LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0DDD57T17fi=^ c\. * ^ov^ /£i^'- '-^An^ ov^'^^^iiia'- v^.-^^ >* ^0 >^v '^''^^ '-WS^*' /^"\ --^P/ ^^^^-^^ "o^^^: /\ -, '» ";> •• ^•-..^* .';c!$iMA'. >„.^* .■ v-^ • ^v ■'-V, ■ • » » V ."i -'^^^^m^^- ^^^:!l>■ '■^^!im^^\ '-^^n^ oV^^^a^'- <*i-c">^ 'oK rAQi ■^.L\A:. ^ ''^^••'r **,''^\/ °**-Tr;-^-y . % '•^^^^° **'% ^' %/ -^fe": %.^' -^^t \>.^" • .^ .^ jP-?!, o-o» ^V v-^^ lis #3l^ * [,'* "^^ n"^ u •^ rt"^ o*/| THE MAKING OF OUR COUNTRY Lincoln Raising the Flag — 1861 On Washington's birthday, 1861, while on his way to his first inauguration, Lincoln raised the Stars and Stripes over the hall in Philadelphia in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In a speech that day Lincoln said that the Declaration gave liberty not alone to the jieople of this country, but hope to all the world that in due time all men should have an equal chance. LINCOLN RAISING THE FLAG— l«rtl THE MAKING OF OUR COUNTRY A TOPICAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY SMITH BURNHAM, A.M. AUTHOR OF OUR BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA ILLUSTRATED WITH THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY- FOUR ENGRAVINGS IN BLACK AND WHITE, FIFTY- ONE MAPS. AND EIGHT COLOR PLATES FROM THE J. L. G. FERRIS COLLECTION OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL PAINTINGS, BY SPECIAL PERMISSION OP THE ARTIST THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY Chicago PHILADELPHIA Toronto o> <^ E-I7S ./ /9ai Copyright, 1921, by The John C. Winston Company Copyright, 1920, The J. C. W. Co. All Rights Reserved PREFACE Three hundred years ago our ancestors planted the civil- ization of the Old World upon the shores of America. The good seed then sown has had a marvelous growth in the New World. The toil of many generations of pioneers has cleared the land of forests and clothed it with gardens, orchards, and fields of wheat, corn, and cotton. The cattle and sheep upon a thousand hills are ours. The mountains have given us their coal and iron and copper. Inventions ahiiost without number have lightened our labor and enormously increased our wealth. Hundreds of thousands of miles of railroad bind our country together and carry our people and our products from place to place. Our land is filled with fertile farms and with busy and prosperous towns, while scattered here and there are scores of great cities, the homes of mighty industries and of a rich commerce. Our colonial forefathers declared their independence of Great Britain and won it in a long and trying war. They set up free governments in the states and in the nation that have endured for more than a century. By purchase and conquest our people have vastly increased the extent of their territory. By four years of heroic fighting in a great civil war they saved the life of the nation and freed it from human slavery. The half century since that great struggle has seen wonderful pro- gress in national growth. Today North and South are united in the spirit that makes the United States the greatest demo- cratic nation in the world. Only yesterday our country played the deciding part in a World War which broke the power of autocracy in all lands and made the world safer for democracy. The story of the growth of our country through the three centuries since the first European settlers landed upon its shores is told in this book. In telling this story the author has purposely omitted many unimportant names and facts in order to make it possible to give more attention to the men antl the events that have played a vital part in the making of the American nation. These men and events have been presented in logical groups rather than in chronological order, (vii) viii PREFACE because the fundamental ideas of growth and progress can be more closely portrayed by this method of treatment. In the belief that history deals with past life in all of its phases the industrial, social, political, and intellectual sides of that life have each received due attention. It has also been remembered that all sections of the land, the older East and the newest West, the wheat fields of the North and the cotton fields of the South, the populous cities and the sparsely settled plains, are parts of our country and that the story of the develop- ment of each of them is a part of our history. A special effort has been made to treat adequately the last fifty years of Ameri- can Hfe, the most important period in our history and yet the one most neglected. The important pai't which the physical features of each section have played in determining the nature of its growth has not been overlooked. The winning of a vast untamed continent for civilization, the most important and at the same time the most dramatic movement in our past, and the growth and meaning of democracy, the most momen- tous question affecting the present and the future of our coun- try, are the main themes of this book. Smith Burnham. Kalamazoo, IMichigan, June 6, 1921. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTEK PAGE I. European Beginnings in Amekica 1 Our History 1 The European Background of Our History 2 The Discovery of America 7 The Winning of a Spanish Empire in America 9 Latin America 12 The Rivalry between Spain and England 15 II. The Coming of the English 20 The First English Colony 20 The Beginnings of New England 24 The Dutch and the Swedes in America 30 A Group of Proprietary Colonies 32 William Penn and the Quakers 35 Why the English Came to America 37 III. The Growth op the English Colonies in America.. 42 The Spreading of the Settlements 42 The Colonists and the Indians 45 The CJrowth of Industries 49 The Government of the Colonies 53 The Colonies and the Mother Country 57 IV. Our Colonial Ancestors r,2 The Europeans Who Became Colonists ■■ • ^' What the Colonists Brought from Europe to America . . G5 What the Colonists Found in the New World 09 The Homes of the Colonists 71 Social Life in Colonial Days 75 The Schools of Our Forefathers 7S Colonial Churches and Religious Life 83 V. The Rivalry of France and England in America. . 87 The Beginnings of New France 87 The French in the Mississippi Valley 90 The p]nglish and French Colonies Contrasted 93 A Half Century of Conflict 95 The French and Indian War 99 The Treaty of Paris 105 VI. The Causes of the Revolution 107 The True Character of the American Revolution 107 A New liritish Policy in America 109 The Stamp Act HI The Second British Attempt to Tax the Colonists 113 How Keeping British Troops in America Caused Trouble 1 17 ix CONTENTS VPTEK PAGE The Quarrel Over the Tea Tax 119 Parliament Punishes Boston and Massachusetts 121 The Growth of Union in America 121 Drifting toward War 125 VII. The War of the Revolution 128 The Beginning of the War 128 The Declaration of Independence 133 The Loyalists or Tories 136 The War in the Middle States 138 Help from France 145 The Beginnings of the American Navy 147 The War in the South 149 The Treaty of Peace 152 The Men of the Revolution 153 VIII. The Beginnings of Our Government 157 A Federal Government 157 From Colonies to States 157 Our First National Government 158 The Articles of Confederation 160 The Critical Years of the Confederation 161 The Constitutional Convention 164 The States Ratify the Constitution 167 The Constitution of the United States 169 IX. Winning a Foothold in the West 176 England Gains Control of the West 176 The First Pioneers beyond the Mountains 177 Border Warfare in the Revolution 180 How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest 182 Rival Claims and Land Cessions 184 The Public Land System 185 The Ordinance of 1787 187 The Growth of Western Settlement 188 Life on the Frontier 190 X. ,The Federalist Period 196 Starting the Government 196 Putting the Finances of the Nation in Sound Condition . . 198 The Beginning of PoUtical Parties 201 The French Revolution and War in Europe 204 How Washington Kept Our Country Out of War 206 The Two Federalist Presidents 208 Our Troubles with France 212 The Fall of the Federalists 214 XL The Louisiana Purchase 217 The Triumph of Democracy. 217 Thomas Jefferson, the Leader of Democracy 219 Our Mississippi Trade 221 The Colonial Scheme of Napoleon 223 The Purchase of Louisiana 224 CONTENTS xi \PTER PAGE The Occupation and Exploration of Louisiana 225 The Plot of Aaron Burr 228 The Meaning of the Louisiana Purchase 230 XII. The Unitm) States and Europe 233 England and France Trample upon Our Rights on the Sea . 233 Our Government Fails to Maintain Our Rights by Peace- ful Means 236 The "War Hawks" Have Their Way 237 Our Efforts to Invade Canada 240 The Navy in the War of 1812 243 The British Attempts to Invade the United States 246 The Results of the War of 1812 248 The Settlement of Our Boundaries 250 The Monroe Doctrine 251 XIII. Life in the Early Republic 255 Then and Now 255 Our People about 1800 257 Farming in the Early Days of the RepubUc 261 Manufacturing and Trade 262 Transportation and Travel 264 The Intellectual Life 266 The Spirit of the People 269 XIV. The Industrial Revolution 273 New Ways of Working and Living 273 Spinning and Weaving 273 The Steam Engine 275 The Cotton Gin 277 Iron and Coal 278 The Steamboat 279 The Protective Tariff 281 Turnpikes and Canals 283 The Railroads. 286 Great Changes in Farming 289 The Meaning of the Industrial Revolution 291 XV. The Rise of the Middle West 296 A New Rush into the West 296 The Western Settlers 297 The Geography of Western Settlement 298 The Journey to the Frontier 301 The Life of the Pioneer. . 304 New States 308 The Rising Western Cities 309 The Influence of the West 312 XVI. The Times of Andrew Jackson 316 The Beginning of New Political Parties 316 Andrew Jackson 318 The Spoils System 321 The Tariff and Nullification 323 Xll CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Jackson's Attack upon the Bank of the United States. . 327 The Panic of 1837 328 The Rising Tide of Democracy 331 A Period of Progress 332 XVII. Slavery and Antislavery 337 The Early History of Slavery in Our Country 337 The Missouri Compromise 338 Life in the Slaveholding States 340 The Rise of the Antislavery Movement 346 Three Great Abolition Leaders 348 The Slavery Question in Congress 350 Slavery Becomes the Question of the Hour 351 XVIII. The Winning of Texas and the Far West 355 President Tyler Quarrels with the Whigs 355 The Story of Texas 356 The Settlement of the Oregon Country 360 The Election of 1844 361 Our War with Mexico 363 The Results of the Mexican War 367 The Rush to California 369 XIX. Disunion Delayed by Compromise 374 The Slavery Controversy • 374 The Union in Danger 375 Clay Proposes a Compromise 377 A Great Debate in the Senate 378 The Compromise of 1850 Adopted 380 The Fugitive Slave Law ' 381 Years of Growth 383 XX. Slavery Divides the Union 390 The Quarrel Over Slavery Renewed 390 The Struggle for Kansas 391 The Beginning of the Republican Party 394 The Dred Scott Decision 395 The Debate between Lincoln and Douglas 396 John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry 400 The Election of 18G0 402 The Coming of Disunion 404 XXI. The Civil War 407 The North and the South at War 407 The Work of the Navy 410 "On to Richmond!" . . 412 Opening the Mississippi 416 The Story of Gettysburg 422 From Chattanooga to the Sea 426 Grant and Lee 430 CONTENTS xui CHAPTER PAGE XXII. The Country in War Time ., 435 Life in the Army 435 The Folks at Home 438 Paying for the War 440 The End of Slavery 443 Abraham Lincoln 446 XXIII. The Recovery of the Nation 451 The Home-Coming of the Soldiers 451 The Reconstruction of the State Governments in the South 452 The Quarrel between President Johnson and Congress. . . 455 The Rise and Fall of the Carpetbaggers 457 The Growth of a New South 460 Pohtics After the Civil War 464 Our Relations with Foreign Countries 466 XXIV. New Ways of Working and Living 471 The Age of Machinery 471 New Sources of Power 474 An Age of Railroads 476 Our Growing Wealth 480 Changes in Our Mode of Life 483 XXV. The Vanishing Frontier 488 The Conquest of the Continent 488 The Growth of Mining in the Rocky Mountain Region . . 489 The Cattle Ranch and the Cowboy 493 The Farmers Occupy the Far West 496 The Last Indian Wars. . ■ 501 Our Newest States 502 XXVI. Big Business and Social Unrest 506 Parties and Presidents 506 The Coming of Big Business 508 The Organization of Labor 510 The Tariff Question 512 The Railroad Problem 514 The First Attempts to Control Big Business 516 The Campaign for Free Silver 516 The Triumph of Big Business 521 XXVII. New Social Ideals and Recent Progress 524 Our Latest Presidents 524 New Ways in Politics and Government 526 New Laws for the Public Good 529 New Movements for Social Betterment 532 Progress in FIducation 536 Achievements in Literature, Art, and Science 538 XIV CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XXVIII. Americans in the Making 542 The " Melting Pot" 542 Our Later Immigrants 544 The Negroes in Our Midst 547 Keeping Out the Undesirable 549 Americanizing the Newcomers 551 XXIX. The United States and the World 555 Our American Neighbors 555 The War with Spain 557 Our New Possessions 560 Our Policy in the Far East 563 The Panama Canal 565 Our Relations with Mexico 569 XXX. Our Country in the World War 573 The War in Europe 573 Why We Entered the World War 576 How We Helped to Win the War 580 Fighting in France 583 War Work at Home 588 How Peace Was Made 591 The League of Nations 594 Facing the Future 596 Appendix 601 The Declaration of Independence 601 Washington's Farewell Address 604 Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech 606 The Monroe Doctrine 606 Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States . . . 607 Index 609 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR Lincoln Raising the Flag — 1861 Frontispiece PAGE The Landing of William Penn — 1682 36 The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth^1621 72 The Liberty Bell's F^irst Note — 1753 134 The Ship that Sunk in Victory — 1779 148 Washington's Second Inauguration — 1793 208 The End of the Civil War— 1865 431 Sunk by a Submarine — 1918 678 MAPS IN COLOR Territorial Grow th of Our Country 1 Latin America 12 Land Claims of the States at the Close of the Revolution 186 The United States After the Purchase of Louisiana 224 The United States in 1825 308 The United States in 1850 380 The United States in 1854 391 The Confederate States 410 Railroads of the United States 478 Industries of the United States 480 Our Newest States 501 The Western Front 676 BLACK AND WHITE MAPS Trade Routes from Europe to the East 5 Where Columbus Thought He Was Going 6 Early Voyages to the New World 8 Virginia and Her Neighbors 21 Early Settlements in New England 27 Early Settlements on the Hudson and the Delaware 34 Settled Area at the Close of the Colonial Period 43 Outline Map of Eastern North America 88 French Explorations and Posts in the Valleys of the St. Law- rence and the Mississippi 92 North America Before and After the French and Indian War . . 104 The Vicinity of Boston 130 The War in the Middle States 143 The Campaigns in the South 150 The West at the Time of the Revolution 179 The Frontier Just After the Revolution 184 The Exploring Expeditions of Lewis and Clark and Pike .... 228 The Canadian Border in the War of 1812 241 The British Campaign Against Washington and Baltimore .... 247 Jackson's Campaign in the South 248 (XV) xvi BLACK AND WHITE MAPS PAGE The Krik C - an al 285 Relief IMap of the Eastern Half of the United States 300 Free and Slave Territory After the Missouri Compromise . . 340 The Oregon Country 360 Fremont's Explorations in the West 364 The Disputed Territory and the Campaigns of Taylor and Scott 366 The Territory Acquired from Mexico 368 The Eastern Campaigns of the Civil War 414 The Western Campaigns of the Civil War 418 The Battlefield at Gettysburg 423 Sherman's March to the Sea and through the Carolinas .... 429 The Alaska Purchase of 1867 467 Showing Immigration to the United States Before and After 1885 544 The Latin-American Lands About the Caribbean Sea 554 The Philippine Islands 561 The United States and Its Dependencies and the Principal Trade Routes of the World 567 The Five Great German Offensr^s of 1918 586 The Battle of St. Mihiel 587 The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne 589 CHAPTER I European Beginnings in America Our History. — Three hundred years ago Englishmen planted the civilization of the Old World upon the eastern border Four Periods of American Homes The log cabin of the early settlers, below it the frame house of colonial days. In the upper right hand corner a Southern mansion of civil war days, and below it a modern home of the colonial type of architecture. of the United States. Ever since that time hardy frontiers- men have been pushing steadily westward across the continent. These pioneers first occupied the Atlantic seaboard, then made their way through the gaps of the Alleghanies and overran the broad valley of the Mississippi; and later followed the long trails across the plains and mountains until they reached the shores of the Pacific. Through all these years the American people — the sons of the early colonists constantly reenforced by newcomers from Europe — have been busily at work devel- 1 How we grew 2 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA oping the rich resources of their country, clearing away its forests, cultivating its fields, opening its mines, and building its mills and railroads. At the same time they have been founding new homes, establishing schools, and developing the government under which we now live. The marvelous story of how all these things were done is the history of the United States. The United States is our country. It matters not whether we live in the crowded cities of the East or upon the vast Our country plains of Kansas or Oklahoma, among the cotton fields of the South or upon the wheat lands of the Dakotas, in Chicago by Lake Michigan or in San Francisco by the western sea, everywhere it is our country. It is our country, too, no matter who we are. We may trace our descent from the earliest colonists or we may be the children of immigrants who arrived only yesterday, but if we all love and serve the America in which we live, we all may proudly say, "This is our countr3^" We are going to study this book in order to learn how this country of ours grew from the simplest beginnings to be the great democratic nation it is to-day. The European Background of Our History. — We cannot fully understand and appreciate our own Our debt h f\ ^ i «» 1^ history without knowing something of World ISi !fc ^'&i 1^ ^^^^ ^^^ people have inherited from the Old World. The ancient Hebrews gave us our religion and many of our moral standards; the Greeks taught us to love the beautiful in art and literature; the Romans originated many of our ideas about law and government. All these \. ,,.,,. peoples lived a long time before the dis- Gruck Soldiers ^ . '^ It was such soldiers as covciy ot America. dlffat^'^g^hJpeSs."''' In the earliest centuries of the Chris- tian era all the country bordering on the The Roman Mediterranean Sea was governed from Rome, and so this region "^^"^ was called the Roman Empire. Nearly all the civinzed people in the world lived in this empire. By civilized people we mean people who have written laws and a government that enforces obedience to these laws; who cultivate the soil; who carry on commerce; who have good houses and roads and ships; THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND who have schools and books and pictures and music — in a word, we mean people who live much as we do now. Beyond the frontier of the Roman Empire the people were barbarians; that is, they had not yet learned to work steadily, they wandered about in tribes with very little government, they loved war and plunder, and they had no comfortable houses, no schools, and no written lan- guage. The bar- barians who lived north of the Roman Empire, beyond the Rhine and the Danube, were of the Teutonic race. Though fierce and warlike, the Teu- tons possessed many virtues which the older Romans had lost. They were valiant and liberty loving, and many of our social ideas, with some of our forms of government, originated with them. The Teutonic tribes were attracted by the wealth of the Romans and attempted to win it for themselves. For a time the Romans kept them out, but at last they could do so no longer, and the Teutons' overran the southern and western parts of Europe. Here they settled, and, mingling with the surviving Romans, became the ancestors of the European peoples of to-day. This fall of the Roman Empire happened in the fifth century of the Christian era. The Teutonic tribes lived in their new homes in their simple, barbarian manner, and much of the civilization of the ancient world disappeared. The period during which this state of affairs lasted is sometimes called the Dark Age because the people were so ignorant. But not all the civilized Romans had disappeared. Some of them were left, and little by little they taught their Teutonic conquerors to put away their old A Roman Galley It was in such ships as this that the Romans reached all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. ' Our Teutonic ancestors The Dark Age 4 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA habits and thoughts, and to adopt the civiHzed ways of Uving of the Romans. During this time the Teutonic peoples became Christian. In the course of time these new peoples so far outgrew their old barbarian manners and customs and learned so much about The new the civilized ways of the Romans, that they came to love these peoples -^vays and to have an intense desire to imitate them and even to improve them. This new longing led them to do many important things. During the long period we have been talking about they had been slowly forming new nations — the France, A Crusaders on the March Spain, Italy, and England of to-day. Now they began to make their governments very much stronger, to establish schools, to write books, to paint pictures, to make inventions like gunpowder and printing, to trade with other countries, and to look about them for new things and strange adventures. These desires to increase their commerce and to see the world led directly to the discovery of America. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries great military expe- ditions called crusades were undertaken by the people of The western Europe for the purpose of rescuing the Holy Land Crusades from the hands of the Mohammedans. The crusades iDrought results^"^ the warlike men of western Europe in contact with the more highly civilized Greeks and Arabs of the East. The crusaders saw many new things which they wanted, and gradually a rich commerce grew up between Europe and Asia. Ships THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND laden with the woods and metals of Europe sailed from Venice, Genoa, and other Italian cities, to Alexandria, Antioch, and the Black Sea region, where their cargoes were exchanged for the cottons, silks, and spices of the Far East. Adventurous European travelers, of whom the most noteworthy was Marco Polo, visited eastern Asia, or Cathay, as they called it, and brought back fabulous stories of its wealth and even hearsay knowledge of rich islands lying in the ocean beyond Cathay. Trade Routes from Europe to the East Some time before the discovery of America this rich eastern trade suffered a great reverse. The Turks, a wandering race of barbarians who were moving westward, overran Asia The Turks Minor and, in 1453, captured Constantinople, which thus block the became the capital of their empire. This cut off the trade of to^th^eEasf^ the Black Sea region, and as the Turks extended their conquests toward the south, the other European trade routes to the East were in grave danger. All this was a fearful blow to the people of southern Europe who had grown rich by trading with Asia. Their geographers and sailors began to plan how they could find a new and safer way of going to Cathay or the Indies. The Portuguese began the search. A member of their royal family, who was called Prince Henry the Navigator EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA How the because of the deep interest that he took in this work, sent out p expedition after expedition to explore southward along the found^a^new western coast of Africa. He hoped to find the southern end of way to India fhat continent, and thence to sail across the Indian Ocean to the Indies. At last, though not in Prince Henry's time, the Portuguese succeeded. Year after year they slowly traced the western coast of the Dark Continent of Africa to its southern extremity; and in 1497 Vasco da Gama, one of their sailors, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and made his way to the city of Calicut in Hindustan. The Portuguese quickly followed up the advantage they had thus gained, established trad- ing posts in the Far East, and in a few years, built up a rich commerce with that part of the world. Meantime, Christopher Columbus, an Italian sailor who had married and settled down in Portugal, became possessed with the idea that the earth is round, and that, by steering boldly westward across the Atlantic, he could reach the Indies. This idea did not originate with Columbus, by any means. For at least two thousand years a few of the wisest men had believed and taught it, but it had neverbcen com- monly accepted. It is the glory of Columbus that he was the first man who had A Venetian Galley In such vessels the rich trade with the East was carried on after the Crusades. The idea of Columbus 1(50 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 Where Columbus thought he was going THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 7 the courage and fortitude to put it to the test. He was encour- aged to do so by his behef that the earth is smaller than it really is. This belief led him to estimate that the eastern coast of Asia lay about three thousand miles west of Spain. After vainly attempting to get the Portuguese authorities to assist him, Columbus asked Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Spain, to fit out ships to try to find a westward way to the Indies and, after a long and most exasperating delay, they gave Mm the aid he sought. Fromthe pauitiiii/ 1 1/ I nn/nhni, ( ipttnl, Wd^liiiujton The Landing of Columbus The discoverer is taking possession of the new land in the names of the King and Queen of Spain. The Discovery of America. — Early one summer morning in 1492 Columbus started out to prove that Asia could be reached by sailing westward. With ninety men in three small How ships he steered steadily into the West over an unknown sea. Columbus As weeks passed with no sign of land, the ignorant and super- strange stitious sailors became almost panic-stricken with terror, but lands beyond nothing could turn their iron-hearted leader from his purpose. ^ ^^ At last, on October 12th, land was seen, and Columbus took 8 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA Other explorers reveal a possession of it for Spain. Crowds of natives gazed in astonish- ment upon the strange white men from beyond the sea, and as Cohimbus felt sure that he had reached an island near India he called these native inhabitants Indians. In reality he was thousands of miles from India and had landed upon a small island in the Bahamas. After cruising for ten days among the Bahama Islands, Columbus reached Cuba, which at first he believed to be Japan. A little later he discovered the island of Haiti and was charmed by the beauty of its scenery. He then r,A Early Voyages to the New World returned to Spain, where Ferdinand and Isabella gave him a royal welcome and listened with intense interest to the story of his adventures. Coliunbus made three other voyages to the new lands which he had found. On his third voyage he reached the coast of South America, which he seems to have thought was a continent lying far to the southeast of Asia. On his fourth and last expedition he sailed along the coast of Central America, which he felt sure was the long sought mainland of Asia. In this belief he died, in 1506. While Columbus was making his later voyages, other Spanish and Portuguese explorers were tracing the eastern coast line of South America. Slowly the idea that this strange New World land was a new continent lying to the southeast of Asia grew A SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 9 to a certainty in their minds. One of the explorers of the shores of this new continent, an Itahan named Americiis Vespucius, Vespucius wrote an account of his voyages, and the reading of this account led a geographer of the time to suggest that the new part of the world ought to be called America. At first this name was applied only to South America, but in the course of time it came to be given to the whole of the New Woi-ld. The discovery of a great sea beyond the isthmus of Panama by Balboa helped to Balboa strengthen the growing Ijelief that what we call South America was a new continent. This belief was made a certainty by the wonderful voyage of Ferdinand Magellan. Starting from Spain Magellan in 1519, Magellan passed through the strait which now bears his name and sailed westward for months over the vast expanse of water which he named the Pacific Ocean. At last he reached the Philippine Islands and learned that he was near the Indies which Columbus had sought. Magellan was killed by the natives of the Philippines, but one of his ships finally reached Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the globe. The marvelous voyage of Magellan proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the land found by Columbus was a New World, separated from Asia by the greatest ocean on the globe. The Winning of a Spanish Empire in America. — Spanish settlement in America began with the second voyage of Colum- bus, when he planted a colony in Haiti. The first Spanish The first colonists brought with them horses, cattle, and other domestic Spanish 111C • !<•• settlements anmials, the seeds oi vegetables, grams, and iruits, and sugar- cane which was destined to be more important than any of these in the history of the West Indies. While the earliest Spanish settlements were on the island of Haiti, within twenty years after 1492, the Spaniards had taken possession of Porto Rico and Jamaica and had begun the colonization of Cuba. Many of the earl}^ Spanish pioneers were led to the New World by their thirst for gold, which was believed to be very abundant in the Far East. Some gold was found in the islands The of the West Indies, but not enough to satisfy the ardent desires ^g^^Q^* °^ of these Spanish soldiers of fortune. Soon the more daring among them began to push on to the mainland in their quest for wealth. Those who first reached the coast of Mexico were amazed to find natives who wore cotton garments, lived in 10 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA huge houses built of sun-dried brick, and built great temples of stone. The Spaniards were also much excited by the stories they heard about a great city, rich in gold, in the interior of Mexico. In 1519 Hernando Cortes, a bold yet crafty soldier, led an expedition into this tempting land. He found that Mexico was rich in gold and silver, and that its people possessed tools and weapons of copper, cultivated great fields of corn, and liv(Hl in large cities in which were great tower temples where human beings were sacrificed to please the gods whom the Mexicans worshiped. After a long and bloody war, Cortes From the painting by Lizcano Pizarro Leading the Spaniards to the Conquest of Peru conquered the entire country and made the City of Mexico the capital of a vast Spanish province. The Spanish treasure seekers early heard of a rich country, far to the south, called Peru, and about a dozen years after the Xhe conquest of Mexico they found it. The Peruvians were in Spaniards advance of the Mexicans in civilization. They raised great jyn»rica ^^'^P^ ^^ ^^^^"^ ^^^ cotton; kept large flocks of llamas and alpacas; built massive stone buildings; and connected their cities by magnificent roads. They were rich in gold, silver, and copper, and were skilful workers in all these metals. Francisco Pizarro led the Spaniards in the conquest of Peru. Through treachery he and his men soon got possession of that A SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 11 country and won an enormous treasure in gold. Other Spanish explorers quickly added all of South America except Brazil to the Spanish Empire. Soon after the discovery of America, Spain and Portugal had agreed that Spain should have the new lands found west of a meridian three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands and that Portugal should have those lying east of that line. As Brazil is situated east of this line of demarcation, it became a colony of Portugal. Fromfhe painfitig by Powell De Soto's Discovery ot the Mississippi After Cortes and Pizarro had won fame and fortune in Mexico and Peru it was natural that other adventurous Span- iards, burning with the lust for gold, should explore the interior Spanish of North America in the hope of finding lands and peoples as rich explorers in as those already conquered for Spiiin. De Soto and Coronado America are the best known of many bold spirits who found disappoint- ment in this northern quest. De Soto landed in Florida in De Soto 1539 with over six hundred picked men. For three years they wandered through the swamps and forests of our southern states, fighting Indians but never finding the gold they sought. 12 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA A Spanish empire in America At last De Soto died and was buried in the Mississippi River which he had found. After terrible suffering the survivors Coronado of his party reached Mexico. At the very time that De Soto was wandering over the Gulf states, Coronado started from Mexico with eleven hundred men to conquer seven rich cities which were believed to be somewhere toward the north. This expedition wandered on probably as far as the present state of Kansas. Coronado never found the rich cities which he sought, but he learned much about the great plains. The expeditions of Dc Soto and Coronado are important because they gave the Spaniards a claim by right of discovery to all the regions which they visited. By the second half of the sixteenth century the Spaniards had won an empire in the New World which included the islands and countries bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and which extended thousands of miles to the southward in South America. This Spanish territory was vast in extent and unsurpassed in natural resources. For many years the large income which Spain derived from the mines of Mexico and Peru made her the richest and most powerful nation in Europe. This mighty Spanish Empire in the New World was built up before any other European nation had planted a single settlement in North America. Latin America. — The Spaniards first brought European civilization to the New World, and in the course of time they Origin of the spread it over the greater part of the western hemisphere name south of the United States. We call the Spaniards one of the Latin races, because their language and some of their ways of living were derived from the ancient Romans. Because the Spanish language and Spanish manners and customs prevail in the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and a large part of South America, we call this vast region Latin America, and speak of its people as the Latin Americans. This does not mean that the people in the Latin-American countries which were once Spanish colonies are all of Spanish Races origin. Some of them are the offspring of the Spanish pioneers, others of the negro slaves who were brought from Africa; but by far the greater part of the population of Latin America are the descendants of the Indians whom the Spaniards found in America or are of mixed Spanish, Indian, and negro blood ^1^ A B C T J C LATIN-AMERICA Teiritory in which Spanish iir I'urtui;ue8e is spolien LATIN AMERICA 13 Indians Instead of driving away the Indians, as the Enghsh settlers did in our own country, the Spanish pioneers brought the natives under their government, compelled them to put away Treatment many of their barbarous practices like the offering of human of j;lie sacrifices to then- heathen gods, and required them to work at least a part of the time upon the land of their Spanish masters. The Spaniards established mis- sions, in which the Indians were taught the Christian rehgion and instructed m many of the industries and arts of civilized life. They also brought to the New World the various domestic animals and the grains, vegetables, and fruits of Europe. In spite of the harsh and cruel treatment which they often suffered, the Indians of Latin America learned many useful lessons from their Spanish conquerors. AVe have seen that the lure of gold first attracted the Spaniards to Mexico and Peru and led them to explore many other parts of the New World. Sooner or later, however, most of the gold hunters settled down to making a living by farming and grazing, which, with mining, became the chief industries of the Spanish colonies. As years passed and more settlers came, hundreds of Spanish towns were established in America. Every year great galleons, like the one pictured on this page, carried the sugar, hides, and drugs of the colonies to Spain, where they were exchanged for the wine and oil, the figs, raisins, and olives, and the cloth and iron of the mother country. The Spanish colonists in America were without political freedom or religious liberty. They were not permitted to govern themselves and did not enjoy the right to worship as they Government A Spanish Galleon Sailing from America to Spain 14 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA pleased. Their political affairs were in the hands of governors and other officers sent out from Spain, and every one was required to accept the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church which was established by law. But as the government in Spain would not permit any one to come to America unless he was a true Spaniard and a good Catholic, religious differences were not so acute as among the English settlers. In spite of this lack of freedom in politics and religion many of the best features of Em'opean life were brought to An Old Spanish Mission, Santa Barbara, California Influence Ijatin America by the Spaniards, who were not lacking in energy in their efforts to civilize the people of their new empire. The missions among the Indians were the outposts of this civilizing work. At a very early date higher schools and colleges were established and great universities grew up in Lima and in the City of Mexico. The first printing press in America was brought by the Spaniards in 1536. By the patient and persistent use of all these means the Spaniards succeeded in permanently stamping their language and their religion upon all the countries of Latin America SPAIN AND ENGLAND 15 The Rivalry between Spain and England. — The Spaniards won their vast empire in America during the first half of the sixteenth century; in the second half of that century they fouglit a great war with England which determined the destiny of North America. Only five years after the first voyage of Columbus, John Cabot, an Italian sailor in the English service, found a strange land far to the west of Ireland, and possibly he visited it again the following year; but there was little real English interest in America before the days of -Queen Elizabeth, who ruled England from 1558 to IGO'A. In hen- reign English sailors became the active rivals of .the Spaniards for the rich trade of the New World. The discoveries of John Cabot, which had been almost forgotten for years, were now remem- bered and made th(> basis of an English claim to America. John Hawkins b(^gan the English traffic with Spanish America by trading negro slaves to the Spanish planters in the West Indies in exchanges for sugar, hides, and other products of the islands. Spain objected to the presence of these English traders, and, on his last slave-trading voyage, Haw- Idns lost hundreds of his men in a fierce fight with a Spanish fleet. Among tlu^ survivors there was a young sailor named Francis Drake, who was destined to become a terror to the Spaniards and the greatest English seaman of his time. Drake led several expeditions again.st the Spanish cities in America. On his most famous voyage he entered the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Mag(^llan, plund(n-ed the Spaniards on the west coast of South America, explored the coast as far north as California, and finally reached England by way of the Cape of Good Hope, Sir John Hawkins English beginnings in America John Hawkins Francis Drake 16 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA Frobisher, Davis, and Hudson thus circumnavigating the globe. About the same time Martin Frobisher and John Davis and, a httle later, Henry Hudson, l)oldly steered their ships among the icebergs of the far North in a vain search for a passage through the northern part of North America into the Pacific Ocean. The straits and bays which bear the names of these daring sailors tell us where they sought for a northwest passage to Asia. From the paititing by J. E. Millals The Boyhood of Raleigh As he listens to the sailor's tale of the land beyond the sea, Raleigh resolves to win it for England when he is a man. Meanwhile other Englishmen were planning the beginnings of settlement upon the coast of America. Sir Humphrey Unsuccessful Gilbert made an unsuccessful attempt to colonize in Newfound- attempts at land and was lost at sea while on his way back to England. Gilbert's unfinished work was continued by his half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most famous Englishmen of Queen Elizabeth's time. Raleigh sent two companies of settlers SPAIN AND ENGLAND 17 The Spanish Armada to the coast of Virginia but neither succeeded in planting a permanent colony. However, Raleigh's failures brought about the introduction of two important native products of the New World into the British islands: tobacco, which from this time the English began to use, and the potato, which Raleigh planted upon his lands in Ireland. The attempts of the English to settle in lands which Spain claimed as her own, and the piratical attacks of Drake and his associates upon Spanish ships and Spanish cities in the New Enmity World, stirred up the wrath of Spain. Then, too, the second g^*^^^ ^^d half of the sixteenth century was an age of religious strife in Spain Europe. Spain was the defender of the Catholic faith, while, more and more, England and Holland came to be recognized as the champions of the Protestant cause. As time passed, colonial rivalry and religious hatred combined to make England and Spain the bitterest of enemies. At last the Spanish king, Phihp H, resolved to stop, once tor all, the aggression of the English. In the sunamer of 1588 he sent a great fleet of one hun- dred and thirty ships to begin the conquest of England. This "Invincible Armada," as it was called, was to sweep the English navy from the sea and then to transport a great Spanish army from the Netherlands to the shores of England. In this moment of utter peril, English hberty was saved by the bold seamen who had been trained for years under Hawkins, Drake, and Frobisher. As the Ai'mada passed up the English channel the English captains attacked it and for six days there was a great running fight. On the last day of this famous battle Drake and his men drove the Armada before them through the strait of Dover into the North Sea. Then a great storm arose and completed the destruction which the English had begun. Only a remnant of the Spanish fleet succeeded in returning to Spain. \'^^'>Vi/\ Queen Elizabeth Knighting Drake upon the Deck of His Flagship 18 EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA its defeat The defeat of the "Invincible Armada" saved England and decided the destiny of America. Spain and England were Results of rivals for the possession of North America. Before England could hope to succeed in planting colonies on the western shore of the Atlantic she must be able to defend them against the attacks of Spain. When the gallant sailors of Queen Elizabeth broke the power of Spain upon the sea, and established that of England in its place, they made possible an English-speaking America. For this reason the defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the most important events in the history of the United States. The Spanish Armada In the following stirring lines Macaulay tells how the news of the coming of the Armada was received in England: " It was about the lovely close of a warm summer clay, There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay; Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle, At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile. At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial grace; And the tall Pinta, till the noon, had held her close in chase. Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed along the wall; The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecumbe's lofty hall; Many a light fishing-bark put out to pry along the coast. And with loose rein and bloody spur rode inland many a post. With his white hair unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes; Behind hini march tlie halberdiers: before him sound the drums. SPAIN AND ENGLAND 19 His yeomen round the market-cross make clear an ample space; For there behooves him to set up the standard of her Grace. And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells, As slow upon the laboring wind the royal blazon swells. Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up the ancient crown, And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies down. So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picaid field, Bohemia's plume and Genoa's bow and Ceasar's eagle shield; So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay, And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay. Ho! strike the flag-staff deep, Sir Knight; ho! scatter flowers, fair maids; Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute; ho! gallants, draw your blades! Thou sun, shine on her joyously; ye breezes, waft her wide; Our glorious SEMPER EADEM, the banner of our pride! "The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold; The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold; Night sank upon the dusky beach and on the purple sea, Such night in England has been, nor e'er again shall be. From Eddyston to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay, That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day; For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly vA'arflame spread, High on Saint Michael's Mount it shone; it shone on Beachy Head. Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire." CHAPTER II The Coming of the English The First English Colony. — At the dawn of the seventeenth century, Enghsh sea power was firmly established by the defeat The of the Spaniards, and England was ready to begin colonizing founding of in America. In 1606, James I gave permission to a group of irginia London merchants to plant a colony in Virginia, and early in The Settlement of Jamestown 1607, the first permanent English settlement in our country was made about fifty miles up the James River by one hundred men sent over by this London Compan5^ King James promised that the settlers of Virginia should lose none of their rights as Englishmen. These pioneers named their town Jamestown in honor of the king. The site of Jamestown proved unhealthful, and before winter came, one-half of the settlers were in their graves. The lives of the other half were only saved by the courage and good sense of Captain John Smith, who came to the front as a born leader always will in an emergency. For the next two years Captain Smith was the life of the little company at Jamestown. The early settlers in 20 FIRST ENGLISH COLONY 21 Virginia were poorly fitted for the work they had undertaken. Many of them were what the EngUsh call "gentlemen;" that is, they had never worked and did not know how to do so. Captain Smith kept these men at their necessary tasks by enforcing the rule that "he that will not work shall not cat." He also traded with the Indians and spent much time in exploring the country. In 1609, John Smith returned to England. The sufferings at Jamestown during the following winter were probably the most dreadful ever endured by any group of settlers in America. Left without a com- Sufferings of the settlers petent leader the settlers quarreled among themselves and wantonly pro- voked the hostility of the Indians. As winter came on, ex- posure, famine, and disease began their deadly work. In six months, five hundred settlers were reduced to sixty "most miser- able and poor wretches." Only the timely arrival of Lord Delaware with supplies saved the life of the col- ony. This awful winter proved a turning point in the history of early Virginia. One by one the mistakes of the earliest years at Jamestown were corrected, and slowly the settlers learned in the hard school of experience how to live in a new country. At first the settlers in Virginia owned all things in common, but in 1611 Governor Dale put an end to this system by giving each man land for his own. It was soon found that the settlers Early worked very much better when each man owned the fruits of ""^^7^^^ his own labor. Nearly all the earliest comers to Virginia were Virginia and Her Neighbors 22 COMING OF THE ENGLISH Tobacco men, and their settlements were little more than military camps. Presently the London Company began to remedy this condition by sending over young women who became the wives of the planters and soon these new families established homes upon the banks of the James like those they had known in the mother country. But the thing that did most to promote the growth and prosperity of Virginia was the cultivation of tobacco. Just at this time the use of to- bacco was rapidly in- creasing in Europe, and, consequently, this product of the Virginia plantations found a ready market at a good price. As it was found that the soil of Vir- ginia is especially adapted to the culture of the to- bacco plant, more settlers came from England and new plantations were opened along the wide, deep rivers which are the natural highways leading into the interior of the country. The rapid growth of tobacco planting in early Virginia created a great demand for laborers to work upon the plantations. To supply the demand convicts and kidnaped persons were sent from England, and their serv- ice sold to the planters for life or for a term of years. Such persons were called indentured servants. In 1619, a Dutch trader sold the Virginians twenty negroes. This was the be- ginning of African slavery in the colony, but for many years the white servants greatly outnum])ered the negro slaves. The early governors of Virginia who were appointed by the of the^° London Company were often harsh and tyrannical in their government rule. Presently the control of the company in London passed Unfree labor Forcing a Man to Emigrate FIRST ENGLISH COLONY 23 into the hands of men who beheved in the right of the people to govern themselves. Accordingly, they instructed the gover- nor of Virginia to call together representatives of the different settlements to make laws for the colony. This body, which met in 1G19, was called the House of Burgesses, and was the first legislative or lawmaking body in America. In 1624, the London Company had its charter taken from it, and Virginia became a royal colony; that is, henceforth the king appointed The Provincial Capitol of Virginia, Williamsburg The laws of the colony were made here for more than a century. the governor. The people, however, retained the right to elect their men to the House of Burgesses. Virginia and her near neighbor, Maryland, were very much alike in their physical geography. Both bordered upon Chesa- peake Bay, and in both there were many lazily flowing rivers The upon whose banks the earliest settlements were made. The of M^vland first settlement in Maryland was made at St. Mary's, in 1634, by Lord Baltimore, whose purpose was to found a home for his fellow Catholics where they could escape the persecutions from which they suffered in England at that time. Although Lord Baltimore was the proprietor or owner of Maryland, he 24 COMING OF THE ENGLISH The Planting of Lord Baltimore's Colony at St. Mary's, Maryland, in 1634 gave the settlers a large share in their own government and granted them land upon very easy terms. Protestants and Catholics alike were welcomed from the start, and in 1649 a famous law was passed, giving rehg- ious toleration to all Christians. Life upon the farms and plantations of early Maryland was very similar to that in Virginia. The Beginnings of New England. — The Church |i^T"i^4-: ''V 'V^yJ^ ^^ order to under- of England kh^-i^Jjitif^^ /, ' 'iMmwW J stand the begin- nings of New Eng- land we must know who the Puritans were and what they wanted. When Ehza- beth was Queen of England the greater part of her people belonged to the Church of England, or the Episcopal Church, as we call it in America. This church was established by law, which means that the people were forced to support it and expected to worship in it. But many of the English people were dissatisfied with the form of government and the mode of worship of the established The Puritans church. These people were called Puritans because they wanted to purify the church from the forms and ceremonies, like making the sign of the cross or reading prayers out of a book, which were distasteful to them. The Puritans were also opposed to the brutal games and sports of their time, and to the love of display, the frivolity, and the Sabbath breaking which they saw all around them. They not only wanted greater simplicity in worship, but plainer living, stricter Sabbath keeping, and purer morals. A few of the Puritans were so displeased with the church The Pilerim ^^^ ^'^Y left it altogether and set up little independent sects Fathers of their own. Those who did this were called Separatists BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 25 because they thus separated from the Church of England. A little company of Separatists, who had left England in search of a place where they could have freedom to worship God, founded the colony of Plymouth upon the coast of New England in 1620. The members of this little band of Separatists who settled at Plymouth are called the Pilgrim Fathers because of their wanderings in search of "a faith's pure shrine." But the great body of the Puritans did not want to separate from From the Painting by P- F. Rolhermel Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. the church. They desired to remain in it but to change its form of worship and its government in such a way that it should become a Puritan church. We believe that all men ought to be free to worship God as they choose. We call this religious toleration. But in the sixteenth century very few people in all the world believed in How rehgious toleration. It was then thought very important that religious all the people should believe the same things and worship in drove many the same manner. Queen Elizabeth and King James I pun- Puritans to ished the Puritans in order to force them to conform to the ^^^^^^^ cstabhshed mode of worship, and King Charles I, who succeeded 26 COMING OF THE ENGLISH James I in 1625, persecuted the Puritans more severely than his father had done. While Charles I was king, a great number of English Puritans fled from religious persecution in England to the wilderness of New England. This English exodus to New England began in 1628 when a group of Puritan leaders obtained a grant of land and sent Early Settlements in New England The John Endicott with sixty settlers to take possession of it. The founding of next year the men who held this grant of land organized them- chusetts selves into a trading company, and the king gave them a charter which named their corporation the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, and authorized it to establish and govern a colony in New England. Nearly four hundred settlers were at once sent out and, in 1630, John Winthi-op, one BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 27 of the noblest men in our early history, led a thousand Puritans to Massachusetts Bay. Winthrop settled at Boston, which at once became the chief town of the colony. During the next ten years the tyranny and persecution of Charles I drove more than twenty thousand Puritans to America. Many new towns were founded, farms were cleared, trade sprang up, and soon a vigorous English life had taken root in the soil of Massachusetts. Although the Puritans came to Massachusetts to escape the religious persecu- tion in England, they did not practise religious toleration in their new home. They wanted to establish a Puritan state and to exclude all others from it. One of their leading min- isters said, " He that is willing to tolerate any religion besides his own either doubts his own or is not sincere in it. " When Roger Williams, a minister at Salem, taught that all men "should have liberty to wor- ship God according tothelight of their own consciences," and maintained that the only rightful way in which the set- tlers could get the land was by purchase from the Indians, the Puritans of Massachusetts determined to send him back to England. But Roger Wil- liams fled from the men sent to arrest him, and after a winter of groat suffering in the wilder- ness established a little settlement which he named Providence. This was the beginning of the colony of Rhode Island. Soon other settlers, some from England and some from Massachusetts, came to Rhode Island where there was freedom of religious belief. Among them was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a very prominent woman of Boston who was Puritans Going to Church Roger Williams seeks freedom in Rhode Island 28 COMING OF THE ENGLISH Other settlers leave Massa- chusetts banished from Massachusetts because the Puritan leaders did not like her religious opinions. With her family and friends, Mrs. Hutchinson began a settlement at Newport which was later joined to the one at Providence. Other friends of Mrs. Hutchinson who left Massachusetts founded several towns in New Hampshire, where Portsmouth and Dover had already been begun by the followers of Goi-ges and Mason, two Englishmen who had received a grant of land between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers. Welcomed at Providence by Roger Williams Connecticut, the last of the New England group of colonies, was also begun by people from Massachusetts. Some of the The origin of early Connecticut settlers left Massachusetts because they Connecticut disliked the government of that colony, while others were attracted by the fertility of the valley of the Connecticut River. In 1636, Thomas Hooker, the pastor of one of the BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 29 Massachusetts churches, led his whole congregation through the wilderness to the banks of the Connecticut, where they founded the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. In the meantime, a little settlement named Saybrook had been begun at the mouth of the Connecticut River by John Winthrop, a son of the Massachusetts governor. Two years later a com- pany of Puritans from London settled at New Haven. In the course of time all these little settlements were united to form the colony of Connecticut. Henry Hudson Explcring the Hudson River This explorer saw many Indians while ascending the river. The life of the people was very much the same in all the early Puritan colonies in New England. Everywhere the settlers lived on small farms and each family raised most of Life in early its own food supply. The earhest settlers boasted of their great ^^^^^j crops of corn. One of them in writing to his friendg in the mother country said, "Our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is ordinarily to be foimd in England. Here are stores of pumpkins, cucumbers, and other things of that nature which I know not." The same writer 30 COMING OF THE ENGLISH complained of the mosquitoes and of the bitter cold of the winters. The Dutch and the Swedes in America. — In 1609, two years after the founding of Jamestown, Henry Hudson, an The English sailor in the service of the Dutch, while searching for discovery of a northwest passage to India, found the mouth of the great the Hudson i-{yqy which now bears his name. In his little ship, the Half Moon, he explored the Hudson River as far as the present site of Albany and reported "that the land was of finest kind for tillage, and as beautiful as the foot of man ever trod upon." New Amsterdam in 1656 The Dutch claimed all the region which Hudson visited and named it New Nether land. Within five years of the day the Half Moon entered the Hudson River, the Dutch had a permanent trading station on New Manhattan Island where New York City now stands, and Netherland another at Fort Nassau near the present Albany. For some years these places were trading posts rather than real settle- ments. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was given the exclusive right to colonize New Netherland. Two years later this company sent the first party of permanent settlers to the banks of the Hudson. Some of them stopped on Man- hattan Island while others went up the river to Fort Nassau. The Dutch colony of New Netherland grew very slowly. founded THE DUTCH AND THE SWEDES 31 It had a rich fur trade, but very few farmers came from Holland to settle in it. Unlike its neighbors, the New England colonies, Its slow New Netherland did not have self-government. The people growth were ruled by a governor and other officers sent out by the Dutch West India Company. The most famous of the Dutch governors of New Netherland was the last one, Peter Stuy- vesant. On his arrival at New Amsterdam, as the town on Manhattan Island was called, he said to the people, ''I shall govern you as a father his children." He was as good as his word and ruled with an iron hand, but the col- ony grew and prospered under his sway. Gover- nor Stuyvesant's most serious troubles were with intruders from other countries who were trying to get a foothold on the soil of New Netherland. The Dutch claimed that New Netherland included the valleys of the Delaware and the Connecticut, as well as that of the Hudson and established trading posts on both these rivers. In 1638 the Swedes made a settlement upon the banks of the Delaware and named their colony New Sweden. The Dutch protested against this in- vasion of territory which they claimed, but as they wanted the friendship of the Swedes in Europe at this time, they did nothing more. By 1G55 affairs had so changed in Europe that the Dutch thought it time to act. Governor Stuj'^vesant marched against New Sweden with a large force and the Swedish settlers surrendered to him. They were not molested but became subject to the government of New Netherland. New Sweden conquered by the Dutch Tearing up the Call to Surrender Stuyvesant wanted to fight the Enghsh but the people would not support him and he was com- pelled to surrender. 32 COMING OF THE ENGLISH New Netherland taken by the English Revolution in England checks settlement in America The second period of English colonization On the Connecticut the Dutch were less fortunate. They built a trading post on that river, but the English came so thick and fast that they were forced to abandon it. Soon English colonists began to encroach upon the Dutch settlements on Long Island and west of New Haven. The English had always claimed that New Netherland belonged to them, and at last King Charles II made up his mind to seize it. In 1664, Colonel Nicolls, with four ships and five hundred veteran English troops, appeared before New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant, the brave old Dutch governor, wanted to fight to the last ditch, but the people, who were weary of his arbitrary ways and thought that they would have more liberty under an English government, would not support him. He was obliged to yield, and New Netherland passed peacefully into the hands of the English. A Group of Proprietary Colonies. — All the colonies whose beginnings we have thus far traced were founded before 1640. By that year the tyranny and persecution of Charles I had grown so bad that the English people would no longer endure them. The efforts of Parliament to bring about reforms led to a civil war in which the king was defeated. In 1649, Charles I was put to death by the victorious Puritans, and England was proclaimed a republic, although it was really ruled by Oliver Cromwell, the great Puritan general at the head of the army. When Cromwell died, there was no one strong enough to succeed him and, after two years of confusion, the English people decided to restore the monarchy. Accordingly, Charles II, the son of Charles I, became king in 1660. During the period of revolution in England, between 1640 and 1660, no new English colonies were begun in America, although some of the Cavaliers, as the friends of Charles I were called, came to live in Virginia. Charles II was a selfish and pleasure-loving king, and quickly gathered about him friends like himself. For twenty- five years, from 1660 to 1685, he lived in the midst of a gay, frivolous, and wicked court. This reign was the second period of English colonization in America. The king rewarded the friends who had helped him recover the throne, and paid some of the men to whom he owed money by giving them great tracts of land in America. Every English colony planted in America during this second period of settlement was proprietary, which PROPRIETARY COLONIES 33 means that the men to whom these colonies were granted owned the land in them and possessed certain rights of government over the actual settlers. Carolina was the first colony established in this period. In 1663, Charles II gave the land lying between Vii'ginia and Florida to eight of his friends who asked him for it in the hope Carolina of increasing their wealth and importance. Some years before bounded this the first real settlement in the Carolina region had been begun by some Virginians who had moved southward into the wilderness along the Chowan River near Albemarle Sound. The new proprietors sent a governor and more settlers from England to this Albemarle settlement and in time the colony of North Carolina grew up about it. The first settlement in South Carolina was made in the neighborhood of Charleston in 1670. At first the proprietors of Carolina did not intend to have two colonies, but the Albemarle and Charleston settlements were so far apart that it was more convenient to give each of Carolina them a separate government, and quite naturally the names divided North and South Carolina came into common use. In 1729 the proprietors sold their rights to the king. The two Carolinas were then completely separated and each of them became a royal province. There was a striking contrast between North Carolina and South Carolina, The former has a sandy or swampy coast with few good harbors, and most of its early settlers lived on North and small farms in the interior of the colony. In South Carolina, q^^- on the other hand, the colonists lived near the coast, and Charles- contrasted ton soon grew to be an important seaport. The growing of rice on large plantations worked by gangs of negro slaves came to be the leading industry in South Carolina. For a part of each year the rich rice planters lived in the fine mansions which they built in the city of Charleston. More than sixty years after the beginning of South Carolina another colony was founded still farther to the south. The first settlement in Georgia was made at Savannah in 1732 by Georgia James Oglethorpe, an English soldier who wanted to set up a military outpost near the Spanish frontier of Florida and at the same time to give a ncnv chance in life to thos(^ poor p(M)ple in England who were put in prison in those days because they 34 COMING OF THE ENGLISH could not pay their debts. Georgia grew very slowly and was the youngest and weakest of the colonies at the end of the colonial period. We have seen how brave old Peter Stuyvesant was obliged to surrender New Netherland to the English. In 1664, Charles New York ! II gave this Dutch province to his brother James, Duke of York and, in honor of the new proprie- tor, the name of the colony and of its principal town was changed to New York. In 1685 the Duke of York be- came Idng of Eng- land as James II, and New York then became a royal province. The Eng- lish conquest of New Netherland brought few chang- es in that colony. Perhaps the most important of these changes was the giving of more pow- er to the people to manage their own local affairs. For many years there were more Dutch- Early Settlements on the Hudson and the Delaware TyiPn thin EtlQlish- men in New York. Slowly more settlers came, English, Scotch, French Huguenots, and Germans. The same year that the Duke of York received the gift of New Netherland, he sold the part of it which we call New New Jersey Jersey to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. After changing hands several times, New Jersey became a royal colony in 1702. There were a few Dutch living in New Jersey before WILLIAM PENN AND THE QUAKERS 35 1664. After that date, settlers came to this colony from Eng- land, from New England, and especially from Scotland, where a horrible persecution of the Presbyterians just at this time drove many members of that sect to America. William Perm and the Quakers. — Pennsylvania, the last of the group of proprietary colonies begun in the days of Charles II, was founded by William Penn, and his fellow Quakers were The Quakers its early settlers. The Quakers, or Friends, as they called themselves, were members of a religious sect wliich arose in England in the seventeenth century. The Quakers were plain in dress and speech. They looked upon all war as wrong, taught the equality of all men, and believed that God speaks directly to the soul of every man who listens with an atten- tive mind. They felt that there was no need of re- ligious ceremonies, priests, or ministers. There are still many Quakers in Philadelphia and in ncigh- boiing parts of Pennsyl- vania. William Penn, the greatest man in the early colonial history of Amer- ica, was the son of an ad- miral in the British navy. Early in hfe he became a Quaker and went about the country preaching his faith among the people. As the Quakers were persecuted in England in those days, more than once Penn found himself in prison. But this persecution only made him cling more resolutely to what he believed to be right. As years passed, Penn grew to be a wise and farseeing man, the foremost leader of his sect in England. For a long Pennsylvania A Quaker Trial " The Quakers were persecuted in England in William those days and often punished for preaching Po„n their faith." i'enn 36 COMING OF THE ENGLISH Penn's wise policy He visits Pennsyl- vania time he had been thinking of making a settlement beyond the Atlantic in which his persecuted Quaker brethren could live in peace. At last the opportunity to carry out such a plan arose. The king owed his father, Admiral Penn, sixteen thousand pounds, and after the admiral's death, William Penn offered to take a tract of land in America in place of the money. Charles II readily accepted this offer and gave Penn a vast region extending five degrees west of the Delaware River. The king named the new colony Pennsylvania in honor of Admiral Penn. William Penn adver- tised his colony widely, sold land to the settlers on very easy terms, and promised them perfect liberty to be- lieve and worship as they pleased. Every man was to be permitted to vote, and Penn at once drew up a "Frame of Government" which gave the people the right to govern themselves. In a letter to the people already living in Pennsyl- vania the new proprietor said, "You shall be gov- erned by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober, industrious people." These attractive conditions soon brought many settlers to Pennsylvania. In 1682, the year in which Penn arrived in his colony, nearly three thousand people joined him, and the following year fifty ships came with settlers. Penn spent two years in Pennsylvania, making friends with the Indians, planning the chief city of the colony, which he named Philadel- phia, the city of "brotherly love," and organizing the govern- ment. In 1684 his business interests in England required his return to that country, where he spent the remainder of his life, with the exception of a second visit to Pennsylvania in William Penn in Quaker Garb The Landing of William Penn — 1682 The founder of Pennsylvania came to America in the autumn of 1682. After stopping at Chester, he ascended the Delaware River in an open boat and landed by the side of a new house known in early Philadeli)hia history as the Blue Anchor Tavern. In the picture the inhabitants are flocking to the shore to greet the proprietor of the colony. In the welcoming throng are several Indians whose hearts Penn had already won by his easy confidence and famiUar speech. AND WHY THEY CAME 37 1696. In his absence he was represented in his colony by gov- ernors whom he appointed. The early Quaker settlers of Pennsylvania were thrifty people who came well supplied with tools and provisions, and consequently escaped the extreme hardship and suffering which Growth of were so prevalent in the early history of Virginia and New *^^ colony England. The English Quakers continued to come to Pennsyl- vania in considerable numbers until about 1700. After that time most of the immigrants to Penn's colony were Germans, who fled from tyranny and religious persecution in their native land, and Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland. William Penn's Home in Philadelphia During His Second Visit Why the English Came to America.— We have now briefly traced the origins of all those settlements in the New World which in the course of time grew into thirteen strong colonies. Motives of We shall next study more definitely why these settlements were the colonists made at all. Why did the kings of England encourage every attempt to plant a colony in America? What made the rich men of the English nation invest their money so freely in colonial enterprises? What motives led so many Englishmen to brave the perils of the sea and the hardships of life in the wilderness in their efforts to establish new homes beyond the stormy Atlantic? 38 COMING OF THE ENGLISH Desire for wealth and power To promote trade The long struggle between England and Spain in the six- teenth century did much to turn the attention of the English nation to America. Spain had built up a rich empire in America. Englishmen Avere fascinated by the tales of the gold and the jewels which the Spaniards had found in the New World. They wanted to share in this wealth, and at the same time they were eager to break the power of Spain and extend the dominions of their own nation. Some of the early English explorers came to trade with Spanish America or to plunder Spanish ships and Spanish cities. Others sought in vain for a passage through North Ameriea to the Pacific Ocean that they might share in the rich traffic with the Far East. All theseexpeditionsat- tracted attention to America, and open- ed the way for Eng- lish settlement on its shores. England, then as now, was depen- dent upon foreign countries for many articles of common The traders A Trading Post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay use. To find homes for EugUsh poor of Portugal brought the spices and silks of the Orient; the countries of southern Europe furnished wines and dried fruits; from the lands bordering upon the Baltic Sea there came fur and hides, and timber, pitch, and tar for ships. The English govern- ment encouraged the planting of colonies in America in the hope that in time they would supply their mother country with these needed commodities and at the same time offer a good market for the goods, like linen and woolen cloth, which the English people made to sell. At the time of the first settlements in America, Englishmen thought that their country had too many people in it. One writer said, "The poor starve in the streets for want of labor." Another wrote of "our poor sort of people, which are very many amongst us, and living altogether unprofitable, and oftentimes AND WHY THEY CAME 39 to the great disquiet of the better sort." The EngHsh kings encouraged colonization, for one reason, because they thought that it would reheve the poverty of their people. by removing swarms of idle persons to America. Some of the rich men who invested their money in colonial enterprises were moved by the desire to convert the Indians to the Christian faith. Others, like Lord Baltimore, William Mixed Penn, and James Oglethorpe, wanted to make life easier for motives the persecuted and poverty-stricken in England. But the Converting the Indians to the Christian Faith From an old print chief motive with nearly all of them was the hope of making a large profit upon the money they invested. Many of the Puritan settlers in New England and some of the Catholics of Maryland, the Quakers of Pennsylvania and the Cavaliers who came to Virginia after the death of Charles I, Desire for fled from religious persecution or political oppression in Eng- freedom and land. But the chief motive which brought the bulk of the nving early English colonists to America was the hope of making a better living than they had ever enjoyed in the mother coun- try. Even the dangers and the uncertainties of life in the 40 COMING OF THE ENGLISH From the statue by Augustus St. Gaudens A Puritan AND WHY THEY CAME 41 New World with its possibilities of great success made a strong appeal to many daring and adventure-loving men who were tired of their humdrum life in England. Not a few of the early colonists came because they were sent. The city of London, for example, paid the expense of sending its pauper children to Virginia. Sometimes vagabonds Some were and criminals were sent to America or offered a pardon on the ^®"* condition that they would voluntarily go to the colonies. Sometimes wealthy people in England subscribed money to provide poor emigrants with tools, clothing, provisions, and passage to one of the colonies. Sometimes poor men agreed with a ship captain to serve for a term of years in payment for a passage to America. The captains sold the services of these men to colonial farmers and planters, to whom they were bound, or " indentiu-ed, " to serve out their promised time. In all these ways many a poor Englishman gained a new start in life in a new land. CHAPTER III The Growth of the English Colonies in America Review The Spreading of the Settlements. — All the English colonies in America except Georgia were begun in the seven- teenth century. Virginia and Maryland, all the Puritan colonies in New England,, and the Dutch and Swedish settle- ments upon the Hudson and Delaware rivers were planted before 1640. We have seen that the Carolinas; New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were esta]:)lished during the reign of Charles II between 1660 and 1685. When the colonial period of our history ended in the Revolution, Georgia was a little less than fifty years of age, and Pennsylvania had not quite reached the century mark. All the other colonies were more than one hundred years old, and many of them were nearly one hundred and fifty. The most important fact in this century or more of colonial history was the steady growth of the small settlements of early colonial time into vigorous states that declared their independence of Great Britain in 1776. This growth of the colonies took place in the most simple and natural way. New settlers from the Old World, and boys who grew to manhood in the early settlements, pushed farther into the country, settled upon wild land, and began to build homes of their own. Sometimes hunters or exploring parties brought back glowing reports of the beauty or the fertility of some valley far in the interior, and the more ambitious and daring among the pioneers went in little companies to possess it. Soon the long silence of the forest was broken by the ringing sound of their axes, a clearing was made, log cabins were built, and in this way a new settlement was established. This steady spreading of the settlements into the interior of the country was attended by toil, hardships, and no httle Hardships of danger. It took years of hard work to cut down and burn the heavy timber with which the land was covered, to clear the new farms of stumps and stones, to build houses and barns, and to open roads through the forests to connect the new 42 How the settlements grew the settlers SPREADING OF THE SETTLEMENTS 43 The influence of the rivers settlements with the older ones. Our colonial fathers and mothers were men and women of industrious habits, of great strength and endurance, and of steadfast courage. Only such people could survive in the long hard struggle with the wilderness. Some of the early settlements, like Boston, New York, and Charleston, were made along the coast; others, like Jamestown and Philadelphia, were established upon the banks of navigable rivers. They all grew in the same w a y , spreading into the interior along the rivers and their tributaries because these waterways were easy roads to travel. Towns grev/ up near the iriouths of the rivers. The furs, lumber, and farm produce of the colonies were brought down the rivers to be ex- changed for the wares which the merchants of the towns had imported from England. In tlu^ course of time wagon roads were oi)ened frorri the sea ports into the interior. In Virginia the ships of England came up the rivers to the plantations to trade, and consequently few towns developed in that colony. This map shows the settled area of the colonies at the close of the colonial period of our history. Nearly all the land in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut was .in Extent of the hands of actual settlers. Elsewhere in New England the colonial settlements were confined to the coast, except where the Settled Area at the Close of the Colonial Period 44 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES pioneers had advanced up the valleys of the Connecticut, Mcrrimac, and Kennebec rivers in New Hampshii'e and Maine. Long Island and the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk were the only parts of New York yet occupied by white men. From New Jersey to Virginia the settlers had pushed into the interior as far as the Blue Ridge Mountains, and were already in possession of some of the rich limestone mountain valleys like those of the Potomac and the Shenandoah and the fine Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania. In the Carolinas and Loading Tobacco Ships in the James River Georgia nearly all the colonists lived within one hundred miles of the coast although some hardy frontiersmen had made then- way up the rivers far beyond this point. . Except in the far south, nearly all the good land between the sea and the Appalachian mountain system was occupied Appalachian ^^^ settlers by the close of the colonial period. The mountain mountain system which extends from New England to Georgia exerted a very great influence upon our early history. If it had not been there the colonists would have scattered widely in a search for the best lands. But the difficulty of passing this mountain barrier held them for a hundred years between the The influence of the system COLONISTS AND INDIANS 45 mountains and the sea. Here they grew strong, learned to be neighborly, developed their institutions, and kept in close touch through their commerce with the mother country beyond the Atlantic. Thus when the colonial period drew to an end the descendants of the early settlers in America had firmly established themselves upon the Atlantic seaboard, and were ready to begin the conquest of the great Mississippi Valley beyond the mountains. The Colonists and the Indians. — During the century or more while the colonists were winning and settling the land from the Atlantic Coast to the Alleghany Mountains they The Indians were beset by many perils. By far the most serious of these dangers was the hostility of the Indians, as the native inhabi- tants of America have been called ever since the time of Cohmibus. The Indians are often called the Red Men though they really were brown in color with a slight tinge of copper in some cases. They were a tall, finely formed race of men, with high cheek bones, small eyes, and long, coarse, black hair. They were clad in the skins of wild animals, although in sum- mer the men wore very little clothing and the children none at all. They lived in rude huts called wigwams. Some of these Indian houses were built by set- ting saplings in the ground, bending them together at the top, and covering the rounded frame thus formed with brush, bark, weeds, and leaves. Other Indians built "long houses" by setting upright posts in the ground, laying a roof of poles, and then covering the whole structure with bark shingles. Some of these Indian "long houses" wei-e a hundred feet long, fifteen or twenty feet wide, and large enough to accomodate several families. Indian Wigwam 46 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES Tribes and races Algonquins Iroquois Southern Indians Indian life The number of Indians in the United States when the white men began to settle in the country was not large. They lived in small tribes scattered here and there in the wilderness. Tribes of Indians who spoke languages which were very much alike are sometimes grouped together to form what are called linguistic families. There was a large number of these famiUes in America, but the English colonists came in contact with only three important groups, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, and the Muskhogean, or Southern family. The Algonquins were the most numerous. They occupied the country from the Car- ol inas northward to Hud- son Bay, and from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River. The Narragansetts, the Pequots, the Lenape, and the Shaw- nccs were some of the Al- gonquin tribes whom the settlers knew best. The Iroquois lived in New York in the midst of the vast Algonquin territory. The most savage, crafty, and daring of all the Indians, the Iroquois, were the terror of theu' neighbors. Theh five great tribes, the Mo- hawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, were called "The Five Nations" by the white people. The names of these tribes have been given to an important river and to four beautiful lakes in the state of New York. The Musk- hogean, or Southern Indians, lived in the country between South Carolina and the Mississippi River. The Creeks and Cherokees were the most important members of this group. The most important need of the Indians, as of all other people, was a supply of food. They lived upon game, fish, and the wild berries, fruits, and edible roots which they found. Some of the tribes also cultivated patches of corn, beans, An Indian Warrior COLONISTS AND INDIANS '47 squashes, and tobacco. The Indians possessed no domestic animal except the dog. The men were hunters, fishers, and warriors. It was tlie work of the women to prepare the food, cultivate the crops, and dress the skins which were used for clothing. The men made bows and arrows, tomahawks and war clubs, and graceful birch bark canoes. The women molded useful pottery, wove beautiful baskets, and fashioned garments of soft deer skin, which they decorated with beads and feathers. The real nature of the Indian has been described best by Francis Parkman, the most fascinating of American historians, who wrote a charming series of books about the French and The nature Indians and their wars with the English colonists. He says, 2^}^^ "Nature has stamped the Indian with a hard and stern physi- ognomy. Ambition, revenge, envy, jealousy, are his ruling passions. . . . With him revenge is an overpowering instinct; nay, more, it is a point of honor and duty. ... A wild love of liberty, an utter intolerance of control, lie at the basis of his character, and fire his whole existence. ..." With him the love of glory kindles into a burning passion, and to allay its cravings, he will dare cold and famine, fire, tempest, torture, and death itself. These generous traits are overcast by much that is dark, cold, and sinister, by sleepless distrust and rankling jealousy. Treacherous himself, he is always suspicious of treachery in others. Brave as he is — and few of mankind are braver — he will vent his passion by a secret stab rather than an open blow. His warfare is full of ambuscade and stratagem." Such were the savage neighbors the earliest English settlei's foimd in America. At first the Indians received the newcomers with confidence and hospitality. Some of the The Indians colonists tried to keep this early friendship of the Indians by and the . white men treating them kindly and justly. So many of the settlers, however, acted in such a selfish, reckless, and brutal way toward the Indians that their early confidence in the white men soon turned to distrust, and this distrust quic^kly grew into bitter hatred. The Indians were cruel and barbarous by nature, and when they made war, women and children as well as fighting men fell under their merciless tomahawks. The white men soon came to fear and to loathe their savage neigh- bors, and in many instances to wage war upon them after the- Indian fashion. 