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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Land We Live In, by Henry Mann
+
+
+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: The Land We Live In
+       The Story of Our Country
+
+
+Author: Henry Mann
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 13, 2006  [eBook #20105]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND WE LIVE IN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+THE LAND WE LIVE IN
+
+Or
+
+The Story of Our Country
+
+by
+
+HENRY MANN
+
+Author of "Handbook for American Citizens," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Published by
+The Christian Herald,
+Louis Klopsch, Proprietor,
+Bible House, New York.
+Copyright, 1896,
+by Louis Klopsch.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+"The Story of Our Country" has been often told, but cannot be told too
+often. I have spared no effort to make the following pages interesting as
+well as truthful, and to present, in graphic language, a pen-picture of
+our nation's origin and progress. It is a story of events, and not a dry
+chronicle of official succession. It is an attempt to give some fresh
+color to facts that are well known, while depicting also other facts of
+public interest which have never appeared in any general history. Wherever
+I have taken the work of another I give credit therefor; otherwise this
+little book is the fruit of original research and thought. The views
+expressed will doubtless not please everybody, and some may think that I
+go too far in pleading the cause of the original natives of the soil.
+Historic justice demands that some one should tell the truth about the
+Indians, whose chief and almost only fault has been that they occupied
+lands which the white man wanted. Even now covetous eyes are cast upon the
+territory reserved for the use of the remaining tribes.
+
+For such statements in regard to General Jackson at New Orleans as differ
+from the ordinary narrative I am indebted to a work never published, so
+far as I am aware, in this country or in the English language--Vincent
+Nolte's "Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres," issued in Hamburg in 1853. As
+Nolte owned the cotton which Jackson appropriated, and also served as a
+volunteer in the battle of New Orleans, he ought to be good authority.
+
+In dealing with the late war I have sought to be just to both the Union
+and the Confederacy. The lapse of over thirty years has given a more
+accurate perspective to the events of that mighty struggle, in which, as
+a soldier-boy of sixteen, I was an obscure participant, and all true
+Americans, whether they wore the blue or gray, now look back with pride
+to the splendid valor and heroic endurance displayed by the combatants
+on both sides. Those who belittle the constancy and courage of the South
+belittle the sacrifices and successes of the North.
+
+The slavery conflict has long been over, and the scars it left are
+disappearing. Other and momentous problems have arisen for settlement,
+but there is every reason for confidence that they will be settled at
+the ballot-box, and without appeal to rebellion, or thought or threat of
+secession. In the present generation, more than in any preceding, is the
+injunction of Washington exemplified, that the name of _American_ should
+always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation
+derived from local discriminations. This supreme National sentiment
+overpowering all considerations of local interest and attachment, is the
+assurance that our country will live forever, that all difficulties,
+however menacing, will yield to the challenge of popular intelligence
+and patriotism, and that the glorious record of the past is but the
+morning ray of our National greatness to come.
+
+HENRY MANN.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                            FIRST PERIOD.
+
+                            THE FOOTHOLD.
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+                                                                PAGE.
+
+A Land Without a History--Origin of the American Indians--Their
+Semi-civilization--The Spanish Colonial System--The King Was Absolute
+Master--The Council of the Indies--The Hierarchy--Servitude of the
+Natives--Gold and Silver Mines--Spanish Wealth and Degeneracy--
+Commercial Monopoly--Pernicious Effects of Spain's Colonial Policy
+--Spaniards Destroy a Huguenot Colony,                             21
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh--English Expedition to North
+Carolina--Failure of Attempts to Settle There--Virginia Dare--The Lost
+Colony--The Foundation of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--His Life Saved
+by Pocahontas--Rolfe Marries the Indian Princess--A Key to Early
+Colonial History--Women Imported to Virginia,                      32
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+The French in Canada--Champlain Attacks the Iroquois--Quebec a Military
+Post--Weak Efforts at Colonization--Fur-traders and Missionaries--The
+Foundation of New France--The French King Claims from the Upper Lakes to
+the Sea--Slow Growth of the French Colonies--Mixing With the Savages--The
+"Coureurs de Bois,"                                                41
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+Henry Hudson's Discovery--Block Winters on Manhattan Island--The
+Dutch Take Possession--The Iroquois Friendly--Immigration of the
+Walloons--Charter of Privileges and Exemptions--Patroons--Manufactures
+Forbidden--Slave Labor Introduced--New Sweden--New Netherlanders Want
+a Voice in the Government,                                         46
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+Landing of the Pilgrims--Their Abiding Faith in God's Goodness--The
+Agreement Signed on the Mayflower--A Winter of Hardship--The Indians
+Help the Settlers--Improved Conditions--The Colony Buys Its
+Freedom--Priscilla and John Alden--Their Romantic Courtship and
+Marriage,                                                          52
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Puritan Immigration--Wealth and Learning Seek These Shores--Charter
+Restrictions Dead Letters--A Stubborn Struggle for Self-government--
+Methods of Election--The Early Government an Oligarchy--The Charter of
+1691--New Hampshire and Maine--The New Haven Theocracy--Hartford's
+Constitution--The United Colonies--The Clergy and Politics--Every
+Election Sermon a Declaration of Independence,                     57
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+Where Conscience Was Free--Roger Williams and His Providence Colony--
+Driven by Persecution from Massachusetts--Savages Receive Him
+Kindly--Coddington's Settlement in Rhode Island--Oliver Cromwell
+and Charles II. Grant Charters--Peculiar Referendum in Early Rhode
+Island,                                                            64
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Puritans and Education--Provision for Public Schools--Puritan
+Sincerity--Effect of Intolerance on the Community--Quakers Harshly
+Persecuted--The Salem Witchcraft Tragedy--History of the Delusion--
+Rebecca Nourse and Other Victims--The People Come to their Senses--
+Cotton Mather Obdurate to the Last--Puritan Morals--Comer's Diary--
+Rhode Island in Colonial Times,                                    68
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+New England Prospering--Outbreak of King Philip's War--Causes of the
+War--White or Indian Had to Go--Philip on the War-path--Settlements
+Laid in Ashes--The Attack on Hadley--The Great Swamp Fight--Philip
+Renews the War More Fiercely Than Before--His Allies Desert Him--
+Betrayed and Killed--The Indians Crushed in New England,           77
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+Growth of New Netherland--Governor Stuyvesant's Despotic Rule--His
+Comments on Popular Election--New Amsterdam Becomes New York--The
+Planting of Maryland--Partial Freedom of Conscience--Civil War in
+Maryland--The Carolinas--Settlement of North and South Carolina--The
+Bacon Rebellion in Virginia--Governor Berkeley's Vengeance,        82
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Colony of New York--New Jersey Given Away to Favorites--Charter of
+Liberties and Franchises--The Dongan Charter--Beginnings of New York
+City Government--King James Driven From Power--Leisler Leads a Popular
+Movement--The Aristocratic Element Gains the Upper Hand--Jacob Leisler
+and Milborne Executed--Struggle For Liberty Continues,             90
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+William Penn's Model Colony--Sketch of the Founder of Pennsylvania--
+Comparative Humanity of Quaker Laws--Modified Freedom of Religion--
+An Early Liquor Law--Offences Against Morality Severely Punished--
+White Servitude--Debtors Sold Into Bondage--Georgia Founded as
+an Asylum for Debtors--Oglethorpe Repulses the Spaniards--Georgia a
+Royal Province,                                                    95
+
+
+                             SECOND PERIOD.
+
+                        THE STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE.
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Struggle for Empire in North America--The Vast Region Called Louisiana--
+War Between England and France--New England Militia Besiege Quebec--
+Frontenac Strikes the Iroquois--The Capture of Louisburg--The Forks
+of the Ohio--George Washington's Mission to the French--Braddock's
+Defeat--Washington Prevents Utter Disaster--Barbarous Treatment of
+Prisoners,                                                        103
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Expulsion of the Acadians--A Cruel Deportation--The Marquis De
+Montcalm--The Fort William Henry Massacre--Defeat of Abercrombie--
+William Pitt Prosecutes the War Vigorously--Fort Duquesne Reduced--
+Louisburg Again Captured--Wolfe Attacks Quebec--Battle of the
+Plains of Abraham--Wolfe and Montcalm Mortally Wounded--Quebec
+Surrenders--New France a Dream of the Past--Pontiac's War,        108
+
+
+                            THIRD PERIOD.
+
+                           THE REVOLUTION.
+
+                             CHAPTER XV.
+
+Causes of the Revolution--The Act of Navigation--Acts of Trade--Odious
+Customs Laws--English Jealousy of New England--Effect of Restrictions on
+Colonial Trade--Du Chatelet Foresees Rebellion and Independence--The
+Revolution a Struggle for More Than Political Freedom,            115
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Writs of Assistance Issued--Excitement in Boston--The Stamp Act--Protests
+against Taxation Without Representation--Massachusetts Appoints a
+Committee of Correspondence--Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry--Henry's
+Celebrated Resolutions--His Warning to King George--Growing Agitation
+in the Colonies--The Stamp Act Repealed--Parliament Levies Duties on Tea
+and Other Imports to America--Lord North's Choice of Infamy--Measures of
+Resistance in America--The Massachusetts Circular Letter--British Troops
+in Boston--The Boston Massacre--Burning of the Gaspee--North Carolina
+"Regulators"--The Boston Tea Party--The Boston Port Bill--The First
+Continental Congress--A Declaration of Rights--"Give Me Liberty, or Give
+Me Death!"                                                        122
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+The Battle of Lexington--The War of the Revolution Begun--Fort
+Ticonderoga Taken--Second Continental Congress--George Washington
+Appointed Commander-in-Chief--Battle of Bunker Hill--Last Appeal to King
+George--The King Hires Hessian Mercenaries--The Americans Invade
+Canada--General Montgomery Killed--General Howe Evacuates Boston--North
+Carolina Tories Routed at Moore's Creek Bridge--The Declaration of
+Independence--The British Move on New York--Battle at Brooklyn--Howe
+Occupies New York City--General Charles Lee Fails to Support
+Washington--Lee Captured--Washington's Victory at Trenton--The Marquis
+De Lafayette Arrives,                                             133
+
+                            CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Sir John Burgoyne's Campaign--His Bombastic Proclamation--The Tragic
+Story of Jane McCrea--Her Name a Rallying Cry--Washington Prevents Howe
+From Aiding Burgoyne--The Battle of Brandywine--Burgoyne Routed at
+Saratoga--He Surrenders, With All His Army--Articles of Confederation
+Submitted to the Several States--Effect of the Surrender of Burgoyne--
+Franklin the Washington of Diplomacy--Attitude of France--France
+Concludes to Assist the United States--Treaties of Commerce and
+Alliance--King George Prepares for War with France--The Winter at
+Valley Forge--Conspiracy to Depose Washington Defeated--General Howe
+Superseded by Sir Henry Clinton--The Battle of Monmouth--General Charles
+Lee's Treachery--Awful Massacre of Settlers in the Wyoming Valley--
+General Sullivan Defeats the Six Nations--Brilliant Campaign of George
+Rogers Clark--Failure of the Attempt to Drive the British from Rhode
+Island,                                                           143
+
+                             CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The British Move Upon the South--Spain Accedes to the Alliance Against
+England--Secret Convention Between France and Spain--Capture of Stony
+Point--John Paul Jones--The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis--A
+Thrilling Naval Combat--Wretched Condition of American Finances--
+Franklin's Heavy Burden--The Treason of Benedict Arnold--Capture of
+Andre--Escape of Arnold--Andre Executed as a Spy--Sir Henry Clinton
+Captures Charleston, General Lincoln and His Army--Lord Cornwallis
+Left in Command in the South--The British Defeat Gates Near Camden,
+South Carolina--General Nathanael Greene Conducts a Stubborn Campaign
+Against Cornwallis--The Latter Retreats Into Virginia--Siege of
+Yorktown--Cornwallis Surrenders--"Oh, God; it is All Over!"       155
+
+
+                            FOURTH PERIOD.
+
+                                UNION.
+
+                             CHAPTER XX.
+
+Condition of the United States at the Close of the Revolution--New
+England Injured and New York Benefited Commercially by the Struggle--
+Luxury of City Life--Americans an Agricultural People--The Farmer's
+Home--Difficulty of Traveling--Contrast Between North and South--
+Southern Aristocracy--Northern Great Families--White Servitude--The
+Western Frontier--Early Settlers West of the Mountains--A Hardy
+Population--Disappearance of the Colonial French--The Ordinance of
+1787--Flood of Emigration Beyond the Ohio,                        167
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The Spirit of Disunion--Shays' Rebellion--A National Government
+Necessary--Adoption of the Constitution--Tariff and Internal
+Revenue--The Whiskey Insurrection--President Washington Calls Out the
+Military--Insurgents Surrender--"The Dreadful Night"--Hamilton's
+Inquisition,                                                      174
+
+
+                       INDEPENDENCE VINDICATED.
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Arrogance of France--Americans and Louis XVI.--Genet Defies Washington
+--The People Support the President--War With the Indians--Defeat of St.
+Clair--Indians State Their Case--General Wayne Defeats the Savages--
+Jay's Treaty--Retirement of Washington--His Character--His Military
+Genius--Washington as a Statesman--His Views on Slavery--His Figure in
+History,                                                          180
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+John Adams President--Jefferson and the French Revolution--The French
+Directory--Money Demanded From America--"Millions for Defence; Not One
+Penny for Tribute"--Naval Warfare with France--Capture of The Insurgent
+--Defeat of The Vengeance--Peace With France--Death of Washington--
+Alien and Sedition Laws--Jefferson President--The Louisiana Purchase--
+Burr's Alleged Treason--War with the Barbary States--England Behind the
+Pirates--Heroic Naval Exploits--Carrying War Into Africa--Peace With
+Honor,                                                            191
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+French Decrees and British Orders in Council--Damage to American
+Commerce--The Embargo--Causes of the War of 1812--The Chesapeake and The
+Leopard--President and Little Belt--War Declared--Mr. Astor's Messenger
+--The Two Navies Compared--American Frigate Victories--Constitution
+and Guerriere--United States and Macedonian--Constitution and Java--
+American Sloop Victories--The Shannon and Chesapeake--"Don't Give Up
+the Ship!"                                                        200
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+The War on Land--Tecumseh's Indian Confederacy--Harrison at Tippecanoe--
+General Hull and General Brock--A Fatal Armistice--Surrender of Detroit
+--English Masters of Michigan--General Harrison Takes Command in the
+Northwest--Harrison's Answer to Proctor--"He Will Never Have This Post
+Surrendered"--Croghan's Brave Defence--The British Retreat--War on the
+Niagara Frontier--Battle of Queenstown--Death of Brock--Colonel Winfield
+Scott and the English Doctrine of Perpetual Allegiance,           209
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Battle of Lake Erie--Master-Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry--Building a
+Fleet--Perry on the Lake--A Duel of Long Guns--Fearful Slaughter on the
+Lawrence--"Can Any of the Wounded Pull a Rope?"--At Close Quarters--
+Victory in Fifteen Minutes--"We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours"--
+The Father of Chicago Sees the End of the Battle--The British Evacuate
+Detroit--General Harrison's Victory at the Thames--Tecumseh Slain--The
+Struggle in the Southwest--Andrew Jackson in Command--Battle of Horseshoe
+Bend--The Essex in the Pacific--Defeat and Victory on the Ocean--Captain
+Porter's Brave Defence--Burning of Newark--Massacre at Fort Niagara--
+Chippewa and Lundy's Lane--Devastation by the British Fleet--British
+Vandalism at Washington--Attempt on Baltimore--"The Star Spangled
+Banner"                                                           216
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+British Designs on the Southwest--New Orleans as a City of Refuge--The
+Baratarians--The Pirates Reject British Advances--General Jackson Storms
+Pensacola--Captain Reid's Splendid Fight at Fayal--Edward Livingston
+Advises Jackson--Cotton Bales for Redoubts--The British Invasion--Jackson
+Attacks the British at Villere's--The Opposing Armies--General Pakenham
+Attempts to Carry Jackson's Lines by Storm--The British Charge--They are
+Defeated with Frightful Slaughter--Pakenham Killed--Last Naval Engagement
+--The President-Endymion Fight--Peace--England Deserts the Indians as
+She Had Deserted the Tories--Decatur Chastises the Algerians,     225
+
+
+                         SOUTH AMERICA FREE.
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+England and Spanish America--A Significant Declaration--The Key to
+England's Policy in South America--Alexander Hamilton and the South
+Americans--President Adams' Grandson a Filibuster--Origin of the
+Revolutions in South America--Colonial Zeal for Spain--Colonists Driven
+to Fight for Independence--A War of Extermination--Patriot Leaders--The
+British Assist the Revolutionists--American Caution and Reserve--The
+Monroe Doctrine--Why England Championed the Spanish-American Republics
+--A Free Field Desired for British Trade--The Holy Alliance--Secretary
+Canning and President Monroe--The Monroe Declaration Not British, But
+American,                                                         233
+
+
+                              PROGRESS.
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+The United States Taking the Lead in Civilization--Manhood Suffrage and
+Freedom of Worship--Humane Criminal Laws--Progress the Genius of the
+Nation--A Patriotic Report--State Builders in the Northwest--Illinois
+and the Union--Immigration--British Jealousy--An English Farmer's
+Opinion of America--Commerce and Manufactures--England Tries to Prevent
+Skilled Artisans From Emigrating--The Beginning of Protection--The
+British Turn on their Friends the Algerians--General Jackson Invades
+Florida--Spain Sells Florida to the United States,                246
+
+                             CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Missouri Compromise--Erie Canal Opened--Political Parties and Great
+National Issues--President Jackson Crushes the United States Bank--South
+Carolina Pronounces the Tariff Law Void--Jackson's Energetic Action--A
+Compromise--Territory Reserved for the Indians--The Seminole War--
+Osceola's Vengeance--His Capture and Death--The Black Hawk War--Abraham
+Lincoln a Volunteer--Texas War for Independence--Massacre of the Alamo
+--Mexican Defeat at San Jacinto--The Mexican President a Captive--Texas
+Admitted to the Union--Oregon--American Statesmen Blinded by the Hudson
+Bay Company--Marcus Whitman's Ride--Oregon Saved to the Union--The "Dorr
+War,"                                                             253
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+War With Mexico--General Zachary Taylor Defeats the Mexicans--Buena
+Vista--Mexicans Four to One--"A Little More Grape, Captain Bragg!"--
+Glorious American Victory--General Scott's Splendid Campaign--A
+Series of Victories--Cerro Gordo--Contreras--Churubusco--Molino del
+Rey--Chapultepec--Stars and Stripes Float in the City of Mexico--
+Generous Treatment of the Vanquished--Peace--Cession of Vast Territory
+to the United States--The Gadsden Purchase,                       264
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+The Union in 1850--Comparative Population of Cities and Rural Districts
+--Agriculture the General Occupation--Commercial and Industrial
+Development--Growth of New York and Chicago--The Southern States--
+Importance of the Cotton Crop--Why the South Was Sensitive to
+Anti-Slavery Agitation--Manufactures--Religion and Education--The Cloud
+on the Horizon,                                                   272
+
+
+                        THE SLAVERY CONFLICT.
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Aggressiveness of Slavery--The Cotton States and Border States--The
+Fugitive Slave Law--Nullified in the North--Negroes Imported from
+Africa--The Struggle in Kansas--John Brown--Abraham Lincoln Pleads for
+Human Rights--Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet--Citizens Stop Guns at
+Pittsburg--Conditions at the Beginning of the Struggle--Southern
+Advantages--The Soldiers of Both Armies Compared--Conscription in the
+Confederacy--Southern Resources Limited--The North at a Disadvantage at
+First, but Its Resources Inexhaustible--Conscription in the North--
+Popular Support of the War--Unfriendliness of Great Britain and
+France--Why They Did Not Interfere,                               277
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+The Confederate Government Organized--Fort Sumter--President Lincoln
+Calls for 75,000 Men--Command of the Union Forces Offered to Robert E.
+Lee--Lee Joins the Confederacy--Missouri Saved to the Union--Battle of
+Bull Run--Union Successes in the West--General Grant Captures Fort
+Donelson--"I Have No Terms But Unconditional Surrender"--The Monitor
+and Merrimac Fight--Its World-wide Effect--Grant Victorious at Shiloh
+--Union Naval Victory Near Memphis--That City Captured--General
+McClellan's Tactics--He Retreats from Victory at Malvern Hill--Second
+Bull Run Defeat--Great Battle of Antietam--Lee Repulsed, but Not
+Pursued--McClellan Superseded by Burnside--Union Defeat at Fredericksburg
+--Union Victories in the West--Bragg Defeated by Rosecrans at Stone
+River--The Emancipation Proclamation,                             287
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the
+Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Hooker Defeated at Chancellorsville--
+Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--General Meade Takes Command of the Army
+of the Potomac--Lee Crosses the Potomac--The Battle of Gettysburg--The
+First Two Days--The Third Day--Pickett's Charge--A Thrilling Spectacle
+--The Harvest of Death--Lee Defeated--General Thomas, "The Rock of
+Chickamauga"--"This Position Must Be Held Till Night"--General Grant
+Defeats Bragg at Chattanooga--The Decisive Battle of the West,    295
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General--Takes Command in Virginia--Battles
+of the Wilderness--The Two Armies--Battle of Cedar Creek--Sheridan's
+Ride--He Turns Defeat Into Victory--Confederate Disasters on Land and
+Sea--Farragut at Mobile--Last Naval Battle of the War--Sherman Enters
+Atlanta--Lincoln's Re-election--Sherman's March to the Sea--Sherman
+Captures Savannah--Thomas Defeats Hood at Nashville--Fort Fisher
+Taken--Lee Appointed General-in-Chief--Confederate Defeat at Five
+Forks--Lee's Surrender--Johnston's Surrender--End of the War--The South
+Prostrate--A Resistance Unparalleled in History--The Blots on the
+Confederacy--Cruel Treatment of Union Men and Prisoners--Murder of
+Abraham Lincoln--The South Since the War,                         301
+
+
+                        THIRTY YEARS OF PEACE.
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Reconstruction in the South--The Congress and the President--Liberal
+Republican Movement--Nomination, Defeat and Death of Greeley--Troops
+Withdrawn by President Hayes--Foreign Policy of the Past Thirty
+Years--French Ordered from Mexico--Last Days of Maximilian--Russian
+America Bought--The Geneva Arbitration--Alabama Claims Paid--The
+Northwest Boundary--The Fisheries--Spain and The Virginius--The Custer
+Massacre--United States of Brazil Established--President Harrison and
+Chile--Venezuela--American Prestige in South America--Hawaii--Behring
+Sea--Garfield, the Martyr of Civil Service Reform--Labor Troubles--
+Railway Riots of 1877 and 1894--Great Calamities--The Chicago Fire,
+Boston Fire, Charleston Earthquake, Johnstown Flood,              308
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+The American Republic the Most Powerful of Nations--Military and Naval
+Strength--Railways and Waterways--Industry and Art--Manufactures--The
+New South--Foreign and Domestic Commerce--An Age of Invention--Americans
+a Nation of Readers--The Clergy--Pulpit and Press--Religion and Higher
+Education--The Currency Question--Leading Candidates for the Presidency
+--A Sectional Contest Deplorable--What Shall the Harvest Be?      322
+
+
+                         THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+No Classes Here--All Are Workers--Enormous Growth of Cities--Immigration
+--Civic Misgovernment--The Farming Population--Individuality and
+Self-reliance--Isolation Even in the Grave--The West--The South--The
+Negro--Little Reason to Fear for Our Country--American Reverence for
+Established Institutions,                                         327
+
+
+
+
+The Land We Live In.
+
+
+FIRST PERIOD.
+
+The Foothold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A Land Without a History--Origin of the American Indians--Their
+Semi-civilization--The Spanish Colonial System--The King Was Absolute
+Master--The Council of the Indies--The Hierarchy--Servitude of the
+Natives--Gold and Silver Mines--Spanish Wealth and Degeneracy--
+Commercial Monopoly--Pernicious Effects of Spain's Colonial Policy--
+Spaniards Destroy a Huguenot Colony.
+
+
+America presented itself as a virgin land to the original settlers from
+Europe. It had no history, no memories, no civilization that appealed to
+European traditions or associations. Its inhabitants belonged evidently
+to the human brotherhood, and their appearance and language, as well as
+some of their customs, indicated Mongolian kinship and Asiatic origin,
+but in the eyes of their conquerors they were as strange as if they had
+sprung from another planet, and the invaders were equally strange and
+marvelous to the natives. To the Spanish adventurer the wondrous temples
+of the Aztecs and the Peruvians bore no significance, except as they
+indicated wealth to be won, and rich empires waiting to be prey to the
+superior prowess and arms of the Christian aggressor; while the
+Englishman, the Frenchman, Hollander and Swede, who planted their colors
+on more northern soil, saw only a region of primeval forests inhabited by
+tribes almost as savage as the wild beasts upon whom they existed. It is
+needless, therefore, in this pen picture of our country, to go into any
+extended notice of its ancient inhabitants, although the writer has
+devoted not a little independent study to their origin and history. That
+study has confirmed him in the opinion that the American Indians came
+from Asia, with such slight admixture as the winds and waves may have
+brought from Europe, Africa and Polynesia. The resemblance of the
+American Indians to the Tartar tribes in language is striking, and in
+physical appearance still more so, while the difference in manners and
+customs is no greater than that between the Englishman of the seventeenth
+century and his descendant in the mountains of West Virginia or Kentucky.
+It is probable--indeed what is known of the aborigines indicates, that
+the immigrations were successive, and their succession would be fully
+accounted for by the mighty convulsions among Asiatic nations, of which
+history gives us a very dim idea. It is easy to suppose that more than
+one dusky AEneas led his fugitive followers across the narrow strait which
+divides Asia from America, and pushed on to the warmer regions of the
+South, driving in turn before him less vigorous and warlike tribes,
+seizing the lands which they had made fruitful, and adopting in part the
+civilization which they had built up. Many of the conquered would prefer
+emigration to submission, and in their turn push farther south, even to
+the uttermost bound of the continent.
+
+The writer is not of those who believe that the remote inhabitants of
+America are unrepresented among the red men of the present age. In
+European and American history the myths about exterminated races are
+disappearing in the light of investigation. Our ancestors were not so
+cruel as they have been painted. It is not likely that any nation was
+ever cut off to a man. Men were too valuable to be destroyed beyond the
+requirements of warfare or the demands of sanguinary religious customs.
+Conquered nations, it is now agreed, were usually absorbed by their
+conquerors, either as equals or serfs. In either event unity was the
+result, as in the case of the Romans and Latins, the Scots and the Picts,
+the Normans and the Saxons. The mound builders, in all probability,
+survive in the Indian tribes of to-day, some of whom in the Southwest
+were mound builders within the historic period, while the ruined cities
+of Arizona and New Mexico were the product of a rude civilization,
+admittedly inherited by the pueblos of the present generation.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+There was nothing in the civilization of the most advanced American races
+worth preserving, except their monuments. The destruction of the Aztec
+and Peruvian empires was, on the whole, an advantage to humanity. The
+darkest period of religious persecution in Europe saw nothing to compare
+with the sanguinary rites of Aztec worship, and bigoted, intolerant and
+oppressive as the Spaniards were they did a service to mankind in putting
+an end to those barbarities. The colonial system established by Spain in
+America was founded on the principle that dominion over the American
+provinces was vested in the crown, not in the kingdom. The Spanish
+possessions on this continent were regarded as the personal property of
+the sovereign.
+
+The viceroys were appointed by the king and removable by him at pleasure.
+All grants of lands were made by the sovereign, and if they failed from
+any cause they reverted to the crown. All political and civil power
+centred in the king, and was executed by such persons and in such manner
+as the will of the sovereign might suggest, wholly independent not only
+of the colonies but of the Spanish nation. The only civil privileges
+allowed to the colonists were strictly municipal, and confined to the
+regulation of their interior police and commerce in cities and towns, for
+which purpose they made their own local regulations or laws, and
+appointed town and city magistrates. The Spanish-American governments
+were not merely despotic like those of Russia and Turkey, but they were a
+more dangerous kind of despotism, as the absolute power of the sovereign
+was not exercised by himself, but by deputy.
+
+At first the dominions of Spain in the new world were divided, for
+purposes of administration, into two great divisions or vice-royalties:
+New Spain and Peru. Afterward, as the country became more settled, the
+vice-royalty of Santa Fe de Bogota was created. A deputy or vice-king was
+appointed to preside over each of these governments, who was the
+representative of the sovereign, and possessed all his prerogatives
+within his jurisdiction. His power was as supreme as that of the king
+over every department, civil and military. He appointed most of the
+important officers of the vice-royalty. His court was formed on the model
+of Madrid, and displayed an equal and often superior degree of
+magnificence and state. He had horse and foot guards, a regular household
+establishment and all the ensigns and trappings of royalty. The tribunals
+which assisted in the administration were similar to those of the parent
+country. The Spanish-American colonies, in brief, possessed no political
+privileges; the authority of the crown was absolute, but not more so than
+in the parent State, and it could hardly have been expected that
+liberties denied to the people at home would have been granted to
+subjects in distant America.
+
+Over the viceroys, and acting for the sovereign, was the tribunal called
+the Council of the Indies, established by King Ferdinand in 1511, and
+remodeled by Charles V. in 1524. This Council possessed general
+jurisdiction over Spanish-America; framed laws and regulations respecting
+the colonies, and made all the appointments for America reserved to the
+crown. All officers, from the viceroy to the lowest in rank, could be
+called to account by the Council of the Indies. The king was supposed to
+be always present in the Council, and the meetings were held wherever the
+monarch was residing. All appeals from the decisions of the Courts of
+Audience, the highest tribunals in America, were made to the Council of
+the Indies.
+
+The absolute power of the sovereign did not stop short at the Church.
+Pope Julian II. conferred on King Ferdinand and his successors the
+patronage and disposal of all ecclesiastical benefices in America, and
+the administration of ecclesiastical revenues--a privilege which the
+crown did not possess in Spain. The bulls of the Roman pontiff could not
+be admitted into Spanish America until they had been examined and
+approved by the king and Council of the Indies. The hierarchy was as
+imposing as in Spain, and its dominion and influence greater. The
+archbishops, bishops and other dignitaries enjoyed large revenues, and
+the ecclesiastical establishment was splendid and magnificent. The
+Inquisition was introduced in America in 1570 by Philip II., the
+oppressor of Protestant England and of the Netherlands, and patron of the
+monster Alva. The native Indians, on the ground of incapacity, were
+exempted from the jurisdiction of that tribunal. No scruple was shown,
+however, in converting the natives to Christianity, and multitudes were
+baptized who were entirely ignorant of the doctrine they professed to
+embrace. In the course of a few years after the reduction of the Mexican
+empire, more than four millions of the Mexicans were nominally converted,
+one missionary baptizing five thousand in one day, and stopping only when
+he had become so exhausted as to be unable to lift his hands.
+
+Conversion to Christianity did not save the Indians from being reduced to
+slavery. Columbus himself, in the year 1499, to avoid the consequences of
+a disaffection among his followers, granted lands and distributed a
+certain number of Indians among them to cultivate the soil. This system
+was afterward introduced in all the Spanish settlements, the Indians
+being everywhere seized upon and compelled to work in the mines, to till
+the plantations, to carry burdens and to perform all menial and laborious
+services. The stated tasks of the unhappy natives were often much beyond
+their abilities, and multitudes sank under the hardships to which they
+were subjected. Their spirit was broken, they became humble and degraded,
+and the race was rapidly wasting away. The oppressions and sufferings of
+the natives at length excited the sympathies of many humane persons,
+particularly among the clergy, who exerted themselves with much zeal and
+perseverance to ameliorate their condition. In 1542 Charles V. abolished
+the enslavement of the Indians, and restored them to the position of
+freemen. This caused great indignation in the colonies and in Peru
+forcible resistance was offered to the royal decree. But although
+relieved in some degree from the burdens of personal slavery, the natives
+were required, as vassals of the crown, to pay a personal tax or tribute
+in the form of personal service. They were also put under the protection
+of great landholders, who treated them as serfs, although not exacting
+continuous labor, so that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
+the condition of the Indians did not greatly improve.
+
+Notwithstanding the avidity of the first Spanish adventurers for the
+precious metals, and the ardor with which they pursued their researches,
+their exertions were attended for a number of years with but little
+success. It was not until 1545 that the rich mines of Potosi, in Peru,
+were accidentally discovered by an Indian in clambering up the mountain.
+This was soon followed by the discovery of other highly productive mines
+of gold and silver in the various provinces, and Spanish America began to
+pour a flood of wealth into the coffers of Spain. The mines were not
+operated by the crown, but by individual enterprise, the crown receiving
+a share of the proceeds, and alloting a certain number of Indians to the
+mine-owners as laborers. These Indians did all the work of the mine
+without the aid of machinery, and with very little assistance from
+horse-power. Their industry enriched Spain and her colonies to a degree
+unexampled in the previous experience of mankind.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Silver and gold, however, did not bring lasting prosperity. Already in
+the early part of the seventeenth century Spain showed signs of decay.
+Her manufactures and commerce began to decline; men could not be
+recruited to keep up her fleets and armies, and even agriculture felt the
+blight of national degeneracy. The great emigration to the colonies
+drained off the energetic element of the population and the immense
+riches which the colonies showered upon Spain intoxicated the people and
+led them to desert the accustomed paths of industry. Nineteen-twentieths
+of the commodities exported to the Spanish colonies were foreign fabrics,
+paid for by the products of the mines, so that the gold and silver no
+sooner entered Spain than they passed away into the hands of foreigners,
+and the country was left without sufficient of the precious metals for a
+circulating medium.
+
+Although wholly unable to supply the wants of her colonies Spain did not
+relax in the smallest degree the rigor of her colonial system, the
+controlling principle of which was that the whole commerce of the
+colonies should be a monopoly in the hands of the crown. The regulation
+of this commerce was entrusted to the Board of Trade, established at
+Seville.
+
+This board granted a license to any vessel bound to America, and
+inspected its cargo. The entire commerce with the colonies centred in
+Seville, and continued there until 1720. It was carried on in a uniform
+manner for more than two centuries. A fleet with a strong convoy sailed
+annually for America. The fleet consisted of two divisions, one destined
+for Carthagena and Porto Bello, the other for Vera Cruz. At those points
+all the trade and treasure of Spanish America from California to the
+Straits of Magellan, was concentrated, the products of Peru and Chili
+being conveyed annually by sea to Panama, and from thence across the
+isthmus to Porto Bello, part of the way on mules, and part of the way
+down the Chagres river. The storehouses of Porto Bello, now a decayed and
+miserable town, retaining no shadow of former greatness, were filled with
+merchandise, and its streets thronged with opulent merchants drawn from
+distant provinces. Upon the arrival of the fleet a fair was opened,
+continuing for forty days, during which the most extensive commercial
+transactions took place, and the rich cargoes of the galleons were all
+marketed, and the specie and staples of the colonies received in payment
+to be conveyed to Spain. The same exchange occurred at Vera Cruz, and
+both squadrons having taken in their return cargoes, rendezvoused at
+Havana, and sailed from thence to Europe. Such was the stinted, fettered
+and restricted commerce which subsisted between Spain and her possessions
+in America for more than two centuries and a half, and such were the
+swaddling clothes which bound the youthful limbs of the Spanish colonies,
+retarding their growth and keeping them in a condition of abject
+dependence. The effect was most injurious to Spain as well as to the
+colonies. The naval superiority of the English and Dutch enabled them in
+time of war to cut off intercourse between Spain and America, and thereby
+deprive Spanish-Americans of the necessaries as well as the luxuries for
+which they depended upon Spain, and an extensive smuggling trade grew up
+which no efforts on the part of the authorities could repress. Monopoly
+was starved out through the very rigor exerted to make it exclusive, and
+the markets were so glutted with contraband goods that the galleons could
+scarcely dispose of their cargoes.
+
+The restrictions upon the domestic intercourse and commerce of the
+Spanish colonies were, if possible, more grievous and pernicious in their
+consequences than those upon traffic with Europe. Inter-colonial commerce
+was prohibited under the severest penalties, the crown insisting that all
+trade should be carried on through Spain and made tributary to the
+oppressive duties exacted by the government. While Spain received a
+considerable revenue from her colonies, notwithstanding the contraband
+trade, the expenses of the system were very great, and absorbed much of
+the revenue. Corruption was widespread, and colonial officers looked upon
+their positions chiefly with a view to their own enrichment. They had no
+patriotic interest in the welfare of the colonies, and conducted
+themselves like a garrison quartered upon the inhabitants. Although
+salaries were high the expenses of living were great, and the salaries
+were usually but a small part of the income. Viceroys who had been in
+office a few years, went back to Spain with princely fortunes.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Such was the condition of affairs in Spain's vast American empire when
+England, France and the United Provinces started on a career of
+colonization in North America. It seems to have been providential that
+the same generation which witnessed the discovery of America witnessed
+the birth of Luther. In the century which followed the Theses of
+Wittenberg the eyes of sufferers for conscience' sake turned eagerly and
+hopefully toward the New World as a refuge from the oppression, the
+scandal and the persecution of the old. The first to seek what is now the
+Atlantic region of the United States with the object of making their home
+here were French Huguenots, sent out by the great Admiral Coligny, who
+afterward fell a victim in the massacre of Bartholomew's Day. The
+Frenchmen planted a settlement first at Port Royal, which was abandoned,
+and afterward built a fort about eighteen miles up the St. John's River,
+Florida, and named it Fort Caroline. This was in the year 1564. In the
+following year a Spanish fleet, commanded by Don Pedro Menendez de
+Aviles, appeared at the mouth of the St. John's. In answer to the French
+challenge as to his purpose the Spanish commander replied that he came
+with orders from his king to gibbet and behead all the Protestants in
+those regions. "The Frenchman, who is a Catholic," he added, "I will
+spare. Every heretic shall die." The Huguenots, had they held together,
+might have been able to offer a successful resistance to the Spaniards,
+but Jean Ribault, the French commander, unfortunately decided to sail out
+from the shelter of Fort Caroline and seek a conflict at sea with the
+enemy. A storm destroyed the French fleet, but the crews succeeded in
+escaping to land. Menendez marched overland with his troops to the
+unprotected fort and easily captured it with its handful of defenders.
+The Spaniards cruelly murdered almost the entire colony of two hundred
+men, women and children, some of them being hung to trees with the
+inscription: "Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans."
+
+Ribault, ignorant of the tragedy at the fort, sought to return there from
+the place where he had been shipwrecked. His men were divided in two
+detachments. Menendez went in search of them, and meeting one party told
+them that Fort Caroline, with its inmates, had been destroyed. The
+Frenchmen were helpless, and pleaded for mercy. Menendez asked: "Are you
+Catholics or Lutherans?" They answered: "We are of the reformed
+religion." The pitiless Spaniard replied that he was under orders to
+exterminate all of that faith. They offered him fifty thousand ducats if
+he would spare their lives. Menendez demanded that the Frenchmen should
+place themselves at his mercy. They consented to do so. A small stream
+divided the Huguenots from the Spaniards. Menendez ordered that the
+French should cross over in companies of ten. As they crossed they were
+taken out of sight of their companions and bound with their arms behind
+them. When all of the Frenchmen, about two hundred in number, had been
+thus secured, Menendez again asked them: "Are you Catholics or
+Lutherans?" Some twelve professed to be Catholics, and these with four
+mechanics who could be made useful to the Spaniards, were led away. The
+remainder of the two hundred were put to death. Menendez next intercepted
+Ribault and the remnant of his men, and by similar treachery accomplished
+their destruction, refusing an offer of one hundred thousand ducats to
+spare their lives. Menendez wrote to King Phillip that the Huguenots
+"were put to the sword, judging this to be expedient for the service of
+God our Lord, and of your majesty."
+
+Thus ended the first attempt of members of the reformed religion to
+settle within the limits of what is now the United States. But the blood
+of the victims did not cry in vain to Heaven for vengeance. A Frenchman,
+himself a Roman Catholic, the Chevalier Dominic de Gourges, determined to
+punish the Spaniards for their cruelty. He sold his property to obtain
+money to fit out an expedition to Florida. Arriving in Florida in the
+spring of 1568, he was joined by the natives in an attack on two forts
+occupied by the Spaniards below Fort Caroline. The forts were captured
+and their inmates put to the sword, except a few whom de Gourges hung to
+trees with the inscription: "Not as Spaniards and mariners, but as
+traitors, robbers and murderers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh--English Expedition to North
+Carolina--Failure of Attempts to Settle There--Virginia Dare--The Lost
+Colony--The Foundation of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--His Life Saved
+by Pocahontas--Rolfe Marries the Indian Princess--A Key to Early Colonial
+History--Women Imported to Virginia.
+
+
+The lives of the hapless Huguenots who perished at the hands of Menendez
+were, perhaps, not altogether wasted, for it is believed that a refugee
+from the Port Royal colony, wrecked on the coast of England, gave Queen
+Elizabeth interesting information about the temperate and fruitful
+regions north of the Spanish territories and prepared her mind to favor
+the projects of Sir Walter Raleigh. That bold and talented adventurer,
+whose name will live forever in American annals, and whose monument is
+North Carolina's beautiful State capital, is said in the familiar story
+to have attracted the notice of Queen Elizabeth by spreading his scarlet
+cloak over a miry place for the queen to walk upon. He made rapid
+progress in the good graces of his sovereign, who was quick to discern
+the men who could be useful to her and to her kingdom. Sir Humphrey
+Gilbert, half brother to Sir Walter, had perished on an expedition to
+found an English colony in America. A storm engulfed his vessel, the
+Squirrel, and he went down with all his crew. Queen Elizabeth graciously
+granted to Sir Walter a patent as lord proprietor of the country from
+Delaware Bay to the mouth of the Santee River, and substantially
+including the present States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and a
+large portion of South Carolina, with an indefinite extension to the
+west.
+
+Raleigh sent out an expedition of two ships under the command of Philip
+Amidas and Arthur Barlow. They landed upon the coast of North Carolina at
+mid-summer, in the year 1584. The scenery and climate were charming, the
+natives hospitable and everything seemed to promise well for future
+settlement. The adventurers reported to Raleigh, who decided to plant a
+colony in the region visited by his vessels. Queen Elizabeth herself is
+said to have given the name of Virginia to her dominion, to commemorate
+her unmarried condition. Untaught by the experience of American colonists
+from the days of Columbus, the English settlers in North Carolina had the
+usual quarrel with the natives, and were saved from the usual fate only
+by the timely arrival of Sir Francis Drake on his return to England from
+a cruise against the Spaniards. The colonists sought refuge on Drake's
+vessels and were carried back to their native country.
+
+Subsequent attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to establish colonies in North
+Carolina also failed, but these efforts were productive of at least one
+important benefit in introducing to the attention of the English and also
+of the Irish, the potato, which, although previously brought to Ireland
+by a slave-trader named Hawkins, and to England by Sir Francis Drake,
+attracted but little notice before it was imported by John White,
+Raleigh's Governor of Roanoke. At Roanoke was born, August 18, 1587, the
+first white child of English parentage on the North American continent,
+Virginia Dare, the daughter of William and Eleanor Dare, and
+granddaughter of Governor White.
+
+In the little wooden chapel, two or three weeks after the event, the
+colonists assembled one bright day to attend the baptism and christening
+of the little stranger. The font was the family's silver wash ewer, and
+the sponsor was Governor White himself, the baby's grandfather.
+Thereafter she was known as Virginia Dare, a sweet and appropriate name
+for this pretty little wild flower that bloomed all alone on that
+desolate coast. About the time that Virginia was cutting her first teeth
+there came very distressing times to the colony. There was great need of
+supplies, and it was determined to send to England for them. Governor
+White went himself, and never saw his little granddaughter again.
+
+It was three years before the Governor returned to Roanoke Island. He was
+kept in England by the Spanish invasion, and after the winds and the
+waves had shattered the dreaded Armada, it was some time before Raleigh
+could get together the men and supplies that were needed by the far-off
+colony. At last the ship was ready and White took his departure, but he
+had not sailed far when his vessel was overtaken by a Spanish cruiser and
+captured. White himself escaped in a boat, and after many days reached
+England again. Then he had to wait for another ship, and the weary old
+man saw day after day go by before he left the chalk cliffs of England
+behind him. After long, anxious months he approached the new land. It was
+near sunset and he expected to see the smoke rising from the chimneys and
+the settlers hurrying in from the fields to eat their evening meal, or
+crowding down to greet the long-looked for arrivals. But no such cheering
+sight met his gaze. There stood the cabins, but they were deserted; not a
+single human soul was visible. They landed and walked up the grass-grown
+paths. Vines and climbers festooned the doorways. A dreary stillness
+reigned everywhere. The colony had disappeared, and tradition has it to
+this day that the settlers were absorbed in the Indian tribes and that
+little Virginia Dare may have become a white Pocahontas.
+
+Raleigh lost his best friend when Queen Elizabeth died, and her
+successor, James, gave into other hands the task of establishing English
+power in America. The London Company, with a patent from the king, sent a
+fleet of three vessels to Virginia, which ascended the James River, and
+fifty miles from its mouth laid the foundation of Jamestown, May 13,
+1607.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+It was a lovely day in summer, presenting a bright southern contrast to
+the bitter winter weather which welcomed the Pilgrims thirteen years
+later to Plymouth Rock, when the Englishmen began the erection of a fort
+on the peninsula or island in the river, where they proposed to establish
+the capital of their colony. They chose for their president Edward Maria
+Wingfield, ignoring Captain John Smith, a gallant and resourceful soldier
+of fortune who would have been invaluable as a leader against any foe.
+The fort had not been completed when the Indians gathered in large
+numbers and made a desperate attack on the colony. Twelve of the
+colonists were killed and wounded before the savages were driven off by
+the use of artillery. In the following winter Captain John Smith explored
+the waters in the vicinity of Jamestown in search of a passage to the
+Pacific. This may seem ridiculous in the light of present knowledge, but
+it is to be remembered that two years later, in 1609, the great
+navigator, Henry Hudson, ascended the river which bears his name, in the
+expectation of discovering a northwest passage to the Orient. Even the
+most enlightened nations of Europe were slow to give up the idea that a
+connection by water existed through the American continent, between the
+Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
+
+To return to Captain John Smith. It appears that in the course of his
+explorations he was captured by Indians, and taken before Chief Powhatan
+at his forest home. As Smith tells the story, the chief wore a mantle of
+raccoon skins and a head-dress of eagle's feathers. The warriors, about
+two hundred in number, were ranged on each side of Powhatan, and the
+Indian women were assembled behind the warriors to witness the unwonted
+scene. Two daughters of the chief, or, as the English called him, the
+"emperor," had seats near his "throne." Smith was well received, one
+woman bringing him water to wash his hands, and another a bunch of
+feathers to dry them with. Then he was fed, and the council deliberated
+as to his fate. They resolved that he should die. Two large stones were
+placed in front of Powhatan and Smith was pinioned, dragged to the
+stones, and his head placed upon them, while the warriors who were to
+carry out the sentence brandished their clubs for the fatal blow. One of
+the daughters of Powhatan, named Matoa, or Pocahontas, sixteen or
+eighteen years old, sprang from her father's side, clasped Smith in her
+arms, and laid her head upon his. Powhatan, savage as he was, and full of
+anger against the English, melted at the sight. He ordered that the
+prisoner should be released, and sent him with a message of friendship to
+Jamestown.
+
+Pocahontas continued to be a friend to the white man. Learning, two years
+later, of an Indian plot to exterminate the intruders, she sped
+stealthily from her father's home to the English settlement, warned
+Captain Smith of the impending peril, and was back in Powhatan's cabin
+before morning. The English were not ungrateful for her goodness, even
+although it appears she was unable to prevent her father from giving
+expression at times to his hatred of the colonists. On one occasion, when
+the settlers were suffering from scarcity of food, and Powhatan would not
+permit his people to carry corn to Jamestown, an Englishman named Samuel
+Argall went on a foraging expedition near the home of Powhatan, and
+enticed Pocahontas on board his vessel. He held the young woman as a
+prisoner, and offered to release her for a large ransom in corn. Powhatan
+refused to have anything to do with Argall, but sent word to Jamestown
+saying that if his daughter should be returned to him he would treat the
+English as friends. Pocahontas was detained at Jamestown for several
+months, being treated with respect, and having the free run of the
+colony. She appears to have been a romping, good-natured young woman,
+comely for an Indian, passing her time as happily as possible, without
+moping for her kinspeople, and not at all the typical heroine of song and
+story. It was wicked to detain her, but she seemed to enjoy her captivity
+and frolicked about the place in a way that must have shocked those who
+regarded her as of royal birth. Evidently Pocahontas liked the English
+from the first, and preferred their company at Jamestown to her childhood
+home in the Virginia forests. A young Englishman, named John Rolfe, fell
+in love with her. Wives from England were scarce, and this fact may have
+made Pocahontas more attractive in his eyes. When some one objected that
+she was a pagan--"Is it not my duty," he replied, "to lead the blind to
+the light?" Pocahontas learned to love Rolfe in return, and love made
+easy her path to conversion to Christianity. She was baptized by the name
+of Rebecca, and was the first Christian convert in Virginia. Powhatan
+consented to his daughter's marriage--he had probably concluded by this
+that she was bound to be English anyhow--and the ceremony was performed
+in the chapel at Jamestown, on a delightful spring day in April, 1613.
+Pocahontas, we are told, was dressed in a simple tunic of white muslin
+from the looms of Dacca. Her arms were bare even to her shoulders, and
+hanging loosely to her feet was a robe of rich stuff presented by the
+Governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and fancifully embroidered by Pocahontas and
+her maidens. A gaudy fillet encircled her head, and held the plumage of
+birds and a veil of gauze, while her wrists and ankles were adorned with
+the simple jewelry of the native workshops. When the ceremony was ended,
+the eucharist was administered, with bread from the wheat fields around
+Jamestown, and wine from the grapes of the adjacent woodland. Her
+brothers and sisters and forest maidens were present; also the Governor
+and Council, and five English women--all that there were in the
+colony--who afterward returned to England. Rolfe and his spouse "lived
+civilly and lovingly together" until Governor Dale went back to England
+in 1616, when they and the Englishwomen in Virginia accompanied the
+Governor. The "Lady Rebecca" received great attentions at court and from
+all below it. She was entertained by the Lord Bishop of London, and at
+court she was treated with the respect due to the daughter of a monarch.
+The silly King James was angry because one of his subjects dared marry a
+lady of royal blood! And Captain Smith, for fear of displeasing the royal
+bigot, would not allow her to call him "father," as she desired to do,
+and her loving heart was grieved. The king, in his absurd dreams of the
+divinity of the royal prerogative, imagined Rolfe or his descendants
+might claim the crown of Virginia on behalf of his royal wife, and he
+asked the Privy Council if the husband had not committed treason![1]
+Pocahontas remained in England about a year; and when, with her husband
+and son she was about to return to Virginia, with her father's chief
+councillor, she was seized with small-pox at Gravesend, and died in June,
+1617. Her remains lie within the parish church-yard at Gravesend. Her
+son, Thomas Rolfe, afterward became a distinguished man in Virginia, and
+his descendants are found among the most honorable citizens of that
+commonwealth.
+
+      [1] Lossing.
+
+Between the lines of the story of Pocahontas can be found the key to much
+of the early history of Virginia and other colonies. Even before regular
+settlements were attempted on these shores the Indians had learned by
+bitter experience to dread and hate the strangers in the big canoes.
+Slave-traders and adventurers made prey of the natives, and many a
+depredating visit was doubtless paid to America that is not recorded in
+the annals of those times. Argall's abduction of Pocahontas ended
+fortunately, but it might have brought on a terrible Indian war and the
+destruction of the Virginia colony. Had such been the result the
+civilized world would never have known the red man's side of the story,
+and Powhatan's just vengeance would have been set down to the barbarous
+and savage nature of the Indian.
+
+The scarcity of women in the Virginia colony has already been alluded to
+in connection with the marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas. Of the early
+immigrants very few were women, and there could be no permanent colony
+without the home and family. The London Company, at the instance of their
+treasurer, Edwin Sandys, proposed, about twelve years after the first
+settlement, to send one hundred "pure and uncorrupt" young women to
+Virginia at the expense of the corporation, to be wives to the planters.
+Ninety were sent over in 1620. The shores were lined with young men
+waiting to see them land, and in a few days everyone of the fair
+immigrants had found a husband. Wives had to be paid for in tobacco--the
+currency of the colony--in order to recompense the company for the
+expense of importing them. The price of a wife was at first fixed at one
+hundred and twenty-five pounds of tobacco--equal to about $90--but
+afterward rose to $150. The women were disposed of on credit, when the
+suitor had not the cash, and the debt incurred for a wife was considered
+a debt of honor. Virginia became a colony of homes. The settlement was
+saved from becoming a refuge of the criminal and the outcast, and in the
+unions formed at that time many of the families in the country had their
+origin. That some of the refuse of English society floated into the
+colony is true, and many of the unruly children of London and other
+English towns, were sent there as apprentices. But the unruly street boy
+often has the diamond of energy and genius concealed within the rude
+exterior, and in the genial clime of Virginia, with an opportunity to be
+a man among men, the young apprentice from the slums of London or
+Plymouth proved himself to possess qualities of value to the community.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The French in Canada--Champlain Attacks the Iroquois--Quebec a Military
+Post--Weak Efforts at Colonization--Fur-traders and Missionaries--The
+Foundation of New France--The French King Claims from the Upper Lakes to
+the Sea--Slow Growth of the French Colonies--Mixing with the Savages--The
+"Coureurs de Bois."
+
+
+Although the French navigator, Jacques Cartier, had sailed up the St.
+Lawrence as early as 1534, it was not until 1608--the year after the
+foundation of Jamestown--that Samuel de Champlain effected a permanent
+settlement at Quebec. It happened that the Indians of the St. Lawrence
+region were at bitter enmity with the Iroquois, or Five Nations, who
+lived in the present State of New York, and this enmity had no small
+influence in deciding the subsequent duel between France and England for
+empire in North America. Champlain accepted the St. Lawrence Indians as
+allies, and consented to lead a war party against the Iroquois. In 1609,
+the year after the settlement of Quebec, Champlain entered the lake which
+bears his name, accompanied by a number of the St. Lawrence Indians, and
+engaged the Iroquois in battle. The warriors of the Five Nations were
+brave, but the white man's gun was too much for them, and when two of
+their chiefs fell dead, pierced by a shot from Champlain's weapon, they
+turned and fled. The French thus won the friendship of the Canadian
+Indians and the undying hatred of the Five Nations, and the latter
+therefore stood faithfully by first the Dutch, and later the English in
+the establishment of their power at Manhattan.
+
+Quebec continued for many years to be hardly more than a military post.
+At the time of Champlain's death, in 1635, there was, says Winsor, a
+fortress with a few small guns on the cliffs of Cape Diamond. Along the
+foot of the precipice was a row of unsightly and unsubstantial buildings,
+where the scant population lived, carried on their few handicrafts, and
+stored their winter provisions. It was a motley crowd which, in the
+dreary days, sheltered itself here from the cold blasts that blew along
+the river channel. There was the military officer, who sought to give
+some color to the scene in showing as much of his brilliant garb as the
+cloak which shielded him from the wind would permit. The priest went from
+house to house with his looped hat. The lounging hunter preferred for the
+most part to tell his story within doors. Occasionally you could mark a
+stray savage who had come to the settlement for food. Such characters as
+these, and the lazy laborers taking a season of rest after the summer's
+traffic, would be grouped in the narrow street beneath the precipice
+whenever the wintry sun gave more than its usual warmth at mid-day. It
+was hardly a scene to inspire confidence in the future. It was not the
+beginning of empire. If one climbed the path leading to the top of the
+rugged slope he could see a single cottage that looked as if a settler
+had come to stay. There were cattle-sheds and signs of thrift in its
+garden plot. If Champlain had had other colonists like the man who built
+this house and marked out this farmstead, he might have died with the
+hope that New France had been planted in this great valley on the basis
+of domestic life. The widow of this genuine settler, Hebert, still
+occupied the house at the time when Champlain died, and they point out to
+you now in the upper town the spot where this one early householder of
+Quebec made his little struggle to instil a proper spirit of colonization
+into a crowd of barterers and adventurers. From this upper level the
+visitor at this time might have glanced across the valley of the St.
+Charles to but a single other sign of permanency in the stone manor house
+of Robert Gifart, which had, the previous year, been built at Beauport.
+
+The French pushed their explorations toward the west and missionary
+stations were established in the country of the Hurons. Two French
+fur-traders reached in 1658 the western extremity of Lake Superior, and
+heard from the Indians there of the great river--the Mississippi--running
+toward the south. Upon the return of the traders to Canada an expedition
+was organized to proceed to the distant region to which the traders had
+penetrated, exchange trinkets for furs, and convert the natives to the
+Christian faith. It was now that the French began to reap the fatal
+fruits of their causeless war on the Iroquois. The latter attacked and
+dispersed the expedition, killing several Frenchmen. In 1665, western
+exploration was resumed, Father Allouez reaching the Falls of St. Mary in
+September of that year, and coasting along the southern shore of Lake
+Superior to the great village of the Chippewas. Delegations from a number
+of Indian nations, including the Illinois tribe, met Father Allouez in
+council at St. Mary's, and complained of the hostile visitations of the
+Iroquois from the east and the Sioux from the west. Father Allouez
+promised them protection against the Iroquois. Soon after this the French
+summoned a great convention of the tribes to St. Mary's, and in presence
+of the chieftains formally took possession of the country in behalf of
+the king of France. A large wooden cross was elevated with religious
+ceremonies. The priests chanted and prayed and the French king was
+proclaimed sovereign of the country along the upper lakes and southward
+to the sea. Thus was founded the short-lived empire of France in America.
+
+The only French occupation of the St. Lawrence was not of the kind to
+flourish. Sir William Alexander, in a tract which he published in 1624,
+to induce a more active immigration on the part of his countrymen to his
+province of New Scotland (Nova Scotia), accounts for the want of
+stability in the French colony in that they were "only desirous to know
+the nature and quality of the soil and did never seek to have (its
+products) in such quantity as was requisite for their maintenance,
+affecting more by making a needless ostentation that the world should
+know they had been there, more in love with glory than with virtue....
+Being always subject to divisions among themselves it was impossible that
+they could subsist, which proceeded sometimes from emulation or envy, and
+at other times from the laziness of the disposition of some, who,
+loathing labor, would be commanded by none."[1] In 1660, after more than
+half a century after the first settlement, a census of Canada showed a
+total of 3418 souls, while the inhabitants of New England numbered at the
+same time not far from eighty thousand. The establishment of seigneuries
+was not calculated to invite or promote desirable immigration. A
+seigneurial title was given to any enterprising person who would
+undertake to plant settlers on the land, and accept in return a certain
+proportion of the grist, furs and fish which the occupant could procure
+by labor. Immigrants of the class which builds up a country want to own
+the land which they cultivate. The sense of independence inspires them
+with energy and with a patriotic interest in the commonwealth. Another
+peculiar feature of French colonization was the tendency to mingle with
+the natives. As early as 1635, Champlain told the Hurons, at his last
+Council in Quebec, that they only needed to embrace the white man's faith
+if they would have the white man take their daughters in marriage. The
+English principle was to drive out the savage when he could be driven
+out, or to tolerate him as a ward and an inferior when it would be unjust
+to expel or destroy him; the Frenchman embraced the Indian as a brother.
+"The French missionary," says Doyle in his Puritan colonies, "well nigh
+broke with civilization; he toned down all that was spiritual in his
+religion, and emphasized all that was sensual, till he had assimilated it
+to the wants of the savage. The better and worse features of Puritanism
+forbade a triumph won on such terms." One of the worst products of French
+colonial life was the class known as the "coureurs de bois," a lawless
+gang, half trader, half explorer, bent on divertisement, and not
+discouraged by misery or peril. They lived in a certain fashion to which
+the missionaries themselves were not averse, as Lemercier shows where he
+commends the priests of his order as being savages among savages.
+Charlevoix tells us that while the Indian did not become French, the
+Frenchman became a savage. Talon speaks of these vagabonds as living as
+banditti, gathering furs as they could and bringing them to Albany or
+Montreal to sell, just as it proved the easiest. If the intendant could
+have controlled them he would have made them marry, give up trade and the
+wilderness, and settle down to work.
+
+      [1] Winsor's "Cartier to Frontenac."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Henry Hudson's Discovery--Block Winters on Manhattan Island--The Dutch
+Take Possession--The Iroquois Friendly--Immigration of the Walloons--
+Charter of Privileges and Exemptions--Patroons--Manufactures Forbidden
+--Slave Labor Introduced--New Sweden--New Netherlanders Want a Voice
+in the Government.
