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diff --git a/22994.txt b/22994.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c614cc --- /dev/null +++ b/22994.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14005 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Frontier in American History, by +Frederick Jackson Turner + + +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 Frontier in American History + + +Author: Frederick Jackson Turner + + + +Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #22994] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY*** + + +E-text prepared by Fritz Ohrenschall, Michael Zeug, Lisa Reigel, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes images of the original pages. + See 22994-h.htm or 22994-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22994/22994-h/22994-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22994/22994-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Some typographical and punctuation errors have been + corrected. A complete list follows the text. + + Words italicized in the original are surrounded by + _underscores_. + + Letters superscripted in the original have been placed + in {} brackets. + + [=m] designates an m with a macron. It is a shortcut + indicating that the word should have two m's in succession. + + Ellipses are represented as in the original. + + + + + +THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY + +by + +FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +New York +Henry Holt and Company +1921 + +Copyright, 1920 +by +Frederick J. Turner + + +TO +CAROLINE M. TURNER +MY WIFE + + + + +PREFACE + + +In republishing these essays in collected form, it has seemed best to +issue them as they were originally printed, with the exception of a few +slight corrections of slips in the text and with the omission of +occasional duplication of language in the different essays. A +considerable part of whatever value they may possess arises from the +fact that they are commentaries in different periods on the central +theme of the influence of the frontier in American history. Consequently +they may have some historical significance as contemporaneous attempts +of a student of American history, at successive transitions in our +development during the past quarter century to interpret the relations +of the present to the past. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the +various societies and periodicals which have given permission to reprint +the essays. + +Various essays dealing with the connection of diplomatic history and the +frontier and others stressing the significance of the section, or +geographic province, in American history, are not included in the +present collection. Neither the French nor the Spanish frontier is +within the scope of the volume. + +The future alone can disclose how far these interpretations are correct +for the age of colonization which came gradually to an end with the +disappearance of the frontier and free land. It alone can reveal how +much of the courageous, creative American spirit, and how large a part +of the historic American ideals are to be carried over into that new age +which is replacing the era of free lands and of measurable isolation by +consolidated and complex industrial development and by increasing +resemblances and connections between the New World and the Old. + +But the larger part of what has been distinctive and valuable in +America's contribution to the history of the human spirit has been due +to this nation's peculiar experience in extending its type of frontier +into new regions; and in creating peaceful societies with new ideals in +the successive vast and differing geographic provinces which together +make up the United States. Directly or indirectly these experiences +shaped the life of the Eastern as well as the Western States, and even +reacted upon the Old World and influenced the direction of its thought +and its progress. This experience has been fundamental in the economic, +political and social characteristics of the American people and in their +conceptions of their destiny. + +Writing at the close of 1796, the French minister to the United States, +M. Adet, reported to his government that Jefferson could not be relied +on to be devoted to French interests, and he added: "Jefferson, I say, +is American, and by that name, he cannot be sincerely our friend. An +American is the born enemy of all European peoples." Obviously erroneous +as are these words, there was an element of truth in them. If we would +understand this element of truth, we must study the transforming +influence of the American wilderness, remote from Europe, and by its +resources and its free opportunities affording the conditions under +which a new people, with new social and political types and ideals, +could arise to play its own part in the world, and to influence Europe. + +FREDERICK J. TURNER. + +HARVARD UNIVERSITY, March, 1920. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY 1 + + II THE FIRST OFFICIAL FRONTIER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY 39 + + III THE OLD WEST 67 + + IV THE MIDDLE WEST 126 + + V THE OHIO VALLEY IN AMERICAN HISTORY 157 + + VI THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN AMERICAN + HISTORY 177 + + VII THE PROBLEM OF THE WEST 205 + +VIII DOMINANT FORCES IN WESTERN LIFE 222 + + IX CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE WEST TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 243 + + X PIONEER IDEALS AND THE STATE UNIVERSITY 269 + + XI THE WEST AND AMERICAN IDEALS 290 + + XII SOCIAL FORCES IN AMERICAN HISTORY 311 + +XIII MIDDLE WESTERN PIONEER DEMOCRACY 335 + + INDEX 361 + + + + +I + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY[1:1] + + +In a recent bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 appear +these significant words: "Up to and including 1880 the country had a +frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so +broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be +said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its +westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place +in the census reports." This brief official statement marks the closing +of a great historic movement. Up to our own day American history has +been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great +West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, +and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American +development. + +Behind institutions, behind constitutional forms and modifications, lie +the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet +changing conditions. The peculiarity of American institutions is, the +fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of +an expanding people--to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in +winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress +out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier +into the complexity of city life. Said Calhoun in 1817, "We are great, +and rapidly--I was about to say fearfully--growing!"[2:1] So saying, he +touched the distinguishing feature of American life. All peoples show +development; the germ theory of politics has been sufficiently +emphasized. In the case of most nations, however, the development has +occurred in a limited area; and if the nation has expanded, it has met +other growing peoples whom it has conquered. But in the case of the +United States we have a different phenomenon. Limiting our attention to +the Atlantic coast, we have the familiar phenomenon of the evolution of +institutions in a limited area, such as the rise of representative +government; the differentiation of simple colonial governments into +complex organs; the progress from primitive industrial society, without +division of labor, up to manufacturing civilization. But we have in +addition to this a recurrence of the process of evolution in each +western area reached in the process of expansion. Thus American +development has exhibited not merely advance along a single line, but a +return to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line, +and a new development for that area. American social development has +been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial +rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with +its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of +primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character. The +true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic +coast, it is the Great West. Even the slavery struggle, which is made so +exclusive an object of attention by writers like Professor von Holst, +occupies its important place in American history because of its relation +to westward expansion. + +In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting +point between savagery and civilization. Much has been written about the +frontier from the point of view of border warfare and the chase, but as +a field for the serious study of the economist and the historian it has +been neglected. + +The American frontier is sharply distinguished from the European +frontier--a fortified boundary line running through dense populations. +The most significant thing about the American frontier is, that it lies +at the hither edge of free land. In the census reports it is treated as +the margin of that settlement which has a density of two or more to the +square mile. The term is an elastic one, and for our purposes does not +need sharp definition. We shall consider the whole frontier belt, +including the Indian country and the outer margin of the "settled area" +of the census reports. This paper will make no attempt to treat the +subject exhaustively; its aim is simply to call attention to the +frontier as a fertile field for investigation, and to suggest some of +the problems which arise in connection with it. + +In the settlement of America we have to observe how European life +entered the continent, and how America modified and developed that life +and reacted on Europe. Our early history is the study of European germs +developing in an American environment. Too exclusive attention has been +paid by institutional students to the Germanic origins, too little to +the American factors. The frontier is the line of most rapid and +effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist. It finds +him a European in dress, industries, tools, modes of travel, and +thought. It takes him from the railroad car and puts him in the birch +canoe. It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the +hunting shirt and the moccasin. It puts him in the log cabin of the +Cherokee and Iroquois and runs an Indian palisade around him. Before +long he has gone to planting Indian corn and plowing with a sharp stick; +he shouts the war cry and takes the scalp in orthodox Indian fashion. In +short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the +man. He must accept the conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so +he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails. +Little by little he transforms the wilderness, but the outcome is not +the old Europe, not simply the development of Germanic germs, any more +than the first phenomenon was a case of reversion to the Germanic mark. +The fact is, that here is a new product that is American. At first, the +frontier was the Atlantic coast. It was the frontier of Europe in a very +real sense. Moving westward, the frontier became more and more American. +As successive terminal moraines result from successive glaciations, so +each frontier leaves its traces behind it, and when it becomes a settled +area the region still partakes of the frontier characteristics. Thus the +advance of the frontier has meant a steady movement away from the +influence of Europe, a steady growth of independence on American lines. +And to study this advance, the men who grew up under these conditions, +and the political, economic, and social results of it, is to study the +really American part of our history. + +In the course of the seventeenth century the frontier was advanced up +the Atlantic river courses, just beyond the "fall line," and the +tidewater region became the settled area. In the first half of the +eighteenth century another advance occurred. Traders followed the +Delaware and Shawnese Indians to the Ohio as early as the end of the +first quarter of the century.[5:1] Gov. Spotswood, of Virginia, made an +expedition in 1714 across the Blue Ridge. The end of the first quarter +of the century saw the advance of the Scotch-Irish and the Palatine +Germans up the Shenandoah Valley into the western part of Virginia, and +along the Piedmont region of the Carolinas.[5:2] The Germans in New York +pushed the frontier of settlement up the Mohawk to German Flats.[5:3] In +Pennsylvania the town of Bedford indicates the line of settlement. +Settlements soon began on the New River, or the Great Kanawha, and on +the sources of the Yadkin and French Broad.[5:4] The King attempted to +arrest the advance by his proclamation of 1763,[5:5] forbidding +settlements beyond the sources of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic; +but in vain. In the period of the Revolution the frontier crossed the +Alleghanies into Kentucky and Tennessee, and the upper waters of the +Ohio were settled.[5:6] When the first census was taken in 1790, the +continuous settled area was bounded by a line which ran near the coast +of Maine, and included New England except a portion of Vermont and New +Hampshire, New York along the Hudson and up the Mohawk about +Schenectady, eastern and southern Pennsylvania, Virginia well across the +Shenandoah Valley, and the Carolinas and eastern Georgia.[6:1] Beyond +this region of continuous settlement were the small settled areas of +Kentucky and Tennessee, and the Ohio, with the mountains intervening +between them and the Atlantic area, thus giving a new and important +character to the frontier. The isolation of the region increased its +peculiarly American tendencies, and the need of transportation +facilities to connect it with the East called out important schemes of +internal improvement, which will be noted farther on. The "West," as a +self-conscious section, began to evolve. + +From decade to decade distinct advances of the frontier occurred. By the +census of 1820[6:2] the settled area included Ohio, southern Indiana and +Illinois, southeastern Missouri, and about one-half of Louisiana. This +settled area had surrounded Indian areas, and the management of these +tribes became an object of political concern. The frontier region of the +time lay along the Great Lakes, where Astor's American Fur Company +operated in the Indian trade,[6:3] and beyond the Mississippi, where +Indian traders extended their activity even to the Rocky Mountains; +Florida also furnished frontier conditions. The Mississippi River region +was the scene of typical frontier settlements.[7:1] + +The rising steam navigation[7:2] on western waters, the opening of the +Erie Canal, and the westward extension of cotton[7:3] culture added five +frontier states to the Union in this period. Grund, writing in 1836, +declares: "It appears then that the universal disposition of Americans +to emigrate to the western wilderness, in order to enlarge their +dominion over inanimate nature, is the actual result of an expansive +power which is inherent in them, and which by continually agitating all +classes of society is constantly throwing a large portion of the whole +population on the extreme confines of the State, in order to gain space +for its development. Hardly is a new State or Territory formed before +the same principle manifests itself again and gives rise to a further +emigration; and so is it destined to go on until a physical barrier must +finally obstruct its progress."[7:4] + +In the middle of this century the line indicated by the present eastern +boundary of Indian Territory, Nebraska, and Kansas marked the frontier +of the Indian country.[8:1] Minnesota and Wisconsin still exhibited +frontier conditions,[8:2] but the distinctive frontier of the period is +found in California, where the gold discoveries had sent a sudden tide +of adventurous miners, and in Oregon, and the settlements in Utah.[8:3] +As the frontier had leaped over the Alleghanies, so now it skipped the +Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains; and in the same way that the +advance of the frontiersmen beyond the Alleghanies had caused the rise +of important questions of transportation and internal improvement, so +now the settlers beyond the Rocky Mountains needed means of +communication with the East, and in the furnishing of these arose the +settlement of the Great Plains and the development of still another kind +of frontier life. Railroads, fostered by land grants, sent an +increasing tide of immigrants into the Far West. The United States Army +fought a series of Indian wars in Minnesota, Dakota, and the Indian +Territory. + +By 1880 the settled area had been pushed into northern Michigan, +Wisconsin, and Minnesota, along Dakota rivers, and in the Black Hills +region, and was ascending the rivers of Kansas and Nebraska. The +development of mines in Colorado had drawn isolated frontier settlements +into that region, and Montana and Idaho were receiving settlers. The +frontier was found in these mining camps and the ranches of the Great +Plains. The superintendent of the census for 1890 reports, as previously +stated, that the settlements of the West lie so scattered over the +region that there can no longer be said to be a frontier line. + +In these successive frontiers we find natural boundary lines which have +served to mark and to affect the characteristics of the frontiers, +namely: the "fall line;" the Alleghany Mountains; the Mississippi; the +Missouri where its direction approximates north and south; the line of +the arid lands, approximately the ninety-ninth meridian; and the Rocky +Mountains. The fall line marked the frontier of the seventeenth century; +the Alleghanies that of the eighteenth; the Mississippi that of the +first quarter of the nineteenth; the Missouri that of the middle of this +century (omitting the California movement); and the belt of the Rocky +Mountains and the arid tract, the present frontier. Each was won by a +series of Indian wars. + +At the Atlantic frontier one can study the germs of processes repeated +at each successive frontier. We have the complex European life sharply +precipitated by the wilderness into the simplicity of primitive +conditions. The first frontier had to meet its Indian question, its +question of the disposition of the public domain, of the means of +intercourse with older settlements, of the extension of political +organization, of religious and educational activity. And the settlement +of these and similar questions for one frontier served as a guide for +the next. The American student needs not to go to the "prim little +townships of Sleswick" for illustrations of the law of continuity and +development. For example, he may study the origin of our land policies +in the colonial land policy; he may see how the system grew by adapting +the statutes to the customs of the successive frontiers.[10:1] He may +see how the mining experience in the lead regions of Wisconsin, +Illinois, and Iowa was applied to the mining laws of the Sierras,[10:2] +and how our Indian policy has been a series of experimentations on +successive frontiers. Each tier of new States has found in the older +ones material for its constitutions.[10:3] Each frontier has made +similar contributions to American character, as will be discussed +farther on. + +But with all these similarities there are essential differences due to +the place element and the time element. It is evident that the farming +frontier of the Mississippi Valley presents different conditions from +the mining frontier of the Rocky Mountains. The frontier reached by the +Pacific Railroad, surveyed into rectangles, guarded by the United States +Army, and recruited by the daily immigrant ship, moves forward at a +swifter pace and in a different way than the frontier reached by the +birch canoe or the pack horse. The geologist traces patiently the shores +of ancient seas, maps their areas, and compares the older and the newer. +It would be a work worth the historian's labors to mark these various +frontiers and in detail compare one with another. Not only would there +result a more adequate conception of American development and +characteristics, but invaluable additions would be made to the history +of society. + +Loria,[11:1] the Italian economist, has urged the study of colonial life +as an aid in understanding the stages of European development, affirming +that colonial settlement is for economic science what the mountain is +for geology, bringing to light primitive stratifications. "America," he +says, "has the key to the historical enigma which Europe has sought for +centuries in vain, and the land which has no history reveals luminously +the course of universal history." There is much truth in this. The +United States lies like a huge page in the history of society. Line by +line as we read this continental page from West to East we find the +record of social evolution. It begins with the Indian and the hunter; it +goes on to tell of the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the +trader, the pathfinder of civilization; we read the annals of the +pastoral stage in ranch life; the exploitation of the soil by the +raising of unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled farming +communities; the intensive culture of the denser farm settlement; and +finally the manufacturing organization with city and factory +system.[11:2] This page is familiar to the student of census statistics, +but how little of it has been used by our historians. Particularly in +eastern States this page is a palimpsest. What is now a manufacturing +State was in an earlier decade an area of intensive farming. Earlier yet +it had been a wheat area, and still earlier the "range" had attracted +the cattle-herder. Thus Wisconsin, now developing manufacture, is a +State with varied agricultural interests. But earlier it was given over +to almost exclusive grain-raising, like North Dakota at the present +time. + +Each of these areas has had an influence in our economic and political +history; the evolution of each into a higher stage has worked political +transformations. But what constitutional historian has made any adequate +attempt to interpret political facts by the light of these social areas +and changes?[12:1] + +The Atlantic frontier was compounded of fisherman, fur-trader, miner, +cattle-raiser, and farmer. Excepting the fisherman, each type of +industry was on the march toward the West, impelled by an irresistible +attraction. Each passed in successive waves across the continent. Stand +at Cumberland Gap and watch the procession of civilization, marching +single file--the buffalo following the trail to the salt springs, the +Indian, the fur-trader and hunter, the cattle-raiser, the pioneer +farmer--and the frontier has passed by. Stand at South Pass in the +Rockies a century later and see the same procession with wider intervals +between. The unequal rate of advance compels us to distinguish the +frontier into the trader's frontier, the rancher's frontier, or the +miner's frontier, and the farmer's frontier. When the mines and the cow +pens were still near the fall line the traders' pack trains were +tinkling across the Alleghanies, and the French on the Great Lakes were +fortifying their posts, alarmed by the British trader's birch canoe. +When the trappers scaled the Rockies, the farmer was still near the +mouth of the Missouri. + +Why was it that the Indian trader passed so rapidly across the +continent? What effects followed from the trader's frontier? The trade +was coeval with American discovery. The Norsemen, Vespuccius, Verrazani, +Hudson, John Smith, all trafficked for furs. The Plymouth pilgrims +settled in Indian cornfields, and their first return cargo was of beaver +and lumber. The records of the various New England colonies show how +steadily exploration was carried into the wilderness by this trade. What +is true for New England is, as would be expected, even plainer for the +rest of the colonies. All along the coast from Maine to Georgia the +Indian trade opened up the river courses. Steadily the trader passed +westward, utilizing the older lines of French trade. The Ohio, the Great +Lakes, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Platte, the lines of +western advance, were ascended by traders. They found the passes in the +Rocky Mountains and guided Lewis and Clark,[13:1] Fremont, and Bidwell. +The explanation of the rapidity of this advance is connected with the +effects of the trader on the Indian. The trading post left the unarmed +tribes at the mercy of those that had purchased fire-arms--a truth which +the Iroquois Indians wrote in blood, and so the remote and unvisited +tribes gave eager welcome to the trader. "The savages," wrote La Salle, +"take better care of us French than of their own children; from us only +can they get guns and goods." This accounts for the trader's power and +the rapidity of his advance. Thus the disintegrating forces of +civilization entered the wilderness. Every river valley and Indian trail +became a fissure in Indian society, and so that society became +honeycombed. Long before the pioneer farmer appeared on the scene, +primitive Indian life had passed away. The farmers met Indians armed +with guns. The trading frontier, while steadily undermining Indian power +by making the tribes ultimately dependent on the whites, yet, through +its sale of guns, gave to the Indian increased power of resistance to +the farming frontier. French colonization was dominated by its trading +frontier; English colonization by its farming frontier. There was an +antagonism between the two frontiers as between the two nations. Said +Duquesne to the Iroquois, "Are you ignorant of the difference between +the king of England and the king of France? Go see the forts that our +king has established and you will see that you can still hunt under +their very walls. They have been placed for your advantage in places +which you frequent. The English, on the contrary, are no sooner in +possession of a place than the game is driven away. The forest falls +before them as they advance, and the soil is laid bare so that you can +scarce find the wherewithal to erect a shelter for the night." + +And yet, in spite of this opposition of the interests of the trader and +the farmer, the Indian trade pioneered the way for civilization. The +buffalo trail became the Indian trail, and this became the trader's +"trace;" the trails widened into roads, and the roads into turnpikes, +and these in turn were transformed into railroads. The same origin can +be shown for the railroads of the South, the Far West, and the Dominion +of Canada.[14:1] The trading posts reached by these trails were on the +sites of Indian villages which had been placed in positions suggested by +nature; and these trading posts, situated so as to command the water +systems of the country, have grown into such cities as Albany, +Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Council Bluffs, and Kansas +City. Thus civilization in America has followed the arteries made by +geology, pouring an ever richer tide through them, until at last the +slender paths of aboriginal intercourse have been broadened and +interwoven into the complex mazes of modern commercial lines; the +wilderness has been interpenetrated by lines of civilization growing +ever more numerous. It is like the steady growth of a complex nervous +system for the originally simple, inert continent. If one would +understand why we are to-day one nation, rather than a collection of +isolated states, he must study this economic and social consolidation of +the country. In this progress from savage conditions lie topics for the +evolutionist.[15:1] + +The effect of the Indian frontier as a consolidating agent in our +history is important. From the close of the seventeenth century various +intercolonial congresses have been called to treat with Indians and +establish common measures of defense. Particularism was strongest in +colonies with no Indian frontier. This frontier stretched along the +western border like a cord of union. The Indian was a common danger, +demanding united action. Most celebrated of these conferences was the +Albany congress of 1754, called to treat with the Six Nations, and to +consider plans of union. Even a cursory reading of the plan proposed by +the congress reveals the importance of the frontier. The powers of the +general council and the officers were, chiefly, the determination of +peace and war with the Indians, the regulation of Indian trade, the +purchase of Indian lands, and the creation and government of new +settlements as a security against the Indians. It is evident that the +unifying tendencies of the Revolutionary period were facilitated by the +previous cooperation in the regulation of the frontier. In this +connection may be mentioned the importance of the frontier, from that +day to this, as a military training school, keeping alive the power of +resistance to aggression, and developing the stalwart and rugged +qualities of the frontiersman. + +It would not be possible in the limits of this paper to trace the other +frontiers across the continent. Travelers of the eighteenth century +found the "cowpens" among the canebrakes and peavine pastures of the +South, and the "cow drivers" took their droves to Charleston, +Philadelphia, and New York.[16:1] Travelers at the close of the War of +1812 met droves of more than a thousand cattle and swine from the +interior of Ohio going to Pennsylvania to fatten for the Philadelphia +market.[16:2] The ranges of the Great Plains, with ranch and cowboy and +nomadic life, are things of yesterday and of to-day. The experience of +the Carolina cowpens guided the ranchers of Texas. One element favoring +the rapid extension of the rancher's frontier is the fact that in a +remote country lacking transportation facilities the product must be in +small bulk, or must be able to transport itself, and the cattle raiser +could easily drive his product to market. The effect of these great +ranches on the subsequent agrarian history of the localities in which +they existed should be studied. + +The maps of the census reports show an uneven advance of the farmer's +frontier, with tongues of settlement pushed forward and with +indentations of wilderness. In part this is due to Indian resistance, in +part to the location of river valleys and passes, in part to the unequal +force of the centers of frontier attraction. Among the important centers +of attraction may be mentioned the following: fertile and favorably +situated soils, salt springs, mines, and army posts. + +The frontier army post, serving to protect the settlers from the +Indians, has also acted as a wedge to open the Indian country, and has +been a nucleus for settlement.[16:3] In this connection mention should +also be made of the government military and exploring expeditions in +determining the lines of settlement. But all the more important +expeditions were greatly indebted to the earliest pathmakers, the Indian +guides, the traders and trappers, and the French voyageurs, who were +inevitable parts of governmental expeditions from the days of Lewis and +Clark.[17:1] Each expedition was an epitome of the previous factors in +western advance. + +In an interesting monograph, Victor Hehn[17:2] has traced the effect of +salt upon early European development, and has pointed out how it +affected the lines of settlement and the form of administration. A +similar study might be made for the salt springs of the United States. +The early settlers were tied to the coast by the need of salt, without +which they could not preserve their meats or live in comfort. Writing in +1752, Bishop Spangenburg says of a colony for which he was seeking lands +in North Carolina, "They will require salt & other necessaries which +they can neither manufacture nor raise. Either they must go to +Charleston, which is 300 miles distant . . . Or else they must go to +Boling's Point in V{a} on a branch of the James & is also 300 miles from +here. . . Or else they must go down the Roanoke--I know not how many +miles--where salt is brought up from the Cape Fear."[17:3] This may +serve as a typical illustration. An annual pilgrimage to the coast for +salt thus became essential. Taking flocks or furs and ginseng root, the +early settlers sent their pack trains after seeding time each year to +the coast.[17:4] This proved to be an important educational influence, +since it was almost the only way in which the pioneer learned what was +going on in the East. But when discovery was made of the salt springs of +the Kanawha, and the Holston, and Kentucky, and central New York, the +West began to be freed from dependence on the coast. It was in part the +effect of finding these salt springs that enabled settlement to cross +the mountains. + +From the time the mountains rose between the pioneer and the seaboard, a +new order of Americanism arose. The West and the East began to get out +of touch of each other. The settlements from the sea to the mountains +kept connection with the rear and had a certain solidarity. But the +over-mountain men grew more and more independent. The East took a narrow +view of American advance, and nearly lost these men. Kentucky and +Tennessee history bears abundant witness to the truth of this statement. +The East began to try to hedge and limit westward expansion. Though +Webster could declare that there were no Alleghanies in his politics, +yet in politics in general they were a very solid factor. + +The exploitation of the beasts took hunter and trader to the west, the +exploitation of the grasses took the rancher west, and the exploitation +of the virgin soil of the river valleys and prairies attracted the +farmer. Good soils have been the most continuous attraction to the +farmer's frontier. The land hunger of the Virginians drew them down the +rivers into Carolina, in early colonial days; the search for soils took +the Massachusetts men to Pennsylvania and to New York. As the eastern +lands were taken up migration flowed across them to the west. Daniel +Boone, the great backwoodsman, who combined the occupations of hunter, +trader, cattle-raiser, farmer, and surveyor--learning, probably from the +traders, of the fertility of the lands of the upper Yadkin, where the +traders were wont to rest as they took their way to the Indians, left +his Pennsylvania home with his father, and passed down the Great Valley +road to that stream. Learning from a trader of the game and rich +pastures of Kentucky, he pioneered the way for the farmers to that +region. Thence he passed to the frontier of Missouri, where his +settlement was long a landmark on the frontier. Here again he helped to +open the way for civilization, finding salt licks, and trails, and land. +His son was among the earliest trappers in the passes of the Rocky +Mountains, and his party are said to have been the first to camp on the +present site of Denver. His grandson, Col. A. J. Boone, of Colorado, was +a power among the Indians of the Rocky Mountains, and was appointed an +agent by the government. Kit Carson's mother was a Boone.[19:1] Thus +this family epitomizes the backwoodsman's advance across the continent. + +The farmer's advance came in a distinct series of waves. In Peck's New +Guide to the West, published in Boston in 1837, occurs this suggestive +passage: + + Generally, in all the western settlements, three classes, like + the waves of the ocean, have rolled one after the other. First + comes the pioneer, who depends for the subsistence of his + family chiefly upon the natural growth of vegetation, called + the "range," and the proceeds of hunting. His implements of + agriculture are rude, chiefly of his own make, and his efforts + directed mainly to a crop of corn and a "truck patch." The + last is a rude garden for growing cabbage, beans, corn for + roasting ears, cucumbers, and potatoes. A log cabin, and, + occasionally, a stable and corn-crib, and a field of a dozen + acres, the timber girdled or "deadened," and fenced, are + enough for his occupancy. It is quite immaterial whether he + ever becomes the owner of the soil. He is the occupant for + the time being, pays no rent, and feels as independent as the + "lord of the manor." With a horse, cow, and one or two + breeders of swine, he strikes into the woods with his family, + and becomes the founder of a new county, or perhaps state. He + builds his cabin, gathers around him a few other families of + similar tastes and habits, and occupies till the range is + somewhat subdued, and hunting a little precarious, or, which + is more frequently the case, till the neighbors crowd around, + roads, bridges, and fields annoy him, and he lacks elbow room. + The preemption law enables him to dispose of his cabin and + cornfield to the next class of emigrants; and, to employ his + own figures, he "breaks for the high timber," "clears out for + the New Purchase," or migrates to Arkansas or Texas, to work + the same process over. + + The next class of emigrants purchase the lands, add field to + field, clear out the roads, throw rough bridges over the + streams, put up hewn log houses with glass windows and brick + or stone chimneys, occasionally plant orchards, build mills, + school-houses, court-houses, etc., and exhibit the picture and + forms of plain, frugal, civilized life. + + Another wave rolls on. The men of capital and enterprise come. + The settler is ready to sell out and take the advantage of the + rise in property, push farther into the interior and become, + himself, a man of capital and enterprise in turn. The small + village rises to a spacious town or city; substantial edifices + of brick, extensive fields, orchards, gardens, colleges, and + churches are seen. Broadcloths, silks, leghorns, crapes, and + all the refinements, luxuries, elegancies, frivolities, and + fashions are in vogue. Thus wave after wave is rolling + westward; the real Eldorado is still farther on. + + A portion of the two first classes remain stationary amidst + the general movement, improve their habits and condition, and + rise in the scale of society. + + The writer has traveled much amongst the first class, the real + pioneers. He has lived many years in connection with the + second grade; and now the third wave is sweeping over large + districts of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Migration has + become almost a habit in the West. Hundreds of men can be + found, not over 50 years of age, who have settled for the + fourth, fifth, or sixth time on a new spot. To sell out and + remove only a few hundred miles makes up a portion of the + variety of backwoods life and manners.[21:1] + +Omitting those of the pioneer farmers who move from the love of +adventure, the advance of the more steady farmer is easy to understand. +Obviously the immigrant was attracted by the cheap lands of the +frontier, and even the native farmer felt their influence strongly. Year +by year the farmers who lived on soil whose returns were diminished by +unrotated crops were offered the virgin soil of the frontier at nominal +prices. Their growing families demanded more lands, and these were dear. +The competition of the unexhausted, cheap, and easily tilled prairie +lands compelled the farmer either to go west and continue the exhaustion +of the soil on a new frontier, or to adopt intensive culture. Thus the +census of 1890 shows, in the Northwest, many counties in which there is +an absolute or a relative decrease of population. These States have been +sending farmers to advance the frontier on the plains, and have +themselves begun to turn to intensive farming and to manufacture. A +decade before this, Ohio had shown the same transition stage. Thus the +demand for land and the love of wilderness freedom drew the frontier +ever onward. + +Having now roughly outlined the various kinds of frontiers, and their +modes of advance, chiefly from the point of view of the frontier itself, +we may next inquire what were the influences on the East and on the Old +World. A rapid enumeration of some of the more noteworthy effects is all +that I have time for. + +First, we note that the frontier promoted the formation of a composite +nationality for the American people. The coast was preponderantly +English, but the later tides of continental immigration flowed across to +the free lands. This was the case from the early colonial days. The +Scotch-Irish and the Palatine Germans, or "Pennsylvania Dutch," +furnished the dominant element in the stock of the colonial frontier. +With these peoples were also the freed indented servants, or +redemptioners, who at the expiration of their time of service passed to +the frontier. Governor Spotswood of Virginia writes in 1717, "The +inhabitants of our frontiers are composed generally of such as have been +transported hither as servants, and, being out of their time, settle +themselves where land is to be taken up and that will produce the +necessarys of life with little labour."[22:1] Very generally these +redemptioners were of non-English stock. In the crucible of the +frontier the immigrants were Americanized, liberated, and fused into a +mixed race, English in neither nationality nor characteristics. The +process has gone on from the early days to our own. Burke and other +writers in the middle of the eighteenth century believed that +Pennsylvania[23:1] was "threatened with the danger of being wholly +foreign in language, manners, and perhaps even inclinations." The German +and Scotch-Irish elements in the frontier of the South were only less +great. In the middle of the present century the German element in +Wisconsin was already so considerable that leading publicists looked to +the creation of a German state out of the commonwealth by concentrating +their colonization.[23:2] Such examples teach us to beware of +misinterpreting the fact that there is a common English speech in +America into a belief that the stock is also English. + +In another way the advance of the frontier decreased our dependence on +England. The coast, particularly of the South, lacked diversified +industries, and was dependent on England for the bulk of its supplies. +In the South there was even a dependence on the Northern colonies for +articles of food. Governor Glenn, of South Carolina, writes in the +middle of the eighteenth century: "Our trade with New York and +Philadelphia was of this sort, draining us of all the little money and +bills we could gather from other places for their bread, flour, beer, +hams, bacon, and other things of their produce, all which, except beer, +our new townships begin to supply us with, which are settled with very +industrious and thriving Germans. This no doubt diminishes the number of +shipping and the appearance of our trade, but it is far from being a +detriment to us."[23:3] + +Before long the frontier created a demand for merchants. As it +retreated from the coast it became less and less possible for England to +bring her supplies directly to the consumer's wharfs, and carry away +staple crops, and staple crops began to give way to diversified +agriculture for a time. The effect of this phase of the frontier action +upon the northern section is perceived when we realize how the advance +of the frontier aroused seaboard cities like Boston, New York, and +Baltimore, to engage in rivalry for what Washington called "the +extensive and valuable trade of a rising empire." + +The legislation which most developed the powers of the national +government, and played the largest part in its activity, was conditioned +on the frontier. Writers have discussed the subjects of tariff, land, +and internal improvement, as subsidiary to the slavery question. But +when American history comes to be rightly viewed it will be seen that +the slavery question is an incident. In the period from the end of the +first half of the present century to the close of the Civil War slavery +rose to primary, but far from exclusive, importance. But this does not +justify Dr. von Holst (to take an example) in treating our +constitutional history in its formative period down to 1828 in a single +volume, giving six volumes chiefly to the history of slavery from 1828 +to 1861, under the title "Constitutional History of the United States." +The growth of nationalism and the evolution of American political +institutions were dependent on the advance of the frontier. Even so +recent a writer as Rhodes, in his "History of the United States since +the Compromise of 1850," has treated the legislation called out by the +western advance as incidental to the slavery struggle. + +This is a wrong perspective. The pioneer needed the goods of the coast, +and so the grand series of internal improvement and railroad legislation +began, with potent nationalizing effects. Over internal improvements +occurred great debates, in which grave constitutional questions were +discussed. Sectional groupings appear in the votes, profoundly +significant for the historian. Loose construction increased as the +nation marched westward.[25:1] But the West was not content with +bringing the farm to the factory. Under the lead of Clay--"Harry of the +West"--protective tariffs were passed, with the cry of bringing the +factory to the farm. The disposition of the public lands was a third +important subject of national legislation influenced by the frontier. + +The public domain has been a force of profound importance in the +nationalization and development of the government. The effects of the +struggle of the landed and the landless States, and of the Ordinance of +1787, need no discussion.[25:2] Administratively the frontier called out +some of the highest and most vitalizing activities of the general +government. The purchase of Louisiana was perhaps the constitutional +turning point in the history of the Republic, inasmuch as it afforded +both a new area for national legislation and the occasion of the +downfall of the policy of strict construction. But the purchase of +Louisiana was called out by frontier needs and demands. As frontier +States accrued to the Union the national power grew. In a speech on the +dedication of the Calhoun monument Mr. Lamar explained: "In 1789 the +States were the creators of the Federal Government; in 1861 the Federal +Government was the creator of a large majority of the States." + +When we consider the public domain from the point of view of the sale +and disposal of the public lands we are again brought face to face with +the frontier. The policy of the United States in dealing with its lands +is in sharp contrast with the European system of scientific +administration. Efforts to make this domain a source of revenue, and to +withhold it from emigrants in order that settlement might be compact, +were in vain. The jealousy and the fears of the East were powerless in +the face of the demands of the frontiersmen. John Quincy Adams was +obliged to confess: "My own system of administration, which was to make +the national domain the inexhaustible fund for progressive and unceasing +internal improvement, has failed." The reason is obvious; a system of +administration was not what the West demanded; it wanted land. Adams +states the situation as follows: "The slaveholders of the South have +bought the cooperation of the western country by the bribe of the +western lands, abandoning to the new Western States their own proportion +of the public property and aiding them in the design of grasping all the +lands into their own hands." Thomas H. Benton was the author of this +system, which he brought forward as a substitute for the American system +of Mr. Clay, and to supplant him as the leading statesman of the West. +Mr. Clay, by his tariff compromise with Mr. Calhoun, abandoned his own +American system. At the same time he brought forward a plan for +distributing among all the States of the Union the proceeds of the sales +of the public lands. His bill for that purpose passed both Houses of +Congress, but was vetoed by President Jackson, who, in his annual +message of December, 1832, formally recommended that all public lands +should be gratuitously given away to individual adventurers and to the +States in which the lands are situated.[26:1] + +"No subject," said Henry Clay, "which has presented itself to the +present, or perhaps any preceding, Congress, is of greater magnitude +than that of the public lands." When we consider the far-reaching +effects of the government's land policy upon political, economic, and +social aspects of American life, we are disposed to agree with him. But +this legislation was framed under frontier influences, and under the +lead of Western statesmen like Benton and Jackson. Said Senator Scott of +Indiana in 1841: "I consider the preemption law merely declaratory of +the custom or common law of the settlers." + +It is safe to say that the legislation with regard to land, tariff, and +internal improvements--the American system of the nationalizing Whig +party--was conditioned on frontier ideas and needs. But it was not +merely in legislative action that the frontier worked against the +sectionalism of the coast. The economic and social characteristics of +the frontier worked against sectionalism. The men of the frontier had +closer resemblances to the Middle region than to either of the other +sections. Pennsylvania had been the seed-plot of frontier emigration, +and, although she passed on her settlers along the Great Valley into the +west of Virginia and the Carolinas, yet the industrial society of these +Southern frontiersmen was always more like that of the Middle region +than like that of the tide-water portion of the South, which later came +to spread its industrial type throughout the South. + +The Middle region, entered by New York harbor, was an open door to all +Europe. The tide-water part of the South represented typical Englishmen, +modified by a warm climate and servile labor, and living in baronial +fashion on great plantations; New England stood for a special English +movement--Puritanism. The Middle region was less English than the other +sections. It had a wide mixture of nationalities, a varied society, the +mixed town and county system of local government, a varied economic +life, many religious sects. In short, it was a region mediating between +New England and the South, and the East and the West. It represented +that composite nationality which the contemporary United States +exhibits, that juxtaposition of non-English groups, occupying a valley +or a little settlement, and presenting reflections of the map of Europe +in their variety. It was democratic and nonsectional, if not national; +"easy, tolerant, and contented;" rooted strongly in material prosperity. +It was typical of the modern United States. It was least sectional, not +only because it lay between North and South, but also because with no +barriers to shut out its frontiers from its settled region, and with a +system of connecting waterways, the Middle region mediated between East +and West as well as between North and South. Thus it became the +typically American region. Even the New Englander, who was shut out from +the frontier by the Middle region, tarrying in New York or Pennsylvania +on his westward march, lost the acuteness of his sectionalism on the +way.[28:1] + +The spread of cotton culture into the interior of the South finally +broke down the contrast between the "tide-water" region and the rest of +the State, and based Southern interests on slavery. Before this process +revealed its results the western portion of the South, which was akin to +Pennsylvania in stock, society, and industry, showed tendencies to fall +away from the faith of the fathers into internal improvement legislation +and nationalism. In the Virginia convention of 1829-30, called to revise +the constitution, Mr. Leigh, of Chesterfield, one of the tide-water +counties, declared: + + One of the main causes of discontent which led to this + convention, that which had the strongest influence in + overcoming our veneration for the work of our fathers, which + taught us to contemn the sentiments of Henry and Mason and + Pendleton, which weaned us from our reverence for the + constituted authorities of the State, was an overweening + passion for internal improvement. I say this with perfect + knowledge, for it has been avowed to me by gentlemen from the + West over and over again. And let me tell the gentleman from + Albemarle (Mr. Gordon) that it has been another principal + object of those who set this ball of revolution in motion, to + overturn the doctrine of State rights, of which Virginia has + been the very pillar, and to remove the barrier she has + interposed to the interference of the Federal Government in + that same work of internal improvement, by so reorganizing the + legislature that Virginia, too, may be hitched to the Federal + car. + +It was this nationalizing tendency of the West that transformed the +democracy of Jefferson into the national republicanism of Monroe and the +democracy of Andrew Jackson. The West of the War of 1812, the West of +Clay, and Benton and Harrison, and Andrew Jackson, shut off by the +Middle States and the mountains from the coast sections, had a +solidarity of its own with national tendencies.[29:1] On the tide of the +Father of Waters, North and South met and mingled into a nation. +Interstate migration went steadily on--a process of cross-fertilization +of ideas and institutions. The fierce struggle of the sections over +slavery on the western frontier does not diminish the truth of this +statement; it proves the truth of it. Slavery was a sectional trait that +would not down, but in the West it could not remain sectional. It was +the greatest of frontiersmen who declared: "I believe this Government +can not endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become all +of one thing or all of the other." Nothing works for nationalism like +intercourse within the nation. Mobility of population is death to +localism, and the western frontier worked irresistibly in unsettling +population. The effect reached back from the frontier and affected +profoundly the Atlantic coast and even the Old World. + +But the most important effect of the frontier has been in the promotion +of democracy here and in Europe. As has been indicated, the frontier is +productive of individualism. Complex society is precipitated by the +wilderness into a kind of primitive organization based on the family. +The tendency is anti-social. It produces antipathy to control, and +particularly to any direct control. The tax-gatherer is viewed as a +representative of oppression. Prof. Osgood, in an able article,[30:1] +has pointed out that the frontier conditions prevalent in the colonies +are important factors in the explanation of the American Revolution, +where individual liberty was sometimes confused with absence of all +effective government. The same conditions aid in explaining the +difficulty of instituting a strong government in the period of the +confederacy. The frontier individualism has from the beginning promoted +democracy. + +The frontier States that came into the Union in the first quarter of a +century of its existence came in with democratic suffrage provisions, +and had reactive effects of the highest importance upon the older States +whose peoples were being attracted there. An extension of the franchise +became essential. It was _western_ New York that forced an extension of +suffrage in the constitutional convention of that State in 1821; and it +was _western_ Virginia that compelled the tide-water region to put a +more liberal suffrage provision in the constitution framed in 1830, and +to give to the frontier region a more nearly proportionate +representation with the tide-water aristocracy. The rise of democracy as +an effective force in the nation came in with western preponderance +under Jackson and William Henry Harrison, and it meant the triumph of +the frontier--with all of its good and with all of its evil +elements.[31:1] An interesting illustration of the tone of frontier +democracy in 1830 comes from the same debates in the Virginia convention +already referred to. A representative from western Virginia declared: + + But, sir, it is not the increase of population in the West + which this gentleman ought to fear. It is the energy which the + mountain breeze and western habits impart to those emigrants. + They are regenerated, politically I mean, sir. They soon + become _working politicians_; and the difference, sir, between + a _talking_ and a _working_ politician is immense. The Old + Dominion has long been celebrated for producing great orators; + the ablest metaphysicians in policy; men that can split hairs + in all abstruse questions of political economy. But at home, + or when they return from Congress, they have negroes to fan + them asleep. But a Pennsylvania, a New York, an Ohio, or a + western Virginia statesman, though far inferior in logic, + metaphysics, and rhetoric to an old Virginia statesman, has + this advantage, that when he returns home he takes off his + coat and takes hold of the plow. This gives him bone and + muscle, sir, and preserves his republican principles pure and + uncontaminated. + +So long as free land exists, the opportunity for a competency exists, +and economic power secures political power. But the democracy born of +free land, strong in selfishness and individualism, intolerant of +administrative experience and education, and pressing individual liberty +beyond its proper bounds, has its dangers as well as its benefits. +Individualism in America has allowed a laxity in regard to governmental +affairs which has rendered possible the spoils system and all the +manifest evils that follow from the lack of a highly developed civic +spirit. In this connection may be noted also the influence of frontier +conditions in permitting lax business honor, inflated paper currency and +wild-cat banking. The colonial and revolutionary frontier was the region +whence emanated many of the worst forms of an evil currency.[32:1] The +West in the War of 1812 repeated the phenomenon on the frontier of that +day, while the speculation and wild-cat banking of the period of the +crisis of 1837 occurred on the new frontier belt of the next tier of +States. Thus each one of the periods of lax financial integrity +coincides with periods when a new set of frontier communities had +arisen, and coincides in area with these successive frontiers, for the +most part. The recent Populist agitation is a case in point. Many a +State that now declines any connection with the tenets of the Populists, +itself adhered to such ideas in an earlier stage of the development of +the State. A primitive society can hardly be expected to show the +intelligent appreciation of the complexity of business interests in a +developed society. The continual recurrence of these areas of +paper-money agitation is another evidence that the frontier can be +isolated and studied as a factor in American history of the highest +importance.[32:2] + +The East has always feared the result of an unregulated advance of the +frontier, and has tried to check and guide it. The English authorities +would have checked settlement at the headwaters of the Atlantic +tributaries and allowed the "savages to enjoy their deserts in quiet +lest the peltry trade should decrease." This called out Burke's splendid +protest: + + If you stopped your grants, what would be the consequence? The + people would occupy without grants. They have already so + occupied in many places. You can not station garrisons in + every part of these deserts. If you drive the people from one + place, they will carry on their annual tillage and remove with + their flocks and herds to another. Many of the people in the + back settlements are already little attached to particular + situations. Already they have topped the Appalachian + Mountains. From thence they behold before them an immense + plain, one vast, rich, level meadow; a square of five hundred + miles. Over this they would wander without a possibility of + restraint; they would change their manners with their habits + of life; would soon forget a government by which they were + disowned; would become hordes of English Tartars; and, pouring + down upon your unfortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible + cavalry, become masters of your governors and your + counselers, your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the + slaves that adhered to them. Such would, and in no long time + must, be the effect of attempting to forbid as a crime and to + suppress as an evil the command and blessing of Providence, + "Increase and multiply." Such would be the happy result of an + endeavor to keep as a lair of wild beasts that earth which + God, by an express charter, has given to the children of men. + +But the English Government was not alone in its desire to limit the +advance of the frontier and guide its destinies. Tidewater +Virginia[34:1] and South Carolina[34:2] gerrymandered those colonies to +insure the dominance of the coast in their legislatures. Washington +desired to settle a State at a time in the Northwest; Jefferson would +reserve from settlement the territory of his Louisiana Purchase north of +the thirty-second parallel, in order to offer it to the Indians in +exchange for their settlements east of the Mississippi. "When we shall +be full on this side," he writes, "we may lay off a range of States on +the western bank from the head to the mouth, and so range after range, +advancing compactly as we multiply." Madison went so far as to argue to +the French minister that the United States had no interest in seeing +population extend itself on the right bank of the Mississippi, but +should rather fear it. When the Oregon question was under debate, in +1824, Smyth, of Virginia, would draw an unchangeable line for the limits +of the United States at the outer limit of two tiers of States beyond +the Mississippi, complaining that the seaboard States were being drained +of the flower of their population by the bringing of too much land into +market. Even Thomas Benton, the man of widest views of the destiny of +the West, at this stage of his career declared that along the ridge of +the Rocky mountains "the western limits of the Republic should be drawn, +and the statue of the fabled god Terminus should be raised upon its +highest peak, never to be thrown down."[35:1] But the attempts to limit +the boundaries, to restrict land sales and settlement, and to deprive +the West of its share of political power were all in vain. Steadily the +frontier of settlement advanced and carried with it individualism, +democracy, and nationalism, and powerfully affected the East and the Old +World. + +The most effective efforts of the East to regulate the frontier came +through its educational and religious activity, exerted by interstate +migration and by organized societies. Speaking in 1835, Dr. Lyman +Beecher declared: "It is equally plain that the religious and political +destiny of our nation is to be decided in the West," and he pointed out +that the population of the West "is assembled from all the States of the +Union and from all the nations of Europe, and is rushing in like the +waters of the flood, demanding for its moral preservation the immediate +and universal action of those institutions which discipline the mind and +arm the conscience and the heart. And so various are the opinions and +habits, and so recent and imperfect is the acquaintance, and so sparse +are the settlements of the West, that no homogeneous public sentiment +can be formed to legislate immediately into being the requisite +institutions. And yet they are all needed immediately in their utmost +perfection and power. A nation is being 'born in a day.' . . . But what +will become of the West if her prosperity rushes up to such a majesty of +power, while those great institutions linger which are necessary to form +the mind and the conscience and the heart of that vast world. It must +not be permitted. . . . Let no man at the East quiet himself and dream +of liberty, whatever may become of the West. . . . Her destiny is our +destiny."[36:1] + +With the appeal to the conscience of New England, he adds appeals to her +fears lest other religious sects anticipate her own. The New England +preacher and school-teacher left their mark on the West. The dread of +Western emancipation from New England's political and economic control +was paralleled by her fears lest the West cut loose from her religion. +Commenting in 1850 on reports that settlement was rapidly extending +northward in Wisconsin, the editor of the _Home Missionary_ writes: "We +scarcely know whether to rejoice or mourn over this extension of our +settlements. While we sympathize in whatever tends to increase the +physical resources and prosperity of our country, we can not forget that +with all these dispersions into remote and still remoter corners of the +land the supply of the means of grace is becoming relatively less and +less." Acting in accordance with such ideas, home missions were +established and Western colleges were erected. As seaboard cities like +Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore strove for the mastery of Western +trade, so the various denominations strove for the possession of the +West. Thus an intellectual stream from New England sources fertilized +the West. Other sections sent their missionaries; but the real struggle +was between sects. The contest for power and the expansive tendency +furnished to the various sects by the existence of a moving frontier +must have had important results on the character of religious +organization in the United States. The multiplication of rival churches +in the little frontier towns had deep and lasting social effects. The +religious aspects of the frontier make a chapter in our history which +needs study. + +From the conditions of frontier life came intellectual traits of +profound importance. The works of travelers along each frontier from +colonial days onward describe certain common traits, and these traits +have, while softening down, still persisted as survivals in the place of +their origin, even when a higher social organization succeeded. The +result is that to the frontier the American intellect owes its striking +characteristics. That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness +and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to +find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the +artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous +energy;[37:1] that dominant individualism, working for good and for +evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with +freedom--these are traits of the frontier, or traits called out +elsewhere because of the existence of the frontier. Since the days when +the fleet of Columbus sailed into the waters of the New World, America +has been another name for opportunity, and the people of the United +States have taken their tone from the incessant expansion which has not +only been open but has even been forced upon them. He would be a rash +prophet who should assert that the expansive character of American life +has now entirely ceased. Movement has been its dominant fact, and, +unless this training has no effect upon a people, the American energy +will continually demand a wider field for its exercise. But never again +will such gifts of free land offer themselves. For a moment, at the +frontier, the bonds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant. +There is not _tabula rasa_. The stubborn American environment is there +with its imperious summons to accept its conditions; the inherited ways +of doing things are also there; and yet, in spite of environment, and in +spite of custom, each frontier did indeed furnish a new field of +opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past; and +freshness, and confidence, and scorn of older society, impatience of its +restraints and its ideas, and indifference to its lessons, have +accompanied the frontier. What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, +breaking the bond of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new +institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating +frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of +Europe more remotely. And now, four centuries from the discovery of +America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, +the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of +American history. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1:1] A paper read at the meeting of the American Historical Association +in Chicago, July 12, 1893. It first appeared in the Proceedings of the +State Historical Society of Wisconsin, December 14, 1893, with the +following note: "The foundation of this paper is my article entitled +'Problems in American History,' which appeared in _The Aegis_, a +publication of the students of the University of Wisconsin, November 4, +1892. . . . It is gratifying to find that Professor Woodrow +Wilson--whose volume on 'Division and Reunion' in the Epochs of American +History Series, has an appreciative estimate of the importance of the +West as a factor in American history--accepts some of the views set +forth in the papers above mentioned, and enhances their value by his +lucid and suggestive treatment of them in his article in _The Forum_, +December, 1893, reviewing Goldwin Smith's 'History of the United +States.'" The present text is that of the _Report of the American +Historical Association_ for 1893, 199-227. It was printed with additions +in the _Fifth Year Book of the National Herbart Society_, and in various +other publications. + +[2:1] "Abridgment of Debates of Congress," v, p. 706. + +[5:1] Bancroft (1860 ed.), iii, pp. 344, 345, citing Logan MSS.; +[Mitchell] "Contest in America," etc. (1752), p. 237. + +[5:2] Kercheval, "History of the Valley"; Bernheim, "German Settlements +in the Carolinas"; Winsor, "Narrative and Critical History of America," +v, p. 304; Colonial Records of North Carolina, iv, p. xx; Weston, +"Documents Connected with the History of South Carolina," p. 82; Ellis +and Evans, "History of Lancaster County, Pa.," chs. iii, xxvi. + +[5:3] Parkman, "Pontiac," ii; Griffis, "Sir William Johnson," p. 6; +Simms's "Frontiersmen of New York." + +[5:4] Monette, "Mississippi Valley," i, p. 311. + +[5:5] Wis. Hist. Cols., xi, p. 50; Hinsdale, "Old Northwest," p. 121; +Burke, "Oration on Conciliation," Works (1872 ed.), i, p. 473. + +[5:6] Roosevelt, "Winning of the West," and citations there given; +Cutler's "Life of Cutler." + +[6:1] Scribner's Statistical Atlas, xxxviii, pl. 13; McMaster, "Hist. of +People of U. S.," i, pp. 4, 60, 61; Imlay and Filson, "Western Territory +of America" (London, 1793); Rochefoucault-Liancourt, "Travels Through +the United States of North America" (London, 1799); Michaux's "Journal," +in _Proceedings American Philosophical Society_, xxvi, No. 129; Forman, +"Narrative of a Journey Down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1780-'90" +(Cincinnati, 1888); Bartram, "Travels Through North Carolina," etc. +(London, 1792); Pope, "Tour Through the Southern and Western +Territories," etc. (Richmond, 1792); Weld, "Travels Through the States +of North America" (London, 1799); Baily, "Journal of a Tour in the +Unsettled States of North America, 1796-'97" (London, 1856); +Pennsylvania Magazine of History, July, 1886; Winsor, "Narrative and +Critical History of America," vii, pp. 491, 492, citations. + +[6:2] Scribner's Statistical Atlas, xxxix. + +[6:3] Turner, "Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin" +(Johns Hopkins University Studies, Series ix), pp. 61 ff. + +[7:1] Monette, "History of the Mississippi Valley," ii; Flint, "Travels +and Residence in Mississippi," Flint, "Geography and History of the +Western States," "Abridgment of Debates of Congress," vii, pp. 397, 398, +404; Holmes, "Account of the U. S."; Kingdom, "America and the British +Colonies" (London, 1820); Grund, "Americans," ii, chs. i, iii, vi +(although writing in 1836, he treats of conditions that grew out of +western advance from the era of 1820 to that time); Peck, "Guide for +Emigrants" (Boston, 1831); Darby, "Emigrants' Guide to Western and +Southwestern States and Territories"; Dana, "Geographical Sketches in +the Western Country"; Kinzie, "Waubun"; Keating, "Narrative of Long's +Expedition"; Schoolcraft, "Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi +River," "Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley," and +"Lead Mines of the Missouri"; Andreas, "History of Illinois," i, 86-99; +Hurlbut, "Chicago Antiquities"; McKenney, "Tour to the Lakes"; Thomas, +"Travels Through the Western Country," etc. (Auburn, N. Y., 1819). + +[7:2] Darby, "Emigrants' Guide," pp. 272 ff; Benton, "Abridgment of +Debates," vii, p. 397. + +[7:3] De Bow's _Review_, iv, p. 254; xvii, p. 428. + +[7:4] Grund, "Americans," ii, p. 8. + +[8:1] Peck, "New Guide to the West" (Cincinnati, 1848), ch. iv; Parkman, +"Oregon Trail"; Hall, "The West" (Cincinnati, 1848); Pierce, "Incidents +of Western Travel"; Murray, "Travels in North America"; Lloyd, +"Steamboat Directory" (Cincinnati, 1856); "Forty Days in a Western +Hotel" (Chicago), in _Putnam's Magazine_, December, 1894; Mackay, "The +Western World," ii, ch. ii, iii; Meeker, "Life in the West"; Bogen, +"German in America" (Boston, 1851); Olmstead, "Texas Journey"; Greeley, +"Recollections of a Busy Life"; Schouler, "History of the United +States," v, 261-267; Peyton, "Over the Alleghanies and Across the +Prairies" (London, 1870); Loughborough, "The Pacific Telegraph and +Railway" (St. Louis, 1849); Whitney, "Project for a Railroad to the +Pacific" (New York, 1849); Peyton, "Suggestions on Railroad +Communication with the Pacific, and the Trade of China and the Indian +Islands"; Benton, "Highway to the Pacific" (a speech delivered in the U. +S. Senate, December 16, 1850). + +[8:2] A writer in _The Home Missionary_ (1850), p. 239, reporting +Wisconsin conditions, exclaims: "Think of this, people of the +enlightened East. What an example, to come from the very frontier of +civilization!" But one of the missionaries writes: "In a few years +Wisconsin will no longer be considered as the West, or as an outpost of +civilization, any more than Western New York, or the Western Reserve." + +[8:3] Bancroft (H. H.), "History of California," "History of Oregon," +and "Popular Tribunals"; Shinn, "Mining Camps." + +[10:1] See the suggestive paper by Prof. Jesse Macy, "The Institutional +Beginnings of a Western State." + +[10:2] Shinn, "Mining Camps." + +[10:3] Compare Thorpe, in _Annals American Academy of Political and +Social Science_, September, 1891; Bryce, "American Commonwealth" (1888), +ii, p. 689. + +[11:1] Loria, Analisi della Proprieta Capitalista, ii, p. 15. + +[11:2] Compare "Observations on the North American Land Company," +London, 1796, pp. xv, 144; Logan, "History of Upper South Carolina," i, +pp. 149-151; Turner, "Character and Influence of Indian Trade in +Wisconsin," p. 18; Peck, "New Guide for Emigrants" (Boston, 1837), ch. +iv; "Compendium Eleventh Census," i, p. xl. + +[12:1] See _post_, for illustrations of the political accompaniments of +changed industrial conditions. + +[13:1] But Lewis and Clark were the first to explore the route from the +Missouri to the Columbia. + +[14:1] "Narrative and Critical History of America," viii, p. 10; Sparks' +"Washington Works," ix, pp. 303, 327; Logan, "History of Upper South +Carolina," i; McDonald, "Life of Kenton," p. 72; Cong. Record, xxiii, p. +57. + +[15:1] On the effect of the fur trade in opening the routes of +migration, see the author's "Character and Influence of the Indian Trade +in Wisconsin." + +[16:1] Lodge, "English Colonies," p. 152 and citations; Logan, "Hist. of +Upper South Carolina," i, p. 151. + +[16:2] Flint, "Recollections," p. 9. + +[16:3] See Monette, "Mississippi Valley," i, p. 344. + +[17:1] Coues', "Lewis and Clark's Expedition," i, pp. 2, 253-259; +Benton, in Cong. Record, xxiii, p. 57. + +[17:2] Hehn, _Das Salz_ (Berlin, 1873). + +[17:3] Col. Records of N. C., v, p. 3. + +[17:4] Findley, "History of the Insurrection in the Four Western +Counties of Pennsylvania in the Year 1794" (Philadelphia, 1796), p. 35. + +[19:1] Hale, "Daniel Boone" (pamphlet). + +[21:1] Compare Baily, "Tour in the Unsettled Parts of North America" +(London, 1856), pp. 217-219, where a similar analysis is made for 1796. +See also Collot, "Journey in North America" (Paris, 1826), p. 109; +"Observations on the North American Land Company" (London, 1796), pp. +xv, 144; Logan, "History of Upper South Carolina." + +[22:1] "Spotswood Papers," in Collections of Virginia Historical +Society, i, ii. + +[23:1] [Burke], "European Settlements" (1765 ed.), ii, p. 200. + +[23:2] Everest, in "Wisconsin Historical Collections," xii, pp. 7 ff. + +[23:3] Weston, "Documents connected with History of South Carolina," p. +61. + +[25:1] See, for example, the speech of Clay, in the House of +Representatives, January 30, 1824. + +[25:2] See the admirable monograph by Prof. H. B. Adams, "Maryland's +Influence on the Land Cessions"; and also President Welling, in Papers +American Historical Association, iii, p. 411. + +[26:1] Adams' Memoirs, ix, pp. 247, 248. + +[28:1] Author's article in _The Aegis_ (Madison, Wis.), November 4, 1892. + +[29:1] Compare Roosevelt, "Thomas Benton," ch. i. + +[30:1] _Political Science Quarterly_, ii, p. 457. Compare Sumner, +"Alexander Hamilton," chs. ii-vii. + +[31:1] Compare Wilson, "Division and Reunion," pp. 15, 24. + +[32:1] On the relation of frontier conditions to Revolutionary taxation, +see Sumner, Alexander Hamilton, ch. iii. + +[32:2] I have refrained from dwelling on the lawless characteristics of +the frontier, because they are sufficiently well known. The gambler and +desperado, the regulators of the Carolinas and the vigilantes of +California, are types of that line of scum that the waves of advancing +civilization bore before them, and of the growth of spontaneous organs +of authority where legal authority was absent. Compare Barrows, "United +States of Yesterday and To-morrow"; Shinn, "Mining Camps"; and Bancroft, +"Popular Tribunals." The humor, bravery, and rude strength, as well as +the vices of the frontier in its worst aspect, have left traces on +American character, language, and literature, not soon to be effaced. + +[34:1] Debates in the Constitutional Convention, 1829-1830. + +[34:2] [McCrady] Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas, i, p. +43; Calhoun's Works, i, pp. 401-406. + +[35:1] Speech in the Senate, March 1, 1825; Register of Debates, i, 721. + +[36:1] Plea for the West (Cincinnati, 1835), pp. 11 ff. + +[37:1] Colonial travelers agree in remarking on the phlegmatic +characteristics of the colonists. It has frequently been asked how such +a people could have developed that strained nervous energy now +characteristic of them. Compare Sumner, "Alexander Hamilton," p. 98, and +Adams, "History of the United States," i, p. 60; ix, pp. 240, 241. The +transition appears to become marked at the close of the War of 1812, a +period when interest centered upon the development of the West, and the +West was noted for restless energy. Grund, "Americans," ii, ch. i. + + + + +II + +THE FIRST OFFICIAL FRONTIER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY[39:1] + + +In the Significance of the "Frontier in American History," I took for my +text the following announcement of the Superintendent of the Census of +1890: + + Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of + settlement but at present the unsettled area has been so + broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can + hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its + extent, the westward movement, etc., it cannot therefore any + longer have a place in the census reports. + +Two centuries prior to this announcement, in 1690, a committee of the +General Court of Massachusetts recommended the Court to order what shall +be the frontier and to maintain a committee to settle garrisons on the +frontier with forty soldiers to each frontier town as a main +guard.[39:2] In the two hundred years between this official attempt to +locate the Massachusetts frontier line, and the official announcement of +the ending of the national frontier line, westward expansion was the +most important single process in American history. + +The designation "frontier town" was not, however, a new one. As early as +1645 inhabitants of Concord, Sudbury, and Dedham, "being inland townes +& but thinly peopled," were forbidden to remove without authority;[40:1] +in 1669, certain towns had been the subject of legislation as "frontier +towns;"[40:2] and in the period of King Philip's War there were various +enactments regarding frontier towns.[40:3] In the session of 1675-6 it +had been proposed to build a fence of stockades or stone eight feet high +from the Charles "where it is navigable" to the Concord at Billerica and +thence to the Merrimac and down the river to the Bay, "by which meanes +that whole tract will [be] environed, for the security & safty (vnder +God) of the people, their houses, goods & cattel; from the rage & fury +of the enimy."[40:4] This project, however, of a kind of Roman Wall did +not appeal to the frontiersmen of the time. It was a part of the +antiquated ideas of defense which had been illustrated by the impossible +equipment of the heavily armored soldier of the early Puritan regime +whose corslets and head pieces, pikes, matchlocks, fourquettes and +bandoleers, went out of use about the period of King Philip's War. The +fifty-seven postures provided in the approved manual of arms for loading +and firing the matchlock proved too great a handicap in the chase of the +nimble savage. In this era the frontier fighter adapted himself to a +more open order, and lighter equipment suggested by the Indian warrior's +practice.[40:5] + +The settler on the outskirts of Puritan civilization took up the task of +bearing the brunt of attack and pushing forward the line of advance +which year after year carried American settlements into the wilderness. +In American thought and speech the term "frontier" has come to mean the +edge of settlement, rather than, as in Europe, the political boundary. +By 1690 it was already evident that the frontier of settlement and the +frontier of military defense were coinciding. As population advanced +into the wilderness and thus successively brought new exposed areas +between the settlements on the one side and the Indians with their +European backers on the other, the military frontier ceased to be +thought of as the Atlantic coast, but rather as a moving line bounding +the un-won wilderness. It could not be a fortified boundary along the +charter limits, for those limits extended to the South Sea, and +conflicted with the bounds of sister colonies. The thing to be defended +was the outer edge of this expanding society, a changing frontier, one +that needed designation and re-statement with the changing location of +the "West." + +It will help to illustrate the significance of this new frontier when we +see that Virginia at about the same time as Massachusetts underwent a +similar change and attempted to establish frontier towns, or +"co-habitations," at the "heads," that is the first falls, the vicinity +of Richmond, Petersburg, etc., of her rivers.[41:1] + +The Virginia system of "particular plantations" introduced along the +James at the close of the London Company's activity had furnished a type +for the New England town. In recompense, at this later day the New +England town may have furnished a model for Virginia's efforts to create +frontier settlements by legislation. + +An act of March 12, 1694-5, by the General Court of Massachusetts +enumerated the "Frontier Towns" which the inhabitants were forbidden to +desert on pain of loss of their lands (if landholders) or of +imprisonment (if not landholders), unless permission to remove were +first obtained.[42:1] These eleven frontier towns included Wells, York, +and Kittery on the eastern frontier, and Amesbury, Haverhill, Dunstable, +Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough,[42:2] and Deerfield. In +March, 1699-1700, the law was reenacted with the addition of Brookfield, +Mendon, and Woodstock, together with seven others, Salisbury, +Andover,[42:3] Billerica, Hatfield, Hadley, Westfield, and Northampton, +which, "tho' they be not frontiers as those towns first named, yet lye +more open than many others to an attack of an Enemy."[42:4] + +In the spring of 1704 the General Court of Connecticut, following +closely the act of Massachusetts, named as her frontier towns, not to +be deserted, Symsbury, Waterbury, Danbury, Colchester, Windham, +Mansfield, and Plainfield. + +Thus about the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of the +eighteenth century there was an officially designated frontier line for +New England. The line passing through these enumerated towns represents: +(1) the outskirts of settlement along the eastern coast and up the +Merrimac and its tributaries,--a region threatened from the Indian +country by way of the Winnepesaukee Lake; (2) the end of the ribbon of +settlement up the Connecticut Valley, menaced by the Canadian Indians by +way of the Lake Champlain and Winooski River route to the Connecticut; +(3) boundary towns which marked the edges of that inferior agricultural +region, where the hard crystalline rocks furnished a later foundation +for Shays' Rebellion, opposition to the adoption of the Federal +Constitution, and the abandoned farm; and (4) the isolated intervale of +Brookfield which lay intermediate between these frontiers. + +Besides this New England frontier there was a belt of settlement in New +York, ascending the Hudson to where Albany and Schenectady served as +outposts against the Five Nations, who menaced the Mohawk, and against +the French and the Canadian Indians, who threatened the Hudson by way of +Lake Champlain and Lake George.[43:1] The sinister relations of leading +citizens of Albany engaged in the fur trade with these Indians, even +during time of war, tended to protect the Hudson River frontier at the +expense of the frontier towns of New England. + +The common sequence of frontier types (fur trader, cattle-raising +pioneer, small primitive farmer, and the farmer engaged in intensive +varied agriculture to produce a surplus for export) had appeared, though +confusedly, in New England. The traders and their posts had prepared the +way for the frontier towns,[44:1] and the cattle industry was most +important to the early farmers.[44:2] But the stages succeeded rapidly +and intermingled. After King Philip's War, while Albany was still in the +fur-trading stage, the New England frontier towns were rather like mark +colonies, military-agricultural outposts against the Indian enemy. + +The story of the border warfare between Canada and the frontier towns +furnishes ample material for studying frontier life and institutions; +but I shall not attempt to deal with the narrative of the wars. The +palisaded meeting-house square, the fortified isolated garrison houses, +the massacres and captivities are familiar features of New England's +history. The Indian was a very real influence upon the mind and morals +as well as upon the institutions of frontier New England. The occasional +instances of Puritans returning from captivity to visit the frontier +towns, Catholic in religion, painted and garbed as Indians and speaking +the Indian tongue,[44:3] and the half-breed children of captive Puritan +mothers, tell a sensational part of the story; but in the normal, as +well as in such exceptional relations of the frontier townsmen to the +Indians, there are clear evidences of the transforming influence of the +Indian frontier upon the Puritan type of English colonist. + +In 1703-4, for example, the General Court of Massachusetts ordered five +hundred pairs of snowshoes and an equal number of moccasins for use in +specified counties "lying Frontier next to the Wilderness."[45:1] +Connecticut in 1704 after referring to her frontier towns and garrisons +ordered that "said company of English and Indians shall, from time to +time at the discretion of their chief co[=m]ander, range the woods to +indevour the discovery of an approaching enemy, and in especiall manner +from Westfield to Ousatunnuck.[45:2] . . . And for the incouragement of +our forces gone or going against the enemy, this Court will allow out of +the publick treasurie the su[=m]e of five pounds for every mans scalp of +the enemy killed in this Colonie."[45:3] Massachusetts offered bounties +for scalps, varying in amount according to whether the scalp was of men, +or women and youths, and whether it was taken by regular forces under +pay, volunteers in service, or volunteers without pay.[45:4] One of the +most striking phases of frontier adjustment, was the proposal of the +Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton in the fall of 1703, urging the use +of dogs "to hunt Indians as they do Bears." The argument was that the +dogs would catch many an Indian who would be too light of foot for the +townsmen, nor was it to be thought of as inhuman; for the Indians "act +like wolves and are to be dealt with as wolves."[45:5] In fact +Massachusetts passed an act in 1706 for the raising and increasing of +dogs for the better security of the frontiers, and both Massachusetts +and Connecticut in 1708 paid money from their treasury for the trailing +of dogs.[46:1] + +Thus we come to familiar ground: the Massachusetts frontiersman like his +western successor hated the Indians; the "tawney serpents," of Cotton +Mather's phrase, were to be hunted down and scalped in accord with law +and, in at least one instance by the chaplain himself, a Harvard +graduate, the hero of the Ballad of Pigwacket, who + + many Indians slew, + And some of them he scalp'd when bullets round him flew.