^Mfrp|(^im' MftJ THE UNITED STATE ,i;,.^,C-frefeyviUe j - S))arta.ubu^rg\Fav '', yf '^"1 SAVANNAH-- '^r. ' , , "''/I, / jlJiruinwirk , ^ lYI^OBIL^Ji , ,. F ■■, , Vl.'i \ p-?,F;-rnun.nna *' I S L A.N'd S 1* OF AMERICA. CO ^ i 00 o 1 LU CD ^ _^ ^ :2 I*z ^ - Q= — : cc OTiugai. two nations would come into collision with rival claims. The pope not only considered himself the proper arbiter of disputes among Christian peoples, but was especially quali- fied to settle this question, because islands of the sea and heathen lands were claimed by the church as the peculiar appanage of the successor of St. Peter. In fact, as early as 1442, Pope Eugenius IV. had granted to the crown of Portugal all the heathen lands which might be discovered by voyaging along the coasts of Africa, including even the Indies. It was evident that if Columbus had pointed out to Spain a new way to these same Indies the two 22 The Gro2vth of the American Nation. The pope divides the world. June 24, 1497. It is possible that Vespucius reached the coast of Hon- duras June 21, 1497. Fiske, II., 87, note. 1504. Colonization. powers would reach the goal from opposite directions, with disastrous consequences. Accordingly, in 1493 Pope Alexander VI. granted to Spain all the lands she might discover in the western seas, and fixed the line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese possessions as a meridian a hundred leagues west of the Azores. In the following year a treaty between Spain and Portugal moved this line two hundred seventy leagues farther west. This line of 1494 resulted in the claim of Spain to all the western continent except the eastern portion of South America, which was afterwards found to be cut off by the meridian in question, and it was this last fact which led to the settlement of Brazil by the Portuguese. But the other maritime nations were not disposed to accept this partition of the world as altogether conclu- sive. An Englishman, John Cabot, was the first Euro- pean to sight the mainland of North America, and French fishermen began to frequent the banks of Newfoundland in the early years of the sixteenth century. It was not, however, for more'than a hundred years after the voyage of Columbus that either of these nations made permanent settlements in the New World. The Spaniards who first came to America had no thought of making a home there. They meant to get a fortune as soon as practicable and to return to Spain for its enjoyment, but in many cases the fortune was slow in coming, and so the years slipped by without the return home. Presently not a few people came over to the New World who had not made a success of life in the Old, and to whom one place was quite as good as an- other. Then there were priests eager for missionary tri- umphs, royal officials charged with administrative and military duties, and commercial agents whose residence The New World. 23 abroad was necessary to the due transaction of their busi- ness. In these ways not many years passed before there was a considerable European population resident in the various Spanish ports. The motives of English and French settlement were different from those of the Spaniards rather in detail than French and Ensrlisli settle- in principle. Material welfare was the primary purpose ments. of emigration. But there was little hope of finding the precious metals on the coasts north of Florida, and the colonists had to be content with the returns of agricul- ture, fisheries, furs, and lumber. These did not offer the sudden and great fortunes to be had from mines of gold and silver, and required a longer residence for the accumulation of a competence. Accordingly, these col- onies were from the first more likely to draw permanent settlers. And for the same reason they were apt to at- tract a more rugged element from the home communities. The French occupied the St. Lawrence Valley, while the English formed a series of colonies along the Atlantic coast. But the seventeenth century, which witnessed the foundation of the English colonies in America, was sensfonsin '^' marked in England by fierce religious dissensions, which "^ ^" at last led to civil war. In the course of these quarrels adherents of different parties were at one time triumphant and at another time overcome. And the defeated, de- spairing of their cause at home, in many cases abandoned their country for one in which they could work out their ideas without interference. In this way Puritan colonies were formed in New England (as the exiles fondly called their transatlantic home), and Roman Catholics settled Maryland. The Friends (.Quakers) had no share in the wars, but they were in little favor in England, and so made a settlement for their faith in Pennsylvania. 24 The Growth of the American N^ation. Growth of the colonies. Importance of colonies learned. The French colonists were sturdy Roman Cathohcs, and from the first their priests and monks hibored ear- nestly to convert the Indians, with some success. From these various motives the colonies attracted num- bers of immigrants and gradually became reasonably strong and prosperous. And by the time that this fact was evident, it also became clear that they were a source of wealth to the mother-country. The colonial products — furs, timber, dried fish, tobacco — were sent home, and in return the colonists afforded a steadily increasing mar- ket for manufactured articles. The colonies also were found a convenient social safety-valve. As has been shown, considerable numbers of refractory religious sec- taries were comfortably got out of the way. And there was also afforded by emigration an outlet for uneasy and enterprising spirits who were not satisfied with the hum- drum of settled life, for the shiftless ne' er-do-wells who could not make their condition worse, for younger sons who had their own way to make, for clergymen and courtiers for whom it was not convenient to provide at home. In all these ways Europe gradually learned that the new lands were more than mere mines or sources of silk and spices. They were a valuable outlet for enterprise, and it was in many ways profitable for European people to settle permanently beyond seas. Thus trade led to discovery, and discovery to colonization. And so a be- ginning was made of the European conquest of the world, which the twentieth century bids fair to see com- pleted in Africa and Asia. CHAPTER II. THE ORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS. References. — Bancroft and Fiske ; Shaler : The Ciiifed States of America. The first land across the Atlantic reached by Colum- bus was one of the Bahama Islands, and from that point he naturally was led to the West Indies. Later Spanish The Spaniards voyag^ers from these islands followed rumors of gold, and tropics. so Mexico, Central America, and South America came gradually to be disclosed and occupied. Of the country toward the north little heed was taken. In 1565, to be sure, a settlement was made at St. Augustine, in Florida. But practically the whole Spanish attention and energy were taken up by the rich tropics. Thus it came about that the temperate parts of North America were neg- lected for more than a century, and by that time other nations were ready for the task of colonization. The successful voyage of Da Gama in 1498 was fol- „, ^ . ' * ^^ The Portuguese lowed up by the Portuguese with great energy. They '" the East. held firmly to their right, under Pope Alexander's bull, to a monopoly of trade with the East by way of the Cape of Good Hope. And for a century their power in Asia and its islands was practically unchallenged. But the latter part of the sixteenth century witnessed the growth of a great maritime power in Holland. And the ^^^^^ ^^^ fearless Dutch navigators, fearing neither pope nor Portu- I'sh, and o ' o 11 1< rench. guese, pushed into the eastern seas and by force of arms dispossessed their rivals of the supremacy. Mean- 25 26 The Growth of the American Nation. The land adapted to colonization. The extreme North unfit for settlement. while France and England had slowly become aroused to the wealth which lay beyond the seas, and early in the seventeenth century both powers began to establish commercial agencies in the East Indies and to send col- onists to America. Thus the Spanish and Portuguese monopolies were at the same time disregarded by eager and vigorous competitors. The seventeenth century, then, witnessed the occupa- tion of the temperate region of the North American At- lantic coast by the French and English, with minor set- tlements by the Dutch and the Swedes. The land which was colonized by these powers was peculiarly adapted to become the home of a strong peo- ple. From the Allegheny Mountains to the sea there were great forests of noble timber, abundance of streams, and excellent harbors on the coast. The climate, unlike that of Africa, or of India, was agreeable and salubri- ous. The rainfall was ample for the support of vegeta- tion, without descending in the tropical floods which are so destructive near the equator. The regularly recur- ring winters brought an invigorating frost. In nineteen twentieths of North America, in fact, the winter tempera- ture is that of freezing, and snow is a familiar thing in four fifths of the continent. South America, on the other hand, is essentially tropical, not more than a tenth of it being subject to snow. And the tropical and even subtropical parts of America were in the hands of the Spaniards. But there was a wide stretch of country north of the Spanish possessions, and altogether suit- able for habitation. The northern quarter of North America has a climate so bleak as to be unfit for agri- culture. And even the hardiest race can accomplish little under so arduous surroundings. Certainly no peo- ple in Europe have shown more vigor than the Scandi- The Orio-Jnal Settlements. 27 navians. Yet their settlements in Iceland and Greenland have made little impression on the world's history, while the Scandinavians in France and England were a pow- erful element in the development of those countries. But from the St. Lawrence to Florida the colonists found a climate and soil highly suitable for agriculture. And not only was agriculture possible. It was easy to practice iust about the same kind of industries to which The temperate ^ _ _ regions suited the immigrants were accustomed at home. The same to Europeans, crops would grow in the fields. The same animals would thrive. The same trees and flowers and fruits sur- rounded the settlers. And so the difficulties of adjusting one's self to new conditions of life were greatly lessened. The early settlements found certain other great advan- tages. There were abundant water-powers in the numer- ous streams descending from the Alleghenies. There was great plenty of timber as material for ships and houses. And some of the peculiar products of the New World were especially adapted to the use of pioneers. Maize, or Indian corn, would readily grow in the rude com. clearings, and yielded a much larger crop in proportion than the smaller grains. It afforded meal for the planter's hoe-cake, or mush, and at the same time provided food for the inevitable swine. Corn meal and pork were the staff of life in the colonies. Tobacco, Tobacco, too, first seen by the companions of Columbus, had be- come an article of general use in Europe, and its cultivation in the southern colonies insured a valu- able article of export. It is surprising how rapidly these two distinctively American plants, tobacco and the potato, had become almost a necessary of life to people who, before the time of Columbus, had never heard of them. It is related that Sir Henry Mor- gan, an English rover, having returned from America, Potatoes. 28 The Growth of the Americmi Natio?i. brought the habit of smoking, and his servant on first discovering his master with volumes of smoke rolling from the mouth, in great alarm dashed over him a pail- ful of water to put out the fire. The new plant was at first thought to have extraordinary medicinal properties. But its use had so great a fascination that a few years sufficed to "make all men kin" in the queer amuse- ment of sucking tobacco smoke into the mouth and sedately blowing it out again. Potatoes, "battatas" they were first called, were found by the Spaniards in Peru, and sent to Spain. From that country the new plant spread throughout Europe. Its use increased slowly, however, and it is only for about the last hundred years that it has come to be a common necessity. Sweet potatoes were found in Virginia by the early English settlers. But the common potato is often called, oddly enough, the "Irish" potato, although, as has been said, it is of South American origin. The "Indians." The native inhabitants of the Americas kept with Europeans the mistaken name of " Indians," which thus embalms the stubborn error of Columbus. They were savages, to be sure, in most of the continent. In Mexico and Peru they had reached a considerable advancement in the arts. But this had not been accompanied by suf- ficient military development to resist the superior de- structive power of the Spaniards, and so the wealth of those interesting American civilizations served only as incentives to their ruin. The Indians with whom the English and French settlers came in contact were rela- tively few in numbers, had not advanced beyond the Stone Age in the arts, were generally nomadic hunters, and could offer no serious resistance to settlement by a superior race. The French priests had some success in converting the Indians to Christianity. But the efforts The Original Settlements. 29 of English missionaries had little effect. And before Enelish fire-water, Eno-lish gunpowder, and English Disappearance *' . . * of the aborigi- chicanery the aborigines gradually melted away. It has "es. been said, graphically but with not a little truth, that the Dutch mode of dealing with the Indian was to buy Man- hattan Island from him for $24 and then cheat him out of the price, while the New England method was to shoot the savage and then take his land. In either way or all ways the result was the same. The natives of the great continent could ofter no effectual resistance to European power. And however much we may sympa- thize with the dispossessed and often ill-treated Indian, we must admit that a vastly higher type of life has taken his place. The world belongs to civilization. The first English colony on the American coast was English settle- that at Jamestown, in Virginia. And its immediate cause '"™ ''^ was the fact that in England there was at that time a sur- Virginia, 1607. plus of unemployed people. Times were hard. There were many soldiers whom the peace left idle, and changes in methods of agriculture had thrown thousands of farm laborers out of work. To provide an outlet for these unfortunate people, and at the same time to afford an opening for capital and enterprise. King James I. was induced to grant charters to two companies for the set- tlement of "Virginia." The English king claimed all of America as far south as the Spanish settlements, on the ground of Cabot's discovery. An unsuccessful at- tempt had been made to plant a colony during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and in her honor (she asserted herself proud to be called the virgin queen) the whole country was called Virginia. The London Company, which had the southern part The London of Virginia, sent out an expedition at the beginning of °™^ "^" 1607. The emigrants entered the waters which they 30 The Groivth of the American Nation. From Hampton Called Hampton Roads, sailed up a river which they favorite resi- named the James, in honor of their king-, and laid the james.° '"^ foundations of a town which for the same reason they The first Eng- called Tamestown. The early settlers had a hard strue- lish settlement. • i i ,• • r i • i-- gle With the rude conditions of their new hie, and at one time actually embarked in ships for the abandonment of The Original Settlements. 31 their enterprise. However, such succors came from home as induced them to perse\'ere, and gradually the colony became established. A large influence in its success was the cultivation of tobacco, for which the soil proved character of the colony. peculiarly adapted. This was a crop for which Europe afforded a ready market. The fact that this plant so early became a staple had some striking effects. The colonists became j^lanters, living on wide plantations, their homes remote one from another. And as early as 1 61 9 the sale of a few negroes to the planters from a Dutch ship which chanced to put into Virginia waters showed how to supply the lack of labor to cultivate the new crop. Thus it came about that negro slavery was introduced into English America. The unemployed in England seemed to have no great desire to cross the ocean in search of work. Some gentlemen of good family but slender fortune came over, a few poor people unable to pay for their passage bound themselves to serve for a stipulated time in order to get across the ocean. Not a few vagabonds were kidnapped from the London streets. In 1685 the rebels who joined Monmouth's In- surrection were sent to America and sold as bound serv- ants. But negroes proved the most profitable sort of labor. The Virginia colony, in accordance with the express desire of King James I., had the Established Episcopal Church of England recognized as the sole lawful form of religion. In 1634, however, Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic Maryland, 1634. gentleman, was allowed by King Charles I. to make a settlement on the shores of Chesapeake Bay for the ben- efit of English people of his faith. This new colony was called Maryland, from the queen, Henrietta Maria. Its land was properly included in that granted to Vir- 32 The Growth of the American Nation. ginia, and this led to some dissension, but Maryland continued to grow. Its chief city was named in honor of the founder. Religious liberty was one of the cardinal principles of this colony, an enlightened policy which was in advance of the age. The first settlement in the Carolinas was made in 1670. King Charles II. was not very scrupulous in keeping to the grant his grandfather had made to Virginia, and in 1663 a little ring of royal favorites secured from the king the grant of a large parcel of land, being all lying between the present states of Virginia and Florida. The mana- gers of this company were wise enough to follow the Maryland policy of religious liberty, and thus attracted to their colony many Huguenots, who had been expelled from France on account of their Protestant faith. ' ' Caro- lina" and "Charleston" commemorate the name of the worthless king who made the land grant. Some sixty years later a slice was taken from this grant in turn by King George II., who made a gift of its southern portion to an English benevolent association. These good men sought to plant a colony for the benefit of bankrupts, who in that day were imprisoned until they should pay their debts. If they could not pay at all they were left in prison indefinitely. The colony afterwards offered inducements for other discontented but worthy people, Germans and Scotchmen, and in the main fol- lowed a liberal policy. Thus was completed the settlement of the southern group of English colonies. All were formed under grants from the crown, in each case the name of the colony bear- ing witness to colonial loyalty. Maryland had a religious motive, Georgia was humanitarian. All, however, sought the material betterment of the immigrants, and in each of them negro sla^'es were an important element. Ogle- The Original Settlements. thorpe in Georgia tried at first to keep out the negroes. He also tried to prevent the importation of rum and the immigration of Roman CathoHcs. But antislavery and prohibition pro^'ed unsuited to the times and soon had to be abandoned, and rehgious intolerance could not last always. The southern colonies also had many descend- ants of proud English families, and were essentially aris- tocratic in the structure of society and government. The second company to which James I. granted "Vir- New England. ginia ' ' was called the Plymouth Company, and had the compan'^°"' northern part of the continent. But the first settlement within their domain was made without their knowledge or consent. The English Reformation in the sixteenth century had The Pilgrims, resulted in the separation of the Church of England from that of Rome. The ritual was modified and made Eng- lish, and some Roman Catholic doctrines were discarded. But there grew up in the last years of the century a large party who believed that the Reformation had not gone far enough and that the church still needed purifying from what they held to be essentially Roman Catholic practices. But there was a group still more advanced than the Puritans. These people, Separatists we may call them, held that they should withdraw from the state church altogether, and worship after their own con- science. Being held sharply accountable to the law for these practices, many of the Separatists left England and setded in Holland. But they did not wish to bring up their children in this foreign land, and so a number of them determined to emigrate to America, where they hoped to found an English colony in which they might worship God without molestation. Accordingly they embarked for England, and thence from the port of '^^o. Plymouth sailed in the litde ship Mayfiozvcr for the New 34 The Growth of the American Nation. World. On the 21st of December, 1620, they effected a landing and made a settlement which they called Plymouth. They had no distinct permission to make a colony, but they were let alone. They managed their own government as a pure democracy, and under the most cruel hardships persisted until finally they suc- ceeded in making themselves comfortable homes. This beginning of New England was made on a rugged coast in a bleak winter and by a handful of poor people. But the foundation was laid in free self-government and sincere religion. In 1629 a Puritan colony was established at Salem. In the following year a large migration of Puritans oc- curred, and their settlement was made at the spot which they called Boston. The times in England were not propitious for Puritans. Conformity to the established church was enforced by law, and thousands of those stern reformers, despairing of victory at home, cast in their lot with the fugitives beyond the ocean. These Puritans did not believe in religious liberty. Few did in those days. They came to New England to worship as they desired. They did not wish any inter- ference with their ideas. Attendance at church and tax- ation for the support of religion were compulsory. Those who could not conform were sent away. But the flower of English puritanism was certainly represented in Massachusetts. Many were from the English univer- sities. And one of the first acts of these colonists in their wilderness was to found the school which has grown to be Harvard University. Roger Williams was a young clergyman who did not believe in compulsory religion. Accordingly he was banished from the colony and took refuge among the Indians. Being joined by a few adherents he laid the The Original Settlements. 35 foundations of a new colony of which rehgious liberty was the corner-stone. His settlement he called Provi- dence. The religious liberty of Maryland was extended to all Christians. That of the Providence plantation had no limit. The bulk of the early settlers were Bap- tists, who were driven from the other colonies as pestilent sectaries. But Jews, Roman Catholics, even men with no religion, were free to settle with them. A similar set- tlement was made on Rhode Island, in the Narragansett Bay. The rich valley of the Connecticut River was soon 1 1 1 • r 1 A 1 • Connecticut, made the object of settlement. At about the same tmie 1633- that Providence was founded, emigrants from Massachu- setts Bay pushed westward through the woods, and be- gan se\'eral towns — Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, Saybrook. In 1638 a settlement was made at New Haven. These last good people adopted the Bible as their code of government. The people of Hartford and the neighboring towns met in 1639 and formed the first written constitution of America. It was more liberal than that of Massachusetts Bay, in that suffrage was not confined to church members. While these stalwart Puritans were establishing a safe ^, ■^ New Hamp- home for their churches in the southern part of New shire, 1623. England, a colony was formed north of them on quite a different basis. Two English courtiers secured from the corporation which had the monopoly of American land north of Virginia, title to the tract of land including the present states of New Hampshire and Maine. Here settlements were made as early as 1623, for the strictly commercial purposes of fishing and fur trading. The established church in England saw to it that laws were enforced against all who dissented from it. These were the Puritans, who settled in Massachusetts Bay and 36 77/1? Growth of the American Nation. 'Dissenters." Pennsylvania, 1681. The northern colonies. Connecticut ; the Separatists, one branch of whom took refuge at Plymouth, and another branch, the Baptists, at Providence ; and the Friends, or Quakers. These last sectaries were peculiarly obnoxious both in England and America. Even the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay im- prisoned and banished them, and in one case hanged five of them. But the Quakers had a friend at court in the person of William Penn. His father was an admiral in the British navy and a member of the navy board. King Charles II. owed the admiral a debt which he found it convenient to pay by settling on the younger Penn a tract of wild land in America. And here the Quaker leader brought a colony of his people and founded the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. Peace, charity, freedom, justice, were the fourfold foundation of Penn's colony. And as the Friends were an industrious and thrifty people, the colony grew steadily stronger. Thus with the single exception of New Hampshire the northern English colonies were founded principally for a religious purpose. Maryland was the only southern colony of which that was true. The northern colonies, especially in New England, were democratic. The town- meeting was the unit of government. And they were all in sympathy with the movement in church and state in England which culminated in the overthrow of royalty and the triumph of the Commonwealth and of Cromwell. Thus in little more than a hundred years the English gained a firm footing on the Atlantic seaboard of North America. Their colonies were scattered along more than two thousand miles of coast. They were diverse in origin and character and purpose. They were not directly connected in government, but they were alike in being thoroughly English. And that implied that in all there was the widest scope for individual initiative. CHAPTER III. THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION. References. — Bancroft and Fiske ; W'insor's Narrative atid Critical History ; Parkman's Works ; Seeley's Ttie Expan- sion of England, \o\. II. The monopoly of Spain and Portugfal in the trade . -^ ^ ^ The Spaniards and colonization of the East and of the New World was and Portuguese find rivals. fairly effective for about a century after the time of Columbus and Da Gama. But by the end of the six- teenth century other nations were ready to dispute the prize. By that time the Protestant Reformation had broken from the pope all the north of Europe. The Scandinavians, the English, and the Dutch were fear- less navigators as well as fierce Protestants, and the last especially in the course of their savage wars with the Iberian people had learned something of the riches to be found in India and America. The Dutch first tried to reach the East Indies by sail- -j-^g Dutch ing to the north around America and Europe. Failing of "oood'Hope^^ in this, finally a Dutch navigator boldly took the Portu- ^^^^' guese route by the Cape of Good Hope. His course was rapidly followed by others, and in 1602 the Dutch East India Company was formed. . During the seventeenth century this Dutch company succeeded in virtually ex- pelling the Portuguese from the East, and in taking their place. One of the sea captains employed by Holland in the settlement of attempt to find a northwest passage to the Indies was I'^nj ^eTs'^"^ Henry Hudson, an Englishman. In 1609 he found the 38 The Groivth of the American Nation. river which bears his name, and sailed up its waters for some distance, hoping to find it a strait leading to the Pacific. Later Dutch voyagers established a thriving fijr trade in the vicinity of Hudson's discovery, and in 1615 a fort was built near what is now Albany. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was organized, and in the following year took formal possession of the settle- New Amster- rnents. The chief town was New Amsterdam, at the ^'*'"' lower end of Manhattan Island. Fort Orange (Albany) was the northernmost stronghold on the Hudson, and ports were established on the Connecticut River near Hartford and on the Delaware (the South River, as the Dutch called it) below Camden. The claim was made to all the land between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and a purchase from the Indians added a large tract of what is now the state of Delaware. A treaty was made with the Indians, and the colony had a slow but reason- ably steady growth. The EiiRiish T\v& English did not admit the title of the Dutch to ^pufpmpnt?""^'' New Netherland, claiming the whole Atlantic coast from the French settlements to those of the Spanish in Florida, and westward to the South Sea. The exigencies of European politics, however, did not allow a forcible dis- possession of the sturdy Hollanders until 1664. By that time the commercial and maritime rivalry of England and the Netherlands was at its height, and King Charles II. granted the land between the Connecticut and the Delaware to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, quite regardless of previous royal grants to New Eng- land. An English squadron appeared in the harbor and took possession without difficulty of New Amster- dam. In a few days the whole colony passed under English control. The titles of the new proprietor were perpetuated by calling New Amsterdam New York, and settlements, New Sweden, The Sh'iiggle for Dominion. 39 Fort Orange Albany. The Dutch settlers were not dis- turbed in their private rights, and indeed they on the whole preferred the liberal government of Englishmen to the arbitrary methods of the Dutch company. Thus ended the Dutch attempt at an American col- ony. It fell into English hands without the loss of a drop of blood. And the Dutch inhabitants became easily amalgamated with the English. Community in the Protestant religion and in essential political ideas was stronger than differences of speech and of historic origin. The Scandinavian attempt at an American colony was even of shorter life than that of the Dutch. The Danes "^^^• had occupied Iceland and Greenland long before, but those bleak possessions hardly added to the power of the mother-country. The great Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden projected a settlement for his people in a more sunny part of the New World, which might, like New England, be a refuge for the Protestant faith. After the death of the warrior king, his design was carried out, and a colony of Swedes and Finns was formed not far from Wilmington. Their fort they named Christiana, from the child who was queen of Sweden. Land was bought of the Indians, and the colony had a quiet pros- perity. But after the Swedish power in Europe was no longer able to protect its distant emigrants, the Dutch in New Netherland sent a military expedition which ^ . ,^ ^ ■^ ^ _ Seized by the seized the Swedish settlement and annexed it to the ^ujch.iess, and by the Dutch colony. And nine years later. the English oc- English, 1664. cupation of New Netherland of course included New Sweden. The Swedish country was sold to Penn at the time his charter was granted, in 1681, and was known as the lower counties on the Delaware — afterwards merely Delaware. 40 The Growth of the American Natio7i. New France. Fiske, II., 493. \'(>yages of Veriazano and Cartier. Settlement at Port Royal, 1604. Quebec, 1608. The French rivalry with England was a far more seri- ous thing. Colonies and commerce were felt to be necessary to national prosperity, and so these France was determined to have. A French East India Com- pany was formed in 1604, four years after the English and two years after the Dutch. And at about the same time determined efforts were made at settlements in America. King Francis I. of France had no notion that Spain and Portugal should monopolize the world, even if the pope had bestowed it on them. He sent word to that effect to Charles of Spain, asking if our first father, Adam, had made those nations his sole heirs. " If so, it would be no more than proper for them to produce a copy of the will ; and meanwhile he should feel at liberty to seize upon all he could get. ' ' The first Frenchmen to visit the American coasts were fishermen, who in the opening years of the six- teenth century began a lucrative business on the banks and coasts of Newfoundland. An Italian commanding a French ship, Verrazano, in 1524 sailed along the coast from Cape Fear to about 50° of north latitude. Of course this discovery could give France no title as against the English voyage of Cabot in 1497. In 1534 Jacques Cartier entered the gulf and river which he named St. Lawrence, and sailed up as far as the rock of Quebec. He took possession of the country in the name of France. The religious and civil dissensions in France during the rest of the century, however, prevented any definite colo- nization. It was not vmtil 1604 that a permanent French settlement was made in America, at Port Roj-al, in Acadia. And four years later Champlain established a colony at Quebec. Thus was laid the foundation of Canada, in the year following the English beginning in Virginia. The Stniggle for Dominion. 41 I The main source of wealth in Canada was the fur trade, and to carry on this traffic the French voyageurs ranged the forests and traversed rivers and lakes for thousands of miles. Their energy was paralleled by the tireless devotion of the Jesuit missionaries, who endured every hardship and encountered every danger in order to win the savages to the Christian faith. Still the French colony progressed slowly. Few Frenchmen cared to leave their homes for a wilderness. And unlike the English colonies, which were largely the result of private initiative, in Canada everything came from the king and the governor. But the vigor and heroism of the leaders were something that belongs to the romance of history. The fur traders and mission- aries fraternized with the Indians, lived in their villages, traveled in their canoes. In 1673 Joliet, a fur trader, and Father Marquette, a Jesuit, ascended Fox River, crossed the portage, only two miles wide, to the Wis- consin, floated down that stream to the Mississippi, and descended the great river as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. The greatest of the French explorers was La Salle. In 1679 he left Montreal to find the mouth of the Missis- sippi. On Lake Erie he built a sailing vessel, in which he made the voyage to Mackinac. After many efforts and many discouragements, he finally landed where Chicago now stands, crossed the portage to the Illinois River, and thus reached the Mississippi. Descending this he finally reached the Gulf of Mexico. Here he set up the arms of France and formally made claim for his country to the whole valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries. He named the new province Louisiana, from King Louis XIV. Trading posts and forts were established in the upper The fur trade and the Catho- lic missionaries. French ex- plorers reach the Mississippi, 1673. La Salle explores the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, 16S2. 42 Tlie Grozvth of the American Nation. French settle- ments on the Gulf of Mexico. Character of the English settlements. 1685. Character of the French settlements. lakes, on Mackinac Island, on Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior, and at other points. It was not till the second decade of the eighteenth century that the French made good their claim to a footing on the gulf. Mobile being founded in 1 7 1 1 , and New Orleans, named in honor of the regent of France, in 17 18. The Illinois country was held by Fort St. Vincent (now Vincennes, Ind. ), Kaskaskia, and other settlements. Thus while the English were scattered along the sea- coast, the French had explored and occupied the interior of the continent. From Quebec to Mackinac, through- out the valleys of the Illinois and the Mississippi, to New Orleans and Mobile, the lilies of France were triumphant. These French settlers were very different from the English. The latter kept proudly aloof from the In- dians, merely getting the land in some way and building on it Enelish homes. The Eno-lish colonies, too, were quite independent of one another. Each managed its own affairs as it saw fit, subject only to the British gov- ernment at home. So the English settlement was car- ried on without any general plan. And indeed the various colonies were so different in origin and character that they had a very limited mutual sympathv. All the religious and political dissensions of the mother-country seemed reproduced in the New World. The French were all Catholics. The few Huguenots of the early settlements had vanished when Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes, and the Jesuits enforced a stern uniformity. The French, however, had more tolerance for the red men, or at least for the red women, than for Protestant heretics. The light-hearted voyageur was apt to take to himself an Indian wife, and made himself quite contented with a home in a Huron village. The Struggle for Dominion. 43 The numerous half-breeds were loyal Catholics, and as canoemen and trappers were valuable hands in the fur trade. In Acadia and in the valley of the St. Lawrence the Norman and Breton peasants patiently reproduced the farms of the home country. But, after all, the great industry of Canada was the traffic in furs. At the ap- Put's- pointed times fleets of canoes assembled at Mackinac and the other forest posts. The trappers exchanged their bales for clothes and provisions, for tobacco and ammunition, and for a few days enjoyed the revels of comparative civilization. Then they plunged again into the forest for another solitary and laborious tour. All ,. , Centralized the French settlements in Canada were under a single government, authority, as were those of Louisiana. Either from Quebec or New Orleans came the orders which kept the scattered posts in constant touch. And this centralized and energetic administration was able to look far ahead and to work steadily toward a definite end. Thus in many ways the advantage seemed to lie with the French. And it was a serious question at the middle of the eighteenth century whether America should be French or English. The strife was in the first place a race for land. In ^ ^^^^ f^^. 1^,^^ the early days of settlement the continent was so vast and the colonists so few that collisions were not many. But as the British gradually pushed their clearings up to the AUeghenies and the French built a chain of posts along the Great Lakes and the Illinois and the Missis- sippi, it appeared that there would surely come a clash. The English claimed all the country as far north as Lab- rador and as far south as the Spanish possessions, and west within those limits clear through to the Pacific Ocean, on the ground of Cabot's discovery in 1497. 44 The Growth of the American Nation. A race for trade. " Blood and iron." Acadia an- nexed, 1713. The French scouted this claim. They held it absurd that a mere prior glance at the sea-coast should give title to the land as far as it might go. Actual ex- ploration and occupation, they asserted, were needed for a good title. And as they had actually explored and settled strategic points in the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, those lakes and streams and all the lands they drained, from watershed to watershed, belonged to them and not to the English. As each nation pushed farther inland the rivalry be- came a race for commerce. The French claimed a monopoly of the fur trade in all the territory over which they asserted that they held sway. And the British traders were bound to share in the profits of that tempt- ing traffic. As the latter were able to offer the savages cheaper goods than the French did, it was hard to keep the British traders out. And so a constant quarrel raged on the border. English traders were seized and sent back, and their goods confiscated. But others took their place. The French were attacked by Indians, and found their enemies supplied with British muskets. The English had a savage war always smoldering on their border, and charged it to French instigation. Such a rivalry as that of the two nations and of their colonists in the New World could hardly be settled by peaceable means. The colonies came nearest together on the seaboard, and here blood was shed earliest. The Acadians were several times conquered by British arms, and the peace of Utrecht in 1713 finally gave their country over to the English crown. The French settlers were unmolested, however, for many years. But in 1755 England and France were again at war. The simple Breton peasants in Acadia were willing to be The Struggle for Dominion. 45 neutral, but would not take arms against their country- men. And the British authorities settled the questions by expelling the Acadians from their homes in a mass. Their cattle and crops were seized as the spoil of the British officers, their houses and barns were burned, and some seven thousand of the poor Acadians were scat- tered among the English colonies. So arbitrary and cruel was the management of the deputation that families were separated, and for a long time the colonial papers contained advertisements for missing daughters or fathers. The same treaty which secured Acadia (Nova Scotia) to England, also conceded Newfoundland. English settlers already occupied the island, but it had been fre- quented by French fishermen for more than a century. France retained certain fishing rights on the shore, and certain outlying islands — which belong to her yet, the last remnant of her once vast American empire. After the loss of Acadia, with the harbor at Port Royal, the French built a new citadel at Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island. This was a strong fortress, and a very important one. It served to guard the entrance to the St. Lawrence and to protect the fishermen on the coasts of Newfoundland. Strong as it was, however, it was taken in 1745 by an improvised army of New England farmers and fishermen cooperating with a Brit- ish squadron. At the peace in 1748 it was given back to France. But ten years later it was again reduced, and this time it was razed to the ground. As the Brit- ish already had a naval station at Halifax, they did not need another on Cape Breton, and did not wish it again to become French. The English wars with Spain in the time of Queen Elizabeth were really in defense of the national inde- Longfellow's "Evangeline " is based on this event. Newfoundland secured, 1713. Louisburg de- stroyed, 1758. England wins America. 46 The Grozvth of the American Nation. England and Spain. England and the Dutch. pendence. The Invincible Armada of 1588 was merely an attempt to subjugate England in the interest of Philip II. and the pope. But in the contest the English sailors carried the war into every part of the world, and learned to despise the Spanish claim to the monopoly of America and the South Sea. During the seventeenth century England's chief rival as a commercial and maritime nation was the Nether- lands. The plucky Dutch seamen were found all over the globe. Dutch merchants were quite as enterprising as those of England. The first English East India Com- pany was chartered in 1600, and the Dutch East India Company in 1602, And in those years it seemed quite Spanish claims f-^ French claims Fm English poas tTTmn The Territory of the Present TJ.NITED STATES During the French-IndUaWaH. 1755-1163 as likely that the Hollanders would in the end be the great commercial nation of the globe as that the Eng- lish would win that place. The English founded a colony in America in 1607, and only two years later Henry Hudson's Dutchmen sailed up the river which was to be The Struggle for Dominion. 47 the center of Dutch America. There was a series of national wars in which the balance hung pretty even, but on the whole the advantage was with England, and at any rate the Dutch colony of New Netherland fell into English hands. The next great rival of England was France. The England and French, too, as we have seen, entered the race for com- merce and colonies. They made settlements in America and established factories in India. And this rivalry finally led to actual hostilities — a " hundred years' war," or series of wars, which began in 1689 when the Stuart kings, mere pensioners of France, were finally driven from the throne of England, and only ended in 18 15 when the star of Napoleon sank in blood on the field of Waterloo. Of course complications of European politics were prominent factors in determining inter- national relations. But back of all was the determi- nation of England to control the trade of the world, and the resolute effort of France to share in this great source of wealth and power. Whene\'er the two nations were at war, and often when they were not, hostilities raged on the American frontiers. The first war (1689-97) was marked in America by The first war Indian raids from Canada upon the exposed settlements '^^9-97- in New York and Massachusetts. In return the col- onists captured Port Royal, but it v/as given back to France. The peace of Ryswick (1697) left American territory unchanged. The only result was mutual ex- asperation. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13) at once xhe second led to a renewal of the bloody frontier skirmishes. The ^'^^^ 1702-13- New Englanders again captured Port Royal, and this time they held it. An attempt to get Quebec failed dis- astrously. The peace of Utrecht (17 13) yielded to Pp. 44-5. 48 The Growth of the American Nation. The third war, 1744-48. P-45. The fourth war, 1756-63. 1755- Braddock's defeat, 1755. 175S. England Hudson's Bay and Strait, Newfoundland, and Acadia. Thus a considerable part of New France was won, including the original settlement at Port Royal. The War of the Austrian Succession (1744-48) was marked in the New World by the brilliant success of the New England colonists in capturing the great fortress of Louisburg. To be sure, the peace of 1748 restored this prize to France, but the achievement served greatly to encourage the colonists, and to open their eyes as to their own power in war. The Seven Years' War broke out in Europe in 1756 and ended with the treaty of Paris in 1763. But hostilities began in America two years earlier. By this time the English colonies had developed a vig- orous life. They had a population of over a million, and large resources available for war. The French, on the other hand, had only about sixty-five thousand people in the St. Lawrence Valley. They were a handful. But their leaders were full of spirit and energy. To head off the British traders they seized the junction of the Alle- gheny and Monongahela Rivers and built there a fort which they named Duquesne. This was on ground which the English claimed, and measures were taken to dislodge the enemy. A British army moved through the woods to attack the fort, but was surprised and cut to pieces while tangled in the wilderness. Other ex- peditions in the North also failed. The French had forti- fied the line of Lakes George and Champlain, and the Niagara River. So the war languished till Pitt became prime minister of England. Then genius and energy displaced the feebleness of previous years. Fort Du- quesne was taken, and thus the Ohio Valley was wrested from France. Fort Niagara fell, cutting off the route to the upper lakes. Ticonderoga and Crown Point The Struggle for Dominion. 49 were seized. Louisburg surrendered, and finally a strong attack was made on the center of French power '"59- at Quebec. Wolfe led the English, and found a worthy foe in the French commander, Montcalm. After many failures, the British general succeeded in bringing his adversary to battle, and was completely victorious. Both commanders fell. In a i&w days Quebec surrendered. The next year the last French army in America was de- feated, Montreal was captured, and the war in America was ended. The peace of 1763 yielded to England all the French . possessions east of the Mississippi. In the previous ^^^o- f^^ y^ The Territory of the Present UNITED STATES After Feb. 10, 1763. Result of the French and Indian Wars, year the French king had ceded to his ally, the king of Spain, the city of New Orleans and all the French claims west of the Mississippi, as recompense for losses sustained in the cause of France. Thus ended the French rivalry with England in Amer- ica. New France, like New Netherland and New 50 The GrocC'ih of the American Nation. Sweden, had been taken by force of arms under the British flag. England now had no partner in North America but Spain. And that nation was by this time so feeble as not to be dangerous. Besides, the Spanish possessions were in the southern and tropical lands, which England as yet did not covet. What would have been the case if Great Britain had not lost her colonies a few years later, is quite another question. SUMMARY OF PART I. Columbus, in 1492, while sailing west in order to reach Asia, found a cluster of islands which he supposed to be outlying parts of the Indies which he was seek- ing. He never knew his error, and it was years before it began even to be suspected that there was a new con- tinent. Even when Balboa in 15 13 discovered what he called the South Sea he had no idea that it was a vast ocean. The name America was first given to what we know as South America, which was gradually disclosed by successive Spanish and Portuguese voyages. Magel- lan in 1520 found a passage from the Atlantic to the South Sea. To his amazement he discovered the latter to be a vast ocean, which he called the Pacific. Even after South America was pretty well marked out there long lingered the notion that the northern lands were connected with Asia. It was not until the voyages of Bering in 1728 and 1741 that the eastern limits of Asia and the western limits of America were defined. There are traditions that the eastern coast of North America was visited by Scandinavians some five cen- turies before the time of Columbus. Whether this is true or not is of small account, because nothing came of Summarv of Part I. 51 it. The voyage of Cabot in 1497 practically marks the discovery of those coasts by Europeans, and on that voyage England based her claim to the continent. The Spaniards and Portuguese settled and held the Americas from Florida to Cape Horn without inter- ference. The sixteenth century is filled with their ex- plorations and conquests. It was not until the seven- teenth century that the other maritime powers began a serious rivalry. The Dutch and English, and later the French, entered systematically on the Asiatic trade, thus interfering with the Portuguese monopoly. And all three of those nations, as well as the Swedes, set out to colonize and hold America. The little Swedish settle- ment in Delaware was seized by the Dutch, and the lat- ter in turn were conquered by an English expedition. The English colonies were scattered along the Atlantic coast, while the French penetrated the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. The long struggle between these rival civilizations for North America was ended in 1763 by the victory of the English. The .St. Lawrence and Ohio Valleys went to them, while the western side of the Mississippi Valley France ceded to Spain. Thus the French were eliminated from the North American continent, and its European possessions were reduced to Spain and England. Settlement. Struggle for dominion. PART 11. THE COLONIES BECOME A NATION. 1763-1789. Europeans. PART II.-THE COLONIES BECOME A NATION. 1703-1789. CHAPTER IV. THE COLONIES AFTER THE FRENXH WARS. In 1763, when the French king rehnquished his The population Aniericcin possessions to the victorious Enghsh, the At- lantic colonies had been founded for a century and a half Their growth had been slow, but yet steady and vigorous. There was now a considerable population of people who, while natives of the New World, were European in race. They were, however, strongly at- tached to their American home and their American cus- toms. It is hard to estimate the numbers of this popu- lation with much exactness, as no census was taken till 1790. But there were doubtless upwards of a million. Massachusetts was by far the most populous, having Bancroft, iii. more than 200,000, while Georgia had, perhaps, 5,000 or 10,000. In these same colonies there was another class of im- migrants from the eastern hemisphere — if the name im- migrant can properly be applied to people whose change of home was quite involuntary. Negro slavery was a common fact in the eighteenth century. It had begun Africans, among the European nations as early as 1442, when a Portuguese explorer brought a cargo of black slaves to Lisbon. The Spaniards found out at an early period that their Indian slaves died with frightful rapidity under the exhausting labor of the mines, and in the opening years of the sixteenth centur}- trial had been made of 55 56 The Growth of the American Nation. European nationalities. Scotch and Scotch-Irish. Frencli Huguenots. the more robust Africans. Their importation afterwards became a necessity, or was so thought, and the same system ahnost from the first prevailed in the English colonies. Bancroft estimates 363,000 negroes in British America in 1763, of whom less than 50,000 were north of Maryland. But slavery existed in every colony. The colonists of European race were mostly British, the great majority being English. There were not a few of Scotch descent, their ancestors ha\ing come from Scotland or the north of Ireland. Scotch settlements had been made in New Hampshire and North Caro- lina, in particular, and from this stock at a later day came Andrew Jackson and Daniel Web- ster. More or less Irish were found in all the colonies. French Huguenots had taken refuge in America from persecution at home, and were especially numer- ous in South Car- olina. The revolutionary patriots, Henry Laurens and General Francis Marion, were of Huguenot blood. In New York the Hollanders were a large element, the Dutch language being still used commonly in business and in Henry Laurens. Born in South Carolina, 1724; died, 1792. Mer- chant and patriot. President of Congress, 1777-8 ; minister to Holland, 1779; captured by British and imprisoned in Tower of London ; exchanged for Lord Cornwallis ; with Jay and Franklin, negotiated treaty of peace with Great Britain, 17S2. The Colonics after the French Wars. 57 the church service. In Pennsylvania about a third of McMaster, the population were German, and the German tongue, ' ^^' " Pennsylvania Dutch," as it was called by the English colonists, was yet their prevailing speech. And in Del- aware there were a few Swedes. The religion of the colonies along the Atlantic was al- Religion, most entirely Protestant in some form. Maryland had been settled by Roman Catholics, and perhaps a fifteenth of her people were of that faith. But there were very few Catholics in the other colonies. The New England- ers were Puritans, the Baptists being strong in Rhode Island and the Congregationalists in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In New York the Reformed Church of Holland included the Dutch colonists, while those of British extraction were mostly either Episcopalians or Presbyterians. The Lutheran Church, as well as that of the Friends (Quakers), was powerful in Pennsylvania and Delaware, while the English Protestant Episcopal Church was established by law in Virginia and had many adherents farther south. It was an important fact with reference to the last-named church that the colonies had no bishop of their own but were attached to the diocese of London. In this way many of the churches were apt to be supplied with clergymen for whom it was difficult to provide in England. They were not always compe- tent and not infrequently thoroughly disreputable. It is an interesting fact to observe that the religious organization of the colonies was a quite accurate index of the sources and periods of immigration. Education of the young was almost from the first a Education matter of concern in nearly all the colonies. Perhaps the first permanent school was that founded by the Dutch This school is at New Amsterdam in 1633. Two years later the people ^^ ^^'^ '"^' of Massachusetts Bay established a public school, and in 58 The GroivtJi of tlie American Nation. Harvard Col- lege, 1836. Public schools. New England. Virginia. Collesres. 1636 voted a fund to found a college. But the begin- nings of the American system of public schools date from the Massachusetts statutes of 1642 and 1647, which required the maintenance of a sufficient school in each town and provided for compulsory attendance. This system, and still more the spirit and ideas which lay back of it, sufficed to make New England an intelligent com- munity—so much so that an illiterate person was a rarity. In the middle colonies much was done to provide schools, although not on so systematic a basis as in the East. In the southern colonies there was less general interest in popular education, and at the same time the scattered life of the planters on their wide estates made schools dif- ficult to maintain. Governor Berkeley of Virginia said in 167 1 : "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing ; and I hope we shall not ha\'e these hundred years ; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!" The governor did not object to schools for the gentry, and such establishments grew up in many places. Sooner or later nearly every colony had its college. Harvard, 1636, was followed by William and Mary, in Virginia, 1688 ; Yale, in Connecticut. 1701 ; Princeton, in New Jersey, 1746 ; Kings (now Columbia), in New York, 1754 ; Brown, in Rhode Island, 1764; and Dart- mouth, in New Hampshire, 1769. The Philadelphia Academy, which afterwards grew into the University of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1749. By the end of the century there were twenty-four colleges, of which nine were in the South. The early purpose of many of these colleges was to train young men for the ministry. Har- vard for its first sixty years was virtually a theological The Colonies after the French Wars. 59 seminary ; and others, like Yale and Williams and Penn- sylvania, were in the beginning what we should call acad- emies. But college-trained men were numerous in the colo- nies. They were found in all the learned professions, and among the leaders of the popular party at the time gracffates in of the Revolution the graduates of Yale and Kings and Princeton and the rest were conspicuous and able. Such a man as Benjamin Franklin was an exception. He had no college education. But his great natural powers and tireless industry would have raised him to eminence in any society and under almost any conditions. His " Poor Richard's Almanac " furnished the philosophy of life for the masses. His scientific discoveries ranked him with European savants, and his administrative and polit- ical skill made him easily a leader in colonial progress. Life in the colonies was not complex. There were not wide differences of wealth. There were no great libraries or galleries of paintings, no grand cathedrals or palaces, no general patronage of music or art or literature. And so there was little development of liter- ary or artistic achievement. The Virginians read the English classics — Shakspere and Addison and Pope. The Connecticut Puritan read Milton and the English Bible. Men of intellectual tastes were apt to go into the law or theology. The New England theologians were New England ardent and profound, and their influence in the com- "^ '^■'gymen. munity was commanding. The Massachusetts parson really governed his parish. He was an authority on politics and learning as well as in religion. His endless sermons were more than a mere religious exhortation — Literature and art. Stocks. Used in the colonies to punish misdemeanors. 6o The Growth of the American Nation. Newspapers. Article " News- papers " in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. they were sermon and magazine and newspaper all in one. Magazine literature did not exist in America, and the newspapers were scanty in number and scantier in news. Not counting some spasmodic attempts, the first Ameri- can newspaper was the Boston News-Letter, founded in 1704. In 1 7 19 its editor congratulated his readers on the great enlargement and improvement of his paper, whereby it was at that time only five months behind England in general European news, while a year before it had been thirteen months behind. There were thirty- four small sheets, all weeklies, at the opening of the Rev- olution. Four tiny pages were the rule, containing a few quaint advertisements, a very little news, and a selec- tion of sedate letters on a variety of subjects. During the Revolutionary War the Massachusetts Spy, for lack of fresher matter, published in successive issues the whole of Robertson's " History of America." In all the colonies the lawyers were well trained and acute. In more cases than one the young men of well- to-do families were sent ' ' home ' ' to England to get their education at Oxford and the Temple in London. The great bulk of the Americans were farmers. Cities, Agriculture and indeed, wcrc fcw and small. The exports of America were products of the ocean, the forest, and the fields. Agriculture in New England was not fruitful in wealth, and the hardy colonists plowed the sea quite as much as the land. They were active in the fisheries, and in dried cod they drove a thriving trade with Europe and the West Indies. Indeed codfish was at one time used as money in Massachusetts, and the same useful fish was a symbol of that enterprising colony. New England ships were largely engaged in whaling also, and the ships themselves were made in great numbers in Maine. The New England farmers were usually gathered in commerce. The Colonics after the French Wars. 6i villages, their tilled fields stretching on all sides. But in the South the plantations were large, the owner with his family and dependents, white and black, living in a sort of feudal state. Towns and vil- lages were few. Agriculture here was the main source of income, the tobacco of Virginia, tar and turpentine of North Carolina, and rice of South Carolina, being staple articles of ex- port. These products, with the fish, whale oil, furs, and ships of the North, were sold to Europe in considerable annual . -y^ .. . Pillory. quantities. \\\ return English manu- used in the colonies to factured articles were sent to the P""ish misdemeanors. colonies. And England was very careful that no com- petition in manufactures should spring up over seas. Each European nation which had established colonies used them for its own sole benefit. Hence it was a set- tled principle that trade with them should be confined to its own ships, that colonial products should be exported to no place but the mother-country, and that there should be no competing colonial products. Therefore, when England, in 1651 and 1660, enacted navigation laws forbidding ti'ade with England, including English colonies, except in English ships, she was only doing what Spain and Portugal had been doing from the first. Subsequent laws made the restrictions still closer. The English idea of colonies was that they should produce commodities which could not be produced in the mother- country and which the mother-country needed, that they should consume what she had to sell, that they should never be competitors with her, and should trade with no other nation. Accordingly England was very glad to The colonial system. Navigation acts. Bancroft, I., 414. 62 The Growth of the Americmi Nation. Prohibition of American man- ufactures, 1699. 