+
+
+When Henry Hudson managed, notwithstanding his detention in England by
+King James, to send an account of his discoveries to Holland, the Dutch
+were swift to avail themselves of the opportunities thus offered to
+extend their trade to North America. The traders who first sought
+Manhattan Island and Hudson's River, or the "Mauritius" as the Dutch
+called the North River, were not settlers. Among them was the daring
+navigator, Adrian Block, from whom Block Island is named, who gathered a
+cargo of skins and was about to depart, late in the year 1613, when
+vessel and cargo were consumed by fire. Block and his crew built
+log-cabins on the lower part of Manhattan Island, and spent the winter
+constructing a new ship, which they called the "Onrust" or "unrest"--an
+incident and a name significant now in view of the commercial
+pre-eminence and activity of the metropolis founded where those men built
+the first habitations occupied by Europeans. Block sailed in the spring
+of 1614 on a voyage of further discovery in his American built ship. He
+passed through the East River and Long Island Sound and ascertained that
+the long strip of land on the south was an island. He saw and named Block
+Island, and entered Narragansett Bay and the harbor of Boston. His report
+led the States-General to grant a charter for four years from October 11,
+1614, to a company formed to trade in the region which Block had
+explored, the territory "lying between Virginia and New France," being
+called the New Netherland. When the charter expired, the States-General
+refused to grant a renewal, it being designed to place New Netherland
+under the jurisdiction of the Dutch West India Company as soon as that
+company should have received the charter for which application had been
+made. This charter, granted June 3, 1620, conferred on the Dutch West
+India Company almost sovereign powers over the Atlantic coast of America,
+so far as it was unoccupied by other nations, and the western coast of
+Africa. The Company was organized in 1622, and its attention was at once
+called to the necessity of founding a permanent colony in the New
+Netherland in order to preserve the country from seizure by the English,
+now established in New Plymouth to the north, as well as Virginia on the
+south. Dutch traders had not been idle during the period between the
+lapse of the old charter and organization under the new and the West
+India Company found its operations greatly facilitated by the labors of
+the pioneers. The storehouse on Manhattan Island had been enlarged, a
+fort had been erected on an island near the site of Albany, and the
+Iroquois had learned that in the Dutch they had an ally who would assist
+them with arms at least against their enemies on the St. Lawrence. The
+West India Company began wisely the work of settlement. They invited the
+Walloons, Protestant refugees from the Belgic provinces of Spain, to
+emigrate to New Netherland. They were most desirable settlers for a new
+country, as industrious as they were intelligent and religious, and well
+versed in agriculture as well as the mechanical and finer arts. Having
+abandoned their homes for conscience' sake they could be trusted to do
+their duty loyally to their adopted State, and to advance to the best of
+their ability the interests of the Company.
+
+Thirty families, including one hundred and ten men, women and children,
+and most of them Walloons, were in the first emigration. Four of the
+families, young couples who had been married on shipboard, and who,
+perhaps, concluded that they would get along better apart from the older
+households, chose to settle on the Delaware, four miles below the site of
+Philadelphia, where they built a blockhouse and called it Fort Nassau.
+Eight seamen went with them and formed a part of their colony, which grew
+and prospered. Others of the emigrants went to Long Island; some founded
+Albany; some settled on the Connecticut River, and several families made
+their homes in what is at present Ulster County. The Company sent over
+Peter Minuit as Governor in 1626, who bought from the natives their title
+to Manhattan Island, paying therefor trinkets and liquor to the value of
+twenty-four dollars. Governor Minuit built a fortification at the
+southern end of the island, and called it New Amsterdam. The
+States-General constituted the colony a county of Holland, and bestowed
+on it a seal, being a shield enclosed in a chain, with an escutcheon on
+which was the figure of a beaver. The crest was the coronet of a count.
+
+In 1629 the Dutch West India Company gave to the settlers a charter of
+"privileges and exemptions," and sought to encourage immigration by
+offering as much land as the immigrants could cultivate, with free
+liberty of hunting and fowling under the direction of the Governor. They
+also offered to any person who should "discover any shore, bay or other
+fit place for erecting fisheries or the making of salt pounds" an
+absolute property in the same. To further promote the settlement of New
+Netherland the company proposed to grant lands in any part of the colony
+outside the island of Manhattan, to the extent of sixteen miles along any
+navigable stream, or four miles if on each shore, and indefinitely in the
+interior, to any person who should agree to plant a colony of adults
+within four years; or if he should bring more, his domain to be enlarged
+in proportion. He was to be the absolute lord of the manor, with the
+feudal right to hold manorial courts; and if cities should grow up on his
+domain he was to have power to appoint the magistrates and other officers
+of such municipalities, and have a deputy to confer with the Governor.
+Settlers under these lords, who were known as patroons--a term synonymous
+with the Scottish "laird" and the Swedish "patroon"--were to be exempt
+for ten years from the payment of taxes and tribute for the support of
+the colonial government, and for the same period every man, woman and
+child was bound not to leave the service of the patroon without his
+written consent. In order to prevent the colonists from building up local
+manufactures to the detriment of Holland industries and of the Company's
+trade, the settlers were forbidden to manufacture cloth of any kind under
+pain of banishment, and the Company agreed to supply settlers with as
+many African slaves "as they conveniently could," and to protect them
+against enemies. Each settlement was required to support a minister of
+the gospel and a schoolmaster. The system thus established contained the
+seed of evil as well as of good. African slave labor, already introduced
+in Virginia, where the climate was some excuse for its adoption, worked
+injury to the New Netherland, where all the conditions were favorable to
+white labor, and tended to create a servile class. The negroes, both bond
+and free, were for many years a most obnoxious element in the colony,
+viewed with apprehension and suspicion even down to the beginning of the
+present century by the general body of white citizens, and often
+subjected to most cruel and unjust persecution and punishment on charges
+that were either baseless or founded only in malice. The restriction on
+domestic manufactures was another barb in the side of the colonists, and
+that policy continued by the English successors of the Dutch, had much to
+do with exciting the War for Independence. The patroons also were an
+aristocratic element foreign to the prevalent spirit of North American
+settlement, and their feudal rule, although liberal and patriarchal in
+some instances, became less tolerable as years rolled on, and the people
+comprehended the absurdity and injustice of mediaeval institutions on
+American soil. It is fortunate that the patroon system, unlike slavery,
+was ultimately uprooted without revolution.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Americans should be proud of the fact that Gustavus Adolphus, the great
+king of Sweden who died on the field of Lutzen in the cause of religious
+liberty, gave his approval to the project for planting a Swedish colony
+in America, and by proclamation, while in the midst of his campaign
+against the Catholic League, recommended the enterprise to his people.
+Eighteen days later the champion of Protestantism fell in the hour of
+victory, and a noble monument erected by the German people marks the spot
+where he gave up his life that Germany might be free. The scheme was
+carried out by the regency which took charge of the kingdom, and Governor
+Minuit, recalled from New Netherland, sailed from Gottenburg in 1637 to
+plant a new colony on the west side of Delaware Bay. The colonists
+arrived at their destination in the spring of 1638, and Minuit procured
+from an Indian sachem a deed for a region which, the Swedes claimed,
+extended from Cape Henlopen to the Falls of the Delaware, where Trenton
+is now, and an indefinite distance inland. The Dutch protested and
+threatened, but Minuit built a fort on the site of Wilmington, and called
+it Fort Christina, in honor of the young queen of Sweden, daughter of
+Gustavus Adolphus. The colony prospered, and a number of Hollanders
+settled there with the Swedes. Minuit died in 1641, and the Swedish
+government proceeded to place the colony on a permanent footing, and
+called it "New Sweden." The colony was unable to hold its own against the
+Dutch, and surrendered in 1655 to an expedition led by Peter Stuyvesant.
+
+While New Netherland remained under Dutch rule the people had no voice in
+the choice of those officers whose duties were more than local in
+character. The governor was an appointee of the West India Company, and
+responsible solely to it; though the latter was subject to a certain
+amount of control from the States-General. That the people desired the
+privilege of electing their general officers, is shown by a petition sent
+in 1649 to the States-General from the Nine Men. A request was made in
+this document for a suitable system of government, and it was accompanied
+by a sketch of the methods of written proxies used by the New England
+colonies in selecting their governors. On the other hand, a letter sent
+two years later by the magistrates of Gravesend to the directors at
+Amsterdam, stated that it would involve "ruin and destruction" to
+frequently change the government by allowing the people to elect the
+governor, partly on account of the numerous factions, and partly because
+there were no persons in the province capable of filling the office. Nor
+did the Dutch colonists possess any voice in the making of laws. There
+was no regular representative assembly, although we find that there were
+several emergencies when the advice of the people was asked by the
+governors.[1]
+
+      [1] See "History of Elections in the American Colonies." Columbia
+      College Series.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Landing of the Pilgrims--Their Abiding Faith in God's Goodness--The
+Agreement Signed on the Mayflower--A Winter of Hardship--The Indians Help
+the Settlers--Improved Conditions--The Colony Buys Its Freedom--Priscilla
+and John Alden--Their Romantic Courtship and Marriage.
+
+
+It is usual to celebrate the landing day of the Pilgrim Fathers on the
+bleak shore of New Plymouth, December 11 (22) 1620, as the beginning of
+New England. It was an event which richly deserves all the commemoration
+in song and story and banquet-hall which it has received or ever will
+receive, but the real and substantial foundation of New England was laid
+about ten years later, when a numerous and well-to-do body of Puritans,
+under a charter granted by the crown, formed the colony of Massachusetts
+Bay. The Pilgrim Fathers were merely a handful in number, and as poor as
+they were loyal and conscientious. Exiles to Holland, they declined an
+offer from the Dutch West India Company to accept lands in New
+Netherland. They wished to remain English, and with the aid of some
+London merchants whose Puritan sympathies were mingled with a desire for
+gain, the little community procured the means to sail for "the northern
+parts of Virginia." The Pilgrims were just as true to King James as the
+settlers of Jamestown, but they did not intend to join that colony, whose
+members were attached to the Established Church, so far as they had any
+religion, and where dissenters would have been ill at ease. At the same
+time the immigrants in the Mayflower did not intend to land so far north
+as they did. The wearisome voyage, however, made them anxious to get on
+shore, the land could not be more inhospitable than the winter sea, and
+they had an abiding faith in God's goodness and providence which enabled
+them to face with resolution the hardships and dangers of the northern
+wilderness. The act which the men of the party signed on the Mayflower,
+previous to landing, showed that they were determined to have an orderly
+government. It was the first American constitution, and as such deserves
+to be remembered: "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are
+hereunder written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King
+James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King,
+Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of God and
+the advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and
+country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of
+Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence
+of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a
+civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and
+furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact,
+constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts,
+constitution and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most
+meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we
+promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have
+hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November (O. S.)
+in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James of England,
+France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth,
+Anno Domini 1620."
+
+The day of landing was, as already stated, December 11, or according to
+the new style, December 22. The spot which the Pilgrims selected for
+settlement was well-watered and promising, and they gave to it the name
+of the haven where they had taken a final leave of their native land. The
+winter was fortunately mild, but they had to endure cruel hardships.
+Their stores were scanty; they had no fishing tackle, and game was not
+abundant. Fortunately spring came early; but forty-four of the little
+company succumbed to want and cold, and those who retained their health
+were hardly equal to the task of nursing the sick and burying the dead.
+Had the savages been numerous and hostile they could have swept the
+little settlement out of existence with but small effort; but the country
+had been wasted not long before by a deadly pestilence and the native
+tribes were too weak and too much in fear of more powerful enemies of
+their own race, to make an attack on the strangers. Instead of injuring
+the newcomers the Indians helped them, brought them game and fish, and
+taught them how to cultivate corn. In 1623 the colony had, with new
+arrivals, about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. The first division of
+land was made this year, and a large crop of corn was harvested. Twelve
+years after the foundation the people of Plymouth hardly numbered five
+hundred, and they were soon overshadowed by the large Puritan immigration
+to Salem and Boston. The poor and struggling settlers of Plymouth did not
+even have the satisfaction of knowing that the fruits of their toils and
+sufferings would be their own. They were still bound to the London
+merchants who had supplied them with the means for emigration, and these
+partners in the enterprise were impatient of the lack of returns. As the
+Pilgrims gradually grew better off they were the more anxious to remove
+the yoke which interfered with their independence, and some members of
+the community who were richer than the others agreed, in exchange for a
+monopoly of the Indian trade and the surrender of the accumulated wealth
+of the colony, to pay its debt to the English shareholders. The colony
+thus achieved its freedom, and its members were able to proceed in
+building their settlement according to their own ideas of religion and
+civil government without restraint from partners who had sought only for
+worldly profit.
+
+One of the most interesting incidents connected with the early history of
+the Plymouth Colony was the romantic marriage of Priscilla and John
+Alden, immortalized in the verse of Longfellow. Captain Miles Standish
+was a redoubtable soldier, small in person, but of great activity and
+courage. He came over in the Mayflower, and his wife Rose Standish fell a
+victim to the privations which attended the first year in America.
+Another passenger on the Mayflower was Priscilla Mullins, daughter of
+William Mullins, a maiden of unusual beauty, just blooming into
+womanhood. The gallant widower fell in love with Priscilla, but for some
+reason which does not clearly appear, but probably bashfulness, he sent
+another to do his courting. Standish himself was about thirty-seven years
+of age, and doubtless showed the effect of his hard service in the wars.
+Nevertheless, he might have won Priscilla had he gone for her in person,
+for, as the military leader of the colony, beset as it was by savages who
+might at any time become hostile, he was a man of importance and
+desirable for a son-in-law. He made the mistake of choosing as Cupid's
+messenger a handsome young man named John Alden, a cooper from
+Southampton, with whom Priscilla was already well acquainted, and with
+whom she had quite possibly whiled away many hours of the wearisome three
+months' voyage from old Plymouth. Alden and Priscilla may have been in
+love with each other already, when Captain Standish sent the youth on his
+embarrassing mission. Even the rigid rules of Puritanism could not
+prevent young men and women from falling in love, while their elders were
+engaged in more sedate occupations. It is to be said for Standish, also,
+that he evidently did not intend that the young man should state the case
+to Priscilla, but only to her father. The parent promptly gave his
+consent, but added that "Priscilla must be consulted." The maiden was
+called into the room, and a brighter light dawned in her eyes, and a
+ruddier flush suffused her cheeks, as her gaze met that of the handsome
+young cooper. John Alden, too, could not remain unaffected, as he
+repeated his message to the fair young woman, into whose ears he had
+probably poured sweet nothings many a time while they dreamed, perhaps,
+of the day when more serious words would be spoken. Priscilla asked why
+Captain Standish had not come himself. Alden replied that the Captain was
+too busy. This naturally made the maiden indignant, for she was justified
+in assuming that no business could be more important than that of asking
+for her hand. It is also possible that she was glad of an excuse for
+rejecting the proffered honor. She declared that she would never marry a
+man who was too busy to court her, adding, in the words of Longfellow:
+
+    "Had he waited awhile, had only showed that he loved me,
+    Even this captain of yours--who knows?--at last might have won me,
+    Old and rough as he is, but now it never can happen."
+
+John Alden pressed the suit in behalf of his soldier friend, secretly
+hoping, it is to be feared, that Priscilla would not take him too much in
+earnest, when, continues Longfellow:
+
+    "Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes over-running with laughter.
+    Said, in a tremulous voice: 'Why don't you speak for yourself, John?'"
+
+John did not speak for himself--at least not directly, on that occasion,
+but he did later on, and shortly afterward the marriage of John Alden and
+Priscilla Mullins was celebrated with all the display that the Plymouth
+settlers could afford. Captain Standish did not blame Alden, but he did
+not remain long near the scene of his disappointment, moving, in 1626, to
+Duxbury, Massachusetts. He lived to a hale old age, respected both for
+his private virtues and his public services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Puritan Immigration--Wealth and Learning Seek These Shores--Charter
+Restrictions Dead Letters--A Stubborn Struggle for Self-government--
+Methods of Election--The Early Government an Oligarchy--The Charter of
+1691--New Hampshire and Maine--The New Haven Theocracy--Hartford's
+Constitution--The United Colonies--The Clergy and Politics--Every
+Election Sermon a Declaration of Independence.
+
+
+John Endicott's settlement at Salem, and the large immigration which
+followed the granting of a royal patent to the Massachusetts Bay Company,
+together with the transfer of the charter and corporate powers of the
+company from England to Massachusetts, led to the growth of a powerful
+Puritan commonwealth which overshadowed and ultimately absorbed the
+feeble settlement at Plymouth. The natal day of New England was that on
+which John Winthrop landed at Salem, with nine hundred immigrants in the
+summer of 1630, bringing not merely virtue, muscle and brawn, such as
+carried the Pilgrims through their appalling experience, but wealth and
+substance, learning and art, men to command as well as men to obey. From
+that time, except during the season of depression which followed King
+Philip's war, New England went steadily forward in population, prosperity
+and political power. Her rulers were well able to meet and defeat their
+would-be oppressors in the field of diplomacy, and now defying, now
+ignoring and again pretending to yield to royal dictation, Massachusetts
+never gave up the principles which animated her founders, or the purpose
+which prompted them to abandon homes of comfort and even of luxury, and
+establish new institutions in a new world. The Massachusetts settlers
+were forbidden by the terms of their charter to enact any laws repugnant
+to the laws of England. This restriction was a dead letter from the very
+beginning. Indeed, literally construed, it would have defeated the very
+object of Puritan emigration--to escape from the rule of a hierarchy
+established under English laws. As Massachusetts was for many years the
+leading colony of the north of English origin, and probably made more of
+an impress than any other colony and State upon our national character,
+it may be of interest to quote here a sketch of its political
+institutions and their changes in the colonial period.
+
+The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company authorized the election of a
+governor, deputy governor and eighteen assistants on the last Wednesday
+of Easter. Endicott, the first governor, was chosen by the company in
+London in April, 1629, but in October of the following year it was
+resolved that the governor and deputy governor should be chosen by the
+assistants out of their own number. After 1632, however, the governor was
+chosen by the whole body of the freemen from among the assistants at a
+general court or assembly held in May of each year. The deputy governor
+was elected at the same time. The charter, as already mentioned, provided
+also for the annual election of assistants or magistrates, whose number
+was fixed at eighteen. Besides the officers mentioned in the charter, an
+order of 1647 declared that a treasurer, major-general, admiral at sea,
+commissioners for the United Colonies, secretary of the General Court and
+"such others as are, or hereafter may be, of like general nature," should
+be chosen annually "by the freemen of this jurisdiction." The voting took
+place in Boston in May at a court of election held annually, and freemen
+could vote at first only in person, but eventually by proxy also, if they
+desired to do so. In both Massachusetts and New Plymouth all freemen had
+originally a personal voice in the transaction of public business at the
+general courts or assemblies which were held at stated intervals. One of
+these was known as the Court of Election, and at this were chosen the
+officers of the colony for the ensuing year. As the number of settlements
+increased, it became inconvenient for freemen to attend the general
+courts in person and they were allowed to be represented by deputies. As
+it was impossible for all freemen when the colony became more populated,
+to attend the courts of election, the deputies were at length permitted
+to carry the votes of their townsmen to Boston.
+
+The governor, as well as the other officers in Massachusetts, were first
+chosen by show of hands, but about 1634 it was provided that the names
+should be written on papers, the papers to be open or only once folded,
+so that they might be the sooner perused. Afterward the voting was by
+corn and beans, a grain of Indian corn signifying election, and a black
+bean the contrary. The offence of ballot-box stuffing seems to have
+existed, or at least was provided against even among the early Puritans,
+for it was enacted that any freeman putting more than one grain should be
+fined ten pounds--a large sum of money in those days.
+
+The Massachusetts colonial government has been called a theocracy. As a
+matter of fact it was an oligarchy, the political power residing in but a
+small proportion of even the church-going freemen. This is shown in the
+remonstrance addressed to the colony by the royal commission appointed
+under King Charles II. to investigate the governments of the New England
+colonies. Said the Commissioners to Massachusetts:
+
+"You haue so tentered the king's qualliffications as in making him only
+who paieth ten shillings to a single rate to be of competent estate, that
+when the king shall be enformed, as the trueth is, that not one church
+member in an hundred payes so much & yt in a toune of an hundred
+inhabitants, scarse three such men are to be found, wee feare that the
+king will rather finde himself deluded than satisfied by your late act."
+
+During the rule of Dudley and Andros the whole legislative power of
+Massachusetts was lodged in a council, appointed by the crown through its
+governor, and popular election in the New England colonies was limited to
+the choice of selectmen at a single meeting held annually in each town,
+on the third Monday in May.
+
+The ultimate result of the revolution of 1688 in England was to unite
+Massachusetts and New Plymouth under the Charter of 1691. By virtue of
+this instrument, "the Great and General Court of Assembly" was to consist
+of "the Governor and Council or Assistants for the time being, and such
+Freeholders of our said Province or Territory as shall be from time to
+time elected or deputed by the Major parte of the Freeholders and other
+Inhabitants of the respective Townes and Places." The governor, deputy
+governor and secretary and the first assistants were appointed. After the
+first year, the assistants were to be annually elected by the General
+Assembly. Under this charter, with the exception of the deputies, the
+only elective officers whose functions were at all general in their
+nature were the county treasurers, and they were chosen upon the basis of
+the town rather than upon the basis of the provincial suffrage.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+New Hampshire owed its original settlement to John Mason, a London
+merchant, who was associated with Sir Ferdinand Gorges in obtaining a
+grant of land in 1622, from the Merrimac to the Kennebec and inland to
+the St. Lawrence. Gorges and Mason agreed to divide their domain at the
+Piscataqua. Mason, obtaining a patent for his portion of the territory,
+called it New Hampshire, in commemoration of the fact that he had been
+governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. The Rev. Mr. Wheelwright,
+brother of Anne Hutchinson, founded Exeter. The New Hampshire settlements
+were annexed by Massachusetts in 1641, and remained dependent on that
+colony until 1680, when New Hampshire became a royal province, ruled by a
+governor and council and house of representatives elected by the people.
+The settlers of New Hampshire were mostly Puritans, and thoroughly in
+sympathy with the political-religious system of Massachusetts.
+Massachusetts obtained jurisdiction over Maine through purchase from
+Gorges, and that territory remained attached to Massachusetts until 1820.
+Vermont had no separate existence until the Revolution.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The colonies of Connecticut and New Haven were in full sympathy with the
+religious and political system of Massachusetts. The first meeting of all
+the "free planters" of New Haven was held on the fourth day of June,
+1639, for the purpose "of settling civil government according to God, and
+about the nomination of persons that might be found by consent of all,
+fittest in all respects for the foundation work of a church." The meeting
+was opened with prayer. There was some debate as to whether the planters
+should give to free burgesses the power of making ordinances, but it was
+ultimately decided to do so. The minutes of the meeting show that this
+decision was arrived at on the authority of several passages from the
+Bible--such as "Take you wise men and understanding, and know among your
+tribes and I will make them rulers over you," and "Thou shalt in any wise
+set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among
+thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not set a
+stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." The model followed in the
+governmental organization was the liveries of the city of London which
+chose the magistrates and were themselves elected by the companies.
+Accordingly, the planters of New Haven elected a committee of eleven men,
+and gave them power to choose the seven founders of the theocracy they
+had decided to establish. The seven founders met as a court of election
+in October of the same year and admitted upon oath several members of
+"approved churches." After reading a number of passages from the Bible
+bearing on the subject of an ideal ruler, they proceeded to the election
+of a chief magistrate and four deputy magistrates. The franchise in all
+cases was confined to church members. In the Hartford colony, which was
+Connecticut proper, the earliest mention of elections is found in the
+Fundamental Orders of 1638, which have become famous as the first written
+constitution framed on the American continent. It was enacted that a
+governor and six magistrates should be chosen annually by the freemen of
+the jurisdiction. A deputy governor was also chosen. The Charter of
+Charles II., which placed the New Haven and the Hartford colonies under
+one government, provided for the same general officers, together with
+twelve assistants, a secretary and a treasurer being added in 1689.
+
+In 1643, the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and
+New Haven formed a confederation for defence against the Indians and also
+the Dutch, who had claimed that a portion of what is now the State of
+Connecticut was included within their jurisdiction. The confederation was
+called the United Colonies of New England, and its affairs were managed
+by a board of eight commissioners, two from each colony. The
+commissioners could summon troops in case of necessity and settle
+disputes between the colonies. This union proved most effective in the
+subsequent war with King Philip. It was the germ of American
+confederation.
+
+The election sermon was a prominent feature of election day in the
+Puritan colonies. The clergyman to deliver the sermon was selected by the
+freemen, and it was considered a great honor to be chosen for the office.
+The preacher often dealt with public questions, and especially during the
+troublous times which preceded the Revolution. Instead of pastors being
+blamed for interference in politics the General Court sometimes sent a
+general request to all ministers of the gospel resident in the colony
+asking them to preach on election day before the freemen of each
+plantation a sermon "proper for direction in the choice of civil rulers."
+The pulpit in that age held the place now occupied by the newspaper
+editorial page, so far as vital questions affecting the body politic were
+concerned. The clergy were, as a class, learned and eloquent, and the
+freemen looked to them for guidance in political as well as religious
+problems, and it cannot be denied that the ministers never shrank from
+the responsibility put upon them. They stood up for the colonies against
+king and parliament, against royal menace and muskets, and for years
+before the Continental Congress pronounced for freedom every election
+sermon was a declaration of independence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Where Conscience Was Free--Roger Williams and His Providence Colony--
+Driven by Persecution from Massachusetts--Savages Receive Him Kindly
+--Coddington's Settlement in Rhode Island--Oliver Cromwell and Charles
+II. Grant Charters--Peculiar Referendum in Early Rhode Island.
+
+    "Take heart with us, O man of old,
+    Soul-freedom's brave confessor,
+    So love of God and man wax strong,
+    Let sect and creed be lesser.
+
+    "The jarring discords of thy day
+    In ours one hymn are swelling;
+    The wandering feet, the severed paths
+    All seek our Father's dwelling.
+
+    "And slowly learns the world the truth
+    That makes us all thy debtor.--
+    That holy life is more than rite,
+    And spirit more than letter.
+
+    "That they who differ pole-wide serve
+    Perchance one common Master,
+    And other sheep he hath than they
+    That graze one common pasture."
+
+    WHITTIER.
+
+
+One New England community stood apart from all the rest. Roger Williams,
+a learned and able minister, supposed to have been born in Wales, came to
+Boston in 1630, accompanied by his wife, Mary, an Englishwoman. Williams
+denied the right of the magistrates to interfere with the consciences of
+men, and also held that the Indians should not be deprived of their lands
+without fair and equitable purchase. His stand in favor of soul-liberty
+was a novelty in that age when State and Church were regarded as
+inseparable, the only difference on this question between Massachusetts
+and England being as to the character of the public worship which the
+State should enforce upon consciences willing and unwilling. The doctrine
+of Roger Williams, therefore, seemed to the Boston authorities to strike
+at the very foundation of all government, and in particular of their
+government. In the autumn of 1635, when Roger Williams was pastor of the
+church at Salem, the General Court of Massachusetts ordered him to quit
+the colony within six months. Afterward suspecting that Williams was
+preparing to found a new colony, the Boston magistrates resolved to
+deport him to England, and a vessel was sent to Salem to take him away.
+Williams received timely warning, and fled from his home in mid-winter,
+and made his way through the wilderness to the shores of Narragansett
+Bay. He was joined by five companions, and at a fine spring near the head
+of Narragansett Bay they planted a colony, and Williams called the place
+"Providence," in grateful acknowledgment of God's providence to him in
+his distress. Williams and his companions founded a pure democracy, with
+no interference with the rights of conscience. Indeed, they carried this
+principle to an extreme at which even in these days most people would
+hesitate, for one member of the colony was disciplined because he
+objected to his wife's frequent attendance on the preaching of Mr.
+Williams to the neglect of her household duties. Rhode Island became a
+refuge for the victims of Puritan intolerance, without regard to their
+belief or unbelief, and was therefore held in hatred and contempt by the
+Boston people. This very hatred was the salvation of Rhode Island, the
+government of England being favorably inclined to the colony on account
+of the stubborn and independent attitude of Massachusetts toward the home
+authorities.
+
+The name "Rhode Island" requires mention here of the fact that Rhode
+Island and Providence Plantations were originally separate settlements.
+In 1638 William Coddington, a native of Lincolnshire, England, and for
+some time a magistrate of Boston, was driven from Massachusetts along
+with others who had taken a prominent part on the side of Anne
+Hutchinson, in the controversy between that brilliant woman and the
+dominant element of the church. Coddington and his eighteen companions
+bought from the Indians the island of Aquitneck, or Rhode Island, and
+made settlements on the sites of Newport and Portsmouth. A third
+settlement was founded at Warwick, on the mainland, in 1643, by a party
+of whom John Greene and Samuel Gorton were leaders. Roger Williams went
+to England in the same year, and in 1644 he brought back a charter which
+united the settlements at Providence and on Rhode Island in one colony,
+called the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The charter was
+confirmed by Oliver Cromwell in 1655, and a new charter was granted by
+Charles II. in 1663. Under the Parliament charter of 1664 Providence, in
+1647, sent a "committee" to Portsmouth to join with committees from other
+towns in order to form a government. The fifth "act and order"
+established by this convention provided that each town should send a
+committee to every general court, and these, like the deputies in
+Massachusetts and Plymouth, could exercise the powers of the freemen in
+all matters excepting the election of officers. The committee from each
+town was to consist of six members.
+
+A peculiar feature of early Rhode Island government was the jealousy with
+which the people retained in their own control the law-making power.
+Matters of general concern were proposed in some town meeting, and notice
+of the proposition had to be given to other towns. Towns which approved
+of the proposition were ordered to declare their opinion at the next
+general court through their committees. If the court decided in favor of
+the proposition a law was passed which had authority only until ratified
+by the next general assembly of all the people. The general court was
+also allowed to debate matters on its own motion, but its decisions must
+be reported to each town by the committee representing that town. A
+meeting of the town was held to debate on the questions so reported and
+then the votes of the inhabitants were collected by the town clerk and
+forwarded with all speed to the recorder of the colony. The latter was to
+open, in the presence of the governor, all votes so received, and if a
+majority voted affirmatively the resolution of the court was to stand as
+law until the next general assembly. This complex method was repealed in
+1650, and instead, it was ordered that all laws enacted by the assembly
+should be communicated to the towns within six days after adjournment.
+Within three days after the laws were received the chief officer of each
+town was to call a meeting and read them to the freemen. If any freeman
+disliked a particular law he could, within ten days, send his vote in
+writing, with his name affixed, to the general recorder. If within ten
+days the recorder received a majority of votes against any law, he was to
+notify the president of that fact and the latter in turn was to give
+notice to each town that such law was null and void. Silence as to the
+remaining enactments was assumed to mean assent.
+
+After 1658, the recorder was allowed ten days instead of six, as the
+period within which the laws must be sent to the towns. The towns had
+another ten days for consideration, and then if the majority of the free
+inhabitants of any one of them in a lawful assembly voted against a given
+enactment, they could send their votes sealed up in a package to the
+recorder. If a majority from every town voted against the law it was
+thereby nullified; but unless this was done within twenty days after the
+adjournment of the court the law would continue binding. In 1660, three
+months were allowed for the return of votes to the recorder. Instead of a
+majority of each town, a majority of all the free inhabitants of the
+colony was sufficient to nullify a law. The charter of King Charles II.
+restricted the privilege of voting to freeholders and the eldest sons of
+freeholders.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Puritans and Education--Provision for Public Schools--Puritan Sincerity
+--Effect of Intolerance on the Community--Quakers Harshly Persecuted--The
+Salem Witchcraft Tragedy--History of the Delusion--Rebecca Nourse and
+Other Victims--The People Come to Their Senses--Cotton Mather Obdurate to
+the Last--Puritan Morals--Comer's Diary--Rhode Island in Colonial Times.
+
+
+It is to the credit of the Puritans that promptly upon their settlement
+in Massachusetts they made provision for education. Many of the Puritans
+were learned men, and some of them graduates of Cambridge in England, and
+when a school was established at Newtown for the education of the
+ministry, the name of the place was changed to Cambridge. When John
+Harvard endowed the school in 1638 with his library and the gift of one
+half his estate--about $4000, but equal to much more than that amount at
+the present day--the school was erected into a college and named Harvard
+College after the founder. The central aim and purpose of Puritan
+education was religious. The schools were maintained so that the children
+could learn to read the Bible, and also incidentally the printed
+fulminations of the ministers and magistrates. The Massachusetts school
+law of 1649 set forth in the preamble that, "it being one chief project
+of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the
+Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in
+these later times persuading men from the use of tongues, so that at the
+least a true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded with
+false glossing of saint-seeming deceivers, and that learning may not be
+buried in the grave of our fathers," therefore, etc. Every township was
+required to maintain a school for reading and writing, and every town of
+a hundred householders a grammar-school, with a teacher qualified to fit
+youths for the university. This school law was enacted likewise in the
+other Puritan colonies. While its object was to strengthen the hold of
+religion, as expounded by the Puritan ministry, upon the people, its
+general effect was to spread intelligence along with learning, and to
+break down the barriers of intolerance. It is a significant fact,
+however, and in accordance with the lessons of more recent history, that
+the seat of the highest education was not always the seat of the highest
+intelligence. The witchcraft delusion found a haven in Harvard when the
+common sense of a common-school educated people rejected it by a decisive
+majority.
+
+The Puritan was stern and cruel because he was thoroughly in earnest. He
+believed his religion to be true, and that the only path to salvation lay
+through rigid compliance with Puritan doctrine. Believing as he did he
+was logical; he was humane. The non-Puritan was, in his view, a
+pestilence to be got rid of by the most heroic measures if necessary. In
+acting on this principle he was kind, in his judgment, to the many whom
+he saved from pollution and damnation by the sacrifice of the few. The
+devil, to the Puritan, was terribly personal, and Cotton Mather's horror
+of witchcraft was grounded in a sincere belief in that personality. The
+forces of evil were always active, and the Puritan believed in combating
+them in the most vigorous and trenchant fashion. The Scripture enjoined
+upon him to pluck out his own eye if it offended, and it was natural that
+he should not hesitate to sacrifice others when they offended. With all
+his severity he took good care to let transgressors know what they had to
+expect, and he felt the less compunction, therefore, in inflicting
+penalties deliberately incurred. Life for the Puritan was a very serious
+affair, and levity a crime only milder than non-orthodoxy. Gaming even
+for amusement was rigidly prohibited. It was a criminal act to kiss a
+woman in the street, even in the way of chaste and honest salute. The
+heads of households were called to account if the daughters neglected the
+spinning-wheel. The stocks and the whipping-post were seldom unoccupied
+by minor offenders, while the hangman was kept busy with criminals of
+deeper dye. It should be needless to say that there was a good deal of
+hypocrisy, and that public repentance was often simply a means for
+escaping from social ostracism and obtaining admission to the pastures of
+the elect. Hubbard intimates as much in what he says about Captain John
+Underhill.
+
+The laws enacted were based on the Mosaic code, and of Mosaic severity in
+dealing with offences against morality and religion. It is to be
+remembered, however, that down to the second quarter of the present
+century the code of England itself was Draconic, although immoralities
+punished by death in Massachusetts were not regarded as crimes in the
+older country.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The most painful event connected with the harsh religious system of the
+Puritans was the execution in 1659 of two Quakers, Marmaduke Stephenson
+and William Robinson, of England, who had come to Massachusetts to preach
+their doctrines. The first two Quakers to arrive in Boston were Ann
+Austin and Mary Fisher, who landed here in 1656. They were forthwith
+arrested, and examined for witch-marks, but none being found and there
+being no excuse therefore for putting them to death as agents of Satan,
+they were kept in close imprisonment, and the jailer and citizens were
+forbidden to give them any food, the object apparently being to starve
+them to death. The windows of the jail were boarded up to prevent food
+from being handed into them and also to prevent the prisoners from
+exhorting passers-by. A citizen named Upshall, who gave money to the
+jailer to buy nourishment for the captives, was fined $100, and ordered
+to leave the colony within thirty days, and was sentenced to pay beside
+$15 for every day he should be absent from public worship before his
+departure--evidently that he might be compelled to listen to pulpit
+denunciations of his wickedness in saving from starvation two
+fellow-human beings who worshipped God in a different fashion from their
+persecutors. The exile was denied an asylum in Plymouth, and followed the
+example of Roger Williams by seeking a refuge among the Indians, who
+treated him kindly. The two Quaker women were transported to Barbadoes,
+and the captain of the vessel which had brought them to Boston was
+required to bear the charges of their imprisonment. The religious books
+which they had in their possession when arrested were burned by the
+common hangman.
+
+The Quakers continued to come in considerable numbers to America, being
+welcomed in some of the colonies, and persecuted in others, but nowhere
+so severely as in Massachusetts. When Stephenson and Robinson were hanged
+at Boston, Mary Dyer, widow of William Dyer, late recorder of Providence
+plantations, was taken to the scaffold with them, but reprieved on
+condition that she should leave the colony in forty-eight hours. In the
+following year Mary Dyer returned to Boston, and was at once arrested and
+hanged. These proceedings excited general horror in the mother country,
+and Charles II. sent a letter stating it to be his pleasure that the
+Quakers should be sent to England for trial. The General Court of
+Massachusetts thereupon suspended the laws against Quakers, and those in
+prison were released and sent out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Next to the persecution of the Quakers no feature of Puritan history is
+so prominent as the Salem Witchcraft Tragedy, which, although it occurred
+near the close of the seventeenth century, so strikingly illustrates the
+intellectual and religious conditions of the Massachusetts colony that it
+may properly be described here. Belief in witchcraft was not by any means
+confined to Massachusetts. The statutes of England, as well as of the
+American colonies, dealt with the imaginary crime. Among the intelligent
+and educated classes, however, both in Europe and America, the subject
+was generally considered of too doubtful a nature to be dealt with by the
+infliction of the penalties which the law prescribed. In Massachusetts,
+where everybody had some education, the majority of the people, although
+deeply and almost fanatically religious, had their doubts about the
+reality of the diabolical art, and the belief, strangely enough, seems to
+have been most intense and aggressive in the highest intellectual
+quarters, among ministers and men of superior education and commensurate
+influence. It was this that gave the witchcraft delusion its awful power
+for evil, and enabled a few vicious children afflicted with hysteria or
+epilepsy to bring a score of mostly reputable persons to an ignominious
+death, to ruin more than that number of homes and to spread consternation
+throughout the commonwealth.
+
+The Salem delusion began in the house of Mr. Parris, the minister at
+Danvers. Parris had two slaves, an Indian and his wife, Tituba, the
+latter half negro and half Indian. Tituba taught the children various
+tricks. While practicing these tricks, some of them became hysterical and
+acted in a peculiar manner. It was suggested that they were bewitched,
+and they were asked who had bewitched them. They indicated a woman named
+Sarah Goode, who was generally disliked. She was arrested and imprisoned.
+This seems to have gratified the children, who soon after had convulsions
+in the presence of another victim, one Giles Corey. Corey stood mute
+under the accusation, and was tortured to death by pressing. The cases
+attracted attention, and at the instance of Cotton Mather and others,
+Governor Phipps designated a special court to try persons accused of
+witchcraft. Malice, greed and craft promptly supplied more victims for
+the court and the hangman. Doctors discovered what they called
+witch-marks, such as moles or callosities of any kind, and after the
+children or others alleged to have been bewitched had performed the usual
+contortions, the accused were swiftly convicted. Francis Nourse and his
+wife, Rebecca, had a controversy about the occupation of a farm with a
+family named Endicott. The Endicott children went into hysterics and
+charged that Rebecca Nourse had bewitched them. Although as good and pure
+a woman as there was in the colour, Rebecca was convicted, hanged on
+Witches' Hill, and her body cast into a pit designed for those who should
+meet her fate. Mr. Parris, the minister, thought it necessary to preach a
+sermon fortifying the belief in witchcraft, and when Sarah Cloyse, a
+sister of Rebecca, got up and went out of the meeting-house, regarding
+the sermon as an insult to the memory of her murdered sister, she was
+also denounced and arrested. The Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, one of the
+lights of Puritanism, and son of Dr. Increase Mather, president of
+Harvard University, was most active and violent in the prosecutions.
+Among the victims was the Rev. Stephen Burroughs, a learned minister of
+exemplary life, who was accused of possessing a witch's trumpet. Mather
+witnessed the hanging of Burroughs, and when the latter on the scaffold
+offered up a touching prayer, Mather cried out to the people that Satan
+often transformed himself into an angel of light to deceive men's souls.
+The Rev. Mr. Noyes, standing by at the execution of eight accused
+persons, exclaimed: "What a sad thing it is to see eight fire-brands of
+hell hanging there!" A committee was appointed to ferret out witches, and
+children were readily found to court the notoriety and interest which a
+share in the work attracted. When the accusers began to utter charges
+against the wife of Governor Phipps and relatives of the Mathers, the
+authorities took a different view of the monster which they had evolved
+out of their superstitious imaginings. Public opinion, which had been
+fettered by fear and amazement at the hideous proceedings, began to find
+expression in protest against any further sacrifice. Many of the accusers
+recanted their testimony, and said that they had given it in order to
+save their own lives, dreading to be accused of witchcraft themselves.
+The General Court of Massachusetts appointed a general fast and
+supplication "that God would pardon all the errors of His servants and
+people in a late tragedy raised among them by Satan and his instruments."
+Judge Sewall, who had presided at a number of the trials, stood up in his
+place in the church and begged the people to pray that the errors which
+he had committed "might not be visited by the judgment of an avenging God
+on his country, his family and himself." The Rev. Mr. Parris was
+compelled to leave the country. Cotton Mather, however, adhered
+steadfastly to his belief in witches. He said, among other things equally
+astounding to the common sense even of that day, that the devil allowed
+the victims of witchcraft to "read Quaker books, the Common Prayer and
+popish books," but not the Bible. At the instance of Cotton Mather, and
+that of his father, Increase Mather, the president of Harvard, a circular
+was sent out signed by Increase Mather and a number of other ministers in
+the name of Harvard College, inviting reports of "apparitions,
+possessions, enchantments and all extraordinary things wherein the
+existence and agency of the invisible world is more sensibly
+demonstrated," to be used "as some fit assembly of ministers might
+direct." But few replies to the circular were received. The people of
+Massachusetts had muzzled the monster, and did not care to turn it loose
+again. A monument was recently erected to Rebecca Nourse on the hill
+where she perished, and her descendants have an organization which holds
+annual meetings in commemoration of their hapless ancestor.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Notwithstanding harsh laws and their bitter enforcement, the habits of
+the people were probably not much better than to-day in well-ordered
+communities, and considerable depravity existed, especially in the
+remoter settlements. Comer's Diary, which has never been published, but
+which the writer of this work has examined in manuscript, shows a
+condition of society far from exemplary, and it also shows that persons
+whose position ought to have been respectable, sometimes took Indians
+either as wives or in a less honorable relation. There is, perhaps, more
+Indian blood in New England than is generally supposed, and the earlier
+inhabitants of that section were probably less exclusive toward the
+aborigines than is assumed in conventional history. Comer's Diary deals,
+it is true, with the early part of the eighteenth century, but the
+conditions it minutely and no doubt faithfully describes, must have
+existed substantially in the seventeenth.[1]
+
+      [1] I was present at a meeting of the Rhode Island Historical
+      Society when President (then professor) Andrews, of Brown
+      University, reported in behalf of a committee, that it had been
+      judged inexpedient to publish Comer's Diary. I have since had the
+      privilege of examining the diary in the original, and can understand
+      the grounds of objection.--H. M.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The laws of Rhode Island were founded on the Mosaic system, like those of
+Massachusetts, but entirely ignored the question of religion. The
+penalties for immoral conduct were not so merciless as in the Puritan
+colonies, and the Rhode Island colonial records indicate that the laws,
+such as they were, were not rigidly enforced. The remnants of the Indian
+tribes, having first been demoralized by unprincipled whites, became
+themselves a demoralizing element, and Indian dances were, the records
+show, a continual source of scandal and of vice, which the authorities
+sought vainly to suppress. In connection with the principle of entire
+separation of Church and State, on which Rhode Island was founded, it may
+be of interest to mention here that I learned, in my examination of
+Comer's Diary, that an attempt was made to establish a branch of the
+Anglican Church in Providence, in the colonial period, and that a
+minister was sent over under authority of the bishop of London. The
+minister had to depart, and the church was closed on account of some
+scandal. I wrote to the present bishop of London inquiring if there was
+any record of the incident in the Episcopal archives, and he answered me
+to the effect that nothing could be found relating to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+New England Prospering--Outbreak of King Philip's War--Causes of the
+War--White or Indian Had to Go--Philip on the War-path--Settlements Laid
+in Ashes--The Attack on Hadley--The Great Swamp Fight--Philip Renews the
+War More Fiercely Than Before--His Allies Desert Him--Betrayed and
+Killed--The Indians Crushed in New England.
+
+
+The civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament put an end to Puritan
+immigration to New England, and some of the settlers went back to
+England, and gave efficient aid to their fellow Puritans in fighting
+against the king. The people of New England were, on the whole,
+prosperous about the middle of the seventeenth century. Nearly every head
+of a family owned his house and the land which he occupied, and in the
+coast towns many were engaged in profitable trade and the fisheries.
+Fishing vessels from abroad were customers for the agricultural products
+of the colony, and gradually the colonists built their own vessels and
+absorbed the fisheries themselves. The figure of a codfish in the
+Massachusetts State House was, until recently, a reminder of the
+beginning of Massachusett's wealth and prosperity.
+
+King Philip's War was a terrible blow to the colonies, and came near to
+proving their destruction. The immediate provocation of the conflict was
+slight enough, but the conflict itself was inevitable. There was no
+longer room in New England for independent Indian tribes side by side
+with English colonies. One race or the other had to give way and war
+meant extermination for one or the other. King Philip, Sachem of the
+Wampanoags, saw that the further progress of the colonies would involve
+the extinction of his race. He was a brave man, and possessed of uncommon
+ability. He did not move hastily, although his tribesmen clamored for
+bloodshed to avenge three of their fellows whom the English had hanged on
+a doubtful charge of murder, based on the killing of an Indian traitor.
+When Philip was prepared to strike he sent his women and children to the
+Narragansetts for protection, and then started on the warpath against the
+settlers of Plymouth colony. Major Savage, with horse and foot from
+Boston, joined the Plymouth forces, and they drove Philip back into a
+swamp at Pocasset. After a siege of many days Philip made his way from
+the swamp, was welcomed by the Nipmucks, a tribe in interior
+Massachusetts, and with fifteen hundred warriors he hurried to attack the
+white settlements in Connecticut. The colonial army meanwhile hastened to
+the Narragansett country, and compelled Canonchet, chief of the
+Narragansetts, upon whom King Philip had relied for aid, to make a treaty
+of friendship. Philip was disappointed by the loss of this expected ally,
+but disappointment made him only the more resolute and desperate.
+Everywhere he excited the New England tribes against the English, and
+carefully avoiding any general encounter, he waylaid the settlers,
+destroyed their homes and laid ambuscades for them in field and highway,
+now and then attacking some important town. The colonists suffered
+fearfully; numbers were slain; whole settlements were devastated, and the
+gun had to be kept at hand in church, at home and at daily toil. No one
+knew when the dusky foe would suddenly spring from the forest; no woman
+left her doorstep without fear that she might never enter it again, and
+the settler, whom duty summoned from home, looked anxiously on his return
+to see if his dwelling was there. Even the churches, with congregations
+armed as they listened to the Word of God, were assailed and the
+worshipers sometimes massacred. Deerfield was laid in ashes, and Hadley
+was saved undoubtedly by the sudden appearance of a venerable man,
+William Goffe, the regicide, who had been a major-general under Cromwell,
+was one of the judges who signed the death warrant of Charles I., and had
+fled to New England from the vengeance of Charles II. He was concealed in
+Hadley when the Indians attacked the place, and unexpectedly appeared
+among the inhabitants, most of whom took him for a supernatural being,
+and animated them to repulse the savages. He then as suddenly
+disappeared, going back to his place of refuge. Philip, encouraged by his
+successes, made a bold attack upon Springfield, but was repulsed with
+serious loss. He then retreated to the Narragansett country, and was
+hospitably received by Canonchet.
+
+Although Canonchet's sympathies were with Philip, it is not certain that
+the Narragansett chief had hostile designs against the English. The
+colonists had determined, however, to make a sweep of possible as well as
+actual enemies, and they marched upon the Narragansetts. Then occurred
+the Great Swamp fight, one of the most sanguinary of encounters in the
+history of Indian warfare. The Narragansetts had their winter camp, or
+fort, in the heart of a swamp, in what is now Charlestown, Rhode Island.
+Successive rows of palisades protected a position of considerable extent,
+accessible during the greater part of the year by a single narrow path.
+This one access was guarded by a blockhouse, but the cold weather gave a
+footing to the invaders on the usually impassable morasses. An attempt
+was made to take the Narragansetts by surprise. The warriors, however,
+detected the stealthy approach, and seizing their weapons, fired from the
+security of their palisades upon the advancing enemy. A number of the
+best men on the colonial side were shot down while urging on the attack.
+The battle on both sides was fierce and stubborn. Assault followed
+assault, only to be repulsed, and when the English had fought their way
+into the fortress, they were at first driven out by an irresistible onset
+of the Indians. At length the colonists made good their entrance, and the
+battle continued at closer quarters, the Indians nerved to desperation by
+the presence of their wives and children, whose fate would be their own,
+and the colonists inspired to prodigies of valor by the thought that
+their defeat would certainly involve their own destruction, and perhaps
+that of New England. The invaders at length set fire to the wigwams. As
+the flames spread the women and children ran out, hampering their
+defenders with cries of terror and appeals for protection, and at length
+the Indians were overpowered. Then followed a pitiless massacre of the
+defeated Indians and their families, hundreds of whom perished in the
+flames, while many were taken prisoners to be carried off into slavery.
+Canonchet was slain, and the power of the Narragansetts was broken
+forever.[1]
+
+      [1] In the summer of 1883 I represented the Providence _Journal_ at
+      the dedication of Fort Ninigret, a spot set apart from the former
+      Narragansett reservation in memory of the tribe which had given
+      welcome to Roger Williams when he fled from Puritan persecution. I
+      visited at the time the scene of the Great Swamp fight, and also
+      the burying-ground of the latter Narragansett chiefs.
+
+      The following lines which were suggested by the occasion, may
+      perhaps be of interest to the reader:
+
+          THE GRAVE OF NINIGRET.
+
+          A stricken pine--a weed-grown mound
+            On the upland's rugged crest,
+          Point where the hunted Indian found
+            At length a place of rest.
+
+          Thou withered tree, by lightning riven,
+            Of bark and leaf bereft,
+          With lifeless arms erect to heaven,
+            Of thee a remnant's left;
+
+          The bolt that broke thy giant pride
+            Yet spared the sapling green;
+          And tall and stately by thy side
+            'Twill show what thou hast been.
+
+          But of the Narragansett race
+            Nor kith, nor blood remains;
+          Save that perchance a tainted trace
+            May lurk in servile veins.
+
+          The mother's shriek, the warrior's yell
+            That rent the midnight air
+          When Christians made yon swamp a hell,
+            No longer echo there.
+
+          The cedar brake is yet alive--
+            But not with human tread--
+          Within its shade the plover thrive,
+            The otter makes its bed.
+
+          The red fox hath his hiding-place
+            Where ancient foxes ran.
+          How keener than the sportsman's chase
+            The hunt of man by man!
+
+      H. M.
+
+King Philip escaped from the slaughter, found other Indian allies, and
+renewed the war more fiercely than before. Many towns were laid in ashes,
+including Providence and Warwick, in Rhode Island; Weymouth, Groton,
+Medfield, Lancaster and Marlborough, in Massachusetts. About six hundred
+of the colonists were killed in battle or waylaid and murdered, and the
+burden of the struggle bore heavily on the survivors. Fortunately
+dissensions among the savages diminished their power for harm, and
+Philip's allies deserted him, or surrendered to avoid starvation. Captain
+Church of Rhode Island went in pursuit of Philip who had taken refuge in
+the fastnesses of Mount Hope. The wife and little son of the Indian chief
+were made prisoners, and this was a final blow to him. "My heart breaks,"
+he said; "I am ready to die." An Indian, who claimed to have a grievance
+against Philip on account of a brother whom the sachem had killed,
+betrayed the hiding-place of Philip to the English, and shot the fallen
+chief. Philip's head was cut off and carried on a pole to Plymouth, and
+his body was quartered. His wife and son were sold into slavery in
+Bermuda. The Indians of New England were crushed, and they never again
+attempted to stand against the whites.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Growth of New Netherland--Governor Stuyvesant's Despotic Rule--His
+Comments on Popular Election--New Amsterdam Becomes New York--The
+Planting of Maryland--Partial Freedom of Conscience--Civil War in
+Maryland--The Carolinas--Settlement of North and South Carolina--The
+Bacon Rebellion in Virginia--Governor Berkeley's Vengeance.
+
+
+New Amsterdam prospered under methods of government which were mild as
+compared with those of the Puritans, although the annals of the Dutch
+colony are unhappily not free from the stain of persecution for
+conscience' sake. Englishmen as well as Hollanders thronged to New
+Netherland, and the people, as they grew beyond anxiety for enough to eat
+and drink, became ambitious for a share in the government. In 1653, after
+much agitation and resistance on the part of Governor Stuyvesant, New
+Amsterdam was organized as a municipality, the power of the burghers
+being, however, very limited.
+
+The smaller Dutch towns possessed the privilege of electing their
+officers, though their choice was subject to the approval of the
+director-general. New Amsterdam had not been granted this privilege,
+although it had been demanded in 1642 and again in 1649. At last, in
+1652, Governor Stuyvesant was instructed to have a schout, two
+burgomasters and five schepens "elected according to the custom of the
+metropolis of Fatherland." He, however, continued for a long time to
+appoint municipal officers, and when a protest was made he replied that
+he had done so "for momentous reason." "For if," he said, "this rule was
+to become a synocure, if the nomination and election of magistrates were
+to be left to the populace who were the most interested, then each would
+vote for some one of his own stamp, the thief for a thief, the rogue, the
+tippler, the smuggler for a brother in iniquity, that he might enjoy
+greater latitude in his vices and frauds." The magistrates had not been
+appointed contrary to the will of the people, because they were "proposed
+to the commonalty in front of the City Hall by their names and surnames,
+each in his quality, before they were admitted or sworn to office. The
+question is then put, 'Does any one object?'" At length, in 1658,
+Stuyvesant allowed the burgomasters and schepens to nominate their
+successors, but the city did not have a schout of its own until 1660.
+
+Other troubles besides the demands of the people for self-government,
+were gathering around the sturdy Dutch governor. The English were
+pressing him from the east, and in New Netherland itself they were
+aggressive and defiant in their attitude toward Dutch authority. Charles
+II. granted New Netherland to his brother, the Duke of York, and an
+English flotilla under Richard Nicholls appeared in front of New
+Amsterdam and demanded the surrender of the province. Stuyvesant refused
+to submit, but the people of New Amsterdam were more than willing to come
+under English rule, and their doughty governor was made to understand
+that he would be virtually alone in resisting the invaders. After a week
+of fuming and raging against the inevitable, Stuyvesant yielded, and the
+English took possession of New Amsterdam. The place was recaptured and
+held by the Dutch for a few months in 1673, but with the exception of
+this brief period the English remained thenceforth masters of the
+Atlantic coast of North America from the St. Lawrence in the north to the
+Spanish possessions in the south.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The planting of a Roman Catholic colony in Maryland was almost
+contemporary with the Puritan settlement of New England. The first steps
+toward the establishment of the colony had been taken under James I., but
+it was in the reign of Charles I. that Cecil Calvert, the second Lord
+Baltimore, obtained the charter which made him almost an independent
+sovereign over one of the fairest regions of North America. The charter
+granted civil and religious liberty to Christians who believed in the
+Trinity. The Ark and the Dove, two vessels fitted out by Lord Baltimore,
+bore about two hundred Roman Catholic immigrants to the banks of the
+Potomac, where they landed on March 25, 1634. The cross was planted as
+the emblem of the new colony, and Governor Leonard Calvert opened
+negotiations with the Indians for the purchase of their lands. The first
+assembly met in 1635, and another in 1638. Question having arisen as to
+whether the lord proprietor or the colonists had the right to propose
+laws, that right was at length conceded to the colonists. Of course the
+settlers would not have been allowed to persecute non-Catholics, even had
+they so desired; but they showed no such desire, and laws were enacted
+securing freedom of worship to all professing to believe in Jesus Christ;
+with the important limitation, however, of severe penalties for alleged
+blasphemy. This limitation clearly made it possible for magistrates to
+construe an honest expression of religious opinion as blasphemy, and to
+inflict the cruel punishments provided for that offence. It should be
+noticed that the Toleration Act of Maryland, passed in 1649, was the work
+of a General Assembly composed of sixteen Protestants and eight Roman
+Catholics, the governor (William Stone) himself being a Protestant. Some
+years later the Puritans, being in a majority in the Maryland General
+Assembly, passed an act disfranchising Roman Catholics and members of the
+Church of England. Civil war followed, resulting in a defeat for the
+Roman Catholics near Providence, now called Annapolis, April, 1655. Lord
+Baltimore, whose authority was overthrown in the course of the conflict,
+recovered his rights when the monarchy was restored in England. The
+government of the Baltimores continued, with some interruptions, until
+the Revolution, and it is but fair to state that the character which they
+stamped upon the colony was not effaced even by that event.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Puritans nearly succeeded in adding North Carolina to their chain of
+colonies. The first settlers, after the ill-fated Raleigh expeditions of
+the previous century, were Presbyterian refugees from persecution at
+Jamestown, who, led by Roger Green, settled on the Chowan, near the site
+of Edenton. These were joined by other dissenters who had found the
+religious atmosphere of Virginia uncomfortable, and Puritans from New
+England landed at the Cape Fear River in 1661, and bought lands from the
+Indians. The soil and climate were admirably suited for successful
+colonization, and North Carolina might have proved a southern New England
+but for the hunger for vast American domains which just then possessed
+the courtiers of Charles II. In view of the notorious depravity of that
+merry monarch's surroundings it seems ludicrous to read that the grantees
+obtained Carolina under the pretence of a "pious zeal for the propagation
+of the gospel among the heathen." The list included the Earl of
+Clarendon, General George Monk, to whom Charles owed, in a large degree,
+his restoration to the throne; Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterward Earl
+of Shaftesbury; Sir John Colleton, Lord Craven, Sir George Carteret and
+Lord John Berkeley and his brother, then Governor of Virginia. It is
+related that, "when the petitioners presented their memorial, so full of
+pious pretensions, to King Charles in the garden of Hampton Court, the
+'merrie monarch,' after looking each in the face a moment, burst into
+loud laughter, in which his audience joined heartily. Then taking up a
+little shaggy spaniel, with large, meek eyes, and holding it at arm's
+length before them, he said, 'Good friends, here is a model of piety and
+sincerity, which it might be wholesome for you to copy.' Then tossing it
+to Clarendon, he said, 'There, Hyde, is a worthy prelate; make him
+archbishop of the domain which I shall give you.' With grim satire
+Charles introduced into the preamble of the charter a statement that the
+petitioners, 'excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation
+of the gospel, have begged a certain country in the parts of America not
+yet cultivated and planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people
+who have no knowledge of God.'"
+
+The Puritans, already settled in North Carolina, had no desire to take
+part in the propagation of the gospel in the fashion which prevailed
+among the courtiers of Charles II., and most of those who were from New
+England abandoned their North Carolina plantations. Governor Berkeley, of
+Virginia, extended his authority over the remainder, and made William
+Drummond, a Scotch Presbyterian, who had been settled in Virginia,
+administrator of the Chowan colony. Emigrants from Barbadoes bought land
+from the Indians near the site of Wilmington, and founded a prosperous
+settlement with Sir John Yeamans as governor. Other emigrants from
+England, led by Sir William Sayle and Joseph West, entered Port Royal
+Sound, and landed at Beaufort Island in 1671. They soon deserted Beaufort
+and planted themselves on the Ashley River, a few miles above the site of
+Charleston. In December, 1671, fifty families and a large number of
+slaves arrived from the Barbadoes. Carolina, about this time, had a
+narrow escape from being made the subject of a grotesque feudal
+constitution conceived by John Locke, the philosopher, and approved by
+the Earl of Shaftesbury. This constitution proposed to inflict on the
+infant colony a system of titled aristocracy as elaborate as that of
+Germany. The good sense of the colonists repelled the absurd scheme, and
+saved Carolina from being a laughing stock for the nations. In 1680, the
+settlers on Ashley River moved to Oyster Point, at the junction of the
+Ashley and Cooper Rivers, and laid the foundation of Charleston.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Meantime Virginia was the scene of a memorable struggle between the
+aristocrats and the people, the royalists led by the Governor, Sir
+William Berkeley, and the republicans marshaled by Nathaniel Bacon, a
+wealthy lawyer, deeply attached to the popular cause. The character of
+Berkeley can best be judged by a communication which he sent to England
+in 1665: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing in Virginia,
+and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years; for learning has
+brought heresy and disobedience and sects into the world, and printing
+hath divulged them and libels against the best government; God keep us
+from both!" It is not strange that a man who felt like this should have
+cared but little for the safety and welfare of the common people. He
+himself reveled in riches, accumulated at the cost of the colony, and he
+had in sympathy with him the large landholders, who sought to imitate in
+their Virginia mansions the pomp and circumstance of the English
+nobility, while they looked down on the mass of poor whites as vassals
+and inferiors. The immediate provocation for the so-called Bacon
+Rebellion was the failure of Governor Berkeley to protect the settlers
+from Indian depredations, the governor having a monopoly of the
+fur-trade, and being inclined by motives of self-interest to propitiate
+the savages. An armed force assembled and chose Bacon as their leader.