[46:2] + +Within the area bounded by the frontier line, were the broken fragments +of Indians defeated in the era of King Philip's War, restrained within +reservations, drunken and degenerate survivors, among whom the +missionaries worked with small results, a vexation to the border +towns,[46:3] as they were in the case of later frontiers. Although, as +has been said, the frontier towns had scattered garrison houses, and +palisaded enclosures similar to the neighborhood forts, or stations, of +Kentucky in the Revolution, and of Indiana and Illinois in the War of +1812, one difference is particularly noteworthy. In the case of +frontiersmen who came down from Pennsylvania into the Upland South along +the eastern edge of the Alleghanies, as well as in the more obvious case +of the backwoodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the frontier towns were +too isolated from the main settled regions to allow much military +protection by the older areas. On the New England frontier, because it +was adjacent to the coast towns, this was not the case, and here, as in +seventeenth century Virginia, great activity in protecting the frontier +was evinced by the colonial authorities, and the frontier towns +themselves called loudly for assistance. This phase of frontier defense +needs a special study, but at present it is sufficient to recall that +the colony sent garrisons to the frontier besides using the militia of +the frontier towns; and that it employed rangers to patrol from garrison +to garrison.[47:1] + +These were prototypes of the regular army post, and of rangers, +dragoons, cavalry and mounted police who have carried the remoter +military frontier forward. It is possible to trace this military cordon +from New England to the Carolinas early in the eighteenth century, still +neighboring the coast; by 1840 it ran from Fort Snelling on the upper +Mississippi through various posts to the Sabine boundary of Texas, and +so it passed forward until to-day it lies at the edge of Mexico and the +Pacific Ocean. + +A few examples of frontier appeals for garrison aid will help to an +understanding of the early form of the military frontier. Wells asks, +June 30, 1689: + + 1 That yo{r} Hon{rs} will please to send us speedily twenty + Eight good brisk men that may be serviceable as a guard to us + whilest we get in our Harvest of Hay & Corn, (we being unable + to Defend ourselves & to Do our work), & also to Persue & + destroy the Enemy as occasion may require + + 2 That these men may be compleatly furnished with Arms, + Amunition & Provision, and that upon the Countrys account, it + being a Generall War.[48:1] + +Dunstable, "still weak and unable both to keep our Garrisons and to send +out men to get hay for our Cattle; without doeing which wee cannot +subsist," petitioned July 23, 1689, for twenty footmen for a month "to +scout about the towne while wee get our hay." Otherwise, they say, they +must be forced to leave.[48:2] Still more indicative of this temper is +the petition of Lancaster, March 11, 1675-6, to the Governor and +Council: "As God has made you father over us so you will have a father's +pity to us." They asked a guard of men and aid, without which they must +leave.[48:3] Deerfield pled in 1678 to the General Court, "unlest you +will be pleased to take us (out of your fatherlike pitty) and Cherish us +in yo{r} Bosomes we are like Suddainly to breathe out o{r} Last +Breath."[48:4] + +The perils of the time, the hardships of the frontier towns and +readiness of this particular frontier to ask appropriations for losses +and wounds,[48:5] are abundantly illustrated in similar petitions from +other towns. One is tempted at times to attribute the very frank +self-pity and dependent attitude to a minister's phrasing, and to the +desire to secure remission of taxes, the latter a frontier trait more +often associated with riot than with religion in other regions. + +As an example of various petitions the following from Groton in 1704 is +suggestive. Here the minister's hand is probably absent: + + 1 That wharas by the all dessposing hand of god who orders all + things in infinit wisdom it is our portion to liue In such a + part of the land which by reson of the enemy Is becom vary + dangras as by wofull experiants we haue falt both formarly and + of late to our grat damidg & discoridgment and espashaly this + last yere hauing lost so many parsons som killed som + captauated and som remoued and allso much corn & cattell and + horses & hay wharby wee ar gratly Impouerrished and brought + uary low & in a uary pore capasity to subsist any longer As + the barers her of can inform your honors + + 2 And more then all this our paster mr hobard is & hath been + for aboue a yere uncapable of desspansing the ordinances of + god amongst us & we haue advised with th Raurant Elders of our + nayboring churches and they aduise to hyare another minister + and to saport mr hobard and to make our adras to your honours + we haue but litel laft to pay our deus with being so pore and + few In numbr ather to town or cuntrey & we being a frantere + town & lyable to dangor there being no safty in going out nor + coming in but for a long time we haue got our brad with the + parel of our liues & allso broght uery low by so grat a charg + of bilding garisons & fortefycations by ordur of athorety & + thar is saural of our Inhabitants ramoued out of town & others + are prouiding to remoue, axcapt somthing be don for our + Incoridgment for we are so few & so por that we canot pay two + ministors nathar ar we wiling to liue without any we spand so + much time in waching and warding that we can doe but litel els + & truly we haue liued allmost 2 yers more like soulders then + other wise & accapt your honars can find out some bater way + for our safty and support we cannot uphold as a town ather by + remitting our tax or tow alow pay for building the sauarall + forts alowed and ordred by athority or alls to alow the one + half of our own Inhabitants to be under pay or to grant + liberty for our remufe Into our naiburing towns to tak cer for + oursalfs all which if your honors shall se meet to grant you + will hereby gratly incoridg your humble pateceners to conflect + with th many trubls we are ensadant unto.[50:1] + +Forced together into houses for protection, getting in their crops at +the peril of their lives, the frontier townsmen felt it a hardship to +contribute also to the taxes of the province while they helped to +protect the exposed frontier. In addition there were grievances of +absentee proprietors who paid no town taxes and yet profited by the +exertions of the frontiersmen; of that I shall speak later. + +If we were to trust to these petitions asking favors from the government +of the colony, we might impute to these early frontiersmen a degree of +submission to authority unlike that of other frontiersmen,[51:1] and +indeed not wholly warranted by the facts. Reading carefully, we find +that, however prudently phrased, the petitions are in fact complaints +against taxation; demands for expenditures by the colony in their +behalf; criticisms of absentee proprietors; intimations that they may be +forced to abandon the frontier position so essential to the defense of +the settled eastern country. + +The spirit of military insubordination characteristic of the frontier is +evident in the accounts of these towns, such as Pynchon's in 1694, +complaining of the decay of the fortifications at Hatfield, Hadley, and +Springfield: "the people a little wilful. Inclined to doe when and how +they please or not at all."[51:2] Saltonstall writes from Haverhill +about the same time regarding his ill success in recruiting: "I will +never plead for an Haverhill man more," and he begs that some meet +person be sent "to tell us what we should, may or must do. I have +laboured in vain: some go this, and that, and the other way at pleasure, +and do what they list."[51:3] This has a familiar ring to the student of +the frontier. + +As in the case of the later frontier also, the existence of a common +danger on the borders of settlement tended to consolidate not only the +towns of Massachusetts into united action for defense, but also the +various colonies. The frontier was an incentive to sectional combination +then as it was to nationalism afterward. When in 1692 Connecticut sent +soldiers from her own colony to aid the Massachusetts towns on the +Connecticut River,[52:1] she showed a realization that the Deerfield +people, who were "in a sense in the enemy's Mouth almost," as Pynchon +wrote, constituted her own frontier[52:2] and that the facts of +geography were more compelling than arbitrary colonial boundaries. +Thereby she also took a step that helped to break down provincial +antagonisms. When in 1689 Massachusetts and Connecticut sent agents to +Albany to join with New York in making presents to the Indians of that +colony in order to engage their aid against the French,[52:3] they +recognized (as their leaders put it) that Albany was "the hinge" of the +frontier in this exposed quarter. In thanking Connecticut for the +assistance furnished in 1690 Livingston said: "I hope your honors do not +look upon Albany as Albany, but as the frontier of your honor's Colony +and of all their Majesties countries."[52:4] + +The very essence of the American frontier is that it is the graphic line +which records the expansive energies of the people behind it, and which +by the law of its own being continually draws that advance after it to +new conquests. This is one of the most significant things about New +England's frontier in these years. That long blood-stained line of the +eastern frontier which skirted the Maine coast was of great importance, +for it imparted a western tone to the life and characteristics of the +Maine people which endures to this day, and it was one line of advance +for New England toward the mouth of the St. Lawrence, leading again and +again to diplomatic negotiations with the powers that held that river. +The line of the towns that occupied the waters of the Merrimac, tempted +the province continually into the wilderness of New Hampshire. The +Connecticut river towns pressed steadily up that stream, along its +tributaries into the Hoosatonic valleys, and into the valleys between +the Green Mountains of Vermont. By the end of 1723, the General Court of +Massachusetts enacted,-- + + That It will be of Great Service to all the Western Frontiers, + both in this and the Neighboring Government of Conn., to Build + a Block House above Northfield, in the most convenient Place + on the Lands called the Equivilant Lands, & to post in it + forty Able Men, English & Western Indians, to be employed in + Scouting at a Good Distance up Conn. River, West River, Otter + Creek, and sometimes Eastwardly above the Great Manadnuck, for + the Discovery of the Enemy Coming towards anny of the frontier + Towns.[53:1] + +The "frontier Towns" were preparing to swarm. It was not long before +Fort Dummer replaced "the Block House," and the Berkshires and Vermont +became new frontiers. + +The Hudson River likewise was recognized as another line of advance +pointing the way to Lake Champlain and Montreal, calling out demands +that protection should be secured by means of an aggressive advance of +the frontier. _Canada delenda est_ became the rallying cry in New +England as well as in New York, and combined diplomatic pressure and +military expeditions followed in the French and Indian wars and in the +Revolution, in which the children of the Connecticut and Massachusetts +frontier towns, acclimated to Indian fighting, followed Ethan Allen and +his fellows to the north.[54:1] + +Having touched upon some of the military and expansive tendencies of +this first official frontier, let us next turn to its social, economic, +and political aspects. How far was this first frontier a field for the +investment of eastern capital and for political control by it? Were +there evidences of antagonism between the frontier and the settled, +property-holding classes of the coast? Restless democracy, resentfulness +over taxation and control, and recriminations between the Western +pioneer and the Eastern capitalist, have been characteristic features of +other frontiers: were similar phenomena in evidence here? Did +"Populistic" tendencies appear in this frontier, and were there +grievances which explained these tendencies?[54:2] + +In such colonies as New York and Virginia the land grants were often +made to members of the Council and their influential friends, even when +there were actual settlers already on the grants. In the case of New +England the land system is usually so described as to give the +impression that it was based on a non-commercial policy, creating new +Puritan towns by free grants of land made in advance to approved +settlers. This description does not completely fit the case. That there +was an economic interest on the part of absentee proprietors, and that +men of political influence with the government were often among the +grantees seems also to be true. Melville Egleston states the case thus: +"The court was careful not to authorize new plantations unless they were +to be in a measure under the influence of men in whom confidence could +be placed, and commonly acted upon their application."[55:1] The +frontier, as we shall observe later, was not always disposed to see the +practice in so favorable a light. + +New towns seem to have been the result in some cases of the aggregation +of settlers upon and about a large private grant; more often they +resulted from settlers in older towns, where the town limits were +extensive, spreading out to the good lands of the outskirts, beyond easy +access to the meeting-house, and then asking recognition as a separate +town. In some cases they may have been due to squatting on unassigned +lands, or purchasing the Indian title and then asking confirmation. In +others grants were made in advance of settlement. + +As early as 1636 the General Court had ordered that none go to new +plantations without leave of a majority of the magistrates.[55:2] This +made the legal situation clear, but it would be dangerous to conclude +that it represented the actual situation. In any case there would be a +necessity for the settlers finally to secure the assent of the Court. +This could be facilitated by a grant to leading men having political +influence with the magistrates. The complaints of absentee proprietors +which find expression in the frontier petitions of the seventeenth and +early eighteenth century seems to indicate that this happened. In the +succeeding years of the eighteenth century the grants to leading men and +the economic and political motives in the grants are increasingly +evident. This whole topic should be made the subject of special study. +What is here offered is merely suggestive of a problem.[56:1] + +The frontier settlers criticized the absentee proprietors, who profited +by the pioneers' expenditure of labor and blood upon their farms, while +they themselves enjoyed security in an eastern town. A few examples from +town historians will illustrate this. Among the towns of the Merrimac +Valley, Salisbury was planted on the basis of a grant to a dozen +proprietors including such men as Mr. Bradstreet and the younger Dudley, +only two of whom actually lived and died in Salisbury.[56:2] Amesbury +was set off from Salisbury by division, one half of the signers of the +agreement signing by mark. Haverhill was first seated in 1641, following +petitions from Mr. Ward, the Ipswich minister, his son-in-law, Giles +Firmin, and others. Firmin's letter to Governor Winthrop, in 1640, +complains that Ipswich had given him his ground in that town on +condition that he should stay in the town three years or else he could +not sell it, "whenas others have no business but range from place to +place on purpose to live upon the countrey."[56:3] + +Dunstable's large grant was brought about by a combination of leading +men who had received grants after the survey of 1652; among such grants +was one to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and another to +Thomas Brattle of Boston. Apparently it was settled chiefly by others +than the original grantees.[57:1] Groton voted in 1685 to sue the +"non-Residenc" to assist in paying the rate, and in 1679 the General +Court had ordered non-residents having land at Groton to pay rates for +their lands as residents did.[57:2] Lancaster (Nashaway) was granted to +proprietors including various craftsmen in iron, indicating, perhaps, an +expectation of iron works, and few of the original proprietors actually +settled in the town.[57:3] The grant of 1653-4 was made by the Court +after reciting: (1) that it had ordered in 1647 that the "ordering and +disposeing of the Plantation at Nashaway is wholly in the Courts power"; +(2) "Considering that there is allredy at Nashaway about nine Families +and that severall both freemen and others intend to goe and setle there, +some whereof are named in this Petition," etc. + +Mendon, begun in 1660 by Braintree people, is a particularly significant +example. In 1681 the inhabitants petitioned that while they are not "of +the number of those who dwell in their ceiled houses & yet say the time +is not come that the Lord's house should be built," yet they have gone +outside of their strength "unless others who are proprietors as well as +ourselves, (the price of whose lands is much raysed by our carrying on +public work & will be nothing worth if we are forced to quit the place) +doo beare an equal share in Town charges with us. Those who are not yet +come up to us are a great and far yet abler part of our +Proprietors . . ."[57:4] In 1684 the selectmen inform the General Court +that one half of the proprietors, two only excepted, are dwelling in +other places, "Our proprietors, abroad," say they, "object that they see +no reason why they should pay as much for thayer lands as we do for our +Land and stock, which we answer that if their be not a noff of reason +for it, we are sure there is more than enough of necessity to supply +that is wanting in reason."[58:1] This is the authentic voice of the +frontier. + +Deerfield furnishes another type, inasmuch as a considerable part of its +land was first held by Dedham, to which the grant was made as a +recompense for the location of the Natick Indian reservation. Dedham +shares in the town often fell into the hands of speculators, and +Sheldon, the careful historian of Deerfield, declares that not a single +Dedham man became a permanent resident of the grant. In 1678 Deerfield +petitioned the General Court as follows: + + You may be pleased to know that the very principle & best of + the land; the best for soile; the best for situation; as lying + in y{e} centre & midle of the town: & as to quantity, nere + half, belongs unto eight or 9 proprietors each and every of + which, are never like to come to a settlement amongst us, + which we have formerly found grievous & doe Judge for the + future will be found intollerable if not altered. O{r} + minister, Mr. Mather . . . & we ourselves are much discouraged + as judging the Plantation will be spoiled if thes proprietors + may not be begged, or will not be bought up on very easy terms + outt of their Right . . . Butt as long as the maine of the + plantation Lies in men's hands that can't improve it + themselves, neither are ever like to putt such tenants on to + it as shall be likely to advance the good of y{e} place in + Civill or sacred Respects; he, ourselves, and all others that + think of going to it, are much discouraged.[59:1] + +Woodstock, later a Connecticut town, was settled under a grant in the +Nipmuc country made to the town of Roxbury. The settlers, who located +their farms near the trading post about which the Indians still +collected, were called the "go-ers," while the "stayers" were those who +remained in Roxbury, and retained half of the new grant; but it should +be added that they paid the go-ers a sum of money to facilitate the +settlement. + +This absentee proprietorship and the commercial attitude toward the +lands of new towns became more evident in succeeding years of the +eighteenth century. Leicester, for example, was confirmed by the General +Court in 1713. The twenty shares were divided among twenty-two +proprietors, including Jeremiah Dummer, Paul Dudley (Attorney-General), +William Dudley (like Paul a son of the Governor, Joseph Dudley), Thomas +Hutchinson (father of the later Governor), John Clark (the political +leader), and Samuel Sewall (son of the Chief Justice). These were all +men of influence, and none of the proprietors became inhabitants of +Leicester. The proprietors tried to induce the fifty families, whose +settlement was one of the conditions on which the grant was made, to +occupy the eastern half of the township reserving the rest as their +absolute property.[59:2] + +The author of a currency tract, in 1716, entitled "Some Considerations +upon the Several Sorts of Banks," remarks that formerly, when land was +easy to be obtained, good men came over as indentured servants; but now, +he says, they are runaways, thieves, and disorderly persons. The remedy +for this, in his opinion, would be to induce servants to come over by +offering them homes when the terms of indenture should expire.[60:1] He +therefore advocates that townships should be laid out four or five miles +square in which grants of fifty or sixty acres could be made to +servants.[60:2] Concern over the increase of negro slaves in +Massachusetts seems to have been the reason for this proposal. It +indicates that the current practice in disposing of the lands did not +provide for the poorer people. + +But Massachusetts did not follow this suggestion of a homestead policy. +On the contrary, the desire to locate towns to create continuous lines +of settlement along the roads between the disconnected frontiers and to +protect boundary claims by granting tiers of towns in the disputed +tract, as well, no doubt, as pressure from financial interests, led the +General Court between 1715 and 1762 to dispose of the remaining public +domain of Massachusetts under conditions that made speculation and +colonization by capitalists important factors.[60:3] When in 1762 +Massachusetts sold a group of townships in the Berkshires to the highest +bidders (by whole townships),[60:4] the transfer from the +social-religious to the economic conception was complete, and the +frontier was deeply influenced by the change to "land mongering." + +In one respect, however, there was an increasing recognition of the +religious and social element in settling the frontier, due in part, no +doubt, to a desire to provide for the preservation of eastern ideals and +influences in the West. Provisions for reserving lands within the +granted townships for the support of an approved minister, and for +schools, appear in the seventeenth century and become a common feature +of the grants for frontier towns in the eighteenth.[61:1] This practice +with respect to the New England frontier became the foundation for the +system of grants of land from the public domain for the support of +common schools and state universities by the federal government from its +beginning, and has been profoundly influential in later Western States. + +Another ground for discontent over land questions was furnished by the +system of granting lands within the town by the commoners. The principle +which in many, if not all, cases guided the proprietors in distributing +the town lots is familiar and is well stated in the Lancaster town +records (1653): + + And, whereas Lotts are Now Laid out for the most part Equally + to Rich and poore, Partly to keepe the Towne from Scatering to + farr, and partly out of Charitie and Respect to men of meaner + estate, yet that Equallitie (which is the rule of God) may be + observed, we Covenant and Agree, That in a second Devition and + so through all other Devitions of Land the mater shall be + drawne as neere to _equallitie according to mens estates_ as + wee are able to doe, That he which hath now more then his + estate Deserveth in home Lotts and entervale Lotts shall haue + so much Less: and he that hath Less then his estate Deserveth + shall haue so much more.[62:1] + +This peculiar doctrine of "equality" had early in the history of the +colony created discontents. Winthrop explained the principle which +governed himself and his colleagues in the case of the Boston committee +of 1634 by saying that their divisions were arranged "partly to prevent +the neglect of trades." This is a pregnant idea; it underlay much of the +later opposition of New England as a manufacturing section to the free +homestead or cheap land policy, demanded by the West and by the labor +party, in the national public domain. The migration of labor to free +lands meant that higher wages must be paid to those who remained. The +use of the town lands by the established classes to promote an approved +form of society naturally must have had some effect on migration. + +But a more effective source of disputes was with respect to the relation +of the town proprietors to the public domain of the town in contrast +with the non-proprietors as a class. The need of keeping the town +meeting and the proprietors' meeting separate in the old towns in +earlier years was not so great as it was when the new-comers became +numerous. In an increasing degree these new-comers were either not +granted lands at all, or were not admitted to the body of proprietors +with rights in the possession of the undivided town lands. Contentions +on the part of the town meeting that it had the right of dealing with +the town lands occasionally appear, significantly, in the frontier towns +of Haverhill, Massachusetts, Simsbury, Connecticut, and in the towns of +the Connecticut Valley.[63:1] Jonathan Edwards, in 1751, declared that +there had been in Northampton for forty or fifty years "two parties +somewhat like the court and country parties of England. . . . The first +party embraced the great proprietors of land, and the parties concerned +about land and other matters."[63:2] The tendency to divide up the +common lands among the proprietors in individual possession did not +become marked until the eighteenth century; but the exclusion of some +from possession of the town lands and the "equality" in allotment +favoring men with already large estates must have attracted ambitious +men who were not of the favored class to join in the movement to new +towns. Religious dissensions would combine to make frontier society as +it formed early in the eighteenth century more and more democratic, +dissatisfied with the existing order, and less respectful of authority. +We shall not understand the relative radicalism of parts of the +Berkshires, Vermont and interior New Hampshire without enquiry into the +degree in which the control over the lands by a proprietary monopoly +affected the men who settled on the frontier. + +The final aspect of this frontier to be examined, is the attitude of the +conservatives of the older sections towards this movement of westward +advance. President Dwight in the era of the War of 1812 was very +critical of the "foresters," but saw in such a movement a safety valve +to the institutions of New England by allowing the escape of the +explosive advocates of "Innovation."[63:3] + +Cotton Mather is perhaps not a typical representative of the +conservative sentiment at the close of the seventeenth century, but his +writings may partly reflect the attitude of Boston Bay toward New +England's first Western frontier. Writing in 1694 of "Wonderful Passages +which have Occurred, First in the Protections and then in the +Afflictions of New England," he says: + + One while the Enclosing of _Commons_ hath made Neighbours, + that should have been like Sheep, to _Bite and devour one + another_. . . . Again, Do our _Old_ People, any of them _Go + Out_ from the Institutions of God, Swarming into New + Settlements, where they and their Untaught Families are like + to _Perish for Lack of Vision_? They that have done so, + heretofore, have to their Cost found, that they were got unto + the _Wrong side of the Hedge_, in their doing so. Think, here + _Should this be done any more?_ We read of Balaam, in Num. 22, + 23. He was to his Damage, _driven to the_ Wall, when he would + needs make an unlawful Salley forth after the _Gain_ of this + World. . . . Why, when men, for the Sake of Earthly Gain, + would be _going out_ into the _Warm_ Sun, they drive _Through + the Wall_, and the _Angel of the Lord_ becomes their Enemy. + +In his essay on "Frontiers Well-Defended" (1707) Mather assures the +pioneers that they "dwell in a Hatsarmaneth," a place of "tawney +serpents," are "inhabitants of the Valley of Achor," and are "the Poor +of this World." There may be significance in his assertion: "It is +remarkable to see that when the Unchurched Villages, have been so many +of them, _utterly broken up_, in the _War_, that has been upon us, those +that have had _Churches_ regularly formed in them, have generally been +under a more _sensible Protection_ of Heaven." "Sirs," he says, "a +_Church-State_ well form'd may fortify you wonderfully!" He recommends +abstention from profane swearing, furious cursing, Sabbath breaking, +unchastity, dishonesty, robbing of God by defrauding the ministers of +their dues, drunkenness, and revels and he reminds them that even the +Indians have family prayers! Like his successors who solicited +missionary contributions for the salvation of the frontier in the +Mississippi Valley during the forties of the nineteenth century, this +early spokesman for New England laid stress upon teaching anti-popery, +particularly in view of the captivity that might await them. + +In summing up, we find many of the traits of later frontiers in this +early prototype, the Massachusetts frontier. It lies at the edge of the +Indian country and tends to advance. It calls out militant qualities and +reveals the imprint of wilderness conditions upon the psychology and +morals as well as upon the institutions of the people. It demands common +defense and thus becomes a factor for consolidation. It is built on the +basis of a preliminary fur trade, and is settled by the combined and +sometimes antagonistic forces of eastern men of property (the absentee +proprietors) and the democratic pioneers. The East attempted to regulate +and control it. Individualistic and democratic tendencies were +emphasized both by the wilderness conditions and, probably, by the prior +contentions between the proprietors and non-proprietors of the towns +from which settlers moved to the frontier. Removal away from the control +of the customary usages of the older communities and from the +conservative influence of the body of the clergy, increased the +innovating tendency. Finally the towns were regarded by at least one +prominent representative of the established order in the East, as an +undesirable place for the re-location of the pillars of society. The +temptation to look upon the frontier as a field for investment was +viewed by the clergy as a danger to the "institutions of God." The +frontier was "the Wrong side of the Hedge." + +But to this "wrong side of the hedge" New England men continued to +migrate. The frontier towns of 1695 were hardly more than suburbs of +Boston. The frontier of a century later included New England's colonies +in Vermont, Western New York, the Wyoming Valley, the Connecticut +Reserve, and the Ohio Company's settlement in the Old Northwest +Territory. By the time of the Civil War the frontier towns of New +England had occupied the great prairie zone of the Middle West and were +even planted in Mormon Utah and in parts of the Pacific Coast. New +England's sons had become the organizers of a Greater New England in the +West, captains of industry, political leaders, founders of educational +systems, and prophets of religion, in a section that was to influence +the ideals and shape the destiny of the nation in ways to which the eyes +of men like Cotton Mather were sealed.[66:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39:1] Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, April, +1914, xvii, 250-271. Reprinted with permission of the Society. + +[39:2] Massachusetts Archives, xxxvi, p. 150. + +[40:1] Massachusetts Colony Records, ii, p. 122. + +[40:2] _Ibid._, vol. iv, pt. ii, p. 439; Massachusetts Archives, cvii, +pp. 160-161. + +[40:3] See, for example, Massachusetts Colony Records, v, 79; Green, +"Groton During the Indian Wars," p. 39; L. K. Mathews, "Expansion of New +England," p. 58. + +[40:4] Massachusetts Archives, lxviii, pp. 174-176. + +[40:5] Osgood, "American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century," i, p. +501, and citations: cf. Publications of this Society, xii, pp. 38-39. + +[41:1] Hening, "Statutes at Large," iii, p. 204: cf. 1 Massachusetts +Historical Collections, v, p. 129, for influence of the example of the +New England town. On Virginia frontier conditions see Alvord and +Bidgood, "First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region," pp. 23-34, +93-95. P. A. Bruce, "Institutional History of Virginia," ii, p. 97, +discusses frontier defense in the seventeenth century. [See chapter iii, +_post_.] + +[42:1] Massachusetts Archives, lxx, 240; Massachusetts Province Laws, i, +pp. 194, 293. + +[42:2] In a petition (read March 3, 1692-3) of settlers "in Sundry Farms +granted in those Remote Lands Scituate and Lyeing between Sudbury, +Concord, Marlbury, Natick and Sherburne & Westerly is the Wilderness," +the petitioners ask easement of taxes and extension into the Natick +region in order to have means to provide for the worship of God, and +say: + +"Wee are not Ignorant that by reason of the present Distressed Condition +of those that dwell in these Frontier Towns, divers are meditating to +remove themselves into such places where they have not hitherto been +conserned in the present Warr and desolation thereby made, as also that +thereby they may be freed from that great burthen of public taxes +necessarily accruing thereby, Some haveing already removed themselves. +Butt knowing for our parts that wee cannot run from the hand of a +Jealous God, doe account it our duty to take such Measures as may inable +us to the performance of that duty wee owe to God, the King, & our +Familyes" (Massachusetts Archives, cxiii, p. 1). + +[42:3] In a petition of 1658 Andover speaks of itself as "a remote +upland plantation" (Massachusetts Archives, cxii, p. 99). + +[42:4] Massachusetts Province Laws, i, p. 402. + +[43:1] Convenient maps of settlement, 1660-1700, are in E. Channing, +"History of the United States," i, pp. 510-511, ii, end; Avery, "History +of the United States and its People," ii, p. 398. A useful +contemporaneous map for conditions at the close of King Philip's War is +Hubbard's map of New England in his "Narrative" published in Boston, +1677. See also L. K. Mathews, "Expansion of New England," pp. 56-57, 70. + +[44:1] Weeden, "Economic and Social History of New England," pp. 90, 95, +129-132; F. J. Turner, "Indian Trade in Wisconsin," p. 13; McIlwain, +"Wraxall's Abridgement," introduction; the town histories abound in +evidence of the significance of the early Indian traders' posts, +transition to Indian land cessions, and then to town grants. + +[44:2] Weeden, _loc. cit._, pp. 64-67; M. Egleston, "New England Land +System," pp. 31-32; Sheldon, "Deerfield," i, pp. 37, 206, 267-268; +Connecticut Colonial Records, vii, p. 111, illustrations of cattle +brands in 1727. + +[44:3] Hutchinson, "History" (1795), ii, p. 129, note, relates such a +case of a Groton man; see also Parkman, "Half-Century," vol. i, ch. iv, +citing Maurault, "Histoire des Abenakis," p. 377. + +[45:1] Massachusetts Archives, lxxi, pp. 4, 84, 85, 87, 88. + +[45:2] Hoosatonic. + +[45:3] Connecticut Records, iv, pp. 463, 464. + +[45:4] Massachusetts Colony Records, v, p. 72; Massachusetts Province +Laws, i, pp. 176, 211, 292, 558, 594, 600; Massachusetts Archives, lxxi, +pp. 7, 89, 102. Cf. Publications of this Society, vii, 275-278. + +[45:5] Sheldon, "Deerfield," i, p. 290. + +[46:1] Judd, "Hadley," p. 272; 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, +ii, p. 235. + +[46:2] Farmer and Moore, "Collections," iii, p. 64. The frontier woman +of the farther west found no more extreme representative than Hannah +Dustan of Haverhill, with her trophy of ten scalps, for which she +received a bounty of L50 (Parkman, "Frontenac," 1898, p. 407, note). + +[46:3] For illustrations of resentment against those who protected the +Christian Indians, see F. W. Gookin, "Daniel Gookin," pp. 145-155. + +[47:1] For example, Massachusetts Archives, lxx, p. 261; Bailey, +"Andover," p. 179; Metcalf, "Annals of Mendon," p. 63; Proceedings +Massachusetts Historical Society, xliii, pp. 504-519. Parkman, +"Frontenac" (Boston, 1898), p. 390, and "Half-Century of Conflict" +(Boston, 1898), i, p. 55, sketches the frontier defense. + +[48:1] Massachusetts Archives, cvii, p. 155. + +[48:2] _Ibid._, cvii, p. 230; cf. 230 a. + +[48:3] Massachusetts Archives, lxviii, p. 156. + +[48:4] Sheldon, "Deerfield," i, p. 189. + +[48:5] Massachusetts Archives, lxxi, 46-48, 131, 134, 135 _et passim_. + +[50:1] Massachusetts Archives, lxxi, p. 107: cf. Metcalf, "Mendon," p. +130; Sheldon, "Deerfield," i, p. 288. The frontier of Virginia in 1755 +and 1774 showed similar conditions: see, for example, the citations to +Washington's Writings in Thwaites, "France in America," pp. 193-195; and +frontier letters in Thwaites and Kellogg, "Dunmore's War," pp. 227, 228 +_et passim_. The following petition to Governor Gooch of Virginia, dated +July 30, 1742, affords a basis for comparison with a Scotch-Irish +frontier: + +We your pettionours humbly sheweth that we your Honours Loly and +Dutifull Subganckes hath ventred our Lives & all that we have In +settling ye back parts of Virginia which was a veri Great Hassirt & +Dengrous, for it is the Hathins [heathens] Road to ware, which has +proved hortfull to severil of ous that were ye first settlers of these +back woods & wee your Honibill pettionors some time a goo petitioned +your Honnour for to have Commisioned men amungst ous which we your +Honnours most Duttifull subjects thought properist men & men that had +Hart and Curidg to hed us yn time of [war] & to defend your Contray & +your poor Sogbacks Intrist from ye voilince of ye Haithen--But yet agine +we Humbly persume to poot your Honnour yn mind of our Great want of them +in hopes that your Honner will Grant a Captins' Commission to John +McDowell, with follring ofishers, and your Honnours' Complyence in this +will be Great settisfiction to your most Duttifull and Humbil +pettioners--and we as in Duty bond shall Ever pray . . . (Calendar of +Virginia State Papers, i, p. 235). + +[51:1] But there is a note of deference in Southern frontier petitions +to the Continental Congress--to be discounted, however, by the +remoteness of that body. See F. J. Turner, "Western State-Making in the +Revolutionary Era" (_American Historical Review_, i, pp. 70, 251). The +demand for remission of taxes is a common feature of the petitions there +quoted. + +[51:2] Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xliii, pp. 506 ff. + +[51:3] _Ibid._, xliii, p. 518. + +[52:1] Connecticut Colonial Records, iv, p. 67. + +[52:2] In a petition of February 22, 1693-4, Deerfield calls itself the +"most Utmost Frontere Town in the County of West Hampshire" +(Massachusetts Archives, cxiii, p. 57 a). + +[52:3] Judd, "Hadley," p. 249. + +[52:4] W. D. Schuyler-Lighthall, "Glorious Enterprise," p. 16. + +[53:1] Sheldon, "Deerfield," i, p. 405. + +[54:1] "I want to have your warriours come and see me," wrote Allen to +the Indians of Canada in 1775, "and help me fight the King's Regular +Troops. You know they stand all close together, rank and file, and my +men fight so as Indians do, and I want your warriours to join with me +and my warriours, like brothers, and ambush the Regulars: if you will, I +will give you money, blankets, tomahawks, knives, paint, and any thing +that there is in the army, just like brothers; and I will go with you +into the woods to scout; and my men and your men will sleep together, +and eat and drink together, and fight Regulars, because they first +killed our brothers" (American Archives, 4th Series, ii, p. 714). + +[54:2] Compare A. McF. Davis, "The Shays Rebellion a Political +Aftermath" (Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, xxi, pp. 58, 62, +75-79). + +[55:1] "Land System of the New England Colonies," p. 30. + +[55:2] Massachusetts Colony Records, i, p. 167. + +[56:1] Compare Weeden, "Economic and Social History of New England," i, +pp. 270-271; Gookin, "Daniel Gookin," pp. 106-161; and the histories of +Worcester for illustrations of how the various factors noted could be +combined in a single town. + +[56:2] F. Merrill, "Amesbury," pp. 5, 50. + +[56:3] B. L. Mirick, "Haverhill," pp. 9, 10. + +[57:1] Green, "Early Records of Groton," pp. 49, 70, 90. + +[57:2] _Ibid._ + +[57:3] Worcester County History, i, pp. 2, 3. + +[57:4] J. G. Metcalf, "Annals of Mendon," p. 85. + +[58:1] P. 96. Compare the Kentucky petition of 1780 given in Roosevelt, +"Winning of the West," ii, p. 398, and the letter from that frontier +cited in Turner, "Western State-Making" (_American Historical Review_, +i, p. 262), attacking the Virginia "Nabobs," who hold absentee land +titles. "Let the _great men_," say they, "whom the land belongs to come +and defend it." + +[59:1] Sheldon, "Deerfield," i, pp. 188-189. + +[59:2] These facts are stated on the authority of E. Washburn, +"Leicester," pp. 5-15: compare Major Stephen Sewall to Jeremiah Dummer, +1717, quoted in Weeden, "Economic and Social History of New England," +ii, p. 505, note 4. + +[60:1] Compare the Virginia system, Bruce, "Economic History of Virginia +in the Seventeenth Century," ii, pp. 42, 43. + +[60:2] For this item I am indebted to our associate, Mr. Andrew McF. +Davis: see his "Colonial Currency Reprints," i, pp. 335-349. + +[60:3] Hutchinson, "History of Massachusetts" (1768), ii, pp. 331, 332, +has an instructive comment. A. C. Ford, "Colonial Precedents of Our +National Land System," p. 84; L. K. Mathews, "Expansion of New England," +pp. 82 ff. + +[60:4] J. G. Holland, "Western Massachusetts," p. 197. + +[61:1] Jos. Schafer, "Origin of the System of Land Grants for +Education," pp. 25-33. + +[62:1] H. D. Hurd (ed.), "History of Worcester County," i, p. 6. The +italics are mine. + +[63:1] Egleston, "Land System of the New England Colonies," pp. 39-41. + +[63:2] _Ibid._, p. 41. + +[63:3] T. Dwight, "Travels" (1821), ii, pp. 459-463. + +[66:1] [See F. J. Turner, "Greater New England in the Middle of the +Nineteenth Century," in American Antiquarian Society "Proceedings," +1920.] + + + + +III + +THE OLD WEST[67:1] + + +It is not the oldest West with which this chapter deals. The oldest West +was the Atlantic coast. Roughly speaking, it took a century of Indian +fighting and forest felling for the colonial settlements to expand into +the interior to a distance of about a hundred miles from the coast. +Indeed, some stretches were hardly touched in that period. This conquest +of the nearest wilderness in the course of the seventeenth century and +in the early years of the eighteenth, gave control of the maritime +section of the nation and made way for the new movement of westward +expansion which I propose to discuss. + +In his "Winning of the West," Roosevelt dealt chiefly with the region +beyond the Alleghanies, and with the period of the later eighteenth +century, although he prefaced his account with an excellent chapter +describing the backwoodsmen of the Alleghanies and their social +conditions from 1769 to 1774. It is important to notice, however, that +he is concerned with a backwoods society already formed; that he ignores +the New England frontier and its part in the winning of the West, and +does not recognize that there was a West to be won between New England +and the Great Lakes. In short, he is interested in the winning of the +West beyond the Alleghanies by the southern half of the frontier folk. + +There is, then, a western area intermediate between the coastal +colonial settlements of the seventeenth century and the trans-Alleghany +settlements of the latter portion of the eighteenth century. This +section I propose to isolate and discuss under the name of the Old West, +and in the period from about 1676 to 1763. It includes the back country +of New England, the Mohawk Valley, the Great Valley of Pennsylvania, the +Shenandoah Valley, and the Piedmont--that is, the interior or upland +portion of the South, lying between the Alleghanies and the head of +navigation of the Atlantic rivers marked by the "fall line."[68:1] + +In this region, and in these years, are to be found the beginnings of +much that is characteristic in Western society, for the Atlantic coast +was in such close touch with Europe that its frontier experience was +soon counteracted, and it developed along other lines. It is unfortunate +that the colonial back country appealed so long to historians solely in +connection with the colonial wars, for the development of its society, +its institutions and mental attitude all need study. Its history has +been dealt with in separate fragments, by states, or towns, or in +discussions of special phases, such as German and Scotch-Irish +immigration. The Old West as a whole can be appreciated only by +obliterating the state boundaries which conceal its unity, by +correlating the special and fragmentary studies, and by filling the gaps +in the material for understanding the formation of its society. The +present paper is rather a reconnaissance than a conquest of the field, a +program for study of the Old West rather than an exposition of it. + +The end of the period proposed may be placed about 1763, and the +beginning between 1676 and 1700. The termination of the period is marked +by the Peace of Paris in 1763, and the royal proclamation of that year +forbidding settlement beyond the Alleghanies. By this time the +settlement of the Old West was fairly accomplished, and new advances +were soon made into the "Western Waters" beyond the mountains and into +the interior of Vermont and New Hampshire. The isolation of the +transmontane settlements, and the special conditions and doctrines of +the Revolutionary era during which they were formed, make a natural +distinction between the period of which I am to speak and the later +extension of the West. + +The beginning of the period is necessarily an indeterminate date, owing +to the different times of colonizing the coastal areas which served as +bases of operations in the westward advance. The most active movements +into the Old West occurred after 1730. But in 1676 New England, having +closed the exhausting struggle with the Indians, known as King Philip's +War, could regard her established settlements as secure, and go on to +complete her possession of the interior. This she did in the midst of +conflicts with the exterior Indian tribes which invaded her frontiers +from New York and Canada during the French and Indian wars from 1690 to +1760, and under frontier conditions different from the conditions of the +earlier Puritan colonization. In 1676, Virginia was passing through +Indian fighting--keenest along the fall line, where the frontier +lay--and also experiencing a social revolt which resulted in the defeat +of the democratic forces that sought to stay the progress of +aristocratic control in the colony.[70:1] The date marks the end of the +period when the Virginia tidewater could itself be regarded as a +frontier region, and consequently the beginning of a more special +interest in the interior. + +Let us first examine the northern part of the movement into the back +country. The expansion of New England into the vacant spaces of its own +section, in the period we have chosen for discussion, resulted in the +formation of an interior society which contrasted in many ways with that +of the coast, and which has a special significance in Western history, +in that it was this interior New England people who settled the Greater +New England in central and western New York, the Wyoming Valley, the +Connecticut Reserve of Ohio, and much of the prairie areas of the Old +Northwest. It is important to realize that the Old West included +interior New England. + +The situation in New England at the close of the seventeenth century is +indicated by the Massachusetts act of 1694 enumerating eleven towns, +then on the frontier and exposed to raids, none of which might be +voluntarily deserted without leave of the governor and council, on +penalty of loss of their freeholds by the landowners, or fine of other +inhabitants.[70:2] + +Thus these frontier settlers were made substantially garrisons, or "mark +colonies." Crowded into the palisades of the town, and obliged in spite +of their poverty to bear the brunt of Indian attack, their hardships are +illustrated in the manly but pathetic letters of Deerfield's minister, +Mr. Williams,[70:3] in 1704. Parkman succinctly describes the general +conditions in these words:[70:4] + + The exposed frontier of New England was between two and three + hundred miles long, and consisted of farms and hamlets loosely + scattered through an almost impervious forest. . . . Even in + so-called villages the houses were far apart, because, except + on the seashore, the people lived by farming. Such as were + able to do so fenced their dwellings with palisades, or built + them of solid timber, with loopholes, a projecting upper story + like a block house, and sometimes a flanker at one or more of + the corners. In the more considerable settlements the largest + of these fortified houses was occupied in time of danger by + armed men and served as a place of refuge for the neighbors. + +Into these places, in days of alarm, were crowded the outlying settlers, +just as was the case in later times in the Kentucky "stations." + +In spite of such frontier conditions, the outlying towns continued to +multiply. Between 1720 and the middle of the century, settlement crept +up the Housatonic and its lateral valley into the Berkshires. About 1720 +Litchfield was established; in 1725, Sheffield; in 1730, Great +Barrington; and in 1735 a road was cut and towns soon established +between Westfield and these Housatonic settlements, thus uniting them +with the older extensions along the Connecticut and its tributaries. + +In this period, scattered and sometimes unwelcome Scotch-Irish +settlements were established, such as that at Londonderry, New +Hampshire, and in the Berkshires, as well as in the region won in King +Philip's War from the Nipmucks, whither there came also Huguenots.[72:1] + +In King George's War, the Connecticut River settlers found their +frontier protection in such rude stockades as those at the sites of +Keene, of Charlestown, New Hampshire (Number Four), Fort Shirley at the +head of Deerfield River (Heath), and Fort Pelham (Rowe); while Fort +Massachusetts (Adams) guarded the Hoosac gateway to the Hoosatonic +Valley. These frontier garrisons and the self-defense of the +backwoodsmen of New England are well portrayed in the pages of +Parkman.[72:2] At the close of the war, settlement again expanded into +the Berkshires, where Lennox, West Hoosac (Williamstown), and Pittsfield +were established in the middle of the century. Checked by the fighting +in the last French and Indian War, the frontier went forward after the +Peace of Paris (1763) at an exceptional rate, especially into Vermont +and interior New Hampshire. An anonymous writer gives a contemporary +view of the situation on the eve of the Revolution:[72:3] + + The richest parts remaining to be granted are on the northern + branches of the Connecticut river, towards Crown Point where + are great districts of fertile soil still unsettled. The North + part of New Hampshire, the province of Maine, and the + territory of Sagadahock have but few settlements in them + compared with the tracts yet unsettled. . . . + + I should further observe that these tracts have since the + peace [_i. e._, 1763], been settling pretty fast: farms on the + river Connecticut are every day extending beyond the old fort + Dummer, for near thirty miles; and will in a few years reach + to Kohasser which is nearly two hundred miles; not that such + an extent will be one-tenth settled, but the new-comers do not + fix near their neighbors, and go on regularly, but take spots + that please them best, though twenty or thirty miles beyond + any others. This to people of a sociable disposition in Europe + would appear very strange, but the Americans do not regard the + near neighborhood of other farmers; twenty or thirty miles by + water they esteem no distance in matters of this sort; besides + in a country that promises well the intermediate space is not + long in filling up. Between Connecticut river and Lake + Champlain upon Otter Creek, and all along Lake Sacrament + [George] and the rivers that fall into it, and the whole + length of Wood Creek, are numerous settlements made since the + peace.[73:1] + +For nearly a hundred years, therefore, New England communities had been +pushed out to new frontiers in the intervals between the almost +continuous wars with the French and Indians. Probably the most +distinctive feature in this frontier was the importance of the community +type of settlement; in other words, of the towns, with their Puritan +ideals in education, morals, and religion. This has always been a matter +of pride to the statesmen and annalists of New England, as is +illustrated by these words of Holland in his "Western Massachusetts," +commenting on the settlement of the Connecticut Valley in villages, +whereby in his judgment morality, education, and urbanity were +preserved: + + The influence of this policy can only be fully appreciated + when standing by the side of the solitary settler's hut in the + West, where even an Eastern man has degenerated to a boor in + manners, where his children have grown up uneducated, and + where the Sabbath has become an unknown day, and religion and + its obligations have ceased to exercise control upon the heart + and life. + +Whatever may be the real value of the community type of settlement, its +establishment in New England was intimately connected both with the +Congregational religious organization and with the land system of the +colonies of that section, under which the colonial governments made +grants--not in tracts to individuals, but in townships to groups of +proprietors who in turn assigned lands to the inhabitants without cost. +The typical form of establishing a town was as follows: On application +of an approved body of men, desiring to establish a new settlement, the +colonial General Court would appoint a committee to view the desired +land and report on its fitness; an order for the grant would then issue, +in varying areas, not far from the equivalent of six miles square. In +the eighteenth century especially, it was common to reserve certain lots +of the town for the support of schools and the ministry. This was the +origin of that very important feature of Western society, federal land +grants for schools and colleges.[74:1] The General Courts also made +regulations regarding the common lands, the terms for admitting +inhabitants, etc., and thus kept a firm hand upon the social structure +of the new settlements as they formed on the frontier. + +This practice, seen in its purity in the seventeenth century +especially, was markedly different from the practices of other colonies +in the settlement of their back lands. For during most of the period New +England did not use her wild lands, or public domain, as a source of +revenue by sale to individuals or to companies, with the reservation of +quit-rents; nor attract individual settlers by "head rights," or +fifty-acre grants, after the Virginia type; nor did the colonies of the +New England group often make extensive grants to individuals, on the +ground of special services, or because of influence with the government, +or on the theory that the grantee would introduce settlers on his grant. +They donated their lands to groups of men who became town proprietors +for the purpose of establishing communities. These proprietors were +supposed to hold the lands in trust, to be assigned to inhabitants under +restraints to ensure the persistence of Puritan ideals. + +During most of the seventeenth century the proprietors awarded lands to +the new-comers in accordance with this theory. But as density of +settlement increased, and lands grew scarce in the older towns, the +proprietors began to assert their legal right to the unoccupied lands +and to refuse to share them with inhabitants who were not of the body of +proprietors. The distinction resulted in class conflicts in the towns, +especially in the eighteenth century,[75:1] over the ownership and +disposal of the common lands. + +The new settlements, by a process of natural selection, would afford +opportunity to the least contented, whether because of grievances, or +ambitions, to establish themselves. This tended to produce a Western +flavor in the towns on the frontier. But it was not until the original +ideals of the land system began to change, that the opportunity to make +new settlements for such reasons became common. As the economic and +political ideal replaced the religious and social ideal, in the +conditions under which new towns could be established, this became more +possible. + +Such a change was in progress in the latter part of the seventeenth +century and during the eighteenth. In 1713, 1715, and 1727, +Massachusetts determined upon a policy of locating towns in advance of +settlement, to protect her boundary claims. In 1736 she laid out five +towns near the New Hampshire border, and a year earlier opened four +contiguous towns to connect her Housatonic and Connecticut Valley +settlements.[76:1] Grants in non-adjacent regions were sometimes made to +old towns, the proprietors of which sold them to those who wished to +move. + +The history of the town of Litchfield illustrates the increasing +importance of the economic factor. At a time when Connecticut feared +that Andros might dispose of the public lands to the disadvantage of the +colony, the legislature granted a large part of Western Connecticut to +the towns of Hartford and Windsor, _pro forma_, as a means of +withdrawing the lands from his hands. But these towns refused to give up +the lands after the danger had passed, and proceeded to sell part of +them.[76:2] Riots occurred when the colonial authorities attempted to +assert possession, and the matter was at length compromised in 1719 by +allowing Litchfield to be settled in accordance with the town grants, +while the colony reserved the larger part of northwestern Connecticut. +In 1737 the colony disposed of its last unlocated lands by sale in lots. +In 1762 Massachusetts sold a group of entire townships in the Berkshires +to the highest bidders.[77:1] + +But the most striking illustration of the tendency, is afforded by the +"New Hampshire grants" of Governor Wentworth, who, chiefly in the years +about 1760, made grants of a hundred and thirty towns west of the +Connecticut, in what is now the State of Vermont, but which was then in +dispute between New Hampshire and New York. These grants, while in form +much like other town grants, were disposed of for cash, chiefly to +speculators who hastened to sell their rights to the throngs of +land-seekers who, after the peace, began to pour into the Green Mountain +region. + +It is needless to point out how this would affect the movement of +Western settlement in respect to individualistic speculation in public +lands; how it would open a career to the land jobbers, as well as to the +natural leaders in the competitive movement for acquiring the best +lands, for laying out town sites and building up new communities under +"boom" conditions. The migratory tendency of New Englanders was +increased by this gradual change in its land policy; the attachment to a +locality was diminished. The later years showed increasing emphasis by +New England upon individual success, greater respect for the self-made +man who, in the midst of opportunities under competitive conditions, +achieved superiority. The old dominance of town settlement, village +moral police, and traditional class control gave way slowly. Settlement +in communities and rooted Puritan habits and ideals had enduring +influences in the regions settled by New Englanders; but it was in this +Old West, in the years just before the Revolution, that individualism +began to play an important role, along with the traditional habit of +expanding in organized communities. + +The opening of the Vermont towns revealed more fully than before, the +capability of New Englanders to become democratic pioneers, under +characteristic frontier conditions. Their economic life was simple and +self-sufficing. They readily adopted lynch law (the use of the "birch +seal" is familiar to readers of Vermont history) to protect their land +titles in the troubled times when these "Green Mountain Boys" resisted +New York's assertion of authority. They later became an independent +Revolutionary state with frontier directness, and in very many respects +their history in the Revolutionary epoch is similar to that of settlers +in Kentucky and Tennessee, both in assertion of the right to independent +self government and in a frontier separatism.[78:1] Vermont may be +regarded as the culmination of the frontier movement which I have been +describing in New England. + +By this time two distinct New Englands existed--the one coastal, and +dominated by commercial interests and the established congregational +churches; the other a primitive agricultural area, democratic in +principle, and with various sects increasingly indifferent to the fear +of "innovation" which the dominant classes of the old communities felt. +Already speculative land companies had begun New England settlements in +the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, as well as on the lower Mississippi; +and New England missions among the Indians, such as that at Stockbridge, +were beginning the noteworthy religious and educational expansion of the +section to the west. + +That this movement of expansion had been chiefly from south to north, +along the river valleys, should not conceal from us the fact that it was +in essential characteristics a Western movement, especially in the +social traits that were developing. Even the men who lived in the long +line of settlements on the Maine coast, under frontier conditions, and +remote from the older centers of New England, developed traits and a +democratic spirit that relate them closely to the Westerners, in spite +of the fact that Maine is "down east" by preeminence.[79:1] + +The frontier of the Middle region in this period of the formation of the +Old West, was divided into two parts, which happen to coincide with the +colonies of New York and Pennsylvania. In the latter colony the trend of +settlement was into the Great Valley, and so on to the Southern uplands; +while the advance of settlement in New York was like that of New +England, chiefly northward, following the line of Hudson River. + +The Hudson and the Mohawk constituted the area of the Old West in this +part of the eighteenth century. With them were associated the Wallkill, +tributary to the Hudson, and Cherry Valley near the Mohawk, along the +sources of the Susquehanna. The Berkshires walled the Hudson in to the +east; the Adirondacks and the Catskills to the west. Where the Mohawk +Valley penetrated between the mountainous areas, the Iroquois Indians +were too formidable for advance on such a slender line. Nothing but +dense settlement along the narrow strip of the Hudson, if even that, +could have furnished the necessary momentum for overcoming the Indian +barrier; and this pressure was lacking, for the population was +comparatively sparse in contrast with the task to be performed. What +most needs discussion in the case of New York, therefore, is not the +history of expansion as in other sections, but the absence of expansive +power. + +The fur-trade had led the way up the Hudson, and made beginnings of +settlements at strategic points near the confluence of the Mohawk. But +the fur-trader was not followed by a tide of pioneers. One of the most +important factors in restraining density of population in New York, in +retarding the settlement of its frontier, and in determining the +conditions there, was the land system of that colony. + +From the time of the patroon grants along the lower Hudson, great +estates had been the common form of land tenure. Rensselaerswyck reached +at one time over seven hundred thousand acres. These great patroon +estates were confirmed by the English governors, who in their turn +followed a similar policy. By 1732 two and one-half million acres were +engrossed in manorial grants.[80:1] In 1764, Governor Colden wrote[80:2] +that three of the extravagant grants contain, + + as the proprietors claim, above a million acres each, several + others above 200,000. * * * Although these grants contain a + great part of the province, they are made in trifling + acknowledgements. The far greater part of them still remain + uncultivated, without any benefit to the community, and are + likewise a discouragement to the settling and improving the + lands in the neighborhood of them, for from the uncertainty of + their boundaries, the patentees of these great tracts are + daily enlarging their pretensions, and by tedious and most + expensive law suits, distress and ruin poor families who have + taken out grants near them. + +He adds that "the proprietors of the great tracts are not only freed +from the quit-rents, which the other landholders in the province pay, +but by their influence in the assembly are freed from every other public +tax on their lands." + +In 1769 it was estimated that at least five-sixths of the inhabitants of +Westchester County lived within the bounds of the great manors +there.[81:1] In Albany County the Livingston manor spread over seven +modern townships, and the great Van Rensselaer manor stretched +twenty-four by twenty-eight miles along the Hudson; while still farther, +on the Mohawk, were the vast possessions of Sir William Johnson.[81:2] + +It was not simply that the grants were extensive, but that the policy +of the proprietors favored the leasing rather than the sale of the +lands--frequently also of the stock, and taking payment in shares. It +followed that settlers preferred to go to frontiers where a more liberal +land policy prevailed. At one time it seemed possible that the tide of +German settlement, which finally sought Pennsylvania and the up-country +of the South, might flow into New York. In 1710, Governor Hunter +purchased a tract in Livingston's manor and located nearly fifteen +hundred Palatines on it to produce naval stores.[82:1] But the attempt +soon failed; the Germans applied to the Indians on Schoharie Creek, a +branch of the Mohawk, for a grant of land and migrated there, only to +find that the governor had already granted the land. Again were the +villages broken up, some remaining and some moving farther up the +Mohawk, where they and accessions to their number established the +frontier settlements about Palatine Bridge, in the region where, in the +Revolution, Herkimer led these German frontiersmen to stem the British +attack in the battle of Oriskany. They constituted the most effective +military defense of Mohawk Valley. Still another portion took their way +across to the waters of the Susquehanna, and at Tulpehockon Creek began +an important center of German settlement in the Great Valley of +Pennsylvania.[82:2] + +The most important aspect of the history of the movement into the +frontier of New York at this period, therefore, was the evidence which +it afforded that in the competition for settlement between colonies +possessing a vast area of vacant land, those which imposed feudal +tenures and undemocratic restraints, and which exploited settlers, were +certain to lose. + +The manorial practice gave a bad name to New York as a region for +settlement, which not even the actual opportunities in certain parts of +the colony could counteract. The diplomacy of New York governors during +this period of the Old West, in securing a protectorate over the Six +Nations and a consequent claim to their territory, and in holding them +aloof from France, constituted the most effective contribution of that +colony to the movement of American expansion. When lands of these tribes +were obtained after Sullivan's expedition in the Revolution (in which +New England soldiers played a prominent part), it was by the New England +inundation into this interior that they were colonized. And it was under +conditions like those prevailing in the later years of the expansion of +settlements in New England itself, that this settlement of interior and +western New York was effected. + +The result was, that New York became divided into two distinct peoples: +the dwellers along Hudson Valley, and the Yankee pioneers of the +interior. But the settlement of central and western New York, like the +settlement of Vermont, is a story that belongs to the era in which the +trans-Alleghany West was occupied. + +We can best consider the settlement of the share of the Old West which +is located in Pennsylvania as a part of the migration which occupied the +Southern Uplands, and before entering upon this it will be advantageous +to survey that part of the movement toward the interior which proceeded +westward from the coast. First let us observe the conditions at the +eastern edge of these uplands, along the fall line in Virginia, in the +latter part of the seventeenth century, in order that the process and +the significance of the movement may be better understood. + +About the time of Bacon's Rebellion, in Virginia, strenuous efforts +were made to protect the frontier line which ran along the falls of the +river, against the attacks of Indians. This "fall line," as the +geographers call it, marking the head of navigation, and thus the +boundary of the maritime or lowland South, runs from the site of +Washington, through Richmond, and on to Raleigh, North Carolina, and +Columbia, South Carolina. Virginia having earliest advanced thus far to +the interior, found it necessary in the closing years of the seventeenth +century to draw a military frontier along this line. As early as 1675 a +statute was enacted,[84:1] providing that paid troops of five hundred +men should be drawn from the midland and most secure parts of the +country and placed on the "heads of the rivers" and other places +fronting upon the Indians. What was meant by the "heads of the rivers," +is shown by the fact that several of these forts were located either at +the falls of the rivers or just above tidewater, as follows: one on the +lower Potomac in Stafford County; one near the falls of the +Rappahannock; one on the Mattapony; one on the Pamunky; one at the falls +of the James (near the site of Richmond); one near the falls of the +Appomattox, and others on the Blackwater, the Nansemond, and the Accomac +peninsula, all in the eastern part of Virginia. + +Again, in 1679, similar provision was made,[84:2] and an especially +interesting act was passed, making _quasi_ manorial grants to Major +Lawrence Smith and Captain William Byrd, "to seate certain lands at the +head [falls] of Rappahannock and James river" respectively. This scheme +failed for lack of approval by the authorities in England.[84:3] But +Byrd at the falls of the James near the present site of Richmond, +Robert Beverley on the Rappahannock, and other frontier commanders on +the York and Potomac, continued to undertake colonial defense. The +system of mounted rangers was established in 1691, by which a +lieutenant, eleven soldiers, and two Indians at the "heads" or falls of +each great river were to scout for enemy,[85:1] and the Indian boundary +line was strictly defined. + +By the opening years of the eighteenth century (1701), the assembly of +Virginia had reached the conclusion that settlement would be the best +means of protecting the frontiers, and that the best way of "settling in +co-habitations upon the said land frontiers within this government will +be by encouragements to induce societies of men to undertake the +same."[85:2] It was declared to be inexpedient to have less than twenty +fighting men in each "society," and provision was made for a land grant +to be given to these societies (or towns) not less than 10,000 nor more +than 30,000 acres upon any of the frontiers, to be held in common by the +society. The power of ordering and managing these lands, and the +settling and planting of them, was to remain in the society. Virginia +was to pay the cost of survey, also quit-rents for the first twenty +years for the two-hundred-acre tract as the site of the "co-habitation." +Within this two hundred acres each member was to have a half-acre lot +for living upon, and a right to two hundred acres next adjacent, until +the thirty thousand acres were taken up. The members of the society +were exempt from taxes for twenty years, and from the requirements of +military duty except such as they imposed upon themselves. The +resemblance to the New England town is obvious. + +"Provided alwayes," ran the quaint statute, "and it is the true intent +and meaning of this act that for every five hundred acres of land to be +granted in pursuance of this act there shall be and shall be continually +kept upon the said land one christian man between sixteen and sixty +years of age perfect of limb, able and fitt for service who shall alsoe +be continually provided with a well fixed musquett or fuzee, a good +pistoll, sharp simeter, tomahawk and five pounds of good clean pistoll +powder and twenty pounds of sizable leaden bulletts or swan or goose +shott to be kept within the fort directed by this act besides the powder +and shott for his necessary or useful shooting at game. Provided also +that the said warlike christian man shall have his dwelling and +continual abode within the space of two hundred acres of land to be laid +out in a geometricall square or as near that figure as conveniency will +admit," etc. Within two years the society was required to cause a half +acre in the middle of the "co-habitation" to be palisaded "with good +sound pallisadoes at least thirteen foot long and six inches diameter in +the middle of the length thereof, and set double and at least three foot +within the ground." + +Such in 1701 was the idea of the Virginia tidewater assembly of a +frontiersman, and of the frontier towns by which the Old Dominion should +spread her population into the upland South. But the "warlike Christian +man" who actually came to furnish the firing line for Virginia, was +destined to be the Scotch-Irishman and the German with long rifle in +place of "fuzee" and "simeter," and altogether too restless to have his +continual abode within the space of two hundred acres. Nevertheless +there are points of resemblance between this idea of societies settled +about a fortified town and the later "stations" of Kentucky.[87:1] + +By the beginning of the eighteenth century the engrossing of the lands +of lowland Virginia had progressed so far, the practice of holding large +tracts of wasteland for reserves in the great plantations had become so +common, that the authorities of Virginia reported to the home government +that the best lands were all taken up,[87:2] and settlers were passing +into North Carolina seeking cheap lands near navigable rivers. Attention +was directed also to the Piedmont portions of Virginia, for by this time +the Indians were conquered in this region. It was now possible to +acquire land by purchase[87:3] at five shillings sterling for fifty +acres, as well as by head-rights for importation or settlement, and land +speculation soon turned to the new area. + +Already the Piedmont had been somewhat explored.[87:4] Even by the +middle of the seventeenth century, fur-traders had followed the trail +southwest from the James more than four hundred miles to the Catawbas +and later to the Cherokees. Col. William Byrd had, as we have seen, not +only been absorbing good lands in the lowlands, and defending his post +at the falls of the James, like a Count of the Border, but he also +engaged in this fur-trade and sent his pack trains along this trail +through the Piedmont of the Carolinas,[87:5] and took note of the rich +savannas of that region. Charleston traders engaged in rivalry for this +trade. + +It was not long before cattle raisers from the older settlements, +learning from the traders of the fertile plains and peavine pastures of +this land, followed the fur-traders and erected scattered "cow-pens" or +ranches beyond the line of plantations in the Piedmont. Even at the +close of the seventeenth century, herds of wild horses and cattle ranged +at the outskirts of the Virginia settlements, and were hunted by the +planters, driven into pens, and branded somewhat after the manner of the +later ranching on the Great Plains.[88:1] Now the cow-drovers and the +cow-pens[88:2] began to enter the uplands. The Indians had by this time +been reduced to submission in most of the Virginia Piedmont--as Governor +Spotswood[88:3] reported in 1712, living "quietly on our frontiers, +trafficking with the Inhabitants." + +After the defeat of the Tuscaroras and Yemassees about this time in the +Carolinas, similar opportunities for expansion existed there. The cattle +drovers sometimes took their herds from range to range; sometimes they +were gathered permanently near the pens, finding the range sufficient +throughout the year. They were driven to Charleston, or later sometimes +even to Philadelphia and Baltimore markets. By the middle of the +century, disease worked havoc with them in South Carolina[89:1] and +destroyed seven-eighths of those in North Carolina; Virginia made +regulations governing the driving of cattle through her frontier +counties to avoid the disease, just as in our own time the northern +cattlemen attempted to protect their herds against the Texas fever. + +Thus cattle raisers from the coast followed the fur-traders toward the +uplands, and already pioneer farmers were straggling into the same +region, soon to be outnumbered by the tide of settlement that flowed +into the region from Pennsylvania. + +The descriptions of the uplands by contemporaneous writers are in +glowing terms. Makemie, in his "Plain and Friendly Persuasion" (1705), +declared "The best, richest, and most healthy part of your Country is +yet to be inhabited, above the falls of every River, to the Mountains." +Jones, in his "Present State of Virginia" (1724), comments on the +convenience of tidewater transportation, etc., but declares that section +"not nearly so healthy as the uplands and Barrens which serve for Ranges +for Stock," although he speaks less enthusiastically of the savannas and +marshes which lay in the midst of the forest areas. In fact, the +Piedmont was by no means the unbroken forest that might have been +imagined, for in addition to natural meadows, the Indians had burned +over large tracts.[89:2] It was a rare combination of woodland and +pasture, with clear running streams and mild climate.[89:3] + +The occupation of the Virginia Piedmont received a special impetus from +the interest which Governor Spotswood took in the frontier. In 1710 he +proposed a plan for intercepting the French in their occupation of the +interior, by inducing Virginia settlement to proceed along one side of +James River only, until this column of advancing pioneers should strike +the attenuated line of French posts in the center. In the same year he +sent a body of horsemen to the top of the Blue Ridge, where they could +overlook the Valley of Virginia.[90:1] By 1714 he became active as a +colonizer himself. Thirty miles above the falls of the Rappahannock, on +the Rapidan at Germanna,[90:2] he settled a little village of German +redemptioners (who in return for having the passage paid agreed to serve +without wages for a term of years), to engage in his iron works, also to +act as rangers on the frontier. From here, in 1716, with two companies +of rangers and four Indians, Governor Spotswood and a band of Virginia +gentlemen made a summer picnic excursion of two weeks across the Blue +Ridge into the Shenandoah Valley. _Sic juvat transcendere montes_ was +the motto of these Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe, as the governor +dubbed them. But they were not the "warlike christian men" destined to +occupy the frontier. + +Spotswood's interest in the advance along the Rappahannock, probably +accounts for the fact that in 1720 Spotsylvania and Brunswick were +organized as frontier counties of Virginia.[91:1] Five hundred dollars +were contributed by the colony to the church, and a thousand dollars for +arms and ammunition for the settlers in these counties. The fears of the +French and Indians beyond the high mountains, were alleged as reasons +for this advance. To attract settlers to these new counties, they were +(1723) exempt from purchasing the lands under the system of head rights, +and from payment of quit-rents for seven years after 1721. The free +grants so obtained were not to exceed a thousand acres. This was soon +extended to six thousand acres, but with provision requiring the +settlement of a certain number of families upon the grant within a +certain time. In 1729 Spotswood was ordered by the Council to produce +"rights" and pay the quit-rents for the 59,786 acres which he claimed in +this county. + +Other similar actions by the Council show that large holdings were +developing there, also that the difficulty of establishing a frontier +democracy in contact with the area of expanding plantations, was very +real.[91:2] By the time of the occupation of the Shenandoah Valley, +therefore, the custom was established in this part of Virginia,[91:3] of +making grants of a thousand acres for each family settled. Speculative +planters, influential with the Governor and Council secured grants of +many thousand acres, conditioned upon seating a certain number of +families, and satisfying the requirements of planting. Thus what had +originally been intended as direct grants to the actual settler, +frequently became grants to great planters like Beverley, who promoted +the coming of Scotch-Irish and German settlers, or took advantage of +the natural drift into the Valley, to sell lands in their grants, as a +rule, reserving quit-rents. The liberal grants per family enabled these +speculative planters, while satisfying the terms of settlement, to hold +large portions of the grant for themselves. Under the lax requirements, +and probably still more lax enforcement, of the provisions for actual +cultivation or cattle-raising,[92:1] it was not difficult to hold such +wild land. These conditions rendered possible the extension of a measure +of aristocratic planter life in the course of time to the Piedmont and +Valley lands of Virginia. It must be added, however, that some of the +newcomers, both Germans and Scotch-Irish, like the Van Meters, Stover, +and Lewis, also showed an ability to act as promoters in locating +settlers and securing grants to themselves. + +In the northern part of the Shenandoah Valley, lay part of the estate of +Lord Fairfax, some six million acres in extent, which came to the family +by dower from the old Culpeper and Arlington grant of Northern Neck. In +1748, the youthful Washington was surveying this estate along the upper +waters of the Potomac, finding a bed under the stars and learning the +life of the frontier. + +Lord Fairfax established his own Greenway manor,[92:2] and divided his +domain into other manors, giving ninety-nine-year leases to settlers +already on the ground at twenty shillings annually per hundred acres; +while of the new-comers he exacted two shillings annual quit-rent for +this amount of land in fee simple. Litigation kept land titles uncertain +here, for many years. Similarly, Beverley's manor, about Staunton, +represented a grant of 118,000 acres to Beverley and his associates on +condition of placing the proper number of families on the tract.[93:1] +Thus speculative planters on this frontier shared in the movement of +occupation and made an aristocratic element in the up-country; but the +increasing proportion of Scotch-Irish immigrants, as well as German +settlers, together with the contrast in natural conditions, made the +interior a different Virginia from that of the tidewater. + +As settlement ascended the Rappahannock, and emigrants began to enter +the Valley from the north, so, contemporaneously, settlement ascended +the James above the falls, succeeding to the posts of the +fur-traders.[93:2] Goochland County was set off in 1728, and the growth +of population led, as early as 1729, to proposals for establishing a +city (Richmond) at the falls. Along the upper James, as on the +Rappahannock, speculative planters bought headrights and located +settlers and tenants to hold their grants.[93:3] Into this region came +natives of Virginia, emigrants from the British isles, and scattered +representatives of other lands, some of them coming up the James, others +up the York, and still others arriving with the southward-moving current +along both sides of the Blue Ridge. + +Before 1730 few settlers lived above the mouth of the Rivanna. In 1732 +Peter Jefferson patented a thousand acres at the eastern opening of its +mountain gap, and here, under frontier conditions, Thomas Jefferson was +born in 1743 near his later estate of Monticello. About him were pioneer +farmers, as well as foresighted engrossers of the land. In the main his +country was that of a democratic frontier people--Scotch-Irish +Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, and other sects,[94:1] out of +sympathy with the established church and the landed gentry of the +lowlands. This society in which he was born, was to find in Jefferson a +powerful exponent of its ideals.[94:2] Patrick Henry was born in 1736 +above the falls, not far from Richmond, and he also was a mouthpiece of +interior Virginia in the Revolutionary era. In short, a society was +already forming in the Virginia Piedmont which was composed of many +sects, of independent yeomen as well as their great planter leaders--a +society naturally expansive, seeing its opportunity to deal in +unoccupied lands along the frontier which continually moved toward the +West, and in this era of the eighteenth century dominated by the +democratic ideals of pioneers rather than by the aristocratic tendencies +of slaveholding planters. As there were two New Englands, so there were +by this time two Virginias, and the uplands belonged with the Old West. + +The advance across the fall line from the coast was, in North Carolina, +much slower than in Virginia. After the Tuscarora War (1712-13) an +extensive region west from Pamlico Sound was opened (1724). The region +to the north, about the Roanoke, had before this begun to receive +frontier settlers, largely from Virginia. Their traits are interestingly +portrayed in Byrd's "Dividing Line." By 1728 the farthest inhabitants +along the Virginia boundary were frontiersmen about Great Creek, a +branch of the Roanoke.[94:3] The North Carolina commissioners desired to +stop running the line after going a hundred and seventy miles, on the +plea that they were already fifty miles beyond the outermost inhabitant, +and there would be no need for an age or two to carry the line farther; +but the Virginia surveyors pointed out that already speculators were +taking up the land. A line from Weldon to Fayetteville would roughly +mark the western boundary of North Carolina's sparse population of forty +thousand souls.[95:1] + +The slower advance is explained, partly because of the later settlement +of the Carolinas, partly because the Indians continued to be troublesome +on the flanks of the advancing population, as seen in the Tuscarora and +Yemassee wars, and partly because the pine barrens running parallel with +the fall line made a zone of infertile land not attractive to settlers. +The North Carolina low country, indeed, had from the end of the +seventeenth century been a kind of southern frontier for overflow from +Virginia; and in many ways was assimilated to the type of the up-country +in its turbulent democracy, its variety of sects and peoples, and its +primitive conditions. But under the lax management of the public lands, +the use of "blank patents" and other evasions made possible the +development of large landholding, side by side with headrights to +settlers. Here, as in Virginia, a great proprietary grant extended +across the colony--Lord Granville's proprietary was a zone embracing the +northern half of North Carolina. Within the area, sales and quit-rents +were administered by the agents of the owner, with the result that +uncertainty and disorder of an agrarian nature extended down to the +Revolution. There were likewise great speculative holdings, conditioned +on seating a certain proportion of settlers, into which the frontiersmen +were drifting.[95:2] But this system also made it possible for agents of +later migrating congregations to establish colonies like that of the +Moravians at Wachovia.[95:3] Thus, by the time settlers came into the +uplands from the north, a land system existed similar to that of +Virginia. A common holding was a square mile (640 acres), but in +practice this did not prevent the accumulation of great estates.[96:1] +Whereas Virginia's Piedmont area was to a large extent entered by +extensions from the coast, that of North Carolina remained almost +untouched by 1730.[96:2] + +The same is true of South Carolina. By 1730, settlement had progressed +hardly eighty miles from the coast, even in the settled area of the +lowlands. The tendency to engross the lowlands for large plantations was +clear, here as elsewhere.[96:3] The surveyor-general reports in 1732 +that not as many as a thousand acres within a hundred miles of +Charleston, or within twenty miles of a river or navigable creek, were +unpossessed. In 1729 the crown ordered eleven townships of twenty +thousand acres each to be laid out in rectangles, divided into fifty +acres for each actual settler under a quit-rent of four shillings a year +for every hundred acres, or proportionally, to be paid after the first +ten years.