1732. Statute of 5 Geo. II., Ch. XXII. '750- Bancroft, II. , 521; III. ,42- The main pro- visions of the statute are quoted by Swank, p. 482. Navigation Laws not always enforced. Cities. buy from America tobacco and naval stores. But when the Americans began to manufacture woolens they were promptly forbidden to export wool or woolen goods from one colony to another. Then the colonists began to make hats, whereupon the exportation of hats from col- ony to colony was prohibited, and the number of hatters' apprentices was limited by law. The manufacture of iron grew very slowly in the colonies. But gradually it ex- cited alarm among the English ironmasters, and so a statute was passed which permitted the importation of pig and bar-iron into England duty free, but forbade the erection of " any mill for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel. ' ' Mills already existing were not dis- turbed, a clause providing for their abolition having failed to pass in the House of Commons by a slender majority. By these means American manufactures were prevented from becoming more than enough barely to supply a neighborhood with coarse articles. During the long period of the French wars, the Navi- gation Acts were not very strictly enforced, and an active trade grew up between the colonies and the West Indies. The colonists carried thither dried fish and lumber, bringing back large quantities of sugar and rum, or of molasses from which "New England rum" was made. But this lucrative traffic was illegal, and might at any time be broken up. The colonial cities were few and small. Nearly every colony had a seaport, and its settlements straggled away from it for some distance, and then were divided by a stretch of wilderness from the settlements of the next colony. Philadelphia was the metropolis, boasting in 1763 a population of perhaps 30,000. New York had about 20,000, Boston less than 15,000, Baltimore 5,000, The Colonies after the French Wars. 63 Providence about 4,000, Albany 3,000. These in our For larger esti- day we should call merely small towns. The rest of popuLtion of the cities, Hartford, Portsmouth, Charleston, Savannah, Lodge,'p^456, were merely villages. In fact, only about three per cent of the Americans of 1763 lived in what could be called cities. The percentage in 1890 was twenty-seven. The general scale of living was plain but abundant. Of course there was a wide difference between different " Westover," a Colonial Mansion near Richmond, Virginia. sections. The wealthy planters in the South lived after the manner of English country gentlemen. The men social life, cared for their estates, rode, hunted, raced horses. Cards and dancing were the amusements at social gath- erings. In New England puritanism gave a grave tinge to society. But irrepressible human nature bubbled over nevertheless, and sedate rustic life was enlivened 64 The Grtmfk of the American Nation. by the huskingf bee. the sleigrh ride, the g^enerous feast- ing of Thanksg^ivinof. and the athletic sports which ac- companied the annual day of ' ' general training. ' ' The great fireplace around which the fimily gathered on winter evenings consumed wood by the cord, and its cheerhil bhize certainly was a ddightlul center of so- ciability — idthough we should not appreciate the pleasure of hvwing the face roasting and the back shivering at the same time. We must remember that in that day there were no stoves, no fiiction matches, no gas or electric lights, no sewing machines. The houses through the country- were of unpointed boards, although in the Lurger cities brick was much used in building. And there were some mansions in Maryland and \'irginia built of brick which had been imported firom England — just as in New York there were fireplaces lined with tiles which had been brought fi-om Holland. In neariy all the colonies there were rather sharp dis- tinctions of social rank. As late as 1772 the students in the Har\-ard catalogue were arranged in the order of social standing. The New England aristocrats filled the offices and the professions. The New York and \'ir- ginia gentry* were great landholders. Democracy, either social or politiad. \i-as not a colonial idea. The means of travel and communication would seem to us verj- inadequate. Roads were not good, bridges were few. and joume\-s of any length had to be made on horseback. Stage coaches ran on some routes. The time fi>?m Boston to New York w^s four da\-s, and fi\)m New York to Philadelphia w~as three da\-Sw This was in 1756. In 1766 a greatly improved conve>-ance was put on the latter route, which made the trip in two da>-s. And so rapid did this appear that the coach \»-as ciUed the *' fl\-ing machine." Whenever possible travel went The Colonics after the French W^ars. 65 by water. Sloops sailed along the coast and up the ri\ers, carrying passengers and freight. This was a much more comfortable means of transit, but was de- cidedly uncertain as to time. A given voyage might take two days or two weeks, according to the wind. The colonial life was rather narrow, rather slow. In- a slow life. terests were not many and not very complicated. It took weeks for news to cross the Atlantic, and three weeks for ideas to spread through all the colonies. The Yankees were famed for their incpiisitiveness. We can hardly wonder. It was their only way of getting some- thing to think about. The southerners were equally famed for their eager hospitality. We can hardly wonder at that either. A stranger with something to tell must have been a godsend. The colonies had about the same form of goxernment, Govcniniciii. although there were three types. Connecticut and Rhode Island had charters from the charters. crown. Under these charters they elected their own governor and legislature, and thus made their own laws. These laws were subject to the approval of the crown, and could not be contrary to the laws of England. The old charter of Massachusetts had been so modified as to give the crown the api:)ointment of the governor and the negative on laws. Pennsylvania anil Maryland belonged to private per- i.,oprietary sons in England, the former to the descendants of Will- ^'"•°"'"^s- iam Penn, the latter to the sixth Lord Baltimore. The people of Maryland elected a legislature, but the pro- prietor appointed the governor, the judges, and all ad- Bancroft, ministrative officers. He had a veto on legislation, '''•'^9- and from ^■arious taxes, duties, and rents deri\'ed a considerable income. The colony was in many ways a sort of feudal appanage. The proprietor of Pennsyl- 66 The Growth of the Ainerican Nation. vania, however, had granted a very Hberal constitution. Delaware, with a legislature of its own, was attached to the administrative government of Pennsylvania. Maine was a district of Massachusetts, and Vermont was claimed by New York and New Hampshire. In the other colonies, the governor, judges, and ad- Towii-meetings. - ^f^ 'Mt^^ Residence of the Washington Family, and Birthplace of George Washington, on Bridges Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia. ministrative officials were appointed by the crown. The people chose a legislature, but the royal governor had an absolute veto on its acts. In New England the political unit was the town-meet- ing, in which the people were accustomed to assemble for the management of their local affairs and the choice of their legislators. In this way the New Englanders became very independent in their way of thinking, and quite disinclined to being governed without being consulted. The valley of the St. Lawrence presented a very dif- ferent picture. The population of Canada was less than The Colonies after the French Wars. 67 a hundred thousand whites, all French and all Roman Canada. Catholics, the English garrison, of course, excepted. The province was administered by a military governor. New Orleans and the vast area between the Mississippi Louisiana, and the Rocky Mountains were in like manner governed by a deputy of the Spanish king. The white flag of the Bourbons of France had vanished from America. CHAPTER V. THE SEPARATION FROM ENGLAND. The colonists Englishmen. Franklin's Works, IV., i6i. The triumph of England in the long wars with France for the possession of America was nowhere more joyously greeted than in the American colonies. The colonists were thorough Englishmen, proud of the name, enthusi- astically loyal. They showed their provincialism in some ways, to be sure. They had great reverence for all English ideas, merely because they were English — like some of their descendants to-day. They had great re- spect for British regular soldiers, though they might be as dull as Braddock showed himself in 1755. The Eng- lish fashions of dress were obediently copied across the ocean. A stray Englishman traveling in America was treated with vast deference, because he was from " home," even if in fact he was a very commonplace and stupid individual. King George had no more devoted subjects than the Americans. Benjamin Franklin was in England in 1766, and was examined before a commit- tee of Parliament which was considering the repeal of the Stamp Act. Being asked what was the temper of the Americans toward Great Britain before the year 1763, this was his reply : "The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid in their courts obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies to keep them in subjection. They were governed The Separation from England. 69 land men. Why the colonies were thrown away. by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper; they were led by a thread. They had not only a respect but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, .^okf En?'^ its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard ; to be an Old England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us." But all this devotion was changed to bitter enmity — this magnificent empire was thrown away by Great Brit- ain — because Charles Townshend had an opinion about America, and be- cause George III., never capable of forming an opinion of his own, was also n e \' e r capable of giving up one which somebody else had formed for him. Colonial a ffa i r s were managed by a committee of the British privy council under the name of the "Lords of the Committee of Trades and Plantations." In 1763 Charles Townshend was first lord of trade. He had given much time to a study of colonial matters, and it was his opinion that the colonies should have less to do with their own gov- ernment, that a strong force of British regulars should be stationed in America, and that the cost of this estab- lishment should be defrayed from a tax levied by Parlia- ment on the colonies. Grenville was prime minister, and he was hardly pre- Old Dutch House at Kingston, N. V. This house is said to have been built in 1643 by Abram \'an Steenberg, and is supposed to be the oldest house in "New York State. It is still occupied by members of the family. The Lords of Trade. Townshend 's notion. 70 The Growth of the American Nation. Grenville's pre- text for taxing the colonies. Tlie national debt. Macaulay, IV., 410. Statesman's Year-Book. The colonists object. pared to accept so extreme a program. However, he argued that the colonies ought to be taxed, on the ground that their defense in the late war had cost large sums to the British treasury, and in the spring of 1764 he carried through the House of Commons a series of resolutions declaring the intention of the government to levy such tax, beginning the following year, in the shape of stamps on certain legal papers. It was quite true that the war had been expensive. Wars always are costly luxuries. And one result at that time had been an enormous increase in the British na- tional debt. The funded debt had its origin in the time of the good Protestant King William HI, It now amounts to about ;^67 1,000, 000, and this vast sum rep- resents the cost of the British wars of the last two cen- turies over and above the taxes available at the time. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, in 18 15, the debt reached its maximum, some ^861,000,000. At the be- ginning of the war of 1756 the debt was about ;i^75,ooo,- 000, and in 1763 it had been swollen to ;^i33,ooo,ooo. This sum seemed then so enormous as to alarm prudent people, and it was not unnatural that the financiers of the government began to cast their eyes on the colonies for some help in bearing the burden. But the proposal of a stamp tax was greeted in Amer- ica with decided disapproval. It was not merely the natural and universal repugnance to pay taxes, for the colonists gave quite solid reasons for their dissent. In the first place, they asserted that they had already paid even more than their share of the war expenses, as had appeared by acts of Parliament reimbursing some of these expenditures, and war debts had been incurred by colonies as well as by the mother-country. However, this was not the main contention. The col- The Separation from England. 71 onists were willing, if the king should ask them for aid, to appropriate liberally of their resources for that pur- pose. But they declared that Parliament had no legal right to tax them at all. Taxation without representa- tion was against the fundamental rights of Englishmen, ^^.ft^out" and as they had no representatives in Parliament, it fol- representation, lowed that the only legal way to levy taxes was by act of the various colonial legislatures. Franklin carried the argument further. He showed that the colonies had all been established in the royal prankiin's domain under direct charter of the crown, and in no case Works, iv. 281 by act of Parliament. Hence, he declared, the colonies were joined to England only by the crown, as were Jer- sey, Guernsey, Ireland, and Scotland before the union, and therefore the only legal taxation was by the colonial legislatures on request of the crown. The power of Parliament to regulate the external re-_ lations of the colonies, including the control of com- merce, was not denied. Parliament, on the other hand, claimed a direct su- „, . ^„ ' Claims of Par- premacy over all the empire, and denied the king's pre- iiament. rogative over the royal domain. In fact, the Revolution of 1688 had given Parliament just that position of su- premacy at home. It was now practically for the first time that its status in the dependencies was fairly consid- ered. The principle for which the colonists contended was „. ... ■f^ ^ The principle. the same for which Englishmen had always fought, from Magna Charta to the Bill of Rights — the principle that there should be no taxation without the assent of those who were to pay. The House of Commons, indeed, owed its existence and its power to the development of that very principle. And so it was clear either that the colonies should be taxed as they insisted, by their own 72 Tlie Growth of the American Nation. Representation in Parliament. Franklin's Works, VII 329, note. Fiske, I., 34. legislatures, or that there should be colonial representa- tives in Parliament. The latter alternative was seriously considered by some thoughtful minds in both countries. Adam Smith favored it, and Franklin worked out a scheme for the distribution of representatives both to America and to Ireland. But any such scheme was impracticable. If an agreement for an apportionment could have been reached, the great distance across the Atlantic would have proved an insuperable obstacle. Even in these days of steam and electricity the federation of the Brit- ish Empire has been prevented by the same cause. Much more would it have been impossible at a period when the time for crossing the ocean was six weeks in- stead of six days. But the average English politician gave himself little trouble with such considerations. If he reasoned on it at all he asserted that in fact the Americans were repre- sented in Parliament — that they or their ancestors had in each case left some British county or borough in which they still belonged — that if they wished to vote they had only to come home to England for that purpose. Anew problem. We ought to remember in discussing this quarrel that in truth the problem was a difficult one. The relation of a powerful and free colony to the mother-country was really a new question in political science. Nothing quite like it had ever been heard of before. It is only in the present century that it has been settled by England — ■ and settled, it may be added, on the principles for which the Americans contended in 1765. It happened that the personality of the English king was to play a prominent part in the grave differences which were now growing between the Old World and the New. George III. had ascended the throne iti 1760. George III. The Separation from England. 73 His character. succeeding his grandfather, George II. The new king was a young man who has been thought by some to have been the most ignorant monarch with whom Eng- land has ever been blessed. This opinion, however, is probably hardly just to George. There is no doubt that he was very dull, and he certainly was extraordinarily obstinate. In his family relations he was quite blame- less — rather a rare royal virtue for that day. He was a pious gentleman, with a brain which probably was never quite right. He finally became in- sane, and spent his last ten years in confinement as a lunatic. The plain truth is that he was always out of place on the throne. Had fortune been so kind as to make him a simple country gentleman, he would doubtless have lived He should an innocent and contented life, with sound opinions on firmer!^" turnips and sheep. George's immediate predecessors, his grandfather and his great-grandfather, had both been Germans, with lit- tle or no knowledge of the English language, and en- tirely indifferent to English political ideas. It was owing largely to this fact that in their reigns had grown up the system of cabinet government, whereby the king became little more than a dignified royal effigy — -a mere suit of clothes, as Thackeray called George IV. — and the real administration was in the hands of the prime minister The Old Senate House, Kingston, N. V. This house was built in 1676 by Col. Wessel Ten Broeck, and is a good specimen of early Dutch architecture. The first session of the New York State Senate met here in the summer of 1777. It is now owned by the state of New York. George's polit- ical policy. 74 The Growth of the American Nation. Whig dis- sensions. Bribery and corruption. Tlie king ap- proves of taxing America. with a majority of the House of Commons at his back. Thus the king was about in the position of the good clergyman whom his parishioners Hked so well ' ' because he never meddled with politics or religion. ' ' Now George III. did not at all like this system. His mother had from the first steadily instilled in him the thought that he should be a real king. And so as soon as he reached the throne he began to scheme to govern as well as to reign. He was aided in this ambition by two circumstances. One was the fact that the Whig party, which had now for more than half a century ruled England, had become broken with faction. Thus the king by taking advantage of their discord was enabled to build up a Tory party devoted to the extension of royal influence. The other circumstance was that Parliament was no longer a really representative body. Many boroughs each of which re- turned two members had become so devoid of popula- tion as to be controlled easily by some influential poli- tician. And hence their members could be secured with- out difficulty — for a consideration. Again, the members were no longer held sharply accountable to their con- stituents, and the grossest bribery had come to be a matter of course. Thus the king by the use of patron- age and direct money bribes was able to secure a sub- servient majority to carry out his schemes. The plan of taxing America fell in perfectly with the king's political aims. If he could secure a revenue by which he should be able to maintain a strong standing army in the colonies, he would have at hand a means by which he might one day put down opposition at home. Had the Americans tamely submitted, it is quite likely that George would have pushed his prerogative at home to such an extent that nothing but revolution would The Separation from England. 75 have displaced him. So the Americans were in truth fighting the battles of English liberalism. Washington was in the same line with Hampden, with the Prince of Orange, and with Earl Grey and Gladstone in our own century. The Stamp Act was passed in 1765, without regard to The stamp Act, the protests of the Americans or to the earnest opposition ^'''^^' of such English statesmen as the great commoner, William Pitt. But so violent was the storm which this measure raised in the colonies that it was found to be utterly im- possible to enforce the law, and the government at last reluctantly was driven to repeal it. The repeal, how- Repeal 1766 ever, was made less gracious by an act accompanying it which declared it to be the right of Parliament to tax the colonies at pleasure. This was in 1766. In the fol- lowing year Charles Townshend was chancellor of the rownshend's exchequer, and on his own responsibility he brought in ' ' a series of acts for taxing imports into the colonies. The duties were to be levied on several specified articles, including tea. The money thus raised was to be de- voted to very significant purposes. It was to pay the salaries of the royal governors, of the judges, who were to be appointed by the crown and to serve during the king's pleasure, and of such other civil officers and pen- sionaries as the crown might see fit. It was entirely ob- vious that if this plan should be carried out it would put the administrative and judicial machinery of colonial government at the king's mercy. The power of refus- ing to grant supplies to the governor and the independ- ence of the judiciary had thus far sufficed to guard the freedom of the colonists against the crown. It was further provided that there should be estab- writs of lished a revenue board to supervise the collection of ^^^'^ ^""' the colonial duties, and that general writs of assistance 76 The Growth of the American Nation. Illicit trade. The writs upheld by the courts. Renewed agitation. Opposition to all taxes laid by Parliament. should be lawful. The enforcement of the Navigation Acts had not been thorough as far as the colonies were concerned until after the accession of George III. The trade which had grown up in evasion of these acts was of large proportions, both with the West Indies and with European nations. In the course of searching for contraband goods the British revenue officers had found it convenient to obtain from some judge a sort of blanket search warrant, called a "writ of assistance," mention- ing neither name nor place. As the colonists believed in the old doctrine that "the Englishman's house was his castle," these warrants were strenuously resisted. But in 1 76 1 the Massachusetts court upheld them as legal under an old statute of the time of Charles II., which was enacted for England. Thus they were now specifically legalized for America. These acts were received in America with a new storm of opposition. Earnest remonstrances were sent to the king, and the leading merchants united in a resolution to import no more English goods until the obnoxious laws should be repealed. It was true that at the time of the Stamp Act the Americans had admitted the right of Parliament to legislate with reference to commerce, and hence, of course, to lay duties on imports. But it was now clearly seen that if any sort of tax could be laid on the colonies without their assent they would be at the mercy of the arbitrary government of the crown. And this fact made it perfectly plain that the principle of no taxation without representation could have no exceptions. The Townshend Acts were an object lesson which only the blind could fail to understand. And the Americans were not blind. Meanwhile Townshend had died, and his place as chancellor of the exchequer was taken by Lord North. The Separation from England. 77 Three years later that amiable nobleman became prime minister, a place which he held for fourteen years. As he was merely the obedient servant of the king, George III. during that period really governed England just as he desired. A hundred million pounds added to the national debt and the loss of a continent were the net results. Non-importation bore heavily on British commerce. The anticipated returns from the duties had not been realized. Violent opposition to the government in all the colonies and in Parliament kept public affairs in a turmoil. And in the spring the new minister decided to repeal the revenue acts. However, he was not willing to give up the principle at issue. Accordingly the pre- amble, declaratory of the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, and the duty on a single article, tea, were retained. Non-importation had of course hurt America also, and when the duties were thus almost wholly removed the New York merchants gave way and resumed trade with England. But the taxed tea was not an article of traffic. That comforting commodity was largely used, but nearly all of it was smuggled from Holland. The Americans were yet stubborn. Finally, the king determined on a test case. The East India Company was empowered to export tea to America, with a drawback amounting to the entire duty of three pence on the pound. Thus the British taxed tea would actually cost the Americans less than Dutch smuggled tea. "And," said Lord North, "men will always go to the cheapest market. ' ' Accordingly the company sent consignments simultaneously to Charles- ton, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. But the col- onists were fully aroused to the situation. If the tea Lord North prime minister, January, 1770. Repeal of the revenue duties, except on tea. Non-impor- tation breaks down. The " Boston Tea Party," 1773- yS The Groivth of the American N^ation. could be landed and sold their case was lost. So they determined that there should be none landed. In Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York the consignees of the tea yielded to public indignation and resigned their positions. The Charleston cargo was vniloaded by the collector of the port, but as no one would pay the duty, and no one would sell the tea, it was stored in cel- lars, where presently the dampness ruined it. The Phil- adelphia and New York ships were sent back to England without landing their freight at all. In Boston the con- signees would not resign. But the excited people re- fused to allow the tea to be brought on shore, and when there approached the last of the twenty days allowed by law at the end of which time the collector might land the goods, in a cold December night a mob disguised as uecember i6. Moliawk Indians boarded the ships and threw all the tea overboard. Thus the attempt to force the tea tax on America ig- nominiously failed. The British government received the news with the utmost indignation, and measures were at once taken to bring the refractory inhabitants of Massachusetts to their senses. Five bills were brought The five abom- . n i- i t i tvt i 11 11 iiiabie acts, 1774. mto rarliamcnt by Lord North, antl they passed by large majorities. The first closed the port of Boston ; the second annulled the charter of Massachusetts, j^ut- ting that colony under the absolute authority of the crown ; the third provided that any British official in- dicted for murder in Massachusetts should be tried in England ; the fourth made it lawful to quarter troops on citizens ; the fifth, known as the Quebec Act, permitted the free exercise of the Roman Catholic worship in Can- ada, and at the same time extended the boundaries of that province to the Ohio River. This last provision, it was thought, would effectually prevent the westward ex- The Separation froDi England. 79 The people of tension of the refractory English colonies. And to carry out this stern legislation General Gage was sent to Boston with large reenforcements for the garrison. But the people of Massachusetts were in no mood to submit to pure tyranny. The act annulling their charter Massachusetts was set at defiance. No officers who accepted positions imder the new government were allowed to act, and many of them were compelled to resign. Correspond- ence went on actively with the other colonies, and militia was organized to be ready in case Gage should attempt force. The other colonies sympathized with Massachusetts, and felt that she was fighting their battles as well. And they promptly acceded to the call for a continental congress. Such a convention had been held in 1765, at which xhe stamp Act nine colonies had been represented. The delegates of Congress, twelve colonies now met at Philadelphia to consider what united action could betaken. They adopted a declara- unentarcon- ' tion of rights, recommended non-intercourse with the bern'774^.'^ ^'" mother-country, and drew up addresses to the king and to the people of Great Britain and of America. A sec- ond congress was then called for the following May, and the delegates adjourned. But before the new convention thus called could meet, p^^^^^ ^^^^^j^ ^^ words had given place to blows. Gage determined to '''°^s- arrest Hancock and Samuel Adams, the main leaders of the Massachusetts people, and to seize the military stores which the patriots had begun to gather in Concord. With that purpose he sent out a detachment of infantry on the night of the iSth of April, 1775. At sunrise the following morning their advance encountered on Lexing- ton Green a company of militia, paraded under arms. ApriTf9°'i775. Major Pitcairn, the British commander, promptly fired So The Grozi'th of the American Nation. War and independence. Th^ flight from Lexington. Siege of Boston. Little thought of independ- The first attack on the center. The British take New York, 1776. his pistols at these "rebels," and then scattered them by a volley from his men. This was war. The last legal means had been used. Only physical force remained. The colonists either had the rights of free-born Englishmen, or they were mere slaves to the British government ; and the decision now could come only by battle. Reconciliation was no longer possible. The Declaration of Independence and the treaty in which King George at last ga\'e up his colonies forever were only the logical sequence of the Stamp Act. And the real victory was that of the English people over a Hanoverian James II. The expedition to Concord succeeded in destroying some military stores. But the colonists were aroused on all sides, and assembled in so great numbers and assailed the invaders with so spontaneous a fierceness that the latter were fairly driven back to Boston. Then at once Gage's army was besieged in that city by an impromptu army of insurgents. In July, George Washington, whom Congress had put at the head of the continental armies, took command of the besieging forces. But it was not until the following March that the British were compelled to evacuate the city. At the outset, neither side expected a serious war. The colonists took up arms merely to secure a redress of grievances, with no thought of independence. But the British ministry could not yield to ' ' rebels, ' ' and so made strenuous exertions to crush the revolt. When this became clear in America, Congress adopted resolu- tions declaring American independence. In the summer after the evacuation of Boston, a powerful British army and fleet attacked New York. Washington had an inferior force, and was easily dis- lodged from the city. He was obliged to retreat The Sepa) at ion from England. through New Jersey, and that state was overrun by the British armies. The plan was to seize the Middle States New jersey and thus to cut the insurrectionary territory in two. And it ^'ery nearly succeeded. But in December the ton drives'tWe genius of Washington sufficed to outgeneral the enemy New York. and in turn to drive them back to New York. In the following summer the plan of the British was Reduced Facsimile of the Last Line of the Declaration of Independence, in Jefferson's Handwriting, with THE First Three Signatures. again taken up. This time a strong army under The second J ^ attack on the General Burgoyne came irom Canada and set out tor center. BursrovnG's Albany. It was intended that General Howe should invasion, 1777. ascend the Hudson from New York, and that the two armies should unite at Albanv. But Howe foolishly / 1 1 • r Howe foolishly got it uito his head that it would be a good thing hrst to moves on pwia- capture the rebel capital, Philadelphia. This he finally succeeded in doing, but it took so much time that he could do nothing substantial to help Burgoyne. That unfortunate general was surrounded by greatly superior forces of the Americans, and after a gallant struggle was lurgoj^rfe*! ^7*77. compelled to surrender his entire army, at Saratoga. 82 The Growth of the American Nation. Conquest of the Northwest. This great victory ended the notable British plan of cutting the center. It had another important effect. France yet smarted under her great defeat by the British in 1758 and 1759, and was eager for revenge. The surrender of Burgoyne showed that the insurgents were quite likely to maintain their independence, and so the French government was induced to form a treaty of alliance with the United States. This gave the struggling patriots the help of a great military nation, and in the end led to a successful issue of the war. When the British government began to fear that France would join with the rebellious colonies, the stubborn pride which had thus far inspired the American policy was replaced by saner counsels. The colonies were offered everything which they had originally de- manded. But it was too late. Independence was now inevitable. And so the war went on. Howe evacuated Philadelphia, apprehending attack by a French army and fleet, and concentrated his forces in New York. Thereafter the British ministry merely aimed to worry the Americans by incessant petty operations, and to save from the wreck what fragments seemed most avail- able. In pursuance of the first scheme the Indians were in- duced to assail the Americans along all the forest frontier. The Virginians, exasperated by these operations, sent an expedition under General George Rogers Clarke into the Indian country. Clarke captured the British posts in Illinois and Indiana, and thus occupied all the territory between the Great Lakes and the Ohio. This proved a most important conquest, as otherwise when peace came to be made the Ohio and not the lakes would have been our northern frontier. To carry out the second branch of the scheme of min- The Separation from England. 83 Surrender of Cornwallis, isters, an army was sent to the extreme South, where The war in the there were many loyahsts. Georgia and South Carolina were conquered. But in 1780 General Greene, the American commander, succeeded in decoying Cornwallis, with the main British army of the South, into a long and fruitless march into North Carolina. Then when Corn- wallis pushed on into Virginia, Greene left him and threw his army in South Carolina. He then succeeded in reconquering both that state and Georgia. Meanwhile a powerful French fleet and army had ar- rived on the coast. Washington, by a most skilful movement, succeeded in throwing the combined army into Virginia before the enemy knew his objects. Corn- wallis was surrounded at Yorktown, the French fleet blocking up the exit by sea, and in October, 1781, the British army was obliged to surrender. This victory put an end to the war. In the following year a treaty of peace was negotiated, which was ratified in 1783. The independence of the United States was acknowledged. In the course of the negotiations the French would have been quite willing to limit the frontiers of the new republic, suggesting that the British possessions extend south to the Ohio, and that in the West a belt of neutral territory, to be held by the Indians, intervene between the United States and British America. But the Ameri- can commissioners held firmly to the lake frontier, and they were successful.* * The map on page qo shows the French proposal. Had it been adopted, the resuh would have been to cut the United States off from expansion west- ward. Fortunatelv, the victorious campaign of General George Rogers Clarke had put the Northwest already under the American flag (see p. 82). Treaty of peace, 1783- ■ The boundaries of the republic. CHAPTER VI. THE EVOLUTIOX OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. How the colo- nics came to Franklin's plan of union, 1754. References. — Bancroft : United Slates ; Fiske : A Critical Period in American History ; McMaster : History of the People of the United States, Vol. I. ; Curtis : Constitutional History of the United States ; Bancroft: History of the Constitution. Seventeen hundred sixty-three witnessed univer- sal rejoicing in America over the British triumphs in the war just closed. In 1776 the same colonists threw off with indignation the yoke of English tyranny. Loy- alty and affection for England had been changed to bit- ter enmity by a systematic course of arrogant misgov- ernment. It has been thought necessary to give only a brief account of the military operations of the Revolutionary War. But it is of great importance to trace, at least in outline, the way in which the colonies came to unite for common action. The common interests of the colonies were not numer- ous before the middle of the eighteenth century. The French wars were a danger, however, which called for united effort. But this union was very hard to secure. In 1754 a conference of commissioners from several of the colonies was held at Albany, and here Franklin pro- posed a scheme for a united government. It was not a bad plan — decidedly better, in fact, than the Confedera- tion afterwards adopted. But nobody liked it, either in England or America, and so it was dropped. The Stamp Act was the next common danger which The Evolution of Natio7ial Government. 85 threatened, and again a conference was held, the dele- The stamp Act gates of nine colonies meeting in New York and adopt- Congress, 1765. ing resolutions of protest and memorials to the king and Parliament. But of course this conference, like that of 1754, was merely ephemeral. When Massachusetts was made an example by the - . . , . , , The First Con- crown for its resistance to the tax on tea, again the colo- tinentai Con- nies felt they were all in danger alike, and a congress was called which met at Philadelphia in September. Of course again this meeting, like its predecessors, was a mere conference, without authority to bind anybody. But it was a sore disappointment to the king. He had hoped that he could deal with Massachusetts alone, and was quite sure that the other colonics would not stir. The convention took what action seemed necessary, and be- fore adjourning pro- vided for a second general congress, to be held in the follow- ing May. It will be noticed that each of these gatherings was called a ' 'congress, not a ' ' parliament. Had there been con- nected with them any idea of autliority to govern, the latter term, or perhaps "legislature," would have been used. The name congress was com- " Congress," not " Parlia- ment." I.NDEPENDENCti HaLL, l'lllL.-\DliL['llIA. 86 The Growth of the American Nation. The Second t'ontiiiciital Congress, 1775. Congress assumes the powers of government. A revolutionary government. mon in European diplomacy, applied to nieetino;.s of sovereigns or llicir ambassadors for consultation, with no power to bind any one to action. When the second general convention of the colonies met in Philadelphia in May, 1775, it wa.s confronted with the fact that war had actually begun. Blood had been shed at Lexington, and the British troops in Boston were held closely besieged by the New Englanders. The flames of revolt had burst out in every colony. It was plain that the only hope of success lay in concerted ac- tion, and there was no governmental machinery provided for that purpose. Accordingly tlie congress, by mere force of circumstances, assumed the functions of a general government. It proceeded to organize a continental army, most wisely and fortunately selecting George Washington as its commander. It recommended the colonies to form governments of their own, independent of the crown. It made what provision it could for getting money and munitions of war. When the fi.ved determi- nation of the British government to sulijugate the colo- nies was a]:)parent, when all suggestions of accommoda- tion had been rejected, and Cierman soldiers had been hired to help destroy the liberties of America, the con- gress resolved that independence was expedient. But it did not venture to take formal action until the colonies had been consulted. With their approval, it formally adopted a declaration of independence, and at the same time set on foot two other necessary measures — the se- curing of foreign alliances and the adoption of a settled form of government for the United States. It will thus be seen that the conference of the colonies had, by tacit consent, been converted into a government. It was a revolutionary government, and by that very fact had no defined powers. Thus it was at once stronger The Evolution of National Government. 87 and weaker than a constitutional government. It was stronger because there was no limit in law as to what it could do. It was weaker because, in fact, it had no means of compelling obedience. It could only advise and urge the states to certain lines of action. The most difficult problem of the revo- lutionary congress was finance. As there was no power to levy taxes, the resources of the treasury were very un- certain. The states were requested for con- tributions — which were given or withheld, as local whims might de- cide. After the alli- ance with France seemed to insure inde- pendence, some loans were negotiated abroad. In many cases supplies were taken for the army in return for mere receipts, which it was hoped would be honored when peace should come. liut the most obvious method of tiding over the emer- gency was the issue of bills of credit, which were to pass as currency. This continental currency at first was taken readily. But as million after million was printed, as the credit of the congress appeared more and more doubtful, the purchasing j)ower of the paper notes sank lower and lower, until at last it grew so worthless that Liberty Bell, Indkpendence Hall, Philadelphia. It was the ringing of this bell which gave notice to the assembled people in the streets that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted. The continental currency. The Growth of the American Nation. Fiske, "Ameri- can Revo- lution," II., iq8 A settled con- stitution. The League of Friendship. "not worth a continental" became a common expression for utter nullity. "During the summer of 1780 this wretched ' continental ' currency fell into contempt. As Washington said, it took a wagon-load of money to buy a wagon-load of provisions. At the end of the year 1778 the paper dollar was worth sixteen cents in the Northern States and twelve cents in the South. Early in 1780 its value had fallen to two cents, afid before the end of the year it took ten paper dollars to make a cent. In October Indian corn sold wholesale in Boston for $150 a bushel, butter was $12 a pound, tea $90, sugar $10, beef $8, coffee $12, and a barrel of flour cost $1,575. Samuel Adams paid $2,000 for a hat and a suit of clothes. The money soon ceased to circulate, debts could not be collected, and there was a general prostration of credit. A barber in Philadelphia papered his shop with bills, and a dog was led up and down the streets smeared with tar, with this unhappy money sticking all over him." On the 7th of June, 1776, there were introduced in the Continental Congress the famous resolutions beginning, " That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. " The third resolution was, ' ' That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies, for their considera- tion and approbation." No argument was needed to show that if independence was to be maintained there must be a permanent union and an authoritative govern- ment. But the exigencies of war prevented immediate action on this subject. It was not until November of 1777, in- deed, that the congress finally adopted a draft of a con- stitution which it called ' ' Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," and which was sent to the states for ratification. The Evolution of National Government. 89 By these articles there was established a league of xhe Ankles of friendship and a confederate government. The govern- °" ^ *^''^"°"- ment consisted merely in a Congress of the United States, to which each state might send from two to seven delegates, as it should choose. Each state had one vote in the Congress, thus disregarding differences of wealth and population. This provision was naturally adopted in the conferences called congresses preceding the war, had as of course been followed in the war congress, and now was made part of the constitution. The Confederate Congress was to have no power to levy taxes of any kind, but for its financial needs was merely to request each state to pay its due proportion. There was no executive and no regular judiciary. No important law could be enacted without the affirmative vote of two thirds of the states in Congress, and the constitution could not be amended without the approval of Congress and the subsequent assent of all the states. This frame of p:o\ernment was very slight. But at „ .^ .. * y iri Ratification. least it was a common government for all the states, and provided for a perpetual union. Should it be adopted, • the informal and wholly voluntary concord of the states in their resistance to Great Britain would be converted into a definite and legal confederacy. By 1780, all the states had assented to the articles but The western Maryland. Her objection was the lands west of the '^" ^" Alleghenies which some of the states claimed. The original charters, in the breezy way in which popes and kings then disposed of the earth, made the land grants extend westward to the South Sea. By the treaty with France, in 1763, England relinquished her claims west of the Mississippi. Then Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia claimed to ex- tend as far as that river. New York claimed what was See p. 82. Fears of Maryland. 90 The Growth of the American Nation. north of the Ohio, on the ground of a treaty with the Indians. But in 1778 Virginia had sent an expedition under Gen. George Rogers Clarke against the British posts in the IlUnois country, and had succeeded in tak- ing actual possession of the vast territory between the Ohio and the lakes. It was now apprehended by Mary- land that these rich western lands would make the states owning them so wealthy and powerful that the other states in the Confederacy would be oppressed. Accordingly Cession of the lands. The treaty of peace, 17S3. her delegates were instructed not to ratify the Articles unless the lands in question should be ceded to the en- tire union. New York and Virginia set the example of taking this patriotic action, and the other states followed. Assured of this result, Maryland ratified, in 1781, and thus the Articles of Confederation went into effect. Peace was made with England in 1783. The in- dependence of the United States was recognized. The The Evolutio7i of National Goverjiment. gi Great Lakes and the Mississippi were made the bound- aries on the north and west. Thus the new nation had won its hberty and had an ample domain for future growth. But peace did not mean prosperity. The war had shattered business. The states were heavily in debt. Social dis- T-) 1 11- 1 1 1 • " organization. Rebellion, although success had made it revolution, yet had taught the people turbulence and lawlessness. And the confusion and distress of the next half dozen years showed conclusively that without an adequate govern- ment civil society can make no assured progress. The Articles of Confederation proved utterly ineffect- ive. The new republic could not make satisfactory treaty The Confeder- . . . , -^ ■ ation a failure. arrangements with foreign nations, because it had no power either to carry out an agreement or to retaliate for injuries. One article of the treaty with England pro- vided that Congress should use its influence to secure the payment of private debts due to Englishmen. But it turned out that Congress had no influence, and the debts were not paid. In consequence the British refused to give up military posts which they held in the West. American merchant ships were captured by the Barbary privates with impunity. Congress had no money to bribe them and no navy to fight them. The states quarreled incessantly. As they had the sole right of levying duties on imports, they set out to ^'^^ states. compete with one another for foreign commerce, each hoping to build up its own trade at the expense of its neighbors'. And not content with this they taxed im- ports from other states. New York laid a duty on the products of New Jersey and Connecticut. New Jersey retaliated by taxing the New York lighthouse on Sandy Hook. New Hampshire and New York nearly came to blows over their conflicting claims to Vermont. Pennsyl- 92 The Grozvth of the American Nation. The treasury bankrupt. Rag money in Rhode Island, McMaster, I-. 331- Shays' Rebel- Uon, 1786. vania and Connecticut wrangled over the title to land in the valley of Wyoming. Meanwhile notmerely was the national debt, over $50,- 000,000, unpaid, but no provision whatever was made for either principal or interest. Congress tried hard enough to get the money. But the states did not pay their shares. Of some $8,000,000 due on requisitions of Con- gress from 1 78 1 to 1783, less than $500,000 had been paid in the latter year. The first installment of the pub- lic debt was due in 1787. At that time only New York and Pennsylvania had paid their quotas in full. New Hampshire and North Carolina had paid nothing. And in 1786 New Jersey flatly refused to pay a cent. And of course, in consequence, the public credit was so low that a loan could not be effected. In several of the states discontent and lawlessness were rife. Everybody was in debt, everybody was poor, every- body grumbled. The people of Rhode Island thought they had hit on a solution of their troubles when they issued a legal tender paper currency. Any farmer could borrow this from the public treasury on security of one half the appraised value of his land. But at once depre- ciation began, and the legislature passed the most frantic laws in the attempt to keep their rag money at par. Of course they failed — as all fiat money devices always have failed and always will fail. In Massachusetts riots broke out against the courts which were enforcing the collec- tion of debts by legal process. And the disturbances culminated in organized insurrection which was only quelled by military force. Repeated attempts had been made to amend the Articles of Confederation so as to give the general gov- ernment a revenue and some little power. But as the objection of a single state sufficed to defeat amendment. The Evolution of N^ational Government. 93 it had proven impossible to secure any improvement. The simple truth was that the imbecile structure of government made the success of the republic impossible. The country was fast drifting towarci anarchy and civil war. The best friends of America in Europe despaired of the possibility of the perpetuity of the new nation. And George III. had no doubt at all that in a short time the states would be begging on their knees to come back under his benign sway. It was under these discouraging and alarming circum- stances that in the spring of 1787 a convention met at Philadelphia to see if the crazy structure of government under the Articles of Confederation could be amended. Maryland and Virginia had had trouble about the navi- gation of the Potomac. In 1785 commissioners of those states met to adjust the difficulties. It soon appearing that there were questions involved which went beyond the two states, the commissioners advised that a general conference be held to see what could be done in the interest of commerce. This conference was held at An- napolis in the following year, being attended by dele- gates from only h\'e states. They did not feel like acting, inasmuch as they were so few, but adopted a recommendation for a convention of all the states to be held at Philadelphia in 1787 to consider and report on the question of improving the existing frame of govern- ment. Congress was led to sanction the meeting, and all the states but Rhode Island appointed delegates. The emergency was so grave that the states generally selected their strongest men. Of the fifty-five delegates who at one time or other were present, upwards of thirty were lawyers, including some of the ablest jurists in America. The great name of Washington at once commanded respect for the convention, while such men General collapse. What George III. thought. The convention of 1787. The Annapolis conference, 1786. The Phila- delphia con- vention, 1787. The delegates. 94 The Growth of the American Natio7i. A new consti- tution. The plans. The difficulties. as Madison from Virginia, Hamilton from New York, Franklin and Wilson from Pennsylvania, would have made any assembly illustrious. Washington was chosen president, and it was decided to sit with closed doors. No sooner was the problem of the convention fairly stated than it was clear to the majority that it was idle to at- tempt amendment. A new plan altogether was much more feas- ible. The plan offered by New Jersey dele- gates would have pre- served the independ- ence of the states, merely strengthening somewhat the central government. The plan of the Virginia delegates formed a much stronger gen- eral government, with a distinct executive and judiciary, and a It was this latter plan which Old South Church, Boston. A light in the belfry of this church in the night of .\i)ril iS, 1775, gave warning to the patriots that the British expedition had set out for Concord. congress of two houses the convention modified and adopted. The main difficulties of the convention were how to reconcile conflicting interests. In the first place, the small states were jealous of the relative weight of the large states. Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, the most populous states, insisted that in both Houses of Congress representation should be The Evolution of National Government. 95 proportioned to population. The small states, aided by The large states some votes from those of medium position, insisted that states.*^ ^"'^' in each House every state should have one vote, irre- spective of population. On this issue the convention was nearly wrecked, for feeling ran high, and both sides were obstinate. But the dispute was settled by the com- promise offered by the Connecticut delegates, whereby there was to be equal representation in the Senate and rep- JiJi^comp"™-"' resentation according to population in the Lower House. ™'^'^- The second serious dispute related to the status of negroes as related to political representation. Slaves were held in nearly all the states, but it was only south of Pennsylvania that they were a large part of the com- xheenumer- munity. Accordingly South Carolina and Georgia in- aiion of slaves, sisted that in estimating population for the apportionment of representation the negroes should be counted. Northern delegates insisted as strenuously that if they were held as property they should not count as men. It was agreed finally that the negroes should be counted, both for representation and for direct taxes, but only at ]y,^jjso„.<- the rate of five negroes as equivalent to three white men. compromise. This was Madison's plan. The third dispute related to the control of Congress over commerce. The Northern States wanted Congress to have full power of legislation on commercial regu- lation, and at the same time they were eager to put an end to the slave trade. The far South opposed both commerce and propositions, and South Carolina flady refused to assent ^'^<^ '^'^^^ "■^''^• to the constitution should the slave trade be forbidden. This also was settled by compromise. Congress was -j-be third given power to regulate commerce, and the slave trade compromise, was not to be prohil)ited before 1808. These three compromises had far-reaching effects. The equal representation of the states in the Senate 96 The Groivth of the American Nation. Results of the compromises. The compromises necessary. Essential ideas of the new plan. has made it possible for a group of ' ' rotten borough ' ' states to endanger the prosperity of the whole country. The concession of the three fifths ratio for slavery in- trenched that institution in the constitution, and was ' ' the beginning of woes ' ' in the long train of sinister strife which ended in the Civil War and in the miseries of the reconstruction epoch. On the other hand, if Con- gress had been denied the power to regulate commerce, the federal government would have lacked little of the imbecility of the Confederation. But whatever we may think about the propriety of the compromises, one thing we may as well keep in mind — without them the constitiition zvould never have been made. The Confederation could not have lasted. A cluster of discordant and weak republics, incessant wars, the pre- dominance on this continent of Great Britain — these would have been the epitome of our history for the last century had the constitution failed. The compromises and their results are the price we have paid for national existence and national glory. Other difficulties were settled without serious trouble, and in September the convention sent their draft of a constitution to Congress, and adjourned. The new plan of government differed from the old in vital particulars. There was provided a definite frame of government, with a powerful executive and a dis- tinct federal judiciary. The powers granted to this government made it a substantial and independent real- ity. Congress could lay and collect taxes without de- pending on the caprice of the states. The federal con- stitution and laws were made supreme over state enact- ments. The federal court was bound to apply this su- preme law of the land, and the federal executi\-e was enabled to enforce it. The Evolution of Akxtional Goveruuient. 97 The constitution provided that it should be passed on by state conventions elected for that purpose, not by the existing legislatures, and that it should go into effect when ratified by nine states. As the elections proceeded it was evident that very few people were really satisfied. Action of the Some thought the constitution established too strong a ^'^'^'^s- government ; others thought it too weak. New York was bitterly opposed to it. The Massachusetts conven- tion was carried for ratification only with great difficulty. Rhode Island and North Carolina refused to ratify at all, and only came into the Union after Washington had for some time been president. But in one way or another eleven states were induced to ratify, and Congress or- dained that the new machinery of government should go into operation with the oiDcning months of the year 1780. J°^" Quincy ^ _ , y / ? Adams said : The Articles of Confederation provided that there " T^e consti- '■ tution was ex- should be no amendment without the uuLinimous consent ?"'''^d by grind- ing necessity of the states. The Articles were set aside and a new or- f''om a reluctant people. ganic law put in force against the will of two of the states. Hence it is plain that the action by which the constitu- tion was adopted and enforced was, leo-allv speakintr, as T'^*^ adoption of ^ . o y 1 & tjjg constitution much a revolution as was that of 1775. Fortunately this ^ revolution. revolution was accomplished without bloodshed. But it is just as well to remember that it zvas a revolution. The eleven states simply seceded from the Confederation and formed a new government. But our national life begins with the revolution of ^, ,^ . . Y _ 1 he beginning 17S9. Until 1 78 1 the colonies were entirely independent of national life. of one another, only acting together by common consent. From 1 78 1 to 1789 the states formed a loose and dis- cordant confederacy. Since 1789 there has been an American nation. 98 The Growth of the American Nation. SUMMARY OF PART II. TliL- colonies finnlv estab- lishfil. Taxation leads 111 war. Congresses. Indciiendencc. The French al iaiicc. Peace. When the French wars ended in the expulsion of France from American soil, the English colonies had be- come firmly established. They had a considerable popu- lation, carried on a successful commerce and agriculture, and had a vigorous local life. Withal they were warmly attached to the mother-country. But the great wars had plunged Great Britain deeply in debt. And ministers, casting about for ways and means, bethought themselves of shifting a part of the burden on the American colonists. To this the Ameri- cans flatly refused to submit, partly because they had already done their share, but mainly because they de- nied the taxing power of a j^arliament in which the colo- nies were not represented. As the British government stubbornly persi.sted in its policy, words finally led to blows, and in 1775 oi)en war began. The colonies held a series of conferences, called con- gresses, for the consideration of common concerns. And the Continental Congress of 1775 assumed the authority of a general government. At the outset the Americans took up arms merely for the redress of grievances. But after a year of war pub- lic feeling had become so exasperated that independence of Great Britain was formally declared. The failure of Burgoyne's invasion in 1777, and the capture of his whole army by the Americans, convinced France that the " rebels" would finally succeed, and so the old enemy of England joined in the war as an ally of the United States. Largely by French aid the war was brought to an end, and Great Britain was obliged to recognize the independence of the revolted colonies. While the war was in progress, the states adopted a Siimrnajy of Part II. 99 constitution of government, called "Articles of Con- federation. ' ' This proved a very loose and weak device, Jhe Articles of ^ ■' Confederation. and under it the states, when the war came to an end, were in a state of discord nearly approaching anarchy. They had originally been entirely separate one from an- other, and had been brought together only by the com- mon danger. The critical state of affairs finally led to the appointment of delegates to a general convention for the revision of the Articles of Confederation. This con- vention, meeting at Philadelphia in 1787, formed an en- tirely new constitution which provided a strong govern- ment. This constitution was ratified by the states, al- Theconstitu- though many were reluctant, and went into operation in 1789. Thus the folly of the British government drove the colonies into revolt, and persistence in the same stupid The colonies . . driven to be- policy changed the revolt mto a war of independence, come a nation. The necessity of mutual help in the war compelled union. And after victory was won the pressing dangers of an- archy and possible civil war forced the states to draw their union closer and to convert their loose Confedera- tion into a real nation. In other words, the scattered colonics became a compact nation, not from the prevision and deliberate building of statesmanship, but simply by the sheer compulsion of unforeseen events. PART III. THE DOMINANCE OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. PART III-THE DOMINANCE OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. CHAPTER VII. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NATION. References. — Schouler : United States, Vol. I. ; Hildreth : United States, Vol. I. ; McMaster, Vol. I. ; Lodge's Harnitton and Morse's Jefferson, in the Statesmen Series ; Marshall : Life of Washington. The constitution havino- been ratified by the requisite . . *> -' 1 .Action of the number of states, it devolved on the Congress of the o'd Congress. expiring Confederation to make proper arrangements for setting the new government in motion. Accordingly an act of September, 1788, provided that electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, that the electors should vote for president and vice-president on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new Con- gress should meet on the first Wednesday in March, 1789. The last date happened to fall on the 4th. The elections were duly held, electors in nearly all the states being chosen by the legislatures. Senators and mem- bers of the Lower House were elected in the various states ; the electors met in February and unanimously Election of chose George Washington president, with John Adams Washington. as vice-president. In March the members of Congress began to assemble in New York, the temporary capital. But it was not until April that a quorum of the Senate was in attendance and the electoral votes could be counted. By the time that Washington and Adams had I04 The Growth of the American Nation. The executive departments. ^^ been notified of their election and had come to the seat Inauguration of of sfovemment the rest of the month was nearly p-one. government. ^ , . . It was on April 30 that the first president was inaugurated, with a simple but dignified ceremonial. The national legislature and the head of the executive branch were now ready for duty. It remained to organ- ize the executive departments and the judiciary. It was agreed that the departments should be three — state, war, treasury. The old Congress had had quite - - -^ enough of execu- X ti ve boards, which \ had merely bred l^ '* quarrels and \) '■ , feeble ad minis- tration. So each executive depart- ment was placed under a single person, who was called a secre- tary. The judiciary act of the First Congress was framed by a com- mittee of the Sen- ate, of which Judge Ellsworth, of Connecticut, a member of the Con- stitutional Convention, was chairman. It provided for a supreme court of six justices, and for district courts, as a rule each state forming a district. Circuit courts were to be held, a supreme justice sitting with a district judge in each. An attorney-general was also provided. It was not at first intended that he should give his whole The judiciary. ■■"^ George Washington. From Houdon's bust. The Organization of the Nation. 