+They first repulsed the Indians, and then demanded from the governor a
+commission for Bacon as commander-in-chief of the Virginia military.
+Berkeley, although urged by the newly-elected House of Burgesses, which
+was in sympathy with the people, to grant the commission, for some time
+hesitated, but at length consented. Bacon marched against the Indians,
+and Berkeley proclaimed him a traitor. This hostile action of the
+governor excited Bacon and his followers, in whose numbers were included
+many of the best men in the colony, to an open and resolute stand for the
+rights of the people. Berkeley fled to the eastern shore of Chesapeake
+Bay, and sought to raise an army to maintain his authority. He proclaimed
+that the slaves of all rebels were to free; he aroused the Indians to
+join him, and several English ships were placed at his service. With this
+following the governor went back to Jamestown, and again proclaimed Bacon
+a traitor.
+
+The popular leader hastened to accept the challenge, and at the head of a
+considerable force of republicans, he appeared before Jamestown.
+Berkeley's mercenaries refused to fight, and stole away under cover of
+night, Berkeley being obliged to accompany them in order to avoid being
+made a prisoner. Jamestown was burned by the republicans, all the colony,
+except the eastern shore acknowledged Bacon's authority, and the success
+of the insurrection seemed assured when the popular leader fell a victim
+to malignant fever. Without his genius and energy to guide the cause of
+liberty, it rapidly declined, and Berkeley returned and soon succeeded in
+re-establishing his authority. He made Williamsburg the capital of the
+colony, instead of Jamestown, which never rose from its ruins--a fact
+hardly to be regretted, as the site was decidedly unhealthy. Berkeley had
+no mercy on the now submissive insurgents. Bacon's chief lieutenant had
+been the brave Scotch Presbyterian, William Drummond, the first governor
+of North Carolina. When Drummond was brought before him the governor
+said: "You are very welcome; I am more glad to see you than any man in
+Virginia; you shall be hanged in half an hour." Drummond calmly answered:
+"I expect no mercy from you. I have followed the lead of my conscience,
+and done what I could to rescue my country from oppression." Drummond was
+executed about three hours later, and his devoted wife, Sarah, who had
+taken an active part in urging the people to defend their rights, and who
+had in her the spirit of the mothers of the Revolution, was banished with
+her children to the wilderness. A wife who offered herself as a victim in
+place of her husband, claiming that she had urged him to rebellion, was
+repulsed with coarse and brutal insult, and the husband was led to the
+gallows. Twenty-two in all were executed before Berkeley's vengeance was
+satiated. Charles II. heard with indignation of the sacrifice of life,
+exclaiming: "The old fool has taken more lives in that naked country than
+I have taken for the murder of my father." Berkeley was recalled to
+England in 1677. But for the presence of the fleet and troops of Sir John
+Berry, sent over by the king to maintain the royal authority, Berkeley
+might have been subjected to violence by the colonists who fired guns and
+lighted bonfires to show their joy over his departure. Upon Berkeley's
+arrival in England he found himself equally an object there of public
+hatred and contempt on account of his cruelties, and he died in July of
+the same year of grief and mortification.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Colony of New York--New Jersey Given Away to Favorites--Charter of
+Liberties and Franchises--The Dongan Charter--Beginnings of New York
+City Government--King James Driven from Power--Leisler Leads a Popular
+Movement--The Aristocratic Element Gains the Upper Hand--Jacob Leisler
+and Milborne Executed--Struggle For Liberty Continues.
+
+
+The colony of New York, so called after James, the Duke of York and
+brother of King Charles II., came into English hands at a fortunate time,
+and after a fortunate experience. Owing to Dutch, occupation during half
+a century of intense agitation, civil war and revolution, New Netherland
+had escaped being drawn into the maelstrom of English hates and
+rivalries. Indeed the Dutch settlements, and New Amsterdam in particular,
+had derived advantage from the troubles of the English colonies, and
+among the immigrants who sought an asylum from Puritan intolerance within
+New Netherland jurisdiction were many who proved valuable additions to
+the population of the province, and who helped to build up its trade and
+commerce, and to develop agriculture. The Duke of York, therefore,
+entered upon possession of a colony with the accumulated prosperity of
+about fifty years as the substantial foundation for future progress, and
+with a population which, while composed of diverse nationalities,
+retained the better features of them all. The settlers of New York, both
+Dutch and English, were, as a rule, attentive to religious duties; but
+they did not regard religion as the single aim of existence. They were
+merchants and traders and farmers, liberal for their age in their views
+of religious freedom, and devoting their best energies to building up
+their worldly fortunes. New Amsterdam was in no sense Puritan--it was a
+respectable, thriving, trading and bartering community, with flourishing
+farms in the outskirts, and a commerce stunted by jealous restrictions,
+but which gave promise of future development.[1]
+
+      [1] The Rev. John Miller, in 1695, speaks of "the wickedness and
+      irreligion of the inhabitants, which abounds in all parts of the
+      province, and appears in so many shapes, constituting so many sorts
+      of sin, that I can scarce tell which to begin withal." The reverend
+      gentleman was probably prejudiced.
+
+The Duke of York at first made poor use of his new possessions. He
+astonished Colonel Richard Nicolls, who had conquered the territory for
+him without firing a shot, by giving away to two favorites, Lord
+Berkeley, brother of the Governor of Virginia, and Sir George Carteret,
+the rich domain between the Hudson and Delaware, which received the name
+of New Jersey, and for many years that province was a theatre of
+dissensions traceable to the autocratic and reckless course of the Duke.
+The rights of settlers who had preceded the proprietary government were
+ignored, and an attempt made to reduce freeholders to the position of
+tenants. A large immigration of Quakers from England a few years after
+the Dutch surrender added a valuable element to the population, in which
+the Puritans, apart from the Dutch, had predominated. Puritans and
+Quakers seemed to get along very well in the Jerseys, and with good
+government on the part of the proprietors the colony would doubtless have
+flourished. That for a number of years the Jerseys remained law-abiding
+and comparatively tranquil without a regular civil government attests the
+excellent character of the people.
+
+The Duke of York showed more wisdom in the management of his greater
+province of New York. In 1683 he instructed his governor, Thomas Dongan,
+to call a representative assembly, which met in the fort at New York. The
+assembly adopted an act called "The Charter of Liberties and Franchises,"
+which was approved, first by the governor, and afterward by the duke.
+This charter declared that the power to pass laws should reside in the
+governor, council and people met in general assembly; that every
+freeholder and freeman should be allowed to vote for representatives
+without restraint; that no freeman should suffer but by judgment of his
+peers; that all trials should be by a jury of twelve men; that no tax
+should be levied without the consent of the Assembly; that no seaman or
+soldier should be quartered on the inhabitants against their will; that
+there should be no martial law, and that no person professing faith in
+God by Jesus Christ should be disquieted or questioned on account of
+religion. Two years later James, now become king, virtually abrogated
+this charter by levying direct taxes on New York without the consent of
+the people, by prohibiting the introduction of printing, and otherwise
+assuming arbitrary power. He did not, however, suppress the General
+Assembly, which became, as years advanced and the colony grew in
+importance, more and more resolute in asserting the people's rights.
+
+Governor Dongan did all in his power to defend the interests of the
+province against the aggressions of the crown, and to secure some degree
+of self-government for those who bore the burdens of government. In 1686
+the Dongan charter gave to the lieutenant-governor the power of
+appointing the mayor and sheriff of New York city, but an alderman, an
+assistant and a constable were to be chosen for each ward by a majority
+of the inhabitants of that ward. During his short lease of power Leisler
+issued warrants for the election of the mayor and sheriff by "all
+Protestant freeholders." The resulting election was a farce, as only
+seventy of the inhabitants voted. The illegality of this action in
+defiance of the provisions of the Dongan charter was one of the chief
+causes of complaint against Leisler. The Montgomery charter, granted to
+New York in 1730, authorized the election of one alderman, an assistant,
+two assessors, one collector and two constables in each ward. The charter
+of Albany was granted by Governor Dougan in 1686, and it resembled in
+many respects the instrument under which the city of New York was first
+organized. It provided that six aldermen, six assistant aldermen,
+constables and other magistrates, should be chosen annually. The mayor,
+as well as the sheriff, was appointed by the governor. Governor Dongan's
+reluctance to fall in with the despotic and reactionary policy of King
+James led to his being dismissed from office in 1688, when Andros took
+his place.
+
+The tyrannical conduct of James II. and of his representatives in
+America, alienated the people of New York from that sovereign, and the
+news of his downfall was received with delight, especially as nearly all
+the people were Protestants. The aristocratic element was inclined,
+notwithstanding the news, to uphold the government established by James,
+but the common or democratic element resolved to drive out the
+representatives of the late king, and create a temporary government in
+sympathy with the revolution. Jacob Leisler, a distinguished Huguenot
+merchant, and senior captain of the military companies, was induced to
+lead a revolt. A committee of safety, consisting of ten members, Dutch,
+Huguenots and English, made Leisler commander-in-chief until orders
+should arrive from William and Mary, the new sovereigns of England. Sir
+Francis Nicholson, the acting governor under Sir Edmund Andros, departed
+for England, and the members of his council to Albany, and denounced
+Leisler as an arch-rebel. Leisler sent an account of his proceedings to
+King William, and called an assembly to provide means for carrying on war
+against the French in Canada. King William paid no attention to Leisler's
+message, and commissioned Colonel Henry Sloughter governor of New York,
+and sent a company of regular soldiers, under Captain Ingoldsby, to the
+province. Leisler proclaimed Sloughter's appointment, but refused to
+surrender the fort to Ingoldsby. A hostile encounter followed, in which
+some lives were lost. The aristocratic element succeeded, upon
+Sloughter's arrival, in obtaining an ascendancy over him, and Leisler and
+his son-in-law, Milborne, were arrested on charges of treason. They were
+tried and convicted by a packed court, and Sloughter was induced, while
+drunk at a banquet given by Leisler's enemies, to sign the death
+warrants. For fear the governor would repent of his act when sober, both
+men were torn away from their weeping families to the scaffold. A number
+of Leisler's enemies were assembled to witness his death, while a crowd
+of the common people, who regarded him as their champion and a martyr for
+their cause, looked sullenly on. Milborne saw his bitter foe, Robert
+Livingston, in the throng, and exclaimed: "Robert Livingston, for this I
+will implead thee at the bar of God!" The execution of Leisler aroused
+strong indignation both in America and England, and some years later the
+attainder placed upon them was removed by act of Parliament, and their
+estates restored to their families. Leisler's soul, like that of John
+Brown, marched on while his body was moldering in the grave. The spirit
+which he infused, and the love of liberty to which he gave expression,
+could not be eradicated by his tragic death. The people continued the
+struggle in assembly after assembly for the people's rights, and
+resolutely upheld freedom of speech and of the press in the legislative
+hall and the jury box.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+William Penn's Model Colony--Sketch of the Founder of Pennsylvania--
+Comparative Humanity of Quaker Laws--Modified Freedom of Religion--An
+Early Liquor Law--Offences Against Morality Severely Punished--White
+Servitude--Debtors Sold Into Bondage--Georgia Founded as an Asylum for
+Debtors--Oglethorpe Repulses the Spaniards--Georgia a Royal Province.
+
+
+Founded on principles of equity by a man who was eminently a lover of his
+kind, Pennsylvania stood forth as a model colony, an ample and hospitable
+refuge for the oppressed of every clime. William Penn believed in the
+Golden Rule, and he sought to establish a state in which that rule would
+be the fundamental law. Instead of stern justices growing fat on the fees
+of litigation, he would have peace-makers in every county. He would treat
+the Indian as of the same flesh and blood as the white, and would live on
+terms of amity with red men embittered against the invaders of their
+lands by many years of unjust encroachment and cruel oppression. His
+object, Penn declared in his advertisement of Pennsylvania, was to
+establish a just and righteous government in the province that would be
+an example for others. He proposed that his government should be a
+government of law, with the people a party to the making of laws. None,
+he declared, should be molested or prejudiced in matters of faith and
+worship, and nobody should be compelled at any time to frequent or
+maintain any religious place of worship or ministry whatsoever. Trial by
+jury was guaranteed; the person of an Indian was to be as sacred as that
+of a white man, and in any issue at law in which an Indian should be
+concerned, one half the jury was to be composed of Indians.
+
+William Penn was well known both in England and on the Continent when he
+received, in 1681, his grant of Pennsylvania from Charles II. in
+discharge of a debt of about eighty thousand dollars, due by the crown to
+Penn's father, Admiral Sir William Penn. The proprietor of Pennsylvania
+had suffered in the cause of religious liberty and reform. He had been
+confined in the Tower for writing heretical pamphlets, and been
+prosecuted for preaching in the streets of London. He had traveled in
+Holland and Germany as a self-appointed missionary of the Society of
+Friends, and had not spared his own ease in pleading the cause of
+persecuted Quakers everywhere. When, therefore, he proposed to found a
+colony in America, his name alone was enough to attract a host of
+followers. Many immigrants flocked to Pennsylvania even before Penn
+himself had arrived there, and the settlers of Delaware, who had been
+anxious as to their future under the charter of the Duke of York, gladly
+came under the rule of one whose name was a synonym of equity. Under a
+spreading elm the Indians met the proprietor of Pennsylvania and made a
+covenant with him that was equally just to the white man and to the
+native--a covenant which, it is said, was never forgotten by the
+aborigines.
+
+Nothing is more significant of the spirit and the motives which guided
+the early settlers than the humanity of their laws, as compared with the
+code of England. The humane and enlightened sentiment as expressed in
+legislation, was not peculiar to Pennsylvania. In Rhode Island, also,
+that other colony founded on the principle of religious liberty, the
+first spontaneous code enacted by the exiles was more than a century in
+advance of European ideas and statutes, and in Rhode Island, as in
+Pennsylvania, the ideal was compelled to give way to the hard and
+practical pressure of dominating English influence, and of contact with
+the rougher sort of mankind, attracted to these shores by the hope of
+gain or the fear of punishment at home.
+
+The Quakers began by proclaiming a modified freedom of religion. They
+declared, "That no person now, or at any time hereafter, dwelling or
+residing within this province, who shall profess faith in God the Father,
+and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, and in the Holy Spirit, one God
+blessed for Evermore, and shall acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the
+Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration, and, when
+lawfully required, shall profess and declare that they will live
+peaceably under the civil government, shall in any case be molested or
+prejudiced for his or her conscientious persuasion, nor shall he or she
+be at any time compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship,
+place or ministry whatsoever, contrary to his or her mind, but shall
+freely and fully enjoy his or her Christian liberty in all respects,
+without molestation or interruption." Of course this manifestly excluded
+unbelievers in the Trinity, and left a door open for controversy as to
+what books were included in the Sacred Scriptures. Furthermore, the law
+against blasphemy might easily have been used as a weapon of persecution,
+providing, as it did, that whoever should "despitefully blaspheme or
+speak loosely and profanely of Almighty God, Christ Jesus, the Holy
+Spirit or the Scriptures of Truth, and is legally convicted thereof,
+shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten pounds for the use of the poor of
+the county where such offence shall be committed, or suffer three months
+imprisonment at hard labor."
+
+Practically, however, entire freedom of worship existed in Pennsylvania.
+The same liberal spirit breathed through the Quaker code, while at the
+same time due care was taken to protect the morals of the people.
+
+In view of the severe liquor law now in force in Pennsylvania, it may
+be of interest to recall an early enactment regulating the traffic. It
+was provided in 1709, that "For preventing of disorders and the mischiefs
+that may happen by multiplicity of public houses of entertainment, _Be
+it enacted_, That no person or persons whatsoever, within this province,
+shall hereafter have or keep any public inn, tavern, ale-house,
+tippling-house or dram shop, victualling or public house of entertainment
+in any county of this province, or in the City of Philadelphia, unless
+such person or persons shall first be recommended by the justices in the
+respective County Courts, and the said city, in their Quarter Sessions or
+Court of Record for the said counties and cities respectively, to the
+Lieutenant-Governor for the time being, for his license for so doing,
+under the penalty of five pounds." Tavern keepers permitting disorder in
+their places of entertainment were subject to revocation of license.
+
+There was a marked disposition in those days to visit with severity
+offences against morality, especially when the detected culprits were
+females; though males were not spared when sufficient proof could be
+brought of their guilt. A woman concealing the birth of a child, found
+dead, and evidently born alive, was held to be guilty of murder, unless
+she could prove that the death was not her doing. This unjust presumption
+remained in force for many years, until, under the influence of kinder
+and Christian sentiment, the law was changed, the burden of proof placed
+upon the prosecution and the presumption of innocence extended to the
+defendant. The penalty for violating the marriage obligation was the
+lash; the letter "A" being branded on the forehead for the third offence.
+A singular provision of law was that a married woman having a child when
+her husband had been one year absent, should be punished as a criminal,
+but to be exempt from punishment if she should prove that her husband had
+been within the period stated "in some of the Queen's colonies or
+plantations on this continent, between the easternmost parts of New
+England and the southernmost parts of North Carolina."
+
+The penalties inflicted on servants point in a remarkable manner to the
+wonderful advance in the condition of menial and common laborers within
+the past hundred years. Pennsylvania, in the treatment of the laborer,
+was at least as lenient as any other colony, but the laws of the time
+appear hideously harsh and oppressive to us of to-day. The early colonial
+statutes provided that, "For the just encouragement of servants in the
+discharge of their duty, and the prevention of their deserting their
+master's or owner's service, be it enacted, that no servant bound to
+serve his or her time in this province, shall be sold or disposed of to
+any person residing in any other province or government without the
+consent of said servant, and two justices of the peace of the county
+wherein such servant lives or is sold, under the penalty of ten pounds to
+be forfeited by the seller." What a picture this conjures up of some
+poor, orphaned and half-starved colonial Oliver Twist, dragged by his
+master into the presence of pompous justices, and frowned into a
+hesitating consent to exchange the evils with which he was familiar for a
+fate whose wretchedness he knew not of!
+
+Ten shillings was to be paid for returning a runaway servant, if captured
+within ten miles of the servant's abode; if over ten miles, then the sum
+of twenty shillings was to be paid to the captor on delivery of the
+fugitive to the sheriff, the master to pay, in addition to the reward,
+five shillings prison fees, and all other disbursements and charges. The
+penalty for concealing a runaway servant was twenty shillings, and any
+one purchasing any goods from a servant without the consent of the master
+or mistress was fined treble the value of the goods, to the use of the
+owner, "and the servant, if a white, shall make satisfaction to his or
+her master or owner by servitude after the expiration of his or her time,
+to double the value of said goods, and if the servant be a black, he or
+she shall be severely whipped in the most public place in the township in
+which such offence was committed."
+
+It may be seen from the above that common labor up to the time of the
+Revolution was virtually that of serfs, without discrimination of color
+or nativity. The supply of such labor came largely from Great Britain and
+Ireland, and to some extent from the other colonies and from Africa. Poor
+debtors also were sold into servitude, a law of 1705 providing that
+"debtors should make satisfaction by servitude not exceeding seven years,
+if a single person and under the age of fifty, and three years or five
+years if a married man, and under the age of forty-six years." What the
+family of the married debtor were to do for a living while he was in
+servitude, legislation failed to suggest. Probably, in many instances,
+they were glad to accompany the husband and father into serfdom. Warrants
+could not be served on Sunday, one day of the seven being reserved when
+the wretched debtor might rest in security, and the hunted criminal
+forget that he was outlawed.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+While other colonies were founded as places of refuge for Christians
+oppressed on account of their religion, Georgia had its origin in the
+humane desire of General James Edward Oglethorpe to establish an asylum
+for poor debtors, with whom the prisons of England were over-crowded, the
+colony also to be a haven for the Protestants of Germany and other
+continental States. The proprietors of the Carolinas surrendered their
+charters to the crown in 1729, and King George II was, therefore, free to
+grant, June 9, 1732, a charter for a corporation for twenty-one years "in
+trust for the poor," to found a colony in the disputed territory south of
+the Savannah, to be called Georgia, in honor of the king. The trustees,
+appointed by the crown, possessed all the power both of making and
+executing laws. The people of Charleston, South Carolina, gave welcome to
+Oglethorpe and his immigrants, for South Carolina had been greatly
+harassed by the Spaniards to the south, and by the powerful tribes of
+Indians who occupied a large portion of the proposed colony. General
+Oglethorpe laid the foundation of the future State on the site of
+Savannah, and notwithstanding grievous restrictions on the ownership of
+land, the colony attracted many settlers from England, Scotland and
+Germany. The Spaniards invaded Georgia in 1742 with a fleet of
+thirty-five vessels from Cuba and a land force three thousand strong.
+Oglethorpe had but a small body of troops, chiefly Scotch Highlanders,
+but by courage and strategy he inflicted a sanguinary defeat on the
+Spaniards at the place called the "Bloody Marsh." Ten years later, in
+1742, Georgia became a royal province, and secured the liberties enjoyed
+by other American provinces under the crown.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND PERIOD.
+
+The Struggle for Empire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Struggle for Empire in North America--The Vast Region Called Louisiana
+--War Between England and France--New England Militia Besiege Quebec
+--Frontenac Strikes the Iroquois--The Capture of Louisburg--The Forks
+of the Ohio--George Washington's Mission to the French--Braddock's
+Defeat--Washington Prevents Utter Disaster--Barbarous Treatment of
+Prisoners.
+
+
+The closing years of the seventeenth century witnessed the beginning of
+the struggle between France and England for empire in North America.
+Marquette, Joliet and La Salle won for France by daring exploration a
+nominal title to the Mississippi Valley, and La Salle assumed possession
+of the great river and its country in the name of Louis XIV., after whom
+he called the region Louisiana. It was a vast dominion indeed that was
+thus claimed for the House of Bourbon without a settlement and with
+hardly an outpost to make any real show of sovereignty. Even had the
+expulsion of James II. from the English throne not hastened an outbreak
+between England and France, the conflict would have been inevitable. The
+war began in 1689, and with intervals of peace and sometimes in spite of
+peace the contest continued, until 1763, with varying fortunes, but
+ultimately resulting in the complete overthrow of the French. The
+Iroquois stood firmly by the English, while the French and their Indian
+allies repeated the scenes of King Philip's War on the frontiers, and
+often far in the interior of New York and New England. The people of the
+British colonies did not look only to Great Britain for defence. They
+defended themselves, and even carried war into the enemy's country. In
+1690, two thousand Massachusetts militia, led by Sir William Phipps,
+sailed up the St. Lawrence and laid siege to Quebec, while another force,
+composed of New York and Connecticut troops, advanced from Albany upon
+Montreal. These expeditions were unsuccessful. In 1693, Count Frontenac,
+Governor of Canada, invaded the country of the Iroquois and inflicted
+crushing blows upon that once powerful confederacy, whose prowess had
+been felt before the arrival of the white man, as far as Tennessee in the
+South and Illinois in the West. Notwithstanding the able generalship of
+Frontenac the English made steady progress in the annexation of French
+territory. British and colonial troops conquered Nova Scotia, and the
+treaty of Utrecht in 1713 recognized England as the owner, not only of
+Nova Scotia, but also of Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay region. The
+French, however, strengthened their hold upon the interior of the
+continent, and established a series of fortified posts connecting the
+Mississippi Valley with the Great Lakes. Kaskaskia was founded in 1695,
+Cahokia in 1700, Detroit 1701 and Vincennes 1705. Bienville founded the
+city of New Orleans in 1718.
+
+The capture of Louisburg, in 1746, was the most important military
+achievement of the English colonists in America, previous to the
+Revolution. The French built the fortress soon after the treaty of
+Utrecht, and spared no expense to make it formidable. The project to
+drive the French out of the place was entirely of colonial origin.
+Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, proposed the expedition to the
+legislature of the colony, and the members of that body hesitated at
+first to enter upon an undertaking apparently so hazardous and almost
+hopeless. After discussion the necessary authority was granted by a
+majority of one. A circular-letter, asking for assistance, was then sent
+to all the colonies as far south as Pennsylvania. New York, New Jersey
+and Pennsylvania contributed considerable sums of money, and Governor
+Clinton, of New York, sent also provisions and cannon. Roger Wolcott led
+five hundred men from Connecticut and Rhode Island and New Hampshire each
+sent three hundred men. The remainder of the force of 3250 men was
+enlisted in Massachusetts, that colony also providing ten armed vessels.
+William Peperell, of Maine, distinguished alike on the bench and in arms,
+commanded the expedition, and English vessels of war assisted in the
+assault. The French surrendered after a siege of forty-eight days,
+conducted with great vigor by the colonists. The gratification of the
+British government over the important victory is said to have been
+mingled with apprehension, due to the signal display of colonial power
+and energy. Upon peace being made in 1748, after four years' war,
+Louisburg, much to the indignation of the colonists, was given up to
+France in exchange for Madras, in India, and had to be reconquered in
+1758.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The point of land where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet in turbulent
+eddies and form the Beautiful River, early engaged the attention of the
+two nations, rivals for the dominion of the northern continent, while
+between two of the leading British colonies grave difference existed as
+to ownership of the coveted territory. Pennsylvania, held in
+leading-strings by a Quaker policy which endeavored to reconcile the
+savage realities of an age of iron with theories of a golden millennium,
+failed to sustain her assertion of right with the energies that her
+population and resources might well have commanded, and Virginia, more
+ambitious and militant, boldly pushed an armed expedition into the very
+heart of the border wilderness, and began with the attack on Jumonville
+and his party the war that ended on the Plains of Abraham.
+
+In 1750 the Ohio Company, formed for the purpose of colonizing the
+country on the river of that name, surveyed its banks as far as the site
+of Louisville. The French, resolved to defend their title to the region
+west of the mountains, crossed Lake Erie, and established posts at
+Presque Isle, at Le Boeuf, and at Venango on the Allegheny River.
+Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent a messenger to warn the French not
+to advance. He selected for this task a young man named George
+Washington, a land surveyor, who, notwithstanding his youth, had made a
+good impression as a person of capacity and courage, well-fitted for the
+arduous and delicate undertaking. Washington well performed his task
+although the French, as might have been expected, paid no heed to his
+warning. In the spring of 1754, a party of English began to build a fort
+where Pittsburg now stands. The French drove them off and erected Fort
+Duquesne. A regiment of Virginia troops was already marching toward the
+place. Upon the death of its leading officer, George Washington, the
+lieutenant-colonel, took command. Washington, overwhelmed by the superior
+numbers of the French, was compelled to surrender, and the French, for
+the time, were masters of the Ohio.
+
+This reverse did not diminish the esteem in which Washington was held by
+the Virginians, and by those of the mother country who came in contact
+with him. When General Edward Braddock, in 1755, started on his ill-fated
+expedition for the capture of Duquesne with a force of about two thousand
+men, including the British regulars and the colonial militia, Washington
+accompanied the British general as one of his staff. Braddock was a
+gallant soldier, but imperious, and self-willed, and he looked almost
+with contempt upon the American troops. He made a forced march with
+twelve hundred men in order to surprise the French at Duquesne before
+they could receive reinforcements. Colonel Dunbar followed with the
+remainder of the army and the wagon-train. It was a delightful July
+morning when the British soldiers and colonists crossed a ford of the
+Monongahela, and advanced in solid platoons along the southern bank of
+the stream in the direction of the fort. Washington advised a disposition
+of the troops more in accordance with forest warfare, but Braddock
+haughtily rejected the advice of the "provincial colonel," as he called
+Washington. The army moved on, recrossed the river to the north side, and
+continued the march to Duquesne. The news of the British advance had been
+carried to the fort by Indian scouts. The French at first thought of
+abandoning the post, but they decided to attack the British with the aid
+of Indian allies. De Beaujeu led the French and Indians. The British were
+proceeding in fancied security when the forest rang with Indian yells,
+and a volley of bullets and flying arrows dealt death in their ranks. The
+regular troops were thrown into confusion, and Braddock tried
+courageously to rally them. Washington showed the admirable qualities
+which afterward made him victor in the Revolution. Cool and fearless amid
+the frantic shouts of the foe and the panic of the British soldiery, he
+gave Braddock invaluable assistance in endeavoring to retrieve the
+fortunes of the day. The provincials fought frontier fashion, nearly all
+losing their lives, but not without picking off many of their enemies.
+Beaujeu, the French commander, was killed in the opening of the
+engagement. Of eighty-six English officers sixty-three were killed or
+wounded; and about one-half the private soldiers fell, while a number
+were made prisoners. For two hours the battle raged, until Braddock,
+having had five horses shot under him, went down himself, mortally
+wounded. Then the regulars that remained took to flight, and Washington,
+left in command; ordered a retreat, carrying with him his dying general.
+Braddock died three days after the battle, expressing regret that he had
+not followed the counsel of Washington. The British prisoners were taken
+to Duquesne, and that evening the Indians lighted fires on the banks of
+the Allegheny River, near the fort, and tortured the captives to death.
+An English boy who was a prisoner at Duquesne, having been previously
+captured, and who afterward related his experience in a narrative, a copy
+of which the writer has examined, says that the cries of the victims
+could be heard in the fort. The boy himself was subjected to closer
+confinement than usual, apparently for fear that the savages might demand
+that he be given up to them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Expulsion of the Acadians--A Cruel Deportation--The Marquis De Montcalm
+--The Fort William Henry Massacre--Defeat of Abercrombie--William
+Pitt Prosecutes the War Vigorously--Fort Duquesne Reduced--Louisburg
+Again Captured--Wolfe Attacks Quebec--Battle of the Plains of Abraham
+--Wolfe and Montcalm Mortally Wounded--Quebec Surrenders--New France a
+Dream of the Past--Pontiac's War.
+
+
+American history contains no sadder story than the expulsion of the
+Acadians, or French settlers of Nova Scotia. The act may have been
+justifiable on the ground of military necessity; the Acadians were not
+loyal subjects, and they would have eagerly welcomed the expulsion of the
+British from North America. Indeed their conduct might have been
+construed as treasonable, and the English had ground for regarding them
+as enemies of the British crown. Their dispersion weakened the French
+cause at a time when that cause seemed in the ascendant, and when
+Braddock's unavenged defeat had reanimated the French with the hope of
+driving the English from America. Yet even if the deportation of the
+Acadians was required by the supreme law of self-preservation, and
+justifiable on the ground of their more than merely passive disloyalty,
+the manner of that deportation could not be justified. The separation of
+families, many of them never reunited, was a crime against humanity; the
+conversion of an honest, industrious and thrifty peasantry into a host of
+penniless vagrants, scattered like Ishmaelites through hostile colonies,
+was a wrong as cruel as it was unnecessary. Colonized in South Carolina
+or Georgia, the Acadians could hardly have been a menace to the power of
+Great Britain, while the Huguenot element in those regions, understanding
+the Acadian tongue, would have kept watch and ward against possible
+disloyalty. It is a pathetic feature of this most painful episode that
+the Huguenots, themselves driven out of France by the merciless tyranny
+of a Roman Catholic king, gave kindly relief to such Roman Catholic
+exiles from Acadia as were cast among them. They proved their true
+Christian spirit by returning good for evil. About six thousand of the
+Acadians were deported from their native land, and scattered the length
+and breadth of the English colonies. Many made their way to Louisiana,
+then a French possession, and their descendants still form a distinct
+class in that State. Some even sought refuge among the Indians, and found
+the barbarian kinder than their civilized persecutors. Longfellow's poem,
+"Evangeline," is based on the touching story of Acadia. The French cause
+was greatly strengthened by the arrival in 1756 of the Marquis de
+Montcalm, a distinguished soldier, to take command of the French forces
+in Canada. Montcalm displayed not only courage and skill, but humanity
+likewise, in the management of his campaigns, and history relieves him of
+responsibility for the horrid massacre by Indians of the captured English
+garrison of Fort William Henry, after a safe escort to Fort Edward had
+been promised to the captives. The facts are that both British and French
+used the Indians as allies regardless of their savage practices, but that
+the French, as at Fort Duquesne, showed less ability to restrain the
+savages after a victory. In the following summer--1758--Montcalm
+inflicted a most disastrous defeat at Ticonderoga on fifteen thousand
+British and colonial troops, led by General Abercrombie. The French force
+numbered only four thousand French and Indians. The English attempted to
+carry the works by assault, without the aid of artillery, and were mowed
+down by the fire of the French posted behind insuperable barriers. The
+English loss was about two thousand, while that of the French was
+inconsiderable. This was the last important success of the French in
+America. A master hand had seized the helm in Great Britain.
+
+William Pitt, the "Great Commoner," determined upon a vigorous
+prosecution of the war in America. General John Forbes was sent, in 1758,
+with about nine thousand men to reduce Fort Duquesne. The illness which
+caused his death in the following year may be fairly accepted in excuse
+and explanation of the incompetent management of the expedition, and its
+almost fatal delays. Fortunately the French appeared to have lost the
+vigor and daring which they had displayed in the defeat of Braddock, and
+the sullen roar of an explosion, when the British troops were within a
+few miles of Duquesne, gave notice that it had been abandoned without a
+blow. General Forbes changed the name of the place to Fort Pitt, in honor
+of that illustrious minister to whose energetic direction of affairs was
+largely due the expulsion of the French arms from North America. When
+Westminster Abbey shall have crumbled over the tombs of Britain's heroes,
+and the House of Hanover shall have joined the misty dynasties of the
+past, Pittsburg will remain a monument, growing in grandeur with the
+progress of ages, to England's great statesman of the eighteenth century.
+
+Louisburg also fell in 1758, and in the following year the English
+prepared to end the struggle by an attack on Quebec. Pitt placed at the
+head of the expedition a young general, James Wolfe, who had
+distinguished himself at the capture of Louisburg. Wolfe had about eight
+thousand troops under a convoy of twenty-two line-of-battleships, and as
+many frigates and smaller armed vessels. Montcalm defended the city with
+about seven thousand Frenchmen and Indians. The heights on which the
+upper town of Quebec was situated, rising almost perpendicularly at one
+point of three hundred feet above the river, and extending back in a
+lofty plateau called the Plains of Abraham, seemed to defy successful
+attack. Wolfe spent the summer in fruitless efforts to reduce Quebec. At
+length he learned that the precipice fronting on the river and supposed
+to be impassable, could be scaled at a point a short distance above the
+town, where a narrow ravine gave access to the plateau. On the evening of
+September 12, the British vessels, loaded with troops, floated with the
+inflowing tide some distance up the river. Then past midnight, while the
+sky was black with clouds, the ships silently and undetected by the
+French floated down to the designated landing-place. The troops were
+taken on shore in flat-bottomed boats, with muffled oars. At dawn
+Lieutenant-Colonel William Howe led the advance up the ravine, drove back
+the guard at the summit, and protected the ascent of the army. The
+garrison and people of Quebec awoke to see the redcoats in battle array
+on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm soon confronted the British. Both of
+the heroic commanders knew and felt all that was at stake on the fate of
+the day, and they both fought with a courage that gave a splendid example
+to their men. Wolfe, twice wounded, continued to give orders until
+mortally wounded he fell. Montcalm fell nearly at the same time, mortally
+wounded, and his troops, already wavering before the irresistible onset
+of the British, broke and fled. When told that death was near, "So much
+the better," said Montcalm, "I will not live to see the surrender of
+Quebec." "Now, God be praised, I will die in peace," said the English
+commander, on hearing that victory was assured. Quebec was surrendered a
+few days later. Forts Niagara and Ticonderoga had already fallen.
+
+Spain, having taken side with France, lost Cuba and the Philippine
+Islands to the English, but in the treaty of Paris of 1763, England gave
+those islands to Spain and received Florida in exchange. France ceded to
+Spain, in order to compensate that power for the loss of Florida, the
+city of New Orleans, and all the vast and indefinite territory known as
+Louisiana, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the unexplored regions
+of the northwest. New France was a dream of the past.
+
+The French policy in America had one essential and fatal feature. The
+French came more as a garrison than as colonists. They came to govern,
+rather than possess the land, to rule, but not to supplant the natives of
+the soil. This policy insured some immediate strength, because the
+Indians were naturally less jealous of Europeans who did not threaten
+their hunting-grounds. On the other hand the ultimate failure of such a
+course was inevitable, in dealing as rivals and antagonists with a people
+who had come to possess the land, to drive out the Indian, to make the
+New World their home and a heritage for their descendants. The English
+settlers might be driven back for a time; their cabins might be turned
+into ashes, and the tomahawk and scalping-knife leave dire evidence of
+savage vengeance and Gallic inhumanity. But the rally was as certain as
+the raid was sudden. A garrison might be massacred; a colony could not be
+exterminated, and the defeats of Braddock and Abercrombie only burned
+into English breasts the resolution to tear down forever on the American
+continent the flag which floated over the evidence of England's dishonor.
+
+The Algonquin Indians, who had regarded the French as allies and
+protectors, were now left to defend themselves against the English.
+Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, conceived the idea of inducing all the
+tribes to unite in a general attack upon the English settlements as a
+last desperate resort to stay the advance of the whites. Pontiac is
+supposed to have led the Ottawas who assisted the French in defeating
+Braddock, and he perhaps underrated the power and prowess of his British
+antagonists. He was an able chieftain, of the same type as King Philip,
+Tecumseh and Sitting Bull. He saw that the white man and the red man
+could not possess the land together, and he determined to make a stand in
+behalf of his race. The struggle lasted for about two years, attended by
+the usual barbarities of savage warfare, and ended in the death of
+Pontiac, who, after suing for peace, was murdered by a drunken Indian,
+bribed by an English trader with a barrel of rum to commit the deed.
+Instead of preventing, Pontiac's War only hastened the flight of the
+Indian and the march of the colonists toward the setting sun.
+
+
+
+
+THIRD PERIOD.
+
+The Revolution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Causes of the Revolution--The Act of Navigation--Acts of Trade--Odious
+Customs Laws--English Jealousy of New England--Effect of Restrictions on
+Colonial Trade--Du Chatelet Foresees Rebellion and Independence--The
+Revolution a Struggle for More Than Political Freedom.
+
+
+It was not for the sake of the colonists that England had assisted them
+in driving the French from America, but with the wholly selfish aim of
+building up the trade and commerce of Great Britain. European nations
+looked upon their American colonies simply as resources from which the
+mother country might become enriched, and in this respect the policy of
+England was not different from that of Spain, described in the beginning
+of this volume. As early as 1625 an English author (Hagthorne) wrote that
+even in time of peace it was the purpose and aim of England to undermine
+and beat the Dutch and Spaniards out of their trades, "which may not
+improperly be called a war, for the deprivation and cutting off the
+trades of a kingdom may be to some prince more loss if his revenues
+depend thereon than the killing of his armies." The wars against Holland,
+which resulted in the subjection to the British crown of the colonial
+possessions of that industrious people, and which compelled the fleets of
+the United Provinces to acknowledge British supremacy on the high seas,
+were in the line of commercial aggrandizement, and the Navigation Act
+transferred to England a large share of the Dutch carrying trade, and
+enriched English shipowners with an utterly selfish indifference to the
+welfare of English colonies.
+
+When the colonists, their western bounds no longer threatened by
+civilized foes, their plantations flourishing and their seaport towns
+wealthy with the profits of a commerce carried on in contempt of imperial
+restrictions, began to feel and to assert that they were entitled to all
+the rights of freeborn Englishmen, and to the same commercial and
+industrial independence enjoyed by loyal subjects in England, they were
+surprised to learn that Parliament and the English people regarded them
+not as freemen, but as tributaries. The colonists were themselves loyal,
+even up to the hour when they were compelled by stubborn tyranny to
+assert the right of revolution, for, to quote the language of John Adams,
+"it is true there always existed in the colonies a desire of independence
+of Parliament in the articles of internal taxation and internal policy,
+and a very general, if not universal opinion, that they were
+constitutionally entitled to it, and as general a determination to
+maintain and defend it. But there never existed a desire of independence
+of the Crown, or of general regulations of commerce for the equal and
+impartial benefit of all parts of the empire." "If any man," said the
+same great statesman, "wishes to investigate thoroughly the causes,
+feelings and principles of the Revolution, he must study this Act of
+Navigation, and the Acts of Trade, as a philosopher, a politician and a
+philanthropist."
+
+When the Act of Navigation was originally passed, in the Cromwell period,
+it is probable that the colonies were not seriously in the minds of the
+people and of Parliament. The act was aimed, as we have before stated, at
+the Dutch, and was effective for the purposes intended; but within the
+decade that elapsed before its re-enactment under the Restoration, the
+colonial trade had grown with a vigor that aroused jealousy and
+uneasiness at home, and the Act of Navigation was soon followed, in 1663,
+by the first of the Acts of Trade, which provided that no supplies should
+be imported into any colony, except what had been actually shipped in an
+English port, and carried directly thence to the importing colony. This
+cut the colonies off from direct trade with any foreign country, and made
+England the depot for all necessaries or luxuries which the colonies
+desired, and which they could not obtain in America. Nine years later, in
+1672, followed another act "for the better securing the plantation
+trade," which recited that the colonists had, contrary to the express
+letter of the aforesaid laws, brought into diverse parts of Europe great
+quantities of their growth, productions and manufactures, sugar, tobacco,
+cotton, wool and dye woods being particularly enumerated in the list, and
+that the trade and navigation in those commodities from one plantation to
+another had been greatly increased, and provided that all colonial
+commodities should either be shipped to England or Wales before being
+imported into another colony, or that a customs duty should be paid on
+such commodities equivalent to the cost of conveying the same to England,
+and thence to the colony for which they were destined. For instance, if a
+merchant in Rhode Island desired to sell some product of the colony of
+Massachusetts in New York, and to forward the same by a vessel, either a
+bond had to be given that the commodity would be transported to England,
+or a duty had to be paid, in money or in goods sufficiently onerous to
+protect the English merchant and shipowner against serious colonial
+competition in the carrying trade.
+
+The above act was followed up by another providing penalties for
+attempted violation of the customs laws. In this statute no mention was
+made of the plantations and its general tenor indicated that it was
+intended to apply to Great Britain only, providing, as it did, for the
+searching of houses and dwellings for smuggled goods by virtue of a writ
+of assistance under the seal of His Majesty's court of exchequer. Under
+William the Third, who was as arbitrary a monarch toward the colonies as
+the second James had been, the statute was made directly applicable to
+the plantation trade, with the provision that "the like assistance shall
+be given to the said officers in the execution of their office, as by the
+last-mentioned act is provided for the officers in England." It was on
+the question of whether such a writ could be issued from a colonial court
+that James Otis made the famous speech in which he arraigned the
+commercial policy of England, stripped the veil of reform from the bust
+of the Stadtholder-King, and awakened the colonists to a throbbing sense
+of English oppression and of American wrongs--the oration which, in the
+language of John Adams, who heard it, "breathed into this nation the
+breath of life."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+It is needless to follow the numerous Acts of Trade in their order, for
+they were all in a line with the accepted and established principle of
+that age in England that the colonies should minister to the commercial
+aggrandizement of the mother country, instead of being the centres of an
+independent traffic, that they should be communities for the consumption
+of British manufactures and the feeding of British trade. New England was
+especially the object of English jealousy and restriction, and for
+reasons, as given by Sir Josiah Child, in his "New Discourse on Trade,"
+written about the year 1677, that are creditable to the founders of those
+States, for after speaking of the people of Virginia and the Barbadoes as
+a loose vagrant sort, "vicious and destitute of means to live at home,
+gathered up about the streets of London or other places, and who, had
+there been no English foreign plantation in the world, must have come to
+be hanged or starved or died untimely of those miserable diseases that
+proceed from want and vice, or have sold themselves as soldiers to be
+knocked on the head, or at best, by begging or stealing two shillings and
+sixpence, have made their way to Holland to become servants to the Dutch,
+who refuse none," he goes on to describe "a people whose frugality,
+industry and temperance and the happiness of whose laws and institutions,
+do promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of people,
+riches and power." But, after paying this probably reluctant tribute to
+New England virtue and industry, he frankly avows his full sympathy with
+the restrictive system, and adds that "there is nothing more prejudicial
+and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom than the increase of
+shipping in her colonies, plantations and provinces." It is no wonder
+that John Adams said that he never read these authors without being set
+on fire, and that at last the same fire spread to every patriotic breast.
+
+The Acts of Navigation and of Trade were not the dead letters that some
+superficial writers and readers have seen fit to term them. It is true
+that obedience was reluctant and slow, and that evasion was extensive,
+and it is also true, that colonial commerce flourished in spite of the
+restrictions; but it should be remembered that the prolonged wars in
+which England was engaged gave lucrative opportunities for privateering,
+and that even the customs duties, though intended to be virtually
+prohibitory, were not heavy enough to overcome the advantages which the
+colonists enjoyed. In Rhode Island the General Assembly asserted and
+maintained the right to regulate the fees of the customs officers, and,
+as far as was possible, the collection of the dues. The shipping of the
+colony rapidly increased, and in 1731 included two vessels from England,
+as many from Holland and the Mediterranean, and ten or twelve from the
+West Indies, and ten years later numbered one hundred and twenty vessels
+engaged in the West Indian, African, European and coasting trade. The
+period preceding the Revolution witnessed New England's greatest
+commercial prosperity, and it was in that age that Moses Brown and other
+enterprising merchants and shipowners laid the foundation of fortunes, a
+liberal share of which has been expended with illustrious munificence in
+monuments of learning, of art and of charity. As for the restrictions
+upon domestic industry, they were not severely felt among a people
+devoted, in the country to agriculture, and in the towns to local traffic
+and shipping, and the American farmer who wore homespun attire, did not
+realize the harshness or appreciate the purpose of the statute which
+prohibited the export of wool, or woolen manufactures. As for the
+Southern planter, the question of fostering domestic manufactures never
+entered his thoughts. He raised his tobacco and his cotton, exported them
+to England, and got what goods he needed there just as his descendants,
+in a later age, procured the manufactured necessities and luxuries of
+life from the depots of New England trade.[1]
+
+      [1] "English Free Trade; Its Foundation, Growth and Decline." By
+      Henry Mann.
+
+But even if the British Parliament had never attempted to raise a revenue
+by taxation in the American colonies, it is probable that in time the
+restrictions on commerce would have led to revolution, unless rescinded.
+This was the opinion of the shrewd observer Du Chatelet, who, after
+France had surrendered her American possessions to Great Britain, said
+that "they (the chambers of commerce) regard everything in colonial
+commerce which does not turn exclusively to the benefit of the kingdom as
+contrary to the end for which colonies were established, and as a theft
+from the state. To practice on these maxims is impossible. The wants of
+trade are stronger than the laws of trade. The north of America can alone
+furnish supplies to its south. This is the only point of view under which
+the cession of Canada can be regarded as a loss for France; but that
+cession will one day be amply compensated, if it shall cause in the
+English colonies the rebellion and the independence which become every
+day more probable and more near."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+America, if not contented, was quiet under restrictive laws not
+stringently enforced, and but for the measures initiated by Grenville and
+Townshend, and approved by the king, the Parliament and the people of
+England, there would, if the leading American minds of that day were
+sincere, have been no insurrection in that era against British authority.
+George the Third is called a tyrant on every recurring Fourth of July,
+but the nation he ruled was as tyrannical as he, and impartial history
+cannot condemn the monarch without awarding a greater share of odium to
+his people, who sustained by their pronounced opinion and through their
+chosen representatives, every measure for the destruction of the
+liberties of these colonies, and who began to listen to the dictates of
+reason and of humanity only when America had become the prison of
+thousands of England's soldiers, and thousands of others, hired Hessian
+and kidnapped Briton alike, had been welcomed by American freemen to
+graves in American soil. The measures which led to war, and the war
+itself, were inspired and incited by the trading classes, as well as the
+aristocracy of England, who expected, in the destruction of a powerful
+commercial and menacing industrial rival, an ample return for the blood
+and treasure expended in the strife. The American people recognized that
+the struggle was for commercial and industrial as well as for political
+independence, and the stand in behalf of American industry was taken long
+before the scattered colonies met an empire in the field of arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Writs of Assistance Issued--Excitement in Boston--The Stamp Act--Protests
+Against Taxation Without Representation--Massachusetts Appoints a
+Committee of Correspondence--Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry--Henry's
+Celebrated Resolutions--His Warning to King George--Growing Agitation in
+the Colonies--The Stamp Act Repealed--Parliament Levies Duties on Tea and
+Other Imports to America--Lord North's Choice of Infamy--Measures Of
+Resistance in America--The Massachusetts Circular Letter--British Troops
+in Boston--The Boston Massacre--Burning of the "Gaspee"--North Carolina
+"Regulators"--The Boston Tea Party--The Boston Port Bill--The First
+Continental Congress--A Declaration of Rights--"Give Me Liberty or Give
+Me Death!"
+
+
+Even before peace had been made with France the king's officers in
+America began to enforce the revenue laws with a rigor to which the
+colonists had been unaccustomed. Charles Paxton, commissioner of customs
+in Boston, applied to the Superior Court for authority to use writs of
+assistance in searching for smuggled goods. These writs were warrants for
+the officers to search when and where they pleased and to call upon
+others to assist them, instead of procuring a special search-warrant for
+some designated place. Thomas Hutchinson, chief justice, and afterward
+royalist governor and refugee, favored the application, which was
+earnestly opposed by the merchants and the people generally.[1] "To my
+dying day," exclaimed James Otis, in pleading against the measure, "I
+will oppose with all the power and faculties God has given me, all such
+instruments of slavery on one hand and of villainy on the other."
+Parliament had authorized the issue of the writs, however, and the custom
+house officers therefore had the law on their side. Writs were granted,
+but their enforcement was attended with so many difficulties that the
+customs authorities virtually gave up this attempt to encroach upon the
+rights of the people. The next step in provoking the colonists to
+revolution was the Stamp Act. The object of this enactment was to raise
+money for the support of British troops and the payment of salaries to
+certain public officers in the colonies who had depended upon the
+colonial treasuries for their compensation. In this there was a threefold
+invasion of colonial rights. Taxation without representation was contrary
+to a principle recognized for centuries in England, vindicated in the
+revolution which cost Charles I his head, and upheld in America from the
+very beginning of the settlements here. Again, while British troops had
+been welcome as allies in battling against the French and the Indians,
+they were not desired as garrisons to overawe the free people of the
+colonies, and finally the colonial officers whom it was proposed to pay
+from the royal treasury would become the masters instead of servants of
+the people--or they would be servants only of the king. The purpose of
+the Stamp Act obviously was to make America the vassal of Great Britain.
+The act required that legal documents and commercial instruments should
+be written, and that newspapers should be printed on stamped paper.
+
+      [1] John Adams, in his letter to the President of Congress, July 17,
+      1780, attributes the outbreak of the Revolution to Hutchinson's
+      course in this and other matters. "He was perhaps the only man in
+      the world," wrote Adams, "who could have brought on the controversy
+      between Great Britain and America in the manner and at the time it
+      was done, and involved the two countries in an enmity which must end
+      in their everlasting separation."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The people everywhere protested against the tyrannical action of
+Parliament. Samuel Adams drew up the instructions to the newly elected
+representatives of Boston to use all efforts against the plan of
+parliamentary taxation. It was resolved "that the imposition of duties
+and taxes by the Parliament of Great Britain upon a people not
+represented in the House of Commons is irreconcilable with their rights."
+A committee of correspondence was appointed in Massachusetts to
+communicate with other colonial assemblies, and the idea of union for the
+common defence began to take firm hold on the public mind. Benjamin
+Franklin, in the Congress held at Albany in 1754 to insure the aid of the
+Six Nations in the war then breaking out with France, had proposed a plan
+of union for the colonies, with a grand council having extensive powers
+and a president to be appointed by the crown. The plan was not adopted.
+Adams had written about the same time that "the only way to keep us from
+setting up for ourselves is to disunite us." Everybody now began to
+perceive the need of union, which the great intellects of Franklin and
+Adams had discerned long before.
+
+No influence was so powerful in leading the South to stand side by side
+with the Northern colonies as that of Patrick Henry, the great orator of
+Virginia. In the House of Burgesses, in 1765, Mr. Henry introduced his
+celebrated resolutions against the Stamp Act, as follows:
+
+    "Resolved, That the first adventurers and settlers of this his
+    majesty's colony and dominion, brought with them, and transmitted to
+    their posterity, and all other his majesty's subjects, since
+    inhabiting in this, his majesty's said colony, all the privileges,
+    franchises and immunities, that have at any time been held, enjoyed
+    and possessed by the people of Great Britain.
+
+    "Resolved, That by two royal charters, granted by King James the
+    First, the colonists, aforesaid, are declared entitled to all the
+    privileges, liberties and immunities of denizens and natural born
+    subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding
+    and born within the realm of England.
+
+    "Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves, or by
+    persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only know
+    what taxes the people are able to bear, and the easiest mode of
+    raising them, and are equally affected by such taxes themselves, is
+    the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and without
+    which the ancient constitution cannot subsist.
+
+    "Resolved, That his majesty's liege people of this most ancient
+    colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being thus governed
+    by their own assembly in the article of their taxes and internal
+    police, and that the same hath never been forfeited, or any other way
+    given up, but hath been constantly recognized by the king and people
+    of Great Britain.
+
+    "Resolved, therefore, That the General Assembly of this colony have
+    the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon the
+    inhabitants of this colony; and that every attempt to vest such power
+    in any person or persons whatsoever, other than the General Assembly
+    aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as
+    American freedom."
+
+On the back of the paper containing those resolutions, and found among
+Henry's papers after his death, was the following endorsement in the
+handwriting of Mr. Henry himself: "The within resolutions passed the
+House of Burgesses in May, 1765. They formed the first opposition to the
+Stamp Act, and the scheme of taxing America by the British Parliament.
+All the colonies, either through fear or want of opportunity to form an
+opposition, or from influence of some kind or other, had remained silent.
+I had been for the first time elected a burgess, a few days before; was
+young, inexperienced, unacquainted with the forms of the House, and the
+members that composed it. Finding the men of weight averse to opposition,
+and the commencement of the tax at hand, and that no person was likely to
+step forth, I determined to venture, and alone, unadvised and unassisted,
+on a blank leaf of an old law book wrote the within. Upon offering them
+to the House, violent debates ensued. Many threats were uttered, and much
+abuse cast upon me by the party for submission. After a long and warm
+contest, the resolutions passed by a very small majority, perhaps of one
+or two only. The alarm spread throughout America with astonishing
+quickness, and the ministerial party were overwhelmed. The great point of
+resistance to British taxation was universally established in the
+colonies. This brought on the war, which finally separated the two
+countries, and gave independence to ours. Whether this will prove a
+blessing or a curse will depend upon the use our people make of the
+blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise,
+they will be great and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they
+will be miserable--Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation.
+
+"Reader, whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice
+virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.--P. HENRY."
+
+Every American realized the truth expressed in Mr. Henry's resolutions;
+but no man beside himself dared to utter it. All wished for independence;
+and all hitherto trembled at the thought of asserting it. Randolph,
+Bland, Pendleton and Wythe, with "all the old members whose influence in
+the House had, till then, been unbroken," opposed the resolutions, and
+had not Henry's unrivalled eloquence supported them, they would have been
+strangled in their birth. "The last and strongest resolution was carried
+by a single vote;" and Peyton Randolph said, immediately after, "I would
+have given 500 guineas for a single vote!" From this we may easily imagine
+how spirited was the opposition, and how energetic the eloquence exerted
+against Henry. It was in the midst of this magnificent debate, while he
+was descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act, that he exclaimed
+in a voice of thunder, and with the look of a god, "Caesar had his
+Brutus--Charles the First his Cromwell--and George the Third--('Treason,'
+cried the Speaker--'treason, treason,' echoed from every part of the
+House--it was one of those trying moments which is decisive of
+character--Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier
+attitude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye of the most determined fire,
+he finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis) _may profit by
+their example. If this be treason, make the most of it_."[2]
+
+      [2] Wirts' "Life of Patrick Henry," pages 64, 65.
+
+On the following day, when Henry was absent, the more timid asserted
+themselves and the most important of the resolutions was reconsidered and
+expunged.
+
+A congress held at New York declared against, the Stamp Act, and sent a
+protest to Parliament. Americans would not buy or use the stamps, and
+those who undertook agencies for their sale were treated as public
+enemies. Boxes of stamped paper were burned on arrival in port; the
+newspapers ignored the act, and legal documents were, by general consent,
+treated as valid without the stamp. In the following year Parliament,
+after a prolonged debate, in which William Pitt earnestly supported the
+American cause, repealed the act. The news of the repeal was received
+with great rejoicing in America, and the colonists hoped that there would
+be no more attempts to invade their rights as English subjects.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+King George III., however, was bent upon reducing the colonists to abject
+submission to his will, and the fact that William Pitt, whom the king
+detested, had championed the Americans, made the monarch all the more
+obstinate in his purpose to humiliate them. In 1767 Charles Townshend,
+chancellor of the exchequer, carried through Parliament a bill putting a
+duty upon tea, glass, paper and other articles entering American ports.
+In connection with this measure the scheme of the British crown to reduce
+the colonies to a vassal condition was fully disclosed. Not only were
+troops to be supported out of the revenue thus raised, but the salaries
+of governors, judges and crown attorneys were to be paid from it, and any
+surplus remaining could be used by the king to pension Americans who had
+gained the royal grace by their subserviency. Townshend suddenly died
+after these measures had been adopted, and was succeeded by Lord North,
+who soon afterward became prime minister. North was not personally in
+favor of dealing harshly with the colonies, but he yielded to the royal
+will as the price of remaining in office, and shares in history the
+infamy of his master's course.
+
+The Americans began to concert measures of resistance. They refused to
+use the dutiable articles, and made it unprofitable to import them. The
+Massachusetts legislature was dissolved by order of the king, because it
+had sent a circular-letter to other colonies inviting common action
+against the aggressions of Parliament. Other colonial assemblies were
+dissolved by the king's governors because they answered the letter
+favorably. The people's representatives continued to attend to the
+people's interests in informal conventions, and had the more time to give
+to the overshadowing issue of colonial rights, because royal displeasure
+had relieved them from the ordinary business of law making. Boston and
+Richmond worked in harmony in the one great cause, and North and South
+forgot social and religious differences in common effort for the common
+weal.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+King George regarded Massachusetts as the hotbed and centre of colonial
+discontent, and in the autumn of 1768 he sent two regiments of British
+regulars to that city to assist in enforcing the Townshend acts. The
+troops and the citizens had frequent disputes, for the colonists were
+unused to military arrogance, and refused to be ordered about by
+martinets in uniform. The Boston Massacre, so-called, in March, 1770,
+when seven soldiers fired into a crowd of townspeople, killing five and
+wounding several others, helped to inflame the antagonism between the
+provincials and the military, and Governor Hutchinson, at the demand of
+Samuel Adams, speaking in behalf of three thousand resolute citizens,
+removed the troops to an island in the harbor. In April, 1770, Parliament
+again yielded to the Americans in so far as to take off all the Townshend
+duties except the duty on tea, which the king insisted upon retaining as
+a vindication of England's right to impose the duty.
+
+The colonists continued as determined as ever not to submit to British
+taxation, or to the domineering course of the king's officers, which in
+some of the provinces had led to harsh and even bloody strife between the
+people and their oppressors. An armed schooner in the British revenue
+service called the Gaspee, gave offence to American navigators on
+Narragansett Bay by requiring that their flag should be lowered in token
+of respect whenever they passed the king's vessel. The Gaspee ran aground
+while chasing a Providence sloop. Word of the mishap was carried up to
+Providence and, on the same night (June 9, 1772) sixty-four armed men
+went down in boats, attacked and captured the Gaspee, and burned the
+vessel. Abraham Whipple, afterward a commodore in the Continental Navy,
+and one of the founders of the State of Ohio, led the expedition. The
+royal authorities were greatly exasperated on hearing of the daring
+achievement, and Joseph Wanton, Governor of Rhode Island, afterward
+deposed from office for his loyalty to King George, issued a proclamation
+ordering diligent search for the perpetrators of the act. The British
+government offered a reward of $5000 for the leader, but although the
+people of Providence well knew who had taken part in the exploit, neither
+Whipple nor his associates were betrayed. In North Carolina insurgents
+calling themselves "Regulators" fought a sanguinary battle with Governor
+Tryon's troops, and were defeated, and six of them hanged for treason. In
+South Carolina the people also divided on the issue between England and
+the colonists, but for the time stopped short of violence.