[96:4] By 1732 these townships, designed to attract foreign +Protestants, were laid out on the great rivers of the colony. As they +were located in the middle region, east of the fall line, among pine +barrens, or in malarial lands in the southern corner of the colony, they +all proved abortive as towns, except Orangeburg[96:5] on the North +Edisto, where German redemptioners made a settlement. The Scotch-Irish +Presbyterians who came to Williamsburg, on Black River, suffered +hardships; as did the Swiss who, under the visionary leadership of +Purry, settled in the deadly climate of Purrysburg, on the lower +Savannah. To Welsh colonists from Pennsylvania there was made a +grant--known as the "Welsh tract," embracing over 173,000 acres on the +Great Pedee (Marion County)[97:1] under headrights of fifty acres, also +a bounty in provisions, tools, and livestock. + +These attempts, east of the fall line, are interesting as showing +the colonial policy of marking out towns (which were to be +politically-organized parishes, with representation in the legislature), +and attracting foreigners thereto, prior to the coming of settlers from +the North. + +The settlement of Georgia, in 1732, completed the southern line of +colonization toward the Piedmont. Among the objects of the colony, as +specified in the charters, were the relief of the poor and the +protection of the frontiers. To guard against the tendency to engross +the lands in great estates, already so clearly revealed in the older +colonies, the Georgia trustees provided that the grants of fifty acres +should not be alienated or divided, but should pass to the male heirs +and revert to the trustees in case heirs were lacking. No grant greater +than five hundred acres was permitted, and even this was made +conditionally upon the holder settling ten colonists. However, under +local conditions and the competition and example of neighboring +colonies, this attempt to restrict land tenure in the interest of +democracy broke down by 1750, and Georgia's land system became not +unlike that of the other Southern colonies.[97:2] + +In 1734, Salzburgers had been located above Savannah, and within seven +years some twelve hundred German Protestants were dwelling on the +Georgia frontier; while a settlement of Scotch Highlanders at Darien, +near the mouth of the Altamaha, protected the southern frontier. At +Augusta, an Indian trading fort (1735), whence the dealers in peltry +visited the Cherokee, completed the familiar picture of frontier +advance.[98:1] + +We have now hastily surveyed the movement of the frontier of settlement +westward from the lowlands, in the later years of the seventeenth and +early part of the eighteenth century. There is much that is common in +the whole line of advance. The original settlers engross the desirable +lands of the older area. Indented servants and new-comers pass to the +frontier seeking a place to locate their headrights, or plant new towns. +Adventurous and speculative wealthy planters acquire large holdings in +the new areas, and bring over settlers to satisfy the requirements of +seating and cultivating their extensive grants, thus building up a +yeomanry of small landholders side by side with the holders of large +estates. The most far-sighted of the new-comers follow the example of +the planters, and petition for increasing extensive grants. Meanwhile, +pioneers like Abraham Wood, himself once an indented servant, and +gentlemen like Col. William Byrd--prosecuting the Indian trade from +their posts at the "heads" of the rivers, and combining frontier +protection, exploring, and surveying--make known the more distant +fertile soils of the Piedmont. Already in the first part of the +eighteenth century, the frontier population tended to be a rude +democracy, with a large representation of Scotch-Irish, Germans, Welsh, +and Huguenot French settlers, holding religious faiths unlike that of +the followers of the established church in the lowlands. The movement of +slaves into the region was unimportant, but not unknown. + +The Virginia Valley was practically unsettled in 1730, as was much of +Virginia's Piedmont area and all the Piedmont area of the Carolinas. The +significance of the movement of settlers from the North into this vacant +Valley and Piedmont, behind the area occupied by expansion from the +coast is, that it was geographically separated from the westward +movement from the coast, and that it was sufficient in volume to recruit +the democratic forces and postpone for a long time the process of social +assimilation to the type of the lowlands. + +As has been pointed out, especially in the Carolinas a belt of pine +barrens, roughly eighty miles in breadth, ran parallel with the fall +line and thus discouraged western advance across this belt, even before +the head of navigation was reached. In Virginia, the Blue Ridge made an +almost equally effective barrier, walling off the Shenandoah Valley from +the westward advance. At the same time this valley was but a +continuation of the Great Valley, that ran along the eastern edge of the +Alleghanies in southeastern Pennsylvania, and included in its mountain +trough the Cumberland and Hagerstown valleys. In short, a broad +limestone band of fertile soil was stretched within mountain walls, +southerly from Pennsylvania to southwestern Virginia; and here the +watergaps opened the way to descend to the Carolina Piedmont. This whole +area, a kind of peninsula thrust down from Pennsylvania, was rendered +comparatively inaccessible to the westward movement from the lowlands, +and was equally accessible to the population which was entering +Pennsylvania.[99:1] + +Thus it happened that from about 1730 to 1760 a generation of settlers +poured along this mountain trough into the southern uplands, or +Piedmont, creating a new continuous social and economic area, which cut +across the artificial colonial boundary lines, disarranged the regular +extension of local government from the coast westward, and built up a +new Pennsylvania in contrast with the old Quaker colonies, and a new +South in contrast with the tidewater South. This New South composed the +southern half of the Old West. + +From its beginning, Pennsylvania was advertised as a home for dissenting +sects seeking freedom in the wilderness. But it was not until the exodus +of German redemptioners,[100:1] from about 1717, that the Palatinate and +neighboring areas sent the great tide of Germans which by the time of +the Revolution made them nearly a third of the total population of +Pennsylvania. It has been carefully estimated that in 1775 over 200,000 +Germans lived in the thirteen colonies, chiefly along the frontier zone +of the Old West. Of these, a hundred thousand had their home in +Pennsylvania, mainly in the Great Valley, in the region which is still +so notably the abode of the "Pennsylvania Dutch."[100:2] + +Space does not permit us to describe this movement of +colonization.[100:3] The entrance to the fertile limestone soils of the +Great Valley of Pennsylvania was easy, in view of the low elevation of +the South Mountain ridge, and the watergaps thereto. The continuation +along the similar valley to the south, in Maryland and Virginia, was a +natural one, especially as the increasing tide of emigrants raised the +price of lands.[100:4] In 1719 the proprietor's price for Pennsylvania +lands was ten pounds per hundred acres, and two shillings quit-rents. In +1732 this became fifteen and one-half pounds, with a quit-rent of a half +penny per acre.[101:1] During the period 1718 to 1732, when the Germans +were coming in great numbers, the management of the lands fell into +confusion, and many seated themselves as squatters, without +title.[101:2] This was a fortunate possibility for the poor +redemptioners, who had sold their service for a term of years in order +to secure their transportation to America. + +By 1726 it was estimated that there were 100,000 squatters;[101:3] and +of the 670,000 acres occupied between 1732 and 1740, it is estimated +that 400,000 acres were settled without grants.[101:4] Nevertheless +these must ultimately be paid for, with interest, and the concession of +the right of preemption to squatters made this easier. But it was not +until 1755 that the governor offered land free from purchase, and this +was to be taken only west of the Alleghanies.[101:5] + +Although the credit system relieved the difficulty in Pennsylvania, the +lands of that colony were in competition with the Maryland lands, +offered between 1717 and 1738 at forty shillings sterling per hundred +acres, which in 1738 was raised to five pounds sterling.[101:6] At the +same time, in the Virginia Valley, as will be recalled, free grants were +being made of a thousand acres per family. Although large tracts of the +Shenandoah Valley had been granted to speculators like Beverley, +Borden, and the Carters, as well as to Lord Fairfax, the owners sold +six or seven pounds cheaper per hundred acres than did the Pennsylvania +land office.[102:1] Between 1726 and 1734, therefore, the Germans began +to enter this valley,[102:2] and before long they extended their +settlements into the Piedmont of the Carolinas,[102:3] being recruited +in South Carolina by emigrants coming by way of Charleston--especially +after Governor Glenn's purchase from the Cherokee in 1755, of the +extreme western portion of the colony. Between 1750 and the Revolution, +these settlers in the Carolinas greatly increased in numbers. + +Thus a zone of almost continuous German settlements had been +established, running from the head of the Mohawk in New York to the +Savannah in Georgia. They had found the best soils, and they knew how to +till them intensively and thriftily, as attested by their large, +well-filled barns, good stock, and big canvas-covered Conestoga wagons. +They preferred to dwell in groups, often of the same religious +denomination--Lutherans, Reformed, Moravians, Mennonites, and many +lesser sects. The diaries of Moravian missionaries from Pennsylvania, +who visited them, show how the parent congregations kept in touch with +their colonies[102:4] and how intimate, in general, was the bond of +connection between this whole German frontier zone and that of +Pennsylvania. + +Side by side with this German occupation of Valley and Piedmont, went +the migration of the Scotch-Irish.[103:1] These lowland Scots had been +planted in Ulster early in the seventeenth century. Followers of John +Knox, they had the contentious individualism and revolutionary temper +that seem natural to Scotch Presbyterianism. They were brought up on the +Old Testament, and in the doctrine of government by covenant or compact. +In Ireland their fighting qualities had been revealed in the siege of +Londonderry, where their stubborn resistance balked the hopes of James +II. However, religious and political disabilities were imposed upon +these Ulstermen, which made them discontented, and hard times +contributed to detach them from their homes. Their movement to America +was contemporaneous with the heavy German migration. By the Revolution, +it is believed that a third of the population of Pennsylvania was +Scotch-Irish; and it has been estimated, probably too liberally, that a +half million came to the United States between 1730 and 1770.[103:2] +Especially after the Rebellion of 1745, large numbers of Highlanders +came to increase the Scotch blood in the nation.[103:3] Some of the +Scotch-Irish went to New England.[103:4] Given the cold shoulder by +congregational Puritans, they passed to unsettled lands about Worcester, +to the frontier in the Berkshires, and in southern New Hampshire at +Londonderry--whence came John Stark, a frontier leader in the French +and Indian War, and the hero of Bennington in the Revolution, as well as +the ancestors of Horace Greeley and S. P. Chase. In New York, a +Scotch-Irish settlement was planted on the frontier at Cherry +Valley.[104:1] Scotch Highlanders came to the Mohawk,[104:2] where they +followed Sir William Johnson and became Tory raiders in the Revolution. + +But it was in Pennsylvania that the center of Scotch-Irish power lay. +"These bold and indigent strangers, saying as their excuse when +challenged for titles that we had solicited for colonists and they had +come accordingly,"[104:3] and asserting that "it was against the laws of +God and nature that so much land should be idle while so many christians +wanted it to work on and to raise their bread," squatted on the vacant +lands, especially in the region disputed between Pennsylvania and +Maryland, and remained in spite of efforts to drive them off. Finding +the Great Valley in the hands of the Germans, they planted their own +outposts along the line of the Indian trading path from Lancaster to +Bedford; they occupied Cumberland Valley, and before 1760 pressed up the +Juniata somewhat beyond the narrows, spreading out along its +tributaries, and by 1768 had to be warned off from the Redstone country +to avoid Indian trouble. By the time of the Revolution, their +settlements made Pittsburgh a center from which was to come a new era in +Pennsylvania history. It was the Scotch-Irish and German +fur-traders[104:4] whose pack trains pioneered into the Ohio Valley in +the days before the French and Indian wars. The messengers between +civilization and savagery were such men,[105:1] as the Irish Croghan, +and the Germans Conrad Weiser and Christian Post. + +Like the Germans, the Scotch-Irish passed into the Shenandoah +Valley,[105:2] and on to the uplands of the South. In 1738 a delegation +of the Philadelphia Presbyterian synod was sent to the Virginia governor +and received assurances of security of religious freedom; the same +policy was followed by the Carolinas. By 1760 a zone of Scotch-Irish +Presbyterian churches extended from the frontiers of New England to the +frontiers of South Carolina. This zone combined in part with the German +zone, but in general Scotch-Irishmen tended to follow the valleys +farther toward the mountains, to be the outer edge of this frontier. +Along with this combined frontier stream were English, Welsh and Irish +Quakers, and French Huguenots.[105:3] + +Among this moving mass, as it passed along the Valley into the Piedmont, +in the middle of the eighteenth century, were Daniel Boone, John Sevier, +James Robertson, and the ancestors of John C. Calhoun, Abraham Lincoln, +Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, James K. Polk, Sam Houston, and Davy +Crockett, while the father of Andrew Jackson came to the Carolina +Piedmont at the same time from the coast. Recalling that Thomas +Jefferson's home was on the frontier, at the edge of the Blue Ridge, we +perceive that these names represent the militant expansive movement in +American life. They foretell the settlement across the Alleghanies in +Kentucky and Tennessee; the Louisiana Purchase, and Lewis and Clark's +transcontinental exploration; the conquest of the Gulf Plains in the +War of 1812-15; the annexation of Texas; the acquisition of California +and the Spanish Southwest. They represent, too, frontier democracy in +its two aspects personified in Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. It +was a democracy responsive to leadership, susceptible to waves of +emotion, of a "high religeous voltage"--quick and direct in action. + +The volume of this Northern movement into the Southern uplands is +illustrated by the statement of Governor Tryon, of North Carolina, that +in the summer and winter of 1765 more than a thousand immigrant wagons +passed through Salisbury, in that colony.[106:1] Coming by families, or +groups of families or congregations, they often drove their herds with +them. Whereas in 1746 scarce a hundred fighting men were found in Orange +and the western counties of North Carolina, there were in 1753 fully +three thousand, in addition to over a thousand Scotch in the Cumberland; +and they covered the province more or less thickly, from Hillsboro and +Fayetteville to the mountains.[106:2] Bassett remarks that the +Presbyterians received their first ministers from the synod of New York +and Pennsylvania, and later on sent their ministerial students to +Princeton College. "Indeed it is likely that the inhabitants of this +region knew more about Philadelphia at that time than about Newbern or +Edenton."[106:3] + +We are now in a position to note briefly, in conclusion, some of the +results of the occupation of this new frontier during the first half of +the eighteenth century--some of the consequences of this formation of +the Old West. + +I. A fighting frontier had been created all along the line from New +England to Georgia, which bore the brunt of French and Indian attacks +and gave indispensable service during the Revolution. The significance +of this fact could only be developed by an extended survey of the +scattered border warfare of this era. We should have to see Rogers +leading his New England Rangers, and Washington defending interior +Virginia with his frontiersmen in their hunting shirts, in the French +and Indian War. When all of the campaigns about the region of Canada, +Lake Champlain, and the Hudson, central New York (Oriskany, Cherry +Valley, Sullivan's expedition against the Iroquois), Wyoming Valley, +western Pennsylvania, the Virginia Valley, and the back country of the +South are considered as a whole from this point of view, the meaning of +the Old West will become more apparent. + +II. A new society had been established, differing in essentials from the +colonial society of the coast. It was a democratic self-sufficing, +primitive agricultural society, in which individualism was more +pronounced than the community life of the lowlands. The indented servant +and the slave were not a normal part of its labor system. It was engaged +in grain and cattle raising, not in producing staples, and it found a +partial means of supplying its scarcity of specie by the peltries which +it shipped to the coast. But the hunter folk were already pushing +farther on; the cow-pens and the range were giving place to the small +farm, as in our own day they have done in the cattle country. It was a +region of hard work and poverty, not of wealth and leisure. Schools and +churches were secured under serious difficulty,[107:1] if at all; but in +spite of the natural tendencies of a frontier life, a large portion of +the interior showed a distinctly religious atmosphere. + +III. The Old West began the movement of internal trade which developed +home markets and diminished that colonial dependence on Europe in +industrial matters shown by the maritime and staple-raising sections. +Not only did Boston and other New England towns increase as trading +centers when the back country settled up, but an even more significant +interchange occurred along the Valley and Piedmont. The German farmers +of the Great Valley brought their woven linen, knitted stockings, +firkins of butter, dried apples, grain, etc., to Philadelphia and +especially to Baltimore, which was laid out in 1730. To this city also +came trade from the Shenandoah Valley, and even from the Piedmont came +peltry trains and droves of cattle and hogs to the same market.[108:1] +The increase of settlement on the upper James resulted in the +establishment of the city of Richmond at the falls of the river in 1737. +Already the tobacco-planting aristocracy of the lowlands were finding +rivals in the grain-raising area of interior Virginia and Maryland. +Charleston prospered as the up-country of the Carolinas grew. Writing in +the middle of the eighteenth century, Governor Glenn, of South Carolina, +explained the apparent diminution of the colony's shipping thus:[108:2] + + Our trade with New York and Philadelphia was of this sort, + draining us of all the little money and bills that we could + gather from other places, for their bread, flour, beer, hams, + bacon, and other things of their produce, all which, except + beer, our new townships begin to supply us with which are + settled with very industrious and consequently thriving + Germans. + +It was not long before this interior trade produced those rivalries for +commercial ascendancy, between the coastwise cities, which still +continue. The problem of internal improvements became a pressing one, +and the statutes show increasing provision for roads, ferries, bridges, +river improvements, etc.[109:1] The basis was being laid for a national +economy, and at the same time a new source for foreign export was +created. + +IV. The Old West raised the issues of nativism and a lower standard of +comfort. In New England, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had been frowned +upon and pushed away by the Puritan townsmen.[109:2] In Pennsylvania, +the coming of the Germans and the Scotch-Irish in such numbers caused +grave anxiety. Indeed, a bill was passed to limit the importation of the +Palatines, but it was vetoed.[109:3] Such astute observers as Franklin +feared in 1753 that Pennsylvania would be unable to preserve its +language and that even its government would become precarious.[109:4] "I +remember," he declares, "when they modestly declined intermeddling in +our elections, but now they come in droves and carry all before them, +except in one or two counties;" and he lamented that the English could +not remove their prejudices by addressing them in German.[109:5] Dr. +Douglas[109:6] apprehended that Pennsylvania would "degenerate into a +foreign colony" and endanger the quiet of the adjacent provinces. Edmund +Burke, regretting that the Germans adhered to their own schools, +literature, and language, and that they possessed great tracts without +admixture of English, feared that they would not blend and become one +people with the British colonists, and that the colony was threatened +with the danger of being wholly foreign. He also noted that "these +foreigners by their industry, frugality, and a hard way of living, in +which they greatly exceed our people, have in a manner thrust them out +in several places."[110:1] This is a phenomenon with which a succession +of later frontiers has familiarized us. In point of fact the +"Pennsylvania Dutch" remained through our history a very stubborn area +to assimilate, with corresponding effect upon Pennsylvania politics. + +It should be noted also that this coming of non-English stock to the +frontier raised in all the colonies affected, questions of +naturalization and land tenure by aliens.[110:2] + +V. The creation of this frontier society--of which so large a portion +differed from that of the coast in language and religion as well as in +economic life, social structure, and ideals--produced an antagonism +between interior and coast, which worked itself out in interesting +fashion. In general this took these forms: contests between the +property-holding class of the coast and the debtor class of the +interior, where specie was lacking, and where paper money and a +readjustment of the basis of taxation were demanded; contests over +defective or unjust local government in the administration of taxes, +fees, lands, and the courts; contests over apportionment in the +legislature, whereby the coast was able to dominate, even when its white +population was in the minority; contests to secure the complete +separation of church and state; and, later, contests over slavery, +internal improvements, and party politics in general. These contests are +also intimately connected with the political philosophy of the +Revolution and with the development of American democracy. In nearly +every colony prior to the Revolution, struggles had been in progress +between the party of privilege, chiefly the Eastern men of property +allied with the English authorities, and the democratic classes, +strongest in the West and the cities. + +This theme deserves more space than can here be allotted to it; but a +rapid survey of conditions in this respect, along the whole frontier, +will at least serve to bring out the point. + +In New England as a whole, the contest is less in evidence. That part of +the friction elsewhere seen as the result of defective local government +in the back country, was met by the efficiency of the town system; but +between the interior and the coast there were struggles over +apportionment and religious freedom. The former is illustrated by the +convention that met in Dracut, Massachusetts, in 1776, to petition the +States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to relieve the financial +distress and unfair legislative representation. Sixteen of the border +towns of New Hampshire sent delegates to this convention. Two years +later, these New Hampshire towns attempted to join Vermont.[111:1] As a +Revolutionary State, Vermont itself was an illustration of the same +tendency of the interior to break away from the coast. Massachusetts in +this period witnessed a campaign between the paper money party which was +entrenched in the more recently and thinly-settled areas of the interior +and west, and the property-holding classes of the coast.[111:2] The +opposition to the constitutions of 1778 and 1780 is tinctured with the +same antagonism between the ideas of the newer part of the interior and +of the coast.[112:1] Shays' Rebellion and the anti-federal opposition of +1787-88 found its stronghold in the same interior areas.[112:2] + +The religious struggles continued until the democratic interior, where +dissenting sects were strong, and where there was antagonism to the +privileges of the congregational church, finally secured complete +disestablishment in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. But +this belongs to a later period.[112:3] + +Pennsylvania affords a clear illustration of these sectional +antagonisms. The memorial of the frontier "Paxton Boys," in 1764, +demanded a right to share in political privileges with the older part of +the colony, and protested against the apportionment by which the +counties of Chester, Bucks, and Philadelphia, together with the city of +Philadelphia, elected twenty-six delegates, while the five frontier +counties had but ten.[112:4] The frontier complained against the failure +of the dominant Quaker party of the coast to protect the interior +against the Indians.[112:5] The three old wealthy counties under Quaker +rule feared the growth of the West, therefore made few new counties, and +carefully restricted the representation in each to preserve the majority +in the old section. At the same time, by a property qualification they +met the danger of the democratic city population. Among the points of +grievance in this colony, in addition to apportionment and +representation, was the difficulty of access to the county seat, owing +to the size of the back counties. Dr. Lincoln has well set forth the +struggle of the back country, culminating in its triumph in the +constitutional convention of 1776, which was chiefly the work of the +Presbyterian counties.[113:1] Indeed, there were two revolutions in +Pennsylvania, which went on side by side: one a revolt against the +coastal property-holding classes, the old dominant Quaker party, and the +other a revolt against Great Britain, which was in this colony made +possible only by the triumph of the interior. + +In Virginia, as early as 1710, Governor Spotswood had complained that +the old counties remained small while the new ones were sometimes ninety +miles long, the inhabitants being obliged to travel thirty or forty +miles to their own court-house. Some of the counties had 1,700 +tithables, while others only a dozen miles square had 500. Justices of +the peace disliked to ride forty or fifty miles to their monthly courts. +Likewise there was disparity in the size of parishes--for example, that +of Varina, on the upper James, had nine hundred tithables, many of whom +lived fifty miles from their church. But the vestry refused to allow the +remote parishioners to separate, because it would increase the parish +levy of those that remained. He feared lest this would afford +"opportunity to Sectarys to establish their opinions among 'em, and +thereby shake that happy establishment of the Church of England which +this colony enjoys with less mixture of Dissenters than any other of her +Maj'tie's plantations, and when once Schism has crept into the Church, +it will soon create faction in the Civil Government." + +That Spotswood's fears were well founded, we have already seen. As the +sectaries of the back country increased, dissatisfaction with the +established church grew. After the Revolution came, Jefferson, with the +back country behind him, was able finally to destroy the establishment, +and to break down the system of entails and primogeniture behind which +the tobacco-planting aristocracy of the coast was entrenched. The desire +of Jefferson to see slavery gradually abolished and popular education +provided, is a further illustration of the attitude of the interior. In +short, Jeffersonian democracy, with its idea of separation of church and +state, its wish to popularize education, and its dislike for special +privilege, was deeply affected by the Western society of the Old +Dominion. + +The Virginian reform movement, however, was unable to redress the +grievance of unequal apportionment. In 1780 Jefferson pointed out that +the practice of allowing each county an equal representation in the +legislature gave control to the numerous small counties of the +tidewater, while the large populous counties of the up-country suffered. +"Thus," he wrote, "the 19,000 men below the falls give law to more than +30,000 living in other parts of the state, and appoint all their chief +officers, executive and judiciary."[114:1] This led to a long struggle +between coast and interior, terminated only when the slave population +passed across the fall line, and more nearly assimilated coast and +up-country. In the mountain areas which did not undergo this change, the +independent state of West Virginia remains as a monument of the contest. +In the convention of 1829-30, the whole philosophy of representation was +discussed, and the coast defended its control as necessary to protect +property from the assaults of a numerical majority. They feared that +the interior would tax their slaves in order to secure funds for +internal improvements. + +As Doddridge put the case:[115:1] + + The principle is that the owners of slave property must be + possessed of all the powers of government, however small their + own numbers may be, to secure that property from the rapacity + of an overgrown majority of white men. This principle admits + of no relaxation, because the weaker the minority becomes, the + greater will their need for power be according to their own + doctrines. + +Leigh of Chesterfield county declared:[115:2] + + It is remarkable--I mention it for the curiosity of the + fact--that if any evil, physical or moral, arise in any of the + states south of us, it never takes a northerly direction, or + taints the Southern breeze; whereas, if any plague originate + in the North, it is sure to spread to the South and to invade + us sooner or later; the influenza--the smallpox--the + varioloid--the Hessian fly--the Circuit Court + system--Universal Suffrage--all come from the North, _and they + always cross above the falls of the great rivers_; below, it + seems, the broad expanse of waters interposing, effectually + arrests their progress. + +Nothing could more clearly bring out the sense of contrast between +upland and lowland Virginia, and the continued intimacy of the bond of +connection between the North and its Valley and Piedmont colonies, than +this unconscious testimony. + +In North and South Carolina the upland South, beyond the pine barrens +and the fall line, had similar grievances against the coast; but as the +zone of separation was more strongly marked, the grievances were more +acute. The tide of backwoods settlement flowing down the Piedmont from +the north, had cut across the lines of local government and disarranged +the regular course of development of the colonies from the +seacoast.[116:1] Under the common practice, large counties in North +Carolina and parishes in South Carolina had been projected into the +unoccupied interior from the older settlements along their eastern edge. + +But the Piedmont settlers brought their own social order, and could not +be well governed by the older planters living far away toward the +seaboard. This may be illustrated by conditions in South Carolina. The +general court in Charleston had absorbed county and precinct courts, +except the minor jurisdiction of justices of the peace. This was well +enough for the great planters who made their regular residence there for +a part of each year; but it was a source of oppression to the up-country +settlers, remote from the court. The difficulty of bringing witnesses, +the delay of the law, and the costs all resulted in the escape of +criminals as well as in the immunity of reckless debtors. The extortions +of officials, and their occasional collusion with horse and cattle +thieves, and the lack of regular administration of the law, led the +South Carolina up-country men to take affairs in their own hands, and in +1764 to establish associations to administer lynch law under the name of +"Regulators." The "Scovillites," or government party, and the +Regulators met in arms on the Saluda in 1769, but hostilities were +averted and remedial measures passed, which alleviated the difficulty +until the Revolution.[117:1] There still remained, however, the +grievance of unjust legislative representation.[117:2] Calhoun stated +the condition in these words: + + The upper country had no representation in the government and + no political existence as a constituent portion of the state + until a period near the commencement of the revolution. + Indeed, during the revolution, and until the formation of the + present constitution, in 1790, its political weight was + scarcely felt in the government. Even then although it had + become the most populous section, power was so distributed + under the constitution as to leave it in a minority in every + department of government. + +Even in 1794 it was claimed by the up-country leaders that four-fifths +of the people were governed by one-fifth. Nor was the difficulty met +until the constitutional amendment of 1808, the effect of which was to +give the control of the senate to the lower section and of the house of +representatives to the upper section, thus providing a mutual +veto.[117:3] This South Carolina experience furnished the historical +basis for Calhoun's argument for nullification, and for the political +philosophy underlying his theory of the "concurrent majority."[118:1] +This adjustment was effected, however, only after the advance of the +black belt toward the interior had assimilated portions of the Piedmont +to lowland ideals. + +When we turn to North Carolina's upper country we find the familiar +story, but with a more tragic ending. The local officials owed their +selection to the governor and the council whom he appointed. Thus power +was all concentrated in the official "ring" of the lowland area. The men +of the interior resented the extortionate fees and the poll tax, which +bore with unequal weight upon the poor settlers of the back country. +This tax had been continued after sufficient funds had been collected to +extinguish the debt for which it was originally levied, but venal +sheriffs had failed to pay it into the treasury. A report of 1770 showed +at least one defaulting sheriff in every county of the province.[118:2] +This tax, which was almost the sole tax of the colony, was to be +collected in specie, for the warehouse system, by which staples might be +accepted, while familiar on the coast, did not apply to the interior. +The specie was exceedingly difficult to obtain; in lack of it, the +farmer saw the sheriff, who owed his appointment to the dominant lowland +planters, sell the lands of the delinquent to his speculative friends. +Lawyers and court fees followed. + +In short, the interior felt that it was being exploited,[118:3] and it +had no redress, for the legislature was so apportioned that all power +rested in the old lowland region. Efforts to secure paper money failed +by reason of the governor's opposition under instructions from the +crown, and the currency was contracting at the very time when population +was rapidly increasing in the interior.[119:1] As in New England, in the +days of Shays' Rebellion, violent prejudice existed against the +judiciary and the lawyers, and it must, of course, be understood that +the movement was not free from frontier dislike of taxation and the +restraints of law and order in general. In 1766 and 1768, meetings were +held in the upper counties to organize the opposition, and an +"association"[119:2] was formed, the members of which pledged themselves +to pay no more taxes or fees until they satisfied themselves that these +were agreeable to law. + +The Regulators, as they called themselves, assembled in the autumn of +1768 to the number of nearly four thousand, and tried to secure terms of +adjustment. In 1770 the court-house at Hillsboro was broken into by a +mob. The assembly passed some measures designed to conciliate the back +country; but before they became operative, Governor Tryon's militia, +about twelve hundred men, largely from the lowlands, and led by the +gentry whose privileges were involved, met the motley army of the +Regulators, who numbered about two thousand, in the battle of the +Alamance (May, 1771). Many were killed and wounded, the Regulators +dispersed, and over six thousand men came into camp and took the oath of +submission to the colonial authorities. The battle was not the first +battle of the Revolution, as it has been sometimes called, for it had +little or no relation to the stamp act; and many of the frontiersmen +involved, later refused to fight against England because of the very +hatred which had been inspired for the lowland Revolutionary leaders in +this battle of the Alamance. The interior of the Carolinas was a region +where neighbors, during the Revolution, engaged in internecine conflicts +of Tories against Whigs. + +But in the sense that the battle of Alamance was a conflict against +privilege, and for equality of political rights and power, it was indeed +a preliminary battle of the Revolution, although fought against many of +the very men who later professed Revolutionary doctrines in North +Carolina. The need of recognizing the importance of the interior led to +concessions in the convention of 1776 in that state. "Of the forty-four +sections of the constitution, thirteen are embodiments of reforms sought +by the Regulators."[120:1] But it was in this period that hundreds of +North Carolina backwoodsmen crossed the mountains to Tennessee and +Kentucky, many of them coming from the heart of the Regulator region. +They used the device of "associations" to provide for government in +their communities.[120:2] + +In the matter of apportionment, North Carolina showed the same lodgment +of power in the hands of the coast, even after population preponderated +in the Piedmont.[120:3] + +It is needless to comment on the uniformity of the evidence which has +been adduced, to show that the Old West, the interior region from New +England to Georgia, had a common grievance against the coast; that it +was deprived throughout most of the region of its due share of +representation, and neglected and oppressed in local government in large +portions of the section. The familiar struggle of West against East, of +democracy against privileged classes, was exhibited along the entire +line. The phenomenon must be considered as a unit, not in the fragments +of state histories. It was a struggle of interior against coast. + +VI. Perhaps the most noteworthy Western activity in the Revolutionary +era, aside from the aspects already mentioned, was in the part which the +multitude of sects in the Old West played in securing the great +contribution which the United States made to civilization by providing +for complete religious liberty, a secular state with free churches. +Particularly the Revolutionary constitutions of Pennsylvania and +Virginia, under the influence of the back country, insured religious +freedom. The effects of the North Carolina upland area to secure a +similar result were noteworthy, though for the time ineffective.[121:1] + +VII. As population increased in these years, the coast gradually yielded +to the up-country's demands. This may be illustrated by the transfer of +the capitals from the lowlands to the fall line and Valley. In 1779, +Virginia changed her seat of government from Williamsburg to Richmond; +in 1790, South Carolina, from Charleston to Columbia; in 1791, North +Carolina, from Edenton to Raleigh; in 1797, New York, from New York City +to Albany; in 1799, Pennsylvania, from Philadelphia to Lancaster. + +VIII. The democratic aspect of the new constitutions was also influenced +by the frontier as well as by the prevalent Revolutionary philosophy; +and the demands for paper money, stay and tender laws, etc., of this +period were strongest in the interior. It was this region that supported +Shays' Rebellion; it was (with some important exceptions) the same area +that resisted the ratification of the federal constitution, fearful of a +stronger government and of the loss of paper money. + +IX. The interior later showed its opposition to the coast by the +persistent contest against slavery, carried on in the up-country of +Virginia, and North and South Carolina. Until the decade 1830-40, it was +not certain that both Virginia and North Carolina would not find some +means of gradual abolition. The same influence accounts for much of the +exodus of the Piedmont pioneers into Indiana and Illinois, in the first +half of the nineteenth century.[122:1] + +X. These were the regions, also, in which were developed the desire of +the pioneers who crossed the mountains, and settled on the "Western +waters," to establish new States free from control by the lowlands, +owning their own lands, able to determine their own currency, and in +general to govern themselves in accordance with the ideals of the Old +West. They were ready also, if need be, to become independent of the Old +Thirteen. Vermont must be considered in this aspect, as well as Kentucky +and Tennessee.[122:2] + +XI. The land system of the Old West furnished precedents which developed +into the land system of the trans-Alleghany West.[122:3] The squatters +of Pennsylvania and the Carolinas found it easy to repeat the operation +on another frontier. Preemption laws became established features. The +Revolution gave opportunity to confiscate the claims of Lord Fairfax, +Lord Granville, and McCulloh to their vast estates, as well as the +remaining lands of the Pennsylvania proprietors. The 640 acre (or one +square mile) unit of North Carolina for preemptions, and frontier land +bounties, became the area awarded to frontier stations by Virginia in +1779, and the "section" of the later federal land system. The Virginia +preemption right of four hundred acres on the Western waters, or a +thousand for those who came prior to 1778, was, in substance, the +continuation of a system familiar in the Old West. + +The grants to Beverley, of over a hundred thousand acres in the Valley, +conditioned on seating a family for every thousand acres, and the +similar grants to Borden, Carter, and Lewis, were followed by the great +grant to the Ohio Company. This company, including leading Virginia +planters and some frontiersmen, asked in 1749 for two hundred thousand +acres on the upper Ohio, conditioned on seating a hundred families in +seven years, and for an additional grant of three hundred thousand acres +after this should be accomplished. It was proposed to settle Germans on +these lands. + +The Loyal Land Company, by order of the Virginia council (1749), was +authorized to take up eight hundred thousand acres west and north of the +southern boundary of Virginia, on condition of purchasing "rights" for +the amount within four years. The company sold many tracts for L3 per +hundred acres to settlers, but finally lost its claim. The Mississippi +Company, including in its membership the Lees, Washingtons, and other +great Virginia planters, applied for two and one-half million acres in +the West in 1769. Similar land companies of New England origin, like +the Susquehanna Company and Lyman's Mississippi Company, exhibit the +same tendency of the Old West on the northern side. New England's Ohio +Company of Associates, which settled Marietta, had striking resemblances +to town proprietors. + +These were only the most noteworthy of many companies of this period, +and it is evident that they were a natural outgrowth of speculations in +the Old West. Washington, securing military bounty land claims of +soldiers of the French and Indian War, and selecting lands in West +Virginia until he controlled over seventy thousand acres for +speculation, is an excellent illustration of the tendency. He also +thought of colonizing German Palatines upon his lands. The formation of +the Transylvania and Vandalia companies were natural developments on a +still vaster scale.[124:1] + +XII. The final phase of the Old West, which I wish merely to mention, in +conclusion, is its colonization of areas beyond the mountains. The +essential unity of the movement is brought out by a study of how New +England's Old West settled northern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, +the Adirondacks, central and Western New York, the Wyoming Valley (once +organized as a part of Litchfield, Connecticut), the Ohio Company's +region about Marietta, and Connecticut's Western Reserve on the shores +of Lake Erie; and how the pioneers of the Great Valley and the Piedmont +region of the South crossed the Alleghanies and settled on the Western +Waters. Daniel Boone, going from his Pennsylvania home to the Yadkin, +and from the Yadkin to Tennessee and Kentucky, took part in the whole +process, and later in its continuation into Missouri.[124:2] The social +conditions and ideals of the Old West powerfully shaped those of the +trans-Alleghany West. + +The important contrast between the spirit of individual colonization, +resentful of control, which the Southern frontiersmen showed, and the +spirit of community colonization and control to which the New England +pioneers inclined, left deep traces on the later history of the +West.[125:1] The Old West diminished the importance of the town as a +colonizing unit, even in New England. In the Southern area, efforts to +legislate towns into existence, as in Virginia, South Carolina, and +Georgia, failed. They faded away before wilderness conditions. But in +general, the Northern stream of migration was communal, and the Southern +individual. The difference which existed between that portion of the Old +West which was formed by the northward colonization, chiefly of the New +England Plateau (including New York), and that portion formed by the +southward colonization of the Virginia Valley and the Southern Piedmont +was reflected in the history of the Middle West and the Mississippi +Valley.[125:2] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[67:1] _Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for +1908._ Reprinted with the permission of the Society. + +[68:1] For the settled area in 1660, see the map by Lois Mathews in +Channing, "United Stales" (N. Y., 1905), i, p. 510; and by Albert Cook +Myers in Avery, "United States" (Cleveland, 1905), ii, following p. 398. +In Channing, ii, following p. 603, is Marion F. Lansing's map of +settlement in 1760, which is on a rather conservative basis, especially +the part showing the interior of the Carolinas. + +Contemporaneous maps of the middle of the eighteenth century, useful in +studying the progress of settlement, are: Mitchell, "Map of the British +Colonies" (1755); Evans, "Middle British Colonies" (1758); Jefferson and +Frye, "Map of Virginia" (1751 and 1755). + +On the geographical conditions, see maps and text in Powell, +"Physiographic Regions" (N. Y., 1896), and Willis, "Northern +Appalachians," in "Physiography of the United States" (N. Y., 1896), pp. +73-82, 169-176, 196-201. + +[70:1] See Osgood, "American Colonies" (N. Y., 1907), iii, chap. iii. + +[70:2] See chapter ii, _ante_. + +[70:3] Sheldon, "Deerfield" (Deerfield, Mass., 1895), i, p. 288. + +[70:4] Parkman, "Frontenac" (Boston, 1898), p. 390; compare his +description of Deerfield in 1704, in "Half Century of Conflict" (Boston, +1898), i, p. 55. + +[72:1] Hanna, "Scotch Irish" (N. Y. and London, 1902), ii, pp. 17-24. + +[72:2] "Half Century of Conflict," ii, pp. 214-234. + +[72:3] "American Husbandry" (London, 1775), i, p. 47. + +[73:1] For the extent of New England settlements in 1760, compared with +1700, see the map in Channing, "United States," ii, at end of volume. + +[74:1] Schafer, "Land Grants for Education," Univ. of Wis. _Bulletin_ +(Madison, 1902), chap. iv. + +[75:1] On New England's land system see Osgood, "American Colonies" (N. +Y., 1904), i, chap. xi; and Egleston, "Land System of the New England +Colonies," Johns Hopkins Univ. _Studies_ (Baltimore, 1886), iv. Compare +the account of Virginia, about 1696, in "Mass. Hist. Colls." (Boston, +1835), 1st series, v, p. 129, for a favorable view of the New England +town system; and note the probable influence of New England's system +upon Virginia's legislation about 1700. See chapter ii, _ante_. + +[76:1] Amelia C. Ford, "Colonial Precedents of our National Land +System," citing Massachusetts Bay, House of Rep. "Journal," 1715, pp. 5, +22, 46; Hutchinson, "History of Massachusetts Bay" (London, 1768), ii, +p. 331; Holland, "Western Massachusetts" (Springfield, 1855), pp. 66, +169. + +[76:2] "Conn. Colon. Records" (Hartford, 1874), viii, p. 134. + +[77:1] Holland, "Western Massachusetts," p. 197. See the comments of +Hutchinson in his "History of Massachusetts Bay," ii, pp. 331, 332. +Compare the steps of Connecticut men in 1753 and 1755 to secure a land +grant in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, for the Susquehanna Company, and +the Connecticut governor's remark that there was no unappropriated land +in the latter colony--"Pa. Colon. Records" (Harrisburg, 1851), v, p. +771; "Pa. Archives," 2d series, xviii, contains the important documents, +with much valuable information on the land system of the Wyoming Valley +region. See also General Lyman's projects for a Mississippi colony in +the Yazoo delta area--all indicative of the pressure for land and the +speculative spirit. + +[78:1] Compare Vermont's dealings with the British, and the negotiations +of Kentucky and Tennessee leaders with Spaniards and British. See _Amer. +Hist. Review_, i, p. 252, note 2, for references on Vermont's +Revolutionary philosophy and influence. + +[79:1] See H. C. Emery, "Artemas Jean Haynes" (New Haven, 1908), pp. +8-10. + +[80:1] Ballagh, in Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," 1897, p. 110. + +[80:2] "N. Y. Colon. Docs," vii, pp. 654, 795. + +[81:1] Becker, in _Amer. Hist. Review_, vi, p. 261. + +[81:2] Becker, _loc. cit._ For maps of grants in New York, see +O'Callaghan, "Doc. Hist. of N. Y." (Albany, 1850), i, pp. 421, 774; +especially Southier, "Chorographical Map of New York"; Winsor, +"America," v, p. 236. In general on these grants, consult also "Doc. +Hist. of N. Y.," i, pp. 249-257; "N. Y. Colon. Docs.," iv, pp. 397, 791, +874; v, pp. 459, 651, 805; vi, pp. 486, 549, 743, 876, 950; Kip, "Olden +Time" (N. Y., 1872), p. 12; Scharf, "History of Westchester County" +(Phila., 1886), i, p. 91; Libby, "Distribution of Vote on Ratification +of Constitution" (Madison, 1894), pp. 21-25. + +For the region of the Wallkill, including New Paltz, etc., see Eager, +"Outline History of Orange County, New York" (Newburgh, 1846-47); and +Ruttenber and Clark, "History of Orange County" (Phila., 1881), pp. +11-20. On Cherry Valley and upper Susquehanna settlements, in general, +in New York, see Halsey, "Old New York Frontier," pp. 5, 119, and the +maps by De Witt and Southier in O'Callaghan, "Doc. Hist. of N. Y.," i, +pp. 421, 774. + +Note the French Huguenots and Scotch-Irish in Orange County, and the +Scotch-Irish settlers of Cherry Valley and their relation to +Londonderry, N. H., as well as the missionary visits from Stockbridge, +Mass., to the upper Susquehanna. + +[82:1] Lord, "Industrial Experiments" (Baltimore, 1898), p. 45; +Diffenderfer, "German Exodus" (Lancaster, Pa., 1897). + +[82:2] See _post_. + +[84:1] Hening, "Va. Statutes at Large" (N. Y., 1823), ii, p. 326. + +[84:2] _Ibid._, p. 433. + +[84:3] Bassett, "Writings of William Byrd" (N. Y., 1901), p. xxi. + +[85:1] Hening, iii, p. 82. Similar acts were passed almost annually in +successive years of the seventeenth century; cf. _loc. cit._, _pp._ 98, +115, 119, 126, 164; the system was discontinued in 1722--see Beverley, +"Virginia and its Government" (London, 1722), p. 234. + +It is interesting to compare the recommendation of Governor Dodge for +Wisconsin Territory in 1836--see Wis. Terr. House of Reps. "Journal," +1836, pp. 11 _et seq._ + +[85:2] Hening, iii, pp. 204-209. + +[87:1] Compare the law of 1779 in "Va. Revised Code" (1819), ii, p. 357; +Ranck's "Boonesborough" (Louisville, 1901). + +[87:2] Bassett, "Writings of Byrd," p. xii; "Calendar of British State +Papers, Am. and W. I.," 1677-80 (London, 1896), p. 168. + +[87:3] Bassett, _loc. cit._, p. x, and Hening, iii, p. 304 (1705). + +[87:4] [See Alvord and Bidgood, "First Explorations of the +Trans-Allegheny Region."] + +[87:5] Bassett, "Writings of Byrd," pp. xvii, xviii, quotes Byrd's +description of the trail; Logan, "Upper South Carolina" (Columbia, +1859), i, p. 167; Adair describes the trade somewhat later; cf. Bartram, +"Travels" (London, 1792), _passim_, and Monette, "Mississippi Valley" +(N. Y., 1846), ii, p. 13. + +[88:1] Bruce, "Economic Hist. of Va." (N. Y., 1896), i, pp. 473, 475, +477. + +[88:2] See descriptions of cow-pens in Logan, "History of Upper S. C.," +i, p. 151; Bartram, "Travels," p. 308. On cattle raising generally in +the Piedmont, see: Gregg, "Old Cheraws" (N. Y., 1867), pp. 68, 108-110; +Salley, "Orangeburg" (Orangeburg, 1898), pp. 219-221; Lawson, "New +Voyage to Carolina" (Raleigh, 1860), p. 135; Ramsay, "South Carolina" +(Charleston, 1809), i, p. 207; J. F. D. Smyth, "Tour" (London, 1784), i, +p. 143, ii, pp. 78, 97; Foote, "Sketches of N. C." (N. Y., 1846), p. 77; +"N. C. Colon. Records" (Raleigh, 1887), v, pp. xli, 1193, 1223; +"American Husbandry" (London, 1775), i, pp. 336, 350, 384; Hening, v. +pp. 176, 245. + +[88:3] Spotswood, "Letters" (Richmond, 1882), i, p. 167; compare _Va. +Magazine_, iii, pp. 120, 189. + +[89:1] "N. C. Colon. Records," v, p. xli. + +[89:2] Lawson, "Carolina" (Raleigh, 1860), gives a description early in +the eighteenth century; his map is reproduced in Avery, "United States" +(Cleveland, 1907), iii, p. 224. + +[89:3] The advantages and disadvantages of the Piedmont region of the +Carolinas in the middle of the eighteenth century are illustrated in +Spangenburg's diary, in "N. C. Colon. Records," v, pp. 6, 7, 13, 14. +Compare "American Husbandry," i, pp. 220, 332, 357, 388. + +[90:1] Spotswood, "Letters," i, p. 40. + +[90:2] On Germanna see Spotswood, "Letters" (index); Fontaine's journal +in A. Maury, "Huguenot Family" (1853), p. 268; Jones, "Present State of +Virginia" (N. Y., 1865), p. 59; Bassett, "Writings of Byrd," p. 356; +_Va. Magazine_, xiii, pp. 362, 365; vi, p. 385; xii, pp. 342, 350; xiv, +p. 136. + +Spotswood's interest in the Indian trade on the southern frontier of +Virginia is illustrated in his fort Christanna, on which the above +references afford information. + +The contemporaneous account of Spotswood's expedition into Shenandoah +Valley is Fontaine's journey, cited above. + +[91:1] See the excellent paper by C. E. Kemper, in _Va. Magazine_, xii, +on "Early Westward Movement in Virginia." + +[91:2] Compare Phillips, "Origin and Growth of the Southern Black +Belts," in _Amer. Hist. Review_, xi, p. 799. + +[91:3] _Va. Magazine_, xiii, p. 113. + +[92:1] "Revised Code of Virginia" (Richmond, 1819), ii, p. 339. + +[92:2] _Mag. Amer. Hist._, xiii, pp. 217, 230; Winsor, "Narr. and Crit. +Hist. of America," v, p. 268; Kercheval, "The Valley" (Winchester, Va., +1833), pp. 67, 209; _Va. Magazine_, xiii, p. 115. + +[93:1] "William and Mary College Quarterly" (Williamsburg, 1895), iii, +p. 226. See Jefferson and Frye, "Map of Virginia, 1751," for location of +this and Borden's manor. + +[93:2] Brown, "The Cabells" (Boston, 1895), p. 53. + +[93:3] _Loc. cit._, pp. 57, 66. + +[94:1] Meade, "Old Churches" (Phila., 1861), 2 vols.; Foote, "Sketches" +(Phila., 1855); Brown, "The Cabells," p. 68. + +[94:2] _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. xci, pp. 83 _et seq._; Ford, "Writing of +Thomas Jefferson" (N. Y., 1892), i, pp. xix _et seq._ + +[94:3] Byrd, "Dividing Line" (Richmond, 1866), pp. 85, 271. + +[95:1] "N. C. Colon. Records," iii, p. xiii. Compare Hawks, "Hist. of +North Carolina" (Fayetteville, 1859), map of precincts, 1663-1729. + +[95:2] Raper, "North Carolina" (N. Y., 1904), chap. v; W. R. Smith, +"South Carolina" (N. Y., 1903), pp. 48, 57. + +[95:3] Clewell, "Wachovia" (N. Y., 1902). + +[96:1] Ballagh, in Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," 1897, pp. 120, 121, +citing Bassett, in "Law Quarterly Review," April, 1895, pp. 159-161. + +[96:2] See map in Hawks, "North Carolina." + +[96:3] McCrady, "South Carolina," 1719-1776 (N. Y., 1899), pp. 149, 151; +Smith, "South Carolina," p. 40; Ballagh, in Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," +1897, pp. 117-119; Brevard, "Digest of S. C. Laws" (Charleston, 1857), +i, p. xi. + +[96:4] McCrady, "South Carolina," pp. 121 _et seq._; Phillips, +"Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt" (N. Y., 1908), p. 51. + +[96:5] This was not originally provided for among the eleven towns. For +its history see Salley, "Orangeburg"--frontier conditions about 1769 are +described on pp. 219 _et seq._; see map opposite p. 9. + +[97:1] Gregg, "Old Cheraws," p. 44. + +[97:2] Ballagh, _loc. cit._, pp. 119, 120. + +[98:1] Compare the description of Georgia frontier traders, cattle +raisers, and land speculators, about 1773, in Bartram, "Travels," pp. +18, 36, 308. + +[99:1] See Willis, "Northern Appalachians," in "Physiography of the U. +S." in National Geog. Soc. "Monographs" (N. Y., 1895), no. 6. + +[100:1] Diffenderfer, "German Immigration into Pennsylvania," in Pa. +German Soc. "Proc.," v, p. 10; "Redemptioners" (Lancaster, Pa., 1900). + +[100:2] A. B. Faust, "German Element in the United States." + +[100:3] See the bibliographies in Kuhns, "German and Swiss Settlements +of Pennsylvania" (N. Y., 1901); Wayland, "German Element of the +Shenandoah Valley" (N. Y., 1908); Channing, "United States," ii, p. 421; +Griffin, "List of Works Relating to the Germans in the U. S." (Library +of Congress, Wash., 1904). + +[100:4] See in illustration, the letter in Myers, "Irish Quakers" +(Swarthmore, Pa., 1902), p. 70. + +[101:1] Shepherd, "Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania" (N. Y., +1896), p. 34. + +[101:2] Gordon, "Pennsylvania" (Phila., 1829), p. 225. + +[101:3] Shepherd, _loc. cit._, pp. 49-51. + +[101:4] Ballagh, Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," 1897, pp. 112, 113. +Compare Smith, "St. Clair Papers" (Cincinnati, 1882), ii, p. 101. + +[101:5] Shepherd, _loc. cit._, p. 50. + +[101:6] Mereness, "Maryland" (N. Y., 1901), p. 77. + +[102:1] "Calendar Va. State Papers" (Richmond, 1875), i, p. 217; on +these grants see Kemper, "Early Westward Movement in Virginia" in _Va. +Mag._, xii and xiii; Wayland, "German Element of the Shenandoah Valley," +_William and Mary College Quarterly_, iii. The speculators, both +planters and new-comers, soon made application for lands beyond the +Alleghanies. + +[102:2] In 1794 the Virginia House of Delegates resolved to publish the +most important laws of the state in German. + +[102:3] See Bernheim, "German Settlements in the Carolinas" (Phila., +1872); Clewell, "Wachovia"; Allen, "German Palatines in N. C." (Raleigh, +1905). + +[102:4] See Wayland, _loc. cit._, bibliography, for references; and +especially _Va. Mag._, xi, pp. 113, 225, 370; xii, pp. 55, 134, 271; +"German American Annals," N. S. iii, pp. 342, 369; iv, p. 16; Clewell, +"Wachovia; N. C. Colon. Records," v, pp. 1-14. + +[103:1] On the Scotch-Irish, see the bibliography in Green, +"Scotch-Irish in America," Amer. Antiquarian Soc. "Proceedings," April, +1895; Hanna, "Scotch-Irish" (N. Y., 1902), is a comprehensive +presentation of the subject; see also Myers, "Irish Quakers." + +[103:2] Fiske, "Old Virginia" (Boston, 1897), ii, p. 394. Compare +Linehan, "The Irish Scots and the Scotch-Irish" (Concord, N. H., 1902). + +[103:3] See MacLean, "Scotch Highlanders in America" (Cleveland, 1900). + +[103:4] Hanna, "Scotch-Irish," ii, pp. 17-24. + +[104:1] Halsey, "Old New York Frontier" (N. Y., 1901). + +[104:2] MacLean, pp. 196-230. + +[104:3] The words of Logan, Penn's agent, in 1724, in Hanna, ii, pp. 60, +63. + +[104:4] Winsor, "Mississippi Basin" (Boston, 1895), pp. 238-243. + +[105:1] See Thwaites, "Early Western Travels" (Cleveland, 1904-06), i; +Walton, "Conrad Weiser" (Phila., 1900); Heckewelder, "Narrative" +(Phila., 1820). + +[105:2] Christian, "Scotch-Irish Settlers in the Valley of Virginia" +(Richmond, 1860). + +[105:3] Roosevelt gives an interesting picture of this society in his +"Winning of the West" (N. Y., 1889-96), i, chap. v; see also his +citations, especially Doddridge, "Settlements and Indian Wars" +(Wellsburgh, W. Va., 1824). + +[106:1] Bassett, in Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," 1894, p. 145. + +[106:2] "N. C. Colon. Records," v, pp. xxxix, xl; _cf._ p. xxi. + +[106:3] _Loc. cit._, pp. 146, 147. + +[107:1] See the interesting account of Rev. Moses Waddell's school in +South Carolina, on the upper Savannah, where the students, including +John C. Calhoun, McDuffe, Legare, and Petigru, were educated in the +wilderness. They lived in log huts in the woods, furnished their own +supplies, or boarded near by, were called to the log school-house by +horn for morning prayers, and then scattered in groups to the woods for +study. Hunt, "Calhoun" (Phila., 1907), p. 13. + +[108:1] Scharf, "Maryland" (Baltimore, 1879), ii, p. 61, and chaps. i +and xviii; Kercheval, "The Valley." + +[108:2] Weston, "Documents," p. 82. + +[109:1] See, for example, Phillips, "Transportation in the Eastern +Cotton Belt," pp. 21-53. + +[109:2] Hanna, "Scotch-Irish," ii, pp. 19, 22-24. + +[109:3] Cobb, "Story of the Palatines" (Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 1897), p. +300, citing "Penn. Colon. Records," iv, pp. 225, 345. + +[109:4] "Works" (Bigelow ed.), ii, pp. 296-299. + +[109:5] _Ibid._, iii, p. 297; _cf._ p. 221. + +[109:6] "Summary" (1755), ii, p. 326. + +[110:1] "European Settlements" (London, 1793), ii, p. 200 (1765); _cf._ +Franklin, "Works" (N. Y., 1905-07), ii, p. 221, to the same effect. + +[110:2] Proper, "Colonial Immigration Laws," in Columbia Univ., +"Studies," xii. + +[111:1] Libby, "Distribution of the Vote on the Federal Constitution," +Univ. of Wis. _Bulletin_, pp. 8, 9, and citations. Note especially "New +Hampshire State Papers," x, pp. 228 _et seq._ + +[111:2] Libby, _loc. cit._, pp. 12-14, 46, 54-57. + +[112:1] Farrand, in _Yale Review_, May, 1908, p. 52 and citation. + +[112:2] Libby, _loc. cit._ + +[112:3] See Turner, "Rise of the New West" (Amer. Nation series, N. Y., +1906), pp. 16-18. + +[112:4] Parkman, "Pontiac" (Boston, 1851), ii, p. 352. + +[112:5] Shepherd, "Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania," in Columbia +Univ. _Studies_, vi, pp. 546 _et seq._ Compare Watson, "Annals," ii, p. +259; Green, "Provincial America" (Amer. Nation series, N. Y., 1905), p. +234. + +[113:1] Lincoln, "Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania" (Boston, +1901); McMaster and Stone, "Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution" +(Lancaster, 1888). + +[114:1] "Notes on Virginia." See his table of apportionment in Ford, +"Writings of Thomas Jefferson," iii, p. 222. + +[115:1] "Debates of the Virginia State Convention, 1829-1830" (Richmond, +1854), p. 87. These debates constitute a mine of material on the +difficulty of reconciling the political philosophy of the Revolution +with the protection of the property, including slaves, of the lowland +planters. + +[115:2] _Loc. cit._, p. 407. The italics are mine. + +[116:1] McCrady, "South Carolina, 1719-1776," p. 623. + +[117:1] Brevard, "Digest of S. C. Laws," i, pp. xxiv, 253; McCrady, +"South Carolina, 1719-1776," p. 637; Schaper, "Sectionalism in South +Carolina," in Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," 1900, i, pp. 334-338. + +[117:2] Schaper, _loc. cit._, pp. 338, 339; Calhoun, "Works" (N. Y., +1851-59), i, p. 402; _Columbia_ (S. C.) _Gazette_, Aug. 1, 1794; Ramsay, +"South Carolina," pp. 64-66, 195, 217; Elliot, "Debates," iv, pp. 288, +289, 296-299, 305, 309, 312. + +[117:3] Schaper, _loc. cit._, pp. 440-447 _et seq._ + +[118:1] Turner, "Rise of the New West," pp. 50-52, 331; Calhoun, +"Works," i, pp. 400-405. + +[118:2] "N. C. Colon. Records," vii, pp. xiv-xvii. + +[118:3] See Bassett, "Regulators of N. C." in Amer. Hist. Assoc. +"Report," 1894, pp. 141 (bibliog.) _et seq._; "N. C. Colon. Records," +pp. vii-x (Saunder's introductions are valuable); Caruthers, "David +Caldwell" (Greensborough, N. C., 1842); Waddell, "Colonial Officer" +(Raleigh, 1890); M. De L. Haywood, "Governor William Tryon" (Raleigh, N. +C., 1903); Clewell, "Wachovia," chap. x; W. E. Fitch, "Some Neglected +History of N. C." (N. Y., 1905); L. A. McCorkle and F. Nash, in "N. C. +Booklet" (Raleigh, 1901-07), iii; Wheeler, "North Carolina," ii, pp. 301 +_et seq._; Cutter, "Lynch Law," chap. ii. and iii. + +[119:1] Bassett, _loc. cit._, p. 152. + +[119:2] Wheeler, "North Carolina," ii, pp. 301-306; "N. C. Colon. +Records," vii, pp. 251, 699. + +[120:1] "N. C. Colon. Records," viii, p. xix. + +[120:2] Turner, in _Amer. Hist. Review_, i, p. 76. + +[120:3] "N. C. Colon. Records," vii, pp. xiv-xxiv. + +[121:1] Weeks, "Church and State in North Carolina" (Baltimore, 1893); +"N. C. Colon. Records," x, p. 870; Curry, "Establishment and +Disestablishment" (Phila., 1889); C. F. James, "Documentary History of +the Struggle for Religious Liberty in Virginia" (Lynchburg, Va., 1900); +Semple, "The Virginia Baptists" (Richmond, 1810); Amer. Hist. Assoc. +"Papers," ii, p. 21; iii, pp. 205, 213. + +[122:1] See Ballagh, "Slavery in Virginia," Johns Hopkins Univ. +"Studies," extra, xxiv; Bassett, "Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of +North Carolina," _Id._, xiv, pp. 169-254; Bassett, "Slavery in the State +of North Carolina," _Id._, xvii; Bassett, "Antislavery Leaders in North +Carolina," _Id._, xvi; Weeks, "Southern Quakers," _Id._, xv, extra; +Schaper, "Sectionalism in South Carolina," Amer. Hist. Assoc. "Report," +1900; Turner, "Rise of the New West," pp. 54-56, 76-78, 80, 90, 150-152. + +[122:2] See F. J. Turner, "State-Making in the West During the +Revolutionary Era," in _American Historical Review_, i, p. 70. + +[122:3] Hening, x, p. 35; "Public Acts of N. C.," i, pp. 204, 306; +"Revised Code of Va., 1819," ii, p. 357; Roosevelt, "Winning of the +West," i, p. 261; ii, pp. 92, 220. + +[124:1] Alden, "New Governments West of the Alleghanies" (Madison, +1897), gives an account of these colonies. [See the more recent work by +C. W. Alvord, "The Mississippi Valley in British Politics, 1763-1774" +(1917).] + +[124:2] Thwaites, "Daniel Boone" (N. Y., 1902); [A. Henderson, "Conquest +of the Old Southwest" (N. Y., 1920), brings out the important share of +up-country men of means in promoting colonization]. + +[125:1] Turner, in "Alumni Quarterly of the University of Illinois," ii, +133-136. + +[125:2] [It has seemed best in this volume not to attempt to deal with +the French frontier or the Spanish-American frontier. Besides the works +of Parkman, a multitude of monographs have appeared in recent years +which set the French frontier in new light; and for the Spanish frontier +in both the Southwest and California much new information has been +secured, and illuminating interpretations made by Professors H. E. +Bolton, I. J. Cox, Chapman, Father Engelhart, and other California and +Texas investigators, although the works of Hubert Howe Bancroft remain a +useful mine of material. There was, of course, a contemporaneous Old +West on both the French and the Spanish frontiers. The formation, +approach and ultimate collision and intermingling of these contrasting +types of frontiers are worthy of a special study.] + + + + +IV + +THE MIDDLE WEST[126:1] + + +American sectional nomenclature is still confused. Once "the West" +described the whole region beyond the Alleghanies; but the term has +hopelessly lost its definiteness. The rapidity of the spread of +settlement has broken down old usage, and as yet no substitute has been +generally accepted. The "Middle West" is a term variously used by the +public, but for the purpose of the present paper, it will be applied to +that region of the United States included in the census reports under +the name of the North Central division, comprising the States of Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin (the old "Territory Northwest +of the River Ohio"), and their trans-Mississippi sisters of the +Louisiana Purchase,--Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North +Dakota, and South Dakota. It is an imperial domain. If the greater +countries of Central Europe,--France, Germany, Italy, and +Austro-Hungary,--were laid down upon this area, the Middle West would +still show a margin of spare territory. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and +Buffalo constitute its gateways to the Eastern States; Kansas City, +Omaha, St. Paul-Minneapolis, and Duluth-Superior dominate its western +areas; Cincinnati and St. Louis stand on its southern borders; and +Chicago reigns at the center. What Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and +Baltimore are to the Atlantic seaboard these cities are to the Middle +West. The Great Lakes and the Mississippi, with the Ohio and the +Missouri as laterals, constitute the vast water system that binds the +Middle West together. It is the economic and political center of the +Republic. At one edge is the Populism of the prairies; at the other, the +capitalism that is typified in Pittsburgh. Great as are the local +differences within the Middle West, it possesses, in its physiography, +in the history of its settlement, and in its economic and social life, a +unity and interdependence which warrant a study of the area as an +entity. Within the limits of this article, treatment of so vast a +region, however, can at best afford no more than an outline sketch, in +which old and well-known facts must, if possible, be so grouped as to +explain the position of the section in American history. + +In spite of the difficulties of the task, there is a definite advantage +in so large a view. By fixing our attention too exclusively upon the +artificial boundary lines of the States, we have failed to perceive much +that is significant in the westward development of the United States. +For instance, our colonial system did not begin with the Spanish War; +the United States has had a colonial history and policy from the +beginning of the Republic; but they have been hidden under the +phraseology of "interstate migration" and "territorial organization." + +The American people have occupied a spacious wilderness; vast +physiographic provinces, each with its own peculiarities, have lain +across the path of this migration, and each has furnished a special +environment for economic and social transformation. It is possible to +underestimate the importance of State lines, but if we direct our gaze +rather to the physiographic province than to the State area, we shall be +able to see some facts in a new light. Then it becomes clear that these +physiographic provinces of America are in some respects comparable to +the countries of Europe, and that each has its own history of occupation +and development. General Francis A. Walker once remarked that "the +course of settlement has called upon our people to occupy territory as +extensive as Switzerland, as England, as Italy, and latterly, as France +or Germany, every ten years." It is this element of vastness in the +achievements of American democracy that gives a peculiar interest to the +conquest and development of the Middle West. The effects of this +conquest and development upon the present United States have been of +fundamental importance. + +Geographically the Middle West is almost conterminous with the Provinces +of the Lake and Prairie Plains; but the larger share of Kansas and +Nebraska, and the western part of the two Dakotas belong to the Great +Plains; the Ozark Mountains occupy a portion of Missouri, and the +southern parts of Ohio and Indiana merge into the Alleghany Plateau. The +relation of the Provinces of the Lake and Prairie Plains to the rest of +the United States is an important element in the significance of the +Middle West. On the north lies the similar region of Canada: the Great +Lakes are in the center of the whole eastern and more thickly settled +half of North America, and they bind the Canadian and Middle Western +people together. On the south, the provinces meet the apex of that of +the Gulf Plains, and the Mississippi unites them. To the west, they +merge gradually into the Great Plains; the Missouri and its tributaries +and the Pacific railroads make for them a bond of union; another rather +effective bond is the interdependence of the cattle of the plains and +the corn of the prairies. To the east, the province meets the Alleghany +and New England Plateaus, and is connected with them by the upper Ohio +and by the line of the Erie Canal. Here the interaction of industrial +life and the historical facts of settlement have produced a close +relationship. The intimate connection between the larger part of the +North Central and the North Atlantic divisions of the United States will +impress any one who examines the industrial and social maps of the +census atlas. By reason of these interprovincial relationships, the +Middle West is the mediator between Canada and the United States, and +between the concentrated wealth and manufactures of the North Atlantic +States and the sparsely settled Western mining, cattle-raising, and +agricultural States. It has a connection with the South that was once +still closer, and is likely before long to reassert itself with new +power. Within the limits of the United States, therefore, we have +problems of interprovincial trade and commerce similar to those that +exist between the nations of the Old World. + +Over most of the Province of the Lake and Prairie Plains the Laurentide +glacier spread its drift, rich in limestone and other rock powder, which +farmers in less favored sections must purchase to replenish the soil. +The alluvial deposit from primeval lakes contributed to fatten the soil +of other parts of the prairies. Taken as a whole, the Prairie Plains +surpass in fertility any other region of America or Europe, unless we +except some territory about the Black Sea. It is a land marked out as +the granary of the nation; but it is more than a granary. On the rocky +shores of Lake Superior were concealed copper mines rivaled only by +those of Montana, and iron fields which now[129:1] furnish the ore for +the production of eighty per cent of the pig iron of the United States. +The Great Lakes afford a highway between these iron fields and the coal +areas of the Ohio Valley. The gas and oil deposits of the Ohio Valley, +the coal of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and eastern Kansas, the lead and +zinc of the Ozark region and of the upper Mississippi Valley, and the +gold of the black Hills,--all contribute underground wealth to the +Middle West. + +The primeval American forest once spread its shade over vast portions +of the same province. Ohio, Indiana, southern Michigan, and central +Wisconsin were almost covered with a growth of noble deciduous trees. In +southern Illinois, along the broad bottom lands of the Mississippi and +the Illinois, and in southern and southwestern Missouri, similar forests +prevailed. To the north, in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, appeared +the somber white pine wilderness, interlaced with hard woods, which +swept in ample zone along the Great Lakes, till the deciduous forests +triumphed again, and, in their turn, faded into the treeless expanse of +the prairies. In the remaining portions were openings in the midst of +the forested area, and then the grassy ocean of prairie that rolled to +west and northwest, until it passed beyond the line of sufficient +rainfall for agriculture without irrigation, into the semi-arid +stretches of the Great Plains. + +In the middle of the eighteenth century, the forested region of this +province was occupied by the wigwams of many different tribes of the +Algonquin tongue, sparsely scattered in villages along the water +courses, warring and trading through the vast wilderness. The western +edge of the prairie and the Great Plains were held by the Sioux, chasing +herds of bison across these far-stretching expanses. These horsemen of +the plains and the canoemen of the Great Lakes and the Ohio were factors +with which civilization had to reckon, for they constituted important +portions of perhaps the fiercest native race with which the white man +has ever battled for new lands. + +The Frenchman had done but little fighting for this region. He swore +brotherhood with its savages, traded with them, intermarried with them, +and explored the Middle West; but he left the wilderness much as he +found it. Some six or seven thousand French people in all, about Detroit +and Vincennes, and in the Illinois country, and scattered among the +Indian villages of the remote lakes and streams, held possession when +George Washington reached the site of Pittsburgh, bearing Virginia's +summons of eviction to France. In his person fate knocked at the portals +of a "rising empire." France hurried her commanders and garrisons, with +Indian allies, from the posts about the Great Lakes and the upper +Mississippi; but it was in vain. In vain, too, the aftermath of +Pontiac's widespread Indian uprising against the English occupation. +When she came into possession of the lands between the Ohio, the +Mississippi, and the Great Lakes, England organized them as a part of +the Province of Quebec. The daring conquest of George Rogers Clark left +Virginia in military possession of the Illinois country at the +conclusion of the Revolutionary War; but over all the remainder of the +Old Northwest, England was in control. Although she ceded the region by +the treaty which closed the Revolution, she remained for many years the +mistress of the Indians and the fur trade. When Lord Shelburne was +upbraided in parliament for yielding the Northwest to the United States, +the complaint was that he had clothed the Americans "in the warm +covering of our fur trade," and his defense was that the peltry trade of +the ceded tract was not sufficiently profitable to warrant further war. +But the English government became convinced that the Indian trade +demanded the retention of the Northwest, and she did in fact hold her +posts there in spite of the treaty of peace. Dundas, the English +secretary for the colonies, expressed the policy, when he declared, in +1792, that the object was to interpose an Indian barrier between Canada +and the United States; and in pursuance of this policy of preserving the +Northwest as an Indian buffer State, the Canadian authorities supported +the Indians in their resistance to American settlement beyond the Ohio. +The conception of the Northwest as an Indian reserve strikingly exhibits +England's inability to foresee the future of the region, and to measure +the forces of American expansion. + +By the cessions of Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, +the Old Congress had come into nominal possession of an extensive public +domain, and a field for the exercise of national authority. The +significance of this fact in the development of national power is not +likely to be overestimated. The first result was the completion of the +Ordinance of 1787, which provided a territorial government for the Old +Northwest, with provisions for the admission of States into the Union. +This federal colonial system guaranteed that the new national +possessions should not be governed as dependent provinces, but should +enter as a group of sister States into the federation.