-n^.o^ "oV^ ^Mr^ ^0 .^ v^^'y %'^^/ V^^\/ "°^*^^'. ■ ^'' 1^ 4 ^ «• ^: ^^ ^^ ^'. >.*5' 'J^.^ /^^ A HISTORY THE UNITED STATES AMERICA. INTENDED FOR STUDENTS IN SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES AND AT HOME, AND FOR GENERAL READERS. ROBERT REID HOWISON, AUTHOR OF "a HISTORY OF VIRGINIA" AND OTHER WORKS, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. RICHMOND, VA.: Everett Waddey Company, Publishers and Printers. 1892. COPYRIGHT BY EVERETT WADDEY CO. I89I. v^'\i Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by Everett Wjddev Co., 1112 Main Street, Bichmond, Va. PREFACE. T^HIS work ig intended not only for studious boys and girls in schools and academies and for young people in colleges and universities, but for gen- eral readers at home and for all who desire intelligently to study the history of the United States and to profit thereby. Its preparation has followed the careful reading and study of a large amount of historical material, printed and in manuscript, purporting to give United States history, or special parts thereof. This material em- braced the school histories of Goodrich, Scott, Stephens, Holmes, McGill, McCabe, Thalheimer, Quackenbos, Ridpath, Derry, Blackburn & Mc- Donald, Steele, Barnes & Co., Ellis, Anderson, Venable, Eggleston, Swin- ton, Scudder, John Pym Carter, and the ingenious " History of the United States in Words of One Syllable," by Mrs. Helen W. Pierson, and also the more elaborate works of Bancroft, Hildreth, Draper, A. H. Stephens, Alex- ander Johnston, Henry Adams, Edward D. Neill, Charles Deane, Thomas H. Benton, Jefferson Davis, Raphael Semmes, the "Household United States" of Edward Eggleston, the "Centennial" of C. B.Taylor, the two thoughtful works, entitled " The Lost Principle " and " The Republic as a Form of Gov- ernment," by John Scott, of Fauquier, Va. ; the compilation and sketches en- titled "The Genesis of the United States," by Alexander Brown ; the " Nar- rative and Critical History of America," by Justin Winsor ; the " Letters and Times of the Tylers," by Lyon G. Tyler, and many encyclopedic articles and other works furnishing material for American history. Numerous and varied as are the excellencies of these works, they all aided in producing a conviction that a space was left unfilled, and that another work was needed differing in some important respects from each and all of them; hence, came the preparation and offering to the public of this "Stu- dent's History of the United States." The elements in which it is believed to differ from one, or more, or all, of its predecessors in this field, may be briefly summed up as follows. The objects sought herein have been — (i) To embrace in one volume a minute and comprehensive statement and view of all the really important facts of our history. (2) To put into the text of the work whatever is important to the student or reader, and not to distract his attention by throwing into notes and appendices matter often the most interesting and impressive. [ 5 ] 6 Preface. (3) To give full and accurate references to authorities, so as to enable the student to explore the sources of the evidence, and to expand his researches, if he be so inclined. (4) To trace carefully the origin and progress in the "Old World" of the principles, institutions, usages and errors which most deeply aiTected the colonists in North America. (5) To narrate colonial periods, not in those dry forms which ordinarily chronicle the coming of Spaniards, French, English, Dutch, and other Europeans, and which have been so heavy a tax on the patien'ce and powers of attention of young students, but in the forms of fresh reality, which finally crystallized into thirteen separate colonies, republics and sovereign States. (6) To give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as far as obtainable, on all the subjects which make up the soul and body of the history of the United States. Errors, omissions, and falsehoods in his- tory generally originate in prepossession or prejudice, rather than in igno- rance or want of evidence. Truth has always been a bitter and unwelcome medicine to people diseased with partisanship or sectionalism; but it is the only medicine that will cure. (7) To demonstrate that the civilization of the United States is based on the principles of democracy; not the democracy of party politics, but the elemental principle, existing in all ages and illumined by all experience, that monarchy and oligarchy are unsafe and oppressive modes of govern- ment ; and that, when properly controlled by morality, the people of any country can govern themselves by their chosen representatives. (8) To set forth clearly the causes which have led to the extermination of a large part of the Indian tribes of North America, and to indicate the only conditions which will preserve those remaining from a similar fate. (9) To discriminate definitely between the Revolution itself, which was effected in North America during the eighteenth century, and the events of the War of 1775-1783, which made the Revolution successful. (10) To prove, from established or universally admitted facts, that the doctrine of the separate sovereignty and rights of the States underlies the whole structure of the government of the United States, and that if this foundation be destroyed the structure will fall into hopeless ruin. (11) But to prove also that although the right of each State to secede, for sufficient cause, from the Union existed, yet a compact or treaty of union also existed, and all the States had sovereign right to judge concerning the sufficiency of the cause. (12) To recognize and give full place and power to the supernatural ele- ment in the history of the United States. Under these twelve heads will be found the elements in which this work differs from its predecessors in the same field. Some minor points also re- quire notice. Preface. 7 Except in the case of the third day's battle of Gettysburg, all de- tailed narratives of the battles in the " War between the States " are studi- ously avoided. The reason for this will commend itself to any fair mind. The works and reports on the battles and movements of that war already amount to some hundreds of thousands of pages of printed matter ; and their conflicts of statement are hopelessly irreconcilable. Nevertheless, some facts are proved. The student will find in this work a record of every battle and every military movement of sufficient importance to aflfect the result. Enough is given to show that brilliant successes may do nothing more than prolong a war, and that the cause in which they are gained may be finally overthrown ; and that a series of defeats may be the agents which finally bring triumph to the cause of the belligerent sustaining them. Every war in this world has been a war of ideas, and a Divine Power has been "shaping their ends." This work has no maps nor parts of maps of any kind. It is a work on history and not on geography. Whenever relative localities become impor- tant in history it is best to describe them in words. Some general knowledge of geography, and of maps illustrating it, is a necessary preliminary to the intelligent study of any history, and especially of American history; but the maps ought not to be in the book of history. Very few pictorial illustrations will be found in this work. This has been a matter into which some thought and principle have entered. Our age is emphatically the age of object lessons and pictures. They swarm around us and crowd us everywhere — in works of fiction, science, philosophy, his- tory, geography, in magazines, periodicals, and in metropolitan and local newspapers; and probably no one source of influence has contributed more efficiently to lower the standard of thought and erudition than this. Object lessons are suited to children of infantile powers, and to the lower animals, because the ideas they convey are simple and uncombined. But lartguage has a higher mission. It is a Divine endowment given to man, because man is capable of abstract thought. He is capable of forming general ideas and of expressing them by a single word, which often holds in its embrace hun- dreds of separate elements. Language, therefore, and not "object lessons " and "pictorial illustrations" must be relied on as the instrument for educat- ing human beings when they pass out of childhood. Several lovers of history have aided this work by furnishing rare books and interesting manuscripts. To Hon. Robert P. Porter, Superintendent of the last United States Census, special acknowledgments are due for promptly forwarding, for use in this work, the successive "Census Bulletins." With this presentation of its object and nature, this work is respectfully oflfered to all who desire to study or review the history of the United States, Braehead, 7iear Fredericksburg, !'«., 1892. CONTENTS. PAGES. CHAPTER I. Ajiekica before Colonization from Europe 11-16 CHAPTER II. The Discovery of America 17-26 CHAPTER III. Early Voyages and Discoveries.— How America Gained her Name ...... 27-31 CHAPTER IV. Spain, Slavery and Gold 32-38 CHAPTER V. English and French Voyages to America 3iM3 CHAPTER VI. Old World Conditions as to Selk-Government, Religion and Slavery 44-50 CHAPTER VII. Slavery, Ancient and Modern 51-59 CHAPTER VIII. Colonization of Virginia 60-64 CHAPTER IX. Captain John Smith 65-70 CHAPTER X. The Virginia Colony Near to Death 71-78 CHAPTER XI. Pocahontas and Rolfe.— Spain's Oppo.sition.— Indian M.vssacre.— The London Company Dissolved 79-91 CHAPTER XII. Sir William Berkeley.— Charles 1 92-99 CHAPTER XIII. The Coming of the Puritans 100-107 CHAPTER XIV. M.'UiSACHUSETl'S COLONY 108-114 CHAPTER XV. Anne Hutchinson.— Roger Williams.— Quakers 115-122 CHAPTER XVI. Connecticut.— Alleged Blue Laws.— New York 123-128 CHAPTER XVII. Delaware.— New York.— Patroons 129-135 CHAPTER XVIII. New York.— New Jersey 136-140 CHAPTER XIX. Pennsylvania and her Friends 141-148 CHAPTER XX. Kings and Sir Edmund Andros 149-155 [ 8] Cotitents. 9 CHAPTER XXI. Maryland 156-162 CHAPTER XXII. The Carolinas and John Locke 163-178 CHAPTER XXIII. . Georgia and General Oglethorpe 179-188 CHAPTER XXIV. Early Indla.n Wars 189-200 CHAPTER XXV. Bigotry and Witchcraft 201-211 CHAPTER XXVI. The Germs of Revolution 212-219 CHAPTER XXVII. Nathaniel Bacon 220-233 CHAPTER XXVIII. New France in America 234-244 CHAPTER XXIX. King William's War 245-254 CHAPTER XXX. Queen Anne's War 255-264 CHAPTER XXXI. George the Second's Wars 265-270 CHAPTER XXXII. War of Anglo-A.merican Advance 271-279 CHAPTER XXXIII. Washington, Braddock, Montcalm, Wolfe 280-310 CHAPTER XXXIV. The Causes of the War of Revolution 311-355 CHAPTER XXXV. Washington.— Bunker's Hill.— Canada 355-372 CHAPTER XXXVI. The War of Revolution Continued 373-391 CHAPTER XXXVII. Princeton.— Bkandywine.—Germantown.— Valley Forge 392-408 CHAPTER XXXVIII. General Burgoy'ne's Campaign 409-427 CHAPTER XXXIX. British Efforts at Conciliation.— A War of Maraud and Dev.vstation . . . 428-142 CHAPTER XL. The War Transferred to the South 443-465 CHAPTER XL I. The War in the. South ' 466-484 CHAPTER XLII. The War Ended 485-502 CHAPTER XLIII. The Revolution Itself 503-539 CHAPTER XLIV. George Washington's Presidency ,.,,,., 510-566 lo Contents. CHAPTER XLV. The Presidency or John Adams 567-581 CHAPTEK XLVI. The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson 582-596 CHAPTER XLVII. The Presidency of James Madison.— Second War with Great Britain .... 597-616 CHAPTER XLVIII. The War on Land 617-645 CHAPTER XLIX. The Presidency of James Monroe 646-661 CHAPTER L. The Presidency of John Quincy Adams 662-665 CHAPTER LI. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson 666-677 CHAPTER LII. The Presidency of Martin Van Buren 678-686 CHAPTER LIIL The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.— Bank Ve- toes.— Texas 687-698 CHAPTER LIV. The Presidency of James K. Polk.— War with Mexico 699-724 CHAPTER LV. Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore 725-734 CHAPTER LVI. The Presidency of Franklin Pierce 735-746 CHAPTER LVII. The Presidency of James Buchanan 747-772 CHAPTER LVIII. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln.— War 773-814 CHAPTER LIX. The War, and Andrew Johnson's Presidency 815-854 CHAPTER LX. The Presidency op Ulysses S. Grant 85&-871 CHAPTER LXI. The Presidencies of Hayes, Garfield and Arthur •. . . 872-883 CHAPTER LXIL The Presidencies of Cleveland and Harrison 884-903 Concluding Summary 904-919 Index 921-936 A HISTORY The United States of America. CHAPTER I. America before Colonization from Europe. THE United States of North America embrace at this time forty-four states and seven territories, including Alaska and the District of Columbia. They cover an area of more than three million six hundred thousand square miles — larger than any single sovereignty in the world, except the empire of Russia and that of Great Britain. They held, on the first of June, 1890, a population of about sixty-three millions of souls.' They have more w^ealth in lands, houses, factories, ships, mines, stocks, mer- chandise and money than any other people. They have uni- versities and colleges numbering nearly four hundred, and academies and schools, public and private, suflicient to educate all the children of the land. They have a government based upon the principle that man, when properly controlled by morality and religion, is capable of governing himself. They have perfect freedom in religion. They have Christianity. They have all the elements of happiness and progress that can be possessed in this wozTd. This cannot be said of any of the nations of the Old World. Neither can it be truthfully said of any other people of the American continent. When we look at their condition, we soon discover the want of some element, without which they cannot have as full a measure of happiness, and as energetic a stimulant to progress, as a nation ought to have. This makes it very important that we should know the his- tory — the past life — of the people of the United States, so that we may see from what genesis they have come, what difficulties 1 Compare census bulletin from United States Department of Interior, October 30, 1890. with Washington letter in Dispatch December 12, 1890, and statement of G. D. Tillman, M. C, Philadelphia, Penn., December 22, 1S90. [ II ] 12 A History of the United States of America. they have surmounted, what obstacles to their happiness and progress they have swept away, what wrongs they have re- sisted, what rights they have asserted and maintained. To know all this we must inquire, ^ri'/, what was the condition of that part of North America now occupied by the United States when European settlements began? Second^ what were the conditions as to government, public law, usages and religion prevailing among the nations of the Old World and most strongly affecting the settlers who came to this country? We know that the American continent was not an unin- habited desert when it was discovered by Europeans. From the polar regions of the North to the rocky islands of Cape Horn, it was occupied by a population, not numerous indeed, yet varied and active in its modes of life. And all these people were human. They belonged to the great family of man, and gave strong evidences of a common descent. All the shades of color, form and habit found among them proved nothing to contradict the revealed truth of a primitive pair — a man and a w^oman, imited in marriage, and transmitting their blood and their traits of soul and body, original and acquired, to the millions coming from them.^ Therefore, these aborigines of America came, primarily, from the Old World. When and how they came are questions which history has not answered. Their own traditions and legends on the subject are vague and puerile.^ " One account brought their ancestors from the east, another from the west ; the majority, how^ever, concurred in asserting that the Indians were the abo- rigines, and sprang from the bowels of the earth." ^ There was no insurmountable physical obstacle to prevent their passage from the Old World to the New. A tradition yet existing in China says that in the year 217 B. C, a company of seamen, driven off" shore by heavy and persistent winds, sailed many weeks and came to a great continent where grew the aloe and other plants, strangers to them, but which we recognize as natives of Mexico.^ At Behring Strait the great continent of Asia approaches within sixty miles of America. This was a passage easily made in good weather and imder favoring conditions. But, in truth, neither the Atlantic nor the Pacific Ocean was impassable by the ships of ancient days. We read in Hebrew history of a land of Ophir, known even in the days of the 1 Pritchard and Prof. Cabell. 2 Thalheimer's Eclec. U, S., 9. 3 Blackburn & McDonald's New U. S., 2. < Thalheimer, 10. Times, Va., September 12, 1S90. America before Colonizatio7i from Etirope. 13 patriarch Job, and where gold was so abundant that the two kings, Solomon, of Judah and Israel, and Hiram, of Tyre, sent ships with the roughly trained ship-men " who had knowledge of the sea," and they came to Ophir and brought thence a ti'eas- ure of gold amounting in value to more than eleven millions of dollars/ Gold, in that age, had a purchasing power prob- ably thirty times greater than it has now. We have no historic light as to any land in the Old World capable of yielding such a sum in gold within a reasonable time. Peru and Alexico might possibly have done it. Columbus believed that Hispan- iola was the ancient Ophir. The conjecture that Ophir was a region of Southern Africa is inconsistent with the scriptural statement that the voyage thither and back required three years. ^ Probably the ships of Solomon and Hiram visited both hemispheres in those long voyages. We know^, moreover, that within a century past, fifteen sailing vessels have been driven by storms, against the wishes of the navigators, across the whole expanse of the Pacific Ocean from Asia to America. How often such accidents may have occurred during the period of niore than three thousand years from the flood to the discovery of America, we have no means of know- ing. It is quite certain that a comparatively small number of men and women thus driven, or voluntarily coming, to this con- tinent in ancient times w^ould, under the ordinary laws of in- crease, have furnished all the population of America existing here at the end of the fifteenth century.'' Seventy-six Hebrews coming into Egypt about the year 1700 B. C. had, in a period of two hundred and thirty years, increased to more than two millions of souls. And we know *as history that the earlier races inhabiting America were not savages. The crude theory that the people of the earth were all originally savages, and that they have devel- oped themselves into civilized beings by their own instincts and necessities, has been overthrown by experience and science. It was the theory of atheists and materialists in ancient times, and is held by few except their followers in our day.* The great German historian Niebuhr denies any such theory, and holds " that all savages are the degenerate remnants of more civilized races, which had been overpowered by enemies and driven to take refuge in the woods, there to wander, seeking a precarious existence till they had forgotten most of the arts of 1 First Kings ix. 27, 28 ; Job xxii. 24. 2 Y\x&t Kings x. 22. ^ Art. Cain: a speculation, So. Pres. Review, July, 1878, pp. 475-489. ■• Lucretius, De Rer Natura. Dr. Edward B. Tyler's Prim. Culture. 14 -A History of the United States of America. settled life and sunk into a wild state." ' In this view Arch- bishop Whately and the Duke of Argyll concur/ and all as- certained facts tend to prove its truth. Among these facts none are stronger than those known or in- ferred from the evidences as to the ancient races inhabiting Ainerica. Coming as they did, either of their own accord or by irresistible casualties, from the ancient civilized people of the Old World, they brought civilization with them. In Yucatan, within a radius of one hundred miles from the present town of Merida, are the ruins of more than sixty cities once magnificent, the grandest of which was Uxmal, which con- tained a lofty palace on a terrace five hundred and seventy-five feet long, and of which the stone remnants show high art and civilization.^ The Aztecs, whom Cortez, the Spanish conqueror, found in Mexico, and the Incas, who were overcome and almost annihilated by Pizarro and his successors in Peru, were populous nations, possessing splendid cities, great wealth, and a very high, though entirely unchristian, civilization. Cortez, writing to the Emperor Charles V., from Cholula, in Mexico, says : " The inhabitants are better clothed than any we have hitherto seen. People in easy circuinstances wear cloaks above their dresses. These cloaks differ from those of Africa, for they have pockets, though the cut, cloth and fringes are the same. The environs of the city are very fertile and well cul- tivated. Almost all the fields inay be watered, and the city is much more beautiful than all those in Spain, for it is well fortified and built on level ground. I can assure your Highness that, from the top of a mosque I reckoned more than four hundred towers, all of mosques. The number of inhabitants is so great that there is not an inch of ground uncultivated." * And the civilization of the Peruvians in South America was higher than that of the Aztecs. The people were milder and gentler in their manners, and their religion did not have the sav- age feature of offering human sacrifices to idols, as that of the Mexicans did. Yet the very gentleness of these civilized races, their wealth and ease and comfort, had gradually worked to soften and enervate them, and to unfit them to overcome the small bands of mounted and mail-clad Spanish warriors who conquered them. The inhuman and unchristian cruelties prac- ticed on them will forever cast a cloud over the fame of Spain. 1 Niebuhr's Romische Gesch., Parti., p. 88. 2 Whately's Grig, of Civil. Argyll's Prim. Man, 34-50. 3 Narrative in St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Dispatch, January 9, 1891. * From Prescott. A. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 23. America before Colonizatioii from E7 Vattel's Law of Nations, ed. 1849, pp. 98-101 CHAPTER II. The Discovery of America. IT cannot be now affirmed as history that Christopher Colum- bus, supposed to be a native of Genoa, in Italy, was the first European who discovered America. If Ophir was in Mexico or Peru, some knowledge of the great Western Continent was pos- sessed even by the sea-faring people of ancient Judea, Tyre and Sidon. About the year 300 B. C, Hanno, of Carthage, is said to have left the shores of Africa behind him, and sailed westward for thirty days. An undiscovered country, filled with mighty mountains and rivers, and peopled with a race of giants, was be- lieved in by some of the deep thinkers of antiquity.' There is a tradition that Madoc, son of Owen Guyneth, Prince of North Wales, quarreled with his brothers concerning the di- vision of their patrimony, and sailed west about the year A. D. 1 1 70, " leaving the west of Ireland so far north that he came to a land unknown, where he saw many strange things." ^ And it has been asserted that a dialect of the Welsh language has been detected by skilled linguists among the Indians of North Caro- lina ; ^ and Robert Southey, the English poet, has wrought this tradition into a long poem. Yet it has in it more of poetry than of truth. But adequate historical evidence proves that Iceland, " the island of frost and flame," had been occupied for at least a hun- dred years by a hardy sea-race fi'om Norway, w^hen, in A. D. 985, Eric the Red, an Icelandic chief, discovered Greenland, and planted a colony of his countrymen on its southwestern shore. One of Eric's comrades, driven by adverse winds, descried the main-land of North America stretching far away to the south- west. The weather-beaten settlers of Greenland opened a trade with the Esquimaux, who occupied the coast and islands of America north of Labrador. The tiade grew so prosperous that these Greenlanders paid a yearly tribute of two thousand six hun- dred pounds of v^^alrus teeth to the Pontiff' of Rome.* 1 Blackburn & McDonald, 3. 2Hakluyt's Vovages, edit. IGOO, III. 1. Belknap's Am. Biogr., 1. 129. 3 Burk's Hist, of Va., III. Irving's Columbus, I. 57-61. Appendix, III. 384-399. The Discovery of America. 21 be reached by a voyage westwardly from Europe, and exhibited a map drawn by the skillful geographer Paulo Toscanelli, of Florence, projected chiefly from the writings of Ptolemy and jMarco Polo, yet he never at that time made mention of his voyage to Iceland in 1477, and of w^hat he had learned there concerning the voyages of the Norsemen to Vinland and the coast of North America. He always claimed as his own the discovery of the New World.' We are thus compelled to review the past estimates of his character, and to ascertain whether proved facts exhibit him as a man too high in nature and honor to yield to the temptations to such concealment. In our own times he has been lauded as " the immortal discov- erer of America," and as one destined in the near future to be " solemnly enrolled on the glorious catalogue of the canonized saints." ^ But calm observers have discovered evidences of traits of character in Columbus not such as Holy Scripture requires in the saint. It is certain that he was " a practiced slave-dealer," and that he made to the sovereigns of Spain the follow^ing business sugges- tion : " Considering what great need we have of cattle and of beasts of burthen, both for food and to assist the settlers on this and all these islands, both for peopling the land and for culti- vating the soil, their Highnesses might authorize a suitable num- ber of caravels to come here every year to bring over the said cat- tle and provisions and other articles ; these cattle might be sold at moderate prices for account of the bearers, and the latter might be paid ivith slaves taken from among the Caribbees, who are a wild people, fit for any vs^ork, well proportioned and very intel- ligent, and who, when they have got rid of the evil habits to which they have become accustomed, will be better than any other kind of slaves." ^ And it is certain that, in Hispaniola, Columbus sought to reduce the natives to a condition of serfdom worse than any feudal slavery,* In 1494 he sent from Hispaniola to Spain five hundred unhappy Indians whom he had taken as captives, and he accom- panied the shipment with the suggestion that they should be sold as slaves at Seville.'' He was so avaricious and money-loving that his demands as to the country he proposed to " discover " operated strongly to dis- 1 Prescott and Irving both so testify. 2 J. J. Barry, Life of Columbus. Brown's Icelandic Discoveries, 5. 3 Letter of Columbus, in Arthur Help^' Life of Columbus. Icelandic Discoveries, 4. *Irving's Columbus, II. 214. ^ ma., II. 40-42. 22 A History of the United States of America. courage the King of Portugal from efforts to fit out the ships he asked for, and, with other causes, led to the discreditable attempt of the Portuguese authorities presently to be mentioned. Fernando was the son of Columbus, born in Cordova about 1487, but not born in wedlock. His mother (Beatrice Enriquez) was never married to the great navigator, and her relations with him do not strengthen the claim of his saintship.' But Fernando admired his father, and has written a life of him which honestly discloses many of his governing traits. It was written years after the death of the father, and is, for reasons not difficult to discover, almost entirely silent as to the long period of fifty-six years of the life of Columbus which passed before his voyage from Palos. It is in Fernando's narrative that we first hear of the visit of Columbus to Iceland. And that same narrative tells us that John II. of Portugal was so discouraged by the cost and trouble of attempts to explore the route by the Afri- can coast, and by the very high honors and money rewards -which Columbus demanded, that he did not employ him. " Columbus, being a man of lofty and noble sentiments, demanded high and honorable titles and rewards, to the end," says Fernando, " that he might leave behind him a name and family w^orthy of his deeds and merits." '^ When he applied to the sovereigns of Castile and Arragon, in Spain, the same difficulty long delayed his negotiation. No sat- isfactory explanation of these high money claims of Columbus can be given, except his own personal cupidity and his knowledge of the voyages of Eric, Bjarni and Karlsefne to the coast of the New World which he proposed to "discover." And we know from authentic history that finally his exorbitant claims were granted. They were, in substance, that he should be admiral of all the seas and countries to which he went ; that he should be viceroy of all the continents and islands of those seas ; that he should have a tenth part of the profits of all merchandise, be it pearls, jewels, or any other things that should be found, gained, bought, or exported from the countries he should discover ; that he should be sole judge in all mercantile matters ; and that he should have the right, on contributing an eighth of the expense of all ships and traffic, to receive an eighth of all their profits.^ All these facts exhibit Columbus in his true character. He was devoutly subject to the creed and influence of the Roman church. But he was cautious, secretive and money-loving. He did not 1 Irving's Columbus, III. 310. Appendix III. 2 Fernando Columbus, Hist, del Almirante, cap. 10. Irving, I. 64. 3 Summing up in Arthur Helps' Life of Columbus. Icelandic Discoyeries, 110 The Discovery of America. 33 shrink from claiming as his own a discovery made by others some centuries before he was born. But Cokunbus deserves the credit of a courage and zeal far be- yond the standard of his age. In the times just before he sailed in 1493, people generally believed that the undiscovered region in the Atlantic beyond the Canaries and the Azores was a dis- couraging waste of stormy waters, clouds and vapors, where gorgons, hydras, and frightful monsters would be encountered, and from v\^hich no navigator who entered among them could expect to return alive. The very maps drawn at that time re- peated the ancient figures of demons and terrific animals guard- ing the undiscovered wastes, and threatening with death all who approached them.^ Columbus did not expect to find a separate western continent, nor did he, to the day of his death, believe he had discovered such a continent. His visions were all of the East Indies, Cathay, Tartary and Cipango, to which Marco Polo and Mandeville had invited his thoughts. His repeated voyages on the high seae, and especially on those surrounding Iceland, had dissipated all fears of griffins and hydra-headed monsters. He was full of his plan and certain of a western land, and he needed only the means to carry out his voyage and to insure its results, by the protection of some powerful European sovereign. King John II. of Portugal suffered himself to be seduced into an enterprise of dishonesty and bad faith to Columbus, which speedily recoiled on the heads of the inventors. Having heard all his statements and received a sketch of the map copied from the drawing of Toscanelli, of Florence, the court of Portugal se- cretly equipped and sent out a ship to sail westward from the Cape Verde Islands. This caravel stood westward from those islands many days, but the weather became stormy, and the pilots saw nothing before them but a tumbling waste of waters. They lost courage and were glad to make their way back to Por- tugal, where they sought to cover the shame of their failure by ridiculing the ideas of the thoughtful and patient Genoese navi- gator.^ Columbus next applied to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. His devout zeal and enthusiasm moved the queen deeply from the beginning ; but the king was colder, and referred the matter to his advisers, most of whom w^ere learned inen and dignitaries of the church. They speedily reported that the plan was heretical, 1 Swinton's Condensed School U. S., map, p. 23. 2 Hist, del Almirante, cap. 8. Herrera, dccad. I., lib. I., cap. 7. Irving, I. 68. Prof. Steele, Barnes' U. S., 21. 24 ^ History of the Utiited States of America. visionary, and physically impracticable. They thought that the theory that the earth was globular in form was contrary to Holy Scripture, which frequently spake of the four corners of the. earth.' They urged, also, that it was absurd to believe that there "were people on the other side of the earth w^alking w^ith their heels upward and their heads hanging downv^rard ; and that the torrid zone through which the navigator must pass was a region of fire, where the very waves boiled. They niet the theories of Co- lumbus by opposing to them the words of Lactantius;^ and they ended the argument by insisting that, even if the earth was round, yet if a ship sailed down the globular incline she never could sail back.^ Thus by unsound interpretation and false sci- ence the settlement of America was threatened with indefinite postponement. But the intuitions of woman triumphed when the reason, reli- gious doubts, and science of man all failed. Qiieen Isabella promised to pledge and sell her jewels, if needed, for the outfit and expenses of the ships of discovery. The result has been told in history in many glowing forms. Columbus sailed from Palos, in Spain, August 3d, 1493, with three ships — the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the JVi7za — all very small, and none full-decked except the first named. He tri- umphed over all the superstitions and mutinies of his crews. Signs of land began to encourage him. A staff, evidently carved by the hand of man, and a branch of thorn with fresh, bright berries floated near him. On the night of the nth of October, Columbus himself, from the deck of his ship, saw a light at a dis- tance rising and falling as if borne by some one walking ; and before morning the glad cry, " Land ! Land ! " was heard froin the look-out of the Pinta. The dawn disclosed the fair island of San Salvador spread out in green loveliness and tranquillity before their eyes. They had discovered one of the Bahama group — the outposts of the American continent. They soon found it was inhabited, but the gentle islanders made no sign of hostility. On the I3th day of October, 1492, Columbus, arrayed in a splendid robe of scarlet, ^^ath sword in -hand, and surrounded by the higher officers of his command, landed from his boats. He immediately prostrated himself on the beach and kissed the ground, with tears which he coul^ not suppress, and Avith thanksgivings which rose from the bottom of his heart. Then, directing the royal ensign to be unfolded, he 1 Revelation vii. 1 ; Jeremiah ix. 25, 26 ; xxv. 23 ; xlix. 32. 2Laetant. Div. Instit., lib. III., cap. 24. 3 Hist, del Almirante. cap. 11. Irving, I. 88, 89. Prof. Steele, Barnes' U. S., 21, 22. The Discovery of America. 25 took possession of the land in the name of the King and Queen of Spain. His crew, who had been plotting a few days before to cast him into the sea, now bowed to him as viceroy, and almost worshiped him as more than human.' Columbus believed that he had come to the Indies by a western route. He called the people Indians, and by this name the abo- rigines of America have been known ever since. He and his crews soon began to inquire for gold. This was their objective point : discovery first — gold next — the welfare of the Indians last of all ; in truth, an entirely remote and insignificant thought, hardly held before the mind's eye at all amid the intoxicating visions of the new discovery. The Indians were already beginning to know and dread them. They told the Spaniards, by words and signs, that gold "was to be found in islands and regions to the south and west. And so Columbus sailed on and discovered Cuba and Hayti, to the last named of which he gave the name Hispaniola — " the little Spain." Leaving on this large and fertile island four officers and thirty-five men to colonize and to look for gold, he sailed for Spain on the 14th day of January, 1493. He encountered a ter- rible storm, during which he sealed up in wax, secured in a water- proof cask, a brief account of his voyage and discovery, and threv\^ it overboard. But his ships survived the storm, and when his return w^as known the nation took holiday ; the bells were rung and cannon were fired. The king and queen were full of amaze- ment and triumph, and when Columbus gave his narrative, and exhibited the natives and the products of the New^ World, the monarchs bowed their heads in adoration and thanksgiving. They looked on all these fair regions as part of their royal do- main. Columbus sailed from Cadiz on his second voyage with a formidable fleet of seventeen vessels and fifteen hundred men. On reaching Hayti, he found that the natives, provoked beyond endurance by the insolence, licentiousness and cruelty of his thirty-nine Spaniards, had put some of them to death, and the others had perished by disease or conflicts with each other.^ Columbus erected a fort and tried to establish a new colony. He then sailed again, discovering Jamaica and the surrounding islands. But his sailors began to tire of a life of restraint. They had come, expecting to find gold mines and valleys of diamonds. Complaints were made to Spain, and an unfriendly emissary was 1 Irving, I. 155, 156. Goodrich Pict. U. S., 24-25. Blackburn & McDonald's U. S., 21. ^Ijving's Columbus, I. 326-329. 26 A History of the United States of Ai7ierica. sent to investigate the management of Columbus ; but Columbus returned to Spain, and pleaded his own cause so well that he was fully restored to royal favor. He made his third voyage in 14^8. In this he discovered the coast of South America. Touching at Trinidad, he returned to Hispaniola. Here he applied his best powers to regulating the colony. And here he experienced the heart-breaking trial of his life. One Bovadilla came from Spain with authority to super- sede Columbus, and investigate his administration. The result is known. History shrinks from recording it, but must tell the troth. Columbus was sent in chains back to Spain. He refused to have them removed, and wore them into the presence of the court. He was acquitted, and the king sought to relieve his sense of injury by new honors, although he was not again in- trusted with the authority of viceroy in the New World. Columbus made his fourth voyage to America, and was ship- wrecked in June 1503 on the coast of the island of Jamaica. His ships, being worm-eaten and unable to keep the seas, after a long- continued storm, were run ashore to save them from sinking.^ He returned to Spain and to a series of soul-wearing disappoint- ments. He died at Valladolid on the 20th May, 1506, in his seventy- first year. His chains were buried with him. His remains are said to have been removed first to the Carthusian monastery of Seville, where King Ferdinand erected a monument bearing the gracious inscription, " To Castile and Leon, Colon gave a New World." It is believed that his body was afterwards removed to the Cathedral of Havana, in Cuba, and i-ests there still. But a singular historic doubt exists whether the body removed and i^e- interred was really his.^ The life and death and final resting- place of the reputed discoverer of the New World are all shrouded in gloom. 1 Fern. Columbus. Hist, del Almininte, cap. 100. Irving, II. 373-375. sQuackcnbos' School U. S., 50. Prof. Steele, Earncs' U. S., note 24. CHAPTER III. Early Voyages and Discoveries — How America Gained HER Name. ALONG period — not less than seventy- three years — passed be- tween the discovery of San Salvador by Columbus and the first permanent settlement made by the Spaniards on the main- land of North America. This was on a river in Florida, by Pedro Melendez, and was called Saint Augustine, in honor of the day of his landing in 1565. This is the oldest town in the United States, although Santa Fe, in New Mexico, is supposed by some to have been settled about the same time.^ The best established date for the settlement of Santa Fe is 1582. A very old gate- way and many other venerable relics of Spanish times are viewed with interest by visitors to Saint Augustine. It was by a happy and providential disposition of causes and effects that Spain did not colonize North America. The condi- tion of Mexico, Peru and other American States, when compared with the North American Republic, will indicate the ever-widen- ing difference which would have resulted from Spanish occupa- tion. We must look to the facts which led to this result. When the discoveries of Columbus became known, all the maritime powers of Europe v\^ere moved, and the first and great- est hope of all was gold. Gold and silver had long been the es- tablished basis of money. Diainonds, pearls, jewels of all kinds, were chiefly valued because they could be readily converted, by sale, into gold and silver coin. Money was the universal solvent, as it has been ever since, and is now. Spain led the way in her greed for gold. The planting of colonies was only a means to an end, and a means entirely sec- ondary and subordinate. Hence, all her efforts were directed to obtaining and sending home gold and silver to the mother coun- try ; and she was, to a vast extent, successful. But her success resulted in her ruin. All the colonies planted in Hispaniola and the other West India islands by Columbus, his comrades and successors, were 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., note 13, p. 34. [ 27 ] sS A History of the United States of America. planted for the purpose of seeking and working gold and silver mines, and sustaining with food the workers of those mines until the full results of their labor could be realized. Columbus en- tered into this plan with as much zeal and spirit as the native Spaniards, from the king and queen down to soldiers, sailors, merchants, agriculturists and laborers. The first result of this gold-worship by Spain and her great adopted discoverer was that he lost the honor of giving his name to the Western Continent. Amerigo Vespucci was a native of Florence, born March 9th, 141^1, of a noble, though not a wealthy family.^ Whatever other foibles he may have had, an absorbing desire for wealth does not seem to have been one of them. He never imitated Columbus in seeking the highest command in order that " he should be entitled to reserve for himself one-tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and all other articles and merchandises, iii ivhatever manner found, bought, bartered or gained within his admiralty, the cost being first deducted." '^ Amerigo was a thoughtful, learned and scientific man. He was an accomplished navigator and explorer. He considered more the soil, fertility and adaptation for the colonizing of a new country, than the question what gold and silver mines it had, and by w^hat cruel means its natives could be forced to w^ork these mines for the joint emolument of king and admiral. He v^^as acquainted with Columbus and enjoyed his confidence.'^ He never sought nor obtained the highest command in his voy- ages of discovery. If his own express affirmation can be trusted, he discovered and visited the South American continent before Columbus ever saw it. In his letter to Rene, Duke of Lorraine, who also claimed to be King of Sicily and Jerusalem, Vespucci says : " We departed from the port of Cadiz, May 3oth, 1497, taking our course on the great Gulf of Ocean ; in which voyage we employed eighteen months, discovering many lands and innu- merable islands, chiefly inhabited, of which our ancestors make no mention." * A duplicate of this letter was sent also by Vespucci to Picre Soderini, afterwards Gonfalonier of Florence. He had been tutor both to Duke Rene and to Soderini, and it was a natural impulse to give to each of his loved pupils his own interesting account of this voyage and of the country he alluded to, which was un- doubtedly the continent of South America. Neither could he 1 Irving's Columbus, III. 330. Appendix X. -Articles between Columbus and the Spanish sovereigns, Irving, I. 115. ■■sLe'tcr cf Columbus to Diego, his son, Irving, Appendix III., 335. * Irving, III. 337. Appendix. Early Voyages and Discoveries. ' 29 have had any motive for an attempt to wrest from Columbus the fame of discovery ; for, in his first voyage, in 1492, Columbus had discovered Cuba, but had not discovered that it was only an island ; and he believed, and Vespucci and all the attentive world then believed, that Cuba was the eastern part of a continent. Cuba was not circumnavigated until A. D. 1508, two years after the death of Columbus. But even if history should establish the contention which has been already made, that this alleged voyage of Vespucci in 1497 never took place,^ yet it is certain that he accompanied the great Spanish navigator Alonzo de Ojeda in his voyage in 1499 to the coast of South America. They visited Paria, which was the part of the American coast seen by Columbus in 1498. They then sailed along and carefully surveyed several hundred miles of the coast, and ascertained beyond question that the land w^as terra firnia and .part of a great continent distinct from the continents of the Eastern Hemisphere. On these points, Columbus never ascertained the truth. Returning in June, 1500, Amerigo Vespucci wrote a narrative of the voyage and of the countries discovered, their climate, soil, productions, fertility, rivers and mountains, their advantages for colonizing, their inhabitants, and the scientific reasons for his be- lief that it was a new world. He afterwards wrote to Lorenzo de Medici other narratives of his voyages and discoveries ; and when these were successively published — some in Germany, some in Italy — they produced such an impression on the people able to read them, and on all who heard of their contents, that, with re- markable accord, the name of "America " was given to the New World. It has ever since retained it, nor is there any reason to believe that it will be changed. The suggestions of another origin for the name have no historic basis. ^ The feeling in favor of nam- ing the land from Columbus has been poetic and fanciful rather than rational. Nevertheless, his name has been perpetuated in a large region of South America and in the District holding the capital city of the North American Republic. But neither Columbus nor Amerigo Vespucci was the discov- erer, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, of the continent of America. While the patient Genoese was seeking to obtain aid from the sovereigns of Portugal and Spain, he sent his brother Bartholomew to lay his ideas and plans before Henry VII. of 1 Irving, III. 338-345. 2 By Geographical Society of Berlin, May, 1S91, in Phila. Pres., June 3d, 1891. 30 A Histoi'y of the United States of America. England. Bartholomew was captured by pirates and long de- tained. Had he reached the English court in time, the fleet of discovery under Columbus might have sailed from England in- stead of Spain. The English people w^ei'e deeply moved by the news of the discovery, and their sovereign looked with favor on efforts to open and explore the New World. John Cabot was a native of Venice, and was there known as Giovanni Gaboto. He came to England, and was for some time a merchant of Bristol. In union with others, he fitted out four small barks, and these, with one ship furnished by the king, " com- posed the frail fleet that prepared to buftet the waves of the north- ern Atlantic." On the 5th of March, 1496, Henry granted to John Cabot and his sons, Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctius, a patent, which is "the most ancient American state paper of England." ^ It grants to the Cabot family power " to sail in all parts of east, west and north, under the royal banners and ensigns ; to dis- cover countries of the heathen unknown to Christians ; to set up the king's banners ; to occupy and possess, as his subjects, such places as they could subdue, giving them the rule and jurisdiction of the same, to be holden on condition of paying to the king, as often as they should arrive at Bristol (at which place only they were permitted to arrive), in wares and meixhandise, one-fifth part of all their gains, with exemption from all customs and du- ties on such merchandise as should be brought from their discov- eries." The reason why the " south " was omitted in the designation of parts " east, west and north," was that John Cabot knew so much of true geography as enabled him to urge that, as the meridian lines neared each other at the poles, the shortest track from Eng- land to the Indies must be by the north polar seas." ^ In May, 1497, John Cabot and his heroic son Sebastian sailed on their voyage of discovery. Visions of gold and gems on the soil of Cathay were floating in their brains, and they steered a northwest course. On the 34th of June they saw Newfound- land. Within a few days thereafter, steering northward, they made the American coast in the latitude of fifty-six degrees. The cliff's of Labrador were cold and forbidding. They soon resumed their voyage, coasting along America, probably to the latitude of Virginia, and possibly even to that of Florida, and returned to England, bringing back to King Henry three savages and two vs^ild turkeys. ' 1 Hazard's State Papers, I. 9. - Professor Steele, Barnes' U. S., 25. 3 Quackenbos, p. 52. Early Voyag-es and Discoveries. 31 When he had reached the coast of Labrador, John Cabot thought he had come to the dominions of the " Great Cham," King of Tartary. Therefore, as this was " a heathen land," he set up the banner of England and took solemn possession in the name of the king.^ In 1498 his son, Sebastian Cabot, a native of Bristol, under a patent from the king, made another voyage full of dangers, pen- etrated as far north as sixty-seven and a half degrees on the coast of America, sailed thence down the coast as far as Chesapeake Bay, which he entered and partly explored, sailed thence south- wardly, certainly as far as Cape Hatteras, and probably four de- grees farther south, took possession of all the country in the name of England, and then returned to Bristol.^ As far, therefore, as the mere fact of discovery availed, by the laws of nations, to give title to North America, England had that title, and she claimed it. The remark of an eminent historian, who, after recounting the voyages of the Cabots, especially of Sebastian, says : " In 1497 he coasted its shores from Labrador to Florida ; yet the English have never set up any pretensions on his account," is a strange mistake, probably suggested by his great admiration for Columbus.^ The right given by discovery is, and always has been, a very im- perfect right, limited by the ability of the country claiming it to colonize and settle the country, and to maintain the settlement by force of arms. Spain, however, attempted to fortify her title by the decree of a religious power. By successive bulls the Roman Pontiffs Nicholas V. and Alexander VI. divided all the heathen world, discovered or discoverable, between Portugal and Spain. The bull of Alexander VI. (who was one of the Borgia family, and natural father, though only reputed uncle, of Ctesar and Lu- cretia Borgia) is dated May 4th, 1493. It gives to Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Qiieen of Castile and Arragon, " all islands and continents {^terras Jirmas) found or to be found west of a line from pole to pole at a himdred leagues to the west of the Azores, ex- cepting only what might be in possession of some other Chris- tian prince before the year 1493." * Had this arrogant grant been recognized as valid by the other Christian states of the earth, the future of America would have been dark with ignorance, oppressed by superstition and religious tyranny, and permanently enfeebled by the worst forms of the old civilization. It was not to be so. 1 Prof. Steele, Barnes' U. S., 25. = Quackenbos, 52. Irving's Columbus, III. 345. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 27. B. &M., 24. ^Irving, III. 345. Appendix X. ^Vattel's Law of Nations, 99, 100. CHAPTER IV. Spain, Slavery and Gold. ALTHOUGH Spain was slow in colonizing the American con- tinent, she was keen and eager in enterprises and expeditions to seek gold and silver. She established temporary colonies in Hispaniola, Cuba, and all the other islands discovered, which had gold either in the washings of the streams or in mines ; and with persistent and unchristian cruelty she compelled the natives to work the mines and bring out the gold. Her officers, soldiers and colonists used whips, chains, knives and fire-arms to compel this labor. The unhappy Indians found no relief except in death. They sank down and died in hundreds before the eyes of their oppressors.' One million two hundred thousand natives are said to have been destroyed in a few years in Hispaniola alone. ^ To supply their places and continue the labors of the mines and the needed agriculture, the Spaniards introduced^ negroes from Africa into the islands of the West Indies. Under what motives and influences they were brought in will be a subject for further inquiry. They soon proved themselves to be adapted to labor in the sun and in the hot, though often moist, climates of those islands. Instead of sinking down and dying under slav- ery as the Indians did, these negroes constantly increased, partly by other cargoes brought in by slave-traders from Africa, but chiefly by natural propagation. Work did not check this, and having little or no sense of humiliation, no cares for the future, and generally abundant supplies of food from the tamed swine, beef, fish, Indian corn and vegetables of those genial regions, they grew fast in numbers and became a permanent part of pop- ulations and regions in which none of them had existed prior to 1493. ^ • _ Columbus actively urged on this work. He had received from the hospitality of the Chief Guacanagari and five tributary caciques a solid coronet of gold and enormous quantities of this precious metal.* This only increased his avarice. He con- 1 Robertson, Irving, Las Casas, passim. 2 David B. Scott's United States, Harper's edit., 29. s irving's Columbus, I. 221. [ 32 ] Spain^ Slavery and Gold. 33 sidered Hispaniola as in the status of a conquered province, reduced the Indians to the condition of villeins, serfs and slaves, and exacted cruel labors from them.' And in 1494, w^hen he dispatched four ships back to Spain under the command of Antonio De Torres, he sent more than tive hundred Indian pris- oners, all seized without crime or provocation on their part, and wrote a letter advising that they should all be sold as slaves at Seville.^ Within a century after the discovery of San Salvador ("the Holy Saviour''), the vSpaniards had pushed their enterprises for obtaining gold into many parts of the American world ; and everywhere they were attended by the same conditions of un- provoked, relentless, merciless inhumanity to the native Indians and to all others whom they encountered and who had not strength enough to resist them. The period which saw Spain most powerful in arms, widest in influence, and richest in gold and silver and all other possessions which constitute wealth, was the period from the success of Columbus to the year 1=598 -A.. D., when the imbecile and fanatical Philip III. (born from the fourth marriage of his father, Philip II.) commenced his reign of twenty-three years, at the end of which he died and left Spain already weak and decaying. That highest period was covered by the closing of the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, the reign of the Emperor Charles V., and part of that of his son, ^Philip II. It was the period in which was best illustrated in all the history of the world the combined result of bigotry in religion, unchecked power in the sovereign, slaveiy in the people, cruelty and torture in the name of the merciful Son of God, and a love of gold and the pomp and power which gold can obtain, that stopped at no measures for the accomplishment of its purposes. The Roman church cannot jje held responsible for the sins of Spain. On the contrary, she often denounced them and forbade them by all her spiritual authority. And the most expensive and ruinous wars which Charles V. carried on wei^e either against the temporal power of the Roman church herself, or against those whom she was able to enlist as her allies.'' But the sovereigns of Spain and her people were alike excited by the discoveries of Columbus. The}^ began to prepare ships and send out expeditions, though seldom with any higher motive than gold. 1 Art. Slavery, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 707. Irving, II. 21^,. - living's Life of Columbus, II. 40, 41. Chap. II. herein. 3 Art. Spain, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 812. Robertson's Charles V. 34 -^ History of the United States of America. One exception to this motive was found in the case of Ponce de Leon. He was a Spanish cavalier of rank and courage. Dis- appointed in some of his plans and growing old, he began to dream over a fabled " fountain of youth " of which he had heard as really existing on the American continent. He sailed from Porto Rico in 15 13, and on Easter Day, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida^ " the feast of flowers," he came in sight of the land which he called Florida.' But he found no youth- restoring fountain — only warlike Indians, who fought him and his crew with persistence. In a few years afterwards he re- newed his attempt, and in battle with the natives he received a mortal wound. He was carried back to Cuba, where he died.^' Vasco Nunez de Balboa was a descendant from a noble, though impoverished, Spanish family, but had become an insol- vent outlaw in Hispaniola, who, to escape his creditors and the law, concealed himself in a cask, which he caused to be put aboard a vessel bound for the coast of Darien. When at sea he knocked out the head of the cask and appeared before the cap- tain and crew.^ He was a bold and powerful man, and they readily received him as a comrade. The vessel was wrecked on the coast of Darien. Balboa and most of the crew escaped. He put himself at their head, and soon gained commanding influence over the Indians, v\^ho sup- plied his wants and brought hiip gold. They told him of a great ocean on the other side of the isthmus. He followed their guidance, and, coming to a lofty mountain ridge, he saw, for the first time, the vast ocean of the West, since known as the Pacific. He and his followers were thrilled with joy and admi- ration. This was in September, 11^13. Hastening down to the beach, he drew his sword, and holding in his left hand the flag of his country and in his right the bran- dished sword, and wading up to his knees in the svu'f, he sol- emnly claimed all this great ocean, with its islands and all conti- nents adjoining it, in the name of his master, the King of Spain, and swore to defend them.* History presents no better com- mentary than this on the imperfect and limited nature of all rights founded on mere discovery. Here was an outlaw^, ostra- cized by Spain, discovering, by a series of casualties, the vast Pa- cific Ocean, and yet seriously claiming that, by virtue of his dis- 1 Venable's United States, 11. Peter Martyr, cap. 10. Bancroft, I. 32, 33. * Tlialheitner's Kclec. U. S. 27. 3 Goodrich's Cliild's Pict. \1. s!, 30, 31. Irving's Comp. of Columbus, III. 115, IIG. 4 Note in Thalhelmer's Eclectic U. S., 23. Irving's Columbus, III. 169-177. Spain, Slavery and Gold. 35 covery, more than half the world belonged to Spain ! Discovery vests no right unless seasonably followed by permanent coloniza- tion and possession. Balboa was executed by decapitation in 1^17, at Ada of Darien, under the cruel and jealous rule of the Spaniard Pedrarias.' In 15 17 Cordova discovered Mexico, and explored the northern coast of Yucatan. In 15 19 Hernando Cortez, a Spanish soldier of high birth and undaunted courage, united with a deliberate tenacity of purpose which knew no relenting and hesitated at no deed of blood and cruelty, undertook the conquest of the kingdom of Mexico, over which Montezuma then reigned. Cortez had only six hundred soldiers, cavalry and infantry. But the Spanish soldiers were then, man for man, the most formidable in the world. In three campaigns of three successive years the work was done. A dynasty of centuries was dethroned. A teeming population was subjugated. Mexico, with her wealth in gold and silver and mountains and rich lands, was a province of Spain. In is;39, Pizarro and Almagro, with forces equally small com- parativelv, overthrew the empire of the Incas, and added Peru and its dependencies to the dominion of Spain. We look now with wonder on these successes, in which a few hundred armed men, aided by courage, cruelty and fraud without bounds, sub- dued great kingdoms containing inillions of people. But in their fall they turned Spain into her downward road. From Mexico Spanish explorers passed into the region north of her on the Pacific, to which the name of California was given, probably from a fabled Amazon queen of that name, who was in- troduced as a character in an old romance of the times of the Cru- saders, which had survived to the days of Columbus and Cortez, and which they both delighted to read." In 1543 the Spanish navigator Cabrillo sailed up this coast as high as to latitude 44°, and in 1582 the town of Santa Fe was established, under Espejo, in New Mexico. In August, 15 19, Fernando Magellan, a native of Portugal, but in the employ of Spain, sailed from Seville on the first voyage of circumnavigation of the world. In October, 1=520, he passed through the straits, since known by his name, between South America and the island of Terra del Fuego, and came out into the great ocean which, by reason of its tranquillity, he called the Pacific. He lost his life in an encounter with the Philippine 1 Oviedo Hist. Ind , II., cap. 9, MS. Irving's Comp. of Columbus, III. 245. *Swinton's Condensed U. S., p. 13. 36 • A ///story of tJie United States of Ameriea. islanders in April, 1521. One of his ships reached Spain in Sep- tember, 1533. Narvaez, a Spanish officer of high rank, believed that Florida was the richest of countries, and in 1^38 sailed on an expedition for its conquest. He was disastrously defeated by the Indians, and perished with all his followers except four, who, wandering in the woods and across the continent, reached, in six years, the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast. ^ But the most interesting of all these expeditions was that of Ferdinand De Soto. He was born of noble family in Estrema- dura, in 1496. He was distinguished in scholarship and athletic sports. In 1538, he explored the coasts of Yucatan and Guate- mala for seven hundred miles, believing he could find a navigable strait from ocean to ocean. He went with Fizarro to Peru, and was prominent in the conquest. Returning with an immense fortune, he was favorably received by Charles V., who, at his re- quest, granted him permission to conquer and occupy Florida, which De Soto believed to be a land of boundless riches. He fitted out, at his own expense, a fleet of nine vessels, and sailed by way of Havana in 11^39. Besides his six hundred fol- lowers, he had three hundred horses and a very great stock of hogs, with a number of blood-hounds, which were to be used in hunting down fugitives and Indians. On the 30th of May, 1=539, ^^^ expedition, in jubilant spirits, landed at Tampa Bay. Thence, for more than three years, he marched through the region now covered by the States of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, fighting Indians, cmielly treating those who submitted, contending with forests, swamps and rivers, often beset by fevers and agues, constantly seeking for gold and as constantly finding it not. The dim vis- ions raised by native narratives and falsehoods faded from his eyes, leaving only disappointment and gloom. In 1 54 1 he reached the huge Mississippi river near the present site of Memphis, and wondered at its turbid and rushing torrent. This event w^as memorable in history, and has been preserved for the eye in a fine painting w^hich adorns the rotunda of the Capi- tol of the United States. He crossed the river, still in pursuit of the golden phantom. He wandered with his diminished band in the region now known as Arkansas. Traditions of gold mines in the White River valley, once worked by Spaniards, yet linger in that region.^ 1 Berry's United States, 20. 2 Letter in St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Dispatch, Lichraond, Va., July 5tli, 1889. Spain, Slavery and Gold. 37 Worn out with disappointment, exposure and disease, De Soto returned with his followers to the banks of the Mississippi near the site of the present town of Natchez. His band was no longer strong, either in numbers or equipment, and when he attempted to impose upon the Indians the idea that the whites were of Divine origin, the natives were as ready for war as for peace. Their chief answered to De Soto : " You say you are the children of the Sun. Dry up this river, and I will believe you."* In May, 1542, Ferdinand De Soto died. To prevent the final fading of the attempted illusion among the Indians, his body was wrapped in his mantle, and while the priests chanted in low tones a requiem, it was sunk beneath the waters of the mighty river he had discovered. After manv dangers, a small number of his fol- lowers descended the Mississippi in boats hurriedly prepared, and about half the original number finally reached the Mexican coast, still alive, indeed, but broken in health and spirits, with- out gold and without the dreams of wealth which had brought them to Tampa Bav.'^ A settlement of Huguenots from France was attempted in 1562, under the jDatronage of Admiral Coligny. With difficulty he obtained permission to found in America a refuge for French Protestants. John Ribault commanded the immigrants. A part of them settled first at Port Royal harbor (now in South Caro- lina), and in honor of King Charles IX. of France they gave the name of Carolina to their fort. Thus it was Carolus of France, and not Carolus of England, whose name has been perpetuated in these American States.^ This intended colony, after much suffering from hunger and disease, returned to France. But another part, under Laudonniere, had settled on the St. John's river, in Florida. Here they encountered a fate which history records against Spain. Philip II., a monarch whose reign includes all that is odious in the Inquisition — the burning of Protestants in his own coun- try, and the butchery of Protestants, year after year, in the Neth- erlands — hearing of the settlement of the harmless little band on the St. John's, took measures to destroy them. He commissioned Pedro Melendez for the work, and could not have selected a more suitable instrument. Melendez, after founding St. Augustine in 1565, as we have seen, prepared to attack the Huguenots. Ribault, then command- ing them, expected his attack from the sea, and prepared accord- I Quackenbos' U. S., 57, 58. - Ibid., 59. sDerry's U. S., 21. Anderson's Gram. School U. S., 13. 38 A History of the United States of Aitzerica. ingly. But Melendez advanced by land with a force too strong' to be resisted. After some fighting, the Frenchmen surrendered on the faith of an express promise that their lives should be spared. But the false and remorseless Spanish leader caused them all to be hanged, and on the trees on which they were exe- cuted he placed an inscription : " I do this, not as unto French- men, but as unto Lutherans and heretics." When this atrocious outrage became known in France it excited horror and indignation. The abject king (Charles IX.) took no steps to avenge it ; but it w^as not to rest unavenged. In 1568 Dominic de Gourgues, a French ofiicer of the province of Gascony, attacked the Spaniards in Florida, and at the head of his victorious troops recaptui"ed Fort Carolina, and captured two other forts with their surviving garrisons. He hung up all the Spaniards on trees until they were dead, and over their dead bodies he caused inscriptions to be nailed, to this eftect : '' I do this, not as unto Spaniards, but as unto traitors, robbers, and mur- derers." ' And this was only the beginning, the foretaste, of the retribu- tion which Spain was bringing on herself. In the two centuries from the birth of Columbus to a point only fourteen years beyond the death of Philip III., Spain w^as the most powerful and v^ealthy of all the sovereignties of Europe. No successful attempt has ever been made to estimate the amount or value of the gold and silver she drew from America. It is all gone from her — used for her destruction by her own monarchs and people. Spain is now the poorest and least respected of all modern European king- doms. And of all the vast dominions and empires once claimed and ruled over by her on the American continent, not one square mile remains. 1 Perry's Ignited States, 22. Quackenbos, 59. De Bry in Bancroft, I. 71. Biddle MS. as tc De Gourgues' family. CHAPTER V. English and French Voyages to America. NO permanent colony had yet been established in North America. Discovery precedes settlement. We must now review the voyages and discoveries of other nations besides the Spaniards. We have noted the voyages of the Cabots from England. Kings Henry VII. and Henry VIII. did nothing more to encourage ex- peditions to the New World. They evidently expected little from such attempts, and were too much occupied at home to give much attention to so distant a field. A feeble and unsuccessful effort was made under Henry VIII. in 1=^2^. But in the reign of Qiieen Elizabeth, the English people began to look across the Atlantic. Her reign commenced in 1558, and ended with her death in 1603. Maritime enterprises became frequent and enthusiastic, though they w^ere generally under the lead of bold seamen, who fitted out their own ships and asked very little from the sovereign. Sir Francis Drake was one of the most adventurous of these navigators. In 1572, when tv\^enty-seven years old, he crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and, climbing a tree, viewed the great Pacific Ocean. Then and there he resolved " to sail an English ship in those seas " ; and five years later he sailed from England with five ships and two hundred men. He passed through the Straits of Magellan in his own ship, the Golden Hind^ and sailed up the western coast of the American continent, capturing off the coast of Peru the Spanish treasure galleon for the current year, with an amount of gold and silver ingots worth millions of dollars. He went as fr.r north as what is now Oregon, wintered near San Francisco, and explored the country, which he called " New Albion." Thence he launched out into the broad Pacific, and in two years and ten months from the time of his departure entered again the harbor of Plymouth, in England, with his im- mense treasure, thus completing the second voyage around the world.^ 1 Thalheimcr's Eclec. U. S., 35, 40, 41. Green's Hist, of the Eng. People, Amer. edit., 1876, p. 417. [ 39 ] 40 A History of the United States of America. Martin Frobisher cherished for fifteen years the idea of the "northwest" passage to the Indies. The Earl of Warwick helped him to fit out two small barks, and in the summer of 1=576 he sailed from the Thames. He reached the coast of Labrador, and, on entering an inlet froin Hudson's Strait, thought he had Asia on his right. He soon found out his error. Yet the next year he came again with several vessels, and returned to England with loads of glittering, but valueless, dirt and stones. But such were his courage and skill that the queen, in 1=578, equipped him with fifteen ships, and many sons of well-known families went out with him. They nearly perished among the frozen snows and icebergs of the North American seas. The cold was so in- tense that the crews mutinied, and all w^ere glad to return with- out either glory or gold. But Frobisher was afterwards knighted for heroism in helping to defeat the Spanish Armada.^ In 1585, the English navigator John Davis discovered and entered the strait which bears his name. The next year he pen- etrated the polar regions as far north as latitude 73°. In June, 1578, Qiieen Elizabeth granted to Sir Humphrey Gil- bert, a kinsman of Walter Raleigh a liberal patent for discovery and settlement in America." Sir Humphrey Gilbert was not a seaman by profession, yet he sailed in 1583 and took possession of Newfoundland in the name of his royal mistress. Returning, a violent storm separated his vessels. He was in the Squirrel., and the Hind was near her. He was seen reading on his deck, and the last words heard from him were : " We are as near heaven by sea as by land." His vessel went down in the storm. ^ Not discouraged, Elizabeth granted, March 3^th, 1584, to Sir Walter Raleigh, maternal half-brother of Gilbert, a patent, broader even than her previous grant, for discovery, settlement and gov- ernment in America. Sir Walter, though he had interesting and perilous adventures in Guiana, never visited North America in person. He sent " Sir Richard Grenville the valiant, Mr. Wil- liam Sanderson, a great friend to all such noble and worthy ac- tions, and divers other gentlemen and merchants," in two barks, well equipped, commanded by Captains Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. They left England April 29th, 1584, and sailed by way of the Canaries and West Indies, being yet afraid of the shorter pas- 1 Prof. G. F. Holmes' U. S., 28. 2 We adopt the coramou form of Raleigh's name, because the name appears in slz different forms in the original draft for the patent of the queen. (Brown's Genesis of the U. S., 1. 14.) 3 Hakluyt, III. 154. I English and French Voyages to America. 41 sage. T^ily 13th they drew near to the shores of North Carolina, and were greeted by a delicious fragrance from the vines and flowers of the land. They landed on Wococon Island, near Ocra- coke Inlet. They were amazed at the abundance of grapes hang- ing on the trees, or washed in pi'ofusion along the islands. They were hospitably received by the Chief Granganameo and his wife, on Roanoke Island. Taking with them two natives, Manteo and Wanchese, who volunteered to go back with them, they returned to England, arriving in September. Qiieen Elizabeth was so delighted with their account of the charms of this land that she gladly adopted the suggestion of Raleigh and called it ''Virginia," in honor of its virgin attrac- tions and of her own unmarried state. This name was at first applied to all the region claimed by England in North America. But the first efforts at colonizing were abortive. In 1585 Sir Richard Grenville returned to America, and in July left one hundred and eight colonists on Roanoke Island, among whom was Thomas Heriot, a man of science, whom Raleigh had per- suaded to come. But the settlers were soon on bad terms with the natives, and began to sufler with hunger and exposure. Sir Francis Drake, cruising in the West Indies in search of Spanish treasure ships, touched at Roanoke Island, and at their earnest prayer carried the colonists back to England. In 1=587 Raleigh made another eftort. One hundred and fifteen settlers, under Governor John White, were left on the island of Roanoke, provided with all needed supplies. Here, on the 18th of August, Eleanor, daughter of the governor, and wife of Ana- nias Dare, gave birth to the first child of English birth born in the New World, on whom was besto^ved the sweet name of ^"ir- ginia.^ Sad was the fate of this colony. Afany things being needed from the mother land. Governor White yielded to his people's entreaties and sailed for England August 27th. Nearly three yeai's passed before he returned. On the 15th of August, 1^90, he passed within the dangerous headlands of Hatteras, and sought the colonists. He never found them, nor have they ever been found, though Raleigh sent afterwards five messengers to seek them. Want, exposure and savage hostility had destroyed them. Bartholomew Gosnold revived the almost dead spirit of English colonization. In 1603 he sailed by the shortest route Avestward from England, and on the 17th of May discovered Cape Cod, and coasted along the shores of what was afterwards New England, 1 Smitn's Gen. Hist. Va., I. 102. 42 A History of the United States oj" America. landed on an island, whose fruits and luxuriant vines led him to bestow on it the name of "Martha's Vineyard," glanced at all the beauty and wealth of the main-land, and returned to England about the close of July. ^ In 1593, Captain George Weymouth made a voyage to the American seas to discover a northwest passage to the Pacific, but without success. In May, 1603, he sailed again to America, re- turning in September. In March, 1605, he sailed again, visiting the coasts of what is now New England, returning in July of the same year. This was his last voyage.'^ The opening years of the seventeenth century had been reached, and no permanent settlement by English colonists had been made in the New World. Meanwhile, other nations had not been idle. Fishing smacks from France went to the banks of Newfound- land as early as 1503. In 1506, Denys, a French navigator, explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the adjoining coast, and made a chart representing them. In 1524, Verrazani, an Italian in the service of Francis I., King of France, reached the American continent in the latitude of Wil- mington, North Carolina. He then coasted northward as far as Nova Scotia. He called the country " New France," and laid the foundation for coming wars. In 1534, Jacques Cartier explored the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. He claimed the country for France. In 1535 he sailed up the St. Lawrence to where Montreal now stands. He gave it tlie name "Royal ISIountain." In 1541, Cartier, with a band of French colonists, made a third voyage to the St. Law- rence. The Indians tried to deter him from further progress by dressing some of their band up as devils ; but Cartier was not to be stopped by devils, true or false. He was attracted by the lofty plateau of rock called Stadacona, and built a fort near the pres- ent site of Qiiebec. But the colonists became dissatisfied, and re- turned to France in the spring of 1542.^ De la Roque, Lord of Roberval, was made viceroy of this region, and visited it in 1542. In 1549 he made another voyage thither, but his ship never returned.* In 1562, Admiral Coligny, as we have seen, sent a colony of French Protestants to South Carolina and Florida. We have 1 Purchas' Pilgrims, IV. 1646. Belknap's Amer. Bio?., II. 211, 214. - Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United States, Pref., iv.; II. 1049. 3 Swlnton's U. S., 1.^-15. Horare E. Srndder's U. S., 29. 1 David B. Scott's U.S., 20. Eggleston's Household U. S.; 116. I English and French Voyages to America. 43 noted their fate, and the just revenge it drew down on the heads of the Spaniards. In 159S, the Marquis De la Roche sent forty convicts to the sandy isle of Sable, near Nova Scotia. In a few years this ill- omened colony died out. In 1603, De Monts, an influential Huguenot courtier, obtained from the French King, Henry IV., a grant of land between the 40th and 46th parallels of north latitude, which would have ex- tended from the neighborhood of what is now Philadelphia to Cape Breton. He called this region Acadia, but that name was soon limited to what is now New Brunswick, Cape Breton and the adjacent islands. Accompanied by the celebrated French navigator and explorer, Samuel De Champlain, De IMonts, in 1604, came out with two ships, built a fort at the mouth of the St. Croix river, and made a settlement finally at Port Royal in September, 1605. This was the first permanent French settlement in America.^ It was two years older than Jamestow^n. In 1608, Champlain established a trading post on the St. Law- rence, which he named Quebec, from which the city of that name sprang. The name is of Indian origin, and means " the nar- rows." In 1609 he discovered the beautiful lake which bears his name. But he became involved in quarrels and bloody strife with the Iroquois, or Five Nations, which they never forgot, and afterwards visited formidably on the French." Thus we reach the point of time at which permanent colonies — afterwards to be developed into the United States of America — were about to be established in the New^ World. The long delay was not without a Divine direction and control. ID. B. Scott's U.S., 21. 2 Prof. Steele, Barnes' United States, 33. Art. Champlain, Amer. Encyclop. CHAPTER VI. Old World Conditions as to Self-Government, Religion AND .Slavery. THAT we may have an intelligent insight into the conditions in the Old World vs^hich most deeply affected the subsequent fortunes of the colonies planted in North America, we need only view these conditions under three heads. Other important cur- rents of force doubtless existed, such as the view taken by Euro- peans of the rights in the New World acquired by discovery. To this we have already alluded, and we will have occasion to pre- sent other conditions coming from the old civilization and strongly influencing the colonists, and yet not falling directly under any of the three heads now to be stated. But it will be found that these three germ-beds of influence were those which most radically affected the colonies for weal or for woe. We must seek, therefore, to obtain a clear view of them as they existed in the Old World when the colonization of North America began. The three heads of inquiry are as follows : I. The self-government of man. 3. The religious knowledge and rights of man. 3. Human slavery. Under the first head it may be safely declared that, when Co- lumbus discovered the islands of America, monarch}- was the form of government so nearly universal in the Old World that the common people had abandoned all hope of self-government. As to Asia and Africa, monarchy existed in its most absolute and oppressive forms. In Europe, the cantons of Switzerland con- stituted the only republic of sufiicient importance to be recognized as such, for San Marino was a republic only because of her weak- ness. The Swiss had gained the liberties of a confederated re- public more by reason of their mountainous and easily-defended country than by any strong attachment of individuals to the idea of self-government. The people were lovers of home with a pas- sionate and deathless love. They loved the very forests and snows of their Alps and the frigid depths of their valleys. Con- sequently, when they threw off the royal or ducal yokes of Ger- [ 44 ] Old World Condiiiojis as to Self- Govern7i2ent. 45 many, France and Austria, they were able, by union and heroic fighting, to maintain their independence and republican forms. And yet when the Swiss soldiers left their own land and became the paid body-guards of kings, it has often been remarked that no soldiers ever fought to defend inonarchies and monarchs as they did/ And during the progress of the Reformation in Europe, religious differences rent the Swiss cantons asunder. Thus Switzerland had done little for the self-governinent of the human race when American colonization began. Monarchy is the form of the Divine government, but it is not suited to human government if the design of government be the welfare and happiness of the people. God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, had warned the Hebrev^^ nation against adopting a monarchy as their chosen form of government, and had told them, by his prophet, of the woes a king would bring upon them.^ These prophecies were fulfilled in the subsequent experience of the people of Judah and Israel, and have been, in both spii'it and substance, realized by all nations that have submitted themselves to the government of a king. If a list of all the kings that have ever reigned on earth were prepared, it could be shown by faithful history that not one in a hundred had really sought to promote the prosperity and happi- ness of his subjects when his own selfish indulgences came in question. And of all these kings, those who have been specially designated by the title " Great" have been most eminent in cruelty, lust and gigantic selfishness. When America was discovered, Russia in Europe was hardly known as anything more than a horde of barbarians, reigned over, though not governed, bv an Asiatic despot. Turkey was a Mo- hammedan sultanship. Germany was a collection of small and ill-governed monarchies, over wdiom the emperor barely main- tained the semblance of a connecting power. France was a mon- archy, but with many dukedoms so pow^erful that the dukes were sovereigns. Italy was not a kingdom, but a land broken up into many petty kingdoms, among whom the Pontiff' of Rome was a temporal sovereign claiming earthly equality with the proudest states of Europe, and claiming over all earthly sovereigns a spiritual power infallible and irresistible. Spain had become united, and was the leading monarchy of Europe. England was a monarchy, in which Alagua Charta had, indeed, been granted, containing many of the most precious principles of self-govern- ment by man ; and the House of Commons was yearly gaining 1 Art. Switzerland, New Amer. Eucyclop., XV. 247. - 1 Samuel viii. 4-22. 46 A History of the United States of America. more and more power. But under Henry VII., Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, the royal claim of prerogative had never been higher ; and James I., who succeeded Elizabeth in 1603, was a thorough believer in " the divine right of kings," and would not tolerate any claim of the commons w^hich looked to a limitation of his kingly power. Such were the views of the prevalent powers on the subject of the " self-government of man " at the time when colonization began in North America. The second head of inquiry is still more important : What opinions and conduct were prevalent at that time concerning the " religious rights and knowledge of man " ? History answers this question with seriousness and without satisfaction. She admits and establishes the Divine character of Christianity, by proving the miraculous facts on which the Christian faith is founded ; but she is compelled to admit that human ambition, depravity and ignorance had made sad perversions and innovations before America was disoovered and colonized. Yet these corruptions, deplorable as they were, had not destroyed the church in any of her visible forms. The spirit and body still existed, and needed only reformation as to what was evil and illegitimate. Before Columbus sailed, the visible church had already under- gone a wide separation, and existed in two great organisms, known then and ever since as the Greek and the Roman churches. Of these the Greek or Oriental church is the older, having existed in the original seats of Christianity in Asia Minor and having adhered to the language in which the New Testament was writ- ten.^ But many thoughtful Christians have believed and claimed that, prior to the forms of these two venerable organisms, history has demonstrated the existence of a primitive form for the Chris- tian church, sanctioned by inspiration and the usage of the apos- tles.^ No definite form is essential to the existence of a church as part of the visible body of Christ. The Greek church discards the monarchic form and adopts an ecclesiastical aristocracy, holding to the spiritual equality of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. The Roman church, ever since the bishops of Rome began to claim for themselves the special honor of being called "pappoi" [fathers) — a name universally appropriated and applied in the Greek church to all priests — has been a monarchy.* The name " pope " was first applied to the Bishop of Rome by the deacon 1 Schaff-Herzog Encyclop., art. Greek Church, II. 900. 2 Dean Stanley's Sermon, 1879. Art. Pope, in his Christian Instit. Bishop of Durham's Ch. Ministry and Essay on Philippians. Dr Edwin Hatch's Works, passim. s.Art. Pope, Schaff-Herzog Encyc, III. 1869. Dean Stanley's Ch. Instit., 194. I I Old World Conditions as to Religion. 47 Severus in his letter to Marcellinus about the beginning of the third century, and was first formally claimed by Siricius, Bishop of Rome, about a hundred years thereafter. Since the middle of the fifth century, it has been officially used by the Roman pontifls as theii* proper designation. The imperial power of which Rome was the centre, the giant sway exercised by her over the nations of the earth, and the com- pleteness of organization in all the departments of her govern- ment, contributed to the extension of the Roman church, both in her territory and her authority. From the time when the first Sylvester, Bishop of Rome, baptized the Emperor Constantine, and certainly from the time when that emperor adopted Chris- tianity and made it the religion of the state, Rome was the re- cognized centre of Western church authority. Yet her claims were resisted by the Greek church and the secular kings until the famous decree of Valentinian III., in 44c; A. D., recognized the Bisliop of Rome as the primate of the Christian church, not only in judicial, but also in legislative elements, and gave authority not only to his decisions in appeals, but also to the decrees and orders which issued from him.' In the eleventh century, Hildebrand was elevated to the papal throne, under the title of Gregory VII. Before the close of his pontificate, his intellectual force, skill and diplomacy had so suc- cessfully seconded his ambition that the svt^ay of the Roman church throughout all Western lands called Christian became complete. He declared that, as pontiff', he was subject to no judge on earth, that he had the right to depose the emperor, that he had the right to wear the imperial insignia, and that he alone could convene a general council for settlement of religious questions." From this time down through all subsequent ages, the Roman church has claimed the " i?nperium in iniperio " — sovereignty in sovereignty — the right to govern all who submit to her jurisdic- tion, and to govern them in conscience, in word, and in deed, even in opposition to the laws and institutions of the country in which they live, and to which they owe obedience, either by na- tivity or. by naturalization as citizens, or by residence and protec- tion.^ This claim is the logical and inevitable outcome of the claim of the supreme pontiff' to infallibility in matters of faith and morals, and to be the vicar and vicegerent of God on earth. This was the j^osition of the Roman church at the time when 1 Compare Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, II. 271. Schaflf-Herzog, III. 2275. Hinschius, art. Papacy. 2 Schafl'-IIerzog Kel. Encyc, III. 1737. sSyllabus Errornra. Pio"Nono, Dec. 8th, 1864. Vatican Decree, July ISth, 1870, 111.15,18; V. 23, 24, 27, 29, 32, 37; VI. 42, 47, 53, 55 ; VII. 62, 63. Blackstone's Com , IV. r.7. 48 A History of the United States of America. Columbus discovered San Salvador, and is more definitely her position now than at that time. The Greek church did not per- ceptibly influence the character or fortunes of the American people. Before colonization began, a memorable uprising of the human soul against spiritual tyranny had taken place. This was the Reformation of the sixteenth century. To tell of all its important changes would require many volumes, and is not needful for the purposes of this work. But it is very needful to show how much it had accomplished, and what it had failed to accomplish, in rela- tion to " the religious rights and knowledge of man." Its first and most potent eflect had been to break the yoke of spiritual tyranny, and to relieve millions of minds in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Eng- land, Scotland and Ireland from submission to the Roman church. The infallibility of the inspired Scriptures — the Word of God — w^hen properlv interpreted according to the analogy of faith, was substituted for the infallibility of man or of any assemblage of men. But in other respects, the Reformation had failed to do what was of prime importance. Pirst. It had failed to overturn the principle of church estab- lishment. This failure resulted from imperfect appreciation of the teaching, both of Holy Scripture and of developed reason, that re- ligion is spiritual and affects the conscience, and must be left free from the control of human government. To permit any earthly government to set up a religion and to require people to conform to it, and to support it by their labor and property, is to put that earthly government in the position claimed and long held by the Roman church. Second. It had failed to confirm the principle, so clearly laid down in Holy Scripture, that the divine and omniscient Founder of Christianity intended that his church on earth should be es- tablished and kept in progress by the voluntary submission of souls, consciences, bodies and property to his invisible govern- ment, of which the central and all-moving powder is love. Third. It had failed to eliminate from the souls of mankind certain beliefs supposed to have been derived from the teachings of Holy Scripture, but really founded on false interpretations thereof. These beliefs were the result of ages of ignorance, and could be effectually overthrown only by the discoveries and in- ductions of sound science. Several of these beliefs will come into our field of vision in the further progress of this work. At present, only one needs special comment. Old World Conditions as to Religion. 49 The belief in -u'/Zr/zcro/*/, so long and disastrously held in Chris- tian countries, came from a false interpretation of such passages of Scripture as Exodus xxii. 18 : "Thou shalt not suiter a witch to live," and of several other passages in which witchcraft, sor- cery and dealing with familiar spirits are spoken oi} With the feeble scientific light of the ages preceding the seventeenth cen- tury, it was not easy to obtain the key to the real meaning of these passages. Yet the one from the New Testament ought to have suggested the truth, for it referred so plainly to the sin of deception and fraud, and sometimes fatal poisoning, practiced by the venijicas and pretended sorceresses of past ages, that all the Old Testament passages ought to have received like interpreta- tion. But, unhappily, the key, not being patiently sought, was not found. Yet it is a comforting truth that persecutions for alleged witchcraft were hardly known in Europe prior to the close of the fifteenth century. Just about eight years before Columbus sailed from Palos, Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull denouncing death without mercy against all who should be convicted of witchcraft or of dealings with Satan ; and a form of process for trial was laid down by a fanatic -persecutor named Sprenger, who was nominated by the pope as head of the commission. Alexander VI. and even Leo X. lent their aid by successive bulls." The result was horrible. About the year 151=;, in three months, in Geneva, five hundred persons were executed for the alleged crime of witchcraft. In the diocese of Como, a thousand were put to death in one year. For some years thereafter, not less than one hundred were burned for witchcraft every year. Re- migius boasts of having burned nine hundred in five years. In France, in 1520, one historian narrates that "an almost infinite number of sorcerers " were put to death. Germany was a fruitful soil for such works. From the publi- cation of the bull of Innocent to the time of stoppage of perse- cution for witchcraft, the number of victims has been estimated at one hundred thousand ! In Wurtzburg alone, in two years, one hundred and fifty-seven persons were burned, including not only old women, but children of nine years.^ Instead of turning with horror from these scenes, the people learned to revel in them. They sang popular songs about them, and represented them in hideous engravings with devils dragging away " their 1 Deuteronomy xviii. 10; First Samuel xv. 23; Second Kings ix. 22; Second Chronicles xxxiii. 6 ; Micah v. 12 ; Nahum iii. 4 ; Galatians v. 20. -' Published bulls of the Pontitfs. Combe on the Constitution of Man, p. 310. s Combe, 310. 5© A History of the United States of Amei'ica. 0"wn " ; and the clergy preached solemn discourses, called "witch sermons," on these occasions.' The Reformation did nothing to mitigate these horrors. It seemed rather to increase them. In Protestant England, and during the Long Parliament, three thousand human victims were executed for the supposed crime of witchcraft. Sir Matthew Hale, though a Christian judge, carried on the frightful work. It continued until Chief-Justice Holt, with his strong common sense, made a firm charge to a jury, and they brovight in a verdict of " not guilty." Then the tide began to turn, and in ten other trials before him, from 1694 to 1701, a similar verdict was ren- dered. Barrington estimates the number of persons put to death in England on the charge of witchcraft at thirty thousand.^ At last, in 1736, science and common sense triumphed over false theology. ' The penal statutes against witchcraft were re- pealed, though the real crime of pretending to exercise it was still to be punished. Scotland must rest under her full share of this shame. After the Reformation had done much of its good work there, the evil work of persecuting olleged witches and sorcerers began, and for ninety-nine years it did not cease. Burning was the usual mode of inflicting death ; and to obtain confessions, torture by thumb- screws and iron boots and pricking with sharp instruments was frequently practiced. More than sixty trials are of record in the reign of James VI., in which the charge was witchcraft, and the result was death to the accused. It is a painful fact that the clergy were the people who in these cases displayed the most intemperate and cruel zeal.^ In all Christian ages, clergymen, unless thoroughly permeated by the spirit of Christ, have been the class most given to the practice of religious persecution, and least disposed to permit the discoveries of science and the intuitive dictates of common sense to correct false dogmas held by them upon unsound interpretations of Holy Scripture taught in human creeds and traditions. And yet Chris- tianity has been so potent as to subdue these dangerous tenden- cies of her own accredited ministers. Such were some of the ideas as to religion and religious know- ledge prevalent when the colonization of North America began. We shall note their eflect. 1 Combe on the Constitution of Man, p. 310. - Ibid., p. 312. " Ibid., p. 312. CHAPTER VII. Slavery, Ancient and Modern. WE have purposely reserved for a distinct chapter in this work a presentation of the facts relating to human slavery as they were known in history and experience at the time of the coloni- zation of North America. This subject has had an influence grave and fearful enough to justify a calm effort to elucidate it. We are called tirst to define slavery — to form a clear concept of its meaning. The attempt has often been made to explain slavery as simply the right of a master to the time and services of a servant for life, in consideration of the obligation of the master to maintain him, feed him, clothe him, shelter him, instruct him in religion and duty, and provide humanely for him in infancy, infirmity, sick- ness and old age.' But this is not the relation of owner and slave as the world has known it. Slaverv is the relation in which one man otvns another man as his chattel — his property. It arises in the same way as other property — by buying and selling or by gift. And consequently, a man intending to purchase may claim the right to examine the slave as he would a horse — to examine his mouth, his teeth, his head, his limbs, his hands, his feet, his body, and to inquire as to his habits and tendencies, and to estiniate his money value accord- ingly. This right has been conceded and exercised in every slave- market in the world, and in all times, ancient and modern. The conditions resulting from this relation have been that the slave has no rights as against his owner. Even if injury, premed- itated or unlawful, to his life and limbs be forbidden, it is not because he has any rights, but because such crimes would hurt society. The owner may whip, beat and scourge the slave will- fully, maliciously, violently, immoderately, excessively, unmerci- fully and cruelly, and yet not be held liable, either criminally or civilly, unless death speedily ensues." This was a comparatively 'Dr. J. H. Thornwell's Col. Writings, IV., pp. 414, 420. Blackstone's Com.. Amer. ediiion, I. 333, 334, witli notes. George Fitzhugh's " Sociology for tlie South " and " Cannibals All." Dr. Ro. L. Dabney's article, "The Latest Infl^lelitv," JPres Quarterly, Jan'y, 1890, pp. 5, 6. 2 Turner's Case, 5 Randolph, C7S. Souther's Case, 7 Grattan, 673. Article Slavery, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 713. Exodus xxi. 20, 21. [ 51 ] C2 A History of the United States of America. modern decision by a Virginia court of sixteen judges, of whom only one, William Brockenbrough, dissented. The slave can make no valid contract, cannot marry, cannot have legitimate ofi^spring, and may be separated from v\^ife and children by an act of sale. He is so completely a chattel that he cannot even exercise the privilege of conditional mental election by which he may be emancipated.' In fact, the condition of the slave is accurately defined in those statutes which declare that " slaves are chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever.^ Such being slavery, all attempts to vindicate and uphold it as approved of God have been failures. The fixed and irrevocable truth concerning God and man taught by inspiration is, that God created man, male and female — one man and one woman — and united them as husband and wife, and blessed them, and said unto them : " Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'" Therefore, all mankind stand on the same platform as to ordi- nary generation. All come from the same Adam. All are brothers. All inherit the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." All may be saved by the Second Adam if they will trust to him. The difterences in skin, color, conformation of head, brain, limbs or body apparent among men are the result of congenital differentiations which evade discovery, or of condi- tions of climate, exposure and long-continued mode of life. All such attempts as those made by false science to prove a multitude of original ancestors for the varied races of mankind have been in opposition to truth, revealed and scientific. Nevertheless, slavery, in its most distinct and abject form, has existed in this world from a time beyond the utmost reach of his- tory. How it originated cannot, therefore, be historically ascer- tained. But of this we may be certain, that, like polygamy, divorce, the law of retaliation, and other evils so widely spread as to be called institutions of civilized society, slavery did not originate in the command of God. It was an evil originating in the de- praved and selfish tendencies of man;* and though long tole- rated and directed by the wisdom and good providence of God, it was an evil which the principles taught in his Word ever tended to remove. 1 Bailey vs. Poindexter, 14 Grattan, 132. Williamson vs. Coalter, Ibid., 394. 2 Article Slavery, Araer. Eacyclop., XIV. 711. sQenesis i. 27, 28. ^Thornwell's Col. Writings, IV. 419, 420. Slavery, Ancient and Modern. 53 It is most probable that slavery originated from war. War is, in itself, one of the most cruel and repulsive evils to which the native depravity of man has given birth. War is opposed to the essential nature of God, which is love. And yet war is a condi- tion of mankind running back to unknown ages. It is, even when offensive, sometimes just ; and when defensive, often the highest virtue in a people, and approved by God. And therefore the Holy Scriptures give principles to regulate war, and a large part of international law is taken up in expounding these prin- ciples. Yet war is forbidden by the law of wisdom and love ; and the time will come when " men shall learn war no more." ^ In war battles occur; and in battle each of the opposing hosts seeks to kill those fighting against them. The right and duty to kill is recognized, even commanded. Therefore, it was not unreasonable to hold that when prisoners were taken, if their lives were spared, their rights and liberties were absolutely for- feited, and they became slaves, the property of their captors, and might be treated, bought and sold like other property taken in war or otherwise acquired. This view of the origin of slavery is confirmed by all known history. It is not at all probable that slavery originated as a punishment for crime. It took rise in prehistoric ages — probably before the Noachic deluge — and as man had become so depraved and crimi- nal in thought, word and deed that the destruction of all the hu- man race (except eight persons)' was the chosen remedy for the salvation of the race in coming generations, it is highly improba- ble that any formal judicial sentences for crime had reduced crim- inals to slavery before the deluge. The world would have been full of slaves. But after war had given rise to slavery, we have no difficulty in conceiving how the evil and selfish propensities of men multi- plied slaves by the various methods through which the institu- tion has been continued through more than three thousand 3ears of history — that is, by kidnaping, by piracy, by warlike raids for the very purpose of obtaining slaves, by buying and selling, and by holding as slaves the children and lineal descendants of a female slave.* Evidently, when the boy Joseph was drawn up from the pit and sold as a slave by his cruel brothers to Midianites, who were " merchantmen," nearly eighteen hundred years before the birth 1 Numbers xxxii. 6 ; Deuteronomy xxiv. 5 ; First Chronicles v. 22; Psalm xlvi. 9 ; IsaiaU li. 4 ; Micah iv. 3. " Genesis vi. 5-13 ; First Peter iii. 19, 20; Second Peter li. 5, 3 Art. Slavery, Schaff-Herzog Encyclop. ^4 A Histoi-y of tlic United States of America. of Christ, such traffic was common ; and slaves were considered as merchantable chattels and commodities.' The transaction was cool and deliberate. The sum paid \vas eleven dollars and twenty-eight cents." Slavery had been so long established that prices were low. Egypt had slaves in abundance, acquired in all possible ways. The Phoenicians were especially active in this trade, as appears by the poems of Homer. Slaves formed much the larger part of the population of Tyre and Sidon, on the western shores of Pal- estine ; and slaves were numerous in Carthage and in all of North- ern Africa. But they were almost universally white slaves. Black slaves were then and for manv vears afterwards looked upon as luxuries and curiosities.* The Hebrews in Egypt were not slaves. They were in cruel bondage, it is true ; but their bondage was political, and did not amount to slavery.* They were compelled to work and to work sei'vilely ; but they were not held as chattels. They were per- sons, and could contract, buy, sell, engage in business, and make legal marriages and have legitimate children. They were, there- fore, not slaves. Yet they knew what slavery was, and probably acquired by purchase or otherwise many slaves before their exodus from Egypt. It is certain that in their forty years of wandering before they reached Canaan, and afterwards in their established residence in that land, thev had many slaves. But we do not find anywhere in the Word of God any authority from him to convert a man into a slave, except for crime by him committed. Abraham, the " father of the faithful," owned slaves — some "bought with his money," some "born in the house."" He adopted ways and usages long established. But Abraham also told a disgraceful falsehood to the " princes of Pharaoh " and to Abimelech, King of Gerar ; and Abraham practiced polygamy in a form most adapted to oppress one of the wives and her child.'' What he did was not always right in the sight of God. Under the Mosaic institutions, no Hebrew could be a slave. He might be a bond-servant, bound to render service generally up to the next year of Jubilee, or six years from the commence- ment of his servitude, and sometimes, by his own consent and act, up to the end of his life ; ' but he was never a chattel. He w^as always a person with the rights of a person. 1 Genesis xxxvii. 25-36. - Table with Oxford Bible, p. 72. a Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 696, 697. ^ Life in the Exode, Dr. A. D. Pollock, 64. 5 Cxenesis xii. 16 ; xvii. 12-27. Bancroft's U S., 1. 159. 6 Genesis xii. 11-20 ; xvi., xx., xxi. ' Schafif-Herzog, III. 2193. Slavery^ Auciciit and Modern. 55 It was not so as to aliens and foreigners. They were slaves by war and conquest, or by purchase from foreign slave-traders. For his own wise and benevolent reasons, God permitted them to be held in slavery ; but he required them to be admitted to all religious privileges, to circumcision, to the hearing of the law, to participation in the paschal sacrifice, and all other sacred fes- tivals, to the rest of the Sabbath, and the hopes of the everlasting rest ; and in case the owner had no male issue, he could make a slave his son-in-law. And the Mosaic code greatly ameliorated the conditions of slavery in other respects. It protected the slave in life and limb, and if the owner hurt him seriously by chastise- ment, he was required to give him his freedom.^ The treatment of slaves among the Hebrews was gentle, some- times even too mild, as may be inferred from the Proverbs of Sol- omon.'^ And when the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon they had only seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven slaves — about one to six of the free population.'^ We have reason to believe that all these slaves were white, and we know that two hundred of them were accomplished in vocal music. The Greeks ov^^ned slaves in great numbers. In Athens and throughout Attica their treatment was mild and genial — the mildest ever practiced. But in Sparta the slaves were called Helots, and their treatment was the type of all that is calamitous in the lot of mankind. They were not slaves of individuals, but of the state, and assigned to masters who could neither emanci- pate them nor remove them from their land of bondage. As they increased rapidly in numbers, efforts w^ere specially made to weaken their power, and statements have come down in history that the Spartan youth annually engaged in a "chase of Helots," hunting them down and massacring them by night and by day. Thucydides tells us of a mysterious disappearance of two thou- sand Helots after they had been selected to be made free and put in the Spartan armies.* The horrible suggestions of his brief narrative need no comment. But of all the powers of the world, the Roman, as kingdom, republic and empire, was the greatest slave-holder. Her slaves were generally the result of war, and as her chief business was war, slaves multiplied accordingly. These slaves were, with few exceptions, white, and embraced the most refined, accomplished and cultivated men, women and children of the nations she sub- jugated. 1 Exodus xxi. 26, 27. = Proverbs xxix. 19-21. 3 Ezra ii. 65. Schaff-Herzog, III. 2193 •1 Thucydides' Hist. Art. Slavery, Amer. Encyclop.,'XIV. 697. 56 A History of the United States of America, When Regulus invaded the Carthaginian territory, 256 B. C, he passed, with his armies, through a region which, for richness and culture and the refinement of its inhabitants, has been cor- rectly described as resembling the approach to Genoa, ^ or the neighborhood of Geneva, or even the most ornamental parts of the valley of the Thames above London. This delightful region was desolated by war, and twenty thousand of its people, many of them, beyond doubt, of the highest condition, and bred up in all the enjoyments of domestic peace and affluence, were carried away as slaves. After the second Punic war, the conquests of Rome went on with great rapidity. The number of the slaves increased imtil the cultivation of the soil, formerly considered the most honor- able of labor and fit only for Roman citizens, was done by slaves. When Carthage was captured, nearly all of her people were made slaves. The rich and luxurious Greek city of Corinth was cap- tured by the Romans nearly at the same time, and her people met the same fate. Indeed, but for the influence of Polybius and Scipio Africanus the younger, all the inhabitants of the Pelopon- nesus would have been converted into slaves.^ The number of slaves grew to be so great that it was not un- common for a wealthy Roman to own twenty thousand of them. They were employed not only in agriculture and the more labor- ious occupations of life, and in domestic duties, but as librarians, readers, writers, reciters, story-tellers, journal keepers, amanuen- ses, physicians, surgeons, architects, divines, grammarians, musi- cians, singers, play actors, builders, engravers, antiquaries, illumi- nators, painters, silversmiths, gladiators and charioteers. The money value of a slave was determined not merely by his ability and accomplishments, but by the inexorable laws of supply and demand.^ The conquests of Sylla, Lucullus and Pompey, in the east, so flooded the slave-markets that in the military camp in Pontus men sold at the low price of sixty-two cents each ! * Generally after a victory or a conquest the enslaved people were sold at auction. Slave-traders were very numerous and amassed immense wealth. We have no difficulty in understanding this when we remember that these traders bought in the camps at sixty-two cents and then sold in Rome at prices seldom less than one hun- dred dollars for a slave.^ 1 Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 697-700. '- Article Slavery, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 699, 3 Article Slavery, Amer. Encvclop., XIV. 700. * Plutarch, in Lucull., 580. Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, I. 47, note. s Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 699-703. Slavery, Ancient and Modern. 5y The great slave-markets of the world were Antioch, Ephesus, Alexandria and the island of Deles. Thither came the slave- traders in crowds. And they dealt in human beings as mere merchandise. The only use of the word " slave " in the accepted English version of the Holy Scriptures is in the description of the great merchandise mart of Babylon, ending a wide enume- ration thus : "and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men." But notwithstanding his wealth, the slave-trader was regarded in Rome, as he has been regarded in all nations and in all ages, with contempt and loathing. The Romans considered the busi- ness of a dealer in slaves as so utterly unworthy of a merchant that, while they regarded a merchant as entitled to the highest social position, they turned their back on the slave-trader, and gave him habitually a name which indicated thorough distrust and abomination. Slavery was certainly among the most potent causes of the decline and fall of the Roman empire. Gibbon estimates the number of slaves in the reign of the Emperor Claudius at sixty millions, and this is probably not far from the truth. ^ Such a mass, heaping up luxury and self-indulgence, was hastening "• the beginning of the end." During the dark and the middle ages, slavery continued chiefly by the conflicts of Christianity with Mohammedanism, and the piratical efforts of the Barbary powers in the North of Africa. Yet the slaves made were very seldom negroes. They were white people, and often of cultivation and refinement. The wars between the Germans and Slavi furnished so many of the latter race for the slave-market that the w^ord " slave " is supposed to have been thus derived." But Christianitv, though her light was then obscured by igno- rance and superstition, began to cast that light over the nations of Europe, and its effects were always adverse to slavery. Paul, the apostle, had indeed induced a fugitive slave to return to a kind Christian owner, but he had also, by inspiration, announced a principle which proved that Christianity was against slavery. It was in these words : "Art thou called being a servant? i^dovXoz — a slave) care not for it ; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather."'' The Greek and Roman churches were both opposed to slavery. They denied the right to convert Christians into slaves, but v\'ere 1 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, I. 52, 53. 2 Article Slavery, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 705. 3 First Corinthians vii. 21. 58 A History of the United States oj" America. not so definite as to the heathen. Thirty-seven church coun- cils passed acts favorable to slaves and tending to their freedom.^ The right of asylum in churches v^^as offered to fugitive slaves ; large sums were spent for their ransom ; manumissions were fre- quent, and were encouraged by the church as acts " inspired by the love of God." In the sixth century the Roman Pontiff Greg- ory the Great declared that " slaves should be freed, because Christ became man in order to redeem us." In the twelfth century, Al- exander III. had declared in published writing, that " nature hav- ing made no slaves, all men have an equal right to liberty." ' The effect of this opposition of organized Christianity to slavery was manifest. By the middle of the fifteenth century, no whites in Europe continued to be slaves. Serfdom was, indeed, continued, and often in oppressive forms ; but serfdom never con- verted the man into a chattel. It was the result of the feudal system, which prevailed ^all over Europe, and it was rapidly extinguished as that system decayed. But, unhappily for the world, a strange revival of slavery oc- curred in times nearly coeval with the rediscovery of America in the close of the fifteenth century, and the maritime enterprises and colonization consequent therefrom. These events gave rise to Afri- can or negro slavery and its large development in the New World. Portugal led the way in this sinister work. In 1441, two sea- captains in the employ of Prince Henry the Navigator seized cer- tain Moors in the North of Africa and carried them to Portugal. The next year these Moors were permitted to ransom themselves, and among the merchandise given for them were ten black slaves, whose apjDearance in Portugal excited much interest and led the van of the African slave-trade.^ In Africa slavery had long existed, nourished by the wars, kid- napings and raids carried on by the native kings and tribes. The trade in Portugal was soon regular, and a Portuguese slave- factory was established in one of the islands of Arguin about the middle of the fifteenth century. Seven or eight hundi'ed black slaves were sent to Portugal from this factory every year. And when the Spaniards began to colonize the West Indies for the purpose of seeking gold, this trade received a powerful impetus. We have seen that the native Indians withered away and perished under the forced labors of the mines. The Spanish priest Las Casas pitied them and did all he could to save them. Among his plans for their relief was the sending of negro slaves 1 Gesta Christo. Brace, in Schaff-Herzog. III. 2196. 2 Letter of Alexander to Lupus, King of Valencia. Bancroft's U. S., 1. 163. 3 Art. Slavery, New Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 707. Slavery, Ancient and Modern. 59 from Africa to work in the mines. He was a good man ; yet we wonder at the form of his philanthropy/ But its immediate result was so far favorable that other nations speedily embarked in the African slave-trade. One negro was found to be equal to four Indians in the amount and value of his work. England began to bring black slaves from Africa to her own soil in I5x3- I^^ 1562 English ships carried on the trade with vigor and worldly success. Sir John Hawkins fraudulently transferred a large cargo of Africans to Hispaniola, and got such rich returns in sugar, ginger and pearls that Qiieen Elizabeth's avarice was excited. She not only protected his next voyage, but shared in its profits.^ In one of these voyages, Hawkins himself relates that he at- tacked a town in Africa, set fire to the huts, which were thatched with dry palm leaves and burned furiously, and that out of eight thousand inhabitants he succeeded in seizing two hundred and fifty, whom he carried oft' as slaves ; yet Sir John Hawkins stands high in English naval history as a brave and good man. The Spanish laws made this negro trade by the English be- tween Africa and Hispaniola unlawful ; yet Queen Elizabeth shared its hazards, its crimes and its profits, and thus became a smuggler, a kidnaper, and a trader in slaves.^ Such was the effect on public and private morals and senti- ment of the long continuance of an institution whose genesis was necessarily in human crime, and not with Divine approbation. In 1520, De Ayllon, a Spaniard of Hispaniola, made a system- atic kidnaping expedition with several vessels to the coast of what is now South Carolina. His design was to obtain native Indians and force them to w^ork as slaves in the mines of Hayti. He enticed a considerable number aboard his ships ; then sud- denly closed the hatches and set sail. But his inhuman fraud was unprofitable, and finally recoiled upon him. One of his ves- sels sunk with all on board, and many of the captives died during the passage to Hayti. In 1=^25, De Ayllon went back to the same coast with a number of Spaniards, intending to colonize. Re- membering his fraud, the savages lured his men into the country and, falling on them at night, slew the greater part of them. De Ayllon, with the few survivors, was glad to escape.* Thus we can estimate to some extent the views as to human slavery held by the Old World when American colonization be- gan. But no vision of man was then able to look to the end. 1 Irving's Columbus, Append. III. 419. 2 Hakluvt, II. 351, 352 ; III. 594. Keith's Hist, of Va., 31. 3 Bancroft's U. S., 1. 173. ■'Barnes' U. S., 27, note. Swinton's Cond. U. S., 10. CHAPTER VIII. Colonization of Virginia. WITHIN a few years past it has been made clear in history that Spain would gladly have prevented any English colo- nies in America, and that she resorted to secret methods and diplomacy to thwart such movements. James I., King of England, sent the Duke of Buckingham to Spain to effect, if possible, a contract of marriage between Prince Charles, who was afterwards king, and the Spanish Infanta. Had this marriage been consummated, Spain would have had a control- ling influence in the policy of England, and the fate of North America would have been very different from what it has been. But the feelings of the English people were strongly against this marriage, and, happily, it failed of accomplishment. King James, while in Scotland, had written a work to prove that the Pope of Rome was Antichrist. Nevertheless, his foreign policy was basely subservient to the powers who upheld the Roman church.^ It was under the influence of Spain that Sir Walter Raleigh, the great promoter of English colonization in America, was per- secuted by King James, and finally put to death. The original charge was treason in consjDiring to place Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne. The evidence was so slight and inconclusive that it required special prejudice, excited by the Attorney-General, Lord Coke, to procure a conviction. He vituperated Raleigh in a rancorous speech, in the course of which he denounced him as a " damnable atheist," a " spider of hell," and a " viperous traitor." But even after conviction he was reprieved, because it was known that the conviction was unjust. He was deprived of his estates, and confined in the Tower. He was permitted to have his wife to live with him. And here in imprisonment he wrote his great " History of the World," which was so superior to any work of the kind produced before him that all scholars acknow- ledged its merit. ^ In March, 1615, he was liberated, but not pardoned. He had discovered the " large, rich and beautiful empire of Guiana " in 1 Art. James VI. (Scotland), Amer. Encyclop., IX. 708. "- New Amer. Encyclop., IX. 751. [ 60 ] Colonization of \irgi)iia. 6i 1:^9:^, and had written an account of it so full of genial romance that King James was willing to appoint him admiral for a new expedition to this fairy land. Raleigh expended all the remnant of his own property and that of his wife in fitting out a fleet of fourteen ships, with which he sailed, reaching Guiana November 1 3th, 1617. Part of his force was sent up the Orinoco, and, in disobedience of his commands, attacked the Spanish settlement of St. Thomas, killed the governor, and set fire to the town. In this action Raleigh's eldest son was killed. The whole expedi- tion was a failure ; the sailors mutinied ; the ships scattered, and the unfortunate Raleigh landed at Plymouth, England, in Jul} , 1618, completely broken in fortune and reputation. His failure to achieve success was magnified into a crime. He was arrested. The Spanish embassador demanded his death. The old conviction in 1603 was brought up, and sentence of death was pronounced. His firmness returned, and on the scaffold he felt the edge of the ax, and said, with a smile, " This is a sharp medicine ; but it is a cure for all diseases." ' Thus, a martyr to the cause of English colonization. Sir Walter Raleigh died. But eleven years before he died his spirit gained the victory for which he had sought. Those who had imbibed that spirit sought a patent froin King James and obtained it. On the loth of April, 1606, the king granted a broad patent to two companies, known as the London Company and the Plymouth Company. The first con- sisted of Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt and others. To them was granted exclusive right to all the ter- ritory lying between the 34th and 3Sth parallels of north latitude, and running to an indefinite extent westward, even to the Pacific Ocean." To the Plymouth Company, consisting of knights, gen- tlemen, merchants and others in and about the town of Plymouth, was made a similar grant of the territory between the 41st and 4£;th parallels. To each company were granted all the islands, fisheries and other marine treasures within one hundred miles directly eastward from their shores and within fifty miles from their most northern and southern settlements. The region be- tween 38° and 41° was left open to both companies ; but to ren- der any collision impossible, each could claim exclusive right for fifty miles north or south of its extreme settlements, and thus neither could approach w'ithin one hundred miles of the other.' Each colony was to be governed by a council of thirteen mem- bers given under " such laws, ordinances and instt"uctions" as 1 New Amer. Encyclop., IX. 751. 2 Dr. Robertson's America, I. 402. Martineau's Soc'y in Amer., I. 47. 3 Hazard's State Papers, 50-58. Stith's Va., Append., 1-8. 62 A History of the United States of America. should be given by the king himself, under his sign manual and the privy seal of the realm of England ; and the members of the councils were to be "ordained, made and removed from time to time," as the same instructions should direct. The preamble of the charter declared that one leading object of the enterprise was the propagation of Christianity among " such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and might in time be brought to human civility, and to a settled and quiet government." ^ The adventurers of the London Company eagerly prepared for their proposed scheme of colonization. Their means at first were limited, and only three ships were owned, the largest of which was of not more than one hundred tons burden. Christopher Newport was selected for the command. He had gained some renown in a voyage against the Spaniards in 1592, but he was vain and affected, and little fitted for manly action. Besides the crews, one hundred and five persons embarked to form the settle- ment. They gave type to all the subsequent career of Virginia. We find among them fifty cavaliers, who are reckoned on the shipping list as " gentlemen." Disappointed in hope and re- duced in fortune, they were seeking the New World with rest- less desire for exciting adventure and speedy v^^ealth. Among them was George Percv, a member of a noble family and brother to the Earl of Northumberland. They had also Rev. Robert Hunt, a minister of the gospel, and six gentlemen intended for the council. In the whole band we note only eleven professed labor- ers, four carpenters, one blacksmith, one bricklayer, and one mason ; but we find a barber and a tailor, who would certainly be needed by so many gentlemen.^ During these preparations, Spain, by keen-eyed agents in Lon- don, was watching this plan for English colonization and seeking to defeat it. In a letter dated December 34, 1606, but probably not dispatched until January 24, 1607, Don Pedro de Zuiiiga, of the Spanish embassy in London, wi'ote to the King of vSpain, giv- ing him an account of the movements for sending out colonies to North America under patents of the English king. This letter betrays some mistakes of the writer — especially in supposing that the grant to the Plymouth Company went as high as to latitude 55° north. Yet the letter shows substantial knowledge of what was going on, and especially of the character of King James, and his unmanly and unfavorable treatment of the appeal made by Sir Noel de Caron, the embassador of Holland, in behalf of the I Grahame's Colon. Hist., I. 32. 2 List in Smith's Va., I. 153. Burk's Va., I. 95 and note. Colonization of ^^irginia. 63 brave people of that land, then grievously oppressed and perse- cuted as " rebels " by Spain.' Plad these machinations of Spain been successful, the United States of America -would either never have existed, or would have been projections into the New. World of the cruelty, ignorance, superstition and feebleness of the mother whence they came. But a better Providence was governing the aflairs of this world. On the 19th of December, 1606, Newport with his small fleet sailed from Blackwell. Instead of following Gosnold's direct course across the Atlantic, they sailed by the Canaries and West Indies. On the route dissensions among the great men raged so furiously that Captain John Smith was seized and committed to close confinement on the false cliarge that he in- tended to murder the council and make himself king of Virginia. Arriving near the coast of America, their false reckoning kept them in doubt, and RatcHffe, captain of one of the ships, pro- posed that they should return. But a furious storm drove them all night under bare poles, and on the 36th April, i6oy, they saw before them the broad inlet to Chesapeake Bay. They gave to the south cape the name of Henry and to the north cape that of Charles, from the two oldest sons of the king. A sealed box on board was now opened, and it was found that Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall were members of the first Provincial Council. Sailing leisurely up the bay, the voyagers were charmed with the prospect. The season was mild, and nature had put on the emerald robes of spring. One of them thus writes : " We landed and discovered a little way, but we could find nothing worth the speaking of but fair meadows and goodly tall trees, with such fresh water rimning thi-ough the woods as I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof." ^ At length they reached the mouth of a magnificent river — the "Powhatan" of the Indians, the "James" of subsequent times. They ascended it for about forty miles, and, after seventeen days spent in searching for a suitable spot for a settlement, they se- lected a peninsula, and on the 13th of May commenced the city of Jamestown. At first a commendable industry seems to have prevailed. The council planned a fort ; the settlers felled the trees, pitched their 1 Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United States, I. 45, 46, 80, 00. This elaborate work \vas published in ISoO. 2 Purchas' Pilgrims, IV. 1686. The narrative is George Percy's. Brown's Genesis, I. 152- 168. 64 A History of the United States of America. tents, prepared enclosures for gardens, made nets for the fish which abounded in the river, and began to prepare clap-boards to freight the ships on their return to England. But soon these fair promises of good were betrayed. Discord prevailed in their councils, and by a flagrant act of injustice John Smith, the leading spirit among them, was excluded from the council, and " an oration was made " to attempt to show cause for this.' Although questions have been raised in modern times as to the historic truth of some incidents in his life, narrated by himself, there can be no doubt that John Smith is the hero of the early history of Virginia, and, therefore, of the early colonization of the United States. He was born in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England, in 1579, and lived to 163 1. His life thus covered a period of adventure and excitement. He traveled extensively in France and in Scotland, and learned the stern duties of the soldier by practice in the Netherlands. Sailing between Mar- seilles and Italy, a fierce storm arose, and the superstitious seamen flung the heretic Briton into the sea. His strength and skill at swimming saved him. He landed — was carried by a vessel to Egypt ; sailed in the Levant, fought a rich Venetian ship, which he captured, and was put ashore at Antibes with a treasure of a thousand sequins. He entered the army of Austria and fought against the Turks. In Transylvania the Turkish bashaw chal- lenged any Christian of the rank of commander to single combat. Smith was chosen by lot, and prepared for the lists. He slew three Turks in succession, and laid their heads at the feet of Count Moyses of Transylvania. The highest' honors were heaped on him. But in the fatal battle of Rotenton, the Turks were victorious, and Smith was wounded and made prisoner. He was long in slavery among the Tartars. Escaping by a series of won- derful adventures, he traveled through Germany, France and Spain, and arrived in England with a thousand ducats in his purse and a spirit eager for further adventures. Here Gosnold met him, and urged him to embark in the scheme for colonizing Virginia. He entered upon it with courage and enthusiasm. He became the power that sustained the spirit of the colony, and without whom it would have failed.^ ■> Dr. Wm. Simons, In Smith's Va., I. 151. - The modern attempts to discredit Smith's relations a:id history began with Dr. Charles Deane, of Massachusetts, in 1860, and have been continued by others (including the Virginian Alexander Brown), but without success. CHAPTER IX. Captain John Smith. WHEN the council for Virginia was organi/.ed in Jamestown, Edward Maria Wingfield was elected president. This man always showed himself to be the inveterate enemy of John Smith, and speedily drew on himself the hatred even of his accomplices, by his rapacity, cowardice and selfish extravagance. Smith de- manded a trial, but the council feared to trust their charge to a jury, and kept him under suspension. But his courage and talents soon made his services indispensable. He accompanied Captain Newport up the river to the royal seat of King Powhatan, a few miles below the falls, and not far from the present site of Richmond. Here were twelve small houses, pleasantly placed on the north bank immediately in front of three green islets. Powhatan received them with hospitality, though with secret distrust and a deep purpose of enmity. He had long ruled over the most savage tribes in Virginia, and he looked on the strangers as enemies to his power.' When they returned to Jamestown, they found that the Indians had already made an attack on the settlement, had slain one boy and wounded seventeen men. Wingfield's cowardice had caused this disaster. Fearful of mutiny, he had refused to permit the fort to be palisaded or guns to be inounted within. The attack of the savages might have been more fatal, but happily a gun from one of the ships carried a crossbar-shot among the boughs of a tree, and, shaking them down upon their heads, caused such consternation that they fled.'' The fears of Wingfield were over- ruled. The fort was defended with palisades and armed with cannon, the men were exercised, and every precaution taken against a renewed attack. Smith had indignantly rejected an insidious offer of pardon by the council. This would have been a confession of guilt. He again demanded a trial, and it could no longer be refused. He was fully acquitted, and so evident was the injustice of Wingfield that he was adjudged to pay to the accused two hundred pounds, which sum the generous Smith immediately devoted to the good of iStith's Va., 46. «Dr. Simons, in Smith's Va., I. 151, 152. 5 [ 65 ] (id A History of the United States of America. the colony.' Thus restored to his place in the council, he devised and entered upon active schemes for the welfare of the settlers. On the i^th of June, 1607, Newport set forth on his voyage of return to England, leaving, however, a pinnace and large open boat for the use of the colonists. Left to their own resources, they soon became depressed, and began to look on their prospects with gloomy apprehension. While the ships remained they enjoyed many sea-stores, but now they had little to eat except a mixture of worm-eaten wheat and barley boiled in water. Crabs and oysters were obtained from the river with small labor, but the season rendered them un- wholesome. The rank vegetation around Jamestown bred fevers and agues. To such maladies, all of Tidewater Virginia has been subject in the sickly seasons. The colonists had been reck- less and imprudent in their habits. The Peruvian or Jesuits'' bark, obtained from the cinchona tree of South America, had, indeed, been introduced into Spain, and had proved itself a won- derful safeguard and remedy in such diseases ; but the English colonists seem to have known nothing of it. Within ten days, hardly ten settlers were able to stand on their feet. Before the middle of September fifty were buried — among them the hardy navigator Bartholomew Gosnold. But during all these scenes of appalling mortality. President Wingfield lived in sumptuous indifference, feasting on the best provisions the colony could afford : " oatmeal, sacke, oyle, aqua vitas, beefe, egges or whatnot."'' Seeing the forlorn condition of the settlement, he attempted to seize the pinnace, and make his escape to England. These outrages so moved the council that they instantly deposed Wingfield, expelled his accomplice, Kendall, and elected Ratcliffe to the presidency. Thus the number, originally seven, was reduced to three. Newport had sailed, Gosnold was dead, Wingfield and Kendall were in disgraced retirement. Ratcliffe was nominally the head, but Smith was the governing genius.' Ample historical authority assures us that at this dark crisis, v/hen, without some change for the better, the colony would have become extinct, the savages around them voluntarily brought thein such quantities of venison, corn and wholesome fruits, that health and cheerfulness were soon restored. '' Ratcliffe and Martin were incompetent, and John Smith was almost forced to assume the leadership. Their provisions being again nearly exhausted, he went with a party down the river to 1 Stith's Va., 47. Simons, In Smith's Va., 1. 152. ^Smith's Va., I. 154. Belknap's Amer. Biog., II. 228. sBurk's Va., I. 103. * Smith's Va., 1. 155. Stith, 48. Keith, 60. Bancroft's U. S., 1. 144. Captain yolin Smith. 67 Kecoughtan to seek supplies from the natives. 'J'licy were at first eontemptuous, oflerinijj a handful of coin and a piece of bread in exchange for swords and muskets. They then became hostile, coming against the colonists in numbers, frightfully dressed, and bearing their monstrous idol, Okec, stuffed with moss and hung with chains and c()pi)er. They were received with a volley of pistol-shot. The Okcc fell to the ground, and with him several of his worshipers. The rest fled to the woods, and, ilnding re- sistance vain, they brought in quantities of corn, \cnison, tur- keys and wild fowl, and received in exchange beads, copper, hatchets, and their Okcc. During this expedition, Wingfleld and Kendall made another attempt to carry oil" the l)ark to l^^ngland. .Smith returned just in time to arrest this ellort, and in the skirmish Kendall lost his lite. Another effort to desert the settlement was made by Capt. Gal)riel Archer and the worthless President Ratcliffe, but Smith arrested them and forced them to their duty. Winter now came on, and with it came immense numbers of swans, geese and ducks, which covered the rivers and furnished delightful food. The settlers feasted daily on them, and enjoyed in abundance the peas, pumpkins, persimmons, and other vegeta- ble treasures which the season afforded. Captain Smith thus de- scribes the "persimmon," a well-known Virginia fruit: " I'he other, which they call patchamins., grow as high as a pal met a ; the fruit is like a medlar ; it is first green, then yellow^, and red when it is ripe ; if it be not ripe, it will draw a man's mouth awry with much torment ; but when ripe, it is as delicious as an apricot." ' With this change of season and nourishing food health and good spirits came back to the colonists. But John Smith could not be inactive. lie prepared his boat for a voyage, and in a season of uncommon rigor he set out on an expedition to explore the Chickahominy river, which was, afterwards to be so famous in American history. The council had ungratefully charged him with negligence in not seeking the head of this river, and he determined to go up it as far as possible The Chickahominy falls into the James not many miles above Jamestown. It flows through a fertile region, and on its banks were many well-supplied Indian settlements. King Powhatan then reigned over about thirty tribes, from the bay to the falls of each river as far north as the Potomac. But the space between the falls and the inountains was occu- pied by two Indian confederacies — the Monacans near the head iSmith'sVa., I. 122. 6S A History of the United States of America. of James and York rivers, and the Alannahoacs on the upper part of the Rappahannock and the Potomac. These were in amity with each other, but waged incessant war upon the Powhatans ; and all the prowess of the great king could not reduce them to subjection. At the head of the bay lived the Susquehannocs, who were represented as men of gigantic stature, yet perfect symme- try, clad in skins of bears or wolve?, with the grinning heads still attached, and hanging down on the breast or shoulders of the wearer. Their voices were said to be deep and solemn, like the hollow tones from a vault. ^ Beyond the mountains lived the Massawomecs, whom the eastern Indians represented as numer- ous and powerful, living upon a great salt water, inveterate in their enmities and terrible in war.^ They were probably a branch of the celebrated Five Nations, so well known afterwards in the history of New York.^ Up the Chickahominy Captain Smith urged his boat, frequently cutting away trunks of trees or matted undergrowth which op- posed his progress. Finding the passage up more and more difli- cult, he left the boat in a broad bay, where Indian arrows could not reach her ; and, strictly forbidding the crew to leave her, he pressed on in a canoe with two Englishmen and two Indians. Hardly was he gone when the disobedient crew left the boat and sought amusement on shore. Opecancanough, an Indian chief of great subtlety and courage, was near with a lurking band of sav- ages. He made prisoner George Cassen, one of the party who had landed, and obtained from him full information as to Smith's movements. Cassen's cowardice did not save him. The savages put him to death by tortures, and then pursued their more dreaded foe. Smith had penetrated twenty miles into the marshes. He left the two Englishmen in the canoe, and went forward with one Indian as guide. The pursuing savages found the two men fast asleep near the canoe, and shot them to death with arrows. They then hastened after Smith. But in him they foun^ a superior being. Binding the Indian guide firmly to his arm, he used him as a shield, and with his musket he brought down two of the pursuers. They fell back appalled. He would, perhaps, have reached the canoe and escaped ; but, while in retreat, he sank to the middle in a half-frozen swamp. Finding himself deprived of strength, he made signals of submission. The savages drew him out, and, chafing his benumbed body, restored him to strength. 1 Purchas' Pilgrims. IV. 1693. Smith, I. 119. Stith, 67, 68. ^Smith's Va., 1. 120-135. 3 Jefferson's Notes, 99. Captain yohn Smith. 69 He then addressed the chief, and showed him and his band a small magnetic dial. They observed the play of the needle be- neath the glass plate with simple wonder ; and ^vhen the savages bound him to a tree, and prepared to pierce him through with arrows, Opecancanough held up the dial, and every arm fell. They now conducted him in triumph to Orapaques, a favorite Indian hunting town, north of the Chickahominy marshes. Here the whole band performed a dance around the captive, yelling and shrieking like demons, and decorated with all manner of hideous ornaments. They no^w conceived that in the absence of the " great captain" they might successfully attack Jamestown. They offered Sinith as many Indian beauties as he might select as wives, and as much land as he would have as dower, if he would aid in their schemes. He dissuaded them from the attack, giving them a strong state- ment of the power of the colonists, and especially of their can- non and gunpowder. Some being still incredulous, he offered to prove his veracity if they would receive from him a scrap of pa- per and send it by their own messengers to the town. He wrote his directions ; the Indian messengers carried them to Jamestown. There they soon witnessed a display of cannon-fire and rockets w^hich almost deprived them of their senses. Afterwards, going to the spot designated, they found precisely the articles which their captive had stated he would obtain. Returning with a re- port of these wonders, the savages no longer doubted that Smith had supernatural power, and their awe grew greater from day to day. They then conducted him to native settlements on the Pa- munkey, the Mattaponi, the Piankatank, the Rappahannock, and the Potomac. Everywhere he was gazed at as more than man. In the words of one of the historians of this march, " they enter- tained him with most strange and fearfull conjurations, " As if near led to hell, Amongst the devils to dwell." ' But nothing disturbed his courage and self-possession. Finally, the captive was conducted to Werowocomoco, the im- perial seat of Powhatan, in the county known as Gloucester, and not far from Yorktovv^n, where the last scene of the war of revo- lution was enacted. Here he appeared before Powhatan, who received him with a display of all the savage splendor that his coin't could furnish. 1 Smith's Va., 1. 160. yo A History of the United States of America. Two hundred grim attendants surrounded him, and behind theni' were the numerous ladies of the court, decked with the -white down of birds, and with chains of glittering beads. The Queen of Appomattox brought, him w^ater to -wash his hands, and another damsel offered him a bunch of feathers to dry them. But among all who gazed on him, none regarded him with more interest, dawning into affection, than Pocahontas, or Matoaka, the yoinig daughter of the king. She was then in early woman- hood. She entreated her stern father to spare the noble captive's life. : But the king and his counselors decided that a life so impor- tant to the colonists could not be spared. Sentence of death w^as pronounced. Two large stones were brought and laid near the feet of the king, and the captive was seized and forced down with his head upon them. The clubs of several strong savages were upraised. Another moment would have ended the life most important to Virginia. But in that moment, Pocahontas, with a cry which thrilled every heart, threw herself upon the prostrate captive and clasped his neck with her arms. Her own head shielded his from the threatened blow, and raising her eyes to her father's face, she silently pleaded for mercy. The king relented. John Smith was spared. In two days, after a captivity of seven weeks, he returned in safety to Jamestown. The historic truth oi" this incident, the most romantic of a romantic life, has been denied.' But its authenticity has been vindicated upon grounds so solid, and by reasoning so logical, that it must retain its place in any sound history of the early colonization of America.^ iBy Thomas Fuller, in hie " Worthies." Swinton, Cond. U. S., note, p. 32. Anderson's Gram. School U. S., note, p. 19. Palfrey. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., note, 47. Charles Deane, 1S60. Alexander Brown, Genesis, I. 170. 2 Prof. G. F. Holmes' U. S., 33, note. A. H. Stephens' U. S. (School), 21. W. W. Henry, address before Va. Hist. Society, 1882. Bancroft, I. 1-17. Eggleston, Quackenbos, Ellis, Good- rich, Barnes, D. B. Scott, Derry, Blackburn & McDonald. Henry Stephens and Prof. Edward Arber, in the Athenaeum. Ch. Observer, Louisville, Sept. 25th, 1889. CHAPTER X. The Virginia Colony Near to Death. AS usual, on his return Smith found disorder and insubordi- nation running riot among the colonists. The pinnace had again been seized, and he was obliged to direct the guns of the fort against the mutineers and compel submission. Early in the winter, Newport arrived again with two ships from England. He projected a trading scheme up the York river, in which Smith accompanied him. Powhatan was too keen for Newport, and so managed the trade with him that the English received only four bushels of corn for what they had expected to bring them twenty hogsheads.' But Smith's adroitness and skill more than restored the balance. He passed before the eyes of the king and his people beads of the deepest blue color, which he assured them were only worn by the mightiest kings in the " far country." Thus for a few pounds of blue beads he obtained several hundred bushels of corn. Yet, they parted in perfect amity. But such transactions cannot be vindicated ; and their repetition through all the early colonial times tended strongly to alienate and embitter the Indians. In December a fire, kindled by accident, destroyed many houses and much clothing and provision in Jamestown. But early in i6oS, a bright phantom rose for a time to deceive them. In the neck of land in the rear of Jamestown, a stream of water swept out shining dust from a sand bank. Believing that this was gold, Newport's ship was loaded with it ; and when the Phcnix^ under Captain Nelson, arrived from the West Indies, Martin was madly intent on loading her also with this glittering sand. But the remonstrances of Smith prevailed, and she took in a cargo of cedar wood. These ships carried back Wingfield and Archer, and thus relieved the colony of two pests. We need hardly say that the sand, on arrival, was found worthless. John Smith made a number of minor trips and two full voy- ages of exploration in Virginia. In an open boat of three tons burden, with a crew of thirteen, and carrying with him Walter Russel, a physician of high character and courage, who has left 1 Smith's Va., I. 167. Stith, 38. [ 71 ] 72 A History of the United States of America. accounts of these voyages, Smith penetrated each of the larger rivers of Virginia to the falls, encountered the natives every- where, fought the brave Rappahannocs near the site of Freder- icksburg, awed the more warlike Indians by his courage, concil- iated the peaceful, discovered the exhaustless resources of the country, and made surveys, from which he afterwards prepared a map of astonishing accuracy and extent.^ In one part of the Potomac they found the fish so abundant that they were packed together with their mouths above water ; and having no nets the voyagers captured some with ^frying- pan. Near the mouth of the Rappahannock, Smith plunged the point of his sword into a singular fish, " like a thornback," with a long tail and from it a poisoned sting. In taking it off it drove the sting into his wrist, producing torturing pain, and in a few hours the whole hand, arm and shoulder had swollen so fearfully that death seemed inevitable. He pointed out a place for his grave, and his men, v^'ith heavy hearts, prepared it. But Dr. Russel applied the probe and used an oil with such success that Smith was soon well, and ate part of the same fish for his supper.^ This locality has borne the name of Stingray Point ever since. Returning from the first voyage the 2istof July, they found sickness, want, depression and turmoil. Martin had sailed in the Phenix. Ratclifte was president ; and while all around him were suffering and want, he v\^as causing an elegant mansion to be erected in the woods for his own special comfort. The popu- lar discontent might have had fatal results but for Smith's arrival. Ratcliffe was deposed, and, at last, the only man fit for the office was made president ; but, as he was about to set out on another voyage, he left Matthew Scrivener as his deputy, and sailed with twelve men on the 24th of July. This voyage was the most ad- venturous and varied that he had made. In the neighborhood of what is now Norfolk he encountered the Chesapeakes and Nanse- monds, three hundred in number, and boldly meeting their inces- sant flights of arrows, replied with volleys of musket-balls, w^hich so subdued the natives that they sued for peace, and bought it with their chief's bow and arrows, a chain of pearl, and four hun- dred baskets of corn.^ Returning in triumph, he reached Jamestown September 7th, 1608, after an absence of nearly two months. Scrivener had governed well. Ratcliffe was a prisoner for mutiny. The first harvest of corn had been gathered in, though 1 It Is in Purchas, IV. 1691, and Smith's Va., I. 149. 2 Dr. Russel, in Smith, I. 179. smilard's Smith, II. 277. The Virginia Colony Near to Death. 73 somewhat injured by rain. Smith could no longer decline the presidency, and was formally elected on the loth of September. His administration was vigorous and wise. The church was rebuilt, the storehouse repaired, a new building erected for sup- plies, the fort put in order, and a regular watch established. The men were drilled every Saturday. Habits of industry were re- quired. Capt. Newport arrived with a ship from England containing another supply of settlers and provisions. We find in the ship- ping list the usual superabundance of indolent gentlemen and dissipated cavaliers, with few laborers and fewer mechanics. But in this ship came eight Poles and Germans skilled in making tar, pitch, glass, mills and soap-ashes ; also Mrs. Forrest and her maid, Anne Burras, the first European women who had come to Jamestown. The London Council enjoined on Newport three objects, viz., a lump of gold, a discovery of the South Sea, or one of the lost colony of Sir Walter Raleigh.^ But the great ceremony first to be performed was the corona- tion of King Powhatan by authority of King James. Smith ac- companied Newport to Werowocomoco for the purpose. Poca- hontas had aided in getting up a masquerade for the special entertainment of the English, in which Indian maidens very nearly nude were the performers. The narrator of this scene could not have thought very highly of these damsels, as he calls them " fiends," speaks of their " hellish shouts and cries," and bitterly complains of their tormenting him by " crowding, press- ing and hanging about him, most tediously crying, ' Love you not me ? Love you not me ? ' " - But old Powhatan bore himself like a king. He was willing to wear the scarlet cloak and other royal apparel offered, but ab- solutely refused to kneel when the crown was placed on his head. Several attendants pressed on his shoulders, and while thus bent by force, three others placed the crown on his brow. Immediately a pistol-shot was fired, followed by a volley from the boat. Powhatan sprang up and seized his arms. But find- ing this was part of the ceremony, he grew calm, and presented to Captain Newport his worn mantle and his old shoes ! ^ After taking part in this high pageant, Newport set forth with one hundred and twenty chosen men to explore the country above the falls and discover the South Sea. They accomplished nothing except to exhaust their own strength, provoke the natives, and 1 Smith, 1. 192. Bancroft, I. 150. - Smith's Va., I. 194, 195. Hillard, II. 285. 3 Stith, 78, 79. Smith, I. 196. 'jA A History of the United States of America. delude themselves with the phantom of a silver mine. They then returned to Jamestown " disappointed, half sick, and all complaining, being sadly harassed with toil, famine and discon- tent." Smith had foretold these results. He thought it now time to exercise his authority as president, and direct their labor to more profitable ends. He set the cavaliers and gentlemen to work in the forest with axes, to fell the trees and prepare boards for building. They soon began to relish their work, and took delight in hearing the thunder of the fulling trees. But their hands were tender, and often tremendous oaths fell from their lips. Smith corrected this evil habit by having the oaths counted, and for each one, at the close of the day, a can of cold water was poured down the sleeve of the oftender.^ His firm and wise administration for more than a year produced manifest improvement. The colonists became secure in their persons and property ; the arts were encouraged ; glass, tar and soap-ashes were tried ; a well of excellent water was opened ; twenty houses were built ; nets and weirs were prepared for fish- ing ; fowls were domesticated, and increased with great rapidity ; Hog Island abounded in swine. He was equally successful with the natives, who all regarded him with respect and awe. He had several personal encounters, one with Opecancanough, whom he seized by the scalping lock, and, turning a pistol against his breast, subdued him and his fol- lowers. Pocahontas continued to regard him with afiection. On one dark and stormy night a plot was arranged by the Indians to destroy him. Pocahontas hastened through the dark- ness and the wintry rain to the cottage where the president was reposing and revealed the plot, which was met and defeated by his prompt and vigorous precautions. In the autumn of 1609 Smith met with a serious accident. On his return from the seat of Powhatan, on James river, while asleep in his boat, his powder-bag took fire, and the explosion tore the flesh from his body and inflicted a terrible wound. Un- able to procure the needed surgical aid in the colony, he sailed for England. He never returned to Jamestown, though he made a successful voyage to the region which was afterwards New England. He died in London in 1631, at the age of fifty-two. Meanwhile the adventurers in the London Company had been deeply disappointed at the meagre results in money and gold 1 Smith, I. 197. Stith, 80. The Virg^inia Colony Near to Death. 75 comings from the colony. They applied to King James for a new chartei", and on the 23d of IMay, 1609, he granted them a patent, from which they promised themselves success. He erected a gigantic corporation, under the style of the Treas- urer and Company for Virginia. It consisted of more than twenty peers of the realm, nearly one hundred knights, and a great crowd of mercers, drapers, fishmongers, grocers, goldsmiths, skin- ners, salters, ironmongers, wax-chandlers, butchers, saddlers, and barber-chirurgeons. Sir Thomas Smith was appointed treasurer. He had amassed a large fortune as a merchant in London. The company organ- ized under its charter, and elected Thomas West — Lord Dela- ware — governor and captain-general of the colony. He was a man noble in birth, generous in disposition, of commanding talents, and of peculiar fitness for nursing and encouraging an infant settlement.' Emigrants now oflered themselves from every quarter and of every class. Nine vessels were equipped — the Sea Adventure^ the Diaf/iofid, the Falcon^ the BIcss{ng\ the Unity, the S-vallou\ the Lion — with a ketch and a pinnace. Nearly five hundred settlers were aboard, besides their crews, and the auspices seemed so flattering that this was styled the Virginia voyage." Lord Delaware was to follow in a few months. Sir George Somers was admiral. Sir Thomas Gates lieutenant-general, and Christopher Newport commander. But the question of priority not being determined among them, they all embarked on the same vessel — the ^"('(T Adventure. Thev set sail from Plvmouth the z<\ of June, 1609, and, not- withstanding their express orders to proceed directly westward, thev went as far south as the 26th degree of latitude, and soon had disease and death among their crews. On the 24th July a feartul tropical storm came on them, with lightning, thunder and wind, which threatened their destruction. The ships were all separated. The ketch, imable to endure the tempest, foundered, and all her crew were lost. Seven vessels rode out the storm, and in a shattered condition arrived in \'irginia in the month of August. So large a fleet ex- cited alarm. Believing them to be Spaniards, John Smith, who was vet in \'irginia and president, prepared to give them a rude welcome ; but when the mistake was discovered they were gladly received. 1 New Life of Va. Force's Hist. Tracts, Vol. I. Belknap's Am. Biog., II. 115. 2 New Life of Va., 9, 10. 76 A History of the United States of America. ' It was soon found that they added little to the real strength of the colony. The provisions they brought, with those on hand, were not sufficient. Had the ne^v colonists been men of perse- verance and industry, they would soon have drawn enough from land and water to feed them ; but they were the worst material that had yet come. Gentlemen reduced to poverty by gaming and extravagance, too pi"oud to beg, too lazy to dig ; broken tradesmen tainted with fraud ; footmen with all honest reputa- tion expended ; rakes consumed by disease and impurity ; liber- tines whose race of sin was yet to run, and " unruly sparks packed off by their friends to escape worse destinies at home " — of such were these last colonists ; and, for climax of evil, the three men, Ratcliffe, Archer and Martin, who had been sent away Avith the hope that they were gone forever, now returned to plague Virginia by their insubordinate folly.^ During the fev\^ weeks he remained. Smith strove with courage and decision to arrest the evils of such an influx. But after his wound compelled his withdrawal, the disorder, idleness and vices of the colonists speedily brought on results -which were appalling. He left in Virginia at least four hundred and ninety persons (of whom one hundred Avere well-trained soldiers), tw^enty-four pieces of ordnance, a large quantity of muskets, fire-locks, shot, powder, pikes, and swords ; nets for fishing, tools for labor, clothes enough for all wants ; horses, sw^ine, poultry, sheep, and goats in abundance ; a harvest newly gathered ; three ships, seven boats — in short, all that was needed for prosperity if it had been properlv used.^ In a few months this profusion was squandered, those resources were turned to the worst purposes, and those fair numbers wei'e brought down low bv idleness and vice. George Percy, the nominal president, was sick and feeble. Riot and sedition everywhere prevailed. Emboldened by their discords, the Indians assailed them on every side, drove in the fee- ble settlements at Nansemond and Powhatan planted by West and Martin, and threatened Jamestown with destruction. King Powhatan threw oft' his apathy, and actively plotted against the wretched colonists. He tempted Ratcliffe and about forty men within his reach for the alleged purpose of trade, and then, with his warriors, suddenly fell on them ; and none escaped except one boy, whom the ever-generous Pocahontas rescued from the hands of the murderers.* 1 New Life of Va., 10. Stith, 103. Keith, 116, 117. Bancroft, I. 154. Beverley, 21, 22. 2 Smith, I. 210, 241. Marshall. Grahame's Colon. Hist., I. 44. 3 Stith, 116. Burk, I. 157. Tlie Virginia Colony Near to DeatJi. h*i To these horrors was soon added the greater horror of famine. For centuries afterwards this f;ital season was spoken of as " the starving time." As regular food disappeared they resorted to the most revolting means of sustenance. The bodies and skins of horses were cooked. It is said that the body of an Indian who had been slain was disinterred and eagerly devoured. Some his- torians relate that one miserable wretch slew his wife from hatred, and fed upon her body several days before the deed was discov- ered.' Of all that Smith left in Virginia, only sixty persons now sur- vived. These maintained a feeble life upon roots, herbs, berries, and a few fish from the river. Ten days more would probably have closed the scene, when an arrival took place which rekin- dled, for a brief time, their expiring hopes. In the storm already mentioned, the Sea Adventure, on which were the three high officers, Somers, Gates and Newport, was wrecked, and cast ashore on one of the small group of islands, now known as the Bermudas, lying in the Atlantic five hundred and eighty miles eastwardly from the coast of North Carolina. They are supposed to have been discovered by Juan Bermudez, a Spanish navigator, in 1523. Lying near the angle where the trade-winds meet, they are subject to terrible storms and hurri- canes.^ The Spaniards believed them to be haunted by ghosts and de- mons ; but when the wrecked colonists of the Sea Adventure landed, they found no hostile spirits. The air v^^as pure, the hea- vens were serene, the waters abounded with excellent fish, the beach was covered with turtle, birds enlivened the forests, and the whole island swarmed with hogs, wdiich were easily captured. Amid this profusion they remained nine months ; but Somers longed to carry out his colonizing scheme. Two vessels were constructed from the cedar of the island and the remains of the Sea Adventure. They had some provisions saved from their ves- sel, and a large store of pork from the wild hogs of the island, cured with salt obtained by crystallizing the sea-water on the rocks ai'ound them. Their vessels were named the Patience and the Deliverance. On the loth of May, 1610, they set sail and steered for Virginia. They reached Jamestown on the 24th, and met a group of v^-retched beings, weak, pallid, emaciated, starving. Deep gloom filled all their souls. 1 Smith, II. 2. Stith, 11c. Keith, 121. Burk, I. 157. 2 Art. Bermudas, New Amer. Encyclop., III. 17a. ^8 A History of the United States of America. There was no reaction. Sir George Somers did, indeed, seek to inspire them with hope ; and, to procure a supply of hogs, re- turned to the Bermudas, where he died/ Capt. Samuel Argall commanded one of the two pinnaces, but was driven oft' from Bermuda towards Sagadahoc and Cape Cod by a violent tempest, in which his fine seamanship saved his ves- sel. He returned to the waters of Virginia.^ With difficulty the new-comers gathered from the feeble and almost imbecile survivors in Jamestown some idea of their suf- ferings and condition. It was determined that the colony should be abandoned. Some even proposed to burn all their buildings and sweep avs^ay every vestige of the attempted settlement ; but Sir Thomas Gates steadily resisted this barbarous design. On the yth of June, 1610, the drum beat a melancholy measure, and the colonists embarked on four pinnaces, and turned their backs on the deserted settlement. On the morning of the 8th they had been -wafted by the ebb tide to Mulberry Island Point. While waiting the turn of the tide they saw a boat approaching. In one hour they learned that Lord Delaware had arrived from England with three ships and an ample supply of provisions. Hearing at Point Comfort of the proposed abandonment, he had sent the boat before him to encourage them and prevent their departure. Instantly the cloud of gloom rolled away. Hope returned. Spreading their sails to a fair easterly wind, the whole fleet sailed up the river, and on Sunday, the loth day of June, 16 10, came to anchor at the very spot which three days before they had left with stern resolve never to return.^ 1 Bermudas, Amer. Encyclop., III. 175. - Argall's Voyage, Brown's Genesis, I. 428-439. 3 Simmons' Narrative, in Smitti, II. 3. Stith, 117. Marshall, 4G. Burk, 1. 160, IGl. CHAPTER XL Pocahontas and Rolfe. — Spain's Opposition. — Indian Mas- sacre. — The London Company Dissolved. THUS was the Virginia colony saved when it seemed to be lost. It has been necessary to dwell at some length on its origin and early life, because it was the first settlement of the Anglo-Saxon race in North America, and because its elements were in many respects peculiar, and in several unpromising ; and yet they contained a germ of perseverance^ which was to be the type of the highest New World civilization. Henceforth, in this work, a narrative more condensed and less minute and expanded will best subserve our purposes, except in those events of history which specially demand elaborate presen- tation. Lord Delaware proved himself a wise and faithful governor, and by his devout and earnest example did much to correct the worst errors of the colonists. The Indians ceased to molest ; disorder was firmly checked ; industry was encouraged ; pros- perity began to appear. But in a short time Lord Delaware's own health failed, and he was compelled to return to England. Sir Thomas Dale suc- ceeded him as president and high marshal of Virginia. In 1611, Dale was succeeded by Sir Thomas Gates, who came over with six ships, three hundred emigrants, and large stores of provisions and domestic animals. The population had increased to seven hundred, and settlements were successfully renewed at Henrico and Nansemond, and made in other places along the rivers. A historian states that the cows, goats and swine brought over by Gates were the first introduced into the New World.^ But this is a mistake. Hogs in considerable numbers were in Vir- ginia during Smith's administration. They swarmed in the Ber- muda Islands ; and it is quite certain that horses, cows and goats had been brought over by the Spaniards. While high marshal. Sir Thomas Dale had found the colonists so disorderly and insubordinate that he had put into active move- ment the code of " martial law," which Sir Thomas Smith, the 1 A. H. Stephens' Comp. Hist, of U. S., p. 34. [ 79 ] 8o A History of the United States of America. treasurer of the council, had sent over. It was very summary and severe, and yet needful under existing circumstances. Dale has been harshly criticised in history concerning it, but unjustly.' "He used it with care and discrimination. Industry revived, tu- mults ceased, and plenty began again to appear. Gradually " martial law " became obsolete ; and when an attempt was after- wards made to revive it, the colonists complained, and secured from the council in England its final repeal. Sir Thomas Dale is entitled to the credit of having changed the damaging rule of community in lands to the salutary and stimulating principle of allotting three acres as the private prop- erty of each man. The quantity was afterwards increased to fifty acres. This change soon began to yield the happiest results. The amendment has been attributed to Gates, but Dale was its real author. He was a soldier, and stern in the requirement of good behavior, but just, wnse and successful in building up the colony. Gates ruled only one year. Dale was the ruler, in sub- stance, for nearly five years. In the year 1609, Captain Samuel Argall, a kinsman of Sir Thomas Smith, had come to Virginia with a single ship, drawn by the desire of the London Company to find a shorter route, and by the hope of gain from the fishery of sturgeon and traffic with the colony. He sailed from Portsmouth May 5th, 1609.^ He was bold and enterprising, but unscrupulous, tyrannical and cruel. He soon gave evidences of his character. Early in 16 13, two ships arrived from England, bringing more men, but a scanty store of food. King Powhatan had discouraged his people from helping the colonists with corn or other provisions. Wishing to obtain a valuable hostage and thus secure the king's favor, Argall resorted to a bold, but shameful measure. Since .Smith's departure the princess Pocahontas had withdrawn from Werowocomoco, and was living in retirement among her friends on the Potomac. Argall, learning of this from Japazaws, the king of this region, gained him over to his purposes and sailed up the river in one of his barks. A copper kettle was the price paid by the English for the perfidy of the Indians. By false pretences, Pocahontas was enticed into the gun-room of Argall's ship ; then, immediately weighing anchor, he carried the innocent and helpless girl a prisoner to Jamestown.'' Yet, a Scottish his- torian, in his history of America, makes no allusion to this perfidy, 1 Eggleston's Household U. S., 29. = Alexander Brown's Genesis, I. 307. 3 David B. Scott, School Hist. U. S., p. 38. Brown's Genesis, II. 640-644. Pocahontas and Rolfe. 8i and intimates that the conduct of the English towards her was unexceptionable ! ^ Fortunately, Divine alchemy can bring gold out of dross — good out of evil. Pocahontas was treated by Governor Dale with all the respect and tendeVness she deserved. She became deeply impressed by the refining influences of Christian civilization. At Bermuda Hundreds, the governor's seat, on the James, in what is now Chesterfield county, she spent part of her time, and was instructed in religion by Rev. Alexander Whitaker, a minister of the Anglican church, who had shown much zeal for the welfare of the Indians. She accepted Christ and was baptized.^ Among the settlers now in Jainestow^n was John Rolfe, a young English gentleman of good abilities and a spotless char- acter. He fell in love with the young Indian princess, and his feelings were reciprocated. He proposed marriage, and when his ofter was made known to King Powhatan, his majesty gave a gracious answer, and sent his brother Opachisco and two of his sons to attend the nuptials. Early in April, 1613, this union was solemnized by Rev. Mr. Whitaker in the small church of the colony. The Indian princess became the wife of an English gentleman. The happiest results followed. Powhatan no longer treated the colonists as enemies. During the rest of his life he and his people maintained with them the most amicable relations.^ In 16 16, Dale sailed for England, carrying with him John Rolfe and his young wife Pocahontas. Capt. John Smith v^^as in London. He wrote to the queen and enlisted her sympathies for his preserver. Pocahontas was visited by courtiers and nobles. Lady Delaware presented her at court. Her genuine modesty, good sense and dignity iinpressed all who met her. Masks, balls and theatrical exibitions were daily presented for her amusement. But the noise and smoke of the city were so offensive that she soon retired to the pleasant village of Brentford. Here she met John Smith She had been told that he was dead, and now when she met him, conflicting emotions so overcame her that she turned from him and covered her face with her hands. But there is no sufficient basis for the idea that she had loved him with a deeper love than friendship. She soon recovered her composure, and asked the privilege of calling hiin her father.* 1 Dr. Robertson's America, I. 410. = Bishop Wm. Meade's Old Families and Churches of Va., 76-78. Rev. Dr. \V. H. Foote's Sketches, 25-27. 3Stith, 130, 131. Smith, II. 16. < Smith's Narrative, II. 32, 33. Stith, 143. 6 82 A Histoi'y of the United States of America. Early in 1617, John Rolfe and Pocahontas, with their infant son, Thomas Rolfe, arrived at Gravesend, intending to embark for Virginia. Here she was stricken by a dangerous inalady, and in a few days died, in the twenty-third year of her age. Her son, after spending his childhood and youth in England, came to Virginia, and by his fortune and talents exercised a happy influence upon her destinies. He died, leaving an only daughter, who intermarried with Col. Robert Boiling and had a son, John Boiling, who was the father of John Boiling and of five daugh- ters, who were severally married to Richard Randolph, John Flemming, Dr. William Gay, Thomas Eldridge and James Mur- ray. From these, many descendants yet live in the United States.' Returning now to Governor Dale and Captain Argall, we find them engaged in an expedition very little above piracy. As early as 160^ the French had settled Acadia (now Nova Scotia), and planted a colony at Port Royal. King James' first patent expressly excluded any land then actually possessed by a Chris- tian prince or people. But Dale, moved by military instincts, conceived that as the French settlements were between 34*^ and 41^° north latitude, they were part of the territory of Virginia. He sent Argall to attack them. Early in 16 14 this bold and imscrupulous leader sailed north, attacked Port Royal, shot many of the garrison, and killed a gal- lant Jesuit, Gilbert Du Thet, who resisted him, drove the settlers into the woods, seized all the provisions, furniture and clothing he could find, and then turned his bow to the southward, carry- ing with him the Jesuit Biard and other prisoners. But, by way of completing the work of reform, after his second hostile expe- dition to Port Royal, he entered the sound at the mouth of the Hudson river, and summoned the Dutch settlements on Manhat- tan Island to surrender, on the absurd pretence that Capt. Hen- drik Hudson, who, in the service of the Dutch, had discovered this country in 1609, was an Englishman, and could not deprive his native land of the benefit of his discovery. Unable to resist, the fort surrendered ; but soon afterwards, a reinforcement having arrived, the phlegmatic Dutchmen rehoisted their colors, and all things "were as before Argall's raid.^ By Sir Thomas Dale's or- ders, Argall returned to Acadia, and destroyed the French forti- fications at Mount Desert, St. Croix and Port Royal, arriving again at Jamestown about December ist, 1614. iBurk's Va., 1.190. ^Stith, 132. Grahame's Colon. Hist., I. G5. Bancroft and Belknap say in 1613, but are wrong. Father Biard's Narrative, Brown's Genesis, II. 709-718. opposition of Spain. 83 We have no reason to believe that the English government ap- proved these proceedings of Dale and Argall ; but they curi- ously illustrate the crude views then held as to rights derived from discovery. In 1615, tobacco became a staple product of Virginia, profitable to her agriculturists, though very injurious to her lands and of doubtful benefit to the world. It is thought to have been found first on the small island of Tobago, and to have hence obtained its name. Walter Raleigh first made it fashionable in England, and smoked so vigorously on one occasion that his servant, fear- ing he was on fire, poured a tankard of ale over his head.' Revolting to an uninitiated taste, abhorred by the brute creation, fatal even to the insects which men profess most to dislike, this weed has yet gained its way to the pouch of the beggar and the household stores of the monarch on his throne. ' It is estimated now to be smoked, chewed, snuflfed or dipped by about eight hundred millions of people — more than half the whole popula- tion of the earth. So long as this condition exists, the weed will continue to be planted and raised. Finding that tobacco paid them better than the search for gold and silver, the sawing of plank, the raising of silk-worms, or the manufacture of tar, pitch, turpentine, pot and pearl ashes, the Virginia people began to appropriate to it her rich and sunny soils. So violent was the tobacco mania that Dale restrained it by law, and yet, two years afterw^ards, when Argall came from England as governor to Virginia, he found the church in decay, and the chuixh-yard, the market square and some of the streets of Jamestown full of growing tobacco plants.'^ The period of colonization between 1605 and 1616, to the end of which we have now brought the Virginia colony, was marked by opposition from Spain, the history of which has been fully disclosed only within a few years past.^ Fortunately, it was never made formidable or effectual by actual naval or military movements from Spain. She had reached the climax of her power and influence, and had also commenced her period of decadence and ruin under Philip II. He was succeeded in 1598 by the son of his fourth marriage, Philip III., who was nearly imbecile, and was wanting in the capacity for business, which had made his father respectable, notwithstanding his bigotry and cruelty. Philip III. reigned till 163 1. Spain continued to decay in power under him. iQldys' Raleigh, 32. Stith, 21. Burk's Va., I. 61. 2 Holmes' Annals, I. 153. Grahame's Colon. Hist., I. 67. 3 la Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United States, 1890. 84 A Tl'isfory of the United States of America. The Spanish embassadors to England, Don Pedro de Zuniga and Don Alonzo de Velasco, wrote to Philip III. not less than forty-three letters, from 1606 to 16 13, giving him information — sometimes vague, sometimes minute and accurate^-concerning the English movements to colonize Virginia, and urging him to send an armed force and annihilate the infant settlement.^ But Philip's answers prove that he knew very little about Vir- ginia. He wrote of her three times as an " island." And the memory of the destruction of the " grand armada " in 15S8 by British ships and cannon, seconded by storms and tempests from heaven, had wrought a permanent terror in the souls of Spain and her rulers. No armed attack on the Virginia colony was at- tempted. One English ship, T'he Richard of Plymouth (Captain Henry Challons), of about fifty-five tons burden, was captured by a Span- ish naval force in the West India waters in November, 1606.^ But the capture was never recognized as made by authority of the Spanish government, and the captain and crew, after being carried to Spain, were in due time released. The only attempt actually made by Philip III. against the Vir- ginia colony w^as in the summer of 161 1, when a Spanish caravel, sailing from a port of Portugal and " fitted with a shallop neces- sarie and propper to discover freshetts. Rivers and Creekes," came into Chesapeake Bay to the neighborhood of Point Com- fort.^ She had aboard of her two Spaniards, Molina and Perez, and an Englishman, Lymbry, who had entered the service of Spain. They wei'e all spies specially employed by Philip III. to report the condition of \^irginia and her colony. The three came ashore, and, having excited suspicion, were detained by the Virginia authorities. But, by a curious cotttretemps, a pilot. Captain Clark, was sent aboard the caravel from the shore, and, taking the alarm, the vessel sailed to Spain, carrying off the pilot and leaving the three spies. This subject was made the occasion of several letters between the two governments. The diplomatic controversy ran through five years. The result was that Captain Clark died in Spain. Perez died in Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale caused Lymbry to be brought to trial. He was convicted and executed.* Only Molina survived. He was of good birth and pretensions. Dale carried 1 They are all given in the '• Genesis," copied from the Simancas archives. - Narrative of John Stoneman, pilot, Purchas' Pilgrims, IV. lS32-'37, and Brown's Genesis, I. 127-139. 3 Sir Thomas Dale's Report, August 17, IGll. Brown's Genesis of the United States, I. 507, 508. •• Brown's Genesis, II. 782. opposition of Spain. 85 him with him to England in May, 1616. He was permitted to return to Spain. Don Diego vSarmicnto de Acuna, better known as the celebrated Count de Gondomar, became the embassador of Spain to England in August, 1613. He was too sagacious and able ever to advise an armed attack on the English colonies in North America. In truth, he had formed the opinion, from the continuous disasters which'came so near to a final catastrophe in 1610, that the colony of Virginia would be virtually abandoned or would be transferred to the more promising field of Bermuda. A rumor of preparations for a Spanish armed fleet to invade Virginia gradually faded away.* When Dale left Virginia in 1616, he placed the reins of govern- ment in the hands of George Yeardley, whose name will always be connected with the origin of constitutional freedom in the United States. But he was mild and amiable in character, and governed with a weak hand, very different from that of Dale. By the influence of Lord Rich and Sir Thomas Smith in the Lon- don Council, Capt. Samuel Argall was appointed deputy governor. He arrived in May, 1617, and immediately entered upon a course of high-handed power. He revived the martial code and breathed new force into its worst elements, which Dale had kept in abeyance. He bound private commerce in chains, forbade hunting under penalty of slavery^ and prohibited the use of fire- arms except by his special license. Any person neglecting to go to church on Sundays and holidays was to " lye neck and heels that night," and be a slave for a week ; for the second offence he was to be outlawed for a month, and for the third, for a year and a day.^ It was Argall, not Dale, who made the martial code so odious that the people never rested until it was abolished. Lord Delaware was preparing to resume in person his duties as governor. In 161 8 he sailed with a large ship and two hun- dred settlers. But adverse winds and storms delayed his progress. His delicate health could not bear up under this pressure. He died at sea, having reached a point not far from the inouth of the bay now bearing his name. In the same year two other great men, closely connected with the fortunes of Virginia, descended to the grave. They were Sir Walter Raleigh and King Powhatan. Argall kept on his rapacious course, and Lady Delaware her- self has left on record complaints of her losses by this reckless peculator.^ 1 Brown's Genesis. Digby's Dispatches, II. 606, 607, 656, 658. 2 Marshall's Amcr. Colon., 5H. Stith, 147, 148. sstith, 149. 151. Belknap, II. 156, 157. S6 A History of the United States of America. The clamor against him soon became so loud that even Sir Thomas Smith could no longer countenance him. The company in London appointed Sir George Yeardley to supersede him. Then the Earl of Warwick, formerly Lord Rich, who was like him in character and shared his dishonest profits, sent a small vessel to Virginia, which arrived just in time to bear away Argall and his ill-gotten treasures before the arrival of his successor.^ The arrival of Sir George Yeardley in the spring of 1619 was the opening of a new era in the life of North America. The London Company has been much traduced and censured ; but it is certain that among its members were many souls who knew what self-government meant for m.an, and longed for its coming. Yeardley brought with him several charters and plenary powers, and under them he was authorized to call together the first " General Assembly" that ever sat upon the soil of the New World. The change made in the working of the London Company in 1613 had been all in favor of freedom, though the king did not contemplate it. The council in London no longer had supreme power. A vote was given to each stockholder, and at the quarter- yearly meetings of the representatives thus chosen free counsels and free policy prevailed. Thus was brought about the grand movement under which Sir George Yeardley acted in 16 19. "Little did King James and his obsequious servants imagine that he had imparted being to a parent who was now to give birth to a child destined by his ov\^n innate vigor to shake the do- minion of Britain to its centre, and finally to change the aspect of the most powerful nations of earth ! " About the close of June, 1619, the first "General Asseinbly " met at Jamestown. Counties were yet unknown, but each bor- ough or township sent a representative, and from this the legisla- tors acquired the naine of " Burgesses," which they long retained. The representatives sat and voted in the same room with the council, and the governor retained a negative upon all laws or other action. Not one of the acts of this first assembly has been preserved. Neither have we the original charter granted by the London Company ; but we may presume that it did not differ materially from the constitution afterwards established un- der Sir Francis Wyatt.^ Virginia now entered on a period of prosperity and progress. The people devoted themselves to agriculture and the needed 1 Stith, 154-157. Belknap, II. 158. Beverley and Keith are unreliable about Argall. 2 Hening'8 Stat., I, 76, note. Importation of Slaves to the Colony. 87 manufactures. New settlers came, and of a far better character than those of the early colonial years. During the year 1620, twelve hundred emigrants came to Virginia, and her population at its close numbered thirty-five hundred.' Happy in the highest sense would it have been for Virginia and North America if she could have escaped the form of impor- tation of human beings that came in this same year. The raising of corn, tobacco, cotton, rice and sugar-cane might not have been pushed forward with as much energy as the money-loving in- stincts of the planters and their families demanded ; but a slower development of these productions would have been attended by contentment and industry, without the presence of an institution which originated in crime, shocked the moral sense of advanced civilization, and finally brought on a war of bitterness and extent seldom known in the world. Yet this importation was made so quietly, and was so entirely accordant with the state of thought then prevalent in Europe, that it caused no tremor in the hands that first recorded it. In August, 1620, a Dutch ship of war sailed up the James, landed twenty negroes lately taken from the African coast, and quickly obtained a sale for them from the planters, who wanted them to work their fields for corn and tobacco, and who bought them with as little doubt or compunction as they would have felt in buying as many horses or mules if brought and offered for sale. The contemporary record is : "A Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty negarsT' Man cannot see the future. Another importation of a radically different kind was made this same year. Matrimonial unions had not been numerous. Many entire families had come out, it is true ; but so many single men had also come that they composed the larger element in society. There were no young unmarried women. The maid Anne Burras, who came over in 1608, did not wait long for a hus- band. She was united to John Laydon, one of the first settlers, and their marriage was the first ever solemnized between Euro- peans on the soil of Virginia. To provide suitable wives for the many single colonists, the London Company sent out on two occasions ship-loads of mar- riageable young women to the colony. Great care was taken to exclude all as to whose reputation for chastity any serious doubt was raised ; and by order of the council, two women were sent back to England who were shown to be unworthy in this respect, 1 Swin ton's Cond. School Hist. U. S., p. 33. ..a, 2 Smith, II. 39. Beverley, 35. Stith, 182. Grahame, I. 71. 88 A History of the United States of America. As the company incurred some expense in seeking and sending the young female colonists, on arrival they were offered for sale under proper restrictions. The price required at first was one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, but it was afterwards advanced to one hundred and fifty. At three shillings per pound, this would be about eighty dollars, but allowing for the then greater value of money, each of these young women bi-ought about one hundred and fifty dollars. They were sold in brief time, and duly united in wedlock to their respective purchasers.' Family ties were formed ; mutual content prevailed ; life be- gan to grow^ brighter ; cares lost their depressing power. These women made good wives. No unfortunate result has ever been recorded as to this experiment. And yet another importation occurred during this year, w^hich, imlike the one just mentioned, was disgraceful to King James and his government. In 1619 he expressly commanded the London Company to transport to the colony one hundred convicts, guilty of every species of felony, or else adjudged to be too bad to re- main in England. The company objected, entreated, remon- strated, appealed, in vain. After some delay, they brought them over. One historian of the colonial times denounced this act of the king, which " hath laid one of the finest countries in British America under the imjust scandal of being a mere hell upon earth." ''■ Strange, indeed, that another, of even higher faine, should have approved and defended it.^ Amid all these events Virginia continued to prosper. But a dark cloud was hanging over her, caused by savage malice and treachery. After the death of the Emperor Powhatan, the able and wily chief Opecancanough succeeded him. He is spoken of as a bro- ther of Powhatan, but it is doubtful whether he was related to him at all. The Indians and many whites believed he came from a tribe far in the southwest — perhaps from the interior of Mex- ico.* Secretly, and with consummate fraud and skill, this chief brought nearly all the savages of Tidewater Virginia to unite in a plot for the extermination of the whites. He availed himself of every pretext that would help his purpose, and especially of the death of a noted young Indian warrior named "Jack of the Feather," who, after having murdered, by treachery, a colonist named Morgan and rifled his body, was himself shot down by 1 Purchas' Pilgrims, IV, 1783. Grahame, I. 72. = Stith, 167, 168, 3 Marshall's Amer. Colon., 56. * Keith's Va,, 144, 145. Indian Massacre. 89 two sti"ong young men who attempted to arrest him and whom he resisted.^ But the great means of organizing the plot was Opecancanough's own conviction, shared by the savages, that they were destined to certain destruction unless they either ex- terminated the whites or adopted the habits of civilized life. On Friday, the 33d of March, 1633, the tragedy began. So perfect was the confidence of the settlei^s that they lent the sav- ages their boats, and many came in to take the morning meal with the whites, and brought deer, turkeys, fish and fruits, v^^hich they offered for sale as usual. But at mid-day the scene of blood was opened. Neither age nor sex was spared. In less than four hours, three hundred and forty-nine settlers w^ere slain. Among them were George Thorpe, who had been the special benefactor of the Indians, and six members of the council. In many cases, after killing their victims, the savages mutilated the dead bodies with frightful barbarity." Very few whites ^vould have escaped but for an incident show- ing the power of Christianity. A young Indian convert nained Chanco lived with Richard -Pace. His savage brother urged him to murder his master, telling him he intended that fate for his own ; but the young Christian recoiled with horror from the deed, and informed Mr. Pace of the plot. An express was in- stantly dispatched to Jamestown. Thus the chief settlement was alarmed ; guns and swords were made ready, and the natives did not venture an attack. It is remarkable that wherever resistance was bravely made it was successful. An old soldier, trained under Smith, although surrounded by Indians, and severely w^ounded, clove the skull of an assailant with an ax, and the rest instantly fled. A Mr. Bald- w^in, whose wife v^^as lying before his eyes bleeding from many wounds, fired one well-directed load of bullets and drove a crowd of savages from his house. Some small parties of settlers ob- tained a few muskets from a ship lying in the stream near their plantations, and with these completely routed the Indians and dis- persed them in great alarm. ^ Murderers are generally cowards. The immediate effects of the massacre were disastrous. Hor- ror and consternation prevailed for a time. The settlers v^^ere drawn in around Jamestown. Distant plantations were aban- doned, and eighty settlements were reduced to six. But soon a terrible reaction came on. They had trusted the Indians and had been betrayed ; had given them arms to be 1 Burk, I. 237. Keith, 137. 'Stith, 211. Belknap, II. 181. 3 Purchas' Pilgrims, IV. 1788-'9. go A History of the United States of America. turned on themselves ; had hibored for their good, only to see their wives and children butchered before their eyes. Their pur- pose now was not revenge, but extermination. They hunted the savages like wild beasts, and shot them down wherever they could find them. They resorted to stratagems, and slew without mercy all thus brought within their reach. The Indians from this time rapidly declined in numbers — some killed, some dying with disease and exposure, some flying to distant tribes.^ The London Company manifested deep sympathy for the colo- nists, and a determined purpose to uphold aiid strengthen them. But the time was now near at hand when this company was to fall and perish under the hostility of King James. Sir George Yeardley was mild and sensitive in spirit, and was so deeply wounded by the ungenerous attacks made on him by the court party in the company, led by Warwick and Argall, that he fell into a decline. Sir Francis Wyatt was appointed to succeed him. Early in August, 1621, he set out for the colony, bringing with him the written constitution, which confirmed the privileges granted inider Yeardley. This constitution bears date July 24th, 1621.^ It erects two councils — one to consist of the governor and his advisers, to be known as the Council of State ; the other to consist of the first body, together with two burgesses from each town, hundred or plantation, to be freely elected by the people and called together by the governor once a year, and oftener for special reason. This united body, forming one " General Assembly," had power to make laws, subject, however, to an absolute negative in the gov- ernor, and to the approval of the council. But with admirable equity it was further provided that no action of the company should bind the colonists unless ratified by the General Assembly. King James hated the semblance of liberty which already ap- peared in the \lebates of the London Company at its quarterly meetings. Already the English people were awaking to a sense of their own freedom. So openly were the principles of liberty and self-government declared in the counsels of the company that the Spanish embassador Gondomar warned the king against their influence, and declared that " the Virginia courts are but a semi- nary to a seditious Parliament."^ The king took the alarm, and on the Sth of October, 1622, sent them an order of his privy council, coolly informing them that he intended to take the government of the colony into his own » Grahame, I. 79. Marshall, 60. 2 Hazard's State Papers, I. 131-133. Heniug, I. 110-llS, s Mass. Hist. Collec, IX. 113. Baucroffs U. S., I. 200. TJic London Company Dissolved, gi hands, and that the company might choose whether they would surrender their charter or be dissolved by government proceed- ings. They declined to surrender. The king appointed commission- ers to visit Virginia and get up evidence against the company. The result was not long in doubt. An unfavorable report was obtained. A writ of quo xvarrajito was issued against the com- pany, and the king, on the 15th of July, 1634, issued a proclama- tion suppressing the quarterly sessions. At the next term of the court of King's Bench the quo -jjarranto came on for trial, and a judgment of dissolution was pronounced against the Lon- don Company. King James suffered the colonial government to remain undis- turbed, but employed his leisure hours in preparing a new code of laws for the people of Virginia. Happily for the New World, his labors were ended by death on the 37th of March, 1635. CHAPTER XII. Sir William Berkeley. — Charles I. KING CHARLES I., who succeeded his father James, did not immediately interfere with the liberties of the colonists. It is true he issued several proclamations, declaring that he had adopted the views of his father about them, and that they were to be governed by a council consisting of men appointed by and responsible to His Majesty alone. And though he confirmed the monopoly of tobacco granted under the advice of Parliament to the Virginia and Somers Island companies, yet he sought to draw large revenues from the weed by assuming that he was substi- tuted to the rights of the dissolved London Company, and de- manding that every pound of tobacco imported should be deliv- ered to his agents, who gave a certain price to the owners and secured a heavy profit to the Crown. ^ The Virginia " General Assembly " continued to exist, though we have no authentic record of its proceedings from 1624 to 1639. It had planted its roots deeply in the hearts of the people, and would not have been yielded without a struggle. In 1625 another conflict with the savages came on. Sir Francis Wyatt, the governor, led the whites in person. A battle took place on the Pamunkey with nearly a thousand bowmen of seve- ral tribes. The Indians were defeated with heavy loss, and the colonists were only prevented from marching on the Mattaponi by want of ammunition.^ No permanent peace followed, but the natives grew weaker and weaker year after year. In 1626 Wyatt was called to Ireland by the death of his father. Sir George Yeardley again became governor, and, after a wise and faithful administration of little more than a year, died in No- vember, 1637. The people of the colony sent an eulogy upon his virtues to the privy council in England. Francis West succeeded him for a short time. John Potts be- came governor early in 1638, but his duties were brief. He was, while in private life in 1630, prosecuted upon a charge of stealing cattle and convicted, and he was only saved from ignominious punishment by a reprieve.^ 1 Hazard's State Papers, I. 203-205. Bancroft, I. 210. • 2 Campbell's Va., 08. Burk, IL 12, 13. sHening, I. 145, 146. [ 92 ] Kins' Charles I. 93 Early in 1639 came Sir Jolm Hervey from England as Governor of Virginia, bringing a broad commission and ample po^vers from the king. Concerning his character and conduct, disputes have arisen which have not been decided. He was natui^ally not popu- lar in the colony, as he had been one of the commission sent by King James to devise a report for the ruin of the London Com- pany. He was fond of money, and full of bigotry in religion. Nevertheless, he exhibited qualities which made him useful and respectable in his station. He carefully supervised the military plans of the colony ; caused a fort to be erected at Point Com- fort ; encouraged the manufacture of saltpetre and potash ; re- vived the salt-works at Accomack, and established semi-monthly courts at Jamesto\vn. He fostered maritime enterprises ; sent out an expedition to trade between the 34th and ■\^^\\ degrees of lati- tude ; and very cordially invited the people who had settled in New England to leave their cold and barren soil and take refusfe in the more genial climes of Virginia and Delaware.' The most serious causes of the odium into which Hervey finally fell were his culpable coalition with the king and his sharing the profits resulting from the immense encroachments on the domain of Virginia under her original charter, made by suc- cessive grants from King Charles — one in 1630 to Sir Robert Heath, beginning at the 36th parallel and running so far south as to embrace a large part of the present Southern States ; the other to the Calvert family, covering the magnificent country on both sides of Chesapeake Bay and running up to the 40th paral- lel of latitude. Much of this territory was clearly within the limits of Virginia. All these causes led to dissatisfaction so great that in 163c; Sir John Hervey was " thrust out of his government, and Captain John West was to act as governor till the king's pleasure be known." ^ King Charles was already entering upon his dismal and fatal struggle with the spirit of freedom in the English Parliament and people. He gave no favor to the charges against Hervey. and refused to admit to his presence the commissioners sent by the colony to urge their complaints. He. reinstated his favorite in office and sent him back to Virginia. But Hervey seems to have learned ^visdom by experience, and no further complaints were made. In 1639116 ^vas quietly superseded by Sir Francis Wyatt, who had previously been governor, and whose administration for 1 Burk, II. 32. Bancroft, I. 213. 2 Hening's Stat, at Large, 1. 223. 94 ^ History of the United States of America. little more than a year was so tranquil that several chroniclers omit it entirely/ In August, 1 64 1, Charles appointed to the governorship of Virginia Sir William Berkeley. His name and deeds fill a large space in the colonial history of the New^ World. " His loyalty was excessive. He loved the monarchical constitution of England with simple fervor ; he venerated her customs, her church, her bishops, her liturgy — everything peculiar to her as a kingdom ; and, believing them to be worthy of all acceptation, he enforced conformity with uncompromising sternness." In the first part of his official career " he was valued by his friends for his warm af- fections, and respected by his foes for his upright demeanor." But he lived long enough to prove that loyalty, when misguided, will make a tyrant ; that religious zeal, when devoted to an es- tablished church, will beget the most revolting bigotiy ; and that a warm disposition, when seeking revenge, will give birth to the worst forms of cruelty and malice. He entered upon his duties in February, 1642, and with excep- tion of the time of his retirement during the ascendency of the commonwealth in England, he continued in office until April, 1677 — ^ period of thirty-five years. During his administration the people of the colony grew rap- idly in numbers and prosperity. He was popular, and the people were contented, even with his bigoted and monarchical views, so long as they were permitted to make their own laws and raise their own tobacco. The struggle going on between the king and the Parliament in England tended rather to promote the peace and welfare of the colony than to involve her in distress. Notw- ithstanding their respect for the governor, the laws enacted by the General Assembly at that time show a watchful care for freedom. At the session of 1642— '43, we find a statute enacted for- bidding the governor and council to lay any taxes or imposts upon either persons or property, except by authority of the assembly.^ But in one department the laws of this period were black with the worst hues of the connection betvs^een church and state com- ing from the Old World. Strict conformity to the Church of England was required.; tithes were inexorably imposed ; minis- ters' persons were invested with a sanctity savoring powerfully of superstition ; popish recusants were forbidden to hold office ; their priests were banished from the country; the oath of supre- iThey are Keith, Burk, Chalmers, Beverley, Robertson and Marshall. But see Hening, I. 225 ; Bancroft, I. 218 ; Campbell, 61 ; Grahame, I. 95. - Act III., Laws 1642-'43. Hening s Stat., I. 244. Sir William Berkeley. 91^ macy to the king as head of the church was in all cases to be tendered ; dissenting preachers were strictly forbidden to exercise their office ; and the governor and council were empowered to com- pel "non-conformists to depart the colony with all convenience."^ But it must be borne in mind that such laws were the fault of the age rather than expressions of popular feeling. Toleration was an unknown virtue. Men had not learned that the human conscience is a thing too sacred to be touched by human laws. It is consoling to reflect that when, eighteen years after this period, four Quakers (three men and one woman) were executed in Bos- ton under similar or worse laws, the elder colony was unstained by blood shed under enactments so unholy and vindictive.^ The Indians continued in a state of inveterate enmity to the whites. Peace was never thought of. Successive enactments of the assembly made it a solemn duty to attack the natives at stated seasons of the year, and heavy penalties were visited on all who traded with them, or in any mode provided them with arms and ammunition. The whites were steadily increasing, both in numbers and in moral and material strength. The Indians were as steadily diminishing ; but they were yet strong enough to give trouble. The illegal grants favored by Hervey had pro- voked them to renewed hostility, as they saw their hunting- grounds swept from their control.^ Sir William Berkeley did what he could to mitigate these causes of provocation, but in vain. Opecancanough still lived, though now beyond the one hundredth year of his age. He was gaunt and feeble in body ; his eyes had lost their fire ; his eyelids drooped from weakness, so that often he needed an attendant to lift them up that he might see. But in this wasted body burned a soul of unquenchable energy. He roused the savages to another effort at general massacre. This fatal irruption was made at the close of the year 1643. Five hundred whites sank beneath the assault of the Indians, which was most violent, on the upper waters of the Pamunkey and York, where the settlers were few and imperfectly armed ; but wherever resistance was possible the savages were routed with heavy loss. Berkeley placed himself at the head of a chosen body, consist- ing of every twentieth man able to bear arms, and marched to the seat of war. Finding the savages dispersed, he followed them 1 Laws in Hening, I. 240-277. Burk, II. 66, 67. Bancroft, I. 222, 223. 2 Grahame, I, 309. Bancroft, I. 48S-i'j6. 8 Beverley, 49. Burk, II. 51. Keith, 144. 96 A History of the United States of Anierica. Avith a troop of cavalry. Many Indians were slain. Opecanca- nough was overtaken, captured, and carried, in triumph, back to Jamestown. The governor had determined to send him to England as a royal captive, to be detained in honorable custody until his death. The venerable chieftain lost not his dignity and self-possession for a moment, and looked around him with contempt and indiffer- ence. A brutal white crept behind him and shot him in the back. The wound was fatal, yet his courage did not give way. A crowd collected around him to sate their unfeeling curiosity. The eyelids of the dying Indian were lifted up, and a flash of just in- dignation revived his strength. He sent for the governor, and addressed him thus : "Had I taken Sir William Berkeley prisoner, I would not have exposed him as a show^ to my people."^ Soon afterwards he expired. His words Avere dignified and pathetic ; but it is very probable that if he had taken the governor prisoner he Avould have tortured and burned him at the stake. His death caused the renowned confederacy of Powhatan to fall to pieces. The Indians grew weaker and weaker. We shall meet them again. But their fate in the Virginia colony was sealed. Berkeley paid a brief visit to England, leaving Richard Kemp to perform his duties until his return in November, 1645.' The colony grew more and more prosperous. Their commerce was not yet injuriously restricted, and the monopoly they enjoyed for tobacco in the English market gave them lucrative advantages. About the close of the year 164S, we find a notice that ten ships traded to them regularly from London ; two from Bristol ; twelve from Holland, and seven from New England.^ The population had reached twenty thousand. Gradual climatization had made the air friendly. General content prevailed. The increasing troubles in England did not reach them. Attached to a religion of forms and despis- ing Puritanism, they had no desire to identify themselves with a rebellion conducted almost exclusively by men who were dissen- ters from the church establishment of the mother country. But a grave eiTor is encouraged by those chroniclers who re- present religion as the chief cause of the attachment of the Vir- ginia colonists to the interests of King Charles and his govern- ment.* A majority of the people cared very little for religion in any form, provided their civil rights, their right of self-govern- 1 Beverley, 51. Burk, II. 59. Grahame's Colon. Hist., I. 96. 2 Bancroft, I. 224. Heninsr, I., in loco. 3 Mass. Hist. CoUec, IX. 118. *Such as Burk, II. 75. Quackenbos' U. S., 101. Sir William Berkeley. M ment, and their private inclinations were not disturbed. These they clung to and enjoyed with signal tenacity. It is certain that Virginia remained true to Charles I. and the monarchy during the civil war which resulted in their overthrow and in the capital execution of the king on the 30th of January, 1649. She remained also true to Charles II. while he was an outlaw and fugitive flying from his enemies of the English Parliament and commonwealth. He had too few real friends to forget al that time Sir William Berkeley and the faithful colony. From his slender court at Breda, in the Netherlands, he sent to Berkeley a new commission confirming the powers granted by his father, and expressing a sense of his gratitude for the loyalty shown by Vir- ginia. It has even been intimated that the queen mother — Hen- rietta Maria — had formed a project to transport, with the aid of France, a large body of her retainers to Virginia, and to continue in the New World the monarchy so fatally arrested in England.^ It was at this time (and not after his restoration, when he gave few favorable thoughts to Virginia) that Charles devised the ad- dition, '■'■En dat 'Virginia giiintam,'''' to the motto of the English coat of arms. The five elements of his monarchy alluded to were England, France, Scotland, Ireland and Virginia.'^ A large number of loyal families left England during the civil war and the commonwealth, and came to Virginia. vSir William Berkeley's house was always open to such, and the hospitable owners of lands on the rivers gladly furnished them homes. All these causes contributed to give to this colony the title of " The Old Dominion." The origin generally assigned for this title in- volves a grave historical erroi', as we shall see. Meanwhile a commonwealth had been established in England, and Oliver Cromv^^ell was at its head as protector. He made his country formidable to her enemies and respectable to all the world. He had no policy of harshness or revenge towards the Virginia colony ; yet he could not be expected to connive at her position. In 165 1 he sent a powerful fleet carrying, besides its proper crews, a large land force, all under command of Sir George Ayscue, with directions to subdue the islands of the West Indies, and to reduce all refractory colonies to subjection. The orders of Parlia- ment were stern and decided.^ Ayscue reduced Antigua and the Barbadoes to subjection, and sent Captain Dennis with what he deemed an adequate force to 1 Johnson's Lives of the Poets, 1. 113. Grahame, I. 98. 2 Holmes' U. S., 41. s Hazard, I. 556-558. Grahame, I. 99. 98 A History of the United States of America, Virginia. Governor Berkeley prepared for vigorous resistance. His military force was sinall, but efficient. Jamestown was arined and guarded at all points. Muskets wei^e distributed ; cannon mounted. A number of Dutch ships were lying in the river, and as their captains and crews had nothing to expect from the com- monwealth's forces except captivity and confiscation, they will- ingly united with Berkeley's forces. Their cargoes were carried ashore ; a select crew was assigned each ship ; their guns were heavily charged, and they were moored in a circular line, so as to cover by their fire every point of approach.^ Dennis was brought to a stand. He seems at once to have abandoned all thought of a violent attack, the result of which would have been doubtful. He resorted to negotiations for peace, and was aided by a fact which appealed to the pocket-nerve of two members of the Provincial Council. Dennis found means to inform them that aboard his ships a large quantity of goods, wares and merchandise belonging to them had been brought to Virginia. But whatever may have been the inixture of motives, the result was, in the highest degree, creditable to the colony. The treaty agreed upon was in every important respect favorable to her, and secured her cherished freedom. Even in the matter of religion it was agreed that the Book of Common Prayer should be contin- ued for a year in those parishes which desired it, provided only that the parts recognizing the king and the royal government should not be publicly used.'^ If the colony was conquered, never did a conquered province obtain terms more favorable to her privileges, her liberties and her honor. Virginia went on her way growing and prospering. Sir Williain Berkeley retired to his estate, where he remained un- molested. The General Assemblies continued, and elected in succession three provincial governors — viz. : Richard Bennett, in 1653 ; Edward Digges, in 1656, and Samuel Matthews, in 1658. A mountain horde of savages who came down on the upper waters of the James were defeated with heavy loss. Among their .slain was the gallant chief Totopotomoi, who had once been friendly to the whites. So complete was the political and personal freedom enjoyed that the House of Burgesses, in a slight contest of powers with the aged Governor Matthews, voted that it was the right of the House to discuss, frst and aJone, any measure proposed for enactment.* 1 Burk, II. 82. Beverley, 52. Grahame, I. 99. Keith, 147. Marshall, I. G7. Strange that Bancroft has nothing to sav of these Dutch ships ! 2 Hening, I. 363-368. Hazard, I. 560-564. Jefferson's Notes, 118. sHening. I. 499. Bancroft, I. 243. Sir Mi/Iiaifi Berkeley. oo It has been common for compilers of history to state that Charles II. was proclaimed king by the Virginia colony before he was re- stored to the throne of England, and that thus originated for Vir- ginia the title of " The Old Dominion."