+
+The famous "Boston Tea Party" occurred in December, 1773. This was not a
+riotous, or, from the colonial standpoint, a lawless act, for the
+colonists were already administering their own affairs to a certain
+extent independently of royal authority, with the view to the
+preservation and defence of their liberties. The English East India
+Company had been anxious to regain the American trade and offered to pay
+an export duty more than equivalent to the import duty imposed in
+America, if the government would permit tea to be delivered at colonial
+ports free of duty. To this the British government would not consent, on
+the ground that it would be a surrender of the principle which the import
+duty represented. The government permitted the East India Company,
+however, to export tea to America free from export duty, thus allowing
+the Americans to buy tea as cheaply as if no import duty had been levied.
+The British authorities assumed that Americans would be satisfied to sell
+the principle for which they were contending for threepence on a pound of
+tea. They learned the American character better when two ships laden with
+tea arrived in Boston. The citizens gathered in the old South
+Meeting-house, and in the evening about sixty men, disguised as Indians,
+boarded the ships and cast the tea into the harbor. Upon news of this
+event reaching England, King George and his ministers decided to make an
+example of Boston. A bill was introduced by Lord North and passed almost
+unanimously closing the port of Boston and making Salem the seat of
+government. Another act annulled the charter of Massachusetts, and a
+military governor, General Thomas Gage, was appointed, with absolute
+authority over the province.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+With the enactment of the Boston Port Bill, King George and his
+Parliament crossed the Rubicon. America was aflame. The other colonies
+joined in expressing their sympathy with Massachusetts, and their resolve
+to stand by her people and share their fate. A Continental Congress
+convened in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on the fourth of September,
+1774. The most eminent men in the colonies were now brought together for
+the first time to decide upon action which would affect the liberties of
+three millions of people. Patrick Henry was the first to speak, and he
+delivered an address worthy of his fame and worthy of the occasion.
+Colonel, afterward General Washington, then made the impression which
+earned for him the command of the American armies. The Congress drew up a
+Declaration of Rights, and sent it to the king. The people of
+Massachusetts formed a Provincial Congress with John Hancock for
+President, and began organizing provincial troops, and collecting
+military stores. Virginia continued to keep pace with Massachusetts. At a
+convention of delegates from the several counties and corporations of
+Virginia, held in Richmond, March, 1775, Patrick Henry stood resolutely
+forth for armed resistance. "Three millions of people," he said, "armed
+in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we
+possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
+Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God
+who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends
+to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone;
+it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no
+election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to
+retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and
+slavery! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains
+of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come!! I repeat it, sir, let
+it come!!!
+
+"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace,
+peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale
+that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of
+resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here
+idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so
+dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and
+slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!--I know not what course others may
+take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+The Battle of Lexington--The War of the Revolution Begun--Fort
+Ticonderoga Taken--Second Continental Congress--George Washington
+Appointed Commander-in-chief--Battle of Bunker Hill--Last Appeal to King
+George--The King Hires Hessian Mercenaries--The Americans Invade
+Canada--General Montgomery Killed--General Howe Evacuates Boston--North
+Carolina Tories Routed at Moore's Creek Bridge--The Declaration of
+Independence--The British Move on New York--Battle at Brooklyn--Howe
+Occupies New York City--General Charles Lee Fails to Support Washington
+--Lee Captured--Washington's Victory at Trenton--The Marquis De Lafayette
+Arrives.
+
+
+General Gage, military governor of Massachusetts, received orders in
+April, 1775, to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams and send them to
+England to be tried for treason. The two patriots were at the house of a
+friend in Lexington when Gage, on the evening of April 18, sent eight
+hundred British soldiers from Boston to seize military stores at Concord,
+and to arrest Adams and Hancock at Lexington. Paul Revere, a patriotic
+engraver, rode far in advance of the troops to warn the people of their
+coming. When the soldiers reached Lexington at sunrise they were
+confronted by armed yeomanry drawn up in battle array. The British fired,
+killing seven men. The War of the Revolution was begun. From near and far
+the farmers hastened to attack the troops. Every wall concealed an enemy
+of the British; from behind trees and fences a deadly fire was poured
+into their ranks. Their track was blazed with dead and wounded, as they
+hurried back from Concord, disappointed in the objects of their mission.
+Gage heard of the rising, and hurried reinforcements to the assistance of
+his decimated and almost fugitive soldiery, and with a loss of nearly
+three hundred men they re-entered Boston. From all parts of
+Massachusetts, from Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, the
+provincials hastened to face the invaders, and an army of sixteen
+thousand men of all sorts, conditions and colors, but most of them hardy
+New Englander farmers, besieged Governor Gage in Boston. Joseph Warren,
+John Stark, Israel Putnam and Benedict Arnold were among the leaders of
+the patriot forces. Ethan Allen, chief of the "Green Mountain Boys,"
+demanded and obtained the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga "by the authority
+of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress" (May 10) and Seth
+Warner captured Crown Point two days later.
+
+The second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia the same day that
+Fort Ticonderoga was taken. The Congress chose for its president John
+Hancock, whom the British government wanted to try for treason, assumed
+direction of the troops encamped at Cambridge, and called upon Virginia
+and the middle colonies for recruits. George Washington was appointed to
+command the American forces.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The battle of Bunker Hill proved to the British that the skill and
+courage which had been displayed with signal success against the French
+could be used with equal effect against British troops. General Gage had
+determined to seize and fortify points in the neighborhood of Boston in
+order to strengthen his hold upon the city, and to enable him to resist a
+siege. This purpose of the British commander becoming known to the
+Massachusetts Committee of Safety, the Committee ordered Colonel William
+Prescott, with one thousand men, including a company of artillery with
+two field-pieces, to occupy and fortify Bunker Hill. The force ascended
+Breed's Hill, much nearer Boston, on the evening of June 16. They worked
+all night under the direction of an engineer named Gridley, and in the
+morning the British on their vessels in the Charles River were surprised
+to see on a hill which had been bare the previous day a redoubt about
+eight rods square, flanked on the right by a breastwork which extended in
+a northerly direction to some marshy land, and which commanded both the
+city and the shipping. The guns of the fleet were quickly turned on the
+bold provincials, and the roar of cannon awoke the citizens of Boston to
+behold a conflict in which they had the deepest interest. The Americans
+continued to work under the shower of shot and shell, strengthening their
+fortifications for the desperate struggle they felt was at hand. General
+Artemas Ward, who commanded the colonial army, was not as prompt as he
+ought to have been in sending reinforcements to Breed's Hill, but at
+length Stark's New Hampshire regiment and Colonel Reed's regiment were
+permitted to join the men in the redoubt. The British sent 3000 of their
+best troops to carry the works by assault. Thousands of the people of
+Boston and neighborhood, many of whom had fathers, sons, brothers and
+husbands in the patriot lines, looked from hill and housetop and balcony
+as the regulars marched steadily to the attack. At the redoubt all was
+silent, although the British ships and a battery on Copp's Hill hurled
+shots at the Americans. Nearer and nearer marched the British. They were
+almost close enough for the final charge, when suddenly at the word
+"Fire!"--up sprang 1500 Americans and poured a storm of bullets into the
+advancing enemy. Down went the British platoons as before the scythe of
+death. Whole companies were swept away. The survivors could not stand
+before the deadly hail, and back they fell to the shore. Some shots had
+been fired at the British from houses in Charlestown, and General Gage
+gave orders to fire that place. The British advanced again, the flames
+from the burning town adding to the terror of the scene. Again the
+hurricane of bullets drove them back to the shore. Strengthened by fresh
+troops the British marched up a third time to the hillside now scattered
+with their dying and their dead. British artillery planted as near as
+possible to the Americans swept the redoubt and the patriots, their
+ammunition failing at this critical time, were obliged to give way before
+the overwhelming charge of the grenadiers. The Americans escaped in good
+order across Charlestown Neck, losing General Joseph Warren, who fell
+when leaving the redoubt. Colonel Prescott was in command throughout the
+engagement, although both General Warren and General Israel Putnam had
+taken a gallant part in the battle, but without any command. The fight
+lasted about two hours, and the British lost 1054 killed and wounded out
+of about 3000 troops engaged, and the provincials lost 450 killed and
+wounded. The British ministry looked on the result as virtually a defeat
+for their troops.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Washington reached Cambridge on the second of July. He found the spirit
+of the troops admirable, but their discipline wretched, and the leaders
+divided by dissension in regard to the commands. He labored assiduously
+and successfully to bring order out of comparative chaos. The Congress
+made another effort to prevent a conflict with Great Britain by sending a
+respectful statement of America's case in a petition to the King. He
+refused to receive it, and issued a proclamation calling for troops to
+put down the rebellion in America. King George showed how little he
+regarded humanity in dealing with his revolted subjects by appealing to
+semi-barbarous Russia for troops to use against the colonists. The
+Empress Catharine refused to sell her people for such a purpose, and the
+British monarch then turned to the petty princes of Germany, where he
+bought 20,000 soldiers like so many cattle for the American war. As many
+of these were from Hesse Cassel, they were known as Hessians. It being
+now evident that a peaceable arrangement, short of abject surrender,
+could not be hoped for, the Continental Congress prepared to push the war
+with vigor, and if possible to secure a union of all British America
+against the enemy of American liberty.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The invasion of Canada in the latter part of 1775 by American expeditions
+under command of General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold,
+was prompted by expectation that the French inhabitants of that region
+would gladly espouse the cause of the colonists, for whom they had shown
+sympathy when the people Of Boston were in distress on account of the
+closing of their port. Only a few Canadians rallied to the American
+standard; the majority remained indifferent. Montgomery captured
+Montreal, but in the attack on Quebec he was slain, and Arnold wounded in
+the leg, and the Americans were defeated with a loss of about four
+hundred killed, wounded and prisoners. The death of Montgomery was a
+severe blow to the American cause. He was one of the ablest commanders in
+the service at a time when the colonists were much in need of practiced
+military men, and even in England he was held in high regard. "Curse on
+his virtues," said Lord North; "they've undone his country."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+In March, 1776, General William Howe evacuated Boston and sailed to
+Halifax, taking with him a number of refugees. Howe busied himself in
+Halifax in fitting out a powerful expedition for the capture of New York,
+where the people had taken up with enthusiasm the cause of the colonies.
+Late in April General Washington moved to New York and prepared to defend
+that city. Meantime Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, after
+endeavoring to excite an insurrection of the slaves, had been conducting
+a predatory and incendiary warfare against the colony, until driven away
+by the militia, when he sailed off in a fleet loaded with plunder. In
+North Carolina, where an association of patriots had declared for
+independence at Mecklenburg as early as May, 1775, a severe battle
+occurred at Moore's Creek Bridge, February 26, 1776, between the
+patriots, led by Colonel James Moore, and the loyalists or Tories, many
+of whom had fought for the Young Pretender in Scotland, but were now
+equally devoted to the House of Hanover. The Tories were completely
+routed, and the plans of the British to make North Carolina a centre of
+royalist operations were disconcerted.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Declaration of Independence was now inevitable. Many of the
+colonists, including a large proportion of the well-to-do, were unwilling
+to throw off allegiance to the crown, and these were known as Tories and
+punished as traitors whenever they gave active expression to their
+sentiments. The majority of the people, however, were for complete
+separation from England, and were ready to support that determination
+with their lives. Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, made a motion in the
+Continental Congress, June 7, 1776, "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." John Adams, of Massachusetts, seconded the motion,
+and a committee was appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence.
+Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was the author of the Declaration, which,
+after warm debate, was adopted by the unanimous vote of the thirteen
+colonies July 4, 1776. On the same day the news arrived that the British
+commander, Sir Henry Clinton, had been repulsed in an attempt to enter
+Charleston harbor. North and south the United States were free from the
+enemy, and although it was but the lull before the storm, the Americans
+had thus a precious opportunity to put down malcontents and to gather
+strength for the coming struggle.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The British formed a plan to cut the Union in two by capturing New York,
+and establishing a chain of British posts from Manhattan to Canada. While
+General Carleton operated against the Americans from the Canadian
+frontier a large British fleet, commanded by Admiral Richard Howe,
+arrived in the harbor of New York, carrying an army of 25,000 men, led by
+his brother, General William Howe. The Americans had but 9000 men to
+defend Brooklyn Heights against the overwhelming force with which Howe
+attacked their position. The patriot troops, especially the Marylanders,
+fought gallantly, but were driven back by superior numbers. Great credit
+is due to Washington for his skill and success in saving the greater part
+of the army by timely withdrawal across the East River to New York. Howe
+occupied the city of New York a few days later, Washington retreating
+slowly, and fighting the British at every favorable opportunity.
+
+It was at the time of Washington's retirement from New York that Nathan
+Hale, a young American captain, was put to death as a spy by the British.
+Hale volunteered to seek some information desired by the American
+commander-in-chief, and was betrayed, within the British lines, by a Tory
+who recognized him. He was treated most brutally by the British
+Provost-Marshal Cunningham, being denied the attendance of a clergyman
+and the use of a Bible. Letters which Hale wrote to his mother and other
+dear ones were torn up by the provost-marshal in the victim's presence.
+Hale was hanged September 22, 1776. His last words were "I only regret
+that I have but one life to lose for my country." These words appear on
+the base of the statue erected to his memory in the City Hall Park, New
+York.
+
+General Howe concluded to move on Philadelphia, and his object becoming
+known to Washington, the latter directed General Charles Lee, who was in
+command of about 7000 men at Northcastle, on the east side of the Hudson,
+to join him at Hackensack on the west side, so that the whole force of
+the Americans could be used to oppose Howe. Lee disregarded these orders,
+thereby making it necessary for Washington to retreat into Pennsylvania.
+Lee then led his own troops to Norristown, where he was captured by the
+British outside of his own lines while taking his ease at a tavern. Lee
+was an English adventurer of loud pretensions, probably not lacking in
+courage, but wholly mercenary and unprincipled. That so worthless and
+dangerous a person should have been trusted with high command in the
+American army is explained by the dearth of military leaders at the
+opening of the war. The capture of Lee was fortunate for the Americans,
+as he was succeeded by General John Sullivan, an excellent officer, who
+at once led his troops to the assistance of Washington. Thus reinforced
+the commander-in-chief was enabled to strike a blow at the British which
+revived the drooping spirits of the patriots.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The battle of Trenton would not have been so memorable but for the
+dejected condition of the patriot cause at the time it was fought, and
+the evidence which it gave to England and the world at large of General
+Washington's prudent daring and military genius. At twilight on Christmas
+night, 1776, General Washington prepared to pass the Delaware with 2000
+men to attack 1500 of the enemy, chiefly Hessians, who were stationed
+under the Hessian Colonel Rall at Trenton. It was a dark and bitter
+night, and the Delaware was covered with floating ice. Boats had been
+hastily procured, and with much difficulty against the swift current the
+troops were borne across. A storm of sleet and snow added to the hardship
+of crossing, and not until four o'clock in the morning did the little
+army stand on the opposite bank. The Americans advanced in two columns,
+one led by General Washington, the other by General Sullivan. The Germans
+had spent Christmas in carousing, and although it was full daylight when
+the Americans reached Trenton, they were not discovered until they were
+already on the Hessian pickets. Colonel Rall, aroused from slumber,
+quickly put his men in fighting order. The battle was quick and sharp.
+Colonel Rall fell mortally wounded; and the main body of his troops,
+attempting to retreat, were captured. Some British light horse and
+infantry escaped, but all the Hessians, their standards, cannon and
+small-arms, fell into the hands of the Americans. The victory gave new
+vigor to the friends of independence, depressed the Tories, and
+astonished the British, who had looked upon the war as virtually over.
+General Howe was afraid to march upon Philadelphia, lest Washington
+should cut off his supplies, and for five months longer the invaders
+remained in the vicinity of New York. The patriots were further
+encouraged by the arrival in April, 1777, of the Marquis de Lafayette, of
+General Kalb, known as Baron de Kalb, and other foreign military officers
+of real merit and sincere devotion to the American cause. These offered
+their services to the Congress, and received commissions in the
+Continental army.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Sir John Burgoyne's Campaign--His Bombastic Proclamation--The Tragic
+Story of Jane McCrea--Her Name a Rallying Cry--Washington Prevents Rowe
+from Aiding Burgoyne--The Battle of Brandywine--Burgoyne Routed at
+Saratoga--He Surrenders with All His Army--Articles of Confederation
+Submitted to the Several States--Effect of the Surrender of Burgoyne
+--Franklin the Washington of Diplomacy--Attitude of France--France
+Concludes to Assist the United States--Treaties of Commerce and Alliance
+--King George Prepares for War with France--The Winter at Valley Forge
+--Conspiracy to Depose Washington Defeated--General Howe Superseded
+by Sir Henry Clinton--The Battle of Monmouth--General Charles Lee's
+Treachery--Awful Massacre of Settlers in the Wyoming Valley--General
+Sullivan Defeats the Six Nations--Brilliant Campaign of George Rogers
+Clark--Failure of the Attempt to Drive the British from Rhode Island.
+
+
+The disastrous campaign of General Sir John Burgoyne in the summer of
+1777, against northern New York, was the turning point of the war. The
+object of the invasion was to seize the Hudson River, and divide the
+colonies by a continuous British line from Canada to the city of New
+York. Had the plan succeeded it would have been an almost fatal blow to
+the cause of independence. Its failure was not due to the courage or
+skill of any one American commander, but to the indomitable resolution
+with which every step of the invading army was resisted by Americans of
+every rank. The whole country rose as one man to oppose and harass the
+enemy, and it seemed as if every militiaman understood that the fate of
+his country depended on the repulse or destruction of the foe.
+
+Burgoyne's plan of campaign, as concerted with the British ministry, was
+to march to Albany with a large force by way of Lakes Champlain and
+George, while another force under Sir Henry Clinton advanced up the
+Hudson. At the same time Colonel Barry St. Leger was to make a diversion
+by way of Oswego, on the Mohawk River. Burgoyne began his advance in
+June, with about eight thousand men. Proceeding up Lake Champlain he
+compelled the Americans to evacuate Crown Point, Ticonderoga and Fort
+Anne. His first blunder was in failing to avail himself of the water
+carriage of Lake George, at the head of which there was a direct road to
+Fort Edward. Instead of taking this course he spent three weeks in
+cutting a road through the woods, and building bridges over swamps. This
+gave time for General Schuyler to gather the yeomanry in arms, and for
+Washington to send troops from the southern department to reinforce
+Schuyler. Burgoyne also lost valuable time in a disastrous attack on
+Bennington.
+
+Burgoyne issued a proclamation in most bombastic style. In the preamble
+he stated, besides his military and other distinctions, that he was
+"author of a celebrated tragic comedy called the 'Blockade of Boston.'"
+He accused the patriots of enormities "unprecedented in the inquisitions
+of the Romish Church," and offered to give encouragement, employment and
+assistance to all who would aid the side of the king. "I have but to give
+stretch," he concluded, "to the Indian forces under my direction--and
+they amount to thousands--to overtake the hardened enemies of Great
+Britain and America. I consider them the same wherever they lurk. If
+notwithstanding these endeavors and sincere inclination to assist them
+the frenzy of hostility should remain, I trust I shall stand acquitted in
+the eyes of God and of men in denouncing and executing the vengeance of
+the State against the willful outcasts. The messengers of justice and of
+wrath await them in the field, and devastation, famine, and every
+concomitant horror that a reluctant but indispensable prosecution of
+military duty must occasion will bar the way to their return."
+
+While Burgoyne's array was lying near Fort Edward occurred the tragic
+death of Jane McCrea, celebrated in song and story. Jane was the second
+daughter of the Reverend James McCrea, a Presbyterian clergyman of
+Scottish descent, and she made her home with her brother, John, at Fort
+Edward, New York. John McCrea was a patriot, but Jane had for her lover
+an officer in Burgoyne's army named David Jones, to whom she was
+betrothed. Between John McCrea and David Jones an estrangement had arisen
+on account of their opposite political sympathies, but Jane clung to her
+affianced. "My dear Jenny," wrote Jones, under date of July 11, 1777,
+"these are sad times, but I think the war will end this year, as the
+rebels cannot hold out, and will see their error. By the blessing of
+Providence I trust we shall yet pass many years together in peace. * * *
+No more at present, but believe me yours affectionately till death." How
+faithfully he kept that promise!
+
+Jane McCrea well deserved her lover's devotion. She is described as a
+young woman of rare accomplishments, great personal attractions, and of a
+remarkable sweetness of disposition.[1] She was of medium stature, finely
+formed, of a delicate blonde complexion. Her hair was of a golden brown
+and silken lustre, and when unbound trailed upon the ground. Her father
+was devoted to literary pursuits, and she thus had acquired a taste for
+reading, unusual in one of her age--about twenty-four years--in those
+early times.
+
+      [1] See "The Burgoyne Ballads," by William L. Stone, from whose
+      narrative this sketch is taken.
+
+When Burgoyne's army was about four miles from Fort Edward, David Jones
+sent a party of Indians, under Duluth, a half-breed, to escort his
+betrothed to the British camp, where they were to be married at once by
+Chaplain Brudenell, Lady Harriet Acland and Madame Riedesel, wife of
+General Riedesel, in command of the Brunswick contingent, having
+consented to be present at the wedding. It had been arranged that Duluth
+should halt in the woods about a quarter of a mile from the house of a
+Mrs. McNeil where Jane was waiting to join him at the appointed time.
+Meanwhile it happened that a fierce Wyandotte chief named Le Loup, with a
+band of marauding Indians from the British camp, drove in a scouting
+party of Americans, and stopping on their return from the pursuit at Mrs.
+McNeil's house, took her and Jane captive, with the intention of taking
+them to the British camp. On their way back Le Loup and his followers
+encountered Duluth and his party. The half-breed stated his errand, and
+demanded that Jane be given up to him. Le Loup insisted on escorting her.
+Angry words followed and Le Loup, in violent passion, shot Jane through
+the heart. Then the savage tore the scalp from his victim and carried it
+to the British camp. Mrs. McNeil had arrived at the camp a little in
+advance, having been separated from Jane before the tragedy. She at once
+recognized the beautiful tresses. David Jones never recovered from the
+shock. It is said that he was so crushed by the terrible blow, and
+disgusted with the apathy of Burgoyne in refusing to punish the miscreant
+who brought the scalp of Jane McCrea to the camp as a trophy, claiming
+the bounty offered for such prizes by the British, that he asked for a
+discharge and upon this being refused deserted, having first rescued the
+precious relic of his beloved from the savages. Jones retired to the
+Canadian wilderness, and spent the remainder of his life unmarried, a
+silent and melancholy man.
+
+The murder of Jane McCrea fired New York. From every farm, from every
+village, from every cabin in the woods the men of America thronged to
+avenge her death. Her name was a rallying cry along the banks of the
+Hudson and in the mountains of Vermont, and "her death contributed in no
+slight degree to Burgoyne's defeat, which became a precursor and
+principal cause of American independence."[2]
+
+      [2] Stone, "The Burgoyne Ballads."
+
+The force of about two thousand men, whom Colonel Barry St. Leger led
+into the forests of what is now Oneida County, met stout resistance, and
+but for the Indian allies of the British, led by the great Mohawk chief,
+Joseph Brant, St. Leger's troops would probably have been destroyed or
+made captive. The fierce battle of Oriskany, in which the brave General
+Herkimer received a fatal wound, was a patriot victory, but it gave St.
+Leger a respite. When he heard that Benedict Arnold was approaching with
+troops sent by General Schuyler, to give him battle, he retreated to Lake
+Ontario, shattering Burgoyne's hopes of aid from the Tories of the Mohawk
+Valley. Meanwhile Congress had relieved General Schuyler from command in
+the North, and appointed Horatio Gates in his place. Gates was not a man
+of ability, but he was ably seconded in his operations against Burgoyne
+by Benedict Arnold.
+
+General Howe had intended to take Philadelphia and then co-operate with
+Burgoyne in inflicting a final and crushing blow on the Americans, but
+the Fabian strategy of Washington again proved too much for the British.
+Howe being prevented by Washington from crossing New Jersey with his
+army, undertook an expedition by sea. He sailed up Chesapeake Bay,
+marched northward with 18,000 men to Brandywine Creek, and there met
+Washington with 11,000, on the eleventh of September. The British held
+the field, but Washington retreated slowly, disputing every foot of
+ground, and it was not until the twenty-sixth of September that Howe
+entered Philadelphia. Washington attacked the British encampment at
+Germantown at daybreak on the fourth of October, and attempted to drive
+the British into the Schuyikill River. One American battalion fired into
+another by mistake, and this unhappy accident probably saved the British
+from another Trenton on a larger scale. Howe was unable to send any
+assistance to Burgoyne until it was too late to save that commander.
+
+Burgoyne found his progress stopped by the intrenchments of the Americans
+under General Gates, at Bemis Heights, nine miles south of Saratoga, and
+he endeavored to extricate himself from his perilous position by
+fighting. Two battles were fought on nearly the same ground, on September
+19, and October 7. The first was indecisive; the second resulted in so
+complete a rout for the British that, leaving his sick and wounded to the
+compassion of Gates, Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga. There finding his
+provisions giving out, and that there was no chance for escape, he
+capitulated with his entire army, October 17, 1777.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Congress had, by common consent, represented national sovereignty
+from the beginning of the war, but it was not until November 15, 1777,
+that articles of confederation were approved by the Congress, and
+submitted to the States. This compact, entitled "Articles of
+Confederation and Perpetual Union," was but little more than a treaty of
+mutual friendship on the part of the several States, and was not
+sanctioned by all of them until near the close of the Revolution. It was
+too weak to be effective in time of peace, and hardly necessary in time
+of war, when the common danger gave sufficient assurance of fidelity to
+the common cause. However, the Articles of Confederation undoubtedly
+promoted confidence in the stability of the government where that
+confidence was most needed, in the European cabinets adverse to British
+dominion in America.
+
+The surrender of Burgoyne gave to the American cause a status which it
+had lacked abroad, and it brought into full and effectual exercise the
+diplomatic side of the struggle for independence. It was then that
+Franklin showed himself another Washington. "On the great question of the
+foreign relations of the United States," says Wharton, "it made no matter
+whether he was alone or surrounded by unfriendly colleagues; it was only
+through him that negotiations could be carried on with France, for to him
+alone could the French government commit itself with the consciousness
+that the enormous confidences reposed in him would be honorably guarded."
+France, chiefly through the influence of Franklin, had given covert
+assistance to the colonies from the beginning of the struggle, but the
+French ministry hesitated to take a decisive step. Fear that the
+Americans would succumb, and leave France to bear the weight of British
+hostility, and apprehension that England might grant the demands of the
+colonists and then turn her forces against European foes, deterred the
+French government from avowed support of the American cause. The news
+from Saratoga gave assurance that America would prove a steadfast as well
+as a powerful ally, and that with the aid of the United States the
+British empire might be dismembered, and France avenged for her losses
+and humiliations on the American continent. Nor was revenge the only
+motive which led France to cast her lot with the revolted colonies.
+England was already stretching forth to establish her power in India, and
+France felt that with North America and India, both subject to the
+British, the maritime and commercial superiority of England would be a
+menace to other powers.
+
+France did not act without long and careful premeditation on the part of
+the French crown and its ministers, for the relations between England and
+her American colonies had been carefully and acutely considered by the
+statesmen of Versailles long before the point of open revolt was reached.
+Even when France concluded to throw her resources into the scale on the
+side of the United States she did not altogether abandon her cautious
+attitude. The French government acknowledged the United States as a
+sovereign and treaty-making power; but while the treaty of commerce of
+February 6, 1778, was absolute and immediate in its effects, the treaty
+of alliance of the same date was contingent on war taking place between
+Great Britain and France. It is interesting to note that Benjamin
+Franklin was the subject of invective by Arthur Lee and others because at
+the suggestion of Silas Deane, of Connecticut, he procured a clause in
+the commercial treaty providing for the exportation of molasses to the
+United States, free of duty, from the French colonies--the molasses being
+used to manufacture New England rum. Owing to the objection of Lee this
+clause was afterward abrogated, and the infant industry of making New
+England rum had to survive without special protection.
+
+Upon receiving formal notice of the treaties Lord North immediately
+recalled the British ambassador from Paris, and George III. stated, in
+bad English, to Lord North (the king spelled "Pennsylvania"
+"Pensilvania," and "wharfs" "warfs") that a corps must be drawn from the
+army in America sufficient to attack the French islands. There was a
+state of partial war without a declaration of war. The naval forces of
+England and France came into unauthorized collision, and actual war was
+the result.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Pending the negotiations with France Washington and his heroic army spent
+a winter of painful hardship at Valley Forge, about twenty miles from
+Philadelphia. Half-naked and half-fed, they shivered in the rude huts
+which they erected, while their commander, if better housed, showed by
+actions more than words that he felt every pang of his soldiers.
+Washington's anxiety at this critical period was greatly aggravated by
+the conspiracy known as "Conway's Cabal," to depose him from the command,
+and put in his place the pretentious but incapable Gates. This conspiracy
+was narrowly defeated by the patriotic firmness of the supporters of
+Washington in Congress, one of whom--William Duer, of New York, an
+Englishman by birth--had himself carried in a litter to the floor of
+Congress, at the risk of his life, to give his vote for Washington. Never
+on the battlefield did he who is justly called the Father of Our Country
+show such heroism, such fortitude, such devotion to duty as in face of
+this combination of deluded men to effect his ruin.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The French alliance was hailed with delight in the United States. George
+III., who personally controlled military operations, stated his
+conclusion about a month after the French treaties, and on the day they
+were formally announced, to act on the defensive, holding New York and
+Rhode Island, but abandoning Pennsylvania. General William Howe was
+superseded in command of the British troops by Sir Henry Clinton, who
+evacuated Philadelphia, departing from that city before dawn of June 18,
+and starting for New York with about 17,000 effective men. Upon being
+informed of this movement, Washington hastened after the British. He
+followed Clinton in a parallel line, ready to strike him at the first
+favorable opportunity.
+
+When the British were encamped near the courthouse in Freehold, Monmouth
+County, New Jersey, June 27, Washington made arrangements for an attack
+on the following morning, should Clinton move. General Charles Lee, who
+had recently been a prisoner in the hands of the British, was in command
+of the advance corps. He showed such incapacity and folly in his
+directions to subordinate and far more competent generals as nearly to
+wreck the army. His confused and perplexing instructions promoted
+disorder, chilled the ardor of the troops, and gave the enemy
+opportunities they never could have gained without this assistance from
+Lee. As an apparently conclusive blow to the side he pretended to serve
+Lee ordered a retreat, and the British, from being on the defensive, were
+speedily in pursuit. Washington's anger, on perceiving the condition of
+affairs, was terrible. He rebuked Lee with scathing severity, quickly
+rallied his troops, and checked the pursuing enemy. The Americans, once
+more in array, confronted their foes. A real battle then followed, with
+both sides doing their best. Americans and British fought with stubborn
+courage, the latter at length making a bayonet charge on which depended
+the fate of the day. They were repulsed with terrible slaughter. The
+British then retreated a short distance, and both armies rested, the
+Americans expecting that the conflict would be renewed with dawn. Clinton
+drew his men off silently under cover of darkness, and was far on his way
+to New York when the Americans, in the morning, saw his deserted camp.
+The British lost four officers and 245 non-commissioned officers and
+privates, besides taking many of the wounded with them. They also lost
+about 1000 men by desertion while passing through New Jersey. The
+American loss in the battle of Monmouth was 228 killed, wounded and
+missing. Many of the missing, who had fled when Lee ordered a retreat,
+returned to their commands. Lee was superseded and afterward dismissed
+from the army. It did not come to light until about seventy-five years
+later, from a document among Sir William Howe's papers, that while a
+prisoner with the British Lee had suggested to Sir William Howe a plan
+for subjugating the Americans. This fact throws a flood of light on Lee's
+conduct at Monmouth.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+A few days after the battle of Monmouth occurred the awful massacre of
+Wyoming. Tories and Indians, led by Colonel John Butler, descended into
+the happy valley, inhabited by settlers from Butler's native Connecticut,
+and spread fire, bloodshed and desolation. Hundreds of men, women and
+children perished, many of them by torture, and the survivors made their
+way back through the wilderness to Connecticut. Among the victims of this
+massacre was Anderson Dana, a direct ancestor of Charles Anderson Dana,
+the well-known editor. Everywhere throughout the borders Tories and
+Indians carried fire and death, the British sparing no effort to stir up
+the tribes to hostility. The patriots suffered terribly, but the ferocity
+of the savages and of their hardly less savage associates made Americans
+all the more resolute in resisting and overcoming the foes of American
+independence. General Sullivan invaded the country of the Six Nations,
+and inflicted upon them a crushing defeat. In the southwest, the
+frontiersmen, not content with resisting the enemy, followed them into
+their wilds, and laid the foundations of new States. In the northwest,
+Colonel Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, who was more
+responsible, perhaps, than any other British officer for inciting the
+Indians to deeds of barbarity, was defeated and captured by George Rogers
+Clark, and the whole country north of the Ohio River, from the
+Alleghanies to the Mississippi, became subject to the United States.
+
+The British still held New York and Newport, and Washington planned to
+capture the former place with the assistance of a fleet which had arrived
+from France. Some of the vessels drew too much water, however, to cross
+the bar, and the scheme was abandoned. The French fleet proceeded to
+Newport, and compelled the British to burn or sink six frigates in that
+harbor. An American force of about 10,000 men had been fathered under
+command of General Sullivan to drive the British out of Rhode Island, and
+it was expected that the troops, numbering 4000, on board the French
+fleet, would assist in the undertaking. The French admiral, D'Estaing,
+failed to support Sullivan, and the latter, with a force reduced by the
+wholesale desertion of the militia to 6000 men, fought a gallant but
+losing action with the British, and withdrew to the mainland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The British Move Upon the South--Spain Accedes to the Alliance Against
+England--Secret Convention Between France and Spain--Capture of Stony
+Point--John Paul Jones--The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis--A
+Thrilling Naval Combat--Wretched Condition of American Finances--
+Franklin's Heavy Burden--The Treason of Benedict Arnold--Capture of
+Andre--Escape of Arnold--Andre Executed as a Spy--Sir Henry Clinton
+Captures Charleston, General Lincoln and His Army--Lord Cornwallis Left
+in Command in the South--The British Defeat Gates Near Camden, South
+Carolina--General Nathaniel Greene Conducts a Stubborn Campaign Against
+Cornwallis--The Latter Retreats Into Virginia--Siege of Yorktown--
+Cornwallis Surrenders--"Oh, God; it is All Over!"
+
+
+Toward the close of 1778, the British undertook to conquer the Southern
+States, beginning with Georgia, where an expedition by sea would be
+within reach of aid from the British troops occupying Florida. The
+American forces in Georgia were weak in numbers, and although bravely led
+by General Robert Howe, they were unable to resist the British. Savannah
+fell, and Georgia passed under the rule of the invaders, the royal
+governor being reinstated. To counterbalance this discouragement news
+arrived from Europe early in 1779 that Spain had acceded to the
+Franco-American combination against England. Spain, unlike France, sent
+no troops to America to assist the patriots, although the hostile
+attitude of the Spaniards toward Great Britain, and the capture of the
+British post of St. Joseph by a Spanish expedition from St. Louis, in
+1781, aided in strengthening the American cause in the West, and making
+the British less aggressive in that direction.
+
+Recent disclosures have shown that the secret convention between France
+and Spain, at this time, was in no sense hostile to American interests,
+as at first asserted and afterward intimated by the historian Bancroft.
+On the contrary, Spain bound herself not to lay down arms until the
+independence of the United States should be recognized by Great Britain,
+while the condition that Spanish territory held by England should be
+restored to Spain did not militate against the territorial claims of the
+United States. It was clearly better for the United States, looking
+forward to future expansion, that adjoining territory should be held by
+Spain in preference to England. The history of the past hundred years
+proves this. Canada remains British, while every foot of former Spanish
+territory in North America is now part of the United States.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The summer of 1779 witnessed General Anthony Wayne's memorable exploit,
+the capture of Stony Point. The fort, situated at the King's Ferry, on
+the Hudson, stood upon a rocky promontory, connected with the mainland by
+a causeway across a narrow marsh. This causeway was covered by the tide
+at high water. Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson commanded the garrison,
+consisting of a regiment of foot, some grenadiers and artillery. General
+Wayne led his troops, the Massachusetts light infantry, through defiles
+in the mountains, and moved on the fort about midnight. The Americans
+went to the attack in two columns, with unloaded muskets and fixed
+bayonets. They were unseen until within pistol-shot of the pickets.
+Undeterred by the hasty discharge of musketry and cannon the Americans
+pressed on with the bayonet, the two columns meeting in the centre of the
+fort. The garrison surrendered, and the Americans, after removing the
+ordnance and stores to West Point, and destroying the works, abandoned
+the place.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+What American schoolboy's heart does not thrill at the name of John Paul
+Jones, that redoubtable sailor, who carried the American flag into
+English seas, and made Britons feel in some degree the injuries their
+king was inflicting on America! John Paul Jones was a Scotchman by birth;
+an American by adoption. His original name was John Paul, and he added
+the name of Jones after taking up his abode in Virginia. As early as
+1775, when Congress determined to organize a navy, Jones was commissioned
+as first lieutenant, and in command of the sloop Providence he made
+several important captures of British merchant vessels. As commander of
+the Ranger, in 1777, Jones captured the British man-of-war Drake, made
+successful incursions on the British coast, and seized many valuable
+prizes.
+
+In August, 1779, Jones started on a cruise in command of an old Indiaman,
+which he called, in compliment to Franklin, the Bon Homme Richard.
+Associated with the Bon Homme Richard were the Alliance and the Pallas,
+and one smaller vessel officered by Frenchmen, but under the American
+flag. On September 23, Jones encountered, off Flamborough Head, a fleet
+of forty British merchantmen, under convoy of the Serapis, Captain
+Pearson, of forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, a ship of
+twenty guns. Regardless of the enemy's strength the American commander
+gave the signal for battle. Unfortunately Captain Landais of the Alliance
+was subject to fits of insanity and had been put in command of that ship
+against the wishes of Jones. Landais failed to obey orders and was worse
+than useless during the fight. Jones was however gallantly supported by
+the Pallas, which engaged and captured the Countess of Scarborough,
+leaving Jones a free field with his principal antagonist, the Serapis. No
+fiercer naval conflict has been recorded in history. The fight lasted
+from seven o'clock in the evening until eleven o'clock, most of the time
+in darkness. The Bon Homme Richard got so close to the Serapis in the
+beginning of the battle that their spars and rigging became entangled
+together, and Jones attempted to board the British vessel. A stubborn
+hand-to-hand struggle ensued, Jones and his men being repulsed. Then the
+Bon Homme Richard dropped loose from her antagonist, and with their guns
+almost muzzle to muzzle, the two vessels poured broadsides into each
+other. The American guns did destructive work, the Serapis catching fire
+in several places.
+
+About half past nine the moon rose on the fearful conflict. The Bon Homme
+Richard caught fire at this time, while the water poured in through rents
+made by British cannon. The two vessels had again come closer, but not so
+as to prevent the guns from being handled. While the cannon roared and
+the flames shot up, the two crews again met in desperate hand-to-hand
+strife, for it was evident that one of the two vessels must be lost. By
+the light of the flames Jones saw that the mainmast of the Serapis was
+cut almost in two. Quickly he gave the order, and another double-headed
+shot finished the work. Captain Pearson, who had commanded his ship most
+gallantly, hauled down his flag and surrendered. Alluding to the fact
+that the British government had proclaimed Jones a pirate, Pearson said:
+"It is painful to deliver up my sword to a man who has fought with a rope
+around his neck." Jones took possession of the Serapis, and the Bon Homme
+Richard sank beneath the waves the second day after the engagement. The
+Congress voted to Jones a gold medal and the thanks of the nation.
+Franklin's report of October 17, 1779, to the Commissioners of the Navy,
+giving news of the victory, shows that the American cruisers were causing
+great devastation to British commerce.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The exploits of Anthony Wayne and Paul Jones served to lighten the gloom
+caused by the defeat of General Lincoln in his attempt to recapture
+Savannah, and by the depressed condition of American finances, which made
+it difficult to carry on the war. It was the earnest desire of Congress
+to push the struggle vigorously, and large sums of money were necessary
+for that purpose. The Continental currency issued under authority of
+Congress had so decreased in purchasing power as to be almost worthless;
+the army suffered great distress for lack of clothing and food, and the
+supply of munitions of war fell far short of military needs. Benjamin
+Franklin labored unceasingly to meet the incessant drafts upon him as
+agent of the United States in France, and but for the unbounded
+confidence which Louis XVI. and his great minister, Vergennes, had in
+Franklin's assurances, the United States might have been so paralyzed
+financially as to fall a prey to Great Britain. It was in the midst of
+this gloom and uncertainty that General Benedict Arnold, the hero of
+Quebec and Saratoga, sought to sell his country to the British.
+
+An able general and as brave a soldier as wore the American uniform,
+Arnold was bitterly disappointed because he failed to receive from
+Congress all the recognition which he thought he deserved. He might not,
+however, have become a traitor but for his pecuniary difficulties, while
+undoubtedly the Tory sympathies of his wife, whom he married in
+Philadelphia in 1778, had a marked influence upon him. In July. 1780,
+Arnold, at his own request, was appointed by Washington to command West
+Point, the great American fortress commanding the Hudson River. The
+capture of West Point by the British would have accomplished for their
+cause what Burgoyne had failed to achieve--the cutting off of the
+Northern from the Middle and Southern States, and the establishment of
+the British in an almost impregnable position on the Hudson. Arnold
+entered into negotiations with Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander
+at New York, for the surrender of West Point. For this service Arnold was
+to be made a brigadier-general in the British army and to receive $50,000
+in gold. Major John Andre, adjutant-general of the British army,
+conducted the correspondence on behalf of Clinton. Andre went up the
+Hudson in the British sloop of war Vulture, and had a secret meeting with
+Arnold near Haverstraw. It was arranged between them that Clinton should
+sail up the Hudson with a strong force and attack West Point, and Arnold,
+after a show of resistance, would surrender the post. When Andre was
+ready to go back to New York the Vulture had been compelled to drop down
+stream, and Andre had to cross the river and proceed on horseback. He was
+about entering Tarrytown, when a man armed with a gun, sprang suddenly
+from the thicket, and seizing the reins of his bridle exclaimed: "Where
+are you bound?" At the same instant two more ran up, and Andre was a
+prisoner. He offered them gold, his horse and permanent provision from
+the English government if they would let him escape, but the young
+men--John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart--rejected all his
+offers, and insisted on taking him to the nearest American post.[1] Andre
+had a pass from Arnold in which the former was called "John Anderson."
+Colonel Jameson, commander of the post to which Andre was brought, did
+not suspect any treason on the part of Arnold, and allowed Andre to send
+a letter to that general.
+
+      [1] Charges were made by Andre himself, and echoed in Congress at a
+      much later period by Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, who had the custody
+      of Andre, to the effect that the captors of the ill-fated British
+      officer were corrupt, and only held him because they could profit
+      more than by letting him go. On this point the testimony of
+      Alexander Hamilton, who passed much time with Andre previous to his
+      execution, and had full opportunity to weigh his statements, ought
+      to be sufficient. In a letter to Colonel Sears General Hamilton thus
+      compared the captors of Andre with Arnold: "This man" (Arnold), "is
+      in every sense despicable. * * * To his conduct that of the captors
+      of Andre forms a striking contrast; he tempted their integrity with
+      the offer of his watch, his horse, and any sum of money they should
+      name. They rejected his offers with indignation; and the gold that
+      could seduce a man high in the esteem and confidence of his country,
+      who had the remembrance of his past exploits, the motives of present
+      reputation and future glory to prop his integrity, had no charms for
+      three simple peasants, leaning only on their virtue, and a sense of
+      duty."
+
+Meantime Washington, who had gone to Hartford to consult with the French
+general Rochambeau about making an attack on New York, returned sooner
+than expected. Hamilton and Lafayette, of Washington's staff, went
+forward to breakfast with Arnold, while Washington was inspecting a
+battery. At the breakfast table Andre's letter was handed to Arnold. The
+traitor perceived at once that discovery was inevitable, and excusing
+himself to his guests as calmly as if going out on an ordinary errand, he
+went to his wife's room, embraced her, and bade her farewell. Mounting a
+horse of one of his aides, Arnold rode swiftly to the river bank. There
+he entered his barge and was rowed to the Vulture.
+
+Andre was tried by court-martial on the charge of being a spy, convicted
+and executed October 2, 1780. The captors of Andre were rewarded with a
+silver medal and $200 a year for life. Arnold received the reward for
+which he had offered to betray his country. Washington, who was far from
+being vindictive, made repeated attempts to get possession of Arnold in
+order to punish him for his treason.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+While the war was languishing in the North it was being carried on with
+vigor in the South. Sir Henry Clinton, in the spring of 1780, captured
+the city of Charleston, with General Lincoln and all his army. Clinton
+then returned to New York, leaving Lord Cornwallis in command of the
+British. Another American army, mostly militiamen and new recruits, many
+of whom had never handled a bayonet, was formed in North Carolina, and
+placed unfortunately under the command of the incompetent Gates. The
+British met Gates at Sander's Creek, near Camden, and after a sharp
+conflict the Americans were completely routed. British and Tories were
+now more barbarous than ever in their treatment of patriots who fell into
+their hands, and repeated executions of Americans on pretended charges of
+violating compulsory oaths of allegiance, or no charges at all, excited
+thirst for retribution among the friends of liberty. General Nathaniel
+Greene, of Quaker birth, but one of the greatest soldiers of the
+Revolution, was sent to command a new army of the South; with Daniel
+Morgan, William Washington and Henry Lee--known as "Light-horse Harry"
+and father of the Confederate commander, Robert E. Lee--as his
+lieutenants. Morgan, at Cowpens, annihilated Tarleton's Legion, which had
+committed many cruelties in South Carolina. Greene fought the British at
+Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, and although he did not win a
+battle, he left the enemy, on each occasion, in much worse condition than
+before the encounter. Cornwallis, the British commander, although not
+defeated, was becoming weaker and weaker, and he retreated into Virginia,
+from an enemy whose every repulse was a British disaster.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The final act in the mighty drama was now approaching. From the Potomac
+to the confines of Florida the Southland was aroused against the British
+as it never could have been aroused except for the barbarities which
+Cornwallis perpetrated and sanctioned. The British commander was behind
+the intrenchments at Yorktown with an army of about eight thousand men
+and a horde of Tories who had been willing agents in carrying out against
+their own countrymen the atrocious decrees which for a time made a Poland
+of the Carolinas. Sir Henry Clinton, thoroughly deceived by the movements
+of Washington and Rochambeau, was anxious only to protect New York, and
+the victorious fleet of France was prepared to cut off the escape of
+Cornwallis by the sea. Washington and Rochambeau, with the allied armies,
+marched against Yorktown from their rendezvous at Williamsburg on
+September 28. They drove in the British outposts, and began siege
+operations so promptly and vigorously that the place was completely
+invested on the thirtieth by a semi-circular line of the allied forces,
+each wing resting on the York River. The Americans held the right; the
+French the left. A small body of British at Gloucester, opposite
+Yorktown, was beset by a force consisting of French dragoons and marines,
+and Virginia militia. Heavy ordnance was brought from the French ships,
+and on the afternoon of October 9, the artillery opened on the British.
+Red-hot balls were hurled upon the British vessels in the river, and the
+flames shooting up from a 44-gun ship showed that fire was doing its
+work. Under cover of night parallels were thrown up closer and closer to
+the British lines, and the besieged saw the chain which they could not
+break tightening around them. The Americans and French carried by storm
+two redoubts which commanded the trenches, and now Cornwallis had to take
+his choice between flight or surrender, if flight were possible. He
+determined to flee, but a terrible storm made the passing of the river
+too dangerous, and a few troops who had crossed over were brought back to
+Yorktown.
+
+French and Americans poured shot and shell into the British
+intrenchments, and the bombardment grew heavier day by day. The superior
+forces and strong situation of the besiegers made it impossible to break
+through their lines. It would not even have been a forlorn hope. No
+course now remained but to surrender. Cornwallis sought to make the best
+terms possible. He has been severely and plausibly criticised for
+abandoning the Tory refugees to American justice and vengeance. Horace
+Walpole, writing in safe and comfortable quarters, far from siege or
+battlefield, said that Cornwallis "ought to have declared that he would
+die rather than sacrifice the poor Americans who had followed him from
+loyalty, against their countrymen." Had Cornwallis so declared he would
+doubtless have had a chance to die without any objection on the part of
+the patriots on whose friends and relatives he had inflicted devilish
+cruelties. Cornwallis was obliged to choose between perishing with all
+his army, or accepting the terms which his conquerors saw fit to grant.
+Apart from the formal articles of surrender he obtained the informal
+consent of the allies that certain Tories most obnoxious to their
+countrymen should be permitted to depart to New York in the vessel which
+carried dispatches from the British commander to Sir Henry Clinton.[2]
+General Lincoln, who had been compelled to surrender to the royal troops
+at Charleston in the previous year, received the sword of Cornwallis from
+General O'Hara, and twenty-eight British captains, each bearing a flag in
+a case, handed over their colors to twenty-eight American sergeants. The
+number of troops surrendered was about 7000, and to these were added 2000
+sailors, 1500 Tories and 1800 negroes. The British lost during the siege
+in killed, wounded and missing about 550 men; the Americans lost about
+300. The spoils included nearly 8000 muskets, 75 brass and 160 iron
+cannon and a large quantity of munitions of war and military stores, as
+well as "about one hundred vessels, above fifty of them
+square-rigged."[3] On the day after the surrender Washington ordered
+every American soldier under arrest or in confinement to be set at
+liberty, and as the next day would be Sunday he directed that divine
+service should be performed in the several brigades.
+
+      [2] Walpole is right, however, in pointing out that the
+      unconditional surrender of the refugees by Cornwallis had an
+      important influence in bringing the war to a close by depriving the
+      British of American support and sympathy. "It was a virtual end of
+      the war," he says. "Could one American, unless those shut up in New
+      York and Charleston, even out of prudence and self-preservation,
+      declare for England, by whose general they were so unfeelingly
+      abandoned?"
+
+      [3] Livingston to Dana, October 22, 1781.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+"Oh God, it is all over!" exclaimed Lord North, on hearing that
+Cornwallis had surrendered. And it was all over, although we have
+Franklin's authority that George III. continued to hope for a revival of
+his sovereignty over America "on the same terms as are now making with
+Ireland." These hopes were soon dissipated, and a treaty of peace was
+finally signed at Paris, September 23, 1783. The British troops sailed
+away from New York on November 25, and General Washington, after a tender
+parting with his officers, resigned his commission. A great number of
+Tory refugees departed from New York with the British, but it is doubtful
+whether their lot was happier than that of those who remained to accept
+the new order of things. It is only necessary to glance at the diary of
+Hutchinson, the royalist governor of Massachusetts, to perceive that,
+even under the most favorable circumstances, the situation of the exiled
+Tories was miserable indeed. Many of them settled in Canada, there to
+hand down to their descendants feelings of antipathy which, in America,
+have long been discarded. Many of them wisely returned to the United
+States, and were magnanimously forgiven and received as brethren and
+citizens. No voice was raised to plead more eloquently in their behalf
+than that of Patrick Henry. "I feel no objection," he exclaimed, "to the
+return of those deluded people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own
+interests most wofully, and most wofully have they suffered the
+punishment due to their offences. * * * Afraid of them!--what, sir--shall
+we who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, now be afraid of his
+whelps?"
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH PERIOD.
+
+Union.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Condition of the United States at the Close of the Revolution--New
+England Injured and New York Benefited Commercially by the Struggle--
+Luxury of City Life--Americans an Agricultural People--The Farmer's
+Home--Difficulty in Traveling--Contrast Between North and South--Southern
+Aristocracy--Northern Great Families--White Servitude--The Western
+Frontier--Karly Settlers West of the Mountains--A Hardy Population--
+Disappearance of the Colonial French--The Ordinance of 1787--Flood of
+Emigration Beyond the Ohio.
+
+
+Peace with Great Britain left the United States free and independent, but
+burdened with the expenses of the war, and agitated by the problems which
+independence presented. The soldiers of the Continental Army went back to
+their firesides and their fields, and trade began to show signs of
+revival. New England's commercial interests had received a serious blow
+from the Revolution, while New York city, occupied by the British
+throughout the war, the headquarters of the royal forces with their
+lavish expenditures, and its commerce protected and convoyed by the
+British fleet, was benefited instead of injured by the struggle. The
+merchants of New York, whether attached or not at heart to the royalist
+cause, put business before patriotism, while the flag of St. George
+floated over their city, and urged the British to severer measures
+against the "rebels" in order that New York's mercantile interests might
+be promoted and safeguarded.[1] Apart from natural advantages, next in
+importance to the Erie Canal as a cause of New York's leading commercial
+position is the fact that the British were in possession of the city
+during the Revolution.
+
+      [1] A number of years ago the Hon. William M. Evarts delivered
+      a speech before the New York Chamber of Commerce in which he
+      congratulated that body on its patriotism "during the Revolution."
+      Having been allowed to examine the records of the Chamber for the
+      revolutionary period, I wrote an article which appeared over my
+      initials in the New York _Sun_ pointing out that the Chamber, as
+      shown by its own records, had been ultra-loyal, instead of
+      patriotic.--_H. M._
+
+There was considerable luxury in city life then as now. "By Revolutionary
+times love of dress everywhere prevailed throughout the State of New
+York," says Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, "a love of dress which caused great
+extravagance and was noted by all travelers."[2] "If there is a town on
+the American continent," said the Chevalier de Crevecoeur, "where English
+luxury displayed its follies it is in New York." Philadelphia was not far
+behind New York in extravagance, notwithstanding Quaker traditions, while
+Boston, rich in solid wealth, was more conservative in displaying it, and
+retained in appearance at least something of Puritan simplicity.
+
+      [2] Costumes of Colonial Times.
+
+The urban residents of those days were, however, insignificant in numbers
+as compared with the total population. The Americans were an agricultural
+people, and they were a self-dependent people. The articles of clothing
+needed in the farmer's home were manufactured in the home; the tailor
+went around from house to house making into suits the cloth which the
+family had woven; the school teacher "boarded around" as an equivalent
+for salary that might otherwise have been paid in worthless currency, and
+the simple requirements of rural existence were supplied in a large
+degree by trade and barter without the use of what passed as money. The
+farmer's cottage stood upon a level sward of green. The kitchen was the
+living-room, and there the family spent their time when not out at work
+or retired to rest. It was the largest apartment in the house, and its
+great fire-place, with a ruddy back-log and pine knots flaming and
+sparkling on the iron-dogs, offered a most cheerful welcome on a New
+England winter's night. The baking oven, heated with fine-split dry wood,
+cooked the frugal but savory meal, which was served up on a solid
+old-fashioned table, around which the household gathered, first giving
+thanks to the Giver of all. When not busied with other duties, the
+housewife pressed with measured round the treadles of the loom, as she
+twilled the web she was weaving; and as the shades of evening descended
+the sonorous hum of the spinning-wheel gave token to the young man on
+courtship intent that the daughter of the house was at home. From the
+kitchen a door opened into the best room, a cheerless sort of place only
+thrown open on special occasions, and not to compare in comfort with the
+kitchen, its high-backed settle and its genial fire, whose glowing ashes
+seemed to reflect the warmer glow of loving eyes. Other doors from the
+kitchen opened into sleeping-rooms, although in the larger houses the
+family usually slept upstairs. The well was used for cooling purposes as
+well as water supply, and the old oaken bucket suspended from the
+well-sweep by means of a slender pole, invited the passing stranger to
+quaff nature's wholesome beverage. Wheeled vehicles were not often seen
+in the rural districts, horses being commonly used for locomotion. The
+difficulty of traveling discouraged intercourse between different
+communities, and a journey from Boston to New York, taking a week by
+stage-coach, and three or four days by sailing vessel, was a more
+momentous undertaking than a voyage to Europe now. Few traveled for
+pleasure. Few took any active interest in public affairs beyond their own
+neighborhood, or at most their own State, and the bond of the
+confederation rested loosely on communities now no longer united by the
+apprehension of common danger.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Between the North and the South the contrast was already ominous of
+future strife. The Southern planter lived like an aristocrat surrounded
+by servants and slaves, dispensing hospitality according to his means
+after the fashion of the British nobility. Cotton had not yet poured the
+gold of England into the lap of the South, but tobacco held its own as a
+substantial basis of wealth. In the North, on the other hand, the tiller
+of the soil was usually its owner, assisted sometimes by indentured
+servants or slaves, but never himself above the toil which he exacted
+from others. The North, too, had its great families, descendants of
+patroons and others who had received large grants of land and enjoyed
+exceptional privileges, and were now growing in wealth with the
+increasing value of their property; but the aristocratic Northern
+families were gradually losing political power and influence, and sinking
+toward the level of the people; whereas in the South the aristocratic
+element was arrogating more and more the control of State affairs, and
+the representation of Southern States in the councils of the nation. In
+the North also equality was promoted by the potent influence of the
+Revolution in breaking up the system of servile white labor. Master and
+man were summoned for the defence of their country; they fought, they
+suffered and endured together the same privations for a common cause.
+Distinctions of class were obliterated by the blood that flowed freely
+for the freedom of all, and what remained of ancient aristocratic
+prejudice was yet more thoroughly undermined by the example of the great
+social upheaval in France. Nevertheless the system of white servitude was
+not entirely abolished until long after the close of the eighteenth
+century, immigrants to this country frequently selling themselves as
+"redemptioners" to pay the cost of their passage. The limits of this form
+of service seldom exceeded seven years. No taint was apparently attached
+to it, and many a worthy family had a "redemptioner" for its first
+American ancestor.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Looking to the western frontier just after the Revolution, and in
+particular the forks of the Ohio, we see a population very different in
+character from that of the older settlements. The peace-loving Quaker
+clung to the eastern counties, where life and property were secured from
+raid and reprisal, and formed his ideas of the Indian character and
+deserts from the red men, who, either Christianized or demoralized,
+preferred the grudging charity of civilization to the rude and frugal
+spoils of the chase, or the blood-stained rapine of war. This specimen of
+Indian was usually so harmless, in some instances perhaps so deserving,
+that the well-meaning Quaker learned to receive with discredit the
+stories of horror from the frontier, and discouraged with his voice and
+influence every step toward the subjection of the hostile Indian and his
+European allies. Emigrants were forbidden, under stern penalties, to
+encroach on the Indian domain, and petitions from invaded settlements for
+arms and assistance, were met with cold indifference or positive refusal.
+The men and women who, in face of such discouragement, cast their lot
+beyond the mountains, must have been a hardy set indeed, and made of
+stuff not likely to yield in a wrestle with wild nature and wilder
+humanity.
+
+The early inhabitants of that frontier region were of sturdy Scotch and
+Irish stock. The troublous political times in their native countries
+doubtless had much to do with their emigration hither. The star of the
+Stuart line had set never to rise again, and its bright and hopeless
+flicker, in the days of '45, was extinguished in the blood of Scotland's
+noblest sons. But while order reigned, content was far from prevailing,
+and many a brave heart sought, on the distant shore of America, to forget
+the anguish of the past in the building of a prosperous future. With a
+final sigh for "Lochaber No More," the Highlander turned his gaze from
+the lochs and glens of his fathers, and crossed the ocean to that new
+land of promise where every man might be a laird, and a farm might be had
+for the asking, where no Culloden would remind him of the fate of his
+kindred, and his children could grow up far from the barbarous laws that
+crushed out the spirit of the ancient clans. Along the banks of the
+Monongahela those Scotch and Irish settlers built their rude cabins under
+the guns of Fort Pitt, guarded--strange irony of fate--from a savage
+enemy by the very flag which flaunted oppression in their native Britain
+and Ireland. That they learned to love their adopted land who can
+question? A Virginian cavalier, accustomed to the graces and _politesse_
+of a slave-owning aristocracy, saw fit to sneer at their humble abodes,
+and their lack of the finer accessories of civilization, forgetting that a
+cabin is more often than a palace the cradle of the purest patriotism, and
+that as true American hearts beat in those huts in the wilderness as in
+the courtly precincts of Richmond.