[132:1] While the +importance of the article excluding slavery has often been pointed out, +it is probable that the provisions for a federal colonial organization +have been at least equally potential in our actual development. The full +significance of this feature of the Ordinance is only appreciated when +we consider its continuous influence upon the American territorial and +State policy in the westward expansion to the Pacific, and the political +preconceptions with which Americans approach the problems of government +in the new insular possessions. The Land Ordinance of 1785 is also +worthy of attention in this connection, for under its provisions almost +all of the Middle West has been divided by the government surveyor into +rectangles of sections and townships, by whose lines the settler has +been able easily and certainly to locate his farm, and the forester his +"forty." In the local organization of the Middle West these lines have +played an important part. + +It would be impossible within the limits of this paper to detail the +history of the occupation of the Middle West; but the larger aspects of +the flow of population into the region may be sketched. Massachusetts +men had formed the Ohio Company, and had been influential in shaping the +liberal provisions of the Ordinance. Their land purchase, paid for in +soldiers' certificates, embraced an area larger than the State of Rhode +Island. At Marietta in 1788, under the shelter of Fort Harmar, their +bullet-proof barge landed the first New England colony. A New Jersey +colony was planted soon after at Cincinnati in the Symmes Purchase. Thus +American civilization crossed the Ohio. The French settlements at +Detroit and in Indiana and Illinois belonged to other times and had +their own ideals; but with the entrance of the American pioneer into the +forest of the Middle West, a new era began. The Indians, with the moral +support of England, resisted the invasion, and an Indian war followed. +The conquest of Wayne, in 1795, pushed back the Indians to the +Greenville line, extending irregularly across the State of Ohio from the +site of Cleveland to Fort Recovery in the middle point of her present +western boundary, and secured certain areas in Indiana. In the same +period Jay's treaty provided for the withdrawal of the British posts. +After this extension of the area open to the pioneer, new settlements +were rapidly formed. Connecticut disposed of her reserved land about +Lake Erie to companies, and in 1796 General Moses Cleaveland led the way +to the site of the city that bears his name. This was the beginning of +the occupation of the Western Reserve, a district about as large as the +parent State of Connecticut, a New England colony in the Middle West, +which has maintained, even to the present time, the impress of New +England traits. Virginia and Kentucky settlers sought the Virginia +Military Bounty Lands, and the foundation of Chillicothe here, in 1796, +afforded a center for Southern settlement. The region is a modified +extension of the limestone area of Kentucky, and naturally attracted the +emigrants from the Blue Grass State. Ohio's history is deeply marked by +the interaction of the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies within +her borders. + +By the opening of the nineteenth century, when Napoleon's cession +brought to the United States the vast spaces of the Louisiana Purchase +beyond the Mississippi, the pioneers had hardly more than entered the +outskirts of the forest along the Ohio and Lake Erie. But by 1810 the +government had extinguished the Indian title to the unsecured portions +of the Western Reserve, and to great tracts of Indiana, along the Ohio +and up the Wabash Valley; thus protecting the Ohio highway from the +Indians, and opening new lands to settlement. The embargo had destroyed +the trade of New England, and had weighted down her citizens with debt +and taxation; caravans of Yankee emigrant wagons, precursors of the +"prairie schooner," had already begun to cross Pennsylvania on their way +to Ohio; and they now greatly increased in number. North Carolina back +countrymen flocked to the Indiana settlements, giving the peculiar +Hoosier flavor to the State, and other Southerners followed, +outnumbering the Northern immigrants, who sought the eastern edge of +Indiana. + +Tecumthe, rendered desperate by the advance into his hunting grounds, +took up the hatchet, made wide-reaching alliances among the Indians, and +turned to England for protection. The Indian war merged into the War of +1812, and the settlers strove in vain to add Canadian lands to their +empire. In the diplomatic negotiations that followed the war, England +made another attempt to erect the Old Northwest beyond the Greenville +line into a permanent Indian barrier between Canada and the United +States; but the demand was refused, and by the treaties of 1818, the +Indians were pressed still farther north. In the meantime, Indian +treaties had released additional land in southern Illinois, and pioneers +were widening the bounds of the old French settlements. Avoiding the +rich savannas of the prairie regions, as devoid of wood, remote from +transportation facilities, and suited only to grazing, they entered the +hard woods--and in the early twenties they were advancing in a +wedge-shaped column up the Illinois Valley. + +The Southern element constituted the main portion of this phalanx of +ax-bearers. Abraham Lincoln's father joined the throng of Kentuckians +that entered the Indiana woods in 1816, and the boy, when he had learned +to hew out a forest home, betook himself, in 1830, to Sangamon county, +Illinois. He represents the pioneer of the period; but his ax sank +deeper than other men's, and the plaster cast of his great sinewy hand, +at Washington, embodies the training of these frontier railsplitters, in +the days when Fort Dearborn, on the site of Chicago, was but a military +outpost in a desolate country. While the hard woods of Illinois were +being entered, the pioneer movement passed also into the Missouri +Valley. The French lead miners had already opened the southeastern +section, and Southern mountaineers had pushed up the Missouri; but now +the planters from the Ohio Valley and the upper Tennessee followed, +seeking the alluvial soils for slave labor. Moving across the southern +border of free Illinois, they had awakened regrets in that State at the +loss of so large a body of settlers. + +Looking at the Middle West, as a whole, in the decade from 1810 to 1820, +we perceive that settlement extended from the shores of Lake Erie in an +arc, following the banks of the Ohio till it joined the Mississippi, and +thence along that river and up the Missouri well into the center of the +State. The next decade was marked by the increased use of the steamboat; +pioneers pressed farther up the streams, etching out the hard wood +forests well up to the prairie lands, and forming additional tracts of +settlement in the region tributary to Detroit and in the southeastern +part of Michigan. In the area of the Galena lead mines of northwestern +Illinois, southwestern Wisconsin, and northeastern Iowa, Southerners had +already begun operations; and if we except Ohio and Michigan, the +dominant element in all this overflow of settlement into the Middle West +was Southern, particularly from Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina. +The settlements were still dependent on the rivers for transportation, +and the areas between the rivers were but lightly occupied. The +Mississippi constituted the principal outlet for the products of the +Middle West; Pittsburgh furnished most of the supplies for the region, +but New Orleans received its crops. The Old National road was built +piecemeal, and too late, as a whole, to make a great artery of trade +throughout the Middle West, in this early period; but it marked the +northern borders of the Southern stream of population, running, as this +did, through Columbus, Indianapolis, and Vandalia. + +The twenty years from 1830 to 1850 saw great changes in the composition +of the population of the Middle West. The opening of the Erie Canal in +1825 was an epoch-making event. It furnished a new outlet and inlet for +northwestern traffic; Buffalo began to grow, and New York City changed +from a local market to a great commercial center. But even more +important was the place which the canal occupied as the highway for a +new migration. + +In the march of the New England people from the coast, three movements +are of especial importance: the advance from the seaboard up the +Connecticut and Housatonic Valleys through Massachusetts and into +Vermont; the advance thence to central and western New York; and the +advance to the interior of the Old Northwest. The second of these stages +occupied the generation from about 1790 to 1820; after that the second +generation was ready to seek new lands; and these the Erie Canal and +lake navigation opened to them, and to the Vermonters and other +adventurous spirits of New England. It was this combined New York-New +England stream that in the thirties poured in large volume into the zone +north of the settlements which have been described. The newcomers filled +in the southern counties of Michigan and Wisconsin, the northern +countries of Illinois, and parts of the northern and central areas of +Indiana. Pennsylvania and Ohio sent a similar type of people to the area +adjacent to those States. In Iowa a stream combined of the Southern +element and of these settlers sought the wooded tributaries of the +Mississippi in the southeastern part of the State. In default of legal +authority, in this early period, they formed squatter governments and +land associations, comparable to the action of the Massachusetts men who +in the first quarter of the seventeenth century "squatted" in the +Connecticut Valley. + +A great forward movement had occurred, which took possession of oak +openings and prairies, gave birth to the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, +St. Paul, and Minneapolis, as well as to a multitude of lesser cities, +and replaced the dominance of the Southern element by that of a modified +Puritan stock. The railroad system of the early fifties bound the +Mississippi to the North Atlantic seaboard; New Orleans gave way to New +York as the outlet for the Middle West, and the day of river settlement +was succeeded by the era of inter-river settlement and railway +transportation. The change in the political and social ideals was at +least equal to the change in economic connections, and together these +forces made an intimate organic union between New England, New York, and +the newly settled West. In estimating the New England influence in the +Middle West, it must not be forgotten that the New York settlers were +mainly New Englanders of a later generation. + +Combined with the streams from the East came the German migration into +the Middle West. Over half a million, mainly from the Palatinate, +Wuertemberg, and the adjacent regions, sought America between 1830 and +1850, and nearly a million more Germans came in the next decade. The +larger portion of these went into the Middle West; they became pioneers +in the newer parts of Ohio, especially along the central ridge, and in +Cincinnati; they took up the hardwood lands of the Wisconsin counties +along Lake Michigan; and they came in important numbers to Missouri, +Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, and to the river towns of Iowa. The +migration in the thirties and forties contained an exceptionally large +proportion of educated and forceful leaders, men who had struggled in +vain for the ideal of a liberal German nation, and who contributed +important intellectual forces to the communities in which they settled. +The Germans, as a whole, furnished a conservative and thrifty +agricultural element to the Middle West. In some of their social ideals +they came into collision with the Puritan element from New England, and +the outcome of the steady contest has been a compromise. Of all the +States, Wisconsin has been most deeply influenced by the Germans. + +By the later fifties, therefore, the control of the Middle West had +passed to its Northern zone of population, and this zone included +representatives of the Middle States, New England, and Germany as its +principal elements. The Southern people, north of the Ohio, differed in +important respects from the Southerners across the river. They had +sprung largely from the humbler classes of the South, although there +were important exceptions. The early pioneer life, however, was +ill-suited to the great plantations, and slavery was excluded under the +Ordinance. Thus this Southern zone of the Middle West, particularly in +Indiana and Illinois, constituted a mediating section between the South +and the North. The Mississippi still acted as a bond of union, and up to +the close of the War of 1812 the Valley, north and south, had been +fundamentally of the same social organization. In order to understand +what follows, we must bear in mind the outlines of the occupation of the +Gulf Plains. While settlement had been crossing the Ohio to the +Northwest, the spread of cotton culture and negro slavery into the +Southwest had been equally significant. What the New England States and +New York were in the occupation of the Middle West, Virginia, the +Carolinas, and Georgia were in the occupation of the Gulf States. But, +as in the case of the Northwest, a modification of the original stock +occurred in the new environment. A greater energy and initiative +appeared in the new Southern lands; the pioneer's devotion to exploiting +the territory in which he was placed transferred slavery from the +patriarchal to the commercial basis. The same expansive tendency seen in +the Northwest revealed itself, with a belligerent seasoning, in the Gulf +States. They had a program of action. Abraham Lincoln migrated from +Kentucky to Indiana and to Illinois. Jefferson Davis moved from Kentucky +to Louisiana, and thence to Mississippi, in the same period. Starting +from the same locality, each represented the divergent flow of streams +of settlement into contrasted environments. The result of these +antagonistic streams of migration to the West was a struggle between the +Lake and Prairie plainsmen, on the one side, and the Gulf plainsmen, on +the other, for the possession of the Mississippi Valley. It was the +crucial part of the struggle between the Northern and Southern sections +of the nation. What gave slavery and State sovereignty their power as +issues was the fact that they involved the question of dominance over +common territory in an expanding nation. The place of the Middle West in +the origin and settlement of the great slavery struggle is of the +highest significance. + +In the early history of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, a modified form of +slavery existed under a system of indenture of the colored servant; and +the effort of Southern settlers in Indiana and in Illinois to +reintroduce slavery are indicative of the importance of the pro-slavery +element in the Northwest. But the most significant early manifestation +of the rival currents of migration with respect to slavery is seen in +the contest which culminated in the Missouri Compromise. The historical +obstacle of the Ordinance, as well as natural conditions, gave an +advantage to the anti-slavery settlers northwest of the Ohio; but when +the Mississippi was crossed, and the rival streams of settlement mingled +in the area of the Louisiana Purchase, the struggle followed. It was an +Illinois man, with constituents in both currents of settlement, who +introduced the Missouri Compromise, which made a _modus vivendi_ for the +Middle West, until the Compromise of 1850 gave to Senator Douglas of +Illinois, in 1854, the opportunity to reopen the issue by his +Kansas-Nebraska bill. In his doctrine of "squatter-sovereignty," or the +right of the territories to determine the question of slavery within +their bounds, Douglas utilized a favorite Western political idea, one +which Cass of Michigan had promulgated before. Douglas set the love of +the Middle West for local self-government against its preponderant +antipathy to the spread of slavery. At the same time he brought to the +support of the doctrine the Democratic party, which ever since the days +of Andrew Jackson had voiced the love of the frontier for individualism +and for popular power. In his "Young America" doctrines Douglas had also +made himself the spokesman of Western expansive tendencies. He thus +found important sources of popular support when he invoked the localism +of his section. Western appeals to Congress for aid in internal +improvements, protective tariffs, and land grants had been indications +of nationalism. The doctrine of squatter-sovereignty itself catered to +the love of national union by presenting the appearance of a +non-sectional compromise, which should allow the new areas of the Middle +West to determine their own institutions. But the Free Soil party, +strongest in the regions occupied by the New York-New England colonists, +and having for its program national prohibition of the spread of slavery +into the territories, had already found in the Middle West an important +center of power. The strength of the movement far surpassed the actual +voting power of the Free Soil party, for it compelled both Whigs and +Democrats to propose fusion on the basis of concession to Free Soil +doctrines. The New England settlers and the western New York +settlers,--the children of New England,--were keenly alive to the +importance of the issue. Indeed, Seward, in an address at Madison, +Wisconsin, in 1860, declared that the Northwest, in reality, extended to +the base of the Alleghanies, and that the new States had "matured just +in the critical moment to rally the free States of the Atlantic coast, +to call them back to their ancient principles." + +These Free Soil forces and the nationalistic tendencies of the Middle +West proved too strong for the opposing doctrines when the real struggle +came. Calhoun and Taney shaped the issue so logically that the Middle +West saw that the contest was not only a war for the preservation of the +Union, but also a war for the possession of the unoccupied West, a +struggle between the Middle West and the States of the Gulf Plains. The +economic life of the Middle West had been bound by the railroad to the +North Atlantic, and its interests, as well as its love of national +unity, made it in every way hostile to secession. When Dr. Cutler had +urged the desires of the Ohio Company upon Congress, in 1787, he had +promised to plant in the Ohio Valley a colony that would stand for the +Union. Vinton of Ohio, in arguing for the admission of Iowa, urged the +position of the Middle West as the great unifying section of the +country: "Disunion," he said, "is ruin to them. They have no +alternative but to resist it whenever or wherever attempted. . . . +Massachusetts and South Carolina might, for aught I know, find a +dividing line that would be mutually satisfactory to them; but, Sir, +they can find no such line to which the western country can assent." But +it was Abraham Lincoln who stated the issue with the greatest precision, +and who voiced most clearly the nationalism of the Middle West, when he +declared, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this +government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." + +So it was that when the civil war in Kansas grew into the Civil War in +the Union, after Lincoln's election to the presidency, the Middle West, +dominated by its combined Puritan and German population, ceased to +compromise, and turned the scale in favor of the North. The Middle West +furnished more than one-third of the Union troops. The names of Grant +and Sherman are sufficient testimony to her leadership in the field. The +names of Lincoln and Chase show that the presidential, the financial, +and the war powers were in the hands of the Middle West. If we were to +accept Seward's own classification, the conduct of foreign affairs as +well belonged to the same section; it was, at least, in the hands of +representatives of the dominant forces of the section. The Middle West, +led by Grant and Sherman, hewed its way down the Mississippi and across +the Gulf States, and Lincoln could exult in 1863, "The Father of Waters +again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it, nor +yet wholly to them." + +In thus outlining the relations of the Middle West to the slavery +struggle, we have passed over important extensions of settlement in the +decade before the war. In these years, not only did the density of +settlement increase in the older portions of the region, but new waves +of colonization passed into the remoter prairies. Iowa's pioneers, +after Indian cessions had been secured, spread well toward her western +limits. Minnesota, also, was recruited by a column of pioneers. The +treaty of Traverse de Sioux, in 1851, opened over twenty million acres +of arable land in that State, and Minnesota increased her population +2730.7 per cent in the decade from 1850 to 1860. + +Up to this decade the pine belt of the Middle West, in northern +Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota had been the field of operations of +Indian traders. At first under English companies, and afterward under +Astor's American Fur Company, the traders with their French and +half-breed boatmen skirted the Great Lakes and followed the rivers into +the forests, where they stationed their posts and spread goods and +whiskey among the Indians. Their posts were centers of disintegration +among the savages. The new wants and the demoralization which resulted +from the Indian trade facilitated the purchases of their lands by the +federal government. The trader was followed by the seeker for the best +pine land "forties"; and by the time of the Civil War the exploitation +of the pine belt had fairly begun. The Irish and Canadian choppers, +followed by the Scandinavians, joined the forest men, and log drives +succeeded the trading canoe. Men from the pine woods of Maine and +Vermont directed the industry, and became magnates in the mill towns +that grew up in the forests,--millionaires, and afterwards political +leaders. In the prairie country of the Middle West, the Indian trade +that centered at St. Louis had been important ever since 1820, with an +influence upon the Indians of the plains similar to the influence of the +northern fur trade upon the Indians of the forest. By 1840 the removal +policy had effected the transfer of most of the eastern tribes to lands +across the Mississippi. Tribal names that formerly belonged to Ohio and +the rest of the Old Northwest were found on the map of the Kansas +Valley. The Platte country belonged to the Pawnee and their neighbors, +and to the north along the Upper Missouri were the Sioux, or Dakota, +Crow, Cheyenne, and other horse Indians, following the vast herds of +buffalo that grazed on the Great Plains. The discovery of California +gold and the opening of the Oregon country, in the middle of the +century, made it necessary to secure a road through the Indian lands for +the procession of pioneers that crossed the prairies to the Pacific. The +organization of Kansas and Nebraska, in 1854, was the first step in the +withdrawal of these territories from the Indians. A period of almost +constant Indian hostility followed, for the savage lords of the +boundless prairies instinctively felt the significance of the entrance +of the farmer into their empire. In Minnesota the Sioux took advantage +of the Civil War to rise; but the outcome was the destruction of their +reservations in that State, and the opening of great tracts to the +pioneers. When the Pacific railways were begun, Red Cloud, the astute +Sioux chief, who, in some ways, stands as the successor of Pontiac and +of Tecumthe, rallied the principal tribes of the Great Plains to resist +the march of civilization. Their hostility resulted in the peace measure +of 1867 and 1868, which assigned to the Sioux and their allies +reservations embracing the major portion of Dakota territory, west of +the Missouri River. The systematic slaughter of millions of buffalo, in +the years between 1866 and 1873, for the sake of their hides, put an end +to the vast herds of the Great Plains, and destroyed the economic +foundation of the Indians. Henceforth they were dependent on the whites +for their food supply, and the Great Plains were open to the cattle +ranchers. + +In a preface written in 1872 for a new edition of "The Oregon Trail," +which had appeared in 1847, Francis Parkman said, "The wild cavalcade +that defiled with me down the gorges of the Black Hills, with its paint +and war plumes, fluttering trophies and savage embroidery, bows, arrows, +lances, and shields, will never be seen again." The prairies were ready +for the final rush of occupation. The homestead law of 1862, passed in +the midst of the war, did not reveal its full importance as an element +in the settlement of the Middle West until after peace. It began to +operate most actively, contemporaneously with the development of the +several railways to the Pacific, in the two decades from 1870 to 1890, +and in connection with the marketing of the railroad land grants. The +outcome was an epoch-making extension of population. + +Before 1870 the vast and fertile valley of the Red River, once the level +bed of an ancient lake, occupying the region where North Dakota and +Minnesota meet, was almost virgin soil. But in 1875 the great Dalrymple +farm showed its advantages for wheat raising, and a tide of farm seekers +turned to the region. The "Jim River" Valley of South Dakota attracted +still other settlers. The Northern Pacific and the Great Northern +Railway thrust out laterals into these Minnesota and Dakota wheat areas +from which to draw the nourishment for their daring passage to the +Pacific. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Chicago and +Northwestern Railway, Burlington, and other roads, gridironed the +region; and the unoccupied lands of the Middle West were taken up by a +migration that in its system and scale is unprecedented. The railroads +sent their agents and their literature everywhere, "booming" the "Golden +West"; the opportunity for economic and political fortunes in such +rapidly growing communities attracted multitudes of Americans whom the +cheap land alone would not have tempted. In 1870 the Dakotas had 14,000 +settlers; in 1890 they had over 510,000. Nebraska's population was +28,000 in 1860; 123,000 in 1870; 452,000 in 1880; and 1,059,000 in +1890. Kansas had 107,000 in 1860; 364,000 in 1870; 996,000 in 1880; and +1,427,000 in 1890. Wisconsin and New York gave the largest fractions of +the native element to Minnesota; Illinois and Ohio together sent perhaps +one-third of the native element of Kansas and Nebraska, but the Missouri +and Southern settlers were strongly represented in Kansas; Wisconsin, +New York, Minnesota, and Iowa gave North Dakota the most of her native +settlers; and Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and New York did the same for +South Dakota. + +Railroads and steamships organized foreign immigration on scale and +system never before equaled; a high-water mark of American immigration +came in the early eighties. Germans and Scandinavians were rushed by +emigrant trains out to the prairies, to fill the remaining spaces in the +older States of the Middle West. The census of 1890 showed in Minnesota +373,000 persons of Scandinavian parentage, and out of the total million +and one-half persons of Scandinavian parentage in the United States, the +Middle West received all but about three hundred thousand. The persons +of German parentage in the Middle West numbered over four millions out +of a total of less than seven millions in the whole country. The +province had, in 1890, a smaller proportion of persons of foreign +parentage than had the North Atlantic division, but the proportions +varied greatly in the different States. Indiana had the lowest +percentage, 20.38; and, rising in the scale, Missouri had 24.94; Kansas +26.75; Ohio 33.93; Nebraska 42.45; Iowa 43.57; Illinois 49.01; Michigan +54.58; Wisconsin 73.65; Minnesota 75.37; and North Dakota 78.87. + +What these statistics of settlement mean when translated into the +pioneer life of the prairie, cannot be told here. There were sharp +contrasts with the pioneer life of the Old Northwest; for the forest +shade, there was substituted the boundless prairie; the sod house for +the log hut; the continental railway for the old National Turnpike and +the Erie Canal. Life moved faster, in larger masses, and with greater +momentum in this pioneer movement. The horizon line was more remote. +Things were done in the gross. The transcontinental railroad, the +bonanza farm, the steam plow, harvester, and thresher, the "league-long +furrow," and the vast cattle ranches, all suggested spacious combination +and systematization of industry. The largest hopes were excited by these +conquests of the prairie. The occupation of western Kansas may +illustrate the movement which went on also in the west of Nebraska and +the Dakotas. The pioneer farmer tried to push into the region with the +old methods of settlement. Deceived by rainy seasons and the railroad +advertisements, and recklessly optimistic, hosts of settlers poured out +into the plains beyond the region of sufficient rainfall for successful +agriculture without irrigation. Dry seasons starved them back; but a +repetition of good rainfalls again aroused the determination to occupy +the western plains. Boom towns flourished like prairie weeds; Eastern +capital struggled for a chance to share in the venture, and the Kansas +farmers eagerly mortgaged their possessions to secure the capital so +freely offered for their attack on the arid lands. By 1887 the tide of +the pioneer farmers had flowed across the semi-arid plains to the +western boundary of the State. But it was a hopeless effort to conquer a +new province by the forces that had won the prairies. The wave of +settlement dashed itself in vain against the conditions of the Great +Plains. The native American farmer had received his first defeat; farm +products at the same period had depreciated, and he turned to the +national government for reinforcements. + +The Populistic movement of the western half of the Middle West is a +complex of many forces. In some respects it is the latest manifestation +of the same forces that brought on the crisis of 1837 in the earlier +region of pioneer exploitation. That era of over-confidence, reckless +internal improvements, and land purchases by borrowed capital, brought a +reaction when it became apparent that the future had been +over-discounted. But, in that time, there were the farther free lands to +which the ruined pioneer could turn. The demand for an expansion of the +currency has marked each area of Western advance. The greenback movement +of Ohio and the eastern part of the Middle West grew into the fiat +money, free silver, and land bank propositions of the Populists across +the Mississippi. Efforts for cheaper transportation also appear in each +stage of Western advance. When the pioneer left the rivers and had to +haul his crops by wagon to a market, the transportation factor +determined both his profits and the extension of settlement. Demands for +national aid to roads and canals had marked the pioneer advance of the +first third of the century. The "Granger" attacks upon the railway +rates, and in favor of governmental regulation, marked a second advance +of Western settlement. The Farmers' Alliance and the Populist demand for +government ownership of the railroad is a phase of the same effort of +the pioneer farmer, on his latest frontier. The proposals have taken +increasing proportions in each region of Western Advance. Taken as a +whole, Populism is a manifestation of the old pioneer ideals of the +native American, with the added element of increasing readiness to +utilize the national government to effect its ends. This is not +unnatural in a section whose lands were originally purchased by the +government and given away to its settlers by the same authority, whose +railroads were built largely by federal land grants, and whose +settlements were protected by the United States army and governed by the +national authority until they were carved into rectangular States and +admitted into the Union. Its native settlers were drawn from many +States, many of them former soldiers of the Civil War, who mingled in +new lands with foreign immigrants accustomed to the vigorous authority +of European national governments. + +But these old ideals of the American pioneer, phrased in the new +language of national power, did not meet with the assent of the East. +Even in the Middle West a change of deepest import had been in progress +during these years of prairie settlement. The agricultural preponderance +of the country has passed to the prairies, and manufacturing has +developed in the areas once devoted to pioneer farming. In the decade +prior to the Civil War, the area of greatest wheat production passed +from Ohio and the States to the east, into Illinois, Indiana, and +Wisconsin; after 1880, the center of wheat growing moved across the +Mississippi; and in 1890 the new settlements produced half the crop of +the United States. The corn area shows a similar migration. In 1840 the +Southern States produced half the crop, and the Middle West one-fifth; +by 1860 the situation was reversed and in 1890 nearly one-half the corn +of the Union came from beyond the Mississippi. Thus the settlers of the +Old Northwest and their crops have moved together across the +Mississippi, and in the regions whence they migrated varied agriculture +and manufacture have sprung up. + +As these movements in population and products have passed across the +Middle West, and as the economic life of the eastern border has been +intensified, a huge industrial organism has been created in the +province,--an organism of tremendous power, activity, and unity. +Fundamentally the Middle West is an agricultural area unequaled for its +combination of space, variety, productiveness, and freedom from +interruption by deserts or mountains. The huge water system of the Great +Lakes has become the highway of a mighty commerce. The Sault Ste. Marie +Canal, although open but two-thirds of the year, is the channel of a +traffic of greater tonnage than that which passes through the Suez +Canal, and nearly all this commerce moves almost the whole length of the +Great Lakes system; the chief ports being Duluth, Chicago, Detroit, +Cleveland, and Buffalo. The transportation facilities of the Great Lakes +were revolutionized after 1886, to supply the needs of commerce between +the East and the newly developed lands of the Middle West; the tonnage +doubled; wooden ships gave way to steel; sailing vessels yielded to +steam; and huge docks, derricks, and elevators, triumphs of mechanical +skill, were constructed. A competent investigator has lately declared +that "there is probably in the world to-day no place at tide water where +ship plates can be laid down for a less price than they can be +manufactured or purchased at the lake ports." + +This rapid rise of the merchant marine of our inland seas has led to the +demand for deep water canals to connect them with the ocean road to +Europe. When the fleets of the Great Lakes plow the Atlantic, and when +Duluth and Chicago become seaports, the water transportation of the +Middle West will have completed its evolution. The significance of the +development of the railway systems is not inferior to that of the great +water way. Chicago has become the greatest railroad center of the world, +nor is there another area of like size which equals this in its railroad +facilities; all the forces of the nation intersect here. Improved +terminals, steel rails, better rolling stock, and consolidation of +railway systems have accompanied the advance of the people of the Middle +West. + +This unparalleled development of transportation facilities measures the +magnitude of the material development of the province. Its wheat and +corn surplus supplies the deficit of the rest of the United States and +much of that of Europe. Such is the agricultural condition of the +province of which Monroe wrote to Jefferson, in 1786, in these words: "A +great part of the territory is miserably poor, especially that near +Lakes Michigan and Erie, and that upon the Mississippi and the Illinois +consists of extensive plains which have not had, from appearances, and +will not have, a single bush on them for ages. The districts, therefore, +within which these fall will never contain a sufficient number of +inhabitants to entitle them to membership in the confederacy." + +Minneapolis and Duluth receive the spring wheat of the northern +prairies, and after manufacturing great portions of it into flour, +transmit it to Buffalo, the eastern cities, and to Europe. Chicago is +still the great city of the corn belt, but its power as a milling and +wheat center has been passing to the cities that receive tribute from +the northern prairies. It lies in the region of winter wheat, corn, +oats, and live stock. Kansas City, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are the +sister cities of this zone, which reaches into the grazing country of +the Great Plains. The meeting point of corn and cattle has led to the +development of the packing industries,--large business systems that send +the beef and pork of the region to supply the East and parts of Europe. +The "feeding system" adopted in Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, whereby the +stock is fattened from the surplus corn of the region, constitutes a +species of varied farming that has saved these States from the disasters +of the failure of a single industry, and has been one solution of the +economic life of the transition belt between the prairies and the Great +Plains. Under a more complex agriculture, better adapted to the various +sections of the State, and with better crops, Kansas has become more +prosperous and less a center of political discontent. + +While this development of the agricultural interests of the Middle West +has been in progress, the exploitation of the pine woods of the north +has furnished another contribution to the commerce of the province. The +center of activity has migrated from Michigan to Minnesota, and the +lumber traffic furnishes one of the principal contributions to the +vessels that ply the Great Lakes and supply the tributary mills. As the +white pine vanishes before the organized forces of exploitation, the +remaining hard woods serve to establish factories in the former mill +towns. The more fertile denuded lands of the north are now receiving +settlers who repeat the old pioneer life among the stumps. + +But the most striking development in the industrial history of the +Middle West in recent years has been due to the opening up of the iron +mines of Lake Superior. Even in 1873 the Lake Superior ores furnished a +quarter of the total production of American blast furnaces. The opening +of the Gogebic mines in 1884, and the development of the Vermillion and +Mesabi mines adjacent to the head of the lake, in the early nineties, +completed the transfer of iron ore production to the Lake Superior +region. Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin together now produce the ore +for eighty per cent of the pig iron of the United States. Four-fifths of +this great product moves to the ports on Lake Erie and the rest to the +manufactories at Chicago and Milwaukee. The vast steel and iron industry +that centers at Pittsburgh and Cleveland, with important outposts like +Chicago and Milwaukee, is the outcome of the meeting of the coal of the +eastern and southern borders of the province and of Pennsylvania, with +the iron ores of the north. The industry has been systematized and +consolidated by a few captains of industry. Steam shovels dig the ore +from many of the Mesabi mines; gravity roads carry it to the docks and +to the ships, and huge hoisting and carrying devices, built especially +for the traffic, unload it for the railroad and the furnace. Iron and +coal mines, transportation fleets, railroad systems, and iron +manufactories are concentrated in a few corporations, principally the +United States Steel Corporation. The world has never seen such a +consolidation of capital and so complete a systematization of economic +processes. + +Such is the economic appearance of the Middle West a century after the +pioneers left the frontier village of Pittsburgh and crossed the Ohio +into the forests. De Tocqueville exclaimed, with reason, in 1833: "This +gradual and continuous progress of the European race toward the Rocky +Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event. It is like a deluge +of men, rising unabatedly, and driven daily onward by the hand of God." + +The ideals of the Middle West began in the log huts set in the midst of +the forest a century ago. While his horizon was still bounded by the +clearing that his ax had made, the pioneer dreamed of continental +conquests. The vastness of the wilderness kindled his imagination. His +vision saw beyond the dank swamp at the edge of the great lake to the +lofty buildings and the jostling multitudes of a mighty city; beyond the +rank, grass-clad prairie to the seas of golden grain; beyond the harsh +life of the log hut and the sod house to the home of his children, where +should dwell comfort and the higher things of life, though they might +not be for him. The men and women who made the Middle West were +idealists, and they had the power of will to make their dreams come +true. Here, also, were the pioneer's traits,--individual activity, +inventiveness, and competition for the prizes of the rich province that +awaited exploitation under freedom and equality of opportunity. He +honored the man whose eye was the quickest and whose grasp was the +strongest in this contest: it was "every one for himself." + +The early society of the Middle West was not a complex, highly +differentiated and organized society. Almost every family was a +self-sufficing unit, and liberty and equality flourished in the +frontier periods of the Middle West as perhaps never before in history. +American democracy came from the forest, and its destiny drove it to +material conquests; but the materialism of the pioneer was not the dull +contented materialism of an old and fixed society. Both native settler +and European immigrant saw in this free and competitive movement of the +frontier the chance to break the bondage of social rank, and to rise to +a higher plane of existence. The pioneer was passionately desirous to +secure for himself and for his family a favorable place in the midst of +these large and free but vanishing opportunities. It took a century for +this society to fit itself into the conditions of the whole province. +Little by little, nature pressed into her mold the plastic pioneer life. +The Middle West, yesterday a pioneer province, is to-day the field of +industrial resources and systematization so vast that Europe, alarmed +for her industries in competition with this new power, is discussing the +policy of forming protective alliances among the nations of the +continent. Into this region flowed the great forces of modern +capitalism. Indeed, the region itself furnished favorable conditions for +the creation of these forces, and trained many of the famous American +industrial leaders. The Prairies, the Great Plains, and the Great Lakes +furnished new standards of industrial measurement. From this society, +seated amidst a wealth of material advantages, and breeding +individualism, energetic competition, inventiveness, and spaciousness of +design, came the triumph of the strongest. The captains of industry +arose and seized on nature's gifts. Struggling with one another, +increasing the scope of their ambitions as the largeness of the +resources and the extent of the fields of activity revealed themselves, +they were forced to accept the natural conditions of a province vast in +area but simple in structure. Competition grew into consolidation. On +the Pittsburgh border of the Middle West the completion of the process +is most clearly seen. On the prairies of Kansas stands the Populist, a +survival of the pioneer, striving to adjust present conditions to his +old ideals. + +The ideals of equality, freedom of opportunity, faith in the common man +are deep rooted in all the Middle West. The frontier stage, through +which each portion passed, left abiding traces on the older, as well as +on the newer, areas of the province. Nor were these ideals limited to +the native American settlers: Germans and Scandinavians who poured into +the Middle West sought the country with like hopes and like faith. These +facts must be remembered in estimating the effects of the economic +transformation of the province upon its democracy. The peculiar +democracy of the frontier has passed away with the conditions that +produced it; but the democratic aspirations remain. They are held with +passionate determination. + +The task of the Middle West is that of adapting democracy to the vast +economic organization of the present. This region which has so often +needed the reminder that bigness is not greatness, may yet show that its +training has produced the power to reconcile popular government and +culture with the huge industrial society of the modern world. The +democracies of the past have been small communities, under simple and +primitive economic conditions. At bottom the problem is how to reconcile +real greatness with bigness. + +It is important that the Middle West should accomplish this; the future +of the Republic is with her. Politically she is dominant, as is +illustrated by the fact that six out of seven of the Presidents elected +since 1860 have come from her borders. Twenty-six million people live in +the Middle West as against twenty-one million in New England and the +Middle States together, and the Middle West has indefinite capacity for +growth. The educational forces are more democratic than in the East, +and the Middle West has twice as many students (if we count together the +common school, secondary, and collegiate attendance), as have New +England and the Middle States combined. Nor is this educational system, +as a whole, inferior to that of the Eastern States. State universities +crown the public school system in every one of these States of the +Middle West, and rank with the universities of the seaboard, while +private munificence has furnished others on an unexampled scale. The +public and private art collections of Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Paul, and +other cities rival those of the seaboard. "World's fairs," with their +important popular educational influences, have been held at Chicago, +Omaha, and Buffalo; and the next of these national gatherings is to be +at St. Louis. There is throughout the Middle West a vigor and a mental +activity among the common people that bode well for its future. If the +task of reducing the Province of the Lake and Prairie Plains to the uses +of civilization should for a time overweigh art and literature, and even +high political and social ideals, it would not be surprising. But if the +ideals of the pioneers shall survive the inundation of material success, +we may expect to see in the Middle West the rise of a highly intelligent +society where culture shall be reconciled with democracy in the large. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[126:1] With acknowledgments to the _International Monthly_, December, +1901. + +[129:1] 1901. + +[132:1] See F. J. Turner, "Western State-Making in the Revolutionary +Era," in _Am. Historical Review_, i, pp. 70 _et seq._ + + + + +V + +THE OHIO VALLEY IN AMERICAN HISTORY[157:1] + + +In a notable essay Professor Josiah Royce has asserted the salutary +influence of a highly organized provincial life in order to counteract +certain evils arising from the tremendous development of nationalism in +our own day. Among these evils he enumerates: first, the frequent +changes of dwelling place, whereby the community is in danger of losing +the well-knit organization of a common life; second, the tendency to +reduce variety in national civilization, to assimilate all to a common +type and thus to discourage individuality, and produce a "remorseless +mechanism--vast, irrational;" third, the evils arising from the fact +that waves of emotion, the passion of the mob, tend in our day to sweep +across the nation. + +Against these surges of national feeling Professor Royce would erect +dikes in the form of provincialism, the resistance of separate sections +each with its own traditions, beliefs and aspirations. "Our national +unities have grown so vast, our forces of social consolidation so +paramount, the resulting problems, conflicts, evils, have become so +intensified," he says, that we must seek in the province renewed +strength, usefulness and beauty of American life. + +Whatever may be thought of this philosopher's appeal for a revival of +sectionalism, on a higher level, in order to check the tendencies to a +deadening uniformity of national consolidation (and to me this appeal, +under the limitations which he gives it, seems warranted by the +conditions)--it is certainly true that in the history of the United +States sectionalism holds a place too little recognized by the +historians. + +By sectionalism I do not mean the struggle between North and South which +culminated in the Civil War. That extreme and tragic form of +sectionalism indeed has almost engrossed the attention of historians, +and it is, no doubt, the most striking and painful example of the +phenomenon in our history. But there are older, and perhaps in the long +run more enduring examples of the play of sectional forces than the +slavery struggle, and there are various sections besides North and +South. + +Indeed, the United States is, in size and natural resources, an empire, +a collection of potential nations, rather than a single nation. It is +comparable in area to Europe. If the coast of California be placed along +the coast of Spain, Charleston, South Carolina, would fall near +Constantinople; the northern shores of Lake Superior would touch the +Baltic, and New Orleans would lie in southern Italy. Within this vast +empire there are geographic provinces, separate in physical conditions, +into which American colonization has flowed, and in each of which a +special society has developed, with an economic, political and social +life of its own. Each of these provinces, or sections, has developed its +own leaders, who in the public life of the nation have voiced the needs +of their section, contended with the representatives of other sections, +and arranged compromises between sections in national legislation and +policy, almost as ambassadors from separate countries in a European +congress might make treaties. + +Between these sections commercial relations have sprung up, and economic +combinations and contests may be traced by the student who looks beneath +the surface of our national life to the actual grouping of States in +congressional votes on tariff, internal improvement, currency and +banking, and all the varied legislation in the field of commerce. +American industrial life is the outcome of the combinations and contests +of groups of States in sections. And the intellectual, the spiritual +life of the nation is the result of the interplay of the sectional +ideals, fundamental assumptions and emotions. + +In short, the real federal aspect of the nation, if we penetrate beneath +constitutional forms to the deeper currents of social, economic and +political life, will be found to lie in the relation of sections and +nation, rather than in the relation of States and nation. Recently +ex-secretary Root emphasized the danger that the States, by neglecting +to fulfil their duties, might fall into decay, while the national +government engrossed their former power. But even if the States +disappeared altogether as effective factors in our national life, the +sections might, in my opinion, gain from that very disappearance a +strength and activity that would prove effective limitations upon the +nationalizing process. + +Without pursuing the interesting speculation, I may note as evidence of +the development of sectionalism, the various gatherings of business men, +religious denominations and educational organizations in groups of +States. Among the signs of growth of a healthy provincialism is the +formation of sectional historical societies. While the American +Historical Association has been growing vigorously and becoming a +genuine gathering of historical students from all parts of the nation, +there have also arisen societies in various sections to deal with the +particular history of the groups of States. In part this is due to the +great distances which render attendance difficult upon the meetings of +the national body to-day, but we would be short-sighted, indeed, who +failed to perceive in the formation of the Pacific Coast Historical +Association, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, and the +Ohio Valley Historical Association, for example, genuine and spontaneous +manifestations of a sectional consciousness. + +These associations spring in large part from the recognition in each of +a common past, a common body of experiences, traditions, institutions +and ideals. It is not necessary now to raise the question whether all of +these associations are based on a real community of historical interest, +whether there are overlapping areas, whether new combinations may not be +made? They are at least substantial attempts to find a common sectional +unity, and out of their interest in the past of the section, increasing +tendencies to common sectional ideas and policies are certain to follow. +I do not mean to prophesy any disruptive tendency in American life by +the rejuvenation of sectional self-consciousness; but I do mean to +assert that American life will be enriched and safe-guarded by the +development of the greater variety of interest, purposes and ideals +which seem to be arising. A measure of local concentration seems +necessary to produce healthy, intellectual and moral life. The spread of +social forces over too vast an area makes for monotony and stagnation. + +Let us, then, raise the question of how far the Ohio Valley has had a +part of its own in the making of the nation. I have not the temerity to +attempt a history of the Valley in the brief compass of this address. +Nor am I confident of my ability even to pick out the more important +features of its history in our common national life. But I venture to +put the problem, to state some familiar facts from the special point of +view, with the hope of arousing interest in the theme among the many +students who are advancing the science of history in this section. + +To the physiographer the section is made up of the province of the +Alleghany Plateaus and the southern portion of the Prairie Plains. In +it are found rich mineral deposits which are changing the life of the +section and of the nation. Although you reckon in your membership only +the states that touch the Ohio River, parts of those states are, from +the point of view of their social origins, more closely connected with +the Northwest on the Lake Plains, than with the Ohio Valley; and, on the +other hand, the Tennessee Valley, though it sweeps far toward the Lower +South, and only joins the Ohio at the end of its course, has been +through much of the history of the region an essential part of this +society. Together these rivers made up the "Western World" of the +pioneers of the Revolutionary era; the "Western Waters" of the +backwoodsmen. + +But, after all, the unity of the section and its place in history were +determined by the "beautiful river," as the French explorers called +it--the Ohio, which pours its flood for over a thousand miles, a great +highway to the West; a historic artery of commerce, a wedge of advance +between powerful Indian confederacies, and rival European nations, to +the Mississippi Valley; a home for six mighty States, now in the heart +of the nation, rich in material wealth, richer in the history of +American democracy, a society that holds a place midway between the +industrial sections of the seaboard and the plains and prairies of the +agricultural West; between the society that formed later along the +levels about the Great Lakes, and the society that arose in the Lower +South on the plains of the Gulf of Mexico. The Alleghanies bound it on +the east, the Mississippi on the west. At the forks of the great river +lies Pittsburgh, the historic gateway to the West, the present symbol +and embodiment of the age of steel, the type of modern industrialism. +Near its western border is St. Louis, looking toward the Prairies, the +Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, the land into which the tide of +modern colonization turns. + +Between these old cities, for whose sites European nations contended, +stand the cities whose growth preeminently represents the Ohio valley; +Cincinnati, the historic queen of the river; Louisville, the warder of +the falls; the cities of the "Old National Road," Columbus, +Indianapolis; the cities of the Blue Grass lands, which made Kentucky +the goal of the pioneers; and the cities of that young commonwealth, +whom the Ohio river by force of its attraction tore away from an +uncongenial control by the Old Dominion, and joined to the social +section where it belonged. + +The Ohio Valley is, therefore, not only a commercial highway, it is a +middle kingdom between the East and the West, between the northern area, +which was occupied by a greater New England and emigrants from northern +Europe, and the southern area of the "Cotton Kingdom." As Pennsylvania +and New York constituted the Middle Region in our earlier history, +between New England and the seaboard South, so the Ohio Valley became +the Middle Region of a later time. In its position as a highway and a +Middle Region are found the keys to its place in American history. + +From the beginning the Ohio Valley seems to have been a highway for +migration, and the home of a culture of its own. The sciences of +American archeology and ethnology are too new to enable us to speak with +confidence upon the origins and earlier distribution of the aborigines, +but it is at least clear that the Ohio river played an important part in +the movements of the earlier men in America, and that the mounds of the +valley indicate a special type of development intermediate between that +of the northern hunter folk, and the pueblo building races of the south. +This dim and yet fascinating introduction to the history of the Ohio +will afford ample opportunity for later students of the relations +between geography and population to make contributions to our history. + +The French explorers saw the river, but failed to grasp its significance +as a strategic line in the conquest of the West. Entangled in the water +labyrinth of the vast interior, and kindled with aspirations to reach +the "Sea of the West," their fur traders and explorers pushed their way +through the forests of the North and across the plains of the South, +from river to lake, from lake to river, until they met the mountains of +the West. But while they were reaching the upper course of the Missouri +and the Spanish outposts of Santa Fe, they missed the opportunity to +hold the Ohio Valley, and before France could settle the Valley, the +long and attenuated line of French posts in the west, reaching from +Canada to Louisiana, was struck by the advancing column of the American +backwoodsmen in the center by the way of the Ohio. Parkman, in whose +golden pages is written the epic of the American wilderness, found his +hero in the wandering Frenchman. Perhaps because he was a New Englander +he missed a great opportunity and neglected to portray the formation and +advance of the backwood society which was finally to erase the traces of +French control in the interior of North America. + +It is not without significance in a consideration of the national +aspects of the history of the Ohio Valley, that the messenger of English +civilization, who summoned the French to evacuate the Valley and its +approaches, and whose men near the forks of the Ohio fired the opening +gun of the world-historic conflict that wrought the doom of New France +in America, was George Washington, the first American to win a national +position in the United States. The father of his country was the prophet +of the Ohio Valley. + +Into this dominion, in the next scene of this drama, came the +backwoodsmen, the men who began the formation of the society of the +Valley. I wish to consider the effects of the formation of this society +upon the nation. And first let us consider the stock itself. + +The Ohio Valley was settled, for the most part (though with important +exceptions, especially in Ohio), by men of the Upland South, and this +determined a large part of its influence in the nation through a long +period. As the Ohio Valley, as a whole, was an extension of the Upland +South, so the Upland South was, broadly speaking, an extension from the +old Middle Region, chiefly from Pennsylvania. The society of pioneers, +English, Scotch-Irish, Germans, and other nationalities which formed in +the beginning of the eighteenth century in the Great Valley of +Pennsylvania and its lateral extensions was the nursery of the American +backwoodsmen. Between about 1730 and the Revolution, successive tides of +pioneers ascended the Shenandoah, occupied the Piedmont, or up-country +of Virginia and the Carolinas, and received recruits from similar +peoples who came by eastward advances from the coast toward this Old +West. + +Thus by the middle of the eighteenth century a new section had been +created in America, a kind of peninsula thrust down from Pennsylvania +between the falls of the rivers of the South Atlantic colonies on the +one side and the Alleghany mountains on the other. Its population showed +a mixture of nationalities and religions. Less English than the colonial +coast, it was built on a basis of religious feeling different from that +of Puritan New England, and still different from the conservative +Anglicans of the southern seaboard. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians with +the glow of the covenanters; German sectaries with serious-minded +devotion to one or another of a multiplicity of sects, but withal deeply +responsive to the call of the religious spirit, and the English Quakers +all furnish a foundation of emotional responsiveness to religion and a +readiness to find a new heaven and a new earth in politics as well as in +religion. In spite of the influence of the backwoods in hampering +religious organization, this upland society was a fertile field for +tillage by such democratic and emotional sects as the Baptists, +Methodists and the later Campbellites, as well as by Presbyterians. Mr. +Bryce has well characterized the South as a region of "high religious +voltage," but this characterization is especially applicable to the +Upland South, and its colonies in the Ohio Valley. It is not necessary +to assert that this religious spirit resulted in the kind of conduct +associated with the religious life of the Puritans. What I wish to point +out is the responsiveness of the Upland South to emotional religious and +political appeal. + +Besides its variety of stocks and its religious sects responsive to +emotion, the Upland South was intensely democratic and individualistic. +It believed that government was based on a limited contract for the +benefit of the individual, and it acted independently of governmental +organs and restraints with such ease that in many regions this was the +habitual mode of social procedure: voluntary cooperation was more +natural to the Southern Uplanders than action through the machinery of +government, especially when government checked rather than aided their +industrial and social tendencies and desires. It was a naturally radical +society. It was moreover a rural section not of the planter or merchant +type, but characterized by the small farmer, building his log cabin in +the wilderness, raising a small crop and a few animals for family use. +It was this stock which began to pass into the Ohio Valley when Daniel +Boone, and the pioneers associated with his name, followed the +"Wilderness Trace" from the Upland South to the Blue Grass lands in the +midst of the Kentucky hills, on the Ohio river. In the opening years of +the Revolution these pioneers were recruited by westward extensions +from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. With this colonization of the Ohio +Valley begins a chapter in American history. + +This settlement contributed a new element to our national development +and raised new national problems. It took a long time for the seaboard +South to assimilate the upland section. We cannot think of the South as +a unit through much of its ante-bellum history without doing violence to +the facts. The struggle between the men of the up-country and the men of +the tide-water, made a large part of the domestic history of the "Old +South." Nevertheless, the Upland South, as slavery and cotton +cultivation extended westward from the coast, gradually merged in the +East. On the other hand, its children, who placed the wall of the +Alleghanies between them and the East, gave thereby a new life to the +conditions and ideals which were lost in their former home. Nor was this +all. Beyond the mountains new conditions, new problems, aroused new +ambitions and new social ideals. Its entrance into the "Western World" +was a tonic to this stock. Its crossing put new fire into its +veins--fires of militant expansion, creative social energy, triumphant +democracy. A new section was added to the American nation, a new element +was infused into the combination which we call the United States, a new +flavor was given to the American spirit. + +We may next rapidly note some of the results. First, let us consider the +national effects of the settlement of this new social type in the Ohio +Valley upon the expansion and diplomacy of the nation. Almost from the +first the Ohio valley had constituted the problem of westward expansion. +It was the entering wedge to the possession of the Mississippi Valley, +and, although reluctantly, the Eastern colonies and then the Eastern +States were compelled to join in the struggle first to possess the Ohio, +then to retain it, and finally to enforce its demand for the possession +of the whole Mississippi Valley and the basin of the Great Lakes as a +means of outlet for its crops and of defense for its settlements. The +part played by the pioneers of the Ohio Valley as a flying column of the +nation, sent across the mountains and making a line of advance between +hostile Indians and English on the north, and hostile Indians and +Spaniards on the south, is itself too extensive a theme to be more than +mentioned. + +Here in historic Kentucky, in the State which was the home of George +Rogers Clark it is not necessary to dwell upon his clear insight and +courage in carrying American arms into the Northwest. From the first, +Washington also grasped the significance of the Ohio Valley as a "rising +empire," whose population and trade were essential to the nation, but +which found its natural outlet down the Mississippi, where Spain blocked +the river, and which was in danger of withdrawing from the weak +confederacy. The intrigues of England to attract the Valley to herself +and those of Spain to add the settlements to the Spanish Empire, the use +of the Indians by these rivals, and the efforts of France to use the +pioneers of Kentucky to win New Orleans and the whole Valley between the +Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains for a revived French Empire in +America, are among the fascinating chapters of American, as well as of +Ohio Valley, history. This position of the Valley explains much of the +Indian wars, the foreign relations, and, indirectly, the domestic +politics of the period from the Revolution to the purchase of Louisiana. +Indeed, the purchase was in large measure due to the pressure of the +settlers of the Ohio Valley to secure this necessary outlet. It was the +Ohio Valley which forced the nation away from a narrow colonial attitude +into its career as a nation among other nations with an adequate +physical basis for future growth. + +In this development of a foreign policy in connection with the Ohio +Valley, we find the germ of the Monroe doctrine, and the beginnings of +the definite independence of the United States from the state system of +the Old World, the beginning, in fact, of its career as a world power. +This expansive impulse went on into the War of 1812, a war which was in +no inconsiderable degree, the result of the aggressive leadership of a +group of men from Kentucky and Tennessee, and especially of the daring +and lofty demands of Henry Clay, who even thus early voiced the spirit +of the Ohio Valley. That in this war William Henry Harrison and the +Kentucky troops achieved the real conquest of the northwest province and +Andrew Jackson with his Tennesseeans achieved the real conquest of the +Gulf Plains, is in itself abundant evidence of the part played in the +expansion of the nation by the section which formed on the Ohio and its +tributaries. Nor was this the end of the process, for the annexation of +Texas and the Pacific Coast was in a very real sense only an aftermath +of the same movement of expansion. + +While the Ohio Valley was leading the way to the building of a greater +nation, it was also the field wherein was formed an important +contribution of the United States to political institutions. By this I +mean what George Bancroft has well called "federal colonial system," +that is, our system of territories and new States. It is a mistake to +attribute this system to the Ordinance of 1787 and to the leadership of +New England. It was in large measure the work of the communities of the +Ohio Valley who wrought out the essentials of the system for themselves, +and by their attitude imposed it, of necessity, upon the nation. The +great Ordinance only perfected the system.[168:1] + +Under the belief that all men going into vacant lands have the right to +shape their own political institutions, the riflemen of western +Virginia, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee, during the +Revolution, protested against the rule of governments east of the +mountains, and asserted with manly independence their right to +self-government. But it is significant that in making this assertion, +they at the same time petitioned congress to admit them to the +sisterhood of States. Even when leaders like Wilkinson were attempting +to induce Kentucky to act as an independent nation, the national spirit +of the people as a whole led them to delay until at last they found +themselves a State of the new Union. This recognition of the paramount +authority of congress and this demand for self-government under that +authority, constitute the foundations of the federal territorial system, +as expressed in congressional resolutions, worked out tentatively in +Jefferson's Ordinance of 1784, and finally shaped in the Ordinance of +1787. + +Thus the Ohio Valley was not only the area to which this system was +applied, but it was itself instrumental in shaping the system by its own +demands and by the danger that too rigorous an assertion of either State +or national power over these remote communities might result in their +loss to the nation. The importance of the result can hardly be +overestimated. It insured the peaceful and free development of the great +West and gave it political organization not as the outcome of wars of +hostile States, nor by arbitrary government by distant powers, but by +territorial government combined with large local autonomy. These +governments in turn were admitted as equal States of the Union. By this +peaceful process of colonization a whole continent has been filled with +free and orderly commonwealths so quietly, so naturally, that we can +only appreciate the profound significance of the process by contrasting +it with the spread of European nations through conquest and oppression. + +Next let me invite your attention to the part played by the Ohio Valley +in the economic legislation which shaped our history in the years of the +making of the nation between the War of 1812 and the rise of the slavery +struggle. It needs but slight reflection to discover that in the area in +question, the men and measures of the Ohio Valley held the balance of +power and set the course of our national progress. The problems before +the country at that time were problems of internal development: the mode +of dealing with the public domain; the building of roads and digging of +canals for the internal improvement of a nation which was separated into +East and West by the Alleghany Mountains; the formation of a tariff +system for the protection of home industries and to supply a market for +the surplus of the West which no longer found an outlet in warring +Europe; the framing of a banking and currency system which should meet +the needs of the new interstate commerce produced by the rise of the +western surplus. + +In the Ohio Valley, by the initiative of Ohio Valley men, and often +against the protest of Eastern sections, the public land policy was +developed by laws which subordinated the revenue idea to the idea of the +upbuilding of a democracy of small landholders. The squatters of the +Ohio Valley forced the passage of preemption laws and these laws in +their turn led to the homestead agitation. There has been no single +element more influential in shaping American democracy and its ideals +than this land policy. And whether the system be regarded as harmful or +helpful, there can be, I think, no doubt that it was the outcome of +conditions imposed by the settlers of the Ohio Valley. + +When one names the tariff, internal improvements and the bank, he is +bound to add the title "The American System," and to think of Henry Clay +of Kentucky, the captivating young statesman, who fashioned a national +policy, raised issues and disciplined a party to support them and who +finally imposed the system upon the nation. But, however clearly we +recognize the genius and originality of Henry Clay as a political +leader; however we recognize that he has a national standing as a +constructive statesman, we must perceive, if we probe the matter deeply +enough, that his policy and his power grew out of the economic and +social conditions of the people whose needs he voiced--the people of the +Ohio Valley. It was the fact that in this period they had begun to +create an agricultural surplus, which made the necessity for this +legislation. + +The nation has recently celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of +Fulton's invention of the steamboat, and the Hudson river has been +ablaze in his honor; but in truth it is on the Ohio and the Mississippi +that the fires of celebration should really burn in honor of Fulton, for +the historic significance to the United States of the invention of the +steamboat does not lie in its use on Eastern rivers; not even in its use +on the ocean; for our own internal commerce carried in our own ships has +had a vaster influence upon our national life than has our foreign +commerce. And this internal commerce was at first, and for many years, +the commerce of the Ohio Valley carried by way of the Mississippi. When +Fulton's steamboat was applied in 1811 to the Western Waters, it became +possible to develop agriculture and to get the Western crops rapidly and +cheaply to a market. The result was a tremendous growth in the entire +Ohio Valley, but this invention did not solve the problem of cheap +supplies of Eastern manufactures, nor satisfy the desire of the West to +build up its own factories in order to consume its own products. The +Ohio Valley had seen the advantage of home markets, as her towns grew +up with their commerce and manufacturers close to the rural regions. +Lands had increased in value in proportion to their nearness to these +cities, and crops were in higher demand near them. Thus Henry Clay found +a whole section standing behind him when he demanded a protective tariff +to create home markets on a national scale, and when he urged the +breaking of the Alleghany barrier by a national system of roads and +canals. If we analyse the congressional votes by which the tariff and +internal improvement acts were passed, we shall find that there was an +almost unbroken South against them, a Middle Region largely for them, a +New England divided, and the Ohio Valley almost a unit, holding the +balance of power and casting it in favor of the American system. + +The next topic to which I ask your attention is the influence of the +Ohio Valley in the promotion of democracy. On this I shall, by reason of +lack of time, be obliged merely to point out that the powerful group of +Ohio Valley States, which sprang out of the democracy of the backwoods, +and which entered the Union one after the other with manhood suffrage, +greatly recruited the effective forces of democracy in the Union. Not +only did they add new recruits, but by their competitive pressure for +population they forced the older States to break down their historic +restraints upon the right of voting, unless they were to lose their +people to the freer life of the West. + +But in the era of Jacksonian democracy, Henry Clay and his followers +engaged the great Tennesseean in a fierce political struggle out of +which was born the rival Whig and Democratic parties. This struggle was +in fact reflective of the conditions which had arisen in the Ohio +Valley. As the section had grown in population and wealth, as the trails +changed into roads, the cabins into well-built houses, the clearings +into broad farms, the hamlets into towns; as barter became commerce and +all the modern processes of industrial development began to operate in +this rising region, the Ohio Valley broke apart into the rival interests +of the industrial forces (the town-makers and the business builders), on +the one side and the old rural democracy of the uplands on the other. +This division was symbolical of national processes. In the contest +between these forces, Andrew Jackson was the champion of the cause of +the upland democracy. He denounced the money power, banks and the whole +credit system and sounded a fierce tocsin of danger against the +increasing influence of wealth in politics. Henry Clay, on the other +hand, represented the new industrial forces along the Ohio. It is +certainly significant that in the rivalry between the great Whig of the +Ohio Valley and the great Democrat of its Tennessee tributary lay the +issues of American politics almost until the slavery struggle. The +responsiveness of the Ohio Valley to leadership and its enthusiasm in +action are illustrated by the Harrison campaign of 1840; in that "log +cabin campaign" when the Whigs "stole the thunder" of pioneer Jacksonian +democracy for another backwoods hero, the Ohio Valley carried its spirit +as well as its political favorite throughout the nation. + +Meanwhile, on each side of the Ohio Valley, other sections were forming. +New England and the children of New England in western New York and an +increasing flood of German immigrants were pouring into the Great Lake +basin and the prairies, north of the upland peoples who had chopped out +homes in the forests along the Ohio. This section was tied to the East +by the Great Lake navigation and the Erie canal, it became in fact an +extension of New England and New York. Here the Free Soil party found +its strength and New York newspapers expressed the political ideas. +Although this section tried to attach the Ohio River interests to itself +by canals and later by railroads, it was in reality for a long time +separate in its ideals and its interests and never succeeded in +dominating the Ohio Valley. + +On the south along the Gulf Plains there developed the "Cotton Kingdom," +a Greater South with a radical program of slavery expansion mapped out +by bold and aggressive leaders. Already this Southern section had +attempted to establish increasing commercial relations with the Ohio +Valley. The staple-producing region was a principal consumer of its live +stock and food products. South Carolina leaders like Calhoun tried to +bind the Ohio to the chariot of the South by the Cincinnati and +Charleston Railroad, designed to make an outlet for the Ohio Valley +products to the southeast. Georgia in her turn was a rival of South +Carolina in plans to drain this commerce itself. In all of these plans +to connect the Ohio Valley commercially with the South, the political +object was quite as prominent as the commercial. + +In short, various areas were bidding for the support of the zone of +population along the Ohio River. The Ohio Valley recognized its old +relationship to the South, but its people were by no means champions of +slavery. In the southern portion of the States north of the Ohio where +indented servitude for many years opened a way to a system of +semi-slavery, there were divided counsels. Kentucky also spoke with no +certain voice. As a result, it is in these regions that we find the +stronghold of the compromising movement in the slavery struggle. +Kentucky furnished Abraham Lincoln to Illinois, and Jefferson Davis to +Mississippi, and was in reality the very center of the region of +adjustment between these rival interests. Senator Thomas, of southern +Illinois, moved the Missouri Compromise, and Henry Clay was the most +effective champion of that compromise, as he was the architect of the +Compromise of 1850. The Crittenden compromise proposals on the eve of +the Civil War came also from Kentucky and represent the persistence of +the spirit of Henry Clay. + +In a word, as I pointed out in the beginning, the Ohio Valley was a +Middle Region with a strong national allegiance, striving to hold apart +with either hand the sectional combatants in this struggle. In the +cautious development of his policy of emancipation, we may see the +profound influence of the Ohio Valley upon Abraham Lincoln--Kentucky's +greatest son. No one can understand his presidency without proper +appreciation of the deep influence of the Ohio Valley, its ideals and +its prejudices upon America's original contribution to the great men of +the world. + +Enough has been said to make it clear, I trust, that the Ohio Valley has +not only a local history worthy of study, a rich heritage to its people, +but also that it has been an independent and powerful force in shaping +the development of a nation. Of the late history of this Valley, the +rise of its vast industrial power, its far-reaching commercial +influence, it is not necessary that I should speak. You know its +statesmen and their influence upon our own time; you know the relation +of Ohio to the office of President of the United States! Nor is it +necessary that I should attempt to prophesy concerning the future which +the Ohio Valley will hold in the nation. + +In that new age of inland water transportation, which is certain to +supplement the age of the railroad, there can be no more important +region than the Ohio Valley. Let us hope that its old love of democracy +may endure, and that in this section, where the first trans-Alleghany +pioneers struck blows at the forests, there may be brought to blossom +and to fruit the ripe civilization of a people who know that whatever +the glories of prosperity may be, there are greater glories of the +spirit of man; who know that in the ultimate record of history, the +place of the Ohio Valley will depend upon the contribution which her +people and her leaders make to the cause of an enlightened, a +cultivated, a God-fearing and a free, as well as a comfortable, +democracy. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[157:1] An address before the Ohio Valley Historical Association, +October 16, 1909. + +[168:1] See F. J. Turner, "New States West of the Alleghanies," +_American Historical Review_, i, pp. 70 ff. + + + + +VI + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN AMERICAN HISTORY[177:1] + + +The rise of a company of sympathetic and critical students of history in +the South and in the West is bound to revolutionize the perspective of +American history. Already our Eastern colleagues are aware in general, +if not in detail, of the importance of the work of this nation in +dealing with the vast interior, and with the influence of the West upon +the nation. Indeed, I might take as the text for this address the words +of one of our Eastern historians, Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, who, a +decade ago, wrote: + + The Mississippi Valley yields to no region in the world in + interest, in romance, and in promise for the future. Here, if + anywhere, is the real America--the field, the theater, and the + basis of the civilization of the Western World. The history of + the Mississippi Valley is the history of the United States; + its future is the future of one of the most powerful of modern + nations.[177:2] + +If those of us who have been insisting on the importance of our own +region are led at times by the enthusiasm of the pioneer for the +inviting historical domain that opens before us to overstate the +importance of our subject, we may at least plead that we have gone no +farther than some of our brethren of the East; and we may take comfort +in this declaration of Theodore Roosevelt: + + The states that have grown up around the Great Lakes and in + the Valley of the Upper Mississippi, [are] the states which + are destined to be the greatest, the richest, the most + prosperous of all the great, rich, and prosperous + commonwealths which go to make up the mightiest republic the + world has ever seen. These states . . . form the heart of the + country geographically, and they will soon become the heart in + population and in political and social importance. . . . I + should be sorry to think that before these states there loomed + a future of material prosperity merely. I regard this section + of the country as the heart of true American sentiment.[178:1] + +In studying the history of the whole Mississippi Valley, therefore, the +members of this Association are studying the origins of that portion of +the nation which is admitted by competent Eastern authorities to be the +section potentially most influential in the future of America. They are +also studying the region which has engaged the most vital activities of +the whole nation; for the problems arising from the existence of the +Mississippi Valley, whether of movement of population, diplomacy, +politics, economic development, or social structure, have been +fundamental problems in shaping the nation. It is not a narrow, not even +a local, interest which determines the mission of this Association. It +is nothing less than the study of the American people in the presence +and under the influence of the vast spaces, the imperial resources of +the great interior. The social destiny of this Valley will be the social +destiny, and will mark the place in history, of the United States. + +In a large sense, and in the one usually given to it by geographers and +historians, the Mississippi Valley includes the whole interior basin, a +province which drains into nearly two thousand miles of navigable waters +of the Mississippi itself, two thousand miles of the tawny flood of the +Missouri, and a thousand miles of the Ohio--five thousand miles of main +water highways open to the steamboat, nearly two and a half million +square miles of drainage basin, a land greater than all Europe except +Russia, Norway, and Sweden, a land of levels, marked by essential +geographic unity, a land estimated to be able to support a population of +two or three hundred millions, three times the present population of the +whole nation, an empire of natural resources in which to build a noble +social structure worthy to hold its place as the heart of American +industrial, political and spiritual life. + +The significance of the Mississippi Valley in American history was first +shown in the fact that it opened to various nations visions of power in +the New World--visions that sweep across the horizon of historical +possibility like the luminous but unsubstantial aurora of a comet's +train, portentous and fleeting. + +Out of the darkness of the primitive history of the continent are being +drawn the evidences of the rise and fall of Indian cultures, the +migrations through and into the great Valley by men of the Stone Age, +hinted at in legends and languages, dimly told in the records of mounds +and artifacts, but waiting still for complete interpretation. + +Into these spaces and among the savage peoples, came France and wrote a +romantic page in our early history, a page that tells of unfulfilled +empire. What is striking in the effect of the Mississippi Valley upon +France is the pronounced influence of the unity of its great spaces. It +is not without meaning that Radisson and Groseilliers not only reached +the extreme of Lake Superior but also, in all probability, entered upon +the waters of the Mississippi and learned of its western affluent; that +Marquette not only received the Indians of the Illinois region in his +post on the shores of Lake Superior, but traversed the length of the +Mississippi almost to its mouth, and returning revealed the site of +Chicago; that La Salle was inspired with the vision of a huge interior +empire reaching from the Gulf to the Great Lakes. Before the close of +the seventeenth century, Perrot's influence was supreme in the Upper +Mississippi, while D'Iberville was laying the foundations of Louisiana +toward the mouth of the river. Nor is it without significance that while +the Verendryes were advancing toward the northwest (where they +discovered the Big Horn Mountains and revealed the natural boundaries of +the Valley) the Mallet brothers were ascending the Platte, crossing the +Colorado plains to Santa Fe and so revealing the natural boundaries +toward the southwest. + +To the English the great Valley was a land beyond the Alleghanies. +Spotswood, the far-sighted Governor of Virginia, predecessor of frontier +builders, grasped the situation when he proposed western settlements to +prevent the French from becoming a great people at the back of the +colonies. He realized the importance of the Mississippi Valley as the +field for expansion, and the necessity to the English empire of +dominating it, if England would remain the great power of the New World. + +In the war that followed between France and England, we now see what +the men of the time could not have realized: that the main issue was +neither the possession of the fisheries nor the approaches to the St. +Lawrence on the one hemisphere, nor the possession of India on the +other, but the mastery of the interior basin of North America. + +How little the nations realized the true meaning of the final victory of +England is shown in the fact that Spain reluctantly received from France +the cession of the lands beyond the Mississippi, accepting it as a means +of preventing the infringement of her colonial monopoly in Spanish +America rather than as a field for imperial expansion. + +But we know now that when George Washington came as a stripling to the +camp of the French at the edge of the great Valley and demanded the +relinquishment of the French posts in the name of Virginia, he was +demanding in the name of the English speaking people the right to occupy +and rule the real center of American resources and power. When +Braddock's axmen cut their road from the Potomac toward the forks of the +Ohio they were opening a channel through which the forces of +civilization should flow with ever increasing momentum and "carving a +cross on the wilderness rim" at the spot which is now the center of +industrial power of the American nation. + +England trembled on the brink of her great conquest, fearful of the +effect of these far-stretching rivers upon her colonial system, timorous +in the presence of the fierce peoples who held the vast domain beyond +the Alleghanies. It seems clear, however, that the Proclamation of 1763, +forbidding settlement and the patenting of lands beyond the Alleghanies, +was not intended as a permanent creation of an Indian reservation out of +this Valley, but was rather a temporary arrangement in order that +British plans might mature and a system of gradual colonization be +devised. Already our greatest leaders, men like Washington and +Franklin, had been quick to see the importance of this new area for +enlarged activities of the American people. A sudden revelation that it +was the West, rather than the ocean, which was the real theater for the +creative energy of America came with the triumph over France. The Ohio +Company and the Loyal Land Company indicate the interest at the outbreak +of the war, while the Mississippi Company, headed by the Washingtons and +Lees, organized to occupy southern Illinois, Indiana, and western +Kentucky, mark the Virginia interest in the Mississippi Valley, and +Franklin's activity in promoting a colony in the Illinois country +illustrates the interest of the Philadelphians. Indeed, Franklin saw +clearly the possibilities of a settlement there as a means of breaking +up Spanish America. Writing to his son in 1767 he declared that a +"settlement should be made in the Illinois country . . . raising a +strength there which on occasions of a future war might easily be poured +down the Mississippi upon the lower country and into the Bay of Mexico +to be used against Cuba, the French Islands, or Mexico itself."[182:1] + +The Mississippi Valley had been the despair of France in the matter of +governmental control. The coureurs de bois escaping from restraints of +law and order took their way through its extensive wilderness, exploring +and trading as they listed. Similarly, when the English colonists +crossed the Alleghanies they escaped from the control of mother colonies +as well as of the mother country. If the Mississippi Valley revealed to +the statesmen of the East, in the exultation of the war with France, an +opportunity for new empire building, it revealed to the frontiersmen, +who penetrated the passes of the Alleghanies, and entered into their new +inheritance, the sharp distinctions between them and the Eastern lands +which they left behind. From the beginning it was clear that the lands +beyond the Alleghanies furnished an opportunity and an incentive to +develop American society on independent and unconventional lines. The +"men of the Western Waters" broke with the old order of things, +subordinated social restraint to the freedom of the individual, won +their title to the rich lands which they entered by hard fighting +against the Indians, hotly challenged the right of the East to rule +them, demanded their own States, and would not be refused, spoke with +contempt of the old social order of ranks and classes in the lands +between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic, and proclaimed the ideal of +democracy for the vast country which they had entered. Not with the +mercurial facility of the French did they follow the river systems of +the Great Valley. Like the advance of the glacier they changed the face +of the country in their steady and inevitable progress, and they sought +the sea. It was not long before the Spaniards at the mouth of the river +realized the meaning of the new forces that had entered the Valley. + +In 1794 the Governor of Louisiana wrote: + + This vast and restless population progressively driving the + Indian tribes before them and upon us, seek to possess + themselves of all the extensive regions which the Indians + occupy between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the Gulf of + Mexico, and the Appalachian Mountains, thus becoming our + neighbors, at the same time that they menacingly ask for the + free navigation of the Mississippi. If they achieve their + object, their ambitions would not be confined to this side of + the Mississippi. Their writings, public papers, and speeches, + all turn on this point, the free navigation of the Gulf by the + rivers . . . which empty into it, the rich fur trade of the + Missouri, and in time the possession of the rich mines of the + interior provinces of the very Kingdom of Mexico. Their mode + of growth and their policy are as formidable for Spain as + their armies. . . . Their roving spirit and the readiness with + which they procure sustenance and shelter facilitate rapid + settlement. A rifle and a little corn meal in a bag are + enough for an American wandering alone in the woods for a + month. . . . With logs crossed upon one another he makes a + house, and even an impregnable fort against the Indians. . . . + Cold does not terrify him, and when a family wearies of one + place, it moves to another and settles there with the same + ease. + + If such men come to occupy the banks of the Mississippi and + Missouri, or secure their navigation, doubtless nothing will + prevent them from crossing and penetrating into our provinces + on the other side, which, being to a great extent unoccupied, + can oppose no resistance. . . . In my opinion, a general + revolution in America threatens Spain unless the remedy be + applied promptly. + +In fact, the pioneers who had occupied the uplands of the South, the +backwoods stock with its Scotch-Irish leaders which had formed on the +eastern edge of the Alleghanies, separate and distinct from the type of +tidewater and New England, had found in the Mississippi Valley a new +field for expansion under conditions of free land and unrestraint. These +conditions gave it promise of ample time to work out its own social +type. But, first of all, these men who were occupying the Western Waters +must find an outlet for their surplus products, if they were to become +a powerful people. While the Alleghanies placed a veto toward the east, +the Mississippi opened a broad highway to the south. Its swift current +took their flat boats in its strong arms to bear them to the sea, but +across the outlet of the great river Spain drew the barrier of her +colonial monopoly and denied them exit. + +The significance of the Mississippi Valley in American history at the +opening of the new republic, therefore, lay in the fact that, beyond the +area of the social and political control of the thirteen colonies, there +had arisen a new and aggressive society which imperiously put the +questions of the public lands, internal communication, local +self-government, defense, and aggressive expansion, before the +legislators of the old colonial regime. The men of the Mississippi +Valley compelled the men of the East to think in American terms instead +of European. They dragged a reluctant nation on in a new course. + +From the Revolution to the end of the War of 1812 Europe regarded the +destiny of the Mississippi Valley as undetermined. Spain desired to +maintain her hold by means of the control given through the possession +of the mouth of the river and the Gulf, by her influence upon the Indian +tribes, and by intrigues with the settlers. Her object was primarily to +safeguard the Spanish American monopoly which had made her a great +nation in the world. Instinctively she seemed to surmise that out of +this Valley were the issues of her future; here was the lever which +might break successively, from her empire fragments about the +Gulf--Louisiana, Florida and Texas, Cuba and Porto Rico--the Southwest +and Pacific coast, and even the Philippines and the Isthmian Canal, +while the American republic, building itself on the resources of the +Valley, should become paramount over the independent republics into +which her empire was to disintegrate. + +France, seeking to regain her former colonial power, would use the +Mississippi Valley as a means of provisioning her West Indian islands; +of dominating Spanish America, and of subordinating to her purposes the +feeble United States, which her policy assigned to the lands between the +Atlantic and the Alleghanies. The ancient Bourbon monarchy, the +revolutionary republic, and the Napoleonic empire--all contemplated the +acquisition of the whole Valley of the Mississippi from the Alleghanies +to the Rocky Mountains.