^ This is not true. When Samuel Matthews died, in 1660, the question simply was who should be his successor. No tumult was raised ; no excited feel- ing prevailed ; no royal standard was unfurled to announce Charles as king. The assembly elected Sir William Berkeley governor by a decisive vote on the 13th day of March, 1660. He accepted the office without condition or compromise. He re- quii^ed no oath of allegiance to the king ; and it was not until the 29th of April, 1660, that Charles II. ascended the throne, left vacant for eleven years by the death of his father. ■> Beverley, Keith, Robertson, Marshall, ami a shoal of modern "school histories." CHAPTER XIII. The Coming of the Puritans. WE come now to a settlement in North America which, unlike that in Virginia, was the result of jDurely religious motives. It did not take place imder the broad patent from King James granted in 1606 to the London and Plymouth companies. It is true that some temporary and unsuccessful efforts were made by individuals of the Plymouth Company. In 1606, Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England, and Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth, equipped a vessel intended for America ; but she was hardly out of port before she was seized and confis- cated by the Spaniards, under the claim that Spain alone had a right to send ships to the new hemisphere.^ A second and almost simultaneous expedition from Bristol was more fortunate, and on returning gave such accounts of the fishing and resources of water and land that public confidence was increased. In 1607 two ships were dispatched, commanded by Raleigh Gilbert, and bearing emigrants under George Popham. They landed near the mouth of Kennebec river, at a spot called Saga da Hok by the natives ; offered public thanks to God, and began a settlement by erecting a number of rude cabins, a store-house, and some well-planned fortifications. The name given was St. George. The ships sailed, leaving forty-five settlers.^ But the winter was intensely cold ; the natives, at first friendly, became hostile ; the store-house caught fire and w^as burned with part of the provisions ; the emigrants grew weary of the solitude ; George Popham died — " the only one of the company that died there ;" and Raleigh Gilbert, in command at St. George, wished to go back to take possession of an estate inherited from his brother. So they all abandoned the settlement and returned to England, and there " did coyne many excuses," consisting chiefly of exag- gerated accounts of the rugged poverty of the soil and the wintry severity of the climate. A stronger motive than fishing and ma- terial gain M^as needed to plant a permanent colony in that region. ' Purchas, IV. 1827, 1832. Bancroft, I. 267. 2 Gorges, 7, 8, 9. Smith, II. 173, 175. Bancroft, I. 268. Narrative and map, Brown's Gen- esis. I. 140-142, 190-194. [ 100 1 The Cotning of the Puritans. loi The fisheries and fur-trade were not relinquished, and contin- ued to yield profit, but led to no settlement. In 1614, under a private adventure of four London merchants and himself. Captain John Smith came to this northern region, examined the shores from Penobscot to Cape Cod, prepared a map of the coast, and gave to the country the name "New England,'' which was con- firmed by Prince Charles. After Smith had left in one of the ships for England, Thomas Hunt, the master of the other ship, kidnaped a large party of Indians, and, sailing for Spain, sold " the poor innocents " into slavery ! One of them afterwards escaped, came to London, and in 16 19 was restored to his own land, where he became an inter- preter for English emigrants.' The settlement of New England was effected by a band of men, women and children, who came without the authority of any patent, or the protection of any earthly government. A higher Power shielded and established them. The Reformation in Europe was the protest of the human soul against the errors and abuses that encumbered Christianity. It was a separation from Rome and a throwing oft' of the yoke of the Ro- man Pontiff. It was not a separation from the visible church of Christ, nor a throwing oft' of the binding authority of his doctrines as set forth in his Word, and in the early and really oecumenical councils, of his church. The inspired Scriptures, made known throughout all civilized Europe by the art of printing, were the instrument by which the Reformation was effected. No single minds contributed more powerfully to distribute universal know- ledge of the Scriptures than those of Martin Luther, John Calvin and Desiderius Erasmus ; yet the latter never renounced the com- munion of the Roman church. What that church needed was reformation, not destruction. In England, under Henry VIII., the Reformation was far from complete. The most idolatrous and dangerous doctrines and practices of Rome were upheld by law, although the authority of her pontiff was rejected. Under Edward VI. much greater pro- gress was made ; the Reformation was sincerely upheld and urged on by many able minds, and its principles took deeper root. Un- der Mary — well-named the " bloody " — a reaction was forced for- ward by persecutions which have left a permanent impress upon the minds of the English people. Elizabeth upheld the Reformation ; yet her love of forms and splendor, and her critical condition as a sovereign, induced her to 1 Smith's Description of New England, 47. Hist. Va., II. 176. Bancroft, I. 270.^ 102 A History of the United States of America. enforce many practices which, in the judgment of all the seriously- pious people of her realm, tended strongly towards a reaction favorable to the Roman claims.^ It was in her reign, in 1564, that the name "Puritan" began to be applied to all such persons as desired to purge the visible church of all doctrines, forms, vestments and practices which, in their judgment, were not authorized by the Holy Scriptures, and tended to lead back to the Roman usurpation.'' It is entirely possible that many of these reformers went too far, and by their rigor and austerity, discouraged rather than helped on the Reformation. But, deep down in their souls was the principle of spiritual truth engendered by the inspired Word of God. Their motto might have been : '•'■Obsta principiisy They resisted priestly vestments and forms because they were the symbolism of doctrines destructive to souls.^ Elizabeth hated Puritanism and the Puritans, and persecuted them without mercy. Their strength is shown by the fact that in the convocation of 1563, which met to review the doctrine and discipline of the church. Bishop Sandys introduced a petition for reformation which went very far towards satisfying the Puritans, and which was only rejected by the proxies of absentees, and then only by a majority of one vote ! * But Elizabeth and her government resolved to suppress them. The court of High Commission put in moveinent against them its vague, but oppressive powers, " to visit, reform, redress, order, cor- rect and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, conteinpts, offences and enormities whatsoever." All licenses to preach bearing date prior to ist March, 1564, were declared null and void. Thus nearly all the Puritan preachers were silenced. In 15S3, her special instrument, Whitgift, Archbishop of Can- terbury, issued the famous series of articles under w^hich Puritan- ism was proscribed and a stigma of crime attached to all who de- clined to conform to the liturgy and practices of the Church of England as then administered. And in April, 1593, through the influence of Whitgift, who was a stern Calvinist, two Puritan ministers, Barrow and Greenwood, of unimpeached character and loyalty, were selected as examples, and were convicted and hanged at Tyburn, for no offence save persistent adherence to their reli- gious opinions.* The Puritans as a body had shown no disposition to separate from the visible church as it existed in England. But under such 1 Art. Puritanism. Schaff-Herzog Encvc, III. 1980. 2 Art. Puritan, New Amer. Enc, XIIL 666. 3 Art. Puritanism, Schaff-Herzog, III. 1980. < Ihid. 5 Strype's Whitgift, 414. Neal's Puritans, I. 526, 527. The Coming of the Puritans. 103 persecutions we cannot wonder that many should have left the church and become Separatists^ as they were called, and that many others should have turned their thoughts to the New World with the hope of finding there the religious freedom denied them in England. Their special fault and misfortune were that they had not yet learned what true religious freedom meant. When James I. ascended the throne, in 1603, the Puritans hoped something favorable, because of his education under the learned and liberal Buchanan, and because of his own professions. But the king soon fell under the influence of religious persecutors. He required obedience to the decrees of the previous reign, and, sending for four influential Puritans, he told them he expected from their body obedience and humility, and said : " If this be all your party have to say, I -will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else do worse." ^ It was time for the Puritans to move towards the New World, and their movement soon began. Many of the Separatists went first to Holland. Among these were a little congregation in Scrooby, in the north of England, whose pastor's name was Richard Clifton. Under him were trained John Robinson, William Bradford and William Brewster. In 1607, the year in which Jamestown was settled, these perse- cuted people left England and settled in Holland, where they lived about thirteen years, most of the time in the city of Leyden.^ But for many reasons they wei'e not satisfied. They were Eng- lish, and loved their English homes, English habits and English tongue. If they continued in Holland, their children would grow up, marry there, and soon lose all that distinguished them as from England. This they did not desii"e. They determined to inigrate to America. From these facts the name of " Pilgrims " has come to them. They came back to England, and after making some efforts to obtain a grant from the London and Plymouth companies, moved without one. One ship, the Speedwell^ was left as unseaworthy. About one-half of them, one hundred and one in number, sailed in the Mayjioiver. Both in Holland and England their friends came with them to the shore, and they knelt and prayed to- gether.^ They sailed on the 6th of September, 1620. During the long and boisterous voyage of sixty-three days, one person died. On the 9th of November they saw land, and two days afterwards 1 Art. Puritanism, Schaff-Herzog;, III. 1983. 2 Eggleston's Houseliold U. S., 37. Frank Leslie's Pop. Monthly, August, 1SS9. 3 Eggleston's Household U. S., 39. Bancroft, I. 306-308. I04 A History of the United States of America. were safely moored in the harbor of Cape Cod. They had in- tended to seek the Hudson river, the best part of the American coast ; but, either by want of skill or by design, the captain of the Mayjioxver brought them to the " most barren and inhospitable part of Massachusetts."^ But before they landed, it was felt to be needful that some ade- quate form of government should be adopted, as they had no charter, and some were thought " not well affected to unity and concord." They, therefore, on the i ith of November, 1620, joined themselves into a body politic, under a solemn voluntary compact as follows : " In the name of God, amen : We whose names ai^e under written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign King James, having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together, into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." This instrument was signed in the cabin of the Alayjloiver by the whole body of the men, forty -one in number, who, with their families, constituted the one hundred of the colony. John Car- ver was unanimously chosen governor for a year.^ The place for the settlement was yet to be chosen. The shal- lop, brought on the deck of the JMayJloiver, was set up, but needed days of repair before she was fit for use. The shallow water tempted some of the men to wade, but in these trying expedi- tions, exposed to freezing water, snow and wind, the seeds of pulmonary diseases were introduced, and in the near future sev- eral died of consumption. Once they heard the war-whoop and encountered a flight of arrows from the Nausites, a tribe of In- dians, who had heard of the kidnaping by Thomas Hunt ; but no life was lost, and no further annoyance from these savages was experienced. At last, amid storm, darkness and chilling rain, they found a small island within the entrance of a harbor. A rocky promon- tory promised a firm place of landing. But the next day was 1 Bancroft, I. 309. Derry's U. S., 35. = Bancroft, I. 309, 310. The Coniing of the Puritans. 105 Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. True to their principles, and to the teachings of Nicholas Bownd, an eminent clergyman of the Anglican church, to whose sound doctrine King James had in vain opposed his " Book of Sports " for Sunday, the colonists re- mained quietly on Clark's Island all day, and engaged in prayer and worship/ The next day, Monday, the i ith of December, 1620 (old style), they landed on Plymouth Rock. Captain John Smith had already given the name to this locality and made it permanent in his map. The settlers gladly adopted it, because it recalled kindness they had received at Plymouth in England. They knelt in gratitude and adoration, although the heavens were yet black \vith the storms of wnnter. One of the most gifted of England's poets has described the scene in well-known words, from which we extract a single stanza : "Amidst the storm thej^ sang, And the stars heard and the sea; And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang With the anthem of the free." They began to build as soon as possible ; but the w^ork went on slowly, for many were sick and feeble, and some were near to death. But death had no terrors for them ; it was but the entrance to the heavenly rest. Duty was their watchw^ord, and with short intervals of sunshine between showers of sleet and snow, they con- tinued to build. On the 3d of Ivlarch, 1621, a south wind brought warm and fair weather. " The birds sang in the woods most pleasantly." But the mortality went on until the spring was far advanced ; then it ceased. Forty-four out of the hundred who landed had died, and among them the governor, John Carver, his wife and son. It was afterwards a subject of devout gratitude that of the survivors very many lived to extreme old age.^ Wishing to conceal their weakened condition from the Indians, the colonists leveled all the graves, and planted Indian corn over the places where their dead were buried. Even with the return of health, hardships and privation con- tinued. The same unfortunate policy of community as to land, which had afflicted the Virginia colony, was tried at Plymouth, and with the same result. The historian Winslow says : "I have seen men stagger by reason of faintness for want of food." They were once saved from famine by the kindness of fishermen off the 1 Sabbath Essays, Oct. :S79, pp. 5, 176, 177. ^Bancroft, I. 314. Eggleston's Household U. S., 39. io6 A History of the United States of A??ierica. coast. Sometimes they were oppressed by exorbitant charges for food made by the ships that visited them. In the autumn of 1621, a ship came in with more Puritan emigrants, and so unprovided with stores that the whole colony subsisted for six months on half allowance. For several inonths they had no corn. When visited by friends, all a family could offer was a lobster or a piece of fish M^ith a cup of spring water. ^ Yet they bore all their hardships with patience and cheerfulness. In the spring of 1623, it was agreed that each family should have its own land, and plant for itself. After the harvest of that year there was no general scarcity of food. Under the influence of industry and good morals, the colony grew slowly, but surely, in numbers and wealth. During their darkest and most trying seasons these pilgrims bore themselves with unyielding courage and resignation. John Robinson, the minister of Scrooby, had remained with the part of his flock in Holland, and he died there. The presbyter Brew- ster was the religious teacher of the Plymouth settlers. It is re- lated of him that when he had nothing for the dinner of himself and his family except a few clams and some cold water, he would cheerfully give thanks that they were " permitted to suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sand." ^ Whatever may have been the errors and shortcomings of such a people, they were worthy, by their virtues, to take part in the moulding of a great nation. Two monuments have been raised to them which will endure : one is the poem of Felicia Hemans ; the other is a material structure of New England granite, eighty feet in height, erected in Plymouth.* The corner-stone was laid August 2d, 1859, and the monument was completed and dedicated August ist, 1889, amid general rejoicings and in the presence of a multitude gathered from all parts of the United States. On the sides of the pedestal are carved the names of the passengers in the Mayjlovoer^ and also scenes in alto rilievo representing Rev. John Robinson's prayer at their departure from Delft Haven, the signing of the compact in the cabin of the ship, the landing on Plymouth Rock, and the treaty made between the pilgrims and the Indian chief Massasoit. On four projecting bases are seated allegorical figures, each nine feet high, representing Morality, Education, Law and Freedom. But towering above these, rises from the pedestal a noble figure, representing Christian Faith, carved in solid granite and thirty-six feet in height, with one hand uplifted and the other holding a copy of the Holy Scrip- 1 Bancroft, I. 315. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 55. 2 Eggleston's Household TT. S., 41. 3 Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Aug. 1889. Phila. Pres., Aug. 10, 1889. The Coiiiliig of the Puritans. 107 tures. On the front panel of the monument is this inscription : " National Alonument to Forefathers, erected by a grateful peo- ple, in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty." This claim is, in a large measure, founded in truth ; but it would have been better for the country and the vs^orld if these forefathers had learned all that civil and religious liberty demanded before they reached the rock of Plymouth. That lesson the vv^orld had not yet learned. CHAPTER XIV. Massachusetts Colony. IT was fortunate that, for some years, the feeble colony at Ply- mouth were not attacked by Indians. A pestilence among the savages of that region had been so fatal some years before that it had been deserted, and was regarded by them with superstitious dread. ^ In March, 162 1, A\^hile many of the colonists were yet sick, and among them Governor Carver and his family, they were surprised by a loud salutation froni an Indian, Samoset, w^ho shouted, " Wel- come, Englishmen ! Welcome, Englishmen ! " He had learned a little English from fishermen and traders on the coast. He wore little clothing, except a leathern belt and a skirt. But he was tall and well-shaped, with coal-black hair and piercing eyes. He was of the strong tribe of Wampanoags, and bade the settlers w^elcome, because, as he told them, the pestilence had killed or driven away all the Indians. It was now that the Indian who had been kidnaped by Hunt, and w^ho had returned somewhat christianized from Spain and England, acted as interpreter.^ The settlers were informed that Massasoit, the chieftain of the whole tribe, was coming to visit them. Feeble as he was, Governor Carver met them with as much of display, wnth flags, drums and trumjoets, as he could muster. Food was furnished, and the Indian chief drank so freely of the " strong v^^ater " offered by the AA^hites that it made him " sweat all the while." ' Nevertheless, a fair treaty of amity and peace Avas concluded, which was faithfully kept for fifty years, and which did much to save the Plymouth colony. This treaty was as good for the Indians as for the whites. The Narragansetts, a strong tribe in- habiting a part of what is now Rhode Island, made war on Mas- sasoit, and some hard fighting took place. The white settlers in- terfered and so influenced the Narragansetts that they made peace and agreed to be friendly. iBarnes' U. S., 54. Derry's U. S., 3G. = Bancroft, I. 317. 3Goodrich's U. S., C5. [ loS ] AfassacJiicsetts Colony. 109 But they did not remain quiet long. Carver died about the last of March, and William Bradford, who afterwards wrote the early history of the colony, became governor, and continued in office for about forty years. He was a firm, yet prudent, man. All the colonists were not peaceful spirits. The first duel in North America occurred at this time, the two duellists being ser- vants in the Plymouth settlement. Each was armed with sword and dagger ; but neither was killed. They w^ere tried for their ofience by the whole colony sitting as a democratic court of jus- tice. They were found guilty, and sentenced to be publicly tied together, neck and heels, for twenty-four hours, without food or drink. ^ Had punishment like this continued to be steadily in- flicted in cases of duelling in America, it is probable that the practice would have been suppressed, and the lives of Alexander Hamilton and Stephen Decatur w^ould not have been sacrificed to a false god of pseudo-honor. Miles Standish, "the best linguist" and the best soldier among the colonists, was appointed commancfer of their military forces, and pi'oved himself brave and able.^ He never joined the church, but he loved it and fought for it. In September, 1622, Canonicus, a sachem of the Narragansetts, sent to Plymouth, as a preliminary declaration of war, a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake. Governor Brad- ford, knowing that the savages had then no fire-arms, caused the skin to be filled with powder and bullets, and returned it to Ca- nonicus. The \vary chieftain took the hint, and w^as glad to make a treaty of peace. ^ Yet the pilgrims needed ceaseless watchfulness and preparation to fight. They went armed to church, and stationed a guard. They knew what human nature uninfluenced by Divine grace was capable of. Had they been more distrustful of their own know- ledge of what God had revealed, it would have been well. Their sermons v\^ere not approved unless hours in length. They con- tinued the habit of the English Puritans, and gave to their chil- dren, male and female, names taken from the Old Testament, or else names made up of several words expressive of their beliefs, such as " Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith White,'''' and "Faint-not Hewittr In 1622, incited by desires for profitable fur-trade, a company of adventurers obtained a patent from the Plymouth Company in England, and under this sixty men went over in 1623 and settled 1 Goodrich's U. S., 65, 66. - Bancroft, I. 306. 3 Barnes' U. S., 55. Derry, 37. Holmes, 43. no A History of the United States of America. near Weymouth the first plantation in Boston harbor. They were all single men, and boasted of their superiority over the weak colony at Plymouth, %vhich contained \vomen and children. But they ^vere soon dependent on the older settlement for the ne- cessaries of life, and finally for protection against savage at- tacks. Their want of thrift brought want of food, and Plvmouth fed them. Their insolence and injustice provoked the Indians. A plot was formed for their destruction ; but Massasoit revealed it to the pilgrims. Miles Standish marched with eight armed men, and fell upon the hostile Indians with such suddenness and skill that they were instantly routed %vith severe loss.^ Some of the Weymouth settlers joined the pilgrims ; others went back to England. The settlement was abandoned. Thus the colony that had ^vomen and children proved itself to be brave and strong. It will always be so. Yet the Plvmouth colony, in ten years, had barelv a population of three hundred souls." Massasoit and the friendly Indians had taught them how to plant and fertilize, at tRe same time, Indian corn by putting one or two decayed fish into the com hills. They got cows and milk in 1633. and raised vegetables ; but their fisheries ^vere their chief source of supply. This settlement, though \veak, was indus- trious and virtuous : they \vere free from the %vorst vices of intol- erance and persecution, which soon appeared among their Puritan brethren of the Massachusetts Bay colony, to "vvhose life we must now attend. The hopes of the Puritans in England were still turned to\vards the New World. After some preliminary voyages and settle- ments for fishing and trade, a charter was obtained from King Charles I. ©n the 4th IMarch, 1629, under which a governor, deputy and eighteen assistants -were to be annuallv elected bv the stock- holders, and four times a year, or oftener if desired, a general as- sembly of the freemen was to be held, invested with powers of legislation, inquest and superintendence.^ There ^vas no express guaranty of religious libert}'. Xo la%vs nor ordinances repugnant to the laws and statutes of England were to be passed, and there -was an express concession of the power to administer the " oath of supremacv." ' Yet the charter ■was granted to Puritans, and was so certainly intended to favor their wishes as to colonization that, in 1662. Charles II. declared officially, probably with the assent of Clarendon, that " the prin- ciple and foundation of the charter of Massachusetts were the free- dom of liberty of conscience." * 1 Derrys r. 8., 37. Goodrich's r. S., 70, 71. * Swinton's Cond. U. S., 40. 'Bancroft, I. 342. * Hutch. Collec., 378. Bancroft, I. 344. Massachusetts Colony. 1 1 1 Under these auspices large numbers of Puritans of all classes embarked for America, and settled at Salem and Boston, on Masr sachusetts Bay. Boston was described as then " having sweet and pleasant springs and good lands affording rich corn fields and fruitful gardens." Many of the families had been accustomed to plenty and ease, the refinements of cultivated life and the conve- niences of luxury. Yet now they encountered all the hardships of a New England settlement. Before December, 1639, at least two hundred had died. Yet the survivors bore their lot with courage ; " the general distress did but augment the piety and con- firm the fortitude of the colonists." John Winthrop was governor, and showed himself to be pos- sessor of those high qualities of head and heart which have since adorned many bearing his name in New England. About a thou- sand colonists had come out with him ; yet such was the scarcity of food sometimes that, when Winthrop's last bread was in the oven, he divided all the flour he had among the needy. That very day a ship load of provisions arrived. Winthrop dressed plainly, di'ank little except water, and worked among his servants with his own hands. He was truly magnanimous. When one of the leading men in the colony wrote him an angry letter he sent it back, saying that he " was not willing to keep by him such a prov- ocation to ill feeling." The writer of the letter was gained, and answered, "Your overcoming yourself has overcome me."^ This great and good man was almost continuously governor till he died in 1649. His son of the same name inherited his virtues, and was afterwards the first Governor of Connecticut. Between the years 1630 and 1640 not less than twenty thou- sand persons are supposed to have come to New England.^ They were nearly all Puritans, fleeing from the continued oppres- sion of the mother country, and hoping to find religious freedom in the New World. It seems strange that it should not have oc- curred to them that the true teachings of Holy Scripture, accord- ing to the analogy of faith, required them to grant the same free- dom of conscience and conduct to others that they claimed for themselves. But this had not then been learned. Already the slavery of written and printed articles and creeds of religion had been established. Believing themselves and their interpretation of Holy Scripture to be infallibly right, they believed those who differed from them to be wrong, and they held it to be their sol- emn duty to refuse toleration and permission to live among them to those who diflfered from them in religious belief and prac- 1 Eggleston's Household U. S., 44. 2 lud., 44, 45. 112 A History of the United States of America. tice. Thus they repeated the exact sin of the Roman church, which most needed reform, and against which the Reformation and its adherents had most earnestly and conscientiously protested. Some of the settlers in Massachusetts thought they could find better lands. In i635-'36, under the leadership of a great di- vine named Thomas Hooker, they passed through the unbroken woods to the Connecticut river, and settled the towns of Wind- sor, Wethersfield and Hartford. There were already trading posts on this fine river ; but the emigration of Hooker and his tricnds was the true beginning of the colony of Connecticut. In 163S a colony was planted near New Haven by Puritans under the lead of John Davenport. In 1665 it was united with Connecticut.' We have seen that as early as 1607 a feeble attempt at settle- ment on the Atlantic coast of Maine had been made by George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert. Much confusion as to titles in New Hampshire and Maine has arisen from the various and ap- parently conflicting grants riiade by the Plymouth Company in England ; but the skill and industry of a modern historian have, to a great extent, reconciled them and removed obscurity. On the loth of August, 1632, the Plymouth Company (of which the Duke of Lenox was then the head) granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason all their title and rights (vmder the royal charter of November 3d, 1620) in a district of country certainly embracing a large part of New Hampshire, but not de- signated in the grant as Laconia. The title given is " The Pro- vince of Maine." On the 37th of November, 1639, the company made to them another grant of a district designated as Laconia. But under the first grant two settlements were made v»'hich be- came permanent, and which are certainly within the present limits of New Hampshire. They were, one near the mouth of Piscata- qua river, and near the present town of Portsmouth ; the other higher up the same river. The first was called " Strawberry Bank" or "Mason Hall," from the principal house in it, which was erected by Captain Mason ; the other was called " Dover," and still bears that name. Both of these settlements were made in 1633. On the 7th of November, 1639, (after these settlements were made.) John Mason obtained from the Plymouth Company a grant for a district including these settlements; and the name of New Hampshire was given to the whole district thus granted." The two settlements grew gradually, but no new settlements were attempted for several j'-ears. In the -winter of 163^— '36, 1 Household U. S., 45. a A. H. Stephens' Comp. Hist, of U. S., 69, 70. J\IassarJ///srffs Colon i 13 John Mason died. He was the founder of New Hampshire. For many years no one claimed his proprietary rights ; the col- ony was neglected and made little progress. In 1638, Exeter was settled by John Wheelwright and his fol- lowers, compelled to leave ^lassachusetts on account of religious differences. Under like circumstances Hampton w^as settled in 1640 by Stephen Batcheler and a few adherents.^ Dover, Exeter, Hampton and Portsmouth (Strawberry Bank) were each governed by its own laws and recognized no other au- thority ; but about 1641 jMassachusetts began to claim jurisdiction over these communities in New Plampshire. This dispute, be- tween the government of Massachusetts Bay and the proprietary claiming under John Mason, was brought to iinal adjudication in England in 1679, and was justly decided against the claims of jMassachusetts. But during all this time the colony of New Hampshire re- mained almost stationary. It grew very slowly both in numbers and wealth. In 16:^3 the whole population did not exceed one thousand. Yet, though small in quantity, they were high in quality. They were known for sterling virtue and warm love of liberty. The veiy air from their White Mountains seemed to in- spire them with patriotism. They were to take their part in he- roic scenes. We return now to the Puritan government and to the cases of Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams and others — cases which are the beacon lights of the history of Massachusetts. But it is important in advance to state that Roger Williams w^as not the father of religious liberty in America. Several years before he began his teachings in favor of freedom of conscience in Salem, George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) and his sons, Cecil and Leonard Calvert, had obtained from Charles I. the patent under which the colony of Maryland was settled. And in this colony, as early as 1634, the fundamental oath of the governor was in these words : " I will not, by myself or anv othei-, directly or indirectly, molest any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of religion." ^ This was going as far as any Christian could go for religious liberty ; for heathen religious rites and practices were constantly so horrible and destructive to morality that Christian governments were obliged by duty to for- bid them. The Maiyland constitutions gave entii'e religious free- dom to all who came in good faith to settle thei-e ; vet these con- 1 A. H. Stephens' Comp. Hist, of U. S.,71. ■-Chalmers' Amer. Colon., 235. McMahon, 22G. Bancroft, I. 248. S 114 ^ History of the United States of America. stitutions were given by men who conscientiously adhered to the Roman church. They knew all the history of that church, and how grossly she had, in many instances, in past ages violated the principles of religious freedom ; but they regarded such viola- tions as departures from the true principles of their church, which they held to be founded on the inspired teachings of prophets and apostles ; and they had seen and felt the bitterness of suffering coming from the religious intolei-ance of the established church in England and in the Virginia colony. Thus they had learned wisdom, and profited by her lessons. The same lessons might have been learned by Puritans in Massachusetts and by bigots and re- ligious persecutors in Virginia, had they been as apt and docile scholars. Therein lay the difference. CHAPTER XV. Anxe Hutchinson. — Roger Williams. — Qiiakers. THE colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth continued to prosper, and to sjDread their influence and power within tlieir territorial limits. The Plymouth colony never succeeded in obtaining a charter from the king ; but their two charters from the Plymouth Company in England — one granted in 163 1 by the influence of Gorges, and the other in 1633 by negotiation of their skillful agent, Allerton — gave them all they desired in territory and right. ^ In a few yeax's flourishing settlements existed not only at Bos- ton, Charlestown, Salem and Plymouth, but in and around the sites of Dorchester, Roxbury, Cambridge, Lynn and Watertown. Settlers had also passed into the province of Maine. These were not religious refugees, but men of rugged and vigorous en- terprise, who went to engage in the fisheries, the trade with the Indians, and the cutting of timber. This " District of Maine," as it was called, suffered some disorders of government until it was, by charter, annexed to the colony of Massachusetts in 1692. It remained a part of Massachusetts until it was admitted as one of the United States in 1830.^ The growth of the Puritan colonies alarmed Charles I. and his ministei-s. Archbishop Laud was placed at the head of a coin- mission for the government of New England. Restrictive mea- sures to check emigration were adopted. It is believed that, un- der these, Oliver Ci-omwell and John Hampden were prevented from coming out to Massachusetts.^ Was there a " divinity shap- ing these ends " and driving Charles to his fate and England into freedom ? From 1630 the Massachusetts Bay colony enjoyed self-govern- ment in consequence of the transfer of the charter and powers of government from England to the colony. But state and church were closely united. Freemen only could vote, and all freemen were required to be members of the church.* 1 Bancroft, I. C20. 2 Eggleston's Household U. S., 4G. s Holmes' U. S., 45. 4 Swinton's Cond. U. S., 43. Bancroft, I. 360. [ ii.S ] ii6 A History of the United States of America. In 1693, after retaining its independent government for seventy- two years, and attaining a population of eight thousand, the Plymouth colony was, by order of the English crown, united with the Massachusetts Bay colony ; but meantime important events had occxirred affecting the lives of both. On the 1 8th of September, 1634, one Anne Hutchinson, with her husband, came to Boston from England. She greatly ad- mired John Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, as preachers. She had already excited attention by her vivacity, her knowledge of Scripture, and the peculiar and disorganizing doc- trines she professed to draw therefrom. These doctrines were of the kind known as antinotnian. She taught that the Holy Spirit in miraculous personality dwelt in every true believer, and that the inward revelations of this Spirit, inciting the conscious judg- ments of the mind, gave infallibly the rule of conduct. Thus she dispensed with the written law as the rule of action.^ She organized meetings of women, and soon had many follow- ers in the colony. Among them were the young governor, Sir Harry Vane, the ministers Cotton and Wheelwright, and all the Boston members except five. But the stanch John Endicott, the assistant pastor Wilson, and the country clergymen generally were opposed to her and her teachings. Two factions were formed, and their contests affected the col- ony very seriously, extending even to the levy of troops for war with the Indians, the distribution of town lots, and the assess- ment of taxes.'' At length " the continued existence of the two opposing parties was considered inconsistent with the public peace." An ecclesiastical synod at Newtown, August 30, 1637, condemned eighty-two tenets, and among them all those held by Anne Hutchinson. She was summoned before the general court, and, after a trial of two days, she and some of her co-religionists were sentenced to banishment from the territory of Massachusetts ; but she was permitted to remain during the winter at a private residence in Roxbury, Joining many of her friends, she went first with them, under the lead of John Clarke and William Coddington, to the island of Aquetneck, subsequently known as Rhode Island. It had been obtained from the Narragansett Indians by the influence of Roger Williams ; and there a body politic was formed on democratic principles, in which no one was to be " accounted a delinquent ' Art. Anne Hutchinson, Amer. Encyclop., IX. 396. - Bancroft, in Art. Anne Hutchinson, Am. Encyclop., IX. 396. Roger Williams. 117 for doctrine." Her husband died in 1642. She then removed with her surviving family to the neighborhood of Hell Gate, in Westchester county, New York. This was under Dutch power, and she evidently thought herself safer than within a region which Massachusetts might possibly claim. But war was then raging between the Dutch and the Indians ; and the savages attacked her residence, set fire to her house, and she and all her family perished, except one child, who was carried into captivity.^ Even if Anne Hutchinson's doctrines were heretical and inju- rious, it would have been best to leave them to the correction of counter scriptural truth, rather than resort to persecution and banishinent. Her history and fate leave a dark stain on Massa- chusetts. The treatment of Roger Williams was worse still. He was a well-born and well-educated minister of the Anglican church, born in Wales in 1606. His instincts were deeply religious and Christian. When sixty years old he said : " From my childhood the Father of lights touched my soul with a love to himself, to his only begotten the true Lord Jesus, and to his Holy Scrip- tures." In his youth his readiness at short-hand reports of ser- mons and speeches in the Star Chamber attracted the favorable regard of Sir Edward Coke, who helped him in his education. He studied law, though he never came to the bar. He was at Oxford University, and logic and the classics, paramount in the studies there, left their traces deeply on his mind. He had a good acquaintance with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and Dutch languages. John Milton, secretary of the council, was his friend. He took orders in the church prior to 1630, but soon found that the creed, liturgy and vestments did not suit him. At the close of 1630 he embarked for America, arriving in Boston February 5, 1631, accompanied by his wife.^ He was admired for his zeal and directness in preaching, but soon incurred the hostility of the authorities by his religious opinions, and especially by denying that the civil magistrates had any power or authority except in purely civil matters. This tenet, which has since become the foundation rock of liberty in the United States, was highly repulsive to the Puritans of New England. He went to Salem, and soon became assistant pastor of Skelton, well known there. The Boston authorities followed him up with opposition on the ground above stated, and also that he " had refused to join the congregation at Boston because they lArt. Anne Hutchinson, New Amer. Encyclop., IX. 396. 2:Art. Roger Williams, New Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 445. xi8 A History of the United States of America. would not make a public declaration of their repentance for ha\ ing communed with the churches in England." ^ If this was a true charge, it was a departure from the liberality of sentiment distinguishing Roger Williams. His objections to the Anglican church were, that it was composed indiscriminately of pious and worldly men, and that it assumed authority over the conscience and was a persecutoi'. These objections were only too M^ell founded ; but they were not sufficient to make it sinful to commune with that church. Persecution soon commenced in Salem, and Williams sadly i"e- tired to Plymouth. Here he was kindly received, and for tvv^o years was assistant of the pastor, Ralph Smith. He then, by in- vitation, resumed his ministry in Salem, succeeding Skelton as pastor. He preached what he believed, and his beliefs, although in accord with the highest teachings of Scripture and reason, did not suit the authorities of Massachusetts. He had called in ques- tion the right of either the king or the colony or the people of the colony to take and appropriate the lands of the Indians with- out paying adequate compensation for them ; and also the right of the civil power to impose faith and worship on any man. For these opinions, openly taught by him, the general court of the colony, late in the autumn of 163=^, pronounced sentence of banishment against him. The order was that " the said Mr. Wil- liams shall depart out of this jurisdiction within six weeks now next ensuing, which if he neglect to perform, it shall be lawful for the governor and tvv^o of the magistrates to send him to some place out of this jurisdiction, not to return any more without license from the court." ^ The time for his departure was extended to the coming spring. But his doctrines were taking root and spreading in many candid minds. It was determined, therefore, to send him back to Eng- land. A small vessel was dispatched to Salem for the purpose. But Williams got notice in some way, and when the vessel arrived was beyond their reach. In midwinter, abandoning friends and family, " sorely tossed for fourteen weeks, not knowing what bread or bed did mean," he plunged into the wilderness and lite- rally " steered his course " for the shores of the Narragansett. Purchasing of the Indian Ousamequin lands on the eastern shore of Seekonk river, he had planted his corn for the season, w^hen, ascertaining that he was still ^vithin the bounds of the Plyinouth grants, he felt impelled to move again. Accompanied by five companions, he embarked in a canoe, proceeded down the stream, 1 Art. Roger Williams, Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 445, 446. "^Ihid., p. 446. Roger IVillianis. 119 turned the extremity of the peninsula, and ascended the Connec- ticut river to a spot which tradition has consecrated as his land- ing. His own words describe his acts : " I, having made covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all the sachems and nations round about us, and having, of a sense of God's merciful provi- dence unto me in my distress, called the place Providence, I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for con- science." ^ This was in 1636. Here was the genesis of the State of Rhode Island. Here was the second colony planted in America, in which religious liberty was the primitive condition of settlement. Roger Williams was the fast friend of the Indians. He trav- eled and visited so niuch among them that he acquired a know- ledge of their languages, w^hich enabled him afterwards to w^rite a valuable work, entitled a " Key into the Languages of America," including, also, accounts of the manners, habits, law^s and religion of the Indian tribes. Such was his influence with them that when, in 1637, the Pequot Indians began a war with the whites, and sought the strong alliance of the Narragansetts, Williams, to save the lives of some of the very men who had persecuted him, set out in a storm and paddled many weary miles to the Narra- gansett settlements to urge them not to join in the war against the colonists. Here he met the Pequot emissaries, and his life was in danger. But by his earnest arguments the Narragansetts were convinced, and refused to go to war.' During all this time Williams had not taken the name of " Baptist " upon him. It is probable that he admired and sym- pathized with the life and teachings of John Smyth, the leader of the " General Baptists " in England, who, finding the laws and policy of the reign of James I. ungenial, retired to Holland and became the influential pastor of " the Second English Church " at Amsterdam. Smyth was baptized by immersion ; by whom is not known — some say, by himself.^ At Amsterdam he, with Thomas Helwys, published a " Confession of Faith " in twenty- six articles, one of which contained a definite claim of religious freedom. He was a graduate and fellow of Cambridge, and a fine scholar, as well as a man of incorruptible integrity, beautiful humility, and glowing charity.* He died in 1613. In 1639, Roger Williams was immersed by Ezekiel Holliman, a layman without sacred orders of any kind. Then Williams baptized by immersion Holliman and ten other persons. Thus 1 Gammell, 1846 ; Elton, 1852. Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 446. 2 Quackenbos' U. S., 89. 3 Art. John Smyth, Schaff-HerzoK Encyclop., III. 2202. *Schaff-Herzog Encyclop., III. 2202. I20 A m story of the United States of America. the Baptist churches took their origin in the United States. In 1643, Williams obtained a charter for Rhode Island from the English Parliament. He died in his colony in 1683, in the seventy-seventh year of his age,^ The island itself had been named by the Dutch Rood Eylandt from its reddish appearance. Hence the name of the colony and the State. Continuity of impression demands that this subject shall be carried further. The " Qiiakers " (or "Friends," as they more appropriately style themselves) began their career in England in 1647. Their tenets have been fully made known, and were never a just ground for persecution. Among them the belief in the indwelling and enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, and in perfect freedom of conscience and religious life, were prominent. If some of their private members indulged themselves in extrav- agances and vagaries, persecution of the sect and all its adherents was not the proper remedy. In 1656, the Qiiakers first appeared in Boston, New England. They began immediately to preach against a paid clergy, civil oaths, war and military service, the visible sacraments of the church, the right of magistrates to govern in religious matters, and other beliefs held by the colonists. Provoking as all this was, it might not have led to active persecution had it not been attended by indecorums and indecencies of private "Friends," which called for correction, and which seemed to indicate that the system of faith leading to such practices was unsound at its core. In 1658, a furious fanatic of this sect, named Fanlord, was preparing to shed the blood of his own son, when the cries of the unhappy boy attracted neighbors, who seized the arm of this man. Another, enacting his idea of Jeremiah and his symbols, burst in upon an assembled congregation, and striking violently together two bottles held in his hands, shattered them in frag- ments, crying out : " Thus will the Lord break you in pieces." A Quaker woman, having spread coal dust over her face, exhib- ited herself to amazed spectators as a sign of some hideous disease that was soon to beset them. Another woman came into a church in a state of perfect nudity, and exhorted the people to look upon her as a sign of the unhappy condition of their own naked souls. A similar exhibition occurred in Salem ; and in a southern colony it is related that a Quaker walked naked through the streets of a town for several days as a sign of the times?' ' Amer. Encvclop., XVI. 445-447. 2 Thalheimer's Eclectic U. S., 59, 60. Grahame's Amer. Colon. Hist., I. 306,;307, note IX., I. 461. Quakers. 121 We need not wonder that the Puritan spirit was moved to stern measures. There was no special statute against Qiiakers ; but, under the general law against heresy, in July, 16:^6, when Mary Fisher and Anne Austin appeared in the road before Boston and began to testify, their trunks were searched, and their books were burned by the hangman ; their bodies were examined in search of signs of witchcraft, and after five weeks of close imprisonment they were thrust out of the jurisdiction. Eight others, during the same year, v^^ere sent back to England. The next year a statute was enacted for their punishment, and a Quaker woman who "came all the way from London to warn the magistrates against persecution" was whipped with twenty stripes. Some who had been banished came again. They were imprisoned, whipped, and sent away, under penalty of more severe punishment if they returned. A fine was imposed on any person for entertaining or receiving into his house any '* of the accursed sect." A Quaker after the first conviction was to lose one ear ; after the second, the other ; after a third, his tongue was to be bored with a red-hot iron. Finally the death penalty was denounced in case of repeated return, and under this law, in vSep- tember and October, 16^9, four persons — three men and one woman — were hanged.' The cruelty of the persecutors was only equaled by the persis- tency of the persecuted. It has ever been so v^^ith persecution on account of religion. Conscience, whether good or evil, is felt to be too precious and sacred to submit to repression by violence. Had the Qiiakers who came to Massachusetts been left to them- selves, their false fires would speedily have burned themselves out, and their true fires would have remained to bless that part of America, as they have blessed other parts, with religious free- dom and a pure morality. And when we compare the results of persecution in America with those in Europe under the doctrines of the Roman church, and the secular governments upholding them, we will have no difficulty in discovering that already the passage across the Atlantic had cleansed the colonists of the sin of persecution. Under Charles V. the number of persons who were hanged, beheaded, buried alive, or burned for religious opinion and pro- fession, in the Netherlands alone, amounted to fifty thousand according to Fra Paolo, and Grotius estimates those thus put to • 1 Bancroft, I. 452-157, 122 A History of the United States of America. death in that country under Philip II. at one hundred thou- sand.' The government of Massachusetts was ashamed of the laws for mutilation, and they were not printed.^ Soon they were repealed, and persecution gradually ceased. Happy has it been for America that this lesson has been learned at so small a cost of human life and suffering. 1 Sarpi, Istoria del Concil., Trid. L. v. Grotius, Aunales. Bancroft, I. 455. 2 Bancroft, I. 453. CHAPTER XVI. Connecticut. — Alleged Blue Laws. — New York. CONNECTICUT was settled almost entirely from Massachu- setts. In 1635 the inovement began. About sixty men, women and children set out with their faces westward. They were guided by the compass and the sun and stars. They drove their cattle before them. After fourteen days of toilsome jour- neying, through almost unbroken forests, they reached the Con- necticut [lon^ river), and settled the town of Windsor. In 1636 came other pioneers, under Thomas Hooker, of whom we have spoken. Some of them joined the settlers at Windsor ; others settled Hartford and Wethersfield. But the Dutch claimed Connecticut, and were there before the settlers from ISIassachusetts. The Dutch claim had no sound basis, for the territory was included in the original grants to the Plymouth ComjDany.^ In 1633 some Dutch traders from New Netherlands (now New York) came to the mouth of the Connecticut, and established a fortified trading-post on the river, near where Hartford no\v stands. It was commanded by a brave Hollander, Van Curler, and was called " Good Hope." But in the same year came a party of bold traders from the Plymouth colony. They entered the river, and disregarding pe- remptory commands to stop, seconded by several badly-aimed shots, they sailed by and ^vent up as far as Windsor, v\^here they built a trading-house. The Dutch soon found their post as un- tenable as their claims. Nevertheless, contests — sometimes of words, sometimes of blows — went on for years between the Dutch and the pilgrims of Connecticut, which have been ge- nially if not truthfully presented in Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York. In 1630 the Plvmouth Company granted the soil of Connecti- cut to the Earl of Warwick. In 1633 the Earl ceded his rights to Lord Say-and-Sele and Lord Brooke and others as a corpora- tion. 1 Swinton's Cond. U. S., 48. A. H. Stephens' U. S., 7-1. t 123 J 134 A History of the United States of America. They did not disturb the Puritan settlers, but sent out John Win- throp, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, with direc- tions to build a fort at the mouth of the river. This was called Saybrook. In 1644 they united with the Connecticut colony. In 1637, John Davenport, a London clergyman, and his friend Theophilus Eaton, a rich merchant, with some associates, arrived in Boston. They were liberal non-conformists, and finding the religious atmosphere of Boston ungenial, they moved farther west. In the spring of 1638 they landed on the shores of a beau- tiful bay, and founded New Haven. Eaton was annually elected governor for more than twenty years. ^ Here, in 1700, originally as "the Collegiate School of the Col- ony of Connecticut," was founded Yale College, which has sent forth many brilliant graduates in science and literature. In 1639 the settlements on the river held a convention at Hartford, and adopted a very liberal constitution and form of government. In 1662, Charles II., moved by John Winthrop, Jr., granted to Con- necticut a free and advantageous charter ; and in 1665 the three distinct centres of settlement, known as the Connecticut, Say- brook and New Haven, were united in one colony, which was afterwards a State. ^ Connecticut was disturbed early in her life by a war with the Pequot Indians, already alluded to, and of which a farther account will be given when we give the history of the early Indian wars. But her course was onward and upward. The influence of such men as Hooker, Davenport, Eaton and Winthrop was felt for centuries ; in fact, it has never ceased. Education, in all its forms, and especially the higher literary and scientific forms, has been sedulously sought by her. To this favorable view an exception has long been taken in some minds by reason of a code of conduct known as the " Blue Laws," attributed to the settlement in and around New Haven while it enjoyed separate powers. But as a historical fact, no such code of public laws ever ex- isted. The idea which gave birth to this title, as a name of ridi- cule or reproach, has been traced to the times of the Charles Kings and Oliver Cromwell, of England, when all who disap- proved the licentiousness of the court and cavaliers were called "blue." In Hudibras this epithet is explained thus : " For his religion, it was fit To match his learning and his wit; 'Twas Presbyterian true bine.'" 1 A. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 75. = Swinton's Cond. U. S., 49. Allesred Blue Lazvs. 125 The notion of the code of " Blue Laws " attributed to Connec- ticut originated in a false and maligning work, written and pub- lished in England in 1781 by one Samuel Peters, born in Connec- ticut in 1735. He graduated at Yale College in 1757, became a clergyman of the Church of England, and in 1762 took charge of the Episcopal churches in Hartford and Hebron. Being a Tory of the most odious type, he was forced to fly to England in 1774 ; and there, in order to wreak his revenge, he wrote and published his work under the title, "A General History of Connecticut." This work has long been recognized as unhistorical, and has been in modern times, with apparent justice, spoken of as " the most unscrupulous and malicious of lying narratives."^ The falsehoods of Samuel Peters as to the alleged " Blue Laws" were all the more indicative of malice prepense, because the truth on the subject had been made public fifteen years before he wrote his work. Judge Smith, of New York, had made a special search in New Haven for these laws, or any trace of them, or any evidence that they had ever existed. This was in 1767, He found nothing to indicate that they ever had been. The no- tion about them arose from the strictness of observance of what they understood to be scriptural teachings, or inferences from them, held by the more rigid Puritans of New Haven, and ap- plied by them in their families. Some of these private rules of conduct were doubtless exaggerated and perverted views of the inspired teachings. But while they may have been acquiesced in, even to the extent of submitting to private and voluntary fines and other slight penalties for non-observance, they never had any force as public or municipal laws.^ We come now to the New York colony. Henry Hudson, a native Englishman, but in the service of the Dutch East India Company in Holland, had, in 1609, in a ship called the Half Moon^ of ninety tons, entered the broad mouth of the Hudson river, and landed on the island of Manhattan. This word, in Indian parlance, means " the place of drunkenness," and had justly gained its name. When Hudson's ship drew near, the Indians were lost in amazeinent at this floating monster. But when Hudson, dressed in scarlet, landed, they took him to be the great "Manitou " him- self, and received him and his crew with unbounded respect. Hudson ordered a calabash of rum to be brought. After drink- ing some himself he offered it to the chiefs. Each smelled it, 1 Art. Samuel Peters, Appleton's Amer. Encyclop., XIII. 195. 2 New York Hist. Collec, Vol. IV. Amer. Encyclop., XIII. 393, 394. 126 A Histo7-y of the United States of America. and then passed it to the next. But when it came to the last chief he was unwilling to oflend the Manitou ; so he drank freely. He was soon in a hilarious state, and after divers antics he fell to the ground. But he recovered, and gave to his com- rade chiefs such an account of his agreeable sensations and vis- ions that they all desired to drink the " fire water." They all became intoxicated, and in this state Hudson left them.' In the great stretch of water known as the Tappan Sea, above Yonkers, Hudson and his mate, Robert Juet, practiced another peciiliar experiment on the natives. Juet thus narrates it : " Our master and his mate determined to try some of the cheefe men of the country whether they had any treacherie in them. So they took them down into the cabin and gave them so much wine and aqua vitse that they were all very merrie ; one of them had his wife with him, which sate so modestly as any of our country women would do in a strange place. In the end, one of them was drunke ; and that was strange to them, for they could not tell how to take it.'" Such were the scenes with which the discovery and settlement of New York began. But the Dutch settlers gave it a phase of more gravity. Hudson sailed up the river as far as he could safely go, discovering, not indeed the East Indies as he had hoped to do, but a country of great beauty and a soil of boundless fertility. He then returned to Holland, and by his own accounts and those of his mate, Juet, excited much interest in this land thus explored. In the next year, 1610, a trading expedition, sent out by Am- sterdam merchants, came from Holland. They entered Long Island Sound, traded with the natives along the shores and on Mahattan Island, sailed up the Hudson, and established a trading fort near the present site of Albany, which they called Fort Au- rania or Orange.^ They gave the name New Amsterdam to the trading post on the island, and the name New Netherlands to the whole region. But the Dutch were slow in actual settlement. It was several years before they made their first permanent lodgment in the New World. This is supposed to have been on the Jersey shore, in the region afterwards known as Pavonia. It bore the mixed name of Communipaw^. Hither came the ship Gocde Vro?iru, said to have been named in honor of the wnfe of the West India Company's president;* and here the Dutch families built their houses, laid 1 Quackenbos' TJ. S., 78. = Juet's Journal, in Purchas' Pilgrims. Irving's Wolferts Roost, Works, XVI. 12. sirving's Knickerbocker, Works, I. 94. Horace E. Scudder's U. S., 56, 57. * Irving, I. 95-97. Nexv York. 137 out their gardens, and lived in quiet until they removed to the more attractive settlement on Manhattan. Then began the peace- ful and somewhat lazy town, afterwards to expand into the busiest, richest and most populous city of the Western world. Their settlements spread slowly. The four Dutch governors, whose names have become historic, were Peter Minuits, who, in 1626, bought from the Indians the whole island of Manhattan for about twenty-four dollars in barter ; Wouter Van Twiller, who was appointed governor in 1639 by the States-General of the United Netherlands, with the concurrence of the West India Company ; Wilhelmus Kieft (sometimes known as William the Testy, froin his irritable temper), who took the gubernatorial chair in 1634 ; and, finally, Peter Stuyvesant, often called Peter the Headstrong, who commenced his administration on the 29th of May, 1647, soon after the demise of Kieft, who, in 1647, embarked on the ship Pi-incess for Holland, taking with him specimens of what was thought to be gold ore found in the Kaatskill Mountains, and Avas never heai'd of afterwards.' Stuyvesant governed until the Dutch rule was overthrown by the English in 1664, and died in the New York colony in 1683. We have seen that, early in 1614, Captain Samuel Argall, under orders from Governor Thomas Dale of the Virginia colony, sailed north, and after overcoming the French settlement at Port Royal, in Acadia, came down the coast and paid his respects to the Dutch on Manhattan Island. Too weak to resist and too wise to fight, they quietly submitted. The English flag was hoisted, and Argall sailed away ; but hardly was he gone before the Dutch, having received some I'einforcements and having recovered from the alarm, rehoisted the flag of the New Netherlands, and all things were soon /;/ statu quo. The savages gave them more trouble, and with more bloody re- sults. Rum, furnished by the Dutch traders, was the moving cause. Excited to mad intoxication, the Indians committed various trespasses, and the colonists punished them severely. Roused to vengeance, the natives, in 1640, attacked a settlement on Staten Island. The next year a Dutchman was killed on Man- hattan by an Indian, who had vowed indiscriminate revenge for the murder of his uncle ten years before. In 1643 two more col- onists were slain by a Hackensack warrior, who had been first made drunk and then robbed by the whites.^ Satisfaction was demanded ; but the Indians, though willing to pay two hundred 1 Quackenbos' U. S., 93. Irving's Knickerbocker, I. 14G, 207, 203 (note). SQuackenbos' U. S., 96. 128 A History of tlw United States of At?ierica. fathoms of wanipuni, justifiably refused to deliver up their war- rior, on the ground that the Dutch had provoked the act. Just then a band of river Indians, driven by the Mohawks, took refuge on the banks of the Hudson opposite ]Man[iattan, and prayed the help of the Dutch. Instead of granting it, Kieft, the governor, sent an armed force across the river in the dead of night. Thev fell upon the almost helpless Indians and put to death men, women and children. Such as escaped the sword ^vere driven from the cliffs and perished in the freezing water.^ A bloody war was the result of this inhumanitv. The red men assembled for vengeance from the Jersey shoi"e to the Connecticut river. The -whites were slain in numbers wherever they were found. As no mercy had been shown to their women, children, and their aged and helpless ones, the Indians showed no mercy. It Avas at this time that Anne Hutchinson and her family per- ished. Roger Williams, always for peace, persuaded the Indians for a time to bury the tomahawk ; but the war w^as soon renewed, and as the Indian tribes of New York were numerous and warlike, the Dutch might have been exterminated had they not appointed John LTnderhill, a brave New Englander, commander of their forces. He knew how to fight the savages, and by his courage and skill, brought the war to a close." Peter Stuyvesant had distinguished himself in the Dutch wars in the West Indies, and had lost a leg in the attack on the Portu- guese island of St. ISIartin. When he became Governor of New Netherlands, he established a different policy from that of Kieft, He conciliated the Indians by gifts and kindness. He restored order to every department of the government. He met the Nev\' England commissioners at Hartford in 16:^0, and fixed bv definite agreement a line of partition between the Dutch and New Eng- land colonies, thus ending many disputes and contests.^ But he was, with many good qualities, somewhat arbitrary and despotic. Thus was he urged on to claims and deeds which led to the complete overthrow of the Dutch power in North America. » Quackenbos' U. S., 96. 2 Bancroft, II. 292. 3 Art. Stuyvesant, Amer. Encyclop., XV. 148. CHAPTER XVII. Delaware. — New York. — Patroons. THE colony of Delaware, afterwards to become a state, took its name from Lord Dela-ware, who entered, in i6io, the broad bay into which the river, of the same name also, einpties its waters. But Hendrik Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, had entered this same bay in 1609, and had to some extent explored the river and the contiguous country.^ Hence the Dutch government in New Netherlands claimed it ; and the Dutch made the first attempt to settle it. Under the auspices of Van Rensselaer, Godyn, Bloemart and De Laet, men of high character and distinction in Holland, an expedition was sent out from Texel, an island of the Zuyder Zee, and came in May, 1632, to a region of territory of about thirty miles square from Cape Henlopen to the niouth of the Delaware, which Godyn had pre- viously purchased from the Indians.^ De Vries, vs^ho commanded the expedition, was a skillful navi- gator, a good scholar and a devoted Protestant. He planted a little colony of about thirty persons on the soil of Delavi^are, near Le^viston, on the bay. He furnished them with seed, cattle and agricultural implements. Leaving them to their labors, he ascended the Delaware as far as the site of Philadelphia. Fort Nassau had been previously established, but was abandoned. Lewiston w^as the first settlement of Delaware, and came to a sad end. After spending nearly a year in America, De Vries returned to Holland, leaving Osset in command. He had not the rare quali- ties needed to deal with the Indians, and w^as soon involved in bloody contests. At the close of a year De Vries revisited his colony and found nothing but the bones of his countrymen.' Gustavus Adolphus, the most liberal and enlightened of all the Swedish kings, had formed, before his death, a jDlan for planting Swedes and Finns in America. But he fell, a martyr to religious liberty, at the battle of Lutzen in October, 1633, before he could carry out his plans. 1 Art. Delaware, Amer. Encyelop., VI. 347. 2 a. H. Stephens' U. S., 71, 72. 'De Vries' Narrative, in Bancroft, II. 2'52. 9 [ 1^9 ] 130 A History of the United States of America. His minister, Oxenstiern, became his executor in this great scheme. The first permanent settlement of Delaware is due to this serene and large-hearted chancellor. Peter Minuits, the first Governor of New Netherlands, entered into the Swedish plans, and offered his services. Early in 163S, two vessels, the Key of Cahnar and the Grifin, arrived in Delaware Bay, and brought a small body of Swedes and Finns, who purchased lands from the Indians near the mouth of Christiana creek, and established a stronghold, which they called Christiana, in honor of the young girl who was then Queen of Sweden. William Kieft, the third Governor of New Netherlands, failed not to enter against the Swedish occupation a protest, which is still preserved in the records at Albany.' But Sweden was then too formidable to make an attack safe. The country was attrac- tive and fertile. Swedish families came in numbers, and pushed their settlements even to the borders of what is now Philadelphia. The country was called New Sweden. It has never lost traces of its origin. But Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor, was a soldier, and was not a man to permit w^hat he regarded as an encroachment on the territorial rights of Holland. New Netherlands was tenfold more populous than New Sweden. In 165 1, the Dutch built a fort called Casimir, on the present site of New Castle, within five miles of Christiana, near the inouth of the Brandywine.^ Quite naturally, the Swedish governor. Rising, regarded this as a menace. By a union of stratagem and force, he overpow^ered the garrison and took possession of Casimir. But his triumph was brief. Sweden had ceased to be a controlling power, and the Dutch Company fearlessly ordered Governor Stuyvesant to " revenge the wrong, and drive the Swedes from the river, or compel their submission." In 1655, ^^ ^^^^ head of a force of six hundred well-armed soldiers, Stuyvesant invaded New Swe- den, compelled fort after fort to surrender, and obtained the complete submission of Rising, on the honorable terms that the colonists should retain full and undisturbed title and possession of their settlements, provided the jurisdiction of New Netherlands was acknowledged.* Thus New Sweden ended her existence. The Swedes remained, but the Scandinavian government was overthrown. Notwithstanding his military triumph over the Swedes, Gov- ernor Stuyvesant did not find his path a smooth one. The very 1 Albany Records, II. 7, 8. Bancroft, II. 287. » Bancroft, II. 296. A. H. Stephens' U. S., 72. 8 Swedish Records, IV. and V. of Hazard's Hist. Register. JSfeiv York. 131 qualities which made him a good soldier made him a stern and imperious ruler. He yielded reluctantly to every concession in favor of free government claimed by the people, vs^ho were grow- ing fast in numbers and intelligence. In 1653, the persevering and restless exertions of the people had led to the formation of a " General Assembly," composed of two deputies from each settle- ment. Such a body was unknown in the fatherland, and Stuy- vesant looked on it with bitter oj^position, though he took no steps to prevent its assembling.^ This free assembly claimed the right of deliberating on the civil condition of the country. George Baxter, a member, drafted a remonstrance and petition, which was adopted and sent to the governor. It contained in substance the following language : '' The States-General of the United Provinces are our liege lords ; we submit to their laws ; and our rights and privileges ought to be in harmony with those of the fatherland, for we are a member of the state, and not a subjugated people. We, who have come together from various parts of the world, and are a blended com- munity of various lineage ; w^e, vs^ho have, at our own expense, exchanged our native lands for the protection of the United Provinces ; we, who have transformed the wilderness into fruitful farms, demand that no new laws shall be enacted but with con- sent of the people ; that none shall be appointed to office but with the approbation of the people, and that obscure and obsolete laws shall never be revived."'' Stuyvesant was amazed at this free tone. He did not believe in self-government by man. He replied : " Will you set your names to the visionary notions of an Englishinan? Is there none of the Netherland's nation able to draft your petition ? " He commented in caustic terms on the claim that the people should elect their own officers. '' The thief will vote for a thief ; the smuggler for a smuggler ; and fraud and vice will become priv- ileged." But the assembly persisted in their claims, and Stuyvesant, having exhausted his arguments, resorted to an act of arbitrary power. He dissolved the assembly, commanding the members to separate on pain of imprisonment, and writing as to his own powers : " We derive our authority from God and the West India Company, not from the pleasure of a few ignorant subjects."^ The West India Company approved the course of the governor. They wrote to him : " We approve the taxes you propose ; have 1 Landtag, Dutch Records, 2. Stephens, 44. Bancroft, II. 30G. 2 Albany Records, IX. 28-33. Bancroft, II. 306. Stephens, 44, 45. 3 Albany Rec, IX. 38^6. Stephens, 45. Bancroft, II. 307. 132 A History of the United States- of America. no regard to the consent of the people ; let them indulge no longer the visionary dream that taxes can be imposed only with their consent." Thus " Peter the Headstrong " and the Dutch West India Company hastened the downfall of the New Netherlands. The assembly was dispersed, but the people did not forget. England always claimed this land and water occupied by the Dutch settlements. Oliver Cromwell had planned the conquest of the New Netherlands, and in the days of his son Richard the plan was revived. When Charles II. was restored, this became one of his cherished objects. This king was the meanest, most unscrupulous and debauched in character and life, that ever sat on the English throne. With equal indifference to the chartered rights of Connecticut and the peaceful claims and possession of the Netherlands, he granted to the secret papist, his brother James, Duke of York, the country from the Kennebec to the St. Croix, and the whole territory from the Connecticut river to the shores of the Delaware.' Richard Nichols, groom of the bed-chamber to the Duke of York, was commander of the naval and military expedition which in August, 1664, approached the Narrows and quietly cast anchor in Gravesend Bay. Long Island was immediately lost to the Dutch, and occupied by the invaders.^ England and the Netherlands were at peace ; but rumors of the invasion had reached Stuyvesant, and he had made such prep- aration to resist as he could. But his arm was paralyzed by the state of popular feeling in the colony and New Amsterdam. Many of the settlements were of English people. The governor had expressed his fears to his company. " To ask aid of the English villages would be inviting the Trojan horse within our walls. I have not time to tell how the company is cursed and scolded ; the inhabitants declare that the Dutch have never had a right to the country." ^ Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, and Pynchon, as commis- siorier from that vState, had come with the fleet. They had the confidence of the Dutch inhabitants. Nichols demanded a sur- render, but offered the most liberal terms. Stuyvesant w^ould gladly have resisted, but the people were against him, and were organized in opposition. On the 8th September, 1664, the articles of surrender were agreed on. Security was promised to the customs, the religion, 1 Bancroft, II. 313. Swinton's Cond. U. S., 59. sstephens, 47. Bancroft, II. 313. s Bancroft, II. 312. Patroons. 133 the municipal institutions, and the possessions of all the people. The colonists were satisfied. It seemed as if English liberties were to be added to their home happiness. In a few days Fort Orange, now named Albany, from the Scottish title of the Duke of York, quietly surrendered. The league with the Five Nations was renewed. Early in October the Dutch and Swedes of Delaware capitulated. Then, for the first time, all the coast from Canada to Florida was united zander English rule.^ The name of the colony and the city w-as changed to New York. But there was one system which had originated under the Dutch rule and survived it, and which in comparatively modern times has been a sovirce of much debate, and of conflict some- times threatening life. This was the system of land-hold known as that of the " Patroons." It commenced in the time of Governor Van Tw^iller. In 1630, the Dutch East India Company, with the desire to promote rapid settlements in the colony, granted to Killian Van Rensselaer, the original patroon, a patent or charter, under which he was empow- ered to acquire title to an immense tract of land on condition of introducing, within a limited time, fifty settlers for each square mile of land. The proprietor was invested with the title and privileges of a lord patroon, or protector, and his colony or manor was to be governed by the same customs and law^s as were the feudal manors of the United Provinces. Thus, the feudal system, in all its essential and its worst features, was sought to be established in North America. Every objectionable incident of the tenures in socage and villeinage was imposed upon the tenants of these manors tmder the patroons. Purveyances, pre-emption, fines for alienation, banalities, ban-services and other similar feudal burdens, were exacted from the tenants.^ To deny that this was feudalism was to deny the light of the sun. Nevertheless, men had not then learned enough of the right of self-government to reject this system. In 1630, Killian Van Rensselaer appeared in his ship in the harbor of New Amster- dam. A great historian of New York has given us a description of his person which is, at least, the most reliable we have. "A stranger stepped on shore, a lofty, lordly kind of man, tall and dry, with a meagre face furnished with huge moustaches. He was clad in Flemish doublet and hose, and an insufferably tall hat with a cocktail feather." "Killian Van Rensselaer was a 1 Bancroft, II. 315. - KxX,. Anti-rentism, New Amer. Encyclop., I. 668. 134 -^ History of the United States oj" Afnerica. nine days' wonder in Nevv^ Amsterdam ; for he carried a high head, looked down upon the portly, short-legged burgomasters, and owned no allegiance to the governor himself, boasting that he held his patroonship directly from the Lords States-General." ^ After obtaining a few recruits in the tow^n, he sailed up the Hudson to the neighborhood of Fort Orange, now Albany. "Within a few years he had purchased a tract of land, twenty- four miles in breadth by forty-eight in length, extending from the neighborhood of the fort over the greater part of that region of New York now covered by the counties of Albany, Rensselaer and Columbia.^ He lorded it over his manor, known afterwards as Rensselaer- w^yck, and showed a disposition to exceed the bounds even of his immense domain, by taking possession of a rocky isle in the Hud- son called " Beam " or Bears' Island. Here he built a stronghold called Rensselaerstein, and is said to have placed there his hench- man, Nicholas Koorn, w^ho compelled all passing vessels to lower their flags in token of submission to the patroon's jurisdiction ; and when Governor Van Twiller sent to Killian Van Rensselaer a letter demanding by what right he had seized this island, the patroon is said to have answered : '■'■By xvapen rechf'' — that is, by right of arms, or club la-w.^ Even if some of these traditions be legendary rather than his- torical, they prove the character of the claims of this patroon. But when the English poM^er displaced the Dutch in 1664, his claims seem not only to have been undisturbed, but expressly re- cognized. Others had obtained similar grants, and the result was that huge bodies of land, sufficient to make a state rather than a farm, and covering a large part of many of the finest counties in New York were held in patroonship at the end of the Revolu- tionary war. It is a striking proof of the conservatism of North America that no serious efforts \vere made to contest and destroy these land- tenures until after the year 1S39. -'•^ ^^ \x\\q. that in 1779, and after- M'ards in 1785, law^s abolishing all feudal tenures were enacted by the Legislature of New York. These ought to have destroyed these patroonships at once, and would have done so but for the ingenuity and acquisitiveness of these claimants, who devised leases by which the grantees covenanted to pay rents and perform services precisely similar to the feudal incidents abolished.* 1 Irving's Knickerbocker's N. Y., Works, 1. 179. 2 Art. Van Rensselaer, New Amer. Encyelop., XVI. 25. sirving's Knickerbonker's X. Y., Works, I. 180, 181. *Art. Antl-rentism, New Amer. Eucyclop., I. 668. I Patroons. I'l^ But in 1S39 the evils of this system had become intolerable. The people of the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Delaware, Schoharie, Montgomery, Herkimer, Otsego, Oneida and other counties began to join together in secret societies and bands, who disguised themselves in calico dresses like Indians, and appeared at the critical time with pistols, toma- hawks, guns and cutlasses to resist all enforcement of these feudal leases. Bloodshed frequently occurred. For inore than eight years these contests continued. Anti-rentism became a political question. The American novelist, Fenimore Cooper, warmly espoused the side of the patroons or landlords, and in several of his fictions, which are as weak and dismal as others are powerful and genial, sought to uphold these tenures,^ but in vain. All the principles of enlightened freedom were against them. Gov- ernor Wright, who upheld them, was defeated in 1846 by a ma- jority of ten thousand votes by John Young, the anti-rent candi- date for governor. In the same year, a clause was inserted in the new constitution of New York abolishing all feudal tenures and incidet/ts, and forbidding the leasing of agricultural lands for a term exceeding twenty years. The legislation of the State bore heavily against these tenures. Some suits continue arising from them. But, substantially, patroonism has ended in New York. 1 Cooler's Crater, Redskins, etc. CHAPTER XVIII. New York. — New Jersey. AFTER the conquest of New York, Nichols was made governor, and was popular and successful, continuing in office for sev- eral years. In 1667 he resigned, and was succeeded by Colonel Francis Lovelace, w^ho governed prosperously for six years.^ Towards the close of his rule, war commenced between the English and the Dutch. The latter fitted out a small squadron to prey on English commerce in America. This force made a descent on New York during the governor's absence, and cap- tured the town. But in less than a year it was restored to Eng- land under the treaty of Westminster in 1674. Sir Edmund Andros, a special creature of the Duke of York, succeeded Lovelace, and was governor until 1682, when Colonel Thomas Dongan, a member of the Roman church, was appointed. It was during his term that a representative government was established in New York. " All freeholders were granted the right of suffrage ; trial by jury was established ; taxes should no more be levied except by consent of the assembly ; soldiers should not be quartered on the people ; martial law should not exist ; no person accepting the general doctrines of religion should be in anyw^ise distressed or persecuted." ^ The administration of Dongan vv^as distinguished b}^ his atten- tion to Indian afiairs. Of this we shall see more when we come to narrate more fully the colonial wars with the natives. After James II. ascended the throne, his narrow and arbitrary character \vas soon exhibited, and the colonies felt it. He sent Sir Edmund Andros as captain-general and vice-admiral over New York, the Jerseys, including Delaware, and the four New England colonics. His hai'd rule was brief. In 1688, James was compelled to abdicate the throne and fly from England. Colonel Francis Nicholson, the deputy of Andros, as soon as he heard of this, fled from New York. One Jacob Leisler, a native of Frankfort-on-the-Main, in Germany, a trader 1 A. H. Stephens' U. S., 110. 2 Ridpath, 175. Stephens, 110, 111. [ 136 1 Neiu York. 137 with Indians and a captain of militia, without any definite author- ity, seized the fort of the town, avowing that he held it for the Prince of Orange under an old charter. But Courtlandt, the mayor, Colonel Bayard, ISIajor Schuyler, and other gentlemen, known adherents of Andros and Nicholson, refused to recognize Leisler, and retired to the fort at Albany, declaring, however, that they held it for King William.' Leisler sent Milbourne, his son-in-law. with troops against them. They gave up the fort and retired to the neighboring colonies. Leisler confiscated their estates. A committee of safety, with Leisler at its head, ruled the province. In a short time came a letter from the ministry in England directed to " Francis Nicholson, Esq., or such as for the time being take care of administering the laws of the province.""'' Leisler, with ready egotism, assvuiied that this letter was ad- dressed to himself. He exercised the authority conferred by it, issued commissions, and appointed his executive council. A con- vention was called, to consist of deputies from all the towns and districts. ^Meanwhile war existed between France and England. An in- vasion of Canada was planned. New York troops, under Gene- ral Winthrop, were to take part in it ; but by the incompetency of Milbourne, who was commissary-general, supplies were not furnished, and the New York forces were obliged to retreat. Leisler, who pretended to military pro^vess, ordered the arrest of General Winthrop ; but this so aroused the indignation of all parties that he Avas compelled to release hiin.^ Having been involved, together with Milbourne, in certain chinx-h controversies at Albanv in 1676, in which heavy costs had been visited on them, Leisler had claimed special zeal tor the Reformation : and when he seized the fort. May 31, 16S9, had de- clared that he was acting '' for the preservation of the Protestant religion."* He had now arrayed against him the bitter animos- ity' of many of the higher social classes. A few months afterwards Major Ingoldsby arrived from Eng- land with news of the appointment of Henry Sloughter as gov- ernor, and demanded possession of the fort, which Leisler re- fused. In ]March, 1691, Sloughter himself arrived with full credentials. But Leisler, puffed up with brief authority, refused to recognize the new governor until proofs of his identity were furnished. Leisler and Milbourne were arrested, imprisoned and 1 Stephens' U. S., 112. = 76iVf., J12. Art. Leisler, Amer. Encyclop., X. 446. ^Stephens' Comp. U. S., pp. 112, 113. ♦Art. Leisler, New Amer. Encyclop., X. 446. J38 A History of the United States of America. tried on charges of treason and murder. They were convicted and sentenced to death. But the governor's warrant was neces- sary for their execution. Sloughter was evidently not satisfied as to their guilt. They had always claimed to act for William and Mary, and no proof adverse to this claim had been furnished. He delayed to sign the ^varrant of death. But the enemies of Leisler were powerful and vindictive. They contrived a dinner party, to which Sloughter was invited, and while he was near to intoxication they induced him to sign the death warrants. The two victims were hurried to the gibbet and hanged before the governor recovered from his debauch.^ Impartial history has affixed a black mark to this transaction. These men were weak and ignorant, and hurried into excesses by unexpected success and power ; but they were neither traitors nor murderers. The aristocratic element in the province pur- sued them with deliberate malice. We must now revie^v the settlement of New Jersey. In 1622 some Danes made settlements on the Delaware and at Bergen.^ Before the overthi-ow of the Dutch dynasty many persons, gene- rally Presbyterians, and retiring from persecution in the Old World, had settled in this region on both sides of the Delaware river. The country was held as part of New Netherlands, and was surrendered to the English in 1664. The Duke of York conveyed to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret the territory which now constitutes the State of New Jersey. Sir George had been governor of the island of Jersey during the civil \vars of England, and had defended it skillfully and bravely against the parliamentary forces. In compliment to him this region was now called Jersey. It was afterwards fre- quently described as East and West Jersey. Liberal inducements to settlers were held out by the proprie- taries. No rent was to be collected for five years ; no taxes were to be imposed except by the General Assembly of the colony, and liberty of conscience was allowed in religious matters.' Before he knew of the gi^ant to Berkeley and Carteret, Nichols, the Governor of New York, had granted one or more licenses, under which settlements had been made at Elizabeth town (which took its name from the wife of Sir George Carteret) and other places. Disputes arose as to priority of title by reason of those licenses. iStephens' Comp. U. S., 114. Art. Leisler, Amer. Eucyclop., X. 446. ^Berry's U. S., 47. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 65. Egglestou's Household U. S., 58. New yersey. 139 In 1665, Philip Carteret, brother of Sir George, arrived with thirty emigrants. He carried a hoe on his shoulder as a sign and emblem that industry and agriculture were to be their depend- ence.' Under both Charles II. and his brother James II. the people ol* Scotland were cruelly persecuted for the purpose of forcing them to accept a prelatic form of government for their church. Thou- sands migrated to America, and generally settled in the region covered by the Jersey patents, or else in the region over which William Penn had power. " Thus the mixed character of New Jersey springs from the difterent sources of its people. Puritans, Covenanters and Qiiakers met on her soil ; and their faith, insti- tutions and preferences, having life in the common mind, survive the Stuarts." ^ The government of Philip Carteret was wise, but not popular. The claimants under the Nichols licenses refused to pay rent, and when the governor resorted to coercive measures the people re- volted, and in 1670 displaced Philip and chose James Carteret, an illegitimate son of Sir George, as their governor. But Philip persevered in his prudent course, obtained concessions, and in- duced the great body of the settlers to submit again to his au- thority. Under his proclamation the first legislative assembly convened in May, 1668. It is remarkable only for having passed a bill of pains and penalties of extreme severity — the death pen- alty being assigned for no less than twelve offences.^ The colony had many advantages of soil, health and sites for manufactures. It prospered considerably, and would have ad- vanced more rapidly but for the ceaseless disputes under conflict- ing titles to lands. Wearied by these, in 1673 Berkeley sold his rights to John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, Qiiakers. They conveyed an in- terest to William Penn, Garvin Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas ; and Fenwick, in 1671^, established a Qiiaker settlement at Salem, near the Delaware. For some years the province continued to be divided into East Jersey, subject to Sir George Carteret and his heirs, and West Jersey, under Fenwick and his associates. In February, 1682, the whole territory was purchased by William Penn and eleven other Friends. The first governor imder this new regime was Robert Barclay, a Scotchman, who made it an asylum for the oppressed of his country and of all creeds.* Prosperity prevailed. 1 Swinton's Cond. U. S., 64. ^Bancroft, II. 413. 3 Art. New Jersey, Amer. Enoyclop., XII. 233. < New Amer. Encyclop., XII. 234. 140 A History of the United States of America. But as the difficulties as to titles continued, in 1702 the propri- etors surrendered the right of government to the Crown. The two Jerseys were united. Qiieen Anne made her unworthy, narrow-minded and unprin- cipled relative, Lord Cornbury, Governor of New York and New Jersey. But fortunately his influence was hardly felt in the smaller colony, which continued to have its own legislature. In 1708, on petition for a separate governor, Lewis Morris was ap- pointed. The population was then about forty thousand. The last royal governor was William Franklin, a son of Benjamin Franklin, but not born in wedlock.' In 1776 a vState constitution was adopted. During the Revo- lutionary war New^ Jersey was overrun by both armies, and was the theatre of important battles. Her people have been true patriots, and have shown special interest in education. In 1746 the college of Princeton was founded, which has since expanded to the proportions and style of a university, and has sent out scholars of high culture in civil and religious life.^ 1 y\rt. New Jersey, New Amrr Encyclop , XII 234. 2Deriy's U. S., p. 48. Swintou's Cond. U. S., 04, 65. CHAPTER XIX. Pennsylvania and her Friends. WE come now to one of the most genial and instructive pas- sages in the colonial life of North America — the settlement of Pennsylvania. It is the single bright spot in the dark and dreary reigns of Charles II. and James II. of England, so far as their policy in the New World was concerned. The world has learned to respect the genesis of the society known as Qiiakers or Friends. They came from the common people of England ; but their prevalent inspiration was the same that has moved great minds in all ages of the world. They builded their system on the divine principle whicli de- mands freedom of mind, purity of morals and universal enfran- chisement. "The sect had its birth in a period of intense public activity — Vv'hen the heart of England was swelling with passions and the public mind turbulent with factious leaders ; ^vhen zeal for re- form was invading the church, subverting the throne and repeal- ing the privileges of feudalism ; when Presbyterians in every village were quarreling with Anabaptists and Independents, and all with the Roman Catholics and the English church." ' George Fox, son of " righteous Christopher," a Leicestershire weaver, by his mother descended from martyrs, was the j^rime mover of the English Qiiakers. He was a shepherd boy, and passed his early years in solitude — in i-eading Holy Scripture, in frequent fasts, and in the reveries of contemplative devotion. He was not content with the phases of religion which he saw, and gradually reached the consciousness that the "inner light" given by the Holy Spirit, and not the mere letter of the Scrip- tures, must guide the soul. This light he believed to be free to all men. He adopted all the noblest principles of civil and reli- gious liberty. " His soul enjoyed the sweetness of repose, and he came up in spirit from the agony of doubt into the paradise of contemplation."^ Gradually his opinions spread, and were embraced everywhere by enthusiastic minds. They held that a paid ministiy was with- 1 Bancroft, II. 330. ^Ibid., II. 333. [ HI ] 14a 'i J/t's/ory of the United States of America. out Divine sanction, and that all nuMi and wonien who were moved bv the llol\ Spirit might preaeh. Thev (.ailed tor uni- versal repentance and retorni in lite. Tliev met opposition tVom all other sects anil jiarties in church anil state. As thev proclaimed their tenets thev were everywhere resisted with angrv vehemence, and priests and professors, magis- trates and people, raged like tiie angry seas. "At the Lancaster sessions lortv priests appeared against Fox at once. To the am- bitious Presbyterians, it seemed as if hell were broke loose."* When the state was against them, the church against them, the Independents against them, the Presbyterians against them, and the world ot" dissolute men against them, the result could not be long in doubt. Thev were persecuted with a bitterness and vindence hardly known even by Rome in her worst days. But the more they were persecuted by tines, imprisonments, scourgings, burnings, hangings, death, the more they grew in numbers and grew in triumph, in declaiming against civil despotism, religious intolerance, superstitious creeds, war, and conformity to worldly and depraving usages. William Penn, from deep conviction, became a member (">{ this society, and preached its doctrines, lie was born in London in 1644, a son of Admiral William Peim ot" the British navy, who had gained high distinction in the wars with the Dutch. Peing grieved bv what he regardeil as fanaticism in his son, the admiral sent him to France for education and society, and brought him into contact with every form o'i the world that would be most apt to intluence him against the "' Friends." Put all in vain. The son became, indeed, an accomplished courtier and diplomatist, but was not therebv less a Friend. He traveled through Wales, Ireland, Holland, (.Jermanv and the Jerseys, preaching his cher- ished iloctrines. The admiral turned him out of his house, but befoi'e his death was reconciled to the son and learned to respect his convictions.* Charles L was indebted to Admiral Penn not only for support and loyalty in his troubles, but in the sum of sixteen thousand pounds sterling.* Massachusetts had purchased >hiine for a little more than one thousand pounds. It was not strange, therefore, that Charles 11. should regard with favor the proposition of Wil- liam Pent\, in lune, 16S0, to purchase with this claim a territory in North America, which, however large, was looked on as wild, unbroken and of little value ; and, moreover, both he and his » Kox, 73. 140. Knucivrt. 11 ;hk<. » Kggleston's Household I'. S., iV. 'ronu, in Mem. Pa. Hist. Soi''y, 11. JM. 15anorv>a, 11. St;2. Pciinsyliuui'id ai/i/ fur /' rlci/ds. M.'^ Iiiollici );imcs refill (led VVilli:iiii I'ciiii vvilli iih.ic iciiI ;iil((tii)ii lliiiii t oiirl ii-is ^ciu-nilly enjoy. C'li;illcs ^i.i iilcd fo I'l-iiii tlir Itiiiloiy in Aniciii;!, wliiili tin- ;^i:inlcc niuncd Sylviini;! ; l>u( (IkiiIcs insistcil on ;i |)|)<|l;i nl I'cnn." ' Alrcidy llic pcrscc iik-d < ^n.i k(da- ware, or "tlie llnce lower (oinilies." lie a|)])oin(e(l William reiu) j^overiior tliere\ - einment ol I he |)rovin( c was liansi^ ired lo him \\ illi ( cremonions s\ inholism. The ke\ ol' (he fori was (h livcred lo him ; with this he lirsl loilvcd himself in and llien let hims(ll out and locked the (loot Ixhind him. A iVa^nienl of sod with a Iwi^ planted in it, and a poirinj^cr ol water tVom ihe river, vvt-rc; siicecHKi v«dy . 110. » Dcrry's V. S,, 51. S>viiitou, oi'. David R S«.vtts Smaller V. S., 50 CHAPTER XX. Kings and Sir Edmund Andros. BEFORE \vc reach the history of the settlement of the remain- ing colonies of the primitive " thirteen," which afterwards became the United States, it will be instructive to note the pro- gress of tyranny under Kings Charles II. and James II. of Eng- land. These events very slightly affected the southern colonies, and are all connected with the career of Sir Edmund Andros, whose name has ever since been the symbol of oppression and hate in New England, New York and New Jersey, and yet re- presents in the colony of Virginia one of her happiest and most prosperous periods. Thus history points her finger against kings. They have in all ages been the worst rulers of the world ; and they have never failed to find instruments to carry out their many cruelties and oppressions, or to give effect to their few virtues. After the very brief Dutch triumph of 1673, and the restora- tion, in less than a year, of the English rule in New York, the two colonies, New^ York and New^ Jersey, with the " three lower counties," were united under one governor. After a mild and prosperous administration of six years, Sir Francis Lovelace retired, and the Duke of York, in 1674, ap- pointed Sir Edmund Andros governor of these settlements. The question as to the general moral character of Andros has not been decided adversely to him. One authority says : "The pri- vate character of Governor Andros was not bad, and his despotic acts were simply the fulfillment of the policy of the king." ^ He was a far better man morally than either Charles or James. His defect appears to have been that he was ready to hold au- thority and exercise delegated power under any monarch, good or bad. He reflected faithfully and vividly the vices of the two kings of the decaying Stuart dynasty, and was equally faithful in representing the better rule of William and Mary. The government of Andros in New York was so arbitrary and despotic that it excited the indignation of the people, and it was under the influence of their complaints that Col. Thomas Dongan 1 Note in Thalheimer's Eclec. Hist. U. S., p. 81. [ H9 ] I ^o A History of the United States of America. was appointed governor in 1682.^ He was, as we have seen, a member of the Rgman church communion. He was, therefore, the more acceptable to both the king and the duke ; but neither of them forgot how earnestly and steadily Andros had carried out their arbitrary policy. In 1684, King Charles directed the institution of proceedings in the English courts under which, without adequate cause, the charter of the JSIassachusetts colony was abrogated.' It was easy to follow" up this policy \vith instruments so subservient; and in a short time all the other New^ England charters Avei'e declared null and void. Thus, the New England confederacy, which had existed from 1643, and which was founded on chartered rights, fell to the ground. They had excluded Rhode Island on gi'ounds of religious intolerance. They were now to reap bitter fruits. But Charles II. did not live to gather those fruits himself. He died in 168^, and his brother James ascended the throne. He pro- ceeded inmiediately to unite the New England colonies with those of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. It was felt to be at least a temporarv relief when Joseph Dudley was appointed governor of the territory from Narragansett to Nova Scotia.^ He was a native of Massachusetts, but marked as " a degenerate son of the colony.'" He did not openly oppress. But the general court, in session at his arrival and unprepared for open resistance, dissolved their assembly, and returned in sadness to their homes. King James did not leave the northern colonies long in doubt as to his policy. In December, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros, "glit- tering in scarlet and lace,"' arrived at Boston. He held a com- mission from the king as captain-general and vice-admiral over the four New England colonies and their dependencies and over New York, the Jerseys and Delaware.* He had authority to appoint and remove members of his owai council, and, with their conse?tt, to make laws, lay taxes, and con- trol the militia of the country. A more perfect absolutism could not have existed in theory. All power was in one hand, and he was responsible only to a king who was an adherent of the Roman church and a despot. A more complete overthrow of every purpose for which the New England colonies had been es- tablished and had contended could not have been effected. Andros was expressly instructed " to tolerate no printing press, to encourage episcopacy, and to sustain authority by force." ^ One West came from New York as secretary of the governor. Only 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S. , 110. "- Ibid. ,134. » Bancroft, II. 425. * Stephens' Comp. U. S., 112. Bancroft, II. 425. *Bancroft, II. 425. Kmgs and Sir Edmund Andros. 151 one New England man was in the council. Nearly all were quietly subservient ; some members did, indeed, occasionally mur- mur and protest, thus giving occasion to a complaint to the Crown that "his excellency has to do with a perverse people." ^ Andros did not leave his powers to rust in desuetude. A series of measures followed, the most vexatious and tyrannical to which men of English descent were ever exposed. " The wicked walked on every side, and the vilest men were exalted." The schools of learning, formerly so carefully nurtured and cherished, were left to decay. The religious institutions were im- paired bv abolishing the methods of their support. Personal lib- erty and the customs of the country were disregarded. None could leave without a special permit. Probate fees were increased some twenty fold. The scrupulous Puritans were outraged by being forbidden to swear with the uplifted hand, and required to lay the hand on and kiss the Bible, which practice they regarded as idolatrous. Thus, wide disfranchisement was wrought.^ Prelatic forms and services were forced upon the churches. Taxes were arbitrarily laid, and when some of the towns resisted, one of the governor's council said to their selectmen : " You have no privileges left you but not to be sold as slaves." And Andros himself, with haughty sarcasm, asked them : " Do you believe Joe and Tom may tell the king what money he may have?" The writ of habeas corpus was withheld. When some were imprisoned, and appealed to Magna Charta, and also to the mem- orable statute passed by the Parliament in the reign of Charles 11. and signed by him, their oppressors laughed, and derisively asked : " Do you think the laws of England follow you to the ends of the earth?" Fines and imprisonment followed. Oppres- sion threatened the country with ruin, and when the suffering people pointed this out, their oppressors answered without dis- guise : " It is not for his majesty's interest that you should thrive." ' It is not wonderful that the great body of the people of North America have learned to hate kings and all kingly authority. Proceedings having been instituted to abrogate the charter of Rhode Island, Andros demanded its suri-ender. The people of this colony, many of whom were Quakers, did not resist, by law, the proceedings, but appealed to the conscience of the kingiox the " privileges and liberties granted by Charles II. of blessed mem- ory."* They might as well have appealed to the conscience of Belial. 1 Randolph, in Bancroft, II. 425. 2 Bancroft, II. 426. ? Bancroft, II. 428, 4 j(,/d., II. 429, 152 A History of the United States of America. Walter Clarke, the governor, delayed the surrender and insisted on " waiting for a fitter season." But Andros promptly marched, in January, 1687, to Rhode Island, dissolved its government, broke its colonial seal, and set up a commission to rule the land wholly irresponsible to the people.^ But the progress of absolutism was not to be unresisted. Andros now turned his attention to the Connecticut colony. He had already received a check in that region which he probably did not forget. The Dutch had claimed Connecticut. The Duke of York considered himself as the possessor, by conquest, of all the claims of the Dutch ; so, when Andros was appointed Gover- nor of New York in 1674, he conceived himself to be entitled to rule Connecticut also. Rumors of his claims and of his purpose to carry them out by force having reached Saybrook, preparations were made to meet him. Detachments of troops were moved. Capt. Thomas Bull commanded the armed garrison in the fort at Saybrook. On the 9th of July, 167^, Andros, with an armed force in a ship on the sound, made directly for the fort. He hoisted the king's flag and demanded a suiTender ; but Bull was not daunted ; he also hoisted the English flag, and refused surrender. Here were two flags of the same government threatening bloody conflict. Andros was discouraged ; he demanded a parley, and met Bull face to face. Admiring his courage, he asked his name, and on hearing it, he repeated it several times, saying : " Bull ! it is a pity your horns are not tipped with silver." Finding he could not obtain a surrender, he returned to New York.^ But now, in 1687, holding the high commission of the king, Andros felt himself to be strong enough to cope with Connecti- cut, and overthrow her liberties. In October, attended by some of his council and by a considerable armed force, he marched upon Hartford. He found the colonial assembly in session, and demanded the surrender of the charter. This patent of their free- dom was peculiarly dear to them. It had been granted in 1663 by Charles II. and united the two colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, and had been purchased by sacrifices and martyr- doms, and was the most favorable to liberty of any of the charters."' Governor Treat pleaded strongly, warmly, for its retention. Evening came, and darkness began to settle down on the room of the assembly. Lights w^ere brought. An anxious crowd of farmers and other earnest men were listening to the debate. The 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S , 79. Bancroft, II. 429. 2 Centennial U. S., 1876, by C. B. Taylor, pp. 78, 79. 3 Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 63. Bancroft, II. 430. Kings and Sir Ed?nuttd Andros. 153 charter was lying on the table. Suddenly the lights were ail put out. In the darkness, Joseph Wadsworth, of Hartford, crept noiselessly through the crowd, seized the precious parchment, and bore it swiftly away to an oak tree known to hiin, in which was a hollow crypt almost concealed by the gnarled and rough edges of the bark. Here he deposited the charter.^ When the lights were restored in the assembly's room, the charter was gone ! But Andros announced that the powers and privileges granted by it to the colony were also gone. He com- pelled the production of the public records of the colony, and made this entry : "At a general court at Hartford, October 31st, 16S7, his excel- lency Sir Edmund Andros, knight and captain-general, and gov- ernor of his majesty's territories and dominions in New England, by order from his majesty James H., King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of the colony of Connecticut, it being by his majesty annexed to Massachusetts and other colonies under his excellency's government." ^ To this closing record, Andros added the word " Finis." But it was not " the end " ; it was in no sense the finality. The char- ter v\ras safely hidden for a time, and was safely withdrawn from the ciypt when James was driven from the English throne. The oak tree was preserved with sacred reverence and care. It stood on the grounds of Samuel Wallys, of Hartford, up to the year 1S56, when it was blown down in a violent storm. Like almost every scene in history -which is picturesque moi-e than prosaic, this incident has been sought to be disci'edited.'^ But although, very naturally, no immediate record of it was made, it is attested by evidence adequate to induce belief.'' On the 4th day of April, 1689, the great news of the flight of James II., and the invasion of England by the Prince of Orange and his declaration, reached Boston. Andros and his creatures immediately seized and imprisoned the messengers ; but the mes- sage was already known. It could not be imprisoned. An ex- cited crowd assembled ; but their counsels were guided by strong minds, for the events that followed were "not a violent passion of the rabble," but what Andros and his sympathizers designated as "a long-contrived piece of wickedness."'' The well-known minister Increase Mather had already secretly sailed to England with a written remonstrance against the rule of Andros. iSewall'sMSS. Hinman, 172. Trumbull. Bancroft, II. 430. 2 Centennial Hist. U. S., C. B. Taylor, p. 86. ^Sce BarnesA Co.'s U. S., 64. 4Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 80, 81. ^ Lambeth MSS., 1825, in Bancroft, II. 445. i^/j. A History of the United States of America. The captain of the English frigate Rose was first seized and made a prisoner. Thus no orders could go to her. The multi- tude were organized. They hastened to the major of the local regiment and demanded colors and drums. Old patriotic leaders appeared, among them Nelson, Foster, Waterhouse, and the for- mer governor, Simon Bradstreet. At ten o'clock they seized the obnoxious ofHcers Bullivant, Foxcroft and Ravenscroft. On the Charlestown side a thousand colony soldiers were assembled. An- dres and his adherents attempted in vain to make their escape to the frigate. They saw there "was no safety for them except in submission. They surrendered ; were marched hrst to the town- house and thence to prison. Thus was overthrown the despotism of Charles and James. One other attempt at infringement of chartered rights was made. Governor Fletcher, of New York, in the time of Wil- liam and Mary, renewed the claim to control Connecticut. The colonists were at war with the Indians. Fletcher sent orders that the Connecticut soldiers should march to the Canada fron- tier. Thev refused to obey. The incensed governor hastened with a small retinue to Hartford to compel obedience. When he rode up, a military company was assembled for exer- cise and review, imder command of Captain Wadsworth. The governor ordered his secretary to read aloud a paper, in the na- ture of a commission from the king, which he construed as giving him authority to command all the military forces of the northern colonies for the war. " Beat the drums ! " commanded Wads- worth, and a ceaseless roll of the drums drowned the voice of the reader. The governor commanded silence, and ordered the sec- retary to read. " Music ! music ! " shouted Wadsworth, and again the reverberating roll of bass and kettle drums was heard. " Silence ! silence ! " commanded the governor ; but when a mo- mentary silence was established. Captain Wadsworth renewed his order, and, looking fiercely at the governor, said in a stern voice : "' If I am interrupted again, I will make daylight shine through you ! " * Governor Fletcher, though not wanting in firmness, thought it wisest to desist. He returned to Ne^v York, -where his authority was legitimate. Nevertheless, the government under William and Mary did not convict or punish Sir Edmund Andros. He ^vas fully pre- pared to prove that his whole career in New England was ad- cording to the spirit and letter of orders from King James. 1 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 124, 125. C. B. Taylor, Centen. U. S., 92, 93. Kings and Sir Edmund Andros. 155 His knowledge of colonial aflaiis was so intimate, and his ex- perience so salutary, that in 1693 he ^vas appointed by the Crown to succeed Francis Nicholson in the Virginia colony, with the full title and authority of governor-in-chief. He ruled for six years. " Whether experience had taught him wisdom, or advancing years had calmed the heat of youth, or he found no pretext for the exercise of arbitrary power, we know not ; but all authori- ties agree in declaring that his administration was a season of unwonted prosperity in Virginia." He introduced order into the business and papers of the public departments, promoted schemes of useful labor, encouraged man- ufactures, incited the planters to the cultivation of cotton, and assented to the act establishing the first fulling mills ever known in the colony. Laws were respected, education was fostered, the people were quiet and contented.^ These facts suggest the truth that the English kings were more culpable and more responsible for the abuses and oppressions which drove the colonies to independence than any of their ofii- cers and favorites, bad as some of these were. 1 Grahame's Colon. Hist., III. 9, 10. Keith, 169, 170. Beverley, 90, 91. Holmes' Annals, I. 468. Bancroft, III. 25. CHAPTER XXL Maryland. MARYLAND was not first colonized by Lord Baltimore and his followers of the Roinan church, as some historians repre- sent.' On this subject the duty of history is to present the sim- ple truth. No one can deny that the original patents of James L to the London Company embraced not only what is now Virginia, but what is now Maryland. And although the London Company was dissolved by a judicial decision confirming the king's procla- mation in 1634, yet the rights of the Virginia colony remained. Valid grants within her boundaries could only be obtained by patents approved by herself. Captain John Smith, in 1608, had explored the Chesapeake Bay in its upper parts, coasting along the shore from the mouth of the Patuxent to the Patapsco river. His map of all this region was published, and has been often reproduced.^ During the next quarter of a century several settlements had been made by Vir- ginia colonists in this region. In 1637, William Clayborne, v»dio had come early to Virginia from the mother country, and who had been sufficiently esteemed to become a ineinber of the council and Secretary of State, ob- tained from Sir Francis Wyatt, governor of the colony, a deed of authority to discover the head of Chesapeake Bay, or any part of Virginia from 34*^ to 41° north latitude. This deed was after- wards confirmed in substance by King Charles L, who in 163 1 granted to William Clayborne a license to make further discov- eries, and to establish settlements for trade in that region of Vir- ginia. Under these definite sources of authority Clayborne, after much hardship and expenditure, established a trading settlement on Kent Island, in the bay (not far from what is now the city of Annapolis), which grew and prospered and promised to wax into a permanent town.^ lEx. : Swinton's Cond. U. S, 71-73. Scudder's U. S., 120-123. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 4;>-47. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 76, 77. Holmes, 39, 51-53. 2 Smith, I. 14'.1. Purchas, IV. 1091. 3 Art. Clayborne, New Amer. Encyclop., V. 324. Belknap's Am. Biog., III., 216. Bancroft, I. 264-266. [ 156 ] Ma rj 'la n d. 157 George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore of American fame, did not come to Virginia until 1628, one year after Sir Francis Wyatt's grant to Clajborne. In 1624 he had declared himself a Roman Catholic upon serious conviction, and innnediately re- signed his lucrative otHce under the English government. King James I. conferred the title so long retained by this excellent nobleman and his descendaiits, and, by his request, granted him the southeastern peninsula of Newfoundland/ He came to it with colonists ; but the hostility of the French and the rigor of the climate so discouraged him that he abandoned this region, after having expended much money and care. He came to Virginia in 162S, hoping to find in her genial air and fertile soil an asylum for the persecuted adherents of his church.^ But here he was met by the old spirit long cherished by his own communion and not yet exoixised by Protestants. The Church of England was established by law, and the advent of a wealthy and influential nobleman professing the creed of R*ome was enough to arouse the vigilance of the authorities. The test act was brought forward, and the oath of supremacy was ten- dered to him in the comprehensive form prescribed by the law then in force. He refused to take it, but tendered for himself and his followers a modified form, in which he promised all obe- dience consistent with his rights of conscience. This the council declined to accept, and referred the whole matter to the privy council in England. Lord Baltimore sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, and was charmed with the advantages and attractions of the country on its upper parts, and lying immediately north of the Potomac. He returned to England, and easily obtained from Charles L the promise of a charter grantmg a territory which was called Terra ^laria — " IMary's Land " — in honor of Qiieen Henrietta IMaria. Lord Bal- timore preferred " Crescentia," but the king gave the name of his queen. It embraced the fine tract of country lying on both sides of the bay of Chesapeake and north of the Potomac, running up to the fortieth parallel of latitude from the point where it strikes the first fountain of the river to the Atlantic Ocean.^ The king disregarded alike the previous patents of his father and his own deed of license to Clayborne. The first Lord Baltimore died in April, 1632. But the charter was made out to his son, Cecelius Calvert, who inherited the vir- tues and the religious preferences of his father. Under this grant, 1 Belknap, III. 208. Burk, II. 25. Grahame, 11. 2. 2 Grahamc's Colon. Hist., II. 2. » Belknap, III. 213. Grahame, II. 3, 4. Bancroft, I. 259. Ogilby, in Belknap, 183. 158 A History of the United States oj^ America. early in 1634, Leonard Calvert, brother of Cecil, with about two hundred colonists, many of whom were gentlemen of fortune and respectability, and nearly all of whom were of the Roman church, came to Jamestown on their way to Maryland. Two devout Jesuit priests. Fathers Andrew White and John Altham, accom- panied them. The governor and council received them all cour- teously, but distinctly announced to them that their grant was considered an encroachment on the rights of Virginia.^ They sailed up the Chesapeake in their two vessels — The Ark and 77ie Dove — and landed on vSt. Clements' Island, March 35th, 1634. Two days afterwards, having purchased the land from the Indians, they commenced a settlement on the main-land at a place named St. Mary's. Hence, in the early traditions of the colony and afterwards of the State, they were called the " Pilgrims of St. Mary's." ' Thus, in the New World, two bands of colonists, both profess- ing the religion of the meek and lowly Redeemer of mankind, had drawn to themselves the name of " Pilgrims." They differed widely in their views of Christian polity and doctrine ; but they were alike in one point : both had fled from persecution in the mother country. Both had the strongest reasons for adopting the principle and the practice of complete religious freedom. But only one band had learned it ; and that was not the band that landed on Plymouth Rock. It was the band belonging to the church organization that had for ages been held as the most ex- clusive and intolerant. Leonard Calvert was the first Governor of Maryland. He lost no time in putting in motion the machinery of government mapped out in the patent from King Charles. That patent was probably drawn by the hand of the first Lord Baltimore, and is an enduring proof of his wisdom, liberality and political sagacity.^ We can only wonder that such a king should have granted it. It went far beyond any colonial patent theretofore issued. It is true, the powers and authority of the proprietary were very ample, and he held only by the tenure of fealty, paying a yearly rent of two Indian arrows and a fifth of all gold and silver ore which might be found. But the charter secured to the colonists themselves an independent share in the legislation of the pro- vince, as the statutes were to be established with the advice and approbation of the majority of the freemen or their deputies. It was expressly provided that the authority of the proprietary 1 Grahame, IT. 3, 4. Bancroft, III. 259, 260. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 62. ' " '^ 2 Art. Maryland, New Amer. Encyclop., XI. 249. s Bancroft, I. 241. Hazard, I. 327-337. Ma ryla 71 d. 1 1^ 9 should not extend to the life, freehold or estate of any emigrant. Christianity was made the law of the land, but no preference was given to any sect or denomination, and equality in religious rights, no less than in civil freedom, was secured. All monopoly of the fisheries in the deep waters of the bay or the ocean on the coast w^as expressly renounced by the pi^oprietary.' Leonard Calvert took the oath of office in words which deserve to be I'epeated : " I will not by myself or any other, directly or indirectly, molest any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ for or in respect of religion." ^ Under such auspices of peace and liberty the colony grew fast in numbers and prosperity. In less than twelve months the as- sembly was convened for legislation. All freemen were repre- sented. Within six months Maryland advanced more than Vir- ginia had in six years. ^ But there was a root of bitterness amid this harmony, and the root sprang from the inconsiderate and unscrupulous acts of the king. As the colonists under Calvert had ascended the bay, they had met with William Clayborne, who had made known his claims and their ground, had asserted the jurisdiction of Virginia, and had sought to deter them from advancing by representing in strong colors the hostile character of the Indians. It is to be re- gretted that Leonard Calvert made no serious eflbrt to conciliate him and to reach terms of agreement. They would have saved much subsequent turmoil and bloodshed. But it does not appear that Calvert made such effort, or was disposed to give any recog- nition to his claims. Within less than two years these conflicting claims led to dis- aster. The Virginia authorities upheld the rights of Clayborne. The privy council of Charles left the disputants to the law. Clayborne continued to claim Kent Island and repudiate the jurisdiction of Maryland, and his influence with the Indians was exerted unfavorably to peace.* Lord Baltimore gave orders for his arrest. This precipitated the conflict. On the 33d of April, 163^, an engagement took place between a small armed vessel cruising under Clayborne's orders and tw^o vessels seiit out by Calvert. One of the Marylanders was killed, and several of the Kent Island party also fell. The attempt to arrest Cla3d3orne failed. He took refuge in the more settled part of Virginia. The Maryland authorities, in his 1 Bancroft, I. 242, 243. Chalmers' Amer. Colon., 205. McMahon, 133-1S3. 2 Chalmers, 235. McMahon, 220. 3 Bancroft, I. 247. * Art. William Clayborne, New Amer. Eneyclop., V. 324. l6o A History of the Uftited States oj" A?nerica. absence, proceeded harshly against him. He was indicted for murder, piracy and sedition, and without serving process on him, these charges were tried and he was convicted. The assembly also passed a bill of attainder against him. His estate on Kent Island w^as seized and confiscated.^ The effect of such proceed- ings on a temper excitable, stern and unyielding may be con- ceived. He bided his time for revenge. Governor Calvert demanded his surrender from Virginia, but Sir John Hervey positively refused. This enabled Clayborne to go to England, accompanied by witnesses and documents, and lay his case before the king. Charles I., in 1638, severely reprimanded Lord Baltimore for violating the royal license, and dispossessing Clay- borne of his estate and personal property in Kent Island, and also for the measures which had caused the loss of several lives. ^ Nevertheless, in the next year, the whole matter was reopened and brought before the Lords Commissioners of Plantations. Archbishop Laud was the head of this body, and was already so deeply in sympathy with the Roman church and with the worst form of hierarchic claims in England that Lord Baltimore's title would receive from him the utmost favor. The decision, there- fore, was adverse to William Clayborne ; but he was not content. The Maryland colony continued to prosper. The Indians taught them the best modes of planting maize and tobacco. The native women taught them how to make corn-bread and hoe- cakes. The priests — White and Altham — were indefatigable in giving religious instruction and sympathy to the natives. Four regular missions were established. The chief Chitomachen, of Piscatoway, and his wife received baptism, and were soon fol- lowed by one hundred and thirty other natives who professed Christianity.'^ But as the white colonists increased the Indians grew jealous, and were easily estranged by intriguers among them. Unfortu- nately, too, for Governor Calvert, the very intolerance of the Vir- ginia religious laws under Sir William Berkeley worked ad- versely to Maryland's peace. In 1642 a considerable number of non-conformists left Virginia and settled in the upper colony, chiefly around the site of Annapolis, which v^-as then called Pro- vidence.^ They soon grew strong enough to claim power in gov- ernment. Meanwhile the civil war was hastening on, and was drawing away the attention of England from the colonies. Clayborne, 1 Bancroft, I. 249. Chalmers, 210. Art. Clayborne, Amer. E"cyclop., V. 324. 2 Art. Clayborne, Amer. Encyclop., V 324. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. 8., 63. * Art. Maryland, New Amer. Encyclop., XI. 249. M'aryland. l6i with skill and energy, availed himself of this favorable crisis. In 1644 he returned to Kent Island, regained possession, organ- ized all discontented elements, armed his followers, and advanced upon the unprepared Marylanders under Calvert so suddenly and boldly that all opposition was dispersed, and the governor, to save his life or libertv, was obliged to fly into Virginia and take refuge at Jamestown.' During the disorder and violence of this period many of the public records were lost. But Lord Baltimox'e exerted himself manfully for reinstate- ment. In 1646 Leonard Calvert was enabled to return at the head of a considerable armed force, and Clayborne's rule was overthrown. Desiring to conciliate the Protestants and have peace. Lord Baltimore, on the death of Leonard Calvert in 1647, exerted his influence to have William Stone appointed governor. He was a Protestant and a worthy ruler. Under his auspices the legisla- ture passed, in 1649, the memorable act in favor of religious free- dom and the rights of conscience, which has ever since rendered the name of Maryland dear to all Americans.^ In 1649, after the execution of Charles I., the authorities of Maryland proclaimed Charles II. king. But the commonwealth under Cromwell did not leave her free to pursue her own course. In 16^1 an expedition was sent, with commissioners and with instructions, to reduce to submission "all the plantations within the bay of the Chesapeake." ^ And one of the commissioners was the irrepressible Clayborne ! But they did not act with haste or harshness. Governor Stone was thought to be favorable to the commonwealth. A compromise was effected by which he, with three of his council, was permitted to retain the execu- tive power. The laws remained unchanged.* Happy would it have been had this fair arrangement been left undisturbed ; but, upon the dissolution of the Long Parliament in 1653, Stone and his friends declared Lord Baltimore reinstated, and that the province, under the rule agreed on with Clayborne and his co-commissioner Bennett, had been in rebellion ! " This was rash and ill-advised. Clayborne and Bennett re- turned, overthrew the Lord Baltimore government, and appointed a board of ten commissioners with full powers to rule. Intol- erance followed. A new assembly v\^as convened at Patuxent. It passed an act concerning religion, confirming, in words, free- 1 Bancroft, I. 255. Stephens' U. S., 63. 2 Art. Maryland, Amer. Encyclop., XI. 249. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 63. 3Thurloe, 1. 198. Hazard, I. 557. ^Strong, 2, 3. Langford, 7, 8. Bancroft, I. 2C0. " Bancroft, I, 2G0. II 162 A History of the United States of America. dom of conscience, but declaring also that liberty was not ex- tended to "popery, prelacy or licentiousness of opinion/'^ Lord Baltimore made firm efforts to vindicate his supremacy. Civil war ensued. Governor Stone raised an armed force and marched from Patuxent to capture Providence, the chief seat of the republicans. But the party under Clayborne was ready. A battle on a small scale took place March 35th, 1655. Stone and his forces were defeated and utterly routed with considerable loss. He was captured, and would have been put to death but for the surviving affection felt for him by some of the captors. He was kept a prisoner during most of the protectorship of Cromwell. A council of war sentenced four of the chief movers for the at- tempted government to death ; and they were executed accord- ingly.' William Clayborne retained his island and his power. In 1660, when Sir William Berkeley was elected Governor of Virginia ad iftteri?n, Clayborne concurred in the appointment. He was re- spected because of his indomitable faithfulness to what he believed to be the chartered rights of Virginia. He sat as a member of the court-inartial that tried the alleged rebels after Bacon's death. He is thought to have died at an advanced age in the county of New Kent, which probably derived its name from his island in the bay. His son fell mortally wounded in a battle with the In- dians near West Point, in King William county, and lies buried there. The family name was changed to Claiborne, and some of its descendants, reputable and esteemed, are still living.^ These disturbances projected a long shadow over the fortunes of Maryland ; but she continued to prosper and to contend for her principles of freedom. In 1729 the city of Baltimore was laid out. In 1745 the Maryland Gazette, the first newspaper, was established at Annapolis, and continued to be issued by Thomas Green and his descendants until 1839. In the Revolution no State was more faithful to freedom than Maryland. The " Maryland line " was distinguished under Washington ; and troops from Maryland took brave part in every campaign of the war, except that against Burgoyne. None of them were there because they were retained by the commander- in-chief. 1 Bacon's Maryland Laws, 1654. Bancroft, I. 261. - Hammond, 22, 23. 3 Art. Clayborne, New Amer. Encyclop., V. 325. CHAPTER XXII. The Carolinas and John Locke. WE have seen that the earliest attempts at settlement by Eng- lish colonists in North America were on or near Roanoke Island, in the sounds opening from the Atlantic. This was in the waters of what is now North Carolina. But it was embraced within the parallels designated by the earliest patent of Virginia, which granted down to the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude. North Carolina lies between 33° =53' and 36" 33'. These earliest attempts were disasti^ous and abortive. The set- tlements at Jamestown and along the rivers of Virginia soon fol- lowed, and many years passed before the permanent colonization of the Carolinas. Charles I. succeeded his father in 162 i,, and began soon to ex- hibit that tendency to have favorites, and to violate, in their be- half, the principles of justice and honesty, which contributed very potently to the final downfall of the Stuart dynasty in England. In 1630 he issued a patent to Sir Robert Heath for an immense territory covering a large part of -what is now North Carolina, and what was then Virginia. This domain was designated as Carolina.' In 1639, Heath's assignee, Lord Maltravers, seems to have planned and attempted settlements under his grant. One William Hawley appeared in Virginia as " Governor of Caro- lina," and leave was granted by the Virginia Legislature that this region might be colonized by one hundred persons from Virginia, "'being freemen, single, and disengaged of debt."* But these efforts were unsuccessful, and the patent to Sir Robert Heath was declared void, because its purposes had never been fulfilled.^ Between the years 1630 and 1663, numerous bands of settlers made their way into the region " south of the Chesapeake," bought lands from the Indians, and began the forms of civilized life. One of these parties was from Massachusetts, and settled at Oldtown creek, near the south side of the river Cape Fear. This region was neither fertile nor healthful, and some of the settlers, return- 1 Records, No. 1, 1639, 1642, p. 70, Gen. Court, Richmond, Va. Bancroft, II. 130. Art. Car. olina, Amer. Encyclop., IV. 461. - Gen. Court Records, Richmond, Va., 70. Bancroft. II. 130. 8 Williamson's N. C, I. 84, 85. Martin, I. 94, 125. Chalmers, 515. [ 163 ] 164 -A History of the United States of America. ing, " spread a reproach on the harbor and the soil." But the effort was not abandoned. Aid was given from Massachusetts until the infant colony could support itself. Other settlers came from Virginia, driven out bv the religious persecutions, legal and social, already prevailing there. These occupied the beautiful "summer lands" of North Carolina about the river Chowan, and what is now the county of Albemarle. None of these colonists claimed under any special patent ; but they satisfied the natives, and by their industry and well-directed labor they soon began to prosper. Among these settlers from Virginia came Roger Green, a Pres- byterian, who, with a choice band of associates, settled in 16:^3 on the banks of the Chowan. A few years afterwards came George Durant, a devoted Qiiaker, with a considerable number of Friends. He purchased lands from the Yeopim Indians in Per- quimans county, and this region still bears his name.^ Large bodies of settlers similar to these in professions and character soon follow^ed. They governed themselves by their own chosen officers. It was not to be expected that such a man as Sir William Berkeley would remain long indifferent to a movement which to his eyes looked like the establishment of dissent. He made no attempt to disturb them by direct interference ; but he informed Charles II. and his courtiers in England, and the result was soon apparent. King Charles, in 1663, issued a broad patent for the whole ter- ritory from the thirtieth to the thirty-sixth degree of north lati- tude. This, of course, impinged deeply on the domain of Vir- ginia ; but it was only an added proof of the ingratitude of this selfish and licentious monarch. Of his unscrupulous grants a discriminating historian has spoken thus : " During the first four years of his power, Charles II. gave away a large part of a con- tinent. Could he have continued as lavish in the course of his reign, he would have given away the world." ^ The grantees or proprietaries under this new and extravagant patent were as follows : Lord Clarendon, a great lawyer and statesman, and once lord chancellor ; he left two grand-daughters, who became queens of England ; but he was grasping and am- bitious, and in his old age lost the king's favor. Next., Lord Ashley, afterwards lord chancellor and Earl of Shaftesbury. He deserves lasting fame as the statesman who made the writ of habeas corpus a permanent right of every man under English rule. 1 A. H, Stephens, 99. 2 Bancroft, II. 70. The Carolitias and yohn Locke, 165 His talents were great, but he was intriguing and profligate, and the boldest demagogue of his day. The poet Dryden has sketched his character \vith a master's hand.^ Next^ Gen. George Monk, a morose, dull oftiCer of Cromwell, who had been created Duke of Albemarle for the part he took in bringing about the king's restoration. Next^ William, Earl of Craven, a brave old cava- lier and soldier of the German discipline, who was suspected of being husband of the Qiieen of Bohemia." Next,, Sir John Colle- ton, a royalist of small notoriety. Next,, Sir George Carteret, passionate, ignorant, and not too honest. Next^ Lord John Berke- ley ; and last,, his younger brother, Sir William Berkeley, the Gov- ernor of Virginia, who had manifested some good traits, but was yet to manifest some of the worst known among the rulers of North America.^ It seemed needful that proprietaries so eminent should not un- dertake to set up an empire in the New World without seeking a form of government constructed by the highest learning, thought and skill. For this purpose the English philosopher John Locke w^as selected. He had aided Shaftesbury in a critical surgical operation, and was beloved by him. He afterwards wrote a cel- ebrated essay on "The Human Understanding" and some other works. But he was as little fitted to prepare a suitable govern- ment for people in the pine forests, alluvial fields and fertile river bottoms of the Carolinas as w^ould have been any of the dreamers of Egypt or Greece. Nevertheless, he went to work, and, aided by sagacious liints and suggestions from some of the patentees, he prepared in 1672 a draft of a form of government containing more than a hundred articles, entitled the " Grand Model," which was afterwards pressed upon the planters and laborers of the colony with a per- tinacity only equaled by the sturdy good sense shown by them in rejecting it as utterly unsuited to their condition.* What they needed in government was simplicity, directness, and close contact and responsibility between themselves and their law-makers and rulers. John Locke's " Grand Model " was com- plicated and abstruse. It adopted monarchy as the best form, and, if submitted to, would have perpetuated the rule of the Eng- lish sovereigns in America. But beneath the king it made the eight proprietaries practically sovereigns, with a number never to be increased or diminished, with hereditary rights, and, in de- fault of heir, with power in the survivors to elect. " Thus v/as 1 Moore's N. C, I. 15. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 99. = Bancroft, II. 129. 3 Pepys, I. 140, 235, 356. Grahame, 1 1. 317. 4 Moore's N. C, I. 18-20. Bancroft, 11. 144-M7. i66 A History of the United States of America. formed an upper house " — a diet of starosts — " self-elected and immortal." ' For purposes of settlement the immense territory of the Caro- linas was to be divided into counties, each of 'four hundred and eighty thousand acres. Two permanent orders of nobility were to exist — one landgrave, or earl, and two caciques, or barons, for each county. The lands were to be divided into five equal parts, of which one part was to be inalienably held by the proprieta- ries, one in like manner by the nobles, and the remaining three might be acquired and cultivated by the common people, but with jDrovision for manorial estates, in which the lords of manors were to have judicial powers in baronial courts. Tenants hold- ing ten acres of land were to be " leet-men." They wei"e to have no political privileges, but to be " adscripts " of the soil, " under the jurisdiction of their lord, without appeal " ; and the provision was added that "all the children of leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to all generations." The fundamental principles of this scheme were openly declared to be " the interests of the proprie- tors," the desire for " a government most agreeable to monarchy," and the dread of " a numerous democracy." The welfare and happiness of the people are nowhere looked to. The Earl of Shaftesbury had influence enough to induce Locke (contrary to his own judgment) to provide for a chiuxh estab- lishment in all important respects conformed to the Anglican church, which had already fallen under the influence of Arch- bishop Laud and his successors. But Locke steadily insisted on a clause of universal toleration. This was in itself an insult to freedom. It provided not equal rights, but only contingent tol- eration to "Jews, heathens, and other dissenters," and " to men of any religion." ^ The prominent features of this " Grand Model " have thus been given for the purpose of show^ing how North America was threat- ened by the already waning and rotten ideas of English oligarch- ists, and how blessed have been the impulses and opportunities which have enabled her to escape them. The name given in the patent of King Charles was " Caro- lina," in honor of his own name and that of his father. But this was only a repetition and confirmation of the name which had been given just one hundred years previously by the French ex- plorers, who sought to honor the name of Charles IX. ( Carolus) of France.' HJillies' Arist., II. 24S. Bancroft, II. 147. 2 Preamble in Charters, 33. Martin, I., Append. 71. 8 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 99. Perry's U. S., 52. The Carolhias and yohn Locke. 167 By the influence of Sir William Berkeley, William Drummond, a Scottish settler in Virginia, was appointed the first governor of the Albemarle colony. He was a prudent and intelligent man, and soon reached a clear understanding with Durant and other settlers as to tenures of land and the relations of the government to them. In 1665 the first legislative session, known as the " General Assembly of Albemarle," was held in a private house. The colony continued to prosper, because the proprietary hand was not yet on them. In February, 1664, Sir John Yeamans, a man of family, culture and wealth, came from the Barbadoes islands to search for a new settlement in Carolina under the jurisdiction of the proprietors. He ascended Cape Fear river to the neighborhood of Oldtown creek, and found a site that suited him. He purchased a large tract of land from the Indians, and obtaiiaed license for a colony. On the 39th of May, 1665, he came back from Barbadoes with eight hundred followers, two hundred of whom were his slaves. He called his settlement Charlestown, and was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the county which w^as called Claren- don. This colony had a pi'osperous and interesting life up to 1670, when it was united to Albemarle on the east, and the tw^o were thenceforth designated as North Carolina.^ In 1667, Governor Drummond resigned and returned to Vir- ginia, to meet, in a few years, a sad fate there, under the revenge- ful passions of Berkeley. He was succeeded by Samuel Stephens, who was an able and beneficent governor. During his rule the great Quaker George Fox came to Maryland, and dispatched his co-preacher William Edmondson to hold Friends' meetings in Albemarle. The In- dians attended these meetings, which were held near the nar- rows of Perquimans river, where Hertford was afterwards built. During the long silence the natives comforted themselves by smoking their pipes, which somewhat shocked the devout Friends.^ Yet their religious assemblages (said to be the first ever held in North Carolina) were not without permanently good effects on the strangely mingled congregations who attended them. Governor Stephens lived long enough to proniulgate the " Grand Model " of Locke for the government of the colony. His good sense soon enabled him to see its folly. He showed no enthu- siasm for it. He died in 1673. He was succeeded by Sir George Carteret, one of the proprie- taries. He pressed the obnoxious plan upon the people by all the 1 Stephens, 100. Moore, 1. 16. Bancroft, 1. 142. 2 Moore's N. C, I. 20. Stephens, 101. 1 68 A History of the United States of Afuerica. means in his power ; but the opposition to it was clogged and unyielding. Finding he could not succeed, Carteret resigned in disgust, and retvn-ned to England, leaving the administration, in his own words, "• in ill order and worse hands.'" ' A season of disorder near to anarchy followed. One ISliller had been arrested by Carteret for sedition and sent to \'irginia, but be- ing acquitted by Governor Berkeley, he had gone to England and made favor with the proprietaries, who sent him back with a commissiorT as secretary, and with power to act as governor in the absence of one regularly appointed. His first attempt was to enforce the oppressive " navigation laws " passed by Charles' Parliament. He was resisted by George Durant, who was the oldest settler, and a man of great wealth and influence. A con- flict ensued on a New England vessel named the Gillant. Du- rant was aboard. Miller attempted to seize him. John Culpep- per, a firm and prompt man, made by the pressure of the times, collected a band of adherents and defended Durant. In Decem- ber, 1677, jSIiller and seven deputies appointed by the proprietors were all seized and imprisoned. Culpepper and his followers also took possession of the public funds and administered the government. A paper \vas prepared setting forth all the out- rages of Miller and grievances of the colonists. Just at this time the regularly appointed governor, Eastchurch, arrived. He sought aid from Virginia, but was very feebly seconded. The people had real and just cause of complaint. John Culpepper remained in office as governor for two years, and performed his duties to the satisfaction of the people. He then went to England, and bv the machinations of Miller was arrested and tried for treason in 16S0 in the court of King's Bench ; but the Earl of Shaftesbury defended him, and obtained his acquittal on the ground that " there never had been any regular government at Albemarle, and that its disorders were only feuds between the planters, which could only amount to a riot." • After Culpepper went to England, John Harvey was governor ; then John Jennings ; then Henrv Wilkinson. These all tried to carry on the government upon the " Grand Model " plan ; but they all failed as signally as had Sir George Carteret. "• The clumsv arrangements of the proprietors all failed "when they tried to apply them. Their degrees of nobility and the officers with titles were of no use in the woods of America. The people did not care to rent land when so much lay vacant, and the ma- 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 102. »iWd., 103. The Carolinas and yohn Locke. 169 chinery of their constiliitioa was ridiculed when their agents tried to put it in motion.'' ' And soon tVoni the fogs of this unhealthy misrule there i"Ose one of the meanest of all the men ever appointed in England to govern the colonies of America. Upon the death of the Earl of Clarendon, one Seth Sothel found the means of purchasing the interest of his heirs in the Carolina charter. He is so obscure in his birth and earh' life that the ordinary sources of history are searched in vain for traces of liim. We know, however, that the surviving proprietors elected him in 1680 to succeed Wilkinson, and that, bv reason of delays and some mishaps at sea, he did not reach the North Carolina colony until 1683. He entered upon his governorship, and alllicted the imhappy people for nearly six years. We need onlv give the words of an accepted historian for his career and character. Moore says: " It would have been better for the colon\ il" he had never come. By common consent he is remembered as the most beastly and detestable man ever per- mitted to rule in America. He broke up all trade between the colonists and the Indians, that he might monopolize the profits. He seized and confiscated, without the shadow of cause, merchant ships and ihoir cargoes. He imprisoned Thomas Pollock for at- tempting to appeal against his rapacity ; and George Durant, having expressed disapprobation of his course, received like treatment and further injury. He stole negroes, cattle, planta- tions ; and even ]-)e\\ ter dishes were not exempt from his filthy and rapacious hands. All his sympathies Avere ^vith villains like himself, and no man could be prosecuted to punishment who had money to bribe the governor. For five years was this monster endured, when in 1688 the people seized his person with the pur- pose of sending him to England for trial. He added cowardice to his other enormities, and, fearing judgment if he were tried in W^estminster, he begged that the General Assembly would take jurisdiction and punish him as he deserved. He was found guilty of all the charges, and compelled to leave the country for twelve months and the office of governor for all time." In 16S9, Philip Ludwell, of \"irginia, was appointed (jovernor of Albemarle. He ruled four years, and was succeeded by ISIajor Eillington, who governed wisely, and founded a family long re- verenced in the colony and State. During his term, in April, 1693, the cumbrous and unsuccessful plan of the " Grand Model'' 1 Eg-gleston's Ilousehold U. S., 5(5, 57. -Moore's Hist, of N. C, I. 26. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 103. lyo A History of the United States oj^ America. was abrogated, and finally laid aside. The people were relieved, and prosperity began to return. This experiment and the disor- ders attending its trial had undoubtedly wrought evil to the col- ony and prevented the inflow of settlers. Thomas Harvey, John Archdale and Henderson Walker gov- erned successively to 1704. The population of Albemarle had now reached nearly six thousand. Robert Daniel succeeded Walker. Under him there was disturbance arising from an at- tempt by act of assembly to establish the Church of England in the colony. The great body of the people steadily resisted this move- ment ; and upon appeal to the English House of Lords the act of assembly was decided to be null and void.^ John Archdale was a Quaker, and the influence of this society in the counsels of the colony was felt for her good. Subsecjuent governors were Thomas Carey, John Porter, and Edward Plyde, who was a relative of the reigning queen. Im- migration became active. In 1707 a large company of French Protestants settled on the river Trent. In 17 10 came a consid- erable number of persecuted German Lutherans.^ Soon a tide of Scottish, French, German and North Ireland people began to pour into the desirable parts of North Carolina. But with in- crease of population came the almost inevitable evil of an Indian war. Meanwhile the lower colony, which was afterwards South Carolina, was yearly. advancing in numbers and prosperity. The first permanent settlement was near Port Royal, in 1670, by a few emigrants from England under William Sayle, the first governor of the province.^ These emigrants had purchased from the Clarendon pi'oprietors. In 1 67 1, Governor Sayle left Port Royal and selected a site for a city on the Ashley river ; but finding that it could not be approached by vessels of large burden and deep draught, he again i"emoved his colonists to Oyster Point, at the junction of Ashley and Cooper rivers. Here, in 1680, were laid the founda- tions of the famed city of Charleston. In one year thirty houses w^ere completed. William Sayle died within a few months after this removal, and was succeeded in 167 1 by Sir John Yeamans, w^hose name has already become known to us in the history of the northern Carolina. He had not been entirely satisfied with his lands on Cape Fear river ; and when approached by the proprietors with 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 104. " Swinton's Cond. U. S., 76, 77. 3 Ramsay's Hist. S. C, in Stephens, 118. The Carol inas and yohn Locke. 171 an offer to appoint him governor of tlie southern colony he promptly accepted it. He carried with him nearly all of the fol- lowers who had come with him from Barbadoes to Clarendon/ He carried also at least two hundred slaves. They were the first imported into South Carolina. But in subsequent years the character of her soil, the heat of her seasons, and the cultivation of rice, indigo and cotton caused the labor of African slaves to be very profitable within her bounds. Consequently they increased so fast that they became far more numerous than the white population. In 1734, the negroes outnumbered the whites as five to one." And although this proportion was not maintained up to the time of the Revolutionary war, when the total population of the State was about one hundred and eighty thousand, yet, from the year 1830 onward, the slaves greatly out- numbei-ed the whites, and in 1S50 had reached the proportion of three hundred and ninety-five thousand to two hundred and sev- enty-five thousand.^ This ominous fact, uniting with interests almost exclusively agricultural, and with a large class of the whites privileged, by wealth, culture and leisure, to speculate upon problems of society and government, afterwards gave to South Carolina a leadership in thought and action productive of results grave and momentous beyond expression. During the administration of Governor Yeamans the Spaniards of Florida, finding Protestant populations coming nearer and increasing all the time, began to give serious trouble by send- ing emissaries to Charleston and stirring up the people, white and black, to revolt. But their schemes finally recoiled upon them. In 1673, large numbers of Dutch people from New York came southward in search of more congenial homes. Most of them settled in South Carolina.* Disputes arose between the English proprietaries and Sir John Yeamans because the profits from the colony were not considered proportionate to the heavy expenses incurred. The governor, being free from any ground of censure, and independent in mind and fortune, resigned his office, and returned to Barbadoes, vs^here he soon afterwards died. Joseph West succeeded him in 1674, and governed the colony for eight years. Then came a season of four years prolific of governors ; for no less than five — viz., Joseph Morton, Joseph West again, Richard 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 119. sSwinton's Cond. U. S., 80. 3 Art. So. Car., New Amcr. Encyclop., IV. 1G3. < Swinton's Cond. U. S., 78. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 119. 173 A History of the United States of America. Kyrle, Robert Quarry, and James Colleton — were in the office from 1682 to 1686/ These tAvelve years were embittered by almost ceaseless con- tests. The proprietors were still pressing Locke's " Grand Model " on the people, and the people were strenuously resisting. A small class, indulging aristocratic pretensions, favored the pro- prietary scheme, which embraced the establishment of the An- glican church with parishes, inductions, tithes and ritual forms, and embraced also the collection of rents from the " leet-men," who were to be forever without votes or political franchises. A vast majority of the people opposed all these things. A governor who sought to uphold the proprietor's policy was sure to meet so much of popular outcry, and even insult, that he speedily resigned. In 16S6 came a tide of immigration which ought to have been welcomed with the deepest sympathy and favor ; but it was not to be so. This immigration was that of thousands of Hugue7iots from France, driven away from their native homes bv the revoca- tion of the edict of Nantes. That wise edict had been granted in 1598 by the chivalrous King Henri Quatre, to secure liberty of conscience and regulated worship to his Protestant subjects. But Louis XIV., in 1685, under the influence of his bigoted and licen- tious concubines, revoked this edict. The disastrous results are affecting France to this day. The previous dragonjiades and the revocation operated to cause not less than three hundred and fifty thousand of the people of France, of the most virtuous, enterpris- ing and industrious classes, skilled in agriculture and manufac- tures, to quit her soil and seek refuge in foreign countries.^ Some of these came to the northern colonies of America, some to Virginia, some to North Carolina ; but the greater number came to South Carolina, inoved, perhaps, by memories of Coligny and Ribault. Coming as refugees from religious persecution and with high credentials as to morality and industry, they ought to have been warmly welcomed. The proprietaries looked on them with favor ; but this fact did not help them with the common English settlers. These were of that sturdy and obstinate race who had been born and trained under traditions causing them to hate France and everything French. They knew but little of the Huguenot history. They looked on these immigrants with dislike, and sought to shut them out from the rights and franchises enjoyed by themselves.^ 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 120. 2 Art. Huguenots, Srhafi'-Herzog Encyclop., II. 1034. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 120-122. Horace E. Scudder's U. S., 126. The Cai'oliuas and yohn Locke. ly-^ Another form of trouble beset the Huguenots. The John Locke " model " gave the men no rights in their lands except for their own lives, and subject to a tenure humiliating and oppressive. They naturally feared that their children v^^ould be left landless and destitute amid imfriendly surroundings.' It was not until 1696 after earnest exertions in their behalf by the eminent Quaker John Archdale (who had been transferred as governor to South Carolina from the Albemarle colony by the proprietors), that the prejudices against the Huguenots were removed, and law^s were passed giving them full equality with other citizens. From them descended some of the noblest and brightest names that have adorned the annals of South Carolina. Governor Colleton tried to collect quit-rents for the proprieta- ries, but he was met with opposition so stern and demonstrative that he was driven, in an hour of desperation, to proclaim martial law and call out the militia. The General Assembly met, and, nothing daunted, passed a resolution that the governor's act was a usurpation of power and an encroachment on their liberties. The governor sought in vain to awe them. In 1690 they passed a bill impeaching Colleton, declaring him disqualified for holding any ofhce, and giving him notice to leave the colony." And now, out of these turbid and troubled waters, rose a bad man, only too well known already in the northern colony. Seth Sothel appeared in Charleston, and, by the pretence that he held by assignment the rights of a proprietary, stepped into the gov- ernorship. He ruled, for a time, with a high hand ; seized lawful traders from Bermuda and Barbadoes as pirates, and imprisoned them until he had exacted as much money as he could as their ransom, took bribes from felons and traitors, and compelled honest planters to pay large simis for permission to retain their property.^ The people discovered him to be a fraud, and rose upon him to send him to England for trial. He begged to be tried by the colonial assembly, and was tried and convicted on thirteen charges. A peremptory order, November 8th, 1691, suspended him from all power in Carolina. He slunk back to the Albe- marle region, and never came to the public eye again. He died in 1694.* Philip Ludwell, from Virginia, was governor of both North and South Carolina for some time after 1693. In 1693 he pro- posed a new form of deed, which the proprietaries considered an 1 Stephens, 122. D. B. Scott's U. S., 115. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 120, 121. 3 Ibid., 121. * Bryant's U. S., II. 367. Stephens, 121. 1^4 ^ Historv of the United States of America. encroachment on their rights of tenure ; and so they removed him. In 1702, while James Moore was governor, war broke out be- tween Enghmd and Spain. The Spaniards in Florida were so near and so hostile that Governor Moore determined to attack them. He sailed from Charleston with a small fleet, carrying twelve hundred armed colonists and friendly Indians. He laid seige to the fort at St. Augustine, but failed to take it. The expedition was expensive and unsuccessful.^ But Governor Moore speedily recovered his reputation as a prompt warrior. The Appalachee Indians had become trouble- some and actively hostile. Moore invaded their country in 170S with a small army, defeated them in several encounters, killed numbers, burned their towns and villages, and compelled them to sue for peace, and to submit to the English authority. The pro- prietors thanked and the people applavided the vigorous governor.^ In 1706 a fleet of French and Spanish armed vessels appeared before Charleston and made an attack ; but they were easily re- pulsed, and retired. Both of the Carolina colonies had now be- come so flourishing and so full of people that Indian jealousy reached a crisis. In 171 1, the Tuscarora and Coree Indians formed a conspiracy to destroy the whites. Sixteen hundred warriors entered into the plot, which, as was the usage of North American savages, was one of profound treachery, secrecy and malignity. Small parties were sent out, who, by different roads, entered the white settle- ments as friends. The massacre was to begin everywhere the same night. On that night the savages entered the houses of planters, and asked for provisions. Then, pretending to be dis- satisfied \vith the food, they began the w^ork of murder. Men, women and children were slain without discrimination and with- out mercy. The savages rushed from house to house and slaugh- tered the scattered families. In one night one hundred and thirty- seven settlers were murdered in and near Roanoke. Bai'on Chris- topher De Graflenreid, a Swiss nobleman, was seized at his settle- ment on Trent river, together with Lawson, surveyor-general of the colony, and a negro assistant. Lawson and the negro were put to death -with cruel tortures ; but De Graflenreid escaped and was released. He ingeniously made the Indians believe that he was king of the Swiss, and that his people should occupy no larids without the consent of the Indians.'^ 1 Scott's U. S., 115, 116. Derrv's U. S.. 56. 2 Berry's U. S., 56. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 123. 3 Moore's Hist, of N. C, I. 33, 36. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 105, 307. The Carolinas and yohn Locke. \hi The condition of the Albemarle colony was deplorable. Their counsels were distracted by internal disorders and dissensions, and an Indian war, commencing ^vith an appalling massacre, was on them. But Governor Hyde realized the danger, and sought to meet it by the best means in his power. He appealed to Virginia and South Carolina. From Virginia he got no important aid ; but Governor Moore sent prompt and decisive help. Col. John Barnwell came from South Carolina with a regiment of militia and several hundred friendly Yemassee Indians. Hyde raised all the forces he could in North Carolina, and sent them to meet Barnwell when he emerged from the forests through which his long march had been made. On the 2Sth January, 1713, a stern battle was fought. The In- dians, under their chief, Handcock, had erected strong fortifica- tions on the river Neuse ; but on the approach of Barnwell's forces they came out and gave battle in the open field. A conflict, desperate and bloody, hand to hand, with sword and tomahawk, scalping-knife and clubbed musket, ensued. The sav- ages were defeated and fled to their works, leaving three hundred dead on the field, and one hundred prisoners in the hands of the whites. Handcock capitulated, and sin-rendered his fort, promis- ing peace ; but in a short time the treacherous murders were re- newed.^ To add to the distress of the Albemarle colony, yellow fever made its appearance. Many died, among whom w^as the gover- nor himself, who died September 8th, 17 12. He was succeeded by Thomas Pollock, a man of ability and firmness, but unpopular by reason of his high church notions and his strict enforcement of the navigation laws.^ But the danger was too imminent for delay. Again South Carolina came to the help of her sister colony. Col. James Moore, with fifty brave whites and a thousand friendly Indians, joined the Albemarle troops and advanced to attack Handcock, who, with his Indian warriors, held a fort called Nahuc, in the county of Greene. Colonel Moore stormed the fort at the head of his troops, and inflicted on the savages so heavy a loss that in a few days they surrendered, eight hundred sti^ong, as prisoners. The Tuscarora and Coree spirit was broken. Hopeless of success, they took up their march for the north, and rejoined their ancient kinsmen, the Iroquois of New York. Thus the Five Nations became the Six Nations.^ 1 Stephens, 107. 2 lud., 107, lOS. 3 Berry's U. S., 57. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 108. 1^6 A History of the United States of America. In 17 15, South Carolina \vas again involved in a formidable Indian war. It was with the Yemassee tribes, who were very strong and warlike, and occupied fastnesses in the southwestern border of the colony on the Savannah river. The immediate cause of ill blood was supposed to be some offence given and taken in reference to the Yemassees who, as friendly forces, took part with Colonel Barnwell in the defeat of the Tuscaroras in January, 1713.^ Whatever the cause, the savages were the aggressors, and, as usual, with treachery and massacre. On the morning of April 15, 1 7 15, they attacked Pocotaligo, and murdered one hundred whites without warning. The war commenced and was fiercely waged on both sides. Charles Craven was acting governor, and promptly ordered out all white men able to bear arms, and even enrolled some of the most faithful of the slaves. Colonel ]Mackey, with two hundred and forty-two men came up with the Yemassees, five hundred strong, sixteen miles from the Combahee river. After a sharp fight, in which the great su- periority of the white soldier was manifest, the Indians were routed with heavy loss, while Mackey lost only one killed and a few wounded. But the war continued. The country people fled in towards Charlestoti. On one plantation seventy whites and forty negroes had thi'own up a breastwork, and for some time defended them- selves against several hundred savages ; but, becoming discour- aged, they listened to lying proposals of peace, and were taken by surprise and nearly all slain." But retribution was at hand. Captain Chicken, with a well-armed and brave band of the Goose Creek inilitia, encountered the savages, and gave them a defeat so disastrous and bloody that they wholly retired, and the northern part of the province was made secure. The gallant captain maintained his right to take the name of the " game cock '' long before it v/as given by Colonel Tarleton to Sumter in the Revo- lution.'^ But the Yeniassees were still very strong in the southwest. Their force was estimated at nine thousand warriors, vvhile the muster-roll of South Carolina did not exceed twelve hundi'ed men. Yet Governor Craven determined to meet the enemy. His mes- sage to the assembly was urgent. He said : " Expedition is the life of action ; bring the women and children into our town, and 1 Steplieofi' Comp. U. S., 123. 2 Derrv's U. S., 65. Stephens, 124, 125. 3 ]>erry's U. S., 65. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 125. The Carolinas a?id yohn Locke. lyy all provisions from all exposed plantations. Virginia and New England must be solicited for aid." ' Arms were obtained from New England. \'irgin'ia sent a hun- dred gallant soldiers, thus proving that her previous failure to re- spond to appeals for aid was unavoidable. North Carolina sent a regiment from Cape Fear, under Col. IMaurice Moore. The war was pushed so vigorously that the Yemassees were defeated and speedily driven beyond the Savannah. They took refuge in Florida, and continued in small parties to infest the English colonies ; but there was no longer serious risk of danger. In ly i6 the war was considered to be ended. And nearly at the same time the proprietary government ex- pired by failure of all vital power. Robert Johnson, son of Sir Na- thaniel Johnson, was appointed governor in 1717, and was the last governor under the proprietors. General Francis Nicholson was sent to South Carolina as a sort of peace-maker, and was kindly received. But the end had come. The proprietors gave up the contest. In 1729, the English Parliament declared the charter to be forfeited. Except Carteret, the lords proprietary sold out their rights and claims under their patent to the English crown, then held by George II. The sum paid was about forty- five thousand Spanish milled dollars for North Carolina and the same for South Carolina." Henceforth they were separate colo- nies, under the control of king, lords and commons, but with their vested rights preserved. In 1694, the captain of a ship from Madagascar gave to John Archdale, the Governor of South Carolina, a bag of rice seed. He had seen it growing in oriental lands and thought it would make excellent food. The governor divided his little supply among his friends. They planted it in the moist lands near the coast, and a fine crop was the result. From that time rice has been a prime staple of South Carolina.^ King Charles desired to introduce the culture of grapes, al- monds, olives and the silk-worm in South Carolina, and sent over fifty families for the purpose. This well-meant eflort had not full success, but it added desirable elements to the popula- tion.* Cotton had been cultivated in and near Jamestown, Virginia, in 163 1, but it was found that the soil and seasons of the more southern colonies suited it better. It was not, however, until the invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 that this pro- 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S. 125. 2 lud., 12C. s Swinton's Cond. U. S., 78. ■• Quackenbos' U. S., 120. iy8 A History of the United States of America. duct started on that career in the Southern States of America which led to the dehision expressed in the formula : " Cotton is king." North and South Carolina both continued to prosper. The in- terior of the northern colony was found to be more fertile and attractive than the coast. In the period just before the war of the Revolution, North Carolina had a population of two hundred and sixty thousand and South Carolina of one hundred and eighty thousand. Few colonies had grown faster than these. CHAPTER XXIII. Georgia and General Oglethorpe. WE come now to the last in time and the most southern in place of the primitive thirteen colonies, which afterwards became the " United States of America," and each one of which w'as acknowledged to be a sovereign and independent State by the treaty of peace which terminated the Revolutionary war. Pennsylvania was settled seventy-four years after Jamestown, in Virginia, was begun, and fifty-one years passed between the settlement of Pennsylvania and that of Georgia. Thus it ap- pears that the actual period covered by the settlements of the thirteen original colonies was not less than one hundred and twenty-five years. Yet the last colony had the advantage of a century and a quarter of growth in Europe in ideas, civilization and religion. Her relative growth for the forty-three years from her birth to the Revolution was greater than that of any other of the " thirteen.'' ^ The moral purposes underlving the colonization of Georgia were higher than those on which any other colony was founded. Her historian, with a love not inexcusable, has said of her: "It was the first colony ever founded by charity. New England had been settled by Puritans, who fled thither for conscience sake ; New York by a company of merchants and adventurers in search of gain ; ^Maryland by Papists retiring from Protestant intoler- ance ; Virginia by ambitious cavaliers ; Carolina by the scheming and visionary Shaftesbury and others for private aims and indi- vidual aggrandizement ; but Georgia was planted by the hand of benevolence, and reared into being by the adventurous nurturings of a disinterested charitv.' To this it is only fair to add that Pennsylvania is pretermitted by Bishop Stevens. And as she was the next to the last, so was she next to the highest in the motives of her origin. But even William Penn fell below the broad, philanthropic and thoroughly Christian purposes of the founder of Georgia — General James Edward Oglethorpe. 1 Egglesloii's Uousehold U. S., C3. A. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 16G-169. 2 Bisliop Stevens' Hist, of Georgia, I. C8. [ 179 ] l8o A History of the United States of America. He was born December 21, 1688, at Westbrooke Place, near London, the country-seat of his father. Sir Theophikxs Oglethorpe. After his education at Oxford University he became, at the age of twenty-two, an ensign in the British army. He was a fine soldier and apt for command. At the age of twenty-six he was adjutant-general of the queen's forces. As aide to Prince Eu- gene he won high distinction in the campaigns against the Turks, and received the plaudits of his commander-in-chief. When peace returned in 17 18, he was elected a member of the English House of Commons for Hasle-mere ; and such was the confidence felt in him that he was continuously returned for thirty-two years. ^ He possessed, in strange equilibrium, the highest virtues both of the masculine and feminine character. " He was just and gen- erous ; and, while slow to forgive an injury, he never forsook a friend or forgot a favor. His charities and private benefactions were circumscribed only by a prudent regard for his means. Honor was his polar star, and he dreaded a stain more than a wound. No temptation, no lust of power, place, favor or for- tune, could allure him from what he deemed to be the path of duty and of rectitude." ^ The lavish grant of Charles H. to the Earl of Clarendon and others was wide enough to include what is now the State of Georgia. But the country below the neighborhood of Beaufort and to the Spanish province of Florida had not been occupied by permanent settlers. And so, after the purchase of the proprieta- ries' rights, the English crown was at liberty to carve out a new colony. On the 9th of June, 1733, King George W. issued to General James Oglethorpe, Lord Percival, and twenty other noblemen and gentlemen of England a royal patent, constituting them trus- tees, with powers of law-making and government, and conveying to them the territory " from the head- waters of the Savannah river to its mouth, thence along the coast to the Altamaha, and up that river to its head-waters, and thence westerly in direct lines from the head- waters of said rivers, respectively, to the south seas." ^ A part of this region lying between the Savannah and Altamaha had been conveyed in 17 17 by the South Carolina proprietaries to Sir Robert Montgomery, under the title of the " Margravate of Azilia," and with intent to keep alive something of the " Grand Model." But as no settlements had been made in it, and as the patent of the proprietaries had been annulled in 1739, it was included in the king's grant of 1733. 1 A. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 151. - Ibid., 151. s jud., 152. Georgia and General Oglethorpe. i8i To the territory thus granted the name of " Georgia " was given in honor of the king. The trustees adopted a common seal bearing the device of a group of silk-worms at their patient toils, and having the motto, Nan sibi sed aliis — " not for them- selves, but for others." Thus Oglethorpe's character and policy were impressed as a seal on his undertaking.' He desired to provide a place for comfortable homes for the poorer people of Great Britain who might wish to improve their condition, and to open an asylum on a large scale for imprisoned debtors, on whom the laws of England bore harshly, as he knew^ from his experience in Parliament, and to open a land of refuge for the persecuted and oppressed of all nations, and especially of Europe, where the wars of more than thirty years had left the people of the Palatinate in Germany destitute and wretched, and where the humble and pious people of the broad valley of Salza, between the Noric and Rhetian Alps, had been persecuted with whippings, burnings, murders and confiscations by the inhuman Duke Leopold of Austria from 1729 to 1733. These Salzburghers were descendants from the primitive Vallenses, or Waldenses, of the Piedmont valleys, and their only crime was their unconquer- able adherence to the doctrines, forms and life of a purely scrip- tvu'al Christianity." In November, 1732, Oglethorpe sailed from Gravesend in the ship Anne., with about one hundred and thirty emigrants. They landed, in January, 1733, first at Charleston, where they were cor- dially received by the governor and his people. At the head of his emigrants, one hundred and sixteen in num- ber, and attended by a body of South Carolina troops sent by the governor to protect them while they were building, Oglethorpe went from Charleston to Beaufort, where he permitted some rest and recreation.^ With a small party, Oglethorpe ascended the vSavannah river, and chose for the site of his settlement the blufl' on which the city of Savannah now stands. Half a mile off were the Yama- craws, a branch of the Muskogee tribe of Indians. Tomochichi was the chief. Pie promptly accepted the overtures of cordial amity and alliance tendered by Oglethorpe. Mary ]SIusgrove, the half-breed wife of an Indian trader, acted as interpreter. She has been called the " Pocahontas of the Georgia colony," but she fell far below the Indian princess both in lineage and in friendship for the whites. ' Eggleston's Household U. S., 65. Stephens' Oomp. U. S., 152. - Art. Salzburg, Sehaff-Herzog Eneyclop., IV. 2100, 2101. Stephens, 153. 5 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 152. Derry's U. 8., 67. i82 A History of the United States of America. The Yamacraw chief presented to Oglethorpe a buffalo robe painted on the inside, with the head and feathers of an eagle, saying : " The feathers are soft and signify love ; the buffalo skin is warm and means protection. Therefore, love and protect our little families/' ' Oglethorpe laid out the town of Savannah in streets and squares on the plan which still exists, and commenced building. His faine as a just and humane leader soon peneti-ated the wil- derness, and enabled him to make advantageous treaties with the lower Muskogees, the Creeks, the Cherokees and the Choctaws, on the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. He bought from the na- tives at fair prices the lands he needed for his settlements. The red men all had great confidence in him, and respected him as a second William Penn. But the classes of colonists he first brought to Georgia were not adapted to success. Broken-down tradesmen and insolvents, and people who had become poor because they had not firmness and energy enough to struggle with adverse fortunes in the old country, were not changed in character by coming to the New World. The progress of the colony was at first very slow. To this the policy of the trustees is supposed to have contri- buted as much as the indiflerent character of the settlers. The laws originally promulgated as to the acquisition of lands were somewhat narrow. All lands bought or held by the settlers re- verted to the grantors if the purchasers died without issue.^ This cut the sinews of exertion, for it took av\^ay the healthy stimulus of blood relation. The law ^vas changed, and imniediately im- provement began. Another law foi'bade indiscriminate trade with the natives. Such trade had, it is true, in the more northern colonies, led to great abuses ; but to forbid it, or even fetter it, discouraged many forms of legitimate barter and merchandise. Other laws forbade any importation of slaves and any importation or manufacture of rum. The colonists complained of these last two laws, because they deemed slave labor indispensable to the cultivation of rice, cotton and indigo in their warm climate, and because the inhibition as to rum cut them off from trade with the West India islands.^ These complaints finally prevailed, and the restraints were re- moved ; and Georgia grew in population and material wealth. But it would be of doubtful verity to say that she has been really iDerry's U. S., («. Quackenbos' U. S., 140. ^Goodricli's Pict. U. S., 137. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., lol-15C. Georgia and General Oglethorpe. 183 benefited by the withdrawal of these restrictions. The question is too complicated in morals and facts to admit of a definite solution. Among the settlers who came early to Georgia were fifty fam- ilies of the persecuted Salzburghers, who, by invitation of the trustees, came over in 1734. Baron Von Reck was their leader, with forty -one men, the rest women and children, making a total of about eighty souls. General Oglethorpe went down to meet them, and invited them to make their own selection of a place of residence. They chose a tract of land thirty miles from the sea, on " the banks of a river of clear water, the sides high, the coun- try of the neighborhood hilly, the valleys of rich cane land, intermixed wnth little brooks and springs of water." ^ Here they settled, naming their home Ebenezer — " the stone of help." And here they grew into a peaceful and prosperous colony, chiefly under the leadership of their spiritual guides, Grenau and Rev. John Martin Bolsius. Other settlers came. Six hundred arrived in various bands — generally unused to labor and very helpless and complaining.^ In 1734 Oglethorpe went to England and returned, bringing, at the expense of the trustees, some two hundred and twenty set- tlers. A body of sturdy Scotch Highlanders also came. All these immigrants enabled the governor to expand his settlements, and to form them around the region at the mouth of the Alta- maha and St. Mary's rivers, and at Darien, Frederica and Au- gusta.* When Oglethorpe returned to Georgia from England, in Feb- ruary, 1736, two men accompanied him, afterwards eminent in the religious history of the world. They were the brothers John and Charles Wesley. They came to preach the gospel to the na- tives, and to aid in the moral and religious improvement of the colony. They soon met the Lutheran settlement of Salzburghers on Ebenezer.; and to the impressions made on his heart and con- science by their unobtrusive piety, and their patience under previous persecution and sorrow, John Wesley ever thereafter attributed his own true conversion to God. Two years after- wards, on his return to England, he thus wrote in his journal : " It is now two years and nearly four months since I went to America to teach the Georgia Indians the nature of Christianity ; but what have I learned of myself in the meantime? Why, (what of all I least expected) that I, who went to America to con- vert others, was never myself, before that time, converted to God." * 1 A. H. Stephens' U. S.. 153. 154. ^D. B. Scott's U. S., 117. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 154. * Wesley's Journal, in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 156 184 A History of the United States of America. In a few years after their first settlement the products of the Salzburghers in raw silk alone brought a return of fifty thousand dollars a year. Indigo also became profitable. Orphan schools were established immediately after their arrival. All contributed to benevolent purposes, and the settlement grew steadily in pros- perity.^ In 1738, George Whitefield, the most eloquent and eft'ective preacher of his day, came to Georgia. He visited Ebenezer, and was so deeply impressed by the orphan school that he determined, if practicable, to establish others in the colony. He obtained funds, by private contributions and otherwise in England, and founded an orphanage near Savannah, which, with some modifi- cations in its powers and management, still exists.^ Nor can there be a doubt that his zeal and success in this form of Christian effort have been the moving power of many similar enterprises in North America, by which millions of helpless orphans have been maintained. The Wesleys and Bolsius remained steady in their opposition to the introduction of slaves into the colony. But George White- field, although he agreed with them when he first came over, changed his views, on the ground of his conviction that God had some wise end to accomplish in reference to African slavery, and that he believed it would terminate to the advantage of the Afri- cans.^ For this the pious Bolsius rebuked him sharply, doubtless by the true Protestant principle that neither a state nor an indi- vidual has a right " to do evil that good may come." The inspired apostle has settled that question in the negative by a teaching from heaven.* - Nevertheless, the side espoused by Whitefield prevailed, and the material results of the introduction of the labor of African slaves were too plainly enriching to permit the Georgians to rise above the moral level of all their sister colonies. But, while they grew and prospered, a dark cloud was rising south of them. The Spaniards of Florida regarded the settle- ments of the Carolinas and of Georgia as unlawful occupations of territory belonging to them. They manifested active opposition in many forms. They sought to stir up dissensions and revolt among the colo- nists themselves ; they sent emissaries for the purpose ; they sought to excite the Indians to make murderous attacks upon the whites ; they enticed away slaves from their owners in Georgia, harbored them when they fled to Florida, refused to re- • 1 Stephens, 156. 2 n^ia., 157. 3 jjyia., 157. * Romans iii. 8. Georgia and General Oglethorpe. 185 deliver them, and encouraged them by giving them lands in the Spanish province/ These repeated provocations could have only one tendency — viz., to open \var. Oglethorpe saw that war was inevitable, and prepared for it. lie was a soldier, and marked with a soldier's eye the causes which were sure to bring on a war between Eng- land and vSpain. In 1737 he went over to England and raised, equipped and disciplined a regiment of six himdrcd men, with which he returned to Georgia. He was appointed commander- in-chief of all the military forces of Georgia and South Carolina, and thenceforth always bore the title of general. But before the war was actually declared. General Oglethorpe, with far-reaching prudence and courage, undertook and accom- plished a semi-peaceful — semi-military journey among all the various tribes of Indians in the wilderness of the vast territory lying west and south of the present limits of Georgia. He was perfectly successful in establishing treaties and relations of peace with the Creeks, the Muskogees, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the Tallapoosas, and other tribes, whose chiefs met him in council and smoked with him the calumet of peace.'' The difficulty, danger and importance of this iourney, and its results, can hardly be overestimated. In 17391 "war was declared by England against Spain. Orders came to Oglethorpe to invade Florida, and, if practicable, to capture St. Augustine. lie received troops from South Caro- lina, and, in 1740, at the head of a force of two thousand men, embracing some friendly Indians, he invested St. Augus- tine. But after a few weeks of close blockade, some Spanish galleys succeeded in running the gauntlet and carrying fresh supplies to the beleaguered garrison. The besieging army be- came enfeebled by disease. General Oglethorpe was compelled very reluctantly to raise the siege and return with his forces to Savannah.^ In 1743, this attack was retaliated by a very formidable land and naval force of fifty-six vessels and about seven thousand troops, under the Spanish General Don Manuel De Montiano. Instead of sailing directly to Savannah, Tvlontiano proceeded to the mouth of the Altamaha. Here General Oglethorpe had only about eight hundred men on Cumberland Island. He promptly abandoned that point and concentrated his forces at St. Simons, on which was the town of Frederica. 1 Derry's U. S., 69. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 157. -Georgia Hist. Collec, I. 263. Mr. SpaHing's narrative, Stephens' Comp. U. S., 158, 159. 5 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 15<). IX B. Scott's U. S., 117. 1 86 A History of the United States of America. On the 22d of June, 1742, the Spanish forces appeared off St. Simons. Oglethorpe hastened from Frederica to meet them. The disparity of strength was great, and the peril proportionate. But his spirit rose with the danger. He wrote to the home government : " We are resolved not to suffer defeat ; we will rather die like Leonidas and his Spartans, if we can but pro- tect Georgia and Carolina and the rest of the Americans from desolation." ' After a brave resistance, in which the Spaniards lost a number in killed and wounded, and the colonials not a man, the fleet suc- ceeded in passing up the river. Oglethorpe fell back to Frederica, but met the foe near the place and defeated a part of his forces by a fierce attack of the Highlanders under Sutherland and Mackay. The Spanish leader, Barba, fell mortally wounded and w^as captured. The enemy retreated to their camp near Fort Simon. Learning of dissensions among their commanders, Oglethorpe determined to surprise them by a night attack. On the night of the 12th July, he moved forward with five bundled men, and was recon- noitering their position with a small party, when a French soldier in his party treacherously fired his musket and ran into the lines of the enemy. General Oglethorpe's position was now critical, for he knew that the deserter would make known his weakness. He devised a stratagem, and it was attended with singular success. Returning to Frederica, he wrote a letter to the deserter, ask- ing him to urge the Spaniards to an immediate attack, but if he could not bring on such attack, then to persuade them to remain where they were three days longer, as within that time he expected six British war ships and two thousand troops from Carolina. He intrusted this letter to a Spanish prisoner, who was released on his promise to deliver it to the deserter. But instead of this, he delivered it to the Spanish commander-in-chief, as Oglethorpe fully expected that he would do. This letter greatly perplexed Montiano : he caused the deserter to be seized and put in irons, and while he was deliberating what further course to pursue, three ships with troops on board, sent by the Governor of South Caro- lina, did actually appear off the harbor. In a season of conster- nation, the Spaniards burned their fort and fled with precipitation, leaving their cannon and militarv stores. This bold and successful stratagem saved Georgia and the Carolinas, and added much to the military fame of Oglethorpe.^ iStephens'Comp. U. S.,160, 2/bW., 160, 161. Berry's U. S, 76, Georgia and General Ogletliorpc. 187 His memory has been reflected on by a modern historian as soiled by this incident.' But it was a justifiable stratagem of war. It involved no falsehood, but presented a series of facts from which the enemy drew a false inference. Complaints were publicly made against General Oglethorpe in reference to his military conduct of the siege of St. Augustine. In 1743 he returned to England, and after the fullest inquiry was honorably acquitted of all ground of censure in that matter. He never returned to Georgia, but continued to manifest the warmest interest in her progress, as well as in all of the North American colonies.^ In 1744 he was united in marriage to the only daughter of Sir Nathan Wright, of Cranham Hall, Essex county. Her father had been lord chancellor under William III. and Qiieen Anne. She was the only daughter, and a lady of wealth, beauty and high accomplishments. In the war of 174S) caused by Charles Edward the young pretender, General Oglethorpe was actively engaged as major-general under Marshal Wade. In compliment to him one of the cavalry companies assigned to his command was called the " Georgia Rangers," and rendered brave service. On the 33d February, 176^, he was made general of all his majesty's forces ; and from that time his name was on the army- list as the first and oldest officer in the British military service. When the Revolutionary war broke out, in 1775, he was offered the supreme command of the English forces in America. His answer was : " I know the Americans well ; they can never be subdued by arms, but their obedience can be secui'ed by doing them justice." ^ He was willing to take the command oft'ered on condition that he should have complete control over the questions of grievances and reconciliation. This did not suit the English ministry with Lord North at its head. Sir William Howe was appointed instead of Oglethorpe. God was directing for the good of Amer- ica and the world. Had this popular and enlightened British officer been appointed, it is probable that in the early stages of the struggle a reconciliation would have taken place, and thus American independence would have been indefinitely post- poned. Oglethorpe had done his work faithfully in Georgia, and the germs of success planted under his care sprang up and produced an abundant harvest. The subdivisions, first called districts, were 1 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 137, 138. "- Art. Oglethorpe, Am. Encyclop., XII. 49G, 497. 3 McCall's Georgia. Ramsay's Am. Eev., Stephens, 16:2. i88 A History of the United States of America. ruled by good and wise men. The Indian tribes had been so permanently improved by the humanity and good-Avill shown to them, that they for a long time remained peaceable. By the treaty of Paris of 1763, to which England, France and Spain were all parties, all the territory westward of the Altamaha river, and along the coast to the mouth of the St. Mary's, and up that river to the head-waters of its southernmost branch, thence westward to the Mississippi, became the undisputed territory of Georgia, A grand council was held, and treaty made from the 5th to the loth of November, 1763, at Augusta, Georgia, between the governors of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia on the one side, and the highest representative chiefs of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Catawbas on the other side, by which, for an agreed consideration, these tribes surrendered their rights of occupancy to a very large terri- tory lying on the coast between the Altamaha and the Savannah rivers, and agreed to terms of peace. ^ The policy of land tenures, early adopted in Georgia, contrib- uted much to her welfare. The trustees were prohibited from holding themselves any interest in the lands of the colony, and also prohibited from ever granting more than five hundred acres to one person. Head rights, or land in moderate quantities, were granted to all who would occupy and cultivate them, at no cost to the owners save the actual expenses of surveying, fixing limits and ascertaining boundaries. '^ This enlightened policy, with peace with the natives, and other happy auspices, operated so favorably that Georgia grew fast in every element of prosperity. Her colonial governors acted up to this idea of "head rights." By a treaty with the Cherokees in 1774, a very large territory was acquired for cultivation ; and when Governor Wright caused the land courts to be opened in Augusta and Petersburg, more than three thousand applicants for land grants appeared in one day ! This liberal land scheme " put the crov^^n of industrial glory on her head and the rock of con- scious independence beneath her feet." * In 1752 the trustees had surrendered the charter to the Crown, and Georgia became a royal province ; but her land policy -was continued. In July, 1776, the population of Georgia was at least fifty thousand ; and as only forty-three years had passed since her first colonization, it follows that she had grown faster than any other colony. 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 165. ^Ihid., 167. 3 Quoted by A. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 169. CHAPTER XXIV. Early Indian Wars. IT now becomes necessary that we shall give special attention to the early wars waged between the aborigines and the white settlers in North America. These wars -were peculiar in this, that they seldom resulted in conquest, peace, and the subjection or absorption of the conc[uered nation by the conqueror, as former wars between superior and inferior races had done. These Amer- ican wars tended always to extermination of the savages ; and this work is going on still, whenever w^ar is resumed. Has this result been the fault of the Christian settlers who came to America, and of the communities which they established? To a limited extent it has ; but these limits are small. We do not claim that the colonists were always blameless. But those wars have in nearly all cases been the result of the unwillingness of the Indians (arising from native depravity, fos- tered and strengthened by long continuance in the special sins of malice, revenge, falsehood, fraud, cruelty, implacability, malignity, pride and selfishness) to adopt the spirit and habits of the civil- ized and Christian life. No serious believer in revealed Christianity can doubt that the Divine plan for the salvation of the world is that the gospel of Christ "beginning at Jerusalem" shall be proclaimed, and shall spread from people to people and from nation to nation, until all shall be evangelized. If, in this grand work, any people shall refuse to accept the teachings of Christianity in spirit and matter, and shall pertina- ciouslv and finallj" oppose themselves to it, their extermination is certain. Christians are never authorized to act merely under the spirit of revenge or retaliation. But Christians are solemnly bound to defend their liberties, their homes, their wives and chil- dren ; and if, in order to do this, it becomes necessary to destroy savages who, after full opportunity to accept Christianity and live Christian lives, have refused to do so, and have waged cruel, murderous, relentless war against women and children, this de- struction becomes as lawful and necessary as the extermination of wild beasts, such as tigers, wolves and venomous serpents. [ 189 ] 190 A History of the United States of America. It is not the will nor the plan of Divine power, wisdom and goodness that the fairest, richest, grandest and most healthful parts of the earth shall be held by a few savages, to the exclusion of millions of the human race bringing with them the best insti- tutions of Christianity, science, art, culture and industry. In the exact measure and extent in which the Indians of North America have accepted the religion of Christ, fi"eely offered to and urged on them from the beginning of discovery and colonization, in that measure and extent have they been preserved and made happy and prosperous. As standing witnesses of this truth, we have the Cherokees, Choctaws, and other Christianized Indians of Western America. Samson Occum was a native Indian of the Mohican tribe, born at the Indian settlement on the river Thames between Norwich and New London, in the year 1723. He became a Christian ininister, and though not perfectly sanctified, yet he so lived and repented and believed and preached as to bring many others to Christ. He wrote a hymn on the necessity of the new life from heaven, which has been the means of stimulating thousands of souls to seek it.^ Therefore, Christ is as perfectly adapted, to the salvation of Indians as of others, and as freely offered to them as to others. Nor can it be said with truth that the devout men who com- posed a part of every band of colonists that came early to North America felt no interest in the spiritual life of the natives, or neg- lected any means in their power for promoting it. Wildly con- stituted as were the chief elements of the early Virginia settlers, yet they had among them such men as Rev. Alexander Whitaker, of the Anglican church, and others like him, who worked earnestly for the salvation of the Indians. The hardy and self-denying labors of the Jesuit fathers who came \vith the early French colonists have passed into history. By day and night, in winter and summer, amid storm and calm, in forest and field, on the land, the lakes, the rivers, undeterred by hardships, persecutions and savage cruelties, they patiently preached to the red men the love of Christ and the virtue of his atonement, and they esteemed it a sufficient reward that many of these sons of the forest, with their wives and children, received into their hearts and exhibited in their lives the immortal power of the life and death of the incarnate Son of God. iSprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, III. 192-195. The hymn closes with these words: " The sinner, by his justice slain, '' Now, by his grace, is born a^ain, And sings redeeming love." Early Indian Wars. 191 Systematic efforts were also made by the more earnest Chris- tians of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies to evangel- ize the Indians. The family of the Mayhews worked among the red men of Martha's Vineyard for many years, and Experience Mayhew had six congregations of natives, translated suitable por- tions of the Holy Scriptures into their language, wrote the lives of thirty Indians, all of whom were preachers, and spent sixty- three years of his ministry chiefly among them.^ But of all the New England apostles to the Indians, John Eliot was most eminent. He was born in England in 1604, and had been an usher in a grammar school under Rev. Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, from whom he imbibed much of the evangelistic spirit. He came to Boston in 1631, and settled the next year in Roxbury, where he lived nearly sixty years, the rest of his life. He became deeply interested in the salvation of the Indians, whom he believed to be descendants from the ten lost tribes of Israel.^ His first work was to learn their language, to which he devoted many years. He then gave all his leisure time to a translation of the Bible into the Algonquin tongue. This work still exists, but is supposed never to have been very useful as a spiritual message to the red men because of their almost numberless dialects. It is believed. that no living man now could read this translation with intelligent apprehension of the meaning of the words. The long- est word in the work is here reproduced : Watappcsittukgusson- nookivehtunkquoh^ which, rendered into English, means " kneeling down to him.'" After mastering their language, Mr. Eliot was indefatigable in his labors for the welfare of the Indians, praying with them, tell- ing them of Christ and his life and death for sinners, discourag- ing the use of intoxicating drinks among them, instructing them in the devout and happy observance of the holy Sabbath day, and teaching them the Christian virtues. He furnished the men with spades, shovels, plows and crow-bars, and the women with spinning-wheels, and urged them to peaceful industry. These good words and works wrought their effect, and soon consider- able numbers of " pi^aying Indians " were gathered in his neigh- borhood.* But the numbers hopefully renewed were very small. The savages in general w^ere strongly averse to the doctrines and pre- 1 Art. Mavhew, SchaflF-Herzog Encyclop. of Rel., 11. Goodrich's Pict. Hist. U. S., 99. 2 Goodrich's U. S., 99. ^ ppof. George F. Holmes' School Hist. U. S., 46. ♦Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 99, 100. Eggleston's Household U. S., 82. 1^2 A History of the United States of America. cepts of Christianity, which forbade the dispositions and practices regarded by them as highest and most praiseworthy. Very soon the " praying Indians " were looked on with dislike and distrust by both red men and whites.^ As the white settlements increased and their numbers grew, savage jealousy and hatred became more manifest. In 1637 came the first open war. It was with the Pequot Indians of Connec- ticut. They were the most powerful and warlike of the New Eng- land tribes. They, as usual, first manifested their hatred by secret murders and outrages. Finding that the whites sternly avenged these wrongs, they sent messengers to enlist the Narragansetts into an alliance for war. We have seen how Roger Williams successfully exerted himself to prevent this league. Thus the Pequots were left to maintain the war without the assistance of other tribes ; but they were numerous and fierce. Their chiefs were Sassacus and Mononotto. They had their for- tified village on the Mystic river, and continued daily their mur- ders and depredations. In April they waylaid the people at Wethersfield as they were going to the fields to labor, killed six men, three women and twenty cows, and carried two young women into captivity.^ The General Court at Hartford, May i, 1637, resolved to pros- ecute the war, and voted to raise ninety men — forty-two from Hartford, thirty from Windsor and eighteen from Wethersfield. Massachusetts resolved to send two hundred and Plymouth forty men to aid Connecticut in what was felt to be a common danger. But in the approaching battle, only the troops from Connecticut, aided by nearly five hundred friendly Indians — Mohicans, under Uncas, and Narragansetts, under Mian-tonionoh — took part.^ Captain John Mason commanded — a brave and good soldier, trained in European wars. He had learned Indian warfare, and knew its methods. Even before the march, an incident occurred, showing that, whether friendly or hostile to whites, Indians were savages. Uncas and his Mohicans, in scouting, fell in with forty Pequots, routed them, killed seven, and took one prisoner. He had been a perfidious miscreant, a spy, who, professing friend- ship, had been present at several murders of whites, and kept Sassacus informed of every avenue and means of attack. The Mohicans executed him according to their ancestral forms. They kindled a large fire, then tore the victim limb from limb, barba- 1 Thalheiraer's Eclec. U. S., 60, Gl. 2 c. B. Tavlor's Centen. U. S., 44 3 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 44-50. Early Indian Wars. 193 rously cutting the yet quivering flesh to pieces, handing the limbs and fragments, half cooked, around, so that each might eat a part, singing and dancing all the time with furious gestures and tumult. The bones and such parts of the captive as were not eaten were thrown into the flames and burned to ashes.* These were the usages of what were called " friendly Indians," and especially of the tribe afterwards immortalized in fiction by the genius of an American author ! '^ When the small force under Captain Mason drew near to the Pequot fortifications the Indians fell to the rear, and evidently shrank from the fierce struggle that was at hand. Their savage leaders openly declared that they were afraid to encounter the formidable Pequots.'* But Mason and his resolute men pressed on. Rev. Mr. Stone, of Hartford, had accompanied them as chaplain, and by his prayers and encouraging words stimulated them to fight for wives and children, firesides and altars. They rested at night after their ^vearying march to reach the swamp between two hills, where the Pequots were in their in- trenched village and camp. Before the dawn of the next day the assault commenced. Cap- tain Mason pressed to the northeastern entrance ; Captain Un- derbill to the western. When they came near, a dog barked ; an Indian, in a loud voice, cried out, " O-wanux! Oivanux / ^^ — "Eng- lishmen ! Englishmen ! " The Pequots rallied, but the whites poured upon them, firing their muskets, and, entering their lines sword in hand, routed them with such slaughter that they broke and fled to their wigwams and other places of shelter. But they were not yet conquered, and continued the contest with so much obstinacy that the result was doubtful. Then Mason reached a stern, but unavoidable, resolve. He cried out : " We must burn them." ' He rushed into a wigwam, where a Pequot brave saw him and was drawing his bow to its utmost tension to send an arrow through Mason's heart, when Sergeant Davis, by a timely stroke of his sword, severed the bow-string and struck down the archer.^ Seizing a burning brand, Captain Mason set fire to the dry mat- ting of the wigwam. The flames leaped up instantly, and, spread- ing from hut to hut, could not be checked. The battle continued, but the Pequots were dismayed, and were killed in hundreds. This scene in the wilds of the American forests was a reproduc- tion in miniature of what war had done in the Old World. A 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 45. - J. Fenimore Cooper's " Last of the Mohicans." 3 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 47-49. < Ibid., 51. Goodrich's Plct. U. S., 83. 5 Taylor's Cent. U. S., 54. 13 194 ^ History of the United States of Atnerica. well-known New England historian says : " Deep volumes of smoke rolled up to heaven mingled with the dying shrieks of mothers and infants, while the aged and infirm were consuming in the flames." ^ The result w^as no longer doubtful. The Mohicans and Nari'a- gansetts now rushed in with savage outcries and took part in the frightful work so well suited to their modes of warfare. The Pequot power was annihilated in this one campaign. They lost seventy wigwams and not leSs than six hundred war- riors, besides the many women, children, aged and helpless, who perished in the flames. The Massachusetts forces arrived and pressed on the fierce work. Some of the men and women were taken as captives and sold into slavery among the New England colonies.^ Massachusetts sent some as slaves to the West India islands. The result need hardly be told. The Indian can stand torture, but he cannot live in slavery. All who were enslaved perished. A sad remnant of sixty or seventy, under Sassacus and Mon- onotto, took up their dismal pilgrimage towards the Hudson river. Already they were yielding to the inexorable destiny of their race, so pathetically depicted by a gifted American jurist : " Everywhere at the approach of the white man they fade away. We hear the rustling of their footsteps, like that of the withered leaves of autumn, and they are gone forever ; they pass mourn- fully by us, and they return no more." ^ Sassacus and most of his followers were slain by the Mohawks, who sent his scalp to Connecticut. The wife and children of Mononotto had been captured by the New England troops. She had been very kind to fe-male captives taken from the whites. She behaved with modesty and dignity. Governor Winthrop gave orders for her protection, and the family were at last re- united. This stern and terrible blow struck by the colonists awed the savages ; and peace was, in substance, preserved for forty years. But it could not be permanent while Indians remained and their nature was unchanged. The good chief Massasoit, of the Wampanoags, had kept up his friendly relations with the Plymouth colonists. But after his death his son and successor in authority, Philip of Pokanoket, who became chief sachem on the death of his older brother, Alexander, and who is generally known as King Philip, assumed 1 Goodrich's U. S., early edition. 2Taylor'sCent. U. S., 50. Goodricli's Pict. U. S., 85. 2 Story's Diminution of the Indian Tribes. Early Indian Wars. 195 hostile relations to the whites, and secretly conspired for their destruction. He was specially unfriendly to the "praying Indians," whom he regarded as traitors to their savage traditions and unworthy of trust/ He has been represented as a man without eloquence or courage ; ^ but it is certain that he exercised a prevalent influence over all the tribes whom he governed or visited, and that he planned his war in the form best adapted to ruin the whites. The outbreak was in 1675. Sassamon, a converted Indian, in- formed the Massachusetts and Plymouth authorities of Philip's preparations for war. In a short time thereafter this " praying Indian " was murdered. His murderers were discovered, seized, tried, convicted and executed. This was soon followed by the murder of nine white men by the Indians. Philip is said to have wept when he heard that this white blood had been shed.^ If he did, it was probably because he dreaded the premature explosion thus brought on. The war that followed was the true type of Indian warfare. Philip never ventured to meet the whites in open battle unless he was surprised. His policy was secret movements upon unpro- tected towns or houses ; the night approach and assault ; the ap- palling war-whoop ; the surrounding of a few men and helpless women and children by an overwhelming force of savages in war-painf and with bows, arrows, clubs, tomahawks and such fire-arms as they had been able to buy or steal ; the setting of fire to the houses, and the indiscriminate murder of all the hapless in- mates. Such was King Philip's war, and it was carried on with a stern persistence and ferocity which carried consternation and horror into the bravest hearts of New England. The first attack was on Swanzey, in the Plymouth colony, on the 24th of June, 1675. The people were going home from church on a day of fasting and prayer, \vhen the savages fell on them and killed ten of their number. Plymouth colonists pre- pared for war, and IMassachusetts sent forces to help them. They attacked Philip, killed six of his wai'riors, and compelled him to flee to a swamp near the present site of Tiverton. Here he de- fended himself, and by sudden sallies and ambuscades gained some advantages. Philip, fearing that he would be surrounded and starved, es- caped to the Nipmucks, a tribe in Worcester county. The colo- nists sent embassadors and troops to make a treaty with these 1 Eigleston's Household U. S., 82. "- A. S. Barnes & Co.'s U. S. (note), 58. 3 Art. King Philip, New Am. Eneyclop., XIII. 215. MeCabe's U. S., in Stephens, 127, 128. 196 A History of the United States of Atnerica. Nipmucks, but they were led into ambush, and sixteen of their number killed and wounded. The rest fled to Brookfield. The Indians pursued, and burned all the houses except that which the whites occupied. They surrounded that, and poured through every aperture a discharge of arrows and musket-balls for two days. They then prepared to burn it by shooting arrows on fire, and by thrusting against it a cart loaded with flaming tow ; but a heavy shower of rain put out the flames, and the approach of white troops put the savages to flight.' The habitual scenes of those days have been thus described : "The laborer in the field, the reapers as they went forth to har- vest, men as they went to milk, the shepherd boy among the sheep, were shot down by skulking foes, whose approach was invisible. Who can tell the heavy hours of the woman of that dav.