105 time to public duties, and indeed in the early years he came only occasionally to the seat of government, spend- ing the most of his time in his private business. The constitution provided that appointments to the .^^^^ removing principal offices of state should be made by the presi- po^'^er- dent with the advice and consent of the Senate. In dis- cussing the bills for the executive departments the ques- tion arose whether the president could' remove an ad- ministrative officer whose appointment required the ap- proval of the Senate, without consulting that body. The independence of the president was secured only by the casting vote of the vice-president. But that was suffi- cient to establish a precedent which was followed until after the Civil War. It should be observed that in establishing executive „, , . , '-' The cabinet. departments Congress had no idea of creating a cabinet. An executive council was not contemplated by the con- stitution, indeed the suggestion being negatived by the Philadelphia convention. Washington advised freely with the heads of departments, but it was individually, not collectively, and often in writing. And he consulted quite as freely the attorney-general, the chief justice, and the vice-president. It was not until nearly the end of his first term that in the emergency caused by the European war he convened a meeting of heads of de- partments for consultation. And this was the beginning of the American cabinet — a body wholly extra-legal and merely advisory, without a particle of authority. Thus it is wholly unlike a European cabinet. Washington's selections for appointment were highly judicious. His criteria were three — integrity, capacity, conspicuousness. He also incidentally considered geo- .^^^ ^^^^^ graphical distribution. As secretary of state he chose schouiLrlL','108. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, whose able legislative and io6 The Growth of the American Nation. diplomatic services made him eminently fit. Alexander Hamilton, of New York, was appointed secretary of the treasury. The ofiice was first offered to Robert Morris, the famous revolutionary financier, but he declined and recommended Hamilton. Gen. Henry Knox, of Massa- chusetts, a gallant artillery ofiicer of the revolutionary army, was made secretary of war, continuing the duties he already exercised under the Confederation. Governor Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, became attorney-gen- eral, and John Jay, of New York, chief justice of the Supreme Court. "Integrity, capacity, conspicuous- ness " — surely these qualities were illustrated in marked degree by that cluster of brilliant statesmen. The first tariflf Meanwhile Congress had been busy providing an in- come. The two obvious modes were a duty on imports and an internal revenue tax. The former was chosen as less open to objection, and the first federal tariff" act be- came a law by the signature of President Washington on the 4th of July, 1789. Its preamble recited its pur- poses to be the production of revenue and the protection of home industries, and the debates show that the pro- tective feature was quite prominent.* Since the war the old English restrictions on American manufactures had disappeared, and such industries were rising on all sides. Free trade was not an eighteenth century idea, and the only lesson the colonists had learned from England was that the English government had always used all its powers for the aid of English commerce. The Ameri- cans now proposed to do the same for their own. The Tonnage -^ similar policy prevailed in a second revenue meas- ^'^'' ure, that laying a tonnage duty on ships. This taxed * The preamble to the act reads : " liliereas, It is necessary for the support of the government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported, . . ." The Organization of the Ak-ition. 107 vessels built and owned in the United States six cents a ton, those built but not owned in the United States thirty cents, the same for ships of powers having- treaties with the United States, and all others fifty cents. The debates on these acts were warm, but not acri- xhe president's monious. More heat was displayed when the question ^^^^' arose at the outset as to the title by which the president should be addressed. The Senate wished to call him " His Highness, the President of the United States of America and Protector of Their Liberties." The House insisted on styling him simply "The President of the United States," in the words of the constitution, and this sensible view prevailed. But there was a great fusilade of oratory in both Houses. The first session of the First Congress was adjourned ^ , , * _ -" September, in September, for a recess until the opening of the new 1789- year. But before adjourning, the House requested the secretary of the treasury to prepare a report on the pub- , lie credit. And this important document, the first of report on the ^ _ public credit. Hamilton's remarkable reports, was laid before the House of Representatives when Congress reassembled in the winter of 1790. The public debt incurred by the Revolutionary War schouier, i.,i3o. Hamilton divided into three distinct portions. The first was that which was owed in Europe, largely to France, some to Holland, a little to Spain. This amounted, principal and interest, to about $12,000,000. The sec- ond comprised all forms of domestic indebtedness, which, including interest, came to upwards of $42,000,000. The third included the war debts of the several states, and was more than $20,000,000. The secretary proposed to fund the whole into United States bonds running for a definite J^.^em"'^'"^ time and bearing a fixed interest, six per cent being the maximum. Then duties on certain specified articles. Bronze Statue of Alexander Hamilton, Brooklyn, N. Y. By William Ordway Partridge. Violent oppo- The Organization of the Nation. 109 with an internal revenue tax, would suffice to meet the interest and in the end to pay off the principal. There was no difference of opinion as to the necessity and duty of paying the foreign debt in full. But there sition. unanimity ceased, and the other features of the plan pro- voked violent opposition. As to the domestic debt, very few of the original creditors held the scrip. It had jDassed from hand to hand at increasing rates of discount, until the final holders had paid twenty-five, twenty, and even fifteen cents on the dollar. To pay these speculators at par would yield them an enormous profit. If the debt should be scaled down to twenty-five cents on the dollar it would save the treasury many millions and still hand- somely repay the speculators. Moreover, the states had been accustomed to compound with their creditors, and it was on that supposition that the certificates had been sold at so low a rate. It was now manifestly unjust to pay what nobody expected to get. And if anybody had a title to full payment it was not the speculators at all, but the original creditors, and these had long since sold out. To these arguments, certainly plausible, the only re- 1 .1 . •. , 1 r • 1 r 1 • Defense of the ply was that it was not good laith lor the nation to plan, promise to pay a dollar and in fact to pay less — that it did not concern the government how the certificates came to pass from the original holders, on what terms they had been transferred, or who were the present own- ers — and that, aside from the question of right, it would in the end be bad policy to repudiate any part of the national debt. The credit of the republic would be good in the money markets of the world only if it should be understood that its financial promises would be kept to the letter. Congress decided that these considerations were con- no The Growth of the Aviericmi Nation. Assumption of state debts. Assumption defeated. The capital. The compro- mise. Assumption carried. August 4, 1790. elusive, and that national credit was worth the cost. Accordingly this part of the funding plan was accepted. But the proposed assumption of state debts aroused a furious quarrel. No one had thought of this at all. No state had asked or expected it. Some states had pro- vided for their debts. Others had neglected theirs. To pay them all with federal taxes would be to reward sloth and bad faith at the expense of thrift and integrity. On the other hand, it would cost the country as a whole no more, whether the debts were paid by state or nation. As the states had under the constitution lost the right of levying import or export duties, they could not so con- veniently get the taxes as could the United States. And, after all, the debts were incurred in the common cause, and it did not therefore seem more than just that they should be paid from the common purse. But the oppo- sition was strong enough finally to defeat assumption in the House by the close vote of thirty-one to twenty-nine. There for a time the matter rested. In the meantime, a new question had caused sharp division. A federal capital wholly under the control of Congress was evidently necessary for the national dig- nity. New York and Philadelphia were aspirants, and the southern people wanted it on the Potomac. Hamilton now proposed to Jefferson a plan for settling both questions. The latter was to induce Virginia op- ponents of assumption to yield, and Hamilton was to secure northern votes for a capital in the South. This was done. The federal capital was to be fixed on the Potomac, Philadelphia being the seat of government until 1800. And the funding bill as it came down from the Senate, with an amendment to assume state debts to the amount of $21,500,000, was accepted by the House. Hamilton doubtless had ulterior political purposes The Organization of the Nation. 1 1 1 which he did not reveal to Congress. Funding and as- Hamilton's sumption, entirely aside from their financial bearing, he """ '^^^' thought would be powerful means of welding the nation together and especially of consolidating the moneyed interests in favor of the federal government. And in this he was certainly successful. But the dissensions which these financial schemes of The beginnings the brilliant secretary aroused in Congress were reflected parties.'*^^ in the country at large, and later in the cabinet of Presi- dent Washington, and were the beginning of that di- vergence of political views which led shortly after to the formation of distinct national political parties. Hence the history of our national politics may be said properly to have had its beginning in this second session of the First Congress, in 1790. The Tariff Act of 1789 had been adopted without any definite idea of the amount of revenue which the new government would need. The adoption of Hamilton's schemes for funding, including the assumption of the state debts, made necessary an expenditure much greater than the income from customs, and therefore a new tax was imperative. When Congress reassembled in December, 1790, the secretary of the treasury recom- The excise, mended an excise on whisky, as being calculated to yield the needed revenue, and at the same time as a tax on a luxury. This measure was adopted, although it excited much greater opposition than had the tariff bill. And it may be added that the hostility among the people was very bitter. In western Pennsylvania distilled spirits were a principal product, and in the scarcity of a good circulating medium whisky even served as money. Among the mountaineers of that rugged country the collection of the tax was resisted by violence. And so far did this go that in 1794 Washington was obliged to 112 The Growth of the Amcricaji Nation. i^>sur^ctfo.r ^''^'^ ^" ^^''^y ^^^°^^ ^^^^ mountains to brin^ the frontier farmers to their dut>'. This coUision had further sig- nificance as the first test of the new central government Insurrection 1794- Hamilton's third report. against local insurrection. And the constitution proved adeauate to the empro-pnrv adequate to the emergency. A third report by Hamilton at the winter session of 1790-91 recommended a bank of the United States, with The Organization of the A^ation. 113 branches in the principal cities. The federal government was to own a filth of the stock, to have a fifth of the di- The Bank of the I lilted rectors, and to ha\'e some ad\antages besides. The states. bank was to make government exchanges, keep treasury balances, and on occasion to make ad\-ances to supply temporary public needs. It was to carry on a general banking business, and to issue paper currency, payable in gold or silver, and receivable for all dues to the United States. This proposition not only aroused alarm among those who feared the association of gov- ernment with banking, but was attacked on the ground that the constitution gave Congress no specific authority to charter such an institution. This argument Hamilton answered by the theory of implied powers — that Con- gress had the power to do anything "necessary and proper" to carry into effect the other powers, and that a bank was such an agency lor carrying on the fiscal operations of the go\-ernment. Here Madison and Jef- ferson took issue with Hamilton, and from this time the "loose construction" theory of Hamilton and the Thecoustruc- , ., tinn of the coi. "strict construction theory ol Jetterson began to be stituti the cardinal principles of the two national parties which were now rapidly forming. The bank bill was passed and became a law. President Washington yielding to the views of the secretary of the treasury. The charter was for twenty years (1791-1S11). Another important measure of the indelatigable sec- retary was a national mint. The coins in common use were a frightful mixture of those of various countries — English, French, Spanish, Mexican, of many denomina- tions, of all sorts of values — shillings, crowns, dollars, moidores, joes, half joes. Hamilton proposed a uniform decimal scale, with the dollar as the unit, and the double standard. The former was a verv novel relorm, the tion. The mint. 1 1 4 The Growth of the American Natioti. The double standard. Odd debate : to coins. Economic effects of the new govern- ment. latter was in deference to the common practice in Europe. But the ratio between gold and silver in this first federal law on the subject was fixed at one to fifteen, and thereby at once illustrated the difficulty of fixing a price by statute; While it is true that in 1792, when the act was passed, fifteen silver dollars were about the price of one gold dollar, it is also true that that price was rising, and continued to rise for many years. The result was that, as is always the case under free condi- tions, the cheaper metal drove the dearer out of circu- lation. Gold disappeared, and in place of a double standard we had practically under the law of 1792 a single silver standard. The mint bill was passed with little political heat. The only serious discussion related to Hamilton's proposal to put the head of the president on the coin. This was rejected, as savoring too much of monarchy. Various suggestions followed. The eagle was denounced as a rapacious bird, the emblem of war. Another member then gravely suggested the goose, as a bird symbolizing peace and decorum. The matter was compromised by selecting the lady who passes as the goddess of liberty for the obverse, with various devices, an eagle being the favorite, for the reverse. The organization of a stable government was imme- diately followed by a revival of prosperity. Business began to expand as soon as men could begin to depend on the future. Uncertainty, apprehension, distrust, were replaced by confidence in the stability of social conditions. Trade among the states was no longer ham- pered by vexatious tariffs. The holders of questionable continental scrip suddenly found that they owned sub- stantial wealth. The federal taxes flowed in with regu- lar abundance, and the interest on the national debt was The Organization of the Nation. 115 paid with punctuality. The federal bank provided a con- venient channel for interstate exchanges and set in motion capital which it gathered in masses. The great wants of the country had been, first of all, assured order, and then adequate capital for the development of its vast material resources. The federal government secured the first, and Hamilton's great financial system made sure of the second. Manufactures began to expand, and commerce redoubled its activity. Hamilton had done more than any other one man to create the national credit and so to awaken orderly national enterprise. In his fourth great report, that on manufactures, in 1791, he set out an elaborate scheme for governmental protection and encouragement to in- dustry. Little was done to carry out these ideas, al- though the existing tariff was mildly protective. The principles of Hamilton were not attempted to be fully put into effect until after the second war with England, when Henry Clay's "American system" became a car- dinal doctrine of a new political party. But meanwhile it became evident that the constitution meant social order, that social order opened the way for profitable industry, and that the development of every form of national power was possible as soon as men could hope for assured returns from their toil. In other words, the progress of civilization is impos- sible without the state. And the state is human society in organic form. Under the Confederation the Ameri- can state was virtually unorganized. The constitution provided the organization of the American nation. Hamilton's report on manufactures. Results of the constitution. CHAPTER VIII. COMMERCE AND NEUTRALITY. References. — Schouler, Vol. I. ; McMaster, Shaler : The United States of America, Vol. I. Vol. II. Admission of new states. Foreign com- merce. Shaler, I., 518. The new federal government, as has been shown, worked so smoothly and efficiently from the first as to inspire immediate confidence in the stability of social or- der, and confidence at once opened the way to activity in all lines of business. Manufactures rapidly expanded. A tide of immigration set in toward the unsettled lands of the West, and the forests beyond the Alleghenies began to yield to the axe of the settler. The quarrel between New York and New Hampshire for the Green Mountain region was ended by the admission of Vermont to the Union as a fourteenth state, in 1791. In 1792 the west- ern district of North Carolina was admitted as the state of Tennessee, and in 1796, in like manner, the western district of Virginia became the state of Kentucky. Thus the eleven states which formed the republic when Wash- ington was inaugurated in 1789 had become sixteen when he retired from the presidency in 1797. Shipbuilding, the fisheries, and ocean commerce had long afforded employment to the people of the New Eng- land coast. These industries picked up slowly in the few years after the Revolutionary War, but with 1789 they began to expand with great rapidity. The Tariff and Tonnage Acts of that year levied lower duties on goods imported in American vessels, laid a lower tonnage tax 116 Covivierce and Akidrality. 117 on American than on foreign vessels, and made a further discrimination in favor of East Indian goods imported di- rectly from the country in which they were produced, as against the same goods imported from Europe. Stimu- lated by these provisions of the law, by the assurance of settled social conditions, and by confidence that the gen- Great expansion '^'^ of trade. eral government would now afford adequate protection against piracy and foreign injustice, foreign commerce be- came a favorite outlet for capital and industry. Exports and imports increased steadily, and soon the American flag was found in all parts of the world. In 1789 less than a fourth of our ocean traffic was in American vessels, while in 1793 less than a fourth was in \'essels not Ameri- can. The East India A'oyage especially became popular The East India : ^ . . voyage. with our merchants. English law at this time debarred from that trade any English vessels except those of the East India Company, while, as has just been shown, the American law offered inducements to all our merchants. "The result was that Massachusetts merchants, who already had some forty vessels employed in the trade, J.R. Soieyin . . , , . Slialer, I.,525. rapidly enlarged their ventures, and laid the foundation of those great fortunes which constitute the origin of the wealth of so many of the older New England families. These merchants shipped cargoes sometimes directly to the East, sometimes to intermediate ports, to be replaced by other cargoes of suitable character, and brought back for the use of their countrymen immense quantities of tea, spices, sugar, coffee, silks, nankeen, and other cloths — all of them articles of great value in proportion to their bulk, and therefore yielding heavy profits in the carrying trade ; and whatever did not find a market at home was reshipped from New England ports and sold at Hamburg or other commercial centers of Northern Europe. It may be said that the marked commercial 1 1 8 The Growth of the American Nation. The wars of the French Revolution. America con- cerned. feature of the period was the development of this trade. It was the era of which Hawthorne speaks in his famous description of the custom-house, in the introduction to ' The Scarlet Letter, ' where he calls up ' the image of the old town's brighter aspect, when India was a new re- gion, and only Salem knew the way thither. ' ' ' The development of this feature of our national life, as well as the course of our political history, was powerfully affected by the outbreak of the French revolutionary wars in 1792. When the States-General met at Versailles the week after Washington was inaugurated, in 1789, all America looked on with interest. When the States-General be- came the National Assembly, and France seemed on the way to peaceful reform of her despotic and feudal insti- tutions, American interest became warm sympathy. But the Revolution moved on beyond control. Thrones were in danger. France was attacked by Germany in the interest of the divine right of kings. And in 1793 France and England were again at war. This proved to be a war of giants. In the end all Europe was involved, and the struggle raged for nearly twenty-five years, with only the brief interval of a single year after the peace of Amiens in 1802. In this turmoil of passions the United States could not help being involved. The principles at issue were not national but social, and so enlisted the hottest ardor of America, as well as Europe, in opposing factions. Our growing ocean commerce was with the various belliger- ents, and so inevitably led to many entanglements, especially with France and England. And through these entanglements we were with the greatest difficulty kept for many years from being dragged into actual war on one side or the other. We did come to blows with Commerce Cojnmerce and Neutrality. 1 1 9 France in the last years of the century, although the matter was patched up. And at last, goaded beyond further endurance by the insults and wrongs of England, we yielded to the maelstrom in 181 2 and did what for a generation the whole world had been doing — we went to war. One of the first effects of the war between France and England was still further to stimulate American com- stimulated. merce. The British navy swept French traders from the seas, and French privateers made ocean voyages danger- ous for British merchantmen. But each nation wanted the provisions and stores which could only come from over the seas, and so the American neutral flag acquired almost a monopoly of the carrying trade. Under the old colonial system the French had confined commerce with their colonies to French ships. But when French ships could no longer sail in safety, the French govern- ment threw open its ports to American shipping, and the sugar of San Domingo, the coffee and hides of South America, were thus carried securely to France. And of course American provisions and marine stores met a ready and growing market in European ports. But the turmoil in Europe led to a great emigration, immigration French refugees from San Domingo, and from the Old World, Irish and Scotch and English and Germans, eagerly took refuge in a land which seemed dedicated to liberty and in which it seemed possible for every one to prosper. There were no kings, no privileged nobles, no entailed estates. Land could be had in fee simple, there was room for all, and the liberal naturalization laws of the First Congress made it possible for the immigrant soon to be a citizen. News of war between France and England reached America soon after WashinQ:ton's second inaus^uration, I20 The Growth of the American Natio7i. Franceand i^ the Spring of 1 793- With the previous phases of the England at war, ^^^^^ j^^ which Germans were the enemies of France, the United States had no immediate concern. But a col- Hsion between France and England meant war on the seas and in the colonies, and between nations with which Americans were closely involved in commerce. More- over, the treaty with France made in 1778 was still in force, and gave that nation some special privileges. The course to be taken by the federal government there- fore became matter of grave concern. Washington was at Mount Vernon. Hastening at once to Philadelphia, he called a conference of the heads of departments (the first cabinet meeting) and sought their advice. It was agreed to issue a proclamation taking the ground of complete neutrality, and forbidding American citizens to give aid to either party. This was beyond doubt the only wise policy for the American -' j i j neutrality. American Republic. But it was very distasteful to many of the people, who remembered with gratitude the aid given by France during the Revolutionary War, who sympathized warmly with the French republican cause, and who were by no means yet attached to England. This dissatisfaction was fanned into a flame by the new French minister, Genet, who landed at Charleston with his pocket full of blank letters of marque and commis- sions in the French service. These he used generously, Qgjjgj and soon had a number of privateers fitted out in Ameri- can ports and capturing British merchant ships along the American coast. Such an audacious violation of the sovereignty of the United States and of the respect due to a nation with which we were at peace of course could not be allowed, and so the administration called Genet sharply to account, and compelled a restitution of the illegal prizes. The choleric Frenchman took this in high Co7iimerce afid Akutrality. I2i dudgeon. And at first he was encouraged by public sentiment. There was a deal of fi'othy enthusiasm for 1^^ democratic -' ferment tn French republican ideas. ' ' The rights of man ' ' were America. the theme of fervid oratory. Democratic clubs, in imita- tion of the Jacobin Club of Paris, sprang up like mush- rooms, and at their banquets the strains of "^a ira" and ' ' Yankee Doodle ' ' alternated, while the stars and stripes were intertwined with the tricolor. These fer- vent Democrats, as they began to call themselves in '93, at first felt aggrieved that Washington had not received Genet with open arms, and that the American Republic had not joined the French Republic in a crusade against the world. But when Genet insulted the administration the popular fervor cooled. And when the Frenchman, deluded with the idea that the people were with him, threatened to appeal from the American president to the American nation, the tide of feeling turned quite against him, and there was general approval of the president's demand on the French government to recall its impu- dent envoy. The demand was heeded. But Genet fully understood the fate of a disgraced servant of the French Republic, and was aware that in Paris his head would be in danger. As, on the whole, he preferred to retain his head, but had no such exclusive policy as to the disposal of his heart, he settled the matter by re- maining in this country and marrying the daughter of Governor George Clinton, of New York. Thus for the present Washington's firm policy kept the nation from being dragged into war with England. England. But there were many vexatious matters affecting our rela- tions with that country. As the American agreements under the treaty of 1783 had not all been fulfilled, the British yet retained certain forts in the western part of the United States. There was as yet no commercial The reaction. Trouble with 122 The Growth of the American Nation. treaty. And, above all, the British claim of belligerent rights in the war with France was a serious annoyance to our growing commerce. ^^ , As has been said, when hostilities broke out France The neutral ' flag- opened all her ports to commerce, and the carrying trade between French colonies and French seaports soofi was transferred almost wholly to American shipping. But England insisted on the right to capture French property on the high seas wherever found, and so took it from American ships. Further, England declared food to be contraband of war. • The exports from the United States consisted largely in provisions. While England did not make prize of ships bound for France with such cargoes, she insisted that they should be unloaded in British ports, where the cargo was duly paid for. Then the governors of petty West India islands were made admiralty judges. They were ignorant men, and were paid for judicial work by fees from condemned ships. And presently it ap- peared that almost every American ship charged with ex- ceeding the rights of neutrals was quite sure to be con- demned. Another grievance was the English practice of stopping American merchantmen and taking from their crew any British subjects who might be found, for service in the royal navy. And it was not always easy to tell an Englishman from an American, so after a while it came to be the practice of British naval officers to claim any likely sailor as an Englishman. These accumulated outrages reawakened the revolu- tionary animosity against Great Britain. In the spring Embargo. of 1 794 Cougress laid an embargo on shipping for sixty days. Non-intercourse with England was proposed, and for a time war seemed inevitable. It was Washington's anxious desire to maintain peace, and he determined to send to England a special envoy Impressment of seamen. Commerce and Neutrality. 123 to negotiate a treaty. For this important mission the chief justice, John Jay, was selected. The treaty which The Jay treaty. he brought back from o\'er the water was perhaps the best that could be obtained. It certainly was giving sub- stantial commercial privileges for very shadowy English concessions. Washington was dissatisfied. Hamilton called it "an old woman's treaty." But both felt that it was better than war, and urged the Senate to ratify. When the treaty was made public, however, there was an outburst of popular wrath. In public meetings, in the press, and in Congress, the opposition was bitter and determined. But the president's wise judgment pre- vailed, and the treaty was duly ratified and signed. Thus for the second time the wisdom of Washington prevented a war with England. And any war would have been eminently dangerous to the imperfectly welded republic. But the angry disputes over Jay's treaty tended still part^dissen- further to widen a cleavage of the people into national 5'°"^- political parties, which had begun to appear in the First Congress. After the Revolutionary War there had been no burning question common to all the states until the draft of the federal constitution was made public in 1787. At that time there ensued a bitter contest at the polls and in the several conventions, and the division into Federalists and Anti-Federalists was sharply defined, .j-j^^ ^^jj_ Of course, with the adoption of the constitution the Federalists, Anti- Federalists had no reason for further organized action, and quite naturally the new congressmen and senators were generally Federalists. But the fundina: schemes of Hamilton, and especially ,, ^ ' r- y Hamilton s the assumption of state debts, developed a warm antag- financial plans. onism, which was made stronger by the excise and the bank. The centralizing tendency of these measures 124 The Growth of the American Nation. Loose construc- tion and strict construction. Jefferson dreads a monarchy. He organizes an opposition. was clearly seen, and those who had dreaded the con- stitution as an abandonment of state rights, together with those who had accepted the plan of government without desiring to weaken the states, united in opposition. When Washington was in doubt as to the constitution- ality of the bank bill, he sought advice both from Ham- ilton and from Jefferson. The former in his written an- swer developed the doctrine of implied powers, which of course was calculated to extend enormously the scope of the central government. Jefferson, having consulted with Madison, insisted on the doctrine of strict con- struction, and held that the power to charter a bank was nowhere given in the constitution. These papers formulated a theory of government for the parties which were now fast taking shape. Jefferson came back from France in 1789 filled with the ultra-democratic ideas of the Jacobin Clubs, and on assuming charge of the department of state found him- self surrounded by stanch Federalists who had no sym- pathy with democracy. The secretary was suspicious by nature, and he soon became convinced that the dom- inant politicians were aiming to convert the republic into a monarchy. Being himself an astute and am- bitious politician, as well as a fiery Democrat, he set out to organize a following out of the promising elements at hand. In doing this he was not oversensitive to consid- erations of delicacy. Hamilton soon found that his pol- icy for his own department was steadily opposed by his colleague in the department of state. And not content with introducing faction in the cabinet, Jefferson aided in the establishment of a newspaper in the interest of his faction by appointing the editor, Freneau, to a clerkship in the state department. The columns of Freneau' s Comuuric and Neutrality. 125 A French party and an English party. paper soon were filled with attacks on the policy of the Preneau's administration, and with venomous personalities aimed at Hamilton and in the end even at Washington himself. The beginning of the French revolutionary wars added new fuel to the kindling flame of faction. The party of Jefferson was enthusiastically French — lauded the Jaco- bins to the skies, went wild over the "rights of man," and hated England as the sworn enemy of liberty. On the other hand, the Federalists looked on the upheaval in France as little better than an outbreak of anarchy. They felt that after all England was fighting for social or- der. And they saw that American commercial interests were closely interwoven with those of England. Many of the more fiery Democrats would have welcomed a hearty alliance with France in her republican wars, but the administration and the cooler heads in all the states held firmly to neutrality as the only safe policy. But this in- trusion of foreign politics into our domestic dissensions was most pernicious and far reaching. To our shame be it said that there were a ' ' French party ' ' and an ' ' Eng- lish party ' ' in the United States until the mortal struggle between those nations ended on the field of Waterloo. Washington had consented reluctantly in 1792 to a reelection. His second term was stormy and difficult. The European war, the treaty with England, the rapid development of the opposition party, and the scurrilous abuse to which the administration was subjected, com- bined to render the president's position far from an easy one. Jefferson retired from the cabinet at the end of 1793, and Hamilton about a year later. The abuse of the small politicians was not a reflection of the public mind, and Washington might easily have been chosen for a third term, but he had finally decided to retire to his longed-for repose at Mount Vernon, and so declined Washington retires. 126 The Groivth of the American Nation. The farewell address. Election of Adams and Jefferson. The nation organized. another election. His farewell address to the American people was an earnest warning against the evils and dangers which seemed to be rising aronnd the republic. The Federalists selected the vice-president, John Adams, as their candidate for president, and Thomas Pinckney, of Maryland, for the second place, while the opposition bent all their efforts to the election of Jeffer- son to the presidency. By the constitution, as it then stood, the electors voted for two candidates without designating the office. The one who had a majority of the votes was to be president, and the next on the list was to be vice-president. In this clumsy way it turned out that Adams was elected president and Jeffer- son vice-president. And in each branch of Congress there was a majority favorable to the Federalist president. The two administrations of George Washington had sufficed to organize the federal government on a firm basis. The public debt had been funded in such way as to secure the prompt payment of interest and the ulti- mate extinction of the principal. The federal revenue was ample, and the national credit, under the Confedera- tion utterly worthless, was now raised to universal re- spect. The policy of neutrality had sufficed to keep America from entanglement with the great European war, while at the same time it contained the essential principles which have since come to be known as the ' ' Monroe Doctrine. ' ' The operation of the govern- ment had from the first been so orderly and successful as to give universal confidence to mercantile undertak- ings. Manufactures and commerce were expanding on all sides. Population was steadily increasing. The na- tion had begun its growth. To Washington the presi- dent we owe even more than to Washington the revo- lutionary general. CHAPTER IX. FEDERALIST IDEAS. References. — Schouler, Vol. I. ; McMaster, Vol. II. ; Weeden : Economic and Social History of New England ; Dorchester : Christianity in the United States. Washington, in his farewell address, warned the people in the most solemn manner ' ' to beware of the Pany govern- baneful effect of party spirit. " Himself inspired by the most profound regard for the whole republic, he felt acutely the dissensions which had embittered his official life as president, and foreboded grave evils from their continuance. He did not realize that party government was inevitable in a republic. And the administration of Adams was only avowedly what his predecessor's had been in fact — an administration by the Federalist party. To comprehend the Federalist way of thinking, it is necessary to remember that society at the end of the society eighteenth century was passing through a transforma- tion which it was not easy to understand at the time. Democracy, in the modern sense, had not been a colonial idea. Both socially and politically there was a real aris- tocracy. In New England there were not wide diver- gences in wealth, for there were none very rich and i^w very poor. Yet distinctions of birth, of official position, and of property were sharply maintained. From an early period many of the churches assigned pews according to a carefully graded social rank. It was not until 1768 that Yale College ceased to arrange students in its annual cat- . . Weeden, I., alogue in the order of the social standing of the parents, 278-280. 127 See p. 64. 1 28 The Growth of the American Nation. See p. 64. Weed en, I. 739- Washington's " republican court." and Harvard followed the same custom, as has been seen, until 1773. The tide was moving toward democracy, and after the Revolution many aristocratic customs had dis- appeared. But there remained a powerful class which was keenly conscious of its own superiority. In New York there was a landed baronage which held a feudal position. And in the South the gentry lived on their wide plantations in the manner and imbued with the no- tions of the English country gentleman. Equality of po- litical rights was no more the rule than was equality of social rank. Suffrage and eligibility to office in many of the states were limited to property owners, or to certain denominations of Christians. Negro slaves were held in nearly all the states, and even in New England the churches provided separate pews for the blacks. There were many people who disliked slavery, but in the ex- treme South it was held to be necessary, and after Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin, in 1793, the demand for negro labor in the cotton fields was so greatly increased that all the Southern States found slavery profitable. And slave communities tend to perpetuate ideas of caste. The drift of the Revolution was to unsettle class dis- tinctions, especially as the Tories were more numerous among the " upper ten." But, on the other hand, many of the revolutionary leaders were far from being demo- crats. Washington was a thorough aristocrat. He in- sisted that his officers should be gentlemen, and his de- meanor was always reserved and stately. When he be- came president he had a high idea of the dignity of his office, and supported it with somewhat elaborate cere- mony. He appeared in the streets of New York on im- portant occasions in a hemispherical, canary-colored coach, drawn by four or six horses. His receptions were very formal, and, notwithstanding that no titles of nobil- Federalist Ideas. 129 A democratic republic a new thing. ity existed, the president's wife was quite commonly called " Lady Washington." The confusion of the Con- federation convinced many people that more of form and order was sadly needed in society as well as in poli- tics. The leading Federalists believed that public affairs should be in the hands of the educated and wealthy few. They distrusted the masses. Hamilton did not conceal his scorn for democracy, and Adams's phrase, "the well born," in one of his books, became a by-word. It ought not to be forgotten that a republic on any- thing like a democratic basis was a novel thing. The examples of antiquity were remote. But it was not for- gotten that the Greek and Roman Republics had fallen. The Dutch Republic was very aristocratic, and its stadt- holder was really a king. The Swiss Confederation could hardly be a pattern for America. It was not easy for men to believe that any government other than mon- archical was likely to be permanent. And the Federalists were of the opinion that the freest and best form of gov- ernment in the world was that of Great Britain, and this they were inclined to copy, as far as circumstances would allow. It is not at all probable that there was ever among the Federalists a plan to create a monarchy. Jefferson was sure that such a conspiracy was brewing, and every chance word dropped at the table or in private conversation was to him added confirmation. But while in this his imaginative and suspicious temperament un- doubtedly led him into error, there is no doubt that the Federalists did want a strong and dignified government. Those who had been in the Federal Convention of 1787 remembered that Hamilton there suggested a plan which embraced such features as life tenure for the president ernment, 1787 and Senate, the appointment of state governors by the central government, and a federal veto on all state legis- Hamilton's plan for gov- 130 The Growth of the American Nation. Federalist doctrines. See p. 106. The New Eng- land clergy. Religious and moral ferment. lation. The tendency of the financial measures adopted by the First Congress was undoubtedly to enhance the power of the federal government very greatly. The Federalists adopted Hamilton's view of the constitution as being a document which should be construed loosely and in such sense as to give the central government virtually all powers not explicitly forbidden it. It was also a Federalist theory of political science that it was a function of government to aid and encourage the in- dustry of the people. It was to this end that the pro- tective features were embodied in the tariff of 1789, and this was a prominent purpose in the formation of the United States Bank. The Federalists, too, believed in a strong army and navy, and would have the United States felt in international affairs. The policy later called the "Monroe Doctrine," as has been shown, was really initiated by the Federalist administrations. A powerful element of Federalism was the New Eng- land clergy. It will be remembered that until the nine- teenth century was well on its way the Congregational Church was established by law in Massachusetts and Con- necticut. The clergy had from the first been leaders and almost autocrats in New England society. They now saw dangerous ideas and practices rife. That intellectual unrest was already evident which a few years later was to result in the great upheaval in Puritan Congregation- alism, which made Unitarian institutions of the church of the Pilgrims at Plymouth and of Harvard College at Cambridge. The wars and the French alliance had brought in a flood of infidelity and atheism. Morals were at a low ebb. Indeed, no period in our history shows more utter social demoralization than the last dec- ade of the eighteenth century. And the clergy instinct- ively turned to the Federalist party, the party of strong Federalist Ideas. 131 government, for that tonic which seemed to be needed ahke for lax morals and for lax theology. But French enmity to religion was if anything less p^g^^j ^^ dreadful to sober minds than were the political ideas of Frepc'i po''ti- i cal ideas. French Jacobinism. The " rights of man " were prated as glibly in the democratic clubs of New York and Phila- delphia as in the streets of Paris. And the Federalists were satisfied that an American reign of terror was im- pending — that property, the family, morals, were in serious danger. In short, there was the same dread of the new ideas of democracy which we are apt to feel to- day of the anarchists. Macaulay points out that the bulk of a nation is often -p,^g Federalists relatively indifferent as between two eager factions, and Ufajorky. hence that a positive minority may often triumph by sheer audacity. The masses follow success. It seems quite probable that this was the case in the early part of the Revolutionary War. Separatists in 1775 were as decided a minority as were thick-and-thin loyalists. And it is not likely that out-and-out Federalists were ever a real majority of our people. So long as their admin- istration of affairs was brilliantly successful, and so long as they avoided alarming the really democratic ideas of the masses, the Federalists kept their hold on political power. John Adams was an able and scrupulously honorable ^^^^ Adams man, with high ideas of national dignity. He was ex- ceedingly vain, inordinately fussy, and irascible to a de- gree. With this mixture of strong and weak qualities he was admirably qualified to administer the government with vigor and to throw political parties into a turmoil. The real leader of the Federalists was Hamilton. And with Hamilton the new president already had a thriving quarrel. It was owing to the machinations of the former 132 The Grozt'th of the Americayi Nation. Trouble with France. Dissatisfaction at American ingratitude. Hostile measures. that Adams had so small a vote in the electoral colleges of 1789 — a fact which he bitterly resented. And the same influence disturbed the election of 1797. The new administration was confronted at once with a grave difficulty in foreign affairs. France had felt pro- foundly dissatis- fied that the United States had shown such ingratitude for French aid in the Revolutionary War and such disregard for the treaty of alliance made in 1778 as not to join frankly in the war against England, But this dissatisfac- tion was fanned into rage when the Jay treaty be- JoHN Adams. came IcUOWU. Born, 1735; died, 1826. Graduated at Harvard, 1755; lawyer ; member of Contitiental Congress; signer of This, the DirCC- Declaration of Independence; commissioner to France; with Franklin and Jay negotiated treaty of tOry held, made peace in 1783; minister to England, 17S5-8 ; vice- president, 1789-97; president of the United States, the Americans 1 797-1801. virtually allies of England. Accordingly the French government refused to receive the new minister, C. C. Pinckney, who had been sent to Paris to succeed Monroe. And French cruisers began to seize American merchant ships on all manner of pretexts. The administration desired an amicable settlement, Federalist Ideas. and sent a special mission to Paris for that purpose, ^*|;ci"f n^issfon Gerry and Marshall being joined with Pinckney. But in lieu of an honorable reception the Americans were kept waiting on one pretext and another, and presently were notified in a roundabout way that if America de- sired a treaty with France an indispensable preliminary The Directory would be a loan for the republic and a private bribe of bribe, nearly a quarter of a million dollars for the members of the Directory. This precious communication came from Talleyrand. Its terms were abruptly rejected, and notification was immediately made to President Adams. When the president laid the dispatches before Con- The x v z , . . .^ • 1- • -IT- dispatches. gress, m the spnng of 1798, mdignation with 1^ ranee was hot.* The vigorous measures recommended by the administration were promptly voted. Public feeling, too, ran high. "Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute," was the cry. The Federalist black cockade appeared everywhere, and the French party seemed thoroughly discredited. Provision was made for an army, and Washington was called from his retirement to assume its command. The navy department was organ- „ ■' ^ . *^ I he tiavy de- ized. In 1794, when trouble with the Barbary pirates partment, 1798. seemed at hand. Congress had authorized the building of six frigates. Three of these, the Constitution, Con- stellaiion, and United States, were now ready, and the president was authorized to add a number of small ves- sels. This little squadron was sent to the West Indies with instructions to protect American commerce. It was done most efficiently, and in several gallant actions the new navy began to win that renown which the war with Tripoli and the second war with England were afterwards to make imperishable. * President Adams did not give the names ol Talleyrand's go-betweens, but indicated them bv the letters X Y Z. 134 T^^^ Grozi'th of the American N'ation. Hamilton's plans for the war. Talleyrand is alarmed and yields. The new mission, 1799. Convention of 1800 settles the trouble with France. Hamilton had been made second in command of the army, and his mihtary plans were far reaching. He proposed to attack Spain, the ally of France, and to take from her Florida and Louisiana ; then to make con- quests from the Spanish provinces in Mexico, and, as Hamilton wrote, to ' ' squint toward South America. " ' Had formal war resulted and these plans been carried out, history would have been anticipated in a very curious way. We have, in fact, acquired Florida, Louisiana, and a large portion of Mexico. But the last annexation in the South was made when Hamilton had been in his grave for fifty years. The publication of the X Y Z dispatches in America of course made it necessary that their contents should be known in Europe. Talleyrand was disconcerted, but with his usual brazen assurance he disavowed the acts of his agents. The unexpected spirit shown by the Ameri- cans made him uneasy, too, and he let it be known that he would give an honorable reception to a new embassy. Adams's cabinet, together with Hamilton, whom they were more apt to consult than the president, were strongly opposed to making any more advances. But Adams concluded that he was the president and abruptly de- cided that he would send envoys without regard to the views of the cabinet. Accordingly three commissiohers were sent, in 1799. And in the following year they suc- ceeded in making a convention with France v;hich set- tled all the matters in dispute. The old treaty of 1778, with all its inconvenient clauses, was abrogated. Both Washington and Adams did very unpopular things in making the treaties with England and France. But undoubtedly both were right. War would have been a serious disaster for the young republic. The Jay treaty of 1795 was not a good bargain. But it kept us Federalist Ideas. 135 at peace with Great Britain. And the resolute man- hness of John Adams in 1799 kept us from war with France. At the same time the course of the president dis- fp' P^rtv *^ dissensions rupted the Federahst party. The war feeUng- in 1798 result. had given the FederaHsts the enthusiastic support of the g-reat body of the nation. If the leaders had been able to agree with one another, and had followed a prudent policy, there seems to be no reason to suppose that there would not have been a long series of Federalist adminis- trations. But the dominant party was made dizzy with success, and proceeded in 1798 to enact some extreme and quite needless measures. The Naturalization Act required a TheNaturaii- ' . zation Act. residence of fourteen years, and in other ways made it far less easy for a foreigner to become a citizen. The Alien Act empowered the president to send out of the ,,. , ^ '■\ _ Alien and country by arbitrary executive process any alien whom Sedition Laws. he might judge to be in any way dangerous. Thus in their cases trial by jury was abrogated. The Sedition Act prescribed line and imprisonment for ' ' false, scan- dalous, and malicious writings ' ' against the national government, and for kindred offenses. It should be added that Hamilton and John Marshall were not in sympathy with the policy embodied in the Alien and Sedition Laws. These tyrannical acts excited fierce opposition, not ^, ,,. . . -' ^ ^ _ The Virginia only from the Republicans, as the party of Jefferson had and Kentucky ■' '■ . resolutions of come to be called, but from moderate people in general. 1798. The legislature of Virginia adopted resolutions drafted by Madison which protested against the laws in question as ' ' palpable and alarming infractions of the constitu- tion. ' ' And the legislature of Kentucky adopted resolu- tions drawn by Jefferson which proceeded further to de- 136 The Growth of the American Nation. Presidential nominations, 1800. clare the Alien and Sedition Acts void. The strong ground was taken that the states had the right to judge of the constitutionahty of federal legislation, and to de- clare null and void whatever in their judgment was un- constitutional. This dangerous doctrine was the germ from which grew Calhoun's nullification theory of 1832, and secession in 1861. As the presidential election of 1800 approached, the John Adams ' Administration. K\V\\V^ Slates niTTTll Territories Sa Encli* Pea. ^^ Spanish Pots. A bitter contest. opposing parties made their nominations. The Fed- eralists named Adams for president and C. C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, for vice-president. The Republicaa candidates were Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr, the brilliant and unscrupulous New York politician, for vice-president. The contest was the most bitter yet waged. Personal abuse and slander abounded on both sides. Every nerve was strained. The Alien and Sedition Acts had their Federalist Ideas. 137 due weight. And the violent quarrels of the Federalist leaders precipitated the catastrophe. When the elec- toral votes were cast, it appeared that Adams was de- Adains° feated. Jefferson and Burr had each seventy-three votes, Adams sixty-five, Pinckney sixty-four, and Jay one. Under the constitution as it then stood, the House of thro\vn*into\he Representatives, voting by states, was obliged to decide °"^*^' whether Jefferson or Burr should be president. And the House was Federalist. A week was spent in balloting, with no choice. The air was full of schemes. Some proposed to stave off an election altogether, and to have Congress provide that some good Federalist should suc- ceed. Others wished to choose Burr president. The latter was a tempting plan, as that tricky politician would doubtless have been willing to make a good bargain. But Hamilton opposed. He insisted that Burr was an unscrupulous and dangerous man, and that the obvious will of the people should be obeyed by choosing Jeffer- son.* This prudent and patriotic advice was heeded, and on the thirty-sixth ballot Jefferson was duly elected. Jefferson, 1801. Thus for the first time an opposition party triumphed in a presidential election. We have become somewhat used to such alternations, and are accustomed to take the defeat of our candidates philosophically. But the good Federalist parsons in New England felt as if the world were coming to an end. * Burr was elected vice-president. In 1804, as his term drew to a close, lie wished to become governor of New York. He had quarreled with Jefferson, so that a renomination for the vice-presidency was impossible. And he could be chosen governor of New York only by Federalist support. This was re- fused him, by the influence of Hamilton. And Burr took his revenge by challenging Hamilton to a duel, in which the great Federalist leader was killed. CHAPTER X. SOCIETY BECOMES DEMOCRATIC. References. — Schouler ; McMaster ; Hinsdale : The Old Northwest; Roosevelt: The Winning of the West; Common- wealth Series : Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana ; Statesmen Series : Washington, Jefferson, Hamitto7i. The Federalists did not know that they were trying The democratic , . ^ , y. v> ^ ,- movement of to row their crait up Niagara. But aristocracy as a po- ^^' htical theory was doomed. The whole social trend of the age was toward democracy. The French Revolu- tion, which shook Europe to its foundations, was merely the uprising of the masses against the privileges and tyranny of the classes. And this great European move- ment received a powerful impulse from the Revolution in America. French soldiers who had served this side the water went home full of the ideas of republican liberty. And at the same time the mere fact of a revolution was disorganizing here. The official and social aristocrats in the colonies were to a considerable extent Tories. The insurrection of necessity tended to break up the habit of reverence for authority and obedience to law. Dur- ing the eight years of war the American people moved fast and far on the road to democracy. The Fed- eralists saw and dreaded the turbulence and coarseness of the democratic movement. They could not under- The Federalists Stand that the masscs could really be trusted with po- standit." ^^' htical powcr, any more than England's Tudors could think of the commons as entitled to any voice in matters of state. So in their aristocratic aims the Federalists 138 Society Becomes Democratic. 139 were merely striving vainly against the irresistible sweep of social development. They were like Dame Parting- ton, trying to sweep up the ocean with a broom. When the War of Independence was over, the Ameri- Settling the ^ ■ _ wilderness. can people set to work to retrieve their shattered for- tunes. The virgin soil of a new world was theirs, and from this prosperity was to be wrought. Immigration began to flow toward the West, and the cabins of the settlers dotted the great forests far beyond the old frontier. New York at the time of the war had been merely the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk. Western New land was now taken up and clearmgs made near the headwaters of the Delaware, on the Genesee, along the beautiful lakes that lie south of the Ontario. The pop- ulation of the state increased from 340,000 in 1790 to 589,000 in 1800. In the former year the first census under the constitution showed that there were four states each of which had more people than New York— Vir- ginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. But the census of 1820 found them all outstripped. The peace of 1783 defined the western boundary of the United States by the Mississippi. But west of the Alle- Kentucky and gheny Mountains was a trackless wilderness. A few hardy woodsmen had planted their block houses in Ken- tucky and Tennessee before the war broke out. And the tide of settlers flowed steadily over the mountains even during the war. Kentucky was not inhabited by Indians, but they claimed it as a hunting-ground, and the settlers maintained a long and bloody conflict with the savages from across the Ohio. North of that great river there were at the end of the Revolution only a few military posts and a few villages of xen-itory''^^^^^'^ the French. The country teemed with game, while noble forests showed the richness of the soil. But the 140 The Gt'oxuth of the American Nation. The Ordinance of 1787. Settlements in Ohio. Cleveland. Indians were numerous, and they were determined that white men should not destroy their homes. Virginia and New York had ceded their claims north of the Ohio to the United States, and in 1787 Congress was induced to sell a large tract of land to a company who desired to make a settlement. In order to provide for the govern- ment of the district Congress enacted the famous Ordi- nance of 1787, which was the true Magna Charta of the Northwestern States. Among its important provisions, the ordinance forbade slavery in all the territory north of the Ohio. The territory included all the land between the Ohio and the lakes, from Pennsylvania to the Mis- sissippi. The early immigrants were many of them rev- olutionary veterans, largely from New England, men of brains and energy. The first settlement was at Marietta (named from Marie Antoinette, the queen of France), in 1788. In the same year another company founded Cincinnati. This was first called " Losantiville," which name a pedantic schoolmaster devised from a mixture of French, Latin, and English, meaning "the city op- posite the mouth of the Licking." "A few weeks later," says McMaster, "the Indians scalped him." The way being opened, a stream of pioneers crossed the Pennsylvania mountains. They embarked in flat- boats at Pittsburg, floated down the Ohio, and soon its northern banks were lined with settlements. The shores of Lake Erie were neglected at first, owing to uncertainty about land titles. But Connecticut having at last arranged its claims with the United States, settlers took up the northern lands also. In 1796 Moses Cleveland, agent of a land company which in the previous year had made a large purchase in the "Western Reserve" of Connecticut, laid the founda- tions of a city which was named from him. But the line Society Becomes Democratic. 141 of the Ohio River was for some time yet the favorite. The form of government provided for this first terri- torv is interesting:, as its general Hnes have been followed territorial -' o> o ^ government. in later territorial enactments. Congress provided for a governor, secretary, and judges, and the necessary staff. The governor and judges were empowered to compile such laws as might be appropriate. When the popu- lation should include five thousand free males of full age there was to be a territorial legislature consisting of the governor, a council appointed by Congress, and an assembly elected by the people of the territory. Thus it will be seen that the governor had an absolute veto on the acts of the council and assembly. In 1790 the territory south of the Ohio was organized The Southwest in a similar form. The antislavery clause was expressly Territory, excepted, however. The Indians north of the Ohio were not disposed to war with the submit to the presence of white settlers, and began hos- Indians, tilities along the border. Governor St. Clair led an *' . , , , . ^ St. Clair's army against them, but he was surprised and his force defeat, ■' ° "^ November, cut to pieces. General Anthony Wayne then took com- 1791- mand of the troops in the Northwest, and in the summer of 1794 he penetrated the Indian country and in a skil- victory,%94. ful campaign succeeded in accomplishing the utter over- throw of the savages. This victory was of untold im- portance to the new settlements, as it enabled the pioneers to make their solitary clearings in safety. The Americans had reason to believe that the Indians had received substantial aid from the British, who still held Detroit and other posts within the limits of the United States. But the Jay treaty of 1795 led to the abandon- ment of these posts and thus to the cessation of that cause of disturbance on the frontier. Governor St. Clair and many of the early settlers of 142 The Groivth of the American Nation. Pioneer politics. Pioneer life a dominant fact. Pp. 1 16-17. Eli Whitney's cotton-gin, 1793. the Northwest were warmly attached to the Federal pol- icy of Washington and Adams. Cincinnati was named from the military order founded by the revolutionary officers ; the first county organized in the new territory was Washington ; Hamilton was another. But practically the violence of party strife in the East was not reflected in the new West. The conditions of pioneer life enforced a substantial equality which made democracy the natural social and political environment. Kentucky and Ten- nessee were therefore stanchly sustained by the settle- ments north of the Ohio in support of Jefferson. In the last decade of the eighteenth century the move- ment of population to the unsettled West thus began to assume considerable proportions. It has gone on since with accelerating velocity to the very shores of the Pacific. And through all the century since the Ordi- nance of 1787 was passed the life of the republic has taken a large part of its meaning from the fact of this constant westward current of migration and from the con- tinual existence and influence of pioneer communities in various stages of development. When population has become relatively stable throughout the Union there will begin a totally new era in the development of the nation. But while many people who were tired of working for a scanty subsistence on the rugged soil of New England were eagerly pressing toward the golden West, many more were finding profitable employment in new lines of activity at home. Commerce, as has been seen, took a new birth with the assured form of government under the constitution. Manufactures were spreading and multiplying in the Eastern and Middle States. And under the stimulus of Whitney's invention cotton was getting to be a valuable export from the Southern States Society Becomes Democratic. 