protected by the fame they had won for sorcery, and led +by one Cabeza de Vaca, they now wandered westward to the Rio Grande[2] +(ree'-o grahn'-da) and on by Chihuahua (chee-wah'-wah) and Sonora to the +Gulf of California, and by this to Culiacan, a town near the west coast +of Mexico, which they reached in 1536. They had crossed the continent. + +[Footnote 1: Now the western boundary of Louisiana.] + +[Footnote 2: Rio Grande del Norte---Great River of the North.] + +%12. "The Seven Cities of Cibola."%--The story these men told of the +strange country through which they had passed, aroused a strong desire +in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they +believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the +Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many +followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them +founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story +of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the credulous +and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly +believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country +traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected +Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few +followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose +villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuni +(zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were +inhabited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of +them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed +by the Zuni, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the +name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the +pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year +(1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the +rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on eastward, and for +two years wandered to and fro over the plains and mountains of the West, +crossing the state of Kansas twice.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Do not fail to read a delightful little book called _The +Spanish Pioneers_, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great +journeys is told on pp. 77-88, 101-143.] + +[Illustration: The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the +Rio Grande valley.] + +[Illustration: CORONADO'S EXPEDITION 1540] + +%13. The Spaniards on the Mississippi.%--In 1537 De Soto was +appointed governor of Cuba, with instructions to conquer and hold all +the country discovered by Narvaez. On this mission he set out in May, +1539, and landed at Tampa Bay, on the west coast of our state of +Florida. He wandered over the swamps and marshes, the moss-grown +jungles, and the forests of the Gulf states, and spent the winter of +1541 near the Yazoo River. Crossing the Mississippi in the spring of +1542 at the Chickasaw Bluffs, he wandered about eastern Arkansas, till +he died of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. His followers then +built rude boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, steered along the +coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, reached Tampico, in Mexico. + +More than half a century had now gone by since the first voyage of +Columbus. Yet not a settlement, great or small, had been established by +Spain within our boundary. Between 1546 and 1561 missionaries twice +attempted to found missions and convert the Indians in Florida, and +twice were driven away. In 1582 others entered the valleys of the Gila +and the Rio Grande, took possession of the pueblos, established +missions, preached the Gospel to the Indians, and brought them under +the dominion of Spain. But when Santa Fe (sahn'-tah fa') was founded, in +1582, the only colony of Spain in the United States, besides the +missions in Arizona and New Mexico, was St. Augustine in Florida. + +[Illustration: A Spanish mission] + +%14. St. Augustine.%--St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in +order to keep out the French, who made two attempts to occupy the south +Atlantic coast. The first was that of John Ribault (ree-bo'). He led a +colony of Frenchmen, in 1562, to what is now South Carolina, built a +small fort on a spot which he called Port Royal, and left it in charge +of thirty men while he went back to France for more colonists. The men +were a shiftless set, depended on the Indians till the Indians would +feed them no longer, and when famine set in, they mutinied, slew their +commander, built a crazy ship and went to sea, where an English vessel +found them in a starving condition, and took them to London. + +In 1564 a second party, under Laudonniere (lo-do-ne-ar'), landed at the +St. Johns River in Florida, and built a fort called Fort Caroline in +honor of Charles IX. of France. But the King of Spain, hearing that the +French were trespassing, sent an expedition under Menendez +(ma-nen'-deth), who founded St. Augustine in 1565. There Ribault, who +had returned and joined Laudonniere, attempted to attack the Spaniards. +But a hurricane scattered his ships, and while it was still raging, +Menendez fell suddenly on Fort Caroline and massacred men, women, and +children. A few days later, falling in with Ribault and his men, who had +been driven ashore south of St. Augustine, Menendez massacred 150 +more.[1] For this foul deed a Frenchman named Gourgues (goorg) exacted a +fearful penalty. With three small ships and 200 men, he sailed to the +St. Johns River, took and destroyed the fort which the Spaniards had +built on the site of Fort Caroline, and put to death every human being +within it. + +[Footnote 1: The story of the French in Florida is finely told in +Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_; also J. Sparks's _Life +of Ribault_; Baird's _Huguenot Emigration_.] + +[Illustration: Gateway at St. Augustine[2]] + +[Footnote 2: Remaining from the Spanish occupation of Florida.] + +SUMMARY + +1. From 1492 to 1513 the Europeans who came to America explored the +coasts of North and South America, but did not go inland. + +2. In 1513 exploration of the interior of the two continents began. +Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, 1513, and Cortes conquered +Mexico, 1519-21. + +3. In 1528 Narvaez made the first serious attempt to enter the +Mississippi valley. He died, and some of his followers, under Cabeza de +Vaca, crossed the continent. + +4. When the Spanish governor of Mexico heard their story, he sent Fray +Marcos to find the "Seven Cities of Cibola"; and began the exploration +of the southwestern part of the United States. + +5. In 1539-1541 De Soto and his band explored the southeastern part of +the United States from Florida to the Mississippi River. + +6. By 1582 two Spanish settlements had been made in the United States +--St. Augustine, 1565, and Santa Fe, 1582. + + + +EUROPE FINDS AMERICA. + +DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS, 1492-1600. + +ATLANTIC COAST. + + 1492. Columbus. Islands off the coast. + 1493. Columbus. Islands off the coast. + 1497. John Cabot. North America. Labrador. + 1498. John and Sebastian Cabot. Labrador to Cape Cod. + Pinzon and Solis. Florida to Chesapeake Bay. + 1500. Cabral. Discovers Brazil. + 1501. Vespucius. Explores Brazilian coast. + 1500-1502. Cortereals. Explore coast North America. + 1513. Ponce de Leon. Discovers and names Florida. + +GULF COAST. + + 1498. Pinzon and Solis. Explore Gulf of Mexico and + coast of Florida. + 1519. Pineda. Sails from Florida to Mexico. + 1528. Narvaez. Florida to Texas. + 1543. Followers of De Soto sail from Mississippi River + to Mexico. + +THE INTERIOR. + + 1519-21. Cortes. Conquers Mexico. + 1534-36. De Vaca. From the Sabine River to the Gulf + of California. + 1539. Fray Marcos. Search for the Seven Cities. Wanders + over New Mexico. + 1540-42. Coronado, Gila River, Rio Grande, Colorado + River. + 1539-41. De Soto. Wanders over Florida, Georgia, and + Alabama, and reaches the Mississippi River. + 1582-1600. Spaniards in the valleys of the Gila and Rio + Grande. + +PACIFIC COAST. + + 1513. Balboa. Discovers the Pacific Ocean. + 1520. Magellan. Sails around South America into the + Pacific. + 1578-1580. Drake. Sails around South America and + up the Pacific coast to Oregon. (See p. 26.) + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD + +%15. The English Claim to the Seaboard.%--After the Spaniards had +thus explored the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and what is now Arizona, +New Mexico, and Texas, the English attempted to take possession of the +Atlantic coast. The voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498 +were not followed up in the same way that Spain followed up those of +Columbus, and for nearly eighty years the flag of England was not +displayed in any of our waters.[1] At last, in 1576, Sir Martin +Frobisher set out to find a northwest passage to Asia. Of course he +failed; but in that and two later voyages he cruised about the shores of +our continent and gave his name to Frobisher's Bay.[2] Next came Sir +Francis Drake, the greatest seaman of his age. He left England in 1577, +crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the South American coast, passed +through the Strait of Magellan, and turning northward coasted along +South America, Mexico, and California, in search of a northeast passage +to the Atlantic. When he had gone as far north as Oregon the weather +grew so cold that his men began to murmur, and putting his ship about, +he sailed southward along our Pacific coast in search of a harbor, which +in June, 1579, he found near the present city of San Francisco. There he +landed, and putting up a post nailed to it a brass plate on which was +the name of Queen Elizabeth, and took possession of the country.[3] +Despairing of finding a short passage to England, Drake finally crossed +the Pacific and reached home by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He had +sailed around the globe.[4] + +[Footnote 1: For Cabot's voyages read Fiske's _Discovery of America_, +Vol. II., pp. 2-15.] + +[Footnote 2: See map of 1515.] + +[Footnote 3: The white cliffs reminded Drake strongly of the cliffs of +Dover, and as one of the old names of England was Albion (the country of +the white cliffs), he called the land New Albion.] + +[Footnote 4: For Drake read E.T. Payne's _Voyages of Elizabethan +Seamen_.] + +%16. Gilbert and Ralegh attempt to found a Colony.%--While Drake was +making his voyage, another gallant seaman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was +given (by Queen Elizabeth) any new land he might discover in America. +His first attempt (1579) was a failure, and while on his way home from a +landing on Newfoundland (1583), his ship, with all on board, went down +in a storm at sea. The next year (1584) his half-brother, Sir Walter +Ralegh, one of the most accomplished men of his day and a great favorite +with Queen Elizabeth, obtained permission from the Queen to make a +settlement on any part of the coast of America not already occupied by a +Christian power; and he at once sent out an expedition. The explorers +landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina, +and came home with such a glowing description of the "good land" they +had found that the Virgin Queen called it "Virginia," in honor of +herself, and Ralegh determined to colonize it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For Ralegh read E. Gosse's _Raleigh_ (in English Worthies +Series); Louise Creighton's _Sir W. Ralegh_ (Historical +Biographies Series).] + +%17. Roanoke Colony; the Potato and Tobacco.%--In 1585, accordingly, +108 emigrants under Ralph Lane left England and began to build a town on +Roanoke Island. They were ill suited for this kind of pioneer life, and +were soon in such distress that, had not Sir Francis Drake in one of his +voyages happened to touch at Roanoke, they would have starved to death. +Drake, seeing their helplessness, carried them home to England. Yet +their life on the island was not without results, for they took back +with them the potato, and some dried tobacco leaves which the Indians +had taught them to smoke. + +Ralegh, of course, was greatly disappointed to see his colonists again +in England. But he was not discouraged, and in 1587 sent forth a second +band. The first had consisted entirely of men. The second band was +composed of both men and women with their families, for it seemed likely +that if the men took their wives and children along they would be more +likely to remain than if they went alone. John White was the leader, and +with a charter and instructions to build the city of Ralegh somewhere on +the shores of Chesapeake Bay he set off with his colonists and landed on +Roanoke Island. Here a little granddaughter was born (August 18, 1587), +and named Virginia. She was the child of Eleanor Dare, and was the first +child born of English parents in America. + +[Illustration: Roanoke Island and vicinity] + +Governor White soon found it necessary to go back to England for +supplies, and, in consequence of the Spanish war, three years slipped by +before he was able to return to the colony. He was then too late. Every +soul had perished, and to this day nobody knows how or where. Ralegh +could do no more, and in 1589 made over all his rights to a joint-stock +company of merchants. This company did nothing, and the sixteenth +century came to an end with no English colony in America.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Doyle's _English Colonies in America_, Virginia, pp. 56-74; +Bancroft's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 60-79; +Hildreth's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 80-87.] + +%18. Gosnold in New England.%--With the new century came better +fortune. Ralegh's noble efforts to plant a colony aroused Englishmen to +the possibility of founding a great empire in the New World, and +especially one named Bartholomew Gosnold. + +Instead of following the old route to America by way of the Canary +Islands, the West Indies, and Florida, he sailed due west across the +Atlantic,[2] and brought up on the shore of a cape which he named Cape +Cod.[3] Following the shore southward, he passed through Nantucket Sound +and Vineyard Sound, till he came to Cuttyhunk Island, at the entrance of +Buzzards Bay. On this he landed, and built a house for the use of +colonists he intended to leave there. But when he had filled his ship +with sassafras roots and cedar logs, nobody would remain, and the whole +company went back to England.[4] + +[Footnote 2: By thus shortening the journey 3000 miles, he practically +brought America 3000 miles nearer to Europe.] + +[Footnote 3: Because the waters thereabout abounded in codfish. For a +comparison of Gosnold's route with those of the other early explorers +see the map on p. 15.] + +[Footnote 4: Bancroft's _United States_, Vol. I., pp. 70-83. Hildreth's +_United States,_ Vol. I., p. 90.] + +%19. The Two Virginia Companies.%--As a result of this voyage, +Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Virginia, and this +enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others that, in 1606, King James +I. created two companies to settle in Virginia, which was then the name +for all the territory from what is now Maine to Florida. + +1. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles square; that is, +100 miles along the coast,--50 miles each way from its first +settlement,--and 100 miles into the interior. + +2. The First Company, a band of London merchants, might establish its +first settlement anywhere between 34 deg. and 41 deg. north latitude. + +3. The Second Company, a band of Plymouth merchants, might establish its +first settlement anywhere between 38 deg. and 45 deg.. + +4. These settlements were to be on the seacoast. + +5. In order to prevent the blocks from overlapping, it was provided that +the company which was last to settle should locate at least 100 miles +from the other company's settlement.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Over the affairs of each company presided a council +appointed by the King, with power to choose its own president, fill +vacancies among its own members, and elect a council of thirteen to +reside on the company's lands in America. Each company might coin money, +raise a revenue by taxing foreign vessels trading at its ports, punish +crime, and make laws which, if bad, could be set aside by the King. All +property was to be owned in common, and all the products of the soil +deposited in a public magazine from which the needs of the settlers were +to be supplied. The surplus was to be sold for the good of the company. +The charter is given in full in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, +pp. 1888-1893.] + +%20. The Jamestown Colony.%--Thus empowered, the two companies made +all haste to gather funds, collect stores and settlers, and fit out +ships. The London Company was the first to get ready, and on the 19th of +December, 1606, 143 colonists set sail in three ships for America with +their charter, and a list of the council sealed up in a strong box. The +Plymouth Company soon followed, and before the year 1607 was far +advanced, two settlements were planted in our country: the one at +Jamestown, in Virginia, the other near the mouth of the Kennebec, in +Maine. The latter, however, was abandoned the following year (see +Chapter IV). + +The three ships which carried the Virginia colony reached the coast in +the spring of 1607, and entering Chesapeake Bay sailed up a river which +the colonists called the James, in honor of the King. When about thirty +miles from its mouth, a landing was made on a little peninsula, where a +settlement was begun and named Jamestown.[1] It was the month of May, +and as the weather was warm, the colonists did not build houses, but, +inside of some rude fortifications, put up shelters of sails and +branches to serve till huts could be built. But their food gave out, the +Indians were hostile, and before September half of the party had died of +fever. Had it not been for the energy and courage of John Smith, every +one of them would have perished. He practically assumed command, set the +men to building huts, persuaded the Indians to give them food, explored +the bays and rivers of Virginia, and for two dreary years held the +colony together. When we consider the worthless men he had to deal with, +and the hardships and difficulties that beset him, his work is +wonderful. The history which he wrote, however, is not to be trusted.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Nothing now remains of Jamestown but the ruined tower of +the church shown in the picture. Much of the land on which the town +stood has been washed away by the river, so that its site is now +an island.] + +[Footnote 2: Read the _Life and Writings of Captain John Smith_, by +Charles Dudley Warner; also John Fiske in _Atlantic Monthly_, December, +1895; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 31-38. Smith's _True +Relation_ is printed in _American History Leaflets_, No. 27, and +_Library of American Literature_ Vol. I.] + +[Illustration: All that is left of Jamestown] + +Bad as matters were, they became worse when a little fleet arrived with +many new settlers, making the whole number about 500. The newcomers were +a worthless set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the +jails, and utterly unfit to become the founders of a state in the +wilderness of the New World. Out of such material Smith in time might +have made something, but he was forced by a wound to return to England, +and the colony went rapidly to ruin. Sickness and famine did their work +so quickly that after six months there were but sixty of the 500 men +alive. Then two small ships, under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George +Somers, arrived at Jamestown with more settlers; but all decided to +flee, and had actually sailed a few miles down the James, when, June 8, +1610, they met Lord Delaware with three ships full of men and supplies +coming up the river. Delaware came out as governor under a new charter +granted in 1609.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read "The Jamestown Experiments," in Eggleston's _Beginners +of a Nation,_ pp. 25-72.] + +[Illustration: Vicinity of Jamestown] + +%21. The Virginia Charter of 1609% made a great change in the +boundary of the company's property. By the 1606 charter the colony was +limited to 100 miles along the seaboard and 100 miles west from the +coast. In 1609 the company was given an immense domain reaching 400 +miles along the coast,--200 miles each way from Old Point +Comfort,--and extending "up into the land throughout _from sea to sea_, +west and northwest." This description is very important, for it was +afterwards claimed by Virginia to mean a grant of land of the shape +shown on the map.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 74, 75.] + +[Illustration] + +%22. The First Representative Assembly in America.%--Under the new +charter and new governors Virginia began to thrive. More work and less +grumbling were done, and a few wise reforms were introduced. One +governor, however, Argall, ruled the colony so badly that the people +turned against him and sent such reports to England that immigration +almost ceased. The company, in consequence, removed Argall, and gave +Virginia a better form of government. In future, the governor's power +was to be limited, and the people were to have a share in the making of +laws and the management of affairs. As the colonists, now numbering 4000 +men, were living in eleven settlements, or "boroughs," it was ordered +that each borough should elect two men to sit in a legislature to be +called the House of Burgesses. This house, the first representative +assembly ever held by white men in America, met on July 30, 1619, in the +church at Jamestown, and there began "government of the people, by the +people, for the people." + +%23. The Establishment of Slavery in America.%--It is interesting to +note that at the very time the men of Virginia thus planted free +representative government in America, another institution was planted +beside it, which, in the course of two hundred and fifty years, almost +destroyed free government. The Burgesses met in July, and a few weeks +later, on an August day, a Dutch ship entered the James and before it +sailed away sold twenty negroes into slavery. The slaves increased in +numbers (there were 2000 in Virginia in 1671), and slavery spread to the +other colonies as they were started, till, in time, it existed in every +one of them. + +%24. Virginia loses her Charter, 1624.%--The establishment of popular +government in Virginia was looked on by King James as a direct affront, +and was one of many weighty reasons why he decided to destroy the +company. To do this, he accused it of mismanagement, brought a suit +against it, and in 1624 his judges declared the charter annulled, and +Virginia became a royal colony.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the Virginia colony in general read Doyle's volume on +_Virginia_, pp. 104-184; Lodge's _English Colonies in America_, pp. +1-12; of course, Bancroft and Hildreth. For particular epochs or events +consult Channing and Hart's _Guide to American History_, pp. 248-253.] + +%25. Maryland begun.%--A year later James died, and Charles I. came +to the throne. As Virginia was now a royal colony, the land belonged to +the King; and as he was at liberty to do what he pleased with it, he cut +off a piece and gave it to Lord Baltimore. George Calvert, Lord +Baltimore, was a Roman Catholic nobleman who for years past had been +interested in the colonization of America, and had tried to plant a +colony in Newfoundland. The severity of the climate caused failure, and +in 1629 he turned his attention to Virginia and visited Jamestown. But +religious feeling ran as high there as it did anywhere. The colonists +were intolerantly Protestant, and Baltimore was ordered back to England. + +Undeterred by such treatment, Baltimore was more determined than ever to +plant a colony, and in 1632 obtained his grant of a piece of Virginia. +The tract lay between the Potomac River and the fortieth degree of north +latitude, and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to a north and south +line through the source of the Potomac.[1] It was called Maryland in +honor of the Queen, Henrietta Maria. + +[Footnote 1: It thus included what is now Delaware, and pieces of +Pennsylvania and West Virginia.] + +[Illustration: ORIGINAL BOUNDARY OF MARYLAND] + +The area of the colony was not large; but the authority of Lord +Baltimore over it was almost boundless. He was to bring to the King each +year, in token of homage, two Indian arrowheads, and pay as rent one +fifth of all the gold and silver mined. This done, the "lord +proprietary," as he was called, was to all intents and purposes a king. +He might coin money, make war and peace, grant titles of nobility, +establish courts, appoint judges, and pardon criminals; but he was not +permitted to tax his people without their consent. He must summon the +freemen to assist him in making the laws; but when made, they need not +be sent to the King for approval, but went into force as soon as the +lord proprietary signed them. Of course they must not be contrary to the +laws of England. + +%26. Treatment of Catholics.%--The deed for Maryland had not been +issued when Lord Baltimore died. It was therefore made out in the name +of his son, Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, who, like the +first, was a Roman Catholic, and was influenced in his attempts at +colonization by a desire to found a refuge for people of his own faith. +At that time in England no Roman Catholic was permitted to educate his +children in a foreign land, or to employ a schoolmaster of his religious +belief; or keep a weapon; or have Catholic books in his house; or sit in +Parliament; or when he died be buried in a parish churchyard. If he did +not attend the parish church, he was fined L20 a month. But it is +needless to mention the ways in which he suffered for his religion. It +is enough to know that the persecution was bitter, and that the purpose +of Lord Baltimore was to make Maryland a Roman Catholic colony. Yet he +set a noble example to other founders of colonies by freely granting to +all sects full freedom of conscience. As long as the Catholics remained +in control, toleration worked well. But in the year 1691 Lord Baltimore +was deprived of his colony because he had supported King James II., and +in 1692 sharp laws were made in Maryland against Catholics by the +Protestants. In 1716 the colony was restored to the proprietor. + +The first settlement was made in 1634 at St. Marys. Annapolis was +founded about 1683; and Baltimore in 1729.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Scharf's _History of Maryland_; Doyle's _Virginia_; +Lodge's _English Colonies_; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation,_.] + +%27. The Dutch on the Hudson.%--Meantime great things had been +happening to the northward. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sailor in +the service of Holland, was sent to find a northwest passage to India. +He reached our coast not far from Portland, Maine, and abandoning all +idea of finding a passage, he sailed alongshore to the southward as far +as Cape Cod. Here he put to sea, and when he again sighted land was off +Delaware Bay. In attempting to sail up it, his ship, the _Half-Moon,_ +grounded, and Hudson turned about. Running along the Jersey coast, he +entered New York Bay, and sailed up the river which the Dutch called +the North River, but which we know as the Hudson. Hudson's voyage gave +the Dutch a claim to all the country drained by the Delaware or South +River and the Hudson River, and some Dutch traders at once sent out +vessels, and were soon trading actively with the Indians. By 1614 a rude +fort had been erected near the site of Albany, and some trading huts had +been put up on Manhattan Island. These ventures proved so profitable +that numbers of merchants began to engage in the trade, whereupon those +already in it, in order to shut out others, organized a company, and in +1615 obtained a trading charter for three years from the States General +of Holland, and carried on their operations from Albany to the +Delaware River. + +[Illustration: View of New Amsterdam in 1656] + +%28. Dutch West India Company.%--On the expiration of the charter (in +1618) it was not renewed, but a new corporation, the Dutch West India +Company (1621), was created with almost absolute political and +commercial power over all the Dutch domains in North America, which were +called New Netherland. In 1623 the company began to send out settlers. +Some went to Albany, or, as they called it, Fort Orange. Others were +sent to the South or Delaware River, where a trading post, Fort Nassau, +was built on the site of Gloucester in New Jersey. A few went to the +Connecticut River; some settled on Long Island; and others on Manhattan +Island, where they founded New Amsterdam, now called New York city. + +All these little settlements were merely fur-trading posts. Nobody was +engaged as yet in farming. To encourage this, the company (in 1629) took +another step, and offered a great tract of land, on any navigable river +or bay, to anybody who would establish a colony of fifty persons above +the age of fifteen. If on a river, the domain was to be sixteen miles +along one bank or eight miles along each bank, and run back into the +country as far "as the situation of the occupiers will admit." The +proprietor of the land was to be called a "patroon," [1] and was absolute +ruler of whatever colonies he might plant, for he was at once owner, +ruler, and judge. It may well be supposed that such a tempting offer did +not go a-begging, and a number of patroons were soon settled along the +Hudson and on the banks of the Delaware (1631), where they founded a +town near Lewes. The settlements on the Delaware River were short-lived. +The settlers quarreled with the Indians, who in revenge massacred them +and drove off the garrison at Fort Nassau; whereupon the patroons sold +their rights to the Dutch West India Company.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The patroon bound himself to (1) transport the fifty +settlers to New Netherland at his own expense; (2) provide each of them +with a farm stocked with horses, cattle, and farming implements, and +charge a low rent; (3) employ a schoolmaster and a minister of the +Gospel. In return for this the emigrant bound himself (1) to stay and +cultivate the land of the patroon for ten years; (2) to bring his grain +to the patroon's mill and pay for grinding; (3) to use no cloth not made +in Holland; (4) to sell no grain or produce till the patroon had been +given a chance to buy it.] + +[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 295-311; Winsor's +_Narrative and Critical History_, Vol. III., pp. 385-411; Bancroft's +_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 501-508.] + +%29. The Struggle for the Delaware; the Swedes on the Delaware.%--And +now began a bitter contest for the ownership of the country bordering +the Delaware. A few leading officials of the Dutch Company, disgusted at +the way its affairs were managed, formed a new company under the lead of +William Usselinx. As they could not get a charter from Holland, for she +would not create a rival to the Dutch Company, they sought and obtained +one from Sweden as the South Company, and (1638) sent out a colony to +settle on the Delaware River.[1] The spot chosen was on the site of +Wilmington. The country was named New Sweden, though it belonged to +Maryland. The Dutch West India Company protested and rebuilt Fort +Nassau. The Swedes, in retaliation, went farther up the river and +fortified an island near the mouth of the Schuylkill. Had they stopped +here, all would have gone well. But, made bold by the inaction of the +Dutch, they began to annoy the New Netherlanders, till (1655) Peter +Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, unable to stand it any +longer, came over from New Amsterdam with a few hundred men, overawed +the Swedes, and annexed their territory west of the Delaware. New Sweden +then became part of New Netherland.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Sweden had no right to make such a settlement. She had no +claim to any territory in North America.] + +[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 205-210; Bancroft's +_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 509, 510; Hildreth's +_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 413-442.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. After the discovery of the North American coast by the Cabots, +England made no attempt to settle it for nearly eighty years; and even +then the colonies planted by Gilbert and Ralegh were failures. + +2. Successful settlement by the English began under the London Company +in 1607. + +3. In 1609 the London Company obtained a grant of land from sea to sea, +and extending 400 miles along the Atlantic; but in 1624 its charter was +annulled, and in 1632 the King carved the proprietary colony of Maryland +out of Virginia. + +4. Meantime Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the +Delaware and Hudson rivers (1609), and the Dutch, ignoring the claims of +England, planted colonies on these rivers and called the country New +Netherland. + +5. Then a Swedish company began to colonize the Delaware Bay and River +coast of Virginia, which they called New Sweden. + +6. Conflicts between the Dutch and the Swedes followed, and in 1655 New +Sweden was made a part of New Netherland. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND + +%30. The Beginnings of New England.%--When the Dutch put up their +trading posts where New York and Albany now stand, all the country east +of New York, all of what is now New England, was a wilderness. As early +as 1607 an attempt was made to settle it and a colony was planted on the +coast of Maine by two members of the Plymouth Company, Sir John Popham, +Lord Chief Justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of +Plymouth. But the colonists were half starved and frozen, and in the +spring of 1608 gladly went home to England. + +Six years later John Smith, the hero of Virginia, explored and mapped +the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He called the country New +England; one of the rivers, the Charles; and two of the promontories, +Cape Elizabeth and Cape Ann. Three times he attempted to lead out a +colony; but that work was reserved for other men. + +%31. The Separatists.%--The reign of Queen Elizabeth had witnessed in +England the rise of a religious sect which insisted that certain changes +should be made in the government and ceremonials of the Established or +State Church of England. This they called purifying the Church, and in +consequence they were themselves called Puritans.[1] At first they did +not intend to form a new sect; but in 1580 one of their ministers, named +Robert Brown, urged them to separate from the Church of England, and +soon gathered about him a great number of followers, who were called +Separatists or Brownists. They boldly asserted their right to worship as +they pleased, and put their doctrines into practice. So hot a +persecution followed, that in 1608 a party, led by William Brewster and +John Robinson, fled from Scrooby, a little village in northern England, +to Amsterdam, in Holland; but soon went on to Leyden, where they dwelt +eleven years.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 50-71. The +teacher may read "Rise and Development of Puritanism" in Eggleston's +_Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 98-140.] + +[Footnote 2: Read Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 141-157; +Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 71-80; Doyle's _Puritan +Colonies_, Vol. I., pp. 47-81; Palfrey's _New England_, Vol. I., +pp. 176-232.] + +%32. Why the Separatists went to New England%.--They had come to +Holland as an organized community, practicing English manners and +customs. For a temporary residence this would do. But if they and their +children's children after them were to remain and prosper, they must +break up their organization, forget their native land, their native +speech, their national traditions, and to all intents and purposes +become Dutch. This they could not bring themselves to do, and by 1617 +they had fully determined to remove to some land where they might still +continue to be Englishmen, and where they might lay the foundations of a +Christian state. But one such land could then be found, and that was +America. To America, therefore, they turned their attention, and after +innumerable delays formed a company and obtained leave from the London +Company to settle on the coast of what is now New Jersey.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 159-176.] + +This done, Brewster and Bradford and Miles Standish, with a little band, +sent out as an advance guard, set sail from the Dutch port of Delft +Haven in July, 1620, in the ship _Speedwell_. The first run was to +Southampton, England, where some friends from London joined them in the +_Mayflower_, and whence, August 5, they sailed for America. But the +_Speedwell_ proved so unseaworthy that the two ships put back to +Plymouth, where twenty people gave up the voyage. September 6, 1620, +such as remained steadfast, just 102 in number, reembarked on the +_Mayflower_ and began the most memorable of voyages. The weather was so +foul, and the wind and sea so boisterous, that nine weeks passed before +they beheld the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Having no right to settle +there, as the cape lay far to the northward of the lands owned by the +London Company, they turned their ship southward and attempted to go on. +But head winds drove them back and forced them to seek shelter in +Provincetown harbor, at the end of Cape Cod. + +[Illustration: The Mayflower[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From the model in the National Museum, Washington.] + +[Illustration: THE MASSACHUSETTS COAST (map)] + +%33. The Mayflower Compact%.--Since it was then the 11th of November, +the Pilgrims, as they are now called, decided to get permission from +the Plymouth Company to remain permanently. But certain members of the +party, when they heard this, became unruly, and declared that as they +were not to land in Virginia, they were no longer bound by the contracts +they had made in England regarding their emigration to Virginia. To put +an end to this, a meeting was held, November 21, 1620, in the cabin of +the _Mayflower_, and a compact was drawn up and signed.[1] It declared + +1. That they were loyal subjects of the King. + +2. That they had undertaken to found a colony in the northern parts of +Virginia, and now bound themselves to form a "civil body politic." + +3. That they would frame such just and equal laws, from time to time, as +might be for the general good. + +4. And to these laws they promised "all due submission and obedience." + +[Footnote 1: The compact is in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, p. +931, and in Preston's _Documents Illustrative of American History_, pp. +29-31. Read, by all means, Webster's _Plymouth Oration_.] + +[Illustration: Plymouth Rock] + +%34. The Founding of Plymouth%.--The selection of a site for their +home was now necessary, and five weeks were passed in exploring the +coast before Captain Standish with a boatload of men entered the harbor +which John Smith had noted on his map and named Plymouth. On the sandy +shore of that harbor, close to the water's edge, was a little granite +bowlder, and on this, according to tradition, the Pilgrims stepped as +they came ashore, December 21, 1620. To this harbor the _Mayflower_ was +brought, and the work of founding Plymouth was begun. The winter was a +dreadful one, and before spring fifty-one of the colonists had died.[1] +But the Pilgrims stood fast, and in 1621 obtained a grant of land[2] +from the Council for New England, which had just succeeded the Plymouth +Company, under a charter giving it control between latitudes 40 deg. and +48 deg., from sea to sea.[3] It was from the same Council that for fifteen +years to come all other settlers in New England obtained their rights +to the soil. + +[Footnote 1: In the trying times which followed, William Bradford was +chosen governor and many times reelected. He wrote the so-called "Log of +the Mayflower,"--really a manuscript _History of the Plymouth +Plantation_ from 1602 to 1647,--a fragment of which is reproduced on the +opposite page.] + +[Footnote 2: This grant had no boundary. Each settler might have 100 +acres. Fifteen hundred acres were set aside for public buildings.] + +[Footnote 3: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 80-87; Palfrey's +_New England_, Vol. I, pp. 176-232; Thatcher's _History of the Town of +Plymouth_.] + +[Illustration: Fragment of _History of the Plymouth Plantation_.] + +%35. A Puritan Colony proposed.%--Among those who obtained such +rights was a company of Dorchester merchants who planted a town on Cape +Ann. The enterprise failed, and the colonists went off and settled at a +place they called Naumkeag. But there was one man in Dorchester who was +not discouraged by failure. He was John White, a Puritan rector. What +had been done by the Separatists in a small way might be done, it seemed +to White, on a great scale by an association of wealthy and influential +Puritans. The matter was discussed by them in London, and in 1628 an +association was formed, and a tract of land was bought from the Council +for New England. + +%36. The "Sea to Sea" Grant%.--Concerning the interior of our +continent absolutely nothing was known. Nobody supposed it was more than +half as wide as it really is. The grant to the association, therefore, +stretched from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles +south of the Charles River, along these rivers to their sources, and +then westward across the continent from sea to sea.[1] + +[Footnote 1: You will notice that when this grant was made in 1628 the +Dutch had discovered the Hudson, and had begun to settle Albany. To this +region (the Hudson and Mohawk valleys) the English had no just claim.] + +As soon as the grant was obtained, John Endicott came out with a company +of sixty persons, and took up his abode at Naumkeag, which, being an +Indian and therefore a pagan name, he changed to Salem, the Hebrew word +for "peace." + +%37. The Massachusetts Charter, 1629%.--The next step was to obtain +the right of self-government, which was secured by a royal charter +creating a corporation known as the Governor and Company of +Massachusetts Bay in New England. Over the affairs of the company were +to preside a governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen to be +elected annually by the members of the company.[2] + +[Footnote 2: The charter is printed in Poore's _Charters and +Constitutions_, pp. 932-942, and in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 36-61.] + +Six ships were now fitted out, and in them 406 men, women, and children, +with 140 head of cattle, set sail for Massachusetts. They reached Salem +in safety and made it the largest colony in New England. + +%38. Why the Puritans came to New England.%--It was in 1625 that +Charles I. ascended the throne of England. Under him the quarrel with +the Puritans grew worse each year. He violated his promises, he +collected illegal taxes, he quartered troops on the people, he threw +those into prison who would not contribute to his forced loans, or +pressed them into the army or the navy. His Archbishop Laud persecuted +the Puritans with shameful cruelty. + +Little wonder then that in 1629 twelve leading Puritans met in +consultation and agreed to head a great migration to the New World, +provided the charter and the government of the Massachusetts Bay Company +were both removed to New England. This was agreed to, and in April, +1630, John Winthrop sailed with nearly one thousand Puritans for Salem. +From Salem he moved to Charlestown, and later in the year (1630) to a +little three-hilled peninsula, which the English called Tri-mountain or +Tremont. There a town was founded and called Boston. + +The departure of Winthrop was the signal, and before the year 1630 +ended, seventeen ships, bringing fifteen hundred Puritans, reached +Massachusetts. The newcomers settled Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, +Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now Cambridge). New England was +planted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 75-105. +Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 188-219.] + +%39. New Hampshire and Maine.%--When it became apparent that the +Plymouth colony was permanently settled, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose +interest in New England had never lagged, together with John Mason +obtained (1622) from the Council for New England a grant of Laconia, as +they called the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers, +and from the Atlantic "to the great river of Canada." Seven years later +(1629) they divided their property. Mason, taking the territory between +the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, called it New Hampshire because he +was Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in England. Gorges took the region +between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and called it Maine. After the +death of Mason (1635) his colony was neglected and from 1641 to 1679 was +annexed to Massachusetts. The King separated them in 1679, joined them +again in 1688, and finally parted them in 1691, making New Hampshire a +royal colony. + +Gorges took better care of his part and (in 1639) was given a charter +with the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County of Maine, +which extended, as before, from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and +backward 120 miles from the ocean. But after his death the province fell +into neglect, and the towns were gradually absorbed by Massachusetts, +which, in 1677, bought the claims of the heir of Gorges for L1250 and +governed Maine as lord proprietor under the Gorges charter. + +%40. Church and State in Massachusetts.%--Down to the moment of their +arrival in America the Puritans had not been Separatists. They were +still members of the Church of England who desired to see her form of +worship purified. But the party under Endicott had no sooner reached +Salem than they seceded, and the first Congregational Church in New +England was founded. + +Some in Salem were not prepared for so radical a step, and attempted to +establish a church on the episcopal model; but Endicott promptly sent +two of the leaders back to England. Thus were established two facts: 1. +The separation or secession of the Colonial Church from that of England. +2. That the episcopal form of worship would not be tolerated in +the colony. + +In 1631 another step was taken which united church and state, for it was +then ordered that "no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body +politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the +limits of the same." + +This was intolerance of the grossest kind, and soon became the cause of +troubles which led to the founding of Rhode Island and Connecticut. + +%41. The Planting of Rhode Island.%--There came to Salem (from +Plymouth), in 1633, a young minister named Roger Williams. He dissented +heartily from the intolerance of the people of Massachusetts, and, +though a minister of the Salem church, insisted + +1. On the separation of church and state. + +2. On the toleration of all religious beliefs. + +3. On the repeal of all laws requiring attendance on religious worship. + +To us, in this century, the justice of each of these principles is +self-evident. But in the seventeenth century there was no country in the +world where it was safe to declare them. For doing so in some parts of +Europe, a man would most certainly have been burned at the stake. For +doing so in England, he would have been put in the pillory, or had his +ears cut off, or been sent to jail. That Williams's teachings should +seem rank heresy in New England was quite natural. But, to make matters +worse, he wrote a pamphlet in which he boldly stated + +1. That the soil belonged to the Indians. + +2. That the settlers could obtain a valid title only by purchase from +the Indians. + +3. That accepting a deed for the land from a mere intruder like the King +of England was a sin requiring public repentance. + +In the opinion of the people of New England such doctrine could not fail +to bring down on Massachusetts the wrath of the King. When, therefore, a +little later, Endicott cut the red cross of St. George out of the colors +of the Salem militia, the people considered his act a defiance of royal +authority, attributed it to the teachings of Williams, and proceeded to +punish both. Endicott was rebuked by the General Court (or legislature) +and forbidden to hold office for a year. Williams was ordered to go +back to England. But he fled to the woods, and made his way through the +snow to the wigwam of the Indian chief, Massasoit, on Narragansett Bay, +and there in the summer of 1636 he founded Providence. About the same +time another teacher of what was then thought heresy, Anne Hutchinson, +was driven from Massachusetts, and with some of her followers went +southward and founded Portsmouth and Newport, on the island of Rhode +Island. For a while each of these settlements was independent, but in +1643 Williams went to London and secured a patent from Parliament which +united them under the name of "The Incorporation of Providence +Plantations on the Narragansett Bay in New England." + +%42. Connecticut begun.%--In the same year that Roger Williams began +his settlement at Providence, several hundred people from the towns near +Boston went off and settled in the Connecticut valley. For a long time +past there had been growing up in Massachusetts a strong feeling that +the law that none but church members should vote or hold office was +oppressive. This feeling became so strong that in 1635 some hardy +pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness and settled at +Windsor. A party from Watertown went further and settled Wethersfield. +These were small movements. But in 1636 the Newtown congregation, led by +its pastor, Thomas Hooker, walked to the Connecticut valley and founded +Hartford. The congregations of the Dorchester and Watertown churches +soon followed, while a party from Roxbury settled at Springfield. During +three years these four towns were part of Massachusetts. But in 1639, +Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a constitution and formed a +little republic which in time was called Connecticut. Their "Fundamental +Orders of Connecticut" was the first written constitution made in +America. Their republic was the first in the history of the world to be +founded by a written constitution, and marks the beginning of democratic +government in our country. + +%43. The New Haven Colony.%--Just at the time these things were +happening in the Connecticut valley, the beginnings of another little +republic were made on the shores of Long Island Sound. One day in the +summer of 1637 there came to Boston a company of rich London merchants +under the lead of an eloquent preacher named John Davenport. The people +of Boston would gladly have kept the newcomers at that town. But the +strangers desired to found a state of their own, and so, after spending +some months in seeking for a spot with a good harbor, they left Boston +in 1638 and founded New Haven. In 1639 Milford and Guilford were laid +out, and Stamford was started in 1640. Three years later these four +towns joined in a sort of federal union and took the name of the New +Haven colony.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 134-137.] + +[Illustration: NEW ENGLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND] + +%44. "The United Colonies of New England."%--There were now five +colonies in New England; namely, Plymouth, or the "Old Colony," +Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven. +Geographically, they were near each other. But each was weak in numbers, +and if left without the aid of its neighbors, might easily have fallen +a prey to some enemy. Of this the settlers were well aware, and in 1643 +four of the colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New +Haven[1] united for defense against the Indians and the Dutch, who +claimed the Connecticut valley and so threatened the English colonies +on the west. + +[Footnote 1: Rhode Island was not allowed to come in, for the feeling +against the followers of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson was still +very strong.] + +The name of this league was "The United Colonies of New England," and it +was the first attempt in America at federal government. All its affairs +were managed by a board of eight commissioners,--two from each +colony,--who must be church members. They had no power to lay taxes or +to meddle with the internal concerns of the colonies, but they had +entire control over all dealings with Indians or with foreign powers. + +%45. The Year 1643.%--The year 1643 is thus an important one in +colonial history. It was in that year that the New Haven colony was +founded; that the league of The United Colonies of New England was +formed; and that Roger Williams obtained the first charter of +Rhode Island. + +%46. New Charters.%--During the next twenty years no changes took +place in the boundaries of the colonies. This was the period of the +Civil War in England, of the Commonwealth, of the rule of Cromwell and +the Puritans; and affairs in New England were left to take care of +themselves. But in 1660 Charles II. was restored to the throne of +England, and a new era opens in colonial history. In 1661 the little +colony of Connecticut promptly acknowledged the restoration of Charles +II. and applied for a charter. The application was more than granted; +for to Connecticut (1662) was given not only a charter and an immense +tract of land, but also the colony of New Haven.[1] The land grant was +comprised in a strip that stretched across the continent from Rhode +Island to the Pacific and was as wide as the present state.[2] In 1663 +Rhode Island was given a new charter. + +[Footnote 1: In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II., Edward +Whalley and William Goffe (the regicides, "king-killers," as they were +called), two of the judges who had condemned Charles I. to be beheaded, +fled to New Haven and were protected by the people. This act had much to +do with the annexation of New Haven to Connecticut.] + +[Footnote 2: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 192-196. Many +of the New Haven colonists were disgusted by the union of their colony +with Connecticut, and in June, 1667, migrated to New Jersey, where they +founded "New-Ark" or Newark.] + +In 1684 the King's judges declared the Massachusetts charter void, and +James II. was about to make New England one royal colony, when the +English people drove him from the throne. William and Mary in 1691 +granted a new charter and united the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, +Maine, and Nova Scotia, in one colony called Massachusetts Bay. This +charter was in force when the Revolution opened. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The first colony established by the Plymouth Company (1607, on the +coast of Maine) was a failure. + +2. Captain John Smith explored the New England coast and mapped it +(1613), but did not succeed in planting any colonies. + +3. The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of a +body of Separatists in the _Mayflower_ (1620), who founded the colony +of Plymouth. + +4. The Separatist migration from England was followed in a few years by +a great exodus of Puritans, who planted towns along the coast to the +north of Plymouth, and obtained a charter of government and a great +strip of land, and founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay. + +5. Religious disputes drove Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson out of +Massachusetts, and led to the founding of Rhode Island (1636). + +6. Other church wrangles led to an emigration from Massachusetts to the +Connecticut valley, where a little confederacy of towns was created and +called Connecticut. + +7. Some settlers from England went to Long Island Sound and there +founded four towns which, in their turn, joined in a federal union +called the New Haven Colony. + +8. In time, New Haven was joined to Connecticut, and Plymouth and Maine +to Massachusetts; New Hampshire was made a royal colony; and the four +New England colonies--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and +Connecticut--were definitely established. + +9. The territory of Massachusetts and Connecticut stretched across the +continent to the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES + +%47. North and South Carolina.%--You remember that away back in the +sixteenth century the French under Jean Ribault and the English under +Ralegh undertook to plant colonies on what is now the Carolina coast. +They failed, and the country remained a wilderness till 1653, when a +band of emigrants from Virginia made the first permanent settlement on +the banks of the Chowan and the Roanoke. In 1663 some Englishmen from +Barbados began to settle on the Cape Fear River, just at the time when +Charles II. of England gave the region to eight English noblemen, who, +out of compliment to the King, allowed the name of Carolina given it by +Ribault to remain. In 1665 the bounds were enlarged, and Carolina then +extended from latitude 29 deg. 00' to 36 deg. 30', the present south boundary of +Virginia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. + +[Illustration: CAROLINA AS GRANTED BY King Charles II] + +There was at first no intention of dividing the territory, although, +after Charleston was founded (1670), North Carolina and South Carolina +sometimes had separate governors. But in 1729 the proprietors sold +Carolina to the King, and it was then divided into two distinct and +separate royal provinces. + +%48. New York.%--An event of far greater importance than the +chartering of Carolina was the seizure of New Netherland. After the +conquest of New Sweden, in 1655, the possessions and claims of the Dutch +in our country extended from the Connecticut River to the Delaware +River, and from the Mohawk to Delaware Bay. Geographically, they cut the +English colonies in two, and hampered communication between New England +and the South. To own this region was therefore of the utmost importance +to the English; and to get it, King Charles II., in 1664, revived the +old claim that the English had discovered the country before the Dutch, +and he sent a little fleet and army, which appeared off New Amsterdam +and demanded its surrender. The demand was complied with; and in 1664 +Dutch rule in our country ended, and England owned the seaboard from the +Kennebec to the Savannah. + +The King had already granted New Netherland to his brother the Duke of +York, in honor of whom the town of New Amsterdam was now renamed +New York. + +%49. New Jersey.%--The Duke of York no sooner received his province +than he gave so much of it as lay between the Delaware and the ocean to +his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and called it New +Jersey, in honor of Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the +island of Jersey in the English Channel. The two proprietors divided it +between them by the line shown on the map (p. 56). In 1674 Berkeley sold +West Jersey to a company of Quakers, who settled near Burlington. A +little later, 1676, William Penn and some other Quakers bought East +Jersey. There were then two colonies till 1702, when the proprietors +surrendered their rights, and New Jersey became one royal province. + +%50. The Beginnings of Pennsylvania.%--The part which Penn took in +the settlement of New Jersey suggested to him the idea of beginning a +colony which should be a refuge for the persecuted of all lands and of +all religions. + +[Illustration] + +Now it so happened that Penn was the son of a distinguished admiral to +whom King Charles II. owed L16,000, and seeing no chance of its ever +being paid, he proposed to the King, in 1680, that the debt be paid with +a tract of land in America. The King gladly agreed, and in 1681 Penn +received a grant west of the Delaware. Against Penn's wish, the King +called it Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woodland. It was given almost +precisely the bounds of the present state.[1] In 1683 Penn made a famous +treaty with the Indians, and laid out the city of Philadelphia. + +[Footnote 1: There was a long dispute, however, with Lord Baltimore, +over the south boundary line, which was not settled till 1763-67, when +two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, came over from England +and located it as at present. In later years, when all the Atlantic +seaboard states north of Maryland and Delaware had abolished slavery, +this "Mason and Dixon's Line" became famous as the dividing line between +the slave and the free Atlantic states.] + +%51. The Three Lower Counties: Delaware.%--If you look at the map of +the British Colonies in 1764, you will see that Pennsylvania was the +only English colony which did not have a seacoast. This was a cause of +some anxiety to Penn, who was afraid that the settlers in Delaware and +New Jersey might try to prevent his colonists from going in and out of +Delaware Bay. To avoid this, he bought what is now Delaware from the +Duke of York. + +The three lower counties on the Delaware, as the tract was called, had +no boundary. Lawfully it belonged to Lord Baltimore. But neither the +Dutch patroons who settled on the Delaware in 1631, nor the Swedes who +came later, nor the Dutch who annexed New Sweden to New Netherland, nor +the English who conquered the Dutch, paid any regard to Baltimore's +rights. At last, after the purchase of Delaware, the heirs of Baltimore +and of Penn (1732) agreed on what is the present boundary line. After +1703 the people of the three lower counties were allowed to have an +assembly or legislature of their own; but they had the same governor as +Pennsylvania and were a part of that colony till the Revolution.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For Pennsylvania read Janney's _Life of William Penn_ or +Dixon's _History of William Penn_; Proud's or Gordon's _Pennsylvania_; +Lodge's _Colonies_, pp. 213-226.] + +%52. Georgia.%--The return of the Carolinas to the King in 1729 was +very soon followed by the establishment of the last colony ever planted +by England in the United States. The founder was James Oglethorpe, an +English soldier and member of Parliament. Filled with pity for the poor +debtors with whom the English jails were then crowded, he formed a plan +to pay the debts of the most deserving, send them to America, and give +them what hundreds of thousands of men have since found in our +country,--a chance to begin life anew. + +[Illustration] + +Great numbers of people became interested in his plan, and finally +twenty-two persons under Oglethorpe's lead formed an association and +secured a charter from King George II. for a colony, which they called +Georgia. The territory granted lay between the Savannah and the +Altamaha rivers, and extended from their mouths to their sources and +then across the country to the Pacific Ocean. Oglethorpe had selected +this tract in order that his colonists might serve the patriotic purpose +of protecting Charleston from the Spanish attacks to which it was +then exposed. + +Money for the colony was easily raised,[1] and in November, 1732, +Oglethorpe, with 130 persons, set out for Charleston, and after a short +stay there passed southward and founded the city of Savannah (1733). It +must not be supposed that all the colonists were poor debtors. In time, +Italians from Piedmont, Moravians and Lutherans from Germany, and +Scotchmen from the Highlands, all made settlements in Georgia. + +[Footnote 1: The House of Commons gave L10,000.] + +%53. The Thirteen English Colonies.%--Thus it came about that between +1606 and 1733 thirteen English colonies were planted on the Atlantic +seaboard of what is now the United States. Naming them from north to +south, they were: 1. New Hampshire, with no definite western boundary; +2. Massachusetts, which owned Maine and a strip of territory across the +continent; 3. Rhode Island, with her present bounds; 4. Connecticut, +with a great tract of land extending to the Pacific; 5. New York, with +undefined bounds; 6. New Jersey; 7. Pennsylvania and 8. Delaware, the +property of the Penn family; 9. Maryland, the property of the heirs of +Lord Baltimore; 10. Virginia, with claims to a great part of North +America; 11. North Carolina, 12. South Carolina, and 13. Georgia, all +with claims to the Pacific. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The English seized New Netherland (1664), giving it to the Duke of +York; and the Duke, after establishing the province of New York, gave +New Jersey to two of his friends, and sold the three counties on the +Delaware to William Penn. + +2. Meanwhile the King granted Penn what is now Pennsylvania (1681). + +3. The Carolinas were first chartered as one proprietary colony, but +were sold back to the King and finally separated in 1729. + +4. Georgia, the last of the thirteen English colonies, was granted to +Oglethorpe and others as a refuge for poor debtors (1732). + +BEGINNINGS OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES + +_English_. + + Failures: + + 1579. Gilbert. + 1584. }Ralegh, Roanoke Island. + 1587. } + + Successes: + + 1606. London Company, Plymouth Company. + 1607. Virginia settled. + 1609. Boundary of London Company changed. Origin of + Virginia claim. + 1620. Landing of the Pilgrims. Plymouth colony. + 1622. Grant to Mason and Gorges. + 1628. Land bought for Massachusetts Bay colony. + 1629. Mason and Gorges divide their grant into Maine + and New Hampshire. + 1632. Maryland patent granted. + 1639. Connecticut constitution + (Windsor. Hartford. Wethersfield) + 1643. New Haven colony organized + (New Haven. Milford. Guilford. Stamford.) + 1643. Rhode Island chartered. + 1662. Connecticut chartered. + (Connecticut. New Haven.) + 1663. Rhode Island rechartered. + 1663. Carolina patent granted. + After 1729 North and South Carolina. + 1664. New Netherland conquered and New York founded. + 1664. New Jersey granted to Berkeley and Carteret. + 1681. Pennsylvania granted to Penn. + 1682. Three counties on the Delaware bought by Penn. + 1691. Plymouth and Maine (and Nova Scotia) + united with Massachusetts. + 1732. Georgia chartered. + +_Dutch_. + 1613. Begin to colonize New Netherland + +_Swedes_. + 1638. South Company makes settlement on the Delaware. + 1655. Conquered by the Dutch. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY + +%54. The Early French Possessions% on our continent may be arranged +in three great areas: 1. Acadia, 2. New France, 3. Louisiana, or the +basin of the Mississippi River. + +ACADIA comprised what is now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and a part of +Maine. It was settled in the early years of the seventeenth century at +Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), at Mount Desert Island, and on +the St. Croix River. + +NEW FRANCE was the drainage basin of the St. Lawrence and the Great +Lakes. As far back as 1535 Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence +River to the site of Montreal. But it was not till 1608 that a party +under Champlain made the first permanent settlement on the river, +at Quebec. + +The French settlers at once entered into an alliance with the Huron and +Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence River. But these +tribes were the bitter enemies of the Iroquois, who dwelt in what is now +central New York, and when, in consequence of this alliance, the French +were summoned to take the warpath, Champlain, with a few followers, +went, and on the shore of the lake which now bears his name, not far +from the site of Ticonderoga, he met and defeated the Iroquois tribe of +Mohawks in July, 1609. + +The battle was a small affair; but its consequences were serious and +lasting, for the Iroquois were thenceforth the enemies of the French, +and prevented them from ever coming southward and taking possession of +the Hudson and the Mohawk valleys. When, therefore, the French +merchants began to engage in the fur trade with the Indians, and the +French priests began their efforts to convert the Indians to +Christianity, they were forced to go westward further and further into +the interior. + +[Illustration: EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS 1650] + +Their route, instead of being up the St. Lawrence, was up the Ottawa +River to its head waters, over the portage to Lake Nipissing, and down +its outlet to Georgian Bay, where the waters of the Great Lakes lay +before them (see map on p. 63). They explored these lakes, dotted their +shores here and there with mission and fur-trading stations, and took +possession of the country. + +%55. The French on the Mississippi.%--In the course of these +explorations the French heard accounts from the Indians of a great +river to the westward, and in 1672 Father Marquette (mar-ket') and Louis +Joliet (zho-le-a') were sent by the governor of New France to search for +it. They set out, in May, 1673, from Michilimackinac, a French trading +post and mission at the foot of Lake Michigan. With five companions, in +two birch-bark canoes, they paddled up the lake to Green Bay, entered +Fox River, and, dragging the boats through its boiling rapids, came to a +village where lived the Miamis and the Kickapoos. These Indians tried to +dissuade them from going on; but Marquette was resolute, and on the 10th +of June, 1673, he led his followers over the swamps and marshes that +separated Fox River from a river which the Indian guides assured him +flowed into the Mississippi. This westward-flowing river he called the +Wisconsin, and there the guides left him, as he says, "alone, amid that +unknown country, in the hands of God." + +The little band shoved their canoes boldly out upon the river, and for +seven days floated slowly downward into the unknown. At last, on the +17th of June, they paddled out on the bosom of the Mississippi, and, +turning their canoes to the south, followed the bends and twists of the +river, past the mouth of the Missouri, past the Ohio, to a point not far +from the mouth of the Arkansas. There the voyage ended, and the party +went slowly back to the Lakes.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great +West_.] + +%56. La Salle finishes the Work of Marquette and Joliet.%--The +discovery of Marquette and Joliet was the greatest of the age. Yet five +years went by before Robert de la Salle (lah sahl') set forth with +authority from the French King "to labor at the discovery of the western +part of New France," and began the attempt to follow the river to the +sea. In 1678 La Salle and his companions left Canada, and made their way +to the shore of Lake Erie, where during the winter they built and +launched the _Griffin_, the first ship that ever floated on those +waters. In this they sailed to the mouth of Green Bay, and from there +pushed on to the Illinois River, to an Indian camp not far from the +site of Peoria, Ill. Just below this camp La Salle built Fort Crevecoeur +(cra'v-ker, a word meaning heart-break, vexation). + +[Illustration: %FRENCH CLAIMS% MISSIONS AND TRADING POSTS IN +MISSISSIPPI VALLEY %in 1700%] + +Leaving the party there in charge of Henri de Tonty to construct another +ship, he with five companions went back to Canada. On his return he +found that Fort Crevecoeur was in ruins, and that Tonty and the few men +who had been faithful were gone, he knew not where. In the hope of +meeting them he pushed on down the Illinois to the Mississippi. To go on +would have been easy, but he turned back to find Tonty, and passed the +winter on the St. Joseph River. + +From there in November, 1681, he once more set forth, crossed the lake +to the place where Chicago now is, went up the Chicago River and over +the portage to the Illinois, and early in February floated out on the +Mississippi. It was, on that day, a surging torrent full of trees and +floating ice; but the explorers kept on their way and came at last to +the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There La Salle took formal possession +of all the regions drained by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their +tributaries, claiming them in the name of France, and naming the country +thus claimed "Louisiana." The iron will, the splendid courage, of La +Salle had triumphed over every obstacle and made him one of the grandest +characters in history. + +But his work was far from ended. The valley he had explored, the +territory he had added to France, must be occupied, and to occupy it two +things were necessary: 1. A colony must be planted at the mouth of the +Mississippi, to control its navigation and shut out the Spaniards. 2. A +strong fort must be built on the Illinois, to overawe the Indians. + +In order to overawe the Indians, La Salle now hurried back to the +Illinois River, where, in December, 1682, near the present town of +Ottawa, on the summit of a cliff now known as "Starved Rock," he built a +stockade which he called Fort St. Louis. In 1684, while on a voyage from +France to plant a colony on the Mississippi, he missed the mouth and +brought up on the coast of Texas; and, landing on the sands of +Matagorda Bay, the colonists built another Fort St. Louis. But death +rapidly reduced their numbers, and, in their distress, they parted. Some +remained at the fort and were killed by the Indians. Others, led by La +Salle, started for the Illinois River and reached it; but without their +leader, whom they had murdered on the way. + + +SUMMARY + +1. After the settlement of Quebec (1608) the French began to explore the +regions lying to the west, discovered the Great Lakes, and heard of a +great river--the Mississippi. + +2. This river Marquette and Joliet explored from the mouth of the +Wisconsin to the mouth of the Arkansas (1673). + +3. Then La Salle floated down the Mississippi from the Illinois to the +Gulf of Mexico, took formal possession of the valley in the name of his +King, and called it Louisiana (1682). + +[Illustration: Starved Rock] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE INDIANS + +[Illustration: A typical Indian] + +%57%. When Europeans first set foot on our shores, they found the +country already inhabited, and, adopting the name given to the men of +the New World by Columbus, they called these people "Indians." + +They were not "Indians," or natives of Asia, but a race by themselves, +which ages before the time of Columbus was spread over all North and +South America. + +Like their descendants in the West to-day, they had red or +copper-colored skins, their eyes and long straight hair were jet black, +their faces beardless, and their cheek bones high. + +%58. The Villages.%---East of the Rocky Mountains the Indians lived +in villages, often covering several acres in area, and surrounded by +stockades of two and even three rows of posts. The stockade was pierced +with loopholes, and provided with platforms on which were piles of +stones for the defenders to hurl on the heads of their enemies. +Sometimes the structures which formed the village were wigwams--rude +structures made by driving poles into the ground in a circle, drawing +their tops near together, and then covering them with bark or skins. +Sometimes the dwellings had rudely framed sides and roofs covered with +layers of elm bark. Usually these structures were fifteen or twenty feet +wide by 100 feet long. At each end was a door. Along each side were ten +or twelve stalls, in each of which lived a family, so that one house +held twenty or more families. Down the middle at regular intervals were +fire pits where the food was cooked, the smoke escaping through holes in +the roof.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Vol. I., pp. 17, +18.] + +[Illustration: Buffalo-skin lodge] + +%59. Clans and Tribes.%--All the families living in such a house +traced descent from a common female ancestor, and formed a clan. Each +clan had its own name,--usually that of some animal, as the Wolf, the +Bear, or the Turtle,--its own sachem or civil magistrate, and its own +war chiefs, and owned all the food and all the property, except weapons +and ornaments, in common. A number of such clans made a tribe, which had +one language and was governed by a council of the clan sachems. + +[Illustration: Seneca long house] + +%60. The Three Indian Races.%--With slight exceptions, the tribes +living east of the Mississippi are divided, by those who have studied +their languages, into three great groups: + +1. The Muskhogees, who lived south of the Tennessee River and comprised +the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw tribes. + +2. The Iroquoian group, which occupied the country from the Delaware and +the Hudson to and beyond the St. Lawrence and Lakes Ontario and Erie, +besides isolated tracts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The chief +tribes were the Iroquois proper,--forming a confederacy in central New +York known as the Five Nations (Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, +and Mohawks),--the Hurons, the Eries, the Cherokees, and the Tuscaroras. + +[Illustration: Moccasin] + +3. The Algonquian group, which occupied the rest of what is now the +United States east of the Mississippi, besides the larger part of +Canada. In this group were the Mohegans, Pequots, and Narragansetts of +New England; the Delawares; the Powhatans of Virginia; the Shawnees of +the Ohio valley, and many others living around the Great Lakes. + +[Illustration: Flint Hatchet] + +%61. Weapons and Implements and Clothing.%--All of these tribes had +made some progress towards civilization. They used pottery and +ornamental pipes of clay. They raised beans and squashes, pumpkins, +tobacco, and maize, or Indian corn, which they ground to meal by rubbing +between two stones. For hunting they had bows, arrows with stone heads, +hatchets of flint, and spears. In summer they went almost naked. In +winter they wore clothing made from the skins of fur-bearing animals and +the hides of buffalo and deer. For navigating streams and rivers, lakes +and bays, they constructed canoes of birch bark sewed together with +thongs of deerskin and smeared at the joints with spruce-tree gum. + +%62. Traits of Character.%--Living an outdoor life, and depending for +daily food not so much on the maize they raised as on the fish they +caught and the animals they killed, the Indians were most expert +woodsmen. They were swift of foot, quick-witted, keen-sighted, and most +patient of hunger, fatigue, and cold. White men were amazed at the +rapidity with which the Indian followed the most obscure trail over the +most difficult ground, at the perfection with which he imitated the bark +of the wolf, the hoot of the owl, the call of the moose, and at the +catlike tread with which he walked over beds of autumn leaves the side +of the grazing deer. + +[Illustration: Ornamental pipe] + +[Illustration: Quiver, with bows and arrows] + +Courage and fortitude he possessed in the highest degree. Yet with his +bravery were associated all the vices, all the dark and crooked ways, +which are the resort of the cowardly and the weak. He was treacherous, +revengeful, and cruel beyond description. Much as he loved war (and war +was his chief occupation), the fair and open fight had no charm for him. +To his mind it was madness to take the scalp of an enemy at the risk of +his own, when he might waylay him in an ambush or shoot him with an +arrow from behind a tree. He was never so happy as when, at the dead of +night, he roused his sleeping victims with an unearthly yell and +massacred them by the light of their burning home. + +%63. The French and the Indians.%--The ways in which French and +English colonists acted towards the Indian are highly characteristic, +and account for much in our history. + +From the day when Champlain, in 1609, joined his Huron-Algonquin +neighbors and went with them on the warpath against the Iroquois, the +French held to the policy of making friends with the Indians. No pains +were spared to win them to the cause of France. They were flattered, +petted, treated with ceremonial respect, and became the companions, as +the women often became the wives, of the Frenchmen. Much was expected of +this mingling of races. It was supposed that the Indian would be won +over to civilization and Christianity. But the Frenchmen were won over +to the Indians, and adopted Indian ways of life. They lived in wigwams, +wore Indian dress, decorated their long hair with eagle feathers, and +made their faces hideous with vermilion, ocher, and soot. + +%64. Coureurs de Bois.%--There soon grew up in this way a class of +half-civilized vagrants, who ranged the woods in true Indian style, and +gained a living by guiding the canoes of fur traders along the rivers +and lakes of the interior. Stimulated by the profits of the fur trade, +these men pushed their traffic to the most distant tribes, spreading +French guns, French hatchets, beads, cloth, tobacco and brandy, and +French influence over the whole Northwest. Where the trader and the +_coureur de bois_ went, the priest and the soldier followed, and soon +mission houses and forts were established at all the chief passes and +places suited to control the Indian trade. + +%65. The English and the Indians.%--How, meantime, did the English +act toward the Indians? In the first place, nothing led them to form +close relationship with the tribes. The fur trade--the source of +Canadian prosperity--and the zeal of priests eager for the conversion of +the heathen, which sent the traders, the _coureurs de bois_, and the +priests from tribe to tribe and from the Atlantic halfway to the +Pacific, did not appeal to the English colonists. Farming and commerce +were the sources of their wealth. Their priests and missionaries were +content to labor with the Indians near at hand. + +In the second place, the policy of the French towards the Indians, while +founded on trade, was directed by one central government. The policy of +the English was directed by each colony, and was of as many kinds as +there were colonies. No English frontier exhibited such a mingling of +white men and red as was common wherever the French went. Among the +English there were fur traders, but no _coureurs de bois_. Scorn on the +one side and hatred on the other generally marked the intercourse +between the English and the Indians. One bright exception must indeed be +made. Penn was a broad-minded lover of his kind, a man of most +enlightened views on government and human rights; and in the colony +planted by him there was made a serious effort to treat the Indian as an +equal. But the day came when men not of his faith dealt with the Indians +in true English fashion. + +Remembering this difference of treatment, we shall the better understand +how it happened that the French could sprinkle the West with little +posts far from Quebec and surrounded by the fiercest of tribes, while +the English could only with difficulty defend their frontier.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A fine account of the Indians, and the French and English +ways of treating them, is given in Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, +Vol. I., pp. 16-25, 41-45, 46-56, 64-80.] + +%66. Early Indian Wars.%--Again and again this frontier was attacked. +In 1636 the Pequots, who dwelt along the Thames River in Connecticut, +made war on the settlers in the Connecticut River valley towns. Men were +waylaid and scalped, or taken prisoners and burned at the stake. +Determined to put an end to this, ninety men from the Connecticut towns, +with twenty from Massachusetts and some Mohegan Indians, in 1637 marched +against the marauders. They found the Pequots within a circular stockade +near the present town of Stonington, where of 400 warriors all save five +were killed. + +%67. King Philip's War.%--During nearly forty years not a tribe in +all New England dared rise against the white men. But in 1675 trouble +began again. The settlers were steadily crowding the Indians off their +lands. No lands were taken without payment, yet the sales were far from +being voluntary. A new generation of Indians, too, had grown up, and, +heedless of the lesson taught their fathers, the Narragansetts, +Nipmucks, and Wampanoags, led by King Philip and Canonchet, rose upon +the English. A dreadful war followed. When it ended, in 1678, the three +tribes were annihilated. Hardly any Indians save the friendly Mohawks +were left in New England. But of ninety English towns, forty had been +the scene of fire and slaughter, and twelve had been destroyed utterly. + +%68. The Iroquois.%--Elsewhere on the frontier a happier relation +existed with the Indians. The Iroquois of central New York were the +fiercest and most warlike Indians of the Atlantic coast. But the fight +with Champlain, in 1609, by turning them into implacable enemies of the +French, had rendered them all the more tolerant of the Dutch and the +English, while their complete conquest and subjugation of the Delawares, +or Lenni Lenape, prepared the way for the easy settlement of New Jersey +and Pennsylvania. + +%69. Penn and the Lenni Lenape.%--These Indians were Algonquian, and +lived along the Delaware River and its tributaries. But early in the +seventeenth century they had been reduced to vassalage by the Five +Nations, had been forbidden to carry arms, and had been forced to take +the name of Women.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Vol. I., pp. 30-32, +80-82.] + +When the Dutch and Swedes began their settlements on the South River, +and when Penn, in 1683, made a treaty with the Delawares, the settlers +had to deal with peaceful Indians. No horrid wars mark the early history +of Pennsylvania. + +%70. The Powhatans in Virginia.%--Much the same may be said of the +Virginia tribes. They were far from friendly, and had they been as +fierce and warlike as the northern tribes, neither the skill of John +Smith, nor the marriage of Pocahontas (the daughter of Powhatan) with +John Rolfe, nor fear of the English muskets, would have saved Jamestown. + +[Illustration: Powhatan Indians at work[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a model.] + +On the other hand, the destruction of the tribes in New England and the +feud between the French and the Iroquois saved New England. For the time +had now come for the opening of the long struggle between the French and +the English for the ownership of the continent. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The inhabitants of the New World at the time of its discovery, by +mistake called Indians, were barbarians, lived in rude, frail houses, +and used weapons and implements inferior to those of the whites. + +2. The Indian tribes of eastern North America are mostly divided into +three great groups: Muskhogean, Iroquoian, and Algonquian. + +3. In general, the French made the Indians their friends, while the +English drove them westward and treated them as an inferior race. + +[Illustration: THE BRITISH COLONIES AND EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS 1733] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA + +%71. Louisiana, or the Mississippi Basin.%--The landing of La Salle +on the coast of Texas, and the building of Fort St. Louis of Texas, gave +the French a claim to the coast as far southward as a point halfway +between the fort and the nearest Spanish settlement, in Mexico. At that +point was the Rio Grande, a good natural boundary. On the French maps, +therefore, Louisiana extended from the Rocky Mountains and the Rio +Grande on the west, to the Alleghany Mountains on the east, and from the +Gulf of Mexico on the south, to New France on the north. This confined +the English colonies to a narrow strip between the Alleghany Mountains +and the Atlantic Ocean. As the colonies were growing in population, and +as the charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and Carolina +gave them great stretches of territory in the Mississippi valley, it was +inevitable that, sooner or later, a bitter contest for possession of the +country should take place between the French and the English in America. + +The contest began in 1689, and ended in 1763, and may easily be divided +into two periods: 1. That from 1689 to 1748, when the struggle was for +Acadia and New France. 2. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was +not only for New France, but for Louisiana also. + +%72. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "King William's +War."%--In 1688-89 there was a revolution in England, in the course +of which James II. was driven from his throne, and William and Mary, his +nephew and daughter, were seated on it. James took refuge in France, and +when Louis XIV. attempted to restore him, a great European war +followed, and of course the colonists of the two countries were very +soon fighting each other. As the quarrel did not arise on this side of +the ocean, the English colonists called it "King William's War"; but on +our continent it was really the beginning of a long struggle to +determine whether France or England should rule North America. + +The French recognized this at once, and sent over a very able +soldier--Count Frontenac--with orders to conquer New York; but the +colony was saved by the Iroquois, who in the summer of 1689 began a war +of their own against the French, laid siege to Montreal, and roasted +French captives under its walls. Frontenac was compelled to put off his +attack till 1690, when in the dead of winter a band of French and +Indians burned Schenectady, N.Y. Salmon Falls in New Hampshire was next +laid waste (1690), and Fort Loyal, where Portland, Me., is, was taken +and destroyed. A little later Exeter, N.H., was attacked. The boldness +and suddenness of these fearful massacres so alarmed the people exposed +to them that in May, 1690, delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, +Connecticut, and New York met at New York city to devise a plan of +attack on the French. Now, at the opening of the war, there were three +French strongholds in America. These were Montreal and Quebec in Canada, +and Port Royal in Acadia. In 1690 a Massachusetts fleet led by Sir +William Phips destroyed Port Royal. It was decided, therefore, to send +another fleet under Phips to take Quebec, while troops from New York and +Connecticut marched against Montreal. Both expeditions were failures, +and for seven years the French and Indians ravaged the frontier. In 1692 +York, in Maine, was visited and a third of the inhabitants killed. In +1694 Castine was taken and a hundred persons scalped and tomahawked. At +Durham, in New Hampshire, prisoners were burned alive. Groton, in +Massachusetts, was next visited; but the boldest of all was the +massacre, in 1697, at Haverhill, a town not thirty-five miles from +Boston. In 1696, Frontenac, at the head of a great array of Canadians, +_coureurs de bois_, and Indians, invaded the country of the Onondagas, +and leveled their fortified town to the earth. + +[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF ACADIA] + +%73. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "Queen Anne's War."%--In +1697 the war ended with the treaty of Ryswick, and "King William's War" +came to a close in America with nothing gained and much lost on each +side. The peace, however, did not last long, for in 1701 England and +France were again fighting. As William died in 1702, and was succeeded +by his sister-in-law Anne, the struggle which followed in America was +called "Queen Anne's War." Again Port Royal was captured (1710); again +an expedition went against Quebec and failed (1711); and again, year +after year, the French and Indians swept along the frontier of New +England, burning towns and slaughtering and torturing the inhabitants. +At last the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, ended the strife, and the first +signs of English conquest in America were visible, for the French gave +up Acadia and acknowledged the claims of the English to Newfoundland and +the country around Hudson Bay. The name Acadia was changed by the +conquerors to Nova Scotia. Port Royal, never again to be parted with, +they called Annapolis, in honor of the Queen.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. I., pp. +1-149.] + +%74. The French take Possession of the Mississippi Valley; the Chain of +Forts.%--The peace made at Utrecht was unbroken for thirty years. But +this long period was, on the part of the French in America, at least, a +time of careful preparation for the coming struggle for possession of +the valleys of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Lakes. In the +Mississippi valley most elaborate preparations for defense were already +under way. No sooner did the treaty of Ryswick end the first French war +than a young naval officer named Iberville applied to the King for leave +to take out an expedition and found a colony at the mouth of the +Mississippi, just as La Salle had attempted to do. Permission was +readily given, and in 1698 Iberville sailed with two ships from France, +and in February, 1699, entered Mobile Bay. Leaving his fleet at anchor, +he set off with a party in small boats in search of the great river. He +coasted along the shore, entered the Mississippi through one of its +three mouths, and went up the river till he came to an Indian village, +where the chief gave him a letter which Tonty, thirteen years before, +when in search of La Salle, had written and left in the crotch of +a tree. + +Iberville now knew that he was on the Mississippi; but having seen no +spot along its low banks suitable for the site of a city, he went back +and led his colony to Biloxi Bay, and there settled it. Thus when the +eighteenth century opened there were in all Louisiana but two French +settlements--that founded on the Illinois River by La Salle, and that +begun by Iberville at Biloxi. But the occupation of Louisiana was now +the established policy of France, and hardly a year went by without one +or more forts appearing somewhere in the valley. Before 1725 came, +Mobile Bay was occupied, New Orleans was founded, and Forts Rosalie, +Toulouse, Tombeckbee, Natchitoches, Assumption, and Chartres were +erected. Along the Lakes, Detroit had been founded, Niagara was built in +1726, and in 1731 a band of Frenchmen, entering New York, put up +Crown Point.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Parkman's _A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. I., pp. +288-314. For the French posts see map on pp. 74, 75.] + +The meaning of this chain of forts stretching from New Orleans and +Mobile to Lake Champlain and Montreal, was that the French were +determined to shut the English out of the valley of the Mississippi, and +to keep them away from the shores of the Great Lakes. But they were also +determined at the first chance to reconquer Annapolis and Nova Scotia, +which they had lost by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. As a very +important step towards the accomplishment of this purpose, the French +selected a harbor on the southeast coast of Cape Breton Island, and +there built Louisburg, a fortress so strong that the French officers +boasted that it could be defended by a garrison of women. + +%75. The Struggle for New France; "King George's War."%--Such was the +situation in America when (in March, 1744) France declared war on +England and began what in Europe was called the "War of the Austrian +Succession"; but in our country it was known as "King George's War," +because George II. was then King of England. The French, with their +usual promptness, rushed down and burned the little English post of +Canso, in Nova Scotia, carried off the garrison, and attacked Annapolis, +where they were driven off. That Nova Scotia could be saved, seemed +hopeless. Nevertheless, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts determined to +make the attempt, and that the King might know the exact situation he +sent to London, with a dispatch, an officer named Captain Ryal, who had +been taken prisoner at Canso and afterwards released on parole.[2] + +[Footnote 2: The reception of that officer well illustrates the gross +ignorance of America and American affairs which then existed in England. +When the Duke of Newcastle, who was prime minister, read the dispatch, +he exclaimed: "Oh, yes--yes--to be sure. Annapolis must be +defended--troops must be sent to Annapolis. Pray where is Annapolis? +Cape Breton an island! Wonderful! Show it me on the map. So it is, sure +enough. My dear sir [to Captain Ryal], you always bring us good news. I +must go and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island."] + +Although Shirley applied to the King for help with which to defend Nova +Scotia, he knew full well that the burden of defense would fall on the +colonies. And with that determination and persistence which always +brings success he labored hard to persuade New Hampshire, Connecticut, +and Rhode Island to join with Massachusetts in an effort to capture +Louisburg. It would be delightful to tell how he overcame all +difficulties; how the young men rallied on the call for troops; how at +the end of March, 1745, 4000 of them in a hundred transports and +accompanied by fourteen armed ships set sail, followed by the prayers of +all New England, and after a siege of six weeks took the fortress on the +17th of June, 1745. But the story is too long.[1] It is enough to know +that the victory was hailed with delight on both sides of the Atlantic, +but that when peace came, in 1748, the British government was still so +blind to the struggle for North America which had been going on for +fifty years, that Louisburg was restored to the French. + +[Footnote 1: Read Samuel Adams Drake's _Taking of Louisburg_; Parkman's +_A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. II., pp. 78-161.] + +%76. The French on the Allegheny River; the Buried Plates.%--With +Louisburg back in their possession and no territory lost, the French +went on more vigorously than ever with their preparations to shut the +British out of the Mississippi valley; and as but one highway to the +valley, the Ohio River, was still unguarded, the governor of Canada, in +1749, dispatched Celoron de Bienville with a band of men in twenty-three +birch-bark canoes to take formal possession of the valley. Paddling up +the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, they carried their canoes across to +Lake Erie, and, skirting the southeastern shore, they landed and crossed +to Chautauqua Lake, down which and its outlet they floated to the +Allegheny River. Once on the Allegheny, the ceremony of taking +possession began. The men were drawn up, and Louis XV. was proclaimed +king of all the region drained by the Ohio. The arms of France stamped +on a sheet of tin were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which a lead +plate was buried in the ground. On the plate was an inscription claiming +the Ohio, and all the streams that run into it, in the name of the King +of France. + +[Illustration: [1]Half of one of the lead plates] + +[Footnote 1: Now owned by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, +Mass.] + + * * * * * + +TRANSLATION OF THE ENTIRE INSCRIPTION + +In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, +Celeron, commander of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la +Gallissoniere, commander in chief of New France, to restore tranquillity +in some savage villages of these districts, have buried this plate at +the confluence of the Ohio and ... this ... near the river Ohio, alias +Beautiful River, as a monument of our having retaken possession of the +said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the +lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as well as +of those of which preceding kings have enjoyed possession, partly by the +force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, +Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. + + * * * * * + +A second plate was buried below the mouth of French Creek; a third near +the mouth of Wheeling Creek; and a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum, +where half a century later it was found protruding from the river bank +by a party of boys while bathing. Yet another was unearthed at the mouth +of the Great Kanawha by a freshet, and was likewise found by a boy while +playing at the water's edge. The last plate was hidden where the Great +Miami joins the Ohio; and this done, Celoron crossed Ohio to Lake Erie +and went back to Montreal.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read T. J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_, +pp. 9-23, 187-197; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 36-62; +Winsor's _The Mississippi Basin_, pp. 252-255.] + +%77. The French build Forts on the Allegheny.%--This formal taking +possession of the valleys of the Allegheny and the Ohio was all well +enough in its way; but the French knew that if they really intended to +keep out the British they must depend on forts and troops, and not on +lead plates. To convince the French King of this, required time; so that +it was not till 1752 that orders were given to fortify the route taken +by Celoron in 1749. The party charged with this duty repaired to the +little peninsula where is now the city of Erie, and there built a log +fort which they called Presque Isle. Having done this, they cut a road +twenty miles long, to the site of Waterford, Pa., and built Fort Le +Boeuf, and later one at Venango, the present site of the town +of Franklin. + +%78. Washington's First Public Service.%--The arrival of the French +in western Pennsylvania alarmed and excited no one so much as Governor +Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia. He had two good reasons for his +excitement. In the first place, Virginia, because of the interpretation +she placed on her charter of 1609, claimed to own the Allegheny valley +(see p. 33). In the second place, the governor and a number of Virginia +planters were deeply interested in a great land company called the Ohio +Company, to which the King of England had given 500,000 acres lying +along the Ohio River between the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers, a +region which the French claimed, and toward which they were moving. + +As soon, therefore, as Dinwiddie heard that the French were really +building forts in the upper Allegheny valley, he determined to make a +formal demand for their withdrawal, and chose as his messenger George +Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, and adjutant general of the +Virginia militia. + +Washington's instructions bade him go to Logstown, on the Ohio, find out +all he could as to the whereabouts of the French, and then proceed to +the commanding officer, deliver the letter of Dinwiddie, and demand an +answer. He was especially charged to ascertain how many French forts had +been erected, how many soldiers there were in each, how far apart the +posts were, and if they were to be supported from Quebec.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read T.J. Chapman's _The, French in the Allegheny Valley_, +pp. 23-47; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 128-161; Lodge's +_George Washington_, pp. 62-69.] + +With that promptness which distinguished him during his whole life, +Washington set out on his perilous journey the very day he received his +instructions, and made his way first to Logstown, and then to Fort Le +Boeuf, where he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the French +commandant. The reply of Saint-Pierre--for that was the name of the +French commandant--was that he would send the letter of Dinwiddie to the +governor of Canada, the Marquis Duquesne (doo-kan'), and that, in the +meantime, he would hold the fort. + +[Illustration: The French and the English Forts] + +%79. Fort Duquesne.%--When Dinwiddie read the answer of Saint-Pierre, +he saw clearly that the time had come to act. The French were in force +on the upper Allegheny. Unless something was done to drive them out, +they would soon be at the forks of the Ohio, and once they were there, +the splendid tract of the Ohio Company would be lost forever. Without a +moment's delay he decided to take possession of the forks of the Ohio, +and raised two companies of militia of 100 men each. A trader named +William Trent was in command of one of the companies, and that no time +should be lost, he, with forty men, hurried forward, and, February 17, +1754, drove the first stake of a stockade that was to surround a fort on +the site of the city of Pittsburg. While the English were still at work +on their fort, April 17, 1754, a body of French and Indians came down +from Le Boeuf, and bade them leave the valley. Trent was away, and the +working party was in command of an ensign named Ward, who, as resistance +was useless, surrendered, and was allowed to march off with his men. The +French then finished the fort Trent had begun, and called it Fort +Duquesne, after the governor of Canada. + +%80. "Join or Die."