^ The mother, if left alone in the house, feared the tomahawk for herself and children. On the sudden attack, the husband would fly with one child, the wife with another, and perhaps only one escape. The village cavalcade making its way to meeting on Sundays, in files, on horseback — the farmer holding the bridle in one hand and a child in the other, his wife seated on a pillow behind him — it may be with a child in her lap, as was the custom in those days — could not proceed safely ; but, at the moment when least expected, bul- lets would whiz amongst them, discharged with fatal aim from an ambuscade by the wayside." "The Indians hung upon the skirts of the English villages like the lightning upon the edge of the clouds." ^ King Philip w5s plotting everywhere, and succeeded in draw- ing to his support nearly all the tribes of New England. Unex- pected and desolating attacks were inade on nearly all the towns and isolated families. Deerfield, in Massachusetts, was stealthily approached, and in the confusion and bloodshed fire was applied, and nearly all of the buildings were destroyed. Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, was the day generally preferred by the sav- ages for these assaults.* Hadley, in Connecticut, was approached by a strong force of Indians while the whites were at worship in their church. The men hastily rallied, and, putting their women and children in sheltered places, advanced upon the foe. The Indians resorted to their usual strategy of fighting behind trees, fences, and in am- buscades, and, as they were more numerous than the whites, the 1 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 110. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 80. McCabe, In Stephens' U. S., 129, 130. s Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 110, 111. Bancroft's U. S., II. 103. 8 McCabe's U. S. Stephens, 130. Early Indian Wars, 197 battle was doubtful. At this moment a mysterious leader — a stranger to nearly all who saw him — a man of noble presence and flowing white beard — took command of the colonists, rallied them, threw them into commanding positions, and by his voice and his example so inspirited them that they drove the savages from their hiding-places, slew many of them, wounded and cap- tured more, and put the whole to flight. The leader then van- ished as mysteriously as he had come. This was Colonel Gofte, one of the regicide members of the English Parliament, who had voted the death of Charles I., and upon whose head a price had been Hxed. In this age of skepticism attempts have been made to discredit this incident of history ;^ but it is authenticated by an array of evidence suflicient to induce belief.^ In October, 1675, Philip returned to Mount Hope, but found his home in ruins. He then took refuge among the Narragan- setts, who sheltered him and aided his schemes of war, notwith- standing their treaty with the whites. The colonists, justly ap- prehending that this strong tribe in their midst would soon be won over by Philip to active and murderous war, determined to commence hostilities. A military force, under Colonel Josiah Winslow, was collected, and moved upon the Narragansetts in December, 1675. They were three thousand strong, and had built a fort of palisades in a swamp near the present site of Kingston, Rhode Island. It was almost inaccessible, having but one narrow entrance by a line of fallen trees.' An Indian guided the colonists. A desperate fight of two hours enabled the whites to force an entrance into the savage stronghold. The wigwams were set on fire, and all were soon in flames. The savages were totally defeated and driven into the swamp, where many perished beneath the sluggish waters. Others wandered through the frozen woods without shelter, dig- ging for nuts and acorns under the snow. The power of this strong tribe was hopelessly broken. They lost a thousand slain, and almost as many wounded and prisoners. The English loss was also heavy, amounting to six captains and two hundred and fifty men killed and wounded.^ Canonchet, the Narragansett chief, survived. He was uncon- quered. He said : " We will fight to the last man rather than become servants to the English." He was captured near Black- stone in April, 1676, and was oftered his life if he would induce 1 Ex. : Note in Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 57, 58. 2 Stephens, 130. McCabe's U. S. Bancroft, II. 101. Goodrich, 111, 112. Quackenbos, 111, 3 McCabe's U. S. Stephens, 130. 4 Compare Goodrich, 112. Stephens, 131. Quackenbos, 111, 112. Bancroft, II. 101, 105. 198 A History of the United States of Ajnerica. the Indians to make peace. He scornfully refused, and when sentenced to death said : " I like it well ; I shall die rather than lower myself.'" Horrible indeed was a war in which such a prisoner was put to death in cold blood. It was extermination for one side or the other. King Philip fled to the Mohawks, in the New York province, and sought to induce them to take up arms against the whites. Failing in his purpose, he returned to his lurking-places in New England, and by his malign influence roused his savage allies to ferocious raids. Hardly a town escaped. Rhode Island and Plymouth colonies were scourged with fire and tomahawk. Even the aged and loving Roger Williams was obliged to take up arms. Lancaster, ISIedford, Weymouth, Groton, Springfield, Sudbury and Marlborough, in Massachusetts, and Providence and War- wick, in Rhode Island, were assaulted and destroyed, in whole or in part, and other settlements suffered severely.'' Nor w^ere the savages always unsuccessful in combat. Captain Lathrop, with eighty young men — " the flower of Essex county " — was guarding some teams loaded with grain from Deerfield to Hadley. Passing thi-ough a thick wood, they stopped to gather grapes. Suddenly hundreds of Indians were on them. Seventy young soldiers and twenty teamsters were slain. Hearing the guns, troops came from Deerfield to their assistance, and arrived in time to kill or wound one hundred and fifty of the savages and put the rest to flight, with the loss of only two whites. This battle-ground was afterwards known as " Bloody Brook." ^ In the spring of 1676, Captains Wadsworth and Pierce, each with fifty men, and the latter with twenty friendly natives, were suddenly beset by hostile Indians, and none escaped with life. Men captured by the savages were almost always put to death with the torture of fire. In the quaint words of Cotton Mather, the red men "roasted their prisoners out of the world."* But the end was coming. The tribes began to quarrel among themselves, and to fall away from Philip. In June the Nipmucks submitted. The tribes on the Connecticut refused to shelter Philip any longer. In proud scorn of danger, he returned to Mount Hope to die. One of his people urged submission. Philip struck him dead with his own hand. Captain Church marched with troops to the fastnesses about Mount Hope, and succeeded in capturing the wife and little son of the king. Then that 1 McCabe's U. S. Bancroft, II. 105, 106. 2 Goodrich, 113. Stephens, 131, \7l. ^Everett's Artdre=s at Bloody Brook, 37. Bancroft, II. 104. Goodrich, 111. *Quackenbos' U. S., 112, 113. Early Indian Wars. ig^ proud heart which had borne unmoved the reproaches of his ene- inies and of his own people gave way. He was heard to cry out in despair : " My heart breaks ! I am ready to die ! " Captain Church quickly closed all avenues of escape and ad- vanced on him. He was seen making a final eflort to break the armed lines. A colonist soldier took aim at him, but his gun missed fire. An Indian fired, and the bullet pierced King Philip's heart, and he fell dead. Church's men uttered a shout of tri- umph. The body of this unconquerable Indian sachem was quartered and treated with unworthy indignities. His head w^as sent to Plymouth ; one of his hands was given to the Indian who slew him.^ The young son "of Philip, nine years of age, the rightful king of the ancient tribe of the Wampanoags, and the grand- son of Massasoit, who had been the early and faithful friend and protector of the Plymouth colonists, was transported to the island of Bermuda and sold as a slave.^ Nothing in all the unhappv and inconsistent history of the Puritans and their de- scendants on the subject of slavery has left a deeper stain than this event. With the death of Philip the war ended. A few fitful cruel- ties on the borders of Maine occurred ; but the spirit of the New England savages v^^as broken. They fell asunder. Of the Nar- ragansetts scarcely a hundred men were left alive. The work of extermination was begun. But though New England conquered, her loss was heavy. She contained at that time about one hundred and twenty-five thou- sand inhabitants, of whom probably twenty-five thousand were able to bear arms. She lost more than six hundred soldiers and un- counted numbers of non-combatants, chiefly women and children. The war had endured barely two years, and yet in that time six hundred dwelling-houses and twenty villages and dawning settle- ments had been destroyed. The disbursements and losses amounted in value to half a million of dollars.' Aloreover, a heavy debt had been contracted, which the mother country might, wnth per- fect equity, have been expected to pay ; but New England never asked this, and paid it all herself.* Heavy as were these losses, they ^vere more than compensated by the gains. The savages never by themselves rose again to disturb the peace of New England. 1 Quackenbos' U. S., 114. -Goodrich, 113, Bancroft, II. 108, 109. Quackenbos' U. S., 113. Deny, 62. 3 Bancroft, It. 109. Goodricli's Pict. U. S., 113. *Taylor'sCenten. U. S., 88. Stephens, 132, 133. 200 A History of the United States of America. An incident following the Pequot war will further illustrate the stern depravity of the best tribes of the Indians. The Mo- hicans were lasting friends of the people of Connecticut, and it is said not a drop of the blood of any colonists was shed on her soil during all the horrors of King Philip's war.' But at the close of the strife between the Narragansetts and Mohicans, Miantonomoh, the chief w^ho had provoked the war by attacking the Mohicans, was taken prisoner. Uncas, the Mohican sachem, claimed him as his rightful captive. His fate was referred to the " Commissioners of the United Colonies " — three English gentle- men — for decision. They decided to surrender the captive to Uncas, who carried him beyond the borders of Connecticut, struck him down with his tomahawk, carved pieces of the yet living flesh from hfs shoulder, and ate them greedily, declaring that the flesh of his enemy was the sweetest of morsels ! '^ The conversion or destruction of such men before the advancing step of Christian civilization was inevitable ; and conversion was rare. We have purposely dwelt at some length on these wars — the Pequot war, the King Philip war, and similar wars in New York, Virginia and the Carolinas — because they vividly illustrate the unchanging character and disposition of the North American Indian, and give the key to the mystery of his fate. These wars, with some few like struggles to be hereafter noted, were the only wars that could be truly designated as " Indian wars." The wars afterwards known as " King William's war," " Qjieen Anne's war" and "King George's war" did not begin with warlike uprisings of the savages. They began in Europe ; and the Indians only participated because they were seduced into alliances with white belligerents. But their natures and fero- cious usages continued unchanged ; and, therefore, extermination went on. 1 Bancroft, II. 109. " Holmes' U. S., 50. CHAPTER XXV. Bigotry and Witchcraft. FROM a passage of history exhibiting the depravity and ma- lignity that may be attained by the unrenewed spirit of man, we now come to a passage ahnost equally sad and equally in- structive, because it tends to show what the renewed, but imper- fectly sanctified, man may do of superstition, cruelty and wicked- ness, under the influence of false science and false interpretation of Holy Scripture. We have seen what horrors were enacted in the Old World during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by reason of the false religious belief of both the Roman and the Protestant churches that ivitchcraft was a crime of which a human being might be actually guilty, and that it consisted in holding supernatural com- munion with fallen and evil spirits, and exercising powers for evil by such spirits imparted to their chosen agents.' Upon the hypothesis that such a crime was possible, and inight be committed during the ages subsequent to the times of mira- cles, and to those seasons in the world's history when exti'aordi- nary exertions of evil spiritual powers sought to oppose the work of redemption by the Son of God, we need not wonder that vsntchcraft was held to be a crime specially heinous, and that the death penalty should have been denounced against it by the civil governments of nations calling themselves Christian. But these episodes in history are inexpressibly sad ; and are only important and interesting as admonishing us how depraved man is, how imperfectly sanctified even in his best estate on earth, how prone to pride of opinion and bigotry, how dimly il- lumined by the reflection of his intellect upon the Word of God, how dependent on true science for true scriptural interpretation, and how certain to go astray when governed by any influence less potent than the law^ of love given by Christ himself. The original constitutions of the Plymouth and Alassachusetts Bay colonies permitted them to establish a rigid union betv^een church and state. No man could be a governor or law-maker, 1 Art. Witchcraft, Schaff-Herzog Eucyclop. of Rel., III. 2542. [ 20I ] 202 A History of the United States of Amci'ica. or even a voter, M^ho was not a communing member of the church.^ ^ The complete overthrow of these constitutions by Charles II. and James II., through the instrumentality of Sir Edmund An- dros, for a time left these colonies under a rule, civil and reli- gious, limited only by the will of a sovereign inoved by the Ro- man faith. He sought to introduce the fonr)S of diocesan episco- pacy, to which the great body of the people were strongly averse. When James II. fled from London and abdicated the throne, the people of Massachusetts regarded with deep interest the ques- tion, what kind of a charter William and Mary, the new sovereigns, would grant them. A considerable nimiber, led and disciplined by the Puritan ministers, desired a return to the principles and practices of the old charter.^ But this was by no means a univer- sal, and could hardly be called a popular, sentiment, if the entire people were considered. King Williain himself was very doubt- ful whether a system which had produced so much of social and religious intolerance ought to be restored. He did not finally consent to the restoration of the church power as paramount over the state in civil affiiirs.^ The charter granted reserved to the Crown or the governor the appointment of officers. The bound- aries of the colony were, indeed, greatly enlarged by being ex- tended to the St. Lawrence river, but an exposed fi'ontier was thus given, of which the guardianship and defence proved very expensive and harassing to Massachusetts.* Meanwhile the spirit of modern speculation and scientific in- quiry was making progress among her people. The question of malign spiritual influence working supernaturally in wizards and witches was considered, and many clear minds were beginning to reject the old ideas ; but the ministers of religion generally and their moi"e ignorant followers cherished the belief in witchcraft. The names of " Sadducees " and " infidels " were freely bestowed on the more liberal thinkers. This brought on ecclesiastical war- fare, and hastened on the crisis of superstition and persecution, in which bigotry and partisanship had as much share as false re- ligious notions. Among the clergymen of the Massachusetts colony, none were more eminent in talent and one-sided learning than the three Mathers — Richard, Increase and Cotton — father, son and grand- son, who lived in this world between the years 1596 and 172S. The rude epitaph which marked the grave of the first mav be 1 Holmes' U. S., 45. Bancroft. Thalheimer. -'Bancroft, III. 71, 72, 80. » Quackenbos' U. S., 134. < Bancroft, III. 81. Bigotry and IVitc/icraJt. 203 considered as fairly expressing the relative estimate of the com- mon people concerning them : ^ " Under this stone lies Richard Mather, Who had a son greater than his father, And, eke, a grandson greater than either." Of the three, Increase was the superior in every quality that makes the really great man — vigorous intellect, sound judgment, trained imagination, enlightened conscience, and will determined by the highest motives. He never looked with favor on the per- secutions against alleged witchcraft, and did what he could to discourage their violence.' The writers of history who have at- tributed to him the composition of works adapted to promote these persecutions, and of active exertions against supjoosed witches, have done him signal injustice.^ But his son, Cotton jMather, must bear a large part of the odium attaching to these persecutions. He had a bright and ver- satile genius, and was considered a very effective preacher. He had also a great amount of learning of the sort that runs always in the channel of bigotry and religious traditionalism — the sort most definitely condemned by the omniscient Son of God. Cot- ton Mather was the type of the religious partisan of all ages — so absorbed in self-esteem and conceit that he was blind to all truth which conflicted with his own religious notions. It was not to be reasonably expected that the divines and com- mon people of Massachusetts should be able at once to rise above the religious beliefs and practices of Europe on the subject of witchcraft prior to the rulings and sound words of Chief-Justice Holt, which caused the first reaction in favor of truth, good sense and love. There is evidence that the early settlers of New England be- lieved the Indians to be worshipers of the devil, and that their medicine-men were wizards. As early as 1645, suspicions of witchcraft were indulged, and at Springfield, on the Connec- ticut river, several persons were charged with this crime, and, among others, two of the minister's children.^ In 1650 a poor forlorn creature named Mary Oliver, suspected of being a witch, and probably weary of a life embittered by such a fame, confessed that she was guilty, but she zvas not pict to death!' Already the revolting tendency of this delusion began to show itself, under 1 Art. Mather, New Amer. Encyclop., XI. 2S5. 2 Amer. Encyclop., XI. 285. 3 Ex. : Hutchinson's Hist, of Mass. McCabe's TJ. S., 217, etc. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 140-1-12. hens, 17!=-1S0. Quackeubos. ITo. Bancroft. IV. -Jtvi. < Montcalm to French Minister. Sth September, 1757. Barnes ± Co.'s U. S., note, S6. Ban- croft, IV. ::65. Montcahn and Wolfe. 293 It has been alleged against him that he did not command his own soldiers to open fire on the murderers/ But in the tumult, and while the savages were in the midst of the captives, such a fire would have been more fatal to the sufierers than to their assailants. Montcalm collected four hundred fugitives and sent them, under strong escort, to Fort Edward ; and he sent De Vau- dreuil with instructions and authority to ransom all who had been led into captivity and return them to their homes. ^ After the surrender of Fort William Henry, twelve hundred men remained to demolish the works, and a thousand to transport the vast stores surrendei'ed. Webb sent his own baggage to the rear, and prepared to retreat to the highlands on the Hudson. Incom- petency, and something near to cowardice, threatened New York with subjugation by French and Indians, and called out an appeal from the brave officer in command at Albany. " For God's sake," he wrote, "exert yourself to save a province; New York itself may fall ; save a country ; prevent the downfall of the British government upon this continent." ^ Everywhere in North" America England was humiliated and her colonies were depressed. The settlements in the Ohio valley shrunk away ; France had her posts on each side of the lakes and at Detroit, Mackinaw, Kaskaskia and New Orleans, and corded them together by lines of fortification at Waterford and Du- quesne, on the Alaumee, the Wabash, and by way of Chicago to the Illinois river. In twenty-five parts of what is now covered by the United States and her territories, at the end of the autumn of 1757 France claimed and seemed to possess at least twenty parts, Spain four parts, and Great Britain only one ! * But with the crisis came the man to meet it. William Pitt saw the danger and its cause, and sent out his reorganizing orders. Loudon and his incompetents were quietly put aside. Able naval and military commanders were sent to America. Preparations were made for a decisive advance on Louisburg, Quebec, Ticon- deroga. Crown Point and Fort Duquesne. For operations on the coast, a large English fleet, under Admi- ral Boscawen, came to the American waters in the early part of 1758. The land forces, intended to operate against Louisburg and eastern Canada, were to be commanded by Gen. Jeffrey Amhei'st, an officer of solid judgment, and Gen. James Wolfe, who, though young, had already drawn the intuitive confidence of Pitt, and whose name was to be placed high on the column of renown. 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 178. s Montcalm to Earl of Loudon, 14th August, 1757. Bancroft, IV. 2G6. * Capt. Christie to Gov. Pownall, 10th August, 1757. * Bancroft, IV. 267, 294 ^'^ History of the United States of America, The advance on Ticonderoga and Crown Point was to be con- ducted by General Abercrombie, with whom was Lord Howe, a young nobleman already very dear to the army. The movements against Fort Duquesne and in the Ohio valley were intrusted to General Forbes. At the same time, William Pitt adopted a generous course towards the colonies. They were to be trusted and encouraged,- rather than depreciated and held as inferiors. England was to furnish arms and ammunition for colonial forces, but the colo- nies were to enlist the men, clothe them and pay them. Eng- land was to appoint the generals and division officers, but the colonial troops might choose their own colonels and subordinate officers.' The happy effects of this liberal policy were soon mani- fested. On the 2Sth May, 1758, after a long and rough passage. Gene- ral Amherst reached Halifax. The English fleet had twenty-two ships of the line and fifteen frigates. The army was at least ten thousand effective men.^ No time was lost. Early in June the fleet approached Louis- burg. The high winds and rough surf in Chapeau Rouge Bay delayed the landing. But at daybreak on the 8th, General Wolfe, leading his troops, who were forbidden to fire until the landing was eflected, cheered on the oarsmen, and when they reached the shallows, leaped into the water ; and under a severe fire from the French, the troops gained the firm land, charged through an abattis of felled trees and over a rampart, and drove the enemy from their batteries, which were instantly occupied by the English soldiers. On the same day Louisburg was completely invested. In these daring movements, two young officers under Wolfe — Isaac Barre and Richard Montgomery — distinguished themselves ; but in the cause of colonial freedom they were even better known sixteen years thereafter.^ On the morning of June I3th, Wolfe, with light infantry and Highlanders, took by surprise the strong light-house battery on the northeast side of the harbor's entrance. The smaller works w^ere promptly captured, and the central attacks began. The water assaults were equally successful. On the 3ist July three French ships were burned. On the night of the 35th the boats of the fleet set fire to the Prudent, a seventy-four, and car- ried off the Bicnfaisa)it. Admiral Boscawen was preparing to send six English three-deckers into the harbor. 1 Horace E. Scudder's U. S., pp. 151, 152. 2 Bancroft, IV. 296. 3 Barre, in Chatham Correspondence, II. 42. Bancroft, IV. 296, 297. Montcalm and Wolfe. 255 But the army and the heavy guns had ah^eady done the work of capture. Louisburg was in ruins. No place of safety covered either officers or men. Forty cannon out of fifty-two were dis- abled. The Chevalier de Drucour, commanding the garrison, made signals of submission. On the 27th July, 1758, the English forces took possession. The French garrison, with the sailors and marines, five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven in number,' was sent to England as prisoners of war.^ Cape Breton and Prince Edward's Island were in the possession of England. Louisburg is still hers, but as Halifax is her naval station, the town so often attacked, surrendered, relinquished and recovered is now little more than a village, with a port which gives shelter to merchantinen in storms. General Wolfe was called back to England to confer with Pitt as to the possibility of capturing Quebec. He was greeted with joy by all as the coming hero. The trophies from Louisburg were deposited with pomp in the cathedi-al of St. Paul's. Admiral Boscawen, a member of Parliament, received a unanimous vote of thanks from the House of Commons.^ The wise encouragement of Pitt had greatly stimulated military preparations in the colonies. Massachusetts had forty-five thou- sand men on her rolls, of whom thirty-seven thousand were by law required to train, and, if needed, to take the field. When General Abercrombie assembled his army early in July, to advance on Ticonderoga, he had under his command nine thousand and twenty-four pi-ovincial troops from New England, New York and New Jersey, brave and skillful men — many of them rangers in woodland tunics, with rifles, hatchets, powder-horns and slung bags of bullets. Among them were John Stark, of New Hamp- shire, and Israel Putnam, of Connecticut. Abercrombie had also six thousand three hundred and sixty-seven regulars. No army so large and so well equipped had thus far marched through the forests of America.^ Lord Howe was the prevalent spirit of the army. He geni- ally adopted Pitt's policy of treating the colonial officers as in every respect the equals of the regulars of like rank. He cut off" his hair, wore clothes suited to field and forest, dismissed the great army of washwomen, washed his own under-garments, and cheerfully led the way in all acts of self-denial that he required from his soldiers.* He won all hearts that knew him. 1 Stephens' Com p. U. S., 182. Scudder's U. 8., 152. Bancroft, IV. 297, 298. s Art. Wolfe, Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 513, 514. Bancroft, IV. 298. 8 Journal of Cleaveland, Bancroft, IV. 300. Quackenbos, 173, 174. * Eggleston's Household U. S., 140, 141. 296 A History of the United States of America. On the 5th day of July, 1758, the army of more than fifteen thousand men struck their tents at daybreak, and embarked on Lake George in nine hundred small boats and one hundred and thirty-five whale boats, followed by the artillery, mounted on rafts. The day was bright ; banners waved ; martial music resounded over the quiet waters ; the fleet moved in stately order down the lake. No sight more imposing had ever been witnessed in the New World. But in front of them was an ever vigilant and dauntless foe. Montcalm held Ticonderoga, and defended it with a strong forti- fication on the heights of Carillon. He had only two thousand eight hundred French and four hundred and fifty Canadians. With these he toiled day and night to strengthen his works. On the evening of the 6th of July, De Levi joined him with four hundred more men, some of whom were choice Indian warriors. The work was carried on with ceaseless resolution. The road from Lake George passed, by two bridges, over the rapid river tor- rent, which ran four miles from Lake George to Champlain. The French had destroyed these bridges, but Montcalm had ordered Colonel De Trepezee, with three hundred men, to hold the ap- proaches and reconnoiter, and to retire on the main body when attacked.' The English army, leaving behind provisions, artillery and heavy baggage, pressed forward. The right centre, commanded by Lord Howe, came suddenly on De Trepezee's small force, who, in retreating, had lost their way. But these Frenchmen, though overpowered by numbers, fought gallantly. At their first fire, Lord Howe fell mortally wounded, and soon to die. Some of the enemy were killed, some drowned in the stream, and one hun- dred and fifty-nine surrendered. But the death of the beloved young English noble carried grief through the army. " Order disappeared, and infatuation and dismay took the place of cour- On the morning of July yth, Abercrombie, discouraged by the destruction of the bridges, thought of a retreat back to the land- ing ; but before noon Gen. John Bradstreet came up with a strong detachment, rebuilt the bridges, and took possession of ad- vantageous ground near saw-mills which the French abandoned. Somewhat cheered by this, Abercrombie ordered an advance, and that night the army encamped not more than a mile and a half from the enemy's fortifications. 1 Montcalm to Vaudreuil, 6th July, N. Y. Paris Documents, XIV. Bancroft, IV. 301, 302. 8|Bancroft, IV. 302, 303. Montcahn and Wolfe. 297 Abercrombie's road to success was plain. He had a splendid army, open communications, and plenty of artillery. He needed only to envelop Montcalm by investment, as that prudent, though daring, officer had invested Fort William Henry. The English artillery could have been easily planted on Mount Defiance and other points which commanded the hastily constructed works of Carillon. Thus a surrender of the whole French force would have been compelled in a brief siege. Montcalm himself has left this testimony : " Had I to besiege Fort Carillon, I would ask for but six mortars and two pieces of artillery."^ But the English commander-in-chief was incompetent to select the right way. Early on the 8th of July, 1758, the engineer, Clerk, upon hasty examination, reported Montcalm's works as flimsy and inadequate. John Stark and the English engineers knew better, and gave warning. But, without waiting for his artillery, Aberci'ombie ordered an assault. He himself prudently took his place far in the rear. Sir William Johnson also had come up with four hundred and forty Iroquois warriors ; but they took no part whatever in the battle.^ Montcalm had called in all his forces, had stationed them, and was prepared. He ordered that no shots should be fired until his enemies were within the shortest range. The English and pro- vincial troops, with heroic courage, rushed forward over piled logs, stumps, and abattis of felled trees with their sharp branches pointed outwards. At deadly range, swivels and musketry were opened on them, cutting them down in hundreds. Through hours of the afternoon these charges were continued. An attempt, nearly successful, was made on the French left. There Bourla- marque fell dangerously wounded, and his bleeding lines were broken. Montcalm sent reinforcements and restored the lines. On the right, the grenadiers and Scotch Highlanders charged for hours without faltering ; many fell within fifteen paces of the trench, some on its very ridge. Montcalm was everywhere, en- couraging his men, and causing food and refreshments to be distributed to them. De Levi was almost equally efficient. The English troops fell into some confusion, and fired on their own comrades in advance. At six o'clock the last charge was repulsed, and the assailants retired, with a loss of one thousand nine hun- dred and forty-four men killed and wounded.' Yet, even then, more than twelve thousand troops reniained to Abercrombie, and, with the help of his artillery, he could readily 1 Bancroft, IV. 306. McCabe's U. S., in Stephens, 182-184. - Bancroft, IV. 304. 3 McCabe, in Stephens, 183. Bancroft, IV. 305, 306. Quackenbos, 174. 29S A Histo7-y of the United States of America. have captured Carillon and Ticonderoga. But, in the " extremest fright and consternation," he hurried the army back to the land- ing on "Lake George, and nothing but the alertness and presence of mind of Bradstreet prevented a scene of panic and destruction at the boats. Abercrombie did not rest quietly until he had placed the lake between his fine army and their greatly inferior foes. He sent his artillery and ammunition to Albany for fear it should be captured ! ' Montcalm was astonished at this retreat ; yet his judgment was too clear and well-balanced not to perceive the extreme peril threatening the French possessions in North America. He saw that Pitt "was in earnest, and w^as wielding powerful resources with consummate skill, and that all he needed was competent commanders in order to drive the French from their strongholds. It was at this crisis that he expressed his conviction, that " in a few months the English would be masters of the French colonies in America." But his courage did not fail. He resolved to strug- gle to the last, and, in his own words, " to find his grave under the ruins of the colony."^ His forebodings were justified by coming events. General Bradstreet had already gained reputation for courage and efficiency by his success, in July, 17=56, in supplying Oswego with stores from Schenectady, and his repulse, with heavy loss to his French and Indian enemies, of an attack made on him from ambuscade while, at the head of a force of three hundred armed boatmen, he was descending the Onondaga river. ^ Early in the spring of 1758 he had proposed an attempt to capture Fort Fi'ontenac, near Lake Ontario. Lord Howe had favored the scheme ; and, after the retreat from Ticonderoga, a council of war induced Abercrombie to give reluctant consent, and to order the needed troops to move under General Bradstreet. He took command, at Oneida carrying place, of tw'enty- seven hundred men, all colonial troops, more than eleven hundred being from New York, and nearly seven hundred from Massachusetts. They were joined by one hundred and fifty warriors of the " Six Nations." Crossing Ontario in open boats, Bradstreet landed, August 25th, within a mile of Frontenac. Some of the garrison had fled ; the rest surrendered on the second day after his ap- pearance. He captured thirty pieces of cannon, sixteen small mortars, nine armed vessels carrying from eight to eighteen guns, and a large quantity of stores, most of which were intended for 1 Bancroft, IV. 306. 2 Art. Montcalm, New Amer. Encyclop., XI. 678. *Art. Bradstreet, Amer. Encyclop., III. 613. Montcabii and Wolfe. 299 Fort Duquesne and the Ohio dependencies. Bradstreet razed the fort, destroyed such vessels and stores as could not be brought oft', and returned with his troops to Lake George.' From this time to the end of the war victory seldom left the arms of England. The expedition for the capture of Fort Duquesne was com- manded by Gen. Joseph Forbes, whose health had become so im- paired that he was drawing near to the grave. Nevertheless, the preparations were pushed forward by Colonel Washington and other officers. In consequence of a disagreement between the Earl of Loudon and the authorities of Maryland, that colony con- tributed nothing, either in men or money, towards the expedi- tion.^ But twelve hundred and fifty Highlanders came from South Carolina ; three hundred and fifty Royal Americans joined them ; Pennsylvania, with conspicuous ardor, raised twenty-seven hundred men ; Virginia sent two full regiments, numbering nine- teen hundred men, with Washington as senior oflicer. He desired to push on the whole advance by the old road from Fort Cumberland ; but Forbes was persuaded by the Pennsyl- vania officers to cut a new road to the Ohio. Washington was grieved by the delay, and wrote : " See how our time has been misspent." But he submitted to his superiors, and was unceasing in his efforts to win a decisive success. General Forbes was borne on a litter as far as Raystown. The new road was cut thence to Loyal Hanna, a post forty-five miles in advance. Had the whole army now pressed forward, a bloodless victory and heavy captures would have been reaped ; ^ but imprudence in savage warfare brought on one more scene of death. From Loyal Hanna, Major Grant, with eight hundred chosen Highlanders and a company of Virginians, was sent forward to reconnoiter and advise as to the best mode of attack. The brave French officer, Aubry, had, a short time before, reinforced the garrison of Duquesne with four hundred men, chieffy Illinois In- dians. Grant advanced within a short distance of the fort, and gained a hill near the fork of the two rivers. At daybreak of the 14th of September, 175S, hoping to tempt the foe into an am- buscade, he ordered his drums to sound a morning " reveille^ Hardly was the sound heard, before the gates of the fort flew open, and with terrible war-cries a s\tarm of savage warriors poured out upon the invaders. The attack was so sudden and violent that the men had not time to draw their rifles to their shoulders before they were falling under the strokes of the tomahawk. A 1 Volunteer's Impartial Account, 25. Bancroft, IV. 308. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 104. - Sharpe to Baltimore, Dec. \~'-n . Calvert to Sharpe, 27th Nov., 1758. Bancroft, IV. 310. 3 Marshall, II. 68-69. Sparks, I. 95-98. 300 A History of the United States of America. ferocious butchery followed ; no quarter was given by the In-j dians ; a few prisoners, among whom were Majors Grant and Lewis, were saved by the French, who had followed the Indians from the fort. I But the savage success was interrupted by a deed of mingled heroism and coolness. Captain Bullet, at the head of his com- pany of Virginians, seeing the Indians rushing on in a tumultu- ous band, eager for fresh victims, directed his men to lower their arms and make signs of surrender.^ The savages, massed to- gether and with hatchets uplifted, were coming on. When they came within ten yards. Bullet, in a voice of thunder, cried : "Fire, and charge bayonets." Instantly the muskets rose to deadly aim, and a fire was delivered at this short range, which covered the ground with the slain and wounded. A furious rush with pre- sented bayonets followed. The savages gave way on every side, and, believing that a strong reinforcement was at hand, fled to the main body of the French near the fort. Hastily summoning the stragglers. Bullet ordered a retreat, and, after a march of great fatigue and peril, regained the camp at Loyal Hanna. The loss was nearly three hundred men. and the provincials saved the day.^ General Forbes did not reach Loyal Hanna until the 5th of November, 1^58. He was feeble and dying, and the council of war that assembled partook of his weakness. It was decided not to advance. But Washington, having gained from three prison- ers accurate information of the weakness of the gawison of Du- quesne, and of their discouragement because of the capture of Fort Frontenac and the cutting ofl' of their supplies, asked the privilege of pressing on, and Forbes could not refuse it.^ On the i=;th of November, Washington had gained Chestnut Ridge; on the 17th, Bushy Run. The troops were in eager spirits, saddened only by passing through the fields and forests where the whitening bones of the victims of the slaughter of the Monongahela were seen. An easy victory awaited Colonel Washington. Disappointed and depressed, the Indian warriors had been falling away, until the garrison hardly numbered five hundred. These set fire to all in the fort that was combustible, and retreated down the river to Presque Isle and Venango. A mine exploded as the English troops advanced, and before the burning fragments were extin- guished. Colonel Washington, on the 25th of November, entered ' Burk, III. 232. Campbell, 129, 130. Joshua vlii. 1-22, with Henry's comments. * Rae's Town Camp, 20th October, 1758. Bancroft, IV. 312. 3 Burk, III. 234. Campbell, 132. Bancroft, IV. 312. Montcalm and Wolfe. 301 the works at the head of the advance guard, and planted the Brit- ish flag on the long-contested ground. The fort was immedi- ately repaired, and was named " Fort Pitt," in honor of the great English minister of state. The army then proceeded to the sad duty of collecting the re- mains of those who had fallen in Braddock's defeat, and giving them decent burial. An eye-witness has related the scene : " In profound silence they trod the withered leaves, which were already falling before the blasts of winter ; around them on every side were the bleaching bones of men who had left the soil of Britain to die amid the forests of America. Wild beasts had already visited the field, and many fearful signs gave proof of their rav- ages." Major Halket had lost a father and a brother in the bat- tle. An Indian guide conducted him and some of his men to the spot where he had seen a veteran officer fall, and a heroic yoilng subaltern sink down in death as he stooped to his assistance. Two bodies were found, one lying on the other. A false tooth identified the father to the son, who, with a faint cry, " It is my father ! " fell back into the arms of his comrades.^ Since the day when a Roman army, under Germanicus, discov- ered the remains of whole legions under Varus, which had per- ished in the forests of Germany by the murderous strategy and assaults of the barbarians, ten years after the birth of Christ, no scene more pathetic and mournful had attended a battle-field down to this burial service on the borders of the Monongahela.^ With the opening of the year 1759, William Pitt made almost superhuman exertions for decisive success against France. Ben- jamin Franklin was one of his counselors, and filled his great soul with the conviction that England must, at any cost, wrest the control of North America from her enemies. The British Parliament responded to Pitt's propositions with an unanimity which excited astonishment at home and abroad. Thev voted for the year twelve millions sterling (sixty millions of standard dol- lars), and such forces by sea and by land as had never been pre- viously raised. Lord Chesterfield wrote in amazement : " This is Pitt's doings, and it is marvelous in our eyes. He declares only what he would have them do, and they do it." ^ All questions of seniority of rank were disregarded. The whole inquiry with the premier was. Who are the men that will lead most vigorously and successfully in this work? Stanwix was to complete the reduction and occupation of the posts of the west, 1 Gait's Life of West. Grahame, note lii., vol. IV. 483, 484. 2Taciti Annalium Lib. I. Ixi. 38, edit. Lips., 1829. s.Lord Chesterfield's Corres. Bancroft, IV. 313. 302 A History of the United States of Ame7'ica. from Pittsburg to Lake Erie and the Mississippi ; Prideaux was to reduce Fort Niagara and proceed against Montreal ; Amherst, now commander-in-chief, and in title Governor of Virginia, was to advance with the main army against Ticonderoga and Crown Point and to Lake Champlain, and afterwards to co-operate against Quebec. The undertaking to capture that almost im- pregnable city was intrusted to the young general, James Wolfe, and with him the fleet in the American waters was to act in con- cert.' The resources of the two belligerent powers in North America were so unequal that Montcalm plainly informed the minister of war in Fi"ance that Canada must be lost to them unless unex- pected good fortune helped them, or signal incompetency and folly attended the English management. Yet the French war premier continued to trust to Montcalm, and to write : " The king relies on your zeal and obstinacy of courage." ^ The census of New France showed a population of only eighty- two thousand whites, of whom barely seven thousand could serve as soldiers. Moreover, there was continued scarcit}^ in the land ; interruptions for military service left the fields uncu-ltivated, and British fleets intercepted all supplies from France ; the domestic animals were failing ; the soldiers were unpaid ; paper money, to the amount of forty-two millions of livres, and greatly depreciated, flooded the channels of commerce, and civil officers were making haste to get rich, and hoping that their frauds would be wiped out by their country's disaster.^ On the other side, England was growing richer and richer, though her public debt was increasing. Her colonies were prosperous, and she had nearly fifty thousand armed men in America. General Prideaux was the first to advance. He had two bat- talions from New York, one of Royal Americans, two regiments of regulars, a detachment of artillery, and a large force of Indian auxiliaries under Sir William Johnson. He moved on Fort Niag- ara, which stood on the narrow promontory round which the deep and rapid Niagara river sweeps from Erie to Ontario. It com- manded the portage between these two lakes and the western fur- trade. Its possession, therefore, was very important. Leaving a detachment under Colonel Haldimand to construct and hold a post at the mouth of the Oswego, General Prideaux, on the 1st July, 1759, embarked his forces on Lake Ontario, and with little opposition invested Fort Niagara. 1 Bancroft, IV. 315, 316. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 186, 187. 2 Letter from Belleisle. ^ Bancroft, IV. 320. Montcalm and Wolfe. 303 The resolute French officer, D'Aubry, knowing its importance, had collected from Detroit, Erie, Le Boeuf and Venango, about twelve hundred men, and marched to the rescue. Prideaux was preparing to intercept this force, when, on the 15th July, he was killed by the bursting of a cohorn. Sir William Johnson succeeded to the command, and acted with great promptness, courage and suc- cess.' He posted a large part of his army on the left, above the fort, so as at once to intercept D'Aubry's advance, and protect the men in the trenches. On the 34th July the French force appeared. Johnson's AIohav\^ks made a sign to the opposing Indians, but as it was not returned, they uttered the war-whoop and rushed to the encounter. The regulars met the French firmly in the centre, and the Indians, under Johnson's order, attacked their flanks and threw them into confusion. The English then charged with im- petuous valor ; the enemy broke and fled in utter rout. The car- nage continued until ftvtigue stayed the ^'ictors. The next day the garrison capitulated and surrendered six hundred men. The success on Ontario was so complete that a force sent by General Stanwix from Pittsburg took possession, -without resistance, of all the French posts as far as Erie.^ Meanwhile, the advance of the large army under General Am- herst took place. He was at the head of nearly six thousand regulars, and of as many provincial troops and light infantry, imder Colonel Gage. Amherst was taciturn, stoical, slow and safe, but not fertile in resources, inventive or daring. He moved slowly by way of Lake George, and on the 23d of July disem- barked his army nearly at the landing-place of Abercrombie. The next day the French, under De Levi and Bourlamarque, retreated from their lines, leaving only a garrison of four hundred in Fort Carillon.'' On the 26th of July the fort was abandoned, and '^\\& days after- wards the French retreated from Crown Point to intrench them- selves on Isle-aux-Noix. The whole country was open to the strong army under Amherst. He took possession of Crown Point, and was expected immediately to advance on Montreal, and thence to proceed eastward to co-operate with Wolfe in the at- tempt to capture Qiiebec ; but he did nothing towards this great end. He let all of August, of September, and ten days of October, pass without movement. Had Wolfe been like him, Quebec would not have been gained. But thus the greater glory came to this heroic young soldier. The work was all his own. 1 Barnes' U. S., note, 87. Taylor's Centen. tJ. S., 128. Art. Johnson, New Amer. Encyclop. SBancroft, IV. 321, 322. ■^Ihid.^Zll. 304 A History of the United States of America. As soon as the heats of June began to clear the mouth of the St. Lawrence of floating ice-masses, Wolfe and his naval aids began their movement. The fleet, under Admiral Saunders, had tw^enty-two ships of the line, and as many frigates and other armed vessels. Wolfe had command of about eight thousand five hundred soldiers. His adjutant-general was Isaac Barre ; his brigadiers were Monckton, Townshend, and Murray. Col. Guy Carleton commanded the grenadiers. Lieutenant-Colonel (after- wards Sir William) Howe had a detachment of light infantry.^ Qiiebec was powerful in natural defences, standing on the lofty plain of Stadacona, and defended on three sides by the broad rivers St. Charles and St. Lawrence. The citadel was three hun- dred and thirty-three feet above the level of .the rivers. Behind the city was the level known as the " Plains of Abraham." This was the weak part ; but to gain it with a military force seemed nearly hopeless. Montcalm was in command, and had drawn to the defence of Quebec and its dependencies about twelve thousand men, leaving the western lines of Canada almost without soldiers. On the 26th of June the English fleet and army, without loss, arrived off' the Isle of Orleans, which screens the spacious harbor just below the junction of the two rivers. Wolfe and his ofilcers immediately began to reconnoiter. On all sides the upper city seemed impregnable. In the night of the 29th, fire-ships were sent down to burn the fleet ; but the British sailors skillfully grappled them and towed them aside, so' that they did no harm. On the night of the 29th, General Monckton, with four battal- ions, succeeded in ci^ossing the rapid south channel, and occupy- ing Point Levi. He immediately erected batteries of cannon and mortars. The people of the lower town, foreseeing its fate, vol- unteered an attack ; but, after ci'ossing, their courage failed and they retreated. The English fire of shells and red-hot balls de- stroyed the houses of the lower town, but made no impression on the defences of Quebec.^ Montcalm's army was dwindling. The Indians left him, and many Canadians returned to their homes. But with ceaseless exertions he sought to make every approach to his citadel im- practicable. Wolfe was anxious, almost impatient, for decisive action. He planned an attack on the French intrenchments on the left bank of the river near the falls, where the Montmorenci, passing over a perpendicular rock, flows for three hundred yards amid clouds of spray to the St. Lawrence. On the last day of July the attack iBancroft, IV. 324, 325. Holmes' U. S., 78, 79. 2 Bancroft, IV. 326. Montcalm and Wolfe. 305 was made with rash gallantry by grenadiers and the brigade of Monckton ; but it was opposed by a strand of deep mud, a hill- side steep and almost impracticable, and a heavy fire of a brave and well-intrenched force of French soldiers. Wolfe saw enough to induce him to order a retreat. In this bloody repulse the Eng- lish lost four hundred men.' General Wolfe was now disheartened in spirit and sick in body. He sent Murray, with twelve hundred men, above the city to de- stroy the French ships and open communication with Amherst. He heard of the capture of Niagara and the successful occupation of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. He looked daily for the com- ing of Amherst, which would enable him to secure the capture of Qiiebec ; but that general came not. Almost hopeless, Wolfe called a council of war at Monckton's quarters, and laid befoi'e his three brigadiers three several and equally desperate plans for attacking the intrenchments of Mont- calm at Beauport. They wisely and unanimously opposed them, but advised that four or five thousand men should, if possible, be conveyed above and behind the town. Wolfe acquiesced, but wrote to Pitt on the 2d September a letter showing that he re- garded this attempt as the last resort of desperation.^ Three armed ships, with transports and part of the army, passed up the river. The summer was over, and the French began to hope that the English attempts on Quebec were ended. But on the loth of September, Wolfe, whose eyes were keen, discovered the spot which has made his name immortal. It is the quiet cove whose curving promontories make a basin with very thin margin ; and a dark, narrow path, hardly sufficient for two men abreast, then led up the mountain to the " Plains of Abraham " above. His resolve was made, and his orders issued, and during the day and night of the 12th all was preparation.'' Gray's well-known poem, the " Elegy in a Country Church- yard," had been published not long before. Wolfe greatly ad- mired it, and as he passed from ship to ship on the evening of the 1 2th September, he spoke of it with enthusiasm, and even went so far as to say : " I would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to-moiTOw." Thus he soundly estimated the glory of the true poet as higher than that of the true soldier. But the " coming event," with all its sombre gloiy, was already " casting its shadow before " it over his high spirit ; 1 Compare Stephens, 188. Bancroft, IV. 328, 329. Holmes' U. S., 79. 2 Bancroft, IV. 331. 3 Wolfe to Rickson, 1st Dec, 1758. Admiral Saunders to Pitt, 20th Sept., 1759. Bancroft, IV. 332. . f . -I 20 3o6 A Histo7'y of the United States of America. for, out of all those marvelous stanzas, the one he selected and re- peated again and again in the hearing of his comrades was this ; " The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour ; The paths of glory lead but to the grave." ^ But he hesitated not, faltered not, delayed not. At one o'clock in the morning of the 13th of September, 1759, Wolfe, with Monckton and Murray and about half their troops, set out in boats, and without sails or oars glided down with the tide. But as they passed, almost noiselessly, a French sentinel on the shore, he hailed: '■'■ ^ui va laV A captain in Frazer's regi- ment, familiar with French, answered : " La France.'''' The sen- tinel rejoined : " De quel regiment? " The ready captain, having learned the name of one of the regiments up the river with Bour- gainville, replied : " De la Reine.'''' The sentinel was satisfied, and sent the word '•'•passe " over the water.^ At the cove (now known as Wolfe's cove) the light infantry leaped ashore a little below the path ; but, clambering up with the help of roots and boughs, they gained the top, and w'ith a few shots dispersed the picket-guard. Then the chief movement be- gan, and before the dawn of day four thousand five hundred British regulars, " perfect in discipline and terrible in their fear- less enthusiasm," stood on the " Plains of Abraham," on the weakest side of Qiiebec. Montcalm w^as in his intrenchments on the farther side of the St. Charles when he first learned of the appearance of the Eng- lish. He was amazed, but at first said: "It must be a small party. They will burn a few houses and retreat." But he was soon better informed, and said, with bitter earnestness: "Then they have got to the weak side of this miserable garrison : we must give battle and crush them before mid-day."^ He had no alternative. The British war-ships held every ap- proach by water, and could quickly supply heavy artillery to Wolfe on the elevated plateau he now held, which commanded the rear defences of Qtiebec. Montcalm knew he must either dislodge Wolfe, by prompt force of arms, from his position, or capitulate in a few days. He led otit his army to battle. The two forces were not equal in numbers ; but in efficiency and discipline the English had greatly the advantage. In fact, 1 Narrative of J. C. Fisher, of Quebec, to the historian, Bancroft, who has inaccurately quoted "the inexorable hour," IV. 332, 333. ^Taylor's Centen. U. S., 129. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note, 89. 3 Bancroft, IV. 333,334. Montcalm and Wolfe. 307 Wolfe himself, a short time before, had described Montcalm's immediate garrison as " five weak battalions of less than two thousand men, mingled with disorderly peasantry." But these Canadian militia were so numerous as to have been estimated at five thousand men.^ Moreover, the French had three small pieces of artillery ; the English only two, which had been, with great labor, drawn by hand up the precipice.^ For one hour the cannon only were used. But the English reg- ulars were gaining strong positions, and Montcalm dispatched couriers to Bourgainville to bring up his two thousand men, and to De Vaudreuil to add his fifteen hundred, to prevent the central French force from being driven from its ground. He endeavored, by a flank movement, to crowd the British troops down the high bank of the river. Wolfe promptly met and defeated this move- ment, by detaching Townshend with Amherst's regiment and a part of the Royal Americans. Waiting no longer for more troops, Montcalm led his whole army in an impetuous attack. But, though his doubled lines greatly outnumbeixd his foes, they were ill-disciplined, and were disordered by the uneven ground. Monckton, by Wolfe's com- mand, received the shock with steadiness, reserving his fire until the French were within forty yards. Then a regular, rapid and destructive fire of musketry was opened, under which the enemy melted away. Montcalm was everywhere ; though wounded, he cheered on his men. His second in command, De Sennezergues, was killed on the field. The brave Canadians wavered under the hot and fatal musketry fire. The French regulars were over- whelmed. Wolfe had received a musket ball in the wrist ; but, binding it with his handkerchief, he placed himself at the head of the Twenty-eighth regiment and the Louisburg grenadiers, and led a resistless charge of bayonets. The French lines began to break. But Carleton was wounded ; Barre, who fought near Wolfe, received a ball in the head which deprived him of sight ; Wolfe received another wound, but urged on his men. The serried line of steel surged onward, and the French gave way.^ In the moment of victory, Wolfe received a third musket ball in his breast. " Support me," he cried to an officer near him ; " let not my brave fellows see me fall." He was carried to the rear. Water was brought to him ; but he felt that life was fast ebbing. Lying on the ground, with his head supported by an officer, he heard him shout with excitement : " They fly ! they 1 Knox's Journal, I. 74. Bancroft, IV.. note, 334. * Compare Holmes' U. S., 79, with Bancroft, IV. 334. «Scudder'sU. S., 155. Derry, 88. Eggleston's Household U. S., 138. Bancroft, IV. 335. 308 A History of the United States of America. fly ! " The dying hero opened his eyes, and asked : "Who fly? " Tlie answer came: "The French! the French! Victory! vic- tory ! " " Now, God be praised ! " said Wolfe, " I die happy." ' And so his brave spirit passed away from this world in the mo- ment of a great triumpli. But even he knew not how^ great it was. Montcalm, in the same battle, received his mortal wound. When told by the surgeon that death w' as certain, he said : " I am glad of it ; how^ lorig shall I live.^ " " Ten or twelve hours," was the reply ; " perhaps less." " So much the better," the French hero answered ; " I shall not live to see the surrender of Qiiebec." He calmly gave his orders. When De Ramsay, who commanded the garrison, asked his advice, he replied : " To your keeping I commend the honor of France. As for me, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death." He dictated a letter asking from the English ofHcers generous treatment for the French prisoners, and at five the next morning he died.^ De Vaudreuil advised De Ramsay to capitulate, without wait- ing for bombardment and assault. He wrote : " We have cheer- fully sacrificed our fortunes and our houses, but we cannot expose our wives and children to a massacre."^ And so, on the 17th of September, 1759, De Ramsay capitulated, and Quebec belonged to England. America rung with exultation. England also triumphed, while she mourned for Wolfe. The genius of Benjamin West, a native of Pennsylvania, produced a painting of his death scene, which introduced a new^ era in art, and was visited and gazed on with emotion by thousands of spectators ; and at Qiiebec, in the gov- ernment gardens, and in our own age, a massive obelisk, sixty feet high, has been reared, which bears in united honor the wor- thv names of Wolfe and Montcalm.* The fall of Qiiebcc was virtually the end of the French domin- ion in the region which had been called " New France." True it is that France could not quietly acquiesce. In the spring of 1760 an earnest attempt to recapture Qiiebec was made. Admiral Saun- ders had left abundant stores and heavy artillery, and a garrison of seven thousand men in the city, under the brave, but superficial. General ^Murray. Amherst continued inactive ; and as soon as the river opened, in April, 1760, De Levi, with ten thousand men, began the siege. On the 2Sth of AjDril the imprudent Murray, leaving his advan- tageous ground, hazarded an attack near Sillery Wood. De Bourlamarque met the shock with firmness, and made a counter 1 Cassell's U. S.. I. 617-619. Stephens, 188. Bancroft, IV. 335, 336. 2 Bancroft, IV. 337. * Relation du Siege de Quebec. ♦New Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 356,515. Montcalm and Wolfe. 309 charge with so much vigoi" that jNIiirray was signally repulsed, and lost a fine train of artillery and a thousand men. The French loss was only three hundred, though the empty and boasting Mur- ray represented it as eight times that number.' Fortunately, frost delayed the French approaches. The Eng- lish garrison was reduced, by winter, sickness, and the unfortu- nate battle, to two thousand two hundred effective men ; but they worked incessantly at defence. Even the women and the crip- pled helped. And Pitt had foreseen and provided against the danger.^ A fleet came in time, and the English minister was able to write to his wife, on the 27th of June : "Join, my love, with me in most humble and grateful thanks to the Almighty. The siege of Qiiebec was raised on the 17th of May, with every happy circumstance. The enemy left their camp standing, and abandoned forty pieces of cannon. Swanton arrived there in the \augiiard on the r^th, and destroyed all the French shipping, six or seven in number. Ilappy, happy day ! My joy and hurry are inexpressible." General Amherst sent Colonel Haviland with a force from Crown Point towards Montreal. He found the fort at Isle-aux- Noix deserted by the French. Amherst cautiously led an army of ten thousand men by way of Oswego and Ogdensburg, re- ducing all into English possession, but treating the helpless Canadians with humanity. On the 7th of September, 1760, he reached the neighborhood of Montreal, and joined to his own forces an army under Murray, who had marched from Qiiebec, occasionally, on his way, burning a village and hanging, on slight pretences, some Canadians. The next day Haviland, with his troops, arrived from Crown Point.^ To resist these three armies was not thought of by De Vau- dreuil. On the 8th of .September, Montreal surrendered, and the surrender included by its terms all of Canada, at least as far as the Miami, the Wabash and the Illinois rivers. Property and religion were cared for in the terms, but for civil liberty no stipu- lation was made.* Everywhere England was victorious. France and Spain de- sired peace. Negotiations for the purpose were long in progress. While they were pending, George H. died suddenly of apoplexy, and on the 25th of October, 1760, his grandson became king, with the title of George HI. ; and in his twenty -second year com- menced a reign memorable in the history of the world, and espe- cially in that of North America. ' Mante, Memoircs, 281. Bancroft, IV. 359. 2 Wm. Pitt t() Ladv Hester, 27th June, 1760. Bancroft, IV. 359. 3 Bancroft, IV. 360. t Ibid., IV. 361. 3IO A History of the United States of America. The new king soon drove Pitt from the circle of his counsel- ors, but could not deprive Great Britain of the triumphs won by the great minister. The successes of the English arms were so wide and decisive that France and Spain wei'e obliged to submit to terms which would otherwise have been sternly rejected. In fact, the minister of France for foreign affairs, Choiseul, who, in despair, had resigned his department to the Due de Praslin, wrote, concerning the pi"oposed terms : " The English are furiously imperious ; they are drunk with success ; and, unfor- timately, we are not in a condition to abase their pride." ^ But a Divine Power w^as ruling, though unseen by all. England, by her very successes and the broadness of her demands, was pre- paring the way for the loss of her colonies, and the grandeur of the American republic. The terms of the treaty of Paris were signed on the 3d of No- vember, 1763, and ratified on the loth day of February, 1763. By this treaty of peace, England obtained several islands in the West Indies ; the Floridas ; all Canada, Acadia, Cape Breton and its dependent islands ; the fisheries (except that a share in them was retained by France, with the two islets, St. Pierre and Mique- lon, as a shelter for her fishermen) ; Louisiana to the Mississippi, but without the island of New Orleans ; Senegal in Africa, with the command of the slave-trade ; the island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean ; and all of the East India possessions (except a few dismantled and ruined posts) which France held on the ist of January, 1749. All that France had claimed east of the Mis- sissippi, from its source to the river Iberville, one of its out- lets, through Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico, was ceded to England. For the loss of Florida, France indemnified Spain by ceding to her New Orleans and all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, with boundaries undefined.^ Thus the American colonies had peace, and vast expansion of their possible territories for settlement. But they had suffered greatly ; had lost thirty thousand lives, and had expended sixteen millions of dollars, of which England repaid onl}^ five millions.^ On the other hand, the colonies had learned self-denial and self- reliance ; had learned the value of their own officers and men, when compared with those of the mother country, and had made immense advances in ideas of self-government, which, though yet vague and undefined, needed only the stimulus of coming events to be developed into complete independence. 1 Choiseul, quoted by Bancroft, IV. 451. 2 Compare Stephens' Comp. U. S., 191, with Bancroft, IV. 452. 3Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 90, 91. CHAPTER XXXIV. The Causes of the War of Revolution. THE period of fifteen years, from 1760 to 1775, was one of momentous import in the life of the colonies. The student will have contented himself with inadequate premises and shal- low inferences, who reaches the conclusion that oppression in money demands, in the form of navigation laws, stamp acts, customs on colonial imports, and other forms of taxation, direct or indirect, practiced by the mother country, constituted the real and efficient cause of the American Revokition. These were mere incidents and evidences. The cause lay deeper. It was the never-dying question of rights and not of money. The colonies had a right to discard a government by a king and a parliament separated from them by three thousand miles of ocean, and to assert and maintain the divine and indestructible right of every people to govern themselves. The whole question was, Had the time and occasion come ? And a Supreme Providence decided that question in the affirmative. But the condition of the colonies during those fifteen years, in relation to the mother country, had special interest on several sub- jects, which enlist our attention in the following order : ( i ) The Indians; (3) Negro slavery; (3) Religious liberty; (4) Civil freedom ; (5) The social system and customs ; (6) Taxation with- out representation. These all united in warming into life and growth the germs of revolution. (i.) It is remarkable that, although the savages outnumbered the colonists for nearly a century after the first settlements, and although they wei^e often mercilessly hostile, yet England never made any direct efforts to give military aid to her colonies in re- sisting Indian attacks. She left them to their own resources. She did worse. In some instances she hampered and restrained them in their measures for repelling the savages. We have seen one signal illustration of this in narrating "Bacon's rebellion." The results were painful and harassing struggles, sufferings and losses to the people of the colonies, but attended by the immense advantage to them of learning Indian warfare and wiles, of be- [ 3" ] 312 A History of the United States of America. coming unequaled marksmen with musket and rifle, and of ac- quiring the virtues of endurance and self-denial, which fitted them for the final contest for freedom. The English governors sent to the colonies were often the in- struments of provoking Indian wars, which prudence and con- ciliation might have averted. This was notably the case with Governor Lyttleton, of South Carolina. When Washington, in 1756, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, no part of his duty caused him more solici- tude and anxiety than that of seeking to protect the western parts of that colony and North Carolina. The savages " gave no quarter, and spared neither age nor sex. Women and children were chosen objects of their barbarity. INIany were left weltering in blood on the tloors of their own dwellings. ISIany were carried into the wilderness to be put to death with nameless tortures. A few survived to return, after years of degradation and suffering passed among native tribes on the Ohio and the northern lakes." ' Washington's heart was wrung with anguish in view of these cruelties, and of his inability entii-.ly to stop them or to avenge them. In his official reports, his feelings expressed themselves in one well-known passage. He wrote : " The supplicating tears of the women, and moving petitions of the men, melt me into such deadly sorrow that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease."" Yet he was not unjust or undiscriminating. The Cherokees, in the western borders of the Carolinas, had always been friendly to the colonists. Virginia had acknowledged this in 17555 '^^^^ had sent them a deputation and a present. In 1757, their war- riors had rendered brave and efficient service in protecting the frontiers south of the Potomac. The colonial government made them no acknowledgment, but W^ashington and his officers were prompt and generous in furnishing to them supplies of food and appropriate gifts.^ It was with this friendly Cherokee nation that Governor Lyt- tleton provoked hostilities by his imprudent and unmerciful de- mands. In July, 1758, a private and entirely local affray occurred between some Virginia backwoodsmen and some half-starved Cherokees, who had been acting as allies of Washington, and on their way back to their homes, took, without asking, some food absolutely needed. In this skirmish several " beloved men " of 1 Kercheval's Valley of Va., 93-104. 2 Sparks, I. SO. Burk, III. 214. Howe, 100. s Washington's Writings, II. 10-270. The Causes of (lie II a r of Revolution. 313 the Cherokees were slain, and their scalps were ostentatiously displayed by the whites.^ The Cherokees, naturally enough, sought to avenge this wrong. Their young men went on the war-path, and killed two soldiers of the garrison of Telliquo, in the Carolinas.^ But the Cherokee chiefs recalled them, and came from their mountains to Charles- ton to assure the whites of peace. The South Carolina legislators, who knew Indian morals, met in Maixh, 1759, and by a vote re- fused to consider hostilities with the Cherokees as either existing or to be apprehended. Lyttleton repudiated this decision, and, assuming the high pre- rogative of making war, inflamed the colonists, called out the militia, and sent envoys to the Chickasaws, Catawbas, Tuscaroras and Creeks to stir them up against the Cherokees. His blood- thirsty demand was that twenty-four of the Cherokees should be delivered up to be put to death, or otherwise disposed of as he thought fit, in retaliation.^ The Cherokees could not consent to this. They prepared for extremities, and sent warriors to sur- round and besiege Fort Loudon, on the Tennessee, in the western borders of the colony. In October, 1759, Governor Lyttleton came to Congaree, the gathering-place of the South Carolina militia. He had a consid- erable force, and with. him were Christopher Gadsden, long colo- nial representative of Charleston, and Francis jMarion, afterwards so renowned in the war of Revolution. Oconostata, the great chieftain of the Cherokees, and thirty other warriors, came as envoys to make peace. Their persons were sacred by the laws of nations. Yet, after holding several conferences with them, and permitting them to come with him to Congaree, Lyttleton caused them all to be arrested ; and, on arriv- ing at Fort Prince George, they were crowded into a prison-hut hardly large enough for six of them.* Oconostata and two others were exchanged ; the rest remained in close imj^risonment. This hastened the bloody sequel. The Cherokees commenced war after the manner of Indians. Hoping to rescue the impris- oned envoys, they allured the commandant of Fort Prince George to a dark thicket by the river-side, and shot him dead. The gar- rison was justly incensed, but their fury took a brutal and cow- ardly form. They butchered in cold blood all the imprisoned envoys ; and to conceal their crime they invented the falsehood that these victims (whom Lyttleton called "hostages") had de- 1 Hewat's S. C, II. 214. 2 Adair's Amer. Indians, 247. Bancroft, IV. 341, 342. 3 Speeches in Hewat, II. 219. ■• Bancroft, IV. 348. 314 ^4 History of the United States of America. vised a plan to poison the wells of the garrison ! It is noteworthy that a historian of these events leaves out of his narrative all men- tion of this atrocious crime. ^ The effect of this massacre on the minds of the Cherokees may be conceived. There was hardly a village that did not mourn a murdered chief. The warriors flew to arms. They said, with poetic truth: "The spirits of our murdered brothers are flying around us, screaming for vengeance." They harried the frontiers of the Carolinas, and even advanced so far as to attack the skirts of Ninety-Six. Here several of the Cherokees were killed, and Governor Lyttleton's subservient officer wrote to him in hideous triumph : " We fatten our dogs with their carcasses, and display their scalps, neatly ornamented, on the tops of our bastions."^ The Chei'okees obtained arms and military stores by barter with Louisiana. The stern fact of open war could no longer be de- nied ; yet so obvious was it that it had been brought on by the cruelty and injustice of Lyttleton and his creatures, that the Legis- lature of South Carolina, in February, 1760, made a second pro- test against his course, as subversive of their " birthrights as British subjects, and in violation of undoubted privileges." Yet the English Lords of Trade sustained him, and could find no words strong enough to expi'ess their approbation of his whole conduct. Enjjland was then at war with France, and Lyttleton found no difficulty in inducing General Amherst to detach a force to help him in his unfortunate war on the Cherokees. Colonel Mont- gomery (who was afterwards Lord Eglinton) and Major Grant ^vere sent, in April, 1760, with six hundred Highlanders and six hundred Royal Americans, from the army of the Ohio, to strike a sudden blow at the Indians and return. Seven hundred Caro- linians joined them at Ninety-Six, with whom Moultrie, and per- haps Marion, served as officers.^ Early in June this large force reached Little Keowee, one of the Cherokee towns, and, killing all the people except women and children, left their homes in ruins. They marched next to Estatoe, in the beautiful valley of Keowee, famed for its fertility and picturesque scenes. This was the favorite home of the Cher- okees. The English army showed no mercy. They easily mas- tered the defenders, slaying and wounding some, taking others 1 Stephens ; compare his account, 190, 191, with Miln to Lyttleton, 24th February, 1760. Adair, 250. Bancroft, IV. 350. 2 Francis to Lyttleton, 6th March, 1760. Drayton's South Carolina, 246. 3 Bancroft, IV. 351. The Causes of the War of Revolution. 315 prisoner, and putting the rest to flight. They then plundered and set fire to every village — Estatoe, Qualatchee and Conasatchee — utterly destroying them. The poor Indians were plainly seen on the mountains, gazing mournfully on their desolated homes. Even Major Grant felt compassion. He wrote : " I could not help pitying them a little ; their villages were agreeably situated ; their houses neatly built ; there were everywhere astonishing magazines of corn, which were all consumed." About seventy Cherokees were killed ; forty, chiefly women and children, were made prisoners. The survivors, feeding on horse-flesh and wild roots, made their escape over the mountains.^ Montgomery sent messages that unless they consented to his terms of peace, he would follow them and reduce the upper towns to ashes. ^ The chiefs gave no response to his message. He crossed the Alleghany ranges with his army. The Royal Scots and High- landers and the colonial troops alike enjoyed the free mountain paths and breezes. At a narrow pass, called " Crow's Creek," in the valley of the Little Tennessee river, the Cherokees emerged from ambush and gave battle. Morrison, a gallant Scottish offi- cer, was killed at the head of the advance. But the Highlanders and provincials returned huzzas to the Indian yells, and, pressing on, drove them from their lurking-places, and chased them from height and hollow. The loss of the whites was twenty killed and seventy-six wounded.^ This was the end of IMontgomery's advance. He did not relieve the half-starved Fort Loudon. Resting a single day in the Alle- ghanies, he then kindled lights at Etchowee to deceive the Cher- okees, and silently retreated. By the ist of July he had reached Fort Prince George. This retreat was fatal to Fort Loudon. Already nearly starved, the garrison made terms of capitulation with the Cherokees, which neither side observed. Oconostata himself received the surrender, August 8th, and sent the garrison of two hundred on their way to Carolina. But the next day, at Telliquo, the Cher- okees surrounded them, killed Captain Demere and three other officers, with twenty-three privates, and distributed the rest as captives among their tribes. They were veiy exact in claiming that they put to death only the same number that had been mur- dered in Fort Prince George the previous December.* iTimberlake on the Cherokees, Bancroft, IX. 353. 2 Virginia Gazette, 49(1, 2, 1. 3|Yivginia Gazette, August, 1760, 501, 2, 1, 15. *Lieut.-Gov. Bull to Lords of Trade, 9th Sept., 1760, 21st Oct., 1760. Fauquier to Lords of Trade, 17th Sept., 1760. 316 A History of the United States of America, Thus does wrong give birth to wrong. Montgomery, with his troops, left the colony to the harassing assaults of the Cherokees. Governor Ellis, of Georgia, by a wise and humane policy, concil- iated the Creeks, and his people were left to peaceful pursuits. During 1761 the war with the Cherokees went on. " I am for war," said Saloue, the young warrior of Estatoe. " The spirits of our murdered brothers still call on us to avenge them ; he that will not take up his hatchet and follow me is no better than a woman." To reduce these native mountaineers. General Am- herst, early in 1761, sent a regiment and two companies of light infantry under that same Grant, of sad Pittsburg memories. South Carolina added a regiment of her own, commanded by Colonel Henry Middleton, under whom were William Moultrie, Henry Laurens and Francis Marion.^ In April, 1761, this force encountered the Cherokees on the banks of the Little Tennessee, about two miles from the spot where Montgomery had met them. A battle was kept up for three hours. The Cherokees fought bravely, but their ammuni- tion gave out and they retreated, having inflicted a loss of ten killed and forty badly wounded on the whites. Grant's troops i"emained for thirty days west of the Allegha- nies, marching from town to town, plundering, burning and lay- ing waste. The unhappy Cherokees had that year planted new fields of maize, all of which were desolated. Four thousand In- dians — men, women and little children — were driven from their pleasant homes to wander among the mountains. Utterly broken in fortunes and spirits, they sued for peace through Attakulla-kulla, a well-known chief, who said to the whites : " I am come to you as a messenger from the whole na- tion, to see what can be done for my people in their distress." The people of the Carolinas felt pity for them. Lyttleton was gone ; his counsels no longer prevailed. Peace was agreed on. The sad Cherokees returned to their loved valleys ; but they felt that they vs^ere no longer to rest in permanent security. " They knew that they had come into the presence of a race more pow- erful than their own ; and the course of their destiny was irrevo- cably changed." ^ Hardly had the peace of Paris terminated the war of seven years between England and France, before a w^ar was commenced against the English colonists by the Indians of the northern and northwestern borders and of the Ohio valley, which, though not > Moultrie's Memoirs Ainer. Rev., II. 223. Bancroft, IV. 423. 2 Terms of Peace with the Cherokees in L. of T., 11th Dec, 1761. Bancroft, IV. 425, 426. The Causes of the Wa?' of Revolution. 317 of long duration, was waged with every appliance of savage du- plicity, treachery, cruelty and skill that ever had been put in practice by the natives. This war is very properly designated as " Pontiac's war." The chief bearing that name was said to have been a Catawba captive, adopted by the Ottawa nation ; and he came to be regarded as " the king and the lord of all that coun- try " of the Northwest.' He was of colossal stature and size, and of commanding talents, united with impressive manners and address.^ He was almost adored by numerous tribes, and was represented as a man " of integrity and humanitv," at least according to the morals of the wilderness. The termination of the war with France, and the advance of the English to take possession of the forts in the surrendered country, were regarded with sagacious alarm by Pontiac and all the In- dians whom he could influence. The French, by their cordial manners, their religious missions, and their easy pliancy as to marriages and social habits, had gained the hearts of the I'ed men. The English treated them as inferiors, to be swept out of their way, and sold them intoxicating liquors — a practice utterly repu- diated by the French policy.^ Pontiac, and the more observant of all the Indians, saw that the success of the English meant the gradual destruction of the red men, or their reduction to modes of life which they abhorred as slavery. The Iroquois, and especiallv the Senecas, led the way in secret combinations for hostility. They were soon in cautious conference with the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Aliamis, the Wyandots, the Abenakis and the Potawatomies. Pontiac was the central and moving spirit. For two years this secret work was going on, and the " bloody belt " was being carried around from nation to nation and town to town, until it was discovered by the young ensign in command at Fort Miami, who, " after a long and troublesome interview," persuaded the chiefs to arrest its progress and surrender it to him.* But the dark work had been done. Of all the inland settle- ments, Detroit was the largest and most attractive. The climate was mild and the air healthful. Good land abounded, yielding wheat, Indian corn, and excellent vegetables. The forests were stocked with buffaloes, deer, quails, partridges, and wild turkeys. Water-fowl of delicious flavor frequented the streams, and the 1 William Smith to Gates, 22d Nov., 1763. Gladwin to Amherst, 14th Mav, 1763. Bancroft, V. 113. 2 Rev. W. T. Price's Hist. Sketch of Greenbrier Presbvtery. 1SS9. 3 Hutchinson to Rich'd Jackson, Aug., 1763. Bancroft, V. 111. *Gayarre's Hist, de la Louisiana, II. 131. Holmes to Major Gladwin, 30th March, 1763. 3iS A History of the United States of America, waters yielded fine fish, especially the white fish, very seldom caught elsewhere. The French inhabitants dwelt on farms, and wei-e contented and peaceful. They honestly submitted to the English sovereignty, according to the peace of Paris. ^ The Indians tried in vain to draw them into their war. Major Gladwin was in command of the Detroit fort — a large stockade enclosing about eighty houses. He had one hundred and twenty men, with eight officers. Pontiac paid him several insidious visits, with constantly increasing forces of warriors secretly armed. But Gladwin was on his guard against all sur- prises. A romantic tradition, which has gained wide acceptance, asserts that a Chippewa Indian girl, who was in love with Glad- win, revealed to him the plan of Pontiac ; but this tradition can hardly claim historic basis. ^ On the 7th of May, 1763, an English party sounding the en- trance to Lake Huron were seized and murdered. On the after- noon of the 9th, Pontiac threw off all disguise, and, with a large body of savages, openly beleaguered the Detroit fort, which had provisions for only three weeks. His proclamation was : " The first man that shall bring them provisions, or anything else, shall suffer death." But Gladwin obtained needed supplies, and set at defiance the seven hundred besiegers. War Avas soon apparent at every point open to savages' wiles and cruelty. On the i6th of May. a party of Indians ap- peared at the gate of Fort Sandusky, then a small and weak work. Ensign Paulli, the commander, admitted four Hurons and three Ottawas, as " old acquaintances and friends." They sat smoking, till, on signal, they seized Paulli, slew his sentry, admit- ted their comrades and massacred the garrison. The traders were killed and their stoi^es plundered. Paulli, as a prisoner, was carried in triumph to the lines around Detroit.^ On the 25th of May, by similar villainy, the small work at St. Joseph's was cap- tured, and the garrison, except three men, were put to death. Nine British garrisons were thus, by treachery and wiles, sur- prised in one day. Prowling savages gathered around all the outlying settlements. It has been estimated that twenty thousand persons in Western Virginia were driven from their homes by the fear of the savage tomahawk and scalping-knife.* At Michilimackinac the fort was on the strait, and the whole inclosure was more than two acres on the main-land, surrounded 1 Bancroft, V. 114, 118. 2 Compare Carver, 155, 156; Thalheimer, 107; Quackenbos, 182, with Gladwin's own statement, and Bancroft, V. 116, note. ^ Paulli to Gen. Gage, Bancroft, V. 118. , ■• Quackenbos' U.S., 181. The Caitscs of the War of Revolution, 319 by a picket fence, with cabins for a few traders, and a garri- son of about forty men. The Chippewas had been in the habit of assembling in the enclosed space to play ball, somewhat in the forms of the modern game of base-ball. On the 4th of June, 1763, an exciting game was in progress ; the officers were watch- ing it, when, suddenly, the ball was driven close to the gate. Unsuspected, the savages ran up, seized the commander, Ether- ington, and his lieutenant, and hurried them to the woods. The Indian squaws were already in the fort, with hatchets hidden under their blankets. The Indians seized these arms, and, by a sudden attack, killed an officer, a trader, and fifteen men. The rest of the garrison were made prisoners. Everything portable was carried from the fort. The French traders were not harmed. Thus was taken the old fort of Mackinaw. Presque Isle (now Ei'ie) w^as captured by reason of the tensor of the commander. Le Boeuf was next invested. Its resolute commander made a stern defence till midnight, and then escaped with his men into the woods, after the Indians had set fire to the block houses. The old fort at Venango was rec^uced to ruins. But all the numbers and strategy of the natives was of no avail for the capture of Fort Pitt. In a severe engagement, the white troops under Dalyell were worsted. But Bouquet, at Bushy Run, with his officers and men, behaved with great courage and coolness, and finally routed the savages, though with a loss of one-fourth of their own numbers. Unfortunately, when the savage movements began. General Am- herst regarded them as hardly worthy of notice. He expressed the hope that the natives would be " too sensible of their own interests " to conspire against the English.^ But as the news of the capture of fort after fort, and of bloody massacres, and of a defeat to Dalyell, and heavy loss to Bouquet came to him^ the English commander grew in wrath. His indig- nation against " the bloody villains " knew no bounds. He offered a reward of one hundred pounds to any one ■who would kill Pon- tiac. He sent eleven hundred troops (in large proportion colo- nial), under General Bradstreet, to the Northwest. His instructions were : "You will take no prisoners, but put to death all that fall into your hands."" Had such instructions been carried out, Indian wars would never have ceased in North America so long as a red warrior was alive. But General Bradstreet was too wise, brave and humane to be led astray by such orders. 1 Amherst to Major Gladwin, May, 1763. Bancroft, V. 113. 2 Amherst's instructions, 10th Aug., 1763. Bancroft, V. 132. 330 A History of the United States of America. Pontiac had shown eminent addi-ess and skill in organizing and eonciuctiog the war. He had even devised a rude system of banking, and of negotiable instruments, which were strangely effective for liis money purposes. His notes, which were always punctually paid, consisted of pieces of smooth, tough bark, each etched with the figure of what he wanted to buy, and of an otter, which he had adoptea as his own hieroglyphic seal/ No Indian chief bad ever exercised an influence so extensive as his. But his career was now drawing to its close. The Indians, alarmed at the advance of the white troops, began to fall oft' from him. The French, in Illinois, contributed greatly to a general pacification. De Neyon, the officer lately in command of Fort Chartres, sent belts, messages and peace-pipes to all parts of the continent accessible to him, urging the savages to bury the hatchet and take the English by the hand, and telling them that they would see his face no more.* General Bradstreet found no organized resistance, though a formal peace was not made until Sir William Johnson brought all the New York, Northwestern, and Ohio valley tribes to a treaty of peace in 1766.^ The more eastern savages, known as the St. Francis Indians, who had been especially barbarous and destructive to the people of New Eng- land, were so fearfully scourged and overthrown in 1759, by Major Rogers, that they had given no trouble thereafter.^ Pontiac refused to sign the treaty of peace, and i^etired to the hunting-grounds of the Illinois. He still sought to organize a war upon the whites. But while attending a council, in 1769, he was stabbed and slain by a Peoria Indian, who had received from soine base whites a bribe of a barrel of rum to do this deed of assassi- nation.^ With his death ended the last hope of a native liberator. (2.) On the subject of negro slavery, the facts of history are all against the mother country in her fixed policy towards her colo- nies in America, It is true that the first introduction of negro slaves was the result of a voluntary purchase by Virginia planters from a Dutch ship, in 1620, as we have noted ; and doubtless similar transactions often occurred afterwards in all the colonies. For at least two and a half centuries after Columbus came to the West Indies, the African slave-trade was considered legitimate and consonant even to Christian morality. The crime of having a black skin and negro conformation, was held sufficient to justify enormities at which the Christian world now gazes back with 1 Quackenbos' U. S., 1S3. Art. Pontiac, New Amer. Encyclop., XIII. 479. 2 Neyon a Kerlerec, Dec, 1763. Bancrolt, V. 133. 5 Sendder's U. S., 157. ■> Goodrich's U. S., 162. 6 Compare Quackenbos, 183. Holmes' U. S., 81. Amer. Encyclop., XIII. 479. Derry's U. S., 90. The Ca7iscs of the War of Revolution. 321 horror. And yet there are divines who claim that no discoveries nor advances in Christian theology are possible ! The colonies became sensitive as to the moral blackness of this slave-trade, and its effects upon their prosperity, long before Eng- land would tolerate any discontinuance thereof. When first brought in, the negroes spoke nothing but their African dialects, and were often fierce and intractable. Great harshness was used to subdue them. Insurrections were not infrequent, and they were always put down with the bloody hand. One occurred in the city of New York in 17 12. Twenty- four negroes were put to death, in some cases with prolonged torture.^ In 1740 an uprising of slaves took place in South Carolina. The whites organized and gave them battle, and routed them with fearful slaughter. In 1741 a negro plot for insurrection was supposed to have been detected in New York, and, upon evidence far from conclusive, thirty-three slaves were executed, thirteen of them by fire.^ Prior to the Revolution, negro slaves were in all the colonies ; but in IMaryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia they most abounded, because the conditions of soil, climate and productions in the South made their labor most profitable. Moreover, the hot suns and mild winters of the South suited the African, and he increased and multiplied wonderfully there. And it was in the Southern colonies that the first earnest pro- tests and adverse legislation against slavery began. It is true that, as early as 1701, the town of Boston instructed its representatives in the assembly " to put a period to negroes being slaves " ; ^ but no favorable enactment followed. In 17 12, a general petition was gotten up in Pennsylvania, and signed by many, asking for the emancipation of the negro slaves ; but the Legislature of Pennsylvania answered that " it was neither just nor convenient to set them at liberty."* A deep religious sentiment was all the time proclaiming in the hearts of the Southern colonists that negro slavery was incon- sistent with Christianity. We cannot otherwise account for the crude notion that if a negro was baptized with Christian baptism it was unlawful thereafter to hold him in slavery. Yet, so prev- alent was this notion that from 1667 to 1748, Virginia passed repeated laws forbidding the baptism of negro slaves ;^ South Carolina passed a similar law in 1713, and Maryland in 1715.^ lEggleston's Household U. P., lOS. ^Eggleston, 108. Bancroft, III. 406. Holmes' IT. S., 64. D. B. Scott's U. S., 98. 3 Bancroft, III. 408. ■» Ibid., 408. '■> Heiiing, II. 260 ; III. 448, etc. « Laws of S. C, Dalcho, 94. Bancroft, III. 409. 21 322 A History of the United States of America. But England did not trouble herself with any such scruples. In May, 1727? Gibson, Bishop of London, declared that " Christianity and the embracing of the gospel does not make the least altera- tion in civil property." Thus he held that a negro might be " civil property " — in other w^ords, " a chattel" — and yet a proper subject for Christian baptism. The incongruity was latent still. It is no longer a question of historic doubt that all the South- ern colonies passed repeated laws to discourage, and, if possible, to prevent entirely, the further importation of African slaves, and that England invariably nullified this colonial legislation. Throughout the statute books of Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina these laws are copiously scattered. This sentiment was so general in America that the very fii'st Continental Congress which could claim any power of legislation, on the 6th of April, 1776, passed a resolution " that no slaves be imported into any of the thirteen united colonies." ^ We have seen that, by the acts of the trustees, under the origi- nal charter of Geoi'gia, slavery was forbidden. Doubtless, as set- tlements increased, there were those in the colony who were im- pelled by selfish greed to seek a change in this provision. But it was England who really broke it down. Years afterwards Ogle- thorpe wrote : "My friends and I settled the colony of Georgia, and by charter were established trustees. We determined not to suffer slavery there ; but the slave-merchants and their adherents not only occasioned us much trouble, but at last got the govern- ment to sanction them."^ In 1760, South Carolina enacted restrictions on the importation of slaves and the increase of slavery. The English ministry re- buked her, and nullified her action.^ In 1761, a proposition was introduced into the Legislature of Virginia to suppress the impor- tation of negro slaves by a prohibitory duty. A warm debate followed. Richard Henry Lee, from Westmoreland, made his maiden speech in favor of the restriction, arguing with learning and eloquence to show all the dangers of slavery, its sinister effects on the prosperity of the colony, and painting from the models of ancient history the horrors of servile insurrections.* The enactment was carried by a majority of a single vote ; but, from England, a negative from the Crown promptly annulled it. In all this, England alienated her colonists more and more, be- cause it was evident that her policy was purely selfish and money- seeking. Whenever great barriers of morals have stood in her 1 Journals of Congress, I. 307. 2 Oglethorpe letter in Bancroft, III. 41G. 8 Bancroft, III. 416. * Lee's Mem. of Lee, II. Bancroft, IV. 422. The Cattses of the War of Revolution. 323 way in seeking selfish gain, as in the cases of importing negro slaves into North America and opium into China, she has broken those barriers in the pursuit of money. Steadily rejecting every colonial limitation on the slave-trade, she instructed the governors, on pain of i^emoval, to refuse even temporary assent to such laws. Only a year before the opening of the Revolution, the Earl of Dartmouth summed up her policy on this subject in these memorable words : " We cannot allow the colonies to check or discourage in any degree a traffic so ben- eficial to the nation.'"' This traffic, inhuman in its origin, conduct and results, had been a favored method by which the kings, queens and nobles of England had sought to enrich themselves, from the days of Sir John Hawkins to modern times. Under it nine millions of negroes are estimated to have been snatched from their homes in Africa, up to 1776, by negro-kidnapers and traders, chiefly Eng- lish.^ At least one-eighth of these victims died on the middle passage, and were thrown into the Atlantic. Yet England, especially after the insertion of the assiento in her treaty of Utrecht with Spain, in 1713, pressed on this traffic with unre- lenting zeal. Her manufacturers earnestly favored it, because they were sure that negro labor in the colonies would perma- nently unfit them for competition with English skilled labor.^ (3.) On the subject of religious liberty, the first impression would be that the colonists themselves had been more responsible for its loss or restriction than the mother country, and that such examples as Maryland, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania presented would prove tha]^ it would not have been restricted in any colony, had it been properly sought. But this is a superficial view. The very essence of the English constitution and laws assumed the connection of church and state as legitimate and beneficial. Therefore, as far as her influence could be felt, England sought to extend this connection in her colonies. The system of glebe lands, church properties, and tithes was the necessary outcome of the union of church and state ; and its overthrow was part of the Revolution itself, and was needful to the establishment of religious liberty ; for, if the state may adopt a special organi- zation of the grand Christian system as " the church," and may compel people to support it by their attendance and property, religious liberty is impossible. 1 Dartmouth to colonial agent, Bancroft, III. 416. a Raynal's Indies. Edwards, II. s Bancroft, III. 413-417. 3-4 'i Ilisiory of the l't:itcd Strifes of America. It was. naturally and almost inevitably, in the Virginia colony that this question sliowed itself in its true light and proportions. We have seen that many eireumstances had contributed to give this colonv a reputation tor lovaltv. and to put into her counsels a luimber ot' leailing minds who felt special reverence for the institutions of England. Init. as population increased, others of equal mental power atul culture began to appear ; and even the Washingtons. Pendletons, W ythes. Lees, Randolphs and Jetlersons began to realize that a church established by law necessarily antagonized the principles of religious liberty. The crisis of exposure approached, and with the crisis came the man to lit't the curtain. By a statute enacted in loob. the Episcopal clergy of \'irginia were to receive, each one, a salary of sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco. This statute was in substance re-enacted in l74^'. and had been sanctioned by the Crowti. The price of tobacco had been long stationary at two pence per pound, but was liable to change by the law of supply and demand. A short crop in 1755 caused the price to advance, and the assembly passed an act declaring that debts or claims pay- able in tobacco might be discharged by paying /// money at the rate of two pence per pound.' This law was in operation ten months only, and was quietly endmed by the clergy. But in ij"^S the assemblv. in view of another short crop, re-enacted the statute of IJ•^^, and annexed no suspending clause, which would have kept their enactment in suspense luitil sanctioned by the Ci'own. The clergy took tire, and determined to enforce their claims by law. Immediately a hot controversy arose. I\imphlets on both sides appeared. I lis majesty, in council, sought to cut the knot by declaring the act of I7^S null and void.* Thereupon suits were instituted in various counties by clergymen against their respec- tive parish collectors to enforce the law of 174S. which gave six- teen thousand pounds of tobacco to each minister. In Hanover county. Rev. James Maury had sued his vestry. Able coimsel had been employed on each side. The action was for the sixteen thousiind pounds of tobacco ; the defendants pleaded the act of 1 75S, and the plaintitls demurred to the plea on two grounds: prst, because that act had not received the royal sanction when enacted ; second, because the king, in council, had expressly de- clared it void. » wins r.striok H«nry. 22, 24. « Wlrte Henry. ;:». l»r. Hawks' Eccle«iA& Hist, of VA..122. Grah&me. IV. S^ The Causes of the War of Revolution. 325 When this dcinurrcr came up in the county court for November, 1763, it was iir<2jucd by Peter Lyons for the phiintiiT, and John Lewis for the defendants. The court, notwithstandin*^ that pop- ular feeling ran stron^^ly a Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 1H. 2 Irving's Washington, I. 421. 3 Ibid., 422. 364 -^ History of the United States of America. A rumor came that General Gage intended to seize and fortify Dorchester Heights on the night of the iSth of June. The rumor was probably unfounded, but precipitated the American move- ment. Orders were given. Colonel Gridley was the engineer. A little before sunset twelve hundred troops assembled before General Ward's headquarters. President Langdon, of Harvard, offered a fervent prayer ; after which the silent march com- menced. Colonel Prescott was the leader. They left Cambridge at nine o'clock. At Charlestown Neck they were joined by Gen- eral Putnam and Major Brooks, with Bridges' regiment ; and here several wagons loaded with intrenching tools made the first disclosure of the purpose of their march. The British had a battery on Copp's Hill, opposite to Charlestown. The utmost caution and silence were needed. Arrived near Bunker's Hill, a question arose. Breed's Hill was nearer to Boston, and better commanded the town and ship- ping. Putnam urged that they should intrench Breed's, but have a minor work at Bunker's as a protection to their rear ; but Ward's written orders specified Bunker's, and a short time of hesitation occurred. The night was waning. Every moment was a loss. Colonel Gridley was impatient. Breed's was deter- mined on. The lines were marked ofi', and the men threw off" their coats and seized the tools. Never was work more rapid. Before dawn a strong redoubt arose, flanked on the left by a breastwork nearly cannon-proof, extending down the crest of Breed's to a marsh. The sailors on the British war-ship Lively first gave the alarm. Without wait- ing for orders she put a spring on her cable, brought her guns to bear, and opened fire. The work went on. One man, incau- tiously exposing himself, was killed. Colonel Prescott directed that he should be buried at once, for he saw that his death had agitated the nerves of his comrades. A few of the more timid quietly left the hill and did not return.^ To restore composure to his men, Prescott calmly mounted the redoubt and walked up and down. General Gage saw him through his glass. "Who is that officer in command?" he asked of Counsellor Willard, Prescott's brother-in-law. Willard told him. "Will he fight?" asked Gage. "Yes, sir! he is an old soldier, and will fight to the last drop of blood ; but I cannot answer for his men." "The works must be carried ! " exclaimed Gage, and issued his orders. 1 Irving, I. 427. Bancroft, VII. 410, 411. Bunker's Hill. 36=5 A council of war was held. Clinton and Grant advised that a force should be landed on Charlestown Neck, under protection of their batteries, so as to attack the rear of the Americans and cut oft' their retreat. To this Gage objected that it would place his attacking force between two armies — one at Cambridge, suj^erior in numbers, the other on the heights, strongly fortified. He therefore determined to land his force in front of the works and push directly on them, trusting to the firmness and discipline of his regulars against untrained militia, who, he believed, would fly before him. His confidence cost his army dearly. The sound of drum and trumpet and the hoofs of artillery horses on the morning of Saturday, the 17th of June, warned the men behind the intrenchments on Breed's Hill of the coming attack. They were tired and hungry, but they firmly bore the artillery fire from the ships and from Copp's Hill. At noon twenty-eight barges crossed from Boston in parallel lines. They carried two thousand chosen British ti'oops, under Generals Howe and Pigot. Percy, under plea of sickness, let his regiment go without him. No opposition was made to their landing. On reaching Moulton's Point, a little north of Breed's, Howe halted. He saw the New Hampshire troops, under Stark, marching to reinforce Prescott. He sent back to Gage for more troops, and for artillery ammunition. He delayed nearly two hours, re- freshing his men with "grog" and provisions. This enabled Stark to come up, and a novel intrenchment of two lines of post and rail fence, packed in with stra\v, was hastily run to protect Prescott's exposed flank. Putnam hurried on the works on Bunker's Hill, and was everywhere, encouraging the men and advising them not to fire until they could " see the whites of their eyes." After the British passed through Charlestown, they set fire to the town by order of General Gage, who had threatened that if the provincials threw up works on the hills he would burn Charlestown.-^ The British infantry marched steadily up the incline to Breed's Plill, firing as they advanced. The Americans made no attempt to reply to this fire, nor to that of the enemy's light artillery ; but when the serried red ranks came within fifty yards Prescott gave the command to fire. Nothing in musketry and rifle-shooting was ever more destructive than the fire that followed. The ranks of the British went down like wheat before the reaper. They could not stand it, but broke and retreated in disorder down the hill. Their officers rallied them, pushing them on, in some 1 Bancroft, VU. 421. 366 A History of the United States of America. cases, with their swords. Again they advanced, again to meet that desolating fire and again to retreat. Men fell, officers fell, dead or wounded. Major Pitcairn fell into the arms of his son, mor- tally wounded. The attempts to rally the men failed for a time. But reinforcements were hurried over from Boston. Again an attack was organized. And now came to the brave Prescott and the officers surrounding him the disheartening report that their ammunition was failing. The fire during the two attacks had been marvelously rapid and sustained. The' men were so high in spirits that they stood their ground, many of them without powder, ball or bayonet. The third attack was made with great superiority of numbers. Yet such of the provincials as had am- munition mowed all down before them, both at the dirt and the straw intrenchments. The men without powder fought with clubbed guns. The heroic Warren, who had come over and taken his place in the ranks with his musket, was mortally wounded just as the retreat commenced. Reluctantly, Prescott gave the command to retire. The Americans retreated, first to the works at Bunker's Hill. The English made no attempt either to follow or to flank them. Their victory, though gained, was too bloody and too dearly bought for an advance. In this bravely fought battle the loss of the British, by their own admission, was one thousand and fifty-four. Thirteen com- missioned officers were slain, seventy were wounded. At one time the attacking troops stood and staggered on in the face of a fire which was not intermitted one second for half an hour. The oldest soldiers had never seen the like. The American loss was one hundred and forty-five killed and missing, and three hundred and four wounded.^ This defence of Bunker's Hill wrought a permanent eflect on the minds of British soldiers and officers, especially in Boston. They began to doubt whether they could hold the city. They might also have had doubts whether they could, by arms, subdue a people who lived in villages and in the country, and who, in six hours, had thrown up intrenchments from which it had cost half a British army to drive them. It was soon known that had they had plenty of powder and ball they could not have been dislodged. Dr. Benjamin Franklin expressed a growing convic- tion when he wrote to his friends in*England : " Americans will fight ; England has lost her colonies forever." ^ Meanwhile George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the American armies, was approaching from Philadelphia. He trav- 1 Bancroft, VII. 431, 432. 2 la Bancroft, VII. 435. Bunker's Hill. 367 eled on horseback, accompanied most of the way by Generals Schuyler and Lee. Twenty miles from Philadelphia they were met by a courier bearing dispatches to congress from the army around Boston, and especially tidings of the battle. Washington eagerly inquired how the militia had behaved. When told of their conduct, a weight of doubt and solicitude seemed to be rolled away from his breast. He exclaimed : " The liberties of our country are safe.'" As they approached New York, the sentiments of the people of that important province became a subject of anxious discussion. It is true, many of the oldest and richest families — the Jays, Ben- sons, Beekmans, Hoffmans, Van Homes, Roosevelts, Duyckincks, Pintards, Yateses and others — \vere known to be warm and self- denying patriots ; but many were of doubtful position. Among them were the families inheriting wealth and influence from Sir William Johnson. We have seen how England had honored him ; yet when the Revolutionary struggle came he felt his sympathies divided, and when dispatches came to him from England instruct- ing him to enlist the Indians against the colonists, his conflict of feeling brought on a stroke of apoplexy, from which he died July nth, 1774, leaving his son, Sir John Johnson, and his sons-in-law, Col. Guy Johnson and Colonel Claus, as his male representatives. They felt none of his scruples, and were soon busy drawing Scotch Highlanders of the Roman faith and other Tories around the old stone-house family mansion on the Mohawk, which was armed with swivels. They also used their influence with violent men, such as the Butlers, of Tryon county, and Brandt, the Mo- hawk sachem. With armed retainers they went about the coun- try breaking up patriotic assemblages, and threatening an Indian war. Moreover, Governor Tryon was known to be a strong Tory. He was absent in England, but his return was hourly expected. In fact, by a curious series of time-serving instructions, the New York assembly sent its committee to pay honor either to Wash- ington or to Tryon, tvliomsoever of the txvo iniglit Jirst arrive. Washington arrived first, and was cordially greeted at Newark by the committee. At eight o'clock the same evening Tryon arrived, and the same committee met him with due honors ! '^ It was not the first instance in the history of the world in which the impos- sible deed " to serve God and mammon " was attempted.^ Wash- ington appointed General Schuyler to supreme command in New York. He could not have made a better appointment. ' Irving's Washington, I. 445. - Irving's AVashington, I. 446-449. 3 " Ye cannot serve God and mammon." — Matt. vi. '24. 368 A Historv of the United States of America. As Washington approached, the Provincial Assembly of Mas- sachusetts made preparation for him by appointing the president's house at Cambridge as his residence, except one room reserved for the head of the college. On the 2d of July, 1775, at Water- town, the assembly met Washington and delivered to him a con- gratulatory address, in vs^hich, however, they frankly stated the undisciplined and unsupplied condition of the army.^ The same evening Washington proceeded to his headquarters at Cambridge, and took command of the army. He was received with shouts and the thunders of artillery, which reached the ears of enemies and friends in Boston, exciting very different emotions. His fine person, dignified manner and splendid horsemanship aroused universal enthusiasm.^ The accomplished wife of John Adams saw the commander-in- chief on this occasion, and wrote to her husband : "Dignity, ease and complacency, the gentleman and the sol- dier, look agreeably blended in him. Modesty marks every line and feature of his face. The lines of Dryden instantly occurred to me : "'Mark his majestic fabric ! He's a temple Sacred by birth, and built by hands divine ; His soul's the deity that lodges there; Nor is the pile unworthy of the God.' " ' But heavy cares soon pressed on Washington. He found the army numerous enough, but daily disintegrating. In the ardor of patriotism the men had come together, and had fought gallantly when fighting was to be done ; but they were little more than volunteers at will, and many soon grew weary of the camp and went to their homes. Washington soon introduced regular en- listments for the war, or for stated periods, longer or shorter. Thus the " Continental lines " of the different States were formed. There was scarcity of gunpowder ; but a happy event partially supplied this. In July a British vessel arrived at Tybee Island, below Savannah, Georgia, with thirteen thousand pounds of powder for the use of the royal troops. Thirty volunteers, under the lead of two commanders, naval and military, Commodore Bowen and Colonel Habersham, seized this prize. The powder was secured in a magazine in Savannah. Five thousand pounds of it were sent to the army around Boston.* By patient industry and skill Washington organized and sup- plied his army, so that by the beginning of winter he had four- 1 Irving's Washington, I. 452. 2 Thatcher's Military Journal. 8 Extract from Mrs. Adams' letter, in Irving's Washington, I. 453. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 111. ♦Derry'sU. S., 109. Canada. 3^9 teen thousand troops of high spirit and good discipline besieging Boston. The British army made no attempt to break his lines. The winter was severe, and the suffering in the city from cold and want of fuel and proper food was very great. The efforts of the Americans to possess themselves of all the strong points in Canada continued. Col. Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, made an attempt with an inadequate force on Montreal. He was defeated and captured, and sent a prisoner in iron handcuffs to England to be tried for treason. He was subjected to ignominious and inhuman treatment.^ But the question of trea- son was too dangerous for tampering. English prisoners of rank were held by the Americans. Allen was returned to a prison- ship in New Harbor, and finally exchanged. In August, 1775, General Schuyler projected an expedition against St. Johns and Montreal, with Qiiebec as the final object- ive point. Gen. Richard Montgomery, a native of Ireland, but now a daring and devoted friend of America, commanded. Sir Guy Carleton commanded the British forces in Canada. He was stirring up the Indians, and making preparations to send out armed vessels from St. Johns into Lake Champlain by the Sorel river. Montgomei-y saw that no time was to be lost, and hastily embarked with about a thousand men and two pieces of artillery to take possession of Isle-aux-Noix, which commanded the Sorel. ^ General Schuyler, though suffering from the effects of bilious fever, traveled in a covered bateau, and on the 4th of September overtook Montgomery, and on the same day their force occupied Isle-aux-Noix, thus defeating a part of Carleton's plan. In October, Fort Chamblee, a small work within five miles of St. Johns, was captured by fifty Americans and three hundred Canadians who sympathized with the Americans, commanded by Majors Brown and Livingston. A large quantity of powder and military stores were thus secured. Montgomery pressed the siege of St. Johns with vigor. The garrison were already suffering for provisions, but their brave commander. Major Preston, held out, hoping for promised relief from .Sir Guy Carleton. That English officer had with him a motley force of a hundred regulars, several hundred Canadians and a number of Indians. He hoped for help from Colonel Maclean, " a veteran Scot, brave and bitterly loyal," who, with three hundred of his countrymen, listed as " The Royal Highland Emigrants," was to come from Quebec, land at the mouth of the Sorel, and join Carleton in raising the siege of St. Johns.' > Goodrich's U. S., 190, 191. " living's Washington, II. 47, 48. 8 Irving' s Washington, II. S3, 84. 24 370 A History of the United States of America. But this concerted union was prevented by stern war. On the 2ist September, Carleton embarked his forces at Montreal in thirty-four boats. As they approached the right bank of the St. Lawrence, at Longueil, a destructive fire of artillery and mus- ketry was opened vipon them by Col. Seth Warner's Green Mountain boys and New Yorkers. Some of the boats were dis- abled ; some were driven ashore on an island. Carleton retreated to Montreal with loss in killed and wounded. Colonel Maclean fared no better. He landed at the mouth of the Sorel, and recruited, at the point of the bayonet, a number of Canadians in the neighborhood.' He was in march for St. Johns, when Brown and Livingston encountered him with their successful troops from Chamblee, reinforced by dauntless Green Mountain boys. Mac- lean was forced back, with loss, to the mouth of the Sorel, where, hearing of Carleton's defeat, and deserted by the Canadians, he thought it wise to continue his retreat down the river to Quebec. The Americans took possession of the mouth of the Sorel, and erected batteries to command the St. Lawrence. The resolute Preston was now in extremity. Yet, in answer to General Montgomery's demand for surrender, he asked for four days. This was refused. He capitulated, and delivered up five hundred regulars and a hundred Canadians, among whom were some who claimed to be of noble families.^ Though the provi- sions were nearly exhausted, the cannon, small arms, and am- munition captured were considerable in quantity, Montgomery, who had been an officer in the British service, treated Preston and the captured garrison with considerate courtesy. On the I3th of November the American forces invested Mon- treal. Sir Guy Carleton had embarked, with his garrison and a number of the civil officers, on a flotilla of small vessels, carrying away the powder and important stores to a point above the mouth of the Sorel. The town surrendered on the 13th, and Montgomery gained the goodwill of the people, both English and French, by his urbanity and kindness.* General Washington had corresponded with Schuyler, and actively concurred in all the measures for the capture of the Canadian posts. Qiiebec was chiefly coveted, as in all previous wars, because of her strength and commanding position. Wash- ington ordered a detail of eleven hundred picked troops to go by way of the Kennebec river and a march through the wilderness to attack Quebec, in co-operation with Montgomery. 1 Irving's Washington, II. 87. 2 Ibid., 86. » lUd., 91. Canada. 371 For the command of this dangerous and exposed expedition Col. Benedict Arnold was selected. His indomitable courage and skill were already known. And with this body went Aaron Burr, afterwards so brilliantly notorious, and Daniel Morgan, with a corps of riflemen from the Valley of Virginia, afterwards to gain undying reputation in the war. The expedition went first in vessels to the mouth of the Ken- nebec river ; thence they made their way up that river. Part marched on land ; part pushed the boats, with immense labor and difficulty, up the stream. They had to contend with swift currents, to unload at rapids, and transport boats and lading on their shoulders to the next practicable water passage. Days passed in making their way around rushing cataracts ; several times the boats were upset and filled with water, to the loss and damage of arms, ammunition and provisions. Those on the land scrambled over rocks and precipices ; strug- gled through swamps and fenny streams ; cut their way through tangled thickets, which almost tore their clothing from them. From four to ten miles a day was all they could make. Fatigue and swamps began to prey on their health. By the time they reached the portage between the Kennebec and Dead rivers, barely nine hundred and fifty men remained effective. It was determined to send the sick and disabled back under an escort, and Colonel Enos, who commanded the rear division, probably misinterpreting his orders, turned over all the provisions he could spare to the main army, and returned with the sick and with his whole command of three hundred men to Norridgewock.' He was afterwards tried for desertion, but the court-martial acc[uit- ted him because the orders were not entirely definite, and because many of his men would have starved had they remained. Through the wilderness the remaining men pressed, with Ar- nold at their head. Starvation was on them ; they were driven to eat dogs, and even to boil and chew the leather of their moc- casins and cartouch-boxes. For thirty-two days they saw not a human dwelling. They embarked in boats on the Chaudiei'e river, and at length reached Sextigan, the nearest French settle- ment. The kind people saw with wonder this small army of men, so gaunt and thin that they looked like living skeletons, coming up from their boats ; but they received them cordially. Arnold bought provisions, and soon his men were restored to health. Montgomery hoped to capture Sir Guy Carleton. He would have been a prisoner worth having. But after making several 1 Irving's WashiiiRton, TI. 88. Goodrich's U. S., 202, 203. 372 A History of the United States of America. abortive attempts to pass with his flotilla by the batteries, Carle- ton abandoned such hope, and, disguised as a Canadian boatman, slipped by the batteries in a boat with muffled oars, and made his way to Quebec. The flotilla surrendered to Montgomery, and among the prisoners was the British General Prescott, late com- mander of Montreal.^ A large supply of flour, beef, butter, can- non, ammunition, and military stores was secured. Montgomery now prepared to join Arnold before Qiiebec ; but a large number of his troops refused to go with him. They had been greatly dissatisfied with his covn'se in permitting the cap- tured oflScers and men to retain their private stores, clothing and property. They regarded these as spoils of war. Their insub- ordination so greatly discouraged Generals Schuyler and Mont- gomery that they both proposed to resign their commissions ; but Washington, by wise appeals to their patriotism, appeased them.'' With numbers much reduced, Montgomery joined Arnold early in December. The siege was pressed for several weeks. But the season v^as advancing. It was resolved to attempt to carry those formidable works, defended by two hundred cannon and more than two thousand troops, by escalade. The assault was made with conspicuous courage on the 31st day of December. Mont- gomery was in the lead, and fell dead ; his aid, McPherson, fell at his side ; Arnold was severely wounded in the leg. The assault failed. The troops retired with a loss of a hundred killed, and three hundred wounded or prisoners. Among the prisoners was the brave Morgan. The whole attacking army was barely twelve hundred in number. Thus, on the last day of the year in which her war for freedom commenced, America received her first decisive lesson, repeated again and again since that time, that Canada was not to be wrested from the English dominion by force of arms. If ever gained, she must be gained by love. Colonel Thomas, who suc- ceeded to the command, because Arnold's wound compelled him to retire, continued in the neighborhood of Quebec until the spring, and then withdrew his force from Canada. i Taylor's Centen. U. S., 172. Irving's Washington, II. 91, 92. "- Irving, II. 86, 93, 97. CHAPTER XXXVI. The War of Revolution Continued. THE first day of the year 1776, in which the United States of America declared their independence, was signalized by events vividly representative of the kingly government about to expire in Virginia. Lord Dunmore was the last, and in many respects the worst, royal governor. He saw in the spirit of the House of Burgesses, the conven- tions, and the words of Patrick Henry, enough to satisfy him that the people of the colony meant to resist by force the measures of England. On the day after the battle of Lexington, a corps of marines from the armed English schooner jSIagdalen^ under orders from Dunmore, came up to Williamsburg in the dead of night and carried from the public magazine twenty barrels of gun- powder, which they stored before daybreak in the hold of their vessel. Thus on the 20th of April, 1775, the war of the Revolu- tion commenced in Virginia. This act caused great irritation and excitement. The people began to arm themselves. A meeting of six hundred men, well armed, was held in Fredericksburg, and on the 39th of April, 1775, passed resolutions approaching, in spirit, a declaration of inde- pendence. Patrick Henry marched from Hanover at the head of a military compan}-. John Tyler (afterwards governor of the State), at the head of another company, marched from Charles City county. They met at Doncaster's ordinary, in New Kent county, and formed a battalion, -with Henry in command.' Dun- more was startled by these promjDt movements. He sent Richard Corbin, the king's receiver-general, who paid to Patrick Hemy three hundred and thirty pounds sterling for the powder, and gave him a written acknowledgment of all the facts. Thus for a time the storm was stilled.'' But its mutterings were soon heard again. Dunmore carried on a surly correspondence with the burgesses. But the people were arming in every county, and fearing that he might be seized and detained as a hostage, on the night of the 8th of June, 1775, Dun- more fled from his palace and took refuge aboard the British 1 Skelton Jones, 14. Wirt, 108, 109. MS. note to author from J. Tyler, Jr. 2 Wirt, 110. Burk, III. 421, 422. [ 373 ] 374 ^ History of the United States of America. frigate Powey at Yorktown, He was accompanied by his wife and some of his domestics, and by Foy, his secretary, who was specially hated by the patriots. From this time, for more than a year, this fugitive royal gov- ernor carried on a predatory warfare against Virginia. He went first to Norfolk, which was then a flourishing to\vn of about six thousand inhabitants, many of whom were true to their country ; but many also were English and Scotch merchants, who loved money more than freedom. Dunmore carried out the king's instructions. He proclaimed the negro slaves to be free, and sought to rouse them to insurrec- tion against their masters. He employed agents to visit the Indian tribes and organize them for war on the whites. He had now under his command the frigate Fcvcey^ the Mercury., of twenty-four guns, Kingfsher, of sixteen, and Otter., of four- teen, with two companies of regulars, and a rabble of negroes and Tories Avho followed his standard. He made an attack upon Hampton on the 35th of October, 1775, but was beaten oft' by riflemen under Captain Woodford. This action was singular in this : that the men on armed ships were so constantly reached and slain or disabled by rifle bullets, that they were compelled to withdraw. Two tenders, with pris- oners, six swivels, and a quantity of muskets, pistols, sw^ordsand other weapons, were captured by the Americans.^ The Virginia convention had appointed a " Committee of Safety," who conducted the military operations. Dunmore at- tempted several raids from Norfolk, but was driven back with loss. At Great Bridge, across the Elizabeth river, twelve miles from Norfolk, a sharp skirmish occurred on the 9th of December. The Virginians were about three hundred in number, under Adjutant-General Bullet, Colonel Stevens and Major Marshall. The English force was commanded by Captain Fordyce, a brave officer, who had one hundred regulars and more than three hun- dred Tories, convicts and negroes. At the head of a selected force Fordyce charged gallantly across the bridge, but fell dead with fourteen rifle bullets in his body. His force was completely routed, and fled precipitately, leaving behind them their killed, wounded and prisoners. The fort defending Norfolk ^vas at- tacked, and Major Leslie abandoned it, having lost one hundred and two men and two pieces of artillery. Lord Dunmore is said to have raged like a madman when he heard of these successes of the patriots.^ 1 Skelton Jones, 63, &i. Burk, III. 434, 435. Howe, 249, 250. - Girardin, 88, 96, 97. The War of Revolution Continued. jy^ The road to Norfolk was now open, and Colonel Woodford, after sending a message to the mayor and town authorities that he had no hostile intents towards them, and would use no violence unless opposed, marched in on the night of the 14th of December and took possession. Dunmore fled, and a ^vretched train of traitors and Tories accompanied him to the war-ships. An American force of twelve hundred and seventy-five men, under Howe and Woodford, now held the town. Dunmore made no attempt to recapture it. He resorted to the most inhuman form of warfare. On the first day of January, 1776, the frigate Leopard^ the ship Dunmore, and two sloops of war were moored with their batteries bearing on the town, and at half-past three in the afternoon opened a tremendous fire. Under its cover sailors and marines, well armed, landed in boats and set fire to the ware- houses and other buildings on the wharves. The contents were turpentine and pitch, and all burned with frightful rapidity. Not- withstanding the almost intolerable heat, the American riflemen drew near, and with deadfy fire drove back these incendiaries, with severe loss, to their ships. ^ But the fii^e raged, and as the ships kept up a storm of balls and shells it could not be extin- guished ; for part of three days and nights it burned ^vithout in- termission. Nine-tenths of the town were reduced to ashes ; property worth a million and a half of dollars was destroyed. It is true a large proportion of this loss fell on those disaflected to the cause of freedom ; but Dunmore's revenge was blind. He had the satisfaction of knowing that out of six thousand residents, at least four thousand were deprived of their homes and driven out to seek shelter in the counties above. ^ Dunmore was now in a wretched condition. His fleet consisted of the ships of war and more than fifty transports, carrying a crowd of miserable Tories, men and women, a great many negroes enticed from their masters, and a rabble of convicts and odious characters. With these he cruised up and down the bay and the rivers, burning and marauding, yet scantily supplied with food, and suff'ering more and niore from sickness among his crowded followers. At this time Gen. Charles Lee was appointed to the command of the southern division of the united colonies. He arrived at Williamsburg on the 39th of March, 1776, and took in at a glance the military condition of Virginia. His orders were stern and peremptory. Under them Colonel Woodford removed the in- 1 Letter from Howe and Woodford to Convention, Virginia Gazette, Sup., Januarys, 1776, Burk, III. 450. Girardin, 101. 2 Girardin, 101, 102. Woodford and Howe in Virginia Gazette, January 6, 1776, 3y6 A History of the United States of America. habitants of Norfolk and Princess Anne counties into the interior with all their live stock and provisions ; and if any were found in correspondence with the enemy they were to be sent hand- cuffed to Williamsburg.^ Dunmore was reduced to great straits for food. He took pos- session of Gwynn's Island on the 24th of May, landed his forces and formed an intrenched camp. This island lies just in the mouth of the river Piankatank, is about four miles in length and two in width, and before the coming of Dunmore had abounded in grain, cattle, fruits and vegetables, in good water and abund- ant verdure ; but his disorderly rabble soon made it a scene of want and disease. Moreover, the " Committee of Safety " sent General Andrew Lewis to attack him. On the 8th of July this efficient officer took possession of a point opposite Gwynn's Island, and soon had two batteries ready, one mounting two eighteen -pounders and the other several lighter guns. Lewis himself pointed one of the eighteens at the Dunmore, in which \f-as the governor. The first shot passed through her hull ; the second cut the boatswain in twain and Avounded three other men ; the third narrowly missed Dunmore himself, wounded him with splinters and dashed some of his china to pieces. He was heard to cry out in alai^m : " Good God ! that ever I should come to this ! " ^ The fire was too hot to be borne. The war-ships cut their cables, and the whole fleet in confusion sought the more distant waters. ' The island was abandoned. When Lewis' troops crossed over and took possession, they found sad evidences of the ravages of disease and want. At least five hundred of Dunmore's fol- lowers had perished. Among the graves \vas found one more carefully prepared and turfed than the others ; and an English nobleman. Lord Gosport, was supposed to rest there. Lord Dunmore's career in America was now closed. After committing some ravages on the shores of the Potomac and burn- ing the beautiful residence of William Brent, of Stafford county, he sailed to Lynnhaven Bay and dismissed some of his ships to St. Augustine, some to the Bermudas, and some to the West In- dies. He himself joined the British naval force at New York, and about the close of the year sailed in the Foxvey for England, never to return to America. During the fall and early winter season of 1775, Washington was still employed in organizing, drilling and disciplining his army. He longed to undertake some active enterprise against the enemy, > Lee's Instructions, in Girardin, 143, 144. 2 Virginia Gazette, July 29, 1776. Girardin, 174. The War of Revolution Continued. 377 but was delayed by considerations of prudence and the doubts of councils of war. He was also greatly in want of heavy artillery, without which no works would be effective against the enemy in Boston. At this time Henry Knox (afterwards so eminent as an artillery officer, a warm and trusted friend of Washington, and a member of his cabinet) approached him with a proposition to go to New York and Canada and transport heavy cannon and mortars from the captured works there to the lines around Boston. Knox had been a thriving bookseller in Boston, but had thrown up his busi- ness to take part in the battle of Bunker's Hill, and afterwards to aid in the defences of the American camp.^ He had shown so much of aptitude for this work that Washington was glad to em- j^loy him, and to issue orders giving him all the facilities in his power for his heavy undertaking. Some months were needed ; but at length, early in February, the camp was rejoiced by the arrival of Colonel Knox with his long train of sledges, drawn by oxen, bringing more than fifty heavy cannon, mortars and howitzers, besides ample supplies of lead and flints. No time was lost. Washington's plan was to erect batteries at Lechmere Point and other favorable positions for occupying the attention of the enemy by the appearance of attack ; to throw up his heaviest and strongest works on Dorchester Heights and plant there his most effective cannon and mortars, and to organize an actual assault on the troops in Boston by a large force under Gen- eral Putnam, in case the British should repeat their disastrous policy at Bunker's Hill. The work all went forward with energy and swiftness. Gen- eral Gage, who had not gained reputation by his military move- ments from Boston, had been quietly recalled to England, and Sir William Howe was in command. He was resolute, but somewhat lethargic and slow. Notwithstanding the cold, hunger and sufferings of many of the people, the British officers managed to amuse themselves with dramas and farces, in some of which Burgoyne appeared, and which were often efforts to ridicule the Americans.^ The evening of Monday, the 4th of March, was fixed by Wash- ington for the occupation of Dorchester Heights. The ground was frozen, and as digging was not easy, fascines, gabions, and bundles of screw -pressed hay were collected to form breastworks and redoubts. The American cannon at other points opened 1 m-ing's Washington, II. 79. 2 Ihid., 1G4-167. 378 A History of the United States of Ajtierica. fire ; the English replied, and thus the attention of the enemywas completely diverted, and the ceaseless roar of artillery drowned the rumbling of wagons and ordnance. General Thomas was to manage the ^vork ; the veteran Grid- ley was again the engineer. First came a covering party of eight hundred preceding the carts with intrenching tools, then a work- ing party twelve hundred strong, then three hundred wagons with the fascines, gabions, and packages of pressed hay, each of seven or eight hundred pounds weight. At eight o'clock the work began. It was severe, but the men worked w^ith more than ■wonted spirit ; for Washington himself was there, and his eye was on them.^ Before the dawn a formidable-looking fortress frowned along the heights. A British officer has described the impression of wonder made on him : " This morning at daybreak we discovered two redoubts on Dorchester Point, and two smaller ones on their flanks. They were all raised during the last night, with an expe- dition equal to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin's wonderful lamp. From these hills they command the whole town, so that we must drive them from their fort or desert the place." Howe, also, gazed at the fortress with amazement. " These rebels," he said, " have done more work in one night than my whole army would have done in one month." ^ His first purpose was to attack. He had written several letters to the English niinistry scouting the idea of " being in danger from the rebels." He had " hoped they would attack him." Now they were preparing to attack him ; but he was not so confident. He ordered that all his batteries that would bear should be opened on the works. This was done, but obviously with little efiect. He planned a night attack. Lord Percy was to lead, with twenty-five hundred men ; but a storm came on from the east. The boats could not reach their landing place. The attempt was to be renewed the next night ; but the storm continued with torrents of rain. The movement was again postponed ; and, in the next twenty-four hours, the American works were so strong that Howe abandoned the intent to advance on them. No alternative remained but to evacuate Boston. The cannon and mortars on Dorchester Heights could reach effectively not only every part of the city, but the ships in the harbor. On Sunday, March 17th, 1776, at four o'clock in the morning, the movement began. Seventy-eight ships and transports were casting loose for sea, and twelve thousand soldiers, sailors, and 1 Irving's Washington, n. 174. 2 jfyid., 175. The War of Revolution Continued. 379 Tory refugees hurrying to embark — the latter with their families and personal effects. The American batteries did not open fire, probably because Howe had given a written intimation that if they did he would cause the city to be burned ; and, although Wash- ington had made no reply to this intimation, he was too humane and considerate to subject the helpless people to such suffering.^ General Putnam, with his troops, first entered the city. He took command, and hoisted over all the forts the flag of thirteen stripes, the standard of the Union, although independence was not yet declared. On Monday, the i8th of March, Washington himself entered, and was joyfully welcomed by nearly every class of the people. The country was more than satisfied. In con- gress, on motion of John Adams, a vote of thanks to the com- mander-in-chief was unanimously adopted, and it was ordered that a gold medal be struck commemorating the evacuation of Boston, and bearing the efiigy of Washington as its deliverer.^ Early in this year the attention of England was drawn to the Southern provinces of Georgia and South Carolina ; but her efforts had no effect except to arouse the revolutionary spirit. On the i2th of January, 1776, two British ships of war, with troops, under Maitland and Grant, arrived at Tybee. Appre- hending a repetition of the outrages by Dunmore, the Committee of Safety in Savannah determined on the bold step of arresting Sir James Wright, the royal governor. Maj. Joseph Habersham promptly undertook this duty. Entering the council chamber while a meeting was in progress, he advanced upon the governor, and, laying his hand on his shoulder, said : " Sir James, you are my prisoner ! " Instantly the laiembers of the council, knowing Habersham, and believing he was backed by an armed force, began to escape by dooi's, windows, and every practicable pas- sage.^ The governor's person was secured. No indignity was offered to him, but he was confined to his house, and no inter- course was allowed between him and the royalists. He managed to escape, and on the i ith of February reached the British war-ship Scarborough. This prompt action probably saved the coast of Georgia from predatory war. The English authority ceased, and was never permanently restored. A British fleet under vSir Peter Parker, with a large body of troops under Sir Henry Clinton, had sailed from Cork to America, and the point of their attack had been a subject of anxious con- sideration by Washington and his oflicers. It was made apparent 1 Irving's Washington. Compare II. 177, 179, 182. ^ Irving, 11. 185. Berry's IL S., 110. Stephens, 218. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 219. 380 A History of the United States of America. early in June, 1776. They approached the harbor of Charleston. Gen. Charles Lee was at hand to meet them, and was received with enthusiasm by the people, who were in high spirits and determined to fight to the last. Lee's military eye saw much to alarm him in the defenceless state of the land approaches to the city ; but, fortunately, the enemy were intent on mastering the approach by water.' On Sullivan's Island, below the city, was a fort built of pal- metto logs, earth and sand, with twenty-six heavy guns, and a garrison of three hundred and seventy-five regulars and about one hundred and fifty militia, commanded by a resolute officer. Col. William Moultrie, of South Carolina. The fort afterwards bore his name. On the other side of the island was an earthwork for land defence, with a force under Colonel Thompson. General Lee encamped at Haddrell's Point, on the main-land, ready to succor any point that was hard pressed. Clinton landed with troops, but could not pass the batteries of Thompson, and his men suffered severely- by the heat and brackish water of the island, and scanty and bad provisions. They depended on the success of the naval attack. This was made on the 38th of June. The Thunder Bomb commenced throwing shells at the fort, and by eleven o'clock the ships of the fleet had taken position. For twelve hours the bat- tle raged. Lee was so uneasy that he at one time thought of ordering Colonel Moultrie to spike his guns and retreat;'^ but he sent his aide-de-camp. Captain Byrd, to see how the officers and men in Moultrie bore themselves, and when this gallant youth re- turned, his account of the high spirit in the fort was such that no retreat could be thought of. The tremendous fire of the fleet did very little harm ; the pal- metto wood, being soft, did not rend and splinter, and the earth and sand buried balls and shells. The fire of the fort was cool and deliberate and bloodily destructive. An English officer thus describes its effects: "They stuck, with the greatest constancy and firmness, to their guns ; fired deliberately and slowly, and took a cool and effective aim. The ships suffered accordingly ; they were torn almost to pieces, and the slaughter was dreadful. Never did British valor shine inore conspicuously, and never did our marine in an engagement of the same nature with any foreign enemy experience so rude an encounter.'" 1 living's Washington, II. 273. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 220. 2 Gen. Charles Lee's letter to Washington. Irving, II. 274. Stephens, 220. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 139, (note) 142. 3 Civil War in America, An. Register, Dublin, 1779. Irving, II. 275. The War of Revolution Continued. 381 One of the ships became disabled ; the admiral oi-dered that her crew should set her on fire and leave her. The guns were left loaded and the colors flying. But hardly had the crew left before the patriots boarded her, turned her guns on the other ships, and carried oft' flags and balls and three boat-loads of stores before she blew up.'^ In the hottest of the fire the flag-staff* of the fort was shot away, and the banner fell down on the beach. Sergeant William Jasper leaped down, and, exposed to a storm of balls, snatched up the broken staff* and flag, and returned with them safely to the inside of the fort, over which the flag was soon again fly- ing. For this heroic deed Governor Rutledge, of South Caro- lina, presented him a sword, and offered him a commission as lieutenant ; but the brave sergeant, not being able to read or write, with singular modesty and good sense, declined the com- mission." At one time the fire of the fort slackened, and hopes rose in the fleet. But it was only for want of ammunition. General Lee hastened to supply it from the city, and the fort's fire became hotter than before. The fleet drew off* with a loss of more than three hundred and fifty officers and men killed and wounded. Captain Scott, of the Experimoit frigate, lost an arm ; Captain Morris, of the Actiron, and Lord Campbell, late governor of the province, who was serving as a volunteer in the fleet, were slain. The American loss did not exceed ten killed and twenty-two \vovmded. Seven thousand cannon balls were gathered up on Sullivan's Island after the battle.* The land attack under Clinton was abandoned. The troops re-embarked, and the whole fleet sailed northward. The Southern coast was freed for nearly two years from hostile approach. As the summer wore on, Washington inferred from many movements that the British fleets and armies contemplated a descent upon New York. He therefore concentrated his forces in and around that city and upon Long Island. On the 37th of August the decisive advance was made. Sir Henrj Clinton was chief in command, under whom were Earls Cornwallis and Percy, General Grant and Sir Thomas Erskine. George III., having been disappointed in his attempts to obtain Russians, had hired from the Landgrave Prince of Hesse-Cassel, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Count of Hanau, in Germany, four thousand three hundred Brunswick troops and thirteen thou- 1 Stephens, 220, 221. 2 Goodrich, 207. Stephens, 220. Derrv, n2. Thalheimer, 139, (note) 141, 142. » Taylor's Centen. U. S., 177. Irving's Wash., II. 276. Stephens' U. S., 220, 221. 382 A History of the United States of America. sand Hessians, to serve against America. Count Donop com- manded a large body of these Hessians, and they, with two battalions of light infantry and six field-pieces, were under Lord Cornwallis, who already manifested the military talent and vigor which afterwards made him so formidable to America. General Greene had been ill and could not render effective service. The American commanders were Generals Putnam, Sullivan, and Lord Stirling, under whom were Smallwood, Williams and Atlee. With every disadvantage, the American defence was, for a long time, resolute and eftective, and the result of the battle would have been indecisive but for one unfortunate oversight. The roads by which the left of the American position could be approached had not been thoroughly reconnoitered and guarded ; consequently, while pressing hard on their front and right with highly disciplined troops, Sir Henry Clinton was enabled to turn their left flank with an overwhelming force. Sullivan, hearing the British cannon, knew^ that his left was defenceless. He was obliged to leave his redoubt and order a retreat, almost surrounded by De Heister and the Hessians. The battle here was sanguinary and disastrous to the Americans. Hemmed in between British and Hessian^, they made a brave fight, but were cut down in numbers. Some broke through and escaped ; some were made prisoners, and among them General Sullivan himself.' Broken and defeated, the Americans retired behind their line of redoubts at Brooklyn. The British lines were so near to them that their grenadiers were within easy musket range. Washing- ton prepared to meet an attack ; but Sir Henry Clinton, thinking the Amei'ican army now so entrapped that they must fall into his hands, forbore to march on the intrenchments. In this unfortunate battle the American loss in killed, wounded and prisoners was not less than two thousand out of a total of five thousand engaged. The enemy acknowledged a loss of only three hundred and eighty killed and wounded.^ On the night of August 29th, Washington performed one of the great deeds of the war and of his own patient and self-denying career. A fog on the sound and the broad river aided him. Flat- boats and tow-boats were assembled. As fast as one regiment was embarked another took its place. Silently and securely the whole movement was made. The fog hung on the south, but cleared on the north side so as to facilitate the retreat ; the adverse wind died down ; the water became so smooth that the row-boats » Ining's Washington, II. r.Ol , n04. 2 j^jd., 307, 308. The War of Revolution Contintied. 383 could be laden almost to their gunwales ; a gentle breeze helped the sail and tug-boats. Glover's Marblehead seamen and water- men were more than efficient. Before daybreak the whole army, with artillery, ammunition, provisions, cattle, horses, carts and wagons, were safely in the city of New York. Only a few of the heaviest and most unmanageable guns were left to fall into the enemy's hands. Washington crossed in the last army boat.' This retreat was one of the great achievements of the war. The British were amazed. Captain Montresor, aid to General Howe, followed by a few men, climbed cautiously over the works and found them deserted. Advance parties hurried down to the ferry only to catch a sight of the rear boats nearly over. One single boat, still within musket shot, was compelled to return. In it were three vagabond outlaws, who had lingered to plunder. Washington and the American army were safe. To hold the city of New York was now obviously inexpedient. It would not long have been possible. The British were as strong on the water as on the land. They had only to invest the city and to land a large force on the upper part of the island, and the surrender of the patriot army was a mere question of time. A council of war decided for evacuation. On the 14th of September, Washington, with his army, left the city and retired towards the upper part of the island. General Putnam commanded the rear- guard. He was followed and hard pressed by British and Hes- sian troops. The day was sultry. A well sustained tradition relates that as they passed INIurray Hill, the residence of a family of the religious society of " Friends," the British generals halted their trooj^s and rested for a time. Mrs. Murray set before them cake and wine and other refreshing viands. They were so pleased that they remained for hours. The prey escaped ; and always afterwards it was a common saying among the American officers that Mrs. Murray had saved Putnam's division of the army.'^ The fate of Capt. Nathan Hale here demands our notice. It is sad, but had its effisct at the time and in a critical after-point of American history. He was a native of Coventry, Connecticut : graduated with distinction at Yale College in 1773, in his nine- teenth year ; was highly esteemed for his inanly character, gene- rous qualities, and handsome person ; entered warmly into the cause of his country, and was a captain in Knowlton's regi- ment at the battle of«Long Island. After this battle Washington 1 Irving's Washington, II. 313, 317. Scudder's U. S., 209. Goodrich, 212. 2 Thatcher's Militarj' Journal, 70. 384 A History of the United States of America desired Colonel Knowlton to indicate to him some trustworthy officer who might be willing to enter the enemy's lines and bring information as to his positions and strength, and, as far as possi- ble, his plans. Captain Hale volunteered for this hazardous and unenviable work. Having taught school in that region, he was familiar with it. He passed over safely from the Connecticut shore, penetrated the enemy's lines, took drawings, and made written memoranda in Latin of all the positions and forces. He made his way back to the Long Island shore at Huntington, expecting to meet a boat ; but, unhappily, a British guard-ship, at anchor out of sight, had just sent in her boat for water. Mistaking this for his boat. Hale offered to come aboard. He was seized and- stripped, and the papers found fatally compromised him. He was conveyed to New York, where he landed on the 21st of September, the day of a great fire in the city. He was taken to General Howe's headquarters, and, after a brief examination, \vas adjudged to be a spy and ordered for execution at daybreak the next morning. The provost-marshal, Cunningham, brutally re- fused him the use of a Bible, and destroyed a letter he had written to his mother, stating afterwards as his reason " that the rebels should never know they had a man who could die with such firm- ness." Captain Hale met his death on the gibbet with calm reso- lution. His dying words were : " I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."^ Washington was now strongly intrenched in the upper part of Manhattan. The enemy made some attacks on his outposts, which were defeated with spirit. But the times of many of his recruited soldiers would soon expire. He ^vrote earnestly to the congress, and obtained action from them under which eighty-eight battal- ions were to be furnished by the separate States according to their respective populations and ability. The pay of the officers was raised, and the troops who volunteered to serve through the war were to have a bounty of twenty dollars and a hundred acres of land and a yearly suit of clothes while in service. Under these and other wise arrangements the efficiency of the army was much increased.^ On the morning after the destructive fire in New York, Cap- tain Montresor, aid to General Howe, came to Washington's camp, under flag of truce, to treat concerning exchange of prison- ers of war. The cartel was not then agreed on, but after much 1 Note in Irving's Wash., IV. 131, 132. Scudder's U. S., 209, 210. 2 Irving's Wasliington, II. 343, 344. The War of Revolution Continued. 385 correspondence was effected. Lord Stirling and General Sullivan were restored ; so was Col. Daniel ISIorgan, who, at the head of his rifle corps, became more efiicient than ever before.' New York was sadly neutralized by Tories, at the head of whom was Oliver De Lancey, member of a wealthy family of Huguenot descent. He employed under-ofticers, of whom Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, was most notorious, and enlisted royalists on Long Island and in many parts of the interior, and drove away stock and impressed provisions for their support. Hostile encounters, becoming more and more wild and barbarous, resulted.^ On the mornnig of the 9th October the British frigates Roebuck and Plioenix^ each of forty-four guns, and the Tartar^ of twenty, got under way, broke through the inadequate barriers, passed the fire of the batteries and drove before them the few galleys and ships can-ying supplies for the American army. They were con- siderably injured in masts and rigging, and lost three officers and six men killed and eighteen wounded f but they accomplished their purpose, and obtained command of the river. Military men now began to fear for the safety of the patriot army, and the congress shared in these fears. Gen. Charles Lee had come on from the South ; many held him in exaggerated es- teem as a great soldier. He counseled strongly against retaining the army in a position which, however strong and well intrenched, might be isolated by the naval and military forces of Great Brit- ain. A council of war, with the exception of Gen. George Clin- ton, agreed with him.* Washington moved with his army across the Spyt den Duivel, and occupied the White Plains, twenty-seven miles above New York, where he formed a fortified camp ; but by express direction of congress Fort Washington was maintained with a full garrison. It was on a high and rocky part of upper Manhattan Island. On the 2Sth of October the British army advanced and attacked the Americans at White Plains. Sir Henry Clinton commanded the right column of the enemy ; the Hessian general, De Heister, the left. A hill in the American lines, known as Chatterton's, was important. It was held by General McDougall with a militia brigade. A tremendous artillery fire was opened by the British from twenty field-pieces, under cover of which they advanced. General Leslie attempted to construct a bridge for his attacking troops, but he was severely handled by two cannon on Chatter- 1 Irving's Washington, II. 344. - Ibid., 344, 347 3 Lord Howe's Report to Eng. Admiralty. Ir\-ing, H. 348. * Irving's Washington, II. 358-361. 25 386 A History of the United States of A?nerica. ton's, managed with great skill by Alexander Hamilton, a young artillery officer for whom Washington had already conceived a high regard. Smallwood's Maryland battalion also kept up a destructive fire ; but Colonel Rahl, with his Hessians, by a cir- cuitous move, flanked the militia, and they gave way. Still, Haz- let, Ritzema and Smallwood, from the summit of the hill, kept up a fire which swept many down. The advance of numbers com- pelled them sullenly to retreat ; but General Putnam reinforced them, and the British advance was everywhere arrested. Each army held its ground. In this short, but severe, battle the Ameri- cans lost about three hundred in killed, wounded and prisoners. The British loss was fully as great ; but they were soon reinforced, and Washington retired with his army to North Castle, five miles from his former position.' The British did not pursue him. They were employed in measures to attack Fort Washington. On the night of the 4th of November they began to fall back from White Plains, and in three days had disappeared. Washington wrote on the 8th of November to General Greene, who commanded in lower New York and the Jerseys, giving him discretionary power to evacuate Fort Washington. On the night of the 5th, a British frigate and two transports, with sup- plies for Howe's army at Dobb's Ferry, on the Hudson, had broken through the barriers and passed the batteries, " not, however," as Greene wrote, " without having been considerably shattered by the American fire." Washington then wrote : " If we cannot prevent vessels from passing ujd the river, and the enemy are pos- sessed of all the surrounding country, w^hat valuable purpose can it answer to hold a post from which the expected benefit cannot be had? I am, "therefore, inclined to think that it will not be prudent to hazard the men and stores at Mount Washington ; but, as you are on the spot, I leave it to you to give such orders as to evacuating Mount Washington as you may judge best, and so far revoking the orders given to Colonel Magaw to defend it to the last."' It would have been well had these prudent views prevailed. But General Greene thought the post could be maintained, and Colonel Magaw was quite confident that it would take the enemy until the last of December to reduce it.* Meanwhile, if danger- ously pressed, the garrison could be withdrawn ; but in delay was the fatal error. Washington sent a large part of his army 1 Goodrich's U. S., 213. 2 Letter in Irving, II. 378. Amer. Archives, 5th Series. 2 Greene's Letter, Am. Archives, 5th Series, III. 618. The War of Revolution Cojitiniied. 387 into the neighborhood of Fort Lee, in the Jerseys ; left about seven thousand troops under General Lee at North Castle, and with the rest established strong posts in the Highlands, especially at Fort jSIontgomery and West Point. He appointed General Heath to command in this region, and went himself to Fort Lee. The garrison of Fort Washington, having been reinforced by Greene with the regiment of Colonel Rawlings and part of that of Colonel Durkee, was at least two thousand strong. Though most of them w^ere militia, they were spirited and brave. Wash- ington doubted whether Howe's purpose was an attack on the fort ; but he was soon undeceived, and more reinforcements were sent, which raised the garrison to three thousand. Only one thousand could be employed in the fort itself; the rest were in. the outworks and approaches. Howe encamjDcd with a heavy force on Fordham Heights, not far from King's Bridge. On the night of November 14th thirty flat-bottomed boats stole quietly up the Hudson and made their way through Spyt den Duivel creek into Harlem river. From them a heavy British and Flessian force landed on the weakest side of the beleaguered fort. On the 15th General Howe sent in a summons for surrender, with a threat ot extremities if he was obliged to carry the place by assault. Colonel Magaw firmly replied, intimating a doubt whether Howe would execute a threat " so unworthy of himself and the British nation," and declaring his purpose to defend the post to the very last extremity.^ On the i6th of November the attack was made by a simulta- neous movement of four powerful attacking columns : on the north by the Hessian General Knyphausen ; on the east by four battalions of light infantry and the guards under Mathew and Cornwallis ; on the west by a feint of the Forty-second regiment under Colonel Sterling, and on the south by the heaviest column of the English and Hessian troops under Lord Percy. The defence was obstinate and bloody, but unavailing. Militia could not continue to stand up against regulars and mercenary soldiers. Baxter and Cadwalader made a heroic stand ; Baxter fell, but Cadwalader and Rawlings, with Pennsylvanians and Marylanders, continued to fight, cutting down whole ranks of Hessians with their fire, until their guns became foul, and they were assaulted furiously with the bayonet by the Hessians. Washington saw this part of the battle from the opposite side of the Hudson, and wept " with the tenderness of a child " as he 1 Irving's Washington, II. 394. 388 A History of the United States of America, looked on the brave conduct of his troops and their butchery by the brutal mercenaries.^ The outworks were now everywhere in possession of the attack- ing forces. The Americans, who were able to do so, retreated into the fort, which was so crowded that the guns could not be worked. Shot and shell from the outworks would have been murderous on this crowd. To hold out would have been to lose hundreds of lives without hope of rescue. Colonel Magaw surrendered his garrison as prisoners of war, the men being permitted to retain their baggage and the officers their swords. This prize cost the British a loss of a thousand men in killed and wounded. The American loss in killed and wounded was about four hundred ; but they lost two thousand eight hundred and eighteen prisoners, of whom not less than two hundred were officers.* This was terrible, and disheartening to the patriot cause. General Lee had been left in command of about seven thousand men at North Castle. Washington wrote, telling him of the dis- aster of Fort Washington, and instructing him to join him in the Jerseys. Lee answered, and, commenting on the disaster, ended his letter with words characteristic of the man : " Oh, general, why would you be over-persuaded by men of inferior judgment to your own? It was a cursed aflair."^ After their success at Fort Washington, the British moved with vigor. Cornwallis advanced to invest Fort Lee ; but Greene pru- dently evacuated the fort, withdrawing in time to save his gar- rison and most of the armament and stores. The American cause was now beclouded with gloom. Wash- ington's letters to his brother reflect the depressing shadows. He wrote : " In ten days from this date there will not be above two thousand men, if that number, of the fixed established regiments on this side of Hudson river, to oppose Howe's whole army, and very little more on the other to secure the Eastern colonies and the important passes leading through the Highlands to Albany and the country about the lakes." And it increased his distress to record his own efforts to secure long enlistments and the thor- ough support of the country, and his failure to do so ; but his great heart did not break under this growing pressure. At the head of his small and discouraged army he retreated across the Jerseys. Cornwallis gave up the pui'suit and retvirned to New York, intending soon to sail for England. Washington 1 Irving's Washineton, II. 398. * Derry, 117. Goodrich, 213. Irving's Washington, II. 401. 8 Letter in Irving, II. 400. The War of Revolution Continued. 389 crossed the Delaware at Trenton, and removed all his baggage and armament to the west of the river. Sir William Howe sought to profit by this period of dismay and despondency by issuing a proclamation, dated November 30th, commanding all persons in arms against his majesty's government to disband and return home, and all congresses to desist from treasonable acts ; and offering a fi"ee pardon to all who would comply within fifty days. Many who had been eminent in the patriot cause hastened to take advantage of this proclamation. Those who had most prop- erty to lose were most unfaithful to their country. The middle classes and the poorer people generally remained true.^ In this dark hour of peril Washington's grand spirit appeared. He looked calmly at the worst, and prepared for it. Gen. Hugh Mercer, of Virginia, was with him. Washington asked him : "If we should retreat to the back parts of Pennsylvania, would the Pennsylvanians support us.'' " Mercer replied : " If the lower counties give up, the back counties will do the same." "Then," said Washington, " we must retire to Augusta county, in Virginia. Numbers will repair to us for safety, and we will try a predatory war. If overpowered, we must ci'oss the Alleghanies." Such was the unconquerable spirit, rising under difficulties and buoy- ant in the darkest moment, that kept the tempest-tossed ship of American freedom from foundering.^ Gen. Charles Lee complied very tardily with Washington's re- peated orders to join him with his troops from North Castle. He made various lateral movements, and wrote letters in a tone of evi- dent disparagement of the commander-in-chief. General Heath, in command on the upper Hudson, was steadfast in duty to his country and obedience to Washington. How much mischief Lee might have done had his power continued at this crisis, must be matter of conjecture. He was suddenly halted. After advancing with his troops to Morristown, he had taken up his quarters in a tavern at Baskingridge, about eleven miles from Morristown. A Tory revealed his movements to a British cavalry force about twenty miles distant. On the morning of December 13th Lee lin- gered late in bed, and did not breakfast till ten o'clock. A party of British dragoons, under Colonel Harcourt, surrounded the house, captured him, and bore him ofT in triumph.' Some thought this a heavy blow to America ; others thought differently. Subsequent events have made it clear that these Eng- 1 Gordon's Amer. War, II. 129. = Irving's Washinj^ton, II. 420, 421. 8 Wilkinsou'.s Narrative, Amer. Archives, III. 1201. Irving, II. 432, 435. 390 ^ History of the United States of America. lish dragoons did good service to the cause of freedom. The patriot troops whom Lee had commanded promptly joined Wash- ington. The impression gained ground that the British would advance immediately on Philadelphia. The congress thought it best to adjourn, but, fortunately, before doing so passed a resolu- tion that " until they should otherwise order. General Washing- ton should be possessed of all power to order and direct all things relative to the department and to the operations of war." ^ This was a near approach to the power of a dictator ; but it was never abused. Knowing that Trenton was occupied by a force of about fifteen hundred Hessians, a troop of British light-horse and a body of chasseurs under Colonel Rahl, and that General Howe's forces were quartered loosely through New Jersey, not within easy sup- port of each other, Washington planned an attack, to be com- menced on Christmas night, December 25th. He was himself to lead the chief movement, but troops under General Ewing and the veteran Putnam were to march simultaneously in co-operation. The night of the 35th was intensely cold; the wind was high, the current strong, the river full of floating ice. Undeterred by all these obstacles, Washington, with his attacking force of twenty- four hundred men and a train of twenty light cannon, assembled at McKonkey's Ferry by twelve o'clock. They began to cross at sun- set. A powerful painting of this scene has been produced. That the movement should have been effected at all was a marvel. Colonel Rahl and many of his men are said to have indulged in a high carouse that night ; yet he had been warned to expect an attack, and by some events, never fully explained, an attack by a small hostile body had actually been made and had been easily repulsed. Believing this was all, the Germans returned to their revels.^ ; So bitter was the cold that two men in Washington's force were frozen to death. A storm of sleet and snow beat in their faces ; some of the musket locks became wet and useless. General Sul- livan, who led the advance, sent back the news to Washington. His reply was a stern order : "Advance and attack," They obeyed. P^ahl and his troops were in a flun-y ; yet he did not lose cour- age. The advance of the Americans was led by Capt. William A. Washington and Lieut. James Monroe, afterwards President of the United States. '■'■Dcr feind/ der feind^ Iterans, herans f^ 1 Irving' s' Washington, II. 439. 2 Life and Correspondence, Colonel Reed, I. 277. Note in Irving, II. 450. Justin Winsor's Amer., VI. 374-376. The War of Revolution Contimied. 391 shouted the sentries. The Hessians were caught between two advancing cohimns ; retreat was impossible. Colonel Rahl or- dered a charge. He was on horseback, and as he rode forward a fatal bullet struck him and he fell from his horse. By this time the American artillery had unlimbered in position. Washington urged on the attack ; the Hessians, in bewilderment, attempted to escape up the bank of the Assunpink river. Colo- nel Hand's corps of Pennsylvania riflemen met them, and a Vir- ginia regiment gained their right. They were brought to a stand. Thinking they were forming for battle, Washington ordered a fire of canister ; but it was not needed. Colonel Forest exclaimed : " Sir, they have struck." " Struck ! " said Washington. " Yes, sir, their colors are down." These soldiers, fighting for hire, knew that the time for surrender had come. The light horse and chas- seurs escaped by reason of General Swing's inability to cross the Delaware. They thundered across the bridge over the Assunpink, and escaped to Count Donop's command at Bordentown. The American victory was complete. Washington exclaimed, in the presence of a subaltern : " This is a glorious day for our countiy."^ Small as was the force overcome, when compared with Howe's army, the commander-in-chief felt, by intuition, that this victory was decisive for freedom. It was the crisis of the war. Colonel Rahl died the next day. His body lies buried in the grave-yard of the Presbyterian church. One of his subordinate officers, though he has written a satirical account of his last days, has made a just estimate of the import of his death, and of the American victory. He wrote : " The Americans will hereafter set up a stone above thy grave with this inscription : " Hier liegt der Oberst Rahl Mit ihm ist alles all!"^ 1 Ir\'ing's Washinafton, II. 455. 2 Tagebuch des Johannes Reuber. Irving, II. •ll'i, 444, 458. CHAPTER XXXVII Princeton. — Brandy wine. — Germantown. — Valley Forge. WHEN tidings of the success at Trenton reached the country, universal joy was excited. The people realized that their cause was hopeful ; and in proportion as the British king had been hated for employing hired soldiers from Germany, and the Hessians had been hated for their excesses, in the same proportion the triumph over them was an inspiration. Men were recruited ; money was raised. The committee of congress wrote to Wash- ington, transmitting resolutions passed on the 37th of December, which invested him with power in all military matters, even more thoroughly dictatorial than that previously noted herein. They wrote : " Happy is it for this country that the general of her forces can safely be intrusted with the most unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, nor property be in the slightest degree endangered thereby."^ Washington's reply was worthy : " I find congress have done me the honor to intrust me with powers, in my military capacity, of the highest nature and almost unlimited extent. Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall con- stantly bear in mind that, as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established."^ The congress had adopted the " Declaration of Independence" of the united colonies on the 4th day of July of this year. It will need more attention when we narrate the " revolution " as distinct from the war. After the success at Trenton, it was hoped that the great monarchy of France might be induced to recognize the thirteen confederated republics as among the sovereign nations of the world. Louis XVI. was on the throne, having become king May loth, 1774, by the death of his grandfather, Louis XV. Though he had married, in 1770, Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, all of whose influence and that of her family were in favor of absolutism, yet Louis was moderate and sensible, and was yielding more and more to reforms required by the growing spirit 1 Amer. Archives, 5th Series, III. 1510. 2 Jrv-ing's Washington, II. 469. [ 392 ] Commissioners Sent to France. 393 of freedom. Moreover, American statesmen could not ignore, as an element favorable to their hopes, the long continued wars between France and England, and the seven years' contest which had obliterated New France. The independence of the United States, if established, would be a heavy blow to British pride and power. But the military events following the Declaration of In- dependence were not immediately encouraging. The new hopes inspired by Washington's decisive success at Trenton determined the congress to make an earnest effort to obtain aid and recogni- tion in France. Early in 1776, Silas Deane, of Connecticut, had been sent to France to solicit aid for the belligerent colonies. He had done what he could, but had obtained very little direct aid. On the 30th December, 1776, by a resolution of the congress, Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania ; Silas Deane, of Connecticut, and Arthur Lee, of Virginia, were appointed commissioners to repre- sent the United States in Paris, and seek from France recognition and alliance. Thomas Jefferson had been nominated, but had de- clined. Arthur Lee was so eminent that he has been designated as " the scholai", the writer, the philosopher and the negotiator." ^ The commissioners were informally received, but met with no immediate success. The court and the French nobles regarded the Americans as insurgents against a legitimate government ; and France was too much occupied with her own internal ebullitions to desire a war with England. Nevertheless, secret aid was quietly given. A French sloop-of-war of twenty-four guns slipped into an American port and landed eleven thousand stand of arms and a thousand barrels of powder.^ Money, in considerable amount, was also advanced. For all this the commissioners agreed that the States would pay, through a mercantile house, by remittances of tobacco and other produce. The move of Washington on Trenton had created a great stir among the British powers in New York. Howe instantly recalled Cornwallis, who was about to sail for England, and started him with a heavy force to overwhelm and capture the detached Amer- ican wing that had done this deed. After securing his prisoners and spoils, Washington, reinforced by Cadwalader, had returned to Trenton ; and again, early in 1777, by the exercise of great strategic talent and energy, he gained another brilliant success. As Cornwallis marched towards Trenton he found his flanks and rear constantly beset by the armed militia of the country, who had > Thalheimor's Eclec. U. S., 153, note p. 160. D. B. Scott's U. S., 177 2 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 218. 394 ^ History of the United States of America "been thoroughly aroused by the outrages of the hated Hessians. He was also attacked with inferior forces by General Greene and Colonel Hand ^ ; but he pressed on, and by the evening of Jan- uary 2d the head of his anny entered Trenton. Washington was now in a critical condition. Seven thousand men faced him on the other side of the little river Assunpink. To retire again across the Delaware was impracticable, because of floating ice and the pressin-e of the enemy. Cornwallis was quite confident of suc- cess. It is said that Sir William Erskine urged him to attack Washington that evening, even after sunset ; but his lordship de- clined the uncertainties of a night battle, assuring Erskine, how^- ever, that he would "bag the fox in the morning." ''' Washington now conceived and executed a movement w^hich was as masterly as it was successful. He kept his camp-fires burning and his sentries w^alking and relieving each other regu- larly all night. He sent off" his heavy baggage towards Burling- ton. A sudden freeze hardened the roads and helped him. On the 3d of January, 1777, avoiding the rear-guard of Cornwallis' army, which, under General Leslie, v\^as approaching, Washing- ton, with the body of his army, marched silently on another road towards Princeton, directing the sentries to retire quietly at day- break. Three British regiments with three troops of dragoons had been quartered all night at Princeton, under orders to join Cornwallis in the morning. Colonel Mawhood, with the Seventeenth regi- ment, was already on the march ; the Fifty-fifth was to follow. Mawhood had crossed a bridge on his road, when, gaining the summit of a hill, he was surprised to see the glitter of arms on the Quaker road. This was the force of General Mercer, Dela- w^ares, Marylanders and Philadelphians, about three hundred and fifty in number, hastening to secure the bridge. Mawhood sup- posed they ^vel■e broken parts of the American army flying before Cornwallis. He faced about and made a retrograde movement to cut them off", sending, at the same time, messengers to hurry the regiments in Princeton, so as effectually to pen in the fugi- tives. A sharp encounter followed between the forces under Mercer and Mawhood. The Americans gained a rising ground near the house of a Mr. Clark, of the " Friends," and, throwing themselves behind a hedge, opened w^ith their rifles a destructive fire. Maw- hood's inen, though suffering severely, returned the fire with 1 Irving, II. 472, 473. Thalheimer, 147, 148. Quackenbos, 23.3 " Ir\-ing's Washington, II. 473. Pri?iceion 395 spirit, and charged with the bayonet. The Americans, having few bayonets, and being pressed by numbers, gave wav. Mer- cer's horse had been crippled by a musket ball. He dismounted, and on foot attempted to rally his men. A blow from the butt of a musket struck him down. He rose and defended himself with his sword until he was surrounded, bayoneted repeatedly, and left for dead.' Meanwhile a large force of Pennsylvania militia advanced to the rescue. Washington, seeing Mercer's men retreating and the Pennsylvanians brought to a stand, galloped at full speed from a by-road to the front, waving his hat and cheering his men. His commanding figure and white horse attracted all eyes. The Pennsylvanians, with loud cheers, rallied and pressed forward. The Seventh Virginia regiment rushed on the enemy. Captain Moulder, with his artillery, opened on Mawhood's troops. Col- onel Fitzgerald, aid to Washington, seeing him in imminent danger, drew his hat over his eyes to shut out the sight of his fall ; but he was not hurt. " Away, Colonel Fitzgerald ! " he shouted, " and bring up our troops." ^ The day was gained. Mawhood, instead of pressing a flying foe, found his regiment beset on all sides, and with the loss of more than half his numbers in killed, wounded and prisoners, retreated with the remnant on the road to Trenton. The Fifty- fifth regiment, marching rapidly out of Princeton, was encoun- tered by the Americans under Genera! .St. Clair, and, after some sharp fighting, broke and scattered with heavy loss, the fugitives making their v/ay towards Brunswick. The remaining British regiment -was successfully encountered by the now victorious patriots. Part of them fled towards Brunswick; the rest took refuge in the college buildings. Artillery was promptly brought, and, finding their case desperate, they surrendered. In these several encounters the American loss was not more than thirty ; but among their slain was the heroic General Mercer. He w^as removed to the residence of Mr. Clark, and died on the 12th of January, nine days after the battle. Dr. Benjamin Rush, afterwards so eininent as a physician, was with him when he died. The British loss was about one hundred killed, two hundred wounded, and three hundred prisoners, fourteen of \vhom were officers.^ Cornwallis, instead of "bagging the fox," was amazed early the next morning to hear the sound of the cannon and musketry 1 Irving's Washington, II. 477. - Ibid., 478, 479. 3 Compare Irving II. 479^ with Stephens, 234. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 118. 396 A History of the United States of America. at Princeton. Erskine instantly grasped the situation. He cried out : "To arms! General Washington has outgeneraled us. Let us march to the rescue of Princeton.'" But it was too late. Rapidly securing his prisoners and the spoils of war, Washington marched with his army to the heights of Morristown. Here he was soon intrenched so strongly that Cornwallis ventured not to attack him. But the American com- mander was unceasing in enterprise, sending out detachments and assaulting or driving out the scattered bodies of English and Hes- sian troops, until only two posts in the Jerseys — Brunswick and Amboy — remained in the hands of the enemy.* These successes had the happiest effect on the American cause. They encouraged patriot hearts, and satisfied them that in their military leader they had one as courageous and enterprising as he was prudent. The name of " the American Fabius," applied to Washington, originated not in America, but in Europe.' General Howe had formed the plan of weakening the American cause by destroying their military stores. He sent a force against Peekskill, a point on the east side of the Hudson, which Howe termed " the port of that rough and mountainous tract called the Manor of Courtlandt." Here provisions and stores had been col- lected ; but, fearing an attack, the patriot officers had removed most of them to Forts Montgomery and Constitution, in the High- lands. On the morning of the 23d of March, 1777, a squadron of war vessels and transports, with five hundred British soldiers under Colonel Bird, came to anchor in Peekskill bay. Colonel McDougall, the patriot commander, set fire to the barracks and empty store-houses, and retreated two miles to a strong post com- manding the entrance to the Highlands, which Washington had noted as a place where a small force could maintain its stand by hurling down rocks on the assailants. Col. Marvin Willet, at Fort Constitution, hastened to McDougall's assistance. The British found their object defeated. They advanced to- wards the Highlands, but were met and roughly handled by Colonel Willet, and driven back with loss. Finding the country people arming in their rear, they hastened back, and the whole force retreated down the river in their ships.* This disappointment only whetted Howe's appetite for destruc- tion of American stores. Ex-Governor Tryon, after losing his power in New York, was commissioned as major-general of pro- vincials (that is, Tories) in the British army. He organized a 1 Note in Barnes Irving's Washington, III. 142, 143. 2 Ex. Goodrich's U. S., 225. 3 Compare Holmes' School U. S., (note) 123, Quackenbos, 241, with Irving, m. 143. * Irving, III. 143, 144. General Burgoyne s Campaign. 4iy This caused an intense excitement. The murderer was not only a great v.'arrioi", but a chief of high name. His brother sachems rallied to his side. St. Luc, the commander of the Ottawa and other tribes most reliable for fighting, was a French partisan officer who had been notorious for his unscrupulous modes of war- fare in the war of 1756, had been a terror to English colonists, and was even reported to have in his possession a great store of "old English scalps."^ He took Burgoyne aside and entreated him not to push matters to extremity as to the murder of Jane IMcCrea, assuring him that the Indians would abandon his army if he did. Strange to tell, British officers also interfered, representing the danger which would come if the Indians should quit them with their wrath awakened, and return to Canada, or go over to the Americans.^ And so the fated Burgoyne yielded, and spared the murderer. All he did was to issue general orders that no party of Indians should be permitted to go on a foray except under command of a British officer, or some known leader, who should be responsible for their conduct.' Even this slight limitation gave great offence to the Indians. Their theory of war was the theory really suggested by the unre- newed depravity of human nature ; and they claimed the right to plunder, torture, kill and scalp men, women and chikh'en as opportunity offered. Thev soon began to desert Burgoyne's army secretly, but in such numbers that before the fatal crisis came he had no Indian allies to help him. Lieut. David Jones was a broken-hearted man. He never recovered even a common level of cheerfulness. He tendered his resignation ; the British war authorities refused to accej^t it. He secretly retired. He had obtained the scalp with the locks of hair of his betrothed. He went to Canada and became a recluse, sad and silent, and never relinquishing the memories awakened by the relic in his possession.* But Jane McCrea did not die in vain. From her blood, shed by Indians and unavenged by Englishmen, American armies sprang up and took the field against Burgoyne. The facts went far and wide through the land. Men theretofore neutral, or even inclined to the king, instantly threw aside their Toryism and rushed to the field in defence of home and civilization. Soon the patriot forces were surrounding the English army on every side, and ready to fight to the death. 1 Burgo\Tie's Reports. Irving, III. 141, 103. - Irving's Washington, III. 144. 8 Ihid., 144. •'Barnes & Co.'s U. S., (note) 121, 122. Irving, III. (note) 145. Stephens, 238. 27 4i8 A History of the United States of Atnerica. General Schuyler had oi-ganized victory, and was ready to reap the fruits for which he had toiled so patiently and amid so many disappointments and reverses ; but just at this time his opponents in the congress induced that body to displace him, and call him and St. Clair to answer before them for the loss of Ticonderoga and the attendant disasters. Gen. Horatio Gates was appointed to command the army against Burgoyne, and reached the American camp early in Au- gust. With patriotic self-denial, Schuyler offered all the infor- mation in his possession.' Under Gates was Gen. Benedict Arnold. He had been so dealt with by the congress that his rank was doubtful, and Gates had some cause for not assigning him to the command of a division ; but such was his daring and enthusiasm that he inspired the army, and became its soul in the battles at hand. Morgan was there with his riflemen, and Lincoln had been appointed to urge on the New England men. Burgoyne began to feel the pressure of the dark cloud envelop- ing him. He wrote to his government : " The great bulk of the country is undoubtedly with the congress in principle and zeal, and their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to be equaled. The Hampshire Grants, in particular, a country unpeopled and almost unknown last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race of the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm upon my left."^ With his rear already endangered, his left beset by a swarm of " Green Mountain boys," and his front opposed by an army fast growing in numbers and efliciency, he might well pause. Had any discretion been left to him, he would have fallen back to Fort Edward and re-established his communications through Lake George ; ^ but his orders were definite. He was to push on with his army to Albany, where he was to be joined by British forces from New York sent up the valley of the Hudson by Sir William Howe to co-operate with him. This movement from below had been delayed by the slow sail- ing of Dutch ships across the Atlantic with reinforcements. Meanwhile General Putnam, in command of the defences of the Hudson, had made some preparations to meet them. Sir Henry Clinton had assumed command in New York. Spies had been sent up the river to ascertain the American positions and forces. One of these, named Edmund Palmer, had 1 Irving's Washington, III. 122, 129, 159, 160. -Burgoyne's dispatches, Irving, III. 205. sieving, III. 206. General Burgoyne' s Campaign. 419 been captured within Putnam's lines at Peekskill, and after due trial, in which his guilt was fully proved, had been condemned to death as a spy. A British sloop-of-war came up the river in great haste, and, under flag of truce from Verplanck's Point, sent to Putnam a missive from Sir Henry Clinton, claiming Edmund Palmer as a lieutenant in the British service. General Putnam re- plied in a brief note as follows : "Headquarters, 7/// August, i777- " Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, was taken as a spy lurking within our lines. He has been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy, and shall be executed as a spy ; and the flag is ordered to depart imme- diately. "Israel Putnam. ' P. S. — He has accordingly been executed." Sir Henry Clinton thus learned that a foe not to be cajoled or daunted would oppose his movement up the Hudson. He made no move until early in October. Then he moved with some vigor and success. Forts Clinton and Montgomery were in the High- lands of the Hudson, near the Dunderberg. Col. George Clinton had special charge of their defences, but thought them safe, and was attending the New York legislature at Kingston (then Eso- pus), in Ulster county, in his official character as governor of the State.^ On the 4th of October, 1777, Sir Henry Clinton came up the river with a large force. He landed first at Tarrytown, and after- wards made demonstrations from Verplanck's Point. All this was to deceive General Putnam and conceal his real movement, which w^as to march, with a heavy force and by difficult mountain defiles, around the Dunderberg, and approach Forts Clinton and Montgomery in the rear, where they were weak and assailable. He captured both forts on the 6th of October, but not without considerable loss. Governor Clinton had come to his militarv post, and did what he could to save the fort bearing his name, but the garrison was weak, and it was carried by assault. Some es- caped, and among them Clinton himself, who leaped down the rocks to the river's side, crossed the Hudson in safetv, and by mid- night had joined General Putnam at Continental village.^ Sir Henry Clinton had completely outmanoeuvred the Ameri- can commandei's. The loss in the two forts was two hundred and fifty in killed, wounded and prisoners. The enemy's force was not less than two thousand. They lost Colonel Campbell, 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 132. Irving's Washington, III 131. 3 Irving, III. 222. » I(nd., 228. 420 A History of the United States of America. their commander. He was succeeded by Col. Beverly Robinson, of the American loyalists. Major Grant was killed, and Count Gabrouski, the Polish aide-de-camp of Sir Henry Clinton, was mortally hurt. He received his death-wound at the foot of the ramparts. Lord Rawdon saw his first American service in this assault. When Gabrouski fell, he sent his sword to Rawdon with the message that "the owner died like a soldier."^ In privates the British loss was severe. The patriot forces evacuated Forts Independence and Consti- tution ; the chevaux-de-frise in the river were removed, and the Hudson was open to the enemy. Sir Henry Clinton returned to New York, leaving the expedition to be prosecuted by Sir James Wallace and General Vaughan, with a large body of troops and a squadron of light frigates.^ From Fort Montgomery, Sir Henry Clinton wrote, October 8th, on a slip of thin paper to Burgoyne : '■'• Nous y void (here we are) and nothing between us and Gates. I sincerely hope this little success of ours will facilitate your operations."' This slip was put in a small silver bullet, and taken by a man who tried to niake his way through the American lines. He was captured, and, being seen to swallow something, Colonel Clinton ordered an emetic to be administered to him. The bullet was vomited, and the slip discovered and read. The man was tried and con- victed as a spy, and was afterwards hung on an apple-tree in sight of the burning town of Esopus.* The enemy, under Wallace and Vaughan, made their way rather slowly up the Hudson, often pausing to send ofl' marauding parties into the country. They destroyed the residences of con- spicuous patriots at Rhinebeck, Livingston Manor and other places, burned the home of the widow of General Montgomery, ravaged the country, and finallv drove before them a small body of about one hundred and fifty militia, who disputed their march to Esopus, the capital of the State. They burned the town, con- suming a large quantity of stores, and then retreated to their ships, expecting to make their way up to Albany and there unite in triumph with General Burgoyne. Evidently they did not regard his army as in danger, for they made no hurried move- ments for his relief; but on the way up they received tidings which turned their triumph into ashes, and caused them to retreat to New York as fast as possible, having accomplished nothing for the help of Burgoyne, the reduction of the country, 1 fitedman's Amer. War, I. 364. - Irving, III. 230. s Letter from Gov. Clinton to N. Y. Council of Safety. Prov. Cong. Journal. < Journal of Prov. Cong., I. 1064. General Burgoyne' s Campaign. 421 or the establishment of their own reputation as soldiers and men of honor.' On the nth of September, 1777, General Burgoyne, having thrown a bridge of boats across the Hudson, passed with his army to the west side of the river to fight his way to Albany. His movements were cautious and silent, made without morning or evening guns, beat of drum, or the usual stir of military anima- tion ; but his advance was soon known in the camp of General Gates, and preparations were made for stern battle. As the Brit- ish were obliged to make the attack, the Americans chose their own ground for receiving it. General Arnold, with the Polish engineer, Kosciuszko, selected the ridge of hills called " Bemis Heights," which begin abruptly from the flat bordering the west side of the river. This flat was intrenched, as were also the ridges of the hill, and even some elevated spots east of the river, which is quite narrow at that point.^ Gates commanded on the right, next to the rivei", with Glover's, Nixon's, and Patterson's brigades. The centre, on the ridge, was held by New York and Massachusetts troops. Arnold com- manded on the left farthest from the river. He had Poor's New Hampshire brigade, Van Courtlandt's and Livingston's New York militia regiments, Connecticut troops, Dearborn's infantry, and Alorgan's riflemen. Arnold was the hero of this day. The British and Hessians advanced slowly, being obliged to repair bridges. Arnold met them with fifteen hundred men, and fought them pertinaciously. A Hessian officer wrote : " The enemy bristled up his hair as we attempted to repair more bridges. At last we had to do him the honor of sending out whole regiments to protect our workmen." * On the morning of vSeptember 19th, Burgoyne advanced with his army to give battle. His plan was to occupy Gates with a serious demonstration on his front, while Riedesel, Phillips, Era- ser, and Breyman, with a large body of picked troops, marched to the left and sought to penetrate to the rear of that part of the American line. But here they encountered the daring and inde- fatigable Arnold. With difliculty he obtained, about noon, per- mission from Gates to detach Dearborn's light troops and Mor- gan's riflemen to meet the Canadians and Indians and other advancing parties of the enemy. They soon encountered them, and drove them back with loss ; but Morgan's men, following up their advantage too eagerly, were met by a strong reinforcement of royalists, and, in their turn, were compelled to give way. 1 Irving's Washington, III. 233, 256, 257. "^ Ibid., 209-211. ^Schlozer's BriefwecheL 422 A History of the United States of America. Arnold now came up with all the troops he could obtain. Finding Eraser's front too strong for direct assault, Arnold made a movement through the woods, and fell on the British line with a boldness and impetuosity which threatened to break it in twain and divide their army. Their grenadiers and Breyman's riflemen hastened to the support of the hard pressed line. Phillips broke his way through the woods with artillery, and Riedesel came up with his heavy dragoons. But Arnold's force now numbered about three thousand men, and with these he fought, almost hand- to-hand, the whole right wing of the enemy. The American sharp-shooters, having the advantage of the woods, did fearful execution. Burgoyne ordered a charge with bayonets. His troops rushed forw^ard with huzzas ; but the Americans, dropping back into their intrenchments, repelled the charge with a rolling fire. But when they advanced into the plain they were again driven back, and thus the surging lines continued to assault and repel each other, but with manifest advantage to the Americans. Arnold sent courier after courier to Gates, begging for rein- forcements ; but, fearing to weaken his own lines, the commander- in-chief declined to send them. Night put an end to the battle. The British army remained on the field, but their attack had failed. Their purpose was defeated ; their advance v^^as stopped.' In this battle, the most stubbornly fought of the war, and in which veteran officers of the British and Hessian army declared that " they had never seen so hot a fire continued so long," the loss of the enemy waS about five hundred, and that of the Amer- icans about three hundred and nineteen in killed, wounded and missing. Probably, in either army, none endured more of heart-suffei'ing than the group of women, now well known in history, who were accompanying the British army. They were Lady Harriet Ack- land, daughter of the Earl of Ilchester and wife of Major Ack- land, of the grenadiers ; the Baroness de Riedesel, wife of the Hessian general, and the wives of Major Harnage and Lieutenant Reynell, of the British army. At the time the battle opened they were in a small hut in the rear, of which the surgeons were soon obliged to take possession. Writing of Lady Ackland, Burgoyne said : " She had three female companions — the Baroness of Ried- esel, and the wives of two British oflScers, Major Harnage and Lieutenant Reynell ; but, in the event, their presence served but little for comfort. Major Harnage was soon brought to the sur- 1 Stephens, 239, 240. Barnes, 123, 124. Derry, 126. Goodrich, 228. Quackenbos, 244, 245' Irving, III. 212-215. General Burgoyne^s Campaign. 423 geons very badly wounded, and in a little time after came intelli- gence that Lieutenant Reynell was shot dead. Imagination wants no helps to figure the state of the whole group." ^ Arnold was indignant at Gates' refusal to send him reinforce- ments in the crisis of this battle. He wished to renew the action the next morning, but Gates again refused, not then disclosing his reason. He afterwards stated as his reason the deficiency of powder and ball in the camp. He properly kept this a secret until he obtained a full supply from Albany." But a feeling of coolness and hostility arose between these officers, and showed itself in the shameful omission by Gates of the heroic conduct and even of the name of Arnold in his dispatches to the govern- ment.' And Wilkinson, Gates' adjutant-general and sycophantic follower, withdrew from Arnold's division Morgan's riflemen and Dearborn's light troops, which were its arm of strength ! From the 3oth of September to the 7th of October both armies remained so near to each other that firing was frequently ex- changed. Gates was reinforced by two thousand New England troops under General Lincoln. Burgoyne's condition was becom- ing daily more desperate. His army was dwindling by desertions ; his forage was failing ; his artillery and cavalry horses were beginning to suffer ; his hopes of a successful diversion from the south by Sir Henry Clinton were fading away. He determined on a grand movement on the 7th of October on the left of the American army, with the hope of breaking it and pressing through, or of securing a safe line of retreat, and, above all, of obtaining forage for his horses.* His plan was an advance of fifteen hundred of his best troops with two twelve-pounders, two howitzers, and six six-pounders, all led by himself, with Phillips, Riedesel and Fraser to second him. His camp was to be guarded on the heights bv Brigadiers Hamilton, Specht and Gall. His advance was concealed by forests, and he sent a large body of rangers, provincials and Indians to skulk through the woods and gain the rear of the American left. But this movement was discovered ; the American drums beat to arms. Morgan was soon out with his riflemen, and Poor, with his New York and Hampshire troops, hastened to assault the British left. Instead of surprising his enemy, Burgoyne was astonished to hear a roar of artillery and a rattling fire of rifles on his left. Although Gates had deprived Arnold of his command, and had 1 Burgoyne's letter, In Irving, III. 215. ^Irving's Washington, III. 215, 216. 3/61U, 217. Irving's Washington, III. 462, 463. 2 Barnes, l:W. Holmes, 107. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 252. 5 Irving's Washington, III. 464. 438 ^4 History of the United States of America. On the night of the 15th of July they drew silently near For- tunately, they had obtained the countersign, which was " The fort is our own," from a negro, who frequently carried fruit for sale to the garrison, but was in sympathy with the American cause. He led the way, accompanied by two stout men disguised as farmers. There was severe skirmishing with the pickets, but the patriots were instantly in the work and using the bayonet. Wayne commanded. Major Stewart and Lieutenants Gibbon and Knox led the men. The struggle was short. The muskets fired by the pickets roused the garrison. The drums beat. Stony Point was roused, and a heavy fire opened ; but all in vain. The Amer- icans pressed irresistibly forward, and the lines were carried. !Major Posey sprang on the ramparts, shouting : " The fort is ours ! " Wayne received a \vound on the head from a glancing musket ball. He said : " Carry me into the fort and let me die at the head of my column." But he soon recovered. The attacking columns carried all before them. The garrison surrendered at discretion." ^ This was a daring and brilliant success for the patriot cause. The American forlorn hope lost seventeen killed or wounded out of twenty-two ; yet the whole patriot loss was only fifteen killed and eighty-three wounded. Of the garrison sixty-three w^ere killed and five hundred and fift3-three were made prisoners. Sir Henry Clinton, on hearing of this capture, instantly recalled Tryon, made a forced march on Dobb's Ferry, sent transports with troops to relieve Fort Lee, and marched himself with a heavy force, hoping to draw Washington into a general battle. But the American Fabius disappointed him. After removing all the cannon, ammunition and stores from Stony Point, Washing- ton caused the works to be destroyed, and made himself strong at West Point and in the Highlands. It is worthy of note that nearly coeval with the time when Eng- land transferred her serious militaiy operations to the Southern States, one of those States made a decisive movement which con- firmed her territorial claims, and greatly enlarged the subsequent power of the American Union. Hamilton, the English governor at Detroit, was a firm man, but cold and cruel. He sought by every means to rouse the Indians fo murderous attacks on the patriots, and paid a tempting price for white scalps.^ Virginia determined, if possible, to strike him a blow. Early in the fall of 1778 two expeditions were planned. One was commanded by General Mcintosh, who led nearly a thou- 1 Irving, III. 467, 468. 2 withers' Border Warfare, 185. Gordon, II. 390. A War of JSIaraud and Devastation. 439 sand men against the Sandusky towns of the Indians ; yet he ac- complished very little, and failed entirely at last/ The other was led by Col. George Rogers Clark, of western Virginia, a man so cool in danger, so heroic in combat, so prompt in difficulty, so un- tiring in toil, that John Randolph of Roanoke bestowed on him the title of " The Hannibal of the West." ' He placed himself at the head of about two hundred and eighty men, raised by authority of the legislature and of the gov- ernor, Patrick Henry. They wei'e of the very bone and sinew of the west. Descending the Ohio in boats, they left it about two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, and, taking on their backs as much food as they could carry, plunged into the forests north of the river. In three days their provisions were exhausted, and they fed on roots and mast in the ^voods ; yet they pressed on. At midnight they came upon the tow^n of Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi, one hundred miles above the mouth of the Ohio. So skillful were Colonel Clark's dispositions of his force, that \vhen they advanced and demanded surrender, not one of the enemy es- caped. Refreshments and fleet horses were obtained, and the Vii-ginians surprised and captured three other towns, reducing the w^hole region, taking prisoner Philip Rocheblane, the Gover- nor of Kaskaskia. He was sent to Virginia, together Avith the written instructions he had I'eceived from the British authorities of Qiiebec and Detroit, urging him to rouse the Indians to their work of massacre and blood.' The legislature of Virginia received with joy the tidings of these events. They voted warm thanks to Colonel Clark, his officers and men, for their " extraordinary resolution and perse- verance." * Learning that the people of the conquered region had willingly transferred their allegiance from England to the United States, the Virginia assembly passed an act erecting the territory into a county called Illinois, and establishing a provi- sional government ; but a stern struggle was yet needed to hold it. Governor Hamilton, excited to wrath by Clark's success, raised six hundred men, chiefly Indians. About the middle of Decem- ber, 1778, he arrived at Vincennes, on the Wabash, repaired the fort, and, reserving one company, sent the rest of his force to attack the white settlements on the Ohio, and, if possible, to rav- age west Virginia. Happily, a Spanish trader from Vincennes informed Clark how small was the force there. Qiiick as lightning he caught the 1 Withers, 185, 187, 191-19?,. 2 Girardin, 321. Howe, 116. 3 Withers, 186, 187. Gordon, II. 390. Girardin, 312, 313. < Resolution in Girardin, 319. 440 A History of the United States of A7iterica. opportunity. He sent a galley filled with men and armed with two four-pounders up the Wabash, while he marched at the head of one hundred and thirty of his best men. They encountered frightful hardships ; five days were spent in crossing the sunken lands of the Wabash. The men once marched six miles up to their waists in ice and water. Fortunately, the season "was mild, and they wei^e not frozen. They arrived in front of the town nearly at the same time with the galley by the river. The people of Vincennes made no opposition ; on the contrary, they joyfully transferred their allegiance to Virginia. They even aided in reducing the fort ; but Hamilton made a brave resistance. For eighteen hours a fire almost incessant on both sides was kept up ; but on the night of February 33d Colonel Clark caused an intrenchment to be thrown up which overlooked the fort. His riflemen picked oft" every man who showed himself. Hamilton asked a parley, and the next evening the fort and all its stores were surrendered, and the governor and his men became prisoners of war.^ They were sent to Virginia. Thomas Jefferson had been elected governor on the ist of June. Proofs of Hamilton's deal- ings with the Indians and offering rewards for scalps having been given, the council of war of Virginia advised retaliation. Gov- ernor Jefferson, acting under this advice, caused Hamilton and two other officers to be confined in the dungeon of the jail, fet- tered with iron shackles, deprived of pen, ink and paper, and forbidden all converse except with their keeper." But such rigor ^vas unworthy of a generous people, and did nothing but harm. The British General Phillips, then command- ing the " Convention troops " of Burgoyne's army, who were pris- oners of war in Albemarle county, made a solemn protest against this treatment of Hamilton and his associates. Much indignation also prevailed among the British officers in New York. Governor Jefferson wrote to Washington, who promptly advised leniency and generosity. The officers were released on parole, and the next year Hamilton was permitted to go to New York.^ The expedition and success of Colonel Clark in thus conquering and bringing to allegiance the Northwest was entirely the work of the State of Virginia. The Continental troops and resources had no share in it. There cannot be question that this military occupation was afterwards recognized as the true basis of the claim of the United States to a northern boundary on the lakes ; 1 Judge Burnet's Notes on N. "\V. Territorv, 77, 78. Withers, 189, 190. Girardin, 321. 2 Tucker's Jeff., I. 120, 130. 3 Notes A and B, Jefferson's Works, 1. 450-159. Letters 164, 167. A War of Maraud and Devastation. 441 for, in the negotiations for peace, England insisted on the Ohio as the boundary, and the Count de Vergennes, in behalf of France, was disposed to assent ; but the American commissioners urged the success of Clark with so much force that their claims were at last admitted/ Like many other self-sacrificing patriots, George Rogers Clark had cause to complain. He served afterwards under Steuben and against Arnold, and was made a general in 1781. He had become heavily involved in debt for expenses of his expedition. Virginia was tardy in relieving him. His debts were sued to judgment, and his property was wrested from him. Virginia voted him a sword. He accepted it, but only to strike it into the ground and break the blade, with the bitter words : " Tell Virginia to pay her debts, and then vote honors to the men who served her." ^ Vir- ginia afterwards voted to him and his men thirty thousand acres of land within the bounds of the present State of Indiana ; but its value was then nominal, and it did little to relieve Clark. He fell into intemperate habits, and sought to drown care in the bowl, dying at last near Louisville, Kentucky, in iSoS.^ How far her successful move upon the Northwest worked to draw the vindictive attention of the British ofiicers to Virginia, we have no distinct record ; but it is certain that on the 9th dav of May, 1779, Admiral vSir George Collier, with a fleet of armed ships and transports, carrying two thousand men, under Gen- eral Matthew, entered Hampton Roads. No adequate force was at hand to meet them. A fort, strong on the water side, but \yeak in the rear, had been built on the west side of the Elizabeth river to protect the Gosport ship-yard and the town of Norfolk. The British brought up the Rainboxu, sloop-of-war, to batter it in front, while land forces marched upon its rear. Finding he could not hold it, ISIaj. Thomas Matthews, the commandant, sent off' his ammunition, spiked his guns, hoisted his colors, and retreated with his-men into the fastnesses of the Dismal vSwamp. General Matthew took possession of the fort, and detached marauding bodies of troops to Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk. Cruel and wanton devastation marked their progress. They burned dwelling-houses, destroyed live stock, ruined furniture, and carried off' private property as booty. Defenceless women were outraged, and seven Frenchmen found at the Great Bridge Were inhumanly put to death. As the British advanced on Suf- folk, Colonel Riddick, with about one hundred and fifty militia, 1 Burnet's Kotes on N. W. Territory, 77. 2 Holmes' U. S., 133, note. 3 Burnet's Notes, 80, 81. Art. Clark, Amer. Encyclop., V. 288. 442 A History of the United States of America. made some fight, but could not long resist six hundred regulars. The enemy set fire to the town, and, to increase the conflagration, staved in the heads of hundreds of barrels of tar, pitch, turpen- tine and rum, which had been stored near the wharves. The flaming mass set fire to dry herbage, and not only the town, but the country around, was desolated. After their lavages the troops re-embarked and sailed to New York about the last of May.^ 1 Colonel Lawson's letter. Girardin, 334. CHAPTER XL. The War Transferred to the South. MEANWHILE the military movements intended to subjugate the Southern States had made considerable progress. We have seen that, by the treaty of Paris, England acquired title to Florida. She divided it into tv^^o provinces, East and West Flor- ida, and sought to avail herself of its position and advantages for attacking the Southern colonies. Florida has the longest coast 'line of all the North American States, having four hundred and seventy-two miles on the Atlantic and six hundred and seventy- four on the Gulf of ISIexico ; but her good harbors are not nume- rous, and frightful storms and tornadoes sometimes scourge her coasts. Sir Henry Clinton sent orders to General Prevost, who com- manded the British forces in Florida, to advance into Georgia. At nearly the same time, in November, 1778, in accordance with the plan of the British cabinet, he sent Lieutenant-Colonel Camp- bell, with two thousand troops, in a fleet of ships of war and transports luider Commodore Hyde Parker, to attack Savannah and carry the war into Georgia. Savannah was defended b}' Gen. Robert Howe with six hun- dred regulars and about three hundred militia. On the 39th of December, 1778, Colonel Campbell landed his troops about three miles below the town. Howe's little army -was on the main road, a causeway through swampy ground, with the river on his right and a morass in front. But a negro gave information to Camp- bell of a road through the swamp by which Howe's rear could be reached. By this road Sir James Baird was sent with light infantry, while Campbell advanced in front. The result might have been foreseen. The Americans, assailed in front and rear, gave way, and were routed with a loss of one hundred killed or drowned in the swamp, and thirty-eight officers and four hundred and fifteen privates taken prisoners. The rest retreated up the Savannah river and crossed into South Carolina.