143 along with rice, indigo, and tobacco. The cotton-gin had other remarkable results. Before it was used a slave could not clean more than a pound of cotton in a day. With the gin one slave could clean a thousand pounds a day. And not only did cotton lands in the South be- come valuable, but at the same time cotton factories at the North sprang up in great numbers, and slaves suddenly became a source of wealth to all the states south of Mason and Dixon's line. The cotton-gin thus ranks with the railroad and the elec- tric telegraph as a cause of profound economic and political changes. The expansion of manufactures and commerce in the Central and Eastern States tended to draw people to- gether in masses. In other words, the cities set out on that marvelous growth which is now so significant a fact in our social organism. When the first federal census was taken, in 1790, only about three per cent of the American people lived in cities of over 8,000 inhabitants, and there were only six such cities. . In 1800 the per cent in cities was four, and the number of such cities was still only six. In 1890 there were 437 cities of over 8,000 people, containing twenty-nine per cent of the population. And ten per cent of the total population are found in the Far-reaching results. Born, 1765; died, 1825. Graduated at Yale, 1792 ; invented saw-gin in same year, while in Georgia. Growth of cities. Conkliiig, p. 5. 144 ^'^'^ Growth of the American Natio7i. Democratic tendency of social conditions. Immigration from Europe. Jefferson's fear of a monarchy. largest four cities. It will be seen that when the last century closed there were few important questions relat- ing to the management of these little towns. The prob- lem of the city, now so grave and difficult, has only of late emerged into the public consciousness. This intense ferment of life in developing the material resources of a new country was not favorable to aristo- cratic ideas. Strength and energy of character were con- tinually bringing new men to the surface. Things were to be had for the winning. And no limited class could long retain special privileges, either political or social. Sediment is deposited only in still water. And Ameri- can society in these years was a turbid torrent. At the same time an immigration from Europe had set in which was for that day so large as to alarm con- servative people. In the decade from the census of 1790 to that of 1800 the population increased from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000. Frenchmen came from San Domingo and other West India islands. There were Irishmen who were fugitives from what they deemed to be Saxon tyranny at home ; there were Scotchmen and English- men and Germans. Most of these people were full of the social discontent of Europe, many of them were im- bued with the political ideas which were rife in France, and especially with bitter hatred of England. And their turbulence and unbridled license of tongue were the ex- cuse to the Federalists for passing the Naturalization Act and the Alien and Sedition Laws in 1798. All this democratic sentiment was in opposition to the government. But there was another element of opposi- tion quite as strong. When Jefferson landed in New York in March, 1790, he was fresh from France and its effervescent enthusiasm for the "rights of man." He shared to the full in the views of the French radicals, and Society Becomes Democratic. 145 The Republican party. was alarmed to find that among the influential Ameri- can politicians there was a strong conservative sentiment. The light talk of the dinner table and the coffee-house commended a monarchical government as the most effi- cient and the most stable possible. And soon Jefferson made up his mind that there was a plot brewing among the Federalist leaders to convert the new republic into a monarchy. The stages by which he thought he saw that the impending change would come, were, first, a strong centralized go\ernment, then the presidency and Senate for life, then hereditary tenure. These views of Jefferson industriously disseminated fell in fertile soil among the old state rights Anti- Feder- alists. And from these, from some moderate Federalists, like Madison, who were repelled by Hamilton's schemes, and from the democratic clubs in the northern cities, the astute secretary was able to form an opposition party. As early as 1792 it had taken shape and Jefferson had given it the name " Republican," to indicate its cardinal principle of opposition to the alleged monarchical plot of the Federalists. The first two Congresses were Federalist in both ^ _ Congress branches. The Third Congress, chosen in 1704, had a usually *. ' ^^' Federalist. Republican majority of ten in the Lower House, and a tie in the Senate. Vice-president Adams often had to give his casting vote. The Federalists were successful in 1796, and owing to the war feeling against France, again in 179S. But that was the last Federalist Con- gress. Party spirit in these first administrations was as bitter as it ever has been since. Difference of opinion and clash of ambitions led to suspicions, hatred, and abuse. The Federalists, said their adversaries, were aristocrats, were bought with British gold, were scheming to subvert Party spirit. Rancorous abuse of party opponents. ■Washington \dlified. The revolution of iSoi. 146 The Growth of the America7i Nation. the republic and to establish a monarchy. The Republi- cans were Jacobins, were atheists, were seeking, like their beloved friends in France, to overturn society itself. No politician has been more heartily hated than Hamil- ton. No party leader has been more vilely abused than Jefferson. No pres- ident has been worse lampooned than Washing-ton. A torrent of vituper- ation was poured on him by certain pa- pers. One writer called him a thief — declared that he had repeatedly over- drawn his salary. Even when his fare- well address ap- peared, it was sav- agely attacked. His motives were vilified ; and he was pursued to Mount Vernon with sneers and slander.* The election that seated Jefferson in the presidehtial chair he always regarded as a real revolution. It saved the republic, he held. If the Federalists had succeeded, a monarchy would have been almost the sure result. ^ But Jefferson's election hung on a slender thread. One Rhode Island elector voted for John Jay instead of Pinck- ney. And the South Carolina electors were willing to * Washington died in 1799. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Born, 1746; died, 1S25. Educated at Oxford and the Temple, England ; lawyer and revolution- ary soldier; member of Philadelphia con- vention, 17S7 ; minister to France, 1796 ; major- general in United States army ; Federalist candidate for vice-president, 1800, and for pres- ident, 1804 and 1808. > Society Becomes Democratic. H7 vote for Pinckney and Jefferson, but not for Adams. But General Pinckney declined to accept such a vote. If he had felt otherwise, he would have had seventy-two votes, and would have been vice-president. Had the Rhode Island electors all voted loyally for Pinckney, their vote, with that of South Carolina, would have tied him with Jefferson, and the Federalist House of Representatives would have elected Pinckney promptly to the presidency. Again, the New York legislature, which chose the elec- tors, was elected in the spring, although the term did not begin until the following winter. When it appeared that the Republicans had a majority of the new legisla- ture, Hamilton wrote to Governor John Jay, suggesting that the old legislature be convened and a law be enacted relegating the choice of electors to the people by con- gressional districts. This would have been entirely legal, and would have insured the election of Adams and Pinck- ney. But Governor Jay, like General Pinckney, was a man of scrupulous honor, and he declined to act as proposed. In truth, the Federalists were doomed. Their folly in enacting the Alien and Sedition Laws, and the jealousy and quarrels of their leaders, were enough to defeat any party. And when the party of Jefferson was once in power, no efforts of the Federalists could ever dislodge it. The party of Hamilton and Adams proved a poor opposition. They occasionally had a majority in one House of Congress, but they never again came near electing a president. And after the second war with England they disappeared altogether. How Jefferson might have been defeated. End of the Federalist party. CHAPTER XI. JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANISM. Jefferson. Personal char- acteristics. Jeffersonian simplicity. References. — Schouler; McMaster; Andrews: United States; Henry Adams : United States ; Statesmen Series : Jefferson, Gallatin. Thomas Jefferson came to the presidency at a time peculiarly opportune for his success. The gist 'of his political philosophy was to do as little governing as pos- sible. And the circumstances of the country were such that at just that time it was bound to prosper under al- most any conditions. And this abundant prosperity of every section of the nation the masses of the people at once attributed to the wise policy of the philosopher president. His personality was omnipotent with his party. And his political doctrines for a half century were the common creed of the dominant democracy. The first Republican president was born in 1743, in Virginia. He was tall, slender, sandy complexioned, somewhat shy and awkward in manner. His six feet two and a half inches were usually attired plainly and in a manner to indicate his contempt for fashion. In- deed, he quite horrified some of the ceremonious diplo- mats by his utter indifiference to social forms. He was known to come in from his garden arrayed very care- lessly in order to receive a foreign minister in full dress. He considered the formal system of precedence observed at dinner parties to be a survival of aristocracy entirely out of place in a plain republic. All, he said, were equal, without regard to employment, age, or official 148 Jefferson ia n Rep u blica n ism . 149 rank. And so at his entertainments when dinner was announced the ladies went in first in a flock and sat where they pleased. The gentlemen then followed e?i Peie-meie, ??iasse, and sat where they could. This system Jeffer- son called "a perfect pele-mele." A storv was lono- current, and is still believed by H. Adams, I. 196-8. liirii'iiiiiBHiii iiiiiiiiiirai.1 Thomas Jefferson. Born, 1743; died, July 4, 1S26. Was graduated at William and Mary College; admitted to the bar, 1767 ; member of the Continental Congress, 1775-6 ; Dec- laration of Independence, 1776 ; member of legislature of Virginia and leader in important legal reforms, 1776 ; governor of Virginia, 1779 ; Congress, 1783 ; minister to France, 1784-9; secretary of state, 1790-4; vice-president, 1797- 1801 ; president, 1801-9. Founder of the University of Virginia. 150 The Grozi'th of the American Nation. The story of Jefferson's first inauguration. Morse, 210 ; Andrews, I., 308. The president's message. Mental traits. some, that Jefferson, at his first inauguration, rode to the Capitol unattended, with his own hands tied his horse to the fence, and walked unceremoniously into the Sen- ate chamber. This particular bit of Jeffersonian sim- plicity seems to be pure fiction. The president-elect walked to the Capitol attended by an escort both civil and military. The horse story was invented by an im- aginative English traveler. Another of Jefferson's democratic ideas was the presi- dent's message. Under his predecessors it had been customary on the assembling of Congress for the presi- dent to meet the two Houses together and read to them a formal address. The Houses then separated, each de- liberated on the speech, adopted a suitable reply, and then walking in procession to the president's house had this reply duly read to him. This, of course, was in imitation of the English custom. But Jefferson de- clared that such a procedure was monarchical and use- less. What he had to say to Congress he said in writing. The reply was dispensed with. And this very sensible innovation has been followed by all our presidents since 1801. The mental characteristics of this unceremonious Vir- ginian were as striking as were his physique and his social ways. His hobby was omniscience. Literature he read with avidity. He studied and practiced scien- tific agriculture with great exactness of detail. He in- vented an improved plow. He listened with sympathetic attention to the first crude proposals to apply steam to machinery, and at once foresaw some of the vast conse- quences. Until the Revolutionary War he was an ardent devotee of the violin. He made experiments in astronomy, and examined with great interest the remains of antiquity in France. He had positive opinions on Jeffcrsonian Rcpublicanis»i. 151 architecture — himself drawing the plans for the Univer- sity of Virginia and for his own mansion at Monticello,^- and giving close attention to those of the Capitol at Washington. Mr. Jefferson was accused by the Feder- alists with being an atheist. This was a mistake. Like Franklin, he was an unbeliever in orthodox Christianity, but he was not an unbeliever in God. It will be seen that Jefferson's most strikinof quality .^. i- . ,. His versatilit\ was his great versatility of knowledge and interest. He could talk intelligently about everything — and he did. His tongue ran incessantly, and his pen kept pace, as his voluminous and varied correspondence shows. One thing, and only one thing, could silence him — demand for a public address. Mr. Jefferson was not an orator. When his voice was raised much above conversational pitch, some infirmity of the throat caused sound to cease altogether. So he made no speeches. Conversation and the pen were his weapons. Here, then, was a philosopher, who delighted in every '^ . . -^ His political form of human thought. His profession of the law and Weas. the tumultuous condition of the times had turned his main energies to political reform. He had had large ex- perience in public life, in the legislature of his native state, and in the Congress of the United States, as gov- ernor of Virginia, as minister to France, as secretary of state under Washington, and as vice-president. He was the organizer and unquestioned chief of a great po- litical party which was now ready, by its possession of the legislative branch, to embody in practice whatever theories the versatile mind of the Virginian should conceive. And these theories were very definite. The election * It is said that the builders at Monticello had made considerable progress before they discovered that the ingenious architect had forgotten to provide for any stainvays. The Gro2vth of the American Nation. The revolution of iSoi. See p. 146. lefferson's Works, v., 331. Nature of the Union. Strict con- struction. The judge of infraction of the constitution. Pp. 135-6. of 1 800-1 seemed to him a real political revolution. The country, he asserted, had been saved from a plot to make it a monarchy. The ship of state was now to be put on the Republican tack. Jefferson's view of the nature and interpretation of the constitution was directly the reverse of that held by Hamilton and the high Federalists generally. The fed- eral government, Jefferson held, was essentially only a sort of committee on foreign relations. As he wrote to a friend in 1800 : " The true theory of our constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the states are in- dependent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better the more they are left free to man- age for themselves, and our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization and a very in- expensive one ; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants." With this conception of the nature of the Union his theory of constitutional interpretation readily accorded. The document, he held, should be construed strictly. The federal government has no power not given it ex- pressly or by necessary implication. And any exercise of power beyond those limits is a clear infraction of the constitution. But who shall judge of an alleged violation of the or- ganic law at the hands of the federal authorities ? The Supreme Court, said the Federalists. The several states, said Jefferson. In the resolutions of the Kentucky legislature in 1789, adopted on account of the obnoxious Alien and Sedition Laws, and drafted by Jefferson him- Jefferson ia n Rep u bliea n ism . 153 The purchase of Louisiana, 1803. self, occur these words: "As in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each {f,'^'^rf°'V^ party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of in- 464- fractions as of the mode and measure of redress. ' ' We can see in these doctrines both nullification and seces- sion. But it is hardly likely that Jefferson would have carried his views to those extremes. Early in the course of the new administration an op- portunity was given for testing the working of strict con- struction. The province of Louisiana, including the land from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to British America, had origi- nally belonged to France. In 1 762 that nation had trans- ferred the territory to Spain. The Mississippi was the natural outlet of the Ohio Valley, as transportation over the Alleghenies, in those days before railroads were de- vised, was impracticable on any large scale. But the Spanish officials at New Orleans interposed vexatious re- strictions on trade, and the new western settlements in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee were virtually bottled up by the owners of the mouth of the Mississippi. In 1800 Spain, by a secret treaty with Napoleon, restored Louisi- ana to France. This fact was ascertained by the Ameri- can government late in 1801 and at once excited grave alarm. Spain was a troublesome neighbor, but France would surely prove a dangerous one. Accordingly Monroe was sent as a special envoy to France, to act in conjunction with the resident minister, Livingston, in the purchase of New Orleans ; $2,000,000 were allowed for that purpose. But Napoleon was on the eve of war with England. He knew that he could not hold his col- onies while England ruled the sea. And he offered the Americans the whole of Louisiana. They had no authority to strike such a bargain. But there was no Napoleon offers the whole province. 154 ^^^^ Grotvth of the Awencmt Nation. Jefferson's quandary. Louisiana bought in spite of the consti- tution. time to send for instructions, and so they closed with the offer, trusting to be vindicated by the necessity of the case and the overwhelming advantages to be obtained. The price was $15,000,000. * Jefferson was in a quandary. There was not a line in the constitution which directly authorized the acquisition of foreign territory, and the president thought that action should not be taken until an amendment could be adopted. But the Senate _saw that the chance would probably be lost if there should be delay, and so ratified the treaty at once. Republican theories of strict con- -->x>^ The Territory of the Present UNITED STATES After Feb. 1, 1801. Spain ceded La- to Stance struction were scattered to the winds. But the outlet of the Mississippi was secured and the national area doubled. It was the most important event since the adoption of the constitution, and the most brilliant in the history of Jefferson's eight years as president. Jefferson's ideas as to finance were as positive as those * The price was 80,000,000 francs, which were then estimated at eighteen and three fourths cents each. McMaster, II. ,627-8. Jeffersonian Republianiism. 155 on the sphere of government. In the first place, he Finance, favored entire simplicity in the methods. He wrote to Gallatin in 1802 : "I think it an object of great impor- tance .... to simplify our system of finance and to bring it within the comprehension of every mem- ber of Congress." He thought that Hamilton's devices were altogether too complicated and puzzling. Public debt Jefferson regarded as an unmixed evil, and funding for a long period as an injustice to posterity. ^ ' ^" '^''^^• Each generation should, as far as possible, pay its way as it goes. Hence, the public service should be admin- istered with the utmost economy. In laying taxes, pro- vision should be made first of all for the interest on the debt, then for an annual sum to be set aside for the ex- tinction of the principal, and last of all for such expendi- tures as were absolutely necessary in administering the government. The internal revenue taxes Jefferson did not approve, j„ternai thinking those which could be collected at the custom- revenue, houses much more convenient and less obnoxious. The new secretary of the treasury was Albert Gallatin, Q^n^tin a Pennsylvanian of Swiss birth. His administration was eminently successful. The national debt under the Fed- eralist administrations, from 1791 to 1801, had increased $7,000,000. The grand total January i, 1801, was $80,- 000,000. On the first of January, 1808, it was $65,- fhe'^pubi?" debt. 000,000. And yet meanwhile Louisiana was purchased for $15,000,000, and the internal revenue system had been abolished (1802). Gallatin estimated that with an annual sum of $7,300, - provision for 000 for the sinking fund, the debt would be paid by 18 17. After the purchase of Louisiana, he asked $8,000,000 annually for the sinking fund, and estimated that thus the old debt would still be paid by 181 7, and the new (the 156 The Growth of the American Nation. Greatly in- creased receipts at the custom- houses. Jefferson and the civil service. He makes a few partisan removals. $15,000,000 for Louisiana), by 1821. Of course the Embargo and the War of 181 2 greatly reduced the national income and increased the debt. And yet the last dollar was paid in 1835. These great achievements of Gallatin were made pos- sible not only by the great economy with which all de- partments of government were administered but also be- cause of the enormous growth of the customs revenue. The receipts at the custom-houses in Adams's adminis- tration were $30,000,000. In Jefferson's first term they were $45,000,000, and in his second term they were $60,000,000. The accession of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency was the first instance in our history of a change of national parties, and we have become accustomed to see on such occasions a general change in the federal civil offices. There was a different view of the public service in 1801, it being taken for granted that a competent and honest official would serve for life. Mr. Jefferson did not make a ' ' clean sweep. ' ' But it annoyed him to find that the ofiice-holders were all Federalists. He thought there ought to be an equal division between the parties ; but, as he complained, he soon learned that ' ' few die and none resign. ' ' And so he made places for some Repub- licans by removing the Federalist incumbents. He chose for this purpose those whom Adams had appointed in the closing weeks of his administration, and those who had made themselves especially active as partisans. In all he displaced thirty-nine. Washington, in his two terms, had removed nine, one of whom was a defaulter. Adams had removed ten, one being a defaulter. It cannot be said that the spoils system was introduced by Jefferson. We owe that valuable feature of our national politics to Andrew Jackson. But after all the Jeffersonian Rcpublicanisju. 157 principle of partisan removals was that on which Jeffer- son acted, though to a limited extent. There was one class of public servants that was be- yond the president's reach. The federal judges held {h'^'^''^|j"(,ia"*^ by the constitutional tenure of good behavior, and thus could be removed only by impeachment. They were all Federalists, and in their hands was the interpretation of the constitution. Jefferson thought that this was all wrong, and that it ought to be possible for the president to remove the judges, at least on address of the Houses of Congress. But an amendment was impracticable, and so the new administration set out to do what it could. An act of 1802 repealed the Federalist judiciary act of iSoi, and thus Adams's "midnight" appointees were summarily legislated out of office — a proceeding of which the constitutionality was decidedly questionable. At the same time, the sessions of the Supreme Court were suspended for fourteen months, and in the meantime im- peachment was tried. Tudee Samuel Chase was a violent partisan who had impeachment ...... of Judge Chase. not scrupled to show strong bias durmg trials under the Sedition Law, and who had delivered a political philip- pic to a grand jury on occasion of Jefferson's election. He was impeached for this conduct. The trial before the Senate showed plainly that the judge had been guilty of bad taste, but the constitutional number of sen- ators could not be induced to hold that this was a high crime or a misdemeanor, and so he was acquitted. Jef- ferson was deeply disappointed. The weapon of impeach- ment had proved futile. And to the president's great discontent Marshall and his colleagues were able to go on their way unmolested. At a later date, when some of the great constitutional decisions of the Supreme Court were rendered, Jefferson wrote indignantly of the court : 158 The Growth of the American Nation. General pros- perity. ' ' That body, like gravity, ever acting with noiseless feet and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the special governments. ' ' Throughout all these opening years of the nineteenth century the country was prospering on every hand. The total population, less than 4,000,000 in 1790 and over 5,000,000 in 1800, had passed 7,000,000 in 18 10. Ohio becomes a state. Shaler, I., 527. Immigration flowed in from Europe. The land beyond the Alleghenies was becoming filled with people. In 1800 the Northwest Territory was divided into Ohio and Indiana, and in 1803 Ohio became a state. The territory of Michigan was formed in 1805, and the territory of Illinois in 1809. Meanwhile commerce was rolling up. The total of imports and exports in 1800 was $162,000,000. In 1807, the year before the Embargo, the total was $246,000,000. The people at large felt that this abundant growth was Jefferson ia n Rep u Mica n ism . 159 largely due to political conditions. They saw the na- Triumphs of ,",,,. , - , J ^ ii the adininistra- tional debt being- reduced every day, and at the same tion. time the vexatious excise taxes remitted. Government was conducted economically. There was no longer any apprehension of war. The national honor had been bril- liantly defended against the Tripolitan pirates. The West was secure, as New Orleans was in our hands, and a vast territory was added to the national domain. All this the Republi- can administration had done. And so it was easy to infer that it had also in- creased population and trade. On New Year's Day, 1802, the president re- ceived a present sent him by the farmers of western Massachusetts. It was a cheese weighing 1,235 pounds, and was inscribed, "The greatest cheese in America — for the greatest man in America." That was the general sen- timent, as plainly appeared at the election of 1S04. In 1800, Jefferson had seventy-three electoral votes and Adams sixtv-five. In 1804, Tefferson had one hundred Election of 1804. -' •' .. Collapse of the sixty-two electors and Pinckney, the Federahst can- Federalists, didate, had fourteen. Only Connecticut ("the land of steady habits"), Delaware, and a part of Maryland Faneuil Hall, Boston. i6o The Growth of the American Nation. Philosophy of Jefferson's triumph. McMaster, III. Democracy not incompatible with strong government. were left to the once powerful party of Hamilton and Adams. Jefferson explained his sweeping triumph on the ground that the Federalists had come over to him in masses. He had won his fight for republicanism, and the nation was with him. Others insist, on the contrary, that the Republican party had become nationalized. Both are probably largely correct. As has been said, a general advance in democracy characterized the age. The nation was becoming democratic in ideas, methods, and social usages. But this flood of democracy was by no means republi- can in the Jeffersonian sense. It was not and is not at all incompatible with strong government. Jefferson was its absolute master — as was Jackson at a later day. And it is entirely true that the logic of circumstances brought the Republican administration to Federalist principles. In short, the nation by irresistible sweep was becom- ing a democracy. But the republican democracy just as inevitably became national. The ideas of Hamilton were wrought out by Jefferson and Gallatin. CHAPTER XII. Jefferson's theories as to war. JEFFERSON S FOREIGN POLICY. References. — Schouler ; McMaster ; Henry Adams (he treats this subject at length) ; Statesmen Series : Jejferson, Gallatin, John Quincy Adams. Jefferson's ideas as to war and commerce were as original and positive as might have been expected from so versatile a philosopher. He was far in advance of his age, or, for that matter, of our age, in regarding war as a mere relic of barbarism, which civilized society should have enough wisdom to avoid. No war, he held, was justifiable unless a defensive one. For this reason he was strongly opposed to a permanent army and navy. An army he thought needless, dangerous, and expensive. The militia of the states would be quite sufficient to protect us from attack. A navy, except what might be needed to defend our harbors, was liable to all the objections he brought against an army, and besides was very likely to embroil us needlessly in foreign quarrels. The gallant little squadron which Adams had created, Jefferson wished to reduce to a peace footing at once. He pro- posed to pay off the officers and men, and to lay uj^ the ships if possible in the east branch of the Potomac, in charge of a single man. That, he thought, would be both cheap and safe. Could he have directed society absolutely according His theories as to his preferences, Jefferson would have had no foreign o commerce, commerce at all. Writing of the United States in 1785, he said : ' ' Were I to indulge my own theory, I sliould 161 1 62 The Groiuth of the American Nation. Jefferson's Works, I., 465 wish them to practice neither commerce nor navigation, but to stand, with respect to Europe, precisely on the footing" of China. We should thus avoid wars, and all our citizens would be husbandmen. But of course he recognized these ideas as Utopian dreams. In fact, the new nation had developed a large and increasing commerce, and this at once brought us in touch with the rest of the world. What, then, should be our policy as to foreign relations ? Jefferson's plan was formulated in the well-known Foreign policy, words of his iuaugural, ' ' peace and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." This, of course, was just the policy so strongly urged by Wash- ington in his farewell address : ' ' The great rule of con- duct for us in regard to foreign Nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible 'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." These ideas of Wash- ington and Jefferson have now become traditional prin- ciples of American diplomacy, and form one phase of what is loosely called the Monroe Doctrine. As our only relations with foreign countries should be com- mercial, Jefferson was inclined to doubt the necessity of a diplomatic service. But if our rights should be wantonly attacked, what should be our remedy? In his view we had an easy and effective means of coercion, without resorting to war. Our commerce he regarded as absolutely essential to Europe. This, then, we should grant to friends, and withhold from assailants. Thus by the mere compulsion of their interests nations would be constrained to do us justice. Jefferson called this "peaceable coercion." These opinions of the Republican president the course " Peaceable coercion." Jeffersoii s Foreign Policy. 163 of events made to be no mere speculative theories of a closet philosopher. They were the working principles of administration for a series of years, and had profound consequences on the issues of history. When Mr. Jefferson became president he found the United States already embroiled with Tripoli. It is not War with easy for us to realize that a hundred years ago our country, in common with Europe, paid these Moham- medan pirates an annual bribe to secure the safety of our commerce in the Mediterranean, besides occasional large sums as ransom for unfortunate mariners who had been captured and made slaves. In 1801 the pasha of Trip- oli complained that the Americans had not been as gen- erous to him as to the rulers of Tunis and Algiers, and so declared war. A squadron was sent to the Mediter- ranean and for several years carried on active hostilities with the Tripolitans. The city of Tripoli was bombarded several times, and in 1805 the pasha was glad to make peace. There was no more tribute paid to that nest of robbers. Our little navy in these operations displayed some of those qualities which a few years later were to make its renown so brilliant. Indeed, it is to the corsairs of Algiers that the Amer- q^. j^^f-jj^^ ican navy is due. The United States had no ships of "^^'>' '794- war during Washington's first term. But the depre- dations of the Algerines made it plain that cannons afloat were needed if we were to have any foreign commerce under our own flag. Accordingly, in 1794 Congress authorized the construction of six frigates. These were wisely planned to be heavier and stronger than any p European ships of the same class. They were the United States, Constitidion, Constellation, President, ^,_ ' The navy Congress, and Chesapeake — names famous in our department, naval annals. The navy department was created in 1 64 The Growth of the American Nation. Reduction of the navy. Renewal of the European war, 1803. Napoleon victorious on land, England on the sea. Need of colonial products. 1798, on occasion of the trouble with France, and at the same time other vessels were added. The act providing for a peace establishment was passed the day before Adams's term expired. By this act the president was authorized to retain thirteen ships, six being in commis- sion. The large reduction in the number of officers made it possible to select those who had proved their good qualities, and so was formed the force which was so efficient in the war with Tripoli and later with England. In 1803 the war between England and France was renewed. The peace of the previous year proved a mere truce. And from this time until 18 15 there raged a struggle which became world wide. Nation after nation was dragged in. Neutrality in Europe became impossible. On land, Napoleon was invincible. He gave law from Gibraltar to Berlin. No enemy remained whom the French armies could reach. On the ocean, England was equally invincible. Her fleets swept the waters of every sea. There was no hostile navy which she did not shatter. Hostile commerce was impossible. But the sea-shore was the limit of battle. The armies of Napoleon could not leave the coast. The fleets of England were confined to the water. Still each strug- gled to assail the other. England held the ports of France and her allies in strict blockade. And Napoleon forbade any European trade with his insular enemy. But if England needed the continental market for her wares, France and Spain needed the produce of their colonies. The sugar of the West India Islands, the coffee, hides, and indigo of South America, the silver of Mexico and Peru, the products of China and Manila, all were wanted in Europe. And if the British navy Jefferson s Foreign Policy i6 = could destroy this commerce, the resources of the conti- nent, and hence of France, would be seriously crippled. By the rules of the old colonial system the trade between a European nation and its colonies was forbidden to alien ships. But in the earlier part of the revolutionary wars, France, seeing that her ships could no longer keep the sea, opened all her ports to neutrals. England, how- ever, insisted that a trade which was illegal in time of peace could not be legalized in time of war. Hence any neutral ship carrying a cargo directly between a bellig- erent and a colony of that belligerent was subject to capture. But it was admitted that trade between a neutral port and that of a belligerent was lawful. And if so, did it matter what the cargo was ? Suppose merchandise was shipped from Havana to New York, was there landed and duly entered at the custom-house, was then imme- diately reladen in the same ship and taken to Spain. Was such a voyage illegal ? The English admiralty courts decided that such a procedure was strictly legal. Landing the goods broke the voyage in two, and each by itself was entirely legitimate. This was in 1800. And the ministry at that time expressly approved the principle involved. Then came the peace, and the whole matter dropped into abeyance. But when the war was renewed in 1803, the American merchants were quick to seize the advan- tages of neutrals. Soon not a French or Spanish or Dutch ship was afloat. And American shipping swarmed in every sea. They were loaded with the prod- ucts of every clime, sailed to the United States, broke the voyage by landing cargo, immediately reshipped it, and proceeded on their way. Thus England saw her- self deprived of the full effect of her naval supremacy. The direct colonial trade forbidden. See p. 122. " Breaking the voyage. Decision of Lord Stowell in the case of the Polly, April 29, 1800. The carrying trade. 1 66 The Grozvth of the American Nation. Decision of Lord Stowell ill the case of the Essex, The decision unfair. Paper block- ades. Order in Council, 1806. Her enemies prospered as in time of peace. And her own courts had made the process legal. But when this was clear, the English admiralty courts took a new position. In the case of the Essex, in 1805, Lord Stowell reversed his own decision of 1800, and held that the intent of the voyage must be considered. The old device of breaking the voyage, he now declared, was an obvious evasion. The voyage from the United States to a belligerent port with belligerent goods was illegal. Ship and cargo were condemned. And at once American ships by the score were captured and made prize. This decision was perhaps equitable in a rough sort of way. But it was making new law, not interpreting the law as it was. And it would have kept closer to the equities if it had rather been announced as the policy of the administration, with fair notice to neutrals. But justice to neutrals was not a matter of concern to British ministers or judges just at that time. To hurt the ene- mies of England and at the same time to make fat prizes at no matter whose expense, in those days seemed to the people of Great Britain merely brilliant statecraft. The Americans called it piracy. However this may have been, the next series of steps taken by the belligerent nations was an audacious vio- lation of international law, and led to a policy of spolia- tion on lawful American commerce most high handed and outrageous. In May, 1806, a British Order in Council put the whole coast of Europe in blockade, from Brest to the Elbe, some 800 miles. There could be no trade to any of these ports without a British license previously pro- cured and paid for. The French reply was delayed, but it was sufficiently Jefferson s Foreign Policy. 167 emphatic. November 21, 1806, Napoleon issued what became known as "the BerHn decree." He happened to J'^^^^'^'i'V ■t^^ decree, ibo6. be in that city after his crushing victory over Prussia. In this famous document Napoleon proclaimed that the whole coast of the British Islands was in a state of block- ade. All trade with those islands, or with their products or the products of their colonies, was forbidden. This decree put American commerce at the mercy of French privateers. The British Order in Council of January 7, 1807, order in Coun- professed to be in retaliation for the Berlin decree, and *^' ' ^ °''' simply forbade all traffic with ports of France or her allies, to any nation whatsoever. Subsequent decrees of Napoleon and British Orders in Council were only sup- plementary to these extraordinary documents. Thus was constituted a paper blockade of all the ^^^ American European shores. England could not spare a third of dilemma. the ships necessary for a real blockade of the coasts of her enemies. And Napoleon had no navy. But the American mariner was in this dilemma : if he sailed to or from any British port, he was liable to capture by the French ; if he sailed to or from any non-British port, he was quite sure to be made a prize by the English. It reminds one of the colored minister's assertion that only two roads lead from this world to the next, "the broad and narrow road that leads to destruction, and the narrow and broad road that leads to damnation." But commercial restrictions were not the sole cause of foreign complications for Jefferson. We had another grievance, this time exclusively against England. The vast wars of that nation made it impossible to „, . >■ The impress- man her great navy with volunteers alone. In any '"'^"' °^ British port the press gang was always at work. Sailors were seized at their lodgings, in the streets, from the '^ep. 122. 1 68 The Growth of the American Nation. British sailors in American ships. England disregards naturalization and certificates of citizenship. Hard to tell an American from an Englishman. deck of a merchant ship, and hurried on board a man-of- war. On the high seas British merchantmen were stopped and their crews depleted. Had this been all, we should have had no cause to complain. But the British claimed the right to stop any- merchant ship of any nation on the high seas and take from it any British subjects among her crew. And the trouble was aggravated by the fact that many British sailors were actually found in the American service. The enormous expansion of American commerce made it impossible for American sailors to be found in sufficient numbers. At the same time wages in the American service became very high — some three times the British scale. In consequence, sailors left English ships in every American port. They enlisted by thousands in the American merchant marine, and were found under the American flag the world around. The arbitrary impressment of Englishmen from the deck of an American ship was sufficiently aggravating. But that was not all. Many of these sailors had become naturalized citizens of the United States. England, however, claimed that without her consent no British subject could give up his allegiance. And so British naval officers gave no heed to naturalization papers. Further, the papers which sailors carried certifying to their American citizenship were easily transferred from hand to hand. And they were easily forged. There is little doubt that very many of these fraudulent certifi- cates were afloat. And knowing this fact British officers were inclined to disregard protections altogether. Another difficulty was that it was not always easy to tell an American from a British sailor. Honest mistakes doubtless were made. But as the need for men grew pressing, it is more than likely that a British officer was Jefferson s Foreign Policy. 169 always convinced that any good-looking and stalwart seaman on an American ship was surely an Englishman. In these ways a large number of Americans were im- pressed into the British navy. How many it would not be easy to tell. Mr. Jefferson struggled with these outrages on Ameri- can commerce and nationalitv as well as he could. He Jefferson's ^ . diplomacy. had no idea of war, and sedulously avoided strengthen- ing the army and navy. But there was a long series of diplomatic remonstrances, with nothing accomplished. British officers learned to look on the Americans with contempt, as a nation which would not fight. In 1807 British arrogance seemed to reach its climax. The American frigate Chesapeake was overhauled on the Outrage on th& Chesapeake, high seas, and three alleged deserters from the British navy 1S07. were taken from its crew. Unfortunately the frigate was not prepared for action — a fact disgraceful to the adminis- tration of the navy department. Popular indignation was hot from one end of the land to the other. The people wanted war. But this was Jefferson's chance to try his scheme of 11 -DA/— T-> ■ • -11 • The Embargo, ' peaceable coercion. As Great Britain was unwilling to December, make adequate reparation, the president induced Congress to pass, in December, 1807, an act declaring an Embargo on all American shipping. Our ports were to be sealed absolutely to foreign trade. Jefferson was sure that the loss of American commerce would bring Great Britain to terms. Meanwhile a number of gun-boats were con- structed for the defense of our harbors. The navy was something for which the administration had no use. It was planned to lay up the frigates in case of war, and merely to retire into our shell, like a turtle. The Embargo was enforced with great difficulty. But it ruined the commerce of New England and the Middle 1807. 170 The Growth of the American Nation. Effects of the Embargo. The Force Act. Failure and repeal of the Embargo. Retirement of Jefferson. States. The price of wheat fell from two dollars a bushel to seventy-five cents. And general distress succeeded the abounding prosperity of Jefferson's early years. The effect on Great Britain turned out to be inappreciable. At all events, so far as modifying the political action of that nation was concerned, it was about as effective as a boy's pop-gun. And meanwhile it had to be enforced by bayonets and men-of-war. Various supplementary acts of Congress extended the powers of the president, until the Force Act of January, 1809, gave him almost the authority of a dictator. This extreme measure produced a great revulsion of popular feeling. People in New England began to talk of secession. The Republican leaders, more sensible than the Federalists ten years before, yielded to the storm, and, to the great discontent of Jefferson, the Embargo was repealed, the repeal to take effect March 4, 1809. Meanwhile the secretary of state, Madison, had been elected president. Jefferson retired to Monticello. His great popularity had vanished. The brilliant success of his first term was totally eclipsed by the disastrous failure of his pet meas- ure, the Embargo. In a time of profound peace, Jefferson would have been a president of unbounded success. But it was chimerical to suppose that force could yet be discarded in international relations. His systematic penuriousness to the army and navy made it possible for France and England to in- sult us with impunity. His scheme of commercial re- prisals was hopelessly futile. Jefferson's diplomacy scores one brilliant success — the acquisition of Louisiana — and that was an accident. The rest was a series of mortifying failures. To him more than to any one else we owe the disasters of the War of 181 2. CHAPTER XIII. THE NATIONAL REPUBLICANS AND THEIR WAR WITH ENGLAND. References. — Schouler; McMaster; Henry Adams; States- men Series : Madison, Clay, John Quincy Adams. The foreign relations of the United States were now in a most perplexing shape. Each belligerent had heaped insult and outrage on the Americans, and there was ample cause for war with both France and England. Commercial reprisal had failed, at least in the form of a universal embargo. And nobody knew just what ought to come next. An additional difficulty was a lack of leaders in whom the people placed confidence. Jefferson had with- drawn, and besides he was discredited in the public mind. No president has ever had more absolute authority with Congress than the philosopher of Monti- cello in 1801. And no president has ever had less in- fluence with the legislature than the author of the Embargo in 1809. The new president, Madison, was slow, hesitating, irresolute. The government for a couple of years merely drifted, without a definite policy. When the Embargo was repealed, an act took its place prescribing non-intercourse with both France and England, with the promise of relaxation in favor of either belligerent who might cease from the policy of spoliation. In the following year (1810) this was replaced by an act merely agreeing that in case of a withdrawal of the Foreign relations in a tangle. Lack of leaders. Non-inter- course with France and England. 172 The Growth of the American A^ation. Napoleon pro- fesses to with- draw his decrees. The Young Republicans. offensive measures by either nation non-intercourse would be revived as against the other. Accordingly Napoleon professed to rescind his decrees. But Great Britain insisted that this was not done in good faith, and so declined to withdraw the Orders in Council. There- fore non-intercourse with that power was again adopted by the United States. But a new generation was coming on the scene. Young men, brought up, to be sure, in the tenets of Jefifersonian republicanism, yet filled with the fire of youth, and free from the prejudices and animosities of the early political strife, were pressing to the front. The outrageous acts of Great Britain and the impotence alike of diplomatic remonstrance and of ' ' peaceable coercion ' ' had caused a turmoil of indignation and disgust. Among the Young Republicans Jefierson's peace policy found little sympathy. The Twelfth Congress, which met in December, 1811, The N'ational Republicans. 73 What it meant. was full of this new blood. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, xhe new Calhoun, of South Carolina, Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, ^""sress. Cheves and Lowndes, of South Carolina, were among the foremost. Clay was chosen speaker by a vote of seventy-five to thirty-eight for a peace candidate. The Republicans who favored a vigorous national policy henceforth had a leader. This change in the composition of Congress meant much more than merely the appearance of a new set of politicians. It meant that the people were wearied of what seemed a timorous and feeble administration of foreign affairs. And it meant also that the new western states, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, had come to have decisive weight in the Union. The population of the republic was nearly twice what it had been in 1789. It was stil^ growing rapidly, and the center of population was steadily moving toward the West. The new Con- gress wasted time, but at Isaac Chauncey. Born, 1772; died, 1S40. Entered navy as lieu- tenant, 1798; served in war with Tripoli; given command on the lakes, 1812; fitted out a squadron on Lake Ontario; aided land forces in capture of York (Toronto), and de- feated British squadron, 1813. no once took measures looking toward war. Provision was made for increasing the army, for strengthening the navy, for providing revenue. In the navy bills only was there Preparation for war. 174 '^^^^ Groivth of the American Nation. Madison's war message, June I, 1812. The decla- ration, June r8. Grounds of opposition. lack of energy. The Republicans had been trained to distrust that branch of the service, and felt hopeless of success on the ocean against the overwhelming power of Great Britain. Clay and his friends had their eye on Canada. In the spring of 18 12 an embargo was laid for ninety days. And before that time expired, President Madi- son sent to Congress his message detailing the grievances of the United States and advising war. A bill to that effect was at once introduced, and passed the House in twenty-four hours. The Senate debated it nearly two weeks. But it became a law on the i8th of June. The opposition in Congress was made by the Feder- , alists, of whom there were only six in the Senate and thirty-seven in the House, and by the dyed-in-the-wool Jeffersonian Republicans. The vote in the Lower House was seventy-nine to forty-nine, in the Senate nineteen to thirteen. All the states east of Pennsylvania were opposed to the declaration. That state and all west and south favored war. The grounds of opposition were various. First was the lack of preparation. We were "rushing," it was said, ' ' headlong into difficulties, with little calculation of the means and little concern for the consequences." Then, too, it was held that France and England were equally at fault, and, the high Federalists added, Eng- land was in the right in her wars and ought to be sus- tained, not attacked. Indeed, the sycophancy of the Federalists to England through all this matter was nau- seating, and was what finally destroyed that party. The eastern men asserted, also, that the Republican Embargo and Non-Intercourse had already nearly ruined com- merce, and that war would put an end to it. Finally, it was declared that there really was less ground for war The National Republicans. 175 than there had been in 1807 — which perhaps was quite true. While there could be no doubt that the country was in no proper position to carry on war, owing to the sys- tematic unfriendliness of the Republican administrations to the army and navy, still the leaders of the war party were not without definite plans. Napoleon was now at the height of his power. It seemed likely that he would win in his long struggle with England, and, at all events, he would be sure to divert the main attention of the enemy from America. In the meantime it would be an easy matter, Clay thought, to overrun Canada, and to hold it either as a permanent conquest or as security for an honorable peace. The lack of preparation was the most serious fact. Not only was the army poorly organized and the navy weak, but the harbors were not sufficiently fortified, and the financial system in confusion. The charter of the Bank of the United States had expired in 181 1, and the Re- publicans, in accordance with their traditional policy, had refused to renew it. And thus the national treasury had no financial agency at the very time it was most needed. War was declared, as has been said, on the i8th of June. And on the 23d the Orders in Council were re- voked. But it was too late. The plan for the conquest of Canada proved a failure. The first invasion was from Detroit. General Hull, of Michigan Territory, a revolutionary veteran and a very estimable gentleman, crossed into Canada with a respect- able force and attacked the enemy with a formidable proclamation. But as he did not follow this up by vigor- ous military movements, he found his communications threatened by his more active opponent, and so retired precipitately to Detroit. Here he was promptly followed Plans of the war party. Lack of prepa- ration. Revocation of the Orders in Council. The invasion of Canada. Hull's fiasco. 176 The Grozvth of the American Nation. The failure at Queeristown. by the British and their Indian aUies, and when the American general found that actual cannon balls were be- ing hurled at his post, he surrendered without firing a shot. His excuse was his apprehensions for the safety of the women and child- ren at the hands of the Indians. Thus instead of conquering Canada the Americans lost Michigan.* On the Niagara fron- tier General Van Rens- selaer commanded a considerable army, largely New York militia. These soldiers were eager to be led against the enemy, and r ^ c ^:, > A • „q SO thc general pro- died, 1S20. Entered navy in 179S ; o r served with distinction in the naval war r^ c^ t^A c.A \ r>, ol-f-Trtr with France; made a brilliant record in the ^^cucu lu ctLLdCiv y-%'^'cl' 7"^°''; '"h'^I"' p r'h ['•^''l'' Queenstown. But af- l lilted Slates, captured the British frigate ^ ^/«.-^rfo«/a;^- in 1814, in the frigate />;-«;- ^^^ ^^g advance had aeiit, was captured by four British frigates, after a desperate resistance; in 1S15, com- rrosscd and WaS closelv manded a squadron which compelled Al- J giers Tunis and Tripoli to come to terms, engaged, the militia He fell in a duel with Commodore Barron, o t> ' 'S20. concluded that it would be illegal to send them over the frontier and so refused to march. The detachment already on the Canadian side made a gallant defense, but was finally overpowered and obliged to surrender. General Van Rensselaer re- signed in disgust. General Smyth, at Buffalo, succeeded to the command on the Niagara, and his words were valiant enough. Born, 1779 * General Hull was tried by court-martial two years later, and dismissed from the service. The old general was neither a traitor nor a coward, how- ever. He merely was not made of sufficiently stern stuff for his position. The National Republicans. 177 "Come on, my heroes," was his exhortation, "and when you attack the enemy's batteries, let your rallying word be, ' The cannon lost at Detroit, or death.' " But they got neither. After a i&w feeble attempts to land on the Canadian side, the attack was abandoned and the volunteers dismissed to their homes. General Smyth also was cashiered. He afterwards petitioned Congress to be reinstated, praying for the privilege of ' ' dying for his country." But Congress thought it inexpedient. There was also a series of campaigns on the line of Lake Champlain — all more or less mismanaged, and all failures. The main trouble at the outset was a lack of suitable commanders. The generals were mostly politicians, the " invincibles of peace," who proved sorry substitutes for trained soldiers. As the war went on a better military organization was effected and good officers were found. Michigan was recovered and the British army of the West totally defeated by General William Henry Harrison. Scott, Brown, and Rip- ley retrieved the defeat at Queens- town, although they were able to make no extensive conquests. Along the Atlantic coast the British directed a series of paltry raids. The city of Washington was taken and the public buildings burned, by an act of wanton vandal- ism. But a few days after, a similar attack on Baltimore was beaten off. All this amounted to nothing. But later a strong expedition was directed against Louisiana, The failure at Buffalo. Failures in the North. The Americans begin to learn war. Oliver Hazard Perry. Born, 1785; died, 1S19. En- tered navy, 1799 ; served in the war with Tripoli ; ap- pointed to command on Lake Erie, 1813 ; built a squadron, and destroyed the British squadron in the battle of September, 1S13. The British take Washington, but are repulsed at Baltimore, 1814. 178 The Gro'd'th of the American Akition. Jackson's vic- tory at New Orleans, Jan. 8, 1815. Military oper- ations a failure. British invasions repulsed. Naval victories. General Andrew Jackson, who had already distinguished himself by a successful campaign against the hostile Alabama Indians, fortified New Orleans, and when the British troops marched against his intrenchments he re- pulsed them with great slaughter. This was the last battle of the war, and comforted the Americans for the ill success of their arms elsewhere. The plain truth is that on land the war was a failure. The military object was the conquest of Canada. But the successi\'e attempts at invasion were so haphazard and feeble that success Mas out of the question. The only rational plan would have been to concentrate all the possible troops on the northern frontier and hurl them straight at Montreal and Quebec. There was the key to the situation. Canada West would have been helpless if cut off from the sea. But unfortunately there was no brain at the head of military affairs, and so our force was frittered away in a series of idle frays all along the line. On the other hand, the British failed to penetrate our territory. The only serious attempts at invasion were at Plattsburgh and New Orleans. The fate of the latter has been mentioned. On Lake Champlain tlie British flotilla was destroyed in a desperate naval tight, and the invading army at once retreated. In fact, it was on the water that the American victories were most brilliant. The despised little navy amazed everybody by winning a series of gallant battles. Only two months after the declaration of war Captain Hull in the Constitution met and captured the British frigate Gucrricre, Captain Dacres. The latter ship had made herself especially obnoxious by impressing seamen, and had sailed up and down our coast with her name painted on her mainsail, as a defiance to the American navy. In The National Republicans. 179 a coui)lc ot licnirs the Gucrricrc lay a wreck under Hull's t\\q Cnem guns. In a speech in the House of Commons a member had remarked, ' ' There are few Americans with whom one would desire a close acquaintance" — a very significant bit of British arrogance. Doubtless Captain Dacres would have echoed the sentiment. This initial victory in a duel of single vessels was fol- lowed by others. In 1S13 the American squadron on champiain. Capture ok the "Guerriere " bv the "Constitution. Lake Erie, under Commodore Perry, desti"oyed that uf the enemy, and thus enabled General Harrison to over- throw the army of the British. And in the following year the naval victory on Lake Champlain effectually checked the invasion of New York. This series of brilliant naval successes filled the United Delight of States with enthusiasm and England with disgust. Of course the latter nation cared nothintr for the loss of a i8o The Growth of the American Nation. Capture of the Chesapeake. The blockade. The peace party. few frigates. She had nearly a thousand ships in her navy, and built dozens every year. But those fights broke the spell of British invincibility on the seas. The unlucky American frigate Chesapeake was cap- tured by the British frigate Shannon, and after that there were no more duels between single ships. By order of the admiralty British frigates on the Amer- ican coast thereafter went in pairs. Meanwhile Ameri- can privateers in- fested every sea and captured hundreds of British merchantmen. These were small, swift-sailing vessels, many of them built at Baltimore, and were usually able to escape from the heavy men- of-war. But as the war went on and the British navy was re- leased by the over- throw of France, the American coast was closely blockaded. Commerce, of course, was de- stroyed, and at last very few cruisers could get to sea. The peace party, which had opposed the declaration of war, continued its opposition at every step. Massa- chusetts and Connecticut refused to call out their militia for the national service, and the war loan found few sub- scribers in the East. In return the British for a lone William Bainbridge. Born, 1774; died, 1833. Won a reputation in the merchant service ; entered navy, 1798 ; served in naval war vvitli France; in 1803 commanded the frigate Philadelphia, which ran on the rocks off Tripoli and was cap- tured ; in 1S12, in command of the Consti- tution, captured the British frigateya7^(7. The National Republicans. i8i time exempted the coast of New England from blockade. When the Federalists carried Vermont the new governor recalled the Vermont brigade of militia from garrison duty on Lake Champlain. In 1814 the Federalists in- sisted that the war was a failure, and urged the accept- ance of disgraceful terms of peace. And in December of that year a convention of Federalists was held at Hart- ford, which held secret sessions and was long believed to have plotted for secession. But whatever were its aims made little difference, as by that time peace was already made. In May, 18 14, Napoleon was dethroned, and the long European wars came to an end. There was then no longer any occasion for dispute. And so commissioners of the two nations met at Ghent, in August, and after long and weary disputes, at last, on the day before Christmas, signed a treaty of peace. In it there was no mention of impressment or of the right of search. Thus ended the War of 1S12. The United States blundered into it and blundered out of it. No nation ever more richly deserved attack than did England at the hands of the United States. And yet war was be- gun almost without preparation, and was waged b\' the administration with a happy-go-lucky incompetence that was almost sublime. Defeat marked every offensi\'e en- terprise of moment, and yet there was enough of gallant achievement from Hull's victory over the Gucrricrc to Jackson's triumph at New Orleans to show that the fighting spirit of the Revolution was not dead. Only Jefferson's studied anti-military policy was responsible for the confusion and disasters of our campaigns in the second war with England. Nothing was said in the treaty of Ghent about impress- ment or the right of search. It was needless. No mat- Peace of Ghetit, 1S14. Character of the war. Some of its results. 