%--Meantime the legislature of Virginia voted +L10,000 for the defense of the Ohio valley, and promised a land bounty +to every man who would volunteer to fight the French and Indians. Joshua +Frye was made colonel, and Washington lieutenant colonel of the troops +thus to be raised. As some time must elapse before the ranks could be +filled, Washington took seventy-five men and (in March, 1754) set off to +help Trent; but he had not gone far on his way when Ensign Ward met him +(where Cumberland, Md., now is) and told him all about the surrender. +Accounts of the affair were at once sent to the governors of Maryland, +Pennsylvania, and Virginia. + +[Illustration: JOIN, or DIE.] + +In publishing one of these in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, Franklin +inserted the above picture at the top of the account.[1] + +[Footnote 1: There is an old superstition, then very generally believed, +that if one cuts a snake in pieces and allows the pieces to touch, the +snake will not die, but will live and become whole again. By this +picture Franklin meant that unless the colonies joined for defense +against the French they would die; that is, be conquered.] + +%81. Albany Plan of Union.%--The picture was apt for the following +reason. The Lords of Trade in London had ordered the colonies to send +delegates to Albany to make a treaty with the Iroquois Indians, and to +this congress Franklin purposed to submit a plan for union against the +French. The plan drawn up by the congress was not approved by the +colonies, so the scheme of union came to naught. + +%82. Washington's Expedition.%--Meanwhile great events were happening +in the west. When Washington met Ensign Ward at Cumberland and heard the +story of the surrender, he was at a loss just what to do; but knowing +that he was expected to do something, he decided to go to a storehouse +which the Ohio Company had built at the mouth of a stream called +Redstone Creek in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pushing along, cutting as +he went the first road that ever led down to the valley of the +Mississippi from the Atlantic slope, he reached a narrow glade called +the Great Meadows and there began to put up a breastwork which he named +Fort Necessity. While so engaged news came that the French were near. +Washington thereupon took a few men, and, coming suddenly on the French, +killed or captured them all save one. Among the dead was Jumonville, the +leader of the party. Well satisfied with this exploit, Washington pushed +on with his entire force towards the Ohio. But, hearing that the French +were advancing, he fell back to Fort Necessity, and there awaited them. +He did not wait long; for the French and Indians came down in great +force, and on July 4, 1754, forced him, after a brave resistance, to +surrender. He was allowed to march out with drums beating and flags +flying.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge's _George Washington_, pp. 69-74; Winsor's _The +Mississippi Basin_, pp. 294-315.] + +%83. The French and Indian War.%--Thus was begun what the colonists +called the French and Indian War, but what was really a struggle +between the French and the British for the possession of America. +Knowing it to be such, both sides made great preparations for the +contest. The French stood on the defensive. The British made the attack, +and early in 1755 sent over one of their ablest officers, Major General +Edward Braddock, to be commander in chief in America. He summoned the +colonial governors to meet him at Alexandria, Va., where a plan for a +campaign was agreed on. + +%84. Plan for the War.%--Vast stretches of dense and almost +impenetrable forest then separated the colonies of the two nations, but +through this forest were three natural highways of communication: 1. +Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence River. 2. The Hudson, +the Mohawk, Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River. 3. The Potomac to Fort +Cumberland, and through the forest to Fort Duquesne. + +It was decided, therefore, to have four expeditions. + +1. One was to go north from New York to Lake Champlain, take the French +fort at Crown Point, and move against Quebec. + +2. Another was to sail from New England and make such a demonstration +against the French towns to the northeast, as would prevent the French +in that quarter going off to defend Quebec and Crown Point. + +3. The third was to start from Albany, go up the Mohawk, and down the +Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and along its shores to the Niagara River. + +4. The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Pennsylvania to Fort +Duquesne. + +%85. Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755.%--Braddock took command of this +last expedition and made Washington one of his aids. For a while he +found it impossible to move his army, for in Virginia horses and wagons +were very scarce, and without them he could not carry his baggage or +drag his cannon. At last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy +postmaster-general of the colonies, persuaded the farmers of +Pennsylvania, who had plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to +the general. + +All this took time, so that it was June before the army left Fort +Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through the woods to Fort +Duquesne. The march was slow, but all went well till the troops had +crossed the Monongahela River and were but eight miles from the fort, +when suddenly the advance guard came face to face with an army of +Indians and French. The Indians and French instantly hid in the bushes +and behind trees, and poured an incessant fire into the ranks of the +British. They, too, would gladly have fought in Indian fashion. But +Braddock thought this cowardly and would not allow them to get behind +trees, so they stood huddled in groups, a fine mark for the Indians, +till so many were killed that a retreat had to be ordered. Then they +fled, and had it not been for Washington and his Virginians, who covered +their flight, they would probably have been killed to a man.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., Chap. 7, pp. +162-187; T.J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_, pp. 60-72; +Sargeant's _History of Braddock's Expedition_.] + +Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died a few days +later. + +%86. The Other Expeditions.%--The expedition against Niagara was a +failure. The officer in command did not take his army further than +Oswego on Lake Ontario. + +The expedition against Crown Point was partially successful, and a +stubborn battle was fought and a victory won over the French on the +shores of that beautiful sheet of water which the English ever after +called Lake George in honor of the King. + +%87. War declared.%--Up to this time all the fighting had been done +along the frontier in America. But in May, 1756, Great Britain formally +declared war against France. The French at once sent over Montcalm,[1] +the very ablest Frenchman that ever commanded on this continent, and +there followed two years of warfare disastrous to the British. Montcalm +took and burned Oswego, won over the Indians to the cause of France, and +was about to send a strong fleet to attack New England, when, toward the +end of 1757, William Pitt was made virtually (though not in name) Prime +Minister of England. + +[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 318-380.] + +William Pitt was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived. He +could see exactly what to do, and he could pick out exactly the right +man to do it. No wonder, then, that as soon as he came into power the +British began to gain victories. + +%88. The Victories of 1758.%--Once more the French were attacked at +their three vulnerable points, and this time with success. In 1758 +Louisburg surrendered to Amherst and Boscawen. In that same year +Washington captured Fort Duquesne, which, in honor of the great Prime +Minister, was called Fort Pitt. A provincial officer named Bradstreet +destroyed Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. This was a heavy blow to the +French; for with Fort Frontenac gone and Fort Duquesne in English hands, +the Ohio was cut off from Quebec. + +An attack on Ticonderoga, however, was repulsed by Montcalm with +dreadful loss to the English. + +%89. The Victories of 1759; Wolfe.%--But the defeat was only +temporary. At the siege of Louisburg a young officer named James Wolfe +had greatly distinguished himself, and in return for this was selected +by Pitt to command an expedition to Quebec. The previous attempts to +reach that city had been by way of Lake George. The expedition of Wolfe +sailed up the St. Lawrence, and landed below the city. + +Quebec stands on the summit of a high hill with precipitous sides, and +was then the most strongly fortified city in America. To take it seemed +almost impossible. But the resolution of Wolfe overcame every obstacle: +on the night of September 12, 1759, he led his troops to the foot of the +cliff, climbed the heights, and early in the morning had his army drawn +up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, as the plateau behind the +city was called. There a great battle was fought between the French, led +by Montcalm, and the British, led by Wolfe. The British triumphed, and +Quebec fell; but Wolfe and Montcalm were among the dead.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Chaps. 25-27; A. Wright's +_Life of Wolfe;_ Sloan's _French War and the Revolution_, Chaps. 6-9.] + +[Illustration: European Possessions 1763] + +Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured a few weeks before. +Montreal was taken in 1760, and the long struggle between the French and +the English in America ended in the defeat of the French. The war +dragged on in Europe till 1763, when peace was made at Paris. + +%90. France driven out of America.%--With all the details of the +treaty we are not concerned. It is enough for us to know that France +divided her possessions on this continent between Great Britain and +Spain. To Great Britain she gave Canada and Cape Breton, and all the +islands save two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the +United States, she drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River +from its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great Britain +she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To Spain she gave +all her possessions to the west of this line, together with the city of +New Orleans. But Great Britain, during the war, had taken Havana from +Spain. To get this back, Spain now gave up Florida in exchange. + +At the end of the war with France, Great Britain thus found herself in +possession of Canada and all that part of the United States which lies +between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, the little strip at the mouth +of the river alone excepted. + + +SUMMARY + +We have now come to the time when the third European power was driven +from our country. The first was Sweden when New Sweden was captured by +the Dutch. The second was Holland when New Netherland was captured by +the English. The third was France. + +1. The struggle for the French possessions in America may be divided +into two periods: A. That from 1689 to 1748, when the contest was for +Acadia and New France. B. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was +for Louisiana as well as New France. + +2. The first war, "King William's," was indecisive, but the second, +"Queen Anne's," ended (1713) in the transfer of Acadia to England. + +3. After the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the French began seriously to take +possession of the Mississippi valley, and began a chain of forts to +stretch from New Orleans and Mobile to Montreal. + +4. "King George's War" interrupted this work for a few years +(1744-1748), but in 1749 Celeron was sent to bury plates in the valleys +of the Allegheny and Ohio and claim them in the name of France. + +5. The next step after claiming the valleys was to take armed +possession, and in 1752 the French began to build forts. + +6. This alarmed the governor of Virginia, who sent Washington to bid the +French leave the Allegheny valley. When they refused, troops were sent +to build a fort on the site of what is now Pittsburg; but these men, +under Trent and Ward, were driven away, as were also the reinforcements +under Washington (1764). + +7. Braddock (with Washington) was next sent against the French, who had +built Fort Duquesne. He was surprised by the Indians (July 9, 1755), +defeated, and killed. + +8. The "French and Indian War" thus opened was fought with varying +success till 1760, when the British held Quebec, Montreal, Fort +Duquesne, and all the other French strongholds in America. In 1763 peace +was made, and nearly all the French possessions east of the Mississippi +River were surrendered to the British. + + * * * * * +THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA: + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND ACADIA: + +King William's War: + + 1690. Sir W. Phips takes Port Royal. + Sir W. Phips attacks Quebec. + Montreal attacked. + 1690-1697. The New York and New England frontier ravaged by the + French and Indians. + 1697. Peace of Ryswick. Port Royal given back to the French. + + +Queen Anne's War. Acadia lost to the French: + + 1702-1713. Frontier of New England ravaged. + 1710. Port Royal again taken. + 1711. Quebec again attacked. + 1713. Peace of Utrecht. Acadia held by the English. + + +King George's War: + + 1744. French attack Canso and Annapolis (Port Royal). + 1745. Louisburg (Cape Breton Island) taken. + 1748. Louisburg given back to the French. + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA. + +Occupation of Louisiana: + + 1699. The French at the mouth of the Mississippi. + 1701. The occupation of the valley begun. + 1701-1748. The chain of forts joining New Orleans and Montreal. + 1749. The French on the Allegheny. Celeron's expedition. The buried + plates. + 1753. The French fortify the Allegheny valley. + + +The French and Indian War: + + 1754-1763. The struggle for final possession. + 1758. The capture of Louisburg. + 1759. The capture of Quebec. + 1760. The capture of Montreal. + 1763. The French abandon America. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 + +%91. Things unknown in 1763.%--Had a traveler landed on our shores in +1763 and made a journey through the English colonies in America, he +would have seen a country utterly unlike the United States of to-day. +The entire population, white man and black, freeman and slave, was not +so great as that of New York or Philadelphia or Chicago in our time. If +we were to write a list of all the things we now consider as real +necessaries of daily life and mark off those unknown to the men of 1763, +not one quarter would remain. No man in the country had ever seen a +stove, or a furnace, or a friction match, or an envelope, or a piece of +mineral coal. From the farmer we should have to take the reaper, the +drill, the mowing machine, and every kind of improved rake and plow, and +give him back the scythe, the cradle, and the flail. From our houses +would go the sewing machine, the daily newspaper, gas, running water; +and from our tables, the tomato, the cauliflower, the eggplant, and many +varieties of summer fruits. We should have to destroy every railroad, +every steamboat, every factory and mill, pull down every line of +telegraph, silence every telephone, put out every electric light, and +tear up every telegraphic cable from the beds of innumerable rivers and +seas. We should have to take ether and chloroform from the surgeon, and +galvanized iron and India rubber from the arts, and give up every sort +of machine moved by steam. + +[Illustration: Lamp and sadiron] + +[Illustration: Postrider (Footnote: From an old print, 1760)] + +%92. State of the Arts, Sciences, and Industry.%--The appliances left +on the list, because in some form they were known to the men of 1763, +would now be thought crude and clumsy. There were printing presses in +those days,--perhaps fifty in all the colonies. But they were small, +were worked by hand, and were so slow that the most expert pressman +using one of them could not have printed so much in three working days +as a modern steam press can run off in five minutes. There was a general +post, and Benjamin Franklin was deputy postmaster-general for the +northern district of the colonies. But the letters were carried thirty +miles a day by postriders on horseback, and there were never more than +three mails a week between even the great towns. Every Monday, +Wednesday, and Friday a postrider left New York city for Philadelphia. +Every Monday and Thursday another left New York for Boston. Once each +week a rider left for Albany on his way to Quebec. On the first +Wednesday of each month a packet boat sailed from New York for Falmouth, +England, with the mail, and this was the only mail between Great Britain +and her American colonies. We put electricity to a thousand uses; but in +1763 it was a scientific toy. Franklin had just proved by his experiment +with the kite that lightning and electricity were one and the same, and +several other men were amusing themselves and their hearers by ringing +bells, exploding powder, and making colored sparks. But it was put to no +other use. If we take up a daily newspaper published in one of our great +cities and read the column of wants, we find in them twenty occupations +now giving a comfortable living to millions of men. Yet not one of these +twenty existed in 1763. The district messenger, the telegraph operator, +the typewriter, the stenographer, the bookkeeper, the canvasser, the +salesman, the commercial traveler, the engineer, the car driver, the +hackman, the conductor, the gripman, the brakeman, the electrician, the +lineman, the elevator boy, and a host of others, follow trades and +occupations which had no existence in the middle of the +eighteenth century. + + Run away, the 23d of this Instant _January_, from _Silas Crispin_ + of _Burlington_, Taylor, a Servant Man named _Joseph Morris, _by + Trade a Taylor, aged about 22 Years, of a middle Stature, swarthy + Complexion, light gray Eyes, his Hair clipp'd off, mark'd with + a large pit of the Small Pox on one Cheek near his Eye, had on + when he went away a good Felt Hat, a yelowish Drugget Coat with + Pleits behind, an old Ozenbrigs Vest, two Ozenbrigs Shirts, a pair + of Leather Breeches handsomely worm'd and flower'd up the Knees, + yarn Stockings and good round toe'd Shoes. Took with him a large + pair of Sheers crack'd in one of the Bows & mark'd with the Word + [_Savoy_]. Whoever takes up the said Servant, and secures him so + that his Matter may have him again, shall have _Three Pounds_ + Reward besides reasonable Charges, paid by me _Silas Griffin._ + + From a Philadelphia newspaper + +%93. Labor.%--On the other hand, if we take up a newspaper of that +day and read the advertisements, we find that a great deal of what +existed then does not exist now. The newspapers were published in a few +of the large towns, and appeared not every day, but once a week. In the +largest of them would be from seventy-five to eighty advertisements, +setting forth that such a merchant had just received from England or the +West Indies a stock of new goods which he would sell for cash; that the +_Charming Nancy_ would sail in a few weeks for Londonderry in Ireland, +or for Barbados, or for Amsterdam in Holland, and wanted a cargo; that a +tract of land or a plantation would be sold "at vendue," or, as we say, +at auction; that a reward of five pistoles would be paid for the arrest +of "a lusty negroe man" or an "indented servant" or an "apprentice lad," +who had run away from his owner or master. Very rarely is a call made +for a mechanic or a workman of any sort. + +[Illustration: From a Philadelphia newspaper] + +The reason for this was two fold. In the first place, negro slavery +existed in all the thirteen colonies. In the second place, there were +thousands of whites in many of the colonies in a state of temporary +servitude, which was sometimes voluntary and sometimes involuntary. + +Those who served against their will were convicts and felons, not only +men and women who had been guilty of stealing, cheating, and the like, +but also forgers, counterfeiters, and murderers, who were transported by +thousands from the English prisons to the colonies and sold into slavery +or service for seven or fourteen years.[1] Advertisements are extant in +which the masters from whom such servants have run away warn the people +to beware of them. + +[Footnote 1: One act of Parliament, for instance, provided that persons +sentenced to be whipped or branded might, if they wished, escape the +punishment by serving seven years in the colonies, and never returning +to England. Another allowed convicts sentenced to death to commute the +sentence by serving fourteen years.] + +But all "indented" or bond servants were not criminals. Many were +reputable persons who sold themselves into service for a term of years +in return for transportation to America. Others, generally boys and +young women, had been kidnaped and sold by the persons who stole them. + +%94. Indentured Servants.%--In the case of such as came voluntarily, +carefully drawn agreements called indentures would be made in writing. +The captain of the ship would agree to bring the emigrant to America. +The emigrant would agree in return to serve the captain three or five +years. When the ship reached port, the captain would advertise the fact +that he had carpenters, tailors, farmers, shoemakers, etc., for sale, +and whoever wanted such labor would go on board the ship and for perhaps +fifty dollars buy a man bound to serve him for several years in return +for food, clothes, and lodging. Not only men, but also women and +children, were sold in this way, and were known as "indented servants," +or "redemptioners," because they redeemed their time of service with +labor. Their lot seems to have been a hard one; for the young men were +constantly running away, and the newspapers are full of advertisements +offering rewards for their arrest. + +What we call the workingman, the day laborer, the mechanic, the mill +hand, had no existence as classes. The great corporations, railroads, +express companies, mills, factories of every sort, which now cover our +land and give employment to five times as many men and women as lived in +all the colonies in 1763, are the creatures of our own time. + +[Illustration: Wigs and wig bag] + +[Illustration: Flax wheel] + +%95. No Manufacturers.%--For this state of things England was largely +to blame. For one hundred years past every kind of manufacture that +could compete with the manufactures of the mother country had been +crushed by law. In order to help her iron makers, she forbade the +colonists to set up iron furnaces and slitting mills. That her cloth +manufacturers might flourish, she forbade the colonists to send their +woolen goods to any country whatever, or even from one colony to +another. Under this law it was a crime to knit a pair of mittens or a +pair of socks and send them from Boston to Providence or from New York +to Newark, or from Philadelphia across the Delaware to New Jersey. In +the interest of English hatters the colonists were not allowed to send +hats to any foreign country, nor from one colony to another, and a +serious effort was made to prevent the manufacture of hats in America. +People in this country were obliged to wear English-made hats. Taking +the country through, every saw, every ax, every hammer, every needle, +pin, tack, piece of tape, and a hundred other articles of daily use came +from Great Britain. + +Every farmhouse, however, was a little factory, and every farmer a +jack-of-all-trades. He and his sons made their own shoes, beat out nails +and spikes, hinges, and every sort of ironmongery, and constructed much +of the household furniture. The wife and her daughters manufactured the +clothing, from dressing the flax and carding the wool to cutting the +cloth; knit the mittens and socks; and during the winter made straw +bonnets to sell in the towns in the spring. + +Even in such towns as were large enough to support a few artisans, each +made, with the help of an apprentice, and perhaps a journeyman, all the +articles he sold. + +[Illustration: Hand loom[1]] + +%96. The Cities.%--If we take a map of our country and run over the +great cities of to-day, we find that except along the seacoast hardly +one existed, in 1765, even in name. Detroit was a little French +settlement surrounded with a high stockade. New Orleans existed, and St. +Louis had just been founded, but they both belonged to Spain. Mobile and +Pensacola and Natchez and Vincennes consisted of a few huts gathered +about old French forts. There was no city, no town worthy of the name, +in the English colonies west of the Alleghany Mountains. Along the +Atlantic coast we find Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, New Haven, New +York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alexandria, Williamsburg, Charleston, +Savannah, and others of less note. But the largest of these were mere +collections of a few hundred houses ranged along streets, none of which +were sewered and few of which were paved or lighted. The watchman went +his rounds at night with rattle and lantern, called out the hours and +the state of the weather, and stopped and demanded the name of every +person found walking the streets after nine o'clock. To travel on Sunday +was a serious and punishable offense, as it was on any day to smoke in +the streets, or run from house to house with hot coals, which in those +days, when there were no matches, were often used instead of flint and +steel to light fires. + +[Footnote 1: From an old loom in the National Museum, Washington.] + +[Illustration: Colonial mansion in Charleston] + +Travel between the large towns was almost entirely by sailing vessel, or +on horseback. The first stagecoach-and-four in New England began its +trips in 1744. The first stage between New York and Philadelphia was not +set up till 1756, and spent three days on the road. + +%97. The Three Groups of Colonies.%--It has always been usual to +arrange the colonies in three groups: 1. The Eastern or New England +Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). +2. The Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and +Delaware). 3. The Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, +South Carolina, and Georgia). Now, this arrangement is good not only +from a geographical point of view, but also because the people, the +customs, the manners, the occupations, in each of these groups were very +unlike the people and the ways of living in the others. + +[Illustration: New England mansion] + +%98. Occupations in New England.%--In New England the colonists were +almost entirely English, though there were some Scotch, some +Scotch-Irish, a few Huguenot refugees from France, and, in Rhode Island, +a few Portuguese Jews. As the climate and soil did not admit of raising +any great staple, such as rice or tobacco, the people "took to the sea." +They cut down trees, with which the land was covered, built ships, and +sailed away to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland for cod, and to the +whale fisheries for oil. They went to the English, Dutch, and Spanish +West Indian Islands, with flour, salt meat, horses, oxen; with salted +salmon, cod, and mackerel; with staves for barrels; with onions and +salted oysters. In return, they came back with sugar, molasses, cotton, +wool, logwood, and Spanish dollars with which the New England Colonies +paid for the goods they took from England. They went to Spain, where +their ships were often sold, the captains chartering English vessels and +coming home with cargoes of goods made in England. Six hundred ships are +said to have been employed in the foreign trade of Boston, and more than +a thousand in the fisheries and the trade along the coast. + +[Illustration: Dutch House at Albany[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print.] + +Farming, outside of Connecticut, yielded little more than a bare +subsistence. Manufactures in general were forbidden by English law. +Paper and hats were made in small quantities, leather was tanned, lumber +was sawed, and rum was distilled from molasses; but it was on homemade +manufactures that the people depended. + +%99. Occupations in the Middle Colonies.%--In the Middle Colonies the +population was a mixture of people from many European countries. The +line of little villages which began at the west end of Long Island and +stretched up the Hudson to Albany, and out the Mohawk to +Schenectady---the settled part of New York--contained Englishmen, +Irishmen, Dutchmen, French Huguenots, Germans from the Rhine countries, +and negroes from Africa. The chief occupations of those people were +farming, making flour, and carrying on an extensive commerce with +England, Spain, and the West Indian Islands. + +[Illustration: Shoes worn by Palatines in Pennsylvania] + +In New Jersey the population was almost entirely English, but in +Pennsylvania it was as mixed as in New York. Around Philadelphia the +English predominated, but with them were mingled Swedes, Dutch, Welsh, +Germans, and Scotch-Irish. Taken together, the Germans and the +Scotch-Irish far outnumbered the English, and made up the mass of the +population between the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna rivers. Both were +self-willed and stubborn, and they were utterly unable to get along +together peaceably, so that their settlements ran across the state in +two parallel bands, in one of which whole regions could be found in +which not a word of English was spoken. Indeed, then, and long after the +nineteenth century began, the laws of Pennsylvania were printed both in +English and in German. The chief occupation of the people was farming; +and it is safe to say that no such farms, no such cattle, no such grain, +flour, provisions, could be found in any other part of the country. +Lumber, too, was cut and sold in great quantities; and along the +frontier there was a lively fur trade with the Indians. At Philadelphia +was centered a fine trade with Europe and the West Indies. Had it not +been for the action of the mother country, manufactures would have +flourished greatly; even as it was, iron and paper were manufactured in +considerable quantities. + +%100. Occupations in the Southern Colonies.%--South of Pennsylvania, +and especially south of the Potomac River, lay a region utterly unlike +anything to the north of it. In Virginia, there were no cities, no large +towns, no centers of population. At an early day in the history of the +colony the legislature had attempted to remedy this, and had ordered +towns to be built at certain places, had made them the only ports where +ships from abroad could be entered, had established tobacco warehouses +in them, had offered special privileges to tradesmen who would settle in +them, and had provided that each should have a market and a fair. But +the success was small, and Fredericksburg and Alexandria and Petersburg +were straggling villages. Jamestown, the old capital, had by this time +ceased to exist. Williamsburg, the new capital, was a village of 200 +houses. There was no business, no incentive in Virginia to build towns. +The planters owned immense plantations along the river banks, and raised +tobacco, which, when gathered, cured, and packed into hogsheads, was +rolled away to the nearest wharf for inspection and shipment to London. +In those early days, when good roads were unknown and wagons few, shafts +were attached to each hogshead by iron bolts driven into the heads, and +the cask was thus turned into a huge roller. With each year's crop would +go a long list of articles of every sort,--hardware, glass, crockery, +clothing, furniture, household utensils, wines,--which the agent was +instructed to buy with the proceeds of the tobacco and send back to the +planter when the ships came a year later for another crop. The country +abounded in trees, yet tables, chairs, boxes, cart wheels, bowls, birch +brooms, all came from the mother country. The wood used for building +houses was actually cut, sent to England as logs to be dressed, and then +taken back to Virginia for use. + +[Illustration: Tobacco rolling[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum, Washington.] + +Maryland was in the same condition. Her people raised tobacco, and with +it bought their clothing, household goods, brass and copper wares, and +iron utensils in Great Britain. + +In South Carolina rice was the great staple, just as tobacco was the +staple of Virginia, and there too were large plantations and no towns. +All the social, commercial, legal, and political life of the colony +centered in Charleston, from which a direct trade was carried on +with London. + +[Illustration: %An old Maryland manor house%] + +Labor on the plantations of Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia was +performed exclusively by negro slaves and redemptioners. + +%101. Civil Government in the English Colonies.%--If we arrange the +colonies according to the kind of civil government in each, we find that +they fall into three classes: + +1. The charter colonies (Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island). + +2. The proprietary colonies (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland). + +3. The royal, or provincial, colonies (New Hampshire, New York, New +Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia). + +The charters of the first group were written contracts between the King +and the colonists, defined the share each should have in the government, +and were not to be changed without the consent of both parties. In +colonies of the second group some individual, called the proprietary, +was granted a great tract of land by the King, and, under a royal +charter, was given power to sell the land to settlers, establish +government, and appoint the governors of his colony. In the third group, +the King appointed the governors and instructed them as to the way in +which he wished his colonies to be ruled. + +With these differences, all the colonies had the same form of +government. In each there was a legislature elected by the people; in +each the right to vote was limited to men who owned land, paid taxes, +had a certain yearly income, and were members of some Christian church. +The legislature consisted of two branches: the lower house, to which the +people elected delegates; and the upper house, or council, appointed by +the governor. These legislatures could do many things, but their powers +were limited and their acts were subject to review: 1. They could do +nothing contrary to the laws of England. 2. Whatever they did could be +vetoed by the governors, and no bill could be passed over the veto. 3. +All laws passed by a colonial legislature (except in the case of +Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland), and approved by a governor, +must even then be sent to England to be examined by the King in Council, +and could be "disallowed" or vetoed by the King at any time within three +years. This power was used so constantly that the colonial legislatures, +in time, would pass laws to run for two years, and when that time +expired would reenact them for two years more, and so on in order to +avoid the veto. In this way the colonists became used to three political +institutions which were afterwards embodied in what is now the American +system of state and national government: 1. The written constitution +defining the powers of government. 2. The exercise of the veto power by +the governor. 3. The setting aside of laws by a judicial body from whose +decision there is no appeal. + +%102. The Colonial Governors.%--The governor of a royal province was +the personal representative of the King, and as such had vast power. +The legislature could meet only when he called it. He could at any +moment prorogue it (that is, command it to adjourn to a certain day) or +dissolve it, and, if the King approved, he need never call it together +again. He was the chief justice of the highest colonial court, he +appointed all the judges, and, as commander in chief of the militia, +appointed all important officers. Yet even he was subject to some +control, for his salary was paid by the colony over which he ruled, and, +by refusing to pay this salary, the legislature could, and over and over +again did, force him to approve acts he would not otherwise have +sanctioned. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the people elected the +governors. This right once existed also in Massachusetts; but when the +old charter was swept away in 1684, and replaced by a new one in 1691, +the King was given power to appoint the governor, who could summon, +dissolve, and prorogue the legislature at his pleasure. + +%103. Lords of Trade and Plantations.%--That the King should give +personal attention to all the details of government in his colonies in +America, was not to be expected. In 1696, therefore, a body called the +Lords of the Board of Trade and Plantations was commissioned by the King +to do this work for him. These Lords of Trade corresponded with the +governors, made recommendations, bade them carry out this or that +policy, veto this or that class of laws, examined all the laws sent over +by the legislatures, and advised the King as to which should be +disallowed, or vetoed. + +In the early years of our colonial history the Parliament of England had +no share in the direction of colonial affairs. It was the King who owned +all the land, made all the grants, gave all the charters, created all +the colonies, governed many of them, and stoutly denied the right of +Parliament to meddle. But when Charles I. was beheaded, the Long +Parliament took charge of the management of affairs in this country, and +although much of it went back to the King at the Restoration in 1660, +Parliament still continued to legislate for the colonies in a few +matters. Thus, for instance, Parliament by one act established the +postal service, and fixed the rates of postage; by another it regulated +the currency, and by another required the colonists to change from the +Old Style to the New Style--that is, to stop using the Julian calendar +and to count time in future by the Gregorian calendar; by another it +established a uniform law of naturalization; and from time to time it +passed acts for the purpose of regulating colonial trade. + +%104. Acts of Trade and Navigation.%--The number of these acts is +very large; but their purpose was four fold: + +1. They required that colonial trade should be carried on in ships built +and owned in England or in the colonies, and manned to the extent of two +thirds of the crew by English subjects. + +2. They provided a long list of colonial products that should not be +sent to any foreign ports other than a port of England. Goods or +products not in the list might be sent to any other part of the world. +Thus tobacco, sugar, indigo, copper, furs, rice (if the rice was for a +port north of Cape Finisterre), must go to England; but lumber, salt +fish, and provisions might go (in English or colonial ships) to France, +or Spain, or to other foreign countries. + +3. When trade began to spring up between the colonies, and the New +England merchants were competing in the colonial markets with English +merchants, an act was passed providing that if a product which went from +one colony to another was of a kind that might have been supplied from +England, it must either go to the mother country and then to the +purchasing colony, or pay an export duty at the port where it was +shipped, equal to the import duty it would have to pay in England. + +4. No goods were allowed to be carried from any place in Europe to +America unless they were first landed at a port in England.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Edward Eggleston's papers in the _Century Magazine_, 1884; +Scudder's _Men and Manners One Hundred Years Ago_; Lodge's _English +Colonies_.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. The men who began the long struggle for the rights of Englishmen +lived in a state of society very different from ours, and were utterly +ignorant of most of the commonest things we use in daily life. + +2. Labor was performed by slaves, by criminals sent over to the colonies +and sold, and by "indented servants," or "redemptioners." + +3. Manufactures were forbidden by the laws of trade. Nobody was +permitted to manufacture iron beyond the state of pig or bar iron, or +make woolen goods for export, or make hats. + +4. Taking the colonies in geographical groups, the Eastern were engaged +in fishing, in commerce, and in farming; the Middle Colonies were +agricultural and commercial; the Southern were wholly agricultural, and +raised two great, staples--rice and tobacco. + +5. As a consequence, town life existed in the Eastern and Middle +Colonies, and was little known in the South, particularly in Virginia. + +6. Over the colonies, as a great governing body to aid the King, were +the Lords of Trade and Plantations in London. Under them in America were +the royal and proprietary governors, who with the local colonial +legislatures managed the affairs of the colonies. + + +LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763. + + + +_Social and Industrial Condition_. + + +Population. +Implements and inventions unknown. +The printing press. +The postal service. +Trades and occupations then unknown. + +Labor.}The apprentice. + }The "indented servant." + }The redemptioner. + }The slave. + +No manufactures. }Iron making +Acts of trade regulating. }Cloth making. +The cities. }Hat making. + +Travel. +The Navigation Acts. +State of agriculture. + + + +_Government_. + +The charter colonies. +The proprietary colonies. +The royal colonies. +The colonial governor. +The Lords of Trade and Plantations. +The King. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" + +%105. The New Provinces.%--The acquisition of Canada and the +Mississippi valley made it necessary for England to provide for their +defense and government. To do this she began by establishing three new +provinces. + +In Canada she marked out the province of Quebec, part of the south +boundary of which is now the north boundary of New York, Vermont, New +Hampshire, and Maine. + +In the South, out of the territory given by Spain, she made two +provinces, East and West Florida. The north boundary of West Florida was +(1764) a parallel of latitude through the junction of the Yazoo and +Mississippi rivers. The north boundary of East Florida was part of the +boundary of the present state. The territory between the Altamaha and +the St. Marys rivers was "annexed to Georgia." + +%106. The Proclamation Line.%--By the same proclamation which +established these provinces, a line was drawn around the head waters of +all the rivers in the United States which flow into the Atlantic Ocean, +and the colonists were forbidden to settle to the west of it. All the +valley from the Great Lakes to West Florida, and from the proclamation +line to the Mississippi, was set apart for the Indians. + +%107. The Country to be defended.%--Having thus provided for the +government of the newly acquired territory, it next became necessary to +provide for its defense; for nobody doubted that both France and Spain +would some day attempt to regain their lost possessions. Arrangements +were therefore made to bring over an army of 10,000 regular troops, +scatter them over the country from Canada to Florida, and maintain +them partly at the expense of the colonies and partly at the expense of +the crown. + +[Illustration: THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764] + +The share to be paid by the colonies was to be raised + +1. By enforcing the old trade and navigation laws. + +2. By a tax on sugar and molasses brought into the country. + +3. By a stamp tax. + +%108. Trial without Jury.%--In order to enforce the old laws, naval +vessels were sent to sail up and down the coast and catch smugglers. +Offenders when seized were to be tried in some vice-admiralty court, +where they could not have trial by jury.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This is one of the things complained of in the Declaration +of Independence.] + +%109. The Sugar Act and Stamp Tax.%--The Sugar Act was not a new +grievance. In 1733 Parliament laid a tax of 6_d_. a gallon on molasses +and 5_s_. per hundredweight on sugar brought into this country from any +other place than the British West Indies. This was to force the +colonists to buy their sugar and molasses from nobody but British sugar +planters. After having expired five times and been five times reenacted, +the Sugar Act expired for the sixth time in 1763, and the colonies +begged that it might not be renewed. But Parliament merely reduced the +molasses duty to 3_d_. and laid new duties on coffee, French and East +Indian goods, indigo, white sugar, and Spanish and Portuguese wines. It +then resolved that "for further defraying the expense of protecting the +colonists it would be necessary to charge certain stamp duties in the +colonies." + +At that time, 1764, no such thing as an internal tax laid by Parliament +for the purpose of raising revenue existed, or ever had existed, in +America. Money for the use of the King had always been raised by taxes +imposed by the legislatures of the colonies. The moment, therefore, the +people heard that this money was to be raised in future by parliamentary +taxation, they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed +their business agents in London to protest. + +This the agents did in February, 1765. But Grenville, the Prime +Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 1765, Parliament +passed the Stamp Act[1]. + +[Footnote 1: The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in +_American History Leaflets_, No. 21. For an excellent account of the +causes and consequences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's _England in the +Eighteenth Century_, Vol. III., Chap. 12; Frothingham's _Rise of the +Republic of the United States_, Chap. 5; Channing's _The United States +of America, 1765-1865_, pp. 41-50.] + +%110. The Stamp Distributors.%--That the collection of the new duty +might give as little offense to the colonists as possible, Grenville +desired that the stamps and the stamped paper should be sold by +Americans, and invited the agents of the colonies to name men to be +"stamp distributors" in their colonies. The law was to go into effect on +the 1st of November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every +piece of paper, on which was written any legal document for use in any +court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three pence to ten +pounds sterling. After that day, every license, bond, deed, warrant, +bill of lading, indenture, every pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of +cards, must be written or printed on stamped paper to be made in England +and sold at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the +case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.[2] + +[Footnote: The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed +to fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and +printed documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which +were the words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were +stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used +at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum +and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the +parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass. A design was then +impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used +by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal +documents. When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a +little piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp. On this +white piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second +picture on p. 113, the monogram "G. R." meaning Georgius Rex, or +King George.] + +[Illustration: Stamps used in 1765] + +The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to England, but was to +be spent in America for the defense of the colonies. Nevertheless, the +colonists were determined that none should be raised. The question was +not, Shall America support an army? but, Shall Parliament tax America? + +%111. The Virginia Resolutions.%--In opposition to this, Virginia now +led the way with a set of resolutions. In the House of Burgesses, as the +popular branch of her legislature was called, was Patrick Henry, the +greatest orator in the colonies. By dint of his fiery words, he forced +through a set of resolutions setting forth + +1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them "all the +privileges and immunities that have at any time been held" by "the +people of Great Britain." + +2. That their descendants held these rights. + +3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared +entitled to all the rights of Englishmen "born within the realm +of England." + +4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed "by their own +Assembly." + +5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent +of their Assembly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's manuscript +copy, are in Channing's _The United States of America, 1765-1865, _pp. +51, 52. They were passed May 29, 1765.] + +Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York +city. + +%112. Stamp-act Congress.%--To the congress thus called came +delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North +Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, on the 5th of +October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the +delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Massachusetts, New +York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a +"Declaration of Rights and Grievances." [1] + +[Footnote 1: This declaration is printed in full in Preston's _Documents +Illustrative of American History_, pp. 188-191.] + +%113. Declaration of Rights.%--The ground taken in the declaration +was: + +1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown. + +2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes +unless he had a voice in laying them. + +3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament. + +4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt +to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of +self-government. + +%114. Grievances.%--The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation +without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty +courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade. + +%115. The English View of Representation.%--We, in this country, do +not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a +vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals +but classes were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the +bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who +had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the +commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few +Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities +like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When +the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because +they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that +they were represented, because they were commoners. + +%116. Sons of Liberty.%--Meantime, the colonists had not been idle. +Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech +by a member of Parliament (named Barre) friendly to their cause, they +began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were +content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial +agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the +people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New +London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at +Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and +more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced +to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and +no stamps." + +%117. November 1, 1765.%--As the 1st of November, the day on which +the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared +decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary +notices. The _Pennsylvania Journal_ dropped its usual heading, and in +place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this +motto, "Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again." In one +corner was a coffin, and the words, "The last remains of the +_Pennsylvania Journal_, which departed this life the 31st of October, +1765, of a stamp in her vitals. Aged 23 years." The _Pennsylvania +Gazette_, on November 7, the day of its first issue after the Stamp Act +became law, published a half sheet, printed on one side, without any +heading, and in its place the words, "No stamped paper to be had." +During the next six months, every scrap of stamped paper that was heard +of was hunted up and given to the flames. Thus, when a vessel from +Barbados, with a stamped newspaper published on that island, reached +Philadelphia, the paper was seized and burned, one evening, at the +coffeehouse, in the presence of a great crowd. A vessel having put in +from Halifax, a rumor spread that the captain had brought stamped paper +with him, and was going to use it for his Philadelphia clearance. This +so enraged the people that the vessel was searched, and a sheet of paper +with three stamps on it was found, and burned at the coffee-house. + +%118. Non-importation Agreements.%--Meantime, the merchants in the +larger towns, and the people all over the country, had been making +written agreements not to import any goods from England for some +months to come. + +The effect of this measure was immense. Not a merchant nor a +manufacturer in Great Britain, engaged in the colonial trade, but found +his American orders canceled and his goods left on his hands. Not a ship +returned from this country but carried back English wares which it had +brought here to sell, but for which no purchaser could be found. + +%119. Stamp Act repealed.%--When Parliament met in December, 1765, +such a cry of distress came up from the manufacturing cities of England, +that Parliament was forced to yield, and in March, 1766, the Stamp Act +was repealed. In the outburst of joy which followed in America, the +intent and meaning of another act passed at the same time was little +heeded. In it was the declaration that Parliament did have the right to +tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." + +%120. The Townshend Acts.%--If the people thought this declaration +had no meaning, they were much mistaken, for next year (1767) Parliament +passed what have since been called the Townshend Acts. There were three +of them. One forbade the legislature of New York to pass any more laws +till it had provided the royal troops in the city with beds, candles, +fire, vinegar, and salt, as required by what was called the Mutiny Act. +The second established at Boston a Board of Commissioners of the Customs +to enforce the laws relating to trade. The third laid taxes on glass, +red and white lead, painter's colors, paper, and tea. None of these +taxes was heavy. But again the right of Parliament to tax people not +represented in it had been asserted, and again the colonists rose in +resistance. The legislature of Massachusetts sent a letter to each of +the other colonial legislatures, urging them to unite and consult for +the protection of their rights. Pennsylvania sent protests to the King +and to Parliament. The merchants all over the country renewed their old +agreements not to import British goods, and many a shipload was sent +back to England. + +%121. Colonial Legislatures dissolved.%[1]--The letter of +Massachusetts to the colonial legislatures having given great offense to +the King, the governors were ordered to see to it that the legislatures +did not approve it. But the order came too late. Many had already done +so, and as a punishment the assemblies of Maryland and Georgia were +dismissed and the members sent home. To dissolve assemblies became of +frequent occurrence. The legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved +because it refused to recall the letter. That of New York was repeatedly +dissolved for refusing to provide the royal troops with provisions. That +of Virginia was dismissed for complaining of the treatment of New York. + +[Footnote 1: One of the charges against the King in the Declaration of +Independence.] + +%122. Boston Riot of 1770.%--And now the troops intended for the +defense of the colonies began to arrive. But Massachusetts, North +Carolina, and South Carolina followed the example of New York, and +refused to find them quarters. For this the legislature of North +Carolina was dissolved. Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave +great offense; but in Boston the people were less patient than +elsewhere. They accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the +town; of desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of striking +citizens who insulted them; and of using language violent, threatening, +and profane. In this state of feeling, an alarm of fire called the +people into the streets on the night of March 5, 1770. The alarm was +false, and a crowd of men and boys, having nothing to do, amused +themselves by annoying a sentinel on guard at one of the public +buildings. He called for help, and a corporal and six men were soon on +the scene. But the crowd would not give way. Forty or fifty men came +armed with sticks and pressed around the soldiers, shouting, "Rascals! +Lobsters! Bloody-backs!" throwing snowballs and occasionally a stone, +till in the excitement of the moment a soldier fired his gun. The rest +followed his example, and when the reports died away, five of the +rioters lay on the ground dead or dying, and six more dangerously +wounded.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by +John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. The +rest were acquitted. On the massacre read Frothingham's _Life of +Warren,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Kidder's _The Boston Massacre_; Joseph Warren's +Oration on March 6, 1775, in _Library of American Literature_, Vol. +III., p. 256.] + +This riot, this "Boston Massacre," or, as the colonists delighted to +call it, "the bloody massacre," excited and aroused the whole land, +forced the government to remove the soldiers from Boston to an island in +the bay, and did more than anything else which had yet happened, to help +on the Revolution. + +%123. Tea sent to America and not received.%--While these things were +taking place in America--indeed, on the very day of the Boston riot--a +motion was made in Parliament for the repeal of all the taxes laid by +the Townshend Acts except that on tea. The tea tax of 3d. a pound, +payable in the colonies, was retained in order that the right of +Parliament to tax America might be vindicated. But the people held fast +to their agreements not to consume articles taxed by Great Britain. No +tea was drunk, save such as was smuggled from Holland, and at the end of +three years' time the East India Company had 17,000,000 pounds of tea +stored in its warehouses (1773). This was because the company was not +permitted to send tea out of England. It might only bring tea to London +and there sell it at public sale to merchants and shippers, who exported +it to America. But now when the merchants could not find anybody to buy +tea in the colonies, they bought less from the company, and the tea lay +stored in its warehouses. To relieve the company, and if possible tempt +the people to use the tea, the exportation tax was taken off and the +company was given leave to export tea to America consigned to +commissioners chosen by itself. Taking off the shilling a pound export +tax in England, and charging but 3d. import tax in America, made it +possible for the company to sell tea cheaper than could the merchants +who smuggled it. Yet even this failed. The people forced the tea +commissioners to resign or send the tea ships back to England. In +Charleston, S.C., the tea was landed and stored for three years, when it +was sold by South Carolina. In Philadelphia the people met, and having +voted that the tea should not be landed, they stopped the ship as it +came up the Delaware, and sent it back to London. + +%124. The Boston Tea Party.%--At Boston also the people tried to send +the tea ships to England, but the authorities would not allow them to +leave, whereupon a band of young men disguised as Indians boarded the +vessels, broke open the boxes, and threw the tea into the water. + +%125. The Five Intolerable Acts.%--When Parliament heard of these +events, it at once determined to punish Massachusetts, and in order to +do this passed five laws which were so severe that the colonists called +them the "Intolerable Acts." They are generally known as + +1. The Boston Port Bill, which shut the port of Boston to trade and +commerce, forbade ships to come in or go out, and moved the customhouse +to Marblehead. + +2. The Transportation Bill, which gave the governor power to send +anybody accused of murder in resisting the laws, to another colony or to +England for trial. + +3. The Massachusetts Bill, which changed the old charter of +Massachusetts, provided for a military governor, and forbade the people +to hold public meetings for any other purpose than the election of town +officers, without permission from the governor. + +4. The Quartering Act, which legalized the quartering of troops on the +people. + +5. The Quebec Act, which enlarged the province of Quebec (pp. 111, 124) +to include all the territory between the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, +the Mississippi River, and Pennsylvania. This territory was claimed by +Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia under their "sea to sea" +charters (pp. 33, 46, 52, 156). + +%126. A Congress called.%--When the Virginia legislature in May, +1774, heard of the passage of the Boston Port Bill, it passed a +resolution that the day on which the law went into effect in Boston +should be a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" in Virginia. For +this the governor at once dissolved the legislature. But the members met +and instructed a committee to correspond with the other colonies on the +expediency of holding another general congress of delegates. All the +colonies approved, and New York requested Massachusetts to name the time +and place of meeting. This she did, selecting Philadelphia as the place, +and September 1, 1774, as the time. + +%127. The First Continental Congress.%--From September 5 to October +26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every colony except +Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at Philadelphia, and issued: + +1. An address to the people of the colonies. +2. An address to the Canadians. +3. An address to the people of Great Britain. +4. An address to the King. +5. A declaration of rights. + +%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]--In this declaration the rights +of the colonists were asserted to be: + +1. Life, liberty, and property. +2. To tax themselves. +3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances. +4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the +colonial charters. + +[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 192-198. The best +account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's _Rise of the +Republic of the United States,_ Chaps. 5-11.] + +These rights it was declared had been violated: + +1. By taxing the people without their consent. +2. By dissolving assemblies. +3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace. +4. By trying men without a jury. +5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts. + +Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress +should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of +the petition to the King. + + +SUMMARY + +1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the +Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did +three things: + +A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, +and the Indian country. + +B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the +Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial +governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west +of this line. + +C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take +possession of the new territory and defend the colonies. + +2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by +taxing the colonists. This she had never done before. + +3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the +colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it. + +4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that +body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts." +But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed +all the Townshend duties except that on tea. + +5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India +Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to +which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back. + +6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed the +Intolerable Acts. + +7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First +Continental Congress. + + + /---------------------------------------------\ + France Spain + /----------------\ /-------\ + Cape Breton. Florida + Canada. + Louisiana east of + the Mississippi. + \-------------------------------------------- + and cuts the new territory (1763) into + Province of Quebec, + East Florida, + West Florida, + Indian country, + and draws proclamation line + limiting colonies in the west. + \-------------------------------/ + New colonial policy necessary. +/----------------------------------------------\ +Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops. +Cost of troops to be paid + | + |--------------------------------------------- +Partly by crown. Partly by colonies. + | + /---------------------------------- + Share of colonies to be raised by + Enforcing acts of trade and navigation. + Taxes on sugar and molasses. + Stamp tax (1765). +/---------------------------^--------------------------------\ +Resisted. Principle involved. +Action of Virginia and Massachusetts. +Stamp Act Congress. +Act repealed (1766). +Declaratory Act (1766). +--------------- / \ + | | Glass. | + | | Red and white lead. | +--------------- | Painters' colors | Resisted and repealed (1770) +Townshend Acts | Paper. | + (1767). | Tea. / + \ + /--------^-------\ + Enforced. + Resisted (1773). + Resistance / \ + punished by | Five Intoler- | Continental + | able Acts. | Congress called(1774). + \ / + + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE + +[Illustration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord] + +%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to +petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts +Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of +Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly +to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the +people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city, +and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly +could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation, +but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At +Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out +the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military +stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were +ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be +ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be +enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number +to 20,000. + +[Illustration: Map of Country around Boston] + +%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went +actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and +military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and +at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18, +1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town +some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition +secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became +known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men +in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at +Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people, +the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North +Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights +were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do +their work.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has +become best known because of Longfellow's poem, _Paul Revere's Ride._ +Read it. ] + +The road taken by the British lay through the little village of +Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about +sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a +little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting +house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a +volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to +Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and +powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse, +and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had +indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men +came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and +from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the +retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight +would have ended in capture had they not been reenforced by 900 men at +Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by +sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from +every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were +gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British +in Boston. + +[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, _Concord Hymn._ ] + +[Footnote 3: Force's _American Archives,_ Vol. II.; Hudson's _History of +Lexington,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's _Battle of Lexington;_ Shattuck's +_History of Concord,_ Chap. 7. ] + +When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys +of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort +Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. + +%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%--The first Continental +Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views +of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and +Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed +May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to +consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came, +Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and +Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and assume +the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing +body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself. + +%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%--After a month's delay it did +adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the +Continental Army, and elected George Washington, then a delegate in +Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military +skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was +thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then +the most populous of the colonies. + +Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June +21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met +by the news of Bunker Hill. + +%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%--On a narrow peninsula to the +north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile +wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills. +The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was +Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the +British ships lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much +importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the +hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of +June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott +passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a +large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British +opened fire from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in +spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of +intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the +water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in +the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from +Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep +side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not +to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a +shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then +a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew +away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great +effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second +time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted +the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up +for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with +gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It +proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible, +and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight. + +[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British +troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.] + +[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.] + +%134. Washington takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle +Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath +an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a +plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many +men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and +sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for +eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained +and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies. + +%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy +Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of +Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard +Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another, +under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine, +and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined +Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted +Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually +entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack +failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada. + +[Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument] + +%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight +months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized +Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so +gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for +the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to +attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed +with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the +British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April, +1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills. + +%137. Independence resolved on.%--Just one year had now passed since +the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the +colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had no thought of +independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the +King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any +reconciliation: + +1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels. + +2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade +with them. + +3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them. + +[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small +German states.] + +These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15, +1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of +authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments +of their own and so become states. + +On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from +Virginia, offered this resolution: + + Resolved + + That these United Colonies are, and of + right ought to be, free and independent states, that + they are absolved from all allegiance to the British + Crown, and that all political connection between them + and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, + totally dissolved. + +Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and +Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin +Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were +appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in +case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the +committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July +2, Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United +Colonies became free and independent states. + +[Illustration: Campaigns of 1775-1776] + +[Illustration: %The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From the _Columbian Magazine_ of July, 1787. The tower +faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For +the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's _Independence Hall._] + +%138. Independence declared.%--Independence having thus been decreed, +the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says +in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events, +it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands +which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the +opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which +impel them to the separation." It was this "decent respect to the +opinions of mankind," therefore, which now led Congress, on July 4, +1776, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to +the states. Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it +was read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.[1] When +the reading was finished, the people went off to pull down the royal +arms in the court room, while the great bell in the tower, the bell +which had been cast twenty-four years before with the prophetic words +upon its side, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof," rang out a joyful peal, for then were announced to +the world the new political truths, "that all men are created equal," +and "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable +rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness." + +[Footnote 1: The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up +there in 1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit +of Venus.] + +[Illustration: The royal arms] + +%139. The Retreat up the Hudson.%--A few days later the Declaration +was read to the army at New York. The wisdom of Washington in going to +New York was soon manifest, for in July General Howe, with a British +army of 25,000 men, encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to +Long Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn +Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Washington, leaving his camp +fires burning, crossed with his army to New York. + +Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from New York to +White Plains; carried Fort Washington, on the New York shore, by storm +(November 16, 1776); and sent a force across the Hudson under cover of +darkness and storm to capture Fort Lee. But the British were detected in +the very nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning +and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N. J. + +%140. The Retreat across the Jerseys.%--Washington, meanwhile, had +gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New Jersey, leaving 7000 men +under Charles Lee in New York state at North Castle. These men he now +ordered Lee to bring over to Hackensack, but the jealous and mutinous +Lee refused to obey. This forced Washington to begin his famous retreat +across the Jerseys, going first to Newark, then to New Brunswick, then +to Trenton, and then over the Delaware into Pennsylvania, with the +British under Cornwallis in hot pursuit. + +[Illustration] + +%141. The Surprise at Trenton.%--Lee crossed the Hudson and went to +Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobedience speedily +overtook him. One night while he was at an inn outside of his lines, +some British dragoons made him a prisoner of war. The capture of Lee +left Sullivan in command, and by him the troops were hurried off to join +Washington. Thus reenforced, Washington turned on the enemy, and on +Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the Delaware, +marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of Hessians, took 1000 +prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania. + +The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the people could not +believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians had to be marched +through the streets of Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to +Baltimore (whither Congress had fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in +the hall of Congress. When the people were convinced of the truth of the +report, their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the +Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the New England +troops, whose time of service was out, were persuaded to stay six weeks +longer, and, December 30, 1776, Washington again entered Trenton. + +Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the Hessians, came +thundering down from New Brunswick with 8000 men and hemmed in the +Americans between his army and the Delaware. But on the night of January +2, 1777, Washington slipped away, passed around Cornwallis, hurried to +Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to rout three +regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was not aware that the +Americans had left his front till he heard the firing in his rear, fell +back to New Brunswick, while Washington marched unmolested to +Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter. + +%142. The Capture of Philadelphia.%--Late in May, 1777, Washington +entered New York state. But Howe paid little attention to this movement, +for he had fully determined to attack and capture Philadelphia, and on +July 23 set sail from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its +progress was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the news +of its position was carried inland by messengers. At the end of a week +the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to +sail up the river, the fleet went to sea and was lost to sight. +Washington, who had hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss +what to do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard +that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once marched to +Wilmington, Del. + +[Illustration] + +It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and began moving +toward Washington, who, lest the British should push by him, fell back +from Wilmington, to a place called Chadds Ford on the Brandywine, where, +on September 11, 1777, a battle was fought.[1] The Americans were +defeated and retreated in good order to Chester, and the next day +Washington entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that +another battle should be fought before the city was given up, and after +a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again faced the enemy. A +violent storm ruined the ammunition of both armies and prevented a +battle, and the Americans retreated across the Schuylkill at a point +farther up the stream. + +[Footnote: 1 Among the wounded in this battle was a brilliant young +Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, who, early in 1777, came to America +and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer without pay.] + +Congress, which had returned to Philadelphia from Baltimore, now fled to +Lancaster and later to York, Pa., and (September 26, 1777) Howe entered +Philadelphia in triumph. October 4, Washington attacked him at +Germantown, but was repulsed, and went into winter quarters at +Valley Forge. + +[Illustration] + +%143. New York invaded.%--Though Washington had been defeated in the +battles around Philadelphia, and had been forced to give that city to +the British, his campaign made it possible for the Americans to win +another glorious victory in the north. At the beginning of 1777 the +British had planned to conquer New York and so cut the Eastern States +off from the Middle States. To accomplish this, a great army under John +Burgoyne was to come up to Albany by way of Lake Champlain. Another, +under Colonel St. Leger, was to go up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario +to Oswego and come down to Mohawk valley to Albany; while the third +army, under Howe, was to go up the Hudson from New York and meet +Burgoyne at Albany. True to this plan, Burgoyne came up Lake Champlain, +took Ticonderoga (July 5), and, driving General Schuyler before him, +reached Fort Edward late in July. There he heard that the Americans had +collected some supplies at Bennington, a little village in the +southwestern corner of Vermont, whither he sent 1000 men. But Colonel +John Stark met and utterly destroyed them on August 16. Meanwhile St. +Leger, as planned, had landed at Oswego, and on August 3 laid siege to +Fort Stanwix, which then stood on the site of the present city of Rome, +N.Y. On the 6th the garrison sallied forth, attacked a part of St. +Leger's camp, and carried off five British flags. These they hoisted +upside down on their ramparts, and high above them raised a new flag +which Congress had adopted in June, and which was then for the first +time flung to the breeze. + +[Illustration: Flag of the East India Company] + +%144. Our National Flag.%--It was our national flag, the stars and +stripes, and was made of a piece of a blue jacket, some strips of a +white shirt, and some scraps of old red flannel.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The flags used by the continental troops between 1775 and +1777 were of at least a dozen different patterns. A colored plate +showing most of them is given in Treble's _Our Flag_, p. 142. In 1776, +in January, Washington used one at Cambridge which seems to have been +suggested by the ensign of the East India Company. That of this company +was a combination of thirteen horizontal red and white stripes (seven +red and six white) and the red cross of St. George. That of Washington +was the same, with the British Union Jack substituted for the cross of +St. George. After the Declaration of Independence, the British Jack was +out of place on our flag; and in June, 1777, Congress adopted a union of +thirteen white stars in a circle, on a blue ground, in place of the +British Union. After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted, in 1791 and +1792, the stars and stripes were each increased to fifteen. In 1818, the +original number of stripes was restored, and since that time each new +state, when admitted, is represented by a star and not by a stripe.] + +[Illustration: Flag of the United Colonies] + +[Illustration: British Union Jack] + +%145. Capture of Burgoyne.%--When Schuyler heard of the siege of +Fort Stanwix, he sent Benedict Arnold to relieve it, and St. Leger fled +to Oswego. Then was the time for the expedition from New York to have +hurried to Burgoyne's aid. But Howe and his army were then at sea. No +help was given to Burgoyne, who, after suffering defeats at Bemis +Heights (September 19) and at Stillwater (October 7), retreated to +Saratoga, where (October 17, 1777) he surrendered his army of 6000 men +to General Horatio Gates, whom Congress, to its shame, had just put in +the place of Schuyler. Gates deserves no credit for the capture. Arnold +and Daniel Morgan deserve it, and deserve much; for, judged by its +results, Saratoga was one of the great battles of the world. The results +of the surrender were four fold: + +1. It saved New York state. +2. It destroyed the plan for the war. +3. It induced the King to offer us peace with representation in +Parliament, or anything else we wanted except independence. +4. It secured for us the aid of France. + +[Illustration: %Flag of the United States, 1777%] + +%146. Valley Forge.%--The winter at Valley Forge marks the darkest +period of the war. It was a season of discouragement, when mean spirits +grew bold. Some officers of the army formed a plot, called from one of +them the "Conway cabal," to displace Washington and put Gates in +command. The country people, tempted by British gold, sent their +provisions into Philadelphia and not to Valley Forge. There the +suffering of the half-clad, half-fed, ill-housed patriots surpasses +description. + +But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Then it was that an able +Prussian soldier, Baron Steuben, joined the army, turned the camp into a +school, drilled the soldiers, and made the army better than ever. Then +it was that France acknowledged our independence, and joined us in +the war. + +%147. France acknowledges our Independence.%--In October, 1776, +Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to persuade the French +King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne surrendered and Great Britain +offered peace, Franklin found all his efforts vain.[1] But now, when it +seemed likely that the states might again be brought under the British +crown, the French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent +nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce (February 6, +1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us. + +[Footnote 1: For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's _With +the Fathers_, pp. 253-270.] + +%148. The British leave Philadelphia.%--Hearing of the approach of +the French fleet, Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had succeeded Howe in +command, left Philadelphia and hurried to the defense of New York. +Washington followed, and, coming up with the rear guard of the enemy at +Monmouth in New Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have +gained a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in +command.[2] Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, which was +fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by Washington, who came on +the field in time to stop it. + +[Footnote 2: After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from +December, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a +British officer.] + +After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where Washington +partially surrounded them by stretching out his army from Morristown in +New Jersey to West Point on the Hudson. + +%149. Stony Point.%--In hope of drawing Washington away from New +York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to plunder and ravage the +farms and towns of Connecticut. But Washington soon brought it back by +dispatching Anthony Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July, +1779) by one of the most brilliant assaults in military history. + +%150. Indian Raids.%--That nothing might be wanting to make the +suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians were let +loose. Led by a Tory[1] named Butler, a band of whites and Indians of +the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations[2] marched from Fort Niagara to +Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, and there perpetrated one +of the most awful massacres in history. Another party, led by a son of +Butler, repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y. + +[Footnote 1: Not all the colonists desired independence. Those who +remained loyal to the King were called Tories.] + +[Footnote 2: By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras +to their confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations.] + +%151. George Rogers Clark%.--Meantime the British commander at +Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the West to attack the +whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of this, George Rogers Clark +of Virginia marched into the enemy's country, and in two fine campaigns +in 1778-1779 beat the British, and conquered the country from the Ohio +to the Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi. + +%152. Sullivan's Expedition%.--In 1779 it seemed so important to +punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres that +General Sullivan with an army invaded the territory of the Six Nations, +in central New York, burned some forty Indian villages, and utterly +destroyed the Indian power in that state. + +%153. The South invaded%.--For a year and more there had been a lull +in military operations on the part of the British. But they now began an +attack in a new quarter. Having failed to conquer New England in +1775-1776, having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they +sent an expedition against the South in December, 1778. Success attended +it. Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal governor +reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a French fleet to help +him, attempted to recapture Savannah, but was driven off with dreadful +loss of life. + +These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the British that in the +spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition against South Carolina, and +(May 12) easily captured Charleston, with Lincoln and his army. By dint +of great exertions another army was quickly raised in North Carolina, +and the command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit for it, +and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost destroyed at +Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole course of the war had the +American army suffered such a crushing defeat. All military resistance +in South Carolina was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant +bands of patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens. + +%154. The Treason of Arnold.%--The outlook was now dark enough; +but it was made darker still by the treachery of Benedict Arnold. No +officer in the Revolutionary army was more trusted. His splendid march +through the wilderness to Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that +city, the skill and courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him +out as a man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage without +which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was put in command +of Philadelphia, and while there so abused his office that he was +sentenced to be reprimanded by Washington. This aroused a thirst for +revenge, and led him to form a scheme to give up the Hudson River to the +enemy. With this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the +command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, obtained it, +and at once made arrangements to surrender it to Clinton. The British +agent in the negotiation was Major John Andre, who one day in September +met Arnold near Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to +New York, three Americans[1] stopped him near Tarrytown, searched him, +and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting of Arnold. +News of the arrest of Andre reached Arnold in time to enable him to +escape to the British; he served with them till the end of the war, and +then sought a refuge in England. Andre was tried as a spy, found guilty, +and hanged. + +[Footnote 1: The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van +Wart.] + +%155. Victory at Kings Mountain.%--After the defeat of Gates at +Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and in the course of their +marauding a band of 1100 Tories marched to Kings Mountain, on the border +line between the two Carolinas. There the hardy mountaineers attacked +them (Oct. 7, 1780) and killed, wounded, or captured the entire band. + +[Map: %CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH 1778-1781%] + +%156. Victory at the Cowpens%.--Meantime a third army was raised for +use in the South and placed under the command of Nathanael Greene, than +whom there was no abler general in the American army. With Greene was +Daniel Morgan, who had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a +British force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a place +called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost destroyed. + +Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and hurried to +attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began a masterly retreat of +200 miles across Carolina to Guilford Courthouse, where he turned about +and fought. He was defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further, +and retreated to Wilmington, N.C., with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving +the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Carolina, and by +September, 1781, had driven the British into Charleston and Savannah. + +Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Petersburg, Va. A +British force during the winter and spring had been plundering and +ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor Arnold. Cornwallis took command +of this, sent Arnold to New York, and had begun a campaign against +Lafayette, when orders reached him to seize and fortify some +Virginian seaport. + +%157. Surrender of Cornwallis.%--Thus instructed, Cornwallis selected +Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was early in August, +1781. On the 14th Washington heard with delight that a French fleet was +on its way to the Chesapeake, and at once decided to hurry to Virginia, +and surround Cornwallis by land while the French cut him off by sea. +Preparations were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington had +reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed he was about to attack New +York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut to burn New +London, in the hope of forcing Washington to return. But Washington kept +straight on, hemmed Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781, +forced the British general to surrender. + +%158. The War on the Sea.%--The first step towards the foundation of +an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775. Congress, hearing that +two British ships laden with powder and guns were on their way from +England to Quebec, ordered two swift sailing vessels to be fitted out +for the purpose of capturing them. Two months later Congress ordered +thirteen cruisers to be built, and named the officers to command them. + +Meantime some merchant ships were purchased and collected at +Philadelphia, from which city, one morning in January, 1776, a fleet of +eight vessels set sail. As they were about to weigh anchor, John Paul +Jones, a lieutenant on the flagship, flung to the breeze a yellow silk +flag on which were a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake, with this +motto: "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag ever hoisted on an +American man-of-war. + +Ice in the Delaware kept the fleet in the river till the middle of +February, when it went to sea, sailed southward to New Providence in the +Bahamas, captured the town, brought off the governor, some powder and +cannon, and after taking several prizes got safely back to New London. + +Soon after the squadron had left the Delaware, the _Lexington_, Captain +John Barry in command, while cruising off the Virginia coast, fell in +with the _Edward_, a British vessel, and after a spirited action +captured her. This was the first prize brought in by a commissioned +officer of the American navy.[1] + +[Footnote 1: John Barry was a native of Ireland; he came to America at +thirteen, entered the merchant marine, and at twenty-five was captain of +a ship. At the opening of the war Barry offered his services to +Congress, and in February, 1776, was put in command of the _Lexington_. +After his victory he was transferred to the twenty-eight-gun frigate +_Effingham_, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware) with +twenty-seven men in four boats captured and destroyed a ten-gun schooner +and four transports. When the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took +the _Effingham_ up the river; but she was burned by the enemy. In 1778, +in command of the thirty-two-gun frigate _Raleigh_, he sailed from +Boston, fell in with two British frigates, and after a fight was forced +to run ashore in Penobscot Bay. Barry and his crew escaped, and in 1781 +carried Laurens to France in the frigate _Alliance_. On the way out he +took a privateer, and while cruising on the way home captured the +_Atalanta_ and the _Trepassey_ after a hard fight. As Barry brought in +the first capture by a commissioned officer of the United States navy, +so he fought the last action of the war in 1782; but the enemy escaped. +When the navy was reorganized in 1794, Barry was made senior captain, +with the title of Commodore. In 1798 he commanded the frigate _United +States_ in the war with France. He died in 1803.] + +In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, or licenses +to citizens to engage in war against the enemy; and then the sea fairly +swarmed with privateers. + +In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European +waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in +France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around +Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not +then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did +so; but one of them, the _Lexington_, was captured by the British, and +the other, the _Reprisal_, was wrecked at sea. + +%159. Paul Jones.%--Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin +Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the _Surprise_. +She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with +a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she +was seized. But another ship, the _Revenge_, was quickly secured, which +scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports +before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of +other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul +Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from +Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of +Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval +history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the +Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the +port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner +_Drake_, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France +in safety. + +For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given +command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France. +Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north +end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel +after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in +his ship, named _Bonhomme Richard_ in honor of Franklin's famous _Poor +Richard's Almanac_) fell in with the _Serapis_, a British frigate. The +two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought +one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three +hours the _Serapis_ surrendered, but the _Bonhomme Richard_ was a wreck, +and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first +to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the _Serapis_. + +[Illustration: Benjamin Franklin] + +In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the +Americans lost 24--most of their navy. + +%160. Revolutionary Heroes.%--It is not possible to mention all the +revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. We should, +however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and DeKalb, foreigners +who fought for us; Samuel Adams and James Otis of Massachusetts, and +Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke for freedom; Robert Morris, the +financier of the Revolution; Putnam who fought and Warren who died at +Bunker Hill; Mercer who fell at Princeton; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy; +Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots whose +names have already been mentioned. + +%161. The Treaty of Peace.%--The story is told that when Lord North, +the Prime Minister of England, heard of the surrender of Yorktown, he +threw up his hands and said, "It is all over." He was right; it was all +over, and on September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by +Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris. + +Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary treaty of peace +signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving the country, till on +November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed from New York.[1] Washington +now resigned his commission, and in December went home to Mt. Vernon. + +[Footnote 1: They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a +week later. For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's +_With the Fathers_, pp. 271-280.] + +%162. Bounds of the United States.