^ Savannah, with cannon, military stores and provisions, was captured by the British with a loss of only seven killed and nine- 1 Compare Irving, III. 443. Stephens, 247. D. B. Scott, 195. Derrj', 131. [ 443 ] 444 -^ History of the United States of America. teen wounded. Colonel Campbell acted with moderation and prudence, protecting persons and property, and proclaiming secu- rity and favor to all who would return to their allegiance. Num- bers flocked to the British standard. General Pi'evost marched thi-ough sands, swamps and forests, reached the southern frontiers of Georgia, captured Sunbury, the only remaining fort of importance, on the 9th of January, 1779, and, joining his forces to those at Savannah, assumed command of not less than three thousand men. He sent Colonel Campbell against Augusta, which was soon taken. By the middle of Jan- uary all of Georgia seemed reduced under British rule.^ But many there had not bowed the knee. In October, 177S, Washington, having infonnation of the plans of the enemy against the South, sent General Lincoln to assume command in that department. He had arrived and was straining every nerve to oppose the advance of the British forces. His forces con- sisted chiefly of militia, and, though not wanting in courage, needed the firmness coming from discipline. The first attempt of the enemy was at Port Royal Island. Here they were met by the veteran Moultrie and driven off with severe loss.^ The British Colonel Boyd, at the head of about eight hundred Tories, was at Ninety Six, in South Carolina. He -undertook to march through Georgia, intending to take Augusta into his route and to join the British army near Savannah. But at Kettle Creek, in Wilkes county, Georgia, he was intercepted by Col. Andrew Pickens and Lieut. -Col. Elijah Clarke, with Carolina and Georgia militia. A fierce encounter took place on the 14th February. The loyalists were completely routed, losing one hun- dred and fifty men. Seventy were taken prisoners. Colonel Boyd was mortally wounded. His dying requests were chival- rously carried out by Pickens. The American loss was thirty- two killed and wounded. Five of the Tories, whose crimes of treachery and cruelty w^ere aggravated, were hung.' Thus com- menced an ugly feature in the Southern campaigns. Pickens, Dooly and Clarke followed up their success with vigor, attacking and defeating bodies of British and Tories on both sides of the Savannah river. General Prevost ordered Campbell to retire from Augusta. He fell back to Hudson's Ferry, fifty miles above Savannah. Encouraged by these successes, Lincoln sent General Ashe with two thousand troops to take post at Brier Creek where it empties 1 Irving, III. 444. Deny, 132. Stephens, 247. 2 Stephens, 247, 248. Derry, 132. 3 D. B. Scott, 196. Derry, 133. Stephens, 248. The War Transferred to the South. 445 into the Savannah. Ashe had two thousand more troops within supporting distance ; and yet, by his incompetent management, he permitted himself to be surprised by General Prevost, and was defeated with the loss of three hundred and forty killed, wounded and prisoners.' This serious disaster wrecked all of Lincoln's plans for the relief of Georgia ; yet he did not despair, but was indefatigable in calling for the militia of that State and South Carolina. Prevost was so far elated by his success against Ashe that he marched, with a considerable force, upon the rear of Charleston to demand its surrender ; but Lincoln, who now had a force of nearly five thousand, followed him so promptly that Prevost was forced to abandon his attempt on Charleston and retreat to the island of St. John, opposite the main-land. At the crossing to the island, called Stono Ferry, a redoubt was thrown up by the British. On the 30th of June, Lincoln rashly assaulted it. His troops were repulsed with severe loss.^ Soon after^vards Prevost made good his retreat, and returned to Savannah. The hot and sickly season came on, and both armies w^ere compelled to suspend active movements for several months. On the 9th of September, Count D'Estaing, the French admiral, having met with successes in the West Indies, in which he had taken St. Vincent and Grenada, appeared oft' Savannah with his fleet and four thousand land troops. Lincoln promptly opened communication with him, and effected a junction of his forces with the French. The capture of Savannah was an object readily agreed on. Its accomplishment was assuredly within their reach had prudence and skill ruled the French counsels. An augury of success came in the form of a daring enterprise by Capt. John White, of the Georgia line, who, with a small force, by a skillful stratagem, captured five British vessels, one hundred and eleven prisoners, and one hundred and thirty stand of arms.' The combined French and American force was sufficient for the complete investment of Savannah. The siege opened on the 23d of September, and for three weeks was carried on with vigor by a daily fire of bombs and solid shot from the ffeet, and regular approaches by land. The result must soon have been a success, as the place would have become untenable and the supplies of the garrison would have failed ; nor was there any prospect of a favorable diversion from New York in favor of the beleaguered garrison. But just in the crisis, before the works of approach 1 Compare Derrv, 133. Scott, 196, 197. Stephens, 218. 2 D. B. Scott, 197. Derry, 134. Stephens, 249. a Derry, 136. 446 A History of the United States of America. were complete, or any practicable breach had been made, D'Estaing declared that his fleet and army could stay no longer. This count was the evil genius of those times, when America hoped so much from the help of France. In a sad hour, Lincoln yielded to the pressure for an immediate assault on the British works. It was made with heroic courage on the 9th of October, 1779, by the combined forces of the French and Americans. They vied with each other in efforts to carry the works. Some of them actually gained the redoubts and planted their standards ; but all in vain. The repulse was bloody and decisive. Six hundred Frenchmen and four hundred Ameri- cans fell, killed or wounded. D'Estaing himself was among the bravest of the brave, and was wounded ; Sergeant Jasper fell mortally wounded just as he leaped on the Spring Hill redoubt and fastened there the flag presented by Mrs. Elliot ; the un- daunted patriot of Poland, Count Pulaski, fell in the thickest of the assault. He was carried, mortally wounded, on board the United States brig Wasp, died on the nth of October, and was buried at sea. A monvmient to his memory has been ei"ected at Savannah by her people, of which the corner-stone was laid in 1825 by the JNIarquis De La Fayette.^ Another monument there commemorates the simple heroism of Jasper. D'Estaing, with his fleet and troops, withdrew. The Ameri- cans recrossed the river into South Carolina. On the very day on which the siege of Savannah commenced a naval combat took place oft' Flamborough, on the northeast coast of England, which startled the world by its exhibition of desperate courage, even unto death or victory. The American naval ships in regular commission were few in number during the Revolution ; yet they fought bravely under such officers as Manly, Saltonstall, Barry, and others equally as distinguished. But of all the naval leaders who espoused the American cause, John Paul Jones was the one whose name rose highest. He was a native of Scotland, but enlisted, heart and soul, in the cause of freedom. By the influence of Dr. Franklin in France, Jones ob- tained the command of a small squadron of five ships, of which his flag-ship, the Bon-Homine Richard, of forty-two guns, was the largest. She was named in honor of Franklin's wit and wis- dom shown in his " Poor Richard's Almanac." On the 23d of September, 1779, she encountered the British frigate Serapis, of forty-four guns, in a naval fight unparalleled in obstinacy and bloodshed. It commenced in the evening a^nd 1 Stephens, 250, 251. Irving, III. 482. Derry, 136, 137. The War Transferred to the South. 447 continued into the darkness of the night. By order of Jones, his ship was lashed to the British ship, so that the combat was deadly. Both ships were on fire ; their decks were slippery with blood. A brief pause in the fire of the Rlchard\sxo\x^\\. a summons from the Scrapis: "Have you surrendered?" The reply came: "I have just commenced fighting." Yet her condition seemed des- perate. She was blazing, and leaking so rapidly that she could not long be kept above water. To add to the horrors of her condi- tion, the American frigate Alliance, by mistake in the dark, fired a broadside into the Richard. But, quickly discovering the mis- take, the Alliance turned her guns on the Serapis. She surren- dered in time to enable Paul Jones to transfer his crew just before the Richard sunk. The British commander (Captain Pearson) was afterwards knighted for his gallantry. Another English ship was captured, and Paul Jones brought both his prizes into a port of Holland. Out of three hundred and seventv-five men on the Richard^ three hundred were killed or wounded.^ Early in the year 17S0, it became evident that a serious attempt was to be made by the British to capture the city of Charles- ton, and subjugate South Carolina. Governor Rutledge, hav- ing almost dictatorial powers, ordered the militia to join Gen- eral Lincoln, and aid in defence of the city. The citizens were patriotic, and were exceedingly averse to the British rule. They implored Lincoln not to desert them. Against his better judg- ment he yielded to their entreaties, and, instead of keeping his army in the field, and thus saving it for defence of the country, he brought all of his troops within the lines of the city, except his cavalry and two hundred light infantry, who were left outside to hover about the enemy and check them in their marauding expeditions.^ This was a grave error of Lincoln ; and yet it has, since his day, been often repeated. Sir Henry Clinton sailed early in January for the coast of South Carolina with a large fleet and army. He had a tempest- uous voyage. His ships were dispersed ; some of them fell into the hands of the Americans. He specially regretted the loss of transports with cavalry horses. These were to be made available by two cavalry officers, Bannastre Tarleton and Patrick Ferguson, each already renowned for his fitness for partisan warfare. Fer- guson was thought to be the best shot in the world with the rifle. He had invented one which could be loaded at the breech and fired seven times in a minute.^ Tarleton, in a maraud, supplied 1 Goodrich, 233. Stephens, 252. Scott, 200. Sciidder, 222. 2 Irving's Washington, IV. 27. 3 Hyid., 47. 448 -^ History of the United States of America. himself with horses very soon after the scattered ships of the fleet re-assembled at Tybee Bay, on the Savannah river, about the end of January. The British troops disembarked February nth on St. John's Island, thirty miles below Charleston. While Admiral Arbuth- not, Avith his strong fleet, took position off' the coast so as to blockade the harbor, Sir Henry Clinton advanced by land with his forces to invest Charleston in the rear. His approach was cautious and slow, fortifying intermediate posts, so as to keep open his communications with the fleet. On the 12th of March he made good his tenure of Charleston Neck, a few miles above the town. It had been believed tliat no ships of the line could pass the bar below Charleston ; but the American Commodore Whipple, who had a small squadron of nine ships of war of various sizes, from a forty- four gun ship down to a schooner, to co-opei'ate with Fort Moultrie in defending the passes from the ocean, ascertained by soundings that the water near the bar was much deeper than had been supposed, and that his ships could not anchor within less than three miles of it.^ When General Washington was informed of these facts he wi'ote to his aid, Colonel Laurens, who was in Charleston : " The impracticability of defending the bar, I fear, amounts to the loss of the town and garrison." And he wrote to Baron Steuben ex- pressing the same opinion, but adding : "At this distance we can form a very imperfect judgment. I have the greatest reliance in General Lincoln's prudence, but I cannot forbear dreading the event." ' His fears were increased by tidings that two thousand five hun- dred British and Hessian troops, under Lord Rawdon, had sailed from New York to reinforce Sir Henry Clinton behind and on the flanks of Charleston ; yet even then the investment was not com- plete, and Lincoln might have marched out with his army ; for on the 7th of April, General Woodford, with seven hundred Vir- ginia troops, after a forced inarch of five hundred miles in thirty days, crossed from the east side of Cooper river by the way still open, and thre\\^ himself into Charleston.^ This reinforcement was welcomed with joy by the beleaguered people, but only added to the ultimate loss. Admiral Arbuthnot, leading in the Roebuck a squadron of eight ships of the line and two transports, availing himself of a high 1 Whipple's report, Irving-. IV. 2S. 2 Washington's corres., Irving, IV. 28. ^ipying, IV. 45, The War Transferred to the South. 449 spring tide and a fresh southerly breeze, ran across the bar on the 2oth of March, and past the batteries of Fort Moultrie on the 9th of April. The fort kept up a tremendous fire, and the ships of war replied. The smoke was so thick that their movements could hardly be followed. They passed with a loss of only twenty- seven men killed and wounded. One of their store ships ran aground, was set on fire and abandoned and soon blew up. The British ships took position near Fort Johnston, just beyond the range of the American guns. Colonel Pinckney, with part of his garrison, withdrew from Fort Moultrie. Commodore Whipple landed some of his heaviest guns to aid in the defence of the city, sent some of his ships up Cooper river, and sunk the rest as obstructions to Arbuthnot's fleet.i Anxious to keep open his communications by the Cooper river, Lincoln sent General Huger to Monk's Corner, at the head-waters of that rivei", about thirty miles above Charleston. Huger had a brigade of militia and some Continental cavalry, under Col. Wil- liam Washington, a brave and dashing partisan officer, who had distinguished himself at Trenton, and had with his own and Bland's light-horse and Pulaski's hussars, given the English troopers a sharp defeat at Rantoul's Bridge.^ Sir Henry Clinton detached Colonel Webster, with fourteen hundred men, to break up the American outposts. Tarleton made the attack on Monk's Corner on the 14th of April. By a night march he drew near. A negro was seen trying to avoid notice. He was seized, and on him was found a letter describing Huger's position and force. A few dollars sufficed to gain this negro for the British side. He guided Tarleton's force. The surprisal of Huger's camp was complete and disastrous. Some officers and men defending themselves were killed. Huger, Washington and many others escaped in the darkness and through the swamps. One hundred prisoners w^ere taken. Four hundred horses and fifty wagons, laden with arms, clothing and annnunition, fell into Tarleton's hands.'* An incident creditable to the English officers then occurred. Some dragoons maltreated and attempted outrage upon ladies in a dwelling-house near IMonk's Corner. They reported the facts at headquarters. The offenders were identified. Ferguson was in favor of putting them to death at once as an example ; but Colonel Webster did not feel at liberty to jDunish them capitally. 1 Irving, IV. 43, 45. 2 Gordon, III. 352. Tarleton's Campaigns, 8. 3 Stedman's Am. War, II. 183. Irving, IV. 48. 29 450 -^ History of the United States of Ajnerica. They were sent to the British army around Charleston, tried, and severely punished by flogging.^ The fate of Charleston was now sealed. Every way of escape was closed, and the siege was pressed by resistless approaches. The defensive works were ruins, the guns almost all dismantled, the provisions nearly consumed. On the 6th of May the feeble garrison at Moultrie surrendered that fort. On the 12th of May, 1780, General Lincoln signed terms of capitulation, by which all adult males in Charleston became prisoners of war. The militia and citizens were paroled and were to return to their homes with protection so long as they observed their parole. The officers of the American army and navy were to retain their servants, swords and pistols, and were permitted to sell their horses, but not to re- move them from the town. The land prisoners taken numbered five thousand six hundred and eighteen, but most of them were citizens and militia. The Continental troops surrendered did not exceed two thousand in number. The British loss in the siege was seventy-six killed and one hundred and eighty-nine wounded. The American loss was about the same. These were dark days for the patriot cause. The financial troubles had risen to high-water mark. The Continental cur- rency was so depreciated in purchasing power that the pay of a colonel for a month would hardly provide food for his horse for a week. Connecticut troops, having received no pay for five months, broke out into open mutiny, threatening to go home or to gain subsistence with the bayonet.^ It required all of Washington's per- sonal influence, with financiering help from Reed and Morris, to keep the army efficient. Nature seemed to frown. A day of actual gloom came on the 19th of May, when the heavens became so dark at ten o'clock in the morning that lights were needed in the houses, and the fowls went to roost. The legislature of Con- necticut was disposed to adjourn because of the darkness. Some thought the day of judgment was at hand. A motion in the coun- cil of war was made to adjourn. Colonel Davenport, a bold pa- triot, opposed it, saying : "If the day of judgment be not at hand there is no cause for adjourning ; if it be at hand, let us be found doing our duty. I move that candles be brought, and that we go on with the business." On the night of the 20th the abnormal vapor passed away. A clear day came, and hope revived.^ After capturing Charleston, Sir Henry Clinton sent out detach- ments into the interior of South Carolina, under Cornwallis, Cru- 1 Stedman, II. 183. Irving's Washington, IV. 48. «Irviiig's Washington, IV. 38. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 253. The War Transferred to the South. 451 ger and the royalist Thomas Brown. Tarleton was also indefat- igable. He pursued Colonel Buford, who, having been too late to enter Charleston, was retreating towards North Carolina with three hundred and eighty troops of the Virginia line, and Colonel Washington, who had joined him with a few of his lately scat- tered cavalry. Tarleton had only one hundred and seventy dra- goons, one hundred mounted infantry and a three-pounder. He might, therefore, have been resisted with hopes of success ; but Tarleton was strong in threats and bullying. He sent forward a letter saying to Buford that he was surrounded by seven hundred light troops on horseback and by troops with cannon, and that Earl Cornwallis was within reach with nine British regiments, offering terms of submission, and warning against the temerity of refusing them.' Although Buford rejected his proposal, it seems evident that Tarleton's threats had wrought their eftect. The encounter took place on the 39th of May, on the banks of the Waxhaw, a stream on the border of North Carolina. At the first fire of Buford's men several British dragoons fell. Tarleton himself was unhorsed. His men attacked furiously, and the pa- triot lines were broken. Many threw down their arms and begged for quarter, but were cut down without mercy. One hundred and thirteen were killed on the spot, and one hundi'ed and fifty so mangled and maimed that they could not be removed. Colonels Buford and Washington, with a few of the cavalry and about one hundred of the infantry, escaped. Fifty prisoners were taken. The whole British loss was five killed and fifteen wounded. Why, then, did they thus butcher men who were helpless and had surrendered ? Tarleton felt the bloody stain of this transaction, and endeavored to remove it by the explanation that he was dis- mounted, and his men were exasperated to frenzy with the idea that he had fallen. Lord Cornwallis had no censure to pass on the useless massacre, but praised Tarleton unstintedly and com- mended him specially to royal favor.' A day of ret4-ibution was soon to come to both of them. Sir Henry Clinton believed South Carolina to be restored to British rule. He issued a proclamation calling on the people to return to their allegiance. Many were willing. The negro slaves of course deserted their masters in thousands. Tarleton wrote as follows : " All the negroes, men, women and children, upon the appearance of any detachment of king's troops, thought them- selves absolved from all respect to their American masters and entirely released from servitude. They quitted the plantations 1 Letters in Irving, IV. 52, 53. = Irving's Washington, IV. 54. 452 A History of the United States oj" America. and followed the army." ^ Yet the lesson of this fact seemed forgotten in eighty years. But the true patriots of the Carolinas and Georgia continued resolute. Under Sumter, Alarion, Pickens and Clarke they main- tained the warfare in the only mode left open to them at that time. They resorted to the partisan and guerrilla modes, and with admirable success. No detached post of -the enemy was ever safe. Marion was as rapid in his movements and fierce in his onsets as Tarleton, and far exceeded him in resoui-ces for escape and concealment. He and his men became so skillful in disap- pearing and saving themselves, when hard pressed, in the dark recesses of the swamps and forests, that Tarleton and his fol- lowers called him " The Swamp Fox " by way of derision. On Sumter, wdio was more open in his daring movements, they be- stowed the title of " The Game Cock." But all these traits were exhibited with ceaseless efficiency in the warfare now waged on the English and Tories. Neither Georgia nor Carolina was a subdued province while these partisans were abroad. Nevertheless, Sir Henry Clinton felt that the South was suffi- ciently restored to royal authority to justify him in returning to New York. He embarked on the 5th of June with a part of his forces, leaving the larger part under Lord Cornw^allis, who was to carry the war into North Carolina and thence into Virginia.'^ Meanwhile the patriot cause in the South was cheered by the presence and movements of Lieut. -Col. Henry Lee ^vitll his effec- tive body of well-equipped cavalry. He was in the regular ser- vice, but appreciated highly the deeds of the guerrilla officers and their men, saying of them : " Their combats were like those of the Parthians, sudden and fierce." ^ He co-operated with them in every promising enterprise. The South hoped also much from the coming of General Gates, the conqueror of Burgoyne, who had been ordered to the supreme command in the South. He was marching from Virginia with a considerable force. Wash- ington had recommended General Greene for this command, but the congress, with unbecoming precipitancy, gave the command to Gates on the 13th of June. Before he left Fredericksburg, on his way from his country home in Virginia, he had an interview with the eccentric ex-Gen. Charles Lee, who gave him an omi- nous charge in parting : " Beware that your Northern laurels do not change to Southern willows." * 1 Tarleton's Campaigns, 89. 2 Stephens, 254, 255. Derry, 1-10. Irvine:, IV. 55. 2 Lee's Memoirs of X\\q War in the Southern Department. * Compare Weems' Marion, 99, 100. Irving, IV. 69. The War Transferred to the South. 4:^3 Baron De Kalb had come with reinforcements from the North, and was in command of the Southern army when Gates arrived in the camp on the 25th of July, 17S0. He promptly issued orders by which the army was put in motion, marching throvigh a baiTen region of pines, sand-hills and swamps. Pie had relied on supplies from a train of wagons which never came. His army had to subsist itself on lean cattle roaming in the woods, and to supply the want of bread with green Indian corn, apples and peaches. Dysentery was the result. On the 13th August they had reached Rugeley Mills, twelve miles from Camden, and the next day they were reinforced by a brigade of seven hun- dred Virginia militia under General Stevens. Lord Rawdon had been in command of the British army con- centrating at Camden, in Kershaw district, South Carolina ; but Cornwallis, learning that the crisis apj^roached, hastened from Charleston, and, arriving on the 13th, assumed the command. The British force was about two thousand, including very efTec- tive regular troops and live hundred Tory refugees from North Carolina. The army under Gates was three thousand and fifty- two fit for duty ; but more than two-thirds of them were untried militia. The fatal error of Gates was in seeking battle with a force which, in its reliable material, was not half as strong as the enemy. By a strange coincidence, each army marched at about the same time to surprise the other. About two o'clock on the morning of August i6th the advance, on each side, collided near Sanders' creek. A sharp skirmish occurred. Colonel Porterfield, of Vir- ginia, was mortally wounded ; prisoners were taken on both sides. Gates had expected to encounter only Rawdon, and was sur- prised to learn that Cornwallis was in command with a force represented at three thousand. Calling a council of war, he asked what was best to be done. For a moment or two there was blank silence. Then General Stevens broke it by the pregnant ques- tion :■" Gentlemen, is it not too late now to do anything but fight? "^ Nothing more was said; the officers were ordered to their posts of duty. The First Maryland, including the Delawares, were on. the right, commanded by De Kalb ; Caswell, with the North Caro- linians, formed the centre ; the Virginia militia were on the left, under Stevens ; the artillery was in battery on the road. Each flank was covered by a marsh. The Second Maryland was in reserve a fe\v hundred yards in rear of the line of battle. 1 Irving's Washington, IV. 87. 454 ^ History of the United States of America. At daybreak the enemy were dimly seen advancing in column, and apparently displaying to the right. The American artillery opened on them. Gates issued the ill-timed order that Stevens should advance rapidly with the Virginia militia and attack them while they were in the act of displaying. Stevens promptly obeyed ; but, knowing the risk of panic to his raw men, he sent a few sharp-shooters to run forward and draw the enemy's fire ; but the expedient failed. The British lines, now fully displayed, rushed forward shouting and firing. Stevens called to his men to stand firm, deliver their fire, and then be ready with their bay- onets. His brave words fell on unheeding ears. The Virginia militia, dismayed by the rush of the enemy, threw down their loaded muskets and betook themselves to headlong flight. The North Carolinians caught the panic, broke and fled. Part of them made a short stand, but Tarleton and his troopers were upon them, and the flight was for life. Gates, seconded by his officers, made an effort to rally the mil- itia, but in vain ; he was borne in the flying crowd from the field. But the regulars of the American army did not give way. They stood their ground and fought with unflinching courage. Though several times broken, they rallied, reformed and met the enemy with the bayonet. At length they were almost surrounded, and a charge in flank by Tarleton drove them into the woods and swamps. The hero, De Kalb, fought on foot with the Second Maryland brigade, and fell pierced by eleven wounds. His aide- de-camp, De Buysson, supported him in his arms, and was repeat- edly wounded in protecting him. He announced the rank and nation of his general, and both were taken prisoners. De Kalb died in a few days.^ A nobler patriot never fell. This sad disaster to the American cause was soon followed by another. General Sumter had gained brilliant successes at Pedee and Hanging Rock, and had been in correspondence with Gates, and proposed to join him after attacking the enemy at Wateree. He was completely successful in this attack ; captured one hun- dred prisoners, and forty wagons loaded with stores, and was marching off' with his spoils and prisoners. Cornwallis sent Tarleton, ^vith three hundred and fifty cavalry and light infantry, to attack him. vSumter had occupied a strong camp at the mouth of Fishing creek, and, utterly unconscious of danger, he had thrown off' part of his clothes because of the heat, and he and his men were resting — their arms stacked, and some bathing, some lying on the grass, some asleep. 1 Irving's Washington, IV. 88, 89. The War Transferred to the South. 455 By a silent move and a sudden rush on the i8th of August, Tarleton's men actually pushed themselves in betw^een Sumter's men and the parade-ground, where their arms were stacked. The result was, of course, a complete rout. Some fought for a while from behind baggage wagons, but soon all who could save them- selves by flight did so. About three hundred and fifty were killed or wounded. All their arms and baggage and two brass field-pieces fell into the enemy's hands, as well as the prisoners and booty taken at Wateree. Sumter galloped oft' without saddle, hat or coat, and effected a retreat with nearly four hundred of his men.^ Gates reached Charlotte, in North Carolina, and continued his retreat to Hillsborough, one hundred and eighty-two miles from Camden, where he sought to gather up his scattered troops and make a stand. He found he had barely a thousand men. The Virginia and North Carolina militia had made their way to their homes, with help in food and shelter from the farmers along the roads. To displace Gates and appoint in his place General Greene, whom Washington had so earnestly recommended, was a duty which the congress speedily performed. The unfortunate Gates returned to Virginia depressed with grief and mortification. As he passed through Richmond the legislature was in session and generously sought to soothe him by a vote passed on the 28th December. They assured him of their high regard and esteem, and that the memory of former services could not be obliterated by the late reverse, and that Virginia, as a member of the Union, would always be ready to testify to him her gratitude.^ He re- tired to his country estate, and did not leave it again during the war. Meanwhile events of grave importance were occurring in the Northern States. The capture of Stony Point by Wayne had not only discouraged the enemy, but roused the patriot spirit and incited other American officers to like attempts. The British post of Paulus Hook, on the Jersey shore, nearly opposite to the city of New York, was held by a garrison under Major Suther- land, who had become somewhat negligent and careless under sense of security. Major Henry Lee, of the cavalry service, ob- tained Washington's permission to attempt a movement on this post, but with the express injunction that he was " to surprise the post, bring oft' the garrison immediately, and eftect a retreat." ^ 1 Irving, rv. 90-92. Derry, 142. Stephens, 256. Quackenbos, 275. 2 Resolution In Girardin, 416. 3 Washington's instructions, Irving, III. 474, 475. 456 A History of the United States of America. The movement was performed on the iSth of August, 1779, by Major Lee, with three hundred men of Lord Stirling's division and a troop of dismounted dragoons under Captain McLane. Lee passed the creek and ditch at about three o'clock in the inorning, and mastered the post while most of the garrison \vere asleep. Sutheidand, with about sixty Hessians, escaped into a block-house and opened an irregular fire. Alarm guns sounded in New York. To delay would have been ruin. Major Lee carried off three officers and one hundred and fifty-nine men as prisoners, with a loss to his force of only two killed and three wounded. Congress voted to him a gold medal. This coup dc main was in character with his subsequent successes in the South. When Sir Henry Clinton sailed to attack Charleston, he left General Knyphausen in command in New York. Washington had provided for the safety of the Highlands and West Point, and held, with his immediate army, the strong defiles in and about Morristown, in New Jersey. Knyphausen received exaggerated accounts of the mutinous movements of Connecticut and Penn- sylvania troops in Washington's camp. Pie conceived the idea that the people of New Jersey were generally disaffected to the American cause, and that nothing was needed to develop this feeling into a return to British rule except a military expedition for the support of the supposed royalists.^ Two marauding expeditions had been sent by him on the 2c;th January, 1780, to New Jersey. One penetrated as far as Newark, captured a small company there, set fire to the academy, and re- turned without loss. The other, consisting of one hundred dra- goons and more than three hundred infantry under Colonel Bcs- kirk, advanced on Elizabethtown, surprised the picket guard, captured two majors, two captains and forty-two privates, burned the town-hall, the Presbyterian church and a private residence, and plundered the private effects of the people. This sacrilegious outrage was supposed to have been in revenge for the patriotic exertions of the pastor of the chin-ch. Rev. James Caldwell, who had been full of enthusiasm for his country's cause, and had made his church-bell a tocsin of summons when danger threatened, and from his pulpit had often made ardent, eloquent and pathetic appeals for union and courageous effort against the British, while his loaded pistols had just been laid aside from his person. He had drawn upon himself the especial hatred of the English and loyalists, who denounced him as a "frantic priest" and a '• rebel fire-brand." The torch had been 1 Passages in Hist, of Elizabethtown, by De Hart. In-ing, IV. 56, 57. The War Transferred to the South. 457 applied to his church by a virulent Tory, who, when he saw it wrapped in flames, " regretted that the black-coated rebel, Cald- well, -was not in the pulpit." ^ Knyphausen made his serious descent upon New Jersey early in June, with a force of about five thousand men and some light artillery. The vanguard, led by the British brigadier Sterling, was challenged at the fork of a road outside of Elizabethtown by a single sentinel, who fired his musket and mortally wounded General Sterling. He was borne to the rear, and Knyphausen took his place. Instead of finding a people disaflected to the patriotic cause, the advancing British columns were stubbornly fought at every favorable point for resistance by the New Jersey militia under Dayton, and the brigade of the State under General Maxwell. A fight like that of Concord and Lexington was kept up from behind fences and extemporized intrenchments. At Connecticut Farms the hatred against Rev. James Caldwell manifested itself in a cruel and cowardly murder. He had re- moved his family to tliis jjlace. He, as cliaplain, was with his regiment in the American army. His wife, wuth her young chil- dren, remained in her home, trusting that the enemy, if they came, would respect the laws of war and of ordinary humanity. While she sat in silent prayer on the side of her bed, holding by the hand one of her children, three years old, and while, on pretence that the people had fired on them from their upper win- dows, some of Knyphausen's men were pillaging and setting fire to the houses, suddenly a musket loaded with two bullets was fired through the window. She received both balls in her breast and fell dead. The house and adjoining church were set on fire, and it was with difficulty her body was rescued from the flames.^ The news of the murder soon spread through the country, and excited intense feeling against the invaders. Although the at- tempt was afterwards made to attribute the act to a servant who had malignant hatred to Mr. Caldwell, yet few doubted that the shot had been fired by one of the marauding soldiers. The w^ife was connected with the best people of New Jersey, and was much beloved. The American papers afterwards vehemently assailed Knyphausen ; and in his march he found the people universally excited against him, and running to arms. The most serious encounter was at Springfield, which was approached by the British troops on the 23d of June, and when General Greene, with Maxwell's and Stark's brigades, Lee's 1 De Hart's EUzabetlito\vn. Irving, IV. 6, 7. 2 Irving, IV. 58, 59. 458 A History of the United States of America. dragoons, and Dayton's Jersey militia, made a strong resistance, in which Colonel Angel, of Rhode Island, with two hundred picked men and one piece of artillery, most stubbornly defended a bridge over the Rahway, west of the town. Finding all his purposes defeated, and every step of his way bloodily contested, Knyphausen abandoned his enterprise and returned to New York. In Knyphausen's movements, in 1778, the British Genei'al Grey had rendered himself more notorious than ever by his stealthy marches and cruel use of the bayonet. lie gloried in the name of "no-flint" Grey. A false tradition prevailed, even to 1891, that he was killed and buried near Flcmington, New Jersey. On the contrary, he was raised to the English peerage.' We come now to one of the most painful episodes in the war, because it involved the treachery and fall of one who had been eminent in chivalrous and daring devotion to the American cause ; yet it proves nothing more clearly than the doctrine of Holy Scripture, confirmed by history and experience, that the germs of all moral evil are in all human hearts. General Benedict Arnold had been highly esteemed by Wash- ington for his courage and soldierly qualities. He had been soured by the injustice of the congress as to his rank in the army, and had deeply resented the ungenerous conduct of Gates, -which we have noted. His wounds, for a time, unfitted him for field duty, and after the evacuation of Philadelphia by the enemy, in June, 1778, he had been appointed to the militarv command of that city.' He lived extravagantly and far beyond his means. He con- tracted debts so heavy that, in seeking to arrange them, he used public property and funds in such unscrupulous forms as to draw upon himself the suspicions of the council of Pennsylvania."' They complained to the congress, who ordered tliat Arnold should be tried by a court-martial. He was acquitted of the gravest charges, but found guilty of irregularities as a military officer, and sentenced to be reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. Wash- ington carried out the sentence with the utmost delicacy and forbearance.* Arnold had gained the affections of ISIiss Margaret Shippen, daughter of Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia, after- wards Chief-justice of Pennsylvania. The lady remained true to him through all his troubles, and was united in marriage to him five days after the 3d of April, 1780, the date of the act of con- gress ordering the court-martial. And though this lady had be- 1 Compare Irvinsr, III. 441, with Hitnterdon Hist. Soc. Records, May, 1891. "Scudder, 224. I). B. Scott, 200. 3 Scott, 207. Irving, IV. 10, 96. * Report of M. De Marbois, Scc'y of Fr. Leg. Irving's Washington, IV. 20. Treason of Benedict Arnold. 459 come acquainted with Maj. John Andre in Philadelphia, and occasionally exchanged letters with him afterwards, yet nothing dishonoring to her character as an American woman has ever been disclosed.' But Arnold now transferred his rage against Pennsylvania to his whole country, and secretly formed a purpose to strike her a deadly blow when opportunity should come, and at the same time to retrieve his own necessitous ciixumstances. Soon after resign- ing his command in Philadelphia he opened a clandestine corres- pondence with Sir Henry Clinton in New York, signing himself " Gustavus." He did not then disclose his name and I'ank, but represented himself as a person of importaiice, who, being dis- satisfied with late proceedings of congress, and particularly the alliance with France, was desirous of joining the cause of Great Britain, could he be assured of safety and indemnity. At fii'st Clinton knew not who his secret correspondent was, and even when he identified him, Arnold was without command and damaged in reputation and influence ; and he was deemed hardly worth buying.'' Therefore, Arnold sought an important post, and applied for command of West Point, which was justly re^^arded as the " Gibraltar of America." His treachery was long meditated, and profoundly deliberate. He was appointed to this command, and early in August, 1780, fixed his headquarters at Beverley, a country seat on the east side of the river, a little below West Point. It was commonly called the " Robinson House," having been the dwelling of Col. Bever- ley Robinson, who, though an early friend of Washington, had espoused the British cause, and w^as then in New York. He, with a Mr. Joshua Hett Smith, of the White House, in Haver- straw Bay, took active part in the meditated treason. On the loth of July, a French fleet of seven ships of the line, two frigates and two bombs, under the Chevalier De Ternay, arrived oft' Newport, convoying transports with five thousand land troops, under the Count De Rochambeau. La Fayette had successfully pleaded at the French court for these, and other forces, land and naval, were to follow them. An attack on New York was projected, and Arnold's plan was ingeniously contrived to counteract Washington's and turn it into ruin. It was, that when Washington had drawn down the main body of his army towards King's Bridge, and the French troops had landed on Long Island, a flotilla with a large land force, under Admiral Rodney, should ascend the Hudson, and Arnold, with just enough 1 Irving, IV. 101, 102. "■ Ibid., 97. 460 A History of the United States of America. of show of resistance to cloak his treason, should surrender West Point and the Highlands. Thus the attack on New York would be paralyzed, the American States dismembered, and their cause ruined.* The details of this dark plot couUl not be arranged by mere passage of cautious and enigmatic letters. Thus far, jSIaj. John Andre, adjutant of Sir Henry Clinton, had conducted the corres- pondence on the British side. He was of Swiss descent, a young man of pleasing manners and accomplishments, which had done more to secure him promotion than any deeds of stern war. His record was wanting in such deeds. And his whole conduct in the preliminary stages of the plot exhibits him as a man ready to foment and abet an infamous treason, of winch he was himself to be, tinallv, the most conspicuous victim. He had assumed the name of John Anderson. He came up the Hutlson with his uniform concealed by a heavy blue overcoat. Just at this time Washington also passed by West Point on his way to Hartford to hold a conference with Count Rochambeau and the French admiral. The treasonable meeting was postponed until he should depart. Arnold proposed to hold the meeting at the Robinson House — his own headquarters ; but Andre objected positively to passing within the American lines, knowing well its consequences if he was detected.^ .\ series of circuuistances led him to depart from his resolve. The I>ritish sloop-of-war \iilti(re had come up the Hudson and anchored a few miles below Teller's Point. Aboard of her was Beverley Robinson, pretending to be making application for the return of his confiscated estates, but really to aid in Arnold's plot. Andre came up the river September 30th and went aboard the Vulture. A boat with a flag of truce came down from Arnold. Andre returned in it ; Smith accompanied him. A little after midnight of September 21st, at a lonely place at the foot of a shadowy mountain called the Long Clove, the iirst interview took place between the traitor and the British emissary and spy.* Evidently the terms of the foul transaction were not easily agreed on. This interview, in the haunts of the owl and the bat, was protracted for hours. Smith came from his boat and warned them that the day would soon break. Arnold was afraid that the sight of the boat returning to the Culture would arouse suspi- cion. He persuaded Andre to remain initil the following night. Mounted on the servant's horse, Andre rode with Arnold to » Irvinpr's Wasliinston, IV. 9S, 99. "• Ibid., Wl. ssmith'sf-tatemeut, Irviug, IV. 105. Treason of Benedict Artiold. 461 Smith's house. But as they passed on, the voice of an American sentinel challenged them, and demanded the countersign.' It was given, and they passed. Andre knew that his complicity with the treason was consummated, and his guilt, hy military law, complete. They reached Smith's house about daybreak. After breakfast the terms of the treason were agreed on. It is now known that they were that Arnold should betray West Point and the Highlands into the hands of the enemy, and should receive ten thousand pounds sterling and the rank of brigadier-general in the British army.'' While they were conversing the roar of cannon startled Andre, and with only too much cause. Colonel Livingston had opened fire on the Vulture from Teller's Point, and with such cHect that she had dropped down out of gun-shot range. Arnold was not willing to risk the suspicions which a boat sent down to a British war ship would have awakened. He persuaded Andre to return by land. Plans of the works at West Point and explanatory papers were placed between his stockings and his feet. He prom- ised Arnold to destroy them if danger threatened ; but it was otherwise decreed. A passport was given to Andre in the follow- ing words : "Permit Mr. John Anderson to pass the guards to the White Plains, or below, if he chooses ; he being on public business, by mj direction. " B. Arnold, M. Geticral." Smith was to accompany him at least part of the way, and was furnished with passports to proceed either by water or land. Andre set out, believing that Smith would accompany him in a boat to the Vulture; but that person, fearing for his own safety, refused to do so. He persuaded Andre to lay aside his uniform coat and put on a citizen's coat which belonged to Smith. Thus the ill-starred British spy added disguise to the other evidences of his guilt.^ Smith also induced Andre to attempt the return by land, and crossed with him from King's Ferry to Verplanck's Point. He continued with him to a point about two and a half miles above Pine Bridge on the Croton river. There he took leave of Andre and returned home. Andre had now entered the region known as the " Neutral Ground," which was raided over by the irregular forces of both armies. He began to feel more cheerful and secure. He had reached a fork of the road six miles beyond Pine Bridge, and he took the route nearest the Hudson. Suddenly a man stepped out 1 Irv^g's Washington, IV. 106, 2 Stephens, 200. Scott, 208. ^ Irving, IV. 108. 462 A History of the United States of America.. from the trees, leveled a musket and brought him to a stand. Two others, similarly armed, rose up from a game of cards, and joined their comrade in the arrest. The thoughtful student of history can hardly fail to be impressed with the conviction that a protecting Providence w^as now guid- ing the course of events to save American freedom. Had Andre quietly presented his passport, signed by the well-known Arnold, these men would have permitted him to pass. But these men were John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart and David Williams. They had been roused to vigilance by late outrages in the " Neu- tral Ground." Paulding was a stout-hearted young man, who had already been captured and had experienced loathsome imprison- ment, first in the North Dutch church and afterwards in the noted Sugar-house in New York. His captor had stripped him of his good yeoman garment, and forced on him his own refugee coat. He wore this when he stopped Andre. Acting upon sudden impulse at the sight of the coat, Andre ex- claimed eagerly : " Gentlemen, I hope you belong to our party." " What party ? " was the reply. " The lower party," said Andre. " We do," was rejoined. Andre dismissed all caution, and an- nounced himself to be a British othccr on special business, and who must not be detained a moment. He drew out his gold watch, which confirmed his statement, for few Americans then wore gold watches.* They immediately informed him that they belonged to the American army, and that he was their prisoner. Astounded, yet making effort to recover safe ground, he then sought to pass otr his previous avowal as a subterfuge, and stated that he was a Continental officer, and produced Arnold's pass ; but it was too late. Their suspicions were thoroughly aroused, and were increased by his falsehoods. They proceeded to search him. Nothing suspicious appeared in his vest and coat. Van Wart and Williams were inclined to let him pass, but Paulding said : " Boys, I am not satisiied ; his boots must come oflV Andre said his boots came oft' with difticulty, and even threat- ened them with the consequences of delay. But in vain. He was compelled to sit down. His boots were pulled oft". The drawings and papers were found. Hastily scanning them, Paulding exclaimed : " My God, he is a spy ! " ' Andre then attempted to bribe them. He offered his horse, saddle, bridle, and a hundred guineas to be sent to any place that might be fixed on. Williams asked if he would not give more. He said he would give any reward they would name, either in 1 Irving's Washington, IV. 110. 2 lUd., 112. Treason of Benedict Arnold. 463 money or goods, and would remain with two of them while the other \vent to New York and brought it. Here Paulding broke in with an oath that if he would give ten thousand guineas he should not be released/ This put an end to his offers. They guarded him to North Castle, the nearest American post. Colonel Jameson, commanding there, recognized Arnold's hand- writing on the passport, and, suspecting something wrong, though not suspecting Arnold, sent off all the writings and drawings by express to Washington at Hartford. Yet, with unaccountable want of judginent, this officer, after a conversation with Andre, sent him under a strong guard and with a letter to Arnold., stating the circumstances of the arrest, and that he had forwarded the suspicious documents to Wash- ington.'^ Fortunately, Major Tallmadge, next in command to Jameson, and much clearer in head, arrived, and, hearing the facts, sus- pected treachery in Arnold. By his persuasion an express was sent ordering the guard back to North Castle with Andre ; but, with an obtuseness or perversion of judgment never adequately excused, Jameson permitted his letter to go on to Arnold. The traitor, on receiving it at the breakfast table, rose hastily, and, beckoning his wife to him, informed her in her private room that he was ruined and must fly. She fell senseless under the shock. He paused not to aid her, but hurried down, inade a hasty excuse to his guests, galloped to a landing place by a route, since known as "Arnold's Path," threw himself into his six-oared barge, and was rowed to Teller's Point. Thence he made his way to Verplanck's and to the Vulture. As if to cap the climax of his infainy, he surrendered his coxswain and six bargemen as prisoners of war! This perfidy excited the scorn of the British officers, and when the facts were made known to Sir Henry Clin- ton, he promptly ordered their release.^ Under a passport from Washington, Mrs. Arnold went to her lather's home in Phila- delphia. Andre was tried by a court-martial consisting of six major- generals — Greene, Stirling, St. Clair, La Fayette, Howe, and Steuben — and eight brigadiers — Parsons, Clinton, Knox, Glover, Paterson, Hand, Huntingdon, and Stark. Greene was president, and Colonel John Lawrence judge-advocate. The trial com- menced on the 29th September, and was eminent in thoroughness and in tenderness to the prisoner. His own full and frank state- 1 David Williams' testimony. Irving, IV. 113. 2 Sparks' Arnold. Note in Irvins?, IV. 111. Scott, 208. Quackeubos, 278, 279. 3 Irving's Washington, IV. 123, 124. 464 A History of the United States of America. merit was the principal evidence. The court returned its unani- mous judgment that ^lajor John Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, ought to be considered a spy from the enemy, and, agreeably to the law and usage of nations, ought to sutler death.' He had laid aside all affectation, and now bore himself like a brave man. lie wrote to Washington, imploring only that he might be shot rather than die on a gibbet ; but on this point noth- ing could be 3'ielded. If he was a spy, he must die as one. The British authorities were estopped from appeal by Capt. Nathan Hale's case, which we have noted, Washington felt deep sympa- thy and compassion for Andre, and went so far as to authorize Capt. Aaron Ogden, of the New Jersey line, to pass under tlag of truce to New York, and to intimate to the British authorities there that if Arnold should be delivered up to the American power, Andre's life would be spared ; but Sir Henry Clinton in- stantly rejected the suggestion as incompatible with honor and military principle.^ Washington then entered cordiallv into a plan proposed by Col. Henry Lee, and made very nearly etVectual bv Sergeant John Champe, of his dragoons, to seize and carry off Arnold from his quarters in Ne\v York to the American lines, and thus at once save Andre's life and punish the traitor ; but, by a change in Arnold's residence and habits, this bold scheme was defeated."' Thus all hope for Andre failed. He was executed on a gibbet at Tappan, near the Hudson river, on the 3d day of October, 1780. His remains were buried near the place of execution ; but in 182 1, under the diiection of the British consul at New York, they were removed to Westminster Abbev, in England, where a mural mon- ument has been erected to his memory. The highest British au- thority had approved the sentence and the death and the conduct of Washington therein.* Yet the weakness of earthly affection has blinded many eyes to justice and right. Anna Seward, the daughter of Canon Seward, of Lichfield, England, was so well known for her poetic and lyric powers that she was called "The Swan of Lichfield." She was intimate with the beautiful Honora Sneyd, who was her father's ward, and who was warmly loved by Andre. The young Eng- lish ofhcer had often made one of their circle at home. After his military crime and his execution, Anna Seward wrote a monody 1 Quackenbos, 280. Irving, IV. 135. - Quackenbos, 280. Irving, IV. 137. 8 Lee's Narrative. Memoirs of War, 394-411. Irving, IV. 153-155. * Col. Mackiuuon, Coldstreams, II. 9. Treason of Benedict Arnold. 465 of twenty pages on his life and fate, part of which was in these words : " Oh ! Washington, I thought thee great and good. Nor knew thy Nero-thirst for guiltless blood; Severe to use the power that fortune gave, Thou cool, determined murderer of the brave !"i The American congress recognized the merit of the three faith- ful soldiers, Paulding, Williams and Van Wart, by voting to each a silver medal and an annual pension for life of two hundred dollars. Arnold had his reward, though his plan of treachery failed utterly, and he was regarded with suspicion and contempt in the British army. He was employed in two expeditions of rapine and murder. After the defeat of Gates at Camden, Cornwallis had hoped to subjugate Virginia, and had tugged Sir Henry Clinton to co-ope- rate with him. Accordingly, a British fleet entered Chesapeake Bay about the last of October, 17S0, giving convoy to three thousand troops under General Leslie. They disembarked at various points, but were soon concentrated at Portsmouth. Gov- ernor Jefferson was filled ^vith anxiety, and made some insufficient preparations to meet them ; but after a brief period of mystery, and after committing some devastations for which their officers were not responsible, they suddenly re-embarked on the 33d of November, and sailed for Charleston. The defeat of Colonel Ferguson at King's Mountain and the total overthrow of Corn- wallis' plans furnished the explanation.^ 1 Ch. Union, N. Y., Feb'y 19, 1891. 2 Jefferson's Worts, I. 194-198. Girardin, 424. CHAPTER XLI. The War in the South. BUT the movement against Virginia, though delayed, was not abandoned. Early in January, 1781, a hostile fleet entered James river, with about one thousand six hundred troops under Ar- nold. They included many deserters from the American army.^ No adequate preparations had been made to meet them, though Washington had warned the Virginia authorities early in Dec.em- ber. A mortifying want of courage and decision paralyzed the efforts of the really vigorous men then in Virginia. Thus the traitor was enabled to land at Westover, twenty-flve miles below Richmond, at two o'clock on the 4th of January, and to march with only nine hundred men, almost unopposed, on the capital, which then consisted of about three hundred houses. Governor Jefferson, with his fainily, retired in time to escape captivity. Arnold detached Colonel Simcoe, with rangers and infantry, who made a dash on Westham, burned the foundry, boring-mill, mag- azine, and other houses, threw five tons of gunpowder into the canal, destroyed all the papers of the auditor's office and council of State, and returned to Richmond without the loss of a man.^ Arnold destroyed great quantities of private stores, including many casks of ardent spirits, which were rolled out and staved. The liquor ran in streams down the gutters, and cows and hogs drinking freely were seen staggering about the streets. The enemy burned all public and many private houses. They de- stroyed or carried off' five brass cannon, three hundred muskets, three wagons, and a store of engineering tools. They then retired, striking on the way, at Charles City Court-house, a body of one hundred and fifty militia, of whom one was killed and eleven were captured. On the loth of January they re-embarked and sailed down the river. Arnold established himself at Portsmouth, and threw up intrenchments. On the 26th of March, 1781, the British General Phillips ar- rived at Portsmouth with two thousand men, and assumed com- mand. He came up the James again, and after a sharp fight w ith 1 Lee's Memoirs, 297-298. 2 Morse, in Howe, 307. Girardin, 454. Henry Lee, 133. [ 466 ] Hie War in the Sotith. 467 Baron Steuben, at the head of one thousand militia, he took pos- session of Petersburg and sent Arnold out to maraud. But by this time the IVfarquis De La Fayette, by orders from Washington, had taken command in Virginia, and, bringing on a body of Con- tinental troops from Annapolis, entered Richmond on the 39th of April. His presence and spirit wrought an instant change, and restored confidence. Phillips was on his march to leave, when, on the 6th of May, he met a boat with dispatches, which caused him immediately to return to Petersburg. Cornwallis was ad- vancing from North Carolina, and had sent the dispatches ; but General Phillips died in Petersburg on the 13th of May. The command again devolved on Arnold. He was soon superseded and. returned to New York, much to the relief of the British officers.^ His last active service was in many respects his deepest infamy. When Sir Henry Clinton, in September, 1781, discovered that Washington had outgeneraled him, and was on his way to invest Cornwallis at Yorktown, he sought to efiect a counter diversion by a movement against Connecticut.^ He selected Arnold as a fit instrument to head a murderous attack on his native State. His objective point was New London, on the west bank of the Thames, defended by Fort Trumbull on the west and Fort Gris- wold on the east side of the river. Arnold appeared in the Thames on the 6th of September with ships and transports, carry- ing two thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry, made up in great part of American royalists and refugees and Hessian yagers.* Arnold divided his forces about equally. He commanded on the west, and met with little opposition. Colonel Eyre com- manded on the east, and Arnold had ordered him to carry Fort Griswold by assault, believing it to be weak ; but the garrison of Fort Trumbull abandoned it, and retreated to Fort Griswold. Here they were commanded by Col. William Ledyard, a brave officer, brother of him afterwards so renowned as a traveler and explorer. His men were not adequately armed ; some had only spears ; but in the assault a gallant defence was made. Colonel Eyre fell mortally wounded. Major Montgomery took his place, but was thrust through with a spear by a resolute negro. Major Bromfield, a New Jersey Tory, succeeded to the command. His men were furious at the death of their officei's and the destruction in their ranks. After a deadly contest they carried the fort. 1 Jefferson. I. 220, 221. Girardin, 469. ^Irving's Washington, IV. 312. 8 Irving, IV. 312, 313. Goodrich, 271. Scott, 215, 210. 468 A History of the United States of America. They gave no quarter. It is said that Colonel Ledyard yielded his sword to Bromfield, who instantly plunged it into his breast.^ The Tories, refugees and Hessians showed special rancor. Seventy of the garrison were slain and thirty-five vi^ounded. The enemy paid dearly for their conquest. Forty-eight were killed and one hundred and forty-three wounded. Arnold took possession of New London, and perpetrated the most wanton destruction in and about the town, hardly distin- guishing between public and private property. The destruction was immense. Many families once in affluence were rendered homeless and reduced to poverty and want.'' Leaving the town burning behind him, Arnold retired to his ships. The exasperated yeomanry pursued him and inflicted some loss on his force. This closed his career in America. He retired to England. His wife, after reaching her father's house in Philadelphia, had decided to separate from him ; but this course was not open to her. The executive council, learning that letters had passed between her and Andre, ordered her to leave the State in fourteen days. No indignity was offered to her, though everywhere burnings in effigy and execrations showed universal popular odium against her traitor-husband. After going with Arnold to England, she returned in about five years to the United States, but was treated with such coldness and neglect that she left America, never to return.* Arnold received from the British treasury six thousand three hundred pounds sterling as the money reward of an infamy in which British officers actively participated. He lived sometimes at St. John, New Brunswick ; sometimes at Point Petre, Guade- loupe, but chiefly in London. All the more honorable and sen- sitive people shrank from him with disgust and hoiTor. Llis wife w^as more kindly received, being regarded as innocent ; but she died in 1796.* Arnold was once in the gallery of the House of Commons. A prominent member rose to speak, but, seeing Arnold, he pointed to him and said : "Mr. Speaker, I cannot go on while that man is in the house." George HL tried once to introduce Arnold to the Scottish Earl of Balcan-as, but the proud noble turned away, refusing his hand and saying : " I know Gen- eral Arnold, and I hate traitors." When the noted Frenchman Talleyrand, driven from France, was about to embark for America 1 Quackenbos, 293, 294. - Irving, IV. 314. Goodrich, 271. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 172. sjrving's Washington, IV. 149-151. * Art. Arnold, New Amer. Eneyclop., II. 149. The War in the South. 469 from Falmouth, England, he was informed by the keeper of the tavern in which he was a guest, that an American general was in the house. lie immediately sought his society, and endeavored to enter into conversation with him, especially about America, but found him reserved and unwilling to talk on that subject. Finally Talleyrand asked him for letters of introduction to his friends in America. The answer came sadly : " No ; I am, per- haps, the only American who cannot give you letters for his own country ; all the relations I had there are now broken ; I must never return to the States." He dared not reveal his name to Talleyrand. He was Benedict Arnold.^ Arnold died in London June 4, 1801. He was the only military officer of prominence who ever proved a traitor to the cause of American freedom. We come now to the closing events of the war of Revolution. CornwalHs hoped to subjugate North Carolina with the aid of his active subordinates, Tarleton and Ferguson, and the uprisings of Tories at Cross creek and in Tryon county and other parts of the Carolinas." He had detached Colonel Ferguson with a strong foixe, consist- ing of about twelve hundred etlective men without artillery or baggage, and having also a large number of supernumerary muskets and rifles with which to arm the Tories as fast as they rose. He was to occupy the western counties, rouse the loyalists, help the Tory leader Lieut.-Col. Thomas Browne at Augusta, and join Cornwallis at Charlotte.* As the British forces approached Charlotte, Colonel Davie v/ith a small force vigorously opposed them. At Wahab's plan- tation he surprised a body of British and loyalists, and drove them in rout, killing and wounding sixty and capturing ninety- six horses with their equipments and one hundred and twenty stand of arms. Captain Wahab, the owner of the place, was able to spend a few minutes with his wife and little ones. But soon the sound of the trumpet heralded the ap2:>roach of a large body of the enemy. Davie was compelled to retreat, and the British officer in command, yielding to unmanly rage, ordered the torch to be applied and burned the home of this patriotic family.* But every such deed added to the American forces. At Charlotte, Davie contested every inch of ground. Tarleton was sick and Major Hanger took his place. Again and again he 1 Compare Talleyrand's account, Centurj', January, 1891. Note in Barnes U. S., 136, 137* Quackenbos' U. S., 281. - Lee's Memoirs, 194. » Compare Irving, IV. 169 with Lee's Memoirs, 197-201. * Lee's Memoirs, 195, 196. 470 A History of the United States of America. was repulsed in his advance on the town. Cornwallis personally reproached the dragoons for their failure, and, bringing up over- whelming forces, Davie was compelled to retire, and the British took possession of Charlotte.' Cornwallis adhered to his prior proclamations, and invited all to seek the protection of the British standard ; but with most inconsiderate severity, he caused a number of patriot prisoners who, in moments of fear and weakness, had received British pa- pers of protection, which they put into their pockets, and who afterwards took up arms for their country, and were captured with these papers on their persons, to be hanged as traitors ! ' This cruel course soon reacted against him. Maj. Elijah Clarke, of Georgia, had collected around him a number of refugee patriots from Georgia and the Carolinas. Learning that the English, with the aid of the Tory Col. Thomas Browne, had accumulated at or near Augusta large supplies of arms, ammunition, blankets, salt, liquors, and other articles to be used in bribing the Indians to take up the hatchet against Amer- icans, Clarke encouraged his followers to make an attack. After some indecisive movements, Clarke was completely successful, and on the 5th of June, 1781, compelled Browne to surrender three hundred men and large supplies and munitions.^ But at the time of Ferguson's movements, Clarke had been arrested in his attempts against Browne by the advance of Colonel Cruger towards Augusta. Cornwallis directed Ferguson, if practicable, to intercept and master the force under Clarke.* But this bold British partisan leader was now himself sorely threatened by the advance of a large body of patriots, not " chiefly of Carolina and Georgia militia," as has been erroneously stated,^ but from the borders of Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia and the western parts of Virginia, under Colonels Campbell, Cleveland, Williams, Sevier and Shelby. These men were very difterent from the ordinary militia of the Carolinas and Virginia who had so ingloriously fled at Camden. They were hardy, resolute men, each skilled with the rifle, and each mounted on his own horse. Their first object was to aid Clarke against the guards and supplies at Augusta ; but, finding Fergu- son in their way, they turned their forces upon him. With all his courage he was not indifferent to this mustering cloud of dangerous foes. He knew how fonnidable they were, for he was himself a practiced rifleman. He retired from Gilbert- 1 Lee's Memoirs, 197. 2 Irving, IV. 169. Lee's Memoirs, 193, 194. 3 Stephens, 254. * Lee's Memoirs, 199, 200. & By Stephens' Comp. U. S., 256. The War in the South. 471 town, and took up a strong position on " King's Mountain," a height in what is now York district. South Carolina, near a vil- lage bearing the same name in Gaston county, North Carolina. It \vas a narrow, stony promontory, with sloping sides, except on the north, and with an open cover of lofty trees, free from un- dergrowth, interspersed with boulders of gray rock.^ Here was fought, on the 7th of October, 1780, a battle almost unique in warfare, and deeply instructive to a people resolved to retain their freedom. Ferguson's position was so strong that he is said to have boasted that '' if all the rebels out of hell should attack him they would not drive him from it." ^ His force was nearly twelve hundred ; he was on a height, with natural means of intrenchment. He had no artillery, but he had a superabundance of muskets and rifles, and his muskets had bayonets. The patriots came together without any recognized command- ing officer ; but as Col. William Campbell, of Virginia, had marched farthest, he v^^as, by common consent, acknow^ledged as leader. They resolved to select nine hundi"ed of their best men, and to attack Ferguson on his mountain post. When they drew near the foot of the mountain they dismounted from their horses and picketed them in the woods, leaving a small squad to guard them. They looked well to their rifles and ammunition. They then formed themselves into three bodies, to attack simul- taneously on three sides. Campbell, with Shelby, was to lead the centre ; Sevier, w ith McDowell, the right ; Cleveland, with Wil- liams, the left. The genei^al orders \vere simple. Each man was to fight for himself, but with reference to the whole plan. They were not to wait for the word, but to take good aim and fire as fast as they saw an enemy within rifle range. When hard pressed they were to seek the shelter of trees, or even of short retreat, but never to retire while the battle was hopeful. Campbell gave tiine for the two other divisions to reach their positions and begin to ascend ; then he pushed directly up in front vv^ith his men. His force was soon within range of the crest, and a rapid fire of musketry was opened by the enemy. He instantly deployed his men, posted them behind ti'ees, and began a deadly fire. • At nearly the same time, the same manoeuvres followed the advance of the other two divisions. Ferguson was chafing and raging like a lion in the toils. He did not hesitate long ; but, leading his regulars, rushed on Camp- 1 Compare Amer. Encyclop., Art. "King's Mountain," X. 170, 171, with Irving, IV. 175. 2 Irving, IV. 175. 472 A History of the United States of America. bell's men with the bayonet. They, of course, gave way, but only to seek shelter and open rifle fire again ; and before Fer- guson's men could re-form a flanking fire, mortal in its rapidity and accuracy, compelled them to face about and again attempt a charge, only to be picked off again with frightful effect by foes on their flanks and rear. The nature of the ground favored the rifle and not the bayonet. The elevated position from which ths British were obliged to advance also favored the Americans, who were able, by cross-fire, to bring down foes without danger to friends. Thus Ferguson found his men formidably beset on every side and falling in numbers around him. Yet he stood bravely at bay, and even when his lines broke and his troops began to retreat in confusion along the ridge, he sought to rally them, and galloped on his white horse from point to point, shouting his orders, waving his sword, and seeking to make head against the triple line of advance, from which a ceaseless and killing fire was coming into his disheartened force. Suddenly a rifle bullet brought him to the ground (he is said to have been struck by seven balls), and his horse, without a rider, was seen rushing down the mountain. This was the signal for the end. Hemmed in on every side, and finding a man falling at every crack of the American rifle, the British officer second in command hoisted a white flag, beat a parley, and sued for quarters. One hundred and fifty had fallen, nearly two hundred were wounded ; while on the Ameri- can side only twenty were killed (but among them was Colonel Williams, of South Carolina), and about a hundred wounded. Eight hundred and ten of the enemy were taken prisoners, and the patriots also secured not only all the arms used by their foes, but the extra muskets and small arms intended for Tories.^ Immediately after the battle a court-martial was held, and ten Tories, who had committed special crimes of treachery, cruelty and constructive murdei', were tried, found guilty, and hanged. This severe proceeding has been criticised as against the laws of war, but it was needed in those times, and it instantly stopped Cornwallis' executions of captured patriots who had weakly accepted British protection papers.^ The resolute men who fought and won this noted battle had come together of their own accord, without special order either from the congress or the American commander-in-chief or any State government ; and after turning over their prisoners and captures into proper hands, they dispersed in like manner to their 1 Compare Irving, IV. 175-177. Lee's Memoirs, 200, 201. Amer. Eneyclop., 171. sScott's U. S., 204. Goodrich, 264:. Holmes, 143. Quackenbos, 282. Stephens, 257. The War in the South. 473 homes. Evidently they had no adequate conception of either the importance or the results of the victory they had won.^ The destruction of Ferguson's force instantly put an end to Cornwallis' plan for subduing North Carolina. He began to fear even for the safety of his own immediate army, and to call in all his detached expeditions. He put a stop to General Les- lie's move on Virginia, and took measures to fall back to Camden. Sumter, Marion, Clarke and Pickens were roused to new en- thusiasm by the American success at King's Mountain ; and they were greatly strengthened by the coming of Col. Henry Lee ("Light Horse Harry") with his mounted legion, composed of three troops of horse and three companies of infantry, in all about three hundred and fifty men, who were ordered to the Southern department, and were quickly in most efficient service.^ On the 23d of October, 1780, Washington wrote a letter to George Mason, of Virginia, informing him of the appointment of Gen. Nathaniel Greene to the command of the Southern armies, and introducing to him that brave and prudent officer.^ Tarleton was still indefatigable in pursuing the bands of pa- triotic partisans. He followed Marion into the swamps with all the ardor of a huntsman ; but, though he succeeded in his artifice of breaking up his force into small parties, and sometimes drew Marion into conflict and inflicted on him some loss, he never suc- ceeded in arresting his agile and harassing attacks. Marion had the unlimited love and confidence of his hardy and abstemious men. We have a well-authenticated account of a visit paid to him in his swamp recesses by a British officer, who came under a flag of truce to arrange some matters as to exchange of prisoners. Marion received him with courtesy and dignity, and invited him to dinner. The officer accepted the invitation ; but he was amazed to see set on the rude plank table nothing but a shingle with some roasted sweet potatoes. " Surely, General," he said to Marion, " this is not your ordinary fare? " " Indeed it is," was the reply ; " but as we have to-day the honor of your company, we have rather more than usual." " But your pay is good." " Neither I nor my men have ever received a dollar of pay." " For what, then, do you fight?" "For the freedom of our country." The officer returned to the British camp thoughtful and sad. He told to his comrades what he had seen and heard, and remarked that America could never be conquered while such a spirit and such 1 Irving, IV. 177. Derry, 143, 144. = Lee's Memoirs, 212. 3 Washington's letter, Lee's Memoirs, 210, 211. 474 -^ History of the United States of America. men upheld her cause. He is said to have resigned and returned to England.^ Sumter, not cast down by his surprise and loss at Fishing creek, had recalled his scattered men, and was beating up the enemy's quarters wherever he could see a prospect of success. On the I3th of November the British, under Major Wemys, at- tacked him at Fishdam Ferry, on Broad river. Sumter defeated and routed them, and captured Wemys. Cornwallis sent for Tarleton, who had failed to bag the " Swamp Fox," and in- structed him to go after the " Game Cock " until he had destroyed him ; but at Blackstocks, in Chester district. South Carolina, on the 20th of November, Tarleton encountered Sumter, and, after a fierce conflict, was decisively defeated, and fled from the field, leaving his wounded to the mercy of the victor. Sumter re- ceived a wound in this encounter, and was not able for nearly three months to return to active duty.^ But larger movements were now at hand. General Greene, on assuming command, found only about two thousand troops, poorly armed, clothed and fed. He lost no time in reorganizing and re- inspiriting his army, and Gen. Daniel Morgan efficiently aided him. Col. William Washington had also just performed a feat that greatly encouraged the patriots and subjected the loyalists to merited ridicule, which is often more effective than blows. Thirteen miles from Camden was Clermont, the county seat of Colonel Rugeley, a declared Tory. He had collected a consider- able body of loyalists, and had them at his place in a large barn built of logs and fortified by a slight abattis. Colonel Washington came up with a small troop of cavalry ; but to attack intrenched infantry with mounted men was not to be thought of. He dismounted part of his men, obtained a pine log, shaped and painted it like a cannon, mounted it on two vs^agon wheels, brought it to bear on the barn, displayed his men, and sent in a flag, demanding instant surrender on pain of having the barn battered to pieces. The garrison, one hundred and twelve in number, with Colonel Rugeley at their head, gave themselves up as prisoners of war. Even Cornwallis could not suppress a feeling of grim humor, which appears in his letter to Tarle- ton telling of this affair, and adding : " Rugeley will not be made a brigadier." The unlucky colonel never again appeared in arms.* 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 164, 165. Simms" Life of Marion, 176-lSO. Art. Marion, Amer. Encyclop., XI. 195. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note, p. 134. 2 Art. Sumter, Amer. Encyclop., XV. 185. Stephens, 257. Derry, 144. 3 Irving, IV. 188, Lee, 221, 222. The War in the South. 475 Small as his force was, General Greene felt that it was all- important that he should not abandon South Carolina to be terror- ized by Tories upheld bv detached bodies of British troops. He therefore sent General Morgan, with about one thousand men of various arms, to pass the Catawba and take post near the con- fluence of the Pacolet and Broad rivers in South Carolina.^ Cornwallis had formed his plan for an advance upon Virginia ; but, learning of Morgan's move and knowing it would not be safe to leave so formidable a body in his rear, he sent Colonel Tarleton with eleven hundred choice troops, embracing three hundred and fifty of the famous cavalry, a corps of legion and light artillery and two royal artillery companies with their field pieces. He did not doubt that with these Tarleton would defeat Morgan disastrously and overwhelm his force. ^ Cornwallis moved so as to intercept the expected fugitives. Morgan had been joined by some recruits from North Carolina and Georgia, so that his force was about equal in numbers to Tarleton's, though inferior in cavalry and discipline. Moreover, he learned that Cornwallis was moving on his left and might get in his rear. Therefore he prudently relinquished the temptation to dispute the passage of the Pacolet, crossed that stream, and retreated towards the upper fords of Broad river. Tarleton pressed after him with impetuous haste. At ten o'clock on the night of January 16, 1781, he reached a camp which had evidently been occupied only a few hours previously, for the fires were still sinoking and half-cooked provisions were found. Feeling now sure that he would strike Morgan in the confusion of a headlong flight, Tarleton allowed his already wearied troops only a brief rest. Leaving his baggage under a small guard, he resumed his exhausting march at two o'clock at night, tramping through swamps and rugged, broken grounds. A little before daylight he captured two videttes, and was some- what startled to learn from them that, instead of being in con- fused flight, Morgan had given his troops rest and refreshment, and was standing at bay ready to meet him in battle.* It was at the spot known as Hannah's " Cowpeins," being part of a grazing farm of a man of that name. Nothing less than the high resolution and self-confidence of the American general would have induced him to offer battle in such a position, with a river behind him cutting oft' retreat, his flanks unprotected, and an open wood around him admitting the operations of cavalry. 1 Lee's Memoirs, 222. Irving, IV. 215. - Cornwallis to Lord George Germain, Marcli ITtli. Irving, IV. 216. 2 Lee's Memoirs, 226. Irving, IV. 218, 47^ A History of the United States of America. But Morgan always afterwards defended his judgment by the fol- lowing characteristic reasons : '* Had I crossed the river, one-half the militia would have abandoned me. Had a swamp been in view, they would have made for it. As to covering my wings, I knew the foe I had to deal with, and that there would be noth- ing but dov^^nright fighting. As to a retreat, I wished to cut off all hope of one. Should Tarleton surround me with his cavalry, it would keep my troops from breaking away and make them depend upon their bayonets. When men are forced to fight they will sell their lives dearly." ^ He had the advantage of two moderate eminences in his field. He ranged his troops in three lines. The first consisted of the Carolina militia, under Pickens, with some volunteer rifle skir- mishers in advance. This line was to wait till the enemy were within dead shot, then fire two volleys with good aim, and fall back. The second line were Colonel Howard's light infantry and the Virginia riflemen. They were informed of the orders given to the first line. The third line was on the slope of the rear emi- nence. It consisted of Colonel Washington's cavalry and about fifty mounted Carolina volunteers, armed with sabres and pistols, under Major McCall.^ One element of uncalculated po\ver entered into the coming battle and really decided it. The Americans wei"e rested, fresh and strong from sleep and food ; Tarleton's troops were haggard and worn down in l3ody and spirit by forced marches, without suflicient sleep or food. Nevertheless, with his overweening confidence and vanity, he ordered an instant attack. He led on his first line, who rushed forward \vith shouts. The advanced patriot riflemen delivered their fire steadily and with effect, and then fell back. The first line obeyed orders, waited till the British were within range, and then made a destructive volley. Being pushed with the bayonet, they obeyed ordeis and retreated to the rear. The enemy pressed forward upon Howard's line, and were received with a stern resistance and deadly volleys. A bloody conflict here took place ; but, seeing his flank assailed by cavalry, Howard ordered a change of front. His orders were misunderstood, and some confusion ensued. Morgan rode up and ordered Howard wath his men to retreat over the hill and re-form, and ordered Colonel Washington's line to advance to their relief. The British troops, seeing the Continentals retiring over the hill, thought their victory complete, and rushed forward in broken 1 Morgan's report in Irving, IV. 21S, 219. 2 Lee's Memoirs, 227. Irving, IV. 219. Annual Register (British), 1781, p. 56. The War in the South. 477 and irregular order in pursuit ; but they were astounded when Washington's dragoons and mounted volunteers spurred furiously vipon them ; and at the same time Howard's ti'oops faced about, formed rapidly, delivered a deadly fire, and then charged reso- lutely with the bayonet. The enemy were thro^vn into hopeless confusion. Some artil- lerymen attempted to defend their guns, but they were cut down or captured, and the cannon and colors seized. A panic now took possession of the British, aided, no doubt, by previous fatigue and exhaustion. Tarleton sought to bring his reserved cavalry into action ; but, infected by the same panic, they turned their backs on their commander and galloped oft' through the woods, trampling down the flying infantry. Fourteen ofHcers and forty dragoons rallied to Tarleton's side. For a time he made fight, but in the fierce melee with Washington's troopers the British vyere worsted, and Tarleton, giving up all for lost, spurred away with a few faithful comrades at full speed. It is said that he looked not behind him, and thus failed to see Colonel Washing- ton, who, with his dragoons, was in swift pursuit, and who inflicted a wound on Tarleton's hand.^ The American victory was complete. They lost only twelve killed and sixty wounded. The British loss was one hundred and ten officers and men killed, two hundred wounded, and nearly six hundred rank and file made prisoners. They lost, also, two field- pieces, two standards, eight hundred muskets, one traveling forge, thii'ty-five wagons, one hundred dragoon horses, seventy negroes, and all of their baggage which they did not have time to de- stroy.^ Great as were the material results thus gained, they were exceeded by the exhilaration and resolution of spirit roused among the people of the South by this signal victory. Tarleton's pres- tige was gone, never to return. On the seventeenth day of January, 1781, Cornwallis was in his camp on Turkey creek, expecting to hear that Tarleton had routed Morgan, when towards evening some of his dragoons came strag- gling into camp, haggard, forlorn, nearly dead with fatigue, but able to give some account of the terrible blow received by the British army. The next day came Tarleton himself, who, how- ever crestfallen, put the matter in the best light he could by re- presenting that Morgan's force was two thousand strong ! ^ Cornwallis became cautious, and kept his camp several days until he w^as joined by the fugitives from Tarleton's force and 1 Stephens, 262, 263. Barnes, 137, Quackenbos, 285. Lee's INIem., 229. 2 Morgan's Rsport, Irving, IV. 221, 222. Cornwallis to Sir H, Clinton, Lee, 229, 230. 3 Irving, IV. 223. 4/8 A //isforyof tit' C^NtffJ Sfrv^in to be incumbered Avith prisoi\ors and spoils, he dehiched a part of his force, without Ivi^vjiVC*?' "^ pursuit, while he followovl with the remainder ot his arvny. But the American s^onenil pn.>vetl himself to be as adroit and prudent in retreat as he was terrible ii\ battle. He sent on before him his prisoners towards Charlottesville, in X'irg^inia. under a small ir"-n"d. while he pushed on. dav and nig'ht, with his main K'kdy towards the crossing of the Catawba. On the evening of the J^^d of January he safelv passtni the river just twv> hours be- fore the head of the pursuing det^»chn\ent appeared.' A heavy n\iu begi\n to foil, and continued during the night The next morning the river was impass;ible. and so continued for two days. Morgaii was safe. Cornwallis came up bv the J5th of January to Ramsour's Mills. on the south fork of the Catawba. Ho had been greatly incum- bered by his enormous baggage, and the necessity for transporting it over r«.v\ds of deep revl clay cut up by streams and morasses He adopted a policy worthy of Ji self-denying soldier, though finallv of no service to his king. He Ivgixn with his own bag- g;»ge and stores, clothing, wines, liquors and provisions, and spent two days at Ramsour's NTills in destrv\ving everything that incumberevl his army, and that could Im? spared w ithout destroy- ing its immediate etliciency. An Ainerican soldier has praised him highlv for this sacritice.* An Knglish soldier has censured it even with ridicule, declaring it to have been " something t«.xi like a Tartar move,"* It certainly brx^ught Cornwallis' army to light n\arching order. Greene's heart had been gladdonovl. and he gladdened Wash- ington's heart bv the news of the " Cowpens." leaving his trxx">ps on the Pedee, he rode on horseback, with a small suite, a huuvlred miles, joined Morg;in north of the Catawba, and assumed command. His plan was the Fabian pi>licy. which he had learnevi under his l^eloved commander-in-chief. It wa^ to draw Corn- wallis on to a hamssing and vain pursuit, to tempt him tar away from supplies, to tight no battle unless reasonably sure of a tavor- able result, and to a\-iiil himself of General Huger's ad\-iince from the south with his division of American trvx»ps^ And this plan » S^iNimsn, II 5vXv. CVvnixTjUlis to OUnt«.Mi. Rememhranc^T, ITSl, I. SOS. *Hettrv Ia>», Mom«>irSs ^i^i. » Sir HeiKT Cliatcm. Irrins. IV, iSX Aauu»l Register, 17S1, p^ 58. The War in the South. 479 was carried out with consummate skill by a general who "won no battle, but saved the .Soutli." * As soon as the river had fallen sufficiently, Cornwallis prepared to ci"oss. Colonel Webster, with one division, was to march by the main road to Beattie's Ford, while Cornwallis, with the rest of the army, moved down to McCowan's, a distant and private ford, where no opposition was expected. But it had not escaped the vigilance of Greene, who had detached Brigadier Davidson with three hundred North Carolina militia lo do what they could to retard the enemy. I'he night was dark and I'ainy. The road was in some places a quagmire ; but Cornwallis pressed on, fearing that the rain would again swell the river. As it was, he found it five hundred yards wide, three feet deep, with rapid cunent and a bottom of moving stones ; but the light infantry entered the water, support- ing each other as they waded, and with orders not to fire till they reached the bank. Colonel Hall led tliem, but Cornwallis and General O'Hara quickly followed on horseback. An American sentinel challenged three times, and, receiving no answer, fired and roused the picket guard. The man who was guiding the British turned and tletl. Colonel Hall, not knowing the true ford, led his men directly across. This carried them through deep water, but gave them the advantage of landing at an unguarded spot. But the militia behaved gallantly and re- ceived them with a fire under which Colonel Hall fell mortally wounded and many of his men went down. O'Hara's horse stumbled and rolled over him in the water. Cornwallis' horse was wounded, and barely carried his rider to the shore, when the brave animal sunk dead. The British infantry lost many killed and wounded ; but, forming rapidly on the bank, they charged and bi'oke Davidson's men, killing and wounding about forty and putting the rest to flight. Davidson himself fell just as he was moimting his horse.'' Tarleton pressed after the fugitives, and killed, wounded and captured some of them. General Greene spurred forward over deep, miry roads to rejoin Morgan. He detached his aids to gather the scattered militia. At mid-day, weary and travel- stained, he stopped at the inn at Salisbury. The army surgeon asked how he w^as. " Fatigued, hungry, alone and penniless," was the reply. The landlady, Mrs. Elizabeth Steele, a noble- hearted, patriotic woman, entered the room where the sad com- • Prof. Alex. Johnston's U. S., Hist, and Const., 74. 2 Compare Lee's Memoirs, 2:W-'235. Irving, IV. 250, 231. ^So A History of the United States of Atnerica. mander of the Southern armies sat at his meal, and, drawing from under her apron two bags heavy with coin which she had hoarded, said to him : " Take these ; you will want them, and I can do without them." This was most opportune, not only in furnishing money greatly needed, but in rousing hope and for- bidding despair.^ Greene, refreshed and encouraged, joined his army and con- tinued that memorable retreat which did more to save the Amer- ican cause than a successful battle would then have done. Corn- wallis waited for his wagons and artillery. On the ist of Feb- ruary he was five miles from Salisbury. Eager to overtake Greene, he mounted infantry on baggage horses and sent them forward with the rest of the cavalry under O'Hara and Tarleton. But Greene crossed the Yadkin on the 3d of February and se- cured all the boats. The pursuers captured a few wagons with the teamsters, but no soldiers. A heavy rain had fallen during the day, and the enemy found the fords impassable.^ As soon as he could pass, Cornwallis was again in pursuit, hoping to cut oft' Greene from the upper fords of the Dan, force him to battle, and destroy his army before he could reach Vir- ginia ; but Greene had divined his plan and provided for every contingency. He sent forward Kosciuszko with a select corps to secure all the boats on the Dan. He formed his rear guard under Col. Otho G. Williams (Morgan being disabled by ague and rheumatism), and placed with him the ever-active cavalry and light troops under Howard, William A. Washington and Henry Lee. Never was rear-guard service better done. The pursuit was keen and relentless. The retreat was masterly and perfectly successful. On the nth of February, Greene, with his main army, reached the Dan, and, finding boats enough, crossed at Boyd's and Irwin's ferries without difficulty. He sent back word to Williams to manoeuvre in front of the enemy, and then cross and rejoin him as soon as possible. These orders were skill- fully performed. Several sharp encounters between the cavalry of the two hostile arinies occurred. On the 13th, Williams, hav- ing encamped a wary distance in front of the enemy, keeping them at bay, left his camp-fires burning, and, marching forty miles in a night and part of a day, crossed the Dan in safety, landing on the Virginia shore just as the astonished troops under O'Hara came in sight in pursuit. They have left on record an account of their grief and vexation, " that all their toils and exertions had been in vain, and that all their hopes were frustrated."' 1 Irving's Washington, IV. 231, 232. 2 Lee's Memoirs, 235 and note. Irving, IV. 232. 3 Annual Register, 1781. Irving, IV. 235. The War in the South. 481 Greene expected to be further pursued ; but Cornwallis did not then venture into Virginia, knowing that the patriot army would soon be strongly reinforced, and that North Carolina was far from being subdued to the British rule. He therefore withdrew by nearly the same lines on which he had advanced. Arriving at Hillsborough on the 20th of February, he rested for a few days, and, setting up the royal standard, sent out printed proclama- tions inviting the people to return to British rule.^ These proclamations had some effect, and might have widely spread injury to the patriot cause but for General Greene's prompt measures. He detached Pickens and Lee, with light infantry and cavalry, to recross into North Carolina, hover about Cornwallis, cut off foraging parties, repress Toi^ies, and cheer patriot spirits. Having been reinforced by six hundred Virginia militia under Stevens, he prepared to re-enter North Carolina with his army. On the 33d of February, 1781, he broke up his camp, recrossed the Dan, and marched towards Guilford Court-house. Meanwhile, the indefatigable Pickens and Lee were in hot pursuit of a detachment under Tarleton ; but, instead of coming up with him, on the iSth of February they came upon a body of four hundred mounted Tories armed with rifles, and commanded by Colonel Pyle, a zealous loyalist. Lee's cavalry and accompa- niments were always kept up to a high point of efficiency. Some of Pyle's men mistook Lee for Colonel Tarleton. Picken's infantry were ordered to keep out of sight, and a plan was formed by which, it was hoped, the whole Tory force would be compelled to surrender without bloodshed.^ But some of Pyle's men discovered the concealed infantry under Pickens, and began to fire on them. This, of necessity, brought on a conflict, in which the American cavalry attacked the mounted Tories, cut down ninety of them in a few minutes, wounded nearly two hundred, and dispersed and routed all who could fly for their lives. No attempt was made to pursue them. Some British historians have characterized this as " a massacre," and even an American author, of high and genial fame, has apparently admitted the justice of the charge ;^ but it was only a bloody blow given to a corps of armed Tories, and brought on by their own attack. When compai^ed with some of Tarleton's butcheries, it was clemency itself. The rapid and effective movements of Lee and Pickens, and the advance of Greene, effectually destroyed Cornwallis' hopes of a 1 Lee, 251. Irving, IV. 238. 2 Lee's Memoirs, 256, 257. * Ex. Stedman, Amer. War. Ir\-ing, IV. 240. 31 482 A History of the United States of Ai7ierica. general movement of the Carolina people towards reconciliation with Great Britain. He therefore decided again to take the field and to endeavor to destroy the forces under General Greene. The hostile armies met about two miles south of Guilford Court- house, now Greensborough, North Carolina. The army of Gen- eral Greene had been further reinforced by a brigade of Virginia militia, imder General Lawson ; two brigades of North Carolina militia, under Generals Butler and Eaton, and four hundred I'egu- lars, enlisted for eighteen months. His whole force amounted to four thousand two hundred and forty-thi'ee foot, including artil- lery and one hundred and sixty-one cavalry.^ Numerically, his force nearly doubled that of Cornwallis, which did not exceed two thousand four hundred men of all arms. In artillery the two armies were about equal ; but Greene had only one thousand six hundred and seventy Continentals ; the rest were raw militia ; and the Second Maryland regiment had just been mustered in, and had never been under fire. Cornwallis' troops were all vet- erans, schooled in warfare, and knowing that their only .safety was in standing by one another. The two opposing commanders deliberately prepared for battle. Cornwallis sent his heavy baggage and wagons to Bell's Mills, on Deep river ; Greene sent his to the Iron Works, on Trouble- some creek, ten miles in his rear. As Cornwallis marched towards the chosen battle-field, his advance of cavaliy, infantry, and yagers, under Tarleton, came into severe collision, near New Garden, with Lee's partisan legion and some Virginia mountaineers and militia. The fight was bitter and bloody, but Lee's horses were superior, and Tarleton, finding his troops borne down by a charge in close column and a number of them killed, dismounted or prisoners, sounded a retreat. Lee pursued until the appearance of the whole British army admonished him to retire.'' Early on the morning of the 15th of March, 1781, the armies drew near each other for battle. Cornwallis could only deploy into a single line. He had no reserves ; he trusted the issue to the superior discipline and fighting power of his troops. Greene, knowing his weakness in these respects as to the greater part of his force, had established three lines : first, the North Carolina militia, volunteers and riflemen, posted behind a fence, ^vith an open field in front and woods on the flanks and in the rear ; second, about three hundred yards in the rear, the Virginia militia, 1 Compare Lee's Memoirs, 283, with Irving, IV. 243. •Irving, IV. 244, 245. Lee's Memoirs, 273, 274. The War in the South. 483 under Generals Stevens and Lawson, drawn up across the road and covered by a wood ; third, about four hundred yards in the rear, the Continentals, the Virginians on the right, under Huger, the Marylanders on the left, under Williams. Colonel Washing- ton, with his di-agoons, Kirkwood's Delaware infantry and a Vir- ginia militia battalion, covered the right flank ; Lee's legion, %vith Campbell's Virginia riflemen, covered the left. Two six- pounders were in the road in advance, and two field-pieces with the rear line. When the enemy came within artillery range. Singleton opened with his two guns and was answered by the British cannon under McLeod. Very little execution was done by this cannonade. The British advanced in three columns — Hessians and High- landers on the right, under Leslie ; Royal artillery and guards in the centre ; Webster's brigade on the left. The North Carolina militia held a position so strong and well- protected that it was hoped they would stand and fight firmly ;' but as the British line approached in full martial array, these raw troops became visibly agitated. Some fired when the enemy were yet beyond musket range ; some fired without aim ; some fired with wavering eftect, and then nearly all dropped their guns and took to flight. The second line opened to let the fugitives run through without disorder. The British rushed on with shouts, assured of success ; but they were met by a destructive fire and a firm resistance by the Virginia line. General Stevens, warned by the experience of Camden, had posted forty riflemen in rear of his militia, with orders to shoot down every man who left his place and attempted to fly. Moreover, these men had braced their souls up to a stand. The enemy were resolutely resisted by the second line until Gen- eral Stevens was wounded in the thigh by a musket ball, when, finding his lines sorely pressed, he ordered a retreat, which was accomplished without disorder.^ The British now advanced with ardor on the third line. Here they met a determined resistance. Colonel Webster attacked the First Maryland regiment, but, seconded by Kirkwood's Delawares and some Virginian troops, they stood his shock gallantly, and finally drove him, with the remnant of his troops, across a ravine. Colonel Stewart, with a battalion of the guards and a company of grenadiers, impetuously attacked the Second Maryland. Being raw troops, they faltered and gave way, abandoning two cannon, which were seized by the enemy. But the First Maryland came 1 Lee's Memoirs, 277. 2 Ihid., Ti?>, 279. 484 A History of the United States of America. up with fixed bayonets, and Colonel Washington, with his cav- alry, rushed to the rescue, A bloody contest occurred ; Stewart was slain ; the guards gave way ; even the grenadiers were routed and fled ; the two field-pieces were recaptured, and nothing seemed at hand but the fatal rupture of the whole British line. But at this crisis of the battle Cornwallis adopted a course never before ventured on by a British general in America. He ordered his artillery to open a fire of grape-shot on the confused lines of his own flying guards and grenadiers and the American troops w^ho were fiercely pursuing them.' In vain did General O'Hara remonstrate, saying that the fire would strike down their own men. " True," was the stern reply, " but it must be done to save us from destruction." The fire of grape ^vas rapid and ter- rible. It slew British and Americans ; but it stopped the advance of Howard, Kirkwood and Washington, and compelled them to retreat with their troops. Meanwhile Webster had again appeared on the field, and General Greene, in pursuance of a fixed policy not to sustain a defeat, ordered his army to withdraw. This was done in good order. The enemy soon relinquished all purpose to pursue. This battle Avas sanguinary and obstinately fought by those who fought at all. Had the Carolina troojDS behaved ^vell, the defeat of the enemy would have been certain. A dismal night of rain and darkness followed the battle, and depressed the victors by the cries and groans of the wounded of both armies who could not be gathered from the field. ^ It was soon apparent that, though the British held the ground they had before held, they had really sustained a disastrous de- feat. They had lost five hundred and thirty-two in killed and wounded — nearly a third of their army. Colonel Stewart of the guards. Lieutenant O'Hara of the Royal artillery (brother of the general), and many other officers were killed. General O'Hara was severely wounded. General Howai-d, Colonels Webster and Tarleton, and Captains Stuart, Maynard, Schutz, Peter, Dvmdas, Wilmonsky and Eichenbrodt, were wounded. Maynard, of the guards, had had a premonition of his own fall, and died in a few days.* The heavy loss in officers could not be repaired. Charles Fox exclaimed in the House of Commons : " Another such vic- tory will destroy our army there." ^ > Irving, IV. 247. Lee's Memoirs, 280, (note) 283. 2 Stedman, II. 346. Lee, 286, Irving, IV. 247, 248. 8 Lee's Memoirs, 284, 285. ■• Ihid., 286. CHAPTER XL 1 1 The War Ended. CORNWALLIS' condition was too distressing and precarious to be long endured. Plis army was reduced to about eighteen hundred. Some of his best officers were dead or disabled. His provisions were daily diminishing, and no supplies coming. His foraging was fearfully hazardous because of the ceaseless move- ments of Lee, Pickens and Washington. No risings of Tories were taking place ; no recruits filling up his meagre ranks. In short, he found it necessary to retreat, and he left his own wounded, as well as the American, in the New Garden church building with a flag of truce. On the third day after the battle he marched for Cross creek. Greene, whose army had been filled up and inspirited, followed him, presenting the curious anomaly of an army supposed to have lost a battle pursuing the victor. Cornwallis found it necessary to continue his retreat to Wilmington in order to obtain supplies. Greene pursued him as far as Deep river over roads deep in mud and mire. Cornwallis had broken down the bridge behind him, and decamped so hastily that he had left several quarters of fresh beef, on which the half-famished patriots seized and raven- ously fed.' General Greene did not pursue him further. It was unneces- sary, as he was now driven bodily from North Carolina to a post near her extreme eastern border. The militia of Greene's army had sustained great hardships, and, as their periods of service had expired, they claimed a discharge. Greene dismissed them to their homes ; and, having cleared North Cai"olina of invaders, determined to march to the relief of South Carolina.'^ He advanced to a point near Camden and took position at Hobkirk's Hill. Here he was attacked by Lord Rawdon on the 25th of April. This young British general took with great promptness and vigor the only course that promised him any re- lief. His outposts were attacked and were falling, and his posi- tion at Camden would soon be untenable. He marched upon 1 Irving's Washiagton, IV. 251. 2 Inang, IV. 253. Lee's Mem., 320-325. [ 48s 1 486 A History of the United States of America. Greene, and made his attack just when a welcome supply of food had reached the camp and the men were eating or washing their clothes.^ But he was met vigorously, and would have been sig- nally defeated but for an unaccountable panic which invaded the First Maryland regiment, under Colonel Gunby, at a critical mo- ment. Greene was obliged to retreat with a loss of two hundred and sixty-eight killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was two hundred and fifty-eight. Rawdon derived no benefit from his success, and was soon obliged to shut himself up in Camden." Meanwhile the movements of the patriot partisans, under Lee, Sumter, Marion, Hampton, Horry and Clarke, were crowned with a series of decisive successes. Fort Watson was captured by Lee and Marion. Fort Motte, the middle post between Camden and Ninety Six, was next besieged by them. The siege was pressed with all the more vigor, because Rawdon was seeking to relieve the post by a diversion. Fort Motte was the chief depot of the convoys from Charleston to Camden and Fort Granby. It had a garrison of one hundred and fifty, and was surrounded by a deep trench, on the inner bank of which was a strong parapet. With- in the enclosure was a large and costly wooden dwelling belong- ing to Mrs. Motte. She was a devoted patriot and had been driven from her house. She occupied a small cottage within the American lines. If her house could be burned to the ground the surrender of the fort was inevitable, as the American cannon commanded the whole interior. Colonel Lee, with visible agita- tion, communicated to Mrs. Motte the necessity. The patriot lady smiled, and said she was rejoiced by such a sacrifice to help her country's cause. She gave to Lee an Indian bow and ar- rows to aid in the work of destruction. A summons was sent to Captain McPherson, the commandant, demanding surrender. He refused. It w^as now mid-day. The burning sun had prepared the shingles for ignition. An arrow with flaming coinbustibles was sent from the bow to the roof; then another, and another. The flames caught and spread rapidly. McPherson sent his men on the roof to strike off* the burning shingles, but they were in- stantly driven down by a fire of grape from the American guns. The house burned to the ground. AlcPherson surrendered im- mediately. Lee admonished him somewhat gravely as to the loss of time he had cost him. But Mrs. Motte invited them both to dine with her, and they fared sumptuously.^ The British officers were permitted to go to Charleston on parole. 1 Lee's Memoirs, 336. - Lee's Memoirs, 338, 339. Irving, IV. 296. 3 Lee's Memoirs, 347, 349. The War Ended. 487 Fort Granby was the next post to fall into patriot hands. After it came the capture of Forts Galphin and Grierson. And on the 5th of June, 1781, Pickens, Lee and Clarke were successful in their siege of Augusta, and compelled the Tory Col. Thomas Browne to surrender with three hundred men and a large amount of munitions of war. Genei"al Greene was so much encouraged by some of these im- portant successes that he determined on an attack on the post of Ninety Six ; but this post was very strong, and had an adequate garrison. His attack was made on the iSth of June, and, after gaining the outworks and suffering severe loss, he was obliged to relinquisji his effort and withdraw. On the 13th of July he crossed the Saluda, and posted his army on the high hills of San- tee. Here he passed the heated and sickly season, giving his men the benefit of pure and breezy skies and excellent water and healthful food to prepare them for the fall campaign.^ He had had many evidences of the patriotism of the people of South Carolina, especially of the women. Soon after retiring from Ninety Six, it became very important for him to communi- cate with General Sumter ; but the intervening country was filled with British troops and Tories, and no man would volunteer. A young girl of eighteen years — Emily Geiger — volunteered. She received from Greene a letter and a verbal message, and, mounting a swift horse, set out on her perilous journey. She was stopped by two Tories, but in a moment when unobserved she swallowed General Greene's letter, and, nothing suspicious being found on her, she was permitted to proceed. She reached Sumter's camp and delivered the message. The effect was so to concentrate the movements of all the American forces in South Carolina that Rawdon was obliged to evacuate Camden and Ninety Six and retreat upon Charleston.^ This English lord found all power in South Carolina and Geor- gia wrested from his hands. He was preparing to leave America and return to England because of ill health. His family name was Francis Rawdon Hastings. He belonged to a line of noblemen, and ere he died, in 1826, he became, by the death of his father, in 1793, Earl of Moira, and in 1816 was created Viscount Loudon, Earl of Rawdon and Marquis of Hastings.' But notwithstand- ing the privileged blood running in his veins, his name is destined to bear a foul and indelible stain in the eyes of every person, in every land, who can justly claim to be a lover of his country. 1 Irving, IV. 299. Quackenbos, 291. 2 Quackenbos, 290, 291. * Art. Hastings, New Amer. Encyclop., VIII. 758, 759. 488 A History of the United States of America. Isaac Hayne was a native of South Carolina, a descendant from an English family from near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, who had migrated to America about the year 1700. He was a planter, with large possessions in the districts of Beaufort and Colleton, and was part owner in extensive iron ^vorks in York district. He was Avarmly patriotic, and had served in an American cav- alry regiment, which kept the field during the siege and up to the capitulation of Charleston. Being considered as in the forces commanded by General Lincoln, he was included in the surrender, and partook of the benefits and disabilities of its terms. One article provided that the militia of the surrendered forces should be permitted to return to their homes as prisoners on parole, which parole, as long as observed, should secure them from being molested in their property.^ Under this Hayne returned to his home, and was quietly pursuing his domestic avocations when Cap- tain Ballingall, a British militia officer of his district, went to him and communicated orders from Sir Henry Clinton, under which persons situated as he was w^ere required to become British sub- jects or to return instantly to the commandant at Charleston. Hayne's family were ill — one of his children had died and his wife was dying. He urged these facts, as well as his rights under the terms of surrender ; but all he could obtain was the privilege of remaining temporarily with his family upon his signing a written stipulation, by which he engaged " to demean himself as a British subject so long as the country should be covered by the British army." ^ Anxious to obtain permission to remain with his family, he went to Charleston, exhibited his agreement with Ballingall, and asked leave to return to his suffering wife and children. It was peremptorily refused, and he was told that he " must either be- come a British subject or submit to close confinement." This brutal injustice and bad faith placed him in a torturing dilemma, which he commented on in an affecting letter to his friend, Dr. Ramsay, who was then also a prisoner in British hands. In this letter, in speaking of his needed presence and support for his family, he said : " I request you to bear in mind that, previous to my taking this step, I declare that it is contrary to my inclination, and forced on me by hard necessity. I never will bear arms against my country." * He received from General Patterson ana from Simpson, inten- dant of police in Charleston, assurances that military service 1 Art. Fourth, Lee's Memoirs. 449. 2 Lee's Memoirs, 450. 3 Hayne to Dr. Ramsay, Lee, 451. The War Ended. 489 against his countiy would never be required of him, with the statement added that " when the res^ular forces cannot defend the country without the aid of its inhabitants, it \\\\\ be high time for the royal army to quit it." He then made a formal acknowledg- ment of allegiance to the British crown, oj^enly excepting, ho^vever, the clause which required his support of government w^ith arms. He hastened back to his home, but only in time to witness the death of his wife and of another of his children. He continued in private life, resisting several solicitations to join the American inilitary forces, on the ground that duty and honor forbade it ^vhile his status remained unchanged. But his status did not remain unchanged. The successes of the American forces gradually drove in all the British and Tory forces who remained unkilled, unwounded or uncapturcd by the patri- ots. The British army ^vas closely shut up in Charleston ; they ceased to give either military control or protection to the district in which Hayne lived ; and by a pressure severe indeed, yet not adequate to justify a breach of faith, they were driven to demand military service from all British subjects whom they could reach. They broke their promise to Hayne, and required him to serve in their army.^ These facts changed radically the status of Hayne. He was obliged to take up arms ; of course, he took up arms for his own country. He entered the field with mounted militia as his fol- lowers. One Williamson, of Scottish descent, had become ex- ceedingly obnoxious to the patriots ; he was active and influential in resisting the British rule up to the fall of Charleston. After that event he became recreant to his former faith, espoused the English cause, and exerted himself malignantly against American independence. Hayne's first expedition was for the capture of Williamson, which he succeeded in effecting bv penetrating the neck of Charleston. It was afterwards asserted by Lord Raw- don that Hayne's object in this incursion was one " of singular malignity," and that he openly participated in " the insulting triumph with which ISIr. Williamson was told that the purpose in capturing him was to have him hanged in the camp of General Greene." * It is certain that this capture created great excitement among the British and Tories in Charleston. Colonel Balfour, com- lArt. Havne, New Amer. Encvclop., IX. 1, 2. Quackenbos, 292. Derry, 152. Stephens, 266. Barues & ( o.'s U. S., 104. 2 Letter from the Marquis of Hastings (formerly Lord Rawdon and then Earl of Moira) to Henry Lee, dated 24th June, 1813. Lee's Memoirs, Append. U., p. 618. 490 A History of the United States of America. manding there, sent out a strong detachment of cavahy to pursue the Americans and recapture Williamson. They were met and sharply repelled by Colonel Harden with his mounted militia ; but, unfortunately, Hayne had gone to breakfast with a friend two miles from the camp. He was surprised by a squad of the enemy, and, in endeavoring to escape, his horse fell at a fence which he attempted to leap.^ Hayne was captured and carried to Charleston. He was never properly tried, never given the opportunity of summoning witnesses and exhibiting the facts of his case. He was simply brought before a body of four staft'-officers and five captains, who were not sworn, and before whom he had neither counsel nor witnesses.^ On the 39th of July, he was informed by the town major " that in consequence of the court of inquiry, held as directed, Lord Rawdon and Colonel Balfour had resolved on his execution on Tuesday, the 31st instant, at six o'clock, for hav- ing been found under arms and employed in raising a regiment to oppose the British government after he had become a subject and accepted the protection of government at the reduction of Charleston." => Earnest efforts to save him from a death of ignominy were made. A respite of forty-eight hours was granted, stated to have been by reason of a petition from Governor Bull and many others, and of the humane treatment by Hayne of British prisoners who had fallen into his hands.* Availing themselves of this interval, his sister, Mrs. Peronneau, and his children, all in deep mourning garments, waited on Lord Rawdon and implored him to spare the life of the brother and father. His lordship had the power to do this. A word from him would have arrested the execution ; but his " resolve was fixed and unchangeable." Colonel Hayne resumed his serenity and calmly prepared for the death which awaited him. He embraced his motherless chil- dren, and said to his son, a fine boy, in his fourteenth year : " Go to the place of my execution, receive my body, and see it decently interred with my forefathers." * On the 4th of August, 1781, he was led out to the place of exe- cution. On seeing the gibbet he paused. A friend by his side whispered : " You will now exhibit an example of the manner in which an American can die." He replied, " I will endeavor to do so" ; and he died firmly. But it is related that his son, when he saw his father faintly writhing in the agonies of suffocation, 1 Lee's Memoirs, 452, 453. 2 Hayne's letter, in Loudon Political Mag. Lee, 453, 454. 3 Lee's ^lemoirs, 453. •• Town Major of Cliarlcston to Hayne. Lee's Memoirs, 455. 5 Lee's Memoirs, 456. The War Ended. 491 uttered a bitter cry : " Oh, my father ! " and never afterwards, in a life of many years, was heard to utter a connected sentence. This execution was not justified by law, civil or military, nor by any usage of civilized nations. Hayne was not in the status of a prisoner who had broken his parole and taken up arms against the government that paroled him. The utmost that could be maintained against him was that he had re-assumed the posi- tion of a British subject ; but he had become such with the ex- press promise that he was not to be required to take arms against America, and that when the British army ceased to control and protect his home his obligation of fealty to Great Britain ceased. Both of these conditions had failed, in his favor, before he re- entered his country's service. The subject of his execution was brought up in the British House of Lords, and the Duke of Richmond denounced the course of Rawdon therein as "illegal," "barbarous" and "im- politic." It is worthy of note that Rawdon, in the elaborate ef- forts he afterwards made to clear himself of the blot on his fame affixed by this transaction, inade no allusion to his own course in ordering into British military service the class of subjects which included Hayne, and sought to shift from his own shoulders to those of Colonel Balfour the responsibility of the policy pursued ; and Balfour, in like manner, sought to throw the responsibility back on Corn wal lis ! ' The explanation is that the British cause was waning even to extinction in South Carolina, and that a desperate and barbarous measure, as illegitimate as it was vain, was used with the hope of discouraging American hearts and stopping the tide that was sweeping English influence from the land.^ General Greene threatened retaliation especially upon British army officers ; and, by a singular course of providential direction, the ship in which Lord Rawdon sailed for England was captured by a French cruiser and brought into Chesapeake Bay ; and, on the 19th of October, 17S1, Cornwallis fell under the power of Washington ; but the war was then, in substance, closed, and a policy of peace drove out thoughts of bloody retaliation. But the blot on Lord Rawdon's fame has never been removed. He left behind him Colonel Stuart, of the guards, as com- mander of the British forces in South Carolina. On the 22d of August, General Greene, having sufliciently refreshed his men, left the hills of Santee and marched cautiously towards Charles- 1 Letter of Earl Moira, 24th June, ISlo. Letter of Balfour to General Greene, September 13, 1781. Lee's Memoirs, 457, 613-G20. 2 Earl of Moira's letter, with answer, in " Southern Review," Feb., 1828, by Ro. Y. HajTie. 492 A History of the United States of America. ton. He was joined by reinforcements under Marion, Sumter, Malmedy and Henderson, until his force was about two thousand three hundred in nmnber, and especially strong in cavalry under Lee and Washington. Colonel Stuart fell back before him until he reached the Eutaw Springs, a small affluent of the Santee river, and about sixty miles northwest of Charleston. Here occurred, on the 8th of September, 1781, the last battle of the war in the Carolinas. A reconnoitering body of the enemy were defeated and driven back with some loss early in the day. The two armies were nearly equal in numbers — about two thou- sand three hundred each — but the Americans were superior in cav- alry.^ The attack was made by the patriots, who advanced with alacrity and fought with signal courage and effect, the militia of North and South Carolina and Virginia actually vying wnth the regulars in the courage and constancy of their advance and the destructive accuracy of their fire. The enemy's lines were swept back with heavy loss. The Americans even penetrated to their camp, and, in the confidence of victory, began to feast on the food and delicacies and drink the liquors there found. ^ But Stuart was not slow in discovering their want of caution. His grenadiers and light infantry under INIajor Majoribanks occu- pied a strong position in a covert thickly wooded with " black- jack" and other small trees. Upon this the cavalry under Wash- ington had made repeated assaults. Unable to penetrate the covert they suffered severely under the steady fire from within, and were compelled to withdraw. Colonel Washington's horse was shot under him, and he was wounded and taken prisoner. Majoribanks now advanced his line and began to sweep with his fire the unprotected flanks of the Americans. A strong brick house and enclosui"es was Stuart's rail) ing point. Into this he threw all the troops he could collect, and from it poured out a ceaseless fire. Greene made efforts to capture this stronghold, but, finding he could not carry it by assault without heavy loss, and knowing that the British could not long hold their position, he gave orders for withdrawing his army, and left the enemy in possession of his regained camp." In this strange battle the British lost one hundred and thirty- three killed and wounded and five hundred prisoners. The Americans lost five hundred and thirty-five in killed, wounded and missing ; but among their killed was the brave Colonel Campbell ; ainong their wounded were all the commandants of 1 Compare Lee, 465, 466. Irving, IV. 334-336. Art. Eutaw Springs, Amer. Encyclop., VII. 341. 2 Irving, IV. 338. ^ Irving, IV. 338, 339. Lee, 472. The War Ended. 493 regiments, except Williams and Lee, and including Washington, Howard and Henderson.^ As Greene expected, Colonel Stuart could not hold his post at Eutaw Springs. He broke up his camp immediately after the battle and retired to Charleston, from which no further efforts were made to possess the country. Greene's work was done, and the congress thanked him and his men, presenting him with a British standard and a gold medal emblematic of the battle.^ The current of history now turns to the fated and final march of Cornwallis to Virginia. He had long contemplated it. Call- ing in all his outlying forces, he left Wilmington in April and marched towards the border. On the 35th of April he was ap- proaching Halifax, with Tarleton in the van scouring the country with one himdred and eighty dragoons and light troops. At Ro- anoke occurred an incident creditable to Cornwallis. A sergeant and private of Tarleton's troop during the night had forcibly outraged an unhappy girl in the country and robbed her home. The next morning Cornwallis came up with six dragoons of his guard, overtook Tarleton, and directed him to draw up his men in line. The two delinquents were pointed out. They were seized, tried by martial law, and instantly put to death. This stopped disorders. On the 20th of May, Cornwallis entered Pe- tersburg, and united the troops there with his command.^ The Marquis De La Fayette was in command of the patriot forces in Virginia, and covered himself \vith honor by his pru- dence and skill. He had about tliree thousand troops, Conti- nental and militia, but they were imperfectly armed, because eleven hundred expected muskets had not arrived. Cornwallis crossed the James at Westover, fully convinced that " the boy " could not escape him. He was specially anxious to prevent the junction of La Fayette and General Wayne, who, with about nine hundred Pennsylvania Continentals, was rapidly approach- ing from the north. But as he came nearer the ^Nlarquis re- treated, keenly watching his adversary, and detecting every stratagem practiced to ensnare him. Finding that he could not bring him to battle, Cornwallis changed his plan, and determined to play havoc with the resources of Virginia, and, if possible, to seize the persons of her leading men. He encamped on the North Anna river. On the loth of June, at the Raccoon Ford, in Cul- peper county, Wayne, with his troops, joined La Fa)^ette.* He again cautiously advanced. 1 Lee's Memoirs, 472. 2 Resolutions of Cong-., Oct. 29th, 1781. 3 Tarleton's Campaigns, 289, 290. Stedman, II. 385. First Klugs xi. 1-13. ^^jibbou, Decline aud Fall. 506 A History of the United States of America. the incarnate fiend Commodus, who was so given up to every hateful vice that can dominate man that a modern soldier and author has urged insanity as the' only explanation of the horrible phenomena of his life ; ^ that the best of them, represented by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian and the two Antonines, were darkened by bloody and inhuman persecutions of innocent followers of Christ ; that the kings of England had been made notorious by every vice and every weakness degrading to humanity ; and that George III., descended from a race of German princes, had all the worst faults of both lines of parentage from which he came. These thoughtful men in the colonies began naturally to ask themselves : Are kings necessary for the best government? Are not the people of these colonies so situated that they can throw oft' a government of kings and govern themselves by their own chosen representatives? And to encourage these inquiries a benign disposing of provi- dential events had enabled each colony to try the experiinent of self-government by charters, which authorized elections by the people of representatives in houses of burgesses, town councils and other bodies having legislative powei's.^ The usual division of the colonies as to their government status has been into three classes — charter, proprietary and royal. The charter governments originally were those of Massachusetts, Con- necticut and Rhode Island. The proprietary governments were those of New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (including Delaware), Maryland, Carolina and Georgia. Vir- ginia, which commenced her career under the charter of the London Company, became a royal colony in 1634 ; New York became one as soon as the Duke of York became James II. ; others became royal as fast as their proprietaries, growing weary of controversies, surrendered to the Crown. The charter of Mas- sachusetts w^as vacated by quo njoarranto in 1684 ; and under her new charter, in 1691, so much power w^as reserved to the English ci'own that her government became as nearly royal as that of Virginia. The royal colonies were commonly called provinces ; the governors were appointed by the Crown, and, with their coun- cils, they had a veto on legislation, as ^vell as power to dissolve a house of burgesses or other colonial legislature.^ Thus, at the close of the colonial period, three colonies were proprietary, eight royal, and two charter colonies. 1 Gen. Lew. Wallace, Notes to Commrulus, Harper's Mug-., Jan., 1889. 2 Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 13, 14. ^Ihid., 8, 9. The Revolution Itself. 507 But all had their own representative governments. The pro- prietaries had always granted this, and encouraged free assemblies, knowing that immigration and the settlement of their vast tracts of land would thus be greatly promoted. The royal colonies all had houses of representatives, and the governors seldom ventured to exercise the veto power ; and the two charter colonies — Con- necticut and Rhode Island — specially pi'ided themselves on their government franchises.^ Each colony was practically a republic long before the Revo- lutionary war. It was the special blessing of these people that they brought into the rich wildei"ness of America, the principles and institutions of English freedom, and left behind them, in the Old World, all those intrenched and petrified traditions which have kept her people in the slavery of kingly governments. Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia, was the student and statesman who had most completely made his own the wisdom of the past on the subject of human government, and who was best prepared to propose the bold step of abolishing every vestige of kingly rule. It is true that the British Parliament had enacted the most oppressive laws under which the colonies had suffered. It might, therefore, have been supposed that the chief odium of these meas- ures would have fallen upon the Parliament, and that the hatred of the colonists would have been chiefly directed against the British Houses of Lords and Commons ; but this was not so. An attempt has been made to explain this fact by advancing the theory that the colonies did not recognize the two houses of legislation who sat in London as having any legitimate relation to them ; and that " the subject of Massachusetts knew the king only as King of Massachusetts, and the Parliament of Great Britain not at all." ^ The attentive men who directed colonial thoughts and policy knew the history of Great Britain and her laws too well to in- dulge in any such hallucination. In fact, the colonists were so sorely pressed that nearly all became students of the past, and especially of English law. When, in June, 1768, John Hancock's sloop, Liberty, was seized by Crown officers for alleged breach of the navigation laws, and when her cargo of wine was taken away, and when the people openly resented these acts, they yet proceeded w^ith so much caution and keen knowledge of law^ that the British attorney-general was compelled to say : " Look into 1 Articles " Connecticut " and " Rhode Island," New Amer. Encyclop. SThis is Prof. Johnston's view— U. S. Hist, and Const., 3(3-40. 508 A History of the United States of America. the papers, and see how well the Americans are versed in the Crown law ; I doubt whether they have been guilty of an overt act of treason, but I am sure they have come within a hair's- breadth of it."' Therefore, the colonists were sufficiently well read and saga- cious to know that all these obnoxious laws, the navigation laws, trade laws, stamp acts, taxes on imports, Boston port bills, and similar oppressions, although ostensibly passed by the Parliament, really emanated from the king and his ministers. Therefore, they wasted no indignation on the Parliament, but concentrated their efforts upon tlie purpose of breaking the chains which had bound them to the British crown, and of abrogating all kingly government. This purpose was not consummated without delay and opposi- tion. Many in the colonies were loyal lovers of the Crown, and continued so during the war and took up arms for King George III. Even after the war commenced few had realized to their own souls the purpose of independence. Washington himself had the year before declared his views as follows : " I think I can announce it as a fact that it is not the wish or interest of that government (of Massachusetts) or of any other upon this conti- nent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence ; but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will ever submit to the loss of their valuable rights and privileges, which are essential to the happiness of every free State, and, without which, life, liberty and property are rendered totally in- secure.^ The resolutions of Patrick Henry adopted by Virginia in 1765 contained the germ of independence. They did not declare a purpose to throw off the British yoke, but they declared that Vir- ginia ivoiild not submit to a claim asserted by the British king and Parliament. Hence the widely-spread effect of these resolu- tions. The charm of loyalty was dissolved ; yet men moved slowly up to the idea of independence. Early in i775 ^^ voice had openly declared a wish to cast off all rule of the mother coun- try. The earliest approach to a declaration of independence was in the resolutions of the people of Fredericksburg, in Virginia, on the 39th April, 1775, which we have noted. ^ Beyond all reasonable doubt, the first actual declaration of in- dependence was made by the people of the county of Mecklen- 1 Goodrich's U. S., 174. Prof. Johnston'.? U. S., 44, 45. 2 Washington's letter to Capt. Robert Mackenzie, of the British army, Sparkis, II. 899. Irving's Washington, I. 371, 372. 3 Chapter XXXVI. The Revolution Itself. 509 burg, in North Carolina, on the 20th of May, 1775. Col. Thomas Polk called together the people, who, with simple hearts and deep religious principles, had a love of freedom which rose above all past traditions. They adopted a declaration pronouncing their country independent of Great Britain, and using terms so nearly similar to some afterwards used in the immortal instru- ment of July 4th, 1776, that Mr. Jefferson is supposed to have been aided by this Carolina declaration.' It must also be con- ceded that Thomas Paine's pamphlet entitled " Common Sense," published in January, 1776, by its plain, strong thoughts and simple language potently aided the cause of indej^endence. As the war waxed in intensity, all hopes of reconciliation faded out from all patriot souls. In May, 1776, Washington wrote from the head of his army in New York : "A reconciliation with Great Britain is impossible. When I took command of the army, I abhorred the idea of independence ; but I am now fully satisfied that nothing else will save us." * The congress was now prepared to act decisively, and on the 4th day of July, 1776, adopted the "Declaration of Independ- ence" by a unanimous vote, not only of all the colonies, but of all the delegates in the congress. The committee who prepared and presented it consisted of Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia ; John Adams, of Massachusetts ; Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania ; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston, of New York. No doubt now exists that this writing, in all its material ele- ments, was from the pen of Thomas Jefferson, although a few modifications and omissions of the matter of the original draft were made. It is herein given in full as adopted and signed, be- cause it is a document in history that has changed the thoughts of the world, has already converted many monarchies into rejjub- lics, and is destined to banish kingly government from the earth. It is as follows : When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one peo- ple to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator witli certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure 1 So. Lit. Mesf5enger, IV. 209, 210. Foote's Sketches of N. C, Cap. I. I. Seawall Jones' Me- morials of N. C, 26-33. Stephens, 223, 224. * Letter quoted in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 225. 5IO A History of the United States of America. these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foun- dation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to pro- vide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which con- strains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without and convul- sions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of offi- cers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. The Revohition Itself. ^\\ He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; For imposing taxes on us without our consent; For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences; For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ; For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our governments; For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and de- stroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and t^-ranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most bar- barous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms : our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have ap- pealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind — enemies in war; in peace, friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the author- ity of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Free and hidcpen- dent States: that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain 512 A History of the United States of America. is. and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Itidependcnt States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divixe Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. The student will note that the indictment found in this true and powerful bill is against the king and kingly authority. The Parliament is only alluded to as " a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws," and their " acts of pretended legislation " are only subjects of just complaint be- cause the kino- had sfiven his assent thereto. TJie Rcvolntioii Itself . 513 The king is rejected in a few well-chosen words: "A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." Therefore, all political connection with him is dissolved, the reunited colonies are declared to be Free and Independent States, with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. One remarkable passage in Mr. Jefferson's first draft of this Declaration deserves notice here, because it is a confirmation of what we have already stated, viz., that the colonial legislatures, especially in the South, had sought to stop the slave-trade to North America, and had been prevented by the veto of the Eng- lish king. The clause is as follows : "He (the king) has waged cruel war against human nature itself. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prosti- tuted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to pi'ohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce." ^ This clause was stricken out, because it was doubtful whether George III. was chargeable with this form of veto, and because there was not unanimity of oj^inion, either North or South, that the slave-trade was an " execrable commerce." Thus did the United States of America solemnly I'epudiate all kings and kingly government. It has been said that, at two points of their subsequent history, the idea of a restoration of monarch}^ was entertained by some minds, and with it naturally came the idea of making George Washington the first king. These notions had originated in the weakness of the bond of confederation for the exercise of the most needful purposes of finance, for the support of the army, and for other ends essential to the welfare of the people. Early in January, 1781, a mutiny broke out among the Pennsylvania troops, which General Wayne vainly tried to suppress by threats and acts looking to mortal punishment. The mutineers, in the face of his cocked pistol, aimed at him a hundred muskets, with the cries : " We love you, we respect you, but if you fire you are a dead man." British em- issaries got among them, and sought to fan the flames of discord ; but the soldiers seized them and delivered them up to the Amer- ican officers. The complaints of the mutineers were just. The congress admitted this, and by temporary financial measures raised money and satisfied them. A similar movement and re- sult occurred with the New Jersey troops a few weeks thereafter.^ 1 Prof. Johnston's T'. S. Hist, and Const., 2('). 2 Irviug's Washiugton, IV. lltG-2U4. Scott's U. S., 209, 210. 33 514 -^ History of the United States of America, But by far the most serious insurrectionary movement was threatened by the patriot army as the war drew near its close. The men had borne all manner of hardship and suffering, had been impaid, or paid in frightfully depreciated currency, and were now menaced by a prospect of disbandment with none of their just claims allowed or provided for.^ On the loth of March, 1783, when negotiations for peace were approaching a conclusion, an anonymous address, very strongly written and full of plausible appeals to the dissatisfied in the army, made its appearance, and was circulated through the camps.* It made a passionate allusion to the self-denying suffer- ings of the men, and asked : " Can you, then, consent to be the only sufferers by this Revolution, and, retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness and contempt?" The object intimated was to clothe Washington with the powers of a dic- tator or a king, and force from the country a full recognition and satisfaction of their claims.^ Washington never rose to a grander height than on this occa- sion. He immediately, in general orders, condemned the address in its spirit and intent. He called a meeting of the general and staff" officers for the 15th of March, and at that meeting delivered to them an address replete with wisdom, patriotism and concilia- tion. He rejected, with strong aversion, all the suggestions of the address, and assured the officers of his belief that the congress would do full justice to the army. Congress met his assurances in the right spirit, made provision for the immediate wants of the soldiers, and kept the army together until the British army was withdrawn from New York, on the 25th of November, 17S3. Thus Washington saved his country in a crisis when an ambi- tious man, without principle or patriotism, might have made him- self a king. And when it became evident that the first plan of confedera- tion had failed, and must be substituted by a form of government more stable, and giving more power over persons to its depart- ments and officers, then, again, there were many statesmen in America who prefei-red the forms and strength of a monarchy ; and again they looked to Washington as one of such commanding influence and virtue that the people would easily be brought to elect him as a king. The views of Alexander Hamilton in favor of kingly government may have been theoretical and speculative,* 1 Stephens, 269, 270. "It is given quite fully in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 270-272. Marshall's Washington, II. 42, 3 Stephens, 270-273. Prof. Johnston's U. S., 77. * living's Washington, V. 57-59. Art. Hamilton, Amer. Eneyolop., VIII. 675, 676. The Revolution Itself. 515 but they were not the less real, and would have led him far in that direction could he have found support in Washington ; but that great soul was never led astray by a false ambition. He gravely and sternly opposed every attempt at a monarchic form for the government of his country. Second. None of the early colonists were averse to titles of no- bility as represented by the privileged orders of England. They had been born and educated under that system, and it had many charms arising from tradition and outward dignity. Noblemen from the mother country came freely to the colonies up to the be- ginning of the revolutionary movements. They generally held high offices, but many of them conducted themselves with so much prudence and kindness that the people cherished earnest love for them. But others, such as Berkeley, Loudon and Dunmore, so signalized their administration by acts of oppression, cruelty or weakness that they did much to alienate the people, and to pro- duce a strong impression against hereditary titles. Among the very last of the nobles in any of the colonies was Lord Fan-fax, of Virginia. He was a great landed proprietor, having inherited the lands known as the "Northern Neck," be- tween the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, and running up originally from Chesapeake Bay to the headwaters of those rivers in the valley of the Shenandoah. He had been very friendly to Lawrence Washington, the brother who married into the Fairfax family, and from whom George Washington received by devise the estate of Mount Vernon. The old lord had employed the young surveyor, afterwards to become so eminent, in surveying and laying ofl' in maps parts of his immense landed possessions. One branch of the Fairfax family lived at Belvoir, not far from Mount Vernon, and the relations between the two clans were in- timate and genial. It is not to be wondered at that a county of Virginia in that region should bear the name of the old earl. .But the Fairfaxes were strongly loyal to England all through the struggle. George William Fairfax, owner of Belvoir, had not concealed his opinions, and his words and acts were such that he had been obliged to seek refuge in England and to remain there during the war. Part of his property was confiscated ; yet he continued to correspond in a friendly spirit with Washington and his family.^ The old Lord Thomas Fairfax was known to be an inveterate Tory ; but no disposition was felt to disturb him. He lived at his princely residence, Greenway Court, in the valley, in what 1 Imng's Washington, IV. 418. 5i6 A History of the United States of America. is now Frederick county, not far from Winchester, in Virginia. He was gratefully remembered for his zeal and courage in de- fending this region from early incursions of the Indians.' He was devoted to fox-hunting and other out-door recreations, and, being in his eighty-sixth year when the war of Revolution be- gan, he was not expected to be actively hostile to America ; but he rejoiced in every British success, and, in his pride of country, believed the arms of England to be sure of final success ; and so, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered, in October, 1781, and the news came to this old noble, in his ninety-third year and in his country home, his spirit broke ; he retired to his bed and talked no more to the time of his death. A historian well known to young Americans of an age just past has thus recorded the facts -J " When old Lord Fairfax heard that Washington had captured Lord Cornwallis and all his army, he called to his black waiter : 'Come, Joe ; carry me to bed, for it is high time for me to die ! ' "Then up rose Joe, all at the word, And took his master's arm, And thus to bed he softly led The lord of Greenway farm. "There oft he called on Britain's name, And oft he wept full sore, Then sighed, 'Thy will, O Lord, be done,' And word spake never more." The soil of America proved ungenial to the birth and growth of privileged orders. Men who, by their own thews and sinews and the power of indomitable personal will, felled the forests, subdued the soil, built their rough houses, met and overcame the merciless savages who disputed their progress, would not be apt to admit any hereditary rights to rank or power. Hence we have noted how insufferable were the " landgraves "-and "caciques" of John Locke's scheme of government, and how soon it was over- whelmed by public odium. Each of the thirteen colonies assumed the status of a sovereign commonwealth at a very early period of the Revolution. Vir- ginia adopted her constitution, including the " Bill of Rights," Vv'ritten by George Mason, on the 29th of June, 1776; and her position was recognized as that of each State formerly a colony or province of Great Britain. One article of the Virginia Bill of Rights abolished all titles of nobility and privileged orders by providing that " no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or 1 Ixxing, I. 195, 196. 2 Weems' Life of Washington. Irving, IV. 418, 419. The Revolution Itself. ^ly privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services, which not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator or judge to be hereditary." ^ The other States adopted the same radical policy, by which all possibility of priv- ileged order and titles of nobility in the United States of North America was forever destroyed. The " Articles of Confedera- tion " afterwards adopted contained the express limitation : "Nor shall the United States, in congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility." ^ And when these articles were abrogated by the adoption of the permanent constitution of 1789? that constitution declared that " no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the congress, accept of any present, emol- imient, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign State." ^ And among the inhibitions to the States are the following : " No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility."* The studious reader will note the evil company in which priv- ileged orders are ranked, and the determined purpose to free the republic of the Western Hemisphere from the hateful abuses to which they had given rise in the Old World. The system of feudal tenures of land had been adopted all over Europe after the overrunning of the Roman empire by the Goths, Vandals and Huns. Men, for their own protection from robbery or death, were obliged to submit to a system in which they received their lands, and were protected in their cultivation and enjoj'ment by the strong arms and gauntleted hands of their feudal lord and his followers, on condition of their rendering him agreed rents and services. But before the English colonies had gained a firm footing in America, the worst elements of the feudal system had either been destroyed, or, by a happy alchemy, had been transmitted into more healthful forces. The nearest approach to feudality, in its more sinister forms, did not come into America from England, but from Holland. It was in the grants made to Killian Van Rensselaer and a few other 1 Art. VI., Va. Bill of Rif,'hts. Code, etc., 1873, p. 6S. 2 Art. VI., Stephens, Append., 919. 3 Art. I., Sec. 8, Const. U. S. , 474. 2 R. C. Va., I. 31, 32. Origiiiiil MS. Draft, State Lib. Va. Wirt's Patrick Henry, 143, 144. 3 Clauses 12-14, R. C. Va., I. 32. The Revolution Itself. 527 and have shaped the future government as it chose. This is the view of the German publicist Von Hoist, and has been, in sub- stance, adopted by an able and thoughtful writer on the public history and constitution of the United States.^ But it has no foundation, either in theory or fact. The early congi-esses were purely voluntary bodies, without any authority or power, except such as the people chose to recognize. We have seen how limited was the power of the .second congress, which met on the tenth day of May, 177=5, the day that Ticon- deroga was captured by Ethan Allen.^ This congress was merely the creature organized by the delegates from the various colonies who were preparing to become States. The union, therefore, which existed before the "Articles of Confederation" were adopted was purely a voluntary union of chosen representatives. It was not a government at all, being absolutely dependent on the vol- untary submission of the people for the accomplishment of every measure it recommended. So far was it from being " limited by no law, and by nothing else but by its success in war," or from having " the energy and recklessness of a French revolutionary body," as stated of it by Prof. Johnston, it had not even power to raise the money needed to pay for a suitable hall in w^hich to hold its deliberations. The sovereign power was in the people of the colonies considered separately, who, for just cause, were prepar- ing to cast off the shackles of the British government and to as- sume among the powers of the earth the position of independent and sovereign vStates. Each colony assumed this position for herself. The concert of action for general defence, which they had shown by sending delegates to the congress, was entirely informal, and had imparted none of the powers of government. They knew this perfectly well, and therefore one of the fii'st measures of the congress of 1776, which adopted the "Declaration of Independence," was to appoint a committee to devise and report a formal plan of union which would be a compact\>e.\.-\N &Qn the States and binding upon all.'* The committee reported "Articles of Confederation " as early as the I3th July, 1776; but they were not entirely satisfactory, and much quiet debate and proposed amendments occurred before they were finally adopted by the congress on the 15th day of November, 1777.* They were then referred to the several States 1 Prof. Alexander Joliiiston, late of the chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy in Princeton Colle;,'e. See liis IT. S. Hist, and Const., 56, 57. 2 Chapter XXXV. Bancroft, VII. 3.')3, 351. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 22G. Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 79. H'ompare Stephens, 226. Prof. Johnston, 79. Arts, of Confed., Stephens, Append. C, p. 919-922. 528 A History of the United States of America. All of them adopted them promptly in 1777, except Maryland, who did not ratify them in full until 1781. These "Articles of Confederation " were the first constitution of the United States of America, and did really form a general government ; but nothing is more striking than the care exhibited in them to recognize each State as sovereign and as retaining all the powers of a sovereign except those delegated to the United States. They are declared to be "Articles of Confederation and Per- petual Union bet^veen the States of New Hampshire, Massachu- setts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Alaryland, Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia." The first article provides that the style of this confederacy shall be " The United vStates of America." The second article is in these words : " Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, juris- diction and right which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in congi'ess assembled." Our purposes herein do not require a review of all the separate articles of this important constitution of government. It con- tains many provisions so wise that they have found a place in the subsequent and more permanent constitution. So far from feeling surprised that this plan did not accomplish all that was hoped for from it, our wonder should be that it accomplished so much. It was an experiment unprecedented in all the past his- tory of the world. Evidently the sages and patriots who constructed it looked upon it as a plan of union never to be departed from ; for the the thirteenth and last article declared that, "every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States in congress as- sembled on all questions which, by this confederation, are sub- mitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the union shall be per- petual ; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the United States and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State." ^ This was an attempt to do what is impossible to man. No compact between sovereigns can be so enduring that it may not be dissolved if the reasons for dissolution be so potent as to com- mand the assent of a majority in number and power of those 1 Art. XIII., Stephens, Append., 921, 922. The Revolution Itself. 529 sovereigns. This very plan of confederation was abrogated and laid aside, without the consent of several of the States who ori- ginally formed it ; and the more permanent constitution that succeeded it very wisely omitted all pi'ovisions for perjDetual union. Its originators and adopters knew well that such pi'ovi- sions are useless, and serve only to entrap weak consciences ; for if reasons for dissolution exist, so strong and exacting that they are recognized as sufficient by a majority in number and force of the States, a dissolution will certainly take place in spite of all opposition. The separate sovereignty of each of the thirteen original States received a crowning confirmation in the treaty of peace by which the war was formally ended and the United States of America introduced into the family of nations. The commissioners from America were John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Laurens. They met at Paris peace commissioners of Great Britain, France and Spain, and, on the 30th of November, 1783, signed a pi-ovisional treaty of peace. The full and final treaty was signed in Paris on the 3d of September, 17S3. The first article was in these words : " His Britannic majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. : New Hampshire, Alas- sachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Con- necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Geor- gia, to be freej sovereign and independent States ; that he treats them as such ; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relin- quishes all claiin to the government, proprietary tmd territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof." * Early in 1783, news of the treaty of peace reached America ; on the 23d of March, the war-ship Triumph., belonging to the fleet of the Count D'Estaing, arrived at Philadelphia, bringing a letter from La Fayette to the congress, formally communicating these happy tidings ; and a few days thereafter Sir Guy Carle- ton, in New York, informed Washington that he had received from his Britannic majesty's government orders to proclaim a cessation of hostilities by sea and land.^ On the 19th of April, 17S3, just eight years after the battle of Lexington, a proclama- tion of peace was issued by the United States. Washington did what he could to pacify the discontented in the American army, and to assure them that congress would 1 By a curious oversight " Maryland " is omitted in tlie list in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 268. 2 Irving's Washington, IV. 388. .^4 530 A History of the United States of America. recognize all their claims that were just, and would deal fairly with them. Finding his time in his camp at Newburg, on the Hudson, becoming irksome, he set out \vith Governor Clinton and made an extensive tour through the northv^^estern parts of New York and the adjacent territory, by way of Lake George and the other lakes, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Forts Stanwix and Schuy- ler, and through the beautiful and fertile valley of the Mohawk. His object was to view this country with a special eye to its i^e- sources and to its condition after it should be evacuated by the British forces according to the proposed treaty. He returned to Newburg on the c;th of August, 1783, having made a tour of at least seven hundred and fifty miles in nineteen days, and the chief part of it on horseback.^ On the 25th of November, Sir Guy Carleton accomplished the duty of evacuation by withdrawing his troops from New York and Brooklyn, and preparing to sail for England. He had given notice of his purpose to Washington, who ordered American troops, composed of dragoons, light infantry and artillery, com- manded by General Knox, to march from Harlem to the Bowery and take possession on the evening of the 3£5th, to obviate all possibility of disorder and pillage. A formal entry of the patriot army took place the next day, led by General Washington and Governor Clinton, with their suites, on horseback. An American lady, then quite young, and who had spent some years of the last part of the war in New York, wrote her impressions from this scene. After speaking of the scarlet uniforms, burnished arms, and splendid appearance of the British troops, she writes of the contrast and trf her feelings thus : "The troops that marched in, on the contrary, were ill-clad and weather-beaten, and made a for- lorn appearance ; but, then, they were our ti"oops, and as I looked at them and thought upon all they had done and suffered for us, my heart and my eyes were full, and I admired and gloried in them the more, because they were weather-beaten and forloi^n." ^ On the 4th of December, 17S3, at Fraunces' Tavern, near the ferry to Paulus Hook, in the city of New York, the principal officers of the American army assembled to take leave of their commander-in-chief. On entering the room and seeing himself surrounded by his old companions-in-arms, who had shared with him so much of hardship, difficulty and danger, a tide of emotion passed over the soul of Washington, which for a time deprived him of the power of utterance. 1 Irving, IV. 399, 400. " Letter in Irving's Washington, IV. 40G, 407. 71ic l\cvoliitio)i Itself. 531 He tilled a <^lass of wine, and, turning to them a face full of benignant majesty, and yet saddened by the recall of the past, the gravity of the present and the dangers of the future, he said : " With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you, most devoutly wishing that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honor- able.'" All drank to this farewell benediction. Then Washington said : " I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand." General Knox, who was nearest, advanced first. In silence, but with eyes filled with tears, Washington grasped his hand. In like manner each advanced and took leave. Not a word was spoken. Silent and solemn they followed their loved commander as he left the room and proceexled on foot through saluting lines of light infantry to the barge at WHiitehall Ferry. Entering the barge, he turned to them, took ofi' his hat and waved a silent adieu.^ He went first to Philadelphia to resign his commission to con- gress, and to settle his accounts according to the principles of self-denying equity which he had announced on accepting the command to which they had elected him. He then went to his quiet and beautiful home at Mount Vernon, hoping to spend the rest of his days in private and domestic life. But this was not to be his lot ; the final crisis of his country's danger had not been passed. The war left the country in a condition far from prosperous. The public debts, home and foreign, had swelled to an amount near to one hundred millions of dollars. This amoutit now seems small to the United States, and might be paid by any one of sev- eral of her individual citizens without seriously impairing his means of luxurious living ; but at that time it was justly consid- ered enormous, and bore heavily on the resources of the people. Hardly could the interest due to France and Holland be raised. This, of course, was to be paid at the gold standard. The officers and privates of the army and navy were unpaid. The Continental currency issued by the congress had become so much depreciated that even the poor soldiers could no longer make it available to supply their pressing wants. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, had helped Washington at several critical financial periods, and UrviiiK, IV. -407. Tliiillicimer, 177, 178. Derrv, 157,158. Scott, 218. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 142. Taylor's (Viitcn., '^iVi, ■j;;;;. 2 Marshall's hilb of Wusliiiigton. Irving, IV. 408. Taylor, 233. Justin Wlnsor's Amer,, VI. 747. 532 A History of the United States of America. by his own exertions, and upon his own credit to a large extent, had raised money for the necessities of the army, amounting in all to one million four hundred thousand dollars in gold. At one time he had sent to the starving army a thousand barrels of flour.* It is sad to reflect that this patriot, not being able to obtain prompt and complete relief from the congress for all of his large advances, and by reason of unfortunate land speculations, after- wards became so much embarrassed that his fine fortune dis- appeared, and he was for a time a prisoner under process for debt.^ The powers given under the "Articles of Confederation " to the congress were too limited to enable that body to raise inoney or furnish the relief needed by the public creditors. The congress had no power to levy taxes, direct or indirect. It could do noth- ing but make requisitions on the several States. Some States could not raise the amounts assessed on them ; but by far the larger number of them ivoiild not. They had the power, but not the inclination.^ None of them complied ; Rhode Island was specially recalcitrant, and New Jersey, at one time, passed a reso- lution expressly refusing the aid for which congress made requi- sition ; and there was nowhere a coercive power. The congress had no power to operate directly on persons and property in the several States, even for the most pressing federal purposes. Another evil showing the impotence of the general govern- ment arose from the fact that only the States had the power of regulating commerce, foreign or domestic ; and the regulations of the States conflicted with each other, imposed different rates of duty, and paralyzed commercial energy. Yet such was the jeal- ousy felt by the States that they were not willing to part with this power and delegate its exercise to the congress.* It was also time that during the long war of eight years a con- siderable lowering of the standard of public morals had taken place. This has always been the effect of war. And in addi- tion to the loss of home influence, and of the restraints on drunk- enness and sensual indulgence which -war always causes, there were special deteriorations arising from the influx of infidelity and skepticism by means of the armies and officers of France.'' The eflect was that many people became unscrupulous and dis- honest. Speculators began to grind the faces of the poor, and to take advantage of the misfortunes of the people in order to make profitable bargains for themselves. This soon arrayed against 1 Barnes & Co.'s U. S., (uote) 139. « Art. Morris, Amer. Encvelop., XI. 748. 3 Stephens, 274-276. Barnes & Co.'s IT. S., 142, 143. Scott, 220, 221. « Stephens, 275. Scott, 220. Goodrich, 283. ^ Goodrich's U. S., 281, 282. The Revolution Itself. 533 each o 'her the classes of the poor and the men who had grown rich by usury and heartless schemes of finance.^ There cannot be a doubt that these discontents, for which there was so much excuse, led to the insurrectionary movement in Mas- sachusetts, in August, 1786, commonly called " Shays' Rebellion," because it was led by Daniel Shays, formerly a captain in the American army. This movement extended through Worcester, Middlesex, Bristol and Berkshire counties, and even spread into New Hampshire. The opposition was to the enforcement of taxes by law, and was founded on the known fact that a large part of the public certificates of debt had passed into the hands of those dishonest and grasping speculators. The insurgents complained also of the governor's high salary, the aristocracy of the senate, and the extortions of lawyers. Fifteen hundred men obeyed Shays' command. The proceedings in the courts were forcibly arrested.^ But the insurrection was put down by the firmness of the State authorities. General Lincoln headed an army of four thousand men. On the 24th of January, 1787, two opposing armies ap- proached each other at Springfield — one of twelve hundred State militia, under General Shepard ; the other of eleven hundred in- surgents, under Shays. An actual collision took place. After firing over their heads without dispersing them, the State troops fired at the insurgents. Three were killed and one wounded.* They dispersed, and could not be rallied. Conditional pardons were offered by the legislature of Massachusetts. Seven hun- dred and ninety persons availed themselves of this offer. Four- teen were tried and sentenced to death ; but all were pardoned, one after another. Thus the rebellion ended. But the impression it made and the distresses of the country did not end. Thoughtful people everywhere felt that a stronger and more efficient federal government was necessary. It came at last, rather by a series of happy providences than by any syste- matic movement. One serious difficulty in the way of obtaining the assent of the States to the "Articles of Confederation" was the claim of seve- ral States, such as New York and Virginia, to the vast areas of public lands lying westward of their bounds, but within their primitive chartered limits or else claimed by right of conquest. This difficulty was removed by the liberal consent of the States holding these claims to cede them to the United States on 1 Stephens, 274, 275. Goodrich's U. S., 282. = Goodrich's U. S., 284. 3 Goodrich's U. S., 284, 285. Art. Shays, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 568. 534 -'^ History of the LFnited States of America. • agreed terms. New York made her cession in 17S0 and Virginia in 17S4. Thus the congress, though not authorized by the " Articles " to hold or govern territonk', became the holder of a tract of land of some four hundred and thirty thousand square miles — nearly equal to the whole area of France, Spain and Por- tugal united.^ On the 23d of April. 17S4, a committee of the congress under the "Articles of Confederation," of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, reported a plan for disposing of these public lands, providing for the erection of seventeen States, some north and some south of the Ohio river, and bestowing upon them such eccentric names as Sylvania, Assenisipia, ^letropotamia. Polypo- tamia and Pelisipia.' The plan had the following clause : "After the year iSoo there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary ser- vitude in any of the said States other than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."' But at that time Mr. Jefferson's plan failed for want of the votes of seven States in its favor. In 17S7 an ordinance was adopted upon a plan reported by a committee, of which Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was chairman. It applied only to the territory north of the Ohio, prohibited slavery therein, but added a clause for the return of fugitive slaves. It provided for not less than three nor more than five States. The States resulting from this "Ordinance of 17S7" have been Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.' The evils arising from the weakness of the Federal government and the contumacy and conflicting action of the States became so great that some remedy was naturally sought. In March, 17S5, the Virginia legislature had appointed commissioners to meet similar delegates from Mar\-Iand at Alexandria, to form, if pos- sible, a compact as to navigation and trade in the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers and in the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay. While at Mount Vernon, in conference with Washington, the commissioners, knowing that their agreement, even if cordial, would remove only a small part of the evil, resolved to recom- mend the appointment of deputies from all the States to meet and suggest measures as to trade and commerce for the benefit of the Union." ' Virginia acted on this suggestion by appointing deputies on the 3 1st of January, 17S6, under a resolution written by Mr. Madison, but offered by Mr. Tyler ; and, in September, 17S6, Ed- mund Randolph, St. George Tucker and James Madison met 1 Prof: Jolrnatoii'a U. S.. ^?2. m. - lUd., .S4. ^ /^j-rf.^ 34^ gg. 4 Majshall's Wash., H. 105. T%e Revolution Itself. :;35 commissioners from fotcr other States at Annapolis ; but they had not long debated ere they became satisfied that improTement in trade and commerce -was beyond their reach so long as the con- federate government and the relations of the States thereto re- mained as they then T?rere. They accordingly recommended that the States should appoint commissioners to form a convention in Philadelphia in May. 1787, and there to devise and suggest snch changes and improvements as might be necessary for the articles of Tinion.^ This resolution vras sent to the authorities of all the States and also to the congress. On the 31st February, 17S7, that body adopted a resolution as follovrs : •'■Resolved. That in the opinion of congress it is expedient that on the second ^Monday in Mav next a convention of delegates, vrho shall have been appointed by the several States, be held in Phila- delphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederatioru and reporting to congress and the several legis- latures such alterations and provisions therein as shalL vrhen agreed to in congress and confirmed by the States, render the Fed- eral constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union." * On the 2:;th of !May. 17S7. this memorable convention assembled in Philadelphia. Deputies vrere present from all the States, ex- cept Rhode Island. George Washington -was elected president. Their debates "CT"ere generally held "with closed doors. They continued up to the 17th September. They prepared a form of government, which -was to be submitted to the people of the sev- eral States, vrho were to act upon it in their capacitv as sovereign- ties. In order to its taking effect, it provided that the ratification of the conventions of at least nine States should be necessarv. If so ratified it should go into operation on the 4th of March, 17S9, as to the States thus assenting. Before the close of the year 17SS it had been ratified by the votes of conventions in all the thirteen States, save Xorth Caro- lina and Rhode Island- Several of the States, ho-wever, had proposed amendnaents embodying the principles of the ** Bill of Rights," and all of those "w-hich vrere really important vrere after- vrards adopted. Virginia was prevalentlv moved to ratification by the example and arguments of Governor Edmund Randolph, who had refused in the Philadelphia convention to sign the con- stitution, but afterwards became its vrarm advocate.^ Xorth Caro- 5 MflishalL IL 122. IS. Madisan Papas, IL fiSrr. Stepiifais. 276. 277. -Siephfins, 277. ^life of Ednmnd EaridalT)li, Irr M. I». ComvaT. ciled in Jolm Seoif s '■ Tbe Hepubac as a ronn of GoTennaenl,'" 154. 536 A History of the United States of America. lina. by her second convention, ratified the constitution Novem- ber 3 1st, 1789. Rhode Island, with her wonted intractability, refused and delayed to assent until the new government was fully organized, and a bill had actuallv passed the Senate directing the President to suspend commercial intercourse with this little State, and to demand from her payment of her share of the Continental debt. Newspaper articles had also appeared, proposing that Rhode Island should be divided up between her two nearest neighbors.^ However she mav have looked on the questions of ethics involved in these propositions, it is certain they had their etlect on her counsels, for, on the 39th ISIav, 1790, she, in regular form, ratified the constitution. An exhaustive examination of the forms under which each State sent her delegates to the convention and afterwards ratified their work has shown that the new government was the embodi- ment of a compact between the sovereign States who made it.* No other view can be taken by competent and candid students of the facts involved. One of the States, in her vote of ratification, took the precaution to use the following words : "We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the general assemblv, and now in convention, having fully and freely investigated and dis- cussed the proceedings of the Federal convention, and being pre- pared, as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us, to decide thereon, do, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that the powers granted under the constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injurv or oppression, and that everv power not granted therebv remains with them and at their will ; that, there- fore, no right of anv denomination can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by the congress, by the senate or house of representatives, acting in any capacity, by the president or any department or otficer of the United States, except in those in- stances in which power is given by the constitution for those purposes.''^ This was the express condition on which ^'irginia entered the great partnership of States, and as she was admitted as an equal partner, Avithout objection to this condition, and as she declared that the condition applied to all. it inured to the benefit, not only of herself, but of the other parties, according to established prin- ciples of equity. iProf. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const.. 123. 2 See Stephens' Comp. U. S., 2V9-362. 3 Va. Debates, 469-470. Calhoun's Works, U. 296. So. Lit. Mess., 1862, ITS, 179. The Revolution Itself. £537 It is not a. part of the plan of this work to give an analysis or commentary on the constitution. Students who are aspiring to duty as constitutional lawyers or statesmen need only to be re- ferred to the great sources of light thereon.' The congress, after approving the constitution, passed an act providing that the first Wednesday of January, 17S9, should be the day of the choice of electors, and the first Wednesday in Feb- ruary for the choice of President and Vice-President, and the first Wednesday in March for the inaugmation of the new government at the city of New York. This last date fell on the fourth day of March, which has ever since been the limit of each President's term. These elections took place accordingly, and when the congress counted the votes it was ascertained that George Washington was unanimously elected the first President of the United States. None were surprised at this result, but all were delighted. Al- ready hope began to revive and business to improve, as confidence was strengthened. John Adams was elected Vice-President. Washington, with unfeigned diffidence and reluctance, accepted the high trust confided to him. By a delay in counting the elec- toral votes, he was not officially notified of his election until the 14th of April, 1789. On the 16th he left Mount Vernon. His own private record says : "About ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to pri- vate life and to domestic felicity ; and, with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of ansv\^ering its expectations."^ His progress was a continual ovation ; the ringing of bells and reports of cannon proclaimed his advent ; old and young, women and children, thronged the roads and streets to bless and welcome him.* It was a sunny afternoon when he reached the banks of the Delaware at Trenton. Twelve years before he had crossed amid storm and tempest, with howling winds around his head and fragments of ice threatening his boat with destruction. Now a scene of peace and love awaited him. On the bridge across the Assunpink the women of Trenton had caused a triumphal arch to be raised, entwined with ever- greens and laurels and bearing the inscription : " The defender of 1 Madison's PaiH?rs, Va. Debates, Federalist, Calhoun's Works, Kent and Story, Stephens' Comp. U. S.. Prof. Jolinston's V. S., Curtis' Const. Hist. ^ From Washington's Diarj'. Imng, IV. 467. » Irving, IV. 468. 538 A History of the United States of America. the mothers will be the protector of the daughters." Here the matrons of the cjty were assembled to welcome him, and, as he passed under the arch, a number of young girls, dressed in white and crowned with garlands, strewed flowers before him, singing an ode expressive of their love and gratitude. Washington was deeply moved.^ At Elizabethtown Point he was w^elcoined by a committee of both houses of the congress and many civil officers. A barge of beautiful construction and equipment received him. It was manned by thirteen branch pilots, masters of vessels, and com- manded by Commodore Nicholson. The harbor was gay with ships, boats and flags. The Spanish war-ship Galveston had shown no signs of honor till the barge carrying Washington was nearly abreast. Then suddenly, as if by magic, the yards were manned, flags fluttered out from every part of the rigging, and the rapid reports of thirteen guns saluted the President and the occasion.^ On landing, Governor Clinton and General Knox received him. An officer, in imiform, stepped up, and, announcing himself as commanding his guards, asked his orders. Washington, \yith a composure and foresight admirable in a military man, directed him to carry out any directions he might have received, but added that for the future the affection of his fellow-citizens was all the guard he desired. On the 30th of April the inauguration took place in the hall and balcony of the old " Federal Hall," in New York. The man — the most virtuous and most symmetrically developed in soul and body of any then in the world — took the oath of office administered to him by the Chancellor of the State of New York. Immediately afterwards the chancellor stepped forward, waved his hand, and in a distinct voice cried : " Long live George Wash- ington, President of the United States ! " A flag was run up to the cupola of the building. A roar of artillery sounded the salute. All the bells of the city rang out a joyous peal, and the multitude rent the air with shouts. And so, the new President of the new republic of the New World entered upon his high duties. The congress of the confederation had long been effete and nearly moribund. It was so impotent for good that its members had ceased to attend its sessions. It is said that nothing but the most earnest entreaties and exertions got a quorum of them to- gether to ratify the treaty of peace with Great Britain.* Natu- 1 Irving, IV. 470. Earsjleston's Household U. S., 202. - Irving, IV. 471. 3 Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 88. The Revolution Itself. 539 rally irritated by the failure of the States to give eflect to their requisitions, in 1784 they broke up their session in disgust, and the French minister reported to his country : "• There is now in America no general government — neither congress nor president, nor head of any one administrative department." It was surely time to reconstruct. As the new government emerged, the old congress continued to droop and to fade, until, on the aist Octo- ber, 17S8, its last record was entered, and it died.' 1 Johustou's U. S. Hist, aud Const., 113. Chapter xliv. George Washington's Presidency. WASHINGTON, as President, led his country into a part of her career most critical and dangerous, and under a form of government new and untried. His own personal power and in- fluence did much to make it a success. The Congress created four departments, viz. : of Foreign Af- fairs (since called the Department of State), of War, of the Treasury, and of the government law adviser. Thomas Jefterson was appointed Secretary of State, Gen. Henry Knox of War, Alexander Hamilton of the Treasury, and Edmund Randolph Attorney-General. These, ^vith the President, formed the cabi- net, and were all that were then needed ; but the ever-increasing power and extent of the country have caused the Congress to add Departments of the Navy, the Postal Service, the Interior, and of Agriculture ; and by law, in case of the removal, death, resignation or permanent inability of the President and Vice-President, the members of the cabinet become President, respectively, in the fol- lowing order : Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secre- tary of War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture.' The judges of the Supreme Court nominated by Washington and confirmed by the Senate were : John Jay of New York, chief justice ; John Rutledge of South Carolina, James Wilson of Penn- sylvania, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Vir- ginia and James Iredell of North Carolina, associate justices.^ The First Congress under the new constitution did not embrace so many men brilliant in oratory and in statesmanship as those in the First Revolutionary Congress had been ; but these later men were suited to the times which they faced. Fisher Ames, from Massachusetts, who was a member of the House of Representatives, thus describes this Congress : " I have never seen an assembly where so little art was used. If they wish to carry a point, it is directly declared and justified. Its merits and defects are plainly stated, not without sophistry or prejudice, but without manage- ment. There is no intrigue, no caucusing, little of clanning to- 1 Act of Cougress, 1884, in Goodrich's U. s., 4.81. 2 Jrving's Washington, V. 26, [ 540 ] 54^ ^ History of the United States of America. gether, little asperity in debate or personal bitterness out of the House.'" The results of this calm and clear-headed purpose to provide for the wants of the country were soon apparent. Confidence returned, the people grew daily more prosperous, agriculture yielded abundant harvests, manufactures in their ruder forms be- gan to spring up, the exports became larger, and the goods and produce imported yielded in custom payments, flowing daily into the treasury, so much money that ordinary expenses were easily met, and hope began to arise that even the unwieldy debt of the country, in all its forms, would be honorably discharged. This debt was the subject most pressing on the Congress and on Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury. It was due from the United States and from the States severally ; but as very nearly the whole of it had been contracted for the purposes of the war, there Avas no serious question raised by any statesman as to the equity of casting its whole burden upon the United States.^ Yet some opposed this, because they feared it tended to consolidation of the sovereign States into the central govern- ment. The question, as to which counsels were most divided, was whether all the debt ought to be treated alike. Soine of it was to France and to Holland, and a full quid pro guo, either in hard money or in ships, arms and military stores at fair and agreed prices, having been received, no question could be raised with them. But the larger part of the debt was in the form of unredeemed Continental currency in the hands of at least two distinct classes of holders. One of these classes had paid full value either in services or in money -or property ; the other class had obtained large face amounts of this currency at rates of enormous depre- ciation, in some instances by speculation, in other instances by brokerage and exchange, and actual advantages taken of the necessities of the original holders. This last class had in many cases gotten rich during the war or in the years following it. Many, in and out of the Congress, felt that this class ought not to be paid at face value.^ But the Congress had asked that the executive department, through the Secretary of the Treasury, would report a scheme for the settlement of the public debt. Hamilton devoted to this his finest powers, and made a report, the recommendations of which were, in substance, adopted by the Congress of 1790. 1 Letters of Fisher Ames, in Irving's Washinj»-ton, V. 27. 2 Irving, V. 5:J, 54. Marshall's Washington, II. Stephens, 368, 369. sirving, V. 52, 53. Goodrich, 289. Prof. Holmes' U. S., 164. George Washingto7i s Presidency. 543 Under this plan the State debts were assumed, and the whole unfunded debt, without distinction as to classes of holders, was to be funded, and certificates of debt issued therefoi", the interest to be paid semi-annually. Taxes and customs on imports were im- posed, and a determined purpose shown to deal justly with the public creditors. The effects of this policy \vere soon manifest. Confidence became strong. A part of Hamilton's plan was the negotiation of a loan of two millions of dollars at five per cent, interest, and no difficulty was experienced in obtaining it. The debt to foreign countries ■w^as only eleven million five hundred thousand dollars, and, as punctual payment of the interest was provided for, and what was chieffy needed, the creditors were satisfied.' A part of Alexander Hamilton's financial plan was the estab- lishment of a national bank with a capital of ten millions of dol- lars, to act as the depository of the government, and to aid in establishing the public credit. The constitutionality of this measure was earnestly debated in Congress, but finally a charter was granted, to extend to March 4th, 181 1. Washington, after mature deliberation, signed the bill.'^ During the vacation between the sessions of Congress, in 17S9 and 1790) Washington made a tour through the Northern and New England vStates to inform himself as to the condition of the country, and also to recuperate his health, which had suffered early in the year from acute disease. Thomas Jefferson had not yet returned from France to assume the duties of the State Department. Leaving foreign affairs in the hands of John Jay, Washington set out from New York on the 1:5th of October, 1789, traveling in his carriage, with four horses, and accompanied by his official secretary. Major Jackson, and his private secretary, Tobias Lear. He desii'ed to be private, but the people everywhere welcomed him with ringing of bells, firing of guns, militar}' parades and civic processions.^ As he approached Boston he received an invitation from Governor Hancock asking him to be his guest at his private residence. But Washington declined this courtesy, from the praiseworthy motive of avoiding all appearance of dis- crimination. A curious question of etiquette then arose between Governor Hancock and the members of the city government as to who were entitled to precedence in receiving the President at 1 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 2S9, 290. Stephens, 360. i^MarshaU's Washington, II. Compare Goodricli, 290, and Art. Bank, Anier. Eneyclop., II. 579. ^Irving, V. 38, 39. 544 ^'^ History of the United States of America. Boston Neck, as he entered the city. This controvei'sy was so protracted that two rival lines of carriages were kept waiting, and Washington and his secretary. Major Jackson, were detained on the Neck in a raw and murky day, until the President became chilled, and, when informed of the cause of detention, asked : " Is there no other avenue into the town ?" Then the governor and his council gave way, and the municipal authorities took precedence. Governor Hancock was then fifty-two years old, rich and punc- tilious, and perhaps unduly sensitive as to his own dignity and importance. He had conceived the idea that, as he was governor, the first visit ought to be from Washington to him. Therefore, he excused himself from calling on the President by the plea of indisposition, and invited Washington to an informal dinner. This the President politely declined, and dined at his lodgings, having the Vice-President, John Adams, as hig guest.' Again Governor Hancock was obliged to yield. He wrote announcing his coming. Washington wrote him a brief note saying he would be at home until two o'clock, and that he would be pleased to see the governor, but begged earnestly that " the governor will not hazard his health on the occasion." ^ Governor Hancock came, but he was enveloped in baize, and was borne in the arms of servants into the house. '^ In this contest of etiquette he did not appear to advantage. George Washington, almost in boyhood, had written " Rules of Civility " for his own guidance, but never permitted form and ceremony to take the place of duty. Between March iith and July 6th, 1791, Washington made a similar tour through the Southern States, traveling one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven miles in his carriage, with one set of horses, and with pleasm'e to himself and profit for his high duties. Soon after his return from this tour, he found his country in- volved in another Indian war. Settlers from Virginia and North Carolina began to penetrate the rich forests and fertile lands of Kentucky and Tennessee, and settlers from the Ne^v England States, New York and Pennsylvania advanced to the region north of the Ohio river. Kentucky had been a soil so sternly contested in bloody battles among the savages themselves, and with the whites, that the name means " the dark and bloody ground." Daniel Boone was the first of the bold spirits from the east who made permanent settlement in Kentucky. He came in 1769, 1 Irving's Washington, V. 41-43. ^Note in Irving, V. 42. 3 Sullivan's Letters on Public Characters, 15. Irving, V. 43. George Washington'' s Presidency. 545 with hunting shirt and i-ifle, and was so pleased with the beauty and native riches of this country, that, notwithstanding daily per- ils from savages, he founded Boonesborough, and occupied that region ^vith his familv. He was followed by a number of men who vied with him in courage and love of adventure, such as Knox, Bullitt, Harrod, Henderson, Kenton, Calloway and Logan. The red men contended in vain against white resolution and skill. Boone, with a little army of one hundred and eighty-two men, gave them a decisive defeat at Blue Lick Springs on the 19th August, 17S3. Kentucky was first a county of Virginia, and held her first court at Harrodsburg in 1777. In 1786 she was ele- vated into a district, and on June ist, 1792, was admitted as a State to the Union.' Vermont, whose people had so distin- guished themselves by their heroism during the Revolution, had been admitted as a State on the i8th February, 1791. The Indians of the Northwest were greatly irritated by the steady advance of the settlers of Kentucky and Ohio, and made frequent and bloody attacks. With the Creeks of Georgia a treaty of peace was made August 7th, 1790, chiefly by negotiations between General Knox, Secretaiy of War, and McGillivray at the head of thirty Indian chiefs. By this treaty, a considerable territory within the limits of Georgia was relinquished. The State was dissatisfied ; but Mr. Jefferson thought the treaty very important for the interests of the country, claiming it as " dra^v- ing a line betw^een the Creeks and Georgia, and enabling the government to do, as it will do, justice against either party of- fending." ^ But the Indians of the Wabash and Aliami were restless and warlike, making frequent incursions, burning the infant settle- ments of the whites and destroying their improvements. These savages Avere well armed, obtaining weapons and ammunition from the posts still retained bv the British in violation of the treaty of peace.^ Washington determined to send a militarv force against them, under authority of an act of Congress obtained for the purpose. This force consisted of three hundred and twenty regulars, with militia detachments from Pennsylvania and the western parts of Virginia, making a total of fourteen hundred and fifty-three men, under command of Brigadier-General Harmer, a veteran of the Revolution. 1 Horace E. Scudder's IT. S., 262, 263. Art. Kentucky, Amer. Encyclop., X. 146. Stephens, 371, 372. 2 Compare Stephens, 370. Irving, V. 63, 64. Goodricli's Pict. U. S., 291. 3 Irving, V. 74, 75. 35 54^ A History of the United States of America.' They marched on the 30th September, 1790, from Fort Wash- ington, on the site of the present city of Cincinnati. In seven- teen days they came to the principal village of the Miamis. The Indians set fire to their huts and fled. The village was destroyed with large quantities of provisions there collected by the savage w^arriors. Now was the time for caution against Indian wiles ; but it was not used. An advance of one hundred and fifty militia and thirty regulars was made, headed by Colonel Hardin, of the Kentucky militia. They followed a trail, and, on the 17th October, were decoyed into an Indian ambush, where they were beset on every side by seven hundred warriors, under the great chief Little Turtle. The foes could not be seen, but their rifles poured death upon the whites. The militia broke and fled at the first fire. The regulars stood their ground and fought the Indians with the bayonet. All of these brave troops were slain, except five privates with Captain Armstrong and Ensign Hartshorn. On the 3istof October, about ten miles west of what is now Chillicothe, Colo- nel Hardin, having collected most of the scattered militia, made an eflbrt to retrieve the campaign. Another bloody battle oc- curred. The militia behaved well and supported the regulars ; but Major Willys was killed, and Colonel Hardin retreated, leav- ing dead and wounded in the hands of the enemy The expedi- tion returned to Fort Washington.^ The President was disturbed by this disaster, although the main purpose of the expedition had been eft'ected, which was the driv- ing of the Indians from their lines of settlement. Another mil- itary expedition against them was organized. It was to consist of two thousand regulars and one thousand militia. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was to command. He had been appointed Governor of the Northwest. Notwithstanding his misfortune at Ticonderoga, Washington seems to have felt great regard for him ; but, on taking leave of him, he gave him a solemn warning. He said : " You have your instructions from the Secretary of War. I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word — beware of a sur- prise ! You know how the Indians fight. I repeat it — beware of a surprise! " With these words sounding on his ear, St. Clair went his way.^ Meanwhile two volunteer expeditions against the savages, commanded by Gen. Charles Scott and General Wilkinson, had accomplished nothing, and were considered failures. Much was expected from the advance of St. Clair. 1 Irving, V. 75-77. Scott, 234. Goodrich, 291. Butler's Kentucky, 192. * Rush's Washington in Domestic Life, 67. Ir-\dng, V. 84. George Washitigioi'^s Presidency. 547 His army was not in the most efficient state. Even the regu- lars were unreliable. Picked up and recruited from the ofl"-scour- ings of large towns and cities, enervated by idleness, debauchery, and every species of vice, they were little prepared for the stern exigencies of Indian warfare. Desertions were frequent, and in- dicated their low standard of duty.^ General St. Clair. was suffering with gout, and had to be helped on and off from his horse. As they advanced from Fort Wash- ington, by new roads, cut with difficulty and labor through the swamps and woods, ill omens crowded on tliem. Part of the Virginia militia claimed their discharge, their time being out. On the 30th of October, sixty of them deserted in a body, intend- ing to plunder the convoy of provisions coming forward in the rear. To stop these outlaws and protect the provisions. Major Hamtranck, with the First United States regiment, consisting of three hundred of the best troops of the army, was detached to the rear. The rest, consisting of only about one thousand four hundred eflective troops, continued their march to a point ninety-seven miles from Fort Washington and about fifteen miles south of the Miami Indian villages. Here they encamped, November 3d, 1791, on a rising ground, with a stream forty feet wide in their front, running westwardly. Their ground was well chosen for defence against regular civilized troops ; but, being surrounded by close woods, dense thickets and the trunks of fallen trees, with here and there a ravine, it could not have offered fitter op- portunities for an attack after the manner of stealthy Indian war- tare.' And the attack came. Half an hour before sunrise of Novem- ber 4th, the war-whoops burst forth from the woods like " the jangling of an infinitude of horse bells." The Indians fired from ambush, and the militia broke and fled. St. Clair did all that a brave man could. Carried on a litter, he hm^ried from point to point, giving his orders. The regulars acted firmly for awhile, and rushed on the concealed Indians with the bayonet, putting many to death ; but the deadly fire from the thickets was kept up, and numbers fell. The light artillery, loading with grape and canister, fired into the woods, but with little etTect. The artil- lerists were exposed to a murderous fire. Every officer and two- thirds of the men were killed or wounded. The slaughter was such as had not been known since the battle on the Monongahela, and the result was the same. A retreat was ordei"ed. Just as it 1 Diary of Col. Winthrop Sargent, Adj.-Gen. V. S. A., Campaign 1791. Irving, V. 95. 2 Irving's Washington, V. 97. Quackenbos, olO. Derry, 170. 548 -4 History of the United States of Atnerica. commenced, General Butler was shot from his horse. A savage rushed forward, tomahawked and scalped him ; but ere this In- dian could bear ofi' the bloody trophy he was himself shot down.' Colonel Darke, with his regiment of regulars, performed signal service in meeting the enemy and repulsing their advance by the bayonet. But already the combat had continued nearly three hours, and more than half the army were disabled. The retreat was disorderly. Many of the troops threw away their arms, am- munition and accoutrements. Fortunately, the savages did not long pursue, being drawn back by the resistless bait of a camp to be plundered. The fugitives met Major Hamtranck with his regiment ; but this did not re-instate them. The retreat was continued to Fort Washington. The army had met a loss of six hundred and seventy-seven killed, including thirty women, and two hundred and seventy-one wounded.^ When President Washington heard of this great public disas- ter he became excited beyond what he had ever experienced in all his life. The seat of government had been transferred from New York, and Washington was in Philadelphia, when an officer bear- ing dispatches from the Western army arrived. Washington was at his dinner-table with a numerous company. The officer was importunate. The President came out, read the dispatches, came back and briefly apologized for his absence, but made no allusion to the frightful tidings. Neither did he lose his composure while Mrs. Washington held her drawing-room that evening. But when, at ten o'clock, he was left alone with Mr. Lear, his secre- tary, after a few moments of intense agitation, he broke out sud- denly with the words : " It is all over ! St. Clair is defeated — routed ; the officers nearly all killed, the men by wholesale ; the rout complete ; too shocking to think of, and a surprise into the bargain ! "* He spoke with great vehemence. Then pausing and rising from the sofa, he walked up and down the room in silence, vio- lently agitated, but saying nothing. When near the door he stopped short, stood still for a moment, and then there was another terrible outburst of feeling. He repeated the words of his warning to St. Clair, and then added : " And yet ! to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, tomahawked by a surprise — the very thing I guarded him against. O God ! O God ! " he exclaimed, throwing up his ' Irving. V. 99. =(Y)1. Sargent's estimate, in Irving, V. iOl. 5 Lear's narrative, Rusli's Washington in Domestic Lite. Irving, V. 102. George \Vashingto)i' s Presidency. c;49 hands, Avhile his very frame shook with emotion, " he is worse than a murderer! How can he answer it to his country? The blood of the slain is ujDon him — the curse of widows and orphans — the curse of Heaven ! " Mr. Lear was awed into breathless silence by the appalling tones in which this invective found words. But the storm passed ; the mighty sj^irit resumed its composure. In a Xo^n tone he said : " General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the dispatches — saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will receive him without displeasure ; I will hear hiin without prejudice ; he shall have full justice." And Washington kept his word. General St. Clair asked for a court of inquiry upon his conduct ; but Washington could not comply with this request by reason of " a total deficiency of officers in actual service of competent rank to form a legal court for that purpose." St. Clair then declared his purpose to resign, and his willingness to give to his successor all the ii:iforma- tion in his possession as to his field of duty. Washington, in a letter, courteously recognized this as an additional evidence of the goodness of his heart, and of his attachment to his country.^ But the Congress directed an investigation and report as to the causes of the disaster. St. Clair then wrote to Washington, urging reasons for retaining his commission " until an opportunity should be presented, if necessary, of investigating his conduct in every mode presented by law." Washington replied, reminding him that only one major-general was allowed, and that, as he had signified his intention to retire, his successor ought to be imme- diately appointed.^ St. Clair resigned. The committee of Congi'ess reported favor- ably to him, the evidence being distinct that in the battle he had acted with courage and skill ; but the people had lost confidence in him as a leader against Indians.' General Wayne (the "Mad Anthony" of the Revolution) suc- ceeded him in command of the Western army. Various causes of delay prevented him from moving against the Indians until the summer of 1794 ; then he moved with a caution and skill which indicated anvthing but rashness in his character, however impet- uous it may have been. By the 8th of August he had reached the junction of the rivers Au Glaize and Miami, in a fertile and populous region where the Western Indians had their most im- portant villages. He threw up intrenchments and guarded 1 Letter of Washington, quoted in Irving, V. 111. - Letter in Irving, V. 111. 3 Irving, v. 112. 550 A History of the United States of America. against surprise. The savages called him " the black snake " and " the chief who never sleeps." Little Turtle was so im- pressed by his warlike caution that he advised peace ; but his comrades decided on war, and two of Wayne's scouts, penetrating to the savage camp, actually succeeded in seizing and carrying off an Indian girl, who revealed their purpose to fight.' Wayne was joined by eleven hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky. His force exceeded that of the Indians, which was about two thousand ; but the savages held a strong position near Fort Miami, which, though far within the American limits, was still held by a British garrison, from whom the Indians hoped to receive help.'' Their position was just north of the Maumee river, which empties into Lake Erie. Wayne advanced, and his men were eager for the fight ; but, remembering his instructions, he restrained them, and offered terms of peace. He received an ambiguous reply. His wily foes sought to lure him on. But on the morning of the 20th of August, 1794, his advance guard was fired into from ambush. This called out from Wayne an order for an immediate attack. His whole force bore down on the Indians, the mounted men assailing their flanks, while the infantry roused them from their lairs by strokes of the bayonet. They were soon routed and driven at all points, and with heavy loss, at least two miles from the field of battle. The pursuit was continued to tbe outworks of the British fort.^ Wayne reported : " We remained three days and nights on the banks of the Miami, in front of the field of battle, during which time all the houses and corn were consumed or otherwise destroyed for a considerable distance both above and below Fort Miami ; and we were within pistol shot of the garrison of that place, who were comj^elled to remain quiet spectators of this general devastation and confla- gration." This decisive overthrow led to a final treaty of peace with the Indians, by which their title was extinguished in extensive tracts of country west of the Ohio river.* The constitution provided that an actual enumeration of the people of the United States should be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress and within every subse- quent term of ten years, in such manner as should be provided for by law.^ The first census was taken in 1790, and another has been taken at the end of each period of ten years thereafter, the 1 Quackeubos' U. S., 322, 323. Eargleston's Household U. S., 219. 2 Irving, V. 207. 3 Wayne's Report. Irving, V. 208. « Stephens' Comp. U. S., 375. 5 Const. U. S., Art. I., sec. 2, clause 3. George Washington s Presidency. 55 1 subjects inquired into and reported having been constantly added to in species and interest. We are thus enabled to mark the pro- gress of the country. In 1790 the total population, in round numbers, was three mil- lion nine hundred and thirty thousand, of whom six hundred and ninety-eight thousand were slaves. This total had been reached in the period of one hundred and eighty-three years from the first settlement at Jamestown, in 1607, making an average of about twenty-one thousand five hundred for each year. But in 1800 the total population was five million three hundred and six thou- sand, showing an increase of one million three hundred and sev- enty-six thousand, or an average of one hundred and thirty-seven thousand six hundred in each year.' This proved that the country was beginning to bound forward with a vigor never before known. In the years 1789, 1790 and 1791, the yearly receipts from du- ties on goods and products imported did not exceed one million five hundred thousand dollars; but in 1792 these duties on im- ports reached the sum of three million four hundred and forty- three thousand dollars, showing an advance in business, which re- sulted from constantly growing confidence and prosperity ; and by the year 1800 the duties on imports amounted to more than nine million dollars. The total annual receipts into the treasury of the United States went up from an average of three million four hundred and three thousand dollars for each of the years 1789, 1790 and 1 79 1, to the sum of twelve million four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 1800.^ Such was the result of a good government and faithful administration. Discoveries and inventions of permanent value to the United States and the world went forward. In 1793, Capt. Robert Gray, in the ship Columbia Rediviva, of Boston, Massachusetts, was exploring the northern Pacific Ocean, and on the nth of May en- tered the vast mouth of the Columbia river, and went up as far as the expanded bay, seven miles wide, which is thirty miles from the ocean and which is yet I'egarded as the true mouth of the river.* This is the largest river that enters the Pacific from the American continent, and its discovery by Captain Gray and sub- sequent exploration by Lewis and Clark were potent factors in establishing the territorial claims of the United States. In 1793, Eli Whitney, a native of Alassachusetts, but long employed in teaching in the Southern States, invented the cotton-gin, by which the work of getting out the seed, once performed by hand and 1 Tables in Art. United States, Amer. Encyclop., XV. 784. 2 1 bid., 816. , » Art. Columbia River, Amer. Encyclop., V. 513. 552 A History of the United States of America. with tedious labor and delay, is expeditiously done by machinery, This greatly increased the production of cotton and the value of slave labor in the South. ^ Washington is well known to have been opposed to the slave- trade and the expansion of slavery by importation, and in favor of a system of gradual emancipation ; but he was equally opposed to all illegitimate interference of pseudo philanthropists with the recognized rights of slave-holders. He held that no power ex- isted in the Federal government to abolish slavery or to restrict its vested relations.^ Within less than a year after his inauguration the first attempt was made to induce the Congress to overleap the bounds of the constitution on the subject of slavery. This attempt was headed by a man no less eminent than Benjamin Franklin. His name was the first signed to a petition presented to the Congress on the 1 2th February, 1790, asking that body to adopt measures with a view to the ultimate abolition of African slavery as it then ex- isted in the respective States.^ But, happily, the Congress saw the question of right in its real proportions. After a thorough discussion, chiefly in the House of Representatives, on the 33d March, 1790, the following resolution was adopted : " That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emanci- pation of slaves, or in the treatment of them, within any of the States ; it remaining with the several States alone to provide any regulations therein which humanity and true policy may re- "4 quire. Benjamin Franklin died on the 17th April, 1790, at the advanced age of eighty- four years. His few errors, leaning to virtue's side, could not neutralize the sentiments of love and veneration which his countrymen cherished for him. The Northern vStates found slavery unprofitable and unsuited to their agricultural conditions. This led them to get rid of their slaves by sales to the Soutli and by systems of gradual emanci- pation. No imperative sense of duty impelled them. They had all held slaves, and their ships had been employed in the importa- tions from Africa and the West Indies. At the opening of the Revolution, in 1775, no State had indicated a purpose to destroy slavery within her bounds.^ But Vermont abolished slavery in 1777, before she became a State. Pennsylvania provided for grad- ual emancipation in 17S0. Massachusetts, in her constitution of 1 Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 172 (note). 2 irving's Washington, V. 298, 299. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 367. ''Annals of Congress, II. 1523-4. 6 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 367. Art. Slavery, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 710, 711. George Washington s Presidency. 553 1780, adopted a clause which her Supreme Court decided to have destroyed slavery. Rhode Island and Connecticut did the same from 1790 by gradual assumptions of freedom, though Rhode Island had five slaves and Connecticut seventeen in 1840. New York adopted graded emancipation in 1799 and New Jersey in 1804. In the Southern States, in which cotton, rice, tobacco and sugar- cane were cultivated, slavery continued to be profitable, and the white people regarded it as an institution sanctioned by law. Di- vine and human ; but requiring prudence, humanity and forbear- ance in order to its continuance, in consistency with Christian faith and life. The presidency of Washington was a time of serious strain to the institutions of his country. It had not been expected that any dangers would come from France, whose king had been the ally exercising a decisive influence in favor of American independ- ence, and whose people had become imbued with desires for civil freedom ; but from these very sources came the dangers. After the French people rose and overthrew the monarchy, they ^vould have prospered under a republic had it not been for the surrounding kingdoms, whose monarchs refused to tolerate a government of the people in their midst. Hence those persist- ent wars in which the young French republic was forced to em- bark, and in which she exerted so much of revolutionaiy fervor and might that she shattered the armies of her enemies on every side ; hence came the career of " the man of destiny," Napoleon Bonaparte ; and hence came those excesses, chiefly exhibited in Paris and the larger cities, which caused blood to flow in streams, and filled with horror the friends of humanit}' all over the civil- ized world. None of these excesses would have been committed by the people of France had they not been lashed into frenzy by the crusade against their liberties systematically carried on by the crowned heads of Europe. It could not have been expected that a mind born and trained in the school of regulated order, as that of Washington had been, should have looked with any feelings save of aversion and dis- approval upon the scenes through which France passed between 1789 and 1793. We cannot censure him for the reserved and pru- dent course of neutrality adopted by him. In 1792, under the constitution and laws, another election was held for electors to vote for President and Vice-President. Again Washington received all the votes, and could not refuse to com- ply with the unanimous call of his country. John Adams was also again elected Vice-President. i^^4 ^ History of tJie United States of America. It was under gloomy auspices, with a divided cabinet, growing party exasperation, a suspicion of monarchical tendencies, and a threatened decrease of popularity, that Washington entered, on the 4th of March, 1793, upon his second term as President.