[186:1] + +England holding the Great Lakes, dominating the northern Indian +populations and threatening the Gulf and the mouth of the Mississippi by +her fleet, watched during the Revolution, the Confederation, and the +early republic for the breaking of the fragile bonds of the thirteen +States, ready to extend her protection over the settlers in the +Mississippi Valley. + +Alarmed by the prospect of England's taking Louisiana and Florida from +Spain, Jefferson wrote in 1790: "Embraced from St. Croix to St. Mary's +on one side by their possessions, on the other by their fleet, we need +not hesitate to say that they would soon find means to unite to them all +the territory covered by the ramifications of the Mississippi." And +that, he thought, must result in "bloody and eternal war or indissoluble +confederacy" with England. + +None of these nations deemed it impossible that American settlers in the +Mississippi Valley might be won to accept another flag than that of the +United States. Gardoqui had the effrontery in 1787 to suggest to Madison +that the Kentuckians would make good Spanish subjects. France enlisted +the support of frontiersmen led by George Rogers Clark for her attempted +conquest of Louisiana in 1793. England tried to win support among the +western settlers. Indeed, when we recall that George Rogers Clark +accepted a commission as Major General from France in 1793 and again in +1798; that Wilkinson, afterwards commander-in-chief of the American +army, secretly asked Spanish citizenship and promised renunciation of +his American allegiance; that Governor Sevier of Franklin, afterwards +Senator from Tennessee and its first Governor as a State, Robertson the +founder of Cumberland, and Blount, Governor of the Southwest Territory +and afterwards Senator from Tennessee, were all willing to accept the +rule of another nation sooner than see the navigation of the Mississippi +yielded by the American government we can easily believe that it lay +within the realm of possibility that another allegiance might have been +accepted by the frontiersmen themselves. We may well trust Rufus Putnam, +whose federalism and devotion to his country had been proved and whose +work in founding New England's settlement at Marietta is well known, +when he wrote in 1790 in answer to Fisher Ames's question whether the +Mississippi Valley could be retained in the Union: "Should Congress give +up her claim to the navigation of the Mississippi or cede it to the +Spaniards, I believe the people in the Western quarter would separate +themselves from the United States very soon. Such a measure, I have no +doubt, would excite so much rage and dissatisfaction that the people +would sooner put themselves under the despotic government of Spain than +remain the indented servants of Congress." He added that if Congress did +not afford due protection also to these western settlers they might turn +to England or Spain.[187:1] + +Prior to the railroad the Mississippi Valley was potentially the basis +for an independent empire, in spite of the fact that its population +would inevitably be drawn from the Eastern States. Its natural outlet +was down the current to the Gulf. New Orleans controlled the Valley, in +the words of Wilkinson, "as the key the lock, or the citadel the +outworks." So long as the Mississippi Valley was menaced, or in part +controlled, by rival European states, just so long must the United +States be a part of the state system of Europe, involved in its +fortunes. And particularly was this the case in view of the fact that +until the Union made internal commerce, based upon the Mississippi +Valley, its dominant economic interest, the merchants and sailors of the +northeastern States and the staple producers of the southern sea-board +were a commercial appanage of Europe. The significance of the +Mississippi Valley was clearly seen by Jefferson. Writing to Livingston +in 1802 he declared: + + There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which + is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through + which the produce of three-eights of our territory must pass + to market, and from its fertility it will ere long yield more + than half of our whole produce and contain more than half of + our inhabitants. . . . The day that France takes possession of + New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her within + her low-water mark. It seals the union of two nations who in + conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. + From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet + and nation . . . holding the two continents of America in + sequestration for the common purposes of the united British + and American nations.[188:1] + +The acquisition of Louisiana was a recognition of the essential unity of +the Mississippi Valley. The French engineer Collot reported to his +government after an investigation in 1796: + + All the positions on the left [east] bank of the Mississippi + . . . without the alliance of the Western states are far from + covering Louisiana. . . . When two nations possess, one the + coasts and the other the plains, the former must inevitably + embark or submit. From thence I conclude that the Western + States of the North American republic must unite themselves + with Louisiana and form in the future one single compact + nation; or else that colony to whatever power it shall belong + will be conquered or devoured. + +The effect of bringing political unity to the Mississippi Valley by the +Louisiana Purchase was profound. It was the decisive step of the United +States on an independent career as a world power, free from entangling +foreign alliances. The victories of Harrison in the Northwest, in the +War of 1812 that followed, ensured our expansion in the northern half of +the Valley. Jackson's triumphal march to the Gulf and his defense of New +Orleans in the same war won the basis for that Cotton Kingdom, so +important in the economic life of the nation and so pregnant with the +issue of slavery.[189:1] The acquisition of Florida, Texas, and the Far +West followed naturally. Not only was the nation set on an independent +path in foreign relations; its political system was revolutionized, for +the Mississippi Valley now opened the way for adding State after State, +swamping the New England section and its Federalism. The doctrine of +strict construction had received a fatal blow at the hands of its own +prophet. The old conception of historic sovereign States, makers of a +federation, was shattered by this vast addition of raw material for an +indefinite number of parallelograms called States, nursed through a +Territorial period by the Federal government, admitted under conditions, +and animated by national rather than by State patriotism. + +The area of the nation had been so enlarged and the development of the +internal resources so promoted, by the acquisition of the whole course +of the mighty river, its tributaries and its outlet, that the Atlantic +coast soon turned its economic energies from the sea to the interior. +Cities and sections began to struggle for ascendancy over its industrial +life. A real national activity, a genuine American culture began. The +vast spaces, the huge natural resources, of the Valley demanded +exploitation and population. Later there came the tide of foreign +immigration which has risen so steadily that it has made a composite +American people whose amalgamation is destined to produce a new national +stock. + +But without attempting to exhaust, or even to indicate, all the effects +of the Louisiana Purchase, I wish next to ask your attention to the +significance of the Mississippi Valley in the promotion of democracy and +the transfer of the political center of gravity in the nation. The +Mississippi Valley has been the especial home of democracy. Born of free +land and the pioneer spirit, nurtured in the ideas of the Revolution and +finding free play for these ideas in the freedom of the wilderness, +democracy showed itself in the earliest utterances of the men of the +Western Waters and it has persisted there. The demand for local +self-government, which was insistent on the frontier, and the +endorsement given by the Alleghanies to these demands led to the +creation of a system of independent Western governments and to the +Ordinance of 1787, an original contribution to colonial policy. This was +framed in the period when any rigorous subjection of the West to Eastern +rule would have endangered the ties that bound them to the Union +itself. In the Constitutional Convention prominent Eastern statesmen +expressed their fears of the Western democracy and would have checked +its ability to out-vote the regions of property by limiting its +political power, so that it should never equal that of the Atlantic +coast. But more liberal counsels prevailed. In the first debates upon +the public lands, also, it was clearly stated that the social system of +the nation was involved quite as much as the question of revenue. +Eastern fears that cheap lands in abundance would depopulate the +Atlantic States and check their industrial growth by a scarcity of labor +supply were met by the answer of one of the representatives in 1796: + + I question if any man would be hardy enough to point out a + class of citizens by name that ought to be the servants of the + community; yet unless that is done to what class of the People + could you direct such a law? But if you passed such an act + [limiting the area offered for sale in the Mississippi + Valley], it would be tantamount to saying that there is some + class which must remain here, and by law be obliged to serve + the others for such wages as they please to give. + +Gallatin showed his comprehension of the basis of the prosperous +American democracy in the same debate when he said: + + If the cause of the happiness of this country was examined + into, it would be found to arise as much from the great plenty + of land in proportion to the inhabitants, which their citizens + enjoyed as from the wisdom of their political institutions. + +Out of this frontier democratic society where the freedom and abundance +of land in the great Valley opened a refuge to the oppressed in all +regions, came the Jacksonian democracy which governed the nation after +the downfall of the party of John Quincy Adams. Its center rested in +Tennessee, the region from which so large a portion of the Mississippi +Valley was settled by descendants of the men of the Upland South. The +rule of the Mississippi Valley is seen when we recall the place that +Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri held in both parties. Besides Jackson, +Clay, Harrison and Polk, we count such presidential candidates as Hugh +White and John Bell, Vice President R. M. Johnson, Grundy, the chairman +of the finance committee, and Benton, the champion of western +radicalism. + +It was in this same period, and largely by reason of the drainage of +population to the West, and the stir in the air raised by the Western +winds of Jacksonian democracy, that most of the older States +reconstructed their constitutions on a more democratic basis. From the +Mississippi Valley where there were liberal suffrage provisions (based +on population alone instead of property and population), disregard of +vested interests, and insistence on the rights of man, came the +inspiration for this era of change in the franchise and apportionment, +of reform of laws for imprisonment for debt, of general attacks upon +monopoly and privilege. "It is now plain," wrote Jackson in 1837, "that +the war is to be carried on by the monied aristocracy of the few against +the democracy of numbers; the [prosperous] to make the honest laborers +hewers of wood and drawers of water . . . through the credit and paper +system." + +By this time the Mississippi Valley had grown in population and +political power so that it ranked with the older sections. The next +indication of its significance in American history which I shall +mention is its position in shaping the economic and political course of +the nation between the close of the War of 1812 and the slavery +struggle. In 1790 the Mississippi Valley had a population of about a +hundred thousand, or one-fortieth of that of the United States as a +whole; by 1810 it had over a million, or one-seventh; by 1830 it had +three and two-thirds millions, or over one-fourth; by 1840 over six +millions, more than one-third. While the Atlantic coast increased only a +million and a half souls between 1830 and 1840, the Mississippi Valley +gained nearly three millions. Ohio (virgin wilderness in 1790) was, half +a century later, nearly as populous as Pennsylvania and twice as +populous as Massachusetts. While Virginia, North Carolina, and South +Carolina were gaining 60,000 souls between 1830 and 1840, Illinois +gained 318,000. Indeed, the growth of this State alone excelled that of +the entire South Atlantic States. + +These figures show the significance of the Mississippi Valley in its +pressure upon the older section by the competition of its cheap lands, +its abundant harvests, and its drainage of the labor supply. All of +these things meant an upward lift to the Eastern wage earner. But they +meant also an increase of political power in the Valley. Before the War +of 1812 the Mississippi Valley had six senators, New England ten, the +Middle States ten, and the South eight. By 1840 the Mississippi Valley +had twenty-two senators, double those of the Middle States and New +England combined, and nearly three times as many as the Old South; while +in the House of Representatives the Mississippi Valley outweighed any +one of the old sections. In 1810 it had less than one-third the power of +New England and the South together in the House. In 1840 it outweighed +them both combined and because of its special circumstances it held the +balance of power. + +While the Mississippi Valley thus rose to superior political power as +compared with any of the old sections, its economic development made it +the inciting factor in the industrial life of the nation. After the War +of 1812 the steamboat revolutionized the transportation facilities of +the Mississippi Valley. In each economic area a surplus formed, +demanding an outlet and demanding returns in manufactures. The spread of +cotton into the lower Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Plains had a +double significance. This transfer of the center of cotton production +away from the Atlantic South not only brought increasing hardship and +increasing unrest to the East as the competition of the virgin soils +depressed Atlantic land values and made Eastern labor increasingly dear, +but the price of cotton fell also in due proportion to the increase in +production by the Mississippi Valley. While the transfer of economic +power from the Seaboard South to the Cotton Kingdom of the lower +Mississippi Valley was in progress, the upper Mississippi Valley was +leaping forward, partly under the stimulus of a market for its surplus +in the plantations of the South, where almost exclusive cultivation of +the great staples resulted in a lack of foodstuffs and livestock. + +At the same time the great river and its affluents became the highway of +a commerce that reached to the West Indies, the Atlantic Coast, Europe, +and South America. The Mississippi Valley was an industrial entity, from +Pittsburgh and Santa Fe to New Orleans. It became the most important +influence in American politics and industry. Washington had declared in +1784 that it was the part of wisdom for Virginia to bind the West to the +East by ties of interest through internal improvement thereby taking +advantage of the extensive and valuable trade of a rising empire. + +This realization of the fact that an economic empire was growing up +beyond the mountains stimulated rival cities, New York, Philadelphia, +and Baltimore, to engage in a struggle to supply the West with goods +and receive its products. This resulted in an attempt to break down the +barrier of the Alleghanies by internal improvements. The movement became +especially active after the War of 1812, when New York carried out De +Witt Clinton's vast conception of making by the Erie Canal a greater +Hudson which should drain to the port of New York all the basin of the +Great Lakes, and by means of other canals even divert the traffic from +the tributaries of the Mississippi. New York City's commercial +ascendancy dates from this connection with interior New York and the +Mississippi Valley. A writer in Hunt's _Merchants' Magazine_ in 1869 +makes the significance of this clearer by these words: + + There was a period in the history of the seaboard cities when + there was no West; and when the Alleghany Mountains formed the + frontier of settlement and agricultural production. During + that epoch the seaboard cities, North and South, grew in + proportion to the extent and fertility of the country in their + rear; and as Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia + were more productive in staples valuable to commerce than the + colonies north of them, the cities of Baltimore, Norfolk, + Charleston, and Savannah enjoyed a greater trade and + experienced a larger growth than those on the northern + seaboard. + +He, then, classifies the periods of city development into three: (1) the +provincial, limited to the Atlantic seaboard; (2) that of canal and +turnpike connected with the Mississippi Valley; and (3) that of railroad +connection. Thus he was able to show how Norfolk, for example, was shut +off from the enriching currents of interior trade and was outstripped +by New York. The efforts of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and +Savannah to divert the trade of the Mississippi system to their own +ports on the Atlantic, and the rise or fall of these cities in +proportion as they succeeded are a sufficient indication of the meaning +of the Mississippi Valley in American industrial life. What colonial +empire has been for London that the Mississippi Valley is to the +seaboard cities of the United States, awakening visions of industrial +empire, systematic control of vast spaces, producing the American type +of the captain of industry. + +It was not alone city rivalry that converged upon the Mississippi Valley +and sought its alliance. Sectional rivalry likewise saw that the balance +of power possessed by the interior furnished an opportunity for +combinations. This was a fundamental feature of Calhoun's policy when he +urged the seaboard South to complete a railroad system to tap the +Northwest. As Washington had hoped to make western trade seek its outlet +in Virginia and build up the industrial power of the Old Dominion by +enriching intercourse with the Mississippi Valley, as Monroe wished to +bind the West to Virginia's political interests; and as De Witt Clinton +wished to attach it to New York, so Calhoun and Hayne would make +"Georgia and Carolina the commercial center of the Union, and the two +most powerful and influential members of the confederacy," by draining +the Mississippi Valley to their ports. "I believe," said Calhoun, "that +the success of a connection of the West is of the last importance to us +politically and commercially. . . . I do verily believe that Charleston +has more advantages in her position for the Western trade, than any city +on the Atlantic, but to develop them we ought to look to the Tennessee +instead of the Ohio, and much farther to the West than Cincinnati or +Lexington." + +This was the secret of Calhoun's advocacy in 1836 and 1837 both of the +distribution of the surplus revenue and of the cession of the public +lands to the States in which they lay, as an inducement to the West to +ally itself with Southern policies; and it is the key to the readiness +of Calhoun, even after he lost his nationalism, to promote internal +improvements which would foster the southward current of trade on the +Mississippi. + +Without going into details, I may simply call your attention to the fact +that Clay's whole system of internal improvements and tariff was based +upon the place of the Mississippi Valley in American life. It was the +upper part of the Valley, and especially the Ohio Valley, that furnished +the votes which carried the tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828. Its +interests profoundly influenced the details of those tariffs and its +need of internal improvement constituted a basis for sectional +bargaining in all the constructive legislation after the War of 1812. +New England, the Middle Region, and the South each sought alliance with +the growing section beyond the mountains. American legislation bears the +enduring evidence of these alliances. Even the National Bank found in +this Valley the main sphere of its business. The nation had turned its +energies to internal exploitation, and sections contended for the +economic and political power derived from connection with the interior. + +But already the Mississippi Valley was beginning to stratify, both +socially and geographically. As the railroads pushed across the +mountains, the tide of New England and New York colonists and German +immigrants sought the basin of the Great Lakes and the Upper +Mississippi. A distinct zone, industrially and socially connected with +New England, was forming. The railroad reinforced the Erie Canal and, as +De Bow put it, turned back the tide of the Father of Waters so that its +outlet was in New York instead of New Orleans for a large part of the +Valley. Below the Northern zone was the border zone of the Upland +South, the region of compromise, including both banks of the Ohio and +the Missouri and reaching down to the hills on the north of the Gulf +Plains. The Cotton Kingdom based on slavery found its center in the +fertile soils along the Lower Mississippi and the black prairies of +Georgia and Alabama, and was settled largely by planters from the old +cotton lands of the Atlantic States. The Mississippi Valley had +rejuvenated slavery, had given it an aggressive tone characteristic of +Western life. + +Thus the Valley found itself in the midst of the slavery struggle at the +very time when its own society had lost homogeneity. Let us allow two +leaders, one of the South and one of the North, to describe the +situation; and, first, let the South speak. Said Hammond, of South +Carolina,[198:1] in a speech in the Senate on March 4, 1858: + + I think it not improper that I should attempt to bring the + North and South face to face, and see what resources each of + us might have in the contingency of separate organizations. + + Through the heart of our country runs the great Mississippi, + the father of waters, into whose bosom are poured thirty-six + thousand miles of tributary streams; and beyond we have the + desert prairie wastes to protect us in our rear. Can you hem + in such a territory as that? You talk of putting up a wall of + fire around eight hundred and fifty thousand miles so + situated! How absurd. + + But in this territory lies the great valley of the + Mississippi, now the real and soon to be the acknowledged seat + of the empire of the world. The sway of that valley will be as + great as ever the Nile knew in the earlier ages of mankind. + We own the most of it. The most valuable part of it belongs to + us now; and although those who have settled above us are now + opposed to us, another generation will tell a different tale. + They are ours by all the laws of nature; slave labor will go + to every foot of this great valley where it will be found + profitable to use it, and some of those who may not use it are + soon to be united with us by such ties as will make us one and + inseparable. The iron horse will soon be clattering over the + sunny plains of the South to bear the products of its upper + tributaries to our Atlantic ports, as it now does through the + ice-bound North. There is the great Mississippi, bond of union + made by nature herself. She will maintain it forever. + +As the Seaboard South had transferred the mantle of leadership to +Tennessee and then to the Cotton Kingdom of the Lower Mississippi, so +New England and New York resigned their command to the northern half of +the Mississippi Valley and the basin of the Great Lakes. Seward, the +old-time leader of the Eastern Whigs who had just lost the Republican +nomination for the presidency to Lincoln, may rightfully speak for the +Northeast. In the fall of 1860, addressing an audience at Madison, +Wisconsin, he declared:[199:1] + + The empire established at Washington is of less than a hundred + years' formation. It was the empire of thirteen Atlantic + states. Still, practically, the mission of that empire is + fulfilled. The power that directs it is ready to pass away + from those thirteen states, and although held and exercised + under the same constitution and national form of government, + yet it is now in the very act of being transferred from the + thirteen states east of the Alleghany mountains and on the + coast of the Atlantic ocean, to the twenty states that lie + west of the Alleghanies, and stretch away from their base to + the base of the Rocky mountains on the West, and you are the + heirs to it. When the next census shall reveal your power, you + will be found to be the masters of the United States of + America, and through them the dominating political power of + the world. + +Appealing to the Northwest on the slavery issue Seward declared: + + The whole responsibility rests henceforth directly or + indirectly on the people of the Northwest. . . . There can be + no virtue in commercial and manufacturing communities to + maintain a democracy, when the democracy themselves do not + want a democracy. There is no virtue in Pearl street, in Wall + street, in Court street, in Chestnut street, in any other + street of great commercial cities, that can save the great + democratic government of ours, when you cease to uphold it + with your intelligent votes, your strong and mighty hands. You + must, therefore, lead us as we heretofore reserved and + prepared the way for you. We resign to you the banner of human + rights and human liberty, on this continent, and we bid you be + firm, bold and onward and then you may hope that we will be + able to follow you. + +When we survey the course of the slavery struggle in the United States +it is clear that the form the question took was due to the Mississippi +Valley. The Ordinance of 1787, the Missouri Compromise, the Texas +question, the Free Soil agitation, the Compromise of 1850, the +Kansas-Nebraska bill, the Dred Scott decision, "bleeding Kansas"--these +are all Mississippi Valley questions, and the mere enumeration makes it +plain that it was the Mississippi Valley as an area for expansion which +gave the slavery issue its significance in American history. But for +this field of expansion, slavery might have fulfilled the expectation of +the fathers and gradually died away. + +Of the significance of the Mississippi Valley in the Civil War, it is +unnecessary that I should speak. Illinois gave to the North its +President; Mississippi gave to the South its President. Lincoln and +Davis were both born in Kentucky. Grant and Sherman, the northern +generals, came from the Mississippi Valley; and both of them believed +that when Vicksburg fell the cause of the South was lost, and so it must +have been if the Confederacy had been unable, after victories in the +East, to regain the Father of Waters; for, as General Sherman said: +"Whatever power holds that river can govern this continent." + +With the close of the war political power passed for many years to the +northern half of the Mississippi Valley, as the names of Grant, Hayes, +Garfield, Harrison, and McKinley indicate. The population of the Valley +grew from about fifteen millions in 1860 to over forty millions in +1900--over half the total population of the United States. The +significance of its industrial growth is not likely to be overestimated +or overlooked. On its northern border, from near Minnesota's boundary +line, through the Great Lakes to Pittsburgh, on its eastern edge, runs a +huge movement of iron from mine to factory. This industry is basal in +American life, and it has revolutionized the industry of the world. The +United States produces pig iron and steel in amount equal to her two +greatest competitors combined, and the iron ores for this product are +chiefly in the Mississippi Valley. It is the chief producer of coal, +thereby enabling the United States almost to equal the combined +production of Germany and Great Britain; and great oil fields of the +nation are in its midst. Its huge crops of wheat and corn and its cattle +are the main resources for the United States and are drawn upon by +Europe. Its cotton furnishes two-thirds of the world's factory supply. +Its railroad system constitutes the greatest transportation network in +the world. Again it is seeking industrial consolidation by demanding +improvement of its vast water system as a unit. If this design, favored +by Roosevelt, shall at some time be accomplished, again the bulk of the +commerce of the Valley may flow along the old routes to New Orleans; and +to Galveston by the development of southern railroad outlets after the +building of the Panama Canal. For the development and exploitation of +these and of the transportation and trade interests of the Middle West, +Eastern capital has been consolidated into huge corporations, trusts, +and combinations. With the influx of capital, and the rise of cities and +manufactures, portions of the Mississippi Valley have become assimilated +with the East. With the end of the era of free lands the basis of its +democratic society is passing away. + +The final topic on which I shall briefly comment in this discussion of +the significance of the Mississippi Valley in American history is a +corollary of this condition. Has the Mississippi Valley a permanent +contribution to make to American society, or is it to be adjusted into a +type characteristically Eastern and European? In other words, has the +United States itself an original contribution to make to the history of +society? This is what it comes to. The most significant fact in the +Mississippi Valley is its ideals. Here has been developed, not by +revolutionary theory, but by growth among free opportunities, the +conception of a vast democracy made up of mobile ascending individuals, +conscious of their power and their responsibilities. Can these ideals of +individualism and democracy be reconciled and applied to the twentieth +century type of civilization? + +Other nations have been rich and prosperous and powerful, art-loving and +empire-building. No other nation on a vast scale has been controlled by +a self-conscious, self-restrained democracy in the interests of progress +and freedom, industrial as well as political. It is in the vast and +level spaces of the Mississippi Valley, if anywhere, that the forces of +social transformation and the modification of its democratic ideals may +be arrested. + +Beginning with competitive individualism, as well as with belief in +equality, the farmers of the Mississippi Valley gradually learned that +unrestrained competition and combination meant the triumph of the +strongest, the seizure in the interest of a dominant class of the +strategic points of the nation's life. They learned that between the +ideal of individualism, unrestrained by society, and the ideal of +democracy, was an innate conflict; that their very ambitions and +forcefulness had endangered their democracy. The significance of the +Mississippi Valley in American history has lain partly in the fact that +it was a region of revolt. Here have arisen varied, sometimes +ill-considered, but always devoted, movements for ameliorating the lot +of the common man in the interests of democracy. Out of the Mississippi +Valley have come successive and related tidal waves of popular demand +for real or imagined legislative safeguards to their rights and their +social ideals. The Granger movement, the Greenback movement, the +Populist movement, Bryan Democracy, and Roosevelt Republicanism all +found their greatest strength in the Mississippi Valley. They were +Mississippi Valley ideals in action. Its people were learning by +experiment and experience how to grapple with the fundamental problem of +creating a just social order that shall sustain the free, progressive, +individual in a real democracy. The Mississippi Valley is asking, "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" + +The Mississippi Valley has furnished a new social order to America. Its +universities have set new types of institutions for social service and +for the elevation of the plain people. Its historians should recount its +old ambitions, and inventory its ideals, as well as its resources, for +the information of the present age, to the end that building on its +past, the mighty Valley may have a significance in the life of the +nation even more profound than any which I have recounted. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[177:1] Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association for +1909-10. Reprinted with the permission of the Association. + +[177:2] _Harper's Magazine_, February, 1900, p. 413. + +[178:1] Roosevelt, "The Northwest in the Nation," in "Proceedings of the +Wisconsin Historical Society," Fortieth Annual Meeting, p. 92. + +[182:1] "Franklin's Works," iv, p. 141. + +[186:1] [See the author's paper in _American Historical Review_, x, p. +245.] + +[187:1] Cutler's "Cutler," ii, p. 372. + +[188:1] "Jefferson's Works," iv, p. 431. + +[189:1] [See on the Cotton Kingdom, U. B. Phillips, "History of +Slavery"; W. G. Brown, "Lower South"; W. E. Dodd, "Expansion and +Conflict"; F. J. Turner, "New West."] + +[198:1] "Congressional Globe," 35th Congress, First Session, Appendix, +p. 70. + +[199:1] "Seward's Works" (Boston, 1884), iv, p. 319. + + + + +VII + +THE PROBLEM OF THE WEST[205:1] + + +The problem of the West is nothing less than the problem of American +development. A glance at the map of the United States reveals the truth. +To write of a "Western sectionalism," bounded on the east by the +Alleghanies, is, in itself, to proclaim the writer a provincial. What is +the West? What has it been in American life? To have the answers to +these questions, is to understand the most significant features of the +United States of to-day. + +The West, at bottom, is a form of society, rather than an area. It is +the term applied to the region whose social conditions result from the +application of older institutions and ideas to the transforming +influences of free land. By this application, a new environment is +suddenly entered, freedom of opportunity is opened, the cake of custom +is broken, and new activities, new lines of growth, new institutions and +new ideals, are brought into existence. The wilderness disappears, the +"West" proper passes on to a new frontier, and in the former area, a new +society has emerged from its contact with the backwoods. Gradually this +society loses its primitive conditions, and assimilates itself to the +type of the older social conditions of the East; but it bears within it +enduring and distinguishing survivals of its frontier experience. Decade +after decade, West after West, this rebirth of American society has gone +on, has left its traces behind it, and has reacted on the East. The +history of our political institutions, our democracy, is not a history +of imitation, of simple borrowing; it is a history of the evolution and +adaptation of organs in response to changed environment, a history of +the origin of new political species. In this sense, therefore, the West +has been a constructive force of the highest significance in our life. +To use the words of that acute and widely informed observer, Mr. Bryce, +"The West is the most American part of America. . . . What Europe is to +Asia, what America is to England, that the Western States and +Territories are to the Atlantic States." + + * * * * * + +The West, as a phase of social organization, began with the Atlantic +coast, and passed across the continent. But the colonial tide-water area +was in close touch with the Old World, and soon lost its Western +aspects. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the newer social +conditions appeared along the upper waters of the tributaries of the +Atlantic. Here it was that the West took on its distinguishing features, +and transmitted frontier traits and ideals to this area in later days. +On the coast, were the fishermen and skippers, the merchants and +planters, with eyes turned toward Europe. Beyond the falls of the rivers +were the pioneer farmers, largely of non-English stock, Scotch-Irish and +German. They constituted a distinct people, and may be regarded as an +expansion of the social and economic life of the middle region into the +back country of the South. These frontiersmen were the ancestors of +Boone, Andrew Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, and Lincoln. Washington and +Jefferson were profoundly affected by these frontier conditions. The +forest clearings have been the seed plots of American character. + +In the Revolutionary days, the settlers crossed the Alleghanies and put +a barrier between them and the coast. They became, to use their phrases, +"the men of the Western waters," the heirs of the "Western world." In +this era, the backwoodsmen, all along the western slopes of the +mountains, with a keen sense of the difference between them and the +dwellers on the coast, demanded organization into independent States of +the Union. Self-government was their ideal. Said one of their rude, but +energetic petitions for statehood: "Some of our fellow-citizens may +think we are not able to conduct our affairs and consult our interests; +but if our society is rude, much wisdom is not necessary to supply our +wants, and a fool can sometimes put on his clothes better than a wise +man can do it for him." This forest philosophy is the philosophy of +American democracy. But the men of the coast were not ready to admit its +implications. They apportioned the State legislatures so that the +property-holding minority of the tide-water lands were able to outvote +the more populous back countries. A similar system was proposed by +Federalists in the constitutional convention of 1787. Gouverneur Morris, +arguing in favor of basing representation on property as well as +numbers, declared that "he looked forward, also, to that range of new +States which would soon be formed in the West. He thought the rule of +representation ought to be so fixed, as to secure to the Atlantic States +a prevalence in the national councils." "The new States," said he, "will +know less of the public interest than these; will have an interest in +many respects different; in particular will be little scrupulous of +involving the community in wars, the burdens and operations of which +would fall chiefly on the maritime States. Provision ought, therefore, +to be made to prevent the maritime States from being hereafter outvoted +by them." He added that the Western country "would not be able to +furnish men equally enlightened to share in the administration of our +common interests. The busy haunts of men, not the remote wilderness, was +the proper school of political talents. If the Western people get power +into their hands, they will ruin the Atlantic interest. The back +members are always most averse to the best measures." Add to these +utterances of Gouverneur Morris the impassioned protest of Josiah +Quincy, of Massachusetts, in the debates in the House of +Representatives, on the admission of Louisiana. Referring to the +discussion over the slave votes and the West in the constitutional +convention, he declared, "Suppose, then, that it had been distinctly +foreseen that, in addition to the effect of this weight, the whole +population of a world beyond the Mississippi was to be brought into this +and the other branch of the legislature, to form our laws, control our +rights, and decide our destiny. Sir, can it be pretended that the +patriots of that day would for one moment have listened to it? . . . +They had not taken degrees at the hospital of idiocy. . . . Why, sir, I +have already heard of six States, and some say there will be, at no +great distant time, more. I have also heard that the mouth of the Ohio +will be far to the east of the center of the contemplated empire. . . . +You have no authority to throw the rights and property of this people +into 'hotch-pot' with the wild men on the Missouri, nor with the mixed, +though more respectable, race of Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans who bask +on the sands in the mouth of the Mississippi. . . . Do you suppose the +people of the Northern and Atlantic States will, or ought to, look on +with patience and see Representatives and Senators from the Red River +and Missouri, pouring themselves upon this and the other floor, managing +the concerns of a seaboard fifteen hundred miles, at least, from their +residence; and having a preponderancy in councils into which, +constitutionally, they could never have been admitted?" + +Like an echo from the fears expressed by the East at the close of the +eighteenth century come the words of an eminent Eastern man of +letters[208:1] at the end of the nineteenth century, in warning against +the West: "Materialized in their temper; with few ideals of an ennobling +sort; little instructed in the lessons of history; safe from exposure to +the direct calamities and physical horrors of war; with undeveloped +imaginations and sympathies--they form a community unfortunate and +dangerous from the possession of power without a due sense of its +corresponding responsibilities; a community in which the passion for war +may easily be excited as the fancied means by which its greatness may be +convincingly exhibited, and its ambitions gratified. . . . Some chance +spark may fire the prairie." + +Here, then, is the problem of the West, as it looked to New England +leaders of thought in the beginning and at the end of this century. From +the first, it was recognized that a new type was growing up beyond the +seaboard, and that the time would come when the destiny of the nation +would be in Western hands. The divergence of these societies became +clear in the struggle over the ratification of the federal constitution. +The up-country agricultural regions, the communities that were in debt +and desired paper money, with some Western exceptions, opposed the +instrument; but the areas of intercourse and property carried the day. + +It is important to understand, therefore, what were some of the ideals +of this early Western democracy. How did the frontiersman differ from +the man of the coast? + +The most obvious fact regarding the man of the Western Waters is that he +had placed himself under influences destructive to many of the gains of +civilization. Remote from the opportunity for systematic education, +substituting a log hut in the forest-clearing for the social comforts of +the town, he suffered hardships and privations, and reverted in many +ways to primitive conditions of life. Engaged in a struggle to subdue +the forest, working as an individual, and with little specie or +capital, his interests were with the debtor class. At each stage of its +advance, the West has favored an expansion of the currency. The pioneer +had boundless confidence in the future of his own community, and when +seasons of financial contraction and depression occurred, he, who had +staked his all on confidence in Western development, and had fought the +savage for his home, was inclined to reproach the conservative sections +and classes. To explain this antagonism requires more than denunciation +of dishonesty, ignorance, and boorishness as fundamental Western traits. +Legislation in the United States has had to deal with two distinct +social conditions. In some portions of the country there was, and is, an +aggregation of property, and vested rights are in the foreground: in +others, capital is lacking, more primitive conditions prevail, with +different economic and social ideals, and the contentment of the average +individual is placed in the foreground. That in the conflict between +these two ideals an even hand has always been held by the government +would be difficult to show. + +The separation of the Western man from the seaboard, and his +environment, made him in a large degree free from European precedents +and forces. He looked at things independently and with small regard or +appreciation for the best Old World experience. He had no ideal of a +philosophical, eclectic nation, that should advance civilization by +"intercourse with foreigners and familiarity with their point of view, +and readiness to adopt whatever is best and most suitable in their +ideas, manners, and customs." His was rather the ideal of conserving and +developing what was original and valuable in this new country. The +entrance of old society upon free lands meant to him opportunity for a +new type of democracy and new popular ideals. The West was not +conservative: buoyant self-confidence and self-assertion were +distinguishing traits in its composition. It saw in its growth nothing +less than a new order of society and state. In this conception were +elements of evil and elements of good. + +But the fundamental fact in regard to this new society was its relation +to land. Professor Boutmy has said of the United States, "Their one +primary and predominant object is to cultivate and settle these +prairies, forests, and vast waste lands. The striking and peculiar +characteristic of American society is that it is not so much a democracy +as a huge commercial company for the discovery, cultivation, and +capitalization of its enormous territory. The United States are +primarily a commercial society, and only secondarily a nation." Of +course, this involves a serious misapprehension. By the very fact of the +task here set forth, far-reaching ideals of the state and of society +have been evolved in the West, accompanied by loyalty to the nation +representative of these ideals. But M. Boutmy's description hits the +substantial fact, that the fundamental traits of the man of the interior +were due to the free lands of the West. These turned his attention to +the great task of subduing them to the purposes of civilization, and to +the task of advancing his economic and social status in the new +democracy which he was helping to create. Art, literature, refinement, +scientific administration, all had to give way to this Titanic labor. +Energy, incessant activity, became the lot of this new American. Says a +traveler of the time of Andrew Jackson, "America is like a vast +workshop, over the door of which is printed in blazing characters, 'No +admittance here, except on business.'" The West of our own day reminds +Mr. Bryce "of the crowd which Vathek found in the hall of Eblis, each +darting hither and thither with swift steps and unquiet mien, driven to +and fro by a fire in the heart. Time seems too short for what they have +to do, and the result always to come short of their desire." + +But free lands and the consciousness of working out their social +destiny did more than turn the Westerner to material interests and +devote him to a restless existence. They promoted equality among the +Western settlers, and reacted as a check on the aristocratic influences +of the East. Where everybody could have a farm, almost for taking it, +economic equality easily resulted, and this involved political equality. +Not without a struggle would the Western man abandon this ideal, and it +goes far to explain the unrest in the remote West to-day. + +Western democracy included individual liberty, as well as equality. The +frontiersman was impatient of restraints. He knew how to preserve order, +even in the absence of legal authority. If there were cattle thieves, +lynch law was sudden and effective: the regulators of the Carolinas were +the predecessors of the claims associations of Iowa and the vigilance +committees of California. But the individual was not ready to submit to +complex regulations. Population was sparse, there was no multitude of +jostling interests, as in older settlements, demanding an elaborate +system of personal restraints. Society became atomic. There was a +reproduction of the primitive idea of the personality of the law, a +crime was more an offense against the victim than a violation of the law +of the land. Substantial justice, secured in the most direct way, was +the ideal of the backwoodsman. He had little patience with finely drawn +distinctions or scruples of method. If the thing was one proper to be +done, then the most immediate, rough and ready, effective way was the +best way. + +It followed from the lack of organized political life, from the atomic +conditions of the backwoods society, that the individual was exalted and +given free play. The West was another name for opportunity. Here were +mines to be seized, fertile valleys to be preempted, all the natural +resources open to the shrewdest and the boldest. The United States is +unique in the extent to which the individual has been given an open +field, unchecked by restraints of an old social order, or of scientific +administration of government. The self-made man was the Western man's +ideal, was the kind of man that all men might become. Out of his +wilderness experience, out of the freedom of his opportunities, he +fashioned a formula for social regeneration,--the freedom of the +individual to seek his own. He did not consider that his conditions were +exceptional and temporary. + +Under such conditions, leadership easily develops,--a leadership based +on the possession of the qualities most serviceable to the young +society. In the history of Western settlement, we see each forted +village following its local hero. Clay, Jackson, Harrison, Lincoln, were +illustrations of this tendency in periods when the Western hero rose to +the dignity of national hero. + +The Western man believed in the manifest destiny of his country. On his +border, and checking his advance, were the Indian, the Spaniard, and the +Englishman. He was indignant at Eastern indifference and lack of +sympathy with his view of his relations to these peoples; at the +short-sightedness of Eastern policy. The closure of the Mississippi by +Spain, and the proposal to exchange our claim of freedom of navigating +the river, in return for commercial advantages to New England, nearly +led to the withdrawal of the West from the Union. It was the Western +demands that brought about the purchase of Louisiana, and turned the +scale in favor of declaring the War of 1812. Militant qualities were +favored by the annual expansion of the settled area in the face of +hostile Indians and the stubborn wilderness. The West caught the vision +of the nation's continental destiny. Henry Adams, in his History of the +United States, makes the American of 1800 exclaim to the foreign +visitor, "Look at my wealth! See these solid mountains of salt and +iron, of lead, copper, silver, and gold. See these magnificent cities +scattered broadcast to the Pacific! See my cornfields rustling and +waving in the summer breeze from ocean to ocean, so far that the sun +itself is not high enough to mark where the distant mountains bound my +golden seas. Look at this continent of mine, fairest of created worlds, +as she lies turning up to the sun's never failing caress her broad and +exuberant breasts, overflowing with milk for her hundred million +children." And the foreigner saw only dreary deserts, tenanted by +sparse, ague-stricken pioneers and savages. The cities were log huts and +gambling dens. But the frontiersman's dream was prophetic. In spite of +his rude, gross nature, this early Western man was an idealist withal. +He dreamed dreams and beheld visions. He had faith in man, hope for +democracy, belief in America's destiny, unbounded confidence in his +ability to make his dreams come true. Said Harriet Martineau in 1834, "I +regard the American people as a great embryo poet, now moody, now wild, +but bringing out results of absolute good sense: restless and wayward in +action, but with deep peace at his heart; exulting that he has caught +the true aspect of things past, and the depth of futurity which lies +before him, wherein to create something so magnificent as the world has +scarcely begun to dream of. There is the strongest hope of a nation that +is capable of being possessed with an idea." + +It is important to bear this idealism of the West in mind. The very +materialism that has been urged against the West was accompanied by +ideals of equality, of the exaltation of the common man, of national +expansion, that makes it a profound mistake to write of the West as +though it were engrossed in mere material ends. It has been, and is, +preeminently a region of ideals, mistaken or not. + +It is obvious that these economic and social conditions were so +fundamental in Western life that they might well dominate whatever +accessions came to the West by immigration from the coast sections or +from Europe. Nevertheless, the West cannot be understood without bearing +in mind the fact that it has received the great streams from the North +and from the South, and that the Mississippi compelled these currents to +intermingle. Here it was that sectionalism first gave way under the +pressure of unification. Ultimately the conflicting ideas and +institutions of the old sections struggled for dominance in this area +under the influence of the forces that made for uniformity, but this is +merely another phase of the truth that the West must become unified, +that it could not rest in sectional groupings. For precisely this reason +the struggle occurred. In the period from the Revolution to the close of +the War of 1812, the democracy of the Southern and Middle States +contributed the main streams of settlement and social influence to the +West. Even in Ohio political power was soon lost by the New England +leaders. The democratic spirit of the Middle region left an indelible +impress on the West in this its formative period. After the War of 1812, +New England, its supremacy in the carrying trade of the world having +vanished, became a hive from which swarms of settlers went out to +western New York and the remoter regions. + +These settlers spread New England ideals of education and character and +political institutions, and acted as a leaven of great significance in +the Northwest. But it would be a mistake to believe that an unmixed New +England influence took possession of the Northwest. These pioneers did +not come from the class that conserved the type of New England +civilization pure and undefiled. They represented a less contented, less +conservative influence. Moreover, by their sojourn in the Middle Region, +on their westward march, they underwent modification, and when the +farther West received them, they suffered a forest-change, indeed. The +Westernized New England man was no longer the representative of the +section that he left. He was less conservative, less provincial, more +adaptable and approachable, less rigorous in his Puritan ideals, less a +man of culture, more a man of action. + +As might have been expected, therefore, the Western men, in the "era of +good feeling," had much homogeneity throughout the Mississippi Valley, +and began to stand as a new national type. Under the lead of Henry Clay +they invoked the national government to break down the mountain barrier +by internal improvements, and thus to give their crops an outlet to the +coast. Under him they appealed to the national government for a +protective tariff to create a home market. A group of frontier States +entered the Union with democratic provisions respecting the suffrage, +and with devotion to the nation that had given them their lands, built +their roads and canals, regulated their territorial life, and made them +equals in the sisterhood of States. At last these Western forces of +aggressive nationalism and democracy took possession of the government +in the person of the man who best embodied them, Andrew Jackson. This +new democracy that captured the country and destroyed the ideals of +statesmanship came from no theorist's dreams of the German forest. It +came, stark and strong and full of life, from the American forest. But +the triumph of this Western democracy revealed also the fact that it +could rally to its aid the laboring classes of the coast, then just +beginning to acquire self-consciousness and organization. + +The next phase of Western development revealed forces of division +between the northern and southern portions of the West. With the spread +of the cotton culture went the slave system and the great plantation. +The small farmer in his log cabin, raising varied crops, was displaced +by the planter raising cotton. In all except the mountainous areas the +industrial organization of the tidewater took possession of the +Southwest, the unity of the back country was broken, and the solid South +was formed. In the Northwest this was the era of railroads and canals, +opening the region to the increasing stream of Middle State and New +England settlement, and strengthening the opposition to slavery. A map +showing the location of the men of New England ancestry in the Northwest +would represent also the counties in which the Free Soil party cast its +heaviest votes. The commercial connections of the Northwest likewise +were reversed by the railroad. The result is stated by a writer in _De +Bow's Review_ in 1852 in these words:-- + + "What is New Orleans now? Where are her dreams of greatness + and glory? . . . Whilst she slept, an enemy has sowed tares in + her most prolific fields. Armed with energy, enterprise, and + an indomitable spirit, that enemy, by a system of bold, + vigorous, and sustained efforts, has succeeded in reversing + the very laws of nature and of nature's God,--rolled back the + mighty tide of the Mississippi and its thousand tributary + streams, until their mouth, practically and commercially, is + more at New York or Boston than at New Orleans." + +The West broke asunder, and the great struggle over the social system to +be given to the lands beyond the Mississippi followed. In the Civil War +the Northwest furnished the national hero,--Lincoln was the very flower +of frontier training and ideals,--and it also took into its hands the +whole power of the government. Before the war closed, the West could +claim the President, Vice-President, Chief Justice, Speaker of the +House, Secretary of the Treasury, Postmaster-General, Attorney-General, +General of the army, and Admiral of the navy. The leading generals of +the war had been furnished by the West. It was the region of action, +and in the crisis it took the reins. + +The triumph of the nation was followed by a new era of Western +development. The national forces projected themselves across the +prairies and plains. Railroads, fostered by government loans and land +grants, opened the way for settlement and poured a flood of European +immigrants and restless pioneers from all sections of the Union into the +government lands. The army of the United States pushed back the Indian, +rectangular Territories were carved into checkerboard States, creations +of the federal government, without a history, without physiographical +unity, without particularistic ideas. The later frontiersman leaned on +the strong arm of national power. + +At the same time the South underwent a revolution. The plantation, based +on slavery, gave place to the farm, the gentry to the democratic +elements. As in the West, new industries, of mining and of manufacture, +sprang up as by magic. The New South, like the New West, was an area of +construction, a debtor area, an area of unrest; and it, too, had learned +the uses to which federal legislation might be put. + +In the meantime the Old Northwest[218:1] passed through an economic and +social transformation. The whole West furnished an area over which +successive waves of economic development have passed. The State of +Wisconsin, now much like parts of the State of New York, was at an +earlier period like the State of Nebraska of to-day; the Granger +movement and Greenback party had for a time the ascendancy; and in the +northern counties of the State, where there is a sparser population, and +the country is being settled, its sympathies are still with the debtor +class. Thus the Old Northwest is a region where the older frontier +conditions survive in parts, and where the inherited ways of looking at +things are largely to be traced to its frontier days. At the same time +it is a region in many ways assimilated to the East. It understands both +sections. It is not entirely content with the existing structure of +economic society in the sections where wealth has accumulated and +corporate organizations are powerful; but neither has it seemed to feel +that its interests lie in supporting the program of the prairies and the +South. In the Fifty-third Congress it voted for the income tax, but it +rejected free coinage. It is still affected by the ideal of the +self-made man, rather than by the ideal of industrial nationalism. It is +more American, but less cosmopolitan than the seaboard. + +We are now in a position to see clearly some of the factors involved in +the Western problem. For nearly three centuries the dominant fact in +American life has been expansion. With the settlement of the Pacific +coast and the occupation of the free lands, this movement has come to a +check. That these energies of expansion will no longer operate would be +a rash prediction; and the demands for a vigorous foreign policy, for an +interoceanic canal, for a revival of our power upon the seas, and for +the extension of American influence to outlying islands and adjoining +countries, are indications that the movement will continue. The +stronghold of these demands lies west of the Alleghanies. + +In the remoter West, the restless, rushing wave of settlement has broken +with a shock against the arid plains. The free lands are gone, the +continent is crossed, and all this push and energy is turning into +channels of agitation. Failures in one area can no longer be made good +by taking up land on a new frontier; the conditions of a settled society +are being reached with suddenness and with confusion. The West has been +built up with borrowed capital, and the question of the stability of +gold, as a standard of deferred payments, is eagerly agitated by the +debtor West, profoundly dissatisfied with the industrial conditions that +confront it, and actuated by frontier directness and rigor in its +remedies. For the most part, the men who built up the West beyond the +Mississippi, and who are now leading the agitation,[220:1] came as +pioneers from the old Northwest, in the days when it was just passing +from the stage of a frontier section. For example, Senator Allen of +Nebraska, president of the recent national Populist Convention, and a +type of the political leaders of his section, was born in Ohio in the +middle of the century, went in his youth to Iowa, and not long after the +Civil War made his home in Nebraska. As a boy, he saw the buffalo driven +out by the settlers; he saw the Indian retreat as the pioneer advanced. +His training is that of the old West, in its frontier days. And now the +frontier opportunities are gone. Discontent is demanding an extension of +governmental activity in its behalf. In these demands, it finds itself +in touch with the depressed agricultural classes and the workingmen of +the South and East. The Western problem is no longer a sectional +problem: it is a social problem on a national scale. The greater West, +extending from the Alleghanies to the Pacific, cannot be regarded as a +unit; it requires analysis into regions and classes. But its area, its +population, and its material resources would give force to its assertion +that if there is a sectionalism in the country, the sectionalism is +Eastern. The old West, united to the new South, would produce, not a new +sectionalism, but a new Americanism. It would not mean sectional +disunion, as some have speculated, but it might mean a drastic assertion +of national government and imperial expansion under a popular hero. + +This, then, is the real situation: a people composed of heterogeneous +materials, with diverse and conflicting ideals and social interests, +having passed from the task of filling up the vacant spaces of the +continent, is now thrown back upon itself, and is seeking an +equilibrium. The diverse elements are being fused into national unity. +The forces of reorganization are turbulent and the nation seems like a +witches' kettle. + +But the West has its own centers of industrial life and culture not +unlike those of the East. It has State universities, rivaling in +conservative and scientific economic instruction those of any other part +of the Union, and its citizens more often visit the East, than do +Eastern men the West. As time goes on, its industrial development will +bring it more into harmony with the East. + +Moreover, the Old Northwest holds the balance of power, and is the +battlefield on which these issues of American development are to be +settled. It has more in common with all parts of the nation than has any +other region. It understands the East, as the East does not understand +the West. The White City which recently rose on the shores of Lake +Michigan fitly typified its growing culture as well as its capacity for +great achievement. Its complex and representative industrial +organization and business ties, its determination to hold fast to what +is original and good in its Western experience, and its readiness to +learn and receive the results of the experience of other sections and +nations, make it an open-minded and safe arbiter of the American +destiny. + +In the long run the "Center of the Republic" may be trusted to strike a +wise balance between the contending ideals. But she does not deceive +herself; she knows that the problem of the West means nothing less than +the problem of working out original social ideals and social adjustments +for the American nation. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[205:1] _Atlantic Monthly_, September, 1896. Reprinted by permission. + +[208:1] Charles Eliot Norton. + +[218:1] The present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and +Wisconsin. + +[220:1] [Written in the year of Mr. Bryan's first presidential +campaign.] + + + + +VIII + +DOMINANT FORCES IN WESTERN LIFE[222:1] + + +The Old Northwest is a name which tells of the vestiges which the march +of settlement across the American continent has left behind it. The New +Northwest fronts the watery labyrinth of Puget Sound and awaits its +destiny upon the Pacific. The Old Northwest, the historic Northwest +Territory, is now the new Middle Region of the United States. A century +ago it was a wilderness, broken only by a few French settlements and the +straggling American hamlets along the Ohio and its tributaries, while, +on the shore of Lake Erie, Moses Cleaveland had just led a handful of +men to the Connecticut Reserve. To-day it is the keystone of the +American Commonwealth. Since 1860 the center of population of the United +States has rested within its limits, and the center of manufacturing in +the nation lies eight miles from President McKinley's Ohio home. Of the +seven men who have been elected to the presidency of the United States +since 1860, six have come from the Old Northwest, and the seventh came +from the kindred region of western New York. The congressional +Representatives from these five States of the Old Northwest already +outnumber those from the old Middle States, and are three times as +numerous as those from New England. + +The elements that have contributed to the civilization of this region +are therefore well worth consideration. To know the States that make up +the Old Northwest--Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin--one +must understand their social origins. + +Eldest in this sisterhood was Ohio. New England gave the formative +impulses to this State by the part which the Ohio Company played in +securing the Ordinance of 1787, and at Marietta and Cleveland +Massachusetts and Connecticut planted enduring centers of Puritan +influence. During the same period New Jersey and Pennsylvania sent their +colonists to the Symmes Purchase, in which Cincinnati was the +rallying-point, while Virginians sought the Military Bounty Lands in the +region of Chillicothe. The Middle States and the South, with their +democratic ideas, constituted the dominant element in Ohio politics in +the early part of her history. This dominance is shown by the nativity +of the members of the Ohio legislature elected in 1820: New England +furnished nine Senators and sixteen Representatives, chiefly from +Connecticut; New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, seventeen Senators +and twenty-one Representatives, mostly from Pennsylvania; while the +South furnished nine Senators and twenty-seven Representatives, of whom +the majority came from Virginia. Five of the Representatives were native +of Ireland, presumably Scotch-Irishmen. In the Ohio Senate, therefore, +the Middle States had as many representatives as had New England and the +South together, while the Southern men slightly outnumbered the Middle +States men in the Assembly. Together, the emigrants from the Democratic +South and Middle Region outnumbered the Federalist New Englanders three +to one. Although Ohio is popularly considered a child of New England, it +is clear that in these formative years of her statehood the commonwealth +was dominated by other forces. + +By the close of this early period, in 1820, the settlement in Ohio had +covered more or less fully all except the northwest corner of the State, +and Indiana's formative period was well started. Here, as in Ohio, +there was a large Southern element. But while the Southern stream that +flowed into Ohio had its sources in Virginia, the main current that +sought Indiana came from North Carolina; and these settlers were for the +most part from the humbler classes. In the settlement of Indiana from +the South two separate elements are distinguishable: the Quaker +migration from North Carolina, moving chiefly because of anti-slavery +convictions; the "poor white" stream, made up in part of restless +hunters and thriftless pioneers moving without definite ambitions, and +in part of other classes, such as former overseers, migrating to the new +country with definite purpose of improving their fortunes. + +These elements constituted well-marked features in the Southern +contribution to Indiana, and they explain why she has been named the +Hoosier State; but it should by no means be thought that all of the +Southern immigrants came under these classes, nor that these have been +the normal elements in the development of the Indiana of to-day. In the +Northwest, where interstate migration has been so continuous and +widespread, the lack of typical State peculiarities is obvious, and the +student of society, like the traveler, is tempted, in his effort to +distinguish the community from its neighbors, to exaggerate the odd and +exceptional elements which give a particular flavor to the State. +Indiana has suffered somewhat from this tendency; but it is undoubted +that these peculiarities of origin left deep and abiding influences upon +the State. In 1820 her settlement was chiefly in the southern counties, +where Southern and Middle States influence was dominant. Her two United +States Senators were Virginians by birth, while her Representative was +from Pennsylvania. The Southern element continued so powerful that one +student of Indiana origins has estimated that in 1850 one-third of the +population of the State were native Carolinians and their children in +the first generation. Not until a few years before the Civil War did the +Northern current exert a decisive influence upon Indiana. She had no +such lake ports as had her sister States, and extension of settlement +into the State from ports like Chicago was interrupted by the less +attractive area of the northwestern part of Indiana. Add to this the +geological fact that the limestone ridges and the best soils ran in +nearly perpendicular belts northward from the Ohio, and it will be seen +how circumstances combined to diminish Northern and to facilitate +Southern influences in the State prior to the railroad development. + +In Illinois, also, the current of migration was at first preponderantly +Southern, but the settlers were less often from the Atlantic coast. +Kentucky and Tennessee were generous contributors, but many of the +distinguished leaders came from Virginia, and it is worthy of note that +in 1820 the two United States Senators of Illinois were of Maryland +ancestry, while her Representative was of Kentucky origin. The swarms of +land-seekers between 1820 and 1830 ascended the Illinois river, and +spread out between that river and the Mississippi. It was in this period +that Abraham Lincoln's father, who had come from Kentucky to Indiana, +again left his log cabin and traveled by ox-team with his family to the +popular Illinois county of Sangamon. Here Lincoln split his famous rails +to fence their land, and grew up under the influences of this migration +of the Southern pioneers to the prairies. They were not predominantly of +the planter class; but the fierce contest in 1824 over the proposition +to open Illinois to slavery was won for freedom by a narrow majority. + +Looking at the three States, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, prior to 1850, +we perceive how important was the voice of the South here, and we can +the more easily understand the early affiliation of the Northwest with +her sister States to the south on the Western waters. It was not +without reason that the proposal of the Missouri Compromise came from +Illinois, and it was a natural enthusiasm with which these States +followed Henry Clay in the war policy of 1812. The combination of the +South, the western portion of the Middle States, and the Mississippi +Valley gave the ascendancy to the democratic ideals of the followers of +Jefferson, and left New England a weakened and isolated section for +nearly half a century. Many of the most characteristic elements in +American life in the first part of the century were due to this +relationship between the South and the trans-Alleghany region. But even +thus early the Northwest had revealed strong predilections for the +Northern economic ideals as against the peculiar institution of the +South, and this tendency grew with the increase of New England +immigration. + +The northern two in this sisterhood of Northwestern States were the +first to be entered by the French, but latest by the English settlers. +Why Michigan was not occupied by New York men at an earlier period is at +first sight not easy to understand. Perhaps the adverse reports of +surveyors who visited the interior of the State, the partial +geographical isolation, and the unprogressive character of the French +settlers account for the tardy occupation of the area. Certain it is +that while the southern tier of States was sought by swarms of settlers, +Wisconsin and Michigan still echoed to Canadian boating-songs, and +voyageurs paddled their birch canoes along the streams of the wilderness +to traffic with the savages. Great Britain maintained the dominant +position until after the War of 1812, and the real center of authority +was in Canada. + +But after the digging of the Erie Canal, settlement began to turn into +Michigan. Between 1830 and 1840 the population of the State leaped from +31,000 to 212,000, in the face of the fact that the heavy debt of the +State and the crisis of 1837 turned from her borders many of the +thrifty, debt-hating Germans. The vast majority of the settlers were New +Yorkers. Michigan is distinctly a child of the Empire State. Canadians, +both French and English, continued to come as the lumber interests of +the region increased. By 1850 Michigan contained nearly 400,000 +inhabitants, who occupied the southern half of the State. + +But she now found an active competitor for settlement in Wisconsin. In +this region two forces had attracted the earlier inhabitants. The +fur-trading posts of Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Milwaukee +constituted one element, in which the French influence was continued. +The lead region of the southwest corner of the State formed the center +of attraction for Illinois and Southern pioneers. The soldiers who +followed Black Hawk's trail in 1832 reported the richness of the soil, +and an era of immigration followed. To the port of Milwaukee came a +combined migration from western New York and New England, and spread +along the southern tier of prairie counties until it met the Southern +settlers in the lead region. Many of the early political contests in the +State were connected, as in Ohio and Illinois, with the antagonisms +between the sections thus brought together in a limited area. + +The other element in the formation of Wisconsin was that of the Germans, +then just entering upon their vast immigration to the United States. +Wisconsin was free from debt; she made a constitution of exceptional +liberality to foreigners, and instead of treasuring her school lands or +using them for internal improvements, she sold them for almost nothing +to attract immigration. The result was that the prudent Germans, who +loved light taxes and cheap hard wood lands, turned toward +Wisconsin,--another _Voelkerwanderung_. From Milwaukee as a center they +spread north along the shore of Lake Michigan, and later into northern +central Wisconsin, following the belt of the hardwood forests. So +considerable were their numbers that such an economist as Roscher wrote +of the feasibility of making Wisconsin a German State. "They can plant +the vine on the hills," cried Franz Loeher in 1847, "and drink with happy +song and dance; they can have German schools and universities, German +literature and art, German science and philosophy, German courts and +assemblies; in short, they can form a German State, in which the German +language shall be as much the popular and official language as the +English is now, and in which the German spirit shall rule." By 1860 the +German-born were sixteen per cent of the population of the State. But +the New York and New England stream proved even more broad and steady in +its flow in these years before the war. Wisconsin's population rose from +30,000 in 1840 to 300,000 in 1850. + +The New England element that entered this State is probably typical of +the same element in Wisconsin's neighboring States, and demands notice. +It came for the most part, not from the seaboard of Massachusetts, which +has so frequently represented New England to the popular apprehension. A +large element in this stock was the product of the migration that +ascended the valleys of Connecticut and central Massachusetts through +the hills into Vermont and New York,--a pioneer folk almost from the +time of their origin. The Vermont colonists decidedly outnumbered those +of Massachusetts in both Michigan and Wisconsin, and were far more +numerous in other Northwestern States than the population of Vermont +warranted. Together with this current came the settlers from western New +York. These were generally descendants of this same pioneer New England +stock, continuing into a remoter West the movement that had brought +their parents to New York. The combined current from New England and New +York thus constituted a distinctly modified New England stock, and was +clearly the dominant native element in Michigan and Wisconsin. + +The decade of the forties was also the period of Iowa's rapid increase. +Although not politically a part of the Old Northwest, in history she is +closely related to that region. Her growth was by no means so rapid as +was Wisconsin's, for the proportion of foreign immigration was less. +Whereas in 1850 more than one-third of Wisconsin's population was +foreign-born, the proportion for Iowa was not much over one-tenth. The +main body of her people finally came from the Middle States, and +Illinois and Ohio; but Southern elements were well represented, +particularly among her political leaders. + +The middle of the century was the turning-point in the transfer of +control in the Northwest. Below the line of the old national turnpike, +marked by the cities of Columbus, Indianapolis, Vandalia, and St. Louis, +the counties had acquired a stability of settlement; and partly because +of the Southern element, partly because of a natural tendency of new +communities toward Jacksonian ideals, these counties were preponderantly +Democratic. But the Southern migration had turned to the cotton areas of +the Southwest, and the development of railroads and canals had broken +the historic commercial ascendancy of the Mississippi River; New Orleans +was yielding the scepter to New York. The tide of migration from the +North poured along these newly opened channels, and occupied the less +settled counties above the national turnpike. In cities like Columbus +and Indianapolis, where the two currents had run side by side, the +combined elements were most clearly marked, but in the Northwest as a +whole a varied population had been formed. This region seemed to +represent and understand the various parts of the Union. It was this +aspect which Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, urged in Congress when he made his +notable speech in favor of the admission of Iowa. He pleaded the +mission of the Northwest as the mediator between the sections and the +unifying agency in the nation, with such power and pathos as to thrill +even John Quincy Adams. + +But there are some issues which cannot be settled by compromise, +tendencies one of which must conquer the other. Such an issue the slave +power raised, and raised too late for support in the upper half of the +Mississippi Basin. The Northern and the Southern elements found +themselves in opposition to each other. "A house divided against itself +cannot stand," said Abraham Lincoln, a Northern leader of Southern +origin. Douglas, a leader of the Southern forces, though coming from New +England, declared his indifference whether slavery were voted up or down +in the Western Territories. The historic debates between these two +champions reveal the complex conditions in the Northwest, and take on a +new meaning when considered in the light of this contest between the +Northern and the Southern elements. The State that had been so potent +for compromise was at last the battle-ground itself, and the places +selected for the various debates of Lincoln and Douglas marked the +strongholds and the outposts of the antagonistic forces. + +At this time the kinship of western New York and the dominant element in +the Northwest was clearly revealed. Speaking for the anti-slavery forces +at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1860, Seward said: "The Northwest is by no +means so small as you may think it. I speak to you because I feel that I +am, and during all my mature life have been, one of you. Although of New +York, I am still a citizen of the Northwest. The Northwest extends +eastward to the base of the Alleghany Mountains, and does not all of +western New York lie westward of the Alleghany Mountains? Whence comes +all the inspiration of free soil which spreads itself with such cheerful +voices over all these plains? Why, from New York westward of the +Alleghany Mountains. The people before me,--who are you but New York +men, while you are men of the Northwest?" In the Civil War, western New +York and the Northwest were powerful in the forum and in the field. A +million soldiers came from the States that the Ordinance, passed by +Southern votes, had devoted to freedom. + +This was the first grave time of trial for the Northwest, and it did +much eventually to give to the region a homogeneity and +self-consciousness. But at the close of the war the region was still +agricultural, only half-developed; still breaking ground in northern +forests; still receiving contributions of peoples which radically +modified the social organism, and undergoing economic changes almost +revolutionary in their rapidity and extent. The changes since the war +are of more social importance, in many respects, than those in the years +commonly referred to as the formative period. As a result, the Northwest +finds herself again between contending forces, sharing the interests of +East and West, as once before those of North and South, and forced to +give her voice on issues of equal significance for the destiny of the +republic. + +In these transforming years since 1860, Ohio, finding the magician's +talisman that revealed the treasury of mineral wealth, gas, and +petroleum beneath her fields, has leaped to a front rank among the +manufacturing States of the Union. Potential on the Great Lakes by +reason of her ports of Toledo and Cleveland, tapping the Ohio river +artery of trade at Cincinnati, and closely connected with all the vast +material development of the upper waters of this river in western +Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Ohio has become distinctly a part of the +eastern social organism, much like the State of Pennsylvania. The +complexity of her origin still persists. Ohio has no preponderant social +center; her multiplicity of colleges and universities bears tribute to +the diversity of the elements that have made the State. One-third of +her people are of foreign parentage (one or both parents foreign-born), +and the city of Cincinnati has been deeply affected by the German stock, +while Cleveland strongly reflects the influence of the New England +element. That influence is still very palpable, but it is New England in +the presence of natural gas, iron, and coal, New England shaped by blast +and forge. The Middle State ideals will dominate Ohio's future. + +Bucolic Indiana, too, within the last decade has come into the +possession of gas-fields and has increased the exploitation of her coals +until she seems destined to share in the industrial type represented by +Ohio. Cities have arisen, like a dream, on the sites of country +villages. But Indiana has a much smaller proportion of foreign elements +than any other State of the Old Northwest, and it is the Southern +element that still differentiates her from her sisters. While Ohio's +political leaders still attest the Puritan migration, Indiana's clasp +hands with the leaders from the South. + +The Southern elements continue also to reveal themselves in the +Democratic southwestern counties of Illinois, grouped like a broad delta +of the Illinois River, while northern Illinois holds a larger proportion +of descendants of the Middle States and New England. About one-half her +population is of foreign parentage, in which the German, Irish, and +Scandinavians furnish the largest elements. She is a great agricultural +State and a great manufacturing State, the connecting link between the +Mississippi and the Great Lakes. Her metropolis, Chicago, is the very +type of Northwestern development for good and for evil. It is an epitome +of her composite nationality. A recent writer, analyzing the school +census of Chicago, points out that "only two cities in the German +Empire, Berlin and Hamburg, have a greater German population than +Chicago; only two in Sweden, Stockholm and Goeteborg, have more Swedes; +and only two in Norway, Christiana and Bergen, have more Norwegians"; +while the Irish, Polish, Bohemians, and Dutch elements are also largely +represented. But in spite of her rapidity of growth and her complex +elements, Chicago stands as the representative of the will-power and +genius for action of the Middle West, and the State of Illinois will be +the battle-ground for social and economic ideals for the next +generation. + +Michigan is two States. The northern peninsula is cut off from the +southern physically, industrially, and in the history of settlement. It +would seem that her natural destiny was with Wisconsin, or some possible +new State embracing the iron and copper, forest and shipping areas of +Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota on Lake Superior. The lower peninsula +of Michigan is the daughter of New York and over twelve per cent of +Michigan's present population were born in that State, and her traits +are those of the parent State. Over half her population is of foreign +parentage, of which Canada and England together have furnished one-half, +while the Germans outnumber any other single foreign element. The State +has undergone a steady industrial development, exploiting her northern +mines and forests, developing her lumber interests with Saginaw as the +center, raising fruits along the lake shore counties, and producing +grain in the middle trough of counties running from Saginaw Bay to the +south of Lake Michigan. Her state university has been her peculiar +glory, furnishing the first model for the state university, and it is +the educational contribution of the Northwest to the nation. + +Wisconsin's future is dependent upon the influence of the large +proportion of her population of foreign parentage, for nearly +three-fourths of her inhabitants are of that class. She thus has a +smaller percentage of native population than any other of the States +formed from the Old Northwest. Of this foreign element the Germans +constitute by far the largest part, with the Scandinavians second. Her +American population born outside of Wisconsin comes chiefly from New +York. In contrast with the Ohio River States, she lacks the Southern +element. Her greater foreign population and her dairy interests contrast +with Michigan's Canadian and English elements and fruit culture. Her +relations are more Western than Michigan's by reason of her connection +with the Mississippi and the prairie States. Her foreign element is +slightly less than Minnesota's, and in the latter State the +Scandinavians take the place held by the Germans in Wisconsin. The +facility with which the Scandinavians catch the spirit of Western +America and assimilate with their neighbors is much greater than is the +case with the Germans, so that Wisconsin seems to offer opportunity for +non-English influence in a greater degree than her sister on the west. +While Minnesota's economic development has heretofore been closely +dependent on the wheat-producing prairies, the opening of the iron +fields of the Mesabi and Vermilion ranges, together with the development +of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Duluth and West Superior, and the +prospective achievement of a deep-water communication with the Atlantic, +seem to offer to that State a new and imperial industrial destiny. +Between this stupendous economic future to the northwest and the +colossal growth of Chicago on the southeast Wisconsin seems likely to +become a middle agricultural area, developing particularly into a dairy +State. She is powerfully affected by the conservative tendencies of her +German element in times of political agitation and of proposals of +social change. + +Some of the social modifications in this State are more or less typical +of important processes at work among the neighboring States of the Old +Northwest. In the north, the men who built up the lumber interests of +the State, who founded a mill town surrounded by the stumps of the pine +forests which they exploited for the prairie markets, have acquired +wealth and political power. The spacious and well-appointed home of the +town-builder may now be seen in many a northern community, in a group of +less pretentious homes of operatives and tradesmen, the social +distinctions between them emphasized by the difference in nationality. A +few years before, this captain of industry was perhaps actively engaged +in the task of seeking the best "forties" or directing the operations of +his log-drivers. His wife and daughters make extensive visits to Europe, +his sons go to some university, and he himself is likely to acquire +political position, or to devote his energies to saving the town from +industrial decline, as the timber is cut away, by transforming it into a +manufacturing center for more finished products. Still others continue +their activity among the forests of the South. This social history of +the timber areas of Wisconsin has left clear indications in the +development of the peculiar political leadership in the northern portion +of the State. + +In the southern and middle counties of the State, the original +settlement of the native American pioneer farmer, a tendency is showing +itself to divide the farms and to sell to thrifty Germans, or to +cultivate the soil by tenants, while the farmer retires to live in the +neighboring village, and perhaps to organize creameries and develop a +dairy business. The result is that a replacement of nationalities is in +progress. Townships and even counties once dominated by the native +American farmers of New York extraction are now possessed by Germans or +other European nationalities. Large portions of the retail trades of the +towns are also passing into German hands, while the native element seeks +the cities, the professions, or mercantile enterprises of larger +character. The non-native element shows distinct tendencies to dwell in +groups. One of the most striking illustrations of this fact is the +community of New Glarus, in Wisconsin, formed by a carefully organized +migration from Glarus in Switzerland, aided by the canton itself. For +some years this community was a miniature Swiss canton in social +organization and customs, but of late it has become increasingly +assimilated to the American type, and has left an impress by +transforming the county in which it is from a grain-raising to a dairy +region. + +From Milwaukee as a center, the influence of the Germans upon the social +customs and ideals of Wisconsin has been marked. Milwaukee has many of +the aspects of a German city, and has furnished a stronghold of +resistance to native American efforts to enact rigid temperance +legislation, laws regulative of parochial schools, and similar attempts +to bend the German type to the social ideas of the pioneer American +stock. In the last presidential election, the German area of the State +deserted the Democratic party, and its opposition to free silver was a +decisive factor in the overwhelming victory of the Republicans in +Wisconsin. With all the evidence of the persistence of the influence of +this nationality, it is nevertheless clear that each decade marks an +increased assimilation and homogeneity in the State; but the result is a +compromise, and not a conquest by either element. + +The States of the Old Northwest gave to McKinley a plurality of over +367,000 out of a total vote of about 3,734,000. New England and the +Middle States together gave him a plurality of 979,000 in about the same +vote, while the farther West gave to Bryan a decisive net plurality. It +thus appears that the Old Northwest occupied the position of a political +middle region between East and West. The significance of this position +is manifest when it is recalled that this section is the child of the +East and the mother of the Populistic West. + +The occupation of the Western prairies was determined by forces similar +to those which settled the Old Northwest. In the decade before the war, +Minnesota succeeded to the place held by Wisconsin as the Mecca of +settlers in the prior decade. To Wisconsin and New York she owes the +largest proportion of her native settlers born outside of the State. +Kansas and Nebraska were settled most rapidly in the decade following +the war, and had a large proportion of soldiers in their American +immigrants. Illinois and Ohio together furnished about one-third of the +native settlers of these States, but the element coming from Southern +States was stronger in Kansas than in Nebraska. Both these States have +an exceptionally large proportion of native whites as compared with +their neighbors among the prairie States. Kansas, for example, has about +twenty-six per cent of persons of foreign parentage, while Nebraska has +about forty-two, Iowa forty-three, South Dakota sixty, Wisconsin +seventy-three, Minnesota seventy-five, and North Dakota seventy-nine. +North Dakota's development was greatest in the decade prior to 1890. Her +native stock came in largest numbers from Wisconsin, with New York, +Minnesota, and Iowa next in order. The growth of South Dakota occupied +the two decades prior to the census of 1890, and she has recruited her +native element from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and New York. + +In consequence of the large migration from the States of the Old +Northwest to the virgin soils of these prairie States many counties in +the parent States show a considerable decline in growth in the decade +before 1890. There is significance in the fact that, with the exception +of Iowa, these prairie States, the colonies of the Old Northwest, gave +Bryan votes in the election of 1896 in the ratio of their proportion of +persons of native parentage. North Dakota, with the heaviest foreign +element, was carried for McKinley, while South Dakota, with a much +smaller foreign vote, went for Bryan. Kansas and Nebraska rank with Ohio +in their native percentage, and they were the center of prairie +Populism. Of course, there were other important local economic and +political explanations for this ratio, but it seems to have a basis of +real meaning. Certain it is that the leaders of the silver movement came +from the native element furnished by the Old Northwest. The original +Populists in the Kansas legislature of 1891 were born in different +States as follows: in Ohio, twelve; Indiana, six; Illinois, five; New +York, four; Pennsylvania, two; Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine, one +each,--making a total, for the Northern current, of thirty-two. Of the +remaining eighteen, thirteen were from the South, and one each from +Kansas, Missouri, California, England and Ireland. Nearly all were +Methodists and former Republicans.