48 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES Indian wars in Virginia King Philip's War In nearly all the colonies the people suffered more or less from Indian attacks. In 1622 the Virginia Indians, while pre- tending to be friendly, formed a plot to exterminate the settlers. An attack was made upon all the settlements in the colony on the same day, and before the sun went down three hundred and forty-seven persons were slain. After beating off the first attack of the savages, the settlers arose in mass and hunted down the Indians in all quarters, kilhng many of them. In 1644 Virginia again suffered greatly from a similar Indian uprising. The first settlers in the Connecticut valley had hardly built their log cabins before they were forced to fight for their lives with the warlike 'i/ ^-M^"'-' •*,- Pequots. But King Phihp's War was the most dreadful Indian uprising that the Puritan colonists ever faced. Philip was the son of Mas- sasoit, the chief of the Pok- anokets, whohad been a firm friend of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth. After his father's death, Philip plot- ted with the other tribes of New England to drive the English out of the land, fell. Town after town was The situation was Early Virginians Attacked by Indians In the summer of 1675 the blow attacked and many settlers were killed desperate, and for a time it looked as if the Indians might succeed in their purpose. But the Puritans were stout fighters, and in some instances the frontier towns beat off the attacks upon them. In the following winter, Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut sent a force of a thousand men against the chief town of the Indians, which stood in the middle of a great swamp. In a fierce and bloody battle the white men stormed and burned this town and slew more than a thousand of the Indians. This great swamp fight broke the power of the Indians, but they kept up the hopeless struggle for six months longer. By the end of that time King Philip and most of his followers were killed, and the few Indians who survived were captured and sold into slavery in the West Indies. INCREASE OF INDUSTRIES 49 Indian wars were by no means confined to Virginia and New England. Both the Dutch on the Hudson and the settlers in Carolina suffered from repeated Indian attacks. In Penn- Other Indian sylvania, WiUiam Penn made a famous treaty of friendship with troubles the Indians which was "never sworn to and never broken." The kindness and justice of the Quakers, together with the fact that the Indian neighbors of the Quakers feared the Iroquois who were the friends of the Enghsh, saved eastern Penn- sylvania from the horrors of Indian warfare. But the frontiersmen of central Pennsylvania, as w^ell as the settlers on the northern borders of New York and New England, suffered fear- fully at the hands of the Indians during the wars with the French and Indians and in the Revolution Attack on the Narragansetts' Stronghold, 1675 The Growth of Industries. — The first need of the early settlers in America was for food, clothing, and shelter. This need made nearly all of them farmers, since most of the Most necessities of life come from the soil. Agriculture continued to colonists . were be the chief occupation of the colonists throughout the colonial farmers period of our history. Indeed, except in New England and New York, it was almost the only occupation. A writer of colonial times tells us how a strong and in- dustrious man with very little property except a gun, some powder and shot, and a few tools, could win a home for his The making family in the wilderness of America. Speaking of the settlers of_a colonial who were steadily occupying the lands of the colonies he says, "They maintain themselves the first year like the Indians, with their guns and nets, and afterward by the same means with the assistance of their lands. . . . The progress of their work is this: they fix upon the spot where they intend to build the house, and before they begin it, get ready a field for an orchard, planting it immediately with apples chiefly and some pears, cherries, and peaches. This they secure by an enclosure, then they plant a piece for the garden; and as farm 50 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES soon as these works are done, they begin their house; some are built by the countrymen without any assistance, but these are generally very bad hovels; the common way is to agree with a carpenter and a mason for so many days' work, and the countryman to serve them as a laborer, which with a few irons and other articles he cannot make is the whole expense; many a house is built for less than £20 ($100). As soon as this work is over, which may be in a month or six weeks, he falls to work upon a field of corn, doing all the hard labor of it, and from not being able to buy horses, pays a neighbor for plowing it; perhaps he may be worth only a calf or two and a couple of young colts bought for cheapness; and he struggles with difficulties till these are grown; but when he has horses to work, and cows that give milk and calves, he is then made and on the road to plenty. It is sur- prising with how small a sum of money they will venture upon this course of settling; and it -Ri^ L==^s4r:^ ^- -rS^cl -:'~ proves at the first mention how population must increase in a Early Colonists Building a House i i u.\ i country where there are such means of a poor man's supporting his family: and in which, the larger the family, the easier the undertaking." The early colonists brought with them to America the seeds of the grains, vegetables, and fruits with which they Food plants were familiar in their European homes: wheat, oats, rye, barley, and domestic beans, peas, onions, cabbages, apples, peaches, pears, and *^"° ^ cherries. To these they soon added such native American plants as corn, potatoes, pumpkins, and tobacco. All our common domestic animals except the turkey — our horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry — are likewise natives of Europe and were unknown on the western continent before the white men came. The colonists also brought such common tools as spades, noes, and axes from the Old World, and occasionally a plow Tools was imported, although most of the crude plows, harrows^ and carts of colonial days were made in America. The most striking difference between farm life in colonial times and at the present day is to be found in our wider use of machinery. THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES 51 Our corn planters and grain drills, mowing machines, harvesters, and threshing machines, have taken the places of the hoes, scythes, sickles, and flails of our colonial ancestors. Unlike the farmers of to-day the colonists bought and sold Uttle, but produced on their own farms nearly everything that their families needed. Each farm was usually small and was Farms and worked by the owner with the help of his sons. ' It is true that plantations there were many large plantations in the tobacco district of Virginia and in the rice swamps of South Carolina, but even in these colonies the small farms far outnumbered the great plantations. From the earliest colonial times there was a demand for a great deal of labor upon the tobacco and rice plantations of the South, and in Labor all of the colonies some of the more prosperous farmers found more work upon their farms than they and the members of their families could do. The demand for labor was met in part by bringing over poor people from England who were bound, or "indentured," to serve for a term of years, after which they were given their freedom, and in part by gradually introducing negro slaves from Africa. For some time the indentured white servants were more numerous than the slaves, but in the later colonial period African slavery grew very rapidly. While there were negro slaves in all the colonies, there were far more of them in the South than in the North. Although, as we have said, nearly all the colonists were farmers, they and their wives and children were obliged to do a great many other kinds of work. The colonial farmer was Domestic usually his own carpenter and blacksmith and frequently his manufac- own tanner and shoemaker. The housewife always made ^^^^ such necessary articles as soap and candles. There was a An Example of an Old-time Plow 52 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES spinning wheel in every home, and the mother and daughters spun flax and wool into thread and yarn and often wove the cloth out of which they later made the clothing for the family. In fact, the colonial home was a factory in which was made nearly everything that the family needed and sometimes a few articles for sale. In many a New England farm house during the long winter evenings, while the women and girls were busy spinning and weaving, the men and boys made barrel staves, hoops, or shingles before the great fireplace in the kitchen. Staves and hoops found a ready market in the West Indies with which the New Englanders traded. With the exception of shipbuilding, which flourished in New England, manufacturing outside of the homes of the Other people grew very slowly in the colonies. There were a few local industries sawmills, gi'ist mills, and tanneries, and toward the latter part of the colonial era, mills for making cloth and shops where furniture, brass and copper ware, and hats were manufactured. Iron ore was found in nearly all the colonies, and in time a few furnaces for smelting it were set up. The iron thus secured was wrought into tools, farming implements, household uten- sils, and hardware of various kinds. Notwithstanding all their efforts to make things for them- selves, the colonists were always dependent upon England for many manufactured articles. The ships which brought these English goods to America carried back to England the grain, Imiiber, and fm-s of the Northern Colonies, the tobacco of Maryland and Virginia, the tar, pitch, and turpentine of North Carolina, and the rice and indigo of South Carohna. New England also enjoyed a rich trade with the West Indies, where she exchanged her fish, salted meats, and barrel staves for molasses. A large part of the molasses thus brought to New England was made into rum. Slave traders exchanged this rum for captive negroes on the west coast of Africa and sold the negroes in the West Indies or to the planters in the colonies. The lack of money made it difficult to do business in the colonies as we carry it on today. Instead of buying and selling for money, the settlers frequently traded one article for another, as, for example, a pair of shoes for a coat or a cow for a horse. Such trading is called barter. There were a few English coins Colonial trade Money GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONIES 53 in America, and some Spanish silver pieces came into the colonies as a result of the commerce with the West Indies. "'Pine tree shillings were coined at a mint estab- lished in Massachusetts, in 1652, and later some of the colonies issued paper Pine-Tree Shilling. money. The Goveniment of the Colonies. — One of the first needs of each of the English colonies in America was a government to keep order among the people, to protect life and property, English ways and to do the other useful and necessary things which our ^^ governing governments in township or city, county, state, and nation Ame^rica"^ *° do for us today. Quite naturally, the early colonists tried to do these things as they were done in England in those days, but they soon found it necessary to change somewhat their English ideas about government and their English ways of managing affairs, in order to adapt them to the different condi- tions which existed in the new land to which they had come. In New England, where the colonists usually lived on small farms near the meeting houses which they attended, it was found most convenient for each neighborhood to look Town after its own affairs. Each little self-governing community government was called a town or township. All the voters in each town England met in an annual town meeting at which they elected officers to look after such matters as the care of stray animals, the making and repairing of roads, and the management of a school. The town meeting also decided how much money the town should raise by taxing its people and how it should spend the money thus secured. It also chose tv/o men to repre- sent the town in the legislature or lawmaking body of the colony. In Virginia and the other southern colonies, where many of the colonists lived on large plantations, often considerable distances apart along the banks of the wide, deep rivers, the County county was found to be the more convenient form of local government government. The most important officers in the Virginia county were the sheriff and the justices of the peace. Instead of being elected by the people as the officers of the New England 54 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES A mixed form in the middle colonies The government of the colony The legislature town were, the county officers in the South were generally appointed by the governor of the colony. The sheriff kept order in his county and collected the taxes. The justices of the peace held a court of quarter sessions, as it was called, because it usually met four times each year at the county court-house, at which they determined the amount of county tax, appointed persons to look after the care of the roads, and transacted any other necessary county business. In the middle colonies, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- vania, a mixed form of local government including both the county and the township grew up. In these colonics part of the work of managing local affairs was done by the county and part of it by the township, and each had the power to levy its own taxes. Both the county and the township officers were gener- ally elected by the people. This mixed form of local govern- ment is especially important to-day because it is in use in nearly all our western states. Each of the forty-eight states which now form the United States of America has its own state government. The govern- ments of all our states are very much alike. In each state there is a legislature which makes the laws, a governor who enforces them, and courts whose judges tell what the laws mean and apply them to individual cases. Governments very much like those in our states to-day grew up in the colonies during the colonial period of our history. Each colony had its own legislature or lawmaking body. In every colony except Pennsylvania this lawmaking body was made up of two houses, usually called the assembly and the council. The members of the assembly were chosen by p r 1 i t 1 1 ^ fi \ s^ fe 1 An Old-time Sheriff BACON'S REBELLION ' 55 the people, although in most of the colonies only those men who possessed a certain amount of property were allowed to vote. In a few instances the people also elected the councilors, but in most of the colonies the members of the council or upper house were appointed by the king upon the suggestion of the governor. In a general way the colonial assembly corresponded to the house of representatives in each of our present state legislatm-es, and the colonial council was the forerunner of the " senate or upper house now found in every one of om" states. Each colony had a governor who enforced the law. In the charter colonies like Connecticut and Rhode Island the people elected their governor, and in Pennsylvania and Mary- The land, which Avere proprietary, the owner of the colony named governor the governor. Most of the colonies, however, sooner or later became royal provinces, and in them the governor was ap- pointed by the king. The governor of a royal colony was the representative of the king, and had very much the same power in his province as the king possessed in the government of England. Some of the governors whom the king of England sent to rule over his colonies in America were good men who tried to govern wisely and justly. Many of them, however, were selfish Bad and greedy men who sought to regain in America the fortunes governors which they had lost in the mother country. Many of the actions of these unworthy royal governors were resented by the colonists and there were numerous disputes between such gov- ernors and the representatives of the people in the colonial assemblies. Governor Berkeley of Virginia is a good example of the colonial governor who put his own private interest before the welfare of the people whom he was sent to govern. In 1675 Bacon's the settlers on the Virginia frontier suffered fearfully from Rebellion Indian attacks, but Governor Berkeley would not send soldiers to protect the people and punish the Indians because he was making a great deal of money out of the fur trade with the Indians. At last a young planter named Nathaniel Bacon raised a force of volunteers, and without the governor's per- mission defeated the Indians and saved the frontier settlements from the tomahawk. Governor Berkeley was very angry. He said that Bacon was a rebel and a traitor. A civil war broke 56 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES The Burning of Jamestown This town was never rebuilt. of Andros out between Bacon and Berkeley in which Bacon's rebels defeated the forces of the governor and burned Jamestown. Just at this moment of vic- tory Bacon died of a fever, and , without their leader , his men soon fell into the hands of Governor Berkeley, who put many of them to death. In spite of its bloody end Bacon's Rebellion proved that the Virginia colonists dared to resist an unjust governor. It was a fore- runner of the Revolution, which began just a century later. In 1686, James II, who was the most tyrannical of all the Stuart kings of England, united all New England, New York, The tyranny and New Jersey into one great province and sent over Sir Edmund Andros as its governor. The king authorized Andros to make laws and to tax the people without their consent. For two years Governor Andros ruled like a tyrant. He took away the charter of Massachusetts and attempted to seize the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, but failed in both instances. In Connecticut the charter was saved by hiding it in a hollow tree^ which has ever since been known as the Charter Oak. When Governor Andros demanded that the assembly of Connecticut surrender the charter of that colony, debate upon his demand was purposely protracted until evening. Then the lights were suddenly extinguished and in the darkness the precious document disappeared. Tradition says that it was carried away by Captain Joseph Wadsworth and concealed in a hollow in the great oak tree pictured on the opposite page. After the fall of Andros the charter was brought from its hiding place. The Charter Oak long remained Hartford's most venerated historical monument. "It became in time a huge tree, twenty-five feet in circumference near the roots. The cavity in which the charter was hidden grew larger I BACON'S REBELLION 57 58 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES The courts Training in self- government English feeling toward the colonies year by year, until it was wide enough to contain a child, though the orifice leading to it gradually closed until it was hardly large enough to admit a hand. This grand monument to liberty survived until 1856, when tempest in its boughs and decay in its trunk brought it in ruin to the earth." In 1688 the English people drove the tyrant, James II, from the country, and put his daughter Mary and her husband, WiUiam of Orange, upon the throne. When the people in Boston heard of this English Revolution, they threw Andros into prison and later sent him back to England. King William now gave Massachusetts a new charter, while Connecti- cut and Rhode Island continued to be governed as they were before the coming of Andros. Besides a lawmaking body and a governor, each colony had courts very much as our states have now. Small cases were tried by the justices of the peace, who were generally appointed by the governor. In each county there was a county court whose judges were appointed by the governor or, in some cases, elected by the assembly. The county court tried crim- inals and settled important disputes concerning property. In each colony there was also a high court to Avhich appeals could be made from the county courts. These high courts were very much like our present state supreme courts. While England sometimes tried to interfere in the govern- ment of her American colonies, she let them alone, in the main, to manage their own political affairs very much as they pleased. The experience and training which the colonists got in governing themselves, in their townships, counties, and states, were very important in fitting them for the independence which they were to win at the close of the colonial period of our history. The Colonies and the Mother Country. — From the begin- ning, England looked upon the colonies as her children. She felt that they were planted by her care and that they ought to honor and obey her. This English feeling was well expressed by one of the royal governors of New York when he said, "All these colonies, which are but twigs belonging to the main tree, ought to be kept entirely dependent upon and subservient to England." The English beheved, as did all other people at that time, that nature had been generous to new countries whose natural COLONIES AND MOTHER COUNTRY 50 resources were as 3'et imtoiiched, and that colonists ought to share this bounty with their mother country. According!}^, they looked to their American colonies to furnish them with food and raw materials which they needed, and to buy from them large quantities of manufactured goods. For example, they expected the colonists to sell them such things as iron, wool, furs, and hides, and then to buy of them the steel, cloth- ing, hats, and shoes which they made out of these raw materials. The English did not want the colonists to sell to other nations an}^ of their products which England desired, nor to buy else- where what they could buy in England, nor to manufacture at home any goods that would take the place of those the mother country had for sale. Very early the Parliament of England began to pass laws to carry into effect the idea that colonies exist for the benefit of the mother country. In 1G60 it declared that all trade with The the colonies must be carried on in English or colonial ships. Navigation • Acts The same law provided that such colonial products as sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, ginger, and dyeing woods must be shipped to England or to another English colony. Grain, salt provisions, fish, and rum were not included in this list and the colonists could sell them anywhere. A few years later the colonists were forbidden to import European goods, with a few exceptions, from any other country than England. At the same time it was ordered that colonial products wdiich paid a duty in England should pay a similar duty when shipped, from one English colony to another. Still later, rice, molasses, and naval stores were added to the long list of articles which the colonists could sell only in England. In 1733 very heavy duties were placed upon molasses and sugar brought to the colonies from the Spanish and French West Indies, for the purpose of forcing the colonists to buy these commodities at a higher price in the British West Indies. These laws and many others like them, which were passed to compel the people of the colonies to buy and sell in England so that English manufacturers, merchants, and shipowners could make a profit from their ti'ade, are called the Navigation Acts. England had no thought of oppressing her colonists by passing these trad(^ laws. Such regulation of trade was in line with the best thought of the seventeenth century, 60 GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES Colonial manufactur- ing restricted and all colonizing countries had siniilar laws upon their statute books. England also tried to make the colonists dependent upon her for an ever-increasing share of the manufactured goods which they needed, by restricting or prohibiting manufactories in America. In 16.99 the people in each colony were forbidden to export yarn and woolen cloth "to any other place whatso- ever." Later, hats were added to this list. At last, in 1750, "It Was Impossible to Enforce the Navigation Acts" This picture shows a mob tarring and feathering an excise oflScer who tried to enforce the acts of trade. the building of any more mills or forges for the manufacture of iron or steel was absolutely prohibited. While thus discouraging manufacture in her colonies, England encouraged them to produce the raw materials, such as pig iron, indigo, flax, hemp, timber, tar, and pitch, which the mother country used in her own manufactures. The English settlers in America always resented the idea that the colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country. The colonists They had come to the new world at their own expense and resent and ^^^y. ingig^^pfj f h^t they lost none of their rights as Englishmen acts of trade when they became colonists. They believed that they had as COLONISTS AND MOTHER COUNTRY 61 much right to trade with any part of the world as had the EngHshmen who remained at home. With this behef the colonists declared that the Navigation Acts were unjust, and they disobeyed these English laws of trade at every oppor- tunity. The English officers in the colonies found it impossible to enforce the Navigation Acts. In fact, during most of the colonial period they did not try seriously to enforce them. Along with the lawful trade in fish, salt beef, pork, and grain, which was carried on between the colonies and the West Indies, there sprang up an illegal but very profitable trade with those islands as well as with other parts of the world. The efforts of the English government to stop this illegal trade, or smuggling, and to enforce the Navigation Acts just at the close of the colonial period, were the foremost causes of the Revolution in which the colonies declared their independence of England. CHAPTER IV Our Colonial Ancestors The Europeans Who Became Colonists. — The greater part of the inhabitants of the colonies, whose beginnings and growth People from we have been studying, were of English origin. But we must many lands ^qi think that all the early settlers in the English colonies in CSJTIC to America America came from England. Great numbers of them looked back to the other countries of the British Islands — to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland — as their Old-World horhes. Many others Quakers OF PEMMSYLVAMIA came from Germany. The sons of Holland, Sweden, and France also played important parts in planting the settlements which were to grow into the United States of America. All these European peoples were our ancestors. The settlers who came from England, however, were not only far more numerous than those from any other European The English country, they were also more widely scattered throughout the colonies. Most of the early Virginians, nearly aU the Puritans who came to New England, and the greater part of the Quakers settled in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were natives of England. In all the other colonies the English element in the population was very large. The colonists of Enghsh birth and their descendants have had a far greater part in the making of 62 EUROPEANS WHO BECAME COLONISTS 63 America than the men of any other race. John Smith, WiUiam Bradford, John Winthrop, Roger Wilhams, Thomas Hooker, William Penn, and James Oglethorpe were all Englishmen. The number of Dutch and Swedish settlers in the valleys of the Hudson and the Delaware was not large, but they had a marked influence upon the history and life of those regions. The Dutch The Van Rensselaers, the Schuylers, and other families ^^ Swedes descended from the early Dutch immigrants, have played a great part in the making of the state of New York. There are many people in Delaware, southern New Jersej^, and south- eastern Pennsylvania who can trace their ancestry back to the Swedes who colonized in that section. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, after nearly all the English colonies were founded, many Huguenots, or French Protestants, came to America. These people fled to The French the new world to escape a terrible religious persecution in their own land. They settled in many of the colonies, but there were more of them in South Carolina than anywhere else. Among the descendants of these French settlers there are many men who have been famous in our history. Soon after 1700 a steady stream of German immigrants began to come to the American colonies. This German stream continued to flow westward throughout the remainder of the The colonial period of our history. Religious persecution, the hope Germans of bettering their condition in life, and, in the case of the large number who came from the Rhine valley, the desire to escape from a land wasted by war, were the causes of the great German migration to the American colonies. Some of the first comers from Germany settled in the Mohawk Valley in New York, but the great majority of the Germans who came to America in the eighteenth century made their homes in Pennsylvania where they occupied whole counties. Soon some of the Germans who came to Pennsyl- vania, and their descendants, began to move into the interior of the country toward the southwest, and in the course of time there were large numbers of them in western Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Companies of German pioneers also came direct from their fatherland to the Carolinas and Georgia. The Germans in Pennsylvania lived by themselves and 64 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS The Scotch- Irish kept their own language and customs, as their descendants continue to do to this day in some sections of that state. They were a hard-working and thrifty race. They settled upon some of the best land in America, and in time they came to be the best farmers in the colonies. An eighteenth century writer who knew the Pennsylvania German farmers well, speaks of their "extensive fields of grain, full fed herds, lux- urious meadows, orchards promising loads of fruit, together with spacious barns and commodious stone dwelhng houses." The Scotch-Irish were another important ele- ment in the population of the colonies. They were the descendants of Scotch people who had settled in the north of Ireland in the early part of the seventeenth cen- tury. These settlers, like most of the Scotch, were Presbyterians in religion. About a century after they went to live in Ireland, petty rehgious persecution andtheheavy taxes laid upon them by the English government drove large numbers of these Scotch-Irishmen to America. A few of them settled in New England, many made their way to the southern colonies, but probably the largest number found homes in Pennsylvania. The Scotch-Irish settlers were among the later immigrants to the colonies and most of them pushed on beyond the districts near the coast, which were already settled, to the frontier where it was still easy to get land. The Scotch-Irish were a bold WHAT THE COLONISTS BROUGHT 65 and hardy race of men who loved the free Ufe of the border. They furnished a large proportion of the pioneers who won the colonial frontier from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas from the Indians and the wilderness, and then led the way over the Alleghany Mountains into the valley of the Mississippi. Besides the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians there were many Roman Catholic Irish in Maryland and Pennsylvania and a few of them in nearly every one of the other colonies. Then, Irish, Scotch, too, thousands of Scotch came direct from Scotland to the and Welsh American colonies. They were especially numerous in North Carolina. Such Welsh names as Gwynedd, Bryn Mawr, and Tredyffrin, all places in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, suggest the home land of the founders of these settlements. What the Colonists Brought from Europe to America. — The men who colonized America brought with them to the new world the civilization of the Old- World lands from which The colonists they came. They could not leave behind them their own ^°",^^* ^'^" traits of character nor the ideas, customs, and beliefs which of living and they had inherited from their ancestors. It was just as natural thinking with for them to set up in the colonies the social and political insti- *^®°* tutions which they had known at home. We have already seen how they also brought with them the seeds of their indus- trial life, the grains, fruits, domestic animals, arts, and crafts of their old homes. Life in America, as we know it, was planted here by our European ancestors and has grown from what they brought with them from Europe. But American life has become somewhat different from life in Europe because of the new conditions which our European ancestors found in America. The various races which colonized in the United States had many common characteristics, yet each possessed its own peculiar traits, and all these traits have helped to make the English American people what they now are. In the making of Ameri- cl^aracter, cans the influence of the English has been far greater than that an^ law ' of any other race. The colonists from England were a strong, brave, and enterprising people, fond of outdoor life, industrious*, shrewd in business, and very tenacious of purpose. The English brought to America our language, our laws, and our forms of government. In most respects the early Dutch and Swedish settlers 66 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS French intelligence and skill German industry and thrift Scotch-Irish energy and love of liberty Ideas of industry upon the Hudson and the Delaware strongly resembled the English. Many of the Dutch were traders or merchants, while, as a rule, the Swedes were sturdy farmers. The French Huguenots were a particularly desirable class of settlers and, in proportion to their numbers, they added a very great contribution to the making of our country. Nearly all of them came from the cities of France, where they were skilled workmen, merchants, or scholars. They brought with them to the new world their habits of industry, their keen intelligence, and their upright character. They have furnished a large number of leaders in every department of life m America. The Germans who came to the colonies in such large numbers during the eighteenth century were a quiet, hard- working, frugal and thi'ifty race. They were very poor when they arrived in America, but their industrious habits soon brought them prosperity. They were a very religious people, honest in their dealings and contented in spirit. As we have seen, they wished to remain German and consequently they clung tenaciously to the customs, language, and literature of their fatherland. There could hardly be a greater contrast than that between the plodding and peaceful Germans and the stern, aggressive, warlike Scotch-Irish, who came about the same time, and settled in the same parts of the country. The Scotch-Irish were a rugged and hardy race — energetic steadfast, and liberty- loving. They were famous Indian fighters and did much to win the western lands from the redmen. The Scotch-Irish were a rehgious people and strong believers in education, which they did much to. foster in the colo- nies. Next to the English, they have probably had a greater influence upon America than any other race element in its population. Colonial Spinning Wheel and Loom Besides these charac- teristics of their various races, our colonial ancestors brought with them to America a WHAT THE COLONISTS BROUGHT 67 superstitions knowledge of the ways of maldng a living which prevailed in their old homes across the sea. Along with the common food plants, the domestic animals, and the simple farming tools of the old world, they brought a knowledge of the arts and crafts of their tune. They could saw lumber, build houses and ships, make bricks, tan leather, spin and weave both flax and wool, and make a great many other things which were necessities then as now in every home. Cm- colonial ancestors brought with them to America their ways of thinking, then' opinions, and their prejudices. Many S!?i"io?;!;^f of their beliefs seem very superstitious to us. When the colonies were estab- hshed, nearly all people still beheved that the sun, the moon, and the stars revolve around the earth. These heavenly bodies were thought to exert great in- fluence upon affairs. The right time to plant potatoes, to cut timber, to kill pigs, to cut hair, to take med- icine, and to do many other things, was determined by the phases of the moon. Any unusual appearance in the sky, like a comet, was thought to be a sure sign of some coming disaster hke pesti- lence or war. The invisible world was a very real world to the colonists. They thought that angels and devils were all about them. There was a haunted house in nearly every community, and Witchcraft most people lived in fear of ghosts. The behcf in witchcraft was as common in the colonies as it had long been in Europe. A witch was a person, usually an old woman, who was believed to have sold her soul to Satan in exchange for the power to do all sorts of harmful things. When butter would not come in the churn, or when pigs or cattle were sick, it was thought to be the work of witches. A Trial for Witchcraft 68 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS The Salem delusion Ideals and character English ideas of government and law prevail in America In the European countries from which the colonists came witchcraft had long been punished by death, and it is not strange that the early American settlers should inflict the same penalty upon those they thought to be in league with the evil one. Sometimes a whole community would be thi-own into the most unreasonable excitement about the work of witches. The worst instance of such foolish agitation was in Salem, Massa- chusetts, in 1692, where twenty persons were executed for witchcraft and many others thrown into jail. In a short time the excitement passed away and the prisoners were released. When the people of Salem came to think soberly about what they had done many of them were sincerely repentant. Since the famous Salem delusion there has never been an execution for witchcraft in our country. Along with these mistaken ideas and silly superstitions, the colonists brought some of the finest thoughts and noblest ideals of the world. Many of them dared the stormy Atlantic because "They sought a faith's pure shrine" The splendid literature of England, the highest standards of conduct and character of their time, and the purest Christian faith and life were the priceless possessions of many of our earliest American ancestors. Many of the social and political institutions of England were transplanted to America by the English settlers and, in time, adopted by the col- onists who came from other lands. Local self-govern- ment, the right to be repre- sented in the law-making' l)ody, and trial by jury for those accused of crime, all came to America from Eng- land very early in colonial history. With English laws there came many cruel pun- ishments which were then common in the mother country. The stocks, the pillory, and the whipping post were set up in America just as they existed in England in the seventeenth century. Such old English punishments as cropping the ears or The Ducking Stool Was Used to Punish Women Accused of Scolding or Slander. WHAT THE COLONISTS FOUND 69 branding the hand with a hot iron were not unknown in the colonies. Sometimes drunkards were compelled to wear a red letter "D" about their necks. In some of the colonies, women were punished for scolding or slander by binding them to an iron seat called the ducking stool and dipping them in the water. All these cruel punishments have passed away, but our laws for the protection of hfe and property still rest upon the conmion. law of England which our ancestors brought to America. What the Colonists Found in the New World. — The history of our country has been influenced quite as much by the con- ditions and opportunities which our forefathers found in Weareinflu- America as it has been bv the ideas and wavs of doing things !^5,fjli'^f*"+'' , , . 