^ Very soon came news of the capital execution of Louis XVI., under sentence of the revolutionary assembly of France. Wash- ington remembered this unfortunate monarch with respect, as the sincere friend Amer. Encvclop., XV. 626. Quackenbos, 327. ^Irving's Washington, V. 2sr>. ^ Stephens, 382. Irving, V. 287. < Washington's letter, in Irving; V. 2SG. 574 -^ History of the United States of America. this matter, "acted under the urgent private advice of Washing- ton"^ is not only without foundation, but is contradicted by the ascertained facts of the case. But the result was so fortunate that it constitutes the happiest part of Mr. Adams' somewhat beclouded administration. When the three envoys reached Paris they found the Directory over- thrown, the Consulate established, and Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, wielding almost the power of a monarch, popular with all classes because of his brilliant military career and suc- cesses, and his ability to understand and control men. This great man regarded England as the inevitable enemy of France, and, with prophetic eye, saw in the United States the germ of a power which would counterbalance the influence of England in the Old and New Worlds. Pie received the Ameri- can envoys courteously, and in 1800 concluded with them a treaty of peace and amity, which settled nearly eveiy question then in dispute between the two nations.^ It was ratified by both gov- ernments. But before it was made, a greater — because a better — man than Napoleon Bonaparte had passed away from this world. George Washington died on the 14th of December, 1799. He died, not from decay or failure of his powers, but from acute disease of the throat and breathing apparatus, brought on by exposure to snow and rain.^ This event carried an emotion of sadness to the whole civilized world. Napoleon did honor to his memory in an address to the French iiation; * and he ordered that all standards and flags should be shrouded in black crape for ten days. John IMarshall, in the House of Representatives, delivered a brief eulogy and oftered resolutions of love and veneration, which were unani- mously adopted ; and, by a happy selection, Henry Lee, of Vir- ginia, the trusted companion-in-arms of Washington, was chosen by the Congress to make the funeral oration, and in it he trul}^ described his great chief as " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."^ This expression, so simple and so impressive, had been used, in substance, by John Alarshall in his resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives December 19th, 1799 ; ** but Henry Lee was the author of the expression and the writer of the resolu- tions, which, in his absence, were presented by Marshall.' 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 382. "- Ibid , 3S2, 383. 3 Irving-, V. 293-296. * In 1800. See Allison's Hist, of Europe, I. 445, 440. ^Derry'.s U. S., 177. Scudder, 277. Taylor's Centen. V. S., 2J0. 6 Stephens, 383. Swinton's U. S., 166. ? Amer. Encvclop. , X. 426. The Presidency of John Adams. £^75 The Congress at this session passed a resokition that a monu- ment of imj^osing proportions sliould be erected to the memory of Washington at the seat of the national government. This resohition — never forgotten, but sometimes neglected — has been carried out ; and the marble shaft in Washington city, towering nearly six hundred feet into the air, is the permanent memorial of the great man of America. By a compromise between North and South the Congress had voted, in 1790, that the seat of general governinent should be transfen-ed to Philadelphia, and should remain there ten years, and should then be transferred to a site on the Potomac between Maryland and Virginia, the district to be ten miles square, to be ceded by iNIaryland and Virginia, and to be called "The District of Columbia." The site was to be chosen by Washington, and the capital city called by his name. The cession of the ten miles square had been made accordingly, though Alexandria countv and city were afterwards, in 1847, re- troceded to Virginia by act of Congress acquiesced in by her. The city commenced its life "in the woods" in 1792, but grew slowly for some time. In December, iSoo, the government houses and the President's home in the new site were occupied. Airs. Adams, the Presi- dent's wife, on her journev during the summer from Baltimore to Washington was actually lost in the woods, and with her escort " wandered for two hours without finding a guide or path." In her own words : " Woods are all you see from Baltimore until you reach this city, which is so only in name." ^ In 1800 it had only three thousand inhabitants, and was then described as lying " in the midst of a wilderness, with here and there a small cottage, without a glass window, interspersed among the forests, through which you travel without seeing any human being." ^ For a long period it deserved the witty designation bestowed on it of " the city of magnificent distances ;" but it has become a large and very beautiful metropolis, with monuments, capitol buildings, scientific institutes, foreign diplomatic homes, and pri- vate residences worthy of the seat of government of a great nation. The questions arising out of the influx of foreigners, the con- troversies with France, and the growing licentiousness and vitu- peration of the public press had kindled warm feeling bet\veen political parties. President Adams, though learned and patriotic, 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 201. sQuackenbos' U. S., 328. 576 A History of the United States of America. was quick-tempered and keenly sensitive on the subject of his personal and official reputation. This led him to favor measures in the Congress which found their outcome in the passage of the notorious "Alien and Sedition Laws" in the session of 1798. The first of these was entitled " An Act concerning Aliens," and was approved by Mr. Adams on the 35th of June. It provided that it should be lawful for the President of the United States " to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds, to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the United States within such time as shall be expressed in such order." Other clauses provided penalties, and one gave the Pres- ident power, if in his opinion the public safety required a speedy removal, to cause any alien to be arrested and sent out of the country.^ The Sedition Act received Mr. Adams' sanction the 14th of July. It first forbade any combination or conspiracy to oppose or impede the government of the United States, or to intimidate its officers ; but the chief clause was one providing that if any person should write, or cause to be written, uttered or published, any " false, scandalous and malicious " writing against the general government or Congress or the President, with intent to bring them into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against them the hatred of the " good people " of the United States, or to stir up sedition, such person, on conviction in a United States court, should be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years ; but in defence, the accused might give in evidence the truth of his accusa- tion.^ These acts were odious to the Republicans and to many others who valued the free institutions of America. They were in real conflict with the principles on which the government of the United States rested. They were immediately assaulted by the press and in the legislatures of several of the States. In Virginia, resolutions strongly condemning them, written by James Madison, were passed, and a report was adopted, also written by him, which is so lucid and able in its exposition of the Federal constitution, and of the relation of the States and of the individual citizen thereto, that it has ever since been looked to as the purest fountain of wisdom and light on those subjects.' » Alien Act Resol. and Debates of Va., 214, 215. 2 Sedition Act, Resol. and Debates, 215, 216. ^Published with the " Resohitions." The Presidency of yohn Adams. 577 The Virginia resolutions declared that the " Alien and Sedition Laws" were unconstitutional. The vote in the House of Delegates was one hundred to sixty-three ; in the Senate fourteen to three. In November, 1798, Kentucky, by her legislature, passed even stronger resolutions, penned by Thomas Jefferson, condemning these laws, and declaring that the Sedition Act, " which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not laxu, but is altogether void and of no effect} But, besides Virginia and her daughter, Ken- tucky, no other State spoke openly against these laws. The Republicans were contending against fearful odds. All the legis- latures, except those of the two States above named, were against them ; the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the general government were against them ; the office-holders were against them ; and of the two hundred newspapers then pub- lished, at least one hundred and eighty were against them.^ Nevertheless they triumphed, because they stood on true American principles. These obnoxious laws were not permitted to sleep as brtitum fulmen — a mere threat. They were enforced with unsparing vigor. In Virginia, one James Thompson Callender, a foreigner by birth, and a man once apprehended under the " Vagrant Law," published on the ist February, iSoo, a pamphlet entitled "The Prospect Before Us," in which he exhausted all the treasures of vituperative language in abusing ]Mr. Adams and his measures, and even ventured to assail the name and memory of Washington himself.^ Judge Samuel Chase, of the United States Supreme Court, received at Annapolis, Maryland, a copy of the pamphlet from Luther Martin, who had read it and imderscored the libelous passages. Judge Chase examined it and said he would carry it with him to Richmond, Virginia, where he was soon to hold a circuit court, and that " if the Commonwealth of Virginia was not utterly depraved, or if a jury of honest men could be found there, he would punish Callender. He would teach the lawyers of Virginia the difference between the liberty and the licentious- ness of the press.* He opened his court in Richmond on the 22d of May, iSoo, and charged the grand jury specially as to the Sedition Law. They found an indictment against Callender. On this, the judge directed a capias to issue. This was a more vigorous process 1 Resol. and Debates, 64-G7. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 386. 3 MS. Indictment, U. S. vs. Callender. 4 Trial of Judge Chase on Impeachment, e^id. of John Thompson Mason and Judge Win- chester, 43, 63, 64. 37 57S A History of the United States of America. than was customary in Virginia in cases not capital ; yet the Senate of the United States afterwards vindicated the judge's course in using it.^ The marshal went forthwith to Petersburg, and on the 27th of May returned with the author, who was evidently alarmed and not a little concerned at " the prospect before " him. Three eminent Virginia lawyers, William Wirt, George Hay and Philip Norborne Nicholas, volunteered to defend him ; but Judge Chase refused to allow them to argue before the jury the consti- tutionality of the Sedition Law. lie said that was a matter for the court, and delivered an instruction sustaining the law. His course to the counsel was so little acceptable that jSIr. Wirt left the court, and the others were greatly embarrassed in their conduct of the case. The jury consisted entirely of Federalists. The marshal had summoned several Republicans, but, for various causes, they de- clined to serve. The verdict was "guilty." The sentence was that Callender should be fined two hundred dollars, imprisoned nine months, and give security for his future good behavior. Thus the law against which Virginia protested in 179S, and condemned as unconstitutional in 1799, was carried into force upon her soil. Yet there was so much in Callender's pamphlet that was offensive to public sentiment and taste, and he was per- sonally so little respected, that no attempt was directly made to nullify the sentence. But the people were more and more in- censed against the party in jDOwer. Other trials under the obnoxious laws resulted in signal oppres- sion. INIatthew Lyon, of Vermont, was the first victim. He was an Irishman by birth and extreme in his republicanism. Plis of- fences were that he called JNIr. Adams' speech on the state of the country, delivered at the opening of the session of Congi"ess, " the king's speech " ; and in a Vermont newspaper he wrote concern- ing the Federal executive, that "every consideration of the public welfixre was swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, an un- bounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation and selfish avarice." He wrote, also, concerning the day of fasting and prayer appointed by the President, that " the sacred name of reli- gion had been used as a State engine to make mankind hate and persecute each other." ^ • He was convicted under the Sedition Law, and sentenced to pay a fine of a thousand dollars and suffer four months' imprison- 1 MS. Papers in U. S. vs. Callender, Trial, 42-6'l, 2CS. Appen. 32. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 3S5. The Pf-esideiicy of yohn Adams. 579 ment. He was poor and unable to pay the fine. A private lot- tery of his property was contrived and the fine paid, but the unhappy printer of the paper which proposed the lottery was in- dicted, convicted and punished under the same revolting law ! While Lyon was in prison he was triumphantly elected to Con- gress ; and the fine and costs he had paid — one thousand and sixty dollars and ninety cents — with interest, were refunded to his heirs under an act of Congress of July 4th, 1840.' Under a clause of "Jay's treaty" with England, President Adams had surrendered, upon requisition of the British authori- ties, one Thomas Nash, an English sailor, charged with mutiny and murder, who, when arrested in Charleston, South Carolina, had assumed the name of Jonathan Robbins, and the character of an American seaman illegally impressed by the naval officers of Great Britain. For this act a series of stringent criticisms on Mr. Adams had been poured out by the Republican newspapers.^ Thomas Cooper, born in London in 1759, but who had made Pennsylvania his home, and died in South Carolina in 1840, was eminent as a natural philosopher, lawyer, writer and politician. In a Pennsylvania paper he denounced the action of Mr. Adams, as to "Jonathan Robbins," as being " without precedent, without law and against mercy," and as an act " which the monarch of Great Britain would have shrunk from."^ For this he was in- dicted under the Sedition Act, convicted and sentenced to im- prisonment for six months and a fine of four hundred dollars. Jared Peck, a well-known citizen of New York, was indicted for circulating a petition to Congress for the repeal of the "Alien and Sedition Laws," in which the odious features of those acts were strongly portrayed. The marshal arrested him in the pres- ence of his family, and he was carried to New York for trial. A historian, describing the scene, says : "A hundred missionaries of democracy, stationed between New York and Cooperstown, could not have done so much for the Republican cause as the journey of Judge Peck, as a prisoner, from Otsego to the capital of the State. It was nothing less than the public exhibition of a suffering mar- tyr for the freedom of speech and the press, and the right of peti- tioning, to the view of the citizens of the various places through which the marshal traveled with his prisoner."* The result of all these causes was an overwhelming tide of public opii:iion and sentiment against the Federalist party, and 1 Lvon's Case, Stephens, 3S5. 2 Art. Adams, Amer. Eucyclop., I. 97. Art. Marshall, Ihld., XI. 221. 3 Stephens, 385. Art. Cooper, Amer. Encyclop., V. 675. "^ < Stephens' Comp. U. S., 3^5, giving quotation as above. 580 A History of the United States of America. against Mr. Adams and his administration. The mould of the voting power of the United States became then fixedly demo- cratic, and it has never since changed. No party has ever ac- quired power which sought to restrict the freedom of the press or the rights of the individual citizen. In the popular vote for electors in the fall of iSoo, electors were chosen, who, early in 1801, voted as follows : for John Adams, sixty-five ; for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, sixty-five ; for John Jay, one, elected by Rhode Island. For Thomas Jefferson sev- enty-three votes were cast, and for Aaron Burr seventy-three. As Jefierson and Burr had the same number of votes, the election went to the House of Representatives, who, in February, 1801, threw thirty-five ballots successively without a choice. On the thirty-sixth ballot Thomas Jefferson received the votes of ten States, Aaron Burr of four, and two were in blank. Thomas Jefferson was elected President and Aaron Burr Vice-President for the four years from the 4th of JNIarch, iSoi.^ Thus John Adams and his party went out of power. It has by some been stated that the " Alien and Sedition Laws " were " repealed " by the successful party ; " but this is an error. By their own terms of limitation they expired — the Alien Law on the 25th June, iSoo, and the Sedition Law on the last day of President Adams' term of office.^ On the 31st of January, 1801, President Adams nominated John Marshall as Chief Justice of the United States. He had long confided in his simple grandeur of character, and in his accu- rate law learning. Moreover, in the "Jonathan Robbins " matter Marshall had made a speech in the House of Representatives defending the President's course, and reasoning on the facts and principles involved with a learning and logic so imanswerable that the great Republican leaders made no attempt to refute it. A high judicial authority has said of this speech, that it was " reponse sans repliguc — an answer so irresistible that it admitted of no reply." * The Senate promptly confirmed the nomination of Marsha-11 as Chief Justice, and thus for thirty-five years the United States were secure in the possession of a judicial sheet-anchor which held the nation safely to her moorings amid all political storms. It cannot be denied that, notwithstanding general progress, the prosperity of the country had been unfavorably affected by the events of Mr. Adams' presidency. The taxes were largely in- 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 3SG. Thalheimer, 204. Qiiackenbos, "2«. 2 Ex. Thalheinier's Eclec. U. S., 200. ^ Acts, in Resol. and Debates, 214-216. ■* Judge Story, in Art. Marshall, NewAmer. Encyclop., XI. 221. 77^6' Presidency of John Adams. 581 creased, and foreign trade and commerce were seriously injured by the complications with England and France. Foreign immi- gration was checked by the Alien Acts, one of which extended the period for naturalization to fourteen years ! and no new State was added diu-ing his term. But the country was preparing to bound forward with elastic power, all the greater for temporary repression. Anthracite coal had been discovered in Pennsylvania. Its value at first was so little understood that it was used for mending roads;' but its concentrated power for heat soon became known. The gi'eat "West" began also to be talked about by all, and to attract set- tlers in thousands. Between 1790 and 1800 the population of Ohio grew from almost nothing to forty-five thousand, that of Kentucky from seventy-four thousand to two hundred and twenty- one thousand, and that of Tennessee from thirty-six thousand to one hundred and six thousand.^ The number of post-offices during the same period rose from seventy-five to nine hundred and three ; the post-routes from one thousand nine hundred to twenty-one thousand miles, and the postal-revenue from thirty- eight thousand to two iiundred and thirty-one thousand dollars. At the time when Thomas Jefferson j^repared to enter the Presi- dent's house in Washington, John Adams retired to his large estate at Qiiincy, Massachusetts. These two eminent men had differed widely as to political questions ; yet they had been united in patriotic labors for the independence and happiness of their country. If they were estranged for a time, the alienation did not continue ; a friendly correspondence occurred between them ; and they died on the same day, the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of their country's independence. Jefferson died first, in his home at Monticello. A few hours later Adams uttered his last words : "Jefferson still lives " ; and in this belief he died. James Monroe, a subsequent President, died on the 4th of July, 1831. » Thalheimer, 201. ■ Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 135. CHAPTER XLVI. The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson. ^HOMAS JEFFERSON was the living embodiment of the 1 democratic ruler. He had mastered all the learning of the past as to the problems of human government. It is true that during actual invasions of Virginia he had not manifested mili- tary talent and vigor.' Very few men have united genius for war and genius for wise government. To Jefferson his country is indebted for the philosophy that rises higher than war. He had noted with regret a tendency to the stately forms and etiquette of monarchy in the manner in which Washington con- ducted the ceremonial part of his duties.'^ He discarded such forms as far as possible during his own presidency, and set an ex- ample of simple dignity worthy of a young, but growing, republic. He was inaugurated, with as little of parade and ostentation as was possible, on the 4th of March, 1801. Plain and homelike in dress, and affable in manner to all, he became the loved man of the people. Some of the Virginians who recollected the old aris- tocratic forms of the great landed proprietors, feared that his " leveling doctrines " would result in the marriages of the daugh- ters of gentlemen to " ovei'seers," who were the coarsest leaders of the Southern white people f but no descent in real excellence was experienced. It would have been well had his maxims and usages been always observed. He received a British embassador in dressing-gown and slippers. On first meeting Congress, he rode alone to the capitol, tied his horse to the paling, and entered unattended.* He declined to meet the two Houses of Congress in state and deliver his inessages as Washington and Adams had done. He sent them in writing by a messenger ; and the precedent of dem- ocratic directness thus inaugurated by him has not been departed from since his time.^ 1 Girardln, 336, 338, 390, 453. Henry Lee, 140, 143, 144. Jefferson's Works, I. 201, 202 ; IV. 39. - Irving's Washington, V. 8-19. And see Dr. J. M. Toner's publication of Wasliington's "Rules of Civility," pp. 17-19, etc. ^Art. Jefferson, New Amer. Eneyclop., IX. 768. *Thalheimer"s Elee. U. S., 205. Parton in Barnes, 156. 6 Stephens, 392. Amer. Eneyclop., IX. 767-769. [ 5S2 ] The Presidency of Thomas yefferson. 583 John Marshall, as Chief Justice, administered to him the oath of office. His inaugural address filled the hearts of nearly all classes with confidence and hope. He spoke of " this sacred principle that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable. The minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind ; let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things ; and let us reflect that, having banished from our land that reli- gious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody perse- cutions." ^ He added : " Every difference of opinion is not a difference of princijDle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. . . . We are all Republicans — we are all Fede- ralists. ... If there be any among us who would wish to dis- solve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opin- ion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. . . . I believe this to be the strongest government on earth. . . . Some- times it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to gov- ern him? Let history answer this question." The people were all enthusiastic in their approval of his ideas. John Leland, a farmer of Cheshire, Massachusetts, sent him a huge cheese weighing sixteen hundred pounds.^ Though the Sedition Law expired with the term of the pre- ceding President, it left some bitter roots behind, because it had jDrovided that j^rosecutions might still continue for acts committed while it was in force.* Some of Jeff'erson's earlist acts were to release all from fines and imprisonment convicted under it, and to forbid all future prosecutions ; and imder his influence Con- gress repealed the act requiring fourteen years for natvu'alization, and reduced the period to five years. They also passed an act applying seven million three hundred thousand dollars annually as a sinking fund to the public debt, and an act reducing army expenses.* 1 Address, quoted by Stephens, 389, 390. 2 Holmes' U. S., (note) 171. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 392. * lUd., 392. 584 -A History of the United States of America. Under Jefferson, James Madison was Secretary of State, Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, Secretary of War ; Levi Lincoln, Attorney-General, succeeded by Robert Smith, John Brecken- ridge and Caesar A. Rodney. Samuel Dexter, appointed by Mr. Adams, was continued as Secretary of the Treasury, and Benja- min Stoddert as Secretary of the Navy. Albert Gallatin, a na- tive of Switzerland, and a man of great and varied talent, was afterwards Secretary of the Treasury. Jefferson, not feeling en- tire confidence in the treasury administration of Alexander Ham- ilton, directed that the records and transactions of his dav should be thoroughly overhauled and scrutinized. This was done, and Gallatin reported that all was right ; that no improvement could be made, for that Hamilton had " made no blunders and committed no frauds." ^ Jefferson's residence in France and careful study of men and events there enabled him to keep up a secret correspondence, wdiich was of lasting advantage to his o^vn country. In 1803 he received information of a treaty, made in iSoo, between France and Spain, not then promulgated, but one article of which ceded Louisiana and all her dependent territories and rights to France. This was an opportunity for securing the free navigation of the Mississippi and a permanent depot at its mouth, which such a mind as Jefferson's instantly seized on.^ He sent out James Monroe as special envoy to unite with Robert R. Livingston, who was the American minister at Paris. They opened their negotiation in the very crisis of events which made it successful. Napoleon had determined on establishing a formidable military colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, whence he could strike Spain, Great Britain or the United States, as his ambitious plans might require. General Bernadotte (after- wards King of Sweden) was preparing to sail for Louisiana with twenty thousand troops, and the American minister had objected in vain.* But a change came. On the 3d of August, 1S03, Napoleon became Consul for life, and three millions of French votes con- firmed his power. He united Elba, Piedmont and the Duchy of Parma to Finance in rapid succession. England became alarmed, and prepared for war. Napoleon, on the 3ist of March, 1S03, obtained a soiatiis eonsiiltit/n, which placed one hundred and twenty thousand conscripts at his command. He felt able to deal with his enemy on the land ; but he needed money, and England 1 Thalheiraer's Eclec. U. S., 205. - Quackenbos, 323. Holm3s, 171, 172. Stephens, 392. Derry, 178. 3 Quackenbos' U. S., 329, 3o0. TIic Presidency of Thomas yefferson. 585 was supreme on the ocean. He knew that she had only to send a fleet to the mouth of the Mississippi, and Louisiana would be lost to France. Qiiick as lightning, his powerful mind reached its conclusion. He let the American ministers know that he was willing to sell and to cede Louisiana to the United States. The treaty was con- cluded on the 30th April, 1803. By it France ceded Louisiana to the United States, in consideration of fifteen millions of dol- lars, of which amount eleven million two hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars were paid in money, and three million seven hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars were retained to be paid by the United States in satisfaction of claims of her citizens for pre- vious spoliations of France upon ships, property and commerce.^ It is not a creditable fact that these " French claims " remained unpaid by the country to her citizens up to the year 1891, though constant eflbrts have been made to obtain such payment. A-n act of Congress for their payment has at length been passed. It was gravely doubted by many acute minds in America whether such a treaty as that for the purchase of Louisiana was within the constitutional power of the executive department, and even whether the Congress could authorize it.'^ But the advantages were so manifest that these doubts speedily evaporated. The purchase was fair. The vSenate ratified the treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven, and the House concurred in an act for carrying it into efiect by a vote of ninety to twenty-five. The acquisition added more than a million of square miles to the territory of the United States, and more than doubled the area of their original limits. And Napoleon shared the satisfaction of Jefferson and his country. The life Consul said: "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States, and I have given to England a maritime rival that will, sooner or later, hum- ble her pride." ^ On the 31st of October, 1803, a territorial government for the whole ceded region was perfected. The southern part was called the Territory of Orleans ; the other part retained the name of Louisiana. On the 20th of December the United States, by her oflicers, took formal possession. Jeff'erson and his adniinistration became more and more popular. He delayed not to provide for exploring and examining this new world gained by his successful diplomacy. In 1804, he sent out 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 393. 2 Holmes' U. S., 172. Amer. Encyclop., IX. 765. Prof. Johnston, 139, 140. 3 Stephens Comp. U. S., 393. Sciidder's U. S., 280. £586 A History of the United States of America. Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke, with a small party, and with instructions chiefly drawn up by the President's own hand. They spent two years and four months in their journey- ings, ascending the Missovu'i river, crossing the Rocky Mountains, discovering two rivers which have since borne their names, and which, uniting, form the Columbia, down which they passed to the Pacific. They explored much country beyond even the wide bounds of the Louisiana lands ceded to the United States. They reached the then small village of St. Louis, on the Missouri, September 33, 1806. Their safe arrival was heralded with joy through the coimtry. Congress granted lands to them and their men. Lewis was made Governor of Missouri Territory, and Clarke general of its militia and Indian agent.^ Their narratives filled the minds of men with wonder at the scenes, soil, prairies, mountains, and rivers explored by them. They met with some Indian tribes so low dow^n in the scale of ethics that their habits could be described only in a dead lan- guage. The settlement of the West went on with redoubled speed. Ohio had been sufficiently filled in 1802 with people from New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia to claim the position of a State, and was admitted to the Union on the 19th of Feb- ruary, 1803.* The policy of the United States towards the Indians was be- coming settled. In 1803, in accord with an agreement made the previous year, Georgia ceded to the United States nearly one hundred thousand square miles of territory between the Chatta- hoochee and Mississippi rivers, being the region now covered by the States of Alabama and Mississippi. The United States agreed to pay to Georgia one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and to extinguish the Indian title in all that portion of the ceded territory occupied by the aborigines.^ At the session of 1803, Congress proposed an amendment to the constitution, requiring electors to designate the person voted for as Pi'esident, and the one voted for as Vice-President. This was passed by two-thirds of both houses, and ratified by all the States except Connecticut, Delaware and Massachusetts. It pre- vented, for the future, such danger of anarchy as had manifested itself in the struggle between Jefferson and Burr.* In November, 1804, articles of impeachment were presented by the House against Samuel Chase, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the associate justices of 1 Art. Lewis, Amer. Eucyclop., X. 487, 4S8. Scudder, 280, 281. - Stephens, 394. Amer. iEucvelop. D. B. Scott inaccurately dates it November 4th, 1802. 2 Stephens, 393. Derry, 179. ■• Amendment XII. Stephens, 394. The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson. 587 the Supreme Court, for alleged official misconduct and oppi^ession in the trials of Callender, Fries, and others. John Randolph of Roanoke was the leader in the prosecution. Chase was defend- ed with consummate ability by Luther Martin, Charles Lee, and other counsel. A majority of the Senate voted against him on some points, but no charge was sustained by a vote of two-thirds. Therefore he was acquitted.^ He was a sincere man, but irascible and overbearing. The yielding of the United States to the exactions of Algiers, had encouraged others of the piratical Barbary powers. The Pacha of Tripoli was active in outi^age, sending out his corsairs, and seizing upon American merchantmen ; but, as something like the beginning of a navy had been collected, Jefferson deter- mined, if practicable, to chastise these outlaws. War was declared against Tripoli in June, iSoi.'' In 1803, Commodore Preble, with a considerable American fleet entered the Mediterranean. The frigate Philadelphia., under Captain Bainbridge, while chasing a pirate ship, ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli. She was surrounded by a swarm of enemies and commanded by the guns of the citadel, and forced to surren- der. Bainbridge and his crew of three hundred officers and men were carried ashore and reduced to slavery.* But the pirates were not long to enjoy the captured ship. Lieut. Stephen Decatur planned an attack, which he accomplished in a small schooner, captured from the Tripolitans and called the Intrepid., with seventy-six brave men. Pretending to be crippled and in distress, his vessel was warped alongside the Philadelphia on the night of February 15th, 1804. Instantly the assailants leaped aboard. Midshipman Charles Morris leading, and Decatur nearly by his side. The attack was so sudden and impetuous that all the pirate crew who were not killed sprang overboard, and made for the shore. It was impossible to move the Philadelphia., one of her masts being down and not a sail ready. She was set on fire with bags of shavings, dipped in turpentine. She was very dry, and burned so furiously that it was with difficulty the captors in the Intrepid escaped the flames. Though a heavy fire was opened from the shore, they came off' without the loss of a man.* No deed more daring and successful had been done in naval warfare. Commodore Preble brought uj) his ships and bombarded Tripoli several times, inflicting severe loss ; but it is doubtful whether J Chase's Trial, 172. Stephens, 394. = D. B. Scott, 242, 419. 3 Scott's U. S., 242. Goodrich, 313. Derry, 180. *Art. Decatur, Amer. Eneyclop., VI. 322. 588 A History of the United States of America. he could have brought the outlaw Bey to terms but for a danger approaching in another quarter. Yusef, the reigning Bey, had usurped the throne in violation of the rights of his older brother Hamet, who fled to Tunis. Eaton, the American consul there, promptly sought to aid Hamet in regaining the throne. They commenced their long march of nearly a thousand miles, at the head of a small force of sev- enty seamen and a body of Egyptian soldiers. They cap- tured the town of Derne on the way. Their numbers increased, and as they approached Tripoli, disaffection to the usurper more and more prevailed. Yusef became alarmed, and offered to treat with the American commissioner, Mr. Lear. Commodore Samuel Barron had succeeded Preble in command of the squadron, and had aided in the capture of Derne, and pressed the war with vigor.' In the summer of 1S05, a treaty of peace was made, under which Bainbridge and all other American captives were released, and Tripoli agreed to abstain from piracies on American vessels ; but she continued her sea robberies until 1S16, when a formid- able British naval demonstration brought her finally to terms, by which the Bey renounced piracy and agreed to treat all future prisoners according to the most humane laws of nations.^ Thomas Jefferson's first term had been one of signal success. Every department of the country's life had been prosperous. No one else was thought of as President ; but Aaron Burr was no longer looked to as Vice-President. This brilliant, but godless and unprincipled, man had been candidate for the governorship of New York in 1S04. Many of the old Federalists supported him ; but Alexander Hamilton dis- trusted him thoroughly, wrote against him, worked against him, and defeated him.* Burr determined on revenge. He was per- fect with nearlv ever weapon. The circumstances are said to have been complicated by a temporary love infatuation of Ham- ilton.* Of course, it was not difficult to find, in what Hamilton had said and written, ground for a challenge to mortal combat. Burr sent such a challenge. Hamilton disapproved of duelling, and has left behind him a sad testimonial that in accepting the challenge he did violence to his own higher moral convictions, and yielded only to the opin- ions of the world.* The hostile meeting took place July nth, 1804, at Weehawken, on the Jersey shore, nearly opposite to New 1 Holmes' U. S., 172, 173. - Art. Tripoli, Amer. Eucyclop., XV. C04. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 306. ■• Art. in " Eispatch," Dec, 18£0. & Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 208. Art. Hamilton, Amer. Encyclop., VIII, 677. The Presidency of Thomas yefferson. 589 York. Hamilton is said to have tired into the air, but Burr's bullet took efiect, inflicting a mortal wound.' Though no prosecution followed this act, Aaron Burr was a ruined man. He resigned the vice-presidency, and made no ef- fort to secure a i-enomination.^ In the election of 1804 electors were chosen, who elected Thomas Jefierson President and George Clinton, of New York, Vice-President. They received one hun- dred and sixty-two electoral votes ; the opposing candidates, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King, received only fourteen votes. Jefferson was inaugurated for his second term on the 4th of March, 1805. In April, Burr went to the Southwest, and engaged in en- terprises the object and extent of which have never been fully known. He was an able, restless and ambitious schemer. The United States government were informed of his movements, and Air. Jefferson regarded them with so much of suspicion that he caused him to be arrested at Memphis, now in Tennessee, and carried to Richmond, Virginia, where he was indicted in the United States Circuit Court upon a charge of treason, and also of organizing an armed expedition to violate the neutrality of the United States by overthrowing the Spanish rule in Mexico, and becoming himself the sovereign of that province when erected into a State. Chief-Justice Alarshall presided at the trial. It commenced on the 23d of ]May, 1807, and was ended by the delivery of an opin- ion by the judge on the 20th of October, under which the prose- cution broke down. The charges could not be proved, and Burr was acquitted.^ The chief intei"est of the facts centred on the life of Harman Blennerhasset ; his beautiful island home in the Ohio river, near Marietta ; the intrigues of Burr to inveigle him into his plots ; the attempt of a Virginia oi^cer to arrest him ; and the brave op- position of his wife, who, armed with a pistol in each hand, drove off' the officer.* Blennerhasset escaped to Bermuda, and practiced law there as late as 1836. William Wirt, counsel in the Burr jDrosecution, made these events the subject of one of the most eloquent and effective passages of his great speech therein. Burr returned to the practice of his profession — the law ; but public confidence in him never returned. Ilis life was obscure, and he died in poverty in the year 1036, having reached the eightieth year of his age. 1 Thalheimer, 208. D. B. Scott, 243. 2 Art. Burr, Amer. Eocyclop., IV. 138. 3 Amcr. State Papers, I. 4SG-C45. * Quackenbos, 332, 333. Wirt's speech in the trial. <,go A History of the United States of America. President Jefferson's second term was as troubled and dis- quieted as the first had been bright and successful. The wars in Europe projected their dark shadows over America, and the two principal belligerents continuously violated her neutral rights and inflicted heavy losses on her commerce and merchant ships. England asserted the right to search all ships in which she had " probable cause " to believe either that there were British seamen bound to serve her or articles of merchandise made contraband by her own regulations. Each of these exactions led her into conflict with the United States, who steadily and consistently asserted that every subject of a foreign sovereignty had the right to renounce allegiance to such sovereignty and to become an American citizen. On the 23d June, 1807, the United States frigate Chesapeake, of thirty-eight guns, sailed from Hampton Roads for the JMedi- terranean, under command of Captain Gordon, and having aboard Commodore James Barron, who had command of the squadron. Some correspondence had occurred between the British Vice- Admiral Berkeley, commanding the West India fleet, the Amer- ican Navy Department, the British consul in Norfolk and Com- modore Barron as to several seamen said to be deserters from the British frigate jSIclampus and to be aboard the Chesapeake. This ought to have made Barron especially careful to be prepared for any violence, but it seems to have had no effect except to produce the impression that the matter was all settled. The British frigate Leopard, of fifty guns, Captain Humph- reys, preceded the Chesapeake to sea by a few hours, and, at 3 P. M., came down on her weather-quarter and hailed, stating that she had a message for Commodore Barron. It was noticed that her lower deck ports -were triced up, and the tompions out of her guns. An officer came aboard the Chesapeake and exhibited an order from Admiral Berkeley that his ships should "search for desert- ers " aboard of her. Barron's reply was that he knew of no de- serters, and that his orders forbade him to permit his crew to be mustered except by their own officers.^ As soon as the boat returned. Captain Humphreys, from the Leopard, commenced a heavy fire on the Chesapeake. She was utterly unprepared for battle, having a raw crew, her decks lit- tered with cables, stores and furniture, and, though the guns were loaded, rammers, wads, matches, gun-locks and powder-horns were all wanting. The Leopard continued to fire. The Chesa- peake was struck by twenty-one heavy shot. Three of her crew 1 Art. Barron, Amer. Encyclop., II. 671. The Presidency of Tho7nas ycfferson. i^()X were killed and eighteen wounded. Among the latter was Com- modore Barron himself. He ordered the flag of his ship to be lowered. The Leopa7-d refused to accept the surrender, but sent a boat aboard and took out of her four men claimed to be de- serters. The Chesapeake, in a disabled condition, returned to Hampton Roads the same evening.^ When these events became known, a wave of vengeful excite- ment passed over the country like an electric storm. Immediate war against England was demanded. An order was promptly issued requiring all British war-ships to leave the ports and waters of the United States. A demand for redress was made upon England. She was deliberate in her reply, taking time to ascer- tain the facts. She Anally answered, in iSii, that Admiral Berkeley had exceeded his authority ; that she did not claim the right to search the ships of war of another nation, and that she would make money reparation to the United States for the dam- age done, and to the families of the men killed, and to those wounded in the aflair. Berkeley was superseded and Humphi-eys was never afterwards publicly employed.^ But, immediately after the outrage, troops were ordered to Nor- folk, and the Congress made appropriations for the support of a large land and naval force.^ Commodore Barron was tried by a court-martial, who acquitted him of all defect in firmness and courage, but found against him on the charge of " neglecting, on the probability of an engagement, to clear his ship for action," and sentenced him to suspension for five years without pay or emoluments. These events were the real cause of the alienation between Decatur and Barron, which terminated in a duel be- tween them at Bladensburg, March 22 d, 1S20, wherein both fell, as was supposed, mortally \vounded ; but only Decatur died. Bar- ron recovered after months of suffering. He held important com- mands in the latter years of his life.* To understand the events of the closing years of Jefferson's presidency, the student must bear in mind that they were unpre- cedented in the life of the world. Europe was convulsed by a war, in which Napoleon bore down all his enemies except Russia and Great Britain. He was specially anxious to disable the Brit- ish power at sea, where England had been practically supreme, and to cut her down in her commerce and wealth, which wei'e so great that they enabled her to sustain the hard-pressed conti- nental monarchies ; and her imperative need of seamen almost 1 New Amer. Encyclop., II. 671. Stephens, 307. Goodrich, 318. 2 Art. Barron, Amer. Enovclop., II. 671. Quaekenbos, 33.'). Goodrich, 319, 321. SGoodrich's U. S., 318, 319. '•Amer. Encvclop., II. 671. 592 A History of the United States of America. forced England to her policy of " press gangs " and her measures of search and impressment. By "orders in council," the British government had declared all vessels engaged in conveying West India pi-oduce from the United States to Europe legal prizes. In May, iSo6, further "orders in council" were issued, declaring European ports which were controlled by French -power and which extended eight hun- dred miles along the coast from Brest to the Elbe to be in a state of blockade. These " orders " were intended to work damage to France by cutting off her supplies of food, fruit and needed goods ; but they worked the most cruel injury to the United States, M'hose ships were more largely engaged in the carrying trade than any others.^ Napoleon did not delay to retaliate, and he was equally unjust to neutrals. By his "Berlin decree," issued 3ist November, iSo6, he forbade the introduction of any English goods into any port of Europe, even by vessels of neutral powers, and closed the harbors of all of Europe controlled by him against any vessel that should touch at an 'English port. The English followed this by " orders in council," November nth, 1807, declaring the whole coast of Europe in a state of blockade. To this Napoleon rejoined by his "Milan decree," of December 17th, 1807, confiscating not only the vessels and cargoes reached by the previous " Berlin de- cree," but also all such as should submit to be searched by the English. Never in modern times and among Christian nations have the maxims that " might makes right " and that " law is silent in war" been carried further. England had led off in this policy of outrage, and, as she commanded the seas, American merchantmen and commerce suffered from her in cases beyond enumeration.'' But what was to be the remedy of the United States? To declare war against the two colossal powers then battling in Eu- rope would have been preposterous. Jefferson may have known that the management of a war was not his element of power ; and he knew what war was, and he earnestly desired to avoid it for his country. His policy was not to maintain a large and expensive navy, but to defend the harbors of the United States by " gun-boats " very strong, heavily armed, easily equipped, and manned at small cost.^ 1 Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 143, 144. Stephens, 390. Taylor's Centen. U. S.,, 255, 256. Hohnes, 174. Scott, 419. The dates assigned diiier. 2 J. Feniraore Cooper, in his " Miles Wallingford" and " Afloat and Ashore," gives a life- like acconnt of them. , 3 Enquirer, June 25th, 1813. The Presidency of Thomas yefferson. 593 He advised, also, as a counter-measure to the "orders in coun- cil " of England and " decrees " of the French emperor, the adoption by America of the policy of "embargo." His views w^ere approved by Congress, and sought to be carried out by the act of December 23d, 1807. It was not without precedent ; for in 1794 Congress had laid an "embargo" for sixty days on all vessels in American ports to obstruct the supply of provisions to the British forces in the West Indies/ But the act of December, 1807, was more discriminating, and intended to have a more lasting elTect. It forbade the departure from the ports of the country of all vessels except foreign armed ships with public commissions, or foreign merchant ships in bal- last, or with such cargo only as they might have on board when notified of the act. All coasting vessels were required to give bonds to land their cargoes only in the United States. Mr. Jefferson's policy was that, during these complicated war- troubles in the Old World, the people of the Unitecl States should live on their own resources. He knew the abounding natural wealth of the country, the fertility of its soil, the facilities for the primitive manufactui'es, the ease with which adequate food, clothing and shelter would be obtained by all. He believed that by arresting ship-building and the carrying business for a season in America, the two belligerent powers in Europe, who had so unjustly and unlawfully used their brute force to violate the rights of neutral nations, would be the greatest sufferers by their ow^n outrages ; for the United States were really then the only neutral nation having facilities for this business, and England and France both needed the supplies of food, lumber, lead, cotton and other produce from which the "embargo" would cut them off'. But the people of New England refused to give the " embargo " policy a fair trial. Because it interfered with their immediate profits, hoped for in continuing the carrying trade with all its risks, they raised a clamor against it which was not relaxed during the whole term of its existence. They were not willing to sub- mit to the self-denial of keeping their ships at home for a time or employing them only in the coasting trade. The damage of arresting free carrying had already been done by the illegal acts of England and France. They had, in substance, annihilated the trade of America with the best parts of Europe and the West Indies. Her trade with other regions of the world was small. Jefferson believed, to the last day of his grand and useful life, that if the " embargo " policy had been carried out by the United lArt. Embargo, Amer. Encyclop., VII. 117. 38 594 ^ History of the United States of America. States rigidly and in good faith, England and France would have seen the error of their ways and abandoned their outrages on the rights of neutrals, and that the subsequent war with England would have been avoided.^ A very able modern historian, detailing the complaints of New England and other malcontents, and the disparaging comments of English authors and their European sympathizers, has devoted a whole volume to the second term of President Jefferson, a large part of which seems to be permeated by the purpose of censuring and depreciating his policy ; ^ but the effort is vain until it can be shown what would have been the effect on the final prosperity of the country and on her relations with foreign states that would have been produced by a faithful and honest upholding and ob- servance of his " embargo " policy. Such upholding and observance were never accorded to it, although it was " the law of the land." It was broken and evaded whenever the opportunity came ; and it was openly abused and vituperated. Before the expiration of his second term, President Jefferson received information, from a source which he considered entitled to credit, that the dissatisfaction of the New England States with the " embargo " policy was so great that they would withdraw from the Union if it was persisted in.' He believed in the reserved sovereignty of the States, and in the right of secession for adequate cause ; and he earnestly desired harmony. More- ovei". Napoleon had intimated willingness to relax his decrees as to American vessels. The President advised a modification. Accordingly Congress, on the 27th of Februar}', 1809, passed an act repealing the "Em- bargo Law," but enacting non-intercourse with England and France until their policy should be changed. This law was to take eflfect after the conclusion of the next session of Congress.* Mr. Jeft'erson had announced his fixed purpose not to be a can- didate for a third term. It has been frequently asserted that the Republican party had so dwindled under his second term that he could not have been again elected ; but no facts justify this belief. His own convictions as to a third term coincided with those of Washington. The dissatisfaction was confined to New England and some parts of the Middle States. The others, and especially the Southern States, were still strongly Republican, and, in fact, lArt. Embargo, Araer. Encyclop., VII. 117. Jefferson's Writings. Thalheimer's Ecleo. U.S., 209. 2 Hist, of the U. S. of America during the Second Administration of Thomas Jefferson, by Henry Adams, 1S90. 8 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 398. Deny, 182. ■'Amer. Encyclop., VII. 117. The Presidency of llionias yefferson. ^95 contained a great "war party," who desired a declaration of war against England.^ The prevalence of a strong public feeling favoring this party was manifested in the election of 1808— '9. Electors were chosen, who cast one hundred and twenty-two votes for James Aladison as President, aiid one hundred and thirteen for Clinton as Vice- President. They were the Republican candidates. Only forty- seven votes were cast for Pinckney and King, the opposing candi- dates ; and only five States — New Hampshire, Alassachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware — voted for them." Thus it appears that if Thomas Jefferson was not able to bring to a satisfactory close the troublous questions affecting his country, especially in her foreign relations, and was compelled to leave them to his successor, it was because a condition of war and per- turbation existed in Europe entirely unpi"ecedented, and which no human wisdom could either have foreseen or controlled. He retired to Monticello, and employed himself during the rest of his life in agriculture, in study, in correspondence, and in suc- cessful exertions to establish " The University of Virginia." His terms of presidential service may be considei^ed as substan- tially covering the decade from 1800 to 1810, and were a period of eminent progress and prosperity to his country. As to her territor}', he had added an empire of untold natural wealth. A rich and prosperous State had been brought into the Union. In 1807, Robert Fulton, a native of Pennsylvania, liberally aided by Chancellor Livingston, of New York, had solved the problem of applying the power of steam to navigation. His first steamboat, the " C/rr/z/ow/," with rude engine and side wheels, on the 2d of September, 1807, ran from New Vork to Albany in thirty-six hours ! The usual time in sloops had been from six to ten days. For several years the Hudson river could boast of the only steam- boat in the world.^ Fulton had furnished the idea and its reali- zation, which have since conquered the rushing torrents of the American rivers, and been applied to thousands of ships, public and private, that navigate all waters of the earth. During the same decade the population went up from five mil- lion three hundred and five thousand nine hundred and thirty- seven to seven million two hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and fourteen ; and although the number of slaves had also gone up from eight hundred and ninety-three thousand and forty- one to one million one hundred and ninety-one thousand three 1 Holmes' U. S., 175. 2 Stephens' Corap. U. S., 398. s Quackenbos' U. S., 337. D. B. Scott's U. S., 244. 596 A History of the United States of America. hundred and sixty-four, yet Mr. Jefferson's administration is en- titled to the honor of finally ending the African slave-trade. In 1808 it was forbidden by act of Congress, to which the President cordially assented. Notwithstanding all adverse influences, the exports had in- creased six fold in sixteen years, and had reached one hundred and eight million dollars. Sixty-two million pounds of cotton w^ere exported in a year. The epitaph placed on the monument which marks the grave of Jefferson states that he was the author of the " Declaration of Independence," of the " statute for religious freedom in Virginia," and the father of the "Univcrsit}^ of Virginia." ^ The w^orld has known no truer and abler friend of civil and religious freedom than he was. » Quackenbos' U. S., 336. Stephens, 398. CHAPTER XLVII. The Presidency of James Madison. — Second War with Great Britain. THE administration of James Madison, covering two terms — eight years — from March 4th, 1809, to March 4th, 18 17, was a very eventful period of American history. Although, after coming to the helm, he did what he could to steer the ship of state clear of the breakers of war, yet success for his efforts could hardly have been expected. It is true that, in 181 1, Mr. Foster, the British minister, made known the final decision of his government in the case of the Chesapeake and Leopard, which was, in substance, satisfactory, and which did something to allay the war feeling ; but England continued her aggressions, searches, impressments and captures. It has been estimated that as many as nine hundred American vessels were seized by her between 1803 and 1811, and that at least six thou- sand American seamen were impressed by her and foixed to serve in her ships of war.^ She relied on her naval power as irresist- ible, and used it with unscrupulous persistence until she received a check which has never since been imheeded or forgotten. President IMadison chose as his first cabinet officers : Robert Smith, of IMaryland, Secretary of State ; Albert Gallatin con- tinued as Secretary of the Treasury ; William Eustis, of Massa- chusetts, Secretary of War ; Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina, Secretary of the Navy, and Cjssar A. Rodney, of Delaware, con-, tinned as Attorney-General.^ Very soon after Madison entered upon his duties, Mr. Erskine, the British minister at Washington, gave assurances that the "or- ders in council " would be annulled. The President, somewhat hastily, issued a proclamation, April 19th, 1809, suspending, as to England, the " Non-Intercourse Law " after the loth of June fol- lowing ; but hardly had the people begun to enjoy this good news before the President was informed by the British govern- ment that Mr. Erskine had exceeded his powers, and his assu- rances were unauthorized. Forthwith a second proclamation 1 Horace E. Scudder's U. S., 289. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 213, 214. sstephenss' Comp. U. S.. 399. [ 597 ] 598 A History of the United States of America. from the President countermanded the first. Mr. Erskine was recalled, and a Mr. Jackson accredited as minister, who speedily made himself so offensive and obnoxious that President Aladison, through his State Department, ceased to hold intercourse with him, and demanded his recall.^ In contrast with this ungracious course of England and her agents was the conduct of Napoleon. His minister, in 18 10, in- formed the United vStates government that the "Berlin and Milan decrees" were revoked, and would cease to have effect on the ist of November of that year.^ There being no doubt in this case, the President issued his pro- clamation restoring intercourse with France. He urged upon England a revocation of her " orders," in view of the course of her pow^erful enemy ; but upon specious pleas the " orders in council " were continued, and British armed ships ^vere stationed off' the coast before the jDrincipal American harbors to capture outcoming vessels bound for France.^ These injuries and insults, continued against all efforts to ob- tain justice, greatly increased the " war spirit " in the United States. An event occurred which operated upon both nations, and with a presage difTerent from that of the Chesapeake and Leopard. In May, 181 1, Commodore John Rodgers, while lying off An- napolis in his flag-ship, The President., of forty-four guns, re- ceived tidings that a seaman had been impressed from an American brig off' Sandy Hook by an English frigate. He sailed without delay, and on May i6th, when a few leagues south of New York, discovered a vessel of war, to which he gave chase, showing American colors from his own ship. At 8 : 30 p. M. he came within hail, and made the usual inquiry : " What ship is .that? " No answer was returned. But in a short time the same inquiry came from the other ship, followed by a shot, which struck the mainmast of The President. Rodgers instantly an- swered with a broadside. An engagement ensued, but soon ended, it being made evident that the attacking ship was dis- abled. T]ie President ceased her fire, and, again hailing, got an answer that the other was a " British ship of war." Commodore Rodgers gave the name of his own ship, hoisted lights, and re- mained by till daylight, when he boarded the stranger and found she was the British war-ship Little Belt, of twenty-two guns, commanded by Captain Bingham. She was severely cut up, and 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 401. ^ Ibid., 402. 3 Stephens, 402. D. B. Scott's U. S., 247. The Presidency of yames Aladison. 599 thirty-one of her crew were killed and wounded ; yet she sul- lenly declined assistance, and the two ships parted.^ As might have been expected, the accounts of this affair dif- fered, especially as to which ship fired the first shot ; but the American version is so corroborated that it must be accepted as history. The war spirit rose higher in the United States. It was sustained by such men as Henry Clay, of Kentucky ; John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheeves and William Lowndes, of South Carolina. James IMonroe, of the State Department (who had succeeded Roloert Smith), favored it. Gallatin was opposed to it, and ^Villiam Pinckney, who had succeeded Rodney as At- torney-General, was of opinion that the country was unprepared for war ; but the Democrats assured Mr. Madison that unless he adopted an active war policy he could not expect their support in the next canvass for the presidency.^ He summoned Congress to meet on the 4th of November, 181 1. On the 8th AjDril, 1813, Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a State. On the 30th May, Mr. Foster, the British minister resident at Washington, gave the zdtimation of his government as to the qviestions in controversy. This, with all other papers relative thereto, was sent to Congress by the President on the ist of June, with a message submitting the question whether the wrongs justly complained of should still be borne, or whether the United States should resort to war.^ These papers w^ere referred to the Committee on Foreign Rela- tions, of which Calhoun was chairman. They reported in favor of a declaration of war. It was discussed for several days with closed doors. An act declaring war against Great Britain was passed by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-nine in the House of Representatives and of nineteen to thirteen in the Senate, and was approved by the President on the i8th of June, 1812 ; * and so the second war with England commenced. It continued for nearly three years ; for, although peace was concluded by a treaty at Ghent on the 34th December, 1814, some bloody battles on land and sea took place after the treaty and before the bel- ligerent forces were notified thereof. Five days after this declaration England revoked her " orders in council." Had she been more prompt in this simple act of justice, she might have averted the war ; but she was engaged in her ti'emendous struggle with Napoleon, and seemed blind to all else. 1 Art. Ro(l;?ers, Amer. Eacyclop., XIV. 129. Stephens, 402. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 402. ^ Amer. State Papers, 1812. Stephens, 404. < Stephens' Comp. U. S., 404. Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 761. 6oo A History of the United States oj" America. This war, in its prominent facts, naturally falls under two de- partments, naval and military, although in some movements these departments become mingled with each other. We will give at- tention first to the naval operations. These were really the most brilliant, most important, and, in their actual phenomena and results, most unexpected. England had powerful fleets of line-of-battle ships of three decks and ninety guns ; but, fortunately for the small American naval force, these great fleets were all imperatively called for in the mancEuvres and battles conducted by the British admirals against the fleets of France, Spain and Denmark. All that could be spared for the American war were a few three-deckers and fast frigates and sloops of war. These, however, were thought sufficient, as the American navy had only three frigates of forty- four guns, three of thirty-eight, five of from twenty-eight to thirty-six guns and nine sloops of war, with some sinall armed vessels, making about thirty in all, at the opening of the contest. The British navy had nearly a thousand ships.^ The American people had undervalued the skill and prowess of their own war-ships, seamen and officers. Very little was ex- pected from them. The first serious encounter at sea changed all opinions and sentiments on this subject. Capt. Isaac Hull, a native of Connecticut, had already dis- tinguished himself as a junior officer of the American navy by his courage and skill, by cutting out and capturing a French pri- vateer in 1800 from under the guns of a strong battery in the harbor of Port La Platte, St. Domingo, and afterwards by his efficient services against the pirates of Tripoli.^ In July, 1S12, he was in command of the frigate Constitzition, of forty-four guns. Cruising off' New York, he was chased by a British squadron, consisting of a razeed ship-of-the-line of sixty- four guns and the frigates Shannon, Gnerricrc, Bchidcra and Eolus. At sunrise on the morning of the i8th July, escape seemed hopeless, as the hostile ships were within five miles and hemming in the American frigate ; but just then the wind died away ; a dead calm came on. Captain Hull, his officers and men, made almost superhuman exertions to save their ship, and they were successful, although they were nearly worn out with fatigue and sleeplessness. Towing was ffrst resorted to. The heaviest British frigate had all the boats of the squadron ahead towing her ; but Hull, find- 1 Compare Goodrich's U. S., 328, with Stephens' Comp. U. S., 407. 2 Art. Hull, Amer. Encyclop., IX, 340. The Presidettcy of yatnes Madison. 60 1 ing his ship in twenty-six fathoms of water, resorted to the expedi- ent of warping. Nearly all his boats were employed in carrying forward light cables and dropping kedge anchors in succession a long way ahead, and by these he warped his frigate forward faster than his pursuers could be towed. Every advantage was taken of the least puff' and flaw of wind. The skillful seamanship mani- fested attracted the admiration of the enemy. In sixty-two hours the Constitution had left her pursuers nearly out of sight, and, a breeze springing up, she was safe. But during this long chase every man had watched and slept at his gun, except those engaged in kedging, and the officers had only caught a few moments of sleep by throwing themselves on the deck at favored intervals.^ Such an escape, from such a force, achieved by such means, had not been known. The British frigate Guerricrc was one of the chasing ships. She v\^as in fine fighting condition. Her captain was James A. Dacres, of proud English blood. He believed his ship and crew, inspired by his presence, more than a match for any American frigate. He had looked into several harbors on the coast, carry- ing a bi"oad flag with the name of his ship and the words, "Not the Little Belt,'''' displayed on it. He had sent in a written chal- lenge inviting an American frigate of his class to what he called a " tcte-a-tcte " on the ocean." He was serenely confident of the result. And so, when, on the 19th of August, 1813, in the Atlantic, lat- itude 41° 41' north, longitude 55° 48' west. Captain Hull, in the Constitution, approached, Dacres gallantly backed his maintop- sail and hove to, as a signal of acceptance of battle. At 5 p. m. the Guerricre opened fire at long shot. No return was made. The Constitution continued to approach, and the Guerriere, hav- ing the weather-gage, wore ship and fired her other broadside. Still the American frigate, under her captain's orders, was si- lent — her officers and men standing to their guns, and obedient to orders, although some were falling under the Guerriere's fire. Reaching his desired position, by the skillful manoeuvring of Sailing-master Aylwyn, and, being within half pistol-shot, Hull gave the order, and instantly the fire of his ship was delivered with terrible effect, carrying away one of the masts of the Gucr- riere and crashing through her decks with severe loss to her crew. The ships fell foul of each other, but as the sea was heavy and the musketry fire of the marines was constant, boarding was impos- iC. B. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 259, 260. Amer. Encvclop., IX. 340, 341. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 260. Quackenbos, 348. 6o2 ^ History of the United States of America. sible. Lieutenant Bush, of the American marines, was killed. The Constitution continued her fire, and as she passed ahead the foremast of the British ship fell, carrying the mainmast with it, and reducing her to a helpless condition.' Captain Hull, in a few words, has told the whole : " In thirty minutes after we got fairly alongside of the enemy she surren- dered, and had not a spar standing ; and her hull, above and be- low water, was so shattered that a few more broadsides must have carried her down." ^ Yet, even in his dire defeat, Dacres retained his courage and pride. He was wounded, but kept the deck. No flag being left to be lowered, Hull sent a boat with a lieutenant, who asked if the action was to be continued. Dacres answered : " I do not know that it would be prudent to continue the engagement." "Do you surrender?" asked the lieutenant. "I do not know that it will be worth while to fight any longer," answered Dacres. " If you cannot decide, I will return, and we will reopen our fire." " I am hors de cotnhat already," said Dacres ; "I have hardly men enough left to work a gun, and my ship is sinking." Pride re- jected more, and, with this equivocal surrender, the officer re- turned.^ Hull's huinanity forbade delay. The Guerriere had lost seventy-nine men in killed and wounded, and was so shattered that she could not be brought into port. Her crew were re- moved ; she was set on fire, and in fifteen minutes blew up. The Cottstittition had lost only fourteen in killed and wounded, and was so little damaged that she \vas ready for action the next day. Captain Hull carried his prisoners into Boston. The country was aroused to enthusiasm and joy. It is true the Constitution was a heavier ship, and carried five guns more than the Guer- riere^ but this disparity was too small to be predicated as the efficient cause of the American victory. The battle had been won by superior seamanship, manceuvring and energy of action. It was felt at once that here was proof that Great Britain was no longer to rule the seas. Her best ships could be captured by ene- mies, .substantially equal in force, but superior in skill. Congress voted a gold medal to Hull, and a silver one to each of his com- missioned officers, and appropriated a sum sufficient to compensate his crew for the necessary destruction of their prize.* 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 2C0, 261. Amer. Encyclop., IX. 341. Quackenbos, 348. 2 Hull's report, Taylor's Centen. U. S., 261. SNote in Barnes &. Co.'s U. S., 161, 162. *Ainer. Encyclop., IX. 341. Goodrich's Hist, of U. S. The Presidency of yames Madison. 603 On the i8th of October, 1813, the American sloop of war JVasp, of eighteen guns, under Capt. Jacob Jones, captured the British brig J^ro/ic, of twenty-two guns, under Captain VVhin- yates, in the Atlantic, in latitude 37° north, longitude 60° west. The force on each side was nearly equal. The action was very bloody and destructive to the Frolic. She was terribly cut up in her hull, and lost at least eighty of her crew in killed and wounded. Captain Whinyates, in his official report, stated that not twenty of his crew escaped unhurt. The Wasp was much injured in her spars and rigging, but very little in her hull. On the same day the British seventy-four-gun ship Poictiers came down upon them, and, in their disabled state, captured both ships and carried them into Bermuda.' Captain Jones and his officers and crew were soon paroled, and returned to the United States, where de- served honors greeted them. No disparity of force existed in this case. The victory was won by the more deadly and accurate firing of the American ship. On the 25th of October, 1S13, Capt. Stephen Decatur, in the frigate United States^ of forty-four guns, encountered the British frigate Alacedoiiian, of forty-nine guns (but lighter than those of the American frigate), Capt. John vS. Carden, near the Azores, and, after a long and sanguinary battle, captured her, and brought her safely into the harbor of New York. A young officer of the American frigate appeared in a public assembly in Washington, bringing the official report of the capture, and presenting the flag of the j\Iacedonia/i to the wife of the President. The guests cheered and wept with feelings not to be controlled, for among them were the young officer's mother and sister, overcome with joy that he had been unhurt in the battle.^ On the 39th of December of the same year the Constitution^ which had gained the name of " Old Ironsides," and was then commanded by Captain Bainbridge, met the British frigate yava, of forty-nine guns. Captain Lambert, oft' the coast of Brazil, not far from San Salvador, and, after an engagement of one hour and fifty-five ininutes, captured her. The yava lost one hundred and seventy-four in killed and wounded, and was reduced to a wreck with not a spar standing, and her hull so shattered that it was found necessary to destroy her. The Constitution lost nine killed and twenty-four wounded, and was but little injured. The two commanders were both wounded — Bainbridge severely, Lam- bert mortally. A heroic scene was exhibited on the quarter-deck of the yava, where Captain Lambert was lying on his cot just 1 Art. Jones, Amer. Encyclop., X. 45. ^Eggieston's Household U. S., 252. 6o4 A History of the United States of America. before he was removed to the victor ship. Bainbridge, supported by two lieutenants, approached the dying officer, and, with words of manly sympathy, restored his sword to him, and they parted with expressions of mutual regard. Captain Lambert died within two days thereafter.^ The pride of England was deeply wounded by these repeated captures of her finest frigates, under her best officers. When news of the capture of the fava reached London, it was com- mented on in tones of mortified feeling by several metropolitan journals. The Londoii Statesman^ of March 20th, 1813, thus writes, after announcing the event : " America, however, must be excepted from the expression of 'all our enemies ' ; she is of us, and of us improved. We are neither ashamed nor afraid to say so. We knew it before, and, knowing so much, we have uni- formly deprecated the going to war with her. The Americans will be the most terrible warriors we have had to contend with. We have, like fools, despised them as a power in arms." ^ Commodore Bainbridge was in command of a small fleet, con- sisting of his own ship, the Constitution, the frigate Essex, of thirty-two guns, under Capt. David Porter, and the sloop of war Hornet, of twenty guns, under Master-Conimandant James Law- rence, a native of New Jersey. Early in 1813, the British sloop of war. Bonne Citoyenne, with a large amount of specie on board, was lying in the neutral port of San Salvador, in Brazil. Bain- bridge in the Constitution, kept far away ; the Essex had not arrived, and the Hornet, being about equal in force to the Bonne Citoyenne, appeai^ed oft' the harbor, and sent a challenge to her to come out and fight ; but the treasure war-ship declined the chal- lenge, probably not feeling at liberty to risk her valuable freight.' The Hor)iet blockaded the harbor for eighteen days, when she was driven off' by the British seventy- four-gun ship Montague, She shaped her course for the mouth of the Demerara river, capturing several merchantmen by the way. On the 34th Feb- ruary, 18 1 3, off this river, in the Atlantic, the Hornet encountered the British sloop of war Peacock, Capt. William Peake, of twenty guns, but somewhat lighter than the Hornet. A fierce engage- ment of fifteen minutes took place, beginning at half-past five o'clock in the afternoon. Furious and repeated broadsides were exchanged at pistol range, when the Peacock lowered her flag, and raised signals of distress. She was sinking. Lawrence and his officers and men made instant and earnest exertions to save 1 Art. Bainbridge, Amer. Encvclop., II. 407. 2 London Statesman, Slarch 20, 1813, in Enquirer (Va.), May 21. *Art. Lawrence, Amer. Encyclop., X. 370. The P residency of James Madison. 605 her crew. She sank in six fathoms of water, canying down nine of her own men and five of the Hornefs. The Peacock lost thirty-three killed and wounded ; among the killed was Captain Peake. The Hornet had only one killed and two wounded, and was so little injured that by nine o'clock that night she was again ready for action ; but, having now t\vo hundred and seventy- seven souls aboard, and being short of water, Lawrence sailed for New York. His treatment of his prisoners was so kind and chivalrous that they published a written statement, saying they had "ceased to consider themselves as prisoners."^ On the 4th of IMarch, 1S13, Lawrence was promoted to the rank of captain, and ordered to the command of the frigate Chesa- peake, then lying in the harbor of Boston. The British frigate Shanno)i, Capt. Philip Bowes Vere Bi'oke, had been awaiting the coming out of the Chesapeake, and preparing to meet her in mor- tal combat. The two frigates were about equal in material strength, each mounting forty-eight guns, long eighteen and thirty-two pound carronades. But the Shannon was in perfect fighting condition, her commander and ofiicers skillful and reso- lute men, strung up to a high longing for victory, her crew full and perfectly disciplined and organized for this special encoun- ter. On the other hand, the Chesapeake had lately arrived from a cruise, and her men had been indulging freely on shore in the worst forms of sailor dissipations. Lawrence was yet a stranger to them, and he had found them almost in a state of mutiny be- cause of some disaffection about unpaid prize money. ^ Moreover, her first lieutenant, O. A. Page, was sick on shore, and died a few days afterwards. Ludlow, the young officer who took his place, was brave and meritorious, but inexperienced. Two midshipmen acted as third and fourth lieutenants. Under such circumstances of disability, prudence dictated that the encounter should, at least, be postponed until the Chesapeake was in better fighting order ; but when the Shan7iott appeared off the harbor, Lawrence felt all his soul aroused. He could not de- lay. He got his ship under way on the ist of June, 1813, and stood out to sea. At half-past five in the afternoon the two ships were thirty miles from Boston light. As they came up alongside of each other the Shannon opened fire as her guns bore ; the Chesapeake retained her fire until the ships were fairly yard-arm and yard-arm, when she delivered a well-directed broadside, which sounded like one report. For seve- ral minutes a destructive cannonade was maintained by both ships, 1 Amer. Encyclop., X. 371, 372. -Art. Lawrence. Amer. Encyclop., X. 371. 6o6 A History of the United States of America. but the Chesapeake suffered so severely in her rigging that she became unmanageable, was thrown into the wind, taken aback, and fell foul of the Shannon^ the waist anchor of which hooked her rigging. She \vas now exposed to a raking fire, and her upper deck was swept by grape and canister from the carronades of the British ship. The boarders of the Chesapeake were called, but the negro bugleman had left his post. Captain Lawrence was wounded ; Lieutenant Ludlow had received two terrible wounds from grape-shot. A hand-grenade, bursting in the arm- chest of the Chesapeake^ spread death all around. Sailing-master White fell dead. Broom, of the marines, Ballard, acting fourth lieutenant, and the boatswain, were all mortally wounded. Still Lawrence cheered his men to the battle. Its crisis was reached when a shot passed through his body, inflicting a mortal vs^ound. As he was borne below he uttered the words which will never cease to be connected with his name, and which have be- come the rallying cry of his country : " Don't give up the ship ! " But, by his fall and removal, the upper deck of the Chesapeake was left without a single commissioned officer. The boarders of the SJiannon^ under brave leaders, sprang upon the deck of the American frigate. They were met by a fierce, but irregular, re- sistance, wdiich soon gave way. Captain Broke, in his official reports, stated that after he boarded " the enemy fought despe- rately, but in disorder." ^ The contest was bloody, but brief. The boarders prevailed, and in fifteen minutes from the fouling of the ships the American flag was hauled down by the victors and the British flag raised in its stead. ^ In this bloody naval encounter the Chesapeake lost one hundred and forty-eight in killed and wounded ; the Shannon seventy-nine. Captain Broke was severely wounded. His king was so elated by his victory that he created him a baronet and made him Knight Commander of the Bath ; and the guns of the Tower in London were fired in token of triumph. After the battle both ships went into Halifax. In four days Lawrence died. His remains and those of Lieutenant Ludlow were interred with the highest honors of war, the senior British officers present acting as pall-bearers. For a brief time it seemed as if England would recover her naval prestige even against America. The brig Argus^ com- manded by a brave Rhode Islander, William Henry Allen, had carried out Mr. Crawford, the American minister to France. ' Official report, cited in Amer. Encyclop., X. 371. SBarnes & Co.'s U. S., 166. Stepheus' Corap. IJ. S., 414, 415, note. The Prcsidcftcy of yames Madison. 607 Returning, she cruised in the British Channel and wrought liavoc among the merchantmen, capturing vessels and property esti- mated as of the value of two millions of dollars. Several Eng- lish war-ships started in pursuit of her. The brig Pelican^ some- what superior to her in armament, discovered her August 14th, 18 13, by the light of a ship she had captured and set on fire. A warm engagement ensued. Captain Allen received a wound which proved mortal ; his brig was captured and carried into Ply- mouth, where he died.' But the tide again turned and favored America. On the 14th of September, 18 13, Lieut. William Burrows, commanding the brig Enterprise^ of fourteen guns, encountered the British brig JBoxer, of twelve guns, commanded by Lieutenant Blythe. The encounter was in the Atlantic, oft' Portland, Maine. The Boxer s guns, though tw^o less in number, carried as much weight in metal as those of her enemy She had indulged herself in the somewhat hazardous bravado of nailing her colors to the mast- head. The action was spirited and severe ; both commanders fell mortally wounded. The crew of the Boxer were compelled to call aloud for quarter, not being able to lower their flag.^ Burrows and Blythe wei'e buried in Portland, in graves alongside of each other, and with all the honors of war. On the loth of September, 1813, occin-red the memorable naval battle of Lake Erie. Both , the British and American squadrons had been hastily constructed, chiefly from timber obtained by felling the great trees growing on the shores of the lake. Im- poi'tant military movements waited on this battle, and were decided by its result. Commodore Oliver H. Perry, a native of Rhode Island, and then only in the twenty-eighth year of his age, was the com- mander of the American flotilla, and had, by his own ceaseless exertions, forwarded its building, rigging and preparation. To him was assigned the perilous duty of seeking to wrest the com- mand of the lake from the British power. Commodore Barclay, a veteran who had fought under Nelson on the Nile and at Trafal- gar, and had lost an arm in his country's service, commanded the British squadron.^ He had six armed vessels, carrying sixty-three guns and five hundred and two oflicers and men. Perry's fleet contained the flag-ship Lazurcucc, of twenty guns ; Niagara, of twenty guns ; Ariel, of four guns ; Caledonia, of three guns ; Somers and Scorpion, of two guns each, and Porcupine, Tigress 'Amer. Eiipyclop., I. 376. Quackenbos, 35S. 2Quackcnbos, 358, 359. Amor. Encyclop., IV. 1-10. » Quackeubos, 363. 6o8 A History of the United States of America. and Trippe, each of one gun, making nine vessels in all, carrying fifty-four guns and four hundred and ninety officers and men. Perry had great difficulty in getting his vessels into the deeper waters from the shores of the lakes where they were huilt and launched ; but, by the use of the mechanical contrivance called the " camel " and indefatigable exertions, he succeeded. He pi'o- ceeded to Sandusky Bay, where his ships were fully manned by the co-operation of General Harrison. He then sailed boldly to Maiden, and displayed his flags in full view of Commodore Barclay and his squadron. The veteran seemed in no hurry to meet him. The vigor and courage dis- played in getting the American flotilla into the deep waters of the lake had amazed him. His hesitation was so manifest that the great Indian chieftain Tecumseh rowed over to Maiden in his canoe to remonstrate. He said to the English General Proctor : " You told us that you commanded the waters. Why, then, do you not go out to fight the Americans ? There they are, daring you to meet them ! " Proctor could make no excuse except that the " big canoes of the great father King George were not quite ready." ^ But the English commanders knew well that unless Perry's flotilla was defeated and destroyed, the lake was no longer in •British power. Therefore, Commodore Barclay prepared for bat- tle, and, early on the morning of September loth, 1813, sailed out to meet his enemy. The day was clear and beautiful, and the battle which ensued one of the most interesting in naval war- fare.^ Perry had never seen a battle between squadrons ; Barclay had taken part in encounters between naval giants ; yet the plan of battle and manoeuvres of the American commodore could hardly have been improved on. He so formed his line as to bring the heaviest of his ships alongside of the heaviest of the enemy, ordering the lighter vessels to do execution where they could most eflectually cut up the British ships. The Latvrejice went into battle with her blue ensign flying and exhibiting the words, " Don't give up the ship." In a short time she was exposed to a terrible fire from the batteries of several of the British ships which concentrated on her. By half-past two o'clock, out of her total crew of one hundred and one persons, only eighteen, including Perry himself, were unhurt ; twenty-two had been killed, sixty-one wounded, and every gun dismounted » Quackenbos' U. S., 363. SAmer. Encyclop., VII. 270. Quackenbos, 364, 365. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 340, 341. Barnes, 164, 165. The Presidotcy of James Madison. 609 or rendered ineffective. In this perilous crisis, Perry decided that he ought to transfer his flag to the Niagara, which was half a mile distant to windward. He left Lieutenant Yarnell in command, and, in an open boat with a brave crew, some of whom were wounded, he made his way to the Niagara. He was unhurt, and to show that he was not conquered and to cheer his men he stood erect, waving his sword, until his men forcibly pulled him down. This scene, the crisis of the battle, has been portrayed with graphic power in a painting which now adorns the approach to the United States Senate chamber in the Capitol. When Perry passed the gangway of the Niagara, Lieutenant Elliott, who commanded her, offered to go and bring up the smaller vessels. Perry gladly sent him on this duty ; but he him- self assumed command of the Niagara and caused her to pass into the combat, firing broadsides right and left into the Detroit and ^ueen Charlotte, of the enemy's fleet, with such rapid and de- structive energy that they were speedily disabled, and. falling foul of each other, were soon compelled to strike their flags. The Caledonia and the smaller American vessels now came up and were closely engaging the enemy's vessels to windward, which, being subjected to a heavy cross-fire, were rapidly disabled. Be- fore three o'clock the Detroit, ^ueen Charlotte, Lady Prcvost and Hunter had all struck their coloi^s.* The Lawrence had been compelled to haul down her flag soon after Perry left her side in his boat ; but, now finding that victory was being rapidly obtained by the American vessels, she rehoisted her flag, though she was too much disabled to take fur- ther part in the battle. The Chippezvay and Little Belt, of the British fleet, endeavored to escape to leeward, but they were closely pursued by the Scorpion and Trippe, and compelled to surrender. The British vessels were all greatly injured and their crews had suftered severely. Commodore Barclay was twice wounded ; yet he insisted on being helped to the upper deck at last, that he might see for himself whether there was any hope. Finding there was none, he gave the signal for surrender.^ Commodore Perry, four hours after the battle, sent to General Harrison a laconic message as follows : " We have met the enemy, and they are ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner and a sloop." ' He treated his prisoners with so much of humanity and 1 Amer. Encyclop., VII. 271. *Art. Erie, Amer. Encyclop., VII. 271. sQuackenbos, 365. Berry's U. S., 191. 39 6io A History of the United States of America. consideration that Commodore Barclay afterwards gave as a toast : " Commodore Perry — the gallant and generous enemy," and de- clared that, independently of the glory of the victoiy, " Perry's humanity to his prisoners alone would have immortalized him." The American command of Erie was completely established. During the next year (1814) naval encounters were not nume- rous. It has been said that the British admiralty had given secret orders under which the captains of their frigates were to decline battle with the American frigates, except under highly favoring circumstances. The United States frigate Essex, under Capt. David Porter, had entered the Pacific and made many valuable captures. Sev- eral British ships were sent in pursuit of her. She was blockaded in the harbor of Valparaiso from the 3d of February to the 28th of March, 1814. Sh^ then made an attempt to get to sea, but, in doubling a headland, was struck by a squall, which carried away her maintop-mast and caused the loss of several lives. In this somewhat disabled state she was compelled to anchor three miles from the town and Avithin pistol-shot of the shore. Beyond ques- tion, she was in neutral waters, and thus not subject to attack according to international law ; but the opportunity was too favorable to be lost by her enemies. The force of the Essex was thirty-two guns and two hundred and fifty-five officers and men. She was attacked by the British frigate Phoebe, Captain Hillvar, of forty-six guns and three hun- dred and twenty men, and the sloop of war Cherub, Captain Tucker, of twenty guns and one hundred and eighty men. The battle had no parallel. The Essex fought for two hours and a half, and did not surrender until she had lost one hundred and fifty-five men in killed, wounded and missing, and was on fire, with a large portion of her guns disabled, and Captain Por- ter and Lieutenant McKnight the only commissioned officers un- hurt. In August, 1S14, another engagement between hostile squad- rons took place on one of the American lakes, which was quite as interesting and decisive as that of Erie. It was on Lake Cham- plain, which had become very important to both belligerents, because the English were attempting a descent, with a large land force under Sir George Prevost, upon New York, by way of Platts- burg. This was then a small town of about seventy houses, on Plattsburg Bay, into \vhich the Saranac river discharges itself. Success on the water would have compelled the American army, of only one thousand five hundred men, under General Macomb, The Presidency of James Madison. 6ii to evacuate Plattsburg, and retire before the twelve thousand commanded by Prevost. Capt. Thomas Macdonough, a native of Delaware, was in command of the American squadron, consisting of the Saratoga., of twenty-six guns ; \\\g JEagle., brig of twenty guns, Captain Henley ; the Ticondcrog-a, schooner of seventeen guns, Lieut. -Command- ing Stephen Cassin ; the Preble, cutter of seven guns, Lieutenant Budd ; six gun-boats, each of two guns, and four gun-boats of smaller size, each carrying one long twenty-four pounder, making a total of fourteen vessels, mounting eighty-six guns, and carry- ing eight hundred and fifty officers, seamen and marines.^ One of the largest of this squadron had been built and launched in forty days ! The British squadron was under Captain Downie, an officer of distinction, and embraced his own large ship, the Conjiaiice, of thirty-seven guns ; the Linnet., of sixteen guns ; the Chubb, sloop of eleven guns ; the Pinch, of the same power, and twelve gun-boats, of which eight mounted two guns, and four mounted one gun each ; the whole force comprising sixteen vessels, mount- ing ninety-five guns, and carrying one thousand officers and men.^ Macdonough showed consummate skill by anchoring his larger ships with springs on the cables, and with kedges so arranged and concealed that, by rapid warping, their broadsides could be promptly changed.' His gvm-boats were not anchored at all, but kept in position or in movement at pleasure, by sweeps. On the morning of September nth, 1814, the British fleet was seen coming up for battle. Downie was confident ; he is said to have declared that, with his heavy flag-ship alone, he could de- stroy the whole American flotilla.* Macdonough, on his deck and in jDresence of his assembled crew, asked the blessing of God for his country's cause. The wind was moderate, and the weather fine. The Eagle opened first, and the Saratoga followed, the commander himself pointing the first gun. The Con fiance did not fire a shot until she anchored within short range of the Saratoga, on whom she opened a very destructive fire. Her first broadside killed and wounded forty men, nearly one-fifth of the Saratoga^ s crew. Broadsides were rapidly exchanged, and as the water was smooth and the distance moderate, the damage done to both was severe ; but the Saratoga suffered most. Finding his whole starboard battery nearly demolished, Macdonough set his warps to work, and 'Art. Champlain, Amer. Encvclop., IV. (>9'i. 2 Art. Champlain, Amer. Encynlop., IV. G9'>, G96. Derry's U. S., 195. SAmer. Encyclop. IV., 695. Quackenbos. 376. ^Quackenbos, 37.\ 6i2 A History of the United States of America. brought his larboard battery to bear on the Cotifiance with terrible effect. That ship tried the same manoeuvre, but unsuccessfully, and in two hours and a half, finding her hull and rigging ruinously cut up, many of her guns dismounted, her decks covered with the dead and wounded, and her commander mortally hurt, she surrendered. During the hottest part of this combat, a coop containing fowls on the deck of the Saratoga was knocked to pieces, and the fowls escaped. A cock, from among them, mounted to a high part of the rigging, and crowed several times in clarion notes. The crew took this to be a good omen, and, undiscouraged by their heavy losses, fought with renewed vigor.^ After the Confiance surrendered, the Saratoga sprung her broad- side upon the Linjict., which immediately lowered her flag. The Finch had been disabled, and drifted down on Crab Island, where, after receiving a shot from a one-gun land battery, she surrendered. The Ticonderoga subdued the Chubb. The twelve gun-boats of the British fleet all struck their flags ; but the American ships were not in condition to pursue them,^ and they made their escape, though probably in violation of the laws of war. The American loss in this stern naval battle was one hundred and eleven in killed and wounded. The British loss was prob- ably as high as two hundred and four. While the combat was in progress. Sir George Prevost, thinking Commodore Downie would certainly triumph, led up his forces and attempted to cross the Saranac, and to capture Plattsburg. He was received with a continuous and fatal fire from the American works. Finding the British fleet totally defeated and gone, he abandoned his attack and retreated, leaving a large part of his artillery and army stores, and his sick and wounded, and having sustained a loss of twenty- five hundred men.* It is said that four hundred of his men marched to join Macomb with a band of music preceding them. The naval triumph presaged that of the land. In addition to the American successes in naval combats, they made many valuable captures during the war. Their own sea- going merchant vessels had been reduced in number and import- ance by the policy of England and France, and the embargo restric- tions. When the war with England commenced, American priva- teers began to sail from every suitable port, and English merchant ships in great numbers were captured by the naval ships and let- ters of marque of the United States. ' Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 356. = Amer. Enovclop., IV. 096. 3 Quackenbos, 376. Derry, 195. Goodrich, 355. ' D. B. Scott's U. S., 263. The Presidency of James Madison. 613 Capt. David Porter, in the Essex^ captured a British brig with fourteen thousand dollars in specie and one hundred and fifty sol- diers aboard. He also captured the sloop Alert after an action of twelve minutes. The frigate President overhauled and took an English packet ship with two hundred thousand dollars on board. Lieutenant Elliott, in October, 1813, captured on Lake Erie the British ship Caledonia^ cutting her out from under the guns of a fort, and securing a cargo of furs worth at least two hundred thousand dollars. During this year two hundred and fifty ves- sels, three thousand sailors, and cargoes valued at some millions of dollars, were captured from the enemy.' In May, 18 14, the new American sloop Wasp, Captain Blake- ley, captured the British brig Reindeer, Captain Manners, in an action of eighteen minutes. Early in 18 13, the Czar of Russia made a proposition to medi- ate between Great Britain and the United States, and, if possible, to bring about a meeting of commissioners of the two nations looking to the re-establishment of peace. ^ To this no party in the United States were averse, for the woes coming from war had been heavily felt. In iSi3, Jvlr. Madison was elected President for a second term, and Elbridge Gerry was chosen Vice-President. The President had received very favorably the offered mediation of Russia, and had appointed Albert Gallatin, John Qiiincy Adams and James A. Bayard commissioners to go to St. Petersburg ; but the British government declined this ofler of mediation, and no immediate results favorable to peace came from it. But during the session of Congress which commenced in De- cember, 1813, a communication was received from the British government to the effect that though, in the disturbed state of Europe, that power had not felt free to accept the mediation of Russia, yet they were willing to enter into direct negotiations with the United States concerning peace, either in London or Gottenburg.^ This offer was promptly acceded to ; Gottenburg was at first selected, and Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell wei^e added to the commissioners already in Europe. The place of meeting was changed from Gottenburg to Ghent. The negotiations concerning the various questions involved were delicate and protracted ; but on the 24th day of December, 18 14, a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was agreed on. This treaty provided for the mutual resto- 1 Quackenbos, 349-351. -• Goodrich, 333. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 411, 412- 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 416, 6 14 A History of the United States of Jimerica. ration of all territory taken during the war, and for the mutual appointment of commissioners to determine the northern boundary of the United States. It was remarkable in this, that it was silent on all the questions which had been chiefly operative in causing the war. It had no provision as to the right of a subject or citi- zen to expatriate himself, nor as to the right of search and impris- onment, nor as to the matters involved in the " orders in council." ' But it was safe to leave these questions to the wisdom acquired from the past. The right of search is not recognized as to ships of war; as to merchant ships it is still understood to exist, and has been used both by Great Britain and the United States. It is, however, subject to the established principle of civil and crim- inal law as to arrests and prosecutions, that thei"e must exist " pro- bable cause " to justify or excuse it. As to impressment of Amer- ican seamen, England has never again attempted it. It is a sad fact that after the treaty of peace was agreed on, but before it was known to the belligerents, several bloody bat- tles, both by sea and land, were fought. The frigate President^ under Decatur, in attempting to get to sea from the harbor of New York, which was closely blockaded by British ships, ran out in the night of January 14th, iSi!^. Un- fortunately, her pilots missed the channel, and she fell on the bar, and did not get oft' without injuries which greatlv impeded her sailing powers. She was soon chased bv four ships, the Endy- mion, of forty guns, the Pomona and Tenedos, of thirty-eight guns each, and the razee Majestic^ of sixty guns. She made a gallant running fight with the Endymiv7i; and Decatur, finding the President too inuch injured to escape, proposed to his officers and crew that they should carry the EndymioJi by boarding and escape in her. This bold proposal was enthusiastically received, but the superior sailing of the British frigate made its execution impossible. The enemy's ships having closed on him, Decatur was compelled to surrender. In this long fight the President lost eighty men killed and wounded.^ Capt. James Stewart, a native of Philadelphia, had already dis- tinguished himself in the brief war with France, by capturing with his war-schooner Experiment^ of twelve guns, the French schooners Deux Amis, of eight guns, and Diana, of fourteen guns, in quick succession.' In the summer of 18 13 he was put in command of the Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), and got to sea from Boston on a cruise, during which he captured the British 1 Goodrich, 361. Stephens, 421, 422. Amer. Eneyclop., XV. 763. 2 Art. Pecatur, Amer. Eneyclop., VI. 324. Goodrich, 360. 3 Art. Stewart, Amer. Eneyclop., XV. 95. The Presidency of fames Madison. 615 war-schooner Picfon, of fourteen guns, a letter of marque under her convoy, and a number of merchant vessels. In December, 1 8 14, not having heard of the treaty of peace, he sailed on a sec- ond cruise, and on the 20th February, 18 15, off the coast of Por- tugal, fell in with two British ships, the frigate Cyane, Captain Falcon, of thirty-four guns, and the sloop Levant, Captain Doug- lass, of twenty-one guns, and in a skillfully conducted night en- gagement, captured them both in about forty minutes. The cap- tured ships lost forty-one, the Constitution fifteen, in killed and wounded. Under the terms of the ti'eaty of peace, the President and the Cyane and Levant were all lawful prizes.^ The Cyane was brought into New York on April 15th ; but the Levant was re- captured by a British squadron off the Cape De Verde Islands. On the 23d March, 1815, the sloop Hornet, Captain Biddle, en- countered the British brig Penguin, Captain Dickenson, off the island of Tristan D' Acuna, and captured her, in an action of twenty-two minutes. After the commander of the Penguin had announced her surrender, and Captain Biddle had ordered his fire to cease, a man in the rigging of the Poigiiin fired a musket at Biddle and wounded him severely in the neck. Two marines from the deck of the Hornet fired at this murderer and brought him down ; but the crew of the Llornet, in their natural exaspe- ration, threatened extermination of the whole British crew, and were with difiiculty restrained by Biddle and his officers.'' Capt. Lewis Warringfon, a native of Virginia, sailed from New York in March, 18 14, in command of the sloop of war Peacock, of eighteen guns. Oft" Cape Canaveral, Florida, he encountered a number of British merchantmen, under convoy of the war-brig Ppervier, Captain Wales, of eighteen guns. The Peacock engaged her, and, though crippled in her foreyard by the first broadside, continued the action with such superior manoeuvring and gunnery that in forty-two minutes the Lipervier surrendered, with five feet of water in her hold and twenty-two of her crew killed and wounded. The Peacock sustained little damage, and had none killed and only two wounded. Aboard the Epervier was found the sum of five hundred and ninety thousand dollars in specie. Continuing his cruise, Warrington secured fourteen British mer- chantmen — most of them in the Bay of Biscay.^ In November, 18 14, he sailed again in the Peacock from New York, and in the Strait of Sunda, on the 30th of June, 18 15, (more 1 Goodrich's U. S., 360, 361. Amer. Encvclop., XV. 95. 2 Taylor's Centennial U. S., 337, 338. 8 Art. Warrington, Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 221. 6i6 A History of the United States of America. than six months after the treaty of peace), he fell in with the East India Company's armed cruiser Nautilus^ exchanged broadsides with her, and compelled her to surrender, with a loss to her of six killed and eight wounded. The Peacock was uninjured, and sustained no loss. It is stated in history that before the capture Warrington was informed that peace had been agreed on ; but, as this information came from the English, he insisted that the Nau- tilus should strike her flag, which she refused to do.^ He was technically right, but, after causing some shedding of blood, he saw the truth the next day in papers produced, and promptly re- turned the Nautilus. This was the last event of the naval war- fare between Great Britain and America. We are now to give the prominent movements of the warfare on land. ID. B. Scott's U. S., 269. CHAPTER XLVIII. The War on Land. THE war on the land had in it very little to increase either the territory, the wealth or the fame of the United States. Yet in it her people displayed courage and endurance, and it was ended at last in a battle fought after a treaty of peace had been agreed on, but so brilliantly and bloodily successful for America that it confirmed the dominance of democratic ideas, and led to the election of one of the most renowned of her Presidents. The prevalent purpose of the Western and Northwestern peo- ple in the war was to conquer Canada from Great Britain. This was considered specially desirable, because it would secure the lake region and the northern boundary, and would put a stop to Indian outrages, which had been thought, with some reason, to have been encouraged by the British forts in Canada. The peo- ple of Kentucky and Ohio were very intent on this conquest.^ Yet it was a task beset by formidable difficulties. Some of them had been experienced in the war of the Revolution, when a similar desire inspired many Americans. The lapse of thirty- seven years had not removed those obstacles, though it had in- creased the means of overcoming them, and had probably brought over-confidence in final success. The region bordering on the southern Canada frontier was a wide stretch of thinly-settled country covered with forests, and cut up by streams and torrents. Cincinnati was a sinall town of two thousand five hundred people, and the margin of settled land ran not far to the northward of it. Railroads were unknown, and steainers were hardly yet available. The difficulties of trans- portation were very great — so great that every barrel of flour had multiplied six or seven-fold in cost before it could reach this fron- tier. But the Indian troubles were imperative, and really opened the land-war measures against England. Tecumseh "was a great chief of the vShawnees, born on the banks of the Scioto, near Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1770. He is said to have been one of three > Prof. Johnston's U. S. Const, and Hist., 146, 147. [ 617 1 6i8 A History of the United States oj^ America. . brothers all born at the same birth-time, of whom one, named Kennshaka, died young, and another, Elskvvatawa, grew to ma- turity, and was known as " The Prophet." ^ Tecumseh's first smell of battle was with Kentuckians at Mad river when he was about twenty ; and he is said to have fled from the field at the first fire ; but he afterwards became one of the boldest and most astute of Indian leaders. He and his brother, the Prophet, journeyed through all the tribes on the west bank of the ISIississippi and on Lakes Superior, Huron and Alichigan, stirring them up and organizing them for a confederated attack on the whites. William Henry Harrison was then Governor of the Northwest. He gained information of the movements and designs of these Indian chiefs, and with prompt wisdom prepared to meet their machinations with foixe of arms. In October, i8ii,at the head of about nine hundred men, chiefly from Indiana Territory, Harrison marched against Tecumseh's levies at Tippecanoe, on a branch of the Wabash river. On the 6th November he arrived with his force at the Prophet's town ; here he was met by three Indian deputies with messages of peace. Harrison listened to them, but directed his men to sleep on their arms, well loaded and ready for instant service. Tecumseh was absent. The insidious " Prophet " had no superior chief to restrain him. About an hour before day-break the savages attacked General Harrison's camp ; he was ready for them. His men were in- stantly under arms, and pzit out their jires, so that the Indians could not see them. They were more than equal to the red men in w^oodland warfare. The Prophet kept at a safe distance on a neighboring hill, where he chanted a dismal war song. Thus urged on, the Indians came out from their cover. They fought for a time with resolution ; but the brave frontiersmen charged them furiously, and routed them with heavy slaughter. General Harrison was everywhere, exposing himself to great dangers. The victory was decisive. Tecumseh returned from the south to find his town in ruins, his best warriors slain, and his con- federacy destroyed.^ When the war between Great Britain and the TJnited States was declared in 1812, the English promptly availed themselves of the services of the savages as allies. Tecumseh stood high in English esteem, and was made a brigadier-general in their army ; » Art. Tecumseh, Amer. Eneyclop., XV. 3B0. Eargleston's Household U. S., 245. - Eggleston's Household U. S., 2i6. Deny, 184, 185. Quackenbos, 342, 343. The War on Land. 619 and they did not hesitate to put in movement all the horrors of Indian warfare. It was natural and, in some measure, unavoidable that the American War DejDartment, in the opening of the war, should have looked to the officers surviving from Revolutionary days as the leaders of their armies ; but this was a serious error. Years had passed. Times had changed. The really strong men were gone. Those who still lived had not, in the war, shown themselves to be possessed of military genius. They were now old and feeble, and unfit for the stern and arduous exigencies of a frontier war. Gen. William Hull was one of these old men, Dearborn was another, Winchester was another. The name of each was soon signalized by depressing disasters to the American cause. Secre- tary Eustis, of the War Department, had planned an invasion of Canada, under the lead of General Dearborn in the Northeast, Van Rensselaer in the centre, and Hull in the Northwest. They were to capture forts and country before them, and to make Montreal their common objective point. Dearborn was commander-in- chief; Hull was already Governor of Alichigan. Congress had voted to increase the regular army to thirty-five thousand, and to authorize the President to accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers. To meet war expenses they authorized a loan of eleven millions.* General Hull was soon at the head of an army of two thousand five hundred men, of whom three hundred Avere regulars. By slow and laborious marches he made his way to Detroit, in Mich- igan, on the strait connecting Lake Erie with Lake St. Clair, and opposite to Sandwich, in Canada. He did not receive actual notice that the war had been declared as early as the enemy did ;^ and the day after he received it, a boat containing his baggage and official papers was captured. He felt already oppressed by the conviction that the force under his command was inadequate to the work assigned him. But one course held out hope to him, and, had he been resolute, energetic and competent, he might have pursued it with success. He might have marched instantly on the British posts and com- pelled their surrender, one after another, before succor could reach them. He made no such attempt. He hesitated and de- layed while the enemy were rallying to the threatened points and getting all their forces into the field. Hull waited for positive orders, and did not receive them until the I3th of July, 1813. They were that he should proceed > Stephens' Comp. U. S., 403. ^Quackenbos' U. S., 345. 620 A History of the United States of America. immediately to the invasion of Canada. He waited three days longer ; then he crossed the narrow strait to Sandwich. He might have attacked Maiden immediately. Instead of this he bvisied himself with the issue of a proclamation, verbose, empty and vain ; and before he was ready, a strong force of regulars, militia and Indians guarded Maiden. Tecumseh called his war- riors to join him. Hostile parties were lying on the outskirts of the American army, cutting off their supplies. Intercepted letters brought to Hull stated that the Indians of the North were all rising and preparing to join the English ; and at the most inop- portune of times, General Dearborn agreed with the British Gov- ernor of Canada to suspend hostilities, except on that part of the frontier occupied by Hull ! ^ Thus the British General Brock, released from anxiety at Niagara and its vicinity, w^as able to transfer his forces and his personal presence to Maiden. He assumed command there, and Tecumseh, on flat pieces of elm-bark stretched on the ground, sketched for him an accurate drawing of Detroit with its works, hills, rivers, roads and marshes. Brock was so pleased that he drew his own sash from his waist and put it round Tecumseh ; but this wily savage pretended humbly to refuse the honor, and put the sash on Round-Head, a Wyandot warrior older than him- self.^ The Indians, under these flatteries, came in growing numbers to the British camps. General Hull grew more and more dis- heartened and alarmed. The climax of his unsoldier-like tremor was reached when he heard of the capture of Fore Mackinaw. This fort was the extreme northern point of American military possession, being on an island in the strait connecting the head of Lake ISIichigan with Lake Huron. The weak garrison had been left unsuccored by the War Department, although nearly two months passed between the ultimatum of the English minis- ter, Foster, and its fall. The British forces appeared July 17th, The garrison had not even heard of the declaration of war, and, having no power to resist, they surrendered at once.^ General Hull was instantl}' beset by visions of hordes of North- ern savages pouring down on his flanks. He retreated with his army across the strait and re-occupied Detroit. General Brock promptly followed him, and appeared before Detroit with an army of three hundred British regulars, four hundred and fifty Canadians and six hundred Indians.* ' Qucackenhos' U. S., 346. 2 Compare Quackeiibos, 346. Eggleston's Household U. S., 248. 8 D. B. Scott's U. S., 251. Eggle'ston's Household U. S., 247. < Quackenbos, 347. The War 07i Land. 621 Hull had intrenchments, and an army superior in numbers, and certainly equal in courage and moi'al power to that of Brock. The Americans were confident of success, and, with batteries of guns loaded with grape-shot, stood ready to receive the British advance. But by this time the weak and aged Hull was entirely unnerved by imaginary terrors. By his orders a table-cloth, displayed on a staff', was raised as a white flag over his fortifications. On the i6th of August, 1S13, he surrendered to the British general his whole army, with all its arms and stores, his fortifications, the town of Detroit and all the Territory of Michigan ! ' His officers and men were so moved by this humiliation that many of them shed tears of shame and sorrow. The same emo- tions filled the hearts of the people of the United States, and they did not begin to recover hope until Capt. Isaac Hull (nephew of the unhappy general) brought his prisoners into Boston after capturing the Guerriere on the 19th of August. The revival of hope had come from the quarter whence it was least expected. General, Hull was, two years afterwards, exchanged for thirty British prisoners, and was brought to trial before a court-martial upon three charges: (i) Treason; (3) Cowardice; (3) Unsol- dier-like conduct. The court gave no response on the first charge, but convicted him on the others, and ordered him to be shot to death with musketry. In consideration of his age and Revolu- tionary services, his life was spared, but his name was stricken from the army roll. Probably the executive department of the government was the more disposed to be lenient because of their own manifested shortcomings in foresight and duty at that time. Subsequent re- searches have shown that the difficulties surrounding General Hull at the time of his suiTcnder were very formidable, and remove all suspicion of bad faith, and do something to clear his fame of the charge of cowardice in the most dishonoring sense of that word.^ In fact, a modern historian has given to these attempts to miti- gate, and even vindicate, the course of General Hull so much of weight that he expresses no opinion on the subject.^ But truthful history convicts him of such irresolution, weakness and failure in soldier-like action as must pennanently becloud his fame. The land campaign of 1813 continued unfortunate for the Amer- icans. About the time that Detroit surrendered, large bands of J Seott, 251. Quackenbos, 247. 2 Art. Hall, Aiiier. Eucyclop., IX. 341. Prof. Jiio. J. Anderson's U. S., IIG, and note 134 a, by James Freeman Clarke. 3 A. II. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 408, and note. 622 A History of the United States of America. Indians surrounded Fort Dearborn, on Lake Michigan, very near the present site of Chicago. The commander, having a very fee- ble garrison, offered to surrender on condition that he and his men should be permitted to retire in safety. This offer was accepted. The only precaution taken by the garrison was to destroy a con- siderable quantity of whiskey and gunpowder in the fort ; yet this was made the pretext for an attack on the retiring j^risoners. Some were killed, and others distributed as captives among the tribes. Fort Dearborn was burned to the ground. In October, 1812, General Van Rensselaer was encamped at Lewistown, on the Niagara river, with a considerable force, chiefly of New York militia. His relative. Colonel Van Rensse- laer, and Colonel Christie crossed over on the 13th October with a select body of troops and attacked the British at Queenstown, under General Brock, with so much of vigor and spirit that they were driven from their works and General Brock was killed ; but, knowing that reinforcements were hastening to the enemy. Colo- nel Van Rensselaer recrossed, to bring over more troops. To his amazement and discomfiture, the New York militia refused to cross, on the ground that they were to defend their own State, and not to invade a foreign countr}- ! ^ One thousand armed men thus stood in sight of their brave comrades on the other side, re- fusing to cross to their aid. The result was that those gallant troops — among whom Col. Win- field Scott, afterwards so renowned, had crossed as a volunteer — were overwhelmed by a large force of British and Indians, under General Sheafte ; and, after losing sixty killed and one hundred wounded, were obliged to surrender. Thus early in the war was indicated that unpatriotic spirit which afterwards developed itself to a point near to disunion. General Van Rensselaer was so disgusted that he resigned. General Smyth, of Virginia, was appointed his successor. He projected two invasions of Canada, but, succeeding in neither, he also resigned." The only American successes were in two repulses of the en- emy in their attempts upon Ogdensburg and in a hurried incursion of Colonel Pike into Canada, during which he defeated a body of British and Indians. When the Congress re-assembled, strong opposition to the con- tinuance of the war was manifested. This opposition was not confined to the Northern section. John Randolph of Roanoke, a Virginian of pronounced democracy in principle, had opposed it 1 Art. Van Rensselaer, New Amer. Eueyclop., XVI. 25. D. B. Scott, 252. ^Quackenbos, 352. The War oil Land. 623 from the beginning. His ground was that the policy of England,' adverse to the shipping and commercial interests of America, had been forced upon her by her gigantic struggle with Napoleon ; that England represented the rights of mankind against a mili- tary usurper in that struggle, and that the United States, so far from embarrassing her by war, ought to bear patiently the indi- rect effects of her policy until success against Napoleon should enable her to abandon it.^ His argument had been corroborated by the fact that in Sep- tember, 1S13, Admiral Warren, commanding the British naval forces on the coast, had written from Halifax a letter to James Monroe, Secretaiy of State, offering (by authority) a cessation of hostilities on the basis of a revocation of the " orders in council." Monroe x'eplied that unless England would agree to abandon her claim of right to search and impressment, peace could not en- dure.* The correspondence went no further ; and so, the opposers of the war were outvoted, and in the winter of 18 13— '13 the Con- gress provided for a large increase of the army and navy.^ General James Armstrong had succeeded Doctor Eustis, who had resigned the office of Secretary of War. Armstrong planned an invasion of Canada substantially the same as that of 181 3. His only advantages were better officers and greater experience. Still, Canada was not conquered. The Kentuckians insisted on General Harrison as their leader, and he had command in the Northwest.* Under him was Win- chester, a veteran of the Revolution. Harrison determined, if possible, to recover Detroit ; but his march through interminable woods and swamps was impeded by the approach of winter. He fixed his headquarters at Franklinton, Ohio. Winchester, with a division of the army, was at Fort Defiance, on the Maumee. In January, 1813, hearing that Americans in Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, twenty-six miles from Detroit, were threatened by an attack from British and Indians, Winchester, with eight hundred men, marched to their relief. He met and drove off' the attacking party ; but his camp was soon besieged by one thousand five hundred British and savages under Colonel Proctor. A battle ensued January' 22d, 1813, in which each force lost about three hundred in killed, wounded and missing. Winchester was sur- rounded, and his small force was menaced with destruction. Colonel Proctor urged him to surrender, with a solemn pledge on his own part that the lives and property of the Americans 'Stephens' Coinp. U. S., 406. 2 lUd., 406. SQuackenbos. 352, 353. * Ibid., 353, 354. 624 A History of the United States of America. should be safe. General Winchester accepted these terms ; but hardly had the surrender been made before Proctor marched his white forces to Maiden with all the prisoners able to walk, and leaving no guard to protect the weak, sick and wounded. A brutal massacre by the savages followed, in which these brave men, nearly all of whom were from the very flower of the Ken- tucky families, were mercilessly tortured. Many were slain ; many of the wounded were burned -in two houses to which the savages set fii^e. Some were dragged as slaves to Detroit and offered for sale there. The people did what they could to ransom them, and remonstrated with Proctor, but without relief. He did nothing to prevent these barbarities.* To his name a permanent stigma of disgrace is attached. Tecumseh himself reproached Proctor as unfit to be a commander.^ When General Harrison heard of this disaster he marched hastily with the hope of relieving, to some extent, the remnant of Winchester's command. His troops were fii'ed with indignation. " Remember the river Raisin ! " became a watchword to which hundreds of volunteers in Kentucky and Ohio responded by has- tening to the American camps. Winchester's unauthorized, though well intended, movement to Frenchtown had disadjusted General Harrison's plan. . He was too weak to attack Detroit. He hastily ei^ected Fort Meigs, at the rapids of the Maumee. The works were not completed when Proctor, with his troops, and Tecumseh, with six hundred warriors from the Wabash region, appeared. The siege was fiercely pressed, but the defence was gallant and successful. The Indians mounted into the trees to fire into the fort. Harrison exposed himself in duty, and narrowly escaped two of these stealthy shots, one of which killed a soldier by his side, and another struck the bench on which he was sitting. General Clay, with one thousand two hundred Kentuckians, was rapidly marching to relieve the fort. Under Harrison's orders .a detachment from this force landed on the left side of the river to destroy the British batteries, while a sortie was made from the fort on the right. Some success attended this movement ; but, unfortunately, Colonel Dudley, contrary to Harrison's orders, instead of retiring to his boats, sought to maintain his position. The main body of the enemy intercepted him. Eighty of his men were killed and five hundred and fifty taken prisoner. About one hundred and fifty escaped in the boats. The prisoners 1 Goodrich, 334. Quackenbos, 3M, 355. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 266. 3 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 217. Quackenbos, 357. The War on Land. 6251 were treated with accustomed barbarity by the savages, notwith- standing the indignant interposition of the bi-ave Tecumseh/ Finding all his efforts to capture Fort Meigs vain, Proctor abandoned the siege. General Clay was placed in command at Meigs. Proctor returned in July to renew the attack, but the fort was now in good condition and Clay was prepared. Find- ing himself baffled, Proctor sought, by a sudden assault, to cap- ture Fort Stephenson at Sandusky, a few miles south of Lake Erie. Major Croghan, of Kentucky, a youth "of twenty-one years, was in command, ^vith a garrison of one hundred and sixty men. The work was a weak stockade with one mounted six- pounder. General Harrison had given Croghan discretionary orders to abandon it ; but this young commander, knowing its importance, and Indians being already around him, held on.^ On August 1st, 1813, Proctor, leaving a force of Indians to keep up a show of siege at Meigs, appeared at Fort Stephenson with gun-boats, five hundred regulars and seven hundred Indians. His force being nearly eight times that in the fort, he sent in a flag demanding surrender, with the unmanly threat of extermination in case of refusal. Croghan simply replied that the threat was vain ; that he would not surrender, and that no man in the fort would be found alive if it was captured.^ The attack opened August 2d by fire from the gun-boats, which produced little effect ; then a cannon fire was concentrated on the northwest angle to make a breach. The front was strengthened with sand bags. The six- pounder, loaded almost to its muzzle with slugs and grape, was carefully concealed, but kept ready for the expected assault. When it was supposed that the picket fence had beexi destroyed and the breach made practicable, three hundred and fifty regulars, under Colonel Short, advanced under cover of the smoke. The leader sprang over the outer works, crying out to his men the inhuman rally authorized by Proctor's notice: "Give the damned Yankees no quarter!" His men crowded to the assault. Just at the right moment the six-pounder was discharged, with terrible effect. Short fell dead, and three- fourths of his men following nearest were killed or wounded.* A fatal rifle fire was opened from the fort ; the besiegei^s fled. The Indians were panic-stricken, and took to the woods ; the siege was abandoned, and Proctor returned with his defeated troops to Maiden. 1 Quackenbos, 356, 357. 2 Egsrleston's Household U. S., 25G. Taylor's Cent. V. S., 2S2. Quackenbos, 361. 3E-,'5rlcston, 256. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 283. Quackenbos, 362. < Eggleston's Household U. S., 256, 257. Taylor, 283. 40 626 A History of the United States of Atnerica. In this heroic defence two hundred of the enemy fell, while the American loss was only one killed and seven wounded. General Harrison had been led to believe that Croghan had recklessly disobeyed his orders ; but when all the facts appeared he warmly applauded his course. Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie opened the way for General Harrison's advance into Canada. Commodore Chauncey had already a small squadron in complete control of Ontario. The advance of British reinforcements or Indians from the East was no longer to be feared. Proctor and Tecumseh dismantled the works at ]Malden and retreated with all their forces. Harrison followed them vigor- ously, occupying in rapid succession Detroit, Sandwich, and other points surrendered by the unfortunate IIull,^ He came up with the British army just as they reached the banks of the river Thames, near the settlement called the "Mora- vian Towns," eighty-six miles northeast of Detroit. Proctor had chosen a position on a narrow strip of land between the river and an extensive swamp, which was occupied by a strong body of Indians under Tecumseh. This noble Indian chieftain felt a presentiment that in the coming battle he would fall. He said : "My body will remain on the field" ; and he handed his sword to one of his warriors, bidding him give it to the son of Tecum- seh when he should be worthy of it.^ General Plarrison, with the eye of a soldier, saw the weak point in Proctor's thin line, which he had endeavored to stretch to the river. He ordered Col. Richard ISI. Johnson with his Ken- tucky mounted men to charge at that point. The order was in- stantly obeyed with perfect success. The line was broken by the headlong charge, and the Kentuckians, forming in the rear of Proctor's troops, poured a deadly fire into them from their rifles, while Harrison and Shelby attacked in front. The battle was then and there lost by the British. They broke and fled. Proc- tor, knowing how deservedly he was hated, took to his carriage and put the horses to speed ; but, fearing he would be pursued by Johnson's swift cavalry, he left his carriage, fled into the woods and escaped.^ Colonel Johnson now led his mounted riflemen to the hiding place of the Indians and roused them from their lair. They made a brave defence, and with their rifles emptied many saddles. Johnson was wounded, Tecumseh sprang to the front, and is be- lieved to have received his d^ath wound from a pistol fired by 1 Quackenbos' U. S., 365, 3G6. 2 Ihid., 366. ^ Eggleston's Household U. S., 258, The War on Land. 627 Johnson himself. His fall was followed by the instant defeat and dispersion of his followers.^ In this decisive battle the British lost seven hundred men in killed, wounded and prisoners. The Indians lost one hundred and twenty slain. All the cannon and most of the small arms of the enemy were captured. Among the cannon ^vere six brass pieces surrendered by Hull, and on two of thein were the words : " Surrendered by Burgoyne at Saratoga." * The Americans lost in killed and wounded about fifty men. More than all that Hull had given up had now been recon- quered. General Harrison soon afterwards, in consequence of a difference with Armstrong, the Secretary of War, retired from active military service ; ^ but his country did not forget him. In April, 1813, General Dearborn, with one thousand seven hundred picked men, sailed across Ontario in Chauncey's squad- ron to attack York (now Toronto), the capital of what was then Upper Canada. The assault was bravely led, April 27th, by Col. Zebulon Pike. As he approached with his troops, the British set fire to a fuse communicating with their magazine, and retreated. The magazine blew up, with horrible projection of shot and shat- tered fragments. Colonel Pike was mortally wounded, and nearly two hundred of his men were killed or wounded ; but the Amer- icans advanced and captured the town with a large amount of military stores.* The troops under Dearborn re-embarked and sailed against Fort George, on the Niagara. Again the British blew up their magazines. They retreated to Burlington Heights, near the western end of the lake. The Americans followed them, and a battle took place after midnight of June 6th, in which the British were driven back, but succeeded in carrying oft" as captives two American generals, Chandler and Winder. Dearborn retreated with precipitation to Fort George. On the 39th of May, 1S13, Sir George Prevost, relying on the weakness of the American force left at Sackett's Harbor, ad- vanced on it from his vessels with a thousand men ; but General Brown met him and gave him so emphatic a repulse that he re- tired in haste, leaving his wounded behind him.^ General Dearborn permitted himself to be cncomjDassed at Fort George by superior numbers, and lost a detachment of six hun- dred of his men, cut oft' and captured. For this he was super- seded, and Gen. James Wilkinson was appointed commander-in- chief in his stead. » Quackenbos, 3:57. Taylor's Centeu. U. S., 2'.'0. - Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 342, 3 Amer. Eneyclop., VIII. 741. •• D. B. Scott, 257. * Ihid., 257. 638 A History of the Ujiited States of America. This officer had not made an enviable repu^ation during the Revolutionary war, and had added to his other faults the vice of frequent intoxication.^ He did nothing to retrieve his fame in Canada. He attributed his failures chiefly to dissensions between himself and Gen. Wade HamiDton, who held rank and command nearly equal to his own. But this did not account for the fact that in the severe action at Williamsburg, or Chrysler's Spring, in which Brigadier-General Boyd commanded the Americans, and in which the opposing armies both retreated, each with heavy loss, he was unable to command, and alleged sickness as the cause ; and in a court-martial, it afterwards appeared that he was at a house in the neighborhood in a state of intoxication.^ But in 1S14 the Americans did something towards recovering their reputation as soldiers. They had now gotten rid of the aged failures in the persons of Hull, Winchester, Dearborn and Wil- kinson, and were led by young and growing officers, such as Brown, Winfield Scott, Ripley and Jessup. At Chippewa, a few miles below Fort Erie, on the 5 th of July, a sternly-contested battle was fought between three thousand five hundred Americans, under General Brown, and about the same number under the British General Riall. The battle was obstinate and bloody. The Americans lost three hundred in killed and wounded. The British lost five hundred, and were driven from the field, and compelled to retreat down the river to Burlington Heights.' They were reinforced by General Drummond, and, under his command, again advanced. Gen. Winfield Scott's brigade had been detached to watch their movements. On the 35th of July, near the Falls of Niagara, this brigade suddenly found themselves in the presence of the whole British armv, advantageously posted for a pitched battle. Scott sent word to General Brown to hasten up, and, posting his artillery, opened fire, and niaintained his ground with cool resolution. The thunder of cannon echoed back the ceaseless roar of Niagara. Jessup ably seconded Scott, and, gaining the British rear, cap- tured General Riall and his suite. Soon after dark, Ripley's brigade came on the field, aftording timely relief to the almost exhausted troops under Scott. A heavy fire was kept up from a British battery occupying a commanding point. Unless this point could be carried, and this battery silenced, no prospect for victory appeared. " Can you take that battery ? " asked Ripley 1 Goodrich's Pict. IT. S., 34?, 340. '- Ibid., 3 14, ?-:8, 349. 3 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 349. Quackenbos' U. S., 373. The War on Land. 629 of Colonel Miller. " I will try, sir," was the modest answer ; and up the hill Miller charged at the head of his regiment. A de- structive fire poured through his lines, but, closing up, they rushed on. Qiiickly the battery was in their hands, and the pieces were turned on the enemy. Tln"ee times the British rallied to recaj:)- ture these guns, and each time were repulsed with heavy loss. At midnight they retreated, leaving the field to the Americans. This battle, sometimes called " Bridgewater," sometimes " Lundy's Lane," was one of the most hotly contested of the war. Generals Brown and Scott were both severely wounded. The Americans engaged numbered three thousand ; the British, four thousand five hundred. The first lost seven hundred and forty-three killed arid wounded ; the last, eight hundred and seventy-eight, with a number of cannon and small arms. After gaining this dearly-bought victory, the Americans retired to Fort Erie, where they were besieged by the British army re- inforced and numbering four thousand men. A heavy bombard- ment was followed by a midnight assault on the 15th August, in which the British were repulsed with a loss of fifty-seven killed, three hundred and nineteen wounded, and five hundred and thirty- nine missing.^ General Brown, having been wounded at Lundy's Lane, was withdrawn for a time. Ripley and Gaines successively com- manded at Erie. Brown, having recovered, ordered a sortie, in which the advanced intrenchments of the enemy were captured, and they were driven back towards Chippewa. Sir George Prevost having been repulsed at Plattsburg, and Lake Champlain secured by Macdonough, General Izard was enabled to come with five thousand men to the help of Brown at Erie. On the 20th October, a second battle was fought near Chippewa, in which the Americans were victorious, though with heavy loss. This ended all efforts for the conquest of Canada. General Brown destroyed Fort Erie, and led his army into winter quarters at Buffalo. Meanwhile, in other parts of their land, the people of the United States were themselves compelled to experience invasion and desolation from war. As early as May, 1S13, the English Admiral Sir George Cock- burn had entered Chesapeake Bay with a squadron and land force, and had committed depredations and excesses along the coast and in the villages of Maryland and the District of Colum- bia, at Havre de Grace, Frenchtown and Georgetown, which > Compare Quackenbos, 374, with Goodrich, 351. 630 A History of the United States of America. have made his name infamous in history.' He then turned upon Virginia and more than rivaled Dunmore. A considerable fleet, of four line-of-battle ships and twelve frigates, collected near the capes and in Lynnhaven Bay. The land force was under Sir Sidney Beckwith. Mr. Jefferson's plan of defending the American harbors by the " gun-boat system " was in operation at Norfolk. Troops had been ordered down from the upper counties ; but the malarial fevers of the summer season in lower Virginia had prostrated many of them. Gen. Robert Taylor commanded the military district, and Commodore Cassin directed the water defences. On the 20th of June, 1S13, Captain Tarbell with his gun-boats had an encounter with two British frigates and a corvette. " Every one was impatient to know how Mr. Jefferson's bull dogs would acquit themselves, and whether the philosopher's scheme would prove upon trial a monument of his wisdom or his folly." ^ The contest was curiously unequal so far as the number and power of guns entered it. The fifteen guns of the boats were opposed to one hundred and fifty on the decks of the men-of-war ; nevertheless, the fight was hotly kept up for hours. The ships suffered severely in their hulls ; the sails and spars of the gun- boats also suffered damage, and one of them was shattered by a thirty-two-pound ball. They hauled off in time ; they had done well and checked tlie enemy's advance.^ On the 23d June, the enemy made an attack on Craney Island, a few miles below Norfolk, with two thousand five hundred men, under Sir Sidney Beckwith, and a boat advance. They were bravely met and defeated with considerable loss by the sea- men and marines under Cassin, Shubrick, Saunders and Neale, and the Winchester riflemen.* Prisoners stated that many of the attacking force were wretched French troops captured in Spain, and induced to enlist for war against America by prospects of pillage.^ Enraged by their defeat at Craney Island, the marauders at- tacked Hampton, June 35th, which they captured after a gallant defence by about four hundred infantry and artillerists, under Maj. Stapleton Crutchfield. The British lost two hundred, the Ainericans only twenty, in killed and wounded.® In Hampton revolting enormities on people and property were committed. A wanton destruction of private property took 1 Blackburn & McDonald, U. S., 316, 317. 2 Lstter in Enquirer, June 25, 1813. ■ s Enquirer, June 22. Brackenridge's Late War, 133. <01Bcial Reports, Enquirer, June -Otli. " Brackenridge, 133. ^Crutchfield's letter, June 2oth, in Enquirer. The War on Land. 631 place. An aged man, named Kirby, lying sick in bed, was mur- dered in the presence of his wife, who was herself desperately wounded. The women remaining in the town were forcibly violated by both soldiers and negroes. When one poor woman sought Cockburn and wildly implored him to put a stop to such scenes, his only answer was that "he had no doubt before he en- tered Hampton all the ladies had left it, and therefore he had given no orders to prevent it." ' The British soon left to make a descent on North Carolina. The enemy's fleet in the waters ofi' the northeastern coast was commanded by Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, who generally dis- couraged devastations on private property.^ Nevertheless, he made relentless attacks on exposed points, and destroyed shipping and manufacturing property in immense quantities. An attack on Saybrook was repelled by gun-boats with some loss to the enemy. In July, 1814, Hardy, with a considerable force, made a descent on Moose Island, off' the coast of Maine, took possession of East- port, and issued a proclamation declaring all the islands and towns east of Passamaquoddy Bay to belong to his Britannic majesty, and requiring the people to appear in seven days and take the oath of allegiance. About two-thirds of the sparse population submitted ; but the English council of New Bruns- wick treated them as a conquered people and placed them under military rule.^ Hardy was determined to attack the southern coast line of New England. On the nth August, 1814, his ships appeared off" the town of Stonington, in Connecticut, on Long Island Sound. He sent in a message to the people to remove the women and chil- dren, as he had orders to reduce the town to ashes.* The result was a signal proof of what may be done by a cool and resolute people for defence of their homes. They manned a small battery of tw^o eighteen-pounders, threw up a breastwork for riflemen, and sent a pressing message to General Cushing, at New London, asking help. In the afternoon five barges and a launch full of men came from the ships under cover of their fire. The calm men in the battery waited until they were within easy range, and then opened on them with such destruction that they swerved from their course and attempted another landing. Here they -were met with a six-pounder, loaded with grape and slugs, and with a deadly musketry fire. They 1 Letters in Enquirer, July 2d and 9tli. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 326, 3 Taylor's Ceuten. U. S., 326. •» Ibid., ^27. 632 A History of the United States of America. retreated. The next day the attack was renewed and again re- pulsed. The town was bombarded with little eft'ect, and, on the evening of the I3th of August, Hardy retired.^ In the memorable year 18 14, the allied powers of Russia, Aus- tria, Prussia, Spain and England, aided by one hundred thousand men, under Bernadotte, King of Sweden, and even by secret forces set in motion by Murat, the brother-in-law of Napoleon, and made by him King of Naples, had overwhelmed the " j\lan of Destiny." He had abdicated his imperial throne on the nth of April, 1814, and became sovereign of the small island of Elba, in the Medi- terranean, with a fixed yearly revenue of six million francs.^ This left England free to employ her large armies against America, and she determined to use them with effective energy. In August, 1S14, the united fleets of Admirals Cockburn and Cochrane entered the Chesapeake Bay with twenty-one ships, carrying a large marine force, and also four thousand trained sol- diers, under General Ross, who had gained fame on some of the sternest battle-fields of Europe. Commodore Barney, with a small flotilla of armed vessels, had endeavored to protect the coasts of the bay and of that part of Maryland and Virginia. He retreated up the Patuxent river be- fore the overwhelming British naval force.' As the war in Europe had ceased in April, and the American War Department had known for months that large English armies had been set free for the work of invading America, it is amazing that so little had been done in the way of foresight and preparation. The British fleet divided in the bay, part ascending the Poto- mac and part following Barney into the Patuxent. They anchored on the 19th of August, 1S14, at Benedict. Here Genei-al Ross and his army disembarked. On the 21st they marched by the river road, and the next day reached Upper jNIarlborough, seven- teen miles from Washington. Near this point Commodore Barney had moored his small ves- sels. No course was open to him except to blow up his flotilla, and hasten with such guns and ammunition as his seamen and marines, with some impressed horses, could convey, to join Gene- ral Winder, who was straining every nerve to organize a force to defend Washington city.* Had this plain duty been attended to at the proper time, the approaches could have been easily fortified and the enemy defeated ; but it was now too late. To expect a -- 1 Taylor's Centen. V. S.. 327. Goodrich, 34S. Amer. Encyclop., XV. US. 2 Art. Bonaparte, Napoleon, Amer. Enevclop., III. 43J. ^ Quackenbos' U. S., 377. < Taylor's Centen. U. S., 3-19. Quackeubos, U. S., 377, 378. The War on Land. 633 body of a few thousand raw militia, in open fields, to stop four thousand veteran soldiers trained in European wars, completely armed and skillfully led, was to expect a miracle. The first encounter was at Bladensburg, six miles northeast of Washington. Oi:i the 24th of August, 18 14, the British infantry advanced, and, though suffering greatly with the heat and their hurried march, made an effective charge, firing musketry and war- rockets as they came on. The militia, under Winder, immediately broke and fled — some without having fired their guns. The only ■ real fighting was done by the heroic Barney, with Captain Miller and his brave men. They stood to their guns, and fired with de- structive effect double loads of canister upon the British lines, not even retiring when they were completely exposed by the flight of the militia. Barney was severely wounded, and both of these officers and many of their men were taken prisoners.' A modern historian, after narrating the prominent events of this battle, has commented on them somewhat satirically as fol- lows : " Such was the famous battle of Bladensburg, in which very few Americans had the honor to be either killed or wounded — not more than fifty in all ; and yet, according to the evidence sub- sequently given before a congressional committee of investigation, everybody behaved with wonderful courage and coolness, and no- body retired except by orders or for want of orders."^ President INIadison, with Armstrong, Secretary of War, and all the other cabinet officers, and many of the citizens, had ffed froiu Washington. Leaving his army encamped outside. General Ross, with seven hundred of his soldiers, took possession of the capital city of the United States on the twenty-third day of August, 1S14. No po- litical advantage whatever was gained. The people of the coun- try were mortified, but not subdued. On the contrary, they were rallying in increasing numbers to threatened points. General Ross, by express orders of his regent and ministry, performed deeds unworthy of a civilized nation, and distinctly condemned by international law.""* By gunpowder and fire he destroyed the Capitol building, with its valuable library and furniture, the President's house and all its contents, the public department buildings and offices, the arsenal and the navy-yard. He destroyed, also, the bridge across the Po- tomac west of the city, and a large hotel and several private 1 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 352. Qiiackenbos' U. S., 378. Brackenridge's Late War, in loco. SHildreth's Hist, of V. S. Thalheimer (note), 222, 227. 3 Vattel's Law of Nations, 32L Lord Grenville, in Knight's Hist, of England. Prof. Jno. J. Anderson's U. S., 126, and notes 5 and 6. 634 ^ History of the United States of America. buildings. No military necessity whatever existed requiring the* destruction of any of these buildings. It was the ^vork of van- dals in the nineteenth century. Having wrought this destruction, General Ross retired from Washington with his army. His next attempt was on the city of Baltimore. On the 12th vSeptember the British troops landed at North Point, fourteen miles from the city, while part of their fleet moved up the bay to attack Fort McHenry, which com- manded the channel. Soon after the march commenced from North Point, a party of American sharpshooters began a fire at long range on the British front. General Ross, with some officers, rode forward to recon- noiter. Two young mechanics. Wells and AlcComas, of a Balti- more volunteer rifle company, who were keen shots, aimed at him and fired. One or both shots took effect. Ross fell, mortally wounded, into the arms of one of his aids. His horse galloped wildly to the rear, with the saddle empty and wet with blood. ^ A shower of balls was poured on the two riflemen, both of whom fell. The death of General Ross sj^read gloom through his army, and was the omen of coming disaster. Ten thousand militia had assembled in and around Baltimore. General Smith, who, in his youth, had greatly distinguished himself in the defence of Fort Mifflin, was in command. Under him were Generals Winder and Strieker. His measures were prompt and efficient. He estab- lished several redoubts, and improvised lines of defence. When the British advance (September i3th, 18 14) came within range, a destructive fire was opened on them. The Americans, after holding their position for an hour, and losing one hundred and three men killed and wounded, most of them citizens of Bal- timore, fell back to a stronger position on high ground, partly fortified. Here they stood, firmly prepared to make their final stand for the defence of Baltimore. The British army again ad- vanced on the morning of the next day ; but they made no serious attack, because they had received tidings deeply depressing to their hopes of success. On the evening of September I3th the British fleet drew near and commenced the bombardment of Fort McHenrj^ Major George Armistead was in command of this important work, with sixty artillerists, two companies of sea-fencibles, and detachments (in his outworks) of volunteers under Berry, Pennington and Nicholson. The latter was chief justice of Baltimore county, but now "amid arms, law was silent."^ 1 Qnackenbos, 379, 380. = Taylor's Ceuten. U. S., 350. The War o?t Land. 635 The fire of the bomb-vessels and seventy-four-gun ships was tremendous. It continued during a large part of the night. Fif- teen hundred shells exploded in or over the fort ; yet, with un- daunted coolness, the garrison sighted their guns and kept up their fire on the ships, nearly all of which suffered heavy loss. It was during this momentous night that Francis Scott Key, of Baltimore, who, on a public mission for a humane purpose, had gone aboard one of the British ships and was detained as a pris- oner, ^vas moved by the high inspiration which found words from his pen in the great song entitled "The Star Spangled Banner," which has ever since been one of the cherished poems of freedom. The British fleet made no imj^ression on the fort, and in the morning sullenly retired beyond cannon range, thus giving up the contest. When news of this defeat reached the enemy, they re- treated immediately, and re-embarked all their troops, and the next day set sail down the Chesapeake, and returned no more.' Some of the people of New England disapproved of the war so much that a \videly-spread mist of opinion has attributed to them the purpose of seceding from the American Union and making a separate treaty of peace and amity with Great Britain. No conclusive evidence of such a purpose has ever been dis- closed by history. The nearest approach to it was the assembling of a convention at Hartford, Connecticut, on the ii^th of Decem- ber, 1814, composed of delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Is- land, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut. They sat with closed doors, and no authentic report of their secret debates has been published ; but the resolutions adopted, and the public address put forth by them, very clearly indicated that they claimed the right of secession as sovereign States, and that unless a dif- ferent policy as to the war was adopted they would be driven to exercise this right. They appointed a deputation to wait on the Federal Congress and authorities at Washington and explain their views ; and they provided for another convention, to which this deputation was to report ; but news of the treaty of peace of December 24th, 1814, reached the actors in time to dissipate their schemes, whatever they may have been.'^ The Democratic party gained much ground by the reaction of repellant feeling against this mysterious convention. This feeling was greatly intensified by the inevitable connection of these Hartford movements with the fact (shown by documents submitted to Congress in iSi3 by President Madison) that in 1809 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 350. Quackenbos, 380. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 418. -Stephens' Comp. U. S., 419. Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 149, 150. Quacken- bos, 380, 381. Thalheimer, 224, 225. D. B. Scott's U. S., 2G9, 270. 636 A History of the United States of Ame7'ica. Sir John Craig, Governor of Canada, had sent one John Henry as an emissary of Great Britain into the United States to intrigue with Federal politicians in New England for the purpose of inducing her States to form themselves into a separate nation or province dependent on Great Britain. Henry failed to effect his purpose, and, not being paid by the English government, disclosed the whole matter to the United States government in considera- tion of fifty thousand dollars paid him from the secret service fund; The last effort of Great Britain during this war with the United States was directed against the newly-admitted State of Louis- iana, and was intended to strike a fatal blow at the western ex- tensions of the North American republic. It was ushered in by an Indian war, which brought into public view the man destined to play the most prominent part in the bloody defeat of this British incursion. Tecumseh had extended his machinations for rousing the Indian tribes even to those of the extreme South. The Creek Indians, under their able chief, Wethersford or " Red Eagle," had formed a combination, running through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, and in 1S13 were prepared for an attack on any weak point. The unarmed whites flocked for safety to the forts. Fort Mimms, on the Alabama river, about fifty miles north of Mobile Bay, had a garrison of volunteers. On the 30th of Au- gust, at noonday, while the gates were standing wide open, seven hundred Creeks, under AVethersford, rushed in, effecting a com- plete surprise. The buildings were fired, and nearly four hundred men, ^vomen and children were massacred.* The Governors of Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi Territory took prompt measures to invade the Creek country with seven thousand men. They were to advance in four divisions, from different points. The Georgians were under General Floyd ; the Mississippians under General Coffee. General Andrew Jackson, of Nashville, Tennessee, had already become so formidable that the Indians called him "The Sharp Knife.' He had served with distinction in the United States Senate ; now he took the field as rommander-in-chief, but his immediate troops were a large body i>f Tennesseeans.^ The first encounter was in November between the Creeks and hens' Comp. U. S., 424. = Ihid., 424. 2 Stephens, 424. Amer. Eucyclop., IX. 084. 4 Amor. Encyclop., IX. G84. " Stephens, 424. '■> Art. J;!(.ivson, Amer. Encyclop., IX. 684. 650 A History of the United States of America. tiations were already pending looking to the ceding of Florida to the United States, were content with the return of the captured posts and teiTitory. General Jackson, having subdued the Semi- noles, at least for a time, returned and disbanded his army. In October, 1818, an important treaty was made between the United States and Great Britain, by which part of the line be- tween their possessions in America was definitely settled, and the right secured to citizens of the United States to take fish on the coast of Newfoundland/ The line on the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Moun- tains, was afterwards marked by mounds and iron posts. Florida had been retroceded by England to Spain by the gen- eral treaty of peace of 1783. The events afterwards occurring, and especially the growing power of the United States, had led the Spanish government to entertain propositions which were brought to conclusion by a treaty of cession February 22d, 1819. By this Spain ceded East and West Florida to the United States, who agreed to relinquish all claim to Texas, and also to settle and pay all the demands of American citizens on Spain for commer- cial depredations, amounting to five millions of dollars. This treaty was unanimously ratified by the Senate. Gen. Andrew Jackson was the first Governor of Florida Territory.'"' Missouri was a part of the Territory of Louisiana, acquired by treaty and purchase from France. One of the provisions of that treaty was that " the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible according to the principles of the Federal consti- tution to the enjoyment of all rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States ; and in the meantime, they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their lib- erty, property and the religion which they profess." ^ It is impossible to deny that slavery and the right to own and use slaves existed in Louisiana when this treaty of cession was made. The population of Missouri had grown rapidly. A large part of it was agricultural, and the planters of corn, cotton and tobacco had brought their negro slaves and ^vorked them in their fields ; and when the population reached the requisite number, and a constitution was formed, it authorized slaverv and its inci- dents. But by this time a strong sentiment against slavery had arisen in the Northern and Northeastern States, and was shared by many iQuackenbos. 393. - kri. Florida, Amer. Encyclop. Quackenbos' U. S., 393. 3 Treaty of Cession, Art. III., in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 425. The P reside )icy of yanics ]\Io)n'oe. 651 of the most enlightened and able men of the slave States them- selves. No objection had been made to the admission of Ken- tucky, Tennessee, Louisiana or Mississippi, though the constitu- tion of each authorized slavery ; and Alabama, with a similar constitution, was admitted 14th December, 1S19. But it was desired that negro slavery should at least be restricted to the region in which negro labor seemed necessary. Therefore, when, on the 13th February, 18 19, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives for the admission of Missouri as a State, Mr. Tallmadgej of New York, moved an amendment in the following words : '■'And provided that the further introduction of slavery or invol- untary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment crimes whereof the party shall have been fully convicted ; and that all children born within the said State after the admission thereof into the Union shall be free at the age of twenty-tive years.'- The country had been resting on the action of Congress in 1790, during Washington's administration. We have noted that action in Chapter XLIV. It was a solemn declaration that the Congress had no authority to interfere in the emancipation or treatment of slaves, that being a subject for the exercise of regulations only by the States themselves. It need not surprise us, therefore, that the amendment of Tall- madge led to a debate the most excited and acrimonious known since the adoption of the Federal constitution. The vote in com- mittee of the whole was seventy-nine for the amendment and sixty-seven against it. When it came before the House the two propositions of the amendment were divided. On the first branch the vote was eighty-seven for and seventy-six against it ; on the second branch eighty-two for and seventy -eight against it.' In this form and with this restriction the bill admitting Mis- souri passed the House ; but the Senate, in which the Southern States had then an equal voice, and in which there were calmer men than in the House, rejected the amendment by a decisive vote.^ Thus Missouri failed to be admitted. At the next session of Congress she applied again for admis- sion. A bill, in the usual form, for her admission on ecjual foot- ing with the other States was again reported. Mr. Taylor, of New York, offered an amendment in different w^ords from that of Tallmadge, but imposing substantially the same restriction. Again 1 Annals of Congress, 1170, in Stephens, 425. 2 Annals of Fifteenth Congress, 1214. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 426. 3 Stephens, 426. Annals of Fifteenth Congress, p. 273. 652 A History of the United States oj" America. came a debute which, in fierce and angry spirit, exceeded that of the previous session. Never before had the foundations of the re- public been so shaken. Several Northern men and others known to be opposed to slav- ery, prominent among whom were Mr. Holmes, of Massachusetts, and William Pinkney, of Maryland, earnestly opposed the at- tempted restriction, upon the ground that it would violate the con- stitution as well as the treaty of cession of Louisiana, and would bring a State into the Union not on equal footing with the other States, but " shorn of its beams, crippled and disparaged beyond the original States." ^ Mr. Holmes said : " Though my feelings are strong for the ab- olition of slavery, they are yet stronger for the constitution of my country ; and if I am reduced to the sad alternative to tolerate the holding of slaves in Missouri, or violate the constitution of my country, I will not permit the doubt to cloijd my choice. Sir, of what benefit would be abolition if at the sacrifice of the con- stitution? "^ Thomas Jefferson, though retired from public affairs, was thoroughly alarmed by this new phase of the slavery question. He saw in it the uprising of the old Federal party for a new ef- fort at dominion. His far-reaching vision saw the dark cloud of the future bursting in war and bloodshed over the land. He wrote to Mr. Holmes : " This momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awakened me and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, in- deed, for the moment, but it is a reprieve only, not a final sen- tence."^ This letter was written after the presentation of the " compromise," to whose history we now proceed. Taylor's amendment was adoj^ted by the House on the 39th of February, 1830, by a vote of ninety-four to eighty-six, and the next day the bill containing this restriction, and admitting IMis- souri subject to the restriction, was passed by the House vote of ninety-one to eighty-two.* But in the meantime INIaine had applied for admission to the Union. In the Senate substantial equality between the slave and free States yet prevailed. The principle demanding such equal- ity had not yet been lost.^ Therefore, the senators representing the Southern States, and those who agreed in principle with them, determined that Maine, with her constitution excluding slavery, should not be admitted 1 Wm. Pinkney's speech, Stephens, 430. - Mr. Holmes' speech, Stephens, 427. 3 Jefferson's letter, Stephens, 431. ^ Stephens, 433. 6 See " The Lost Principle," by Barbarossa (John Scott, of Fauquier, Va.), passim. The Presidency of yamcs Monroe. 653 unless Missouri, with her constitution authorizing slavery* was also adn'iitted/ The House bill for the admission of IMaine was tacked on to a bill for the admission of Missouri introduced into the Senate. A "dead-lock," involving the indefinite postponement of the admis- sion of both of these States seemed inevitable. It was at this crisis that Senator Thomas, of Illinois, introduced the proposi- tion, which finally prevailed, and which has ever since been known as the "Missouri Compromise." It was brought in originally as an amendment to the Senate bill for the admission of both IMaine and Missouri, and was in the following words : '■'■And be it further enacted., that in all that territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36'^ 30' north latitude, excepting oiily such part thereof as is included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntaiy servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited ; provided ahvays., that any person escaping into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and con- veyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as afore- said."^ The bill, with this amendment incorporated, passed the Senate on the 17th February, 1820, by a vote of thirty- four ayes to ten nays. Eight Southern senators, and tvvo — Noble and Taylor — from Indiana, made up the ten negative votes ; but a definite majority of Senators from the slave States voted for it, regarding it as a compromise as to the Territory of Louisiana, and one fair in its character, inasmuch as it was economicallv certain that slave labor would not continue to be pi'ofitable north of the designated line. But when the bill with this " compromise " clause went to the House it was rejected by a vote of one hundred and fifty-nine to eighteen. It was not until after repeated conferences by com- mittees as to the points of disagreement, that the House of Representatives, finding that no bill forcing a restriction upon Missouri could be passed, agreed to the " compromise " bill of the Senate, and adopted it by a vote of one hundred and thirty- four ayes against forty-two nays.' A majority of the members 1 Egglestou, 266-26S. Holmes, 194. Blackburn & McDonald's U. S., 342. 2 Annals of Sixteenth (Jongress, p. 427. Stephens' C'omp. U. S., 432. * Annals of Sixteenth Congress, 1586. Stephens, 432-434. 654 -'^ History of the United States of America . from the slave States voted for it as a fair territorial " compro- mise" as to the limits of slavery/ This act was passed and was approved by the President, with the concurrence of his cabinet, including John C. Calhoun, March 3d, 1S30. Maine came in under it, and voted for electors in the presidential election of that year. Missouri might have done the same ; but, imhappily, fearing evil from the free Territory and coming free States contemplated by the "compromise," she adopted a new constitution, a provision of which directed her legislature to pass laws to prevent free negroefi <^r mulattoes from coming to or settling in the State. This w^as regarded by the anti-slavery members of Congress as a departure from the terms admitting her, so grave that she could not be regarded as in the Union. Consequently the votes of the electors she had chosen were rejected bv the Congress ; and when, in December, 1820, IMr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, offered, in the House of Representatives, a resolution recognizing Missouri as a State under her new constitution, the resolution was rejected by a vote of seventy-nine for it, to ninety-three against it.^ It was at this crisis that Henry Clay, of Kentucky, came actively forward with his winning manners and magnetic elo- quence to seek for peace. Some writers have represented him as the originator of the " compromise " amendment, and its most strenuous supporter ; ^ but this is an error. He did not propose it, did not lU'ge it. He was Speaker of the House, and his vote was not needed for it ; but he had repeatedly taken the floor and elo- quently opposed the restriction sought to be applied to Missouri.* Pecuniary losses had induced him to resign, that he might devote himself to his private interests ; but the lowering aspect of public events, and the persuasion of his countrymen, had led him to accept another election, and he took his seat in the House January i6th, 1S31. Undeterred by factious opposition, he con- tinued his efforts for the admission of jSIissouri. A joint com- mittee of a large number of members of both Houses, of which he was chairman, made a report on the 36th of February, 1S31, recommending a resolution for the admission of 'bilissour'i, provided she should declare her assent to the fundamental condition for- bidding any law by which any citizen of either of the States gf the Union should be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities given by the constitution of the United States.* 1 Stephens, 434. 2 7^,-^.^ 434, 435. 3Ex. Quackcnbos, 394. Thalheimer, 230, (note) 233. Barnes, 172, 173. Eggleston, 268. * Art. Clay, Anier. Encyclop., V. 315. ^ Resolution in Stephens, 437. The Presidency of Janies M^o?iroe. 655 This resolution passed the House by a vote of eighty-seven to eighty-one, and the Senate by a vote of twenty-six to fifteen, and was approved by the President on the 2d of March, 183 1. John C. Calhoun, in his cabinet, advised him to sign it/ The legislature of Missouri promptly passed the act called for by the resolution, and on the loth day of August, 183 1, President Monroe issued his proclamation declaring Missouri to be a State of the Union. We have thus sought to set forth the history and nature of the " Missouri Compromise." It gave peace when peace was greatly needed. It was made by men who honestly differed on a great question of public economy. It made a reasonable and fair division of territory as to the limits of slavery. It was an agree- ipent outside of and beyond the constitution, but not repugnant to the constitution. Well had it been for those who upheld slavery if this compromise had been observed. .Slavery might have been prolonged indefinitely in the United States and her Territories ; but such was not the purpose of " the Divinity that shapes our ends." Thirty-four years afterwards this compromise was broken by the "Kansas-Nebraska Bill," introduced and pushed to enactment by Stephen A. Douglas, who was one of the strongest leaders of the Democratic party,, which was looked upon as the special guardian of slavery and the rights of slave-owners ; and thirty- seven years after its enactment, in a time of great partisan excite- ment, against which the minds even of grave and honored judges were not armed, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that this "compromise" was repugnant to the constitution of the country and treaties pursuant thereto, and that the slave-owner had a right to carry his slave and the rights protecting his owner- ship into any territory of the United States. These events were soon followed by the temporary disruption of the American Union, and by a war of four years, exceeding in rapidity, extent and energy of movement any war of modern times, and resulting in the total destruction of slavery and the prostration, for many tedious years, of the property, industries and rightful privileges of the Southern States, besides the deso- lation of their homes by the death, in battle, in hospital, or in camp, of a generation of the best men of these States. The " Mis- souri Compromise " was at least intended and adapted to avert such horrors. President Monroe's administration, so popular and prosperous as to be distinguished as the " era of good feeling," was, neverthe- -1 Art. Calhoun, Amer. Encyclop., IV. 2^7. 656 A History of the ignited States of America. less, the seed-time of a great growth of troublous questions. So far as his intluence and that of his cabinet went, they were wisely dealt with ; but they were pregnant w ith controversy. In i8i6, the year in which he was first elected, was passed the first bill establishing a *• protective taritV" ; and it is a noteworthy fact that it was originated and passed chietiy by the intluence of John C. Calhoun and the members of Congress from the cotton States.* At that time England drew a great deal of her raw cotton from India, and imposed heavy import duties on American cotton ; but in New England and New York some factories of the coarser cotton t\ibrics were springing up. The reasoning of the Southern men, with Mr. Calnoun at their head, was this: We will send our raw cotton to the North, w hei^e we pay no duty on it, and w« will impose a heavy duty on English cotton goods, so as to pro- tect and build up the manufactures of America. Thus we shall sell higher, and finally buy all we need at lower prices.^ This was the very quintessence of a protective tariff'. Its real object was protection of domestic manufactures, and not the col- lection of duties for the necessary and proper purposes of govern- ment. It seems to us now strange that Mr. Calhoun did not see it in its proper light from the beginning, and did not realize that if the coastitutitin gave no authority to Congress to impose duties primarily and essentially for protection, the taritVof iSi6 came directly under this inhibition. At tirst the Northern people were not favorable to this system. They had few factories. Their interests were largolv in ships and shipping, and this was discouraged by the heavy duties on imported cotton goods.^ But inventive genius was so active, and manufacturing grew so rapidly profitable, that soon a school of political economy arose which taught that -protection" was the true -American system." At the head of this school was Henrv Clav, a man so fertile in mental resources, and so fascinating and eloquent in using them, that he exercised a commanding intluence over the policy of his country.* The -American system " embraced not onlv the policy of duties for protection, but of internal improvements bv the general gov- ernment, and the use of United States funds for the purpose. It had much to make it plausible and attractive — so much, in fact, that it has never lost its power, and plays still a large part in the » Art. Calhoun. Amer. Eiicvclop.. IV. -'Gix IbkL. V. StS. Scudder's U. &. 310, Sll. s Uomw K. Si'iuklers I'. S.. SIO, ill. ^ Ibid,, Sll, Sli * Aiuer, Em-yclop., V. &13, S14. Ilw Pri'Si\/i'/icv of ""/(////('.s .]/(>//roc. ^c^y policy of Nt)iih America. It was rouiulccl on the idea that, as llie country embraced within herself every native resource of soil, minerals, coal, wood, climate, ocean, river, atmosphere, needed lor development of uidimited wealth and comfort, her true policy was to build uj) her own manufactures and internal industries, to establish "a home market," to sell to herself and buy from herself, and thus to become entirely independent of every other country, and to be free from (he complications, disputes antl prolonged wars which had lor so many centuries desolated the fairest regions of the Old World. l>ut this foundation was really Utopian, and not based on the constitution of himianity which (Jod liad established. No nation in this World can "live to herself" so long as human sympathies exist and human thought takes in the compass of the world, and sy long as oceans, seas and navigable rivers invite to intercourse and exchange of commodities.- It did not take long for John C. Calhoun and his more intelli- gent disciples to discover that the principle of " protection " by customs on imports was not only in conflict with the true mean- ing of the Federal constitution, but was radically unjust, and was necessarily oppressive to the agricultural classes. These classes, in every fertile country, su]:)p()rt all other classes by their labor ; and yet by a protective tarilV they are restrained from seek- ing the markets of the world for such manufactured articles as they need, and are compelled to pay prices made higher by the protective duties. Nevertheless, the "American system," commenced in the last year of President ISIadison's second term, was carried, with some changes, through the presidency of Mr. Monroe, and has been continued ever since, with such readjustments from time to time as relieved a pressure so intolerable as to threaten civil war, but with no final abandonment. The arguments against it, based on its repugnancy to the constitution and its necessary injustice to unprotected classes, have never yet gained a controlling power over the selfishness and covetousness of the classes who unite to secure for themselves a continuance of its inequitable benefits. In 1830, another presidential election occurred. When the electoral votes were examined in the presence of the two Houses of Congress, those thrown by the electors of Missouri were rejected. They were cast for James Afonroe as President, and D. D. Tompkins as Vice-President. The rejection of these votes, however, made no difference in the result. Mr. Monroe received all the votes as President, except one from New Hampshire, cast 42 658 A History of the United States of America. for John Quincy Adams. Mr. Tompkins received all the votes, except fourteen, as Vice-President.^ As the 4th of March, 182 1, fell on Sunday, the inauguration took place on Monday, the 5th. Chief-Justice Marshall admin- istered the oath. No immediate change in the cabinet took place. Piracies having become a public terror in the w^aters south and east of Cuba, the frigate Congress, sloop of war Peacock, and several smaller armed vessels, under command of Commodore Porter, w^ere sent to that region in 1833. More than twenty pirate vessels were captured and destroyed. Porter exerted him- self with so much diligence in scouring the infested seas that the pirates were broken down, and shipping interests made secure. And now began to appear the resistless influence for self- government exercised by the Revolution and the establishment of the United States. The territory of Mexico and the provinces of South America, subject to the dominion of Spain, began to throw o?^ her monarchic shackles, and to establish themselves as independent republics. President Monroe and his cabinet watched these movements with interest, but with doubt and anxiety. It is not every people that is fit to be a republic, by possessing the elements of virtue, intelligence and force needed for self-government. But in the House of Representatives, Henry Clay exerted his matchless powers of eloquence in behalf of the recognition of these republics. His speech of 1818 was so noble and inspiring in its appeals for the self-government of man that the patriot Simon Bolivar Y Ponte, of Colombia, caused it to be translated into Spanish, to be read to the armies, and in printed form to be scattered broadcast among the people to confirm their purposes for freedom. In February, 1S31, Mr. Clay bore the leading part in an ex- citing debate on two resolutions offered by him — the first ex- pressing the sympathy of the people of the United States for the struggling patriots of South America ; the second tendering to the President assurances of the support of the House in the recognition of the independence of these several republics when- ever he should deem that step advisable. The second resolution had been opposed by some who claimed to represent the Presi- dent's views, on the ground that, as the question of recognition rested with the executive department, a suggestion from Congress on the subject was not called for, and was hardly respectful.^ 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 439. sAmer. Encyclop., V. 314. Tlic Presidency of James Monroe. 6s;9 But both resolutions were passed by the House, the second by a majority of eighty-seven to sixty -eight ; and President Monroe received them graciously, and on the 8th JVIarch, 1S22, sent a message to the Congress, recommending the recognition of the independence of these vSouth American republics. On the 3Sth March, the House voted for this recognition with a single negative vote. The Senate concurred. The President gladlv acted, and communicated the fact of recognition to the proper ofhcers of these republics ; thev were six in number — Mexico, and five in vSouth America. Bolivar wa'ote a letter of thanks to Clav, in which he said : "All America, Colombia and myself owe your excellency our purest gratitude for the incom- parable services you have rendered us by sustaining our cause with a sublime enthusiasm.'' ^ Monroe did not stop with a bare recognition of the indepen- dence of these republics. He knew that the great European monarchies, of what was very inappropriately called " The Holy Alliance," had sympathized with Spain in her struggle to retain her revolted American provinces, and had directly and indirectly aided her in her wars against them. Therefore it was needful that the United States should make known her position on this subject in terms of which all the monarchies of the Old World should take notice. In his message of December 2d, 1823, he declared that, "as a principle, the American continents, bv the free and independent position wdiich they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by an}' Euro- pean power," and that any attempt on the part of the European powers to " extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere " would be regarded by the United States as " dangerous to our peace and safety," and would be opposed accordinglv.^ Thus was announced the " Monroe Doctrine," which has ever since been the settled policy of his country, and which is one of the highest evidences of his far-seeing sagacity and statesman- ship. His fame as its author is not diminished by the fact that it was suggested by Canning, the British Secretarv for Foreign Af- fairs, and put into form by John Qiiincy Adams.' Neither b.as it been a " dead letter," inert and useless, as some memorable facts of history, yet to be noted, have shown. The Congress had extended a formal and earnest invitation to La Fayette to revisit the United States as the guest of the nation. ' Art. Henry Clay, Amer. Encyclop., V. 314. "- Art. .Inmes Moiiroe, Amer. Encyclop., XI. 005, 60fi. Stephens. 440. Seudrler'.s U. S., 325, 326. ■■ I'rof. Holmes' U. 8., 197, and note. Pruf. John.stoii's I'. 8., 107. 66o A History of the United States of America. As such he came over, arriving in New York on the 13th of Au- gust, 1824, vs^here he was received with acclamations of gratitude and joy. He became the guest of Vice-President Tompkins at his beautiful residence on Staten Island. Soon he was waited on by deputations from Boston, New Ha- ven, Philadelphia, Baltimoi'e, Richmond, and many other cities, urging him to visit them. He went to every part of the country, and everywhere was welcomed by military and civic processions, and by such outpourings of men, women and children as never had been seen before. All were eager to see him and take his hand for a moment. He could not refuse this token of regard, and continued it until his physicians were obliged to forbid him any longer to practice it. One of his visits was to the toinb of Washington at Mount Vernon, and was attended by recollections of the past friendship between them, which gave it an interest not to be expressed in words. He was nearly seventy years of age, and Washington had been dead for a quarter of a centurv, but the scenes of the Revolution rose up to La Fayette with the freshness of a grand reality. He had the opportunity of looking on the great civiliza- tion which both had labored to establish. He visited each one of the twenty- four States. The Congress, in recognition of the debt America owed him. voted him two hundred thousand dollars in money and a town- ship of public land in Florida. His reception and treatment in the United States refuted the hoary slander that " republics are ungrateful." Early in vSeptember, 1S25, he bade adieu to the people who had so gi"atefully welcomed him, and embarked on the frigate Brandy- wine, which had been so named in his honor, because in that battle he first shed his blood for American freedom. He returned to France, and lived to 1834, always the consistent friend of human virtue and liberty.^ Mr. Monroe's presidency had been in every respect a success. From the troubles and embarrassments of war the country had emerged into a condition of peace, industry and ever-growing success. Except on one subject, no dangerous asperities had been roused, and that one subject seemed to have been placated by a basis of settlement in which all would be disposed pennanently to acquiesce. Five new States had been added to the Union. The number was now twentv-four. Sister republics in the South were coming to the moral aid of the leading republic of the world. 1 Quackenbos, 395-397. Stephens, 440, 441. Goodricli, 371, 373. The Prcsidcticv of ^ antes jMonroe. 66 1 At home and abroad, on the kind, on the sea, the North American Union was regarded with respect and hope. Monroe had followed the sound precedent of Washington, Jef- ferson and Madison, and definitely declined to be a candidate for a third term. When released from the cares of office he retired to his country-seat in Virginia. He had not accumulated wealth. In the close of his life, pecuniary embarrassments bore him down ; but he never lost his spotless reputation. Of him Jefferson de- clared that, "if his soul were turned inside out, not a spot would be found on it." And, like Jefferson and John Adams, he died on the fourth day of July — the day on which his country was pro- claimed free and independent. lie was the last of those sometimes called " the Virginia Pres- idents " — that is, the last of those elected to the presidential office who w^ere born and lived and had their business, their interests and their homes in Viracinia. CHAPTER L. The Presidency ob~ John Quincy Adams. FROM the end of Monroe's administnition all that has occurred in the United States has been simply development or evolu- tion, under forces which we have sought to describe ; and the development has been chiefly in four forms : (i) Material wealth and population; (3) Territory; (3) Self-government; (4) Moral advance under the influences of education and religion. Except when these subjects demand more extended treatment, brief state- ments of the most important facts will be all that history need offer to the student. Four prominent men were looked to as candidates for the pres- idency, viz. : William H. Crawford, John Qiiincy Adams, Gen. Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay. A habit had arisen — after- wards matured into the machinery of a presidential convention — of nominating a candidate by a congressional caucus. Mr. Craw- ford received this nomination, although he was already in failing health ; but the voters at large did not confirm this choice. When the electoral votes for President were counted, it was ascertained that Andrew Jackson had received ninety-nine ; John Quincy Adams, eighty-four ; William H. Crawford, forty-one, and Henry Clay, thirty-seven votes. For Vice-President, John C. Calhoun had received one hundred and eighty-two votes, and was elected, a few scattering votes only having been thrown for others.' No candidate having received a majority of the whole number for President, the election devolved on the House of Representa- tives. Here Henry Clay was potent in influence ; and yet, by a fixed rule, his name could not be considered, because only three could be voted for, and he had received the lowest electoral vote. He advocated and voted for John Qiiincy Adams, and on the 9th February, 1825, on the first ballot, Adams received the votes of thirteen States, and was elected President. Jackson was voted for by seven States and Crawford by four States. All unprejudiced students will find ample reasons for believing that Henry Clay acted with entire fairness and to the best of his 1 Stephens' tUnup. U. S., 441. [ 662 J The Presidency of jfohn ^uincy Adams. 663 judgment in preferring Adams. Mr. Crawford's sliattered health was a strong objection to him ; and Clay had strongly disapproved of Jackson's stern measures in the Seminole war, and thought him unequal to the presidency in education and mental equili- brium.* And when President Adams assumed his office, nothing could have been more natural than his offer of the Department of State to Henry Clay, who was in every respect fitted for it. But the political opposition waxed warm and mounted high. Crawford's friends joined Jackson's in a united and sustained attack on Adams and Clay on the alleged ground of "bribery and corruption." No reliable evidence has ever appeared tending to prove a previous agreement or understanding between these two eminent men to the effect that Clay should use his influence with the House of Representatives for the election of Adams, and that, if elected, Adams should nominate Clay as Secretary of State.^ Nevertheless, on the face of the facts, enough appeared to give point and pungency to the charge. It injured the political stand- ing of both Adams and Clay, and increased the popularity of General Jackson, who had received a definite plurality of the elec- toral votes, and who, by reason of his rugged will and military promptness, was the favored man of the South and West. The earliest trouble of President Adams was a controversy with Georgia growing out of a treaty with the Creek Indians. On the 1 3th February, 1825, United States Commissioners Camp- bell and Meriwether had made a treaty with the leading chiefs of the Creeks at the "Indian Springs," by which the United States had procured the extinguishment of the Indian title in a wide area of territory, according to agreement with Georgia in her cession, in 1803, of the Territories of Alabama and Mississippi. This treaty had been ratified by the United States Senate ; but some factious white men and Indians had opposed this treaty, and so stirred savage hearts that the natives fell upon their own chiefs who had signed the treaty, assassinated two of them, and sent a deputation to Washington to repudiate the " old treaty " and demand a new one. The government of Mr. Adams yielded, probably unwisely and prematurely, to this Indian demand, appointed new commission- ers, and made a new treaty January 34th, 1826. But Governor Troup, of Georgia, with much show of reason and law, affirmed the validity of the " old treaty," took possession of the ceded ' Art. Adams, Amer. Encyclop., I. lO*?, 107. Stephens, 441, 442. 2 Art. Adams, John Quiney, Amer. Encyclop., I. 10(5, 107. Stephens, 441-444. Prof. John- ston's U. S. Uist. and Const., 159, 160. 66-4^ A Uistorv of the United States of America. territory, and caused surveys to be made and lines riui accord- inglv. He disregarded orders from Washing^ton, and, Avhen an intimation was given that the State surveyors would be arrested, he made a distinct counter-intimation that he would meet force by force. His tirmness prevailed. The State surveys went on imder the "old treatv.'' Mr. Adams submitted the whole matter to Congress in a full, cautious and patriotic message ; but no fur- ther steps were taken. The " old treaty,'' in substance, worked its wav.* The Creeks and Cherokees were finally removed to a home west of the Mississippi. Mexico and the South American Republics of Peru, Chili, Co- lombia and Central America invited the United States to unite with them in sending delegates to a general congress at l^anama, to be convened on the 2zd of June, 1826. The object was the formation of a permanent league or treaty for mutual defence against enemies of self-government, and for common welfare. But bv this time some of these republics had abolished slavery, and the slave States of North America had lost much of their sympathy for them.^ After a stormy debate the Congress declined to elect delegates ; but Mr. Adams appointed Richard C. Anderson and John Ser- geant as commissioners from the United States to attend this ''Panama Mission." However good were his intentions, his ac- tion therein did not increase his popular strength ; and the "mis- sion" was a failure. ]Mr. Anderson, -who was already minister to Colombia, died of malignant fever at Carthagena, on his way to Panama. Mr. Sergeant did not attend. Peru, Colombia, Mexico and the States of Central America were represented, and con- structed a leaguje of friendship and confederation, to which all other American powers or States were invited to accede. They adjourned to iv-assemble in February, 1S27, at Tocubaza, a village near the City of Mexico. Joel R. Poinsett, United States minis- ter to Mexico, was appointed commissioner to this conference, and was readv to attend ; but the congress never met again, and the •" Panama Mission '' resulted in failure.* Meanwhile the protective policy, or " American system," was urged upon the coiuitry with great pertinacity by the manufac- turers, who were beginning to derive very large money pro tits from it, to the certain loss of the agricultural classes. A conven- tion of manufacturers was held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which sent a persxiasive memorial to Congress, urging high pro- » Stephens, 443. Goodrich, 374, 375. Thalheimer's Eolec. V. S., 232. Derrv's U. S., 206. D. B. Scott. 279. s Sk-iKlder's U. S., 326. » Stephens, 444. St^'udder, -326. llic P /■(•si(/i-i/i\' (if y oil II y^iiiiicy Aihiiiis. 66^ tectivc duties on many articles of prime necessity Icj iarmers and planters. A committee of Congress sent for persons and papers, and reported a new tarifl" l)ill, wliich, in its operation, not for irxcnue, but av()\\i'dl\ lor piotect ion, went far beyond any that Iiad yet been enacted.' The debates on this l)ill contimied iVoin the litb o(" l'\l)ru;irv to the 15th of vXpril, 182S. Various amenchnenls were made, but it finally passed both Houses, and was apjDroved by the President. It was so objectionable to the |)e<)|)le wlig ujiheld a strict inter- l^retation of the constitution, and duties for revenue only, that it was called by tlu-m the "bill of abominations." In Charleston, South Carolina, tiic bittri' opposition of tlu- i)co|)U' was mani- fested by displayinL;' tlie ila^s ot" tbc sbippin;^^' at ball-mast, as il for an occasion of mourning." ill the midst of these accumulating irritations against John C^uincy Adams the presidential election of 1828 came on. He had not pursued a partisan policy, and had kept many of his (jp- ponents in oiHce, and, when vacancies occurred, had often ap- pointed Democrats. He did not, howeser, strengthen his prospects tor re-election b\ this course. \VilIi all his grt-at learning and ability, he was never, while Presitlent, personally magnetic and j>opular.'' His oj)ponent \\ as Andy.'w jacUson, who, without any caucus nt^mination, was warndy siip[)orted for President. The vote in the electoral college was one hundred and seventy-eight for Jackson and eightv-three for Adams. [ohn C. Calhoun was again elected \'ice- President by one hundred and seventy -one votes against eighty-three for Richard Rush. No new State had been admitted to the I'nion during Mr. Adams' term. Yet his administration had been economical as to public expenses, and tiie country had Ijeen prosperous. Locomo- tive engines for cars on railroads came into use. .Some of his recommendations, such as that I'or an obser\ atory at Washington, were ridiculed l)y the opposition press when made, but were afterwards adopted, and found to be useful and honorable to his country.'' He represented his district in the House of Represent- atives for many years after he left the office of President, and, even after he was more than eighty years of age, was designated as "the old man eloquent." He died in 1848, leaving a lai'ge estate, acquired j^artly by inheritance and partly by his talents and by 2:)rudent investments. ' Sloi.lioiis, ur). (.'oodrich, 377. Holmes, 19t). (imiekenbo.s, 101. Derry, 207. = <.iuii<'keiilio.s' U. S., 101. 3Art. Adanvs, Anwr, Eucyclop., I. 105-108. *A. 11. §tophciis, 440. CHAPTER LI. The Presidency of Andrp:w Jackson. ANDREW JACKSbN was President for two terms, running through the eight years from March 4th, 1829, to March 4th, 1S37. It was a period embracing many important events, in which men of eminent genius or talent took part ; and his own character and personality entered deeply into the constituent ele- ments of history during his presidency. His scrupulous honesty appeared in the steps attributed to him before he would consent to assume the presidency. The law firm of which he was a mem- ber is said to have made large investments in town lots in Mem- phis. He sold out to his partner all his interests in these invest- ments, because of the remote possibility that they might affect his impartial views of duty.' He was a ruler by nature and habit, and having now been ele- vated to the high office to which he and his supporters had con- sidei-ed him entitled in 1825, he acted uniformly on the principle of making his government " a unit." His intense power of will permeated and controlled his subordinates. He readily adopted as his canon of action as to appointments and removals the words first formulated by William L. Marcy, of New York : " To the victors belong the spoils." But this canon belongs not to peace, but to aggressive war. It is specially wrong in a republic where, though the majority must rule, yet the minority have rights and interests which the gov- ernment is sacredly bound to respect and uphold. Mr. Jefferson expressed the true Democratic principle on this subject. Pixsi- dent Jackson professed to be a Democrat, but he overruled this principle, and by the most indiscriminate and sweeping removals of those who had voted against him, and appointments of those subservient to him, he made his government a unit indeed, but a unit holding very large ingredients of sycophancy and cringing. He selected as his first cabinet officers Martin Van Buren, of New York, Secretary of State ; Samuel D. Ingham, of Penn- sylvania, of the Treasury (chosen on the recommendation of the 1 Washington letter, June 6th, in Richmond Dispatcli June 12th, 1891. [ 666 ] The Prcsidcjicy of Andreiv Jacksoii.. 667 Vice-President, John C. Calhoun) ; John H. Eaton, of Tennes- see, of War; John Branch, of North Carolina (another of Mr. Calhoun's nominees), of the Navy ; John AI. Berrien, of Georgia, Attorney-General ; and William T. Barry, of Kentucky, Post- master-General. The inaugural address was gratifying to a large majority of the people. The new President recommended prompt and energetic steps for removing all the Indians to a territory ^vest of the Mis- sissippi, ^vhere they would have ^vider means for pursuing their own modes of life, and would cease to be subjects or sources of border troubles and raids. ^ The Congress which sat from 7th December, 1S39, to 31st May, 1S30, passed an act for carrying out this policy, and it was gi-ad- ually accomplished, though with many interruptions and bloody episodes. This Congress passed a bill appropriating public money to "the Maysville Road." The President vetoed this bill, and the House of Representatives, in which it had originated, sustained the veto. President Jackson also disapproved of the protective policy, and recommended a complete revision and change of the Tariff Act of 1 828. Towards the close of the session occurred the great debate in the Senate, in which Robert Y. Hayne, of South Caro- lina, ably upheld the doctrine of " State rights," and asserted the right of " nullification " as a corollary from that doctrine and as the cherished tenet of South Carolina ; and Daniel Webster op- posed this view, and ended one of his powerful speeches with the words : " Liberty and luiion, now and forever, one and in- separable." ■^ Yet even Daniel Webster admitted that the Federal constitu- tion was the result of "a compact" between the original States.^ This was necessarily an admission that the States, as sovereigns and by their representatives, had entered into this compact, and that its terms might be broken to the injury of one or more States. The question of the mode of remedy and redress v^^as the one as to which radical divergence of opinion existed. The doctrine of " nullification " \vas the invention of Mr. Calhoun, and evinced the keen and metaphysical tendency of his mind. Its essential element was that, if the general government passed laws repugnant to the constitution and damaging to a State, and if they were persistently upheld to her injury, then 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 448. = Quackenbos, 404. Johnston, 168, 169. Scudder, 331, 332. 3 He designated it as "a coustitutioual compact." Speech in U. S. Senate, January 26, 1830. Calhoun's Works, II. 267, 268. 668 A History of the United States of America^ the State possessed the reserved sovereign power to " nullify " such laws within her borders, so that they would become inopera- tive as to her, at least until three-fourths of the States should pronounce in favor of these laws ; and yet that, all the time, the nullifying State ^vould remain in the Union, claiming its protec- tion, sharing in its benefits, and sending representatives to its government.' This etherialized and suicidal concept had been so persistently taught to the people of South Carolina that, without understand- ing it, they had adopted it as a tenet of political faith. Near the close of the session of Congress, President Jackson learned of the position of hostility to him which Mr. Calhoun had taken in the cabinet of IVIonroe, as to the Seminole and Florida campaign. Then commenced an estrangement between these two eminent men which was bitter and permanent.^ They were both of the blood of the Scottish-Irish, who had come to the Carolinas ; Jackson represented its volcanic instincts and passions ; Calhoun, its keen metaphysics, and trained and edu- cated logic* It is believed that Jackson had intimated a purpose not to be a candidate for a second term, and that Calhoun expected to suc- ceed him in 1833 ; but the causes of personal and political alien- ation between them grew stronger and dissolved this vision. In 1 83 1 occurred a rupture in the cabinet, closely connected with the desire of Jackson to get rid of Calhoun's friends, Ingham and Branch, and not uninfluenced by certain social questions, in which Mrs. Eaton, the wife of the Secretary of War, was in- volved.* The wives of some other members of the cabinet and other women of high claims in Washington refused to visit Mrs. Eaton ; but the President, who was a long and fast friend of her husband, earnestly sustained her. Martin Van Buren had already gained a quiet, but controlling, influence with the President by his flattering and adi"oit modes of address. In order to insure the disruption of the cabinet, he re- signed. The others followed his lead. The cabinet was recon- structed. Louis McLane, of Delaware, took the Treasury Depart- ment ; Edward Livingston, of Louisiana, that of the State ; Lewis Cass, of Ohio, of War ; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, of the Navy ; and Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, became Attorney- General. Mr. Barry retained the Postoffice Department.^ 1 Madison's letter to Everett, Va. Debates and Resol., 221 . Tucker's Lee. on Const. Law, 192. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 448. ^ Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 169. ^ Art. Jackson, Amer. Encyclop., IX. 685. 5 Amer. Encyclop., IX. 686. Stephens, 449. The Presidency of Andrexu yackson. 669 The President nominated Alartfn Van Buren as minister to England, and, being reasonably sure of confirmation, the eminent nominee crossed tlie Atlantic and went to London ; but when the nomination came before the Senate, Calhoun's influence was secretly, but potently, used against hin:. The result was a tie, and the Vice-President cast his vote against Van Buren and de- feated his confirmation.^ Mr. Van Buren came back, and was soon more influential with the President than ever. The feuds and scandals of the times became subjects of satire and caricature, and were afterwards represented in a series of amusing letters, purporting to be written by one " IMajor Jack Downing." They were supposed to be from the pen of Erastus Brooks, one of the editors of the Nexv 7'ork Express. In 1S31 the question of the succession became burning. Tlie legislature of Pennsylvania had already nominated Jackson for re-election. He had accepted the candidac\', and was earnest in urging Martin Van Buren as Vice-President. vSo visilile were the manipulations used for this purpose that they excited indigna- tion in some minds and good-humored merriment in others. A caricature appeared, representing the well-known face and form of President Jackson seated in a rocking-chair, dandling Van Buren on his lap, and singing to him a lullaby in these v.'ords : " Ilush-a-by, Martin ! let the wind blow. Vice vou shall be, whether or no; I'll get jou in somehow, through key-hole or cranny, So hush-a-by, Martin, and trust to your granny! " Finding his functions as Vice-President too tame and inactive for the crisis, Mr. Calhoun resigned in 1S31. He was almost imme- diately elected by the legislature of South Carolina to the United States Senate in the place of Mi". Hayne, who had become gov- ernor of the State. At nearly the same time, Henry Clay took his seat as senator from Kentucky, and John Qiiincy Adams as a member of the House of Representatives from his district in Mas- sachusetts. There were giants in those days, and the war of political eco- nomics went on till it came near to a war of cannon, swords and muskets. The Tariff' Bill of 1832 was, if possible, more odious than that of 1838. To add to the public uneasiness, the Asiatic cholera, during this year (1833), ci'ossed the ocean and invaded America, making its appearance in the United States, first in the city of lArt. Jackson, Amer. Encyclop., IX. GSo. 670 A Histo7-y of the United States of Atnerica. New York, on the 21st of June.^ Thence it traversed the country in a southwesterly direction, defying medical skill for its arrest, and sweeping do\vn tens of thousands of lives. Yet it w^as more fatal in the North and in the Valley of the Mississippi than in the South Atlantic States. In many cases the strongest consti- tutions yielded, and died within thirty-six hours from the first attack. In this year came on another presidential election, the result of which was that, for President, Jackson received two hundred and nine electoral votes. Clay forty-nine, and William Wirt seven. Mr. Wirt had, somewhat incautiously, accepted the nomination of the Anti-Masonic party, which had arisen soon after the myste- rious disappearance of one William Morgan, a member of the order of Masons, residing in western New York, who had threatened to publish a book revealing their secrets, and who had been suddenly abducted from his home in September, 1836, car- ried to Lewiston, thence to Fort Niagara, at which point all trace of him was lost.^ Great excitement and commotion followed, and secret societies wei'e widely denounced. But Masonry proved too strong to be uprooted by this epheme- ral trouble, and Jackson was too popular to be shaken by it. The votes for Vice-President were one bundled and eighty-nine for Van Buren, forty-nine for John Sergeant, and seven for Amos Ellmaker.^ Continuity of subject and thought will require us to follow the " nullification " movement to its end. The people of vSouth Caro- lina, under the lead of Calhoun and his compeers, elected mem- bers to a sovereign convention, which, in November, 1S33, adopted a " nullification ordinance," declaring that the Tariff Acts of 1828 and 1833 were unconstitutional, null and void, with a provision for testing the question in the State courts, and excluding the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, and declaring that if these measures of the State should be forcibly resisted by the Federal authorities, then South Carolina would be no longer a member of the Union. These nullification measures were to take effect Feb- ruary 1 3th, 1833, unless the Congress should previously abandon these obnoxious acts.* This ordinance was promptly followed by a session of the Legislature, and by a message from Governor Hamilton, dated November 27, 1832, recommending that the militia system shovdd be thoroughly revised, and that he should be authorized to accept 1 Quackenbos, 402. Stephens, 450. SQuackenbos' U. S., 399, 400. 3 Stepliens' Comp. U. S., 450. * Ordinance in Taylor's Centen. XT. S., 531-534. Stephens' U. S., 451. The Presidency of Andrew yackson. 671 the services of two thousand volunteers for the defence of Charles- ton, and of ten thousand for general defence/ But South Carolina's nullification was met by a will w^hich took the most direct lines to its ends. President Jackson had been confirmed in Democratic principles by such men as Living- ston, Benton, Taney, Woodbury, Cass, Marcy and Van Buren, but he had also learned something of war in a difterent school. His message to Congress recommended that the tariff' law should be changed ; but he put forth a "proclamation," in which he briefly stated the nature and powers of the general govern- ment and its relation to the States, and, after declaring his ad- herence to the doctrines of State rights and remedies for op- pression announced in the resolutions and report adopted by Vir- ginia in i79S-'99, he denounced the "nullification" idea and scheme, and warned the people of South Carolina to abstain from force.^ At the same time he issued orders under which a fleet and army were to go to Charleston. Gen. Winfield Scott was to command the army. He acted with prudence and conciliation. But President Jackson was inflexible. He openly said that " Cal- houn would be hung" if he persisted in nullification. He urged upon the Congress the passage of a bill, \vhich has since been de- signated as " the Force Bill," the object of which was to provide means of coercing South Carolina to abandon her forcible I'esist- ance to the tariff' laws.* A collision of arms, with bloodshed and desolation, seemed in- evitable. It was time for patriots to move. Mr. Verplanck, of New York, introduced into the House of Representatives a bill for reduction of the tariff' duties. Virginia sent Benjamin Wat- kins Leigh as commissioner to South Carolina to persuade her to peace. He succeeded in inducing her authorities to postpone the nullification measures to the 4th of March, 1833. But the great spirit of peace came in the person of Henry Clay. He was looked on as the very fountain-head of the pro- tective system, and thei-efore a proposition of "compromise" by a reduction of duties came with peculiar grace from him. He introduced and warmly advocated a bill providing for a gradual reduction of all duties then higher than the revenue standard. One-tenth of a half was to be taken oft' each year for ten yeai's, at the end of which period the whole of the other half was to be taken off,* 1 Message in Taylor's Centen. U. S., 527, 531. = Abstract in Taylor, 535, 536. 3 Prof. Johnston's U. S., 170. * Stephens' Comp. U. S., 452. 672 A History of the United States of America. ISIr. Ciillioun and his friends were satisfied with this bill. In- deed, it was so nearly an abandonment of the American system as to protection that Ilenry Clay was warned that it would ope- rate strongly against his future prospects for election to the presi- dency ; but, with the noble instincts of the highest patriotism, he answered : " I would rather be right than be President."* His bill passed both Houses, and was signed by the President on the 3d of March, 1833. South Carolina promptly re-assembled her convention and rescinded her nullification ordinance. Thus this serious political movement ended. The doctrine has never been revived. It is too metaphysical and self-contradictory to have force. But the grand debates on Federal and State powers between Calhoun, Clay and Webster which took place during this period deserve the closest study from every intelligent and cultured citizen of the United States.'^ While these grave forces ^vere working themselves down to rest, collisions with the Indians had been frequent. The Winne- bagoes and Sacs and Foxes in the Northwest had committed raids and murders, which called for stern measiu-es of repression. In 1833, military foixes organized by General Scott were sent against them. A number of minor encounters took place, in which the troops imder Generals Atkinson, Heniy and Dodge, Major Dement and Captain Snyder gained successes. In a final battle, July 35, 1833, near the Blue Mounds, west of the Rock river, the Sacs and Foxes, under the renowned chieftain Black Hawk, sustained a decisive defeat. They lost more than two hundred warriors. Black Hawk surrendered himself, and was bi'ought to the East. His people and the \\'innebagoes retired to their reservations west of the ^Mississippi.