[238:1] + +Looking at the silver movement more largely, we find that of the Kansas +delegation in the Fifty-fourth Congress, one was born in Kansas, and the +rest in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maine. +All of the Nebraska delegation in the House came from the Old Northwest +or from Iowa. The biographies of the two Representatives from the State +of Washington tell an interesting story. These men came as children to +the pine woods of Wisconsin, took up public lands, and worked on the +farm and in the pineries. One passed on to a homestead in Nebraska +before settling in Washington. Thus they kept one stage ahead of the +social transformations of the West. This is the usual training of the +Western politicians. If the reader would see a picture of the +representative Kansas Populist, let him examine the family portraits of +the Ohio farmer in the middle of this century. + +In a word, the Populist is the American farmer who has kept in advance +of the economic and social transformations that have overtaken those +who remained behind. While, doubtless, investigation into the ancestry +of the Populists and "silver men" who came to the prairies from the Old +Northwest would show a large proportion of Southern origin, yet the +center of discontent seems to have been among the men of the New England +and New York current. If New England looks with care at these men, she +may recognize in them the familiar lineaments of the embattled farmers +who fired the shot heard round the world. The continuous advance of this +pioneer stock from New England has preserved for us the older type of +the pioneer of frontier New England. + +I do not overlook the transforming influences of the wilderness on this +stock ever since it left the earlier frontier to follow up the valleys +of western Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont, into western New +York, into Ohio, into Iowa, and out to the arid plains of western Kansas +and Nebraska; nor do I overlook the peculiar industrial conditions of +the prairie States. But I desire to insist upon the other truth, also, +that these westward immigrants, keeping for generations in advance of +the transforming industrial and social forces that have wrought so vast +a revolution in the older regions of the East which they left, could not +but preserve important aspects of the older farmer type. In the arid +West these pioneers have halted and have turned to perceive an altered +nation and changed social ideals. They see the sharp contrast between +their traditional idea of America, as the land of opportunity, the land +of the self-made man, free from class distinctions and from the power of +wealth, and the existing America, so unlike the earlier ideal. If we +follow back the line of march of the Puritan farmer, we shall see how +responsive he has always been to _isms_, and how persistently he has +resisted encroachments on his ideals of individual opportunity and +democracy. He is the prophet of the "higher law" in Kansas before the +Civil War. He is the Prohibitionist of Iowa and Wisconsin, crying out +against German customs as an invasion of his traditional ideals. He is +the Granger of Wisconsin, passing restrictive railroad legislation. He +is the Abolitionist, the Anti-mason, the Millerite, the Woman +Suffragist, the Spiritualist, the Mormon, of Western New York. Follow +him to his New England home in the turbulent days of Shays' rebellion, +paper money, stay and tender laws, and land banks. The radicals among +these New England farmers hated lawyers and capitalists. "I would not +trust them," said Abraham White, in the ratification convention of +Massachusetts, in 1788, "though every one of them should be a Moses." +"These lawyers," cried Amos Singletary, "and men of learning and moneyed +men that talk so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly to make us +poor illiterate people swallow the pill, expect to get into Congress +themselves! They mean to get all the money into their hands, and then +they will swallow up all us little folk, like the Leviathan, Mr. +President; yea, just as the whale swallowed up Jonah." + +If the voice of Mary Ellen Lease sounds raucous to the New England man +to-day, while it is sweet music in the ears of the Kansas farmer, let +him ponder the utterances of these frontier farmers in the days of the +Revolution; and if he is still doubtful of this spiritual kinship, let +him read the words of the levelers and sectaries of Cromwell's army. + +The story of the political leaders who remained in the place of their +birth and shared its economic changes differs from the story of those +who by moving to the West continued on a new area the old social type. +In the throng of Scotch-Irish pioneers that entered the uplands of the +Carolinas in the second quarter of the eighteenth century were the +ancestors of Calhoun and of Andrew Jackson. Remaining in this region, +Calhoun shared the transformations of the South Carolina interior. He +saw it change from the area of the pioneer farmers to an area of great +planters raising cotton by slave labor. This explains the transformation +of the nationalist and protectionist Calhoun of 1816 into the +state-sovereignty and free-trade Calhoun. Jackson, on the other hand, +left the region while it was still a frontier, shared the frontier life +of Tennessee, and reflected the democracy and nationalism of his people. +Henry Clay lived long enough in the kindred State of Kentucky to see it +pass from a frontier to a settled community, and his views on slavery +reflected the transitional history of that State. Lincoln, on the other +hand, born in Kentucky in 1809, while the State was still under frontier +conditions, migrated in 1816 to Indiana, and in 1830 to Illinois. The +pioneer influences of his community did much to shape his life, and the +development of the raw frontiersman into the statesman was not unlike +the development of his own State. Political leaders who experienced the +later growth of the Northwest, like Garfield, Hayes, Harrison, and +McKinley, show clearly the continued transformations of the section. But +in the days when the Northwest was still in the gristle, she sent her +sons into the newer West to continue the views of life and the policies +of the half-frontier region they had left. + +To-day, the Northwest, standing between her ancestral connections in the +East and her children in the West, partly like the East, partly like the +West, finds herself in a position strangely like that in the days of the +slavery struggle, when her origins presented to her a "divided duty." +But these issues are not with the same imperious "Which?" as was the +issue of freedom or slavery. + +Looking at the Northwest as a whole, one sees, in the character of its +industries and in the elements of its population, it is identified on +the east with the zone of States including the middle region and New +England. Cotton culture and the negro make a clear line of division +between the Old Northwest and the South. And yet in important historical +ideals--in the process of expansion, in the persistence of agricultural +interests, in impulsiveness, in imperialistic ways of looking at the +American destiny, in hero-worship, in the newness of its present social +structure--the Old Northwest has much in common with the South and the +Far West. + +Behind her is the old pioneer past of simple democratic conditions, and +freedom of opportunity for all men. Before her is a superb industrial +development, the brilliancy of success as evinced in a vast population, +aggregate wealth, and sectional power. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[222:1] _Atlantic Monthly_, April, 1897. Published by permission. + +[238:1] For this information I am indebted to Professor F. W. Blackmar, +of the University of Kansas. + + + + +IX + +CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE WEST TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY[243:1] + + +Political thought in the period of the French Revolution tended to treat +democracy as an absolute system applicable to all times and to all +peoples, a system that was to be created by the act of the people +themselves on philosophical principles. Ever since that era there has +been an inclination on the part of writers on democracy to emphasize the +analytical and theoretical treatment to the neglect of the underlying +factors of historical development. + +If, however, we consider the underlying conditions and forces that +create the democratic type of government, and at times contradict the +external forms to which the name democracy is applied, we shall find +that under this name there have appeared a multitude of political types +radically unlike in fact. + +The careful student of history must, therefore, seek the explanation of +the forms and changes of political institutions in the social and +economic forces that determine them. To know that at any one time a +nation may be called a democracy, an aristocracy, or a monarchy, is not +so important as to know what are the social and economic tendencies of +the state. These are the vital forces that work beneath the surface and +dominate the external form. It is to changes in the economic and social +life of a people that we must look for the forces, that ultimately +create and modify organs of political action. + +For the time, adaptation of political structure may be incomplete or +concealed. Old organs will be utilized to express new forces, and so +gradual and subtle will be the change that it may hardly be recognized. +The pseudo-democracies under the Medici at Florence and under Augustus +at Rome are familiar examples of this type. Or again, if the political +structure be rigid, incapable of responding to the changes demanded by +growth, the expansive forces of social and economic transformation may +rend it in some catastrophe like that of the French Revolution. In +all these changes both conscious ideals and unconscious social +reorganization are at work. + +These facts are familiar to the student, and yet it is doubtful if they +have been fully considered in connection with American democracy. For a +century at least, in conventional expression, Americans have referred to +a "glorious Constitution" in explaining the stability and prosperity of +their democracy. We have believed as a nation that other peoples had +only to will our democratic institutions in order to repeat our own +career. + +In dealing with Western contributions to democracy, it is essential that +the considerations which have just been mentioned shall be kept in mind. +Whatever these contributions may have been, we find ourselves at the +present time in an era of such profound economic and social +transformation as to raise the question of the effect of these changes +upon the democratic institutions of the United States. Within a decade +four marked changes have occurred in our national development; taken +together they constitute a revolution. + +First, there is the exhaustion of the supply of free land and the +closing of the movement of Western advance as an effective factor in +American development. The first rough conquest of the wilderness is +accomplished, and that great supply of free lands which year after year +has served to reinforce the democratic influences in the United States +is exhausted. It is true that vast tracts of government land are still +untaken, but they constitute the mountain and arid regions, only a small +fraction of them capable of conquest, and then only by the application +of capital and combined effort. The free lands that made the American +pioneer have gone. + +In the second place, contemporaneously with this there has been such a +concentration of capital in the control of fundamental industries as to +make a new epoch in the economic development of the United States. The +iron, the coal, and the cattle of the country have all fallen under the +domination of a few great corporations with allied interests, and by the +rapid combination of the important railroad systems and steamship lines, +in concert with these same forces, even the breadstuffs and the +manufactures of the nation are to some degree controlled in a similar +way. This is largely the work of the last decade. The development of the +greatest iron mines of Lake Superior occurred in the early nineties, and +in the same decade came the combination by which the coal and the coke +of the country, and the transportation systems that connect them with +the iron mines, have been brought under a few concentrated managements. +Side by side with this concentration of capital has gone the combination +of labor in the same vast industries. The one is in a certain sense the +concomitant of the other, but the movement acquires an additional +significance because of the fact that during the past fifteen years the +labor class has been so recruited by a tide of foreign immigration that +this class is now largely made up of persons of foreign parentage, and +the lines of cleavage which begin to appear in this country between +capital and labor have been accentuated by distinctions of nationality. + +A third phenomenon connected with the two just mentioned is the +expansion of the United States politically and commercially into lands +beyond the seas. A cycle of American development has been completed. Up +to the close of the War of 1812, this country was involved in the +fortunes of the European state system. The first quarter of a century of +our national existence was almost a continual struggle to prevent +ourselves being drawn into the European wars. At the close of that era +of conflict, the United States set its face toward the West. It began +the settlement and improvement of the vast interior of the country. Here +was the field of our colonization, here the field of our political +activity. This process being completed, it is not strange that we find +the United States again involved in world-politics. The revolution that +occurred four years ago, when the United States struck down that ancient +nation under whose auspices the New World was discovered, is hardly yet +more than dimly understood. The insular wreckage of the Spanish War, +Porto Rico and the Philippines, with the problems presented by the +Hawaiian Islands, Cuba, the Isthmian Canal, and China, all are +indications of the new direction of the ship of state, and while we thus +turn our attention overseas, our concentrated industrial strength has +given us a striking power against the commerce of Europe that is already +producing consternation in the Old World. Having completed the conquest +of the wilderness, and having consolidated our interests, we are +beginning to consider the relations of democracy and empire. + +And fourth, the political parties of the United States, now tend to +divide on issues that involve the question of Socialism. The rise of the +Populist party in the last decade, and the acceptance of so many of its +principles by the Democratic party under the leadership of Mr. Bryan, +show in striking manner the birth of new political ideas, the +reformation of the lines of political conflict. + +It is doubtful if in any ten years of American history more significant +factors in our growth have revealed themselves. The struggle of the +pioneer farmers to subdue the arid lands of the Great Plains in the +eighties was followed by the official announcement of the extinction of +the frontier line in 1890. The dramatic outcome of the Chicago +Convention of 1896 marked the rise into power of the representatives of +Populistic change. Two years later came the battle of Manila, which +broke down the old isolation of the nation, and started it on a path the +goal of which no man can foretell; and finally, but two years ago came +that concentration of which the billion and a half dollar steel trust +and the union of the Northern continental railways are stupendous +examples. Is it not obvious, then, that the student who seeks for the +explanation of democracy in the social and economic forces that underlie +political forms must make inquiry into the conditions that have produced +our democratic institutions, if he would estimate the effect of these +vast changes? As a contribution to this inquiry, let us now turn to an +examination of the part that the West has played in shaping our +democracy. + +From the beginning of the settlement of America, the frontier regions +have exercised a steady influence toward democracy. In Virginia, to take +an example, it can be traced as early as the period of Bacon's +Rebellion, a hundred years before our Declaration of Independence. The +small landholders, seeing that their powers were steadily passing into +the hands of the wealthy planters who controlled Church and State and +lands, rose in revolt. A generation later, in the governorship of +Alexander Spotswood, we find a contest between the frontier settlers and +the property-holding classes of the coast. The democracy with which +Spotswood had to struggle, and of which he so bitterly complained, was a +democracy made up of small landholders, of the newer immigrants, and of +indented servants, who at the expiration of their time of servitude +passed into the interior to take up lands and engage in pioneer farming. +The "War of the Regulation," just on the eve of the American Revolution, +shows the steady persistence of this struggle between the classes of the +interior and those of the coast. The Declaration of Grievances which the +back counties of the Carolinas then drew up against the aristocracy that +dominated the politics of those colonies exhibits the contest between +the democracy of the frontier and the established classes who +apportioned the legislature in such fashion as to secure effective +control of government. Indeed, in a period before the outbreak of the +American Revolution, one can trace a distinct belt of democratic +territory extending from the back country of New England down through +western New York, Pennsylvania, and the South.[248:1] + +In each colony this region was in conflict with the dominant classes of +the coast. It constituted a quasi-revolutionary area before the days of +the Revolution, and it formed the basis on which the Democratic party +was afterwards established. It was, therefore, in the West, as it was in +the period before the Declaration of Independence, that the struggle for +democratic development first revealed itself, and in that area the +essential ideas of American democracy had already appeared. Through the +period of the Revolution and of the Confederation a similar contest can +be noted. On the frontier of New England, along the western border of +Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, and in the communities beyond +the Alleghany Mountains, there arose a demand of the frontier settlers +for independent statehood based on democratic provisions. There is a +strain of fierceness in their energetic petitions demanding +self-government under the theory that every people have the right to +establish their own political institutions in an area which they have +won from the wilderness. Those revolutionary principles based on +natural rights, for which the seaboard colonies were contending, were +taken up with frontier energy in an attempt to apply them to the lands +of the West. No one can read their petitions denouncing the control +exercised by the wealthy landholders of the coast, appealing to the +record of their conquest of the wilderness, and demanding the possession +of the lands for which they have fought the Indians, and which they had +reduced by their ax to civilization, without recognizing in these +frontier communities the cradle of a belligerent Western democracy. "A +fool can sometimes put on his coat better than a wise man can do it for +him,"--such is the philosophy of its petitioners. In this period also +came the contests of the interior agricultural portion of New England +against the coast-wise merchants and property-holders, of which Shays' +Rebellion is the best known, although by no means an isolated instance. + +By the time of the constitutional convention, this struggle for +democracy had affected a fairly well-defined division into parties. +Although these parties did not at first recognize their interstate +connections, there were similar issues on which they split in almost all +the States. The demands for an issue of paper money, the stay of +execution against debtors, and the relief against excessive taxation +were found in every colony in the interior agricultural regions. The +rise of this significant movement wakened the apprehensions of the men +of means, and in the debates over the basis of suffrage for the House of +Representatives in the constitutional convention of 1787 leaders of the +conservative party did not hesitate to demand that safeguards to the +property should be furnished the coast against the interior. The outcome +of the debate left the question of suffrage for the House of +Representatives dependent upon the policy of the separate States. This +was in effect imposing a property qualification throughout the nation as +a whole, and it was only as the interior of the country developed that +these restrictions gradually gave way in the direction of manhood +suffrage. + +All of these scattered democratic tendencies Jefferson combined, in the +period of Washington's presidency, into the Democratic-Republican party. +Jefferson was the first prophet of American democracy, and when we +analyse the essential features of his gospel, it is clear that the +Western influence was the dominant element. Jefferson himself was born +in the frontier region of Virginia, on the edge of the Blue Ridge, in +the middle of the eighteenth century. His father was a pioneer. +Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia" reveal clearly his conception that +democracy should have an agricultural basis, and that manufacturing +development and city life were dangerous to the purity of the body +politic. Simplicity and economy in government, the right of revolution, +the freedom of the individual, the belief that those who win the vacant +lands are entitled to shape their own government in their own +way,--these are all parts of the platform of political principles to +which he gave his adhesion, and they are all elements eminently +characteristic of the Western democracy into which he was born. + +In the period of the Revolution he had brought in a series of measures +which tended to throw the power of Virginia into the hands of the +settlers in the interior rather than of the coastwise aristocracy. The +repeal of the laws of entail and primogeniture would have destroyed the +great estates on which the planting aristocracy based its power. The +abolition of the Established Church would still further have diminished +the influence of the coastwise party in favor of the dissenting sects of +the interior. His scheme of general public education reflected the same +tendency, and his demand for the abolition of slavery was characteristic +of a representative of the West rather than of the old-time aristocracy +of the coast. His sympathy with the Western expansion culminated in the +Louisiana Purchase. In short, the tendencies of Jefferson's legislation +were to replace the dominance of the planting aristocracy by the +dominance of the interior class, which had sought in vain to achieve its +liberties in the period of Bacon's Rebellion. + +Nevertheless, Thomas Jefferson was the John the Baptist of democracy, +not its Moses. Only with the slow setting of the tide of settlement +farther and farther toward the interior did the democratic influence +grow strong enough to take actual possession of the government. The +period from 1800 to 1820 saw a steady increase in these tendencies. The +established classes in New England and the South began to take alarm. +Perhaps no better illustration of the apprehensions of the old-time +Federal conservative can be given than these utterances of President +Dwight, of Yale College, in the book of travels which he published in +that period:-- + + The class of pioneers cannot live in regular society. They are + too idle, too talkative, too passionate, too prodigal, and too + shiftless to acquire either property or character. They are + impatient of the restraints of law, religion, and morality, + and grumble about the taxes by which the Rulers, Ministers, + and Schoolmasters are supported. . . . After exposing the + injustice of the community in neglecting to invest persons of + such superior merit in public offices, in many an eloquent + harangue uttered by many a kitchen fire, in every blacksmith + shop, in every corner of the streets, and finding all their + efforts vain, they become at length discouraged, and under the + pressure of poverty, the fear of the gaol, and consciousness + of public contempt, leave their native places and betake + themselves to the wilderness. + +Such was a conservative's impression of that pioneer movement of New +England colonists who had spread up the valley of the Connecticut into +New Hampshire, Vermont, and western New York in the period of which he +wrote, and who afterwards went on to possess the Northwest. New England +Federalism looked with a shudder at the democratic ideas of those who +refused to recognize the established order. But in that period there +came into the Union a sisterhood of frontier States--Ohio, Indiana, +Illinois, Missouri--with provisions for the franchise that brought in +complete democracy. + +Even the newly created States of the Southwest showed the tendency. The +wind of democracy blew so strongly from the West, that even in the older +States of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia, +conventions were called, which liberalized their constitutions by +strengthening the democratic basis of the State. In the same time the +labor population of the cities began to assert its power and its +determination to share in government. Of this frontier democracy which +now took possession of the nation, Andrew Jackson was the very +personification. He was born in the backwoods of the Carolinas in the +midst of the turbulent democracy that preceded the Revolution, and he +grew up in the frontier State of Tennessee. In the midst of this region +of personal feuds and frontier ideals of law, he quickly rose to +leadership. The appearance of this frontiersman on the floor of Congress +was an omen full of significance. He reached Philadelphia at the close +of Washington's administration, having ridden on horseback nearly eight +hundred miles to his destination. Gallatin, himself a Western man, +describes Jackson as he entered the halls of Congress: "A tall, lank, +uncouth-looking personage, with long locks of hair hanging over his face +and a cue down his back tied in an eel-skin; his dress singular; his +manners those of a rough backwoodsman." And Jefferson testified: "When I +was President of the Senate he was a Senator, and he could never speak +on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it +repeatedly and as often choke with rage." At last the frontier in the +person of its typical man had found a place in the Government. This +six-foot backwoodsman, with blue eyes that could blaze on occasion, this +choleric, impetuous, self-willed Scotch-Irish leader of men, this expert +duelist, and ready fighter, this embodiment of the tenacious, vehement, +personal West, was in politics to stay. The frontier democracy of that +time had the instincts of the clansman in the days of Scotch border +warfare. Vehement and tenacious as the democracy was, strenuously as +each man contended with his neighbor for the spoils of the new country +that opened before them, they all had respect for the man who best +expressed their aspirations and their ideas. Every community had its +hero. In the War of 1812 and the subsequent Indian fighting Jackson made +good his claim, not only to the loyalty of the people of Tennessee, but +of the whole West, and even of the nation. He had the essential traits +of the Kentucky and Tennessee frontier. It was a frontier free from the +influence of European ideas and institutions. The men of the "Western +World" turned their backs upon the Atlantic Ocean, and with a grim +energy and self-reliance began to build up a society free from the +dominance of ancient forms. + +The Westerner defended himself and resented governmental restrictions. +The duel and the blood-feud found congenial soil in Kentucky and +Tennessee. The idea of the personality of law was often dominant over +the organized machinery of justice. That method was best which was most +direct and effective. The backwoodsman was intolerant of men who split +hairs, or scrupled over the method of reaching the right. In a word, the +unchecked development of the individual was the significant product of +this frontier democracy. It sought rather to express itself by choosing +a man of the people, than by the formation of elaborate governmental +institutions. + +It was because Andrew Jackson personified these essential Western traits +that in his presidency he became the idol and the mouthpiece of the +popular will. In his assault upon the Bank as an engine of aristocracy, +and in his denunciation of nullification, he went directly to his object +with the ruthless energy of a frontiersman. For formal law and the +subtleties of State sovereignty he had the contempt of a backwoodsman. +Nor is it without significance that this typical man of the new +democracy will always be associated with the triumph of the spoils +system in national politics. To the new democracy of the West, office +was an opportunity to exercise natural rights as an equal citizen of the +community. Rotation in office served not simply to allow the successful +man to punish his enemies and reward his friends, but it also furnished +the training in the actual conduct of political affairs which every +American claimed as his birthright. Only in a primitive democracy of the +type of the United States in 1830 could such a system have existed +without the ruin of the State. National government in that period was no +complex and nicely adjusted machine, and the evils of the system were +long in making themselves fully apparent. + +The triumph of Andrew Jackson marked the end of the old era of trained +statesmen for the Presidency. With him began the era of the popular +hero. Even Martin Van Buren, whom we think of in connection with the +East, was born in a log house under conditions that were not unlike +parts of the older West. Harrison was the hero of the Northwest, as +Jackson had been of the Southwest. Polk was a typical Tennesseean, eager +to expand the nation, and Zachary Taylor was what Webster called a +"frontier colonel." During the period that followed Jackson, power +passed from the region of Kentucky and Tennessee to the border of the +Mississippi. The natural democratic tendencies that had earlier shown +themselves in the Gulf States were destroyed, however, by the spread of +cotton culture, and the development of great plantations in that region. +What had been typical of the democracy of the Revolutionary frontier and +of the frontier of Andrew Jackson was now to be seen in the States +between the Ohio and the Mississippi. As Andrew Jackson is the typical +democrat of the former region, so Abraham Lincoln is the very embodiment +of the pioneer period of the Old Northwest. Indeed, he is the embodiment +of the democracy of the West. How can one speak of him except in the +words of Lowell's great "Commemoration Ode":-- + + "For him her Old-World moulds aside she threw, + And, choosing sweet clay from the breast + Of the unexhausted West, + With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, + Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. + + * * * * * + + His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, + Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, + A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind; + Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, + Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, + Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. + Nothing of Europe here, + Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, + Ere any names of Serf and Peer, + Could Nature's equal scheme deface; + New birth of our new soil, the first American." + +The pioneer life from which Lincoln came differed in important respects +from the frontier democracy typified by Andrew Jackson. Jackson's +democracy was contentious, individualistic, and it sought the ideal of +local self-government and expansion. Lincoln represents rather the +pioneer folk who entered the forest of the great Northwest to chop out a +home, to build up their fortunes in the midst of a continually ascending +industrial movement. In the democracy of the Southwest, industrial +development and city life were only minor factors, but to the democracy +of the Northwest they were its very life. To widen the area of the +clearing, to contend with one another for the mastery of the industrial +resources of the rich provinces, to struggle for a place in the +ascending movement of society, to transmit to one's offspring the chance +for education, for industrial betterment, for the rise in life which the +hardships of the pioneer existence denied to the pioneer himself, these +were some of the ideals of the region to which Lincoln came. The men +were commonwealth builders, industry builders. Whereas the type of hero +in the Southwest was militant, in the Northwest he was industrial. It +was in the midst of these "plain people," as he loved to call them, that +Lincoln grew to manhood. As Emerson says: "He is the true history of the +American people in his time." The years of his early life were the years +when the democracy of the Northwest came into struggle with the +institution of slavery which threatened to forbid the expansion of the +democratic pioneer life in the West. In President Eliot's essay on "Five +American Contributions to Civilization," he instances as one of the +supreme tests of American democracy its attitude upon the question of +slavery. But if democracy chose wisely and worked effectively toward the +solution of this problem, it must be remembered that Western democracy +took the lead. The rail-splitter himself became the nation's President +in that fierce time of struggle, and armies of the woodsmen and pioneer +farmers recruited in the Old Northwest made free the Father of Waters, +marched through Georgia, and helped to force the struggle to a +conclusion at Appomattox. The free pioneer democracy struck down the +slave-holding aristocracy on its march to the West. + +The last chapter in the development of Western democracy is the one that +deals with its conquest over the vast spaces of the new West. At each +new stage of Western development, the people have had to grapple with +larger areas, with bigger combinations. The little colony of +Massachusetts veterans that settled at Marietta received a land grant as +large as the State of Rhode Island. The band of Connecticut pioneers +that followed Moses Cleaveland to the Connecticut Reserve occupied a +region as large as the parent State. The area which settlers of New +England stock occupied on the prairies of northern Illinois surpassed +the combined area of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Men +who had become accustomed to the narrow valleys and the little towns of +the East found themselves out on the boundless spaces of the West +dealing with units of such magnitude as dwarfed their former experience. +The Great Lakes, the Prairies, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, +the Mississippi and the Missouri, furnished new standards of measurement +for the achievement of this industrial democracy. Individualism began to +give way to cooperation and to governmental activity. Even in the +earlier days of the democratic conquest of the wilderness, demands had +been made upon the government for support in internal improvements, but +this new West showed a growing tendency to call to its assistance the +powerful arm of national authority. In the period since the Civil War, +the vast public domain has been donated to the individual farmer, to +States for education, to railroads for the construction of +transportation lines. + +Moreover, with the advent of democracy in the last fifteen years upon +the Great Plains, new physical conditions have presented themselves +which have accelerated the social tendency of Western democracy. The +pioneer farmer of the days of Lincoln could place his family on a +flatboat, strike into the wilderness, cut out his clearing, and with +little or no capital go on to the achievement of industrial +independence. Even the homesteader on the Western prairies found it +possible to work out a similar independent destiny, although the factor +of transportation made a serious and increasing impediment to the free +working-out of his individual career. But when the arid lands and the +mineral resources of the Far West were reached, no conquest was possible +by the old individual pioneer methods. Here expensive irrigation works +must be constructed, cooperative activity was demanded in utilization of +the water supply, capital beyond the reach of the small farmer was +required. In a word, the physiographic province itself decreed that the +destiny of this new frontier should be social rather than individual. + +Magnitude of social achievement is the watchword of the democracy since +the Civil War. From petty towns built in the marshes, cities arose whose +greatness and industrial power are the wonder of our time. The +conditions were ideal for the production of captains of industry. The +old democratic admiration for the self-made man, its old deference to +the rights of competitive individual development, together with the +stupendous natural resources that opened to the conquest of the keenest +and the strongest, gave such conditions of mobility as enabled the +development of the large corporate industries which in our own decade +have marked the West. + +Thus, in brief, have been outlined the chief phases of the development +of Western democracy in the different areas which it has conquered. +There has been a steady development of the industrial ideal, and a +steady increase of the social tendency, in this later movement of +Western democracy. While the individualism of the frontier, so prominent +in the earliest days of the Western advance, has been preserved as an +ideal, more and more these individuals struggling each with the other, +dealing with vaster and vaster areas, with larger and larger problems, +have found it necessary to combine under the leadership of the +strongest. This is the explanation of the rise of those preeminent +captains of industry whose genius has concentrated capital to control +the fundamental resources of the nation. If now in the way of +recapitulation, we try to pick out from the influences that have gone to +the making of Western democracy the factors which constitute the net +result of this movement, we shall have to mention at least the +following:-- + +Most important of all has been the fact that an area of free land has +continually lain on the western border of the settled area of the United +States. Whenever social conditions tended to crystallize in the East, +whenever capital tended to press upon labor or political restraints to +impede the freedom of the mass, there was this gate of escape to the +free conditions of the frontier. These free lands promoted +individualism, economic equality, freedom to rise, democracy. Men would +not accept inferior wages and a permanent position of social +subordination when this promised land of freedom and equality was theirs +for the taking. Who would rest content under oppressive legislative +conditions when with a slight effort he might reach a land wherein to +become a co-worker in the building of free cities and free States on the +lines of his own ideal? In a word, then, free lands meant free +opportunities. Their existence has differentiated the American +democracy from the democracies which have preceded it, because ever, as +democracy in the East took the form of highly specialized and +complicated industrial society, in the West it kept in touch with +primitive conditions, and by action and reaction these two forces have +shaped our history. + +In the next place, these free lands and this treasury of industrial +resources have existed over such vast spaces that they have demanded of +democracy increasing spaciousness of design and power of execution. +Western democracy is contrasted with the democracy of all other times in +the largeness of the tasks to which it has set its hand, and in the vast +achievements which it has wrought out in the control of nature and of +politics. It would be difficult to over-emphasize the importance of this +training upon democracy. Never before in the history of the world has a +democracy existed on so vast an area and handled things in the gross +with such success, with such largeness of design, and such grasp upon +the means of execution. In short, democracy has learned in the West of +the United States how to deal with the problem of magnitude. The old +historic democracies were but little states with primitive economic +conditions. + +But the very task of dealing with vast resources, over vast areas, under +the conditions of free competition furnished by the West, has produced +the rise of those captains of industry whose success in consolidating +economic power now raises the question as to whether democracy under +such conditions can survive. For the old military type of Western +leaders like George Rogers Clark, Andrew Jackson, and William Henry +Harrison have been substituted such industrial leaders as James J. Hill, +John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. + +The question is imperative, then, What ideals persist from this +democratic experience of the West; and have they acquired sufficient +momentum to sustain themselves under conditions so radically unlike +those in the days of their origin? In other words, the question put at +the beginning of this discussion becomes pertinent. Under the forms of +the American democracy is there in reality evolving such a concentration +of economic and social power in the hands of a comparatively few men as +may make political democracy an appearance rather than a reality? The +free lands are gone. The material forces that gave vitality to Western +democracy are passing away. It is to the realm of the spirit, to the +domain of ideals and legislation, that we must look for Western +influence upon democracy in our own days. + +Western democracy has been from the time of its birth idealistic. The +very fact of the wilderness appealed to men as a fair, blank page on +which to write a new chapter in the story of man's struggle for a higher +type of society. The Western wilds, from the Alleghanies to the Pacific, +constituted the richest free gift that was ever spread out before +civilized man. To the peasant and artisan of the Old World, bound by the +chains of social class, as old as custom and as inevitable as fate, the +West offered an exit into a free life and greater well-being among the +bounties of nature, into the midst of resources that demanded manly +exertion, and that gave in return the chance for indefinite ascent in +the scale of social advance. "To each she offered gifts after his will." +Never again can such an opportunity come to the sons of men. It was +unique, and the thing is so near us, so much a part of our lives, that +we do not even yet comprehend its full significance. The existence of +this land of opportunity has made America the goal of idealists from the +days of the Pilgrim Fathers. With all the materialism of the pioneer +movements, this idealistic conception of the vacant lands as an +opportunity for a new order of things is unmistakably present. +Kipling's "Song of the English" has given it expression:-- + + "We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, in the man-stifled town; + We yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down. + Came the Whisper, came the Vision, came the Power with the Need, + Till the Soul that is not man's soul was lent us to lead. + As the deer breaks--as the steer breaks--from the herd where they + graze, + In the faith of little children we went on our ways. + Then the wood failed--then the food failed--then the last water + dried-- + In the faith of little children we lay down and died. + + "On the sand-drift--on the veldt-side--in the fern-scrub we lay, + That our sons might follow after by the bones on the way. + Follow after--follow after! We have watered the root + And the bud has come to blossom that ripens for fruit! + Follow after--we are waiting by the trails that we lost + For the sound of many footsteps, for the tread of a host. + + "Follow after--follow after--for the harvest is sown: + By the bones about the wayside ye shall come to your own!" + +This was the vision that called to Roger Williams,--that "prophetic soul +ravished of truth disembodied," "unable to enter into treaty with its +environment," and forced to seek the wilderness. "Oh, how sweet," wrote +William Penn, from his forest refuge, "is the quiet of these parts, +freed from the troubles and perplexities of woeful Europe." And here he +projected what he called his "Holy Experiment in Government." + +If the later West offers few such striking illustrations of the relation +of the wilderness to idealistic schemes, and if some of the designs were +fantastic and abortive, none the less the influence is a fact. Hardly a +Western State but has been the Mecca of some sect or band of social +reformers, anxious to put into practice their ideals, in vacant land, +far removed from the checks of a settled form of social organization. +Consider the Dunkards, the Icarians, the Fourierists, the Mormons, and +similar idealists who sought our Western wilds. But the idealistic +influence is not limited to the dreamers' conception of a new State. It +gave to the pioneer farmer and city builder a restless energy, a quick +capacity for judgment and action, a belief in liberty, freedom of +opportunity, and a resistance to the domination of class which infused a +vitality and power into the individual atoms of this democratic mass. +Even as he dwelt among the stumps of his newly-cut clearing, the pioneer +had the creative vision of a new order of society. In imagination he +pushed back the forest boundary to the confines of a mighty +Commonwealth; he willed that log cabins should become the lofty +buildings of great cities. He decreed that his children should enter +into a heritage of education, comfort, and social welfare, and for this +ideal he bore the scars of the wilderness. Possessed with this idea he +ennobled his task and laid deep foundations for a democratic State. Nor +was this idealism by any means limited to the American pioneer. + +To the old native democratic stock has been added a vast army of +recruits from the Old World. There are in the Middle West alone four +million persons of German parentage out of a total of seven millions in +the country. Over a million persons of Scandinavian parentage live in +the same region. The democracy of the newer West is deeply affected by +the ideals brought by these immigrants from the Old World. To them +America was not simply a new home; it was a land of opportunity, of +freedom, of democracy. It meant to them, as to the American pioneer that +preceded them, the opportunity to destroy the bonds of social caste that +bound them in their older home, to hew out for themselves in a new +country a destiny proportioned to the powers that God had given them, a +chance to place their families under better conditions and to win a +larger life than the life that they had left behind. He who believes +that even the hordes of recent immigrants from southern Italy are drawn +to these shores by nothing more than a dull and blind materialism has +not penetrated into the heart of the problem. The idealism and +expectation of these children of the Old World, the hopes which they +have formed for a newer and freer life across the seas, are almost +pathetic when one considers how far they are from the possibility of +fruition. He who would take stock of American democracy must not forget +the accumulation of human purposes and ideals which immigration has +added to the American populace. + +In this connection it must also be remembered that these democratic +ideals have existed at each stage of the advance of the frontier, and +have left behind them deep and enduring effects on the thinking of the +whole country. Long after the frontier period of a particular region of +the United States has passed away, the conception of society, the ideals +and aspirations which it produced, persist in the minds of the people. +So recent has been the transition of the greater portion of the United +States from frontier conditions to conditions of settled life, that we +are, over the large portion of the United States, hardly a generation +removed from the primitive conditions of the West. If, indeed, we +ourselves were not pioneers, our fathers were, and the inherited ways of +looking at things, the fundamental assumptions of the American people, +have all been shaped by this experience of democracy on its westward +march. This experience has been wrought into the very warp and woof of +American thought. + +Even those masters of industry and capital who have risen to power by +the conquest of Western resources came from the midst of this society +and still profess its principles. John D. Rockefeller was born on a New +York farm, and began his career as a young business man in St. Louis. +Marcus Hanna was a Cleveland grocer's clerk at the age of twenty. Claus +Spreckles, the sugar king, came from Germany as a steerage passenger to +the United States in 1848. Marshall Field was a farmer boy in Conway, +Massachusetts, until he left to grow up with the young Chicago. Andrew +Carnegie came as a ten-year-old boy from Scotland to Pittsburgh, then a +distinctively Western town. He built up his fortunes through successive +grades until he became the dominating factor in the great iron +industries, and paved the way for that colossal achievement, the Steel +Trust. Whatever may be the tendencies of this corporation, there can be +little doubt of the democratic ideals of Mr. Carnegie himself. With +lavish hand he has strewn millions through the United States for the +promotion of libraries. The effect of this library movement in +perpetuating the democracy that comes from an intelligent and +self-respecting people can hardly be measured. In his "Triumphant +Democracy," published in 1886, Mr. Carnegie, the ironmaster, said, in +reference to the mineral wealth of the United States: "Thank God, these +treasures are in the hands of an intelligent people, the Democracy, to +be used for the general good of the masses, and not made the spoils of +monarchs, courts, and aristocracy, to be turned to the base and selfish +ends of a privileged hereditary class." It would be hard to find a more +rigorous assertion of democratic doctrine than the celebrated utterance, +attributed to the same man, that he should feel it a disgrace to die +rich. + +In enumerating the services of American democracy, President Eliot +included the corporation as one of its achievements, declaring that +"freedom of incorporation, though no longer exclusively a democratic +agency, has given a strong support to democratic institutions." In one +sense this is doubtless true, since the corporation has been one of the +means by which small properties can be aggregated into an effective +working body. Socialistic writers have long been fond of pointing out +also that these various concentrations pave the way for and make +possible social control. From this point of view it is possible that the +masters of industry may prove to be not so much an incipient aristocracy +as the pathfinders for democracy in reducing the industrial world to +systematic consolidation suited to democratic control. The great +geniuses that have built up the modern industrial concentration were +trained in the midst of democratic society. They were the product of +these democratic conditions. Freedom to rise was the very condition of +their existence. Whether they will be followed by successors who will +adopt the exploitation of the masses, and who will be capable of +retaining under efficient control these vast resources, is one of the +questions which we shall have to face. + +This, at least, is clear: American democracy is fundamentally the +outcome of the experiences of the American people in dealing with the +West. Western democracy through the whole of its earlier period tended +to the production of a society of which the most distinctive fact was +the freedom of the individual to rise under conditions of social +mobility, and whose ambition was the liberty and well-being of the +masses. This conception has vitalized all American democracy, and has +brought it into sharp contrasts with the democracies of history, and +with those modern efforts of Europe to create an artificial democratic +order by legislation. The problem of the United States is not to create +democracy, but to conserve democratic institutions and ideals. In the +later period of its development, Western democracy has been gaining +experience in the problem of social control. It has steadily enlarged +the sphere of its action and the instruments for its perpetuation. By +its system of public schools, from the grades to the graduate work of +the great universities, the West has created a larger single body of +intelligent plain people than can be found elsewhere in the world. Its +political tendencies, whether we consider Democracy, Populism, or +Republicanism, are distinctly in the direction of greater social control +and the conservation of the old democratic ideals. + +To these ideals the West adheres with even a passionate determination. +If, in working out its mastery of the resources of the interior, it has +produced a type of industrial leader so powerful as to be the wonder of +the world, nevertheless, it is still to be determined whether these men +constitute a menace to democratic institutions, or the most efficient +factor for adjusting democratic control to the new conditions. + +Whatever shall be the outcome of the rush of this huge industrial modern +United States to its place among the nations of the earth, the formation +of its Western democracy will always remain one of the wonderful +chapters in the history of the human race. Into this vast shaggy +continent of ours poured the first feeble tide of European settlement. +European men, institutions, and ideas were lodged in the American +wilderness, and this great American West took them to her bosom, taught +them a new way of looking upon the destiny of the common man, trained +them in adaptation to the conditions of the New World, to the creation +of new institutions to meet new needs; and ever as society on her +eastern border grew to resemble the Old World in its social forms and +its industry, ever, as it began to lose faith in the ideals of +democracy, she opened new provinces, and dowered new democracies in her +most distant domains with her material treasures and with the ennobling +influence that the fierce love of freedom, the strength that came from +hewing out a home, making a school and a church, and creating a higher +future for his family, furnished to the pioneer. + +She gave to the world such types as the farmer Thomas Jefferson, with +his Declaration of Independence, his statute for religious toleration, +and his purchase of Louisiana. She gave us Andrew Jackson, that fierce +Tennessee spirit who broke down the traditions of conservative rule, +swept away the privacies and privileges of officialdom, and, like a +Gothic leader, opened the temple of the nation to the populace. She gave +us Abraham Lincoln, whose gaunt frontier form and gnarled, massive hand +told of the conflict with the forest, whose grasp of the ax-handle of +the pioneer was no firmer than his grasp of the helm of the ship of +state as it breasted the seas of civil war. She has furnished to this +new democracy her stores of mineral wealth, that dwarf those of the Old +World, and her provinces that in themselves are vaster and more +productive than most of the nations of Europe. Out of her bounty has +come a nation whose industrial competition alarms the Old World, and the +masters of whose resources wield wealth and power vaster than the wealth +and power of kings. Best of all, the West gave, not only to the +American, but to the unhappy and oppressed of all lands, a vision of +hope, and assurance that the world held a place where were to be found +high faith in man and the will and power to furnish him the opportunity +to grow to the full measure of his own capacity. Great and powerful as +are the new sons of her loins, the Republic is greater than they. The +paths of the pioneer have widened into broad highways. The forest +clearing has expanded into affluent commonwealths. Let us see to it that +the ideals of the pioneer in his log cabin shall enlarge into the +spiritual life of a democracy where civic power shall dominate and +utilize individual achievement for the common good. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[243:1] _Atlantic Monthly_, January, 1903. Reprinted by permission. + +[248:1] See chapter iii. + + + + +X + +PIONEER IDEALS AND THE STATE UNIVERSITY[269:1] + + +The ideals of a people, their aspirations and convictions, their hopes +and ambitions, their dreams and determinations, are assets in their +civilization as real and important as per capita wealth or industrial +skill. + +This nation was formed under pioneer ideals. During three centuries +after Captain John Smith struck the first blow at the American forest on +the eastern edge of the continent, the pioneers were abandoning settled +society for the wilderness, seeking, for generation after generation, +new frontiers. Their experiences left abiding influences upon the ideas +and purposes of the nation. Indeed the older settled regions themselves +were shaped profoundly by the very fact that the whole nation was +pioneering and that in the development of the West the East had its own +part. + +The first ideal of the pioneer was that of conquest. It was his task to +fight with nature for the chance to exist. Not as in older countries did +this contest take place in a mythical past, told in folk lore and epic. +It has been continuous to our own day. Facing each generation of +pioneers was the unmastered continent. Vast forests blocked the way; +mountainous ramparts interposed; desolate, grass-clad prairies, barren +oceans of rolling plains, arid deserts, and a fierce race of savages, +all had to be met and defeated. The rifle and the ax are the symbols of +the backwoods pioneer. They meant a training in aggressive courage, in +domination, in directness of action, in destructiveness. + +To the pioneer the forest was no friendly resource for posterity, no +object of careful economy. He must wage a hand-to-hand war upon it, +cutting and burning a little space to let in the light upon a dozen +acres of hard-won soil, and year after year expanding the clearing into +new woodlands against the stubborn resistance of primeval trunks and +matted roots. He made war against the rank fertility of the soil. While +new worlds of virgin land lay ever just beyond, it was idle to expect +the pioneer to stay his hand and turn to scientific farming. Indeed, as +Secretary Wilson has said, the pioneer would, in that case, have raised +wheat that no one wanted to eat, corn to store on the farm, and cotton +not worth the picking. + +Thus, fired with the ideal of subduing the wilderness, the destroying +pioneer fought his way across the continent, masterful and wasteful, +preparing the way by seeking the immediate thing, rejoicing in rude +strength and wilful achievement. + +But even this backwoodsman was more than a mere destroyer. He had +visions. He was finder as well as fighter--the trail-maker for +civilization, the inventor of new ways. Although Rudyard Kipling's +"Foreloper"[270:1] deals with the English pioneer in lands beneath the +Southern Cross, yet the poem portrays American traits as well: + + "The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break in fire, + He shall fulfill God's utmost will, unknowing his desire; + And he shall see old planets pass and alien stars arise, + And give the gale his reckless sail in shadow of new skies. + + "Strong lust of gear shall drive him out and hunger arm his hand + To wring food from desert nude, his foothold from the sand. + His neighbors' smoke shall vex his eyes, their voices break his + rest; + He shall go forth till south is north, sullen and dispossessed; + He shall desire loneliness and his desire shall bring + Hard on his heels, a thousand wheels, a people and a king. + + "He shall come back on his own track, and by his scarce cool camp, + There shall he meet the roaring street, the derrick and the stamp; + For he must blaze a nation's way with hatchet and with brand, + Till on his last won wilderness an empire's bulwarks stand." + +This quest after the unknown, this yearning "beyond the sky line, where +the strange roads go down," is of the very essence of the backwoods +pioneer, even though he was unconscious of its spiritual significance. + +The pioneer was taught in the school of experience that the crops of one +area would not do for a new frontier; that the scythe of the clearing +must be replaced by the reaper of the prairies. He was forced to make +old tools serve new uses; to shape former habits, institutions and ideas +to changed conditions; and to find new means when the old proved +inapplicable. He was building a new society as well as breaking new +soil; he had the ideal of nonconformity and of change. He rebelled +against the conventional. + +Besides the ideals of conquest and of discovery, the pioneer had the +ideal of personal development, free from social and governmental +constraint. He came from a civilization based on individual competition, +and he brought the conception with him to the wilderness where a wealth +of resources, and innumerable opportunities gave it a new scope. The +prizes were for the keenest and the strongest; for them were the best +bottom lands, the finest timber tracts, the best salt-springs, the +richest ore beds; and not only these natural gifts, but also the +opportunities afforded in the midst of a forming society. Here were mill +sites, town sites, transportation lines, banking centers, openings in +the law, in politics--all the varied chances for advancement afforded in +a rapidly developing society where everything was open to him who knew +how to seize the opportunity. + +The squatter enforced his claim to lands even against the government's +title by the use of extra-legal combinations and force. He appealed to +lynch law with little hesitation. He was impatient of any governmental +restriction upon his individual right to deal with the wilderness. + +In our own day we sometimes hear of congressmen sent to jail for +violating land laws; but the different spirit in the pioneer days may be +illustrated by a speech of Delegate Sibley of Minnesota in Congress in +1852. In view of the fact that he became the State's first governor, a +regent of its university, president of its historical society, and a +doctor of laws of Princeton, we may assume that he was a pillar of +society. He said: + + The government has watched its public domain with jealous eye, + and there are now enactments upon your statute books, aimed at + the trespassers upon it, which should be expunged as a + disgrace to the country and to the nineteenth century. + Especially is he pursued with unrelenting severity, who has + dared to break the silence of the primeval forest by the blows + of the American ax. The hardy lumberman who has penetrated to + the remotest wilds of the Northwest, to drag from their + recesses the materials for building up towns and cities in the + great valley of the Mississippi, has been particularly marked + out as a victim. After enduring all the privations and + subjecting himself to all the perils incident to his + vocation--when he has toiled for months to add by his honest + labor to the comfort of his fellow men, and to the aggregate + wealth of the nation, he finds himself suddenly in the + clutches of the law for trespassing on the public domain. The + proceeds of his long winter's work are reft from him, and + exposed to public sale for the benefit of his paternal + government . . . and the object of this oppression and wrong + is further harassed by vexatious law proceedings against him. + +Sibley's protest in congress against these "outrages" by which the +northern lumbermen were "harassed" in their work of what would now be +called stealing government timber, aroused no protest from his +colleagues. No president called this congressman an undesirable citizen +or gave him over to the courts. + +Thus many of the pioneers, following the ideal of the right of the +individual to rise, subordinated the rights of the nation and posterity +to the desire that the country should be "developed" and that the +individual should advance with as little interference as possible. +Squatter doctrines and individualism have left deep traces upon American +conceptions. + +But quite as deeply fixed in the pioneer's mind as the ideal of +individualism was the ideal of democracy. He had a passionate hatred for +aristocracy, monopoly and special privilege; he believed in simplicity, +economy and in the rule of the people. It is true that he honored the +successful man, and that he strove in all ways to advance himself. But +the West was so free and so vast, the barriers to individual achievement +were so remote, that the pioneer was hardly conscious that any danger to +equality could come from his competition for natural resources. He +thought of democracy as in some way the result of our political +institutions, and he failed to see that it was primarily the result of +the free lands and immense opportunities which surrounded him. +Occasional statesmen voiced the idea that American democracy was based +on the abundance of unoccupied land, even in the first debates on the +public domain. + +This early recognition of the influence of abundance of land in shaping +the economic conditions of American democracy is peculiarly significant +to-day in view of the practical exhaustion of the supply of cheap arable +public lands open to the poor man, and the coincident development of +labor unions to keep up wages. + +Certain it is that the strength of democratic movements has chiefly lain +in the regions of the pioneer. "Our governments tend too much to +democracy," wrote Izard, of South Carolina, to Jefferson, in 1785. "A +handicraftsman thinks an apprenticeship necessary to make him acquainted +with his business. But our backcountrymen are of the opinion that a +politician may be born just as well as a poet." + +The Revolutionary ideas, of course, gave a great impetus to democracy, +and in substantially every colony there was a double revolution, one for +independence and the other for the overthrow of aristocratic control. +But in the long run the effective force behind American democracy was +the presence of the practically free land into which men might escape +from oppression or inequalities which burdened them in the older +settlements. This possibility compelled the coastwise States to +liberalize the franchise; and it prevented the formation of a dominant +class, whether based on property or on custom. Among the pioneers one +man was as good as his neighbor. He had the same chance; conditions were +simple and free. Economic equality fostered political equality. An +optimistic and buoyant belief in the worth of the plain people, a +devout faith in man prevailed in the West. Democracy became almost the +religion of the pioneer. He held with passionate devotion the idea that +he was building under freedom a new society, based on self government, +and for the welfare of the average man. + +And yet even as he proclaimed the gospel of democracy the pioneer showed +a vague apprehension lest the time be short--lest equality should not +endure--lest he might fall behind in the ascending movement of Western +society. This led him on in feverish haste to acquire advantages as +though he only half believed his dream. "Before him lies a boundless +continent," wrote De Tocqueville, in the days when pioneer democracy was +triumphant under Jackson, "and he urges forward as if time pressed and +he was afraid of finding no room for his exertions." + +Even while Jackson lived, labor leaders and speculative thinkers were +demanding legislation to place a limit on the amount of land which one +person might acquire and to provide free farms. De Tocqueville saw the +signs of change. "Between the workman and the master," he said, "there +are frequent relations but no real association. . . . I am of the +opinion, upon the whole, that the manufacturing aristocracy which is +growing up under our eyes is one of the harshest which ever existed in +the world; . . . if ever a permanent inequality, of conditions and +aristocracy again penetrate into the world, it may be predicted that +this is the gate by which they will enter." But the sanative influences +of the free spaces of the West were destined to ameliorate labor's +condition, to afford new hopes and new faith to pioneer democracy, and +to postpone the problem. + +As the settlers advanced into provinces whose area dwarfed that of the +older sections, pioneer democracy itself began to undergo changes, both +in its composition and in its processes of expansion. At the close of +the Civil War, when settlement was spreading with greatest vigor across +the Mississippi, the railways began their work as colonists. Their land +grants from the government, amounting altogether by 1871 to an area five +times that of the State of Pennsylvania, demanded purchasers, and so the +railroads pioneered the way for the pioneer. + +The homestead law increased the tide of settlers. The improved farm +machinery made it possible for him to go boldly out on to the prairie +and to deal effectively with virgin soil in farms whose cultivated area +made the old clearings of the backwoodsman seem mere garden plots. Two +things resulted from these conditions, which profoundly modified pioneer +ideals. In the first place the new form of colonization demanded an +increasing use of capital; and the rapidity of the formation of towns, +the speed with which society developed, made men the more eager to +secure bank credit to deal with the new West. This made the pioneer more +dependent on the eastern economic forces. In the second place the farmer +became dependent as never before on transportation companies. In this +speculative movement the railroads, finding that they had pressed too +far in advance and had issued stock to freely for their earnings to +justify the face of the investment, came into collision with the pioneer +on the question of rates and of discriminations. The Greenback movement +and the Granger movements were appeals to government to prevent what the +pioneer thought to be invasions of pioneer democracy. + +As the western settler began to face the problem of magnitude in the +areas he was occupying; as he began to adjust his life to the modern +forces of capital and to complex productive processes; as he began to +see that, go where he would, the question of credit and currency, of +transportation and distribution in general conditioned his success, he +sought relief by legislation. He began to lose his primitive attitude +of individualism, government began to look less like a necessary evil +and more like an instrument for the perpetuation of his democratic +ideals. In brief, the defenses of the pioneer democrat began to shift, +from free land to legislation, from the ideal of individualism to the +ideal of social control through regulation by law. He had no sympathy +with a radical reconstruction of society by the revolution of socialism; +even his alliances with the movement of organized labor, which +paralleled that of organized capital in the East, were only +half-hearted. But he was becoming alarmed over the future of the free +democratic ideal. The wisdom of his legislation it is not necessary to +discuss here. The essential point is that his conception of the right of +government to control social process had undergone a change. He was +coming to regard legislation as an instrument of social construction. +The individualism of the Kentucky pioneer of 1796 was giving way to the +Populism of the Kansas pioneer of 1896. + +The later days of pioneer democracy are too familiar to require much +exposition. But they are profoundly significant. As the pioneer doctrine +of free competition for the resources of the nation revealed its +tendencies; as individual, corporation and trust, like the pioneer, +turned increasingly to legal devices to promote their contrasting +ideals, the natural resources were falling into private possession. +Tides of alien immigrants were surging into the country to replace the +old American stock in the labor market, to lower the standard of living +and to increase the pressure of population upon the land. These recent +foreigners have lodged almost exclusively in the dozen great centers of +industrial life, and there they have accented the antagonisms between +capital and labor by the fact that the labor supply has become +increasingly foreign born, and recruited from nationalities who arouse +no sympathy on the part of capital and little on the part of the +general public. Class distinctions are accented by national prejudices, +and democracy is thereby invaded. But even in the dull brains of great +masses of these unfortunates from southern and eastern Europe the idea +of America as the land of freedom and of opportunity to rise, the land +of pioneer democratic ideals, has found lodgment, and if it is given +time and is not turned into revolutionary lines it will fructify. + +As the American pioneer passed on in advance of this new tide of +European immigration, he found lands increasingly limited. In place of +the old lavish opportunity for the settler to set his stakes where he +would, there were frantic rushes of thousands of eager pioneers across +the line of newly opened Indian reservations. Even in 1889, when +Oklahoma was opened to settlement, twenty thousand settlers crowded at +the boundaries, like straining athletes, waiting the bugle note that +should start the race across the line. To-day great crowds gather at the +land lotteries of the government as the remaining fragments of the +public domain are flung to hungry settlers. + +Hundreds of thousands of pioneers from the Middle West have crossed the +national boundary into Canadian wheat fields eager to find farms for +their children, although under an alien flag. And finally the government +has taken to itself great areas of arid land for reclamation by costly +irrigation projects whereby to furnish twenty-acre tracts in the desert +to settlers under careful regulation of water rights. The government +supplies the capital for huge irrigation dams and reservoirs and builds +them itself. It owns and operates quarries, coal mines and timber to +facilitate this work. It seeks the remotest regions of the earth for +crops suitable for these areas. It analyzes the soils and tells the +farmer what and when and how to plant. It has even considered the rental +to manufacturers of the surplus water, electrical and steam power +generated in its irrigation works and the utilization of this power to +extract nitrates from the air to replenish worn-out soils. The pioneer +of the arid regions must be both a capitalist and the protege of the +government. + +Consider the contrast between the conditions of the pioneers at the +beginning and at the end of this period of development. Three hundred +years ago adventurous Englishmen on the coast of Virginia began the +attack on the wilderness. Three years ago the President of the United +States summoned the governors of forty-six states to deliberate upon the +danger of the exhaustion of the natural resources of the nation.[279:1] + +The pressure of population upon the food supply is already felt and we +are at the beginning only of this transformation. It is profoundly +significant that at the very time when American democracy is becoming +conscious that its pioneer basis of free land and sparse population is +giving way, it is also brought face to face with the startling outcome +of its old ideals of individualism and exploitation under competition +uncontrolled by government. Pioneer society itself was not sufficiently +sophisticated to work out to its logical result the conception of the +self-made man. But the captains of industry by applying squatter +doctrines to the evolution of American industrial society, have made the +process so clear that he who runs may read. Contests imply alliances as +well as rivalries. The increasing magnitude of the areas to be dealt +with and the occurrences of times of industrial stress furnished +occasion for such unions. The panic of 1873 was followed by an +unprecedented combination of individual businesses and partnerships into +corporations. The panic of 1893 marked the beginning of an extraordinary +development of corporate combinations into pools and trusts, agreements +and absorptions, until, by the time of the panic of 1907, it seemed not +impossible that the outcome of free competition under individualism was +to be monopoly of the most important natural resources and processes by +a limited group of men whose vast fortunes were so invested in allied +and dependent industries that they constituted the dominating force in +the industrial life of the nation. The development of large scale +factory production, the benefit of combination in the competitive +struggle, and the tremendous advantage of concentration in securing +possession of the unoccupied opportunities, were so great that vast +accumulations of capital became the normal agency of the industrial +world. In almost exact ratio to the diminution of the supply of +unpossessed resources, combinations of capital have increased in +magnitude and in efficiency of conquest. The solitary backwoodsman +wielding his ax at the edge of a measureless forest is replaced by +companies capitalized at millions, operating railroads, sawmills, and +all the enginery of modern machinery to harvest the remaining +trees.