+
+But the "poor mechanics and laborers" exercised a tremendous influence on
+the destinies of the young, and as yet disunited republic. They were
+freemen. Pittsburg, the outpost of civilization, had no slave within
+sight of its redoubts, and the spirit of freedom which hovered there,
+found rest and refreshment for its broader flight toward the great
+northwest. The decision of 1780, which saved Pittsburg to Pennsylvania,
+preserved it as a stronghold of freedom and of free labor, and now it far
+surpasses in industry, wealth and population the then slave-labor capital
+of the Old Dominion.
+
+It is an interesting fact that the colonial French left no impress on the
+site where they made such a gallant stand for New France. They have
+vanished as completely as the Indian. In Detroit, in St. Louis, French
+ancestry can be traced in families of high position and honorable
+lineage. Such families are to those cities what the Knickerbockers are to
+New York. They give a gracious flavor to society; they are a link between
+the dim and heroic past and the dashing, eager, practical present; they
+add a dreamy fascination to the social landscape, like the lingering haze
+of morning illumined by the rays of the sun fast mounting to zenith.
+Where Duquesne stood, neither track nor mark remains of the volatile,
+daring and glory-loving race whose lily flag greeted the bearers of brave
+Beaujeu's remains from the fatal field of Braddock. No authentic trace
+has been discovered even of the fortifications which they erected, and
+Fort Duquesne is known only by its tragic place in American history.
+
+The ordinance of 1787, creating the Northwestern Territory, and throwing
+it open for settlement, at once induced a large emigration to the lands
+beyond the Ohio. Descendants of the Puritans mingled in the pioneer
+throng with rangers from Virginia and backwoodsmen from Pennsylvania. The
+frontiersman in hunting-shirt and moccasins blazed a path for the New
+Englander in broadcloth coat, velvet collar, bell-crowned hat and heavy
+boots. These emigrants all possessed valuable qualities for the building
+up of new States, and they all displayed in the trials which immediately
+beset them the courage which had carried the nation successfully through
+the war for independence. They were entering upon a vast and fertile
+domain which the aboriginal possessors, notwithstanding treaties, did not
+propose to abandon, and which was the scene of sanguinary conflict before
+it was finally surrendered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The Spirit of Disunion--Shays' Rebellion--A National Government Necessary
+--Adoption of the Constitution--Tariff and Internal Revenue--The Whiskey
+Insurrection--President Washington Calls Out the Military--Insurgents
+Surrender--"The Dreadful Night"--Hamilton's Inquisition.
+
+
+The spirit of disunion was brewing; the people were tax-ridden, the
+States without credit and the prevailing discontent found expression in
+riot and rebellion. The insurrection of Daniel Shays and his followers in
+Massachusetts, the disturbances in western North Carolina and other
+outbreaks in various parts of the country were but symptoms of radical
+weakness in the body politic, and of the complete failure of the
+loose-jointed confederation to command the confidence of the people and
+maintain the credit of the nation. It became evident that union was as
+vitally important in peace as in war; that national burdens could only be
+sustained by a national government, and that the welfare of trade and
+commerce required one system of interstate laws enforced by the united
+power of all the States. The adoption of the Federal Constitution created
+a nation; it created a free government worth all that it had cost; it
+realized the dream of Franklin and the prediction of Adams; it made
+possible the American Republic of to-day, and the great work was
+fittingly crowned with the election of George Washington as first
+President.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The first business of the new government was to establish the public
+credit. Alexander Hamilton, Washington's Secretary of the Treasury,
+proposed with this object a tariff on imports, and a tax on whiskey. To
+the former the people submitted readily enough; the latter provoked an
+insurrection which for some time threatened to be formidable. The farmers
+of the western counties of Pennsylvania--Westmoreland, Fayette,
+Washington and Allegheny--having no market for grain, in the decade
+following the Revolution, on account of the absence of large settlements
+in their vicinity, and the lack of facilities to transport to more
+distant places, were from necessity compelled to reduce the bulk of their
+grain by converting it into whiskey. A horse could carry two kegs of
+eight gallons each, worth about fifty cents per gallon on the western,
+and one dollar on the eastern side of the mountains, and return with a
+little iron and salt, the former worth fifteen to twenty cents per pound,
+the latter five dollars per bushel, at Pittsburg. The still was therefore
+the necessary appendage of every farm, where the farmer was able to
+procure it; if he was not he carried his grain to the more wealthy to be
+distilled. To the large majority of these farmers excise laws were
+peculiarly odious. The State of Pennsylvania made some attempt, during
+and just after the Revolution, to enforce an excise law; but without
+effect. A man named Graham, who had kept a public house in Philadelphia,
+accepted the appointment of Collector for the western counties. He was
+assailed, his head shaven and he was threatened with death. Other
+collectors were equally unsuccessful.
+
+The United States excise law was enacted in March, 1791. While the bill
+was before Congress, the subject was taken up by the Pennsylvania
+Legislature, then in session, and resolutions were passed in strong terms
+against the law, and requesting the senators and representatives, by a
+vote of thirty-six to eleven, to oppose its passage; the minority voting
+on the principle that it was improper to interfere with the action of the
+Federal Government, and not from approval of the measure. The law imposed
+a tax of from nine to twenty-five cents per gallon, according to
+strength, upon spirits distilled from grain. To secure the collection of
+the duties, suitable regulations were made. Inspection districts were
+established, one or more in each State, with an inspector for each.
+Distillers were to furnish at the nearest inspection office full
+descriptions of their buildings, which were always subject to examination
+by a person appointed for that purpose, who was to gauge and brand the
+casks; duties to be paid before removal. But to save trouble to small
+distillers, not in any town or village, they were allowed to pay an
+annual tax of sixty cents per gallon on the capacity of the still.
+
+Such a measure could not fail to be intensely unpopular, especially among
+the small farmers to whom the whiskey derived from their grain was the
+principal source of income and support. To the large distillers the tax
+was not altogether odious, as they comprehended that the new law would
+add greatly to their trade by cutting off their lesser rivals, and
+securing the manufacture of spirits to the well-to-do and
+well-established few. On the same ground distillers to-day are very
+generally opposed to the removal of the internal revenue tax on spirits.
+But popular clamor carried all before it, and it would have been unsafe
+for any one to openly avow himself in favor of the excise. At a meeting
+held in Pittsburg, on the seventh of September, 1791, resolutions were
+adopted denouncing the tax as "operating on a domestic manufacture--a
+manufacture not equal through the States. It is insulting to the feelings
+of the people to have their vessels marked, houses painted and ransacked,
+to be subject to informers gaining by the occasional delinquency of
+others. It is a bad precedent, tending to introduce the excise laws of
+Great Britain and of countries where the liberty, property and even the
+morals of the people are sported with to gratify particular men in their
+ambitious and interested measures." The duties were likewise denounced as
+injurious to agricultural interests.
+
+So far as refusal to obey the excise law, and defiance of the Federal
+officers empowered to enforce it, constituted rebellion, the western
+counties of Pennsylvania were in a condition of rebellion for over three
+years. President Washington was patient; the Congress was conciliatory;
+the State authorities were more than tolerant. General John Neville, a
+man of great wealth and well-deserved popularity, accepted the office of
+Inspector of the Revenue. Had he been discovered guilty of a monstrous
+crime, his popularity could not have more rapidly waned. Albert Gallatin,
+Brackenridge and other men, respected not only in Pennsylvania, but
+wherever known in the country at large, took counsel, and appeared to
+take sides with the multitude in their opposition to the national law.
+Their motives have been variously interpreted, according to prejudice or
+favor, but Marshall, in his "Life of Washington," gave the fair and
+reasonable view of their position when he said that "men of property and
+intelligence who had contributed to kindle the flame, under the common
+error of being able to regulate its heat, trembled at the extent of the
+conflagration. But it had passed the limits assigned to it, and was no
+longer subject to their control."
+
+The crowning outrage was the burning of Inspector Neville's house, in
+July, 1794. The inspector made his escape to Pittsburg. He and the United
+States Marshal were compelled to flee from the town, and on the first of
+August following, seven thousand armed men assembled at Braddock's Field
+and marched from thence into Pittsburg. All these men were not hostile to
+the laws and authority of the United States; many were compelled by
+threats of violence to go with the majority; not a few were present to
+restrain the reckless from breaking into open insurrection.
+
+President Washington deemed that the time for action had come. He called
+upon the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania for a force of militia
+sufficient to crush the insurrection, while at the same time he
+proclaimed amnesty to all who should certify by their signatures their
+readiness to sustain the government. The insurgents suddenly awakened to
+the knowledge that they had now the whole power of the United States
+against them, directed by that arm invulnerable alike to Indian,
+Frenchman and Briton. Multitudes came to their senses, and signed the
+pledge that saved them from punishment. Among these were many who had
+committed the gravest disorders. The United States forces, however,
+marched into the western counties, and the disturbed region was prostrate
+under military law.
+
+Old residents of Pittsburg have not yet forgotten the traditions of "The
+Dreadful Night"--the thirteenth of November, 1794. Without a moment's
+warning hundreds of citizens were arrested in Allegheny and the adjoining
+counties, dragged from their beds, and hurried away, half naked, from
+their frantic wives and weeping children. The arrests, in numerous
+instances, were attended with every circumstance of barbarity short of
+death. Prisoners were goaded, with shoeless and bleeding feet, on the
+road to Pittsburg; numbers of them were tied back to back, and thrown
+into a wet cellar as a place of detention. One man, whose child was
+dying, came forward voluntarily when the arrests were being made, hoping
+that humanity would prompt his release on a statement of his condition.
+He, too, was tied, and thrown in with the rest. When he obtained his
+liberty his child was dead. Among the prisoners was George Robinson,
+chief burgess of Pittsburg, a peaceable law-abiding man, who had never
+taken any share in the agitation against the excise. Brigadier-General
+White appears to have been chiefly responsible for the brutal treatment
+of the captives. When one of them, a veteran of the Revolution, lagged
+behind, owing to physical infirmity, White ordered him fastened to a
+horse's tail, and dragged along. The cruel command was not obeyed. On the
+following day, of about three hundred prisoners, all but ten were
+discharged, there being no evidence against the others. Of eighteen
+alleged offenders who were sent to Philadelphia, and marched through the
+streets, with the label "Insurgent" on their hats, but two were found
+guilty of crime. One was convicted of arson, another of robbing the
+United States mail, when the mail was intercepted with a view of
+capturing letters from the Federal officers in the western counties to
+the authorities at the capital. In both instances President Washington
+granted first a reprieve, then a pardon.
+
+Alexander Hamilton held an inquisitorial investigation to ascertain
+whether a blow had been meditated at the republic, and its form of
+government, under the guise of opposition to the revenue. He was
+evidently satisfied that there was no deeper plot than appeared on the
+surface, and that, apart from their whiskey-stills, the hearts of the
+West Pennsylvanians beat true to the Union.
+
+
+
+
+Independence Vindicated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Arrogance of France--Americans and Louis XVI--Genet Defies Washington--
+The People Support the President--War With the Indians--Defeat of St.
+Clair--Indians State Their Case--General Wayne Defeats the Savages--Jay's
+Treaty--Retirement of Washington--His Character--His Military Genius--
+Washington as a Statesman--His Views on Slavery--His Figure in History.
+
+
+The American nation had yet to win something besides independence,
+something without which independence would be a burden and a mockery--the
+respect of other nations; and in dealings between nations fear and
+respect are closely akin. The English still occupied posts within
+territory claimed by the United States, the Indians denied the right of
+the Americans to lands beyond the Ohio, and republican France, having
+beheaded her king, regarded the United States as a vassal on account of
+the debt of gratitude which America owed to that king. War with England
+had given place to jealous and intolerant rivalry, and friendship with
+France had been succeeded by an arrogant assumption of patronage and
+almost of suzerainty menacing to our national independence. Such were the
+clouds that rose above the ocean horizon, while the western sky was
+darkened by the shadow of Indian hostility as yet far from contemptible,
+and directed by able chieftains, like Little Turtle, more than a match in
+the field and in diplomacy for most of their white antagonists. These
+were the circumstances which made it apparent to Americans that the
+Federal Constitution had come not a day too soon, which welded the nation
+together like an armor-plate of steel against foes on every hand, and
+taught the need of union as it never could have been taught amid
+surroundings of prosperity and peace.
+
+The French Revolution acquitted the American people of all obligations to
+France. It was not to the French people, but to the French king that
+Americans owed the assistance without which the war for independence
+might have ended in calamity, and with the exception of the Marquis de
+Lafayette the Frenchmen who were conspicuous as servants of the king in
+aiding the American cause, were foes, not friends of the Revolution. The
+French nation, as such, had no more to do with casting the power of
+France into the scales on the side of America than the people of Russia
+had to do with their czar's championship of Bulgaria. Had it been in the
+power of Americans to have saved Louis XVI. from the scaffold, they would
+have shown cruel ingratitude not to have interfered in his behalf. It was
+a most arrogant and baseless assumption on the part of the French
+democracy to claim credit for what the Bourbon king had done in sending
+his army and navy to these shores and supplying funds to equip and
+maintain our troops. It is true that the men he sent here were Frenchmen,
+and that the money came from the pockets of the people of France, but his
+will directed the troops, and diverted to American use the funds of which
+France was sorely in need. To Louis XVI., to his great minister,
+Vergennes, to Rochambeau and Lafayette, American independence was due, so
+far as it was due to any human source outside of America. Rochambeau and
+Lafayette both narrowly escaped the fate of their king, and Vergennes
+died before the Revolution which would have made him either a victim or
+an emigre.[1] So much for the claims of the first French republic that
+America was ungrateful in not arraying its forces against embattled
+Europe in defence of the men who slew Louis XVI. for crimes which others
+committed.
+
+      [1] During the reign of terror Rochambeau was arrested at his estate
+      near Vendome, conducted to Paris, thrown into the Conciergerie and
+      condemned to death. When the car came to convey a number of victims
+      to the guillotine, he was about to mount it, but the official in
+      charge seeing it full thrust him back. "Stand back, old marshal,"
+      cried he, roughly, "your turn will come by and by." A sudden change
+      in political affairs saved his life, and enabled him to return to
+      his home near Vendome. Rochambeau survived the Revolution, and
+      received the grand cross of the Legion of Honor and a marshal's
+      pension from the great Napoleon.--_From Irving's Life of
+      Washington._
+
+It is probable that none save Washington could have guided the nation
+through the perilous excitement aroused by the efforts of the French
+minister Genet to involve the United States in war with England and other
+powers. For a time many cool-headed and able men were carried away by the
+popular enthusiasm in favor of France, but Genet presumed too far, when
+he deliberately insulted and defied that national authority which the
+nation itself had created, and the American people rallied at length,
+irrespective of party, to the support of the President. France for the
+time, abandoned her menacing attitude, only to resume it a few years
+later, with results disastrous to herself.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+However American in feeling, it is impossible not to have some sympathy
+with the Indians in their struggle to retain their hunting-grounds beyond
+the Ohio. Savages as they were, natural right was on their side, and many
+of the whites opposed to them were more savage and inhuman than the worst
+of the redskinned barbarians. The massacre of the Christian Indians at
+Gnadenhutten by a party of frontiersmen was a deed not surpassed in
+atrocity in the annals of any country, and far surpassing in deliberate
+cruelty anything charged against the Indian race. It was a pity that the
+actual perpetrators of that dark crime did not fall into the hands of
+warlike Indians, instead of the unfortunate William Crawford, the leader
+of a subsequent expedition, whose awful death by fire was the Indian
+penalty for the Moravian massacre. The masterly ability of Little Turtle
+proved for years a barrier against pioneer progress, and the defeat of
+St. Clair and his army in 1791, left the frontiers at the mercy of the
+red men. This defeat was one of the most terrible ever suffered at the
+hands of the Indians, and aroused on the part of Washington a display of
+temper which showed how deeply he felt the wound inflicted on his
+country.
+
+General Anthony Wayne took the place of St. Clair as commander, and
+further hostilities were preceded by an attempt at negotiation. It must
+be confessed by any impartial reader that the Indians stated their case
+calmly, clearly and with impressive reasoning. They demanded that
+Americans be removed from the northern side of the Ohio, and they averred
+that treaties previously signed by them to the contrary effect had been
+signed under misapprehension. "Brothers," said the Indians, "you have
+talked to as about concessions. It appears strange that you should expect
+any from us, who have only been defending our just rights against your
+invasions. We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be
+enemies no longer." "Your answer." said the American commissioners,
+"amounts to a declaration that you will agree to no other boundary than
+the Ohio. The negotiation is, therefore, at an end." This decision was
+arrived at in August, 1793. Meantime the United States escaped the danger
+which would have been brought upon them had Genet succeeded in his
+schemes, and involved America in war with England and Spain, both of
+which countries were prepared to assist the Indians, had the Americans
+taken the side of France. Active hostilities were not resumed in the
+Northwest, however, until the summer of 1794, when General Wayne, at the
+head of his troops, again attempted to secure a peaceful settlement of
+the Indian troubles, and failing in that attacked and defeated the
+Indians near the rapids of the Maumee, a few miles from the Miam. Fort,
+which the English had established within the American territory. Little
+Turtle, who led the Indians, had been in favor of peace, but was
+overborne by more impetuous warriors. Peace soon followed, and the
+settlement of the Northwest proceeded for a time without interruption.
+Those who regard the Indians as a lazy and thriftless race should read
+what General Wayne says about them: "The very extensive and highly
+cultivated fields and gardens show the work of many hands. The margins of
+these beautiful rivers appear like a continued village for a number of
+miles. Nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields of corn in any
+part of America, from Canada to Florida."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Jay's Treaty, so-called from John Jay, who acted on behalf of the United
+States in negotiating the measure, secured a temporary and unsatisfactory
+adjustment of the differences between the United States and Great
+Britain. The fact that Washington was willing to approve the treaty,
+although dissatisfied with it, is its sufficient vindication, and the
+agreement on the part of England to surrender the western posts was no
+small advantage for the United States, especially in the impression which
+it produced on the Indians of the decline of British and the growth of
+American power. The worst features of the treaty were that it restricted
+the commerce of the United States, so far as concerned molasses, sugar,
+coffee, cocoa and cotton, the last-mentioned article being already a
+product of the United States, and that it failed to protect the seamen on
+American vessels against seizure and impressment by the British. It was,
+taken as a whole, a humiliating compact, and in its commercial provisions
+an abandonment of the principle which inspired the Boston Tea Party, and
+for which Americans had fought in the war of independence. The mutual
+freedom of intercourse and internal trading, including common navigation
+of the Mississippi, was advantageous only to Great Britain, which
+country, as subsequent events showed, had not given up hope of
+reconquering the trans-Ohio region, and carrying British dominion from
+the Lakes to Mobile.
+
+The United States had to do something, however, to show that the American
+Republic was not either secretly or openly an ally of the French Republic
+against the remainder of Europe, and while the Jay Treaty was not what
+Washington and the American people desired, it was all that England would
+agree to. As a _modus vivendi_ with our only dangerous neighbor it enabled
+the American people to devote to domestic development the energies which
+would otherwise have been expended in war, and to grasp the neutral
+carrying trade upon which war would have placed an embargo. England would
+doubtless have been gratified with any plausible excuse that would have
+enabled her to destroy American commerce, and to be without a rival on the
+Atlantic. Jay's Treaty prevented this, and England had to leave to her
+friends, the Barbary pirates, the work of preying on the American carrying
+trade in European waters.[2] These depredations were already so serious in
+1794 that a bill was introduced in Congress, passed after some opposition,
+and cordially approved by President Washington, providing for a force of
+six frigates to protect American commerce from the corsairs. These
+frigates did splendid service later on, not only against the pirates, but
+also against the French and British.
+
+      [2] As early as 1784 Lord Sheffield said in Parliament: "It is not
+      probable that the American States will have a very free trade in the
+      Mediterranean. It will not be to the interest of any of the great
+      maritime powers to protect them from the Barbary States. If they
+      know their interests they will not encourage American carriers."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The scenes which attended the close of Washington's public career were
+some compensation to that ever-illustrious man for the wounds inflicted
+during his administration by reckless and venomous partisanship. No
+President of the United States was ever more fiercely and bitterly
+assailed than Washington. His enemies even went so far as to doom him in
+caricature to the fate of Louis XVI. He was accused of monarchical
+designs, and had to confront treachery in his Cabinet and scurrilous
+slanders in the public press. Yet throughout all he bore himself with
+patience, and never swerved from the course which he deemed best for the
+public weal. It should not be supposed that he was indifferent to the
+arrows of malice and of falsehood. On the contrary, he was extremely
+sensitive to them; but he never permitted himself, in public at least, to
+be carried away by his feelings, and no matter how strong his sentiments
+on any subject, his sense of justice was always supreme. In his agony
+upon the news of St. Clair's defeat, he denounced that general as worse
+than a murderer for having suffered his army to be taken by surprise; but
+when the burst of passion was over he added: "General St. Clair shall
+have justice. I will receive him without displeasure; I will hear him
+without prejudice." And Washington kept his word.
+
+Far abler pens than mine have dealt with the character of the Father of
+our Republic, but a few plain and original expressions on a subject never
+wearisome to Americans may not be out of place. Washington's chief
+characteristics were fortitude, the sense of justice of which I have
+spoken, and the ability to grasp conditions and seize upon opportunities.
+He was a thoroughly practical man, a strategist by instinct, fearless but
+not rash, possessing an impetuous temper kept within careful control, and
+unleashed only when, as at the battle of Monmouth, there was prudence in
+its vehemence. He was an excellent judge of men. The officers who owed
+their advancement to Washington seldom disappointed and often exceeded
+expectations. He was above the petty jealousy, so conspicuous in our late
+civil war, that would permit another general to be defeated in order to
+shine by contrast. He was devoted to the cause more than to winning
+personal reputation, and the effect of his unselfishness was that the
+cause triumphed with his name fixed in history as that of its leader and
+champion.
+
+It is difficult to compare the military achievements of Washington with
+those of Old World commanders. Marlborough, Wellington and Napoleon had
+troops thoroughly organized, under complete military control, and held to
+service by iron rules which made the general always sure that his
+military machine would be ready for use, barring the chances of war.
+Washington's forces were largely composed of militia, enlisted for short
+periods, many of them induced to serve by bounties, and anxious to go
+home and attend to their farms.[3] The soldiers, too, were shamefully
+neglected by Congress and by their States, and it seems wonderful that
+Washington should have kept them together as he did, or maintained an
+army at all. In this respect Washington showed genius as a military
+manager without parallel in history. It should not be forgotten, also,
+that to Washington is largely due credit for victories at which he was
+not present. His was the master mind which scanned the entire field,
+directed all operations and made the triumphs of others possible. His
+closing campaign, which ended in the surrender of Cornwallis, exhibited
+military talent of the highest order. In conception and execution it was
+equal to any of Napoleon's campaigns. It embraced an extent of territory,
+from New York to North Carolina inclusive, as extensive as the present
+German empire, and every movement was that of a master hand on the
+chess-board of war. Success without the French would have been
+impossible, without Greene's admirable generalship it might have been
+impossible, but Washington conceived and carried through to
+accomplishment the whole great scheme which resulted in a final and
+crashing blow to British hopes of subjugating America.[4]
+
+      [3] Mr. William L. Stone, the historical writer, recently published
+      the diary of a relative who served a few months in the Revolution,
+      and who received ten sheep for enlisting. The soldier in question
+      appears to have been in the habit of going home whenever he felt
+      like it to cultivate his crops.
+
+      Governor Clinton said of the militia: "They come in the morning and
+      return in the evening, and I never know when I have them, or what my
+      strength is."--_Letter to the New York Council of Safety._
+
+      [4] M. Barbe Marbois, who was Secretary of the French Legation in
+      the United States during the Revolution, says of Washington: "The
+      sound judgment of Washington, his steadiness and ability, had long
+      since elevated him above all his rivals and far beyond the reach of
+      envy. His enemies still labored, however, to fasten upon him, as a
+      general, the reproach of mediocrity. It is true that the military
+      career of this great man is not marked by any of those achievements
+      which seem prodigious, and of which the splendor dazzles and
+      astonishes the universe, but sublime virtues unsullied with the
+      least stain are a species of prodigy. His conduct throughout the
+      whole course of the war invariably attracted and deserved the
+      veneration and confidence of his fellow-citizens. The good of his
+      country was the sole end of his exertions, never personal glory. In
+      war and in peace, Washington is in my eyes the most perfect model
+      that can be offered to those who would devote themselves to the
+      service of their country and assert the cause of liberty."
+
+As a statesman Washington merited distinction fully equal to that gained
+in his military career. To him the United States were always a nation,
+and only as a nation could they exist. His influence was as potent in
+forming the Union as his military genius had been in achieving
+independence, and the veneration with which he was regarded abroad
+secured for the new nation a degree of respect in foreign cabinets, which
+was almost vital to its existence, and which no other American could have
+commanded. At home, too, he rose superior to the discord of ambitious men
+and of rival factions, and those who, like Edmund Randolph, attempted to
+belittle him, only called attention thereby to their own comparative
+unworthiness and insignificance, and were glad in later years to seek
+oblivion for their abortive folly.
+
+In his domestic life Washington was one of the best of husbands, as he
+was blessed with one of the best of wives. He held slaves, and I have
+never been of those who claim that he regarded slavery with serious
+disapproval. He was too conscientious a man to have retained a single
+slave in his possession or under his control if his conscience did not
+approve the relation. That Washington favored the gradual abolition of
+slavery his letters leave no doubt, and especially those to John P.
+Mercer and Lawrence Lewis, quoted by Washington Irving, but in the
+letterbook of the great Rhode Island merchant, Moses Brown, which I was
+allowed, some years ago, to examine, I read a letter from General
+Washington which, as I remember, indicated Washington's anti-slavery
+opinions to be more abstract than active, and conveyed distinctly the
+impression that he saw nothing wrong whatever in the holding of human
+chattels. Washington's views on slavery were those of a Southern planter
+of the most enlightened class, and the provisions which he made in his
+will for the emancipation of his slaves on the decease of his wife, and
+for the care of those who might be unable to support themselves, showed
+that no color-line narrowed his sense of justice and of humanity.
+
+The fame of Washington has not lost in brilliancy since he passed from
+the world in which he acted such a providential part. Like the Phidian
+Zeus his proportions are all the more majestic for the distance which
+rounds over any venial defect. His example is as valuable to the American
+Republic of the present as his life-work was to the America of a century
+ago. As water never rises above its source, so a great nation should have
+a great founder, and the figure of Washington is sublime enough to be the
+oriflamme of a people's empire bounded only by the oceans which wash the
+land that he loved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+John Adams President--Jefferson and the French Revolution--The French
+Directory--Money Demanded from America--"Millions for Defence; Not One
+Penny for Tribute"--Naval Warfare with France--Capture of the Insurgent
+--Defeat of the Vengeance--Peace with France--Death of Washington--Alien
+and Sedition Laws--Jefferson President--The Louisiana Purchase--Burr's
+Alleged Treason--War with the Barbary States--England Behind the Pirates
+--Heroic Naval Exploits--Carrying War Into Africa--Peace with Honor.
+
+
+The Jay treaty secured peace with England, but it was accepted as almost
+a declaration of war by France. The attitude of the French government did
+not become intolerable until after the retirement of Washington from the
+presidency. John Adams, who succeeded Washington, belonged to the
+Federalist party, which supported a strong central government with
+aristocratic tendencies, and was opposed to the Republican party, which
+sympathized with the French Revolution, and whose members were,
+therefore, known also as "Democrats." Alexander Hamilton was the chief
+spirit of the Federalists and Thomas Jefferson of the Republicans. The
+intense Jacobinism of Jefferson's views may be judged from some of his
+utterances, in which he even defended the terrible September massacres of
+the French Revolution. Speaking of the innocent who perished he said: "I
+deplore them as I should have done had they fallen in battle. It was
+necessary to use the arm of the people, a machine not quite so blind as
+balls and bombs, but blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial
+friends met at their hands the fate of enemies. * * * My own affections
+have been deeply wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather
+than it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated;
+were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free,
+it would be better than it is now."
+
+The spread of these ideas shocked and alarmed conservative men, including
+Washington himself, Hamilton and Adams, and led to measures of
+restriction that were injudicious in their severity. The nation, however,
+united as one man, irrespective of party, to resent the intolerable
+insolence of the French, who assumed that they could crush America with
+the same ease that they subdued the petty states of Italy and Germany.
+The French Directory, which had succeeded to the Terrorists in the
+exercise of power virtually supreme, was composed of men whose depravity
+we have seen shockingly illustrated in the recently published memoirs of
+Barras. Its foreign policy was managed by the vulpine Talleyrand, who is
+accused by Barras of having extorted large sums of money from the lesser
+States of Europe as the price of being let alone--although it is
+extremely probable that Barras and others of the Directory shared in
+these ill-gotten funds. Talleyrand tried to extort similar tribute from
+America, demanding that a douceur of two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars be put at his disposal for the use of the Directory, and a large
+loan made by America to France. "Millions for defence--not one penny for
+tribute!" was the cry that went up from the American people when this
+infamous proposition was made known.
+
+Washington was summoned from his retirement to take command of the
+American army, a Secretary of the Navy was added to the President's
+Cabinet--Benjamin Stoddart, of Georgetown, D. C., being the first--and
+the new American navy was authorized to retaliate upon France for
+outrages committed upon American shipping. A vigorous naval warfare
+followed, in which the new American frigates proved more than a match for
+the French. The American Constellation, forty-eight guns, after a sharp
+engagement, captured the French frigate Insurgent, forty guns. It is
+really amusing to note the tone of injured innocence in which Captain
+Barreaut, of the Insurgent, who had himself captured the American cruiser
+Retaliation but a short time before, reports to his government his
+"surprise on finding himself fought by an American frigate after all the
+friendship and protection accorded to the United States!" "My
+indignation," he adds, "was at its height." It soon cooled off, however,
+under the pressure of broadsides from the Constellation, and Captain
+Barreaut was glad to surrender. The second frigate action of the war was
+between the Constellation and the Vengeance, the former fifty guns, the
+latter fifty-two. The Frenchman, badly beaten, succeeded in making his
+escape. The battle between the American frigate Boston and the French
+corvette Berceau was one of the most gallant of the struggle, the Berceau
+fighting until resistance was hopeless. American merchantmen also showed
+the French that they could defend themselves, and one of Moses Brown's
+ships, the Anne and Hope, sailed into Providence from a voyage to the
+West Indies, bearing in her rigging the marks of conflict with a French
+privateer, whom the merchantman had bravely repulsed. During the two
+years and a half of naval war with France eighty-four armed French
+vessels, nearly all of them privateers, were captured, and no vessel of
+our navy was taken by the enemy, except the Retaliation. This was not the
+kind of tribute the French government had expected, and a treaty of
+peace, which entirely sustained the position of the United States, was
+ratified in February, 1801.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The illustrious Washington, who fortunately had not been required to take
+the field against America's ancient allies, died December 14, 1799, at
+Mount Vernon, deeply mourned by all his countrymen, and honored even by
+the former enemies of American independence. I will only repeat, with
+Washington Irving, that "with us his memory remains a national property,
+where all sympathies throughout our widely extended and diversified
+empire meet in unison. Under all dissensions and amid all the storms of
+party, his precepts and example speak to us from the grave with a
+paternal appeal; and his name--by all revered--forms a universal tie of
+brotherhood--a watchword of our Union."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+While the nation heartily sustained the government in the conflict with
+France the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Laws, which abridged
+American liberty and the freedom of speech and of the press, was
+generally resented by the people. The public indignation which these laws
+aroused resulted in the banishment of the Federalist party from power,
+and the election of the great Republican--or Democrat--Thomas Jefferson,
+as President in 1800, with Aaron Burr as Vice-President. Jefferson was
+the first President inaugurated in the city of Washington. The leading
+features of his administration were the Louisiana Purchase, the Burr
+conspiracy and the war with the Barbary States--the first alone
+sufficient to make Jefferson's presidency the most memorable between that
+of Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
+
+Jefferson's foresight in the Louisiana Purchase appears all the grander
+when we consider the ignorance which prevailed regarding the magnificent
+Pacific region up to the birth of a generation which is still in middle
+life. The Louisiana Purchase was the second great gift of France to
+America, and as the first came to us because the French hated and desired
+to weaken England, so the second came because Napoleon feared that
+Louisiana would fall into the hands of England. It should be remembered
+that the Louisiana Purchase included not only the now flourishing State
+at the mouth of the Mississippi, but also Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa,
+Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and probably the two
+Dakotas. It meant the control of the Mississippi and the rescue of that
+great artery of American commerce forever from foreign dominion. France
+had acquired this vast property from Spain in 1800. The Amiens Treaty of
+1802, to which France and England were the principal parties, was short
+lived, and for some time before the new rupture Napoleon saw that it
+would be his best policy to concentrate his strength in Europe, and not
+endeavor to defend distant possessions in America. At the same time it
+was evident to President Jefferson that the continued occupation of the
+city of New Orleans by a foreign power was a menace to American interests
+in the rapidly growing West. The President therefore instructed Robert R.
+Livingston, the American Minister to Paris, to propose to Napoleon the
+cession to the United States of New Orleans and adjoining territory,
+sufficient to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi. James
+Monroe, American Minister to England, was associated with Livingston in
+the negotiations. The American representatives were surprised and elated
+upon learning from M. Barbe-Marbois, Napoleon's Minister of Finance, that
+the First Consul was ready to dispose of all Louisiana to the United
+States. Barbe-Marbois conducted the negotiations on behalf of France;
+both parties were anxious to arrive at a settlement before the English
+should have an opportunity to attack New Orleans, and on April 30, 1803,
+the treaty was signed by which the United States, for the sum of
+$15,000,000, came into possession of an immense territory extending from
+the North Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. The loan necessary was
+negotiated through the celebrated house of Hope, of Amsterdam, the money
+was paid to France, and the United States entered upon its vast estate.
+
+The very next year President Jefferson sent out the expedition of Lewis
+and Clark to the headwaters of the Columbia River, and caused a complete
+survey to be made to its mouth. This river had been discovered in 1792,
+by Captain Robert Gray, a native of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and a famous
+navigator, who sailed in a ship fitted out by Boston merchants. Had
+Jefferson's energetic action been followed up with equal vigor by his
+successors we would never have had the Oregon boundary dispute, and
+Marcus Whitman would never have felt summoned to take that famous ride so
+worthily chronicled by Oliver W. Nixon.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+With Aaron Burr's alleged treason I will deal very briefly. It will
+always be a disputed point whether that restless and unprincipled and yet
+gifted person plotted to alienate territory of the United States, or only
+to play the part of a Northman in territory belonging to Spain. Admitting
+Burr to be innocent of designs against the United States, he was
+nevertheless guilty of quasi-treason if he schemed to erect a separate
+government within Spanish possessions to which the American Republic was
+already heir apparent. The murder of Alexander Hamilton by Burr under the
+forms of a duel, which preceded his mysterious expedition in the
+southwest, and his subsequent attempt to claim British allegiance on the
+ground that he had been a British subject before the Revolution, were
+other extraordinary incidents in the career of a man in whom
+distinguished talents were utterly without the anchor of morality.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+No war in which the United States has been engaged witnessed more heroic
+deeds than that with the Barbary States. It was a struggle in which the
+youngest of civilized nations met the semi-barbarous masters of Northern
+Africa, the heirs of Mahomet and conquerors of the Constantines. Attended
+by the loss of some precious lives, which were deeply mourned and are
+gratefully remembered, the chastisement of the corsairs proved excellent
+schooling for the more serious war with Great Britain. The struggle with
+the pirates was largely due to the hostile influence exerted by England
+with a view to the destruction of American commerce. In 1793 the British
+government actually procured a truce between Algiers and Portugal, in
+order that the Algerians might have free rein in preying upon American
+and other merchantmen, and it may be said that piracy in the
+Mediterranean was under British protection. The American people for a
+time paid the tribute which the pirates demanded, but at length revolted
+against the indignity. The war began with disaster. The American frigate
+Philadelphia, Captain William Bainbridge, ran on a reef in the harbor of
+Tripoli, and all on board were made prisoners. The Bashaw held his
+captives for ransom, and treated them sometimes with indulgence and at
+other times with severity, as he thought best for his interests. It
+should not be forgotten by the American people that Mr. Nissen, the
+Danish consul, devoted himself assiduously to the welfare of the
+prisoners, and was instrumental in many ways in assisting the American
+cause, while Captain Bainbridge also managed to give most valuable
+information to Captain Edward Preble, in command of the American
+squadron.
+
+One suggestion made by Captain Bainbridge was that the Philadelphia,
+which the Tripolitans had succeeded in raising, should be destroyed at
+her anchorage in the harbor. The youthful Lieutenant Decatur headed this
+perilous enterprise. With the officers and men under his command,
+including Lieutenant James Lawrence and others afterward distinguished in
+American naval history, Decatur entered the harbor at night in a small
+vessel or "ketch" called the Mastico, disguised as a trader from Malta.
+The watchword was "Philadelphia," and strict orders were given not to
+discharge any firearms, except in great emergency. A challenge from the
+Tripolitans on the Philadelphia was met by a statement from the Maltese
+pilot that the Mastico had just arrived from Malta, had been damaged in a
+gale, and lost her anchors, and desired to make fast to the frigate's
+cables until another anchor could be procured. The Turks lowered a boat
+with a hawser, intending to secure the ketch to their stern, instead of
+to the cables, and the Americans accepted the hawser, intimating in
+broken Italian that they would do as desired. At the same time the
+Americans made fast to the Philadelphia's fore chains, and a strong pull
+by the men, who were mostly lying down in order to remain unseen by the
+Turks, swung the ketch alongside the frigate. One of the Turks looking
+over the side saw the men hauling on the line, and sent up the
+cry--"Americano!"
+
+The Turks succeeded in severing the line, but too late. The Americans
+sprang for the Philadelphia's deck and charged upon the astonished enemy.
+In ten minutes from the appearance of the first American on deck the
+vessel was in our hands. Combustibles were then passed from the ketch,
+and the Philadelphia was set on fire. While the Americans safely made
+their escape the burning frigate lighted up the harbor, and her shotted
+guns boomed warning to the Bashaw of what he might yet expect from
+American courage and daring. Of the Tripolitans on board the Philadelphia
+many doubtless perished, and some swam ashore. Only one prisoner was
+taken, a wounded Tripolitan, who swam to the ketch, and whose life was
+spared, notwithstanding strict orders not to take prisoners.
+
+The Bashaw treated his captives more rigorously than ever, after this
+splendid exploit, fearing apparently that they might rise and capture his
+own castle--a fear not without foundation, as a rising with that object
+was for some time contemplated. The ketch in which Decatur made his
+daring and successful expedition was christened the Intrepid, and fitted
+up as a floating mine with the purpose of sending her into the harbor,
+and exploding her in the midst of the Tripolitan shipping. It was an
+enterprise likely to be attended by the destruction of all engaged in it,
+but volunteers were not lacking. Master-Commandant Richard Somers,
+Decatur's bosom friend, was in charge and Midshipman Henry Wadsworth,
+uncle of the poet Longfellow, was second in command. Midshipman Joseph
+Israel also managed to get on the ketch unobserved, and was permitted to
+remain. The crew consisted of ten seamen from the Nautilus and the
+Constitution, all volunteers. The fate of these gallant men was never
+known, except that it is certain that they all perished upon the
+explosion of the Intrepid. Bodies found mangled beyond recognition were
+unquestionably the remains of these heroes, and were buried on the beach
+outside the town of Tripoli.
+
+The attack was conducted with unceasing vigor, not only on sea, but on
+land, the Americans literally carrying the war into Africa by inciting
+Hamet, the deposed Bashaw of Tripoli, to attack the brother who had
+usurped his throne. William Eaton, the American consul at Tunis, led
+Hamet's army, and with the cooperation of the fleet, made a successful
+attack upon Derne, the capital of the richest province of Tripoli. The
+loss of this important fortress brought the reigning Bashaw to terms, and
+he signed a treaty giving up all claims to tribute, and releasing the
+American prisoners on payment of sixty thousand dollars. A most
+advantageous peace was likewise dictated to the Bey of Tunis, who had
+also been induced by English influences to assume a menacing attitude
+toward the Americans, and the schemes of Great Britain to prevent,
+through the agency of Barbary pirates, the growth of American commerce,
+were disappointed.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+French Decrees and British Orders in Council--Damage to American
+Commerce--The Embargo--Causes of the War of 1812--The Chesapeake and the
+Leopard--President and Little Belt--War Declared--Mr. Astor's Messenger
+--The Two Navies Compared--American Frigate Victories--Constitution and
+Guerriere--United States and Macedonian--Constitution and Java--American
+Sloop Victories--The Shannon and Chesapeake--"Don't Give Up the Ship."
+
+
+The Barbary pirates had been brought to terms, but American commerce was
+being severely handled between French decrees and British orders in
+council. England had declared a blockade of all the coasts of Europe
+under the control of France, and Napoleon from his camp at Berlin and his
+palace at Milau retaliated by making British products contraband of war
+and subjecting to confiscation all vessels destined for British ports.
+Between these two mighty millstones the American carrying trade was
+sorely ground, and conditions were made far worse by the very means which
+the American government, in its comparative impotency, adopted to compel
+redress. The embargo was intended to inflict such injury on both France
+and England as to drive them into a recognition of America's rights as a
+neutral. Its only serious effect was to inflict an almost fatal wound on
+American commerce, and the repeal of the first embargo came too late to
+undo the injury it had done. It was not as clearly apparent then as now
+that all restrictions on exportation chiefly injure the nation which
+imposes them. The embargo played into the hands of the British by
+effecting through our own agency what England had vainly sought to
+accomplish through others. England commanding every sea with her fleets
+suffered but slight inconvenience by the withdrawal of American shipping
+from her ports, while Americans suffered most severely.
+
+The British blockade of continental Europe would not, however, have led
+to the conflict which broke out in 1812. Other aggressions, offensive to
+American independence, and in grievous violation of American national
+rights, obliged Congress reluctantly to declare war, after years of
+irritation and provocation on the part of England. The British stopped
+American vessels on the high seas, and impressed American seamen into the
+British naval service. American merchantmen were halted in mid-ocean and
+deprived of the best men in their crews, who were forced to serve in the
+British navy.[1]
+
+      [1] In the famous sea-fight between the American frigate United
+      States and the British frigate Macedonian several American seamen on
+      the British vessel, through their spokesman, John Card, who was
+      described by one of his shipmates as being "as brave a seamen as
+      ever trod a plank," frankly told Captain Garden their objections to
+      fighting the American flag. The British commander savagely ordered
+      them back to their quarters, threatening to shoot them if they again
+      made the request. Half an hour later Jack Card was stretched out on
+      the Macedonian's deck weltering in his blood, slain by a shot from
+      his countrymen.--_Maclay's History of the United States Navy, D.
+      Appleton & Co._
+
+Thousands of American seamen were thus impressed, while American vessels
+were seized by British cruisers, taken to port and unloaded and searched
+for contraband of war. The Leopard-Chesapeake affair was a crowning
+outrage on the part of the British, and had it not been promptly
+disavowed by the government at London, war would have been declared in
+1807 instead of 1812. The Chesapeake, an American frigate of thirty-six
+guns, commanded by Captain James Barren, was hailed by the English
+fifty-gun frigate, Leopard, Captain Humphreys, in the open sea. The
+latter sent a lieutenant on board the Chesapeake, who handed to Captain
+Barren an order signed by the British Vice-Admiral Berkeley, directing
+all commanders in Berkeley's squadron to board the Chesapeake wherever
+found on the high seas, and search the vessel for deserters. Captain
+Barren's ship was utterly unprepared for battle, but he gave orders to
+clear tor action. So shameful was the lack of preparation on the
+Chesapeake that not a gun could be discharged until Lieutenant William
+Henry Allen seized a live coal from the galley fire with his fingers and
+sent a shot in response to repeated broadsides from the Leopard. The
+Chesapeake hauled down her flag after losing three killed and eighteen
+wounded. The British then boarded the vessel and carried off four of the
+crew, who were claimed as British deserters, although they all asserted
+to the last that they were American citizens. One of these men, Jenkin
+Ratford or John Wilson, was hanged at the yard-arm of the British
+man-of-war Halifax. The other three were sentenced each to receive five
+hundred lashes, but the sentences were not carried out, and two of them,
+the third having died, were returned on board the Chesapeake. Some
+indemnity was paid and the British government recalled Vice-Admiral
+Berkeley.
+
+The British continued to impress Americans into their service, and to
+annoy American shipping, and the American temper was gradually becoming
+inflamed under repeated provocations. Nevertheless there was a powerful
+sentiment opposed to war in the State of New York and in New England, and
+the people generally hesitated to believe that war would be declared. In
+1811 the American frigate President avenged in some degree the Leopard
+outrage by severely chastising the British twenty-two-gun ship Little
+Belt, which lost eleven killed and twenty-one wounded in the encounter.
+The Little Belt appears to have fired the first shot. War was at length
+declared by Congress, and proclaimed by President James Madison, June 18,
+1812.
+
+The news of war with Great Britain was carried, to New York by a special
+courier, and American merchants at once sent out a swift sailing vessel
+to warn American merchantmen in the ports of Northern Europe of the new
+danger that threatened them. By this warning many American vessels were
+saved from capture. Very different in result, although presumably not in
+intent, was the warning sent by John Jacob Astor, of New York, to his
+agent across the border. Mr. Astor, upon receiving the news from
+Washington, at once dispatched a messenger by swiftest express, to
+Queenstown, Canada, with the view of protecting as speedily as possible
+Mr. Astor's fur-trading interests. The messenger sped through the
+settlements of western New York, by farms and villages calmly reposing in
+the confidence of peace, and without saying a word of his momentous
+secret, he crossed the Niagara River with his master's message. The
+recipient of that message was a British subject, and felt bound by his
+allegiance to communicate it to the authorities. The following morning
+the people of Buffalo were surprised to see the Canadians descend upon
+their harbor and seize the shipping within reach.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Hostilities were opened promptly on land and sea. The American navy
+consisted only of seventeen vessels, 442 guns and 5025 men, while that of
+Great Britain included 1048 vessels, 27,800 guns and 151,572 men. It is
+no wonder that the American people hesitated to send forth their
+men-of-war against such tremendous odds, even although England's navy was
+largely engaged in the tremendous conflict with France, or rather in
+keeping Napoleon cribbed and cabined within his continental boundaries;
+and it is no wonder that British naval officers assumed to regard with
+contempt the fir-built frigates which bore the Stars and Stripes. The
+defeat and capture of the British frigate Guerriere, forty-nine guns,
+Captain Dacres, by the American frigate Constitution, fifty-five guns,
+Captain Isaac Hull, made British contempt give place to surprise. In this
+naval battle the Americans proved their superiority in rapidity and
+accuracy of fire, and it is perhaps needless to say that they showed
+themselves fully the equals of the British in bravery. It is pleasant to
+read in the official report of Captain Dacres the following tribute to
+his generous foe: "I feel it my duty to state that the conduct of Captain
+Hull and his officers to our men has been that of a brave enemy, the
+greatest care being taken to prevent our men losing the smallest trifle,
+and the greatest attention being paid to the wounded." The Guerriere lost
+her second lieutenant, Henry Ready, and fourteen seamen killed, and
+Captain Dacres, First Lieutenant Kent, Sailing Master Scott, two master's
+mates, one midshipman and fifty-seven sailors were wounded, six of the
+wounded afterward dying. The Constitution lost her first lieutenant of
+marines, William Sharp Bush, and six seamen killed, and her first
+lieutenant, Charles Morris, her sailing master, four seamen and one
+marine were wounded. Thus resulted the first naval combat between British
+and American built men-of-war.[2]
+
+      [2] The Constitution may still be seen in the Navy Yard at
+      Portsmouth, N. H. The following famous poem, by Oliver Wendell
+      Holmes, saved the grand old vessel from destruction in 1833:
+
+          "Ay, tear the tattered ensign down!
+          Long has it waved on high,
+          And many an eye has danced to see
+          That banner in the sky;
+          Beneath it rung the battle-shout,
+          And burst the cannon's roar--
+          The meteor of the ocean air
+          Shall sweep the clouds no more.
+
+          Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
+          Where knelt the vanquished foe,
+          When winds were hurrying o'er the flood
+          And waves were white below,
+          No more shall feel the victor's tread,
+          Or know the conquered knee--
+          The harpies of the shore shall pluck
+          The eagle of the sea!
+
+          Oh, better that her shattered hulk
+          Should sink beneath the wave;
+          Her thunders shook the mighty deep.
+          And there should be her grave;
+          Nail to the mast her holy flag,
+          Set every threadbare sail,
+          And give her to the god of storm
+          The lightning and the gale!"
+
+For rapid and accurate firing and destructive effect thereof upon the
+enemy the records of naval warfare probably offer nothing to surpass the
+conduct of the American frigate United States, fifty-four guns, Captain
+Decatur, in battle with the British frigate Macedonian, forty-nine guns,
+Captain Garden. "The firing from the American frigate at close quarters
+was terrific. Her cannon were handled with such rapidity that there
+seemed to be one continuous flash from her broadside, and several times
+Captain Garden and his officers believed her to be on fire. * * * Her
+firing was so rapid that 'in a few minutes she was enveloped in a cloud
+of smoke which from the Macedonian's quarter-deck appeared like a huge
+cloud rolling along the water, illuminated by lurid flashes of lightning,
+and emitting a continuous roar of thunder.' But the unceasing storm of
+round shot, grape and canister, and the occasional glimpse of the Stars
+and Stripes floating above the clouds of smoke, forcibly dispelled the
+illusion, and showed the Englishmen that they were dealing with an enemy
+who knew how to strike and who struck hard. * * * 'Grapeshot and canister
+were pouring through our port holes like leaden hail; the large shot came
+against the ship's side, shaking her to the very keel, and passing
+through her timbers and scattering terrific splinters, which did more
+appalling work than the shot itself. A constant stream of wounded men
+were being hurried to the cockpit from all quarters of the ship.' And
+still the American frigate kept up her merciless cannonading. As the
+breeze occasionally made a rent in the smoke her officers could be seen
+walking around her quarter-deck calmly directing the work of destruction,
+while her gun-crews were visible through the open ports deliberately
+loading and aiming their pieces."[3] The action had lasted about an hour
+and a half, when the Macedonian struck. The United States, lost five men
+killed and seven wounded; the Macedonian lost thirty-six killed and
+sixty-eight wounded.
+
+      [3] From statements of witnesses on the Macedonian, in Maclay's
+      "History of the United States Navy."
+
+The next naval victory was won by Captain William Bainbridge, this time
+in command of the Constitution, forty-four guns, over the British
+thirty-eight-gun frigate Java, Captain Henry Lambert. The battle began at
+2.40 p. m., and at 4.05 p. m., the British frigate was "an unmanageable
+wreck." The Java at length surrendered, having lost sixty killed, besides
+one hundred and one wounded, while the loss of the Constitution was nine
+killed and twenty-five wounded. Both commanders were wounded, the British
+captain mortally, and there was a touching scene when Captain Bainbridge,
+supported by his officers to the bedside of the dying Lambert, gave back
+to the latter his sword.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The British press foamed almost deliriously over these disasters to their
+navy, which robbed of half its luxury the imminent downfall of Napoleon.
+The London "Times" could hardly find words to express its emotion over
+the fact that five hundred merchantmen and three frigates; had been
+captured in seven months by the Americans. An attempt was made to explain
+the repeated and astounding defeats on the ocean by the plea that the
+American frigates were almost ships of the line in disguise, and that
+their superior size and armament carried an unfair advantage. The same
+plea could not be offered in explanation of the victories won by American
+sloops, in the case of the American Hornet and British Peacock, of about
+equal strength, while the American Wasp was considerably inferior in guns
+and weight of metal to the British Frolic. Master-Commandant James
+Lawrence, of the Hornet, captured the Peacock in eleven minutes from the
+beginning of the action, the American guns being fired so rapidly that
+buckets of water were constantly dashed on them to keep them cool. A
+Halifax paper said that "a vessel moored for the purpose of experiment
+could not have been sunk sooner. It will not do for our vessels to fight
+theirs single-handed." The American eighteen-gun sloop-of-war Wasp,
+Master-Commandant Jacob Jones, had a longer fight with the British
+brig-of-war Frolic, twenty-two guns, Captain Thomas Whinyates. The action
+lasted forty-three minutes from the first broadside, and the Frolic was
+taken by boarding. The Wasp had five killed and five wounded, and the
+Frolic fifteen killed and forty-seven wounded. The fact is, it was not
+the number but the handling of the guns that won American victories.
+
+The capture of the American forty-nine-gun frigate Chesapeake, Captain
+James Lawrence, by the British fifty-two-gun frigate Shannon, Captain
+Philip Bowes Vere Broke, consoled the English in some degree for their
+losses, and the very exultation with which the news was received in Great
+Britain showed the high estimate which the mistress of the seas had
+formed of the American navy from previous experience during the war.
+It is but just to the gallant Lawrence to say that he had no fair
+opportunity to prepare for battle, that he had the poorest crew--largely
+Portuguese and other riff-raff--ever put on board an American man-of-war,
+and that with a crew such as Hull or Decatur or Bainbridge had commanded,
+or that he had himself commanded on the Hornet, he might have recorded a
+victory instead of losing his ship and his life. At the same time it must
+also be admitted that Captain Broke was a superb naval officer, and that
+his victory was chiefly due to the perfect discipline and devotion of his
+men, with whom he was thoroughly acquainted, whereas Lawrence had been
+but a few days in command of the Chesapeake. When mortally wounded and
+carried below, Lawrence cried: "Keep the guns going!" "Fight her till she
+strikes or sinks!" and his last words were--"Don't give up the ship!" The
+British boarded the Chesapeake, after a brief cannonading. The Americans
+on board made a desperate resistance, and it is a question whether there
+was any formal surrender. The Chesapeake lost forty-seven killed and
+ninety-nine wounded, and of the latter fourteen afterward died. The
+Shannon lost twenty-four killed and fifty-nine wounded. There could
+hardly have been greater joy in England over a Peninsular victory.
+Parliament acclaimed, the guns of the Tower thundered, and Captain Broke
+was made a baronet and a Knight Commander of the Bath. America keenly
+felt the defeat, but honored the heroic dead, and a gold medal was voted
+to the nearest male descendant of Captain Lawrence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+The War on Land--Tecumseh's Indian Confederacy--Harrison at Tippecanoe
+--General Hull and General Brock--A Fatal Armistice--Surrender of
+Detroit--English Masters of Michigan--General Harrison Takes Command
+in the Northwest--Harrison's Answer to Proctor--"He Will Never Have This
+Post Surrendered"--Crogan's Brave Defence--The British Retreat--War on
+the Niagara Frontier--Battle of Queenstown--Death of Brock--Colonel
+Winfield Scott and the English Doctrine of Perpetual Allegiance.
+
+
+The sea victories were a fortunate offset to American disasters on land.
+With the aid of the great Indian chieftain Tecumseh, the British set out
+to conquer the Northwest. Tecumseh, chief of the Shawaneese, was probably
+the ablest Indian that the white man had ever met. He resolved early in
+life to make a final stand against the progress of the palefaces. His
+scheme was at first not of a warlike nature, for he began with a secret
+council of representative Indians about the year 1806, the object of
+which was to form an Indian confederacy to prevent the further sale of
+lands to the United States, except by consent of the confederacy, which
+was to include the entire Indian population of the Northwest. Thus the
+American Union was to be met by an Indian union. Tecumseh had a brother,
+known in history as "The Prophet," who visited the various tribes and
+brought the influence of superstition to bear in favor of Tecumseh's
+projects. Governor William Henry Harrison, whose Territory of Indiana
+included the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin,
+viewed Tecumseh's operations with alarm, although assured by that
+chieftain that his intentions were peaceful. In order to remove any just
+ground for discontent Governor Harrison offered to restore to the Indians
+any lands that had not been fairly purchased. Tecumseh met Governor
+Harrison at Vincennes, and recited the old story of Indian wrongs. After
+complaining of white duplicity in obtaining sales of land, and
+endeavoring to sow strife between the tribes, Tecumseh added: "How can we
+have confidence in the white people? When Jesus Christ came upon the
+earth, you killed him and nailed him on a cross. You thought he was dead,
+but you were mistaken. Everything I have said to you is the truth. The
+Great Spirit has inspired me." The first interview ended in great
+excitement, but a second meeting, on the following day, was more decorous
+in character. Nothing came of these discussions, as Tecumseh's demand for
+the restoration of all Indian lands purchased from single tribes could
+obviously not be granted. Hostilities followed, and the battle of
+Tippecanoe was fought during the absence of Tecumseh, who on going South
+to visit the Cherokees and other tribes had given strict orders to his
+brother, the Prophet, not to attack the Americans. The Indians attempted
+a surprise after midnight, November 7, 1811. They fought furiously, and
+if Harrison had been a Braddock, the story of Duquesne might have been
+repeated. But Harrison understood frontier warfare, and he directed his
+men so skillfully, although many of them had never been under fire
+before, that the Indians were at length repulsed. One of Harrison's
+orders, which probably saved his army, was to extinguish the campfires,
+so that white and Indian fought in the darkness on equal terms. The
+American loss was thirty-seven killed and 151 wounded, and that of the
+Indians somewhat smaller. In effect Tippecanoe was a decisive victory for
+the Americans, and broke the spell in which Tecumseh and the Prophet had
+held the tribes.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The War of 1812 revived the hopes of the great Indian chieftain, and with
+the rank of brigadier-general in the British army he set about to assist
+General Isaac Brock, the Governor of Upper Canada, in the task of
+wresting the Northwest from the Americans. General William Hull, an uncle
+of Captain Isaac Hull, the commander of the Constitution, was Governor of
+the Territory of Michigan, which had been organized in 1805 and now
+contained about 5000 inhabitants. To General Hull was given the command
+of the forces intended for defensive and offensive operations on the
+Upper Lakes. A small garrison of United States troops was stationed at
+Michilimacinac and one at Chicago, which were the outposts of
+civilization. The English near Detroit appear to have been aware of the
+declaration of war before the news reached General Hull, and while the
+latter was moving with an extreme caution excusable only on the ground of
+age, Brock swiftly laid out and as swiftly entered upon an aggressive
+campaign. The American outposts were captured by the British and Indians,
+and the garrison of Fort Dearborn--Chicago--was cruelly massacred. On
+this occasion Mr. John Kinzie, the first settler at Chicago, who as a
+trader was much liked by the Indians, did noble service, with his
+excellent wife, in saving the lives of the soldiers' families. Mrs.
+Heald, the wife of Captain Heald, was ransomed for ten bottles of whiskey
+and a mule, just as an Indian was about to scalp her.
+
+At this critical juncture General Hull was weakened, and the British
+forces opposed to him were encouraged by the news that General Henry
+Dearborn, commander of the American troops in the Northern Department,
+instead of invading Canada from the Niagara frontier, in obedience to his
+instructions, had agreed to a provisional armistice with Sir George
+Prevost, the governor-general of Canada. The ground for the armistice was
+that England had revoked the orders in council obnoxious to Americans,
+five days after the declaration of war by the United States, and that
+intended peace negotiations would therefore have in all probability a
+happy result. As a matter of fact England had not yielded, and had no
+intention, as it proved, of yielding on the question of impressment,
+which was the principal American grievance. But even if England had
+surrendered every point it was an outrageous assumption on the part of
+General Dearborn to depart from the line of military instructions and
+military duty upon any representation foreign to that duty. By his error
+in this regard General Dearborn injured the American cause more than a
+severe defeat would have done, leaving as he did General Hull and his
+handful of men, who were not included in the armistice, to bear the brunt
+of British hostility. The government at Washington disapproved General
+Dearborn's course, and the armistice was cancelled, but not in time to
+prevent the loss of Detroit.
+
+General Hull had only eight hundred men in Detroit when General Brock
+attacked the place by land and water, with a much more numerous force of
+British and Indians, assisted by ships of war. It is often asserted that
+General Hull surrendered the place without serious defence. This is not
+true. In addition to the official statements of both sides, and General
+Hull's own vindication, the journal of an Ohio soldier named Claypool who
+was in the American ranks at the time, shows that the Americans returned
+the British fire vigorously during August 15, and for several hours on
+the following day, when General Hull, in view of the overwhelming force
+opposed to him, capitulated. General Hull was afterward tried by
+court-martial and sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried
+out, the United States escaping a stain like that which attaches to
+England for the fate of Admiral Byng. Hull had proven during the
+Revolution that he was no coward. Whatever may have been his errors of
+judgment before the surrender, at the time of the surrender Detroit was
+indefensible.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The English were now masters of Michigan Territory, and the western
+forests were alive with Indians on the warpath. Fort Wayne was besieged,
+and Captain Zachary Taylor bravely defended Fort Harrison. General
+Harrison, appointed to the command of the Northwestern army, promptly
+relieved both posts, and the government ordered that ten thousand men
+should be raised to recover Detroit and invade Canada. General James
+Winchester, in command of the advance corps of Harrison's forces,
+imprudently engaged in conflict with a much more numerous body of British
+at Frenchtown, on the River Raisin. Nearly all his troops, numbering
+about eight hundred, were killed or captured, and some of the captives
+were massacred. General Winchester himself was taken prisoner. Soon
+afterward the British General Proctor issued a proclamation requiring the
+citizens of Michigan to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown,
+or leave the Territory. The American residents in Detroit, under the
+terms of the capitulation, remained undisturbed in their homes, but their
+hearts were continually wrung by the spectacle of cruelties practiced by
+Indian allies of the British upon American captives. Many families parted
+with all but necessary wearing apparel to redeem the sufferers, and
+private houses were turned into hospitals for their relief. Mr. Kinzie,
+of Chicago, who was now a paroled prisoner in Detroit, was foremost in
+this work of patriotism and humanity.