^ The most prolonged and distressing Indian war of those times was w^ith the Seminoles of the Everglade regions of Florida. A large number of negro slaves had escaped from their masters in this Territory and the adjoining States, and had joined the Indians in their gloomv and almost impenetrable forests and swamps. Frequent ami bloodv collisions with the whites occurred. Un- happy complications brought to the front Osceola, chief of the Seminoles, and one of the most interesting of all the Indian leaders in America. He had married the daughter of one of the female fugitive slaves, and was greatly attached to his wife. But in 1835, having with her visited a United States fort, where Gen. Wiley Thomp- 1 A. IT. Stephens in Brtrnes V. S.. ITfi, and note. - Sniiplement toNilos" Reirister, XLIII., Mav, 1S33. Stephens, ioS, 454. 3 Tiivlor's Centen. U. S., 51M5-027. Stephens, 450. The Presidency of Andrcjo yackson. 673 son was in command, as Indian agent, a claim was made that Osceola's wife was still a slave and belonged to the person from whom her mother had escaped. Whatever technical claim of title may have existed, assuredly it was oppressive and impolitic to assert it by force. But General Thompson unfortunately sus- tained the claim, took his wife from Osceola, and delivered her to the claimant ; ' and, in alleged punishment for threats, he kept Osceola in irons for six days. Then all the latent i^evenge of the Indian nature took posses- sion of the heart of Osceola. He fled back to the Everglades and roused his followers to vengeance. Some of the chiefs had con- sented to a treaty, under which the Seminoles were to be re- moved to the west of the Mississippi. Compliance with this was no longer thought of Osceola trained his followers and bided his time. Like a lynx, he secretly watched the movements of General Thompson for weeks, and on the 2Sth December, 1835, finding him and four other whites outside of Fort King, he fell upon them with a small force and slew them all. Thompson's body was pierced by fifteen bullets. On the same day Major Dade, Avith one hun- dred and ten United States soldiers, marching from Fort Brook, was surrounded in Wahoo swamp by the savages and fugitive slaves, and all were massacred except one, who escaped and told of the horror. This was the opening of the war. On the 30th December, Osceola, with two hundred followers, fought a desperate battle on the crossing of the Withlahoochee with six hundred troops under General Clinch. The Indians availed themselves so skillfully of their knowledge of the swamp that they fought for an hour, and before they retreated inflicted severe loss. The whites could not overtake them. In several subsequent battles Osceola gained advantages, and on the 12th August, 1836, defeated a body of United States troops at Fort Doane. On the 33d October, 1837, having gone, under the pro- tection of a Hag of truce, to hold a conference near St. Augustine with General Jessup, he was, with the foulest treachery, seized and made a prisoner, with a number of his followers.^ He was sent to Fort Aloultrie, where he died of fever, January 31st, 1S38, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. But this dishonoring conduct of the whites did not bring the war to a close. It lingered, with ceaseless dangers and heavy losses to the people of Florida and of the country, until Christmas 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 239. Art. Osceola, Amer. Enevclop., XII. 595. 2 Amer. Encyclop., XII. 595. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 462, 4(33. Derry, 212, 213. Tlialheimer, 230. Ooorlrich, 383, 384. 43 674 ^ History of the United States of. Afnerica. day of 183S, when Colonel Zachary Taylor with his troops, hav- ing pursued the Seminoles into the very heart of the Everglades, inflicted on them a bloody and decisive defeat. A treaty was made in 1839, and peace established in 1842. All the surviving Seminoles have been removed to the West. This war, precipitated by an act of unnatural and needless op- pression, and attended by open bad faith on the part of the United States, cost her seven years of wearing struggle, six thousand lives, and thirty millions of dollars. No war in which she has ever engaged has brought her less of honor. Meanwhile President Jackson was engaged in a different kind of war. He had always been the declared enemy of the Bank of the United States and of the legislation under which it was char- tered. He applied his veto to a bill rechartering the bank, which had passed both Houses in the session of i83i-'32. The veto was sustained.^ The bank was rechartered under a State act of Penn- sylvania, and was managed for years by Nicholas Biddle, its pres- ident. His management had been supposed to be successful ; but it had involved large loans to speculators, and the bank went down in the financial crash of 1837. In the spring of 1S33, the President made a tour through New York and the New England States. Pie had enough in his char- acter and career to kindle enthusiasm in the masses, and he was everywhere welcomed by crowds and acclamations. The vener- able University of Harvard conferred on him the scholarly dis- tinction of Doctor of Laws. Immediately after his return to Washington he prepared to re- move the deposits of public money from the Bank of the United States and put them into certain banks of his own choice, which acquired the name of "pet banks." As these deposits had been originally made under authority of acts of Congress, it was doubted whether the executive department had power thus to remove and change them. William J. Duane had succeeded Mr. McLane as Secretary of the Treasury. The new Secretary felt these doubts so acutely that he declined to order the removal, where- upon Jackson promptly dismissed Mr. Duane from office and ap- pointed Roger B. Taney as Secretary of the Treasury. He, hav- ing no doubts or scruples, in October, 1S33, removed the deposits.'^ This course of the President became a subject of animated dis- cussion in the Senate, where Calhoun, Webster and Clay all united in condemning it, on the ground that it was an attempt to " unite I Stephens' U. S., 449. « Stephens' Comp. U. S., 454. Goodrich's U. S., 380. Quackenbos, 405, 406. The Presidettcy of Andretv Jackson. 675' the sword and the purse in one hand," and that to the Congress belonged the power of guarding the public treasure. A resolu- tion was passed by the Senate censuring the President for his con- duct therein ; but the House of Representatives did not concur. Jackson replied to the resolution of censure by a paper known as "The Protest." It was one of the ablest documents ever pro- duced in America, and had doubtless drawn to its composition the best powers of the finest minds in the cabinet. Thomas H. Benton moved to expunge the resolution from the journal of the Senate by causing black lines to be drawn around it and over it. This motion led to a battle in the Senate, which lasted until Feb- ruary, 1S37, when the motion was adopted by a vote of twenty- four to nineteen.' It was in the beginning of this controversy that the name of "Whig" was first adopted by the party opposing the President's policy. It was said to have been suggested by Mr. Calhoun, in reproduction of the English party of the same name, who pro- fessed to oppose all unconstitutional and oppressive exercises of prerogative or acts of the government.^ But President Jackson had so completely gained the regard and confidence of the people that they uniformly sustained him. Even the doubtful policy of putting large deposits of public money into eighty-nine banks led to a gi'eat expansion of bank credits and circulation of paper representations of money, which brought temporary prosperity, to be soon followed by financial overthrow and disaster. In November, 1S33, occurred the greatest meteoric display of modern times, in which it appeared for hours as though the stars w^ei'e shooting from their spheres, and tbat the heavens, being on fire, would be dissolved. On the 30th January, 1S35, ^"^ attempt to take the life of the President was made, just as he was leaving the rotunda of the Capitol to enter his carriage. The intended assassin turned out to be insane.* But he exploded two percussion caps on the loaded barrels of a pistol. The aim was close, and the life was saved only by the providential failure of the cap to fire the load. Subsequent events have vividly shown that the high position of President tempts assassins to murder as strongly as the high posi- tion of monarch. On the 6th of July, 1835, Chief-Justice INIarshall died, in the eightieth year of his age. Roger B. Taney succeeded him in his high office. 1 Amer. Encyclop., IX. 686. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 454, 455. a Stephens, 455, S'jS A History of the United States of America, The winter of 1834— 'c; was noted for the extreme severity of its cold. On the 4th January, 1835, mercury froze at Lebanon, New York, and at other places. The Chesapeake Bay was fro- zen over from its head to the Atlantic capes. On the Sth Febru- ary, as far south as 34°, the mercury fell to eight degrees below zero. Orange trees were killed as far south as St. Augustine, Florida. On the night of December i6th, 1835, ^ great fire occurred in the city of New York, by which, in fourteen hours, property was consumed worth over seventeen millions of dollars. The burnt district covered an area of several acres in the once busiest part of the city. During Jackson's presidency two States were admitted to the Union — Arkansas in 1S36, and Michigan in January, 1837. In no part of this President's career did he appear in a stronger light than in his course as to the just claims of the United States against France for injuries done to American shipping and commerce during the Napoleon wars. By a treaty concluded in 1831, the King of the French, Louis Philippe, had acknow- ledged the validity of these claims, had fixed their amount at five million dollars, and had promised to pay them. In 1834 ^^^ terms of installment and payment were definitely arranged by William C. Rives, the American minister in Paris. Yet, afterwards, the draft of the United States Treasury Department for the agreed installment was returned dishonored, and the French Chamber of Deputies made no provision for payment. General Jackson sent a message to Congress, reviewing the facts and advising that mode of redress known in international law as "reprisals" — that is, the seizure of such amount of French shipping and property as would pay the debt. The French government took ofience, and war seemed inevit- able ; but in this crisis England sent a small armed ship to the United States, with an ofi'er of mediation, and made the same advances to France. This gave occasion and time for calm reflec- tion. France was satisfied as to her honor and paid the money. It is worthy of remark that throughout the two terms of Presi- dent Jackson the English government and that of the United States were on terms of the most cordial amity.' To the Congress of 1836— '37 the Treasury Department had the privilege of announcing that the whole debt of the United States had been satisfied, and that a surplus of thirty-seven millions of dollars was in the treasury. It was enacted that it should be dis- 1 IngersoU, iu Amer. Encyclop., IX. 686. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson. 677 tributed among the States ; but one or more of them (Virginia, for instance) refused their shares on alleged constitutional objec- tions. General Jackson followed the august precedent of Washington, and sent forth a farewell address to the people. He retired to the " Hennitage," his home, near Nashville, Tennessee, and took no further part in public duties. He died on the 8th of June, 1845, leaving behind him a reputation for sincerity, ability and firm- ness such as few men have desei'ved. CHAPTER LII. The Presidency of Martin Van Buren. THE presidential election of 1836 resulted in the choice of electors, of whom one lumdred and seventy voted for Martin Van Buren as President, fourteen for Daniel Webster, seventy- three for William Henry Harrison, eleven for Willie P. Mangum, of North Carolina, and twenty-six for Hugh Lawson White, of Tennessee. Mr. Van Buren was, therefore, elected President, having received a majority of the whole number. For Vice- President, one hundred and forty-seven votes were cast for Rich- ard M. Johnson, of Kentucky ; seventy-seven for Francis P. Granger, of New York ; forty-seven for John Tyler, of Virginia, and twenty-three for William Smith, of Alabama. Thus the election devolved on the Senate, who elected Richard M. John- son Vice-President by a vote of thirty-three against sixteen cast for Mr. Granger. It was well known that Mr, Van Buren owed his election, in large measure, to the favor and reflected popularity of General Jackson. The new President recognized this fact in his deeds and words. On the fourth day of March, 1837, which was clear and pleasant, he took his seat alongside of the venerable ex- President in a beautiful phicton, constructed from the wood of the old frigate Constitution, and presented to Jackson by Demo- cratic citizens of New York. Thus they rode from the Presi- dent's house to the Capitol. On the eastern portico Mr. Van Buren delivered his inaugural address in clear and impressive • tones. The part of it afterwards remembered was that in which he declared his purpose in all matters of public policy " to fol- low in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor." ^ Chief-Justice Taney administered the oath of office. The cab- inet consisted of John Forsyth, of Georgia, Secretary of State ; Levi Woodburv, of New Hampshire, of the Treasury ; Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, of ^Var ; Mahlon Dickei^son, of New Jersey, of the Navy ; Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, Postmaster- General, and Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, Attorney-Gene- ral.''' General Cass had been appointed by President Jackson minister to France. I Stephens' Coinp. U. S., 459. ^ Ihid., 459, 460. [678 ] The Presidency of Martin Van Buren, 679 Hardly had the retiring President settled into the rest of the " Hermitage " and the newly-elected President entered upon his high duties, before the financial storm, which had been gathering over the country almost unperceived, began to send before it ominous gleams of lightning, low but muttering thunder, and drops of rain. Throughout March and April, 1837, it grew more and more threatening, and in May it burst upon the country in widely- spread money embarrassment and ruin. Two hundred and sixty failures occurred in New York city in the space of a few days. In New Orleans, in two days, houses suspended payment the ag- gregate of whose indebtedness w^as twenty-seven millions of dol- lars. In Boston, the distress was apparently smaller and more gradual ; and yet in that city, from the end of November, 1836, to the end of May, 1837, ^^^ hundred and sixty-eight failures oc- curred.^ An immense number of people were very prompt in attribut- ing these misfortunes to the policy of Jackson, in whose foot- steps Van Buren had declared his purpose to walk ; and it was undoubtedly true that some measures of that policy had prepared the occasions of the bank failures. By Jackson's orders, the United States Treasury and Land Office had united in issuing a " Specie Circular " requiring all payments for public lands to be made in gold and silver.'^ The effect of this was to induce the great tide of people who were passing to the West with the pur- pose to purchase and settle homes, to withdraw all the gold and silver their means would enable them to command from the Northern and Eastern States and cities, and carry them to the Western land offices. And it so happened that the time of this drain of specie syn- chronized with- a dangerous expansion of bank paper currency. The eighty-nine "pet" banks discounted freely ; and their exist- ence and apparent success led to a great multiplication of banks under State charters. The number of banks in the Union rose to six hundi'ed and seventy-seven, and they had one hundred and forty-six branches ! * So long as they could be content with a safe and healthy busi- ness, under which they would always hold specie enough to re- deem so much of their circulating " promises to pay " as would, in the course of normal operations of trade, come back upon them, so long all was well ; but the temptation to expand and discount more and more was irresistible. 1 Goodrich's U. S., 389. « Quackenbos' U. S., 411, 412. 3 JUd,, 411. 68o A History of the United States of America. The result might have been foreseen. Men of small means, but wild and daring spirits, united together, and easily obtained dis- counts from the banks, who were eager to expand their profits by lending out their paper money. The most hazardous speculations were engaged in. They failed, and their projectors failed with them. Innumerable notes fell due, were unpaid, and were pro- tested ; but when the banks sought to obtain payment from the makers and endorsers of these notes, they found nothing in their hands or belonging to them.^ When a bank stops paying its own notes in gold and silver when demanded, it is bankrupt in law. This was the condition of nearly every bank in the United States in 1837. They all sus- pended payments in specie ; but it did not follow necessarily that the bank was insolvent, and that, if its assets (that is, its property, means and claims) were carefully managed and collected, it could not jDay its just debts. Many of the banks who suspended in 1837 I'^sumed specie pay- ments in less than two years, and were afterwards solvent and prosperous. It is a fact of history that the " Bank of England," by an order in council, suspended payments in specie in Feb- ruary, 1797, and never resumed such payinents until IMay ist, 1S23 ; and yet, during all that time, "the general concerns of the bank were in the most affluent and flourishing situation, and such as to preclude every doubt as to the security of its notes."" But in the United States, in 1837, the ruin of the financial storm was fearful, and reached all classes. Eight of the States suspended payments of interest on their certificates of debt.^ Gradually the distress reached the treasury of the general gov- ernment. Duties could not be collected, either in specie or in funds of specie value. In a few months the treasuiy, \vhich in 1836 had reported all public debts paid and a surplus of thirty- seven millions of dollars, found itself unable to pay the current expenses of carrying on the government. Manufacturing was prostrated ; mei'chandising was suspended ; imports ceased. General dismay pervaded the best business minds. The inerchants of New York united in a petition to the President, urging him to withdraw the " Specie Circular." * He refused this, but he called the Congress to meet in special session in Septeinber, 1837. Accordingly they met on the 4th of vSep- tember, and continued in session about six weeks. They pro- vided means by which the government w^as enabled to supply its 1 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 243, 244. 2 Art. Bank, New Ajner. Encvclop., 11. 674. 3 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S. , 243. ■« Quackenbos, 411, 412. The Presideficy of JSIartin Van Buren. 68 1 current wants by issuing ten million dollars in treasury notes ; but they were impotent to furnish any relief for the business dis- turbances and distress of the country. These went on to their final I'esults. The failure of the banks to pay specie for their notes caused much inconvenience from want of small coins to meet the cur- rent exchanges of every community. This led many private banks, savings institutions, and even mercantile firms and indi- viduals, to issue on their own responsibility, and generally in violation of State laws, small notes for sums from five or ten cents up to one or two dollars. These notes were contemptu- ously designated as " shin-plasters " by those who looked on them with most suspicion. And yet so indispensable were they as representatives of the small coins that the people generally welcomed them, and re- ceived and used them freely in amounts aggregating millions of dollars, and discouraged all attempts to enforce legal penalties against those who issued them. And it is a fact creditable to the general honesty of purpose for which they were put forth, that gradually, in a course of a few years, they were all redeemed and disappeared from circulation without loss to the public. President Van Buren and his advisers were thoroughly alarmed by the money failure of the government. In the session of Con- gress of 1837— '38, and subsequent sessions, he constantly urged the adoption of a " sub-treasury " scheme for collecting, keeping and disbursing the public mone3's. This scheme involved a com- plete divorce of the government from all banks, and the estab- lishment at convenient points of buildings under bonded officers, who should receive only in gold and silver coin the public dues, and pay them out or dispose of them according to law.* On this policy Calhoun sided with Van Buren, and separated from Webster and Clay, who believed that a well-conducted United States Bank would be the best government depository and fiscal agent, and would repeat the services and benefits of the Bank of England to the British government. Calhoun was ably sec- onded by Thomas H. Benton and Silas Wright. The " sub-treasury," or independent treasury, plan ^vas enacted by the Congress, having passed the Senate January 23, 1840, and the House 30th June, 1841 ; but on the defeat of Mr. Van Buren it was repealed. In 1845, however, during the presidency of James K. Polk, it was in substance re-enacted, and continues to be the government system.^ It is open to the objection that it con- iQuackenbos, 412. Stephens, 469. Goodrich, 393, 394. 2 Goodrich's U. S., 393, 394. 682 A History of the United States of America. stantly withdraws a large sum in gold and silver from business circulation which might be advantageously used by the people of the land. During Van Buren's tenn, petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and in the Territories of the United States became very numerous. .They were geneially presented to the House of Representatives by John Quincy Adams. He, how- ever, did not advocate their objects. He advocated only their right of petition.^ But thoughtful men regarded this subject as already threatening the peace and j^ermanency of the Union. Mr. Calhoun presented six resolutions, which passed the Senate in January, 1838, by a vote on the leading resolution of thirty-two to eighteen. They were a strong declaration of the rights of the owners of slaves. The fifth resolution declared that " the interference by the citizens of any of the States with the view to the abolition of slavery in this District (of Columbia), and any act or measure of Congress designed to abolish slavery in this District, would be a violation of the faith implied in the cessions of the States of Virginia and Maryland, and just cause of alarm to the people of the slave- holding States, and would have a direct and inevitable tendency to disturb and endanger the Union." The sixth resolution was equally strong against any attempt of the Congress to abolish slavery in any Territory in which it existed.^ In the House, equally clear and explicit resolutions were pre- sented by Mr. Atherton, of New Hampshire, and were passed by votes running up from one hundred and twenty-six ayes to seventy- eight noes, and reaching one hundred and ninety-four ayes to six nays on the first resolution, as follows : '■'■Resolved, That this government is a government of limited powers, and that, by the constitution of the United States, Con- gress has no jurisdiction whatever over the institution of slavery in the several States of the confederacy."" But these well-intended eflbrts did not put to rest the subject of slavery. In 1837, parties in Canada rose up in quasi rebellion against the English rule. Many Americans sympathized with the Canadian insurgents and sought to help them. President Van Buren issued a firm proclamation of neutrality, and sent General Wool with an armed force to the frontier. The steamer Caroline, which had been fitted out in New York waters with supplies for the Cana- 1 Amer. Encyclop., 1. 108, 109. = Resolutions given in Stephens, 463-465. 3 Resolutions in Stepliens' Comp. U. S., 465, 466, The Presidency of Martin Van Buren, 683 dians, was seized by the British authorities, and, after having been set on fire, was permitted to drift over the Falls of Niagara.^ The boundary between Maine and the British province of New Brunswick had not been defined. As settlements advanced, and the gathering of logs and timber became more profitable, the settlers and loggers on each side often came into contact — some- times into collision ; and, having no ascertained line of title, actual war with deadly weapons was threatened. President Van Buren sought to maintain peace, and sent General Scott to that region. By his prudence and conciliatory measures he prevented bloodshed. In 1842, by the "Ashburton treaty," made by nego- tiation between Lord Ashburton, the British special commissionei", and Daniel Webster, American Secretary of State, this boundary line was definitely settled, and disputes were ended. ^ In 183S, navigation by steamers was established between Eng- land and America. It is worthy of note that Dr. Dionysius Lardner, a native of Dublin, Ireland, and a man eminent in science and learning, especially in the domain of steam, had written an article afiirming the scientific and physical impossi- bility of making steam-ships the means of crossing the Atlantic for purposes of ordinary trade and intercourse, and that his article was brought to the United States in the steamer which refuted it. So far do ^vill and energy outrun science and specu- lation ! In this same year, 1S38, August iSth, a celebrated "exploring expedition," sent out by the United States, sailed from Norfolk, Virginia. It consisted of the sloops of war Vincennes and Pea- cock^ of twenty and eighteen guns respectively, the Porpoise, of ten guns, and three smaller armed vessels. It was commanded by Capt. Charles Wilkes, and carried a number of men skilled in each science in which advance was sought.^ It accomplished all the purposes for which it was sent : discovered an Antarctic continent, two thousand miles south of New Holland and Aus- tralia, on the same day on which it was seen by the French navi- gator D'Urville ; sailed along its coast for seventeen hundred miles ; circumnavigated the globe, visiting many islands and points on continents never visited before by enlightened men ; took on board a large and valuable collection of live plants and bulbs, and prepared specimens of animals — including some of the genus man — of rare nature and qualities, all of which have since enriched the gardens and buildings of the " Smithsonian Insti- J Thalheimer, 245. "- Thalheimer, 245. Goodrich, 391. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 180. 2 Reports to Congress, 1842, Goodrich, 393, 684 A History of the United States of America. tute" in Washington. They brought back also, as a prisoner, a chief of the Fiji Islands, who, with his companion cannibals, had massacred and eaten the crew of a brig from Salem, Massa- chusetts,^ But he was spared, kindly ti^eated and instructed, be- cause he and his comrades " knew not what they did." The Fiji Islanders have since becortie Christians. The various vessels of this expedition sailed, altogether, dis- tances amounting to four hundred thousand miles ; yet so perfect was the system for health practiced and enforced that only eight men died of disease during the whole term of absence of nearly four years. They returned in June, 1842. During President Van Buren's term the " Smithsonian Insti- tute" was urged forward. It was the outcome of a bequest of about five hundred thousand dollars, given by James Smithson, of London, to the United States in trust, to found and maintain an establishment " for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." So remarkable a bequest from such a source created a widely- spread and healthful influence in the United States. The report concerning it was first made on 17th December, 1835, and yet it was not until 1846 that an act was passed for erection of build- ings and launching the institute on its high voyage of learning and science. It has since become one of the great attractions of the national capital, and, with its beautiful and extensive grounds, imposing buildings, large library and niuseum rooms, and excel- lent publications, may be considered the living embodiment of the strong and enlightened spirit of the donor. In 1838 it was hoped by many wise statesmen that the restless spirit for the abolition of slavery had been permanently quieted. It had once gained such ascendency in Congress that, after Mr. Slade, of Vermont, had made a long speech against slavery, the Southern members withdrew for consultation, and Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, made a serious proposition that a declaration should be made that it was expedient that the Union should be dissolved.^ But the friends of the President and of democratic government yet hoped to secure peace. John M. Patton, of Virginia, intro- duced a resolution that, when petitions or other documents relat- ing to slavery or its abolition were presented, they should be laid on the table without being debated, printed, read or i-eferred. This resolution was adopted by a decisive vote in the House of Representatives. 1 Goodrich's U. S., 393. = Art. Van Buren, Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 17. Tlie Presidency of Martin Van Buren. 6S^ Yet alDolition agitation continued. William Lloyd Garrison, of Massachusetts, a poor man, but bred a printer and having strong convictions and a stubborn will, had established, in 1831, a weekly newspaper called " The Liberator^ ^ He took the ground that slavery had originated in sin, and that its continuance was a sin. His paper grew, week by week, in circulation. Alany thousands in Ne\v England and at the North adopted his views. The great body of the people looked on the "Abolitionists" as fanatics and mischief-makers ; but Gar- rison and his followers, finding that the constitution of their country, in its truo interpretation, discouraged and condemned their opinions and efforts, began to attack the constitution itself. They openly wrote that it was "a covenant with death and a league with hell."^ The "Abolitionists " did not then organize themselves into a political party. They, however, often formed societies of men or women, or both, who were indefatigable in their labors to promote the progress of abolition. Persecution was tried against them, but it had its accustomed effect, and only increased their numbers and earnestness. The efforts made in Congress to ignore or suppress their petitions inflamed their zeal and expanded their influence. As the time approached for holding the nominating conven- tions of 1S40, it became evident that a struggle for supi-emacy more animated, though not more bitter, than in previous years was at hand. The "Whigs" drew to themselves all classes who opposed the re-election of Van Buren and desired change. They selected as their nominees Gen. William Henry Harrison, a native of Virginia and son of one of her governors, though afterwards a resident in the Northwest, for President, and John Tyler, of ^^irg^nia, for Vice-President. The "Democrats" had no ground of party complaint against Mr. Van Buren, though many of them felt no enthusiasm for his re-election. On one point of Democratic creed he had been in- cautious. He had, in one of his messages to Congress, recom- mended that the militia of the several States should be enrolled, drilled and mustered under trained officers. This was thought to be a measui-e savoring strongly of " Federalism," and of a " stand- ing army " of huge proportions, organized by the Federal gov- ernment. As such, it was a point of attack by W^hig debaters in the canvass. But it was not so intended by Mr. Van Buren, 1 Scudder's U. S., 335. - Horace E. Scudder's U. S., 335. Art. Garrisou, Amer. Encyclop., YIII. 91. 686 A History of the United States of America. and it has, therefore, been ahnost pretermitted and dropped out of view in current histories of his times.' The Democratic convention which met in Baltimoi-e May 5th, 1840, renominated Van Bviren as President, but did not name a candidate for the vice-presidency, referring that choice to the States. The canvass that followed was one of unprecedented activity and general good humor. Harrison's fine military record helped him, and songs were shouted along the streets and in the country, the refi'ain of which was in the words : " Tippecanoe and Tyler too." The plain and homely living of the Whig candidate was represented by a "log cabin" with the latch-string outside, and his favorite beverage was said to be " hard cider," of which it was common to see a barrel mounted on runners, and carried to the points for public speaking ; and here the orators and the prominent Whigs, followed by all who chose to join, would drink gravely in succession of the " hard cider," not without some grimaces and wry looks when it proved too " hard." On the other hand, the "gold spoons" used in the dinner ser- vice at the President's house were sharply commented on in con- trast.^ The widely-spread financial distress and ruin were traced back to Van Buren and the measures he had advocated. The result was not long in doubt. Months before the electoral college assembled it was known that Harrison and Tyler had been chosen. When the votes were thrown and counted, it was ascertained that two hundred and thirty-four electoral votes were given for William Henry Harrison as President, and the same number for John Tyler as Vice-President. Martin Van Buren received sixty votes for President. For Vice-President, Richard M. Johnson received forty-eight ; Littleton W. Tazewell, of Vir- ginia, eleven, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, one vote.'* Mr. Van Buren retired to his home at Kinderhook, New York. He had never applied the veto to any enactment of Congress. No State had been admitted to the Union during his term. And yet, notwithstanding all the financial disturbances and stoppages of business, the population of the country, between 1830 and 1840, rose from seventeen million to more than twenty-three mil- lion in round numbers, and every form of industry, art and sci- ence received an impetus which pressed them rapidly forward. iThe " Old Log Cabin," by Dr. A. S. MeRae. Dispatch (Va.). Dec. 19th, 1890. « Stephens' Comp. U. S., 467. ^ Stephens, 409. CHAPTER LIII. Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. Bank Vetoes. — Texas. IN the sixty-ninth year of his age, and apparently in the enjoy- ment of health and strength for duty, William Henry Harri- son was inaugurated President of the United States on the fourth day of March, 1841. Washington was thronged with people — many from distant residences. A procession was formed from the hotel where the President stayed to the Capitol. He rode a white horse, and his immediate escort were the officers and soldiers who had fought under him. The oath of office was administered by Chief-Justice Taney, in the presence of sixty thousand people. Plis inaugural address was long, and yet was read with unflag- ging distinctness of voice. Often its declarations of thought and sentiment called forth cheers of approval. He closed with these words : •' Our confederacy, fellow-citizens, can only be preserved by the same forbeaiTince. Our citizens inust be content with the exer- cise of the powers with which the constitution clothes them. The attempt of those of one State to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, and are certain harbingers of disunion, violence, civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions. Our confederacy is perfectly illustrated by the terms and principles governing a com- mon co-partnership. There a fund of power is to be exercised, under the direction of the joint counsels of the allied members ; but that which has been reserved by the individuals is intangible by the common government, or the other individual members com- posing it. To attempt it finds no support in the principles of our constitution." ^ His cabinet consisted of Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, Sec- retary of State ; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, of the Treasury ; John Bell, of Tennessee, of War ; George E. Badger, of North Caro- lina, of the Navy ; Francis Granger, of New York, Postmaster- General, and John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, Attorney-General. On the 17th of March, the President issued his proclamation convening the Congress in special session on Monday, the last day 1 Extract from inaugural, in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 470. [ 6S7 ] 688 A ITisiory of the United States of America, of May. On the 27th of March he was seized with an acute and violent attack of pneumonia, which baffled all medical skill for arrest or mitigation of its power, and terminated his life on the 4th day of April, 1841, just one month from the day of his inaugura- tion. His death was mourned by millions of his countrymen. Then, for the first time, the Federal government was subjected to the trial of losing its elected President during his term ; but there was no interregnum — no strain. The Vice-President became President and the government went on. John Tyler was in Williamsburg when news of the death of President Harrison reached him.^ He went immediately to Wash- ington, and assumed the duties of the Chief Executive. He re- quested the cabinet officers of Harrison to retain their places, and they complied. He sent forth an inaugural address after the cus- tom of his predecessors. The Whig party, which had won the great victory of 1840, was a conglomerate of many diverse elements : National Republicans ; the opponents of the doctrines of President Jackson's proclama- tion and of the " Force Bill," led by Tyler and Tazewell, of Vir- ginia ; the followers of Henry A. Wise and John Bell, who strongly disapproved of the removal of the "deposits" by Jack- son ; the many, under the lead of Judge Hugh Lawson White, who condemned the " expunging resolution," and the great num- ber, led by Legare, of South Carolina, Tallmadge, of New York, and Rives, of Virginia, who repudiated the sub-treasury scheme of Mr. Van Buren.^ It was known that Mr. Tyler had always been a States' rights man. He had opposed John Quincy Adams and had sided with Crawford, Calhoun and Jackson ; had voted against the Tariff' Bill of 1838, and opposed that of 1833. Though he disapproved of " nullification," he had opposed the " Force Bill " in an elaborate speech, and had supported the vote of censure on Jackson for re- moving the public moneys from the United States Bank. But he had opposed the bill to continue the charter of that bank,^ and had repeatedly and publicly announced his opposition to such an incorporation as unconstitutional.* From 1833 to 1841, the question of the re-charter of such a bank had been regarded, even by such Whigs as Henry Clay, as an " obsolete question." ^ In his message to the Congress which convened May 31st, 1841, President Tyler discussed the question of the public revenue, and said : " In intimate connection with the question of revenue is 1 Art. Tv'ler, Amer. Encyclop., XV. 684. 2 Lyon G. Tyler's " Parties aud Patronage," 1891, pp. 56-59. » Amer. Encyclop., XV. 684. * Lyon G. Tyler's Letters and Times of the Tvlers, I. 471-477, 496, 504. s jfyid., I. .596-628. The Presidency of yohn Tyler. 689 that which makes provision for a suitable fiscal agent, capable of adding increased facilities in the collection and disbursement of the public revenues, rendering more secure their custody and con- sulting a true economy in the great, multij^licd and delicate oper- ations of the Treasury Department. Upon such an agent depends in an eminent degree the establishment of a currency of uniform value, v^^hich is of so great importance to all the essential interests of society ; and on the w^isdom to be manifested in its creation much depends. I shall be ready to concur with you in the adop- tion of such system as you may propose, reserving to myself the ultimate power of rejecting any measure which may, in my view of it, conflict with the constitution or otherwise jeopard the pros- perity of the country." But the word "bank" is not found in this passage. President Tyler held the view of Thomas Jefferson, that Congress had no power, under the constitution, to incorporate a bank in any State without her consent and the consent of all States in which she might establish branches. Before the inauguration of Harrison, Mr. Tyler had definitely expressed his views against a national bank to Waddy Thompson, of vSouth Carolina, and John M. Botts, of Virginia.* But many in the Congress regarded with favor the establish- ment of a United States Bank as the fiscal agent of the govern- ment. A plan of incorporation of the " Fiscal Bank of the United States" was drawn up by Secretary Ewing, of the Treasury De- partment, and introduced by a bill in the Senate. It was not in all respects what the President would have prefen*ed, but was in substance the plan which he regarded as in accord with the consti- tution. It created a bank in the District of Columbia (over which Congress had express jurisdiction), and provided for branches with definite consent of the States in which they should be created.^ This bill was referred, on motion of Henry Clay, to a select committee on finance, of which he was chairman. Here the bill was so reconstructed as to make it a charter of a bank on the old plan, with power to establish branches without the express con- sent of the States where established. A leading journal openly declared that the sentiments of the President, as " well known and maintained for fifteen years," were adverse to this.^ His opposition to such a scheme was so well known that John M. Botts, of Vii'ginia, had obtained a personal interview with him, and had asked his consideration of a paper which proposed that "branches might be established in any State the legislature 1 Letters and Times of the Tylers, II. 15-17, 68. « Ihid,. II. 44, 51. 3 National Intelligencer, June 5, 1841. Tylers, II. 44. 690 A Hi story of ihe United States of America. of which did not by a formal act express their dissent at their next session, and that, even in case of such dissent, Congress might au- thorize the branches wherever the public interest might seem to demand them." ^ The President promptly condemned this propo- sition. But it was introduced into the Bank Bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of twenty-six to twenty-three, and the Plouse by a vote of one hundred and twenty-eight to ninety-seven. It was promptly vetoed by President Tyler, and returned with his rea- sons for dissent. It could not command the t\vo-thirds vote needed to pass it over the veto. Private conferences went on between leading members of both Houses and Mr. Tyler. A second bill was passed chartering a bank under the title of " The Fiscal Corporation of the United States." A second veto followed, on grounds clearly given. The excitement and fury among the Whigs have been described as follows : " The papers burst out into a tirade of vituperation and invective ; the fires of a thousand efhgies lighted the streets of the various cities ; Whig orators and politicians vied with each other in casting at him the filth and garbage of falsehood and de- famation ; hundreds of letters were received and opened by the President's private secretary threatening him ^vith certain assassi- nation."' But the President, conscious of his own right and consistency, preserved his composure ; nor did he lose it, when his veto was followed by the resignations of Ewing, Bell, Badger, Crittenden and Granger. Daniel Webster alone remained at his post. Plis reasons were: First, "because he had seen no sufficient reasons for the dissolution of the late cabinet by the voluntary act of its own members ; second, because if he had seen reasons to resign his office, he would not have done so without giving the Presi- dent reasonable notice, and aftording him time to select the hands to which he should confide the delicate and important matters now pending in this department ; " third, because he was engaged in negotiating with Lord Ashburton the northeastern boundary questions, which resulted in the important treaty of 1S42.* If hopes had been indulged that these precipitate resignations would fatally embarrass the government, such hopes were vain. Mr. Tyler promptly sent in names vv^hich the Senate could not refuse to ratify. The cabinet was arranged with John C. Spencer, of New York, Secretary of War ; Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, of the Navy ; W^alter Forward, of Pennsylvania, of the Treasury ; Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, Postmaster-General ; and Hugh S. Legare, ' The Tylers, II. 55-58. 2 lUd., H. 82. 3 lUd., 118-124. Scudder, 345. Stephens, 473. Tltc Presidency of yoJin Tyler. 691 of South Carolina, Attorney-General. In May, 1843, Mr. Web- ster resig-ned the State Department. ISIr. Legare was appointed to the office. He died soon afterwards, during a visit which he made with the President to Boston to take part in the ceremonies attending the completion of the Bunker's Hill monument. Sub- sequent changes occurred, by which Upshur became Secretary of State ; George ]M. Bibb, of Kentucky, of the Treasury ; William Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, of War ; Thos. W. Gilmer, of V^ii-ginia, of the Navy ; and John Nelson, of Maryland, Attoi'ney-General. But on the 2Sth of February, 1844, occurred a fatal explosion, which again produced vacancies in President Tyler's cabinet. The United States steamer Princeton was lying in the Potomac river below Washington. By invitation of Captain Stockton, the President, with most of the members of his cabinet, several sen- ators and members of the House, officers of the army and navy of high rank, and well-known citizens of Washington, male and female, went aboard of her to witness her manoeuvres, and espe- cially the firing of an enormous gun called the "Peace-maker," mounted on her deck, with a companion gun of the same calibre. They carried a shot of two hundred and twenty-five pounds. At the second firing the "Peace-maker" exploded, and her flying fragments struck and killed Secretaries Upshur and Gilmer and many others, some of whom were eminent in office or in private life. The sudden tragedy carried desolation to families and lov- ing hearts.^ John C. Calhoun was appointed Secretary of State, and John V. Alason, of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy. The efforts of the Abolitionists became more and more per- sistent. They poured in upon the Congress petitions for destroy- ing slavery in the District of Columbia and the Territories. Mr. Adams, in steady maintenance of the right of petition, presented these papers. But, in November, 1843, as he was returning from a tour though the West, he was met at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by an association of these petitioners and their sympathizers. To them he made an address, parts of wdiich greatly amazed and discouraged them, and placed this able man in a higher light be- foi-e his country.^ He said : "As to the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- lumbia, I have said that I was opposed to it, not because I have any doubts of the power of Congress to abolish slavery in the Dis- trict, for I have none ; but I regard it as a violation of republican principles to enact laws at the petition of one people which are 1 Amer. Encyclop., XV. 686. -Art. Stockton, Amer. Encyclop., XV. 108. Stephens, 475. Goodrich, 401. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S.,475. 692 A History of the United States of America. to operate upon another people against their consent. As the laws now stand, the people of the District h.iXYC property in their slaves." Thoughtful people in the South had long looked with anxiety on the progress of this abolition sentiment. They saw that a de- termined purpose existed to restrict the existence of slavery by lines whicii would, sooner or later, make the slave area compara- tively small.' The question of the annexation of foreign territory became the pretext for renewed opposition to the institutions of the South. The island of Cuba, with her rich soil, hot suns, and tropical products, was a desirable possession ; but Cuba was beyond reach for the time. Several attempts had been made by American Presidents to purchase the island from Spain, but she had refused to sell. In 1835, wliile Henry Clay was Secretary of State under the presidency of John Qiiinc)- Adams, Spain had proposed, in consideration of certain important commercial advantages to be granted by her, that the United States should guarantee to her the title and possession of Cuba.^ But Mr. Clay had sagaciously de- clined this proposition, because it would entangle his country in forms of guaranty not congenial to her institutions. Thus Spain retained Cuba ; and Mr. Calhoun never approved of lawless at- tacks or "filibustering" against her. While people in the Northern and Eastern States were zeal- ously seeking to disturb the rights of the Southern people in their slaves, one of the New England States became the scene of a rebellion against constituted autliority. This was the revolu- tionary movement, in 1843 and subsequent years, stirred up by Thomas W. Dorr and those who agi"eed with him in seeking to overturn the old constitution of Rhode Island, which was cer- tainly behind the requirements of the age. We have already, in a previous chapter, given an account of this movement and its results. President Tyler's intervention with the United States authority and military force was cautious and salutary.* Yet grave constitutional questions emerged from these troubles, which reached the Supreme Court, and wei'e adjudicated in Luther vs. Borden, decided at the December term, 1S48.* President Tyler's term was immortalized by the success of the "Magnetic Telegraph," invented by Samuel F. B. Morse, who discovered a method by which the powers of the all-pervad- ing electricity of earth and air should be used to transmit nearly > Scudder's U. S., 336, 337. ^Art. Cuba, Amer. Encyclop. Eggleston, 300. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 473, 474. Goodrich's U. S., 400, 401. * Luther rs. Borden, VII. Howard, 1-55. The Presidency of yolni Tyler. 693 instantaneous messages. He set up and worked a telegraphic wire as early as 1835.^ But he sought pecuniary aid, and, with " hope deferred," ere he could obtain the means needed for setting his grand invention in practical movement, he became very poor — so poor that during some days he had no food at all. A bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars for testing his invention had made some progress in the Twenty-seventh Congress ; but it was crowded by conflict- ing bills and business. The bill "was warmly supported by Presi- dent Tyler, and was finally passed on the last day of the session. The -first experimental line was between Washington and Bal- timore, and the first message sent over it was by Miss Ellsworth, in these words : "What hath God wrought? " An early one was in 1844, announcing the nomination of James K. Polk as Presi- dent. The feat was so amazing that the old politicians refused to believe it or act on it until the regular mails confirmed it.^ But the deed was done. The tour of thought expressed in visible symbols by the power of lightning had commenced. Morse's name has become one of the great names of the earth. Broad ribbons, with jewels and kingly decorations, came to him in such profusion that space on the expanded breast of his coat could hardly be found for them. That first transit of forty-five miles has extended to more than one hundred and fifty thousand miles, and wires stretch under all seas and convey messages from people to people, which travel faster than the earth on her axis. Early in January, 1S45, a treaty with the vast empire of China was ratified by the Senate. It had been negotiated by Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, with the Governor-General Tsyeng, on behalf of the Emperor Taou Kwang, and opened this ancient and mysterious land of China to the commerce and intercourse of the United States to an extent never before accorded to any people.' Meanwhile on the southwestern frontier of the United States had arisen a new I'epublic, destined to exert a material influence on the fortunes and welfare of the whole North American conti- nent. Texas, in territorial extent, is an empire in herself, contain- ing about two hundred and thirty-eight thousand square miles of ai"ea, extending from the Gulf of Mexico and the parallel of 2^° c;o' to 36° 30' north, and from the meridian line of 93° 30' to 107° west, and embracing fine harbors, navigable rivers, i^ich arable lands, broad prairies, immense pasturing districts, forest stretches, and unmeasured mineral deposits of coal, gypsum and valuable granite and limestone rocks.* 1 Kggleston's Household U. S. 280, 281. =76iU,2Sl. Barnes, 183. Tlialheimer, 250. 8 Goodrich, 403. Stephens, 479. * Art. Texas, Amer. Eucyclop., XV. S97. 694 -^ History of the United States of America. To Moses Austin, of Durham, Connecticut, Texas owes her rise and settlement, first as a Spanish colony, then as a part of the province of Cohahuila, under the republic of Mexico, and finally as an independent State. In 1820 he obtained from the government of Spain a very extensive grant of land for the pur- pose of planting thereon a large colony of immigrants ; ' and these were nearly all from the United States. On the 2d of May, 1824, the Cortes^ or congress, of Mexico passed an act intended to encourage settlements in Texas, declar- ing that, when in population and development it was ready, it should become an independent State of the Mexican republic, equal to the other States, free, sovereign and independent in whatever exclusively related to its internal government and ad- ministration.^ On the faith of this act, immigration from the United States and other countries went forward, not only to Austin's colony, but to other parts of Texas ; but in 1830 came a sudden and op- pressive interruption from a usurper of power. Bustamente, by intrigue and violence, assumed power as president or emperor in Mexico. He issued decrees forbidding the subsequent immigra- tion of foreigners, and overturning the free constitution of 1824. The Texans were roused to resistance. When Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna overthrew Bustamente in 1832, something better was hoped for. But this new tyrant speedily showed himself in his true colors. He entirely overturned the republican constitution of 1S24, and established a centralized and consolidated govern- ment, of which he was "dictator," and which had only the name of a republic, Avhile the republic, in fact, was dead.* These measures were in themselves enough to justify the peo- ple of Texas in throwing ofi" the rule of Mexico and establishing for themselves an independent State. But they were not to suc- ceed without a bitter struggle, in which they maintained their cause most gallantly by force of arms. This war belongs to the history of Texas, and not of the United States. It was substantially ended by the battle of San Jacinto, fought near the banks of that river on the 21st of April, 1836. Santa Anna, with an overwhelming force, had, in February of that year, first bombarded and then carried by assault the Fort Alamo, defended by one hundred and forty Texans, imder Colonel Travis. The defence was heroic and the slaughter of the Mexicans terrific. But numbers prevailed. The assailants were four thousand strong. David Crockett, of Tennessee, here fell. The whole garrison re- 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 480. 2 Act of the Cortes, May 2d, 1824. Stephens, 480. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 481. The P residency of John Tyler. 695 maining alive were put to the sword on the 6th of March. But the assailants lost sixteen hundred men;^ and on the 27th of March, by Santa Anna's orders, and in gross violation of the terms of surrender, the whole of Colonel Fannin's command of three hundred men, who, after fighting a force of several thou- sand for a whole day, had yielded themselves as prisoners of war at Goliad, were deliberately put to death in cold blood.^ The Texan army under Gen. Samuel Houston wei'e roused to the highest point of thirst for revenge and retribution when they heard of these atrocities. They were somewhat depressed by three retreating moves of Houston — first to the Colorado, next to the Brazos, and finally to the San Jacinto. But the Texan gene- ral was wise. His design was to scatter and divide the Mexican forces ; and he succeeded. Santa Anna, flushed with confidence of victory, left much of his army and artillery behind, and pressed after Houston in full pursuit. On the 3ist of April, with a force still numbering about two thousand, he found himself face to face with Houston's army of eight hundred men. The time for battle had come. The Texans, shouting, " Remember the Alamo ! remember Goliad ! " rushed upon the Mexicans with a fury and vehemence which made their attack resistless. The enemy's ranks were broken. Hundreds were slain and wounded. The rest surrendered them- selves prisoners as fast as they could. Santa Anna was found and taken prisoner the next day. The loss of the Mexicans was six hundred and thirty killed, two hundred and eight wounded, and seven hundred and thirty prisoners. The Texan loss was small. Impulse and revenge would have called for the immediate exe- cution of Santa Anna ; but civilized warfare and prudent policy forbade it. General Houston entered into negotiation with this Mexican dictator and obtained from him an order under which the Mexican troops under Generals Filiosola and Urrea, demoral- ized and half-starved, retreated to Mexican territory, leaving Texas with no enemies on her soil. Santa Anna gave his parole as a prisoner of war, and was permitted to pass into the United States and make his way to Washington. Thus Texas had gained her independence. Mexico did not acknowledge it, but sent no troops to maintain even a show of authority. On the 12th November, 1835, the people of Texas, by their delegates in convention, adopted a State constitution. On the 22d October, 1836, Gen. Samuel Houston was inaugurated as 1 Art. Tpxas, Amor. Encyclo-p., XV. 404. " Art. Fannin, Kew Amer. Encyclop. Stephens, 483, 484. Democratic Review on Texas Campaigns. B96 - A History of the United States of America. the second President, Austin having been the first. Mirabeau B. Lamar was the third, and Anson Jones, the fourth President, in 1844. On the 3d of March, 1837, the United States in solemn form acknowledged the independence of the new republic. Two years afterwards it was recognized also by France and England, and very soon afterwards by all the leading powers of Europe.' On the 4th of August, 1837, Texas made formal application for admission to the Union, but President Van Buren declined to en- tertain the proposition ; and the treaty for her admission first made by President Tyler was rejected by the Senate. Mr. Upshur and Mr. Calhoun and their followers desired the ad- mission of Texas on the expressed ground " to extend the influ- ence of slavery and secure its perpetual duration.'"* But Presi- dent Tyler's views were much higher. Although he was warmly vSouthern and had voted against the " Missouri Compromise," he deprecated slavery and desired its ultimate extinction so earnestly that he was one of the earliest presidents of the Virginia Coloni- zation Society.' He desired Texas to be a part of the United States because he recognized in her an empire of future greatness and wealth. In the Congress of i844-'45 i^^^riy propositions for the admis- sion of Texas were introduced. The one which prevailed was that of Milton Brown, of Tennessee. He was a Whig, but a Whig who adopted the " strict construction " view of the consti- tution, and, therefore, sided with William C. Rives in the Senate and Henry A. Wise in the House, in supporting Mr. Tyler. His resolution was in three clauses. It provided for the imme- diate admission of Texas, with safeguards as to her debts, and with the provision in the third clause that new States, not exceed- ing four in number, formed from the soil of Texas, might there- after, with her consent, be admitted into the Union, and that such States as might be so formed out of Texas territory lying south of 36° 30' north latitude, commonly known as the " Missouri Compro- mise " line, should be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the j^eople of such State asking admission might de- sire.* This proposition was in the true spirit of the " Missouri Com- promise," and ought, therefore, to have been supported by the anti-slavery members ; but it encountered vehement opposition from many of them. It was, however, adopted on the 35th of January, 1S45, in the House by a vote of one hundred and twenty yeas to ninety-eight nays.'' » Stephens' Comp. U. S., 484. 485. ^ Calhoun's report. Thalheimer, 249. 3 Letters and Times of the Tylers, I. 566-570. * Kesolutious in Stephens, 477, 478. ^ Stephens, 478. The Presidency of jfohn Tyler. 697 Meanwhile conventions of both the Whig and the Democratic parties had been held to make nominations for President and Vice- President. The Whigs met in Baltimore, May 1st, 1844, and nominated Henry Clay for President, and Theodore Frelinghuy- sen for Vice-President. The Democratic convention met also in Baltimore on the 27th May, and nominated James K. Polk, of Tennessee, for President, and George ]SI. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The rule requiring a vote of t%vo-thirds to nominate had become the fixed law in Democratic conventions. Van Buren was defeated by this rule. He was opposed to the admission of Texas. The Abolitionists now entered the field as a political party, and presented James G. Birney, of Michigan, for President. The ques- tions of national bank, protective tariff', and internal improve- ments by the Federal government, were largely discussed before immense popular assemblages ; but the all-absorbing issue was the admission of Texas. The result was perfectly distinct. For James K. Polk as Presi- dent, one hundred and seventy electoral votes were returned, and the same number for George M. Dallas as Vice-President. One hundred and five electoral votes were returned for Henry Clay as President, and the same number for Theodore Frelinghuysen as Vice-President. No electoral vote was returned for Mr. Bir- ney ; but out of a popular vote of two million five hundi^ed thou- sand, he received about sixty-five thousand votes. This was ominous of coming events. The true Democrats of the United vStates have always been those who have held States' rights doctrines and strict construc- tion of the Federal constitution, because the people (<5'/;/ Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 259 (note). 2 Amor. Encvclop., XIII. 458, 45"J. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 496. •' Stephens' Comp. U. S., 486. [ 699 ] 7oo A History of the United States of America. money profits ; but in the discussions previous to the Democratic convention and during the convention itself, they had zealously supported the nomination of Martin Van Buren and opposed any other. On the other hand, Thomas Ritchie, of the Eiiqtiirer, of Richmond, Virginia, though he had earnestly supported Jackson, had bitterly opposed the nomination of Van Buren in 1844, and had exerted a prevalent power in defeating him. Soon after assuming his high office, Mr. Polk insisted on dethroning Blair and Rives, and promoting Thomas Ritchie to their former posi- tion, influence and profits. This step rankled in the hearts of the Van Buren Democrats, and alienated them from the party .^ But events more important than party quarrels and newspaper changes soon absorbed public attention. General Almonte, the Mexican minister at Washington, had remonstrated against the annexation of Texas. Soon after the opening of the new administration, Almonte demanded his pass- ports and left the city. All friendly intercourse with Mexico was now ended. She had never acknowledged the independence of Texas, and, therefore, from her standpoint, could not look upon the course of the United States as friendly. In fact, the Whig party and the followers of Mr. Van Buren had earnestly argued that the annexation of Texas must necessarily lead to war with Mexico ; and the event vindicated their foresight. But, on the other hand, the Texas advocates had urged, with great force of law, logic and sentiment, that Texas had been really independent for years ; that her existence as an independ- ent State had been acknowledged by the United States and by all the leading European powers for eight years ; that Mexico had no right to continue to claim a sovereignty which had been extinguished for so long a period, and therefore had no right, ac- cording to the principles of international law, to make the an- nexation of Texas a casus belli against the United States. There was no sound answer to this reasoning. But Mexico was not governed by wise counsels. Her prepara- tions for hostilities soon became apparent. The State authorities of Texas reported these movements to the general government, and asked for protection. President Polk did not hesitate as to his duty. He had organized his cabinet by appointing James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of State ; Robert J. Walker, of Mis- sissippi, of the Treasury ; William L. Marcy, of New York, of War ; George Bancroft, of Massachusetts, of the Navy ; Cave 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 486. The Presidency of y antes K. Polk. yoi Johnson, of Tennessee, Postmaster-General, and John Y. Mason, of Virginia, Attorney-General. Col. Zachary Taylor, who had come out of the war against the Seminole Indians with a higher reputation than any other officer of his grade, was made brigadier-general, and was ordered to take command of all the United States troops that could be speedily obtained for Texas, amounting in the aggregate to about five thousand men/ A question of boundary existed. Mexico claimed that the river Nueces was the western boundary of the province of Texas ; but Texas, as a State, claimed that the river known as the Rio Grande was her true western boundary ; and this claim was corroborated by all the ancient and modern maps and by the natural land and water marks. ^ The only plausible basis for the Nueces boundary was that the territory between the rivers was settled chiefly by Mexicans ; but immigrants who sympathized strongly with the cause of Texas' independence were also there, and the State did not choose to abandon them to the perturbed and unwise rule of Mexico. It was clearly the duty of the United States, after receiving Texas into the Federal Union, to maintain her territorial bounds as she claimed them until they were definitely settled ; but, as the western boundary was disputed, an offer was made by Presi- dent Polk's State Department to settle the line by negotiation. This offer was scornfully rejected by the Mexican authorities.' Mr. John Slidell, who had been sent to Mexico as commissioner, was refused reception by both Plerrera and Paredes.* Nothing remained but to use force against force. General Taylor established a depot of provisions and military supplies near Corpus Christi, at the mouth of the Nueces, on the Gulf of Mexico, about twenty-one miles from Matamoras, which was a Mexican town at the mouth of the Rio Grande. On the 13th of January, 1846, orders were given to him to ad- vance to the Rio Grande. On the 28th of March he reached its eastern bank and erected a fortress, afterwards called Fort Brown, within cannon-shot of Matamoras. In April, General Ampudia, with a large Mexican force, arrived at Matamoras, and sent notice to General Taylor that, unless he withdrew his troops without delay to the eastern side of the Nueces, war would commence ; and on the 26th of April, Cap- J Quackenbos, 424, 425. Stephens, 487. s Compare Amer. Encyclop., XV. 3'J6. Derry, 224, 225. Prof. Johnston, 183. Thalheimer, 253, and map, 257. Swinton, 192, and map. 3 Quackenbos, 424. Holmes' U. S., 209. < Blackburn & McDonald, 363, 364. 702 A History of the United States of America. tain Thornton and sixty-three dragoons of the American army, while foraging in the disputed region, were surrounded by a large force of the Mexicans, and, after losing sixteen men, killed and wounded, were forced to surrender. Captain Thornton escaped and reported the facts.' Thus Mexico, beyond question, made the first attack and shed the first blood in the war. As the enemy, in numbers not known, were now east of the Rio Grande, General Taylor feared for his depot of supplies at Point Isabel, near to Corpus Christi. He therefore left a garrison of about four hundred men in the fort under INIajor Brown, and with the main body of his army marched to Point Isabel. Here he found all safe. Having strengthened the works and defending force, he set out immediately to return to the relief of Fort Brown, knowing it would be hard pressed. His army was two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight strong, and he con- voyed a large provision train. On the Sth of ]\Iay, he encountered the Mexican army, six thou- sand in number, near the prairie of Palo Alto. Such disparity might have given pause to a less resolute commander ; but Gene- ral Taylor ordered an immediate advance and attack. He posted his artillery advantageously and played upon the columns of the enemy with destructive efiect. After a 'combat of five hours the Mexicans \vere driven from the field with a loss of nearly four hundred in killed and wounded. The Americans lost nine killed and forty-four wounded ; but among their dead was the brave Major Ringgold, of the artillerv. While directing his batteries he was stricken down by a shell. His comrades hastened to his side. He said : " Leave me alone ; you are wanted in front." ^ He lived long enough to hear the shouts of victory as the enemy fled from the field. In the afternoon of the next day General Taylor again advanced with his army. At three o'clock he came upon the Mexicans oc- cupying a strong position at Resaca de la Palma, about three miles from Fort Brown. The battle was commenced by the artil- lery on both sides. The Mexican guns were better posted and better served than on the previous day, and their fire was more efficient. A charge of cavalry to attempt their capture was de- termined on. Colonel May, at the head of his dragoons, dashed upon the guns at full speed, though they were firing grape and canister all the time. Half of the assailants fell, but the rest reached the gunners and cut them down or drove them to the rear, 1 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 407. Stephens, 487. Derry, 226. - Quackenbos, 426, 427. Stephens, 488. The Presidency of yamcs K. Polk. 703 capturing General La Vega, who commanded all the Mexican ar- tillery. At the same time the American infantry charged. The Mexicans gave way and took to flight in utter rout. By nightfall not a Mexican soldier remained east of the Rio Grande. The vic- tory was complete. The Americans lost one hundred and twenty- two killed and wounded. Two hundred of the enemy were found dead on the field, and their total loss was not far from one thousand.^ During General Taylor's absence with his army, Fort Brown had been almost constantly boinbarded by iVrista (who had suc- ceeded Ainpudia) from his heavy guns at Matamoras ; but every attempt at advance had been met by the fire of the fort. Major Brown, exposing himself in order to observe the movements of the enemy, had received a mortal wound. The day after the bat- tle of Resaca, Taylor, with his army, re-entered the lines of the fort and relieved the faithful, but wearied, garrison.^ When news of these successes reached the people of the United States, a feeling of relief and intense excitement pervaded them. Many had opposed the war ; and ^vherl it was known that, by or- der of the government. General Taylor had marched into the dis- puted strip of territory with forces small in numbers compared with the Mexican armies which confronted and almost sur- rounded him, fears and predictions of disaster were abundant. But now came tidings of the blood shed in the attack on Thorn- ton and his men, the successful march of Taylor to relieve Point Isabel, his return and his decisive victories with his heroic army against greatly superior numbers at Palo Alto and Resaca, the resolute defence and complete relief of Fort Brown. Instantly all opposition to the war was hushed ; all united in the sentiment that Taylor must be reinforced and the war prosecuted with vigor.* On the nth of May, 1S46, President Polk sent in a message to Congress briefly narrating the facts, and declaring that "IMexico had invaded our territory and shed the blood of our citizens on our own soil." No disposition any longer existed to criticise the accuracy of such a statement. The Congress promptly passed an act reciting that " war existed by the act of Mexico," and authorizing the President to accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers for the war, and appropriating ten million dollars for its prosecution. Large popular meetings were held in many of the States, and in a short time two hundred thousand men offered themselves as volunteers.* 1 Quackenbos, 427. Stephens, 48S. Derrv, 22G, 227. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 320. Quaekeobos' U. S., 427. 3C. iB. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 620-622. < Compare Stephens, 488 ; Thalhelmer, 253 ; Quackenbos, 42.S ; Goodrich, 408. yo4 A History of the United States of America. A government council of war was held, in which Gen. Win- field Scott took prominent part. A plan of military operations against Mexico was devised, as comprehensive and far-reaching in its grasp as it was afterwards brilliant in its execution. A strong fleet was to be concentrated in the Pacific Ocean to attack all assailable points on the Mexican coast there. A mili- tary force, called " the Army of the West," was to make its way across the Rocky Mountains, conquer California, and subdue New Mexico and all her contiguous territories. General Taylor's forces were to constitute " the Army of Occupation," and were to march forward from the Texas frontier near Matamoras, occupy- ing and holding the country as they advanced. Another invading force, to be called " the Army of the Centre," was to be collected in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, on the Gulf of iSIexico, and, after capturing that strong point, was to march into the very heart of Mexico, if possible to the capital city itself, and to co- operate with General Taylor in holding the countiy until a peace was conquered.^ The well-trained lawyers in the cabinet aided the military men, and instructions were given to the commanding generals under which, in case of success, a peace concluded on the basis of uti possedetis, so common for centuries (that is, that each belligerent should be entitled to what he held at the end of the war), would leave large regions of Mexico in the dominion of the United States. General Wool, who had gained tlie fame of a hero at Queens- town, was ordered to the coast of Mexico to muster the volun- teers into service as fast as they came forward ; but General Scott was to be in supreme command.'' Having received reinforcements which brought his numbers up to about six thousand five hundred men of all arms. General Tay- lor, in the latter part of August, 1S46, marched from Matamoras, capturing several small towns which made no resistance. On the 19th September he appeared before Monterey, the capital of New Leon, a strongly-fortified place, defended by forty-two pieces of artillery and garrisoned by ten thousand Mexican troops. Taylor was approaching by the northeastern route, and Monte- rey, being seated amid mountains, was accessible by only one other route, through a rocky gorge from the west, which con- nected it with Saltillo. To cut oft' the food supplies of the city, and assault it on both sides at once. General Taylor detached » Quackenbos, 428. Scudder, 341, 342. Stephens, 488. Thalheimer, 253. 2 Quackenbos, 428. The Presidency of ya/nes K. Polk. ^05 Brigadier-General Worth, with six hui:idred and fifty men, to gain the Saltillo road in the rear. By cutting in part a new road, and with severe fatigue and hard fighting, this object was accom- plished. Worth gained the rear of Monterey, and with his small, but resolute, force assaulted the " Bishop's Palace," a stone build- ing unfinished, but strongly fortified. The Americans clambered up the heights, and, though suffering heavy loss, drove oft' the de- fenders and seized this commanding position. This virtually w^on the city. Meanwhile Taylor and his subordinates, Twiggs, Qiiitman and Butler, were making a determined attack on the other side. Their troops fought their way from wall to wall, carrying barri- cade after barricade, until they eftected a lodgment in the city. The decisive assault was on the 23d of .September. A persistent fire was poured on the assailants from houses and barricades which commanded the streets ; but they moved always forward until they gained the plaza and hoisted their flag. Then, enter- ing the houses, they broke their ^vay ^vith crowbars until they gained the roofs, and speedily dislodged or shot down the de- fenders. The contest was hand to hand and blood}^ ; but the Americans were victorious.^ On the morning of the 34th the city capitulated. The Mexi- can garrison were allowed to march out with the honors of war and retire. General Taylor, being short of provisions, and having good reason to hope that the Mexican government would propose peace, agreed to an armistice, to continue eight weeks, or until instructions to renew hostilities should be received from the re- spective governments of the commanders.^ These terms wei"e assuredly reasonable and honorable, having been obtained by a commander who had, bv skillful movements and sanguinary battle, dislodged a force nearly twice as numerous as his own from a powerfully fortified city. But President Polk and his cabinet refused to ratify the armistice, and on the 13th of October, 1846, instructed General Taylor to renew offensive operations. A part of the Congress took the same view. The people began to suspect that jealousy of Taylor's singular suc- cesses had some influence in government counsels. Tavlor v\'as a Whig. It had become manifest that the Alexicans as soldiers were far below even the Indians of North America. They had not the woodcraft, the wiles or the patient endurance of suftering which ' Stephens, 488. Thalheimer, 25:1. Quackenbos, 428, 429. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 488, 489. 45 706 A History of the United States of America. distinguished those savages ; and they had very little of the en- thusiasm of patriotism. The constant and rapidly succeeding changes and revolutions which had sw^ept over their country, at- tended by selfishness and atrocity in their leaders, had dissipated real patriotism, and left them with no high purposes ; and they were a mixed race, with few of the native virtues either of Span- iards or Aztecs, They were not able to withstand the fierce and concentrated onset of American volunteer soldiers. General Scott was preparing for his decisive campaign against Mexico — to begin with an attack on Vera Cruz and the adjacent castle of San Juan D'Ulloa. Commodores Conner and Perry, with their divisions of the " Home Squadron," had already cap- tured Fronteira, Tabasco and the convenient port of Tampico, on the Gulf of Mexico. There was, therefore, no difficulty in pro- viding a point of rendezvous for gathering of provisions, military stores and ammunition to be used against Vera Cruz. But General Scott was not willing to undertake his attack and subsequent march with less than thirteen thousand men. To ob- tain this number as early as possible, he issued orders to General Taylor, near Monterey, to send to him, in the neighborhood of Tampico and Vera Cruz, the larger part of his men.^ Taylor did not hesitate to comply with this order, although he knew it left him with an inadequate force in a hostile coun- try, and compelled him for a time to act on the defensive only. The people of the United States looked on his prompt obedi- ence and heroic bearing, under such circumstances of trial, with deep sympathy, which manifested itself afterwards in generous support. He had occupied Saltillo, but thought it best to fall back with his depleted army to Monterey. Fortunately, General Wool had drilled his men into an effective force at San Antonio, and on the 20th of September marched towards Monterey. He kept his troops under strict discipline and treated the country people with so much justice and humanity that they willingly supplied him with fresh provisions at fair prices. They found themselves safer under his rule than under that of Mexico.^ Finding that General Taylor had captured and was occupying Monterey, Wool, though entitled to a separate command, gladly adopted his suggestion and united his forces Avith Taylor's. The annistice being ended, and some other reinforcements having reached Monterey, General Taylor again found himself at the 1 C. B. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 630. Quackenbos, 430. Scudder, 342, ?. IJ. 2Quackenbos, 430. Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 549. The Presidency of yames K. Polk. yoy head of about six thousand men. His daring spirit urged him to an advance, though he was obliged, in prudence, to leave suffi- cient garrisons at Monterey and Saltillo. With four thousand seven hundred men of all arms he marched on the roads leading towards San Luis Potosi. He soon learned that an army, numbering probably twenty-three thousand men, under the famed Mexican General Santa Anna, was advancing to attack, with the assured hope on their part of overwhelming and destroying or capturing his small forces. Santa Anna had been banished from Mexico and was living in exile at Havana, in Cuba ; but as the war went on, his country- men, believing him to be a great general, desired his return. It is a curious fact of history that President Polk and his cabinet also desired his return to IVIexico, under a vague hope that his so- journ in the United .States and his knowledge of their strength, and of the divided and enfeebled condition of his own country, would induce him to use his influence for giving up Texas and for a treaty of peace.* Accordinglv, secret orders were issued, under which the American cruisers of Commodore Conner's squad- ron permitted the ship to pass unmolested which bore Santa Anna from Havana to a Mexican port. Paredes had been already overthrown, and Salas was provis- ional president. Under him Santa Anna was appointed general- issimo of all the ISIcxican armies, and in December he was elected president." What facts had produced the hopes above stated in the minds of the American rulers have never been made known. What is certain is, that vSanta Anna prosecuted the war with all the skill and energy he could command, and that nothing save the great superiority of the American troops in courage, enthusiasm and discipline saved them from destruction by the immense numbers arrayed against them under Santa Anna's leadership. He had learned of General Scott's orders, under which the greater part of Taylor's army was withdrawn from him. This fact was instantly seized upon by him as furnishing the opportu- nity for crushing Taylor by a swift and heavy blow. At the head of his army of not less than twenty thousand men, he marched to attack General Taylor's small force. Hearing of his approach, Taylor called in all his outlying regi- ments and companies, and took a strong position at the mountain pass of Buena Vista, about nine miles from Saltillo. » Quackenbos, 429, 430. Art. Santa Anna, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 340. 2Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 341. ^oS A Historv of the United States of America. Santa Anna was confident of success. On the 33d of Febru- ary, 1847, after some exchanges of cannon shots, he sent forward a flag of truce. Colonel Crittenden, of Taylor's »tafi', went for- ward to meet it under a similar flag. Santa Anna's demand was simply for unconditional surrender, with a promise that his prisoners should be treated with all kindness. Crittenden's reply was equally simple : " General Taylor never surrenders."^ No- thing remained l)ut preparations for battle. At sunrise on the morning of the 33d, the Mexicans sought to outflank the Americans by advancing a large bodv of light troops along the mountain pass ; but the rifleinen of Illinois played havoc in their ranks and drove them back. The cannon fire on each side was without intermission. At about eight o'clock a charge by a huge, though irregular, column of the enemy was made on the American centre ; but the destructive fire of Washington's ar- tillery and the stern resistance of General Wool's infantry broke them and drove them to the rear. The next and best sustained attempt of the enemy was on the left flank of the Americans ; and here for a time the fate of Taylor's army trembled in the balance. Two regiments, one from Arkansas and one from In- diana, after sustaining the shock of rushing thousands for a time, wavered and were broken. General Taylor instantly ordered to the critical point a regiment from Kentucky and one from Mis- sissippi, under Col. Jeflerson Davis. These pressed into the strife, and, with incessant fire of their rifles and steady facing of the foe, broke their advance and turned it into flight ; but the Mexicans captured and bore ofl' with them two brass six-pounders. Meanwhile the American artillery, under Sherman and Bragg, were performing prodigies of destruction and blood by their rapid fire of solid shot, grape and canister upon the ci'owded and more and more confused masses of the enemy. Taylor sa^v the work they were doing and its eftect. He had been riding on his war- horse "Old Whitey" all day from point to point, greatly ex- posed, yet had escaped with only a bullet through his coat. He had felt that the day was one of supreme hazard. In his own words : " For several hours the fate of the day was extremely doubtful, so much so that I was urged by some of the most expe- rienced officers to fall back and take a new position."^ But he declined to give such order, and stubbornly clung to his ground. Riding up to his artillery, he said : " Give them a little more grape. Captain Bragg ! " ^ The order was obeyed with 1 Barnes' U. S., 187, note. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 6.'?4. - General Taylor's words in Centennial U.S., 634. 3 Barnes' U. S., 187 and note. Quackenbos, 432. Holmes, contra, but unsustained, 211, note. The Presidency of jfanies K. Polk. 709 alacrity. The fire became too hot and destructive to be borne. Along the whole front the Mexicans fell back out of range, and the battle was ended. Each army held nearly the same position as in the morning ; but the Mexicans, numbering four times the force of the Americans, had been the assailants, and had been bloodily repulsed at every point. The little army of heroes, commanded by a general who knew no fear, slept on their arms, chilled by the wintry air, yet ready for instant renewal of the combat. But the Mexicans had no thought of again encountering foes so determined and terrible. With the remnant of his army, dispirited and sorely broken, Santa Anna withdrew towards the coast. In this stern battle the loss on both sides Avas fearful. The Americans lost two hundred and sixty-seven killed, four hundred and fitU'-six wounded and twenty-three missing. In officers the loss was very severe. Twenty-eight were killed, among whom were Capt. George Lincoln, assistant adjutant-general ; Colonels Hardin, McKee and Yell, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clay, the son of the great Kentucky statesman. The Mexicans left five hun- dred of their dead on the field. Their total loss reached two thousand in killed, wounded, prisoners and missing.^ This battle fixed the image of General Zachary Taylor in the hearts of the people of his country. His army took no further active part in the sanguinary contests of this war ; but he was already chosen for the highest station that could be bestowed.^ INIeanwhile important events were in progress which added vast regions of conquered territory to the United States. Colonel John C. Fremont had been sent out by the United States government in 1S43, with a small part}-, to explore the Rocky Mountain region. On the 15th day of August he reached the highest ridge, from which he beheld a snow-crowned peak towering still a thousand feet above him. Up this he succeeded in climbing with his men, and with an iron ramrod they set up the United States flag on the very highest pinnacle and cast its folds to the breeze.' In 184!^, he was sent out again, and explored the great basin of the Salt Lake and large parts of California and Oregon. Many Americans had settled in all this region. The United States gov- ernment feared that England would endeavor to acquire Califor- nia. Passing the winter there, and hearing in the spring of 1S46 of the war with Mexico, Fremont had little difficulty in persuad- 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 633. Quackenbos, 432. 2Eggleston's Household U. S., 287. 3 Quackenbos, 440, 441, and pictorial sketch. yio A History of the United States of America. ing the people to declare the State independent, which they did July 5th, 1846. Some bodies of Mexicans made opposition, but Fremont, with American volunteers, pursued and dispersed them. While on one of these expeditions he learned that Commodore Sloat, with his fleet, had captured Monterey, on the Pacific coast. The people, under Fremont's lead, promptly decided to abandon the position of independence and to submit to the government of the United States, which Commodore Stockton (who had succeeded Sloat), with his naval force, and Fremont, with volunteer land forces, v\^ere amply able to maintain.' In June, 1846, Colonel Kearney, vi^ith one thousand men (part of the "Army of the West"), marched from Fort Leavenworth, and, after passing over nine hundred miles of distance, subduing the country as he went, reached vSanta Fe, the capital of New Mexico, and promptly captured it, driving oft' the feeble Mexican forces. He was met by Kit Carson, a noted hunter and guide in the Rocky Mountains, who informed him of the success of Stock- ton and Fremont in California. Sending back part of his men to Santa Fe, Kearney pushed on with the remnant, fighting his vs^ay towards the Pacific. He took part in the battle of San Pascual, in which he was twice wounded, and in that of San Gabriel, fought on the 8th of January, 1847, between land and marine forces, under Kearney, Fremont and Stockton, and a large body of Mexicans, who were completely routed. Thus, with forces strangely small, all this vast region was wrested from Mexican rule. Nor was the result seriously impaired in eft'cct by the controversies and jealousies which arose between the American leaders.^ Colonel Donij^han, imder orders from Kearney, set out from Santa Fe with one thousand Missourians, and made a marvelous march, placating and making peace with the Navajo Indians, tra- versing extensive deserts, where his men were nearly exhausted for want of food and water, defeating an army of Mexicans four times as numerous as his own, capturing the city of Chihuahua, and taking formal possession of the province of w^hich it is the capital, and finally efiecting a junction with the forces of Gene- ral Wool at Saltillo. The enlistment of his men being about to expire, Doniphan led them back to New Orleans. They had marched two thousand miles, and had overcome foes and obsta- cles, and achieved adventures which give to their whole career 1 Art. Fremont, American Encyclop., VII. 745. Scudder, 341. - Quackenbos, 442. Amer. Encyclop., X. 124. The Presidency of James K. Polk. 7 1 1 the appearance of a romance rather than what it surely is, viz., the truth stranger than fiction.^ Thus we reach the last act in the splendid drama of the war with Mexico — an act embracing several scenes, each one of which rises above those preceding it in all the magnificent pageantry, heroism and terror of war. The first scene was the approach to and attack on Vera Cruz and her fortress by the army under General Scott. Thirteen thousand strong, and well equipped and furnished in all arms, they landed on the coast near the threatened city on the 3d day of March, 1S47. The arrangements and discipline were so perfect that the landing was effected without the loss of a single life.^ Ceaseless activity prevailed. On the 13th the complete in- vestment of the city was effected. On the 23d the preparations for bombardment were nearly perfected General Scott now sent a courteous summons to the Spanish Governor of Vera Cruz, urg- ing him to surrender in order to secure the beautiful city from desolation, and to save the inhabitants, and especially the women and children, from useless effusion of blood and the horrors of an assault. The governor replied that the city and castle were de- fended at all points, and would not be surrendered.^ Immediately after receiving this reply the American fire was opened fi-om ten mortars in battery, and from two steamers and five schooners of their fleet. The batteries of the city and castle also opened, but did very little damage to the assailants. The fire continued without intermission to the 34th, by daybreak of which day the American naval officers and men had succeeded, after incredible labor and difficulty, in transporting three thirty- two pounders and three eight-inch Paixhan guns three miles, over sand and stones, and establishing them in battery on a command- ing height only seven hundred yards from the city. The effect of the fire from this battery was frightfully destructive ; yet for two further days, the 24th and 25th, the defenders held out. On the morning of the 26th the governor made a signal for a truce. The fire on each side ceased, and terms of capitulation were agreed on. The city and castle were both surrendered, with their garrisons and all the material of war, including four hun- dred pieces of artillery. The Mexican soldiers, numbering about four thousand, were paroled and dismissed to their homes. The castle of San Juan D'Ulloa had been built by the Spaniards 1 Quackenbos, 442. Derry's U. S.. 22S. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 188, note. ^Taylor's Centen. U. S., 636. Art. Scott, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 446, 447. 3 Quackenbos, 434. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 636. 7 13 A History of the United States oj^ America. during their rule at a cost of four million dollars, and was sup- posed to be, next to Quebec, the strongest citadel in America ; but, after capture of the city, it could not have held out long, being surrounded by deep water. Moreover, it had suffered hea- vily by the fire.^ In this siege and bombardment the loss of the Americans was only two officers and ten privates. Their fire had been among the most destructive of modern war, having expended from the hind batteries six thousand seven hundred shot and shells, weigh- ing more than four hundred thousand pounds, and from the naval batteries three thousand ten-inch shells, each weighing ninety pounds, and one thousand Paixhan shot, each weighing sixty- eight pounds.^ War is horrible. A writer who entered the city says : " No power of language can portray the sufferings, agony, despair and helpless miseiy which the inhabitants of Vera Cruz had endured for five days and nights previous to the cessation of hostilities. The number of killed and wounded will, perhaps, never be known to us, but it must have been very great ; though, in all such cases, the soldiers suffered less than the women and chil- dren." ^ But, with all its horrors, war goes on. General Scott imme- diately organized his army for the march on the City of Mexico, the capital of the country. Santa Anna hastened to oppose his march with all the troops he could raise ; and they always out- numbered the Americans in the proportion of about four to one. The first encounter was at the i^ocky pass of Cerro Gordo, on the road to Jalapa, about fifteen miles from Vera Cruz. This pass was strongly fortified, and was held by Santa Anna with a very large force. To attack in front would have exposed his troops to butchery, and General Scott had no thought of so doing. General Twiggs led the advance, and the American army was eight thousand five hundred strong. Scott, as a general, mani- fested great mental i^esources, and he was aided in all this won- derful march by such engineers as Lee, McClellan, Lyon, Beau- regard, and others equally distinguished. A new road was cut over steep ascents, and with hasty bridges over rocky chasms. By these the exposed flank of the enemy was reached, and a concentrated attack was made on the iSth of April, 1847, with the greatest precision and vigor. The Mexi- cans were routed at every point and driven from the pass, with a ' Blackburn & McDonald's U. S.,'373, 374. Quackenbos, 433. - Taylor's Centen. U. S., 637. » Narrative in Taylor's Centen. U. S., 637. The Presidency of fames K. Polk. ^13 loss of one thousand in killed and wounded, three thousand pris- onei's (including five generals), five thousiind stand of arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery. Colonel Harney greatly distin- guished himself in these assaults. Santa Anna attempted first to escape in his carriage, but, finding himself hard pressed, took to his swift mule and fled, leaving behind his private papers and his cork leg. This trophy, clothed in a boot of fine workmanship, was sent back to the United States. The American loss, in killed and wounded, was four hundred and thirty-one.' The next day the victorious army entei'ed Jalapa ; but no delay was permitted. They pressed on and took, without resistance, the strong castle of Perote, on a lofty ridge of the Cordilleras. On the 15th of jSIay, they took possession of the ancient city of Puebla, then held by eighty thousand inhabitants. The peo- ple gazed on them with wonder. Their chief astonishment was that the American officers and soldiers wore uniforms of simple blue and had none of the resplendent colors and decorations vv^hich they had been accustomed to see on their own military They thence concluded that the secret of the constant triumphs of these Americans was in their " grey-headed leaders ; " ^ but, in fact, every man in that army was a hero. At Puebla General Scott was compelled to arrest his march and to await reinforcements, which ought to have reached him sooner, and would have, had his own urgent recommendations to the War Department been complied with.^ His position was a difficult one, in the heart of a hostile coun- try with a small army depleted by sickness and losses in battle.* But he kept open his communications, and by prudent regula- tions not only subsisted his army, but checked private assassina- tions and other crimes, and gave the people Avholesome examples of law and order.^ The health of his troops improved, and he received reinforce- ments, so that his eff'ective army, early in August, iS4y, amounted to ten thousand seven hundred and forty-eight men. With these he prepared again to advance ; but the delay had enabled Santa Anna to collect another large army and to fortify on all sides the approaches to the City of Mexico. Three and a quarter centuries had passed since Cortez liad cap- tured this city from the feeble and imwarlike Aztecs. Many changes had occurred. The city had exj^anded and become beau- tiful and magnificent ; but there were some conditions which had 1 Quackenbos, 434, 435. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 410. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 640. sQuackenbos' U. S., 435. • ^ Art. Scott, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 447. lEggleston's nousehold U. S., 290. ^ Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 447, 714 -A History of the Ufiited States of America. not materially changed. The city was yet lying near the centre of the primitive basin of vast extent formed by the encircling ridges of the mountains. It had once been surrounded by water and reached only by causeways running from the roads through the mountain walls ; and though much draining had been done, the city was still dotted round by lakes and marshes, and ap- proachable only by broad causeways/ On the loth day of August, 1847, ^^ advance of the American army obtained their first view of the city. The road from Puebla entered on the east, passing between the two lakes, Tezcuco on the north and Chalco on the west ; but this route led by the pow- erfully fortified inound called El Penon. It was reconnoitered, and the American engineers concluded that to capture it would cost the army a bloody and disabling loss.^ Therefore, they sought another line of entrance. Every approach was defended by formidable works manned by thirty thousand Mexican sol- diers. To penetrate into the city with an attacking army of ten thousand men was an enterprise from which the most resolute general might well have shrunk. General Worth with his division was at the east end of Lake Chalco. Under instructions from the commander-in-chief, Worth and his engineers found that a difficult, but practicable, route round the lake existed.^ With consummate skill the detour was made, and the American army reached San Augustin, directly south of the city, before Santa Anna knew of the change in the line of approach. General Twiggs had continued to menace El Peiion up to the i6th, when he silently withdrew. But on the chosen route formidable obstacles yet remained. The village of San Antonio was fortified and held by a large force, and the works at Contreras were strong. A combined move of the brigades of Shields, Persifer F. Smith and Cadwallader carried Contreras in the most brilliant style. The attacking force was without artillery or cavalry, and numbered only four thou- sand five hundred rank and file. The Mexicans had seven thou- sand men on the spot and at least one thousand two hundred more hovering within sight. The attack was made on the soth of August, with so niuch vigor and impetuosity that the Mexi- cans broke and fled, losing seven hundred killed, eight hundred and thirteen prisoners, including two generals and eighty-eight lower officers, also twenty-two brass cannon, seven hundred pack mules and horses and many thousands of small arms and accou- ' Art. Scott, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 447. 2 Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 447. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 410 and note. * Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 447. The Presidency of yames K. Polk. 715 trements. Among the cannon captured were two brass six- pounders which had been borne off in the furious rush of the Mexicans at Buena Vista, and were now regained by the Ameri- cans.' This signal victory was immediately followed by the forcing and capture of San Antonio by General Worth ; an advantage of very important nature being thus gained, as a shorter and better road was opened to the capital.^ But other hot battling remained for this memorable 20th of August. Santa Anna, with twelve thousand men, held the forti- fied heights of Churubusco and several strong positions beyond them and nearer to the city. Worth and Twiggs stormed the heights and captured or drove off the defenders, and when Santa Anna hastened to the rescue with his outlying forces he was en- countered by Shields and Pierce with their brigades, and after a fierce and obstinate conflict for several hours the Mexican lines were broken and they v^^ere driven from the field. Five distinct battles had been fought in one day ; for the final movement of General Persifer F. Smith against Contreras was separate from the general attack. Thirty-two thousand Mexicans had been driven from strong intrenched positions by about nine thousand American soldiers, and defeated with a loss of seven thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners, besides guns and stores. The American loss was one hundred and thirty-nine killed and eight hundred and seventy-six wounded.* Nicholas P. Trist had been appointed by President Polk com- missioner to arrange terms of peace with Mexico. He had joined General Scott at Puebla, and from that place had made peaceful overtures, but in vain. He continued with the American army, and now, when it seemed easy to capture the city, Scott proposed an armistice, hoping that terms might be agreed on and further humiliation spared to Mexico.* Santa Anna consented to the armistice on the terms that sup- jDlies from city or country for the American army should not be obstructed by the Mexican authorities, and that no measure should be adopted to enlarge or strengthen any existing work or fortifi- cation or make new defensive works within thirty miles of the city.^ The peace commissioners on both sides had several meetings, and were not far from agreement on the 22d September. The chief iGen. Scott's report, quoted in Centen. U. S., 648, 649. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 649. Quackenbos, 436, 437. 8 Amer. Encvclop., XIV. 447. 448. Taylor's Centen., 652, 653. Quackenbos, 436. 437. Good- rich, 410, 411. < Quackenbos, 437. Blackburn & McDonald, 376, 377. ^ Taylor's Centen., 653. 'jiG A History of the United States of America. points of disagreement were on boundaries, and Mr. Trist pre- sented his ultimatum on that subject on that day, and the nego- tiators adjourned to meet again on the 6th of September. But in the meantime several important violations of the terms of the armistice had been committed by the Mexicans, and w^hen Gen- eral Scott brought them to the attention of Santa Anna, the only reply was a denial couched in offensive and insolent terms. The armistice ended on the 7th of September, and Scott prepared to capture the city. Molinos del Rey was a village strongly fortified, not much more than a mile from Tacubaya, the headquarters of the Ameri- can commander-in-chief. It contained a foundry for cannon, and large deposits of gunpowder ; and information had been obtained that a number of church bells had been sent thither to be cast into cannon.' At three o'clock on the morning of the 8th September, Gen- eral Worth opened the attack with about thirty-two hundred troops of all arms. It was entirely successful, though it cost the Americans eleven out of the fourteen commissioned officers of the command, and seven hundred and twenty-nine men, killed and wounded. Santa Anna commanded in person, and had fourteen thousand men, of whom he lost three thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners. Two thousand deserted after the rout. The cap- ture of the foundry, guns and ammunition at Molinos left nothing defensive between the Americans and the city except the power- ful fortress of Chapultepec, on a natural isolated mound of great height, and intrenched at its base and on its acclivities and approaches.^ No obstacle seemed sufHcient to arrest the assailants ; but Gen- eral Scott took care to make the risk of failure as small as possible. Feigned movements on an alarming scale were made on the southern side of the city, and continued during the 12th and down to the afternoon of the 13th of September. The Mexican troops were hurried to the threatened approaches. Meanwhile a heavy cannonade against Chapultepec was carried on by Captain Huger. This fire made obvious impression on the works. At eight o'clock on the morning of the 13th September, at a given signal, the Americans, under Pillow, Andrews, John- stone, Caldwell, Ransom, Barnard and Howard, advanced to the assault over lava beds, rocks, chasms and hidden mines. They captured first the redoubt and then the fortress itself, which was on the site of the ancient " Hall of the Montezumas." Captain 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 654. ^Centen. U. S., 656. Goodrich, 411. The Presidency of yatncs K. Polk. ^ly Barnard planted the unfurled flag of his rej^iment on the works. Lieutenant Selden, of the eighth infantry, one of the first to mount the scaling ladder, fell down severely wounded. The assault was so vehement and rapid that the Alexicans were routed and driven from the works before they had time to fire the trains which would have exploded the hidden mines and wrought destruction to the conquerors.^ The fugitive Mexicans poured in confused bodies along the causeways leading into the city. Worth pressed them upon the route leading by the San Cosme aqueduct. Qriitman advanced by the Belden route, gallantly supported by Smith and Shields. The latter, though wounded at Chapultepec, would not leave the field. General Qiiitman carried by assault a battery of ten guns, and then began to thunder with his artillery upon the gate itself. The dispirited troops of Santa Anna fled before him. He en- tered the gate, and, establishing himself in a sheltered position, waited for the morning. General Worth was equally successful in fighting his way to the San Cosme, or custom-house gate. Just outside of it, by General Scott's direction, he posted his troops under shelter, and placed guards and sentinels, ready the next morning to march upon the Great Scpiare, cathedral and palace, and occupy the heart of the city. The work was done. That night Santa Anna and his disor- ganized forces and all the prominent officers of the Federal gov- ernment fled from the city.^ At four o'clock on the 14th of September, 1847, ^ deputation from the municipal government waited on General Scott, asking terms of capitulation in favor of the church, the citizens and the civic powers. Of course, no terms could be granted. The city was already in possession of the American army. The conmiander-in-chief and his heroic officers, marshaling their troops, marched in triumph into the Grand Plaza. Some irregular attacks from the tops of houses and the corners of streets were made by two thousand convicts re- leased from jails and State prison the previous night by the flying government. By their fire Lieut. Sidney Smith, of Virginia, and some of his men were killed. But these movements were speed- ily suppressed, and good order, under martial law, was estab- lished.^ The war was ended. An eflbrt was made by Santa Anna, with a small force, to capture the sick and wounded and the guard of 1 Goodrich. 411. Blaokbnrn & McDonald, 378. Centen. U. S., 658. 659. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 660. Quackenbos, 438. 3 Taylor's Centen. r. S., 661. yiS A History of the United States of America. four hundred men left at Puebla-; but he was promptly defeated and driven off by the advance of General Lane.^ Commissioner Trist renev\^ed his overtures for peace. Some months of delay occurred, caused by crushed hopes, paralyzed efforts, and distracted public councils in Mexico. Their great man, Santa Anna, was a failure, their generals were dispersed or prisoners, their soldiers feeble and hopeless. No prospect of continuing the war with advantage was seen . At length a quorum of the Mexican Congress assembled and appointed commissioners to treat for peace. They met the Amer- ican Commissioner Trist at Guadaloupe Hidalgo, and here, on the 3d of February, 1848, a "treaty of peace, friendship and set- tlement " was signed. It was eminently liberal and favorable to the defeated belligerent, Mexico, and presented a striking con- trast to the hard terms often exacted by the despotisms and mon- archies of the Old World. Especially did it differ from the terms exacted by Germany in 187 1 after defeating France. By the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo it was agreed that all United States troops should be withdrawn from Mexican terri- tory within three months ; that all prisoners should be released, and all paroles considered as discharged ; that the boundary line between the two republics should commence at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and run thence up the middle of that river, follow- ing the deepest channel, to the point where it strikes the south- ern boundary of New Mexico ; thence westwardly along the whole of that southern boundary to its western termination ; thence northward to the river Gila, and thence to the Pacific Ocean, following the river Gila and the southern boundary of Upper California. And in consideration of the extension of ter- ritory and boundaries thus acquired by the United States, they agreed to pay to Mexico fifteen millions of dollars, and to assume and pay her debts to citizens of the United States, amounting to three and one-quarter millions more.^ By Article XL the United States agreed to restrain Indian marauders on the Mexican frontier. This was more like an amicable purchase of territory than a forced surrender exacted from a vanquished enemy. The Americans in this war had expended twenty-five thousand lives, and more than one hundred and sixty millions of money .^ They paid a fair price for the territory acquired outside of Texas. Gold in abundance had not yet been discovered in California. 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S.. 663, 665. Dem-'s U. S., 230. 2 Blackburn & McDonald's U. S., 379. Tavlor's Centen. U. S., 670. « Compare Derry, 231 ; Blackburn & McDonald, 379, 380 ; Stephens, 491. T]ic Prcsidoicy of yanies K. Polk. 719 The treaty was promptly ratified by the vSenate, and on the 4th day of July, 1848, President Polk issued a proclamation of peace. To preserve the logical and material continuity of the subject, it is best here to state that differences of claim arose under this treaty concerning a strip of territory on the Gila rivei", and con- cerning the eleventh article before mentioned ; and as it was important that the United States should own this strip, negotia- tions were conducted and concluded by Gen. James Gadsden, of South Carolina, during the presidency of Franklin Pierce, in 1853. By this new treaty Article XL was abrogated, and a com- mission provided for mutual adjustment of claims. The whole Mesilla valley was ceded to the United States, and she paid Mex- ico ten millions of dollars besides the fifteen millions of dollars originally agreed on.^ By these successive annexations the United States acquired not only Texas to the Rio Grande, but all the country now comprised in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico.^ And hardly had the treaty of peace been made, on the 2d of February, 184S, before a discovery of golden treasures in the soil and river-bottoms of California took place, which drew to her the eyes of all the civilized world, and caused a rush of immi- grants to pour into her bosom such as was never before known. About the last of February, 1848, a laborer employed by one Captain Sutter, an Americanized Swiss, who had settled on the Upper California branch of the Sacramento river, was digging out a mill-race. He found some glittering particles, which turned out to be pure gold. Hardly was this ascertained before similar discoveries were made in the streams and soil of the neighbor- hood.^ Immediately the excitement spread from man to man, until it reached the harbor of San Francisco, and thence the outer world. Immigration began from all parts of America, and even from Eu- rope and Asia. In eighteen months one hundred thousand per- sons went from the United States to these " gold diggings." At first the precious nietal, in pure fragments and lumps, was so abundant that fortunes Avere easily gathered. Gradually, how- ever, the surface gold was found in less quantity, and quartz- crushing and mining on a large scale were practiced. Still the pouring in of people continued. Thousands came by the Utah and Arizona deserts, amid hunger and sufferings, with fatigue and sickness, which strewed the way with skeletons. » Amer. Encyclop., VIII. 37, 38. 2 Horace E. Scudder, 344. 3 Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 190. Quackenbos, 443. Justin Winsor's Amer., VIII. 231. y20 A History of ike United States of America. San Francisco, \vhich had been a sleepy Spanish " mission " town, surrounded by a village of mud or adobe cabins, sprung up into a busy city within a year.^ In the early stages of the gold excitement it was not uncommon for whole crews (in some cases headed by the officers) to desert their ships and run up to the " tliggings." In the city streets were laid out, houses built, pub- lic buildings planned and commenced, and churches erected, con- secrated and dedicated to the service and worship of the Triune God. The effect of the enormous production of gold from California upon the business activities of the world has been beyond com- putation. Never was there such progress as during the forty -four years from that accidental glancing at gold particles in the mill- race of Captain Sutter. And in this period the effect has been increased by the gold discoveries in Australia and the silver yield of Nevada. The world has sprung forward as if under a new power. In time the people of California found out the important fact that her wealth did not consist merely in her gold. The early excesses of outlaws in the towns and mines were put down with a strong hand. Good order was established. The soil was found admirably adapted to wheat, grapes and fruit of the best kinds. The serene skies and equable climate made health and enjoyment the normal condition of the people.^ The dispute with England as to the northern boundary of Oi'egon Territory, on the Pacific, had threatened to involve the United States in war, especially after the inconsiderate declara- tion of the Democratic convention of 1844, that "our title to the whole of the Territory of Oregon is clear and unqviestionable," and that " no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power," ^ and the equally incautious endorsement of this claim, in his inaugural address, by President Polk. Oregon ran up to the northern parallel of ^4° 40', and the expression, "Fifty-four forty, or fight! " was used with effect on both sides during the canvass. But President Polk and his advisers ^vere too wise to have two wars on their hands at the same time ; and as it is known that Great Britain had plans of her own, more or less defined, concern- ing Texas and the region west of her, it is impossible to say what would have been the cramping and restraining effects on the ter- ritorial limits of the United States which would have resulted 1 Thalheiraer's Eclec. U. S., 257. 2 Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 257, 258. 3 Platform in Stephens, 476. The Presidency of James K. Polk. 72 T from a simultaneous war waged by her against Mexico and Great Britain. Happily, all danger of such war was eliminated in time to enable her to deal in arms with Mexico alone. England's claim to Oregon was old, and ran back so far that it sought to link itself to the voyages and discoveries of Sir Francis Drake in 1579 ; but she had not matured her title by actual and permanent settlements by her subjects. The American title was founded on the early patents of the English kings, which made no limit in their grants westward ; on the voyage of Captain Gray, in 1793, who discovered the mouth of the Columbia river and sailed up its channel many miles ; on the grant from France, in 1S03, who conveyed the Spanish title as well as her own ; on the explorations and discoveries of Lewis and Clarke, from 1803 to 1S06, and on the very important fact that American citizens had made permanent settlements in this region. As both countries claimed it, some arrangement between them had been necessary to preserve peace. During the terms of Mon- roe and John Qviincy Adams a convention had been made for joint occupancy for ten years. Another convention, made Aug- ust 6th, 1 82 7 (during the presidency of Adams), had continued the joint occupancy indefinitely, but with a provision that either nation might terminate it by giving to the other twelve months' notice. The negotiation was transferred from London to Washington, and in August, 1844, the British minister offered to divide, by the line of 49° north latitude, provided the navigation of the Colum- bia should be equally free to the people of both countries. This proposition was rejected by the American Secretary. When Mr. Polk became President, his Secretary renewed the negotiation, and offered the line of 49°, but without the right to free navigation of the Columbia. The British minister, in his turn, rejected this offer. President Polk, in a message to Congress, recommended that the executive department be authorized to give the notice to ter- minate the joint occupancy according to the convention of 1827. This proposition was known to involve momentous issues, and led to an earnest debate in the Congress. A resolution passed both Houses authorizing the course recommended by the Presi- dent ; and on the 2Sth April, 1846, official notice from the Amer- ican government ^vas given to Her Majesty Qiieen Victoria, of Great Britain, that " the convention of August 6th, 1837, would terminate at the end of twelve months " from the delivery of the notice. 46 H21 A History of the Uitited States oj^ America. Befoi'e this notice England had taken steps to renew negotia- tion ; and on the 15th June, 1846, a treaty was signed by which the forty-ninth parallel was agreed on as the dividing boundaiy, the line, however, to be continued westward to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and the navigation of that channel and of the Columbia to be free to the subjects and citizens of both nations ; with the proviso that nothing in the treaty should prevent the United States from making any regulation as to navigating the river or its branches not inconsistent with the treaty.' The Senate promptly ratified. Thus wisely was settled a controversy which intemperate claim would have ripened into a war. But another cloud was on the American horizon, engendered by the growth of her territory, and which, though sometimes appar- ently dispersed, was to gather blackness and electric power until it burst in a storm of bloodshed and war. On the 6th of August, 1846, President Polk had sent in a mes- sage to Congress asking an appropriation of three millions of dol- lars to enable him to negotiate for peace with Mexico upon the basis of obtaining territory for the United .States outside of Texas." A bill for such appropriation was introduced. Immediately David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, offered an amend- ment, as follows : '■'■Provided., that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any territory which shall hereafter be acquired or be annexed to the United States, otherwise than in the punishinent of crimes whereof the party shail have been duly convicted. Pro- vided always, that any person escaping into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed out of said territory to the person claiming his or her labor or service." This amendment, afterwards known as the "Wilmot Proviso," ignored the " Missouri Compromise " and the line of 36° 30'. We need not wonder, therefore, that it re-awakened, in the most alarming forms, all the bitter feelings, slumbering, but not dead, between the free and slave States and their respective people. John Quincy Adams, in the House, opposed it with eloquence and power, on the ground that it would embarrass and, perhaps, defeat the appropriation, and also that it was not needed, as Mex- ico had already abolished slavery in the territory contemplated.' » Taylor's Centen. U. S., 624, 626. Thalheimer's Eclec. U. S., 252, 253. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 491. 3 Stephens, 492. The Presidencv of yavics K. Polk. ^23 But the bill, with this provision in it, passed the House. The Senate cast out the proviso.' It became painfully evident that the anti-slavery men in Con- gress had abandoned all intention to respect the compromise line of 36° 30'. Mr. Calhoun and his followers sought to obtain the passage of resolutions declaring that the territories held or to be acquired belonged to the States of the Union as their joint and common property, and that the Congress had no right to discrimi- nate so as to deprive any class of their right and power to carry their property into the territories, and use and enjoy it there. ^ These resolutions gave rise to animated debate, but never came to a vote. When the boundaries of Oregon were defined by treaty, a bill for its territorial organization was introduced into the House, January 15th, 1847, and the " Wilmot Proviso" was incorporated in it. Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, moved to insert just before this restrictive clause these words : " inasmuch as the whole of said Territory lies north of 36^ 30' north latitude ;" but this amendment was rejected by the anti-slavery members.^ After the treaty of peace, efforts were made to pass territorial bills for Oregon, California, New Mexico and Utah. Stephen A. Douglas, in the Senate, made an impressive and urgent appeal that the compromise line of 36° 30' should be adhered to as to slavery ; but it was utterly repudiated by a controlling majority from the Northern vStates, both in Senate and House.* Oregon's organization, with the Wilmot restriction, succeeded ; the others failed. During Air. Polk's administration, two new States were ad- mitted to the Union — Iowa, in 1846, and Wisconsin, by act of Congress of May 29th, 1848. Notwithstanding the brilliant events of President Polk's term, the people showed no enthusiasm for him, nor any disposition to re-elect him. In truth, Zachary Taylor was already chosen by their hearts, and his election was almost a foregone con- clusion. The Whig convention nominated him for President, and Alil- lard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice-President. The Demo- cratic convention nominated Gen. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for President, and Gen. Wm. O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-Presi- dent. The opponents of the extension of slavery, under the name of the " Free-Soil party," met at Buffalo, New York,' on the 8th August, 1848, and nominated Martin Van Buren for 1 Acts and Jounials, 1846-7. Stephens, 492. - Resolutions of Calhoun in Senate, Stejihens, 494. 3 Stephens, 493, 494. ■« 1 bid., 495. 724 ^ History of the United States of America. President, and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice- President. The result of the election was that one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes were cast for Taylor and Fillmore, and one hundred and twenty-seven for Cass and Butler. No electoral votes were cast for Van Buren and Adams ; but out of a popular vote of about three million, they received nearly three hundred thousand individual votes. The " Free-Soil " party was yearly gathering strength. On the 3 1st February, 1848, the venerable John Quincy Adams was stricken with paralysis in his seat in the House. He was b®rne to the room of the Speaker, where he died on the 33d, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was a true patriot, according to his view of his country's rights and interests, and will never be forgotten. Mr. Polk, at the close of his brilliant term of office, retired to his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He died, in his fifty-fourth year, in less than four months after his presidency closed. CHAPTER LV. Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR was a plain and honest soldier, farmer and planter, but never pretended to be either a states- man or a politician. His letters to Capt. J. S. Allison — one dated Baton Rouge, April i3th, and the other IMay 33d, 1848 — were eminent in simplicity and in his humble view of his own qualifi- cations for the high office to which he was invited. He declared himself a Whig, but said : " If elected I would not be the mere President of a party. I would endeavor to act independently of ■party domination. I should feel bound to administer the govern- ment untrammeled by party schemes." He disapproved of the exercise of the veto power, except in cases of clear violation of the constitution, or manifest haste and want of consideration by Congress. He expressed no opinions on slaveiy, on the "Missouri Compromise," the "Wilmot Proviso," the rights of slave-owners to carry their slaves into any Territory and use them there, or on the questions germane to such subjects, and which were now most profoundlv agitating the minds of the people.^ He had received a majoritv of the electoral votes of both North- ern and Southern States. The 4th of March, 1849, being Sun- dav, he was inaugurated on Monday, the 5th, in the presence of an immense assemblage. The oath was administered by Chief- Justice Taney. ^ The inaugural address was conciliatory and, on the whole, satisfactorv t*o '' the friends of the Union under the constitution." President Taylor chose as his cabinet John M. Clayton, of Del- aware, of State ; William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, of the Treasury ; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, of War ; William Ballard Preston, of Virginia, of the Navy ; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, Secretary of the Interior — a new department created by act of Congress ; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, Postmaster-General, and Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, Attorney-General. Early in his term a riot occurred at and near the Astor Place Opera,- in New York city, which was only important as mani- 1 Gen. Taj'lor's letters to Allison, Stephens, 497-499. - Stephens, 499. [ 725 ] 726 A History of the United States of America. festing the virulence and strength of international prejudice, and the necessity for allaying it. W. C. Macready was the great tra- gedian of England ; Edwin Forrest of America. Forrest had played in London, and was supposed to have received a slight from Macready, injuring his reputation and success. Therefore, when the English actor came to New York the friends of Forrest determined on a bitter and systematic opposition to his playing. The result was a mob in May, 1849, and a conflict between a tumultuous assemblage of twenty thousand people on the one side and the police and military on the other. The soldiers were obliged to fire on the mob, and twenty-two persons were killed and thirty-six wounded. Macready was in imminent danger, but escaped unhurt. He made no further attempts to fill his engage- ment, and soon sailed for England.^ Agitations of a diflTerent kind, and far more deeply-seated and far-reaching in their cause, but equally tending to bloodshed, were in progress in the council chambers of the nation. The Congress of 1849— '50 was one of the longest and stormiest ever known. It continued from the 5 th of December, 1849, to the 30th of Sep- tember, 1850. The repeated and persistent repudiations of the compromise line of 36'^ 30' by the Anti-Slavery party had re- opened a question for which there was no solution, save either in the extirpation of slavery or the dissolution of the Union. The first contest in the House was over the election of Speaker. It led to the fiercest and most bitter debates and denunciations. During one of these scenes, which have become historic, Robert Toombs, of Georgia, maintained his right to the floor and his op- position to what he deemed unconstitutional opposition to his rights, through some hours of struggle against a host of foes and under a ceaseless torrent of calls, protests, motions and provoca- tions which taxed the highest powers of the stenographic re- porter. '^ In the contest for Speaker, at one time a vote of a majority had been actually thrown for William J. Brown, of Indiana ; but before the vote was announced it was ascertained that Brown had come to a discreditable understanding with certain "Free- Soil" members, under which he had pledged himself, if elected Speaker, to constitute three important committees according to their wishes. The moment this was known, Southern Demo- crats rose and withdrew their votes from Brown and he was defeated. 1 Our First Century. Art. Macready, New Anier. Encyclop., XI. 21, 22. - Henry W. Wheeler, in Congress. Globe, Thirty-first Congress, 1st session, 61. The Presidency of Zachary Taylor. 727 Finally a i-esolution was adopted that the man who received a mere plurality of votes, if it was a majority of a quorum, should be declared elected.^ A vote was taken. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, received one hundred and two votes, Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, ninety-nine votes ; twenty votes were scattering. The whole number thrown was two hundred and twenty-one ; thus Mr. Cobb received only a plurality, not a majority. He was declared elected Speaker, but against the protests of many. Such scenes indicated coming storms. It seemed hardly possi- ble to avert immediate convulsion ; but at this point the great pacificator, Henry Clay, again came to the front. John C. Calhoun, though near his end, was yet living and full of solicitude for his country. He sent his last words, which were read by Mr. Mason, of Virginia. They were solemn and full of warning against the centralizing tendencies of the gov- ernment and its encroachments on the rights of the States which upheld slavery.^ Mr. Calhoun died in the city of Washington on the 31st day of March, 18^0, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was recognized by all parties as a great power in the land. For a time his death stilled the voices of passion and partisan- ship. But they were soon heard again, and the necessity of compro- mise was imperative. California had grown rapidly in jDopula- tion, had adopted a constitution forbidding slavery within her bounds, and was applying for admission as a State ; but, as a large part of her territory lay south of 36'-' 30', the members of Con- gress from the slave States objected to her admission.' Many also objected because they could not recognize the. validity of the convention, under General Riley's order, which framed Califor- nia's action.* The excitement in the country all centred around the questions arising out of slavery, and became so great that the maintenance of peace seemed impossible. It being understood that Henry Clay would, on the 29th of January, 1850, ofter resolutions for compromise and pacification, an immense crowd of citizens and strangers on that day pressed into the galleries, lobbies and other places belonging to the Senate chamber. ISIr. Clay presented his plan, afterwards known as the " Omni- bus Bill," and sustained it in one of the noblest and most earnest 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 502, 506, 511. 2 Calhoun's speech, Cong. Globe, Tliirtv-flrst Cong-., 1st session, p. 453. 3 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., note, 418. Blackburn & McDonald, 3S2. * Stephens' Comp. U. S., 513. 728 A History of the United States of America. of all his great speeches. It is remarkable, however, that, as originally offered, it did not contain the principle which was afterwards introduced, and without which it could not have been enacted, and which constituted the true element of compromise between the slavery and anti-slavery States. This principle in- volved the abandonment of the " Missouri Compromise " line of 36° 30', and the recognition of the right of any Territory, no mat- ter Avhere located, to come into the Union (when qualified accord- ing to the United States constitution) with or without slavery, as her people might determine and provide.^ This principle was introduced by an amendment to Mr. Clay's bill, offered in the period of the greatest excitement during the debate, and offered on the 17th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker's Hill, by .Senator Pierre vSoule, of Louisiana. It applied to the Territories of Utah and New Mexico and all other obtained froin Mexico, excejDt California, and Avas in the fol- lowing words : " And when the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be admitted as a State, it shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." * The Anti- Slavery party, having already I'epudiated the compro- mise line of 1S30, ought, in justice and consistency, to have ac- quiesced in this principle ; but they opposed it. The debate was stern and long in both Houses. Robert Toombs, of Georgia, foreshadowed the coming conflict of arms in these words : ^ " I speak not for others, but for myself. Deprive us of this right, and appropriate this common property to your- selves ; it is then your government, not mine. Then I am its enemy, and I will then, if I can, bring my children and my con- stituents to the altar of liberty, and, like Hamilcar, I would swear them to eternal hostility to your foul domination. Give us 'our just rights and Ave are ready, as ever heretofore, to stand by the Union, every part of it, and its eveiy interest. Refuse it, and, for one, I iv ill strike for indcpetidcncc.^'' Other senators sustained the plan of settlement, conspicuous among whom Avere John Bell, of Tennessee, Henry S. Foote, of Mississippi, and Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois ; but -when, on the 7th of March, 18:^0, Daniel AVebster arose, the vast crowd present in the Senate chamber, lobbies and galleries was hushed to a silence so profound as to be almost painful. 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 513, 532. 2 Congress. Globe, Thirty-first Cong., 1st session, p. 1239. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 622. The Presidency of Jlillard Fillmore. 729 He spoke for the plan of compromise and peace in words weighty with thought and power. He concluded thus : " Sir, my object is peace, my object is conciliation ; my purpose is not to make up a case for the North, or to make up a case for the South. My object is not to continue useless and irritating controversies. I am against agitators, North and South ; I am against local ideas, North and South, and against all narrow and local contests. I am an American, and I know no locality in America. This is my country. My heart, my sentiments, my judgment, demand of me that I shall ever pursue such a course as shall promote the good and the harmony and the union of the whole country. This I shall do, God willing, to the end of the chapter."' Loud applause greeted this speech. Every heart experienced emotions of relief and gratitude. The cause of peace, for a time at least, had triumphed. Amidst these exciting scenes in the national Congress, Presi- dent Taylor was stricken 'with malignant fever, and, notwith- standing all the efforts of skillful physicians, he died on the 9th day of July, 1850. He had sought faithfully and honestly to do his duty as he understood it. His last words were : "I have tried to do my duty ; I am not afraid to die." Public business Avas suspended for a time, and eulogies Avere pronounced on him by leading statesmen of all parties.^ ISIillard Fillmore became President. He was a man of noble personal appearance, of well-poised mind, and of statesmanlike culture. His cabinet consisted of Daniel Webster, Secretary of State ; Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, of the Treasury ; Charles M. Conrad, of Louisiana, of War ; William A. Graham, of North Carolina, of the Navy ; Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Virginia, of the Interior ; Nathan K. Hall, of New York, Postmaster-Gene- ral ; and John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, Attorney-General. Mr. Fillmore approved of Henry Clay's plan in all its essential features. A committee of thirteen able men, with Air. Clay at their head, was appointed to consider it. Thev made their re- port. The " Omnibus Bill " was never enacted as an undivided whole ;^ but all its most important elements were enacted by both Houses and signed by President Fillmore, who said of them : "They are regarded by me as a settlement in principle and sub- stance — a final settlement — of the dangerous and exciting subjects which they embrace." * How short-sighted are the wisest of men ! They contained the germs of disorganization and war. 1 Daniel Webster's speech, Thirty-first Cong. Stephens, 519-523. 2 Quackenbos' U. S., 447, 448. Stephens, 526. Thalheimer's Eclec, U. S., 2(51, 3 Stephens, 526. * Holmes' U. S., 216. 730 ^ History of the United States of America. They embodied six subjects : ( i ) That, according to agreement when Texas was annexed, new States, not exceeding four, wei'e to be formed out of her territory, to be admitted with or without slavery, as they might choose ; (2) That California should be ad- mitted under her constitution forbidding slavery ; (3) That terri- torial governments should be established for New Mexico and Utah vs^ithout restriction as to slavery, and that, when in condi- tion to become States, their people should decide whether they would or would not have slavery ; (4) That Texas should give up her claim to New Mexico in consideration of ten million dol- lars, to be paid to Texas from the United States treasury; (c;) That a more efiicient law should compel the rendition of fugitive slaves ; (6) That the slave-trade should be jDrohibited, under heavy penalties, in the District of Columbia.^ Before California was thus admitted, a terrible lire desolated San Francisco, which then consisted chiefly of wooden buildings. It took place March 4th, 18:^0. The city has since risen from her ashes in splendor, with imposing public and private buildings of brick and stone. The gold mines have been yielding an annual average of nearly eighty millions of dollars.^ During President Fillmore's term a naval expedition, com- manded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, brother of the hero of Lake Erie, sailed, in iSi^s, from the United vStates to visit and, if possible, establish amicable treatv relations with the kingdom of Japan, covering the beautiful islands of the Pacific between America and China. This expedition was perfectly successful, and the treaty made by Perry was the opening of a new life to Japan.^ In a country settled and explored as the United States have been, a large element of the population will always be found restless, aspiring and ready to undertake lawless raids and enter- prises, however much of personal hazard may attend them. Cuba was believed by many to be ready to throw otT the Span- ish rule and annex herself to the United States, if some leader, with a sufficient body of armed men, would stir up her people. Preparations for this jDurpose, under General Marcisco Lopez, a Spaniard professing republican principles, became so manifest that President Taylor had issued a proclamation of neutrality and warning on August nth, 1849. Nevertheless, Lopez, with six hundred armed men in his ves- sel, effected a landing and captured Cardenas, a Cuban port, on 1 Quackenbos, 447. Goodrich, 410, 420. Thalheimer, 260, 2G1. Ilolmes, 216. Derrv, 235, Barnes' U. 8., Vii. 2 Goodrich, 417. 3 Amer. Encyclop., XIII. 154. The Presidency of Millard Fillmore. 731 the 19th of May, 1850. They found, however, neither the people nor the Spanish soldiers ready to help thein. They hastily re- embarked, and, closely pursued by a Spanish war-steamer, suc- ceeded in gaining the port of Key West, Florida ; but in the next year Lopez made another effort, landing with four hundred and eighty men on the northern coast of Cuba. The Spanish govern- ment had concentrated forty thousand troops on the island They speedily surrounded Lopez and his small force, captured them, shot most of the privates, and put Lopez and prominent olRcers of his command to death by the gar rote in Havana on the ist of September, 18^1. Among those executed TV'as a nephew of the United States Attorney-General. These events caused much ex- citement. Allen F. Owen, of Georgia, the American consul at Havana, exerted all his powers of intercession and influence to save them ; but in vain. They had deliberately staked their lives on the issue, and they lost them.^ A few of the prisoners were sent to Spain. They wei'e generously released by the Queen and sent to the United States.^ In this year, 18:; i, also sailed an interesting expedition fitted out by Henry Grinnell, of New York, at his own expense, to go to the polar seas and seaixh for Sir John Franklin and his ships. The United States furnished the sea officers. Lieut. De Haven commanded, and Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, as surgeon and scientist, accompanied the expedition. Though they found no traces of Franklin or his ships, yet in their absence of sevei-al years they accumulated much interesting information about those wintry seas. In 1853, Daniel Webster was compelled, by failing health, to retire from ofiice. Edward Everett succeeded him in the Depart- ment of State. The increasing excitement concerning the Island of Cuba induced England and France to propose to the United States a " tripartite treaty" by which each of these three powers should disclaim all intention of seizing upon Cuba, and should guarantee the title and possession of Spain. This proposal called out froin Edward Everett a reply in writing of great power and clearness. He declined the proposal, and reiterated the " Mon- roe doctrine " in the strongest terms, declaring that, while the United States would keep good faith with Spain, she did not re- cognize in any European power the right of interfering in ques- tions that were purely those of the American Continent and its contiguous seas and islands. Another presidential canvass was now approaching. The Democrats nominated for President, Franklin Pierce, of New 1 Quackenbos, 448, 449. Stephens, 536, 537. = Taylor's Centen. U. S., 687, 688. ^32 A History of the United States of America. Hampshire, a strict constructionist of the strictest sect of the Jefferson school ; for Vice-President, William R. King, of Ala- bama, of the same political faith. The Whigs nominated for President, General Winfleld Scott ; for Vice-President, William A. Graham, of North Carolina. The "Free-Soil" party, who began to call themselves " Republicans," nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, for President, and George W. Julian, of Indiana, for Vice-President.' The canvass was in several respects remarkable. It showed a power of discrimination in the people encouraging to Democ- racy. General Scott had covered himself with glory in the Mex- ican war ; and although, in simplicity and openness of character, he w^as not the peer of Taylor, yet he was more than his equal in intellectual power. There seemed a fair prospect of his election. But the Whig party had adopted, in their convention in Balti- more, on the i6th of June, 1852, a platform sound in its limita- tions upon the Federal power, and fully endoi'sing " that series of acts of the Thirty-first Congress, known as the compromise measures of 18=^0 — the act known as the Fugitive Slave Law included" — as a settlement, in principle and substance, of the dangerous and exciting questions which had agitated the country. In a work written and published by Horace Greeley since the great war between the States, he represents this part of the Whig platform of 1852 as having been " imposed on the convention by the Southern delegates," and as " but another dictation of the slave power." ^ But these statements are without foundation in truth. This Whig platform of 18^52 -was drawn up by Rufus Choate, of Mas- sachusetts, and other Northern Whig statesmen, in consultation with Daniel Webster at his house in Washington ! ^ The part above quoted received their special attention and approval. But General Scott, unhappily for his prospects of success, yielded, as is .with good reason supposed, to the influence of Wil- liam H. Seward, a strong anti-slavery statesman of New York, and refused to express any direct approval of the Whig platform, and especially of that part of it adopting the comj^romise mea- sures, " including the act known as the Fugitive Slave Law." The statenient of Horace Greeley, in the work aforesaid, that " General Scott made haste to plant himself imequivocally and thoroughly on the platform thus erected " is the vei"y reverse of the truth.'' 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 537-540. - Greeley's American Conflict, Vol. I., p. 223. 3 A. H. Stephen-s' Comp. U. S., 538, 539. < Greeley's Amer. Conflict, Stephens, 539. The Presidency of Millard Filhnore. 733 This refusal weakened Winfield Scott beyond measurement in the hearts and minds of all Southern and of many Northern Whigs. On the other hand, General Pierce and Mr. King planted themselves promptly and squarely on the Democratic platform, including a resolution of strong approval of the Virginia antl Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799. The result was that two hundred and lifty-one electoral votes were thrown for General Pierce for President and Mr. King for Vice-President, and only forty-two electoral votes for Scott and Graham. Pierce and King received the votes of twenty-seven States ; Scott and Graham of only four States. The Free-Soil candidates received no electoral vote, and a popular vote of only one hundred and fifty-five thousand eight hundred and twenty- five, being verv little over half their vote in the previous election. California was the only State received into the Union in the presidencies of Taylor and Fillmore. In this period occurred the memorable struggle for independ- ence made by Hungary against Austria, commencing in 184S, and which would probably have been successful but for the brute force which Russia brought to the help of Austria to crush the right of self-government in man. The people of the United States deeply symjDathized with Hungary. The Department of State, under direction of President Taylor, had sent A. Dudley Mann as special envoy to Vienna to watch the struggle, and re- cognize the independence of Hungary should she be successful. Chevalier Hulsemann, the Austrian cJiargc at Washington, took exception to this, and made a formal protest. He objected spe- cially to the epithet " iron rule," said to have been applied to Austria, to the designation of Kossuth as " an illustrious man," and to some severe animadversions on the course pursued by Rus- sia. To all this Daniel Webster replied with consummate learn- ing and skill, leaving Chevalier Hulsemann with narrow and crumbling ground on which to stand.' Subsequently, by invitation, a United vStates ship brought Kos- suth and a number of his fellow-patriots to America on the 5th of December, 1851. The Hungarian exile paid a visit to, and had a long conversation with, Henry Clay, who was then so feeble in health that he was confined to his home. He expressed warm sympathy for Hungary, but could not encourage Kossuth with the hope that the United States would take up arms for his country, or entangle herself in the political sti'uggles of Europe.^ 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 680, 682. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 423, and note. 2 Contemporary accounts in papers. Amer. Encydop., X. 213. Goodrich, 423, note. 734 ^ History of tlic United States of America. Kossuth received a warmer welcome and kinder attention in America than any European other than La Fayette. He was en- tertained at a banquet given by both Houses of Congress, and was addressed by Daniel Webster and General Cass, and, in reply, made a speech replete with classic eloquence. He was invited by deputations from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Anna- polis, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Louisville, St. Louis, Jacksoli, Alobile, and many other places, North and South, and in compliance made numerous addresses urging that the independence of Hungary should be acknowledged.^ But Europe was not ready ; not even France was ready. A fortnight after his landing came news of the coup d'etat by which the adventurer Louis Napoleon became Emperor of the French dominions. Kossuth felt deeply the humiliations to which the cause of human freedom in Europe was thus exposed, and in- dulged in impatient complaints, which brought on him just criti- cism. He received large money contributions for the cause of Hungai'y, and returned to Europe in July, 1853. Henry Clay, who had long been gradually sinking in strength, died at his I'ooms in the National Hotel, Washington, on the 29th June, 1852, in the seventy -sixth year of his age. He was soon followed by Daniel Webster, who died at his home, Marshfield, Massachusetts, October 24th, iS!;2, in the seventy-first year of his age. These three men — Calhoun, Clay and Webster — who were all taken from the world within the years 1850— 1852, were the giants of the American Senate and of the forum of constitu- tional law. Different as were their opinions and views, they felt for each other profound regard. The world will probably never see such a " trio " again in the same age. They died in time to be spared the bloodiest scenes of their country's history. 1 Art. Kossuth, Amer. Encyclop., X. 213. Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 423. CHAPTER LVI. The Presidency of Franklin Pierce. IN the face of a violent eastern snow-storm, accompanied by wind and chilling rain, Franklin Pierce took the required oaths before Chief-Justice Taney, and was inaugurated President on the 4th day of March, 1853. Notwithstanding the inclement heav- ens, a very large crowd attended. The new President was a finer public speaker than any who had gone before him. His inaugu- ral was patriotic and strong in endorsenient of the peace meas- ures, and was delivered in finished style, and in a voice so clear and penetrating that it was distinctly heard at a great distance.^ His cabinet officers were : William L. INIarcy, of New York, of the vState Department ; James Guthrie, of Kentucky, of the Treasury; Jeflerson Davis, of Mississippi, of War; James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina, of the Navy ; Robert McClelland, of Michigan, of the Interior ; James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, Postmaster-General, and Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, Attor- ney-General.^ For a time the countiy seemed quiet, though volcanoes were slumbering beneath the political soil. The " Gadsden treaty " was commenced and completed, which we have already noted, and under which the Mesilla valley and other territory, em- bracing more than thirty thousand square miles of area, were ceded by Mexico to the United States, and th^ embarrassing Article XL of the treaty of peace of Gaudaloupe Hidalgo was abrogated. For these advantages the United States paid Mexico ten million dollars.^ It was becoming more and more obvious that a rapid and safe mode of transfer of passengers, freight and mails from the At- lantic coast to the Pacific was needed. Postage had been reduced in 1851 to three cents per half ounce on prepaid letters. There- fore, extended reconnaissances and surveys were made early in President Pierce's term, which resulted in a grand trans-conti- nental railroad in a period of about ten years.* 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 541. 2 Quackenbos. 452. Stephens' U. S., 541. SDerry's U. S., 238. ^Goodrich's U. S., 427. [ 735 ] 73^ A History of the United States of Atnerica. England, under the lead of Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, had successfully planned and conducted, in 1S51, a great "exposition" of the arts and industries of all the nations of the world far enough advanced in civilization to take part in it. The visible sign and method of this exposition had been the wonderful Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.^ A similar exposition was planned in America. The huge Crystal Palace in New York was framed entirely of iron, and covered with glass. It was opened July 14, 1S53. President Pierce attended and inaugurated the proceedings with an address. In the great variety and beauty of the products exhibited, and the crowds who attended, it was a success ; but in the money result it was a loss to the liberal joint stock projectors, who had poured out money so profusely on all the objects sought that even the large returns did not repay them ; yet they had established a jDre- cedent to be followed by many successes. Franklin Pierce was one of the wiseat and most consistent of all the American Presidents. Numerous difficult questions threat- ened complications with several foreign countries. His govern- ment managed them all with skill, and brought them to peaceful terminations honorable to his country.^ One of these troubles was with Great Britain, concerning the right of fishery. By a convention made in 1818, Americans of the United vStates had liberty to take fish, within specified limits, on the southern coast of Newfoundland and on the southern coast of Labrador ; but on other parts of the British coasts in America, were restricted to regions of the sea at least three miles distant from land. Adventurous fishermen, howevei", from the United States had claimed and exercised the privilege of fishing where they pleased in the great bays, beyond three miles from the shore. To this England objected, and sent ships of war to prevent it. She insisted that the clause meant three miles from a line drawn from headland to headland. For a time a serious disturbance of peace was threatened ; but the dispute was trans- ferred to Washington in October, 1853, and in 1854 a " recipro- city treaty " was agreed on, by which the people of both coun- tries acquired the right to take all fish (except shell-fish and fish frequenting rivers) in all English and United States waters of America, without reference to the distance from land.^ Another complication with England arose out of the " Crimean War," waged by Russia on the one side, and England, France, 1 Quackenbos, 452, 453. Tallis' Illus. Volumes, Hist, and Descrip. Crystal Palace, three. 2 Prof. Holmes' U. S., 217, 218. * 3 Art. Fisheries, Amer. Encyclop., VII. 529, 530. Quackenbos, 451. Goodrich, 424. The Presidency of Franklin Pierce. 737 Turkey and parts of Italy, on the other.^ Being hard pressed for troops for this war, England, by her charge in the United States, Mr. Crampton, and with the aid of her consuls in New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, enlisted within the United States a considerable number of reci'uits for the British armies. When this was brought to the attention of President Pierce, he promptly condemned the proceedings as in violation of the neutral rights and position of the United States. He issued a proclamation to that effect, and demanded that Mr. Crampton should be re- called and the offending consuls withdrawn. England hesi- tated and delayed and finally declined, no doubt under the con- sciousness that her officials had acted accoixling to her wishes ; but Mr. Pierce could not enter into her motives, and promptly ended the matter, in May, 1S56, by requiring Mr. Crampton and the consuls to leave the country.^ The British ministry were too well versed in international law to take offence at this prompt justice. Another of the public difficulties was with Austria, and ex- cited keen interest in all the civilized world. A Hungarian, named Martin Koszta, had been actively engaged in the revolu- tionary contest of 1S48. He had escaped to the United States, and, according to the naturalization laws, had declared formally, in a court of record, his purpose to become an American citizen. Visiting Smvi'na for business purposes, he was recognized by de- tectives in the employ of Austria. He placed himself under pro- tection of the American consul ; but he was seized by a party of men, acting without warrant or authority of law, and carried aboard the Austrian brig of war Hiissarl" Fortunately for Koszta and for the cause of human freedom, Capt. Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, commanding the United States sloop of war St. Louis., had arrived at Smyrna June 22d, 18^3. Being informed of the facts, and having conferred with the American consul. Captain Ingraham demanded that Koszta should be surrendered to him by four o'clock of the afternoon of July 3d. No time could be lost. An Austrian steamer was lying near the Hussar ready to receive Koszta and convey him to Trieste. Once there he would have been hopelessly in the power of Austria. But Ingraham was prompt and resolute. He cleared his ship for battle and brought her within easy range of the Hussar, with her guns in order.* These sieps were decisive and brought a de- cision. At eleven o'clock the commander of the Hussar proposed, 1 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 688. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., 688. Goodrich, 4.31, 432. 3 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 427. Quackeiibns, 453. Amer. Enryclop., IX. 527. *(;ooflrich'sPict. U. S., 427, 428. Quackenbos, 453, 451. Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., \m. « 47 73^ A History of the United States of Ainerica. though under protest, to deliver Koszta into the hands of the French consul in Smyrna, to be held subject to the disposition of the consuls of Austria and the United States, and not to be de- livered without their joint order in writing. As this secured the safety of Koszta, Ingraham consented.^ The result was that Koszta was released and returned to his adopted home in the United States. Chevalier Hulsemann made the facts a subject of long written protest and complaint, to which Seci'etary Marcy replied with so much of clear and crush- ing logic that Austria dropped the subject. The conduct of Cap- tain Ingraham was fully approved by his government, and the Congress voted him a gold medal.^ In 1854, President Pierce gave notice to Denmark that Amer- ican ships would no longer pay the "sound duties" exacted from vessels entering the Baltic. This led to a treaty, in 1S57, extin- guishing such exactions. In 1S54, under the inspiration of Prof. James P. Espy, aided by Alexander H. Stephens and others like minded in Congi^ess, the United States meteorological officers commenced sending out reports as to the weather probabilities for about twenty-four hours to come. These reports were never mere guesses, but were founded on observation and experience. They have been ever since continued with expanding advantage and usefulness. But amid all these foreign successes and scientific advances, a political storm was gathering during President Pierce's term, which darkly portended what followed it. The Whigs, having received a disastrous defeat in 1852, had little to encourage them ; but a new party arose in 18^4, to which many of them gave adhesion. Its most dignified title was the "American party," but its members were generally called " Know- Nothings," because their organization was secret and somewhat Masonic in its forms. They had lodges, initiatory ceremonies, grips and pass- words. Their principles, as far as revealed, were that foreign-born people and adherents of the Roman church ought to be excluded from office, and that the term of years of residence for a foreigner to become a citizen ought to be greatly extended.* These " Know -Nothings " grew in numbers and carried the elections of 181^4 and part of those of 1855, so that in the House of Representatives which met in December, 1855, there was a large anti-administration majority. 1 Art. Ingraham, Amer. Encyclcrp., IX. 527. 2 Taylor's Centen. U. S., ti.s4. Amer. fcicyclop., IX. 527. 3 Stephens, MS, 546. Quackeubos, 457. The Presidency of Fravkl'ni Pierce. ^39 As the slavery excitement increased, and evidences of a pur- posed dissolution of the Union appeared more and more, the higher men of the "American party" organized a secret order, pledged, under the most solemn promises, to maintain the union of the States in all circumstances and against all enemies. Large numbers of Whigs and some of other parties joined this order. But the " Know-Nothings " were assailable in their principles, especially in the religious element thereof. They met their first and most disastrous defeat in the State camjDaign of Virginia for governor in 185:^. Henry A. Wise was the Democratic candidate. Although not strong in health, he made a personal canvass, tra- versing the State in all directions, traveling more than three thousand miles and making more than fifty speeches to immense crowds.^ He was elected by more than ten thousand majority. From that time the "American party" declined in strength, until they became virtually extinct after the presidential election of 1856. Cuba continued to be an object of interest, especially to the slave States, and, therefore, to the Democratic party, whose strength was firmly buttressed on those States. In February, 1854, the American steamship Black \]arrior was seized in the harbor of Havana, under process for violating a revenue law, and ship and cargo were confiscated. In 18:^4 the American ministers to England, France and Spain, viz. : ^Messrs. Buchanan, IVIason and Soule, met at Ostend, Kelgium, and, after conference, issued a manifesto showing in strong terms the advantages which would accrue both to Spain and the United States by a sale of Cuba to the latter power at a fair price, and also the dangers to public peace constantly arising from the retention of Cuba by Spain. ^ This proceeding was, to say the least, supported by veiy am- biguous precedents in diplomacy. It accomplished nothing. Eng- land and France both promptly took the part of Spain in declin- ing a coerced sale of the island, which she esteemed " the Queen of the Antilles." France, then under the jealous espionage of the parvemi Emperor Louis Napoleon, went so far as to arrest M. Soule on her territory. He was French by birth, and had been banished because of his republican sentimerrts and acts ; but per- mission had been given him to return. He was arrested in Calais October 24th, 18:54 ; but he was soon allowed to pursue his jour- ney to Madrid. Spain promptly and satisfactorily settled the Black Warrior complication.^ 1 Art. Wise, Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 503, 5n4. 2Thalheimer'.s Eclec. U. S., 265. Goodrich, 429. Eggleston's (too strongly colored) House- hold U. S., 304. 3 Goodrich, 429. 740 ^ History of the United States of America. While the fi'iends of slavery were thus seeking to secure more territory for her expansion, her enemies were waging ceaseless war on the institution. We need not \vonder at this when we i-emember that hy this time the opponents of slavery had become convinced by exhaustive argument that the institution did not ori- ginate in Divine command, and was against natural right and law. Therefore, the Fugitive Slave Law was bitterly opposed, and its provisions were substantially made inoperative and null by the passage of "personal liberty" laws in many of the Northern States, and by the pei'sistent efforts of State officers and citizens to rescue fugitive slaves from the claims of their alleged owners.' Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, all enacted laws systematically adapted to defeat the rendition of fugitive slaves.^ And even in the few cases in which the law for rendition was curried out, the effect was to increase rather than diminish the popular opposition. A noted case occurred in Boston. The ownership was proved, the order of surrender made, and, to guard against rescue, the volunteer soldiers of the city ^vere called into service, and marched under arms, protecting the owner as he carried ofl' his slave. But prudent slave-owners had no desire to encounter such scenes. In 185 1— '52 Mrs. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe had fur- nished to the National Era., an anti-slavery nev^^spaper of moder- ate circulation in Washington city, the successive numbers of her novel entitled " Uncle Tom's Cabin." When completed it was republished in Boston in two volumes. It produced a profound impression. Other editions followed, and the sale became enor- mous ; and through all the years of the presidencies of Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan this work of fiction, containing much of truth, continued to sway the public mind, not only of America, but of foreign lands, against African slavery. In the United States, four editions — one in the German language — were pub- lished, and rapidly sold to the amount of four hundred thousand copies.* In Great Britain, there being no burden of copyright, five hundred thousand copies were sold at prices running from six pence to ten shillings. It w^as translated into every living language of Europe, and into several of those of Asia, including Arabic and Armenian. Steam presses ran day and night to sat- 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 542. 2 Report in Va. Legis., 1859-'C0. Journal of Senate 31: 19, 48, 49. So. Lit. Mess., April, 1862, 217, 218. 3 Art. Stowe, New Amer. Encyclop., XV. 126. The Presidency of Frajtklin Pierce. 741 isfy the demand for this work. The accuracy of some of its statements having been publicly called in question, Mrs, Stowe published, in 1S53, a "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,'' verifying all that was material by official or otherwise authentic documents.^ The phenomena attending this work alone, if properly weighed, ought to have admonished the slave-holders of America that their institution had few friends and innumerable enemies in all the civilized world, and that if they desired to maintain it, even for a time, the greatest caution, prudence and moderation on their part were needed. But passionate and earnest men seldom exer- cise those virtues when the supreme crisis comes. Notwithstanding all the growing influence of the opponents of slavery, none of them had ever claimed the right, under the con- stitution, to interfere with it in the States where it existed, or in which it might be regularly established by the free choice of the people, seconding the conditions of soil and climate. It might, therefore, have been conserved for an indehnite time, and have been gradually eliminated without shock or bloodshed, but for the fatal breach in the Democratic party caused by the move- ments of their leaders in passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act of i8:;4. Although the giants Calhoun, Clay and Webster had passed away, the Congress still held men of intellectual strength and broad statesmanship, prominent among whom were Benton, of Missouri ; Houston, of Texas ; Bell, of Tennessee ; Hunter and jSIason, of Virginia ; Chase, of Ohio ; Seward, of New York ; Douglas, of Illinois ; Toombs and Stephens, of Georgia ; Charles .Sumner, of ISIassachusetts ; Andrew Pickens Butler, of South Carolina ; and Clement C. Clay, of Alabama. Among these, Stephen A. Douglas was a leader of the Democrats. He was short in person, but powerfully framed. . By his physical strength and mental accomplishments he had gained the name of " the little giant." ^ The Territories of Kansas and Nebraska were part of that ac- quired by the Louisiana purchase from France, and were there- fore included, in definite and certain terms, by the " Missouri Compromise " of 1820. They were both north of the line of 36° 30' ; in fact, the southern line of Nebraska was many degrees north of it. They were adapted to the culture of wheat and similar cereals. They were not adapted to cotton, rice, sugar- cane, indigo, or any of the products specially calling for slave- labor ; slave-holders did not feel drawn to them. They might 1 Amer. Eucyclop., XV. 126. 2 Thallieimer's Eclec. U. S., uote, 267. 742 A History of the United States oj^ America. safely have been left to the operation of the " Missouri Compro- mise," and of the laws of nature and of natural settlement. In truth, under these laws, they were healthily filling up with a free population, and one of them would soon be ready for admission to the Union. But now came in the political disturbance to vex and distract the laws of nature. Stephen A. Douglas led this disturbance ; he was the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.^ It was intro- duced in the Senate in January, 1854, and for five months was the subject of fierce and acrimonious debate. It was the first dis- tinct proposition to break down the "Missouri Compromise," It proposed that the actual settlers and residents in those Territories, no matter how short and precarious the time and nature of their residence, should have authority to constitute a State, and by a mere majority should have power and authority to decide whether the State should be a slave or a free State. The principle on which this plan was founded was afterwards very justly stigma- tized as the principle of "squatter sovereignty."'' While it is true that the anti-slavery powers in Congress had ignored the line of 36° 30' as to the territory acquired from Mex- ico, yet they had acted in the interests of human freedom, had sim- ply recognized this territory as already free from slavery, under the laws of .Mexico, and had refused to convert free territory into slave territory. They did not touch, by their legislation, the ter- ritory embraced in the " Missouri Compromise." We need not be surprised, therefore, that this Kansas-Nebraska Bill excited the sternest opposition among the opponents of the extension of slavery. It was denounced as a distinct violation of good faith on the part of the advocates of slavery;^ and it was denounced as the prophet and forerunner of an unnatural strife for possession of the soil of these Territories, not according to health- ful and normal laws of settlement, but under the morbid stimulus of partisan excitement. Three thousand New England clergy- men sent a memorial to Congress against it. Nevertheless, it passed both Houses, and was signed by the President. One clause in it declared the " Missouri Compromise" of 1830 " inoperative and void."* Then came precisely the scenes of strife and evil predicted. Slave-holders from Missouri and other States hastened, with little preparation and no intent of per- manency, into Kansas. Prominent men, among whom Benjamin lEggleston's Household U. S., 301. 2 Goodrich, 429. Thalheimer, note, 267. "Popular sovereignty," according to Quacken- bos, 45G. * Horace Greeley, in New York Tribune. Stephens, 544. *Amer. Encyclop., X. 104. TJie Prcs'idcucy of I^rankli/i Pierce. ^43 Franklin vStringfellow, of Missouri, was first in vigor and talent, hastened into Virginia and others of the older slave States, and sought to hurry extemporized settlers from them into Kansas. The same process was repeated in the Northern States, and with even greater virulence. It was known that conflicts of arms would take place and blood would be shed. Therefore, collec- tions were taken up to buy Sharpe's rifles for the Northern settlers in Kansas. Among those most earnest in this work were Henry Ward Beecher, a Congregational minister of the gospel, and his people of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York.^ Probably the most unwilling blood of this controversy was that shed by an anti-slavery Senator. Charles Sumner having, in a speech of two days, in Alay, 1S56, made some severe reflections on Senator Butler, of South Carolina, who was an old man, Preston S. Brooks, the nephew of Senator Butler and a member of the House of Representatives, resented the insult to his rela- tive, and assaulted Senator Sumner, knocked him down and beat him so severely with his cane that three years of I'est and travel were required for his recovery. Brooks, being called to account in Congress, resigned his place as representative, but was im- mediately re-elected and returned to the House by his constit- uents.^ The result of the unnatural forcing measures for the occupation of Kansas were just what sound reason would have expected. The people from each section came not to settle, to fence, to build houses, to cultivate the soil, and to develop the country into homes of virtue and intelligence ; they came for strife, with tents and arms. The Missourians pressed in first and sought to close the easiest gates of ingress to the Northern comers, and to force thein into circuitous routes through lowa.^ Collisions and bloody contests soon followed. In 1S56 an election, -which wanted nearly every essential of qualification in the pretended electors, of free expres- sion of opinion and will, and of real representation of the senti- ments of the people, was held ; and members Avere chosen to a convention, which was held at Lecompton. They adopted a State constitution permitting slavery.* The Northern settlers were equally active, and adopted meas- ures equally irregular and inadequate to give fair expression to the public will. They elected members to a so-called conven- ' Contemporary narratives in newspapers, 1854. Eg-gleston, 302. Scudder, 370. Barnes, 195, and note. Blackburn & McDonald, 387. Barnes' U. S., note p. 195. SThalheimer, 265, 266. ^Thalheimer'sEclec. U. S., 266. Quackenbos, 456. Scudder's U. S., 370. 744 ^ Histof-y of the United States of America. tion, which met at Topeka, and framed a constitution prohibiting slavery.^ Thus in this distracted Territory there were two governments, two forms of constitution, two sets of officers, and two hostile populations battling with each other. A inore complete demon- stration of the folly of the legislation involved in the Kansas- Nebraska Act could not have been given ; yet President Pierce and a majority of his cabinet felt bound to attempt to sustain the policy of that act, and favored the Lecompton constitution.^ Contests of armed men speedily ensued. The Missouri men and a number of armed parties from Georgia, Alabama and other Southern States, under Major Buford, arrived in Kansas. The town of Lawrence had been settled by Northern men and was their rallying point. It was besieged by a large force of pro- slavery men, and on the 3ist of May, 1856, imder a promise of safety to persons and protection of property, the residents gave up their arms to the sheriff. The besiegers immediately entered the town, blew up and burned the hotel, burned the residence of a Mr. Robinson, destroyed two printing presses, plundered several stores and houses, and committed other acts of violence in open disregard of the terms of surrender.* Murder was now common. Civil war in its most hateful forms existed. The Congress sent a committee to investigate facts. They returned evidence making a voluine of eleven hundred pages, and a report of a majorit}' of two and a report of a mi- nority of one. The two — Howard, of Michigan, and Sherman, of Ohio — reported that " every election had been controlled, not by the actual settlers, but by citizens of Alissouri. None have been elected by the settlers, and your committee have been unable to find that any political power whatever has been exercised by the people of the Territory." * On the other hand, the one — Mr. Oliver, of Missouri — reported that the majority report was par- tisan and one-sided, and that no evidence had shown that " any violence was resorted to, or force employed, by which men were prevented from voting." ^ These fatally incongruous reports were, in themselves, proof of the distraction in the Territory. And now, out of these seething elements there rose up a man who was a stubborn fanatic and acted a leading part in kindling the bloodiest and n:iost desolating war of North America. 1 Scudder, 370. Thalheimer, 266. 2Scuddcr's U. S., 370. Thalheimer, 266, note, 267. Amer. Encyclop., X. 104-106. 3 Art. Kansas, Aiuer. Eneyelop., X. 105. Thalheimer, 266. * Majority report, Amer. Kiicyclop., X. 105. 5 Jliuority report, Amer. Eucyclop., X. 105. The Presidency of Franklin Pierce. 745 This man was John Brown. He led the Northern people of Kansas in several sharp encounters, and especially in one at Osa- watamie, on the 39th August, 1856, in which a detachment of armed men from a force assembled by David Atchison, who had been a United States Senator from Missouri, attacked a body of about fifty men under John Brown. They made an obstinate and brave defence, but were at length driven out of Osawatamie, with a loss of two killed, five ^vounded and seven prisoners. Five of the assailing force were killed and several wounded. They were so irritated by the fierce defence that they burned about thirty buildings.' From this time that rugged hater of slavery \vas called " Osawatamie Brown." We shall meet him again. These sanguinary conflicts continued until President Pierce ap- pointed Brigadier-General John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, gov- ernor and commander-in-chief in Kansas. He did what he could to restore peace ; but the disturbance went on, and continued during a large part of the term of Mr. Pierce's successor. Mean- while crowds of real settlers poured into Kansas, chiefly from the Northern and Northwestern .States. Slave-holders found little to attract them as cultivators of the soil. Repeated efforts wei'e made to bring Kansas into the Union. Congress finally referred the Lecompton constitution (permitting slavery) to the people of Kansas. It was rejected by ten thousand majority of votes. The State was admitted under a constitution forbidding slavery on the 39th day of January, iS6i.^ No State w^as admitted during the presidency of Franklin Pierce. Plis administration was a time of profound internal commotion, shaking the very basis of the Union ; yet nearly all his inter- course with foi-eign nations tended to peace. An English exploring squadron had been sent to the Arctic seas to look for Sir John Franklin's ships. One of the ships of this squadron — the Resolute — had been caught in the ice and so severely " nipped " that she was abandoned by her officers and crew, who went aboard the other vessels of the squadron. On the 33d December, 18^5, Captain Buddington, of an American merchant ship, found the Resolute drifting at the mercy of wind and wave, and brought her into the harbor of New Bedford.^ President Pierce and his government conceived and carried out a happy thought. They paid all needed expenses of salvage and of perfectly repairing and refitting the Resohtte. They then sent her to England in December, 1856, with a picked cre^v under 1 Art. Kansas, Amer. Encyclop., X. 105. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 569. 3 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 434. 74^ A History of the United States of America. Lieutenant Hartstene, as a gift from the United States to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The Qiieen with a few attendants, and in simple style, came down to Southampton, went aboard the Resolute, and on her deck received the message of goodwill from the United States, which Captain Hartstene delivered in brief and well chosen sentences. The Queen replied in a few words of gra- cious thanks. The incident was in all respects fortunate and cheering in its influence. The Whig party had now become almost extinct, and the Dem- ocratic party had been greatly weakened by the unhappy policy led by Stephen A. Douglas. In the conventions of 1856, the Democrats nominated James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for Pres- ident, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President. The "American party " nominated Millard Fillmore for President, and Andi'ew J. Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice-President.' The Anti-Slavery party had gathered strength from the very causes which had disorganized the Whigs and weakened the Democrats. They united all the elements which opposed the extension of slavery and proposed to restrict it to existing bounds and territory pledged to its uses. They called themselves now " Republicans," and were growing daily in numbers. They met in convention at Philadelphia on the 17th June, 1856, and nomi- nated John C. Fremont, of California, for President, and William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President. In their platform they proclaimed that it was "both the right and the duty of Con- gress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism — polygamy and slavery." ^ The elections resulted in sending to the college of electors mem- bers who voted as follows : one hundred and seventy-four votes for Buchanan as President and Bi'eckinridge as Vice-President ; eight votes (all from Maryland) for Fillmore and Donelson ; one hundred and fourteen votes for Fremont for President and Day- ton for Vice-President. Though the Democratic candidates were elected, it had become evident that the Anti-Slavery party had gathered immense strength, and that the coming struggle, on which the alternative existence either of the Union or of slavery depended, would be between the Democrats and Republicans. Patriots on both sides viewed this struggle with increasing alarm. Franklin Pierce had done his part consistently and firmly ac- cording to his principles. He retired to private life in his State. He visited the Island of Madeira, and traveled extensively in Eu- rope, returning from his tour in i860. 1 Stephens. 546. * Narrative and platform Republican party, 1856. Stephens, 646. CHAPTER LVII. The Presidency of James Buchanan. TAMES BUCHANAN, the sole "bachelor" President of the kJ United States up to this time, was inaugurated on the 4th day of March, 1857, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. A great crowd attended the ceremonies. The oath of office was admin- istered by Chief-Justice Taney. The inaugural address was con- ciliatory ; but it adopted the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and therefore ministered to the increase of the Anti-Slavery party. His declaration that the object of his administration would be " to destroy any sectional party, whether North or South, and to restore, if possible, that national fraternal feeling between the different States that had existed during the early days of the republic," was doubtless honest, but was utterly in- operative.' Sectional feeling never grew more alarmingly than during his term. Early in his term a financial crisis came on in Europe and the United States, attended by many failures of merchants and tem- porary suspension of specie payments by the banks ; but it soon ended, and had no permanent effects. President Buchanan's cabinet consisted ot Lewis Cass, of Michigan, Secretary of State ; Howell Cobb, of Georgia, of the Treasury ; John B. Floyd, of Virginia, of War ; Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, of the Navy ; Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, of the Interior ; Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, Postmaster- General, and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, Attorney-Gen- eral.'^ The first serious trouble of the government was concerning the "Mormons" in Utah. The uprising, influence and increase of this evil sect are a singular illustration of the truth that the de- praved nature and passions of the human race incline them to "believe a lie." False prophets, teaching false doctrine, have been in the world from the time of the fall in paradise to the present day ; and their continued coming and deceptions after his death, resurrection and ascension had been predicted by the iBarnes&Co.'sU. S., note, 196. ^gtephens' Comp. U. S., 517, 518, [ 747 ] 748 A History of the United States of America. omniscient Son of God himseltV But the strange fact concern- inor the Mormons is that they had their origin in the brilliant light of the nineteenth century ; and, notwithstanding the com- plete proof of the wickedness, falsehood and fraud of their lead- ers, their sj'stem has had so much that is attractive to the native evil in men and women that it has retained its coherency for more than half a century. One Solomon Spalding is the real author of the greater part of the " Book of Mormon." He never pretended to inspiration from God, nor to be the author of a book on which a new reli- gious faith was to be founded. He was born in 1761, in x\shford, Connecticut, graduated at Dartmouth College, was a student of Holy Scripture and general literature, wrote several works of fic- tion, which found no publishers, wrote afterwards an extended romance founded on the unproved hypothesis that the Indians of North and South Ainerica are lineal descendants from the ten lost tribes of Israel, and giving many fictitious names, such as Mo- roni, Mosiah, Zeniff, Alma, Nephi the First, the Second and the Third. The work shows much misspent ingenuity and industry. It adopts the simplicity and style of the King James (English) version of the Holy Scriptures, and quotes many passages from it. This romance was actually announced in 1S13 as soon to be printed and published ; but Mr. Spalding died in Amity, Penn- sylvania, in 1816.^ He called his cin*ious work the "Manuscript Found," and left it, in 1812, in a printing ofiice in Pittsburg, in which a man named Sidney Rigdon was employed. Rigdon is known to have made a copy of this manuscript before the original was returned to the author.* Seven years after the death of Mr. Spalding, one Joseph Smith, in company with Sidney Rigdon, began to claim that a special revelation from God had been made to him. Smith belonged to a disreputable family from Vermont — people intemperate, un- truthful, avoiding honest labor, and often suspected of sheep- stealing. Joseph Smith, as a boy, was one of the woi'st of the clan.* He could neither read nor write, except very imperfectly. But he proved adequate to give birth to the Mormon delu- sion. He pretended that the angel Moroni had aj^peared three times to him and given him information as to certain metallic plates on which the new revelation was inscribed, and of two transparent stones, in silver rims like spectacles, which were 1 Matt. xxiv. 23-28. JIark xiii. 21-2.3. Luke xxi. 8, 9. Second Peter ii. 4. 2 Art. Mormons. New Amer. Encyclop., XI. 73.5, 736. ^Amer. Encyclop., XI. 735. *Art. Mormons, Amer. Encyclop., XI. 733. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 548. The Presidency of James Buchatian. 749 anciently the " Urim unci Thummim," and by looking through which the inspired writings on the plates could be read. And so by this bold fraud, running through more than six years, and in which Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery were the chief agents, though others probably of more culture and cunning -were concerned, the "Book of Mormon " ^vas published in 1830. The sect of Mormons had already arisen. Like the Koran of Mohammed, this new pretended revelation had enough of Holy Scripture, and of the ancient prophets, and of Christ and his apostles, to give it currency with those trained under the canonical Scriptures. Its warp and woof have been recognized and identified by several competent and credible wit- nesses as the work of Solomon Spalding.' The Mormons made converts and grew in numbers. They planted themselves first in Missouri, but soon attracted public odium, and were subjected to persecutions and violence which drove them into Illinois. Here they were kindly received. A charter for a city to be called Nauvoo was granted by the legisla- ture, conferring undefined and extensive powers upon the ofiicers. Joseph Smith became a successful speculator, and in a few years amassed a fortune of more than a million of dollars. The Mor- mons were thrifty and industrious, and accumulated wealth quite rapidly. On the 6th of April, 1S41, the foundations of a great temple at Nauvoo were laid. Smith and many of his coadjutors had be- come Freemasons, and used imposing ceremonies. He had a lawful wife, to whom he was united in marriage in 1S27. The " Book of JMormon," in its original form, definitely forbade polygamy ; ^ but Joseph Smith, to indulge his brutal pas- sions, had persuaded a number of women to live and cohabit with him, under the title of his " spiritual wives," and when his wife grew jealous and restive, and murmurs began to be heard from others, he openly claimed that he had received, July 12th, 1843, a revelation from God authorizing polygamy.* This foul pretence has been tenaciously adhered to ever since by the leaders of the sect ; and, unhappily, it has had a sinister influence in leading women of the lower type of character to join them. In 1843 and 1844, Smith made impure advances to so many women in Nauvoo that a commotion was excited, imder which a number of men and women of decent characters who had joined 1 Anier. Enoyclop., XI. 735. 736. « Quotation in Amer. Encyclop., XI. 734. ■*Art. Mormons, Amer. Encyclop., XI. 7o8. 750 ^ History of the United States of Amei'ica. them were impelled to come out openly and denounce Mormon- ism, and expose Smith and his frauds in articles published over the names of the authors in the Expositor, a newspaper started to oppose the delusion. The result was that Smith and his follow- ers, on the 6th May, 1844, attacked the Expositor oifice, razed it to the ground, destroyed the printing presses, and wrecked the whole building. A furious excitement arose. The owners got out warrants for the arrest of Smith and his compeers. The Mormons armed themselves. Civil war seemed inevitable. The Governor of Illi- nois interposed, and persuaded Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum to yield themselves up for trial. They were put in jail at Carthage, and a guard was stationed to protect them ; but in the night of June 27th, 1844, an indig- nant mob (chiefly Missourians) assembled, attacked the jail, over- powered the guard, and shot both Hyrum and Joseph Smith dead with their rifles. Joseph defended himself to the last with a re- volver, and was shot as he leaped from a window.' This irregular and unlawful " taking ofl"" for a time discouraged the Mormons ; but Brigham Young, a native of Whittingham, Vermont, had joined the sect, and by his talent and tact had ac- quired leadership. He was chosen first president. He persuaded his followers to abandon Nauvoo, and acquire property near the Great Salt Lake of Utah. He arrived there July 24th, 1847. ■'-^ May, 1848, the main body of the " Saints " set out to join him, and arrived in the autumn. Salt Lake City was founded, and large tracts of land were brought under cultivation. But their vices accompanied them and made them odious in the eyes of the Christian world. When Brigham Young reached Utah it was yet under the dominion of Mexico ; but the treaty of peace in 1S48 transferred it to the United States. The ISIormons were again under a government able to rule them firmly. They seriously debated the question of going farther to the southwest among Apaches and Mexicans ; but they decided to remain.^ They formed a constitution and government to suit themselves, calling their land "the State of Deseret ; " but the Congress ignored their action, and created a territorial government for Utah in September, 18=50. By advice of Col. Thomas L. Kane, brother of the Arctic explorer, who personally knew some of the INIormons, President Fillmore appointed Brigham Young gover- nor of the Territory.* 1 Amer. Encyclop., XI. 738. Stephens, 549. Goodrich, (note) 438. 2 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 550. ^ /6jd._ 551 The Presidency of ya/nes Buchanan. y^i But such a people were not to be ruled without force. Two of the territorial judges were not Mormons. A breach soon occurred. The Federal judges were compelled by threats of violence to leave the Territory. The "Saints" only were to govern. President Buchanan removed Young from office, and appointed Arthur Gum- ming, of Georgia, governor. Colonel Steptoe, of the United States army, held the office for a time ; but as soon as he de- parted, Brigham Young preached a Mormon sermon, in which he said : " I am, and will be, governor, and no power can hinder it, until the Lord Almighty says, ' Brigham, you need not be gover- nor any longer.' " ^ The United States civil authorities in Utah were harassed and terrified. In February, 1856, under the influence of sermons from the heads of the church, a mob of armed Mormons broke their way into the court-room of the district judge and, Avith brandished bowie-knives, compelled Judge Drummond to adjourn his court sine die. Soon afterwards all territorial officers, except the In- dian agent, were compelled by threats of violence to leave Utah. President Buchanan sent to the Territory a military force of about one thousand seven hundred men, under command of Colo- nel Albert Sidney Johnston, who was breveted brigadier-general. Colonel Fitz John Porter accompanied the expedition and ren- dered valuable aid. Captain Van Vleit, with a few rangers, pushed I'apidly ahead, and froin Salt Lake City reported to Gen- eral Johnston that the Mormons were armed and organized, and that forcible resistance might be expected. This report was re- ceived by General Johnston on the 39th of September, 1857, while with his army on the south fork of the Platte river.^ He marched on, crossing the Platte river and making his way slowly over rocky mountains, arid plains where only sage and coarse grass could be found for his animals, and rugged roads be- set by hostile Mormons. To add to his trials, winter came on with unusual severity. The mercury was sometimes sixteen de- grees below zero. Draft horses and oxen died in numbers. Armed Mormon bands penetrated to the rear of Colonel Alexan- der's command and burned three wagon trains — seventy-five in all — loaded with provisions and supplies.' Undismayed by all these obstacles, General Johnston moved steadily on, sometimes marching on foot with his men and cheer- fully sharing all th'eir toils.* By the 5th of February, 1858, he had reached Fort Bridger, and was soon near to Salt Lake City 1 Amer. Encyclop., XI. 739. 2 Life of Gen. \. S. Johnston, by Wm. Preston Johnston, N. Y., 1878, pp. 210, 211. SLife of A. S. Johnston, 210, 211. 4'Col. Cooke's report, Life, 2ir). ^52 A History of the United States oj^ America. with an army devoted to him and ready to crush the Mormon power. In his letter of January 30th, 185S, to his government, General Johnston advised that no concessions should be made to the Mor- mons, and that " they should be made to submit imconditionally to the constitutional and legal demands of the government." He declared that " an adjustment of existing differences on any other basis would be nugatory."* Experience has demonstrated the soundness of this advice ; but President Buchanan was, by temperament and education, a man not fitted for stern and decisive measures. He prepared a scheme of universal amnesty for all past offences. Colonel Thomas L. Kane came on as a sort of self-constituted peacemaker. He was strongly suspected of social and church sympathy with the Mor- mons. Pie was a man of talents, but of intriguing and erratic temper ; he lent himself to a scheme prepared as a trap for Gen- eral Johnston by the wily leader Brigham Young. This man, presuming on the scarcity in the American camp, to which the raids of his own lawless followers had contributed, offered, through Colonel Kane, to send two hundred head of cat- tle and twenty thousand pounds of flour to General Johnston's army, " to which they will be made perfectly welcome, or pay for, just as they choose."^ The American commander was too cautious and wise to fall into the snare. He replied, March it^th, 1S58, saying that Presi- dent Young had been misinformed ; that there was no deficiency. " We have abundance to last until the government can i^enew the supply. Whatever might be the need of the army imder my com- mand for food, we would neither ask nor receive from President Young and his confederates any supplies while they continue to be the enemies of the government."'^ Kane urged him to review and change his action, but he steadily refused. He knew that if he accepted these supplies and then operated by military force against the Mormons, Young would have produced the impression that he had saved from starvation the very army which was now smiting the hand that had fed it.* Arthur Cumming, the newly-appointed governor, was depend- ent on General Johnston and his army for support and protection ; yet he " exhibited a rankling irritation and jealousy that proved injurious to the public interests." ^ » Gen. Johnston's letter, Life, 220, 221. 2 Life of Gen. Johnston, 222. 3 Johnston's letter, Life, 222. * Life of Gen. A. S. Jolinstou, 222, 223. 5 Fitz John Porter's narrative. Life, 224, 225. The Presidency of James Buchanan. 753 The Mormons did not dare to make open resistance. General Johnston marched with his army through the principal streets of Salt Lake City, and then established his camp in the north end of Cedar Valley, where he had all advantages of position, grass, water, wood and shelter, and whence he could promptly move to any point needing action. So complete was the control thus established that Brigham Young and his people contemplated another exodus — a removal to Sonora. The movement had commenced ; the people had con- gregated at Provo, when, under orders from their leaders, they changed their purpose, and returned to their homes. ^ President Buchanan's peace commissioners, Governor Powell and Colonel McCulloch, arrived at Salt Lake City June yth, 1848, and offered amnesty and pardon for all past offences, provided the Mormons would acknowledge and obey the United States author- ities. Of course, these terms were accepted. Governor Gum- ming assumed his chair of office ; and while the army remained there was peace, but no longer. This pestilent sect have remained in Utah. .Stringent legisla- tion has been enacted by Congress, under which prosecutions for bigamy have been instituted and sustained against nearly all the prominent officers of the church. They have been chased by United States marshals from the sight of decent people ; and yet the evil has not been stamped out. The '^ Saints " claim the power to govern themselves. The " inipcriiim in inipo'io^'' con- demned by all history, still exists. More than thirty years of ex- perience, from the time when General Johnston entered Salt Lake City with his army, have demonstrated that the course he then advised was the only one for safety and permanent peace. A tardy and sullen vote of submission to the law forbidding poly- gamy has been announced under the influence of President Wood- ruff, and fear of the strong arm of the United States government mav induce obedience.^ William Walker, a citizen of the United States, had become somewhat noted for an abortive attempt to seize a portion of the territory of Mexico. In the summer of 1S55, with a small band of adventurers from California, he invaded Nicaragua, then in a distracted political state. After some petty struggles and skir- mishes he seemed to be prevalent ; but the people of Costa Rica joined the Nicaraguans, and Walker and his small band of " fili- busters " were driven from the land. Nicaragua is a republic, 1 Life of Gen. Johnston, 227. - Action of General Conference Mormon Church, October, 1S90. C. O., Oct. loth. 48 5?54 '^ Hisio)'y of the United States of America. with only about four hundred thousand inhabitants ; but its situ- ation, as a pathway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, renders it important.^ Walker was not satisfied yet with his experience in "filibus- tering." He collected about four hundred men in the Southern States, and, eluding the authorities, embarked, November nth, 1857, at Mobile. He landed at Puntas Arenas, Nicaragua ; but the United States naval ships were after him, and on the 8th of December he surrendered to Captain Paulding, of the steamer Wabash, and was brought, with his men, back to the United States.^ This ended his outrages on law. Paraguay, one of the South American States, showed herself unmindful of gratitude and comity, by firing on a United States surveying ship while peacefully engaged in triangulating the Paraguay river, and refused satisfaction when demanded. A strong naval force was sent, in 18 ^8, to her waters, by the United States government, accompanied, however, by a peace coinmis- sioner with full powers. Paraguay was wise, and kept the peace by agreeing to make reparation.^ In the summer of i860, Japan signified her apj^reciation of Commodore Perry's visit and treaty by sending to the United States a magnificent embassy of seventy-one persons. They were received with great interest and high honors, and were entertained as the guests of the nation. They delivered the ratified treaty from their government. After shrewdly examining the many inventions and improvements of a highly enlightened land, which they now saw for the first time, and receiving many presents of specimens of American ingenuity and industry, they returned to Japan.* Already Morse's wonderful invention of the magnetic tele- graph had been spread, in a net-work of almost instantaneous transmission of thought, over a large part of the United States and of Europe, and was extending into Asia. Bold scientific and practical minds v\^ere beginning to ponder the question whether the Atlantic Ocean itself might not be crossed by wire. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, was the inspiring and unconquerable hero of this enterprise. Surveys and soundings were made, which ascertained that from the southwestern point of Ireland, at Val- entia Bay, to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, a distance of only one thousand six hundred and forty miles intervened, and that a sea-bottom (which is really a continuous mountain ridge) existed 1 Goodrich, 431, and note. 2 Goodrich's Pict. U. S., 431. 3 Quackenbos' U. S., 459. » Ibid., 459. The Presidency of yaincs Buchanan. ^:^:^ along this line, compai"atively level and at no point deeper than about two and a half miles. In 18^6, by private capital raised by Ml". Field's exertions, a line was successfully run from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, a distance of more than a thousand miles.^ A cable of manv strands of twisted wire was then made in England, but in attempting to lay it in August, 1857, the cable parted in mid-ocean. In June, 18:58, another attempt failed. In July of the same year, the cable was actually laid ; the Agamemnon^ British war steamei", and the K'iagai-a, American war steamer, each having about half of the coiled wire cable covered with a cuticle of gutta-percha, met in mid-ocean, and, after uniting the ends, each steamed away, one for Valentia, the other for Newfoundland. The Agamemnon entered Valentia Bay on the i^Vh. of August, and on the same day the Niagara reached St. John's, in Trinity Bay. On the 13th of August, communication was actually made ; a message of devout con- gratulation from Qiieen Victoria to President Buchanan was received, and he replied in like spirit.^ Between August 13th and September ist, one hundred and twenty-nine messages went from Valentia to New York, and two hundred and seventy-one from New York to Valentia.* On the 1st of September, 1858, a grand celebration in New York com- memorated the auspicious event ; but just at the same time subtle influences, supposed to be attributable to imperfect action in the eastern section of the cable, made its power of transmission weaker and weaker, until it ceased entirely. The last words were received at Valentia October 30th, and were unintelligible, until afterwards given: "Two hundred and forty trays and seventy-two liquid Daniells now in circuit." These words will convey to the uninitiated a lively idea of the obstacles yet to be encountered and mysteries of magnetism yet to be explored before this great \vork was successful. Under the deathless exertions of Cyrus W. Field, two more companies were raised and two capitals of three million dollars each were ex- pended. A new cable was made in July, 1865 ; the Great East- ern started with it, but it parted and sunk in mid-ocean. A third cable, better than all before, was made, and in June, 1866, the Great Eastern laid this successfully from Valentia to St. John's, and then, going back, picked up the sunken cable of 1865 with grappling-irons, spliced it, and completed its laying.* No 1 Barnes & Go's U. S., note, p. 28G. 2 Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 28G. Goodrich, 443. 3 Art. Telegraph, Amer. Encvclop., XV. 344. *Barnes & Co,'s U. S., note, p. 280. 75^ A History of the United States of America. difficulties falling below the insuperable will stop the resolute and courageous soul. Three new States were received into the Union during Mr. Buchanan's presidency. Minnesota was admitted in 1858. The name means " turbid water." The State lies in the region of the many head-waters of the Mississippi, and abounds in lakes and rivers teeming with fish. Oregon was received in 181^9. It is a great region for furs, abounding in beavers, bears, badgers, foxes, lynxes, martens, minks, muskrats and other furred animals. It has also many tribes of Indians.^ Kansas was admitted in 1861, after the contests which we have noted. From scenes of international communion, scientific triumphs, and territorial development into new States, we are now com- pelled to turn our eyes to scenes of disorganization, bloodshed and inter-state war on the most gigantic scale, all flowing from the contests concerning African slavery. Tv\^o episodes in his- tory hurried on this war. On6 was the " Dred Scott " decision of the Supi-eme Court of the United States ; the other was the "John Brown" raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. The " Dred Scott " decision was made by the Suj^reme Court in the December term of 1856. The case has been elaborately j-eported and covers two hundred and forty printed pages.^ Chief- Justice Taney and his eight Associate Justices, IMcLean, Wayne, Catron, Daniel, Nelson, Grier, Curtis and Campbell, heard it twice argued and took part in the decision. The Chief-Justice de- livered the opinion of the court, and several other justices read carefully prepared opinions. All concurred substantially in the conclusions reached by the Chief-Justice, except McLean and Cur- tis, who definitely dissented. Evidently the judges desired to settle by an .authoritative decision the grave questions which wei-e disturbing the peace of the country. It is a sad proof of the limitation of human foresight and methods that their decision hiu'ried on the disruption. Dred Scott, his wife, Harriet, and his children, Eliza and Liz- zie, were all interested, and sought their freedom. They were all of African descent. Dred Scott \vas the sole plaintiff. He had been the negro slave of Dr. Emerson, a surgeon in the United States army, residing in Missoin-i. In 1834, Dr. Emerson took Scott with him to the military post at Rock Island, in Illinois, and held him there as his slave until 1836. He then carried him with him to Fort Snelling, on the west bank of the Mississippi river, in the territory known as Upper Louisiana, acquired from France, 1 Goodrich, 444, 445. ^pred Scott vs. Sandford, Howard, Sup. Ct. Reports, XIX. 393-633. The Presidency of yamcs Buchanan. hch and situated north of latitude 36° 30', and north of ISIissouri. In 1S38 Dr. Emerson carried Scott back to Missouri, and afterwards sold him, his wife and children, as slaves, to John F. A, Sandford, who laid hands on them to claim and control them as his pi'operty.^ Dred Scott brought suit in an action of trespass vi et amiis against Sandford in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Missouri. The defendant pleaded in abatement that the court had no jurisdiction, because Scott was not a citizen of the United States, he being a negro of African descent, whose ancestors were of pure African blood, and had been brought into this country and sold as slaves. On demurrer, this plea was de- cided to be not good. The defendant then pleacled that the plaintiff was his slave. On this plea the jury found for Sandford, and the court rendered judgment for him. The cause then went by v^^rit of error to the Supreme Court. For the purposes of history, we do not deal with legal techni- calities. No clear and competent mind can read the opinions of the majority of the justices ^vithout having the impression that their views of slavery and of the rights of slave-holders in the United States were founded on the narrow and distorting ideas which had prevailed in England and America prior to the decision of Lord Mansfield in the Somerset case in 1772, and prior to the Declaration of Independence.^ Those who prepared and adopted that paper declared : "• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- piness." The more men reflected on slavery in all its forms, and especially on its origin and history as to the African race, the more clearly did they discover its inconsistency with this fun- damental declaration written by Thomas Jeft'erson and adopted by the Congress of 1776; and the constitution of the United States, adopted more than ten years thereafter, was the work of men v^^ho had already learned that slaves were not merely prop- erty and chattels, but " persons held to service or labor under the laws of any State.'" This was the exact stage of thought and feeling that a vast majority of the people had attained in 17S7, and was a great advance beyond the times of Sir John Hawkins.* And the fact that the foreign slave-trade had been forbidden in 1808, and declared to be piracy soon afterwards, is proof that the eyes of all people were opening on the subject. 1 Dred Scott vs. Saiidforrt, Howard, XIX. 398. 2 Art. Slavery, Amer. Encyclop., XIV. 708, 700. 3 Const. U. S., Art. IV., Sec. 2. ^prof. Johuston's U. S., 113. f^8 A History of the United States oy America. Nevertheless, Chief-Justice Taney announced as the iron-clad rule for the decision of the court the views taken by the very worst of the slave-dealers and importers of past ages. He held that, under the constitution, it was impossible that a person of African descent, whose ancestors had been brought to this coun- try as slaves, could become a citizen.^ He said of such : " They had, for more than a century before, been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations ; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect ; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordi- nary article of inerchandise and traffic whenever a profit could be made by it." And after insisting that the broad declarations of the paper of 1776 had no application to men of Africa, he imdertook to reveal the sentiments of the " great men, high in literary acquirements, high in their sense of honor, and incapable of asserting principles inconsistent wnth those on which they were acting," who had pre- pared and adopted that paper. He said : " They knew it would not, in any part of the civilized world, be supposed to embrace the negro race, which, by common consent, had been excluded from civilized governments and the family of nations and doomed to slavery."'' And Mi\ Justice Daniel was even more emphatic in adopting as the law of the cause the worst sentiments and opinions of past ages.^ He said : " Now the following are truths which a know- ledge of the history of the world, and particularly that of our own country, compels us to know" : that the African negro race never have been acknowledged as belonging to the family of nations ; that, as amongst them, there never has been known or recognized by the inhabitants of other countries anything partaking of the character of nationality or civil or political polity ; that this race has been by all the nations of Europe regarded as subjects of capture or purchase, as subjects of commerce or traffic ; and that the introduction of that race into every section of this country was not as members of civil or political society, but as slaves, as property in the strictest sense of the term." Had the Supreme Court of the United States in this cause shown itself capable of rising above the prejudices and errors of 1 Chief-Justice Taney's opinion, Dred Scott Case, Howard, XIX. 407. 2 Chief-Justice Taney's opinion, Dred Scott Case, Howard, XIX. 410. Art. Taney, Amer. Encyclop., XV. 284. 2 Opinion, Dred Scott vs. Sandford, Howard, XIX. 475. 'J he Presidency of y antes Buchanan. 759 the past, and of admitting that the " spirit of laws," and espe- cially of the common law of England, which w^as the cherished her- itage of the people of our country, expands with the inci'easing light of learning, science and morals, so as to sweep away hoary cruelties and atrocities, however deeply seated in the minds of former ages, they might have given an opinion and made a deci- sion favorable to the progress of human freedom and to the fair compromises long established and acquiesced in by the people of all sections of the country ; but they did the reverse of all this. They decided that, though Virginia, in her deed of cession of her northwestern territory, expressly provided that slavery should not exist therein,' and though the ordinance of 1787 carried out this provision, and though this ordinance was re-adopted at the ratification of the constitution, and though Illinois was part of that territory, yet Dred Scott, when voluntarily carried by his former owner into Illinois and kept there for two years, did not thereby become free. They decided also that the " Missouri Com- promise " of 1S30 was inoperative and void so far as it forbade the existence of slavery north of the line of 36° 30', and, there- fore, that Dred Scott did not become free by being voluntarily carried by his former owner into a State made from the territory north of that line ; ^ that every citizen had a right to take into any Territory his property, and use and enjoy it as such ; that slaves were property imder the constitution, and that an act of Con- gress w^hich operates to forbid a citizen from taking with him his slaves when he removes into a Territory is an exercise of authority over private property which is not warranted by the constitu- tion.^ They also decided that a person of African descent, even if free, yet if descended from ancestors brought as slaves to Amer- ica, is not a "citizen" within the meaning of the constitution. They carried out logically their conclusion by reversing the de- cision of the United States Circuit Court for Missouri, and directing that the case should be dismissed for want of juris- diction.