%--By the treaty of 1783 the +boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is the +present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine +to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to the Mississippi (which +was, of course, an impossible line, for that river does not rise in +Canada); then down the Mississippi to 31 deg. north latitude; then eastward +along that parallel of latitude to the Apalachicola River, and then by +what is the present north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic. + +But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic struggle. As soon +as France joined us in 1778, she began to persuade Spain to follow her +example. Very little persuasion was needed, for the opportunity to +regain the two Floridas (which Spain had been forced to give to England +in 1763) was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain +declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower Louisiana into +West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, Mobile, Baton Rouge, and +Natchez. Made bold by this success, Spain, which cared nothing for the +United States, next determined to conquer the region north of Florida +and east of the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of +1763. (See map of The British Colonies in 1764.) The commandant at St. +Louis[2] was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake +Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and taking possession +of the country in the name of Spain, carried off the English flags as +evidence of conquest. Now when the time came to make the treaty of +peace, Spain insisted that she must have East and West Florida and the +country west of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it. +France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country north of the +Ohio she proposed should be given to Great Britain, and the country +south to Spain and the United States. + +[Footnote 2: It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the +country west of the Mississippi. (See Chapter VIII.)] + +[Illustration: RESULTS OF THE %WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE% BOUNDARY DEFINED +BY TREATY 1783. AND TERRITORY HELD BY GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1796., AND +SPAIN 1783-1795] + +The American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to bound the +United States on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, made the treaty +with Great Britain secretly, and secured the Mississippi as our +western limit. + +Spain at the same time secured the Floridas from Great Britain, and +insisting that West Florida must have the old boundary given in 1764,[1] +and not 31 deg. as provided in our treaty of peace, she seized and held the +country by force of arms; and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved +over Baton Rouge and Natchez.[2] + +[Footnote 1: See Chapter X.] + +[Footnote 2: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 170-191; McMaster's +_With the Fathers_, pp. 280-292.] + +The area of the territory thus acquired by the United States was 827,844 +square miles, and the population not far from 3,250,000. Apparently an +era of great prosperity and happiness was before the people. But +unhappily the government they had established in time of war was quite +unfit to unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace. + +[Illustration: Washington's sword] + + +SUMMARY + +1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became +governor of Massachusetts in 1774. + +2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted +to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington and +Concord, which opened the War for Independence. + +3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned +to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and assumed +the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, and made +Washington commander in chief. + +4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, which +taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he besieged the +British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city by water, and +Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of New York. + +5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson +River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to be +driven across the state and into Pennsylvania. + +6. On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and +the next morning won a victory over the Hessians. Then on January 3, +1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the remainder of +the winter at Morristown. + +7. In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which +city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at the +Brandy wine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Washington passed +the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge. + +8. Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by getting +possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New York city, and +an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. He and his troops were +captured at Saratoga. + +9. In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent +over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left +Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley Forge, +overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. The British +then went on to New York, while Washington stretched out his army from +Morristown to West Point. + +10. So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked +the Southern States. They conquered Georgia in the winter of 1778-1779. + +11. In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured +General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and succeeded +by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British forces in South +Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savannah, during 1781. + +12. Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to +fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded by +Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender. + +THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE + +CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776 + +_In New England_. + +1775. Concord and Lexington. + Continental Army formed. + Washington, commander in chief. + Battle of Bunker Hill. + +1775-1776. Siege of Boston. + +1776. Evacuation of Boston. + + +_In Canada_. + +1775. Arnold's march to Quebec. + Montgomery's march to Montreal. + Capture of Montreal. + +1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec. + Americans return to Ticonderoga. + +1776. Howe sails for New York. + Washington marches to New York. + The Declaration of Independence. + Capture of New York. + Retreat across the Jerseys. + Surprise at Trenton. +1777. Battle of Princeton. + Washington at Morristown. + Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to + capture New York state and cut the colonies in two. + St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix. + Burgoyne captured at Saratoga. + Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and + moves against Philadelphia. + Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia. + Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. + Philadelphia captured by the British. +1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge. +1778. Alliance with France. + Fleet and army sent from France. + Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York. + Washington follows him from Valley Forge. + Battle of Monmouth. + Washington on the Hudson. + +CAMPAIGNS CHIEFLY IN THE SOUTH, 1778-1781. + +1778. The South invaded. + Savannah captured and Georgia overrun. +1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away + from the Hudson. + Wayne captures Stony Point. + Lincoln attacks Savannah. +1780. Clinton captures Charleston. + Campaign of Gates in South Carolina. + Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain. + Treason of Arnold. +1781. Greene in command in the South. + Battle of the Cowpens. + March of Cornwallis from Charleston. + Battle of Guilford Courthouse. + Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South Carolina. + Cornwallis goes to Yorktown. + Washington hurries from New York. + Surrender of Cornwallis. +1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris. +1783. Evacuation of New York. + + + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT + + +CHAPTER XII + +UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION + +%163. How the Colonies became States.%--When the Continental Congress +met at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, a letter was received from +Massachusetts, where the people had penned up the governor in Boston and +had taken the government into their own hands, asking what they should +do. Congress replied that no obedience was due to the Massachusetts +Regulating Act or to the governor, and advised the people to make a +temporary government to last till the King should restore the old +charter. Similar advice was given the same year to New Hampshire and +South Carolina, for it was not then supposed that the quarrel with the +mother country would end in separation. But by the spring of 1776 all +the governors of the thirteen colonies had either fled or been thrown +into prison. This put an end to colonial government, and Congress, +seeing that reconciliation was impossible, (May 15, 1776) advised all +the colonies to form governments for themselves (p. 132). Thereupon they +adopted constitutions, and by doing so turned themselves from British +colonies into sovereign and independent states.[1] + +[Footnote 1: All but two made new constitutions; but Connecticut and +Rhode Island used their old charters, the one till 1818, the other till +1842. Vermont also formed a constitution, but she was not admitted to +the Congress (p. 243).] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES WHEN PEACE WAS DECLARED in 1783 SHOWING +THE STATE CLAIMS] + +%164. Articles of Confederation.%--While the colonies were thus +gradually turning themselves into the states, the Continental +Congress was trying to bind them into a union by means of a sort of +general constitution called "Articles of Confederation." By order of +Congress, Articles had been prepared and presented by a committee in +July, 1776, but it was not till November 17, 1777, that they were sent +out to the states for adoption. Now it must be remembered that six +states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South +Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from sea to sea" charters +gave them lands between the mountains and the Mississippi River, and +that one, New York, had bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio +valley. It must also be remembered that the other six states did not +have "from sea to sea" charters, and so had no claims to western lands. +As three of them, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, held that the +claims of their sister states were invalid, they now refused to adopt +the Articles unless the land so claimed was given to Congress to be used +to pay for the cost of the Revolution. For this action they gave +four reasons: + +1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, settled, and +owned by France. + +2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded the country +in 1763. + +3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew the +"proclamation line," turned the Mississippi valley into the Indian +country, and so cut off any claim of the colonies in consequence of +English ownership. + +4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, and now +that the states were in arms against him, his lands ought to be seized +by Congress and used for the benefit of all the states. + +For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by +these arguments. But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not +to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to +yield. In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in +January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the +Ohio River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781, +her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As all the other +states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made +them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a +form of government the states were pledged to obey. + +%165. Government under the Articles of Confederation.%--The form of +government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to +end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge +to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature. +Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected +each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to +Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each +state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years +out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent +them. Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became +members of a secret body. The doors were shut; no spectators were +allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken +down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on +deliberating day after day. All voting was done by states, each casting +but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had. The affirmative votes +of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was +called, "ordinance." + +To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress could declare +war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract +debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between +states. But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay +any tax for any purpose. + +%166. Origin of the Public Domain%.--In 1784 Massachusetts ceded her +strip of land in the west, following the example set by New York (1780), +and Virginia (1781). + +As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 given their +land to Congress, that body came into possession of the greater part of +the vast domain stretching from the Lakes to the Ohio and from the +Mississippi to Pennsylvania.[1] Now this public domain, as it was +called, was given on certain conditions: + +1. That it should be cut up into states. + +2. That these states should be admitted into the Union (when they had a +certain population) on the same footing as the thirteen original states. + +3. That the land should be sold and the money used to pay the debts of +the United States. + +[Footnote 1: The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress +in October, 1789, but not accepted. It still belonged to Connecticut in +1785. In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and +accepted.] + +Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to the tracts +ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states would cede their +western territory in time, passed a law (in 1785) to prepare the land +for sale by surveying it and marking it out into sections, townships, +and ranges, and fixed the price per acre. + +%167. Virginia and Connecticut Reserves.%--When Virginia made her +cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of land north of the +Ohio. One, called the Military Lands, lay between the Scioto and Miami +rivers, and was held to pay bounties promised to the Virginia +Revolutionary soldiers. The other (in the present state of Indiana) was +given to General George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. A third piece was +reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786. This, called +the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched along the shore of Lake +Erie (map, p. 175). In 1800 Connecticut gave up her jurisdiction, or +right of government, over this reserve in return for the confirmation of +land titles she had granted. + +[Illustration: TERRITORY OF THE %UNITED STATES% NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO +RIVER %1787%] + +%168. Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories.%--Hardly had +Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number of +Revolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and sent an agent +to New York, where Congress was in session, and offered to buy 5,000,000 +acres on the Ohio River: 1,500,000 acres were for themselves, and +3,500,000 for another company called the Scioto Company. The land was +gladly sold, and as the purchasers were really going to send out +settlers, it became necessary to establish some kind of government for +them. On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed another very +famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which ordered: + +1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from +Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called "The Territory of the +United States northwest of the river Ohio." + +2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five +states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had +60,000 free inhabitants. + +3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude except in punishment for crime. + +4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants +twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a +governor and three judges. They could not make laws, but might adopt +such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states. After +there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were +to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten +men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council. The house +and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in +Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The governor, the +judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress. The council +and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to +Congress for approval. + +Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the +state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few +months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country +west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition +that it _should_ be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is +now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of +them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery +was allowed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The only remaining land-holding state, Georgia, ceded her +claim in 1802 (p. 246).] + +%169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation.%--While Congress at +New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787, a convention of delegates +from the states was framing the Constitution at Philadelphia. A very +little experience under the Articles of Confederation showed them to +have serious defects. + +_No Taxing Power_.--In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of +any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to +pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of +the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so +disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the +states for $6,000,000, only $1,000.000 was paid. + +_No Power to regulate Trade_.--In the second place, Congress had no +power to regulate trade with foreign nations, or between the states. +This proved a most serious evil. The people of the United States at that +time had few manufactures, because in colonial days Parliament would not +allow them. All the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods, +linen, muslin, and a thousand other things were imported from Great +Britain. Before the war the Americans had paid for these goods with +dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, and +with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now Great Britain forbade +Americans to trade with her West Indies. Spain would not make a trade +treaty with us, so we had no trade with her islands, and what was worse, +Great Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United States +unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, very little lumber, +fish, rice, and other of our products went abroad to pay for the immense +quantity of foreign-made goods that came to us. These goods therefore +had to be paid for in money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and +shipped to London. When the people found that specie was being carried +out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 none was in +circulation. + +%170. Paper Money issued.%--This left the people without any money +with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing, and led at once to a +demand that the states should print paper money and loan it to their +citizens. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and +South Carolina, and Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued +than the merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it, +whereupon in some of the states laws called "tender acts" were passed to +compel people to use the paper. This merely put an end to business, for +nobody would sell. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to +issue paper money, many of the persons who owed debts assembled, and, +during 1786-87, under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier, +prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money owed or +loaned.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. I., pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340; Fiske's _Critical +Period of American History_, pp. 168-186.] + +%171. Congress proposes Amendments.%--Of the many defects in the +Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and it had many a +time asked the states to make amendments. One proposed that Congress +should have power for twenty-five years to lay a tax of five per cent on +all goods imported, and use the money to pay the Continental debts. +Another was to require each state to raise by special tax a sum +sufficient to pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress. +A third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole power to +regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided that in future the share +each state was to bear of the current expenses should be in proportion +to its population. + +But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all +thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none +of these amendments were ever made. + +%172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail.%--In the +meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. New York +laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania taxed a long list of +foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island passed +acts imposing heavy duties on articles unless they came in American +vessels. But these laws were not uniform, and as many states took no +action, very little good was accomplished.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. I., pp. 246-259, 266-280; Fiske's _Critical Period of American +History_, 134-137, 145-147.] + +%173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis, +1786.%[2]--Under these conditions, the business of the whole country +was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do anything to +relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a circular letter +to her sister states. She asked them to appoint delegates to meet and +"take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States." +Four (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and +their delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in +September, 1786. + +[Footnote 2: The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in +_Bulletin of Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State_, +No. 1, Appendix, pp. 1-5.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +MAKING THE CONSTITUTION + +%174. Call for the Constitutional Convention.%--Finding that it could +do nothing, because so few states were represented, and because the +powers of the delegates were so limited, the convention recommended that +all the states in the Union be asked by Congress to send delegates to a +new convention, to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into +consideration the situation of the United States," and "to devise such +further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the +Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of +the Union." + +%175. The Philadelphia Convention.%[1]--Early in 1787 Congress +approved this movement, and during the summer of 1787 (May to September) +delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent none), sitting in secret +session at Philadelphia, made the Constitution of the United States. + +[Footnote 1: All we know of the proceedings of this convention is +derived from the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by +James Madison, the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther +Martin of Maryland. They may be found in Elliot's _Debates_, Vol. IV.] + +[Illustration: Independence Chamber[2]] + +[Footnote 2: The room where the Constitution was framed.] + +%176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans%.--The story of that +convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.[1] But +some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the delegates were +assembling, a few men, under the lead of Madison, met and drew up the +outline of a constitution, which was presented by the chairman of the +Virginia delegation, and was called the "Virginia plan." A little later, +delegates from the small states met and drew up a second plan, which was +the old Articles of Confederation with amendments. As the chairman of +the New Jersey delegation offered this, it was called the "New Jersey +plan." Both were discussed; but the convention voted to accept the +Virginia plan as the basis of the Constitution. + +[Footnote 1: For short accounts, read "The Framers and the Framing of +the Constitution" in the _Century Magazine_, September, 1887, or +"Framing the Constitution," in McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. +106-149, or Thorpe's _Story of the Constitution_, Chautauqua Course, +1891-92, pp. 111-148.] + +%177. The Three Compromises.%--This plan called, among other things, +for a national legislature of two branches: a Senate and a House of +Representatives. The populous states insisted that the number of +representatives sent by each state to Congress should be in proportion +to her population. The small states insisted that each should send the +same number of representatives. For a time neither party would yield; +but at length the Connecticut delegates suggested that the states be +given an equal vote and an equal representation in the Senate, and an +unequal representation, based on population, in the House. The +contending parties agreed, and so made the first compromise. + +But the decision to have representation according to population at once +raised the question, Shall slaves be counted as population? This divided +the convention into slave states and free (see p. 186), and led to a +second compromise, by which it was agreed that three fifths of all +slaves should be counted as population, for the purpose of apportioning +representation. + +A third compromise sprang from the conflicting interests of the +commercial and the planting states. The planting states wanted a +provision forbidding Congress to pass navigation acts, except by a +two-thirds vote, and forbidding any tax on exports; three states also +wished to import slaves for use on their plantations. The free +commercial states wanted Congress to pass navigation laws, and also +wanted the slave trade stopped, because of the three-fifths rule. The +result was an agreement that the importation of slaves should not be +forbidden by Congress before 1808, and that Congress might pass +navigation acts, and that exports should never be taxed. + +%178. The Election of President.%--Another feature of the Virginia +plan was the provision for a President whose business it should be to +see that the acts of Congress were duly enforced or executed. But when +the question arose, How shall he be chosen? all manner of suggestions +were made. Some said by the governors of the states; some, by the United +States Senate; some, by the state legislatures; some, by a body of +electors chosen for that purpose. When at last it was decided to have a +body of electors, the difficulty was to determine the manner of electing +the electors. On this no agreement could be reached; so the convention +ordered that the legislature of each state should have as many electors +of the President as it had senators and representatives in Congress, and +that these men should be appointed in such way as the legislatures of +the states saw fit to prescribe. + +%179. Sources of the Constitution.%--An examination of the +Constitution shows that some of its features were new; that some were +drawn from the experience of the states under the Confederation; and +that others were borrowed from the various state constitutions. Among +those taken from state constitutions are such names as President, +Senate, House of Representatives, and such provisions as that for a +census, for the veto, for the retirement of one third of the Senate +every two years, that money bills shall originate in the House, for +impeachment, and for what we call the annual message.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the sources of the Constitution, read "The First Century +of the Constitution" in _New Princeton Review,_ September, 1887, +pp. 175-190.] + +The features based directly on experience under the Articles of +Confederation are the provisions that the acts of Congress must be +_uniform_ throughout the Union; that the President may call out the +militia to repel invasion, to put down insurrection, and to maintain the +laws of the Union; that Congress shall have _sole_ power to regulate +_foreign trade_ and _trade between the states._ No state can now coin +money or print paper money, or make anything but gold or silver legal +tender. Congress now has power to lay taxes, duties, and excises. The +Constitution divides the powers of government between the legislative +department (Senate and House of Representatives); the executive +department (the President, who sees that laws and treaties are obeyed); +and the judicial department (Supreme Court and other United States +courts, which interpret the Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the +treaties). + +The new features are the definition of treason and the limitation of its +punishment; the guarantee to every state of a republican form of +government; the swearing of state officials to support the Federal +Constitution; and the provision for amendment. + +Among other noteworthy features are the creation of a United States +citizenship as distinct from a state citizenship, the limitation of the +powers of the states; and the provision that the Constitution, the acts +of Congress, and the treaties are "the supreme law of the land." + +%180. Constitution submitted to the People.%--The convention ended +its work, and such members as were willing signed the Constitution on +September 17, 1787. Washington, as president of the convention, then +sent the Constitution to the Continental Congress sitting at New York +and asked it to transmit copies to the states for ratification. This was +done, and during the next few months the legislatures of most of the +states called on the people to elect delegates to conventions which +should accept or reject the Constitution. + +%181. Ratification by the States.%--In many of these conventions +great objection was made because the new plan of federal government was +so unlike the Articles of Confederation, and certain changes were +insisted on. The only states that accepted it just as it was framed were +Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland. +Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia +ratified with amendments. (For dates, see p. 176.) + +%182. "The New Roof."%--The Constitution provided that when nine +states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so +ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the +friends of the Constitution were named, had called it "the New Roof," +which was going to cover the states and protect them from political +storms. They now represented it as completed and supported by eleven +pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had not +ratified, and so were not under the New Roof, and were not members of +the new Union. Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to +fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be +chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. This +the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the +electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that +they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in +February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first +Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month. +Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of +the Presidents begin and end.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go +into force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of +nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this +Constitution between the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire, +the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the +constitution was "established" between the nine.] + +%183. How Presidents were elected%.--It must not be supposed that our +first presidents were elected just as presidents are now. In our time +electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote. In 1788 there was no +uniformity. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a +complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In +Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the +electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New York the two +branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen. + +As the Constitution required that the electors should vote by ballot for +two persons, such as had been appointed met at their state capitals on +the first Wednesday in February, 1789, made lists of the persons voted +for, and sent them signed and certified under seal to the president of +the Senate. But when March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate. Less than +a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be +done. When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still +without one, and remained so till April. Then, in the presence of the +House and Senate, the votes on the lists were counted, and it was found +that every elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who +was thus elected President. No separate ballot was then required for +Vice President. Each elector merely wrote on his ballot the names of two +men. He who received the greatest number of votes, if, in the words of +the Constitution, "such number be a majority of the whole number of +electors appointed," was elected President. He who received the next +highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice President. In +1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts. + +[Illustration: Federal Hall, New York[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print made in 1797.] + +[Illustration: G Washington] + +%184. The First Inauguration.%--As soon as Washington received the +news of his election, he left Mount Vernon and started for New York. His +journey was one continuous triumphal march. The population of every town +through which he passed turned out to meet him. Men, women, and children +stood for hours by the roadside waiting for him to go by. At New York +his reception was most imposing, and there, on April 30, 1789, standing +on the balcony in front of Federal Hall (p. 171), he took the oath of +office in the presence of Congress and a great multitude of people that +filled the streets, and crowded the windows, and sat on the roofs of the +neighboring houses.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Full accounts of the inauguration of Washington may be +found in _Harper's Magazine_, and also in the _Century Magazine_, for +April, 1889.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. When independence was about decided on, Congress appointed a +committee to draft a general plan of federal government. + +2. This plan, called Articles of Confederation, Maryland absolutely +refused to ratify till the states claiming land west of the Alleghany +Mountains ceded their claims to Congress. + +3. New York and Virginia having ceded their claims, Maryland ratified in +March, 1781. + +4. These cessions were followed by others from Massachusetts and +Connecticut; and from them all, Congress formed the public domain to be +sold to pay the debt. + +5. The sale of this land led to the land ordinance of 1785 and the +ordinance of 1787, for the government of the domain and the new +political organism called the territory. + +6. The defects of the Articles made revision necessary, and produced +such distress that two conventions were called to consider the state of +the country. That at Annapolis attempted nothing. That at Philadelphia +framed the Constitution of the United States. + +7. The Constitution was then passed to the Continental Congress, which +sent it to the legislatures of the states to be by them referred to +conventions elected by the people for acceptance or rejection. + +8. Eleven having ratified, Congress in 1788 fixed a day in 1789 (which +happened to be March 4), when the First Congress under the Constitution +was to assemble. + +9. The date of the first presidential election was also fixed, and +George Washington was made our first President. + + + /1776. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode +The Colonies adopt | Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, +Constitutions and --| Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North +become States. | Carolina, South Carolina. + |1777. New York, Georgia. + \1780. Massachusetts. + + /Framed by Congress 1776-1777. + |Adopted by the states 1777-1781. +Articles of |In force March 1, 1781. +Confederation --|Kind of government. + |Defects. Result of the defects. + |Trade convention at Annapolis. + \Constitutional convention called. + + /Proceedings of the convention. + |The three compromises. +Constitution of |Sources of the Constitution. +the United States.-|Original features. + |Derived features. + | Ratification by the states. + \The Constitution in force. + + + /Land claims of seven states. + |Demands for the surrender of \ + |the western territory. | +The Territories. --|The cessions by the states. |--The Public + |Ordinance of 1785. | Domain. + |Ordinance of 1787. | + \Territorial government created./ + +The President. /Manner of electing. + \Inauguration of Washington. + +The Congress. /Organization of the First + \under the Constitution. + + /The Supreme Court +The Judiciary. --|The Circuit Court + \The District Court + + /Secretary of State +The Secretaries. --|Secretary of Treasury + |Secretary of War + |The Attorney-general. + \Origin of the "Cabinet." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 + +%185. The States.%--What sort of a country, and what sort of people, +was Washington thus chosen to rule over? When, he was elected, the Union +was composed of eleven states, for neither Rhode Island nor North +Carolina had accepted the Constitution.[1] Vermont had never been a +member of the Union, because the Continental Congress would not +recognize her as a state. + +[Footnote 1: The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below: +1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787 +2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 +3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 +4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 +5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 +6. Massachusetts Feb. 7, 1788 +7. Maryland April 28, 1788 +8. South Carolina May 23, 1788 +9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788 +10. Virginia June 26, 1788 +11. New York July 26, 1788 +12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 +13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790] + +[Illustration: The %UNITED STATES% March 4, 1789] + +%186. Only a Part inhabited.%--Three fourths of our country was then +uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people lived near the +seaboard. Had a line been drawn along what was then the frontier, it +would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run along the shore of Maine, +across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, then south to the +Mohawk valley, then down the Hudson River, and southwestward across +Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Ridge Mountains to +the Altamaha River in Georgia, and by it to the sea. How many people +lived here was never known till 1790. The Constitution of the United +States requires that the people shall be counted once in each ten years, +in order that it may be determined how many representatives each state +shall have in the House of Representatives; and for this purpose +Congress ordered the first census to be taken in 1790. It then appeared +that, excluding Indians, there were living in the eleven United States +3,380,000 human beings, or less than half the number of people who now +live in the single state of New York. + +%187. How the People were scattered.%--More were in the Southern than +in the Eastern States. Virginia, then the most populous, contained one +fifth. Pennsylvania had a ninth, while in the five states of Maryland, +Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia were almost one half of the +English-speaking people of the United States. These were the planting +states, and, populous as they were, they had but two cities--Baltimore +and Charleston. Savannah, Wilmington, Alexandria, Norfolk, and +Richmond were small towns. Not one had 8000 people in it. Indeed, the +inhabitants of the six largest cities of the country (Boston, New York, +Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and Salem) taken together were +but 131,000. + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES FIRST +CENSUS, 1790/] + +[Illustration: Boston in 1790[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From the _Massachusetts Magazine_, November, 1790.] + +%188. The Cities.%--And how different these cities were from those of +our day! What a strange world Washington would find himself in if he +could come back and walk along the streets of the great city which now +stands on the banks of the Potomac and bears his name! He never in his +life saw a flagstone sidewalk, nor an asphalted street, nor a pane of +glass six feet square. He never heard a factory whistle; he never saw a +building ten stories high, nor an elevator, nor a gas jet, nor an +electric light; he never saw a hot-air furnace, nor entered a room +warmed by steam. + +In the windows of shop after shop would be scores of articles familiar +enough to us, but so unknown to him that he could not even name them. He +never saw a sewing machine, nor a revolver, nor a rubber coat, nor a +rubber shoe, nor a steel pen, nor a piece of blotting paper, nor an +envelope, nor a postage stamp, nor a typewriter. He never struck a +match, nor sent a telegram, nor spoke through a telephone, nor touched +an electric bell. He never saw a railroad, though he had seen a rude +form of steamboat. He never saw a horse car, nor an omnibus, nor a +trolley car, nor a ferryboat. Fancy him boarding a street car to take a +ride. He would probably pay his fare with a "nickel." But the "nickel" +is a coin he never saw. Fancy him trying to understand the +advertisements that would meet his eye as he took his seat! Fancy him +staring from the window at a fence bright with theatrical posters, or at +a man rushing by on a bicycle! + +[Illustration: Philadelphia in 1800 (Arch Street)] + +%189. Newspapers and Magazines.%--A boy enters the car with half a +dozen daily newspapers all printed in the same city. In Washington's day +there were but four daily papers in the United States! On the news +counter of a hotel, one sees twenty illustrated papers, and fifty +monthly magazines. In his day there was no illustrated paper, no +scientific periodical, no trade journal, and no such illustrated +magazines as _Harper's, Scribner's_, the _Century, St. Nicholas_. All +the printing done in the country was done on presses worked by hand. +To-day the Hoe octuple press can print 96,000 eight-page newspapers an +hour. To print this number on the hand press shown in the picture would +have taken so long that when the last newspaper was printed the first +would have been three months old! + +[Illustration: A Franklin press] + +[Illustration: A fire bucket [1]] + +[Footnote 1: Original in the Pennsylvania Historical Society.] + +%190. The Fire Service.%--the ambulance, the steam fire engine, the +hose cart, the hook and ladder company, the police patrol, the police +officer on the street corner, the letter carrier gathering the mail, the +district messenger boy, the express company, the delivery wagon of the +stores, have all come in since Washington died. In his day the law +required every householder in the city to be a fireman. His name might +not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies, he might not help +to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire +engine, but he must have in his hall, or beneath the stairs, or hanging +up behind his shop door, at least one leathern bucket inscribed with his +name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at +the dead of night by the cry of fire and the clanging of every church +bell in the town, he seized this bucket and his bag, and, while his +wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set +off for the fire. The smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom +of indicating the place by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet +come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle +spectators. Every one was busy. Some hurried into the building and +filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some +joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the +full buckets to those who stood by the fire. Others took posts in a +second line, down which the empty buckets were hastened to the pump. The +house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the +engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank +the water from the buckets was poured, and it was pumped thence by the +efforts of a dozen men. + +[Illustration: Fire engine of 1800[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old cut] + +%191. The Post Office.%--Washington sees a great wagon or a white +trolley car marked United States Mail, and on inquiry is told that the +money now spent by the government each year for the support of the post +offices would have more than paid the national debt when he was +President. He hears with amazement that there are now 75,000 post +offices, and recalls that in 1790 there were but seventy-five. He picks +up from the sidewalk a piece of paper with a little pink something on +the corner. He is told that the portrait on it is his own, that it is a +postage stamp, that it costs two cents, and will carry a letter to San +Francisco, a city he never heard of, and, if the person to whom it is +addressed cannot be found, will bring the letter back to the sender, a +distance of over 5000 miles. In his day a letter was a single sheet of +paper, no matter how large or small, and the postage on it was +determined not by weight, but by distance, and might be anything from +six to twenty-five cents. + +At that time postage must always be prepaid, and as the post office must +support itself, letters were not sent from the country towns till enough +postage had been deposited at the post office to pay the expense of +sending them. Newspapers and books could not be sent by mail. + +%192. The Franchise.%--Taking the country through, the condition of +the people was by no means so happy as ours. They had government of the +people, but it was not by the people nor for the people. Everywhere the +right to vote and to hold office was greatly restricted. The voter must +have an estate worth a certain sum, or a specified number of acres, or +an annual income of so many dollars. But the right to vote did not carry +with it the right to hold office. More property was required for office +holding than for voting, and there were besides certain religious +restrictions. In New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, South +Carolina, and Georgia, the governor, the members of the legislature, and +the chief officers of state must be Protestants. In Massachusetts and +Maryland they must be Christians. All these restrictions were long since +swept away. + +%193. Cruel Punishments.%--The humane spirit of our times was largely +wanting. The debtor was cast into prison. The pauper might be sold to +the highest bidder. The criminal was dragged out into open day and +flogged or branded. From ten to nineteen crimes were punishable with +death. No such thing as a lunatic asylum, or a deaf and dumb asylum, or +a penitentiary existed. The prisons were dreadful places. Men came out +of them worse than they went in. + +%194. The Condition of the Laborer; of the well to do.%--Men worked +harder and for less money then than now. A regular working day was from +sunrise to sunset, with an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner. +Sometimes the laborer was fed and lodged by the employer, in which case +he was paid four dollars a month in winter and six in summer. Two +shillings (30 cents) a day for unskilled labor was thought high wages. + +[Illustration: %Washington's flute and Miss Custis's harpsichord at +Mount Vernon%] + +Even the houses of the well to do were much less comfortable places than +are such abodes in our day. There were no furnaces, no gas, no +bathrooms, no plumbing. Wood was the universal fuel. Coal from Virginia +and Rhode Island was little used. All cooking was done in "Dutch ovens," +or in "out ovens," or in the enormous fireplaces to be found in every +household. Wood fuel made sooty chimneys, and sooty chimneys took fire. +In every city, therefore, were men known as "sweeps," whose business it +was to clean chimneys. + +[Illustration: %Earthenware stove--Moravian%] + +[Illustration: %Dutch oven%[1]] + +[Footnote 1: The bread, or meat, to be baked was put into the pot, and +hot coals were heaped all around the sides and on the lid, which had a +rim to keep the coals on it.] + +[Illustration: a foot stove] + +Washington was a farmer, yet he never in his life beheld a tomato, nor a +cauliflower, nor an eggplant, nor a horserake, nor a drill, nor a reaper +and binder, nor a threshing machine, nor a barbed wire fence. + +[Illustration: Kitchen in Washington's headquarters in Morristown, +N.J.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: This shows a fine specimen of the old-fashioned fireplace. +Notice the andirons, the bellows, the lamp, the spinning wheel, the old +Dutch clock, and the kettles hanging on the crane over the logs.] + +[Illustration: A plow used in 1776] + +His land was plowed with a wooden plow partly shod with iron. His seed +was sown by hand; his hay was cut with scythes; his grain was reaped +with sickles, and threshed on the barn floor with flails in the hands of +his slaves. + +%195. Negro Slavery.%--No living person under thirty years of age has +ever seen a negro slave in our country. When Washington was President +there were 700,000 slaves. When the Revolution opened, slavery was +permitted by law in every colony. But the feeling against it in the +North had always been strong, and when the war ended, the people began +the work of abolition. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire the +constitutions of the states declared that "all men are born free and +equal," and that "all men are born equally free," and this was +understood to abolish slavery. In Pennsylvania, slavery was abolished in +1780. In Rhode Island and Connecticut gradual abolition laws were passed +which provided that all children born of slave parents after a certain +day should be free at a certain age, and that their children should +never be slaves. The Ordinance of 1787 had prohibited slavery in the +Northwest Territory. But in 1790 New York, New Jersey, Delaware, +Maryland, and all the states south of these were slave states. (See map +on the next page.) + +Though slaves were men and women and children, they had no civil rights +whatever. They could be bought and sold, leased, seized for a debt, +bequeathed by will, given away. If they made anything, or found +anything, or earned anything, it belonged not to them, but to their +owners. They were property just as oxen or horses were in the North. It +was unlawful to teach them to read or write. They were not allowed to +give evidence against a white man, nor to travel in bands of more than +seven unless a white man was with them, nor to quit the plantation +without leave. + +If a planter provided coarse food, coarse clothes, and a rude shelter +for his slaves, if he did not work them more than fifteen hours out of +twenty-four in summer, nor more than fourteen in winter, and if he gave +them every Sunday to themselves, he did quite as much for their comfort +as the law required he should. + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE AREA OF %SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790%] + +If the slave committed any offense, if he stole anything, or refused to +work, or ran away, it was lawful to load him with irons, to confine him +for any length of time in a cell, and to beat him and whip him till the +blood ran in streams from the wounds, and he grew too weak to stand. +Old advertisements are still extant in which runaway blacks are +described by the scars left upon their bodies by the lash. When such +lashings were not prescribed by the court, they were commonly given +under the eye of the overseer, or inflicted by the owner himself. + +%196. Six Days from Boston to New York.%--Our country was small when +Washington was President. The people lived on the seaboard. The towns +and cities were not actually very far apart; but the means of travel +were so poor, the time consumed in going even fifty miles was so great, +that the country was practically immense in extent. Now we step into a +beautifully fitted car, heated by steam, lighted by electricity, richly +carpeted, and provided with most comfortable seats and beds, and are +whirled across the continent from Philadelphia to San Francisco in less +time than it took Washington to go from New York to Boston. + +[Illustration: Old mill at West Falmouth, Mass.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: In many parts of the country where there was no water +power, as Cape Cod, Long Island, Nantucket, etc., flour was ground at +windmills. The windmill shown in the picture was built in 1787, and is +still in use.] + +If you had lived in 1791 and started, say, from Boston, to go to +Philadelphia to see the President and the great city where independence +had been declared, you would very likely have begun by making your will, +and bidding good-by to your friends. You would then have gone down to +the office of the proprietor of the stagecoach, and secured a seat to +New York. As the coach left but twice a week, you would have waited +till the day came and would then have presented yourself, at three +o'clock in the morning, at the tavern whence the coach started. + +The stagecoach was little better than a huge covered box mounted on +springs. It had neither glass windows, nor door, nor steps, nor closed +sides. The roof was upheld by ten posts which rose from the body of the +vehicle, and the body was commonly breast high. From the top were hung +curtains of leather, to be rolled up when the day was fine, and let down +and buttoned when it was rainy and cold. Within were four seats. Without +was the baggage. Fourteen pounds of luggage were allowed to be carried +free by each passenger. But if your portmanteau or your +brass-nail-studded hair trunk weighed more, you would have paid for it +at the rate per mile that you paid for yourself. Under no circumstances, +however, would you be permitted to take on the journey more than 150 +pounds. When the baggage had all been weighed and strapped on the coach, +when the horses had been attached, and the waybill, containing the names +of the passengers, made out, the passengers would clamber to their seats +through the front of the stage and sit down with their faces toward the +driver's seat. + +One pair of horses usually dragged the coach eighteen miles, when a +fresh pair would be attached, and if all went well, you would be put +down about ten at night at some wayside inn or tavern after a journey of +forty miles. Cramped and weary, you would eat a frugal supper and hurry +off to bed with a notice from the landlord to be ready to start at three +the next morning. Then, no matter if it rained or snowed, you would be +forced to make ready by the dim light of a horn lantern, unknown now, +for another ride of eighteen hours. + +If no mishaps occurred, if the coach was not upset by the ruts, if storm +or flood did not delay you at Springfield, where the road met the +Connecticut, or at Stratford, where it met the Housatonic, each of which +had to be crossed on clumsy flatboats, the stage would roll into New +York at the end of the sixth day. + +%197. Two Days from New York to Philadelphia.%--And here a serious +delay was almost certain to occur, for even in the best of weather it +was no easy matter to cross the Hudson to New Jersey. When the wind was +high and the water rough, or the river full of ice, the boldest did not +dare to risk a crossing. Once over the river, you would again go on by +coach, and at the end of two more days would reach Philadelphia. In our +time one can travel in eight hours the entire distance between Boston +and Philadelphia, a distance which Washington could not have traversed +in less than eight days. + +[Illustration: Stagecoach and inn[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a print of 1798.] + +%198. The Roads and the Inns.%--The newspapers and the travelers of +those days complained bitterly of the roads and the inns. On the best +roads the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the passengers +were often forced to get out and help the driver pull the wheels out of +the mud. Breakdowns and upsets were of everyday occurrence. Yet bad as +the roads were, the travel was so considerable that very often the inns +and taverns even in the large cities could not lodge all who applied +unless they slept five or six in a room. + +%199. A Steamboat on the Delaware.%--Rude as this means of travel +seems to us, the men of 1790 were quite satisfied with it, and +absolutely refused to make use of a better one. Had you been in +Philadelphia during the summer of 1790 and taken up a copy of _The +Pennsylvania Packet_, you could not have failed to notice this +advertisement of the first successful steamboat in the world: + + %The Steam-Boat + + Is now ready to take Passengers, and is intended to + set off from Arch Street Ferry in Philadelphia every + _Monday, Wednesday_ and _Friday_, for _Burlington, + Bristol, Bordentown_ and _Trenton_, to return on _Tuesdays, + Thursdays_ and _Saturdays_--Price for Passengers, 2/6 to + Burlington and Bristol, 3/9 to Bordentown, 5/. to + Trenton. June 14. tu.th ftf.% + +This boat was the invention of John Fitch, and from June to September +ran up and down the Delaware; but so few people went on it that he could +not pay expenses, and the boat was withdrawn. + +%200. To the Great West.%--From Philadelphia went out one of the +great highways to what was then the far West, but to what we now know as +the valley of the Ohio. The traveler who to-day makes the journey from +Philadelphia to Pittsburg is whisked on a railroad car through an +endless succession of cities and villages and rich farms, and by great +factories and mills and iron works, which in the days of Washington had +no existence. He makes the journey easily between sunrise and sunset. In +1790 he could not have made it in twelve days. + +%201. Towns beyond the Alleghany Mountains.%--Though the country +between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi had been closed to +settlement from 1763 to 1776 by the King's proclamation, it was by no +means without population in 1790. At Detroit and Kaskaskia and Vincennes +were old French settlements, made long before France was driven out of +Louisiana. But there were others of later date. The hardy frontiersman +of 1763 cared no more for the King's proclamation than he did for the +bark of the wolf at his cabin door. The ink with which the document was +written had not dried before emigrants from Maryland and Virginia and +Pennsylvania were hurrying into the valley of the Monongahela. + +In 1769 William Bean crossed the mountains from North Carolina, and, +building a cabin on the banks of Watauga Creek, began the settlement of +Tennessee. James Robertson and a host of others followed in 1770, and +soon the valleys of the Clinch and the Holston were dotted with cabins. +In 1769 Daniel Boone, one of the grandest figures in frontier history, +began his exploits in what is now Kentucky, and before 1777 Boonesboro, +Harrodsburg, and Lexington were founded. + +[Illustration: %Model of Fitch's steamboat%[l]] + +[Footnote 1: Now in the National Museum, Washington.] + +%202. State of Franklin.%--Before the Revolution closed, emigrants +under James Robertson and John Donelson planted Nashville and half a +dozen other settlements on the Cumberland, in middle Tennessee. After +the Revolution ended, so many settlers were in eastern Tennessee that +they tried to make a new state. North Carolina, following the example +of her Northern sisters, ceded to Congress her claim to what is now +Tennessee in 1784. But the people on the Watauga no sooner heard, of it +than under the lead of John Sevier they organized the state of Franklin, +whereupon North Carolina repealed the act of cession and absorbed the +new state by making the Franklin officials her officials for the +district of Tennessee. In 1789 she again ceded the district, and in May +of that year Tennessee became part of the public domain. + +%203. Squatters in Ohio.%--The cession to Congress of the land north +of the Ohio led to an emigration from Virginia and Kentucky to what is +now the state of Ohio. As this territory was to be sold to pay the +national debt, Congress was forced to order the squatters away, and when +they refused to go, sent troops to burn their cabins, destroy their +crops, and drive them across the Ohio. The lawful settlement of the +territory began after the Ohio and Scioto companies bought their lands +in 1787, and John C. Symmes purchased his in 1788. + +%204. Pittsburg in 1790.%--At Pittsburg, then the greatest town in +the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains, were some 200 houses, +mostly of logs, and 2000 people, a newspaper, and a few rude +manufactories. The life of the town was its river trade. Pittsburg was +the place where emigrants "fitted out" for the West. A settler intending +to go down the Ohio valley with his family and his goods would lay in a +stock of powder and ball, buy flour and ham enough to last him for a +month, and secure two rude structures which passed under the name +of boats. + +[Illustration: %The first millstones and salt kettle in Ohio%] + +%205. A Trip down the Ohio in 1790.%--In the long keel boat he would +put his wife, his children, and such travelers as had been waiting at +Pittsburg for a chance to go down the river. In the flatboat would be +his cattle or his stores. Two dangers beset the voyager on the Ohio. His +boat might become entangled in the branches of the trees that overhung +the river, or be fired into by the Indians who lurked in the woods. The +cabin of the keel boat, therefore, was low, that it might glide under +the trees, and the roof and sides were made as nearly bullet-proof as +possible. The whole craft was steered by a huge oar mounted on a pivot +at the stern.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See the boats in the pictures on next page.] + +[Illustration: Map of Ohio] + +%206. Towns along the Ohio.%--As the emigrant in such an ark floated +down the river, he would come first to Wheeling, a town of fifty log +cabins, and then to Marietta, a town planted in Ohio in 1788 by settlers +sent by the Ohio Company. Below Marietta were Belpre and Gallipolis, a +settlement made by Frenchmen brought there by the Scioto Company. Yet +farther down, on the Kentucky side, were Limestone (now Maysville) and +Newport, opposite which some settlers were founding the city of +Cincinnati. Once past Cincinnati, all was unbroken wilderness till one +reached Louisville in Kentucky, beyond which few emigrants had yet +ventured to go. + +[Illustration: %Cincinnati in 1802 (Fort Washington)%] + +%207. Cotton Planting.%--The South, in 1790, was on the eve of a +great industrial revolution. The products of the states south of +Virginia had been tar, pitch, resin, lumber, rice, and indigo. But in +the years following the peace the indigo plants had been destroyed year +after year by an insect. As the plant was not a native of our country, +but was brought from the West Indies, it became necessary either to +import more seed plants, or to raise some other staple. Many chose the +latter course, and about 1787 began to grow cotton. + +[Illustration: %Farmers' Castle (Belpre) in 1791%] + +%208. Whitney and the Cotton Gin.%--The experiment succeeded, but a +serious difficulty arose. The cotton plant has pods which when ripe +split open and show a white woolly substance attached to seeds. Before +the cotton could be used, these seeds must be picked out, and as the +labor of cleaning was very great, only a small quantity could be sent to +market. It happened, however, that a young man from Massachusetts, named +Eli Whitney, was then living in Georgia, and he, seeing the need of a +machine to clean cotton, invented the cotton gin.[1] Till then, a negro +slave could not clean two pounds of cotton in a day. With the gin the +same slave in the same time could remove the seeds from a hundred +pounds. This solved the difficulty, and gave to the United States +another staple even greater in value than tobacco. In 1792 one hundred +and ninety-two thousand pounds of cotton were exported to Europe; in +1795, after the gin was invented, six million pounds were sent out of +the country. In 1894 no less than 4275 million pounds were raised and +either consumed or exported. Of all the marvelous inventions of our +countrymen, this produced the very greatest consequences. It made +cotton planting profitable; it brought immense wealth to the people of +the South every year; it covered New England with cotton mills; and by +making slave labor profitable it did more than anything else to fasten +slavery on the United States for seventy years, and finally to bring on +the Civil War, the most terrible struggle of modern times. + +[Footnote 1: The word "gin" is a contraction of "engine."] + +[Illustration: %The cotton gin% _A_. Whitney's original gin. _B_. A +later form.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. When Washington was inaugurated, the United States consisted of +eleven states, with a population of about 3,380,000. + +2. These people lived not far from the Atlantic coast. Few cities +existed; not one had 50,000 inhabitants. Even the largest was without +many conveniences which we consider necessaries. + +3. Travel was slow and difficult, and though a steamboat had been +invented and used, it was too far ahead of the times to succeed. + +4. West of the Alleghany Mountains a few settlements had been made +between 1763 and 1783. But it was after 1783, when streams of emigrants +poured over the mountains, that settlement really began. + +6. In the South cotton was just beginning to be cultivated; there all +labor was done by slaves. In the North slavery was dying out, and in +five of the states had been abolished. + +State of the Country in 1790 + +- _On the Seaboard._ +The population. {Number. + {Distribution. + {Movement west. +The cities {Size. + {Absence of many conveniences known to us. + {Newspapers and magazines. +Communication between states. {Bad roads. Slow travel. + {The post offices. + {The stagecoaches. The inns. + {The early steamboat. + +- _In the Ohio Valley._ {Population. Squatters. + {Pittsburg in 1790. + {A trip down the Ohio. + {Towns in the valley. + +- _In the South._ {Slavery. + {Cotton planting. + {Whitney and the cotton gin. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +THE RISE OF PARTIES + +%209. Organizing the New Government.%--he President having been +inaugurated, and the new government fairly established, it became the +duty of Congress to enact such laws as were needed immediately. The +first act passed by Congress in 1789 was therefore a tariff act laying +duties on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States. +Customhouses were then established and customs districts marked out, and +ports of entry and ports of delivery designated; provision was made for +the support of lighthouses and beacons; the Ordinance of 1787 for the +government of the territories was slightly changed and reenacted; the +departments of State, War, and Treasury were established; and a call was +made on the Secretary of the Treasury to report a plan for payment of +the old Continental debt. + +%210. The United States Courts.%--The Constitution declares that the +judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court +and such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain +and establish. Acting under this power, Congress made provision for a +Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief Justice and five Associate +Justices, and marked out the United States into circuits and districts. +The circuits were three in number. In the first were the Eastern States; +in the second, the Middle States; and in the third, the Southern States. +To each were assigned two Justices of the Supreme Court, whose business +it was to go to some city in each state in the circuit, and there, with +the district judge of that state, hold a circuit court. The district +courts were thirteen in number, one being established in each state.[1] +Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Justice of the +Supreme Court. + +[Footnote 1: For later changes, see Andrews's _Manual of the +Constitution,_ p. 183.] + +%211. The Secretaries.%--During the management of affairs by the +Continental Congress three great executive departments had gradually +grown up and been placed in charge of three men, called the +"Superintendent of Finance," the "Secretary of the United States for the +Department of Foreign Affairs," and the "Secretary of War." These the +Constitution recognized in the expression "principal officer in each of +the executive departments." Congress by law now continued the +departments and placed them in charge of a Secretary of the Treasury, a +Secretary of State, and a Secretary of War. Washington filled the +offices promptly, making Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, +Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, and General Henry Knox Secretary +of War. + +%212. The "Cabinet."%--It has long been the custom for the President +to gather his secretaries about him on certain days in each week for the +purpose of discussing public measures. To these gatherings has been +given the name "Cabinet meetings," while the secretaries have come to be +called "Cabinet officers." The Constitution, however, never intended to +give the President a body of advisers. Indeed, a proposition to provide +him with a council was voted down in the constitutional convention. But +Washington at once began to consult the Chief Justice, the Vice +President, his three secretaries, and the Attorney-general on matters of +importance. At first he asked their opinions individually and in +writing, but toward the end of his first term he convened a general +meeting of the heads of departments, and by so doing set a custom out of +which, in time, the "Cabinet" has grown. + +%213. The Origin of the National Debt.%--As soon as Hamilton was made +Secretary of the Treasury, it became his duty, in accordance with an +order from Congress, to prepare a plan for the payment of the debts +contracted by the Continental Congress. When that body was unexpectedly +called on, in May, 1775, to conduct the war, it had nothing with which +to pay expenses, and was forced to use all sorts of means to +raise money. + +[Illustrations: Continental money] + +%214. Paper Money.%--The first resort was the issue, during 1775 and +1776, of six batches of Continental "bills of credit," amounting in all +to $36,000,000. These "bills" were rudely engraved bits of paper, +stating on their face that "This bill entitles the bearer to receive +---- Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof in gold or silver." +They were issued in sums of various denominations, from one sixth of a +dollar up, and were to be redeemed by the states. The amount assigned +each state for redemption was in proportion to the supposed number of +its inhabitants. + +%215. Loan-office Certificates.%--In 1776 Congress tried another +means. It opened a loan office in each state and called on patriotic +people to come forward and loan it money, receiving in return pieces of +paper called "loan-office certificates." Interest was to be paid on +these; but after a while Congress, having no money with which to pay +interest, was forced to resort to another form of paper, called +"interest indents." + +%216. The Congress Lottery.%--The loan office having failed to bring +in as much money as was needed, Congress, toward the close of 1776, was +driven to seek some other way, and resorted to a lottery. A certain +number of tickets were sold, after which a drawing took place, and all +who drew prizes were given certificates payable at the end of +five years. + +%217. More Bills of Credit.%--But the sale of tickets went off so +slowly that Congress had to go back to the issue of bills of credit. In +1777, therefore, the printing press was again put to work, and issues +were made in rapid succession, till more than $200,000,000 in +Continental paper were in circulation. + +%218. The "New Tenor".%--Then the Continental bills ceased to +circulate, and in March, 1780, Congress called in the old money and +offered to exchange it for a new issue, giving one dollar of the new +paper money, or "new tenor," for forty dollars of the old. But the +attempt to restore credit by such means was a failure, and by the end of +the year 1781 all paper money ceased to circulate. + +%219. Certificates.%--Long before this time officials had been forced +to pay debts contracted in the name of Congress with other kinds of +paper, called certificates, and known as treasury, commissary, +quartermaster, marine, and hospital certificates, according to the +department issuing them. To these must be added the "final settlements," +or certificates given to the soldiers at the end of the war in payment +of their services. + +%220. Foreign Debt.%--Besides the debt thus contracted at home, +Congress had borrowed a great sum in Europe. + +%221. The National Debt in 1790.%--Thus the debt contracted by the +Continental Congress consisted of two parts. 1. The foreign debt, due to +France, Holland, and Spain, and amounting, Hamilton found, to +$11,700,000. 2. The domestic or home debt, of $42,000,000. But the +states had also fallen into debt because of their exertions in the war. +Just how great the state debts were could not be determined, but they +were estimated to be $21,500,000. + +%222. Assumption and Funding.%--For the redemption of this debt +Hamilton prepared two measures,--the funding, or, as we should say, the +bonding, of the foreign and Continental debt, and the assuming and +funding of the state debts. This was done, and Congress ordered stock +bearing interest to be issued in exchange for the old debts, and so +established our national debt, which in 1790 amounted to $75,000,000. + +%223. The National Capital.%--Funding the state debts was strongly +opposed by many congressmen, and was not carried till a bargain was made +by which it was agreed that if enough members from Virginia and +Pennsylvania would support the measure to secure its passage through the +House of Representatives, the national government should be removed from +New York to Philadelphia for ten years, and after that to a city to be +built on the Potomac. This was faithfully carried out, and in the summer +of 1790 the government offices were removed to Philadelphia, where they +remained till the summer of 1800, when they were removed to Washington +in the District of Columbia. + +%224. The Bank of the United States.%--The troublesome questions of +funding and assumption thus disposed of, Congress called on Hamilton for +a report on the further support of public credit, and when it met in the +session of 1790-91, received a plan for a great National Bank, with a +capital of $10,000,000. The United States was to raise $2,000,000; the +rest was to be subscribed for by the people. The bank was to keep the +public revenues, was to aid the government in making payments all over +the country. To do this, power was given to the parent bank (which must +be at Philadelphia) to establish branches in the chief cities and towns, +and to issue bank bills which should be received all over the United +States for public lands, taxes, duties, postage, and in payment of any +debt due the government. Great opposition was made; but the charter was +granted for twenty years, and in 1791 the Bank of the United States +began business. + +The effect of these two measures, funding the debt and establishing a +bank, was immediate. Confidence and credit were restored. Money that the +people had long been hiding away was brought out and invested in all +sorts of new enterprises, such as banks, canal companies, manufacturing +companies, and turnpike companies. + +[Illustration: The first Bank of the United States] + +%225. "Federalists" and "Republicans."%--When the Constitution was +before the people for acceptance or rejection in 1788, they were divided +into two bodies. Those who wanted a strong and vigorous federal +government, who wanted Congress to have plenty of power to regulate +trade, pay the debts of the country, and raise revenue, supported the +Constitution just as it was and were called "Federalists." + +Others, who wanted the old Articles of Confederation preserved and +amended so as to give Congress a revenue and only a little more power, +opposed the Constitution and wanted it altered. To please these +"Anti-Federalists," as they were a large part of the people, Congress, +in 1789, drew up twelve amendments to the Constitution and sent them to +the states. + +With the ratification of ten of these amendments, opposition to the +Constitution ceased. But as soon as Congress began to pass laws, +difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, and even as to the +right of Congress to pass them, divided the people again into two +parties, and sent a good many Federalists into the Anti-Federalist +party. + +A very large number of men, for instance, opposed the funding of the +Continental Congress debt at its face value, because the people never +had taken a bill at the value expressed on its face, but at a very much +less value; some opposed the assumption of the state debts, because +Congress, they said, had power to pay the debt of the United States, but +not state debts; others opposed the National Bank because the +Constitution did not give Congress express power in so many words to +charter a bank. Others complained that the interest on the national debt +and the great salary of the President ($25,000 a year) and the pay of +Congressmen ($6 a day) and the hundreds of tax collectors made taxes too +heavy. They complained again that men in office showed an undemocratic +fondness for aristocratic customs. The President, they said, was too +exclusive, and owned too fine a coach. The Justices of the Supreme Court +must have black silk gowns, with red, white, and blue scarfs. The Senate +for some years to come held its daily session in secret; not even a +newspaper reporter was allowed to be present. + +As early as 1792 there were thus a very great number of men in all parts +of the country who were much opposed to the measures of Congress and the +President, and who accused the Federalists of wishing to set up a +monarchy. A great national debt, they said, a funding system, a national +bank, and heavy internal taxes are all monarchical institutions, and if +you have the institutions, it will not be long before you have the +monarchy. They began therefore in 1792 to organize for election +purposes, and as they were opposed to a monarchy, they called themselves +"Republicans." [1] Their great leaders were Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, +John Randolph, and Albert Gallatin. + +[Footnote 1: This party was the forerunner of the present Democratic +party.] + +%226. The Whisky Rebellion, 1794.%--One of the taxes to which the +Republicans objected, that on whisky, led to the first rebellion against +the government of the United States. In those days, 1791, the farmers +living in the region around Pittsburg could not send grain or flour down +the Ohio and the Mississippi, because Spain had shut the Mississippi to +navigation by Americans. They could not send their flour over the +mountains to Philadelphia or Baltimore, because it cost more to haul it +there than it would sell for. Instead, therefore, of making flour, they +grew rye and made whisky on their own farms. This found a ready sale. +Now, when the United States collectors attempted to collect the whisky +tax, the farmers of western Pennsylvania drove them away. An appeal was +then made to the courts; but when the marshal came to make arrests he, +too, was driven away. Under the Articles of Confederation this would +have been submitted to. But the Constitution and the acts of Congress +were now "the supreme law of the land," and Washington in his oath of +office had sworn to see them executed. To accomplish this, he used the +power given him by an act of Congress, and called out 12,900 militia +from the neighboring states and marched them to Pittsburg. Then the +people yielded. Two of the leaders were tried and convicted of treason; +but Washington pardoned them. + +The insurrection or rebellion was a small affair. But the principles at +stake were great. It was now shown that the Constitution and the laws +must be obeyed; that it was treason to resist them by force, and that if +necessary the people would, at the call of the President, turn out and +put down rebellion by force of arms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. II., pp. 189-204; Findley's _History of the Insurrection +in Pennsylvania_.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. As soon as Washington was inaugurated, Congress proceeded to organize +the new government. + +2. The Supreme Court and circuit and district courts were established. + +3. The departments of State, War, and Treasury were formed. + +4. Twelve amendments to the Constitution were proposed. + +5. Three financial measures were adopted: + A. A tariff act was passed. + B. The debts of the states were assumed, and, with that of the + Continental Congress, funded. + C. A national bank was chartered. + +6. The price of funding was the ultimate location of the national +capital on the Potomac. + +7. The first census was taken in 1790. + +8. The result of the financial measures of Congress was the rise of the +Republican party (the forerunner of the present Democratic party). + + THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL PARTIES +/--------------------------------------------------------------------\ + + Funding the + Continental Debt. + /------------\ + / Money borrowed in \ Shall it be \ + Foreign debt. | France, Holland, | funded at | Yes ------+ + \ and Spain. / face value? / | + | + / Bills of credit. \ | + | Loan-office | | + | certificates. | Shall it be \ | + | Lottery | funded at | Yes ----+ | + Domestic debt. | certificates. | face value / | | + | Interest indents. | or market \ | | + | New tenor. | value? / Yes --+ | | + | Certificates of | | | | + | officials. | | | | + \ Final settlements. / | | | \ + | | | | +Assumption of / Yes ---------------------------------------+-+ |[1] + state debts. \ No ----------------------------------+ | | | + | | | / +Establishment / Yes -----------------------------------------+ + of a national | | | + bank. \ No ------------------------------------+ | + | | | +Internal revenue / Too heavy ----------------------- \ | | | +taxes. \ | | | | + | | | | + / / President too | | | | + | | exclusive. | | | | \ + | Aristocratic | Secret sessions | | | | | +Administration | customs. | of the Senate. |--+-+-+ |[2] +not democratic. | | Gowns of the | | + | \ justices. | / + | Monarchial / Great debt. | + | institutions. | National bank. | + \ \ Heavy taxes. / + + \ / Leaders. + [1]---| Federalists | Washington. + / | Adams. + \ Hamilton. + + \ / Leaders. + | | Jefferson. + [2]---| Republicans | Madison. + | | Monroe. + | | Randolph. + / \ Gallatin. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY + +%227. Trouble with Great Britain and France.%--From the congressional +election in 1792 we may date the beginning of organized political +parties in the United States. They sprang from differences of opinion as +to domestic matters. But on a sudden in 1793 Federalists and Republicans +became divided on questions of foreign affairs. + +Ever since 1789 France had been in a state of revolution, and at last +(in 1792) the people established the French Republic, cut off the heads +of the King and Queen (in 1793), and declared war on England and sent a +minister, Genet, to the United States. At that time we had no treaty +with Great Britain except the treaty of peace. With France, however, we +had two treaties,--one of alliance, and one of amity and commerce. The +treaty of alliance bound us to guarantee to France "the possessions of +the crown of France in America," by which were meant the French West +Indian Islands. When Washington heard that war had been declared by +France, and that a French minister was on his way to America, he became +alarmed lest this minister should call on him to make good the guarantee +by sending a fleet to the Indies. On consulting his secretaries, they +advised him that the guarantee applied only when France was attacked, +and not when she was the attacking party. The President thereupon issued +a proclamation of neutrality; that is, declared that the United States +would not side with either party in the war, but would treat both alike. + +%228. Sympathy for France; the French Craze.%--Then began a long +struggle for neutrality. The Republicans were very angry at Washington +and denounced him violently. France, they said, had been our old friend; +Great Britain had been our old enemy. We had a treaty with France; we +had none with Great Britain. To treat her on the same footing with +France was therefore a piece of base ingratitude to France. A wave of +sympathy for France swept over the country. The French dress, customs, +manners, came into use. Republicans ceased to address each other as Mr. +Smith, Mr. Jones, Sir, or "Your Honor," and used Citizen Smith and +Citizen Jones. The French tricolor with the red liberty cap was hung up +in taverns and coffeehouses, which were the clubhouses of that day. +Every French victory was made the occasion of a "civic feast," while the +anniversaries of the fall of the Bastile and of the founding of the +Republic were kept in every great city.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. II., pp. 89-96; _Harpers Magazine_, April, 1897.] + +%229. England seizes our Ships; the Rule of 1756%.--To preserve +neutrality in the face of such a public sentiment was hard enough; but +Great Britain made it more difficult yet. When war was declared, France +opened the ports of her West Indian Islands and invited neutral nations +to trade with them. This she did because she knew that the British navy +could drive her merchantmen from the sea, and that all trade between +herself and her colonies must be carried on in the ships of +neutral nations. + +Now the merchants of the United States had never been allowed to trade +with the French Indies to an unlimited extent. The moment, therefore, +they were allowed to do so, they gladly began to trade, and during the +summer of 1793 hundreds of ships went to the islands. There were at that +time four questions of dispute between us and Great Britain: + +1. Great Britain held that she might seize any kind of food going to a +French port in our ships. We held that only military stores might be +so seized. + +2. Great Britain held that when a port had been declared to be +blockaded, a ship bound to that port might be seized even on the high +seas. We held that no port was blockaded unless there was a fleet +actually stationed at it to prevent ships from entering or leaving it. + +3. Great Britain held that our ships might be captured if they had +French goods on board. We held that "free ships made free goods," and +that our ships were not subject to capture, no matter whose goods they +had on board. + +4. Great Britain in 1756 had adopted a rule that no neutral should have +in time of war a trade she did not have in time of peace. + +The United States was now enjoying a trade in time of war she did not +have in time of peace, and Great Britain began to enforce her rule. +British ships were ordered to stop American vessels going to or coming +from the French West Indies, and if they contained provisions, to seize +them. This was done, and in the autumn of 1793 great numbers of American +ships were captured. + +%230. Our Sailors impressed.%--All this was bad enough and excited +the people against our old enemy, who made matters a thousand times +worse by a course of action to which we could not possibly submit. She +claimed the right to stop any of our ships on the sea, send an officer +on board, force the captain to muster the crew on the deck, and then +search for British subjects. If one was found, he was seized and carried +away. If none were found, and the British ships wanted men, native-born +Americans were taken off under the pretext that one could not tell an +American from an English sailor. Our fathers could stand a great deal, +but this was too much, and a cry for war went up from all parts of +the country. + +But Washington did not want war, and took two measures to prevent it. +He persuaded Congress to lay an embargo for thirty days, that is, forbid +all ships to leave our ports, and induced the Senate to let him send +John Jay, the Chief Justice, to London to make a treaty of amity and +commerce with Great Britain. + +%231. Jay's Treaty, 1794.%--In this mission Jay succeeded; and though +the treaty was far from what Washington wanted, it was the best that +could be had, and he approved it.[1] At this the Republicans grew +furious. They burned copies of the treaty at mass meetings and hung Jay +in effigy. Yet the treaty had some good features. By it the King agreed +to withdraw his troops from Oswego and Detroit and Mackinaw, which +really belonged to us but were still occupied by the English. By it our +merchants were allowed for the first time to trade with the British West +Indies, and some compensation was made for the damage done by the +capture of ships in the West Indies. + +[Footnote 1: The Senate ratified this treaty in the summer of 1795.] + +%232. Treaty with Spain.%--About the same time (October, 1795) we +made our first treaty with Spain, and induced her to accept the +thirty-first degree of latitude as the south boundary of our country, +and to consent to open the Mississippi to trade. As Spain owned both +banks at the mouth of the river, she claimed that American ships had no +right to go in or out without her consent, and so prevented the people +of Kentucky and Tennessee from trading in foreign markets. She now +agreed that they might float their produce to New Orleans and pay a +small duty, and then ship it wherever they pleased. + +%233. The Election of Adams and Jefferson, 1796%.--Washington had +been reelected President in 1792, but he was now tired of office, and in +September, 1796, issued his "Farewell Address," in which he declined to +be the candidate for a third presidential term. In those days there were +no national conventions to nominate candidates, yet it was well +understood that John Adams, the Vice President, was the candidate of the +Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson, of the Republicans. When the votes +were counted in Congress, it was found that Adams had 71 electoral +votes, and Jefferson 68; so they became President and Vice President. + +[Illustration: John Adams] + +%234. Trouble with France.%--Adams was inaugurated on March 4, 1797, +and three days later heard that C. C. Pinckney, our minister to the +French Republic, had been driven from France. Pinckney had been sent to +France by Washington in 1796, but the French Directory (as the five men +who then governed France were called) had taken great offense at Jay's +treaty: first because it was favorable to Great Britain, and in the +second place because it put an end for the present to all hope of war +between her and the United States. The Directory, therefore, refused to +receive Pinckney until the French grievances were redressed. + +The President was very angry at the insult, and summoned Congress to +meet and take such action as, said he, "shall convince France and the +whole world that we are not a degraded people humiliated under a +colonial spirit of fear and sense of inferiority." But the Republicans +declared so vigorously that if a special mission were sent to France all +would be made right, that Adams yielded, and sent John Marshall and +Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney as envoys extraordinary. On reaching +Paris, three men acting as agents for the Directory met them, and +declared that before they could be received as ministers they must do +three things: + +1. Apologize for Adams's denunciation of the conduct of France. +2. Pay each Director $50,000. +3. Pay tribute to France. + +When the President reported this demand to Congress, the names of the +three French agents were suppressed, and instead they were called Mr. X, +Mr. Y, Mr. Z. This gave the mission the nickname "X, Y, Z mission." + +%235. "Millions for Defense, not a Cent for Tribute."%--As the +newspapers published these dispatches, a roar of indignation, in which +the Federalists and Republicans alike joined, went up from the whole +country. "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute," became the +watchword of the hour. Opposition in Congress ceased, and preparations +were at once made for war. The French treaties were suspended. The Navy +Department was created, and a Secretary of the Navy appointed. Frigates +were ordered to be built, money was voted for arms, a provisional army +was formed, and Washington was again made commander in chief, with the +rank of lieutenant general. The young men associated for defense, the +people in the seaports built frigates or sloops of war, and gave their +services to erect forts and earthworks. Every French flag was now pulled +down from the coffeehouses, and the black cockade of our own +Revolutionary days was once more worn as the badge of patriotism. Then +was written, by Joseph Hopkinson of Philadelphia,[1] and sung for the +first time, our national song _Hail, Columbia!_ + +[Footnote 1: The music to which we sing _Hail, Columbia!_ was called +_The President's March_, and was played for the first time when the +people of Trenton were welcoming Washington on his way to be inaugurated +President in 1789. For an account of the trouble with France read +McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, Vol. II, pp. +207-416, 427-476.] + +%236. The Alien and Sedition Acts.%--Carried away by the excitement +of the hour, the Federalists now passed two most unwise laws. Many of +the active leaders and very many of the members of the Republican party +were men born abroad and naturalized in this country. Generally they +were Irishmen or Frenchmen, and as such had good reason to hate England, +and therefore hated the Federalists, who they believed were too friendly +to her. To prevent such becoming voters, and so taking an active part in +politics, the Federalists passed a new naturalization law, which forbade +any foreigner to become an American citizen until he had lived fourteen +years in our country. Lest this should not be enough to keep them +quiet, a second law was passed by which the President had power for two +years to send any alien (any of these men who for fourteen years could +not become citizens) out of the country whenever he thought it proper. +This law Adams never used. + +For five years past the Republican newspapers had been abusing +Washington, Adams, the acts of Congress, the members of Congress, and +the whole foreign policy of the Federalists. The Federalist newspapers, +of course, had retaliated and had been just as abusive of the +Republicans. But as the Federalists now had the power, they determined +to punish the Republicans for their abuse, and passed the Sedition Act. +This provided that any man who acted seditiously (that is, interfered +with the execution of a law of Congress) or spoke or wrote seditiously +(that is, abused the President, or Congress, or any member of the +Federal government) should be tried, and if found guilty, be fined and +imprisoned. This law was used, and used vigorously, and Republican +editors all over the country were fined and sometimes imprisoned.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Alien and Sedition acts are in Preston's _Documents_, +pp. 277-282.] + +%237. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.%--The passage of these Alien +and Sedition laws greatly excited the Republicans, and led Jefferson to +use his influence to have them condemned by the states. For this purpose +he wrote a set of resolutions and sent them to a friend in Kentucky who +was to try to have the legislature adopt them.[2] Jefferson next asked +Madison to write a like set of resolutions for the Virginia legislature +to adopt. Madison became so interested that he gave up his seat in +Congress and entered the Virginia legislature, and in December, 1798, +induced it to adopt what have since been known as the Virginia +Resolutions of 1798. + +[Footnote 2: Kentucky had been admitted to the Union in 1792 (see p. +213).] + +Meantime the legislature of Kentucky, November, 1798, had adopted the +resolutions of Jefferson.[3] + +[Footnote 3: E. D. Warfield's _Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions_. The +Resolutions are printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 283-298; +_Jefferson's Works_, Vol. IX., p. 494.] + +Both sets declare 1. That the Constitution of the United States is a +compact or contract. 2. That to this contract each state is a party; +that is, the united states are equal partners in a great political firm. +So far they agree; but at this point they differ. The Kentucky +Resolutions assert that when any question arises as to the right of +Congress to pass any law, _each state_ may decide this question for +itself and apply any remedy it likes. The Virginia Resolutions declare +that _the states_ may judge and apply the remedy. + +Both declared that the Alien and Sedition laws were wholly +unconstitutional. Seven states answered by declaring that the laws were +constitutional, whereupon Kentucky in 1799 framed another set of +resolutions in which she said that when a state thought a law to be +illegal she had the right to nullify it; that is, forbid her citizens to +obey it. This doctrine of nullification, as we shall see, afterwards +became of very serious importance.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The answers of the states are printed in Elliot's +_Debates_, Vol. IV., pp. 532-539.] + +%238. The Naval War with France.%--Meantime war opened with France. +The Navy Department was created in April, 1798, and before the year +ended, a gallant little navy of thirty-four frigates, corvettes, and gun +sloops of war had been collected and sent with a host of privateers to +scour the sea around the French West Indies, destroy French commerce, +and capture French ships of war.[1] One of our frigates, the +_Constellation_, Captain Thomas Truxton in command, captured the French +frigate _Insurgente_, after a gallant fight. On another occasion, +Truxton, in the _Constellation_, fought the _Vengeance_ and would have +taken her, but the Frenchman, finding he was getting much the worst of +it, spread his sails and fled. Yet another of our frigates, the +_Boston_, took the _Berceau_, whose flag is now in the Naval Institute +Building at Annapolis. In six months the little American twelve-gun +schooner _Enterprise_ took eight French privateers, and recaptured and +set free four American merchantmen. These and a hundred other actions +just as gallant made good the patriotic words of John Adams, "that we +are not a degraded people humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and +sense of inferiority." So impressed was France with this fact that the +war had scarcely begun when the Directory meekly sent word that if +another set of ministers came they would be received. They ought to have +been told that they must send a mission to us. But Adams in this respect +was weak, and in 1800, the Chief Justice, Oliver Ellsworth, William R. +Davie, and William Vans Murray were sent to Paris. The Directory had +then fallen from power, Napoleon was ruling France as First Consul, and +with him in September, 1800, a convention was concluded. + +[Footnote 2: For an account of this war, read Maclay's _History of the +United States Navy_, Vol. I., pp. 155-213.] + +%239. The Stamp Tax; the Direct Tax and Fries's Rebellion, +1798.%--The heavy cost of the preparations for war made new taxes +necessary. Two of these, a stamp tax very similar to the famous one of +1765, and a direct tax, greatly excited the people. The direct tax was +the first of its kind in our history, and was laid on lands, houses, and +negro slaves. In certain counties of eastern Pennsylvania, where the +population was chiefly German, the purpose of the tax was not +understood, and the people refused to make returns of the value of their +farms and houses. When the assessors came to measure the houses and +count the windows as a means of determining the value of the property, +the people drove them off. For this some of the leaders were arrested. +But the people under John Fries rose and rescued the prisoners. At this +stage President Adams called out the militia, and marched it against the +rebels. They yielded. But Fries was tried for treason, was sentenced to +be hanged, and was then pardoned. Thus a second time was it proved that +the people of the United States were determined to support the +Constitution and the laws and put down rebellion. + +%240. Washington the National Capital.%--In accordance with the +bargain made in 1790, Washington selected a site for the Federal city +on both banks of the Potomac. This great square tract of land was ten +miles long on each side, and was given to the government partly by +Maryland and partly by Virginia.[1] It was called the District of +Columbia, and in it were marked out the streets of Washington city. + +[Footnote 1: In 1846 so much of the District as had belonged to Virginia +was given back to her.] + +Though all possible haste was made, the President's house was still +unfinished, the Capitol but partly built, and the streets nothing but +roads cut through the woods, when, in the summer of 1800, the +secretaries, the clerks, the books and papers of the government left +Philadelphia for Washington. With the opening of the new century, and +the occupation of the new Capitol, came a new President, and a new party +in control of the government. + +[Illustration: The National Capitol as it was in 1825] + +%241. The Election of Thomas Jefferson.%--The year 1800 was a +presidential year, and though no formal nomination was made, a caucus of +Republican leaders selected as candidates Thomas Jefferson for +President, and Aaron Burr for Vice President. A caucus or meeting of +Federalist leaders selected John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as their +candidates. When the returns were all in, it appeared that Jefferson had +received seventy-three votes, Burr seventy-three votes, Adams sixty-five +votes, Pinckney sixty-four votes. The Constitution provided that the man +who received the highest number of electoral votes, if the choice of +the majority of the electors, should be President. But as Jefferson and +Burr had each seventy-three, neither had the highest, and neither was +President. The duty of electing a President then devolved on the House +of Representatives, which after a long and bitter struggle elected +Jefferson President; Burr then became Vice President. To prevent such a +contest ever arising again, the twelfth amendment was added to the +Constitution. This provides for a separate ballot for Vice President. +March 4, 1801, Jefferson, escorted by the militia of Georgetown and +Alexandria, walked from his lodgings to the Senate chamber and took the +oath of office.{1} He and his party had been placed in power in order to +make certain reforms, and this, when Congress met in the winter of 1801, +they began to do. + +[Footnote 1: For a fine description of Jefferson's personality, read +Henry Adams's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 185-191. As +to the story of Jefferson riding alone to the Capitol and tying his +horse to the fence, see Adams's _History_, Vol. I, pp. 196-199; +McMaster's _History_, Vol. II., pp. 533-534.] + +%242. The Annual Message.