+
+The defeat at the River Raisin was a hard blow to General Harrison,
+especially as the troops to make up his army of ten thousand men were
+slow in arriving. He did not lose courage, however, and when General
+Proctor sent an imperious demand for the surrender of Fort Meigs,
+Harrison answered: "He will never have this post surrendered to him upon
+any terms. Should it fall into his hands, it will be in a manner
+calculated to do him more honor and to give him larger claims upon the
+gratitude of his government than any capitulation could possibly do."
+"There will be none of us left to kill" was the reply of Captain Crogan
+at Fort Stephenson, when Proctor's messenger menaced him with Indian
+vengeance, should he fail to surrender. Harrison, reinforced by General
+Clay Green, from Kentucky, compelled the besiegers to withdraw, and the
+heroic Crogan mowed down with one discharge of his single cannon more
+than fifty of the assailants who were advancing to carry his fort by
+storm. Hardly had the remainder fled when the Americans let down pails of
+water from the wall of the fort for the relief of their wounded enemies.
+The formation of an army for the invasion of Canada now went forward in
+earnest, while the retreat of the British shook the confidence of
+Tecumseh and his Indian followers in England's ability to protect them
+against the Americans.
+
+The Niagara frontier was the scene of desultory warfare, with varied
+fortune for both sides. The battle of Queenstown, October 13, 1812,
+although it resulted in the defeat and capture of the Americans engaged
+and witnessed a pitiable exhibition of cowardice on the part of
+militiamen who refused to cross the river to the aid of their countrymen,
+was attended by a loss for the Canadians that more than counterbalanced
+their victory, in the death of Major-General Isaac Brock, whose
+well-deserved monument is a conspicuous feature of the Niagara landscape.
+Among the Americans who surrendered on this occasion was Colonel Winfield
+Scott, who, while himself a prisoner, took a resolute and memorable stand
+against the British claim that certain Irishmen captured in the American
+ranks should be sent to England to be tried for treason. The Irishmen,
+twenty-three in number, were put in irons and deported to England, but in
+the following May Colonel Scott, after the battle of Fort George,
+selected twenty-three British prisoners, not of Irish birth, to be dealt
+with as the British authorities should deal with the Irish-Americans. The
+latter were finally released and returned to America, and the British
+doctrine of perpetual allegiance was shattered without treaty or
+diplomacy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Battle of Lake Erie--Master-Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry--Building a
+Fleet--Perry on the Lake--A Duel of Long Guns--Fearful Slaughter on the
+Lawrence--"Can Any of the Wounded Pull a Rope?"--At Close Quarters--
+Victory in Fifteen Minutes--"We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours"
+--The Father of Chicago Sees the End of the Battle--The British
+Evacuate Detroit--General Harrison's Victory at the Thames--Tecumseh
+Slain--The Struggle in the Southwest--Andrew Jackson in Command--Battle
+of Horseshoe Bend--The Essex in the Pacific--Defeat and Victory on the
+Ocean--Captain Porter's Brave Defence--Burning of Newark--Massacre at
+Fort Niagara--Chippewa and Lundy's Lane--Devastation by the British
+Fleet--British Vandalism at Washington--Attempt on Baltimore--"The Star
+Spangled Banner."
+
+
+And now came the struggle for the control of Lake Erie--a struggle on
+which depended whether England should succeed in preventing the western
+growth of the United States, or be driven forever from the soil which
+Americans claimed as their own. Master-Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry was
+but twenty-six years of age when the Navy Department called him from his
+pleasant home at Newport and sent him to command a navy summoned from the
+primeval forests of the Northwest. Young as he was Perry had seen service
+in the wars with France and Tripoli, and he had requested the Navy
+Department at the commencement of the conflict with England to send him
+where he could meet the enemies of his country. Perry arrived at Erie,
+then known as Presque Isle, in March, 1813. Sailing Master Daniel Dobbins
+and Noah Brown, a shipwright from New York, were busily at work on the
+new fleet. Two brigs, the Niagara and the Lawrence, were built with white
+and black oak and chestnut frames, the outside planking being of oak and
+the decks of pine. Two gunboats were newly planked up, and work on a
+schooner was just begun. The vessels had to be vigilantly guarded against
+attack by the British, who were fully aware of the work being done. The
+capture of Fort George left the Niagara River open, and several American
+vessels which had been unable before to pass the Canadian batteries were
+now, with great exertion, drawn into the lake. These were the brig
+Caledonia, the schooners Somers, Tigress and Ohio, and the sloop Trippe.
+An English squadron set out to intercept the new arrivals, but Perry
+succeeded in gaining the harbor of Erie before the enemy made their
+appearance.
+
+The American ships were ready for sea on July 10, but officers and
+sailors were lacking, and it was not until about the close of the month
+that Perry had three hundred men to man his ten vessels. While the
+British squadron, under Captain Robert Heriot Barclay maintained a
+vigorous blockade, Perry found that his new brigs could not cross the bar
+without landing their guns and being blocked up on scows. Commander
+Barclay, thinking that Perry could not move, made a visit of ceremony
+with his squadron to Port Dover, on the Canadian side. During Barclay's
+absence Perry got the Lawrence and Niagara over the bar, and the British
+commander was astonished, when he returned on the morning of August 5, to
+see the American fleet riding at anchor, and ready for battle. Barclay
+wished to delay the naval combat until after the completion at Malden of
+a ten-gun ship called the Detroit, which was to be added to his force,
+and he therefore put into that harbor.[1] Perry improved the delay to
+exercise his crews, largely made up of soldiers, in seamanship.
+
+      [1] Malden, on the Detroit River, eighteen miles below the city of
+      Detroit, is now known as Amherstburg.
+
+It was not until September 10 that the British squadron came out to give
+battle. Master-Commandant Perry had nine vessels mounting fifty-four
+guns, with 1536 pounds of metal. The British squadron consisted of six
+vessels, mounting sixty-three guns, with a total weight of 852 pounds.
+The American vessels were manned by 490 men and the British by 502 men
+and boys. In discipline, training and physical condition, however, the
+difference of crews was much more in favor of the British than the
+numbers indicate. The brig Lawrence was Perry's flagship; Barclay's
+pennant flew on the Detroit. As the American vessels stood out to sea
+Perry hoisted a large blue flag with the words of the dying Lawrence in
+white muslin--"Don't give up the ship!" He prepared for defeat as well as
+for victory, by gathering all his important papers in a package weighted
+and ready to be thrown overboard in the event of disaster. It may be said
+that Perry fought the earlier part of the battle almost alone, a
+slow-sailing brig, the Caledonia, being in line ahead of the Niagara, and
+Perry, having given orders that the vessels should preserve their
+stations.
+
+In the duel of long guns the British had a decided advantage and their
+fire being concentrated on the Lawrence that vessel soon became a wreck.
+Of one hundred and three men fit for duty on board the American flagship,
+eighty-three were killed or wounded. These figures sufficiently indicate
+the carnage; but Perry fought on. "Can any of the wounded pull a rope?"
+cried Perry, and mangled men crawled out to help in training the guns.
+For nearly three hours the Lawrence with the schooners Ariel and
+Scorpion, fought the British fleet. Then Master-Commandant Elliott, of
+the Niagara, fearing Perry had been killed, undertook, notwithstanding
+Perry's previous orders, to go out of line to the help of the Lawrence.
+Perry then changed his flag to the Niagara, leaving orders with First
+Lieutenant John J. Yarnall, of the Lawrence, to hold out to the last.
+Perry at once sent Master-Commandant Elliott in a boat to bring up the
+schooners, and meantime Lieutenant Yarnall, deciding that further
+resistance would mean the destruction of all on board, lowered the flag
+on the Lawrence. The English thought they were already victors, and gave
+three cheers, but the Lawrence drifted out of range before they could
+take possession of her, and the Stars and Stripes were raised again over
+her blood-stained decks.
+
+The battle had in truth only begun, but was soon to end. The remainder of
+the American squadron closed in on the English vessels, raking them fore
+and aft. The English officers and men were swept from their decks by the
+hurricane of iron. It was the United States and the Macedonian on a
+smaller scale. The American cannonade at close quarters was so fast and
+furious that the British ships were soon in a condition that left no
+choice save between sinking or surrender. In fifteen minutes after the
+Americans closed in a British officer waved a white hand-kerchief. The
+enemy had struck. Two of the English vessels, the Chippewa and the Little
+Belt, sought to escape to Maiden, but were pursued and captured by the
+sloop Trippe and the Scorpion.[2] Perry proceeded to the Lawrence, and on
+the decks of his flagship, still slippery with blood, he received the
+surrender of the English officers. Perry wrote with a pencil on the back
+of an old letter his famous dispatch: "We have met the enemy, and they
+are ours--two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop." The
+Americans lost in the battle twenty-seven killed and ninety-six wounded,
+of whom twenty-two were killed and sixty-one wounded on board the
+Lawrence. Twelve of the American quarter-deck officers were killed. The
+British lost forty-one killed and ninety-four wounded, making a total of
+one hundred and thirty-five. Commander Barclay, one of Nelson's veterans,
+had lost an arm in a previous naval engagement. He gave his men an
+admirable example of courage, being twice wounded, once in the thigh and
+once in the shoulder, thus being deprived of the use of his remaining
+arm. Captain Finnis, of the Queen Charlotte, was mortally wounded, and
+died on the same evening.
+
+      [2] "At half past two, the wind springing up, Captain Elliott was
+      enabled to bring his vessel, the Niagara, into close action. I
+      immediately went on board of her, when he anticipated my wish by
+      volunteering to bring the schooners, which had been kept astern by
+      the lightness of the wind, into close action. At forty-five minutes
+      past two the signal was made for close action. The Niagara being
+      very little injured I determined to pass through the enemy's line,
+      bore up and passed ahead of their two ships and a brig, large
+      schooner and sloop from the larboard side, at half pistol shot
+      distance. The smaller vessels at this time having gotten within
+      grape and canister distance, under the direction of Captain Elliott,
+      and keeping up a well-directed fire, the two ships, a brig and a
+      schooner, surrendered, a schooner and a sloop making a vain attempt
+      to escape."--_Perry's account of the battle._
+
+Thousands on the American and British shores witnessed or listened to the
+conflict, conscious that upon the result depended the future of the
+Northwest. None listened with more patriotic eagerness than John Kinzie,
+already mentioned as the first resident of Chicago, then a prisoner at
+Maiden, having been removed from Detroit on suspicion that he was in
+correspondence with General Harrison. Kinzie was taking a promenade under
+guard, when he heard the guns on Lake Erie. The time allotted to the
+prisoner for his daily walk expired, but neither he nor his guard
+observed the fact, so anxiously were they catching every sound from what
+they now felt sure was an engagement between ships of war. At length Mr.
+Kinzie was reminded that the hour for his return to confinement had
+arrived. He pleaded for another half hour.
+
+"Let me stay," said he, "till we can learn how the battle has gone."
+
+Very soon a sloop appeared under press of sail, rounding the point, and
+presently two vessels in chase of her.
+
+"She is running--she bears the British colors," cried Kinzie--"yes, yes,
+they are lowering--they are striking her flag! Now"--turning to the
+soldiers, "I will go back to prison contented. I know how the battle has
+gone."
+
+The sloop was the Little Belt, the last of the British fleet to
+surrender, after a vain attempt to escape. The Father of Chicago had seen
+the end of the battle which made possible the Chicago of to-day.[3]
+
+      [3] John Kinzie was born at Quebec in 1763. After the war he went
+      back to Chicago, and died January 6, 1828, aged 65 years.
+
+Perry's victory compelled the enemy to evacuate Detroit, and all their
+posts in American territory except Michilimacinac, which place remained
+in the possession of the British until the close of the war. Soon after
+the battle of Lake Erie, General Harrison crossed to the Canadian shore,
+entered Maiden, and then passed on in pursuit of Proctor and Tecumseh,
+who were in full retreat up the valley of the Thames. In the battle of
+the Thames, which followed, the British were completely routed, and
+Tecumseh was slain. The Northwest was now secure. The British had been
+driven back and their Indian ally, Tecumseh, with his great scheme of an
+independent Indian power, had passed away.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+In the Southwest, however, the struggle between whites and Indians
+continued to rage, the latter being led by a half-breed Creek named
+Weathersford. The massacre of more than four hundred men, women and
+children by the Creeks at Fort Mimms, in what is now Alabama, aroused the
+frontiers to fury, and Andrew Jackson, already known as "Old Hickory,"
+the idol of his troops and the terror of the feeble War Department, took
+the field at the head of twenty-five hundred men. He showed himself a
+master of forest warfare, and in the bloody battle of Horseshoe Bend he
+broke the strength of the Creeks forever. Weathersford sought the tent of
+his conqueror, and asked for mercy for his people--not for himself.
+Jackson, who could respect in others the courage with which he was so
+eminently endowed, granted generous terms to the vanquished, and
+Weathersford lived thereafter in harmony with the whites. The autumn of
+1813 witnessed the subjection of the hostile Indian tribes from the Lakes
+to the Gulf.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The American navy continued to distinguish itself on the ocean as on the
+lakes, in heroic defeat as well as in signal victory. While Captain David
+Porter, in the Essex, swept British commerce and privateers from the
+Pacific, starting out with a frigate and starting home with a fleet, all
+taken by himself during a cruise unsurpassed for skill, daring and
+success, Master-Commandant William Henry Allen, of the American brig
+Argus, lost his life and his vessel in battle with the British brig
+Pelican. The defeat of the Argus is believed to have been caused by the
+use of defective powder, which had been taken from on board a prize, and
+which did not give the cannon shot force enough to do serious damage to
+the enemy. Allen's death was due to his remaining on deck to direct his
+men after he had been seriously wounded. He was one of the best officers
+in the navy. The defeat and capture of the British brig-of-war Boxer,
+fourteen guns, after a sharp engagement, by the American schooner
+Enterprise, sixteen guns, in some degree compensated for the loss of the
+Argus. Captain Samuel Blythe, of the Boxer, nailed his colors to the mast
+and was killed at the first broadside. Lieutenant William Burrows, of the
+Enterprise, was mortally wounded, but lived long enough to have the
+British commander's sword placed in his hands. The splendid cruise of the
+Essex ended most unfortunately at Valparaiso, where the frigate was
+attacked while in port by the British thirty-six-gun frigate Phoebe and
+eighteen-gun ship-sloop Cherub. The Essex was in a disabled condition.
+The British stood off beyond reach of the American's short guns, and kept
+up a terrific cannonade with their long guns, of which the two British
+vessels had thirty-eight and the Essex only six. Captain Porter held out
+for about two hours under these unequal conditions, while his men were
+slaughtered and his vessel cut to pieces--he himself being foremost in
+exposure and danger. At length he surrendered. "Her colors," said the
+British commander, "were not struck until the loss in killed and wounded
+was so awfully great, and her shattered condition so seriously bad, as to
+render further resistance unavailing."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Fresh bitterness was added to the struggle about the close of 1813 by the
+imprudent and inhuman action of General McClure, the American commander
+at Fort George, in setting fire to the Canadian village of Newark in
+almost the depth of winter and turning out the inhabitants homeless
+wanderers in the snow. This outrage provoked but did not justify the
+massacre by the British of the helpless sick and unresisting at Fort
+Niagara, and the wasting of villages and settlements on the American side
+of the frontier. The invasion of Canada in 1814 by the Americans under
+General Jacob Brown proved little more than a border raid, although the
+Americans won a well-fought battle at Chippewa and a costly victory at
+Lundy's Lane, on both of which occasions General Winfield Scott gained
+merited distinction. The tide of war rolled back and forth a good deal
+like the old border strife between Scotland and England. Each side felt
+that it had wrongs to avenge, and wounds were inflicted by petty raids
+and skirmishes deeper and more rankling than those of a regular campaign.
+While these were the conditions on the northern frontier, the shores of
+the Republic were harassed by the fleet of Admiral Cockburn from Delaware
+Bay to Florida. Villages were plundered, plantations devastated and
+slaves carried off under the false promise of freedom, to be sold in the
+West Indies. The people living on and near the coast were kept in
+ceaseless alarm by these marauders, who descended in unexpected places,
+and inflicted all the damage within their power.
+
+The overthrow of Napoleon in 1814, left the United States alone in
+hostility to Napoleon's triumphant foe, and the British government
+prepared to carry on the war vigorously. A powerful fleet appeared in
+Chesapeake Bay, and landed an army of about five thousand men under the
+command of General Robert Ross. The authorities at Washington were
+entirely unprepared for the attack, and the British, after defeating an
+American force, more like a mob than an army, at the battle of
+Bladensburg, marched into Washington. There, in a manner worthy of
+vandals, the public buildings, including the Capitol and the President's
+house, were given to the flames. While this act of barbarism was
+disapproved by the English people, it is not to be forgotten that it was
+hailed with delight and laudation by the British Government, and that a
+monument to General Ross was erected in Westminster Abbey. The British
+followed up the firing of Washington by an effort to capture Baltimore.
+The brave defenders of Fort McHenry held out successfully against
+Cockburn's fleet, and General Ross lost his life while attempting to
+co-operate with the fleet. Francis S. Key, a resident of Georgetown,
+D. C., was detained on board a British ship while Fort McHenry was being
+bombarded, and in the depth of his anxiety for his country's flag he
+wrote that famous song, "The Star Spangled Banner." Finding that their
+vandalism only served to inflame American patriotism instead of
+"chastising the Americans into submission," as Cockburn had been ordered
+to do, the invaders withdrew to their vessels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+British Designs on the Southwest--New Orleans as a City of Refuge--The
+Baratarians--The Pirates Reject British Advances--General Jackson Storms
+Pensacola--Captain Reid's Splendid Fight at Fayal--Edward Livingston
+Advises Jackson--Cotton Bales for Redoubts--The British Invasion--Jackson
+Attacks the British at Villere's--The Opposing Armies--General Pakenham
+Attempts to Carry Jackson's Lines by Storm--The British Charge--They Are
+Defeated with Frightful Slaughter--Pakenham Killed--Last Naval Engagement
+--The President-Endymion Fight--Peace--England Deserts the Indians as
+She Had Deserted the Tories--Decatur Chastises the Algerians.
+
+
+An invasion of the Southwest by way of the Mississippi, and the seizure
+of New Orleans, were also included in the British plans. New Orleans at
+this time, although many good people were included among its inhabitants,
+attracted the refuse of the United States. The character of the place can
+be judged from an incident which occurred in Boston about the period of
+which I am writing. A merchant who had formed an establishment in
+Louisiana, happening to be in Boston, saw in a newspaper of that city a
+vessel advertised to sail thence for New Orleans. He called upon the
+owner, and asked him to consign the ship to his house. The owner told the
+applicant in strict confidence that he had no intention of sending the
+vessel to New Orleans, but had advertised that alleged destination in the
+hope that among the persons applying for a passage he should find a
+rascal who had defrauded one of his friends out of a considerable sum of
+money, "New Orleans," he added, "being the natural rendezvous of rogues
+and scoundrels." Among persons answering the latter description were the
+pirates known as "Baratarians," because they lived on Barataria Bay, just
+west of the mouths of the Mississippi River. They pretended to prey upon
+Spanish commerce only, but they made very little distinction and sold
+their plunder openly in the markets of New Orleans. The slave-trade was,
+however, their chief resource. They captured Spanish and other slaves on
+the high seas, and sold them to planters who were glad to buy for from
+$150 to $200 each, negroes worth three or four times that amount in the
+regular market. Jean Lafitte was the chief of these marauders. A
+Frenchman by origin he felt some attachment, it appears, to the country
+which tolerated him and his fellow-pirates, and when the commander of the
+British Gulf Squadron offered to pay the Baratarians to join him in an
+attack on New Orleans, Lafitte at once sent the dispatches received from
+the British to Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana. The people of New
+Orleans, under the leadership of Edward Livingston, the noted jurist, and
+former mayor of New York, organized a Committee of Safety, and prepared
+to assist in repelling the enemy. General Jackson, now major-general in
+the regular army, and in command of the Department of the South, repulsed
+the British from Mobile, and took Pensacola by storm, and thus freed from
+apprehension of an attack from Florida, he proceeded to defend New
+Orleans.
+
+Fortunately for the American cause Captain Samuel C. Reid, commander of
+the privateer General Armstong, being attacked in the neutral harbor of
+Fayal by the British commodore, Lloyd, and his squadron, resisted the
+onset with such extraordinary courage and energy as to severely cripple
+his assailants. Captain Reid was obliged to scuttle his ship to prevent
+her from falling into the hands of the British, but the latter lost one
+hundred and twenty killed and one hundred and thirty wounded in the
+unequal battle, and Lloyd's squadron was not able to join the expedition
+at Jamaica until ten days after the date appointed for departure. The
+General Armstrong lost only two men killed and seven wounded in this
+memorable fight, which gave Jackson ample time to prepare the defence of
+New Orleans.
+
+To New Orleans had resorted many adherents of the old Bourbon monarchy,
+driven from France by the Revolution, and also at a more recent date some
+of the followers of Napoleon. Among the former was a French emigrant
+major named St. Geme, who had once been in the English service in
+Jamaica, and now commanded a company in a battalion of citizens. This
+officer had been a favored companion of the distinguished French general,
+Moreau, when the latter, on a visit to Louisiana, a few years previously,
+had scanned with the critical eye of a tactician, the position of New
+Orleans and its capabilities of defence. Edward Livingston, who acted as
+an aide-de-camp to General Jackson, advised the general to consult St.
+Geme, and the latter pointed out the Rodriguez Canal as the position
+which Moreau himself had fixed upon as the most defensible, especially
+for irregular troops. Jackson approved and acted upon the advice thus
+given, and hastened to cast up intrenchments along the line of the canal
+from the Mississippi back to an impassable swamp two miles away. In
+building the redoubts the ground was found to be swampy and slimy, and
+the earth almost unavailable for any sort of fortification, whereupon a
+French engineer suggested the employment of cotton bales. The requisite
+cotton was at once taken from a barque already laden for Havana. The
+owner of the cotton, Vincent Nolte, complained to Edward Livingston, who
+was his usual legal adviser. "Well, Nolte," said Livingston, "since it is
+your cotton you will not mind the trouble of defending it."[1] Before the
+final battle a red hot ball set fire to the cotton, thereby endangering
+the gunpowder, and the cotton was removed, leaving only an earth
+embankment about five feet high, with a ditch in front to protect the
+Americans.
+
+      [1] A similar remark has been incorrectly attributed to Jackson.
+
+The British troops, about 7000 in number, disembarked at Lake Borgne,
+after capturing an American flotilla which had been sent to prevent the
+landing. About nine miles from New Orleans, at Villere's Plantation, the
+invaders formed a camp, and they were suddenly attacked by Jackson on the
+evening of December 23. The battle raged fearfully in the darkness,
+Jackson's Tennesseans using knives and tomahawks with deadly effect. The
+Americans had the advantage, but in the fog and darkness Jackson could
+not follow up his success. Lieutenant-General Edward Pakenham, one of the
+bravest and ablest of Wellington's veterans, landed on Christmas Day with
+reinforcements which made the British army about 8000 strong. Jackson had
+planted heavy guns along his line of defence, and had about 4000 men to
+receive Pakenham. Among the most efficient of these were the 500 riflemen
+who fought with Jackson against the Creeks, and who were known as
+Coffee's brigade, from their commander's name. Trained in repeated
+encounters with the savages they knew little of military organization,
+but were inaccessible to fear, perfectly cool in danger, of great
+presence of mind and personal resource, and above all unerring marksmen.
+Among the New Orleans militia were several officers who had served under
+Napoleon, and had met on the battlefields of Europe the British veterans
+they were now about to confront in America. The Baratarians, too, should
+not be forgotten, and these, with the regular troops, the militia and the
+citizens, and many negroes, free and slave, composed about as mixed an
+array as ever fought a battle on American soil.[2]
+
+      [2] More than half of Jackson's command was composed of negroes, who
+      were principally employed with the spade, but several battalions of
+      them were armed, and in the presence of the whole army received the
+      thanks of General Jackson for their gallantry. On each anniversary
+      the negro survivors of the battle always turned out in large
+      numbers--so large, indeed, as to excite the suspicion that they were
+      not all genuine.--_Albert D. Richardson._
+
+The British made an assault on the twenty-eighth, and were repulsed with
+loss. On the night of December 31, they prepared for the closing struggle
+by erecting batteries upon which they mounted heavy ordnance within six
+hundred yards of the American breastworks. On the morning of January 1,
+1815, the British opened fire, Jackson replying with his heavy guns. The
+British batteries were demolished, an attempt to turn the American flank
+was repulsed by Coffee and his riflemen, and the day ended in gloom and
+disaster for the invaders. The American forces, strengthened by the
+arrival of one thousand Kentuckians, awaited the renewal of the attack.
+Pakenham determined to carry Jackson's lines by storm. At dawn on January
+8, the British advanced in solid column under a most destructive fire
+from the American batteries. On marched the men before whom the best
+troops of Napoleon had been unable to stand--on they marched as steadily
+as if on parade, the living closing in as the dead and wounded dropped
+out. Was it to be Badajos over again?
+
+The British were within two hundred yards of the American breastworks.
+Suddenly the Tennessee and Kentucky sharpshooters, four ranks deep, rose
+from their concealment, and at the command--"Fire!"--a storm of bullets
+swept through the British lines. And it was not a single volley. As the
+Tennesseans fired they fell back and loaded, while the Kentuckians fired.
+And so the deadly blast of lead mowed down the British ranks while round
+and grape and chain-shot ploughed and shrieked through the now wavering
+battalions. General Pakenham, at the head of his men, urged them forward
+with encouraging words, while he had one horse shot under him and his
+bridle arm disabled by a bullet. The British rallied and rushed forward
+again amid the tempest of death. Pakenham, mortally wounded, was caught
+in the arms of his aid, and his troops, no longer sustained by their
+leader's presence and example, fell back in disorder. In this fearful
+charge the British lost 2600 men, killed, wounded and made prisoners. The
+Americans lost only eight killed and thirteen wounded. On the night of
+January 19, the British retired to their fleet.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The last naval engagement of the war took place in January, 1815, between
+the American frigate President, forty-four guns, commanded by Commodore
+Stephen Decatur, and the British frigate, Endymion, forty guns, Captain
+Hope. The battle began about three o'clock in the afternoon, and lasted
+until eleven o'clock at night, both commanders showing remarkable skill
+and resolution in the conflict, which was at long range. The Endymion was
+nearly dismantled and about to surrender when three other British
+men-of-war came up, and Decatur, being overpowered, had to strike his
+colors. The President had twenty-four men killed and fifty-six wounded,
+and the Endymion had eleven killed and fourteen wounded.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+A treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent between the American and
+British commissioners on Christmas Eve, 1814. England yielded nothing
+and received nothing. The issues which had provoked the war were ignored
+in its termination--indeed it was unnecessary to deal with them. As
+_Niles Register_ stated the case in December, 1814: "With the general
+pacification of Europe, the chief causes for which we went to war with
+Great Britain have, from the nature of things, ceased to affect us; it is
+not for us to quarrel for forms. Britain may pretend to any right she
+pleases, provided she does not exercise it to our injury." The moral
+effect of the war was, however, favorable to the United States. American
+naval victories and the battle of New Orleans taught England that America
+was not an enemy to be despised on either sea or land. The War of 1812 has
+sometimes been called the second War of Independence, and its effect
+certainly was to establish for the United States a respectable position
+among independent powers. Even England's satellites in the confederacy
+against Napoleon could not but admire the courage of the American people
+in bearding the British lion, and the chief magistrate of Ghent voiced the
+feeling of Europe when he offered the sentiment, at a dinner to the
+American Commissioners--"May they succeed in making an honorable peace to
+secure the liberty and independence of their country."
+
+England had to give up her demand for special terms for the Indians who
+had assisted her in the war. The scheme to create an Indian nation in the
+Northwest, with permanent boundaries, not to be trespassed by the United
+States, was abandoned, although at first declared by the British
+Commissioners to be a _sine qua non_ and the Indians had to accept terms
+dictated by the United States. The British had made lavish promises to the
+Indians when seeking them for allies, but the red men were deserted, as
+the loyalists of the Revolution had been deserted, at the close of
+hostilities. The Indians felt this keenly, especially as the Americans
+treated them as generously as if no hostilities had interrupted former
+relations.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Peace with England gave the United States opportunity to chastise the
+Algerians, whose Dey, Hadgi Ali, a sanguinary tyrant, had been committing
+outrages on American commerce ever since the beginning of the war with
+the British. Commodore Decatur was sent to the Mediterranean in May,
+1815, with a squadron to chastise the Dey. He had no difficulty in
+encountering the Algerian corsairs, who supposed that the American navy
+no longer existed. Decatur, after a brief engagement, captured the Dey's
+flagship, and this was followed by the capture of another man-of-war
+belonging to the pirates. Decatur then sailed for Algiers with his
+squadron and prizes. The terrified despot appeared on the quarter-deck of
+Decatur's flagship, the Guerriere, gave up the captives in his hands, and
+signed a treaty dictated by the American commodore. Decatur then sailed
+to Tunis and Tripoli, and compelled the rulers of those States to make
+restitution for having allowed the British to capture American vessels in
+their harbors. In view of the services of the Danish consul, Mr. Nissen,
+when Captain Bainbridge was a prisoner in Tripoli, it is gratifying to
+know that Commodore Decatur, while in that port, secured the release of
+eight Danish seamen. History does not record whether Decatur, on this
+occasion, visited the lonely grave supposed to contain the mortal remains
+of Somers, the companion of his youth, and the hero of the gunpowder
+enterprise during the war with Tripoli. What emotions must have filled
+Decatur's mind as the old scenes brought back to him the memory of his
+own brave exploit--the destruction of the Philadelphia--and of the
+unhappy fate of his bosom friend!
+
+
+
+
+South America Free.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+England and Spanish America--A Significant Declaration--The Key to
+England's Policy in South America--Alexander Hamilton and the South
+Americans--President Adams' Grandson a Filibuster--Origin of the
+Revolutions in South America--Colonial Zeal for Spain--Colonists Driven
+to Fight for Independence--A War of Extermination--Patriot Leaders--The
+British Assist the Revolutionists--American Caution and Reserve--The
+Monroe Doctrine--Why England Championed the Spanish-American Republics--
+A Free Field Desired for British Trade--The Holy Alliance--Secretary
+Canning and President Monroe--The Monroe Declaration Not British, But
+American.
+
+
+The same motives which had prompted England to impose oppressive
+restrictions upon American trade, thereby driving the colonies to strike
+for independence, prompted her to assist South America in throwing off
+the yoke of Spain. England did not expect to conquer Spain's American
+colonies for herself, but she desired to liberate them in order to annex
+them commercially. Hardly had King George recognized the independence of
+the United States when his ministers were scheming to effect the
+independence of South America. As early as June 26, 1797, Thomas Picton,
+governor of the British island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, issued an
+address to certain revolutionists in Venezuela in which, speaking by
+authority of the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, he said:
+
+"The object which at present I desire most particularly to recommend to
+your attention, is the means which might be best adapted to liberate the
+people of the continent near to the Island of Trinidad, from the
+oppressive and tyrannic system which supports, with so much rigor, the
+monopoly of commerce, under the title of exclusive registers, which their
+government licenses demand; also to draw the greatest advantages
+possible, and which the local situation of the island presents, by
+opening a direct and free communication with the other parts of the
+world, without prejudice to the commerce of the British nation. In order
+to fulfill this intention with greater facility, it will be prudent for
+your Excellency to animate the inhabitants of Trinidad in keeping up the
+communication which they had with those of Terra Firma, previous to the
+reduction of that island; under the assurance, that they will find there
+an _entrepot_, or general magazine, of every sort of goods whatever. To
+this end, his Britannic Majesty has determined, in council, to grant
+freedom to the ports of Trinidad, with a direct trade to Great Britain.
+
+"With regard to the hopes you entertain of raising the spirits of those
+persons, with whom you are in correspondence, toward encouraging the
+inhabitants to resist the oppressive authority of their government, I
+have little more to say, than that they may be certain that, whenever
+they are in that disposition, they may receive, at your hands, all the
+succors to be expected from his Britannic Majesty, be it with forces, or
+with arms and ammunition to any extent; with the assurance, that the
+views of his Britannic Majesty go no further than to secure to them their
+independence, without pretending to any sovereignty over their country,
+nor even to interfere in the privileges of the people, nor in their
+political, civil or religious rights."
+
+This declaration is the key to Great Britain's policy in Spanish America
+during the century since it was issued. The conspiracy which evoked
+Governor Picton's plain statement of England's attitude toward the South
+American colonies, was discovered by the Spanish authorities, and J. M.
+Espana, one of its leaders, was executed.[1] William Pitt continued to
+scheme for Spanish-American independence, and succeeded in enlisting the
+sympathy of Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King, American Minister at
+London. President John Adams, however, would have nothing to do with the
+movement, which he regarded as a plot to drive the United States into a
+British alliance against the French, and possibly this may have been in
+the mind of Pitt. The American people were not as cold as the President,
+however, on the subject of South America, and Francisco Miranda, a
+voluntary exile from Venezuela on account of his republican principles,
+succeeded in organizing a filibustering force in New York, one of the
+members of which was a grandson of the President himself. The expedition
+was defeated and nearly all engaged in it were captured by the Spaniards,
+among them young William S. Smith, John Adams' grandson. Yrujo, the
+Spanish Minister at Washington, offered to interpose in behalf of a
+pardon for the young man, but President Adams declined to use his exalted
+office to obtain any respite for the youth who had so unfortunately
+proved his inheritance of the old Adams' devotion to liberty. "My blood
+should flow upon a Spanish scaffold," wrote America's chief magistrate,
+"before I would meanly ask or accept a distinction in favor of my
+grandson." The young man's life was spared, however, and he returned to
+the United States.
+
+      [1] Espana was hanged and quartered. A writer in the New York
+      _Sun_, commenting on Espana's death, said that "thus in the
+      eighteenth century Spain repeated the barbarism perpetrated by
+      England on William Wallace in 1305." It is unnecessary to go back
+      to William Wallace or off the American continent for an act of
+      barbarity similar to Espana's execution. In the same decade, one
+      McLean, a former resident, if not a citizen of the United States,
+      was hanged and quartered in Canada, by the sentence of a British
+      court, on a trumped up charge of having been engaged in a
+      treasonable conspiracy.
+
+Francisco Miranda, who had made his escape to Barbadoes, raised a force
+of four hundred men, with the assistance of the British, landed in
+Venezuela, and proclaimed a provisional government. This expedition was
+also unsuccessful, and Miranda retired under the protection of a British
+man-of-war. At this time there was no general feeling in South America in
+favor of independence. Although some scattering sparks from the sacred
+altar of liberty had found their way into Spanish America;
+notwithstanding the severity of the colonial system, and the corruptions
+and abuses of power which everywhere prevailed; such was the habitual
+loyalty of the creoles of America; such the degradation and
+insignificance of the other races; so inveterate were the prejudices of
+all, and so powerful was the influence of a state religion, maintained by
+an established hierarchy, that it is probable the colonies would have
+continued, for successive ages, to be governed by a nation six thousand
+miles distant, who had no interest in common with them, and whose
+oppressions, they had borne for three centuries, had not that nation been
+shaken at home, by an extraordinary revolution, and its government
+overturned.[2]
+
+      [2] See Huntington's "View of South America and Mexico."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Among other good results which the ambition of Napoleon Bonaparte
+produced without intention on his part, was the uprising against Spanish
+oppression in South America. When Napoleon compelled Ferdinand to
+abdicate the crown of Spain in favor of Joseph Bonaparte, the loyalty and
+spirit of the Spaniards were aroused, and the people refused to submit to
+a monarch imposed on them by treachery and supported by foreign bayonets.
+In the provinces not occupied by the French, juntas were established
+which assumed the government of their districts; and that at Seville,
+styling itself the supreme junta of Spain and the Indies, despatched
+deputies to the different governments in America, requiring an
+acknowledgment of its authority; to obtain which, it was represented that
+the junta was acknowledged and obeyed throughout Spain. At the same time
+the regency created at Madrid by Ferdinand when he left his capital, and
+the junta at Asturias, each claimed superiority, and endeavored to direct
+the affairs of the nation.
+
+Napoleon, on his part, was not less attentive to America; agents were
+sent in the name of Joseph, king of Spain, to communicate to the colonies
+the abdication of Ferdinand, and Joseph's accession to the throne, and to
+procure the recognition of his authority by the Americans. Thus the
+obedience of the colonies was demanded by no less than four tribunals,
+each claiming to possess supreme authority at home. There could scarcely
+have occurred a conjuncture more favorable for the colonists to throw off
+their dependence on Spain, being convulsed, as she was, by a civil war,
+the king a prisoner, the monarchy subverted and the people unable to
+agree among themselves where the supreme authority was vested, or which
+of the pretenders was to be obeyed. The power of the parent state over
+its colonies was _de facto_ at an end; in consequence of which they were,
+in a measure, required to "provide new guards for their security." But so
+totally unprepared were the colonists for a political revolution that
+instead of these events being regarded as auspicious to their welfare,
+they only served to prove the strength of their loyalty and attachment to
+Spain. Notwithstanding that the viceroys and captain-generals, excepting
+the viceroy of New Spain, manifested a readiness to acquiesce in the
+cessions of Bayonne, to yield to the new order of things, and to sacrifice
+their king, provided they could retain their places, in which they were
+confirmed by the new king, the news of the occurrences in Spain filled the
+people with indignation; they publicly burnt the proclamations sent out
+by King Joseph, expelled his agents, and such was their rage that all
+Frenchmen in the colonies became objects of insult and execration. In
+their zeal, not for their own but for Spanish independence, the colonists,
+up to the year 1810, supplied not less than ninety millions of dollars to
+Spain to assist in carrying on the war against France.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+At length, about the year 1809, the people of the several provinces began
+to form juntas of their own, not with the object of throwing off the
+Spanish yoke, but the better to protect themselves, should the French
+succeed in establishing their power in the peninsula. The Spanish
+viceroys, alarmed for their own authority, met the movement with
+unsparing hostility. In the city of Quito the popular junta was
+suppressed by an armed force, and hundreds of persons were massacred and
+the city plundered by the Spanish troops. Notwithstanding these cruelties
+the people remained faithful to the crown of Spain, and the junta of
+Caracas, having deposed the colonial officers, and organized a new
+administration, still acted in the name of Ferdinand the Seventh, and
+offered to aid in the prosecution of the war against France. The impotent
+Council of Regency, which pretended to represent the ancient government
+in Spain, treated the position taken by the colonists as a declaration of
+independence, and sent troops to dragoon the Americans into submission.
+Thus the Spanish-Americans were compelled to assume an independence of
+the mother country which they had neither sought nor desired, and on July
+5, 1811, Venezuela took the lead in formally casting off allegiance to
+Spain.
+
+The war which followed was of the most sanguinary character. The patriots
+of South America were denounced as rebels and traitors, and the vengeance
+of the State, and the anathemas of the Church, directed against them.
+That a contest commenced under such auspices should have become a war of
+extermination, and in its progress have exhibited horrid scenes of
+cruelty, desolation, and deliberate bloodshed; that all offers of
+accommodation were repelled with insult and outrage; capitulations
+violated, public faith disregarded, prisoners of war cruelly massacred,
+and the inhabitants persecuted, imprisoned, and put to death, cannot
+occasion surprise, however much it may excite indignation. As violence
+and cruelty always tend to provoke recrimination and revenge, the
+outrages of the Spaniards exasperated the Americans, and led to
+retaliation, which rendered the contest a war of death, as it was often
+called, characterized by a ferocious and savage spirit, scarcely
+surpassed by that of Cortes and Pizarro. The violent measures of the
+Spanish rulers, and the furious and cruel conduct of their agents in
+America, toward the patriots, produced an effect directly contrary to
+what was expected; but which nevertheless might have been foreseen, had
+the Spaniards taken counsel from experience instead of from their
+mortified pride and exasperated feelings. Arbitrary measures, enforced
+with vigor and cruelty, instead of extinguishing the spirit of
+independence, only served to enliven its latent sparks and blow them into
+flame. Miranda died in chains, and Hidalgo, the patriot priest of Mexico,
+was put to death by his cruel captors, but Bolivar and Paez, Sucre and
+San Martin, led the patriot armies to ultimate victory, and established
+the independence of Spanish America. Only one great revolutionary leader,
+Iturbide, failed to follow the example of Washington. Iturbide attempted
+to found an imperial dynasty in Mexico, and lost his life and his crown.
+Bolivar, on the other hand, with a foresight worthy of Washington
+himself, sought to form a general confederation of all the States of what
+was formerly Spanish America, with the object of uniting the resources
+and means of the several States for their general defence and security.
+This great project was accepted by Chile, Peru and Mexico, and treaties
+concluded in accordance therewith.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Throughout the South American struggle for independence Great Britain
+gave assistance to the patriots almost as freely and openly as if she had
+been at war with Spain. Veteran officers who had served in the British
+armies against Napoleon, joined the South American forces, and an Irish
+Legion of one thousand men, raised by General D'Evereux, sailed from
+Dublin for Colombia. A banquet was given to General D'Evereux, before his
+departure, at which two thousand guests were present, and the celebrated
+orator, Charles Philips, delivered a most eloquent address. Lord
+Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, commanding the Chilian fleet, drove the
+Spaniards from the Pacific. American as well as English officers and
+seamen served under Cochrane's flag, and took part in his exploits, of
+which the most brilliant was the cutting out of a Spanish frigate from
+under the guns of Callao. Under the protection of the batteries of the
+castle of Callao lay three Spanish armed vessels, a forty-gun frigate and
+two sloops-of-war, guarded by fourteen gunboats. On the night of the
+fifth of November, 1820, Lord Cochrane, with 240 volunteers in fourteen
+boats, entered the inner harbor, and succeeded in cutting out the Spanish
+frigate with the loss of only forty-one men killed and wounded. The
+Spanish loss was 120 men. This success annihilated the Spanish naval
+power in those waters.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+When a commissioner from the patriots of New Grenada applied at
+Washington in 1812, for assistance, President Madison answered that
+"though the United States were not in alliance, they were at peace with
+Spain, and could not therefore assist the independents; still, as
+inhabitants of the same continent, they wished well to their exertions."
+Notwithstanding the policy of the government, founded on the dictates of
+prudence and caution, the people of the United States almost universally
+felt a deep and lively interest in the success of their brethren in South
+America, engaged in the same desperate struggle for liberty which they
+themselves had gone through. Near the close of the year 1817, the
+President of the United States appointed three commissioners, Messrs.
+Rodney, Bland, and Graham, to visit the revolted colonies in South
+America and to ascertain their political condition, and their means and
+prospects of securing their independence; and early in 1818, the
+legislators of Kentucky adopted resolutions, expressing their sense of
+the propriety and expediency of the national government acknowledging the
+independence of the South American republics. These resolutions probably
+emanated from the influence of Henry Clay, from the first a zealous and
+steadfast friend of the South American patriots. Some Americans joined
+the patriot forces, and supplies of ammunition and muskets were furnished
+to them from this country. President Monroe was able to state to
+Congress, in 1819, that the greatest care had been taken to enforce the
+laws intended to preserve an impartial neutrality. Briefly summed up, the
+attitude of the American government throughout the South American
+struggle was one of distance, caution and reserve, while England boldly
+ignored international laws, and fought her way through her filibusters to
+the hearts and the commerce of the Spanish-Americans.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+It is needless to go into extended discussion as to the authorship of the
+Monroe Doctrine. Intelligent self-interest inspired the United States and
+England to support the independence of South America. England's motive
+was chiefly commercial and partly political. She wanted Spanish America
+to be independent because the continent would thus be thrown open to
+British commerce, and because, not looking forward herself to territorial
+aggrandizement in that direction, she wished other powers to keep their
+hands off. The British government had no desire, in taking this position,
+to promote the growth and extension of republican institutions. The
+ruling class in Great Britain would doubtless have preferred to see every
+Spanish-American State a monarchy, provided that under monarchy it could
+be equally useful to the British empire and independent of every other
+European power. If England, in championing the Spanish-American republics
+seemed to champion republican institutions, it was because republican
+institutions gave the strongest assurance of political separation from
+Europe, and of a free field for Great Britain.[3]
+
+      [3] "The Spanish-American question is essentially settled. There
+      will be no Congress upon it, and things will take their own course
+      on that continent which cannot be otherwise than favorable to us.
+      I have no objection to monarchy in Mexico; quite otherwise. Mr.
+      Harvey's instructions authorize him to countenance and encourage any
+      reasonable project for establishing it (project on the part of the
+      Mexicans I mean), even in the person of a Spanish Infanta. But, as
+      to putting it forward as a project, or proposition of ours, that is
+      out of the question. Monarchy in Mexico, and monarchy in Brazil,
+      would cure the evils of universal democracy, and prevent the drawing
+      of the line of demarkation, which I most dread, America versus
+      Europe. The United States naturally enough aim at this division, and
+      cherish the democracy which leads to it. But I do not much apprehend
+      their influence, even if I believed it. I do not altogether see any
+      of the evidence of their activity in America. Mexico and they are
+      too neighborly to be friends."--_Canning, to the British Minister
+      at Madrid, December 31, 1823._
+
+On the part of the United States the Monroe Doctrine was the formal and
+authoritative expression of a sentiment which had animated American
+breasts from the origin of the Republic. The Monroe Doctrine is based on
+patriotism and self-preservation, and the crisis which called it forth
+was of the gravest consequence to the American people. The Spanish empire
+in America had never been a menace to the United States. It was too
+decrepit to be dangerous. Conditions would have been very different with
+France, for instance, or Prussia, established as a great South American
+power. There was the strongest reason for believing that the governments
+of continental Europe combined in the "Holy Alliance" seriously intended
+to dispose the destinies of South America, as they had divided the
+continent of Europe. The primary object of the allied powers--the
+proscription of all political reforms originating from the people--could
+leave no doubt of the concern and hostility with which they viewed the
+development of events in Spanish America, and the probable establishment
+of several independent, free States, resting on institutions emanating
+from the will and the valor of the people. But there is more specific
+evidence of their hostile intentions--Don Jose Vaventine Gomez, envoy
+from the government of Buenos Ayres at Paris, in a note to the secretary
+of his government of the twentieth of April, 1819, said that "the
+diminution of republican governments was a basis of the plans adopted by
+the holy alliance for the preservation of their thrones; and that in
+consequence, the republics of Holland, Venice, and Genoa, received their
+deathblow at Vienna, at the very time that the world was amused by the
+solemn declaration that all the States of Europe would be restored to the
+same situation they were in before the French revolution. The sovereigns
+assembled at Aix la Chapelle, have agreed, secretly, to draw the
+Americans to join them in this policy, when Spain should be undeceived,
+and have renounced the project of re-conquering her provinces; and the
+king of Portugal warmly promoted this plan through his ministers." France
+also sought by intrigue to secure the acceptance by the United Provinces
+and Chile of a monarchical government under French protection.
+
+For the reasons before stated these designs naturally alarmed Canning,
+England's distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he proposed to
+Mr. Rush, the American Minister at London, that Great Britain and the
+United States should join in a protest against European interference with
+the independent States of Spanish America. This was in September 1823,
+and in a message of December 2, following, President Monroe uttered his
+famous declaration to the effect that "the United States would consider
+any attempt on the part of the European powers to extend their system to
+any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."[4]
+Mr. Monroe's motive in issuing this declaration was wholly American and
+patriotic. England's designs were inevitably aided by the action of the
+American President, and the English Government approved and their press
+applauded America's resolute course, but it was not to win English
+applause, but to defend the integrity of the United States that the
+Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed to the world. The opposition of Great
+Britain and the attitude of the United States proved more than the Holy
+Alliance cared to confront, and the nations of Spanish America were
+allowed to enjoy without further molestation the independence which they
+had gained by years of heroic effort and sacrifice.
+
+      [4] "They (the United States) have aided us materially. The Congress
+      (Verona) was broken in all its limbs before, but the President's
+      (Monroe's) speech gives it the coup de grace. While I was hesitating
+      in September what shape to give the protest and declaration I
+      sounded Mr. Rush, the American Minister here, as to his powers and
+      disposition to join in any step which we might take to prevent a
+      hostile enterprise on the part of the European powers against
+      Spanish America. He had not powers, but he would have taken upon
+      himself to join with us if we would have begun by recognizing the
+      Spanish-American States. This we could not do, and so we went on
+      alone. But I have no doubt that his report to his government of this
+      sounding, which he probably represented as an overture, had a great
+      share in producing the explicit declarations of the
+      President."--_Canning to the British Minister at Madrid._
+
+
+
+
+Progress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+The United States Taking the Lead in Civilization--Manhood Suffrage and
+Freedom of Worship--Humane Criminal Laws--Progress the Genius of the
+Nation--A Patriotic Report--State Builders in the Northwest--Illinois and
+the Union--Immigration--British Jealousy--An English Farmer's Opinion of
+America--Commerce and Manufactures--England Tries to Prevent Skilled
+Artisans from Emigrating--The Beginning of Protection--The British Turn
+on Their Friends the Algerians--General Jackson Invades Florida--Spain
+Sells Florida to the United States.
+
+
+While holding their own against foreign enemies on land and sea the
+United States were assuming the lead in the march of civilization.
+Manhood suffrage was gradually taking the place of property suffrage,
+liberty of worship was recognized in practice as well as theory, and the
+criminal laws showed a growing spirit of humanity. Capital crimes were
+few, as compared with Great Britain. "The severity of our criminal laws,"
+wrote William Bradford, the distinguished jurist, and for some time
+Attorney-General of the United States, "is an exotic plant, and not the
+growth of Pennsylvania." And Pennsylvania, when left to her own
+influences and tendencies by the success of the Revolution, was not slow
+to adopt humane and gratifying reforms, uttering far in advance of some
+other commonwealths the declaration that "to deter more effectually from
+the commission of crimes by continued visible punishment of long
+duration, and to make sanguinary punishments less necessary, houses ought
+to be provided for punishing by hard labor those who shall be convicted
+of crimes not capital." In September, 1786, the laws of that State were
+amended so as to substitute imprisonment at hard labor for capital
+punishment for robbery, burglary, and one other crime, and it was
+provided that no attainder should work corruption of blood in any case,
+and that the estates of persons committing suicide should descend to
+their natural heirs. It was likewise enacted that "every person convicted
+of bigamy, or of being accessory after the fact in any felony, or of
+receiving stolen goods, knowing them to have been stolen, or of any other
+offence not capital, for which, by the laws now in force, burning in the
+hand, cutting off the ears, nailing the ear or ears to the pillory,
+placing in and upon the pillory, whipping, or imprisonment for life, is,
+or may be inflicted, shall, instead of such parts of the punishment, be
+fined and sentenced to hard labor for any term not exceeding two years."
+Also, as if dreading that lax laws might lead to a carnival of crime, the
+legislators restricted the operation of the new and lenient statute to
+three years. The act was renewed, however, at the close of that term, and
+finally, in 1794, the reform of the criminal code was crowned with the
+declaration that "no crime whatever, excepting murder of the first
+degree, shall hereafter be punished with death."
+
+Other States either kept pace with or followed the example of
+Pennsylvania in making their criminal laws more reformatory and less
+vindictive, and while England affected to despise American civilization,
+America was leading England in the march of humanity.
+
+The genius of the nation was progress--not the spirit of the huckster,
+anxious for present gain, but the enlarged view of the patriot, anxious
+for the future weal of his country and his race. A striking expression of
+this spirit is shown in the report made in 1812 by Gouverneur Morris, De
+Witt Clinton and other eminent men on the practicability and prospects of
+the proposed Erie Canal. After boldly stating that the tolls from this
+work would amply repay the outlay required for its construction, the
+report adds: "It is impossible to ascertain and it is difficult to
+imagine how much toll would be collected; but like our advance in numbers
+and wealth, calculation out-runs fancy. Things which twenty years ago any
+man would have been laughed at for believing, we now see. * * * The life
+of an individual is short. The time is not distant when those who make
+this report will have passed away. But no time is fixed to the existence
+of a State; and the first wish of a patriot's heart is that his may be
+immortal." In the Northwest also, the State-builders of that day were
+equally farsighted in patriotic provision for the future. When it was
+proposed to admit Illinois as a State, Nathaniel Pope, delegate in
+Congress from that territory, urged, that the northern boundary should be
+extended to take in the port of Chicago, and a considerable coast-line on
+Lake Michigan, so as to give the State an interest in the lakes and bind
+it to the North as its southern frontiers bound it to the South and
+Southwest, thus checking any tendency to sectional disunion. Judge Pope
+pointed out that associations would thus be formed both with the North
+and South, and that a State thus situated, having a decided interest in
+the commerce, and in the preservation of the whole confederacy, could
+never consent to disunion. These views were happily successful in
+obtaining the approbation of Congress, and Illinois was saved from the
+limits which would have made it only a southern border State. In the
+Southwest, as well as in the North pioneers pushed rapidly into the
+wilderness, crossing the Mississippi and founding new States in which the
+long struggle between freedom and slavery was to begin.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+When what may be called the blockade of Europe was raised by the final
+defeat of Napoleon, immigrants began to pour into the United States in
+large numbers. Many of them, like many immigrants to-day, became stranded
+in the cities of the coast, without resources and without employment,
+willing to work, but unable to get work. In February, 1817, James
+Buchanan, the British consul at New York, issued a warning against
+immigration to the United States, on the ground, as he alleged, of
+numerous applications made to his office for aid to return to Great
+Britain and Ireland, but at the same time the consul stated that he was
+authorized to place all desirable immigrants, who found themselves
+destitute in New York, in Upper Canada or Nova Scotia. Mr. Buchanan was
+evidently not so anxious to assist his fellow-subjects of King George as
+he was to promote the British policy of building up the Canadian
+territories as a counterpoise to the United States. While there was
+undoubtedly some distress among immigrants of the improvident class,
+those who came here with the determination to work generally found work
+before long at much better compensation than they could have earned in
+England, while those who proceeded to the new regions of the West had no
+difficulty in becoming independent and prosperous freeholders.
+
+"In exchanging the condition of an English farmer for that of an American
+proprietor," wrote an intelligent immigrant, "I expect to suffer many
+inconveniences; but I am willing to make a great sacrifice of present
+ease, were it merely for the sake of obtaining in the decline of life, an
+exemption from that wearisome solicitude about pecuniary affairs from
+which even the affluent find no refuge in England; and, for my children,
+a career of enterprise and wholesome family connections in a society
+whose institutions are favorable to virtue; and at last the consolation
+of leaving them efficient members of a flourishing, public-spirited,
+energetic community; where the insolence of wealth and the servility of
+pauperism, between which in England there is scarcely an interval
+remaining, are alike unknown. * * * It has struck me as we have passed
+along from one poor hut to another, among the rude inhabitants of this
+infant State, that travelers in general who judge by comparison, are not
+qualified to form a fair estimate of these lonely settlers. Let a
+stranger make his tour through England in a course remote from the great
+roads, and going to no inns, take such, entertainment only as he might
+find in the cottage of laborers, he would have as much cause to complain
+of the rudeness of the people, and more of their drunkenness and
+profligacy than in these backwoods: although in England the poor are a
+part of society whose institutions are matured by the experience of two
+thousand years. But in their manners and morals, but especially in their
+knowledge and proud independence of mind, they exhibit a contrast so
+striking that he must be a _petit maitre_ traveler, or ill-informed of
+the character and circumstances of his poor countrymen, or deficient in
+good and manly sentiment, who would not rejoice to transplant into these
+boundless regions of freedom the millions he has left behind him
+groveling in ignorance and want."[1]
+
+      [1] Notes on a journey in America from the coast of Virginia to the
+      territory of Illinois, by M. Birkbeck.
+
+While a great agricultural domain was being occupied in the West,
+commerce and manufactures were not neglected. American merchantmen
+visited every sea, no longer in dread of hostile Briton or Barbary
+pirate, and internal commerce received a mighty impulse from the
+steamboat. Meanwhile the foundations were laid of those vast
+manufacturing interests which were yet to overshadow commerce in the
+East. As early as 1810, the domestic manufactures of all descriptions
+were worth $127,694,602 annually, and it was estimated by competent
+authorities that of $36,793,249--the value of the manufactures of wool,
+cotton and flax, with their mixtures--fully two-thirds were produced in
+the houses of the farmers and other inhabitants. England had foreseen
+that America might prove a powerful rival in the manufacturing field, and
+Parliament enacted laws to prevent the emigration of skilled artisans. It
+may seem almost incredible that less than one hundred years ago such a
+prohibition existed, but I read in an account of a voyage from London to
+Boston in 1817 that "the passengers were summoned to appear at the
+Gravesend custom house, personally to deliver in their names and a
+statement of their professions. Had any been known to be artisans or
+manufacturers, they would have been stopped and forbidden to leave the
+kingdom. An act of Parliament imposes a heavy fine on those who induce
+them to attempt it." Samuel Slater, who brought the Arkwright patents in
+his brain, evaded the prohibition a few years after the Revolution, and
+his descendants are to-day among the wealthiest and most reputable of New
+England's citizens.
+
+The war of 1812-15, gave a tremendous impulse to American manufactures
+through the exclusion of British and other foreign products. At the close
+of the war, however, when American ports were thrown open to the trade of
+Great Britain, the manufacturers of that country, with the deliberate
+purpose of crushing American industries out of existence, threw vast
+quantities of goods into the American markets, completely swamping native
+productions, and making it impossible for native manufacturers to compete
+with the importations. It was this ruinous relapse from comparative
+prosperity that prompted the agitation for a protective tariff. As
+further evidence of British purpose to do all the damage possible to
+American interests, even in time of peace, it may be mentioned that when
+Lord Exmouth, with a powerful fleet, visited Algiers in 1816, and
+negotiated a treaty between the Dey--Omar, the successor of Hadgi
+Ali--and the kings of Sardinia and Naples, the Algerians began to show
+themselves again hostile to the United States within a few days after the
+treaty. The public sentiment of Europe, however, made it impossible for
+England to make longer use of those pirates to injure commercial rivals,
+and the British Government, in deference to that sentiment, sought a
+quarrel with the Dey, bombarded Algiers, and compelled the Barbary States
+to agree to put an end to piracy--an agreement which remained for some
+time a dead letter.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Louisiana Purchase was crowned in 1818 by the purchase of Florida
+from Spain. Spanish authority in North America had long been little more
+than a thin disguise, behind which the British plotted and operated
+against the welfare of the United States. General Jackson had found it
+necessary in 1814 to capture Pensacola, which the English were using as a
+base of hostilities. Again in 1818 General Jackson invaded Florida to
+punish Indians who, incited by British subjects under Spanish protection,
+were plundering and murdering in American settlements. Jackson took by
+force the Spanish post of St. Marks, entered Pensacola, and attacked the
+fort at Barrancas, compelling it to surrender. Two British subjects who
+had stirred up the Indians to attack the Americans were executed.
+Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sustained Jackson, notwithstanding
+the protests of Spain, and the latter power concluded to yield to the
+inevitable, and sold Florida to the United States on the extinction of
+the various American claims for spoliation, for the satisfaction of which
+the United States agreed to pay $5,000,000 to the claimants. Thus all
+foreign authority was extinguished in the Southeast and the American flag
+waved from the Florida Keys to the boundaries of New Spain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Missouri Compromise--Erie Canal Opened--Political Parties and Great
+National Issues--President Jackson Crushes the United States Bank--South
+Carolina Pronounces the Tariff Law Void--Jackson's Energetic Action--A
+Compromise--Territory Reserved for the Indians--The Seminole War--
+Osceola's Vengeance--His Capture and Death--The Black Hawk War--Abraham
+Lincoln a Volunteer--Texas War for Independence--Massacre of the Alamo
+--Mexican Defeat at San Jacinto--The Mexican President a Captive--Texas
+Admitted to the Union--Oregon--American Statesmen Blinded by the Hudson
+Bay Company--Marcus Whitman's Ride--Oregon Saved to the Union--The "Dorr
+War."