* This decision w^as practically inoperative for benefit to the slave States. Its effect was to rouse the anti-slavery element everywhere to new life and fury. It was soon followed by events w'hich were really the opening of war. We have already noted something of John Brown, and of the reasons why he was called " Osawatamie Brown." He conceived 1 Mr. Justice Catron, Dred Scott case, Howard, XIX. 528. 2 Dred Scott, Howard, XIX. 395, 463-405. 3 Syllabus Dred Scott decision, Howard, XIX. 395, 396. < Opinion of the Court, Dred Scott, Howard, XIX. 454. 760 A History of the United States of America. and sought to execute a dark plot against the peace and lives of the people of the slave States. It was afterv^^ards proved by suf- ficient evidence that his intentions vs^ere made known to such men as Gerrit Smith, F. B. Sanborn, Dr. S. G. Howe, of Boston, and Thaddeus Hyatt, of Ne\v York, and others considered equally reputable in their communities, and that they, at least, tacitly assented, thus incurring the guilt of accessories before the fact.' It was also proved that William H. Seward was informed in May, 1858, of the proposed raid on Virginia, and that although he said he regretted hearing of it, and, under the circumstances, ought not to have been informed of it, yet he did not disclose it, nor give warning so as to prevent it.^ Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, and Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, were also informed of it. Even Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, a learned lawyer and statesman, after- wards Secretary of the Treasury and Chief-Justice of the United States, must bear some of the odium of John Brown's contact. He did, indeed, in the Peace Congress of February 4, 1861, openly declare that the anti-slave States would not execute, nor permit to be executed, within their bounds the Fugitive Slave Law, be- cause they were conscientiously opposed to it, and that, therefore, as that part of the national compact could not be executed, the doctrine of cy pres^ established by the English equity courts, ap- plied, and equity would be done as nearly as practicable by pa}-- ment in money to owners of the value of their fugitive slaves.^ This indicated at least a prevalent sense of justice in his mind ; yet he was informed of John Brow^n's intentions a year before his raid, and though he disapproved, he took no steps to stop the raid.* Thus this atrocious plot went forward. Having matured his plans, John Brown and his associates rented a small farm about eight miles from Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, where a United States armory and manufactory for muskets, rifles and swords had long been established. Here he collected two hundred Sharpe's rifles, two hundred pistols, large quantities of ammunition and clothing, and one thousand five hundred pikes, made expressly for Brown by Charles Blair, of Collinsville, Connecticut. These pikes were horrible weapons, having steel heads with sharp points and edges, and having handles longer than the ordinary musket. They were intended expressly for the slaves, and \vere to be used in butchering not only the men, but the women and children of Virginia. Brown's party consisted of himself, his three sons, 1 Virginia Senate Journal, 1859-'60, Doc. 31, 5. N. Y. Herald, in Whig, Nov. 1, 1859. - Letter of Col. Hugli Forbes in N. Y. Herald. Whig, Nov. 1, 1859. S. L. Messenger, April, 1862, p. 224. s Stephens' Comp. U. S., 590, 592. * Forbes' letter in N. Y. Herald. Whig, Nov. 1, 1859. The Presidency of yames Buchanan. >j6l thirteen white men from Maine, Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Indiana and Canada, and five negroes from Northern States. The plan was to seize the armory, to make captures of as many prominent men and their families as possible ; to rouse the slaves to insurrection ; to strike the \vhite people with consternation ; to call numbers of sympathizers from the North to their aid, and to begin a movement which would free all the slaves as it went on. On Sunday night, October i6th, 18^9, the conspirators actually seized the armory, and made captive William Williams, a watch- man on the railroad bridge. A part of the band, strongly armed and headed by John E. Cook, then went into the neighborhood, approached unprotected houses, with their sleeping and unarmed inmates, and carried ofl" all, including slaves, carriages, -wagons and horses, to Harper's Ferry. Col. Lew^is Washington and Mr. Allstadt were among the captives. In a short time the prisoners were not less than sixty in number.' The conspirators had expected to be immediately joined by large bodies of slaves. In this they were utterly disappointed. No slaves joined them except by compulsion, and those carried oft' took the first opportunity for returning to their masters ; and the first murder committed by John Brown and his assassins was on the person of a slave. ^ A faithful negro, named Heyward Sheppard, employed by the railroad company, ventured across the bridge to watch their movements, and, unfortimately, fell into their hands. The conspirators told him of their plans and urged him to join them ; he steadfastly refused. Eluding their grasp, he attempted to escape ; they deliberately fired on liim, and mur- dered him in cold blood. ^ Confused rumors of these events reached the people of the village and adjacent country. They armed themselves with such weapons as they could find, and surrounded the armory and en- gine house, in which the assassins v\^ere assembled. Col. Robert E. Lee, of the United States army, came down with a body of one hundred marines on the cars from Washington. By this time, repeated shots had been exchanged between the people outside and the beleaguered assassins, and several persons had been slain, among them Fontaine Beckham, Mayor of Harper's Ferry. This murder so enraged the people that they shot down Thompson, one of Brown's band, whom they had taken prisoner.* ' Va. Senate Report, Doc. 31, 4. Baltimore Amer., Oct. 19. S. L. M., 221. - Letters of Hon. .Tames M. Mason, Enquirer. S. L. Mess., April, 1862, 222. 3 Baltimore Amer., in Whig, Oct. 19, 21. Araer. Kncyclop., VIII. 735. 4 Whig, Oct. 21, 1859. Va. Senate Rep. Amer. Eucyclop., VIII., 735. *j62 A History oj the United States of America. Colonel Lee arrived at night, and, having so disposed his force that escape of the conspirators w^as impossible, he considerately waited until the next morning. He then summoned Brown and his party to surrender. They refused, except on condition that they should be permitted to pass out unpursued, carrying their cap- tives with them to the second toll-gate on the turnpike towards Pennsylvania ; these terms were, of course, inadmissible. The marines advanced in two lines, under Colonel Harris and Lieu^ tenant Green. Sledge-hammers were tried first ; then twenty marines seized a heavy ladder, and, using it as a battering-ram, burst in the doors ; the soldiers rushed through the bi'each. A sharp firing was heard inside ; private Rupert, of the marines, fell mortally wounded ; but his comrades pressed on, and after a short struggle, the bandits were overcome. Brown fought with desperation, and fell severely wounded ; one of his sons was killed, and another mortally hurt. All resistance ceased, and the captive citizens escaped without a wound.' Of the twenty-two men engaged in this murderous raid, fifteen fell in the combats with the citizens and the final assault. Two — Cook and Hazlitt — escaped to Pennsylvania, but w^ere captured and sent back to Virginia ; and five — Brown, Stevens, Coppoc, Copeland and Green — were captured by Colonel Lee. They were turned over to the authorities of Virginia. The utmost fairness and liberality were shown in their favor and in the conduct of their trials. Henry A. Wise was the Governor of Virginia. He refused all suggestions of drum-head court-martial and summary justice, and designated Andrew Hun- ter, of Charlestown, Jefferson county, to conduct the prosecu- tion. Mr. Hunter was eminent not only as a learned and upright lawyer, but as a Christian gentleman. All the safeguards and protection of a fair trial were accorded to the prisoners. The charge, made nearly twenty years afterwards, by a German named Hermann Von Hoist, privy counselor and professor in the Uni- versity of Freiburg, that Brown and his associates did not have a fair and impartial trial, is unfounded and false in history.* The indictment against Brown found by the grand jury con- tained four counts, for ( i ) Treason; (3) Insurrection and inciting slaves to insurrection; (3) Murder; (4) Murder, with John Copeland as accessory. One indictment embraced all of Brown's confederates captured with him. During the trials, Charles J. Faulkner and Lawson Botts, of Virginia, and George H. Hoyt, of 1 Baltimore American, Oct. 19, 1S59. S. Ij. Messenger. 2 Trial of John Brown, with review, by Gen. Marcus J. Wright, So. Hist. Soc, Papers, 1889. The Prcsidcjicy of ya/nes Buchanan. 7^3 Boston, acted as counsel for Brown. D. W. Voorhees, from Indi- ana (afterwards a Senator from that State), appeared as counsel for Cook, and made an argument splendid as an effort of oratory. The prisoners were all convicted as charged. The sentence of the law was pronounced, and in accordance therewith they were all capitally executed.^ The statements of an English writer, Thomas Hughes, author of "Tom Brown's School Days" and the "Manliness of Christ," that Brown was maltreated while in jail in Charlestown, were without foundation in truth, and were defi- nitely proved to be false by adequate evidence, which was for- warded to Hughes, but which he does not seem to have had per- sonal " manliness " enough to acknowledge as adequate.^ In (he interval between the arrest of John Brown and his ac- cessories in murder and their execution, a state of feeling was ex- hibited in many of the free States which contributed more than all other causes united to convince the moderate and wise men of the slave States that the continuance of the Union, under exist- ing conditions, was impossible. The Abolitionists openly avowed their approval of Brown's motives and conduct. Wendell Phil- lips delivered a discourse in Henry Ward Beecher's church on the 1st of November, 1859, in which he said: "The rights of that one man (John Brown) are as sacred as those of the Common- wealth of Virginia. John Brown has twice as much right to hang Governor Wise as Governor Wise has to hang him. Is there anything new about this matter? Nothing at all ; it is the natural result of anti-slavery teaching. For one, I accept it ; I expected it. On the banks of the Potomac, history will visit that river more kindly because John Brown has gilded it with the eternal brightness of his glorious deed, than because the dust of Washingtoi rests upon one side of it; and if Virginia tyrants dare hang him, after this mockery of a trial, it will take two Washingtons at least to make the name. of the river anything but abominable to the ages that come after it."* The Boston Liber- ator spoke in terms of the Avarmest approval of a discourse deliv- ered at Dover, New Hampshire, on the 6th of November, 1859, by one Edwin M. Wheelock, a Unitarian preacher, in which he said : "The gallows from which John Brown ascends into heaven will be in our politics %vhat the cross is in our religion — the sign and symbol of supreme self-devotedness ; andyVow his sacrifcial blood the temporal salvation of four millions of our people shall 1 Gen. Wright's re^-iew of trial, 3-8. Southern Lit. Mess., April, 1882, 223. - Letters of Rev. W. E. Griffiths and Rev. Dr. A. C. Hopkins, with affidavit of John Avis, April 25th, 1882. Va. Free Pre.'^s, Dec. 11th, 1884. a 'Whig, Richmond, Va., Nov. 11, 1859. 764 A History of the United States of America. yet spring. On the second day of December he is to be strangled in a Southern prisonybr obeyitig the Sermon on the Mount. But to be hanged in Virginia is like beitig crncifed in fcrusalem ; it is the last tribute that sin pays to virtue."^ And during this same interval, Governor Wise received more than five hundred letters on the subject, chiefly from people in the Northern States. Some of these informed him of a determined purpose to rescue Brow^n. Against this he guarded by assem- l:)ling at Charlestown an ample body of citizen soldiery, v^^ho es- tablished a camp and kept ceaseless watch until the executions took place.^ Many of the letters to him from the North were full of brutal menaces, threatening death to the governor and members of his family if he did not pardon Brown. Other letters, professing to be from his political admirers, appealed to his clemency, his mag- nanimity, his hopes of future political promotion ; but the most significant of all the letters from the North were from men of national fame, well known in the country, and considered to be among the most conservative of their section ; yet they urged the pardon of Brown and his associates on grounds of public policv, declaring that they thoroughly knew the sentiment of the North- ern people, and it w^as so decided and so nearly nnanimons in favor of the pardon of Broivn that the governor ought to exer- cise his power of mercy to conciliate this popular feeling of the North ! ^ The newspapers of the North, with few exceptions, joined in this appeal for the pardon of these murderers for the sake of preserving the Union.* No spontaneous burst of surprise, indignation and abhon-ence had come from the North wlicn the brutal and hideous raid of John Brown against Virginia was fully made known there ; no overwhelming popular meetings had been held to denounce it. But when popular meetings became common throughout the South, at which resolutions were passed to buy no more shoes or cotton fabrics froin the North, then it was noted that a large meeting was held in Boston on the Sth December, 1859, at which resolutions were passed condemning Brown's conduct. Similar meetings, with like action, were held elsewhere, but generally in- spired and controlled by Northern merchants engaged in the Southern trade? But the Southern people could not shut their eyes to the facts that, on the evening of the 3d day of December — the day of the 1 Boston Liberator. Whiq, Kov. 22, 1859. = Senate Report, 31, 6. So. Lit. Mess., 225. 3 Report, Senate Journal of Va., Doe. 31, 6. S. L. M., April, 1862, p. 225. *Whig, Nov. 11, 18, 22, 25, 1859. ^ s. L. Mess., April, 1862, 225. The Presidency of yantes Buchanan. 'j6^ execution — Treniont Temple, in Boston, %vas crowded to excess, and one J. Q. A. Griffin, a member of the Massachusetts House of Delegates, said that " the heinous offence of Pontius Pilate in crucifying our Saviour whitened into virtue w'hen compared with that of Governor Wise in his conduct towards John Brown " ; that in New Vork city a large church was opened morning and night, and violent denunciations of Virginia came from preacher and people ; that in Albany one hundi-ed guns were hred in honor of the murderer ; that in Syracuse and many other towns bells were tolled, public meetings held, resolutions in his honor passed, and money raised for his family.' It was obvious to the calmest of observers that if slavery was to be continued, the union of the States was already gone. If that institution could so blind and warp the minds of the North- ern people as to lead them to sympathize with murderers, assas- sins and robbers, such as John Brown and his associates un- doubtedly were, then it could no longer be either rightful, expedient or desirable that the slave States should remain in government connection with them. No State holding slaves had any guaranty against a similar inroad of murderers, assassins and robbers from the Northern States, upheld and urged on by the countenance and sympathy of a large part of the people of those Northern States. Therefore, the success of the Republican partv and the election of Abraham Lincoln in iS6o were not the efficient cause of the disruption and terrible war that followed. That cause was older, deeper, broader. The world had reached a crisis at which human intei'ests, passions and events were to be overruled by Almighty God to the destruction, in four years, of an evil institution which had been in the world for three thousand eight hundred years at least, and which was so tenaciously upheld by the selfishness of the human heart that an earthquake of disorganization and blood- shed was needed to uproot it ; and so the earthquake came. The breaking up of the great Democratic party was not a cause, but a sign. They met in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 23d of April, i860. The convention numbered nearly six hundred members.^ They attemjoted to adopt a platform and to make nominations for President and Vice-President. They were not able to agree. A writer, well known in history as a states- man and member of Congress from the South, has stated that the "disastrous split" in the Democratic party "was founded upon no practically essential principle, and might easily have 1 Whig Extra, Dec. 7, 1859. S. L. Messenger, 220. 2 w. H. Venable's U. S., 191. >^66 A Histojy of the United States of AmericUx been healed if considerations of public interests had prevailed over those of a personal character."^ But, in truth, there was a wide difference of view in this repre- sentative convention as to the platform of principles to be adopted. The Committee on Resolutions presented a report containing the statements of principle, that neither Congress nor territorial legislatures had the right and power to abolish slavery in the Territories, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor to destroy the right of property in slaves by legislation.^ The Democratic followers of Stephen A. Douglas refused to vote for this report, and it was defeated. The contests and efforts to unite were long and persevering, but vain. It is believed that more than fifty ballotings occurred, and that in these many North- ern Democi'ats sided with their Southern comrades. Among these, Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts — afterwards so much hated in the South because of his course during the war — was conspicuous for his steady adherence to the Democratic phase which then governed the country. But Douglas prevailed. A platform substantially approving the principle of " squatter sovereignty " was adopted by a thin vote of one hundred and sixty-five to one hundred and thirty- eight. Most of the Southern and some of the Northern members withdrew, and met again at Richmond, Virginia, in June. The convention, thus shattered, met again in Baltimore in June ; but even then they Avere divided in counsels. A large minority with- drew. The major remnant nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President and Herschcl V. Johnson, of Georgia, for Vice-Presi- dent. The minority remnant organized a convention, and nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Gen. Jo- seph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President. The Richmond con- vention ratified and adopted these last-named nominations.* The conservatives, known as the " American party," put in nomination for President, John Bell, of Tennessee, and for Vice- President, Edward Everett, of INIassachusetts, with the somewhat vague platform : "The Union, the constitution, and the enforce- ment of the laws." The Republicans, or "Free-Soil part}'," met in convention at Chicago, Alay i6th, iS6o. Their platform was that the normal condition of the Territories is freedom ; that neither Congress nor the territorial legislatures have authority to give existence to 1 A. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 554. - Resolutions in Venable's V . S., 191. 3 Venable's U. S., 192. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 558. The Presidency of yanics Buchanan. 767 slavery in the Territories ; and that traffic in slaves should be suppressed.' They nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for Pi'esident, and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, for Vice-President. Thus it appears that just at the crisis when union and harmony among all the voters opposed to the anti-slavery faction were most essential, they were fatally split up into three separate parties, who refused to coalesce. Their union would have de- feated Abraham Lincoln's election. This clearly appears from the following facts : in the electoral college one hundred and eighty votes were cast for Lincoln and Hamlin, seventy-two for Breckinridge and Lane, thirty-nine for Bell and Everett, and twelve for Douglas and Johnson. Mr. Lin- coln, having received a majority of all the electoral votes, was constitutionally elected President ; ' but he had received only a minority of the votes of the people of the L^nited States. The majority were against him. The total popular vote was four million six hundred and sixty- two thousand one hundred and sixty-nine. Of these Lincoln re- ceived only one million eight hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred and ten ; Douglas received one million three hundred and sixty-five thousand nine hundred and seventy-six votes, and yet he carried only one State (Missouri) in the electoral college ; Breckinridge received eight hundred and forty-seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-two, and Bell five hundred and ninety thousand six hundred and thirty-one popular votes. These facts vividly indicate that the system of electoral votes may defeat the will of the people at the most momentous crisis, and ought, there- fore, to be reformed. Had all the people's votes which were hope- lessly divided between Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell been con- centrated on one man, he would have received a sufficient number of electoral votes to have chosen hini iia the college ; but an ovei"- ruling Providence directed otherwise. Abraham Lincoln was elected by a purely sectional vote ; only sixteen out of thirty-three States voted for him. He did not receive a single electoral vote from any State south of Mason and Dixon's line continued by projection of State boundaries from the Atlan- tic to the Pacihc. Thus his election, though constitutional, came under the deprecatory prophecies of George Washington.'' Li that farewell address, the "Father of his Country " said : " In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern that any ground should have been • Venable's U. S., 192. Swinton, 240. Prof. Johnston, 20G. - Stephens' Comp. V. S., 659. 3 Farewell address in 1796. Stephens, Append. F., 932-937. ^G^ A History of the United States of America. furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discrimina- tions — Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western — whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to mis- represent the opinions and aims of other districts." ^ And he added : " To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alli- ance, however strict between the parts, can be an adequate sub- stitute ; they must inevitably experience the infractions and inter- ruptions which all alliances, in all time, have experienced." ^ These solemn utterances were prophetic ; but slavery wrought the evil he feared. We need not wonder that George Washing- ton, although he owned many slaves, earnestly desired that slav- ery should cease to exist. Hardly had the electric wires flashed the tidings of the election of Lincoln throughout the country before the cotton slave States began to move for secession from the Union. We have seen enough to demonstrate that this movement did not originate merely in the fact of that election. Thirty years of war on slavery had brougiit it to pass. South Carolina moved first. Her convention was called by her legislature. It met, and by a unanimous vote, December 20th, i860, adopted an ordinance undoing the work done on the 33d of May, 1788, and declaring that the union subsisting between South Carolina and the other States, " under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved."^ The legislature unani- mously ratified the ordinance. It was expressly based upon the acts of many Northern States in refusing and defeating the rendition of fugitive slaves, and upon the special acts of Iowa and Ohio in refusing to surrender fugitives fi'om justice charged with murder and with inciting ser- vile insurrection in the John Brown raid, and upon the danger to. be apprehended from the centralizing doctrines and principles of the party lately elected to power in the executive department.* This example was promptly followed. Mississippi seceded January 9th, 1861 ; Florida, January loth ; Alabama, January nth ; Georgia, January 19th ; Louisiana, January 36th, and Texas, Feb- ruary 1st, 1 86 1. The seceding States took possession of all the forts, arsenals and navy -yards within their bounds which they were in condition 1 Farewell address. Stephens, 933. ^gjephens, Appeud. F., 934. ^Ordinanee of Secession. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 560. < Stephens, 660. Derry, 255. The Presidency of yaiites Btichanan. 769 to reduce into their possession. This has been often denounced as rebellion and robbery, but the charge is without justice ; for the soil of these forts had been granted originally with the con- dition expressed or implied that the vState should be in the Union. The condition failing, the soil reverted. And as the products of the South in cotton, rice, sugar and tobacco had for more than half a century borne the expenses of the whole country (being the exports which brought in the imports whence the duties were derived that paid those expenses), it could not be truthfully con- tended that the Southern States had not paid their full share of the cost of all the United States forts. Moreover, the seceding States promptly offered full and fair money settlements as to aH they claimed as their own. President Buchanan had probably never expected movements so grave during his term. He was inclined to compromise rather than to rigor ; to leniency rather than severity. He was also a Democrat of the strict construction school, and although he did not believe in secession as a right, neither did he believe in the right of the Federal government to coerce a State if she seceded.^ Moreover, the means at his disposal were hardly adequate to any such attempt. .Several members of his cabinet agreed in principle and feeling with the .South. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, having found upon examination that a very small pro- portion of the Federal arms had been distributed among the Southern States, had, upon principles of equity, determined that they ought to have their full share, and had, some time previously, given orders under which about one hundred and fifteen thousand stand of arms (muskets and rifles) had been sent from Springfield armory and Watervliet arsenal to various points in the States of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.'' The small United States army was scattered at various and dis- tant frontier points, and most of the naval ships wei-e on foreign stations. Virginia earnestly desired to save the Union. She proposed a " Peace Congress," which assembled in Washington on the 4th of February, 1861. Delegates were in attendance from many North- ern States, and from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- lina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. John Tyler, of Vir- ginia, was elected president. The conference adopted terms of proposed settlement, which were not acceptable either to \'ir- 1 Holmes' U. S., 233. Prof. Johnston's U. S., 211. Eg^leston's Household XT. S., 308. - Richmond Examiner, May 10, 1861. So. Lit. Messenger, April, 1862, p. 227. 49 ■• ^yo A History of the Uttited States of Atncrica. ginia or North Cai-olina. It is unimportant to state them fully, as they were promptly rejected by the Fedei^al Congress, and came to naught.^ In advance of the secession of South Carolina, four of her rep- resentatives in the United States Congress — McQueen, Bonham, Boyce and Keitt — had obtained an intervievs^ with President Bu- chanan, and by his request had submitted a suggestion in writing to the effect that, when the State seceded, neither her constituted authorities nor anybody of her people would attack or molest the forts in the harbor of Charleston until an offer had been made to negotiate for an amicable settlement ; provided that no reinforce- ments should be sent into those forts and their relative military status should remain unchanged. The President objected to the word "provided," on the ground that he did not intend to make any agreement, and the four gentlemen also stated that they had no authority to make an agreement for their State. Mr. Buchanan then received the paper, with the promise that he would return it to some one of them before he ordered any reinforcements to the forts.^ The arrangement, though not a formal agreement, was under- stood to involve a pledge of honor on both sides. The State made no hostile movement ; but on the night of the 2,G\}i\ Decem- ber, i860. Major Robert Anderson, commanding a small garrison in Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, considering that his posi- tion would be more advantageous in Fort Sumter, a stronger Avork and nearer to Charleston, being built on an artificial island of sunken stone in the lower harbor, transferred his garrison, pov\^- der, provisions and small arms to Sumter, after having spiked the cannon of Moulti-ie, dismounted the mortars, and set fire to the gun carriages.^ Naturally enough, the authorities of South Carolina considered this move a change in " the relative military status." Secretary Floyd, of the War Department, earnestly asked that authority might be given him to order Major Anderson back to Moultrie, and his request being refused by the President, he tendered his resignation on December 29th, saying : " I can no longer hold my office under my convictions of patriotism, nor with honor, sub- jected as I am to the violation of solemn pledges and plighted faith." His resignation was accepted, and Mr. Holt, of the Post- office Department, was appointed in his place.^ 1 So. Lit. Mess., June, 1862, p. 344. 2 Letters of South Carolina Com'rs, Dispatch, Jan. S, 1861. 3 Charleston Courier, Dec. 28. Letter from an officer of the Igarrison, Dispatch, Jan. 7, 1861. So. Lit. Messena:cr, May, 1802, pp. 284, 285. *So. Lit. Mess., May, 1862, p. 285. The Presidency of yajncs Buchanan. ^*jl Military forces of »South Carolina took possession of the arsenal in Charleston, and of the forts and strongholds in the harbor other than Sumter. They began, under direction of General Beau- regard, to prepare batteries for the reduction of Sumter. After days of vacillation, 'Pi-esident Buchanan determined to send fresh troops and supplies to Sumter. The steamer Star of the West was chartered for the purpose, and left New York on the i;th of January, 1861, having on board two hundred and fifty soldiers and an ample supply of stores, provisions and munitions of war. On learning of this, Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, immediately resigned, on the ground that it was in vio- lation of an understanding in the cabinet December 31st, and had not been authorized at any cabinet meeting. The Star of the West tried to run in on the night of Janu- ary Sth. A shot was fired across her bow, to which she responded only by hoisting the United States flag and continuing her course. Several shots were fired from thirty-two-pounders in rapid suc- cession. One struck her bow near the water-line ; another heavy shot passed between the smoke-stack and the working-beams of her engine. The work grew warm. The captain and crew be- haved with spirit, but began to estimate the chances of being sunk or captured. The danger was too great ; the steamer put her helm a-port, turned and ran out to sea with all speed. She arrived in New York on the i3th of January, and the soldiers were landed at their former quarters on Governor's Island.' Soon after the meeting of Congress, President Buchanan had issued, in becoming terms, a proclamation appointing the 4th of lanuary, 1861, as a day of fasting and prayer, and calling on the people to humble themselves and pray for Divine deliverance from the woes that threatened the nation. The Republicans of New York treated this proclamation with open ribaldry and abuse. In the Board of Education, one Mr. Warren unsparingly ridiculed it, and a Air. Stafford poured out vials of vituperation upon the President. In other parts of the country, and especially in the border States, the day was reverently observed by immense crowds in the churches, and by decent people in their homes.^ Meanwhile, the seceded States took measures to perfect a vSouthern union. On the 4th of February, 1S61, delegates from each State met at Montgomery, in Alabama, and in a few days adopted a provisional constitution, to contiriue in foixe for a year. They also, by unanimous vote, adopted a permanent constitution IN. Y. [Express, in Dispatch, January 9, 1861. Post, January 15. McGowan's narrative. Journal of Commerce. S. L. M., 28S. -N. Y. Express. Richmond Dispatch, January 1, 1861. S. L, M. 77^ A History of the United States of America. for "The Confederate States of Ainerica." It was modeled on the constitution of the United States. Its opening clause did what the old constitution did not — viz., solemnly invoked the favor and guidance of Almighty God. Some clauses guarded expressly the sovereignty of each of the States. One provision forbade the importation of negroes from any foreign country other than the slave- holding States and Territories of the United States, and the Confederate Congress w^as I'equired to pass such laws as should effectually prevent it,^ Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was, provisionally for a year, elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice- President of the new Confederacy. President Buchanan and General Winfield Scott, conceiving that efforts might be made forcibly to prevent the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, caused a large military force to be assembled in Washington. At the close of his term, Mr. Buchanan retired to Wheatland, his country home, in Pennsylvania. He took no further part in public affairs. 1 Section 9, clause 1, Constitutiou Confed. States. S. L. M., p. 347. CHAPTER LVIII. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. — War. THE President-elect set out from his home in Springtield, Illi- nois, on the nth of February, 1861, to journey to the national capital. He was descended from Virginia ancestors on the side of both grandfather and mother. The name seeins originally to have been Linkhorn. His grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, with his wife and five children, had emigrated from Virginia to Ken- tucky in 1780, to share with Daniel Boone all the hardshijDs and dangers of the "Dark and Bloody Land." In 17S6, he was killed by a stealthy shot from " the brush," probably fired by an Indian.^ Abraham Lincoln was born near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on the I3th day of February, 1S09. His youth was irregular and roving, yet never polluted by intemperance and unmanly vice. He was, to a large extent, a self-educated man, especially in his chosen profession of the law. Such men have generally been leaders in their day. His character was rugged, but not morose. He was resolute in purpose when his judgment ^vas convinced. His disposition was genial and full of the quaintest humor, which showed itself in a ceaseless fiow of homely wit and anecdote. Some of his prevalent traits were exhibited on his journey to Washington. He made several characteristic addresses, which had more wit than logic.'^ At Northeast Station, New York, he said to an assembled crowd that he had received a letter from a young girl in that place kindly admonishing him to do certain things, and among others to let his tvhiskers groxv.- He had taken her advice, and now he would be glad to see her ; whereupon a young lady in the crowd was lifted up to the platform and made her way to Mr. Lincoln, who vigorously kissed her!* As he approached Washington city, he became more serious. He avoided the train on which he was expected to come, and, pass- ing through Baltimore at night, reached Washington on the morn- ing of February 23d, leaving JMrs. Lincoln and his family to come on in the next train. His inauguration was guarded by soldiers. 1 Lincoln as Pioneer, Century Mag., Nov., 1886. pp. 6-14. 2,\t Indianapolis, Columbns. Steubenville and Pittsburg. S. L. M., 350, 351. »Telegrapli from Buffalo, Feb. 16th. S. L. M., June, 1862, p. 361. [ 773 3 y74 -^ History of the United States of America. Such an event had never before occurred in the United States. He took the oath before Chief-Justice Taney that he v^^ould faith- fully observe and support the constitution and lav^^s. His first cabinet officers were : William H. -Seward, of New York, of the Department of State ; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, of the Treasury ; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, of War ; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, of the Navy ; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, of the Interior ; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster-General ; Edward Bates, of IMissouri, Attorney-General.^ The senators and members of the House of Representatives from the seceded States had resigned and gone to their homes ; and this was continued as fast as other States seceded. The first duty was recognized as binding each officer to his own State. The exceptions were few and unimportant" ; indeed, some r.osigned from strong sympathy with the Southern cause, whose States never seceded. On this subject a keen and sagacious mind has noted the fact that " up to the last hours of Lincoln's first term of office Congress would always have contained a majority op- posed to him, but for the absence of the members from the seced- ing States."" Neither North nor South expected such a war and with such consequences as actually came. The North could not believe that a people of twelve millions — four millions of whom were Afri- can slaves — would i"isk the dire results of war on a large scale. The South, especially her more enthusiastic leaders, believed that " cotton is king," and that the necessities of Northern manufac- turers and of Great Britain and Europe would speedily enable the slave States to establish their independence.^ God was directing events for purposes not contemplated by man. Notwithstanding the withdra\val of Southern members, the remnant of the Congress had made no serious preparations for war up to the end of Buchanan's term. Even the Tribune^ of New York, under the editorship of Horace Greeley, had said : " When- ever any considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures to keep them in." * Other Northern statesmen, including one as eminent as William H. Seward, expressed opinions favorable to the policy of " letting the erring sisters depart in peace." They believed that a grand career, without slavery, was still open to the United States, and that in due time Canada would join them.^ A few, 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 607. - Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 207. :< Prof. Steele, in Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note. 198, 199. •1 Tribune, in Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note, V. 9 sprof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const, LiiO 776 A History of the United States of America. like Chandler, believed there would be "blood-letting," but they had no prevalent influence. But for the fixed convictions and policy of Abraham Lincoln, and the support given him by the " w^ar-governors " — Washbui'n, of Maine ; Fairbanks, of Vermont ; Goodwin, of New Hamp- shire ; Andrew, of Massachusetts ; Sprague, of Rhode Island ; Buckingham, of Connecticut ; Morgan, of New York ; Olden, of New Jersey , Ciu'tin, of Pennsylvania ; Dennison, of Ohio ; IVIorton, of Indiana ; Yates, of Illinois ; Blair, of Michigan ; Randall, of Wisconsin ; Kirkwood, of Iowa, and Ramsey, of Minnesota — there might have been either no war or war on a small scale and soon ended in the final disruption of the United States. But President Lincoln regarded himself as constitutionally elected to rule as executive head of the whole country as it ex- isted at the time of his election. He did not trouble his brain with theories of either nullification or secession. In his inaugural address, he declared that the Union was unbroken, and that he would take care, as the constitution enjoined, that the laws of the Union should be faithfully executed in all the States. ' He said : " The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties on imports." But on the 9th March, 1S61, the War Department in Wash- ington received from Major Anderson an official letter stating that he had not more than fifteen days' subsistence and fuel in Fort Sumter. A council of military men was held, and General Scott advised that the fort should be evacuated as " a military necessity," it being, in his opinion, impossible to reinforce and provision it without great expenditure of blood and treasure.^ As commissioners of the " Confederate .States," Messrs. For- syth, Crawford and Roman had come to Washington with full power to treat for the fair settlement of all questions between the two governments. Mr. Seward, of the State Department, declined to recognize them officially, but in an informal interview encouraged a hope for peace. As an intermediary of high dig- nity, Judge John A. Campbell, of Alabama, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, had an interview with Secretary Seward, and, as its result, stated his confident belief to Commissioner Crawford that " Fort Sumter will be evacuated in the next five days." The five days passed ; Sumter was not evacuated ; on the 1 Inaugural of President Lincoln. S. L. Mess., June, 1862, p. 352. ^Documents in Dispatch (Va.), March 2Sth. S. L. Mess., 462. The Presidency of Abraliain Lincoln. 777 contrary, Major Anderson was busy strengthening it. Judge Campbell had another interview with Mr. Seward, who assured him the fort would be evacuated, and that " the government would not undertake to supply Fort Sumter without giving notice to Governor Pickens." ^ Mr. Justice Nelson was present at both these interviews. The last was on the ist of April. Meanwhile large naval and mili- tary preparations by the United States government were in pro- gress, evidently designed to reinforce and provision Fort Sumter. On the 7th of April, 1S61, Judge Campbell wrote a letter to Sec- retary Seward alluding to the anxiety and alarm excited by these preparations, and asking whether the peaceful assurances he had given were well or ill founded. Mr. Seward's reply was laconic : " Faith as to Sumter fully kept ; ivait and see.'" '^ But the authorities of the South could wait no longer. A squadron of seven ships, carrying two hundred and eighty-five guns and two thousand four hundred troops, had sailed under sealed orders from New York and Norfolk. This fleet was al- ready on its way to Charleston when, on the Sth of April, 1861, President Lincoln, with the knowledge of Mr. Seward, sent no- tice by Captain Talbott, as special messenger, to Governor Pick- ens that the United States government had changed its policy as to evacuating Fort Sumter and as to the assurances thereof pre- viously given. ^ The Confederate War Department, being informed of the facts by telegrams, ordered General Beauregard to demand the evacua- tion of Sumter, and if this was refused to proceed to reduce the fort. The demand was made at two o'clock on the nth of April. Major Anderson replied in writing that his sense of honor and of his obligation to his government prevented his compliance. He added a verbal message to Beauregard : " I will await the first shot, and if you do not batter us to pieces we will be starved out in a few days." At twenty-five minutes past four on the morning of Friday, the i3th of April, 1S61, the mortars of Fort Johnson opened fire on Sumter. This was quickly followed by the fire of Moultrie, Cummings Point and a floating battery. Major An- dei'son did not open his fire until half-past five. He and his men preserved their courage during a bombardment which lasted a day and a half with little intermission. By twelve 1 President Davis' Message toConfed. Cong., May 8tla, 1861. Examiner, IGth. S. L. JIoss., 403. -So. Lit. Mess., 40:5. Pros. Davis' Message. Stephens, 608. 3 Stepliens, OOS, 60:). S. L. Mess. '^'jS A History of the United States of America. o'clock of April 13th, the condition of Sumter had become des- perate ; the interior was in ruins ; the parapet so shattered that few guns remained mounted ; the garrison worn out with sleep- less toil. Major Anderson surrendered on honorable terms. He was allowed to fire a salute to his flag. Happily, neither he nor any one of his men had been killed or seriously wounded.^ One of his men was killed by the explosion of a caisson in firing the salute. The United States fleet were oft' the harbor, but had not ven- tured in. Beauregard's preparations were such that, had it at- tempted to come to the rescue of Sumter, it would have been defeated with sanguinary loss. Had President Lincoln and the "war-governors" deliberately planned events to rouse the people of the Nortli and West to a fury of emotion in favor of war, they could not have done it more eflfectually than in the events which had actually occurred. All party distinctions at the North seemed to melt away. All — Republicans, Whigs, Americans, Democrats, Free-Soilers — united in clamoring for war on the seceded States, and the wiping out, in blood, of the dishonor said to have been done to the country's flag by firing on Sumter.^ All of them united to restore the Union. President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers and drafted troops, and made requisitions on all the States. This brought about a prompt decision on the part of most of the bor- der slave States. Virginia had been so much opposed to seces- sion that, in her convention, a motion of Lewis E. Plarvie, of Amelia, that the Committee on Federal Relations should be in- structed to report an ordinance of secession, had been defeated on the 5th April, 1861, by a vote of forty-five ayes to ninety noes. Yet, when news of the preparations to send a fleet and military force to relieve and reinforce Sumter was authenticated, Virginia sent three commissioners — Wm. Ballard Preston, George W. Randolph and Alexander H. H. Stuart — to wait on President Lincoln, present resolutions of the convention, declaring that under the constitution no power was lodged in the Federal gov- ernment to subjugate a State, and ask what policy the Federal authorities intended to pursue towards the Confederate States. They left for Washington by the shortest route on the 9th April ; but rain-storms had washed away railroad bridges, and they were compelled to return to Richmond, and go by Norfolk and Balti- more. Before they reached Mr. Lincoln's presence, the storm of war had actually opened. Nevertheless, he received them on 1 S. L. M., 410. Stephens, GIO. Barnes, 216, 217. Eggleston, 310. Goodrich, 450, 451. Quackenbos, \C\?,. - Scudder, 382. Stephens, 610. Eggleston, 310. The Pi'esidciicy of Ah r aha in Lincohi. 779 Saturday, April 13th (about the time Sumter surrendered), and stated that he had heard they were coming and their purpose, and had prepared an answer in writing, which he handed to them. It repeated all his claims of power in the Federal gov- ernment and his coercive purposes. With this they returned to Richmond and reported to the convention.^ President Lincoln's requisition for two thousand three hundred and fortv troops from Virginia was promptly repudiated by her governor, John Letchei. On Wednesday, April 17th, 1861, her convention passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of one hundred and three a3^es to forty-six noes." Arkansas adopted a similar ordinance, and seceded May 6th ; North Carolina, May 3oth, and Tennessee, June Sth. They all, with convenient speed, became members of the " Confederate States." Richmond, Vir- ginia, became the Confederate capital. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, though slave States, never seceded ; but a large ninnber of their people manifested active and heroic svm- pathy with the Southern cause. The war that followed lasted four years, and was prominent in all the elements of large armies, extended movements, skillful generalship, bloody battles and persevering endurance which his- tory can record. To give a minute account of its events w^ould mar the plan of this woidc. In fact, no truthful account of the whole has yet been written, although books and magazine articles numbered by hundreds have been published about it. Its history in full yet remains to be written. In this work the student will be most safely guided by a brief outline of the whole, and some comments on events which exercised decisive influence. And first, we must keep steadily in our view that this war did not involve either rebellion or treason on the part of the South. The writers of books, pamphlets and newspaper articles who have called her movement "The Great Rebellion," and have spoken of her people as "traitors" or "rebels," have shown ignorance and prejudice united. The States that seceded exercised a right, inhe- rent in the very nature and constitution of the government com- pact to which they were parties. Some of them had expressly reserved this right when they became parties, and their reserva- tion had accrued to the benefit of all. As to all reserved powers, each State remained a sovereign. Their acts of secession were simply acts as sovereigns undoing w^hat they had previously done as sovereigns. The officers of the army and navy who had been trained in the IMilitary Academy iSo. Lit. Messenger. ^official from Journal. So. Lit. Mess., 414. ySo A History of the United States of America. at West Point, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, exercised the most sacred of rights when they left the service of the United States on the secession of their own States, and entered the ser- vice of the States in which they were natives or residents. The South had contributed more than her full share of all the expense of these institutions, and had paid for these Southern officers more than the money cost of their military or naval education ; and had they remained with the North they would not only have been untrue to their real obligations of fealty, but they would have been fighting dii'ectly or indirectly against those dearest to them. Neither was this ^var a civil w^ar in the technical sense of that term. It was not such a war as was waged in England during the reign of Charles I., and -which residted in his overthro\v and execution. It was not a war of subjects against subjects ; it was a war of States against States. Its proper designation is " The War of the States." The States composing the United States waged war against the States composing the Confederate States, and finally subdued them by perseverance, numbers and material resources, and, above all, by the power of the ideas as to human liberty maintained bv the North and concurred in by all of civil- ized Europe. Notwithstanding the bitterness and severity of the war, yet, after it ended, no prosecutions for treason were ever maintained. The attempts at this course against some of the highest civic and military Confederate leaders were made by tenth-rate men of mean ability and character, and were promptly rejJudiated by the high- est jurists and statesmen of the North. But while all this is true in favor of the South, it is equally true that she adopted a grave error as to her position and rights in this controversy. The views of the extreme secession school were that each State, being sovereign as to her reserved rights, w^as the sole judge and arbiter of the causes justifying secession, and had a right to secede for causes deemed sufficient by herself, and that, when her sovereign power was thus exercised, no other State or States had the right to hold her responsible or call her to account for her judgment thus exercised. This is the conclusion which was reached by many Southern statesmen, and which has been upheld as just and righteous by such enlightened men as Admiral Raphael Semmes, of the Confederate Navy.^ It has no adequate basis of right ; for, admitting in full that each State was originally sovereign, and retained her sovereignty 1 In his work, "Memoirs of Service .\float during tlie War," passim, iu introduction and argument. The p7'csidency of Abraham Lincoln. y8i as to reserved rights, still it is equally certain that those sovereigns had made a compact vs^ith each other vv^hen they entered into terms of imion. Each w^as bound by the terms of this compact. To permit any one (or more States less than all) to judge abso- lutely of an alleged breach of compact, and to withdraw merely upon her or their judgment, would involve a departure from the principles of international law. Sovereign nations can bind themselves by treaties with one or inore other nations ; and if any such nation, in the exercise of her sovereignty, commits acts which she judges to be consistent with the treaty, but which the other nation judges to be a breach of the treaty, she wnll be held responsible, even unto w'ar. Therefore, however strong were the convictions of the seceding States that the selfish protective-tariff' policy of the North, and the assaults on slavery and on the claims of slave-holders made by the other States, justified them in secession, yet those other States had the same right to exercise their judgment on the sub- ject ; and they had the right to carry out their judgment in the only method possible under the circumstances, all amicable inethods on both sides having been exhausted. The stern arbi- trament of war was finally in favor of the Northern view of the compact. God, in his overruling providence, destroyed slavery ; and, as slavery was the only efficient cause of secession, the Union was restored. In this colossal war the Confederate States never secured an ally among all the other nations of the earth. Slavery cut them off" from all the national sympathies of England, France and all other States of Europe. The heroic courage and magnificent strategy of their armies and officers enlisted warm admiration among the more generous people of the Old World, but no na- tional helping hand was ever stretched out to them. The only friendly words from a power claiming sovereignty were in a letter from the Pontiff" of the Roman church to Jefferson Davis, Presi- dent of the Confederate States ;' and his words were very little more than empty signs and sounds, when taken in connection with the fact that, at the time when he issued them, some hun- dreds of thousands of his religious adherents had already fought in the United States armies sent against the South, or were pre- paring to leave their homes in Europe to enlist in those armies. As to the battles of this war, a statement curiously untrue has been made in a work professing to be a history.^ It says : " During 1 See Mrs. Varina Davis' Life of Jefferson Davis on this subject. 2 " The Elements of General History," bj- Dr. John Pym Carter, 1871, p. 265. 783 A Hisiory of the United States of America. the sanguinary contest which ensuea, one htindred and tive7ity- seven important battles are reported to have been fought, of which, it is stated, seventy-seve?i resulted favorably to the Federal government Q.nd forty-six to the Confederates ; whileyb//r are set down as having been indecisive." The total number is not exaggerated — rather under-estimated. A great number of infantry skirmishes and cavalry brushes occurred which were not "important" as to the result. And the expression, " seventy-seven resulted favorably to the Fed- eral government," is ambiguous and misleading. In a broad and vague sense, every battle fought resulted favorably to the Federal cause ; for every battle cost many Southern lives and weakened the South irreparably, as she had no source of supply for her armies save her own white inhabitants. But in the sense of " a Federal victory," the statement is unfounded. In 1861 the Federals gained, June 3d, the small aflair at Phil- ippi, in Western Virginia, and the more important successes of Rich Mountain, July nth, and Carrick's Ford, July 13th. By their strong fleets, they also captured the forts at Hatteras Inlet, August 29th, and Port Royal, November 7th. In the same year, though Missouri did not secede, her military movements, under Governor Jackson and Gen. Sterling Price, were all in the inter- ests of the Confederate cause. The Confederates, therefore, in 1861, gained the battle of Big Bethel, Virginia, June loth ; gained a temporary success against greatly superior numbers at Boon- ville, Missouri, June 17th; gained the battle of Carthage, July c^th ; repulsed the Federal advance at Bull Run, July iSth ; gained the first great battle of Manassas, July 21st; gained the battle of Springfield, or Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August loth ;' repulsed the Federals at Scary Creek, Western Virginia, July 17th ; repulsed them again at Carnifex Ferry, Gauley river, September loth ; captured, after a siege and sharp fighting, the town of Lexington, Missouri, September 3oth ; and gave the Fed- erals a terrible and bloody overthrow at Ball's Bluff, Virginia, October 21st. On the 7th November, Gen. Ulysses Grant, after gaining partial success, was decisively defeated by the Confederate forces under Gen. Leonidas Polk, at Belmont, Missouri. Thus the battles of this year (excluding vSumtcr) were sixteen in numbei-, of which the Federals gained five and the Confederates eleven. In 1862 the Federals, under Col. James A. Garfield, defeated and routed the Southern troops, under Col. Humphrey Marshall, 1 This is the battle in which a writer, claimiug the name of historian, asserts that General Lyon and Colonel Sigel, with three thousand seven hundred men, defeated twenty-three thousand Southerners. C. B. Taylor's Centen. U. S., C94. TJic Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. ^83 at Paintsville, near the Big Sandy river, Kentucky, January 9th ; defeated the Confederates, under General Zollicofler (who was killed), at Mill Springs, January 19th ; captured Fort Henry, Ten- nessee, February 6th ; captured Roanoke Island, North Carolina, February 8th ; drove back to their trenches, after a sanguinary contest, in which the Southern troops gained successes, the Con- federates defending Fort Donelson, February 15th ; captured Fort Donelson, with five thousand one hundred and seventy Confed- erates, who surrendered to General Grant, February i6th ; re- pulsed the Confederates at Elkhorn, or Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March yth and 8th ; captured Newbern, North Carolina, March 14th ; gained a partial success with a very large force against a very small force under Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, at Kernstown, near Winchester," Virginia, March 23d (a battle fought by Jack- son for the purpose of detaining the enemy, and which accom- plished his purpose) ; gained the second day's battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, April 7th ; captured Island No. 10, in the Mississippi river, April 8th; captured Fort Pulaski, Georgia, April nth', defeated the Confederate rams and batteries, and captured New Orleans, April 3^th; captured Fort Macon and its dependency, Beaufort, South Carolina, April 26th ; cajDtured Corinth, Missis- sippi, May 30th ; captured Fort Pillow, Tennessee, June 5th ; cap- tured, after a naval battle, Memphis, Tennessee, June 6th ; de- feated the attack of the Confederates on Malvern Hill, Virginia- July 1st ; worsted the Confederates in the battle of Boonsboro, or South Mountain, Maryland, September 14th ; gained the battle of luka, Mississippi, against General Price, September 19th ; and re- pulsed, with bloody loss, the Confederates, under Van Dorn and Price at Corinth, October 4th. In this same year (1863) the Confederates repulsed decisively the naval attack of Commodore Foote on Fort Donelson, Feb- ruary 14th ; attacked, sunk and destroyed the frigates Cumber- land and Congress by the ram Virginia (once the ]\ferrimac), in two separate actions, March 8th ; defeated and drove back to Pittsburg Landing, with heavy loss. Grant's army in the first day's battle at vShiloh, April 6th ; repulsed McClellan's army in the two battles — one at Williamsburg, Alay i^th, and the other at West Point, May 7th ; defeated and drove back Milroy by troops under Gen. Stonewall Jackson, at McDowell, jSIay 8th ; crushed the left wing of Banks' army at Front Royal, May 23d ; fell upon Banks near Winchester, May 25th, and drove him out of Winchester and across the Potomac, capturing from him four thousand prisoners, many cannon and small arms, and a very large amount of military ^84 A History of the United States of America. stores ; made a retrograde movement under Jackson, among the most skillful and successful known in modern history ; repulsed Fremont decisively at Cross Keys, June 8th ; defeated Shields at Port Republic, inflicting heavy loss on him and driving him ten miles from the battle-field, June 9th ; made a successful cavalry movement, under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, around the entire i^ear of Mc- Clellan's army, fighting severely at Hanover Court-house and other places and capturing prisoners and destroying telegraphic lines and military pi'operty, June 13th ; defeated the Federal lleet at Drewa-y's Bluff', May 15th ; attacked and, after a sharp and bloody struggle, dislodged the Federals at Mechanicsville, June 26th ; fought and gained the sanguinar}- battle of Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbor against a large part of McClellan's army, June 27th ; started that army on its disastrous retreat to Harrison's Landing ; gained par- tial success in the battle of Savage's Station, June 29th ; defeated the Federals and forced them to continue their retreat in the sep- arate battles of Frayser's Farm and White Oak Swamp, June 30th, capturing a large number of prisoners and immense stores and army property. In these seven days of battle, General Lee, with an army of not quite eighty thousand men, defeated McClellan's army, numbering one hundred and ten thousand effective troops, capturing from them fifty-two cannon, thirty thousand stand of small arms and more than ten thousand prisoners. The pretended histories which represent McClellan's movement as a " mere change of base " from the White House, on the Pamunkey river, to Harrison's Landing, on the James, are gross misrepresentations. The Fede- ral authorities knew that McClellan had been hopelessly defeated and his whole purpose frustrated. President Lincoln called for three hundred thousand more troops. Continuing the battles of 1S62, the Confederates, under Jack- son, gained Cedar Mountain against Pope's advance, August 9th ; the Confederates reunited defeated Pope disastrously in two sep- arate battles near and on Manassas Plains, August 29th and 30th ; defeated, with heavy loss, a. march out from Washington to Ma- nassas Junction of a division intended to reinforce Pope ; de- feated Pope again at Chantilly, or Ox Hill, September ist, compel- ling him to retreat with his shattered army behind the intrench- ments of Washington. In these defeats Pope's army lost thirty thousand men, including eight generals and nine thousand prison- ers, forty cannon and thirty thousand stand of small arms. Jack- son captured Harper's Ferry, September 15th, with eleven thousand prisoners and immense spoils of war. On the 20th of September llic Presidency of AbraJiani Lincoln. 785 Gen. A. P. Hill defeated and drove back across the Potomac, with terrible loss, General Porter's coi-ps of fresh Federal troops. In the West, the Confederate General Morgan successively cap- tured Lebanon, Cynthiana and Clarksville, with very large stores and after sharjD fighting ; Forrest captured, in like manner, Mc- Minnville and Murfreesboro. Kirby Smith, with seven thousand Confederates, defeated ten thousand Federals, under Nelson and Manson, at Richmond, Kentucky, on the 30th of August, killing and wounding one thousand, and capturing five thousand pris- oners, nine cannon and ten thousand stand of small arms. Gen- eral Bragg, with the Confederate army, captured Mumfordsville, September 17th, with four thousand prisoners, and stores of pro- visions, cannon and small arms. On the 8th October, he defeated the Federals at Perryville, driving them two miles to the rear, with a loss to them of four thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners. He then continued his retreat, carrying oft', however, all his captured prisoners and stores. The Confederates, inider General Lee, gave to the Federal army, under General Burnside, a terrible defeat at Fredericks- burg, December 13th, inflicting on them a loss of fifteen thousand men in killed, wounded and missing. General Van Dorn captured Holly Springs, December 30th, with two thousand prisoners and a great depot of Federal supplies, thus compelling a retreat of General Grant. On December 29th, the Confederates, under Pem- berton, defeated the Federals, imder Sherman, at Chickasaw Bayou, inflicting a loss of two thovisand, while their own .loss was only two hundred and seven. On the last day of 1863 began the obstinate battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, between thirty- five thousand Confederates, under Bragg, and forty-seven thousand Federals, under Rosecrans. This day's fighting was favorable to the Confederates, who drove back the right wing of the enemy in confusion and captured four thousand prisoners and thirty-one cannon. This was the last battle of the year. On summing up, it appears that fifty-eight battles of import- ance and with immediate successes on one or the other sides were fought in 1863. Of these the Federals gained twenty and the Confederates thirty-five. Three drawn battles occurred, viz., that between the Confederate ram Vii'ginia and the Federal Monitor in Hampton Roads, below Norfolk, March 9th ; the battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, May 31st, in Henrico county below Richmond, where Gen. Joseph E. Johnston attacked, with great vigor and temporary success, the part of IVIcClellan's army which had ci'ossed the Chickahominy river : but, having ."JO ^86 A History of the United States of America. been severely wounded, Johnston was withdrawn from the field ; Gen. Robert E. Lee succeeded to the command, and a very large part of the Federal army being at hand and opposed to in- ferior Confederate numbers, the result was indecisive ; and the battle of Sharpsburg, or the Antietam, in Maryland, September 17th, which was strictly a drawn battle. In the year 1863 the Federals, numbering thirty thousand, under Gen. John A. McClernand, and aided by Admiral Porter's fleet, attacked and captured, on the nth of January, after a des- perate battle of five hours, Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas river, with its garrison of five thousand men, under Gen. T. J. Churchill, seventeen cannon, three thousand stand of small arms and a great quantity of munitions and commissary stores. In April and May the Federal cavalry, under Colonel Grierson, made a bold and de- structive raid of eight hundred miles through the heart of Missis- sippi, leaving La Grange, Tennessee, April 17th, and reaching Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in safety, May 3d, having destroyed property valued at four million dollars and captured one thousand prisoners. On the 3Sth of February the Federal ironclad Alon- tattk, with three consorts, all under command of Captain Worden, destroyed the Confederate war-ship JVashville, which had run aground under the guns of Fort McAllister, on the Ogeechee river, Georgia. On the 17th of June the Federal monitor Wee- hazvkett, Captain John Rodgers, captured the Confederate ironclad ram Atlatzta., after an engagement of fifteen minutes, in Wassaw Sound, Georgia. On the 3d of May the Federals, under General Sedgwick, attacked the Confederates, under General Early, at Marye's Heights, near Fredericksburg, and by greatly superior numbers drove them from the heights, capturing a number of prisoners, among others the Washington Artillery, of New Orleans. On the 1 3th of May, General Grant, with the Federal army, which had successfully passed below and to the rear of Vicksburg, de- feated the Confederates, imder General Pemberton, at Raymond, Mississippi. On the i6th, Grant again defeated Pemberton, at Baker's Creek, or Champion Hill, and on the 17th he gave him a third defeat on the Big Black river. Pemberton then retreated with his army and again occupied Vicksburg. Grant closelv be- sieged him by land and water with forces aggregating not less than one hundred thousand men, and starved him into suiTender July 4th. On the 3d of July the Federal army, under General Meade, in their intrenchments above Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, defeated the advance of the Confederates, under General Lee, and compelled The Presidency of AhraL'ain Ai/:coI/i. 7^7 them to retreat. On the 4th of July the Confederates, under Gen- eral Holmes, attacked Helena, Arkansas, but were repulsed with severe loss by General Prentiss. In September the Federal Gen- eral Steele defeated the Confederates Marmaduke and Price. On the 9th of July the Federals, under General Banks, received the surrender of Port Hudson, on the Mississippi. In July, General Morgan, with two thousand Confederate cav- alry, crossed the Ohio and made an extended raid through Indiana and Ohio, destroying much property and causing general conster- nation ; but his command was surrounded by superior numbers, and the greater part of it captured near New Lisbon, Ohio, July 36th. Morgan was made prisoner, but afterwards escaped. On the 9th of September, General Burnside drove a Confederate force from Cumberland Gap, seized it, and advanced and occupied Knox- ville, Tennessee. On the 34th of November the Federals, under General Hooker, carried the Confederate position on Lookout IMountain. On the 35th General Grant gained the battle of Missionary Ridge. This was the most brilliant success, in actual battle, ever gained by Grant. The left wing of the Confederates were routed and driven from the field ; the right wing, imder General Hardee, stood firmly and fought gallantly, retiring in order, and thus sav- ing the Confederate army from destruction. In this disastrous battle the Confederates lost forty cannon and nine thousand men, six thousand of whom were taken prisoners ; the Federal loss was seven thousand. On the 39th of November the Federals, under General Burnside, at Knoxville, repulsed with heavy loss to the Confederates an assault on the intrenchments made with great courage and stubbornness by General Longstreet. On the 6th of September, Fort Wagner, on Morris' Island, defending Charleston, after repulsing bloodily two assaults, was evacuated by the Confederates, and occupied by General Gillmore with Fed- eral troops. In this year, 1863, and on the ist of January, the Confederates, under General John B. Magruder, made a night attack on the Federal fleet and garrison at Galveston, Texas, recaptured the town, desti'oyed the armed ship IVcstJjcId, captured the Harriet Lane, drove oft' the rest of the fleet, and raised the blockade of that part of the southern coast. On the nth of January the Con- federate war-shij^ Alabavm, Capt. Raphael Semmes, after a brief action in the Gulf of Mexico, captured the Federal war-steamer Hattcras and her crew of one hundred and ten men. The Hat- teras sunk in lifteen minutes after she surrendered. On the 3ist ^88 A History of the United States of America. of January, at Sabine Pass, on the coast of Texas, Maj. O. M. Watkins, with two Confederate gun-boats, chased out to sea and captured a Federal gun-boat and schooner with thirteen cannon, one hundred and twenty-nine prisoners, and stores worth a mil- lion of dollars. On the 31st of January the Confederate naval force in Charleston harbor, commanded by Capt. Duncan N. Ingraham (already known to fame by his conduct in saving Martin Koszta from the clutches of Austria), attacked the Fed- eral blockading fleet, and so strenuously beset them that for a time they were dispersed and driven entirely out of sight. On the 7th of April the Federal fleet, consisting of nine heavy iron- clads and five gun-boats, under Commodore Dupont, assailed Fort Sumter and were signally repulsed, losing one (the Keokuk)., which was sunk, and several severely damaged. On the 29th and 30th of April, Gen. Joseph Hooker, who had superseded Burnside in command of the Federal army in Virginia, moved with one hundred and thirty thousand men. Leaving Sedgwick to attack Alarye's Heights, he crossed the Rappahannock river \\\\\\ the bulk of his army at fords sixteen miles above Fred- ericksburg, indulging the expressed belief that General Lee, with the Confederate army, must either retreat or fight a battle in which he would be destroyed. The result was a marked rebuke to so vaunting a spirit. Lee had not more than fifty thousand men, as Longstreet had been sent, with the larger part of his corps, to the neighborhood of Suffolk and the Dismal Swamp. Nevertheless, instead of either retreating or awaiting attack, Lee resolved to make the attack. While he marched with several corps to confront Hooker at Chancellorsville when he emerged from the " Wilderness," Gen. Stonewall Jackson made a flank movement with his troops. May 2d, gained the neighborhood of Howard's Federal corps, fell upon them impetuously about an hour before sunset, routed and drove them in utter chaos and destruction from their camp, chased them for miles, capturing thousands of prisoners, and struck panic into Hooker's whole force. By a deplorable mistake, Jackson was that night shot from his horse by a volley from some of his own soldiers. Had he not been disabled, the destruction or cap- ture of a large part of Hooker's army would have been at hand. As it was, the result was signally disastrous to the Federals. Lee, with his renowned lieutenants, A. P. Hill, Stuart, McLaws, Anderson and others, boldly attacked Hooker in his intrenched positions about Chancellorsville and drove him out, doubling up the Federal army between the two intense and unconquerable The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 7^9 wings of his own inferior force, and inflicting disabling blows at every encounter. Hearing on the morning of May 3d of Sedgwick's successful at- tack on Marye's Heights, General Lee instantly returned towards Fredericksburg with part of his army, met and defeated Sedgwick, inflicted heavy loss upon him, and drove the remnant of his force across Banks' Ford in utter terror and rout. Then, coming back, Lee fell again on Hooker, who barely succeeded in withdrawing his beaten army across the fords at which they had passed three days before with full confidence of victory. The Federals lost in these battles seventeen thousand men in killed, wounded and prisoners, fourteen cannon and thirty thou- sand stand of small arms. This battle of Chancellorsville was among the most brilliant, for the successful army, in all modern history. After it, the Confederate authorities having decided to invade the North in order to create a diversion, gain supplies, relieve the war-worn and blood-stained soil of Virginia, and, if possible, conquer a peace. General Lee, by movements consummate in se- crecy and success, transferred his forces to the northern side of the Potomac. He had an enthusiastic army of about seventy thou- sand men of all arms. The Federal cavalry, under Generals Gregg and Buford, crossed the Rappahannock, and on the 9th of June, 1863, attacked Gene- ral Stuart, with his Confederate cavalry division, at Fleetwood, near Brandy Station, on the Virginia Midland Raihoad. The bat- tle was severe and hotly contested, but it resulted in the defeat of the Federals, who were driven back across the river with heavy loss. On the 14th day of June, the Confederates, under General Ewell, stormed and carried, by a resolute assault, the Federal works at Winchester ; and General Rodes, on the same day, captured Martinsburg. In these two victories the Confede- rates captured more than four thousand prisoners, twenty-nine cannon, two hundred and seventy wagons and ambulances, four hundred horses and a very large amount of military stores. The Southern troops invaded Pennsylvania, captured Cham- bersburg", York and Carlisle, and were prej^aring to advance on Harrisburg when orders from the commanding general caused them to move for concentration on Cashtown, near Gettysburg, upon which place the Federal General Meade was advancing with one hundred thousand men. On the 1st of July, the two Confederate advance corps under Ewell and Hill unexpectedly encountered the Federal advance, 790 A History of the United States of America. under Generals Reynolds and Howard, and, after a spirited bat- tle, drove them through Gettysburg, inflicting on them a loss of five thousand killed and wounded, five thousand prisoners and a number of cannon. General Reynolds was among the slain. This decided advantage was not pushed as it ought to have been, and the whole Federal army came up before the morning of the 2d of July and occupied sti'ong positions on the heights around Gettysbui"g. Nevertheless, on the 2d, Longstreet, with his corps on the right, after a bloody struggle, succeeded in piercing the Federal lines and maintaining his position, and Ewell, with his corps on the left, assailed and carried two strong points import- ant to the Federals. After the sanguinary repulse of July 3d, General Lee did not immediately retreat, but awaited an attack, which General Meade was too wise to attempt. The retreat of th^ Confederate army was, however, a necessity, as they could not. obtain supplies and were in danger of having their cominunications cut behind them. At Williamsport, on the 6th of July, the Federal cavalry at- tacked a Confederate wagon and ambulance train ; but General Imboden, by a prompt improvising and arming of drivers, com- missary men and others who hastened into his lines, met the hos- tile cavalry and inflicted a decisive repulse. Stuart, with part of his cavalry, came up in time to pursue them several miles. In the fall of 1863, after the Confederate army returned to Virginia, some severe cavalry encounters occurred, in which, especially in the one at Buckland's, the Confederates, under Stuart and his sub- ordinates, gained decided successes. During February and March, General Grant made five attempts to gain the rear of Vicksburg by movements from above it, and was defeated in each of these attempts, viz. : At Williams' Ca- nal, at Lake Providence, at Yazoo Pass, at Steele's Bayou, and at Milliken's Bend, or New Carthage Cut-off'; but the prominent trait of this military commander was stubborn perseverance. It was after these defeats that he conceived and carried out the great movement by which his land troops went on the w^est side of the Mississippi to Grand Gulf, and his ironclads and transports ran past the Vicksburg batteries with inconsiderable loss. ' Grant's ironclads were repulsed at Grand Gulf on April 29, but he crossed at Bruinsburg. After investing Pemberton's position on all sides, having some reason to believe that General Joseph E. Johnston would come upon him with a sufficient force to raise the siege, Grant inade two desperate attempts — one on the 19th and the other on the 22d of May^ — to carry the Vicksburg intrenchments Tlic Presidency of Abra/iani L'nieolii. yC)i by assault. Each of these assaults was defeated with a total loss to the Federals of four thousand men. General Banks, with fifteen thousand Federal troops, besieged Port Hudson, which was defended by a garrison of six thousand men, under General Gardner. On the 37th of May, Banks made an assault and was repulsed with a loss of two thousand men, while the defenders did not lose three hundred in all ; yet General Banks tried t^vo more assaults — one on the loth and the other on the 14th of June — in each of which he was sternly repulsed. On the 33d of June, Gen. Dick Taylor, seeking to make a diversion in favor of Fort Hudson, captured Brashear City, Louisiana, with one thousand prisoners, ten cannon, and supplies valued at six million dollars. On the 5th March, General Van Dorn, with his Confederate cavalry, attacked Colonel Coburn, at Spring Hill, in Middle Ten- nessee, and captured his whole force. On the 8th of May, Colonel Streight, who had been sent with two thousand Federal cavalry to destroy the Southern machine shops at Rome and Atlanta, was met near Rome, in Georgia, by General Forrest, with his Confederate dragoons, and after a brief encounter, Streight and his whole command surrendered. On the 19th of September, General Bragg, who had been re- inforced by Longstreet's corj^s, and had about fifty thousand men, joined battle at Chickamauga creek with the Federal General Rosecrans, who had fifty-five thousand troops. The battle lasted a part of two days, and resulted in the total defeat of the Federal arm}^ who lost, in killed, wounded and prisoners, twenty thou- sand men, besides fifty-one cannon and fifteen thousand stand of small arms. The shattered army retreated to Chattanooga, where Bragg besieged them. Longstreet was ordered to proceed against Burnside in East Tennessee. He defeated Colonel Wolford, at Philadelphia Sta- tion, on the 33d of October, and defeated the main army, under Burnside, at Campbell's Station, on the i6th of November, thus forcing the Union troops back to their fortifications at Knoxville, which he proceeded to invest. After the unfortunate battles of Lookout Mountain and Mis- sionary Ridge, Bragg's army retreated southward. General Hooker pursued them ; but at a gap in Taylor's Ridge, near the village of Ringgold, General Cleburne halted his Confederate division, turned upon Hooker and defeated him, inflicting a loss of nearly a thousand men, with a Confederate loss of less than tw^o hundred. 792 A History of the United States of America. After Longstreet's unsuccessful assault on the trenches of Knoxville, he retired towards Virginia, defeating at Strawberry Plains a Federal force which attempted to pursue him. On the 8th September, at Sabine Pass, on the coast of Texas, a small Confederate fort, with a garrison of two hundred and fifty men, under Lieut. R. W. Dowling (Captain Odium being tempo- rarily absent), repulsed, with marked disaster to the assailants, a Federal force of four gun-boats and four thousand land troops. The Federals lost two gun-boats, fifteen heavy rifled cannon, fifty men killed and woimded, and two hundred prisoners. The Con- federates in this unique encounter did not lose a man. By reason of the incompetent strategy of the Federal commander, his land troops gave no assistance whatever to the gun-boats. Summing up these important battles in 1863, we find they num- bered fifty-three — of which the Federals gained nineteen and the Confederates thirty-three. The second day's battle of Murfrees- boro, fought on the 3d day of January of this year, was drawn or indecisive. Each army maintained its position, and, though Gen- eral Bragg continued his retreat, it was a part of his previous jilan, and he carried off' all his prisoners and spoils. The year 1864 was noted for the immense numerical disparity between the forces of the two belligerent powers in North Amer- ica, and yet ecpially noted for the comparative number of victo- ries won by the Confederates. The Federals won no success v^^orthy of a name in history until after Gen. Ulysses vS. Grant had been appointed lieutenant-gen- eral and put in command of all their forces in the United States. This was on the 4th of March, 1864. On the 14th of March the Federals, by land forces and gun-boats, captured Fort De Russy. Grant planned two grand campaigns — one against Richmond, Virginia, ^vhich he proposed to conduct himself; the other against Atlanta, Georgia, to be conducted by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. Both movements began on the same day. On the 4th of May, after the Army of the Potomac started to cross the Rap- idan. Grant, seated on a log by the side of the road, wrote a tele- gram to Sherman bidding him to move. Grant's plan against Richmond was so comprehensive and on so colossal a scale that defeat seemed impossible. Nevertheless, he was defeated. It was in this part of the war that the military genius of Gen. Robert E. Lee, aided by the skill and heroism of his officers and men, achieved its highest triumphs. Grant, with one hundred and forty thousand men, in an army perfectly equipped, advanced from Northern Virginia ; Generals The Presidency of Abra/ia/ii Lhicohi. y93 Crook and vSigel, with twenty-five thousand, were to capture Staunton and Lynchburg, and come down the valley of the James river on the Confederate rear ; Gen. B. F. Butler, with thirty thousand, was to move up James river, capture Petersburg, and approach Richmond from the South. Lee, with an army of sixty-four thousand men, met Grant after he crossed the Rapidan, and fought him in a series of battles, in which he inflicted on him enormous losses in killed, wounded, prisoners and material of war, and maintained his inner lines of communication so completely that Grant was forced to move his army in an extended curve, running around from Mine Run to Cold Harbor, in Hanover, repulsed at every attempt to break the Confederate lines, and actually losing more men in killed and wounded than General Lee's immediate army numbered. Grant's only success was in a part of the battle of Spotsylvania Court-house, May I3th, at an angle incautiously left without adequate artillery support for a time, and at which General Han- cock made a successful attack on the division of Gen. Edward Johnson, capturing three thousand men and thirty cannon. The capture of this angle, with a part of its artillery and most of its defending force, made a temporally breach in the Confederate lines ; but Gen. John B. Gordon, with two brigades, rushed to the critical point and stopped the oncoming tide of Federal attack. The Confederates recovered t\velve of their cannon, but could not retake the angle. At the Yellow Tavern, on the nth of Ma}^, General Sheridan, with a large body of Federal cavalry, had a severe contest with the Confederate cavalry, under General Stuart. In the crisis of the fight, Stuart received a wound, which proved mortal. His fall discouraged his men, and they ^vithdrew, keeping, however, between Sheridan and Richmond ; and the Federal commander, not venturing to attack intrenched lines, recalled his troops. Sherman had under his command more than one hundred thou- sand men when he commenced his advance. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was in command of the opposing Confederate forces, which niunbered not more than forty-three thousand. Sherman sought to bring on a general battle. Johnston, with true general- ship and perfect skill, avoided it, and fell back before the widely extended wings of his adversary, meeting him, however, when- ever a suitable position presented itself, with battle so stern and bloody that vSherman gained no advantages whatever, and was constantly going further and further from his base of supplies, and exposing himself more and moi'e to attacks on his rear and 794 ^ History of the U/ilted States of uA.nierica. his railroad communications. His only successful action was a repulse of the Confederates under Bate, at Dallas. The result of all these movements was that when Johnston's army reached the neighborhood of Atlanta it was fifty -one thou- sand strong, reinfoi'cements having been received, and the whole condition of the force of all arms kept up to the highest point of efficiency. The cavalry and draft hoi"ses were in better plight than when the movements began. In truth, these movements and battles of General Johnston in manoeuvring in front of Sherman mark the Confederate com- mander as one of the great leaders in modern war ; but at the fatal moment, when it was specially a duty to sustain a general who had shown so much skill, judgment and resolution, President Davis and his War Department weakly yielded to the complaints of people (chiefly civilians) in Georgia, removed General John- ston from command, and turned over his army to General John B. Hood, a brave leader, but not equal to the terrible emergency then pressing the Confederate States. The result is well known in history. On the 30th of July, Hood attacked the Federals on Peach Tree creek and was repulsed with severe loss. Leaving a force to hold Atlanta, Hood marched his main army to Decatur, and on the 22d of July gave battle to the Federal left and rear with temporary success, driving the foe from their works and capturing twenty-two cannon, eighteen colors and fifteen hundred prisoners ; but Sherman, by his great superiority in numbers, was able to restore the battle, stop Hood's progress and recapture nine of his cannon. This battle was drawn. General Walker, of the Confederates, and General Mc- Pherson, of the Federals, two gallant officers, lost their lives at Decatur. On the 27th of July, Sherman began his movements to flank Atlanta on the left. On the zSth, General Hood made an attack on the Fedei'al right, but \vas repulsed with severe loss. On the 25th of August, Sherman began a inovement which placed his army along the Macon road in rear of Atlanta. Hood sent Har- dee with two corps cf armee to attack him. The assault was made August 31st and failed. Hood was compelled to evacuate Atlanta. Hardee's single corps was attacked by six corps of the Federal army September ist. His line was pierced and some of his best troops and eight of his cannon were captured ; yet, by the inost stubborn fighting, he held his position until night closed the contest, when he retreated to Lovejoy Station. Sherman en- tered Atlanta without further opposition. The Prcsidc7tcy of Abraham Lincoln. 795 Hood, with the approval of the Confedei^ate war po-wers at Richmond, projected a campaign into Tennessee, hoping to .com- pel Sherman to retire from Georgia ; but this hope was sorely disappointed. Sherman committed the defence of Tennessee to Gen. George II. Thomas, a native of Virginia, who, in the open- ing stages of the war, had shown strong sympathy for the South- ern cause,^ but, having remained in the Federal service, served it most efficiently. On October 5th, the Confederate General French attacked Alla- toona (where vast sup23lies for Sherman's army had been accumu- lated), defended by a comparatively small Federal force ; but the position was strongly intrenched, and the Confederate attack was repulsed with serious loss to them. Hood entered Tennessee on the 19th of November with an army of about forty-five thousand men. At Franklin, on the 30th of November, he attacked General Schofield who, with twenty-five thousand men, was thei^e in- trenched. After a desperate battle Hood penetrated the works, and Schofield retreated towards Nashville ; but Hood lost five thousand men, with many of his best officers, and the Federals only two thousand three hundred, of whom one thousand one hundred were prisoners. On the ic;th and i6th of December, the decisive battle of Nash- ville and of this campaign, so disastrous to the Southern cause, occurred. General Thomas, with sixty thousand men, attacked Hood, whose cavalry were nearly all absent, so that his w'hole force numbered veiy little more than thirty thousand men. The Confederate army was utterly routed and driven from the field, with a loss of twelve thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners, fifty-three cannon and a vast amount in small arms and military stores. The pursuit was keenly pressed, and Hood recrossed the Tennessee, having lost more than half his army. Such were the series of disasters following the fatal error of President Davis and his government. Meanwhile Sherman, having no force to encounter adequate to oppose him, after destroying by fire all railroad buildings and a large part of Atlanta, set out with his army on his " march to the sea " from the neighborhood of the desolated city to that of Sa- vannah, on the water a2:)proaches to the Atlantic Ocean. He lived chiefly by foraging on the country and taking all the supplies of oxen, cows, corn, sweet potatoes and other vegetables that he could seize. His line of march w^as marked by destruction, and 1 Letter of Crcorse H. Thomas, Major U. S. A., to Gov. John Letcher, of Virginia, March 12th, 1861, copied iu Richmond Dispatch, May 9th, 1890. 79^ A History of the United States of America. he left behind him smoking ruins and gaunt chimneys of private dwellings burned to the ground. He destroyed (whether inten- tionally or by the negligence of his subordinates is a question of dispute) in February, 1865, a large part of the city of Columbia, in South Carolina. He appeared near Savannah on the loth of De- cember, 1864, with an army aggregating sixty-five thousand men. Fort McAllister had a garrison of only one hundred and fifty men, commanded by Major Anderson. Hazen's division of four thousand captured it on the 13th, after a stout resistance. The Confederates evacuated Savannah, and Sherman occupied it on the 3oth of December, sending a dispatch to President Lincoln on the 23d announcing the capture of the city as a gift for the Christmas season. To increase the value of his gift, he stated that it included about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. The Confederate war-steamer yi/ai^a/z/a, Capt. Raphael Semmes, after a life of great activity on the ocean, in which she captured sixty-five Northern merchant-ships and destroyed property worth ten millions of dollars, was sunk in the waters oft' the harbor of Cherbourg, France, on the 19th of June, by the Federal war- shijD Kearsarg-e, Captain John A. Winslow, after an action of one hour and a quarter. The Kcarsarge had received the name of the mountain in New England to which Whittier's " Bride of Pennacook " had given added fame. She was protected by spare anchor chains hung over all her inidship section and covered from sight by a light wooden casing ; the Alabama had no such pro- tection. On the 7th of October, in the neutral port of Bahia, Brazil, against international law, and when such an outrage was so little looked for by the officers and crew of the Confederate war-steamer Florida that many of them were on shore, she was attacked by the Federal war steam-sloop Wachusett., Captain N. Collins, and, as she was already in a damaged condition, she sur- rendered. The Florida was carried into Hampton Roads, below Norfolk. Difficult international questions immediately emerged concerning her, but they were all so opportunely ended by a steam transport which ran into her and sunk her, that the question whether it was an accident is unsolved. On the 28th of October the Federals succeeded in destroying, by a torpedo, the Albemarle, in the harbor of Plymouth. In August the powerful Federal fleet of twenty-eight ships, under Admiral Farragut, and land force, under General Granger, approached Mobile, captured the ironclad Tennessee on the 5th, and compelled the Confederate garrison of Fort Powell to abandon and blow it up. The Federals took possession of Fort Gaines on the 7th, and The Presidency of Ahraha))i J^incoln. ^()y on the 23d caj^tured Fort jMorgan, with its garrison of fourteen hundred men ; but Mobile was still held by the »Southerners, though no longer useful as a port. Grant having crossed the James and invested Petersburg with his lai'ge army, the Confederate authorities attempted to relieve the pressure by sending a force of about fifteen thousand men, under Gen. Jubal A. Early, to invade the North and threaten Washington. After gaining a victory at the Monocacy bridge, over the creek of that name, Early pushed rapidly on Washing- ton ; but he ^vas confronted by the manned intrenchments and by two army corps detached by Gi'ant. Finding the risk of assault too great, Early did not attempt it. Some of his troops con- tented themselves with burning the private residence of Mi\ Blair, who had been connected with the government ; and, after some sharp skirmishing. General Early retired across the Potomac and encamped near Winchester. The Federals sent a gun-boat up the Rappahannock and burned, in retaliation, the residence of Mr. John Seddon, at Snowden, in Stafford, probably under the impression that it was the property of his brother, James A. Sed- don, the Confederate .Secretary of War. After gaining a decided success at Kernstown, July 34th, Early was attacked by General Sheridan, with thirty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry, on the 19th of September, near Winchester, and though the small Confederate force inade a stubborn resistance, they were driven from the field with heavy loss. On the 33d of September, Sher- idan again encountered Early at Fisher's Hill and completely routed him, driving him entirely from the Shenandoah Valley. Thi-ough that beautiful and fertile valley, from Waynesboro outwardly, Sheridan then marched in every direction unopposed, and, by order of General Grant, desolated the country, destroying mills, houses, barns, fences, pastures — in short, everything that could feed man and beast. Such barbarity had been known in the days of Attila, of Genghis Khan and of Tamerlane, but never in modern warfare among Christian nations. By the middle of October, Early's losses had been repaired, as far as possible, from General Lee's army. He again advanced as far as Fisher's Hill, and formed a bold plan for surprising Sheri- dan's army in their camp at Cedar creek. This plan was for a time entirely successful. At dawn of October 19th, Gordon, with three divisions, fell on the Federal left, while Kershaw, with two divisions, rushed impetuously upon their right and front. The enemy were broken, and gave way in rout and panic, leaving many dead and wounded, and fifteen hundred prisoners and 79^ A Histoi-\' of the United States of At7terica. twenty-four cannon in the hands of the assailants. But the vic- tory was not followed up by a strenuous pursuit. The Confed- erates halted, and began to plunder the captured camp. The Fed- erals rallied, and began to re-form their broken lines. Sheridan, who had been at Winchester, galloped up and cheered them by his presence and his cry : " Boys, we are going back ! " At three o'clock in the afternoon he attacked, with superior numbers, the Confederates, defeated and routed them, and captured fifteen hun- dred prisoners and twenty-three cannon, besides recapturing the twenty-four previously lost. In one month's campaign Sheridan had lost seventeen thousand men in killed, wounded and prisoners — more than the whole Con- federate force, rank and file, opposed to him ; but he had de- stroyed more than half of Early's army, had captured forty can- non, and had desolated one of the most prosperous and fertile regions of the South. The part of the Confederate force under General Gordon was, in the close of the fall, ordered back to Pe- tersburg. In Scj^tember and October, Gen. Sterling Price, with a small Confederate army, marched from Arkansas into Missouri, and penetrated far into the interior of the State ; but at the Big Blue river, he was attacked, on the 23d of October, by Genei'al Rose- crans v^^ith a force superior in numbers, was badly defeated, with severe loss in men and material, and was driven back into Ar- kansas. In this year, 1864, the Confederates, five thousand in number, under Generals Colquitt and Finegan, met an invading force of Federals, six thousand strong, under General Seymour, at Olustee, or Ocean Pond, in Florida, on the 20th of February, and totally defeated them, compelling them to abandon their invasion. In the same month General Sherman set out from Vicksburg, MississijDpi, to clear the State of Southern armed forces. He advanced as far as Meridian, and even threatened the rear of Mobile ; but the renowned Confederate cavahy general, Forrest, completely thwarted all of the Federal plans. On the 22d of February, at Okolona, he defeated the large cavalry force under General W. S. Smith, drove them in utter rout back to Memphis, capturing many prisoners and ten cannon. Sherman hastily re- treated back to Vicksburg. Forrest continued his operations with marked success. On the 12th of April he captured Fort Pillow by assault. It was chiefly defended by negro troops ; and a per- sistent effort has been made to blacken the fame of Forrest by the charge that he massacred these troops after they had surren- The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 799 dered.' This charge is without foundation in truth, and has been overthrown by the testimony of an eye-witness of the highest honor and credit.^ After Sherman returned to Vicksburg a large part of his army was sent to General Banks, in Louisiana, thus swelling his com- mand to forty thousand men. General Steele had seven thousand Federal troops in Arkansas. A plan was arranged to drive the Confederate forces from Louisiana and Arkansas, and finally from Texas. Banks, with a large arnn, moved northward from New Orleans ; Steele, with his force, moved southward from Little Rock ; but Gen. Dick Taylor, with about twenty-five thou- sand men, attacked the Federal advance at Mansfield, or Sabine Cross-roads, on the 8th of April, and gained a decisive success. He gave battle again on the 9th at Pleasant Hill, and defeated Banks so disastroush' that the remains of the Federal army began an immediate retreat. When Steele heard of these Confederate successes he abandoned his march, turning the head of his column again towards Little Rock. The Federal gun-boats were caught by shallow water and obstacles in the Red river, above the falls at Alexandria, and were attacked day and night by outlying Con- federates. But for the engineering skill of Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey, of the Nineteenth corps, who devised and constructed dams across the river, which so deepened the channel that the gun-boats passed over, they would all have been captured w^ith their crews. In all these operations the Federals lost fourteen thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners, besides thirty-five cannon, eleven hundred wagons, one gun-boat and three trans- ports. The whole Confederate loss was less than five thousand ; and, instead of losing Louisiana and Arkansas, they regained ter- ritory previously occupied by the enemy. On the North Carolina coast, on the 20th of April, General Hoke, with six thousand men, and with the aid of the iron-clad Albemarle, captured Plymouth, with its whole garrison, artillery and stores. In March a great cavalry raid was undertaken by the Federal leaders Kilpatrick and Dahlgren, with the purpose of surprising Richmond, capturing the city, releasing the Northern prisoners there confined, killing the Confederate President and his cabinet, and burning the city to the ground. This raid was totally de- feated ; Dahlgren and his cavalry were repulsed by troops com- 1 The charge is made in D. B. Scott's U. S., 307. Quackenbos, 494. C. B. Taylor's Centen. U. S., 702. Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note, 265, bv Prof. Steele. - I.Iaj ir Charles W. Anderson, Nashville Round Table, March Sth. Baltimore Sun, March 14th, lyyo. Soo A History of tJic United States of America. posed chiefly of clerks from the public departments in a fight about two hours after dark, and very near the city lines. He was pursued down the peninsula ; his troops were disj^ersed, and he was slain. On his person was found a memorandum-book giving the outlines of the plan of raid and assassination. On the 6th of May, in pursuance of his part of the combined attack. Gen. B. F. Butler, with thirty thousand men, advanced up the south line of the James ; but General Beauregard, under orders, had hastened up with troops from Charleston, South Car- olina. With fifteen thousand men he encountered Butler, near Drewiy's Bluft', in Chesterfield county, and in a sharp battle of three hours totally overthrew him, and drove him back to Bermuda Hundreds, on the river. Here he invested him so closely that, in the words of Genei-al Grant, Butler was " bottled up," and was of no further service to the Federal cause during this cain- paign. The movement under Crook and Sigel, who had joined their forces, -was met at New Market, in the Valley of Virginia, on the 15th of May, by General Breckinridge, whose army was greatly inferior in numbers to the enemy, but was composed of material of the highest spirit, embracing the corps of cadets from the Virginia Military Academy at Lexington. The Federals were signally routed, and fled towards every available exit. The scattered remains of this beaten army were afterwards gathered, and, with other troops, were put under the command of Major-General David Hunter, who superseded Sigel. This officer had relatives in Virginia, and other ties which ought to have inclined him to generosity and kindness ; but no Federal com- mander displayed more brutal cruelty than he. He wantonly burned the beautiful private residence of his cousin, Andrew Hunter, of Jefferson county, who had shown so much fairness in conducting the prosecution against John Brown and his co-mur- derers. General Hunter also barbarously used his military power in putting to death, by the gibbet, Mr. Creigh, a gentleman of Greenbrier cotinty, of the highest Christian character,- whose only oflfence was that, to defend his home and protect his family from criminal violence, he had killed a Federal soldier, who attempted to enter his house. So cruel and unjust was this act of Hunter that some of the victim's friends in the North afterwards refused to hold social intercourse with this Federal officer. His large force enabled him to penetrate the valley as far as Lexington, Virginia, where he burned the buildings of the Mili- tary Institute and destroyed the private residence of Governor The Presidency of Abraham I^incoln. Soi Letcher, and much other private property. He then marched by difficult roads across the Bhie Ridge towards Lynchburg; but before he leached the city he was met by Confederate troops, under Generals Early and Breckinridge, and driven back in a retreat noted for its disorder and ruinous disintegration of his army. He appeared no more in arms. Meanw^hile, General Grant was making his supreme effort to destroy Lee's army. The first great encounter was in the " Wil- derness," where, on the 5th and 6th of May, were fought two battles of stern and sanguinary contest, in which the light green forest and undergrowth were skillfully used by the Confederates, and every attempt to break their lines was bloodily repulsed. Each of these battles was a Confederate success, because the enemy wholly failed in his object. In the battle of the 6th, Gen- eral Longstreet received a severe wound, which, for some months, disabled him for service. Finding that he could not break Lee's lines. Grant drew off* his troops and made a flank movement to Spotsylvania Court-house ; but here he w^as again confronted by the Confederate army, who, under Lee's splendid strategy, had steadily moved on the inner lines of the curve ; and here, on the i3th of May, notwithstand- ing the partial success of Hancock's corps at the angle, yet Grant's army sustained a frightful defeat. He hurled his charg- ing columns again and again on the Confederate works, only to be torn to pieces by shot, shells, shrapnel and canister, or to be cut down in thousands by a ceaseless storm of minie bullets. He treated his men, not like human beings with souls, bodies, hearts, nerves, muscles, and who had left behind them homes with wives, children, parents, brothers and sisters, but like " dumb driven cat- tle," or rather like so many machines or automata^ to be mangled crushed and heaped up, and to be replaced by others until his ob- ject was accomplished. It is a definite proof that Grant was de- feated on the 1 3th, that he drew his shattered army out of the battle, and remained quiet for several days, burying his dead by flag of truce, sending oft' his wounded to Fredericksburg and Washington, and "jcaitingfor reivforcements . Again he moved, still on the outer curve ; and again, on the 33d of May, he found Lee with his army at the North Anna river, where again a brief action occurred favorable to the Con- federates. On the 3d of June, finding the Southern army still confronting him. Grant made a desperate attempt to overwhelm them with numbers, at Cold Harbor, in Hanover county. Here, in an assault which lasted only twenty minutes, General Grant SI 8o3 A History of the United States of America. lost seven thousand men in killed, wounded and missing;* yet, with the stubborn temper which was his eminent trait, he ordered another assault ! His men refused to obey the command. He abandoned the attempt to march to Richmond through Gen- eral Lee's army, marched by a flank movement down the penin- sula, and crossed the James river, seeking to seize Petersburg be- fore the Confedei'ate army could arrive ; but again he was foiled. His advance was met by local troops, consisting in large measure of residents of Petersburg, and they defended their position with so much of courage and skill that Grant's whole movement was checked. By the time his main army had come up. General Lee had reached Petersburg, with most of his army ; and in two as- saults, made, respectively, on the 17th and iSth of June, the Fed- erals were repulsed with a loss of ten thousand men in killed and wounded. The Confederate loss was small. In order to carry out his plan of subduing the Sovithern mili- tary force by exhaustion and starvation. Grant had ordered Gen- eral Sheridan to move with his large cavalry force on Goi'dons- ville and Charlottesville, destroy the railroads there, and unite with Hunter in a movement down the valley of the James. But Gen. Wade Hampton, who had succeeded Stuart in command of the Southern cavalry in Virginia, met Sheridan on the nth June at Trevilian's Station, in Louisa county, and defeated him de- cisively, driving him back with heavy loss. Grant then sent eight thousand cavalry under Generals Wilson and Kautz to destroy the Confederate railroad communications with the South and West ; but the Southern dragoons and in- fantry encountered this force and totally defeated them, kill- ing and wounding many, and capturing more than a thousand men, fifteen hundred horses, thirteen cannon and thirty wagons. After this, Grant invested Petersburg as closely as he could, and Lee strengthened his lines, and did all that his constantly dimin- ishing numbers enabled him to do to keep open his means of supply. We have seen that General Early had been sent to threaten Washington. His first encounter was with Hunter near Lynch- burg. Hunter hardly awaited a battle, and Early pi'essed him so keenly that his retreat became a disorderly flight. Early then marched down the valley, crossed the Potomac, and encountered the Federals at Monocacy bridge and creek on the 9th of July. Gordon, Rodes and Breckinridge led the attack and completely routed the Federals, under Gen. Lew Wallace. 1 Badeau, in Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note, 261. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 803 After Early was compelled, b\' the presence of two coi'ps of Grant's army, to retreat from before Washington to the valley, he advanced from Winchester to Kernstown, and on the 24th of July attacked General Crook, defeated him, and drove him, with the remnant of his army, across the Potomac, having inflicted on him a loss of one thousand tw^o hundred men, including Col- onel Mulligan, who was killed. General Early then sent a cav- alry force, under General McCausland, to invade Pennsylvania and capture Chambersburg, with special instructions, which Mc- Causland carried out. On the 30th of July they routed a small defending force at Carlisle Barracks and entered Chambersburg. They made a requisition of five hundred thousand dollars on the town. The authorities were either unable or unwilling to pay it. McCausland then set fire to the town, and about two-thirds of it was burned to the ground. This was said to be in retaliation for the outrages of Hunter ; but it did no good and much harm to the Confederate cause. After this General Early never won a battle nor gained a real military success. He was disastrously defeated again and again, until at Cedar creek and Waynesboro his military career was ended. On the day that Chambersburg was burned (July 30th) the army of Grant met a horrible defeat and disaster at Petersburg. Hoping to make a breach in the Confederate lines, the Federal engineers had run a long and deep mine, with side passages, under one of the intrenched heights of the city held by the de- fending troops. Into this four tons of gunpowder were conveyed. The mine was exploded at twenty minutes before five on the morning of the 30th. A heavy trembling of the earth was fol- lowed by a sound like rolling thunder. The Confederate guns and cannoneers were blown into the air. The Federals in thou- sands rushed into "the Crater"; but before they could emerge and form, several Confederate brigades, with artillery, had has- tened to the scene, and began to pour upon the confused and crowded masses of the enemy a fire which, for destructiveness and carnage, has had few parallels in history. The Federals were defeated and driven back, with a loss to them of five thousand in killed and wounded. The whole Confederate loss was about three hundred. The enemy's dead lay in "the Crater" and outside of it for thirty -six hours, when they vv^ere removed under flag of truce. ^ Between the 13th and 20th of August, General Hancock made several attempts to break the Southern lines north of the James and reach Richmond, but was defeated. On the 19th and 20th, 1 Narrative in An. Amer. Encyclop., 1864, 133, 134. Derr>''s U. S., 317. Quackenbos, 499. 8o4 A History of the United States of America. on the Weldon Railroad, below Petersburg, General Mahone's division had stern lighting with the Federals, under Warren, inflicting severe loss and capturing two thousand five hundred prisoners, including General Hays. On the 35th of August, Gen. A, P. Hill defeated Hancock's corps at Reams' Station, with heavy loss to them, including many prisoners, nine cannon, and three thousand small arms. On the i6th of vSeptember a body of Confederate cavalry marched round the rear of General Meade's left, near Reams' Station, and captured the whole of the Thirteenth Pennsylvania regiment, with a herd of two thousand five hundred cattle. On the 27th of October the Federals at- tacked the Southern lines at Hatcher's Run, but, after a bloody engagement, they were beaten back with severe loss. Meanwhile the advance of Sherman and counter-movements of Johnston were in progress. Though the Confederate general was falling back all the time to avoid being flanked and surrounded by the vast numerical superiority of Sherman's army, yet he de- feated every direct attack. Johnston had decidedly the advan- tage in the battles near Dalton, on the Sth and 9th of May. He repulsed, with severe loss to the Federals, their attacks at Resaca, on the 14th and 15th of May. On the 24th May, General Wheeler, commanding the Southern cavalry, gained a brilliant success near Cassville. In the battle of New Hope Church, on the 25th May, Stewart's division of Flood's corps repulsed Plooker's Federal corps, inflicting a loss of two thousand and losing only about four hundred men. Near Pickett's Mill, on the 37th, Howard's corps attacked Cleburne's division of Hardee's Southern corps, and were repulsed, losing not less than two thousand in killed and wounded, with small loss to Cleburne. In one of the skirmishes on the 14th of June, Gen. Leonidas Polk was killed by a cannon shot. John- ston took a strong position on Kenesaw JSIountain, and here, on the 27th of June, Sherman made a general attack and was re- pulsed, with a loss of nearly five thousand men, while Johnston's whole loss Avas only five hundred and twenty-two. In short, all the known facts justify the belief that if Johnston had not been removed from the command, he might have given up Atlanta, but he would have so weakened and beset Sherman, in front, flank and rear, that a loss or retreat of the Fedei'al army would have been inevitable. But the serious errors of the Con- federate government were a part of God's plan for destroying slavery in four years. While these movements were going forward in Georgia, Gen- eral Forrest, in Mississippi, attacked the Federal General Sturgis. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 805 on the loth of June, at Tishamingo creek, near Guntown, and completely routed him. Out of twelve thousand men, Sturgis lost five thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners. He lost also all his artillery, numbering twenty piqces, and all his wagon train. Sherman sent out two cavalry columns — one five thousand strong, under General Stoneman, and the other four thousand strong, under General McCook — with instructions to meet at Lovejoy Station and destroy the Southern communications ; but the Confederate General Wheeler, with his cavalry, encountered jVIcCook, at Newnan, and defeated him, killing and wounding a thousand of his troops and capturing nine hundred and fifty j^ris- oners, two cannon and twelve hundred horses with equipments. Generals Cobb and Iverson met Stoneman at INIacon, and gave him an equally decisive defeat, inflicting heavy loss, taking five hundred prisoners, among whom was Stoneman himself, two can- non and many horses. Even on his " march to the sea," Sherman did not escape mili- tary disasters. General Hatch, with a detachment of his army, was met at Honey Hill, on the line of the Charleston and Savan- nah Railroad and defeated, with a loss of seven hundred and fifty men. On the 24th and 25th December a large land force, under Gen. B. F. Butler, and a fleet of about seventy vessels, under Commo- dore Porter, made a joint attack on Fort Fisher, at the entrance into Cape Fear river, in North Carolina, and were decisively re- pulsed. A part of Butler's plan of attack was to explode a huge powder-boat, with its full freight, near the fort. The explosion did no harm to the Confederates, but cost the United States a large sum, and brought on the projector ridicule from competent men. Thus we are enabled to sum up the important battles of the year 1S64. They were sixty-five in number, of which the Fed- erals gained twenty-one, the Confederates forty-three, and one was indecisive. The opening months of the year iS6=; brought the war to its close. Notwithstanding their numerous victories and heroic re- sistance, the Confederate military resources were exhausted and their territory available for the support of armies was occupied by the Federals. On the 13th of January a second attack was made on Fort Fisher. Admiral Porter commanded the fleet, and General Terry the land forces. On the 13th the troops disembarked. The fleet bombarded the fort and its outworks for three days, with destruc- 8o6 A History of the United States oj^ America. tive effect. On the 15th Terry made a brave assault with num- bers which could not be resisted, and the fort was captured. On the 32d of February Wilmington was entered by the Federal army, the Southern troops having, withdi^awn. General Grant's whole policy was to subdue military opposi- tion by superior numbers and perseverance. He had written a letter to E. B. Washburne, a member of the United States Con- gress, dated August 16, 1864, which is so characteristic and so pregnant with the future that it deserves the close attention of the student of history. It was written from his headquarters, near City Point, Virginia, and is as follows : "Hon. E. B. Washburne: '■'■Dear Sir, — I state to all citizens who visit me, that all we want now to insure an early restoration of the Union is a determined unity of senti- ment North. The rebels have now in their ranks their last man. The little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, guarding railroad bridges, and forming a good part of their garrisons for intrenched positions. A man lost by them cannot be replaced. They have robbed the cradle and the grave equally to get their present force. Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and battles, they are now losing, from desertions and other causes, at least one regiment per day. " With this drain upon them the end is not far distant, if we will only be true to ourselves. Their only hope now is in a divided North. This might give them reinforcements from 'Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, while it would weaken us. With the draft quickly enforced, the enemy would become despondent and would make but little resistance. I have no doubt but the enemy are exceedingly anxious to hold out until after the presidential election. They have many hopes from its effects. "They hope a counter-revolution; they hope the election of the Peace candidate. In fact, like 'Micawber' they hope for something to ' turn up.' Our Peace friends, if they expect peace from separation, are much mistaken. It would but be the beginning of war, with thousands of Northern men join- ing the South because of our disgrace in allowing separation. To have 'peace on any terms' the South would demand the restoration of their slaves already freed ; they would demand indemnity for losses sustained, and they would demand a treaty which would make the North slave-hun- ters for the South. They would demand pay for the restoration of everv slave escaping to the North. Yours truly, "U.S. Grant." The policy indicated in this letter was, in substance, carried out. In the fall elections of 1864 the Republican candidates, Abraham Lincoln for President, and Andrew Johnson, of Ten- nessee, for Vice-President, were elected over the Democratic can- didates, George B. McClellan, of the Federal army, for President, and George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, for Vice-President. Lincoln and Johnson received the electoral votes of all the United States except New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky ; and yet, in the The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 807 popular vote, the Democratic candidates leceived one million eight hundred and two thousand two hundred and thirty-seven votes, against two million two hundred and thirteen thousand six hundred and sixty-five votes cast for the Republicans. This vote, though definitely favorable to the Republican policy, indicated a seriously divided Northern sentiment.^ In February, 1865, in consequence of informal overtures made by Francis P. Blair, Senior, who was generally recognized as " the master spirit — the real War'-j.nck of the party then in power in Washington"- — a conference was held in the waters of Hampton Roads, not far from Fortress Moni'oe, in the saloon of a steamer, between President Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward, Secretary of State, on the Federal side, and Alexander H. Ste- phens, Vice-President of the Confederate States, Judge John A. Campbell, of Alabama, Assistant Secretary of War, and Robert M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, as commissioners appointed by the Confederate cabinet. The object of the conference was to ascer- tain, if possible, on what terms peace could be made without fur- ther effusion of blood. The conference could not agree on terms, and its deliberations came to naught, so far as the re-establish- ment of peace was concerned. This result was deeply deplored by the most thoughtful officers and men of the Southern armies, and by many of the best citizens of the Confederacy ; but on the return of the Southern commissioners to Richmond, large meet- ings of the people were held, and large congregations filled the churches, and eloquent addresses were made by President Davis and others, which roused a real enthusiasm, but an enthusiasm perfectly empty and vain, because it had no material power to give it efficacy. Fortunately for historic truth, all the important elements of this momentous conference in Hampton Roads have been preserved for our meditation by one of the ablest and purest of the statesmen who participated therein.^ In this same month of February, 1S65, Sherman, with an effi- cient army of sixty thousand men, commenced his march through the Carolinas. The part South Carolina had played in nullifica- tion and secession was ungenerously remembered against her, and though the words cannot be charged on Sherman himself, yet the spirit and action of his marauding army found true expression in their threat that " they would make South Carolina howl ! " Beauregard, with his small force, left Columbia, and on the 17th of February vSherman occupied it. History has nothing to add to the 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 82G. 2 Stephens, Append. R., 1002. 3 Alex. H. Stephens' Comp. U. S., Append. R., 998-1017. 8o8 A History of the United States of America. remai"ks already made concerning his destruction, by fire, of this beautiful city. General Hardee, to escape the error and the fate of Pemberton at Vicksburg, evacuated Charleston and marched to join Beauregard. The end was coming, but the fighting energies of the South showed themselves to the last. Orders were given under which all the scattered troops of Beauregard, Hardee and Bragg were drawn together and put under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. When it was too late the Confederate gov- ernment thus rendered tardy justice to this consummate soldier. On the 2d of IMarch, Sheridan, pressing through the Shenandoah Valley with a large force of infantry, cavalry and light artillery, gave Early a final overthrow at Waynesboro, and captured about one thousand six hundred prisoners ; then, continuing his march with varied fortune, he united with Grant, On the extended lines around Petersburg, Gordon, with his unconquered Confederates, attacked Fort Steadman on the 25th of March, and captured the works, with many prisoners and guns ; but there being no troops to support him, he was, in turn, assaulted by overpowering num- bers and driven out of the works with very heavy loss. General Lee, with his thin intrenched lines, extending thirty- five miles, was doing all that the ablest military leader could do to maintain them. On the ist of April, Sheridan, with numbers not to be resisted, defeated Pickett's division at Five Forks, and captured four thousand prisoners. The next day Grant made the decisive move, broke the Confederate lines, and drove them in upon Fort Gregg. Here they rallied, and sustained with courage unto death three successive assaults of Gibbon's Federal division ; and when at last the fort was carried, out of its two hundred and fifty defenders all except thirty were killed or wounded, and five hundred Federals were prostrate on the ground. This was Sunday, April 3d. General Lee telegraphed to the Confederate authorities in Richmond that his lines were broken and he must retreat. Most of the people were in the churches when these tidings reached them. The city was filled with con- fusion and distress. Of course, the Confederate President and his cabinet and staff officers hastened to retreat while they could. The Southern troops around the city followed as soon as practicable; but, by an un- happy violation of all rights of private property, whether in peace or in war, the Confederate War Department gave orders under which not only were all armories, armed vessels, arsenals, and powder and percussion-cap factories blown up, but the exten- sive Shockoe and other warehouses, containing some thousands The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. S69 of hogsheads of leaf tobacco (nearly all of which was private piopcrty) were set on fire. No adequate means for checking and limiting the flames existed. They soon spread to the adjoining railroad buildings and bridge, and to rows of private houses. The conflagration was terrible, involving warehouses, stores, private residences and churches. Fortunately, the Federal troops, almost unopposed, entered the city while the fire was still raging. They immediately estab- lished .rigid military discipline and order, and by steady exer- tions, aided by private residents, and blowing up of houses, ar- rested the fire, but not before it had destroyed property worth millions of dollars. General Lee retreated, hoping to be able to join Johnston in North Carolina ; but his army was no longer the compact and powerful engine of intelligence and force with which, from the summer of 1863, he had performed such prodigies. Near Dea- tonsville a severe conflict took place on April 6th, with Southern loss. With thinned columns and lines, Lee was followed, beset, surrounded by two hundred thousand men of all arms. At Appomattox Court-house, on the 9th of April, 186c;, i\e surrendered his army to General Grant. The terms accorded by that wise and foreseeing Federal commander were in the highest degree liberal and considerate. Grant knew that the war was ended. After stacking their arms and colors, and giving their parole not to serve again until exchanged, the Southern officers and men were permitted to return to their homes and peaceful employments, safe from any molestation by the Federal authori- ties, the ofiicers being allowed to retain their side-arms, and ofli- cers and men to retain such horses as were their private prop- erty.^ The last clause was emphasized by General Grant in words of true, yet simple, magnanimity, "because they would need their horses for spring ploughing and farm work." And this generous treaty was steadily upheld by General Grant. When, afterwards, private malignity sought to arrest and prose- cute Robert E. Lee upon the unfounded charge of treason, and when efibrts were made to treat the Confederate partisan Mosby as an outlaw. General Grant interposed, and, by his prevalent position and power, shielded them and all others similarly situ- ated from all such persecutions. Not more than eight thousand men were in his army when Lee surrendered ; but the terms included all the ofiicers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia, whei'ever they might be. 1 Derry's U. S., 327. Stephens, 829-831. Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 241, 242. 8io A History of the United States of Afuerica. On the i3th of April the city of Mobile yielded to a combined naval and military approach, and was surrondered to the Federals. Yet, in all the closing conflicts of this gigantic war, the Con- federates won successes whenever they were not fatally outnum- bered. On the 6th of February, General Grant attempted to turn the right of the Soiuhern army at Hatcher's Run, and re- ceived a repulse so bloody and decisive that his troops were with- drawn. On his march through South Carolina, Sherman sent a large cavalry force under Kilpatrick to capture Augusta ; btit at Aiken General Wheeler, with his dragoons, encountered Kilpat- rick, and defeated him, thus saving Augusta. On the 8th of March, at Kinston, North Carolina, General Bragg gained a dis- tinct success over a part of Sherman's army. On the i6th of March, General Hardee fought at Averysboro a bloody, but inde- cisive, battle with the advance corps of Sherman's force. On the 19th and 20th of March the Confederate army, under General Johnston, met and fought Sherman at Bentonville, and gained important successes ; but their numbers were too small to resist the flanking process to which Sherman was again obliged to resort in order to dislodge and drive back his skillful foe. Sher- man took possession of Goldsboro, where he was joined by the troops from the coast under Generals Schofield and Terry. Gen- eral Johnston, with his army, which was now nearly forty thou- sand strong, took a strong position at Greensboro, near the site of old Guilford Court-house. On the night of the 14th of April, 1S65, in Ford's theatre, in Washington city, as President Lincoln sat in a private box, he was stealthily approached behind by a play-actor named John Wilkes Booth, a son of Junius Brutus Booth, the great English tragedian. Booth professed violent sympathy for the Southern cause, but was never in her armies nor in her service in any form. He was one of a band of assassins. He shot President Lincoln through the head ; then, crying out, " Sic semper tyrannis! " he leaped to the stage, and, notwithstanding a severe injury received in his desperate movement, he made his w^ay out of the theatre by the rear passages, mounted a horse, and escaped into Virginia with a co-conspirator named Harrold. They crossed the Rappahannock river from Port Conway, and ob- tained temporary refuge in the house of Richard Henry Garrett, in Caroline county, on the river, about two miles north of Port Royal. Booth was on crutches, but his conversation was so full of vivacity « that he made a pleasant impression on the family. They knew him only as Mr. Boyd. By this name he was introduced to them by The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 8ii Lieutenant Ruggles and Mr. William Jett, who represented him as having been wounded at Petersburg. When ISIr. Garrett heard the next day of the assassination of President Lincoln, he ex- pressed deep regret, saying : " I hope it is not so. I believe it would be one of the greatest calamities that could befall us." Booth said, excitedly, "Do you think that?" Mr. Garrett an- swered, " I do." Booth said, " I cannot think so. I rather be- lieve, if it is so, that good will come of it to the South." He was heavily armed with pistols. By his request Mr. Garrett permit- ted him and Ilarrold to spend the night in a tobacco barn at some distance from the house. The suspicions of the family were nat- urally excited, and the sons of Mr. Garrett kept watch on their stable. Harrold had imprudently disclosed some of the truth in the presence of Jett. A reward of twenty-five thousand dollars had been offered for the arrest of the assassin. A small party of Fed- eral soldiers, under Lieutenant Dougherty, were on Booth's track. They came to Mr. Garrett's at one o'clock at night. They broke in the door, and arrested the family. One of the sons told them that if they were in search of the two men who had been there, they were in the tobacco barn, which he pointed out. They sur- rounded the barn. Harrold came out and surrendered himself. Booth declared he would never give himself up alive. They threatened to burn the barn. He begged them not to do so, as it would do injury to the innocent owner. He asked that they would give him a chance for his life by giving him ten steps start when he came out — they refused ; five steps — they refused. One of the soldiers then set fire to a bundle of hay and threw it into the loft. It kindled quickly, and by its light a soldier, named Boston Corbett, saw Booth through a crevice in the barn, took aim and fired, sending his bullet through his head, passing in under the left ear and coming out on the right side of the head. He fell mortally wounded. One of the sons of Mr. Garrett was sent in, and, though badly burned, succeeded in bringing out the body still living. Booth died on the plank floor of the porch of Mr. Garrett's house. His last words, to a lady — a teacher in the family — who moistened his lips with her handkerchief dipped in water, were : "Tell my mother I died for my country, and what I thought was best for it." ' But whether sincere or not. Booth was an assassin, and the curse of heaven followed his deed. President Lincoln was mcdi- 1 Narrative of Dr. G. G. Roy, in Riclimond Dispatcli, May 30th, 1886, taken from Miss H., the teacher. 8i2 A History of the United States of America. tating and preparing a plan of pacification which would in due time have restored the Union without the dismal period of recon- struction, injustice and outrage which followed his death. Slav- ery was already gone, never to return ; and the heart of Lincoln was not set on bitterness and revenge. The theories of Andrew Johnson, who became President when Lincoln died, Avere full of false premises and unsound logic, and did great harm to the se- ceded States ; and they were, unhappily, seconded by the hatred of civilians and the bitter feelings toward prominent Southern men kindled by the assassination of President Lincoln.^ The President died at twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock on the morning of April 15th. On the same night in which he was assassinated an attempt was made on the life of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, at his home. Mr. Seward and his son were both wounded. No doubt could reasonably exist that a conspii'acy had been formed for the piu'pose of destroying the Federal rulers. Severe measures followed. Efforts were sedu- lously made by the more virulent of the South-haters to produce the impression that the chief Confederate rulers were accessories to Booth's guilt. A reward of one hundred thousand dollars was offered for the arrest of Jefferson Davis. He was captured by a squad of Wil- son's cavalry, near Irwinville, Georgia, on the loth of May. He was put in irons and confined in Fortress IVIonroe. At nearly the same time Alexander H. Stephens, Mr. Reagan, ex-Governor Lub- bock, of Texas, and many other prominent statesmen of the South were arrested and put in confinement ; but not a shadow of evi- dence of complicity in Booth's crime ever appeared against them, and they were successively released. An indictment for treason was found against Mr. Davis. He had been subjected to harsh and cruel imprisonment in Fortress Monroe ; but he was bailed on the 13th day of May, 1867. Horace Greeley and other eminent Northern men became his sureties. He was released, and the prosecution for treason was abandoned about a year afterwards.^ As President Davis and his flying cabinet officers passed through Greensboro they had an interview with General Johnston and au- thorized him to make the best terms he could for restoration of peace. Accordingly, Sherman and Johnston met near Durham Station and concluded what will always be known in history as the " Sherman-Johnston Convention," signed by both on the 18th of May. 1 Stephens, 831-836. Deny, 328, 329. Quackenbos, 504, 505. Eggleston, 350, 351. 2 Stephens, 843, 844. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. 813 It consisted of seven articles : ( i ) That the armies in the field should maintain their status quo until after forty -eight hours' no- tice ; (2) The Confedex^ate armies to be disbanded and to deposit their arms in the "State" arsenals, and each officer and man to sign an agreement to cease from war and abide the action of both State and Federal authorities ; (3) The United States Executive to recognize the several State governments on their officers and legis- latures taking the oath prescribed by the Federal constitution ; in case of conflicting State governments the Supreme Court to decide ; (4) The re-establishment of the Federal courts in each State ; (5) The people of each State to be guaranteed, as far as execu- tive power could do so, their rights, political and civil, under the constitution and laws ; (6) The executive not to disturb any peo- ple by reason of the late war so long as they lived peaceably and obeyed existing laws ; (7) The war to cease, general amnesty, so far as the executive could command, and return to peaceful pur- suits. Not being fully empowered in the premises, full powers to be sought and, if possible, obtained for carrying out the terms agreed on.^ General vSherman, in consenting to this convention, considered himself as carrying out the wishes and policy of President Lin- coln ; and it was undoubtedly in accord with the resolution of the United States House of Representatives, offered by Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, and sustained by John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, on the 33d day of July, 1S61, and adopted by a vote of one hundred and seventeen ayes to two noes, which declared that " Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resent- ment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation or purpose of overthrow- ing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several States unimpaired ; and that, as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease."* But a deplorable change had come, under the influence of par- tisan rancor, and of the public rage following the assassination of President Lincoln. President Johnson and his cabinet refused to ratify the " Sherman-Johnston Convention " ; thereupon General Johnston surrendered his army on the same terms as those granted to General Lee. I The memorandum of convention is given in fnll in Stephens' Comp. U. S., 833, 834. -Amer. Encyclop., 1861, p. 224. 8i4 ^ History of the United States of America. This was soon followed by the surrender of all the Confederate armies on nearly the same terms. The last surrender was made by Gen. E. Kirby Smith, in Texas, on the 26th of May. The last actual collision of the hostile forces was at Palmetto Ranche, on the Rio Grande, in Texas. Here, on the 13th of May, a Federal cavalry force, under Colonel Barrett, was defeated by Confederate cavalry, under Gen. J. E. Slaughter, and vigor- ously pressed in a chase of fifteen miles. Thus the important battles of 1865 were fifteen in number, of which the Federals gained nine, the Confederates five, and one was indecisive. This enables us to sum up for the whole period of the war as follows : The whole number of important battles was two hun- dred and seven, of which the Confederates gained one hundred and twenty-seven ; the Federals seventy-four, and six were drawn or indecisive. During President Lincoln's administration two new States were added to the Union — viz.. West Virginia, in 1863, and Ne- vada, on the 31st of October, 1864. But the act of erecting that part of Virginia called West Virginia into a State is open to very serious questions of constitutional and legal challenge. The con- stitution of the United States expressly forbids that any new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State without the consent of the legislature of the State concerned, as well as of the Congress.' The assumption that the legislature of Virginia ever gave consent to the erection of this new State within her jurisdiction depends for its support upon a series of fictions too thin and illusory ever to gain the credence of common sense. The only ground on which the new State could have any sound standing is the ground that war made her, and maintained her so long that what has been done cannot be undone. But time does not bar the claim of a sovereign. In the words of Henry A. Wise, West Virginia was brought into being by the "Caesarian operation"; and yet both mother and child are alive and strong. On the 4th of March, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President for his second term. On the 15th of April, his life went out in blood. Five hundred thousand lives, from North and South, had gone out in blood during his term of service; and yet it would have been well, for North and South, that he had lived. 1 U. S. Constitution, Art. IV., sec. 3, clause first. CHAPTER LIX. The War, axd Andrew Joiixsons Presidency. IN order to the intelligent study of the phenomena attending the life of the United States during the presidency of Andrew Johnson, and the period that followed it, we must briefly review the facts which gave to the war its character and its results. It lasted four years — a longer period than any European war has lasted since the overthrow of the empire under the first Na- poleon. Neither section, when the war commenced, had any deliberate thought that the conflict of arms would be so pro- longed. It was drawn out in length by influences, human, indeed, in their inception and progress, but Divine in their purpose and providential issue. The destruction of slavery was that purpose and issue. We have seen enough in the facts to prove that the South was not overcome by the superior warlike qualities of the Northern people. Admitting, as we may, equality ofnative courage in the individuals of the two sections, yet it is certain that the Southern people had been made superior in j^^7^////^ qualities by all the cir- cumstances of their origin, birth, education and habits of thought and action. The Northern people were more settled in their pur- suits of peace and material success. And this difterence, though modified and diminished, continued throughout the war. Neither was the result brought about by the mere fact that the North, in population, greatly outnumbered the South. Great Britain, in the Revolutionary W^ar, outnumbered the colonies in much larger proportion ; and yet that war was won by the colo- nies. Had the war been brief, the South would have won her cause and her independence. God, in his overruling providence, caused the war to be prolonged. We can only look with human limi- tations upon the causes, for which men may be held liable as authors, and which made the war a long one. On the side of the South it brought to the front a man who dis- played the very highest genius for war — a genius not inferior to that of Napoleon I. himself, and yet not warped or stimulated [ 815 ] 8i6 A History of the United States of America. by his unscrupulous ambition. This man was Thomas Jonathan Jackson, generally known as " Stonewall Jackson," because of words applied to his brigade at the first battle of Manassas, where it stood "like a stone wall." Prior to the war, although he had done well all that duty called for, his genius for war had not made itself conspicuous ; but as the struggle went on, he became constantly more and moi'e noted for strategic power. His cainpaign in the Valley of Virginia in the early part of 1862 was definitely superior to the Italian cam- paign of Napoleon in 1796 — superior in the -results won by being strongest in a critical encounter, in the rapidity of the movements, the lightning-like shock of the onset, the combination of concur- ring marches, the using of smaller numbers so as absolutely to bewilder and rout larger numbers, and the controlling genius which governed all and infused itself as a conquering force into all the minds of his army. And this genius for war shovi^ed itself more and more up to the hour when he was shot from his horse by his own men. He was grand in the campaign against JMcClellan, in the decisive and crushing movements against Pope, in the concentrating marches to capture Harper's Ferrv, in the opportune arrival on the field of Sharpsburg, in the desolating defeat of Burnside, and especially in the silent and magnificent flank march by which he gained the weak side of Hooker's army, routed Howard's corps, and filled the Federal host ^vith the conviction that their defeat was inevi- table. He never left a post to be surrounded, to be starved into sub- mission and captured with its garrison of thousands. He never made a rash attack on superior numbers behind intrenchments, to the destruction of his army. He retreated when it was need- ful, but even in retreat struck terrible blows upon his ene- mies. He proved himself equal to the efficient command of any numbers. He was devout and God-fearing, and though he believed in the absolute sovereignty of God, believed also in the free-agency of man, the energetic use of human means, the contingency of sec- ond causes, and the efficacy of prayer. Even in the supreme mo- ments when, on horseback, he was about to direct the forces of his army upon his chosen points of attack, his lips were often seen to move in silent prayer. This gi'eat military genius believed in making the war "short, sharp and decisive" — in making it intensely aggressive on the part of the South, His views as to taking no prisoners and making Tlie War, and Amh-ezu yohnsoji\'^ Presidency. 817 war in practice what it is in theory, viz., the destruction, by the most efficient means possible, of the fighting powdr of the en- mny, were theoretical and speculative, rather than controlling;^ for no commander ever was more humane to prisoners than he \vas. And all the light we have tends to produce the belief that, if the fighting elements of the Southern States had been rapidly organized and had been, early in the war, precipitated on the North in an aggressive campaign, the war would have been shorter in duration and different in result. The South produced another great militaiy genius, equal in all important respects to Jackson, but ditTering from him in some traits and tendencies. This ^vas Robert Edward Lee, who was commander-in-chief of the Army of Northern Virginia from about the 30th of Mav, 1863, and finally commander-in-chief of all Southern forces. He, too, was profoundly devout and Christian in character. He Avas calm and self-possessed in all emergencies. He was capable of controlling and combining any numbers in- trusted to him. His campaigns, and especially that of 1864, have placed him high among the highest in military fame. He was deep!}' revered and beloved by officers and men. He labored, during a large part of the war, under the disadvantage of com- manding armies in which the men were frequently unsupplied with clothing, blankets, shoes and sufficient food, and of repre- senting these facts again and again to the Confederate War De- ' partment without obtaining them, because of insuperable difficul- ties.^ Yet he never lost the affection of his men, and it was never more pathetically exhibited than at the time of his surren- der at Appomattox. But General Lee had one trait of soul and character well known to those who knew him best, high and noble in itself, and yet exceedingly dangerous if impulsively exercised by a com- mander-in-chief. It was the quality of personal daring which was willing to face, and by impetus to overcome, military force opposing him. He was, at any time, readv to take upon himself personally any risk of wounding or death to which he required his men to subject themselves. In several of his most critical battles he declared his purpose to lead a charge of imminent peril, and nothing but the remonstrances of his officers and men, and their declarations that they would not move until he left the front, prevented these personal exposures, some one of which would, doubtless, have resulted in his death. 1 Letter of Rev. Dr. R. L. Dabney, Professor of Pliilosophy, I'niv. of Texas, and formerly ou General Jackson's staff. Balto. Siin. copied in Richmond Dispatch, June 28th, 1889. -Letters of General Lee, Dispatch, Richmond, Va., May 30th, 1890. 8l8 A History of the United States of Avicricct. This readiness for the most perilous conflicts exhibited itself in the daring attacks he made upon the bristling lines of McClellan's army, when they held the intrenched brow of Malvern Hill. Notwithstanding the persistent artillery fire of the Confederates before they charged, their charges, though repeated again and again with desperate courage, were bloodily repulsed. But the most momentous exercise of this trait in the charac- ter of this great cominanding officer was at Gettysburg. This battle and the causes of the Confederate defeat therein have been a subject of labored discussion. North and South and in Eu- rope, ever since it occurred. Several volumes and many hundi-ed pages have been printed concerning it, and, unhappily, the dis- cussions and statements have been, to a considerable extent, dis- torted and turned aside from the direct search for truth by mili- tary jealousies and partisan bitterness. It is the duty of the stu- dent to eliminate, as far as possible, these disturbing causes from his researches and, with a single eye, to look at ascertained facts and the fair inferences deducible from them. When General Lee passed with his army into Pennsylvania it had not been his intention to deliver a general battle unless at- tacked;^ especially an offensive battle, so far from his base of supplies and support, had not been contemplated by him ;^ but his cavahy, under General Stuart and his able subordinates, had been intrusted with a wide discretion, had fought several severe battles, had captured trains, and had become so scattered that no part of it was available at Gettysburg. Consequently, the opin- ion of an officer high in rank and reputation in the Southern army has been given in the following words : " The failure to crush the Federal army in Pennsylvania in 1863, in the opinion of almost all the officers of the Army of Northern Virginia, can be expressed in five words — the absence of our cavalry.'''' ^ Their absence might not have had an eff'ect so grave as he as- cribes to it ; t)ut it certainly operated to keep General Lee ignorant of the position and movements of the Federal army. The colli- sion of the advanced corps of the two armies at Gettysburg was as nearly accidental as such an event could be. On the 3d of July, General Lee found his infantiy and artillery force face to face with the whole Federal army, under General Meade. That army was assuredly not less than ninety thousand in effective strength. On the 27th of June, General Hooker, still in command, had estimated his number of enlisted men at one 1 General Lee's Report of Gettysburg Campai.arn, So Hist. Soc. Papers, July, 1876, page 41. ^General Longstreet's Report, and Paper So. Hist. Soc, June, 1878, page 258. 8 General Henry Heth, ibid., IV. 155. Tlic JVar, a f/i/ Andrew yo/insoiis Presidency- B19 hundred and five thousand. At least five thousand officers would be i-equired for such a host ; and recruits and additions had been made after Meade was put in command. Therefore, deducting all his heavy losses in killed, wounded and prisoners, in the two battles of July ist and 3d, a very reasonable estimate of his efficient forces of all arms on the 3d of July would give him ninety thousand men. He probabl}' had more.^ This army was all in strong position, occupying the ridge known as Cemetery Hill, and other heights near Gettysburg. They had all worked diligently from the time of their arrival, and were, thoroughly intrenched.^ To oppose them General Lee had, on the 3d of July, barely fifty-five thousand men, in infantry and artillery.' He had no cavalry ; but the heroic achievements of his army in the battle of Chancellorsville, and their manifest siiccesses in the severe battles of July ist and 2d, had excited in the mind of their commander a strong impression that the Federals could not successfully oppose them, and would be driven before them if a resolute attack was made. This impression, and the daring trait in his own character, determined him to deliver offensive battle. On the morning of July 3d an informal military conference was held between General Lee and his lieutenants, Longstreet, Hill and Ewell. General Lee was in favor of an attack, after a heavy artillery fire, which, he hoped, would silence the enemy's guns and make breaches in their lines. Longstreet earnestly op- posed a direct infantry attack, which, he thought, would be bloodily repulsed. He v^as in favor of a flank movement around Meade's position, which would compel him to leave that position and become the assailant himself. The result of the conference was that General Lee adhered to his purpose of attack, and gave orders therefor. General Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps did not arrive and get into position for advance until twelve o'clock.* Then the artillery fire from every part of the Confederate lines opened. One hundred and twenty guns poured out a ceaseless torrent of shot and shells aimed at the hostile positions. The Federal guns, in equal number, replied, and for hours a cannonade was kept up seldom equaled in modern warfare. Longstreet anxiously watched its effects. He was well known as one of the most stubborn and effective fighting generals of the 1 Compare General Hooker's Rep., June 27th, with General Early's estimates. So. Hist., IV. 242-250. 2 Gen. Fitz Lee's letter. So. HLst, IV. 71-73. ^General Early's estimates. So. Hist.. I\'. 244, 245. i\s Presidency. 825 sand ; July iStb, for five hundred thousand, and December 20th, for three hundred thousand. Without the stubborn resoUition of Lincoha and Grant the South could not have been subdued. Thus was the war prolonged for the destruction of slavery. The questions as to " prisoners of war " were among the most disti"essing and torturing of this unhappy contest. In all wars of modern times such questions have been specially gloomy, but in none more so than in this war between the States of North America. Unfortunately, the Federal authorities, early in the war, at- tempted to stand on the untenable basis that the Confederates were not "belligerents," and, therefore, not entitled to the laws of nations as to the treatment of prisoners ; but England and France, though never willing to recognize the Confederate vStates as an independent nation and to intervene for the stoppage of the war, were prompt to recognize them as "belligerents," and all the civilized nations of the Old World adopted this view. And the Federal generals, McClellan and others, were liberal and humane in treating and exchanging prisoners ; but it was not until after the "seven-days' battles" around Richmond, when the number of prisoners held by the Confederates greatly exceeded that held by the Federals, that a regular " cartel " for the exchange of prisoners was agreed on.^ For some time this was fairly acted on, and made the war less cruel ; but gradually causes arose which interrupted these regular exchanges. The result was that many thousands of prisoners who ought to have been exchanged or paroled under the generous terms of the cartel were detained in prison camps on each side, and suffered with all the discomforts, maladies and privations in- cident to such places of confinement. To detail all these causes of interruption would i^equire a vol- ume ; but some of them must be mentioned, as they call for thought and study in their action and reaction on the conduct of the bel- ligerents. The subject of slavery alwavs held close relation to them. The first cause of interruption came from an order issued by Edwin INI. Stanton, the Federal Secretary of War, whose course during the whole contest and after its close was conspicuous in harshness and partisanship. On the very day the cartel was signed, July 23d, 1S62, he issued a general order authorizing Fed- eral commanding officers in Virginia and elsewhere to seize and 1 It was signed July 22d, 18C2, by Major-Generals John A. Dix, of the Federal, and D. H. Hill, of the Confederate army. See Cartel in full in An. Amer. Encyelop., 1802, pp. 713, 714. 826 A History of the United States of America. use private property, real or personal, for military purposes, and to employ, at reasonable wages, persons of African descent when needed, keeping accounts, however, " as a basis upon which com- pensation can be made in proper cases." ^ The Federal General Pope was prompt to avail himself of this order, and to pervert and go beyond it. His condvict of the war was so cruel and oppressive that the Confederate government is- sued an order directing that Pope, Steinwehr, his brigadier, and all commissioned officers serving under their commands should be excluded from the benefit of the cartel, and should not be enti- tled to parole or exchange, and that severe- retaliation should fol- low any of their threatened outrages.^ Fortunately for honorable war. Pope and his army were so soon met, defeated and driven out of Virginia that little occasion arose for these stern measures. But numbers of negro slaves were received into the United States armies and were employed as teamsters, -svood-cutters, and in other occupations not in regular military line. No serious question of parole or exchange arose as to them until after the noted proclamations of President Lincoln as to slavery.' In all his public expressions early in the war he had declared that the Federal government had no constitutional power or in- tention to destroy slavery, nor to impair the rights of slave- owners in the States in which the institution existed. But the defeat of McClellan, the signal overthrow of Pope, the advance of Lee's army into Marjdand, and the capture of Har- per's Ferry by Jackson had greatly excited and alarmed President Lincoln. He had for some time contemplated the necessity for a contingent proclamation of freedom to the slaves of the South, dependent on her submitting and returning to the Union. He wrote this proclamation in July, 1863, in the midst of Federal military reverses. Disaster followed disaster, until the battle of Sharpsburg, or the Antietam, was pending. President Lincoln's w^ords were : "I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven back from ]\Iaryland I would crown the result by the declai'ation of freedom to the slaves."^ But some time prior to this event the strange, rough wisdom, foresight and just intentions of this remarkable man had shown themselves in his policy as to slavery. So far as we can judge, if his policy could have been carried out, the fate of the whole 1 An. Amer. Eneyclop., 18G3, p. 715. - Coufed. Gen. Order 54, Aug. 1, 1862. An. Amer. Eneyclop., p. 716. SAn. Amer. Eneyclop., 1863, pp. 7C0, 761. *Prof. Steele, Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note from Carpenter, 242, 243. Eggleston's House- hold U. S., 325. The War^ and Andrew Johnson'' s Prcsideiicy. 827 country, including the South, would have been brighter and hap- pier than it has been. As early as March 6th, 1863, he addressed a message to the Federal Congress advising the adoption of a joint resolution as follows:' ''■Resolved, That the United States, in order to co- operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolition of slavery, give to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate it for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system." He did not expect the extreme Southern States to be at once influenced by this overture ; but he hoped that the border slave States would be, and that, by adopting a system of gradual eman- cipation, they woidd deprive the cotton and sugar States of all hope of final separation from the Union. In the same message he said : " In my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all."^ The Congi-ess adopted, in substance, his proposed joint resolu- tion by large majorities in both Houses. He manifested his cau- tion and moderation by issuing a proclamation, dated 19th of May, 1862, signed by himself and countersigned by William H. Seward, vSecretary of State, annulling and declaring void an ar- rogant and unauthorized order (under the style of General Order No. II, May 9th, 1862), sent out from Hilton Head, South Caro- lina, by Major-General David Hunter, of the Federal Southern Military Department, whereby that vain and malignant officer declared all the slaves in Georgia, Florida and .South Carolina to be forever free.^ President Lincoln requested the members of Congress from Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia (being all the border region holding slaves still represented in Congress, to confer with him, and earnestly urged on them his policy of grad- ual emancipation, with money comj^ensation, as w^ise, and as the best means of putting an end to the war and restoring the Union ; but they respectfully submitted to him a long communi- cation, declining to concur with him, urging the immense monev value of the slaves, and saying to the President : " Confine your- self to your constitutional authority ; confine your subordinates within the same limits ; conduct this war solely for the purpose of restoring the constitution to its legitimate authority ; concede to each State and its 103'al citizens their just rights, and we are wedded to you by indissoluble ties." * 1 Message in An. Amer. Encyclop., 1862, p. 720. 2 Jhid., 1862, p. 720. 3 Order of Hunter and President's Proc. An. Amer. Encyclop., p. 720. * Reply of Representatives, July 14, 1862. Amer. Encyclop., pp. 722-724. 828 A History of the United States of America. Thus even the congressmen who adhered to the Federal side failed to see the inevitable tendency of the war, if prolonged, to destroy slavery, and failed to lead in the wise measures suggested by President Lincoln. He was left to his own convictions of duty. He believed that, as a war measure — a means of strengthening the military power of the United States and weakening that of the Confedei'ate States — the executive department of the gov- ernment had power and authority to free the slaves in the region controlled by their armies and make soldiers of them ; but he proceeded provisionally and with deliberation to this important step. When the tidings reached him at the " Soldiers' Home," near Washington, that McClellan had held his gi'ound, and that Lee was retiring across the Potomac, he brought into the city the completed draft of his proclamation, and submitted it to his cab- inet. It was approved and issued. It bore date September 23d, 1863.^ After stating his purpose again to urge at the next meeting of Congress his policy of gradual emancipation and compensation, and stating the continuance of the war, he proclaimed that, on the 1st of Januaiy, 1S63, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a vState continuing in open war against the United States, should be thenceforward and forever free ; and that the executive government, including the military and naval authorities, would recognize their freedom, and do no act to re- press such persons or any of them in any efforts they might make for their actual freedom. Another proclamation would be made ist January, 1863, designating such .States and parts of States, if any, as might then be "in rebellion" against the United States. The second proclamation followed accordingly on January ist, 1863, designating Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Vir- ginia, excepting, however, all of the forty-eight counties desig- nated as West Virginia, and excepting designated parts of Vir- ginia and parishes in Louisiana.^ The first proclamation made very little impression on the .South- ern peoj)le, as it seemed to most of them merely an empty menace to do what the executive department of the Federal government had no rightful authority to do under the constitution. But it would have been wise in them to have borne in mind that war — and especially such a war — had enlarged the powers and authority 1 Proclamatiou of Pres. Liucolu. An. Aiiier. Encyc, 1862, pp. 725, 720. -Ibid., pp. 736, 737. The War, and A?zdrezu yohnsoti' s Presideticy. 829 of the executive to an extent never defined, because the circum- stances were unprecedented. That the Southern people had treated their skives kindly and humanely, so as to produce among the families of whites and slaves a genial love and confidence, is absolutely demonstrated by the fact that, though nearly all the white males able to bear arms went into the war, the slaves remained quietly on the farms and plantations that were unvisited by the armies, worked faithfully, made their crops and served the white women and children with their accustomed aftection.^ No attempt at bloody insurrection among them was ever known. But they were slaves, and, therefore, when the opportunity to acquire the doubtful blessing of freedom came, most of them were ready to take advantage of it. Nothing else could have been ex- pected ; and the failui'c of the people of the South to avail them- selves of the overtures for gradual emancipation, accompanied by pecuniary compensation, made by President Lincoln, must be reckoned as one of the gravest errors of judgment committed by them and their leaders. When the proclamation of January ist, 1S63, came, declaring actual freedom to the slaves, it was soon felt in the vSouth that it was not merely brututnjuhnc7i, empty and harmless thunder. It was a potent war measure. Tens of thousands of slaves in the regions of the South occupied by the Federal armies fled from the farms and plantations. All the males, suited to garrison or field service, were speedily enlisted in the Federal armies. Then President Davis and his cabinet and the Confederate Con- gress, for the first time, seemed to awake to the subject. They had had time enough to consider the matter in all its aspects ; and yet their action concerning it was the weakest and least tenable, in the light of international law, that could have been taken. The laws of nations make no discriminations against men because of their color or lineal descent ; neither do those laws foster or even recognize slavery, which is purely the result of local usage and law, and has no foundation in natural right, and, therefore, none in international law.'^ When the, Confederate States took their stand as an independ- ent political power, they had grave cause to believe that war was inevitable, and they prepared for it. They ought to have remem- bered that in their population were at least half a million of men > See the able address of Isaiah T. Montgomerv, a colored member of the Mississippi State Convention of 1890. Richmond Dispatch, October 10, 1890. - Vattel's Laws of Kations, LV., LVI. 356. An. Amer. Eucyclop., 1863, p. 762. 830 A History of the United States of America. who would aid the enemy if the opportunity presented itself. Such was the inherent weakness of slavery. In his message to the Confederate Congress of January 14th, 1863, President Davis, after commenting on Lincoln's emancipa- tion proclamation of January ist, 1863, and its effect and ten- dency, said : " So far as regards the action of the government on such criminals as may attempt its execution, I confine myself to informing you that I shall, unless in your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient, deliver to the several State authori- ties all commissioned officers of the United States that may here- after be captured by our forces in any of the States embraced in the proclamation, that they may be dealt with in accordance with the laws of those States providing for the punishment of crimi- nals engaged in exciting servile insurrection." ' When this part of the message came up for consideration in the Confederate Congress, it w^as soon apparent that unanimity of opinion and sentiment did not prevail. William Lowndes Yan- cey, a native of Columbia, South Carolina, but a resident of and senator from Alabama, had been well known as a warm advo- cate of secession and of Southern independence ; but early in the struggle he had been sent by the Confederate States as commis- sioner to seek recognition of their independence from the sover- eignties of Europe. He went in March, 1861, and returned in February, 1862, by way of Nassau and Tampa Bay, cautiously evading the Federal blockade. He had been wholly unsuccess- ful in the object of his mission ; but he had learned something of the view of slavery taken by international law and by the most enlightened modern nations. He had already delivered a speech in New Orleans and one in Montgomery, discouraging any hope of recognition, and saying that "the nations of Europe were rad- ically hostile to slavery."^ And when President Davis' message of January 14th, 1863, came ixp for consideration in the Senate, Mr. Yancey uttered some truths, which, however unpalatable to perverted tastes, might at least have saved the Southern authorities from adopting injurious errors. * He showed, by unanswerable argument, that neither commis- sioned officers nor soldiers of the United States army could be held liable for their acts as such under State laws. They were public enemies, and liable only according to international law applicable to war. He showed also that the United States were ^Pres. Davis' Message, est., An. Amer. Encyclop., 1863, p. 760. 2 Art. Yancey, Amer. Encyclop., XVI. 596. 832 A History of the United States of America. not violating the law of nations in setting the slaves free and add- ing them to their armies.^ If war be a recognized right and power of nations, then it is the right of one belligerent to free any class of men in the enemy's country not enjoying freedom, and to add them to their armies. "A public enemy may stir up insurrection or do any similar act to weaken the power of his foe, without violating the law of nations or military law."^ The Confederate Congress were somewhat moved by his argu- ments. They refused to adopt President Davis' policy ; but they passed resolutions inaugurating a policy even more objectionable, more adverse to the spirit of the laws of nations, and more in- jurious to the Southern cause in its etTects. They declared that the proclamation of President Lincoln and measures under it tending to emancipate slaves in the South and to incite them to insurrection or employ them in war, might properly and lawfully be repressed by retaliation ; that every white person being a commissioned officer, or acting as such, who, during the war, should command negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Confed- erate States, or who should arm, train, organize, or prepare ne- groes or mulattoes for military service against those states, or should voluntarily aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enter- prise, attack, or conflict in such service, or should excite, or attempt to excite, servile insurrection, should, if captured, be tried by court- martial and put to death, or otherwise punished, at the discretion of the court. They gave the President full powers of commuta- tion arfid retaliation.^ Negroes or mulattoes captured were to be turned over to the State authorities. The policy thus inaugui-ated was not to lie dormant. In July, 1863, an assault on Fort Wagner, in the harbor of Charleston, was bloodily repulsed by the Confederates, and a considei*able number of negroes of the Fifty-fourth Alassachusetts (colored) regiment were captured. The Northern War Department adopted General Order No. 100. It says : " 57. So soon as a man is armed by a sovereign govei'nment, and takes the soldier's oath of fidelity, he is a belligerent ; his killing, wounding or other warlike acts are not individual crimes or oflences. No belligerent has a right to declare that enemies of a certain class, color or condition, when properly organized as sol- diers, will not be treated by him as public enemies. " 58. The law of nations knows no distinction of color, and if an enemy of the United States should enslave or sell any captured 1 Debate. An. Amer. Encvclop., 18G.S, pp. 22C, 227. - Ibid ., p. 227 . Mr. Yancey's argument, s Joint Resolutions Confed. Cong. An. Amer. Encyclop., 1863, p. 227. The IVar, and Andfczv yohnso7z's Presidency. 8 J.) persons of their army, it would be a case for the severest retalia- tion, if not redressed upon complaint. The United States can- not retaliate by enslavement ; therefore, death must be the retali- ation for this crime against the law of nations."^ President Lincoln softened the menace of this order by signing an order froin the Federal War Department, July 30th, providing that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a "rebel" soldier should be executed, and for every soldier enslaved by the enemy, or sold into slavery, a "rebel" soldier should be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other should be re- leased and receive the treatment due a prisoner of war.' Meanwhile, a deplorable result came to the unhappy prisonei's of war on both sides. The Confederate authorities refused to recognize either the white oHicers. leading negroes, or colored troops of the enemy, as entitled to the terms of the " cartel." Exchanges stopped, except \a very special cases! The prison- camps on both sides became more and more crowded. Sadness, suffering, disease and broken hearts multiplied daily. But, as the cartel expressly provided that no misunderstanding should inter- rupt the release of prisoners, the Confederates were at all times ready and willing to continue such release in cases free from doubt. Other causes of interruption succeeded. After Gettysburg, when General Lee was preparing to retire across the Potomac, he held several thousand Federal prisoners. He did not desire to send them to the Southern prison-camps, which ^vere already crowded, and were pressed by want of provisions and a scant supply of medicines. He could not make special agreement with the Federal commander, as contemplated by the "cartel." He therefore paroled these prisoners and released them. Lnmediately, General ISIeade, upon the somewhat flimsy and narrow technicality that these prisoners had not been sent either to Aiken's Landing, on James nver, or to Vicksburg (points named in the cartel), and upon the false pretence that General Lee had not " reduced to possession " these prisoners, and was not able to carry them with him, refused to recognize their pa- roles, and ordered them to duty in his army.'^ This course was made an instant subject of protest and com- plaint by the Confederate authorities. In just compensation. Col. Robert Ould, the Southern Commissioner of Exchange, de- 1 Extracts from General Order Ko. 100. An. Amor. Encyclop., 1SC3, p. 7G2. - Order, July 30th. An. Amer. Encyclop., p. TOi'. 8 Annual Amer. Encyclop., 1863, pp. 761, 762. S3 834 -^ History of the United States of America. clared the men surrendered at Port Hudson and sent to Mobile under parole to be released from their paroles and liable to duty.' Many sharp letters and military communications passed between the respective exchange officers on this and similar subjects, in which Colonel Ould sustained his views with signal ability ; but all this did not either promote or hasten general exchanges under the cartel. In 1864 and 1865 the cause which, beyond all other causes, pre- vented exchanges, was the policy of General Grant, who, des- pairing of direct victory, adopted the plan of wearing out the Confederate strength by constant attrition and abrasion by su- perior numbers. He did not intend that a single man able to bear arms should be returned to the Confederate ranks by ex- change. He knew he could constantly supply his own losses of men, enormous as they were, and knew the Southern armies had no further source of supply. As early as April, 1864, Grant forbade Gen. B. F. Butler " to deliver to the rebels a single able-bodied man." ^ So anxious were the Southern authorities to make exchange of prisoners that in August, 1864, Colonel Ould, the commissioner, consented to a proposition which had been repeatedly made, to exchange officer for officer and man for man, leaving the surplus in captivity. This was a departure from the liberal spirit and terms of the car- tel, but, rather than have no exchanges, the Confederate commis- sioner consented to it ; but when Colonel Ould made known his consent to General Butler, as that officer afterwards definitely ac- knowledged, he wrote a reply " not diplomatically, but obtrusively and demonstratively, 7tot for tJic purpose of ftirthcriug exchange of prisoners, but for the purpose of preventing and stopping the exchange, and furnishing a ground on which we could fairly stand." ^ And on the i8th of August, 1864, Grant wrote to But- ler a letter objecting, in strong terms, to any exchange of prison- ers.* This whole subject of treatment of "prisoners of war " has been exhaustively examined and discussed since the termination of the conflict. The result has been the complete vindication of the South from every charge of cruelty, ill usage and neglect. The burden of all the sufferings, groans and deaths in the prison- camps, North and South, rests upon the conduct of the war by the Federal government, which treated even medicines and surgi- 1 Annual Amer. Encyclop., p. 762. 2 Words of Gen. Benj. F. Butler, quoted in Eep. on Treatment of Prisoners of War to Con- fed. Cong., So. Hist., I. 147. 3 Report, So. Hist., 1. 147. * Letter, Aug. 18, 18G4, in Richmond Dispatch, June 6, 1890 The War, and Andrew yohnson'' s Presidency. 835 cal instruments as contraband of war, and refused to let them pass the lines ; which refused to act on the liberal provisions of the cartel, and finally stopped all exchanges, for the purpose of ex- hausting the South. The South is further vindicated by ascertained facts. During the war the Confederates captured, in round numbers, two hun- dred and seventy thousand Federal prisoners. The Federals cap- tured two hundred and twenty thousand Confederates. Of the two hundred and seventy thousand Federal prisoners, twenty-two thousand five hundred and seventy-six died in the hands of the Confederates. Of the two hundred and twenty thousand Confed- erate prisoners, not less than twenty-six thousand four hundred and thirty-six died in the hands of the Federals.^ Thus the numbers exhibit a large percentage of evidence in favor of greater hu- manity and greater exercise of surgical and medical skill on the Southern side. But the people of the North had been wrought up to artificial excitement and passion on this subject by many agencies, chiefly the sensational reports and photographs of so-called sanitary com- mittees. They clamored for a victim ; and after the surrenders of the Southern armies one was found. He was Major Henry Wirz, of Swiss descent, who had been the commandant of the prison- camp at Andersonville, South Carolina. After the assassination of Lincoln, Major Wirz was brought to trial before a court-martial in Washington city. The trial lasted three months. More than one hundred and sixty witnesses were introduced before the military commission ; but there was one wit- ness who was not introduced. This was Col. Robert Ould, the Southern Commissioner of Exchange. He was a material witness for Wirz, and by request of the accused was regularly summoned to appear and testify. He attended accordingly. His testimony, if heard and weighed, would have been very important to the accused ; but, without request or consent of Wirz or his coun- sel, the Judge- Advocate revoked the subpoena by which Colonel Ould had been summoned, and dismissed him from attendance ! ^ Thus the prosecuting powers deliberately suppressed material tes- timony for a man tried for his life ! No valid precedent for this can be found. The Federal prosecutors strove earnestly in this trial to find some evidence which would involve President Davis in a charge of complicity in the cruelties said to have been perpetrated at 1 Reports of Surgeon-Gen. U. S. A. and of Edwin M. Stanton, U. S. Sec. of War. Stephens' Com p. U. S., S.^,7. 2 Col. Quid's statement, So. Hist. Papers, 1. 212, 213. 83 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 840. = Ext. from Gen. Grant's report. Stephens' Comp. U. S., SIO- 3 Prof. Steele, Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 282. The IVar, and Andrezu yohnso/i's Pi'esideJicy. 839 But the mutterings of the storm of opposition began even in the congressional session of 1865— '66. It was not to be expected that the Southern States could come safely into the Union on a theory which made the great mass of their people "rebels "and " traitors." They were neither rebels nor traitors. To the theo- ries of Andrew Johnson and their temporary results might be aptly applied the words of the inspired prophet : " For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly^ saying, Peace, peace ; when there is no peace." ^ The Congress of 1865— '66 contained men of ability, but men also of bitter prejudices against the lately slave-holding States. They soon manifested a purpose not only to repudiate President Johnson's theories of the government, but to undo his work and to force the lately seceded States to reconstruction upon princi- ples entirely at variance from those adopted by him. By a curious perversity, the only Southern State which he had not deemed it needful to include definitely in his system was his own State — Tennessee ; and this was the only State which the Congress admitted to the Union by admitting to Congress her senators and representatives.'' The Republican party had a controlling majority in both Houses, and they became more and more hostile to President Johnson. They were led by Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, and Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland. Their policy soon man- ifested itself, and was so revolutionary and so little in accord with the safest views of constitution and law that they obtained the title of " Radicals," which long clung to them.* They were the more dangerous because they held a part of the truth. They held that the seceded States, by their own action, by passing ordinances of secession, by arresting all Federal powers within them, by levying war and maintaining a long military contest with the States remaining in the Union, had really ceased to be vStates of that Union. They held that the States remaining in the Union had successfully maintained the war, and had sub- dued all armed opposition in the seceded States. Therefore, each of those States, though still a State, was out of the Union. If any one of them desired to be restored to the Union, it must come in on terms satisfactory to the United States Congress, which was the only department of the government having power to admit States into the Union.* So far their views were sound, and completely vindicated the 1 Jeremiah viii. 11. - Prof. Johnston's U. S. Hist, and Const., 246. 3 Berry's U. S., 330, 331. Blackburn & McDonald. 4S3. * Constitution of U. S., Art. IV., sec. 3, 1, 2, sec. 4. 840 A History of the United States of America. people, officers and soldiers of the seceded States from all charge of being either " rebels " or " traitors." But the central error of the radical party was this : that they acted upon the theory that the Congress had unlimited authority over the subdued States, and might not only hold them in chains of military jDower after peace was restored and officially declared, but might impose upon them any terms they thought proper, however unjust, unreasonable, unwise, and oppressive, as condi- tions precedent to their re-admission to the Union. . This was a palpable error. The seceded States had, it is true, left the former Union, thrown off the Federal constitution, and renounced its benefits ; but the United States Congress remained bound by its wise spirit and provisions, and were bound to apply them in settling the terms on which a subdued State should be re-admitted. Though the facts were unprecedented, the principles applicable to them were familiar and of long standing. But, in truth, the radicals in the Congress were startled and alarmed at the consequences of their own action. The Thirteenth Amendment had destroyed slavery, and had, therefore, made all the negroes and mulattoes of the (former) slave States elements to be counted in full in estimating the I'epresentatives to which those States would be entitled in the Congress. This would greatly increase the number of their representatives ; and if these representatives were to be chosen by the white voters only, accord- ing to the constitutions in force before the war, they would be a formidable power in Congress. These fears, and the fixed purpose to keep their own party in power, were the controlling motives which inflamed the hostility of the radicals against President Johnson, and induced them to adopt a S3'stem of reconstruction for the seceded States, so unwise, cruel and oppressive, and so subversive of the true jDrinciples of the Federal Union and constitution, that its evils have continued ever since, and are more and more threatening as the years of the nation pass. The first step of the radicals was to pass, by a vote of two- thirds of Congress, and submit to the States, the Fourteenth iVmendment. This \vas partly aimed against the " Dred Scott" decision, upon which we have already commented ; but was in- tended, also, for the purposes of the reconstruction already con- templated by the radical leaders. The senators and representatives froin Tennessee voted on it, but those from the "ten" States re- constructed under President Johnson's plan were not permitted to vote.^ 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 8il. The War, and Andrezv Johnson s Presidency. 841 This Amendment XIV. made all persons born in the United States citizens. Section second provided that representation should be apportioned according to total population, excluding only Indians not taxed ; but it further provided that when, in any- State, the right to vote should be denied to any of the male inhab- itants of such State being twenty -one years old and citizens of the United States, the basis of representation therein should be reduced in according proportion. Section third imposed disability upon any person who had ever taken an oath officially to support the con- stitution of the United States and afterwards engaged in insur- rection or rebellion ; but the Congress might, by a vote of two- thirds of each House, remove such disability.^ The " ten " States all voted against this amendment ; but their votes were rejected. It is a noteworthy fact that if they were in the Union the Fourteenth Amendment was never adopted, for without those " ten " States three-fourths of the States did not vote for the amendment ; but the radicals in Congress did not trouble themselves with this question. Rejecting entirely these "ten" States, and admitting only Tennessee, who voted for the amendment, they declared it adopted. At the next session of Congress the radical majority passed an act unprecedented in all the past history of republics. They de- clared the " ten " States to be still in rebellion, although they were perfectly quiet; they divided them up into five military departments and placed a military chief and subordinate officers and soldiers over each, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in all, removed all State officers, and put the power of appointment in the military hand. They then provided that this state of sub- jection to martial law should continue in each State until it should adopt a new constitution, the effect of which v.ould be to admit the former slaves over twenty-one years of age to full right of suffrage, and make them voters on the same footing with the whites.^ Thus the deepest principles of the constitution were uprooted. That instrument had been founded on the fixed canon that each State should settle, by its own constitution, the qualifications of its voters, and that these voters should choose representatives and electors for the Federal system.' To permit the United States Congress to dictate beforehand what qualifications should be re- quired for a voter in a State was to overthrow the equilibrium of the Federal system. ' Amendment XIV. Holmes, 331. Goodrich, 520. 2 Stephens, 841-843. Barnes, 283. Derrv, 331. 8 Constitution, Art. I., sec. 2. Art. II. i, 2, 3. 842 A History of the United States of America. In several of the Northern States the right to vote had been constitutionally denied to negroes ; and interference by the Con- gress would have been resented as an outrage. Of the primitive " thirteen," Connecticut had confined the right to vote to white males over twenty-one years old who could read and write ; ^ and Ohio, formed out of the Northwestern territory to which the great ordinance of 1787 applied, had confined the right to vote to white citizens of full age.^ The policy of the radicals in compelling the " ten " States of the South to admit the recently freed negroes to the right of vot- ing on all the matters of repi-esentation and of legislation affect- ing life, health, society, business, virtue, education, crime and pun- ishment, was not merely a blunder — a grievous political error — but a sin against the laws of God. As to the providential events which gave to the negroes their freedom and destroyed slavery, the peojjle of the South promptly recognized in them a guiding and Divine Power, in whose decision they humbly acquiesced ; but the right to vote stood on a totally different footing. Had the compulsion exercised by the Congress been that the " ten " States should adopt constitutions giving the right and power to vote to all male children twelve years of age, the world would have stood amazed at such a spectacle of folly, imbecility and wrong ; but it would have been far better to have done this than to require the right and power to vote to be given to all male negroes over twenty-one years of age. They had all the ig- norance, weakness and unfitness of children, added to matured de- pravity, prejudice and partisanship. In fact, it was the belief that they would all vote for radical representatives and radical measures which led the radicals of the Congress to pass this act for reconstruction — the most unwise, unstatcsmanlike, cruel and injurious ever adopted in the history of the United States. President Johnson promptly vetoed the bill and returned it with his objections ; but it was as promptly passed over his veto by a vote of tw^o-thirds of each Ilouse.^ The estrangement between the executive and the legislative departments had already assumed the sharpness of war. In 1S66 the Congress had passed a bill erecting a " Freedmen's Bureau," intended specially to sustain the negroes of the South in political power. The President ve- toed it and it was passed over his veto. The same events took place as to the bill admitting Nebraska as a State, in 1S67, with ^Art. Connecticut, Amer. Eiicyclop. - Art. Ohio, Amer. Encyclop. ^ Prof. Johnston's U. S., 217. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 843. The War^ and Andreiv Johnson'' s Presidency. 843 equal suffrage for blacks and whites, and as to the " Civil Rights Bill " in the same year, which was a futile attempt to compel rail- road and steamboat lines, hotels and theatres, to force ttie com- mingling of black and white people.' Finally, in order as far as possible to weaken the President during the vacation. Congress passed the " Tenure of Office Bill," making the consent of the Senate necessary in order to the re- moval by the President of any person from civil office.^ This was a direct attack on the independence of a co-ordinate department of the Federal government. The President vetoed the bill. It was passed over his veto. Soon afterwards the Congress ad- journed. The President, not approving of the temper and policy of Sec- retary Stanton, removed him from office. Stanton refused to leave, but the President was firm. When the Congress re-assem- bled, articles of impeachment were presented against the Presi- dent on the 33d of February, 186S, by the House of Representa- tives, for removing Mr. Stanton and other alleged acts of malfeas- ance. The trial was by the Senate. Chief-Justice Taney had died on the i3th of October, 1864. He was in his eighty-eighth year, and had presided in the court with eminent dignity and ability for twenty-eight years. Presi- dent Lincoln appointed his Secretary of the Treasurv, Salmon P. Chase, to be Chief-Justice. He was confirmed by the Senate, and discharged his difficult duties with noted strength and suc- cess, having solved by his decisions some of the most intricate questions arising from the war and relating to contracts founded on Confederate treasury notes. Chief-Justice Chase presided in the Senate on the impeachment trial of President Johnson. It resulted in an acquittal on the 26th of May, 1868, by a failure, by one vote only, to secure the needed number.^ The rule of " carpet-baggers " and " scalawags " in the South being intolerable, and the military rule doing nothing to relieve it, the " ten " States began to look anxiously for an}- door of exit therefrom. Unjust and unwise as the compulsion of negro suffrage was, they preferred to encounter its perils rather than remain under martial law. Constitutions were adopted accordingly, and Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina were admitted to the LTnion and to represen- tation in Congress on the 34th of June, 1868. Georgia was after- ' Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 283, and note. - Barnes, 283. Johnston, 247, * Stephens' Comp. U. S., 813. Barnes, 2*1. Johnston, 217. 844 -^ History of the United States of America. wards excluded because she refused to vote for the Fifteenth Amendment ; but in 1S70 she was restored, and Mississippi, Texas and Virginia were all admitted.^ The Fifteenth Amendment was proposed late in President John- son's term, and adopted. It provided that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servifude. The acts of the European powers, so far as they affected North America at all, had tended to prolong the war. In the fall of 1861, the Confederate States authorities sent James M. Mason, of Virginia, as embassador to England, and John Slidell, of Louis- iana (a native of New York, but thoroughly Southern in opinions and sympathies), as embassador to France. Mr. Mason was accompanied by his secretary, Mr. Macfarland, and Mr. Slidell by his wife and his two daughters, Mathilde and Rosine, and his sec- retary, Mr. Eustis, with his wife, who was a daughter of Mr. Cor- coran, an enlightened and wealthy banker of the city of Washing- ton, then confined in Fort Lafayette because of his Southern affilia- tions and sympathies. Messrs. Mason and Slidell, with their party, successfully eluded the blockade, landed in Havana, Cuba, and on the 7th of Novem- ber, 1861, took passage for England on the British mail-steamer Trent^ Commander Williams, an officer of the British navy. She carried the mails for England. Capt. Charles Wilkes, commanding the Federal war-steamer San yacitito, was in those seas. He had general instructions to arrest the Confederate officials if possible, but no special instruc- tions to seize them in a neuti^al ship.^ But by a superficial read- ing of a law book aboard his ship, he had satisfied himself of his authority to take forcibly from a neutral vessel the persons of these embassadors. He acted accordingly. He brought the Trent to a stand, November Sth, by firing a round shot across her bows, to which she paid no attention, and then firing a shell, which ex- ploded so near her bow that her further progress would have been reckless imprudence. Wilkes then sent Lieutenant Fairfax (a Virginian related to Mr. Mason) with armed marines aboard the Trent^ and by a show of force, and against the protest of Captain Williams, removed Messrs. Mason, Slidell, Macfarland and Eustis to the San facinto. No written dispatches were found on their persons. The Trent, with the ladies of their families, was al- lowed to proceed.^ iDerr>-'s U. S., 332-334. 2 wilkes' official report. So. Lit. Mess., 1803, p. 043. 3 New York Herald, Nov. 18. Correspondence between Earl Russell, Lord Lyons and Mr. Seward. 7^he War, and Andrcxv yohnsons Presidency. 84:; When she reached England her news wrought the English peo- ple to high excitement. The government promptly made prepa- rations for war, and demanded from the United States release of the arrested parties and a suitable apolog}' for the aggression. In the South fervid hopes were aroused that these events would lead to a war between Great Britain and the United States, which could hardly fail to secure the recognition and independence of the Confederate States ; but all such hopes were speedily blasted. Secretary Seward's reply to the complaint and demand of Eng- land soon appeared. It was one of the most elaborate and astute of his State papers. He sought to maintain four propositions : first, that the per- sons of Mason, Slidell, IVIacfarland and Eustis (and their supposed dispatches) were contraband of war ; second, that Captain Wilkes lawfully stopped and searched the Trent for them ; third, that he exercised this right in a lawful and proper manner ; fourth, that, having found the contraband persons on board, and in presumed possession of the contraband dispatches, he had a right to capture the persons.' But Mr. Seward thus reached a fifth question, which was : Did Captain Wilkes exercise the right of capture in the manner allowed and recognized by the law of nations? Upon this question, Mr. Seward said : "It is just here that the difficulty of the case begins." His conclusion was that such a question must be so decided as to bring the rights of the captured to judicial decision ; that the captor could not be allowed to decide it on the neutral vessel's deck ; that the persons or property seized might not be contraband of war at all, and that the proper mode of securing such judicial decision was by taking possession of the Trent with the persons and papers, if any, and bringing them to the United .States for ad- judication in the admiralty courts. As this had not been done, Mr. Seward considered the mode of capture illegal, and directed •' the four persons in question " to be released from Fort Warren and delivered as Lord Lyons might indicate. They were conveyed to England, but without triumph, and without benefit to the Southern cause. Thev were coldly received, and never diplomatically recognized ; and thus was the war pro- longed. The unscrupulous adventurer Louis Napoleon had risen to the head of the great empire of France by a series of strange events, which were set in motion chiefly by his name, his bold coups d'etat and his ambition. Early in the war between the States of Amer- ' Seward's letter to Lord Lyons, Dec. 26, 1861, 846 A History of the United States of America. ica he had, in general, concurred with Great Britain in his policy towards the belligerents ; but as the struggle continued he adopted measures indicating his strong sympathies with the cause of abso- lutism in Europe and his desire to extend it to America. Mexico, with all her vast natural wealth, had never long main- tained a stable and wise government competent to rule the people for their good. After the revolution which overthrew the Spanish dominion, she established a republic modeled on that of the United States. But her heterogeneous population, made up of a few old Spaniards and pure Spanish families and a multitude of mixed races in which the blood of Indians, negroes and degenerate whites mingled itself, was not well fitted for the safest exercise of self- government. Revolution had followed on the heels of revolution. Santa Anna had overthrown the confederated State system and established a centralized despotism bearing the name, but not the spirit, of a republic, and with himself as dictator. He had been driven out in 18^3. But he was soon followed by another revolution, in which Al- monte came to the front — a man who governed like an outlaw, and made the people outlaws, given to robbery and outrage, pub- lic and private. With difficulty he was displaced and banished. The govern- ment of President Juarez gave evidence of stability and of sound republican principles. He was at the head of the " Liberals " ; and the " Church party " was the only one who really disturbed his government. Their corruptions, immense wealth, obtained under the influence of superstition, and their fears of the free principles of Juarez' government, inclined them to seek a mon- archy for the country in the person of a member of some European dynasty.^ England, France, Spain and the United States all had claims against Mexico, founded, to some extent, on loans, but to a much larger extent on losses and injuries, public and private, arising from the lawless courses of the Mexican people. The English claim was almost entirely in Alexican bonds, and amounted to more than sixty million dollars ; the Spanish claims, and those of English people who had suffered from Mexican outrages, had been esti- mated by convention at about seven million dollars and five mil- lion dollars respectively. The French claim was only for inju- ries, and had been estimated at only two hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred and ninety dollars. The United States claims amounted to at least ten million dollars.^ 1 An. Amer. Encyc, 18<33, pp. 631, 633. 2 Statement in An. Amer. Eucyc, 1861, p. 465. The War, and Andrew yohnsoii's Presidency. 847 Not being able to obtain payment othei-wise, on the 31st of Oc- tober, 1861, Spain, England and France entered into a convention to send a force, naval and military, to the waters of Mexico. It was expressly declared that they had no intention of " wasting powder and shot b}' waging territorial war upon Mexico."^ The plan was to take possession of Vera Ci'uz and all other import- ant sea-ports of Mexico, and collect customs and similar taxes, to be applied to the liquidation of their claims, after allowing to Mexico enough to support moderately her government. They even made provision for inviting the United States to accede to and share the benefits of their plan.^ The Spanish forces, naval and land, amounted to eleven thou- sand two hundred and fifty men ; the English to ten thousand four hundred and twenty-three sailors and marines, and the French to seven thousand and fifty -eight. On the 8th of Decem- ber, 1861, the Spanish fleet and transports arrived oft' Vera Cruz. The others soon followed. Of course, Mexico had no force ade- quate to resist. Under instructions from President Juarez, Vera Cruz was evacuated. The other ports were soon occupied, and the plan was set in motion and kept in operation for some time. Large sums were thus collected. But in 1862 the artful ulterior purposes of Louis Napoleon began to appear. It became obvious that the payment of the small money claims of France was not what he really sought. Differences and alienations among the commanding officers of the three forces arose and waxed wider and wider, until, after several angry interviews, on the 8th of April, 1S62, the Spanish and English commanders-in-chief left Orizaba, returned to Vera Cruz with their forces, embarked on their ships and transports, and left the French alone in Mexico. Their governments at Madrid and London approved their course.' jSIcanwhile the outlaw Almonte had been permitted by the allies to return to Mexico, against the earnest protest of President Juarez. He remained quiet for awhile, but soon began again, with the aid of malcontents, a system of robbery, outrage and cruelty, which gave the French ample pretext for marching into the interior. Their troops had suftered heavy losses on the coast from malaria and yellow fever. Early in October, 1863, General Forey arrived w^ith thirty -five thousand fresh troops — part of them negro soldiers from Egypt, lent to the Emperor Louis Napoleon by Said Pasha.* 1 Convention and statement, An. Amer. Encyclop., 1861, pp. 466, 467. 2 Art. 4th, Convention. 3 An. Amer. Eacyclop., 1862, p. 584. « An. Amer. Encyclop., 1862, p. 684. 848 -A History of the United States of America, Their arrival, however, and speedy march for conquest worked a happy change in the Mexicans, and united nearly all parties in opposition to the purposes of the French. Santa Anna had ven- tured over from Havana and had been permitted to land by Mar- shal Bazaine upon his express agreement that he \vould abstain from politics, and act and speak merely as a private citizen ; but Santa Anna could not keep quiet, and, as his views did not accord with the French plan. Marshal Bazaine courteously, but definitely, ordered him to leave. He returned to Havana.' The purpose of Louis Napoleon to establish a monarchy in Mexico under some member of the European royal families and of the "Latin race" — the race least favorable to constitutional freedom — was shown earh' in 1863. In his letter to General Forey, of July 3d, 1862, he said : "It is not at all to our interest that she (meaning the United States) should grasp the whole Gulf of Mexico, rule thence the Antilles as well as South Amer- ica, and be the sole dispenser of the products of the New World. If, on the contraiy, Mexico preserve its independence and main- tain the integrity of its territory, if a stable government be there established with the aid of France, Ave shall have restored to the Latin race on the other side of the ocean its force and its pres- tige ; we shall have guaranteed the safety of our own and the Spanish colonies in the Antilles ; we shall have established our be- nign influence in the centre of America ; and this influence, while creating immense outlets for our commerce, will procure the raw material, which is indispensable to our industry. Mexico, thus regenerated, will always be favorable to us, not only from grati- tude, but also because her interests will be identical with our OAvn, and because she will find support in the good-will of Euro- pean powers."^ The disciplined PVench armies speedily gained decisive suc- cesses over the Mexican levies, who, however, fought bravely and successfully at several points. Juarez, with his cabinet, retired to San Luis Potosi, in western Mexico ; but he retained his author- ity, and the vast proportion of the people were with him. Meanwhile a small body of Mexicans, whom Juarez properly described as " traitors," representing the "Church party " and the immediate creatures of the French power, went over to Europe, and, under the advice and inspiration of Louis Napoleon, and with the interested assent of a band of two hundred and fifteen people in Mexico calling themselves the "Assembly of Notables," lAn. Amer. Encyclop.,1864, pp. 518, 519. 2 Louis Napoleon's letter, July 3d, 1862. An. Amer. Encyelop., p. 643. The War, and Andrctv yolinsoji's Presidency. 849 offered to the Archduke Maximilian, of Austria, a sceptre of solid gold, representing the crown, under the title of " Emperor of Mexico." He professed to be " touched very deeply," but de- clared : " I must make my acceptance of the throne dependent upon a. plebiscite of the whole country." ' This was on the 3d of October, 1S63, at the castle of jSIiramar, in the neighborhood of Trieste. '^o plebiscite, no vote of the people of the whole country, was ever taken. The French arinies were in power in several pro- vinces, but they were too shrewd to make any such pretence. General Bazaine busied himself with regulating and lowering the high pretensions of the "Church party," and especially of the archbishop and bishops, who held property and revenues amount- ing to about three hundred million dollars, including fifty million dollars in the shape of incumbrances for performance of masses, and embracing more than one-third of all the real estate in the country.^ As the French armies held the country and the people seemed cpiiet, it was not difficult to convince Maximilian that they all desired him to be "emperor," although no popular vote had so declared. A small deputation of "traitors" again went to Eu- rope, and, on the loth of April, 1864, he received them at his castle of ]Miramar and listened to their specious and false assur- ances. He made an address in Spanish, accepting the title and position of emperor, and ending with the words : " Upon the way to my new country it is my intention to visit Rome to re- ceive from the hands of the holy father those benedictions so precious to all sovereigns, and which are doubly important to me as called upon to found a new empire."^ He was accompanied to Mexico by his wife, jNIaria Carlotta, daughter of the King of Belgium. They had no children. A grand display was gotten up at his entry into the City of Mexico, June i3th, 1S64 ; but the people looked on in silence and secret disgust. Letters "of pacification" were sent out to many prom- inent persons ; among them, one was sent to President Juarez. He replied in a letter of the keenest irony and satire, ending however, with some pregnant sentences of warning."^ It was not to be expected that, amid all these ominous events, the United States government looked on with indifference and forgetfulness of the " Monroe doctrine," which we have hereto- 1 Archdulce Maximilian's reply to deputation. An. Amer. Encyclop., 1863. p. 637. - Estimates and letters. An. Amer. Kncyclop., 1863, pp. 631-644. 3 Archduke Maximilian's address, An. Amer. Encyclop., 1864, p. 519. * Letter of Benito Juarez to ' ' the Agent of Napoleon. ' ' An. Amer. Encyclop. , pp. r)21, 522. 54 850 A History of the United States of America. fore explained ; but the pending war imposed a difficult and delicate task on Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State. His coun- try was not in condition to maintain the " Monroe doctrine " by arms ; therefore he did what he could during the war. Through Mr. Dayton, the minister to France, he informed the French em- peror that the United States did not claim the right to control the people of Mexico in the establishment of any form of gov- ernment which they might freely choose to establish, but that the American government was well aware that the normal opin- ion of the Alexican people favored a republic in preference to any monarchical institutions " to be imposed from abroad," and that widely-spread evils would come from such attempts.' In the House of Representatives, on the 4th April, 1864, Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, introduced a resolution to the effect " that it did not accord with the policy of the United States to acknowledge any monaixhical government erected on the ruins of any republican government in America, under the auspices of any European power." '■^ This resolution was passed by a vote of yeas, one hundred and nine, nays, none. In the Senate it was referred to a committee, who failed to report. But Mr. Dayton, in his communications to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, fre- quently stated that any action of the French government inter- fering with the form of government in Mexico would be looked upon with dissatisfaction by the United vStates.^ In the latter part of 1864, although General Grant felt assured that, by his system of persevering attrition and abrasion, he would exhaust the Southern armies ; yet he shared the fears of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton that, as a last resort, the Con- federate armed forces would pass from Texas into Mexico, join the French, and uphold the empire of Maximilian. There was really little danger of this, as most of the leading Confederates were as much opposed to a monarchy in JMexico up- held by the bayonets of the adventurer Louis Napoleon as were the Federals ; but the danger seemed sufficient to justify extraordinary pi'eventives. Armed with Lincoln's authority. Gen. Lew Wallace went secretly to Brazos Santiago, an island near the mouth of the Rio Grande, where the United States still held a military post. Here he put himself in communication with General Carvajal, commanding a remnant of Juarez' republican forces in the moun- tains of Tamaulipas. Carvajal came on with General Wallace to Washington, conferred with Romero, the Mexican minister, and, 1 Seward to Dayton, Sept. 22d, 18C3. An. Amer. Encvclop., p. 644. « Resolution, An. Amer. Encyelop., 1804, p. 314. 3 Dayton's letter, 528. The War, and Andrezv yoknson's Presidency. 851 with fhe secret aid of the United States, bought and forwarded very large quantities of the best arms and munitions, which went to the armies of Juarez, and enabled them to cope successfully with the French invaders, and finally to overthrow Alaximilian's pretence of empire.^ And very soon after the close of the War between the States the United States government gave notice to France that she would be expected, as soon as practicable, to withdraw her ar- mies from jSIexico.^ Louis Napoleon did not feel it to be safe to neglect this admonition. He withdrew his forces, including the " foreign legion," which had a motley collection of troops from many nations. He invited, even urged, Maximilian to with- draw with them ; but that unfortunate archduke, led astray by certain quixotic notions of honor and of assumed duty to a coun- try which had never chosen him emperor, refused to leave Mexico. Some time before his downfall his unhappy wife, Carlotta, had shown such evidences of insanity that she had been removed from Mexico and carried back to Europe. It is not impossible that "coming events cast their shadows before them" over her sensi- tive spirit ; but those writers who attribute her mental malady to her husband's misfortunes commit distinct anachronism.* She was descended from a family in which insanity was hereditarv, and her malady began to appear long before her husband's down- fall. If IMaximilian had ever, in good faith, believed that the Mexi- can people desired him as emperor, and desired that his empire should rise on the ruins of their popular government, he was effectually undeceived by the events following the withdrawal of the French armies. He found himself without soldiers and with- out friends. The republican forces advanced on him, and at Qiiefetaro he was besieged. Pretended followers proved treach- erous, and he fell into the hands of the Alexicans. He was tried by a military court, sentenced and shot to death with musketry on the 19th of June, 1S67.* He deserved death, for his crime was the gravest possible against the laws of nations, being an attempt, carried out in overt act, to force himself as monarch and by for- eign arms upon a republic whose people never invited nor desired him. The financial system adopted by the South contributed to the causes of the long duration of the war, as well as to the disas- 1 A Chapter of Secret History. Detroit Tribune. Philadelphia Pres., Nov. 2cl, 1SS9. 2D. 15. Scott, 387. Barnes, '285. Holmes, 2cr.. Derrv, 3:!3. 3 Ex. Thalheiraer's Eclec. U. S., 320. Prof. Fisher's Outlines of History. * Holmes' U. S., 266. Scudder's U. S., 423. 