1 82 The Growth of the American Nation. New political principles. End of the Fed- eralist party. National defense. ter what wars might break out after 1814, England would never again insult American shipping. The Federalists always spoke of "Mr. Madison's War." It was really Henry Clay's. Madison was dragged into it reluctantly, and the war put the party of Madison into new hands and gave it new policies. Jeffersonian republicanism died with the Embargo in 1809. The national democracy of 18 15 was, if yovi please, the same party. But its principles were Ham- ilton's of 1798. And their thor- oughly unpatriotic course during the war destroyed the Feder- alist party. Their last electoral vote was cast James Madison. ^ Tv/r j* ' Born, 1751; died, 1836. Graduated at Princeton, ^^^ MadlSOn S SUC- 1772; lawyer; member of Continental Con- ppec^,^ Thpv hnd gress, 1780 ; member of legislature of Virginia; *-c33ui. x iic_y iitiu. withjayand Hamilton wrote the J^^rff-rato/,- x^yc^^jf^A tVipmcpK^f^c memberof First Congress; secretary of state, p i >J v c li liiciuscivcs 1801-8 ; president, 1S09-17. ' captioUS, faCtioUS, short-sighted, little less than treasonable. The need of maintaining an adequate army and navy was thoroughly learned by the war. Never since 181 2 have we systematically acted on the assumption that peace will always last, or that in the last resort there is any other means of defending the national honor than mere force. The London Times was quite right in say- ing of the United States : ' ' Their first war with Eng- Summary of Part III. 183 land made them independent, their second made them formidable. ' ' There were other consequences of the long struggle Economic for neutral rights which ended in the Embargo and in war. The economic conditions of the nation were revo- lutionized. And that led to social and political results which ha\e modified the course of our history e\'er since. SUMMARY OF PART III. Government under the new constitution was organ- ized in 1789, Washington being chosen president. The First Congress enacted a series of momentous measures, creating the executive departments, levying a tariff and an excise, funding the public debt, establishing the Bank of the United States, and providing for a mint. The effect of this definite organization of the republic was to establish social order and to give a great stimulus to business prosperity. At the same time differences of opinion as to measures and as to the interpretation of the constitution led to the beginning of our political party divisions. At the same time with the organization of our new government the French Revolution began its course. This soon resulted in war between France and other European powers, and presently the United States was about the only neutral nation. American commerce had increased rapidly after the constitution went into effect, and the European wars stimulated it further. But, on the other hand, there was trouble with both belligerents. France expected aid from America, under the treaty of 1778. And England seized every pretext Organization of government. Tlie wars of the French Revo- lution. 184 The Grozuth of tlie American Nation. Aggressions on American com- merce. The Jay treaty, 1795- Trouble with France. Success of Jef- ferson's first term. Failure of the second. to capture American merchant vessels. A large number of the American people sympathized with France. But Washington held firmly to the ground of strict neu- trality. And in 1795 he negotiated a treaty with Eng- land which prevented war. Meanwhile Adams had become president. The French were greatly irritated at the Jay treaty, and refused to receive the new American minister. Then, when Adams sent special commissioners in his place, Talleyrand intimated that a bribe would be necessary in order to purchase peace. This aroused the utmost indignation in America — an indignation stimulated by the fact that the French also were lawlessly seizing American vessels — and war prep- arations now went on apace. There were several con- flicts in the West Indies. When France saw that America was in earnest, however, peace was not diffi- cult to attain. And in 1800 a convention settled all the points in dispute. Thus war was averted with both the belligerents, although with difficulty. Meanwhile the war fever had made the F"ederalists popular. But they took advantage of their success to enact obnoxious measures, the Alien and Sedition Acts, which destroyed the good- will of the people. The Republican party had been organized by Jefferson, and was really in closer sympathy with the tendency of the age than were the Federalists. In 1800 the election was carried by the Republicans, their candidates, Jeffer- son and Burr, having an equal number of votes. The House of Representatives elected Jefferson. Jefferson's first term was highly successful. He re- duced taxes, paid a large portion of the public debt, and bought Louisiana. But his second term was not so bril- liant. The wars between France and England were re- newed, and again the United States was the only neutral. Summary of Part III. 185 The aggressions of the belhgerents on American com- merce were so exasperating that in 1807 Jefferson in- duced Congress to lay an Embargo on all foreign com- The Embargo. merce. This failed to produce the eft'ect intended, and the act was repealed early in 1S09. Madison became Jefferson's successor. Failing to secure just treatment from Great Britain, ■vvarofiSi2 the administration was at last induced to recommend war. This was under the influence of Henry Clay and the "Young Republicans." Their plan was to conquer Canada. In fact, the American military operations re- sulted in no marked success. But on the seas and the Great Lakes the little American navy won brilliant vic- tories. The overthrow of Napoleon in 18 14 led Great Britain to desire peace, and so the war came to an end. PART IV. THE EPOCH OF PEACE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. PART IV.-THE EPOCH OF PEACE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. CHAPTER XIV. THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. References. — Schouler ; Andrews ; Bolles : Financial His- tory of the United States ; Bishop : History of American Man- ufactures ; Taussig : Tariff History. The decade which followed the War of 1812 and was brought to a close by the election of John Quincy Ad- ams to the presidency in 1S25 is commonly called " the era of good feeling." In our national politics there was then virtually no opposition. The Federalists cast their last electoral votes in 18 17, in opposition to James Mon- roe. At the next election Monroe would have received the unanimous suffrages of the electors, had it not been that one in New Hampshire thought that Washington ought to have the solitary glory of an unopposed choice, and so gave his vote to John Ouincy Adams. When the Senate ratified the treaty of Ghent, at once the political issues of a quarter century dropped com- jDletely out of sight. There was nothing left. There was no longer an English party or a French part}'. The French Revolution seemed ended, and the Bourbons again reigned, while the long series of English insults and outrages, culminating in the sack of Washington, had chilled the Anglomania of all but the most high-flying Federalists. Orders in Council, the continental system, paper blockades, the impressment of seamen, all were relegated to the past. Embargo and Non- Intercourse Acts 1S9 Political harmony. Disappearance of old issues. IQO The Growth of the AmericaJi Nation. Nationalization of the Republi- can party. New political questions. belonged to a remote antiquity. The neutral trade itself, which had first enriched our merchants, and had then proved a very Pandora's box to the nation, was gone. All «the world was neutral, for there were no belligerents. On the other hand, anti-national sentiment, the ani- mus of the resolutions of 1798 and of the Hartford Con- vention, seemed extinct. It was the party of Jefferson and Madison which fired the national heart in 181 2. It was the party of strict construction which had bought Louisiana and had enforced the Embargo at the point of the bayonet. It was the party that dreaded armies, navies, and wars which had indulged in the luxury of all. As Josiah Ouincy wrote, "Why should we oppose the ad- ministration when it is already completely Federalized ? ' ' And, to cap the climax, the party of the old anti-Ham- ilton Republicans was about to reestablish Hamilton's bank, and to enact a protective tariff, drawing the argu- ments from Hamilton's reports. The truth is that the old parties had divided very largely on issues which had now become extinct. Meanwhile there had been going on quietly a development of society which took the place of foreign affairs in the public conscious- ness. And on the principles involved in these social and economic questions the new political parties were formed. When the Monroe period came to an end political differ- entiation was already visible. The new questions were fairly stated. The leaders were ready. The gentlemen of the revolutionary school had gone. With the death of Adams and Jefferson, July 4, 1826, it might truly be said that ' ' old things had passed away— all things had become new." Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, these were the giants of the new era. Internal improvements, a protective tariff, the national bank, these were the sub- ject matter about which the new party violence raged. The Era of Good Feeling. 191 And soon Whig and Democrat were as fiercely at war as had been Federalist and Republican. The leaders in the national life during the decade in question were of quite varied characteristics. The presi- Monroe. dent himself, Monroe, was an excellent example of that eminently respectable mediocrity which a long experience has now taught us to expect in a president of these United States. Honest, laborious, high-minded, some- what dull, he was the last of the revolutionar\- politicians and soldiers — the last of that "Virginia dynasty ' ' which for thirty-two years out of the first thirty-six administered the con- stitution. As Mad- ison's secretary of state, he followed what now had be- come an established precedent in succeed- ing to the presidency. This last consider- ation made the as- James Monroe. Signment of the first Bom, 175s. ■ died 1831.St.ned in Revolutiou- o ary War, reaching; the rank of lieutenant- colonel ; member of Congress under the Con- federation ; senator from Virginia in the First Congress ; was a stanch opponent of the Federalists; envoy to France, 1794; governor of \'irginia, 1799-1S02 ; one of the commission- ers who made the Louisiana purchase ; sec- retary of state under Madison ; president of the United States, 1S17-25. place in Monroe' s cabinet a question of prime importance. The selection of John Ouincy Adams prob- ably could not have been bettered. He was a ripe statesman, with long experience in diplomatic service — a scholar, industrious, upright, accomplished. But the most popular politician in the Republican John Quincy Adams. 192 The Growth of the American Nation. Henry Clay. Andrew Jackson. The rise of manufactures. party was Henry Clay. Speaker of the House of Representatives since 181 1, with the exception only of the brief interval of his absence at Ghent, he was pre- eminently the leader in the new school of Republican thought. He had his eye on the presidency. And he was not a little dissatisfied that Adams was preferred for the department of state. General Andrew Jackson was not an aspirant for a cabinet place. Even had he expected to be president (and he probably did not at that time), precedents would not have caused him any anxiety. While in 18 1 8 he was roaming around in Florida, in his own law- less and pugnacious way, capturing Spanish forts, hanging British subjects, and otherwise smashing inter- national law, as he was wont to smash anything which got in the way of his rugged common sense — in all these proceedings he was setting out for the White House by a new road. It proved a tolerably straight one. The Embargo and the war had changed the currents of business enterprise. To be sure, manufactures had slowly increased since the Revolution. Still, foreign commerce afforded the main employment to capital in the Eastern and Middle States, and most goods of English manufacture were cheaper than those produced here. But when the various Non- Intercourse Acts, followed by war, cut off the source of supply, from sheer necessity our people took to making many articles which before they had imported. The home product of cotton and woolen goods especially increased very greatly. And these new manufactures gave an outlet for that capital which had before been employed in shipping and commerce. But as soon as the war came to an end, a flood of British goods was poured on the American market. There had been an enormous over- Tariffs. The Era of Good Feeling. 193 production in England. The consumption of war in that country had ceased, and the manufacturers eagerly took advantage of every new outlet for their goods. In many cases these shipments pro\'ed disastrous to those who made them, while at the same time sufficing to break down the American market. The last con- sideration Lord Brougham considered important enough to warrant any losses which might result. He said in Parliament, ' ' It was well worth while to incur a loss Hansard's De- bates, First upon the first exportation, in order, by the glut, to Series Voi. stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures of the 1099- United States which the war had forced into existence, contrary to the natural course of things." And the American merchants turned to Congress for relief The tariff of 1789, while intended primarily for revenue, was moderately protective. The average rate of ad valoi'evi duties was about five per cent. Succes- sive acts in later years raised this average to about fifteen per cent. Of course the Embargo and Non- Intercourse Acts and the war, from 1808 to 181 5, had the efifect of protection for home manufactures. And in 18 1 2 the import duties were doubled, to obtain revenue for the war. The act of 18 16 was intended as a reduc- tion of the war tariff, but at the same time the idea of protection was for the first time made prominent. The bill was planned by Alexander J. Dallas, who had succeeded Gallatin as secretary of the treasury.* Oddly enough, the protective features of this act were cham- pioned by Calhoun, who afterwards became so con- spicuous in his opposition to high tariffs. Calhoun thought that if cotton factories should be fostered in the North it would afford a market for the Carolina staple. * After Gallatin retired there were some disastrous experiments made before Dallas was appointed. 194 ^'^'^ Growth of the American Nation. And he shared with Jefferson the desire to see us in- dustrially independent of Europe. The law of 1 8 1 6 made three grades of manufactured Thetaiiflof goods. In the first were placed such articles as could be supplied by American producers in sufficient quantities for the home market. In this class were all manufac- Bishop, 11., 222. tures of wool, carriages, cordage, hats, firearms, leather and leather goods, paper, and some others. The average rate on these goods was thirty-five per cent — which was meant to be prohibitory. In the second grade were articles with which the domestic manufacturers could partly, but not wholly, supply the American market. Here were found coarse cottons and woolens, plated ware, large iron manufactures, such as shovels, products of pewter, tin, copper, and brass, window glass, spirits and malt liquors, and others. On these the duty was twenty-five per cent — to be reduced in three years to twenty per cent. This rate was supposed to be competitive. In the third grade were articles which were not produced at all, or only to a slight ex- tent, in this country. Such were fine cottons, linens, silks, many woolens and worsteds, carpets, blankets, hosiery, small hardware, cutlery, pins and needles, china, glass. On these low rates were levied. The average ad valorem duty under this tariff" was twenty-five per cent. But the protective features of this act did not seem to work. At all events, business grew worse, and The panic of _ i8i9- in 1 819 there was a great crash. To be sure, there were other causes than foreign General adverse . . . , r . -t-i ■ i^ conditions. Competition with our manuiacturers. 1 he agriculture and commerce which had been so prosperous before the Embargo did not return after the war to their old con- dition. And it would have been strange if they had. It was just the fact of the general wars which had The Eta of Good Feeling. 195 created so active a demand for American raw materials and for American neutral shipping. But the wars were ended, and now each European nation jealously sought to restrict its trade so far as possible to its own people. Further, the whole civilized world was suffering from business depression. The nations had been busy for a quarter century in killing people and destroying property. And now the effects began to be felt — and America could not avoid sharing in them. But there were some special reasons in this country. ^^^\\^ finance The financial system had been totally disarranged. In 181 1, the twenty-year charter of the Bank of the United States expired. The traditional Republican opposition J/|heUnited'^ to Hamilton's ideas sufficed to defeat a new charter, states. But this was accomplished by a close vote — by a majority of one in the House, and by the casting vote of the vice-president in 'the Senate. Gallatin strongly favored continuing the bank, but as he had many enemies in Congress his influence gave no help. So just as the country was plunging into war, its accustomed fiscal machinery was destroyed. This fact greatly em- barrassed the administration in prosecuting hostilities, and had a still worse effect on the condition of business. The currency provided by the national bank was with- drawn, and its place was taken by the issues of a multitude of state banks. The imperative demand for military supplies drained off the coin, and the banks were obliged to suspend specie payments. In the meantime, the flood of paper bank notes became greatly depreciated, and business was correspondingly unsettled. At this juncture Secretary Dallas advised a new The second United States Bank, and Congress adopted the sugges- Bank of the ' *' V r 1 1 J United States. tion. It was planned on the general lines of the old one, but on a larger scale, the capital being $35,000,000, 196 The Growth of the American Nation. The crash in 1819. The protective tariff of 1824. The Missouri Compromise, 1820. in place of $10,000,000. The government held a fifth of the stock, and appointed a fifth of the twenty-five directors. The main bank was in Philadelphia, and branches were established in the different states. The bank was to have all the deposits of the national treasury, was to transact exchanges for the government without charge, and was to aid in the negotiation of loans. The bank paper, issued in notes of not less than five dollars, was to be accepted in payments to the United States. One great object in establishing the bank was to secure the resumption of specie payments. This it succeeded in accomplishing early in 181 7. But in other respects the institution was mismanaged for the first few years, and thus contributed to the disasters of 1 8 19. In that year there was a general collapse of business. All the bad conditions which for years had prevailed seemed to culminate. Banks and mercantile houses failed, and there was general distress. In 1824, Congress was led to believe that the inade- quate protection of manufactures was one cause of the troubles, and accordingly a new tariff was enacted. The average scale of duties was made thirty-three and one third per cent. Henry Clay was a prominent advocate of this measure, and many of the Young Republicans who had been concerned with him in bringing on the war, and who afterwards had joined in establishing the bank, were also in favor of the protective tariff". Two other striking features of the decade from 1815 to 1825 were the Missouri Compromise and the promul- gation of the Monroe Doctrine. The Missouri Compromise belongs logically with the discussion of the question of African slavery as a social and political force, and its details will be left until we take up that subject. It is sufficient to say here that The Monroe The Era of Good Feelmg. 197 free state men opposed the admission of Missouri to the Union as a slave state, and that its admission was only- secured by the agreement that slavery should not be per- mitted in any other portion of the territory bought of France which should lie north of 36° 30' (the parallel bounding Missouri on the south). The dispute over this question was a violent one, and led to ominous threats of a dissolution of the Union. The Monroe Doctrine has become the settled policy of the United States. But it was by no means devised Doctrine, by the worthy president whose name it bears. After the Revolutionary War there was a general feeling that the old European colonial system ought no longer to con- tinue, but that America should belong to Americans — and that, on the other hand, it was bad policy for America to become entangled in European affairs. This view was urged with great force by Washington in his fare- well address, by Jefferson in his inaugural, and on many other occasions. In 181 2 the American colonies of Spain took advan- ^ _ Spanish- tage of the confusion in European affairs to throw off American their allegiance to the home country and sooner or later to declare their independence. And they made their declaration good in a series of successful campaigns. But after the fall of Napoleon, the powers of Europe bound themselves together in order to crush any future attempts at revolution. Accordingly Austria sent troops into Naples to quell insurrection, and in 1823 a French army invaded Spain and overturned the constitution which the Liberals of that country had forced on their treacherous and tyrannical king. The allies then considered the question of recovering pj-opoged the Spanish colonies. France was again willing to send ,^jte7vention an expedition, naval and military, of course expecting a 198 The Growth of the Americaji Nation. Monroe's message, 1823. The essential l)oints. reasonable compensation, probably in American territory. England was opposed to this, and in the summer of 1823 Canning, the foreign secretary, proposed to the Ameri- can minister, Rush, a joint declaration deprecating in- tervention. Rush assented to this, on condition that England should recognize the independence of the Span- ish-American republics, which the United States had already done. This Canning was unwilling to do. But the message of President Monroe to Congress, December 2, 1823, adverted to the subject. The presi- dent made three statements which were very significant. He declared that the United States will not look favor- ably on the planting of any more European colonies on this continent. He went on to say : ' ' We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should con- sider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." And then he added, still more explicitly : " With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere ; but with the governments which have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposi- tion toward the United States." The three points of the Monroe Doctrine, then, are : no more European colonies in America, no extension to this continent of the European political system, no in- The Era of Good Feeling. 199 terference with the independence of the American re- publics. France heeded the suggestion of the Ameri- can president, and dropped the plan of interference. It should be observed that the Monroe Doctrine has The doctrine never been formulated by act of Congress, but is merely " ^^'^^ a tradition of executive policy. It is somewhat indefi- nite, but it has answered its purpose thus far. Europe understands that the United States will not tolerate such a policy with regard to America as the European states have followed in Africa and Asia and Oceanica. 1 JYo. 'J ' UNITED STATES IN 1820. . ■] ,,y^j (James Monroe's Administration) r/ rm^ Stales ESS Terriloriaa UmiSpiiouh Poss. F?^ English Poss. CHAPTER XV. The election of 1824. How Clay was beaten. THE NATIONAL REPUBLICANS. References. — Schouler ; Andrews ; Hammond : Political History of New York ; Clay, Jacksofi, andy. Q. Adams, in the Statesmen Series ; Fij'st Century of the Republic. The presidential election of 1824 is known as the "scrub race." All the candidates were Republicans, as the Federalist party had now become a mere remi- niscence. The machinery of a national nominating convention had not yet been invented, and the old method of nominating by a congressional caucus had fallen into disfavor. So it came about that no less than four Republican candidates appeared before the people. Two of these were in Monroe's cabinet — Adams, the secretary of state, and Crawford, of Georgia, secretary of the treasury. Clay was speaker. The fourth was General Andrew Jackson, who was now in retirement. The contest was wholly personal. And naturally none of the four had a majority of electoral votes. Jackson had ninety-nine, Adams eighty-four, Crawford forty- one, and Clay thirty-seven. Thus for a second time the choice of a president went to the House of Representa- tives. But by the twelfth amendment to the constitu- tion, made after the bitterly contested election of 1801, the House, voting by states, was required to choose from the highest three on the list. And so Clay was excluded. The fact that Crawford had four more votes than Clay resulted from a bit of double dealing in New York. The National Republicans. 20I The electors in that state were chosen by the legislature. The friends of Adams and Clay combined, with the agreement to divide the electors between their candi- dates, Adams receiving the greater number But when it came to a ballot several blank votes were cast, and thus only thirty-two elec- tors were chosen. On a second ballot four Crawford men were elected. Had the combination held to- gether these votes would have been lost to Crawford, several or all of them going to Clay. In that event Clay, instead of Crawford, would have come before the Hrn i- JOHN yL ouseofRepresenta- ^^^^ ^^g^. ^^^^^ ^, Hammond, II. 177. John Quincy Adams. Son of John Adams ; minister to Holland, 1794; minister to Portu- gal, 1796; minister to Prussia, 1797; U. S. sena- tor from Massachusetts, 1S03 ; resigned, 180S; minister to Russia, 1809 ; one of the commis- sioners at Ghent, 1814; minister to England, 1S15; secretary of state, 1S17-25 ; president of the United States, 1825-9; member of Con- gress from Massachusetts, 1831-48. tives, and that body it is known would promptly have chosen him president. As it was, in the House the friends of Clay and Adams combined to elect Election of the latter. Adams had thirteen states, Jackson had seven, and Crawford four. And Adams appointed Clay secretary of state. At once the air was full of accusations. It was a jhe alleged ' ' corrupt bargain. ' ' Adams and Clay had dickered for J^^^gaiT' the presidency, it was said. There was no evidence of 202 The Growth of the America7i Nation. this except the circumstances. As the Tennessee legis- lature expressed it : ' 'Adams went into the combination wanting the presidency. He came out of it president. Clay went into the combination wanting to be secretary of state. He came out of it with the secretaryship. No more proof was needed. ' ' And it might be added that no more proof was ever found. But from the nature of the case the charge was one which could not be disproved. And the opposition at once saw that with this weapon they could destroy Adams. And they did. Character Than Joliu Quiucy Adams we have never had a presi- dent better equipped in knowledge and experience. Conscientious, hard-working, able, it was his ambition to signalize his administration by great achievements for the public good. The country had recovered from the depression of 1819 and was generally prosperous. The West was rapidly filling up with an industrious popula- tion. Manufactures and commerce were expanding. The farmers found a ready market at good prices. His policy. To aid this development and to secure permanence of prosperity the president thought was a function of sound statesmanship. The vast public lands of the new states and of the unsettled territories, he thought should be sold at once and that the funds thus provided should be used for works of public utility. He wanted great roads, canals, and bridges. He would improve harbors and navigation. He favored suitable fortifications on the coast, an adequate army, a strong navy. He pro- posed a national university and a naval school. All these things, and many more which would forward civili- zation and open the continent to its advance, he longed to see realized, and so urged them on Congress. But this administration, so able in personnel and so The National Republicans. 203 brilliant in conception, was doomed to be one of the Factious oppo- most barren in our annals. And the fatal force which ^'"°"" paralyzed all action was the factious opposition which was determined to secure the presidency for Jackson in 1828 at all hazards. To do that, the administration must be made unpopular. It must not be allowed to do anything to win the attention and affection of the nation. Therefore, whatever the administration suggested was at once opposed and if possible thwarted without regard to its merits, and the Jackson men and Crawford men com- bined succeeded in controlling Congress. The ideas of President Adams were quite in accord Adams and the with those of the ' ' Young Republicans, ' ' who had come Jiv^ans"^ Repub- on the stage since 1 8 1 1 . They had the same thoroughly national views which had animated the Federalists of Hamilton's day. And, while, of course, they had no thought of forming a new party, they delighted to call themselves ' ' National Republicans. ' ' One of their favorite plans related to internal improve- ments. The rapid development of the new country p"ovements made very evident the great need of better means of communication. There was land almost without limit. But of what use was it if its products could only reach a market at so much cost of time and money that they could not be sold at a profit ? In fact, the American people were beginning to struggle with one of the great problems of our age — how to bring the farm near to the city. Distance, speaking economically, is not measured in miles, but in time, money, and effort. If it costs no ^^'"*^ of good ' ' / ' means ot more and is just as easy to carry a load to market by transport. rail a hundred miles, as to haul an equal load there in a wagon ten miles, then for all practical purposes the two places are at an equal distance from market. All this was understood by Jefferson, and he thought 204 The Growth of the American Nation. Jefferson's views. The Cumber- land Road. See Harper' s Magazine for November, 1879, "The Old National Pike." 1838. that trunk lines of road ought to be constructed by the nation. His plan was from the customs revenue first of all to pay off the national debt. Then he would devote the surplus to roads and canals, and to making provision for general education. Now this was precisely the thought of Adams and Clay and their National Republican friends. But the difference was in regard to constitutional pow- ers. Jefferson, true to his theory of strict construction, held that the general government could have no power to use money for the purposes in question without a con- stitutional amendment. Clay and Adams believed in Hamilton's doctrine of implied powers, and so thought an amendment quite unnecessary. Jefferson's eager de- sire for such public works was one reason for his dread of war, and the outbreak of hostilities in 181 2 accord- ingly was a great disappointment to him. The first great national undertaking in the way of in- ternal improvements was the Cumberland Road. This was projected in 1806, and was to run from Maryland to the Ohio River, thence to the Mississippi, and thence, perhaps, to the Pacific. It was built as far as Wheeling, on the Ohio, was well constructed of stone and gravel, and was afterwards extended to the Indiana line. This was to be but the east and west artery of a great system. Another was to run from Washington to New Orleans, and then there was to be a network of branches. This great plan was only in line with what had been done in Europe. The latter half of the eighteenth cen- tury A\as marked by a great revolution in road-making. The rude tracks and horrible quagmires of a previous age were replaced by the smooth and hard highways constructed by the genius of the Macadams and the Telfords, and the result was a great saving in time and comfort, and, of course, in the cost of transportation. The National Republicans. 205 The system checked. The National RepubUcan idea. And it was proposed to duplicate this reform in America. But the troubles with England piled up debt and stopped the execution of many of these plans. After the peace the subject again engaged the attention of Congress, but did not make much headway. National aid for the Erie Canal was refused, and so that great work was carried out by the state of New York. A bill making further appropriations for the Cumberland Road Monroe vetoed, on the constitutional ground. And the amendment desired by Jefferson was never made. But the National Republicans warmly defended the plans for national highways and canals, and ' ' internal improvements" were a burning issue in politics for a number of years, only vanishing when the new and sur- prising application of steam to the traction of wheeled carriages on iron rails had finally relegated turnpikes and canals to insignificance. The conception of Clay and Adams was a brilliant one. * . ... . How It has They were entirely sound in thinking that both national come to be sentiment and material prosperity demanded rapid and cheap transit from one end of the Union to the other. This conception has been realized in our own day. The Union is bound together by bands of steel and iron. The railroad and the telegraph have wrought what Jeffer- son hoped to accomplish by the turnpike. Nothing was more marked in the decades which im- mediately followed the War of 18 12 than the emigration which set in toward the West. The wilderness beyond the AUeghenies was cleared and settled with marvelous rapidity, and state after state was added to the Union. In turn this striking feature of our national life produced important effects on public policies. The balance of power, with the center of population, began to leave the Atlantic coast. realized. Settlement of the West. 2o6 The Growth of the American Nation. Effect of the war. Economic revo- lution. The routes of emigration. Slow methods. To be sure, this movement had begun long before. Kentucky and Tennessee became states before the eigh- teenth century was ended, and Ohio when the nine- teenth was just begun. And the Mississippi Valley was felt in 1812 among the Young Republicans who forced on the war with Great Britain. The census of 1800 showed only 45,000 people in Ohio, 5,000 in Indiana Territory, and 8,000 in Mississippi. But these were multiplied sixfold in 18 10. The war in various ways set the current of migra- tion in motion. The army of Harrison marched over the rich prairies of Indiana, and when disbanded at the peace the soldiers cast longing eyes toward their battle-grounds. Then, too, the Embargo and the war had ruined foreign commerce, and with the general peace the neutral trade lost its monopoly. And thus agriculture in the East was shorn of a great share of its profits. For these reasons many merchants devoted their capital to manufacturing, and many farmers turned to the richer soil of the West. So an increasing stream of emigrant wagons poured over the mountain passes, and the for- ests of Ohio and the prairies of Indiana and Illinois yielded to the axe and plow of the settler.* There were three general lines of travel — over the mountains through western Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, and then by boats down the Ohio, through western New York to Buffalo and thence by Lake Erie, and south flanking the mountain range and penetrating Ala- bama and Mississippi. In the early years of the century travel was slow. The pioneer wagons were heavy, the roads were dread- * For a more detailed account of this settlement, its methods, sources, and results, see my chapter on " The Mississippi Valley," Chapter V., in Shaler's " United States of America." The N^ational Republicans. 207 ful. Reaching Pittsburg-, the emigrants embarked in a flatboat which floated down with the current, or in a keelboat which could be poled up some affluent of the great river. The farmers along all these streams sent their produce to market in these primitive boats and in turn received such merchandise as they needed from those which came up from New Orleans and Louisville. In this way four months were consumed from New Orleans to St. Louis. Tlie inevitable effect was that the farmer paid high prices for all articles which he bought, while in turn his produce brought him very little. But in 181 1 Ful- ton put a steamboat on the Ohio at Pittsburg, and the results were mar- velous. By 1815 the time from New Orleans to St. Louis was twenty-five days, and in 1823 it was twelve days. People were greatly excited by these passages. "The Monongahela and Ohio Steamboat Company claimed patronage because their new crack boats could go nine miles an hour." But that speed was for a long time Robert Fulton. Born, 1765; died, 1815. An inventor. Built the Cleymont, and propelled it by a steam-engine from New York to Albany, in tliirty-two hours, 1807. Planned a steam war vessel, which was launched in 1814. Steamboats. " First Century of the Repub- lic," 181. 2o8 The Groivth of the American A^ation. The Erie Canal. Schouler, III. 346-7- thought dangerous. Freight rates were rapidly re- duced, and prices of commocHties consumed by the settlers fell in proportion. At the same time they were, of course, brought into closer and cheaper communica- tion with their market. These facts, with the added speed and convenience of travel, enormously stimulated immigration, and the development of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys went on apace. Population rolled up rapidly. Ohio, for instance, had 45,000 people in 1800, 230,000 in 1810, 581,000 in 1820, 937,000 in 1830. New states were formed and admitted year after year. Louisiana came in in 181 2, followed by Indiana in 18 16, Mississippi in 1817, Illinois in 1818, Alabama in 1819, Maine (before that merely a district of Massachusetts) in 1820, Mis- souri in 1 82 1. This great development of the New West naturally stimulated still greater improvement in transportation. The rising manufactures in the East sought a market in the West, and the excitement over steam and its opening possibilities greatly intensified the eager interest in finding new outlets. One of the first and greatest of these was the Erie Canal, connecting tide water at Albany with the Great Lakes at Buffalo. The first earth was turned by Governor DeWitt Clinton, who was to the end the earnest and powerful patron of the undertaking, on July 4, 1817, and the canal was completed in October, 1825. It may be noted that the peculiar exigencies of New York politics had again made Clinton governor in the latter year, so that he most appro- priately presided over the festivities which celebrated the occasion — with his own hands pouring into the ocean casks of water which had been brought in a boat from Lake Erie. The National Rcpiiblicans. 209 The success of the canal was instantaneous. Within Brilliant suc- ten years the tolls had paid the cost of construction. At once the land of western New York and that on the shores of the Great Lakes were in reach of a market. Before the canal was built the expense of transportation from Buffalo to New York was $100 per ton and the time was twenty days. Freight rates immediately dropped to $14 a ton and the trip was made in a third of the time. The tide of travel at once poured through the canal. In 18 19 the first steamer was put on Lake Erie. After 1S25 the number was greatly increased. And now northern Ohio, Michigan, and northern Indi- ana and Illinois, began to fill with people. The life of these settlers was rough ; they endured com. many hardships, and yet they enjoyed a rude plenty. The uni\'ersal crop _ - v ..... was Indian corn ; " the universal do- ^ mestic animal wa'^ the swine. And hog and homin\ were the staph diet of the South- ^ _ west, as were corn- ,,l.^y,u_ i'JW" -^^'■- — ^^^— ' meal mush and salt , . 1 TVT 1 Si iiLEK s Log Cabin. pork m the North west. To be sure, the Ohio pioneers raised wheat, and the Kentuckians made crops of cotton and tobacco. But after all Indian corn in some shape was universally consumed. Whether it was corn ground into meal, or corn animated, walking around in the shape of swine, or pickled and smoked, as side pork and bacon, or corn liquid, distilled into whisky, all was corn, and all formed the western staple of subsistence. of I 2IO The Growth of the American Nation. All this is indicative of a rude and hard existence. The whole West was a democracy, somewhat rough, but instinct with life and energy. And it added a strong tonic to the political and social thinking of there- public. The high tariff ^^^ ^^ midst of this eager and vigorous expansion of American society the term of President Adams drew to a close. The opposition in Congress had succeeded in baffling nearly all his ambitions. In the spring of 1828 a new tariff act became law. This was now highly pro- tective — the thirty-three and one third per cent duties of 1824 reaching forty and forty-five per cent. The fate- ful consequences of this tariff will appear when we come to examine the nullification question of 1832-33. But the well-organized opposition had succeeded in breaking down the administration in the popular regard. Mr. Adams desired a reelection. But he wanted it as an expression of popular approval of his administration, and he would not lift a finger to afifect the course of poli- tics. He would not remove federal office-holders who opposed him. He would make no appointments to aid his canvass. Public office he regarded as wholly a pub- lic matter, and officers as absolutely entitled to independ- ence in political action. He would not make stump speeches, regarding it as undignified and improper. The opposition had no such scruples. The Jackson Jackson. and Crawford men had united in the interest of General Jackson, with that astute wire-puller, Van Buren of New York, as one of the leading spirits. And so efficient a machine was constructed that Mr. Adams was easily defeated. He had only eighty-three electoral votes, to one hundred seventy-eight for Jackson. South of the Potomac and west of the Alleghenies Adams did not get one elector. Pennsylvania cast 101,652 votes for Election of The Actional Republicans. Jackson and 50,848 for Adams. Tennessee gave 44,293 for the old general, and 2,240 for Adams. Parton tells of an attempt in a Tennessee village to tar and feather two men who voted for Adams. Thus one of the best and purest of our presidents was relegated to private life, and a choleric Indian fighter was put in his place. CHAPTER XYI. LOCAL LIFE. Balance of central authority and local independ- ence. References. — Fiske : Civil Governnioit in the United States; Cooke : Virginia, in the Commonwealth Series ; Howard : Local Constitutional History of the United States. There is nothing more characteristic of the American social organization than the balance everywhere pre- served between local independence and general au- thority. Were such a device imposed on a nation arti- ficially it is hardly likely that it would work. Either ex- cess of local autonomy would result in political chaos, or the central power would gradually absorb local freedom. Again, even if a balanced system is the growth of natural conditions, it is quite likely to take a direction which tends to destroy the equilibrium, and to result in con- fusion or autocracy. In a rough sort of way the feudal institutions of Europe in the Middle Ages are somewhat analogous to our American federal republic. But in Ger- many the tendency to local independence prevailed, and the central authority of the Holy Roman Empire be- came a shadow, while in France the crown gradually succeeded in drawing to itself the authority of the local feudal lords, and then of the municipalities, and under Louis XIV. despotism became complete. But in our century of republican life the oscillations between cen- tralization and local freedom have not proved destruc- tive of either. It is true that the national authority has become vastly more definite and more extensive than was the case at the outset. But after all this growth has been Local Life. 213 kept within certain quite clearly defined limits, which it does not seem at all likely to pass. And, on the other hand, the most powerful disruptive force which could be exerted by excess of local energy proved inadequate to destroy the Union. And so the equipoise of sun and planets in the solar system is perhaps no strained simile for this union of states in our federally organized nation. The form of life which results from a system like this is materially different from what one may find in a nation Fullness ofiocai wholly centralized. It has been said that Paris is France. But Washington is not a power. It is a mere con- venience. From Paris radiate all the innumerable lines of authority which control the French social and political organism. In the United States a vigorous, independent life is going on in nearly half a hundred distinct groups, entirely aside from the common life which unites both individuals and groups into the nation. A large variet}' of social interests is left wholly in the hands of the local groups. The family relation, education, the ordinary police, the settlement of nearly all business complications, public charity — in short, nearly the whole field of ci\'il and criminal legislation, with the administrative busi- ness and judicial determinations resulting — are left un- touched by the national authorities. And so there is en- tire freedom to treat these multifarious affairs according to the peculiar notions or to the local conditions which prevail in different sections of the republic. Uniformity throughout the nation is of the essence of centralization. But the American idea is that uniformity is absolutely non-essential except in such things as of themselves necessarily involve the whole people. One great result of this wide diffusion of civic life is RegyHj, the fact that shock to the social system is much less likely unfolj'^' °^*^^ to result in general political paralysis. There may be 214 T^^^^ Groivth of the Aynerican Nation. serious disturbance in one part of the republic without of necessity involving other parts. Each state is a sort of local safety-valve for the escape of surplus political steam, Local contests and even the conquest of any one portion of the states an escape-valve. ^ -^ _ _ would by no means imply the subjugation of the rest. Often in European wars the fall of the national capital has been followed quickly by submission to the invader. When the British took Washington, in 1814, they ac- complished less than if they had succeeded in seizing any one of a dozen other towns. Every state in the Union is a fully organized center of military as well as of civil life. The fact is that the republic has no one heart a wound to which is fatal. It has as many hearts as there are states, and yet it is the common blood which circulates through all. The states. The unit of our national organization is the state. We began with thirteen, we had twenty-four when An- drew Jackson became president, and Utah will make the forty-fifth. The origin of this local subdivision of the nation goes back to the circumstances which led to the formation of distinct English colonies on the American coast. While substantially of one race, yet the settlers were quite dif- ferent in political and religious ideas, and each separate colony was from the first under its own auspices. Had England colonized America in accordance with a defi- nite plan, it is likely that there would have been an initial unity which probably would have given a different trend to the colonies and hence to the republic. An example of the mode in which the people of the various states conducted their common concerns is afforded by New York. When the Continental Con- gress adopted resolutions favoring independence, it at the same time recommended the states to provide them- Their source. New York. Local Life. 215 selves each with a frame of government suited to its needs. The revolutionary legislature of New York promptly appointed a committee for this purpose, but the pressure of the war prevented a report until the spring of 1777. At that time the new frame of govern- Constitution of ment was adopted, the legislature ratifying the commit- tee's report without referring it to the people. This constitution was the organic law of the state for nearly half a century. It provided a legislature of two houses, the upper, the Senate, chosen by the four great districts into which the state was divided, the lower, the Assembly, chosen by smaller districts. The executive was a governor, elected by the people for three years. There was provision for a series of The executive, courts of law, with a supreme court at the head, and for a chancellor, as a court of equity. These were to hold for the term of good behavior. Suffrage was carefully limited. Only freeholders worth ^100 could vote for governor or senators, and freehold- ers worth £20 for assemblymen. At the same time the progressi\'e spirit of the framers was shown by a pro\'is- ion for testing the method of voting by ballot, which, it was said, divers of the good people of the state had long had the opinion would tend more to preserve the equal freedom of the people than voting viva voce. The people had no pleasing recollection of the au- thority of the colonial governor, and so the powers of The veto, that officer in the state were closely restricted. The veto power, in the form in which it is now possessed by the president of the United States, was vested, not in the governor alone, but in a council of revision, com- posed of the governor, the judges of the supreme court, and the chancellor. And the appointing power was given to a council, composed of the governor and four 2i6 The Growth of the American Nation. senators, the latter chosen annually, one from each Sen- ate district, by the Assembly. The powers of the coun- The council of ^il of appointment were very ereat. The only public appointments. ^^ . officers chosen by popular election were the governor and the legislature. A few were selected by the legis- lature. But the council of appointment named all the judges, all the justices of the peace, all the mayors of cities, all the sheriffs. Under this highly centralized and rather aristocratic New York constitution the politics of New York soon proved as politics. ... vigorous and influential as in our own day. The first governor was George Clinton, who turned out to be a sturdy Anti-Federalist and a stanch adherent of Jeffer- son in forming the new Republican party. Governor Clinton held the chair for six successive terms, being succeeded in 1795 by John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, who came into office on the rising tide of Federalism. Governor Jay was reelected in 1798, but in turn was succeeded in 1801 by Clinton. With the exception of the six years of Jay's administration, the state steadily elected governors of the same political faith from 1777 until 1838, when William H. Seward was chosen by the Whigs. The council of appointments proved in the end a Origin of most pcrnicious device. With each change of factions spoils politics. ^ , - in the Assembly the council swept out of office a host of their opponents and replaced them by others of their own stripe. This practice became especially common after Governor Clinton and Governor Jay had retired from the scene, and after the Tammany society, origi- nally merely a benevolent organization, had, largely by the ingenuity of Aaron Burr, been converted into a political machine. By these means the spoils system became thoroughly intrenched in New York politics. Local Life. 217 In 1 82 1 the peoiDle chose a constitutional convention which made some material changes in the organic law. The council of appointments was swept away, the ap- pointing power being divided among the governor, the legislature, and the people. The governor was given the veto power, suffrage was made uniform and was ex- tended to all taxpayers, and the courts were largely re- New consti- tution of New York in 1S21. The Erie Canal at Buffalo. constructed. Five years later the property qualification was removed from suffrage, except for colored voters. Through all these years the state had been steadily growing in population and wealth. The western wilder- ness filled with settlers, and the great forests were re- placed by fields of wheat and corn. A prominent means of advancing this material development was the Erie Canal. Its results on the development of the West can only be compared with those of the Pacific railroads in later years. New York State reaped the first bene- fits, both in the rapid growth of its great seaport, which The Erie Canal ; see p. 208. 2i8 The Growth of the American Nation. Rapid growth of New York. Education. Banks. Courts. now became the one outlet of western traffic, and in the settlement of its own western counties. New York was the fifth state in population in 1790, the third in 1800, the second in 18 10, and in 1820 it became the first. But in the decade from 1820 to 1830, Virginia, which until 1820 had been the most populous state in the Union, increased only about twenty per cent, while New York increased nearly fifty per cent. Not only did the state develop in its canals and turn- pikes, its own system of communication, but it also cre- ated its own means of public education, its own banking institutions, and its own jurisprudence. Various acts of the legislature for the aid of education culminated in 1813 in the appointment of a state super- intendent of common schools, under whose efficient management a system of primary education was success- fully organized. And the colleges, which had been founded largely by private beneficence, received also various sums from the legislature — a favorite means of aiding them being the grant of a lottery. Banks, in the early history of the state, were thought of as favors to be granted to political adherents. And accordingly certain institutions were customarily re- garded as Federalist banks, or Republican banks, as the case might be, and they were apt to confine dis- counts to those of their own party. And so acute were the struggles in the legislature for these privileges, and so much scandal resulted, that in 1821 the new consti- tution made a two thirds vote of each House a requisite to any such charter. It was not until 1838 that the busi- ness was thrown open to all on the same conditions. The courts of New York have developed a body of legal science which is followed in the practice of nearly all the states. The great names of Jay, Livingston, The town- Local Life. 219 and Kent would illustrate the bench of any country. But in every state there is a unit of local life yet nearer the people. In New England it is the town, meeting. The first settlers grouped themselves in the wilderness around the church. Their dwellings were near together, for convenience of united defense against the Indians. Thus a village was formed, which was in fact but a church, organized ecclesiastically for worship, as a civil community for the transaction of common affairs, and as an armed force for military protection. The pastor was preeminent in authority. But yet the village was a democracy, in which each freeman had an equal \'oice. And in the mass meeting of freemen the general busi- ness was done, officers were chosen, taxes were levied, representatives elected to the General Court. And this assembly, at the outset the result of the peculiar condi-' tions of the immigrants, became the distinctive feature of New England public organization — the town-meeting. And it was only reluctantly that with great increase of pop- ulation a representative city government was substituted in the larger towns. Boston only became a city in 1821. In the South the unit was the county. The southern , , 1 . , . , . , The southern nnmigrants settled on plantations, each with its cluster county, of dwellings for the white household and the black slaves, but the clusters scattered over a wide area. A mass meeting of freemen for many purposes was im- practicable. Naturally most of the common business was delegated to officers chosen for the purpose. The county organization was the political unit, as the planta- tion was the social unit. And the Episcopal Church, which in colonial times was so powerful in the Southern States, was quite different from the Congregational democracy of New England. Hence, in the South the town hardly appears at all. 220 The Growth of the American Nation. The Middle I" the South the town-meeting does not exist, and in states. j^g^ England the county cuts little figure. New York adopted a compromise system. The town manages its own affairs, quite after the New England method. Each town elects a supervisor and all the supervisors thus chosen in a county form a county board, with large legislative and administrative functions. The county also has a judicial and administrative staff- county judge, surrogate, clerk, treasurer, sheriff, and others. It was a long step in the direction of home rule when the Constitutional Convention of 1821 transferred the choice of these officers, or the most of them, to the people of the counties respectively. In Pennsylvania the town has essentially the New England organization, but the county board, unlike the New York supervisor system, consists of a few repre- sentatives elected from the county at large. By a glance at this system it will be seen that the people of the United States are thoroughly imbued with the idea of home rule. This in New York became fully established only after the Revolution had freed the col- ony from the status of a crown dependency. Home rule was no part of the Dutch policy, and was only par- tially and grudgingly conceded by the English adminis- tration. Thus that state continued under aristocratic methods and reached full popular sovereignty and local self-government rather slowly. But it will be seen that the constant practice of man- its value, aging public affairs in which one's interests are closely concerned gives an experience and confidence which are the foundations of success in a democratic republic. Emigrants from the East and the South carried with them to their new home the habits and methods with which they were familiar. Thus in the Northwestern Home rule. Local Life. 221 States in general the local methods of the Middle States The East and and New England are in vogue, while in Kentucky, ducediiuh^ Tennessee, and the Southwest the southern county is the ^"^' unit. Illinois was originally settled in its southern por- tion by Americans from Kentucky, who brought the county idea with them. Later settlers came by way of the lakes to the northern part, and there the town was planted. So this state has the anomalous plan of a dual organization, some counties having the southern system of county government and others the town organization. The striking fact in all the new states of the Union is the reproduction everywhere of local home rule. The free school, the church separate from state support, the town or county, each controlled by those immediately concerned — these are the essence of the American system. Local pride is a large factor in the life of the republic. The people as a rule are attached to the institutions of , , . , , . Local pride. their own state. In the great western cities there are thriving social associations composed of natives of Maine, of New York, or of other Eastern States. Naturally it is the older states which have gathered about them the most of sentiment, as in the West the population often has not had time to strike its roots very deep into the soil. And in the South state pride has from the first i^™"g '" ^'^^ ^ South. been much stronger than in the North — stronger even than national patriotism, as was seen in 1861. This doubtless was partly due to the relative fixity of southern society — a condition which since the great industrial changes caused by the Civil War has been materially altered. Local pride in the cities is a powerful force in their development. Yet, on the whole, American ex- perience has shown that local spirit is only a specialized form of that larger patriotism which is the life-blood of the republic. CHAPTER XVII. ANDREW JACKSON AND NULLIFICATION. The new democracy. Jackson's per- sonality. References. — Schouler ; Sumner :y«r/^^(9;// Schurz : Clay; Von Hoist : Calhoun; \'on Hoist : United States. With the election of Andrew Jackson to the presi- dency there came to the national administration a new party, a new personality, a new policy. The old Democratic Republican party of Jefferson had passed through decided changes. The resistless demo- cratic sweep of the times had carried the nation with it, and society was everywhere democratic. The party more and more assumed the name " Democratic," and after the election of Jackson that name became the usual one, and the name indicated the fact. It was the new democracy which invaded the White House with the old Tennessee Indian fighter. And it was organized anew. The skill of Martin Van Buren was transferred from New York to the nation, and it availed to construct a party machine of rare perfection. And this skilful organiza- tion, backed by the vast popularity of the old hero, was invincible. None of our presidents has more impressed his per- sonality on history than did Andrew Jackson. Wash- ington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, each in his own way, most powerfully influenced the destiny of the republic. Wash- ington made the republic possible, Jefferson made it popular, Lincoln made it permanent. And yet in more bold relief than any of these stands out against the back- Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 223 ground of his times the rugged and unique character of Jackson. Some common impressions of that character perhaps need correction — one at least. He was attacked by his enemies as a " miUtary chief- tain," and certainly nothing weighed more in the popu- lar mind at the time than his brilliant and crushing vic- tory at New Orleans. In sliuil, wr arc ai)t to class liim in a certain way with Napoleon, as a professional sol- dier who by his military glory was elevated to power in civil life. In point of fact Jackson's military "A military chieftain." life, SO far as actual *,l'''l war is concerned, was very brief He- was not educated for the army. Be- fore the Wai I 1 81 2 he was a 1 \ yer, a planter, a politician. And it was in this last Andrew Jackson. oanQf-itir that" hp Born, 1767 ; died, 1S45. Lawyer ; member of Con- capacuy liidi 11c gress from Tennessee, 1797; U. S. senator, 1797-8; 'jprnrpd an an- Judge, Tennessee Supreme Court, 1798-1804; scLLiicva ctii dp major-general of Tennessee militia, 1801-14 ; vic- t-> ,-,i Ti t m p n f Qc torious campaign against the Indians, 1813-14; poiULnieUL db major-general, U. S. A., 1814 ; victory of New moi'nr- n-pripral n f Orleans, 1815 ; governor of Florida, 1821-3 ; U. S. majur-geueidi ui senator from Tennessee, 1823-5 ; president of the the Tennessee United states, 1829-37. militia — a position which he held for several years, and which in "piping times of peace" is certainly sufifi- His military record. 