6iiviroiiin6iii which they brought with them from Europe. The location, the natural resources, and the climate of any country have a very great influence upon the lives of its people. Their health, their ways of making a living, their successes and their failures largely depend upon the geographical features of the land in which they live. We have just read about the heritage which our ancestors brought with them to the New World. It is no less important to inquire about what kind of country they found upon the western shore of the Atlantic. To the early colonists at Jamestown and Plymouth, America must have seemed a dreadful wilderness filled with peril of all sorts. They soon found out that its dangers and hardships Perils of the were real enough. But more slowly the first American pioneers wilderness came to reahze that they had taken possession of the coast of a vast continent with an almost infinite variety of natural resources. During the entire colonial period the settlements were confined to the Atlantic seaboard lying between the coast and the Appalachian mountain system. Yet even in this region, Resources of so small in comparison with the vast Mississippi Valley beyond seaboard^ '^ the mountains, almost every kind of soil and climate was found. When white men first saw it, the eastern pai't of the United States was covered with a dense forest. The North was the home of the white pine from which most of our lumber has come, from colonial days almost to the present time. The yellow pine was the most important tree in the southern forests. The oak, chestnut, hickory, maple, and many other fine trees were widely distributed throughout the colonies. Some of the 70 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS An Early Colonial Sawmill land on the Atlantic seaboard was unfit for cultivation, but much of it was very fertile, and after the forest was cleared away it produced in abundance the grains, vegetables, and fruits of Europe as well as the native American plants, tobacco and Indian corn. It was early discovered that the wide, lazily flowing rivers The rivers of the southern colonies were splendid roads leading into the interior of the country, and as a consequence, the settle- ments spread naturally along these waterways. The shorter and more rapid streams of New England furnished abundant water power to turn the wheels of the sawmills and grist mills of that section, and in this way they helped to deter- mine the location of the towns that grew up near some of these mills. Beneath the surface of the land there lay hidden a mineral wealth of which the early colonists never dreamed, but whose Mineral later development was to play a very important part in the wealth making of our country. In the course of time it was found that the colonies were rich in iron ore and in coal. Building stone, clay for making brick, sand for glass, and slate for roofing were found in many places, and limestone and cement rock were abundant. Some of these natural resources were not developed until long after the close of the colonial period. From the first the deer, bear, wild fowl, and other game which the colonists found in America, furnished an important Game, fur, P^-rt of their supply of food, but the turkey is the only one of and fish these animals which has ever been domesticated. Even more valuable than the wild game were such fur-bearing animals as the mink, the sable, and especially the beaver. Trapping and fur trading were important industries in early colonial history. In most places our American game and fur-bearing animals have been exterminated or are preserved in small numbers to-day under the protection of strict game laws. But the herring, mackerel, cod, shad, and other fish which the first settlers HOMES OF THE COLONISTS 71 found in great numbers along the Atlantic coast, still furnish a considerable part of our food supply. The climate of a country is no less important than the fertility of its soil in its influence upon the lives of the people. Indeed, without the proper degree of heat and an adequate The supply of moisture to make plants grow, a fertile soil is of little influence of value. Scarcely less important is the effect of climate and other geographical conditions upon the health of the people. The settlers in a low, wet, swampy region where mosquitoes abound are certain to suffer much from malaria and fevers. This fact explains in part the fearful suffering and high death rate among the early colonists in Virginia. The first European settlers upon our Atlantic Coast found a temperate climate with an abundant rainfall. They found, however, great diversity of temperature as well as of natural resources in the long stretch of country between Maine and Georgia. Partly because of this diversity the northern and southern colonists came to differ widely in their occupations, their interests, and their mode of life. When our European ancestors came to America they faced the gigantic task of subduing a vast wilderness and fitting it for the home of civilized man. In working out this task they Life in the cleared away the forests, cultivated the land, built houses, ^^^ World roads, and cities, and began to develop the rich natural resources Americans of a continent. This conquest of nature has been attended by of the privation, hardships without number, and unceasing toil, coloiusts But the work of winning a continent from the wilderness has changed our Em'opean forefathers into the bold, energetic, self-reliant, persevering American people. The colonists found what they sought in the New World. Those who were led across the Atlantic by love of adventure found it in full measure. Those who came to better their con- dition of life won homes in a land of plenty. Those who were driven out of their fatherlands by tyranny and oppression found liberty. Those who fled from religious persecution found freedom to worship God. The Homes of the Colonists. — A house in which to live was one of the first needs of the early colonist. It was not easy to supply this need, in spite of the fact that the finest timber, homes of^the clay, and building stone were near at hand, for these newcomers settlers 72 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS The colonial house had neither sawmills, brick kilns, nor stone cutters. At first many of the pioneers took refuge in caves dug in a river bank or in wigwams like those of the Indians. Such shelter, however, was only temporary. With his trusty axe the settler soon cut logs and with the help of his neighbors built a cabin. The first log cabins were rude affairs, little more than huts or hovels. In time, larger and more comfortable houses were built with the cracks between the logs "chinked" with wedges of wood and daubed with clay to keep them warm and dry. There was no glass in the windows, which were closed with shutters to keep out the rain. The rough door was hung with strips of leather or on wooden hinges. The roof was covered with bark shingles and the floor was made of puncheons, which were split logs smoothed off on the face with the axe. As the colonies grew and throve, the log house gave place to a larger and more convenient dwelling of wood, brick, or stone. The typical small farm- house of colonial days was of one story, with two rooms, a kitchen which was the living room of the family, and a bedroom with one or more beds and a trundle-bed. The older children slept in a garret, to which they climbed by means of a ladder. Many of these smaller houses were neither lathed nor plastered, and had oiled paper instead of glass in the windows. Some of the more pros- perous farmers and planters built larger houses with plastered walls and glass windows. A few of these comfortable old colonial houses, with their heavy oak timbers, low rooms, great fire- places, and massive stone chimneys, still stand, gray and weather- beaten, but as firm and solid as ever. In the later colonial days the wealthy planters of Virginia and some of the rich .og Cabin on the Frontier The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth — 1621 After they had gathered their first harvest in America in 1621, the Pilgrim P'athers set aside a time for thanksgiving and rejoicing. Their Indian friends visited them and for three days they all feasted upon hasty pudding, clam chowder, wild fowl, and venison. It is said that one of the Indians brought something like a bushel of popped corn, a dainty hitherto unknown to the Pilgrims. HOMES OF THE COLONISTS 73 merchants of Boston and Philadelphia lived in splendid man- sions with handsome staircases and many spacious rooms. The houses of the colonists, from the plainest log cabins to the finest mansions, were without most of the comforts and conveniences found in nearly all our homes today. Our Lack of con- modern ways of heating our houses by steam, hot water, hot veniences air furnaces or stoves, were unknown. All the warmth and much of the light in the colonial home came from the great fireplace in the kitchen, the most cheerful and homelike room in the house. A few of the larger houses had fireplaces in other rooms. At first the settlers used torches made of blazing pine knots for lighting purposes. Later, candles and lamps in which whale oil was burned, came into use. The water supply of the household was carried in buckets from the nearest spring or well. The windows of the colonial house were small, its walls were bare, and its uncarpeted floor was often strewn with rushes or sand. Except in the homes of the rich, the furniture Furniture was plain and scanty. The table, chairs, and benches were and utensils homemade. The table was set with pewter platters, wooden plates, wooden or pewter spoons, and cups of wood or leather. There were no forks, no saucers, no glass, and very little china. In the houses of the wealthy there was fine furniture from Eng- land, and silverware shone on great sideboards of polished mahogany. The clothing of the colonists, like most of the furniture in their homes, was plain and strong. It was made of coarse linen and heavy woolen cloth woven by the women from home-grown Clothing flax and wool. Often the men wore deerskin or sheepskin breeches. The clothing of the masses of the people was neat and clean but never showy. But the few rich who could afford it, made a great display in their dress. The men wore broadcloth and velvet, lace ruffles, silk stockings, and shoes The Chew House A colonial mansion in Germantown, Philadelphia. 74 OUR- COLONIAL ANCESTORS Food and drink The old-time fireplace with silver buckles, and the women dressed even more extrava- gantly in silks and brocades. The food of our colonial forefathers was coarse but abun- dant. Wild game, fish, beef, and pork were plentiful. The fields of corn supplied delicious roasting ears, corn bread, and hominy. Some wheat and rye were grown. Beans, pumpkins, and squashes were an important part of the food supply. The orchards were full of apples, pears, and peaches. The cows supplied milk, butter, and cheese. Sugar and molasses, imported from the West Indies, were supplemented by wild honey and maple sugar. Tea and coffee were not brought to America until long after the first colonies were settled. Hard cider, rum, and, in the South, peach brandy were common drinks, and there was much shameful drunkenness. The food of the colonists was cooked in a pot hung over the fire in the great kitchen fireplace, or roasted on a spit, or baked in an oven before it. This fireplace, with its great oak backlog, with the rifle and powderhorn hanging above it, and with the spinning wheel standing by its side, was the real heart of the old-time home. In his famous poem, "Snow Bound," Whittier tells us of the homely contentment of the old- time family as all its members gathered before the hearth-fire's ruddy glow on a cold winter evening: "Shut in from all the world without, We sat the clean-winged hearth about, Content to let the north wind roar In baffled rage at pane and door, While the red logs before us beat The frost line back with tropic heat; And ever, when a louder blast Shook beam and rafter as it passed, The merrier up its roaring draught The great throat of the chimney laughed. A Colonial Kitchen Showing Household Implements in General Use THEIR SOCIAL ENJOYMENTS 75 The house dog, on his paws outspread, Laid to the fire his drowsy head, The cat's dark silhouette on the wall A couchant tiger's seemed to fall; And, for the ^dnter fireside meet. Between the andiron's straddling feet The mug of cider simmered slow. And apples sputtijred in a row. And, close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. \Vhat matter how the night behaved? What matter how the north mnd raved? Blow high, blow low, not all its snow Could quench our hearthfire's ruddy glow." A Fox Hunting Scene in Colonial Virginia Young Washington and his friend, Lord Fairfax, are following the hounds. Social Life in Colonial Days. — During the colonial period of our history, very few people either in Europe or America beheved that all men are created equal. In all the colonies Differences distinct social classes existed, and differences in rank were "^ ^^^ recognized by everybody. There were at least four distinct social groups. At the top were the aristocratic people: the j.^^ great planters of the South, the patroons of New York, the aristocrats 76 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS The middle class "old families" of New England, and the wealthy landowners of the middle colonies. The members of this upper class were the most highly educated and held most of the offices. They were much respected by all and possessed very great influence. The mass of the people belonged to the large middle class of farmers and tradesmen. In the South the farmers usually owned a few slaves who did most of the work on their farms, but in the northern colonies all the members of this class worked, and worked hard. Except in New England the men of the middle class had very little education. They were often rude and rough, but they were always brave, sturdy, and liberty-loving. The lower classes Sedan Chairs The taxicabs of colonial days. The lower class was made up of the indentured white servants and their thriftless descendants who were called ''poor whites" in the South. While some of these servants were men of force and character, who became prosperous after winning their freedom, a great many of them were of very inferior quality, convicts sent over from the mother country, and paupers from the slums of English cities. Sharply marked off from the poor whites by the line of color, were the negro slaves, the lowest social class of all. We have already seen that a vast majority of the colon- ists were farmers. There was a much smaller number of mechan- Occupations ics, merchants, sailors, and fishermen. At first there were few THEIR PROFESSIONS AND PLEASURES 77 doctors and no lawyers at all. The members of the legal pro- fession did not occupy a place of importance in American life until just before the Revolution, in which they played a promi- nent part. The colonial physicians had very little medical knowledge or surgical skill. They were ''herb-doctors" and "blood-letters," and depended upon all sorts of silly nostrums to cure diseases. The colonists eagerly welcomed every diversion from the constant round of daily toil which filled their lives. House raisings, husking and quihing bees were pleasant social occasions to all the people of a neighborhood. The work at one of these bees was alwaj^s followed by an ample dinner at which there was likely to be hard drinking. Weddings were times of feasting and excite- ment and often of much rough horseplay. Even the funerals were occasions of feasting and, too often, of drunkenness. The Puritans were op- posed to the popular amuse- ments of their time, but out- side of New England the colonists brought to America the horse-racing, gambling, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, wrestling, and other rough and brutal sports which were common in England in the seventeenth century. Picnics and dancing parties were favorite diversions in the middle and southern colonies. Skating and sleighing came from Holland with the early Dutch settlers. In all the colonies the people enjoyed the finest hunting and fishing almost at their doors. The colonist seldom traveled far from home, and when necessity forced him to go on a journey he found it a serious Amusements A Colonial Chaise and Outrider Such carriages were used by the rich. 78 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS Travel undertaking. At first nearly all travel was by water. Boats were used in passing to and from such large coast towns as Boston, Plymouth, and Salem; and between settlements and plantations upon rivers like the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and the James. The Indian trails, as the narrow footpaths made by the red men were called, were the earliest roads. At first the roads were mere bridle paths and all travel over them was on foot or horse- back. Pack horses were used to carry goods from place to place When better roads were opened, two-wheeled chaises and wagons came into use, but until near the close of the colonial daj^s, people who made ajourney of any length, traveled on horseback. In every town a tavern, kept by a leading citizen, cared for travelers and provided a favorite meeting place for the folk of the neigh- borhood. In colonial days the peo- ple were far more neighborly than we are now. The settlers helped one another in such work as burning brush, pulling stumps, husking corn, or raising the framework of a barn. If any one was ill, kindly neighbors came and volunteered to nurse the sick. If death came to a family, the neighbors arranged the funeral and took charge of all the affairs of the house and the farm until it was over. "We now buy these services with money, but in doing so we have lost that spirit of neighborliness which meant so much to our colonial ancestors. The Schools of Our Forefathers. — The Puritans of New England highly esteemed education and very early took steps to set up a system of public schools. By the famous Massa- encouraged chusetts law of 1647, every township of fifty families was EnglaTd directed to employ a teacher to teach all children to read and write. The same law provided that as soon as any town contained one hundred families it should establish a grammar Traveling on Horseback, the Lady Seated on a Pillion Neighbor- liness Education SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS 79 school to prepare boj's for college. An elementary education was compulsory in all the New England colonies except Rhode Island. The early Dutch settlers on the Hudson set up common schools, but after their colony passed into the hands of the English these schools were neglected. In Pennsylvania there Some was little attempt at public education outside of Philadelphia, schools in where the famous Penn Charter School opened its doors in colonies 1G98. There were some good schools in the towns of the middle colonieS; but those in the country were few and very Colonial Tavern and Stage-coach A familiar scene on the highway in later colonial days. poor. Some of the German and Scotch-Irish ministers taught the rudiments of an education to the children of their congre- gations, and in the later colonial period, a few academies were established. In Virginia and the colonies south of it the means of edu- cation were sadly lacking. While there were a few schools, most of the children in the southern colonies received only the But few in limited instruction which their parents could give them at the South home. In the homes of the wealthy planters, tutors were kept to teach the boys and girls, and occasionally a rich man sent his son to be educated in England. 80 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS to free schools Colonial school- houses The lack of schools in the South was partly due to the widely scattered plantations and partly to the fact that many Opposition of the aristocratic planters did not wish all children to be taught at public expense. This opinion was frankly expressed by Governor Berkeley of Virginia, in 1670, when he said: " I thank God that there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have [them] these hundred years; for learning hath brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best of governments. God keep us from both!" Berkeley and those who agreed with him knew that if all the people were educated they would soon demand the right to govern themselves. The schoolhouses of colonial days were very small and uncomfortable. The first of these in the country districts of New York and Pennsylvania have been described as fol- lows: " They were univer- sally made of logs. Some had a rough puncheon floor, others, a 'dirt' floor which readily ground into dust two or three inches thick that unruly pupils would purposely stir up in clouds to annoy the mas- ter and disturb the school. Usually the teacher sat in the middle of the room, and pegs were thrust between the logs around the walls, three or four feet from the ground; boards were laid on these pegs; at these rude desks sat the older scholars with their backs to the teacher. Younger scholars sat on blocks or benches of logs." There was a fire- place at one end of the room. When a better schoolhouse took the place of this rough hut of logs, it was often built with many sides, and furnished somewhat like that shown in the picture on this page. The teacher of the colonial school was nearly always a School in the Days of the Early Settlers in a Log Cabin Schoolhouse SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS 81 Schoolbooks of the olden time man. Many of the teachers were poorly fitted for their work. Their methods of teaching were tiresome, and their disciphne Teachers was harsh and severe. They beheved in not " sparing the rod and spoihng the child." They taught without the aid of blackboards, slates, or maps, and even paper w^as hard to get. The schoolbooks were few and uninteresting. The Httle children learned their letters and their first spelling lessons from a hornbook. This was really not a book at all, but a sheet of paper with letters and simple syllables on it. This was placed upon a flat piece of v>'Ood and covered with a thin sheet of transparent horn. At the lower end of the wooden block there was a little handle. The hornbook was succeeded by the New England Primer, the most widely used school- book that has ever been studied in America. The primer W'as a little book in which each letter of the alphabet was illustrated by a picture and a set of rhymes, nearly all of which were about incidents in the Bible. These rhymes began with Hornbook And ended with "In Adam's Fall We sinned all," "Zaccheus he Did climb a tree His Lord to see." After the New England Primer came the spelling book, and if a pupil advanced beyond this, he was given a Latin grammar. Great stress was laid upon arithmetic or "cipher- The course ing," as it was called. Few textbooks in arithmetic were o^ study used, but the teacher had a manuscript "sum-book" from which he gave out rules and problems to his pupils. Especial atten- tion was devoted to penmanship, and to "write a good hand" 6 82 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS Colleges was thought one of the finest accomphshments. Goose-quill pens ,were used in writing, and it was no small part of the teacher's duty to make and mend these pens. Little or no attention was given to geography, history, or any of the other branches now taught in our common schools. The first college in the colonies was founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636, and was named for John Harvard, a Puritan minister who gave it one-half his estate and all his library. About sixty years after this William and Mary College in Virginia, and Yale College in Connecticut were estab- lished. Before the close of the colonial era, Princeton, King's College, now Columbia University, the University of Pennsyl- vania, Brown, and Dartmouth had been added to this list. <^^ 17' ^^^i Wisr >--. , ,;4^...^ ^:".4:^^ William and Mary College This was the first college in Virginia. When the Revolution came, every colony north of Maryland had a college within its borders, but William and Mary was still the only one in the South. Any good high school to-day offers a better education than could be secured in the colleges of the colonies. Newspapers, magazines, and books are ahiiost as important in the education of a free people as their schools and colleges. Printing in Without the printing press we could hardly have popular the colonies education or democratic government. The first press in the English colonies in America was set up in Massachusetts in 1638, and before the colonial period ended there were presses in every colony. However, most of the books which the colonists used were printed in England. Almanacs, weekly newspapers, pamphlets, and schoolbooks like the New England CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 83 Primer made up the chief output of the colonial press before the Revolution. Colonial Churches and Religious Life. — Our leading religious denominations came from Europe to America in colonial times. The early Virginians were strict Church of Religious England men, or Episcopalians. Sooner or later the Anglican, denomina- or Episcopalian, Church became the state church in all the colonies south of New England except Pennsylvania, though in several of them only a minority of the people belonged to it. In all the colonies of New England except Rhode Island, the Congregational Church was established by law. There were Roman Catholics in Maryland, Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Baptists in Rhode Island. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a missionary in Georgia. Some of the Ger- mans were Lutherans, but there were many other sects among them. Most of the Scotch-Irish were devout Presbyterians. The first American churches, like the earliest dwelhngs and schoolhouses, were rough log buildings, but as soon as the people were able they built better houses of worship. Both the Early Puritan and Quaker meetinghouses were plain and bare within, churches though the Puritans built fine, high steeples upon the roofs of their churches. The Episcopal churches in the South were more richl}; furnished. Some of them were built of stone and modeled after the parish churches in England. Some of the men sent over from England to be the rectors of the Anglican churches in America were ignorant, selfish, and vicious ; others, however, were of the highest character and The clergy were devoted to their duties. As a rule the colonial ministers were zealous, upright, able men who possessed great influence over the people of their respective communities. The spirit of the colonial clergy was well expressed by Jonathan Edwards, its greatest member, when he said, "I am resolved to live with all my might while I do live." . The service in a colonial church would have seemed very cheerless and tedious to us. The people were summoned to it by a horn, or drum, or bell. Every one was expected to attend. The church In the early New England churches and in the Quaker meeting- service houses, the men and women sat on opposite sides of the room as they have continued to do in some of the Quaker meetings until the present. In many of the churches the people were 84 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS seated according to theii" rank and dignity. In New England the boys sat in a group by themselves, and a man was appointed to keep them in order. The churches were un heated in winter, and the women and children sometimes carried httle foot- stoves filled with hot coals to keep their feet warm. The service was not shortened, however, because the church was so cold. It usually consisted of the singing of psahns, of a prayer an hour long, and of a sermon lasting two or three hom'S. « A Pxiritan Minister Preaching In all the colonies tlie Sabbath was kept than it is now, but in New England the laws Strict breaking were especially severe. AU kinds Sabbath forms of recreation on the first day of ^^ sternly forbidden. No one w^as permitted except to and from church, or to walk in the seashore. Any one who" broke the Sundaj' L punished by fine or whipping. When the colonies were planted, nearly all the people in far more strictly against Sabbath- of work and all the week were to cook, to ride, streets or by the aws was severely CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 85 86 OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS the world were intolerant of differences in belief or worship, and Intolerance r(>ligioiis persecution was the rule. This spirit of intolerance came to America from the Old World. In Virginia, Catholics s and Quakers were pilloried and fined, and in Massachusetts four Quakers were put to death because they persisted in preaching their faith. Maryland and Rhode Island showed the way to broader toleration, and Pennsylvania had genuine • religious freedom from its earliest days. Our colonial ancestors were a deeply religious people. Their fear of God, their upright lives, and their high sense of Our heritage duty to their fellow men are as much a part of our rich heritage from our from them as their habits of industry, their dauntless courage, their capacity for self-government, and their love of liberty. CHAPTER V The Rivalry of France and England in America Early French explorers The Beginnings of New France. — Three great nations, Spain, France, and England, cacli claimed that part of North America now occupied by the United States. After the daring j^val claims sailors of Queen Elizabeth had defeated the Spanish Armada in America and broken the sea power of Spain, it was no longer possible for the Spaniards to make good their claim. But France and England continued to be rivals for the heart of the American continent throughout the entire colonial period of our history. W6 must now turn to the story of their rivalry. As early as 1524 Verra- zano, an Italian sailor in the Frenchservice, while seeking a western waterway to China saw the American coast and entered New York harbor. Ten years later Jacques Cartier, a hardy French mariner, boldly crossed the Atlantic in a little ship of sixty tons and discovered the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Returning the next year Cartier as- cended the St. Lawrence River as far as the present site of Montreal. Other Frenchmen came to this northern region to fish or to trade for furs, but no permanent French settle- ment was made in it until the dawn of the seventeenth century. The work of the early French explorers is important because France based her claim to America upon it. Samuel de Champlain was the real founder of New France. 87 Cartier Takes Possession of the Gaspe Coast 88 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND After fighting in the armies of . King Henry the Fourth, Cham- Champlain plain visited Spanish America where he suggested the plan of at Quebec ^ gj^jp g^nal across the isthmus of Panama. In 1604 he helped to plant the fu'st permanent French settlement in America at Port Royal in Acadia, now Nova Scotia. In 1608, at the foot of the frowning cliff of Quebec, he founded the city which was Greenwich Outline Map of Eastern North America destined to be the capital of New France. Champlain began his first winter at Quebec with twenty-eight men, and in the spring only eight of them were left aUve; yet no thought of giving up entered the mind of this resolute man. In the summer of 1609 Champlain went, with a war party of Algonquin Indians, to attack their hereditary enemies, the '^f^th^*"'^*^ Iroquois, who lived in the present state of New York. He Iroquois did this because he wanted to win the friendship of the Indians BEGINNINGS OF NEW FRANCE 89 in Canada and at the same time to explore the country. Dur- ing this expedition Champlain discovered the beautiful lake which now bears his name; and on its shores he easily defeated a war band of the Iroquois, who were frightened by the French- men's guns, for they had never heard firearms before. This little battle had far-reaching consequences. It made the Iroquois the relentless enemies of the French colonists in Canada, many of whom perished under the tomahawks of these fiercest of red men. Because of this enmity of the Iroquois, the French were unable to penetrate the region where they lived and pushed westward instead in the direction of the Great Lakes. Ever restless and active, Champlain was foremost in the work of exploring the interior of the country. Four years after he discovered Lake Champlain Champlain he led an exploring party up the .j^^S^ explores the Ottawa River. Day after day these intrepid Frenchmen, with their In- dian friends, paddled their birch- bark canoes up the stream or carried them around the numerous rapids in the river. From its headwaters they crossed to a westward-flowing stream and at last stood upon the shores of Lake Huron, the first of the Great Lakes to be seen by a gamuei de champiain European. For more than a quarter of a century Champlain was the soul of New France. He toiled without ceasing to strengthen the little colony, to bring over more settlers from France, to Success at win the friendship of the Canadian Indians, and to defend his last people against the savage Iroquois. When he died in 1635 the French settlement on the St. Lawa-ence, though still small and weak, was firmly established. A variety of motives led the French to colonize Canada. The hope of finding gold and silver was uppermost in the minds of many. The rich fur trade enlisted the interest of the mer- The motives chants. The love of adventure and of the wild, free life of of the French the forest made its appeal to a host of gallant spirits. The king encouraged the movement because it promised to enlarge 90 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND and fur traders the territories of France, and the church sent the Jesuits to convert the Indians to the Christian faith. The French in the Mississippi Valley. — In their zeal to bring the Indians into the Christian fold the Jesuit mission- Missionaries arics pushed far into the interior of the continent. The Jesuits suffered every hardship, and not a few of them met death at the hands of the Indians. But not even fear of the awful torture which the red men inflicted upon their victims could turn these heroic priests from their purpose. Hardly less daring were the French fur traders who wandered far and wide in search of the rich peltries for which they exchanged beads and trinkets, hatchets, firearms, and brandy — the "fire-water" which made the Indian more savage than he was by nature. Before the seventeenth century drew to a close there were mission stations and trading posts on the straits of Mackinac, at Sault Ste. Marie, Green Bay, and other places on the Great Lakes. Very early the Frenchmen who visited the region of the Great Lakes heard of a great river farther west. At last Father Marquette resolved to find it. In the spring of 1673 he started from the mission station on the straits of Mackinac with Joliet, a French explorer, and five other men. In two birch-l:)ark canoes they made their way to the head of Green Bay and thence up the Fox River to its source. Guided by the Indians, they then crossed to the Wisconsin River and launched their canoes upon its waters. Our greatest American historian, Francis Parkman, helps us to travel in imagination with Marquette and his men down the Wisconsin. "They glided calmly down the tranquil stream, by islands choked with trees and matted with entangling grape-vines; by forests, groves and prairies, the parks and pleasure-grounds of a prodigal nature; by thickets and marshes and broad, bare sand bars; under the shadowing trees, between whose tops looked down from afar the bold brow of some woody bluff. At night, the bivouac — the canoes inverted on the bank, the flickering fire,, the meal of bison flesh or venison, the evening pipes, and slumber beneath the stars; and when in the morning they embarked again, the mist hung on the river like a bridal veil, then melted before the sun, till the glassy water and the languid woods basked breathless in the sultry glow." Marquette's expedition FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 91 At last ''with a joy," writes Marquette, "which I cannot express," they found the great river which they sought. For two weeks the current of the Mississippi bore the explorers Exploring the southward until they came to a village of the Illinois Indians Mississippi who feasted them with porridge, fish, dog's flesh, and fat buffalo- meat. Resuming their journey they floated with the stream, day after day, past the mouths of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the Ohio, until they reached the Arkansas River. Mar- quette and Joliet were now satisfied that the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and decided to return to Canada and report what they had seen. Accordingly, they slowly retraced their course until they came to the Illinois River, ascended that stream, made their way to Lake Michigan and finally reached Green Bay in safety. While Johet went to Quebec to report, Marquette remained at Green Bay. He was very much broken in health, but the following year he returned as he had promised to establish a Death of mission among the Illinois Indians. But the work of the Marquette unselfish and fearless Jesuit was over. Marquette died the next spring, while on his way to his own mission at St. Ignace on the straits of Mackinac, and was buried by the shores of Lake Michigan. The work of exploring the Mississippi River, begun by Marquette, was continued by La Salle, the young Frenchman who had already discovered the Ohio. It would have been La Salle hard to find a better man for the great and dangerous task. La Salle had a frame of iron which could endure the terrible exposure and privation of life in the wilderness. He was fertile in plans, bold and energetic in action, and inflexible in purpose. His was an unconquerable soul. His penetrating mind foresaw the greatness of the Mississippi Valley, and it was his ambition to win it all for France. La Salle began his work by building a vessel upon the bank of the Niagara River above the falls. In this ship, the Griffin, the first that ever sailed upon the Great Lakes, he went to Loss of the Green Bay. From this point the Griffin, laden with furs, began ^'''^" her return voyage but was never seen again. La Salle, with his men, went on to the Illinois River where he built a fort. The loss of the Griffin and of the supplies, which she was expected to bring, made it necessary for La Salle to return to Canada, 92 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND La SaUe claims the Mississippi Valley for France which he reached after an overland journey of great hardship. La Salle soon returned to the land of the Illinois, and early in 1682 he carried out his great plan of exploring the Mississippi French Explorations and Posts in the Valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi River. With about fifty French- men and Indians he drifted in canoes down the Mississippi far past the point reached by Marquette, visiting, from time to time, the Indian tribes along ' the shores, until at last he reached the mouth of the great river and looked out upon the waves of the Gulf of Mexico. Here La Salle formally pro- claimed that the country drain- ed by the Mississippi and all its tributaries belonged to the king of France. THE COLONIES CONTRASTED P3 La Salle named the new domain of France Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV. The Louisiana of La Salle, however, included not merely our state of that name but all the land Loviisiana between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, from the sources of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle next planned to plant a French colony in Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi. With this end in view he returned to France and, in 1684, sailed for the Gulf of Mexico The fate of with a company of settlers. He failed to find the mouth of ^* ^^® the Mississippi and finally landed on the coast of Texas. Disease and quarrels among the men brought the colony to ruin, and at last La Salle was shot by one of his own men. The failure of La Salle did not prevent the French from occupying the country about the mouth of the Mississippi. Some years after his death a little settlement was made on New Orleans the coast and, in 1718, New Orleans was founded and became bounded the capital of Louisiana. The French colony of Louisiana grew very slowly and had only a few thousand inhabitants at the close of the colonial period. By 1750 the French had made many settlements on the banks of the St. Lawrence and had planted the little colony of Louisiana on the lower Mississippi. Jesuit missionaries, roving The work of fur traders, and far-sighted explorers had given France a t^^ French claim to the vast region drained by the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. But this region from Quebec and Montreal to New Orleans, was still a wilderness inhabited by savage Indians and only clotted here and there with French trading posts and mission stations. The English and French Colonies Contrasted. — There were many differences between the English colonists scattered along the Atlantic seaboard from New Hampshire to Georgia and English and the French settlers on the St. Lawrence. They were unlike in ^^iQ^^^-gtg their ways of making a living, in their treatment of the Indians, differed in their social life, and in their forms of government. No less widely striking was the contrast between them in language, in religion, and in their relation to their mother countries. The English colonists were far more numerous than the French. In 1750 there were almost twenty times as many people in the English colonies as in all New France. The Inoccupation 94 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND In their relations with the Indians In social life In govern- ment English colonists were nearly all farmers. The French culti- vated a little land in Canada, but they were more interested in traffic with the Indians. Many of them were fur traders, trappers, hunters, boatmen, and wood runners, as those who lived a roving life in the forest were called. Both nations had extensive fisheries. The English disliked and despised the Indians and, in the end, either drove them away or killed them. The French made friends with the red men, lived among them, and sometimes intermarried with them. This difference in their treatment of the Indians was due in part to the differing interests of the two groups of colonists. The English cleared the land, built homes, and rapidly increased in numbers. The uncivilized Indians, like the wild animals, were naturally swept away by this growth of civilized life in America. On the other hand, the French, few in number and widely scattered over a vast domain, wished to preserve alike the fur-bearing animals and the Indian trappers with whom they carried on a profitable trade. Too often, instead of civilizing the Indians, the French woodmen and trappers became almost as barbarous as their red neighbors. In the English colonies nearly every man owned his farm, managed it as he pleased, and enjoyed all the fruits of his labor. In Canada the land along the river and lake fronts where most of the people lived was given in great tracts to landlords, who were of higher rank than the rest of the settlers. These landlords gave out strips of land to the actual farmers, who paid them a small rent for it. In addition to this rent each farmer was expected to have his grain ground in his landlord's grist mill, to do several days' labor for the landlord each year, and to give him one fish in every eleven he caught. In a word, the English colonist was a free man, while the French Canadian of colonial days was a peasant, subject to man}'- of the vexa- tious feudal customs that had existed in France ever since the Middle Ages. In every one of the English colonies the people were repre- sented in the government and were free to manage their local affairs as they chose. Sucii freedom was unknown in New France. There the government was entirely in the hands of a governor and other agents appointed by the French king. The people had no voice even in local matters. Their ruler A HALF CENTURY OF CONFLICT 95 sent from France not only levied their taxes, controlled their trade, and excluded from the country all who were not Catholics in religion, but even told them ''what tools to use, what seeds to plant, at what age to marry, and how large families to bring up." The English colonists were learning the lessons of de- mocracy. The French were still under the iron heel of despotism. Such were the rivals for the control of North America. The English colonists were mainly Protestant in religion and possessed a large measure of democratic government. The A striking men of New France, on the other hand, spoke the language of contrast their fatherland, were members of the Catholic church, had no experience in self-government, and were the subjects of a despot. While the English far outnumbered the French they were divided into thirteen colonies which could rarely act together. The French were united under the control of one governor and could count on the help of their Indian allies. Both sides were equal in bravery and hardihood. The victory in the struggle between them, which was sure to come, would determine the destiny of America A Half Century of Conflict.