852 A History of the United States oj" America. trous result to her people. Had she really anticipated serious war, she had it in her power, during the five months between the elec- tion of President Lincoln and the outbreak of actual hostilities, to send enormous quantities of cotton out to Europe, and espe- cially to England and France, where it would have been safe from hostile seizure or confiscation and would have been a gold basis for her operations. But it is easy to look backward at failures. To look forward is not in the power of man, except to a limited and deluding ex- tent. The South conducted her movement of secession and sub- sequent war as revolutionary movements have been generally conducted in modern times, and with the same general results. Her Confederate bonds bore eight per cent, annual interest, and were at first eagerly taken up by men, women, guardians, trustees and other fiduciaries. These investments were authorized by State legislation. Her Confederate treasury notes were poured out year after year, and with constantly increasing depreciation in value as their volume increased and as they were brought into con- tact with the gold standard. In May, 1864, the following were prices for needed articles in Confederate notes : " Boots, two hun- dred dollars ; coats, three hundred and fifty dollars ; pantaloons, one hundred dollars ; shoes, one hundred and twenty-five dollars ; flour, two hundred and seventy-five dollars per barrel ; meal, sixty to eighty dollars per bushel ; bacon, nine dollars per pound ; chick- ens, thirty dollars a pair ; shad, twenty dollars each ; potatoes, twenty-five dollars a bushel ; turnip greens, four dollars a peck ; white beans, four dollars per quart, or one hundred and twenty dollars per bushel ; butter, fifteen dollars a pound ; wood, fifty dollars per cord."' And the prices increased, so that in 1865 eleven hundred dollars was i^aid for a barrel of flour ! The actual loss in property (estimating the slaves as property) sustained by the people of the Southern States by the war and its results, has never been a subject of accurate computation. It has been estimated by competent minds at a sum as high as six thou- sand million dollars in gold ! ^ The United States, having greater resources, established credit, and the world open to them, had managed their financial opera- tions without serious difficulties. In fact, the war itself rather increased their mechanical and business successes. Early in the struggle Secretary Chase, of the Treasury Department, had intro- 1 A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, quoted by Prof. Johnston's U. S., 223, 224. 2 This was Prof. M. F. Maurj-'s estimate. The War, and Audrezu yohnson^ s Presidency. 853 duced the system of national banks, whose issues of paper cui"- rency were to be founded on the purchase by them of United States certificates of debt. This greatly aided the government, and sus- tained for a long time the purchasing value of the paj^er currency. Yet it soon fell below the gold standard, and reached, on the i6th of July, 1S64, its greatest depreciation, which was two hun- dred and eighty-five dollars in treasury legal-tender notes to one hundi'ed dollars in gold.^ As the Federal prospects of success improved, this depreciation grew less, and on the 26th of Decem- ber, 1S64, was two hundred and seventeen dollars in such notes to one hundred dollars in gold. The maximum point of the United States debt was reached August 31st, iS6i^, when it was two billion eight hundred and forty-five million nine hundred and seven thousand six hundred and twenty-six dollars and fifty-six cents. This huge amount seemed sufficient to crush the nation ; yet such were the activities and sources of wealth in the country that, in 1866, before all the troops in the Federal armies were disbanded, the debt had been diminished by seventy-one millions of dollai's.^ In 1867, Mr. Seward negotiated with the diplomatic agents of the great Russian empire a treaty by which the country known as " Alaska," with all waters and water-rights appurtenant and all Russian territory and rights in that region, was sold and trans- ferred to the United States for the sum of seven million two hundred thousand dollars.^ Many persons at the time of the treaty regarded the acquisition as of small value ; but subsequent events have vindicated the wisdom of the purchase. During this period the attention of scientists and tourists was turned to the " Northern Wonder Land " in the northwestern cor- ner of Wyoming Territory. It so abounded in marvelous, grand and beaiitiful natural scenery, great volcanoes, spouting hot springs, and mountain ranges and broad basins and green dells, that it was thought worthy of permanent preservation as a na- tional reserve. Movements looking to this were commenced dur- ing President Johnson's term, and in February, 1872, an act of Congress was passed, setting aside an area, containing these won- ders, estimated at three thousand five hundred and seventy-five square miles of land. This is called " The Yellowstone National Park," and is worthy of an enlightened and cultured people. It is withdraw^n from settlement, occupancy or sale, and dedicated to the purposes of a public park and pleasure ground.* 1 Table in An. Amer. Encvclop., 1864, p. 377. 2 Prof. Johnston's U. S., 2ij. Prof. Steele, Barnes A Co.'s U. S., 283. 3 D. B. Scott's U. S., 389. < Stephens' Comp. U, S., 846, 846. 854 -4 History of the United States of America, In the fall of 1868 came on another presidential election. The Democratic party held their convention in the city of New York, and on the 4th of July put in nomination Horatio Seymour, of New York, for President, and Gen. Francis P. Blair, of IMissouri, for Vice-President. Their platform denounced in definite terms the reconstruction policy and measures, and declared them uncon- stitutional, null and void. The Republicans, including the radicals, met at Chicago on the 19th of Mav, and put in nomination Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, of Illinois, for President, antl Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, for Vice-President. In his reply to their letter of nomination. Gene- ral Grant, accepting it, made no allusion to politics, but announced his policy in the simple words : "Let us have peace." ^ The result was that Grant and Colfax received two hundred and seventeen electoral votes, and Seymour and Blair received only seventy -seven. Grant and Colfax were elected. But the popular vote was somewhat significant. It was two million nine hundred and eighty-five thousand and thirty-one against two million six hundred and forty-eight thousand eight hundred and thirty, showing a majority of only three hundred and thirty-six thousand two hundred and one for the Repub- licans. The negroes in the reconstructed and other States had been made voters. Virginia, Mississippi and Texas, not having been re-admitted to the Union, were not allowed to vote. Had they voted, it is probable the popular majority would have been for the Democratic candidates, though the electoral majority ^vould still have been for Grant and Colfax. President Johnson retii^ed, at the close of his term, to his home in Greenville, Tennessee. He was more popular than ever in his own State. He was afterwards elected to the United States Sen- ate. He was a strong man, and a patriot according to his views of duty. 1 Stephen's Comp. U. S., 846. CHAPTER LX. The Presidency of Ulysses vS. Grant. THE presidency of Ulysses S. Grant may be considered as clos- ing the epoch of history of the United »States contemplated in this work, and set forth in one of the opening chapters as the ad- vance of the human race under three heads : First, The self-government of man. Second. The religious rights and knowledge of man. Third. Human slavery. For, in each one of these three great avenues of advance, the triumph, as shown in this history, had been complete and deci- sive. First. Every vestige of monarchy had been uprooted and de- stroyed. The right of man to self-government had been vindi- cated, and the power of men, when cultured and elevated in morality, to govern themselves had been demonstrated. Second. Perfect fi'eedom in religion had been established by the destruction of hoary superstition and the final divorce be- tween church and state — a divorce so perfect that civil govern- ment in the United States, whether Federal or State, "knows no heresy, and is committed to the support of no dogma, the estab- lishment of no sect." ' And yet, in no country is Christianity, in her highest and purest doctrines and influence, more cherished by the prevalent numbers and power of the people than in the United States. Third. Human slavery had been extirpated by the results of a war of four years, which began when the institution was in its fullest vigor and in the most benign form ever known, and when it was upheld by six millions of enlightened Christian people ; but which, under the wise rulings of an all-powerful Providence, resulted in the final destruction of slavery, not merely in the United States, but in every other civilized nation of the earth. Therefore, nothing more will be needed in completing this his- tory than a glance at important subsequent events, as they af- fected the general happiness and prosperity of the people, axad at 1 Justice Miller, in Watsou vs. Jones, Wallace lotb. Sup. Ct. Kep., 728. [ 855 ] 856 A Histo}'y of the United States of America. the condition of the African race, who had been so unwisely made an element of anxiety and disturbance in the body politic. General Grant entered upon his duties as President on the 4th of March, 1869, in the forty-seventh year of his age. His inau- gural address was brief, pointed, worthy of a soldier. He said he should have no policy of his own, except to execute the laws as made by the legislative department and expounded by the ju- diciary. "fLaws," he said, "are to govern all alike — those op- posed as well as those who favor them. I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution."^ This was a weighty utterance. For his cabinet he at first nominated Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, Secretary of State ; Alexander T. Stewart, of New York, of the Treasury ; John D. Rawlins, of Illinois, of War ; Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsylvania, of the Navy ; Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, of the Interior ; John A. J. Creswell, of Maryland, Postmaster- General ; and ElDcnezer R. Hoar, of Massachusetts, Attorney- General. But it was soon ascertained that Mr. Stewart, who was a great dry-goods merchant, was involved in questions of custom duties, which disqualified him as head of the Treasury Depart- ment. George S. Boutwell, of INIassachusetts, was substituted for him. Mr. Washburne also, being appointed minister to France, gave up the State Department, and Hamilton Fish, of New York, was appointed in his place. On the 10th of May, 1869, the greatest railroad line in the world was completed. It connected San Francisco, in California, on the Pacific Ocean, ^vith the Eastern cities on the Atlantic by way of Omaha, in Nebraska. The engineers and workmen of the western division, known as the " Central Pacific," met the like working party of the eastern section, known as the " Union Pacific," on the prairie near Ogden, and not far from Salt Lake City, in Utah Territory. The important junction was made, and the last spike, made of pure gold, was driven into its place with a golden hammer.^ The distance from San Francisco to Ogden is eight hundred and eighty-two miles ; from Ogden to Omaha, one thousand and thirty-two miles ; from Omaha to New York city, one thousand five hundred miles. On the 8th October, 1S69, Franklin Pierce died at his home in Concord, New Hampshire, leaving an unsullied fame as statesman and patriot. On the 24th of December, Edwin Stanton, former Secretary of War, died. He had just been nominated and con- firmed as one of the judges of the Supreme Court. J Stephens' Comp. U. S., 818. = Goodrich's U. S., 47S, 474. Stephens' Cornp. U. S., 849, 1 The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. 85 7 In 1869, President Grant manifested his high sense of justice and sound policy by granting the petitions forwarded to him by many prominent citizens of Virginia, and submitting to her vot- ing people the alternative power of adopting the proposed con- stitution with or without what was known as the "iron-clad" restriction, which would have shut out from office and from the voting franchise many of her best white citizens, becauge of the part they had taken in the war. The result of the vote was that the constitution was adopted without the restriction, and Virginia was admitted and resumed her normal functions as a State of the Union in 1S70. The country recovered rapidly from the losses of the war. The price of gold fell to one hundred and ten, and within the first two years of Grant's administration, two hundred million dollars of the national debt were paid. The census of 1S70 showed that the total population was over thirty -eight million. The manufactur- ing establishments and their products had doubled in value. And yet this season was noted for a panic in the " gold market," which for a time caused widely-spread ruin. It was the result of conspiracies and " corners " attempted by unscrupulous specu- lators, w-hich were indicative of one of the greatest dangers of the country, viz. : " the making haste to be rich." The 24th of September, 1S69, \vas afterwards known as the " black Friday," because of the numerous and widely-spread financial disasters it witnessed or commenced.' In February, 1870, Congress adopted a plan for a " Signal Ser- vice Bureau," which has since become one of the largest and most useful branches of public business. Under its chiefs, Albert J. Myer and William B. Hazen, it is estimated that the probabilities as to coming weather for twenty-four hours, announced by this office, have saved to farmers and owners of shipping not less than twenty millions of dollars annually. After the surrender at Appomattox, Gen. Robert E. Lee had been elected President of Washington College, at Lexington, Vir- ginia. He accepted, and devoted the rest of his life to the care and education of young men. His institution rose in dignity until it was known as " Washington and Lee University." He died on the ist of October, 1S70, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His death called out appropriate honors to his memory throughout the country. On the 31st January, 1S71, an act of Congress was passed re- pealing the provisions as to what had been known as the " iron- 1 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 840. 858 A m story of the United States of America. clad" oath previously. This had excluded from office the best people in the South, because they had sympathized and taken part with their section. The new oath substituted was simply the former constitutional oath.' On the 8th and 9th October, 1871, a fire occurred in the city of Chicago, which destroyed a large part of the business and private buildings.* Seventeen thousand houses were burned and a hun- dred thousand people for a time rendered homeless. The loss in property was estimated at two hundred millions of dollars, and two hundred and eighty human lives were lost.^ Yet such was the elastic recuperative energy of her people, and so great was the active sympathy shown, that Chicago has been restored to more than her pristine beauty and strength. In 1872 Boston was vis- ited by a similar misfortune, which destroyed property valued at eighty millions of dollars. The claims of the United States against Great Britain, arising out of all the circumstances attending the building and launching of the Alabama., her leaving England, her equipment on the high seas as a Confederate man-of-war, and her voyages of destruction against the ships and shipping interests of the United States, had been made a subject of diplomatic correspondence between the two , countries during President Johnson's term, but had not been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Great Britain thought she had used " due diligence " and denied her liability. This, with questions of fishing interests and questions of boundary, threatened seriously the continuance of peace. President Grant, with incisive vigor, urged the matter to a con- clusion. A commission, consisting of five wise representatives from each nation, met in the spring of 187 1, and concluded a " treaty of Washington," which was duly ratified. This treaty allowed equal rights to American and British fish- ermen on the eastern coasts of Canada and the United States. It made the ,St. Lawrence, from its mouth to the head of navigation, free, for purposes of commerce, to citizens of the United States ; and, by reciprocity, it allowed to British subjects the free right of navigating the Yukon, Porcupine and Stikine rivers, in Alaska. It referred the questions, under the treaty of 1846, relating to the northwestern boundary and Vancouver's Sound to the arbitration of the Emperor of Germany. In due time his award was made. It was favorable to the United States, establishing a boundary giving them all they had claimed.* 1 Stephens' Comp. TT. S., 851. - An' Amcr. Encyclop., 1871, p. S9t. Quackenbos, 512, 513. 3Quackcnt)os' U. S., 512. Stephens' Ck)mp. U. S., 857. The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. S59 The most impressive clause of this treaty was the one referring the questions of the "Alabama claims " to a tribunal of interna- tional justice, to be composed of five " High Commissioners," one to be appointed by Great Britain, one by the United States, and one by each of the sovereignties of Switzerland, Italy and Brazil. The five arbitrators met in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 15th December, 1S71. They adjourned to the 15th July, IS72, and dissolved their board finally on the 14th September of that year. Great Britain was represented by a learned and brilliant jurist. Sir Alexander Cockburn ; the United States by Charles Francis Adams ; Switzerland by her ex-president, Jakob Staempfli ; Italy by Count Frederick Sclopis, and Brazil by the Baron ISIarcos A. De Itajuba. A majority were of opinion that Great Britain, after receiving information of the character and designs of the Alabama, had not used " due diligence " to prevent her froin leaving her joorts, and was therefore liable for the direct losses caused by her, but not for indirect or remote damages, such as the loss from expected profits or loss from the prolongation of the war. Mr. Adams had once claimed these, but had, in substance, abandoned such claim. The direct damages were large enough. They were ascertained and awarded by the board of arbitration at fifteen million five hun- dred thousand dollars.^ Great Britain promptly paid them to the United States treasury. Thus was achieved a triumph for peace and arbitration among the nations of the world. The Indians of the West were still giving trouble. In the spring of 1S73 the Modocs, a tribe living on Lake Klamath, near the bounds between Oregon and California, resisted attempts to remove them to their " reservation," and took refuge in the " lava beds " of their region, from which it was hard to dislodge them. General Canby, commanding the department, and peace commissioners sent by the United States, met them in April, 1S73, by appointment ; but the Indians, with their usual treachery, fired and killed General Canby and one of the commissioners — a kind- hearted clergyman. Rev. Dr. Thomas. Another commissioner was wounded. The assassins were followed into their fastnesses. A number of them were captured, and Captain Jack and others, proved guilty, were executed by hanging. The remnant were re- moved to the Indian reserves.^ Meanwhile the white people of the South had been sorely ex- ercised by the problem how they could be relieved from the dan- iHolmes' U. S., 270, 271, and notes. Goodrich's U. S., 474, 475. ^TJialheimer's Eclec. U. S., 3.W. Quactenbos, 514. Barucs, liOl. 86o A History of the United States of Atnerica. gers threatening civilization from tlic votes of the lately en- franchised negroes. These dangers were greatly increased by the presence among them of the white " scalawags " of the South, the white " carpet-baggers" of the North, and a class of in- trusive, yet well-intending, people, consisting of school-teachers, male and female, who came in numbers from the North and un- dertook to teach the negroes not only " reading, writing and arith- metic," but also the higher mystery of how they ought to vote. The whites of the South knew the negroes thoroughly — knew them as the whites of the North did not know them — knew them from infancy and childhood, and by an association which, though always that of a superior to an inferior race, had been in- timate and aflectionatc. They knew, therefore, how radically unqualified they were to exercise the right of voting, and how certain it was that if they exercised this rigjit under the guidance of the " scalawags," " carpet-baggers " and school-teachers from the North, or exercised it according merely to their own childish judgments and their own depraved aflections, instincts and de- sires, they would bring ruin on every social interest. It was indispensable, therefore, that means should be used by which these evils should be averted. In several of the Southern vStates — notably in Louisiana and South Cai'olina — the "carpet- bag" rule had already resulted in frightful evils — such as extrav- agant accumulation of j^ublic debt, wastcf'ul exj^enditures, oj^en bribery and corruption, incompetent and oppressive executive measures, absurd and dangerous legislation, and such disturbance of the relations of labor that the blacks were rapidly becoming idle, worthless, drunken and disorderly. These evils, if contin- ued, would have brought the Southern States to a condition worse than that of Mexico or St. Domingo. The Southern whites cannot be justly censured for arresting these evils by methods which, they knew, Avould work most effect- ually on the minds of the negroes. Far and widely there ex- tended the mysteries of a secret organization designated as the "Kuklux" by those who knew least of its nature and principles.* It was a name given officially first by a Federal judge, who tried in vain to grasp its impalpable and weird elements. Though not pure Greek, the word sufficiently indicated a mys- tic " circle." Its methods were perfectly adapted to aflect the souls of the negroes with superstitious fears of demons, hobgoblins and preternatural monsters, who would certainly invade and harry them if they attempted to assemble under the lead of " scala- 1 Holmes' U. S., 272, and noto ns to Judge Busteed in AJabama iu XS71. The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. 86 1 wags," " carpet-baggers " or Northern school-teachers, but who would be propitious to them if they voted with the Southern whites, and who would, as they hoped, not interfere with them if they did not vote at all.' In addition to these mysterious means, for which few could be justly held responsible, the whites of the South exercised a wise and legitimate influence over the negroes, and had no serious diffi- culty in satisfying the great mass of the better classes of them, especially in the cotton and sugar States, that their interests were really identical with those of the whites, and that their true wel- fare would be promoted either by voting with the whites or bv not voting at all. The " Enforcement Act," which had been passed over the veto of President Johnson, was expected to guard the purity of elec- tions by supervisors of the diflerent political parties and by the presence of soldiers at the polls if called for. Notwithstanding this act and its rigid enforcement, the elections in Georgia, in De- cembei-, 1870, resulted in an overwhelming majority for the Democratic party and the complete deliveiy of the State from " carpet-bag " rule.^ Similar tendencies showed themselves in all the Southern States. The Republicans had confidently expected the negroes to vote with them, and were, therefore, greatly incensed at these results. In the summer of 187 1, very numerous prosecutions were in- stituted in the Federal court in South Carolina for alleged viola- tions of the Enforcement Act. In the counties of Newbury, York, Laurens, Spartanburg and Chester, and in several counties in the lower part of the State, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, and the people were put under martial law. Gross outrages on individual rights and liberties were committed. The courts of the .State were closed. Numbers of the best citizens were seized and carried, some to Columbia, some to Charleston, where, ex- posed to severe weather and without proper shelter or food, they were kept for months without hearing the charges against them.* Dr. John A. Leland, President of the Laurens Female College, a gentleman of the highest character, honesty and piety, was im- prisoned for five weeks with every indignity and crueltv, and then discharged on bail without ever being informed of the of- fence for which he had been arrested.'' 1 The best exposition of the woAingof the " Kul^lux " is probably that in " Thorns in the Flesh," by N. J. Floyd, 1S84. 2 Life of IJnton Stephens, by Waddell, 330. Stephens, 852. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S.. 854, 855. * "A Voice from South Carolina," by Dr. Leland, 231 page.s. Stephens, 854, 855. 862 A Historv of the United States of America. Quite a number of persons were tried under a special act of Congress, called the " Kuklux Act," were convicted on ex /ar/c testimony, and condemned to imprisonment in Northern peniten- tiaries. With few, if any, exceptions they were pardoned by President Grant. In 1 87 1, the republic of Hayti, in the island of St. Domingo, inhabited almost entirely by negroes, applied for admission as a State to the North American Union. President Grant sent a commission of eminent men to examine the island. They re- ported favorably ; but the Congress, in 1S72, rejected the measui-e.' During the summer of this year, a visitor to the battle-iield of Gettysburg, in wandering over the Cemetery Ridge, found a broken drum, in which a swarm of bees were building their comb and storing honey gathered from the innumerable flowers growing from a soil once moistened with the blood of brave men of both sections.^ The politicians, not the soldiers, sought to con- tinue the strife. In this year (1873) eminent men died : Samuel Breeze Finley Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, on the 22d of April, in his eighty-first year ; William H. Seward, after making a voy- age around the world, died on the loth of October, in his seventy- second year ; and General George G. Meade died on the 6th of November, in his fifty-seventh year. Another death of a noted man, under noted circumstances, occurred. Some Republicans, who disapproved of coercion and military occupation in the South, broke away from their party and formed a new party, under the name of " Liberal Republicans." They went into convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, and put in nomina- tion Horace Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, for Vice-President. The Democrats held their convention at Baltimore on the 9th of July, 1872. They esteemed it good policy to make no nomina- tion, but simply to endorse the nominees of the Cincinnati con- vention. The regular Republican convention met in Philadelphia on the t^th of June, 1872, and put in nomination General Grant for re- election as President, and Henry Wilson for election as Vice- President. Horace Greeley had gained the good opinions of many people by becoming sui^ety on the bail bond of Jeficrson Davis and by his open advocacy of the most liberal measures of pacification ; but very large numbers of Democrats, especially in the South, » Prof. Steele, Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 289, 290, and note. - Barnes & Co.'s U. S., note, 288. The PrcsuJoicv of Ulysses S. Grant. 863 could not forget the bitter and vindictive spirit he had exhibited in the columns of his paper, The Tribiinc., early in the war. He had urged that, when the war was over, Southerners should not be permitted to return . to " peaceful and contented homes. They must find poverty at their firesides, and see privation in the anxious eyes of mothers and the rags of children." ^ Campaign documents, with pictorial illustrations presenting the scenes he had advo- cated, were freely used against ]\Ir. Greeley. His motives, his dis- interestedness and his consistency were all unsparingly criticised. Nevertheless, his enthusiastic temperament made him sanguine of success. He ^vorked dav and night in organizing his friends and belaboring his foes. The election resulted in giving to Grant and Wilson two hun- dred and eighty-six electoral votes. Only sixty-five electoral votes were secured for Greeley and Brown, and the popular ma- jority against them was seven hundred and fifty thousand — the largest ever known. ^ Mr. Greelev's wife had died about the close of the canvass. This family alxliction, uniting with the intense strain of the strug- gle and the deep disappointment and mortification attending the result, overthrew the powers of his mind. He became insane and died in a private asylum about a month after the election.^ In the electoral college the sixty-five votes intended for him were scattered among many names of small notoriety. The Congress of 1873— '73 was noted for three proceedings, all indicating the \vant of magnanimity and purity in the body it- self and in the great money centres of the country. One was known as the " Credit Mobilier " investigation. It took its name from a previous financial scheme of the same character in France. It had much unsound relation to the raising of the immense sums expended in railroads, and especially in the great continental line to San Francisco. Persistent rumors of the dishonest participation of members of Congress in these schemes led to investigating committees of both Houses, which took evidence and made reports. The result was that a deep shadow of lasting suspicion was cast over the hitherto fair fame of several eminent congressmen. The Senate commit- tee reported in favor of the expulsion of one member of that body, and he was only saved from this dire disgrace by intervening in- fluences. The House passed resolutions of censure upon two of its members.* 'New York Tribune, in Whip:, May 24th, ISGl. 2 Goodrich's U. S., 475. Stephens, 858. 2 Barnes & Co.'.s U. S., note, 291. Quackenbos, 513. Stephens, 858. * Quackenbos' U. S,, 513, 514. Derry's U. S., 336. 864 -A History of the United States of America. The second sinister proceeding has since been known as the " Salary Grab." Although the members of Congress vv^ere already- enjoying ample money compensation for their services (amount- ing to about live thousand dollars per annum, and mileage allow- ances for travel which far exceeded expenses), yet they passed a bill increasing their pay to about seven thousand dollars per an- num, and putting its operation back so as to secure to many for- mer members a large amount of extra pay. They increased the President's salary from twenty-five thousand dollars to fifty thou- sand dollars per annum. This last named sum is a very moderate compensation, and has since been continued.^ But their unbecoming and selfish act in so largely swelling their own pay was greeted with such a storm of indignation by the people of the country that many congressmen hastened to deny all approval of the proceeding, and to refuse the extra compensa- tion. The act was speedily repealed. The third error was financial, and was one of the causes of widely-spread money trouble and disaster, beginning in 1873. It had its origin in the jDlans of Wall Street, New York, and was without foundation in statesmanship and justice. Silver coin had always been reckoned as a just legal tender for debts or other pay- ments, and had been definitely recognized as such by the consti- tution of the United States ; ^ and the nations of the world had given a like recognition. At the time when this unfortunate le- gislation was attempted, gold and silver coin was circidating as money in the world to the amount of eight thousand millions of dollars. Of this vast sum, at least four thousand five hundred millions were in silver coin. From the beginning of the government the only unit of value in the United States had been the silver dollar of three hundred and seventy-three grains of standard silver, estimating at fourteen hundred and eighty-five parts of fine silver in sixteen hundred and forty-two parts. This had never been changed. The legal-tender dollar was four hundred and twelve and a half grains at the stand- ard established. All the public bonds and certificates of debt were payable in gold or silver at this standard. All public and private debts or contracts had reference to this standard, unless another had been expressly stipulated.^ But gradually, and under inliuences manipulated largely by the great banking houses of Europe, where Great Britain and Ger- many had made gold coin the sole legal tender, and the gold spec- 1 Holmes' U. S., 274. 2 Constitution, Art. I., sec. 10. 3 Stephens' Comp. U. S., 858. CompRre witli Art. Coins, Amer. Encyclop., V. 441. Judge R. W. Hughes. The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. 865 ulators of Wall Street, New York, gold bullion had risen in value as compared with silver. This did not, in the slightest degree, affect the moral relations of the subject ; but it gave vast room for speculation and for working, by specious and illogical reason- ing, on the unwise in Congress.^ They passed a bill, in February, 1873, ostensibly relating only to the operations of the United States mints. The silver dollar was not specially mentioned, and it was only known to the wire- workers and manipulators from Wall Street that the final result sought was the demonetization of silver. This was followed up by the enactment in June, 1S74, of what were called "The Re- vised Statutes of the United States." In this code, a brief sec- tion, numbered three thousand five hundred and eighty-six, was quietly interpolated, the etTect of which was that, except for amounts not exceeding five dollars in any one payment, the silver coin of the United States ceased to be legal tender. It has since been ascertained that many members of Congress who voted affirm- atively did not realize to their own minds what would be the effect of their legislation, and that President Grant would not have signed these acts had he understood their effect upon the legal-tender silver dollar. Other causes, indicating unsound finances, doubtless contributed to the failures and distress which began in the fall of 1S73 and continued for more than a year. In 1878 the Congress saw the error of their ways and restored the silver standard dollar to its legal-tender power ; but they have not yet reached the full measure of right policy on this subject, which requires a free coinage at standard value of all silver bul- lion offered at the United States mints. General Grant was inaugurated President for his second term on the 4th day of March, 1873. The weather was inclement, but the crowd was immense, and the ceremonies were impressive. The address was brief and pointed, and was received with enthusiasm. Chief-Justice Chase administered the oath. On the 7th of May he was stricken by paralysis and died at the home of his daughter in New York. Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, an able jurist, was appointed and confirmed as his successor. In March, 1875, Colorado was admitted as the thirty -eighth State of the Union. She is called the " Centennial State," be- cause her people ratified the act of admission July ist, 1876. And now the unhappy results of the war, the uprising of " scal- awags " and the advent of " carpet-baggers," stimulated by the » Bland Silver Bill. Prof. Steele. Barnes, 295. Stephen.s, 858. Letters of Judge Ro. W- Hughes on Silver, Richmond Dispatch, April 10, 1891, 55 866 A History of fhc United States of America. wretched policy which had forced the right of voting upon the negroes, began to appear in forms deeply embarrassing to the United States government. In Louisiana, under the elections of November, 1873, two sep- arate and conflicting governments made their appearance, each claiming to be the rightful one and each furnishing the returns of boards, each of which claimed to be the true returning board. The experience of the inchoate days of Kansas was repeated. Two men, each claiming to be governor, appeared — Warmouth, Greeley Republican ; Kellogg, regular Republican. Two legis- latures fulminated against each other ; two senators claimed the vacancy in Congress. President Grant sent a message informing Congress of the leading facts and stating that " recent investiga- tions of the said elections had developed so many frauds and for- geries as to make it doubtful what candidates i"eceived a majority of votes actually cast." ^ He asked Congress to act about this chaotic crisis. But the Congress, not knowing what to do, did nothing. Meanwhile the contending parties came to actual collision in the streets of New Orleans in September, 1874. Twenty-six persons were killed, and Governor Kellogg was obliged to take refuge in the United States custom-house. President Grant acted as a sol- dier might have been expected to act. He sent soldiers to the scene, who restored order and upheld Kellogg. Congress sent a committee to investigate, of which William A. Wheeler (afterwards Vice-President) was chairman. Their re- port developed some ugly frauds by the Warmouth party. Gov- ernor Kellogg was temporarily sustained and kept in power.^ But the elections of the next year (187=5) gave rise to a similar evihroglio. Nicholls (Democrat) claimed to be governor; so did Packard (Republican). The President refused to interfere, ex- cept so far as to command and keep the peace by his soldiers.^ At the close of his term both claimants still kept the field ; but hardly had Grant's successor withdrawn the soldiers before the Republican claimant collapsed, and Governor Nicholls quietly ruled the State. Frorn such scenes of misgovernment and its results we turn gladly to a brighter and happier scene which adorned the admin- istration of President Grant. It was the great " Centennial Ex- position," held in memory of the establishment of the independ- ence of the United States by the Declaration of 1776. 1 Message 25th February, 1873, in Stephens, 860, 861. "Stephens' Comp. U. S., 863. sQuackenbos, 515. The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. 867 Long and anxious preparations had liccn made for it, in which all the nations of the earth had been invited to take part. Con- gress had made liberal appropriations of money, and public cor- porations and private citizens of wealth and means had poured out their resources lavishly to make it a success. The result ex- ceeded even the most sanguine expectations. The buildings were erected in the beautiful grounds of the " Fairmount Park," at Philadelphia. The main exhibition build- ing covered twenty acres, and its annexes covered nearly as much more. Two hundred smaller structures were scattered over the extensive grounds. In these buildings were gathered all the best and highest specimens of the genius and industry of the world in painting, sculpture, statuary, machinery, and every form of art. The exhibition was opened with imposing ceremonies on the 10th day of May, 1876. The machinery was all started at a given signal by one gigantic "Corliss" engine. Crowds of people from all parts of the United States — North, South, East and West — and from all parts of the habitable world continuously flocked from day to day to the exhibition. On the night of the 3d and on the 4th of July all business was suspended, except such as re- lated to the grand civic and military procession and ceremonies of those days. General Hawley was commander-in-chief. High officers and volunteer companies of North and South mingled \vith amity and enthusiasm in these movements. The re-union of the whole country was made manifest. Dom Pedro, the en- lightened Emperor of Brazil, and President Grant together took part in the ceremonies. The exposition was kept open from the loth of May to the loth of October, 1S76. The total number of visitors was regis- tered by the counting turnstiles as nine million nine hundred and ten thousand nine hundred and sixty-six.^ The return of prosperity was manifest everywhere. Large harvests followed agricultural labor. The Congress of 1876 felt that it was safe to provide for the redemption of treasury notes in coin on and after the ist day of January, 1879 ; and, as the time drew near, so complete was the restoration of public confi- dence that the premium on gold coin sunk and sunk until it reached zero, and the resumption of specie payments became uni- versal after a suspension of nearly eighteen years. Only two centres of actual hostility gave trouble. One was the chronic case of Cuba. Since 186S, insurrectionary spirit against Spain had never been quiet in that island. On the 31st 1 Barnes k Co.'s U. S., 291, 292. McCabe, in Stephens, 866-875. 868 A History of the United States of America. October, 1873, the Virginiiis^ a vessel sailing under the United States flag, was captured on the high seas by the Spanish cruiser Tortiado, on the alleged ground that she was bound for Cuba with men and anns for the insurgents. Captain Fry and many others were taken from her to the shore and shot without formal trial, against the spirit of the treaty between Spain and the United States, and against the protest of the American consul. Excite- ment rose high in the United States, and war with Spain was clamored for. Congress appropriated four million dollars for the navy. A fleet assembled in the waters of Cuba ; but it was as- certained that the Yirginiiis was not a ship owned in the United States and not entitled to carry their flag. Spain made repara- tion for all actual injuries, and the difficulty was peaceably set- tled.^ The other trouble was with the warlike Sioux Indians. They committed outrages and murders in Wyoming and Montana Ter- ritories. General Custer (who had gained a decisive success over the Indians at Washita in November, 1868), with a small com- mand of the Seventh cavalry, was detached to march upon them. On the 3i:;th of June, 1876, he came suddenly on a large body of the Sioux, occupying a strong position near the Big Horn river. Without waiting for reinforcements Custer bravely, but some- what rashly, determined to attack them. He sent Colonel Reno, with three companies, to fall on the rear of the Indian position while he charged directly on their front. A bloody conflict ensued. Custer, his two brothers and his nephew, all fell on the field, and all the men with him, two hundred and fifty in number, were slain. Colonel Reno was surrounded, but, rapidly throwing up slight intrenchments, he held his ground on the bluff's until rein- forcements arrived.^ The Sioux were driven off", but not before they had gained a partial success, ^vhich encouraged them to con- tinue the war; but they were followed up with ceaseless vigor during the sunimer, autumn and winter, and defeated again and again with severe loss. Finally, a small remnant of them, under their chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, took refuge in British teiTitory. As the time approached for nominations for the next presiden- tial term, some evidences of curious anxiety appeared. Many w^arm admirers of General Grant proposed his renomination for a third consecutive term.^ Nothing in the constitution forbade it, and though he himself never gave personal evidence of unseemly 1 Quackenbos, 516, 517. Holmes, 275. 2 Barnes, 292, 293. Thalheimer, 335. Quackenbos, 518. 8 Holmes' U.S., 277, 278. The Presidency of Ulysses S.. Grant. 869 ambition on the subject, yet he submitted himself to the views of his political friends in expressions indicating that he did not con- sider the precedents of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson as conclusively binding on him ; but the people of the country received the idea of a third-term President with so little favor that the Republican leaders did not venture to press it. The Republican convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, and on the 14th of June, 1S76, nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, for President, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, for Vice- President. The Democratic convention met at St. Louis, Mis- souri, and on the 3yth of June nominated Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, for Vice-President. The Republican platform was nearly a repe- tition of its predecessor. The Democratic platform made a strong appeal for reform and free government. The canvass was lU'ged with vigor in every part of the coun- try. The result came near to involving the United States in an- other bloody strife in arms. The electoral votes were known to be nearly equal ; both sides claimed the victory. The whole number of electoral votes was three hundred and sixty-nine ; therefore one hundred and eighty-five votes were required to elect. But, unhappily, the disturbed conditions arising out of the war and the reconstruction measures gave rise to a state of returns never before known. Two returns as to electoral votes were made from several States. This compelled the electoral college to refer the whole matter of the election to the Congress. They were thus brought face to face with questions never be- fore presented. The Democrats contended that, by a right count, they were entitled to the electoral votes of South Carolina, Flor- ida and Louisiana, which would give them two hundred and three votes ; but that, if the votes of those three States were counted for Hayes, Tilden would still have one hundred and eighty-four undisputed votes, and one vote from Oregon was justly his by official return, which would give him one hundred and eighty-five votes ; ' but the Republicans insisted that, by the offi- cial returns certified by the governors, as always theretofore re- ceived. Haves and Wheeler had a majority of the electoral votes. The Democrats had a majority in the House ; the Republicans in the Senate. Thus, agreement of the two Houses seemed im- possible. The country looked on in breathless anxiety. Already the unstable and fighting elements were beginning to come to the surface, and to prepare for bloodshed. I Stephens' Comp. U. S., 876. 870 A History'of the United States of America. In this alarming crisis, Samuel J. Tilden wrote a patriotic let- ter, which was made public, and which urged some amicable set- tlement by a compromise bill in Congress to prevent open war. The Congress adopted the plan of a "Joint High Commission," to whom the disputed election should be referred for decision. The bill for this purpose received the votes of many earnest South- ern members, among whom were Alexander H. Stephens, of Geor- gia, and John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia. Some doubted the constitutionality of the bill, on the ground that the Vice-President of the United States (being president of the Senate) was the functionary authorized to receive and count the votes in the pres- ence of the Congress.^ But the bill passed both Houses, and was signed by the President. The "Joint Commission " consisted of five senators — Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Bayard and Thurmau ; five representa- tives — Payne, Hunton, Abbott, Garfield and Hoar ; and five jus- tices of the Supreme Court — Clifford, Miller, Field, Strong and Bradley. The papers relating to the dispute were referred to them. They sat constantly and vv^orked diligently. Their deci- sion and award were not made until the second day of March, 1877, only two days before the time for inaugurating the new President. The questions of fact and law, fraud and force of official re- turns, were presented fully and argued lucidly before the " Com- mission " by the best legal minds of the countr}-, among whom Jeremiah Black and Charles O'Connor were conspicuous.^ The decision was that Rutherford B. Hayes, for President, and William A. Wheeler, for Vice-President, had i^eceived one hundred and eighty-five electoral votes, being a majority of one vote, and were duly elected.' The country breathed more freely, and acquiesced. But the Democrats failed not to notice that the vote in the "Joint Com- mission " was eight Republicans to seven Democrats, and that the grave justices of the Supreme Court voted on each side of the po- litical lines as the members of Congress did — that is, according to their previously known party views. This disputed election and its decision have been held to be strong evidence of the failure of the republican form of government ; but this would be a crude and false conclusion. The decision was simply that the counting authority could not go behind the official returns certified by the governors of the > Art. XII., Amendments to IT. S. Constitution. 2 " The Republic as a Form of Government," by John Scott, of Fauquier, Va., pp. 266-286. 3 Stephens, 876. Eggleston, 356. Scudder, 418. Thalheimer, 337. The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. 871 States, and thus plimge into the chaotic sea of evidence as to" fraud, intimidation and invalid ballots which lay behind. On this basis all previous elections had been decided. It seemed safer to rest on this, and hope for better times and more honest rule in all the States. The result was proof of conservatism rather than failure in the republic. Soon after the close of his second term, General Grant set out on an extended course of travel. He passed through Great Britain and nearly all the enlightened countries of Europe, re- ceiving everywhere, alike from crowned heads and subjects, marks of courtesy and honor. He then traveled in Asia and the ex- treme East, passed round the world, and returned to his home through the Pacific, by San Francisco and the great continental line of railroad. He settled in the city of New York. Here he became a part- ner in a banking house with his son-in-law, Mr. Ward, whose financial ventures were somew^hat perilous. The result was dis- astrous failure, which involved the worldly fortunes of the ex- President, but did not affect his honor. He died of cancer of the throat on the 23d July, 1885. His funeral was one of pomp and magnificence, attended by the highest dignitaries of the land and the surviving generals of both Northern and Southern armies. His remains were interred at Riverside Park, in New York city. CHAPTER LXI. The Presidencies of Hayes, Garfield and Arthur. WHATEVER doubts the Democrats, North and South, may have felt as to the good faith exercised in the elections which had been decided in favor of President Hayes, it is certain that the South had no reason to complain of his administration. Pie was inaugurated on Monday, March 5th, 1877, and served until March 4th, 1881. Among his first official acts was an order withdrawing from Louisiana and other Southern States the United States troops theretofore quartered therein. The ef- fect was immediate and highly salutary. The " carpet-baggers," " scalawags " and negro politicians rapidly collapsed in numbers and influence. Stable government and security took the place of anarchy and disorder. But now began to appear in the United States an element of danger, intensified by the prevalence of free institutions. In no country in the world had labor, in every form, been more re- munerative. Wages, even of ordinary and unskilled laborers, had been higher than in any other country, making the sober workman and his family comfortable and prosperous. Skilled labor in every department commanded the best prices. From the Old World had been introduced the principle and usage of organization of workmen into guilds and societies. So long as these were confined to legitimate co-operation for pur- poses of mutual help in sickness, advantageous purchases of food and clothing, and special emergency, their effect was good ; but restless and leading minds among the working classes, and es- pecially of those who had migrated from Europe, began to con- ceive of purposes far wider and wilder than mere co-operation. A huge organization emerged, known as " Knights of Labor," to which all were invited who, in any form, worked with hands and heads in mechanical or industrial art. Their methods of relief and remedy in cases in which they conceived themselves to have suffered grievance -were chieffy two, viz. : " strikes " and " boycotts." Their " strikes " involved not merely the ceasing to work themselves and falling back upon [ 872 ] The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. 873 a common fund previously contributed from their wages to main- tain them during a protracted "strike," but involved also active and sometimes forcible and bloody opposition to other laborers em- ployed to take the places of the "strikers." The "boycott" was a system first practiced in Ii'eland. Its essence was a cessation of all purchases, dealings or business with all who in any manner opposed their proceedings. It was essentially a conspiracy, on the largest scale, against good feeling and liberal dealing, and was, therefore, against the spirit of the English common law and of Christianity. In July, 1S77, some reduction in the high rate of wages pre- viously paid by the " Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company " having been made, the brakemen and train hands " struck " and refused to work at Martinsburg, in West Virginia.' Other rail- road workmen joined in the movement. Soon all transfer of pas- sengers or freight was suspended. The eflbrts of the companies to obtain other laborers were forcibly and brutally resisted by the strikers. Twenty thousand organized insurgents held possession of Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, for more than two days. One hundred and twenty-five costly locomotives and two thousand five hundred freight and express cars, besides many engine-houses and other buildings, were burned by the strikers. State troops were ordered out, and United States soldiers were hurried to the scene. Bloody conflicts followed, in which not less than one hun- dred lives were destroyed. Gradually the insurgents learned that the arm of orderly government was too sti'ong for them. They began to return to their work, after having caused irreparable loss. Similar riots occurred at Chicago and St. Louis, and with like re- sults. In San Francisco a mob attacked the employers of Chi- nese laborers, and were, with blood and difficulty, dispersed. But there is certainly a reverse side of this labor question strongly favorable to the " Knights " and to all who seek for fair treatment of workmen and workwomen in every department by employers. In the United States as well as in England, Thomas Hood's " Song of the Shirt" has met a response in thousands of souls. Seam- stresses in New York and other cities have toiled at wages barely sufficient to keep soul and body together, while their employers were becoming millionaires. Other forms of labor have met simi- lar oppression at the hands of the rich. If it be true that, in 18S6, in New York, the Widow Landgraf was " boycotted " by organized laborers, and handbills were dis- tributed urging people not to buy bread at her bakery, simply be- 1 Thalheimer's Elec. U. S., 340, 341. 874 -^ History of the United States of America. cause she had declined to conform to some of the guild rules, it is equally true that employers have banded themselves together for the purpose of crushing " strikes " and keeping down wages. The cloakmakers in New York, not long ago, by concerted action " locked out " and dismissed all their workmen and women be- cause of a " strike " in one single shop. Similar hardships have been visited on cigarmakcrs, collar and paper-box workmen, and shoemakers and binders, men and women. ^ No inlluence less than real, personal Christianity in employers and laborers will furnish a solution of these sad questions. In Idaho Territory, early in the autumn of 1877, the Nez Perces Indians broke out into open war ; but the United States troops, imder Colonel Miles and General Howard, marched promptly against them and subdued all hostile movements by the end of October.^ The second session of the Forty-fifth Congress was held in 1877— '78. An act was passed relieving Southern soldiers who, by reason of wounds or invalidity, were pensioned by their States, from all operation of the "iron-clad" oath. The "Bland Silver Bill " was also passed, by which the silver dollar of four hundred and twelve and a half grains of standard silver was restored to its money power as legal tender, though its coinage was limited to four million dollars per month. Resumption of specie pay- ments was provided for, to take cfiect on the ist of January, 1879 ; and, as gold by that time was at par with the government's trea- sury notes in Wall Street, New York, the resumption was so quiet and easy that no financial strain attended it. In the summer of 1878, the yellow fever made its appearance in New Orleans, and spread with alarming rapidity up the rivers and into Missouri and Tennessee. At least seven thousand per- sons died.^ Under an act of Congress, scientific researches as to the nature and origin of this disease were made, and measures of health and cleanliness have been adopted. Notwithstanding the heavy public debt, the country grew fast in prosperity and population. The census of 1880 showed a total of more than llftv million — an increase of about twelve million in ten years. By the treaty of Washington, in 1871, difficulties and questions of damage between Great Britain and the United States, concern- ing the fisheries of the northeastern coast, had been referred to a commission. They sat at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1878, and after >Art. "Industrial Discontent." BelforfVs Mag., Feb., 1891. 2 Stephen's Comp. U. S., 881. ^ Prof. Steele, Barnes, 295. The Presidcticy of yamcs A. Garjicld. S75 careful investigation awarded to Great Britain the sum of five million five hundred thousand dollars. In iSSo, two treaties with China were made and ratified. One regulated commerce between the two countries ; the other granted to the United States power to regulate and restrict the nature and extent of immigration of Chinese people to our country. As the time for the presidential nominations of 1880 drew near, increasing anxiety was felt. It was known that President Hayes positively declined to permit his name to be used as a candidate. The attempt to renominate him would have opened afresh maga- zines of explosives too dangerous to be used. General Grant's friends — prominent among whom was Roscoe Conkling, of New York — enthusiastically urged him for a third term and presented his name to the Republican convention, which met in Chicago on the 2d day of June, 1880. But the opponents of the third- term idea prevailed. The votes for Grant never rose above three hundred and six. James G. Blaine led the opposition. James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was nominated for President, and Cliester A. Arthur, of New York, for Vice-President. The Democratic convention met in Cincinnati, on the 23d of June, iSSo, and nominated Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, of New York, for President, and William H. Englisli, of Indiana, for Vice-President. A party or sect known as the " Greenback party" had arisen, whose leading principle was that the government ought to issue an enormous volume of paper currency, and inake it legal tender, basing its acceptance at par simply upon the credit of the govern- ment, and not upon its power of convertibility into gold or silver coin at the pleasure of the holder. This was known as the theory of " fiat money," and it was ingeniously upheld in argument by Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, and others. It had seductive fascinations for many minds ; but it could not delude those who remembered the lessons of history. Nevertheless, the "Greenback- Labor" party held a convention and nominated James B. Weaver, of Iowa, as President, and Benjamin I. Chambers, of Texas, as Vice-President. The vote they received was comparatively small. The Republicans were successful. James A. Garfield was inau- gurated on Friday, the 4th of jSIarch, iSSi. The day was bleak, stormy and blood-chilling ; yet the military and civic display had never been more imposing. Fifty thousand non-residents crowded the city of Washington. The new President was, in the highest sense, a self-made aiian. He was one of nature's noblemen. Born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, 876 A History of the United States of America. in 1S31, he was one of a family living in iDovcrty on a small and recently cleared farm in \vhat was then a wilderness.^ His father's death, while he was yet in boyhood, made it necessary for him to toil with his hands for his mother and her family. His early ed- ucation was limited ; but his soul was of high order and could not be suppressed. By patient exertions he entered Williams College and graduated with great credit in 1S54. He distinguished him- self in the Northern armies and attained the rank of major-general. During the war he was elected to Congress and was a leader in the House of Representatives. He was elected senator from Ohio, but, being nominated for the Presidency, never took his seat in the Senate. He had been a hard student, and had gained wide knowledge of the history of man. He was a faithful Christian, and was a member of the denomination who discourage human creeds and prefer to call themselves simply " Christians.'' Frank, winning and generous in character and mannei", he had hosts of friends and was beloved by many who differed from him in party questions. His nominations for his cabinet were confirmed by the Senate. They were : James G. Blaine, of Maine, Secretary of State ; Wil- liam Windom, of Minnesota, of the Ti'easury ; Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois (son of the deceased President, Abraham Lincoln), of War ; William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, of the Navy ; Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, of the Interior ; Thomas L. James, of New York, Postmaster-General ; Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania, Attorney-General.^ Hardly had the new presidency opened before a bitter conflict began to develop itself between Republican forces. Roscoe Conkling, of New York, had urged the renomination of General Grant as long as there was hope, and had favored the nomi- nation of Chester A. Arthur, as Vice-President. He and his special party friends took some pride in denominating themselves as " Stalwarts." His chief ground of hostility to President Gar- field was concerning the lucrative office of collector of the port of New York. The President declined to nominate the man urged by the " Stalwarts." This quarrel would be beneath the notice of history had it not led to a blood-red tragedy. The President's wife, Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield, a lady of more than ordinary force and beauty of character, had suffered with malarial fever after coming to Washington. She was removed to Long Branch, New Jersey, where she gradually improved in health. iProf. Steele, Barnes, (note) 296. Stephens, 892. = Stephens' Comp. U. S., 896. The Presidency of J aims A. Garfield. Syy After passing through the opening labors of his administration, which had been aggravated by the course of the " Stalwarts," the President felt at liberty to seek some respite. He prepared to visit Long Branch, and to go thence to attend the commencement exercises in Williams College. On July 2d, 1881, accompanied by Seci'etary Blaine, he Avas driven in a carriage to the reception- rooms of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company. Some members of the cabinet had preceded him. They were to take a car on the limited express train which was to leave the station at half-past nine o'clock in the morning. All were ready, and the President and jSIr. Blaine were cheerfully conversing, when, as they were passing through the ladies' saloon on their way to the car, a pistol-shot was heard. The ball inflicted a slight wound on the President's arm ; but another shot immediately followed, and the bullet penetrated the body of President Garfield in the back near the spinal column and in the region of the kidneys. He fell heavily to the floor. Amazed and almost paralyzed by the scene, the niembers.of the cabinet nevertheless hastened to have the President raised and re- moved to his home. The assassin had a hired hack waiting for him and attempted to fly, but was promptly seized by Captain Kearney and Policeman Parks. He brandished his pistol, waving a sealed letter and shouting in a loud voice : ''Arthur is President of the United States now. I am a Stalwart. This letter will tell you everything. I want you to take it to General Sherman." He \vas soon identified as a man .named Charles Guiteau, who had been an office-seeker and lounger in Washington and else- where. His letter to General Sherman deserves preservation as a sign of the times. It was as follows : " To General S//er/i/an : "I have just shot the President. I shot him several times, as I wished him to go as easily as possible. His death was a political necessity. I am a lawyer, theoloo;ian and politician. I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. I was with General Grant and the rest of our men in New York during the canvass. I am going to the jail. Please order out your troops and take possession of the jail at once. Very respectfullv, "Charles Guiteau." General Sherman, with considerate prudence, endorsed on the letter that he did not know the writer and never saw or heard of him to his knowledge, and that the letter was remitted to Major Twining, Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and Alajor Brock, chief of police, as testimony in the case.^ 1 Letters hi Stephens' Comp. U. S., 897-S99. 878 A History of the United States of Afnerica. The wound received by the President was in its nature mortal from the beginning ; but, by medical and surgical skill and care- ful nursing, he was kept alive for more than two months. Dur- ing this time the sympathy manifested was not confined to the United States, but was literally world-wide. Frequent inquiries and expressions of sorrow came from the Old World, and espe- cially from Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and Em- press of India. The slowly dying President bore his suflerings with patience and Christian fortitude. With the hope that change of air might do good, he was conveyed to Long Branch. Here, in Francklyn Cottage, at Elberon, he died at 10 135 p. M. of the 19th Septem- ber, 1881. His wife had watched and nursed him with patient love to the end. The assassin, Guiteau, was carefully guarded against all " lynch law " punishment. The nearest approach to it was a shot fired at him through the grated window of the jail by a subordinate officer .or private soldier of the guard, who bore the name of Mason. The shot missed. The soldier was duly tried and pun- ished for this breach of military duty ; but he was pardoned be- fore his term of imprisonment expired. A regular indictment was found on the 8th of October, 1881, by a grand jury against Charles Guiteau, for the murder of James A. Garfield. The trial lasted from the i6th November, 1881, to the 35th January, 1883, and was eminent in judicial caution and fairness to the accused. George Scoville, who had married Gui- teau's sister, led as counsel in his defence. The plea was insanity, though the accused himself protested against it, and insisted that he had killed the President as a political necessity and moved by a Divine impulse. His whole demeanor previous to, during and after his trial fully entitled him to the designation of " crank," which has ever since been a recognized American word, the meaning of which is well understood. It describes a man who is eccentric, but not insane. The jury found him " guilty," and he was sentenced to be exe- cuted by hanging on the 30th day of June. Efforts for a new trial and appeals for pardon were all ineffectual. The sentence was carried out, in the jail and in the presence of a limited number of spectators, on the day appointed. Sombre and disturbing as some of the reflections of Chester A. Arthur on the tragic events which had made him President of the United States probably were, he promptly assumed his high office and grave duties as soon as he received official notice of the death The Presidency of Chester A. Arthur. 879 of President Garfield. He took the oath of office before Hon. John R. Brady, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of New York, on the 20th September, and sent to the cabinet of the dead Presi- dent information of his act, with renewed expressions of sorrow and sympathy.^ The cabinet had advised this prompt action to avoid the disorders of an interregnum. From this time to the end of his term, May 4th, 1885, he continued diligently to discharge his high duties. One of his seasons of recreation was s^jent in a visit to the great National Park, in the Yellowstone region of Wyoming Territory. Its natural wonders have continued to attract yearly a crowd of visitors. The series of gigantic manoeuvres for dishonestly making money, commonly known as the " Star Route Frauds," early attracted the attention of the Garfield and Arthur administration. These frauds involved malpi-actices on a large scale in the Postoffice Depart- ment. In two months the investigations made led to the annul- ling of contracts amounting to nearly two millions of dollars.^ The population of the country had become so large and so con- flicting in the character and interests of its elements, that the question of restricting immigration became serious in the law- making power and its counsels. From the teeming lands of China great numbers of her people were constantly making their way across the Pacific Ocean to the United States, and chiefly to California. By the year 18S0 they were estimated at one hundred thousand, of whom not less than seventy-five thousand v.ore in California.* They were heathen in their religious faith, and, therefore, were gross in their vices and usages ; but they were neither so corrupt nor so dangerous as the "communists," "anarchists" and "atheists," who came chiefly from Europe, and who, born and raised under systems of Chris- tian teaching more or less false and heretical, had discarded en- tirely the religion of Christ, and abandoned belief even in the ex- istence and righteous government of God. The Chinese made themselves useful and efficient as workers on railroads, in mines, in factories, in market-gardening, in laundries and in domestic service. It is a fact, be3^ond truthful denial, that the chief opposers of their continued residence and migration ^vere the working Irish and other European foreigners and the classes with whom the Chinese competed by furnishing cheaper labor ; but whatever its source, this opposition became bitter and per- sistent. 1 Telegrams in Stephens, 907. - Prof. Steele, in Barnes, 297. ^ThaUieimer'sEclec. U. S., 341. 88o A History of the United States of America. Early in 1S79 a bill passed both Houses of the Congress forbid- ding, except under close restrictions, the further immigration of the Chinese. President Hayes vetoed the bill, because it was in plain violation of the " Burlingame " treaty betw^een the United States and China, made in 1868. Hence the amended treaty in 1880, of w^hich we have given an account. In 1882 the opposition to the Chinese resumed its career and with better prospects of success. A bill was passed forbidding Chinese immigration for twenty years. President Arthur re- turned this bill, with grave objections ; but another was soon passed suspending Chinese immigration for ten years, forbidding the naturalization of all Chinese, and imposing fines and penal- ties on masters of vessels who should bring unauthorized Chinese immigrants to this country. This bill the President was induced to approve.' In subsequent debates in Congress on this subject, arguments open to serious question have been urged. It is difficult to main- tain logically such prohibitions, unless the United States shall carry them out against other nations than China. In the Senate an attempt, somewhat hazardous, was made to impeach the Chris- tian doctrine of the unity of the human race, and to uphold as sound the error in the textual criticism of the New Testament which seeks to strike the word ai}xa (blood) out of Acts xvii. zd, and thus to deny that God " hath made of one blood all na- tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." * In 18S1, a claim to a new insular land was asserted in behalf of the United .States. A ISIr. Bennett had dispatched from San Francisco, July 8th, 1879, the steamer ycaunctte, to make explora- tions in the Arctic regions. She had long been missing. With the hope of finding her, the United States revenue cutter Thotnas Corzvin, Capt. C. L. Hooper, went to those seas. She did not find the yeannette, but on August i3th, iSSi, she reached the southeast coast of Wrangcll Island, northeasterly from .Siberia. In the belief that the right of discovery applied, Captain Hooper raised the United States flag and took possession in the name of his countiy.^ The island proved to be about sixty-six miles broad by forty long, with a range of hills culminating in a peak two thousand eight hundred feet in height. The bones ot the mammoth and specimens of fossil ivory were found. The fate of the Jeannette was sad. Lieutenant De Long, her commander, was obliged to abandon her in the ice. With his 1 Quackenbos' U. S., 527. Barnes, 298. 2 Senator Jones' speech in U. S. Senate, and Dispatch, Va., December 21, 1887. 3 Quackenbos' U. S., 526. The Presidency of Chester A. Arthur. 88 1 crew he reached the mouth of the Lena in September, 1881 ; but by a series of exposures and misfortunes he and most of his men perished. A few survived to tell. In March, 1883, the bill making bigamy and polygamy in United States Territories misdemeanors punishable by fine and imprisonment, became a law. It was specially intended for Utah. We have noted its effect, and may hope for its complete success. At the subsequent registration in Utah one thousand polygamists were disfranchised. In the same session the new Apportionment Bill became a law. It fixed the num.ber of representatives at three hundred and twenty-five, apportioned as follows : Alabama, eight ; Ar- kansas, five ; California, six ; Colorado, one ; Connecticut, four ; Delaware, one ; Florida, two ; Georgia, ten ; Illinois, twenty ; In- diana, thirteen ; Iowa, eleven ; Kansas, seven ; Kentucky, eleven ; Louisiana, six ; Maine, four ; Maryland, six ; Massachusetts, twelve ; Michigan, eleven ; Minnesota, five ; Mississippi, seven ; Missouri, fourteen ; Nebraska, three ; Nevada, one ; New Hamp- shire, two ; New Jersey, seven ; New York, thirty-four ; North Carolina, nine ; Ohio, twenty-one ; Oregon, one ; Pennsylvania, twenty -eight ; Rhode Island, two ; South Carolina, seven ; Tennes- see, ten ; Texas, eleven ; Vermont, two ; Virginia, ten ; West Vir- ginia, four ; Wisconsin, nine. A subsequent apportionment, in- creasing the number, but preserving the ratio, has been made. In 1S83 the wire suspension bridge across the wide expanse of East river and connecting New York with Brooklyn was com- pleted and opened for use. It was commenced January 3d, 1870, and is reckoned among the wonders of the age in mechanical en- gineering. In the same year a " Civil Service Bill " was passed, the object of which was to destroy as far as practicable the war canon, " to the victors belong the spoils," in its application to peaceful civil appointments, and to require competitive examinations as to com- petency. Yet a curious sequel has shown how impracticable it is to satisfy all men. The President, who sought in good faith to execute this law, was assailed therefor with deliberate obloquy ; but it was noted that his assailants were chiefly those who were disappointed as to getting office. On the ist October, 18S3, postage was greatly reduced on all matter mailable for the public. On letters not weighing more than half an ounce it was reduced from three cents to two cents. Subsequent legislation has made a two-cent stamp carry a letter of an ounce. 56 8S2 A History of the United States of America. On the nth October, 1883, a "General Railway Time Conven- tion," held at Chicago, introduced an ingenious and scientific system by which perfect regularity in computation of time pre- vails among all the railways of the United States. It is done by dividing the country by meridians and applying fixed laws of computation to the sections according to designations, as "Eastern Time," " Central Time," "Mountain Time" and "Pacific Time." It went into efiect for the United States at noon of November i8th, 1883.^ A territorial bill for the newly acquired Alaska main-land, w^aters and islands was approved in 1884. In the fall and winter of 1884— '85 a cotton exposition was held in New Orleans, which was highly successful, though not more so than another which had preceded it in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1881— '82, and which rivaled, in its extent and in the numbers who attended it, the great Philadelphia exposition of 1876/ The time for presidential nominations came in 1884. Secre- taries Blaine and Windom had resigned soon after the death of President Garfield. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen and Charles J. Folger had been nominated and confirmed in their places respec- tively. Chester A. Arthur was not pressed as a candidate for the presidency. The regular Republican nominees w^ere James G. Blaine, of Maine, for President, and John A. Logan, of Illinois, for Vice- President. The Deinocratic nominees were Grover Cleveland, of New York, for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, for Vice-President. The steadily growing party, known as " Pro- hibitionists," who were in favor of prohibiting (except for med- ical, sacramental and mechanical purposes) the manufacture, trafiic and sale of intoxicating wines and liquors, nominated for President John P. St. John, of Kansas. A few, styling them- selves the " People's party," nominated Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts. The " Women's Rights Convention " nominated Belva A. Lockwood, of the District of Columbia. The " Amer- ican Political Alliance " nominated W. L. Ellsworth, of Penn- sylvania. Candidates, therefore, were plentiful in 18S4. Cleveland and Hendricks were elected. The vote of New York, which was heavy and decisive in the college of electors, w^as somcNvhat close in the numerical vote. Some disposition to contest it was manifested by prominent Republicans ; but this effort would have been too perilous to be serious. The laws of New York as to elections were definite, and had been definitely iQuackenbos' U. S., 529, 530. « Barnes & Co.'s U. S., 29S. Stephens' Comp. U. S., 912. The Presidency of Chester A. Arthur. 883 carried out, with a. counted result in favor of the Democratic nominees. Amid these 'cxcilefnents, liopes and disappointments felt by many, the whole country was cheered by the success of the expe- dition sent by the Navy Department to look for Lieutenant Greely and his men, who, in the Proteus, had penetrated into the Arctic seas years before. He and seven men survived of the twenty-five who had sailed in the Proteus. They were on the point of star- vation when they were found and rescued at Cape Sabine, in Smith's Sound. But he and his officers had discovered Lake Hazen and Mount Arthur, the highest peak of which reaches four thousand five hundred feet above sea-level, and Lieutenant Lock- wood and Sergeant Brainerd, in 1S82, reached, on the coast of Greenland, the highest point in latitude ever attained by man. It was called Lockwood Island, and is only three hundred and ninety- five miles from the North pole. CHAPTER LXII. The Presidencies of Cleveland and Harrison. THE incoming of a Democratic presidency, after twenty-fuur years of continuous executive rule by Repul)licans, was a change welcome to many thousands of people. Democratic prin- ciples, when truthfully asserted and acted on, are the real princi- ples of a vast majority in the United States ; but those principles have been often misrepresented and abused to evil ends. Grover Cleveland was the son of an unpretending clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, and was born in Caldwell, New Jer- sey, March iSth, 1837. Soon after his birth his father removed the family by schooner to Albany, and thence by packet on the Erie Canal to central New York. The son, aged sixteen, was pursuing academic study when the father's death left the family very poor. Against difficulties, which nothing less than singular courage and resolution would have surmounted, the young man made his way to the bar and the practice of law in Buffalo, in 18^9. His merits soon raised him. His "marked industry," unpretentious courage and unswerving honesty won for him i^apid promotion.^ He was elected Mayor of Buffalo, and, as such, re- formed abuses, broke up rings, and enforced the proper use of the city funds and the proper discharge of municipal duties. He fearlessly vetoed many acts of the city council, and gave his rea- sons in language not to be misunderstood. In 1S82 he was nomi- nated and elected Governor of New York, receiving a majority of about one hundred and ninety thousand votes over his opponent. His course as governor displayed all his best traits. After his inauguration as President he named as his cabinet : Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware, Secretary of State ; Daniel Manning, of New York, of the Treasury ; William C. Endicott, of Massachusetts, of War ; William C. Whitney, of New York, of the Navy ; L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, of the Interior ; William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, Postmaster-General, and A. H. Garland, of Arkansas, Attorney-General. The Senate confirmed them. 1 Prof. Steele, in Barnes, SOO. ThtUneimer, 350. [ 884 ] The Presidency of Grover Cleveland. 885 President Cleveland, in his presidency, acted out his character as previously developed. He approved the " Civil Service Act " in principle, and honestly sought to carry out its provisions. He was thus relieved from a duty which to him would have been spe- cially annoying, viz., the duty of deciding among office-seekers ; but thousands of people, whose so-called democracy consisted in gathering spoils from success, were thus disappointed by him and alienated from him. The readjustment of the tariff was the chief legislative issue of his administration. His principles and policy on that subject were never a subject of doubt. He repudiated the whole scheme of protective tariffs, in all their varied forms. He did what he could, in messages and influence, to defeat the protective policy. He was aided by leading Democrats, chiefly from the .South, pi'ominent among whom was Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, who was in the House of Representatives and chairman of the Com- mittee of Ways and Means ; but the protectionists, and espe- cially the rich men in the Senate, who had become rich largely by the dishonest policy of protection to special interests to the injury of all others, were too strong for the Democrats. They succeeded in defeating every eflbrt at fair readjustment of the tarifl'. One weapon of defence President Cleveland held in his own hands, and he wielded it with keen and startling energy. This was the " veto " power. He sent back more bills with his reasons for dissent than any former President had ever done. His vetoes were unsparingly applied to partisan bounty and pension bills, and to lavish and inequitable ajDpropriation bills. His objections were generally sustained, because the House of Representatives was Democratic. The Vice-President, Thomas A. Hendricks, never took his seat as presiding officer of the Senate.' After a brief illness he died at his home in Indiana, on the 35th day of November, 1885. Tid- ings of this death reached many communities at the very time their people were engaged in the churches in the Thanksgiving services recommended by public proclamations. A Department of Agriculture had been established by act of Congress, and to provide against the disorders which might arise in case of the death or permanent inability to act both of President and Vice-President, the Congress of 18S6 passed the " Presidential Succession Act," already alluded to herein.^ The order of succes- sion is as follows : Secretaries of State, Treasury and War, the 1 Prof. Steele, Barnes, (note) oOO. - In Chapter XLIV. 886 A History of the United States of America. Attorney-General, the Postmaster-General, the Secretaries of the Navy, the Interior, and Agriculture. Strikes and labor disturbances continued and greatly impeded business success. In several instances railroad traffic was sus- pended. Switches were displaced with intent to derail trains, and often this intent was realized in the fact. Valuable property was destroyed, and lives \vere lost or serious bodily injuries sus- tained. But something even worse was coming, which proved that the Chinese were not the most ungodly and inhuman among the im- migrants. Avowed communists, atheists and anarchists appeared in all the larger cities and began to preach their doctrines of pillage and murder. In Chicago they were especially blatant, chiefly harangued and incited by one Parsons, who claimed to be a native American, and by his wife, who sympathized in his teachings. To preserve order it was found needful to disperse some of their meetings by the police force.' Incensed at this organized opposition, the anarchists delib- erately prepared to murder the policemen. On the 4th of May, 1886, a large meeting of the conspirators was attempted on the streets. The police, after warning them, without effect, to dis- perse, were proceeding to more vigorous measures. At that moment a bombshell, loaded with dynamite, was thrown among the policemen. It exploded and killed seven of their number and wounded many others. The murderers instantly dispersed and fled. But the worst of them had been marked and were known. They were chiefly foreigners, with names savoring of Germany and Austria. They were arrested, regularly indicted, and fairly tried by jury. The proof of their complicity and of their presence, aiding and abetting when the murder was committed, was so defi- nite that seven of them were convicted and sentenced to death. .Some doubts as to two existing, the governor of the State com- muted their punishment ; one committed suicide ; and the remain- ing four were left to the fate they had invoked. Strenuous efforts by zealous counsel were made to have the records in their cases reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States ; but that august tribunal promptly decided that it had no jurisdiction in the premises. The four men, one of whom was Parsons, were hanged by the neck until they were dead. Anarchists began to realize the fact that the atmosphere of the United States was more certainly fatal to thein than that of the countries whence they came. 1 Prof. Steele, Barnes, oOO. United States newspapers of the times. The Presidency of Grover Cleveland. 887 In the evening and night of August 31st, 1886, a series of earthquake shocks were experienced from the Canada line down to the Gulf of Mexico. They were most violent and destructive in and about Charleston, South Carolina. Three shocks, with alarming ti'emblings of the earth, followed each other in rapid succession. The people rushed from their houses into the streets to find them blocked with tumbling walls and chimneys. Fires broke out in many places. For days the people dared not to re- enter their houses. Through the streets stretchers were borne carrying the dead and wounded. Public and private buildings, venerable churches and historic edifices tottered and fell, or else settled do-wn with huge chasms in their walls and damages almost irreparable. In the regions near the city great fissures suddenly opened, hot streams of sulphurous water poured out, and the earth subsided in many places from three to eight feet.^ But after the emotions of horror and alarm began to give place to faith and confidence in God and themselves, the Charleston people evinced wonderful courage and perseverance. They were aided by active sympathy and help from the North and South. Nearly every building of value has been restored to more than previous beauty and strength. On the i8th of November, 1886, after a long illness, the ex- President, Chester A. Arthur, died in the city of New York. President Cleveland had not been married up to the time of his administration ; but in 1887 he was united in marriage to Miss Frances Folsom, of New York, a lady who, by her beauty, w^it and tact, made a favorable impression on all who came w^ithin her influence. The marriage took place at the White House, the presidential residence in Washington. In 18S8, Chief-Justice Waite, of the Supreme Court, died, after a judicial career reflecting honor on him. President Cleveland nominated as his successor Afelville W. Fuller, of Illinois, \vho was confirmed by the Senate, and now holds this high oflice. The Samoan group consists of three small islands lying in the Pacific Ocean about twenty-seven hundred miles south of the Sand- wich Islands, and in latitude 14° south, longitude 170° west of Greenwich. They would be unimportant but for the fact that they lie on the line of the usual sea route to New Zealand and Australia, and are suited for a coaling station. In 1888 the Ger- man empire manifested a disposition and purpose to assume control of these islands by a protectorate, which displaced the reigning king. The United States and Great Britain both made 1 Contemporary United States journals. Barnes, 300, 301. 888 A History of the Utiited States of America. protest against this, and the court at Berlin yielded to their re- monstrances and assented to the restoration of the native kingdom. But though the controversy w^as thus ended, it had a sombre sequel. Early in 18S9, a number of war-ships of Germany, Great Britain and the United States were anchored in supposed security in the broad strait of water between the largest island of Samoa and the outer reef. On the i^th of jSIarch a furious wind-storm arose. . The ships were driven on the reef, in wreck and ruin, and with serious loss of life. Only one escaped — the British steam frigate Calliope., who, by her mighty engines, was able to keep her head to ^vind and wave, and move against the storm, and thus gained the open sea and was saved. The German v^^ar-ships lost ^vere the Adler., Olo^a, and Eber; American war-ships lost, the Trenton., I'andalia, and Nipsic. In the nominating conventions of 1S88 the Democrats renomi- nated Grover Cleveland for Pi-esident, and placed on the ticket with him the veteran and popular statesman, Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio. The Republicans put in nomination Benjamin Harri- son, of Indiana, for President, and Levi P. IMorton, of New York, for Vice-President. Harrison is a grandson of Gen. William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States, of whom we have heretofore had much to narrate in this work. The grandson was a lawyer, but had been in the Federal army during the war of the States and had risen from the rank of second lieu- tenant to that of brigadier-general. After the war his State had elected him to the United States Senate. Levi P. Morton was an astute politician of enormous wealth, his property and money being estimated by millions of dollars. This fact was not with- out weight in securing his nomination. The Republican candidates were elected by a considerable ma- jority of the chosen electors, although in the popular vote a ma- jority appeared for the Democrats. President Cleveland gave no signs of depression or mortification, but, on completing the duties of his term, quietly resumed the station and avocations of a pri- vate citizen. The inauguration of the new President, Benjamin Plarrison, took place on the 4th of March, 18S9, and was attended by an immense crowd and by imposing ceremonials. But the day was cold, rainy and inclement, being one in a season marked by water floods which did very great damage to railways and growing crops. The most appalling disaster accompanying these floods was that at Johnstown, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. On the 31st of The Presidency of Benjatnin Harrison. 889 May, 1889, a massive stone dam on the South Fork creek, which had held a deep and broad body of water above the level of the town, after some indications of failure, suddenly gave way. The waters swept in a huge torrent over the town, carrying destruc- tion of life and property everywhere in their course. Not less than two thousand two hundred and ninety-five persons perished. The day express train of the Pennsylvania Railroad was swept from the track, with its ponderous locomotive and all its cars, and twenty-five passengers were drowned.' So grave were these dis- asters that public sympathy was excited through all the land, and large sums of money were donated to relieve the families of those ^vho had perished. The presidency of Benjamin Harrison is now in progress. It is not ended. It is not an era of time passed, and therefore it is not a legitimate subject for the final recitals and conclusions of history. A few allusions to the prominent events as thus far developed are all that can be hazarded. The new President nominated as his cabinet gentlemen of prominence : James G. Blaine, of Maine, Secretary of State ; William Windom, of Minnesota, of the Treasury ; Redfield Proc- tor, of Vermont, of War ; Benjamin F. Tracy, of New York, of the Navy ; John W. Noble, of Missouri, of the Interior ; Jere. M. Rusk, of Wisconsin, of Agriculture ; W. H. 11. Miller, of Indiana, Attorney-General ; John Wanamaker, of Pennsylvania, Postmaster-General. Mr. Blaine, as Secretary of State, has not held a sinecure. Novel events and questions have occupied his attention. Among the sources of material wealth coming to the United States with the acquisition of the lands, islands and waters of Alaska, purchased from Russia, none is more interesting and im- portant than the seal fisherv. Enterprising sealers from Canada competed with the people of the United States for the seals ; but, under orders from Washington, the revenue steam-cutter Bear captured some of these Canadian adventurers and found them red-handed with the slain bodies and the skins of the seals they had taken. Canada insisted on the fishing rights of her people, and the questions involved speedily became a subject of correspondence between the State Departments of Great Britain and the United States. The Behring Strait of deep w^ater between the main-land of Alaska and the continent of Asia is sixty miles wide, and the 1 Alden's Manifold Encyelop., XX. 606-608. Compare with official statement in N, Y, World Almanac, 1890, p. 52. 890 A History of the United States of Ainerica. distance between the shore of Alaska and her nearest island is much more than six miles. Thus a question of international law has emerged, viz., whether these waters can be considered as mare clausum — a closed sea — that is, a part of the waters of the ocean to \vhich the United States have exclusive right, and from which they may law^fully exclude the sealers and fishermen of other nations. If this were all the case the question would seem easily solved, and against the United States, by the fixed principle of interna- tional law which confines the right of a nation to the waters of her coasts to a distance of three miles. But the United States claim that the right to presei've and en- joy the seal fishery of the Alaska coasts and waters passed to them by the purchase of the whole region and its appurtenances from Russia, who had always claimed and enforced such right, and that, as the seals, by their fixed habits, annually make their way from shore to shore across deep waters and to distances ex- ceeding six miles, the right would be entirely nugatory unless it carried the right to protect these valuable animals against the wasteful invasions of indiscriminate sealers.^ The correspondence on each side has resulted in a mutual ex- pression of vs^illingness to refer the questions in controversy to arbitration and decision by sovereign judges. Meanwhile, by reason of wide preparations and reliance on success by Alaskan sealers, the United States ask the privilege of taking not more than seven thousand five hundred seals in the current season. Another source of anxiety and diplomatic research to Secretary Blaine has arisen out of events in New Orleans. Italy and her dependency, the large island of Sicily, have for many years been yielding their full share of immigrants to the United States. Some of these have become good citizens, but a very large number, and especially of those who have settled in and about New Orleans, have manifested all the treachery, malig- nity, cruelty and superstition which enter into the worst forms of the Italian character. It is a proved fact that a secret society, known to its members and to those who have discovered its methods as " The Mafia," had existed in Sicily and the most southern parts of Italy. Its members Avere oath-bound. Their object was to put personal enemies out of the way by the stiletto, the poisoned cup or food, and other secret modes of murder. Many of its members were 1 Ex-Minister Phelps' article in N. A. Review. Secretary Blaine's letters to Earl Salisbury. Montague's letter, Dispatch, Va. Times, Va., April 12th, 1891. The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. 891 in New Orleans and her suburbs, and mysterious murders often took place. The chief of police in the city was David C. Hennessey. He was acute and indefatigable in following up the traces of these murderers, in seeking to bring them to justice, and in gathering proofs of the existence and methods of the "Mafia." His success was so great that nothing less than his death seemed to promise safety to those conspirators against the human race. Their plots were carried out. Hennessey was murdered on the 15th of Oc- tober, 1S90, on one of the streets of the city while discharging his official duties. A number of Italians were arrested. Evidence was gathered, which justified a grand jury in finding indictments against them. They were regularly tried in the city criminal court having juris- diction. The trial lasted twenty-five days. The evidence seemed, to patient and just minds, conclusive to prove their guilt ; but, much to the amazement of the great body of the people of New Orleans, the jury found a verdict of "not guilty." Meanwhile facts leaked out tending strongly to prove that the jury had been tampered with, and that direct efforts to bribe them had been made, and, moreover, that threats of the secret and murderous methods of the " Mafia " had been suggested to in- fluence them against an adverse verdict. Thereupon the people of New Orleans assembled in righteous wrath. They were harangued by influential leaders, prominent among whom were W. S. Parkerson, Walter D. Deneger, John C. Wickliffe and James D. Houston. A large and resolute body of men, armed with double-barreled guns, Winchester rifles and revolvers, maixhed to the jail. No effective resistance could be made to them. They entered the cells and put to death eleven Italians against whom the evidences of murder and complicity in the " Mafia " methods had been strongest. A slight wound was inflicted on one of the assailants. Having done their work, they dispersed to their homes.' This was on the 14th March, 1891. When news of these events reached Washington citv by tele- graph, the Italian diplomatic representative — Baron Fava, who had for many years been his countrv's minister to the United States — made to Secretary Blaine earnest complaint and claim for redress. He insisted that among the men put to death were three or more subjects of the King of Italy, entitled under treaty to special protection. ]Mr. Blaine's first action was somewhat hasty. He sent by telegraph a message to Francis T. Nicholls, iTel. narrative to Dispatch, Va., March 20, 1891. Washington Post. 892 A History of the United States of Atnerica. Governor of Louisiana, in which, after alluding to the " deplor- able massacre " and the complaint of the Italian minister, he said : " The President deeply regrets that the citizens of New Orleans should have so disparaged the purity and adequacy of their own judicial tribunals as to transfer to the passionate judg- ment of a mob a question that should have been adjudged dispas- sionately and by settled rules of law. The government of the United States must give to the subjects of friendly powers that security which it demands for our own citizens when temporarily under a foreign jurisdiction." ' But when more deliberate reflection came, the State Depart- ment took ground constitutionally unassailable. Baron Fava and the Count Rudini, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs at Rome, were informed that the government of the United States had no power whatever to arrest and bring to trial in her courts the killers of the Italians ; that such power was vested only in the State authorities and courts of Louisiana, and must be the result of an indictment by a grand jury of that State, and that the treaty with Italy only required that the United States should give to the subjects of that kingdom the same measure of protection and re- dress given to citizens of the United States. But the Count Rudini, with strange ignorance concerning the United States constitution and Federal system, professed great in- dignation, and ordei-ed Baron Fava to return home, leaving only a charge, whose functions should be strictly limited to "current business." The Italian consul in New Orleans, who, by his course, had rendered himself unacceptable to her authorities and people, was also called back to Italy. An elaborate I'eport was forwarded to Washington from the authorities of Louisiana, concerning which it is expedient only to say that it shows that all the Italians killed, save one, had made the needed declarations of purpose to become citizens of the United States, and had actually voted in Louisiana ; and the one who had not thus lost all claim on Italy was a man who had been convicted of crime in Sicily and had fled from justice. During the term of President Harrison, as thus far current, six new States have been admitted to the Union — viz. : Montana, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho and Wyoming. The motives and methods of the dominant party in the Congress as to the admission of these States have been freely called in question. It has been urged that their condition as to population and readiness to exercise the functions of State sovereignty have 1 Telegram of Secretary Blaine, March 15th, 1891. The Presidoicv of Benjamin Harrison. 893 not been made manifest, and that thej were admitted rather to increase the power of the Republican party in the Senate than for any higher considerations : and as to some of them the method adopted was a prospective act of Congress to be recognized and perfected by a presidential proclamation. This was thought by many to be unconstitutional.' And it cannot be truthfully denied that disorder and irregularity, both in the internal action of some of the new States and in the Senate chamber, have already mani- fested the crude conditions and indirect motives that were in ac- tive force. But these admissions of States are all recognized by the United States government as complete, and on the 4th of July, 1S91, the flag of the nation bore forty-four stars. On the 6th December, 1SS9, Jefferson Davis, who had been the only President of the Confederate States, died in New Orleans. His death awakened anew, in the hearts not only of the people of the South, but of many in the Northern States, sentiments of admiration and sympathy, in view of his devotion to, and suffer- ings for, the cause he loved so well. Measui'es were set in motion to erect a monument to his memory. Statues worthy of their fame have already been erected to Lee and Jackson, and the vmveiling in each case was attended by very large and enthusi- astic civic and military processions and ceremonies. The long term of the Congress of 1S89— '9oand the limited term of 1890— '91, with the intervening period of elections, involved one of the most serious strains to which the institutions of the United States have been subjected. The enduring question of a protective tariff again came up in Torms not so threatening to peace, but actually wider in division of opinion than ever before ; and to it was added a persistent pui-pose to adopt laws under which a dominant party might be- come actually sovereign, even against the v^ill of the people. The tariff bill, known as the " McKinley Bill," from the name of its leading advocate in the House of Representatives, passed both Houses of Congress, received the signature of the Presi- dent, and is, at least for the present, the law of the land. It is strongly protective in its construction and policy, although it con- tains some provisions known as " reciprocity sections," intended to adapt the rates of duties on imported goods to the rates charged by nations adopting reciprocation on products and man- ufactures from the United States. This feature is understood to be earnestly favored by the Secretary of State, James G. Blaine. But thus far it has very little affected the " McKinley Act." That 1 r. S. Constitution, Art. IV., sec. 3. 894 -^ History of the Uttited States of Arnerica. act continues and strengthens all the previous legislation favoring special manufactures and other interests protected and enriched at the expense of agriculturists and the masses of the people. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, elected in De- cember, 18S9, by rigid party methods, w^as Thomas B. Reed, of Maine. He embodied all that w^as tenacious and obdurate in party spirit and purpose. Thoinas Jefierson and his true disciples had taught that minor- ities in the people and minorities in houses of legislation had rights which must be respected and preserved in order to main- tain the safe balances of the Union ; and the rules both of the Senate and the House had recognized these rights of minorities. They did not impeach the established democratic canon that the majority must govern ; they did not, under any circumstances, au- thorize a minority to enact positive legislation. All that these rules did was to enable a minority, in extreme cases, to impose delays, theoretically, but not practically, endless, upon legislation threatened by a dominant majority in violation of inhei'ent right, and oppressive and injurious to special sections or interests. But the House of 18S9— '90 revised and remodeled its rules so as to eliminate, to a large extent, the methods by which a vigilant and resolute minority might protect its rights. Speaker Reed promptly availed himself of the new rules. When members of the minority declined to answer to their names or to reckon them- selves as present so as to make a qiioriim for business, he never- theless directed their names to betaken down and counted by the clerk, thus securing what he decided to be a quorum for business, and making inevitable a decision by a mere majority, and annihf- lating a conservative right of a minority which had been recog- nized by the fathers of the republic from its foundation. The leaders of thtf minority failed not to protest, and stormy scenes were enacted in the House : but Speaker Reed was moved neither by argimient nor invective nor pathetic appeal, and his followers fell into the condition of automata worked by his hands. A bill was introduced, called by its advocates an " Elections Bill" — by its opponents a " Force Bill." It is not necessary to detail herein its provisions. It was founded uj^on the hypothesis, asserted, but never proved, that the white people of the States in which were the largest number of negroes, exercised methods of intimidation, fraud and violence, to deter them from voting or to compel thein to vote for Democratic candidates. This bill, if made law, would have operated to put every step of the process of elections for members of Congress in the States The Presidency of Benjamin Uarrison. 895 into the hands of commissioners and officials chosen by the United States government, and, of course, by the party in power. The superintending of the polls, counting of the votes, and making out and certifying of the results, would have been in partisan hands ; and, if they deemed it needful, they were to have power to call in the aid and action of the military force of the country. So alarmingly radical was this bill that some of the more mod- erate Republicans shrunk back, at first, from voting favorably to it. To insure its passage, therefore, the Republicans of the House used party methods without scruple, and decided a number of contested election cases in favor of Republican contestants, even when the evidence established the existence of majorities for the seated members. Some of these decisions were so grossly parti- san and unjust as to draw indignant comment from the general public. Yet this " Force Bill " passed the House of Representatives and went to the Senate for consideration. Here it was watched and delayed until the Congress adjourned late in the summer of 1890. Between this time and the re-assembling of the Congress in December, 1890, the most signal display of popular opinion and sentiment in favor of Democratic principles took place that had ever been known in the United States. It was like an organized storm — a tornado under intelligent direction and power. It was not the work of Democratic orators or leaders to any large ex- tent ; neither was it the result of public debates between con- testants representing the two parties. If any influence is to be predicated as chiefly potent in the movement, it was the public press — the newspapers, magazines and periodicals — which had given all the facts and arguments applicable to the situation. The people had been thoroughly enlightened, and they voted ac- cordingly. Curious questionings have taken place as to the relative effi- ciency of the varied causes of this strange political upheaval. Was it the "McKinley Act," or the act of the House in changing its rules, and in seeking to annihilate the rights of minorities, or the rough pertinacity and partisanship of Speaker Reed, or the gross violations of justice in the decision of the contested elections, cases, or the passing of the " Force Bill " by the House ? The only answer history can make is that all these causes existed, and all tended to work the result. That result was, that in the elections North, South, East and West, in the fall of 1890, a sufficient num- ber of Democrats were returned to give a practical working ma- jority of more than one hundred votes in the House against the 896 A History of the United States of America. * . . Republicans, and changes occurred which will tend to secure, in reasonable time, a majority in the Senate favorable to Democratic principles. Notwithstanding this ominous storm, the Republican leaders in the Senate, during the winter session of 1890— '91, sought earnestly to bring the " Force Bill," with some amendments, to a successful vote. President Harrison was understood to be strongly in favor of the bill, and he used his influence and that of his executive department, as far as safety would permit, to obtain its passage. But in the Senate it was watched with ceaseless vigilance and skill- ful opposition by a number of strong men, among the foremost of whom was Senator Arthur P. Gorman, of Maryland. It became evident that, even among the Republican senators, some were in- tellectually too clear-sighted to be really friendlv to such a bill, and some were too much alarmed at the late upheaval to be en- thusiastic in its support. It was once laid aside to take up a bill for " free coinage of silver," which passed the Senate, but was not passed by the House of Representatives. The rules of the Senate still recognized the right of debate so long as senators thought it their duty to throw additional light on important questions. To smother this right was a dangerous and invidious task, upon which few desired to enter ; yet, without some such step, it was known to be impossible to pass the "Force Bill." Therefore, precedents were sought in the usages of the Eng- lish House of Commons and of the French Chamber of Deputies. A " cloture " resolution was invented for closing debate ; but the tactics of the opposition prevailed. The "cloture" was evaded. The fourth day of March, 1891, arrived. The session of Congress was ended, and the "Force Bill" was dead. Thus the institutions of the United States escaped the most dan- gei"ous rock of centralization and party tyranny that had ever threatened them with destruction. The Congress which expired on the 4th of March, 1S91, has often been designated as the " Billion " appropriation Congress. While its votes of money did not literally reach a thousand of mil- lions of dollars, yet for pensions and doubtful purposes they were so extravagant that their results have brought serious embarrass- ment to the United States treasury. Early in April, 1891, occurred another of those deploi-able con- flicts between laborers and organized powers of order and gov- ernment, which are growing into signs of the times. The miners and workmen in the " coke regions " of Pennsylvania, near More- wood, in Westmoreland county, struck for increase of wages and Tlic Presidency of Boijanii)! Harrison. 897 decrease of hours of laboi", left their work, and prepared to re- sist by force and brutality all efforts of the owners or lessors of the works to obtain other laborers. These strikers were chiefly foreigners. They organized a movement on the Frick Company's plants and buildings at Morewood ; but they were met by men who, though few, were firm. Superintendent Pickard called together and organized a small body of brave and experienced citizens, all of \vhom were sworn in as special deputies of the sheriff'. Captain Loar commanded them. They wore no uniforms, but were heavily armed. Super- intendent Pickard furnished to each man a Winchester rifle and twenty-six cartridges. He made a brief address, urging them to protect the company's . property, protect the men at work and protect their own lives, and concluding by saying that any one not willing to accept and do his duty might drop to the rear. Not a man dropped back. The strikers advanced in three par- ties and in some disorder. They had battered in the telephone office, had cut the wires, and when they reached Morewood they threw stones, which shattered the windows of the company's store. They broke down the gate and were preparing torches to fire the buildings. Captain Loar three times commanded them to halt and desist. They answered with jeers and with three shots from revolvers. He ordered his deputies to fire. They obeyed and fired several volleys with steady aim. Eleven of the raiders were killed and sixtv wounded. Dismayed by this stern resist- ance, the mob broke and retreated. Upon information reported by the Sheriff' of Westmoreland, Governor Pattison promptly ordered two regiments of the State military to the spot ; but no more force was required.' The strikers, especially the foreigners, were thoroughly cowed. They had showed no timidity in the attack, for every one who fell re- ceived the shot in the front of his body ; but they found law and order too formidable to be overcome. The funeral of the slain was at Mount Pleasant, and drew ten thousand people together ; but Generals McClelland and Wiley, with staff' and regimental officers and five companies of the Eighteenth regiment, were in attendance. Perfect order prevailed. These and like indications prove that the dangers from violence and bloodshed are no longer from Indians in this country. In July, 1S91, a serious disturbance occurred in the mining re- gions of East Tennessee. The miners rose, not because of dis- satisfaction as to wages or hours, but because, under a law of the 1 Narrative in Saturday Tidings, Buftalo, N. Y., April 11, 1891. 57 898 A History of tJie United States of America. State, convicts for crime were made workers in the mines. They were guarded by a squad of State soldiers, and were called " ze- bras," by reason of their striped convict dresses. The armed miners drove oft' the soldiers and dispersed the convicts. Gover- nor Buchanan acted firmly. He ordered out the militaiy, and gave the miners notice that force vv^ould be used. Negotiations resulted in quiet. They returned to their work, with the under- standing that eftbrts to repeal the obnoxious law would be made. But these troubles have been renewed. About the close of Oc- tober, 1 89 1, near Briceville and Oliver Springs, in Tennessee, miners released and dispersed five hundred convicts employed in the inines froin the stockades, in which they were kept by the guards. There will always be opposition to the employment of convicts for crime in open competition with honest and reputable laborers. The Sioux Indians, imder their great chieftain Sitting Bull, had shown unrest and a disposition to attack the whites in the fall of 1890. Ghost dances and other savage rites had been practiced. The United States authorities had made earnest eftbrts to preserve peace. A number of Big Foot's band, of Sitting Bull's followers, had agreed to surrender ; but when a party, under Captain Wal- lace, of the Seventh cavalry, and embracing armed Indians, em- ployed as a police force, went into the " Bad Lands," on Porcu- pine creek, near the Pine Ridge agency, to disarm these Indians, an iiTegular fight took place on the 28th of December, 1890, in which both Sitting Bull and Captain Wallace were killed. The circumstances led to inquiries of the War Department, in which some blame was suggested as due to ofiicers in command.' But Indian treachery has never died out. The frequent quarrels and wars, internal and external, of the republics of South America have, from time to time, involved the United States in embarrassing questions. Two of these cases in the term of President Benjamin Harrison call for historic notice. One occurred during the war between Guatemala and San Salva- dor in 1890. General Barrundia, of the latter State, had become specially the object of hostility in Guatemala. It was known that he had embarked on the Acapulco, a merchant steamer of the United States, which would touch at a port of Guatemala. An order for his arrest had been issued. Mr. Mizner, the United States minister to Central America, had become satisfied that if the merchant steamer, with Barrundia on board, came into a port of Guatemala, she passed under the jurisdiction of that State. In 1 Report in Balto. Sun, Dec. 30th, 1890. The Presideticy of Be it jam in Harrisoii. 899 this a merchant-ship differs from a " man-of-war " or armed na- tional ship. These principles had been definitely affirmed by a decision of Secretary Bayard during- President Cleveland's term. But Minister Mizner sought to shield General Barrundia from inhumanity. He obtained a written guaranty from the President of Guatemala and the Minister of Foreign Atlairs of Central America that in no event should the life of the general be endan- gered after his arrest. He then gave written advice of his views (using nearly the words of Secretary Bayard) to Captain Pitts, of the steamer Acapulco^ who caused the document to be translated and read to General Barrundia. But, unhappily, that impvilsive officer adopted a course which resulted in his death. \\'hen the Guatemalan warrant of arrest, borne by an officer and soldiers, came on board the Acapiilco^ Barrundia refused to suffer arrest, drew his pistols and sword, and was preparing to use them when he was shot dead by a volley from the soldiers. It is believed that President Harrison's cabinet have not ap- proved of jSIizner's course, and have even gone so far as to cen- sure and punish the United States naval officer whose armed ship was in or near the harbor, on the ground that he did not in- terfere to prevent the arrest. Such a position will not be main- tained if international law, rather than temporary excitement, shall govern the case. The other complications affecting the United States arose out of the late civil ^var in Chili. It is not needful to give herein the history of that war any further than to show how it touched our country. Chili has been a constitutional republic since 1833. In 18S6, Jose Manuel Balmaceda was elected President. He be- haved well early in his term, but towards its close manifested an ambitious purpose to perj^etuate his power, or at least to inter- fere unconstitutionally in the election of his own successor. The Congress opposed him. In January, 1890, Balmaceda demanded the resignation of the cabinet officers and appointed others, naming as their chief the man whom he wished to force on the country as President. Clashings between him and the Congress continued until, in January-, 1891, he resorted to the usual plea of the usurpei" — declared it to be impossible to carry on the govern- ment with the obstructions resisting him, dissolved the Congress, and assumed, practically, the claims of a dictator. Both parties took up arms ; civil war raged. Balmaceda, after some fighting, held the southern provinces with a considerable army, the port of Valparaiso and the town of Santiago as his capital. The Con- gressionals held the four upper provinces, with Iquique as their poo A History of the United States of America, capital, and with the strong fleet and a small, but resolute, land force.^ The United States government, in accord with established pre- cedents, continued to recognize Balmaceda and his officers as the government de facto in Chili. Patrick Egan, an appointee of President Harrison, was the minister at Santiago. He was a na- tive of Ireland and had suffered imprisonment for alleged politi- cal offences under the British rule. In Chili his course was such as to draw on him the imfavorable regard of the Congressional party. _ Desiring to increase their land force, and to arm it efficiently, the Congressionals sent a steamer of considerable size, named the Jtata, to the coast of California, near San Diego, to receive from parties in the United States a large number of rifles and other im- proved inodern arms. This purpose was intended to be kept a secret, but information concerning it having been communicated to the United States government, they considered the plan a vio- lation of international laws of neutrality, and directed their law officers at San Diego to proceed against the Itata. A libel was filed in the District Court and a marshal, with process, was ac- tually aboard the Itata. But, in contempt of the process, she steamed out to sea, put the marshal ashore by a boat, and, at a distance of more than three miles from the coast of California, she met the expected ship and received the arms contracted for. She then steamed rapidly southward. The United States steam frigate Charleston was promptly sent in pursuit of her. Finding herself hard pressed, the Itata reached Iquique and was imme- diately surrendered by the Congressionals to the United States admiral commanding the squadron there. Five thousand rifles were aboard of her and were given up with her, with the assur- ance (which has been, apjDarently, accepted as true by the United States government) that they were all the arms she had received.^ But a belief has been publicly expressed that in her run through the Pacific she was met by the powerful war-steamer Esmeraldas (belonging to the Chilian Congressionals) and had put aboard of her the larger part of the arms received, and that the subsequent successes of the Congressional army were greatly promoted thereby. The Itata., with her cargo, was carried back to San Diego to await the decision of the libel. The district judge decided favor- ably to her, but on grounds which the law officers of President 1 Dispatches and reports, Washington Post, August 29th. 1891. 2 President Harrison's Message, Dec, 1891. Tlic Presidency of Benjanii)) Harrison. 901 Harrison regarded as so untenable that an appeal has been en- tered/ and the case will probably reach the vSupreme Court for final decision. After several land and naval conflicts, the war in Chili was substantially ended by a complete victory gained by the Congres- sional army over the forces of Balmaceda, in the neighborhood of Valparaiso, on the 28th of August, 189 1. The victors gained possession of that city, and the usurper and his officers, with the few of their troops who were not captured, fled in terror and rout. Balmaceda took temporary refuge at the official residence of the Argentine legation, in Santiago, and there, on the morning of the 19th September, 1891, he is represented to have ended his own career and life by a pistol shot fired through his temple. The Congressionals re-established the republic. Jorge Montt was elected President, and the government was recognized by the United States ; but the events of the' year left hostile feel- ings, which threaten to disturb the continuance of peace. On the i6th of October, 1S91, a considerable number of the sailors of the United States steam frigate Baltimore, then lying in the port of Valparaiso, were j^ermitted, under established usages of comity, to go ashore unarmed. They were violently assaulted by a number of Chilians. One petty officer was killed, and eight seamen were seriously wounded, one of whom has since died. So savage and brutal was the assault that several of the men received more than two wounds, and one as many as eigh- teen stabs.^ The United States government promptly demanded satisfac- tion. The government of Chili claimed time to make judicial investigation, which resulted in a report charging one or more Chilians with making the assault, but acquitting the "police and the municipal government.' Another source of disturbed feeling has been the right of asylum and protection for political refugees in the official residence and grounds of the United States minister in Santiago. Mr. Egan has firml}^ claimed and given efficacy to this right. A United States war-steamer has borne these refugees to a port of safety. Chili has withdrawn an offensive note, and has signified her wil- lingness that Mr. Egan shall remain as ministei", and that the questions between her and the United States shall be referred to sovereign arbitrators, or to the Supreme Court of this country. It is hoped that peace may be preserved. 1 President Harrison's Message, Dec, 1891. - Ihld. ■< Report iu Washington Post, Jan. 4th, 1892. 902 A History of the United States of America. President Harrison spent a part of the year 1S91 in an ex- tended tour of observation, chiefly through the southwestern part of his country and in her Pacific States, On the 1st day of July, 1S91, a train of raih'oad cars, propelled by steam, made a successful ascent to the top of " Pike's Peak," in Colorado. The track ran round the peak in the hardiest forms of engineering. The point oi tertninus is fourteen thousand one hvindred and forty-seven feet above the l-^vel of the sea — by far the highest point inhabited by man and reached by such means. Mount Washington, in Nev\^ Hampshire, comes next, reaching by railroad a height of six thousand two hundred and eighty-eight feet. Mount Pilatus, overlooking the Lake of Lucerne, in Switz- erland, is third, with a height, by railroad, of six thousand feet. Sixty-five persons were in the cars which gained the top of Pike's Peak. They wore light summer clothing when they set out, but before they reached the summit they were glad to put on the heaviest winter overcoats they had brought with them.' On the 19th of August the President attended and took a prominent part in the dedication of a monument commemorating the " Battle of Bennington." For many years the people of Ver- mont had been contemplating it, and, at last, one hundred years from the time when she became a State, the purpose was accom- plished. The monument is an obelisk, built of native stone and faced with sand-hill dolomite. It is three hundred and one feet high, and stands on a commanding site two hundred and eighty- three feet above the Wallasoc river. The principal address was delivered by Edward J. Phelps, formerly LTnited States minister to Great Britain. The Congress of i890-'9i passed an "International Copyright Law," under which the benefits and protection given are to be enjoyed by authors and artists of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, inasmuch as those sovereignties by their laws give like benefits and protection to authors and artists of the United States. .After delays which had caused surj^rise and disappointment, the Senate of the United States, in executive session, on the nth day of January, 1S92, ratified the Brussels treaty, which had been assented to by seventeen sovereign powers on the 2d of July, 1890. Thus the United States co-operates with the strong- est nations of the world for the i-epression of the slave-trade in Africa, and for restricting the importation of intoxicating liquors into the valley of the Congo river. 1 Letter from Colorado Springs, Washiiigtou Post, July 3, 1891. The Presidency of Bciijaniiii JrCarrisou. 903 Extended preparations are in progress for a " World's Fair," to be held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, in 1892 and 1893, Seve- ral cities — New York, Washington, St. Louis and Chicago — com- peted before the Congress for the hqnor of being the site of this great exposition. Many concurring circumstances determined the choice. Chicago now has a population approaching in num- bers that of New York, and her great advantages of position, as to transportation both by water and land, give her facilities and prospects not exceeded by those of any city in the world. It is hoped that nearly all the nations of the earth will take part in the approaching exposition, and that it will aid in bringing men to- gether in iniiversal amity and peace. CONCLUDING SUMMARY. IT now only remains that we shall give a brief review of and hopeful glance at the present condition and future prospects of the United States. ( I ) The first point to which attention is naturally directed is how far the history and example of this country have afiected other sovereignties of the earth on the paramount question of self- government by iTian ; and assuredly on this point the present out- look is full of hope and proinise. When the United States became a confederated republic, only three other republics existed in the vv^orld, viz. : Switzerland, Holland and San Marino. Of these, the first had many draw^- backs on the free exercise of her republicanism ; the second was ruled by William V., a stadtholder with power and state essen- tially royal, and the third was so small that her weakness was her chief protection. But in 1884, after the lapse of barely a century, we find forty- one controlling sovereignties in the world, and of these not less than twenty were republics. It is true that, under causes set in motion by surrounding kingdoms, Holland had become the "King- dom of the Netherlands ; " but among the forty-one we reckon the great German empire as one, although she embraced in her imperial union not less than twenty-five minor states, among which were Alsace-Lorraine with her Ober Priisident and ele- ments of republicanism, and the free cities Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck. Since 1884 another great republic has been added to the world's sovereignties, viz., that of Brazil, which has an area of three million two hundred and eighty-seven thousand nine hundred and sixty-four square miles, and a population of fifteen millions. Her adoption of the essence and forms of republicanism make one of the wonders and prophecies of this age. Her action was quiet and without bloodshed. Her Emperor, Dom Pedro, born on her soil, was respected and beloved, but his daughter was the power behind the throne and had shown strong aversion to civil and religious freedom. Therefore the reigning family were quietly sent out of the country. This is a precedent that [ 904 ] Conchidi)ig Summary. 905 may be easily followed by the people of other monarchies. Dom Pedro died in Paris, the capital city of another republic, on Friday, the 4th day of December, 1S91. The people of Brazil really loved him, and his death removes the last hope of his dynasty as to reigning in Brazil. An attempt at usurpation and dictatorship by the late President, Da Fonseca, has been so promptly rebuked and crushed by the republican spirit there that Brazil must be reckoned as lost to the monarchic cause. Fonseca resigned, and the Vice-President, Floriano Peixotto, became Presi- dent. He had aided in constructing the present constitution, and is thought to be soundly republican. France is the great republic of Europe, and is the living pro- phecy of what is coming there, though, perhaps, not without a mortal struggle of kings for the retention of their power. The revolutionary furor and excesses of France in the close of the last century were the proximate result of the attempts of the sur- rounding kings to crush her republicanism ; and yet those very excesses were used by Edmund Burke and equally shallow rea- soners to uphold monarchy and discourage political freedom. But France has triumphed. The Bourbons and the Bonaparte dynasty have fallen — it is to be hoped, to rise no more to power. France is acknowledged as a republic even by the sagacious Pontiff' of the Roman church, who concentrates in his " cathedra " the political wisdom of a thousand years. It is a mere question of time when other monarchies will be- come republics. The republics are already in the niaiority among the sovereignties of the earth. As fast as the people gain the education and morality needed for self-government, they will dis- card kings and establish republics. (3) The next subject of inquiiy is as to the effect of American institutions in developing the power of thought, especially as manifested in works of literature. On this subject, able men in the Old World for a long time thought the argument and ex- perience unfavorable to America. Sydney Smith, and others equally satirical, ridiculed the early literary attempts of America. The question "Who reads an American book?" did not imnie- diately find an answer soothing to the people of the United States ; but facts have given the answer. Greece had passed out of her legendary infancy and had lived more than eight hundred years before she produced all of her great-est Avriters, her poets, philosophers and historians, her Homer, Plesiod, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aris- totle and Plutarch ; Rome, as monarchy, republic and empire, had 906 A History of the United States of America. lived nine hundred years before she produced her Ennius, L,ivy, Sallust, Lucretius, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Suetonius, Taci- tus, Jerome and Augustine ; England had been a British, Danish, Saxon and Norman monarchy for thirteen hundred years before she had given to the woi'ld her Alcuin, Bede, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, Boyle, Addison, Pope, Johnson, Goldsmith, Hallam, Macaulay, Scott, Byron and Tennyson. It is not, therefore, a just subject of reproach to the United States, whose whole life, as colonies and republics united, has not yet reached three hundred years, that she should not yet have attained the high ideals in literature which have been reached by Greece, Rome and England. But she has already accomplished enough in this sphere to show what she can do and may do in the future. The student need only read the thirty -live closely printed columns of the " New American Encyclop£edia " relating to the literature of the United States up to the year 1865, to find evidence that no other nation has ever, in so short a time, done so much and done it so well. The Virginia colony had hardly lived fourteen years before George Sandys, on the banks of the James, made a poetical trans- lation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which was published in London in 1636, and eagerly read by competent scholars. In colonial times, Jonathan Edwards wrote a book on " The Freedom of the Human Will," which Robert Hall and Sir James Mackintosh, of England, praised as beiiag " unmatched, certainly unsui'passed, among men in any age or country." David Rittenhouse wrote on astronomy and mathematics, and Benjamin Rush and James McClurg on disease and remedy, works which enlightened both worlds. Benjamin Franklin exhibited in his writings a genius and wit equally applicable to the highest science and the " Poor Richard " philosophy. And in the period of barely one hundred and sixteen years which has passed since she became a nation, the United States has produced among poets, Longfellow, Lowell, Dana, Sprague, Percival, Bryant, Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Preston, Drake, Halleck, Bayard Taylor, Edgar A. Poe, Willis, Cooke, John R. Thompson, and others, whose works have not died. Among historians, she has produced Bancroft, Irving, Prescott, Lossing, Headley, Palfrey, vSimms, Gayarre, Tvlotley, Stephens, and many others, who, by research and patient labor, as well as by sound induction, have made history a teacher. Ainong novelists and writers of iiction, she has produced Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Fenimore Cooper, Pauld- Concluding Summary. 90^ ing, Kennedy, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Miss Sedgwick, IMiss Les- lie, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe, Willis, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Esten Cooke, J. G. Holland, Mrs. South worth, Mrs. Hentz, ]Mrs. Terhune, Amelie Rives, Thomas Nelson Page, and many others, who have exhibited versatility and power. As to the orators of the United States, it is now a reasonable claim that they would not sutler by comparison with those of any age or any country ; and the law books written by American jurists are cited as authority in the highest courts of the civilized world. One form of literature America has brought to a point so near to perfection that her readers are in danger of being seduced into the bad habit of reading nothing else. This is the newspaper. In the year 1775 only thirt^'-seven papers circulated in the colo- nies. In 1884 not less than twelve thousand newspapers and magazines were printed and circulated. The number has increased largely since that time, and the great " dailies " and " weeklies " of the larger cities are, in each issue, volumes and encyclopaedias of information on the special subjects discussed. (3) Our third subject will be the effect of the civilization and republican principles of the United States on the advance of pop- ulation. On this point the phenomena presented are certainly amazing, and such as the world had never known before. Some have raised questions as to this test, and have urged the populousness of the empire of China as evidence that the human race may multiply enormously when no favorable conditions of freedom in government, and intelligence and morality in the people, existed. But they leave out of view the material facts which difTerentiate the cases. China, as a nation, is so old that authentic history declines to decide how old she is. Four thousand years would be a mod- erate estimate. Her soil is rich, and rice and vegetables, with ani- mal food in abundance and with scant fastidiousness as to its kind or quality, have sustained her millions, who, though in some respects ruled with the iron hand, in most respects have been left free to live and multiply as they pleased. But the national life of the United States does not extend be- yond one hundred and sixteen years. In her colonial life, popula- tion grew very slowly. The difficulties, dangers, diseases and mortalities which attended a constant struggle with forest, river, swamp and field, with deceitful and malignant savages, and with white men more destructive than the red men — all these causes 908 A History of the United States of America. tended to check population. The ixsult was that, in 1776, when the United States declared their independence, their total popula- tion did not much exceed three millions, of whom at least half a million were slaves. These premises authorize the inference that if the United States, since obtaining her independent sovereignty, has out- stripped, in her ratio of increase of population, other civilized and Christian nations, her free and liberal system of government and civilization must be predicated as one of the most efficient causes of such progi'ess. This \vill bring us to the facts. In 1790, barely a year after her" first President was inaugurated, her population had reached, in round numbers, nearly four mil- lions ; in iSoo, she had more than five and a quarter millions ; in 1810, she had nearly seven and a quarter millions ; in 1820, she had considerably more than nine and a half millions ; in 1830, she approached thirteen millions ; in 1840, she had more than seven- teen millions ; in 18:^0, her number ran beyond twenty-three mil- lions ; in i860, she came very near to thirty-one and a half mil- lions ; in 1870, she had more than thirty -eight and a half millions ; in 1880, she had fifty million one hundred and fifty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty-three ; in Jvme, 1890, according to a census which has been questioned and criticised, but never proved to be substantially erroneous, she had sixty-two million four hun- dred and eighty thousand five hundred and forty, exclusive of white persons in Indian Territory, Indians on reservations and the peo- ple of Alaska. It is a moderate estimate, therefore, which num- bers her present population at sixty-four millions. This population is far beyond that of Germany, or of Austria and Hungary united, or of France, or of Great Britain and Ire- land, or of Italy or Turkey or Japan. To account for this immense increase we have in the United States her freedom, her conditions of general health and cheer- fulness, her genial and fertile soils and great abundance of varied and nutritious food, all of which tend to normal increase by natu- ral propagation. But this mode of increase will not account for her present num- bers. Immigration of millions from foreign lands — from Ger- many, Scandinavia. Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, and more distant lands — this has been a potent factor in the marvelous increase. Ireland, chiefly by rea- son of immigration to America, has been, within a few decades, brought down from a population of about nine millions to about four and a half millions. Concluding Summary. 909 The dangers threatening the United States from foreign immi- gration have been becoming more and more obvious to thoughtful men. Remedial and restrictive laws have been enacted by the Congress, but only in the case of China have these law^s made na- tionality a ground of exclusion. The prevalent grounds of exclu- sion thus far are disease, destitution as to means of support, crime and ascertained proclivity to crime and lawlessness, and a pre- contract for coming as a skilled laborer to the United States. A strong feeling exists in the country to extend and make more effi- cient the grounds of exclusion. (4) The fourth subject for consideration will be the material successes in industrial arts beneficial to man and productive of wealth, which have attended the civilization of the United States with such persistence as to indicate the relation of cause and ef- fect. On this subject we need not seek anything new. The facts are patent and are known to the world. Never was such activity displayed in any nation in any age in inventing appliances to aid human labor, and in devoting them to the accumulation of com- fort and wealth, as in the United vStates, both in colonial and sov- ereign States. The one hundred and fifteen years of independent nationality have been so specially affluent in these sources of wealth that none can doubt the potency of freedom as a cause therein. The cotton-gin, electric telegraph and telephone, and all the forms of the modern mower, reaper and binder, are of American origin, and they have revolutionized the labor of the world and have gone far in annihilating the obstacles of time and space. Amer- ican ingenuity and skill have reduced the number of separate pieces in a well-made \vatch from the eight hundred, formerly considered indispensable in the Old World, to one hundred and twenty. The " Waltham " and " Elgin " watches of the United States have achieved a success so complete that the Geneva v^ratch- makers have failed in competition. Nearly all the parts of the best of these American watches are made by machinerv, and yet so perfect is their action that railway companies find it to their interest to furnish them to their conductors on both passenger and freight trains, where an error of five minutes would often lead to appalling disaster. Railways were not an American invention. The " tramwa}'," first of wood and afterwards of wood strengthened by an iron rail, had been used in the coal regions of England from about the year 1676. For many years horses, oxen and human beings 9IO A History of the United States of America. were the motive power. It is certain that, in 17S3, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, patented a steam wagon, of which the dra%vings and specifications were sent to England in 1787. This was the origin of the modern locomotive. As early as 1826, the first railway was commenced in the United States, connecting the granite quarries of Qiiincy? Massa- chusetts, with the Neponset river, a distance of three miles. The cars were drawn by horses. In the spring of 1829 a tractor-engine, built by the English en- gineer, George Stephenson, at his works at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, arrived in New York ; but it was more an object of curiosity than of use. In the same year another English-built locomotive ar- rived, and was used in drawing cars on the railway running from the Delaware and Hudson Canal ComjDany to Honesdale, the ter- minus of their canal. The Southern mind was fully awake on this subject, and before the locomotive had been permanently used either in England or the United States, the directors of the Charleston and Hamburg Railway, in South Carolina, had approved the advice of Horatio Allen, then chief engineer, given in November, 1829, and had voted to adopt this motive power. It was employed soon after- wards. Since that time the building of railways and improvement of locomotives have gone forward continually in the United States. In 1838, eighteen hundred and forty-three miles were in use ; in i860, more than thirty-one thousand miles had been completed. In 1882, the railways covered one hundred and seven thousand one hundred and fifty-eight miles. In 1883, nearly eight thou- sand miles were added, and the total mileage in actual use was about one hundred and fifteen thousand, at a cost, in roads and equipments, of nearly seven thousand millions of dollars. In June, 1891, the total mileage in railways completed was one hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred and twentv.^ The latest rail- road statistics accessible gave Germany about twenty-five thou- sand miles ; France, twenty-two thousand ; Great Britain and Ire- land more than twenty thousand ; Russia about nineteen thou- sand, and Austria about sixteen thousand. It has often been asserted by the people of the Old World that recklessness and frequent accident and loss of life or limb are con- stant incidents of the enormous development of the railway sys- tem of the United States. Jules Verne's ingenious fiction, " Round 1 Introduction to Manual of Railroads for ISiU, bj- H. V. and H. W. Pour, 70 Wall street, New York. Concluding Snmmary. 91 1 the World in Eighty Days," has given increased currency to this idea ; but it is a charge not sustained by the preponderance of evidence from facts. In no country is railway traveling attended with so much of comfort, convenience and safety as in the United States. No collisions nor disasters on railroads therein have equaled in horror and extent of injury to life and health three which have occurred in Great Britain and Europe within a few years past. One of these was by the breaking down of a railroad bridge across a frith in Scotland, in which a number of persons, never definitely made known, were killed or maimed or otherwise in- jured. The most gloomy fact in this case was tbat the rupture of the bridge was the direct result of criminal dishonesty in a con- tractor. Another case was the breaking down of tbe bridge on the Jura-Simplon Railway, which crosses the Birs river, near the town of Moenchenstein, in Switzerland. This bridge was the w^ork of the great engineer, Eiftel, who was the architect of the tower of the Paris Exposition ; yet the bridge was ruptured in July, 1891, and a long train of passenger cars was precipitated into the yawning chasm below, with a loss of one hundred and fifty lives and the maiming or vv^ounding of about three hundred and fifty of the unfortunate passengers. The third horror occurred on the twenty-sixth day of July, 1S91, at St. Mande, in France. It was the result of collision of the engine and cars of an excur- sion train and the telescoping of the cai's upon each other, crush- ing and imprisoning the hapless pleasure-seekers ; and it was com- plicated by the firing of a reservoir of gas on one of the damaged cars, whereby many of the people caught in the wreck were roasted to death. The number of victims was not less than two hundred. No cases as fatal and fearful as these have occurred on Ameri- can railways. A strong proof that they are normally safe is the fact that, on nearly every passenger train, agents of solvent insur- ance companies can be found, who, for twentv-five cents, will issue to the assured a policy for one thousand dollars, insuring him as to life and limb on his trip, provided it does not exceed twenty-four hours in duration. And, for a number of years, an '-Interstate Railroad Law," en- acted by the Congress, has been in operation, which tends to pub- lic safety and correction of all inequitable and injurious charges and practices of railway companies, if brought to light. The estimated value of the real and personal property owned in the United States in 1S90 was sixty-two thousand six hundred 913 A History of the United States of America. and ten millions of dollars. No previous year equaled the year ending November 30th, 1891, in the value of exports and im- ports. For that year the exports, made up largely of agricultu- ral products, breadstufls, provisions and cotton, reached the im- mense sum of nine hundred and forty-nine millions of dollars. The imports of all kinds for the same year reached the aggregate sum of eight hundred and nineteen million three hundred and seventy-two thousand four hundred and eighty-nine dollars. The balance of trade, therefore, for that year in favor of the United States was nearly one hundred and thirty millions of dollars, pay- able in money. But, notwithstanding all these evidences of prosperity, pro- phets of woe are not wanting, ^vho predict a coming downfall for our country, and undertake to point out the efficient causes. Some brief allusions to these will bring this work to a close. First is predicted the failure of democracy and self-govern- ment. We have seen enough to demonstrate the danger on this score, but enough also to encourage the hope that the conserva- tive powers of the people's government will prevail. So long as State sovereignty, within the proper sphere, is maintained, so long will centralization be impossible, and freedom in church and state be preserved. Secondly. Ruin is predicted from the increasing power and in- fluence of wealth and its attendants — bribery, gambling and cor- ruption. This is a real danger, and within the j^ast ten years has been watched with growing alarm. Millionaires have become so common in the United States that, in the largest cities, a man worth less than a million of dollars is not accoimted a rich man ; and some count their millions up to twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred or more. The "love of money" [cpiXapyvpia] is among the most subtle, ingenious and jDotent forms of evil known among men. It has invented special modes of business, known as " trusts," in which many unite their means so as to secure a mo- nopoly of supply and sale even in such articles as wheat, sugar, and the twine used on the reaper and binder by which the har- vests are secured. Legislative control and prohibition have been attempted as to these " trusts," but with doubtful success. The immense wealth of the United States is in comparatively a small number of hands. Moi-e than one-half of it is estimated to be in the hands of thirty-one thousand people. Some millions of families are in the happiest condition known on earth, having " neither poverty nor riches " ; but some millions of families are also in a very sad condition, holding lands and homes so heavily Coiif ludi^ig Summary. 913 incumbered by mortgages that no escape iVom temi^oral ruin seems practicable under existing conditions. What the form of relief is to be has not yet appeared. Creditors have not yet shown the kindly and loving dispositions Avhich would spare op- pressed debtors and their families, and would remove from our land the warning reproach of the English poet Goldsmith : " 111 fares the land — to hast'ning ills a prey — Where wealth accumulates and men deca3^'' The late census has disclosed the fact that two million two hundred and fifty thousand families in this country hold farms and houses mortgaged for amounts which woidd be barely realized by foreclosure and forced sales. The incumbrances are estimated to have amounted to two thousand five hundred and sixty-five millions of dollars at the close of 1890. The immense harvests and better prices of 1S91 have reduced the amount, but enough remains to bring torturing anxiety to millions of hearts. And it has been noted that when the creditors holding these mortgages have consented to renew the loan, they have, with few exceptions, imposed the terms that interest and principal shall be paid in gold, thus securing to themselves the artificial and inequitable profit which we have heretofore explained. Speculators in grain, and especially in wheat, during the years from 1SS4 to 1890, inclusive, did much by combinations and "cor- ners '' to buy the products of the farmers' hard toil at prices too low to yield the cost of prodtiction and any reasonable surplus. Thus the agriculturists were continuously oppressed. One noteworthy effect has followed these evils. The owners and tillers of the soil had, in previous years, made imperfect combinations under the name of " Grangers." Within a few years past, in self defence, they have extensively combined their persons, po^vers, resources ancl counsels in combinations known as " Farmers' Alliances." They are not a political party and have no methods of party poli- tics. Some of their theories and plans may not be wise ; but they are already a power in the land, watching and seeking to avert the evils coming from a selfish money power. One of the most injurious and degrading results coming from the plutocracy which threatens this land is the \vide prevalence of bribei-y in elections and the indifference with which this deeply dyed immorality is regarded. Bribery is universally forbidden by law, and as universally practiced in fact. It has been openly intimated in the pages of a respectable American magazine, that a well-known citizen, afterwards appointed and confirmed to a 58 914 A History of the United States of America. high office, contributed a sum estimated in its total at four hun- dred thousand dolkrs as a " contribution to the campaign fund," which was known to be a prevalent power in the election aided by him. So universal and bold has become the use of money by candi- dates for office, for bribing voters, that it has been proposed, with a satire all the keener because it is edged with truth, that all offices shall be sold at public auction and the proceeds applied to the support of the government ! We know what this means. When the office of emperor (" imperator ") was offisred, in the )'ear 193 A. D., at public auc- tion, in the Roman camp, by the Pretorian guards, and when vSul- picianus and the rich old senator Didius Julianus began to bid against each other, and when Julianus rose to a bid of six thousand two hundred and fifty silver drachms (about one thousand dollars) to each soldier, then his bid triumphed. He was proclaimed as emperor. But Rome was already rotten, and was hastening to her ruin. No remedy for this threatening evil in the United States will avail, except the power of personal Christianity. Thirdly. The prevalence of the use of intoxicants in the United States is thought to portend final ruin. Histoiy does not deal with this subject in its supernatural relations. It has a definite force in the historic and temporal sphere. It has been ascertained that liquors which will intoxicate are sold in the United States to the amount of nine hundred millions of dollars yearlj^ ; and the late census has shown that, for the year ending 31st December, 18S9, only two million three hundred and thirty-five thousand and fifty-six gallons of intoxicants, including pure alcohol, cologne spirit, high wines, whiskey, brandy, rum and gin were used in medicines and in the arts and manufactures. As one million seventy-four thousand four hundred and twenty-five gallons of whiskey are included in this total, it may be reasonably estimated that three dollars per gallon would be a fair valuation. This would give a deduction of about eight millions of dollars, leav- ing eight hundred and ninety-two millions of dollars yearly ex- pended in intoxicants actually drank as beverage by the people. Moreover, it has been proved that one hundred and fifty thousand persons die annually from the immediate eff'ects of intemperance, and a number, estimated by millions, of women and children are brought to poverty, suffering and crime by its prevalence. The police offices, jails, penitentiaries and lunatic asylums all bear testimony that the proportion of crime caused by drinking intoxi- Concluding Summary . 9it| eating liquors is as nine to one compared with any other cause. If, therefore, the temporal good and order of society be a proper subject for human law, this evil is such. Unhappily, craving habits and wide indulgence make intoxicants popular, and fill bar-rooms and saloons with voters. A great political party has ventured to put into its platform of principles a declaration against " sumptuary laws," meaning thereby to include laws for- bidding or restricting the sale of intoxicants as beverages ; but the Supreme Court of the United States, from the days of Chief- Justice Tanev down to the present time, have made a series of consistent decisions to the effect that laws of the several States regulating or prohibiting sales of intoxicants are not " sumptuary laws," but are police regulations, for the maintenance of morality and good order, and as such are to be upheld by the courts and obeyed by the people. These decisions, w^orking in unison with an aroused public con- science, and constantly spreading public sentiment, will, it is hoped, save this country from ruin by intoxicants and narcotics Fourthly. The existence in the United States of a vast popula- tion of African descent, supposed to number, on the ist of June, 1890, about seven million four hundred thousand souls, is thought by some to threaten the permanent prosperity of the country. The fear felt is a conflict of force between the races, such as took place in Hayti ; and though no thoughtful men doubt that, in a bloody struggle in this country, the whites would prevail, yet they fear that, in the war of extermination, the institutions and prosper- ity of the land would receive a fatal shock. All such fears are without adequate foundation. They began in the errors of the census of 1870, which produced the impres- sion that the negro race in the former slave States was growing in population at a ratio far greater than that of the white race. These errors have been corrected, and the truth on this subject has appeared by the statistics of the census of 1890. It is proved that between 1880 and 1890, the colored population of those re- gions increased at a ratio not exceeding fourteen per cent., while the white population increased at a rate of about twenty-five per cent. — nearly twice as rapidly as the colored element. Nevertheless, vague fears on this subject, mingled with religious speculations equally vague, have caused many persons to desire that the negro population should be removed from the soil of the United States to some other countiy. No less than five definite efforts have been made to inaugurate a grand exodus of the Afri- can race back to the country whence their forefathers came. 9i6 A History of the United States of America. But all such projects are visionary and Utopian. They are wanting in one element, without which the attempt to carry them out would be worse than the bloodiest persecution. That element is the consent of the negro race themselves. They do not desii'e to be transferred to Africa. Neither ^vould the white people of the United States be profited by any such exodus. If all the negroes could be removed to an- other country by the ist day of July, 1892, then it is probable in a high degree that the crops of cotton, rice, maize and sugar-cane in the Southern States for the current year and for several years thereafter would be diminished by about nineteen-twentieths in amount and value. So far as the ordinary habits and dispositions of the negroes are manifested, they give little cause to fear any widely-spread and bloody collisions between the races. Individual cases of brutal lust and murder by negroes have, indeed, arisen, and have been promptly punished by summary justice ; but a large number of persons of African descent in our country are consistent Chris- tians, and many, by industry and economy, have acquired wealth and influential business position. The only real danger lies in the persistent effort of the negro to run counter to the inexorable laws and providential orderings of God, and to force himself into social equality with white peo- ple in marriage, public schools, conveyances, hotels, amusements and festive assemblies. This is a weakness in him which will be corrected by good sense and Christianity. He will gradually learn that his true welfare and happiness will be promoted by the fixed convictions of the whites, both in the North and the South, which forbid marriages with negroes and all comminglings tend- ing to social equality and, therefore, to marriage. His equality as a political factor, a citizen and a voter, is recognized. With this he will learn to be contept. Fifthly. The last element of supposed danger which is deemed worthy of notice is the malign power of religious differences, and especially those differences which assert and seek to maintain the impcrium in itnperio — the practical union of church and state — with the church dominating the state. Some have carried their apprehensions of this evil so far as to suppose that on the soil of the United States shall be fought the final field of Armageddon — " the battle of that great day of God Almighty " — the coming of which was foretold in the Apocalypse of John the Divine ; and they ai-gue that "the spirits of devils" will "go forth unto the kings of the earth " and induce them to unite all the armies they can Concluding Summary. 917 raise and hurl them upon the United States to crush freedom for- ever in this world. Independently of the material impossibilities which attend any such interpretation, we have safeguards in the very atmosphere created in North America by the institutions of freedom which invest her. These institutions have already wrought a potent change in the religious spirit of the world. Old beliefs and forms are passing away. Human symbols and creeds, however hoary with age, have lost their power to bind the conscience. With few and abnormal exceptions, the creed of the people of the United States is that God has revealed to fallen and sinful man the way of salvation of both soul and body for time and eternity, and that Christ is that revelation ; and Christ is re- vealed in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which, in their original forms, were given by holy men of old, who spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The creed of the people of the United States is that these Scrip- tures are verbally inspired and infallible. Within a few years past a prominent American secular maga- zine obtained from a number of eminent ministers of various Christian denominations their carefully matured views as to the nature and extent of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and published them ; and Stuart Robinson, a Protestant theologian widely known and esteemed, reviewed these articles, and ex- pressed the belief that the article written by a well-known divine of the Roman church was the soundest of all — the fullest, safest, best view of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. In the last year of Jubilee, President Cleveland, with wisdom and discrimination, sent to the Pontiff' at Rome, as a gift, a copy of the constitution of the United States, printed in the most elaborate style, on the heaviest and whitest of paper, and splen- didly bound and embossed. And since the decrees of the Coun- cil of Trent were promulgated, Rmne has learned much concei'n- ing freedom, civil and religious, and has profited thereby. The Roman church, through her accredited ministers, has frequently declared that she approves the American principle which separates church and state and confines the church to her legitimate spiritual authority. The subject of the public schools sustained by State funds has been the chief source of trouble. These schools do not profess to teach religion in any form ; but they do profess to teach mo- rality, which is indispensable to the good citizen ; and in teach- ing morality they necessarily use forms and expressions coming 9i8 A History of the United States of America. from the Holy Scriptures, which are the supreme source and fountain of morality. The common English version gives these forms and expressions. It is to these that the Roman church has objected. vShe has gone so far as to insist that she may establish parochial schools of her own, and that these schools, although not under the authority of the civil State, are entitled to draw their full proportion of the civil State funds. This claim is too obviously illogical and unfounded to be generally sustained. It will probably find a peaceful end as the Roman church becomes more and more per- meated by the American spirit. Evidences of the triumph of this spirit in her counsels have lately appeared. An attempt had been made in Europe (finding expression in what is known as the " Cahensley " memorial) to introduce the policy of sending sectional and national teachers — Austrian, German, Italian, Belgic, Irish, Spanish — to their several peoples who have migrated to America. It has been made known that this policy is not only opposed by the highest United States officials, but by Cardinal Gibbons and by the present Roman Pon- tiff'. Another signal evidence of the advance of the Roman church in sound Christian principle and policy appeared in a decision of the highest ecclesiastical court of that church (Leo XIII. hims.elf presiding therein), rendered on the i6th day of August, 1891, in Rome. The question was the validity of a marriage solemn- ized in Bridgeport, Connecticut, some years previously, between William Grant, then a Protestant, and Mary Reilly, a member of the Roman church. The marriage was by an ordained minister of the ^Methodist church and according to the forms thereof. Grant afterwards became a communicant in the Roman church. Esti"angements between the husband and wife arose, resulting in a separation, and a decree of divorce by a secular court. Grant sought to have the marriage Annulled by the ecclesiastical courts of his church', but the Vicar-General, James Hughes, decided that the marriage was valid. Grant appealed to the Archepisco- pal Court in Boston, which reversed the decree of the Vicar- General. Appeal was then taken to the highest church court in Rome. After full hearing and mature consideration, that court reversed the decree of the Archepiscopal Court, and affirmed that of the Vicar-General, thus deciding that the marriage was valid. The census officers of the United States include with the Ro- man church the Greek religionists (Uniates) who acknowledge the authority of the Roman PontiflT, the Greek orthodox church, Concluding Summary. 919 the Russian orthodox church, the Armenian, the old Catholic, and the organization calling itself the " Reformed " or " Converted " Catholic church. All these have adherents in the United States. The custom of these churches is that baptized children j^artake of their first communion between the ages of nine and eleven. Therefore, children, though baptized, if under the age of nine, are not included in the census. On this basis, the total number of connnunicants in all these organizations in the United States was, about the close of June, 1890, six million two hundred and seventy- six thousand four hundred and ninety-nine. The communicants in the Roman church proper numbered six million tw^o hundred and fifty thousand and forty-five. This number is exceeded by the total of two Protestant com- munions — viz. : the Methodists and the Baptists. The Metho- dists numbered four million seven hundred and forty-seven thou- sand one hundred and thirty ; the Baptists three million nine hun- dred and seventy-four thousand five hundred and eighty-nine — total, eight million seven hundred and twenty-one thousand seven hundred and nineteen. And if all the other Protestant commu- nions ai'e added to these two, the total membership will be found to run so far beyond that of the Roman and Greek united that little fear of overweening claim and power on the part of the two last named need be felt in the United States. Moreover, the ad- mission has frequently been made that a large proportion of im- migrants of the Roman communion who come from Europe to the United States fall away and are lost to the jurisdiction of Rome, under the influence of American teachings and environ- ment. All these facts are operating powerfully in the great North American republic to produce true Christian unity, which is ne- cessary to the highest development of the Christ-life and charac- ter. Numerous as are the religious denominations of this coun- try, the sectarian spirit is becoming every day more and more re- pulsive to the millions who read and hear and think. Christ is the only King recognized as "supreme in our country. His reign, universally established, will make liberty and happiness perma- nent and secure. INDEX. PAGE. Abenakis, Indians 246, 257 Abercrombie, General 294, 821 Abercrombie, British colonel 500 Abolition of Slavery . . . 552, 682, 685, 827, 837 Abraham, patriarch 54 Acadia 43,82,249,277 Ackland, Major 422, 424, 426 Ackland, Lady Harriet 422, 426 Accomac, Virginia 225 Acuna, Don Diego 85 Adam, first man 52 Adams, Samuel 335, 352, 361 Adams, John 335, 345, 361, 567-5S1 Adams, John Quincy . 613, 647, 649, 662-665, 669, 6S2, 692 Adams, Charles Francis 724, 859 Adet, M 563 Adolphiis, KingGustavus 129 Africa, Southern 13 African Slavery 58, 311, 320, 596 Ahasistari, Huron 238 Agriculture, Department of 885 Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of 270 Alabama 36, 648, 768, 828, 843 Alabama, Confederate war-ship . . 787, 796, 858 Alaska 11,853,858,882,889 Albemarle, N.C 164-170 Albany, N. Y 133 Algiers, Dey of 565 Alien and Sedition Laws 576, -580, 583 Algonquins 15 Alexander in.. Pontiff 58 Alexander VI., Pontifif 31,49 Allen, Col. Ethan 358, 369 Allen, Capt. Wm. H 606 Allerton, agent 115 Almonte, Mexican ruler 700, 846, 847 Almagro 35 Altham, Father John 158,160 Amazon Queen 35 Ames, Fisher 540 Amelia Island 648 Ambrister and Arbuthnot 649 America, United States of 11 America, North . 15 America, South 26, 28, 35 Amidas, Capt. Philip 40 Amherst, Gen. Jeffrey 293, 303, 319 American System 656 Ampudia, Mexican general 701 Ancient Colonies 234 Andre, Major John 459-465 Anarchists, Atheists, Communists 886 Andros, Sir Edmund 136,149-155 Anderson, Richard C 664 Anderson, INIaior Robert 770, 776 Angel, Colonel, of R. 1 458 PAGE. Anglican Church 81,118,170,214 Anthracite Coal 581 Anne, Queen of England . . . 140, 255, 264, 265 Annapolis, Jlarylaud 156, 160 Anti-Rentism 135 Anjou, Philip of 257, 263 Appalachee Indians 174 Appomatox, Queen of 70 Appomattox C. H 809 Aquetneck Island 116 Arguin Islands 58 Archer. Gabriel 67, 76 Archdale, John 170 Area of United States 11 Argyll, Duke of 14 Argall, Capt. Samuel 78, 80, 83, 85, 127 Argus, U. S. brig 606 Arista, Mexican general 703 Aristotle 19 Arkansas 36, 676, 779, 828, 843 Armada, Spanish 40, 84 Arlington, Henry, Earl of 218 Armstrong, Col. John 289 Arnold, Benedict 358, 371, 372, 397, 409, 412, 418, 424, 458-469 Annstrong, Gen. James 623, 721, 722 Armistead, Major George 634 Arthur, Chester A 875-882, 887 Ashburton Treaty 683 Assiento 264,323 Asia 12, 889 Assembly, First General 86 A.ssemblv, General, New York 133 Assembly of Notables 848 Asiatic Cholera 669 Assunpink River 394, 537 Ashe, General 444 Ashley, Lord 164 Atlantic Ocean 12 Attakulla-kulla 316 Attucks, Crispus 345 Atherton, Representative, of N. H 682 Aurania, Fort 126 Austin, Anne 121 Austin, Moses 694 Austria 733, 737 Ayllon, De 59 Ayscue, Sir George 97 AvluTD. Sailing-master 601 Azilia, Margravate of 180 Azores 23 Aztecs 14 Bacon. Nathaniel 221-228, 230 Bacon's Laws 222 Bacon's Rebellion 212-230 Bacon Quarter Branch 221 [ 921 ] 922 Index, Badger^ George E 687 Bainbridge, Captain 603, 604 Bailey vs. Poindexter 52 Balboa, Vasco Nunez de 34, 35 Baldwin, Virginia colonist 89 Balfour, Britisli colonel 489-i91 Baltimore, Lord 113, 146, 157 Baltimore, City of 162, 634 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 873 Balmaceda, Jose Manuel 899 Balcarras, Earl of 4G8 Bancroft, George 700 Bank of United States . . .543, 644, 074, 688-691 Baptists 119-120 Baptism of Negroes 321 Barbary States 564, 587, 644 Barclay, Robert . . . .• 139 Barclay, British Captain 607-610 Baratarians, New Orleans 640 Barlow, Capt. Arthur 40 Barney, Commodore Joshua G32, 633 Barnwell, Col. John ' 175 Barre, Isaac 291, 307, 334 Barre, De La 236 Barras, President French Directory .... 569 Barreault, Capitaine 572 Barron, Commodore Samuel .... 588, 590, 591 Barrow, English martyr 102 Barry, William T 667 Barrundia, General 898,899 Batcheler, Stephen 113 Bates, Edward 774 Battle of— Acadia Neck, 278. Aiken, 810. Alabama VB. Hatteras, 787. Alamance, 346. Alamo, the, 695. Allatoona, 795. Algiers, ships, 644. Argus vs. Pelican, 606. Arkansas Post, 786. Averysboro, 810. Baker's Creek, 786. Ball's Bluff, 782. Bal- timore, 634. Banks' Ford, 789. Belden, 717. Belmont, 7S2. Bemis Heights, 421-425. Ben- nington, 414. Bentom-ille, 810. Big Bethel, 782. Big Black River, 786. Big Bhie River, 798. Big Horn River, 868. Bloody Brook, 198. Bloody Run, 225. Bloody Angle (Spot- sylvania), 793. Blackstoeks, 474. Bladens- burg, 033. Bon-Homme Richard vs. Serapis, 446. Boonsboro or South Mountain, 783. Boonville, 782. Buckland's, 790. Brandy- wine, 400. Brashear City, 791. Bull Run, 782. Bunker's Hill, 363. Buena Vista, 708. Bushy Run, 319. Callabee, 636. Camden, 453. Carrick's Ford, 782. Carnifex Ferry, 782. Carthage, 782. Carthagena, 267. Campbell's Station, 791. Carlisle Barracks, 803. Cassville, 804. Cedar IMountain or Slaughter's Mountain, 784. Cedar Creek, 797. Cerro Gordo, 712. Chapultcpec, 716. Chantilly or Ox Hill, 784. Cliaiicellorsville, 788, 789. Charleston Har- bor, 788. ( 'hesapeake fs. Shannon, 605. Chi- huahua, 710. Chippewa, 628. Churubusco, 715. Chickasaw Bayou, 785. Chickamauga, 791. Combahee, 176. Cold Harbor (first), 784, (second), 801. Constellation vs. Insurgent, 572, vs. Vengeance, 573. Constitution vs. Guerriere, 601, vs. Java, 603, vs. Cyane and Levant, 615. Corinth (first), 783, (second), 783. Cowpens, 475. Contreras, 714. Crater (Petersburg), 803. Crow's Creek, 315. Craney Island, 630. Cross Keys, 781. Chrj-sler's, 628. Cumberland Gap, 787. Dahlgren's Raid, 799. Dallas, 794. Dalton, 804. Danbury, 397. Deatonsville, 809. De- catur, 794. Deerfield, 258. Defeat of Wilson and Kautz, 802. Drcwry's Bluff (first), 784. Drewry's Bluff (second), 800. Elkhorn or Pea Ridge, 783. Enterprise vs. Boxer, 607. Essex vs. Phcebe and Cherub. 610. Eutaw Springs, 492. Fishdam Ferry, 474. Fishing Creek, 454. Fisher's Hill, 797. Five Forks, 808. Fleet- wood or Brandy Station, 789. Fort Brown, 703. Fort Carolina, 38. Forts Clinton and Montgomery, 419. Fort Chamblee, 369. Fort De Russy, 792. Fort Detroit, 263. Fort Don- elson, 783. Fort Duquesne, 299. Fort Fisher, 805. Fort Frontenac, 298. Fort Gregg, 808. Fort Griswold, 467. Fort Henry, 783. Fort McHenry, 634. Fort McAllister, 796. Fort Macon, 783. Fort Mifflin, 406. Fort Mimms, 636. Fort Meigs, 624. Fort Morgan, 797. Fort Motte, 486. Fort Moultrie, 380. Fort Niagara, 303. Fort Pillow (first), 783. Fort Pillow (second), 798. Fort Pulaski, 783. Fort Powell (Mobile), 790. Fort Schuyler, 412. Fort Steadman, 808. Fort Stephenson, 625. Fort Sumter (first), 777, (second), 788. Fort Wagner, 787. Fort William Henry, 291. Fort Washington, 387. Franklin, 795. Frayser's Farm, 784. Fredericksburg, 785. Gabriel, 710. Gaines' Mill and Cold Har- bor, 784. Galveston, 787. Germantown, 403. Gettysburg (first day), 790. Gettysburg (sec- ond day), 790. Gettysburg (third day). 786, 819-821. Goliad, 696. Goose Creek, 176.. Great Meadows, 275. Great Bridge, 374. Grand Gulf, 790. Grierson's Raid, 786. Guil- ford C. H., 482. Gwynn's Island, 376. Hadley, 196. Hampton (first), 374. Hamp- ton (second), 630. Hanover, 784. Harper's Ferrv, 784. Hatcher's Run (first), 804, (sec- ond); 810. Hatteras Inlet, 782. Haverhill, 259. Helena, 787. Hobkirk's Hill, 485. Holly Springs, 785. Honey Hill, 805. Hornet vs. Peacock, 604. Hornet vs. Penguin, 615. Hun- ter routed, 801. Island No. 10, 783. luka, 783. Jamcsto\\n, 227. Jamestown Island, 496. Kaskaskia, 439. Kcarsarge vs. Alabama, 796. Kecuu,i,'litan,07. Kent Island, 159. Keowee, 314. Kernstown (first), 783. Kernstown (sec- ond), 797. Kenesaw Mountain, 804. Kettle Creek, 444. King's Mountain, 470. Kingston, R. I., 197. Kinston, N. C, 810. Kittanuing, 289. Knoxville, 787. La Chine, 246. Lake Champlain, 610. Lake George, 286. Lake Erie, 607. Lexington, Mass., 352. Lexington, Mo., 782. Little Ten- nessee, 316. Lookout Mountain, 787. Long Island, 382. Louisburg (first), 269, (second), 294. Lovejoy Station, 794. Lundy's Lane, 628. Lynnhaven Bay, 252. Macon Road, 794. Macon, 805. Malvern Hill, 783. Manassas (first), 782, (second), 784. Manassas Junction, 784. Mansfield or Sabine Cross Roads, 799. Martinsburg, 789. Marye's Heights, 786. Maumee River, 550. Memphis, 783. MeehanicsviUe, 784. Merrimac (after- wards Virginia) vs. Cumberland, 783, vs. Con- gress, 783, vs. Monitor, 785. Michilimackinac, 318. Miami Villages, 546. Mill Springs, 783. Missionary Ridge, 787. McCowan's Ford, 479. McDowell, 783. Monmouth, 431. Monk's Index. 923 Comer, '449. Monongahela, 281. Monterey, 704. Molinos del Key, 716. Montauk and als. vs. Nashville, 7S6. Monocacy Creek, 797, 802. Miunfordsville, 785. Murfreesboro. 785, 792. Mystic River, 193. Paintsville, 783. Palmetto Ranche, 814. Pamunkey River, 92, 95. Palo Alto, 702. Pas- cual, 710. Peacock vs. Epervicr, (115. Peach Tree Creek, 794. Perryville, 7.s5. Petersburg, 802. Philippi, 782. Philadelphia Station, 791. Pickett's Mills, 804. Pittsburi? Lauding, 783. Plains of Abraham, 307. Plattsburg, 612, 629. Pleasant Hill, 799. Plymouth, N. C, 799. Point Pleasant, 232. Point Judith, 435. Pres- ident vs. Little Belt, 598. President vs. Brit- ish fleet, 614. Princeton, 394. Port Royal (first), 82, (second), 782. Port Republic, 784. Potomac River, 78.5. Providence, Md., 162. Port Hudson, 787, 791. Pyle's Royalists, 481. Quebec, 372. Queenstown, 622. Raisin River, 623. Raymond, 786. Reams' Station, 804. Red Bank, 405. Red River, 799. Resaca, 804. Resaca de la Palma, 702. Rich- mond, Ky., 785. Rich Mountain, 7X2. Ring- gold, 791. Roanoke Island, 783. Rome, 791. Sackett's Harbor, 627. Saint Augustine, 185. Saint John's River, 37. Saint SimDUs, 186. San Jacinto, 696. San Antonio, 715. Santa Fe, 710. Savannah River, 443. Savan- nah, 445. Savage's Station, 784. Sabine Pass (first), 788, (second), 792. Scary Creek, 7S2. Shiloh, 783. Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, 785. Sharpsburg or the Antietam, 786. Sillery AVood, 308. Sorel River, |370. Spotsylvania C. H., 801. Springfield, N. J., 457. Spring- field, Mo., 782. Spring Hill, 791. St. Clair's Camp, 547. San CosmeGate, 717. Stoningtou, 631. Stamford, 437. Stonv Point, 438. Tallushatchee, 637. Thames River, 626. Thirteenth Pennsylvania captured, S04. Ti- conderoga, 297. "Tipi^ecanoe, 618. Tisha- mingo Creek, 805. Tohopeka, 637. Trenton, 390. Trevilian's Station, 802. Tripoli, 5S7. United States vs. ]\Iacedonian, 603. Upper James, 98. Upper Manhattan, 1'28. Vera Cruz, 711. Vicksburg, 790, 822. Vil- lere's Canal, 640. Vincennes, 440. Wachusett vs. Florida, 796. Washita, 868. Waxhaw, 451. Waynesboro, 80S. Wasp rs Frolic, 603. Weehawken vs. Atlanta, 786. Weldon Railroad, 804. West Point, 783. White Oak Swamp, 784. White Plains, 3S5. Wilderness, 801. Williamsburg, 783. Wil- liamsport, 790. Winchester (first), 783. Win- chester (second), 789. Winchester (third), 797. Wiiitermoot, 434. Yalabusha, 266. Yellow Tavern, 793. York, 627. Yorktown Forts, 40S. Batte, Capt. Henry -219 Baum, Colonel 413, 415 Baxter, George 131 Bayard, Colonel 137 Bayard, James A 613 Bayard, Thomas F 884,889 Baxter, Rev. Richard 206 Beatrice Enriquez 22 Bear, U. S. steam cutter 889 Beaure.gard, Gen. P. G. T. . . . 712, 777, 791, 800 Beecher, Henry Ward 743 Beckwith, Sir Sidney 630 Behring Strait 12, 8s;9 BeU, John 687, 690, 766 Bellamont, Earl of 252 Bellarni, M 570, 571 Bemis Heights 421 Bennett, Gov. Richard 98 Benton, Thomas H 671, 675, 681, 697 Bennington 413, 902 Bermudas 77, 78, 85 Bermuda Hundreds 81 Berkeley, Sir William 94-99, 213-230 Berkeley, Lord John 165 Berry, Sir John 229 Bernadotte, General 584 Berlin Decree 592, 598 Berrien, John M 667 Beverley, Major Robert 228 Biard, Jesuit father 82 Bibb, George M •. 691 Biddle, Captain James 615 Bigotry and Witchcraft 201-211 Bidlack, Captain 434 Bill of Rights, Virginia 526 Billion Appropriation Congress 896 Birney, James G 697 Bjarni Herjulf 18, 22 Bland, Giles 2'26, 229 Bland, Col. Theodore 400 Bland, Richard 336, 342 Bland Silver Bill 874 Black Hawk, Indian chief 672 Black, Jeremiah S 747 Blaine, James G 875, 876, 882 Blennerhasset, Harman .... 589 Blood Hounds 36 Bloody Brook 198 Bloody Run 220,225 Bloody Belt, The 317 Bloody Angle, Spotsylvania 801 Blair and Rives, editors 699 Blair, INIontgomery 774 Blair, Francis P 807, 854 Bladensburg 591, 633 Blue Laws, Alleged 124, 125 Blvthe, Lieut., H. M. R. X 607 Bolsius, Rev. John Martin 183, 184 Bolivar Y Ponte, Simon 658 Bonetta, sloop of war 500 Bon-Homme Richard 446, 447 Bonaparte, Napoleon 553,570,574, 584, 591-594, 598, 632, 646 Boone, Daniel 544, 773 Book of Mormon 748 Borgia family 31 Borie, Adolp'h E 856 Border States.- 768,827 Boston Ill, 115, 379 Boston Massacre 345 Boston Tea Party 344 Boston Port Bill 346,523 Boscawen, Admiral 293, 294 Booth, John Wilkes 810, 811 Botts, John Minor 689 Boutwell, George S 856 Bouquet, Colonel 319 Botetourt, Lord, governor 340, 341, 342 Bovadilla 26 Boxer, British brig 607 Boycott 872-874 Bradford, William, governor 103, 109 Bradstreet, Simon, governor 154, 207 Bradstreet, Gen. John 296, 298, 319 Branch, John, of North Carolina 667 Bragg, Gen. Braxton 708, 785, 787, 791 924 Index. Brandywine River 130, 400 Brandt, Indian chief 410, 433, 435 Breda, Netherlands 97 Brent, Colonel 227 Brent, William 376 Braxton, Carter 341 Brewster, William 103, 106 Brebeuf, Jean De 240 Bull of Pope Alexander VI 31 Brockenbrough, Judge William 52 Brunswickers 3S1, 409 Breyman, Colonel 415 Brudenell, Rev. Iilr. . 426 Brown, Col. Thomas, Tory 451, 469, 487 Brown, General, U. S. A 627, 628 Brown, Milton 697 Brown, William J., of Indiana 726 Brown, John (Osawatamic) .... 745, 759-765 Brown, Aaron V 747 Brown, B. Gratz 862 Breckinridge, John C 746, 766, 800 Brooke, Lord 123 Brookfleld 196 Braddock, Gen. Edward 276, 280-283 Broke, P. B. V. British captain 605-606 Brock, British general 620-622 Brooks, Preston S 743 Bribery and Corruption, Alleged 663 Brussels Treaty 902 Buchanan, Scottish scholar 103 Buchanan, James 739, 746, 747-772 Buchanan, Admiral Franklin 783, 785 Burgesses, House of 86, 98 Burras, Anne 73, 87 Buccaneers 648 Bull, Capt. Thomas 152 Bullet, Captain 300, 374 Burgovne, Gen. Jolm 360, 377, 409, 427 Bunker's Hill 303 Buford, Colonel 451 Burr, Aaron 371, 580. 588, 590 Burroughs, Rev. George 208 Burrows, Lieut. William 607 Butler, Col. John 433 Butler, Col. Zebulon 433 Butler, Benjamin F., N. Y 678 Butler, Gen. Benjamin F. . . . 766, 800, 805, 834 Burnside.'Gen. Ambrose C.,783, 785,787, 791, 821 Byng, Admiral 836 Cabot, John 30, 31 Cabot, Lewis 30 Cabot, Sebastian 30, 31 Cabot, Sanctius 30 Cabrillo 35 Calef, Robert 210 Calvert family 93, 113, 157 Calvert, Georere 157 Calvert, Cecelius 157 Calvert, Leonard 158 Calvin, John 101 Cadianne, Mohawk 236 California 35, 244, 709, 719, 733 Caldwell, Rev. James 456, 457 Caldwell, Murder of Mrs . , 457 Calhoun, John C. . . . 599, 649, 654, 655, 657, 662, 665, 671, 682, 691, 723 Callender, James Thompson 577 Cadwalader, General 393, 430 Campbell, Scottish poet 433 Campbell, English officer 443, 444 Campbell, Col. William 470, 471 Campbell, James, of Pennsylvania. .... 735 Campbell, Judge John A 776, 807 Canada . 42, 43, 82, 23G-241, 288-298, 302-310, 358, 369-372, 617-629, 682, 858, 889 Canaries 23, 40 Canonicus, Sachem 109 Cameron, Simon. ; 774 Canby, U. S. Gen 859 CjiribbcGS 21 Carleton, Gen.'sir Guy .' ."364,'369J 370, 502, 529 Carollnas 37, 166 Carolina, North .... 41, 163, 178, 779, 828, 843 Carolina, South . . 37, 59, 170, 171, 178, 7o8, 828, 843, 860, 861, 869 Caroline, steamer 682 Caroline, U. S. war schooner 640 Caron, Sir Noel De 62 Canonchet, Indian chief 197 Carr, Dabney 342 Cary, Archibald 342 Carver, Jolin, governor 104, 105 Carthage 54, 56 Cartier, Jacques 42 Cambridge, Mass 115 Carteret, Sir George 138, 165 Carteret, Philip 139 Carteret, James 139 Cartel for Exchange of Prisoners. . 384, 825, 833 Carthagena, S. A 267 Carson, Kit, hunter 710 Carpet-baggers 838, 843, 860, 865, 872 Catawbas. . . 188, 313 Causes of Re volution 311-346 Cavaliers 62 Cayugas 236 Cassen, George 68 Casimir, Fort 130 Cass, Lewis 668, 723, 747 Census of United States 550 Central Pacific Railroad 856 Centennial Exposition in 1876 866 Challons, Capt. Henry 84 Champe, Sergt. John 464 Champlain, Samuel De 43, 235, 237 Chadd's Ford 400 Chambersburg, Penn 803 Chanco, Indian 89 Chatham, Earl of 349 Charles v.. Emperor 14,33,36, 121 Charles, Cape 63 Charles L, of England 92,93,110, 142 Charles II., of Eng.,97, 99, 110, 132, 142, 213, 218 Charles IX., of France 37 Charlestown, Mass 115, 365 Charleston, S. C 170, 448-450, 788 Chauncey, Commodore 626 Chase, Judge Samuel 577, 536 Chase, Salmon P., Ch. J. . 760, 774, 843, 852, 865 Chew, Benjamin . 403 Cherry Vallev, N. Y 434 Chesapeake Bay 31, 63, 157 Cherokees 15, 182, 188, 312, 316, 664 Chickahominy River 67 Chickasaws 15, 182, 266, 313 Chicken, Captain ... 176 China 12, 693, 873, 875, 879 Chitomachen, sachem 160 Chichely, Sir Henry 219 Chicago, 111 242, 622, 858, 903 Chieseman, Captain 228 Chesterfield, Lord 301 ChevaUer of St. George 255, 256 Index. 925 Cheeves, Langdon 599, 727 Choiseul, French minister 310 Choctaws 15, 188, 313 Cholula, Mex 14 Chrysler's Spring 628 Chili, S. A 664, 899-901 Choate, Rufus 732 Christianity 11, 40, 02, 113, 914 Christian Sabbath 105 Church Establishments . 4S, 94, 115,166, 323, 326, 328, 520 Church Party-, Mexico 846, 848 Church, Captain 198 Cilley, Colonel 424 Cincinnati 617 Cipango 20 Ciyil Service Act SSI, 885 Clark, Captain, pilot 84 Clark, George Rogers 439-441 Clark's Island . 105 Clarke, John 116 Clarke, Walter, governor 152 Clarke, Col. Elijah 444, 470 Clarke, Capt. William 551, 586 Clarendon, Earl of. 110 Claj-borne, William 156-102 Clarendon, Lord 164 Clifton, Richard 103 Clinton, Sir Henry . . 379, 3S1, 332, 419, 429, 438, 447, 450, 463, 497 501, Clinton, George, governor 419 589, Clinton, Gen. James 434 Cleveland, Colonel 470 Cleveland, Grover. . . '. 882-888 Clay, Henry . 509, 605, 613, 654, 05i>, 658, 662, 669, 671, 688, 727, 733, 734 Clay, General, of Kentucky 624, 625 Clayton, John M 725 Cloyce, Sarah 205, 207 Colbert, French minister 241 Cockburn, Admiral Sir George 629 Cockburn, Sir Alexander 859 Cochrane, English admiral 632 Coffee, General 036, 640 Cobb, Howell, of Georgia 727, 747 Colfax, Schuyler 854 Colorado '.865 Colored Half Orphan Asylum 824 Colleges and Universities 11 Columbia River 551 Columbia, District of 11,29,575,682 Columbus. Christopher 13, 17, 20, 21-26 Columbus, Fernando 22 Columbus, Bartholomew 29, 30 Coligny, Admiral 37, 42 Cod, Cape 41, 104 Coke, Sir Edward 60, 117 Coddington, William 116 Colden, Lieutenant-Governor, N. Y 334 Colleton, James, governor 173 Colleton, Sir John 165 Communipaw 126 Comfort, Point 78, 84 Common Prayer, Book of 205 Congress, First Colonial 248 Congress, First American 337 Congress of 1774 348 Cordon of French Posts 201, 266 Como, Diocese of 49 Coustantine, Emperor 47 Connecticut 18, 112, 123, 152, 450 Converts 88 Constitution of Virginia 90, 624 Constitution of United States . . . 532, 535, 538 Confederation, Articles of 517, 527 Confederate States 771, 779, 829 Confederate Treasury Notes 852 Collamer, Jacob 725 Collier, Admiral Sir George 441 Copenhagen 19 Cordova 35 Cotton, John. 116 Cotton, Culture of 177, 852 Cornbury, Lord, governor 140, 253, 254 Coree Indians 174 Cory, Giles 208 Cornstalk, Indian chief 232 Complanter, Indian chief 435 Concord, Mass 353, 354 Convention, Virginia, 1775 350 Conway, General 399, 430 Convention Troops 440 Continental Currency 450 Conkling, Roscoe 875 Conner, Commodore 706, 707 Conrad, Charles M 729 Cornwallis, Lord, 381, 393, 400, 401, 452, 493, 499 Cortez, Hernando 14, 35 Courtlaudt, Mayor 137 Country Life, Southern 329, 330-332 Cooper, Thomas 579 Cooper, J. Fenimore 135, 518 Corbctt, Boston 811 Cowpens, Hannah's 475 Cox, Jacob D 856 Coxe, Daniel 274 Craven, William, Earl of 165 Craven, Charles, governor 176 Crawford, WilUam H 006, 647 Craney Island 630 Crawford, George W 725 Credit Mobilier 863 Creswell John A. J 856 Crittenden, John J 687, 729, 813 Cramirton, English charge 737 Cromwell, biiver. '. '. '. '. ". 97,'li5,' 124, 132, 213 Creek Indians 182, 313, 316, 663, 664 Cruger, British colonel . 451 Croghan, Major George 625 Crockett, David 694 Crs'stal Palace Exposition 736 Cuba 25, 29, 692, 730, 731, 739, 867 Culpepper, John 168 Culpepper, Lord 218 Gumming, Arthur, governor 752 Gushing, Caleb 094, 735 Custer, Gen. George A 868 Dacres, Capt. James A 001, 602 Dade, Major, U. S. A. . 673 Dakota, North 892 Dakota, South 892 Dallas, George M 697 Dale, Sir Thomas 79, 80 Danbury 397 Danes in New Jersey 138 Daniel, Father Anthony 239 Daniel, Robert, governor 170 D'Artaguette, French officer 266 D'Auvergne Sans Tache 499 Davie. Colonel. 469 Davidson, Brig. -Gen 479 Davenport, Colonel _469 936 Index. Lavies, Rev. Samuel 2S3 Darieu, Isthmus of. 34 Daston, Sarah 209 Davis, Jeflferson. .708, 735, 772, 781, 794, 812. 821, 830, 8j5, 802, 890 Davis, Henry Winter 839, 853 Davis, John, navigator 40 Davenport, John 112, 124 Dare, Ananias 41 Dare, Eleauor 41 Dayton, William L 746, 850 Deixne, Silas 348, 393, 399 Dearborn, General 619, 626 Decatur, Captain Stephen, Sr 572 Decatur, Captain Stephen, Jr . 109, 572, 587, 591 603, 614, 644 Declaration of Independence, 212, 392, 509, 512 Djerfield, Mass 258 Degeneracy, Theory of. 13 Delawares 15 Delaware, Lord 75, 78, 79, 85 Delaware, Lady 85 Delaware 129, 143, 147 De Kalb, Baron 399, 453, 454 De Long, Lieutenant 880 De Monts, Huguenot 43, 235 Denys, French navigator 42, 235 Dennis, Captain 97, 98 Democrats, party 567, 895 D'Estaing, Admiral 435, 444 De Soto, Ferdinand 36, 37 Detroit, Mich 263, 317, 620, 621, 624 Development Theory 13 Dickerson, ]Mahlon 678 Dieskau, Baron 284, 287 Digges, Edward, governor 98 Digges, Dudley 342 Discovery of America 17,26 Dinwiddle, Gov. of Va 273 Dobbin, James C 735 Dongan, Thomas, governor 136, 149 Doniphan, Colonel 710 Donop, Count 382, 405 Dollar, U. S. Silver 864 Donelson, Andrew J 746 Dorchester, Mass 115 Dorchester Heights 377 Dorr, Thomas W 525, 692 Dover, N. H 112 Downie, British captain 611 Downing, Major Jack 669 Douglas, Stephen A 655, 728, 741, 766 Draft, The 823, 825 Dred Scott Case 756, 759, 840 Drummond, William 167, 228 Drummond, Sarah 225, 229 Drake, Sir Francis 39,41,721 Duane, Wm. J 674 Duel 109, 588. 591 Dudley, Joseph, of Mass 150 Dudley, Gov. of Mass 257 Ducoudray, French artillerist 399 Dunderberg, The 419 Duplessis, Col. Manduit 405 Duumore, Gov. of Va.342, 347, 360, 373, 374, 376 Durant, George 164, 168 Dustin family 249 Dutch people 126, 127, 171, 238, 32S Du Thet, Gilbert, Jesuit 82 Earthquakes 887 Early, Gen. Jubal A 786, 797, 801, 802, 803 Eaton, Theophilus 124 Eatou, ^Villiam, consul 588 Eaton, John H. 667, 668 Edmondson, William, Friend 167 Edward VI., King 101 Egan, Patrick 900, 901 E-ypt 13, 54 Elizabeth, Queen 39, 40, 46, 59, 101 Elizabethtown, N. J 138, 456, 538 EUot, Rev. John 191 Elliott, Lieut. U. S. N 609, 613 Ellsworth, W. L 882 Elskwatawa, Indian prophet 618 Embargo 593, 594 Endicott, John 116 Eudicott, William C 884 Enforcement Act 861 England's Naval Power 600 English, William H 875 Enterprise, U. S. brig -. . . 607 Epervier, British brig 615 Episcopacy, Prelatic, 62, 81, 89, 98, 102, 117, 150. 324 Erasmus, Desiderius 101 Era of Good FeeUng 648, 655 Eric the Red 17, 19 Erie, Lake 607, 610 Erskine, British minister 597 Esopus, N. Y 420 Espejo, Spanish leader 35 Esquimaux 17 Essex, U. S. frigate 610 Espy, Prof. James P 738 Esther, Indian Squaw 434 Estaiug, Admiral D' 435, 444 Estremadura 36 Eutaw Springs 492 Everett, Edward 731, 766 Ewell, General Richards 739, 790, 819 Ewing, Thomas 687, 689, 725 Exeter 113 Exploring Expedition, 1838 683 Exploration by Lewis and Clarke 551 Exports and Imports 551,596, 912 Fabius, The American 396, 438 Farragut, Admiral D. G 783, 796 Fairfax, Earl of 515, 516 Fairfax, George Wm 515 Fairfax, Lieutenant 844 Fava, Baron 891 Fauchet, French minister 556, 562 Fayette, Marquis Gilbert Motier De La. 399, 400, 431, 446, 4.59, 467, 493, 495, 659, 660, Federalists 567 Feudal System 58 Ferdinand, King of Spain 23 Ferguson, Dr. Adam 429 Ferguson, Col. Patrick 447, 449, 469, 470 Fenwick, John 139 Field, Cyrus W 754, 756 Fifteenth Amendment 844 First Ocean Steamer 647 Fillmore, Millard 723, 734, 746 Fish, Hamilton •. 856 FishingCreek 454 Fisher. Marv 321 Financial Troubles 679,857 Five Nations 15, 68 Fitzgerald, Colonel 395 Fletcher, Gov. of N. Y 154 Floyd, John B., governor 747, 769, 770 Index. 927 Florida,. 18, 34, 36, 184, 443, 63G, 638, 649, 650, 698, 768, 828, 843, 809 Folger, Charles J 882 Folsom, ISIiss Frances 887 Foote, Commodore A. H 783 Forey, French general 847 Forrest, Ed\\'in 726 Forrest, Gen. N. B 785, 791, 798, 804 Forrest, Mrs 73 Force Bill, The 671, 894 Fort Dearborn 622 Fort Edward 285 Fort Griswold 467 Fort London 313, 315 Fort !Mercer 405 Fort Mifflin 405, 406 Fort Jliami 550 Fort :Mimms 636 FortMcHenry 634, 635 Fort Necessity 275 Fort Prince George 313, 315 Fort Moultrie 380, 450 Fort IMotte, S. C 486 Fort ^^'ashington 385, 386 Forty Fort 434 Fordyce, Captain 374 Forbes, General 294, 299, 300 Forsyth, John 678, 776 Forsyth and others, commissioners .... 776 Fourteenth Amendment 841 Fox, George 141, 167 Fox, Charles, M. P 484 Foster, British envoy 597, 599 Foy, Secretary 374 France .... 45, 393, 427, 430, 553, 584, 676, 846 Francis I., King 42 Franklin, \\illiam 140 Franklin, Benjamin.. 148, 268, 271, 272, 280, 288, 301, 330, 335, 339, 342, 365, 393, 427, 552 Franciscan Monks 237 Fra.ser, General 409, 424, 425 Fraunces' Tavern, N. Y 530 Fra Paolo 121 Fredericksburg, Va 373, .508 Free Schools 215, 331 Free-Soil Party 723 Freedman's Bureau 842 Frelinghuysen, Theodore 698 Frelinghuvsen, Frederick T 882 Fremont, Gen. John C 709, 746 Frederica, Ga 185 Friends (Quakens) 120, 141 French Protestants 37 Frobisher, IMartin 40 Frolic, British war brig 603 Frontenac, Count 243, 245, 249 Fry, Colonel Joshua 275 Fulton, Robert 595 Fugitive Slave Laws 730, 732, 740 Fuller, Meh-illeW., Chief Justice 887 Gabrouski, Count 420 Gadsden, Christopher 313 Gadsden, Gen. James 719 Gage, Gen. Thomas .... 339, 344, 317, 349, 352, 364, 377 Gallatin, Albert 584, 599, 613 Galveston Island, Texas 648 Gansevoort, Colonel 412 Garfield, Gen. James A 782, 875-878 Garfield, Mrs. Lucretia R 876, 878 Garland, A. H 884 Garrison, William Lloyd . 685 Gascony 38 Gaspee, British armed ship 346 Gates, Sir Thomas 61, 75, 77, 79 Gates, Gen. Horatio 407, 418, 452, 453 Geary, John W 745 Geiger, Emily 487 Genet, Edmond Charles 555, 556 Geneva Witchcraft 49 George I., King 265 George II., King 267 George III., King 309, 360, 381, 409, 502 Georgia 36, 179-188, 768, 828, 843 Gemiain, Lord George 409, 501 Germany 45, 858, 887 Germans 73, 145, 170 Germantown 145, 402 Gerry, Elbridge 569, 571, 613 Gettysburg, Penn 786, 790, 818-821, 862 Ghent, Treaty of 599, 613, 643 Gilbert, Sir Humphrev 40 Gilbert. Raleigh . . ." .100,112 Giles, William B 565 Gilmer, Thomas Walker 691 Gloucester County, Va 69, 145, 224 Glover's INIarblehead Corps 383 Goffe, Colonel, regicide 197 Gold and Silver 27, 719, 720 Golden Hind, ship 39 Godyn, Hollander 129 Gondomar, Count Be 85 Gooch, William, governor 232, 267 Goodwin, John 204 Goose Creek Militia 176 Gorges, Ferdinando lOP, 112 Gosnold, Bartholomew 41, 63. 66 Government Status of Colonies ,506 Gourgues, Dominic De 38 Graham, William A 729, 732 Granganameo, Indian chief 41 Grand Model, Locke's 165-172, 329 Graffenreid, Baron De 174 Grant, Major 299, 314 Granger, Francis 687, 690, 698 Grant, Gen. Ulysses S. . . . 782, 783, 785, 786, 787, 790, 792, 793, 797, 801, 8C3, 806, 809. 822, 834, 838, 850, 854, 855-871 Grasse, Admiral Count De 497, 500, 501 Gravesend Bay 132 Gray's Elegy 305, 306 Gray, Capt. Robert 551, 721 Great Britain, Empire of 11 Great Meadows 275 Great Bridge, Virginia 374 Greenland 17 Greenwood, English martyr 102 Green, Thomas 162 Green, Roger 164 Greene, Gen. Katlianiel. . 363, 400, 452, 455, 474, 478, 479, 485 Green Mountain Boys 370, 410, 418 Greenback Party 875 Greece, Slavery in 55 Greek Church 46,47,48 Grenau. Salzburgher 183 Grenville, Sir Richard 40 Gregory VII., Pontifl" 47, 58 Grenville. George 333 Greeley, Horace 732,774,812,862,863 Greely, Lieutenant 883 Grey, British general 400, 404, 436, 458 Grinnell, Henry 731 Index. Urotius, publicist llil Gridley, Colonel, engineer 363, 378 Gudrid, wife of Karlsefne 19 Guacanagari, Indian chief 32 Gulf of ]SIexico \ . 16 Guatemala 36, 898, 899 Guiana 40, 60 Guiteau, Charles 877, 878 Guilford C. H 482 Guerriere, British frigate 600, 601 Guadaloupe Hidalgo, Treaty of 718 Gunboat Defences ' 592, 630 Guthrie, James 735 Gwynn's Island 376 Habeas Corpus, Writ of 164, 861 Habersham, Joseph 358,368,379 Hackensack, N. Y 127 Hadley 196 Hakluyt, Richard 61 Hale, Sir Matthew 50, 207 Hale, Capt. Nathan 383, 384, 464 Hale, John P 732 Halket, Sir Peter 280, 282, 301 Hamilton, Alexander. . . 109, 386, 498, 514, 540, 542, 559, 584, 588 Hamilton, English governor 438-440 Hamct, rightful bey 588 Hall, U. S. Dist. Judge, La 639 Hall, Nathan K « 729 Hampden, John 115 Hampton, Va 374, 630 Hampton Roads Conference 807, 837 Hampton, Gen. Wade 802 Hanno, of Carthage 17 Handcock, Indian chief 175 Hansford, Thomas 228 Hancock, John 349, 352, 361, 507, 543 Hamtrauck, Major 548 Hamlin, Hannibal 767 Harrison, Benjamin 342, 350 Harrison, Gen. Wm. H. . . 608, 609, 618-627, 685, 687, 688 Harrison, Benjamin, President 888 Harmer, Brig. Gen 545, 546 Hartford, Conn 112, 123, 152 Hartford Convention 635 Harvey, John, governor . . .* 168 Harney, Colonel 713 Hartstene, Captain U. S. N 746 Hancock, Gen. W. S 875 Hardv, Admiral Sir Thomas 631, 632 Harvard University 327, 331, 674 Harvie, Lewis E 778 Hawley, Gen. Joseph R 867 Haverhill 259 Hayes, Rutherford B 869-875 Hayne, Isaac 488-^91 Hayne, Robert Y 667, 669 Hayti 25, 862 Hav, George 578 Hawkins, Sir John 59, 323 Hazen, William B 857 Hazelwood, Commodore 405, 406 Hebrews, people 13, 54 Heath, Sir Robert 93, 163 Hell Gate, N. Y 117 Helwvs, Thomas 119 Helluland 18 Hemans, Mrs. Felicia 106 Henlopen, Cape 129 Hendrlck, loaian chief 286 Hendricks, Thomas A 869, 882 Hennessey, David C. 891 Henrj% Prince, the Navigator 20, 58 Henry VII., King 29, 30, 46 Henry VIII., King 39,46,101 Henry, Cape 63 Henrietta Maria 97 Hennepin, Father Louis 243 Henry, Patrick 325, 336, 342, 350, 373 Henry, John, British emissary 636 Heriot, Thomas 41 Herjulf, Bjarni 18 Hervey, Sir John, governor 93 Hertel, French officer 247-258 Herkimer, General 411, 412 Hessians 382, 405, 421 Hildebrand, Pontiflf 47 Hill, Col. Edward 2.'0 Hill, Brig. Gen. John 262 Hill, Gen. Ambrose P. . . . 785, 788, 789, 804, 819 Hiram, King of Tyre 13 Hispaniola 21, 25, 33, 59 Hoar, Ebenezer R 856 Holland 62, 125, 132 Holliman, Ezekiel 119 Hobkirk's Hill 485 Holmes, Rep. from Mass 652 Hooker, Gen. Joseph 787, 788, 791, 818 Hooker, Thomas 112, 123 Horican, Lake George 285 Holt, Chief Justice 50, 203 Homer, Greek poet 54 Horse-Neck Stairs 437 Howard, Colonel, Maryland 476 Howe, Sir Wimam .... 187, 304, 377, 389, 396 Howe, Lord 294, 295, 296 Howe, Gen. Robert 443 Hornet, U. S. war sloop 604, 615 Houston, Gen. Samuel 695 Huguenots 37, 172 Hudson's Strait 40 Hudsr.n, Ilonry 82, 125, 129 Hunt. Thomas 101, 104 Hunt, Rev. Robert 62 Hull. Capt. Isaac 600 Hull, Gen. William 619-621 Huger, General 449, 478 Hungary 733 Hunter, Ro. M. T 807 Hunter, Gen. David 800, 802, 827 Hunt, WilUam H 876 Hughes, Archbishop 824 Hurons 15, 238-240 Hutchinson, Anne 113, 116, 117, 128 Hyde, Edward, governor 170-175 Hyde, Anne 255 Iceland 17, 20 Idaho 892 Illinois 439, 648 Imperium in Imperio 47, 916 Impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase . . 586 Impeachment of President Johnson .... 843 Importation of Slaves 322, 523 Impressment of Seamen 658, 597 Incas 14, 35 Indian Characters 15, 189 Indies 25 Indians 311-320 Indiana 644 Ingham, Sam'l D ' . 666, 668 Ingersoll, of Connecticut 335 Index. 939 Ingoldsby, Major • . . . . 137 Ingraham, Capt. Duncan N 737, 788 Innocent VIII., Pontiff 49 Insurrection of Negroes 321 Internal Improvements r)17 International Copyright 902 lowf 698 Iroquois 15, 43, 236, 238, 210, 246,257 Iron-clad Oath 857, 874 Isabella, Queen 23, 24 Itaiuba, Baron Marcos A. De 859 Italy 45, 890-892 Itata, case of the 900-901 Jack of the Feather , . . 88 Jackson, Gen. Andrew . . 566, 636, 637, 648- ,.650, 662, 665, 666-677 Jackson, Britisli minister 598 Jackson, Gen. Thomas Jonathan. . 783, 788, 815-817, 893 James I., King 46, 60, 88-91, 103, 504 James II., King 136, 147, 153 Jamaica 25 James River 63 Jamestown 63, 89, 227, 231 Jamestown Island 495 Jameson, Colonel 463 James, Thomas L 876 Japan, 20, 730, 754 Japazaws, Indian chief 80 Jasper, Sergt. William 381, 446 Java, British frigate 603 Jav, John, of N. Y 540, 559 Jav's Treaty ■ . 560, 561 Jefferson, Thomas. . . 327, 342. 440, 466, 494, 507, 518, 521, 540, 554, 580, 582-596, 652, 894 Jefferson's Manual 568 Jeffries, Herbert 229, 231 Jesuit Fathers 190, 237 Jessup, General 628, 673 Job, patriarch 13 Jogues, Isaac 238, 239 John XVII., pontiff 19 John II., King of Portugal 20, 22^ 23 Johnson, Gen. Sir William . . 284, 287, 320, 367 Johnson, Sir John 367,410, 413 Johnson, Col. Richard M 627, 678 Johnson, Cave 701 Johnson, Reverdy 725 Johnson, Herschel V 766 Johnson, Andrew 806, 812, 815, 854 Johnstone, English Coni'r 429, 430 Johnston, Gen. Albert Sidney 751, 753 Johnston, Gen. Joseph E. . . . 786, 793, 808, 812 Johnstown, Penn 888 Joint High Commission 870, 871 Jones, Wimberley 358 Jones, Lieut. David 415-417 Jones, Admiral John Paul 446 Jones, Capt. Jacob 603 Jones, Anson, president 698 Joseph, the boy 53 Juarez, President of Mexico. . . . 816, 848, 849 Juet, Robert, mate •. 120 Julian, George W 732 Jumonville, M 275, 276 Kalb, Baron De 399, 453 Kan.sas 7..6 Kansas-Nebraska Act 655, 741 Kane, Dr. Elisha Kent 731 Kane, Col. Thomas L 750, 752 59 Karlsefue, Thorfinn 19 Kaskaskia, 111 439 Kearney, Colonel 710 Kellogg, Governor 866 Kemp, Richard, governor 96 Kemper, General 827 Kecoughtan, Va 67 Kendall, George 63, 67 Kendall, Amos 678 Kennebec River 100, 370 Kent Island 156, 160 Kentucky 544, 545, 577 Kettle Creek, Ga 444 Kev, Francis Scott 635 Kieft, Wilhelmus, governor 127, 130 Kidil, Capt. William 252, 253 King William's War 234 King George's War 235, 268 Kings, their characters 45, 149, 155, 503 King's Mountain 470-472 King, William R 732, 733 Kirke, Sir David 235 Kirkwood, Samuel J 876 Kittanning, Indian town 289 Knights of Labor 872-874 Know-Nothing Party 738 Knyphausen, General 387, 400, 456 Knox, Gen. Henry .... 377, 403, .530, 531, 540 Kosciuszko, Tbaddeus 399, 421 Kossuth, Lajos (Louis) 733 Koszta, Martin 737 Kuklux Organization 860-862 Labrador 17, 30 Lactantius 24 Laconia, N. H 112 Lakes, Northern 16, 607 Lake George 285, 296 I^a Fitte, freebooter 640 Lallemand, Gabriel 240 Langdon, President of Harvard . .«. .... 364 Lambert, British general 641, 643 Lamar, L. Q. C 884 Lane, Gen. Joseph 766 Lands, Public 533, 534 Laudonniere 37 I^aud, Archbishop 115, 160 Larrimore, Ca^jtain 226 Laurens, Henry 428 Lardner, Dr. Dionysius 683 Lawrence, Capt. James 604-606 Lawrence, Bacon's follower 224, 230 Las Casas 58 La Salle 242-244 Laydon, John 87 Lee, Gen. Charles. . . 290, 361, 375, 380, 387, 388, 289, 398, 431, 432, 452 Lee, Richard HeniT 336, 342 Lee, Henry (Light Horse) . 341, 400, 452, 455, 464, 481, 486, 558, 574 Lee, Arthur 393 Lee, Gen. Robert E. . 712, 761, 786, 809, 817- 822, 857, 893 Lee, Capt. Sidney Smith 821 Lear, Tobias . . '. 543, 548 Ledvard, Col. William 467- Lois'ler, Jacob 136,138,248, 252 Lelaud, John, farmer 583 Leland, Dr. John A 861 Leigh. Benjamin Watkins 671 Lenni Lenape Indians 15, 144 Legare, Hugh S 690, 691 930 Ittdcx. Leon, Ponce De 34 Leo X., pontiff. 49 Letcher, John, governor 779, 801 Levviston, Del 129 Lewis, Gen. Andrew 232, 376 Lewis, Capt. Meriwether 551, 586, 721 Leslie, British general 465, 473, 478 Lenox, Dulie of 112 Lexington, Mass 351 Leyden, Holland 103 Lief, son of Eric 18, 19 Lillington, Major 169 Lincoln, Gen. Benj. . . 413, 423, 444, 450, 500, 821 Lincoln, Abraham 767,773-814 I.ineoln, Robert 876 Little Sarah, The 556 Little Belt, The 598, 601 Livingston, Major H. B 410, 461 Livingston, Chancellor 595 Livingston, Edward 668 Locke, John 165 Locofocos, party name 697 Loar, Captain 897 Logan, Gen. Jolm A, .' 882 Lockwood, Belva A 882 Lockwood Island 883 Long Island, N. Y IS, 381, 3S3 London Company 61, 86, 90, 91, 156 Longfellow, poet 278 Longstreet, Gen. James. 787, 788, 791, 801, 819, 821 Loudon, Earl of 288, 290 Louiallier, M., of La 039 Lopez, Gen. Marcisco 730 Louis XIV., King 245 Louis XV., King 276 Louis XVL, King 392,430, 551 Louisburg 209, 270, 294 Louisiana . . 243, 584, 585, 599, 636, 768, 828, 843, 860, 866, 869, 892 Louis Philippe, King 676 Louis Napoleon, Emperor.. . . 739, 845, 817, 848 Lovelace, Col. Francis 136, 149 Lowndes, William 599 Loval Hanna 299 Ludwell, Philip 169 Ludlow, Lieutenant, U. S. N 605, 606 Lundy's Lane 628, 629 Luther, Martin 101 Lymbry, English spy 84 Lynn, Mass 115 Lyon, Matthew, Vt 578 Lyons, Judge Peter 325 Lyons, Lord, English minister 845 Lyttleton, governor S. C 312-316 Macaulay, historian Maclean, Colonel 809, Macedonian, British frigate Macdonough, Capt. Thomas 611, Macomb, Gen. Alexander 610, Madoc of Wales Madison, James . . . .534,576,584,595,597- Macready, W. C Mafia, Society of the Magnetic Telegraph Magruder, Gen. John B Magellan, Fernando Manhattan Island 82, Maltra^•ers, Lord Majoriljauks, British major Mangum, Willie P Mann, A. Dudley Manning, Dajiiel 884 Mandeville, Sir John 20 Mannahoacs, Indians 68 Maine 112, 115, 048, 052, 683, 713 Mauteo, Indian chief 41 Martha's Vineyard. . 42 Martial Law 79, 80, 639 Markham, William 143 Margravate of Azilia 180 Marie Antoinette, Queen 392 Marcy, ^\•illiam L 006, 700, 735 IMarv, tlie Bloody, Queen .101 Maryland 113, 156, 157 Maryland Gazette 162 Marquette, Jacques 241, 242 Marion, Gen. Francis 313,452,473 JIarshall, John 569, 574, 580, 589 Martin, Luther 577, 587 Martin, John 63, 71, 76 Massachusetts 78, 111 Massawomecs, Indians 68 Massasoit, Indian chief 108, 110 Mason, Capt. John 112 Mason and Dixon's Line 146 Mason, Capt. John, Conn 192 Masham, Mrs 202, 264 Mason, George 473, 516 Masonry 670 Mason, John Y 691, 701 Mason, James M 844 Marco, Polo 20 Matoaka (Pocahontas) 70 Mather, Klchard 202. 203 ]\Iather, Increase 153, 202 Mather, Cotton 198, 202, 210, 520 Matagorda, Bay of 243 Matthews, Samuel, governor 98, 99 Mayflower, The 103 Mayhew Family . . .' 191 Maury, Rev. James 324 Mawhood, Colonel 394 Maxwell, Gen. N. J 457 Maysville Road 607 Maximilian, Archduke 849, 851 Iileade, Gen. Geo. G 789, 818, 833, 862 Mecklenburg, N. C. . . 508 Meigs, Colonel 397 Merida, Ruins near 14 Melendez, Pedro 27, 37, 38 Medici, Lorenzo De 29 Mercer, Gen. Hugh .389, 394, 395 Mexico 13, 35, 658, 713 Memphis, Tenn 36 Meredith, William M 725 McCrea Family 415 McCrea, Jane 415, 417 Mcintosh, General 438 McHenry, James 567, 569 McLane, l.diiis 668 Me( lellan, t;en. Geo. . . . 712, 784, 786, 806, 825 McClelland, Robert 735 McVeagh, Wavne 876 McKinley Tariff Act 893 Meteoric Display 675 Michigan 676 Micmacs, Indians 249 Michilimackinac 318 Middle Plantation. Va 225 Milbotirue, of N. Y 137, 138, 148 Milledge, John 358 Miller, Col. James 629 Mills, Roger Q 885 Index. 931 Miller, W. H. H 889 Milton, John 117 Milan Decree 502, 598 Miners' Troubles, Tenu 897 Minigerode, Lieut.-Colonel 406 Minnesota 756 Minuits, Peter 127, 130 Mississippi 15, 36, 648, 768, 828, 844, 854 Mississippi River 36, 37, 241 Missouri 648, 655 Missoiu'i Compromise . . . 652, 655, 696, 722, 742 Mobile, Ala 251,266,796, 810 Modena, I'rincess of. 255 Modocs, Indians 859 Mohawks 128, 236, 246 Mohicans 15, 192, 200 Molina, Spaniard 84 Monk, Gen. George 165 Monk's Corner, S. C 449 Monarchy 44, 45, 503-513 Monacans, Indians 67 Monocacy River 797, 802 Mouongahela 281 Monmouth C. II 431, 432 Monro, Colonel 291 Monroe, James . . . .390, 564, 581, 599, 623, 645-661, 721 Monroe Doctrine ., . 659, 849, 850 Montcalm, Marquis Do . . 288, 290, 292,297, 302, 304, 308 Montgomery, Colonel 314, 316 Montgomery, Gen. Richard . . 294, 370, 372, 420 Montana 892 Jlontt, Jorge, Chilian President 901 Montezuma, King 35 Montreal 42, 246, 309 Moore, James, governor 174, 175, 257 Montiauo, Manuel De 185 Montgomery, Sir Robert 180 Morgan, Va. colonist 88 Morgan, Gen. Daniel. .409, 421, 424, 475, 476, 558 Morgan, William 670 Morgan, Gen. John 785, 787 Morris, Lewis 140 Morris, Robert 430, 450, 531 Mormons, Sect 747, 753 Morrison, Francis 229 Morristown, Heights of 396 Morse, Samuel F. B 692, 862 Morton, Le^^ P 888 Mound Builders 15 Mount Desert, Canada 82 Mount Vernon 328 Moultrie, Gen. Wm 380 Moyses, Count, of Trnnsylvania 64 Mulberry Island Point . " 78 Musgrove, Mary 181 Muskogee Indians 182 Murray, Wm. Vans 573 Myer, Albert J 857 Nansemonds, Indians 72 Napoleon, Louis 739, 845, 847, 848, 852 Narragausetts, Indians 108, 197 Narvaez, Spanish leader 36 Nash, Thomas, English seaman 579 Natchez Indians 15 Natchez, Miss 37 Nauvoo, City of 749 Nautilus, East Indian armed ship 616 Navigation La^vs 216, 234 Nausites, Indians 104 Nelson, Thomas, governor ; 494, 498 Nelson, Captain 71 Negroes 32, 58, 87, 182, 320, 832, 842, 915 Netherlands 37 Neutrality, Policy of 554 Neutral Ground, The 461 New Albion 39, 721 New Amsterdam 126 Newcastle, Del 143 New England 41, 101, 593, 594, 635 Newfoundland 18, 40, 42, 157, 736 New France 42, 234, 244 New Haven, Conn 112, 124 New Hampshire 112, 113 New Jersey 138 New Netherlands 126 New Orleans 266, 639, 643, 890 New ]\Iexico 27, 35 New Sweden 130 Newtown Ecclesiastical Synod 116 New York 133, 383 Newport, Christopher 62, 63, 71, 75 Neyon, De, French otticer 320 Nicholas v., Pontiff 31 Nicholas, Robert Carter 342, 350 Nicholas, Philip Norliorne 578 Nicholls, Richard 132 Nicholson, Sir Francis, governor . .136, 155, 260 Niebuhr, liistorian 13 Nipmuck Indians ... 195 Ninety-six, S. C! 314, 487 Non-Intercourse Laws 594, 597 Norfolk, Va 72, 374, 375 Norsemen 18 North, Frederick, Lord. . .187, 341, 342, 428, 501, 502 North Castle, N. Y 389, 403 Norway 17 None, Father Anne De 239 Nova Scotia 18, 43 Noyes, Salem minister 209, 210 Nullification 667, 670 Nurse, Rebecca 206 Nevada 814 Nebraska 842 Nez Perces, Indians 874 Noble, John W 889 Nicholls, Gov. F. T 891 Occum, Rev. Samson, Indian 190 Ocean Telegraphs 754, 755 Oconostata, Indian chief 313, 315 Ocracoke Inlet 41 Ogden, Captain Aaron 464 Oglethorpe, Gen. James Edward. . 179, 187, 267 O'Hara, British general 479, 484, 500 Ohio 15, 272, 534, 586 Ohio Company 272, 274 Ojeda, Alonzo De 29 Old Dominion, Origin of Title of Va . . . 97, 99 Old World t^ouditions -12 Oliver, Mary 203 Oliverian Plot 217 Oldtown Creek, N. C 163 Omnilms Bill 727, 729 Oneiilrts, Indians 236 Onondasjas, Indians 236 O'Neil, Mrs 416 Ophir 12, 13, 17 Opachiseo, Indian 81 Opecaneanough, Indian chief . . 68, 69, 74, 88, 95, 96 932 Judex. Oregon 39, 720, 722, 723, 756, 869 Orders in Coimoil, England . .592, 598, 599, 623 Ordinance of 1787 534 Orapaques 69 Oriskauy 411 Orinoco River 61 Osceola, Indian chief 672, 673 Ostend Manifesto 739 Oswego, N. Y 284, 289 Ottawas, Indians 240 Otis, James 326, 335 Ould, Col. Robert 833, 834, 835 Ousamequin, Indian chief 118 Owen, Allen F 731 Oxford University 117 Oxenstiern, Swede 130 Pace, Richard 89 Pacific Ocean 12, 13, 34, 35, 61 Packenham, Gen. Sir Edward . . . 640, 642, 821 Paine, Thomas 509 Palmer, Edmund, spy 418, 419 Palos, Spain 24 Panama, Isthmus of. 39 Panama Mission 664 Paoli, Penn 401 Paraguay, South America 754 Paria, South America 29 Pamunkev River 69, 92 Paris, Treaty of. 1^, 310 Parker, Admiral Sir Peter 379 Parker, Commodore Hyde 443 Parris, Rev. Samuel 206. 210 Patroon, Land Tenure 133, 135 Patton, JohnM 6st Patuxent, Md 161 Paulding, John 462, 405 Pavonia, N. J 126 Paulus Hook 455 Pawnees, Indians 15 Peace Commissioners, English 429 Peace Congress, 1801 769 Pedrarias, Spaniard 35 Peck, Jared, of N. Y 579 Peacock, British war sloop 6ii4 Pelican. British brig 607 Pemberton, Gen. J. C 790, 822 Pendleton, Edmund 336,342, 518 Pendleton, George H 806 Penn, William 142, 148 Penn, Admiral William 142 Penn, Granville Jones 14 1 Pennsylvania 141, 210 Pensacola, Florida 638, 639, 649 Percy, Lord 355, 365, 378 Percy, George 62, 76 Pequot Indians 119,192, 194 Peronneau, Mrs 490 Perry, Commodore Oliver H 607, 610 Perry, Commodore Matthew C 730 Peru 13, 14, 35 Peruvian Bark 66 Peters, Samuel 125 Philadelj.liia 143,145,401,402, 431 Philip II., King 33,37 Philip III., King 33,38,84 Philippine Islands 36 Phrenicians, The 54 Persimmon, The 67 Phihp of Pokanoket, King 194, 1<«) Phillips, British general . . . 409, 411, 440, 4(;(; fhipps, William, governor 207, 248 Pet Banks 674, 675, 679 Pickard, Superintendent 897 Pickens, Col. Andrew 444, 476 Pickett, Gen. George 819, 820 Pierson. Mrs. Helen W 432 Pierce, Gen. Franklin . . 715, 731, 733, 735- 746, 856 Pike, Col. Zebulon 622 Pike's Peak 709, 902 Pillow, General 716 Pirates 252, 255, 658 Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth. . . 564, 568, 571 Pinckney, Thomas, of S. C 559, 565 Pettigrew, General 820 Pilgrims, title 103, 158 Pii^ott. Gen. Sir Robert 435 I'iteairn, Major 353, 366 Pitcher, Capt. MoUv 432 Pitt, William, English minister. . .289, 293, 301, 308, 310, 305, 379, 383, 418, 437 Pizarro 14, 35, 36 Plains of Abraham 304, 306 Plato 19 Plymouth, England 39 PlvniDUth Company 61, 100 Plymouth Rock 105 Plj-mouth Rock Monument 106 Pocahontas, Princess, Indian . 70,74, 76, 80, 82, 181 Poictiers, British 74-gun .ship 603 Poinsett, Joel R 664, 678 Poles, settlers 73 Point Pleasant 232 Polk, Col. Thomas 509 Polk, James K 681,693,698,699-724 Polk, Gen. Leonidas 782, 804 Pollock, Thomas, governor. . 175 Ponce De Leon 34 Porto Rico 34 Port Royal, S. C 37, 170 Port Royal, Canada 43, 82, 235, 261 Popham, Sir John 100 Popham, ^ United States Debt 542,676, 863 United States, frigate 603 Universities and Colleges. ... 11, 327, 331 , 595 Utah 747, 750, 856. 881 Upshur, Abel P 691, 692 Utrecht, Treaty of. 263 Uxmal, Ruins of 14 Valladond, Spain 26 Valley Forge 407, 408 Valley of Wvoming 133 Valentinianlll 47 Vanbraarn, Captain 275 Van Curler, Dutch leader 123 Van Buren, Martin . . 606, 008, 678-686, 700, 723 Vancouver's Island 722, 858 Vanderpoel, Captain 823 VanDorn, Gen. Earl 783,791 Van Rensselaer, Killian 133,134, 517 Van Rensselaer, General 622 Van Rensselaer, Colonel 622 Van Twiller, Woutcr 127, 133 Van Wart, Isaac 462, 465 Vane, Sir Harry 116 Vaudreuil, Marquis De 257, 200, 262 Vaughan, General 420 Vega, La, Mexican general 703 Velasco, Alonzo De 84 Venango, French post 272 Veracruz 706,711. 847 Veran, Marquis De Montcalm 288 Verrazani, navigator 42, 235 Verplanck, of N. Y 671 Vespucci, Amerigo 28, 29 Veto Power 885 Victoria, Queen 878 Vilas, William F 884 Villeinage in Hispaniola 21, S3 Vinland the Good 18, 19 Vincennes, French officer 266 Vincennes, 111 439, 440 Virginia. 30, 41, 60-99, 233, 779, 828, 844, 854, 857 Virginius, The 868 Von Bramen, Adam 19 Von Reck, Baron 183 Von Hoist, German publicist 527, 762 Voluntarv Svstem 48 Voorhees, D.'W 763 Vries, De, Dutch leader 129 Wadsworth, Joseph 153 Wadsworth, Captain 154 Waldron, Richard 246 Wahab, Captain 469 Waite, Morrison R., Chief Justice . . .86.5,887 Wales 115 Walker. Sir Hovendon 262 Walker, Robert J 698, 700 Walker, William 753, 754 Wallace, Sir James 420 Wallace, Gen. Lew 797, 802, 850 Wallvs, Samuel, Conn 153 WalrusTeeth 37 Wampanoags, Indians 108 936 Index. Wanamaker, John SS9 Wanchese, Indians 41 War, State of. 53 War of Anglo- American Advance 274 Warner, Col. Seth 339, 370, 414 Warren, Dr. Joseph 352, 359 War of the Revolution 352-502 War, Second with Great Britain .... 599-645 Warren, Enslisli commodore 270 Warren, British admi'-al 623 Warrinafton, Capt. Lewis 615, 616 ^\'ar with Mexico 700-718 War s:<>^ .J^/ .«>vr^