+
+
+The Missouri Compromise, by which Congress, after admitting Missouri as a
+slave State, took the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes as a
+dividing line through the rest of the Louisiana Purchase, between slavery
+and freedom, averted for another generation the great struggle between
+North and South. At peace with the rest of the world, the United States
+had time to devote to national development without the distraction of
+war, and financial questions, the tariff and internal improvements
+engrossed the attention of Congress and of the States. The opening of the
+Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River, in 1825, made
+central New York the great highway of commerce and of travel, and New
+York gradually became the leading State of the Union in population,
+wealth and trade. There was a strong agitation in favor of a general
+system of roads and canals, connecting the various parts of the country,
+and to be constructed at the expense of the nation, and not of the
+States. The party known as National Republicans, direct successors of the
+Federalists, supported this proposition, and also advocated a high tariff
+on imports and an extension of the charter of the United States Bank,
+about to expire in 1836. The Democratic Republicans, now known simply as
+Democrats, denied the constitutional authority of the national government
+to construct roads and canals, or to impose a tariff except for revenue,
+or to charter a national bank. During the administration of John Quincy
+Adams the National Republicans succeeded in having tariff laws enacted in
+1824 and 1828, which gave substantial and, in the view of the Democrats,
+excessive protection to domestic manufactures.
+
+General Andrew Jackson was elected President in 1828, after a most bitter
+contest, in which John Quincy Adams was his opponent. Jackson
+claimed--and the evidence seems to support his claim--that the United
+States Bank had used all its influence against him, and had even made
+antagonism to Jackson a condition of mercantile accommodation. He had
+long before been prejudiced against the bank through the stupid red
+tapeism of an agent of the bank in New Orleans who stood by a rule not
+intended for emergencies when Jackson needed money for his army. He was
+convinced that not only all the power of the bank, but all the power
+which the Federal Government could exert to defeat him had been exerted,
+and being victorious in despite of this opposition, he resolved to crush
+the bank and to make a clean sweep of the officeholders. The old
+pamphlets in the Astor Library which tell the story of the bank's
+struggle to escape annihilation are almost pathetic reading. The giant
+was prostrate, and his enemy had no mercy. In 1832 Jackson vetoed the
+bill to renew the charter of the bank. Re-elected President in 1832 by an
+overwhelming majority of votes in the Electoral College, Jackson, in the
+following year, removed the public money which had been deposited in the
+United States Bank, and distributed it among various State banks. The
+Senate censured Jackson, but the censure was expunged after a long
+struggle, in which Senator Thomas Hart Benton, of Missouri, championed
+the President.
+
+The opposition to a tariff for protection was very bitter in the South,
+where the people regarded the tariff duties as a tribute exacted from
+them for the benefit of the North. This feeling was especially strong in
+South Carolina, where a State convention undertook to pronounce the
+tariff law null and void, and held out a threat of secession should the
+Federal Government attempt to collect the duties. The States of Alabama,
+Tennessee and Georgia took firm ground against nullification, and on
+December 10, 1832, President Jackson issued his famous proclamation,
+exhorting all persons to obey the laws, and denouncing the South Carolina
+ordinance. "I consider then," said the President, "the power to annul a
+law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the
+existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the
+Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every
+principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object
+for which it was formed." The President declared it to be his intent to
+"take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and he warned the
+citizens of South Carolina that "the course they are urged to pursue is
+one of ruin and disgrace to the very State whose rights they affect to
+support." Major Heileman, commanding the United States troops at
+Charleston, was instructed to be vigilant in defeating any attempt to
+seize the forts in that harbor, and two companies of artillery were
+ordered to Fort Moultrie. The Unionist sentiment in South Carolina itself
+was strong, and the crisis fortunately passed without any attempt to
+carry into execution the nullification ordinance. Excitement ran high,
+however, until the adoption in March, 1833, of a compromise tariff, which
+provided for a gradual reduction of duties.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+General Jackson in his annual message of 1830, recommended the devotion
+of a large tract of land, west of the Mississippi, to the use of the
+Indian tribes yet remaining east of that river, and Congress, in 1834,
+enacted that "all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi
+River, and not within the States of Missouri and Louisiana, or the
+Territory of Arkansas, shall be considered the Indian country." This was
+the origin of the present Indian Territory, gradually reduced in area by
+the successive formation of States and Territories. The Seminoles of
+Florida naturally objected to removal from the land of their ancestors to
+a far-distant region, and under the leadership of a brave and skillful
+chief named Osceola they resisted the troops sent to coerce them into
+obedience. The most memorable event of the war was the massacre of Major
+Dade and about one hundred soldiers in an ambuscade, December 28, 1835.
+On the same day Osceola with a small party of followers killed and
+scalped General Wiley Thomson, of the United States army and five of
+Thomson's friends. Before the opening of hostilities Thomson had put
+Osceola in irons on account of his refractory attitude, and the Indian
+chief long planned the act of vengeance which he thus signally executed.
+The war lasted almost seven years, and was attended with a distressing
+loss of life and property. Not less than 9000 United States troops were
+in the Seminole territory in the latter part of 1837, and while the
+Indians were more than once severely chastised when brought to an
+engagement, it was almost impossible to pursue them in their native
+everglades. Osceola was taken prisoner when in conference, under a flag
+of truce, with General Jesup, of the United States army, but the
+Seminoles maintained the struggle under other leaders, and it was not
+until 1842 that peace was established, and the Indians driven to
+surrender. Osceola did not live to see the defeat of the cause for which
+he had fought so resolutely. He died of fever at Fort Moultrie on the
+last day of 1839.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Black Hawk War in the Northwest was, as usual with Indian wars, a
+struggle on the part of the red men to retain the lands of their fathers.
+Black Hawk was a noted chief of the Sacs and Foxes, and he claimed that
+the original treaty by which his tribe sold all their lands in Illinois
+to the United States was made by only four chiefs, and that they were
+drunk when they signed it. Assuming this charge to be true it remains
+that the provisions of the first treaty were confirmed by two subsequent
+treaties, the last in 1830, when the principal chief, Keokuk, made the
+final cession to the United States of all the country owned by the Sacs
+and Foxes east of the Mississippi River. This was done without the
+knowledge of Black Hawk, whose indignation was greatly aroused upon
+hearing of the negotiation. Black Hawk was yet more enraged when he
+found, in April, 1831, that during the absence of himself and his people
+from their village on a hunting expedition a fur-trader had purchased
+from the government the ground on which the village stood, and was
+preparing to cultivate the field upon which the Indians had for many
+years raised their corn. This was in violation of the letter and spirit
+of the treaty, which provided that the Indians could occupy their lands
+until they were needed for settlement, and the frontier settlements were
+yet fifty miles distant. War soon followed between the whites and
+Indians, Abraham Lincoln, afterward President of the United States, being
+enlisted as a volunteer. Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterward President, was
+one of the officers in command of the United States troops. After
+fighting with varied fortunes for several months, Black Hawk was defeated
+with the loss of many warriors, and fled to a village of the Winnebagoes.
+The latter escorted the fallen chieftain to the United States authorities
+at Prairie du Chien. "Black Hawk is an Indian," said the captive warrior,
+speaking in the third person. "He has done nothing an Indian need be
+ashamed of. He has fought the battles of his country against the white
+men, who come year after year to cheat them and take away their lands. He
+will go to the world of spirits contented." Black Hawk was well treated
+as a prisoner, taken to Washington to visit the President, and liberated
+after peace had been made.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+During Jackson's second term the American settlers in Texas succeeded,
+after a conflict attended by signal heroism and ferocity, in securing
+their independence of Mexico. The massacre of the Alamo by the Mexicans
+under Santa Anna, will always be remembered in American history. The
+Mission of the Alamo, which the Texans defended to the death against
+overwhelming numbers, was entirely isolated from the town of San Antonio.
+It consisted of several buildings, and a convent yard, surrounded by high
+and thick walls, having partly, like all the old missions, the character
+of a fortress. Fourteen pieces of artillery were mounted for the defence,
+and the garrison, when it entered the Alamo, consisted of one hundred and
+forty-five men, untrained in arms, except in the use of the rifle. Their
+leader was Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis, a native of North
+Carolina, and second in command was Colonel James Bowie, inventor of the
+terrible bowie-knife. Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, was in
+personal command of the attacking forces, numbering between 6000 and 7000
+men. He declared that he would grant no quarter. The troops ordered to
+the assault numbered 2500, or about twenty-five Mexicans to one American.
+The deadly fire from the Alamo twice repelled the enemy, but they were
+driven on by the blows and shouts of their officers, and at the third
+attempt they scaled the wall, and carried the defences. While life lasted
+the Texans fought. They had agreed to blow up the buildings in the last
+extremity, but Major T. C. Evans, when about to fire the magazine, was
+struck down by a bullet. Not a defender who could be found was spared.
+Five Texans who had hidden themselves were taken before Santa Anna. At a
+word from that monster of cruelty they were at once dispatched with
+bayonets.
+
+The Alamo was not long unavenged. The massacre took place on March 6,
+1836. On April 21, the Texans, led by General Sam Houston, met the
+Mexicans at San Jacinto. The Texans numbered 743; the Mexicans about
+1400, with Santa Anna in command. Houston, by strategy worthy of greater
+fame, had managed to come upon the Mexican President when the latter was
+separated from the larger part of his forces. Determined to win or die,
+Houston destroyed a bridge which afforded the only retreat for his men or
+escape for the enemy. The Texans delivered one volley at close range, and
+then clubbed their rifles or drew their bowie-knives, with the
+cry--"Remember the Alamo!" In fifteen minutes the Mexicans were in
+flight, pursued by the yelling Texans. "Me no Alamo! Me no Alamo!" cried
+the terrified fugitives. The Texans did not stay their hands until they
+had killed six hundred and thirty and wounded two hundred and eight of
+their cowardly foes. The remainder of the Mexicans were allowed to
+surrender, and were not maltreated as prisoners. Santa Anna was captured
+while hiding in the grass at some distance from the battlefield, and
+brought, a pallid and trembling captive, before Houston. The latter
+spared the tyrant's life, and placed a guard to protect him. The battle
+of San Jacinto virtually put an end to the war, and Texas remained the
+Lone Star Republic, until admitted to the American Union in 1845.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+This period witnessed also the successful assertion of American title to
+that extensive and productive region now divided into the States of
+Oregon, Washington and Idaho. President Jefferson had seen almost with
+the vision of prophecy the future of that distant portion of the
+Louisiana Purchase. "I looked forward with gratification," he said in his
+later years, "to the time when the descendants of the settlers of Oregon
+would spread themselves through the whole length of the coast, covering
+it with free, independent Americans, unconnected with us but by the ties
+of blood and interest, and enjoying, like us, the rights of
+self-government." And yet, for forty years after the treaty which
+transferred to the United States the possessions of France in America,
+the leading statesmen of our republic, Jefferson excepted, remained blind
+to the value of America's domain on the Pacific. In 1810, John Jacob
+Astor's American Fur Company undertook to establish a post upon what they
+regarded as American soil, at a place which the founders called Astoria.
+The Hudson Bay Company then claimed Oregon as part of their territory,
+and when the War of 1812 broke out the British attacked Astoria, took the
+Americans prisoners, and changed the name of the post to Fort George. The
+Astor attempt to found a settlement in Oregon was not without favorable
+bearing on American claims to that territory, especially as the
+enterprise had the sanction of the United States Government, and a United
+States naval officer commanded the leading vessel in the expedition.
+Under the treaty of Ghent, Astoria was to be restored to its original
+owners, but it was not until 1846 that this act of justice was
+consummated. In 1818 it was mutually agreed that each nation should
+equally enjoy the privileges of all the bays and harbors on that coast
+for ten years, and this agreement was renewed in 1827 for an indefinite
+time. Practically this meant the occupation of the country by the Hudson
+Bay Company, which found its forests and waters a mine of fur-bearing
+wealth. The most eminent of America's statesmen, so far as the Pacific
+Northwest was concerned, seemed to be under the spell of their own
+ignorance and of the Hudson Bay Company's misrepresentations. The great
+Senator Benton said that, "The ridge of the Rocky Mountains may be named
+as a convenient, natural and everlasting boundary." Winthrop, of
+Massachusetts, quoted and commended this statement of Benton, and
+McDuffie of South Carolina declared that the wealth of the Indies would
+be insufficient to pay the cost of a railroad to the mouth of the
+Columbia. While the nation was stirred up over a boundary dispute
+involving a comparatively small district in the Northeast--settled by the
+Ashburton Treaty in 1842--Oregon, with its extensive territory and
+magnificent natural wealth was treated as unworthy of controversy. But
+for the patriot missionary, Marcus Whitman, who in the winter of 1842-43
+made a perilous journey from his mission post in Oregon to Washington, to
+stir up the American Government to a sense of its duty, and of the
+imminent danger of the seizure of Oregon by the British, that valuable
+region would in all probability have passed under British dominion. "All
+I ask," said Doctor Whitman to President Tyler, "is that you won't barter
+away Oregon or allow English interference until I can lead a band of
+stalwart American settlers across the plains; for this I will try to do."
+The President promised; the settlers went, and Oregon was saved.[1] For a
+time it seemed that war might result, but the two nations at length
+compromised on a boundary line at forty-nine north latitude.
+
+      [1] It is sad to know that this patriot missionary and his admirable
+      wife were massacred in 1847, with a number of other persons, at
+      their mission station of Waiilatpwi by the very Indians they were
+      educating. There is reason to believe the massacre was indirectly
+      the result of Whitman's service to his country in rescuing Oregon
+      from the Hudson Bay Company. The treaty of 1846 greatly irritated
+      that powerful corporation, and this feeling inevitably spread to
+      the Indians who depended upon the company for supplies, and who
+      naturally sympathized with its policy of keeping the land for
+      fur-bearing animals and savage humanity. It is unnecessary to
+      suspect the company or the Roman Catholic missionaries attached to
+      the company of any plot against Whitman's life. It was sufficient
+      for the savages to know that the company hated Whitman, and that the
+      American Protestant missionaries sought to convert them not only to
+      Christianity, but also to industry.
+
+During President Tyler's administration Rhode Island was the scene of a
+commotion known as the "Dorr War." While the property qualification for
+voters had been discarded in nearly every Northern State, Rhode Island
+still adhered to the system of government provided in the King Charles
+charter of 1663, which restricted the franchise to freeholders and their
+eldest sons. This restriction gave occasion for many abuses, mortgagees
+often exercising control over the votes of their debtors, and citizens
+who paid taxes on mortgaged property being sometimes denied the privilege
+of voting on the ground that they did not possess sufficient equity in
+their estates. The majority of the people desired a frame of government
+in accord with the spirit of American institutions, but were resisted by
+the minority in actual power. The party of reform, therefore, held an
+election in defiance of the charter, adopted a new constitution arid
+chose Thomas W. Dorr governor, along with other general officers and a
+General Assembly. The Dorr legislature met in a foundry and passed
+various laws, which they had no power to enforce. The charter government
+called out the militia, the Dorrites also took arms, and for some time
+there was danger of a collision. The Dorrites were ultimately dispersed
+without a battle, and the charter government remained in power. From a
+sanitary standpoint it was a healthy war, as more people were probably
+benefited by the outing than injured by bullets and bayonets.[2] Dorr was
+afterward sentenced to State Prison for life, but was pardoned after a
+few years, and his sentence expunged by vote of the legislature, from the
+records of the court. A constitution embodying most of the reforms for
+which the Dorrites had striven was legally adopted, and Rhode Island
+settled down to its customary calm and prosperity.
+
+      [2] The "Dorr war," however, was very real to the people of Rhode
+      Island. About thirteen years ago the writer was present in the
+      office of the clerk of a Rhode Island town, when an old lady
+      entered, and told the clerk that she wanted to see the record of a
+      deed. Upon being asked to indicate the probable date, she said it
+      was "before the war." On inquiry by the clerk it appeared that she
+      meant the "Dorr war."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+War with Mexico--General Zachary Taylor Defeats the Mexicans--Buena
+Vista--Mexicans Four to One--"A Little More Grape, Captain Bragg!"--
+Glorious American Victory--General Scott's Splendid Campaign--A
+Series of Victories--Cerro Gordo--Contreras--Churubusco--Molino del
+Rey--Chapultepec--Stars and Stripes Float in the City of Mexico--
+Generous Treatment of the Vanquished--Peace--Cession of Vast Territory
+to the United States--The Gadsden Purchase.
+
+
+The annexation of Texas by the United States was accepted by Mexico as an
+act of war. The American Government and people were not unprepared for a
+challenge from Mexico, and rather welcomed it, as, apart from the Texas
+issue, Mexico had, from the time of her independence treated the United
+States in a manner far from neighborly, and inflicted many injuries on
+American citizens. In the West and South especially it was deemed
+necessary to give Mexico a lesson; in New England the war was not
+popular. Hostilities began, and two sharp battles were fought, before war
+was actually declared. General Zachary Taylor, with a force much inferior
+to that of the enemy, defeated the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la
+Palma, and drove them out of Texas. At Resaca the American dragoons under
+Captain May charged straight upon a Mexican battery, killing the gunners
+and capturing the Mexican general La Vega just as he was about to apply a
+match to one of the pieces. The Mexican army was so completely scattered
+that their commander Arista fled unaccompanied across the Rio Grande. At
+Buena Vista Generals Taylor and Wool, with 5000 men, of whom only 500
+were regular troops, confronted Santa Anna with 20,000, February 23,
+1847. The Mexican chieftain expected an easy victory, and his army,
+inspired with his confidence, rushed from their mountains upon the small
+force of Americans drawn up in battle array on the plain of Angostura.
+
+    "Like the fierce Northern hurricane
+    That sweeps his great plateau,
+    Flushed with the triumph yet to gain,
+    Came down the serried foe.
+    Who heard the thunder of the fray
+    Break o'er the field beneath,
+    Well knew the watchword of that day
+    Was victory or death."[1]
+
+      [1] "The Bivouac of the Dead."--_O'Hara._
+
+The battle lasted all day, the American artillery being splendidly
+handled, and mowing down the Mexicans at every charge. "Give 'em a little
+more grape, Captain Bragg!" said Taylor quietly, as he saw Santa Anna's
+lines wavering. The grape was given, and the Mexicans fled, leaving 500
+of their number dead or dying on the field. The total Mexican loss,
+including wounded and prisoners was about 2000; that of the Americans in
+killed, wounded and missing, 746. This victory, and the successes of
+Fremont and Kearney in California, completed the conquest of Northern
+Mexico.
+
+General Winfield Scott, who was in supreme command of all the American
+forces, conducted a brilliant campaign from the coast. After taking Vera
+Cruz and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, General Scott advanced toward
+the City of Mexico with about 10,000 men. At Cerro Gordo, a difficult
+pass in the mountains, the American army encountered 12,000 Mexicans
+under command of Santa Anna, who had, by extraordinary efforts, collected
+this force after his defeat at Buena Vista. The battle was fought on
+April 18, every movement of the American troops being directed, according
+to a carefully prepared plan, by General Scott. Colonel Harvey led the
+storming party into the pass, with a deep river on one side, and
+batteries belching death from lofty rocks on the other side. The
+Americans rushed forward with irresistible courage. They knew their
+enemy. The Alamo had not been forgotten. Cerro Gordo fell, and the flight
+of the Mexicans may best be described in the language of one of their own
+historians: "General Santa Anna, accompanied by some of his adjutants,
+was passing along the road to the left of the battery, when the enemy's
+column, now out of the woods, appeared on his line of retreat and fired
+upon him, forcing him back. The carriage in which he had left Jalapa was
+riddled with shot, the mules killed and taken by the enemy, as well as a
+wagon containing $16,000 received the day before for the pay of the
+soldiers. Every tie of command and obedience now being broken among our
+troops, safety alone being the object, and all being involved in a
+frightful confusion, they rushed desperately to the narrow pass of the
+defile that descended to the Plan del Rio, where the general-in-chief had
+proceeded, with the chiefs and officers accompanying him. Horrid indeed
+was the descent by that narrow and rocky path where thousands rushed,
+disputing the passage with desperation, and leaving a track of blood upon
+the road. All classes being confounded military distinction and respect
+were lost; and badges of rank became marks of sarcasm. The enemy, now
+masters of our camp, turned their guns upon the fugitives, thus
+augmenting the terror of the multitude that crowded through the defile
+and pressed forward every instant by a new impulse, which increased the
+confusion and disgrace of that ill-fated day." Of the 12,000 Mexicans
+engaged in this battle about 1200 were killed and wounded, and 3000 were
+made prisoners. The captives were all paroled, and the sick and wounded
+sent to Jalapa, where they were well cared for. The Castle of Perote, the
+strongest fortress in Mexico, surrendered without resistance, and the
+American flag was unfurled on the summit of the eastern Cordilleras.
+
+After a rest at Puebla General Scott pushed on in the footsteps of
+Cortes. Santa Anna, who would have equalled Napoleon or Caesar had his
+ability and courage in the field been equal to his success in organizing
+armies, made a stand with 32,000 Mexicans at Contreras and Churubusco.
+The army of General Scott numbered about 9000 effective men. Both sides
+knew that the battle to be fought would decide the fate of the City of
+Mexico. On the nineteenth of August about one-half of the American army
+attacked the fortified camp at Contreras, defended by nearly 7000
+Mexicans, under General Valencia. Evening fell without victory for either
+side. In the early morning, after a night of heavy rain, General P. F.
+Smith, with three brigades of infantry, but without cavalry or artillery,
+marched in the darkness up to the Mexican camp, discharged several
+volleys in quick succession, and dashed, bayonet in hand, upon the enemy.
+In fifteen minutes the Americans were victors, over 3000 Mexicans were
+prisoners, and the rest of Valencia's troops were fugitives. The American
+army gave the enemy no time to recover, but moved promptly forward to
+more victories. The fort of San Antonio was captured, the garrison not
+waiting to be attacked before taking to flight, and then began the battle
+of Churubusco. This place is a small village, six miles south from the
+City of Mexico, and connected with it by a spacious causeway. At the head
+of the causeway, near the village, and in front of the bridge over the
+Churubusco River, was a strong redoubt, mounted with batteries, and
+occupied by a large force of Mexicans. The convent-church of San Pablo,
+with its massive stone walls, was converted into a fort. The walls were
+impervious to the attack of field pieces, and the building was defended
+by a well-constructed bastion, and guns placed in the embrasure. The
+church stood on an eminence, and the village which clustered about it was
+defended by stone walls and a stone building, strongly fortified.
+
+The Americans carried the redoubt at the point of the bayonet, and then a
+desperate battle raged about the fortified village and church. From
+behind their defences the Mexicans kept up a deadly fire on the
+Americans, but the latter never faltered. The Mexicans made repeated
+sallies from the convent, but were driven back every time. In their
+desperation the native Mexicans desired to surrender, but some deserters
+from the American army, known as the San Patricio companies, hauled down
+the white flag whenever it was put up. At length after a three-hours'
+struggle the convent and other defences were captured. In the rear of
+Churubusco General James Shields and General Franklin Pierce, afterward
+President of the United States, were hard pressed by an overwhelming
+force of Mexicans, and in some danger. Timely reinforcements sent by
+General Scott turned danger into victory, and the Mexicans, discomfited
+on every side, gave way, and retreated in utter disorder toward the city
+of Mexico, pursued by the triumphant Americans. It was the most glorious
+day since Yorktown for American arms. The Mexican loss was nearly 4000
+killed and wounded, besides 300 prisoners, thirty-seven cannon and a
+large quantity of small arms and ammunition. The Americans lost 139
+killed and 926 wounded.
+
+Churubusco should have ended the war, and negotiations for peace were
+commenced, but were broken off through Mexican bad faith. Hostilities
+were resumed and the coup-de-grace was given to Mexico on the historic
+hill of Chapultepec. The storming of El Molino del Rey, of the Casa de
+Mata and the Castle of Chapultepec were among the boldest exploits of the
+war. Chapultepec had been an ancient seat of the Aztec emperors. Rising
+abruptly from the shore of Lake Tezcuco, crowned with a strongly
+fortified castle, supported by numerous outworks and with several massive
+stone buildings, each a fortress powerfully garrisoned, at the base, the
+hill of Chapultepec seemed a very Gibraltar guarding the entrance to
+Mexico's capital. El Molino del Rey and the Casa de Mata were carried by
+storm on the eighth of September, the Mexicans leaving 1000 dead on the
+field, beside 800 prisoners, and those who escaped death or capture
+either flying in dismay from the scene or retreating up the hill to the
+Castle of Chapultepec.
+
+General Scott determined to batter down the castle with heavy cannon.
+Robert E. Lee, afterward commander of the Confederate armies, was one of
+the officers who placed the artillery in position. A continuous fire was
+kept up during the first day (September 12), the solid shot and shell
+crashing through the Castle and killing many of its defenders. Among
+these were about one hundred young boys, from ten to sixteen years of
+age, cadets in the Military Academy, which was situated on the hill of
+Chapultepec. Several of the boys lost their lives fighting the Americans
+with a valor that might well have put some of their elders to shame.
+About fifty general officers were also in the Castle, and the whole
+Mexican force engaged probably did not exceed 4000 men. It was the last
+stand made by Mexican troops, and it was a brave stand. The weak and the
+demoralized had slunk away from further conflict with an invincible foe.
+The bombardment was resumed on the thirteenth, and troops moved to the
+assault under cover of a heavy cannonade. The Mexicans fought
+desperately, but they were no match for their antagonists. The Stars and
+Stripes soon floated over Chapultepec, hailed with a mighty cheer by the
+American troops, nearly all of whom had taken some part in the conflict.
+
+On September 14 the American flag was hoisted in the City of Mexico, and
+from the National Palace of that Republic General Scott issued a general
+order in which, with justifiable pride, he declared: "Beginning with
+August 10 and ending the fourteenth instant, this army has gallantly
+fought its way through the fields and forts of Contreras, San Antonio,
+Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec and the gates of San Cosme and
+Tacubaya into the capital of Mexico. When the very limited number who
+have performed these brilliant deeds shall have become known, the world
+will be astonished and our own countrymen filled with joy and
+admiration." The triumphs of Scott and Taylor added lustre to American
+arms which time will not efface. They recalled the exploits of Cortes and
+Pizarro, save in the scrupulous honor and humanity which guided every
+step of the American invasion. No victors were ever more generous in
+their treatment of the conquered. "The soldiers of Vera Cruz," says a
+Mexican historian, "received the honor due to their valor and
+misfortunes. Not even a look was given them by the enemy's soldiers which
+could be interpreted into an insult." The Duke of Wellington, the
+conqueror of Napoleon, followed Scott's campaign with deep interest and
+caused its movements to be marked on a map daily, as information was
+received. Admiring its triumphs up to the basin of Mexico, Wellington
+then said: "Scott is lost. He has been carried away by successes. He
+can't take the city, and he can't fall back on his base." Wellington
+proved to be wrong. He had never met American troops.
+
+The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, concluded February 2, 1848, established
+the Rio Grande as the boundary between the United States and Mexico, and
+California and New Mexico, including what is now Arizona, were ceded to
+the United States for $15,000,000. The United States also assumed the
+payment of obligations due by Mexico to American citizens to the amount
+of $3,250,000, and discharged Mexico from all claims of citizens of the
+United States against that Republic. Strict provision was made for the
+preservation of the rights of the inhabitants of the ceded territory. The
+Gadsden Purchase, in 1853--so called from General James Gadsden, who
+conducted the negotiations in behalf of the United States--added 45,535
+square miles of Mexican territory to the United States, for which this
+country paid $10,000,000, Mexico at the same time relinquishing claims
+against the United States for Indian depredations amounting to from
+$15,000,000 to $30,000,000. The American Republic thus received in all,
+as a consequence of the Mexican War, 591,398 square miles, and the Union
+acquired its present boundaries, exclusive of Alaska. The Mexican War
+gave to the United States the Pacific as well as the Atlantic seaboard,
+and completed the westward movement which had begun with the very birth
+of the Republic. It made the United States the great power of the
+American continent, seated between the two oceans, with a domain
+unequalled in natural resources by any other region of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+The Union in 1850--Comparative Population of Cities and Rural Districts
+--Agriculture the General Occupation--Commercial and Industrial
+Development--Growth of New York and Chicago--The Southern States--
+Importance of the Cotton Crop--Why the South Was Sensitive to
+Anti-Slavery Agitation--Manufactures--Religion and Education,--The
+Cloud on the Horizon.
+
+
+Approaching that period of civil discord, followed by civil war, which
+has left its impress in every corner of the Union, and which was attended
+by radical changes in the Constitution and the institutions of our
+country, it may be well to review the material condition of the States
+when the forces of freedom and slavery began to gather for the great
+conflict, first in the forum and later in the field. In 1850 the United
+States had a population of 23,191,876, of whom 3,204,313 were slaves.
+Only 4,000,000 of the people lived in cities, towns and villages, and of
+these but 2,860,000 resided in 140 cities and towns of more than 10,000
+inhabitants each. Of the total real and personal property in the United
+States more than two-thirds was owned by the rural population, and the
+value of manufactures was insignificant, compared with the products of
+agriculture. One leading aim of American statesmanship and enterprise had
+been, from a very early period, to connect the great lakes and the
+fertile valleys of the middle and western States with the cities and
+ports along the Atlantic seaboard; to improve navigation of the rivers,
+and thus bring into cultivation the valuable tracts of country along
+their banks; and, as a part of this great work, to connect with each
+other, by railways and canals, the towns and villages in the more
+densely-peopled and cultivated districts. To carry out the general
+design, vast sums were lavished and expensive works constructed, in many
+instances far in advance of any ascertained requirements of the country,
+and certainly with little prospect of an early return for the
+expenditure. But in the meantime the most apparently hopeless of these
+works conferred important benefits upon the mass of the community, by
+developing sources of wealth which might otherwise have been closed for
+years, and providing new spheres for the restless and indomitable energy
+of the American.
+
+While the agricultural portion of the American people were extending the
+area of their location, and laying under the Constitution new and vast
+sources of wealth, the cities and towns also grew apace under the impulse
+of commercial and industrial development. No country in the world, Great
+Britain not excepted, succeeded more signally in directing its natural
+advantages to the promotion of commerce. The abundance of water power was
+utilized for manufactures of every description. Machinery of the most
+perfect kind was applied to every process, economizing labor,
+facilitating locomotion and aiding in surmounting those difficulties
+which had ever impeded the progress of young nations. Nowhere was the
+gigantic power of steam more abundantly and usefully employed--in the
+mine and in the mill, on the rivers and lakes, the canals and the
+railroads, doing the work of millions of hands and of human and animal
+sinews, without creating a vacuum in the market for labor, or diminishing
+the rewards of industry. From 1830 to 1840, a period of only ten years,
+the increase in the population of twenty of the largest cities in the
+United States, from New York to St. Louis inclusive, was fifty-five per
+cent, and this in face of the most disastrous commercial panic that had
+ever visited the country, and this marvelous rate of increase was fully
+maintained during the subsequent decade.
+
+It is not remarkable that the cities and States of the Union which first
+took steps to connect the fertile regions lying beyond the Allegheny
+Mountains with the Atlantic should have made the greatest progress in
+importance and prosperity. It was the fortune of the State of New York to
+take the earliest step to effect this great desideratum, although
+Washington had perhaps first suggested its importance, in agitating a
+movement for the purpose of connecting the country adjoining the Great
+Lakes with his native Virginia. The construction of the Erie Canal placed
+New York in the very front of American communities. Before the canal was
+opened the cost of transit from Lake Erie to tidewater was such as to
+prohibit the shipment of western produce and merchandise to New York; and
+it consequently came only to Baltimore and Philadelphia. "As soon as the
+lakes were reached," says a Federal report, "the line of navigable water
+was extended through them nearly one thousand miles farther from the
+interior. The Western States immediately commenced the construction of
+similar works, for the purpose of opening a communication from the more
+remote portions of their territories with this great water-line. All
+these works took their direction and character from the Erie Canal, which
+in this manner became the outlet for the greater part of the produce of
+the West. Without such a work the West would have had no attractions for
+a settler, and have probably remained a waste up to the present time; and
+New York itself could not have progressed as it has done." In addition,
+however, to the formation of the Erie Canal, New York originated, in
+advance of most other States, lines of railway throughout its territory,
+in connection either with the canal, or between its various towns and
+settlements. It also connected itself by railroad with Lake Champlain,
+and succeeded in diverting a considerable portion of the transit trade of
+Canada from the St. Lawrence through these communications to the port of
+New York. The effect of this enterprise displayed by the people and by
+the State may be estimated by the fact that the population, which was, in
+1830, 1,918,608, had increased in 1840 to 2,428,921, and in 1850 was
+3,097,394. In 1830, the value of the imports at New York was $38,656,064;
+in 1840 it had reached $60,064,942, and in 1851, when the network of
+railway communications throughout the State had come into fairly complete
+operation, the value of imports was $144,454,616.
+
+Under the influence of railroad and canal Chicago also made swift and
+wonderful progress. In May, 1848, a canal one hundred miles in length was
+opened to connect Lake Michigan with the Illinois River, and the first
+section of a railway from Chicago to the westward was opened in March,
+1849. Previously to these works being brought into operation it appears
+from the city census of 1847 that the population was 16,859; in 1850, it
+had sprung to 29,963, and in August, 1852 it was estimated at nearly, if
+not quite, 40,000, having thus considerably more than doubled itself in
+five years.
+
+The efforts of the Southern States to attract toward their ports the
+produce of the West, by way of the magnificent rivers which empty
+themselves into the Gulf of Mexico, rivalled those made by the North. The
+prosperity of these States was greatly promoted by the growing demand for
+cotton in America and Europe. In the thirty-one years from 1821 to 1852,
+there had been an increase of 3,000,000 bales in the growth, which
+multiplied itself during that period seven-fold! The importance of this
+crop as an element of wealth may be estimated from the fact that the
+census value of it in 1849-50 was $112,000,000; that its cultivation and
+preparation for market employed upward of 800,000 agricultural laborers,
+85 per cent of whom were slaves and the residue (120,000) white citizens;
+that upward of 120,000 tons of steam shipping, and at least 7000 persons
+were engaged in its transportation from the interior to the southern
+ports, and that after remunerating merchants, factors, underwriters and a
+host of other persons it furnished profitable freight for 1,100,000 tons
+of American shipping, and 55,000 seamen in the Gulf and Atlantic coasting
+trade, and for 800,000 tons and 40,000 seamen for its transport to Europe
+and elsewhere. As the Southern people generally believed that cotton
+could not be cultivated without the labor of slaves it is easy to
+understand why they were sensitive to every agitation, however slight,
+that seemed to threaten that source of wealth, and how their
+sensitiveness grew as cotton's empire extended.
+
+Manufactures were also in a flourishing condition, and it was estimated
+in 1852, that the capital embarked in the cotton manufactories of the
+United States was at least $80,000,000; that the value of the products
+was $70,000,000; that 100,000 male and female operatives were employed,
+and that quite 700,000 bales of cotton, worth at least $35,000,000, were
+spun and woven. America possessed, also, a number of woolen
+manufactories, which employed about the same period 39,252 hands.
+
+The American people, then as now, believed in religion and education as
+the corner-stones of liberty's temple. The population of 23,000,000 in
+1850 had 36,221 churches and chapels, with accommodation for 13,967,449
+persons--a large accommodation for a new country whose population had
+spread so rapidly over so extensive an area. Of the youth nearly
+4,000,000 were receiving instruction in the various educational
+institutions. The teachers numbered 115,000, and colleges and schools
+nearly 100,000. America had upward of seventy theological schools;
+forty-four medical and surgical schools; nineteen schools of law, and ten
+schools of practical science and extensive libraries were attached to
+nearly all of these institutions.
+
+Never had the future of our nation seemed more promising than at the very
+time when the cloud of slavery began to darken the bright horizon,
+gradually overspreading the heavens until it burst in the storm of
+secession.
+
+
+
+
+The Slavery Conflict.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Aggressiveness of Slavery--The Cotton States and Border States--The
+Fugitive Slave Law--Nullified in the North--Negroes Imported from
+Africa--The Struggle in Kansas--John Brown--Abraham Lincoln Pleads for
+Human Rights--Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet--Citizens Stop Guns at
+Pittsburg--Conditions at the Beginning of the Struggle--Southern
+Advantages--The Soldiers of Both Armies Compared--Conscription in the
+Confederacy--Southern Resources Limited--The North at a Disadvantage at
+First, but Its Resources Inexhaustible--Conscription in the North--
+Popular Support of the War--Unfriendliness of Great Britain and
+France--Why They Did Not Interfere.
+
+
+Slavery could not stand still. The Cotton States, so-called, which
+suffered least from the escape of slaves were the most aggressive in
+demanding a Fugitive Slave Law, while the Border States, where escapes
+were frequent, were not nearly as aggressive as their Southern neighbors.
+Attachment to slavery in the Cotton States had become a passion,
+springing from self-interest, but stronger than self-interest; while in
+the Border States the slaveholders were affected by propinquity to free
+communities, and the calculations of self-interest were softened by their
+surroundings; which shows, like many another chapter in history, that in
+the mighty impulses which guide the destinies of nations, the heart is
+above the head. The advocates of slavery felt insecure because they knew
+that even if legally right they were divinely and humanly wrong. They
+were not satisfied to have the Free States acquiescent and even
+submissive; they were determined, in their fever of unrest, to drive
+freedom to the wall, and to make the people of the North slave-catchers,
+if they would not consent to be slave-owners.
+
+The South had the Constitution on its side, and the Fugitive Slave Law
+could be met only by obedience or nullification. The Northern people
+simply decided to nullify the law. They did not meet in State
+conventions--like South Carolina in 1832--and declare the law void and of
+no effect. They were too sensible for that; but they would not obey the
+law. It was nullified in various ways. In Rhode Island, for instance, it
+was made a crime for an officer of the State to arrest a fugitive slave;
+in Ohio the ordinary statute against kidnappers was used to punish
+Federal officers and others attempting to carry slaves back into bondage,
+and in New York and other States mob law interfered to rescue and
+liberate the victims. The Fugitive Slave Law roused the spirit of
+freedom, and Northern defiance of the law inflamed the slaveholders. The
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, menacing the free States with a slave barrier West
+as well as South, and stretching to the Pacific as well as the Gulf, made
+civil war almost inevitable. Compromise became cowardice, and everyone
+who was not for freedom was against it. The Supreme Court of the United
+States supported the contentions of the slaveholders, but in vain for
+their cause. That higher tribunal--the conscience of a free and
+intelligent people--arraigned slavery as a crime against God and man, the
+Constitution and the Supreme Court to the contrary notwithstanding. When
+Chief Justice Taney held that Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri,
+but a thing, and could be carried by his master from one State to
+another, like a dog or a watch, and still be a slave, the Chief Justice
+only immortalized his own infamy; he did not immortalize slavery. Still
+greater was the shock when in defiance of the Constitution and the laws
+the foreign slave trade was resumed, and negroes imported from Africa to
+the South. It is only just to state that, according to recently published
+narratives of these slave importations, with details that could not have
+been related at the time with safety for the parties concerned, the
+Federal authorities in the South seem to have made a sincere effort to
+bring the slave-traders to justice, and the planters apparently did not
+welcome the traffic.
+
+The pioneers of the great struggle to come met on the plains of Kansas
+and several years of fierce border strife ended in victory for freedom.
+John Brown, whom the world calls a fanatic, perished on the scaffold at
+Harper's Ferry in a vain attempt to liberate the slaves, and while
+editors vacillated and quibbled, and fawning time servers applauded,
+Thoreau, from his hermitage in the New England woods, paid eloquent
+tribute to the man who dared to die for the truth. Away in the West a
+figure was looming up, a gaunt, homely figure, born in and nurtured in
+hardship, but endowed as no other man of his age was endowed, with the
+ability to guide his country through the awful ordeal to come. He
+perceived the right, and he boldly declared it. "If it is decreed that I
+should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to the
+truth--let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right," said
+Abraham Lincoln to the friends who disapproved his celebrated declaration
+that the government could not endure half slave, half free. "In the right
+to eat the bread without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand
+earns, he (the negro) is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and
+the equal of every living man"--was another sterling utterance which
+struck home to the North.
+
+While Lincoln was pleading the cause of human rights, and asserting that
+the Declaration of Independence was meant for black as well as white,
+members of President Buchanan's cabinet, holding in their grasp the reins
+of National Government, were plotting the nation's overthrow. Even down
+to the very moment that John B. Floyd left the War Office, and when South
+Carolina was already in rebellion, this plotting was continued. As late
+as the beginning of January, 1861, an attempt was made under an order
+from Floyd to remove one hundred and fifty cannon from the Allegheny
+Arsenal, at Pittsburg, to the South, to be used against the Union. "Our
+people are a unit that not a gun shall be shipped South," said the
+_Dispatch_ of that city, and without violence, without the shedding of a
+drop of blood or the drawing of a weapon against national authority, the
+citizens obtained the reversal of the order, and the guns, some of which
+were already under convoy to the wharf, were returned to the arsenal. The
+"Rebellion Records," published by the government, should not begin with
+1861. They should go back to the time when the plot originated to strip
+the national arsenals for the benefit of the nation's enemies, to disarm
+the Union that it might fall a prey to secession. This was the treason
+which should never be forgotten. The men who fought bravely and openly in
+the field for the Confederate cause can be respected for their sincerity
+and honored for their valor; but not so with the men who before the war
+violated their trust as guardians and armor bearers of the Union to
+betray the nation to its conspiring foes.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The conditions at the beginning of the war were much more favorable to
+the South than a mere comparison of population would indicate. The loyal
+States had a population of 23,000,000; the seceded States 8,000,000, of
+whom about one-half were slaves. These slaves counted, however, for about
+as much effective strength as if they had been whites, for the soil had
+to be cultivated, the armies fed, fortifications built and other
+necessary services performed, and the negroes, while all who were bright
+enough to understand the situation wished for the success of the Union,
+worked for their masters faithfully, as a rule, until the approach of the
+national armies gave an opportunity to escape. Besides, the negroes in
+attendance on the Confederate troops performed many duties to which on
+the Northern side soldiers were assigned, and in this way the blacks were
+useful in even a strictly military sense. In short, the negroes did
+everything for the Confederacy but fight for it, and this, too, although
+they loved the blue uniform, and gave loyal assistance to the Union
+troops whenever occasion offered. The Southern forces, it should also be
+remembered, were on their own ground. They knew every thicket and road
+and stream; they had the sympathy of the white, as well as the service of
+the black inhabitants. They were led by a brilliant group of commanders
+whom Jefferson Davis, when Secretary of War, had brought together
+probably with this object in view, and they were thoroughly armed and
+equipped at the expense of the very government against which they were
+contending. It is needless to say that no better soldiers ever bore rifle
+or sabre than the men of the Southern Confederacy. They were, like most
+of their northern antagonists, Americans of the same blood as those who
+carried the redoubts at Yorktown and stormed the hill of Chapultepec, and
+their courage in the Civil War fully maintained the prestige gained in
+battle against alien foes. In intelligence, or at least in education,
+however, the rank and file of the Confederate armies were inferior to the
+native Americans in the Union armies. The Confederate troops captured at
+Vicksburg were no doubt equal to the average, and of the 27,000 men then
+made prisoners and paroled two-thirds made their marks, not being able to
+write their names. This is not so surprising when it is remembered that
+there was no common school system in the South before the war, and that
+the "twenty-negro law," exempting the owner of twenty negroes from
+conscription, excused from military service the class which had an
+opportunity to be educated, and which also had most at stake in the
+contest.
+
+Before the close of the war, however, all exemptions in the Confederacy
+were virtually swept away, and the government enlisted every one able to
+bear a musket, from the boy hardly in his teens to the old man tottering
+to the grave. Those not able to go to the front did duty in the rear, and
+the whole male population, excepting cripples and children, was in the
+ranks, or the civil service. If any escaped the net of conscription they
+were likely to be caught in the round-up made every now and then after
+the fashion of the old English press-gang, when all who happened to be in
+sight were gathered in, and sent to the army, unless they clearly proved
+a title to freedom. In one of these round-ups, says Jones, in his "Diary
+of a Rebel War Clerk"--the Postmaster-General of the Confederacy, John H.
+Reagan, was carried along with the rest, and detained for some time
+before released. Thus the prophecy of Houston was strikingly fulfilled.
+Of course, the refugees and deserters, of whom there were a very large
+number in the swamps and woods of the South, are excepted from the
+statement that the whole population was in arms for the Confederate
+cause.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+In the beginning of the war the North was at a disadvantage. Mr. Lincoln
+found the little army of the United States scattered and disorganized,
+the navy sent to distant quarters of the globe, the treasury bankrupt and
+the public service demoralized. Floyd and his fellow-conspirators had
+done their work thoroughly. It did not take long for the people of the
+North to rally to the defence of the government, and for an army to be
+formed capable not only of defending the loyal States, but of striking a
+blow at the Confederacy. With the National credit restored, an abundance
+of currency provided for national needs, and the public departments
+cleared of Southern sympathizers, the North entered upon a conflict which
+could have but one ending should the North remain steadfast.
+
+The weakness of the South, from a military standpoint, was in the fact
+that men lost could not be replaced. The North could replenish its
+depleted armies; the South could not. With men therefore of the same race
+and equal in soldierly qualities arrayed against each other, one side
+within measurable distance of exhaustion and the other with inexhaustible
+human resources to draw upon, the war became an easy sum in arithmetic,
+provided the stronger party should not cry "enough" before the weaker had
+reached the exhaustion point. The battles on comparatively equal terms
+were fought, therefore, in the early part of the war, the decisive
+battles in 1863, and the closing struggle between the gasping Confederacy
+and the Union stronger than ever, in the last fifteen months of the
+conflict.
+
+In the North, notwithstanding the immense armies put in the field, there
+never was a time except in brief periods of riot and disorder, when the
+usual bustle of humanity was absent from the cities and towns. Commerce
+and industry went on with accustomed activity. While Southern cities
+looked like garrisoned graveyards the North had never worn a busier or
+more prosperous appearance. With such a large population there should
+have been no reason for conscription, but when conscription was deemed
+requisite, there ought to have been no exemption on the ground of wealth.
+Every able-bodied drafted man ought to have been obliged to serve,
+without the privilege of a substitute, and no money payment should have
+secured release from service. The obligation to defend the country rests
+upon all, but if there is any distinction, the rich man has more interest
+in protecting the government which shields him and his possessions from
+danger than the poor man. European nations make no exemption on account
+of wealth or position, and the American Republic certainly should not
+have given such an example.
+
+The people of the North, however, with comparatively few but very
+troublesome exceptions, gave earnest and enthusiastic support to the
+National Government. Committees were formed everywhere to aid the armies
+in the field, to provide for the wounded and the sick and to assist the
+families of absent soldiers. In the darkest days of the struggle the
+people never lost faith in the ultimate triumph of the Union. While
+statesmen and editors professing to be superior to their fellows in
+knowledge and foresight saw only the gloomy side and predicted the defeat
+and downfall of the Republic, the popular heart was true and confident
+and courageous. Upon the people's arms Lincoln could always lean in times
+of severest trial and anxiety, assured of comfort, support and strength.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The unfriendliness of Great Britain and France was a most serious and
+ever-present danger to the United States throughout the whole period of
+the war, and was prolific of injury to American interests. From the
+first Great Britain showed a conscious unfriendly purpose. That
+government privately proposed to France, even before Queen Victoria's
+proclamation recognizing the insurgents as belligerents, to open direct
+negotiations with the South, and the British Legation at Washington was
+used for secret communications with the Confederate President. When the
+Confederate agents, James M. Mason and John Slidell and their secretaries,
+were taken from the British mail-steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes, of the
+American warship San Jacinto, the course of the British Cabinet indicated
+an unfriendliness so extreme as to approach a desire for war. Peremptory
+instructions were sent to Lord Lyons, the British Minister at Washington,
+to demand the release of the men arrested, and to leave Washington if the
+demand was not complied with in seven days. Vessels of war were fitted
+out by the British, and troops pressed forward to Canada. The official
+statement of the American Minister at London that the act had not been
+authorized by the American Government was kept from the British people,
+and public opinion was encouraged to drift into a state of hostility
+toward the United States. The surrender of Mason and Slidell removed all
+excuse for war, much to the disgust, doubtless, of the ruling class in
+Great Britain. Leading English statesmen made public speeches favoring
+the Confederacy. Lord Russell, himself, the Secretary of State for
+Foreign Affairs, stated in the House of Lords that the subjugation of the
+South by the North "would prove a calamity to the United States and to
+the world." The Alabama and other privateers went forth from British
+ports to prey on American commerce, and the builder of the Alabama was
+cheered in the House of Commons when he boasted of what he had done. Even
+Mr. Gladstone--before Vicksburg and Gettysburg--declared that "the
+restoration of the American Union by force is unattainable."
+
+Napoleon the Third--that crow in the eagle's nest--was cordially with
+Great Britain in all efforts to injure the American Union. He had long
+cherished the design to establish a vassal empire in Mexico, and in our
+Civil War he saw his opportunity. A Southern Confederacy would form a
+grand barrier between a Franco-Mexican dominion and the United States,
+and while the French emperor treated the government at Washington with
+diplomatic courtesy, he never ceased to exert his influence in favor of
+the South, so far as he could, without an actual rupture. Napoleon was
+ready and anxious to recognize the Confederacy, and he only waited for
+the South to win victories that would give him an excuse for action. "His
+course toward us," says Bigelow, "from the beginning to the end of the
+plot was deliberately and systematically treacherous, and his ministers
+allowed themselves to be made his pliant instruments."[1] General Grant
+declared at City Point, in 1864, that as soon as we had disposed of the
+Confederates we must begin with the Imperialists, and after Appomattox he
+expressed the opinion that the French intervention in Mexico was so
+closely allied to the rebellion as to be a part of it.
+
+      [1] France and the Confederate Navy.
+
+Neither England nor France interfered directly in behalf of the South.
+Louis Napoleon waited for England to act, and the British Cabinet felt
+that the British masses would not justify a war in defence of slavery.
+The American Government, while it met with firm and dignified protest
+Great Britain's disregard of international obligations, was careful to
+abstain from giving any excuse for British hostility. "One war at a
+time," said Abraham Lincoln, in deciding to surrender Mason and Slidell.
+But Americans kept careful account of every item of outrage on the part
+of England, and in due time the bill was presented--and paid. And in due
+time also Napoleon was told to go out of Mexico--and he went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+The Confederate Government Organized--Fort Sumter--President Lincoln
+Calls for 75000 Men--Command of the Union Forces offered to Robert E.
+Lee--Lee Joins the Confederacy--Missouri Saved to the Union--Battle of
+Bull Run--Union Successes in the West--General Grant Captures Fort
+Donelson--"I Have No Terms but Unconditional Surrender"--The Monitor and
+Merrimac Fight--Its World-Wide Effect--Grant Victorious at Shiloh--Union
+Naval Victory Near Memphis--That City Captured--General McClellan's
+Tactics--He Retreats from Victory at Malvern Hill--Second Bull Run
+Defeat--Great Battle of Antietam--Lee Repulsed, but Not Pursued--
+McClellan Superseded by Burnside--Union Defeat at Frederickburg--
+Union Victories in the West--Bragg Defeated by Rosecrans at Stone River
+--The Emancipation Proclamation.
+
+
+The new Confederate Government was organized at Montgomery, Ala.,
+February 4, 1861, by delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
+Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi,
+was elected President and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia,
+Vice-President. The border States, which would be the battlefield of war,
+still hoped for peace, and hesitated to yield to the importunities of
+those who had already crossed the Rubicon. In Charleston harbor, the
+American flag floated over a little fortress called Sumter, so named
+after the "South Carolina Gamecock" of the Revolution, and commanded by
+Major Robert Anderson. In the gray of the morning on April 12, the
+Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort. For nearly two days the
+Stars and Stripes waved defiantly amid the storm of shot and shell. Then
+further resistance being useless and hopeless, the brave garrison
+evacuated the fort, carrying away the flag which they had so resolutely
+defended. Two days later President Lincoln called for 75,000 men to put
+down armed resistance to national authority. The North sprang to arms,
+and from East and West regiments started on their way to Washington. The
+governors of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and
+Missouri declined to obey the call of the President, and the secession of
+all these States from the Union followed, except Kentucky and Missouri.
+On April 17, the Virginia Convention passed the Ordinance of Secession.
+President Lincoln had desired to give the command of the troops to be
+called into the field to Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the First United
+States Cavalry, but that officer declined to accept the offer, resigned
+his commission, and joined the Confederacy. It should be needless to say
+that the qualities displayed by Lee, at the head of the Army of Northern
+Virginia, amply justified President Lincoln's measure of his capacity.
+The seat of the Confederate Government was removed from Montgomery to
+Richmond, and the latter city was thenceforward the headquarters of the
+rebellion.
+
+Of the other border States Maryland remained in the Union, and Kentucky,
+after an attempt to maintain an impossible neutrality, yielded to the
+influence of mountain air, and espoused the cause of freedom. Missouri's
+disloyal government sought to drag the State into secession, but Francis
+Preston Blair, a lawyer of St. Louis, and Captain Nathaniel Lyon,
+commandant of the United States Arsenal in that city, took vigorous
+action against the rebel sympathizers, and saved the State to the Union.
+The German element in Missouri was so loyal to the old flag that
+"Unionist" and "Dutchman" were synonymous terms in that region during the
+war. Captain Lyon, promoted to brigadier-general, was defeated and killed
+at the battle of Wilson Creek. It is believed that he resolved to win the
+battle or die. Of such stuff were the men who rescued the Southwest.
+
+The battle of Bull Run, when General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the
+Confederates, defeated General McDowell with serious loss, and sent the
+Union army in disorderly retreat toward Washington, taught the Northern
+people that the war was not a parade, and that the overthrow of the
+Confederacy would tax all the energies of the loyal States. Fortunately,
+General George H. Thomas won an important victory for the Union at Mill
+Spring, Kentucky, in January, 1862, and the capture of Fort Henry and
+Fort Donelson, in the following month, by General Ulysses S. Grant, aided
+by Commodore Foote and his gunboats, tended to efface the depression
+caused by defeat in Virginia. General Grant's reply to the Confederate
+General Buckner, when the latter wished to make terms for the surrender
+of Fort Donelson, was on every tongue in the North. "I have no terms but
+unconditional surrender. I propose to move immediately upon your works,"
+was a message that spoke the man. Nearly sixteen thousand prisoners were
+captured. They belonged mostly to the working classes of Missouri,
+Tennessee and Arkansas.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+John Ericsson's Monitor, in March, 1862, sent a thrill of relief and joy
+through the North by its wonderful victory over the Merrimac. The
+Confederates cut down a United States frigate at the Norfolk navy yard,
+and transformed it into an ironclad ram, with a powerful beak. This
+monster they sent against the Union fleet of wooden warships in Hampton
+Roads. Broadsides had no effect on the Merrimac. The floating fortress
+attacked the Cumberland, ramming that vessel, and breaking a great hole
+in its side. The Cumberland sank with all on board. The Congress was
+driven aground and compelled to surrender. Then the monster rested for
+the night, intending to continue its mission of destruction on the
+morrow. It seemed that not only the Union fleet, but the ports and
+commerce of the North would be at the mercy of this novel and terrible
+engine of destruction. The telegraph carried the news everywhere, and in
+dread and anxiety the people awaited the fate of another day. When
+morning came at Hampton Roads a small nondescript vessel, looking like an
+oval raft with a turret, interposed between the Merrimac and its prey. It
+was the Monitor, the invention of Captain John Ericsson, and it had
+arrived during the night of March 8. The Monitor had been constructed at
+Greenpoint, Long Island, and was towed to Hampton Roads by steamers. Her
+turret was a revolving, bomb-proof fort, in which were mounted two
+11-inch Dahlgren guns. As the turret revolved the great guns kept up a
+steady discharge, battering the sides of the Merrimac. The latter hurled
+enormous masses of iron on the Monitor, but made no impression whatever
+on the little craft, and the duel continued until the Merrimac gave up
+the fight, and ran back to shelter at Norfolk. Ericsson's praise was on
+every tongue. The great Swedish engineer whose sanity had been questioned
+when he submitted his ideas to the Navy Department, not only saved the
+Union navy from destruction, and Northern harbors from devastation, but
+he also revolutionized naval warfare.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Their first line broken in the Southwest, and now compelled to fight
+within secession territory, the Confederates made a stand along a second
+line from Memphis to Chattanooga, their forces being massed at Corinth.
+In the great battle of Shiloh (April 6 and 7) 100,000 men were engaged;
+the National loss in killed, wounded and prisoners was about 15,000, and
+that of the Confederates over 10,000. The latter fought more desperately
+than on any previous field, and for a time they had the advantage. The
+usual ethics of defeat had, however, no place in General Grant's military
+education, and the enemy were at length forced to give way. General
+Albert Sydney Johnston, one of the ablest Confederate commanders, was
+killed, and General Beauregard retreated, leaving his dead and wounded in
+Union hands. The second line of defence was broken. An amusing incident
+of this battle--if anything can be amusing in war--was a message sent by
+General Beauregard to General Grant explaining why he had withdrawn his
+troops. General Grant was strongly tempted to assure Beauregard that no
+apologies were necessary.
+
+The capture of New Orleans in the latter part of April, and of Island
+Number Ten in the same month gave the National forces control of the
+Mississippi nearly up to Vicksburg and down to Memphis. The Confederate
+flotilla was defeated and destroyed in a sharp engagement by the Union
+river fleet, two miles above Memphis, on June 6, the battle occurring
+in full view of that city. It was one of the most dramatic spectacles
+of the war. The combat lasted just one hour and three minutes, and as
+the Union fleet landed at Memphis, a number of newsboys sprang on shore
+from the vessels, shouting: "Here's your New York _Tribune_ and
+_Herald_!"--before the city had been formally surrendered. The Unionists
+received the National troops like brothers, and one lady brought out from
+its hiding place in her chimney a National flag concealed from the
+beginning of the war. "We found Memphis," wrote a correspondent, "as
+torpid as Syria, where Yusef Browne declared that he saw only one man
+exhibit any sign of activity, and he was engaged in tumbling from the
+roof of a house." Salt was rubbed into the wounds of the vanquished by
+the military assignment of Albert D. Richardson and Col. Thomas W. Knox,
+representatives of the _Tribune_ and _Herald_, to edit the bitterest
+secession newspaper in the town.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+In the East the Union cause made no progress. General George B.
+McClellan, in command of the Army of the Potomac, was endeavoring to play
+the part of a Turenne in a field utterly foreign to European strategy.
+Generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston and Thomas Jonathan
+("Stonewall") Jackson, the three great Confederate commanders in
+Virginia, proved themselves easily the superiors of their antagonists in
+the tactics best fitted for American warfare, and but for the stubborn
+valor of the Union soldiers at Fair Oaks and in the seven days' battles
+ending at Malvern Hills, the Army of the Potomac would probably have been
+destroyed. When Malvern Hills was won by the splendid fighting of the
+National troops, without any agency of their commander, and when they
+were enthusiastic for a forward movement upon Richmond, McClellan
+consulted his tactical horoscope, and ordered them to retreat just as if
+they had been beaten. The second battle of Bull Run, with General John
+Pope in command on the Union side, and Generals Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson
+and James Longstreet leading the Confederates, stopped short of being as
+disastrous a defeat for the National arms as the first Bull Run, but that
+was all.
+
+Lee pushed into Maryland with about 45,000 troops, and encountered
+McClellan at Antietam, on September 17, with 85,000. McClellan was
+"cautious," as usual, but fighting had to be done, and the rank and file
+of the Union forces were, as ever, anxious to fight. Lee was repulsed
+after a fearful conflict, in which about 20,000 men were killed and
+wounded. General Joseph Hooker, known as "Fighting Joe Hooker," was under
+McClellan at Antietam, and behaved most gallantly. Wounded before noon,
+Hooker was carried from the field. "Had he not been disabled," wrote a
+war correspondent, "he would probably have made it a decisive conflict.
+Realizing that it was one of the world's great days, he said: 'I would
+gladly have compromised with the enemy by receiving a mortal wound at
+night, could I have remained at the head of my troops until the sun went
+down.'" McClellan neglected to take advantage of the success achieved at
+the cost of so many brave lives, and Mr. George W. Smalley, then of the
+_Tribune_, who was on the field, is authority for the statement that
+General Hooker was privately requested in behalf of a number of Union
+officers, to assume command and follow up the victory. In Hooker's
+condition this was impossible, even had he been inclined to take a step
+so serious in its possible consequences for himself.