— In 1689, shortly after the English Revolution of 1688 put William and Mary upon the throne of England, war broke out between that couurtry and Early inter- France. Between 1689 and 1763, four great wars were waged colonial wars between England and France. The first three of these con- tests. King William's War, 1689-1697, Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713, and King George's War, 1744-1748, began in Europe over European questions. The English and French colonists in America fought each other in these wars, not so much because of any real dispute between them, as because their mother countries were enemies. Yet throughout this half century and more of warfare they were steadily becoming more and more conscious of their conflicting interests in the New World. The fourth and last intercolonial war began in America, as we shall see, and was the direct outcome of the rivalry between England and France for the control of this continent. The French were the aggressors in all the earlier inter- colonial wars. War parties of Indians, with a few French leaders, made their way across the wide belt of forest and Border mountain which lay between the English and French colonies warfare 96 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND and attacked the frontier settlements in New England and New York. Houses were burned, and men, women, and children were killed and scalped or carried away captive by the Indians. The story of the French and Indian attack upon Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704, will help us to reahze what this border warfare was like. Indians Attacking Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1704 Deerfield was a typical New England frontier village not far from the Connecticut River. Fifteen houses in the middle The story of the town were enclosed by a palisade, a sort of picket fence of Deerfield ^jf JQgg There were many scattered houses on the little farms outside this enclosure, but most of the people had taken refuge within the palisaded village for the Indians were known to be on the warpath. It was in February and the snow lay deep upon the ground. In one place it was drifted nearly to the top of the palisade. Sentinels were posted inside the enclosure, but they sometimes grew careless during the long, frosty nights, A HALF CENTURY OF CONFLICT 97 and it is said that on the morning of the attack they were asleep. Two miles away in the wintry forest lay a half-frozen, starving band of some two hundred Indians and about fifty Frenclimen who had made the long march from Canada on The attack their snowshoes. In spite of the cold they waited patiently on the village until the darkest hour just before the dawn, then crept noise- lessly up to the village and over the palisade, and raised the war- whoop inside the enclosure before they were discovered. Then they attacked the doors of the houses with their axes and hatchets. Mr. Williams, the minister of Deerfield, was awak- ened by the outcry just in time to see the Indians breaking through the shattered door of his home. The savages killed two of his children and made prisoners of Williams, his wife, and his remaining children. The people in most of the other houses met a similar fate. Some scalps were taken, but more of the people were captured alive because the French paid more for prisoners than they did for scalps. In a few instances, as at the house of Mr. Stebbins, the minister's neighbor, the inmates succeeded in beating off the Indians and were not taken. Many of the captured houses were set on fire. At daybreak the men in the neighboring villages saw the fire and came to the rescue. The Indians had already collected their prisoners and begun to drive them toward the forest. The fate of The rescuers chased the remaining Indians out of Deerfield and *^® prisoners killed several of them but were unable to retake the prisoners. The Indians now started with their captives on the long, awful winter march to Canada. The women and children who could not keep up were tomahawked, scalped, and left by the way- side. Some of the prisoners starved to death, some of the children were adopted by the Indians, but most of the captives were finally exchanged or ransomed and returned to New Eng- land. The fate of Deerfield was very much like that of many other frontier settlements in New England and New York during this half century of border warfare. The English colonists did what they could to defend them- selves against these barbarous attacks by building frontier forts in which they could take refuge and by watching con- The English stantly for the Indian war parties. But they soon realized defense that their best defense was to carry the war into the enemy's 7 98 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND The French strongholds country. The Indians were instigated to go on the warpath against the English by the French at Port Royal and Quebec, and to these places they returned to collect the reward offered for the scalps and prisoners they took. If these centers of French influence could be taken by the EngHsh, the French power in America would be broken. Accordingly, we find the English sending expeditions, usually by sea, against these French strongholds. In King William's War the English captured Port Royal but failed in their effort against Quebec, and at the close of this war Port White Captives Driven to Canada by the Indians Royal was restored to France. In Queen Anne's War the English took Port Royal a second time and kept it, but again failed utterly in their expedition against Quebec. After they lost Port Royal, the French built a strong fortress on Cape , Breton Island, at the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and named it Louisburg for the king of France. In King George's War the New England colonists, with the aid of the English fleet, captured Lo.uisburg, but unfortunately England restored it to France in the treaty of peace which ended the war. Tne Peace of Queen Anne's War was the only intercolonial war before Utrecht 1750 which brought about a definite result. By the im- FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 99 portant treaty of Utrecht, which closed it in 1713, France agreed that Acadia, Newfoundland, and the rich fur-bearing region on the shores of Hudson Bay should belong to England. The English changed the name Acadia to Nova Scotia, and later founded Halifax which became the chief city of this province. The French and Indian War. — By 1750 the English col- onists on the Atlantic seaboard had occupied most of the good land between the coast and the mountains. Hunters Its cause and fur traders were finding their way through the gaps in the Alleghanies and bringing back glowing reports of the fine country beyond the moimtains. The colonies claimed this western land and began to plan to possess it. When the French heard of these plans they were alarmed, for they also claimed that all the country west of the mountains belonged to them. Then the French promptly took steps to exclude the English settlers from the disputed territory, and war be- tween the two nations was inevitable. Unlike the earlier inter- colonial wars, the French and Indian War, began in America, although, sooner or later, most of the nations of Europe were drawn into it. The physical geography of North America had a great influence upon the history of the French and Indian War. The Appalachian mountain system lay like a great barrier Geographic between the English colonies and New France. The English influences must cross this barrier if they were to win the land they coveted. But there were only a few places where it was easy to cross the mountain S3'stem which extends from Canada to Georgia. If the French could hold these natural gateways, they could shut out English settlement from the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. If the English could secure them, nothing would stop their swarming pioneers from winning the West. Let us look for these iniportant gateways. The St. Law- rence River was the great highway leading to the heart of Canada. This highway was closed to the English by the The strongly fortified naval station at Louisburg, at the entrance to gateways of the Gulf of St. liawrence, and by the frowning fortress which crowned the cliff at Quebec. Canada could be invaded from New England and New York by way of the Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain, or by going up the Mohawk 100 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND Valley and across Lake Ontario. The French forts at Ti- conderoga and Crown Point guarded the Lake Champlain route. A fort on the Mohawk River would have closed the other road, but the French could not build there on account of the hostility of the Iroquois. They sought, therefore, to control this part of the country by building Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara River and Fort Frontenac near the outlet of Lake Ontario. The forks f '^^^ important road into the West for the people of Penn- the Ohio svlvania, Maryland, and Virginia led up the Potomac to where Cumberland now stands, thence across the moun- tains to the Monongahela River, and down that stream to where it joins the Allegheny to form the Ohio. If the French could control this point, they could shut English settlers out of the Ohio valley. Virginia claimed the Ohio valley, and when Governor Dinwiddle of that colony heard that the French were building forts on the Allegheny River, he sent George Washington, then only twenty-one years of age, to warn them that they were trespassing on English soil. The French paid no attention to this warning, and when the Virginians began to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, the French drove them away, completed the fort, and named it Fort Duquesne. The French were now in possession of all the important points which controlled the roads into the disputed territory. If they could hold these points, they would win the war which was just beginning. The, history of the French and Indian War is the story of a series of English attacks upon the French strongholds whose Three years location and purpose we have just noted. For the first three of Enghsh, years of the war, the English failed in almost everything they undertook. There were two reasons for this lack of success. A Friendly Indian Running to Warn the Settlers of an Attack FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 101 In the first place, it was difficult to get the colonies to act together. A congress held at Albany in 1754 to treat with the Indians and to plan for united action accomplished little. At this congress Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for uniting all the colonies under one government, but his plan of union pleased neither the king, who thought it gave the colonies too much power, nor the colonists, who feared that it left the king too much authority. In the second place, the English Braddock, Dying, Borne from the Field Near Fort Duquesne government was very badly managed at this time, and unfit men were sent to lead the English forces in America. The French and Indian War opened in 1754 when Wash- ington built Fort Necessity in western Pennsylvania. Here he was attacked by the French and forced to surrender the Braddock's fort. The following year General Braddock was sent, with expedition two regiments of British regulars and some colonial militia, to capture Fort Duquesne and drive the French away from the forks of the Ohio. Braddock advanced from the Potomac, cutting a road through the mountain wilderness. When within a few miles of Fort Duquesne he was attacked by the French 102 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND French victories and Indians who were concealed in the woods. Braddock knew nothing of forest warfare and refused to learn from the colonial troops whom he despised. He kept his men in line in the open, where they were shot down in great numbers by the unseen foe. Braddock was mortally wounded, and the remnant of his army was saved from utter destruction only by the courage and good sense of Washington and the colonial mihtia who fought the Indians in their own way. Braddock's defeat was not the only disaster of the opening years of the war. Enghsh expeditions against Fort Niagara and Louis- burg met with no better success, while the French under their great leader, Montcalm, captured the English outpost at Oswego on Lake Ontario, and Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George. These early French successes brought all the horrors of Indian warfare upon the border settlements from New York to the Carolinas. In 1757 William Pitt, the greatest English states- man of the eighteenth cen- William Pitt tury, came into power in England. Pitt was a great orator and an able, honest man, full of energy and confidence. He quickly infused his own high spirit into the management of affairs in England, and sent three capable generals, Forbes, Amherst, and Wolfe, to lead the English armies in America. From this time the English were everywhere successful. In 1758 Forbes took Fort Duquesne, which was renamed Fort Pitt in honor of the great leader in England. In the course of time the city of Pittsburgh grew up about it. The year that Fort Duquesne was taken. Fort Frontenac also fell into the hands of the EngUsh, and Amherst and Wolfe captured Louisburg. General James Wolfe The spirit of FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 103 The year 1759 saw the triumph of England. Fort Niagara was easily taken, Amherst captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and Wolfe led a great expedition against Quebec, the The siege last important stronghold of the French. Wolfe's task was ^f Quebec most difficult. Quebec stands upon a high, steep bluff over- looking the St. Lawrence River. It was strongly fortified and was commanded by Montcalm, a very able and cautious Wm. II. Rail, Inc. General Wolfe, Mortally Wounded, Is Told the Progress of the Battle general. Wolfe spent the summer in looking for a weak point in Montcalm's defenses, but found none. The appr-oach of winter would make it necessary for Wolfe to abandon the siege of Quebec Ix'fore his ships were frozen in the river. The heroic general resolved to make one more The Plains attempt to capture the town. On the night of the 12th of of Abraham September he ordered some of his men into boats above Quebec and dropped quietly down stream to a little bay, since known as Wolfe's Cove. Landing at this point, his men climbed the steep cliff and killed or drove away the guard at the top. All night long the boats were bringing more men to the foot of this path up the cliff, and when day dawned the 104 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND Wolfe and Montcalm The fall of New France British army stood in red-coated array upon the Plains of Abraham, above Quebec. If these were not driven away, the soldiers in the great French stronghold would soon be starved out. The surprised Montcalm saw the danger and promptly led his troops against the English lines. His attack failed, and the French were soon driven behind the walls of the town, Wolfe and Montcalm were both mortally wounded. As Wolfe lay dying upon the field he was told that the French were running. "Now, God be praised," he murmured, "I will die in peace." Montcalm was carried back into the city, and when told that he had only a few hours left to live he replied, "So much the better. I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." In the governor's garden to-day at Quebec there stands a monument dedicated to these two heroic leaders. Inscribed upon it in Latin are these beautiful words: "Valor gave them a common death, history a common fame, and posterity a common monument." The battle upon the Plains of Abraham was the decisive event in the long struggle between England and France for empire in America. Four days after the battle, Quebec sur- rendered to the English, and the following year they occupied Montreal and the remaining French forts. The war was over in America, although fighting between England and France went on elsewhere for two or three years longer. Francis Parkman in his fascinating book, "Montcalm and Wolfe", gives the following account of the death of Wolfe pictured on the preceding page: "Wolfe himself led the charge, at the head of the Louisbourg gren- adiers. A shot shattered his wrist. He wrapped his handkerchief about it and kept on. Another shot struck him, and he still advanced, when a third lodged in his breast. He staggered, and sat on the ground. Lieu- tenant Brown, of the grenadiers, one Henderson, a volunteer in the same company, and a private soldier, aided by an officer of artillery who ran to join them, carried him in their arms to the rear. He begged them to lay him down. They did so, and asked if he would have a surgeon. 'There's no need,' he answered; 'it's aU over with me.' A moment after, one of them cried out: 'They run; see how they run!' 'Who run?' Wolfe demanded, like a man roused from sleep. ' The enemy, sir. Egad, they give way everywhere!' 'Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton,' re- turned the dying man; 'tell him to march Webb's regiment down to THE TREATY OF PARIS 105 Charles River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge.' Then, turning on his side, he murmured, 'Now, God be praised, I will die in peace!' and in a few moments his gallant soul had fled." The Treaty of Paris. — The Treaty of Paris closed the French and Indian War in 1763. By this treaty, France with- drew from the North American continent. She gave to England A new map all her territory east of the Mississippi River, except New ^^ North Orleans. That city and all the French lands west of the America North America Before and After the French and Indian War Mississippi were ceded to Spain. During the war, Spain had fought on the side of France, and the English had taken Havana and Manila from her. In her desire to recover these colonial cities, Spain now gave Florida to England in exchange for them. The French and Indian War is an important landmark in the history of America. It ended the long rivalry between England and France for the control of the great valleys of the This war St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. It gave the heart of the "^ade our continent to men of the English-speaking race. It insured the EngUsh spread of English ideas of freedom, self-government, and religious liberty throughout the United States. Scarcely less important were the immediate effects of this 106 RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND war upon the English colonists in America. With the removal of the danger of French and Indian attack on the frontier, It led the they could cross the mountains in safety and begin the settle- way to the ment of the West. They felt less dependent upon England Revolution ^j^^^ ^^^^ before. They no longer needed her help against New France, and they had learned in the hard school of war to act together. They were growing conscious of their own strength and of their own fighting qualities. England won a vast empire in the French and Indian War. In trying to govern this new empire she did many things which first irritated and then alienated her American colonies. The French and Indian War hastened the coming of the Revolution and helped to train leaders like Washington, who were to fight the battles of the War for Independence. 1 CHAPTER VI The Causes of the Revolution The True Character of the American Revolution. — Long before America was discovered, the English people were fighting to guard their freedom against the tyranny of kings and nobles. The long In 1215 the barons of Eng- land forced the wicked King John to sign the Great Charter, in which he prom- ised to recognize and protect the rights of his people. Within a hundred years after the Great Charter was signed , the people of England won the right to be repre- sented in the Parliament, or lawmaking body of the realm. We have already seen how the English Parlia- ment resisted the tjn-anny of Charles I and put him to death, and how the leaders of the people drove James II from the throne in the Revolution of 1688. That Revolution made Parlia- ment the supreme authority in England, but it was a Par- liament controlled by the nobles and the rich. The common people of the land had httle voice in it. The struggle to make the English government truly democratic was yet to come, and the Revolution, in which the English colonists in America won their independence from their mother country, was the first great battle in that contest. The best men in England saw this clearly at that time, and all Englishmen admit it now. Some years ago the British Ambassador to our country said: "Englishmen now recognize that in the Revolution you were fighting their battles." 107 struggle for English liberty King John Signing the Great Charter to Which We Owe Many of Our Rights 108 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION It was natural that English-speaking men should win the right of complete self-government first in America. The Free men English Puritans and Quakers, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyteri- found ^jjg ^]^Q came to the New World in such large numbers during freedom in the colonial period, were the most democratic people of their the colonies time. They left behind them many of the aristocratic notions and customs which had existed in the mother country for centuries. The dangers and the hardships of life in a new country had helped to make all the colonists bold, hardy, and self-reliant. They had found in their new homes far more freedom to speak and to act as they pleased than their ancestors had ever known in the Old World. The colonists had learned to love this new freedom, and they were quick to resent every effort to take it from them. During the later colonial period there had been a great deal of strife between the colonists and the governors sent from Training in England to rule them. Though many of these quarrels between ^®'^" _, the governors and the people were over petty or local questions, they were important in teaching the people to know their rights and in giving them courage to maintain them. Some- times laws passed by the legislatures of the colonies were set aside by the authorities in England because they were thought to be unwise or contrary to the interests of the mother country. This practice displeased the colonists, who thought that they knew best what laws they needed. But most of all, the people of the colonies resented the Navigation Acts which, as we have seen, were intended to make them buy all their imported goods in England and sell most of their exports to that country. But in spite of the long-standing dissatisfaction over these matters, the American colonists were strongly attached to Attachment their mother country in 1763. They rejoiced in the British to England g^ccess in the French and Indian War — a success which they had helped to win — because it ended the old danger of French and Indian attack from Canada and opened the way for settle- ments beyond the Alleghany Mountains. The colonists loved the manners, the customs, and even the fashions of England. No one thought of independence. Benjamin Franklin, the greatest American of the later colonial days, said that he had never heard from any person drimk or sober the least expres- sion of a wish for separation. Yet only twelve years after the NEW BRITISH POLICY IN AMERICA 109 signing of the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, the colonists were in open rebelhon against the British government. We must now trace, step by step, the history of the quarrel with the mother country which resulted in the establishment of the independence of the United States. A New British Policy in America. — As we saw at the close of the last chapter, England had acquired a vast empire during the French and Indian War. While Pitt and his generals, The British Amherst and Wolfe, were winning North America from France, ^^ipire another great Englishman, Robert Clive, was laying the foun- dations of British power in India. When peace was proclaimed in 1763, England was facing the question how to govern this great new empire. The government of England at this time was unfit to undertake so difficult a task. For fifty years ^'IjWl^ _ ' ^V^jf< ', The English the kings of England had possessed iji!i\i\' ,_T^ ^^^^Y^- government very little actual authority. The real power, as we have said, was vested in Parliament, which con- ' sisted of a House of Lords, most of whose members were hereditary, ^^^ and an elected House of Commons. But the House'of Commons did not truly represent the people of Eng- The SwhTiost America, land. Many small and insignificant towns were represented in it because they had long before been given the right to send members to parliament while large and thriving cities of recent growth sent no members at all. The masses of the English people did not even have the right to vote. The great noblemen and the rich merchants who con- trolled Parliament really governed the country. In 1760, George III came to the throne of England. In his boyhood his mother had often said to him, "George, be king," and he began his reign with the determination to win George III back the power which the recent kings had lost. Few kings of England have been less fit to be entrusted with power. George III was ignorant, narrow-minded, and obstinate. He was jealous of men of ability, like Pitt, and appointed his no CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION Efforts to enforce the Navigation Acts A standing army in America Taxation without representa- tion ministers from among those who would do his bidding in all things. He bribed the corrupt Parliament to support his plans. It was mainly his fault that England lost her American colonies. John Richard Green, one of the greatest of English historians, declares, ''the shame of the darkest hour of England's history lies wholly at his door." In 1763, George III made George Grenville his prime minister. Grenville knew that the colonists had refused to obey the Navigation Acts, and he resolved to enforce these laws to the letter regardless of the consequences. In carrying out his purpose, the courts issued Writs of Assistance, which were general search warrants authorizing the officers of the law to search the homes of the colonists for goods upon which the duties had not been paid. The colonists thought that these writs were illegal. At the same time, ships of the navy were stationed off the coast of America to prevent smuggling. This effort to enforce the Navigation Acts severely injured the commerce of New England and stirred up a bitter feeling in that section against the British government. The maintenance of a standing army in the colonies was another feature of the new British policy in America. It was said that British troops were needed in America to guard the frontier from Indian attacks and to defend the colonies against foreign invasion. But the Americans felt that they were quite able to take care of themselves if they were attacked by the Indians. They feared that the British soldiers sent among them might be used to keep them in subjection to the power of England. In the third place, Grenville proposed that Parliament should levy a tax upon the Americans to help pay the expense of keeping a standing army in their midst. From the English standpoint it was reasonable that the colonists should contribute toward their own defense. While the colonists did not want British troops in America at all, they particularly objected to paying a tax laid upon them by Parliament because they believed that they were not represented in that body. On this point there was a difference of opinion between the people in England and the colonists. The English said that the members of the House of Commons represented all the inhabitants of the British Empire, the colonists included. The colonists had THE STAMP ACT 111 long been accustomed to elect men in their various towns or • counties to represent them in the colonial legislature which made their laws, and they declared that they were not repre- sented in a distant parliament in which not a single American had a seat, and in the selection of whose members they had no voice. They held that Englishmen everywhere could be taxed only by their representatives and that taxation without representation was tyranny. The attempt of the British government, during the first fifteen years of the reign of George III, to do these three things which it had never done before in America, namely, to enforce The the Navigation Acts, to maintain a standing army in the inimediate colonies, and to tax the American colonists to help pay for the Revolution army, was the direct cause of the Revolution. We must next notice some of the things which were done in carrying out this new policy and note the effect of these acts upon the American people. The Stamp Act. — In 1765, Parhament passed the Stamp Act. This law provided that all legal documents, such as deeds, wills, and licenses, must be written or printed upon The act stamped paper bought of the British government. Almanacs, Passed in newspapers, advertisements, and playing cards were also taxed. EngHsh The money raised in this way was to be used to help pay the protest expense of keeping the British troops in America. The Stamp Act was passed in spite of the protest of Isaac Barre, a friend of the Americans in Parliament, who called the colonists "those sons of Liberty" and warned the House of Commons that "the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still." Little atten- tion was paid to this warning. No one seemed to have any idea that the stamp taxes would be resisted in America. The news of the passage of the Stamp Act alarmed the Americans. Protests against it as an act of tyranny were heard from every quarter. The legislature of Virginia declared, Alarm in "That the General Assembly of this colony have the only and America sole exclusive right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this colony." It was in a famous speech in support of this d(>claration that Patrick Henry said, "Tarquin and Cffsar each had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third — " (at this point the 112 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION chairman and some of the members shouted, "Treason! Treason!") — "may profit by their example," continued Henry. "If this be treason, make the most of it." Virginia was not the only colony to protest. There was intense excitement throughout the whole country. The legis- The Stamp latures of several of the other colonies, and meetings of the Act Congress pgQpie in many towns and counties, passed resolutions of remon- strance. Everywhere the newspapers condemned the hated Patrick Henry Addressing the Virginia Assembly law. At the suggestion of Massachusetts, nine of the colonies sent representatives to a Stamp Act Congress which met in New York in October, 1765. James Otis of Massachusetts, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina were leaders of this meeting. The Stamp Act Congress declared that "no taxes can be constitutionally imposed upon the people of the colonies but by their respective legislatures." It also sent an address to the king and petitions to each house of parliament asking for the repeal of the stamp taxes. The Stamp Act Congress helped the colonists to see the need of acting together. Cliristopher Gadsden said, " There SECOND ATTEMPT TO TAX COLONISTS 113 ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on the continent, but all of us, Americans." The opposition of the colonists to the stamp taxes was not limited to protests and remonstrances. From New Hampshire to South Carolina there was rioting and mob violence. Every- Violent where associations, called Sons of Liberty, sprang up. The resistance to motto of the members of these associations was "Liberty, taxes Property, and No Stamps," and their purpose was forcible resistance to the Stamp Act. The wrath of the people was especially du-ected against the men who were appointed to distribute the stamps. Their windows were broken, in some instances their houses were destroyed, and all sorts of insults were offered them. When the stamped paper arrived in America it was seized and destroyed. Before the day came when the hated act was to go into effect, every stamp distributor, in the colonies had been forced to resign. Many of the colonists agreed not to import or to use English goods while the Stamp Act was in force. This action led the merchants in England, who were beginning to suffer The repeal financial loss from the falling off of their American trade, 9^ ^^® Stamp to petition Parliament for the repeal of the ol)jectionable law. In the meantime George Grenville had fallen from power and the new English ministry was more favorable to America. Early in 1766, a bill to repeal the Stamp Act was introduced in Parliament. In the great debate which took place on this proposal, Pitt, ever the friend of the colonies, denied the right of Parliament to tax the colonists, and said, "I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." It is probable that a majority of the English people agreed with Pitt in this sentiment. Benjamin Franklin, who was at this time in London as the agent of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, told the House of Commons that the Americans Avould never obey the Stamp Act and that it ought to be repealed. At last the Parliament followed the advice of Pitt and Franklin and repealed the troublesome law, amid great rejoicing in England and America. The Second British Attempt to Tax the Colonists.— TVlion The ParUament repealed the Stamp Act it declared that it had the ^.cts 8 114 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION power to bind the people of America "in all cases whatsoever." No one paid much attention to this declaration at the time it was made, but the Americans were reminded of it in 1767 when PaThament laid duties on glass, paints, red and white lead, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. T'he money raised by these taxes was to be used to pay the salaries of the colonial governors and judges. At the same time the obnoxious Writs of Assistance were declared to be legal and men were g#fe^ /Cpne\ y The Hated Revenue Stamps sent to America to look after the enforcement of the Navigation Acts. All these laws are called the Townshend Acts, after Charles Townshend, the English minister who proposed them. When news of the passage of the Townshend Acts reached America, the spirit of unrest, which had been quieted by the Unrest in the repeal of the Stamp Act, broke out afresh. Once more the colonies colonists emphatically denied the right of Parliament to tax them without their consent. Moreover, they especially objected to the use which was to be made of the money raised by the new taxes. In their own legislatures the colonists had always voted the salaries of their governors and judges. This gave them some control over those officials. The people felt that if Parliament took this right away from them they would lose that control altogether. But, as they were beginning to realize the danger in rioting and mob violence, they now tried to confine their opposition to the Townshend Acts to mere protests and remonstrances. During the years of protest against the Townshend Acts which followed their passage in 1767, Samuel Adams of Massa- Adams and chusetts, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry Dickinson of Virginia were the foremost champions of American rights. Samuel Adams, a shrewd poUtician who was the clerk of the SECOND ATTEMPT TO TAX COLONISTS 113 Massachusetts legislature, wrote a circular letter from that body to the other colonies in which he suggested that they all stand together in opposing the unwise and illegal policy of A Weekly, Political, and Commercial Paper ; open to all Parties, but infiucnced by None. [Numb. 1 OL I THURSDAY, March 7, 1771 l He dritttibU Piinfip'n md !..«>.«,,j.b,,„ D.M..,p ^ Ir. fbKh <;NE ml, h*. 1 righl to Chi' 1.., 1™. .f^.W, ».i„,««ir..,;..d. l.M. ..,1 f,™ iMfl GUILTY. ■ — b k o' ■nEiithqu'kt-tirelnn il \V' M^aJjI. lb","' '''°^'"' '"' .0. -r^u., M,t, ,„„„i,,„f •»-*M.I(,.,K,„,i,Okl N..,bi,..„. ^^^jJ^-i'lb^xH-if.; X a( i.ifwlt, tJum.rg |<(, iLtUI-HtiUUs!"* Aithc IniclLgcncr-Offkr. Opt r . . ,„ a , ■ <» T-a . .-e»TT;Mt:,^bjoi.'Ro>. pHiiadclphia Flour a'nd Lon, 1 M*.,P.nd Flout .nd a.e*d. W,ft lo, ^,4 vid N»--lnpUod R,m. tl,.od,. Mi- J(... ind »ll.»,Wmn. B..nol b«,. rt« «n; •• . tl.li.^t.ob. MUSICK. .nd Mufical Inftni- A FEW Caftt of Cborte rtw (ilLt. .ndl>.r^tt..r.J.o4So.rb> MR JOAN » Concrrt, whitfi 7 B. yUif trnJUtfti**^ An American Newspaper in 1771 116 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION Great Britain. This letter was approved by the colonies, but it was bitterly resented by the British government. John Dickinson, one of the best men of the time, wrote a series of papers called "The Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," which had a very great influence upon the opinion of the people. He argued "that we cannot be happy, without being free; that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property; that we cannot be secure in our property, if, without our British Troops Landing at Boston in 1768 consent, others may, as by right, take it away; that taxes imposed upon us by parliament do thus take it away." At the height of the discussion over the Townsheno Acts Parliament suggested that the American leaders should be Growing brought to England for trial. This suggestion aroused a storm indignation of indignation among the colonists, who declared that the right of a man accused of crune to be tried by a jury from his own vicinity was one of the sacred rights of Englishmen. In the meantime the colonists were everywhere entering into agreements not to import or to use English goods. The Parliament vigorous protest from America, the warnings of some of its yields q^j^ members who said, "Unless you repeal this law, you run the risk of losing America," and most of all, perhaps, the petitions of the English merchants who were losing their BRITISH TROOPS IN AMERICA 117 American trade led Parliament in 1770 to repeal all of the duties imposed in 1767, except the tax on tea. The tea tax was continued in order to establish the principle that Parliament had the right to tax the people of the colonies. How Keeping British Troops in America Caused Trouble. — As we have seen, it was a part of the new British policy toward British the colonies to keep troops in America after the close of the v2?iri(.i" French and Indian War. The most of these soldiers were ■ L _tj ^ ■ Ui I m -^4 S ^ t9B EHhk '^ ' 1 wpt^ ^Km 1 ^ ^V^H^P^H jitf 1 f '4 J jH ^ j^'^f^^T^ >^«^'. The Boston "Massacre'* stationed in the conquered French province of Canada and at Fort Pitt, Fort Niagara, Detroit and other points on the western frontier. It was expected that their presence at these places would help to protect the border settlements from Indian attacks. It was not long, however, before the red coats of the British soldiers became a familiar sight upon the streets of the city of New York. The commander-in-chief of the British forces in America early established his headquarters in New York because the physical geography of the country made that 118 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION city its naturcO,! militaiy center. From New York, troops could easily be sent to Canada, by way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, to the western frontier through the Mohawk Valley and along the Great Lakes, and to the West Indies by sea. These were the places where it was thought they were most likely to be needed. When it was first planned to keep a permanent standing army in America, Parliament required the colony in which New York troops were stationed to provide barracks for the soldiers, and refuses to ^q supply them with salt, vinegar, rum or beer, and a few the troops other articles. As so many of the troops were in New York, the burden of this expense fell heavily, and as its people thought very unjustly, upon that province, which refused to comply with the law. This action of New Yoi'k led to a bitter quarrel, lasting several years, between that colony and the British government. But the most serious collision between the colonists and the British troops occurred in Boston. Two regiments were sent The Boston to that city in 1768 to help enforce the Navigation Acts. From Massacre ^j^y f^j.