224 '^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. Campaign against the Indians. Campaign against the British. Mental traits. Positiveness. Directness. ciently innocuous. When the war broke out the United States had practically no army, and of course the militia was at once called on for service. This service on the Ten- nessee frontier consisted in an expedition against the hos- tile Alabama Indians — an expedition which the militia general led with entire success. After only seven months of campaigning, the broken remnant of the savages made a treaty of peace on the Hickory ground, and the war was ended. This was in the spring of 1 8 14. As a re- ward for this brilliant Indian campaign Jackson was ap- pointed major-general in the regular army of the United States and given command in the Southwest. And in the following January his indomitable energy, aided by the perverse blundering of the British generals, enabled him to close the War of 181 2 with a decisive victory. This was his last battle. Jackson's military life, then, was all included in about eighteen months of service in war. He fought only one battle with white men, and at the time he fought his first battle with the Indians he was over forty-five years old. The general had not had the benefit of education and wide experience of the world, like Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, nor had he the indomitable thirst for knowledge of Lincoln. But what he did know he knew clearly, and perhaps it was this fact which made him so positive in all of his many opinions. He always knew that he was right — whether he was or not. This characteristic positiveness was accompanied by three kindred qualities, directness, tenacity, pugnacity. If he thought a given end desirable he always moved straight toward it by the shortest path. With delay and roundabout methods he had no patience. Obstacles merely enraged him — they never discouraged him. In- deed, when anything got in his way his only thought was Combativeness. Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 225 to smash it, and smash it he usually did, sooner or later. When his mind was open on any subject, it was not difficult for a friend to influence him. But when he had Tenacity, once reached a conclusion, a friend rarely, and a foe never, could induce him to reconsider. An idea which crystallized in his thoughts became like adamant. Difference of opinion he could not tolerate. Though the question were the most abstract, it mattered not. Lack of agreement was lack of friendship. Lack of friendship was enmity, and with an enemy he had always but one course — instant, open, and ceaseless war. With this positive, straightforward, and combative dis- position were joined entire honesty, unflinching courage, and great kindness and loyalty to all who won his friend- ship. Now it is evident that these are qualities of a man of action, but not such as would necessarily fit one to deal with complex and delicate questions. But it is just these strong and elementary traits that seize the popular fancy. And so in all our national history no other hero or statesman has ever had such a hold on the plain peo- ple as did Andrew Jackson. They admired him and loved him and trusted him. Whether he was right in his view of the facts or sound in his judgment they hardly questioned. Their conclusive answer to all cavil was, ' ' Hurrah for Jackson. The question at issue in 1828 which determined the elec- consolidation tion of Jackson was mainly personal. It was not National "ra^tion'party!" Republican policies which were defeated so much as it was Adams and Clay. Low tariff men in the South and high tariff" men in Pennsylvania united against the administration. And to weld together these and all the other incoherent elements of opposition which were now triumphant was the first task of the victors. To that Popularity. 226 The Growth of the American Nation. end the first message of the new president, in 1829, was made non-committal on the burning questions of tariff and internal improvements. But first of all the methods of the New York political machine were applied to the federal administration. The civil serv- It had been the common understanding up to this time "^^' that the national civil service was a life profession. Those who entered it gave up private business and expected undisturbed tenure in return for faithful performance of duty. Even cabinet officers often were not changed with a change of administration. But the Jackson men came into power with new theories. In their view the national offices were primarily the property of the victorious party, to be used as rewards for political service. As The spoils Marcy expressed it in the Senate in 1830, " The spoils system. ^|- ^j^^ enemy belong to the victors. ' ' And the victorious politicians descended on Washington like a flock of buz- zards. They knew that there were friends to be re- warded and enemies to be punished. During the forty years from the inauguration of Wash- S^^y^M^i^ 334. ington to that of Jackson, the presidents had in all re- moved seventy-four persons from office, mostly for mis- behavior or incompetence. Jackson in his first year re- moved 491 postmasters and 239 other officers. Includ- ing the subordinates necessarily involved with their prin- cipals, this implied about 2,000 changes. And thus the pernicious spoils system became fixed in our national politics. It has embittered political strife, corrupted and enfeebled the public service, and debased the public con- science. It has reacted disastrously on the conduct of state and local affairs. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it has proved one of the gravest dangers to which our experiment of republican government has been exposed. And this evil legacy from Jackson's time is Andrew Jackson aiid Nullification. 227 yet largely with us. But it served its purpose at the time in welding together a compact political machine. It might be added here that President Jackson's first cabinet went to pieces in a couple of years, and was re- The cabinet constructed on the same principle as the rest of the civil service — unquestioned devotion to the chief But this particular upheaval arose from other than political causes — in short, from a war among the cabinet ladies. We Andrew Jackson's Administration. E3 Stales E3 Territories British PosB. UnnSparish Poss. need not dwell on the details. Suffice it to say that the . , . . -' Jackson routed battles were relentless and terrific. Jackson could never ^y '^e ladies, keep out of a fight, and soon he was in the hottest of this. But the enraged and puzzled old hero found that he was dealing with an enemy more formidable than Alabama savages or British grenadiers. The victor of New Orleans was ingloriously routed. But great was the ruin. The cabinet was disrupted. Vice-president Calhoun lost his chance of being Jackson's successor. 228 The Grozvth of the American Nation. The tariff. Act of 1824. Moderate pro- tection. Act of 1828. High pro- tection. Discontent in the South. Sly Martin Van Buren slipped into the vice-presidency, and then succeeded to the presidency. And at least a largely contributing cause to all these and other political upheavals was the fact that Mrs. Calhoun and other ladies of the administration declined to give social recog- nition to the wife of the secretary of war. The most vital questions of Jackson's first term were connected with the tariff. The moderately protective tariff of 1824 had been enacted by a combination of the Central and Western States, and had been opposed by the South and East. But New England had then turned largely to manufacturing, and so many of her people were ready to join with the other sections in favor of still further protection. In 1828 a new bill was passed, considerably increasing the duties. The woolen industry demanded more effective aid, and the thirty- three and one third per cent rates on these products were accordingly raised to over forty per cent. In order to obtain this advance other interests were helped in proportion, so that the bill received the support of all sections of the Union but the South * — and even here the sugar cane of Louisiana enlisted that state on the side of high tariff. The average rate on dutiable goods was made over forty-three per cent. But the other Southern States saw no benefit in the new measure. It was plainly a tariff" primarily for pro- tection, as more revenue was not needed. The cotton, tobacco, and rice of the South were shipped mainly to Europe, and in the European markets the price of these commodities would be no higher by reason of an Amer- ican tariff On the other hand, the high duties would tend to raise the price of all manufactured articles which the agricultural states might consume. So for the South * A majority from New England was against it, but the minority was large. Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 229 there was no gain, and apparently a sure loss — and all for the benefit of other sections. The general prosperity of the Union had not been shared by the South to the same extent as by the North. Lack of prog- •' _ ■' ress in South- In the latter section wealth and population had gone ^rn states. on rolling up enormously. Southern states, however, while they had made very great gains from the vastly increased production of cotton made possible by Whit- ney's invention for cleaning it from the seed, still had been distanced by their commercial and manufacturing fellow states. In the area included by those of the orig- inal thirteen which lay south of Mason and Dixon's line the increase of population between 1790 and 1820 was about sixty per cent. The increase north of that line was fully twice as great. In the North, too, the principal seaports were rapidly growing into great cities, while southern towns were relatively stagnant. This disparity in progress the South attributed to the fostering care of government directed to the benefit of the North. There can be little doubt that the manufacturing and commercial states were stimulated by the protective sys- tem more than was the section which was purely agri- Causes, cultural — and all the more in the case of such staples as cotton, of which the principal market was found in Europe. However, the effects of the institution of slave labor were really adverse to the section which fostered it, and equally, of course, it could hardly be expected that those effects should be clearly understood . . . Injustice to the at the time. So it is not at all strange that the southern South, planting states should regard themselves as the victims of oppression. But where was the remedy? Not in the Supreme The remedy. Court, as Congress by the constitution was vested with the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and 230 The Growth of the American Nation. Kentucky reso- lutions of 1798. Kentucky reso- lutions of 1799. Nullification. excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States ' ' ; and it could not be denied that the tariff laws were, in the discretion of Congress, enacted for these constitutional purposes. Apparently not in the national legislature. New England originally had stood by the South in op- position to a high tariff. In other words, the shipping and agricultural interests were combined against the manufacturers. Was there, then, any other recourse ? Calhoun thought that he found a solution in the words of the Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99: ''Resolved, that whenever the general government as- sumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force ; . . . . that this govern- ment, created by this compact, was not made the ex- clusive or final judge of the extent of the powers dele- gated to itself .... But that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress." ''Resolved, that .... the several states who formed that instrument being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the infractions ; and that a nullification by those sover- eignties .... is the rightful remedy." The resolutions of 1798 were drafted by Jefferson. And while he did not draw those of 1799, we know that in his original draft in the previous year occur substantially the second resolve above quoted, including both the idea and the word nnllijication. And the right to make laws of the Union null and void necessarily implies the further right to withdraw from the Union if any state should deem proper. Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 231 Nullification and secession, as lawful means of redress against federal oppression, of course implied a concep- tion of the nature of the constitution very different from that which the course of e\-ents has established. Calhoun held that the Union was a compact between equal sovereign states — that each state was the final f^fg^ °ies ^ arbiter, so far" as it was concerned, of the constitution- ality of federal statutes — and that any state had a right at any time to recon- sider its adoption of the constitution and to secede from the Union. These views he urged with great eloquence and force of logic. Dan iel Webster combated them in the Senate of the United States with some of the most masterly and power- ful arguments in the range of constitu- tional exposition. The first consti- tution formed by the John C. Calhoun. insuro-ent colonies was ^°'"' '"^2; died, 1850. Educated at Yale; nibUri^eilL CUtl.)njes vvab lawyer ; member of Congress, 1S11-17 ; secre- /-nllj^rl " Ai-1-ir-lpc r\^ taO' of war, 1817-25 ; vice-president of the caneu r\\ lilics ui united States, 1823-32 (resigned) ; U. S. sena- P<-.T-\ ff^rl (at-Q finn anrl tor from South Carolina, 1S32-43 ; secretary L^OnieaeraUOn ana ^f state, 1844-5; U. S. senator from South Perpetual Union." Carolina, 1845-50. The preamble to the constitution of 1787 recited as one of its purposes "to form a more perfect union." It is hard to see how it would accord with these ex- press characteristics of the new frame of go\'ernment 232 The Growth of the American Nation. Constitution of the United States, Art VI., Sec. 2. Constitution, Art. III., Sec. 2. Tariflfofi832. Nullification convention in South Carolina. that the perpetuity of the Union should be at the option of each of its constituent members. Further, the constitution specifically provides that "this constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof .... shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." And an- other provision makes the federal judiciary the final arbiter of the conflict of laws. In other words, Calhoun's theory made the United States a loose and temporary confederation ; Webster regarded the constitution as creating a permanent nation. After the Tariff Act of 1828, nullification began to be urged in the South and it won many adherents. In 1832 Congress, in response to the strong southern feel- ing, passed a new tariff bill. But after all this appeared to give no great relief Most of the merely revenue taxes were taken ofT. Some protective duties were re- duced. But the principle of protection was fully retained. When this was plainly seen, the nullification tide in South Carolina rose higher and swept away the con- servative sentiment. The new legislature summoned a state convention, which met in November. This con- vention adopted an ordinance which declared the Tariff Acts of 1828 and 1832 null and void in South Carolina — prohibiting appeals from the state courts to the federal courts, requiring all state officers to take an oath to support the ordinance, and threatening secession if the United States should attempt coercion. February i, 1833, was fixed as the date on which the ordinance should go into efTect. Jackson was a southern man, and had not always Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 233 shown respect for the authority of the federal court. But he was a sincere patriot, and vigorously opposed to *'r°"[d^°/"'^ all theories of nullification and secession. Accordingly in December he issued a ringing Union address to the people of South Carolina, and promptly prepared to use the federal army and navy if necessary. Congress then took up the matter, and adopted two measures. One was what the president desired — an act giving him special authority to use such force as might be needed. The Force Bin. The other was Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff Bill. This provided for the reduction of the tariff by a sliding scale, a portion being taken off each alternate year, mise Tariff Bin. until in 1842 the rate on dutiable goods should be twenty per cent, with a large free list. The two bills became law at the same time. Jackson would have preferred to settle the matter by the Force Act alone. But the Tariff Bill of course fication. removed the cause for nullification, and the South Carolina convention therefore repealed the nullifying ordinance. Without the compromise Jackson would doubtless have put down nullification with a strong hand. As it was, the nuUifiers had wo» their point. And thereafter the threat of secession was a powerful weapon. End of nulli- CHAPTER XVIII. THE PANIC OF 1837. References. — Schouler ; Sumner : Jackson ; Laughlin : Bhnetallisin iii the United States, Chs. ii.-iv. ; Knox : United States Notes. A period of economic de- velopment. Government and prosperity. As HAS been said, the period between the second war with England and the war with Mexico in 1846 has as its characteristic feature the economic development of the nation. Migration and settlement in the West, stimu- lated by the improved means of transportation, rapidly opened new lands to cultivation, and thus increased the productive power of the republic. Manufactures, stimu- lated by the Non-Intercourse Acts and the War of 181 2, and then by the protective tariffs, grew to great propor- tions. And commerce, when it had once recovered from the confusion caused by the foreign commotions, ad- justed itself to the new conditions, and again moved on with accelerating energy. E\'erywhere enterprise was active, business was expanding, men were getting ahead in life, vigor and hope were in the air. When the main thought of the people was absorbed in this busy material prosperity, it was natural that the government should be expected to aid the general wel- fare. It was a democratic government, created by the people, and existing for the people. The tremendous impetus to prosperity caused by the initiation of the con- stitution and by Hamilton's plans of finance was by no means forgotten. The Republicans, to be sure, had thought that the Federalists did too much governing. 234 The Panic of J8jy. 235 But a quarter of a century ot Republican rule liad prac- ticiiUy made Federalists of a good share of the Jefifer- sonian party. The National Republicans frankly adopted a policy of governmental supervision of business inter- ests. And the Democrats, as the Jackson Republicans now began to be commonly called, were far from con- sistent in the contrary policy. One prominent form in which the government at- tempted to aid private enterprise was the protective tariff. The National Republicans generally favored high duties, while the Democrats were divided. It was only the determined opposition of the South which, as has been seen, led to the partial revision of 1832, and to the practical abandonment of protection in the sliding scale of 1833. An essential means of carrying on business is some monetary medium. And from the beginning of our '''"'^ banking. national life this has been provided in three ways. The first has consisted of coin. By the mint law of 1792 the dollar was made the unit, and the principal coins were of silver and gold, the ratio of value between the two metals being fixed at fifteen to one. Thus at the mint an ounce of gold was equivalent to fifteen ounces of silver. But at that very time (1792) in the market an ounce of gold would buy more than fifteen ounces of silver. And the disparity in the value of the two metals, while fluctuating considerably, on the whole increased rather than diminished. Of course the result was that money brokers used such gold as they could get in buy- ing silver bullion, or foreign silver coins which they melted into bullion ; in either case sending the bullion to the mint to be coined. And so the gold currency slowly drifted away to other countries, silver coming in to take its place. Soon after the War of 181 2 it began to be The currency Coin. 236 The Growth of the American Nation. Excepting, of course, the copper cents. Laughlin, 55. Paper currency. Bank checks and drafts. noticed that gold had entirely disappeared from circula- tion, and until after the new Coinage Act of 1834 silver was really our whole coin supply. But it was not all our own coinage. The American dollar was somewhat lighter than the Spanish pieces which circulated to the south of our border. However, they were taken indifferently in the West Indies, and so our merchants were apt to send American dollars abroad, bringing the Spanish coins back in exchange. The gain was in the slight premium which the latter bore here. The result was that of thirty-four million dollars of silver coined in the United States up to 1830 only four- teen million dollars remained in the country at that date, and the rest of the coin afloat consisted of Spanish, Mexican, and South American money. A second medium of exchange was composed of bank notes. The first Bank of the United States furnished a currency which was uniformly good throughout the United States. At the same time there were banks of issue chartered by the several states, whose notes were more or less good. In 181 1 the charter of the Bank of the United States expired, and its currency was replaced by that of a great number of state banks. During the War of 18 1 2 all these banks suspended specie payments. Thus the only ' ' money ' ' was uncertain and depreciated paper. In 18 16 the second Bank of the United States began its career. It secured the resumption of specie payments, and provided by its notes a good paper medium, everywhere current and redeemable in coin. A third form of making payments was, as now, bank checks and drafts. This, as is well known, is the form in which more than nine tenths of all the business of civilized countries is done to-day. The vast expansion of modern business would be impossible if actual money The Panic of iSjj. 237 had to pass with every transaction. Of course the local banks performed the usual function of receiving de- posits subject to check, of making commercial loans, and buying and selling exchange, /. e. , drafts on distant places. The Bank of the United States did all this busi- ness also, besides being, like most of the state institu- See pp. 195-6. tions, a bank of issue. And it had a great advantage in its large capital, in its twenty-five branches (the parent bank was at Philadelphia), and in its monopoly of the government business. In Jackson's first inaugural he attacked the Bank of the United States, and again the following year. It seems that there were reasons for this other than those of the science of finance. He was led to believe by his inner circle of trusted followers, the so-called "kitchen cabinet," that the bank had opposed his election. Further, Biddle, the president, declined to allow poli- tics to enter into bank management, and was per- haps a little too independent in his way of doing it. All this aroused the ire of the old hero, and he was jackson's easily convinced that the great fiscal agency was a giant aroused, monopoly which was dangerous to the government and to the interests of the people. Accordingly he deter- mined to crush it. But the National Republicans were in sympathy with the bank, and thought it "good poli- tics" to oppose Jackson. They held a national con- vention in Baltimore in December, 1831, and nominated Henry Clay for president.* And in the ensuing session of Congress they took up the cause of the bank. Al- though the charter would not expire until 1836, a bill was introduced for a renewal, and passed both Houses. Many * In the previous September a national convention of Anti-Masons had nomi- nated a presidential ticket, and their example was now followed by all parties. Until 1824 presidential candidates had been nominated by a congressional caucus. 238 The Growth of the American Natio7i. Veto of the Democrats favored it. It went to the president in July, bank bill, 1832. and he vetoed it. In the presidential election then pending, this veto, as well as the new spoils system in the civil service, was made a prominent issue by the opponents of Jackson, ■^f^'t^d" T ^^^ ^^^ popularity was invincible, and he was over- whelmingly triumphant. Jackson accepted his election as a popular indorsement of his entire policy, the bank war included. And now, still influenced by his "kitchen cabinet," he determined to destroy the ' ' monster. On the pretext that the bank was unsafe, he ordered Removal of the the secretary of the treasury to remove from it the de- deposits, 1833. _ -^ _ -' posits of public funds, and to place them in state banks. Duane, the secretary, believed this to be dangerous and unjust, and he refused to do it. Jackson removed him and appointed Taney in his place, and he ga\-e the required order. No more deposits were made in the Bank of the United States, and the current checks soon drew out all the national funds then in its keeping. The treasury balance was then deposited in a number The 'I pet of State banks, carefully selected for party loyalty. The withdrawal of the deposits, of course, was a serious blow to the Bank of the United States. It was obliged to call in loans, and its exchanges were demoralized. The next year the administration party took a new Coinage Act of step in reference to money. It was their belief that gold had been driven away partly by the abundance of paper, and partly by undervaluation. The president tried, but without success, to persuade the banks to confine their issues to large bills — five or ten dollars. And the Coin- age Act of 1834 made the ratio of gold to silver about one to sixteen instead of one to fifteen. At that time in the market an ounce of gold was worth about 15.7 ounces The Panic of i8jj. 239 of silver. So of course the new ratio overvalued gold and was an inducement to the importation of that metal and the exportation of silver — just reversing the process which had been going on under the old law. The national debt had been steadily reduced after the War of 1812, and in i8^s the last dollar was paid. But Extinction of ^^ ... ''^^ national from the sale of public lands and from import duties a debt, 1835. stream of revenue still flowed into the treasury, far be- yond the needs of government. This had been foreseen for some time, and the question what to do with the surplus had been eagerly discussed. Of course one way would have been to lessen the receipts — by reducing the number of dutiable articles on the tariff list, and by selling go\'ernment land for a nominal price. But Congress would agree to neither of these suggestions. The money in the treasury, again, might be used for fortifi- cations on the seaboard, as Senator Benton urged, or . 1 r 1 1 II Disposal of the lor mternal miprovements under lederal control, as the surplus. National Republicans preferred. But it was decided that the fairest disposition would be a distribution pro rata among the states. This would obviate the ob- jection of unconstitutionality brought against national works, and would enable every section of the country to reap a just share of the common property. But many strict constructionists hesitated to vote for a gift to the states, finding no warrant in the constitu- tion. Accordingly it was enacted that the surplus which should be on hand after January i, 1837, beyond a fixed reserve, should be deposited with the states. The the states, 1837. payments should be in quarterly installments. The total amount disposable was found to be over $37,000,000. Three installments were actually paid over, but before ^^^^^ o, xii. the fourth could be made ready the great financial panic had left the treasury bankrupt. 240 The Growth of the American Nation. Van Buret!. See p. 227. Tatiey. Van Buret! elected presi- dei!t, 1836. Jackson's first secretary of state was Martin \"an Buren, of New York. He was a very shrewd politician, who succeeded ahvays in keeping in the president's con- fidence. His long experience in the "Albany regency," the group of Democratic leaders who controlled the politics of the Empire State, had fitted him for the dex- terous management of political affairs. Being a widower, he was not complicated in the tangle of Jackson's cab- inet, and was able later to retire with dignity to the English mission. But after he had sailed, the Senate, in which the enemies of Jackson had a majority, rejected his nomination, and Van Buren thus was obliged to undergo the humiliation of returning. But this affront to Jackson proved a boomerang to the Senate. The Democratic convention of 1832, which renominated the old hero, joined with him on the ticket Van Buren. And thus he whom the Senate had scornfully rejected came back to preside over that body. Another rejected nomination was that of Taney. Soon after he had proved so serviceable to Jackson in the matter of removing the deposits, his name was sent in to the Senate for a place on the bench of the Supreme Court. The Senate gave an adverse vote. But in 1835 the great chief justice, John Marshall, died. And now the Senate, being partially reconstructed, confirmed the nomination of Taney for the succession. To cap the climax of Jackson's triumphs, in 1836 he secured the nomination of Van Buren to the presidency. The opposition, who had now come to call themseK'es Whigs, in token of their hostility to what they called the dictatorial ways of the president, also tried an ' ' old hero" in the person of William Henry Harrison, a vet- eran of the War of 181 2. But V^an Buren was elected. And in the closing months of Old Hickory's admin- The Payiic of i8jy. 241 istration he was gratified by a still dearer personal \ictory. In 1834 the Senate had passed a vote of censure on the president for removing the deposits. In January, 1837, The censure of this vote was ordered to be expunged from the records, punged/'*^ ^^' Jackson was so delighted with this action that he ga\'e a dinner to those who voted for expunging. Jackson retired to his home in Tennessee. As has been said, "He had won all his battles, rewarded all his ja'^cksoll^" '^ friends, punished all his enemies." No American pres- ident has ever had more entire success in attaining his ends. No American president has more completely won the devotion and confidence of the masses. The secret of Jackson's strength was simply that he saw with the eyes and was animated with the feelings of the plain, common people. He was one of them. They knew it. They knew, too, his utter honesty and fearlessness. And whether he was fighting the bank monopoly, or sending troops to crush nullification, or maintaining the honor of the flag abroad, he was always the trusted hero of the democracy. Van Buren was scarcely in office when business Irom xhe panic. one end of the country to the other collapsed with a crash. Commercial houses suspended, factories closed their doors, banks failed, wages disappeared. Among others, the "pet banks" went down, carrying the fed- eral treasury deposits with them. What was the cause of all this disaster ? The Whigs said it was the destruction of the Bank of the United '^^'^ causes. States and the scaling down of the tariff in 1833. Whatever effect these measures might have had, it is clear that other causes had been at work. The decade immediately preceding had witnessed a great expansion of business. New lands were settled in the West, new manufactures were starting up, new means of transpor- 242 The Growth of the American Nation. Expansion of business. Speculation. Multiplication of banks. Land specu- lations. tation were coming into use. Trade was active. There was great demand for all forms of merchandise, and the market was buoyant. Cotton was six cents a pound in 1830, and twenty cents in 1835. Imports and exports were large. Everywhere men were making money. And whoever had capital, whether his own or borrowed, was sure of great profits. As soon as this was clear, a mania for speculation set in. Money was borrowed and invested in all sorts of en- terprises. The credit of the United States was good, and so capital poured in from Europe. In the West buying and selling land became a craze. So many towns were projected on the prairie that in Illinois it was said there was alarm lest there would not be room left for farms. To provide capital for this eager speculation a multi- tude of banks sprang into existence. Between 1830 and 1837 their number was doubled, their nominal capital rose from $61,000,000 to $291,000,000, their loans expanded from $200,000,000 to $525,000,000, their paper currency from $61,000,000 to $149,000,000. The specie back of all this paper in 1837 was $38,000,000. Jackson's finance policy had stimulated this process. Coteries of speculators organized banks, under the loose laws of the states, each hoping to get a share of the federal deposits. Then when the treasury balance was placed in the pet banks, the instructions of the secretary were that one purpose was " to afford increased facilities to commerce" — in other words, intimating that the pub- lic money ought to be lent freely. And this advice was followed literally. The public land was sold usually at a dollar and a quarter an acre. Speculators would borrow paper cur- rency at a bank and with it buy land. The land officer would then deposit the funds in the bank, from which the The Panic of iSjy. 243 speculator would again borrow them for a similar pur- pose. And so the "money" went on its rounds, land changing hands frequently at a constantly inflated price, and the speculators doing business on borrowed capital. In 1836 President Jackson became alarmed at the paper in which the government was being paid for its The specie i^ ^ <^ _ . circular. land, and caused the famous ' ' specie circular ' ' to be issued. By this the secretary of the treasury ordered land officers to receive no money but coin. Thus the speculators were at once embarrassed, as the supply of specie was limited. This embarrassment was increased in 1837 by the dis- tribution of the surplus among the states. The act of Distribution of the surplus. Congress provided that all government drafts should be paid in specie. So when the drafts were issued for the first installment about nine millions in specie were drawn from the banks, just at the time they most needed coin, and were sent traveling among the states, and the states in many cases squandered this fund in public improve- ments which were never completed. The banks could not stand the pressure. They be- gan to call in their loans. People then began to fear for Collapse. the solvency of the banks, and suddenly everywhere there was a demand for money which could no longer be had. Prices began to fall. Cotton dropped from twenty cents in 1836 to twelve cents and eight cents in 1837. The English investors also tried to withdraw their loans, and the whole financial fabric, which had long been tottering, fell with a crash. The causes may be summed up in the general mania for speculation, the abundance of " cheap money" at the mushroom banks, and the wild financiering at the treasury of the United States. CHAPTER XIX. THE WHIG TRIUMPH. Leaders of the Whigs. Henry Clay. His eloquence. References. — Schouler ; Schurz : Clay and Ji'ebster ; Weed : Autobiography ; Benton : Thirty J 'cars. Few political leaders have had so absolute control of the hearts of men as did Henry Clay. Genial, warm- hearted, always pro- foundly courteous to high and low, young and old, few could resist the charm of his presence. But the secret of his greatest power lay in his matchless ora- tory. A popular audience was wrought up to the highest pitch of ex- cited feeling by his glowing periods. Tall and command- ing in person, he was endowed with a henrv ci.av. voice which was a Born, 1777 ; died, 1S52. Admitted to the bar, 1797 ; ... U. S. senator from Kentucky, 1806; speaker of SUpcrb muSlCal in- lower house of Kentucky legislature, 1S07; U. S. senator from Kentucky, 1809-11 ; member of Strument. And it Congress and speaker, 1811-25; secretary of state, 1825-9; U. S. senator from Kentucky, waS aS mUch the 1831-42, and 1849-52 ; candidate for the presi- . dency, 1S24, 1S32, 1844. mUSlC of hlS VOlCC aS the music of his periods that charmed his auditors. When 244 The WJiig Triumph. 245 he addressed his farewell to the Senate in 1843, the sen- ators were left in no mood to do business, but at once ad- journed by unanimous vote. ' ' Clay ' s leaving Congress, wrote John J. Crittenden, " was something like the soul's leaving the body." Indeed, with the excep- tion of his ab- sence while serving on the commission of peace at Ghent, Clay had been continuously in Congress since 1811. Another great Whig chief was Daniel Web- ster. He never won hearts like Henry Clay. He never had a devoted follow- ing in every state of the Union. Clay was an orator above anything else. Webster was first of all a great constitutional lawyer. Clay could persuade a jury to believe any alleged facts he pleased. Webster marshaled his view of law in so luminous and cogent a form as to compel assent from the bench. Both of these great Whig leaders longed for the presi- dency. And it was the bitter disappointment of the life- time of each that this ambition was balked. Clay was an active candidate more than once. He could have I 1 w^ -A Clay in Con- gress. Daniel Webster. Born, 1782; died, 1S52. Educated at Dartmouth Col- lege; lawyer; member of Congress, 1813-17, and 1823-7; U. S. senator from Massachusetts, 1S27-41 ; secretary of state, 1841-3; U. S. senator, 1845-50 ; sec- retary of state, 1S50-2. Daniel Webster. Presidential ambitions. 246 The Growth of the American Nation. been elected in 1840 and was nearly successful in 1844. Webster was always at an immeasurable distance from the goal. He lost the only chance he ever had when he refused the nomination for vice-president on the ticket with Taylor in 1848. The key to Clay's political course was his intense Clay's ideas. national patriotism. It was this which led to his urging the war against English insolence in 1812. His desire for a protective tariff was primarily in the hope of estab- lishing American industrial independence. He had smarted too long under British tyranny not to long to be free from it at any cost — a feeling, indeed, which was shared by Jefferson and Madison, and most of the Re- publican leaders. Clay's championship of the Spanish American republics came from his sympathy with their The American _ ^ _ _ j x. j System." American aspirations for freedom from European control, as well as from his ambition that his own country should take the lead in the western hemisphere. Internal im- provements and a national bank he favored because he be- lieved that they would materially strengthen the republic. In his efforts for the compromise of dangerous disputes in 1 82 1, in 1833, and finally in 1850, we see again his anxiety to preserve the union of the states at any cost. The integrity and power and glory of the nation were the objects nearest his heart. Webster, too, was a thorough nationalist. With his Webster 3. nationalist. mighty logic he showed that the constitution meant a nation, not a temporary partnership. Webster in the Senate and Marshall on the bench shared the renown of being the great expounders of the federal organic law. In New York there had 8:rown up a strong Whig or- The New York . . . . Whigs. ganization. After the disappearance of the Federalist party the Republicans had divided into factions which quarreled with the rancor which has always character- The Whig Tj-iumph. 247 The Anti- Masons. ized the politics of that state. In 1826 an excitement over the alleged murder by Free Masons of a treacherous member of their order gave rise to a whirlwind of oppo- sition against the venerable society. The excitement went into politics. The "Albanv reG;cncy" was a ring of politicians who managed the Democratic part\- in the state, and who in that way made many ene- m i e s . These Democratic mal- contents com- bined with those who were strictb National Repub licans and with the Anti-Mason> to oppose the re- gency. Out of this opposition as the Masonic question gradu- ally disappeared a new party grew up, and among its leaders, originallv Anti-Masons, were Seward and Thurlow Weed, the one eager for distinc- tion, the other for power. Another group of opponents to the Jackson democracy consisted of Democrats who for one reason or another ^^'^'s were at odds with the old hero. Calhoun quarreled with Jackson and was displaced for the vice-presidency in 1S32, and then for the presidency in 1836, by Van Willi AIM H. Seward. Born, 1801 ; died, 1872. Lawyer; governor of New York, 1S3S-42 ; U. S. senator from New York, 1849- 6: ; secretary of state, 1861-9. Seward and Weed. Calhoun not a 248 The Growth of the American Nation. Buren. Then, too, his nullification policy put him out- side the pale of the regular Democratic party. In the Senate he often combined with Clay and Webster, though he was never a Whig. South Carolina voted for presidential candidates of her own from 1832 until Ty'er iiDemo- 1 840. John Tyler of Virginia represented a wing of Democrats who opposed Jackson's financial course and who frankly joined with the National Republicans. To organize a coherent party out of these hetero- geneous elements of opposition was no easy task. In 1832 and 1836 the attempt had proved futile. In the latter year the name Whig had generally displaced that of National Republican, as less offensive to any of the elements of the party, and as indicative of opposition to the tyranny of the one-man power in the White House. Martin Van Buren was the first northern man to be Van Buren, made president by the party of Jefferson. The Adamses president. ^ j i. j j had been, the one a Federalist, the other a National Re- publican. Every other president had been a southern man. With all Van Buren' s success up to this time, it was his fate to be in a false position. He is commonly rated as a smooth, supple, shrewd wire-puller. He was really a man of no small ability and courage. Unfortunately for his reputation, he first was long absorbed in the dom- inating personality of Jackson, and then met at the out- set of his independent career by the great financial dis- aster, of which he did little of the sowing and much of the reaping. The general paralysis of business and the threatened Special session bankruptcy of the treasury of the United States seemed 1837. ' to call imperatively for a special session of Congress, and accordingly, after some hesitation, the ]:)resident is- sued his summons for .September. The president's message was a disappointment to The Whig Triumph. 249 message. The " sub- treasurv." many. He took the ground that it was not the duty of President's the government to help people out of their business difficulties. He thought that a sound constitutional cur- rency should be provided — by this he meant specie — and especially that the treasury should be protected. To attain these ends his chief recommendation was a com- plete divorce of the government and the banks — in other words, that the federal treasury should collect, keep, and exchange its own funds, on a specie basis. This was the so- called ' ' sub-treas- ury" plan. It was a very sensible idea, and is now an es- sential part of our national system of finance. The Whigs in Congress, how- ever, succeeded in defeating it for the special session. Treasury notes were authorized, and the p a y m e n t of the fourth installment of the surplus was jDOstponed. This last pro\'ision met with much oppo- sition in the states. Its receipt had been expected, and not a few states had spent it in advance. The fall elections of 1837 "^vere generally favorable to the Whigs. Rightly or wrongly, the party in power is Martin Van Buren. Born,i7S2; died, 1S62. Lawyer; member of New York State legislature; attorney-general of New York, 1815-ig; U.S. senator from New \'ork, 1821-8; go\-ernor of New York, 1S28-9 ; secretary of state, 1S29-31 ; vice-president of the United States, 1833-37; president, 1837-41. Whig victories. 250 The Growth of the American Natio7i. The results of the spoils svsteni. Von Hoist, II., 355- I a bad year. always held responsible for business disaster, and it is a comfort to vent one's dissatisfaction by voting against somebody. In 1838 things were a little better. The banks of New York and New England and a few others resumed specie payments. Van Buren's second Con- gress enacted the sub-treasury plan — the only important work of this administration. By this time the spoils system had ripened its fruit. The collector of customs at New York was a defaulter for over a million, and his example was followed by many others, as far as their opportunities allowed. Nearly all the land officers were defaulters. The supervision of the service was very lax. The secretary of the treasury was quite indulgent to proved rascals. His ins;:)ector advised him, indeed, "to leave those in office who had already feathered their nests, since new officials would begin the business over again." The interference of public officials in elections was beginning to be almost as great a scandal. And the custom of assessing federal officers for election expenses had already begun. Business collapsed again in 1839. The Bank of the United States, which had secured a charter from Pennsylvania, went to pieces finally. A general feeling had grown up that the administration either could not or would not do anything for business prosperity. The Whigs carried New York at last, electing Seward gov- ernor by ten thousand majority, thus giving a hard blow to the Albany regency. And in Massachusetts the Democrats elected Marcus Morton governor, by a ma- jority, however, of only one vote. People were every- where ripe for re\olt against the long dominant party of Jackson and Van Buren. Rightly or wrongly, the universal distress was generally charged to the government. And it was believed that the go\'ernment. The Whig Triumph. 251 Clay opposed. if it were in the proper hands, could remedy matters. The problem before the Whigs was, how to harmo- The Whig nize the loose elements of opposition into a coherent ^™ national party. Their national convention met at Harrisburg" in December, 1839. Clay confidently ex- pected the nomi- nation, and there is litde doubt that the majority of the del- egates favored him. Yet he was not nom- in at e d. Some of the keenest leaders, among them Sew- ard and Weed, feared the result with Clay as a can- didate. While his friends were de- voted, he had also many bitter ene- mies. It seemed better politics to choose an inoffen- sive ticket and trust to the momentum of the general dis- content. In order to compass this result, an ingenious and complicated scheme was devised. The convention was induced to assent that there should be no vote in the general body — that in the vote, taken by William Henry Harrison. Born, 1773 ; died, 1841. Educated at Hampden- Sidney College, Virginia ; entered United States army, 1791 ; served inider Wayne against the Indians, 1793-4 ; secretary of the Northwest Territory, 1798-9; delegate to Congress, 1799- 1800; governor of Indiana Territory, 1801-; defeated Indians at Tippecanoe, 181 1; brigadier- general U. S. A., 1812, and major-general, 1813 ; recovered Ohio and Michigan from the British, and defeated British at the Thames, 1813 ; re- signed, 1S14; member of Congress, 1816-19 ; minister to Colombia, 1828-9 i president of the United States, 1841, March 4 to April 4, when he died. 252 The Growth of the American Natio7i. states, the unit rule should prevail — that the state dele- gations should vote in secret — and that committees of conference should compare notes, also in secret, until there should be a choice. In this roundabout way it was managed to give the choice to General William Nomination of Heurv Harrisou, the nominee of iS'iS. General Harri- Harnson and -' _ ' _ _'-' Tyler. son had been inconspicuous in politics, and so had few enemies. He also had the merit of a brilliant military record, his victory over the Indians at Tippecanoe in 181 1 and over the British in Canada two years later being inferior in luster only to the exploits of Jackson. For vice-president the nomination went to John Tyler, of Virginia, a state rights Democrat who had revolted from the Jackson rule. This again was thought to be "good politics" — it would conciliate many dissatisfied Democrats and would do no harm. The convention made no platform. A declaration of affirmative princi- ples would have shaken the discordant opposition to pieces. The policy was merely to attack the adminis- tration and demand a change. Clay was deeply chagrined at the news. ' ' If there sciiurz, II., 180. were two Henry Clays," he exclaimed, "one of them, would make the other president of the United States." He felt bitterly that his friends had been willing to make him their standard bearer when victory was doubt- ful, and now grudged him the leadership when prospects were brighter. The Democrats in the following spring nominated Tlie Democrats , r t-> \ r 1 1 • r • 1 nominate Van Van Burcn, ou a platiomi declarmg for state rights, the divorce of the government from the banks, and no national bank. Then followed the picturesque and tumultuous log Political cam- cabin and hard cider campaign of 1840. The Whig paignofi840. r ;? t & candidate was extolled as a plain farmer, living in a log The Whig Triumph. 253 cabin and drinking cider as his beverage, rather than having a palace for a home, with gold spoons and gilded plate and rare wines, like Van Buren. The enthusiasm was tremendous and contagious. The pro- ^ national *> ^ frolic. cessions were measured by the mile and the outdoor meetings by the acre. Log cabins sprang up every- where — huge ones as places of meeting, small ones hauled in wagons. Transparencies and caricatures abounded. The rollicking campaign songs, like ' ' Tip- pecanoe and Tyler Too," fired the vast audiences with IMTED STATES i\ 1840. "^Inrt n \ an Buren's .\«lmini3tration; CD " Rou ofToias Y^'^<^--^'^1^^ fun and fervor. As illustrating the relative weight given to noise and argument, it might be stated that one news- paper devoted six columns to describing a procession and two columns to the speeches. The whole country went wild. Advertisements abounded like this : "The subscri- ber will pay $6.00 a barrel for flour if Harrison is elected, and $3.00 if Van Buren is." And people believed it. Benton, II., 205. 254 The Growth of the American N^ation. The Whi" victory. Death of the president, April 6, 1841. Tyler's vetoes. The Democrats made what head they could against this flood of excitement. They were puzzled, half amused, half frightened. They tried argument — it was wasted. They tried ridicule— it was laughed down. They tried imitation — it was too late. As Schouler says, they were outsung, outshouted, outlaughed, and finally outvoted. The great national frolic of the campaign was followed by a tidal wave at the election. ' ' Tippecanoe and Tyler too ' ' swept every state but seven, and were triumphantly elected. Great was the joy of the Whigs. At the inaugura- tion they poured to Washington in crowds, quite as did the democracy in 1829. The Whig horror at the spoils system seemed to be forgotten, and the " clean sweep " of Democratic office-holders began merrily. But a sud- den blight fell on the rejoicing and on the busy schemes for preferment. After only a month in the White House, President Harrison died, and John Tyler, an old-line state rights Democrat and a nullifier, became the Whig president of the United States. Congress had been called in special session for May 31, on account of disordered finances. There was a Whig majority in both branches, and Henry Clay in the Senate sketched out a distinctively Whig line of meas- ures to be passed. The Sub-Treasury Act of the late administration was repealed promptly, and temporary provision for the treasury was made. Then came difficulty. Clay drew a plan for a new Bank of the United States, in the main following suggestions received from the secretary of the treasury, and the bill was passed. But the president was utterly opposed to a bank on the old model, and especially he held that no branches should be established in any state without the assent of the state in question. On this ground he vetoed the bill. A second bill was The Whig Triumph. 255 Tyler's ambitions. then drafted, in strict accordance with suggestions made by members of the cabinet deputed by the president for j^g^^.^^^^"" °^ that purpose. And yet this bill shared the fate of the first. The Whigs lost all patience. The caoinet, with the exception of Daniel Webster, secretary of state, who was conducting a difficult negotiation with England, re- signed at once, and Congress promptly adjourned. There is little doubt that the president was warped in his judg- ment by a little coterie of personal friends. Through their influ- ence he was led to believe that he was a second Jackson, and that the people would surely rise in their might to his support, and he carefully tried to give aid to the ris- ing by filling the fed- eral offices with his own followers. He suggested the query whether he could not be reelected twice. The term he was serving was Harrison's, and he ought to have two of his own — thus making nearly twelve years. But he fa"k^n^ learned at last that the Tyler party was completed when the offices gave out. The Whigs cordially hated him, the Democrats praised him — and carefully refrained from pledging him future support. John Tyler. Born, 1790; died, 1862. Educated at William and Mary College ; lawyer ; member of Con- gress, 1816-21 ; governor of Virginia, 1825-6; U. S. senator from Virginia, 1826-36; vice-presi- dent of the United States, March 4, and presi- dent, April 4, 1S41. 256 The Growth of the American Nation. The Whigs responsible. The Whig tariff, 1842. Protection again. As to his vetoes, Tyler can hardly be acquitted of some shuffling. Still, the plain truth is that the Whigs had made him vice-president with full knowledge of his po- litical record, and he, on the whole, was true to that record. No administration has had so little praise from political writers as that of Mr. Tyler. Whig authors have at- tacked it, Democrats have ignored it, and yet it must be admitted that as a whole it will compare favorably with almost any. One Whig measure of some importance became law in 1842. Under the sliding scale tariffof 1833 the treas- ury threatened to become bankrupt. By that act the duties were to be lessened each alternate year until June 30, 1842, by which time the rate of twenty per cent was to be reached. The " slide " was arranged in a peculiar way. One tenth of the excess above twenty per cent was dropped every other year. Thus in 1841 four tenths of that excess had disappeared. Of the remaining six tenths, three were to go January i, and the other three June 30, 1842. And the result was to cut off revenue so largely as to threaten an empty treasury. Accordingly the Whig Congress passed an act which made revenue the main object, but which was incidentally protectiv^e. The duties were set to a scale between twenty-five and forty per cent. Thus the compromise of 1833 was re- pealed, and again protection appeared in a tariff bill, as in 1824 and 1828. Meanwhile the general condition of the country was gradually improving. The Whigs determined that in 1844 there should be no mistake, but that Henry Clay should be elected to the presidency, and on a sound Whig platform. The party was drawn together. In 1843 Webster resigned from the cabinet, and his friends The Whig Tritiniph. 257 were inline. The convention at Baltimore in May, 1844, nominated Clay, unanimously and amid tremendous en- ciay for presi- . . . dent, 1844. thusiasm. " The Whigs, " said Webster, in his speech to the great mass meeting which followed the convention, "are to do over again the work of 1840, and to do it now, God willing, so that it will hold." But the Whigs were counting without their host. A new question then suddenly loomed above the national horizon — a question destined to cost Van Buren his nomi- nation, and Clay his election — a question before which the economic issues which now for thirty years had been paramount in the public consciousness, instantly dropped into insignificance. It was the question of the Anew question annexation of Texas. And this meant the slavery ques- tion, which for twenty years to come was to displace all others, and was only at last to be solved by a long and bloody civil war. Thus 1844 marks the close of one epoch of the growth a new epoch. of the nation and the beginning of a very different one. CHAPTER XX. Material questions prominent. Material con- ditions. AMERICAN SOCIAL LIFE. References.— Schouler ; Andrews ; Dorchester: Christian- ity iu the United States. The absorbing questions which fill the public mind have varied fi-om period to period. Still, thus far they had nearly all alike related to material interests. Com- merce, manufactures, agriculture, were at the bottom of our dissensions with France and England, of our succes- sive tariffs, of the war which raged about the bank. Deeper considerations than those which immediately touched the pocket, to be sure, urged on the Young Republicans to defend the national honor in 1812, and inspired Jackson to defend the existence of the Union in 1832-33. Still, the "main chance" was the animating force in the new republic. Was this typical of American society at all points ? In truth, the social organism had many forms of life besides those which found expression in state or national politics. And this life was deep and strong. In a new country with virgin resources material de- veloi^inent was naturally uppermost. Here the fixed conditions which hemmed in European social classes did not exist. Every one had a chance to better himself The poorest laborer whose industrious hands were guided by an acute brain might hope for competence and com- fort. And at the same time there were not found those artificial bladders of entail and primogeniture which in Europe keep afloat so many who otherwise would sink 258 American Social Life. 259 inertly to the bottom. To be sure, in the older regions there was somewhat of fixity. Old families in Massa- "oid families.^ chusetts retained for generations a reasonably comforta- ble estate. And in Virginia the broad acres descended from father to son as in old England. In that state the systems of entail and primogeniture were overthrown in 1776, so that it was only by will that the great planta- tions could be kept together. But in all the new states there was substantial equality of condition. There were few great fortunes. There was little abject poverty. Everyone felt that his best friends were his ten fingers — and there was always enough for them to do. That aggregation of capital so familiar now in the form ^ °° ° "^ _ _ . Corporations. of corporations was just beginning to appear in the early decades of this century. Hamilton in the Bank of the United States pointed the way to the most conspicuous of early institutions of the kind, and banking was thus one of the first forms of corporate wealth. As business ex- jDanded after the second English war the inconveniences of partnerships, especially in the way of unlimited liability, led to the formation of corporations for other purposes. Cotton and woolen mills, railroads and turnpikes, as well as banks, were incorporated. And thus gradually the way was paved for the giant combinations which to- day overshadow the whole field of business enterprise. Society became thoroughly democratic after John Adams left the White House. Aristocracy was found only in spots. The dominant political and social ideas were those of Jefierson and Jackson. The right of the majority to rule became an axiom everywhere. And the minority to-day submitted quietly in the hope that Democracy, to-morrow they would be the majority. This is a lesson which our Latin American neighbors have found it hard to learn, and so in their lands the resort to physical force 26o The Growth of the Atnerican Nation. Soop. Ji.f. Sohouler, II. Suffrage. oepp. .M5, .M-. Ins Ih'imi .ill loo Iri'quont. But throui^hout iho states oloctloiis h.i\o in the ni.iin hoon a suthcicnt safety-valve lor social olnillition. .Xttcnipts to thwart the will of the majority have iu\ul\- .ilw.ns rcieteJ o\\ the originators. In 170:? John J.iy w.is ilouhtless elected i^o\ernor of New ^'ork, but was eounled out. At the next election, in 1705, he was chosen h\' a roiuul ni.ijoritv. and was kept in oftice tor six vears. Peniocnicy in politics was hut the retlex oi the demo- cratic m.umers ot the conmumit\' at large. '"The English tra\ eler beg.m to ohser\e. and commonlv with more surliness than good humor, that his coach-driver was talkative and drank with the passengers, while the tavern keeper, instead of eringnng with obsequiousness. would accost judges and generals, fuuiliarly addressed perhaps, by some sounding" title in return. If one's horse slipped in the road, a halt-curious crowd gathered good natmvdly about to loose the breeching' and help the creature up : but when the rider tipped some by- st.mder with a shilling, and asked him to hold his beast wiiile he went into a neighboring" house, the monev was likely to be tlung in his fice. Perquisites could not pvnvhase for the guest at an inn the privilege of \ enting" his ill humor upon the waiters."' Nothing more clearly m;\rked the advance of demo- cratic ideas than the extension of sutirage. By the constitution of New York, adopted in 1777. a consider- able property qualitication was required of all \ oters. In iS^i this provision was materially changed, the suttV.ige being" opened to all male taxpayers of full age. And in 1S26 the tax limitation was eliminated, thus introducing" what we call uni\ers;\l manhood sufiVage. And this extension of the franchise of coui"se related to feileral elections as well as to those of the state, as bv ■Imcrican Social Life. 261 the constilulion ol tin- nation the slates art- Iclt to if.^n- latc llu- |)ii\ilci;c' orsullVa^f at their own choice. And by the niidillc of the centnry uni\crsal suffrage was the rnle, and limitations other than sex, ay;-e, and residence were qnilc tht- exception. The i)eriod of the Revolutionary War witnessed a great change in tlu' religious condition of America. At that lime tlu' Congreg-ational Church was established by law in New h^ngland, and the I^piscojjal Church (/. c, the Church of I'Jigland ) in Virginia. Each was suj)- ])orted by public taxes. In tlu' other colonies there was g e ne r a 1 religious frei'dom, although some form of Prot- estantism was ex- pressly or tacitly favored. But one of the llrst fruits of the war was an act t)f tt)leration in V'ir ginia whercl)y dis senters were per mitted to worship in their own way, and also were exempted from paying taxes for sup port i ng a church which they d i (1 n o t attend. This act was only ?£j^'- KcliKioti. 1776. St. Paul's Chapkl, New York. iMccted bv Trinily Parish, 1766. Washington immediately after his iliauKuration, in 17S9, piDceeded to St. Paid's for religious service, and hero he frccniciitly received tlie eom- imuiii>n. On to]) of the pulpit is found the only mark of rovalty left by the patriots in the city after the Revolutionary War— the Prince of Wales' crest, three feathers. . . Virgnua act temporary, and it was not until i7cS6 that it was made [rLdom,""^ permanent in the great act ft)r religious freedom which was drafted by Jefferson. And in 1801 the landed property of the former established church was ordered 262 The Growth of the American Nation. Cooke, 395. The Protestant Episcopal Church. Congregation- alism. sold by the overseers of the poor. So bitter was the feehng of the other rehgious sects against the Episco- pahans that even the churches and their contents were secularized. "The parishes were obliterated and the clergy scattered .... and when Bishop Meade applied to Chief Justice Marshall for a subscription he gave it, but said that it was useless to attempt to revive so dead a thing as the Episcopal Church." The Episcopal clergy in general were loyalists, and many of them left the country with the British armies. After the war. however, the adherents of the old faith set to work to reorganize their shattered church. There had never been any bishops in America, all of the colonies being attached to the see of London. And a British statute made it necessary for any one conse- crated by English bishops to take the oath of allegiance to the crown. Accordingly the choice of the Connecti- cut clergy, Rev. Dr. Seabury, was obliged to resort to the non-juring bishops of Scotland, at whose hands he was consecrated in 1784. In 1787, the statute mean- while being modified, two other bishops were conse- crated in London, and thus the due succession was secured for America. And in 1789 a general convention of the church in the United States comprised the clergy from all sections, and the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country was definitely formed. Its progress for the next half century was steady and vigorous. New England was the home of Congregationalism. In Connecticut its churches were supported by general taxation, as was the case with the Episcopalians in Vir- ginia. But it was not until 1791 that an act of toleration was passed, and religious freedom was only finally secured by the new constitution of 1818. Connecticut Federalism was rock-ribbed, the sturdy little state American Social Life. 263 choosing Federalist presidential electors as long as there was a Federalist party. And the Republicans only suc- ceeded in the elections by making common cause with all forms of religious dissent to substitute a liberal con- stitution for the old royal charter under which the state was governed until 1818. The stern Calvinism which was at the core of the Puritan theology had begun to thaw in the eighteenth I'nitarianism. century. By its close many of the Massachusetts clergv and laity were Unitarians in doctrine, although there was no schism in the church. This may be said to have begun in 18 15, in a controversy which raged for years. In 1825 the American Unitarian Association was formed, and thereafter there was a distinct line of cleavage between the new movement and the old ortho- doxy. Many of the Congregational churches went over bodily to Unitarianism, carrying with them their build- ings and other property. Harvard College, with all its great endowment, was also transferred. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the people of the state, *with nearly all of the best culture and intellect, had abandoned orthodoxy. Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists became firmly established in the states west and south of New England, nations.^""'"'* The Presbyterians were strong in New York and New Jersey. The Baptists, besides their original home in Rhode Island, spread through Virginia and the South. And the Methodists were found everywhere. The Roman Catholics had from the settlement of the colony been influential in Maryland, and their priests were the first teachers of religion in Louisiana and the Northwest Territory. With the influx of immigrants from Europe the old church greatly extended its numbers and power. The vears immediately following the Revolution wit- 264 The Grozvth of the American Nation. Infidelity. The great revival. Foreign missions. nessed a decline in religion. The various forms of in- fidelity then so popular in France were disseminated among our soldiers and statesmen so that few remained free. And the growth of French democratic ideas in the state was accompanied by an equal diffusion of the French irreligion. Indeed, the animosity which stanch Connecticut Federalists felt for Jefferson and his party was quite as much religious as political. They believed that he was an atheist. And to the prevalence of lax ideas in religion as well as in the state they attributed the undoubted coarseness and looseness of morals which characterized the closing years of the eighteenth century. From about 1799 to 1803 ^ great wave of religious revival swept over the country. It had its origin in Kentucky and Tennessee, where the rude vigor of frontier life was turned with passionate earnestness to religious feeling. Great open-air meetings were held, the beginning of camp meetings, and thousands of people were inspired with the new enthusiasm. While many of its manifestations were strange enough, yet there is no doubt that the revival of religion was accom- panied by a very real reformation of life. Drunkenness, brawling, profanity, disappeared in whole sections. And the movement spread to the East until its power was felt over the entire republic. From this fresh life of religion and conscience came a series of new activities, reformatory and humanitarian. Foreign missions in the United States as an organized force on a large scale date from 1808, when a cluster of earnest students in Williams College united for the pur- pose of devoting themselves to carrying Christianity to the heathen. Two years later, as a result of the efforts of this little band of young men, the American Board of American Social Life. 265 Commissioners of Foreign Missions was formed. Other societies followed, and since then hundreds of mission- aries and millions of dollars have been devoted to the work of evangelizing with Christian civilization the na- tives of Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Pacific. Temperance reform began in the early years of the century. At that time liquor was in common use Temperance. among all classes of society — not light wines, as in the south of Europe, or beer, as in Germany, but rum and whisky. And drunkenness was alarmingly prevalent. In 181 1 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church attacked the evil, and organized efforts followed in all parts of the country. A series of temperance re- vivals culminated in 1840 in the Washingtonian move- ment, which was \\\ its way as exciting and sweeping as the political campaign of the same year. It was esti- mated that 600,000 drunkards were rescued. But unfor- tunately the effects were not permanent, as at least three fourths of those rescued afterwards returned to their cups. The whole tone of society in the first half of the cen- . i-v 1 • Society tury was feverish and restless. Perhaps it was the restless, "growing pains" of the young giant scarcely yet con- scious of his coming place among the nations. At any rate, there was ferment everywhere. The most ad- vanced radicalism and extreme orthodox fervor were the marks of religion. Reforms of every kind were rife — reforms in regard to liquor drinking, dress, food, social organization, and e\erything else. Innumerable relig- ious sects were formed, each zealously pursuing some peculiar points of dissent. In 1825 Robert Owen founded a socialistic settlement in Indiana. He planned ,.,,...^ , . . i- Socialism. this to be the beginning 01 a complete reorganization 01 human society, which should burst what he considered 266 The Growth of the American Nation. Brook Farm. Literature. Little produced in the colonies. Rise of an Amer- ican literature. to be the triple chains which held men in slavery — indi- vidual property, religion, marriage. But the experiment was a failure in every respect, and by 1830 the whole Owen socialistic movement had collapsed. In 1841 a number of people of very different character, such as George William Curtis, George Ripley, Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and others, tried the experiment of a farm community in Massachusets. But after a few years this experiment also failed. The same decade witnessed a revival of attempts to found communities under the im- petus of Fourier's ideas. Many settlements, "phalanxes" they were called, were formed. They had several thous- ands of people, thousands of acres of excellent land, and many thousands of dollars. And yet all of them failed and went to pieces. Amid this social unrest there was slowly forming an American literature. During the colonial period there was naturally little done in this line. The stern prob- lems of a new and hard material existence absorbed the energies. And the comparative isolation and narrow- ness of life would hardly stimulate to literary production on any considerable scale. Theology and law were al- most the only outlet for any surplus of intellectual activ- ity. And sermons, with theological disputes, were the main form of the permanent record of American thought. Those who had a taste for reading and study filled the shelves of their libraries with English books. Shakspere and Addison and Pope were the common property of the Old World and the New. The revo- lutionary period generated intense political thinking, thus affording a \\^\\ means of expression. The news- papers, growing in influence, were the record of much of this. And political tracts multiplied like the sands of American Social Life. 267 the sea-shore. But as the national hfe broadened after the War of 18 12, its varying phases afforded far greater material for literary industry, while its increasing energy and richness generated the intellectual unrest which must find its expression in literary form. Irving, the polished narrator and delicate humorist, Bryant, earliest American ■* _ _ •' authors. of American singers and seers. Cooper, creator of distinc- tively American fiction — these were of the first vintage of the new intellect. In the decade which preceded the cam- paign of ' 'Tippecanoe and Tyler too, ' ' new names became household words. Longfellow, Bancroft, Prescott, were already famous. Emerson was the prophet of the new philosophy of religion and life — a philosophy which was essentially poetry rather than science. And a young generation was beginning to create a fame which should be lasting — Hawthorne, Motley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Longfellow, Poe, Whittier. At the same time the newspaper press witnessed the beginning of a transfor- mation which gave it vastly greater power as a social factor. In 1833 the New York Sun was founded, the first successful penny paper in the world. The Herald Newspapers, followed in 1835, and the 7)7'^^^y^^' was an outcome of the successful Whig campaign of 1840. All of these devel- oped new forms of gathering and presenting the news, and in their unique personality had a new and peculiar influence on the public mind. The Tribune especially was for many years identified with Greeley as the expo- nent of Whig politics and of all reformatory social views. Thus the decades between the peace of Ghent and the annexation of Texas were filled with a vigorous and complex life. Material progress, social reform, religion and philosophy, literature and learning, all occupied the taking form, widening public interest. We were becoming a nation. The first war with England gave us political inde- Final inde- pendence. 268 The Growth of the Americati Nation. pendence. The second war gave us economic inde- pendence. And by the end of our Civil War in 1865, we had become intellectually independent. When Dickens first visited us, in 1842, his criticisms made us smart. Had he been much more severe in 1867, at the time of his second visit, it would have been received with good-humored indifference. End of the for- eign entangle- ments. A new life. The American System. SUMMARY OF PART IV. With the end of the long wars between France and England the United States ceased to be the only neutral power, and the importance of American foreign com- merce, as well as the constant recurrence of foreign difficulties, came to an end. Thenceforth the new republic was left to the orderly development of its ma- terial and social resources. The angry politics of the Federalist era passed away and there was a general re- construction of parties. Emigration to the West became very large, powerfully stimulated by the application of steam to transportation. Manufactures had grown to considerable proportions, under the impulse of the Em- bargo and the war. The active English competition which followed the treaty of Ghent was met by a series of protective tariff laws, and the disordered finances of the country were restored to good condition by the res- toration of the Bank of the United States. Henry Clay's American System included the protective tariff, a series of internal improvements for the benefit of com- merce, and the preservation of the American continent from European interference. The last point was em- bodied in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Smnmary of Part IV. 269 Factious opposition to J. O. Adams led to the elevation of Jackson to the presidency. He was very popular and Jackson and -' ^ . \ _ J i. r nullification. formed a well-organized political party. South Carolina was bitterly opposed to the extreme protective tariffs of 1828 and 1832, and in the latter year declared these laws null and void. Jackson threatened coercion, but Con- gress in 1833 passed a compromise tariff' bill by which the duties were to be reduced gradually. Nullification was accordingly withdrawn. The followers of Clay and the various elements of opposition to Jackson united under the name of the Whig party. Jackson attacked the ^,,g vvhigs Bank of the United States, vetoed a bill for its recharter, and had the federal deposits removed from its keeping. Over-speculation aided these measures in precipitating the business panic of 1837. Jackson's successor. Van Buren, was overwhelmed in 1840 by a political tidal wave Election of 18 which carried General Harrison to the White House. He died only a month after his inauguration, and was succeeded by the vice-president, Tyler. He opposed the policy of his party, and vetoed Whig measures. A tariff act restoring higher duties became a law in 1842. Meanwhile American society had been growing more complex in every way. Material wealth was increasing, u°uon'.^^°" while moral and intellectual forces were becoming more powerful. Crude reforms of all kinds were set on foot, and the deeper consciousness of the nation found ex- pression in the beginnings of a distinctive literature. The results of colonial dependence were fading away. PART V. SLAVERY AND STATE RIGHTS. Abraham Lincoln. PART V-SLAVERY AND STATE RIGHTS. CHAPTER XXI. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. References. — Bancroft ; McMaster ; Schouler ; Von Hoist ; Greeley: The Auterica7i Conflict; Pollard: The Lost Cause ; Stephens : The War Between the States ; Wright : The Iiidiis- trial Evolution of the United States. The series of events which led up to the Civil War ^, , ' Slavery and was compounded of two questions which had to each ^tate rights, other a relation w^hoUy incidental. One was industrial — it was a phase of tlie relation of capital to labor. The other was constitutional — it concerned the relation of the states to the federal Union. When Virginia and Kentucky in 1798-9 assumed the broadest ground of state rights, it was with reference to a subject — the Alien and Sedition Laws — which had nothing whatever to do with slavery. And the Hartford Convention in 1814 showed New Eng- land FederaHsts using, in opposition to the English war, the same view of the constitution as had served the Re- ^ . , State rights not publicans in 1798. In other words, strict construction necessarily con- ^ ' ^ _ _ nected with of the organic law and a large conception of state rights slavery are ine\'itable whenever one section of the Union finds or fancies that its interests are antagonistic to those which control the federal government. In 1798 some states felt that personal liberty was assailed by the legis- lation of the party in power. In 18 14 New England saw its main material interests destroyed by a policy of hostility to England. In 1832 South Carolina be- 273 274 The Groicth of the American Nation. jKMuicnt oil state rights. AlncAn sla\'er\- pvovod in tlio sexentceiuh Slavery in all the colonics. lioxoil ihat a protoctix o tarifl' was w holly in the interest of Northern States and was onlv a damage to the Sonth. In i860 the cotton states were convinced that their entire industrial organiz;ition was in peril at the hands <^{ the new party which had attained power at Washing- ton. So it is plain that tlie question of slavery and the question of state rights had. as has been s;iid. a connec- tion which was only incidental. Perhaps a more exact statement would be. that state rights, in the wide sense, had no necessary connection with slavery, while slavery, on the other hand, was abso- lutely dependent on state rights. It existed in virtue of state laws, the constitution gave the national goveni- nient no power to interfere with those laws, and the in- stitution could be protected only by the preser\-ation un- impaired oi the constitutional rights of the states. When negroes were first brought to Virginia, about 1 61 9, slavery of inferior races was a recognized institu- tion among- civilized nations. Queen Eliziibeth gave the lionor of knighthood to the first successful trader in Aftncan slaves, John Hawkins. The last slave trader of Anglo- Saxon race was not knighted. He was hanged in New York in 1S61. The two focts illustrate vividly tlie wide difference between the world's way of thinking in the sixteenth century and in the nineteenth. What we abhor was three liundred years ago a matter of course. Indeed, so much was it a matter of course that slaves soon came to be held in all tlie colonies. The most serious problem which ticed the settler in a new land was how to pro\ide labor. Negroes were bought readily as a solution of the difficulty. And so it came about that when the colonies in 17 76 declared that all men are endowed by nature with freedom, in tnith negro sla\es were held under the laws of every one of the thirteen. The Missouri Compromise. 275 However, conditions of climate and soil brought it it seems to be about that the system had but a slight hold on the north- ''"^out. ern colonics. And in all, northern and southeni alike, a general disapproval of slavery had grown up. Accord- ingly, when the revolt from Great Britain had put their domestic institutions in the hands of the colonists, they soon began to modify the slave system. In 1780 Massa- chusetts adopted a new constitution containing a bill of rights which declared all men born free and equal. And in a $uit brought under this provision the courts held that slavery in the state was thereby abolished. Gradual emancipation was provided within the next few years by several states — Pennsylvania in 1780, New Hampshire in 1783, Rhode Island and Connecticut in 17S4, and New York in 1799. Vermont in 1790 adopted a con- stitution which forbade slavery. The Southern States did not go so far, but nearly all of them took some action to discourage the extension of slavery — removing legal restraints on emancipation, and prohibiting the further introduction of slaves. New Jersey also followed this plan, and only South Carolina and Georgia were left as distinctly advocating the permanence of the insti- tution. In 1787 an ordinance was passed for the government The Ordinance of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. And 0^1787. among the articles of compact included was one abso- lutely forbidding slavery. It was this proviso which se- cured for free labor the future states north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. Indiana and Illinois at least would otherwise very likely have been slave states. And it is not easy to conjecture how history might have been changed had that been the case. The Ordinance of 1787, almost the last important act of the Congress of the Confederation, was adopted by the unanimous vote 276 The Growth of the American Nation. Germs of the Missouri Com- promise. Slavery in tlie constitution. Representation and taxation. Constitution, Art. I., Sec. 2, Par. 3. The slave trade. Constitution, Art. I., Sec. 9, Par. I. Art. IV., Sec. 2, Par. 3. of the States. But it should be noted that slavery pro- hibition in the Northwest was by implication permission for the Southwest. And accordingly, at a later date, Alabama and Mississippi were admitted as slave states. Thus early was there a virtual division of the national territory between the two forms of industrial organization. In the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the slavery question was one of the difficulties. Should negroes be reckoned as persons, the states which had many slaves would gain largely in the apportionment both of repre- sentatives in Congress and of presidential electors. But as it had been decided that direct taxes should be as- signed according to population, on the other hand it was of financial moment to the South that slaves should be considered as chattels rather than as persons; and for the Northern States these considerations were of course exactly reversed. These conflicting political and finan- cial interests were settled by the compromise, which pro- vided that in apportioning both representatives and direct taxes five slaves should be considered as equal to three free men. The foreign slave trade was another bone of conten- tion. The majority of the states wished to put an end to it by federal authority, as they had done already in one way or another separately, but South Carolina and Georgia regarded the further importation of this form of labor as essential, and flatly refused to confederate unless this point should be conceded. Here again a conclu- sion was reached by compromise. Congress was for- bidden to meddle with the slave trade for twenty years, and at the same time the provision for the interstate ex- tradition of persons ' ' held to service or labor ' ' was added. On the other hand, besides consenting that the slave trade should cease with the year 1808, the South The Missouri Compromise. 277 also conceded to Congress the power to control com- merce — a thing greatly desired in the East, and which the Southern States were reluctant to yield. By the tenth amendment to the constitution, adopted in 1 79 1, it was stipulated that "powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." In the light of this amendment, and of the constitutional provisions above noted, it is clear that the federal government could have no legal authority to interfere with slavery in the states. The importation of slaves from abroad might be forbidden in 1808, but that was all. However, it was commonly hoped and believed that in the South, as in the North, slavery would gradually die out. But this hope was doomed to disappointment. Two unforeseen events made so complete a change in the situation that, far from fading away, slavery sprang into new life. These events were, the invention of the cot- ton-gin, in 1793, and the anne.xation of Louisiana, in 1803. Cotton had been raised in the South for more than a century, but the quantity was small, as it did not pay. The trouble was that it took too much time and work to clean the fiber from the seed. A slave working all day by hand could not clean more than one pound of cotton. Using the machine known as the roller-gin he could clean about five pounds. So the English factories were obliged to draw their supply of raw material from India, where the cost of labor was less even than in the Ameri- can slave states. But in 1793 Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Yale College, happened to be in Geor- gia. Being of an ingenious turn of mind, he set to work Art. Par. I., Sec. 8, The consti- tutional status of slavery. Cotton. Whitney's cotton-gin. 27 S The Growth of the American Natiori. Wright, 12S. Bishop, I., 556. An industrial revolution. The purchas* of Louisiana. to soK'e the difficulty, and succeeded in inventing' the machine since so well known as the saw-gin. It was an immediate and stupendous success. By its use a negro in one day could clean a thousand pounds of fiber. It happened just at this time that the successive inventions of machinery in Europe had enormously stimulated the manufacture of cotton cloth, so that there was a greatly increased demand for the raw material. And this demand the Southern States were now able to supply. The ex- port had been under 200,000 pounds in 1791, and still less in 1792. In 1793 it was nearly half a million, in 1794 it was 1,610.760 pounds, in 1795 6,276,300. In 1S59 the export was 1.386,468,562 pounds, valued at $161,434,923. The price also at the end of the last century was steadily rising. In 1790 it was 14J2 cents a pound, in 1792, 29 cents ; in 1793, 33 cents ; in 1794, 33 cents ; in 1795, 36^^ cents : in 1799, 44 cents. All this was a great industrial revolution. At once there was a field for vast wealth open to the Southern States. From Carolina to Louisiana the climate and soil were favorable to the cotton plant, and land and negroes rose greatly in value. Soon it was estimated that an able-bodied negro was worth as many hundred dollars as cotton was cents a pound. It is quite plain what must have been the eflfect of this on the institution of slaver}-. If steps looking toward emancipation had been difficult when slaves had not been very valuable, how enormously greater must the difficulty have become when slaves were a source of untold wealth ! It is only just to remember that the states which thus for had freed their negroes had had no such problem to solve. The greatest triumph of Jefierson's presidency was the purchase of Louisiana. It doubled the national area and put at rest forever a dangerous dispute as to the The Missouri Compro^nise. 279 commercial outlet of the great ^'alley. But incidentally it greatly extended the domain of slavery. That institu- tion was recognized by the laws of France and Spain, so that when Louisiana came under our flag it came as slave territory. And it was stipulated in the treaty of cession that the inhabitants of the ceded territory should be pro- tected in the enjoyment of their lil)erty, property, and religion. Among their property were negro slaves. And when the state of Louisiana was admitted to the Union, in 1812, it was a slave state, as a matter of course. But when new states should come to be formed from the remainder of the French purchase, should they also be Louisiana a slave state. State Capitol Building, Raleigh, North Carolina. slave States ? It must not be forgotten that slavery al- ready existed there. The territorial laws both of Mis- Missouri and 1 A 1 • J ^ J Arkansas slave souri and Arkansas recognized negroes as property, and territories, these laws were made valid by act of Congress. Little thought seems to have been given to the sub- ject until iSiS, when Missouri applied to Congress for 28o The Growth of the American Nation. Aprils, 1818. Maine and Missouri. The Thomas compromise, 1820. Bitterness of the contest. admission ius a state. A bill for that purpose was intro- duced in the House, and was sent up to the Senate with an amendment, moved by Tallmadge of New York, which prohibited slavery. The Senate struck out the amendment, and the bill failed to become a law. In the next Congress the effort to admit Missouri was resumed. But now a new feature appeared. The district of Maine, thus far a part of Massachusetts, desired to become a separate state. The House passed a bill to that effect, which the Senate would not accept unless Missouri should be admitted, also, and without the Tallmadge proviso. The deadlock which resulted was only broken by a com- promise moved by Senator Thomas, of Illinois. This provided that Maine and Missouri should both be ad- mitted, in each case without mention of slavery, but that in the remainder of the French purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri slavery should be forever prohibited. After a long struggle the House was in- duced to accept this measure, but only by the close vote of ninety to eighty-seven. The minority were all from the free states, while of the majority seventy -six were irom slave states. The contest in Congress over the above measures, lasting, indeed, until 1821, when Missouri finally be- came a state, was exceedingly violent and bitter. Our political annals had as yet seen nothing like it. The long-dominant Republican party was rent in twain, and the slave state members freely threatened the dissolution of the Union if the policy of restriction should be adopted. The dispute was the more alarming as it was utterly unexpected. Jefferson wTote to a friend, " This momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awak- ened and filled me with terror." It disclosed a radical divergence of view between the North and the South, The Missouri Compromise. 281 and an intensity of feeling of which no one had dreamed. Slavery, it was suddenly discovered, was not a moribund institution at all, but, on the contrary, was vigorous with a new life. The growing wealth of the cotton trade had done its work. The gulf states raised and marketed the staple. The border states raised and marketed the labor, and all alike were now growing rich from slavery. The section line, too, was sharply drawn. The southern members stood solidly together for slavery extension. The northern members were nearly unanimous for free soil. In truth, it was here that the Civil War was really begun. The first shot was the Tallmadge proviso in 1 8 1 8. In trutli, extension was a vital necessity for slavery. Should it once be hemmed in by a cordon of free states, sooner or later it. was doomed. All saw this clearly. Hence the ardor with which the Free Soilers of 1818-21 struggled to keep Missouri north of the slave line, and hence the desperation with which the South strove for the other issue. The compromise was a partition of the national territory between freedom and slavery. Starting as they did from diametrically opposite ideas and convictions, it is easy to see that the sections were driven by the remorseless logic of fate to the issue of war. Had there been sufficient wisdom to see that slavery was behind the age, that its doom in the end was sure, that it was a national evil to be dealt with at national cost, the nation might have been saved count- less loss in blood and treasure and fratricidal animosity. A wise scheme of compensated gradual emancipation would have spared us all. But doubtless this would have been too much to expect of frail men. We were not in 1820 a republic of sages. We are not that in 1895. Renascence of slavery in the South. Extension essential for slavery. The logic of fate. Garrison. CHAPTER XXII. THE COMPROMISE OF 185O. References. — As in Chapter XXL; also, Rhodes : History of the United States from the Compromise of 18^0. We have seen elsewhere that the two decades fol- lowing 1S20 were a period of intellectual and moral fer- ment. New ideas were rife in all fields of thought. Re- forms, real and imaginary, were turning up everywhere, and among all these uneasy motions of the public mind and conscience we may be sure that slavery was not overlooked. In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison estab- lished in Boston a newspaper. The Liberator^ devoted to advocating the immediate abolition of slavery. He was utterly fearless and in dead earnest. He compelled a hearing. And from that time agitation against slavery never ceased until slavery ceased to be. The turmoil which followed excited in South and North alike the most violent anger. And this was not merely because in the former section the institution was now so deeply ists^ ^^°''''°" I'ooted that it seemed impossible to tear it up without destroying society itself In the North the abolitionists were discredited by the curious assortment of " isms " which many of them had. All the fantastic and crude notions of social regeneration which possessed the " cranks " of that day seemed to gather in full force at abolition conventions. Such distinguished abolitionist citizens as Judge William Jay, the Tappans, and Whit- tier, the young poet, did not avail to rescue the move- ment from obloquy. Its adherents were socially ostra- cized. Their meetings were broken up by mobs. In 2S2 The Compromise of 1830. 283 of antislavery men. 1836, at Alton, Illinois, the Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, an abolition leader, was killed. Among northern men of antislavery views there were Three classes three general classes. The radicals regarded the consti- tution as a pro-slavery document. Garrison called it " a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. ' ' Ac- cordingly the Garrisonians refused to vote or to hold office under the accursed frame of government. A sec- ond class held that slavery was to be attacked only by the ordinary political methods. They formed, there- fore, a party for separate political action, the Liberty party, and in 1840 cast for their presidential candidate about 7,000 votes. But there was a considerable body of moderate men who thought that the regular party organizations were adequate to prevent the extension of slavery. Its abolition in the states they did not seek. So they continued to be Whigs or Democrats. It was \'ery plain that the Compromise of 1820 gave to free soil a much greater portion of the territory bought of France than it gave to slavery. True, the balance was partly restored by the purchase of Florida from Spain, in 1821. But the treaty which secured this new territory at the same time settled the boundary between the United States and the remaining possessions of the Spanish king in North America, and in so doing re- linquished all claim to Texas. When the French owned Louisiana they urged certain reasons for declaring that it extended to the Rio Grande. Spain, however, insisted that it did not cross the Sabine. So when we bought the land we acquired a dispute, and in the treaty of 1821 we relinquished our claim to Texas — this being, indeed, one of the considerations which induced the Spanish king to yield up Florida. But the fertile prairies of Texas were too near the Purchase of Florida, i82r. Claim to Texas abandoned. 284 The Grozuth of the American Nation. American settlements in Texas. American line not to attract immigration, and beginning with 1 82 1 numbers of settlers crossed the border and made for themselves a home under the Mexican flag. Being from the Southwestern States they naturally took their slaves with them. But in 1829 the Mexican Re- public abolished slavery throughout all its territory, and this excited grave discontent among the American set- tlers. Ultimately they revolted from Mexico, and in Texan inde- pendence, 1836. Annexation desired. 1836 declared their independence, and this declaration they maintained by decisive success against the Mexican armies. But it was not independence so much as annexation to the United States which the Texans desired. And in this wish they were supported by a large number of the American people. Mexico, however, had refused to acknowledge the independence of Texas. And so when one of the last acts of Jackson's administration was to recognize the new republic, Mexico felt no little ag- The Compromise of iS§o. 285 grieved. The United States had repented long before Attempts to that Texas had been given up in 1S21, and more than buy Texas. once tried to buy it. But Mexico would not narrow her boundaries. In 1S37 Van Buren declined a treaty of annexation with Texas on the express ground that its acceptance would necessarily embroil the United States ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ with Mexico. When Mr. Tyler became president the ^""ex Texas, plan was again urged and he took it up eagerly. Cal- houn became secretary of state in March, 1844, and by April had negotiated a treaty of annexation. But the . ^.j, ^^ Senate rejected it. Then it was that the annexationists, strong in the ex- treme South, set out to bring their scheme into the polit- ical campaign of that year. Late in April letters were published from both Clay and Van Buren opposing im- mediate annexation. Very likely this was concerted action, intended to keep the Texas question out of the canvass. It was too late to prevent the nomination of Clay. But the Democratic convention did not meet un- til the 27th of May, and thus the opponents of Van Buren, who thus far was the only candidate of the de- mocracy, had time to muster a formidable opposition. A majority of the convention favored Van Buren. Never- theless the two thirds rule, which had prevailed in every Democratic convention since 1832, was adopted, and that compassed Van Buren' s defeat. On the ninth bal- Defeat of i Van Buren. lot the nomination went to James K. Polk, of Tennessee, a radical annexationist. The platform was conveniently vague on the tariff, but declared emphatically for the immediate annexation of Texas, and for the whole of Oregon as far north as Russian America. Oregon was the name then eiven to the land between the Rocky po"^ »"iii/u i>iNis(- (>/ /Sf;o. J')3 llic Mi;.;.(iilii liui- (if .V" .V »' .'>Ii'Uil(l I >c cxIcik Ici I lt> llic r.ii ilic. A«;.iiii, ;is ill iSiS J i , a Iniioiis (|ii,iii(l i.iiM'd ii) (OniMcss. Ai;,iin ihicals of .si'iH-ssioii wcic lied)' m.nlr. 'I'liis (lid not dislml) '/.Mharv Tavl.T. ll.'liad ;|/;;.),^,,';;,:;; ;',';,'. tlir S|)il il ol' " ( )|d lli.koiy," and was (iiiilc ic,id\- lo I'"' -I'l'i" ini'i'l loi ' f u i I II I Ol ( f. I* 11 1 I 11 I' W'liiv.s did 11"! :,laiid l>v iIk' pi'si dciil. M.in\ Willi \v i I !i t li«' Soil 1 11. TIk II 1 Iciii \' ( 'la\ , in Ills old aiH" li iic to Ins passionate dc \ 1.11(111 to llic I 'nioii, |)i o|)os('d a t iHiipi o misc. And al last VVchstt-r lirokc ^^i liMUH- ill a |)owi rliil s|K'fili advoialiii;; CO iici'ss i o 11 to I lie Soiiili. All tins the 1)1 csidi'iil sloniK Ol) ,, ,, I ' Mll.l.AKI' 1' U I Mi>i;u. posed. ills |)|.lll II, ,111, iSoii; tllfd, iSy.i. l.uwvfi ; mfinlu-i- dI , . (..iiKK'SM, iS,u-5. lSy;-.|,i; vlii--i)ivsl(lfiil ..( 111.- was lo Ic.lXC I lie I'nllcl Stul.'s, iS.|.)-s(.; i.ivsl.U'Ul, smocfdin.i'. at , , , 111,- , I, Mill ..I I'uMilnil T.nliM, iS;„. .;. w liolf iiialln to Ihc proplc toiucinrd wliiili iiii-anl lit'c soil. l»iil in Inlv. iS.M', 111.' snoiid Wlii;; pirsidnit dud in olli.r. ('.'.lylssol''""-" riu- \ifi- prcsiiKiit, lillnioii', rrsriscd liis pi rdccr.ssof's poli(\. And ('la\'s iiUM;aui'S bcciiiu- law. Calilor- iii.i w.is adinillid as a inr stale, New Mexico .ind Utah Ten iloi ies w ere ori'aiii/ed without nientioiiol slaxiiv, Tex.u; was p.iid $ii),ooi),i u)o lor iM\ ini; up its sli.idowy cl.iiiii to ,1 laree p.irt i^( Ni-w Mexico, the sl,i\c lradi> W.I.sUm'-iviIk'I M.ii. h ■.p.-.-i 11. 294 ^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. The compro- mise passes. The Compro- mise of 1850 " : finality " was forbidden in the District of Columbia, and a new and drastic Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. Thus was adopted the great Compromise of 1850. While it shocked free soil Whigs by the Fugitive Slave Act, yet on the whole the masses North and South were satisfied. The country was then abounding in prosper- ity. People were absorbed in business and were utterly tired of the whole slave question. In the North it was felt that there was really little fear of any more slave states, and that the whole subject ought to drop. In January, 1851, Clay headed a written agreement never to support for office any man known to favor a renewal of the slavery agitation. The Compromise. of 1850 was to be final. An Emigrant Wagon. From Philadelphia to Pittsburg, twenty days." CHAPTER XXIII. THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. References. — As in Chapter XXI. The decade which followed the meridian of the nine- teenth century was full of a vigorous and \aried life in characterofthe the United States. The population had rolled up to ^'^^ ^' ^ ^°~ °' twenty-three millions. The area of the republic had been enormously extended in the Southwest and its boundary had at last been settled in the Northwest, so that now there was a long Pacific coast looking toward China and Japan. Manufactures and commerce had fol- lowed the widening of agriculture, and the volume of business was such that the young republic was an essential factor in the world's system of exchanges. In New England and the Middle States manufacturing, so feeble when Washington was inaugurated, had become a giant industry. The Northwest was mainly agricultural, and in the South cotton was still king. The crop of 1850 was estimated to be worth $105,000,000, and wealth was rapidly increasing on the cotton plantations. Ameri- . / . . American can shipping had taken on a new life after the depression shipping. caused by the War of 181 2, and had grown to great pro- portions. The American flag was seen on every sea, and American-built clipper ships were the wonders of the ocean for speed and skill of navigation. These were wooden ships, and were propelled wholly by the wind. The application of steam to ocean navigation was not made for some years after it had become well established on the rivers and lakes. It was in 1807 that Fulton's 295 296 The Growth of the American Natioti. steamboats. boat successfully made the trip from New York to Al- bany. In 181 1 the first steamer was put on the Ohio, and in 18 19 on the Great Lakes. But as late as 1835 Dr. Lardner voiced the general sentiment of his day in predicting- that a transatlantic passage could never be made depending on steam alone. Two years later two vessels, the Sirius and the Great Western, relying A Modern OctAN SxEAMtk. 1839- solely on steam-power, succeeded in crossing the At- lantic, and the next year Samuel Cunard made the begin- ning of the great fleets of Atlantic greyhounds by estab- lishing the line which is yet known by his name. He re- ceived generous assistance from the British government, without which the marked success of the new undertaking would hardly have been possible. After the failure of several companies which had tried in vain to compete The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 297 Railroads. "with the subsidized Cunarders, the American Congress followed the same policy by making a mail contract with the new Collins Line, whose first steamers besran to plv The Coiiins , . '^ ^ ■' Line. between New York and Liverpool in 1850. But bad man- agement and bad fortune made this undertaking a failure. In fact, while America could easily compete with Great Britain on even terms in constructing wooden ships pro- pelled by wind, when it came to building steamers and especially to making them of iron, Britain had the ad- vantage, and so even before 1861 our superiority in the merchant marine was slipping away from us. But the improvements in land transportation were even greater than in water. In 1830 the first steam rail- road on any considerable scale was opened in England, and the example was at once followed in this country. The first lines w-ere very short, intended for some local use. But by 1840 there were 2,775 niiles of railways in the United States. A traveler could then go from Bos- ton to Rochester by rail, changing cars, however, about ten times. In 1850 the mileage of railways had increased to nearly 9,000, and their building then went on apace, about 20,000 miles being added by i860. The economic effect of the application of steam to transportation has been a transformation of the world, and nowhere has this social revolution been more marked than in the United States. All that was done by canals and steamboats in the decades just following the War of 1 8 1 2 was done on a vastly larger scale by steamboats and railroads in the decades just preceding the Civil War. The wild land of the West was settled with marvel- ous rapidity. The market was brought near the settler, so that his corn and cattle and cotton were easily trans- muted to cash. Thus in the ten years after the Com- promise Acts of 1850 the republic showed an expansion The economic effects. 298 The Growth of the American JVatioii. The electric telegraph. The ocean cable. in every element of national progress. The population, twenty-three millions in 1850, was over thirty-one mil- lions in i860, and growth in population was a fair index of growth in wealth. Another valuable servant of advancing civilization is electricity. The first of its many applications to human need was made in 1844. Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, secured an appropriation of $30,000 from Congress, and with these funds ran a wire from Washington to Baltimore. The first practical use of the new device was to report the proceedings of the Whig National Convention which nominated Henry Clay fo,r president. Construction was then prosecuted with great activity, and in 1856 the various lines were united as the Western Union Telegraph Company, In 1858 a cable on Cupynght, jSi^j, In A. F. Yules, Syracusr, N. V. The "De Witt Clinton" Engine and Coaches. The first steam railroad train in the state of New York, run on the New York Central Railroad between Albany and Schenectady, August 9, 1831. Results. the ocean-bed enabled messages to fly from the Old World to the New. This invention has greatly acceler- ated the advance of modern progress. Rapid commu- nication of intelligence is quite as important as rapid trans- The Repeal of the Ulissouri Compromise. 299 portation of persons and property. Commercial methods, now that all the world jogs elbows, are very different from what they were in the slow old days when it took a year to hear from India. The modern newspaper,* which contains each day a history of the world for the preced- ing twenty-four hours, has become possible. And the railroads themselves are run by telegraph, without which they could not have reached their present high state of efficiency. But railroads and telegraphs were not the only triumphs of the fifth and sixth decades of the century. Other in- ventions were multiplying human power on all sides. Two notable ones were the sewing machine and the mowing machine. When Elias Howe in 1846 took out his patent for a machine to do sewing, it seemed as if women at last were really to be emancipated from their main drudgery. It has turned out differently, however. Instead of lessen- ing work, the machine has multiplied the possible num- ber of frills on a woman's garment. Still, its industrial effects in other ways have been quite as marked as ha\'e been those of the railroad and the telegraph. And by use of the mower and reaper farming on a large scale is now as easy as in the old days was the care of a iew acres of meadow and grain field. These are only examples of the many American inven- tions which in a thousand ways have multiplied human control over natural forces. It has been an age of in- vention. The act of 1834 regulating the currency had the effect of reversing the relation of gold and silver. Before that date, under the ratio of fifteen to one, gold had been undervalued, and accordingly had disappeared from the circulation. But the new ratio of sixteen to one over- The sewing machine. The mowing machine. An age of inventions. 300 The Growth of the American Natio7i. Coinage Act of 1853- See p. 113. valued gold, and so in turn the silver coinage either left the country or went to the melting pot. The result was that gold coin was in general use almost to the en- tire exclusion of silver. This fact in itself gave little dissatisfaction, but incidentally a great inconvenience was felt in the lack of small change. By the mint law of 1792 the weight of pure silver in two half dollars or four Copyright , i8gi, by A. P. Yates, Syracuse, N. V. The Fastest Regular Train in the World, 1891. Empire State Express of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Reproduced from a photograph taken when running sixty miles an hour. quarters was just the same as in a silver dollar. Hence, when the silver dollars became scarce the fractional coins had the same fate. In 1853 Congress remedied the difficulty by making the weight of pure silver in two half dollars or in four quarters 345.6 grains instead of 371.25 grains, as had been the case before. These subsidiary coins were made legal tender for an amount not to ex- ceed five dollars, and the privilege of free coinage was withdrawn. By these provisions it was no longer profit- The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 301 able to melt down small silver into bullion or to export it, and at the same time the danger of an over-abundancy of the debased coins was avoided. The subsidiary coinage became a mere ' ' token ' ' currency, as is usual among ad- vanced nations. The expansion of the republic had brought into the Admission of Union a series of new states. As the territories filled "*^^ states, with people they were one after another organized on the model of the existing states, and were duly ad- mitted by act of Congress. Arkansas came into the Union in 1836, Michigan in 1837, Florida and Texas in 1845, Iowa in 1846, Wisconsin in 1848, California in 1850. The decade before the Civil War was closed with Min- nesota in 1858 and Oregon in 1859. With the minds of the people thus absorbed in their abounding material prosperity, with the incessant an- nouncement of new inventions tending to make human industiy more efficient, with time and space and inert matter yielding on all sides to the brain and energy of the progressive American, it is no cause for wonder that the masses were inclined to take the Compromise Act of ^, ^ '■ The Compro- 1850 as a finality, and hence to dismiss the whole slavery ?^'^f. ""^ \?>y>^ agitation from their thoughts. To be sure, the new Fugi- tive Slave Law was very irritating to the free states, and there was sullen discontent in the South at the poor prospect of more slave states. But apparently the con- troversy was closed. The national political conventions of 1852 both adopted emphatic resolutions to that effect. The Whigs continued the policy of nominating a mili- Election of 1852. tary hero, which they had found so successful in 1840 and in 1848, this time choosing General Winfield Scott. But the Whig party was already dead, although its lead- ers were apparently unaware of it. Northern free soil Whigs were finally alienated by the obnoxious Fugitive 302 The Growth of the American Nation. End of the Whig party. The Kansas- Nebraska Act, 1854. Slave Law. Southern Whigs felt that the interests of slavery were safer in the hands of the Democratic party. And so Scott was overwhelmingly defeated, and that by a candidate of so little significance as Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire. Scott carried only four states. Henry Clay died just as the canvass was opened, and Webster followed him to the grave a few days before the election. The death of the great leaders was only a prelude to the death of the great party. The slavery ques- tion in fact was not settled. And it was so sectional in its character that of necessity it cut through the na- tional parties. It destroyed the Whig party in 1852. It disrupted the Democratic party in i860. And na- tional political par- ti es again came into existence only when African slavery and its incidents finally disappeared. In the first Congress under President Pierce the slavery agitation, which in 1850 had once for all been put aside by the action of both the great parties, was renewed by the action of the leaders of each of them. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, was the Democratic chairman of Franklin Pierce. Born, 1804; died, 1869. Graduated at Bowdoin College; lawyer; member of Congress, 1833-7; United States senator, 1837-42 ; brigadier- general in Mexican War ; president of the United States, 1853-7. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 303 the Senate committee on territories. And at the first session of Franklin Pierce's first Congress Douglas brought in a bill for the organization of the territories of Kansas and NebrasTca. Both these lay north of the Mis- souri Compromise line. But the bill proceeded ex- pressly to declare that compromise inoperative, and to Repeal of the ^ -^ _ ^ '^ Missouri leave the question of slavery in the new territories and Compromise, in the states to be formed from them ' ' to the inhabitants thereof ' ' This was what Douglas called ' ' popular sov- ereignty. ' ' The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was at once ^. , '^ t The struggle followed by a rush for Kansas on the part of the antago- fo"" Kansas, nistic sections. The people of Missouri, being near at hand, made the first settlements, but they were soon followed by a tide of free state immigrants. The south- ern settlers seized the government of the new territory, and were sustained by the national administration. The free state men claimed that their adversaries had tri- umphed only by fraud, and refused to recognize the ter- ritorial legislature as valid. There followed several years of lawlessness and violence. But at last the free state settlers became so numerous that they could not be kept from controlling the territory, and in 1861 Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state. The experiment of ' ' popular sovereignty ' ' was disastrous for slavery. CHAPTER XXIV. SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR. References.— As in Chapter XXI. After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, Election of 1856. the free soil sentiment in the North woke to vigorous life. Democrats who reprobated the Kansas-Nebraska Act joined with the great body of Whigs in endeavoring to sweep from power the pro -slavery gov- ernment in state and nation. The new coalition in 1854 took the name "Re- publican," and at the fall elections the Democrats lost the House of Represen- tatives. In 1856 the opposition was not yet united. The Republicans nomi- nated for president Fremont, the son- in-law of Thomas H. Benton. But the democracy, though it lost its hold on many important states, was too strong to be dislodged. The Republi- James Buchanan. Born, 1791 ; died, 1868. Lawyer; member of Congress, 1821-31 ; minister to Russia, 1831-3; United States senator, 1834-45 ; secretary of state, 1845-9; minister to England, 1853-6; president of the United States, 1857-61. Secession and Civil War. 305 The Dred Scott case. cans, however, polled over a million and a quarter votes, and the popular vote for the Democratic candidate, Buchanan, was a minority — a third ticket winning many votes. It had been urged in 1854 that the restriction laid by the Missouri C o m - promise was un- '\ constitutional. A [ - \ case was at that time pending be- fore the federal Supreme Court which the judges made the occa- sion of formally pronouncing an opinion on the disputed political question. Dred Scott was a negro, the slave of a surgeon in the United States army. He had been held by his master in the state of Illinois, and afterwards at Fort Snelling, on the west side of the Mississippi, near St. Paul. Being thence taken to Missouri and sold in 1838, Dred sued for his freedom on the ground that residing in free ter- ritory had made him free. The case was decided by Decision of r^ 1 1 /• T 1 T^i Supreme Court. the Supreme Court on the 6th of March, 1857. The court held that Dred had no case, as he was a negro A Typical Indian Chief. 3o6 The Growth of the American Nation. The tariff of 1857- The panic of 1857- Political cam- paign of i860. slave, and hence not a citizen of the United States in the sense of the constitution. Of course that ended the case. But the court then went on, quite extra-judicially, to declare further that an act of Congress prohibiting slavery in a given portion of the federal territory was unconstitutional and void, and that there was no legal authority which could prevent a master from taking his slave to a territory and holding him there. In other words, the court held that slavery could be forbidden only by a state. Thus was the stamp of judicial approval given to the Repeal Act of 1854, so far, that is, as an obiter dictum may be said to have judicial weight. The year 1857 was marked by two other events not connected with the ominous slavery dispute. In the last month of Pierce's administration was enacted an- other tariff bill, intended to reduce revenue. It added considerably to the free list and somewhat reduced rates. Still, the bill was a compromise between a low tariff Sen- ate and a high tariff House, and it contained some feat- ures of protection. In the autumn came a new financial panic. It was largely the result of over-speculation — too many railroads, too many new cities projected in the West, too much debt piled up at a large interest in the hope of vast returns. And the lack of a safe bank cur- rency good in all parts of the Union was acutely felt. A swarm of mushroom state banks issued paper, which in many cases was never meant to be redeemed — and coun- terfeits were afloat everywhere. The political conventions of i860 met while public feeling was at a high tension. The Republicans, disre- garding the obiter dicta of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, and flushed with success in winning Kansas, insisted that it was the right as well as the duty of Congress to forbid slavery in the territories. And as Secession and Civil War. 307 the Republican candidates there were named Abraham Lincohi of Ilhnois, an old Whig, and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, a former Democrat. The Whig- party was now a mere reminiscence. But a group of excellent people, largely of Whig antecedents, alarmed at the threatening aspect of the times, nominated a ticket of An^'^}^ep^"'^'="' their own, John Bell of Tennessee and Edward Everett of Massachusetts, the platform being, "The constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws" — whatever Democrats fail Executive Mansion (White House), Washington, D. C. that might mean. The Democratic convention at Charleston failed to agree on a platform. The radical to agree pro-slavery wing insisted on declaring it the duty of Congress to protect .slave property in the territories, while the followers of Douglas in the North would merely indorse the Dred Scott decision. The extreme southern delegates then withdrew, and set up a convention of their own. Both bodies were adjourned to a later date. 3o8 The Growth of the American Nation. Principles at issue. The Breckin- ridge Demo- crats. The Republi- cans. Election of Lincoln. But they could not agree, and two nominations resulted. Douglas was the candidate of one faction, and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, the vice-president with Bu- chanan, was named by the other. The campaign of iS6o was one of the most earnest and exciting in our history — far more so than the national frolic of 1840. In '60 men were divided on profound questions of principle. The southern people believed that their constitutional rights and essential social institutions were in peril. They believed that they had a right to take their property, slaves included, into the territories which belonged to the whole Union, and there to be pro- tected by the national authority. They were convinced that unless slavery could retain its political balance in the federal government the institution was doomed. And they had no faith that the rising party of free soil, the Republicans, would in the end refrain from attempting to abolish slavery in the states. On the other hand, the Republicans insisted only that no more national territory should be made into slave states. They believed slavery an economic mistake and a moral wrong. But they frankly recognized the con- stitutional limits on federal action, and merely hoped that if the institution should cease to grow it would gradually die out. The division in the Democratic party was fatal to its success, and Lincoln was elected. His popular vote was 1,865,913, as against 1,341,264 for Fremont in 1856. True, the popular vote for Lincoln was a minor- ity. But so was that for Buchanan in 1856, for Taylor in 1848, and for Polk in 1844. But for the first time a president was elected on a distinct sectional issue as be- tween slave states and free states, and by a sectional vote. Lincoln carried every free state. The slave states Secession and Civil War. 309 were divided among the other candidates — Douglas car- rying Missouri, Bell Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Breckinridge the rest. Douglas secured three electoral votes in New Jersey. And as soon as the result was ascertained South Caro- Secession, lina took measures to secede from the Union. Her con- vent i on , duly elected for the pur- pose, on the 20th of December for- mally repealed the Ordinance of 1788 whereby the federal constitution was rat- ified. And four days later the fiery little state promulgated a declaration of inde- pendence. This was the first act in the great drama of civil war. It was taken with joyous enthusiasm - — greeted in sister states with firing of cannon and ringing of bells. But in fact it ushered in not the founding of a great southern empire which should girdle the Gulf of Mexico with its dominions and should rule the world with its staple. It was the beginning of woes for the South and for the nation. It meant four years of bloody Its real mean- 'iig- Jefferson Davis. Born iSoS; died, 1889. Graduated at West Point, 1828 • resigned from army, 1835 \ married the daughter of Zacharv Tavlor ; member of Con- gress 1845-6; colonel, Mississippi volunteers, in Mexican War ; United States senator, 1847-51 and 1857-61 ; secretary of war, 1S53-7 ; presi- dent of Confederate States, 1861-5. 3IO The Growth of the American Nation. Results of the action at Sumter. Attitude of the North. war. It meant the fall of slavery itself, the destruction of southern prosperity, the sacriiice of more than half a million lives. And it meant the utter and ruinous fail- ure of the brilliant schemes and dreams of the secession leaders. The shot which in the early morning of April 12, 1861, was fired at Fort Sumter was the signal gun of a new epoch in the national life. It reduced to a single sharp issue — the preservation of the Union and the supremacy of the constitution — all the tangle of disputes for which slavery was responsible. In its issue it settled the Cal- houn doctrine of state rights as embodied in nullifica- tion and secession — it put an end to the uneasy attempts at still further increasing the slave area, whether by more ' ' acquisitions ' ' from Mexico, by the annexation of Cuba, or by filibustering raids in Central America ; it effected a sweeping industrial revolution by abolishing slavery itself And the reflex effects of the great strug- gle of arms in deepening and strengthening the current of national life were equally marked. The first emotion in the North when it was learned that the secessionists had actually fired on the national flag was that of pro- found amazement. Few had believed that the Southern States would really attempt a dissolution of the Union. And few were convinced of the danger even when at the opening of the new year ordinances of secession fell like the snowflakes. The border slave states tried to settle the troubles in the old way, by proposing a compromise. And probably a majority of Republicans would have as- sented to the proposal of a constitutional amendment forbidding any interference with slavery in the states. But when it was seen by the attack on Fort Sumter that the new Southern Confederacy was not a mere political curiosity, but was in deadly earnest, then amazement in Secession and Civil War. 311 the free states was changed to deep wrath. The North was effectually wakened from its lethargy. Party lines disappeared— Democrats like Douglas, Dix, and Dickin- son joining with Republicans to sustain the national gov- ernment in its task of suppressing rebellion. Every- The uprising for the Union. State C.\pitol Building, Rich.mond, Vircini.a. where flags blossomed out, and everywhere volunteers began to enlist for the national service. Washington itself was in danger, and militia regiments from Massachusetts and New York were hurried to its protection. And from every northern city and village the Union soldiers began to pour southward. In the Southern States the effect was equally marked, jhe uprising State pride and the enthusiasm for southern ideas swept all before them. Virginia and Tennessee and Arkansas seceded and joined the Cotton State Confederacy. Rich- for secession. 312 The Growth of the American Nation. The " solid South." " Blood and iron." mond became the capital, and the Confederate armies were ahno.st in sight of Washington. Union sentiment disappeared in the South, as had southern sympathy in the North. It was the soHd South against the sohd North, and only by " blood and iron " could the issue be determined. The war at first was confused and uncertain. No one yet realized its magnitude. President Lincoln's first call The Civil War. Secession and Civil War. 313 for troops was for 75,000 men for three months. And in higrh places it was actually thought that the insurrec- Crude ideas as ^ ' _ _ •' ^_ the war opened. tion would collapse within that time. On the other hand, there was in the South a prevalent contempt for the "Yankees" — as it was boastfully said, they "would back up against the north pole before they would fight. ' ' Both ideas proved to be far wide of the truth. The South was deeply in earnest, and developed magnificent armies and most determined endurance. The Yankees began to fight without even starting for the north pole, and they fought doggedly on until in the end they won a' complete and crushing victory. Before the four years of warfare were ended each side had learned not to de- spise its adversary. It is not our purpose here to detail the military history of the Civil War. It proved to be one of the most tremendous struggles of history. The federal govern- ment had the great advantage of having a manufactur- ing and maritime population, and was able to draw a military and naval cordon around the Confederacy, cut- ting off its trade with foreign countries and thus gradu- ally paralyzing its material resources. The Union armies were long foiled in Virginia, commander after com- mander coming to grief before the genius of Lee. In the West, however, Grant and Sherman at last won their way to the front. The line of the Mississippi was opened. Sherman cut his way across Georgia to the sea, while the army in his rear was shattered by Thomas at Nashville. Meanwhile Grant, transferred to Virginia, found no light task. It was only after a year of cam- paigning that at last he was able to break the Confeder- ate lines and compel the remnant of Lee's army to surrender. In April, 1861, the first shot was fired on Fort Sumter. In April, 1865, the long agony of 314 The Growth of the American Nation. doubtful struggle ended with the collapse of the Con- End ofthe federacv. Secession had failed, and the Union was pre- Confederacy. -' ' i served. But in the stress of the strife slavery had disappeared. President Lincoln in 1863 issued a procla- mation, wherein he used his war powers to free all slaves in insurgent territory. And immediately after the war Reduced Facsimile of a Part of the Emancipation Proclamation. (January i, 1863.) Abolition of closed the abolition of human slavery was embodied in savery. ^^ federal constitution. The institution was overthrown by the great political enterprise which was intended to preserve it fore\'er. Summary of Part V. 315 The war of secession cost 600,000 lives and an incal- culable dmount of property. Had all the slaves been ofthe"war""^ bought at their full value in i860 and emancipated, it would have been much cheaper. But after all it was a far more fundamental issue than slavery which the war settled. The surrender of Lee was but the peroration of Webster's reply to Hayne in 1830. It was an author- itative interpretation of the constitution. And its mean- ing is that this republic is "an indestructible union of indestructible states. ' ' SUMMARY OF PART V. From 1844 to 1865 the public question which over- shadowed all others was that of slavery. Back of this, however, was a more fundamental one — the question slavery and 1 , 1 T T • r 1 c State rights. whether the Union was a temporary coniederacy 01 states or a permanent nation. Slavery existed in all the colonies, though it was much more firmly established in the South. Beginning at the time of the Revolutionary War the Northern States gradually freed their slaves. But the great development of cotton-raising in the South, caused largely by the invention of the cotton-gin in 1793, fixed the institution more firmly in that section. The original public territory of the United States had been divided between the two forms of labor — the Northwest Territory being devoted to freedom, and the Southwest Territory to slavery. In 1803 the Louisiana ^|.rJto°"°'^ country was bought of France, and the state called by that name was admitted to the Union, with slavery, in 181 2. But when another portion of this territory, Mis- souri, desired to become a state, an attempt was made in Congress to include in the act of admission an anti- 31 6 The Growth of the American Nation. slavery proviso. The dispute which resuked was setded The Missouri by the Missouri Compromise, whereby Missouri was Compromise, ■' _ . 