%--While Washington and Adams were +presidents, it was their custom when Congress met each year to go in +state to the House of Representatives, and in the presence of the House +and Senate read a speech. The two branches of Congress would then +separate and appoint committees to answer the President's speech, and +when the answers were ready, each would march through the streets to the +President's house, where the Vice President or the Speaker would read +the answer to the President. When Congress met in 1801, Jefferson +dropped this custom and sent a written message to both houses--a +practice which every President since that time has followed. + +%243. Republican Reforms.%--True to their promises, the Republicans +now proceeded to repeal the hated laws of the Federalists. They sold all +the ships of the navy except thirteen, they ordered prosecutions under +the Sedition law to be stopped, they repealed all the internal taxes +laid by the Federalists, they cut down the army to 2500 men, and +reduced the expenses of government to $3,700,000 per year--a sum which +would not now pay the cost of running the government for three days. As +the annual revenue collected at the customhouses, the post office, and +from the sale of land was $10,800,000, the treasury had some $7,000,000 +of surplus each year. This was used to pay the national debt, which fell +from $88,000,000 in 1801 to $45,000,000 in 1812, and this in spite of +the purchase of Louisiana. + +[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson] + +%244. The Purchase of Louisiana.%--When France was driven out of +America, it will be remembered, she gave to Spain all of Louisiana west +of the Mississippi River, together with a large tract on the east bank, +at the river's mouth. Spain then owned Louisiana till 1800, when by a +secret treaty she gave the province back to France.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Adams's _History of the United States, _Vol. I., pp. +352-376.] + +For a while this treaty was really kept secret; but in April, 1802, news +that Louisiana had been given to France and that Napoleon was going to +send out troops to hold it, reached this country and produced two +consequences. In the first place, it led the Spanish intendant (as the +man who had charge of all commercial matters was called) to withdraw the +"right of deposit" at New Orleans, and so prevent citizens of the United +States sending their produce out of the Mississippi River. In the second +place, this act of the intendant excited the rage of all the settlers in +the valley from Pittsburg to Natchez, and made them demand the instant +seizure of New Orleans by American troops. To prevent this, Jefferson +obtained the consent of Congress to make an effort to buy New Orleans +and West Florida, and sent Monroe to aid our minister in France in +making the purchase. + +When the offer was made, Napoleon was about going to war with England, +and, wanting money very much, he in turn offered to sell the whole +province to the United States--an offer that was gladly accepted. The +price paid was $15,000,000, and in December, 1803, Louisiana was +formally delivered to us. + +%245. Louisiana.%--Concerning this splendid domain hardly anything +was known. No boundaries were given to it either on the north, or on the +west, or on the south. What the country was like nobody could tell.[1] +Where the source of the Mississippi was no white man knew. In the time +of La Salle a priest named Hennepin had gone up to the spot where +Minneapolis now stands, and had seen the Falls of St. Anthony (p. 63). +But the country above the falls was still unknown. + +[Footnote 1: In a description of it which Jefferson sent to Congress in +1804, he actually stated that "there exists about one thousand miles up +the Missouri, and not far from that river, a salt mountain. This +mountain is said to be one hundred and eighty miles long and forty-five +in width, composed of solid rock salt, without any trees or even +shrubs on it."] + +%246. Explorations of Lewis and Clark.%--That this great region ought +to be explored had been a favorite idea of Jefferson for twenty years +past, and he had tried to persuade learned men and learned societies to +organize an expedition to cross the continent. Failing in this, he +turned to Congress, which in 1803 (before the purchase of Louisiana) +voted a sum of money for sending an exploring party from the mouth of +the Missouri to the Pacific. The party was in charge of Meriwether Lewis +and William Clark. Early in May, 1804, they left St. Louis, then a +frontier town of log cabins, and worked their way up the Missouri River +to a spot not far from the present city of Bismarck, North Dakota, where +they passed the winter with the Indians. Resuming their journey in the +spring of 1805, they followed the Missouri to its source in the +mountains, after crossing which they came to the Clear Water River; and +down this they went to the Columbia, which carried them to a spot where, +late in November, 1805, they "saw the waves like small mountains rolling +out in the sea." They were on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. After +spending the winter at the mouth of the Columbia, the party made its way +back to St. Louis in 1806. + +%247. The Oregon Country.%--Lewis and Clark were not the first of our +countrymen to see the Columbia River. In 1792 a Boston ship captain +named Gray was trading with the Pacific coast Indians. He was collecting +furs to take to China and exchange for tea to be carried to Boston, and +while so engaged he discovered the mouth of a great river, which he +entered, and named the Columbia in honor of his ship. By right of this +discovery by Gray the United States was entitled to all the country +drained by the Columbia River. By the exploration of this country by +Lewis and Clark our title was made stronger still, and it was finally +perfected a few years later when the trappers and settlers went over the +Rocky Mountains and occupied the Oregon country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Barrows's _Oregon_; McMaster's _History_, Vol. II., pp. +633-635.] + +[Illustration: Mouth of the Columbia River] + +%248. Pike explores the Southwest.%--While Lewis and Clark were +making their way up the Missouri, Zebulon Pike was sent to find the +source of the Mississippi, which he thought he did in the winter of +1805-06. In this he was mistaken, but supposing his work done, he was +dispatched on another expedition in 1806. Traveling up the Missouri +River to the Osage, and up the Osage nearly to its source, he struck +across Kansas to the Arkansas River, which he followed to its head +waters, wandering in the neighborhood of that fine mountain which in +honor of him bears the name of Pikes Peak. Then he crossed the mountains +and began a search for the Red River. The march was a terrible one. It +was winter; the cold was intense. The snow lay waist deep on the plains. +Often the little band was without food for two days at a time. But Pike +pushed on, in spite of hunger, cold, and suffering, and at last saw, +through a gap in the mountains, the waters of the Rio Grande. Believing +that it was the Red, he hurried to its banks, only to be seized by the +Spaniards (for he was on Spanish soil), who carried him a prisoner to +Santa Fe, from which city he and his men wandered back to the United +States by way of Mexico and Texas. + +[Illustration: %EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTHWEST% BY ZEBULON M. PIKE +%1806-1807%] + +%249. Astoria founded.%--The immediate effect of these explorations +was greatly to stimulate the fur trade. One great fur trader, John Jacob +Astor of New York, now founded the Pacific Fur Company and made +preparations to establish a line of posts from the upper Missouri to the +Columbia, and along it to the Pacific, and supply them from St. Louis by +way of the Missouri, or from the mouth of the Columbia, where in 1811 a +little trading post was begun and named Astoria. This completed our +claim to the Oregon country. Gray had discovered the river; Lewis and +Clark had explored the territory drained by the river; the Pacific Fur +Company planted the first lasting settlement. + + +SUMMARY + +1. In 1793 France made war on Great Britain. The United States was bound +by the treaty of alliance of 1778 to "guarantee" the French possessions +in America. + +2. This treaty, and the coming of the French minister, forced Washington +to declare the United States neutral in the war. + +3. His proclamation of neutrality was resented by the Republicans, who +now became sympathizers with France. The Federalists, who were strongest +in the commercial states, became the anti-French or English party. + +4. When France declared war on England, she opened her ports in the West +Indies to the merchant trade of the United States. + +5. England held that we should not have a trade with France when at war, +for we had not had it when France was at peace. This was an application +of the "Rule of 1756." In 1793-1794, therefore, England began to seize +our ships coming from the French ports. + +6. This so excited the Republicans that they attempted to force the +country into war with England. + +7. To prevent war, Washington sent Jay to London, where he made our +first commercial treaty with Great Britain. + +8. This offended the French Directory, who refused to receive our new +minister and sent him out of France. + +9. War with France now seemed likely. But Adams, in the interest of +peace, sent three commissioners to Paris to make a new treaty. They were +met with demands for tribute and came home. + +10. The greatest excitement now prevailed in the country. The Navy +Department was created, a navy was built by the people, and a +provisional army raised. The old French treaties were suspended, and a +naval war began. + +11. The popular anger against the Republicans (the French party) gave +the Federalists control of Congress, whereupon they passed the Alien and +Sedition laws. + +12. Against these Virginia and Kentucky protested in a set of +resolutions. + +13. In the election of 1800 the Federalists were defeated, and the +Republicans secured control of the Federal government. + +14. In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France, whereupon the Spanish +official at New Orleans shut the Mississippi to American commerce. + +15. The whole West cried out against this and demanded war. But +Jefferson offered to buy West Florida from France. Napoleon thereupon +offered to sell all Louisiana, and we bought it (1803). + +16. The new territory as yet had no boundaries; but it was explored in +the northwest by Lewis and Clark, and in the southwest by Pike. + +17. The discovery of the Columbia River in 1792, the exploration of the +country by Lewis and Clark, and the founding of Astoria established our +claim to the Oregon country. + + FRANCE A REPUBLIC, 1792. + ------------------------ + | + ______________|________________ + DECLARES WAR ON ENGLAND (1793). + | + ______________________|___________________________ + | | + | | + Opens her ports | + to neutral trade. Sends a minister to the United States. +------------------------- --------------------------------------- +1. England asserts rule This brought up the questions: + of 1756. 1. Shall he be received?--Yes. +2. Seizes our ships in 2. Is the old alliance applicable + the West Indies. to offensive war?--No. +3. Impresses our sailors. 3. Shall the United States + | be neutral?--Yes. + | + | Washington issues a proclamation + | of neutrality. + | | + -------------------------------- + | + Struggle for neutrality. + ----------------------------------------------- + | | +Republicans oppose it. Federalists support it. +Attempt retaliation on Great Britain. Lay embargo. +Are aided by Federalists. Prepare for war. + | | + ----------------------------------------------- + | + Washington sends Jay to England. Jay's treaty made (1794). + | + ------------------------------------------- + | | +1. France takes offense. Violently opposed by the Republicans. +2. Rejects Pinckney. +3. Republicans demand a special mission. +4. Adams yields and sends X, Y, Z mission. +5. Insulted by Directory. +6. Excitement at home leads to + | + _________________________|__________________________________ + Establishment of Navy Department. Creation of a navy. + Provisional army. Washington, Lt. Gen. + Naval war with France. + Alien and Sedition laws. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. + Increased taxation. The direct tax. + Fries's rebellion. + Defeat of Adams and election of Jefferson (1800). + | + ---------------------------- + Introduces reforms. + Annual message. + Buys Louisiana. + Exploration of the Northwest. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" + +%250. France and Great Britain renew the War.%--The war between +France and Great Britain, which had been the cause of the sale of +Louisiana to us, began in May, 1803. The United States became again a +neutral power, but, as in 1793, was soon once more involved in the +disputes of France. + +Towards the end of the previous war, Great Britain had so changed her +ideas of neutrality that the merchants of the United States, according +to her rules, + +1. Could trade directly between a port of the United States and the +ports of the French West Indies. + +2. Could trade directly between the United States and ports in France or +Europe. + +3. But could not trade directly between a French West India island and +France, or a Spanish West India island and Spain, or a Dutch colony +and Holland. + +To evade this last restriction, by combining the voyages allowed in +numbers 1 and 2, was easy. A merchant had but to load his ship at New +York or Philadelphia, go to some port in the French West Indies, take on +a new cargo and bring it to Savannah, enter it at the customhouse and +pay the import duties. This voyage was covered by number 1. He could +then, without disturbing his cargo in the least, clear his vessel for +France, and get back from the collector of customs all the duty he had +paid except three per cent. He was now exporting goods from the United +States and was protected by number 2. This was called "the broken +voyage," and by using it thousands of shipowners were enabled to carry +goods back and forth between France and her colonies, by merely stopping +a few hours at an American port to clear for Europe. So universal was +this practice that in 1804 the customs revenue rose from $16,000,000 to +$20,000,000. + +In May, 1805, however, the British High Court of Admiralty decided that +goods which started from the French colonies in American ships and were +on their way to France could be captured even if they had been landed +and reshipped in the United States. The moment that decision was made, +the old trouble began again. British frigates were stationed off the +ports of New York and Hampton Roads, and vessels coming in and going out +were stopped, searched, and their sailors impressed. Before 1805 ended, +116 of our ships had been seized and 1000 of our sailors impressed. + +%251. Orders in Council, 1806.%--In 1806 matters grew worse. Napoleon +was master of Europe, and in order to injure Great Britain he cut off +her trade with the continent. For this she retaliated by issuing, in +May, 1806, an Order in Council, which declared the whole coast of +Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the river Elbe, to be blockaded. This +was a mere "paper blockade"; that is, no fleets were off the coast to +keep neutrals from running into the blockaded ports. Yet American +vessels were captured at sea because they were going to those ports. + +%252. The Berlin Decree.%--Napoleon waited to retaliate till +November, 1806, when he issued the Berlin Decree,[1] declaring the +British Islands to be blockaded. + +[Footnote 1: So called because he was at Berlin when he issued it.] + +%253. Orders in Council, 1807.%--Great Britain felt that every time +Napoleon struck at her she must strike back at him, and in January, +1807, a new Order in Council forbade neutrals to trade from one European +port to another, if both were in the possession of France or her allies. +Finding it had no effect, she followed it up with another Order in +Council in November, 1807, which declared that every port on the face +of the earth from which for any reason British ships were excluded was +shut to neutrals, unless they first stopped at some British port and +obtained a license to trade. + +%254. The Milan Decree, 1807.%--It was now Napoleon's turn to strike, +which he did in December, 1807, by issuing the Milan Decree.[1] +Thenceforth any ship that submitted to be searched by British cruisers +or took out a British license, or entered any port from which French +ships were excluded, was to be captured wherever found. + +[Footnote 1: So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it +from that city.] + +As a result of this series of French Decrees and British Orders in +Council,[2] the English took 194 of our ships, and the French almost +as many. + +[Footnote 2: On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams's +_History of the United States_, Vol. III., Chap. 16; Vol. IV., Chaps. 4, +5, and 6; McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 219-223; +249-250; 272-274.] + +%255. Jefferson's Policy; Non-importation Act.%--The policy by which +Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of three parts: + +1. Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by a number of +small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one gun in the stern. In time +of peace they were to be hauled up under sheds. In time of war they were +to be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers. Between 1806 and +1812, 176 of these gunboats were built. + +2. Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made by Jay in +1794 was to expire in 1806. Under the instructions of Jefferson, +therefore, Monroe and Pinckney signed a new treaty in December, 1806. +But it said nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about the +right of our ships to go where they pleased, and was so bad in general +that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate.[3] + +[Footnote 3: No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President +and two thirds of the Senate.] + +3. The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we should call +"boycotting." He wanted a law which would forbid the importation into +the United States of any article made, grown, or produced in Great +Britain or any of her colonies. Congress accordingly, in April, 1806, +passed what was called a "Non-importation Act," which prohibited not the +importation of every sort of British goods, wares, and merchandise, but +only a few which the people could make in this country; as paper, cards, +leather goods, etc. This was to go into force at the President's +pleasure. + +%256. The Chesapeake and the Leopard.%--Such an attempt to punish +Great Britain by cutting off a part of her trade was useless, and only +made her more insolent than before. Indeed, just a week after the +President signed the non-importation bill, as one of our coasting +vessels was entering the harbor of New York, a British vessel, wishing +to stop and search her, fired a shot which struck the helmsman and +killed him at the wheel. + +About a year later, June, 1807, an attack more outrageous still was made +on our frigate _Chesapeake_. She was on her way from Washington to the +Mediterranean, and was still in sight of land when a British vessel, the +_Leopard_, hailed and stopped her and sent an officer on board with a +demand for the delivery of deserters from the English navy. The captain +of the _Chesapeake_ refused, the officer returned, and the _Leopard_ +opened fire. To return the fire was impossible, for only a few of the +guns of the _Chesapeake_ were mounted. At last one was discharged, and +as by that time three men had been killed and eighteen wounded, +Commander Barron of the _Chesapeake_ surrendered. Four men then were +taken from her deck. Three were Americans. One was an Englishman, and he +was hanged for desertion.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Vol. I., pp. 305-308; +McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 255-259.] + +%257. The Long Embargo.%--The attack on the _Chesapeake_ ought to +have been followed by war. But Jefferson merely demanded reparation from +Great Britain, and when Congress met in December, 1807, asked for an +embargo. The request was granted, and merchant vessels in all the ports +of the United States were forbidden to sail for a foreign country till +the President saw fit to suspend the law. The restriction was so +sweeping and the damage done to American farmers, merchants, and +shipowners so great, that the people began to evade it at once. They +would send their vessels to New Orleans and stop at the West Indies on +the way. They would send their flour, pork, rice, and lumber to St. +Marys in Georgia and smuggle it over the river to Florida, or take it to +the islands near Eastport in Maine and then smuggle it into New +Brunswick. Because of this, more stringent embargo laws were passed, and +finally, in 1809, a "Force Act," to compel obedience. But smuggling went +on so openly that there was nothing to do but use troops or lift the +embargo. In February, 1809, accordingly, the embargo laws, after +fourteen months' duration, were repealed. Instead of them the +Republicans enacted a Non-intercourse law which allowed the people to +trade with all nations except England and France.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 279-338; Adams's +_History_, Vol. IV., Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 15.] + +%258. Jefferson refuses a Third Term.%--During 1806, the states of +New Jersey, Vermont,[2] Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, +Georgia, and North Carolina invited Jefferson to be President a third +time. For a while he made no reply, but in December, 1807, he declined, +and gave this reason: "That I should lay down my charge at a proper +period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some +termination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be not fixed by the +Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, +will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that +degenerates into an inheritance." This wise answer was heartily +approved by the people all over the country, and with Washington's +similar action established a custom which has been generally followed +ever since. + +[Footnote 2: Vermont was admitted into the Union in 1791 (p. 243).] + +As Jefferson would not accept a third term, a caucus of Republican +members of Congress met one evening at the Capitol in Washington and +nominated James Madison and George Clinton. The Federalists held no +caucus, but agreed among themselves to support C.C. Pinckney and Rufus +King. Madison and Clinton were easily elected, and were sworn into +office March 4, 1809. + +[Illustration: James Madison] + +%259. The Macon Bill; Non-intercourse.%--When Congress met in 1809 +one more effort was made to force France and England to respect our +rights on the sea. Non-importation had failed. The embargo had failed. +Non-intercourse had failed, and now in desperation they passed a law +which at the time was called the "Macon Bill," from the member of +Congress who introduced it. This restored trade with France and England, +but declared that if either would withdraw its Decrees or Orders, the +United States would stop all trade with the other. + +%260. Trickery of Napoleon.%--And now Napoleon came forward and +assured the American minister that the Berlin and Milan Decrees should +be recalled on November 1, 1810, provided the United States would +restore non-intercourse with England. To this Madison agreed, and on +November 1, 1810, issued a proclamation saying that unless Great Britain +should, before February 1, 1811, recall her Orders in Council, trade +with her should stop on that day. Great Britain did not recall her +Orders, and in February, 1811, we once more ceased to trade with her. + +Trade with France was resumed on November 1, 1810, and of course a great +fleet of merchants went off to French ports. But they were no sooner +there than the villainy of Napoleon was revealed, for on December 25, by +general order, every American ship in the French ports was seized, and +$10,000,000 worth of American property was confiscated. He had not +recalled his Decrees, but pretended to do so in order to get the +American goods and provisions which he sorely needed. + +It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days were. But their +patience as to Great Britain now gave out, and our minister at London +was recalled in 1811. This alarmed the British, who promptly began to +take steps to keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the +_Leopard-Chesapeake_ outrage which had occurred four years before (June, +1807). They agreed to replace the three American sailors on the deck of +the _Chesapeake_ and did so (June, 1812). But the day for peaceful +settlement was gone. The people were aroused and angry, and this feeling +showed itself in many ways. + +%261. The President and the Little Belt.%--In the early part of May, +1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New York with her +name _Guerriere_ painted in large letters on her fore-topsail, and one +day her captain stopped an American vessel as it was about to enter New +York, and impressed a citizen of the United States. Three years earlier +this outrage would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now, +the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to Captain +Rogers of the frigate _President_ to go to sea at once, search for the +_Guerriere_, and demand the delivery of the man, Rogers was only too +glad to go, and soon came in sight of a vessel which looked like the +_Guerriere_; but it was half-past eight o'clock at night before he came +within speaking distance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger +became unmanageable, when the _President_ stopped firing; and the next +morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty-two-gun ship, +_Little Belt_. + +%262. The War Congress.%--Another way in which the anger of the +people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn of 1810, of a +Congress which met in December, 1811, fully determined to make war on +Great Britain. In that Congress were two men who from that day on for +forty years were great political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of +South Carolina; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky. + +Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his +lead preparations were instantly begun for war, which was finally +declared June 18, 1812. There was no Atlantic cable in those days. Had +there been, it is very doubtful if war would have been declared; for on +June 23, 1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the +proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled. + +The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were: + +1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on +the frontier. + +2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council. + +3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels. + +4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in the British +service. + + +SUMMARY + +1. One reason which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana was his determination +to go to war with England. This he did in 1803. + +2. Renewal of war in Europe made the United States again a neutral +nation, and brought up the old quarrel over neutral rights. + +3.In 1806, Napoleon, who was master of nearly all western Europe, cut +off British trade with the continent. Great Britain in return declared, +by an Order in Council, the coast from Brest to the Elbe blockaded; that +is, shut to neutral trade. + +4. Later in the year 1806 Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin Decree, +declaring the British Islands blockaded. + +5. Great Britain, by another Order in Council (1807), shut all European +ports, under French control, to neutrals. + +6. Napoleon struck back with the Milan Decree. + +7. Our commerce was now attacked by both powers, and to force them to +repeal their Decrees and Orders in Council, certain commercial +restrictions were adopted by the United States. + + A. Non-importation, 1806. + B. Embargo, 1807-1809. + C. Non-intercourse, 1809. + +8. Each of them failed to have any effect, and in 1812 war was declared. + +[Illustration] + +%1803. Renewal of War between France and Great Britain% +-----------------------------+------------------------------- + | + -------------+-------------- + The United States a neutral. + -------------+-------------- + | + +----------------+-------------------+----------------------------------+ + | | | + _British views of _American views._ _Napoleon's view._ + neutrality._ ------------^----------- ------------^---------- +------------^------------------ Free ships, free goods. Shall be no neutrals. +The broken voyage. No paper blockades. -------------^------------- +The new Admiralty ruling. No search. Attacks neutral commerce by +Stations vessels off our ports. No impressment. -------------v------------- +Retaliates for French Decrees -----------v----------- | + by | | +--------------v---------------- -----------^----------- | + | / Non-importation. \ French decrees. + | | Long embargo. | -------^------- + Orders in Council. }---------< Non-intercourse with >-------------/ 1806. Berlin. + | France and Great | \ 1807. Milan. + \ Britain. / + -----------v----------- + | + +---------------------------+ + | + ---------------^--------------- +Great Britain denies that French \ / France pretends to lift Berlin + Decrees are lifted, and / -- -------------------- < and Milan Decrees. +Refuses to revoke the Orders \ \ Trade with France is restored. + in Council. | +Tampers with Indians. > --------------+ +Insists on the right of search | | + and impressment. / | + | + %DECLARATION OF WAR BY UNITED STATES, 1812.% + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE + +%263. Fighting on the Frontier.%--"Mr. Madison's War," as the +Federalists delighted to call our war for commercial independence, +opened with three armies in the field ready to invade and capture +Canada. One under Hull, then governor of the territory of Michigan, was +to cross the river at Detroit, and march eastward through Canada. A +second, under General Van Rensselaer, was to cross the Niagara River, +take Queenstown, and join Hull, after which the two armies were to +capture York, now Toronto, and go on eastward toward Montreal. Meantime, +the third army, under Dearborn, was to go down Lake Champlain, and meet +the troops under Hull and Van Rensselaer before Montreal. The three were +then to capture Montreal and Quebec, and complete the conquest +of Canada. + +The plan failed; for Hull was driven from Canada, and surrendered his +army and the whole Northwest, at Detroit; Van Rensselaer, defeated at +Queenstown, was unable even to get a footing in Canada; while Dearborn, +after reaching the northern boundary line of New York, stopped, and the +year 1812 ended with nothing accomplished. + +The surrender of Hull filled the people with indignation, aroused their +patriotism, and forced the government to gather a new army for the +recapture of Detroit. The command was given to William Henry Harrison, +who hurried from Cincinnati across the wilderness of Ohio, and in the +dead of winter reached the shores of Lake Erie. General Winchester, who +commanded part of the troops, was now called on to drive the British +from Frenchtown, a little hamlet on the river Raisin, and (in January, +1813) tried to do so. But the British and Indians came down on him in +great numbers, and defeated and captured his army, after which the +Indians were allowed to massacre and scalp the wounded. + +[Illustration: The Canadian Frontier and Vicinity of Washington] + +And now the British became aggressive, invaded Ohio, and attacked the +Americans under Harrison at Fort Meigs, and then at Fort Stephenson, +where Major Croghan and 160 men, with the aid of one small cannon, +defeated and drove off 320 Canadians and Indians. + +%264. Battle of Lake Erie.%--Again the Americans in turn became +aggressive. Since the early winter, a young naval officer named Oliver +Hazard Perry had been hard at work, with a gang of ship carpenters, at +Erie, in Pennsylvania, cutting down trees, and had used this green +timber to build nine small vessels. With this fleet he sailed, in +September, in search of the British squadron, which had been just as +hastily built, and soon found it near Sandusky, Ohio. His own ship he +had named the _Lawrence_, in honor of a gallant American captain who had +been killed a few months before in a battle with an English frigate. As +Perry saw the enemy in the distance, he flung to the breeze a blue flag +on which was inscribed, "Don't give up the ship" (the dying order of +Lawrence to his men), sailed down to meet the enemy, and fought the two +largest British ships till the _Lawrence_ was a wreck. Then, with his +flag on his arm, he jumped into a boat, and amidst a shower of shot and +bullets was rowed to the _Niagara_. Once on her deck, he again hastened +to the attack, broke the British line of battle, and captured the entire +fleet. His dispatch to Harrison is as famous as his victory: "We have +met the enemy, and they are ours--two ships, two brigs, one schooner, +and one sloop." + +%265. Battle of the Thames.%--Perry's victory was a grand one. It +gave him command of Lake Erie, and enabled him to carry Harrison's +soldiers over to Canada, where, on the Thames River, Harrison defeated +the British and Indians. These two victories regained all that had been +lost by the surrender of Hull. + +Along the New York border little was done during 1813. The Americans +made a raid into Canada, and to their shame burned York. The British +attacked Sacketts Harbor and were driven off. The Americans sent an +expedition down the St. Lawrence against Montreal, but the leaders got +frightened and took refuge in northern New York. + +%266. Campaign of 1814.%--In 1814 better officers were put in +command, and before winter came the Americans, under Jacob Brown and +Winfield Scott, had won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane, and +captured Fort Erie. But the British returned in force, burned Black Rock +and Buffalo in revenge for the burning of York, and forced the Americans +to leave Canada. + +The fighting along the Niagara River, by holding the army in that place, +prevented the Americans from attacking Montreal, and enabled the +British to gather a fleet on Lake Champlain, and send an army down from +Quebec to invade New York state just as Burgoyne had in 1777. But the +land force was defeated by General Macomb at Plattsburg, while Thomas +McDonough utterly destroyed the fleet in Plattsburg Bay. This was one of +the great victories of the war. + +%267. The Sea Fights.%--While our army on the frontier was +accomplishing little, our war ships were winning victory after victory +on the sea. At the opening of the war, our navy was the subject of +English ridicule and contempt. We had sixteen ships; she had 1200. She +laughed at ours as "fir-built things with a bit of striped bunting at +their mastheads." But before 1813 came, these "fir-built things" had +destroyed her naval supremacy.[1] With the details of all these +victories on the sea we will not concern ourselves. Yet a few must be +mentioned because the fame of them still endures, and because they are +examples of naval warfare in the days when the ships fought lashed +together, and when the boarders, cutlass and pistol in hand, climbed +over the bulwarks and met the enemy on his own deck, man to man. During +1812 the frigate _Constitution_, whose many victories won her the name +of "Old Ironsides," sank the _Guerriere_; the _United States_ captured +and brought to port the _Macedonian_; and the _Wasp_, a little sloop of +eighteen guns, after the most desperate engagement of the whole war, +captured the British sloop _Frolic_. + +[Footnote 1: One reason for the success of the American navy was the +experience it had gained in the clash with France, and also in a war +with Tripoli in 1801-1805. At that time the Christian nations whose +ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea were accustomed to pay annual tribute +to Tripoli and other piratical states on the north coast of Africa, +under pain of having their ships seized and their sailors reduced to +slavery. A dispute with the United States led to a war which gained for +our ships the freedom of the Mediterranean.] + +When these sloops were some two hundred feet apart, the _Wasp_ opened +with musketry and cannon. The sea, lashed into fury by a two days' +cyclone, was running mountain high. The vessels rolled till the muzzles +of their guns dipped in the water. But the crews cheered lustily and +the fight went on. When at last the crew of the _Wasp_ boarded the +_Frolic_, they were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and +three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul was +visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire of the +_Wasp_. Scarcely was the battle over when the British frigate +_Poictiers_ bore down under a press of sail, recaptured what was left of +the _Frolic_, and took the _Wasp_ in addition. + +During 1813 the _Constitution_ took the _Java_; the _Hornet_ sank the +_Peacock_; the _Enterprise_ captured the _Boxer_ off Portland, Maine. +These and many more made up the list of American victories. But there +were British victories also. The _Argus_, after destroying twenty-seven +vessels in the English Channel, was taken by the _Pelican_; the _Essex_, +after a marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two +frigates. The _Chesapeake_ was forced to strike to the _Shannon._ + +The _Chesapeake_ was at anchor in Boston harbor, in command of James +Lawrence, when the British frigate _Shannon_ ran in and challenged her. +Lawrence went out at once, and after a short, fierce fight was defeated +and killed. As his men were carrying him below, mortally wounded, he +cried, "Don't give up the ship!" words which Perry, as we have seen, +afterwards put on his flag, and which his countrymen have never since +forgotten.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the naval war read Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Part +Third; Roosevelt's _Naval War of 1812_; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 70-108.] + +%268. The British blockade the Coast.%--Never, in the course of her +existence, had England suffered such a series of defeats as we inflicted +on her navy in 1812 and 1813. The record of those years caused a +tremendous excitement in Great Britain, all the vessels she could spare +were sent over, and with the opening of 1814, the whole coast of the +United States was declared to be in a state of blockade.[1] In New +England, Eastport (Moose Island) and Nantucket Island quickly fell. A +British force went up the Penobscot to Hampden, and burned the _Adams_. +The eastern half of Maine was seized, and Stonington, in Connecticut, +was bombarded. + +[Footnote 1: All except New England had been blockaded since 1812; and +in 1813 the coast of Chesapeake Bay had been ravaged.] + +%269. Burning of Washington.%--Further down the coast a great fleet +and army from Bermuda, under General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, came up +the Chesapeake Bay, landed in Maryland, and marched to Washington. At +Bladensburg, a little hamlet near the capital, the Americans made a +feeble show of resistance, but soon fled; and about dark on an August +night, 1814, a detachment of the British reached Washington, marched to +the Capitol, fired a volley through the windows, entered, and set fire +to the building. When the fire began to burn brightly, Ross and Cockburn +led the troops to the President's house, which was sacked and burned. +Next morning the torch was applied to the Treasury building and to the +Departments of State and War. Several private houses and a printing +office were also destroyed before the British began a hasty retreat to +the Chesapeake.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 5, 6; McMaster's +_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 135-148; _Memoirs of Dolly Madison_, Chap. 8.] + +%270. Baltimore attacked.%--Once on the bay, the army was hurried on +board the ships and carried to Baltimore, where for a day and a night +they shelled Fort McHenry.[2] Failing to take it, and Ross having been +killed, Cockburn reembarked and sailed away to Halifax. + +[Footnote 2: Francis S. Key, an American held prisoner on one of the +British ships, composed the words of _The Star-Spangled Banner_ while +watching the bombardment.] + +%271. The Victory at New Orleans.%--The army was taken to Jamaica in +order that it might form part of one of the greatest war expeditions +England had ever fitted out. Fifty of the finest ships her navy could +furnish, mounting 1000 guns and carrying on their decks 20,000 veteran +soldiers and sailors, had been quietly assembled at Jamaica during the +autumn of 1814, and in November sailed for New Orleans. + +News of this intended attack had reached Madison, and he had given the +duty of defending New Orleans to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, one of the +most extraordinary men our country has produced. The British landed at +the entrance of Lake Borgne in December, 1814, and hurried to the banks +of the Mississippi. But Jackson was more than a match for them. +Gathering such a force of fighting men as he could, he hastened from the +city and with all possible speed threw up a line of rude earthworks, and +waited to be attacked. This line the British under General Pakenham +attacked on January 8, 1815, and were twice driven back with frightful +loss of life. Never had such a defeat been inflicted on a British army. +The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 2036 men. Jackson lost +seventy-one men. Five British regiments which entered the battle 3000 +strong reported 1750 men killed, wounded, and missing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 12-14; McMaster, Vol. +IV., pp. 182-190] + +%272. Peace.%--For a month after this defeat the British lingered in +their camp. At last, in February, the army departed to attack a fort on +Mobile Bay. The fort was taken, and two days later the news of peace put +an end to war. The treaty was signed at Ghent in December, 1814; but it +did not reach the United States till February, 1815. + +In the treaty not a word was said about the impressment of our sailors, +nor about the right of search, nor about the Orders in Council, nor +about inciting the Indians to attack our frontier, all of which Madison +had declared to be causes of the war. Yet we gained much. Our naval +victories made us the equal of any maritime power, while at home the war +did far more to arouse a national sentiment, consolidate the union, and +make us a nation than any event which had yet occurred. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The land war may be divided into: + + A. War along the frontier. + B. War along the Atlantic coast. + C. War along the Gulf coast. + +2. War along the Canadian frontier resulted in a gain to neither side. +In 1812 Americans were beaten at Detroit and at Queenstown, and failed +to invade Canada. In 1813 the Americans were beaten at Frenchtown, but +defeated the Canadians at Forts Meigs and Stephenson, and at the Thames +River, and recovered Detroit. Perry won the battle of Lake Erie. The +Americans failed in the attempt to take Montreal. In 1814 the battles of +Chippewa and Lundys Lane were won, and Fort Erie was taken. But the +British burned Buffalo and Black Rock and drove the Americans out of +Canada. McDonough won the battle of Lake Champlain. + +3. During 1812-13 the British blockaded the coast from the east end of +Long Island south to the Mississippi. New England was not blockaded till +1814. Then depredations began, and during the year Washington was taken +and partly burned, and Baltimore attacked. + +4. Later in the year the British, after the attack on Baltimore, went +south, and early in 1815 were beaten by Jackson at New Orleans. + +5. The navy won a series of successive victories. The defeats were about +half as numerous as the victories. + +6. Peace was announced in February, 1815. + +[Illustration] + + / / / / 1812. Hull surrenders Detroit. + | | | | 1812. Harrison attempts to recover it. + | | | Detroit . . < 1813. Frenchtown. + | | | | Battle of Lake Erie. + | | The | | Harrison invades Canada and wins + | | expeditions | \ the battle of the Thames. + | | against | + | | Canada. < / 1812. Van Rensselaer repulsed. + | War | | | 1813. York taken and burned. +Second | on < | Niagara . . < 1814. Battles of Chippewa and Lundys +War for | land | | | Lane, and capture of Fort Erie. +Independence < | | \ Americans driven from Canada. + | | | + | | | / 1813. Expedition against Montreal. + | | | St. Lawrence < 1814. British come down from Canada. + | | \ \ Defeated on Lake Champlain. + | | + | | / 1812. Blockade of the coast south of Rhode Island. + | | War on | 1813. Ravages on the coast of Chesapeake Bay. + | | the | 1814. Entire coast blockaded. + | | Seaboard. < New England attacked. + | | | Washington taken and partly burned. + | | | Baltimore attacked. + | \ \ 1815. Victory at New Orleans. + | + | War on / The ship duels. + \ the sea. \ The fleet victories on the Lakes. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 + +%273.% Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington was +inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country had made +wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was bounded west by the +Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana had been purchased, the Columbia +River had been discovered, and the Oregon country had been explored to +the Pacific. In 1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less +than four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 there were +but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. In 1815 there +were eighteen states and five territories. + +%274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration.%--Sparse as was the +population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already seized the +people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pouring over the +mountains in three great streams. One, composed of New England men, was +pushing along the borders of Lake Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A +second, chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself +over the rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky. +Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Virginia and +North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was creeping +down the valley of the Tennessee River.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For an account of the movement of population westward along +these routes, see _The First Century of the Republic_, pp. 211-238.] + +For months each year the Ohio was dotted with flatboats. One observer +saw fifty leave Pittsburg in five weeks. Another estimated that ten +thousand emigrants floated by Marietta during 1788. As this never-ending +stream of population spread over the wilderness, building cabins, +felling trees, clearing the land, and driving off the game, the Indians +took alarm and determined to expel them. + +%275. The Indian War.%--During the summer of 1786 the tribes whose +hunting grounds lay in eastern Tennessee and Kentucky took the warpath, +sacked and burned a little settlement on the Holston, and spread terror +along the whole frontier. But the settlers in their turn rose, and +inflicted on the Indians a signal punishment. One expedition from +Tennessee burned three Cherokee towns. Another from Kentucky crossed the +Ohio, penetrated the Indian country, burned eight towns, and laid waste +hundreds of acres of standing corn. Had the Indians been left to +themselves, they would, after this punishment, have remained quiet. But +the British, who still held the frontier post at Detroit, roused them, +and in 1790 they were again at work, ravaging the country north of the +Ohio. They rushed down on Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept +it from the face of the earth. St. Clair, who was governor of the +Northwest Territory, sent against them an expedition which won some +success--just enough to enrage and not enough to cow them. + +%276. St. Clair; Wayne.%--Not a settlement north of the Ohio was now +safe, and had it not been for the men of Kentucky, who came to the +relief, and in two expeditions held the Indians in check till the +Federal government could act, every one of them would have been +destroyed. The plan of the Secretary of War was to build a chain of +forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan, and late in 1791 St. Clair set +off to begin the work. But the Indians surprised him on a branch of the +Wabash River, and inflicted on him one of the most dreadful defeats in +our history. Public opinion now forced him to resign his command, which +was given to Anthony Wayne, who, after two years of careful +preparation, crushed the Indian power at the falls of the Maumee River +in northwestern Ohio. The next year, 1795, a treaty was made at +Greenville, by which the Indians gave up all claim to the soil south and +east of a boundary line drawn from what is now Cleveland southwest to +the Ohio River. + +%277. Kentucky and Vermont become States.%--These Indian wars almost +stopped emigration to the country north of the Ohio, though not into +Kentucky or Tennessee. For several years past the people of the District +of Kentucky had been desirous to come into the Union, but had been +unable to make terms with Virginia, to which Kentucky belonged. At last +consent was obtained and the application made to Congress. But the +Kentuckians were slave owners, were identified with Southern and Western +interests, and cared little for the commercial interests of the East, +and as this influence could be strongly felt in the Senate, where each +state had two votes, it was decided to offset those of Kentucky by +admitting the Eastern state of Vermont. + +What is now Vermont was once the property of New Hampshire, was settled +by people from New England under town rights granted by the governor of +New Hampshire, and was called "New Hampshire Grants." In 1764, however, +the governor of New York obtained a royal order giving New York +jurisdiction over the Grants on the ground that in 1664 the possessions +of the Duke of York extended to the Connecticut River. Then began a +controversy which was still raging bitterly when the Revolution opened, +and the Green Mountain Boys asked recognition as a state and admission +into the Congress, a request which the other states were afraid to grant +lest by so doing they should offend New York. Thereupon the people chose +delegates to a convention (in 1777), which issued a declaration of +independence, declared "New Connecticut, alias Vermont," a state, and +made a constitution. In this shape matters stood in 1791, when as an +offset to Kentucky Vermont was admitted into the Union. As she was a +state with governor, legislature, and constitution, she came in at once. +Kentucky had to make a constitution, and so was not admitted till 1792. +Four years later (1796) Congress admitted Tennessee. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES July 4, 1801. +TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE] + +%278. The New Territories; Ohio becomes a State.%--The quieting of +the Indians by Wayne in 1794, the opening of the Mississippi River to +American trade by Spain in 1795, coupled with cheap lands and low +taxes, caused another rush of population into the Ohio valley. Between +1795 and 1800 so many came that the Northwest Territory was cut in twain +and the new territory of Indiana was organized in 1800. The acceptance +by Spain in 1795 of 31 deg. north latitude as the boundary of the Floridas, +gave the United States control of the greater part of old West Florida, +which in 1798 was organized as the Mississippi Territory. Hardly a year +now elapsed without some marked sign of Western development. In 1800 +Congress, under the influence of William Henry Harrison, the first +delegate from the Northwest Territory, made a radical change in its land +policy. Up to that time every settler must pay cash. After 1800 he could +buy on credit, pay in four annual installments, and west of the +Muskingum River could purchase as little as 320 acres. This credit +system led to another rush into the Ohio valley, and so many people +entered the Northwest Territory, that in 1803 the southern part of it +was admitted into the Union as the state of Ohio. + +[Illustration: Cincinnati in 1810[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print.] + +In 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands, which were added to the +Mississippi Territory. From the Louisiana purchase there was organized +in 1804 the territory of Orleans, and in 1805 the territory of Louisiana +(see p. 247). In 1805, also, the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off +from Indiana and organized as Michigan Territory. In 1809 the territory +of Illinois was organized (p. 247). In 1812 the territory of Orleans +became the state of Louisiana. + +The third census showed that in 1810 the population of the United States +was 7,200,000, and that of these over 1,000,000 were in the states and +territories west of the Alleghanies. + +%279. Indian Troubles; Battle of Tippecanoe.%--As the settlers north +of the Ohio moved further westward, and as more came in, their farms and +settlements touched the Indian boundary line. In Indiana, where, save a +strip sixty miles wide along the Ohio River, and a few patches scattered +over the territory, every foot of soil was owned by the Indians, this +crowding led to serious consequences. The Indians first grew restive. +Then, under the lead of Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, they founded a league or +confederacy against the whites, and built a town on Tippecanoe Creek, +just where it enters the Wabash. Finally, when Harrison, who was +governor of Indiana Territory, bought the Indian rights to the Wabash +valley, the confederacy refused to recognize the sale, and gave such +signs of resistance that Harrison marched against them, and in 1811 +fought the battle of Tippecanoe and burned the Indian village. For a +time it was thought the victory was as signal as that of Wayne. But the +Indians were soon back on the old site, and in our second war with Great +Britain they sided with the British. + +[Illustration: The United States and Territories in 1813] + +%280. Industrial Progress.%--In 1789 our country had no credit and no +revenue, and was burdened with a great debt which very few people +believed would ever be paid. But when the government called in all the +old worthless Continental money and certificates and gave the people +bonds in exchange for them, when it began to lay taxes and pay its +debts, when it had power to regulate trade, when the National Bank was +established and the merchants were given bank bills that would pass at +their face value all over the country, business began to revive. The +money which the people had been hiding away for years was brought out +and put to useful purposes. Banks sprang up all over the country, and +companies were founded to manufacture woolen cloth and cotton cloth, to +build bridges, to construct turnpike roads, and to cut canals. Between +1789 and 1795 the first carpet was woven in the United States, the first +broom made from broom corn, the first cotton factory opened, the first +gold and silver coins of the United States were struck at the mint, the +first newspaper was printed in the territory northwest of the Ohio +River, the first printing press was set up in Tennessee, the first +geography of the United States was published, and daily newspapers were +issued in Baltimore and Boston. It was during this period that a hunter +named Guinther discovered anthracite coal in Pennsylvania; that Whitney +invented the cotton gin; that Samuel Slater built the first mill for +making cotton yarns; that Eli Terry started the manufacture of clocks as +a business; that cotton sewing thread was first manufactured in the +United States at Pawtucket, R.I.; and that the first turnpike in our +country was completed. This extended from Philadelphia to Lancaster, a +distance of sixty-two miles. + +%281. The Period of Commercial and Agricultural Prosperity.%--Just at +this time came another change of great importance. Till 1793 we had +scarcely any commerce with the West Indies. England would not allow our +vessels to go to her islands. Neither would Spain, nor France, except to +a very limited degree. It was the policy of these three countries to +confine such trade as far as possible to their own merchants. But in +1793 France, you remember, made war on England and opened her West +Indian ports to all neutral nations. The United States was a neutral, +and our merchants at once began to trade with the islanders. What these +people wanted was lumber, flour, grain, provisions, salt pork, and fish. +All this led to a demand, first, for ships, then for sailors, and then +for provisions and lumber--to the benefit of every part of the country +except the South. New England was the lumber, fishing, shipbuilding, and +commercial section. New York and Pennsylvania produced grain, flour, +lumber, and carried on a great commerce as well. So profitable was it to +raise wheat, that in many parts of Virginia the people stopped raising +tobacco and began to make flour, and soon made Virginia the second +flour-producing state in the Union. Until after 1795 the people of the +Western States were cut off from this trade. But in that year the treaty +with Spain was made, and the people of the West were then allowed to +float their produce to New Orleans and there sell it or ship it to the +West Indies. Kentucky then became a flour-producing state. + +As a consequence of all this, people stopped putting their money into +roads and canals and manufactures, and put it into farming, +shipbuilding, and commerce. Between 1793 and 1807, therefore, our +country enjoyed a period of commercial and agricultural prosperity. But +with 1807 came another change. In that year the embargo was laid, and +for more than fifteen months no vessels were allowed to leave the ports +of the United States for foreign countries. Up to this time our people +had been so much engaged in commerce and agriculture, that they had not +begun to manufacture. In 1807 all the blankets, all the woolen cloth, +cotton cloth, carpets, hardware, china, glass, crockery, knives, tools, +and a thousand other things used every day were made for us in Great +Britain. Cotton grown in the United States was actually sent to England +to be made into cloth, which was then carried back to the United States +to be used. + +%282. "Infant Manufactures."%--As the embargo prevented our ships +going abroad and foreign ships coming to us, these goods could no longer +be imported. The people must either go without or make them at home. +They decided, of course, to make them at home, and all patriotic +citizens were called on to help, which they did in five ways. + +First, in each of the cities and large towns people met and formed a +"Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures." Every +patriotic man and woman was expected to join one of them, and in so +doing to take a pledge not to buy or use or wear any article of foreign +make, provided it could be made in this country. + +In the second place, these societies for the encouragement of domestic +manufactures, "infant manufactures," as they were called, offered prizes +for the best piece of homemade linen, homemade cotton cloth, or +woolen cloth. + +In the third place, they started "exchanges," or shops, in the cities +and large towns, to which anybody who could knit mittens or socks, or +make boots and shoes or straw bonnets, or spin flax or wool, or make +anything else that the people needed, could send them to be sold. + +In the fourth place, men who had money came forward and formed companies +to erect mills and factories for the manufacture of all sorts of things. +If you were to see the acts passed by the legislatures of the states +between 1808 and 1812, you would find that very many of them were +charters for iron works, paper mills, thread works, factories for making +cotton and woolen cloth, oilcloth, boots, shoes, rope. + +In the fifth place, the legislatures of the states passed resolutions +asking their members to wear clothes made of material produced in the +United States,[1] offered bounties for the best wool, and exempted the +factories from taxation and the mill hands from militia and jury duty. + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. III., pp. 496-509.] + +Thus encouraged, manufactures sprang up in the North, and became so +numerous that in 1810, when the census of population was taken, Congress +ordered that statistics of manufactures should be collected at the same +time. It was then found that the value of the goods manufactured in the +United States in 1810 was $173,000,000. + +%283. Internal Improvements: Roads; Canals; Steamboats.%--But there +was yet another great change for the better which took place between +1790 and 1815. We have seen how during this quarter of a century our +country grew in area, how the people increased in number, how new states +and territories were made, how agriculture and commerce prospered, and +how manufactures arose. It is now time to see how the people improved +the means of interstate commerce and communication. + +You will remember that in 1790 there were no bridges over the great +rivers of the country, that the roads were very bad, that all journeys +were made on horseback or in stagecoaches or in boats, and that it was +not then possible to go as far in ten hours as we can now go in one. You +will remember, also, that the people were moving westward in +great numbers. + +As the people thus year by year went further and further westward, a +demand arose for good roads to connect them with the East. The merchants +on the seaboard wanted to send them hardware, clothing, household goods, +farming implements, and bring back to the seaports the potash, lumber, +flour, skins, and grain with which the settlers paid for these things. +If they were too costly, frontiersmen could not buy them. If the roads +were bad, the difficulty of getting merchandise to the frontier would +make them too costly. People living in the towns and cities along the +seaboard were no longer content with the old-fashioned slow way of +travel. They wanted to get their letters more often, make their journeys +and have their freight carried more quickly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States,_ +Vol. III., pp. 462-465.] + +About 1805, therefore, men began to think of reviving the old idea of +canals, which had been abandoned in 1793, and one of these canal +companies, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, applied to Congress for +aid. This brought up the question of a system of internal improvements +at national expense, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, +was asked to send a plan for such a system to Congress, which he did. +Congress never approved it. + +%284. The National Pike.%--Public sentiment, however, led to the +commencement of a highway to the West known as the National Pike, or the +Cumberland Road. When Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state in +1803, Congress promised that part of the money derived from the sale of +land in Ohio should be used to build a road from some place on the Ohio +River to tide water. By 1806 the money so set apart amounted to $12,000, +and with this was begun the construction of a broad pike from Cumberland +(on the Potomac) in Maryland to Wheeling (on the Ohio) in West +Virginia.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 469-470.] + +[Illustration: Phoenix[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an oil painting.] + +%285. Steamboats.%--This increasing demand for cheap transportation +now made it possible for Fulton to carry into successful operation an +idea he had long had in mind. For twenty years past inventors had been +exhibiting steamboats. James Rumsey had exhibited one on the Potomac. +John Fitch had shown one on the Delaware in 1787. (See p. 190.) In 1804 +Robert Fulton exhibited a steamboat on the Seine at Paris in France; +Oliver Evans had a steam scow on the Delaware River at Philadelphia; and +John Stevens crossed the Hudson from Hoboken to New York in a steamboat +of his own construction. In 1806 Stevens built another, the +_Phoenix_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Preble's _History of Steam Navigation _, pp. 35-66; +Thurston's _Robert Fulton_ in Makers of America Series.] + +These men were ahead of their time, and it was not till the August day, +1807, when Robert Fulton made his experiment on the Hudson, that the era +of the steamboat opened. His vessel, called the _Clermont_, made the +trip up the river from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours. + +[Illustration: Model of the Clermont[2]] + +[Footnote 2: Made from the original drawings, and now in the National +Museum.] + +Then the usefulness of the invention was at last appreciated, and in +1808 a line of steam vessels went up and down the Hudson. In 1809 +Stevens sent his _Phoenix_ by sea to Philadelphia and ran it on the +Delaware. Another steamboat was on the Raritan River, and a third on +Lake Champlain. In 1811 a boat steamed from Pittsburg to New Orleans, +and in 1812 steam ferryboats plied between what is now Jersey City and +New York, and between Philadelphia and Camden.[3] + +[Footnote 3: On the early steamboats see McMaster's _History of the +People of the United States_, Vol. III., pp. 486-494.] + +%286. The Currency; the Mint.%--Quite as marvelous was the change +which in five and twenty years had taken place in money matters. When +the Constitution became law in 1789, there were no United States coins +and no United States bills or notes in circulation. There was no such +thing as a national currency. Except the gold and silver pieces of +foreign nations, there was no money which would pass all over our +country. To-day a treasury note, a silver certificate, a national bank +bill, is received in payment of a debt in any state or territory. In +1789 the currency was foreign coins and state paper. But the +Constitution forbade the states ever to make any more money, and as +their bills of credit already issued would wear out by use, the time was +near when there would be no currency except foreign coins. To prevent +this, Congress in 1791 ordered a mint to be established at Philadelphia, +and in 1792 named the coins to be struck, and ordered that whoever would +bring gold or silver to the mint should have it made into coins without +cost to him. This was _free coinage._ As both gold and silver were to be +coined, the currency was to be _bimetallic_, or of two metals.[1] The +ratio of silver and gold was 15 to 1. That is, fifteen pounds' weight of +silver must be made into as many dollars' worth of coins as one pound of +gold. The silver coins were to be the dollar, half and quarter dollar, +dime and half dime; the gold were to be the eagle, half eagle, and +quarter eagle. Out of copper were to be struck cents and half cents. As +some years must elapse before our national coins could become abundant, +certain foreign coins were made legal tender. + +[Footnote 1: The first silver coin was struck in 1794; the first gold, +in 1795; the first cent and half cent, in 1793.] + +%287. "Federal Money."%--The appearance of the new money was followed +by another change for the better. In colonial days the merchants and the +people expressed the debts they owed, or the value of the goods they +sold, in pounds, shillings, and pence, or in Spanish dollars. During the +Revolution, and after it, this was continued, although the Continental +Congress always kept its accounts, and made its appropriations, in +dollars. But when the people began to see dollars, half dollars, and +dimes bearing the words "United States of America," they knew that +there really was a national coinage, or "Federal money," as they called +it, and between 1795 and 1798, one state after another ordered its +treasurer to use Federal money instead of pounds, shillings, and pence; +and thereafter in laying taxes, and voting appropriations for any +purpose, the amount was expressed in dollars and cents. The merchants +and the people were much slower in adopting the new terms; but they came +at last into general use. + +%288. Rise of the State Banks.%--Had the people been forced to depend +on the United States mint for money wherewith to pay the butcher and the +baker and the shoemaker, they would not have been able to make their +payments, for the machinery at the mint was worked by hand, and the +number of dimes and quarters turned out each year was small. But they +were not, for as soon as confidence was restored, banks chartered by the +states sprang up in the chief cities in the East, and as each issued +notes, the people had all the currency they wanted. + +In 1790, when Congress established the National Bank, there were but +four state banks in the whole country: one in Philadelphia, one in New +York, one in Boston, and one in Baltimore. By 1800 there were +twenty-six, in 1805 there were sixty-four, and in 1811 there were +eighty-eight. + +In that year (1811) the charter of the National Bank expired, and as +Congress would not renew it, many more state banks were created, each +hoping to get a part of the business formerly done by the National Bank. +Such was the "mania," as it was called, for banks, that the number rose +from eighty-eight in 1811, to two hundred and eight in 1814, which was +far more than the people really needed. + +Nevertheless, all went well until the British came up Chesapeake Bay and +burned Washington. Then the banks in that part of the country boxed up +all their gold and silver and sent it away, lest the British should get +it. This forced them to "suspend specie payments"; that is, refuse to +give gold or silver in exchange for their own paper. As soon as they +suspended, others did the same, till in a few weeks every one along the +seaboard from Albany to Savannah, and every one in Ohio, had stopped +paying coin. The New England banks did not suspend. + +%289. No Small Change.%--The consequences of the suspension were very +serious. In the first place, all the small silver coins, the dimes, half +dollars, and quarter dollars, disappeared at once, and the people were +again forced to do as they had done in 1789, and use "ticket money." All +the cities and towns, great and small, printed one, two, three, six and +one fourth, twelve and one half, twenty-five, and fifty-cent tickets, +and sold them to the people for bank notes. Steamboats, stagecoaches, +and manufacturing companies, merchants, shopkeepers--in fact, all +business men--did the same. + +In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie for their +notes, people who did not know all about a bank would not take its bills +except at very much less than their face value. That is, a dollar bill +of a Philadelphia bank was not worth more than ninety cents in paper +money at New York, and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of +things greatly increased the cost of travel and business between the +states, and prevented the government using the money collected at the +seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318.] + +%290. The Second Bank of the United States.%--Lest this state of +affairs should occur again, Congress, exercising its constitutional +"power to regulate the currency," chartered a second National Bank in +1816, and modeled it after the old one. Again the parent bank was at +Philadelphia; but the capital was now $35,000,000. Again the public +money might be deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be +established wherever the directors thought proper. Again the bank could +issue paper money to be received by the government in payment of taxes, +land, and all debts. + +The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to charter a +bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, when Maryland +attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch at Baltimore. The case +reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which decided that a +state could not tax a corporation chartered by Congress; and that +Congress had power to charter anything, even a bank. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west +along three highways. + +2. As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), +Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union. + +3. The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to +7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000 +square miles. + +4. The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of +great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this time +that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and bridges were +built, and that the steamboat was introduced. + +5. A national mint had been established. The charter of the National +Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its +place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the government had +been forced to charter a new National Bank. + +PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1709 TO 1815 + +_Territorial Changes. 1790-1812. + +_ Movement of Population into the West._ + +Northern Stream. Checked by Indian war. + Indians quieted by Wayne. + Population again moved westward. + +New states. 1791. Vermont. + 1792. Kentucky. + 1796. Tennessee. + 1803. Ohio. + 1812. Louisiana. + +New Territories. 1798. Mississippi. + 1800. Indiana. + 1802. Mississippi enlarged. + 1804. Orleans. + 1805. Michigan. + 1805. Louisiana (called Missouri + after 1812). + 1809. Illinois. + +_Expansion of Territory._ 1795. Spain accepts 31 deg. as the boundary. + 1802. Georgia cedes her western territory. + 1803. Louisiana purchased from France. + +_Industrial Progress_ + First carpet mill. + First brooms. + First United States gold and silver coins. + First press in Tennessee. + Daily newspapers. + Discovery of hard coal. + Cotton gin. + Manufacture of clocks. + Sewing thread. + Rise of manufactures. + Dependence of United States on Great Britain before 1807. + Effect of the embargo. + Manner of encouraging manufactures. +_Agricultural Progress_ + Effect of the French war. + State of agriculture in + New England. + New York and Pennsylvania. + The South. +_Improvements in Transportation_ + Demand for roads and canals. + The national pike. + Steamboats. + Early forms. + Fitch's. + Fulton's. + Stevens's. + Rapid introduction of. +_Financial Condition_ + Federal money. + The United States mint established. + Free coinage. + Bimetallism. + Coins struck. + Federal money comes slowly into use. + State Banks. + What led to the chartering of state banks. + Their rapid increase. + Effect of the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the + United States. + General suspension in 1814. + Reason for chartering the second Bank of the United States. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES + +%291. Monroe inaugurated.%--The administration of Madison ended on +March 4, 1817, and on that day James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins were +sworn into office. They had been nominated at Washington in February, +1816, by a caucus of Republican members of Congress, for no such thing +as a national convention for the nomination of a President had as yet +been thought of. The Federalists did not hold a caucus; but it was +understood that their electors would vote for Rufus King for +President.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In 1816 there were nineteen states in the Union (Indiana +having been admitted in that year), and of these Monroe carried sixteen +and King three. The inauguration took place in the open air for the +first time since 1789.] + +[Illustration: on the right of the previous paragraph, with caption +"James Monroe"] + +%292. Death of the Federalist Party.%--The inauguration of Monroe +opens a new era of great interest and importance in our history. From +1793 to 1815, the questions which divided the people into Federalists +and Republicans were all in some way connected with foreign countries. +They were neutral rights, Orders in Council, French Decrees, +impressment, embargoes, non-intercourse acts, the conduct of England, +the insolence of the French Directory, the triumphs and the treachery of +Napoleon. Every Federalist sympathized with England; every Republican +was a warm supporter of France. + +But with the close of the war in 1815, all this ended. Napoleon was sent +to St. Helena. Europe was at peace, and there was no longer any foreign +question to divide the people into Federalists and Republicans. This +division, therefore, ceased to exist, and after 1816 the Federalist +party never put up a candidate for the presidency. It ceased to exist +not only as a national but even as a state party, and for twelve years +there was one great party, the Republican, or, as it soon began to be +called, the Democratic. + +%293. The "Era of Good Feeling."%--A sure sign of the disappearance +of party and party feeling was seen very soon after Monroe was +inaugurated. In May, 1817, he left Washington with the intention of +visiting and inspecting all the forts and navy yards along the eastern +seaboard and the Great Lakes. Beginning at Baltimore, he went to New +York, then to Boston, and then to Portland; where he turned westward, +and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, made his way +to Ogdensburg, where he took a boat to Sacketts Harbor and Niagara, +whence he went to Buffalo, and Detroit, and then back to Washington. + +Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet him; but nowhere +was the reception so hearty as in New England, the stronghold of +Federalism. "The visit of the President," said a Boston newspaper, +"seems wholly to have allayed the storms of party. People _now meet in +the same room_ who, a short while since, _would scarcely pass along the +same street_". Another said that since Monroe's arrival at Boston "party +feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but one great +_national feeling_ has animated every class of our citizens." So it was +everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston Sentinel_ called the times +the "era of good feeling," the whole country took up the expression and +used it, and the eight years of Monroe's administration have ever since +been so called. + +%294. Trouble with the Seminole Indians.%--Though all was quiet and +happy within our borders, events of great importance were happening +along our northern, western, and southern frontier. During the war with +England, the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama had risen against the +white settlers and were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to +take refuge with the Seminoles in Florida. As they had been the allies +of England, they fully expected that when peace was made, England would +secure for them the territory of which Jackson had deprived them. When +England did not do this, they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began +to make raids over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and +children. In order to stop these depredations, General Jackson was sent +to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact that the Creeks and +Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered West Florida, took St. Marks +and Pensacola, destroyed the Indian power, and hanged two English +traders as spies.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chaps. 34-36; McMaster's +_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 430-456.] + +%295. The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel.%--This was +serious, for at the time the news reached Washington that Jackson had +invaded Spanish soil and hanged two English subjects, important treaties +were under way with Spain and Great Britain, and it was feared his +violent acts would stop them. Happily no evil consequences followed, and +in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line between the +United States and British America. + +When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and +fifteen years had been allowed to pass without attempting to establish +one. Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south +from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the +forty-ninth parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the +summit of the Rocky Mountains. + +%296. Joint Occupation of Oregon.%--The country beyond the Rocky +Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the +United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years +to come the country should be held in joint occupation. + +%297. The Spanish Boundary Line.%--One year later (1819) the boundary +of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us +East and West Florida for $5,000,000. Till this time we had always +claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande. +By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the +Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32 deg., then a north line to the +Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then +northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky +Mountains; then a north line to 42 deg., and then along that parallel to the +Pacific Ocean.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. IV., pp. 457-480.] + +%298. Russian Claims on the Pacific.%--The Oregon country was thus +restricted to 42 deg. on the south, and though it had no limit on the north +the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51 deg., which he +declared should be the south boundary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to +extend from 42 deg. to 51 deg., and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But +Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be +preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all +this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the +Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant +colonies in either North or South America. + +%299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%--This was a +new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the +boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration +regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas. + +Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality +(p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in +European wars, nor meddle in European politics. This had been asserted +repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the +wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed, +of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World +nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822 +it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously. + +[Footnote 1: See Washington's _Farewell Address_; Jefferson's _Inaugural +Address_, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803; +Monroe's _Inaugural Address_, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817, +Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also _American History Leaflets_, +No. 4.] + +[Illustration: %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%] + +Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and South America +(Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, formed republics, and in +1822 were acknowledged as free and independent powers by the United +States. Spain, after vainly attempting to subdue them, appealed for help +to the powers of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for +the purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while these +powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. But in 1823 they +decided to help Spain to get back her old colonies, and invited Great +Britain to attend a Congress before which the matter was to be +discussed. But Great Britain had no desire to see the little republics +destroyed, and in the summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked +the American minister in London if the United States would join with +England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to meddle with the +South American republics. Thus, just at the time when Adams was +protesting against European colonization in the Northwest, England +suggested a protest against European meddling in the affairs of Spanish +America. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in +persuading President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation +against both forms of European interference in American affairs. Monroe +thought it best to make the declaration independent of Great Britain, +and in his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced +three great guiding principles now known as the + +%300. Monroe Doctrine.%-- + +1. Taking up the matter in dispute with Russia, he declared that the +American continents were no longer open to colonization by +European nations. + +Referring to the conduct of the Holy Allies, he said, + +2. That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of +Europe. + +3. That European governments must not extend their system to any part of +North or South America, nor oppress, nor in any other manner seek to +control the destiny of any of the nations of this hemisphere.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 1-54; Tucker's _Monroe +Doctrine_.] + +The protest was effectual. The Holy Allies did not meddle in South +American affairs, and the next year (1824) Russia agreed to make no +settlement south of 54 deg. 40'. + + +SUMMARY + +1. At the presidential election of 1816 the Federalist party, for the +last time, voted for a presidential candidate. Party politics were dead, +and the "era of good feeling" opened. + +2. Many important matters which were not settled by the Treaty of Ghent +were disposed of: + + A. The forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary from a + point south of the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. + + B. Oregon was held in joint occupation. + + C. The line 54 deg. 40' was established. + +3. The boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions +was drawn, and Florida was acquired. + +4. The Monroe doctrine was announced. + + * * * * * + +SOME RESULTS OF THE WAR. + +_Death of the Federalist party_ ... + + End of the European war. + Disappearance of old party issues. + Monroe elected President. + The "era of good feeling." + +_Seminole War_ ... + + Creek Indians join the English. + Driven out of Alabama by Jackson. + Take refuge with Florida Seminoles. + After the war rise against the settlers in Georgia. + Destroyed by Jackson. + +_The boundaries_ ... + + 1818. Northern boundary of Louisiana + settled to the Rocky Mountains. + 1819. Treaty with Spain settled the south + boundary of Louisiana. + 1818. Joint occupation of Oregon. + 1824. North boundary of Oregon established at 54 deg. 40'. + +_The Monroe Doctrine._ + + The Holy Allies. + The South American republics. + Proposal of the Holy Allies to reduce the + South American republics. + The Monroe Doctrine announced (1823). + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +THE RISING WEST + +%301. Rush into the West.%--The settlement of our boundary disputes, +especially with Spain, was most timely, for even then people were +hurrying across the mountains by tens of thousands, and building up new +states in the Mississippi valley. The great demand for ships and +provisions, which from 1793 to 1807 had made business so brisk, had kept +people on the seaboard and given them plenty of employment. But after +1812, and particularly after 1815, trade, commerce, and business on the +seaboard declined, work became scarce, and men began to emigrate to the +West, where they could buy land from the government on the installment +plan, and where the states could not tax their farms until five years +after the government had given them a title deed. Old settlers in +central New York declared they had never seen so many teams and sleighs, +loaded with women, children, and household goods, traveling westward, +bound for Ohio, which was then but another name for the West. + +As the year wore away, the belief was expressed that when autumn came it +would be found that the worst was over, and that the good times expected +to follow peace would keep people on the seaboard. But the good times +did not return. The condition of trade and commerce, of agriculture and +manufactures, grew worse instead of better, and the western movement of +population became greater than ever. + +%302. Rapid Growth of Towns.%--Fed by this never-ending stream of +newcomers, the West was almost transformed. Towns grew and villages +sprang up with a rapidity which even in these days of rapid and easy +communication would be thought amazing. Mt. Pleasant, in Jefferson +County, Ohio, was in 1810 a little hamlet of seven families living in +cabins. In 1815 it contained ninety families, numbering 500 souls. The +town of Vevay, Ind., was laid out in 1813, and was not much better than +a collection of huts in 1814. But in 1816 the traveler down the Ohio who +stopped at Vevay found himself at a flourishing county seat, with +seventy-five dwellings, occupied by a happy population who boasted of +having among them thirty-one mechanics of various trades; of receiving +three mails each week, and supporting a weekly newspaper called the +_Indiana Register_. Forty-two thousand settlers are said to have come +into Indiana in 1816, and to have raised the population to 112,000. + +Letters from New York describe the condition of that state west of Utica +as one of astonishing prosperity. Log cabins were disappearing, and +frame and brick houses taking their place. The pike from Utica to +Buffalo was almost a continuous village, and the country for twenty +miles on either side was filling up with an industrious population. +Auburn, where twenty years before land sold for one dollar an acre, was +the first town in size and wealth west of Utica, and land within its +limits brought $7000 an acre. Fourteen miles west was Waterloo, on the +Seneca River, a village which did not exist in 1814, and which in 1816 +had fifty houses. Rochester, the site of which in 1815 was a wilderness, +had a printing press, a bookstore, and a hundred houses in 1817.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. IV., pp. 381-386.] + +%303. Scenes on the Western Highways.%--By 1817 this migration was at +its height, and in the spring of that year families set forth from +almost every village and town on the seaboard. The few that went from +each place might not be missed; but when they were gathered on any one +of the great roads to the West, as that across New York, or that across +Pennsylvania, they made an endless procession of wagons and +foot parties. + +A traveler who had occasion to go from Nashville to Savannah in January, +1817, declares that on the way he fell in with crowds of emigrants from +Carolina and Georgia, all bound for the cotton lands of Alabama; that he +counted the flocks and wagons, and that--carts, gigs, coaches, and +wagons, all told--there were 207 conveyances, and more than 3800 people. +At Haverhill, in Massachusetts, a train of sixteen wagons, with 120 men, +women, and children, from Durham, Me., passed in one day. They were +bound for Indiana to buy a township, and were accompanied by their +minister. Within thirteen days, seventy-three wagons and 450 emigrants +had passed through the same town of Haverhill. At Easton, Pa., which lay +on the favorite westward route for New Englanders, 511 wagons, with 3066 +persons, passed in a month. They went in trains of from six to fifty +wagons each day. The keeper of Gate No. 2, on the Dauphin turnpike, in +Pennsylvania, returned 2001 families as having passed his gate, bound +west, between March and December, 1817, and gave the number of people +accompanying the vehicles as 16,000. Along the New York route, which +went across the state from Albany to Buffalo, up Lake Erie, and on by +way of Chautauqua Lake to the Allegheny, the reports are just as +astonishing. Two hundred and sixty wagons were counted going by one +tavern in nine days, besides hundreds of people on horseback and +on foot.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_. Vol. IV., pp. 387, 388.] + +%304. Life on the Frontier.%--The "mover," or, as we should say, the +emigrant, would provide himself with a small wagon, very light, but +strong enough to carry his family, provisions, bedding, and utensils; +would cover it with a blanket or a piece of canvas or with linen which +was smeared with tar inside to make it waterproof; and with two stout +horses to pull it, would set out for the West, and make his way across +Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then the greatest city of the West, with a +population of 7000. Some, as of old, would take boats and float down the +Ohio; others would go on to Wheeling, be ferried across the river, and +push into Ohio or Indiana or Illinois, there to "take up" a quarter +section (160 acres) of government land, or buy or rent a "clearing" from +some shiftless settler of an earlier day. Government land intended for +sale was laid out in quarter sections of 160 acres, and after being +advertised for a certain time was offered for sale at public auction. +What was not sold could then be purchased at the land office of the +district at two dollars an acre, one quarter to be paid down, and three +fourths before the expiration of four years. The emigrant, having +gathered eighty dollars, would go to some land office, "enter" a quarter +section, pay the first installment, and make his way in the two-horse +wagon containing his family and his worldly goods to the spot where was +to be his future home. Every foot of it in all probability would be +covered with bushes and trees. + +[Illustration: Distribution of the Population of the United States +Fourth Census, 1820] + +%305. The Log Cabin.%--In that case the settler would cut down a few +saplings, make a "half-faced camp," and begin his clearing. The +"half-faced camp" was a shed. Three sides were of logs laid one on +another horizontally. The roof was of saplings covered with branches or +bark. The fourth side was open, and when it rained was closed by hanging +up deerskin curtains. In this camp the newcomer and his family would +live while he grubbed up the bushes and cut down trees enough to make a +log cabin. If he were a thrifty, painstaking man, he would smooth each +log on four sides with his ax, and notch it half through at each end so +that when they were placed one on another the faces would nearly touch. +Saplings would make the rafters, and on them would be fastened planks +laid clapboard fashion, or possibly split shingles. + +An opening was of course left for a door, although many a cabin was +built without a window, and when the door was shut received no light +save that which came down the chimney, which was always on the outside +of the house. To form it, an opening eight feet long and six feet high +was left at one end of the house, and around this a sort of bay window +was built of logs and lined with stones on the inside. Above the top of +the opening the chimney contracted and was made of branches smeared both +inside and out with clay. Generally the chimney went to the peak of the +roof; but it was by no means unusual for it to stop about halfway up the +end of the cabin. + +[Illustration: Log cabin[1]] + +[Footnote 1: The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, restored (reproduced, +together with the first picture on the next page, from Tarbell's _Early +Life of Abraham Lincoln_, by permission of the publishers, S.S. +McClure, Limited).] + +If the settler was too poor to buy glass, or if glass could not be had, +the window frame was covered with greased paper, which let in the light +but could not be seen through. The door was of plank with leather +hinges, or with iron hinges made from an old wagon tire by the nearest +blacksmith or by the settler himself. There was no knob, no lock, +no bolt. + +In place of them there was a wooden latch on the inside, which could be +lifted by a person on the outside of the door by a leather strip which +came through a hole in the door and hung down. When this latch string +was out, anybody could pull it, lift the latch, and come in. When it was +drawn inside, nobody could come in without knocking. The floor was made +of "puncheons," or planks split and hewn with an ax from the trunk of a +tree, and laid with the round side down. The furniture the settler +brought with him, or made on the spot. + +[Illustration: Hand mill [1]] + +The household utensils were of the simplest kind. Brooms and brushes +were made of corn husks. Corn was shelled by hand and was then either +carried in a bag slung over a horse's back to the nearest mill, perhaps +fifteen miles away, or was pounded in a wooden hominy mortar with a +wooden pestle, or ground in a hand mill. Chickens and game were roasted +by hanging them with leather strings before the open fire. Cooking +stoves were unknown, and all cooking was done in a "Dutch oven," on the +hearth, or in a clay "out oven" built, as its name implies, out +of doors. + +[Illustration: Corn-husk broom [1]] + +[Illustration: Kitchen utensils [1]] + +[Footnote 1: From originals in the National Museum, Washington.] + +%306. Clearing and Planting.%--The land about the cabin was cleared +by grubbing the bushes and cutting down trees under a foot in diameter +and burning them. Big trees were "deadened," or killed, by cutting a +"girdle" around them two or three feet above the ground, deep enough to +destroy the sap vessels and so prevent the growth of leaves.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For a delightful account of life in the West, read W. C. +Howells's _Recollections of Life in Ohio_ (edited by his son, William +Dean Howells).] + +In the ground thus laid open to the sun were planted corn, potatoes, or +wheat, which, when harvested, was threshed with a flail and fanned and +cleaned with a sheet. At first the crop would be scarcely sufficient for +home use. But, as time passed, there would be some to spare, and this +would be wagoned to some river town and sold or exchanged for +"store goods." + +If the settler chose his farm wisely, others would soon settle near by, +and when a cluster of clearings had been made, some enterprising +speculator would appear, take up a quarter section, cut it into town +lots, and call the place after himself, as Piketown, or Leesburg, or +Gentryville. A storekeeper with a case or two of goods would next +appear, then a tavern would be erected, and possibly a blacksmith shop +and a mill, and Piketown or Leesburg would be established. Hundreds of +such ventures failed; but hundreds of others succeeded and are to-day +prosperous villages. + +[Illustration: Mississippi produce boat[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum at Washington.] + +%307. The New States._--While the northern stream of population was thus +traveling across New York, northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into +Michigan, the middle stream was pushing down the Ohio. By 1820 it had +greatly increased the population of southern Indiana and Illinois, and +crossing the Mississippi was going up the Missouri River. In the South +the destruction of the Indian power by Jackson in 1813, and the opening +of the Indian land to settlement, led to a movement of the southern +stream of population across Alabama to Mobile. Now, what were some of +the results of this movement of population into the Mississippi valley? +In the first place, it caused the formation and admission into the Union +of six states in five years. They were Indiana, 1816; Mississippi, 1817; +Illinois, 1818; Alabama, 1819; Maine, 1820; Missouri, 1821. + +%308. Slave and Free States.%--In the second place, it brought about +a great struggle over slavery. You remember that when the thirteen +colonies belonged to Great Britain slavery existed in all of them; that +when they became independent states some began to abolish slavery; and +that in time five became free states and eight remained slave states. +Slavery was also gradually abolished in New York and New Jersey, so that +of the original thirteen only six were now to be counted as slave +states. You remember again that when the Continental Congress passed the +Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory lying between the +Ohio River and the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania and the Mississippi River, +it ordained that in the Northwest Territory there should be no slavery. +In consequence of this, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were admitted into +the Union as free states, as Vermont had been. Kentucky was originally +part of Virginia, and when it was admitted, came in as a slave state. +Tennessee once belonged to North Carolina, and hence was also slave +soil; and when it was given to the United States, the condition was +imposed by North Carolina that it should remain so. Tennessee, +therefore, entered the Union (in 1796) as a slave state. Much of what is +now Alabama and Mississippi was once owned by Georgia, and when she +ceded it in 1802, she did so with the express condition that it should +remain slave soil; as a result of this, Alabama and Mississippi were +slave states. Louisiana was part of the Louisiana Purchase, and was +admitted (1812) as a slave state because it contained a great many +slaves at the time of the purchase. + +Thus in 1820 there were twenty-two states in the Union, of which eleven +were slave, and eleven free. Notice now two things: 1. That the dividing +line between the slave and the free states was the south and west +boundary of Pennsylvania from the Delaware to the Ohio, and the Ohio +River; 2. That all the states in the Union except part of Louisiana lay +east of the Mississippi River. As to what should be the character of our +country west of that river, nothing had as yet been said, because as yet +no state lying wholly in that region had asked admittance to the Union. + +%309. Shall there be Slave States West of the Mississippi +River?%--But when the people rushed westward after the war, great +numbers crossed the Mississippi and settled on the Missouri River, and +as they were now very numerous they petitioned Congress in 1818 for +leave to make the state of Missouri and to be admitted into the Union. + +The petitioners did not say whether they would make a slave or a free +state; but as the Missourians owned slaves, everybody knew that Missouri +would be a slave state. To this the free states were opposed. If the +tobacco-growing, cotton-raising, and sugar-making states wanted slaves, +that was their affair; but slavery must not be extended into states +beyond the Mississippi, because it was wrong. No man, it was said, had +any right to buy and sell a human being, even if he was black. The +Southern people were equally determined that slavery should cross the +Mississippi. We cannot, said they, abolish slavery; because if our +slaves were set free, they would not work, and as they are very +ignorant, they would take our property and perhaps our lives. Neither +can we stop the increase of negro slave population. We must, then, have +some place to send our surplus slaves, or the present slave states will +become a black America. + +%310. The Missouri Compromise.%--Each side was so determined, and it +was so clear that neither would yield, that a compromise was suggested. +The country east of the Mississippi, it was said, is partly slave, +partly free soil. Why not divide the country west of the great river in +the same way? At first the North refused. But it so happened that just +at this moment Maine, having secured the consent of Massachusetts, +applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a free state. The +South, which had control of the Senate, thereupon said to the North, +which controlled the House of Representatives, If you will not admit +Missouri as a slave state, we will not admit Maine as a free state. This +forced the compromise, and after a bitter and angry discussion it +was agreed + +1. That Maine should come in as a free, and Missouri as a slave, state. + +2. That the Louisiana Purchase should be cut in two by the parallel of +36 deg. 30', and that all north of the line except Missouri should be free +soil[1]. This parallel was thereafter known as the "Missouri +Compromise Line." + +[Footnote 1: The Compromise was violated in 1836, when the present +northwest corner of Missouri was taken from the free territory and added +to that state. See maps, pp. 299 and 348] + +[Illustration: AREAS OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820] + +The admission of Maine and Missouri raised the number of states to +twenty-four.[1] No more were admitted for sixteen years. When Missouri +applied for admission as a state, Arkansas was (1819) organized as a +territory. + +[Footnote 1: For the compromise read Woodburn's _Historical Significance +of the Missouri Compromise_ (in _Report American Historical +Association_, 1893, pp. 251-297); McMaster's _History of the People of +the United States_, Vol. IV., Chap. 39.] + +%311. The Second Election of Monroe.