^^ these soldiers were a constant source of in-itation to the people of Boston, who charged them with racing horses on Sunday, just outside the church doors, and with disturbing the quiet of the streets at night with their drunken shouts. The people, on the other hand, constantly annoyed the soldiers by calling them "bloody-backs," "scoundrels in red," and other insulting names. Matters came to a crisis one night in March, 1770, when a crowd of men and boys threw snowballs at a picket guard of eight men and dared them to fire. At last, irritated beyond endurance, the soldiers fired, kilhng four men and wounding several others, of whom two afterward died. The Boston Massacre, as this affair was called, created intense excitement. The next day a great mass meeting of the Its conse- citizens of Boston sent a committee to the governor to ask that quences ^\^q troops be removed from the city to an island in the harbor. Samuel Adams, who headed this committee, told the governor "that the voice of three thousand freemen demanded that all soldiery be forthwith removed from the town, and that if he failed to heed their just demand, he did so at his peril." The governor yielded and ordered both regiments to be withdrawn from the city. This affair was not really a massacre and the QUARREL OVER THE TEA TAX 119 soldiers were not seriously to blame, as is shown by the fact that all but two of them were acquitted by a Boston jury when they were brought to trial, and that these two were only slightly punished. But the story of the Boston Massacre shows the grave danger of trying to keep troops among a free people who neither need nor want them. The Quarrel Over the Tea Tax. — When Parliament repealed the taxes on glass, paper, and painter's colors, it retained the duty on tea, in order to establish its right to tax the colonists. The hated This was a great blunder. The Parliament failed to see that *®^ ^^ the principle of its right to tax them, and not the paltry sum of money which they would have to pay, was the very thing against which the colonists were contending. For the next three years, discussion raged over the hated tea tax, and the longer they talked about it the more exasperated the people became. The newspapers were filled with exhortations like this, by a New Hampshire rhymester: "Rouse, every generous, thoughtful mind, The rising danger flee ; If you would lasting freedom find, Now then, abandon tea!" Everywhere the people were urged not to bu}^ or sell or drink the "fated plant of India's shore," as another newspaper poet called it. Many agreed not to use it, while others drank tea that was smuggled from Holland. At last, the British government foolishly tried to bribe the colonists to use the English tea and thus recognize the right of taxation. At this time tea was brought to England by the Trying to English East India Company. It was taxed a shilling a pound bribe the in England, and if it was sent to the colonies, it had to pay an additional tax of threepence in America. The East India Company had great quantities of tea stored in London, and Parliament now said that such part of this tea as was sent to America need not pay the English tax at all. This would make the tea cheaper in America than it was in England, and the English authorities thought that the colonists would surely be willing to buy it when they could get it at such a bargain, They little understood the spirit of America, 120 CAtrSES OF THE REVOLUTION Several ships laden with tea were now sent to the colonies. At Charleston, South Carolina, the tea was landed, but no one Tea sent to would buy it and it was stored in cellars; later, after the war America is began, it was sold for the benefit of the Revolutionary govern- returned'^ ment. A meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia voted that every person who favored unloading, selling, or receiving the tea was an enemy to his country. In both Philadelphia and New York, the tea was sent back to England. Faneuil Hall Called "the Cradle of American Liberty." "The Sons of Liberty," often "rocked the Cradle" in their wrath against unjust King George III and his Ministers. When the tea ships came to Boston the people, led by Samuel Adams, refused to permit the tea to be landed. When The Boston it was seen that the governor would not permit the tea to be Tea Party ggj^^ back to England, the people thought that the officers intended to try to land it in Boston by force. Accordingly, a party of about fifty men, .disguised as Mohawk Indians, went on board the ships one evening in December, 1773, and threw the tea into the sea. The Boston Tea Party, as this action was called, was not the act of an excited mob, but a carefully planned and deliberate defiance of the authority of England. PARLIAMENT PUNISHES BOSTON 121 Parliament Punishes Boston and Massachusetts. — The news of the Boston Tea Party aroused great indignation in England. Even the friends of America condemned it, and the England leading members of Parliament denoimced it in the harshest indignant terms. It was the general opinion in that body that Boston must be forced to submit, and one member went so far as to say, "The town of Boston ought to be knocked about their ears and destroyed. You will never meet with proper respect to the laws of this country until you have destroyed that nest of locusts." Lord North, the prime minister, promptly introduced a series of bills to inflict the proposed punishment upon Boston and Massachusetts. The first measure, called the Boston Port Parliament Bill, closed the port of Boston to all ships until that rebellious Punishes the colonists town should pay for the tea thrown overboard and promise to obey the laws in the future. A second bill practically destroyed free govermnent in Massachusetts. Hereafter most of the officers in that colony were to be appointed by the king or by the governor and, except for elections, the people could not even hold town meetings without the written consent of the governor. A third bill provided that officers accused of murder or other high crimes connnitted while they were suppressing riots or enforcing the law could be sent to another colony or to England for trial. A fourth required the people to provide quarters for the soldiers stationed in their midst. Last of all came the Quebec Act, which extended the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, thus depriving several of the colonies of western land which they clauned to own. These acts, designed to punish the disobedient Americans, were not passed without protest in Parliament. Fox, a great orator and ever a friend of liberty, said that the tea tax ought English to be unconditionally repealed. Edmund Burke, the greatest friends of orator of his time and a firm friend of America, pointed out the folly of trying to coerce the colonies. But Lord North and the king's friends would not listen to these men. The tea tax was not repealed, and the bills to punish Boston and Massachusetts were promptly passed. In the colonies these measures were called the Five Intolerable Acts. The Growth of Union in America. — The passage of the submission Five Intolerable Acts brought the colonics face to face with the or union 122 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION alternative of submission to the authority of Parhament or of resistance to the British demands. They were resolved not to submit, but they were also beginning to see clearly that there was little hope of successful resistance unless all the colonies acted together. It was far more difficult in those days to get the people to act together than it is now. In our time the railroads, It was hard telephone and telegraph lines, newspapers with a wide circu- ♦oe^tiier lation, and a postal service that reaches every corner of the land tie our country together and make it easy for our people to think and act as one upon any great question of national concern. The colonists lacked all these means of communi- cation and transportation. They seldom traveled far from home, and they knew very little about the country beyond their own immediate vicinity. Consequently, their thoughts, their interests, and their patriotism were local. The colonists of 1774 had never really acted all together though some things in their history had made them think of Early imion. In 1643 four of the New England colonies had united attempts at [^ order to defend themselves against the Indians and against union . . the encroachments of their Dutch and French neighbors. This New England confederation lasted for about forty years. The long wars with the French and Indians in Canada had brought the troops of different colonies together and taught them some- thing of the strength there is in acting in unison. In 1754 Benjamin Franklin had proposed a plan of union for all the colonies, but, as we have seen, it was rejected. The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 was a more recent example of concerted action. In 1772, Samuel Adams, a keen and practical leader who saw very clearly the necessity of union, proposed in the Boston Committees town meeting that a committee be appointed to write to the of corre- other towns in Massachusetts, stating the rights and grievances of the colonists. This scheme was adopted, and soon the other Massachusetts towns appointed similar committees of correspondence. These committees did much to form and guide public opinion in the colony. Governor Hutchinson, who disliked the committees of correspondence, said that they worked "to strike the colonists with a sense of their just claim to independence^ and to stimulate them to assert it," UNION IN AMERICA 123 The First Continental Congress In 1773, intercolonial committees of correspondence were appointed. Led by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, the legislature of Virginia voted to appoint a permanent committee "to maintain a correspondence with om- sister colonies." Several other colonies quickly followed the example of Virginia. The members of the various intercolonial committees of correspondence compared opinions, became better acquainted with one an- other, and in this way pre- pared the ground for a union of all the thirteen colonies in their hour of need. When the news of the passage of the Intolerable Acts reached America, it was felt that the hour for united action had arrived. Several of the colonies suggested that a general congress should be held, and at the call of Massa- chusetts, all of them, ex cept Georgia, elected dele- gates to the First Con- tinental Congress, which met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia in September and October, 1774. The colonies sent their ablest men to this meeting. Samuel and John Adams of Massachusetts, John Jay of New York, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, Patrick Henry and George Washington of Virginia, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, were among the leaders. All these men were destined to play a great part in the coming Revolution. After careful deliberation, the members of the First Conti- nental Congress adopted a Declaration of Rights in which they said that the colonists were entitled to all the rights of English- Its work men and that their own legislatures alone could make laws for them. The Congress also formed an Association whose mem- Delegates Leaving Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia 124 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION Carpenters' Hall Wm. H. Rau, Inc. The meeting place of the First Continental Congress. DRIFTING TOWARD WAR 125 bers agreed not to import any British goods. Addresses stating the American position were sent to the king, to the people of the colonies, and to the people of Great Britain. Before adjourning it was planned to hold a new congress in May, 1775, if the government of England had not righted the wrongs of America before that time. One of the most important results of the meeting of the First Continental Congress was the opportunity it gave the leaders from the several colonies to get acquainted with one Resiilts another and to become friends. In this way the Congress greatly strengthened the growing sentiment of union. Patrick Henry, the most eloquent member, finely expressed this feeling when he said, "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American." Drifting toward War. — During the winter following the meeting of the First Continental Congress, the country was steadily drifting toward war. Instead of listening to the War draws protests of America, Parliament passed more drastic measures. °®^ The trade of New England was further restricted, and Massa- chusetts was declared to be in a state of rebellion. General Gage had already gone to Boston with four regiments of British soldiers. More troops were now sent to him and he was ordered to suppress the rebels by force. The closing of the port of Boston to all commerce caused great suffering among the poor of that city. Every one of the colonies sent supplies to the people of Boston during the winter The people of 1774-75. This relief was accompanied by letters which help Boston reveal the state of mind of the Revolutionary party throughout the colonies. The Connecticut committee wrote, "The people in all this part of the country are, to a man, resolutely determined to yield you all the assistance in our power." The South Caro- lina patriots declared that "Carolina stands foremost in her resolution to sacrifice her all in your defense." The letters from the other colonies breathed the same sentiments. In the meantime the colonists were agreed in preparing to defend themselves. In Massachusetts, arms and ammunition were collected, the militia were organized, and one-fourth of Preparation them — called the "minute-men" — were to be ready to march t°^ ^^^ '^°^' at a moment's warning. The other colonies began to follow '°^ 126 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION the example of Massachusetts. It was while the Virginia legis- lature was considering a motion to arm and train the militia of that colony that Patrick Henry in the most famous of Revolutionary speeches said: "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by Israel Putnam Unhitching His Horse from the Plow to Start for the American Camp before Boston the past. And, judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry, for the last ten years, to justify the.se hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike prepara- tions which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves DRIFTING TOWARD WAR 127 so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation, — the last arguments to which kings resort. If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir — we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us." CHAPTER VII The War of the Revolution The Beginning of the War. — Early in 1775, General Gage, the British commander in Boston, was ordered to arrest Samuel The story of Adams and John Hancock, the patriot leaders, and send them Lexington to England for trial. On the night of April 18th, Gage sent eight hundred troops to Lexing- ton with orders to seize Adams and Hancock, who were staying in that town, and then to push on to Concord and cap- ture or destroy the military stores which the colonists had been collect- ing there. Warned by Paul Revere, whose midnight ride from Boston is finely described in Longfellow's well-known poem, Adams and Han- cock escaped, and when the British soldiers reached Lexington, at sunrise, they were confronted by about fifty minute-men under Captain John Parker. "Disperse, ye villains!" shouted Major Pitcairn, as he rode up at the head of the British troops. "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon," said Captain Parker to his men, "but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." The British fire at Lexington slew eight of our minute-men. The fi ht t wounded ten, and dispersed the remainder. The British then Concord pressed on to Concord, where they destroyed such military stores 128 Old North Church, Boston " Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry tower of the Old North Church." BEGINNING OF THE WAR 129 as had not been hidden or carried away, and skirmished with some mihtia at the bridge over the Concord River. It was of this fight that Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of our greatest men of letters, who afterward lived in Concord, wrote: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world." from Concord In the meantime companies of minute-men came swarming in from all the neighboring towns. Realizing their danger, the British began to retreat toward Boston. From behind every The retreat rock, clump of trees, and bit of rising ground along their line of march, a deadly fire was poured upon them. The red-coats fell thick and fast and their force was saved from complete de- struction only by the timely arrival of Lord Percy with heavy reenforcements. The running fight continued all the afternoon, and at night- fall the harried British were glad to find shelter under the protection of the guns of their fleet in Boston harbor. The victorious colonists encamped before Boston. All New England rose as the news of the British attack at Lexington and Concord was carried far and wide. John Stark came at The siege the head of the New Hampshire minute-men, and Nathanael ?^ Boston Greene led the militia of Rhode Island. In less than two days Israel Putnam rode into camp with the news that the men of Connecticut were on the march. Before a week passed sixteen thousand "embattled farmers" had gathered before the British lines at Boston. The war of the Revolution had begun. Meanwhile the news of Lexington and Concord was speed- ing far beyond the borders of New England. Swift riders tionary^^^ ^' carried it to New York and Pennsylvania, to Virginia and the rising 9 "Disperse, Ye Villains!' 130 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION far south, and to the remote settlements in the valleys of the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. A party of hunters in the wilderness of Kentucky named the site of their camp Lexington in honor of the town where the first blow was struck for freedom. Everywhere the people were filled with wrath at the action of the British. Troops were raised and the patriot party in the various colonies began to drive out their British governors and to take the government into their own hands. In Virginia George Washington declared that Americans must choose be- tween war and slavery. The Vicinity of Boston While the news that war had begun was spreading over the country, the second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia The second on May 10, 1775. The Adamses of Massachusetts, Dickinson Continental g^j^^j Franklin of Pennsylvania, Patrick Henry and George Washington of Virginia, and the prominent leaders in all the other colonies were there. This Congress was our first national government. It adopted the soldiers who were encamped before Boston as its own, borrowed money to buy supplies for them, and most important of all, appointed George Washington to be their commander. In accepting this position Washington refused to take a penny of pay beyond his actual expenses for his services to his country. BEGINNING OF THE WAR 131 But before Washington reached the army tne first great battle of the war had been fought. During the night of June 16th the Americans under Colonel Prescott began to fortify The battle of Bunker Hill, northwest of Boston. If they were not quickly Bunker Hill driven from this position, the American guns on the hilltop commanding Boston would soon make it impossible for the British to remain in that city. Three times the British troops The Invasion of Canada bravely assaulted the American intrenchments. Twice they were driven .back with dreadful slaughter by the deadly fire of the colonial marksmen. But the British gallantly came on a third time, and when the ammunition of the Americans was all gone the colonial troops were forced from the field. The battle of Bunker Hill was a dearly bought victory for the British. More than one-third of their attacking force had fallen in the fight. The British began to realize that it was 132 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION going to be a difficult task to conquer the Americans, whose fighting quahties they had professed to despise. The Americans were greatly elated by their good showing. Nathanael Greene said, "I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price." When Washington reached the army before Boston, he found nearly sixteen thousand untrained and poorly armed Washington men. He spent several months in organizing and drilling his takes Boston ^.roops and in procuring cannon and ammunition. At the beginning of March, 1776, he felt strong enough to strike a telling blow at the British in Boston. He began by seizing and forti- fying Dorchester Heights, which overlook the city from the south. The British saw that they must either drive Washington from this position, which commanded Boston, or give up the city. Remembering Bunker Hill, they chose the latter alter- native and, embarking their army on board their fleet, they sailed away to Halifax. Not a British soldier was left upon the soil of New England. On May 10, 1775, the very day that the second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, with a small force, surprised and captured the fortress at Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. This bold stroke gave the Americans a much-needed supply of cannon and helped open the way to Canada. Some months later, General Richard Montgomery invaded Canada by way of Lake Cham- plain, captured Montreal, and advanced on Quebec. At the same time Benedict Arnold led another expedition into Canada The American invasion of Canada The Death of Montgomery DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 133 through the woods of Maine. Montgomeiy and Arnold united their forces before Quebec, and on the last da}- of 1775, they attempted to storm that city. The gallant ]\Iontgomery was killed at the head of his men, Ai-nold was seriously wounded, and the assault failed. In the spring of 1776, the Americans were driven out of Canada and the attempt to unite that province to the thii'teen colonies to the southward ended in utter failure. The Declaration of Independence. — ^Mien the Revolution- ary War began there was no widespread desire for independence in America. The colonists took up arms to defend their rights as Englishmen. But a year of war wrought a great change in their feeling toward the mother countr}-. When George the Third scorned theh' last petition, declared them rebels, made war upon them, and even hired thou- sands of Hessian soldiers in Ger- many to over- whelm them, pa- triotic Americans quickly lost all feeling of loyalty to him. Their ex- perience in seizing the governments in the various colonies, and in organizing the Continental Congress, made the American people feci that they were quite able to manage their own gt)vernments. Common Sense, a pamphlet by Thomas Paine which was widely Growing toward inde- pendence The Committee — Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston, Adams and Sherman — Considering tlie Declaration of Independence 134 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION adopted ^ read, did much to intensify the growing desire for independence. In this pamphlet Paine declared that "the blood of the slain, the true interest of the continent, and the great distance between England and America all cry, 'Tis time to part." By the spring of 1776, the patriot leaders saw clearly that they had no choice except abject submission to the demands of Great Britain or a declaration of independence. They had no thought of submission. Virginia led in the work of separation from the mother country. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, one of the Inde- delegates from that colony, arose in the Continental Congress ?^°«fi!f^ and moved, "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent ^jj /^^yy^J'y'.j^r/!:^ States." This motion was /Z^Z/f/f^'^^^ promptly seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. After some debate it was decided to postpone action upon Lee's motion for three weeks in order to learn more fully the wishes of the peo- ple in the matter. At the same time a committee headed by Thomas Jefferson was appointed to draw a declarationof independence. By July 1st many of the states had instructed their delegates to vote for independence. On that day Lee's motion was taken up and the next day it was passed. The Congress be- gan immediately to consider the Declaration of Inde- pendence, which Jefferson's committee had reported, and on July 4th the Declaration was adopted. Ever since 1776 we have celebrated the Fourth of July as the birthday of the nation. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. A few slight changes in its wording were suggested f iTcrn ■{,. n^ J^^c,;/Cc.J^^J. Some of the Signatures to the Declaration of Independence DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 135 by John Adams and Benjamin Frankiin who were members of TheDeclara- the committee of which Jefferson was chairman. After its ^^^^ adoption, the Declaration of Independence was carefully copied upon parchment and, some time later, it was signed by fifty-six members of the Congress. The original parchment is now in the department of state at Washington. This immortal document consists of three parts: A state- ment of the political principles upon which the new nation The Declaration of Independence Announced to the People was founded; a long list of charges against the king of Great Britain; and the declaration that "these colonies are, and of right ought to bo, Free and Independent States." The declara- tion closes with these noble words, "For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence the fundamental principle of democratic government is clearly 136 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION The funda- stated by Jefferson in one great sentence, — a sentence that mental ought to be committed to memory by every young American, pnnciple of -r, ■ r ,, democracy It is as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident — that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unaUenable rights; that among these are hfe, Uberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abohsh it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Everywhere the Declaration of Independence was received with joy by the people, who gathered in great crowds to hear Rejoicing by it read. In Philadelphia the Liberty Bell, which may still be the people g^^^^ ^^^ Independence Hall, rang out the good news to all the land. In all the chief towns the militia paraded, the drums rolled, cannon roared, and the day of rejoicing ended with a feast and a great bonfire in the evening. The Loyalists or Tories. — The Declaration of Independence compelled every American to choose between loyalty to the king of England and allegiance to the new nation. This was a hard choice to many of the colonists who loved their mother country in spite of her treatment of them. There had been wide differences of opinion among the people ever since the war began. Many there were, as we have seen, who were resolved to stand up for their rights at any cost. A few ap- proved the conduct of the British government. A much larger number disliked the British policy in America but were unwilling to oppose it by any but peaceful means. They wished to remain loyal Englishmen. Some, like the Quakers who hated war, wished to remain neutral in the struggle. Others cared little for any cause except their own selfish interests, but were shocked by the lawlessness of revolution and feared the loss of their property in the war. A very large part of the men of wealth and education were opposed to separation from England, and many of their poorer and more ignorant neighbors were influenced by them. These loyalists, or Tories, as the patriots called them, were found in all the colonies, but they were Divided opinion in America The Lii5ekty Bell's First Note — 1753 'I'ho .scene is in the foundry of Pass and Stow, Philadelphia, in 1753. The tone of the newly cast bell is about to be tested. John Pass, one of the firm, stands at the right. Isaac Norris, in the grey coat, the Chairman of the Committee appointed to buy the bell for the State House, is talking to Benjamin Franklin. The young lady, a relative of Isaac Norris, is about to strike the bell for its first note, which proved to be beautifully clear and resonant. THE LOYALISTS 137 especially numerous in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and Georgia, While the loyahsts were numerous, they failed to make much headway against the better organized and more aggres- sive Whigs, as the members of the patriot party were called. The work of In North Carolina sixteen hundred Tories who took up arms in the Tories defense of the king's cause were defeated and dispersed at Moore's Creek, early in 1776. In the other colonies the Tories met a similar fate or were disarmed to prevent fighting. A young Pennsylvania Tory wrote in his diaiy, "This day I left my father's house because I would not be a traitor to my king and country." The same motive led many young Tories like him to run away from home and enlist in the British army. In New York and the Carolinas, whole regiments of Tories were enlisted. It has been estimated that at least fifty thousand Americans served in the British army or navy or in the loyalist militia during the war. The Tories who stayed at home were even more dangerous to the success of the American cause than were those who joined the British army. They spied upon the American troops, Their treat- gave information to the British, and sold them much-needed ^^* ^^ *^® supplies. It is no wonder that the Tories were hated and *^^ harshly treated by the Whigs. Even before the war began they were hooted and jeered and often roughly handled by mobs. After the Declaration of Independence was adopted their conduct became treason against their country and they were then fined, imprisoned, deprived of their property and, in some cases, banished to distant parts of the country. In a few instances, Tories were put to death after a trial for treason. In New York and the Carolinas the bitter hatred between Whig and Tory neighbors made the war in those states espe- cially savage and merciless. One cannot read about the Tories without realizing that the American Revolution was a civil war in which the patriot party led by Washington and his associates was fighting, not The Revolu- only against England, but also against a large loyalist faction *'.°? ^^^ * at home. The mother country was divided somewhat in the same way, for while the king and his ministers were trying to conquer the rebellious colonies, no small part of the English people actually sympathized with the American cause, 138 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION The War in the Middle States. — The only way in which the British could win the Revolutionary War was to attack The British and disperse the American armies. After careful preparation plan of they began this attack in 1776. Because of the military im- portance of that place, the first blow was struck at New York. By the capture of the city of New York the British hoped to secure control of the Hudson River and thus cut the country in two, isolate New England, which was looked upon as the most rebellious section, and then quickly crush all opposition. attack Washington's Headquarters near Newburg on the Hudson The American army was disbanded here at the close of the Revolutiona^-y War. Washington had foreseen this plan of the British, and when their fleet and army reached the vicinity of New York in The British the summer of 1776, he was there ready to oppose them. Gen- w^*"y u ^^^^ Howe, who led the British army, attacked and defeated Washington in the battle of Long Island and soon captured the city of New York. Washington retreated slowly northward on the east side of the Hudson River, fighting the pursuing British at Harlem Heights and White Plains. When Washing- ton reached the Highlands of the Hudson, the British gave up the pursuit of his army, but strengthened their hold upon New WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES 139 York by capturing Fort Washington and Fort Lee which guarded the Hudson just above that city. It was during this campaign that Captain Nathan Hale, who had been a school teacher in Connecticut before the war, went into New York to obtain information for Washington Nathan Hale and was caught by the British and put to death as a spy. His countrymen have nev(>r forgotten that when Hale was led out to his execution he said, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." The Battle of Trenton In the fall of 1776 the British began to overrun New Jersey. Leaving part of his force to prevent the British from ascending the Hudson River, Washington marched through northern The retreat Jersey and threw his remaining troops across the line of the ■? ^^^ British advance toward Philadelphia. He was not strong enough to give battle so he slowly fell back, delajang the British as much as he could. In December Washington was driven across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The British were unable to cross the Delaware in pursuit because Washington had seized all the boats for many miles along the river. Accordingly, detachments of their arnly went The darkest into camp in various New Jersey towns and waited for ice to ^^^ °^. ^^^ form on the river so that they could cross and continue the 140 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION pursuit. It was the darkest hour of the Revolution for the Americans. Their army was rapidly dwindling away. Wash- ington said that unless help came soon the game was up. But he did not despair and when hope seemed almost gone he boldly struck a blow that greatly changed the face of affairs. On Christmas night, 1776, in the midst of a blinding snow- storm, Washington crossed the Delaware nine miles above Tren- Trenton and ton, marched rapidly upon that town and, in the early morning, Princeton surprised and captured a force of one thousand Hessians who were quartered there. This success gave new courage to the Americans and brought more men to the army. A few days later Washington again crossed the Delaware, eluded Corn- wallis, who led a British force against him, defeated another British detachment at Princeton, and then marching northward, went into winter quarters at Morristown in the hill country of northern New Jersey. With Washington in this strong position the British were compelled to abandon most of New Jersey. They held only the city of New York and its immediate vicinity. The year 1777 proved to be the great battle year of the Revolution. It was the British plan to have the army in New The British York under General Howe advance up the Hudson, while an- plan in 1777 other British army, led by General Burgoyne, came from Canada by way of Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson to join Howe's force. It was hoped that these united armies, hold- ing the line of the Hudson, would make short work of the American rebels. This British plan was very good, but for- tunately for the American cause, General Howe did not carry out his part of it. Early in 1777, Howe decided to capture Philadelphia, the rebel capital, before co-operating with Burgoyne. This was a Howe's fatal mistake on his part. Howe first tried to march across campaign New Jersey to Philadelphia, but Washington posted his army PWladelphia ^^ skilfully that the British general dared neither attack him nor advance, leaving him in his rear. Howe then put the greater part of his army on his ships and sailed away. For several anxious weeks his destination was unknown. At last the news came that the British had landed at the Elk River, near the head of Chesapeake Bay, and were about to advance upon Philadelphia from the southwest. WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES 141 't^ *?^ ^ A Letter Written by Washington on his Forty-fifth Birthday 142 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION As soon as Washington heard where Howe had landed, he quickly marched his army through Philadelphia and hurrying The battle of on, confronted the British in northern Delaware. Then, slowly Brandywine falling back, Washington took a strong position behind the Brandywine Creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. Here the British attacked him on September 11, 1777, and the battle of Brandy- wine was fought. After a stubborn resistance, Wash- ington was driven from the field, and about two weeks later the British occupied Philadel- phia. The British were scarcely set- tled in Philadelphia before Washington attacked them furi- ously at German- town, on October 4th, and was beaten off only after the most desperate fighting. After sev- eral weeks spent in capturing the American forts on the Delaware River below Philadelphia and in bringing their fleet up to the city, the British settled down in the "rebel capital " for the winter. Washington watched them from his camp upon the hills at Valley Forge, about twenty miles up the Schuylkill River. While Howe was carrying on his campaign against Phila- delphia, General Burgoj^ne led a British army from Canada to Burgoyne's Lake Champlain, captured Ticonderoga, and slowly made his campaign ^,g^y across the country to the Hudson River. In the meantime another British expedition under General St. Leger had entered the Mohawk Valley from Oswego on Lake Ontario; but the The British in Philadel- phia Lafayette Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine This French marquis joined Washington's staff in the summer of 1777. WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES 143 gallant resistance of the garrison at Fort Stanwix and the stubborn fighting of the American militia under General Herkimer at Oriskany had checked its advance and, a little later, an American force under Benedict Arnold drove St. Leger back to Canada. Another expedi- tion which Burgoyne sent into Vermont was almost destroyed at Bennington, by the New England mil- itia under John Stark. Finally Burgoyne's invad- ing army was stopped and turned back by two battles fought near Saratoga. With his retreat to Canada cut off by the militia, which came swarming in from New England, Burgoyne was forced to surrender his army to the American, General Gates, at Saratoga, October 17, 1777. This loss of an entire army was a severe blow to the British and a turning point in the war. The winter of 1777- 1778, which Washington spent with his army at Valley Forge, was marked by the greatest privation and suffering of the entire war. The troops were half-clad and often scarce- ly f(^d at all. There was much sickness in the camp, and many soldiers died before spring came. Yet no one thought of giving up. Washington said, "Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable pa- Washington at Valley Forge The War in the Middle States 144 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION tience and fidelity of the soldiery." Valley Forge is the greatest shrine of patriotism in all our land. Its name "will never cease to be associated with the memory of sufferings quietly and steadfastly borne, but not endured in vain." If possible, every young American ought to pay it a reverent visit. When the spring of 1778 brought warmer weather and more comfort to the patriots at Valley Forge, much time was devoted to drill and to the reorganization of the army. Baron Washington and a Committee of Congress at Valley Forge Von Steuben, a German soldier who joined the American army at Valley Forge, rendered invaluable service as drillmaster. The news that France had formed an alliance with the new American republic, which reached Washington and his men before they left Valley Forge, gave them renewed hope and confidence for the struggle yet before them. When the British learned that a French fleet and army were crossing the Atlantic to help the Americans, they aban- Suralo^^ doned Philadelphia and started to return to New York. No New York sooner did Washington learn of this movement than he broke HELP FROM FRANCE 145 camp at Valley Forge and started in hot pursuit of the British. He overtook them at Monmouth, New Jersey, where an in- decisive battle was fought. The British continued their retreat to New York, which they reached in safety, and Washington returned to his old position near the Hudson River. During the remainder of the war, Washington watched the British in New York, but there was little fighting in the middle states. In 1779, General Sullivan was sent to central New York The closing to punish the Iroquois Indians, who had massacred many years of the settlers on the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. The NortlT ^ same year General Anthony Wayne, one of the best fighters in the American army, gallantly stormed Stony Point on the Hudson River, at the point of the bayonet. In 1780, Benedict Arnold, who had fought with the utmost heroism in Canada and at Saratoga, turned traitor and attempted to betray West Point to the British, but without success. None of these events, however, were of great importance in deciding the outcome of the war. Help from France. — From the beginning of the Revolution France had sympathized with the Americans. French states- men remembered the long contest of their country with England French for the control of North America, and were delighted at the sympathy prospect of the breaking up of the British empire. France Americans had a despotic government at this time, but many young Frenchmen were enthusiastic oyer the right to govern them- selves, for which the Americans were fighting, and already were dreaming of winning it for their own country. Indeed, not many years later, their dream was to be realized, and democracy was to take the place of the despotic rule of the king in France. French sympathy with the struggling Americans was shown in many ways. The French government secretly loaned money to the American agents in Paris and furnished arms Lafayette and supplies for Washington's army. In their enthusiasm for liberty, young French noblemen offered their services to the new republic across the sea. The most famous of these French- men was the Marquis of Lafayette, who was made a major- general in the American army and rendered services of the greatest value to our country. Nor must we forget the German soldier, De Kalb, and the Pole, Pulaski, both of whom came to 10 146 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION France The French aUiance America from France and fell in battle while fighting gallantly for our independence. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris to plead for the recognition of the new nation. At this time Franklin's Franklin in writings and scientific discoveries made him the best known man in America, No one except Washington did more to gain the independence of the United States, Franklin was received with enthusiasm in France where his shrewd wisdom, kind heart, and simple manners charmed the people whom he met and won them, heart and soul, to our cause. For some time the French government hes- itated to recognize the new republic across the Atlantic for fear that it might not be able to make good its declaration of indepen- dence. When the news of Burgoyne's defeat and sur- render reached Paris the people rejoiced as if over a great French victory. The French government hesitated no longer. Early in 1778, France recognized the independence of the CJnited States and made a treaty of friendship and alliance with the new nation. It was agreed that t if England should make war upon France, as she was now practically sure to do, the United States and France would unite their forces against England, and that neither of them would make peace without the consent of the other. Soon after the French alliance was made. Great Britain offered her former colonists all that they had asked before the war if they would desert the French and return to their old allegiance. This offer came too late and was rejected with scorn by the Americans who were now more confident than From the portrait in the Capitol of Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NAVY 147 ever that with French aid they were sure to win in their struggle for independence. The alliance with France was of inestimable value to the American cause. France now openly loaned our government money that was sorely needed, and sent fleets and armies to Our debt to our aid. We might possibly have achieved our independence France without this help, but it is certain that the aid of France short- ened the Revolutionary War by several years. We owe France a debt of gratitude which we ought never to forget, and which we began to repay when American soldiers went to fight, side by side with the French, in the Great War, in 1917. The Begimiings of the American Navy.