+
+McClellan was superseded in November by General Ambrose E. Burnside, who
+had distinguished himself at Antietam, as he always did in a subordinate
+command. On December 13, General Burnside suffered a fearful defeat at
+Fredericksburg, with a loss of 12,000 men. It was one of Lee's most
+brilliant victories, and on the Union side it was a useless sacrifice of
+life. "Lee's position," says General Fitzhugh Lee, "was strong by nature
+and was made stronger by art. No troops could successfully assail it, and
+no commanding general should have ordered it to be done."[1] Burnside was
+superseded by Hooker, and the armies in Virginia did but little more
+until spring.
+
+      [1] Life of General Robert E. Lee. D. Appleton & Co.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+After the battle of Shiloh the Confederates made Chattanooga, Tenn., the
+base of their operations in the Southwest. General Braxton Bragg, who
+succeeded Beauregard in command in that region, invaded Kentucky, and
+sought to drive the inhabitants into the Confederate service. A
+sanguinary battle at Perryville resulted in the complete repulse of the
+Confederates, who retreated into Tennessee, carrying with them a vast
+quantity of plunder. General William Starke Rosecrans now came to the
+front as a successful Union commander. With Grant's left wing he defeated
+the Confederates at Iuka, September 19, and Corinth, October 3 and 4, and
+as chief of the Army of the Cumberland, he fought one of the great
+battles of the war with General Bragg at Murfreesboro, or Stone River,
+December 31 and January 2. Never during the four years of conflict did
+the troops on both sides fight more resolutely. The first day was rather
+favorable to the Confederates. Little was done on New Year's Day, but on
+January 2 the struggle was renewed more fiercely than before. The western
+armies had caught Grant's instinct of never recognizing defeat. Charge
+after charge was made, first by the Confederates, then by the Union
+troops, and at length the Confederate line fell back, and did not charge
+again. At midnight of January 4 Bragg retired in the direction of
+Chattanooga. The killed, wounded and missing numbered over 20,000,
+probably about evenly divided.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on New Year's
+Day, 1863, was in every sense a statesmanlike and justifiable measure. It
+aroused the powerful anti-slavery sentiment of England in support of the
+Union, and neutralized Tory sympathy with the Confederacy; it
+strengthened the Union cause at home, and it showed that the National
+Government was not afraid to punish, and was resolved to weaken its
+enemies by the confiscation of their property.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the
+Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Hooker Defeated at Chancellorsville--
+Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--General Meade Takes Command of the Army of
+the Potomac--Lee Crosses the Potomac--The Battle of Gettysburg--The First
+Two Days--The Third Day--Pickett's Charge--A Thrilling Spectacle--The
+Harvest of Death--Lee Defeated--General Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga"
+--"This Position Must Be Held Till Night"--General Grant Defeats Bragg at
+Chattanooga--The Decisive Battle of the West.
+
+
+The Confederates made Vicksburg a position of marvelous strength. General
+William Tecumseh Sherman, who had proved his eminent talent as a
+commander under Grant at Shiloh, assaulted the bluffs north of the town
+on December 29, 1862, and was repulsed. General Grant, with the
+perseverance which he afterward exhibited at Richmond, fought battle
+after battle until he had Vicksburg completely invested. Commodore David
+D. Porter, with a formidable fleet, bombarded the stronghold from the
+river, while Grant's kept up a cannonade day and night from the land
+side. General John C. Pemberton had about 15,000 effective men out of
+30,000 within the lines of the beleaguered city. Every day the situation
+grew more intolerable for the besieged. Rats were on sale in the
+market-places with mule-meat. The people lived in cellars and caves,
+children were born in caves, and it is interesting to read in a diary of
+that fearful time that "the churches are a great resort for those that
+have no caves. People fancy that they are not shelled so much, and they
+are substantial and the pews good to sleep in." A woman wished to go
+through the lines to her friends, and on July 1 an officer with a flag of
+truce carried the request. He came back with the statement: "General
+Grant says no human being shall pass out of Vicksburg; but the lady may
+feel sure danger will soon be over. Vicksburg will surrender on the
+fourth." A Confederate general present when this message was received,
+said: "Vicksburg will not surrender." But Grant was right. On July 4
+silence descended upon Vicksburg. The simoon of shot and shell was over,
+and men and women and children crawled from their caves into the light of
+day. The river vessels poured in an abundance of provisions, and plenty
+succeeded starvation. General Pemberton surrendered 27,000 men as
+prisoners of war.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+General Hooker, notwithstanding his undoubted courage, proved no more
+fortunate than his predecessors in command of the Army of the Potomac.
+With 90,000 men he attacked Lee and 45,000 men at Chancellorsville, May 1
+to 4. The Confederate commander was at his best in this fearful four
+days' struggle. Hooker, says a high Confederate authority, had guided his
+army "into the mazes of the Wilderness, and got it so mixed and tangled
+that no chance was afforded for a display of its mettle." Lee with
+inferior forces managed by consummate strategy to meet and overcome
+Hooker's subordinates in detail. Then he prepared for a crushing blow at
+Hooker himself, which the latter escaped by a timely retreat. The
+bombastic Order No. 49 which followed this sweeping disaster for the
+Union arms did not deceive either President Lincoln or the people, who
+had once more seen the lives of thousands of our gallant troops
+sacrificed on the altar of shoulder-strapped incompetency. The killed and
+wounded in this battle numbered about 25,000, of whom more than half were
+Unionists. These figures repeat eloquently that real soldiers were
+waiting for a real general. The death of "Stonewall" Jackson at
+Chancellorsville was in no slight degree a compensation for Union losses.
+
+The tide turned at Gettysburg. General George Gordon Meade succeeded
+Hooker in command of the Army of the Potomac. Meade was not a brilliant
+man, but he was a thorough soldier, and eminently free from that spirit
+of envy which was the bane of our armies, which had nearly driven Grant
+from the service, and which was responsible for the loss of more than one
+battle. Elated by Chancellorsville, Lee determined to invade the North.
+The South made an extreme effort to replenish its armies, and that of
+Northern Virginia was raised to about 100,000 men. With the greater part
+of this magnificent host, including 15,000 cavalry and 280 guns, Lee
+marched down the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the Potomac on the
+twenty-fifth of June, and headed for Chambersburg. Meade drew near with
+the army of the Potomac, and such reinforcements as had been hastily
+collected in Pennsylvania on the news of the invasion. At Gettysburg the
+two armies met for the decisive battle of the war. Meade had on the field
+83,000 men and 300 guns; Lee, 69,000 men and 250 guns. For three days the
+two armies contended with frightful losses, and with a courage not
+surpassed in ancient or modern warfare. The brave General John F.
+Reynolds lost his life in the first encounter, and General Winfield Scott
+Hancock was sent by Meade to take charge of the field. On the second day
+occurred the desperate conflict for Little Round Top, which resulted in
+that key to the Union line being seized and held by the Union troops.
+Neither side, however, gained any decided advantage. On the third day Lee
+prepared for the grand movement known in history as "Pickett's charge."
+Fourteen thousand men were selected as the forlorn hope of the
+Confederacy. For two hours before the charge 120 guns kept up a fearful
+cannonade upon the Union lines. Meade answered with eighty guns. About
+three o'clock in the afternoon Meade ceased firing. Lee thought the
+Northern gunners were silenced. He was mistaken; they knew what was
+coming.
+
+On moved the charging column, as the smoke of battle lifted, and the
+"tattered uniforms and bright muskets" came plainly into view. At an
+average distance of about eleven hundred yards the Union batteries
+opened. Shot and shell tore through the Confederate ranks. Still they
+marched on over wounded and dying and dead. Canister now rained on their
+flanks, and as they came within closer range a hurricane of bullets burst
+upon them, and men dropped on every side like leaves in the winds of
+autumn. The strength of the charging column melted before the gale of
+death; but the survivors staggered on. When the remains of the
+Confederate right reached the Union works their three brigade commanders
+had fallen, every field officer except one had been killed or wounded;
+but still the remnant kept its face to the foe, led to annihilation by
+the dauntless Armistead. The four brigades on the left of Pickett met a
+similar fate. "They moved up splendidly," wrote a Union officer,
+"deploying as they crossed the long sloping interval. The front of the
+column was nearly up the slope, and within a few yards of the Second
+Corps' front and its batteries, when suddenly a terrific fire from every
+available gun on Cemetery Ridge burst upon them. Their graceful lines
+underwent an instantaneous transformation in a dense cloud of smoke and
+dust; arms, heads, blankets, guns and knapsacks were tossed in the air,
+and the moan from the battlefield was heard amid the storm of battle."
+
+One half of the 14,000 perished in the charge. Gettysburg was over, and
+the tide of invasion from the South was rolled back never to return.
+Meade had lost about 23,000 men, and Lee about 23,000. Halleck, whose
+business as general-in-chief seemed to be to annoy successful commanders,
+and irritate them to the resignation point, blamed Meade for allowing Lee
+to retire without another battle, but public opinion upheld the victor of
+Gettysburg, and Congress honored him and Generals Hancock and O. O.
+Howard with a resolution of thanks.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+General George H. Thomas, a Southern officer of the Lee and Johnston rank
+in military capacity, who fortunately stood by the Union, saved
+Chickamauga from being a Union defeat that would have done much to offset
+Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Rosecrans had compelled Bragg to evacuate
+Chattanooga, and erroneously assumed that the Confederate commander was
+in retreat, when in fact he had been reinforced by Longstreet and was
+ready to risk another battle. The two armies met in the valley of
+Chickamauga. Operations on the Union side were chiefly a series of
+blunders which resulted in the right wing of Rosecrans' army being broken
+and driven from the field, leaving the brunt of the conflict to be borne
+by General Thomas with the left wing.
+
+The magnificent stand made by Thomas against the victorious Confederates,
+gained for him the title of the "Rock of Chickamauga." Surrounded on all
+sides by a force that a craven commander might have deemed irresistible,
+Thomas thought out his plans as coolly as if miles away from danger.
+"Take that ridge!" he said calmly to General James B. Steedman, when that
+fearless soldier came up with his division; and Thomas pointed to a
+commanding ridge held by the enemy. Steedman moved at once to the attack,
+and the ridge was carried with a loss of 2900 men. In vain both wings of
+the Confederates were hurled, with fierce determination against the
+little army of Thomas. With 25,000 men he successfully resisted the
+attacks of between 50,000 and 60,000. "It will ruin the army to withdraw
+it now; this position must be held till night"--was the answer of Thomas
+to Rosecrans; and Thomas held the position until night, and then withdrew
+in good order. The Union loss was about 19,000 and that of the
+Confederates at least as great. Thomas in the following month succeeded
+Rosecrans as commander of the Army of the Cumberland. It is more than
+probable that up to that time his merits had not been fully recognized,
+owing to unfounded suspicion of his loyalty. When it was said of Thomas
+to General Joseph E. Johnston that he "did not know when he was whipped,"
+Johnston answered: "Rather say he always knew very well when he was not
+whipped."
+
+The Army of the Tennessee, now commanded by Sherman, was brought up to
+Chattanooga from Vicksburg, and General Grant was placed in command of
+all forces west of the Alleghenies. General Hooker was sent from Virginia
+with reinforcements, and General Grant prepared for the decisive battle
+of the West. In that battle, which was fought about Chattanooga, November
+24 and 25, Bragg was completely defeated with a loss of about 3000 in
+killed and wounded and 6000 prisoners. A remarkable feature of this
+battle is that the Confederate position on Missionary Ridge was carried
+by a charge made by the Union troops without orders from their commanders.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General--Takes Command in Virginia--Battles
+of the Wilderness--The Two Armies--Battle of Cedar Creek--Sheridan's
+Ride--He Turns Defeat Into Victory--Confederate Disasters on Land and
+Sea--Farragut at Mobile--Last Naval Battle of the War--Sherman Enters
+Atlanta--Lincoln's Re-election--Sherman's March to the Sea--Sherman
+Captures Savannah--Thomas Defeats Hood at Nashville--Fort Fisher
+Taken--Lee Appointed General-in-chief--Confederate Defeat at Five
+Forks--Lee's Surrender--Johnston's Surrender--End of the War--The South
+Prostrate--A Resistance Unparalleled in History--The Blots on the
+Confederacy--Cruel Treatment of Union Men and Prisoners--Murder of
+Abraham Lincoln--The South Since the War.
+
+
+The Confederacy having been dismantled in the Southwest--except in Texas,
+where secession simply awaited the result in other States--Virginia
+became the central battle-ground of the rebellion. There its chief
+energies were concentrated for the closing struggle, and there its
+greatest leader commanded. It was the part of wisdom, therefore, for the
+National Government to make its most successful general chief of all the
+National armies, with the understanding that he would personally direct
+operations in the most important field. Grant was appointed
+lieutenant-general in March, 1864, and he at once gave his attention to
+the Army of the Potomac, which Meade continued to command under his
+supervision. The Army of Northern Virginia was no longer the
+well-equipped host which had gained victory after victory in the earlier
+period of the war, but its spirit was undaunted, and Lee, as his
+resources diminished, displayed more signally than ever his remarkable
+military genius. The two great commanders were face to face, but not on
+the equal terms that in '62 or '63 would have presented a duel of giants.
+The Confederacy was falling, gradually, it is true, but the end was in
+sight. It was virtually confined to four States, Georgia, the Carolinas
+and Virginia, and these but shells that only needed Sherman's march to
+the sea to prove how hollow they were. General Grant fought his way
+through the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, and
+across the James River to Petersburg. His losses of men were enormous,
+but the strength of his army was maintained by a continuous supply of
+recruits from the North. Grant established his lines in front of
+Petersburg, and proceeded to reduce that place. He gave Lee no rest, and
+exhausted the Confederates with repeated surprises and attacks.
+
+General Lee had about 50,000 men to defend two cities and a line of
+intrenchments enveloping both, thirty-five miles long, against about
+150,000 men, a large proportion of them veterans, trained and steeled to
+war. The time had passed for offensive operations on any effective scale
+on the part of the Confederates, although a desperate dash now and then
+gave a false impression to the world outside that the Confederacy still
+had a vigorous vitality. While General Philip H. Sheridan, Chief of
+Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, was at Winchester, October 19,
+General Jubal Early suddenly attacked Sheridan's forces at Cedar Creek,
+nearly twenty miles from Winchester. The attack was made at dawn, and
+proved a complete surprise. The National troops were defeated, and the
+roads were thronged with fugitives, while camp, and cannon and a large
+number of prisoners fell into the hands of the enemy. Sheridan was riding
+leisurely out of Winchester, when he met his routed troops. At once he
+dashed forward on his black charger, crying out to his men: "Face the
+other way, boys! Face the other way!" and, as he learned the extent of
+the disaster, he added: "We will have all the camps and cannon back
+again!" With courage revived by their leader's example, the Union troops
+rallied and turned upon the foe, recovering all the spoil, and virtually
+destroying Early's army.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Disaster attended the Confederate cause on land and sea. The British
+cruiser Alabama, flying the Confederate flag, was defeated and sunk by
+the United States frigate Kearsarge, off the coast of France, in June,
+1864. Admiral David Glasgow Farragut entered Mobile Bay, August 5, lashed
+to the mast of his flagship, the Hartford, and fought the last naval
+battle of the war. The monitor Tecumseh, which led the National vessels,
+was struck by the explosion of a torpedo, and sank with Commander Craven
+and nearly all her officers and men. Farragut, unshaken by this disaster,
+ordered the Hartford to go ahead heedless of torpedoes, and the other
+vessels to follow. He silenced the batteries with grapeshot, destroyed
+the Confederate squadron, and on the following day captured the forts
+with the assistance of a land force of 5000 men from New Orleans. The
+impatience of the Richmond government, chafing under its own impotence,
+hastened the catastrophe. General Joseph E. Johnston, who had succeeded
+Bragg, and who husbanded as far as compatible with an efficient defence
+the troops under his command, was removed to give way to General John B.
+Hood, who was willing to waste his forces in hopeless conflict with
+Sherman. On September 2 Sherman entered Atlanta.
+
+The news of Lincoln's re-election by 212 electoral votes to 21 for
+McClellan, put an end to Confederate reliance on Northern sympathy and
+aid. Even the most sanguine now lost hope.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+After sending a part of his army under Thomas to cope with Hood, who had
+moved into middle Tennessee, Sherman started about the middle of November
+with 60,000 men on his famous march through Georgia to the seacoast. He
+destroyed the railroads, and devastated the country from which the
+Confederacy was drawing its supplies. Although I have never seen it
+mentioned in any publication regarding the war, I believe that previous
+to Sherman's march it was the purpose of the Confederate Government to
+retreat to North Carolina when too hardly pressed in Virginia. Otherwise
+there seems to be no explanation for the vast accumulation of provisions
+at Salisbury, which were certainly not intended or used for the Union
+prisoners at that place, and for the large stores of food at Charlotte.
+Sherman captured Savannah just before Christmas, and proceeded northward
+through the Carolinas. Meantime General Thomas had completely defeated
+Hood at the battle of Nashville, and dispersed his army, the remnant of
+which gathered again under General Joseph E. Johnston to oppose the march
+of Sherman. Fort Fisher, North Carolina, surrendered to General Alfred H.
+Terry and Admiral Porter in January, 1865.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Lee, reduced to the last extremity at Richmond, and appointed in
+February, 1865, general-in-chief of armies which no longer had a real
+existence, decided to abandon the Confederate capital and effect a
+junction with Johnston. Sheridan prevented this by defeating the
+Confederates at Five Forks, April 1, and turning Lee's right and
+threatening his rear. Five Forks was the beginning of the end.
+Thirty-five thousand muskets were guarding thirty-seven miles of
+intrenchments, and on these attenuated lines General Grant ordered an
+immediate assault. The defences were found to be almost denuded of men.
+Petersburg and Richmond fell, and Lee, driven westward, surrendered at
+Appomattox, on April 9, the remains of the once proud Army of Northern
+Virginia, now numbering 26,000 ragged and starving soldiers. On learning
+that Lee's troops had been living for days on parched corn, General Grant
+at once offered to send them rations, and the Union soldiers readily
+shared their own provisions with the men with whom, a few hours before,
+they had been engaged in mortal strife. Lee bade a touching farewell to
+his troops, and rode through a weeping army to his home in Richmond. A
+fortnight afterward Johnston surrendered to Sherman, and with the
+surrender of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Army, May 26, the war was
+at an end. The Confederate Government had fled from Richmond when Lee
+withdrew his army, and on May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured near
+Irwinsville, Ga., and sent as a prisoner to Fortress Monroe.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+We have read of the sieges of Numantia and of Haarlem, of Scotland's
+struggle for liberty under Wallace and Bruce, and of the virtual
+extinction of the men of Paraguay in the war against Brazil and
+Argentina; but history records no resistance on the part of a
+considerable population inhabiting an extensive region, under an
+organized government, worthy to compare in resolution, endurance and
+self-sacrifice, with that of the Southern Confederacy to the forces of
+the Union. When the war closed the South was prostrate. When the Governor
+of Alabama was asked to join in raising a force to attack the rear of
+Sherman he answered, no doubt truthfully, that only cripples, old men and
+children remained of the male population of the State. In their
+desperation the Southern leaders even thought of enlisting negroes, thus
+adding a grotesque epilogue to the mighty national tragedy. Of course
+even the most ignorant negro could not have been expected to fight for
+his own enslavement. I saw Richmond about a month before the surrender.
+It was like a city of the dead. Two weeks later I was in New York. It
+teemed with life and bustle and energy.
+
+The blots on the Confederacy were the cruel persecution of Union men
+living in the South, who were, in many instances, dragged from their
+families and put to death as traitors, and the maltreatment of Union
+prisoners. The North tolerated Southern sympathizers, when not actually
+engaged in plotting against the government, and treated Southern
+prisoners with all the kindness possible. It has been said for the South
+that while Union prisoners were starving, the Confederate troops in the
+field were almost starving too. This is a dishonest subterfuge. The
+Southern troops were starving not because ordinary food was not plentiful
+in the Confederacy, but because of lack of transportation to carry the
+food from the interior to the front, while the Union prisoners perished
+from hunger in the midst of abundance. Again, even assuming the plea of
+scarcity to be true, that would not palliate the numerous murders of
+helpless prisoners by volleys fired into the stockades at the pleasure of
+the guards.[1] There was a vindictiveness in these crimes which no plea
+can extenuate.
+
+      [1] As one of the survivors of the massacre of November 25, 1864, at
+      Salisbury, North Carolina, I know whereof I speak.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The murder of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth removed the only man
+who could have done justice to the South and controlled the passions of
+the North. Lincoln was signally, providentially adapted to be the
+nation's guide in the struggle which, under his leadership, was brought
+to a successful conclusion. For the equally difficult task of
+reconstruction he was likewise admirably qualified, and his death was
+followed by a civil chaos almost as deplorable as armed disunion. From
+that chaos the American people gradually emerged by force of their native
+character and their fundamental sense of justice and of right. The South,
+for some years subjected to the rule of camp-followers and freedmen,
+gradually recovered from the devastation of war, and superior
+intelligence came to the top, as it always will eventually. The Southern
+people learned that they had other resources besides cotton, and they
+began to emulate the North in the development of manufactures and mines.
+The old slave-owning aristocracy in the South has disappeared, but the
+"poor whites" have also almost disappeared, and the average of comfort in
+that section is greater than at any period in American history. The
+negroes complain, and with too much cause, of political oppression and
+exclusion from the suffrage, but they seem to be on good terms with their
+"oppressors," and on the principle of the old Spanish proverb that "he is
+my friend who brings grist to my mill," the Southern black has no better
+friend than the Southern white.
+
+
+
+
+Thirty Years of Peace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Reconstruction in the South--The Congress and the President--Liberal
+Republican Movement--Nomination, Defeat and Death of Greeley--Troops
+Withdrawn by President Hayes--Foreign Policy of the Past Thirty Years--
+French Ordered from Mexico--Last Days of Maximilian--Russian-America
+Bought--The Geneva Arbitration--Alabama Claims Paid--The Northwest
+Boundary--The Fisheries--Spain and the Virginius--The Custer Massacre
+--United States of Brazil Established--President Harrison and Chile
+--Venezuela--American Prestige in South America--Hawaii--Behring
+Sea--Garfield, the Martyr of Civil Service Reform--Labor Troubles--
+Railway Riots of 1877 and 1894--Great Calamities--The Chicago Fire,
+Boston Fire, Charleston Earthquake, Johnstown Flood.
+
+
+The Southern people cannot be justly blamed for their resolute resistance
+to negro domination. It was too much to expect that former masters should
+accept political inferiority to a race emancipated from slavery, but not
+emancipated from deplorable ignorance and debasement, and easily misled
+by unscrupulous whites. On the other hand, gratitude and prudence
+demanded, on the part of the North, that the negro should not only be a
+freeman, but also a citizen; that he should not only be liberated from
+slavery, but also protected against oppression. The negro, however
+ignorant, was true to the Union, and attached to the Republican party;
+the black soldiers had fought in the Union armies, and Abraham Lincoln
+himself had advised Governor Hahn, of Louisiana, in 1863, that "the very
+intelligent colored people, and especially those who fought gallantly in
+our ranks, should be admitted to the franchise," for "they would probably
+help in some trying time to come to keep the jewel of liberty within the
+family of freedom."
+
+Andrew Johnson, succeeding to the chair of Lincoln, and with his heart
+softened toward his native South, would have restored the whites to full
+control, with the negroes at their mercy. The Congress, however,
+intervened, and the ex-Confederate States were placed under military law,
+and only admitted to recognition as States upon conditions which gave the
+negro equal rights with his white fellow-citizens--and indeed superior
+rights to many of them, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
+the United States excluding from office all persons who, having taken an
+oath as public officers to support the Constitution afterward joined the
+Confederacy. For opposing these measures of Congress President Johnson
+was impeached, and escaped conviction by one vote.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Southern whites continued to struggle for white supremacy. The
+conflict continued throughout Johnson's term as President, and even the
+severe military measures adopted under power from Congress by General
+Grant, only suppressed organized violence in its more rampant form. It
+was impossible to imprison a commonwealth or to place bayonets at every
+threshold, and while the negro might be upheld in his right of suffrage,
+Federal protection could not supply him with work and bread. The
+intellect and the property of the South were on the side of the whites,
+and the blacks began to find that their choice was between submission or
+extinction.
+
+In the North, even among Republicans, a feeling grew that the
+ex-Confederates had suffered enough, while it was impossible for an
+honest man to have any other sentiment than contempt for the political
+vultures who had descended on the wasted South. This feeling gave
+strength to the Liberal Republican movement in 1872, and arrayed
+Democrats--and not a few of the old anti-slavery leaders--in support of
+Horace Greeley for President.
+
+The insanity and death of Mr. Greeley cast a gloom over the election for
+victors as well as vanquished. Mr. Greeley's mind was weakened by
+domestic affliction, and by the desertion of _Tribune_ readers, and when
+crushing defeat at the polls gave the _coup-de-grace_ to his political
+prospects, his once vigorous intellect yielded under the strain. Like a
+dying gladiator, mortally wounded, but with courage unquenched, he seized
+once more the editorial blade with which he had dealt so many powerful
+blows in the past for justice and for truth; but nature was not equal to
+the task, and the weapon fell from his nerveless grasp. His last words
+were: "The country is gone; the _Tribune_ is gone, and I am gone."
+General Grant attended the funeral of his gifted and hapless competitor,
+and the nation joined in honor and eulogy of the great editor whose heart
+was always true to humanity, and whose very failings leaned to virtue's
+side. Fortunately Mr. Greeley's irresponsible utterance was not prophetic
+either as to the country or the _Tribune_. Mr. Whitelaw Reid succeeded to
+the editorial chair, and has ably kept the _Tribune_ in the front rank of
+American journals.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Mr. Greeley's last editorial expression pleaded with the victors in
+behalf of justice and fair dealing for the South. General Grant himself
+is said to have arrived at the conclusion before the close of his second
+term, that the Federal troops should be withdrawn from the Southern
+States, and sagacious Republicans discerned in the growth of Democratic
+sentiment both North and South a warning that the people were becoming
+tired of bayonet government ten years after Appomattox. The election of
+1876, when the Democrats had a popular majority, and the decision between
+Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat, depended
+on a single vote, emphasized the popular protest against military rule in
+time of peace, and when the Electoral Commission gave a verdict in favor
+of General Hayes, the new President speedily withdrew the National troops
+from the reconstructed States.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+While the country witnessed deep agitation and difference of opinion
+regarding reconstruction in the South, there was no difference of public
+sentiment regarding the vigorous, far-sighted and thoroughly American
+policy of the government in dealing with foreign powers. One of the first
+steps of Secretary Seward after the close of the war was to demand in
+courteous language that the French should evacuate Mexico. Napoleon dared
+not challenge the United States by answering no. General Philip H.
+Sheridan was on the Rio Grande with fifty thousand men, anxious to cross
+over and fight; a million veterans were ready to obey the summons to
+battle, and Generals Grant and Sherman would willingly have followed in
+the footsteps of Scott and Taylor. The French troops were withdrawn.
+Maximilian, deceived as to the strength of his cause with the natives,
+refused to accompany Bazaine across the ocean, and the month of May,
+1867, saw the usurping emperor shut up with a small force in Queretaro,
+surrounded by an army of forty thousand Mexican avengers.
+
+In those final days of his life and reign the hapless Austrian prince
+exhibited a courage and nobility of character which showed that the blood
+of Maria Theresa was not degenerate in his veins. He faced death with
+more than reckless daring; he shared in all the privations of his
+faithful adherents, and he was preparing to cut his way out through the
+host of besiegers, at the head of his men, when treachery betrayed him to
+the enemy.
+
+Miguel Lopez was the Benedict Arnold of Queretaro; personal immunity and
+two thousand gold ounces the price. Lopez held the key of Queretaro--the
+convent of La Cruz. Maximilian had been his generous patron and friend,
+and had appointed him chief of the imperial guard. Lopez discerned the
+approaching downfall of his sovereign, and resolved to save himself by
+delivering up that sovereign to the enemy. On the night of May 14, the
+Liberal troops were admitted to La Cruz, and Queretaro was at the mercy
+of the besiegers.
+
+Maximilian made a last stand on the "Hill of the Bells." Successful
+resistance was impossible. The bullet he prayed for did not come, and the
+emperor and his officers were prisoners. In vain the Princess Salm-Salm,
+representing one of the proudest families of Europe, bent her knees
+before the Indian President of Mexico, and pleaded for the life of
+Maximilian. "I am grieved, madam," said Juarez, "to see you thus on your
+knees before me; but if all the kings and queens of Europe were in your
+place, I could not spare that life. It is not I who take it. It is the
+people and the law, and if I should not do their will, the people would
+take it, and mine also."
+
+"Boys, aim well--aim at my heart"--was Maximilian's request to his
+executioners. "Oh man!" was his last cry as he fell, the victim of his
+own ambition, and of Louis Napoleon's perfidy. The volley which pierced
+his breast was the knell of the Bonaparte dynasty. Gravelotte was but
+little more than three years from Queretaro.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The acquisition of Russian America for the sum of $7,200,000 was a
+splendid stroke of statesmanship, and secured to the United States the
+control of the North Pacific coast of the continent, besides adding about
+581,107 square miles to the territory of the Republic. Alaska has immense
+resources, and is already looking forward to a proud and prosperous
+future as the north star in the flag of our Union.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+When the British Government proposed, in 1871, a joint commission to
+settle the Canadian fisheries dispute, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
+replied that the settlement of the claims for depredations by
+Anglo-Confederate cruisers would be "essential to the restoration of
+cordial and amicable relations between the two governments." In the
+following February five high commissioners from each country met in
+Washington, and a treaty was agreed upon providing for arbitration upon
+the issues between the American Republic and Great Britain. These issues
+included the "Alabama Claims"--so-called because the Alabama was the most
+notorious and destructive of the Anglo-Confederate sea rovers--the
+question of the Northwest boundary, and the Canadian fisheries.
+
+The Tribunal of Arbitration upon the "Alabama Claims" met at Geneva,
+Switzerland, December 15, 1871. Charles Francis Adams, American Minister
+to England during the war, was member of the Tribunal for the United
+States, and Lord Chief Justice Cockburn acted for Great Britain. Baron
+Itajuba, Brazilian Minister to France; Count Sclopis, an Italian
+statesman, and M. Jaques Staempfii, of Switzerland, were the other members
+of the illustrious and memorable court. Caleb Cushing, William M. Evarts
+and Morrison R. Waite, counsel for the United States, presented an
+indictment against England which should have made British statesmen
+shrink from the evidence of their unsuccessful conspiracy against the
+life of a friendly State. The course of Great Britain during the war was
+reviewed in language not less forcible and convincing because it was
+calm, dignified and restrained. A fortress of facts was presented
+impregnable to British reply, and highly creditable to the forethought
+and skill with which the American State Department had gathered the
+material for its case from the very beginning of the war. So strong and
+unanswerable was the proof against the Alabama that the British
+arbitrator voted in favor of the United States on the issue of British
+responsibility for that vessel.
+
+The Tribunal awarded $15,500,000 in gold for the vessels and cargoes
+destroyed by the Alabama, with her tender; the Florida, with her three
+tenders, and the Shenandoah, or Sea King, during a part of her piratical
+career. England promptly paid the award, and learned for the third time
+in her history that the rights and interests of the American people were
+not to be trampled on with impunity. The United States, in fulfilment of
+an award made by a commission appointed under the Treaty of Washington
+paid $2,000,000 for damages incurred by British subjects during the war
+for the Union, the claims presented to the commission having amounted to
+$96,000,000. The differences between the United States and Great Britain
+on account of the rebellion were thus happily removed without the
+shedding of a drop of blood, and the two great nations of English origin
+gave to mankind an admirable example of peaceful arbitration as a
+substitute for the ordeal of battle.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The question of the Northwest boundary was also settled to the
+satisfaction of the United States, by the German emperor, William I., to
+whom it was referred as arbitrator. The treaty of 1846 left in doubt
+whether the boundary line included the island of San Juan and its group
+within American or British territory. American and British garrisons
+occupied the disputed island of San Juan. When the Emperor William
+decided in favor of the United States the British troops were withdrawn.
+
+Less advantageous to the United States was the attempt made to settle the
+long dispute over the fisheries. The Treaty of Washington provided that
+American fishermen should be freely admitted to the Canadian fisheries,
+and that Canadians should be permitted to fish on the American coast as
+far south as the thirty-ninth parallel, and that there should be free
+trade in fish-oil and salt water fish, these provisions to be abrogated
+on two years' notice. Through a most unfortunate blunder on the part of
+our government a commission was constituted virtually British in its
+character, which awarded to Great Britain the sum of $5,500,000 for
+imaginary American benefits to be derived from reciprocity. This money
+was paid without any real equivalent.
+
+The reciprocity arrangement was abrogated, under notice from our
+government, in 1885, and the old contention was renewed. As a result of
+Canadian outrage and intolerance a bill was passed by the American
+Congress, March 3, 1887, providing that the President, on being satisfied
+that American fishing masters or crews were treated in Canadian ports any
+less favorably than masters or crews of trading vessels belonging to the
+most favored nations could "in his discretion by proclamation to that
+effect deny vessels, their masters and crews, of the British dominions of
+North America, any entrance into the waters, ports or places of or within
+the United States." Eventually the Canadians assumed a more reasonable
+attitude, and American fishermen, on their part, learned to be
+independent of Canada, and to value the exclusive possession of their own
+markets more than Canadian fishing privileges.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Spain invited a conflict with the United States by the summary execution,
+in November, 1873, of 110 persons, including a number of American
+citizens, captured on the American steamship Virginius, while on their
+way to assist the Cuban patriots. President Grant acted with firmness and
+deliberation, refusing to be carried away by the popular demand for war,
+but resolute in his demand for redress on the part of Spain. The Spanish
+government surrendered the survivors and the Virginius, and made
+reparation satisfactory to the United States. When the American schooner
+Competitor was captured recently, on an errand to the Cuban insurgents,
+the Spaniards did not dare to repeat the tragedy of the Virginius.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The American Indians made their last hostile stand against white
+aggression June 25, 1876, when the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, destroyed
+General Custer and three hundred cavalry under his command. The troops
+fought bravely, but the Indians were nerved to desperation by the
+presence of their women and children. Sitting Bull took refuge with his
+followers in British territory, but surrendered to United States
+authority in 1880, under promise of amnesty. He was treacherously killed
+in 1890, on suspicion of being concerned in fomenting trouble with the
+whites. The policy of the National Government toward the Indians has of
+late years been humane and liberal.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The extinction of imperialism in Brazil in 1889 effaced monarchy from the
+American continent, save as represented in the territories still subject
+to European States. Dom Pedro II., one of the most amiable and liberal of
+nineteenth century rulers, was driven into exile, and without an armed
+encounter, or the firing of a gun in anger, the empire of Brazil became
+the United States of Brazil. Unlike other emperors and kings who have
+been compelled to give up their American dominions, Dom Pedro's parting
+message to the land he had wisely governed was one of amity and peace. As
+the shores of his loved Brazil disappeared before his moistening eyes he
+released a dove to bear back his last adieu of loyal and fervent
+goodwill. He died in exile, his end doubtless hastened by pathetic
+longing to see once more the native land forever barred to him.
+
+The path toward freedom in Brazil had not been strewn with flowers.
+Brazil had its martyrs as well as its heroes. It is a remarkable fact
+that nearly every revolution in France had its echo in Brazil, and
+undoubtedly French as well as American example had much to do with the
+deposition of Pedro II. It is a mistake to argue, as some European
+writers have argued, that the change from a monarchy to a republic in
+Brazil was nothing more than a successful military revolt. It was the
+culmination of more than a century of agitation in behalf of republican
+principles; it was the pure flame of a sacred hearth-fire, which had
+never been extinguished from the day when it caught the first feeble glow
+from the dying breath of Filipe dos Santos.
+
+The Brazilians have given an admirable example to other South American
+republics in the separation of State from Church. While providing for the
+maintenance of ecclesiastics now dependent on the State for support, the
+Brazilian Constitution decrees not only entire liberty of worship, but
+absolute equality of all before the law, without regard to their
+religious creed. The absence of this equality is the chief blot on some
+South American States.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The resolute course of President Harrison in exacting indemnity and
+apology from Chile for insult to the American uniform and the murder and
+wounding of American sailors, tended greatly to promote the influence and
+prestige of the United States in South America, and the Spanish-American
+republics are learning to esteem the United States, instead of England,
+as the leading power of the New World. Brazil is grateful for American
+countenance and friendship in the defence of that youngest and greatest
+of South American republics against rebellion plotted in Europe in the
+interest of the Braganzas, while Venezuela depends upon the United States
+with justifiable confidence for the vindication of the Monroe Doctrine,
+and the restoration of territory seized and occupied by the British
+without any title save that of superior force. Cuba, in her heroic battle
+for freedom, is upheld by American public sentiment and the substantial
+sympathy of the American people, and Nicaragua is virtually under
+American protection. The American eagle, from its seat in the North,
+overshadows with guardian pinions the American continent.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+In the case of Hawaii the American Republic seems likely to depart from
+its traditional policy of acquiring no territory beyond American bounds.
+The Hawaiian Islands were won from barbarism by the efforts and
+sacrifices of American missionaries and their descendants. A republic has
+been established there, and intelligent Hawaiians look hopefully forward
+to a common future with the United States. There is hardly a doubt that
+this hope will be fulfilled, and that the Eden of Southern seas will
+become an outpost of American civilization. With the two great English
+speaking nations of America and Australia confronting each other across
+the Pacific, that ocean is certain to be in the twentieth century the
+theatre of grand events, perhaps of future Actiums and Trafalgars. In
+Hawaii we will have a Malta worthy of such a mighty arena, and the flames
+of Kilauea will be a beacon fire of American liberty to the teeming
+millions of Asia.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The Behring Sea negotiations have from the first been discreditable to
+diplomacy at Washington. The attempt to prove that the fur-seals are
+domestic animals, and the property of the United States when a hundred
+miles out in the Pacific Ocean was a humiliating reflection on the
+intelligence of both parties to the dispute, and showed abject and
+degrading subserviency to the corporation controlling the seal monopoly.
+Added to this was the disgrace of forgery, detected, unfortunately, not
+at Washington, but in London, and indicating that, while Washington
+officials were doubtless innocent of complicity in the crime, the forger
+knew, or thought he knew, what was wanted. The end is that this country
+has to pay about $400,000 to England, while the seals are abandoned to
+destruction, which at least will have the happy effect of removing them
+as a cause of international controversy.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The assassination of President Garfield, July 2, 1881, by a disappointed
+seeker for office made that President the martyr of civil service reform,
+and gave an irresistible impulse to the movement to alleviate the evils
+of what is known as the "spoils system." Notwithstanding the opposition
+of politicians and newspapers representing the vicious and ignorant
+element, civil service reform has made marvelous progress, and the
+principle is now recognized not only in appointments to the vast majority
+of non-elective offices under the National Government, but also in the
+civil service of States and municipalities.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+An unfortunate consequence of the vast growth of individual and corporate
+wealth, after the war, was the widening of the division line between
+capital and labor. The depression consequent upon the collapse of
+inflated values in 1873 compelled employers to reduce expenses, and made
+harder the lot of labor, while the workingman who saw his wages reduced
+was not always willing to make intelligent allowance for the
+circumstances which made the reduction necessary. The spirit of
+discontent reached the point of eruption in 1877, when railway employees
+throughout a large part of the Union abandoned their work, and indulged
+in riot and disorder. The struggle raged most fiercely in the city of
+Pittsburg, which was subjected for some days to the reign of a mob, and
+to perils seldom surpassed save in the tragic scenes of old-world
+barricades and revolution. The County of Allegheny had to settle for
+damages to the amount of $2,772,349.53, of which $1,600,000 went to the
+Pennsylvania Railroad. Chicago, Baltimore and Reading were also the
+scenes of severe and sanguinary conflict between rioters and the militia.
+It was estimated that about 100,000 workers were engaged in the strike in
+various parts of the country.
+
+Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and other States have witnessed serious
+labor troubles since 1877, and the regular army of the United States was
+employed by order of President Cleveland to put down unlawful
+interference with interstate commerce in 1894; but the general tendency
+of workingmen is to obtain redress for real or imaginary grievances in a
+law-abiding manner by securing the election of officials favorable to
+their interests. This is the only method of redress that can be tolerated
+in a republic.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The great fires of Chicago in 1871, and of Boston in 1872, the Charleston
+earthquake of 1886 and the Johnstown flood of 1889, were among the most
+memorable of the destructive visitations which have served signally to
+illustrate the energy, the generosity, and the recuperative power of the
+American people. Chicago, with $200,000,000 of property swept away by the
+flames, laid amid the ashes the foundations of that new Chicago which is
+the inland metropolis of the continent, brimming with the spirit of
+American progress, and the blood in every vein bounding with American
+energy. Boston plucked profit from disaster by establishing her claim as
+the modern Athens in architecture as well as literature, and Charleston
+learned, amid her ruins, that northern sympathy was not bounded by Mason
+and Dixon's line. The South taught a similar lesson in return when the
+cry from flood-stricken Johnstown touched every merciful heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+The American Republic the Most Powerful of Nations--Military and Naval
+Strength--Railways and Waterways--Industry and Art--Manufactures--The New
+South--Foreign and Domestic Commerce--An Age of Invention--Americans a
+Nation of Readers--The Clergy--Pulpit and Press--Religion and Higher
+Education--The Currency Question--Leading Candidates for the Presidency
+--A Sectional Contest Deplorable--What Shall the Harvest Be?
+
+
+Thirty-two years ago the very existence of the American Republic was in
+the balance. Today it is the most powerful of nations, with forty-five
+stars, representing that number of States, on its flag, and unequalled in
+population, wealth or resources by any other civilized land. The men of
+America are not herded away from industry to drill in camps and garrison,
+and wait for a war that may never come. They continue to be producers,
+but should the need arise they would be found as good soldiers as any in
+the world, and for fighting on American soil better than the best of
+Europe. The American navy is already formidable, and becoming more
+formidable every year, and the spirit of the men who fought under
+Bainbridge, Decatur, Hull and Perry survives in their descendants.
+However great the improvements in naval machines the men on the ship will
+always be of more importance than the armament. The American Republic has
+the men, and is fast acquiring the armament.
+
+The people were never so closely united as now. Every new railway is a
+muscle of iron knitting together the joints of the Union, and no other
+nation has a railway service equal to that of America. Railways span the
+continent from New York to the Golden Gate. The traveler retires to rest
+in the North and wakes up in the sunny South. And still he can journey on
+in his own country, under the American flag, day after day, if he wishes,
+toward the setting sun, unvexed by custom house, and free from the
+inquisition which attends the stranger in Europe, as he flits from one
+petty State to another. The great national policy of encouraging the
+extension of railway and water communication is grandly vindicated in the
+America of to-day. When the Nicaragua Canal shall have been completed the
+American people will have a new waterway joining the Atlantic and Pacific
+coasts of the Republic, as important to the commerce of the Union as the
+Erie Canal was fifty years ago.
+
+To describe the progress of the United States in the industries and arts
+would be a work requiring many volumes, including the census reports of
+1890, and catalogues of the Centennial and Chicago Fairs. The Republic is
+not only the greatest of agricultural nations, but also leads Great
+Britain in manufactures. In the quality of our textile fabrics we are
+outstripping Europe, and the statement that cloth is imported is a
+temptation now only to ignorant purchasers. In the more refined arts
+America is also gaining upon the older world, and it is absurd to see
+Americans purchasing silverware, for instance, abroad when they can get a
+much finer article at home. The low wages and keen competition of Europe
+have a degrading effect not only upon the workingman, but also in some
+degree upon his product, whereas here the artist and the artisan are
+encouraged by fair compensation and comfortable surroundings to do their
+best. The principle upon which American employers act--to give good pay
+for good work--is the secret of American success; it is the reason why
+even the semi-barbarians are learning that American goods are made to
+wear, while those of Europe are often made only to sell.
+
+Manufactures are flourishing in the South as well as the North, and it is
+wonderful to relate that, while the hum of busy factories can be heard in
+nearly every city, town and village of the former Confederacy, the cotton
+crop--which the Southern people in 1860 believed it impossible to produce
+without slave labor--has already reached with free labor about double the
+figures of 1860.
+
+It is true that we do not have a large share of the foreign carrying
+trade, but it is also true that our merchant marine, including the
+vessels engaged in foreign and domestic trade and river and lake
+navigation, is second only to that of Great Britain. The domestic
+commerce of the United States, a free trade extending from Florida to
+Sitka, from Eastport to San Diego, is vastly greater than the foreign
+commerce of Great Britain.
+
+The age has been one of marvelous inventions in steam, in electricity, in
+the machinery which has made nearly every mechanic and operative an
+engineer, which is driving the horse from the streets and the farms, and
+which enables one factory hand to produce as much as three produced a
+generation ago.
+
+Submarine cables keep America in close touch with Europe, and even the
+gossip of Paris and London is known the same day in our cities. Everybody
+reads, and whereas the American of a generation ago took one newspaper,
+his son to-day probably takes two or three, besides weekly and monthly
+publications. Notwithstanding all that is said about ignorant foreign
+immigration it is certain that the growth of newspaper circulation in the
+past two decades has exceeded the growth of population. Americans are a
+reading people, and it is for every head of a family to see that his
+children have the right kind of reading.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The clergy are not now the political monitors of the community, as when,
+at the time of the Revolution, the election sermon preached in Boston,
+and printed in pamphlet form, was spelled by the light of the pine-knot
+in the cabin on the Berkshire plantation, inspiring the rustic breast
+with holy zeal to deliver the Israel of the New World from the yoke of
+the English Sennacherib. The newspaper has taken the place of the pulpit
+as a political beacon and guide, and, as every denomination and
+congregation includes members of both the prominent national parties, it
+would be impossible for a clergyman to indulge in even a distant partisan
+allusion without offending some one of his hearers. The clergyman is
+free, like any other citizen, to indicate his preferences and express his
+opinions in regard to public affairs, but the judicious pastor is not
+prone to use that freedom indiscreetly.
+
+Although the preachers are no longer political leaders, there is, in the
+opinion of the writer, based upon what he has heard and read of the past,
+and observed of the present, a larger proportion of learned, talented,
+and eloquent men among the pastors who minister in the churches to-day,
+than in any generation gone by. The clergy are still pre-eminently the
+molders of education. The presidents and professors of leading
+universities are usually prominent in some evangelical sect, and this is
+probably owing to the fact that every seminary of higher knowledge is
+under the control of a branch of the Christian Church, whose influence is
+predominant in the faculty, and which regards the college as a filial
+institution, with traditions intertwined with its own. However skeptical
+or indifferent students may be to religion, they cannot fail to imbibe at
+least an esteem for the doctrines of the Saviour from the teachers who
+impart to them secular lessons. The impressions thus received by the
+plastic mind of youth are not likely to be ever wholly effaced. The man
+or the divinity we venerate at nineteen we instinctively bow to at forty.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The progress of the past thirty years has no doubt been due in an eminent
+degree to a sound and uniform currency. In the coming national election
+it will be decided whether that currency is to remain as it is--at the
+world's highest standard--or whether the mints of the United States are
+to be opened freely to the coinage of silver. Major William McKinley, one
+of the bravest soldiers of the Union army, and a statesman of recognized
+integrity and ability, is the candidate of the existing standard; the
+Hon. William J. Bryan, a brilliant young orator, is the candidate of free
+silver. The contest now opening is likely to be one of the most exciting
+the country has ever witnessed. Nothing could be more deplorable than for
+that contest to assume a sectional aspect, with West arrayed against East
+and East against West.
+
+Come weal, come woe, this should and will remain a united country. The
+American nation is one people, and will remain one people. The destiny of
+one section is the destiny of all. North, East, West and South are
+traveling along a common highway toward a common future. Be that future
+one of prosperity or of calamity, all will share in it. Whatever the seed
+sown, whether of good or evil, all will reap the harvest, and it remains
+for all, therefore, to consider, as citizens of a common country, what
+shall the harvest be?
+
+
+
+
+The American People.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+No Classes Here--All Are Workers--Enormous Growth of Cities--Immigration
+--Civic Misgovernment--The Farming Population--Individuality and
+Self-reliance--Isolation Even in the Grave--The West--The South--The
+Negro--Little Reason to Fear for Our Country--American Reverence for
+Established Institutions.
+
+
+In the Old World meaning of the term there are no classes of society
+here. There is no condition of life, however low, from which a man may
+not aspire and rise to the highest honors and the most enviable
+distinction, provided that he has the requisite natural endowments,
+favorable opportunities, and the ability and foresight to grasp them. The
+materials of which our American population is composed are various in
+origin and diverse in their ideas, their creeds, and their aims, but
+nevertheless full of vital force and energy, and with a less percentage
+of human weeds and refuse than any other nation on the globe. Nearly
+everybody is at work, from the manufacturer worth millions, to the tramp
+who earns his breakfast in the charity wood-yard. It is disreputable for
+any one in vigorous health and years, and even when of ample fortune, to
+be without employment, and for this reason rich young men frequently go
+through the form of admission to the bar, or of medical graduation, in
+order that it may not be said that they are unoccupied. The sons of
+wealth who ignore the industrious example of their sires are still too
+few in proportion to the multitude, and held in too general contempt, to
+more than irritate the social surface. The aristocracy of America is an
+aristocracy of workingmen--workingmen whose possessions are valued by the
+hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars, but still men who work.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+Great cities exert an influence on public affairs unknown half a century
+ago. The enormous growth of municipalities may be judged from the fact
+that the net municipal expenses of New York City, exclusive of the city's
+share of the State debt, interest on the city's bonds, and money acquired
+for the payment of some of the bonds at maturity, amount to $33,000,000
+annually. On schools alone New York spends this year $5,900,000; Chicago,
+$5,500,000, and Brooklyn, $2,500,000. This is the most hope-inspiring
+item in municipal budgets. It may mean the salvation of the country.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The urban population is largely composed of the element known as
+"foreign." The sixteen millions of immigrants who have come to the United
+States since 1820, have made a deep impress on the Republic. Immigrants
+and the descendants of immigrants have been of the greatest value in
+developing American resources and building up American States, and the
+large majority of citizens of recent alien origin are sincerely attached
+to American institutions. In the cities, however, and especially in New
+York and Chicago, may be found a class of foreigners who unfortunately
+herd together in certain districts, and remain almost as alien to the
+American language and to American institutions as when they first landed
+on our shores. Even these, however, are not irredeemable, and in the
+course of a generation or two their more obnoxious traits will probably
+disappear. Freedom of worship and the public school have a curative and
+humanizing influence which not even the leprosy bred of centuries of
+European despotism and oppression can resist. I am not of those who view
+with apprehension or aversion the race of Christ, of David and of the
+Maccabees, of Disraeli and of Gambetta. There is no better class of
+citizens than the better class of Jews, and it would be a dishonorable
+day for our Republic should its gates ever be closed to the victims of
+religious intolerance, whatsoever their race or belief.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The great cities witness almost unceasing strife between what may be
+called the political-criminal element on the one side, and patriotism and
+intelligence on the other side. Knaves, using bigotry, ignorance and
+intimidation as their weapons, manage to control municipal affairs,
+except when expelled from office for periods more or less brief by some
+sudden spasm of public virtue and indignation, like the revolt in the
+city of New York against the Tweed Ring a quarter of a century ago, and
+the reform victory in that city two years ago.
+
+The overthrow of Tweed, and the great uprising of 1894 in New York, and
+of more recent date in Chicago, prove that the American people, once
+fully aroused, can crush, as with the hammer of Thor, any combination of
+public plunderers, however powerful. But why should these tremendous
+efforts be necessary? Why should not the latent energy which makes them
+possible be exerted in steady and uniform resistance to the restless
+enemies of pure and popular government?
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The farming population, although largely overshadowed by manufacturing
+and commercial interests, is still the anchor of the Republic. In many of
+the States the rural vote is predominant, although in the nation as a
+whole it is gradually losing ground, owing to the growth of the cities,
+the removal of restrictions on the suffrage, and the partial adjustment
+of representation to numbers. The most striking features in the character
+of the native farmer are individuality and self-reliance. These qualities
+have been inherited from ancestors who were compelled _by_ circumstances
+to depend upon their own industry for a living, and their own vigilance
+and courage for defence, when the treacherous Indian lurked in swamps and
+woods, and the father attended Sunday worship with a weapon by his side.
+The founders of these States were men who thought for themselves, or they
+would not have been exiles for the sake of conscience. Their situation
+made them still more indifferent to the opinions and concerns of the
+world from which they were divided, while they stood aloof even from
+each other, except when common danger drove them to unite for mutual
+protection. Their offspring grew up amid stern and secluded surroundings,
+and the thoughts and habits of the parent became the second nature  of
+the child. I have often imagined that in the firm, wary, and reserved
+expression on the Yankee farmer's face was photographed the struggle of
+his progenitors two centuries ago. This wariness and reserve does not,
+as a rule, amount to churlishness. The American, like the English
+cultivator, has felt the ameliorating influences of modern civilization,
+and while he retains his strong individuality, his intelligence prompts
+him to benefit by the opportunities denied to his forefathers.
+
+The dwelling of the American farmer is usually lacking in those tasteful
+accessories which add such a charm to the cottage homes of England and
+France. Beyond the belt of suburban villas one seldom sees a carefully
+tended flower-garden, or an attractive vine. The yard, like the field, is
+open to the cattle, and, if there is a plot fenced in, it is devoted, not
+to roses and violets, but to onions or peas. The effect is dreary and
+uninviting, even though the enclosure may be clean, and the milk-cans
+scoured to brilliancy. Again we see in this disregard for the beautiful
+the effect of isolation upon the native character, the result of hard
+grubbing for the bare needs of existence. The primitive settlers needed
+every foot of the land which they laboriously subdued, for some
+productive use; they had neither time nor soil to spare for the culture
+of the beautiful; and their descendants have inherited the ancestral
+disposition to utilize everything, and the ancestral want of taste for
+the merely charming in nature. Yet there are gratifying exceptions to the
+general rule, and sometimes a housewife may be met who takes pride and
+pleasure in her flower-beds. No doubt it was such a wife that the
+lonesome old farmer was speaking of one evening, in a group by a roadside
+tavern, as the writer passed along. "My wife loved flowers," he
+mournfully said, as his weary eyes seemed to look back into the past,
+"and I must go and plant some upon her grave."
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The spirit of independence and isolation extends in many of the old
+American families even to the tomb. An interesting monograph might be
+written on the private graveyards in some parts of the East. Among the
+shade-trees surrounding a house on the busy street, in the orchard behind
+the farmer's barn, and again in the depth of the wood, a few rude,
+unchiseled headstones, perhaps nearly hidden by tangled brush, reveal the
+spot where sleep the forefathers of the plantation. I came across such a
+burying-ground not long ago. It was far from the traveled highway, far
+from the haunts of living men, among trees and grapevines, and blueberry
+bushes. The depression in the soil indicated that the perishable remains
+had long ago crumbled to dust, while a large hole burrowed in the earth
+showed where a woodchuck made its home among the bones of the forgotten
+dead. With reverent hand I cleared the leaves from about the primitive
+monuments, and sought for some word or letter that might tell who they
+were that lay beneath the silver birches, in the silent New England
+forest. But the stones, erect as when set by sorrowing friends perhaps
+two hundred years ago, bore neither trace nor mark. There were graves
+enough for a household, and likely a household was there. It maybe a
+father who had fled from Old England to seek in the wilderness a place
+where he might worship God according to the dictates of his heart; a
+Pilgrim wife and mother, whose gentle love mellowed and softened the
+harshness of frontier life, and sons and daughters, cut off before the
+growth of commerce tempted the survivors to the town, or the reports of
+new and fertile territories induced them to abandon the rugged but not
+ungrateful paternal fields. With gentle step, so not to disturb the
+sacred stillness of the scene, I turned from the lonely graves, and I
+thought as I walked, that these simple tombs in the bosom of nature well
+befitted those who had dared the dangers of wild New England for freedom
+from the empty forms of a mitred religion.
+
+History can be read in secluded resting-places of the departed. With the
+accretion of wealth to the living more care was expended upon the dead,
+and enduring slabs of slate, with appropriate engravings, took the place
+of the uncouth fragments of rock. With added riches the taste for display
+in headstones, as well as in social life, increased, and imported marble
+was occasionally used to designate the tombs of prosperous descendants of
+the early and impoverished settlers. Not infrequently all three--the
+unlettered stone of the first hundred years, the slate of the latter half
+of the last century, and the polished and costly marble now so common in
+the great public cemeteries--may be seen in one small burying-ground,
+bearing mute testimony to the struggles and progress of the occupants.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+It is a fact which bears striking testimony to the masterful qualities of
+the native American character that in the Western States, notwithstanding
+a vast foreign immigration, the dominant element is of the old colonial
+stock. The fortunes of the West are guided by emigrants and the
+descendants of emigrants from New England, the Middle and the border
+States, and while adopted citizens, nearly all of a desirable class, are
+in a majority in many parts of the West, most of the western men and
+women also, of national fame, can trace an American pedigree for several
+generations. There are notable exceptions to this rule, but they only
+illustrate the rule. This condition is due not to any inferiority on the
+part of the immigrant population to the average of European
+nationalities--for, barring Russia and some southern countries we receive
+the cream of European manhood--but to American heredity, to the
+inheritance of those endowments which qualify for leadership in a nation
+of freemen. The western American is more aggressive and progressive than
+his eastern cousin. Just as the New Englander retains many of the
+expressions and some of the ways which have become obsolete in Old
+England, so the native settler of Kansas, of Iowa, of Nebraska, and even
+of the nearer States of Ohio and Illinois, is more like the New Englander
+of half a century ago than those who have remained on the ancestral soil.
+He has the old Puritan love of learning, and from the humble colleges in
+which his more ambitious children are educated go forth the Joshuas and
+the Davids of our American Israel. The total yearly expenses of one of
+those western colleges would hardly equal the salary of the chief of a
+great university, but presidents of the United States are graduated
+there.
+
+The western farmer reads and thinks, and perhaps in that clear western
+air, as he ploughs the sod of the prairie, and reaps the harvest on his
+rude domain, he sees farther into the future than his brother of the
+East. Right or wrong in his political views, he is at any rate honest in
+them, and if his convictions seem to partake sometimes of the fervor of
+the crusader, it should not be forgotten that the spirit of Ossawattomie
+Brown yet lives in the land which he saved for freedom; it should not be
+forgotten that nearly every western homestead has its grave in the
+battlefields of the war which made us one people forever. Making due
+allowance for that good-natured raillery which is one of the spices of
+existence, it may be truthfully said that anyone who laughs in earnest at
+the West calls attention merely to his own shallow conceit. Intelligent
+people in the East are studying, not ridiculing the West.
+
+                        *          *          *
+
+The recuperative energy displayed by the Southern people has been even
+more wonderful and admirable than that exhibited by France after the
+German conquest. France was not denuded, as the South was denuded of all
+that represents wealth save a fertile soil and the resolution to rise
+from the ashes of the past. And the South has risen. I passed through
+North Carolina and Virginia just before the close of the war. Recently I
+visited the same States, and South Carolina and Georgia for the first
+time since the war. What a transformation! But for the genial climate the
+busy factories would have recalled New England, while a keen business air
+had taken the place of that old-time lassitude which in ante-bellum days
+seemed inseparable from the institution of slavery. The Southern people
+have all the acuteness of the Yankee, with a genuine bonhomie which
+brightens the most ordinary incidents of life. New conditions have called
+into play valuable qualities which were torpid until touched by the wand
+of necessity. The old families no longer regard honorable toil with
+aversion or disdain; on the contrary they are workers, and work is the
+passport to respectable recognition. The Southern whites are getting
+along very well with the colored people, and look on them as not only
+useful, but indispensable to the South. "If the negroes emigrate," said a
+prominent business man of Augusta, Ga., to the writer, "I want to
+emigrate too." And this is the prevailing sentiment. The negroes, also,
+are proving themselves worthy of freedom, although it is not to be
+expected that the effects of three centuries of slavery could be
+eradicated in three decades of liberty. In looking out for business
+rivalry New England would do well to gaze less intently across the
+Atlantic and more toward the Yadkin and the Savannah.
+
+                           *          *          *
+
+There is little reason to fear for our country. The Union has endured the
+severest trials, only to come forth stronger than ever from every ordeal.
+Grave questions are presenting themselves for solution, but who can doubt
+that the American people have the brain and the vigor to solve them?
+Anarchists make no impression here. Notwithstanding the appeals of alien
+agitators, Americans remain true to the traditions of the Republic. It is
+in this deeply implanted reverence for established institutions that the
+hope for the future of America rests. Before it the pestilential vapor of
+anarchy, borne across the Atlantic from the squirming and steaming masses
+of Europe, disappears like a plague before a purifying flame, and,
+whatever may be the outcome of the struggle, in its various forms, now
+going on between the upper and lower orders in the mother continent, in
+the United States the foundations of society are likely to remain firm
+and unsapped.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND WE LIVE IN***
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