[280:1] + +A new national development is before us without the former safety valve +of abundant resources open to him who would take. Classes are becoming +alarmingly distinct: There is the demand on the one side voiced by Mr. +Harriman so well and by others since, that nothing must be done to +interfere with the early pioneer ideals of the exploitation and the +development of the country's wealth; that restrictive and reforming +legislation must on no account threaten prosperity even for a moment. In +fact, we sometimes hear in these days, from men of influence, serious +doubts of democracy, and intimations that the country would be better +off if it freely resigned itself to guidance by the geniuses who are +mastering the economic forces of the nation, and who, it is alleged, +would work out the prosperity of the United States more effectively, if +unvexed by politicians and people. + +On the other hand, an inharmonious group of reformers are sounding the +warning that American democratic ideals and society are menaced and +already invaded by the very conditions that make this apparent +prosperity; that the economic resources are no longer limitless and +free; that the aggregate national wealth is increasing at the cost of +present social justice and moral health, and the future well-being of +the American people. The Granger and the Populist were prophets of this +reform movement. Mr. Bryan's Democracy, Mr. Debs' Socialism, and Mr. +Roosevelt's Republicanism all had in common the emphasis upon the need +of governmental regulation of industrial tendencies in the interest of +the common man; the checking of the power of those business Titans who +emerged successful out of the competitive individualism of pioneer +America. As land values rise, as meat and bread grow dearer, as the +process of industrial consolidation goes on, and as Eastern industrial +conditions spread across the West, the problems of traditional American +democracy will become increasingly grave. + +The time has come when University men may well consider pioneer ideals, +for American society has reached the end of the first great period in +its formation. It must survey itself, reflect upon its origins, consider +what freightage of purposes it carried in its long march across the +continent, what ambitions it had for the man, what role it would play in +the world. How shall we conserve what was best in pioneer ideals? How +adjust the old conceptions to the changed conditions of modern life? + +Other nations have been rich and prosperous and powerful. But the United +States has believed that it had an original contribution to make to the +history of society by the production of a self-determining, +self-restrained, intelligent democracy. It is in the Middle West that +society has formed on lines least like those of Europe. It is here, if +anywhere, that American democracy will make its stand against the +tendency to adjust to a European type. + +This consideration gives importance to my final topic, the relation of +the University to pioneer ideals and to the changing conditions of +American democracy. President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation has +recently declared that in no other form of popular activity does a +nation or State so clearly reveal its ideals or the quality of its +civilization as in its system of education; and he finds, especially in +the State University, "a conception of education from the standpoint of +the whole people." "If our American democracy were to-day called to give +proof of its constructive ability," he says, "the State University and +the public school system which it crowns would be the strongest evidence +of its fitness which it could offer." + +It may at least be conceded that an essential characteristic of the +State University is its democracy in the largest sense. The provision in +the Constitution of Indiana of 1816, so familiar to you all, for a +"general system of education ascending in regular gradations from +township schools to a State University, wherein tuition shall be gratis +and equally open to all," expresses the Middle Western conception born +in the days of pioneer society and doubtless deeply influenced by +Jeffersonian democracy. + +The most obvious fact about these universities, perhaps, lies in their +integral relation with the public schools, whereby the pupil has pressed +upon him the question whether he shall go to college, and whereby the +road is made open and direct to the highest training. By this means the +State offers to every class the means of education, and even engages in +propaganda to induce students to continue. It sinks deep shafts through +the social strata to find the gold of real ability in the underlying +rock of the masses. It fosters that due degree of individualism which is +implied in the right of every human being to have opportunity to rise in +whatever directions his peculiar abilities entitle him to go, +subordinate to the welfare of the state. It keeps the avenues of +promotion to the highest offices, the highest honors, open to the +humblest and most obscure lad who has the natural gifts, at the same +time that it aids in the improvement of the masses. + +Nothing in our educational history is more striking than the steady +pressure of democracy upon its universities to adapt them to the +requirements of all the people. From the State Universities of the +Middle West, shaped under pioneer ideals, have come the fuller +recognition of scientific studies, and especially those of applied +science devoted to the conquest of nature; the breaking down of the +traditional required curriculum; the union of vocational and college +work in the same institution; the development of agricultural and +engineering colleges and business courses; the training of lawyers, +administrators, public men, and journalists--all under the ideal of +service to democracy rather than of individual advancement alone. Other +universities do the same thing; but the head springs and the main +current of this great stream of tendency come from the land of the +pioneers, the democratic states of the Middle West. And the people +themselves, through their boards of trustees and the legislature, are in +the last resort the court of appeal as to the directions and conditions +of growth, as well as have the fountain of income from which these +universities derive their existence. + +The State University has thus both a peculiar power in the directness of +its influence upon the whole people and a peculiar limitation in its +dependence upon the people. The ideals of the people constitute the +atmosphere in which it moves, though it can itself affect this +atmosphere. Herein is the source of its strength and the direction of +its difficulties. For to fulfil its mission of uplifting the state to +continuously higher levels the University must, in the words of Mr. +Bryce, "serve the time without yielding to it;" it must recognize new +needs without becoming subordinate to the immediately practical, to the +short-sightedly expedient. It must not sacrifice the higher efficiency +for the more obvious but lower efficiency. It must have the wisdom to +make expenditures for results which pay manifold in the enrichment of +civilization, but which are not immediate and palpable. + +In the transitional condition of American democracy which I have tried +to indicate, the mission of the university is most important. The times +call for educated leaders. General experience and rule-of-thumb +information are inadequate for the solution of the problems of a +democracy which no longer owns the safety fund of an unlimited quantity +of untouched resources. Scientific farming must increase the yield of +the field, scientific forestry must economize the woodlands, scientific +experiment and construction by chemist, physicist, biologist and +engineer must be applied to all of nature's forces in our complex modern +society. The test tube and the microscope are needed rather than ax and +rifle in this new ideal of conquest. The very discoveries of science in +such fields as public health and manufacturing processes have made it +necessary to depend upon the expert, and if the ranks of experts are to +be recruited broadly from the democratic masses as well as from those of +larger means, the State Universities must furnish at least as liberal +opportunities for research and training as the universities based on +private endowments furnish. It needs no argument to show that it is not +to the advantage of democracy to give over the training of the expert +exclusively to privately endowed institutions. + +But quite as much in the field of legislation and of public life in +general as in the industrial world is the expert needed. The industrial +conditions which shape society are too complex, problems of labor, +finance, social reform too difficult to be dealt with intelligently and +wisely without the leadership of highly educated men familiar with the +legislation and literature on social questions in other States and +nations. + +By training in science, in law, politics, economics and history the +universities may supply from the ranks of democracy administrators, +legislators, judges and experts for commissions who shall +disinterestedly and intelligently mediate between contending interests. +When the words "capitalistic classes" and "the proletariate" can be used +and understood in America it is surely time to develop such men, with +the ideal of service to the State, who may help to break the force of +these collisions, to find common grounds between the contestants and to +possess the respect and confidence of all parties which are genuinely +loyal to the best American ideals. + +The signs of such a development are already plain in the expert +commissions of some States; in the increasing proportion of university +men in legislatures; in the university men's influence in federal +departments and commissions. It is hardly too much to say that the best +hope of intelligent and principled progress in economic and social +legislation and administration lies in the increasing influence of +American universities. By sending out these open-minded experts, by +furnishing well-fitted legislators, public leaders and teachers, by +graduating successive armies of enlightened citizens accustomed to deal +dispassionately with the problems of modern life, able to think for +themselves, governed not by ignorance, by prejudice or by impulse, but +by knowledge and reason and high-mindedness, the State Universities will +safeguard democracy. Without such leaders and followers democratic +reactions may create revolutions, but they will not be able to produce +industrial and social progress. America's problem is not violently to +introduce democratic ideals, but to preserve and entrench them by +courageous adaptation to new conditions. Educated leadership sets +bulwarks against both the passionate impulses of the mob and the +sinister designs of those who would subordinate public welfare to +private greed. Lord Bacon's splendid utterance still rings true: "The +learning of the few is despotism; the learning of the many is liberty. +And intelligent and principled liberty is fame, wisdom and power." + +There is a danger to the universities in this very opportunity. At first +pioneer democracy had scant respect for the expert. He believed that "a +fool can put on his coat better than a wise man can do it for him." +There is much truth in the belief; and the educated leader, even he who +has been trained under present university conditions, in direct contact +with the world about him, will still have to contend with this inherited +suspicion of the expert. But if he be well trained and worthy of his +training, if he be endowed with creative imagination and personality, he +will make good his leadership. + +A more serious danger will come when the universities are fully +recognized as powerful factors in shaping the life of the State--not +mere cloisters, remote from its life, but an influential element in its +life. Then it may easily happen that the smoke of the battle-field of +political and social controversy will obscure their pure air, that +efforts will be made to stamp out the exceptional doctrine and the +exceptional man. Those who investigate and teach within the university +walls must respond to the injunction of the church, "_Sursum +corda_"--lift up the heart to high thinking and impartial search for +the unsullied truth in the interests of all the people; this is the holy +grail of the universities. + +That they may perform their work they must be left free, as the pioneer +was free, to explore new regions and to report what they find; for like +the pioneers they have the ideal of investigation, they seek new +horizons. They are not tied to past knowledge; they recognize the fact +that the universe still abounds in mystery, that science and society +have not crystallized, but are still growing and need their pioneer +trail-makers. New and beneficent discoveries in nature, new and +beneficial discoveries in the processes and directions of the growth of +society, substitutes for the vanishing material basis of pioneer +democracy may be expected if the university pioneers are left free to +seek the trail. + +In conclusion, the university has a duty in adjusting pioneer ideals to +the new requirements of American democracy, even more important than +those which I have named. The early pioneer was an individualist and a +seeker after the undiscovered; but he did not understand the richness +and complexity of life as a whole; he did not fully realize his +opportunities of individualism and discovery. He stood in his somber +forest as the traveler sometimes stands in a village on the Alps when +the mist has shrouded everything, and only the squalid hut, the stony +field, the muddy pathway are in view. But suddenly a wind sweeps the fog +away. Vast fields of radiant snow and sparkling ice lie before him; +profound abysses open at his feet; and as he lifts his eyes the +unimaginable peak of the Matterhorn cleaves the thin air, far, far +above. A new and unsuspected world is revealed all about him. Thus it is +the function of the university to reveal to the individual the mystery +and the glory of life as a whole--to open all the realms of rational +human enjoyment and achievement; to preserve the consciousness of the +past; to spread before the eye the beauty of the universe; and to throw +wide its portals of duty and of power to the human soul. It must honor +the poet and painter, the writer and the teacher, the scientist and the +inventor, the musician and the prophet of righteousness--the men of +genius in all fields who make life nobler. It must call forth anew, and +for finer uses, the pioneer's love of creative individualism and provide +for it a spiritual atmosphere friendly to the development of personality +in all uplifting ways. It must check the tendency to act in mediocre +social masses with undue emphasis upon the ideals of prosperity and +politics. In short, it must summon ability of all kinds to joyous and +earnest effort for the welfare and the spiritual enrichment of society. +It must awaken new tastes and ambitions among the people. + +The light of these university watch towers should flash from State to +State until American democracy itself is illuminated with higher and +broader ideals of what constitutes service to the State and to mankind; +of what are prizes; of what is worthy of praise and reward. So long as +success in amassing great wealth for the aggrandizement of the +individual is the exclusive or the dominant standard of success, so long +as material prosperity, regardless of the conditions of its cost, or the +civilization which results, is the shibboleth, American democracy, that +faith in the common man which the pioneer cherishes, is in danger. For +the strongest will make their way unerringly to whatever goal society +sets up as the mark of conceded preeminence. What more effective agency +is there for the cultivation of the seed wheat of ideals than the +university? Where can we find a more promising body of sowers of the +grain? + +The pioneer's clearing must be broadened into a domain where all that is +worthy of human endeavor may find fertile soil on which to grow; and +America must exact of the constructive business geniuses who owe their +rise to the freedom of pioneer democracy supreme allegiance and devotion +to the commonweal. In fostering such an outcome and in tempering the +asperities of the conflicts that must precede its fulfilment, the nation +has no more promising agency than the State Universities, no more +hopeful product than their graduates. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[269:1] Commencement Address at the University of Indiana, 1910. + +[270:1] [Printed from an earlier version; since published in his "Songs +from Books," p. 93, under the title, "The Voortrekker." Even fuller of +insight into the idealistic side of the frontier, is his "Explorer," in +"Collected Verse," p. 19.] + +[279:1] Written in 1910. + +[280:1] Omissions from the original are incorporated in later chapters. + + + + +XI + +THE WEST AND AMERICAN IDEALS[290:1] + + +True to American traditions that each succeeding generation ought to +find in the Republic a better home, once in every year the colleges and +universities summon the nation to lift its eyes from the routine of +work, in order to take stock of the country's purposes and achievements, +to examine its past and consider its future. + +This attitude of self-examination is hardly characteristic of the people +as a whole. Particularly it is not characteristic of the historic +American. He has been an opportunist rather than a dealer in general +ideas. Destiny set him in a current which bore him swiftly along through +such a wealth of opportunity that reflection and well-considered +planning seemed wasted time. He knew not where he was going, but he was +on his way, cheerful, optimistic, busy and buoyant. + +To-day we are reaching a changed condition, less apparent perhaps, in +the newer regions than in the old, but sufficiently obvious to extend +the commencement frame of mind from the college to the country as a +whole. The swift and inevitable current of the upper reaches of the +nation's history has borne it to the broader expanse and slower +stretches which mark the nearness of the level sea. The vessel, no +longer carried along by the rushing waters, finds it necessary to +determine its own directions on this new ocean of its future, to give +conscious consideration to its motive power and to its steering gear. + +It matters not so much that those who address these college men and +women upon life, give conflicting answers to the questions of whence and +whither: the pause for remembrance, for reflection and for aspiration is +wholesome in itself. + +Although the American people are becoming more self-conscious, more +responsive to the appeal to act by deliberate choices, we should be +over-sanguine if we believed that even in this new day these +commencement surveys were taken to heart by the general public, or that +they were directly and immediately influential upon national thought and +action. + +But even while we check our enthusiasm by this realization of the common +thought, we must take heart. The University's peculiar privilege and +distinction lie in the fact that it is not the passive instrument of the +State to voice its current ideas. Its problem is not that of expressing +tendencies. Its mission is to create tendencies and to direct them. Its +problem is that of leadership and of ideals. It is called, of course, to +justify the support which the public gives it, by working in close and +sympathetic touch with those it serves. More than that, it would lose +important element of strength if it failed to recognize the fact that +improvement and creative movement often come from the masses themselves, +instinctively moving toward a better order. The University's graduates +must be fitted to take their places naturally and effectually in the +common life of the time. + +But the University is called especially to justify its existence by +giving to its sons and daughters something which they could not well +have gotten through the ordinary experiences of the life outside its +walls. It is called to serve the time by independent research and by +original thought. If it were a mere recording instrument of conventional +opinion and average information, it is hard to see why the University +should exist at all. To clasp hands with the common life in order that +it may lift that life, to be a radiant center enkindling the society in +which it has its being, these are primary duties of the University. +Fortunate the State which gives free play to this spirit of inquiry. Let +it "grubstake" its intellectual prospectors and send them forth where +"the trails run out and stop." A famous scientist holds that the +universal ether bears vital germs which impinging upon a dead world +would bring life to it. So, at least it is, in the world of thought, +where energized ideals put in the air and carried here and there by the +waves and currents of the intellectual atmosphere, fertilize vast inert +areas. + +The University, therefore, has a double duty. On the one hand it must +aid in the improvement of the general economic and social environment. +It must help on in the work of scientific discovery and of making such +conditions of existence, economic, political and social, as will produce +more fertile and responsive soil for a higher and better life. It must +stimulate a wider demand on the part of the public for right leadership. +It must extend its operations more widely among the people and sink +deeper shafts through social strata to find new supplies of intellectual +gold in popular levels yet untouched. And on the other hand, it must +find and fit men and women for leadership. It must both awaken new +demands and it must satisfy those demands by trained leaders with new +motives, with new incentives to ambition, with higher and broader +conception of what constitute the prize in life, of what constitutes +success. The University has to deal with both the soil and sifted seed +in the agriculture of the human spirit. + +Its efficiency is not the efficiency which the business engineer is +fitted to appraise. If it is a training ship, it is a training ship +bound on a voyage of discovery, seeking new horizons. The economy of the +University's consumption can only be rightly measured by the later times +which shall possess those new realms of the spirit which its voyage +shall reveal. If the ships of Columbus had engaged in a profitable +coastwise traffic between Palos and Cadiz they might have saved sail +cloth, but their keels would never have grated on the shores of a New +World. + +The appeal of the undiscovered is strong in America. For three centuries +the fundamental process in its history was the westward movement, the +discovery and occupation of the vast free spaces of the continent. We +are the first generation of Americans who can look back upon that era as +a historic movement now coming to its end. Other generations have been +so much a part of it that they could hardly comprehend its significance. +To them it seemed inevitable. The free land and the natural resources +seemed practically inexhaustible. Nor were they aware of the fact that +their most fundamental traits, their institutions, even their ideals +were shaped by this interaction between the wilderness and themselves. + +American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried +in the _Susan Constant_ to Virginia, nor in the _Mayflower_ to Plymouth. +It came out of the American forest, and it gained new strength each time +it touched a new frontier. Not the constitution, but free land and an +abundance of natural resources open to a fit people, made the democratic +type of society in America for three centuries while it occupied its +empire. + +To-day we are looking with a shock upon a changed world. The national +problem is no longer how to cut and burn away the vast screen of the +dense and daunting forest; it is how to save and wisely use the +remaining timber. It is no longer how to get the great spaces of +fertile prairie land in humid zones out of the hands of the government +into the hands of the pioneer; these lands have already passed into +private possession. No longer is it a question of how to avoid or cross +the Great Plains and the arid desert. It is a question of how to conquer +those rejected lands by new method of farming and by cultivating new +crops from seed collected by the government and by scientists from the +cold, dry steppes of Siberia, the burning sands of Egypt, and the remote +interior of China. It is a problem of how to bring the precious rills of +water on to the alkali and sage brush. Population is increasing faster +than the food supply. + +New farm lands no longer increase decade after decade in areas equal to +those of European states. While the ratio of increase of improved land +declines, the value of farm lands rise and the price of food leaps +upward, reversing the old ratio between the two. The cry of scientific +farming and the conservation of natural resources replaces the cry of +rapid conquest of the wilderness. We have so far won our national home, +wrested from it its first rich treasures, and drawn to it the +unfortunate of other lands, that we are already obliged to compare +ourselves with settled states of the Old World. In place of our attitude +of contemptuous indifference to the legislation of such countries as +Germany and England, even Western States like Wisconsin send commissions +to study their systems of taxation, workingmen's insurance, old age +pensions and a great variety of other remedies for social ills. + +If we look about the periphery of the nation, everywhere we see the +indications that our world is changing. On the streets of Northeastern +cities like New York and Boston, the faces which we meet are to a +surprising extent those of Southeastern Europe. Puritan New England, +which turned its capital into factories and mills and drew to its shores +an army of cheap labor, governed these people for a time by a ruling +class like an upper stratum between which and the lower strata there was +no assimilation. There was no such evolution into an assimilated +commonwealth as is seen in Middle Western agricultural States, where +immigrant and old native stock came in together and built up a +homogeneous society on the principle of give and take. But now the +Northeastern coast finds its destiny, politically and economically, +passing away from the descendants of the Puritans. It is the little +Jewish boy, the Greek or the Sicilian, who takes the traveler through +historic streets, now the home of these newer people to the Old North +Church or to Paul Revere's house, or to Tea Wharf, and tells you in his +strange patois the story of revolution against oppression. + +Along the Southern Atlantic and the Gulf coast, in spite of the +preservative influence of the negro, whose presence has always called +out resistance to change on the part of the whites, the forces of social +and industrial transformation are at work. The old tidewater aristocracy +has surrendered to the up-country democrats. Along the line of the +Alleghanies like an advancing column, the forces of Northern capital, +textile and steel mills, year after year extend their invasion into the +lower South. New Orleans, once the mistress of the commerce of the +Mississippi Valley, is awakening to new dreams of world commerce. On the +southern border, similar invasions of American capital have been +entering Mexico. At the same time, the opening of the Panama Canal has +completed the dream of the ages of the Straits of Anian between Atlantic +and Pacific. Four hundred years ago, Balboa raised the flag of Spain at +the edge of the Sea of the West and we are now preparing to celebrate +both that anniversary, and the piercing of the continent. New relations +have been created between Spanish America and the United States and the +world is watching the mediation of Argentina, Brazil and Chile between +the contending forces of Mexico and the Union. Once more alien national +interests lie threatening at our borders, but we no longer appeal to the +Monroe Doctrine and send our armies of frontiersmen to settle our +concerns off-hand. We take council with European nations and with the +sisterhood of South America, and propose a remedy of social +reorganization in place of imperious will and force. Whether the effort +will succeed or not, it is a significant indication that an old order is +passing away, when such a solution is undertaken by a President of +Scotch Presbyterian stock, born in the State of Virginia. + +If we turn to the Northern border, where we are about to celebrate a +century of peace with England, we see in progress, like a belated +procession of our own history the spread of pioneers, the opening of new +wildernesses, the building of new cities, the growth of a new and mighty +nation. That old American advance of the wheat farmer from the +Connecticut to the Mohawk, and the Genesee, from the Great Valley of +Pennsylvania to the Ohio Valley and the prairies of the Middle West, is +now by its own momentum and under the stimulus of Canadian homesteads +and the high price of wheat, carried across the national border to the +once lone plains where the Hudson Bay dog trains crossed the desolate +snows of the wild North Land. In the Pacific Northwest the era of +construction has not ended, but it is so rapidly in progress that we can +already see the closing of the age of the pioneer. Already Alaska +beckons on the north, and pointing to her wealth of natural resources +asks the nation on what new terms the new age will deal with her. Across +the Pacific looms Asia, no longer a remote vision and a symbol of the +unchanging, but borne as by mirage close to our shores and raising grave +questions of the common destiny of the people of the ocean. The dreams +of Benton and of Seward of a regenerated Orient, when the long march of +westward civilization should complete its circle, seem almost to be in +process of realization. The age of the Pacific Ocean begins, mysterious +and unfathomable in its meaning for our own future. + +Turning to view the interior, we see the same picture of change. When +the Superintendent of the Census in 1890 declared the frontier line no +longer traceable, the beginning of the rush into Oklahoma had just +occurred. Here where the broken fragments of Indian nations from the +East had been gathered and where the wilder tribes of the Southwest were +being settled, came the rush of the land-hungry pioneer. Almost at a +blow the old Indian territory passed away, populous cities came into +being and it was not long before gushing oil wells made a new era of +sudden wealth. The farm lands of the Middle West taken as free +homesteads or bought for a mere pittance, have risen so in value that +the original owners have in an increasing degree either sold them in +order to reinvest in the newer cheap lands of the West, or have moved +into the town and have left the tillage to tenant farmers. The growth of +absentee ownership of the soil is producing a serious problem in the +former centers of the Granger and the Populist. Along the Old Northwest +the Great Lakes are becoming a new Mediterranean Sea joining the realms +of wheat and iron ore, at one end with the coal and furnaces of the +forks of the Ohio, where the most intense and wide-reaching center of +industrial energy exists. City life like that of the East, manufactures +and accumulated capital, seem to be reproducing in the center of the +Republic the tendencies already so plain on the Atlantic Coast. + +Across the Great Plains where buffalo and Indian held sway successive +industrial waves are passing. The old free range gave place to the +ranch, the ranch to the homestead and now in places in the arid lands +the homestead is replaced by the ten or twenty acre irrigated fruit +farm. The age of cheap land, cheap corn and wheat, and cheap cattle has +gone forever. The federal government has undertaken vast paternal +enterprises of reclamation of the desert. + +In the Rocky Mountains where at the time of Civil War, the first +important rushes to gold and silver mines carried the frontier backward +on a march toward the east, the most amazing transformations have +occurred. Here, where prospectors made new trails, and lived the wild +free life of mountain men, here where the human spirit seemed likely to +attain the largest measure of individual freedom, and where fortune +beckoned to the common man, have come revolutions wrought by the demand +for organized industry and capital. In the regions where the popular +tribunal and the free competitive life flourished, we have seen law and +order break down in the unmitigated collision of great aggregations of +capital, with each other and with organized socialistic labor. The +Cripple Creek strikes, the contests at Butte, the Goldfield mobs, the +recent Colorado fighting, all tell a similar story,--the solid impact of +contending forces in regions where civic power and loyalty to the State +have never fully developed. Like the Grand Canyon, where in dazzling +light the huge geologic history is written so large that none may fail +to read it, so in the Rocky Mountains the dangers of modern American +industrial tendencies have been exposed. + +As we crossed the Cascades on our way to Seattle, one of the passengers +was moved to explain his feeling on the excellence of Puget Sound in +contrast with the remaining visible Universe. He did it well in spite of +irreverent interruptions from those fellow travelers who were +unconverted children of the East, and at last he broke forth in +passionate challenge, "Why should I not love Seattle! It took me from +the slums of the Atlantic Coast, a poor Swedish boy with hardly fifteen +dollars in my pocket. It gave me a home by the beautiful sea; it spread +before my eyes a vision of snow-capped peaks and smiling fields; it +brought abundance and a new life to me and my children and I love it, I +love it! If I were a multi-millionaire I would charter freight cars and +carry away from the crowded tenements and noisome alleys of the eastern +cities and the Old World the toiling masses, and let them loose in our +vast forests and ore-laden mountains to learn what life really is!" And +my heart was stirred by his words and by the whirling spaces of woods +and peaks through which we passed. + +But as I looked and listened to this passionate outcry, I remembered the +words of Talleyrand, the exiled Bishop of Autun, in Washington's +administration. Looking down from an eminence not far from Philadelphia +upon a wilderness which is now in the heart of that huge industrial +society where population presses on the means of life, even the +cold-blooded and cynical Talleyrand, gazing on those unpeopled hills and +forests, kindled with the vision of coming clearings, the smiling farms +and grazing herds that were to be, the populous towns that should be +built, the newer and finer social organization that should there arise. +And then I remembered the hall in Harvard's museum of social ethics +through which I pass to my lecture room when I speak on the history of +the Westward movement. That hall is covered with an exhibit of the work +in Pittsburgh steel mills, and of the congested tenements. Its charts +and diagrams tell of the long hours of work, the death rate, the +relation of typhoid to the slums, the gathering of the poor of all +Southeastern Europe to make a civilization at that center of American +industrial energy and vast capital that is a social tragedy. As I enter +my lecture room through that hall, I speak of the young Washington +leading his Virginia frontiersmen to the magnificent forest at the +forks of the Ohio. Where Braddock and his men, "carving a cross on the +wilderness rim," were struck by the painted savages in the primeval +woods, huge furnaces belch forth perpetual fires and Huns and Bulgars, +Poles and Sicilians struggle for a chance to earn their daily bread, and +live a brutal and degraded life. Irresistibly there rushed across my +mind the memorable words of Huxley: + + "Even the best of modern civilization appears to me to exhibit + a condition of mankind which neither embodies any worthy ideal + nor even possesses the merit of stability. I do not hesitate + to express the opinion that, if there is no hope of a large + improvement of the condition of the greater part of the human + family; if it is true that the increase of knowledge, the + winning of a greater dominion over Nature, which is its + consequence, and the wealth which follows upon that dominion, + are to make no difference in the extent and the intensity of + Want, with its concomitant physical and moral degradation, + among the masses of the people, I should hail the advent of + some kindly comet, which would sweep the whole affair away, as + a desirable consummation." + +But if there is disillusion and shock and apprehension as we come to +realize these changes, to strong men and women there is challenge and +inspiration in them too. In place of old frontiers of wilderness, there +are new frontiers of unwon fields of science, fruitful for the needs of +the race; there are frontiers of better social domains yet unexplored. +Let us hold to our attitude of faith and courage, and creative zeal. +Let us dream as our fathers dreamt and let us make our dreams come +true. + + "Daughters of Time, the hypocritic days, + Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, + And marching single in an endless file, + Bear diadems and fagots in their hands. + To each they offer gifts after his will + Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that hold them all. + I, in my pleached garden watched the pomp, + Forgot my morning wishes, hastily + Took a few herbs and apples and the day + Turned and departed silent. I, too late, + Under her solemn fillet, saw the scorn!" + +What were America's "morning wishes"? From the beginning of that long +westward march of the American people America has never been the home of +mere contented materialism. It has continuously sought new ways and +dreamed of a perfected social type. + +In the fifteenth century when men dealt with the New World which +Columbus found, the ideal of discovery was dominant. Here was placed +within the reach of men whose ideas had been bounded by the Atlantic, +new realms to be explored. America became the land of European dreams, +its Fortunate Islands were made real, where, in the imagination of old +Europe, peace and happiness, as well as riches and eternal youth, were +to be found. To Sir Edwin Sandys and his friends of the London Company, +Virginia offered an opportunity to erect the Republic for which they had +longed in vain in England. To the Puritans, New England was the new land +of freedom, wherein they might establish the institutions of God, +according to their own faith. As the vision died away in Virginia toward +the close of the seventeenth century, it was taken up anew by the fiery +Bacon with his revolution to establish a real democracy in place of the +rule of the planter aristocracy, that formed along the coast. Hardly +had he been overthrown when in the eighteenth century, the democratic +ideal was rejuvenated by the strong frontiersmen, who pressed beyond the +New England Coast into the Berkshires and up the valleys of the Green +Mountains of Vermont, and by the Scotch-Irish and German pioneers who +followed the Great Valley from Pennsylvania into the Upland South. In +both the Yankee frontiersmen and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the +South, the Calvinistic conception of the importance of the individual, +bound by free covenant to his fellow men and to God, was a compelling +influence, and all their wilderness experience combined to emphasize the +ideals of opening new ways, of giving freer play to the individual, and +of constructing democratic society. + +When the backwoodsmen crossed the Alleghanies they put between +themselves and the Atlantic Coast a barrier which seemed to separate +them from a region already too much like the Europe they had left, and +as they followed the courses of the rivers that flowed to the +Mississippi, they called themselves "Men of the Western Waters," and +their new home in the Mississippi Valley was the "Western World." Here, +by the thirties, Jacksonian democracy flourished, strong in the faith of +the intrinsic excellence of the common man, in his right to make his own +place in the world, and in his capacity to share in government. But +while Jacksonian democracy demanded these rights, it was also loyal to +leadership as the very name implies. It was ready to follow to the +uttermost the man in whom it placed its trust, whether the hero were +frontier fighter or president, and it even rebuked and limited its own +legislative representatives and recalled its senators when they ran +counter to their chosen executive. Jacksonian democracy was essentially +rural. It was based on the good fellowship and genuine social feeling of +the frontier, in which classes and inequalities of fortune played +little part. But it did not demand equality of condition, for there was +abundance of natural resources and the belief that the self-made man had +a right to his success in the free competition which western life +afforded, was as prominent in their thought as was the love of +democracy. On the other hand, they viewed governmental restraints with +suspicion as a limitation on their right to work out their own +individuality. + +For the banking institutions and capitalists of the East they had an +instinctive antipathy. Already they feared that the "money power" as +Jackson called it, was planning to make hewers of wood and drawers of +water of the common people. + +In this view they found allies among the labor leaders of the East, who +in the same period began their fight for better conditions of the wage +earner. These Locofocos were the first Americans to demand fundamental +social changes for the benefit of the workers in the cities. Like the +Western pioneers, they protested against monopolies and special +privilege. But they also had a constructive policy, whereby society was +to be kept democratic by free gifts of the public land, so that surplus +labor might not bid against itself, but might find an outlet in the +West. Thus to both the labor theorist and the practical pioneer, the +existence of what seemed inexhaustible cheap land and unpossessed +resources was the condition of democracy. In these years of the thirties +and forties, Western democracy took on its distinctive form. Travelers +like De Tocqueville and Harriet Martineau, came to study and to report +it enthusiastically to Europe. + +Side by side with this westward marching army of individualistic +liberty-loving democratic backwoodsmen, went a more northern stream of +pioneers, who cherished similar ideas, but added to them the desire to +create new industrial centers, to build up factories, to build +railroads, and to develop the country by founding cities and extending +prosperity. They were ready to call upon legislatures to aid in this, by +subscriptions to stock, grants of franchises, promotion of banking and +internal improvements. These were the Whig followers of that other +Western leader, Henry Clay, and their early strength lay in the Ohio +Valley, and particularly among the well-to-do. In the South their +strength was found among the aristocracy of the Cotton Kingdom. + +Both of these Western groups, Whigs and Democrats alike, had one common +ideal: the desire to leave their children a better heritage than they +themselves had received, and both were fired with devotion to the ideal +of creating in this New World a home more worthy of mankind. Both were +ready to break with the past, to boldly strike out new lines of social +endeavor, and both believed in American expansion. + +Before these tendencies had worked themselves out, three new forces +entered. In the sudden extension of our boundaries to the Pacific Coast, +which took place in the forties, the nation won so vast a domain that +its resources seemed illimitable and its society seemed able to throw +off all its maladies by the very presence of these vast new spaces. At +the same period the great activity of railroad building to the +Mississippi Valley occurred, making these lands available and diverting +attention to the task of economic construction. The third influence was +the slavery question which, becoming acute, shaped the American ideals +and public discussion for nearly a generation. Viewed from one angle, +this struggle involved the great question of national unity. From +another it involved the question of the relations of labor and capital, +democracy and aristocracy. It was not without significance that Abraham +Lincoln became the very type of American pioneer democracy, the first +adequate and elemental demonstration to the world that that democracy +could produce a man who belonged to the ages. + +After the war, new national energies were set loose, and new +construction and development engaged the attention of the Westerners as +they occupied prairies and Great Plains and mountains. Democracy and +capitalistic development did not seem antagonistic. + +With the passing of the frontier, Western social and political ideals +took new form. Capital began to consolidate in even greater masses, and +increasingly attempted to reduce to system and control the processes of +industrial development. Labor with equal step organized its forces to +destroy the old competitive system. It is not strange that the Western +pioneers took alarm for their ideals of democracy as the outcome of the +free struggle for the national resources became apparent. They espoused +the cause of governmental activity. + +It was a new gospel, for the Western radical became convinced that he +must sacrifice his ideal of individualism and free competition in order +to maintain his ideal of democracy. Under this conviction the Populist +revised the pioneer conception of government. He saw in government no +longer something outside of him, but the people themselves shaping their +own affairs. He demanded therefore an extension of the powers of +governments in the interest of his historic ideal of democratic society. +He demanded not only free silver, but the ownership of the agencies of +communication and transportation, the income tax, the postal savings +bank, the provision of means of credit for agriculture, the construction +of more effective devices to express the will of the people, primary +nominations, direct elections, initiative, referendum and recall. In a +word, capital, labor, and the Western pioneer, all deserted the ideal of +competitive individualism in order to organize their interests in more +effective combinations. The disappearance of the frontier, the closing +of the era which was marked by the influence of the West as a form of +society, brings with it new problems of social adjustment, new demands +for considering our past ideals and our present needs. + +Let us recall the conditions of the foreign relations along our borders, +the dangers that wait us if we fail to unite in the solution of our +domestic problems. Let us recall those internal evidences of the +destruction of our old social order. If we take to heart this warning, +we shall do well also to recount our historic ideals, to take stock of +those purposes, and fundamental assumptions that have gone to make the +American spirit and the meaning of America in world history. + +First of all, there was the ideal of discovery, the courageous +determination to break new paths, indifference to the dogma that because +an institution or a condition exists, it must remain. All American +experience has gone to the making of the spirit of innovation; it is in +the blood and will not be repressed. + +Then, there was the ideal of democracy, the ideal of a free +self-directing people, responsive to leadership in the forming of +programs and their execution, but insistent that the procedure should be +that of free choice, not of compulsion. + +But there was also the ideal of individualism. This democratic society +was not a disciplined army, where all must keep step and where the +collective interests destroyed individual will and work. Rather it was a +mobile mass of freely circulating atoms, each seeking its own place and +finding play for its own powers and for its own original initiative. We +cannot lay too much stress upon this point, for it was at the very heart +of the whole American movement. The world was to be made a better world +by the example of a democracy in which there was freedom of the +individual, in which there was the vitality and mobility productive of +originality and variety. + +Bearing in mind the far-reaching influence of the disappearance of +unlimited resources open to all men for the taking, and considering the +recoil of the common man when he saw the outcome of the competitive +struggle for these resources as the supply came to its end over most of +the nation, we can understand the reaction against individualism and in +favor of drastic assertion of the powers of government. Legislation is +taking the place of the free lands as the means of preserving the ideal +of democracy. But at the same time it is endangering the other pioneer +ideal of creative and competitive individualism. Both were essential and +constituted what was best in America's contribution to history and to +progress. Both must be preserved if the nation would be true to its +past, and would fulfil its highest destiny. It would be a grave +misfortune if these people so rich in experience, in self-confidence and +aspiration, in creative genius, should turn to some Old World discipline +of socialism or plutocracy, or despotic rule, whether by class or by +dictator. Nor shall we be driven to these alternatives. Our ancient +hopes, our courageous faith, our underlying good humor and love of fair +play will triumph in the end. There will be give and take in all +directions. There will be disinterested leadership, under loyalty to the +best American ideals. Nowhere is this leadership more likely to arise +than among the men trained in the Universities, aware of the promise of +the past and the possibilities of the future. The times call for new +ambitions and new motives. + +In a most suggestive essay on the Problems of Modern Democracy, Mr. +Godkin has said: + + M. de Tocqueville and all his followers take it for granted + that the great incentive to excellence, in all countries in + which excellence is found, is the patronage and encouragement + of an aristocracy; that democracy is generally content with + mediocrity. But where is the proof of this? The incentive to + exertion which is widest, most constant, and most powerful in + its operations in all civilized countries, is the desire of + distinction; and this may be composed either of love of fame + or love of wealth or of both. In literary and artistic and + scientific pursuits, sometimes the strongest influence is + exerted by a love of the subject. But it may safely be said + that no man has ever labored in any of the higher colleges to + whom the applause and appreciation of his fellows was not one + of the sweetest rewards of his exertions. + + What is there we would ask, in the nature of democratic + institutions, that should render this great spring of action + powerless, that should deprive glory of all radiance, and put + ambition to sleep? Is it not notorious, on the contrary, that + one of the most marked peculiarities of democratic society, or + of a society drifting toward democracy, is the fire of + competition which rages in it, the fevered anxiety which + possesses all its members to rise above the dead level to + which the law is ever seeking to confine them, and by some + brilliant stroke become something higher and more remarkable + than their fellows? The secret of that great restlessness + which is one of the most disagreeable accompaniments of life + in democratic countries, is in fact due to the eagerness of + everybody to grasp the prizes of which in aristocratic + countries, only the few have much chance. And in no other + society is success more worshiped, is distinction of any kind + more widely flattered and caressed. + + In democratic societies, in fact, excellence is the first + title to distinction; in aristocratic ones there are two or + three others which are far stronger and which must be stronger + or aristocracy could not exist. The moment you acknowledge + that the highest social position ought to be the reward of the + man who has the most talent, you make aristocratic + institutions impossible. + +All that was buoyant and creative in American life would be lost if we +gave up the respect for distinct personality, and variety in genius, and +came to the dead level of common standards. To be "socialized into an +average" and placed "under the tutelage of the mass of us," as a recent +writer has put it, would be an irreparable loss. Nor is it necessary in +a democracy, as these words of Godkin well disclose. What is needed is +the multiplication of motives for ambition and the opening of new lines +of achievement for the strongest. As we turn from the task of the first +rough conquest of the continent there lies before us a whole wealth of +unexploited resources in the realm of the spirit. Arts and letters, +science and better social creation, loyalty and political service to the +commonweal,--these and a thousand other directions of activity are open +to the men, who formerly under the incentive of attaining distinction by +amassing extraordinary wealth, saw success only in material display. +Newer and finer careers will open to the ambitious when once public +opinion shall award the laurels to those who rise above their fellows in +these new fields of labor. It has not been the gold, but the getting of +the gold, that has caught the imaginations of our captains of industry. +Their real enjoyment lay not in the luxuries which wealth brought, but +in the work of construction and in the place which society awarded them. +A new era will come if schools and universities can only widen the +intellectual horizon of the people, help to lay the foundations of a +better industrial life, show them new goals for endeavor, inspire them +with more varied and higher ideals. + +The Western spirit must be invoked for new and nobler achievements. Of +that matured Western spirit, Tennyson's Ulysses is a symbol. + + ". . . I am become a name + For always roaming with an hungry heart, + Much have I seen and known . . . + I am a part of all that I have met; + Yet all experience is an arch, where thro' + Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades + Forever and forever when I move. + How dull it is to pause, to make an end, + To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! + + * * * * * + + And this gray spirit yearning in desire + To follow knowledge like a shining star + Beyond the utmost hound of human thought. + . . . Come my friends, + 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. + Push off, and sitting well in order smite + The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds + To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths + Of all the Western stars until I die + + * * * * * + + To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[290:1] Commencement Address, University of Washington, June 17, 1914. +Reprinted by permission from _The Washington Historical Quarterly_, +October, 1914. + + + + +XII + +SOCIAL FORCES IN AMERICAN HISTORY[311:1] + + +The transformations through which the United States is passing in our +own day are so profound, so far-reaching, that it is hardly an +exaggeration to say that we are witnessing the birth of a new nation in +America. The revolution in the social and economic structure of this +country during the past two decades is comparable to what occurred when +independence was declared and the constitution was formed, or to the +changes wrought by the era which began half a century ago, the era of +Civil War and Reconstruction. + +These changes have been long in preparation and are, in part, the result +of world-wide forces of reorganization incident to the age of steam +production and large-scale industry, and, in part, the result of the +closing of the period of the colonization of the West. They have been +prophesied, and the course of the movement partly described by students +of American development; but after all, it is with a shock that the +people of the United States are coming to realize that the fundamental +forces which have shaped their society up to the present are +disappearing. Twenty years ago, as I have before had occasion to point +out, the Superintendent of the Census declared that the frontier line, +which its maps had depicted for decade after decade of the westward +march of the nation, could no longer be described. To-day we must add +that the age of free competition of individuals for the unpossessed +resources of the nation is nearing its end. It is taking less than a +generation to write the chapter which began with the disappearance of +the line of the frontier--the last chapter in the history of the +colonization of the United States, the conclusion to the annals of its +pioneer democracy. + +It is a wonderful chapter, this final rush of American energy upon the +remaining wilderness. Even the bare statistics become eloquent of a new +era. They no longer derive their significance from the exhibit of vast +proportions of the public domain transferred to agriculture, of +wildernesses equal to European nations changed decade after decade into +the farm area of the United States. It is true there was added to the +farms of the nation between 1870 and 1880 a territory equal to that of +France, and between 1880 and 1900 a territory equal to the European area +of France, Germany, England, and Wales combined. The records of 1910 are +not yet available, but whatever they reveal they will not be so full of +meaning as the figures which tell of upleaping wealth and organization +and concentration of industrial power in the East in the last decade. As +the final provinces of the Western empire have been subdued to the +purposes of civilization and have yielded their spoils, as the spheres +of operation of the great industrial corporations have extended, with +the extension of American settlement, production and wealth have +increased beyond all precedent. + +The total deposits in all national banks have more than trebled in the +present decade; the money in circulation has doubled since 1890. The +flood of gold makes it difficult to gage the full meaning of the +incredible increase in values, for in the decade ending with 1909 over +41,600,000 ounces of gold were mined in the United States alone. Over +four million ounces have been produced every year since 1905, whereas +between 1880 and 1894 no year showed a production of two million ounces. +As a result of this swelling stream of gold and instruments of credit, +aided by a variety of other causes, prices have risen until their height +has become one of the most marked features and influential factors in +American life, producing social readjustments and contributing +effectively to party revolutions. + +But if we avoid those statistics which require analysis because of the +changing standard of value, we still find that the decade occupies an +exceptional place in American history. More coal was mined in the United +States in the ten years after 1897 than in all the life of the nation +before that time.[313:1] Fifty years ago we mined less than fifteen +million long tons of coal. In 1907 we mined nearly 429,000,000. At the +present rate it is estimated that the supply of coal would be exhausted +at a date no farther in the future than the formation of the +constitution is in the past. Iron and coal are the measures of +industrial power. The nation has produced three times as much iron ore +in the past two decades as in all its previous history; the production +of the past ten years was more than double that of the prior decade. +Pig-iron production is admitted to be an excellent barometer of +manufacture and of transportation. Never until 1898 had this reached an +annual total of ten million long tons. But in the five years beginning +with 1904 it averaged over twice that. By 1907 the United States had +surpassed Great Britain, Germany, and France combined in the production +of pig-iron and steel together, and in the same decade a single great +corporation has established its domination over the iron mines and steel +manufacture of the United States. It is more than a mere accident that +the United States Steel Corporation with its stocks and bonds +aggregating $1,400,000,000 was organized at the beginning of the present +decade. The former wilderness about Lake Superior has, principally in +the past two decades, established its position as overwhelmingly the +preponderant source of iron ore, present and prospective, in the United +States--a treasury from which Pittsburgh has drawn wealth and extended +its unparalleled industrial empire in these years. The tremendous +energies thus liberated at this center of industrial power in the United +States revolutionized methods of manufacture in general, and in many +indirect ways profoundly influenced the life of the nation. + +Railroad statistics also exhibit unprecedented development, the +formation of a new industrial society. The number of passengers carried +one mile more than doubled between 1890 and 1908; freight carried one +mile has nearly trebled in the same period and has doubled in the past +decade. Agricultural products tell a different story. The corn crop has +only risen from about two billion bushels in 1891 to two and +seven-tenths billions in 1909; wheat from six hundred and eleven million +bushels in 1891 to only seven hundred and thirty-seven million in 1909; +and cotton from about nine million bales in 1891 to ten and three-tenths +million bales in 1909. Population has increased in the United States +proper from about sixty-two and one-half millions in 1890 to +seventy-five and one-half millions in 1900 and to over ninety millions +in 1910. + +It is clear from these statistics that the ratio of the nation's +increased production of immediate wealth by the enormously increased +exploitation of its remaining natural resources vastly exceeds the ratio +of increase of population and still more strikingly exceeds the ratio of +increase of agricultural products. Already population is pressing upon +the food supply while capital consolidates in billion-dollar +organizations. The "Triumphant Democracy" whose achievements the +iron-master celebrated has reached a stature even more imposing than he +could have foreseen; but still less did he perceive the changes in +democracy itself and the conditions of its life which have accompanied +this material growth. + +Having colonized the Far West, having mastered its internal resources, +the nation turned at the conclusion of the nineteenth and the beginning +of the twentieth century to deal with the Far East to engage in the +world-politics of the Pacific Ocean. Having continued its historic +expansion into the lands of the old Spanish empire by the successful +outcome of the recent war, the United States became the mistress of the +Philippines at the same time that it came into possession of the +Hawaiian Islands, and the controlling influence in the Gulf of Mexico. +It provided early in the present decade for connecting its Atlantic and +Pacific coasts by the Isthmian Canal, and became an imperial republic +with dependencies and protectorates--admittedly a new world-power, with +a potential voice in the problems of Europe, Asia, and Africa. + +This extension of power, this undertaking of grave responsibilities in +new fields, this entry into the sisterhood of world-states, was no +isolated event. It was, indeed, in some respects the logical outcome of +the nation's march to the Pacific, the sequence to the era in which it +was engaged in occupying the free lands and exploiting the resources of +the West. When it had achieved this position among the nations of the +earth, the United States found itself confronted, also, with the need of +constitutional readjustment, arising from the relations of federal +government and territorial acquisitions. It was obliged to reconsider +questions of the rights of man and traditional American ideals of +liberty and democracy, in view of the task of government of other races +politically inexperienced and undeveloped. + +If we turn to consider the effect upon American society and domestic +policy in these two decades of transition we are met with palpable +evidences of the invasion of the old pioneer democratic order. Obvious +among them is the effect of unprecedented immigration to supply the +mobile army of cheap labor for the centers of industrial life. In the +past ten years, beginning with 1900, over eight million immigrants have +arrived. The newcomers of the eight years since 1900 would, according to +a writer in 1908, "repopulate all the five older New England States as +they stand to-day; or, if properly disseminated over the newer parts of +the country they would serve to populate no less than nineteen states of +the Union as they stand." In 1907 "there were one and one-quarter +million arrivals. This number would entirely populate both New Hampshire +and Maine, two of our oldest States." "The arrivals of this one year +would found a State with more inhabitants than any one of twenty-one of +our other existing commonwealths which could be named." Not only has the +addition to the population from Europe been thus extraordinary, it has +come in increasing measure from southern and eastern Europe. For the +year 1907, Professor Ripley,[316:1] whom I am quoting, has redistributed +the incomers on the basis of physical type and finds that one-quarter of +them were of the Mediterranean race, one-quarter of the Slavic race, +one-eighth Jewish, and only one-sixth of the Alpine, and one-sixth of +the Teutonic. In 1882 Germans had come to the amount of 250,000; in 1907 +they were replaced by 330,000 South Italians. Thus it is evident that +the ethnic elements of the United States have undergone startling +changes; and instead of spreading over the nation these immigrants have +concentrated especially in the cities and great industrial centers in +the past decade. The composition of the labor class and its relation to +wages and to the native American employer have been deeply influenced +thereby; the sympathy of the employers with labor has been unfavorably +affected by the pressure of great numbers of immigrants of alien +nationality and of lower standards of life. + +The familiar facts of the massing of population in the cities and the +contemporaneous increase of urban power, and of the massing of capital +and production in fewer and vastly greater industrial units, especially +attest the revolution. "It is a proposition too plain to require +elucidation," wrote Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury, in his +report of 1827, "that the creation of capital is retarded rather than +accelerated by the diffusion of a thin population over a great surface +of soil."[317:1] Thirty years before Rush wrote these words Albert +Gallatin declared in Congress that "if the cause of the happiness of +this country were examined into, it would be found to arise as much from +the great plenty of land in proportion to the inhabitants which their +citizens enjoyed as from the wisdom of their political institutions." +Possibly both of these Pennsylvania financiers were right under the +conditions of the time; but it is at least significant that capital and +labor entered upon a new era as the end of the free lands approached. A +contemporary of Gallatin in Congress had replied to the argument that +cheap lands would depopulate the Atlantic coast by saying that if a law +were framed to prevent ready access to western lands it would be +tantamount to saying that there is some class which must remain "and by +law be obliged to serve the others for such wages as they pleased to +give." The passage of the arable public domain into private possession +has raised this question in a new form and has brought forth new +answers. This is peculiarly the era when competitive individualism in +the midst of vast unappropriated opportunities changed into the +monopoly of the fundamental industrial processes by huge aggregations of +capital as the free lands disappeared. All the tendencies of the +large-scale production of the twentieth century, all the trend to the +massing of capital in large combinations, all of the energies of the age +of steam, found in America exceptional freedom of action and were +offered regions of activity equal to the states of all Western Europe. +Here they reached their highest development. + +The decade following 1897 is marked by the work of Mr. Harriman and his +rivals in building up the various railroads into a few great groups, a +process that had gone so far that before his death Mr. Harriman was +ambitious to concentrate them all under his single control. High finance +under the leadership of Mr. Morgan steadily achieved the consolidation +of the greater industries into trusts or combinations and effected a +community of interests between them and a few dominant banking +organizations, with allied insurance companies and trust companies. In +New York City have been centered, as never before, the banking reserves +of the nation, and here, by the financial management of capital and +speculative promotion, there has grown up a unified control over the +nation's industrial life. Colossal private fortunes have arisen. No +longer is the per capita wealth of the nation a real index to the +prosperity of the average man. Labor on the other hand has shown an +increasing self-consciousness, is combining and increasing its demands. +In a word, the old pioneer individualism is disappearing, while the +forces of social combination are manifesting themselves as never before. +The self-made man has become, in popular speech, the coal baron, the +steel king, the oil king, the cattle king, the railroad magnate, the +master of high finance, the monarch of trusts. The world has never +before seen such huge fortunes exercising combined control over the +economic life of a people, and such luxury as has come out of the +individualistic pioneer democracy of America in the course of +competitive evolution. + +At the same time the masters of industry, who control interests which +represent billions of dollars, do not admit that they have broken with +pioneer ideals. They regard themselves as pioneers under changed +conditions, carrying on the old work of developing the natural resources +of the nation, compelled by the constructive fever in their veins, even +in ill-health and old age and after the accumulation of wealth beyond +their power to enjoy, to seek new avenues of action and of power, to +chop new clearings, to find new trails, to expand the horizon of the +nation's activity, and to extend the scope of their dominion. "This +country," said the late Mr. Harriman in an interview a few years ago, +"has been developed by a wonderful people, flush with enthusiasm, +imagination and speculative bent. . . . They have been magnificent +pioneers. They saw into the future and adapted their work to the +possibilities. . . . Stifle that enthusiasm, deaden that imagination and +prohibit that speculation by restrictive and cramping conservative law, +and you tend to produce a moribund and conservative people and country." +This is an appeal to the historic ideals of Americans who viewed the +republic as the guardian of individual freedom to compete for the +control of the natural resources of the nation. + +On the other hand, we have the voice of the insurgent West, recently +given utterance in the New Nationalism of ex-President Roosevelt, +demanding increase of federal authority to curb the special interests, +the powerful industrial organizations, and the monopolies, for the sake +of the conservation of our natural resources and the preservation of +American democracy. + +The past decade has witnessed an extraordinary federal activity in +limiting individual and corporate freedom for the benefit of society. To +that decade belong the conservation congresses and the effective +organization of the Forest Service, and the Reclamation Service. Taken +together these developments alone would mark a new era, for over three +hundred million acres are, as a result of this policy, reserved from +entry and sale, an area more than equal to that of all the states which +established the constitution, if we exclude their western claims; and +these reserved lands are held for a more beneficial use of their +forests, minerals, arid tracts, and water rights, by the nation as a +whole. Another example is the extension of the activity of the +Department of Agriculture, which seeks the remotest regions of the earth +for crops suitable to the areas reclaimed by the government, maps and +analyzes the soils, fosters the improvement of seeds and animals, tells +the farmer when and how and what to plant, and makes war upon diseases +of plants and animals and insect pests. The recent legislation for pure +food and meat inspection, and the whole mass of regulative law under the +Interstate Commerce clause of the constitution, further illustrates the +same tendency. + +Two ideals were fundamental in traditional American thought, ideals that +developed in the pioneer era. One was that of individual freedom to +compete unrestrictedly for the resources of a continent--the squatter +ideal. To the pioneer government was an evil. The other was the ideal of +a democracy--"government of the people, by the people and for the +people." The operation of these ideals took place contemporaneously with +the passing into private possession of the free public domain and the +natural resources of the United States. But American democracy was based +on an abundance of free lands; these were the very conditions that +shaped its growth and its fundamental traits. Thus time has revealed +that these two ideals of pioneer democracy had elements of mutual +hostility and contained the seeds of its dissolution. The present finds +itself engaged in the task of readjusting its old ideals to new +conditions and is turning increasingly to government to preserve its +traditional democracy. It is not surprising that socialism shows +noteworthy gains as elections continue; that parties are forming on new +lines; that the demand for primary elections, for popular choice of +senators, initiative, referendum, and recall, is spreading, and that the +regions once the center of pioneer democracy exhibit these tendencies in +the most marked degree. They are efforts to find substitutes for that +former safeguard of democracy, the disappearing free lands. They are the +sequence to the extinction of the frontier. + +It is necessary next to notice that in the midst of all this national +energy, and contemporaneous with the tendency to turn to the national +government for protection to democracy, there is clear evidence of the +persistence and the development of sectionalism.[321:1] Whether we +observe the grouping of votes in Congress and in general elections, or +the organization and utterances of business leaders, or the association +of scholars, churches, or other representatives of the things of the +spirit, we find that American life is not only increasing in its +national intensity but that it is integrating by sections. In part this +is due to the factor of great spaces which make sectional rather than +national organization the line of least resistance; but, in part, it is +also the expression of the separate economic, political, and social +interests and the separate spiritual life of the various geographic +provinces or sections. The votes on the tariff, and in general the +location of the strongholds of the Progressive Republican movement, +illustrate this fact. The difficulty of a national adjustment of railway +rates to the diverse interests of different sections is another +example. Without attempting to enter upon a more extensive discussion of +sectionalism, I desire simply to point out that there are evidences that +now, as formerly, the separate geographical interests have their leaders +and spokesmen, that much Congressional legislation is determined by the +contests, triumphs, or compromises between the rival sections, and that +the real federal relations of the United States are shaped by the +interplay of sectional with national forces rather than by the relation +of State and Nation. As time goes on and the nation adjusts itself more +durably to the conditions of the differing geographic sections which +make it up, they are coming to a new self-consciousness and a revived +self-assertion. Our national character is a composite of these +sections.[322:1] + +Obviously in attempting to indicate even a portion of the significant +features of our recent history we have been obliged to take note of a +complex of forces. The times are so close at hand that the relations +between events and tendencies force themselves upon our attention. We +have had to deal with the connections of geography, industrial growth, +politics, and government. With these we must take into consideration the +changing social composition, the inherited beliefs and habitual attitude +of the masses of the people, the psychology of the nation and of the +separate sections, as well as of the leaders. We must see how these +leaders are shaped partly by their time and section, and how they are in +part original, creative, by virtue of their own genius and initiative. +We cannot neglect the moral tendencies and the ideals. All are related +parts of the same subject and can no more be properly understood in +isolation than the movement as a whole can be understood by neglecting +some of these important factors, or by the use of a single method of +investigation. Whatever be the truth regarding European history, +American history is chiefly concerned with social forces, shaping and +reshaping under the conditions of a nation changing as it adjusts to its +environment. And this environment progressively reveals new aspects of +itself, exerts new influences, and calls out new social organs and +functions. + +I have undertaken this rapid survey of recent history for two purposes. +First, because it has seemed fitting to emphasize the significance of +American development since the passing of the frontier, and, second, +because in the observation of present conditions we may find assistance +in our study of the past. + +It is a familiar doctrine that each age studies its history anew and +with interests determined by the spirit of the time. Each age finds it +necessary to reconsider at least some portion of the past, from points +of view furnished by new conditions which reveal the influence and +significance of forces not adequately known by the historians of the +previous generation. Unquestionably each investigator and writer is +influenced by the times in which he lives and while this fact exposes +the historian to a bias, at the same time it affords him new instruments +and new insight for dealing with his subject. + +If recent history, then, gives new meaning to past events, if it has to +deal with the rise into a commanding position of forces, the origin and +growth of which may have been inadequately described or even overlooked +by historians of the previous generation, it is important to study the +present and the recent past, not only for themselves but also as the +source of new hypotheses, new lines of inquiry, new criteria of the +perspective of the remoter past. And, moreover, a just public opinion +and a statesmanlike treatment of present problems demand that they be +seen in their historical relations in order that history may hold the +lamp for conservative reform. + +Seen from the vantage-ground of present developments what new light +falls upon past events! When we consider what the Mississippi Valley has +come to be in American life, and when we consider what it is yet to be, +the young Washington, crossing the snows of the wilderness to summon the +French to evacuate the portals of the great valley, becomes the herald +of an empire. When we recall the huge industrial power that has centered +at Pittsburgh, Braddock's advance to the forks of the Ohio takes on new +meaning. Even in defeat, he opened a road to what is now the center of +the world's industrial energy. The modifications which England proposed +in 1794 to John Jay in the northwestern boundary of the United States +from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi, seemed to him, doubtless, +significant chiefly as a matter of principle and as a question of the +retention or loss of beaver grounds. The historians hardly notice the +proposals. But they involved, in fact, the ownership of the richest and +most extensive deposits of iron ore in America, the all-important source +of a fundamental industry of the United States, the occasion for the +rise of some of the most influential forces of our time. + +What continuity and meaning are furnished by the outcome in present +times of the movements of minor political parties and reform agitations! +To the historian they have often seemed to be mere curious side eddies, +vexatious distractions to the course of his literary craft as it +navigated the stream of historical tendency. And yet, by the revelation +of the present, what seemed to be side eddies have not seldom proven to +be the concealed entrances to the main current, and the course which +seemed the central one has led to blind channels and stagnant waters, +important in their day, but cut off like oxbow lakes from the mighty +river of historical progress by the mere permanent and compelling forces +of the neglected currents. + +We may trace the contest between the capitalist and the democratic +pioneer from the earliest colonial days. It is influential in colonial +parties. It is seen in the vehement protests of Kentucky frontiersmen in +petition after petition to the Congress of the Confederation against the +"nabobs" and men of wealth who took out titles to the pioneers' farms +while they themselves were too busy defending those farms from the +Indians to perfect their claims. It is seen in the attitude of the Ohio +Valley in its backwoods days before the rise of the Whig party, as when +in 1811 Henry Clay denounced the Bank of the United States as a +corporation which throve on special privileges--"a special association +of favored individuals taken from the mass of society, and invested with +exemptions and surrounded by immunities and privileges." Benton voiced +the same contest twenty years later when he denounced the bank as + + a company of private individuals, many of them foreigners, and + the mass of them residing in a remote and narrow corner of the + Union, unconnected by any sympathy with the fertile regions of + the Great Valley in which the natural power of this Union, the + power of numbers, will be found to reside long before the + renewed term of the second charter would expire. + +"And where," he asked, "would all this power and money center? In the +great cities of the Northeast, which have been for forty years and that +by force of federal legislation, the lion's den of Southern and Western +money--that den into which all the tracks point inward; from which the +returning track of a solitary dollar has never yet been seen." +Declaring, in words that have a very modern sound, that the bank tended +to multiply nabobs and paupers, and that "a great moneyed power is +favorable to great capitalists, for it is the principle of capital to +favor capital," he appealed to the fact of the country's extent and its +sectional divergences against the nationalizing of capital. + + What a condition for a confederacy of states! What grounds for + alarm and terrible apprehension when in a confederacy of such + vast extent, so many rival commercial cities, so much + sectional jealousy, such violent political parties, such + fierce contests for power, there should be but one moneyed + tribunal before which all the rival and contending elements + must appear. + +Even more vehement were the words of Jackson in 1837. "It is now plain," +he wrote, "that the war is to be carried on by the monied aristocracy of +the few against the democracy of numbers; the [prosperous] to make the +honest laborers hewers of wood and drawers of water through the credit +and paper system." + +Van Buren's administration is usually passed hastily over with hardly +more than mention of his Independent Treasury plan, and with particular +consideration of the slavery discussion. But some of the most important +movements in American social and political history began in these years +of Jackson and Van Buren. Read the demands of the obscure labor papers +and the reports of labor's open-air meetings anew, and you will find in +the utterances of so-called labor visionaries and the Locofoco champions +of "equal rights for all and special privileges for none," like Evans +and Jacques, Byrdsall and Leggett, the finger points to the currents +that now make the main channel of our history; you will find in them +some of the important planks of the platforms of the triumphant parties +of our own day. As Professor Commons has shown by his papers and the +documents which he has published on labor history, an idealistic but +widespread and influential humanitarian movement, strikingly similar to +that of the present, arose in the years between 1830 and 1850, dealing +with social forces in American life, animated by a desire to apply the +public lands to social amelioration, eager to find new forms of +democratic development. But the flood of the slavery struggle swept all +of these movements into its mighty inundation for the time. After the +war, other influences delayed the revival of the movement. The railroads +opened the wide prairies after 1850 and made it easy to reach them; and +decade after decade new sections were reduced to the purposes of +civilization and to the advantages of the common man as well as the +promotion of great individual fortunes. The nation centered its +interests in the development of the West. It is only in our own day that +this humanitarian democratic wave has reached the level of those earlier +years. But in the meantime there are clear evidences of the persistence +of the forces, even though under strange guise. Read the platforms of +the Greenback-Labor, the Granger, and the Populist parties, and you will +find in those platforms, discredited and reprobated by the major parties +of the time, the basic proposals of the Democratic party after its +revolution under the leadership of Mr. Bryan, and of the Republican +party after its revolution by Mr. Roosevelt. The Insurgent movement is +so clearly related to the areas and elements that gave strength to this +progressive assertion of old democratic ideals with new weapons, that it +must be regarded as the organized refusal of these persistent +tendencies to be checked by the advocates of more moderate measures. + +I have dealt with these fragments of party history, not, of course, with +the purpose of expressing any present judgment upon them, but to +emphasize and give concreteness to the fact that there is disclosed by +present events a new significance to these contests of radical democracy +and conservative interests; that they are rather a continuing expression +of deep-seated forces than fragmentary and sporadic curios for the +historical museum. + +If we should survey the history of our lands from a similar point of +view, considering the relations of legislation and administration of the +public domain to the structure of American democracy, it would yield a +return far beyond that offered by the formal treatment of the subject in +most of our histories. We should find in the squatter doctrines and +practices, the seizure of the best soils, the taking of public timber on +the theory of a right to it by the labor expended on it, fruitful +material for understanding the atmosphere and ideals under which the +great corporations developed the West. Men like Senator Benton and +Delegate Sibley in successive generations defended the trespasses of the +pioneer and the lumberman upon the public forest lands, and denounced +the paternal government that "harassed" these men, who were engaged in +what we should call stealing government timber. It is evident that at +some time between the middle of the nineteenth century and the present +time, when we impose jail sentences upon Congressmen caught in such +violations of the land laws, a change came over the American conscience +and the civic ideals were modified. That our great industrial +enterprises developed in the midst of these changing ideals is important +to recall when we write the history of their activity. + +We should find also that we cannot understand the land question without +seeing its relations to the struggle of sections and classes bidding +against each other and finding in the public domain a most important +topic of political bargaining. We should find, too, that the settlement +of unlike geographic areas in the course of the nation's progress +resulted in changes in the effect of the land laws; that a system +intended for the humid prairies was ill-adjusted to the grazing lands +and coal fields and to the forests in the days of large-scale +exploitation by corporations commanding great capital. Thus changing +geographic factors as well as the changing character of the forces which +occupied the public domain must be considered, if we would understand +the bearing of legislation and policy in this field.[329:1] It is +fortunate that suggestive studies of democracy and the land policy have +already begun to appear. + +The whole subject of American agriculture viewed in relation to the +economic, political, and social life of the nation has important +contributions to make. If, for example, we study the maps showing the +transition of the wheat belt from the East to the West, as the virgin +soils were conquered and made new bases for destructive competition with +the older wheat States, we shall see how deeply they affected not only +land values, railroad building, the movement of population, and the +supply of cheap food, but also how the regions once devoted to single +cropping of wheat were forced to turn to varied and intensive +agriculture and to diversified industry, and we shall see also how these +transformations affected party politics and even the ideals of the +Americans of the regions thus changed. We shall find in the +over-production of wheat in the provinces thus rapidly colonized, and in +the over-production of silver in the mountain provinces which were +contemporaneously exploited, important explanations of the peculiar +form which American politics took in the period when Mr. Bryan mastered +the Democratic party, just as we shall find in the opening of the new +gold fields in the years immediately following, and in the passing of +the era of almost free virgin wheat soils, explanations of the more +recent period when high prices are giving new energy and aggressiveness +to the demands of the new American industrial democracy. + +Enough has been said, it may be assumed, to make clear the point which I +am trying to elucidate, namely that a comprehension of the United States +of to-day, an understanding of the rise and progress of the forces which +have made it what it is, demands that we should rework our history from +the new points of view afforded by the present. If this is done, it will +be seen, for example, that the progress of the struggle between North +and South over slavery and the freed negro, which held the principal +place in American interest in the two decades after 1850, was, after +all, only one of the interests in the time. The pages of the +Congressional debates, the contemporary newspapers, the public documents +of those twenty years, remain a rich mine for those who will seek +therein the sources of movements dominant in the present day. + +The final consideration to which I ask your attention in this discussion +of social forces in American life, is with reference to the mode of +investigating them and the bearing of these investigations upon the +relations and the goal of history. It has become a precedent, fairly +well established by the distinguished scholars who have held the office +which I am about to lay down, to state a position with reference to the +relations of history and its sister-studies, and even to raise the +question of the attitude of the historian toward the laws of +thermodynamics and to seek to find the key of historical development or +of historical degradation. It is not given to all to bend the bow of +Ulysses. I shall attempt a lesser task. + +We may take some lessons from the scientist. He has enriched knowledge +especially in recent years by attacking the no-man's lands left +unexplored by the too sharp delimitation of spheres of activity. These +new conquests have been especially achieved by the combination of old +sciences. Physical chemistry, electro-chemistry, geo-physics, +astro-physics, and a variety of other scientic unions have led to +audacious hypotheses, veritable flashes of vision, which open new +regions of activity for a generation of investigators. Moreover they +have promoted such investigations by furnishing new instruments of +research. Now in some respects there is an analogy between geology and +history. The new geologist aims to describe the inorganic earth +dynamically in terms of natural law, using chemistry, physics, +mathematics, and even botany and zoology so far as they relate to +paleontology. But he does not insist that the relative importance of +physical or chemical factors shall be determined before he applies the +methods and data of these sciences to his problem. Indeed, he has +learned that a geological area is too complex a thing to be reduced to a +single explanation. He has abandoned the single hypothesis for the +multiple hypothesis. He creates a whole family of possible explanations +of a given problem and thus avoids the warping influence of partiality +for a simple theory. + +Have we not here an illustration of what is possible and necessary for +the historian? Is it not well, before attempting to decide whether +history requires an economic interpretation, or a psychological, or any +other ultimate interpretation, to recognize that the factors in human +society are varied and complex; that the political historian handling +his subject in isolation is certain to miss fundamental facts and +relations in his treatment of a given age or nation; that the economic +historian is exposed to the same danger; and so of all of the other +special historians? + +Those who insist that history is simply the effort to tell the thing +exactly as it was, to state the facts, are confronted with the +difficulty that the fact which they would represent is not planted on +the solid ground of fixed conditions; it is in the midst and is itself a +part of the changing currents, the complex and interacting influences of +the time, deriving its significance as a fact from its relations to the +deeper-seated movements of the age, movements so gradual that often only +the passing years can reveal the truth about the fact and its right to a +place on the historian's page. + +The economic historian is in danger of making his analysis and his +statement of a law on the basis of present conditions and then passing +to history for justificatory appendixes to his conclusions. An American +economist of high rank has recently expressed his conception of "the +full relation of economic theory, statistics, and history" in these +words: + + A principle is formulated by _a priori_ reasoning concerning + facts of common experience; it is then tested by statistics + and promoted to the rank of a known and acknowledged truth; + illustrations of its action are then found in narrative + history and, on the other hand, the economic law becomes the + interpreter of records that would otherwise be confusing and + comparatively valueless; the law itself derives its final + confirmation from the illustrations of its working which the + records afford; but what is at least of equal importance is + the parallel fact that the law affords the decisive test of + the correctness of those assertions concerning the causes and + the effects of past events which it is second nature to make + and which historians almost invariably do make in connection + with their narrations.