%--This bitter contest over the +exclusion of slavery from the country west of the Mississippi shows how +completely party lines had disappeared in 1820. In the course of that +year, electors of a President were to be chosen in the twenty-four +states. That slavery would play an important part in the campaign, and +that some candidate would be put in the field by the people opposed to +the compromise, might have been expected. But there was no campaign, no +contest, no formal nomination. The members of Congress held a caucus, +but decided to nominate nobody. Every elector, it was well known, would +be a Republican, and as such would vote for the reelection of Monroe and +Tompkins. And this almost did take place. Every one of the 229 electors +who voted was a Republican, and all save one in New Hampshire cast votes +for Monroe. But this one man gave his vote to John Quincy Adams. He said +he did not want Washington to be robbed of the glory of being the only +President who had ever received the unanimous vote of the electors. + +March 4, 1821, came on Sunday. Monroe was therefore inaugurated on +Monday, March 5. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The dull times on the seaboard, the cheap land in the West, the love +of adventure, and the desire to "do better" led, during 1814-1820, to a +most astonishing emigration westward. + +2. The rush of population into the Mississippi valley caused the +admission of six states into the Union between 1816 and 1821. + +3. The question of the admission of Missouri brought up the subject of +shutting slavery out of the country west of the Mississippi, which ended +in a compromise and the establishment of the line 36 deg. 30'. + + +MOVEMENT OF POPULATION. + + _Northern Stream._ + + Effect of hard times in the East.-- + Scenes along the highways.--Arrival + of the emigrants in the West.--The + half-faced camp.--The log cabin.-- + Household utensils.--Clearing the + land.--Growth of towns. + + _Middle Stream._ + + Moves down the Ohio valley, + across southern Ohio, Indiana, + Illinois, and pushes up + the Missouri. + + _Southern Stream._ + + The defeat of the Creek Indians + opens their lands in + Mississippi Territory to settlement. + + * * * * * + +This settlement of the West leads to: + + Admission into the Union of: + + 1816. Indiana. + 1817. Mississippi. + 1818. Illinois. + 1819. Alabama. + + Admission of these states brings up the question of slavery. + + 1820. Maine. + 1821. Missouri. + + Organization of new territories. + + 1819. Arkansas. + 1822. 1823. Florida. + + +_Status of slavery after 1820_. + + FREE STATES. + + N.H., + Vt., + Mass., + R.I., + Conn. + N.Y., + N.J., + Pa., + Ohio, + Ind., + Ill., + Maine. + + SLAVE STATES. + + Del., + Md., + Va., + N.C., + S.C., + Ga., + Ala., + Miss. + La., + Ky., + Tenn., + Missouri. + +_Country west of the Mississippi._ + + 1804. Not settled. + 1819. Attempt to make Missouri a slave state. + 1820. The compromise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE + +%312. Improvement in Means of Travel%.--We have now considered two of +the results of the rush of population from the seaboard to the +Mississippi valley; namely, the admission of five new Western states +into the Union, and the struggle over the extension of slavery, which +resulted in the Missouri Compromise. But there was a third result,--the +actual construction of highways of transportation connecting the East +with the West. Along the seaboard, during the five years which followed +the war, great improvements were made in the means of travel. The +steamboat had come into general use, and, thanks to this and to good +roads and bridges, people could travel from Philadelphia to New York +between sunrise and sunset on a summer day, and from New York to Boston +in forty-eight hours. The journey from Boston to Washington was now +finished in four days and six hours, and from New York to Quebec in +eight days. + +[Illustration: Bordentown, NJ.[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old engraving. Passengers from Philadelphia landed +here from the steamboat and took stage for New Brunswick.] + +[Illustration: map: OLD ROUTE FROM NEW YORK TO PITTSBURG] + +In the West there was much the same improvement. The Mississippi and +Ohio swarmed with steamboats, which came up the river from New Orleans +to St. Louis in twenty-five days and went down with the current in +eight. Little, however, had been done to connect the East with the West. +Until the appearance of the steamboat in 1812, the merchants of +Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and a host of other towns in the +interior bought the produce of the Western settlers, and floating it +down the Ohio and the Mississippi sold it at New Orleans for cash, and +with the money purchased goods at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, +and carried them over the mountains to the West. Some went in sailing +vessels up the Hudson from New York to Albany, were wagoned to the Falls +of the Mohawk, and then loaded in "Schenectady boats," which were +pushed up the Mohawk by poles to Utica, and then by canal and river to +Oswego, on Lake Ontario. From Oswego they went in sloops to Lewiston on +the Niagara River, whence they were carried in ox wagons to Buffalo, and +then in sailing vessels to Westfield, and by Chautauqua Lake and the +Allegheny River to Pittsburg. Goods from Philadelphia and Baltimore were +hauled in great Conestoga wagons drawn by four and six horses across the +mountains to Pittsburg. The carrying trade alone in these ways was +immense. More than 12,000 wagons came to Pittsburg in a year, bringing +goods on which the freight was $1,500,000. + +[Illustration: Boats on the Mohawk[1]] + +[Footnote 1: From an old print.] + +[Illustration: THOMAS HARPER, AGENT FOR INLAND TRANSPORTATION] + +With the appearance of the steamboat on the Mississippi and Ohio, this +trade was threatened; for the people of the Western States could now +float their pork, flour, and lumber to New Orleans as before, and bring +back from that city by steamboat the hardware, pottery, dry goods, +cotton, sugar, coffee, tea, which till then they had been forced to buy +in the East[1]. + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, +Vol. IV., pp. 397-410, 419-421.] + +This new way of trading was so much cheaper than the old, that it was +clear to the people of the Eastern States that unless they opened up a +still cheaper route to the West, their Western trade was gone. + +[Illustration: The Erie Canal] + +%313. The Erie Canal.%--In 1817 the people of New York determined to +provide such a route, and in that year they began to cut a canal across +the state from the Hudson at Albany to Lake Erie at Buffalo. To us, with +our steam shovels and drills, our great derricks, our dynamite, it would +be a small matter to dig a ditch 4 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and 363 +miles long. But on July 4, 1817, when Governor De Witt Clinton turned +the first sod, and so began the work, it was considered a great +undertaking, for the men of those days had only picks, shovels, +wheelbarrows, and gunpowder to do it with. + +Opposition to the canal was strong. Some declared that it would swallow +up millions of dollars and yield no return, and nicknamed it "Clinton's +Big Ditch." But Clinton was not the kind of man that is afraid of +ridicule. He and his friends went right on with the work, and after +eight years spent in cutting down forests, in blasting rocks, in +building embankments to carry the canal across swamps, and high +aqueducts to carry it over the rivers, and locks of solid masonry to +enable the boats to go up and down the sides of hills, the canal was +finished.[1] + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 415-418.] + +[Illustration: Model of a canal packet boat] + +Then, one day in the autumn of 1825, a fleet of boats set off from +Buffalo, passed through the canal to Albany, where Governor De Witt +Clinton boarded one of them, and went down the Hudson to New York. A keg +of water from Lake Erie was brought along, and this, when the fleet +reached New York Harbor, Clinton poured with great ceremony into the +bay, to commemorate, as he said, "the navigable communication opened +between our Mediterranean seas [the Great Lakes] and the +Atlantic Ocean." + +%314. Effect of the Erie Canal%.--The building of the canal changed +the business conditions of about half of our country. Before the canal +was finished, goods, wares, merchandise, going west from New York, were +carried from Albany to Buffalo at a cost of $120 a ton. After the canal +was opened, it cost but $14 a ton to carry freight from Albany to +Buffalo. This was most important. In the first place, it enabled the +people in New York, in Ohio, in Indiana, in Illinois, and all over the +West, to buy plows and hoes and axes and clothing and food and medicine +for a much lower price than they had formerly paid for such things. Life +in the West became more comfortable and easy than ever before. + +In the next place, the Eastern merchant could greatly extend his +business. How far west he could send his goods depended on the expense +of carrying them. When the cost was high, they could go but a little way +without becoming so expensive that only a few people could buy them. +After 1825, when the Erie Canal made transportation cheap, goods from +New York city could be sold in Michigan and Missouri at a much lower +price than they had before been sold in Pittsburg or Buffalo. + +%315. New York City the Metropolis.%--The New York merchant, in other +words, now had the whole West for his market. That city, which till 1820 +had been second in population, and third in commerce, rushed ahead and +became the first in population, commerce, and business. + +The same was true of New York state. As the canal grew nearer and nearer +completion, the people from other states came in and settled in the +towns and villages along the route, bought farms, and so improved the +country that the value of the land along the canal increased +$100,000,000. + +A rage for canals now spread over the country. Many were talked of, but +never started. Many were started, but never finished. Such as had been +begun were hurried to completion. Before 1830 there were 1343 miles of +canal open to use in the United States. + +%316. The Pennsylvania Highway to the West.%--In Pennsylvania the +opening of the Erie Canal caused great excitement. And well it might; +for freight could now be sent by sailing vessels from Philadelphia to +Albany, and then by canal to Buffalo, and on by the Lake Erie and +Chautauqua route to Pittsburg, for one third what it cost to go +overland. It seemed as if New York by one stroke had taken away the +Western commerce of Philadelphia, and ruined the prosperity of such +inland towns of Pennsylvania as lay along the highway to the West. The +demand for roads and canals at state expense was now listened to, and +in 1826 ground was broken at Harrisburg for a system of canals to join +Philadelphia and Pittsburg. But in 1832 the horse-power railroad came +into use, and when finished, the system was part railroad and +part canal. + +%317. The Baltimore Route to the West.%--This energy on the part of +Pennsylvania alarmed the people of Baltimore. Unless their city was to +yield its Western trade to Philadelphia they too must have a speedy and +cheap route to the West. In 1827, therefore, a great public meeting was +held at Baltimore to consider the wisdom of building a railroad from +Baltimore to some point on the Ohio River. The meeting decided that it +must be done, and on July 4, 1828, the work of construction was begun. +In 1830 the road was opened as far as Ellicotts Mills, a distance of +fifteen miles. The cars were drawn by horses. + +The early railroads, as the word implies, were roads made of wooden +rails, or railed roads, over which heavy loads were drawn by horses. The +very first were private affairs, and not intended for carrying +passengers.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The first was used in 1807 at Boston to carry earth from a +hilltop to a street that was being graded. The second was built near +Philadelphia in 1810, and ran from a stone quarry to a dock. It was in +use twenty-eight years. The third was built in 1826, and extended from +the granite quarries at Quincy, Mass., to the Neponset River, a distance +of three miles. The fourth was from the coal mines of Mauchchunk, Pa., +to the Lehigh River, nine miles. The fifth was constructed in 1828 by +the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to carry coal from the mines to +the canal.] + +%318. Public Railroads.%--In 1825 John Stevens, who for ten years +past had been advocating steam railroads, built a circular road at +Hoboken to demonstrate the possibility of using such means of +locomotion. In 1823 Pennsylvania chartered a company to build a railroad +from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna. But it was not till 1827, when the +East was earnestly seeking for a rapid and cheap means of transportation +to the West, that railroads of great length and for public use were +undertaken. In that year the people of Massachusetts were so excited +over the opening of the Erie Canal that the legislature appointed a +commission and an engineer to select a line for a railroad to join +Boston and Albany. + +At this time there was no such thing as a steam locomotive in use in the +United States. The first ever used here for practical purposes was built +in England and brought to New York city in 1829, and in August of that +year made a trial trip on the rails of the Delaware and Hudson Canal +Company. The experiment was a failure; and for several years horses were +the only motive power in use on the railroads. In 1830, however, the +South Carolina Railroad having finished six miles of its road, had a +locomotive built in New York city, and in January, 1831, placed it on +the tracks at Charleston. Another followed in February, and the era of +locomotive railroading in our country began. + +%319. The Portage Railroad.%--As yet the locomotive was a rude +machine. It could not go faster than fifteen miles an hour, nor climb a +steep hill. Where such an obstacle was met with, either the road went +around it, or the locomotive was taken off and the cars were let down or +pulled up the hill on an inclined plane by means of a rope and +stationary engine.[1] When Pennsylvania began her railroad over the +Alleghany Mountains, therefore, she used the inclined-plane system on a +great scale, so that in its time the Portage Railroad, as it was called, +was the most remarkable piece of railroading in the world. + +[Footnote 1: Such an inclined plane existed at Albany, where passengers +were pulled up to the top of the hill. Another was at Belmont on the +Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, and another on the Paterson and Hudson +road near Paterson.] + +The Pennsylvania line to the West consisted of a horse railroad from +Philadelphia to Columbia on the Susquehanna River; of a canal out the +Juniata valley to Hollidaysburg on the eastern slope of the Alleghany +Mountains, where the Portage Railroad began, and the cars were raised to +the summit of the mountains by a series of inclined planes and levels, +and then by the same means let down the western slope to Johnstown; and +then of another canal from Johnstown to Pittsburg. + +[Illustration: Inclined plane at Belmont in 1835] + +As originally planned, the state was to build the railroad and canal, +just as it built turnpikes. No cars, no motive power of any sort, except +at the inclined planes, were to be supplied. Anybody could use it who +paid two cents a mile for each passenger, and $4.92 for each car sent +over the rails. At first, therefore, firms and corporations engaged in +the transportation business owned their own cars, their own horses, +employed their own drivers, and charged such rates as the state tolls +and sharp competition would allow. The result was dire confusion. The +road was a single-track affair, with turnouts to enable cars coming in +opposite directions to pass each other. But the drivers were an unruly +set, paid no attention to turnouts, and would meet face to face on the +track, just as if no turnouts existed. A fight or a block was sure to +follow, and somebody was forced to go back. To avoid this, the road was +double-tracked in 1834, when, for the first time, two locomotives +dragging long trains of cars ran over the line from Lancaster to +Philadelphia. As the engine went faster than the horses, it soon became +apparent that both could not use the road at the same time; and after +1836 steam became the sole motive power, and the locomotive was +furnished by the state, which now charged for hauling the cars.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the early railroads see Brown's _History of the First +Locomotives in America._] + +[Illustration: The first railroad train in New Jersey (1831)] + +The puffing little locomotive bore little resemblance to its beautiful +and powerful successors. No cab sheltered the engineer, no brake checked +the speed, wood was the only fuel, and the tall smokestack belched forth +smoke and red-hot cinders. But this was nothing to what happened when +the train came to a bridge. Such structures were then protected by +roofing them and boarding the sides almost to the eaves. But the roof +was always too low to allow the smokestack to go under. The stack, +therefore, was jointed, and when passing through a bridge the upper half +was dropped down and the whole train in consequence was enveloped in a +cloud of smoke and burning cinders, while the passengers covered their +eyes, mouths, and noses. + +%320. Railroads in 1835.%--In 1835 there were twenty-two railroads in +operation in the United States. Two were west of the Alleghanies, and +not one was 140 miles long. For a while the cars ran on "strap rails" +made of wooden beams or stringers laid on stone blocks and protected on +the top surface, where the car wheel rested, by long strips or straps +of iron spiked on. The spikes would often work loose, and, as the car +passed over, the strap would curl up and come through the bottom of the +car, making what was called a snake head. It was some time before the +all-iron rail came into use, and even then it was a small affair +compared with the huge rails that are used at present. + +%321. Mechanical Inventions.%--The introduction of the steamboat and +the railroad, the great development of manufactures, the growth of the +West, and the immense opportunity for doing business which these +conditions offered, led to all sorts of demands for labor-saving and +time-saving machinery. Another very marked characteristic of the period +1825-1840, therefore, is the display of the inventive genius of the +people. Articles which a few years before were made by hand now began to +be made by machinery. + +Before 1825 every farmer in the country threshed his grain with a flail, +or by driving cattle over it, or by means of a large wooden roller +covered with pegs. After 1825 these rude devices began to be supplanted +by the threshing machine. Till 1826 no axes, hatchets, chisels, planes, +or other edge tools were made in this country. In 1826 their manufacture +was begun, and in the following year there was opened the first hardware +store for the sale of American-made hardware. + +The use of anthracite coal had become so general that the wood stove was +beginning to be displaced by the hard-coal stove, and in 1827 fire +bricks were first made in the United States. It was at about this time +that paper was first made of hay and straw; that boards were first +planed by machine; that bricks were first made by machinery; that +penknives and pocketknives were first manufactured in America; that +Fairbanks invented the platform weighing scales; that chloroform was +discovered; that Morse invented the recording telegraph; that a man in +New York city, named Hunt, made and sold the first lock-stitch sewing +machine ever seen in the world; that pens and horseshoes were made by +machine; that the reaping machine was given its first public trial (in +Ohio); and that Colt invented the revolver. + +%322. Condition of the Cities.%--Yet another characteristic of the +period was the great change which came over the cities and towns. The +development of canal and railroad transportation had thrown many of the +old highways into disuse, had made old towns and villages decline in +population, and had caused new towns to spring up and flourish. +Everybody now wanted to live near a railroad or a canal. The rapid +increase in manufactures had led to the occupation of the fine +water-power sites, and to the creation of many such manufacturing towns +as Lowell (in Massachusetts) and Cohoes (in New York). The rise of so +many new kinds of business, of so many corporations, mills, and +factories, caused a rush of people to the cities, which now began to +grow rapidly in size. + +[Illustration: New York in 1830 (St. Paul's Chapel, on Broadway)] + +This made a change in city government necessary. The constable and the +watchman with his rattle had to give place to the modern policeman. The +old dingy oil lamps, lighted only when the moon did not shine, gave +place to gas. The cities were now so full of clerks, workingmen, +mechanics, and other people who had to live far away from the places +where they were employed, that a cheap means of transportation about the +streets became necessary. Accordingly, in 1830, an omnibus line was +started in New York.[1] It succeeded so well that in 1832 the first +street horse-car line in America was operated in New York city. + +[Footnote 1: Many did not know what the word "Omnibus" painted along the +top of the stages meant. Some thought it was the name of the man who +owned them. It is, of course, a Latin word, and means "for all"; that +is, the stages were public conveyances for the use of all.] + +%323. The Owenite Communities.%--The efforts thus made everywhere and +in every way to increase the comforts and conveniences of mankind turned +the years 1820-1840 into a period of reform. Anything new was eagerly +taken up. When, therefore, a Welshman named Robert Owen came over to +this country, and introduced what he considered a social reform, numbers +of people in the West became his followers. Owen believed that most of +the hardships of life came from the fact that some men secured more +property and made more money than others. He believed that people should +live together in communities in which the farms, the houses, the cattle, +the products of the soil, should be owned not by individual men, but by +the whole community. He held that there should be absolute social +equality, and that no matter what sort of work a man did, whether +skilled or unskilled, it should be considered just as valuable as the +work of any other man. + +All this was very alluring, and in a little while Owenite communities +were started in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York, +only to end in failure.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Noyes's _History of American Socialism._] + +%324. The Mormons.%--But there was a social movement started at this +time which still exists. In 1827, at Palmyra, in New York, a young man +named Joseph Smith announced that he had received a new bible from an +angel of the Lord. It was written, he said, on golden plates, which he +claimed to have read by the aid of two wonderful stones; and in 1830 he +gave to the world _The Book of Mormon_. + +After the book appeared, Smith and a few others organized a church. Many +at once began to believe in the new religion. But the West seemed so +much better a field that in 1831 Smith and his followers started for +Ohio, and at Kirtland established a Mormon community. There the Mormons +lived for several years, and then went to Missouri, whence they were +expelled, partly because they were an antislavery people. In 1840 they +settled on the banks of the Mississippi in Illinois and built the town +of Nauvoo. At Nauvoo they remained till 1846, when, having adopted +polygamy, they were driven off by the people of Illinois, and, led by +Brigham Young, marched to Council Bluffs, in Iowa. There they stopped to +look about them for a safe place of abode, and finally, in 1847, left +Council Bluffs for Great Salt Lake, then in the dominions of Mexico.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Kennedy's _Early Days of Mormonism_.] + + +SUMMARY + +1. The rise of the new states in the West, and the appearance of the +steamboat on the Mississippi, were the causes of a great revival of +public interest in internal improvements. + +2. The first to build a great western highway was New York state, which, +between 1817 and 1825, built the Erie Canal. + +3. This cut down the cost of moving freight to the West, led to +settlement along the banks of the canal, and made New York city the +metropolis of the country. + +4. It was during this period, 1815-1830, that many inventions, +discoveries, and improvements were made in the arts and sciences. + +5. The railroad was introduced, and the steam locomotive successfully +used. + +6. The cities grew, and in New York the omnibus and the street car began +to be used. + +The movement of population into the West.--The formation of new states +there.--The rise of manufactures in the East.--The fine market the West +offers for the products and importations of the Eastern States. + + * * * * * + +Lead to great rivalry between the Atlantic seaboard cities for Western +trade. + + * * * * * + +This rivalry leads to the development of three routes to the West. + +_The New York Route._ + + 1807. Steamboats on the Hudson. + 1817-25. Erie Canal + 1818. Steamboats on the Lakes. + Chautauqua Lake and Allegheny valley. + Effect of Erie Canal. + +_The Pennsylvania Route._ + + Old Conestoga wagons. + Effect of Erie Canal. + 1827. Pennsylvania state canals and railroads. + The Portage Railroad. + +_The Baltimore Route._ + + 1828. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad commenced. + + * * * * * + +The expansion of the country.--The development of the steamboat, the +railroad, and manufactures, and the increased opportunities for +doing business. + + * * * * * + +Lead to demand for labor-saving and time-saving machinery. + + Hard-coal grate and stove. + Fire bricks. + Paper made from straw. + Brick-making machine. + Planing machine. + Platform scales. + Reaping machine. + Colt's revolver. + Sewing machine (Hunt). + Steel pens. + Threshing machine. + Telegraph (electric). + Steam printing press. + Matches, etc., etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 + +%325. New Political Institutions.%--Of the political leaders of +Washington's time few were left in 1825. The men who then conducted +affairs had almost all been born since the Revolution, or were children +at the time.[1] The same is true of the mass of the people. They too had +been born since the Revolution, and, growing up under different +conditions, held ideas very different from the men who went before them. +They were more democratic and much less aristocratic, more humane, more +practical. They abolished the old and cruel punishments, such as +branding the cheeks and foreheads of criminals with letters, cutting off +their ears, putting them in the pillory and the stocks; they partly +abolished imprisonment for debt; they established free schools, +reformatories, asylums, and penitentiaries. They amended their state +constitutions or made new ones, and extended the right to vote, and +introduced new political institutions, some of which were of doubtful +value, but are still used. + +[Footnote 1: John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were born in 1767; +Henry Clay, in 1777; John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, +and Thomas H. Benton, in 1782.] + +%326. Political Proscription; the Gerrymander.%--One of these was the +custom of turning men out of public office because they did not belong +to the party in power, or did not "work" for the election of the +successful candidate. As early as 1792 this vicious practice was in use +in Pennsylvania, and a few years later was introduced in New York by De +Witt Clinton. Jefferson resorted to it when he became President, but it +was not till 1820 that it was firmly established by Congress. In that +year William H. Crawford, who was Secretary of the Treasury and a +presidential candidate, secured the passage of a "tenure of office" act, +limiting the term of collectors of revenue, and a host of other +officials, to four years, and thus made the appointments to these places +rewards for political service. + +Another institution dating from this time is the gerrymander. In 1812, +when Elbridge Gerry was the Republican governor of Massachusetts, his +party, finding that at the next election they would lose the +governorship and the House of Representatives, decided to hold the +Senate by marking out new senatorial districts. In doing this they drew +the lines in such wise that districts where there were large Federalist +majorities were cut in two, and the parts annexed to other districts, +where there were yet larger Republican majorities. + +[Illustration] + +The story is told that a map of the Essex senatorial district was +hanging on the office wall of the editor of the _Columbian Centinel_, +when a famous artist named Stuart entered. Struck by the peculiar +outline of the towns forming the district, he added a head, wings, and +claws with his pencil, and turning to the editor, said: "There, that +will do for a salamander." "Better say a Gerrymander," returned the +editor, alluding to Elbridge Gerry, the Republican governor who had +signed the districting act. However this may be, it is certain that the +name "gerrymander" was applied to the odious law in the columns of the +_Centinel_, that it came rapidly into use, and has remained in our +political nomenclature ever since. Indeed, a huge cut of the monster was +prepared, and the next year was scattered as a broadside over the +commonwealth, and so aroused the people that in the spring of 1813, +despite the gerrymander, the Federalists recovered control of the +Senate, and repealed the law. But the example was set, and was quickly +imitated in New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. This established the +institution, and it has been used over and over again to this day. + +%327. The Third-term Tradition.%--Another political custom which had +grown to have the force of law was that of never electing a President to +three terms. There is nothing in the Constitution to prevent a President +serving any number of terms; but, as we have seen, when Washington +finished his second he declined another, and when Jefferson (in +1807-1808) was asked by the legislatures of several states to accept a +third term, he declined, and very seriously advised the people never to +elect any man President more than twice.[1] The example so set was +followed by Madison and Monroe and had thus by 1824 become an +established usage. + +[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers,_ pp. 64-70.] + +%328. New Political Issues.%--The most important change of all was +the rise of new political issues. We have seen how the financial +questions which divided the people in 1790-1792 and gave rise to the +Federalist and Republican parties, were replaced during the wars between +England and France by the question, "Shall the United States be +neutral?" It was not until the end of our second war with Great Britain +that we were again free to attend to our home affairs. + +During the long embargo and the war, manufactures had arisen, and one +question now became, "Shall home manufactures be encouraged?" With the +rapid settlement of the Mississippi valley and the demand for roads, +canals, and river improvements by which trade might be carried on with +the West, there arose a second political question: "Shall these internal +improvements be made at government expense?" + +Now the people of the different sections of the country were not of one +mind on these questions. The Middle States and Kentucky and some parts +of New England wanted manufactures encouraged. In the West and the +Middle States people were in favor of internal improvements at the cost +of the government. In the South Atlantic States, where tobacco and +cotton and rice were raised and shipped (especially the cotton) to +England, people cared nothing for manufactures, nothing for internal +improvements. + +%329. Presidential Candidates in 1824.%--This diversity of opinion on +questions of vital importance had much to do with the breaking up of the +Republican party into sectional factions after 1820. The ambition of +leaders in these sections helped on the disruption, so that between 1821 +and 1824 four men, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of +Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, John C. Calhoun of South +Carolina, were nominated for President by state legislatures or state +nominating conventions, by mass meeting or by gatherings of men who had +assembled for other purposes but seized the occasion to indorse or +propose a candidate. A fifth, William H. Crawford, was nominated by the +congressional caucus, which then acted for the last time in our history. + +Before election day this list was reduced to four: Calhoun had become +the candidate of all factions for the vice presidency. + +[Illustration: John Quincy Adams] + +%330. Adams elected by the House of Representatives.%--The +Constitution provides that no man is chosen President by the electors +who does not receive a majority of their votes. In 1824 Jackson received +ninety-nine; Adams, eighty-four; Crawford, forty-one; and Clay, +thirty-seven. There was, therefore, no election, and it became the duty +of the House of Representatives to make a choice. But according to the +Constitution only the three highest could come before the House. This +left out Clay, who was Speaker and who had great influence. His friends +would not vote for Jackson on any account, nor for Crawford, the +caucus candidate. Adams they liked, because he believed in internal +improvements at government expense and a protective tariff. Adams +accordingly was elected President. Calhoun had been elected Vice +President by the electoral college. + +[Illustration: The United States July 4, 1826] + +The election of John Quincy Adams was a matter of intense disappointment +to the friends of Jackson. In the heat of party passion and the +bitterness of their disappointment they declared that it was the result +of a bargain between Adams and Clay. Clay, they said, was to induce his +friends in the House of Representatives to vote for Adams, in return for +which Adams was to make Clay Secretary of State. No such bargain was +ever made. But when Adams did appoint Clay Secretary of State, Jackson +and his followers were fully convinced of the contrary[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chap. 10; Schurz's _Life of +Clay_, Vol. I., pp. 203-258] + +As a consequence, the legislature of Tennessee at once renominated +Jackson for the presidency, and he became the people's candidate and +drew about him not only the men who voted for him in 1824, but those +also who had voted for Crawford, who was paralyzed and no longer a +candidate. They called themselves "Jackson men," or Democratic +Republicans. + +Adams, it was known, would be nominated to succeed himself, and about +him gathered all who wanted a tariff for protection, roads and canals at +national expense, and a distribution among the states of the money +obtained from the sale of public lands. These were the "Adams men," or +National Republicans. + +%331. Antimasons.%--But there was a third party which arose in a very +curious way and soon became powerful. In 1826, at Batavia in New York, a +freemason named William Morgan announced his intention to publish a book +revealing the secrets of masonry; but about the time the book was to +come out Morgan disappeared and was never seen again. This led to the +belief that the masons had killed him, and stirred up great excitement +all over the twelve western counties of New York. The "antimasons" said +that a man who was a freemason considered his duty to his order superior +to his duty to his country; and a determined effort was made to prevent +the election of any freemason to office. + +[Illustration: Andrew Jackson ] + +At first the "antimasonic" movement was confined to western New York, +but the moment it took a political turn it spread across northern Ohio, +Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and +was led by some of the most distinguished men and aspiring politicians +of the time[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Stanwood's _Presidential Elections_, Chap. 18] + +%332. The Election of Jackson.%--When the presidential election +occurred in 1828, there were thus three parties,--the "Jackson men," the +"Administration," and the Antimasonic. But politics had very little to +do with the result. In the early days of the republic, the mass of men +were ignorant and uneducated, and willingly submitted to be led by men +of education and what was called breeding. From Washington down to John +Quincy Adams, the presidents were from the aristocratic class. They were +not men of the people. But in course of time a great change had come +over the mass of Americans. Their prosperity, their energy in developing +the country, had made them self-reliant, and impatient of all claims of +superiority. One man was now no better than another, and the cry arose +all over the country for a President who was "a man of the people." +Jackson was just such a man, and it was because he was "a man of the +people" that he was elected. Of 261 electoral votes he received 178, +and Adams 83. + +%333. The North and the South Two Different Peoples.%--Before +entering on Jackson's administration, it is necessary to call attention +to the effect produced on our country by the industrial revolution +discussed in Chaps. 19 and 22. In the first place, it produced two +distinct and utterly different peoples: the one in the North and the +other in the South. In the North, where there were no great +plantations, no great farms, and where the labor was free, the marvelous +inventions, discoveries, and improvements mentioned were eagerly seized +on and used. There cities grew up, manufactures nourished, canals were +dug, railroads were built, and industries of every sort established. +Some towns, as Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Cohoes, Paterson, +Newark, and Pittsburg, were almost entirely given up to mills and +factories. No such towns existed in the South. In the South men lived on +plantations, raised cotton, tobacco, and rice, owned slaves, built few +large towns, cared nothing for internal improvements, and established no +industries of any sort. + +This difference of occupation led of course to difference of interests +and opinions, so that on three matters--the extension of slavery, +internal improvements, and tariff for protection--the North and the +South were opposed to each other. In the West and the Middle States +these questions were all-important, and by a union of the two sections +under the leadership of Clay a new tariff was passed in 1824, and in the +course of the next four years $2,300,000 were voted for internal +improvements. + +The Virginia legislature (1825) protested against internal improvements +at government expense and against the tariff. But the North demanded +more, and in 1827 another tariff bill was prevented from passing only by +the casting vote of Vice President Calhoun. And now the two sections +joined issue. The South, in memorials, resolutions, and protests, +declared a tariff for protection to be unconstitutional, partial, and +oppressive. The wool growers and manufacturers of the North called a +national convention of protectionists to meet at Harrisburg, and when +Congress met, forced through the tariff of 1828. The South answered with +anti-tariff meetings, addresses, resolutions, with boycotts on the +tariff states, and with protests from the legislatures. Calhoun then +came forward as the leader of the movement and put forth an argument, +known as the South Carolina Exposition, in which he urged that a +convention should meet in South Carolina and decide in what manner the +tariff acts should "be declared null and void within the limits of +the state." + +%334. May a State nullify an Act of Congress?%--The right of a state +to nullify an act of Congress thus became the question of the hour, and +was again set forth yet more fully by Calhoun in 1831. That the South +was deeply in earnest was apparent, and in 1832 Congress changed the +tariff of 1828, and made it less objectionable. But it was against +tariff for protection, not against any particular tariff, that South +Carolina contended, and finding that the North would not give up its +principles, she put her threat into execution. The legislature called a +state convention, which declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were +null and void and without force in South Carolina, and forbade anybody +to pay the duties laid by these laws after February 1, 1833.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Houston's _A Critical Study of Nullification in South +Carolina_; Parton's _Jackson_, Vol. III., Chaps. 32-34; Schurz's _Life +of Clay_, Vol. II., Chap. 14; Von Holst's _Life of Calhoun_, Chap. 4; +Lodge's _Life of Webster_, Chaps. 6, 7; Rhodes's _History of the United +States_, Vol. I., pp. 40-50.] + +Jackson, who had just been reelected, was not terrified. He bade the +collector at Charleston go on and collect the revenue duties, and use +force if necessary, and he issued a long address to the Nullifiers. On +the one hand, he urged them to yield. On the other, he told them that +"the laws of the United States must be executed.... Those who told you +that you might peacefully prevent their execution deceived you.... Their +object is disunion, and disunion by armed force is treason." + +%335. Webster's Great Reply to Calhoun.%--Calhoun, who since 1825 had +been Vice President of the United States, now resigned, and was at once +made senator from South Carolina. When Congress met in December, 1832, +the great question before it was what to do with South Carolina. Jackson +wanted a "Force Act," that is, an act giving him power to collect the +tariff duties by force of arms. Hayne, who was now governor of South +Carolina, declared that if this was done, his state would leave +the Union. + +A great debate occurred on the Force Act, in which Calhoun, speaking for +the South, asserted the right of a state to nullify and secede from the +Union, while Webster, speaking for the North, denied the right of +nullification and secession, and upheld the Union and the +Constitution.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. I., pp. 196-212; +Webster's _Works_, Vol. III., pp. 248-355, 448-505; Rhodes's _History +of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 50-52.] + +%336. The Compromise of 1833%.--Meantime, Henry Clay, seeing how +determined each side was, and fearing civil war might follow, came +forward with a compromise. He proposed that the tariff of 1832 should be +reduced gradually till July, 1842, when on all articles imported there +should be a duty equal to twenty per cent of their value. This was +passed, and the Compromise Tariff, as it is called, became a law in +March, 1833. A new convention in South Carolina then repealed the +ordinance of nullification. + +%337. War on the Bank of the United States%.--While South Carolina +was thus fighting internal improvements and the tariff, the whole +Jackson party was fighting the Bank of the United States. You will +remember that this institution was chartered by Congress in 1816; and +its charter was to run till 1836. Among the rights given it was that of +having branches in as many cities in the country as it pleased, and, +exercising this right, it speedily established branches in the chief +cities of the South and West. The South and West were already full of +state banks, and, knowing that the business of these would be injured if +the branches of the United States Bank were allowed to come among them, +the people of that region resented the reestablishment of a national +bank. Jackson, as a Western man, shared in this hatred, and when he +became President was easily persuaded by his friends (who wished to +force the Bank to take sides in politics) to attack it. The charter had +still nearly eight years to run; nevertheless, in his first message to +Congress (December, 1829) he denounced the Bank as unconstitutional, +unnecessary, and as having failed to give the country a sound currency, +and suggested that it should not be rechartered. Congress paid little +attention to him. But he kept on, year after year, till, in 1832, the +friends of the Bank made his attack a political issue[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Roosevelt's _Life of Benton_, Chap. 6; Parton's _Life of +Jackson_, Vol. III., Chaps. 29-31; Tyler's _Memoir of Roger B. Taney_, +Vol. I., Chap. 3; Von Hoist's _Constitutional History_, Vol. II., pp. +31-52; Schurz's _Clay_, Vol. L, Chap. 13; _American History +Leaflets_, No. 24] + +%338. The First National Nominating Convention; the First Party +Platform.%--To do this was easy, because in 1832 it was well known +that Jackson would again be a candidate for the presidency. Now the +presidential contest of that year is remarkable for two reasons: + +1. Because each of the three parties held a national convention for the +nomination of candidates. + +2. Because a party platform was then used for the first time. + +The originators of the national convention were the Antimasons. State +conventions of delegates to nominate state officers, such as governors +and congressmen and presidential electors, had long been in use. But +never, till September, 1831, had there been a convention of delegates +from all parts of the country for the purpose of nominating the +President and Vice President. In that year Antimasonic delegates from +twenty-two states met at Baltimore and nominated William Wirt and +Amos Ellmaker. + +The example thus set was quickly followed, for in December, 1831, a +convention of National Republicans nominated Henry Clay. In May, 1832, a +national convention of Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren for Vice +President[1]; and in that same month, a "national assembly of young +men," or, as the Democrats called it, "Clay's Infant School," met at +Washington and framed the first party platform. They were friends of +Clay, and in their platform they demanded protection to American +industries, and internal improvements at government expense, and +denounced Jackson for his many removals from office. They next issued an +address to the people, in which they declared that if Jackson were +reelected, the Bank would "be abolished." [2] + +[Footnote 1: It was not necessary to nominate Jackson. That he should be +re-elected was the wish of the great body of voters. The convention, +therefore, merely nominated a Vice President] + +[Footnote 2: For party platform see McKee's _National Platforms of all +Parties._] + +%339. Jackson destroys the Bank.%--The friends of the Bank meantime +appealed to Congress for a new charter and found little difficulty in +getting it. But when the bill went to Jackson for his signature, he +vetoed it, and, as its friends had not enough votes to pass the bill +over the veto, the Bank was not rechartered. + +The only hope left was to defeat Jackson at the polls. But this too was +a failure, for he was reelected by greater majorities than he had +received in 1828.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Of the 288 electoral votes, Jackson received 219, and Clay +49. Wirt, the Antimason, secured 7.] + +%340. Jackson withdraws the Government Money from the Bank.%--This +signal triumph was understood by Jackson to mean that the people +approved of his treatment of the Bank. So he continued to hurt it all he +could, and in 1833 ordered his Secretary of the Treasury to remove the +money of the United States from the Bank and its branches. This the +Secretary[1] refused to do; whereupon Jackson removed him and put +another,[2] who would, in his place. After 1833, therefore, the +collectors of United States revenue ceased to deposit it in the Bank of +the United States, and put it in state banks ("pet banks") named by the +Secretary of the Treasury. The money already on deposit was gradually +drawn out, till none remained.[3] + +[Footnote 1: William J. Duane. ] + +[Footnote 2: Roger B. Taney. ] + +[Footnote 3: Parton's _Jackson,_ Vol. III., Chaps. 36-39; _American +History Leaflets,_ No. 24; Sumner's _Jackson_, Chaps. 13, 14; Von +Hoist's _Constitutional History,_ Vol. II., pp. 52-79; Roosevelt's +_Benton_, Chap. 6. ] + +For this act the Senate, when it met in December, 1833, passed a vote of +censure on Jackson and entered the censure on its journal. Jackson +protested, and asked to have his protest entered, but the Senate +refused. Whereupon Benton of Missouri declared that he would not rest +till the censure was removed or "expunged" from the journal. At first +this did not seem likely to occur. But Benton kept at it, and at last, +in 1837, the Senate having become Democratic, he succeeded[1]. + +[Footnote 1: When the resolution had passed, the Clerk of the Senate was +ordered to bring in the journal, draw a thick black line around the +censure, and write across it "Expunged by order of the Senate, January +16, 1837."] + +%341. Wildcat State Banks.%--As soon as the reelection of Jackson +made it certain that the charter of the Bank of the United States would +not be renewed, the same thing happened in 1833 that had occurred in +1811. The legislature of every state was beset with applications for +bank charters, and granted them. In 1832 there were but 288 state banks +in the country. In 1836 there were 583. Some were established in order +to get deposits of the government money. Others were started for the +purpose of issuing paper money with which the bank officials might +speculate. Others, of course, were founded with an honest purpose. But +they all issued paper money, which the people borrowed on very poor +security and used in speculation. + +%342. The Period of Speculation.%--Never before had the opportunity +for speculation been so great. The new way of doing business, the rise +of corporations and manufactures, drew people into the cities, which +grew in area and afforded a chance for investors to get rich by +purchasing city lots and holding them for a rise in price. Railroads and +canals were being projected all over the country. Another favorite way +of speculating, therefore, was to buy land along the lines of railroads +building or to be built. Suddenly cotton rose a few cents a pound, and +thousands of people began to speculate in slaves and cotton land. Others +bought land in the West from the government, at $1.25 an acre, and laid +it out into town lots,[1] which they sold for $10 and $20 apiece to +people in the East. In short, everybody who could was borrowing paper +money from the banks and speculating. + +[Footnote 1: Sometimes ten such lots would be laid out on an acre] + +Under these conditions, any cause which should force the banks to stop +loaning money, or to call in that already loaned, would bring on a +panic. And this is just what happened. + +%343. The Specie Circular.%--Speculation in government land was so +general that the annual sales rose from $2,300,000 in 1831, to +$24,900,000 in 1836.[2] Finding that these great purchases were paid for +not in gold and silver, but in state bank paper money, Jackson became +alarmed. Many of the banks were of doubtful soundness, and if they +failed, all their money which the government had taken for land would be +lost. In 1836, therefore, Jackson issued his "Specie Circular," which +commanded all officials authorized to sell government land to receive +payment in nothing but gold or silver or land scrip. A great demand for +specie and a removal of it from the banks in the East to those in the +West followed, which of course hurt the Eastern banks, because it took +away some of their money, and that kind of money which they were holding +for the purpose of redeeming their paper. + +[Footnote 2: Shepard's _Van Buren_, Chap. 8; Sumner's _Jackson_, pp. +322-325] + +Another thing which hurt the banks, by forcing them to stop loaning and +to call for a settlement of debts, was the distribution of the surplus +revenue among the states. + +%344. The Surplus Revenue.%--What caused this surplus revenue? Many +things. + +1. The United States had no debt. The national debt, you remember, was +created in 1790 by funding the foreign and Congress debt and assuming +those of the states, and amounted to $75,000,000. When Jefferson was +elected President in 1801, this debt had risen to $80,000,000; but +during his administration it fell to $57,000,000. The war with England +raised it to $127,000,000, after which it once more decreased year by +year till 1835, when every dollar was paid off, and the United States +was out of debt[1]. + +[Footnote 1: As bonds, etc., to the value of $35,000 were never +presented for payment, the United States appears to have always been in +debt. This $35,000 probably represents evidences of indebtedness lost by +the owners] + +2. The expenses of the government were not large. + +3. There was a heavy importation of foreign goods, which produced a +great revenue under the tariff act. + +4. The immense speculation in government lands already described +produced a large income to the government[1]. + +[Footnote 1: The land sales were $4,800,000 in 1834, $14,757,000 in +1835, and $24,877,000 in 1836] + +In consequence of these causes, the government on June 1, 1836, had in +the banks $41,500,000 more than it needed. + +What to do with this useless money sorely puzzled Congress. It could not +reduce the tariff, because that was gradually being reduced under the +compromise of 1833. Some wanted the money derived from the sale of land +distributed. But at last it was decided to take all the surplus the +government had on January 1, 1837, subtract $5,000,000 from it, and +divide the rest by the number of senators and representatives in +Congress, and give each state as many parts as it had senators and +representatives[1]. + +[Footnote 1: One state, New York, was to receive $4,000,000, three +states over $2,000,000, six over $1,000,000, and eight over $500,000] + +On January 1, 1837, the surplus was $42,468,000, which, after +subtracting the $5,000,000, left $37,468,000 to be distributed. It was +to be paid in four installments[1]; but only three of them were ever +paid, for, when October 1, 1837, came, the whole country was suffering +from a panic[2]. + +[Footnote 1: The days of payment were Jan. 1, April 1, July 1, and Oct. +1, 1837] + +[Footnote 2: Bourne's _History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837_] + +%345. The Panic of 1837.%--Now, when the banks in which the +government surplus was kept were suddenly called on to give it up in +order that it might be distributed among the states, (as they had +loaned this surplus) they were all forced to call it in. More than that, +they would make no new loans. This made credit hard to get. As a +consequence, mills and factories shut down, all buying and selling +stopped, and thousands of workmen were thrown out of employment. As +everybody wanted money, it followed that houses, lands, property of +every sort, was offered for sale at ridiculously low prices. But there +were no buyers. In New York the distress was so great that bread riots +occurred. The merchants, unable to pay their debts, began to fail, and +to make matters worse the banks all over the country suspended specie +payment; that is, refused to give gold and silver in exchange for their +paper bills. Then the panic set in, and for a while the people, the +states, and the government were bankrupt[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren_, Chap. 8.] + +%346. Election of Martin Van Buren; Eighth President.%--In accordance +with the well-established custom that no President shall have more than +two terms, Jackson [Illustration: Martin Van Buren] would not accept a +renomination in 1836. So the Democratic national convention nominated +Martin Van Buren and R.M. Johnson. The Whigs, as the National +Republicans called themselves after 1834, did not hold a national +nominating convention, but agreed to support William Henry Harrison. Van +Buren was elected, and inaugurated March. 4, 1837[1]. + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Chap. 7.] + +%347 The New National Debt; the Independent Treasury.%--But scarcely +had he taken the oath of office when the panic swept over the country, +and his whole term was one of financial distress or hard times. The +suspension of specie payment and the failures of many banks and +merchants left the government without money, and forced Van Buren to +call an extra session of Congress in September, 1837. Before adjourning, +Congress ordered the fourth or October installment of the distributed +revenue to be suspended. It has never been given to the states. +Congress also authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue +$10,000,000 in treasury notes, and so laid the foundation for the second +national debt, which one cause or another has continued ever since. + +The experience the government had thus twice passed through (1814 and +1837) led the people to believe it ought not to keep its money in state +banks. But just where the money should be kept was a disputed party +question. The Whigs insisted on a third National Bank like the old one +Jackson had destroyed. Van Buren wanted what was called an "Independent +Treasury," and after four attempts the act establishing it was passed +in 1840. + +The law created four "receivers general" (one each at Boston, New York, +Charleston, and St. Louis), to whom all money collected by the United +States officials should be turned over, and directed that "rooms, +vaults, and safes" should be provided for the safe keeping of +the money.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren,_ Chap. 9.] + +As might be expected, the people laid all the blame for the hard times +on Van Buren and his party. The Democrats, they said, had destroyed the +National Bank; they had then removed the United States money, and given +it to "pet" state banks; they had then distributed the surplus, and by +taking the surplus from the state banks had brought on the panic. +Whether this was true or not, the people believed it, and were +determined to "turn out little Van." + +The campaign of 1840 was the most novel, exciting, and memorable that +had yet taken place. Three parties had candidates in the field. The +Antislavery party put forward James Gillespie Birney and Thomas Earle. +The Democrats in their convention renominated Van Buren, but no Vice +President. The Whigs nominated W.H. Harrison, and John Tyler of +Virginia. The mention of the Antislavery party makes it necessary to +account for its origin. + +%348. The Antislavery Movement%.--The appearance of the Antislavery +or Liberty party marks the beginning in national affairs of an +antislavery movement which had long been going on in the states. When +the Missouri Compromise was made in 1820, many people believed that the +troublesome matter of slavery was settled. This was a mistake, and the +compromise really made matters worse. In the first place, it encouraged +the men in Illinois who favored slavery to attempt to make it a slave +state by amending the state constitution, an attempt which failed in +1824 after a long struggle. In the second place, it aroused certain men +who had been agitating for freeing the slaves to redoubled energy. Among +these were Benjamin Lundy, James Gillespie Birney, and William Lloyd +Garrison, who in 1831 established an abolition newspaper called the +_Liberator_, which became very famous. In the third place, it led to the +formation all over the North, and in many places in the South, of new +abolition societies, and stirred up the old ones and made them more +active.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _James G. Birney and his Times_, Chap. 12.] + +For a time these societies carried on their work, each independent of +the others. But in 1833, a convention of delegates from them met at +Philadelphia, and formed a national society called the American +Antislavery Society.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Its constitution declared (1) that each state has exclusive +right to regulate slavery within it; (2) that the society will endeavor +to persuade Congress to stop the interstate slave trade, to abolish +slavery in the territories and in the District of Columbia, and to admit +no more slave states into the Union.] + +%349. Antislavery Documents shut out of the Mails.%--Thus organized, +the society went to work at once and flooded the South with newspapers, +pamphlets, pictures, and handbills, all intended to arouse a sentiment +for instant abolition or emancipation of slaves. The South declared that +these were inflammatory, insurrectionary, and likely to incite the +slaves to revolt, and called on the North to suppress abolition +societies and stop the spread of abolition papers. To do such a thing by +legal means was impossible; so an attempt was made to do it by illegal +means. In the Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Utica, Boston, +Haverhill, mobs broke up meetings of abolitionists, and dragged the +leaders about the streets. In the South, the postmasters, as at +Charleston, seized antislavery tracts and pamphlets going through the +mails, and the people burned them. In New York city such matter was +taken from the mails and destroyed by the postmaster. When these +outrages were reported to Amos Kendall, the Postmaster-General, he +approved of them; and when Congress met, Jackson asked for a law that +would prohibit the circulation "in the Southern States, through the +mails, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to +insurrection." From the legislatures of five Southern states came +resolutions calling on the people of the North to suppress the +abolitionists.[1] Congress and the legislatures of New York and Rhode +Island responded; but the bills introduced did not pass.[2] + +[Footnote 1: South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and +Georgia.] + +[Footnote 2: _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 184-194.] + +This attempt having failed, the mobs again took up the work, and began +to smash and destroy the presses of antislavery newspapers. One paper, +twice treated in this manner in 1836, was the _Philanthropist_ published +at Cincinnati by James Gillespie Birney. Another was the _Observer_, +published at Alton by Elijah Lovejoy, who was murdered in defending his +property.[1] The _Pennsylvania Freeman_ was a third. + +[Footnote 1: Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Vol. +II., Chap. 27; _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 204-219, 241-255.] + +%350. The Gag Rule%.--Not content with attacking the liberty of the +press, the proslavery men attacked the right of petition. The +Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... +the right of the people ... to petition the government for a redress of +grievances." Under this right the antislavery people had long been +petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and +the petitions had been received; but of course not granted. Now, in +1836, when John Quincy Adams presented one to the House of +Representatives, a member moved that it be not received. A fierce debate +followed, and out of it grew a rule which forbade any petition, +resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery, or the abolition of +slavery, to be received. This famous "Gag Rule" was adopted by Congress +after Congress until 1844.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Morse's _Life of John Quincy Adams, _pp. 249-253, 306-308.] + +%351. The Liberty Party formed%.--The effect of these extreme +measures was greatly to increase the antislavery sentiment. But the men +who held these sentiments were largely members of the Whig and +Democratic parties. In the hope of drawing them from their parties, and +inducing them to act together, the antislavery conventions about 1838 +began to urge the formation of an antislavery party, which was finally +accomplished at Albany, N.Y., in April, 1840, where James G. Birney was +nominated for President, and Thomas Earle for Vice President. No name +was given to the new organization till 1844, when it was christened +"Liberty party." + +%352. The Log Cabin, Hard Cider Campaign%.--The candidate of the +Democrats (Martin Van Buren) was a shrewd and skillful politician. The +candidate of the Whigs (Harrison) was the ideal of a popular favorite. +To defeat him at such a time, when the people were angry with the +Democrats, would have been hard, but they made it harder still by +ridiculing his honorable poverty and his Western surroundings. At the +very outset of the campaign a Democratic newspaper declared that +Harrison would be more at home "in a log cabin, drinking hard cider and +skinning coons, than living in the White House as President." The Whigs +instantly took up the sneer and made the log cabin the emblem of their +party. All over the country log cabins (erected at some crossroads, or +on the village common, or on some vacant city lot) became the Whig +headquarters. On the door was a coon skin; a leather latch string was +always hanging out as a sign of hospitality, and beside the door stood a +barrel of hard cider. Every Whig wore a Harrison and Tyler badge, and +knew by heart all the songs in the _Log Cabin Songster_. Immense mass +meetings were held, at which 50,000, and even 80,000, people attended. +Weeks were spent in getting ready for them. In the West, where +railroads were few, the people came in covered wagons with provisions, +and camped on the ground days before the meeting. At the monster meeting +at Dayton, O., 100,000 people were present, covering ten acres of +ground.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren_, pp. 323-335.] + +[Illustration: William H. Harrison] + +%353. William Henry Harrison, Ninth President; John Tyler, Tenth +President%.--Harrison was triumphantly elected, and inaugurated March +4, 1841. But his career was short, for on April 4 he died,[2] and John +Tyler took his place. Tyler had never been a Whig. He had always been a +Democrat. Nevertheless, the Whigs, confident of his aid, tried to carry +out certain reform measures. + +[Footnote 2: His death was a great shock to the people. Two vice +presidents, George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry, had died in office. But +nobody seems to have thought it likely that a president would die.] + +[Illustration: John Tyler] + +%354. The Quarrel between Tyler and the Whigs%.--The first thing they +did was to repeal the law establishing the Independent Treasury. This +Tyler approved. They next attempted to reestablish the Bank of the +United States under the name of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States." +Tyler, who was opposed to banks, vetoed the bill, and when the Whigs +sent him another to create a "Fiscal Corporation," he vetoed that also. +Then every member of the cabinet save Webster resigned, and at a meeting +of the great Whig leaders Tyler was formally "read out of the party." + +%355. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty%.--Webster was Secretary of State, +and though a Whig, retained his place in order that he might complete a +treaty which determined our boundary line from the source of the St. +Croix to the St. Lawrence, thus settling a long dispute between Maine +and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Canada. The difficulty +arose over the meaning of terms in the treaty of 1783, and though twice +submitted to a joint commission, and once to arbitration, seemed further +than ever from a peaceful settlement when Webster and Lord Ashburton +arranged it in 1842. The treaty ratified, Webster soon resigned. + +[Illustration:] + +The people meanwhile had recovered from the excitement of the campaign +of 1840, and at the congressional election of 1842 they made the House +of Representatives Democratic. There were thus a Whig Senate, a +Democratic House, and a President who was neither a Whig nor a Democrat. +As a consequence few measures of any importance were passed till 1845. + + +SUMMARY + +1. During 1789-1825 a marked change had taken place in the ideas of +government, and this led to new state constitutions; to an extension of +the right to vote; to the belief that no President should have more than +two terms; to the belief that political offices should be given to +political workers; and to the introduction of the "gerrymander." + +2. The disappearance of issues which divided the Federalists and +Republicans; the loss of old leaders; the appearance of a new generation +with new political issues, destroyed old party lines. + +3. First to disappear were the Federalists. In 1820 there was but one +presidential candidate (Monroe), and but one political party (the +Republican). + +4. During Monroe's second term the new issues began to break up the +Republican party, and in the election of 1824 the people of the four +great sections of the country presented candidates. For the second time +a President (John Quincy Adams) was elected by the House of +Representatives. + +5. In 1828 the Republicans again supported Jackson, and his opponents +under Adams were defeated. In 1827 the antimasonic party arose. + +6. The issues now before the people were the tariff, the recharter of +the National Bank, and the use of the surplus revenue, and these became +the leading questions of Jackson's eight years (1829-1837). + +7. The general use of the steamboat, and the good roads, so reduced the +cost of transportation that it was possible to introduce a new piece of +political machinery--the national convention--to nominate candidates for +President and Vice President. + +8. In Jackson's second term the antislavery movement began in earnest; +the Whig party was organized and named; the national debt was paid off, +and the surplus distributed. + +9. Jackson was followed by Van Buren, in whose administration the great +panic of 1837 occurred. Because of this and hard times a second national +debt was started. A new financial measure was the establishment of the +Independent Treasury. + +10. This the Whigs under Tyler destroyed. They attempted to replace it +with a third National Bank, but were prevented from doing so by +Tyler's vetoes. + + * * * * * + +THE INDUSTRIAL, MECHANICAL, AGRICULTURAL, AND SOCIAL PROGRESS +OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1800 AND 1840 LEADS TO + +_New political ideas_ + + Gerrymandering. + Extension of the franchise. + No third term for a President. + No nomination by congressional caucus. + +_New political issues_. + + Use of public lands. + Tariff. + Internal improvements. + + * * * * * + +These issues and ideas break up the Republican +party into factions led in 1824 by + +Crawford and Gallatin, Caucus candidates. + +Anti-caucus candidates. + + Clay, + Calhoun, + Adams, + Jackson + +Elected + + Adams by House of Representatives. + Calhoun by electoral college. + +Renominated in 1828. + + Adams defeated. + Jackson and Calhoun elected. + + ________________________________|____________________ + | | 18|32 + | | ______________|_________________________________ +Tariff. | | | | +Of 1824, opposed | Clay defeated. Jackson reelected. 1827, Rise of Antimasons. + by the South. Finance Van Buren Vice President 1831, Originate national +Of 1828, \ ________________ | nominating convention. +Of 1832, / Nullified | | ________________|___________________________________ + by South Attack on the | | | | | + Carolina Bank of the Removal of the Surplus. Specie | Speculation + in 1832. United States. deposits. Cause of Circular | + |___________| Renewal of Censure of the amount. | +--------+ + | charter vetoed. President. "Deposit" or | Payments of the + Compromise Censure distribution | national dept, + of 1833. | expunged. among the | 1835. + |_____________________| states. | + | |____________| | + Great increase of | | + state banks. | | + |______________________________|__________|_________| + + Van Buren elected in 1836. + Inaugurated, March, 1837. + Panic of 1837. + _______________________________|__________________ + | | + Causes of the panic. Great opposition to the Democratic party. + Suspension of the banks. Union of this opposition in 1840 with the Whigs. + New national debt. ___________________|______________________________ + Suspension of distribution of | | | + the revenue. Democrats. Whigs. Antislavery + Establishment of Independent Issue their first Issue no platform. party. + Treasury. party platform. Nominate Harrison. Origin of. + Nominate Van Buren. Elect him. Nominates J. + Are defeated. G. Birney. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA + +%356. Texas secures Independence.%--The fact that Tyler now belonged +to no party enabled him to commit an act which, had he belonged to +either, he would not have ventured to commit at that time,--to make a +treaty of annexation with Texas. + +[Illustration: %TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS% WHEN ADMITTED INTO THE +UNION %1845%] + +In 1821 Mexico, which for years past had been fighting for independence, +was set free by Spain, and soon established herself as a republic under +the name of the United States of Mexico. The old Spanish provinces were +the states, and one of these provinces was Texas. As a country Texas had +been very attractive to Americans, and the eastern part would have been +settled early in the century if it had been definitely known who owned +it. Now that Mexico owned it, a citizen of the United States, Moses +Austin, asked for a large grant of land and for leave to bring in +settlers. A grant was made on condition that he should bring in 300 +families within a given time. Moses Austin died; but his son Stephen +went on with the scheme and succeeded so well that others followed his +example till seventeen such grants had been perfected. + +For some years the settlers managed their own affairs in their own way. +But about 1830 Mexico began to rule them harshly, and when they were +unable to stand it any longer they rebelled against her in 1833, and in +1836 set up the republic of Texas. At first the Texans were defeated, +and on two memorable occasions bands of them were massacred by the +Mexican soldiers after they had surrendered. Money and troops and aid of +every sort, however, were sent from the United States, and at length +Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, who commanded the Mexicans, was +defeated and captured and his army destroyed by the Texans under Samuel +Houston at the battle of San Jacinto (1836). The victory was hailed with +delight all over our country, and the independence of Texas was +acknowledged by the United States (1837), England, France, and Belgium. + +%357. Texas applies for Admission to the Union.%--As soon as +independence was acknowledged, the people of Texas became very anxious +to have their republic become a state in our Union; but slavery existed +in Texas, and the men of the free states opposed her admission. + +At last in 1844 Tyler secretly negotiated a treaty of annexation with +the Texan authorities, and surprised the Senate by submitting it +in April.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Senate rejected the treaty] + +The politicians were very indignant, for the national nominating +conventions were to meet in May, and the President by his act had made +the annexation of Texas a political issue. The Democrats, however, took +it up and in their platform declared for "the reannexation of Texas," +and nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee for President and George +Mifflin Dallas of Pennsylvania for Vice President. + +%358. The Joint Occupation of Oregon is continued.%--But there was +another plank in the Democratic platform of 1844 which promised the +acquisition of a great piece of free soil. We left the question of the +ownership of Oregon at the time when the United States and Great Britain +(in 1818) agreed to hold the country in joint occupation for ten years; +and when Russia, the United States, and Great Britain had (in 1824 and +1825) made 54 deg. 40' the boundary line between the Oregon country and +Alaska. Before the ten-year period of joint occupation expired, Great +Britain and the United States, in 1827, agreed to continue it +indefinitely. Either party could end the agreement after a year's notice +to the other. + +%359. Attempts to end Joint Occupation.%--Before this time the men +who came to the Oregon country were explorers, trappers, hunters, +servants of the great fur companies, who built forts and trading +stations, but did little for the settlement of the region. After this +time missionaries were sent to the Indians, and serious efforts were +made to persuade men to emigrate to Oregon. Some parties did go, and as +a result of their work, and of the labors of the missionaries, Oregon, +in the course of ten years, became better known to the people of the +United States. + +Efforts were then begun to persuade Congress to extend the jurisdiction +of the United States over Oregon, order the occupation of the country, +and end the old agreement with Great Britain. Petitions were sent +(1838-1840), reports were made, bills were introduced; but Congress +stood firmly by the agreement, and would not take any steps toward the +occupation of Oregon. In 1842, Elijah White, a former missionary, came +to Washington and so impressed the authorities with the importance of +settling Oregon that he was appointed Indian Agent for that country, and +told to take back with him as many settlers as he could. Returning to +Missouri, he soon gathered a band of 112 persons and with these, the +largest number of settlers that had yet started for Oregon, he set off +across the plains in the spring of 1842. At the next session of Congress +(1842-1843) another effort was made to provide for the occupation of +Oregon at least as far north as 49 deg., and a bill for that purpose passed +the Senate. + +Meanwhile a rage for emigration to Oregon broke out in the West, and in +the early summer of 1843, nearly a thousand persons, with a long train +of wagons, moved out of Westport, Missouri, and started northwestward +over the plains. Like the emigrants of 1842, they succeeded in reaching +Oregon, though they encountered many hardships. + +%360. "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight."%--So much attention was thus +attracted to Oregon, in 1843, that the people by 1844 began to demand a +settlement of the boundary and an end of joint occupation. The Democrats +therefore gladly took up the Oregon matter. Their plan to reannex Texas, +which was slave soil, could, they thought, be offset by a declaration in +favor of acquiring all Oregon, which was free soil. The Democratic +platform for 1844, therefore, declared that "our title to the whole of +Oregon is clear; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to +England or any other power; and that the reoccupation of Oregon and the +reannexation of Texas" were great American measures, which the people +were urged to support. The people thought they were great American +measures, and with the popular cries of "The reannexation of Texas," +"Texas or disunion," "The whole of Oregon or none," "Fifty-four forty or +fight," the Democrats entered the campaign and won it, electing James K. +Polk and George M. Dallas. + +The Whigs were afraid to declare for or against the annexation, so they +said nothing about it in their platform, and nominated Henry Clay of +Kentucky and Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The real question of +the campaign was of course the annexation of Texas, and though the +platform was silent on that subject their leader spoke out. In a public +letter which appeared in a newspaper and was copied all over the Union, +Clay said that he believed slavery was doomed to end at no far away day; +that the admission of Texas could neither hasten nor put off the arrival +of that day, and that he "should be glad to see" Texas annexed if it +could be done "without dishonor, without war, and with the common +consent of the Union and upon just and fair terms." + +[Illustration: James K. Polk] + +Language of this sort did not please the antislavery Whigs; and in New +York numbers of them voted for James G. Birney and Thomas Morris, +candidates of the Liberty party. The result was that the vote for Birney +in New York in 1844 was more than twice as great as he received in the +whole Union in 1840. Had half of these New Yorkers voted for Clay +instead, he would have received the electoral vote of New York and would +have been President. + +[Illustration: %THE OREGON COUNTRY%] + +%361. Texas annexed to the United States.%--Tyler, who saw in the +result of the election a command from the people to acquire Texas, urged +Congress in December, 1844, to annex it at once. But in what manner +should it be acquired? Some said by a treaty. This would require the +consent of two thirds of the Senate. But the Democrats did not have the +votes of two thirds of the Senate and so could not have secured the +ratification of such a treaty. It was decided, therefore, to annex by +joint resolution, which required but a majority for its passage. The +House of Representatives accordingly passed such a resolution for the +admission of Texas, and with her consent for the formation of four +additional states out of the territory, those north of 36 deg. 30' to be +free. The Senate amended this resolution and gave the President power to +negotiate another treaty of annexation, or submit the joint resolution +to Texas. The House accepted the amendment. Tyler chose to offer the +terms in the joint resolution. Texas accepted them, and in December, +1845, her senators and representatives took their seats in Congress. + +%362. Oregon.%--By the admission of Texas, the Democrats made good +one of the pledges in their platform of 1844. They were now called on to +make good the other, which promised the whole of Oregon up to 54 deg. 40'. +To suppose that England would yield to this claim, and so cut herself +off entirely from the Pacific coast, was absurd. Nevertheless, because +of the force of popular opinion, the one year's notice necessary to +terminate joint occupation was served on Great Britain in 1846. The +English minister thereupon presented a treaty extending the 49th +parallel across Oregon from the Rocky Mountains to the coast, and +drawing a line down the strait of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific. Polk and +the Senate accepted this boundary, and the treaty was proclaimed on +August 5, 1846. Two years later, August 14, 1848, Oregon was made a +territory. + +%363. General Taylor enters Texas; War with Mexico begins.%--When +Texas came into the Union, she claimed as her western boundary the Rio +Grande from its mouth to its source and then a line due north to 42 deg.. +Now this line was disputed by Mexico, which claimed that the Nueces +River was the western boundary of Texas. The disputed strip of territory +was thus between the Nueces and the Rio Grande (p. 321). + +President Polk, however, took the side of Texas, claimed the country as +far as the Rio Grande, and in January, 1846, ordered General Zachary +Taylor to march our army across the Nueces, go to the Rio Grande, and +occupy the disputed strip. This he did, and on April 25, 1846, the +Mexicans crossed the river and attacked the Americans. Taylor instantly +sent the news to Washington, and, May 12, Polk asked for a declaration +of war. "Mexico," said he, "has passed the boundary of the United +States; has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American +soil." Congress declared that war existed, and Polk called for 50,000 +volunteers (May 13, 1846). + +When the Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande and attacked the Americans at +Fort Brown, Taylor was at Point Isabel. Hurrying southward to the relief +of the fort, he met the enemy at Palo Alto, beat them, pushed on to +Resaca de la Palma, beat them again, and soon crossed the river and took +possession of the town of Matamoras. There he remained till August, +1846, waiting for supplies, reinforcements, and means of transportation, +when he began a march toward the city of Monterey. The Mexicans, +profiting by Taylor's long stay at Matamoras, had gathered in great +force at Monterey, and had strongly fortified every position. But Taylor +attacked with vigor, and after three days of continuous fighting, part +of the time from street to street and house to house, the Mexican +General Ampudia surrendered the city (September 24, 1846). An armistice +of six weeks' duration was then agreed on, after which Taylor moved on +leisurely to Saltillo (sahl-teel'-yo). + +%364. Scott in Mexico.%--Meantime, General Winfield Scott was sent to +Mexico to assume chief command. He reached the mouth of the Bio Grande +in January, 1847, and called on Taylor to send him 10,000 men. Santa +Anna (sahn'-tah ahn'-nah), who commanded the Mexicans, hearing of this +order, marched at once against Taylor, who took up a strong position at +Buena Vista (bwa'-nah vees'-tah), where a desperate battle was fought +February 23, 1847. The Americans won, and Santa Anna hurried off to +attack Scott, who was expected at Vera Cruz. Scott landed there in +March, and, after a siege of a few days, took the castle and city, and +ten days later began his march westward along the national highway +towards the ancient capital of the Aztecs. It was just 328 years since +Cortez with his little band started from the same point on a precisely +similar errand. At every step of the way the ranks of Scott grew thinner +and thinner. Hundreds perished in battle. Hundreds died by the wayside +of disease more terrible than battle. But Scott would not turn back, and +victory succeeded victory with marvelous rapidity. April 8 he left Vera +Cruz. April 18 he stormed the heights of Cerro Gordo. April 19 he was at +Jalapa (hah-lah'-pah). On the 22d Perote (pa-ro'-ta) fell. May 15 the +city of Puebla (pweb'-lah) was his. There Scott staid till August 7, +when he again pushed westward, and on the 10th saw the city of Mexico. +Then followed in rapid succession the victories of Contreras +(con-tra'-rahs), Churubusco (choo-roo-boos'-ko), Molino del Rey +(mo-lee'-no del ra), the storming of Chapultepec (chah-pool-ta-pek'), +and the triumphal entry into Mexico, September 14, 1847. Never before in +the history of the world had there been made such a march. + +[Illustration: %CAMPAIGN OF GEN. SCOTT%] + +%365. The "Wilmot Proviso."%--In 1846 the Mexican War was very +hateful to many Northern people, and as a new House of Representatives +was to be elected in the autumn of that year, Polk thought it wise to +end the war if possible, and in August asked for $2,000,000 "for the +settlement of the boundary question with Mexico." This, of course, meant +the purchase of territory from her. But Mexico had abolished slavery in +1827, and lest any territory bought from her should be made slave soil, +David Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved that the money should be granted, +_provided_ all territory bought with it should be free soil. The proviso +passed the House, but not the Senate. Next year (1847) a bill to give +Polk $3,000,000 with which to settle the boundary dispute was +introduced, and again the proviso was attached. But the Senate rejected +it, and the House then gave way, and passed the bill without +the proviso. + +%366. Conquest of New Mexico and California.%--While Taylor was +winning victories in northeastern Mexico, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny was +ordered to march into New Mexico. Leaving Fort Leavenworth in June, +1846, he went by the Upper Arkansas River to Bents Fort, thence +southwest through what is now Colorado, and by the old Santa Fe trail to +the Rio Grande valley and Santa Fe (p. 330). After taking the city +without opposition, he declared the whole of New Mexico to be the +property of the United States, and then started to seize California. On +arriving there, he found the conquest completed by the combined forces +of Stockton and Fremont. + +%367. The Great American Desert.%--But how came Fremont to be in +California in 1846? + +If you look at any school geography published between 1820 and 1850 you +will find that a large part of what is now Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, +Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas is put down as "THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT." +Many believed it was not unlike the Desert of Sahara, and that nobody +would ever want to cross it, while there was so much fertile land to the +eastward. This view made people very indifferent as to our claims to +Oregon, so that when Thomas H. Benton, one of the senators from +Missouri, and one of the far-sighted statesmen of the day, wanted +Congress to seize and hold Oregon by force of arms, he was told that it +was not worth the cost. "Oregon," said one senator, "will never be a +state in the Union." "Build a railroad to Oregon?" said another. "Why, +all the wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient for such a work." + +[Illustration: ROUTES OF THE %EARLY EXPLORERS% of the West] + +%368. The Santa Fe and Oregon Trails.%--Some explorations you +remember had been made. Lewis and Clark went across the Northwest to the +mouth of the Columbia in 1804-1805, and Zebulon M. Pike had penetrated +in 1806 to the wild mountainous region about the head waters of the +Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande and had probably seen the great +mountain that now bears his name. Major Long followed Pike in 1820, gave +his name to Longs Peak, and brought back such a dismal account of the +West that he was largely responsible for the belief in a desert. The +great plains from the sources of the Sabine, Brazos, and Colorado rivers +to the northern boundary Were, he said, "peculiarly adapted as a range +for buffaloes, wild Goats, and other wild game," and "might serve as a +barrier to prevent too great an expansion of our population westward;" +but nobody would think of cultivating the plains. For years after that +the American Fur Trading Company of St. Louis had annually sent forth +its caravans into Oregon and New Mexico. Because the way was beset by +hostile Indians, these caravans were protected by large and strongly +armed bands, and in time wore out well-beaten tracks across the prairies +and over the mountain passes, which came to be known on the frontier as +the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. In 1832 Captain Bonneville[1] took a +wagon train over the Rocky Mountain divide into the Green River Valley, +and Nathaniel J. Wyeth led a party from New England to the Oregon +country, and in 1834 established Fort Hall in what is now Idaho. Still +later in the thirties went Marcus Whitman and his party. + +[Footnote 1: Bead his adventures as told by Washington Irving.] + +%369. %Explorations of Fremont.%--By this time it was clear that the +tide of westward emigration would soon set in strongly towards Oregon. +Then at last Benton succeeded in persuading Congress to order an +exploration of the far West, and in 1842 Lieutenant Fremont was sent to +see if the South Pass of the rocky Mountains, the usual crossing place, +would best accommodate the coming emigration. He set out from Kansas +City (then a frontier hamlet, now a prosperous city) with Kit Carson, a +famous hunter, for guide, and following the wagon trails of those who +had gone before him, made his way to the pass. He found its ascent so +gradual that his party hardly knew when they reached the summit. Passing +through it to the valley beyond, he climbed the great peak which now +bears his name and stands 13,570 feet above the sea. + +Though Fremont discovered no new route, he did much to dispel the +popular idea created by Long that the plains were barren, and the +American Desert began to shrink. In 1843 Fremont was sent out again. +Making his way westward through the South Pass, where his work ended in +1842, he turned southward to visit Great Salt Lake, and then pushed on +to Walla Walla on the Columbia River (see map on p. 330). Thence he went +on to the Dalles, and then by boat to Fort Vancouver, and then, after +returning to the Dalles, southward to Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento +valley, and so back to the States in 1844. + +In 1845 Fremont, who had now won the name of "Pathfinder," was sent out +a third time, and crossing what are now Nebraska and Utah, reached the +vicinity of Monterey in California. The Mexican authorities ordered him +out of the country. But he spent the winter in the mountains, and in the +spring was on his way to Oregon, when a messenger from Washington +overtook him, and he returned to Sutter's Fort. + +%370. The Bear State Republic.%--This was in June, 1846. Rumors of +war between Mexico and the United States were then flying thick and +fast, and the American settlers in California, fearing they would be +attacked, revolted, and raising a flag on which an image of a grizzly +bear was colored in red paint, proclaimed California an independent +republic. These Bear State republicans were protected and aided by +Fremont and Commodore Stockton, who was on the California coast with a +fleet, and together they held California till Kearny arrived. + +[Illustration: %TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO 1818 and 1853%] + +%371. Terms of Peace.%--Thus when the time came to make peace, our +armies were in military possession of vast stretches of Mexican +territory which Polk refused to give up. Mexico, of course, was forced +to yield, and in February, 1848, at a little place near the city of +Mexico, called Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty was signed by which Mexico +gave up the land and received in return $15,000,000. The United States +was also to pay claims our citizens had against Mexico to the amount of +$3,500,000. This added 522,568 square miles to the public domain.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This new territory included not only the present California +and New Mexico, but also Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and parts of Colorado +and Wyoming.] + +%372. The Gadsden Purchase.%--When the attempt was made to run the +boundary line from the Rio Grande to the Gila River, so many +difficulties occurred that in 1853 a new treaty was made with Mexico, +and the present boundary established from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of +California. The line then agreed on was far south of the Gila River, and +for this new tract of land, 45,535 square miles, the United States paid +Mexico $10,000,000. It is generally called the Gadsden Purchase, after +James Gadsden, who negotiated it. + +Much of this territory acquired in 1848, especially New Mexico and +California, had long been settled by the Spaniards. But the acquisition +of it by the United States at once put an end to the old Mexican +government, and made it necessary for Congress to provide new +governments. There must be American governors, American courts, American +judges, customhouses, revenue laws; in a word, there must be a complete +change from the Mexican way of governing to the American way. To do this +ought not to have been a hard thing; but Mexico had abolished slavery in +all this territory in 1827. It was free soil, and such the +anti-extension-of-slavery people of the North insisted on keeping it. +The proslavery people of the South, on the other hand, insisted that it +should be open to slavery, and that any slaveholder should be allowed to +emigrate to the new territory with his slaves and not have them set +free. The political question of the time thus became, Shall, or shall +not, slavery exist in New Mexico and California? + +%373. The Free-soil Party.%--As a President to succeed Polk was to be +elected in 1848, the two great parties did their best to keep the +troublesome question of slavery out of politics. When the Whig +convention met, it positively refused to make a platform, and nominated +General Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, and Millard Fillmore of New York, +without a statement of party principles. + +When the Democratic convention met, it made a long platform, but said +nothing about slavery in the territories, and nominated Lewis Cass of +Michigan and William O. Butler. + +This refusal of the two parties to take a stand on the question of the +hour so displeased many Whigs and Wilmot-Proviso Democrats that they +held a convention at Buffalo, where the old Liberty party joined them, +and together they formed the "Free-soil party." They nominated Martin +Van Buren and Charles F. Adams, and in their platform made four +important declarations: + +1. That Congress has no more power to make a slave, than to make a king. + +2. That there must be "free soil for a free people." + +3. "No more slave states, no more slave territories." + +4. That we will inscribe on our banners "Free soil, free speech, free +labor, and free men." + +They also asked for cheaper postage, and for free grants of land to +actual settlers. + +The Whigs won the election. + +%374. Zachary Taylor, Twelfth President.%--Taylor and Fillmore were +inaugurated on March 5,1849, because the 4th came on Sunday. Their +election and the triumph of the Whigs now brought on a crisis in the +question of slavery extension. + +[Illustration: %Zachary Taylor%] + +%375. State of Feeling in the South.%--Southern men, both Whigs and +Democrats, were convinced that an attempt would be made by Northern and +Western men opposed to the extension of slavery to keep the new +territory free soil. Efforts were at once made to prevent this. At a +meeting of Southern members of Congress, an address written by Calhoun +was adopted and signed, and published all over the country. It + +1. Complained of the difficulty of capturing slaves when they escaped to +the free states. + +2. Complained of the constant agitation of the slavery question by the +abolitionists. + +3. And demanded that the territories should be open to slavery. + +A little later, in 1849, the legislature of Virginia adopted resolutions +setting forth: + +1. That "the attempt to enforce the Wilmot Proviso" would rouse the +people of Virginia to "determined resistance at all hazards and to the +last extremity." + +2. That the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia +would be a direct attack on the institutions of the Southern States. + +The Missouri legislature protested against the principle of the Wilmot +Proviso, and instructed her senators and representatives to vote with +the slaveholding states. The Tennessee Democratic State Central +Committee, in an address, declared that the encroachments of their +Northern brethren had reached a point where forbearance ceased to be a +virtue. At a dinner to Senator Butler, in South Carolina, one of the +toasts was "A Southern Confederacy." + +%376. State of Feeling in the North.%--Feeling in the free states ran +quite as high. + +1. The legislatures of every one of them, except Iowa,[1] resolved that +Congress had power and was in duty bound to prohibit slavery in the +territories. + +[Footnote 1: Iowa had been admitted December 28, 1846.] + +2. Many of them bade their congressmen do everything possible to abolish +slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. + +The struggle thus coming to an issue in the summer of 1849 was +precipitated by a most unlooked-for discovery in California, which led +the people of that region to take matters into their own hands. + +%377. Discovery of Gold in California.%--One day in the month of +January, 1848, while a man named Marshall was constructing a mill race +in the valley of the American River in California, for a Swiss immigrant +named Sutter, he saw particles of some yellow substance shining in the +mud. Picking up a few, he examined them, and thinking they might be +gold, he gathered some more and set off for Sutter's Fort, where the +city of Sacramento now stands. + +[Illustration: %Sutter's mill%] + +As soon as he had reached the fort and found Mr. Sutter, the two locked +themselves in a room and examined the yellow flakes Marshall had +brought. They were gold! But to keep the secret was impossible. A Mormon +laborer, watching their excited actions at the mill race, discerned the +secret, and then the news spread fast, and the whole population went +wild. Every kind of business stopped. The stores were shut. Sailors left +the ships. Soldiers defiantly left their barracks, and by the middle of +the summer men came rushing to the gold fields from every part of the +Pacific coast. Later in the year reports reached the East, but so slowly +did news travel in those days that it was not till Polk in his annual +message confirmed it, that people really believed there were gold fields +in California. Then the rush from the East began. Some went overland, +some crossed by the Isthmus of Panama, some went around South America, +filling California with a population of strong, adventurous, and daring +men. These were the "forty-niners." + +[Illustration: %San Francisco in 1847%] + +%378. The Californians make a Free-State Constitution.%--When Taylor +heard that gold hunters were hurrying to California from all parts of +the world, he was very anxious to have some permanent government in +California; and encouraged by him the pioneers, the "forty-niners," made +a free-state constitution in 1849 and applied for admission into +the Union.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For an account of this movement to make California a state, +see Rhodes's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 111-116.] + +%379. Clay proposes a Compromise.%--When Congress met in 1849 there +were therefore a great many things connected with slavery to be settled: + +1. Southern men complained that the existing fugitive-slave law was not +enforced in the free states and that runaway slaves were not returned. + +2. The Northern men insisted that slavery should be abolished in the +District of Columbia. + +3. Southern men demanded the right to go into any territory of the +United States, as New Mexico or Utah or even California, and take their +slaves with them. + +4. The Free-soilers demanded that there should be no more slave states, +no more slave territories. + +5. The North wanted California admitted as a free-soil state. The South +would not consent. + +So violent and bitter was the feeling aroused by these questions, that +it seemed in 1850 as if the Union was about to be broken up, and that +there were to be two republics,--a Northern one made up of free states, +and a Southern one made up of slave states. + +Happily this was not to be; for at this crisis Henry Clay, the +"Compromiser," the "Pacificator," the "Peacemaker," as he was fondly +called, came forward with a plan of settlement. + +To please the North, he proposed, first, that California should be +admitted as a free state; second, that the slave trade--that is, the +buying and selling of slaves--should be abolished in the District of +Columbia. To please the South, he proposed, third, that there should be +a new and very stringent fugitive-slave law; fourth, that New Mexico and +Utah should be made territories without reference to slavery--that is, +the people should make them free or slave, as they pleased. This was +called "popular sovereignty" or "squatter sovereignty." Fifth, that as +Texas claimed so much of New Mexico as was east of the Rio Grande, she +should give up her claim and be paid money for so doing. + +%380. Clay, Calhoun, Seward, and Webster on the Compromise.%--The +debate on the compromise was a great one. Clay's defense of his plan was +one of the finest speeches he ever made.[1] Calhoun, who was too feeble +to speak, had his argument read by another senator. Webster, on the "7th +of March," made the famous speech which still bears that name. In it he +denounced the abolitionists and defended the compromise, because, he +said, slavery could not exist in such an arid country as New Mexico. +William H. Seward of New York spoke for the Free-soilers and denounced +all compromise, and declared that the territories were free not only by +the Constitution, but by a "higher law" than the Constitution, the law +of justice and humanity.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Henry Clay's _Works_, Vol. II., pp. 602-634.] + +[Footnote 2: Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. II., pp. 123-219, for +the speeches of Calhoun, Webster, and Clay.] + +After these great speeches were made, Clay's plan was sent to a +committee of thirteen, from which came seven recommendations: + +1. The consideration of the admission of any new state or states formed +out of Texas to be postponed till they present themselves for admission. + +2. California to be admitted as a free state. + +3. Territorial governments without the Wilmot Proviso to be established +in New Mexico and Utah. + +4. The combination of No. 2 and No. 3 in one bill. + +5. The establishment of the present northern and western boundary of +Texas. In return for ceding her claims to New Mexico, Texas to receive +$10,000,000. This last provision to be inserted in the bill provided +for in No. 4. + +6. A new and stringent fugitive-slave law. + +7. Abolition of the slave trade, but not of slavery, in the District of +Columbia. + +Three bills to carry out these recommendations were presented: + +1. The first bill provided for (a) the admission of California as a free +state; (b) territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without any +_restriction_ on slavery; (c) the present northern and western boundary +for Texas, with a gift of money. President Taylor nicknamed this "the +Omnibus Bill," because of its many provisions. + +2. The second bill prohibited the slave trade, but not slavery, in the +District of Columbia. + +3. The third provided for the capture and delivery of fugitive-slaves. + +During three months these bills were hotly debated, and threats of +disunion and violence were made openly. + +%381. Death of Taylor; Fillmore becomes President.