1820. allowed to retain slavery, but m all the rest of the terri- tory bought of France lying north of the parallel bounding Missouri on the south slavery was forbidden. The purchase of Florida from Spain, in 1821, added to the area of slavery. Texas, settled by American slaveholders, revolted from Mexico and sought annexation to the United States. Texas. ^ A treaty to that end was rejected by the Senate in the spring of 1844. The question was then taken into poli- tics. Van Buren and Clay were both opposed to annex- ation. Van Buren lost the Democratic nomination on that account, and Clay was beaten at the polls by the de- fection of free soil Whigs, who distrusted his firmness as to annexation. After the election Texas was promptly War with annexed. This led to war with Mexico, which resulted Mexico. . . ^ . . in the annexation of California and New Mexico, thus affording room for further extension of slave terri- tory. But the discovery of gold in California caused a sudden rush of people there, and they almost immedi- ately formed a state organization without slavery and applied for admission to the Union. This led to another bitter dispute in Congress, which in turn was settled by Compromise of the Compromise of 1850. This was intended to put an end to the slavery question forever. But it did not. In 1852 the Whig party fell to pieces, and one of the first acts of the new Democratic administration was the law organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and repealing the Missouri Compromise. This opened the Northwest to slavery. There was a desperate struggle Kansas. between the two sections for the possession of Kansas, but the free soil settlers in the end prevailed. Meanwhile a new political party had been formed in Summary of Part V. 317 the North, with the cardinal principle that slavery should not be permitted in the territories. And in i860 this The Republican party. party, owing to a split in the Democratic convention, succeeded in electing a president. Then the slave states nearly all seceded from the Union and formed a confed- Secession. erate government of their own. The rest of the nation took up arms for the preservation of the Union, and there resulted a civil war of vast proportions. After four years of strife the national cause triumphed. The Confederacy was o\'erthrown, and slavery was abolished throughout the nation. The Calhoun theory of state rights was definitely set aside. The republic became in fact what since 1789 it had been in form — a nation. Civil War. The Lee Mansion, Arlington, Virginia. PART VI. THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF IN- DESTRUCTIBLE STATES. PART Vl-THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES. CHAPTER XXV. THE RECONSTRUCTKn RI^PUnLIC. Rekerknces. — Andrews; Rlaine : Ticoiiy Vrar.s of Con- gress ; The Congressional Clobc. The great Civil War ended with tlic complete victory of the nation. The adjudication of war had decided against the right of secession and in favor of the su- premacy of national authority. And an amendment to the constitution, adopted in 1865, jjut an end to the legal relation of slavery in all the states. But the victorious government had before it a serious .j,,^^ ,obieni of problem. The Southern States had been conquered. What was now to be done with them ? Were they to be ruled as conquered territory ? Or were they to be al- lowed to take their places once more in the Union ? Either alternative was beset with serious difticulties. It had been the legal theory of the victorious party that the acts of secession were null and void. If this were true, each of the lately revolted states was still a mem- ber of the federal Union, and entitled to its full repre- sentation in the electoral college and in Congress. Ikit if this were allowed it would restore those who had just been in arms against the nation to a position of political power and would give them a voice in shaping the re- sults of the war. This was obviously out of the cpics- 321 reconstruction. 322 The Growth of the American Nation. Early attempts. Death of Lin- coln, 1865. tion. To disfranchise the insurgents and allow the states to be organized by such of their people as were loyal would have been a desirable solution. But there were ^ hardly any such people in the South unless the negroes were considered — and they were hardly of the mate- 1 il for creating civil uistitutions. Still, it was such a solution that was first at- tempted. The mountaineers of West Virginia were not in sympathy with secession, and andr.u i..,N-u. ii'' 1861 they set up Born, 1808 ; died, 1875. Member ot Congress, a State government 1843-53 ; governor of Tennessee, 1853-7 ; United . States senator, 1857-62; military governor of of their OWU, which Tennessee, 1S62-5 ; vice-president, 1S65; presi- dent of tlie United States, succeeding at the waS duly rCCOguizcd death of President Lincoln, 1865-9. . at Washmgton as the true state of Virginia. And in later years of the war Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee were recon- structed in like manner. President Lincoln, who had been reelected in 1864, had no vindictive feeling toward the South, and it was his earnest desire as soon as possible to heal the wounds of the war and to have the Union restored in a spirit of harmony and mutual concession. But the vast weight of his influence and of his conservative wisdom was lost to the nation by the hand of an assassin. Only a few days after Lee's surrender a violent sympathizer with the The Reconstructed Republic. 323 "lost cause" avenged its fall by the dastardly murder of the president. And the vice-president Johnson, of Tennessee, succeeded to his place. He was a very different man from the great-hearted and patient Lincoln. Where the latter might have led, Johnson merely succeeded in quarreling. At the outset the new president claimed to be following the policy of his prede- cessor. He offered amnesty to all in the South, a few prominent leaders excepted, who would take an oath to support the constitution of the United States. He then appointed a provisional governor for each of the seceded states, through whose agency a consti- tutional convention was called. " Only whites who had taken the amnesty oath could elect delegates, or themselves be elected, to this con- vention. At the in- stance of the presi- dent the convention adopted a consti- tution or legislation which forbade slav- ery, declared the or- dinance of secession null and void, and repudiated the Con- federate debt. The convention then ap- pointed times and places for the election of a legislature and a permanent governor. In a few months the gov- Andrew Johnson be- comes pres- ident. Robert \'.. \.\v. Born, 1S07; died, 1S70. Son ot" the revolution- ary general, Henry Lee ; graduated at West Point, 1S29; served with distinction in the Mexican War; resigned, 1861, and entered the service of Virginia ; commander-in-chief of Virguiia troops, and general in Confed- erate army, i36l ; commander of army of northern Virginia, 1862-5; president of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia. Andrews, IL The first plan of reconstruction— that of President Johnson. 324 The Growth of the American Nation. Opposition in Congress. The second plan of recon- struction — that of Congress. ernmental machinery had been set in motion in all the late Confederate states, and in December senators and representatives from all except Texas were knocking at the doors of Congress. But when Congress met, in December, 1865, the Re- publican majority in both Houses developed immediately a strong dissent from President Johnson's policy. They did not trust the loyalty of the amnestied " rebels," and especially were they dissatisfied with the way in which the newly organized state governments were dealing with the freedmen. It must be seen that few communities have ever had a more serious question than confronted the Southern States at the close of the war with reference to the late slaves. The negroes had not been made free by a wise process of gradual emancipation, as had been done in the Northern States, but the ties which bound them to their masters were rudely burst by war and a sweeping constitutional amendment. Thus the mass of negroes, untrained, improvident, ignorant, shiftless, were suddenly thrown on their own resources. To maintain social order, to prevent lawlessness and crime, to insure against actual starvation and a relapse to barbarism on the part of the negroes — this was no easy task. Some of the laws enacted for these purposes provided for a system of " apprenticeship " of the blacks, which seemed little short of a return to slavery. And so Congress re- jected the president's plan of reconstruction. The congressional plan was on a very different basis. In the first place, a second constitutional amendment, the fourteenth, was adopted. This was intended to se- cure civil rights for the negroes. At the same time it provided for the repudiation of all indebtedness incurred in carrying on the rebellion, and excluded from public office certain classes of secession leaders. Then in 1867 The Reconstructed Republic. 325 the lately seceded states were put under military rule, and drastic conditions were laid down as precedent to re- admission into the full rights of federal states. Among these conditions the most essential were the full enfran- chisement of the negroes and the ratification of the four- teenth amendment. In accordance with this plan gov- ernments were organized anew in the several states, and in June, 1868, the representatives of six were admitted to Congress — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and the Carolinas. Tennessee had been admitted in 1866. Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were more obstinate, and were not admitted until 1870. The various measures of Conoress which led to this , ^ . f *> Impeachment of result met the bitter opposition of the president, and the fo^® j'^l"' •^°'^"' most of them were passed over his vetoes. In the course of the quarrel Congress passed an act intended to limit the president's power to remove ofiice-holders. This he disregarded in the case of the secretary of war, and the House of Representatives promptly voted impeachment. But on trial before the Senate there was a failure to con- vict, se\'en Republicans voting with the Democratic minority, and thus pre\'enting the constitutional two thirds vote. Had a single one of these seven voted with the majority, the president would have been removed from his high office. At the election in 1868 the gen- eral of the victorious Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant, was chosen president, and now again the executive and Grant becomes ^ _ "^ president. Congress were in accord. The reconstruction of the Southern States under the plan of Congress meant negro suffrage. The blacks very generally voted and acted in a mass with the Republican party, as was natural. Their lead- ers were in general adventurers from the North, who saw a chance for prominence in the solid The " carpet- bag " govern- ments. 326 The Growth of the American Nation. The freedmen as politicians. colored vote, though there were some southern whites who acted with them. But nearly all of the latter class either ignored politics in utter disgust, or voted together against the Republicans. The negroes found an eager delight in politics, and the reconstructed state legisla- tures were full of them. The result was what might have been expected. The Republicans in Congress had given the ballot to the negroes as a weapon for the defense of their freedom, and for the fur- ther purpose of keeping the Re- publican party in power per- petually. But the first result of negro suffrage was a saturnalia of ignorant and corrupt govern- The debts of Scribtier' s Mag- reconstructed states were rolled up to an enormous vol- azine, Mav, a 1 1 r ^ 1 1111 1895, p. 569. ume. At the close oi the war these debts had aggre- gated about $87,000,000. The reconstruction- era added about $300,000,000, and a great part of this was stolen or squandered. And this burden was laid on a Ulysses S. Grant. Born, 1822 ; died, 1885. Graduated at West Point, 1843 ; served in Mexican War ; resigned and entered business, 1854 ; entered Union army, 1861 ; colonel, 2ist Illinois Infantry ; brigadier-general, 1S61 ; cap- tured Forts Henry and Donelson, February, 1862 ; major-general, 1862 ; captured Vicksburg, 1S63 ; de- feated Bragg at Chattanooga, 1863; lieutenant-gen- eral, 1864; captured Lee's army, 1865; general, 1865; president of the United States, 1869-77. ment, such as the world has seldom seen The Reconstructed Republic. 327 society which had been utterly impoverished by a disas- trous civil war. There could be but one issue. Men of the Anglo- Saxon race cannot be expected to submit forever to the The reaction. dominance of ignorance and corruption. A political re- action set in. At first the negroes were terrified by the grotesque tricks of a secret organization, commonly called the " Ku Klux Klan." And from harmless tricks the whites proceeded to violence, flogging, maiming, and even death to those who proved refractory. Means such as these may be justifiable in desperate circum- stances. And there can be no doubt of the wretched misgovernment from which the Southern States were suf- fering. But such organizations inevitably fall into the _, „ ^ *^ ■' The Ku Klux hands of the worst class of men. The Ku Klux was ^lan. no exception, and in time its machinery was used not merely for lawless violence against public enemies, but also for the gratifying of private malevolence and wanton cruelty. And when President Grant put an end to such proceedings with a strong hand there were few to regret it. The next means used for the overthrow of negro rule was a manipulation of the ballot system. And this was supplemented by all the methods of legitimate per- suasion. When men are confronted by a government which is intolerably vicious and destructive, one is loath to criticise the means by which it is overturned. But violence and fraud, whatever their justification for the time being, are demoralizing to the public conscience. And southern political life has not failed to suffer accord- ingly. This was the cruel dilemma which was forced The dilemma. on southern people by the rash experiment of unrestricted suffrage granted to a race whose only education for it had been generations of servile dependence. By whatever means, the reaction by 1874, only a half . 328 The Growth of the American Nation. The reaction succeeds. dozen years after the reconstruction of most of the seces- sion states had been effected, was triumphant in all those states except South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. In the process there had been great confusion, and in some cases actual civil war. The federal troops were freely used to maintain the authority of the "reconstructed" governments. This was very distasteful to many Re- publicans at the North, and was among the causes which led to a considerable revolt from the dominant Election of Merrimac. Monitor. Minnesota. Action between the " Merrimac " and the " Monitor," March, 1S62. The first battle between armored vessels. party at the election of 1872. There had been scandals in the public service, as well as what the dissidents felt was oppression in the South. And so deep was the feeling of opposition caused by these things that the Lib- eral Republicans, as they called themselves, nominated for president Horace Greeley, the stalwart antislavery edi- tor of the Tribune, on an independent platform. Mr. The Reconstructed Republic. 329 Greeley's nomination was indorsed by the Democratic convention. General Grant, however, was elected by a democratic ■' victories of sweeping- majority in the electoral colleges. Mr. Greeley 1874. died soon after the general election. In 1874, however, the reaction had not merely swept away most of the Southern States from Republican control, but it also in- vaded the North, and the Democrats for the first time since i860 had a majority in the Lower House of Con- gress. The political overturn was largely aided by the financial panic of 1873. In 1876 the electoral campaign was an extra- ordinarily close contest. Governor Tilden of New York, the Democratic nominee, carried the "doubtful" Northern States, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana, and all the Southern States except the three which were still ' ' reconstructed. ' ' claimed a majority, and j^***-^' Disputed election of 1876. Samuel J. Tilden. Born, 1814 ; died, 1886. Lawyer; governor of New York, 1875-7 ; candidate for the presidency, 1S76. In these three both parties from each of them certificates for both sets of electors were forwarded to Washington. As the Senate was Republican and the House Demo- cratic, it followed that a deadlock was quite possible. The constitution and laws did not clearly provide for such an emergency, and in the excited state of public feeling there was grave danger of an appeal to arms. The dispute was settled by a commission composed of five from each House of Congress and five judges of the The deadlock. 330 The Growth of the American Nation. The Electoral Commission. The freed men. Supreme Court — eight Republicans and seven Demo- crats. The contests, including also a flimsy one in Ore- gon, were settled by the vote of this body in favor of the Republicans. And General R. B. Hayes of Ohio, the Republican candidate, became president. But he de- clined to interfere to support the local Republican state governments in the disputed states, and they at once fell. From that time the political reaction in the South against the reconstruction policy was everywhere com- pletely triumphant. And since then the white people have controlled all the old slave states. Meanwhile the most promising work for the freedmen ^, was not that of the I politicians who made public officials of ignorant negroes, but rather that of philanthropists who set on foot larger ed- ucational enterprises for the improvement of the colored peo- ple. At Hampton, in Virginia, and at other places, such in- stitutions have been provided. They teach industry and manual skill, as well as letters. What the RUTHE3tFORD B. HaVES. Born, 1822; died, 1893. Educated at Kenyon College; lawyer; brevet major-general of r j j j i_ volunteers in the Civil War; member of ircedmen needed, Ob Congress and 1876 1877-81. governor of Ohio, 1868-72, • 1 1 1 -^ r ■ - viously, was habits of president of the United States, thrift and foresight, as well as the intelligence to maintain themselves by their The Reconstructed Republic. own exertions. In the dissemination of these quahties— and it must be a slow process — Ues the hope of the race for the future. Another issue arising: from the Civil War was settled in ■^ _ _ The treaty of 1 87 1. The connivance of the British government at the Washington, construction in her ports of the Alabama and other cruisers intended for the Confederates, and then at their sailing, had led to the destruction of our mercantile ma- rine. And Great Britain had quietly taken the place thus vacated by her rival. The American government had repeatedly attempted to induce Great Britain to make reparation, but in vain. In 187 1, however, the condition of British foreign relations was such as to make it expedient to have no unsettled questions with the great republic, and accordingly a treaty was negotiated for the settlement of the Alabama Claims, as well as of other mat- ters. The Alabama Claims were referred to a tribunal of arbitration which met at Geneva, Switzerland, in the The Geneva following winter. In 1872 this tribunal decided in favor of the United States, awarding $15,500,000 to be paid by Great Britain for the vessels destroyed. The treaty established as definite principles of international law the duty of neutrals not to allow the fitting out of belligerent cruisers in their ports, and of course the Americans were gratified at the decision in their favor by an impartial tribunal. But all this did , not restore the ocean com- merce to which Great Britain had succeeded. The dam- ages were a low price to pay for getting a dangerous commercial rival safely out of the way, and a war with England at that time would have been even more popu- lar in the United States than the treaty and the award. However, statesmanship happily prevailed over popular passion, and so the dangerous question was put finally at rest. tribunal. The ideas of peace. CHAPTER XXVI. A SECOND ERA OF ECONOMIC PROGRESS. References. — Andrews ; The Congressional Globe ; Laugh- lin ; Wells : Recent Econouiic Changes. After the second war with England the thoughts and energies of the American people were turned unchecked to the orderly development of material resources. The general peace in Europe made possible a natural growth of society as had not been the case for a quarter cen- tury. The same thing occurred when the surrender of Lee put an end to the slavery turmoil which for another quarter century had distracted the public life of the country. To be sure, during each interval of absorbing strife social forces had gone on quietly as before and after. But their action was diverted and checked, as well as obscured, by the predominant excitement and by the grave and uncertain character of the prevailing issues. Peace was followed by the resumption of those activities which marked the period between the treaty of Ghent and the annexation of Texas. And so once more we hear of the settlement of new states, of improved means of transportation, of manufactures and foreign commerce and banking, of tariffs and currency, tion. And again education and philanthropy, literature and art, social and political reform, fill the popular interest. Only of course in the last three decades all has been on a vastly larger scale than was the state of things in the three decades which followed Jackson's victory at New A Second Era of Economic Progress. 333 Orleans. But otherwise the general conditions are very- similar. The immediate economic effect on the South of the war was the almost complete destruction of prosperity. A large part of southern capital, estimated at $2,000,- 000,000, was invested in slaves. By the Emancipation Proclamation and the thirteenth amendment this specie of property was — we cannot say destroyed — but trans- ferred from the whites to the negroes themselves. This alone sufficed to reduce thousands of families from afflu- ence to poverty. Then foreign commerce had been almost entirely cut off for several years, so that the cotton crop had largely gone to waste. Banking and insurance capital had disappeared, and money had been re- place d by a paper currency which be- came worthless. More or less capital had gone into Confeder- ate bonds, which of course the result of the war deprived of all value — though a great part of those bonds were held abroad. Then where the armies had marched property of all kinds had been destroyed. And, besides the loss of at least 300,000 lives, many thousands more of able- bodied men had for years been withdrawn from produc- Effect of the war in the South. Destruction of values. James A. Garfield. orn, 1831 ; died, 1881. Educated at Williams College; lawyer; president of Hiram College, Ohio; major-general of volunteers in the Civil War ; member of Congress, 1863-80 ; U. S. senator, iSSo ; president of the United States, 1881. 334 T^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. Effect of the war in the North. The national debt. Internal revenue. tive employment, so that when peace came, the South had Httle left but its people and its land. But the latter was in itself an inexhaustible source of wealth. And rarely in history have the indomitable qualities of a peo- ple been more brilliantly shown than in the quiet heroism with which the southern people accepted their defeat and set out patiently to restore their prosperity. In the North the war brought an actual inflation of business. The government was spending lavish sums of money every year. Foreign trade flowed on unchecked, and immigration continued. Everywhere manufactures and commerce thrived, and the desolation of war was kept from the northern borders. The lives which were lost in the armies were replaced, numerically at least, by immigration from Europe, and the destruction of prop- erty which war really entails, even to the victor, was masked by the fact that huge sums were borrowed, so that the loss would be repaid by future generations. The national debt by August, 1865, had reached the amount of $2,844,649,626. And this was a part of the money cost of maintaining the Union. But the national revenues throughout the contest had been steadily large, amounting for the four years to about $780,000,000. And after peace came the revenues continued to swell. Thus not only was the annual interest on the national bonds promptly paid, but considerable sums were avail- able each year to reduce the principal. The report of the secretary of the treasury on the first of December, 1894, showed that the total debt less cash in the treasury had been reduced to $837,221,204.22 — being a reduc- tion of upwards of two thousands of millions of dollars in less than thirty years. The taxes which yielded so rich returns during war time were not only customs, but were many kinds of A Second Era of Ecoyiomic Progress. 335 internal revenue dues as well. Besides taxes on spirits and malt liquors, there were stamp duties on all manner of business paper, on matches, on manufactured tobacco, license fees for peddling, and many others. With the end of the war these excises were reduced as speedily Reduction of •111 '^■''"• as possible, so that now, besides the bank tax, there are internal revenue dues levied only on liquors and to- bacco. The duties paid at the custom- houses have, as has been the case from the beginning of the government , afforded the prin- cipal means of fed- eral income. One of the last acts of President Buchan- an, the last Demo- cratic president be- fore the Civil War, was to sign the Morrill Tariff Act. This act raised the duties which had been lowered by the tariffs of 1846 and 1S57, and again adjusted the tariff to a system of protection. Subsequent amendments raised the rates still higher, and, on the whole, from that time to this the protective principle has been maintained. The Republican party as originally formed, or as it came out of the Civil War, was by no Chester A. Arthur. Born, 1830 ; died, i8S6. Educated at Union Col- lege; lawyer; quartermaster-general, state of New York, 1S61-2 ; collector, port of New York ; vice-president of the United States, t88i ; presi- dent, on the death of President Garfield. The Morrill tariff. 336 The Growth of the Aincrican Nation. The Republi- cans for pro- tection. Tariff reform. Election of Cleveland, iS means wholly a party of protection. The main issues then related to the authority of the nation and to slavery. But the large Whig composition of the new party sufficed to give it a bias toward protection. After the war, how- ever, a considerable number of influential Republicans began to urge a reform of the tariff in the direction of free trade. It will be remembered that the Walker low tariff of 1846 coincided practically with the English movement for free trade, and the change produced by the Morrill Act and the subsequent amendments were a reaction against that tendency in this country. Congress modified the tariff rates somewhat in 1872 and again in 1883. But the protective principle was untouched. The Democratic party, while by no means united for low tariff, on the whole favored a reduction, and in 1887-88 very nearly carried an act for lower rates. It passed the House, but failed in the Senate. A prominent leader of the Republicans after the war, and an ardent advocate of the system of j^rotection, was James G. Blaine, of Maine. As speaker of the House of Representatives he had commanding influence in the party, and in 1884 he secured the presidential nom- ination. At the election, however, Grover Cleveland, the Democratic governor of New York, was chosen president, carrying the great state of New York and thus the presidency by the slender plurality of 1,100 votes. This was the first time since Buchanan re- tired that a Democratic president had occupied the White House. Mr. Cleveland's election would have been impossible if the people had not become convinced that the war issues were finally settled. In 1887 the president called the attention of Congress to the grow- ing surplus in the treasury, resulting from the high tariff rates, and to what he considered to be the inequitable A Second Ei^a of Ecoiiomic Progress. 337 working of the protective system. The bill which em- bodied his views failed to pass, as has been seen, and at the presidential election of 1888 the Republicans were again successful. However, the course of President Cle\'eland resulted in committing the Democratic party definitely to the policy of low tariff. A considerable portion of the party, especially in the old Middle States, had stead- ily favored pro- tection. Benjamin Harrison of Indi- ana succeeded to the presidency in 1889. And in the following year the Republican meas- ures for dealing with the tariff and the treasury sur- plus became laws. The M c K i n 1 e y . James G. Blaine. Tariff Act of 1890 Born, 1830; died, 1892. Teacher ; journalist ; niem- j 1 ber of Congress, 1863-77; United States senator, reclUCea revenue 1877-81; secretary of state, iSSi and 1S89-93 ; can- 1 1 • ii didate for the presidency, 1S84. by enlargmg the free list, at the same time raising the rates of duty on many manufactured articles. And the surplus was further reduced by an act making still more liberal the already generous provisions for the pension of soldiers of the Civil War. The disbursements to pensioners in 1889 were over $88,000,000, the greatest amount which Defeat of Cleve- land, 1S88. The McKinley Act, 1S90. 338 The Growth of the American Nation. The sugar bounty. Free sugar. had up to that time been paid out for that purpose in any one year. The pension disbursements for 1890 were $106,000,000, for 1891 $118,000,000, for 1892 $141,000,000, for 1893 $158,000,000, and for 1894 $140,000,000. The pension payments for any one of these last five years exceeded the whole national debt incurred by the two wars with England. Another distinctive feature of the Mc- Kinley Act was the sugar bounty. The sugar consumed in the United States in the year 1890 amounted to nearly a million and a half of tons, of which only about a quarter of a million was do- mestic product. The protective duty on this article, mainly for the benefit of the Louisiana planters, served to raise the price of the whole amount consumed by the people, without any apparent likelihood that the domestic prod- uct would ever equal the home demand. On the other hand, to remove the duty altogether would have the certain effect to destroy the Louisiana industry, which could not compete in price with the cheap product of Cuba. Accordingly, the McKinley Act put sugar on the free list, thus reducing the price of the commodity and at the same time reducing the surplus in the treasury Grover Cleveland. Born, 1837. Lawyer; sheriff of Erie County, New York, 1871-4 ; mayor of Buffalo, N. Y., 1S82 ; governor of New York, 1SS3-5; presi- dent of the United States, 1885-9, and 1893—. A Second Era of Economic Progress. 339 by many millions. Then to prevent the destruction of the Louisiana interest a bounty was offered from the treasury on all sugars and molasses, whether from cane, beet, maple, or sorghum, produced in the United States. And this was to continue for fifteen years. The Pension and the McKinley Acts together sufficed Political results . T-. 1 1 oftheMcKinley to reduce the surplus m the treasury. But they proved Act. exceedingly unpopular, and at the elections in 1890 the Democrats carried the Lower House of Congress. In 1892 they had a sweeping victory in the nation, again electing Mr. Cleveland to the presidency and now secur- ing both Houses of Congress. Thus for the first time since 1861 the Demo- V^l^^^^^Hi. UiWip|^ cratic party found it self in control of tin entire executive and legislative branche- of the national go\ ernment. The result at th( first regular session ol Congress was the enactment of the Wilson Tariff Bill. This act lowered the duties in general, put wool, salt, and lumber on the free list, re- stored the duty on sugar, and repealed the sugar bounty provision. Another striking feature of this law was an elaborate provision for a tax on all incomes exceeding $4,000. The bill as it passed the House was decidedly a more positive low tariff measure than the Benjamin Harrison. Born, 1833. Educated at Miami University; lawyer ; brigadier-general of volunteers in the Civil War ; United States senator, 1881-7 ; president of the United States, 1889-93. 340 The Grozvth of the American Nation. The income tax uncon- stitutional. Expansion of the republic. Immigration. Exclusion of the Chinese. act as it became law. Some of the Democratic sena- tors combined with the Republicans in that body in the interest of protection. President Cleveland was so dis- satisfied with the revenue reform character of the amended bill that he refused to sign it, allowing it to become a law by the lapse of the constitutional period of ten days. It may be added that the constitutionality of the in- come tax was attacked in the courts, and in May, 1895, the Supreme Court declared that it was unconstitutional and void. The great revenues which enabled the government to pay off the national debt at so unparalleled a rate came from a commerce which grew and thrived mightily. The last thirty years have seen an expansion of the re- public no greater relatively than at previous epochs, but its totals are such as to try the imagination. The popu- lation in 1890, 62,000,000, was twice that of i860. There has been a flood of immigration from Europe since the Civil War. In the single year 1882 the arrivals were 789,000, and not far from a half million have come yearly since about that time. A large part of this movement of population has gone westward, induced by the home- stead policy adopted in 1862. A free farm has been a powerful magnet. In the Northwestern States large numbers of Scandinavians have settled, and they have as- similated American ideas rapidly. Germans also have come by thousands, bringing their native thrift and keen intelligence, and natives of the British Isles are found everywhere. Since the improvement of navigation has made ocean transportation cheap, many less desirable immigrants have come, and it is a question whether the extraordinary power of assimilation thus far displayed can go on forever. Certainly on the Pacific coast the Asiatic immigrants are not such as can be made into A Second Era of Economic Progress. 341 American citizens, and it is on that ground that their further importation has been restricted by law. One striking result of the great increase of population has been the addition of new states to the Union. The great western wilderness of i860 has now been formed into a cluster of thriving states. Nevada was admitted in 1864, Nebraska in 1867, Colorado in 1876, North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington in 1889, Idaho and Wyoming in 1890, and Utah will be a state in 1896. A Grain Elevator in Chicago. The only territories remaining are Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Alaska — the last being only partially organized. Alaska was the old Russian America, and was purchased in 1867, for $7,200,000. This is the last acquisition of foreign territory thus far. In 1893 the republic of Hawaii applied for annexation, and Presi- dent Harrison negotiated a treaty. But the Senate de- layed action until after the inauguration of Mr. Cleve- The territories. 342 The Grozvth of the American Nation. Railroads. Economic results. land, who withdrew the treaty. Hawaii was civiUzed by the influence of American settlers, and American capital dominates the islands. The rapid settlement of the vast region west of the Mississippi has been made possible by the extension of the railroad system. In 1869 the first through line to the Pacific was opened, and since then a series of such lines has crossed the continent. Meanwhile the rest of the Union has become gridironed with tracks. The total mileage in i860 was 30,626. In 1893 it was 177,- 753. And the improvement lies not merely in the num- ber of miles of track. The capacity to move freight and passengers has increased far more rapidly than mileage. Steel, since the decade beginning with 1870, has re- placed iron in the rails, the roadbeds are heavier, the roads have fewer curves and lower gradients, bridges are of steel, tracks are double, cars are larger, engines more powerful, trains make much better time, and hundreds of other improvements are supplied. But the most marked result of all is the cheapening of transportation. The average cost of carrying a ton of freight one mile is a little less than one cent. When the Civil War broke out, the cost was upwards of three cents. This cheapening of transportation, together with im- proved facilities for carrying perishable articles, like fruits and meats, has revolutionized economic conditions. The whole world is brought next door, and prices of all com- modities have tended to become lower to the consumer. At the same time great areas of land have become pro- ductive, because they are within reach of a market, and hence, as has been said, the rapid settlement of what was the great western wilderness. But the New West, with its great mines, its cattle ranges, and wheat-fields capable of feeding the world, A Second Ei'a of Economic Progress. 343 its busy and crowded cities, its schools and libraries and colleges, is only one of the new sections of the republic. The New South is another. Gradually after the war the The New -' South. k\x Statue of Henry VV. Gradv, Atla.nta, Ga. Mr. Grady, a leading southern journalist, had a powerful influence, which he exerted to restore friendship between North and South. patient energy of the impoverished people de\'Oted to their rich natural resources began to ripen into abundant fruits. Capital began to flow southward. Cotton was raised with free labor in much greater quantities even than in the lordly days before the war. Cotton factories Cotton. A restored '344 The Growth of the American Nation. began to spring up in the midst of the staple. Mines of coal and iron began to be developed. Manufacturing towns — Birmingham and Chattanooga — great centers of commerce, like Atlanta — sprang up and grew like the great cities of the West. Above all, gradually the old sectional bitterness of the war began to die out. People North as well as South came to learn that the war and its issues were ended. Southern people are once more nation. activc and influential in national politics. The North is more and more disposed to realize that the peculiar problems of southern social life can best be worked out by the southern people themselves. And nowhere is there to-day more loyalty to the nation than in the New South. A new generation has grown up. Tolerance and kindly feeling are daily growing. Those of each section are learning that the others, too, fought for a principle — that both were heroic. And all can afford to forget the passions of the struggle and remember only the gallant deeds of the heroes in both armies. CHAPTER XXVII. SOME QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. References. — Laughlin ; The Congressional Globe ; Knox : United States Notes. When the Civil War broke out, tliere was immedi- .1 -1 1 r \\T ' Currency and ately a pressing demand lor money. War is an expen- banking! sive luxury, and needs ready cash in large amounts. The government found the treasury almost bankrupt, and at first was afraid to lay the heavy taxes which would have provided the needed income. Meanwhile gold was ex- ported and hoarded, and in the last days of i86i specie payments were suspended by the banks. That left no circulating medium but the notes of state banks. Ac- cordingly, in 1862, it was determined to issue United States paper demand notes which should be a legal ten- der. With these notes, "greenbacks" they were famil- iarly called, the government undertook to pay its bills. a^c't'^Flbruary'^'^ In the years 1862 and 1863 $450,000,000 of them were '^^-• issued. By that time the inevitable depreciation of such issues, so familiar whenever the attempt to float them is made, had proceeded very far, and further issue was stopped. Meanwhile all the fractional silver had fol- lowed the gold out of the country, and the government had to fill its place also with paper. By this time bonds had been provided, and their sale, , -111 • 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 National bank- together with the heavier taxes which should have at once ing law, 1863. been laid in 1861, enabled the treasury to meet its en- gagements. In 1863 an act was passed providing for the organization of national banks. They were required 345 Gold at a pre- Bolles, III., 141. 346 The Grozvth of the American Nation. to deposit United States bonds with the treasury at Washington as security for currency they might issue. In 1865 a tax of ten per cent was laid on the currency of state banks. By this means that form of currency was forced out of circulation, and banks which wished the privilege of issuing currency were driven to become national banks. When the war closed gold was at a high premium. fnium- ' The highest point had been reached in 1864, when a gold dollar was worth $2.85 in paper. What this really meant was that a greenback dollar was worth about thirty-five cents in gold. But as the likelihood increased that the legal tender notes would one day be paid, their * price in gold rose. It was the desire of the secretary of the treasury under President Johnson, Hugh McCul- loch, to make immediate preparations for the resumption of specie payments and the payment of the debt. And to that end he proposed first of all to pay off the green- back notes. This was done gradually, until this form of 1868. the debt had been reduced to $356,000,000. But the war was followed by a period of speculation in business. Expansion was seen on all sides, and soon The greenbacks there began to be an outcry against a reduction of the currency. To this outcry Congress responded by for- bidding any further payment of the demand notes, and so that amount ($356,000,000) has since remained afloat. The trouble was that people had become accus- tomed to use the greenbacks as money and failed to un- derstand that they were not money at all, but only promises to pay money. It is the old confusion of ideas which almost every generation has to have cleared up by having sound notions beaten into the head by hard experience. So far had this delusion gone that in 1874 Congress passed a bill to increase the amount of legal Some Questions of the Day. 347 tender greenbacks to $400,000,000. But President Grant vetoed the bill. And after efforts of the inflation- ists in this direction came to naught. "Fiat money," so far as paper was concerned, made no further head- way. But now another popular idea about the currency sprang up. Under the act of 1834, ^s has been seen, gold drove the dearer silver out of circulation. A silver dollar was worth more than a gold dollar, and so was no longer in use. And the fractional silver was only kept afloat by becoming mere token money, under the act of 1853. Ii"* 1873 an act was passed to regulate the currency. By this act the coinage of silver dollars The act of 1873. was ordered discontinued. And in 1874 the revised statutes of the United States limited the legal tender power of all silver coins to the amount of five dollars. It is often said that by the act of 1873 silver was demon- etized surreptitiously. But the act was before Congress two years. The debates filled many columns of the Co7igressional Globe. It was well understood that the silver dollar was to be dropped. The fact excited little attention, because nobody cared. In point of fact, neither silver nor gold was in common circulation, as specie payments had not yet been resumed. And gold had really been the measure of values for nearly forty years. That same year, 1873, marked the culmination of a The panic of period of over-speculation which followed the war. The ^^'^^' bubble burst. And a business panic like those of '37 and '57 spread ruin far and wide. Prices of all com- modities fell. And people found it hard to get a simple living. But this panic at once accelerated the political move- „. ^ '^ Cheap money. ment for cheap money. In the various speculative en- 348 The Growth of the American Nation. terprises of the preceding years, especially in the West, everybody had borrowed largely. And now no one was making money. Land values and stocks dropped. Agricultural products could only be sold at a low pi'ice. But the principal and interest of the debts to eastern capitalists remained fixed. And many people began to think that it would be no more than right if these debts See p. 347. could be paid in some kind of cheaper money which could still be called "dollars." We have seen how the paper inflation bill of 1874 was killed by the veto. In 1875 the Republican Congress, as one of its last ^ acts before giving way to its Democratic successor elected Resumption of _ o o j specie pay- i^ the previous year, made a law providinsf for the re- sumption of specie payments on the first of January, 1879. In the decade besfinninsf in 1870, there was a general The gold stand- . . . . . ard in Europe. European movement in the direction of substituting a single gold standard for the double standard of gold and silver. Germany did this in 187 1. In 1874 the Latin Union (France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy) stopped the free coinage of silver, and in 1878 stopped its coinage altogether. Great Britain was already on the gold standard (since 18 16), and Holland and the Scandinavian countries followed in the same course. This widespread change was made possible by the very great increase in the production of gold after the dis- coveries in California and Australia, about the middle of the century. Since 1850 there has been more gold added to the world's stock than in all the years up to that date since the discovery of America. Thus the act of Congress of 1873 was in line with ofsiiver. ^^"*^^ what the rest of the world was doing. But a few years later silver, which had been fairly steady in price for many years, suddenly dropped in the London market. Some Questions of the Day. 349 The demand in European states had practically ceased. And just then the American mines began to yield in enormously greater quantities. This latter cause alone would have caused the price of silver to fall. Then there was urgent pressure for the remonetization of silver. In 1S78 the silver dollar again became a legal The act of 1878. tender, and the treasury was obliged to buy a certain amount of silver each month and to coin it. Certificates were issued for the silver thus coined, and it was these certificates, and not the coins, which actually circulated. In 1890 this act was followed by another, extending still Theact of 1890. further the government purchases. In 1893 Grover Cleveland was a second time inaugu- rated president. And in a few days he, like Van Buren, 1893. was confronted with a great business panic. The steady purchases of silver by the government since 1878 had not prevented the continuous fall of the price. And in 1893 India, which had been a great market for silver, also closed its mints to silver coinage. There were doubt and uncertainty as to the future conditions of busi- ness. Banks failed in great numbers. Cash seemed to disappear. In the midst of this distress a special session of Congress was convened, and the act of 1890 was re- pealed. But this did not rescue the country from busi- ness disaster. Only in 1895 are there signs of renewed prosperity. But tariffs and currency, important as they are, have Education and not exhausted the activities of the republic of to-day. In '■^i's^'°"- all lines of social life there has been growth as marked as in material development. The churches are strongly or- ganized and vigorously alive to the needs of the times. Schools were never so numerous or so well supported. The American system of free public education is firmly established in all the states, and in the West and South 350 The Grozvth of the Ainerican Nation. The civil service. is extended to the higher education. The great state universities, like those of Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota, count their students by thousands. And the older institutions, Harvard and Yale and Columbia, were never so thronged as now. The spoils system introduced into our national admin- istration in Jackson's time has sufficed to demoralize politics in all the states. Each change of parties has been accompanied by a " clean sweep ' ' of federal offi- cials. The efficiency of public service has been lessened. The time of administrative officers, from the president down, has been largely consumed in deciding the distri- bution of offices among partisan followers. And at last the life of the chief magistrate fell a sacrifice to the perni- cious system. In 1880 the Republican candidate, James A. Garfield of Ohio, was chosen president. He was in- augurated in March, 1881. And in the following July , Garfield, 1881. while about to take the train to attend the commence- ment exercises of his alma mater, Williams College, the president was shot by a half-crazed office-seeker who had not succeeded in securing the appointment he de- sired. After a few weeks of suffering President Garfield died and Vice-president Arthur succeeded to his duties. President Grant made an effort to secure a reform in the The civil serv- ice act, 1883. civil service, but without much avail. In 1883, however, an act was passed which provided for a national civil service commission, and for the introduction of the merit system into a portion of the administrative departments. Since then considerable progress has been made in the extension of that system, and it now seems likely that the time is not distant when spoils politics will disappear. With the great development in complexity of social Labor reform, life many of the problems which are so pressing in Eu- rope are also just as obviously urgent here. The demo- Assassination of Some Questions of the Day. 351 cratic trend of the age is plainly apparent everywhere, but nowhere more than in the democratic republic. And one of its most conspicuous forms is the great im- provement in the condition of those who work with their hands. Wages tend upward and hours of toil tend to lessen. But this is accompanied with bitter strife at times between employers and employed. Neither class has yet learned the golden secret of peaceable coopera- tion. The form which modern society is taking is more and gonial organ- more that of organization. Isolated attempts of capitalists 'nation, to transact business on a small scale are changed for combined action, whereby cost is reduced, efficiency is multiplied, and so profits are swollen. Railroad and telegraph lines are united in great systems. The same „ 25 1 . Corporations is done with many forms of manufacturing. And, finally, and trusts, rival companies have combined in the shape of trusts for the elimination of excessive competition. Among labor- ing men the same process is apparent. ' ' Unions ' ' and "orders" are numerous, and not infrequently attempts _ ^ -^ _ _ Labor unions. are made at their combination into still more inclusive associations. The result of organization among work- ingmen has been on the whole a gain, although too fre- quently unwise leadership has precipitated needless and costly strikes. And at times these have led to riots which it has taken military force to put down. Another very striking form of modern life is the aggre- ^^^ develop- gation of people in cities. This is distinctively an urban ment ofcmes. age. The rapidity with which transportation and the transmission of intelligence are effected has made it pos- sible for masses to live close together. And the indus- trial arts which modern inventions have created make this condensing of population profitable and necessary. Accordingly the towns and cities have far outstripped 352 The Growth of the American Nation. Great increase in urban popu- lation. Failure in our methods in governing cities. The temperance reform. the rural communities in the present century. At the time of the first census (1790) only about three per cent of the American people lived in cities. There were only six cities with a population exceeding 8,000. Phil- adelphia was the metropolis, with 42,000 people, and New York came next with 33,000. In 1890 there were 437 cities with 8,000 or more, containing in all twenty- nine per cent of the whole population of the country. New York had a million and a half people, and Chicago and Philadelphia each over a million. And the rapidity of growth is as extraordinary. Chicago had 4,000 peo- ple in 1840, less than 30,000 in 1850, 109,000 in i860, nearly 300,000 in 1870, half a million in 1880, over a million in 1890. Minneapolis, Omaha, Denver, are great and beautiful cities to-day. Before the Civil War they hardly existed. Our frame of government was devised for a rural pop- ulation. When applied to the crowded masses of a great city like New York it has not worked to perfection. Corruption and inefficiency have been too conspicuous in nearly all our large urban communities. Organized gangs of plunderers, masquerading under the name of national political parties, have seized city government and disgraced the American name by dishonesty and mismanagement. There is no problem more grave than that of rescuing civic life from this corrupt and corrupt- ing influence. Drunkenness is a vice apparently as old as human society. In the present century there has been a great and determined movement for its suppression. This has at first taken the direction of mere moral suasion addressed to individuals. But later it has entered public life, and in some shape is embodied in the legislation of many states. Some, like Maine, have prohibited the Some Questions of the Day. 353 manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors to be used as beverages. Others, like Minnesota, have high license laws — allowing liquors to be sold, but exacting a license fee of $r,ooo in large cities and $500 in small ones. South Carolina has enacted a state monopoly of dis- pensing this kind of merchandise, thus insuring liquors against adulteration and at the same time making it pos- sible to regulate the sale easily. The whole question is made more difficult by the fact that so many people of High licenses. The Brooklyn Bridge. European birth and education ha\'e been added to our European number. With them the use of wines and malt liquors '^"stoms. is accompanied with quite different results and ideas from those to which Americans are accustomed. The American saloon is an institution indigenous to our soil, The saloon, like potatoes and tobacco. But it has hardly proved a blessing. These are but a {^w of the many social questions which are crowding upon us. They need for their settle- • ment the ripest wisdom which can be attained. 354 '^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. Foreign policy. The French in Mexico. A new inter- national position. To-morrow. Meanwhile the United States is a nation among na- tions, and its foreign relations are often of grave inter- est. The Monroe Doctrine has become a well-settled principle. Since the destruction of slavery there is no longer a disposition to grasp at territorial acquisition at the expense of adjacent powers. But, on the other hand, the great republic cannot permit its weaker neighbors to be oppressed by any European injustice. While the Civil War was absorbing all our energies, France, under the Second Empire, invaded Mexico and set up an im- perial government in that republic, with Maximilian of Austria on the throne. The United States steadily pro- tested against this proceeding, but without avail. In 1865, however, the Civil War was ended, and a great veteran army was available. The courteous remon- strances of the United States thereafter had more weight at Napoleon's foreign office, and after a decent interval the French armies were withdrawn from Mexico. The empire of Maximilian at once fell, and that unhappy prince was captured and shot. The world is narrower than it was in Jefferson's time. Steam and electricity bind the nations together. And so we cannot be indifferent to what is going on across the seas. "Peace and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none, " is a maxim from which we shall not be likely to depart. But as one of the great powers we owe something to the advance of humanity throughout the globe. We are creating a modern navy for our protection against aggression. We shall not use it to oppress others. But it, like the armies of 1865, will give weight to our opinions in international questions. And as the century draws to its close we realize that we are no longer colonies ; we are no longer commer- Some Questions of the Day. 355 cially dependent on the whims of European beUigerents, as in the time of the Napoleonic wars ; we are no longer provincially dependent on European opinion, as before our own Civil War. As a nation the republic has ripened The republic into mature life. And at the same time we see plainly "'^'"'■^• that the work which lies before us is even more momen- tous than any which this eventful century of ours has wrought. The United States Capitol at Washington. INDEX. Abolitionists, 275, 282-3, 291. Acadians, 45. Adams, John, 103, 126, 131-2. Adams, John Quincy, 1S9, 191, 200. Alabama Claims, 331. Albany conference, 84. Alien and Sedition Laws, 135. America, 15, 19, 20. American neutrality, 120. American representation, 72. Americus Vespucius, 20, note, 22. Appointing; power, 105. Bancroft, George, 56, 267. Bank of the United States, 112, 195, 237. 252. Bell, John, 307. Berlin decree, 167. Blaine, James G., 336. Blockades, 166. Boston, 34, 78. Braddock, 48. Brazil, 22. Breckinridge, 30S. Brook Farm, 266. • Bryant, William CuUen, 267. Buchanan, James, 304-5. Burgoyne, 81. Burr, Aaron, 136, 216. Cabinet organized, 105. Cabot, John, 22. Calhoun, J. C, 193, 227, 231, 247. California, 288, 292, 301. Carolinas, 32, 325. " Carpet-bag " government, 325. Cartier, 40. Cass, Lewis, 291. Champlain, 40. Christendom in the fifteenth century, 16. Cities, 143- 351- Civil service, 156, 216, 226, 350. Civilization, in fifteenth century, 18 ; in colonies, 59-67. Clarke, George Rogers, 82, 83, note, 90. Clay, Henry, 192, 200, 244, 286, 294. Cleveland, Grover, 336, 337, 339. Climate, effect of, 26. Clinton, De Witt, 208. Colleges, 58. Colonization, 17, 24, 26, 30, 37, 43. Columbus, iS-20. Compromise of 1S50, 293, 294, 301. Connecticut, 35, 275. Constitutional construction, 124, 152, 154, 214, 232. Constitutional Convention, 93, 276. Continental Congress, 79, 85, 86. Cooper, J. F., 267. Cornwallis, S3. Corporations, 259. Cotton, 277-8, 343. County system, 219. Crawford, 200. Cumberland Road, 204. Cunard, 296. Currency, 87, 235-8, 300, 345-9. Curtis, George W., 266. Da Gama, 18. Dallas, A. J., 193, 195. Dallas, Geo. M., 2S7. Davis, Jefterson, 309. Debt, national, 107-10, 155-6, 239, 334. Delaware. 66. Detroit, 175. Douglas, Stephen A., 302, 311. Dred Scott case, 305-6, 307. Dutch, 25, 37, 46, 56. Education, 57, 218, 349. Emancipation Proclamation, 314. 358 Index. Embargo, 122, 169, 206. Emerson, R. W., 267. English colonial system, 61-2. English settlements, 23, 26, 29. English settlers, 31, 42, 68. Era of good feeling, 1S9. Erie Canal, 208, 217. Excise, III. Federalist party, 123-33, 137-8. i47. 159- Fisheries, 60, 116. Florida, 283, 301. Fort Sumter, 310, 313. France, trouble with, 132. Franklin, Benjamin, 59, 68, 71, 84. Free Soil party, 291, 301, 304. French and English, 43, 47. French in Mexico, 354. French Revolution, iiS, 132, 138. French settlements, 23, 26, 40. French settlers, 24, 42. Fugitive Slave Law, 293, 294, 301. Fulton, Robert, 207, 295. Gage, 79. Gallatin, Albert, 155. Garfield, J. A., 333, 350. Garrison, William Lloyd, 282. Genet, 120-1. George IIL, 73. Georgia, 32. Ghent, treaty of, 181, 189. Grady, H. W., 343. Grant, U. S.,313, 325. Greeley, Horace, 267, 328. Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 290. Hamilton, Alexander, 106, 107, 1 10-15, 129, 134, 147. 190- Harrison, Benjamin, 337. Harrison, William Henry, 177, 179, 251-4. Hartford Convention, 273. Harvard, 34, 58. Hawthorne, 266. Hayes, R. B., 330. Hudson, Henry, 37. Huguenots, 32, 56. Illinois, 158. Immigration, 119, 144, 340. Impressment of seamen, 122. Income tax, 340. Indians, 20, 28, 82. Indies, 18, 20, 37, 117. Internal improvements, 202-9. Inventions, 143, 277, 295, 299. Irving, Washington, 267. Jackson, Andrew, 192, 200, 210, 222-5. Jamestown, 30. Jay, John, 106, 123, 147, 216, 218. Jefferson, Thomas, 105, 125, 126, 136-7, 144-5, 148, 159-63. 169-70. 204. Johnson, Andrew, 323. Joliet, 41. Kansas, 302-3. Kentucky, 116, 139, 142, 152. Ku Klux Klan, 327. La Salle, 41. Lee, R. E., 312, 315, 322. Lexington, 79. Liberal Republicans, 32S. Lincoln, Abraham, 307, 322, 323. Literature, 266. Local government, 213-23. London Company, 29. Longfellow, H. W., 267. Louisburg, 45, 48, 49. Louisiana, 49, 153, 278-9. Lovejoy, E. P., 283. Madison, James, 182. Magellan, 20. Maine, 35, 280. Manufactures, 115, 192, 234, 295. Marquette, 41. Marshall, John, 133, 157, 240. Maryland, 31, 90. Mayflower, zi- McKinley Act, 337-9. Mexican War, 288. Missouri Compromise, 196, 276, 293, 303- Monroe Doctrine, 126, 197. Monroe, James, 191. Morse, 298. National banks, 345. Naturalization Act, 135. Navigation Act, 61. Navy department, 163. New Hampshire, 35, 275. New Jersey plan, 94. New Orleans, 178. New Sweden, 39. New York, 38, 214-18, 275. Newspapers, 60, 267, 299. Index. 359 Non-intercourse, 171. Northwest Territory, 139. Nullification, 230-3, 269. Ohio, 140, 158. Orders in Council, 166, 167, 175. Ordinance of 1787, 275. Oregon, 2S6. Panics, 194, 241, 306, 347, 349. Paper money, 87, 92, 345. Paris, treaty of, 49. Pennsylvania, 36, 275. Perry, Oliver Hazard, 179. Pierce, Franklin, 302. Pilgrims, 33. Piiickney, C. C, 132, 136, 146. Plymouth Company, 33. Political parties, 118, 123-33, i45. iSo, 190, 245, 291,301,304. Polk, James K., 2S5. Population, 55, 63, 158, 295, 29S. Portuguese, 21, 25. Quebec, 40, 47, 49. Quebec Act, 78. Queenstown, 176. Railroads, 297, 342. Reconstruction, 321. Religion, 57, 261, 264, 349. Rhode Island, 34, 97, 275. Ryswick, treaty of, 47. Salem, 34. Scott, Winfield, 289, 301. Secession, 230, 309. Seward, W. H., 216, 247 Sewing machine, 299. Slaves, 31, 55, 95, 273-Si, 290, 294, 305-8, 321. Social life, 61-5, 127, 144, 258. Socialism, 265. Spanish Americans, 197. Spanish settlements, 25. Specie circular, 243. Spoils system, 216, 226, 250. Stamp Act, 70, 75, 79. State rights, 273-81, 310. Steamboats, 207, 295. Suffrage, 128, 215, 260,327. Taney, R. B., 240. Tariffs, 106, 190, 193, 196, 210, 225, 287, 306, 335- Taylor, Zachary, 288, 291. Telegraph, electric, 298. Temperance, 265, 352. Tennessee, 116, 139, 142, 173, 325. Texas, 257, 284, 285, 286, 301, 325. Tilden,S.J., 329. Tobacco, 27-8, 31, 61. Town-meetings, 66, 219. Townshend, Charles, 69. Tripoli, 163. Tyler, John, 248, 254-6. Utrecht, treaty of, 47. Van Buren, Martin, 222, 22S, 240, 248, 285. Vermont, 116, 275. Verrazano, 40. Virginia, 29, 325. War, Civil, 313-15. War, Mexican, 288. War of 1S12, 173-83. Washington City, no, 177, 189. Washington, George, So, 93, 103, 125, 127, 12S, 133. Washington, treaty of, 331. Wayne, Anthony, 141. Webster, Daniel, 245, 293. Weed, Thurlow, 247. West \'irgiiiia, 322. Western lands, 89, 139, 205. Whig party, 245, 291, 302. Whisky Rebellion, 112. Whitney, Eli, 142, 277. Williams, Roger, 34. Wilmot proviso, 290. Wilson Act, 339. Writs of assistance, 75. X Y Z papers, 133, 134. Vale College, 58. Yorktown, battle of, 83. MAP SHOWING TERRITORY ACQUIRED BY THE UNITED STATES FROM 1783-1895 Lunijitude West from Greenuirli ;^fi;t;^;