[333:1] + +There is much in this statement by which the historian may profit, but +he may doubt also whether the past should serve merely as the +"illustration" by which to confirm the law deduced from common +experience by _a priori_ reasoning tested by statistics. In fact the +pathway of history is strewn with the wrecks of the "known and +acknowledged truths" of economic law, due not only to defective analysis +and imperfect statistics, but also to the lack of critical historical +methods, of insufficient historical-mindedness on the part of the +economist, to failure to give due attention to the relativity and +transiency of the conditions from which his laws were deduced. + +But the point on which I would lay stress is this. The economist, the +political scientist, the psychologist, the sociologist, the geographer, +the student of literature, of art, of religion--all the allied laborers +in the study of society--have contributions to make to the equipment of +the historian. These contributions are partly of material, partly of +tools, partly of new points of view, new hypotheses, new suggestions of +relations, causes, and emphasis. Each of these special students is in +some danger of bias by his particular point of view, by his exposure to +see simply the thing in which he is primarily interested, and also by +his effort to deduce the universal laws of his separate science. The +historian, on the other hand, is exposed to the danger of dealing with +the complex and interacting social forces of a period or of a country, +from some single point of view to which his special training or interest +inclines him. If the truth is to be made known, the historian must so +far familiarize himself with the work, and equip himself with the +training of his sister-subjects that he can at least avail himself of +their results and in some reasonable degree master the essential tools +of their trade. And the followers of the sister-studies must likewise +familiarize themselves and their students with the work and the methods +of the historians, and cooperate in the difficult task. + +It is necessary that the American historian shall aim at this equipment, +not so much that he may possess the key to history or satisfy himself in +regard to its ultimate laws. At present a different duty is before him. +He must see in American society with its vast spaces, its sections equal +to European nations, its geographic influences, its brief period of +development, its variety of nationalities and races, its extraordinary +industrial growth under the conditions of freedom, its institutions, +culture, ideals, social psychology, and even its religions forming and +changing almost under his eyes, one of the richest fields ever offered +for the preliminary recognition and study of the forces that operate and +interplay in the making of society. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[311:1] Annual address as the president of the American Historical +Association, delivered at Indianapolis, December 28, 1910. Reprinted by +permission from _The American Historical Review_, January, 1911. + +[313:1] Van Hise, "Conservation of Natural Resources," pp. 23, 24. + +[316:1] _Atlantic Monthly_, December, 1908, vii, p. 745. + +[317:1] [Although the words of these early land debates are quoted above +in Chapter VI, they are repeated because of the light they cast upon the +present problem.] + +[321:1] [I have outlined this subject in various essays, including the +article on "Sectionalism" in McLaughlin and Hart, "Cyclopedia of +Government."] + +[322:1] [It is not impossible that they may ultimately replace the State +as the significant administrative and legislative units. There are +strong evidences of this tendency, such as the organization of the +Federal Reserve districts, and proposals for railroad administration by +regions.] + +[329:1] [See R. G. Wellington, "Public Lands, 1820-1840"; G. M. +Stephenson, "Public Lands, 1841-1862"; J. Ise, "Forest Policy."] + +[333:1] Professor J. B. Clark, in Commons, ed., "Documentary History of +American Industrial Society," I. 43-44. + + + + +XIII + +MIDDLE WESTERN PIONEER DEMOCRACY[335:1] + + +In time of war, when all that this nation has stood for, all the things +in which it passionately believes, are at stake, we have met to dedicate +this beautiful home for history. + +There is a fitness in the occasion. It is for historic ideals that we +are fighting. If this nation is one for which we should pour out our +savings, postpone our differences, go hungry, and even give up life +itself, it is not because it is a rich, extensive, well-fed and populous +nation; it is because from its early days America has pressed onward +toward a goal of its own; that it has followed an ideal, the ideal of a +democracy developing under conditions unlike those of any other age or +country. + +We are fighting not for an Old World ideal, not for an abstraction, not +for a philosophical revolution. Broad and generous as are our +sympathies, widely scattered in origin as are our people, keenly as we +feel the call of kinship, the thrill of sympathy with the stricken +nations across the Atlantic, we are fighting for the historic ideals of +the United States, for the continued existence of the type of society in +which we believe, because we have proved it good, for the things which +drew European exiles to our shores, and which inspired the hopes of the +pioneers. + +We are at war that the history of the United States, rich with the +record of high human purposes, and of faith in the destiny of the common +man under freedom, filled with the promises of a better world, may not +become the lost and tragic story of a futile dream. + +Yes, it is an American ideal and an American example for which we fight; +but in that ideal and example lies medicine for the healing of the +nations. It is the best we have to give to Europe, and it is a matter of +vital import that we shall safeguard and preserve our power to serve the +world, and not be overwhelmed in the flood of imperialistic force that +wills the death of democracy and would send the freeman under the yoke. +Essential as are our contributions of wealth, the work of our +scientists, the toil of our farmers and our workmen in factory and +shipyard, priceless as is the stream of young American manhood which we +pour forth to stop the flood which flows like moulten lava across the +green fields and peaceful hamlets of Europe toward the sea and turns to +ashes and death all that it covers, these contributions have their +deeper meaning in the American spirit. They are born of the love of +Democracy. + +Long ago in prophetic words Walt Whitman voiced the meaning of our +present sacrifices: + + "Sail, sail thy best, ship of Democracy, + Of value is thy freight, 'tis not the Present only, + The Past is also stored in thee, + Thou holdest not the venture of thyself alone, not of the Western + Continent alone, + Earth's resume entire floats on thy keel, O ship, is steadied by + thy spars, + With thee Time voyages in trust, the antecedent nations sink or + swim with thee, + With all their ancient struggles, martyrs, heroes, epics, wars, + thou bear'st the other continents, + Theirs, theirs as much as thine, the destination-port triumphant." + +Shortly before the Civil War, a great German, exiled from his native +land for his love of freedom, came from his new home among the pioneers +of the Middle West to set forth in Faneuil Hall, the "cradle of +liberty," in Boston, his vision of the young America that was forming in +the West, "the last depository of the hopes of all true friends of +humanity." Speaking of the contrast between the migrations to the +Mississippi Valley and those of the Old World in other centuries, he +said: + + It is now not a barbarous multitude pouncing upon old and + decrepit empires, not a violent concussion of tribes + accompanied by all the horrors of general destruction, but we + see the vigorous elements--peaceably congregating and mingling + together on virgin soil--; led together by the irresistible + attraction of free and broad principles; undertaking to + commence a new era in the history of the world, without first + destroying the results of the progress of past periods; + undertaking to found a cosmopolitan nation without marching + over the dead bodies of slain millions. + +If Carl Schurz had lived to see the outcome of that Germany from which +he was sent as an exile, in the days when Prussian bayonets dispersed +the legislatures and stamped out the beginnings of democratic rule in +his former country, could he have better pictured the contrasts between +the Prussian and the American spirit? He went on to say: + + Thus was founded the _great colony of free humanity_, which + has not old England alone, but the _world_ for its mother + country. And in the colony of free humanity, whose mother + country is the world, they established the Republic of equal + rights where the title of manhood is the title to citizenship. + My friends, if I had a thousand tongues, and a voice as strong + as the thunder of heaven, they would not be sufficient to + impress upon your minds forcibly enough the greatness of this + idea, the overshadowing glory of this result. This was the + dream of the truest friends of man from the beginning; for + this the noblest blood of martyrs has been shed; for this has + mankind waded through seas of blood and tears. There it is + now; there it stands, the noble fabric in all the splendor of + reality. + +It is in a solemn and inspiring time, therefore, that we meet to +dedicate this building, and the occasion is fitting to the time. We may +now see, as never before, the deeper significance, the larger meaning of +these pioneers, whose plain lives and homely annals are glorified as a +part of the story of the building of a better system of social justice +under freedom, a broader, and as we fervently hope, a more enduring +foundation for the welfare and progress under individual liberty of the +common man, an example of federation, of peaceful adjustments by +compromise and concession under a self-governing Republic, where +sections replace nations over a Union as large as Europe, where party +discussions take the place of warring countries, where the _Pax +Americana_ furnishes an example for a better world. + +As our forefathers, the pioneers, gathered in their neighborhood to +raise the log cabin, and sanctified it by the name of home, the dwelling +place of pioneer ideals, so we meet to celebrate the raising of this +home, this shrine of Minnesota's historic life. It symbolizes the +conviction that the past and the future of this people are tied +together; that this Historical Society is the keeper of the records of a +noteworthy movement in the progress of mankind; that these records are +not unmeaning and antiquarian, but even in their details are worthy of +preservation for their revelation of the beginnings of society in the +midst of a nation caught by the vision of a better future for the world. + +Let me repeat the words of Harriet Martineau, who portrayed the American +of the thirties: + + I regard the American people as a great embryo poet, now + moody, now wild, but bringing out results of absolute good + sense; restless and wayward in action, but with deep peace at + his heart; exulting that he has caught the true aspect of + things past and the depth of futurity which lies before him, + wherein to create something so magnificent as the world has + scarcely begun to dream of. There is the strongest hope of a + nation that is capable of being possessed with an idea. + +And recall her appeal to the American people to "cherish their high +democratic hope, their faith in man. The older they grow the more they +must reverence the dreams of their youth." + +The dreams of their youth! Here they shall be preserved, and the +achievements as well as the aspirations of the men who made the State, +the men who built on their foundations, the men with large vision and +power of action, the lesser men in the mass, the leaders who served the +State and nation with devotion to the cause. Here shall be preserved the +record of the men who failed to see the larger vision and worked +impatiently with narrow or selfish or class ends, as well as of those +who labored with patience and sympathy and mutual concession, with +readiness to make adjustments and to subordinate their immediate +interests to the larger good and the immediate safety of the nation. + +In the archives of such an old institution as that of the Historical +Society of Massachusetts, whose treasures run to the beginnings of the +Puritan colonization, the students cannot fail to find the evidence that +a State Historical Society is a Book of Judgment wherein is made up the +record of a people and its leaders. So, as time unfolds, shall be the +collections of this Society, the depository of the material that shall +preserve the memory of this people. Each section of this widely extended +and varied nation has its own peculiar past, its special form of +society, its traits and its leaders. It were a pity if any section left +its annals solely to the collectors of a remote region, and it were a +pity if its collections were not transformed into printed documents and +monographic studies which can go to the libraries of all the parts of +the Union and thus enable the student to see the nation as a whole in +its past as well as in its present. + +This Society finds its special field of activity in a great State of the +Middle West, so new, as history reckons time, that its annals are still +predominantly those of the pioneers, but so rapidly growing that already +the era of the pioneers is a part of the history of the past, capable of +being handled objectively, seen in a perspective that is not possible to +the observer of the present conditions. + +Because of these facts I have taken as the special theme of this address +the Middle Western Pioneer Democracy, which I would sketch in some of +its outstanding aspects, and chiefly in the generation before the Civil +War, for it was from those pioneers that the later colonization to the +newer parts of the Mississippi Valley derived much of their traits, and +from whom large numbers of them came. + +The North Central States as a whole is a region comparable to all of +Central Europe. Of these States, a large part of the old +Northwest,--Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin; and their +sisters beyond the Mississippi--Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota--were +still, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the home of an +essentially pioneer society. Within the lifetime of many living men, +Wisconsin was called the "Far West," and Minnesota was a land of the +Indian and the fur traders, a wilderness of forest and prairie beyond +the "edge of cultivation." That portion of this great region which was +still in the pioneering period of settlement by 1850 was alone about as +extensive as the old thirteen States, or Germany and Austria-Hungary +combined. The region was a huge geographic mold for a new society, +modeled by nature on the scale of the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley, the +upper Mississippi and the Missouri. Simple and majestic in its vast +outlines it was graven into a variety that in its detail also had a +largeness of design. From the Great Lakes extended the massive glacial +sheet which covered that mighty basin and laid down treasures of soil. +Vast forests of pine shrouded its upper zone, breaking into hardwood and +the oak openings as they neared the ocean-like expanses of the prairies. +Forests again along the Ohio Valley, and beyond, to the west, lay the +levels of the Great Plains. Within the earth were unexploited treasures +of coal and lead, copper and iron in such form and quantity as were to +revolutionize the industrial processes of the world. But nature's +revelations are progressive, and it was rather the marvelous adaptation +of the soil to the raising of corn and wheat that drew the pioneers to +this land of promise, and made a new era of colonization. In the unity +with variety of this pioneer empire and in its broad levels we have a +promise of its society. + +First had come the children of the interior of the South, and with ax +and rifle in hand had cut their clearings in the forest, raised their +log cabins, fought the Indians and by 1830 had pushed their way to the +very edge of the prairies along the Ohio and Missouri Valleys, leaving +unoccupied most of the Basin of the Great Lakes. + +These slashers of the forest, these self-sufficing pioneers, raising the +corn and live stock for their own need, living scattered and apart, had +at first small interest in town life or a share in markets. They were +passionately devoted to the ideal of equality, but it was an ideal which +assumed that under free conditions in the midst of unlimited resources, +the homogeneous society of the pioneers _must_ result in equality. What +they objected to was arbitrary obstacles, artificial limitations upon +the freedom of each member of this frontier folk to work out his own +career without fear or favor. What they instinctively opposed was the +crystallization of differences, the monopolization of opportunity and +the fixing of that monopoly by government or by social customs. The road +must be open. The game must be played according to the rules. There must +be no artificial stifling of equality of opportunity, no closed doors to +the able, no stopping the free game before it was played to the end. +More than that, there was an unformulated, perhaps, but very real +feeling, that mere success in the game, by which the abler men were able +to achieve preeminence gave to the successful ones no right to look down +upon their neighbors, no vested title to assert superiority as a matter +of pride and to the diminution of the equal right and dignity of the +less successful. + +If this democracy of Southern pioneers, this Jacksonian democracy, was, +as its socialist critics have called it, in reality a democracy of +"expectant capitalists," it was not one which expected or acknowledged +on the part of the successful ones the right to harden their triumphs +into the rule of a privileged class. In short, if it is indeed true that +the backwoods democracy was based upon equality of opportunity, it is +also true that it resented the conception that opportunity under +competition should result in the hopeless inequality, or rule of class. +Ever a new clearing must be possible. And because the wilderness seemed +so unending, the menace to the enjoyment of this ideal seemed rather to +be feared from government, within or without, than from the operations +of internal evolution. + +From the first, it became evident that these men had means of +supplementing their individual activity by informal combinations. One of +the things that impressed all early travelers in the United States was +the capacity for extra-legal, voluntary association.[343:1] This was +natural enough; in all America we can study the process by which in a +new land social customs form and crystallize into law. We can even see +how the personal leader becomes the governmental official. This power of +the newly arrived pioneers to join together for a common end without the +intervention of governmental institutions was one of their marked +characteristics. The log rolling, the house-raising, the husking bee, +the apple paring, and the squatters' associations whereby they protected +themselves against the speculators in securing title to their clearings +on the public domain, the camp meeting, the mining camp, the vigilantes, +the cattle-raisers' associations, the "gentlemen's agreements," are a +few of the indications of this attitude. It is well to emphasize this +American trait, because in a modified way it has come to be one of the +most characteristic and important features of the United States of +to-day. America does through informal association and understandings on +the part of the people many of the things which in the Old World are and +can be done only by governmental intervention and compulsion. These +associations were in America not due to immemorial custom of tribe or +village community. They were extemporized by voluntary action. + +The actions of these associations had an authority akin to that of law. +They were usually not so much evidences of a disrespect for law and +order as the only means by which real law and order were possible in a +region where settlement and society had gone in advance of the +institutions and instrumentalities of organized society. + +Because of these elements of individualistic competition and the power +of spontaneous association, pioneers were responsive to leadership. The +backwoodsmen knew that under the free opportunities of his life the +abler man would reveal himself, and show them the way. By free choice +and not by compulsion, by spontaneous impulse, and not by the domination +of a caste, they rallied around a cause, they supported an issue. They +yielded to the principle of government by agreement, and they hated the +doctrine of autocracy even before it gained a name. + +They looked forward to the extension of their American principles to the +Old World and their keenest apprehensions came from the possibility of +the extension of the Old World's system of arbitrary rule, its class +wars and rivalries and interventions to the destruction of the free +States and democratic institutions which they were building in the +forests of America. + +If we add to these aspects of early backwoods democracy, its spiritual +qualities, we shall more easily understand them. These men were +emotional. As they wrested their clearing from the woods and from the +savages who surrounded them, as they expanded that clearing and saw the +beginnings of commonwealths, where only little communities had been, and +as they saw these commonwealths touch hands with each other along the +great course of the Mississippi River, they became enthusiastically +optimistic and confident of the continued expansion of this democracy. +They had faith in themselves and their destiny. And that optimistic +faith was responsible both for their confidence in their own ability to +rule and for the passion for expansion. They looked to the future. +"Others appeal to history: an American appeals to prophecy; and with +Malthus in one hand and a map of the back country in the other, he +boldly defies us to a comparison with America as she is to be," said a +London periodical in 1821. Just because, perhaps, of the usual isolation +of their lives, when they came together in associations whether of the +camp meeting or of the political gathering, they felt the influence of a +common emotion and enthusiasm. Whether Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, +Baptist, or Methodist, these people saturated their religion and their +politics with feeling. Both the stump and the pulpit were centers of +energy, electric cells capable of starting widespreading fires. They +_felt_ both their religion and their democracy, and were ready to fight +for it. + +This democracy was one that involved a real feeling of social +comradeship among its widespread members. Justice Catron, who came from +Arkansas to the Supreme Court in the presidency of Jackson, said: "The +people of New Orleans and St. Louis are next neighbors--if we desire to +know a man in any quarter of the union we inquire of our next neighbor, +who but the other day lived by him." Exaggerated as this is, it +nevertheless had a surprising measure of truth for the Middle West as +well. For the Mississippi River was the great highway down which groups +of pioneers like Abraham Lincoln, on their rafts and flat boats, brought +the little neighborhood surplus. After the steamboat came to the western +waters the voyages up and down by merchants and by farmers shifting +their homes, brought people into contact with each other over wide +areas. + +This enlarged neighborhood democracy was determined not by a reluctant +admission that under the law one man is as good as another; it was based +upon "good fellowship," sympathy and understanding. They were of a +stock, moreover, which sought new trails and were ready to follow where +the trail led, innovators in society as well as finders of new lands. + +By 1830 the Southern inundation ebbed and a different tide flowed in +from the northeast by way of the Erie Canal and steam navigation on the +Great Lakes to occupy the zone unreached by Southern settlement. This +new tide spread along the margins of the Great Lakes, found the oak +openings and small prairie islands of Southern Michigan and Wisconsin; +followed the fertile forested ribbons along the river courses far into +the prairie lands; and by the end of the forties began to venture into +the margin of the open prairie. + +In 1830 the Middle West contained a little over a million and a half +people; in 1840, over three and a third millions; in 1850, nearly five +and a half millions. Although in 1830 the North Atlantic States numbered +between three and four times as many people as the Middle West, yet in +those two decades the Middle West made an actual gain of several hundred +thousand more than did the old section. Counties in the newer states +rose from a few hundred to ten or fifteen thousand people in the space +of less than five years. Suddenly, with astonishing rapidity and volume, +a new people was forming with varied elements, ideals and institutions +drawn from all over this nation and from Europe. They were confronted +with the problem of adjusting different stocks, varied customs and +habits, to their new home. + +In comparison with the Ohio Valley, the peculiarity of the occupation of +the northern zone of the Middle West, lay in the fact that the native +element was predominantly from the older settlements of the Middle West +itself and from New York and New England. But it was from the central +and western counties of New York and from the western and northern parts +of New England, the rural regions of declining agricultural prosperity, +that the bulk of this element came. + +Thus the influence of the Middle West stretched into the Northeast, and +attracted a farming population already suffering from western +competition. The advantage of abundant, fertile, and cheap land, the +richer agricultural returns, and especially the opportunities for youth +to rise in all the trades and professions, gave strength to this +competition. By it New England was profoundly and permanently modified. + +This Yankee stock carried with it a habit of community life, in contrast +with the individualistic democracy of the Southern element. The +colonizing land companies, the town, the school, the church, the feeling +of local unity, furnished the evidences of this instinct for +communities. This instinct was accompanied by the creation of cities, +the production of a surplus for market, the reaching out to connections +with the trading centers of the East, the evolution of a more complex +and at the same time a more integrated industrial society than that of +the Southern pioneer. + +But they did not carry with them the unmodified New England institutions +and traits. They came at a time and from a people less satisfied with +the old order than were their neighbors in the East. They were the young +men with initiative, with discontent; the New York element especially +was affected by the radicalism of Locofoco democracy which was in +itself a protest against the established order. + +The winds of the prairies swept away almost at once a mass of old habits +and prepossessions. Said one of these pioneers in a letter to friends in +the East: + + If you value ease more than money or prosperity, don't + come. . . . Hands are too few for the work, houses for the + inhabitants, and days for the day's work to be done. . . . + Next if you can't stand seeing your old New England ideas, + ways of doing, and living and in fact, all of the good old + Yankee fashions knocked out of shape and altered, or thrown by + as unsuited to the climate, don't be caught out here. But if + you can bear grief with a smile, can put up with a scale of + accommodations ranging from the soft side of a plank before + the fire (and perhaps three in a bed at that) down through the + middling and inferior grades; if you are never at a loss for + ways to do the most unpracticable things without tools; if you + can do all this and some more come on. . . . It is a universal + rule here to help one another, each one keeping an eye single + to his own business. + +They knew that they were leaving many dear associations of the old home, +giving up many of the comforts of life, sacrificing things which those +who remained thought too vital to civilization to be left. But they were +not mere materialists ready to surrender all that life is worth for +immediate gain. They were idealists themselves, sacrificing the ease of +the immediate future for the welfare of their children, and convinced of +the possibility of helping to bring about a better social order and a +freer life. They were social idealists. But they based their ideals on +trust in the common man and the readiness to make adjustments, not on +the rule of a benevolent despot or a controlling class. + +The attraction of this new home reached also into the Old World and gave +a new hope and new impulses to the people of Germany, of England, of +Ireland, and of Scandinavia. Both economic influences and revolutionary +discontent promoted German migration at this time; economic causes +brought the larger volume, but the quest for liberty brought the +leaders, many of whom were German political exiles. While the latter +urged, with varying degrees of emphasis, that their own contribution +should be preserved in their new surroundings, and a few visionaries +even talked of a German State in the federal system, what was noteworthy +was the adjustment of the emigrants of the thirties and forties to +Middle Western conditions; the response to the opportunity to create a +new type of society in which all gave and all received and no element +remained isolated. Society was plastic. In the midst of more or less +antagonism between "bowie knife Southerners," "cow-milking Yankee +Puritans," "beer-drinking Germans," "wild Irishmen," a process of mutual +education, a giving and taking, was at work. In the outcome, in spite of +slowness of assimilation where different groups were compact and +isolated from the others, and a certain persistence of inherited +_morale_, there was the creation of a new type, which was neither the +sum of all its elements, nor a complete fusion in a melting pot. They +were American pioneers, not outlying fragments of New England, of +Germany, or of Norway. + +The Germans were most strongly represented in the Missouri Valley, in +St. Louis, in Illinois opposite that city, and in the Lake Shore +counties of eastern Wisconsin north from Milwaukee. In Cincinnati and +Cleveland there were many Germans, while in nearly half the counties of +Ohio, the German immigrants and the Pennsylvania Germans held nearly or +quite the balance of political power. The Irish came primarily as +workers on turnpikes, canals and railroads, and tended to remain along +such lines, or to gather in the growing cities. The Scandinavians, of +whom the largest proportion were Norwegians, founded their colonies in +Northern Illinois, and in Southern Wisconsin about the Fox and the head +waters of Rock River, whence in later years they spread into Iowa, +Minnesota and North Dakota. + +By 1850 about one-sixth of the people of the Middle West were of North +Atlantic birth, about one-eighth of Southern birth, and a like fraction +of foreign birth, of whom the Germans were twice as numerous as the +Irish, and the Scandinavians only slightly more numerous than the Welsh, +and fewer than the Scotch. There were only a dozen Scandinavians in +Minnesota. The natives of the British Islands, together with the natives +of British North America in the Middle West, numbered nearly as many as +the natives of German lands. But in 1850 almost three-fifths of the +population were natives of the Middle West itself, and over a third of +the population lived in Ohio. The cities were especially a mixture of +peoples. In the five larger cities of the section natives and foreigners +were nearly balanced. In Chicago the Irish, Germans and natives of the +North Atlantic States about equaled each other. But in all the other +cities, the Germans exceeded the Irish in varying proportions. There +were nearly three to one in Milwaukee. + +It is not merely that the section was growing rapidly and was made up of +various stocks with many different cultures, sectional and European; +what is more significant is that these elements did not remain as +separate strata underneath an established ruling order, as was the case +particularly in New England. All were accepted and intermingling +components of a forming society, plastic and absorptive. This +characteristic of the section as "a good mixer" became fixed before the +large immigrations of the eighties. The foundations of the section were +laid firmly in a period when the foreign elements were particularly free +and eager to contribute to a new society and to receive an impress from +the country which offered them a liberty denied abroad. Significant as +is this fact, and influential in the solution of America's present +problems, it is no more important than the fact that in the decade +before the Civil War, the Southern element in the Middle West had also +had nearly two generations of direct association with the Northern, and +had finally been engulfed in a tide of Northeastern and Old World +settlers. + +In this society of pioneers men learned to drop their old national +animosities. One of the Immigrant Guides of the fifties urged the +newcomers to abandon their racial animosities. "The American laughs at +these steerage quarrels," said the author. + +Thus the Middle West was teaching the lesson of national +cross-fertilization instead of national enmities, the possibility of a +newer and richer civilization, not by preserving unmodified or isolated +the old component elements, but by breaking down the line-fences, by +merging the individual life in the common product--a new product, which +held the promise of world brotherhood. If the pioneers divided their +allegiance between various parties, Whig, Democrat, Free Soil or +Republican, it does not follow that the western Whig was like the +eastern Whig. There was an infiltration of a western quality into all of +these. The western Whig supported Harrison more because he was a pioneer +than because he was a Whig. It saw in him a legitimate successor of +Andrew Jackson. The campaign of 1840 was a Middle Western camp meeting +on a huge scale. The log cabins, the cider and the coonskins were the +symbols of the triumph of Middle Western ideas, and were carried with +misgivings by the merchants, the bankers and the manufacturers of the +East. In like fashion, the Middle Western wing of the Democratic party +was as different from the Southern wing wherein lay its strength, as +Douglas was from Calhoun. It had little in common with the slaveholding +classes of the South, even while it felt the kinship of the pioneer with +the people of the Southern upland stock from which so many Westerners +were descended. + +In the later forties and early fifties most of the Middle Western States +made constitutions. The debates in their conventions and the results +embodied in the constitutions themselves tell the story of their +political ideals. Of course, they based the franchise on the principle +of manhood suffrage. But they also provided for an elective judiciary, +for restrictions on the borrowing power of the State, lest it fall under +the control of what they feared as the money power, and several of them +either provided for the extinguishment of banks of issue, or rigidly +restrained them. Some of them exempted the homestead from forced sale +for debt; married women's legal rights were prominent topics in the +debates of the conventions, and Wisconsin led off by permitting the +alien to vote after a year's residence. It welcomed the newcomer to the +freedom and to the obligations of American citizenship. + +Although this pioneer society was preponderantly an agricultural society +it was rapidly learning that agriculture alone was not sufficient for +its life. It was developing manufactures, trade, mining, the +professions, and becoming conscious that in a progressive modern state +it was possible to pass from one industry to another and that all were +bound by common ties. But it is significant that in the census of 1850, +Ohio, out of a population of two millions, reported only a thousand +servants, Iowa only ten in two hundred thousand and Minnesota fifteen +in its six thousand. + +In the intellectual life of this new democracy there was already the +promise of original contributions even in the midst of the engrossing +toil and hard life of the pioneer. + +The country editor was a leader of his people, not a patent-insides +recorder of social functions, but a vigorous and independent thinker and +writer. The subscribers to the newspaper published in the section were +higher in proportion to population than in the State of New York and not +greatly inferior to those of New England, although such eastern papers +as the _New York Tribune_ had an extensive circulation throughout the +Middle West. The agricultural press presupposed in its articles and +contributions a level of general intelligence and interest above that of +the later farmers of the section, at least before the present day. + +Farmer boys walked behind the plow with their book in hand and sometimes +forgot to turn at the end of the furrow; even rare boys, who, like the +young Howells, "limped barefoot by his father's side with his eyes on +the cow and his mind on Cervantes and Shakespeare." + +Periodicals flourished and faded like the prairie flowers. Some of +Emerson's best poems first appeared in one of these Ohio Valley +magazines. But for the most part the literature of the region and the +period was imitative or reflective of the common things in a not +uncommon way. It is to its children that the Middle West had to look for +the expression of its life and its ideals rather than to the busy +pioneer who was breaking a prairie farm or building up a new community. +Illiteracy was least among the Yankee pioneers and highest among the +Southern element. When illiteracy is mapped for 1850 by percentages +there appears two distinct zones, the one extending from New England, +the other from the South. + +The influence of New England men was strong in the Yankee regions of +the Middle West. Home missionaries, and representatives of societies for +the promotion of education in the West, both in the common school and +denominational colleges, scattered themselves throughout the region and +left a deep impress in all these States. The conception was firmly fixed +in the thirties and forties that the West was the coming power in the +Union, that the fate of civilization was in its hands, and therefore +rival sects and rival sections strove to influence it to their own +types. But the Middle West shaped all these educational contributions +according to her own needs and ideals. + +The State Universities were for the most part the result of agitation +and proposals of men of New England origin; but they became +characteristic products of Middle Western society, where the community +as a whole, rather than wealthy benefactors, supported these +institutions. In the end the community determined their directions in +accord with popular ideals. They reached down more deeply into the ranks +of the common people than did the New England or Middle State Colleges; +they laid more emphasis upon the obviously useful, and became +coeducational at an early date. This dominance of the community ideals +had dangers for the Universities, which were called to raise ideals and +to point new ways, rather than to conform. + +Challenging the spaces of the West, struck by the rapidity with which a +new society was unfolding under their gaze, it is not strange that the +pioneers dealt in the superlative and saw their destiny with optimistic +eyes. The meadow lot of the small intervale had become the prairie, +stretching farther than their gaze could reach. + +All was motion and change. A restlessness was universal. Men moved, in +their single life, from Vermont to New York, from New York to Ohio, +from Ohio to Wisconsin, from Wisconsin to California, and longed for the +Hawaiian Islands. When the bark started from their fence rails, they +felt the call to change. They were conscious of the mobility of their +society and gloried in it. They broke with the Past and thought to +create something finer, more fitting for humanity, more beneficial for +the average man than the world had ever seen. + +"With the Past we have literally nothing to do," said B. Gratz Brown in +a Missouri Fourth of July oration in 1850, "save to dream of it. Its +lessons are lost and its tongue is silent. We are ourselves at the head +and front of all political experience. Precedents have lost their virtue +and all their authority is gone. . . . Experience can profit us only to +guard from antequated delusions." + +"The yoke of opinion," wrote Channing to a Western friend, speaking of +New England, "is a heavy one, often crushing individuality of judgment +and action," and he added that the habits, rules, and criticisms under +which he had grown up had not left him the freedom and courage which are +needed in the style of address best suited to the Western people. +Channing no doubt unduly stressed the freedom of the West in this +respect. The frontier had its own conventions and prejudices, and New +England was breaking its own cake of custom and proclaiming a new +liberty at the very time he wrote. But there was truth in the Eastern +thought of the West, as a land of intellectual toleration, one which +questioned the old order of things and made innovation its very creed. + +The West laid emphasis upon the practical and demanded that ideals +should be put to work for useful ends; ideals were tested by their +direct contributions to the betterment of the average man, rather than +by the production of the man of exceptional genius and distinction. + +For, in fine this was the goal of the Middle West, the welfare of the +average man; not only the man of the South, or of the East, the Yankee, +or the Irishman, or the German, but all men in one common fellowship. +This was the hope of their youth, of that youth when Abraham Lincoln +rose from rail-splitter to country lawyer, from Illinois legislator to +congressman and from congressman to President. + +It is not strange that in all this flux and freedom and novelty and vast +spaces, the pioneer did not sufficiently consider the need of +disciplined devotion to the government which he himself created and +operated. But the name of Lincoln and the response of the pioneer to the +duties of the Civil War,--to the sacrifices and the restraints on +freedom which it entailed under his presidency, reminds us that they +knew how to take part in a common cause, even while they knew that war's +conditions were destructive of many of the things for which they worked. + +There are two kinds of governmental discipline: that which proceeds from +free choice, in the conviction that restraint of individual or class +interests is necessary for the common good; and that which is imposed by +a dominant class, upon a subjected and helpless people. The latter is +Prussian discipline, the discipline of a harsh machine-like, logical +organization, based on the rule of a military autocracy. It assumes that +if you do not crush your opponent first, he will crush you. It is the +discipline of a nation ruled by its General Staff, assuming war as the +normal condition of peoples, and attempting with remorseless logic to +extend its operations to the destruction of freedom everywhere. It can +only be met by the discipline of a people who use their own government +for worthy ends, who preserve individuality and mobility in society and +respect the rights of others, who follow the dictates of humanity and +fair play, the principles of give and take. The Prussian discipline is +the discipline of Thor, the War God, against the discipline of the White +Christ. + +Pioneer democracy has had to learn lessons by experience: the lesson +that government on principles of free democracy can accomplish many +things which the men of the middle of the nineteenth century did not +realize were even possible. They have had to sacrifice something of +their passion for individual unrestraint; they have had to learn that +the specially trained man, the man fitted for his calling by education +and experience, whether in the field of science or of industry, has a +place in government; that the rule of the people is effective and +enduring only as it incorporates the trained specialist into the +organization of that government, whether as umpire between contending +interests or as the efficient instrument in the hands of democracy. + +Organized democracy after the era of free land has learned that popular +government to be successful must not only be legitimately the choice of +the whole people; that the offices of that government must not only be +open to all, but that in the fierce struggle of nations in the field of +economic competition and in the field of war, the salvation and +perpetuity of the republic depend upon recognition of the fact that +specialization of the organs of the government, the choice of the fit +and the capable for office, is quite as important as the extension of +popular control. When we lost our free lands and our isolation from the +Old World, we lost our immunity from the results of mistakes, of waste, +of inefficiency, and of inexperience in our government. + +But in the present day we are also learning another lesson which was +better known to the pioneers than to their immediate successors. We are +learning that the distinction arising from devotion to the interests of +the commonwealth is a higher distinction than mere success in economic +competition. America is now awarding laurels to the men who sacrifice +their triumphs in the rivalry of business in order to give their service +to the cause of a liberty-loving nation, their wealth and their genius +to the success of her ideals. That craving for distinction which once +drew men to pile up wealth and exhibit power over the industrial +processes of the nation, is now finding a new outlet in the craving for +distinction that comes from service to the Union, in satisfaction in the +use of great talent for the good of the republic. + +And all over the nation, in voluntary organizations for aid to the +government, is being shown the pioneer principle of association that was +expressed in the "house raising." It is shown in the Red Cross, the Y. +M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the councils and boards of science, +commerce, labor, agriculture; and in all the countless other types, from +the association of women in their kitchen who carry out the +recommendations of the Food Director and revive the plain living of the +pioneer, to the Boy Scouts who are laying the foundations for a +self-disciplined and virile generation worthy to follow the trail of the +backwoodsmen. It is an inspiring prophecy of the revival of the old +pioneer conception of the obligations and opportunities of +neighborliness, broadening to a national and even to an international +scope. The promise of what that wise and lamented philosopher, Josiah +Royce called, "the beloved community." In the spirit of the pioneer's +"house raising" lies the salvation of the Republic. + +This then is the heritage of pioneer experience,--a passionate belief +that a democracy was possible which should leave the individual a part +to play in free society and not make him a cog in a machine operated +from above; which trusted in the common man, in his tolerance, his +ability to adjust differences with good humor, and to work out an +American type from the contributions of all nations--a type for which +he would fight against those who challenged it in arms, and for which in +time of war he would make sacrifices, even the temporary sacrifice of +individual freedom and his life, lest that freedom be lost forever. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[335:1] An address delivered at the dedication of the building of the +State Historical Society of Minnesota, May 11, 1918. Printed by +permission of the Society. + +[343:1] See De Tocqueville's interesting appreciation of this American +phenomenon. + + + + +INDEX + + +Absentee proprietors, 55, 297 + +Achievement, 309 + +Adams, Henry, 213 + +Adams, J. Q., 26, 192, 230 + +Agriculture, 314, 329; + Middle West, 149, 150 + +Agriculture, Department of, 320 + +Alamance, 119, 120 + +Alaska, 296 + +Albany, 43, 52 + +Albany congress of 1754, 15 + +Algonquin Indians, 130 + +Aliens, land tenure by, 110 + +Alleghany Mountains, 9, 18, 67; + as barrier to be overcome, 195 + +Allen, Ethan, 54 + +Allen, W. V., 220 + +American Historical Assoc., 159 + +American history, social forces, 311; + survey of recent, 311 + +American life, distinguishing feature, 2 + +American people, 339 + +American spirit, 306, 336, 337 + +"American System," 171, 172 + +Americanization, effective, 4 + +Arid lands, 9, 147, 219, 239, 245, 278 + +Aristocracy, 250, 254, 257, 275 + +Army posts, frontier, 16; + prototypes, 47 + +Asia, 296 + +Association, voluntary, 343, 344, 358 + +Astor's American Fur Co., 6, 143 + +Atlantic coast, as early frontier, 4; + Mississippi Valley and, 190, 191; + Northern, History, 295 + +Atlantic frontier, composition, 12 + +Atlantic states, 207, 208 + +Augusta, Ga., 98 + +Autocracy, 344 + + +Back country, 68, 70; + democracy of, 248; + New England, 75 + +Backwoods society, 212 + +Backwoodsmen, 163, 164 + +Bacon, Francis, 286 + +Bacon's Rebellion, 84, 247, 251, 301 + +Baltimore, trade, 108 + +Bancroft, George, 168 + +Bank, 171, 254, 325 + +Bedford, Pa., 5 + +Beecher, Lyman, 35 + +Bell, John, 192 + +Benton, T. H., 26, 35, 192, 325, 328 + +Berkshires, 60, 71, 77 + +Beverley, Robert, 85, 91; + manor, 92 + +"Birch seal," 78 + +Black Hills, 145 + +Blackmar, F. W., 238 + +Blank patents, 95 + +Blood-feud, 253 + +Blount, William, 187 + +Blue Ridge, 90, 99 + +Boone, A. J., 19 + +Boone, Daniel, 18, 105, 124, 165, 206 + +Boston, trade, 108 + +Boutmy, E. G., 211 + +Braddock, Edward, 181, 324 + +Brattle, Thomas, 56 + +British and Middle West, 350 + +Brown, B. Gratz, 355 + +Brunswick County, Va., 91 + +Bryan, W. J., 204, 236, 237, 246, 281, 327, 329 + +Bryce, James, 165, 206, 211, 284 + +Buffalo, N. Y., 136, 150, 151 + +Buffalo herds, 144 + +Buffer state, 131, 134 + +Burke, Edmund, 33; + on the Germans, 109 + +Byrd, Col. William, 84, 87, 98 + + +Calhoun, J. C., 2, 105, 141, 174, 206, 241; + on representation, 117; + policy of obtaining western trade for the South, 196 + +California, 8; + gold, 144 + +Canada, 53, 226; + barrier between, and the United States, 131; + border warfare, 44; + homesteads, 296; + Middle West and, 128; + wheat fields, 278 + +Canadians, 227 + +Canals, deep water, 150 + +Capital, 276, 305, 325; + concentration and combinations, 245, 261, 266, 280, 305-306 + +"Capitalistic classes," 285 + +Capitalists, 20; + "expectant," 343 + +Capitals, state, transfers, 121 + +Captains of industry, 258, 259, 260 + +Carnegie, Andrew, 260, 265 + +Caroline cow-pens, 16 + +Catron, John, 345 + +Cattle raising in Virginia, 88, 89, 92 + +Census, first, frontier at, 5 + +Census of 1820, frontier, 6 + +Census of 1890, extinction of frontier, 1, 9, 38, 39, 297 + +Center of nation, 222 + +Channing, W. E., 355 + +Charleston, S. C., 88, 108, 196 + +Chase, S. P., 104, 142 + +Cherry Valley, 104 + +Chicago, 137, 150, 151, 180, 350; + character, 232 + +Chillicothe, 133, 223 + +Cincinnati, 133, 151, 162, 223, 231, 232 + +Cincinnati and Charleston R. R., 174 + +Cities, 297, 316-317; + northeastern, 294-295; + seaboard, 194, 195, 196; + three periods of development, 195 + +Civil War, 356; + Middle West and, 142; + Mississippi Valley and, 201; + Northwest and, 217 + +Clark, G. R., 131, 167, 186 + +Clark, J. B., 332 + +Class distinctions, 280, 285 + +Clay, Henry, 26, 168, 171, 172, 173, 174, 192, 197, 206, 213, 216, 226, + 241, 304, 325 + +Cleaveland, Gen. Moses, 133, 222, 257 + +Cleveland, 133, 150, 223, 231, 232 + +Clinton, De Witt, 195, 196 + +Coal supply, 313 + +Coast, Atlantic, 206; + destiny, 295; + interior and, antagonisms, 110 + +Coeducation, 353 + +Colden, Cadwallader, 80 + +Colonial life, 11 + +Colonial system, 127 + +Colonization, 312; + English and French contrasted, 13-14; + peaceful, 169 + +Colony of free humanity, 337-338 + +Columbus, Ohio, 162, 229 + +Combinations of capital and of labor, 245 + +Commencement seasons, 290 + +Commons, J. R., 327 + +Community, "beloved community," 358; + life, 347; + type of settlement, 73, 74, 125 + +Competition, 154, 203, 277, 308, 312 + +Compromise, 174, 198, 230, 236; + slavery, 140, 142 + +Concentration of power and wealth, 245, 261, 266, 280 + +Concord, Mass., 39 + +Concurrent majority, 118 + +Congregational church, 74, 112 + +Congress and frontiersmen, 252-253 + +Connecticut, frontier towns, 42, 45, 53; + land policy, 76 + +Connecticut River, 52, 53, 72 + +Connecticut Valley, 63, 73 + +Conquest, 269 + +Conscience, American, 328 + +Constitution, U. S., 209, 244 + +Constitutional convention of 1787, 249 + +Constitutions, state, 121, 252, 352; + reconstruction, 192 + +Cooperation, voluntary, 165, 257, 258 + +Corn, areas, 149; + belt, 151 + +Corporations, 265, 328 + +Cotton culture, 28, 139, 255; + early extension, 7; + transfer from the East to Mississippi Valley, 194 + +"Cotton Kingdom," 174, 189, 194, 198 + +Coureurs de bois, 182 + +Cow pens, 16, 88 + +Crockett, Davy, 105 + +Crops, migration, 149 + +Currency, 148; + evil, 32; + expansion, 210 + +Cutler, Manasseh, 141 + + +Dairy interests in Wisconsin, 234, 236 + +Dakotas, settlement, 145, 146 + +Darien, Ga., 98 + +Davis, Jefferson, 105, 139, 174 + +De Bow, J. D. B., 197 + +De Bow's _Review_, 217 + +Debs, E. V., 281 + +Dedham, 40, 58 + +Deerfield, 48, 52, 58, 70 + +Democracy, 32, 54, 306; + doubts of, 280; + established in Old West, 107; + free land and, 274; + frontier, early, 106; + frontier and, 30, 31, 247, 249; + Godkin on, 307; + in early 18th century, 98; + Jacksonian, 192, 302, 342-343; + Jeffersonian, 250, 251; + magnitude of achievement in the West, 258; + Middle West, 154; + Mississippi Valley, 183; + neighborhood, 346; + new type in West, 210, 216; + Ohio Valley, influence, 172; + Ohio Valley and, 175; + organized, 357; + origin, 293; + outcome of American experiences, 266; + pressure on the universities, 283; + significance of Mississippi Valley in promoting, 190; + Upland South, 165; + Western contributions, 243; + Western ideals, 261; + _see also_ Pioneer democracy + +Democratic party, 327, 330; + basis, 248; + Middle Western wing, 352 + +Democratic-Republican party, 250 + +Denver, Colo., 19 + +De Tocqueville. _See_ Tocqueville + +Detroit, 135, 150 + +Development, American, 205, 221; + four changes, 244; + personal, 271; + significant decade, 246-247; + study of, 10; + true point of view, 3; + Western, 218 + +D'Iberville. _See_ Iberville + +Discovery, 271, 293, 301, 306 + +Doddridge, Joseph, 115 + +Dogs for hunting Indians, 45 + +Douglas, S. A., 140; + Lincoln debates, 230 + +Douglas, William, 109 + +Down east, 79 + +Dracut, 111 + +Dreams, 301, 339 + +Duel, 253 + +Duluth, 150, 151, 234 + +Dunkards, 263 + +Dunstable, 48, 56 + +Duquesne, Abraham, 14 + +Dwight, Timothy (1752-1817), 63; + fears of pioneer class, 251 + + +East, efforts to restrict advance of frontier, 33, 34; + fears of the West, 208; + out of touch with West, 18 + +Economic forces and political institutions, 243 + +Economic historian, 332 + +Economic legislation and Ohio Valley, 170 + +Education, 282; + Middle West, 156 + +Edwards, Jonathan, 63 + +Egleston, Melville, 55 + +Eliot, C. W., on corporation, 265; + on democracy and slavery, 256 + +Emerson, R. W., 353; + on Lincoln, 256 + +England, decrease of dependence on, 23; + Mississippi Valley and, 180, 186; + Old Northwest and, 131, 134 + +English pioneers, 270 + +English settlers in Michigan and Wisconsin, 226 + +English stock and English speech, 23 + +Equality, 274; + New England, 61, 62, 63; + Western settlers, 212 + +Erie Canal, 7, 136, 195, 197 + +Europe, American democracy and, 282; + how America reacted on, 3; + Southeastern, 294, 295, 316 + +Europeans, 267 + +Evolution, American, as key to history, 11 + +Expansion, 206, 219, 304, 345; + Ohio Valley and, 166; + world politics, 246 + +Experts, 284, 285, 286 + + +"Fall line," 4, 9, 68; + efforts to establish military frontier on, 84 + +Fairfax, Lord, 92, 123 + +Far East, 315 + +Far West, 315, 341 + +Farm lands, 297 + +Farm machinery, 276 + +Farmers, 238, 239 + +Farmer's frontier, 12, 16, 18 + +Federal colonial system, 168, 169 + +Federal Reserve districts, 322 + +Fertility, 129 + +Field, Marshall, 265 + +Finance, 318, 325; + pioneer ideas, 148 + +Fire-arms and Indians, 13 + +Firmin, Giles, 56 + +Food supply, 279, 294, 314 + +Foreign parentage, Indiana and Illinois, 232; + Michigan, 233; + Western States, 237; + Wisconsin, 233-234 + +Foreign policy, 168, 219 + +Forest Service, 320 + +Forest philosophy, 207 + +"Foresters," 63 + +Forests, 270, 293; + Middle West, 130 + +Fortified houses, 71 + +Fourierists, 263 + +France, efforts to revive empire in America, 167; + Middle West and, 131; + Mississippi Valley and, 180, 186; + western exploration, 163; + +Franchise, 249-250, 252 + +Franklin, Benjamin, Mississippi Valley and, 182; + on the Germans, 109 + +Free Soil party, 141, 173, 217 + +French explorers, 163 + +French frontier, 125 + +French settlers in Michigan and Wisconsin, 226 + +Frontier, conservative attitude toward advance, 63; + definition, 3, 41; + demand for independent statehood, 248; + efforts to check and restrict it, 33; + evil effects, 32; + extinction, 1, 9, 38, 39, 321; + farmers, 239, 240; + first official, 39, 54; + French, 125; + importance as a military training school, 15; + influence toward democracy, 247, 249; + kinds and modes of advance, 12; + Massachusetts, 65; + military, of Old West, 106-107; + religious aspects, 36; + Spanish, 125; + towns in Massachusetts, 42, 45, 53, 70; + various comparisons, 10 + +Frontiersmen, 206, 209, 212; + in Congress, 252-253; + Mississippi Valley, 182; + Virginia idea, 86 + +Fulton, Robert, 171 + +Fur trade, 13; + England after Revolution, 131; + Hudson River, 80; + Southern, Old West, 87 + + +Gallatin, Albert, 191, 252, 317 + +Galveston, 202 + +Garfield, J. A., 241 + +Geographic factors, 329 + +Geographic provinces, 158 + +Georgia, 174, 196; + restriction of land tenure, 97; + settlement, 97 + +Germanic germs, 3, 4 + +Germans, 263; + in New York in early times, 5; + Middle West and, 137-138, 146; + Palatine, 5, 82, 100, 109, 124; + political exiles, 349; + sectaries, 164; + Wisconsin, 23, 227, 236; + zone of settlement in Great Valley, 102 + +Glarus, 236 + +Glenn, James, 23, 108 + +Godkin, E. L., 307 + +Goochland County, Va., 93 + +Government, 321; + paternal, 328; + popular, 357 + +Government discipline, 356 + +Government expeditions, 17 + +Government intervention, 344 + +Government ownership, 148 + +Government powers, 307 + +Government regulation, 281 + +Granger movement, 148, 203, 218, 276, 281 + +Grant, U. S., 142 + +Granville, Lord, 95, 123 + +Great Lakes, 128, 149, 150, 173, 297 + +Great Plains, 8, 128, 147; + Indian trade and war, 144 + +Great Valley, 100; + colonization, 100-101 + +Greater South, 174 + +Greeley, Horace, 104 + +Green Mountain Boys, 78 + +Greenback movement, 148, 203, 218, 276 + +Greenway manor, 92 + +Groseilliers, 180 + +Groton, 48, 57 + +Grund, F. J., 7 + +Grundy, Felix, 192 + +Gulf coast, 295 + +Gulf States, 141; + occupation, 139 + + +Hammond, J. H., on slavery problem in the Mississippi Valley, 198 + +Hanna, Marcus, 265 + +Harriman, E. H., 280, 318 + +Harrison, W. H., 168, 173, 189, 192, 213, 255 + +Hart, A. B., 177 + +Hartford, 76 + +Haverhill, 51, 62 + +Hayes, R. B., 241 + +Henry, Patrick, 94 + +Heroes, 254, 256; + Western, 213 + +High thinking, 287 + +Higher law, 239 + +Hill, J. J., 260 + +Historian, 333 + +Historic ideals, 306, 335 + +Historical societies, 159-160, 339 + +History, character, 331-332; + new viewpoints, 330 + +Holland, J. G., 73 + +Holst, H. E. von, 24 + +Home markets, 108, 216 + +Home missions, 36, 354 + +Homestead law of 1862, 145, 276 + +Hoosier State, 224 + +Housatonic River, 71 + +Housatonic Valley, 72 + +Houston, Sam, 105 + +Howells, W. D., 353 + +Hudson River, 53, 79; + frontier, 43; + fur trade, 80 + +Humanitarian movement, 327 + +Huxley, T. H., on modern civilization, 300 + + +Iberville, P. le M. d', 180 + +Icarians, 263 + +Idealists, America the goal, 261; + social, 349 + +Ideals, 239; + American, and the West, 290; + American, loyalty to, 307; + American historic, 306, 335; + immigrants, 264; + Middle West, 153; + Mississippi Valley, 203; + pioneer, and the State university, 269; + readjustment, 321, 328; + Western, 209, 214, 267; + Western democracy and, 261 + +Illinois, composite nationality, 232; + elements of settlement, 225; + settlement, 135 + +Illiteracy in Middle West, 353 + +Immigrants, 277; + idealism, 264 + +Immigration, 146, 215, 316 + +Indian guides, 17 + +Indian policy, 10 + +Indian question, early, 9 + +Indian reservations, 278 + +Indian trade, 6, 13, 14; + Middle West, 143, 144 + +Indian wars, 9; + New England and, 69; + Ohio Valley and, 167 + +Indiana, character, 232; + constitution, 282; + elements in settlement, 223-224; + settlement, 134 + +Indianapolis, 162, 229 + +Indians, buffer state for England, 131, 134; + congresses to treat with, 15; + effects of trades on, 13; + hunting Indians with dogs, 45; + influence on Puritans and New England, 44; + Middle West and, 133, 134; + society, 13 + +Individualism, 30, 32, 37, 78, 125, 140, 203, 254, 259, 271, 273, 302, + 306; + in the Old West, 107; + reaction against, 307; + Upland South, 165 + +Industrial conditions, 280, 281, 285; + Middle West, 149, 154; + Mississippi Valley, 194, 201; + Ohio Valley and, 175 + +Industry, captains of, and large undertakings, 258, 259, 260; + control, 318 + +Inland waterways, 202 + +Insurgent movement, 327 + +Intellectual life and the frontier, 37 + +Intercolonial congresses, 15 + +Interior and coast, antagonisms, 110 + +Internal commerce, 171, 188 + +Internal improvements, 27, 28, 29, 111, 170, 172, 216, 257; + after 1812 to break down barrier to West, 195; + Old West, 109 + +Internal trade, Old West, 108, 109 + +Iowa, 141, 143; + elements and growth, 229; + settlement, 137 + +Ipswich, 56 + +Irish, 350 + +Iron mines in Middle West, 152 + +Iron ore, 313 + +Iroquois Indians, 13, 80 + +Irrigation, 258, 279 + +Isms, 239 + +Izard, Ralph, 274 + + +Jackson, Andrew, 105, 168, 173, 189, 206, 213, 216, 241, 252, 253, 268, + 326; + personification of frontier traits, 252, 254 + +Jackson, Stonewall, 105 + +Jacksonian democracy, 192, 302, 342-343 + +James River, 84, 90; + settlement, 93 + +Jefferson, Thomas, 93, 105, 114, 268; + conception of democracy, 250, 251; + on England and the Mississippi, 186; + on the pioneer in Congress, 253; + on the importance of the Mississippi Valley, 188 + +"Jim River" Valley, 145 + +Johnson, R. M., 192 + +Johnson, Sir William, 81, 104 + +Justice, direct forms in the West, 212 + + +Kansas, 142, 144, 146, 151; + Populists, 238; + settlers, 237 + +Kansas City, 151 + +Kentucky, 19, 122, 162, 167, 168, 169, 192, 225, 253; + slavery, 174 + +King Philip's War 40, 46, 69 + +Kipling, Rudyard, "Foreloper," 270; + "Son of the English," 262 + + +Labor, combinations, 245; + composition of laboring class, 316 + +Labor theorists, 303, 326 + +Lamar, L. Q. C. (1825-1893), 25 + +Lancaster, Mass., 48, 57, 61 + +Land, 328-329; + abundance, 274; + abundance, as basis of democracy, 191, 192; + alien tenure, 110; + free, exhausted, 244-245; + free Western, 211, 259; + fundamental fact in Western society, 211; + "mongering," 61; + _see also_ Public lands + +Land companies, 123, 347 + +Land grants, 9; + for schools and colleges, 74; + to railroads, 276 + +Land Ordinance of 1785, 132 + +Land policies, 10 + +Land system, "equality" principle in New England, 61, 62, 63; + Georgia, 97; + later federal, 123; + New England, 54; + New England conflicts, 75; + New York State, 80; + North Carolina, 95; + Old West, 122; + Pennsylvania, 101; + Virginia, 91; + Virginia grants to societies, 85 + +La Salle, 180 + +Laurentide glacier, 129 + +Law and order, 298, 344 + +Leadership, 213, 291, 292, 307; + educated, 286 + +Lease, Mary Ellen, 240 + +Legislation, 277, 307; + frontier and, 24; + +Leicester, 59 + +Leigh, B. W., 115 + +Lewis and Clark, 13, 17 + +Liberty, Bacon on, 286; + for universities, 287; + individual, 213; + Western, 212 + +Life as a whole, 287 + +Lincoln, Abraham, 105, 135, 142, 174, 206, 213, 217, 225, 241, 268, 304, + 356; + Douglas debates, 230; + embodiment of pioneer period, 255-256; + Ohio Valley, influence of, 175 + +Lincoln, C. H., 113 + +Litchfield, 71, 76, 124 + +Livingston manor, 81, 82 + +Locofocos, 303, 326, 348 + +Log cabin, 338 + +"Log cabin campaign," 173 + +London Company, 301 + +Loria, Achille, 11 + +Louisiana, 180, 208 + +Louisiana Purchase, 25, 34, 140, 167, 213, 251; + effect on Mississippi Valley, 189-190 + +Louisville, 162 + +Lowell, J. R., on Lincoln, 255 + +Loyal Land Co., 123, 182 + +Lumber industry, 152; + Wisconsin, 234-235 + +Lumbermen, 272, 273 + +Lynch law, 212, 272; + New England, 78 + + +McKinley, William, 236, 237, 241 + +Magnitude, 258, 260, 276 + +Maine, 52-53 + +Maine coast, 79 + +Mallet brothers, 180 + +Manila, battle of, 247 + +Manorial practice in New York, 83 + +Marietta, 124, 133, 223, 257 + +"Mark colonies," 70 + +Marquette, Jacques, 180 + +Martineau, Harriet, 214, 303, 339 + +Massachusetts, attempt to locate frontier line, 39; + frontier, 65; + frontier towns, 42, 45, 53, 70; + locating towns before settlement, 76 + +Mather, Cotton, attitude as to advancing frontier, 63 + +Mesabi mines, 152, 234 + +Mendon, 57 + +Methodists, 238 + +Mexico, 295 + +Michigan, 135-136, 137; + development and resources, 233; + settlement, 226, 228 + +Middle region, 27; + in formation of the Old West, 79; + typical American, 28 + +Middle West, agriculture, 150; + Canada and, 128; + Civil War and, 142; + early society, 153-154; + education, 282; + elements of settlement--Northern and Southern, 346, 351; + Europe and, 282; + flow of population into, 132-133; + forests, 130; + Germans and, 137-138; + Germans and Scandinavians, 146; + idealism, 153; + immigrants of varied nationalities, 349; + importance, 126, 128; + increase of settlement in the fifties, 142-143; + industrial organism, 149; + meaning of term, 126; + nationalism, 142; + natural resources, 129; + New England element, 137; + peculiarity and influence, 347; + pioneer democracy, 335; + settlement, 135, 342; + slavery question and, 139; + southern zone, 138 + +Migration, 21, 237, 337; + communal vs. individual, 125; + crops, 149; + interstate, 224; + labor, 62; + New England, and land policy, 77 + +Militant expansive movement, 105 + +Military frontier, 41, 47; + early form, 47; + Old West, significance, 106-107; + Virginia in later 17th century, 83, 84 + +Milwaukee, 137, 227, 236, 350 + +Miner's frontier, 12 + +Mining camps, 9 + +Mining laws, 10 + +Minneapolis, 137, 151, 234 + +Minnesota, 143, 144, 237; + economic development, 234; + Historical Society, 335, 338-339 + +Missions to the Indians, 79 + +Mississippi Company, 123, 182 + +Mississippi River, 7, 9, 142, 185, 194, 345 + +Mississippi Valley, 10, 139, 166-167, 324; + beginning of stratification, 197; + Civil War and, 201; + democracy and, 190; + early population, 183; + economic progress after 1812, 194; + England's efforts to control, 180-181; + extent, 179; + French explorers in, 180; + frontiersmen's allegiance, 186-187; + idealism, social order, 203-204; + industrial growth after the Civil War, 201-202; + political power and growth from 1810 to 1840, 193; + primitive history, 179; + question of severance from the Union, 187; + significance in American history, 177, 185; + slavery struggle and, 201; + social forces, early, 183 + +Missouri, 192 + +Missouri Compromise, 140, 174, 226 + +Missouri Valley, 135 + +Mohawk Valley, 68, 82 + +Monroe, James, 150 + +Monroe Doctrine, 296; + germ, 168 + +Monticello, 93 + +Moravians, 95, 102 + +Morgan, J. P., 318 + +Mormons, 263 + +Morris, Gouverneur, 207 + + +Nashaway, 57 + +National problem, 293 + +Nationalism, 29; + evils of, 157; + Middle West and, 142 + +Nationalities, mixture, 27; + replacement in Wisconsin, 235 + +Naturalization, 110 + +Nebraska, 144, 145, 220; + settlers, 237 + +Negro, 295 + +New England, 27, 301; + back lands, 75; + coast vs. interior, 111; + colonies from, 124; + culmination of frontier movement, 78; + early official frontier line, 43; + economic life, 78; + effect on the West, 36; + foreign element, 294; + frontier protection, 46-47; + frontier types, 43-44; + Greater New England, 66, 70; + ideas, and Middle West, 348; + Indian wars, 69; + land system, 54; + Middle West and, 347; + Ohio settlement and, 223; + Old West and, 68; + Old West and interior New England, 70; + pioneer type, 239; + streams of settlement from, 215; + two New Englands of the formative period of the Old West, 78-79 + +New Englanders in the Middle West, 137; + in Wisconsin and the lake region, 228; + three movements of advance from the coast, 136; + Westernized, 215, 216 + +New Glarus, 236 + +New Hampshire, 69, 72, 77, 111 + +New Hampshire grants, 77 + +New Northwest, 222 + +New Orleans, 136, 137, 167, 187, 188, 189, 217, 295 + +New South, 218; + Old West and, 100 + +New West, 257 + +New York City, 136, 195, 318 + +New York State, early frontier, 43; + lack of expansive power, 80; + land system, 80; + settlement from New England, 83; + western, 230 + +Newspapers of the Middle West, 353 + +Nitrates, 279 + +Norfolk, 195 + +North Carolina, 87, 106; + coast vs. upland, 116; + in Indiana Settlement, 224; + public lands, 95; + settlement, 94, 95; + slavery, 122; + taxation, 118, 119 + +North Central States, 126; + region as a whole, 341 + +North Dakota, development, 237 + +Northampton, 63 + +Northfield, 53 + +Northwest, democracy, 356; + Old and New, 222; + _see also_ Old Northwest + +Northwest Territory, 222 + +Northwestern boundary, 324 + +Norton, C. E., 208-209 + +Norwegians, 232 + +Nullification, 117, 254 + + +Ohio, diversity of interests, 231-232; + elements of settlement, 223; + history, 133-134; + New England element, 223; + Southern contribution to settlement, 223 + +Ohio Company, 123, 133, 141, 182, 223 + +Ohio River, 5, 161 + +Ohio Valley, 104; + as a highway, 162; + economic legislation and, 170; + effects on national expansion, 166; + in American history, 157; + influence on Lincoln, 175; + part in making of the nation, 160; + physiography, 160-161; + relation to the South, 174; + religious spirit, 164, 165; + stock and settlement, 164 + +Oil wells, 297 + +Oklahoma, 278, 297 + +Old National road, 136 + +Old Northwest, 131, 132, 136, 221; + as a whole, 241-242; + defined, 218; + elements of settlement, 222; + political position, 236; + social origin, 222-223; + Southern element in settlement, 223, 225-226; + turning point of control, 229 + +"Old South," 166 + +Old West, colonization of areas beyond the mountains, 124; + consequences of formation, 106; + New South and, 100; + summary of frontier movement in 17th and early 18th centuries, 98; + term defined, 68 + +Old World, 261, 267, 294, 299, 344, 349; + effect of American frontier, 22; + West and, 206, 210 + +Opportunity, 37, 212, 239, 259-260, 261, 263, 271-272, 342, 343 + +Orangeburg, 96 + +Ordinance of 1787, 25, 132, 168, 190, 223 + +Oregon country, 144 + +Orient, 297 + +Osgood, H. L., 30 + + +Pacific coast, 168, 219, 304 + +Pacific Northwest, 296 + +Pacific Ocean, 297, 315 + +Packing industries, 151 + +Palatine Germans, 5, 22, 100, 109, 124; + New York State and, 82 + +Palisades, 71 + +Panama Canal, 295 + +Panics, 279-280 + +Paper money, 32, 111, 121, 122, 209 + +Parkman, Francis, 70, 72, 144, 163 + +"Particular plantations," 41 + +Past, lessons of, 355 + +Patroon estates, 80 + +Paxton Boys, 112 + +Pecks "New Guide to the West," 19 + +Penn, William, 262 + +Pennsylvania, 23, 27; + coast and interior, antagonisms, 112; + German settlement, 82, 100; + Great Valley of, 68, 164; + land grants, 101; + new Pennsylvania of the Great Valley, 100; + Scotch-Irish, 103, 104; + settlement Of Old West part, 83 + +Pennsylvania Dutch, 22, 100, 110 + +Perrot, Nicolas, 180 + +Philadelphia, 106; + trade, 108 + +Physiographic provinces, 127 + +Piedmont, 68; + Virginia, 87, 89 + +Pig iron, 152, 313 + +Pine, 151 + +Pine belt in Middle West, 143 + +Pioneer democracy, lessons learned, 357; + Middle West, 335 + +Pioneer farmers, 21, 206, 257 + +Pioneers, conservative fears about, 251, 252; + contest with capitalist, 325; + contrast of conditions, 279; + deeper significance, 338; + essence, 271; + ideals and the State university, 269; + Middle West, 146, 154; + Ohio Valley, 167; + old ideals, 148; + sketch, 19 + +Pittsburgh, 104, 127, 136, 154-155, 161, 265, 299, 314, 324 + +Plain people, 256, 267 + +Political institutions, 243; + frontier and, 24 + +Political parties, 249, 324 + +Polk, J. K., 105, 192, 255 + +Pontiac, 131, 144 + +Poor whites, 224 + +Population center, 222 + +Populists, 32, 127, 147, 155, 203, 220, 247, 277, 281, 305; + Kansas, 238 + +Prairie Plains, 129 + +Prairie states, 239 + +Prairies, 218, 236, 276, 348; + settlement, 145, 147 + +Presbyterians, 105, 106, 109, 164 + +Presidency, 254; + Mississippi Valley and, 192; + Ohio Valley and, 175; + Old Northwest and, 222 + +Prices, 313 + +Princeton college, 106 + +Pritchett, H. S., 282 + +Privilege, 192; + conflict against, 120, 121 + +Proclamation of 1763, 181 + +Progressive Republican movement, 321 + +Prohibitionists, 240 + +"Proletariat," 285 + +Property, 210; + as basis of suffrage, 249 + +Prosperity, 281 + +Protection. _See_ Tariff + +Provinces, geographic, 158 + +Provincialism, desirable, 157, 159 + +Prussianism, 337, 356 + +Public lands, 25, 132, 303; + policy of America, 26, 170; + Western lands, first debates on, 191 + +Public schools, 266, 282 + +Puget Sound, 298 + +Puritan ideals, 73, 75, 78; + German conflict with, 138 + +Puritanism, 27 + +Puritans and Indians, 44 + +Purrysburg, 97 + +Pynchon, John, 51, 52 + + +Quakers, 105, 112, 164; + in settlement of Indiana, 224 + +Quebec, Province of, 131 + +Quincy, Josiah, 208 + + +Radisson, Sieur de, 180 + +Railroads, administration by regions, 322; + Chicago and, 150; + continental, 247; + in early fifties, 137; + land grants to, 276; + Mississippi Valley, 304; + northwestern, 145; + origin, 14; + speculative movement, 276; + statistics, 314; + western, 218 + +Rancher's frontier, 12, 16 + +Ranches, 9, 16; + Virginia, 88 + +Rappahannock River, 84, 90; + settlement, 93 + +Reclamation, 298 + +Reclamation Service, 320 + +Red Cloud (Indian), 144 + +Red River valley, 145 + +Redemptioners, 22, 90, 97, 100 + +Reformers, 281, 324; + social, 262-263 + +Regulation, War of the, 248 + +Regulators, 116, 119, 120, 212 + +Religion of the Middle West, 345 + +Religious freedom of the Old West, 121 + +Religious spirit, Ohio Valley, 164, 165; + Upland South, 164, 165 + +Rensselaerswyck, 80 + +Representation, 114, 117, 120 + +Republican party, 327 + +Research, 284, 287, 331 + +Revolution, American, 30 + +Rhodes, J. F., 24 + +Richmond, Va., 108 + +Rights, equal, 326-327, 338; + of man, 192 + +Ripley, W. Z., 316 + +Robertson, James, 105, 187 + +Rockefeller, J. D., 260, 264-265 + +Rocky Mountains, 8, 9, 10, 298 + +Roosevelt, Theodore, 202, 204, 281, 319, 327; + on the Mississippi Valley, 178; + "Winning of the West," 67 + +Root, Elihu, 159 + +Roxbury, 59 + +Royce, Josiah, 157, 358 + +Rush, Richard, 317 + + +St. Louis, 151, 161, 229 + +St. Paul, 137, 234 + +Salisbury, Mass., 56 + +Salt, 17; + annual pilgrimage to coast for, 17 + +Salt springs, 17, 18 + +Salzburgers, 97 + +Sandys, Sir Edwin, 301 + +Sault Ste. Marie Canal, 149 + +Scalps, Massachusetts bounty for, 45 + +Scandinavians, 263, 350; + Middle West, 146; + Western life, 232-233, 234 + +Schools, early difficulties, 107; + _see also_ Public schools + +Schurz, Carl, 337 + +Science, 284, 330-331 + +Scientific farming, 294 + +Scotch Highlanders, 104; + Georgia, 98 + +Scotch-Irish, 5, 22, 71; + migration in Great Valley and Piedmont, 103; + Pennsylvania, 104; + South Carolina, 97; + Virginia, 86, 91-92 + +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, 105, 109, 164 + +Scovillites, 116 + +Seaboard cities, 194, 195, 196 + +Seattle, 298 + +"Section" of land, 123, 132 + +Sectionalism, 27, 28, 52, 157, 215, 220, 321 + +Sections, relation, 159 + +Self-government, 169, 190, 207, 248, 275 + +Self-made man, 219, 318 + +Servants, 60, 353 + +Service to the Union, 358 + +Settlement, community type, 73, 74 + +Settler, 20 + +Sevier, John, 105, 187 + +Seward, W. H., 141; + on the Northwest, 230; + on the slavery issue in the Mississippi Valley, 199, 200 + +Shays' Rebellion, 112, 119, 122, 249 + +Sheffield, 71 + +Sheldon, George, 58 + +Shenandoah Valley, 68, 90, 91, 92, 99, 105 + +Sherman, W. T., 142 + +Sibley, H. H. (1811-1891), 272, 273, 328 + +Silver movement, 238, 239, 329 + +Simsbury, 63 + +Singletary, Amos, 240 + +Sioux Indians, 130 + +Six Nations, 15, 83 + +Slavery question, 24, 29, 98, 111, 139, 304, 330; + compromise movement, 174; + democracy and, 256; + expansion, 174; + Middle West and, 139; + Mississippi Valley and, 198, 201; + Northwest and, 230; + slaves as property, 115; + Virginia and North Carolina, 122 + +Smith, Major Lawrence, 84 + +Social control, 277 + +Social forces, in American history, 311; + mode of investigating, 330; + on the Atlantic coast, 295; + political institutions and, 243 + +Social mobility, 355 + +Social order, Mississippi Valley, 203-204; + new, 263 + +Social reformers, 262-263 + +Socialism, 246, 277, 307, 321 + +Society, backwoods, 212; + rebirth of in the West, 205 + +Soils, 278, 279; + search for, 18 + +Solid South, 217 + +South, 27, 166, 218; + contribution to settlement of Old Northwest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois), + 223, 225-226; + Ohio Valley and, 174; + solid, 217; + transforming forces, 295; + West and, 196, 197; + _see also_ Upland South + +South Carolina, 174; + condition of antagonism between coast and interior, 116; + land system, townships, 96; + trade, 108 + +South Dakota, development, 237 + +Southeastern Europe, 294, 299, 316 + +Southerners and the Middle West, 133-134, 135, 138 + +Southwest, 297 + +Spain, 167, 181, 246; + Mississippi Valley and, 184, 185 + +Spangenburg, A. G., 17 + +Spanish America 181, 182, 295 + +Spanish frontier, 125 + +Spanish War, 246 + +Speculation, 319 + +Spoils system, 32, 254 + +Spotswood, Alexander, 22, 88, 90, 91, 113, 247; + Mississippi Valley and, 180 + +Spotsylvania County, Va., 90 + +Spreckles, Claus, 265 + +Squatter-sovereignty, 140 + +Squatters, 272, 343; + doctrines, 273, 328; + ideal, 320; + Middle West, 137; + Ohio Valley, 170; + Pennsylvania in 1726, 101 + +Stark, John, 103-104 + +State historical societies, 340 + +State lines, 127 + +State universities, 221, 354; + as safeguard of democracy, 286; + Michigan, 233; + peculiar power, 283-284; + pioneer ideals and, 269, 281 + +States, checkerboard, 218; + frontier pioneers' demand for statehood, 248; + groups, 159; + new states vs. Atlantic States, 207; + System of, 168 + +Staunton, Va., 92 + +Steam navigation, 7, 135, 171 + +Steel, 313 + +Steel and iron industry, 152 + +Stockbridge, 79 + +Stoddard, Solomon, 45 + +Success, 288, 309 + +Sudbury, 39 + +Suffrage, 192, 216; + basis, 249; + frontier and extension, 30; + manhood, 250, 352 + +Superior, Lake, 180, 314; + iron mines, 152 + +Swedes, 233 + +Symmes Purchase, 223 + + +Talleyrand, 299 + +Taney, R. B., 141 + +Tariff, 25, 27, 170, 172, 197, 216 + +Taylor, Zachary, 255 + +Tecumthe, 134, 144 + +Tennessee, 122, 168, 187, 225, 252, 253; + democracy, 192 + +Tennyson's "Ulysses," 310 + +Territories, system of, 168, 169 + +Texas, 168 + +Thomas, J. B., 174 + +Tocqueville, A. C. H. C. de, 153, 275, 303, 343 + +Toledo, Ohio, 231 + +Toleration, 355 + +Town meeting, 62 + +Towns, legislating into existence, 125; + locating, Massachusetts, 76; + New England and Virginia, 41; + new settlements in New England, 55; + South Carolina, 96; + typical form of establishing in New England, 74; + Virginia, 85, 86 + +Trader's frontier, 12; + effects following, 12; + rapidity of advance, 12, 13 + +Trading posts, 14 + +Transportation, 148; + Great Lakes, 150 + +Tryon, William, 106 + +Tuscarora War, 94, 95 + + +Ulstermen, 103 + +Unification of the West, 215 + +United States, collection of nations, 158; + development since 1890, 311; + federal aspect, 159; + fundamental forces, 311; + original contribution to society, 281-282; + wealth, 312 + +U. S. Steel Corporation, 152-153, 247, 265, 313 + +Universities, duties, 292; + function, 287; + influence of university men, 285; + need of freedom, 287; + pressure of democracies on, 283; + State and, 286; + _see also_ State universities + +Upland South, 164; + religious spirit, 164, 165 + + +Van Buren, Martin, 254, 326 + +Van Rensselaer manor, 81 + +Vandalia, 229 + +Verendryes, the, 180 + +Vermont, 69, 72, 77, 78, 111, 122, 136 + +Vermonters in Wisconsin and Michigan, 228 + +Vicksburg, 201 + +Vigilance committees, 212 + +Vinton, S. F., 141, 229 + +Virginia, 301; + early attempt to establish frontier, 41; + Indian wars, 69-70; + inequalities, coast vs. interior, 113; + interest in Mississippi Valley, 182; + land grants, 91; + land grants to societies, 85; + Piedmont, society, 95; + Piedmont portions, 87, 89; + settlement in latter part of 17th century, 83; + slavery, 122; + two Virginias in later 17th century, 94; + Western democracy and, 250 + +Virginia Convention of 1829-30, 28, 31 + +Visions, 270, 331, 339-340 + +Voyageurs, 17 + + +Wachovia, 95 + +Walker, F. A., 128 + +War of 1812, 168, 213 + +Washington, George, 92, 124; + Mississippi Valley and, 181, 182, 194, 196, 324; + Ohio Valley and, 163, 167 + +Wealth, 213-214, 219, 288, 319; + democracy versus, 192; + in politics, 173; + United States, 312 + +Wells (town), 47 + +"Welsh tract," 97 + +Wentworth, Benning, 77 + +West, American ideals and, 290; + beginning of, 6; + center of interest, 327; + constructive force, 206; + contributions to democracy, 243; + factor in American history, 1, 3; + ideals, 209, 214, 267; + indefiniteness of term, 126; + insurgent voice, 319; + main streams of settlement, 215; + mark of New England, 36; + phase of division, 216-217; + population, 35; + problem of, 205; + South and, 196, 197; + warnings against, 208, 209; + Middle West; _see also_ Old West; Old Northwest + +West Virginia, 114 + +Westchester County, N. Y., 81 + +Western colleges, 36 + +Western life, dominant forces, 222 + +Western Reserve, 124, 133 + +Western spirit, 310 + +"Western Waters," 161, 206, 302; + men of freedom and independence, 183 + +"Western World," 161, 166, 206, 302; + basis of its civilization, 177 + +Wheat, 329; + areas, 149 + +Whig party, 27, 173, 304, 351 + +White, Abraham, 240 + +White, Hugh, 192 + +Whitman, Walt, 336 + +Wilderness, 262, 269, 270, 279 + +Wilkinson, James, 169, 187 + +Williams, John (1664-1729), 70 + +Williams, Roger, 262 + +Windsor, 76 + +Winthrop, John, 62 + +Wisconsin, 137, 138, 218, 294, 341; + development and elements, 233-234; + German element, 227, 228, 236; + New England element, 228; + settlement, 226, 227 + +Wood, Abraham, 98 + +Woodstock, 59 + +World's fairs, 156 + +World-politics, 246, 315 + +Wyoming Valley, 79, 124 + + +Yemassee War, 95 + +"Young America" doctrine, 140 + + + + * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +The following words appear in the text with and without hyphens. +They have been left as in the original. + + battle-field battlefield + coast-wise coastwise + cow-pens cowpens + head-rights headrights + iron-master ironmaster + new-comers newcomers + non-sectional nonsectional + out-vote outvote + rail-splitter railsplitters + sea-board seaboard + slave-holding slaveholding + tide-water tidewater + un-won unwon + +The following corrections have been made to the text: + + page 25--as the nation marched westward.[period is missing in + original] + + page 40, footnote 40:5--"American Colonies in the Seventeenth + Century,"[quotation mark missing in original] + + page 48, footnote 48:4--Sheldon, "Deerfield,"[quotation mark + missing in original] + + page 49--your honours [original has opening parenthesis]we + haue but litel laft + + page 53--the frontier Towns.[original has extraneous quotation + mark] + + page 68, footnote 68:1--Powell, "Physiographic + Regions[original has extraneous single quote]" + + page 75, footnote 75:1--Egleston[original has Eggleston], + "Land System of the New England Colonies," + + page 86--at least three foot within the ground."[quotation + mark missing in original] + + page 96, footnote 96:3--(N. Y., 1899)[closing parenthesis + missing in original], pp. 149, 151; + + page 117, footnote 117:3--pp. 440-447[original has 440-437] + + page 118--it was being exploited,[original has period] + + page 118, footnote 118:2--N. C.[original has N .C.] + + page 123--Preemption and preemptions are hyphenated across + line breaks in the original. The diaresis has been reinserted + in the rejoined words. + + page 163--American backwoodsmen[original has backswoodsmen] + + page 167--to add the settlements[original has setlements] + + page 171--social conditions of the people whose[original has + who] needs + + page 236--stronghold of resistance[original has resistence] + + page 254--formal law and the subtleties[original has + subleties] + + page 268--that dwarf [original has extraneous word of] those + of the Old World + + page 310--to pause, to make an end,[original has period] + + page 348--to his own business.[original has extraneous + quotation mark] + + page 353--at least before [original has extraneous word at] + the present day + + page 362--Bryan, W. J., 204, 236, 237, 246, 281, 327, + 330[original has 329] + + page 363, under Democracy--Godkin[original has Gookin] on, 307 + + page 363--Democratic party, 327, 330[original has 329] + + page 363--Discovery, 271[original has 270], 293, 301, 306 + + page 363--Douglas[original has Douglass], William, 109 + + page 364--Forest[original has Foreign] Service, 320 + + page 364, under Germans--Palatine, 5, 82, 100, 109, + 124[original also lists page 32 in error] + + page 366--Henry, Patrick, 94[original has 95] + + page 366, under Indians: hunting Indians with dogs, + 45[original has 95] + + page 367--Kipling, Rudyard, "Foreloper[original has + Toreloper]," 270 + + page 368--Marietta, 124, 133[original has 132], 223, 257 + + page 368, under Michigan--development and resources, + 233[original has 232] + + page 371--Pynchon[original has Pyrichon], John, 51, 52 + + page 373--Spangenburg[original has Spangenberg], A. G. + +Spelling and punctuation errors in quoted material have been left as in +the original. + +The index entry for James Glenn was after the entry for E. L. Godkin. +The two entries were reversed to maintain alphabetical order. Index +entries for Leicester and Leigh, B. W., were combined with the +Legislation entry. Entries were moved as appropriate. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY*** + + +******* This file should be named 22994.txt or 22994.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/9/22994 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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