%--In the midst of +the debate, July 9, 1850, Taylor died, and Fillmore was sworn into +office. Calhoun had died in March. Webster was made Secretary of State +by Fillmore. In some respects these changes helped on the measures, all +of which were carried through. Two of them were of great importance. + +[Illustration: Millard Fillmore] + +%382. Popular Sovereignty.%--The first provided that the two new +territories, New Mexico and Utah, when fit to be admitted as states, +should come in with or without slavery as their constitutions might +determine; meantime, the question whether slavery could or could not +exist there, if it arose, was to be settled by the Supreme Court. + +%383. The Fugitive-Slave Law.%--The other important measure of the +compromise was the fugitive-slave law. The old fugitive-slave law +enacted in 1793 had depended for its execution on state judges. This new +law of 1850 + +1. Gave United States commissioners power to turn over a colored man or +woman to anybody who claimed the negro as an escaped slave. + +2. Provided that the negro could not give testimony. + +3. "Commanded" all good citizens, when summoned, to aid in the capture +of the slave, or, if necessary, in his delivery to his owners. + +4. Prescribed fine and imprisonment for anybody who harbored a fugitive +slave or prevented his recapture. + +[Illustration: %Results of the COMPROMISE of 1850%] + +No sooner was this law enacted than the slave owners began to use it, +and during the autumn of 1850 a host of "slave catchers" and "man +hunters," as they were called, invaded the North, and negroes who had +escaped twenty or thirty years before were hunted up and dragged back to +slavery by the marshals of the United States. This so excited the free +negroes and the people of the North, that several times during 1851 they +rose and rescued a slave from his captors. In New York a slave named +Hamet, in Boston one named Shadrach, in Syracuse one named Jerry, and at +Ottawa, Illinois, one named Jim, regained their liberty in this way. So +strong was public feeling that Vermont in 1850 passed a "Personal +Liberty Law," for the protection of negroes claimed as slaves.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On the Compromise of 1850 read Rhodes's _History of the +United States_, Vol. I., pp. 104-189; Schurz's _Life of Clay_, Vol. II., +Chap. 26. Do not fail to read the speeches of Calhoun, Clay, Webster, +Seward; also Lodge's _Life of Webster_, pp. 264-332. For the rescue +cases read Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, +Chap. 26.] + +The North was now becoming strongly antislavery. It had long been +opposed to the extension of slavery, but was now becoming opposed to its +very existence. How deep this feeling was, became apparent in the summer +of 1852, when Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe published her story of _Uncle +Tom's Cabin_. It was not so much a picture of what slavery was, as of +what it might be, and was so powerfully written that it stirred and +aroused thousands of people in the North who, till then, had been quite +indifferent. In a few months everybody was laughing and crying over +"Topsy" and "Eva" and "Uncle Tom"; and of those who read it great +numbers became abolitionists. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The Mexican state of Texas revolts and in 1837 becomes independent. + +2. President Tyler secretly negotiates a treaty for the annexation of +Texas to the United States, but this is defeated (1844). + +3. The labors of Elijah White and others lead to the rapid settlement of +the Oregon country. + +4. The annexation of Texas and the occupation of the whole of Oregon +become questions in the campaign of 1844. The Democrats carry the +election, Texas is annexed, and the Oregon country is divided between +Great Britain and the United States. + +5. The question of the boundary of Texas brings on the Mexican War, and +in 1848 another vast stretch of country is acquired. + +6. The acquisition of this new territory, which was free soil, causes a +struggle for the introduction of slavery into it. + +7. The refusal of the Whigs and Democrats to take issue on slavery in +the territories leads to the formation of the Free-soil party. + +8. The discovery of gold in California, the rush of people thither, and +the formation of a free state seeking admission into the Union force the +question of slavery on Congress. + +9. In 1850 an attempt is made to settle it by the "Compromise of 1850." + + + + +THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM OF 1844 CALLED FOR + +The reannexation of Texas. + + Texas annexed, August, 1845. + Rio Grande asserted as boundary. + Disputed territory, Nueces to Rio Grande. + +1845-46. Taylor sent to occupy the disputed territory. +1846. Attacked by Mexicans. +1846. War declared by the United States. + +The reoccupation of Oregon to 54 deg. 40'. + + Our claims to Oregon. + Colonization of Oregon. + "Fifty-four forty or fight." + Notice served on Great Britain. + The parallel of 49 deg. extended to the Pacific. + Oregon a territory (1848). + +The Mexican War. + + _Taylor_. + + 1846. Wins battles of Palo Alto. + Resaca de la Palma. + Matamoras. + Monterey. + 1847. Buena Vista. + + _Scott_. + + 1847. Vera Cruz. + Cerro Gordo. + Jalapa. + Perote. + Contreras. + Churubusco. + Molino del Rey. + Chapultepec. + Mexico. + + _Kearny_. + + Santa Fe. + Conquest of New Mexico. + + _Fremont. + Stockton._ + + Conquest of California. +PEACE 1848. + +Territory acquired from 42 deg. to Gila River; from Rio Grande to the Pacific. + +Effort to make the territory slave soil. + + 1848. _The Whigs._ + + No platform. + Elect Taylor and Fillmore. + + 1848. _The Democrats._ + + Nothing in platform as to slavery in new territory. + Defeated, 1848. + Complaints of the South against the North: + + Popular sovereignty + + 1. Fugitive slaves. + 2. Slavery in District of Columbia. + 3. Territory acquired from Mexico to be open to slavery. + + Discovery of gold in California, 1848. + Rush to California. + The three routes. + Free state of California, 1849. + +Effort to keep the territory free. + + The Wilmot Proviso, 1846, 1847. + The Free-soil party, 1848. + Demands of the party. + Defeated in 1848. + Demand-- + 1. California a free state. + 2. No slavery in District of Columbia. + 3. No more slave states. + No more slave territories. + +Whigs attempt a compromise. + + COMPROMISE OF 1850. + + 1. California a free state. + 2. Popular sovereignty in territory acquired from Mexico. + 3. No slave trade in District of Columbia. + 4. Texas takes present boundaries. + 5. Two new territories, Utah and New Mexico. + 6. New fugitive-slave law. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL + +%384. Franklin Pierce, Fourteenth President.%--Although the struggle +with slavery was thus growing more and more serious, the two great +parties pretended to consider the question as finally settled. In 1852 +the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce and William E. King, and +declared in their platform that they would "abide by and adhere to" the +Compromise of 1850, and would "resist all attempts at renewing, in +Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question." The Whigs +nominated General Winfield Scott, and declared that they approved the +fugitive-slave law, and accepted the compromise measures of 1850 as "a +settlement in principle" of the slavery question, and would do all they +could to prevent any further discussion of it. + +[Illustration: Franklin Pierce] + +So far as the Whigs were concerned, the question was settled; for the +Northern people, angry at their acceptance of the Compromise of 1850 and +the fugitive-slave law, refused to vote for Scott, and Pierce was +elected.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Pierce carried every state except Massachusetts, Vermont, +Tennessee, and Kentucky.] + +The Free-soilers had nominated John P. Hale and George W. Julian. + +%385. The Nebraska Bill.%--Pierce was inaugurated March 4, 1853. He, +too, believed that all questions relating to slavery were settled. But +he had not been many months in office when the old quarrel was raging as +bitterly as ever. In 1853 all that part of our country which lies +between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, the south boundary +of Kansas and 49 deg., was wilderness, known as the Platte country, and was +without any kind of territorial government. In January, 1854, a bill to +organize this great piece of country and call it the territory of +Nebraska was reported to the Senate by the Committee on Territories, of +which Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was chairman. Every foot of it was +north of 36 deg. 30', and according to the Missouri Compromise was free +soil. But the bill provided for popular sovereignty; that is, for the +right of the people of Nebraska, when they made a state, to have it free +or slave, as they pleased. + +%386. The Kansas-Nebraska Law.%--An attempt was at once made to +prevent this. But Douglas recalled his bill and brought in another, +providing for two territories, one to be called Kansas[1] and the other +Nebraska, expressly repealing the Missouri Compromise,[2] and opening +the country north of 36 deg. 30' to slavery.[3] The Free-soilers, led on by +Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Seward of New York, and Charles Sumner of +Massachusetts, did all they could to defeat the bill; but it passed, and +Pierce signed it and made it law.[4] + +[Footnote 1: The northern and southern boundaries of Kansas were those +of the present state, but it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains.] + +[Footnote 2: It declared that the slavery restriction of the Missouri +Compromise "was suspended by the principles of the legislation of 1850, +commonly called the compromise measures, and is hereby declared +inoperative."] + +[Footnote 3: The "true intent and meaning" of this act, said the law, +is, "not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to +exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to +form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject +only to the Constitution of the United States." Read Rhodes's _History +of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 425-490.] + +[Footnote 4: May 30, 1854.] + +%387. The Struggle for Kansas.%--Thus was it ordained that Kansas and +Nebraska, once expressly set apart as free soil, should become free or +slave states according as they were settled while territories by +antislavery or proslavery men. And now began a seven years' struggle for +Kansas. "Come on, then," said Seward of New York in a speech against +the Kansas Bill; "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states. Since +there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it on behalf of freedom. +We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God +give the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers as it is in +the right." + +[Illustration: %THE UNITED STATES in 1851 SEVENTY FIVE YEARS AFTER +INDEPENDENCE Showing Railroads and Overland Routes] + +This described the situation exactly. The free-state men of the North +and the slave-state men of the South were to rush into Kansas and +struggle for its possession. The moment the law opening Kansas for +settlement was known in Missouri, numbers of men crossed the Missouri +River, entered the territory, held squatters' meetings,[1] drove a few +stakes into the ground to represent "squatter claims," went home, and +called on the people of the South to hurry into Kansas. Many did so, and +began to erect tents and huts on the Missouri River at a place which +they called Atchison.[2] + +[Footnote 1: At one of their meetings it was resolved: "That we will +afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler of this country." +"That we recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in +this territory, and advise stockholders to introduce their property as +early as possible."] + +[Footnote 2: Called after Senator Atchison of Missouri.] + +But the men of the North had not been idle, and in July a band of +free-state men, sent on by the New England Emigrant Aid Society,[1] +entered Kansas and founded a town on the Kansas River some miles to the +south and west of Atchison. Other emigrants came in a few weeks later, +and their collection of tents received the name of Lawrence.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The New England Emigrant Aid Society was founded in 1854 by +Hon. Eli Thayer of Worcester, Mass., in order "to plant a free state in +Kansas," by aiding antislavery men to go out there and settle.] + +[Footnote 2: After Amos A. Lawrence, secretary of the Aid Society. It +was a city of tents. Not a building existed. Later came the log cabin, +which was a poor affair, as timber was scarce. The sod hut now so common +in the Northwest was not thought of. In the early days the "hay tent" +was the usual house, and was made by setting up two rows of poles, then +bringing their tops together, thatching the roof and sides with hay. The +two gable ends (in which were the windows and doors) were of sod.] + +What was thus taking place at Lawrence happened elsewhere, so that by +October, 1854, that part of Kansas along the Missouri River was held by +the slave-state men, and the part south of the Kansas River by the +free-state men.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The proslavery towns were Atchison, Leavenworth, Lecompton, +Kickapoo. The antislavery towns were Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, +Waubunsee, Hampden, Ossawatomie.] + +In November of the same year the struggle began. There was to be an +election of a territorial delegate[1] to represent Kansas in Congress, +and a day or two before the time set for it the Missourians came over +the border in armed bands, took possession of the polls, voted +illegally, and elected a proslavery delegate. + +[Footnote 1: Each territory is allowed to send a delegate to the House +of Representatives, where he can speak, but not vote.] + +%388. Kansas a Slave Territory.%--The election of members of the +territorial legislature took place in March, 1855, and for this the +Missourians made great preparations. On the principle of popular +sovereignty the people of Kansas were to decide whether the territory +should be slave or free. Should the majority of the legislature consist +of free-state men, then Kansas would be a free territory. Should a +majority of proslavery men be chosen, then Kansas was doomed to have +slavery fastened on her, and this the Missourians determined should be +done. For weeks before the election, therefore, the border counties of +Missouri were all astir. Meetings were held, and secret societies, +called Blue Lodges, were formed, the members of which were pledged to +enter Kansas on the day of election, take possession of the polls, and +elect a proslavery legislature. The plan was strictly carried out, and +as election day drew near, the Missourians, fully armed, entered Kansas +in companies, squads, and parties, like an invading army, voted, and +then went home to Missouri. Every member of the legislature save one was +a proslavery man, and when that body met, all the slave laws of Missouri +were adopted and slavery was formally established in Kansas. + +%389. The Topeka Free-State Constitution.%--The free-state men +repudiated the bogus legislature, held a convention at Topeka, made a +free-state constitution, and submitted it to the popular vote. The +people having ratified it (of course no proslavery men voted), a +governor and legislature were chosen. When the legislature met, senators +were elected and Congress was asked to admit Kansas into the Union as +a state. + +%390. Personal Liberty Laws; the Underground Railroad.%--The feeling +of the people of the free states toward slavery can be seen from many +signs. The example set by Vermont in 1850 was followed in 1854 by Rhode +Island, Connecticut, and Michigan, and in 1855 by Maine and +Massachusetts, in each of which were passed "Personal Liberty laws," +designed to prevent free negroes from being carried into slavery on the +claim that they were fugitive slaves. Certain state officers were +required to act as counsel for any one arrested as a fugitive, and to +see that he had a fair trial by jury. To seize a free negro with intent +to reduce him to slavery was made a crime. + +Another sign of the times was the sympathy manifested for the operations +of what was called the Underground Railroad. It was, of course, not a +railroad at all, but an organization by which slaves escaping from their +masters were aided in getting across the free states to Canada. + +%391. Breaking up of Old Parties.%--Thus matters stood when, in 1856, +the time came to elect a President, and found the old parties badly +disorganized. The political events of four years had produced great +changes. The death of Clay[1] and Webster[2] deprived the Whigs of their +oldest and greatest leaders. The earnest support that party gave to the +Compromise of 1850 and the execution of the fugitive-slave law estranged +thousands of voters in the free states. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, +opposed as it was by every Northern Whig, completed the ruin and left +the party a wreck. + +[Footnote 1: June 29, 1852.] + +[Footnote 2: October 24, 1852.] + +But the Democrats had also suffered because of the Kansas-Nebraska law +and the repeal of the Compromise of 1820. No anti-extension-of-slavery +Democrat could longer support the old party. Thousands had therefore +broken away, and, acting with the dissatisfied Whigs, formed an +unorganized opposition known as "Anti-Nebraska men." + +%392. The Movement against Immigrants.%--Many old Whigs, however, +could not bring themselves to vote with Democrats. These joined the +American or Know-nothing party. From the close of the Revolution there +had never been a year when a greater or less number of foreigners did +not come to our shores. After 1820 the numbers who came each twelvemonth +grew larger and larger, till they reached 30,000 in 1830, and 60,000 in +1836, while in the decade 1830-1840 more than 500,000 immigrants landed +at New York city alone. + +As the newcomers hurried westward into the cities of the Mississippi +valley, the native population was startled by the appearance of men who +often could not speak our language. In Cincinnati in 1840 one half the +voters were of foreign birth. The cry was now raised that our +institutions, our liberties, our system of government, were at the mercy +of men from the monarchical countries of Europe. A demand was made for a +change in the naturalization law, so that no foreigner could become a +citizen till he had lived here twenty-one years. + +%393. The American Republicans or Native Americans.%--Neither the +Whigs nor the Democrats would endorse this demand, so the people of +Louisiana in 1841 called a state convention and founded the American +Republican, or, as it was soon called, the Native American party. Its +principles were + +1. Put none but native Americans in office. + +2. Require a residence of twenty-one years in this country before +naturalization. + +3. Keep the Bible in the schools. + +4. Protect from abuse the proceedings necessary to get naturalization +papers. + +As the members would not tell what the secrets of this party were, and +very often would not say whom they were going to vote for, and when +questioned would answer "I don't know," it got the name of +"Know-nothing" party.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Rhodes's _History of the United States_, Vol. II., pp. +51-58; McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 87-106.] + +For a time the party flourished greatly and secured six members of the +House of Representatives, then it declined in power; but the immense +increase in immigration between 1846 and 1850 again revived it, and. +somewhere in New York city in 1852 a secret, oath-bound organization, +with signs, grips, and passwords, was founded, and spread with such +rapidity that in 1854 it carried the elections in Massachusetts, New +York, and Delaware. Next year (1855) it elected the governors and +legislatures of eight states, and nearly carried six more. Encouraged by +these successes, the leaders determined to enter the campaign of 1856, +and called a party convention which nominated Millard Fillmore and +Andrew Jackson Donelson. Delegates from seven states left the convention +because it would not stand by the Missouri Compromise, and taking the +name North Americans nominated N. P. Banks. He would not accept, and the +bolters then joined the Republicans. + +%394. Beginning of the Republican Party.%--As early as 1854, when the +Kansas-Nebraska Bill was before Congress, the question was widely +discussed all over the North and West, whether the time had not come to +form a new party out of the wreck of the old. With this in view a +meeting of citizens of all parties was held at Ripon, Wisconsin, at +which the formation of a new party on the slavery issue was recommended, +and the name Republican suggested. This was before the passage of the +Kansas-Nebraska Bill. + +After its passage a thousand citizens of Michigan signed a call for a +state mass meeting at Jackson, where a state party was formed, named +Republican, and a state ticket nominated, on which were Free-soilers, +Whigs, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats. Similar "fusion tickets" were +adopted in Wisconsin and Vermont, where the name Republican was used, +and in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. + +The success of the new party in Wisconsin and Michigan in 1854, and its +yet greater success in 1855, led the chairmen of the Republican state +committees of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin +to issue a call for an informal convention at Pittsburg on February 22, +1856. At this meeting the National Republican party was formed, and from +it went a call for a national nominating convention to meet (June 17, +1856) at Philadelphia, where John C. Fremont and William L. Dayton were +nominated. + +The Free-soilers had joined the Republicans and so disappeared from +politics as a party. + +The Whigs, or "Silver Grays," met and endorsed Fillmore. + +The Democrats nominated James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge and +carried the election. The Whigs and the Know-nothings then disappeared +from national politics. + +[Illustration: James Buchanan] + +%395. James Buchanan, Fifteenth President; the "Bred Scott +Decision."%--When Buchanan and Breckinridge were inaugurated, March +4, 1857, certain matters regarding slavery were considered as legally +settled forever, as follows: + +1. Foreign slave trade forbidden. + +2. Slave trade between the states allowed. + +3. Fugitive slaves to be returned. + +4. Whether a state should permit or abolish slavery to be determined by +the state. + +5. Squatter sovereignty to be allowed in Kansas and Nebraska, Utah and +New Mexico territories. + +6. The people in a territory to determine whether they would have a +slave or a free state when they made a state constitution. + +Now there were certain questions regarding slavery which were not +settled, and one of them was this: If a slave is taken by his master to +a free state and lives there for a while, does he become free? + +To this the Supreme Court gave the answer two days after Buchanan was +inaugurated. A slave by the name of Dred Scott had been taken by his +master from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois, +and then to the free soil of Minnesota, and then back to the state of +Missouri, where Scott sued for his freedom, on the ground that his +residence on free soil had made him a free man. Two questions of vast +importance were thus raised: + +1. Could a negro whose ancestors had been sold as slaves become a +citizen of one of the states in the Union? For unless Dred Scott was a +citizen of Missouri, where he then lived, he could not sue in the United +States court. + +2. Did Congress have power to enact the Missouri Compromise? For if it +did not then the restriction of slavery north of 36 deg.30' was illegal, and +Dred Scott's residence in Minnesota did not make him free. + +From the lower courts the case came on appeal to the Supreme Court, +which decided + +1. That Dred Scott was not a citizen, and therefore could not sue in the +United States courts. His residence in Minnesota had not made him free. + +2. That Congress could not shut slave property out of the territories +any more than it could shut out a horse or a cow. + +3. That the piece of legislation known as the Missouri Compromise of +1820 was null and void. This confirmed all that had been gained for +slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and opened to slavery Oregon +and Washington, which were free territories. + +%396. Effect of the Dred Scott Decision.%--Hundreds of thousands of +copies of this famous decision were printed at once and scattered +broadcast over the country as campaign documents. The effect was to fill +the Southern people with delight and make them more reckless than ever, +to split the Democratic party in the North; to increase the number of +Republicans in the North, and make them more determined than ever to +stop the spread of slavery into the territories. + +[Illustration: %EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL IN THE UNITED STATES +1790-1860%] + +%397. Struggle for Freedom in Kansas.%--We left Kansas in 1856 with a +proslavery governor and legislature in actual possession, and a +free-state governor, legislature, and senators seeking recognition at +Washington. In 1857 there were so many free-state men in Kansas that +they elected an antislavery legislature. But just before the proslavery +men went out of power they made a proslavery constitution,[1] and +instead of submitting to the people the question, Will you, or will you +not, have this constitution? they submitted the question, Will you have +this constitution with or without slavery? On this the free settlers +would not vote, and so it was adopted with slavery. But when the +antislavery legislature met soon after, they ordered the question, Will +you, or will you not, have this constitution? to be submitted to the +people. Then the free settlers voted, and it was rejected by a great +majority. Buchanan, however, paid no attention to the action of the free +settlers, but sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress and urged it +to admit Kansas as a slave state. But Senator Douglas of Illinois came +forward and opposed this, because to force a slave constitution on the +people of Kansas, after they had voted against it, was contrary to the +doctrine of "popular sovereignty." He, with the aid of other Northern +Democrats, defeated the attempt, and Kansas remained a territory +till 1861. + +[Footnote 1: The convention met at the town of Lecompton; in consequence +of which the constitution is known as the "Lecompton constitution."] + +%398. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.%--The term of Douglas as senator +from Illinois was to expire on March 4, 1859. The legislature whose duty +it would be to elect his successor was itself to be elected in 1858. The +Democrats, therefore, announced that if they secured a majority of the +legislators, they would reelect Douglas. The Republicans declared that +if they secured a majority, they would elect Abraham Lincoln United +States senator. The real question of the campaign thus became, Will the +people of Illinois have Stephen A. Douglas or Abraham Lincoln for +senator?[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Republican state convention at Springfield, June 16, +1858, "resolved, that Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of +the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate as the +successor of Stephen A. Douglas."] + +The speech making opened in June, 1858, when Lincoln addressed the +convention that nominated him at Springfield. A month later Douglas +replied in a speech at Chicago. Lincoln, who was present, answered +Douglas the next evening. A few days later, Douglas, who had taken the +stump, replied to Lincoln at Bloomington, and the next day was again +answered by Lincoln at Springfield. The deep interest aroused by this +running debate led the Republican managers to insist that Lincoln should +challenge Douglas to a series of joint debates in public. The challenge +was sent and accepted, and debates were arranged for at seven towns[1] +named by Douglas. The questions discussed were popular sovereignty, the +Dred Scott decision, the extension of slavery to the territories; and +the discussion of them attracted the attention of the whole country. +Lincoln was defeated in the senatorial election; but his great speeches +won for him a national reputation.[2] + +[Footnote 1: One in each Congressional district except those containing +Chicago and Springfield, where both Lincoln and Douglas had already +spoken. For a short account of their debates see the _Century Magazine_ +for July, 1887, p. 386.] + +[Footnote 2: Rhodes's _History of the United States_, Vol. II., pp. +308-339. Nicolay and Hay's _Life of Lincoln_, Vol. II., Chaps. 10-16. +John T. Morse's _Life of Lincoln_, Vol. I., Chap. 6.] + +%399. John Brown's Raid into Virginia%.--As slavery had become the +great political issue of the day, it is not surprising that it excited a +lifelong and bitter enemy of slavery to do a foolish act. John Brown was +a man of intense convictions and a deep-seated hatred of slavery. When +the border ruffianism broke out in Kansas in 1855, he went there with +arms and money, and soon became so prominent that he was outlawed and a +price set on his head. In 1858 he left Kansas, and in July, 1859, +settled near Harpers Ferry, Va. (p. 360). His purpose was to stir up a +slave insurrection in Virginia, and so secure the liberation of the +negroes. With this in view, one Sunday night in October, 1859, he with +less than twenty followers seized the United States armory at Harpers +Perry and freed as many slaves and arrested as many whites as possible. +But no insurrection or uprising of slaves followed, and before he could +escape to the mountains he was surrounded and captured by Robert E. Lee, +then a colonel in the army of the United States. Brown was tried on the +charges of murder and of treason against the state of Virginia, was +found guilty, and in December, 1859, was hanged. + +[Illustration: Harpers Ferry] + +%400. Split in the Democratic Party.%--Thus it was that one event +after another prolonged the struggle with slavery till 1860, when the +people were once more to elect a President. + +The Democratic nominating convention assembled at Charleston, S.C., in +April, and at once went to pieces. A strong majority made up of Northern +delegates insisted that the party should declare--"That all questions in +regard to the rights of property in states or territories arising under +the Constitution of the United States are judicial in their character, +and the Democratic party is pledged to abide by and faithfully carry out +such determination of these questions as has been or may be made by the +Supreme Court of the United States." + +This meant to carry out the doctrine laid down in the Dred Scott +decision, and was in conflict with the "popular sovereignty" doctrine of +Douglas, which was that right of the people to make a slave territory or +a free territory is perfect and complete. The minority, composed of the +extreme Southern men, rejected the former plan and insisted + +1. "That the Democracy of the United States hold these cardinal +principles on the subject of slavery in the territories: First, that +Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the territories. Second, +that the territorial legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any +territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any +power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any right to destroy or impair +the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever." + +2. That the Federal government must protect slavery "on the high seas, +in the territories, and wherever else its constitutional +authority extends." + +Both majority and minority agreed in asserting + +1. That the Personal Liberty laws of the free states "are hostile in +their character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in +their effect." + +2. That Cuba ought to be acquired by the United States. + +3. That a railroad ought to be built to the Pacific. + +Their agreement was a minor matter. Their disagreement was so serious +that when the minority could not have its way, it left the convention, +met in another hall, and adopted its resolutions. + +The majority of the convention then adjourned to meet at Baltimore, June +18. 1860. As it was then apparent that Douglas would be nominated, +another split occurred, and the few Southern men attending, together +with some Northern delegates, withdrew. Those who remained nominated +Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson. + +The second group of seceders met in Baltimore, adopted the platform of +the first group of seceders from the Charleston convention, and +nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon. + +[Illustration: A Lincoln] + +%401. The Constitutional Union Party.%--Meanwhile (May 9) another +party, calling itself the National Constitutional Union party, met at +Baltimore. These men were the remnants of the old Whig and American or +Know-nothing parties. They nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward +Everett, of Massachusetts, and declared for "the Constitution of the +country, the union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws." + +%402. Election of Lincoln.%--The Republican party met in convention +at Chicago on May 16, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, and Hannibal Hamlin +of Maine. It + +1. Repudiated the principles of the Dred Scott decision. + +2. Demanded the admission of Kansas as a free state. + +3. Denied all sympathy with any kind of interference with slavery in the +states. + +4. Insisted that the territories must be kept free. + +5. Called for a railroad to the Pacific, and a homestead law. + +The election took place in November, 1860. Of 303 electoral votes cast, +Lincoln received 180; Breckinridge, 72; Bell, 39; and Douglas, 12. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the question of slavery in the +territories, and an attempt to organize Kansas and Nebraska brought +it up again. + +2. In the organization of these territories a new political doctrine, +"popular sovereignty," was announced. + +3. This was applied in Kansas, and the struggle for Kansas began. The +first territorial government was proslavery. The antislavery men then +made a constitution (Topeka) and formed a free state government. +Thereupon the proslavery men formed a constitution (Lecompton) for a +slave state. This was submitted to Congress and rejected, and Kansas +remained a territory till 1861. + +4. In the course of the struggle for free soil in Kansas the Whig party +went to pieces, the Democratic was split into two wings, and the +Know-nothing or Native American party and the Republican party arose. + +5. The Republican party was defeated in 1856, but the Dred Scott +decision in 1857 and the continued struggle in Kansas forced the +question of slavery to the front, and in 1860 Lincoln was elected. + +[Illustration: ] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 + +[Illustration: Chicago in 1832] + +%403. The Movement of Population.%--The twenty years which elapsed +between the election of Harrison, in 1840, and the election of Lincoln, +in 1860, had seen a most astonishing change in our country. In 1840 +neither Texas, nor the immense region afterwards acquired from Mexico, +belonged to us. There were then but twenty-six states and five +territories, inhabited by 17,000,000 people, of whom but 876,000 lived +west of the Mississippi River, mostly close to the river bank in +Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The great Northwest was still a +wilderness, and many a city now familiar to us had no existence. Toledo +and Milwaukee and Indianapolis had each less than 3000 inhabitants; +Chicago had less than 5000; and Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit, each +less than 10,000. Yet the rapid growth of cities had been one of the +characteristics of the period 1830 to 1840. + +The effect of new mechanical appliances on the movement of population +was amazing. The day when emigrants settled along the banks of streams, +pushed their boats up the rivers by means of poles, carried their goods +on the backs of pack horses, and floated their produce in Kentucky +broadhorns down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, was fast +disappearing. The steamboat, the canal, the railroad, had opened new +possibilities. Land once valueless as too far from market suddenly +became valuable. Men grew loath to live in a wilderness; the rush of +emigrants across the Mississippi was checked. The region between the +Alleghanies and the great river began to fill up rapidly. During the +twenty years, 1821 to 1841, but two states, Arkansas (1836) and Michigan +(1837), were admitted to the Union, and but three new territories, +Florida (1822-23), Wisconsin (1836), and Iowa (1838), were established. + +So few people went west from the Atlantic seaboard states that in each +one of them except Maine and Georgia population increased more rapidly +than it had ever done for forty years. From the Mississippi valley +states, however, numbers of people went to Wisconsin and Iowa. + +In consequence of this, Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846, and +Wisconsin in 1848. Minnesota and Oregon were made territories. Florida +and Texas had been admitted in 1845, and the number of states was thus +raised to thirty before 1850. The population of the country in 1850 was +23,000,000. Two states in the Mississippi valley now had each of them +more than a million of inhabitants. + +%404. The First States on the Pacific.%--Until 1840 the people had +moved westward steadily. Each state as it was settled had touched some +other east, or north, or south of it. After 1840 people, attracted by +the rich farming land and pleasant climate of Oregon, and after 1848 by +the gold mines of California, rushed across the plains to the Pacific, +and between 1850 and 1860 built up the states of California and Oregon +(1859), and the territory of Washington (1853). Minnesota was admitted +in 1858. The population of the United States in 1860 was 31,000,000. + +[Illustration: %DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES +SEVENTH CENSUS, 1850%] + +%405. Immigration to the United States since 1820.%--The people whose +movements across our continent we have been following were chiefly +natives of the United States. But we have reached the time when +foreigners began to arrive by hundreds of thousands every year. From the +close of the Revolution to 1820, it is thought not more than 250,000 of +the Old World people came to us. But the hard times in Europe, which +followed the disbanding of the great armies which had been fighting +France and Napoleon from 1789 to 1815, started a general movement. +Beginning at 10,000, in 1820, more and more came every year till, in +1842, 100,000 people--men, women, and children--landed on our shore. +This was the greatest number that had ever come in one year. But it was +surpassed in 1846, when the potato famine in Ireland, and again in 1853, +when hard times in Germany, and another famine in Ireland, sent over two +immense streams of emigrants. In 1854 no less than 428,000 persons came +from the Old World; more than ever came again in one year till 1872. + +%406. Modern Conveniences.%--When we compare the daily life of the +people in 1850 with that of the men of 1825, the contrast is most +striking. The cities had increased in number, grown in size, and greatly +changed in appearance. The older ones seemed less like villages. Their +streets were better paved and lighted. Omnibuses and street cars were +becoming common. The constable and the night watch had given way to the +police department. Gas and plumbing were in general use. The free school +had become an American institution, and many of the numberless +inventions and discoveries which have done so much to increase our +happiness, prosperity, and comfort, existed at least in a rude form. + +Between 1840 and 1850 nearly 7000 miles of railroad were built, making a +total mileage of 9000. This rapid spread of the railroad, when joined +with the steamboats, then to be found on every river and lake within the +settled area, made possible an institution which to-day renders +invaluable service. + +%407. Express Companies.%--In 1839 a young man named W.F. Harnden +began to carry packages, bundles, money, and small boxes between New +York and Boston, and thus started the express business. At first he +carried in a couple of carpet bags all the packages intrusted to him, +and went by boat from New York to Stonington, Conn., and thence by rail +to Boston. But his business grew so rapidly that in 1840 a rival express +was started by P. B. Burke and Alvin Adams. Their route was from Boston +to Springfield, Mass., and thence to New York. This was the foundation +of the present Adams Express Company. Both companies were so well +patronized that in 1841 service was extended to Philadelphia and Albany, +and in 1844 to Baltimore and Washington. Their example was quickly +followed by a host of imitators, and soon a dozen express companies were +doing business between the great cities. + +%408. Postage Stamps introduced.%--At that time (1840) three cents +was the postage for a local letter which was not delivered by a carrier. +Indeed, there were no letter carriers, and this in large cities was such +an inconvenience that private dispatch companies undertook to deliver +letters about the city for two cents each; and to accommodate their +customers they issued adhesive stamps, which, placed on the letters, +insured their delivery. The loss of business to the government caused by +these companies, and the general demand for quicker and cheaper mail +service, forced Congress to revise the postal laws in 1845, when an +attempt was made to introduce the use of postage stamps by the +government. As the mails (in consequence of the growth of the country +and the easy means of transportation) were becoming very heavy, the +postmasters in the cities and important towns had already begun to have +stamps printed at their own cost. Their purpose was to save time, for +letter postage was frequently (but not always) prepaid. But instead of +fixing a stamp on the envelope (there was no such thing in 1840), the +writer sent the letter to the post office and paid the postage in money, +whereupon the postmaster stamped the letter "Paid." This consumed the +time of the postmaster and the letter writer. But when he could go once +to the post office and prepay a hundred letters by buying a hundred +stamps, any one of which affixed to a letter was evidence that its +postage had been paid, any man who wanted to could save his time. These +stamps the postmasters sold at a little more than the expense of +printing. Thus the postmasters of New York and St. Louis charged one +dollar for nine ten-cent or eighteen five-cent stamps. This increased +the price of postage a trifle: but as the use of the stamps was +optional, the burden fell on those willing to bear it, while the +convenience was so great that the effort made to have the Post-office +Department furnish the stamps and require the people to use them +succeeded in 1847. + +[Illustration: St. Louis postage stamp] + +%409. Mechanical Improvements.%--No American need be told that his +fellow-countrymen are the most ingenious people the world has ever +known. But we do not always remember that it was during this period +(1840-1860) that the marvelous inventive genius of the people of the +United States began to show itself. Between the day when the patent +office was established, in 1790, and 1840, the number of patents issued +was 11,908; but after 1840 the stream poured forth increased in volume +nearly every year. In 1855 there were 2012 issued and reissued; in 1856, +2506; in 1857, 2896; in 1858, 3695; and in 1860, 4778, raising the total +number to 43,431. An examination of these inventions shows that they +related to cotton gins and cotton presses; to reapers and mowers; to +steam engines; to railroads; to looms; to cooking stoves; to sewing +machines, printing presses, boot and shoe machines, rubber goods, floor +cloths, and a hundred other things. Very many of them helped to increase +the comfort of man and raise the standard of living. Three of them, +however, have revolutionized the industrial and business world and been +of inestimable good to mankind. They are the sewing machine, the reaper +and the electric telegraph. + +[Illustration: The first Howe sewing machine] + +%410. The Sewing Machine.%--As far back as the year 1834, Walter Hunt +made and sold a few sewing machines in New York. But the man to whose +genius, perseverance, and unflinching zeal the world owes the sewing +machine, is Elias Howe. His patent was obtained in 1846, and he then +spent four years in poverty and distress trying to convince the world of +the utility of his machine. By 1850 he succeeded not only in interesting +the public, but in so arousing the mechanical world that seven rivals +(Wheeler and Wilson, Grover and Baker, Wilcox and Gibbs, and Singer) +entered the field. To the combined efforts of them all, we owe one of +the most useful inventions of the century. It has lessened the cost of +every kind of clothing; of shoes and boots; of harness; of everything, +in short, that can be sewed. It has given employment to millions of +people, and has greatly added to the comfort of every household in the +civilized world. + +[Illustration: The Wilson sewing machine of 1850] + +%411. The Harvester.%--Much the same can be said of the McCormick +reaper. It was invented and patented as early as 1831; but it was hard +work to persuade the farmer to use it. Not a machine was sold till +1841. During 1841, 1842, 1843, such as were made in the little +blacksmith shop near Steel's Tavern, Virginia, were disposed of with +difficulty. Every effort to induce manufacturers to make the machine was +a failure. Not till McCormick had gone on horseback among the farmers of +Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and secured written orders for +his reapers, did he persuade a firm in Cincinnati to make them. In 1845, +five hundred were manufactured; in 1850, three thousand. In 1851 +McCormick placed one on exhibition at the World's Fair in London, and +astonished the world with its performance. To-day two hundred thousand +are turned out annually, and without them the great grain fields of the +middle West and the far West would be impossible. The harvester has +cheapened the cost of bread, and benefited the whole human race. + +%412. The Telegraph.%--Think, again, what would be our condition if +every telegraph line in the world were suddenly pulled down. Yet the +telegraph, like the reaper and the sewing machine, was introduced +slowly. Samuel F. B. Morse got his patent in 1837; and for seven years, +helped by Alfred Vail, he struggled on against poverty. In 1842 he had +but thirty-seven cents in the world. But perseverance conquers all +things; and with thirty thousand dollars, granted by Congress, the first +telegraph line in the world was built in 1844 from Baltimore to +Washington. In 1845 New York and Philadelphia were connected; but as +wires could not be made to work under water, the messages were received +on the New Jersey side of the Hudson and carried to New York by boat. By +1856 the telegraph was in use in the most populous states. Some forty +companies, but one of which paid dividends, competed for the business. +This was ruinous; and in 1856 a union of Western companies was formed +and called the Western Union Telegraph Company. To-day it has 21,000 +offices, sends each year some 58,000,000 messages, receives about +$23,000,000, and does seven eighths of all the telegraph business in the +United States. + +%413. India Rubber.%--The same year (1844) which witnessed the +introduction of the telegraph saw the perfection of Goodyear's secret +for the vulcanization of India rubber. In 1820 the first pair of rubber +shoes ever seen in the United States were exhibited in Boston. Two years +later a ship from South America brought 500 pairs of rubber shoes. They +were thick, heavy, and ill-shaped; but they sold so rapidly that more +were imported, and in 1830 a cargo of raw gum was brought from South +America for the purpose of making rubber goods. With this C. M. Chaffee +went to work and succeeded in producing some pieces of cloth spread with +rubber. Supposing the invention to be of great value, a number of +factories[1] began to make rubber coats, caps, wagon curtains, of pure +rubber without cloth. But to the horror of the companies the goods +melted when hot weather came, and were sent back, emitting so dreadful +an odor that they had to be buried. It was to overcome this and find +some means of hardening the gum that Goodyear began his experiments and +labored year after year against every sort of discouragement. Even when +the secret of vulcanizing, as it is called, was discovered, five years +passed before he was able to conduct the process with absolute +certainty. In 1844, after ten years of labor, he succeeded and gave to +the world one of the most useful inventions of the nineteenth century. + +[Footnote 1: At Roxbury, Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, +and Staten Island.] + +%414. The Photograph; the Discovery of Anaesthesia.%--But there were +other inventions and discoveries of almost as great or even greater +value to mankind. In 1840 Dr. John W. Draper so perfected the +daguerreotype that it could be used to take pictures of persons and +landscapes. Till then it could be used only to make pictures of +buildings and statuary. + +The year 1846 is made yet more memorable by the discovery that whoever +inhaled sulphuric ether would become insensible to pain. The glory of +this discovery has been claimed for two men: Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson. +Which one is entitled to it cannot be positively decided, though Dr. +Morton seems to have the better right to be considered the discoverer. +Before this, however, anaesthesia by nitrous oxide (laughing gas) had +been discovered by Dr. Wells of Hartford, Conn., and by Dr. Long +of Georgia. + +%415. Communication with Europe; Steamships%.--Progress was not +confined to affairs within our boundary. Communications with Europe were +greatly advanced. The passage of the steamship _Savannah_ across the +Atlantic, partly by steam and partly by sail, in 1819, resulted in +nothing practical. The wood used for fuel left little space for freight. +But when better machinery reduced the time, and coal afforded a less +bulky fuel, the passage across the Atlantic by steam became possible, +and in 1838 two vessels, the _Sirius_ and the _Great Western_, made the +trip from Liverpool to New York by steam alone. No sails were used. This +showed what could be done, and in 1839 Samuel Cunard began the great +fleet of Atlantic greyhounds by founding the Cunard Line. Aided by the +British government, he drove all competitors from the field, till +Congress came to the aid of the Collins Line, whose steamers made the +first trip from New York to Liverpool in 1850. The rivalry between these +lines was intense, and each did its best to make short voyages. In 1851 +the average time from Liverpool to New York was eleven days, eight +hours, for the Collins Line, and eleven days, twenty-three hours, for +the Cunard. This was considered astonishing; for Liverpool and New York +were thus brought as near each other in point of time in 1851 as Boston +and Philadelphia were in 1790. + +%416. The Atlantic Cable%.--But something more astonishing yet was at +hand. In 1854 Mr. Cyrus W. Field of New York was asked to aid in the +construction of a submarine cable to join St. Johns with Cape Ray, +Newfoundland. While considering the matter, he became convinced that if +a cable could be laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, another could be +laid across the Atlantic Ocean, and he formed the "New York, +Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company" for the purpose of doing +so. The first attempt, made in 1857, and a second in 1858, ended in +failure; but a third, in 1858, was successful, and a cable was laid from +Valentia Bay in Ireland to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, a distance of +1700 geographical miles. For three weeks all went well, and during this +time 400 messages were sent; but on September 1, 1858, the cable ceased +to work, and eight years passed before another attempt was made to join +the Old World and the New. + +%417. Condition of the Workingman%.--Every class of society was +benefited by these improvements, but no man more so than those who +depended on their daily wages for their daily bread. Though wages +increased but little, they were more easily earned and brought richer +returns. Improved means of transportation, cheaper methods of +manufacture, enabled every laborer in 1860 to wear better clothes and +eat better food than had been worn or consumed by his father in 1830. +New industries, new trades and occupations, new needs in the business +world, afforded to his son and daughter opportunities for a livelihood +unknown in his youth, while the free school system enabled them to fit +themselves to use such opportunities without cost to him. When our +country became independent, and for fifty years afterwards, a working +day was from sunrise to sunset, with an hour for breakfast and another +for dinner. After manufactures arose, and mills and factories gave +employment to thousands of wage earners, fourteen, fifteen, and even +sixteen hours of labor were counted a day. Protests were early made +against this, and demands raised that a working day should be ten hours. +At last, late in the thirties, the ten hours system was adopted in +Baltimore, and in 1840, by order of President Van Buren, was put in +force at the navy yard in Washington and in "all public establishments" +under the Federal government. Thus established, the system spread +slowly, till to-day it exists almost everywhere. Indeed, in many states, +and in all departments of the Federal government, eight hours of work +constitute a day. Thus, by the aid of machinery, not only are articles, +formerly expensive, made so cheaply that poor men can afford to use +them, but the wage earners who operate the machinery can make these +articles so quickly that they to-day earn higher wages for fewer hours +of work than ever before in the history of the world. Not only did wages +increase and the hours of labor grow shorter between 1840 and 1860, but +the field of labor was enormously expanded. In 1810, when the first +census of manufactures in the United States was taken, the value of +goods manufactured was $173,000,000. In 1860 it was ten times as great, +and gave employment to more than 1,000,000 men and women. + +%418. Few Manufactures in the Slave States%.--From much of the +benefit produced by this splendid series of inventions and discoveries, +the people of the slave-owning states were shut out. They raised corn, +tobacco, and cotton, and made some sugar; but in them there were very +few mills or manufacturing establishments of any sort. While a great +social and industrial revolution was going on in the free states, the +people in the slave states remained in 1860 what they were in 1800. The +stream of immigrants from Europe passed the slave states by, carrying +their skill, their thrift, their energy, into the Northwest. The +resources of the slave states were boundless, but no free man would go +in to develop them. The soil was fertile, but no free laborer could live +on it and compete with slave labor, on which all agriculture, all +industry, all prosperity, in the South depended. The two sections of the +country at the end of the period 1840-1860 were thus more unlike +than ever. + + +SUMMARY + +1. Between 1830 and 1850 the rush of population into the West continued, +but, instead of moving across the continent, most of the people settled +in the states already in existence. + +2. This was due to the effect of such improved means of communication as +steamboats, railroads, canals, etc. + +3. As a consequence, but six new states were admitted to the Union in +twenty-nine years, and one of them was annexed (Texas). + +4. The period is also noticeable for the number of foreigners who came +to our shores. + +5. After 1849 the existence of gold in California brought so many people +to the Pacific coast that California became a state in 1850. + +6. As population grew denser, and transportation was facilitated by the +expansion of railroads and steamboats and canals, business opportunities +were increased, and new markets were created. + +7. Labor-saving and time-saving machines and appliances became more in +demand than ever, and a long list of remarkable inventions and business +aids appeared. + +8. The South, owing to its own peculiar industrial and labor condition, +was little benefited by all these improvements, and remained much the +same as in 1800. + +CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY, 1840-1860. + +_The People_. + +Immigration Causes. + Number of immigrants. + +No. of people in 1840. 17,000,000 +U. S. 1850. 23,000,000 + 1860. 31,000,000 + +Movement New States Arkansas, 1836. Slave. +Westward .. Michigan, 1837. Free. + Florida, 1845. Slave. + Texas, 1845. Slave. + Iowa, 1846. Free. + Wisconsin, 1848. Free. + California, 1850. Free. + Minnesota, 1858. Free. + Oregon, 1859. Free. + + Territories New Mexico, 1850. + Utah, 1850. + Washington, 1853. + Kansas, 1854. + Nebraska, 1854. + +_New Social and Business Conveniences._ + + Gas. + Plumbing. + Paved streets. + General use of anthracite. + Free schools. + Railroad expansion. + Express. + Postage stamps. + Ocean steamships. + +_New Inventions._ + + Number of patents. + The sewing machine. + The harvester. + The telegraph. + India rubber. + Daguerreotype. + Anaesthesia. + Atlantic cable. + +_The South._ + + Little affected by new industrial conditions. + Few manufactures. + Increase of the cotton area. + No immigration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 + +%419. South Carolina secedes%.--The only state where in 1860 +presidential electors were chosen by the legislature was South Carolina. +When the legislature met for this purpose, November 6, 1860, the +governor asked it not to adjourn, but to remain in session till the +result of the election was known. If Lincoln is elected, said he, the +"secession of South Carolina from the Union" will be necessary. Lincoln +was elected, and on December 20, 1860, a convention of delegates, called +by the legislature to consider the question of secession, formally +declared that South Carolina was no longer one of the United States.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "We the people of the state of South Carolina, in +convention assembled, do declare and ordain ... that the union now +subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of +the United States of America, is hereby dissolved."] + +%420. The "Confederate States of America."%--The meaning of this act +of secession was that South Carolina now claimed to be a "sovereign, +free, and independent" nation. But she was not the only state to take +this step. By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, +Louisiana, and Texas had also left the Union. Three days later, February +4, 1861, delegates from six of these seven states met at Montgomery, +Ala., formed a constitution, established a provisional government, which +they called the "Confederate States of America," and elected Jefferson +Davis and Alexander H. Stephens provisional President and Vice +President. + +Toward preventing or stopping this, Buchanan did nothing. No state, he +said, had a right to secede. But a state having seceded, he had no power +to make her come back, because he could not make war on a state; that +is, he could not preserve the Union. On one matter, however, he was +forced to act. When South Carolina seceded, the three forts in +Charleston harbor--Castle Pinckney, Fort Sumter, and Fort Moultrie--were +in charge of a major of artillery named Robert Anderson. He had under +him some eighty officers and men, and knowing that he could not hold all +three forts, and fearing that the South would seize Fort Sumter, he +dismantled Fort Moultrie, spiked the cannon, cut down the flagstaff, and +removed to Fort Sumter, on the evening of December 26, 1860. + +[Illustration: CHARLESTON HARBOR] + +This act was heartily approved by the people of the North and by +Congress, and Buchanan with great reluctance yielded to their demand, +and sent the _Star of the West,_ with food and men, to relieve Anderson. +But as the vessel, with our flag at its fore, was steaming up the +channel toward Charleston harbor, the Southern batteries fired upon her, +and she went back to New York. Anderson was thus left to his fate, and +as Buchanan's term was nearly out, both sides waited to see what +Lincoln would do. + +%421. Why did the States secede?%--Why did the Southern slave states +secede? To be fair to them we must seek the answer in the speeches of +their leaders. "Your votes," said Jefferson Davis, "refuse to recognize +our domestic institutions [slavery], which preexisted the formation of +the Union, our property [slaves], which was guaranteed by the +Constitution. You refuse us that equality without which we should be +degraded if we remained in the Union. You elect a candidate upon the +basis of sectional hostility; one who in his speeches, now thrown +broadcast over the country, made a distinct declaration of war upon our +institutions." + +"There is," said Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury of +the United States, "no other remedy for the existing state of things +except immediate secession." + +"Our position," said the Mississippi secession convention, "is +thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery. A blow at slavery +is a blow at commerce and civilization. There was no choice left us but +submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union." + +Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederacy, asserted +that the Personal Liberty laws of some of the free states "constitute +the only cause, in my opinion, which can justify secession." + +The South seceded, then, according to its own statements, because the +people believed that the election of Lincoln meant the abolition +of slavery. + +%422. Compromise attempted%.--The Republican party in 1861 had no +intention of abolishing slavery. Its purpose was to stop the spread of +slavery into the territories, to stop the admission of more slave +states, but not to abolish slavery in states where it already existed. A +strong wish therefore existed in the North to compromise the sectional +differences. Many plans for a compromise were offered, but only one, +that of Crittenden, of Kentucky, need be mentioned. He proposed that the +Constitution should be so amended as to provide + +1. That all territory of the United States north of 36 deg. 30' should be +free, and all south of it slave soil. + +2. That slaves should be protected as property by all the departments of +the territorial government. + +3. That states should be admitted with or without slavery as their +constitutions provided, whether the states were north or south of +36 deg. 30'. + +4. That Congress should have no power to shut slavery out of the +territories. + +5. That the United States should pay owners for rescued fugitive slaves. + +As these propositions recognized the right of property in slaves, that +is, put the black man on a level with horses and cattle, the Republicans +rejected them, and the attempt to compromise ended in failure. + +%423. A Proposed Thirteenth Amendment%.--One act of great +significance was done. A proposition to add a thirteenth amendment to +the Constitution was submitted to the states. It read, + +"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or +give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with +the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to +labor or service by the laws of said states." + +Even Lincoln approved of this, and two states, Maryland and Ohio, +accepted it. But the issue was at hand. It was too late to compromise. + +%424. Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President%.--Lincoln and Hamlin were +inaugurated on March 4, 1861, and in his speech from the Capitol steps +Lincoln was very careful to state just what he wanted to do. + +1. "I have no purpose," said he, "directly or indirectly, to interfere +with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists." + +2. "I consider the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I +shall take care ... that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in +all the states." + +3. "In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there +shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority." + +4. "The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess +the property and places belonging to the government and to collect the +duties and imposts." + +[Illustration: Fort Sumter] + +%425. Civil War begins.%--One of the places Lincoln thus pledged +himself to "hold" was Fort Sumter, to which he decided to send men and +supplies. As soon as notice of this intention was sent to Governor +Pickens of South Carolina, the Confederate commander at Charleston, +General Beauregard (bo-ruh-gar'), demanded the surrender of the fort. +Major Anderson stoutly refused to comply with the demand, and at dawn on +the morning of April 12, 1861, the Confederates fired the first gun at +Sumter. During the next thirty-four hours, nineteen batteries poured +shot and shell into the fort, which steadily returned the fire. Then +both food and powder were nearly exhausted, and part of the fort being +on fire, Anderson surrendered; and on Sunday, April 14, 1861, he marched +out, taking with him the tattered flag under which he made so gallant a +fight.[1] The fleet sent to his aid arrived in time to see the battle, +but did not give him any help. After the surrender, one of the ships +carried Anderson and the garrison to New York.[2] + +[Footnote 1: "Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until +the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the +gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and +its door closed from the effect of heat, four barrels and three +cartridges of powder being available, and no provisions remaining but +pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard . . . +and marched out of the fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with +colors flying and drums beating . . . and saluting my flag with fifty +guns."--_Major Anderson to the Secretary of War._] + +[Footnote 2: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. I., pp. +60-73.] + +%426. The Life of the Republic at Stake%.--Thus was begun the +greatest war in modern history. It was no vulgar struggle for territory, +or for maritime or military supremacy. The life of the Union was at +stake. The questions to be decided were: Shall there be one or two +republics on the soil of the United States? Shall the great principle of +all democratic-republican government, the principle that the will of the +majority shall rule, be maintained or abandoned? Shall state sovereignty +be recognized? Shall states be suffered to leave the Union at will, or +shall the United States continue to exist as "an indestructible Union of +indestructible States"? As Mr. Lincoln said, "Both parties deprecated +war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; +and the other would accept war rather than let it perish." + +%427. The South better prepared%.--For the struggle which was to +decide these questions neither side was ready, but the South was better +prepared than the North. The South was united as one man. The North was +divided and full of Southern sympathizers. She knew not whom to trust. +Officers of the army, officers of the navy, were resigning every day. +The great departments of government at Washington contained many men who +furnished information to Southern officials. Seventeen steam war vessels +(two thirds of all that were not laid up or unfit for service) were in +foreign parts. Large quantities of military supplies had been stored in +Southern forts. All the great powers of Europe save Russia were hostile +to our republic, and would gladly have seen it rent in twain. The South, +again, had the advantage in that she was to act on the defensive. + +[Illustration: The United States July 1861 Showing the greatest +extension of the Southern Confederacy] + +%428. Results of firing on the Flag.%--Not a man was killed on either +side during the bombardment of Sumter. Yet the battle was a famous one, +and led to greater consequences: + +1. Lincoln at once called for 75,000 militia to serve for three months. + +2. Four "border states," as they were called, thus forced to choose +their side, seceded. They were Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and +Tennessee. + +3. The Congress of the United States was called to meet at Washington, +July 4, 1861. + +4. After Virginia seceded, the capital of the Confederacy, at the +invitation of the Virginia secession convention, was moved from +Montgomery to Richmond, and the Confederate Congress adjourned to meet +there July 20, 1861. + +%429. West Virginia.%--The act of secession by Virginia was promptly +repudiated by the people of the counties west of the mountains, who +refused to secede, and voted to form a new state under the name of +Kanawha. They adopted a constitution and were finally admitted in 1863 +as the state of West Virginia[1]. + +[Footnote 1: A state made out of part of another state cannot be +admitted into the Union without the consent of that state first +obtained. But as Congress and the people of West Virginia considered +that Virginia consisted of that part of the Old Dominion which remained +loyal to the Union, the people practically asked their own consent.] + +%430. The Call to Arms.%--Lincoln held that no state could ever leave +the Union, and that therefore no state had left the Union. Those which +had passed ordinances of secession were to his mind states whose +machinery of government had been seized on by persons in insurrection +against the government of the United States. When, therefore, he made +his call for 75,000 militia to defend the Union, he apportioned the +number among all the states, slave and free, north and south, east and +west, according to their population. Those forming the Confederacy paid +no attention to the call. The governors of the border slave states +(Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri) returned +evasive or insulting answers. + +But the people of the loyal states responded instantly, and tens of +thousands of troops were soon on their way to Washington. To get there +was a hard matter. Baltimore lay on the most direct railroad route +between the Eastern and Middle States and Washington. But Baltimore was +full of disloyal men, who tore up the railroads, burned bridges, cut the +telegraph wires, and as the Massachusetts 6th regiment was passing +through the city from one railroad station to another, attacked it, +killing some and wounding others of its soldiers. This forced the troops +from the other states to go by various routes to Annapolis and then to +Washington, so that it was late in April before enough arrived to insure +the safety of the city. + +Though none of the border and seceded states sent troops, the response +of the loyal states to Lincoln's call was so hearty that more than +75,000 men were furnished. The President decided to turn this outburst +of patriotism to good purpose, and May 3, 1861, asked for 42,034 +volunteers for three years unless sooner discharged, and ordered 18,000 +seamen to be enlisted, and 22,714 men added to the regular army. +Baltimore was now occupied by Union troops, and communication with +Washington through that city was restored and protected. + +On July 1, 1861, there were 183,588 "boys in blue" under arms and +present for duty. These were distributed at various places north of the +line, 2000 miles long, which divided the North and South. This line +began near Fort Monroe, in Virginia, ran up Chesapeake Bay and the +Potomac to the mountains, then across Western Virginia and through +Kentucky, Missouri, and Indian Territory to New Mexico. + +This line was naturally divided into three parts: + +1. That in Virginia and along the Potomac. + +2. That occupied by Kentucky, a state which had declared itself neutral. + +3. That west of the Mississippi. + +%431. The Battle of "Bull Run" or Manassas%.--General Winfield Scott +was in command of the Union army. Under him, in command of the troops +about Washington, was General Irwin McDowell. Further to the west, near +Harpers Ferry, was a Union force under General Patterson. In western +Virginia, with an army raised largely in Ohio, was General George B. +McClellan. In Missouri was General Lyon, aided by all the Union people +in the state, who were engaged in a desperate struggle to keep her in +the Union. + +In northern Virginia and opposed to the Union forces under General +McDowell, was a Confederate army under General Beauregard, and these +troops the people of the North demanded should be attacked. "The +Confederate Congress must not meet at Richmond!" "On to Richmond! On to +Richmond!" became the cries of the hour. General McDowell, with 30,000 +men, was therefore ordered to attack Beauregard. McDowell found him near +Manassas, some thirty miles southwest of Washington, and there, on the +field of "Bull Run," on Sunday, July 21, 1861, was fought a famous +battle which ended with the defeat and flight of the Union army[1]. + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp. +229-239.] + +General George B. McClellan, who had defeated the Confederate forces in +western Virginia in several battles, was now placed in command of the +troops near Washington, and spent the rest of 1861 and part of 1862 in +drilling and organizing his army. Bull Run had taught the people two +things: 1. That the war was not to end in three months; 2. That an army +without discipline is not much better than a mob. + +%432. Fort Donelson and Fort Henry%.--While McClellan was drilling +his men along the Potomac, the Union forces drove back the Confederates +in the West. The Confederate line at first extended as shown by the +heavy line on the map on p. 390. In order to break it, General Buell +sent a small force under General Thomas, in January, 1862, to drive back +the Confederates near Mill Springs. Next, in February, General Halleck +authorized General U. S. Grant and Flag Officer Foote to make a joint +expedition against Fort Henry on the Tennessee. But Foote arrived first +and captured the fort, whereupon Grant marched to Fort Donelson on the +Cumberland, eleven miles away, and after three days of sharp fighting +was asked by General Buckner what terms he would offer. Grant +promptly answered, + +[Illustration: Handwritten note of Grant] + +No terms excepting unconditional and +immediate surrender can be accepted. +I propose to receive immediately upon +your word. + I am Sir: very respectfully + your ** ** + U. S. Grant + Brig. Gen. + +Buckner at once surrendered (February 16, 1862), and Grant won the first +great Union victory of the war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol. I., pp. +398-429; Grant's _Memoirs_, Vol. I., pp. 285-315.] + +%433. The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing.%--After the fall of +Fort Donelson, the Confederates, abandoning Columbus and Nashville, +hurried south toward Corinth in Mississippi, whither Halleck's army +followed in three parts. One under General S. E. Curtis moved to +southwestern Missouri, and beat the Confederates at Pea Ridge, Ark. +(March 6-8). The second, under General John Pope, cooeperated with Flag +Officer Foote, from the west bank of the Mississippi, in the capture of +Island No. 10 (April 7). Pope then joined Halleck in the movement +against Corinth, while the fleet went on down the river, attacked Fort +Pillow three times, captured it (June 4), and two days later +took Memphis. + +Meanwhile the third part of Halleck's army, under Grant, following the +Confederates, had reached Pittsburg Landing, where (April 6) he was +suddenly attacked by General A. S. Johnston and driven back. But General +Buell coming up with fresh troops, the battle was resumed the next day +(April 7), when Grant regained his lost ground, and the Confederates +fell back to Corinth.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,_ Vol., pp. 465-486.] + +[Illustration: Driving back the Confederate line in the West] + +At this point General Henry Halleck arrived and took command, and at the +end of May occupied Corinth. Memphis then fell, and the Mississippi +River was opened as far south as Vicksburg. After the capture of +Memphis, Halleck went to Washington to take command of the armies of the +United States. + +%434. Bragg's Raid into Kentucky.%--The Confederate line which in +January, 1862, had passed across Kentucky had thus by June been driven +southward to Chattanooga, Iuka, and Holly Springs. The Union line ran +from near Chattanooga to Corinth and Memphis. Against this the +Confederates now moved, with the hope of breaking through and driving it +back. Gathering his forces at Chattanooga, General Bragg rushed across +Tennessee and Kentucky toward Louisville. But General Buell, perceiving +his purpose, outmarched him, reached the Ohio, and forced Bragg to fall +back. At Perryville (October 8, 1862), Bragg turned furiously on Buell +and was beaten. + +%435. Iuka and Corinth.%--While Bragg was raiding Kentucky, Generals +Price at Iuka and Van Dorn at Holly Springs, knowing that Grant's army +had been greatly weakened by sending troops to Buell, prepared to attack +Corinth. But Grant, thinking he could fight them separately, sent +Rosecrans to Iuka (September 19). Price was not captured, but retreated +to Van Dorn, and the two then fell upon Rosecrans at Corinth (October +4), only to be beaten and chased forty miles. + +%436. Murfreesboro.%--For these successes Rosecrans (October 30) was +given command of Buell's army, then centering at Nashville. Bragg went +into winter quarters at Murfreesboro, and thither Rosecrans advanced to +attack him. The contest at Murfreesboro (December 31, 1862, and January +2, 1863) was one of the most bloody battles of the whole war. Bragg was +again defeated, and retreated to a position farther south. + +%437. Arkansas%.--In January, 1862, the Confederate line west of the +Mississippi extended from Belmont across southern Missouri to the Indian +Territory. Against the west end of this line General Curtis moved in +February, 1862, and after driving the Confederates under Van Dorn and +Price out of Missouri, beat them in the desperate battle at Pea Ridge, +Arkansas (March 6-8, 1862), and moved to the interior of the state. +Price and Van Dorn went east into Mississippi (see Sec. 435), and when the +year closed the Union forces were in control north of the Arkansas +River, and along the west bank of the Mississippi. On the east bank the +only fortified positions in Confederate hands were Vicksburg, Grand +Gulf, and Port Hudson. + +%438. Farragut captures New Orleans.%--While Foote was opening the +upper part of the Mississippi, a naval expedition under Farragut, +supported by an army under Butler, had cleared the lower part of the +river. These forces had been sent by sea to capture New Orleans. The +defenses of the city consisted of two strong forts almost directly +opposite each other on the banks of the river, about seventy-five miles +south of the city; of two great chain cables stretched across the river +below the forts to prevent ships coming up; and of fifteen armed vessels +above the forts. New Orleans was thought to be safe. But Farragut was +not dismayed. Sailing up the river till he came to the chains, he +bombarded the forts for six days and nights, while the forts did their +best to destroy him. Then, finding he could do nothing in this way, he +cut the chains, ran his ships past the forts in spite of a dreadful fire +(April 24, 1862), destroyed the Confederate fleet (April 25), and took +the city. General Butler, who had been waiting at Ship Island with +15,000 men, then entered and held New Orleans.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Farragut, after taking New Orleans, went up the river and +captured Baton Rouge and Natchez.] + +%439. The Peninsular Campaign against Richmond.%--The signal success +of Grant and Farragut in the West was more than offset by the signal +failure of McClellan in the East. The wish of the administration, and +indeed of the whole North, was that Richmond should be captured. Against +it, therefore, the Army of the Potomac was to move. But by what route? +The government wanted McClellan to march south across Virginia, so that +his army should always be between the Confederate forces and Washington. +McClellan insisted on moving west from Chesapeake Bay. The result was a +compromise: + +1. Forces under Fremont and Banks were to operate in the Shenandoah +valley and prevent a Confederate force attacking Washington from +the west. + +2. An army under McDowell was to march from Fredericksburg to Richmond. + +3. McClellan was to take the main army from Washington by water to Fort +Monroe, and then march up the peninsula to Richmond, where McDowell was +to join him. + +[Illustration: The Peninsula Campaign] + +This peninsula, from which the campaign gets its name, lies between the +York and James rivers. Landing at the lower end of it, McClellan was met +by General Joseph E. Johnston, who caused a long delay by forcing him to +besiege Yorktown. McClellan then advanced up the peninsula, fighting the +battle of Williamsburg on the way. At White House Landing he turned +toward Richmond, extending his right flank to Hanover Courthouse, where +McDowell was expected to join him. But this was not to be, for General +T. J. Jackson ("Stonewall" Jackson) rushed down the Shenandoah valley, +driving Banks over the Potomac into Maryland, and retreated south before +Fremont or McDowell could cut him off; during this campaign he won four +desperate battles in thirty-five days. Jackson's success alarmed +Washington, and McDowell was held in northern Virginia. McClellan's +army, meanwhile, advanced on both sides of the Chickahominy River to +within eight miles of Richmond. At Fair Oaks and Seven Pines (May 31) +his left flank was almost overwhelmed by Johnston; but the latter was +wounded and his troops defeated. Johnston was then succeeded by R. E. +Lee, who, joined by Jackson, attacked McClellan at Mechanicsville and +Games Mill, and forced him to fall back, fighting for six days (June 26 +to July 1, 1862)[1] as he retreated to Harrisons Landing, on the James +River. There the army remained till August, when it was recalled to +the Potomac. + +[Footnote 1: The "Seven Days' Battles" are these and one fought June +25.] + +%440. Lee's Raid into Maryland; Battle of Antietam, or +Sharpsburg.%--While the Army of the Potomac was at Harrisons Landing, +a new force called the Army of Virginia was organized, and General John +Pope placed in command. At the same time General Halleck was recalled +from the West and made general in chief of the Union armies. Pope +intended to move straight against Richmond. But when McClellan in +obedience to orders left Harrisons Landing and took his army by water to +the Potomac, near Washington, the Confederate army was left free to act +as it pleased. Seeing his opportunity, Lee moved at once against Pope's +army, whose line stretched along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers to +the Shenandoah valley in western Virginia. Near the Rapidan at Cedar +Mountain was General Banks. He was first attacked and beaten; after +which Lee fell upon Pope on the old field of Bull Run, and put the army +to flight. Pope fell back to Washington, where his forces were united +with those of McClellan. Pushing northward, Lee next crossed the Potomac +and entered Maryland. But he was overtaken by McClellan at Antietam +Creek, near Sharpsburg, where, September 17, 1862, a great battle was +fought, after which Lee went back to Virginia. + +McClellan was now removed and the command of the army given to General +Burnside. He was as reckless as McClellan was cautious, and on December +13 threw his army against the Confederates posted at Fredericksburg +Heights and was beaten with dreadful slaughter. Thus at the end of 1862 +Richmond was not captured, and the two armies went into winter quarters +with the Rappahannock River between them. + +%441. Emancipation of the Slaves%.--More than two years had now +passed since South Carolina had seceded, and during this time a great +change had taken place in the feeling of the North towards slavery. When +Lincoln was inaugurated, very few people wanted the slaves emancipated. +But two years of bloody fighting had convinced the North that the Union +could not exist part slave, part free. As Lincoln said in his speech at +Springfield in 1858, "It must be all one thing, or all the other." +Seeing that the people now felt as he did, Lincoln, in 1862 (March 6), +asked Congress to agree to buy the slaves of the loyal slave states, and +urged the members of Congress from those states to advise their +constituents to set free their slaves and receive $300 apiece for them. +This they would not do; whereupon he decided to act upon his own +authority, and declared all slaves within the lines of the Confederacy +to be freemen. + +For this he had two good reasons: 1. So far the war had been one for the +preservation of the Union. By making it a war for union and freedom the +North would become more earnest than ever. 2. The rulers of England, who +wanted Southern cotton, were only waiting for a pretext to acknowledge +the independence of the South. If, however, the North engaged in a war +for the abolition of slavery, the people of England would not allow the +independence of the Confederacy to be acknowledged by their rulers. + +The time to make such a declaration was after some victory gained by the +Union army. When McClellan and Lee stood face to face at Antietam, +Lincoln therefore "vowed to God" that if Lee were defeated he would +issue the proclamation. Lee was defeated, and, on September 22, 1862, +the proclamation came forth declaring that if the Confederate States did +not return to their allegiance before January 1, 1863, "all persons held +as slaves" within the Confederate lines "shall be then, thenceforth, and +forever free." The states of course did not return to their allegiance, +and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was issued setting the +slaves free.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Nicolay and Hay's _Life of Lincoln, _Vol. VI., Chaps. 6, +8.] + +Now, there are three things in connection with the Emancipation +Proclamation which must be understood and remembered: + +1. Lincoln did not _abolish slavery_ anywhere. He _emancipated_ or _set +free the slaves_ of certain persons engaged in waging war against the +United States government. + +2. The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to any of the loyal slave +states,[1] nor to such territory as the Union army had reconquered.[2] +In none of these places did it free slaves. + +[Footnote 1: Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.] + +[Footnote 2: Tennessee, thirteen parishes in Louisiana, and seven +counties in Virginia.] + +3. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his power as commander in chief +of the army of the United States, "and as a fit and necessary +war measure." + +%442. The Battle of Gettysburg.%--After Burnside was defeated at +Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he was removed, and General Hooker +put in command of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker--"Fighting Joe," as he +was called--led it against Lee, and (May 1-4, 1863) was beaten at +Chancellorsville and fell back. In June Lee again took the offensive, +rushed down the Shenandoah valley to the Potomac, crossed Maryland, and +entered Pennsylvania, with the Army of the Potomac in pursuit. On +reaching Maryland, Hooker was removed and General Meade put in command. +The opposing forces met on the hills at Gettysburg, Penn., and there, +July 1-3, Lee attacked Meade. The contest was a dreadful one; no field +was ever more stubbornly fought over. About one fourth of the men +engaged were killed or wounded. But the splendid courage of the Union +army prevailed: Lee was beaten and retired to Virginia, where he +remained unmolested till the spring of 1864. Gettysburg is regarded as +the greatest battle of the war, and the Union regiments engaged have +taken a just pride in marking the positions they held during the three +awful days of slaughter, till the field is dotted all over with +beautiful monuments. On the hill back of the village is a great +national cemetery, at the dedication of which Lincoln delivered his +famous Gettysburg address. + +[Illustration: Part of the battlefield of Gettysburg] + +%443. Vicksburg%.--The day after the victory at Gettysburg, the joy +of the North was yet more increased by the news that Vicksburg had +surrendered (July 4) to Grant. After the defeat, of the Confederate +forces at Iuka and Corinth in 1862, the Confederate line passed across +northern Mississippi, touched the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, +and then swept off to the Gulf. As the capture of these river towns +would complete the opening of the Mississippi, Grant set out to take +Vicksburg. Failing in a direct advance through Mississippi, Grant sent a +strong force down the river from Memphis, and later took command in +person. Vicksburg stands on the top of a bluff which rises steep and +straight 200 feet above the river, and had been so fortified that to +capture it seemed impossible. But Grant was determined to open the +river. On the west bank, he cut a canal through a bend, hoping to divert +the river and get water passage by the town. This failed, and he decided +to cross below the town and attack from the land. To aid him in this +attempt, Porter ran his gunboats past the town one night in April and +carried the army over the river. Landing on the east bank, Grant won a +victory at Port Gibson, and occupied Grand Gulf. Hearing that Johnston +was coming to help Pemberton, Grant pushed in between them, beat +Johnston at Jackson, and turning westward, drove Pemberton into +Vicksburg, and began a regular siege. For seven weeks he poured in shot +and shell day and night. To live in houses became impossible, and the +women and children took refuge in caves. Food gave out, and after every +kind of misery had been endured till it could be borne no longer, +Vicksburg was surrendered on July 4. + +[Illustration: The Vicksburg Campaign] + +Five days later (July 9, 1863), Port Hudson surrendered, and the +Mississippi, as Lincoln said, "flowed unvexed to the sea." It was open +from its source to its mouth, and the Confederacy was cut in two. + +%444. Driving the Confederates eastward; Chickamauga and +Chattanooga%.--While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Rosecrans by +skillful work forced Bragg to retreat from his position south of +Murfreesboro; then in a second campaign he forced Bragg to leave +Chattanooga and retire into northwestern Georgia. Bragg here received +more troops, and attacked Rosecrans in the Chickamauga valley (September +19 and 20, 1863), where was fought one of the most desperate battles of +the war. So fierce was the onset of the Confederates that the Union +right wing was driven from the field. But the left wing, under General +George H. Thomas, a grand character and a splendid officer, by some of +the best fighting ever seen held the enemy in check and saved the army +from rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of "the Rock of +Chickamauga." + +Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, and taking +position on the hills and mountains which surround the town on the east +and south, shut in the Union army and besieged it. For a time it seemed +in danger of starvation. But Hooker was sent from Virginia with more +troops; the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman was summoned from +Vicksburg; Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, and Grant was put in +command of all. Then matters changed. The forces under Thomas, moving +from their lines, seized some low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, +east of Chattanooga (November 23). On the 24th, Hooker carried the +Confederate works on Lookout Mountain, southwest of the city, in a +conflict often called the "Battle above the Clouds"; and Sherman was +sent against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, but succeeded only in +taking an outlying hill. On the 25th Sherman renewed his attack, but +failed to gain the main crest, whereupon Thomas attacked the Ridge in +front of Chattanooga, carried the heights, and drove off the enemy. +Bragg retreated to Dalton, in northwestern Georgia, where the command of +his army was given to Joseph E. Johnston. + +%445. "Marching through Georgia"; "From Atlanta to the Sea."%--As the +Confederates had thus been driven from the Mississippi River, and forced +back to the mountains, they had but two centers of power left. The one +was the army under Lee, which, since the defeat at Gettysburg, had been +lying quietly behind the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, protecting +Richmond. The other was the army at Dalton, Ga., now under J. +E. Johnston. + +[Illustration: WAR FOR THE UNION Breaking the Confederate Line] + +Early in the spring of 1864 General U.S. Grant--"Unconditional Surrender +Grant," as the people called him--was made lieutenant general (a rank +never before given to any United States soldier except Washington and +Scott), and put in command of all the Federal armies. General Sherman +was left in command of the military division of the Mississippi. + +Before beginning the campaign, Grant and Sherman agreed on a plan. +Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was to drive back Lee and take +Richmond. Sherman, with the armies of Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, +was to attack Johnston and push his way into Georgia. Each was to begin +his movement on the same day (May 4, 1864). + +On that day, accordingly, Sherman with 98,000 men marched against +Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and step by step through the +mountains to Atlanta, fighting all the way. Johnston's retreat was +masterly. He intended to retreat until Sherman's army was so weakened by +leaving guards in the rear to protect the railroads, over which food and +supplies must come, that he could fight on equal terms. But Jefferson +Davis removed Johnston at Atlanta, and put J. B. Hood in command. + +Hood, in July, made three furious attacks, was beaten each time; +abandoned Atlanta in September, and soon after started northwestward, in +hope of drawing Sherman out of Georgia. But Sherman sent Thomas and a +part of the army to Tennessee, and after following Hood for a time, he +returned to Atlanta, tearing up the railroads as he went. Then, having +partly burned the town, in November he started for the sea with 60,000 +of his best veterans. + +[Illustration: SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA] + +The troops went in four columns, covering a belt of sixty miles wide, +burning bridges, tearing up railroads, living on the country as they +marched. Early in December the army drew near to Savannah; about the +middle of the month (December 13) Fort McAllister was taken; and a few +days later the city of Savannah was occupied. During all this long march +to the sea, nothing was known in the North as to where Sherman was or +what he was doing. Fancy the delight of Lincoln, then, when on the +Christmas eve of 1864, he received this telegram: + + SAVANNAH, Georgia, December 22, 1864. + +To His EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, D.C. + +I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one +hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also about +twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. + + W. T. SHERMAN, MAJOR GENERAL. + +Sherman had sent the message by vessel to Fort Monroe, whence it was +telegraphed to Lincoln. + +%446. Sherman marches northward.%--At Savannah the army rested for a +month. Sherman tells us in his _Memoirs_ that the troops grew impatient +at this delay, and used to call out to him as he rode by: "Uncle Billy, +I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond." So he was; but he did not +wait very long, for on February 1, 1865, the march was resumed. The way +was across South Carolina to Columbia, and then into North Carolina, +with their old enemy, J. E. Johnston, in their front. Hood, in a rash +moment, had besieged Thomas at Nashville; but Thomas, coming out from +behind his intrenchments, utterly destroyed Hood's army. This forced +Davis to put Johnston in command of a new army made up of troops taken +from the seaport garrisons and remnants of Hood's army. In March, +Sherman reached Goldsboro in North Carolina. + +%447. Grant in Virginia.%--Meantime Grant had set out from Culpeper +Courthouse on May 4, 1864, crossed the Rapidan, and entered the +"Wilderness," a name given to a tract of country covered with dense +woods of oak and pine and thick undergrowth. The fighting was almost +incessant. The loss of life was frightful; but he pushed on to +Spottsylvania Courthouse, and thence to Cold Harbor, part of the line of +fortifications before Richmond. He would, as he said, "fight it out on +this line if it takes all summer," and went south of Richmond and +besieged Petersburg. + +%448. Early's Raid, 1864.%--Lee now sent Jubal Early with 20,000 +soldiers to move down the Shenandoah valley, enter Maryland, and +threaten Washington. This he did, and after coming up to the +fortifications of the city, he retreated to Virginia. A little later, +Early sent his cavalry into Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg. + +Grant thought it was time to stop this, and sent Sheridan with an army +to drive Early out of the Shenandoah valley. "It is desirable," said +Grant, "that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return." + +Sheridan set out accordingly, and on September 19 he met Early in battle +at Winchester, and a few days later at Fishers Hill, beat him at both +places, and sent him whirling up the valley. Sheridan followed for a +time, and then brought his army back to Cedar Creek, after burning +barns, destroying crops, and devastating the entire upper valley. + +%449. Sheridan's Ride.%--And now occurred a famous incident. About +the middle of October Sheridan went to Washington, and while on his way +back slept on the night of October 18 at Winchester. At 7 A.M. on the +19th he heard guns, but paid no attention to the sounds till 9 o'clock, +when, as he rode quietly out of Winchester, he met a mile from town +wagon trains and fugitives, and heard that Early had surprised his camp +at daylight. Dashing up the pike with an escort of twenty men, calling +to the fugitives as he passed them to turn and face the enemy, he met +the army drawn up in line eleven miles from Winchester. "Far away in the +rear," says an old soldier, "we heard cheer after cheer. Were +reinforcements coming? Yes, Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a +host." Dashing down the line, Sheridan shouted, "What troops are these?" +"The Sixth Corps," came back the response from a hundred voices. "We are +all right," said Sheridan, as he swung his old hat and dashed along the +line to the right. "Never mind, boys, we'll whip them yet. We shall +sleep in our old quarters to-night." And they did.[1] Early +was defeated. + +[Footnote:1] Read Sheridan's account in his _Personal Memoirs, _Vol. +II., pp. 66-92. + +%450. Surrender of Lee.%--At the beginning of 1865 the situation of +Lee was desperate, and in February, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice +President of the Confederacy, met Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a war +vessel in Hampton Roads to discuss terms of peace. Lincoln demanded +three things: 1. That the Confederate armies be disbanded and the men +sent home. 2. That the Confederate States submit to the rule of +Congress. 3. That slavery be abolished. These terms were not accepted, +and the war went on. Sherman marched northward through the Carolinas and +was reenforced from the coast; every seaport in the Confederacy was soon +in Union hands; Sheridan finally dispersed Early's troops, and joined +Grant before Petersburg; and the lines of Grant's army were drawn closer +and closer around Petersburg and Richmond. + +Plainly the end was near. On April 2 Lee announced to Davis that both +Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned at once. The rams in the James +River were immediately blown up, and on the morning of April 3 General +Weitzel, hearing from a negro what was going on, entered Richmond and +found that Lee was in full retreat. Grant followed, and on April 9 +forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, seventy-five miles +west of Richmond. Grant's treatment of Lee was most generous. He was not +required to give up his sword, nor his officers their side arms, nor his +men their horses, which they would need, Grant said, "to work their +little farms." Each officer was to give his parole not to take up arms +against the United States "until properly exchanged"; each regimental +commander was to do the same for his men; and, "this done, each officer +and man will be allowed to return to his home." Immediately after this +surrender 25,000 rations were issued to Lee's men. + +[Illustration: The house in which Lee and Grant arranged the surrender] + +%451. End of the Confederacy.%--What little was left of the +Confederacy now went rapidly to pieces. On April 26 Johnston surrendered +to Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina. A few days later the victorious +army started for Richmond, and then went on over battle-scarred +Virginia to Washington. May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured. When Lee +fled from Richmond, Davis hurried to Charlotte, N.C., with his cabinet, +his clerks, and such gold and silver coin as was in the Confederate +Treasury. But the surrender of Johnston forced Davis to retreat still +farther south, till he reached Irwinsville, Ga., where the Union cavalry +overtook him. + +%452. The Grand Army disbands.%--As this was practically the end of +the Confederacy, the great Union army of citizen soldiers, numbering +more than 1,000,000 men, was called home from the field and disbanded. +Before these veterans separated, never to meet again with arms in their +hands, they were reviewed by the President, Congress, and an immense +throng of people who came to Washington from every part of the loyal +states to welcome them. During two days (May 23 and 24, 1865) the +soldiers of Grant and Sherman, forming a column thirty miles long, +marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and then, with a rapidity and +quietness that seems almost incredible, scattered and went back to their +farms, to their shops, to the practice of their professions, and to the +innumerable occupations of civil life. + +Of the Confederates not one was molested, not a soldier was imprisoned, +not a political leader suffered death. Davis was ordered to be +imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years, but he was soon released on +bail, was never brought to trial, and died at New Orleans in 1889. + + +SUMMARY + +1. After the election of Lincoln seven states seceded from the Union, +and formed the "Confederate States of America." + +2. Four other states joined the Confederacy later. + +3. The refusal of the United States to recognize the right to secede led +to the refusal to give up Federal forts in Charleston harbor. The +attempt to take Sumter by force led to the appeal to arms. + +4. The line which separated the troops of the two governments ran from +Chesapeake Bay, across Virginia, and through Kentucky and Missouri, to +New Mexico. + +5. While the Union troops held the Confederates in check on the eastern +end of the line, they broke through the line in the West, and, aided by +the Union fleet, opened the Mississippi River. + +6. The Confederates were thus driven from the Mississippi and forced +back to the mountains of Georgia. Sherman was sent against them, and in +1864 marched eastward through the heart of the Confederacy to +the Atlantic. + +7. Marching north from Savannah, across Georgia and South Carolina, to +Goldsboro in North Carolina, he was now in the rear of the Confederate +army in Virginia. + +8. Grant, meantime, with the Army of the Potomac, had fought a series of +battles with Lee, and had besieged Richmond and Petersburg; and +Sheridan had cleared out the Shenandoah valley. + +9. Lee was thus forced, early in 1865, to leave Richmond, and while +retreating westward he was forced to surrender. + + SECESSION AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION + | +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + _The South_ _The North_ +The cotton states secede. Attempts to compromise. +The Confederacy formed. Buchanan's attitude. +A constitution adopted. The Crittenden Compromise. +Unites States property seized. A Thirteenth Amendment proposed. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + | | + ------------------------------------------ + | + ------------------------------------------ + Buchanan attempts to provision Fort Sumter + _Star of the West_ fired on. + ------------------------------------------ + | + ------------------- + Lincoln inaugurated. + ------------------- + | + ------------------------------------------ + Lincoln attempts to provision Fort Sumter + The fort bombarded. The surrender. + ------------------------------------------ + | +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +Arkansas, North Carolina, The call to arms. + Virginia, and Tennessee secede. The march to Washington +Richmond made the capital Fight in the streets of + of the Confederacy. Baltimore. ------------------------------------------------------------------ + | | + ----------------------------------------- + | + ------------------ + _The war opens_ + ------------------- + | +----------------------------------------------------------------- +_Fighting in the West._ _Fighting along the Potomac and in + Virginia_ +_1861-1862._ Breaking the _1861._ The attempt to take Richmond. + Confederate line. Battle of Bull Run. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +1. Line broken at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and driven out of +Kentucky and West Tennessee. + +2. Driven out of Missouri and North Arkansas. + +3. New Orleans taken. + +4. Mississippi River nearly open. + +_1863_. 1. Vicksburg and Port Hudson taken, and Mississippi River open +to the Gulf. + +2. The Confederacy cut in two. + +3. Arkansas and East Tennessee recovered. + +_1864_. Driving the Confederate line eastward. + +1. Sherman's march to Atlanta; to the sea. + +2. The Confederacy again cut in two. + +_1865_. Driving the Confederate line northward. + +1. Sherman marches northward from Savannah to Goldsboro. + +2. Surrender of Johnston to Sherman. + + +_1862_ The attempt on Richmond renewed. +------------------------ ------------------------ -------------------------- +1. Fremont and Banks to 2. McDowell to move from 3. McClellan to move up + hold the Shenandoah Fredericksburg. Peninsula from Fort + valley. ------------+----------- Monroe. +------------+----------- | -------------+------------ + | ------------+----------- | +------------+----------- Jackson's success in the -------------+------------ +Defeated by Jackson. Shenandoah valley leads McClellan, left without +------------------------ to recall of McDowell. support of McDowell, + -------------------------- is defeated, changes base + to James River, and in + August is recalled north. + -------------+------------ + | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Removal of McClellan's army leaves Lee free to act. +He attacks Pope and defeats him on old field of Bull Run. +After defeat of Pope, he rushes into Maryland, where, at Antietam, he is + defeated, and goes back to Virginia. +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- + | +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- +1. Union victory at Antietam leads Lincoln to issue the Preliminary + Emancipation Proclamation. +2. McClellan relieved of command and Burnside put in his place. +3. Burnside attacks Lee's army and is beaten at Fredericksburg. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +_1863_. 1. Burnside removed and _1864_. Grant in command. + Hooker in command. 1. The Wilderness and other battles. +2. Hooker defeated at Chancellorsville. 2. Early sent into the Shenandoah +3. Lee runs past and enters Pennsylvania. valley, where Sheridan defeats him. +4. Meade put in command. Battle of _1865_. Richmond taken. + Gettysburg. 1. Lee evacuates the city. +5. Lee beaten and goes back to Virginia. 2. Surrenders to Grant. +6. The turning-point of the war. ------------------+----------------- + | +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + %END OF THE WAR.% + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA + +%453. State of our Navy in 1861.%--On the day our flag went down at +Sumter, the navy of the United States consisted of ninety vessels of +every sort. Fifty of these were sailing ships. Forty were propelled by +steam. Of the steam fleet one was on the Lakes, five were unserviceable, +seventeen were in foreign parts, and nine laid up in navy yards and out +of service. Eight steam vessels (one a mere tender) and five sailing +vessels (a fleet of thirteen) made up the naval force of the United +States that was available for actual service on April 15, 1861. + +%454. The Work before the Navy.%--The duty of the navy was to + +1. Blockade the coast from Norfolk in Virginia to the Bio Grande in +Texas. + +2. Capture the seaports and forts scattered along this coast. + +3. Acquire control of the sounds and bays, as Chesapeake, Albemarle, +Pamlico, Mobile, and Galveston. + +4. Assist the army in opening the Mississippi, Arkansas, and other +rivers. + +5. Destroy all Confederate cruisers and protect the commerce of the +United States. + +To accomplish this great work, most of the vessels abroad were recalled +(a slow process in days when no ocean cable existed), more were hastily +built, and in time 400 merchantmen and river steamboats were bought and +roughly adapted at the navy yards for war service. + +%455. %The Blockade of the Southern Coast.%--The war on sea was +opened (April 19-27,1861) by two proclamations of Lincoln declaring the +coast from Virginia to Texas blockaded. This meant that armed vessels +were to be stationed off the seaports of the South, and that no ships +from any country were to be allowed to go into or out of them. To stop +trade with the South was important for three reasons: + +1. The South had no ships, no great gun factories, machine shops, or +rolling mills, and must look to foreign countries for military supplies. + +2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost all of +which was sold to England and the North, and if this cotton should be +sent abroad, the South could easily buy with it all the guns, ships, and +goods she needed. + +3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and would sell for +it everything the South wanted in exchange. + +The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies of the +South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great commercial nation, +wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless the blockade were rigorous +and close, cotton would be smuggled out and supplies sent in. + +%456. Blockade Runners%.--This is just what did happen. The blockade +in the course of a year was made close, by ships stationed off the +ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places the hulks of old whalers were +loaded with stone and sunk in the channels, and to get in or out became +more difficult. As a result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a +pound in the South (because there was nobody to buy it) and rose to +fifty cents a pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then +"running the blockade" became a regular business. Goods of all sorts +were brought from England to Nassau in the West Indies, where they would +be put on board of vessels built to run the blockade. These blockade +runners were long, low steam vessels which drew only a few feet of water +and had great speed. Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and +were painted a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the +deck, and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They would +leave Nassau at such a time as would enable them to be off Wilmington, +N.C., or some other Southern port, on a moonless night with a high tide, +and then, making a dash, would run through the blockading vessels. Once +in port, they would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark +night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of all kinds were +captured or destroyed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor's _Running the Blockade, _pp. 16-32, +44-54.] + +%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%--While the North was thus busy +destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the +enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships +were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent +a class of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business +it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a +sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The +first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the _Sumter_, which +ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and +within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to +capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped +them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of +Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture. + +%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%--One of the vessels sent in pursuit of +the _Sumter_ was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While +at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate +government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners +to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British +mail steamer _Trent_; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station +in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the _Trent_ came +steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and +Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was +exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever +since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in +1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another +English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in +this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice +of her demand prevented war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Harris's _The Trent Affair._] + +%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%--The loss +of the _Sumter_ was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a +fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the +full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the +_Florida_, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in +the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured +by the United States cruiser _Wachusett_ in the neutral harbor of Bahia +in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and +it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an +unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe,_ Vol. I., pp. 152-224.] + +The next to get afloat was the _Alabama_. She was built at Liverpool +with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of +the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During +two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of +Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even +in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant +vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by +the _Kearsarge_, to which Captain Semmes of the _Alabama_ sent a +challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864, +after a short and gallant engagement, the _Alabama_ was sunk in the +English Channel.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. _Battles and Leaders of the +Civil War,_ Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.] + +The _Shenandoah_, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed +at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and +cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the +China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the +downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe_, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.] + +%460. The Ironclads.%--To blockade the coast and cut off trade was +most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were +seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays +and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was +very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware +of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers +and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These +were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then +covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of +them was the _Merrimac_. + +[Illustration: %Remodeling the Merrimac%] + +[Illustration: %The U.S. steamer Merrimac%] + +%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%--When Sumter was fired on and the +war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at +Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and +immense quantities of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in +charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the +yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, set +fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once +took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer +called the _Merrimac_. made an ironclad ram, which they renamed the +_Virginia_ and sent forth to destroy the wooden vessels of the United +States then assembled in Chesapeake Bay. + +Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our war ships, the +commander of the _Merrimac_ went leisurely to work and began (March 8, +1862) by attacking the _Cumberland_. In her day the _Cumberland_ had +been as fine a frigate as ever went to sea; but the days of wooden ships +were gone, and she was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the +_Merrimac _like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under +steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through which the +water poured. Even then the commander of the _Cumberland_ would not +surrender, but fought his ship till she filled and sank with her guns +booming and her flag flying. After sinking the _Cumberland_, the +_Merrimac_ attacked the _Congress_, forced her to surrender, set her on +fire, and, as darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of +the Confederate batteries. + +[Illustration: Monitor, side and deck plan] + +%462. The Monitor.%--Early the next day the _Merrimac_ sailed forth +to finish the work of destruction, and picking out the _Minnesota_, +which was hard and fast in the mud, bore down to attack her. When lo! +from beside the _Minnesota_ started forth the most curious-looking craft +ever seen on water. It was the famous _Monitor_, designed by Captain +John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw propeller and +the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron hull, on top of which +rested a boat-shaped raft covered with sheets of iron which made the +deck. On top of the deck, which was about three feet above the water, +was an iron cylinder, or turret, which revolved by machinery and carried +two guns. She looked, it was said, like "a cheesebox mounted on a raft." + +[Illustration: HAMPTON ROADS] + +The _Monitor_ was built at New York, and was intended for harbor +defense; but the fact that the Confederates were building a great +ironclad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton Roads. The +sea voyage was a dreadful one; again and again she was almost wrecked, +but she weathered the storm, and early on the evening of March 8, 1862, +entered Hampton Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning +_Congress_ and to hear of the sinking of the _Cumberland_. Taking her +place beside the _Minnesota_, she waited for the dawn, and about eight +o'clock saw the _Merrimac_ coming toward her, and, starting out, began +the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither ship +was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now +proved that no wooden ships anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of +wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were +forced to build their navies anew. The _Merrimac_ withdrew from the +fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May, +1862). The _Monitor_ sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort, +N.C. (January, 1863).[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp. +719-750.] + +[Illustration: %An encounter at close range%] + +%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%--Operations along +the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the +mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the +capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862) +control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of +Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and +of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor. +McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the +hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the +end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to +the Gulf was in Union hands. + +Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower +Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in +May, 1862. + +In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was +carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August, +1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that +guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and +took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as +the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the +entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port +of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land +and naval force in January, 1865. + + +SUMMARY + +1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast +of the Confederate States. + +2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco +being sent abroad in return for materials of war. + +3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent. + +4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in +England, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They +inflicted very serious damage. + +5. But the great event of the war was the battle between the ironclads +_Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, which marked the advent of the +iron-armored war ship. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +THE COST OF THE WAR + +%464. The Cost in Money.%--When Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861 and +Lincoln made his call for volunteers, the national debt was $90,000,000, +the annual revenue was $41,000,000, and the annual expenses of the +government $68,000,000. As the expenses were vastly increased by the +outbreak of war, it became necessary to get more money. To do this, +Congress, when it met in July, 1861, began a financial policy which must +be described if we are to understand the later history of our country. + +%465. Power to raise Money.%--The Constitution gives Congress power + +1. "To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises." + +2. "To borrow money on the credit of the United States." + +3. To apportion direct taxes among the several states according to their +population. + +%466. Raising Money by Taxation; Internal Revenue.%--Exercising these +powers, Congress in 1861 increased the duties on articles imported, laid +a direct tax of $20,000,000. and imposed a tax of three per cent on +all incomes over $800. The returns were large, but they fell far short +of the needs of the government, and in 1862 an internal revenue system +was created. Taxes were now imposed on spirits and malt liquors; on +manufactured tobacco; on trades, professions, and occupations; till +almost everything a man ate, drank, wore, bought, sold, or owned was +taxed. The revenue collected from such sources between 1862 and 1865 was +$780,000,000. + +%467. Raising Money "on the Credit of the United States."%--Money +raised by internal revenue and the tariff was largely used to pay +current expenses and the interest on the national debt. The great war +expenses were met by borrowing money in two ways: + +1. By selling bonds. + +2. By issuing "United States notes." + +%468. The Bonded and Interest-paying Debt.%--The bonds were +obligations by which the government bound itself to pay the holder the +sum of money specified in the bond at the end of a certain period of +years, as twenty or thirty or forty. Meantime the holder was to be paid +interest at the rate of five, six, or seven per cent a year. Between +July 1, 1861, and August 31, 1865, when our national debt was greatest, +$1,109,000,000 worth of bonds had been sold to the people and the money +used for war purposes. + +%469. United States Notes.%--The United States notes were of two +kinds: those which bore interest, and those which did not. Those bearing +interest passed under various names, and by 1866 amounted to +$577,000,000. + +United States notes bearing no interest were the "old demand notes," the +"greenbacks," the "fractional currency," and the "national bank notes." + +The greenbacks (a name given them from the green color of their backs) +were authorized early in 1862, were in denominations from $1 up, bore no +interest, were legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, +except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. In time +$450,000,000 were authorized to be issued, and in 1864, $449,000,000 +were in circulation. + +%470. Fractional Currency.%--The issue of the demand notes in 1861, +and the fact, apparent to every one, that Congress must keep on issuing +paper money, led the state banks to suspend specie payment in December, +1861. As a consequence, the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces (and +of course all the gold) disappeared from circulation. This left the +people without small change, and for a time they were forced to pay +their car fare and buy their newspapers and make change with postage +stamps and "token" pieces of brass and copper, which passed from hand to +hand as cents. Indeed, one act of Congress, in July, 1862, made it +lawful to receive postage stamps (in sums under $5) in payment of +government dues. But in March, 1863, another step was taken, and an +issue of $50,000,000 in paper fractional currency was authorized. + +%471. The National Banking System.%--Yet another financial measure to +aid the government was the creation of national banks. In 1863 Congress +established the office of "Comptroller of the Currency," and authorized +him to permit the establishment of banking associations. Each must +consist of not less than five persons, must have a certain capital, and +must deposit with the Treasury Department at Washington government bonds +equal to at least one third of its capital. The Comptroller was then to +issue to each association bank notes not exceeding in value ninety per +cent of the face value of the bonds. It was supposed that the state +banks, which then issued $150,000,000 in 7000 kinds of bank notes, would +take advantage of the law, become national banks, and use this national +money, which would pass all over the country. This would enable the +government to sell the banks $150,000,000 and more of bonds. But the +state banks did not do so till 1865, when a tax of ten per cent was laid +on the amount of paper money each state bank issued. Then, to get rid of +the tax, hundreds of them bought bonds and became national banks. + +%472. The National Debt and State Expenditures.%--On the 31st of +August, 1865, the national debt thus created reached its highest figure, +and was in round numbers $2,845,000,000. + +Besides the debt incurred by the national government, there were heavy +expenditures by the states, and we might say by almost every city and +town, amounting to $468,000,000. But even when the war ended, the outlay +on account of the war did not cease. Each year there was interest to +pay on the bonded debt, and pensions to be given to disabled soldiers +and sailors, and to the widows and orphans of men killed, and claims for +damages of all sorts to be allowed. Between July 1, 1861, and June 30, +1879, the expenditure of the government growing out of the war amounted +to $6,190,000,000. + +Many men who served in the army made great personal sacrifices. They +were taken away from some useful employment, from their farms, their +trades, their business, or their professions. What they might have +earned or accomplished during the time of service was so much loss. + +%473. The Cost in Human Life.%--While the war was raging, Lincoln +made twelve calls for volunteers, to serve for periods varying from 100 +days to three years. The first was the famous call of April 15, 1861, +for 75,000 three-months men; the last was in December, 1864. When the +numbers of soldiers thus summoned from their homes are added, we find +that 2,763,670 were wanted and 2,772,408 responded. This does not mean +that 2,770,000 different men were called into service or were ever at +any one time under arms. Some served for three months, others for six +months, a year, or three years. Very often a man would enlist and when +his term was out would reenlist. The largest number in service at any +time was in April, 1865. It was 1,000,516, of whom 650,000 were fit for +service. In 1865, 800,000 were mustered out between April and October. + +Of those who gave their lives to preserve the Union, 67,000 were killed +in battle, 43,000 died of wounds, and 230,000 of disease and other +causes. In round numbers, 360,000 men gave up their lives in defense of +the Union. How many perished in the Confederate army cannot be stated, +but the loss was quite as large as on the Union side; so that it is safe +to say that more than 700,000 men were killed in the war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A table giving the size of the armies and the loss of life +will be found in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. IV., pp. +767-768.] + +%474. Suffering in the South.%--The South raised all the cotton, +nearly all the rice and tobacco, and one third of the Indian corn grown +in our country, and depended on Europe and the North for manufactured +goods. But when the North, in 1861 and 1862, blockaded her ports and cut +off these supplies, her distress began. Brass bells and brass kettles +were called for to be melted and cast into cannon, and every sort of +fowling piece and old musket was pressed into service and sent to the +troops in the field. As money could not be had, treasury notes were +issued by the million, to be redeemed "six months after the close of the +war." Planters were next pledged to loan the government a share of the +proceeds of their cotton, receiving bonds in return. But the blockade +was so rigorous that very little cotton could get to Europe. When this +failed, provisions for the army were bought with bonds and with paper +money issued by the states. + +This steady issue of paper money, with nothing to redeem it, led to its +rapid decrease in value. In 1864 it took $40 in Confederate paper money +to buy a yard of calico. A spool of thread cost $20; a ham, $150; a +pound of sugar, $75; and a barrel of flour, $1200. + +%475. Makeshifts.%--Thrown on their own resources, the Southern people +became home manufacturers. The inner shuck of Indian corn was made into +hats. Knitting became fashionable. Homespun clothing, dyed with the +extract of black-walnut bark or wild indigo or swamp maple or +elderberries, was worn by everybody. Barrels and boxes which had been +used for packing salt fish and pork were soaked in water, which was +evaporated for the sake of the salt thus extracted. Rye or wheat roasted +and ground became a substitute for coffee, and dried raspberry +leaves for tea. + +Quite as desperate were the shifts to which the South was put for +soldiers. At first every young man was eager to rush to the front. But +as time passed, and the great armies of the North were formed, it became +necessary to force men into the ranks, to "conscript" them; and in 1862 +an act of the Confederate Congress made all males from eighteen to +thirty-five subject to military duty. In September, 1862, all men from +eighteen to forty-five, and later from sixteen to sixty, were subject to +conscription. The slaves, of course, worked on the fortifications, drove +teams, and cooked for the troops. + +%476. Cost to the South%.--Thus drained of her able-bodied +population, the South went rapidly to rack and ruin. Crops fell off, +property fell into decay, business stopped, railroads were ruined +because men could not be had to keep them in repair, and because no +rails could be obtained. The loss inflicted by this general and +widespread ruin can never be even estimated. Cotton, houses, property of +every sort, was destroyed to prevent capture by the Union forces. On +every battlefield incalculable damage was done to woods, villages, +farmhouses, and crops. Bridges were burned; cities, such as Richmond, +Atlanta, Columbia, Charleston, were well-nigh destroyed by fire; +thousands of miles of railroad were torn up and ruined. The loss +entailed by the emancipation of the slaves, supposing each negro worth +$500, amounts to $2,000,000,000. + + +SUMMARY + +1. When the war opened, and the army and navy were called into the +field, Congress proceeded to raise money by three methods: A. Increasing +taxation. B. Issuing bonds. C. Issuing paper money. + +2. Taxation was in three forms: A. Direct tax. B. Tariff duties. C. +Internal revenue, which included a vast number of taxes. + +3. Paper money consisted of treasury notes, United States notes +(greenbacks), fractional currency. + +4. Besides the cost to the nation, there was the cost to the states, +counties, cities, and towns for bounties, and in aid of the war in +general; and the cost to individuals. + +6. There is again the cost produced by the war and still being paid as +pensions, care of national cemeteries, etc., and interest on the +public debt. + +6. The cost in human life was great to both North and South; there was +also a destruction of property and business, the money value of which +cannot be estimated. + + + + +"_THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES._" + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH + +%477. The Reelection of Lincoln%.--While the war was still raging, +the time came, in 1864, for the nomination of candidates for the +Presidency and Vice Presidency. The situation was serious. On the one +hand was the Democratic party, denouncing Mr. Lincoln, insisting that +the war was a failure, and demanding peace at any price. On the other +hand was a large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr. +Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had done things +they thought the Constitution did not permit him to do, and because he +had fixed the conditions on which people in the so-called seceding +states might send representatives and senators to Congress. Between +these two was a party made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who +insisted that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men held a +convention, and dropping the name "Republicans" for the time being, took +that of "National Union party," and renominated Lincoln. For Vice +President they selected Andrew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat +from Tennessee. + +The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention and nominated +John C. Fremont and General John Cochrane. They demanded one term for a +President; the confiscation of the land of rebels; the reconstruction of +rebellious states by Congress, not by the President; vigorous war +measures; and the destruction of slavery forever. + +The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and George H. +Pendleton. The platform demanded "a cessation of hostilities with a view +to a convention of the states," and described the sacrifice of lives and +treasure in behalf of Union as "four years of failure to restore the +Union by the experiment of war." McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, +repudiated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace +first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, and then +peace. "No peace can be permanent without union." The platform said the +war was a failure. McClellan said, "I could not look in the faces of my +gallant comrades of the army and navy ... and tell them that their +labors and the sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren +had been in vain." + +The result was never in doubt. By September Fremont and Cochrane both +withdrew, and in November Lincoln and Johnson were elected, and on March +4, 1865, were sworn into office. + +%478. The Murder of Lincoln%.--By that time the Confederacy was +doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; Savannah and Charleston +were in Union hands, and Lee hard pressed at Richmond. April 9 he +surrendered, and on April 14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the +evacuation of Fort Sumter, Anderson, now a major general, visited the +fort which he had so gallantly defended, and in the presence of the army +and navy raised the tattered flag he pulled down in 1861. + +That night Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington, and while he +was sitting quietly in his box, an actor named John Wilkes Booth came in +and shot him through the head, causing a wound from which the President +died early next morning. His deed done, the assassin leaped from the box +to the stage, and shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis" (So be it always to +tyrants), the motto of Virginia, made his escape in the confusion of the +moment, and mounting a horse, rode away. + +The act of Booth was one result of a conspiracy, the details of which +were soon discovered and the criminals punished. Booth was hunted by +soldiers and shot in a barn in Virginia. His accomplices were either +hanged or imprisoned for life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The best account of the murder of Lincoln is given in "Four +Lincoln Conspiracies" in the _Century Magazine_ for April, 1896.] + +%479. Andrew Johnson, President.%--Lincoln had not been many hours +dead when Andrew Johnson, as the Constitution provides, took the oath of +office and became President of the United States. Before him lay the +most gigantic task ever given to any President. + +%480. Reconstruction.%--To dispose of the Confederate soldiers and +politicians was an easy matter; but to decide what to do with the +Confederate states proved most difficult. Lincoln had always held that +they could not secede. If they could not secede, they had never been out +of the Union, and if they had never been out of the Union, they were +entitled, as of old, to send senators and representatives to Congress. + +[Illustration: Andrew Johnson] + +But whether the states had or had not seceded, the old state governments +of 1861, and the relations these governments once held with the Union, +were destroyed by the so-called secession, and it was necessary to +define some way by which they might be reestablished, or, as it was +called, "reconstructed." + +Toward the end of 1863, accordingly, when the Union army had acquired +possession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Lincoln issued his +"Amnesty Proclamation" and began the work of reconstruction. He +promised, in the first place, that, with certain exceptions, which he +mentioned, he would pardon[1] every man who should lay down his arms and +swear to support and obey the Constitution, and the Emancipation +Proclamation. He promised, in the second place, that whenever, in any +state that had attempted secession, voters equal in number to one tenth +of those who in 1860 voted for presidential electors, should take this +oath and organize a state government, he would recognize it; that is, he +would consider the state "reconstructed," loyal, and entitled to +representation in Congress. + +[Footnote 1: The Constitution gives the President power to pardon all +offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.] + +Following out this plan, the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, and +Louisiana made reconstructed state governments which Lincoln recognized. +But here Congress stepped in, refused to seat the senators from these +states, and made a plan of its own, which Lincoln vetoed. + +%481. Johnson's "My Policy" Plan of Reconstruction.%--So the matter +stood when Lee and Johnston surrendered, when Davis was captured, and +the Confederacy fell to pieces. All the laws enacted by the Confederate +Congress at once became null and void. Taxes were no longer collected; +letters were no longer delivered; Confederate money had no longer any +value. Even the state governments ceased to have any authority. Bands of +Union cavalry scoured the country, capturing such governors, political +leaders, and prominent men as could be found, and striking terror into +others who fled to places of safety. In the midst of this confusion all +civil government ended. To reestablish it under the Constitution and +laws of the United States was, therefore, the first duty of the +President, and he began to do so at once. First he raised the blockade, +and opened the ports of the South to trade; then he ordered the +Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior, the +Postmaster-general, the Attorney-general, to see that the taxes were +collected, that letters were delivered, that the courts of the United +States were opened, and the laws enforced in all the Southern States; +finally, he placed over each of the unreconstructed states a temporary +or provisional governor. These governors called conventions of delegates +elected by such white men as were allowed to vote, and these conventions +did four things: 1. They declared the ordinances of secession null and +void. 2. They repudiated every debt incurred in supporting the +Confederacy, and promised never to pay one of them. 3. They abolished +slavery within their own bounds. 4. They ratified the Thirteenth +Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery forever in the +United States. + +%482. The Thirteenth Amendment%.--This amendment was sent out to the +states by Congress in February, 1865, and was necessary to complete the +work begun by the Emancipation Proclamation. That proclamation merely +set free the slaves in certain parts of the country, and left the right +to buy more untouched. Again, certain slave states (Delaware, Maryland, +West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri) had not seceded, and in them slavery +still existed. In order, therefore, to abolish the institution of +slavery in every state in the Union, an amendment to the Constitution +was necessary, as many of the states could not be relied on to abolish +it within their bounds by their own act. The amendment was formally +proclaimed a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part +of the Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures +of three fourths of all the states. In 1865 there were thirty-six states +in the Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states +ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the +Constitution. When an amendment has been ratified by the necessary +number of states, the President states the fact in a proclamation.] + +%483. Treatment of the Freedmen in the South%.--Had the Southern +legislatures stopped here, all would have been well. But they went on, +and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, apprentices, and +paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of involuntary servitude, if +not in actual slavery. + +To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant negroes would +refuse to work, these laws seemed to be necessary. But by the men of the +North they were regarded as signs of a determination on the part of +Southern men not to accept the abolition of slavery. When, therefore, +Congress met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because the +President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in his own way +without consulting Congress, and because these states had made such +severe laws against the negroes. + +%484. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction%.--As soon as the two +houses were organized, the President and his work were ignored, the +senators and representatives from the eleven states that had seceded +were refused seats in Congress, and a series of acts were passed to +protect the freedmen. + +One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the "Civil Rights" Bill, which +gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for +any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts. +This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law +enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest +this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights, +Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the +Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a +condition of readmittance to Congress. + +Finally, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land +to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their +rights, was passed over the President's veto, just before Congress +adjourned. + +%485. The President abuses Congress%.--During the summer, Johnson +made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he +abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; "a +factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress," "a Congress violent in +breaking up the Union." These attacks, coupled with the fact that some +of the Southern States, encouraged by the President's conduct, rejected +the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866, +more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes the right to vote +in the territories and in the District of Columbia. By another it +compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General +Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in +the South to protect the freedmen. But the two important acts were the +"Tenure of Office Act" and "Reconstruction Act" (March 2, 1867). + +%486. The Reconstruction Act%.--The Reconstruction Act marked out the +ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been admitted to Congress in +March, 1866) into five districts, with an army officer in command of +each, and required the people of each state to make a new constitution +giving negroes the right to vote, and send the constitution to Congress. +If Congress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it +ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators and +representatives to Congress, and not before. + +To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, +Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in June, 1868, they +were readmitted to Congress. Their ratification of the Fourteenth +Amendment made it a part of the Constitution, and in July, 1868, it was +declared in force. + +%487. "Tenure of Office Act"; Johnson impeached%--By this time the +quarrel between the President and Congress had reached such a crisis +that the Republican, leaders feared he would obstruct the execution of +the reconstruction law by removing important officials chiefly +responsible for its administration, and putting in their places men who +would not enforce it. To prevent this, Congress, in 1867, passed the +"Tenure of Office Act." Hitherto a President could remove almost any +Federal office holder at pleasure. Henceforth he could only suspend +while the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, +the man was removed; if it disapproved, the man was reinstated. Johnson +denied the right of Congress to make such a law, and very soon +disobeyed it. + +In August, 1867, he asked Secretary of War Stanton to resign, and when +the Secretary refused, suspended him and made General Grant temporary +Secretary. All this was legal, but when Congress met, and the Senate +disapproved of the suspension, General Grant gave the office back again +to Stanton. Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of +War, and ordered him to seize the office. For this, and for his abusive +speeches about Congress, the House of Representatives impeached him, and +the Senate tried him "for high crimes and misdemeanors," but failed by +one vote to find him guilty. Stanton then resigned his office. + + +SUMMARY + +1. In 1864 the Republican party was split, and one part, taking the name +of National Union party, renominated Lincoln. The other or radical wing, +which wanted a more vigorous war policy, nominated Fremont and Cochrane. +The Democrats declared the war a failure, demanded peace, and nominated +McClellan and Pendleton. + +2. The gradual conquest of the South brought up the question of the +relation to the Federal government of a state which had seceded. + +3. Lincoln marked out his own plan of reconstruction in an amnesty +proclamation. Congress thought he had no right to do this, and adopted a +plan which Lincoln vetoed. His death left the question for Johnson +to settle. + +4. Johnson adopted a plan of his own and soon came into conflict with +Congress. + +5. Congress began by refusing seats to congressmen from states +reconstructed on Johnson's plan. It then passed, over Johnson's veto, a +series of bills to protect the freedmen and give them civil rights. + +6. Six states accepted the terms of reconstruction offered, and their +senators and representatives were admitted to Congress (1868). + +7. Johnson, in 1866, traveled about the West abusing Congress. For this, +and chiefly for his disregard of the Tenure of Office Act, he was +impeached by the House and tried and acquitted by the Senate. + + * * * * * + +RECONSTRUCTON. + +Lincoln's plan ... + +States cannot secede; only some of their people were in insurrection. +Amnesty proclamation. +Recognizes Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. +Thirteenth Amendment. + +Johnson's plan ... + +Provisional governors. +Ratify Thirteenth Amendment. +New state constitutions made. +Congressmen chosen. + +Congressional plan ... + +Congress refuses them seats. +Civil Rights Bill. +Freedmen's Bureau Bill. +Tenure of Office Act. +Reconstruction Act. +Fourteenth Amendment. + +Johnson _vs._ Congress ... + +Vetoes Civil Rights Bill. + Freedmen's Bureau Bill. + +Denounces Congress. +Violates Tenure of Office Act. +Impeached. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +THE NEW WEST (1860-1870) + +%488. Discovery of Gold near Pikes Peak.%--In the summer of 1858 news +reached the Missouri that gold had been found on the eastern slope of +the Rockies, and at once a wild rush set in for the foot of Pikes Peak, +in what was then Kansas. + +[Illustration: Crossing the plains] + +During 1858 a party from the gold mines of Georgia pitched a camp on +Cherry Creek and called the place Aurania. Later, in the winter, they +were joined by General Larimer with a party from Leavenworth, Kan., and +by them the rude camp at Aurania was renamed Denver, in honor of the +governor of Kansas. In another six months emigrants came pouring in from +every point along the frontier. Some, providing themselves with great +white-covered wagons, drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, joined forces for +better protection against the Indians, and set out together, making +long wagon trains or caravans. All were accompanied by men fully armed. +Such as could not afford a "prairie schooner," as the canvas-covered +wagon was called, put their worldly goods into handcarts. + +By 1859 Denver was a settlement of 1000 people. They needed supplies, +and, to meet this demand, the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell put a +daily line of coaches on the road from Leavenworth to Denver. This means +of communication brought so many settlers that by 1860 Denver was a city +of frame and brick houses, with two theaters, two newspapers, and a mint +for coining gold. + +%489. The Pony Express; the Overland Stage.%--By that time, too, the +first locomotive had reached the frontier of Kansas. But between the +Missouri and the Pacific there was still a gap of 2000 miles which the +settlers demanded should be spanned at once, and it was. In 1860 the +same firm that sent the first stagecoach over the prairie from +Leavenworth to Denver, ran a pony express from the Missouri to the +Pacific. Their plan was to start at St. Joseph, Mo., and send the mail +on horseback across the continent to San Francisco. As the speed must be +rapid, there must be frequent relays. Stations were therefore +established every twenty-five miles, and at them fresh horses and riders +were kept. Mounted on a spirited Indian pony, the mail carrier would set +out from St. Joseph and gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay +station, swing himself from his pony, vault into the saddle of another +standing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every third +relay a fresh rider took the mail. Day and night, in sunshine and storm, +over prairie and mountain, the mail carrier pursued his journey alone. +The cost in human life was immense. The first riders made the journey of +1996 miles in ten days. Next came the Wells and Fargo Express, and then +the Butterfield Overland Stage Company. + +%490. The Union Pacific Railroad; the Land Grant Roads.%--Meantime +the war opened, and an idea often talked of took definite shape. +California had scarcely been admitted, in 1850, when the plan to bind +her firmly to the Union by a great railroad, built at national cost, was +urged vigorously. By 1856 the people began to demand it, and in that +year the Republican party, and in 1860 both the Republican and +Democratic parties, pledged themselves to build one. The secession of +the South, and the presence at Denver of a growing population, made the +need imperative, and in 1862 Congress began the work. + +Two companies were chartered. One, the Union Pacific, was to begin at +Omaha and build westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to begin +at Sacramento and build eastward till the two met. The Union Pacific was +to receive from the government a subsidy in bonds of $16,000 for each +mile built across the plains, $48,000 for each of 150 miles across the +Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 a mile for the rest of the way. It received +all told on its 1033 miles $27,226,000. The Central Pacific, under like +conditions, received for its 883 miles from San Francisco to Ogden +$27,850,000. But the liberality of Congress did not end here. Each road +was also given every odd-numbered section in a strip of public land +twenty miles wide along its entire length. + +%491. Land Grants for Railroads and Canals.%--Grants of land in aid +of such improvements were not new. Between 1827 and 1860 Congress gave +away to canals, roads, and railroads 215,000,000 acres. This magnificent +expanse would make seven states as large as Pennsylvania, or three and a +half as large as Oregon, and is only 6000 acres less than the total area +of the thirteen original states with their present boundaries. + +Although the roads were chartered in 1862, the work of construction was +slow at first, and the last rail was not laid till May 10, 1869. + +%492. The Silver Mines; New States and Territories.%--What the +discovery of gold did for California and Denver, silver and the railroad +did for the country east of the Sierras. In 1859 some gold seekers in +what was then Utah discovered the rich silver mines on Mt. Davidson. +Population rushed in, Virginia City sprang into existence, the territory +of Nevada was formed in 1861, and in 1864 entered the Union as a state. +In 1861 Colorado was made a territory, and what is now North and South +Dakota and the land west of them to the Rocky Mountain divide became the +territory of Dakota. Hardly was this done when gold was found in a gulch +on the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri River. Bannock City, Virginia +City, and Helena were laid out almost immediately, and in 1864 Montana +was made a territory. In 1860 and 1862 precious metals were found in +what was then eastern Washington; Lewiston, Idaho City, and the old +Hudson Bay Company's post of Fort Boise became thriving towns, and in +1863 the territory of Idaho was formed, with limits including what is +now Montana and part of Wyoming. In 1863 Arizona was cut off from New +Mexico, and in 1868 Wyoming was made a territory. + +%493. Population in 1870.%--Thus in the decade from 1860 to 1870 +gold, silver, and the Pacific Railroad gave value to the American +Desert, brought two states (Nevada and Nebraska) into the Union, and +caused the organization of six new territories. More than 1,000,000 +people then lived along the line of the Union Pacific. Our total +population in 1870 was 38,000,000. + + +SUMMARY + +1. What the discovery of gold did for California in 1849, it did for the +"Great American Desert" in 1858. + +2. The consequences were the founding of Denver, the establishment of a +stagecoach line from the Missouri to Denver, the pony express to the +Pacific; the overland coach; and the Pacific Railroad. + +3. Gold, the railroad, and the silver mines led to the organization of +Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and the admission of +Nebraska and Nevada into the Union. + +4. Other causes led to the organization of Arizona and Dakota. + +New States (1860-1870). + + Kansas, 1861. + West Virginia, 1863. + Nevada, 1864. + Nebraska, 1867. + Total number of states in 1870, 37. + +New Territories (1860-1870). + + Colorado, 1861. + Dakota, 1861. + Idaho, 1863. + Arizona, 1863. + Montana, 1864. + Wyoming, 1868. + + + + +_THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE_ + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 + +%494. New Issues before the People.%--Five years had now passed since +the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on Sumter. During these +years the North, aroused and united by the efforts put forth to crush +the Confederacy, had entered on a career of prosperity and development +greater than ever enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came +new issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some out of +the development of the country. + +%495. Amnesty.%--In the first place, now that the war was over, the +people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking advantage of this, +certain political leaders began, about 1870, to demand a "general +amnesty" [1] or forgiveness for the rebels, and a stoppage of +reconstructive measures by Congress. + +[Footnote 1: In 1863, Lincoln offered "full pardon" to "all persons" +except the leaders of the "existing rebellion." Johnson, in 1865, again +offered amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons; and, +though in the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left +a great many men unpardoned.] + +%496. The National Finances.%--A second issue resulting from the war +was the management of the national finances. January 1, 1866, the +national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, including (1) the bonded debt +of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the unbonded or floating debt of +$1,620,000,000, that part made up of "greenbacks," fractional currency, +treasury notes, and the like. Two problems were thus brought before +the people: + +1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt? + +2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and "specie payment" +resumed? + +As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as +possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more than $500,000,000. + +As to the second question, it was decided to "contract the currency" by +gathering into the Treasury and there canceling the "greenbacks." This +was begun, and their amount was reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to +$356,000,000 in 1868. + +By that time a large part of the people in the West were finding fault +with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making +money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded +to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and +that there should not be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks. + +%497. "The Ohio Idea"; the Greenback Party.%--But there was still +another idea current. To understand this, six facts must be remembered. +1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of certain 5-20 bonds; that is, +bonds that might be paid after five years, but must be paid in twenty +years. 2. The interest on these bonds was made payable "in coin." 3. But +nothing was said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the +principal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, the law +said they should be "lawful money and a legal tender for all debts, +public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports +and interest as aforesaid." 5. This made it possible to pay the +principal of the 5-20 bonds in greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing +that payment of the principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on +future loans, Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) for +borrowing money, provided that _both_ principal and interest should be +paid in coin. + +At that time and long after the war "coin" commanded a premium; that is, +it took more than 100 cents in paper money to buy 100 cents in gold. +Anybody who owned a bond could therefore sell the coin he received as +interest for paper and so increase the rate of interest measured in +paper money. The bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or +municipality. + +Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war for two +things--taxation of the bonds and payment of the 5-20's in greenbacks. +This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 1868 that it was called the "Ohio +idea," and its supporters were called "Greenbackers." + +%498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads.%--Much fault was now +found with Congress for giving away such great tracts of the public +domain. In 1862 a law known as the Homestead Act was passed. By it a +farm of 80 or 160 acres was to be given to any head of a family, or any +person twenty-one years old, who was a citizen of the United States or, +being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a citizen, +provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated it for five years. +Under this great and generous law 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres +were made between 1863 and 1870. This showed that the people wanted land +and was one reason why it should not be given to corporations. + +%499. The Election of 1868.%--The questions discussed above (pp. +437-439) became the political issues of 1868. + +The Republicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax and declared for the +payment of all bonds in coin; for a reduction of the national debt and +the rate of interest; and for the encouragement of immigration. + +The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, and +demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; "one currency for the +government, and the people, the laborer, and the office holder"; the +taxation of government bonds; and no land grants for public +improvements. + +The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college Grant had 214 +votes, and Seymour 80. + +%500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan.%--Grant and Colfax +began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and soon found that the +reconstruction policy of Congress had not been so successful as they +could wish, and that the work of protecting the freedman in the exercise +of his new rights was not yet completed. Three states (Virginia, +Mississippi, and Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions +imposed by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and +Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the Reconstruction Act of +1867, and given the negro the right to vote, than a swarm of Northern +politicians, generally of the worst sort, went down and, as they said, +"ran things." They began by persuading the negroes that their old +masters were about to put them back into slavery, that it was only by +electing Union men to office that they could remain free; and having by +this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were made governors +and members of Congress, and were sent to the state legislature, where, +seated beside negroes who could neither read nor write, but who voted as +ordered, these "carpetbaggers," [1] as they were called, ruled the states +in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people. + +[Footnote 1: As the men were not natives of the South, had no property +there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called +"carpetbaggers," or men who owned nothing save what they brought in +their carpetbags.] + +Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro +voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more +black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still +disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were +property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of +the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined +to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from +the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed +secret societies, called "The Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan." +Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode +at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their +wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders, +or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the Southern whites who supported +the negro cause were called. + +%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%--To secure the negro the right to +vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth +Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after +ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in +March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing +the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or +"Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted +of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or +the votes, when cast, from being counted. + +[Illustration: U. S. Grant] + +%502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%--This legislation and the +conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of +amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise +of a new party, which received the name of "Liberal Republicans," +because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From +Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and +into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders +to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May, +1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil +service reform, and no more land grants to railroads, nominated Horace +Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal +leader of Missouri, for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley +displeased a part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nominated +W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans met at Philadelphia +in June, and nominated Grant and Henry Wilson. The Democrats pledged +their support to Greeley and Brown; but this act displeased so many of +the Democratic party, that another convention was held, and Charles +O'Conor and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field. + +%503. The National Labor-Reform Party.%--From about 1829, when the +establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the +growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of +emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class, +the workingman had been in politics. But it was not till the close of +the war that labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the +first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky. In +1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth +at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform +agitators. The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great +National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded + +1. Lower interest on government bonds. + +2. Repeal of the law establishing the national banks. + +3. Withdrawal of national bank notes. + +4. Issue of paper money "based on the faith and resources of the +nation," to be legal tender for all debts. + +5. An eight-hour law. + +6. Exclusion of the Chinese. + +7. No land grants to corporations. + +8. Formation of a "National Labor-Reform Party." + +The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily approved, +that a national convention met at Columbus, O., in 1872, denounced +Chinese labor, demanded taxation of government bonds, and nominated +David Davis and Joel Parker. When they declined, O'Conor was nominated. + +%504. Anti-Chinese Movement.%--The demand in the Labor platform for +the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to say a word concerning +"Mongolian labor." + +Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of gold in +California, but received little attention till 1852, when the governor +in a message reminded the legislature that the Chinese came not as +freemen, but were sent by foreign capitalists under contract; that they +were the absolute slaves of these masters; that the gold they dug out of +our soil was sent to China; that they could not become citizens; and +that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete +with them. + +The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted to stop their +immigration by taxing them. But the Supreme Court declared such taxation +illegal, whereupon, the state having gone as far as it could, an appeal +was made to Congress. That body was deaf to all entreaties; but the +President through Anson Burlingame in 1868 secured some new articles to +the old Chinese treaty of 1858. Henceforth it was to be a penal offense +to take Chinamen to the United States without their free consent. This +was not enough, and in order to force Congress to act, the question was +made a political issue. + +%505. The Prohibition Party.%--The temperance cause in the United +States dates back to 1810. But it was not till Maine passed a law +forbidding the sale of liquor, in 1851, and her example was followed by +Vermont and Rhode Island in 1852, by Connecticut in 1854, and by New +York, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Iowa, in 1855, that prohibition +became an issue. The war turned the thoughts of people to other things. +But after the war, prohibition parties began to appear in several +states, and in 1869 steps were taken to unite and found a national +party. In that year, the Grand Lodges of Good Templars held a convention +at Oswego, N.Y., and by these men a call was issued for a national +convention of prohibitionists to form a political party. The delegates +thus summoned met at Chicago in September, 1869, and there founded the +"National Prohibition Reform party." The first national nominating +convention was held at Columbus, O., in 1872, when James Black of +Pennsylvania was nominated for President, and John Russell of Michigan +for Vice President. + +%506. Campaign of 1872.%--At the beginning of the campaign there were +thus seven presidential candidates before the people. But some refused +to run, and others had no chance, so that the contest was really between +General Grant and Horace Greeley, who was caricatured unmercifully. The +benevolent face of the great editor, spectacled, and fringed with a +snow-white beard, appeared on fans, on posters, on showcards, where, as +a setting sun, it might be seen going down behind the western hills. "Go +west," his famous advice to young men, became the slang phrase of the +hour. He was defeated, for Grant carried thirty-one states, and +Greeley six. + +In many respects this was a most interesting election. For the first +time in our history the freedmen voted for presidential electors. For +the first time since 1860 the people of all the states took part in the +election of a President of the United States, while the number of +candidates, Labor, Prohibition, Liberal Republican, Democratic, and +Republican, showed that the old issues which caused the war or were +caused by the war were dead or dying, and that new ones were +coming forward. + +%507. Panic of 1873.%--Now, all these things, the immense expansion +of the railroads, and the great outlay necessary for rebuilding Chicago, +much of which had been burned in 1871, and Boston, which suffered from a +great fire in 1872, absorbed money and made it difficult to get. Just in +the midst of the stringency a quarrel arose between the farmers and the +railroads in the West, and made matters worse. It stopped the sale of +railroad bonds, and crippled the enterprises that depended on such sale +for funds. It impaired the credit of bankers concerned in railroad +building, and in September, 1873, a run on them for deposits began till +one of them, Jay Cooke & Co., failed, and at once a panic swept over the +business world. Country depositors demanded their money; the country +banks therefore withdrew their deposits with the city banks, which in +turn called in their loans, and industry of every kind stopped. In 1873 +there were 5000 failures, and in 1874 there were 5800. Hours of labor +were reduced, wages were cut down, workingmen were discharged by +thousands. + +%508. The Inflation Bill.%--In hope of relieving this distress by +making money easier to get, a demand was now made that Congress should +issue more greenbacks. To this Congress, in 1874, responded by passing +the "Inflation Bill," declaring that there should be $400,000,000 in +greenbacks, no more, no less. As the limit fixed in 1868 was +$356,000,000, the bill tended to "inflate" or add to the paper currency +$44,000,000. Grant vetoed the bill. + +%509. Resumption of Specie Payments.%--What shall be done with the +currency? now became the question of the hour, and at the next session +of Congress (1874-75) another effort was made to answer it, and "an act +to provide for the resumption of specie payments" was passed. + +1. Under this law, silver 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces were to be +exchanged through the post offices and subtreasuries for fractional +currency till it was all redeemed. + +2. Surplus revenue might be used and bonds issued for the purchase of +coin. + +3. That part of an act of 1870 which limited the amount of national bank +notes to $354,000,000 was repealed. + +4. The banks could now put out more bills; but for each $100 they put +out the Secretary of the Treasury must call in $80 of greenbacks, till +but $300,000,000 of them remained. + +5. After January 1,1879, he must redeem them all on demand. + +%510. The Political Issues of 1876.%--The currency question, the hard +times which had continued since 1873, the rise of the Labor and +Prohibition parties, the reports of shameful corruption and dishonesty +in every branch of the public service, the dissatisfaction of a large +part of the Republican party with the way affairs were managed by the +administration, combined to make the election of 1876 very doubtful. The +general displeasure was so great that the Democratic party not only +carried state elections in the North in 1874 and 1875, but secured a +majority of the House of Representatives. + +%511. Nomination of Presidential Candidates.%--When the time came to +make nominations for the presidency, the Prohibition party was first to +act. It selected Green Clay Smith of Kentucky and G.T. Stewart of Ohio +as its candidates, and demanded that in all the territories and the +District of Columbia, the importation, exportation, manufacture, and +sale of alcoholic beverages should be stopped. Two other demands--the +abolition of polygamy (which was practiced by the Mormons in Utah), and +the closing of the mails to the advertisements of gambling and lottery +schemes--have since been secured. + +Next came the Greenback or Independent National party, which nominated +Peter Cooper of New York and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, and called for the +repeal of the Resumption of Specie Payment Act, and the issue of paper +notes bearing a low rate of interest. + +In June, the Republicans met in Cincinnati, and nominated Rutherford B. +Hayes of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of New York. They endorsed the +financial policy of the party, demanded civil service reform, protection +to American industries, no more land grants to corporations, an +investigation of the effect of Chinese immigration, and "respectful +consideration" of the woman's rights question. + +The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and +called for reforms of every kind--in the civil service, in the +administration, in expenditures, in the internal revenue system, in the +currency, in the tariff, in the use of public lands, in the treatment of +the South. + +%512. Result of the Election.%--While the campaign was going on, +Colorado was admitted (in August, 1876) as a state. There were then +thirty-eight states in the Union, casting 369 electoral votes. This made +185 necessary for a choice; and when the returns were all in, it +appeared that, if the Republicans could secure the electoral votes of +South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, they would have exactly +185. In these states, however, a dispute was raging as to which set of +electors, Republican or Democratic, was elected. Each claimed to be; +and, as the result depended on them, each set met and voted. It was then +for Congress to decide which should be counted. + +Now, the framers of the Constitution had never thought of such a +condition of affairs, and had made no provisions to meet it. Congress +therefore provided for an + +%513. "Electoral Commission,"% to decide which of the conflicting +returns should be accepted. This commission was to be composed of five +senators, five representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court. +The Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats; the House, three +Democrats and two Republicans. Congress appointed two Democratic and +two Republican justices, who chose the fifth justice, who was a +Republican. The Commission thus consisted of eight Republicans and seven +Democrats. The decision as to each of the disputed states was in favor +of the Republican electors, and as it could not be reversed unless both +houses of Congress consented, and as both would not consent, Hayes was +declared elected, over Tilden, by one electoral vote; namely, Hayes, +185; Tilden, 184. + +[Illustration: Rutherford B. Hayes] + +%514. Financial Policy of Grant's Administration.%--The inauguration +of Hayes was followed by a special session of Congress. In the House was +a great Democratic majority, pledged to a new financial measure--a +pledge which it soon made good. + +The financial policy of Grant's eight years may be summed up briefly: + +1. (1869) The "Credit Strengthening Act," declaring that 5-20 bonds of +the United States should be paid "in coin." + +2. (1870) The Refunding Act, by which $1,500,000,000 in bonds bearing +five and six per cent interest were ordered to be replaced by other +bonds at four, four and a half, and five per cent. In this refunding, +the 5-20's, whose principal was payable in greenbacks, were replaced by +others whose principal was payable "in coin." + +3. (1873) The act of 1873, by stopping the coinage of silver dollars, +and taking away the legal tender quality of those in circulation, made +the words "in coin" mean gold. + +4. (1875) All greenbacks were to become redeemable in specie on January +1, 1879. + +5. To get specie, bonds might be issued. + +%515. Bland Silver Bill; Silver remonetized.%--Against the +continuance of this policy the majority of the House stood pledged. +Before the session closed, therefore, two bills passed the House. One +repealed so much of the act of 1875 as provided for the retirement of +greenbacks and the issue of bonds. The second was brought in by Mr. +Bland of Missouri, and is still known by his name. It provided + +1. That the silver dollar should again be coined, and at the ratio of 16 +to 1; that is, that the same number of dollars should be made out of +sixteen pounds of silver as out of one pound of gold. + +2. That silver should be a legal tender, at face value, for all debts, +public and private. + +3. That all silver bullion brought to the mints should be coined into +dollars without cost to the bringer. This was "free coinage of silver." + +The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the "free coinage" +provision and substituted the "Allison" amendment. Under this, the +Secretary of the Treasury was to _buy_ not less than $2,000,000, nor +more than $4,000,000, worth of silver bullion each month, and coin it +into dollars. + +The House accepted the Senate amendment, and when Hayes vetoed the bill +Congress passed it over his veto and the "Bland-Allison Bill" became a +law in 1878. + +%516. Silver Certificates.%--Now this return to the coinage of the +silver dollar was open to the objection that large sums in silver would +be troublesome because of the weight. It was therefore provided that the +coins might be deposited in the Treasury, and paper "silver +certificates" issued against them. + +A few months later, January 1, 1879, the government returned to specie +payment, and ever since has redeemed greenbacks in gold, on demand. + +%517. Foreign Relations; the French in Mexico.%--The statement was +made that with the exception of Russia the great powers of Europe +sympathized with the South during the Civil War. Two of them, France and +Great Britain, were openly hostile. The French Emperor allowed +Confederate agents to contract for the construction of war vessels in +French ports,[1] and sent an army into Mexico to overturn that republic +and establish an empire. Mexico owed the subjects of Great Britain, +France, and Spain large sums of money, and as she would not pay, these +three powers in 1861 sent a combined army to hold her seaports till the +debts were paid. But it soon became clear that Napoleon had designs +against the republic, whereupon Great Britain and Spain withdrew. +Napoleon, however, seeing that the United States was unable to interfere +because of the Civil War, went on alone, destroyed the Mexican republic +and made Maximilian (a brother of the Emperor of Austria) Emperor of +Mexico. This was in open defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and though the +United States protested, Napoleon paid no attention till 1865. Then, the +Civil War having ended, and Sheridan with 50,000 veteran troops having +been sent to the Rio Grande, the French soldiers were withdrawn (1867), +and the Mexican republican party captured Maximilian, shot him, and +reestablished the republic. + +[Footnote 1: See Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe_.] + +%518. The Alabama Claims; Geneva Award.%--The hostility of Great +Britain was more serious than that of France. As we have seen, the +cruisers (_Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida_) built in her shipyards went to +sea and inflicted great injury on our commerce. Although she was well +aware of this, she for a long time refused to make good the damage done. +But wiser counsel in the end prevailed, and in 1871, by the treaty of +Washington, all disputed questions were submitted to arbitration. + +The Alabama claims, as they were called, were sent to a board of five +arbitrators who met at Geneva (1872) and awarded the United States +$15,500,000 to be distributed among our citizens whose ships and +property had been destroyed by the cruisers. + +%519. Other International Disputes; the Alaska Purchase.%--To the +Emperor of Germany was submitted the question of the true water boundary +between Washington Territory and British Columbia. He decided in favor +of the United States (1872). + +To a board of Fish Commissioners was referred the claim of Canada that +the citizens of the United States derived more benefit from the fishing +in Canadian waters than did the Canadians from using the coast waters of +the United States. The award made to Great Britain was $5,500,000 +$5,500,000 (1877). + +In 1867, we purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. + + +SUMMARY + + +_Financial History, 1868-1880_ + +1. When the war ended, the national debt consisted of two parts: the +bonded, and the unbonded or floating. + +2. As public sentiment demanded the reduction of the debt, it was +decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible, and contract the currency +by canceling the greenbacks. + +3. Contraction went on till 1868, when Congress ordered it stopped. + +4. The payment of the bonds brought up the question, Shall the 5-20's be +paid in coin or greenbacks? + +5. The Democrats in 1868 insisted that the bonds should be redeemed in +greenbacks; the Republicans that they should be paid in coin,--and when +they won, they passed the "Credit Strengthening Act" of 1869, and in +1870 refunded the bonds at lower rates. + +6. In the process of refunding, the 5-20's, whose principal was payable +in greenbacks, were replaced by others payable "in coin." In 1873, the +coinage of the silver dollar was stopped, and the legal-tender quality +of silver was taken away. The words "in coin" therefore meant "in gold." + +7. In 1875 it was ordered that all greenbacks should be redeemed in +specie after January 1, 1879 (resumption of specie payment). + +8. In 1878 silver was made legal tender, and given limited coinage. + + +_The South and the Negro_ + +9. In 1869, three states still refused to comply with the Reconstruction +Act of 1867 and had no representatives in Congress. + +10. Such states as had complied and given the negro the right to vote +were under "carpetbag" rule. + +11. This rule became so unbearable that the Ku Klux Klan was organized +to terrify the negroes and keep them from the polls. + +12. Congress in consequence sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the +Constitution, and in 1871 enacted the Force Act. + +13. These and other issues, as that of amnesty, split the Republican +party and led to the appearance of the Liberal Republicans in 1872. + +14. In general, however, party differences turned almost entirely on +financial and industrial issues. + +[Illustration: INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST + +%520. Results of the War.%--The Civil War was fought by the North for +the preservation of the Union and by the South for the destruction of +the Union. But we who, after more than thirty years, look back on the +results of that struggle, can see that they did not stop with the +preservation of the Union. Both in the North and in the South the war +produced a great industrial revolution. + +%521. Effect on the South.%--In the South, in the first place, it +changed the system of labor from slave to free. While the South was a +slave-owning country free labor would not come in. Without free labor +there could be no mills, no factories, no mechanical industries. The +South raised cotton, tobacco, sugar, and left her great resources +undeveloped. After slavery was abolished, the South was on the same +footing as the North, and her splendid resources began at once to be +developed. + +It was found that her rich deposits of iron ore were second to none in +the world. It was found that beneath her soil lay an unbroken coal +field, 39,000 square miles in extent. It was found that cotton, instead +of being raised in less quantity under a system of free labor, was more +widely cultivated than ever. In 1860, 4,670,000 bales were grown; but in +1894 the number produced was 9,500,000. The result has been the rise of +a New South, and the growth of such manufacturing centers as Birmingham +in Alabama and Chattanooga in Tennessee, and of that center of commerce, +Atlanta, in Georgia. + +%522. Rise of New Industries in the North.%--Much the same industrial +revolution has taken place in the North. The list of industries well +known to us, but unknown in 1860, is a long one. The production of +petroleum for commercial purposes began in 1859, when Mr. Drake drilled +his well near Titusville, in Pennsylvania. In 1860 the daily yield of +all the wells in existence was not 200 barrels. But by 1891 this +industry had so developed that 54,300,000 barrels were produced in that +year, or 14,900 a day. + +[Illustration: Scene in the oil regions of Pennsylvania] + +The last thirty years have seen the rise of cheese making as a +distinctive factory industry; of the manufacture of oleo-margarine, wire +nails, Bessemer steel, cotton-seed oil, coke, canned goods; of the +immense mills of Minneapolis, where 10,000,000 barrels of flour are made +annually, and of the meat dressing and packing business for which +Chicago and Kansas City are famous. + +%523. The New Northwest.%--When the census was taken in 1860, so few +people were living in what are now Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho that +they were not counted. In Dakota there were less than 5000 inhabitants. +The discovery of gold and silver did for these territories what it had +done for Colorado. It brought into them so many miners that in 1870 the +population of these four territories amounted to 59,000. Between Lake +Superior (where in the midst of a vast wilderness Duluth had just been +laid out on the lake shore) and the mining camps in the mountains of +Montana, there was not a town nor a hamlet. (There were indeed a few +forts and Indian agencies and a few trading posts.) Northern Minnesota +was a forest, into which even the lumbermen had not gone. The region +from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains was the hunting ground of the +Sioux, and was roamed over by enormous herds of buffalo. + +%524. The Northern Pacific Railroad.%--But this great wilderness was +soon to be crossed by one of the civilizers of the age. After years of +vain effort, the promoters of the Northern Pacific began the building of +their road in 1870, and pushed it across the plains till Duluth and St. +Paul were joined with Puget Sound. As it went further and further +westward, emigrants followed it, towns sprang up, and cities grew with +astonishing rapidity. + +%525. The New States.%--Idaho, which had no white inhabitants in +1860, had 32,000 in 1880; Montana had 39,000 in 1880, as against none in +1860. Kansas in twenty years increased her population four fold, and +Nebraska eight fold. This was extraordinary; but it was surpassed by +Dakota, whose population increased nearly ten fold in ten years +(1870-1880), and in 1889 was half a million. The time had now come to +form a state government. But as most of the people lived in the south +end of the territory, it was cut in two, and North and South Dakota were +admitted into the Union as states on the same day (November 2, 1889); +Montana followed within a fortnight, and Idaho and Wyoming within a year +(July, 1890). The four territories, in which in 1860 there were but 5000 +white settlers, had thus by 1890 become the five states of North and +South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with a population of +790,000.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, Washington in +1889 (November 11); and Utah, the forty-fifth state, in 1896, under a +constitution forever prohibiting polygamy.] + +%526. Wheat Farms and Cattle Ranches.%--Such a rush of people +completely transformed the country. The "Great American Desert" was made +productive. The buffaloes were almost exterminated, and one now is as +great a curiosity in the West as in the East. More than 7,000,000 were +slaughtered in 1871-1872. In lieu of them countless herds of cattle and +sheep, and fields of wheat and corn, cover the plains and hills of the +Northwest. In 1896 Montana contained 3,000,000 sheep, and Wyoming and +Idaho each over 1,000,000. In the two Dakotas 60,000,000 bushels of +wheat and 30,000,000 of corn were harvested. Many of the farms are of +enormous size. Ten, twenty, thirty thousand acre farms are not unknown. +One contains 75,000 acres. + +[Illustration: A typical prairie sod house] + +Over this region, the Dakotas, Montana, Kansas, and Nebraska, wander +herds of cattle, the slaughtering and packing of which have founded new +branches of industry. The stockyards at Chicago make a city.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Read "Dakota Wheat-Fields," _Harper's Magazine,_ March, +1880. Also a series of papers in _Harper's Magazine _for 1888.] + +%527. Oklahoma.%--The eagerness of the "cattle kings" to get more +land for these herds to graze over had much to do with the opening of +Oklahoma for settlement. Originally it was part of Indian Territory, and +was sold by the Seminole Indians with the express condition that none +but Indians and freedmen should settle there. But the cattle kings, in +defiance of the government, went in and inclosed immense tracts. Many +were driven out, only to come in again. Their expulsion, with that of +small proprietors called "boomers," caused much agitation. Congress +bought a release from the condition, and in 1889 opened Oklahoma to +settlement. + +%528. The Boom Towns.%--A proclamation that a part of Oklahoma would +be opened April 22, caused a wild rush from every part of the West, till +five times as many settlers as could possibly obtain land were lined up +on the borders waiting for the signal to cross. Precisely at noon on +April 22, a bugle sounded, a wild yell answered, a cloud of dust filled +the air, and an army of men on foot, on horseback, in wagons, rushed +into the promised land. That morning Guthrie was a piece of prairie +land. That night it was a city of 10,000 souls. Before the end of the +year 60,000 people were in Oklahoma, building towns and cities of no +mean character. + +Within fifteen years Oklahoma had a population of over half a million; +and Congress provided (1906) for the admission, in 1907, of a new +forty-sixth state, including both Oklahoma and what was left of the old +Indian Territory. + + +SUMMARY + +1. One important result of the Civil War was a great industrial +revolution. + +2. Mining for precious metals, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and other +causes led to the admission into the Union of Colorado (1876), North and +South Dakota, Montana, Washington (1889), Idaho, Wyoming (1890), Utah +(1896), and Oklahoma (1907). + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS + +%529. Mechanical Progress.%--The mechanical progress made by our +countrymen since the war surpasses that of any previous period. In 1866 +another cable was laid across the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, and worked +successfully. Before 1876 the Gatling gun, dynamite, and the barbed-wire +fence were introduced; the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, +the Westinghouse air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable-car +system, the self-binding reaper and harvester, the cash carrier for +stores, water gas, and the tin-can-making machine were invented, and +Brush gave the world the first successful electric light. + +%530. Uses of Electricity.%--Till Brush invented his arc light and +dynamo, the sole practical use made of electricity was in the field of +telegraphy. But now in rapid succession came the many forms of electric +lights and electric motors; the electric railway, the search light; +photography by electric light; the welding of metals by electricity; the +phonograph and the telephone. In the decade between 1876 and 1886 came +also the hydraulic dredger, the gas engine, the enameling of sheet-iron +ware for kitchen use, the bicycle, and the passenger elevator, which has +transformed city life and dotted our great cities with buildings fifteen +and twenty stories high. + +The decade 1886-1896 gave us the graphophone, the kinetoscope, the +horseless carriage, the vestibuled train, the cash register, the +perfected typewriter; the modern bicycle, which has deeply affected the +life of the people; and a great development in photography. + +%531. Rise of Great Corporations.%--That mechanical progress so +astonishing should powerfully affect the business and industrial world +was inevitable. Trades, occupations, industries of all sorts, began to +concentrate and combine, and corporations took the place of individuals +and small companies. In place of the forty little telegraph companies of +1856, there was the great Western Union Company. In place of many petty +railroads, there were a few trunk lines. In place of a hundred producers +and refiners of petroleum, there was the one Standard Oil Company. These +are but a few of many; for the rapid growth of corporations was a +characteristic of the period. + +%532. Millionaires and "Captains of Industry."%--As old lines of +industry were expanded and new ones were created, the opportunities for +money-getting were vastly increased. Men now began to amass immense +fortunes in gold and silver mining; by dealing in coal, in grain, in +cattle, in oil; by speculation in stocks; in iron and steel making; in +railroading,--millionaires and multi-millionaires became numerous, and +were often called "captains of industry," as an indication of the power +they held in the industrial world. + +%533. Condition of Labor.%--Meanwhile, the conditions of the +workingman were also changing rapidly: 1. The chief employers of labor +were corporations and great capitalists. 2. The short voyage and low +fare from Europe, the efforts made by steamship companies to secure +passengers, the immense business activity in the country from 1867 to +1872, and the opportunities afforded by the rapidly growing West, +brought over each year hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe +to swell the ranks of labor. Between 1867 and 1873 the number was +2,500,000. 3. Bad management on the part of some corporations; +"watering" or unnecessarily increasing their stock on the part of +others, combined with sharp competition, began, especially after the +panic of 1873, to cut down dividends. This was followed by reduction of +wages, or by an increase in the duties of employees, and sometimes +by both. + +%534. Labor Organizations; the Knights of Labor.%--Trades unions +existed in our country before the Constitution; but it was at the time +of the great industrial development during and after the war, that the +era of unions opened. At first that of each trade had no connection +with that of any other. But in 1869 an effort was made to unite all +workingmen on the broad basis of labor, and "The Noble Order of Knights +of Labor" was founded. For a while it was a secret order; but in 1878 a +declaration of principles was made, which began with the statement that +the alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and +corporations, unless checked, "would degrade the toiling masses," and +announced that the only way to check this evil was to unite "all +laborers into one great body." The knights were in favor of + +1. The creation of bureaus of labor for the collection and spread of +information. + +2. Arbitration between employers and employed. + +3. Government ownership of telegraphs, telephones, railroads. + +4. The reduction of the working day to eight hours. + +They were opposed + +1. To the hiring out of convict labor. + +2. To the importation of foreign labor under contract. + +3. To interest-bearing government bonds, and in favor of a national +currency issued directly to the people without the intervention +of banks. + +%535. The Workingman in Politics%.--As these ends could be secured +only by legislation, they very quickly became political issues and +brought up a new set of economic questions for settlement. From 1865 to +1870 the matters of public concern were the reconstruction measures and +the public debt. From 1870 to 1878 they were currency questions, civil +service reform, and land grants to railroads. From 1878 to 1888 almost +every one of them was in some way directly connected with labor. + + +SUMMARY + +1. Great inventions founded and developed new industries. + +2. These in turn expanded the ranks of labor, and led to the rise of +corporations and labor organizations, and a demand for a long series +of reforms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + +POLITICS SINCE 1880 + +%536. Candidates in 1880.%--The campaign of 1880 was opened by the +meeting of the Republican national convention at Chicago, where a long +and desperate effort was made to nominate General Grant for a third +term. But James Abram Garfield and Chester A. Arthur were finally +chosen. The platform called for national aid to state education, for +protection to American labor, for the suppression of polygamy in Utah, +for "a thorough, radical, and complete" reform of the civil service, and +for no more land grants to railroads or corporations. + +The Greenback-Labor party nominated James B. Weaver and B.J. Chambers, +and declared + +1. That all money should be issued by the government and not by banking +corporations. + +2. That the public domain must be kept for actual settlers and not given +to railroads. + +3. That Congress must regulate commerce between the states, and secure +fair, moderate, and uniform rates for passengers and freight. + +Next came the Prohibition party convention, and the nomination of Neal +Dow and Henry Adams Thompson. + +Last of all was the Democratic convention, which nominated General +Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English. The platform called for + +1. Honest money, consisting of gold and silver and paper convertible +into coin on demand. + +2. A tariff for revenue only. + +3. Public lands for actual settlers. + +%537. Election and Death of Garfield.%--The campaign was remarkable +for several reasons: + +1. Every presidential elector was chosen by popular vote; and every +electoral vote was counted as it was cast. This was the first +presidential election in our country of which both these statements +could be made. + +2. For the first time since 1844 there was no agitation of a Southern +question. + +3. All parties agreed in calling for anti-Chinese legislation. + +Garfield and Arthur were elected, and inaugurated on March 4, 1881. But +on July 2, 1881, as Garfield stood in a railway station at Washington, a +disappointed office seeker came up behind and shot him in the back. A +long and painful illness followed, till he died on September 19, 1881. + +[Illustration: James A. Garfield] + +[Illustration: Chester A. Arthur] + +%538. Presidential Succession%--The death of Garfield and the +succession of Arthur to the presidential office left the country in a +peculiar situation. An act of Congress passed in 1792 provided that if +both the presidency and vice presidency were vacant at the same time, +the President _pro tempore_ of the Senate, or if there were none, the +Speaker of the House of Representatives, should act as President, till a +new one was elected. But in September, 1881, there was neither a +President _pro tempore_ of the Senate nor a Speaker of the House of +Representatives, as the Forty-sixth Congress ceased to exist on March 4, +and the Forty-seventh was not to meet till December. Had Arthur died or +been killed, there would therefore have been no President. It was not +likely that such a condition would happen again; but attention was +called to the necessity of providing for succession to the presidency, +and in 1886 a new law was enacted. Now, should the presidency and vice +presidency both become vacant, the presidency passes to members of the +Cabinet in the order of the establishment of their departments, +beginning with the Secretary of State. Should he die, be impeached and +removed, or become disabled, it would go to the Secretary of the +Treasury, and then, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, the +Attorney-general, the Postmaster-general, the Secretary of the Navy, the +Secretary of the Interior. + +%539. Party Pledges redeemed.%--Since the Republican party was in +power, a redemption of the pledges in their platform was necessary, and +three laws of great importance were enacted. One, the Edmunds law +(1882), was intended to suppress polygamy in Utah and the neighboring +territories. Another (1882) stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers +for ten years. The third, the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), was +designed to secure appointment to public office on the ground of +fitness, and not for political service. + +%540. Corporations.%--These measures were all good enough in their +way; but they left untouched grievances which the workingmen and a great +part of the people felt were unbearable. That the development of the +wealth and resources of our country is chiefly due to great corporations +and great capitalists is strictly true. But that many of them abused the +power their wealth gave them cannot be denied. They were accused of +buying legislatures, securing special privileges, fixing prices to suit +themselves, importing foreign laborers under contract in order to +depress wages, and favoring some customers more than others. + +%541. The Anti-monopoly and Labor Parties.%--Out of this condition of +affairs grew the Anti-monopoly party, which held a convention in 1884 +and demanded that the Federal government should regulate commerce +between the states; that it should therefore control the railroads and +the telegraphs; that Congress should enact an interstate commerce law; +and that the importation of foreign laborers under contract should be +made illegal. + +This platform was so fully in accordance with the views of the Greenback +or National party, that Benjamin F. Butler, the candidate of the +Anti-monopolists, was endorsed and so practically united the +two parties. + +[Illustration: Grover Cleveland] + +%542. The Republican and Democratic Parties%.--The Republicans +nominated James G. Blaine and John A. Logan, and the Democrats Stephen +Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. The Prohibitionists put up +John P. St. John and William Daniel. The nomination of Blaine was the +signal for the revolt of a wing of the Republicans, which took the name +of Independents, and received the nickname of "Mugwumps." The revolt was +serious in its consequences, and after the most exciting contest since +1876, Cleveland was elected. + +%543. Public Measures adopted during 1885-1889.%--Widely as the +parties differed on many questions, Democrats, Republicans, and +Nationalists agreed in demanding certain reform measures which were now +carried out. In 1885 an Anti-Contract-Labor law was enacted, forbidding +any person, company, or corporation to bring any aliens into the United +States under contract to perform labor or service. In 1887 came the +Interstate Commerce Act, placing the railroads under the supervision of +commissioners whose duty it is to see that all charges for the +transportation of passengers and freight are "reasonable and just," and +that no special rates, rebates, drawbacks, or unjust discriminations are +made for one shipper over another. In 1888 a second Chinese Exclusion +Act prohibited the return of any Chinese laborer who had once left the +country. That same year a Department of Labor was established and put in +charge of a commissioner. His duty is to "diffuse among the people of +the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor." + +%544. Political Issues since 1888%.--Thus by the end of Mr. +Cleveland's first term many of the demands of the workingmen had been +granted, and laws enacted for their relief. These issues disposed of, a +new set arose, and after 1888 financial questions took the place of +labor issues. + +%545. The Surplus and the Tariff.%--These financial problems were +brought up by the condition of the public debt. For twenty years past +the debt had been rapidly growing less and less, till on December 1, +1887, it was $1,665,000,000, a reduction of more than $1,100,000,000 in +twenty-one years. By that time every bond of the United States that +could be called in and paid at its face value had been canceled. As all +the other bonds fell due, some in 1891 and others in 1907, the +government must either buy them at high rates, or suffer them to run. If +it suffered them to run, a great surplus would pile up in the Treasury. +Thus on December 1, 1887, after every possible debt of the government +was met, there was a surplus of $50,000,000. Six months later (June 1, +1888) the sum had increased to $103,000,000. + +Unless this was to go on, and the money of the country be locked up in +the Treasury, one of three things must be done: + +1. More bonds must be bought at high rates. + +2. Or the revenue must be reduced by reducing taxation. + +3. Or the surplus must be distributed among the states as in 1837, or +spent. + +%546. The Mills Tariff Bill.%--Each plan had its advocates. But the +Democrats, who controlled the House of Representatives, attempted to +solve the problem by cutting down the revenue, and passed a tariff bill, +called the Mills Bill, after its chief author, Mr. R. Q. Mills of Texas. +The Republicans declared it was a free-trade measure and defeated it in +the Senate. + +%547. The Campaign of 1888; Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third +President.%--In the party platforms of 1888 we find, therefore, that +three issues are prominent: (1) taxation, (2) tariff reform, (3) the +surplus. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, +and demanded frugality in public expenses, no more revenue than was +needed to pay the necessary cost of government, and a tariff for revenue +only. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, +and demanded a tariff for protection, a reduction of the revenue by the +repeal of taxes on tobacco and on spirits used in the arts, and by the +admission free of duty of foreign-made articles the like of which are +not produced at home. + +[Illustration: Benjamin Harrison] + +The Prohibitionists, the Union Labor party, and the United Labor party +also placed candidates in the field. Harrison and Morton were elected, +and inaugurated March 4, 1889. + +%548. The Republicans in Control.%--The Republican party not only +regained the presidency, but was once more in control of the House and +Senate. Thus free to carry out its pledges, it passed the McKinley +Tariff Act (1890); a new pension bill, which raised the number of +pensioners to 970,000, and the sum annually spent on pensions from +$106,000,000 to $150,000,000; and a new financial measure, known as + +%549. The Sherman Act.%--You remember that the attempt to enact a law +for the free coinage of silver in 1878 led to the Bland-Allison Act, for +the purchase of bullion and the coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of +silver each month. As this was not free coinage, the friends of silver +made a second attempt, in 1886, to secure the desired legislation. This +also failed. But in the summer of 1890, the silver men, having a +majority of the Senate, passed a free-coinage bill (June 17), which the +House rejected (June 25). A conference followed, and from this +conference came a bill which was quickly enacted into a law and called +the Sherman Act. It provided + +1. That the Secretary of the Treasury should buy 4,500,000 ounces of +silver each month. + +2. That he should pay for the bullion with paper money called treasury +notes. + +3. That on demand of the holder the Secretary must redeem these notes in +gold or silver. + +4. After July 1, 1891, the silver need not be coined, but might be +stored in the Treasury, and silver certificates issued. + +%550. The Farmers' Alliance%.--This legislation, combined with an +agricultural depression and widespread discontent in the agricultural +states, caused the defeat of the Republicans in the elections of 1890. +The Democratic minority of 21 in the House of Representatives of the +Fifty-first Congress was turned into a Democratic majority of 135 in the +Fifty-second. Eight other members were elected by the Farmers' Alliance. + +For twenty years past the farmers in every great agricultural state had +been organizing, under such names as Patrons of Husbandry, Farmers' +League, the Grange, Patrons of Industry, Agricultural Wheel, Farmers' +Alliance. Their object was to promote sociability, spread information +concerning agriculture and the price of grain and cattle, and guard the +interests and welfare of the farmer generally. By 1886 many of these +began to unite, and the National Agricultural Wheel of the United +States, the Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America, and +several more came into existence. In 1889 the amalgamation was carried +further still, and at a convention in St. Louis they were all +practically united in the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union. + +The purpose of this alliance was political, and as its stronghold was +Kansas, the contest began in that state in 1890. At a convention of +Alliance men and Knights of Labor, a "People's Party" was formed, which +elected a majority of the state legislature. Five out of seven +Congressmen were secured, and one United States senator. Before Congress +met (in December, 1891), another member of the House was elected +elsewhere, and three more senators. The support of fifty other +representatives was claimed. Greatly elated over this important footing, +the Alliance men marked out a plan for congressional legislation. +They demanded + +1. A bill for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. + +2. The subtreasury scheme. + +3. A Land Mortgage Bill. + +%551. The Subtreasury Plan of the Alliance Party.%--The idea at the +base of these demands was that the amount of money in circulation must +be increased, and loaned to the people without the aid of banks or +capitalists. It was proposed, therefore, that the government should +establish a number of subtreasury or money-loaning stations in each +state, at which the farmers could borrow money from the government (at +two per cent interest), giving as security non-perishable farm produce. + +%552. The Land Mortgage Scheme% provided that any owner of from 10 to +320 acres of land, at least half of which was under cultivation, might +borrow from the government treasury notes equal to half the assessed +value of the land and buildings. + +%553. The People's Party organized.%--That either of the old parties +would further such schemes was far from likely. A cry was therefore +raised by the most ardent Alliance men for a third party, and at a +conference of Alliance and Labor leaders in May, 1891, a new national +party was founded, and named "The People's Party of the United States +of America." + +%554. Party Candidates in 1892.%--When the campaign opened in 1892 +there were thus four parties in the field. The People's party nominated +James B. Weaver and James G. Field. The platform called for + +1. The free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 +to 1. + +2. A graduated income tax. + +3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. + +4. The restriction of immigration. + +5. A national currency to be loaned to the people at two per cent +interest per annum, secured by land or produce. + +6. All land held by aliens, or by railroads in excess of their actual +needs, to be reclaimed and held for actual settlers. + +The Prohibitionists nominated John Bidwell and J. B. Cranfill, and +declared "anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture, sale, +importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic liquors as a +beverage." + +The Democratic party selected Grover Cleveland for the third time and +chose Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice President. The platform condemned +trusts and combines, advocated the reclamation of the public lands from +corporations and syndicates, the exclusion of the Chinese and of the +criminals and paupers of Europe, denounced "the Sherman Act of 1890," +and called for "the coinage of both gold and silver without +discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage," with "the +dollar unit of coinage of both metals" "of equal intrinsic and +exchangeable value." + +The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, expressed +their sympathy with the cause of temperance, their opposition to trusts, +and called for the coinage of both gold and silver in such way that "the +debt-paying power of the dollar, whether silver, gold, or paper, shall +be at all times equal." + +%555. Grover Cleveland reelected.%--The election was a complete +triumph for the Democratic party. Mr. Cleveland was again elected, and +for the first time since 1861 the House, Senate, and President were all +three Democratic. + +Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated March 4,1893. Never in its history had the +country been seemingly more prosperous; the crops were bountiful; +business was flourishing, manufactures were thriving. But the prosperity +was not real. Business was inflated, and during the following summer an +industrial and financial panic which had long been brewing swept over +the business world, wrecking banks and destroying industrial and +commercial establishments. + +To understand what now happened, two facts must be remembered: + +1. Under the Resumption of Specie Payment Act of 1875, the Secretary of +the Treasury was authorized to buy specie by the issue of bonds and keep +it to redeem United States notes. + +2. In May, 1878, it was ordered that when a greenback was redeemed in +specie, it should "not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but shall be +reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation." There were then +$346,681,000 in greenbacks unredeemed. + +%556. The Gold Reserve.%--Meantime, under the law of 1875, and before +January 1, 1879, the secretary issued $95,500,000 in bonds, the proceeds +of which, with other gold then in the Treasury, made a fund deemed +sufficient to redeem such notes as were likely to be presented. This has +since been called our gold reserve, and has been fixed by the +secretaries at $100,000,000. January 1, 1879, the reserve was +$114,000,000, and though it often rose and fell, it never went below +that amount till July, 1892. By that time there were other gold +obligations. The silver purchased under the law of 1890 was paid for +with notes exchangeable for "coin"; but as the secretaries always +construed "coin" to mean gold, and as by 1893 these notes amounted to +$150,000,000, our gold obligations--that is, notes exchangeable for +gold--were nearly $500,000,000 (greenbacks, $346,000,000; silver +purchase notes, $150,000,000). This immense and steadily increasing sum +caused a doubt of our ability to pay in gold, and a fear that we might +be forced to pay in silver. Now silver, since 1873, had fallen steadily +in value from $1.30 an ounce to $0.81 an ounce in 1893, so that the +bullion value of a silver dollar was about 67 cents. The fear, then, +that our debts might be paid in silver (1) led foreigners to cease +investing money in this country, and to send our stocks and bonds home +to be sold, and (2) led people in this country to draw gold out of the +banks and the Treasury and hoard it, so that in April, 1893, the gold +reserve, for the first time since it was created, fell below +$100,000,000 (to $97,000,000). + +%557. The Panic of 1893.%--Business depression and "tight money" +followed. Over three hundred banks suspended or failed, manufactories +all over the country shut down, and a period of great distress set in. +People, alarmed at the condition of the banks, began to draw their +deposits and hoard them, thereby causing such a scarcity of bills of +small denominations that a "currency famine" was threatened. + +%558. The Purchase of Silver stopped.%--Believing that the fear that +we should soon be "on a silver basis" had much to do with this state of +affairs, and that the compulsory purchase of silver each month had much +to do with the fear, the President assembled Congress in special +session, August 7, and asked for the repeal of that clause of the +Sherman Act of 1890 which required a monthly purchase of silver. After a +struggle in which both of the old parties were split, the compulsory +purchase clause was repealed, November 1, 1893. + +%559. The Silver Movement.%--The steady fall in the bullion value of +silver was a serious blow to the prosperity of the great +silver-producing states,--Colorado, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, +Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and the territories of Arizona and New +Mexico,--where silver mining was "the very heart from which every other +industry receives support." In Colorado alone 15,000 miners were made +idle. To the people of this section, some 2,000,000 in number, the +silver question was of vital importance; and, alarmed at the call for +the special session of Congress and the possible repeal of the +silver-purchase clause, they held a convention at Denver, with a view to +affecting public sentiment. A few weeks after, the National Bimetallic +League met at Chicago. Both opposed the repeal, and demanded that if the +government ceased to buy silver, the mints should be opened to free +coinage. This the friends of silver in the Senate attempted in vain to +bring about. + +%560. The Industrial Depression; the Wilson Bill.%--The industrial +revival which it was hoped would follow the repeal of the +silver-purchase law did not take place. Prices did not rise; failures +continued; the long-silent mills did not reopen; gold continued to leave +the country, imports fell off, and, when the year ended, the receipts of +the government were $34,000,000 behind the expenditures. With this +condition of the Treasury facing it, Congress met in December, 1893. The +Democrats were in control, and pledged to revise the tariff; and true to +the pledge, William L. Wilson of West Virginia, Chairman of the House +Committee on Ways and Means, presented a new tariff bill (the Wilson +Bill) which after prolonged debate passed both Houses and became a law +at midnight, August 27, 1894, without the President's signature. As it +was expected that the revenue yielded would not be sufficient to meet +the expenses of government, one section of the law provided for a tax of +two per cent on all incomes above $4000. This the Supreme Court +afterwards declared unconstitutional. + +%561. The Bond Issues.%--We have seen that in April, 1893, the gold +reserve fell to $97,000,000. But it did not stop there; for, the +business depression and the demand for the free and unlimited coinage of +silver continuing, the withdrawal of gold went on, till the reserve was +so low that bonds were repeatedly sold for gold wherewith to maintain +it. In this wise, during 1894-95, $262,000,000 were added to our +bonded debt. + +%562. Foreign Relations; the Hawaiian Revolution.%--when Cleveland +took office, a treaty providing for the annexation of the Hawaiian +Islands was pending in the Senate. In January, 1983, these islands were +the scene of a revolution, which deposed the Queen and set up a +"provisional government." Commissioners were then dispatched to +Washington, where a treaty of annexation was negotiated and (February +15) sent to the Senate for approval. In the course of the revolution, a +force of men from the United States steamer _Boston_ was landed at the +request of the revolutionary leaders, and our flag was raised over some +of the buildings. When these facts became known, the President, fearing +that the presence of United States marines might have contributed much +to the success of the revolution, recalled the treaty from the Senate, +and sent an agent to the islands to investigate. His report set forth in +substance that the revolution would never have taken place had it not +been for the presence and aid of United States marines, and that the +Queen had practically been deposed by United States officials. A new +minister was thereupon sent, with instructions to announce that the +treaty of annexation would not be confirmed, and to seek for the +restoration of the Queen on certain conditions. But President Dole of +the Hawaiian republic denied the right of Cleveland to impose +conditions, or in any way interfere in the domestic concerns of Hawaii, +and refused to surrender to the Queen. + +%563. The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute.%--During 1895, the boundary +dispute which had been dragging on for more than half a century between +Great Britain and Venezuela, reached what the President called "an acute +stage," and made necessary a statement of the position of the United +States under the Monroe Doctrine. Great Britain was therefore informed +"that the established policy of the United States is against a forcible +increase of any territory of a European power" in the New World, and +"that the United States is bound to protest against the enlargement of +the area of British Guiana against the will of Venezuela"; and she was +invited to submit her claims to arbitration. Her answer was that the +Monroe Doctrine was "inapplicable to the state of things in which we +live at the present day" and a refusal to submit her claims to +arbitration. The President then asked and received authority to appoint +a commission to examine the boundary and report. "When such report is +made and accepted," said Cleveland, "it will in my opinion be the duty +of the United States to resist by every means in its power, as a willful +aggression upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by Great +Britain of any lands, or the exercise of any governmental jurisdiction, +over any territory which after investigation we have determined of right +belongs to Venezuela." For a time the excitement this message aroused in +Great Britain and our own country was extreme. But it soon subsided, and +on February 2, 1897, a treaty of arbitration was signed at Washington +between Great Britain and Venezuela. + +%564. The Election of 1896%.--By that time the presidential election +was over. When in the spring the time came to choose delegates to the +party nominating conventions, the drift of public sentiment was so +strong against the administration, that it seemed certain that the +Republicans would "sweep the country." Little interest, therefore, was +taken by the Democrats, while the Republicans were most concerned in the +question whether Mr. McKinley or Mr. Reed should be their presidential +candidate. But as delegates were chosen by the Democrats in the Western +and Southern States, it became certain that the issue was to be the free +and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1. + +The Republican convention met in June, nominated William McKinley and +Garret A Hobart, and declared the party "opposed to the free coinage of +silver except by international agreement," whereupon thirty-four +delegates representing the silver states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, +Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah) seceded from the party. The Democratic +convention assembled early in July, and after a most exciting convention +chose William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall, and declared for "the free and +unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ration of +16 to 1, without waiting for the aid and consent of any other nation." A +great defection followed this declaration, scores of newspapers refused +to support the candidates, and in September a convention of "gold +Democrats," taking the name of the National Democratic party, nominated +John M. Palmer and Simon B. Buckner, on a "gold standard" platform. + +Meanwhile, the Prohibitionists, the National party (declaring for woman +suffrage, prohibition, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, +an income tax, and the election of the President, Vice President, and +senators by direct vote of the people), the Socialist Labor party, the +Silver party, and the Populists, had all put candidates in the field. +The Silver party indorsed Bryan and Sewall; the Populists nominated +Bryan and Thomas E. Watson. + +[Illustration: William McKinley] + +%565. McKinley, President.%--An "educational campaign" was carried on +with a seriousness never before approached in our history, and resulted +in the election of Mr. McKinley. He was inaugurated on March 4, and +immediately called a special session of Congress to revise the tariff, a +work which ended in the enactment of the "Dingley Tariff," on July +24, 1897. + +%566. The Cuban Question.%--Absorbing as were the election and the +tariff, there was another matter, which for two years past had steadily +grown more and more serious. In February, 1895, the natives of Cuba for +the sixth time in fifty years rebelled against the misrule of Spain and +founded a republic. A cruel, bloody, and ruinous war followed, and as it +progressed, deeply interested the people of our country. The island lay +at our very doors. Upwards of $50,000,000 of American money were +invested in mines, railroads, and plantations there. Our yearly trade +with Cuba was valued at $96,000,000. Our ports were used by Cubans in +fitting out military expeditions, which the government was forced to +stop at great expense. + +%567. Shall Cuba be given Belligerent Rights?%--These matters were +serious, and when to them was added the sympathy we always feel for any +people struggling for the liberty we enjoy, there seemed to be ample +reason for our insisting that Spain should govern Cuba better or set her +free. Some thought we should buy Cuba; some that we should recognize the +Republic of Cuba; others that we should intervene even at the risk of +war. Thus urged on, Congress in 1896 declared that the Cubans were +entitled to belligerent rights in our ports, and asked the President to +endeavor to persuade Spain to recognize the independence of Cuba; and +the House in 1897 recommended that the independence of Cuba be +recognized. But nothing came of either recommendation, and so the matter +stood when McKinley was inaugurated. + +During the summer of 1897 matters grew worse. A large part of the island +became a wilderness. The people who had been driven into the towns by +order of Captain General Weyler, the "reconcentrados," were dying of +starvation, and our countrymen, deeply moved at their suffering, began +to send them food and medical aid. + +%568. The Maine destroyed.%--While engaged in this humane work they were +horrified to hear that on the night of February 15, 1898, our battleship +_Maine_ was blown up in the harbor of Havana, and 260 of her sailors +killed. Although our Court of Inquiry was unable to fix the +responsibility for the explosion, many people believed that it had been +perpetrated by Spaniards, and the hope of a peaceable settlement of the +Cuban question rapidly waned. The sum of $50,000,000 was voted to the +President for strengthening our defenses and buying ships and munitions +of war. After declining to recognize the Cuban Republic, Congress +adopted a resolution, on April 19, declaring for the freedom of Cuba, +demanding that Spain should withdraw from the island, and authorizing +the President to compel her withdrawal, if necessary, by means of our +army and navy. Spain severed diplomatic relations with us on April 21, +and the war began on that date, as declared by an Act of Congress a few +days later. Two hundred thousand volunteers were quickly enlisted, out +of the much larger number that wished to serve. + +%569. War with Spain.%--The Battle of Manila.--While one fleet which +had long been gathering at Key West went off and blockaded Havana and +other parts of the coast of Cuba, another, under Commodore George +Dewey, sailed from Hong-kong to attack the Spanish fleet at the +Philippine Islands. Dewey found it in the Bay of Manila, where, on May +1, 1898, he fought and won the most brilliant naval battle in the +world's history. Passing the forts at the entrance, he entered the bay, +and, without the loss of a man or a ship, he destroyed the entire +Spanish fleet of ten vessels, killed and wounded over 600 men, and +captured the arsenal at Cavite (cah-ve-ta') and the forts at the +entrance to the bay. The city of Manila was then blockaded by Dewey's +fleet, and General Merritt with 20,000 troops was sent across the +Pacific to take possession of the Philippines, which had long been +Spain's most important possession in the East. For his great victory +Dewey received the thanks of Congress and was promoted to be +Rear-Admiral, and later was given for life the full rank of Admiral. + +[Illustration: Admiral Dewey] + +[Illustration Rear-Admiral Sampson] + +%570. The Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--Capture of +Santiago.%--Meantime a second Spanish fleet, under Admiral Cervera, +sailed from the Cape Verde Islands. Acting Rear-Admiral Sampson, with +ships which had been blockading Havana, and Commodore Schley, with a +Flying Squadron, went in search of Cervera, and after a long hunt he was +found in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba (sahn-te-ah'go da coo'bah), +which was promptly blockaded by the ships of both squadrons, with +Sampson in command. The narrow entrance to the harbor was so well +defended by forts and submarine mines that a direct attack on Cervera +was impossible. In an attempt to complete the blockade, Naval +Constructor R. P. Hobson and a volunteer crew of seven men took the +collier _Merrimac_ to the harbor entrance, and, amid a rain of shot and +shell, sank her in the channel (June 3). The gallant little band escaped +with life, but were made prisoners of war, and in time were exchanged. + +[Illustration: General Shafter] + +[Illustration: Rear-Admiral Schley] + +The capture of Santiago was decided upon when Cervera sought refuge in +its harbor, and about 18,000 men (mostly of the regular army), under +General Shafter, were hurried to Cuba and landed a few miles from the +city. On July 1 the enemy's outer line of defenses were taken, after +severe fighting at El Caney (ca-na') and San Juan (sahn hoo-ahn'); and +on the next day the Spaniards failed in an attempt to retake them. So +certain was it that the city must soon surrender, that Cervera was +ordered to dash from the harbor, break through the American fleet, and +put to sea. On Sunday morning, July 3, the attempt was made; a desperate +sea fight followed, and, in a few hours, all six of the Spanish vessels +were sunk or stranded, shattered wrecks, on the coast of Cuba. The +Spanish loss in killed and wounded was heavy, while Admiral Cervera and +about 1800 of his men were taken prisoners. Not one of our vessels was +seriously damaged, and but one of our men was killed. When the battle +began, the American war ships were in their usual positions before the +harbor, as assigned them by Admiral Sampson; but Sampson himself, in his +flagship, was several miles to the east on his way to a conference with +General Shafter. Commodore Schley's flagship, the _Brooklyn_, was at the +west end of the line, and as the enemy tried to escape in that +direction, she was in the thickest of the fight. Another war ship which +especially distinguished herself was the _Oregon_, a Western-built +ship, which had sailed from San Francisco all the way around Cape Horn +in order to reach the seat of war. + +[Illustration: General Miles] + +After the naval battle of July 3, all hope of successful resistance by +the Spaniards vanished, and on July 17, General Toral surrendered +Santiago, the eastern end of Cuba, and an army of nearly 25,000 men. A +week later General Miles set off to seize the island of Porto Rico. He +landed on the southern coast, and had occupied much of the island when +hostilities came to an end. + +571. Peace.--On August 12, 1898, a protocol was signed by +representatives of the two nations, providing for the immediate +cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Spain from the West Indies, +and the occupation of Manila by the United States till the conclusion of +a treaty of peace, which was to be negotiated by a commission meeting in +Paris, and which was to provide for the disposition of the Philippines. + +News of the cessation of hostilities was instantly sent to all our +fleets and armies. But, on August 13, before word could reach the +Philippines, Manila was attacked by General Merritt's army and Dewey's +fleet, whereupon the Spanish general surrendered the city and about +7000 soldiers. + +A formal treaty of peace was signed at Paris December 10, 1898, +providing that Spain should relinquish her title to Cuba, and cede Porto +Rico, Guam (one of the Ladrones), and the Philippines to the United +States; and that the United States should pay $20,000,000 to Spain. The +treaty was then submitted to the governments of the United States and +Spain for ratification; but in both countries it met some opposition. In +our country objections were made especially to the taking of the +Philippines without the consent of their inhabitants, many of whom, +under the leadership of Aguinaldo, had previously rebelled against Spain +and were now demanding complete independence; but the prevailing view +was that our immediate control was necessary to prevent civil war, +anarchy, and foreign complications there. Accordingly, on February 6, +1899, the treaty was ratified by the Senate by a vote of 57 to 27. Spain +also accepted the treaty, which was formally proclaimed April 11. The +$20,000,000 was promptly paid to Spain, and ordinary diplomatic +relations were resumed. + +%572. The War Bonds and War Taxes.%--For the expenses of the war with +Spain Congress made ample provision. The Secretary of the Treasury was +authorized to issue $400,000,000 in 3 per cent bonds,[1] and borrow +$100,000,000 upon temporary certificates of indebtedness. Stamp taxes, +an inheritance tax, and a duty on tea were laid, and the silver in the +Treasury was ordered to be coined at the rate of $1,500,000 a month. + +[Footnote 1: $200,000,000 of the war bonds were offered for popular +subscription, and $109,000,000 were subscribed in sums under $500. All +was taken in sums under $5000.] + +%573. Hawaii annexed.%--But in few respects was the effect of the war +so marked as in the changed sentiment of the people toward Hawaii. +During five years the little republic had been steadily seeking +annexation to the United States, and seeking in vain. But with the +partial occupation of the Philippines, and the impending acquisition of +Porto Rico, and perhaps Cuba, the policy of territorial expansion lost +many of its terrors, and the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by joint +resolution of Congress, signed by the President July 7, 1898. The formal +transfer of sovereignty took place August 12. The islands continued +temporarily under their existing form of government, with slight +modifications, till June 14, 1900, when they were organized as a +territory. + +[Illustration: (World Map)] + +[Illustration: General Otis] + +%574. The War in the Philippines.%--While the treaty with Spain was +under consideration, the city of Manila was held by General Otis, +Merritt's successor; but native troops, under Aguinaldo, were in control +of most of Luzon and several other islands. On the night of February 4, +1899, the long-threatened conflict between them was begun by Aguinaldo's +unsuccessful attack on the Americans at Manila. War now followed; but in +battle after battle the natives were beaten and scattered, till by the +beginning of the year 1900 the main army of the Filipinos had been +completely broken up, and the only forces still opposing American +authority were small bodies of bandits and guerrillas. These held out +persistently, and continued the warfare for more than a year. In 1900 +the President sent a commission to the Philippines to organize civil +government in such localities and in such degree as it should deem +advisable; and in 1902 Congress enacted a plan of government under which +the Philippines are constituted a partly self-governing dependency. + +%575. Porto Rico and Cuba.%--After the close of the Spanish war, both +Porto Rico and Cuba remained under the military control of the United +States for many months. For Porto Rico, which had been ceded to our +country, Congress provided a system of civil government which went into +effect May 1, 1900. This organized Porto Rico as a dependency. + +Cuba, however, had not been ceded to the United States. It had passed +under our control only for the restoration of peace and the +establishment of a stable government there; for Congress, in its +resolution of April 19, 1898, asserted its determination, after the +pacification of Cuba, "to leave the government and control of the island +to its people." In June, 1900, the local city governments were turned +over to municipal officers that had been elected by the people. In the +following winter a constitution was framed by a convention of delegates +elected by the Cubans. Then, after certain provisions had been added to +this, to govern the future relations between Cuba and the United States, +and after the first officers of the Cuban Republic had been elected, the +United States troops were withdrawn and the new government took charge +of the island, May 20, 1902. + +%576. Disorders in China.%--Early in 1900 a patriotic society of +Chinese, called the Boxers, began to massacre native Christians in the +north of China, and to drive out or kill all missionaries and other +foreigners. The disorder soon spread to Pekin, where the foreign +ministers and their countrymen (including some Americans) were besieged +in their quarter of the city by Boxers and regular Chinese troops; for +the Chinese government, instead of suppressing the Boxers, acted in +sympathy with them. + +President McKinley sent warships and soldiers to China, where they +cooeperated with the forces of Japan and the European powers in rescuing +the imperiled foreigners in Pekin. War was not declared against China, +though she resisted the invading troops, making it necessary for them to +capture several towns and to fight several battles before Pekin was +taken. A treaty was then negotiated with the United States, Japan, and +the European powers, providing for the restoration of order and a +settlement of the various claims against China. + +%577%. At home during 1900 our population was counted; a President +was elected; and a currency law of much importance was enacted. In the +United States and the territories there were found to be about +76,000,000 people, and in the one state of New York more inhabitants +than there were in all the United States in 1810. + +By the currency law, known as the Gold Standard Act, it is provided:-- + +1. That the gold dollar shall be the standard unit of value. + +2. That all forms of money issued or coined shall be kept "at a parity +of value" with this gold standard. + +3. That United States notes and Treasury notes shall be redeemed in gold +coin. For this purpose $150,000,000 of gold coin or bullion is set apart +in the Treasury. + +%578%. When the time came to prepare for the election of a President +and Vice President, eleven conventions were held, as many platforms were +framed, and eight pairs of candidates were nominated. There were the +Democratic and Republican parties; the People's Party (Fusionists) and +the People's Party (Middle of the Road Anti-Fusionists); the +Prohibition, United Christian, Silver Republican, Socialist Labor, +Social Democratic, and National parties; and the Anti-Imperialist +League. The things opposed, approved of, or demanded by these parties +were many and various; but a few should be stated as showing what the +people were thinking about: Trusts, the gold standard, the free coinage +of silver, a canal across Nicaragua or the isthmus of Panama, election +of United States senators by the people, repeal of the war taxes, +statehood for the territories, independence for the Filipinos, aid to +American shipping, irrigation of the arid lands in the West, public +ownership of railways and telegraphs, desecration of the Sabbath, +equality of men and women, exclusion of the Asiatics, the +Monroe Doctrine. + +%579. McKinley Reelected.%--The Populist (Fusionist) convention +nominated William J. Bryan and Charles A. Towne. But the Democrats named +Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson. Thereupon Towne withdrew, and Bryan and +Stevenson were made the candidates of the Populists and the Silver party +as well as of the Democrats. The Democratic platform denounced +imperialism and trusts, and reiterated the demand for the free coinage +of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republicans renominated +President McKinley, and nominated Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President, +on a platform indorsing McKinley's administration and favoring the gold +standard of money. McKinley and Roosevelt were elected. + +%580. McKinley Assassinated.% On March 4, 1901, the President began +his second term, which six months later came to a dreadful end. In May a +great fair--the Pan-American Exposition--was opened at Buffalo, and to +this exposition the President came as a guest early in September, and +was holding a public reception on the afternoon of the 6th, when an +anarchist who approached as if to shake hands, suddenly shot him twice. +For several days it was thought that the wounds would not prove fatal; +but early on the morning of the 14th, the President died, and that +afternoon Mr. Roosevelt took the oath of office required by the +Constitution and became President. + +[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt] + +%581. Public Measures adopted in 1901-1904.%--The events connected +with our large island possessions had directed much attention to our +military and naval forces. As a result, Congress passed several measures +to increase the efficiency of the army, and appropriated large sums for +additions to the navy. For the reclamation of the arid parts of the Far +West an important law was enacted (1902), setting aside the money +received from the sales of public land in that part of the country and +appropriating it for the planning and construction of irrigation works. +In 1903 a ninth member was added to the President's cabinet in the +person of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The new department was +made to include the Department of Labor established fifteen years +before, and a number of other bureaus already existing; at the same time +the Bureau of Corporations was newly established, and was given the +power to investigate the organization and workings of any trust or +corporation (except railroads) engaged in interstate or foreign +commerce, and, with the President's approval, to publish the +information so obtained. + +A long-standing dispute as to the eastern boundary of southern Alaska +was referred to a British-American tribunal, which decided chiefly in +favor of the United States (1903). By a reciprocity treaty with Cuba +which went into effect in 1904, the duties on Cuban trade were +somewhat lowered. + +%582. The Isthmian Canal.%--A French company many years ago began to dig +a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, but it failed through bad +management before the work was half done. A United States commission +made a survey of this route and also of the Nicaragua route across +Central America, estimated the cost of building each canal, and gave +careful consideration to the advantages of each route. The owners of the +French canal having offered to sell for $40,000,000, Congress in 1902 +authorized the President to buy and complete it, provided satisfactory +title and permanent control of the route could be secured. In all, about +$200,000,000 was provided for this work. In 1903 a treaty was negotiated +with Colombia, giving the United States a permanent lease of a six-mile +strip across the isthmus, for an annual rental of $250,000 and the +payment of $10,000,000, but Colombia rejected the treaty. The Colombian +province of Panama thereupon seceded (November 3), and its independence +was recognized by the United States and other nations. A treaty was soon +made whereby the United States guaranteed the independence of Panama, +and Panama ceded to the United States a ten-mile strip across the +isthmus for the sums rejected by Colombia. The rights of the French +company were then bought, and a United States commission began the work +of completing the canal (1904). + +%583. Election of Roosevelt.%--There were almost as many parties as ever +in the campaign of 1904. The Republicans indorsed the existing +administration, demanded the continuance of the protective tariff and +the gold standard, and nominated Roosevelt for President and Charles W. +Fairbanks for Vice President. The Democrats nominated Alton B. Parker +and Henry G. Davis, and declared for a reduction of the tariff and +against militarism and trusts, but were silent on the money question. +Roosevelt and Fairbanks were elected by a large majority. + +%584. Interstate Commerce.%--In spite of the act of 1887 and some +later laws, favored shippers were still given various unfair advantages +in the service and charges of railroads. In 1906 Congress greatly +enlarged the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to supervise +railroads, express companies, and other common carriers operating in +more than one state, and even authorized it to fix new freight and +passenger rates in place of any it deemed to be unjust or unreasonable. + +Besides this law to regulate interstate transportation, Congress passed +several acts to regulate the quality of goods entering into interstate +commerce. Efficient inspection of meat-packing establishments was +provided, at a cost of $3,000,000 a year. Adulteration or misbranding of +any foods, drugs, medicines, or liquors manufactured anywhere for sale +in another state, was forbidden under heavy penalties. + +%585. Intervention in Cuba.%--One of the provisions added to the +Cuban constitution gave the United States the right to intervene "for +the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, +property, and individual liberty." This right was first exercised in the +autumn of 1906, when the Cuban government failed to suppress an +insurrection in the island. Efforts were first made, in vain, to bring +about peace in Cuba without armed intervention; then the Cuban president +resigned, our envoy Secretary Taft proclaimed himself provisional +governor of Cuba, United States troops were stationed at various points, +and the insurgents peacefully disbanded. The work of completing the +restoration of order and confidence, preparatory to the holding of a new +election under the Cuban constitution, was intrusted by the President to +Charles E. Magoon, who became provisional governor in October. + +%586. The Panic of 1907.%--For several years our country had enjoyed +unusual prosperity. Never had the business of the country been better. A +distrust of banks and banking institutions, however, was suddenly +developed. Belief that the money of depositors was being used in a +reckless way became widespread, and when a run on some banks in New York +city forced them to suspend, a panic swept over the country. People +everywhere made haste to withdraw their deposits, and the banks for a +time were forced to refuse to cash checks for large sums. Business +depression and hard times followed. + +%587. The Currency Law.%--In the midst of the panic the Sixtieth +Congress met and in the course of its session enacted (for six years) a +currency law. This is an emergency measure by which the national banks, +when currency is scarce, may issue more under certain conditions. The +total amount put out by all the national banks must not be greater than +$500,000,000. Those using this currency must pay a heavy tax, which it +is believed will lead to its prompt recall as soon as the emergency +has passed. + +%588. Election of Taft.%--For the thirty-first time in our history +electors of President and Vice President were chosen in 1908. Seven +parties placed candidates in the field. The Republicans nominated +William H. Taft and James S. Sherman; the Democrats named William J. +Bryan and John W. Kern. Candidates were also presented by the +Prohibition, Populist, Socialist Labor, Socialist, and Independence +parties. In many respects the Republican and Democratic platforms were +alike. Both declared for revision of the tariff, postal savings banks, a +bureau of mines and mining, protection of our citizens abroad, a better +civil service, improvement of our inland waterways, preservation of our +forests, and the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states. +The Democratic platform called for an income tax, the publication of the +names of contributors to national campaign funds, legislation against +private monopolies, and full control of interstate railways. Taft and +Sherman were elected. + +One of Taft's first acts as President was to call a special session of +Congress, which met March 15 to frame a new tariff act. + +[Illustration: William H. Taft] + + +SUMMARY + +1. The political issues before the country since 1880 have been of two +general classes--industrial and financial. + +2. The industrial issues led to the formation of certain great +organizations, as the Farmers' Alliance, Knights of Labor, Patrons of +Industry, etc.; and to the enactment of certain important laws, as the +Interstate Commerce Acts, the Anti-Chinese laws, the Anti-Contract Labor +law, and the establishment of the Labor Bureau. + +3. The financial issues were in general connected in some way with the +agitation for free coinage of silver. + +4. These issues seriously affected both the old parties and produced +others, as the Anti-monopoly party, the People's party, the Silver +party, the National, the Socialist. + +5. In 1893 financial questions became so serious that a panic occurred, +which forced the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman Act. In +1907 there was another panic. + +6. Among our foreign complications during this period were the question +of the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, the Venezuela boundary +dispute, the Cuban question, which finally involved us in a war with +Spain, and the trouble with China arising from the Boxer outbreak. + +7. The chief events of the war with Spain were Dewey's naval victory in +Manila Bay, May 1; the battles of El Caney and San Juan, near Santiago, +July 1; the naval battle of July 3 off Santiago; the surrender of +Santiago, July 14; the invasion of Porto Rico, near the end of July; and +the capture of Manila, August 13. + +8. The war resulted in the cession of Porto Rico and the Philippines to +our country, and in Spain's withdrawal from Cuba. + +9. The withdrawal of Spain from the Philippines was followed by an +uprising of natives led by Aguinaldo; but the insurrection was soon +suppressed and a system of civil government established. + +10. By peaceful negotiation a treaty was perfected giving the United +States control of the route for the Panama Canal. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776 + + * * * * * + +IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. + +THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF +AMERICA + +When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people +to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, +and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal +station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a +decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should +declare the causes which impel them to the separation. + +We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; +that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; +that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, +to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving +their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any +form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of +the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, +laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in +such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and +happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long +established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, +accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed +to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by +abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long +train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, +evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their +right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide +new guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient +sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which +constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history +of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries +and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an +absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be +submitted to a candid world. + +He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for +the public good. + +He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing +importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should +be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to +attend to them. + +He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large +districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of +representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and +formidable to tyrants only. + +He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, +uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, +for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with +his measures. + +He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with +manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. + +He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others +to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of +annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; +the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of +invasion from without, and convulsions within. + +He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that +purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing +to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the +conditions of new appropriations of lands. + +He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent +to laws for establishing judiciary powers. + +He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their +offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. + +He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of +officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. + +He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the +consent of our legislature. + +He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, +the civil power. + +He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to +our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to +their acts of pretended legislation: + +For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: + +For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders +which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: + +[Transcriber's note: This is an excerpt. Please see Project Gutenberg's +complete text.] + + + +CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES--1787[1] + +[Footnote 1: This reprint of the Constitution exactly follows the text +of that in the Department of State in Washington, save in the spelling +of a few words.] + +We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect +union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the +common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of +liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this +Constitution for the United States of America. + + +ARTICLE I + +SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a +Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House +of Representatives. + +SECTION 2. 1 The House of Representatives shall be composed of members +chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the +electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for +electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. + +2 No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the +age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United +States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State +in which he shall be chosen. + +3 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the +several States which may be included within this Union, according to +their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the +whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a +term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all +other persons[2]. The actual enumeration shall be made within three +years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and +within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall +by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for +every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one +representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of +New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, +Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York +six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, +Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and +Georgia three. + +[Footnote 2: The last half of this sentence was superseded by the 13th +and 14th Amendments. (See p.16 following.)] + +4 When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the +executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such +vacancies. + +5 The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other +officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. + +SECTION 3. 1 The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two +senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof for six +years; and each senator shall have one vote. + +2 Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first +election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. +The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the +expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of +the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth +year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if +vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the +legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary +appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then +fill such vacancies. + +3 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of +thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and +who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he +shall be chosen. + +4 The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the +Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. + +5 The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president +_pro tempore_, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall +exercise the office of President of the United States. + +6 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When +sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the +President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall +preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two +thirds of the members present. + +7 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to +removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office +of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party +convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, +judgment and punishment, according to law. + +SECTION 4. 1 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for +senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the +legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or +alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. + +2 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such +meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by +law appoint a different day. + +SECTION 5. 1 Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and +qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall +constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn +from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of +absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House +may provide. + +2 Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its +members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two +thirds, expel a member. + +3 Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to +time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment +require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on +any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be +entered on the journal. + +4 Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the +consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other +place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. + +[Transcriber's note: This is an excerpt. Please see Project Gutenberg's +complete text.] + + +STATE CONSTITUTIONS + + +We have seen (page 155), that in 1776 the Continental Congress advised +the people of the colonies to form governments for themselves, and that +the people of the colonies accordingly adopted constitutions and became +sovereign and independent states. Of the thirteen original state +constitutions, none save that of Massachusetts is now in force, and even +that has been amended. Changes in political ideas, changes in the +conditions of life due to the wonderful progress of our country, have +forced the people to alter, amend, and often remake their state +constitutions. + +All our state constitutions now in force divide the powers of government +among three departments,--legislative, executive, and judicial. + +_The Legislative Department_--called in some states the Legislature, in +others the General Assembly, and in still others the General Court-- +consists in every state of two branches or houses, usually known as the +Senate and House of Representatives. In six states the legislature meets +annually, and in all the rest biennially; the members of both branches +are everywhere elected by the people, and serve from one to four years. +In most states a session of the legislature is limited to a period of +from forty to ninety days. The legislature enacts the laws (which must +not conflict with the Constitution of the United States, the treaties, +the acts of Congress, or the constitution of the state); but the powers +of the two houses are not equal in all the states. In some the House of +Representatives has the sole right to originate bills for the raising +and the expenditure of money, and in some the Senate confirms or rejects +appointments to office made by the Governor. + +_The Governor_ is the executive; is elected for a term of years varying +from one to four; and is in duty bound to see that the laws are +enforced. To him, in nearly all the states, are sent the acts of the +legislature to be signed if he approves, or vetoed if he disapproves. In +some states the Governor may veto parts or items of an act and approve +the rest. He is commander in chief of the militia; commissions all +officers whom he appoints; and in most of the states may pardon +criminals. + +_The Judicial Branch_ of government is composed of the state courts, +whose judges are appointed, or elected for a long term of years. + +These three branches of government--the executive, the legislative, and +the judicial--are distinct and separate, and none can exercise the +powers of the others. No judge can enact a law; no legislature can try a +suit; no executive can perform the duties of a judge or a legislature. + +When the thirteen colonies threw off their allegiance to the British +Crown, the government set up by each was supreme within the limits of +the state. Each could coin money, impose duties on goods imported from +abroad or from other states, fix the legal rate of interest, make laws +regulating marriage and divorce and the descent of property, and do +anything else that any supreme government could do. + +But when the states united in forming a strong general government by +adopting the Constitution, they did not give up all their powers of +government. They intrusted part of them to the Federal government, and +retained the rest as before. In other words, the people of each state, +instead of continuing to have one government, adopted a double +government, state and Federal, according to the plan laid down in the +Constitution. It is the Federal Constitution that makes the division of +powers between the nation and the separate states. The Constitution, for +instance, gives the Federal government the powers of coining money and +laying import duties, and forbids these powers to the states; but the +rate of interest, marriage and divorce, and the descent of property are +matters not mentioned in the Constitution, and concerning which the +states retain the power to make laws. + +In many cases it is hard to decide whether a state has power to do a +certain thing. Whenever the question turns on the interpretation of the +Federal Constitution, it is decided by the United States courts. The +Federal Constitution and the laws and treaties made in accordance with +it are supreme in case of any conflict with a state constitution or law. + +The powers of government exercised by the states are more numerous, and +affect the individual citizen in more ways, than those of the nation. +The force of contracts; the relations of employer and employed, husband +and wife, parent and child; the administration of schools; and the +punishment of most crimes, are matters controlled by the state. A much +larger amount of taxes is imposed by the states than by the nation. + +_Local Governments._--Moreover, the local government of counties, towns, +and cities is entirely under the control of the state. State +constitutions contain many provisions in regard to this local +government, but the legislature can make laws affecting it more or less +greatly in the various states. In the local government of a city, town, +or county there is to some extent a distribution of powers among +legislative, executive, and judicial officers. The legislative function +is exercised by the city council or board of aldermen, the town trustees +(or by the whole body of voters), and the county board of supervisors or +commissioners; the executive, by the city mayor, the county sheriff, and +other officers; and the judicial, by various city courts, justices of +the peace, and county courts. + +_Political Rights and Duties._--The political rights and duties of +citizens depend chiefly on the state constitutions and laws. Elections, +both state and national, are conducted by state officers. The state +prescribes who shall have the right to vote, and the various states +differ greatly in this respect. Congress grants citizenship by a uniform +rule of naturalization; but some states allow aliens to vote (on certain +conditions), and some provide that a naturalized citizen can not vote +until a certain period has elapsed after his naturalization. In some +states women may vote; in some only those men who have certain property +or educational qualifications. + +The right to vote is the qualification for holding most offices; +additional qualifications are prescribed for very important offices, in +the Federal and state constitutions. Thus, none but a native may be a +President or Vice President of the United States, nor may a citizen +under thirty years of age be a member of the United States Senate. +Besides voting and office holding, the most important political rights +and duties of citizens are to sit on juries and to serve in the army. +The qualifications of jurors in state courts are prescribed by state +authority, and in national courts by national authority. Congress has +the exclusive power to raise armies, and in the Civil War hundreds of +thousands of citizens came under national authority in connection with +the duty to bear arms. The militia, however, is commanded by state +officers, and in time of peace is under the control of the +separate states. + + + + +INDEX + +%A% + +Abolition, laws; + societies; + opposition to; + Compromise Bill; + issue of Civil War. +Acadia, extent of; + struggle for. +Act, of 1870; + of 1873; + of 1875. +_Adams_. +Adams, Alvin. +Adams, Charles F. +Adams, John, defends soldiers; + Declaration of Independence; + negotiates treaty; + vice president; + president. +Adams, John Quincy, opposes European colonization; + presidential nominee; + president; + opposed to slavery. +Adams, John Q., vice-pres. nominee. +Adams, Samuel. +Adams Express Company. +"Adams men". +"Administration men". +_Alabama_. +Alabama, admitted; + secedes; + readmitted. +Alabama claims. +Alaska, boundaries; + purchased. +Albany, Dutch at; + colonial congress at. +Alexandria. +Algonquins. +Alien and Sedition laws. +Allegheny River, French on. +Allen, Ethan. +Allison amendment. +Amendments to Constitution, ten; + twelfth; + proposed thirteenth; + thirteenth; + fourteenth; + fifteenth. +America, discovery of; + naming of. +American Antislavery Society. +American Fur Trading Company. +American party. +American Republican party; + disappears. +Amherst. +Amnesty, proclamation issued; + political issue. +Anaesthesia discovered. +Anderson, Robert. +Andre, Major John. +Annapolis, Md., founded; riot at; + trade convention at. +Annapolis, Port Royal called. +Annual message. +Anti-Chinese movement. +Anti-Federalists. +Anti-Nebraska men. +Antietam, battle of. +Antimasonic party. +Antislavery movement. +Appomattox Courthouse. +Arbitration, policy; + between England and Venezuela. +Argall, Governor. +_Argus_. +Arizona, territory; + silver interests. +Arkansas, becomes territory; + admitted; + secedes; + Confederates in; + reconstruction; + readmitted. +Army of the Cumberland; + disbanded. +Army of the Potomac, peninsular campaign; + at Gettysburg; + in Wilderness campaign; + disbanded. +Army of Tennessee. +Army of Virginia. +Arnold, Benedict, attacks Quebec; + at Saratoga; + treason of; + in British service. +Articles of Confederation. +Ashburton, Lord. +Assumption of state debts. +Astor, John Jacob. +Astoria founded. +Atchison settled. +Atlanta burned. +Atlantic cable. +Auburn settled. +Aurania settled. +Austin, Moses. +Austin, Stephen. + +%B% + +Bahama Islands. +Balboa. +Baltimore, founded; + in colonial times; + Congress at; + attacked; + route to the West; + convention at; + insurgents in; + labor congress in. +Baltimore, Lord, +Banks, United States, see National Bank; + state, see State Banks. +Banks, N. P., presidential nominee, in + Civil War, +Bannock City founded, +Barry, John, +Barron, Commander, +Baton Rouge, captured, + Spaniards claim, +"Battle above the Clouds," +Bean, William, +Bear State republic, +Beauregard, General, +Bell, John, +Belmont, +Belpre settled, +Bemis Heights, battle of, +Bennington, battle of, +Benton, Thomas II., senator, +Bents Fort, +_Berceau_, +Berkeley, Lord, +Berlin Decree, +Bidwell, John, +Bienville, Celoron de, +Big Bottom massacre, +Bills of credit, +Biloxi settled, +Bimetallism, +Birney, James Gillespie, presidential nominee, + abolitionist, +Black, James, +Black Rock burned, +Bladensburg, battle of, +Blaine, James G., +Blair, Francis P., +Bland-Allison Silver Bill, +Blockade, of 1814, + Southern, +Blockade runners, +Blue Lodges, +Bonded debt, of 1866, + of 1894, +Bonds, United States, +_Bonhomme Richard_, +Bonneville, Captain, +Boom towns, +Boone, Daniel, +Boonesboro settled, +Booth, John Wilkes, assassinates Lincoln, +Bordentown, +Border states secede, +Boscawen, +_Boston_, +Boston, founded, + in colonial times, + riot, + massacre, + tea party, + Port Bill, + occupied by British, + evacuated, + in 1790, + fire, +Boston Neck, +_Boston Sentinel_, +Boundary, of United States in 1783, + in 1815, + Canadian, + Spanish, + of Alaska, + of Texas, + map showing territorial growth of United States, +_Boxer_, +Braddock, Edward, +Bradford, William, +Bradstreet, +Bragg, +Brandywine, battle of, +Brazil discovered, +Breckinridge, John C., vice president, + presidential candidate, +Breeds Hill, battle of, +Brewster, William, +British, see English. +British Columbia, boundary of, +British Guiana, +Brown, B. Gratz, +Brown, Jacob, +Brown, John, +Brown, Robert, +Brownists, +Brush, +Bryan, William J., +Buchanan, James, president, + attitude toward seceded states, +Buckner, General Simon B., +Buell, General, +Buena Vista, battle of, +Buffalo burned, +Bull Run, battles of, +Bunker Hill, battle of, +Bunker Hill Monument, +Burgoyne, John, +Burke P. B., +Burlingame, Anson, +Burnside, General, +Burr, Aaron, +Business depression of '93, +Butler, +Butler, A. P., +Butler, Benjamin F., +Butler, William O., +Butterfield overland stage. + +%C% + +Cabinet, first, +Cable, Atlantic, +Cabots, +Cabral, +Calhoun, John C., in War Congress, + vice president, + favors nullification, + on slavery, + on Compromise Bill, + death of, +California, Fremont in, + independent, + slavery in, + gold discoveries, + applies for admission, + settled and admitted, + Pacific Railroad to, +Calverts, +Cambridge settled, +Camden, battle of, +Canada, ceded to British, + boundary of, + fisheries, +Canals, +Canonchet, +Canso attacked, +Cape Ann colony, +Cape Breton, +Cape Cod named, +Cape Fear River settlements, +Captains of industry. +Caribbean Islands. +Carleton, Sir Guy. +Carolinas, settled; + see North and South Carolina. +Carpetbaggers. +Carson, Kit. +Carteret, Sir George. +Cartier, Jacques. +Cass, Lewis. +Castine massacre. +Castle Pinckney. +Catholics in Maryland. +Cayuga Indians. +Cedar Creek, battle of. +Cedar Mountain, battle of. +Celoron de Bienville. +Census, first; + of 1810; + of 1870; + of 1900. +Central Pacific Railroad. +Cerro Gordo, battle of. +Certificates, national. +Chadds Ford, battle of. +Chambers, B. J. +Chambersburg burned. +Champlain. +Chancellorsville, battle of. +Chapultepec, battle of. +Charles I., grants Maryland; + persecutes Puritans; + beheaded. +Charles II., grants Connecticut; + grants Carolina; + grants Pennsylvania. +Charleston, founded; + attacked; + in colonial times; + opposes tea tax; + captured; + nominating convention. +Charleston harbor. +Charlestown, settled. +Charlestown Neck. +Charter colonies. +Charters, of 1606; + of 1609; + of 1629. +Chase, Salmon P. +Chattanooga, battle of. +Cherokee Indians. +Cherry Creek. +Cherry Valley massacre. +_Chesapeake_. +Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. +Chester. +Chicago, Republican conventions; + in 1832; + in 1840; + labor congress; + convention of '69; + fire; + meat packing; + Bimetallic League. +Chickahominy River. +Chickamauga, battle of. +Chickasaw Indians. +China, disorder in. +Chinese Exclusion acts. +Chinese immigration. +Chippewa, battle of. +Choctaw Indians. +Church of New England. +Churubusco, battle of. +Cincinnati, in 1802; + in 1810; + convention of 1872; + labor congress; + convention of 1876. +Circuit courts. +Civil Rights Bill. +Civil service reform. +Civil War; + cost of; + results of. +Clark, General George Rogers. +Clark, William. +Clay, Henry, speaker; + presidential nominee; + secretary of state; + Compromise Tariff; + Infant School; + Compromise Bill; + death of. +_Clermont_. +Cleveland, population in 1840. +Cleveland, Stephen Grover, president. +Clinton, George. +Clinton, Governor De Witt. +Clinton, Sir Henry, campaigns. +Cobb, Howell. +Cochrane, General John. +Cockburn, Admiral. +Cohoes founded. +Coin at a premium. +Coinage of gold and silver. +Cold Harbor, battle of. +Colfax, Schuyler. +Collins steamship line. +Colonial, life; + forms of government. +Colonies, Spanish; + English; + Dutch; + Swedish. +Colorado, acquired; + a territory; + admitted; + silver interests. +Colt. +_Columbia Centinel_. +Columbia River discovered. +Columbus, Christopher. +Columbus, Ky., evacuated. +Columbus, O., population in 1840; + conventions. +Commerce, in colonial times; + about 1810; + destroyers; + See also Trade. +Committee of Safety. +Compromise, Missouri; + tariff; + of 1850; + of Crittenden. +Compromises in Constitution. +Comptroller of the Currency. +Concord, battle of. +Confederate cruisers. +Confederate States, formed; + during civil war; + capital of; + end of; + military supplies of; + debts and losses of; + congress dissolved. +_Congress_. +Congress, under Articles of Confederation, and see Continental Congress; + reconstruction plan of; + gives land grants; + acts of 1862 and 1863. +Congress, National Labor. +Connecticut, settled; + in colonial times; + Reserve. +Conscription, Confederate. +_Constellation_. +_Constitution_. +Constitution of U.S., + amendments to, see Amendments. + Printed in Appendix, +Constitutional Union party, +Continental army, +Continental Congress, +Continental debt, +Continental money, +Contract labor, +Contraction policy, +Contreras, battle of, +Conway cabal, +Cooper, Peter, +Corinth, + battle of, +Cornwallis, Lord, +Coronado, +Corporations, rise of, + opposition to, +Cortereal, +Cortes, +Cotton gin, +Cotton industry, +Cotton-seed oil, +Council Bluffs, Mormons at, +Council for New England, +_Coureurs de bois,_ +Court of Admiralty, +Courts of U.S. established, +Cowpens, battle of, +Cranfill, J.B., +Crawford, William H., +Credit Strengthening Act, +Creek Indians, +Crittenden's Compromise, +Croghan, Major, +Crown Point, founded, + English at, +Cuba, +Culpeper Courthouse, +_Cumberland_, +Cumberland Road, +Cunard steamship line, +Currency, U.S., +Curtis, Gen. S.R., +Customs Commissioners. + +%D% + +Dakota Territory, formed, + population of, +Dallas, George Mifflin, +Dalton, battle of, +Daniel, William, +Davenport, John, +Davie, William K., +Davis, David, +Davis, Jefferson, president of Confederacy, + capture of, +Dayton, William L., +De Soto, +Deane, Silas, +Dearborn's expedition, +Debt, national, after the Revolutionary War, + in 1790, + in 1801, + in 1835, + new national, + during Civil War, + in 1866, + in 1887, + in 1894, +Declaration of Independence, + in Vermont, + See Appendix, +Declaration of Rights, +DeKalb, +Delaware, claims in, + sold to Penn, + in colonial times, + slavery in, +Delaware, Lord, 32. +Delaware Indians, 68, 72. +Delegates, territorial, 162, 351 n. 2. +Democratic party, +Democratic Republicans, +Denver, settled, + convention at, +Department of Labor established, +Detroit, settled + surrender of, +Dewey, Commodore, +Dingley Tariff, +Dinwiddie, Governor Robert, +Direct tax, +District courts, +District of Columbia, + slavery in, +Dixon, Jeremiah, +Dole, president of Hawaiian Republic, +Donelson, Andrew Jackson, +Donelson, John, +Dorchester settled, +Dorchester Heights captured, +Douglas, Stephen A., Nebraska Bill, + debates with Lincoln, + elected senator, + presidential nominee, +Dover riot, +Dow, Neal, +_Drake_, +Drake, Sir Francis, +Draper, Dr. John W., +Dred Scott decision, +Duane, William J., +Duluth founded, +Duquesne, Marquis, +Durham massacre, +Dutch, possessions, + settlements, +Dutch West India Company. + +%E% + +Earle, Thomas, +Early, Jubal, +East India Company, +East Indies, trade with, +Eastern Colonies, occupations, etc., +Eastport captured, +Edmunds Law, +Electoral college, +Electoral commission, +Electricity, +Elizabeth, Queen, +Elizabeth City captured, +Ellmaker, Amos, +Ellsworth, Oliver, +Emancipation, agitation; + Proclamation; + cost of. +Embargo laws. +Emigration, western. +Endicott, John. +English, possessions; + settlements; + relations with France; + relations with Indians; + government of colonies; + attitude to colonies; + war with colonies; + at war with French; + disputed right of trade; + favor South American republics; + favor South; + Venezuelan boundary question. +English, William H. +English fur companies. +_Enterprise_. +Era of Good Feeling. +Ericsson, Captain John. +Ericsson, Leif. +Erie Canal. +Erie Indians. +_Essex_. +Europe, claims in America; + attitude during Civil War. +Evans, Oliver. +Everett, Edward. +Exeter massacre. +Explorations, European; + French; + Western; + Northwestern. +Express, pony. +Express companies formed. + +%F% + +Fair Oaks, battle of. +Fairbanks. +Farewell Address of President Washington. +Farmers' Alliance. +Farragut, Admiral. +Federal Hall. +Federal money. +Federalist party, +Ferdinand, King, aids Columbus. +Field, Cyrus W. +Field, James G. +Fifteenth Amendment. +"Fifty-four forty or fight". +Fillmore, Millard, vice president; + president; + presidential nominee. +Financial, distress of '37; + condition after Civil War; + policy, Grant's; + questions after '88. +First Continental Congress. +Fiscal Bank of United States. +Fiscal Corporation. +Fishery question. +Fitch, John. +Five Nations, or Iroquois Indians. +Flag, national; + American naval. +Flamborough Head, 148. +_Florida_. +Florida, discovered; + a British possession; + East and West; + a Spanish possession; + purchased; + a territory; + admitted; + secedes; + readmitted. +Foote, Flag Officer. +Force Act, of; + Jackson's; + of 1871. +Foreign labor. +Foreigners, see Immigration. +Fort Assumption built. +Fort Boise. +Fort Chartres built. +Fort Crevecoeur built. +Fort Cumberland. +Fort Donelson captured. +Fort Duquesne built; + captured. +Fort Edward. +Fort Erie captured. +Fort Fisher captured. +Fort Frontenac captured. +Fort Hall founded. +Fort Henry captured. +Fort Le Boeuf built +Fort Leavenworth. +Fort Lee attacked. +Fort Loyal massacre. +Fort McAllister captured. +Fort McHenry bombarded. +Fort Macon captured. +Fort Meigs, battle of. +Fort Monroe. +Fort Morgan. +Fort Moultrie. +Fort Nassau built. +Fort Natchitoches. +Fort Necessity built. +Fort Orange built. +Fort Pillow captured. +Fort Pitt. +Fort Rosalie founded. +Fort St. Louis built. +Fort Stanwix besieged. +Fort Stephenson, battle of. +Fort Sumter; + battles of. +Fort Ticonderoga. +Fort Tombeckbee built. +Fort Toulouse founded. +Fort Venango built. +Fort Washington captured. +"Forty-niners". +Fourteenth Amendment. +Fractional currency. +Franchise right; + interference with. +Franklin, Benjamin, during the French War; + experiments; + Declaration of Independence; + ambassador to France. +Franklin, state of. +Fray Marcos. +Fredericksburg, in colonial times; + battle of. +Free coinage, of gold and silver; + of silver. +Free-soil party; + joins Republicans. +Freedmen, treatment after war; + vote. +Freedmen's Bureau Bill. +Frelinghuysen, Theodore. +Fremont, John C., in California; + presidential nominee; + in Shenandoah valley. +French, possessions; + explorations; + relations with Indians; + relations with English; + and Indian War; + abandon America; + acknowledge our independence; + republic established; + war with English; + trouble with United States; + during Civil War; + in Mexico. +French Directory. +Frenchtown, battle of. +Fries's Rebellion. +Frobisher, Sir Martin. +_Frolic_. +Frontenac, Count. +Frontier life. +Frye, Joshua. +Fugitive-slave laws. +Fulton, Robert. +Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. +Funding of national debt. +Fusion tickets. + +%G% + +Gadsden, James. +Gadsden Purchase. +"Gag Rule". +Gage, General Thomas. +Gaines Mill, battle of. +Gallatin, Albert. +Gallipolis settled. +Gallissoniere, Marquis de la. +Gama, Vasco da. +Garfield, James, president; + death of. +Garrison, William Lloyd. +Gates, General Horatio. +Gates, Sir Thomas. +Genet. +Geneva awards. +George II, grants charter. +Georgia, settled; + in colonial times; + annexed territory; + conquered; + cedes land to Congress; + secedes; + Sherman's march through; + again in the Union; +Germantown, battle of. +Gerry, Elbridge. +Gerrymander. +Gettysburg, battle of. +Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's. +Gila River. +Gilbert, Sir Humphrey. +Goffe, William. +Gold, discovered in California; + at Pikes Peak; + in Northwestern States; + payments suspended; + sole legal tender; + standard. +Gold Democrats. +Gold reserve. +Goldsboro. +Goodyear. +Gorges, Sir Ferdinando. +Gosnold. +Gourgues. +Government, colonial; + under Articles of Confederation; + of territories; + control of railroads, etc. +Grant, General U. S., in Civil War; + relations with Johnson; + president; + third term proposed. +Gray, Captain. +Great American Desert. +Great Britain, see English. +Great Lakes explored. +Great Salt Lake. +_Great Western_. +Greeley, Horace. +Green Mountain Boys. +Greenback party. +Greenbacks. +Greene, Nathanael. +Grenville, Prime Minister. +Groesbeck, W. S. +Groton massacre. +Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of. +_Guerriere_. +Guilford founded. +Guilford Courthouse, battle of. +Guinther. +Guthrie. + +%H% + +_Hail, Columbia!_ written. +Hale, John P. +Hale, Nathan. +_Half-Moon_. +Halleck, General Henry. +Hamet. +Hamilton, Alexander. +Hamlin, Hannibal. +Hampton Roads, peace conference at; + Confederate cruiser sunk in; + _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_. +Hancock, General Winfield. +Hand loom. +Hand mill. +Hand press. +Hard cider campaign. +Hard times of '73; + of '93. +Harnden, W. F. +Harpers Ferry. +Harrisburg convention. +Harrison, Benjamin, president. +Harrison, William Henry, in War of 1812; + delegate in Congress; + at Tippecanoe; + presidential candidate; + elected; + death of. +Harrisons Landing. +Harrodsburg settled. +Hartford settled. +Hatteras Inlet. +Haverhill massacre. +Hawaiian annexation. +Hayes, Rutherford B., president. +Hayne, Governor. +Helena founded. +Hendricks, Thomas A. +Hennepin. +Henry, Patrick. +Hessians. +Highways of trade. +Hispaniola colonized. +Hobart, Garret A. +Hoe octuple press,. +Holly Springs. +Holy Alliance. +Home manufactures defended. +Homestead Law. +Hood, General J.B. +Hooker, General. +Hooker, Thomas. +Hopkinson, Joseph. +_Hornet_. +House of Burgesses. +House of Commons. +House of Lords. +House of Representatives, formed, + elects president + Houston. Samuel. +Howe, Elias. +Howe, General William. +Hudson, Henry. +Hudson Bay Company. +Hull's surrender. +Hunt, Walter. +Huron Indians. +Hutchinson, Anne. + +%I% + +Iberville. +Idaho, a territory + admitted + silver interests. +Idaho City founded. +Illinois, a territory + admitted. +Immigration, Chinese, see Chinese; European Western, + see Emigration. +Impeachment of Johnson. +Impressment of sailors. +Income tax. +Indented servants. +Independence Chamber. +Independence, Declaration of. +Independence Hall. +Independent National party. +Independent Treasury law. +Independents or Mugwumps. +India rubber. +Indian country. +Indiana, a territory; + admitted. +_Indiana Register_. +Indianapolis, population in 1840. +Indians, alliance with French, + traits of + wars + in French and Indian War + during Revolution + in 1790 + in 1812, + troubles with + in Oregon + territory sold. +Industrial revolution +Inflation Bill. +_Insurgente_. +Interest indents. +Internal improvements, political issue. +Internal revenue system. +Interstate Commerce. +Intolerable Acts. +Inventions. +"Invisible Empire,". +Iowa, a territory + admitted, 366. +Ironclads. +Iroquois Indians. +Irwinsville. +Isabella. Queen, aids Columbus. +Island No. 10 captured. +Isthmian Canal. +Iuka, battle of. + +%J% + +Jackson, convention at + battle of. +Jackson, Dr. +Jackson, General Andrew, at New Orleans, + defeats Indians + presidential nominee + president, 301-811. +Jackson, General T.J. +"Jackson men," +Jalapa, battle of. +Jamaica discovered,. +James I., creates Virginia Company; + annuls charter. +Jamestown settled. +_Java_ captured. +Jay, John, treaty of Paris, + ambassador to London. +Jay Cooke and Co.'s failure. +Jefferson, Thomas, writes Declaration of Independence + secretary of state, + Republican leader + vice president, + opposes Alien and Sedition laws + president + favors political proscription. +Jerry. +Jerseys, see New Jersey; + retreat across. +Johnson, Andrew, vice president + president + amnesty policy. +Johnson, Herschel V. +Johnson, R.M. +Johnston, Gen. A.S. +Johnston, Gen. Joseph E. +Joliet. Louis. +Jones, John Paul. +Julian, George W. +Jumonville. + +%K% + +Kanawha state. +Kansas, struggle for + slavery question in, + admitted + rapid growth + Farmers' Alliance. +Kansas City. +Kansas-Nebraska Law. +Kaskaskia settled. +Kearny, Colonel Stephen. +_Kearsarge_. +Kendall, Amos. +Kentucky, + settled; + resolutions; + admitted; + Confederates in; + slavery in. +Key, Francis S., writes _Star-Spangled Banner_. +Kickapoo Indians. +King George's War. +King Philip's War. +King William's War. +King, Rufus. +King, William R. +Kings Mountain. +Kirtland. +Knights of Labor. +Know-nothing party. +Knox, General Henry. +Ku Klux Klan. + +%L% + +La Salle, Robert de. +Labor, in 1763; + in 1790; + questions in 1860; + after Civil War; + slave and free; + foreign and convict; + parties. +Labor department established. +Laconia. +Lafayette, Marquis de. +Lake Champlain, battle of. +Lake Erie, battle of. +Lancaster, Congress at. +Land grants, free; + to railroads; + opposed. +Land Mortgage scheme. +Lane, Joseph. +Lane, Ralph. +Larimer, General. +Laud, Archbishop. +Laudonniere. +_Lawrence_. +Lawrence settled. +Lawrence, Amos A. +Lawrence, James. +Leaven worth. +Lecompton constitution. +Lee, Charles. +Lee, Richard Henry. +Lee, Robert E., campaigns in Civil War; + surrenders. +Lenni Lenape Indians. +_Leopard_. +Letters of marque. +Lewis, Meriwether. +Lewiston founded. +_Lexington_, 148. +Lexington, battle of. +Lexington, Ky. +Liberal Republican party. +_Liberator_. +Liberty party. +Limestone settled. +Lincoln, Abraham, debates with Douglas, +in Illinois senatorial contest; + elected president; + during Civil War; + inauguration speech; + Emancipation Proclamation; + Gettysburg Address; + peace conference with Stephens; + reflected; + assassinated. +Lincoln, General. +Line of Demarcation. +_Little Belt_. +Livingston, Robert R. +Loan-office certificates. +Log cabin campaign. +Log cabins. +Log of the Mayflower. +Logan, John A. +Logstown. +London Company. +Long, Dr. +Long, Major; + discovers Longs Peak. +Long houses, Indian. +Long Parliament. +Lookout Mountain, battle of. +Lords of Trade. +Lottery, Congress. +Louis XV. claims Ohio region. +Louisburg, built; + captured by English; + restored to French. +Louisiana, La Salle in; + extent of; + French in; + struggle for; + Spanish; + purchased; + admitted; + boundary; + secedes; + reconstructs government; + readmitted. +Louisville, settled; + labor congress at. +Lovejoy, Elijah. +Lowell founded. +Lundy, Benjamin. +Lundys Lane, battle of. +Lyon, General. + +%M% + +McClellan, General George B., campaigns; + presidential nominee. +McCormick reaper. +McDonough, Thomas. +McDowell, General Irwin, campaigns. +McKinley, William, president. +McKinley Tariff Act. +_Macedonian_. +Macomb, General. +Macon Bill. +Madison, James, on the Constitution; + Republican leader; + favors Virginia Resolutions; + president. +Magellan. +Mails, see Postal System. +Maine, settled; + part of Massachusetts Bay colony; + admitted. +Maine Law. +Manassas Junction, battle of. +Manhattan Island. +Manila, battle of. +Manufactures, in colonial times; + about 1800; + infant; + in slave states; + during Civil War; + since Civil War. +March to the Sea, Sherman's. +Marcos, Fray. +Marietta settled. +Marion. +Marquette. +Marshall. +Marshall, John. +Martin, Luther. +Mary, Queen, grants Massachusetts charter. +Maryland, colonized; + in colonial times. + slavery in. +Mason, Charles. +Mason, James M. +Mason, John. +Mason and Dixon's Line. +Massachusetts, Bay Company; + religious intolerance in; + Bay charter granted; + in colonial times; + opposes Stamp and Townshend Acts; + Bill; + cedes land to Congress. +Matagorda Bay +Matamoras, battle of +Maximilian +_Mayflower_ +Mayflower Compact +Mayflower Log +Maysville settled +Meade, General +Mechanical improvements +Mechanicsville +Memphis captured +Mendoza +Menendez +Mercer +_Merrimac_ +Mexico, becomes republic + wars + French in +Miami Indians +Michigan, a territory + admitted +Michilimackinac, trading post +Middle Colonies, occupations, etc. +Milan Decree +Milford founded +Military lands +Mill Springs, battle of +Mills, R. Q. +Mills Tariff Bill +Milwaukee, population in 1840 +Minneapolis mills +_Minnesota_ +Minnesota, slavery in + a territory + admitted +Mint established +Minute men +Missionary Ridge, battle of +Mississippi River, explored + French forts built on + right of navigation + slavery west of + campaign in Civil War +Mississippi, a territory + admitted + secedes + convention in + opposed to Reconstruction Act + again in the Union +Missouri, admitted + opposes Wilmot Proviso + elects Kansas delegate + slavery in +Missouri Compromise +Missouri River, gold discovered on +Mobile, in colonial times + captured +Mobile Bay explored + British in +Mohawk Indians +Mohegan Indians +Molino del Rey, battle of +Money, see Currency, Gold, and Silver. +_Monitor_ +Monmouth, battle of +Monroe, James, Republican leader + treaty with England + president +Monroe Doctrine +Montana, a territory + admitted + silver interests +Montcalm, General +Monterey, Cal., Fremont at +Monterey, Mexico, battle of +Montezuma +Montgomery, Confederate capital +Montgomery, Richard +Montreal, attacked + captured + attacked in 1813 +Moose Island captured +Morgan, Daniel +Morgan, William +Mormons +Morris, Robert +Morris, Thomas +Morristown, Washington at +Morse, Samuel F.B. +Morton, Dr. +Morton, Levi P. +Moultrie +Mount Desert Island settled +Mount Pleasant settled +Mount Vernon. Washington's home +Mugwumps +Murfreesboro, battle of +Murray, William Vans +Muskhogee Indians +Mutiny Act. + +%N% + +Nantucket Island captured +Napoleon, consul of France + issues decrees + seizes American vessels + loses power +Napoleon, Louis, in Mexico +Narragansett Indians +Narvaez +Nashville, settled + evacuated + battle of +Nassau, blockade running +Natchez, in colonial times + captured + claimed by Spaniards +National Agricultural Wheel +National Bank, First + loses charter + Second + proposed Third +National banks +National Bimetallic League +National debt, see Debt. +National Democratic party +National Labor Congress +National Labor Reform party +National notes, see Bonds +National party +National Pike +National Prohibition Reform party +National Republican party, see Republican. +National Union party +Native American party +Naturalization law +Naumkeag settled +Nauvoo built +Naval warfare, + in Revolution + in French War + in War of 1812 + in Civil War +Navigation Acts +Navy department +Nebraska Bill +Nebraska, + struggle for + admitted + rapid growth +Neutrality, + Proclamation of + policy +Nevada, + acquired + territory and state + silver interests +New Albion +New Amsterdam, + founded + becomes New York +New England, + early settlements + occupations in colonies + English victories in +New England Emigrant Aid Society +New France, + extent of + struggle for +New Hampshire, + settled + in colonial times + grants +New Haven, + colony + in colonial times + riot at +New Jersey, + settled + in colonial times + plan for Constitution +New London, + riot at + burned +New Mexico, + Spanish explore + conquered + slavery in + bought from Texas + silver interests +New Netherland, + becomes New York +New Orleans, + founded + in colonial times + battle of + captured +"New Roof" +New Sweden +"New tenor" +New York (state), + New Netherland becomes + in colonial times + English in + cedes land to Congress +New York (city), + convention + in colonial times + colonial congress at + evacuated + national capital + the metropolis + in 1830 + labor congress at +New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company +Newark, + founded + riot at +Newbern captured +Newfoundland, + granted to English + fisheries +Newport, Ky. settled +Newport, R.I., + settled + riot at +Newspapers, + in colonial times + in 1790 + about 1810 +Newtown settled +_Niagara_ +Niagara, + founded + expedition against +_Nina_ +Nipmuck Indians +Nominating conventions +Non-importation, + agreements + Act +Non-intercourse Law +Norfolk evacuated +North, Lord +North American party +North Carolina, + settled + in colonial times + cedes land to Congress + secedes + Sherman in + readmitted +North Castle +North Dakota admitted +Northern attitude toward slavery +Northern Pacific Railroad +Northwest, + exploration of + the new +Northwest passage to India +Northwest Territory, + surrendered + Indian troubles in + slavery question in +Notes, United States, see Bonds. +Nova Scotia, + part of Massachusetts Bay colony + struggle for +Nueces River +Nullification doctrine. + +%O% + +_Observer_ +O'Conor, Charles +Oglethorpe, James +Ohio, + Settled + Admitted + currency plan +Ohio Land Company +Ohio River, + struggle for + settlements on +Oklahoma +Old Demand notes +_Old Ironsides_ +Olmsted, F. L. +Omnibus Bill +Omnibuses +Oneida Indians +Onondaga Indians +Orders in Council of 1806 and 1807 +Ordinance, + how passed + of 1785 + of 1787 +Oregon, + settled + joint occupation of + boundaries of + trail + a territory + slavery in +Orleans Territory +Ossawatomie settled +Oswego burned +Otis, James +Overland stage +Owen, Robert. + +%P% + +Pacific Fur Company +Pacific Ocean, + discovered + named +Pacific railroads, +Pacific States settled, +Pakenham, General, +Palmer, John M., +Palmyra, Mormons at, +Palo Alto, battle of, +Panic, of 1837, + of 1873, + of 1893, +Paper currency, +Parker, Joel, +Party platforms, see Platforms. +Patent office, +Patroons, +Patterson, General, +Paulding, +Pea Ridge, battle of, +_Peacock_, +_Pelican_, +Pemberton, General, +Pendleton, George H., +Pendleton Civil Service Act, +Peninsular campaign, +Penn, William, settles New Jersey and Pennsylvania, + relations with Indians, +Pennsylvania, granted to Penn, + in colonial times, + opposes Townshend Acts, + Declaration of Independence in, + Confederates in, +_Pennsylvania Freeman_, +_Pennsylvania Gazette_, +_Pennsylvania Journal_, +_Pennsylvania Packet_, +Pennsylvania route to West, +Pensacola captured, +Pensions, +People's party, +Pequot Indians, +Perote, +Perry, Oliver Hazard, +Perryville, battle of, +Personal Liberty laws, +"Pet banks," +Petersburg, in colonial times, + Cornwallis at, + besieged, + evacuated, +Petroleum, +Philadelphia, founded, + in colonial times, + First Continental Congress, + captured, + Congress at, + evacuated, + constitutional convention at, + in 1800, + national capital, +_Philanthropist_, +Philippines, +Phips, Sir William, +_Phoenix_, +Photographic discoveries, +Pickens, +Pickens, Governor, +Pierce, Franklin, president, +Pike, Zebulon, +Pikes Peak, +Pilgrims, +Pinckney, C. C., minister to France, + Federalist candidate, + treaty with England, +Pineda, +_Pinta_, +Pinzon, +Pitt, William, +Pittsburg, founded, + in 1790, + rebellion at, +Pittsburg Landing, battle of, +Plains of Abraham, +Platforms, party, +Platte country, +Plattsburg, battle of, +Plymouth, charter, + Company, + settled, + part of Massachusetts Bay colony, +Pocahontas, +_Poictiers_, +Political issues, see Platforms. +Political parties, beginning of, + see Federalists, Democrats, Republicans, etc. +Polk, James K., presidential nominee, + president, +Polygamy, +Ponce de Leon, +Pony express, +Pope, General John, campaigns, +Popham, Sir John, +Popular sovereignty, +Population, in 1790, + in 1815, + in 1810, + in 1820, + increase in, + of Oregon, + western immigrant, + between 1840 and 1860, + in 1870, + of northwestern states, + of Oklahoma, +Populists, see People's Party. +Port Gibson, battle of, +Port Hudson, battle of, +Port Royal, settled, + French stronghold, + captured, + called Annapolis, +Port Royal, S. C., captured, +Portage Railroad, +Porter, at Vicksburg, +Porto Rico, +Portsmouth, settled, + in colonial times, + navy yard, +Portuguese in Brazil, +Postage stamps, +Postal system, in colonial times, + in 1790, + in 1840, + in 1860, +Powhatan Indians, +Prairie schooners, +Prescott, Colonel, +_President_, +Presidential election, method of, + proposed method of, +Presidential succession, +Presque Isle built, +Price, General, +Princeton, battle of, +Printing press, +Proclamation, line, + of neutrality, + Emancipation, +Progress, from 1790 to 1815, + from 1840 to 1860, + since Civil War, +Prohibition party, +Proprietary colonies +Proscription, political +Proslavery movement +Protection + South opposes + Clay favors + political issue +Providence + founded + in colonial times + riot at +Provincial colonies +Public domain + granted + additions to + grants, see Land grants +Puebla +Puerto Rico + see Porto Rico. +Pulaski +Punishment + forms of +Puritans + persecution of + in New England + become Separatists +Putnam. + +%Q% + +Quaker settlements +Quartering Act +Quebec + boundaries of +Quebec + settled + French stronghold + attacked + surrendered +Quebec Act +Queen Anne's War +Queenstown, battle of +Quincy, Josiah. + +%R% + +Radical Republicans +Railroads + early + Western + Northern Pacific + in 1887 + land grants to +Ralegh, Sir Walter +Randolph, John +"Receivers general" created +Reconstruction Act +Reconstruction policy +Redemptioners +Refunding Act +Reid, Whitelaw +_Reprisal_ +Republicans + old party + new party +Resaca de la Palma + battle of +Restoration + English +Resumption of Specie Payment Act +_Revenge_ +Revolutionary War +Rhode Island + settled + charter + in colonial times +Ribault, John +Richmond + Confederate capital + campaign against + captured +Rio Grande +Ripon + convention at +Rittenhouse, David +Roads + improvements + Western +Roanoke + colonized + captured +Robertson, James +Robinson, John +Rochester settled +Rogers, Captain +Rolfe, John +Roosevelt, Theodore +Rosecrans, General + campaigns +Ross, General +Roxbury settled +Royal colonies +Rule of 1756 +Rumsey, James +Russell, John +Russia + possessions + claims on the Pacific + complies with Monroe Doctrine + attitude in Civil War + Alaska purchased from +Ryal, Captain. + +%S% + +Sacketts Harbor + battle of +Sacramento +St. Augustine founded +St. Clair's defeat +St. Croix River settlements +St. John, John P. +St. Joseph captured +St. Lawrence River explored +St. Leger, Colonel +St. Louis +St. Marks captured +St. Marys founded +St. Paul +Salem settled +Salmon Falls massacre +Saltillo +Sampson, W.T. +_San Jacinto_ +San Jacinto, + battle of +San Salvador +Santa Anna +Santa Fe + captured + trail +_Santa Maria_ +Santiago, battles of +Saratoga, battle of +_Savannah_ +Savannah + founded + in colonial times + captured +Schenectady massacre +Schley, W.S. +Schools, free +Schuyler, General +Scientific discoveries +Scioto Company +Scott, General Winfield + in 1814 + in Mexican War + presidential nominee + in Civil War +Sea to sea grants +Secession, of Southern States + states refuse troops + reconstruction plans +Sedition Law +Seminole Indians +Senate formed +Seneca Indians +Separatists +_Serapis_ +Seven Cities of Cibola +Seven days' battles +Seven Pines, battle of +Sevier, John +Sewall, Arthur +Seward, William H. +Sewing machine invented +Seymour, Horatio +Shadrach +_Shannon_ +Sharpsburg, battle of +Indians +Shays, Daniel +_Shenandoah_ +Shenandoah valley, war in +Sheridan, General Phil., campaigns +Sherman, Roger +Sherman, General W.T., campaigns +Sherman Act + silver-purchase clause repealed +Shiloh, battle of +Ship Island +Shirley, Governor +Silver, specie suspended + mines discovered + demonetized + remonetized + certificates + free coinage of + movement + party +"Silver Grays" +Sioux Indians +_Sirius_ +Six Nations +Slave trade forbidden +Slavery, established + in colonial times, + in territories + at time of Constitution + in 1790 + affected by cotton industry + in Kentucky + in early states + beyond Mississippi River + issue between North and South + area expanded + in Texas + in New Mexico and California + in Kansas + in 1857 + in 1860 + Civil War + Emancipation Proclamation + during Civil War + abolished in Confederate States + position of negroes after war +Slidell, John +Smith, Green Clay +Smith, John, at Jamestown + explores New England coast + among the Indians +Smith, Joseph +Social conditions, in 1790 + about 1890 +Socialist Labor party +Society for Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures +Solis +Somers, Sir George +Sons of Liberty +South American republics +South Carolina, settled + in colonial times + cedes land to Congress + Railroad + Exposition + favors nullification + secedes + Sherman in + readmitted +South Dakota, admitted +silver interests +South Pass +Southern Colonies, occupations, etc. +Southern States, English in + attitude toward slavery + form Confederacy + at end of 1860 + at beginning of war + coast blockade + cost of war in + reconstruction of + troubles in + the New South +Spanish, possessions + settlements, etc. + claims + boundary line + Florida bought from + war with United States +Spanish America +Specie Circular +Specie payments +Speculation in 1836 +_Speedwell_ +Spottsylvania Courthouse, battle of +Springfield, settled + Republican state convention at + Lincoln's speech at +Squatter sovereignty, see Popular Sovereignty +Squatters +Stagecoaches +Stamford founded +Stamp Act +Stamp tax +Standish, Miles +Stanton +_Star of the West_ +_Star-Spangled Banner_ +Stark, Colonel John +State banks +State debts +State department +Staten Island evacuated +States, formed + thirteen original + trade laws + powers of + new constitutions in + sovereignty of + government in seceded, +Steamboats +Stephens, Alexander II. +Steuben, Baron +Stevens, John +Stevenson, Adlai E. +Stewart, G.T. +Stillwater, battle of +Stockton, Commodore +"Stonewall" Jackson +Stonington bombarded +Stony Point captured +Stowe, H.B. +Stuart +Stuyvesant, Peter +Sub treasury plan +Sugar Act +Sullivan, General +Sumner, Charles +_Sumter_ +Sumter +Sumter, Fort +Supreme Court + established + gives Dred Scott decision + on Wilson Bill +Surplus revenue + in 1837 + in 1887 +_Surprise_ +Sutter +Sutter's Fort +Swedish + possessions + settlements +Symmes, John C. + +%T% + +Taft, William II. +Taney, Roger B. +Tariff + of 1789 + bills of 1824, etc. + of 1861 + for revenue only + Mills Bill + McKinley Act + revision of 1896 +Tarleton, Commander +Taxation + in colonies + of 1861 + of bonds demanded + of Chinese + a political issue +Taylor, General Zachary + in Mexican War + president + death of +Tea tax +Tecumseh +Telegraph +Temperance party +Tender Acts +Tennessee + settled + part of public domain + admitted + opposes Wilmot Proviso + secedes + reconstructs government + readmitted +Tenure of Office Act +Territory formed +Terry, Eli +Texas + becomes independent + annexed to United States + boundaries of + New Mexico purchased from + admitted + secedes + opposed to Reconstruction Act + again in the Union +Thames River + battle of +Thayer, Hon. Eli +Third-term tradition +Thirteenth Amendment + proposed + adopted +Thomas, General George II. + campaigns +Thomas, General Lorenzo +Thompson, Henry Adams +Thurman, Allen G. +Ticket money +Ticonderoga +Tilden, Samuel J. +Tippecanoe, battle of +Toledo + population in 1840 +Tompkins, Daniel D. +Tonty, Henri de +Topeka +Topeka free-state constitution +Tories +Townshend Acts +Trade + in colonial times + in original states + convention at Annapolis + regulated by Congress + with West Indies + regulations of English and French + facilities for + trades unions +Transportation Bill +Travel + in 1790 + in 1810 +Treasury department established +Treasury notes +Treaty + of Penn with Indians + of Utrecht + of Ryswick + of Aix-la-Chapelle + of Paris + with France + Jay's + with Spain + of Ghent + of Greenville + of 1818 + of 1819 + Webster-Ashburton + with Mexico + with Texas + of 1846 + with China + of Washington + with Hawaii + between Great Britain and Venezuela +_Trent_ +Trent, William +Trent Affair +Trenton + battle of +Tripoli + war with +Trusts + see Corporations. +Truxton, Captain Thomas +Tuscarora Indians +Twelfth Amendment +Tyler, John + vice-presidential nominee + president + +%U% + +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_ +Underground Railroad +Union Labor party +Union Pacific Railroad +United Colonies of New England +United Labor party +_United States_ +United States Bank + see National Bank. +United States bonds + see Bonds. +Usselinx, William +Utah + Mormons in + acquired + slavery question in + admitted + silver interests + +%V% + +Vaca, Cabeza de +Vail, Alfred +Valley Forge +Van Buren, Martin + birth + vice-presidential nominee + president + presidential nominee + favors 10 hours system +Van Born, General +Van Rensselaer's expedition +Van Wart +Venezuela boundary question +_Vengeance_ +Vera Cruz + battle of +Vermont + admitted + passes Personal Liberty Law +Vespucci, or Vespucius, Amerigo. +Vevay settled. +Vice-admiralty courts. +Vice president, manner of electing. +Vicksburg captured. +Vincennes settled. +_Virginia_. +Virginia, named; + settled; + charters; + a royal colony; + defends Ohio valley; + in colonial times; + opposes Stamp Act; + cedes land to Congress; + Reserve; + Plan of Constitution; + resolutions of 1798; + resolutions of 1849; + Brown's raid in; + secedes; + coast blockade; + opposes reconstruction policy; + again in the Union. +Virginia City, Mont., founded. +Virginia City, Nov., founded. +Virginia companies. +Volunteers during Civil War. + +%W% + +Wabash River, Indians on. +_Wachusett_. +Wages, in 1790; + in 1860; + in 1873; + in 1880. +Walla Walla. +Wampanoag Indians. +War department. +Ward, Ensign. +Warren. +Wars, Indian; + colonial; + French and Indian; + Revolution; + with France; + with Tripoli; + war for commercial independence (War of 1812); + Mexican; + Civil; + Spanish. +Washington, George, in French and Indian War; + commander in chief; + in Revolution; + president constitutional convention; + president; + social conditions at time of. +Washington, national capital; + burned; + Confederates near. +Washington, slavery question in; + a territory; + settled; + boundary of; + admitted. +_Wasp_. +Watauga Creek settlements. +Waterloo settled. +Watertown settled. +Watlings Island. +Watson, Thomas E. +Wayne, Anthony, at Stony Point; + in Indian warfare. +Weaver, James B. +Webster, Daniel, birth; + opposes nullification doctrine; + secretary of state; + speech on Compromise Bill; + death of. +Webster-Ashburton treaty. +Weitzel, General. +Wells, Dr. +West Indies discovered. +West Point, Arnold at. +West Virginia, admitted; + slavery in. +Western movement. +Western Reserve of Connecticut. +Western Union Telegraph Company. +Wethersfield settled. +Whalley, Edward. +Wheeler, William A. +Wheeling settled. +Whig party. +Whisky Rebellion. +White House Landing, battle of. +White Plains, battle of, 135. +White, John. +White, John. +Whitman, Marcus. +Whitney, Eli. +Wildcat state banks. +Wilderness campaign. +Wilkes, Captain. +William, King, grants Massachusetts charter. +Williams. +Williams, Roger. +Williamsburg, in colonial times; + captured. +Wilmington, Del., Washington at. +Wilmington, N. C., British at; + captured. +Wilmot, David. +Wilmot Proviso. +Wilson, Henry. +Wilson, William L. +Wilson Bill. +Winchester, General. +Winchester, battle of. +Winthrop, John. +Wirt, William. +Wisconsin territory and state. +Wolfe, General James. +Woman suffrage. +Workingman, see Labor. +Wyeth, Nathaniel J. +Wyoming massacre. +Wyoming, acquired; + a territory; + admitted; + silver interests. + +%X% + +"X, Y, Z mission." + +%Y% + +Yates. +York, Canada, burned. +York, Me., massacre. +York, Pa., Congress at. +York, Duke of. +Yorktown, surrendered; + captured. +Young, Brigham. + +%Z% + +Zuni pueblos. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A School History of the United States +by John Bach McMaster + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. *** + +***** This file should be named 11313.txt or 11313.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/3/1/11313/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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