— The complete control of the sea, which the British possessed at the opening of the Revolution, put the coast towns of America at the mercy British of their ships of war. In 1775, Falmouth on the coast of Maine attacks upon was burned by the British. In 1776, a British fleet threatened ""'^ "^^^^^^ Charleston, South Carolina, but was beaten off by the deadly fire from Fort Moultrie which the Americans had built to guard the entrance to Charleston harbor. Later in the war, Fairfield and Norwalk, on the coast of Connecticut, were burned by British marauders who came by sea. The numerous colonial trading ships were likewise in great peril from the cruisers of the British navy and, during the course of the war, many of them were captured. Without American a strong navy of its own about the only thing that the American P"vateers government could do in retaliation for these losses was to authorize private citizens to arm their own ships and prey upon English commerce. Before the close of the Revolution these American privateers captured hundreds of English merchant vessels, and daring American captains even carried this kind of warfare to the waters about Great Britain itself. From the beginning of the war the need of an American navy was evident, and before the close of 1775, the Continental ^ Congress took the first steps toward forming one. Early in Our need of 1776, Captain Esek Hopkins hoisted the first flag ever flown ^ ^^^ upon an American man-of-war. It was a yeUow silk banner bearing the figures of a pine tree and a rattlesnake, with the motto, "Don't tread on me." navy John Paul Jones was the most famous captain in our early j^j^ p^^j \ Jones was a Scotch sailor who had settled in Virginia Jones 148 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION some years before the Revolution began. He entered the navy at its beginning and from the first proved to be an officer of great skill and daring. In 1778, Captain Jones crossed the Atlantic with the American ship, Ranger, prowled about the coasts of Great Britain, took several merchant prizes, captured a British warship which carried more guns than the Ranger ^ and even burned some of the shipping in a port on the coast of England. Action between the "Bonhomme Richard" and "Serapis" After these daring exploits, Jones went to France, which, as we have seen, had now formed an alhance with the United The great States. Here he was given the command of a little squadron the R^e?olu-°* ^^^^ which to cruise off the English coast. Jones named his tion flagship the Bonhomme Richard. This French name means "Goodman Richard," and was given in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the author of "Poor Richard's Almanac." During the night of September 23, 1779, Captain Jones in the Bonhomme Richard fought the most terrific naval action of the Revolution with the Serapis, a British warship which he encountered off the east coast of England. After an hour's fighting, during which the Americans lost heavily, the two ships came together. There was a moment's lull in the firing and the Enghsh captain The Ship that Sunk in Victory — 1779 During the night of September 2'S, 1779, the most terrific naval action of the Revolution was fougiit off the English coast between the American ship "Bonhomme Richard," Captain John Paul Jones, and the British ship "Serapis," Captain Richard Pearson. Jones captured the "Serapis," but his own ship was so cut to pieces by the British fire that it sunk the next morning. Captain Jones and his surviving crew sailed away in the ship they had taken. In the picture, Captains Jones and Pearson are watching, from the deck of the "Serapis," the victorious American ship as it slowly settled beneath the waves. Captain Jones says: "No one was left aboard the 'Richard' but our dead. The very last vestige mortal eyes ever saw of the ' Bonhomme Richard ' was the defiant waving of her unconquered flag as she went down. And as I had given them the grand old ship for their sepulchre, I now bequeathed to my immortal dead the flag they had so desperately defended for their winding sheet." THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 149 called out, "Have you struck your colors?" "I have not yet begun to fight," was the defiant reply of Captain Jones. The awful fight went on with the ships lashed together until the brave English captain, standing ahnost alone among the killed and wounded upon his deck, was forced to surrender. The Bonhomme Richard was so cut to pieces by the British fire that it sank the next morning, but Captain Jones managed to bring the ship he had captured into a port in Holland. After the French alliance was formed, the navy of France gave valuable assistance to the American cause. Later, Spain and Holland were drawn into the war on the side of France. Aid from the During the closing years of the Revolution, the fleets of all French navy these countries were arrayed against the British navy, but in this great naval contest, the United States with its few ships of war, of necessity, played little part. The War in the South.— By the fall of 1778, New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, were the only places in the United States held by the British, and Newport was given up The British the next year. The British plan to secure control of the Hudson carry the war River, and thus divide and conquer the northern states, had failed utterly. The British now resolved to carry the war to the far South. Even if they lost the North, it would be well worth while to regain that region with its rich exports of tobacco, rice, and naval stores. They were beginning to think that "half a loaf was better than no l^read." Near the close of 1778, the British seized Savannah and soon recovered all Georgia, which was then the weakest of the southern states. It was in the British plan to move north- Fighting in ward, conquering the states, one by one. At first they met Georgia with little success. In 1779, the American General Lincoln, with the aid of a French fleet, attacked the British at Savannah, but failed to take that city. The gallant Polish patriot, Count Pulaski, who had come to fight for freedom in America, was slain in the assault upon Savannah. In 1780, the British were heavily reenforced, and advanced into South Carolina. General Lincoln unwisely allowed his army to be shut up in Charleston and was quickly forced to The British surrender. This was the most terrible disaster that overtook overrun the Americans during the entire war. There was no longer caroUna an American army in the South. Francis Marion and other 150 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION partisan leaders who lurked in the swamps, with small bands of men, bravely kept up the fight, but they could not prevent the British from overrunning the whole state. The people of The Campaigns in the South the Carolinas were much divided in sentiment. Some of the Tories now took up arms, and soon South Carolina suffered all the horrors of civil war. Gates at After the loss of General Lincoln's army at Charleston, Camdea General Gates, "the hero of Saratoga," was sent to organize THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 151 and lead a new American force in the South. Gates soon showed that he did not deserve the high reputation which the splendid fighting of other men at Saratoga had won for him. When he attacked the British at Camden in South Carolina he was badly beaten and his army scattered. North Carolina was thus exposed to British attack, but just as the British General, Cornwalhs, was advancing to occupy that state, he was turned back by the overwhelming defeat which the frontiersmen of the western border inflicted upon a detacliment of his troops at King's Mountain. This ended the fighting in 1780. After the disastrous defeat of General Gates at Camden, Nathanael Greene was sent to lead the American forces in the South. Next to Washington, Greene was the best soldier of Greene's the Revolution, and he was ably assisted in his first southern campaign in campaign by General Daniel Morgan, who served under him. This campaign opened early in 1781 with the inspiring victory which Morgan won at the Cowpens over a British cavalry force under Tarleton. Greene and Morgan were not yet strong enough to meet the main British army, so they retreated across North Carolina with Cornwallis in hot pursuit. At last Greene felt strong enough to fight, and turning back he met the British at Guilford Court House. An indecisive battle followed. Greene fell back, but the British were obliged to march to Wilmington, on the coast, to renew their supplies. Cornwalhs then marched northward into Virginia. Instead of following Cornwallis to Virginia, Greene moved southward and began the task of driving the British detach- ments out of South Carolina. He was welcomed and assisted The recovery by the patriot leaders of that state, and before the end of ^^ *^^ South 1780, the Americans recovered the far South and confined th-' British troops to the coast cities of Charleston and Savannah. When Cornwallis reached Virginia he was confronted by Lafayette with a small American force. The young Frenchman was not strong enough to give battle, but he marched hither The sur- and thither, successfully eluding all the British efforts to ^^^^ ** capture him. At last Cornwallis went into camp at Yorktown where he could keep in touch with the British fleet, upon which he depended for supplies. The timely ai'rival of a strong French fleet, which drove away the British ships and held Chesapeake Bay, gave Washington the opportunity for which 152 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION The end of the war Terms of peace he had been waiting. With his own army and a strong force of French troops under Rochambeau, Washington hurried from his position near New York to Vii'ginia and besieged Cornwalhs at Yorktown. After a desperate resistance, the British army- was compelled to surrender, on October 19, 1781. The hard fighting of the Revolutionary War was over. The Treaty of Peace. — After the surrender of Cornwalhs Great Britain lost all hope of conquering her rebellious American colonies. When Lord North, the prime minister of George III, heard of the surrender at Yorktown, he cried out, ''O God, it is all over." Many of the English people had never really favored the war, and all of them had grown tired of it. Lord North resigned, and King George III was obliged to appoint ministers who would bring the war to an end. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, three of the ablest men in America, were sent to talk over terms of peace with the representatives of Eng- land. The meeting took place in Paris and the treaty, which was finally signed in 1783, is called the Peace of Paris. By the treaty of Paris, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. It was agreed that the new nation should extend from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River and from Canada and the Great Lakes on the north to the thirty-first parallel of latitude on the south. Florida was restored to Spain, which had owned Louisiana, as the country west of the Mississippi was called, ever since 1763. Thus Spain became our neighbor on the south and west, and England retained Canada on the north. The Surrender of Comwallis at Yorktown MEN OF THE REVOLUTION 153 The Treaty of Paris also gave the Americans . the right to fish upon the banks of Newfoundland, and provided that British merchants should have the right to collect debts which Americans owed them when the Revolution began. After the treaty was signed the last British troops were withdrawn from Savannah, Charleston, and New York. Before the close of 1783 the American army was disbanded, and Washington resigned his commission and retired to his home at Mount Vernon. The Men of the Revolution. — We owe the freedom of our country to the men of the Revolution. In strength of character, in patriotic purpose, and in the iron will which held him stead- George fast to his purpose in spite of the most disheartening defeats Washington and discouragements, George Washington was easily foremost among all the men of his time. Our forefathers trusted and followed Washington in the darkest hours of the Revolution because they had implicit confidence in his integrity, his good judgment, his dauntless courage, and his unselfish devotion to his country. Second only to Washington in the value of their services were several other great soldiers of the Revolution. Foremost among them stood Nathanael Greene, who recovered the far Other South from the British. Knox and Sullivan were trusted military generals in Washington's army. Philip Schuyler prepared the way for the great victory at Saratoga, for which his successor. Gates, was unjustly credited. Anthony Wayne was a dashing , leader who served from the beginning to the end of the war and was ever found where the battle raged most fiercely. Worthy to rank with Wayne were those gallant fighters, John Stark, the victor at Bennington; Nicholas Herkimer, the hero of Oriskany ; Francis Marion, who kept the patriot cause alive during the dark days of defeat in South Carohna; Daniel Morgan, who well nigh destroyed the British force at the Cowpens ; and Paul Jones, who first made the Stars and Stripes respected upon the sea. Nor will Americans ever forget that noble young French- man, Lafayette, who unselfishly gave himself to the cause of liberty, and, as a general in our army, proved to have "an old man's head upon a young man's shoulders." In the value of their services, the statesmen of the Revolu- tion stand side by side with the military leaders. The determi- ^j. nation to stand up for their rights at all costs, which led the statesmen 154 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION The courage and fidelity of the people colonists into the war, was due in no small measure to the fiery eloquence of Patrick Henry and the logical writings of Samuel Adams and John Dickinson. Thomas Jefferson will live forever as the author of the Declaration of Independence. Robert Morris, "the financier of the Revolution," gave his time and his fortune, without stint, to the service of his country. The value of Franklin's efforts in securing the French Alliance was inestimable. To the same wise old head, and to the sturdy and unyielding John Adams and John Jay, we are indebted for the favor- able terms of the Treaty of Peace. But the skill and valor of our generals and the wisdom of our statesmen would have been of little use without the support of the common people. The success of the Revolution was due to the private soldiers who marched and fought at Long Island and Saratoga and Yorktown, or starved and froze at Valley Forge. No less important was the steadfast patriotism of the citizens at home who supported the war. The "incomparable fidelity" of the soldiers and the citizens alike, through eight long and trying years, at last established the independence of the United States. The following inspiring words are taken from an oration which Henry Armitt Brown dehvered at Valley Forge on the one hundredth anniversary of the departure of Washington's army from that historic shrine : "For a century the eyes of struggling nations have turned towards this spot, and lips in every language have blessed the memory of Valley Forge! The tide of battle never ebbed and flowed upon these banlcs; these hills never trembled beneath the tread of charging squadrons nor John Dickinson One of the wisest statesmen of the Revolution THE MEN OF THE REVOLUTION 155 156 THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION echoed the thunders of contending cannon. The blood that stained this ground did not rush forth in the joyous frenzy of the fight; it fell drop by drop from the heart of a suffering people. They who once encamped here in the snow fought not for conquest, not for power, not for glory, not for their country only, not for themselves alone. They served here for posterity; they suffered here for the human race; they bore here the cross of all the peoples; they died here that Freedom might be the heritage of all. It was Humanity which they defended; it was Libert}- herself that they had in keeping — she that was sought in the wilderness and mourned for by the waters of Babylon — that was saved at Salamis and thrown away at Chseronea — that was fought for at Cannse and lost forever at PharsaUa and Philippi — she who confronted the Armada on the deck with Howard and rode beside Cromwell on the field of Worcester, — • for whom the Swiss gathered into his brea.st the sheaf of spears at t^empach and the Dutchman broke the dykes of Holland and welcomed in the sea, — she of whom Socrates spoke and Plato wTote and Brutus dreamed and Homer sung — for whom Eliot pleaded and Sydney suffered and ^MUton prayed and Hampden fell! Driven by the persecution of centuries from the older world, she had come with Pilgrim and Puritan and CavaHer and Quaker to seek a shelter in the new. Attacked once more by her old enemies, .she had taken refuge here. Xor she alone. The dream of the Greek, the Hebrew's prophecy, the desire of the Rom.an, the Itahan's prayer, the longing of the Gennan mind, the hope of the French heart, the glory and honor of Old England herself, the yearning of all the cen- turies, the aspiration of ever\' age, the prom.ise of the past, the fulfillment of the future, the seed of the old time, the harvest of the new — all these were with her. And here, in the heart of America, they were safe. The last of many struggles was almost won; the best of many centuries was about to break; the time was already come when from these shores the light of a new civilization should flash across the sea, and from this place a voice of triumph make the Old World tremble, when, from her chosen refuge in the West, the Spirit of Liberty should go forth to meet the rising sun and set the people free!" CHAPTER VIII The Beginnings of Our Government A Federal Government. — The United States is a nation composed of states. All of us who were born or naturalized in this country are citizens of the United States. At the same The states time, we are citizens of the state in which we live. In each of and the our states the people have set up a government which makes ^^^ and enforces laws for the protection of hfe and property, provides schools, builds roads, and serves the people of that state in many other ways. But we also owe obedience to a United States government established by the people of the whole nation. The national govermnent coins our money, carries the mail, maintains an army and navy, and does many other things to serve all the people. A government like ours, in which a part of the work of governing is done by the several states and a part by the nation as a whole, is called federal. Let us see how a federal govermnent grew up in our country. From Colonies to States. — During the colonial period, as we have already learned, governments somewhat like those in our states at the present time developed in each of the colonies. How the But these colonial governments had been set up in the first colonies place by the authority of England. In most of them the gover- ^^^^ nor was appointed l^y the king or by a proprietor to whom the king had given the right to govern. When the Revolution began, these royal and proprietary governors were driven out of office. The people of each colony then took its government into their own hands and elected assemblies or conventions to manage public affairs. This arrangement, however, was only tem- porary. The people in each state soon felt the need of a perma- nent written constitution, and all the states, except Rhode Island and Connecticut, made such constitutions soon after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In Rhode Island and Connecticut the people kept their colonial charters, under which they were practically free to manage their own affairs, and treated them as state constitutions, 157 158 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT What is a constitution? The first state govern- ments Growing more democratic Union necessary but difficult A constitution is the fundamental law which the people of a state or nation draw up and adopt when they form a permanent government. In this document the people provide for the election or appointment of the officers who are to govern them, state what powers these officers are to have, and estab- lish a way of getting rid of them if they neglect their duties or exercise power which has not been granted to them by the people. In brief, a constitution is a law by which the people establish and control their own government. A written consti- tution is very important to a free people, because it helps them to know their rights and to prevent any encroachment upon those rights by the men whom they have chosen to be their rulers. The first state governments were much like the colonial governments which had just been overthrown and, at the £)ame time, they strongly resembled the governments found in our states at the present time. In each state there was an elected legislature which made the laws. In all of them, except Penn- sylvania and Georgia, this lawmaking body was made up of two houses. Each of the new states except Pennsylvania had a governor whose duty it was to enforce the law. In Pennsyl- vania, until 1790, the power to enforce the law was vested in an executive council of twelve members. Then, as now, there were judges in each state who interpreted the laws and applied them in cases which were brought before the courts. But the state governments which were set up during the Revolution were far less democratic than the governments of our states at present. Now the governors of all our states are elected by a direct vote of the people. Then the governors of some of the states were chosen by the state legislature. In our time the judges in most of the states are elected by popular vote. In those days all judges were appointed by the governors or by the legislatures. Now all citizens, both men and women, have the right to vote. Then the suffrage was generally limited to property owners or tax payers. Our country has been growing more democratic ever since it gained its independence. Our First National Government. — Our ways of living are very different from those of our Revolutionary ancestors. We read the news of the whole world in our daily papers and can OUR FIRST NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 159 travel quickly to any part of the. United States. Before the Revolution, people heard little news except that of their own neighborhoods, and few men ever traveled outside the colony in which they were born. Under such conditions it was very difficult to get the people of all the colonies to act together. Yet some of the wisest Revolutionary leaders had long seen that the colonists must unite if they were to succeed in main- taining their rights against the aggressions of the British govern- ment. ''We must all hang together or we shall all hang sep- arately," said Benjamin Franklin as he signed the Declaration of Independence. The Albany Congress of 1754, the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, and the First Continental Congress of 1774 were all held because the dangers which threatened the colonists were slowly Early forcing them to realize the necessity of union. Yet the Plan attempts at of Union proposed at Albany in 1754 was rejected by the col- onies, and the congresses of 1765 and 1774 did little, except to draw up petitions and pass resolutions. Although they were very important in bringing the leaders of the people together and in preparing the way for united action, these congresses were not real governments in any sense. It was very different with the second Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. This Congress became at once the government of the United Colonies. As we The second have already seen, it appointed Washington to command the Continental army and named- other generals to serve under him. It bor- rowed money, adopted the Declaration of Independence, sent agents to foreign countries, and did many other things which only a government can do. In a word, that Continental Con- gress was our first national government. It continued to manage our national affairs from 1775 to 1781. As we had no written constitution during these years, the Continental Congress governed by common consent. It had all the power the people were willing to recognize and obey. Our govem- During the fii'st year or two of the Revolution the people J?®"p under looked up to the Continental Congress, and its authority was nental Con- very 'great. The most influential men in the various states were gress sent to it. But, after the new state governments were formed, the people more and more gave them the respect and obedience which at first they had shown the Continental Congress. 160 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT Some of the leading men now left the Congress to accept office in their own states. The states were well known and near at hand. The Congress was new and distant. The people began to distrust it, and the state governments grew jealous of its author- ity. Under these conditions its power steadily dwindled away. The Articles of Confederation. — The members of the Con- tinental Congress early saw the need of a written constitution Origin which should tell them just how much power they really possessed. The same day that they appointed a committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence, they named another to draft a form of government. John Dickinson of Pennsyl- vania was the chairman of this committee, and the plan of government which it reported was, in the main, his work. A few days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted Dickinson laid the Articles of Confederation before the Congress. When they were adopted by that body and approved by all the states, these articles were to become the first written consti- tution of the United States. It was no easy task to get the proposed plan of government adopted. The smaller states feared the growing power of The struggle the larger. New England and the southern section were ^^^Lillf^'^ jealous of each other. After discussing the Articles of Con- federation, at intervals, for more than a year, the Continehtal Congress at last adopted them in November, 1777. It took more than three years longer to get all the states to ratify them. The chief reason for this delay grew out of a dispute about the ownership of the land between the Alleghany Moun- tains and the Mississippi River. Some of the states claimed this land by the terms of their colonial charters, and because of their efforts to settle it. But the states which had no such claims said that the western land was being won from the British and the Indians by the blood and the treasure of the people of all the states, and that it ought to be used for the benefit of all the people. Maryland refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation until it was understood that the states claiming western land would give it up to the United States. At last this assurance was given, and in March, 1781, the Articles of Confederation became the law of the land. The United States was governed under these articles from 1781 to 1789. adoption CRITICAL YEARS OF THE CONFEDERATION 161 The government established by the Articles of Confedera- tion had very little real power. The governing body was a Congress made up of delegates from the several states. Each Nature of the state had one vote. No important law could be passed without government the consent of nine states, and the Articles of Confederation could not be changed in any way unless the amendment was agreed to by all the states. These provisions made it very difficult to get anything done. The Congress was given the power to make -treaties with other countries, to declare war and to make peace, to establish post-offices, and to manage Indian affairs. But it could not tax the people, raise armies, or regu- late commerce. If it wanted money or soldiers it asked the states for them. If the states did not furnish them the Congress could do nothing about it. It had no power to enforce its laws. The people soon learned, by bitter experience, their need of a stronger national government. The Critical Years of the Confederation, 1781-1789.— The Articles of Confederation went into effect the same year that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. For several years after A critical 1781 it was doubtful whether the young nation, which had just ^""^ won its freedom from Great Britain, would live or die. These years have been called the critical period in American history. We will first examine the perils which threatened our national life under the Articles of Confederation and then see how these dangers were averted. The first peril of the Confederation was poverty. The government needed money to pay the men who had furnished the army with supplies during the war, to pay the interest on Financial the public debt and, most of all, to pay the long unpaid wages troubles of the soldiers who were threatening to mutiny if something were not quickly done for them. The only ways in which a government can get money are by taxing the people and by borrowing. But our national government under the Articles of Confederation had no power to tax the people. It could only ask the states for the money it needed and then wait until the states levied and collected the taxes and paid the money to the United States. This the states usually failed to do. In 1782 and 1783, the Confederation received less than one dollar out of every six for which it asked. Nor was it any easier to borrow money. France and Holland had loaned money to the 11 162 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT United States during the war, but they could not be expected to continue to supply us with money after the war was over. "Our public credit is gone. We can have no right to hope, much less to expect the aid of others while we show so much unwillingness to help ourselves," wrote Robert Morris to Washington. Another danger to the welfare of the people grew out of the great lack of good money with which to carry on the busi- Bad money ness of the country. At the close of the Revolution the United States had no coinage of its §3 own. There were various kinds of foreign money in common use — English and French coins and Spanish silver money that had come into the country through trade with the West Indies. But most of the money in the United States, when the Revolution ended, consisted of paper notes issued at wer to fff EICHT Sktvfi m,uu DOLLA 9i or «bc Vilue Ihereof id OcU or Silvft tccordiril *0 Is Rcfohtlon of CO A' •OR SSS, pilt«a It Fit ItiJphit, Hm. t 1776 IKiMIWl "" Continental Paper Money various times by the Continental Congress. If you will look at a piece of the paper money now in use you will see that it is not real money at all, but a promise to pay real money or coin. The value of a promise on a piece of paper money, like the value of any other promise, depends upon the ability and the willingness of its maker to fulfil it. As doubt of the ability of the United States to make good the large amount of Continental paper money issued during the Revolution grew in the minds of the people, that money steadily lost value. At one time it took $2000 in this depreciated currency to buy a suit of clothes. At last, the paper money of the Revolution came to have almost no value at all. Even to this day, when we wish to say that something is utterly worthless we declare that it is "not worth a Continental." While the people managed to earn a living upon their farms or in their shops during the trying years of this critical period, Hard times it was very difficult for them to get enough money to pay their cause dis- debts and their taxes. At this time several of the states made matters worse by issuing more paper money which depreciated content CRITICAL YEARS OF THE CONFEDERATION 163 in value even more rapidly than the Continental currency. When men could not pay their debts, their property was seized and sold by the sheriff for the benefit of their creditors. Some- times debtor? who had no property were thrown into prison. It was natural that under such conditions there should be great uneasiness in the country and much grumbling against the govermnent. Frequently this popular discontent broke out in lawlessness and rioting. In Massachusetts in 1786, Daniel Shays led a dangerous rebellion which seriously threatened the peace in that state. Other causes than bad money and hard tunes seriously interfered with trade during those critical years. The Congress of the Confederation had no power to regulate commerce Selfishness between the several states or with foreign countries. Each of the states state could control its own trade just as it pleased. The states were jealous of one another, and some of them set up custom houses on their bor- ders at which they taxed the goods that came to their markets from the neighboring states. New York, for ex- ample, would not permit a cord of firewood from Con- necticut or a boatload of provisions from the New Jersey farms across the Hudson to be brought into New York City until it had paid a duty. All these vexatious restrictions on trade increased the people's dissatisfaction with a national govern- ment that could do nothing to prevent such selfish practices by the states. In foreign trade matters were no better. The Congress could make treaties of commerce with foreign nations but was without authority to enforce them. The commercial countries Foreign of the world were not eager to make treaties with a nation commerce that was powerless to keep its word. Although the war with prosper England was over, our relations with that country were far from friendly. We complained that England would not give up Detroit and the other rich fur-trading posts in the north- west, as she had promised in the Treaty of Paris. England replied that her merchants could not collect the debts which A Continental Coin Notice the motto : Mind Your Business! 164 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT Americans owed them before the Revolution, as the United States promised in the same treaty that they might. The British government restricted our trade with England, and with her colonies in the West Indies, and the Congress of the Confederation was powerless to do anything about it. Because our government was too weak to protect our trade abroad, few new ships were built, and our foreign commerce declined for some years after the Revolution. The men of the Revolution made the weak national government of the Confederation because they wanted most of Wise men the work of managing public affairs to be done by the states. saw the need Most of them loved their own states far more than they cared government fo^* the whole country. But the selfish conduct of the states, and the hard times and disorder throughout the country during the trying years just after the Revolution, quickly brought the more thoughtful leaders of the people to see that the nation could never prosper until it had a government strong enough to enforce obedience at home and respect abroad. Washington called the Congress of the Confederation "a half -starving, limping government, tottering at every step," and declared that the nation could not exist long without a government with greater power. Other influential men pointed out the need of a new government. James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, two young men who were to play a great part in the later history of the republic, were especially active in urging, with voice and pen, the making of a firmer Union. But the mass of the people were slow to act in the matter. In the meantime, several efforts to strengthen the Articles of Confederation, by amending them, failed because of the impossibility of getting the consent of all the states. The Constitutional Convention, 1787. — In 1785, delegates from Maryland and Virginia met at Washington's home at Mount Vernon to settle a dispute between those states about navigation on the Potomac River. Aided by Washington's advice, an agreement was speedily reached. It was then sug- gested that, if two states could thus easily settle their differences about trade, it might be well for men from all the states to meet for the purpose of talking over the commercial troubles of the country. Presently Virginia asked the other states to send delegates to such a meeting at Annapolis. As only five Convention of 1787 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 165 states sent representatives to the Annapolis Convention of 1786, but little could be done by that body. Still, the men who came to Annapolis saw clearly the need of a national govern- ment with authority to regulate commerce, and they called for another convention to revise the Ai'ticles of Confederation. After some hesitation the Congress united with them in asking all the^states to send delegates to such a meeting. Harris & Evdng Mount Vemon The home of George Washington on the Potomac. The convention which drew up the Constitution of the United States met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in May, 1787. All the states except Rhode Island were represented. Most of the leaders of the Revolution were present. Washing- ton, the most trusted man in the land, was chosen president of the convention. Franklin, full of years and wisdom, and the two brilliant young leaders, Madison and Hamilton, were the three greatest men on the floor. Next to these four stood such men as John Dickinson, Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, the Pinckncys and John Rutledge of South Caro- lina, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, and William Paterson of New Jersey. Four prominent leaders of the Revolution were The men who made the Constitution 166 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT absent. Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry did not come because they did not desire a stronger national government. John Adams was our minister to England and Thomas Jefferson represented his country at the court of France. The men of the Constitutional Convention faced a task of exceeding difficulty. At first they did not agree about what Difficulties ought to be done. Some of them wanted to patch , up the Articles of Confederation and go home. Others felt that there was not enough sound cloth in the articles to hold the patches, and that now or never was the time to draw up a new consti- tution giving ample power to the national government. When some of the members argued that the people would not adopt the kind of constitution that ought to be made, Washington saved the day by a noble speech in which he said, "If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God." After the convention decided to make a new constitution, its first difficult problem was the question of representation. Plans and Should the states be represented in proportion to their popula- compromises tion or should each state have the same number of votes in the lawmaking body? Virginia proposed a plan, drawn up by Madison, which provided for a Congress in which the states should be represented in proportion to the number of their inhabitants. This plan was favored by the large states. But the small states wanted all the states, large and small alike, to have equal weight in Congress, and New Jersey proposed a plan to carry their wishes into effect. The "large state" plan and the "small state" plan were debated with great warmth, and more than once the convention was on the point of break- ing up because its members could not agree upon either one of them. At last, however, the matter was settled by a com- promise which provided that the lawmaking power should be given to a Congress composed of two houses, a Senate in which each state should have an equal number of votes, and a House of Representatives in which the states should be repre- sented in proportion to their population. Slavery was responsible for two other serious questions which troubled the convention. As we have just said, repre- THE STATES RATIFY THE CONSTITUTION 167 sentatives were to be apportioned among the states in proper- Slavery tion to their population. But should the slaves be counted ^^"^^^ . • ciiixcr6nc6S as a part of the population? The southern states with many of opinion slaves said yes to this question. The North, where slaves were few, did not want them counted when apportioning representatives among the states. But when it was suggested that direct taxes should be paid by the states in proportion to their population the two sections changed sides upon the question. For this purpose the North wanted to count all the slaves as a part of the population, the South did not. Finally it was decided that three-fifths of the slaves should be counted for both purposes. The northern men were eager to give Congress full power to regulate commerce. Some of the south- ern members feared that if Congress had this power it would stop the bringing of slaves from Africa which they desired to continue. By a third compromise it was agreed that Congress should control commerce but that it could' not prohibit the African slave trade before 1808. These three great compromises settled the more serious differences of opinion in the convention. After they were made its members had little difficulty in agreeing upon the other Completing features of the new constitution. Finally Gouverneur Morris, ^ a young delegate from Pennsylvania, wrote the completed document in clear and simple language. The Constitution owes its literary excellence to his skilful pen. William E. Gladstone, a great English statesman, called the Constitution of the United States "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose Sources of of man." But we must not think that the wise men who ^^. Consti- made the Constitution, during the summer of 1787, invented it. Their knowledge of the government of England and of her colonies in America, their experience in making constitutions for their states during the Revolution, and the sufferings of the country under the weak Articles of Confederation, all taught them how to make a constitution under which our people have lived in prosperity for more than a century. The States Ratify the Constitution. — The Constitutional Convention finished its work in September, 1787, and the new constitution was sent to the several states for their approval, tution before In each of the states the people elected a convention to consider the states 168 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT and pass upon the new form of government. . It had been agreed that when nine of the states ratified the Constitution it was to go into effect over the states ratifying it. The struggle to set up a stronger government in the United States was thus trans- ferred from Independence Hall in Philadelphia to every com- munity in the land. From the first the Constitution met with violent opposi- tion. Some good men thought it was not democratic enough. Objections Others said that it deprived the states of their rights and gave *° ** too much power to the national government. Jealousy between the various sections of the country also stood in the way. The East feared the growing West, and the agricultural South and commercial North were suspicious of each other. The ignorant feared a government which they did not understand. The timid and faint-hearted said, as such people always do, ''Let well enough alone." One serious objection was the absence in the proposed constitution of a clear statement of the rights of the people. This last objection was overcome by an under- standing that a Bill of Rights should be added to the Constitu- tion. Later this was done in the first ten amendments to that document. The friends of the Constitution defended it against these objections with ability and zeal. Public meetings were held Its defenders to arouse popular interest in its ratification. The newspapers were filled with letters urging its adoption and showing how it would cure the evils from which the country was suffering under the Articles of Confederation. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay were most active in explaining and defending the form of government which it was proposed to set up. A series of papers called "The Federalist" which they wrote for this purpose is still the best explanation of the Con- stitution. In the end the arguments in favor of the Constitu- tion won for it the support of the business interests of the country and of the more thoughtful men among the people. Those who favored its ratification called themselves Federalists, and those who opposed such action were known as Anti- Federalists. Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey led the way by ratifying the Constitution in December, 1787, and during Ratification the first ha,lf of 1788; one by one, most of the other states followed CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 169 their example. The closest contests were in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York. In Massachusetts . Samuel Adams, the great Revolutionary leader in the days before the war began, at first opposed the Constitution but changed his mind when he was convinced that the people of Boston favored its ratification. His support saved the day for the new government in Massachusetts. Virginia ratified by a close vote in spite of the violent oppos- ition of Patrick Henry, the other great popular leader of the early Revolutionary period. In New York a convention opposed to the Constitution was won over to its support by the matchless skill in debate of Alexander Hamilton. Be- fore the end of July, 1788, all the states except North Carolina and Rhode Island had ratified theConstitution which thus became the law of the land. A year or two later, North Carolina and Rhode Island fell into line thus completing the Union of all the states. The Constitution of the United States. — The purpose of the Constitution is best stated in the words of its preamble; "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- quillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ours(>lves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." In the Constitution the people have given the lawmaking power to a Congress which is composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives. There are two senators from each Fromfhe hvf^t by Ceracchi. Alexander Hamilton The preamble Congress 170 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT state. Until 1913 the senators were chosen by the legislatures of the states. In that year an amendment to the Constitution was adopted, providing for their election by the direct vote of the people. The term of office of senators is six years. The members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people for a term of two years. The number of representatives from each state depends upon the number of its inhabitants. The Congress meets every year on the first Monday in Decem- ber. The Vice-President of the United States presides over th^ The National Capitol, Washington, D. C. The meeting place of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. Senate. The House of Representatives elects one of its own members to be its presiding officer. He is called the Speaker. A proposed law is called a bill. Bills may be introduced into either house of Congress except that all bills for raising How laws money must begin in the House of Representatives. After a are made bill has passed each house by a majority vote of those present, it is sent to the President for his approval. li the President signs the bill it becomes a law. If the President does not approve a bill which comes before him, he returns it with his objections to the house in which it originated. This act of the President is called a veto. Congress may then reconsider the bill, and if it passes a second tirne in each house by the votes of CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 171 two-thirds of those present it becomes a law in spite of the President's veto. The Constitution also provides that if any bill is not returned by the President within ten week days after it is presented to him, it shall become a law unless Congress adjourns before the ten days have expired. You will notice that there are three different ways in which a bill before Congress may become a law. When they made their Constitution, the people of the United States gave many important powers to Congress. It can lay and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce Powers oc with foreign nations and between the states, coin money and Congress fix its value, and establish a postal system. Congress can declare war, raise and support armies, and provide and main- tain a navy; It also has power to create all the United States courts, except a Supreme Court which is provided for in the Constitution itself. These are some of the more important powers of Congress, but it has many others. The Constitution further strengthens the national govern- ment by forbidding the states to coin money, to make paper money, to lay taxes on imports or exports, to keep troops or Powers ships of war in time of peace, to engage in war unless actually forbidden invaded, or to enter into any agreement with another state or with any foreign power. It will be remembered that many of the troubles of the critical years just before the Constitution was made grew out of the fact that, under the Articles of Con- federation, the states did some of the things which they are forbidden to do in the Constitution. The Constitution provides for a President of the United States and makes it his duty to enforce the laws. The President is elected by presidential electors for a term of four years. How the Each state has as many presidential electors as it has senators President and representatives in Congress. These electors are chosen in each state in such manner as its legislature may direct. For some time after the Constitution went into effect the presiden- tial electors in many of the states were appointed by the legislatures themselves, but for many years they have all been elected by a direct vote of the people in the several states. The President is the commander-in-chief of the army and navy. He appoints all United States judges and many other ^^ the"**^^ officers of the national government, but these appointments President 172 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT United States courts must be approved by the Senate. He may pardon offenders against the laws of the United States. The President makes all treaties with foreign nations, but no treaty that he makes goes into effect until it has been ratified by the Senate by a vote of two-thirds of the senators present. Impeach- ment Harris & Swing The Supreme Court of the United States in 1920 (Left to right, standing) . Justices Brandeis, Van Devanter, McReynolds, Clarke. (Seated), jijustices Day, McKenna, Chief Justice White, Justices Holmes, Pitney. The power to interpret or explain the Constitution and the laws made by Congress and to decide cases that arise under them, is given to the United States courts. The Constitution provides for a Supreme Court, and Congress has established various lower courts. The judges in all these courts hold their offices for life or during good behavior. If Congress passes a law that it is not given the right to pass in the Constitution, the Supreme Court may declare such a law unconstitutional. After that no one can be required to obey the unconstitutional act. The President, the judges, and various other United States officers may be removed from office at any time if they disobey CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 173 The House of Representatives in Session Wm. II- Rau, Inc. 174 BEGINNINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT Amending the Consti tution the laws or are guilty of other misconduct. Such removals are brought about in the following way. When a majority of the House of Representatives believe that an officer of the United States is guilty of wrong(;loing, they may bring charges against him before the Senate. This is called impeachment. The impeached officer is then tried by the Senate, and if two-thirds of the senators find him guilty he must give up his office. The people of the United States may change their Consti- tution whenever enough of them desire to do so. An amendment to the Constitution may be proposed by Congress by a vote of two-thirds of each house. There is another way of proposing , amendments but it has never been used. A proposed amend- ment is sent to the states for their approval, and when ratified by three-fourths of the states it becomes a part of the Constitu- tion. Eighteen amendments have been added to the Consti- tution since it first went into effect in 1789. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The states cannot make laws contrary to it, or contrary to the laws The supreme made by Congress under it. If they try to do so the judges will declare that their acts are void and no one will obey them. Every citizen must obey the Constitution and laws of the United States as well as those of his own state. If he does not, the national government will enforce its laws upon him. This is the great difference between the Articles of Confedera- tion and the Constitution. Under the Articles of Confederation the United States made laws and asked the states to enforce them. If the states refused or neglected this request, as they often did, the national government was powerless. Under the Constitution the national government possesses ample power to enforce its own laws upon every person in the land. A noted American jurist has recently spoken the following words about the nature of our government which is briefly defined in the opening section of this chapter : "Every well-instructed American has read enough of history to know that ours is the first successful attempt to frame a government with a central sovereign power, supreme within a narrow sphere, and numerous smaller sovereign powers, each supreme within a larger sphere. He of all men ought to feel that the safety of American institutions hes in main- taining this combination in working order. Whatever party ties he may acknowledge, he is untrue to his country if he is not outspoken in defence of this method of distributing power. It is indispensable to have a strong law of the land CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 175 government at Washington to deal with matters not open to the States. It is equally indispensable to preserve the sovereignty of the States in matters that are, under the principles of the Constitution, confided to them. . . . "There is, however, a strong counter influence in the opposite direc- tion. American scholars look out on the world from a height — that on which their education has placed them. They observe that the tendencies of modern political thought in most countries are towards greater and greater centralization of power in the hands of one man or a few men, subject to checks by the people, either by direct vote or through their representatives. The educated man is especially liable to be affected by the currents of world-politics. He knows most about them. He natur- ally wishes his own country to be in hne with the advance elsewhere of political thought. I do not think he always appreciates how the difference in history and conditions between the United States and Europe renders impossible here, under our constitutional system, much that is possible there." CHAPTER IX Winning a Foothold in the West English dominion extended to the Mississippi England Gains Control of the West. — We have seen how Marquette and La Salle explorcxl th(; Mississippi River and claimed its valky for France. But beyond a few mission stations and trading posts the French never made good their claim to Pontiac's Defiance This great chief- tain, who led the Indians against the English in 1763, scornfully offering terms of surrender to one of the garri- sons on the western border. this vast region by actual settlement. When the first settlers from the English colonies on the Atlantic seaboard began to penetrate the wilderness of the Alleghany Mountains and tres- pass upon land claimcxl by the French, the French and Indian War was fought to determine the destiny of America. When it ended, the French empire in America was a thing of the past, 176 FIRST PIONEERS BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 177 and England owned all the country east of the Mississippi River. England soon found that it was one thing to win a title to the West and quite another to take possession of the country. The English troops had scarcely occupied Detroit and the Pontiac's other French posts in the northwest b(ifore they had to fight ^" for their lives. Pontiac, one of the most crafty Indian warriors in American history, led the tribes of that region against the English garrisons, destroyed several of them, and was defeated only after a desperate Indian war. The story of the war has been told in a fascinating way by Francis Parkman, one of our greatest American historians, in his "Conspiracy of Pontiac." The West which passed into the hands of England in 1763 was still a wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and Indians. There were a few little French villages like Detroit, Green England fails Bay in Wisconsin, and Vincennes on the Wabash River, and ^o keep some scattered French trappers and hunters in the forests, of the West Practically, however, the whole region from the Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi River was an Indian country, and England desired to keep it so for the present. In 1763 the British government forbade the governors of the colonies to give settlers titles for "any lands V)eyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest." But it was impossible for a government three thousand miles away to keep the land- hungry settlers away from the lands they coveted. The First Pioneers beyond the Mountains. — As soon as the French and Indian War was over hardy frontiersmen began to cross the mountains, eager to occupy the newly won western jhe lands. Some of them settled in the country near the forks of westward the Ohio, where Pittsburgh was founded in 1765. Others made "movement their way up the Appalachian valkys into the mountain regions of Virginia and North Carolina. A few years later the boldest of these border settlers passed through the last gaps in the mountains, to become the pioneers of Kentucky and Tennessee. Daniel Boone was the most famous pioneer of Kentucky. His life was so like that of the other settlers upon the The _ story of western border that the story of it will help us to understand Boone 12 178 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST The frontiers' man them. Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania in 1734. His early life was spent upon what was then the frontier of that colony, and while still a boy he was a mighty hunter. He had little of the education that is gained from books but he knew and loved the wild woods and was skilled in all kinds of wood- craft. When Daniel was about eighteen years old the Boones, like many other fi'onticr families, moved to the southwest, following the long valleys in the mountains, and at last settled m a new home on the Yadkin River in western North Carolina. Here Daniel Boone married, established a home of his own, and until he was thirty-five years of age lived like the other hardy, rugged, frontier farmers about him. He often went on long hunting trips into the wil- derness west of the settle- ments, and had a taste of Indian fighting during the French and Indian War. At last the tales told by a wan- dering fur trader about a beautiful country called Kentucky, a land of count- less deer, buffaloes, and wild turkeys, led Boone and five other hunters to go in quest of it. In 1769 Daniel Boone, with his five companions, crossed the mountains and found his way through the Cumberland Boone in Gap into the valley of the Kentucky River. He spent the next Kentucky two years in Kentucky, hunting, trapping, and exploring the country. During this first long visit to Kentucky Boone had many strange and exciting adventures. Once he lived all alone in the wilderness for three months "without bread, salt, or, sugar, without company of fellow creatures, or even a horse or dog." Boone was so pleased with the beautiful Kentucky Daniel Boone FIRST PIONEERS BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 179 country that he resolved to bring his family to it and make it his future home. In 1773 Daniel Boone and several of his neighbors started with their families for Kentucky, but an Indian war party which killed Boone's oldest son stopped them for a time. It was not Settlement until April, 1775, less than two weeks before the fight at Lex- ^* Kentucky ington and Concord, that Boone and his followers reached their destination and began the settlement of Boonesborough on The West at the Time of the Revolution the bank of the Kentucky River. Harrodsburg and two or three other early Kentucky settlements were established about the same time. The leading pioneers of Kentucky were nearly all men of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock. As their numbers grew they cleared and cultivated the land, brought domestic animals from the older settlements, planted fruit trees, and slowly changed Boone's hunting ground into a land of homes and farms. The pioneers of Tennessee were very much like those of Kentucky. The first white settler entered eastern Tennessee in 1769. During the next three or four years more frontiers- The founders of Tennessee 180 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST men came, and many cabins were built in the valleys of the Watauga and Holston rivers. James Robertson and John Sevier were the leaders in the Watauga Settlement, as it is called. Robertson was a quiet man of little education but of great natural ability and energy, Sevier was a handsome young Virginian of good education, eager, ambitious, and very popular. Both of them were mighty hunters, fearless explorers, and famous Indian fighters. In 1779 James Robertson moved two hundred miles farther west and founded the present city of Nashville upon the Cumberland River. He is often called the Father of Tennessee. Border Warfare in the Revolution. — The first frontiersmen beyond the Alleghany Mountains lived with their rifles ever Savage foes at hand for they were in constant peril of Indian attack. For ten years after the close of Pontiac's war in 1764 there was nominal peace between the red men and the white, yet even then outbreaks between the two races were not uncommon. Two great groups of Indian tribes threatened the western border: those north of the Ohio River, among whom the Shawnees were conspicuous, and the southern Indians, of whom the Cherokees were the special foes of the pioneers in eastern Tennessee. Kentucky was the hunting ground of both the northern and the southern Indians, and many a grim fight between them had taken place in its forests. In the language of the Indians Kentucky means the "dark and bloody ground." The northern Indians looked on in alarm as the pioneers of western Pennsylvania and Virginia began to cut down the Dunmore's forests and destroy the game of their hunting grounds. In war 1774: their war parties began to harry the settlements in this region with fire and slaughter. Some of the settlers were killed, while others fled east of the mountains or gathered in the log forts which they had built for defense. Governor Dunmore of Virginia promptly made war upon the Indians, who were defeated in a fierce fight upon the Great Kanawha River and forced to make peace. It was just after Dunmore's war ended that the first settlements in Kentucky were planted. Soon after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War the British began to incite the Indians to attack the American frontiersmen. The tribes in the South were the fii'st to strike. Early in 1776 war bands of Cherokees fell upon the outlying The southern border BORDER WARFARE IN THE REVOLUTION 181 frontier settlements in eastern Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. The cabins were burnt, the live stock driven off, and the men, women, and children massacred. The southern frontiersmen flew to arms, and before the close of 1776 they inflicted such punishment upon the Cherokees that it was several years before their tribe ventured upon the warpath again. During these years the border settlers were steadily The Settlement at Boonesborough From an old print. growing stronger and better able to hold their own against the red men. At first the Indians on the northern border, who had not forgotten their defeat in 1774, were not eager to renew the fighting. But they were soon stirred up by the British agents, The and during 1777 and 1778 the entire western frontier of New j^orthera York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the infant settlements in Kentucky suffered terribly from the tomahawk and the scalp- ing-knife. Thriving settlements in the Wyoming Valley in northern Pennsylvania and in the Cherry Valley in central New York were ruined by raiding parties of Indians and Tories. We have already seen how General Sullivan punished the Iroquois Indians for their part in these massacres. In Kentucky the backwoodsmen gathered for protection 182 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST Frontier stations George Rogers Clark Indians north of the Ohio Clark's expedition in the fortified stations like Boonesborough and Harrodsburg. Both of these places were repeatedly besieged by the Indians but always managed to beat off their assailants. It is prob- able, however, that in the end all the Kentucky settlements would have been destroyed had it not been for the heroic exploit of George Rogers Clark. How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest. — George Rogers Clark was a young Virginian who became one of the early pioneers in Kentucky. Like Boone, Clark loved the wild life of the border. Like Sevier, he was a born leader of men, tall and strong, with "a penetrating, sparkhng eye," daring, ambitious, and far-seeing. In the importance of his service to the new nation Clark was destined to surpass all the other border heroes of his time. The vast region north of the Ohio River w^as the home of warlike Indian tribes. Here and there were a few old French towns like Kaskaskia on the Mississippi and Vincennes on the Wabash River, and a few British military posts hke Detroit. These villages and military stations were the centers of British influence in the Northwest. There the Indians were furnished with supplies and incited to take the warpath against the American frontier settlers. Because George Rogers Clark knew these facts he resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country, capture ihe French towns, and win the Northwest from the British. Clark returned from Kentucky to Virginia in the fall of 1777 and laid his plan before Governor Patrick Henry who approved it and advanced some money to carry it out. lit the spring of 1778 Clark left the settlements on the Monongahela River at the head of one hundred and fifty Virginia frontiers- men. His men were clad in buckskin hunting shirts and carried long flint-lock rifles. In their clumsy flatboats they drifted silently down the Monongahela and the Ohio, past long reaches of Indian-haunted forest, until they reached the falls in the latter river, where the city of Louisville now stands. Here they built a fort and planted a crop of corn. Then Clark went on down the Ohio with a small force of picked men until they passed the mouth of the Tennessee. Leaving the boats at this point he led his men straight across the country to Kaskaskia, which he surprised and captured without striking a HOW CLARK WON THE NORTHWEST 183 blow. Soon the other French towns on the Mississippi were in his hands, and a httle later \^incennes acknowledged his author- ity. When the French inhabitants in this region found that Clark meant to treat them justly they gladly took an oath of loyalty to the United States. When Hamilton, the British commander of the Northwest, heard of Clark's conquests north of the Ohio, he advanced from Detroit to Vincennes, where he spent the winter. It was the The capture British leader's intention to renew the campaign in the spring, ^^ Vincennes Clark's Virginians Crossing the Drowned Lands drive the Americans out of the Northwest Territory, and then lead a strong force of Svitish and Indians against the settle- ments in Kentucky. But George Rogers Clark was not the man to await attack. He struck first, sure, and hard. Leaving Kaskaskia early in February, 1779, he led his men in a march of almost incredible difficulty across lands flooded by the spring freshets and forced the surrender of the British garrison at Vincennes. There was great rejoicing among the frontiers- men at the news that the "hair-buyer" general, as Hamilton was called, was a prisoner. The importance of Clark's daring and heroic exploit can hardly be overestimated. It not only saved the infant settle- 184 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST The ments in Kentucky from destruction at the hands of the Northwest British and the Indians, but it won the vast Northwest Terri- tory for the United States. The British claimed all the coun- try north of the Ohio. By the Quebec Act of 1774 they had made this vast region, — the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, a part of the province of Quebec. If they had been in actual possession of all this territory it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to get them to give it up at the close of the Revolution. But when Franklin, Adams, and Jay were negotiating the treaty of peace with Great Britain they could claim the Northwest Territory on the ground that a large part of it was in the actual possession of their countrjmien. It is probable that the conquest of this territory by George Rogers Clark made the Great Lakes instead of the Ohio River the northern boundary of the United States. Rival Claims and Land Cessions. — The Mississippi River was the western boundary of the United States at the close of The land the Revolution. But, as we have seen, there was a dispute claims of the between the states about the ownership of the land west of the Alleghany Mountains. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia each claimed to own the land due west of it because its original charter had defined its terri- tory as extending from "sea to sea." Virginia also claimed the land north of the Ohio River because its charter of 1609 said that its territory extended from "sea to sea, west and north- west." Virginia further held that the Northwest Territory was hers by right of conquest since George Rogers Clark was a Virginia soldier and the expenses of his expedition had been paid out of the treasury of that state. New York claimed some of the western land, on the ground that the Iroquois Indians had ceded it to her by treaty, but such a claim had little value. The accompanying map will make these claims clear. It will be noticed that Massachusetts and Connecticut on the one hand and Virginia on the other were rival claimants to part of the land north of the Ohio River. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Western Delaware, and Maryland, the six states having no claims in to'the United ^^^ West, urged that the land in question ought to be given States to the United States to be used for the benefit of all the people. THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM 185 titles You will remember that Maryland refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation until assured that this would be done. At various times between 1784 and 1802 all the land, except Kentucky, west of the thirteen original states as they exist today, was ceded to the United States by the states claiming it. Kentucky remained a county of Virginia until it was admitted into the Union as a state. When the land in the West was ceded to the United States it became the duty of the national government to devise a plan for giving titles for their farms to the pioneers who settled upon the new public domain, and to set up territorial govern- ments as the need for them arose. We will next inquire how these two things were done. The Public Land System. — A deed is a paper in which a man is given the title to a piece of land by its former owner. At first all the land in the English colonies belonged to the Early land king by right of discovery. The first settlers upon the land in the colonies received the deeds, which gave them titles to their farms, from the colonial governors who represented the king or in some cases the proprietors to whom the king had granted the land. At the time of the Revolution all the land in each colony which had not yet passed into private hands became the property of the state, and settlers upon it must get their titles from the state government. When the western land was given to the United States by the states claiming it, the pioneers who settled upon it must look to the national government for their land titles. A deed contains a description of the land which it conveys from one person to another. But before land can be accurately described it must be carefully surveyed. This was rarely done on the frontier where each settler was usually his own surveyor and marked the limits of the land which he claimed by blazing the trees with his axe. This practice made the farms very irregu- lar in size and shape and often left patches of land which nobody wanted. As two or more men fr(^qiiently claimed the same land the history of the early frontier is filled with dis- putes and lawsuits over land titles. In order to avoid such troubles in the new national domain Congress passed an act in 1785 which provided a simple and accurate method of surveying the government land and Primitive surveying Surveying the public domain 186 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST How the settler secured his land disposing of it to settlers. Under this plan the surveyors of the government first established a north and south line, which was called the principal meridian, and crossed this with an east and west line, which was called the base hne. Starting from the principal meridian and the base line the surveyors next divided the public land into square blocks by drawing parallel lines due north and south and crossing these with parallel lines running east and west. As all these lines were drawn six miles apart they cut the country up into blocks each six miles square. Such a block of land was called a township. Each township was similarly marked off like a checkerboard into squares one mile on each side. A square mile of land thus marked was called a section, and con- tained six hundred and forty acres. The sections in each townshipwcre num- bered as shown in the diagram on this page. Each section was divided into quarters, which could easily be sub- divided by the sur- veyors if necessary, plan has been followed in surveying all the public in the United States, and accounts for the fact that r i 1 3 Sketch of Township. 3 South, Range II West 2 a ll showing Sections. N \A/_ VI V IV III 11 ll J ^ 6 5 4 3 2 1 Principal Base -ine 1 T" 7 8 9 10 11 12 18 17 16 15 14 13 2 £ 19 20 21 22 23 24 ■■ 1 3 30 29 28 27 26 25 ■ _ 31 32 33 34 35 36 ' 5 5 Diagram Explaining Public Land System This land townships and counties in the western states are usually square or rectangular instead of having the irregular shapes so com- mon in the original thirteen states. After the public land was surveyed according to this plan a man who desired to settle upon it first located the particular piece of land which he wanted, noting the township and section in which he found it, and then went to a public land office and paid the small price per acre which the government asked for its land. He was then given a deed by the United States which made him owner of the land. By this plan each farm could be accurately described in the deed and there was no danger that the same land would be sold to more than one settler. In THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 187 each township one section of land, usually the sixteenth, was set apart for the support of public schools. Most of our western states now have permanent school funds derived from the sale of land thus reserved for educational purposes. The Ordinance of 1787. — When people began to settle upon the western land, which had been given to the United States by the states, it became the duty of the nation to pro- A govern- vide a government for their protection. This was done for the ^^"A^^*^ l^^ first time by the famous Ordinance of 1787, which created Territory a government for the Northwest Territory, as the vast region north of the Ohio River was called. At first this territory was governed by a governor, a secretary, and three judges appointed by Congress. When there were five thousand free men in the territory they were permitted to elect a house of representatives to help make their laws. The Ordinance of 1787 also provided for the division of the Northwest Territory into not less than three nor more than five states, and said that when each of these states had sixty thousand free inhal^itants it must be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states. In the course of time the great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin grew up in the territory organized under this law. The Ordinance of 1787 laid the foundations of government by the people in the Northwest Territory. It said that the settlers in that region should always be represented in the Freedom and body which made their laws and have freedom of worship and ®'*u<^^tion the right of trial by jury. It forbade slavery and declared that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The Ordinance of 1787 was one of the greatest laws ever passed in America, not only because it gave free, democratic institutions to the Northwest Territory, but even more because Our it was a pattern for the numerous other territorial governments territorial which were organized from time to time by the United States, as the frontier steadily moved westward across the continent to the Pacific. It meant that as the western territory was settled it should be organized into states, each of which should have all the rights that the older states in the East possessed. The passage of this law marks the beginning of a territorial 188 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST frontier policy under which the Union has grown from the thirteen states of the Revolutionary period to the forty-eight states of the present day. The Growth of Western Settlement. — Neither the hardship of pioneer life nor fear of the Indians kept the people from The western flocking toward the western frontier during the Revolution and the critical years which followed its close. Times were hard in the new nation, and the more daring and ambitious men sought the border where good land could be had almost for the taking. The frontier of those days ran in a great curve from north- ern New England through central New York, western Pennsylvania and Virginia, into Ken- tucky and Tennes- see, and thence fell back into western South Carolina and middle Georgia. Much of this fron- tier was within the limits of the old states. Vermont was added to the Union as the four- teenth state in 1791, and Kentucky and Tennessee were the first states west of the Alleghany Mountains. We have seen how the earliest settlements in Kentucky were in constant peril of destruction by the British and the The growth Indians. After George Rogers Clark's conquest of the North- of Kentucky ^gg^ removed this danger a stream of settlers poured across the mountains into that beautiful region. In spite of occa- sional raids by the Indians the log cabins of the pioneers were built farther and farther into the wilderness, and the forests The Frontier Just After the Revolution THE GROWTH OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT 189 around these frontier homes fell before the axes of the woods- men. From the beginning the settlers in Kentucky managed their own local affairs. Their land was a part of the country- claimed by Virginia and was never ceded by that state to the United States. Kentucky remained a county of Virginia until 1792 when it was admitted into the Union as a state. The growth of early Tennessee was very much like that of Kentucky. Occasional war parties of Cherokees were beaten off and sometimes se- Early verely punished by the ^"^^ ^^^^ Tennessee frontiersmen under those matchless Indian fighters, Sevier and Robertson. The set- tlers of the Watauga Valley early set up a local government of their own and in 1784 they organized a state which they called Franklin. But North Carohna, which claimed the Tennessee country, objected to this action and the plan for the new state had to be given up. In 1790 North Carolina ceded Tennessee to the nation. It was then made a United States territory, and in 1796 it became the sixteenth state in the Union, The presence of several strong and warlike Indian tribes in the country north of the Ohio River which is now the state of Ohio, delayed the settlement of that region Settlement for some years. The first settlement in Ohio was made at "^ ^^° Marietta in 1788 by the Ohio Company, a land company which had bought from Congress a great tract of land on the Muskingum River. The settlements in Ohio grew slowly at first because of the continued hostility of the Indians. In General (" Mad ") Anthony Wayne 190 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST 1791 General St. Clair led an army against the tribes in the Ohio country. St. Clair was a brave man, but he proved to be a poor Indian fighter. The red men attacked him in the woods and killed or wounded more than two-thirds of his troops. After St. Clair's disastrous defeat General Anthony Wayne, one of the best soldiers of the Revolutwn, was sent to Ohio to Wayne's carry on the war against the Indians. Wayne was a bold and th'^^i'^^^^'^ dashing fighter and at the same time a prudent and resourceful leader. After careful preparation he marched against the Indians in 1794, defeated them in the ''Battle of the Fallen Timber," and the following year forced them to sign a treaty in which they gave up all their claims to southern and eastern Ohio. After the Indian power was thus broken, so many settlers flocked across the Ohio River that in 1803 Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state. Life on the Frontier. — Pioneer life on the western border of Pennsylvania and Virginia or in the more remote outposts The journey of settlement in Kentucky and Tennessee was everywhere to the West much alike. The journey of a settler's family to its new home in the wilderness was attended by hardship and danger. As a rule a group of families moved together for mutual protection. They could take little with them. A few cooking utensils and some rolls of bedding were carried on pack-horses. The men, rifle in hand, drove the pack-horses or marched in front or at the side of the trail to guard against Indian attack. If cattle were taken it was the duty of the boys to drive them. Some- times the women and younger children rode on horseback, but oftener they walked. As soon as roads were opened through the woods, wagons were used to carry the women, small chil- dren, and household goods. Many of the settlers along the Ohio River in Kentucky and in the Northwest Territory made their way in this fashion to Pittsburgh or Wheeling. At these places they bought or built flat boats large enough to carry all their possessions. Upon these rude boats they floated down the river until they reached the neighborhood of their future homes. When the frontiersman reached the land which he intended to make his own, he first built a shelter for his family. Some- on'^&e "^^^ times this was only a rude hut built of poles and covered with border grass or bark, but if there were other settlers near at hand LIFE ON THE FRONTIER 191 to help raise the heavy logs, a substantial cabin was erected. Its roof was made of split boards or shingles held in place by laying stones upon them. Sometimes the cabin had no floor but the earth tramped hard; oftener the floor was made of puncheons. The chinks between the logs were filled with clay. At one end of the single room was a fireplace with its chimney of stone or sticks plastered with clay. The frontier cabin contained little furniture except a few homemade stools and benches and a rude table. Usually there was a loft above in Fort Washington, Cincinnati, Ohio which the boys slept. Bear skins and deer hides were much used for bedding. When the Indians threatened war the frontiersmen aban- doned the cabins in their clearings and came together in a station or wooden fort which tlie}^ had built for their protec- tion. These forts were square palisades of upright logs, with strong blockhouses at the corners and cabins on one or more sides of the square. They were provided with greet barred doors or gates, and there was usually room inside the enclosure for the horses and cattle of the settlers. The picture on this page will help you to understand what a frontier fort was like. If such a fort was defended by brave and resolute men it was almost impossible for the Indians to take it unless they could Frontiei forts 192 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST toil surprise the garrison or set fire to the buildings. The inmates of the fort were continually on their guard against these two dangers. The life on the frontier was one of constant peril. It was also a life filled with hard work. The men attacked the sur- Danger and rounding forest with their axes. At first there were only little clearings around the cabins, but year by year these clearings grew as the great trees were cut down and burned. Orchards were planted, and in time cultivated fields surrounded the homes of the pioneer farmers. The women were even busier than the men, for they pre- pared all the food and made all the clothing for their large families. The spinning wheel and loom were found in almost every home. But in spite of the danger and toil of their rough lives our pioneer ancestors were probably quite as happy as we are today. At first all the frontiers- men were farmers or hunters and trappers. As time passed and more settlers came, a few little straggling villages appeared. The frontier village grew up around a store and a tavern, and possibly contained a log schoolhouse and a little Growth A Hand Mill for Grinding Corn Home [ndustries church. Money was very scarce in the new settlements and barter was the common form of trade. It was very difficult to bring goods from the East across the mountains, but a few much-needed articles hke salt and iron were brought in on pack-horses, which returned to the eastern cities laden with the rich peltries of the wilderness. Each pioneer family made at home nearly all the utensils, furniture, clothing, and tools that it possessed. Corn was ground into meal in a rude hand mill, and coarse Hnen was LIFE ON THE FRONTIER 193 made from home-grown flax or from the bark of the wild nettle. Even the long rifle, the famous weapon which the frontiersmen used with such deadly skill, was made in the backwoods. But with all its hard work and danger the life of the early pioneers was not without its amusements. There were hunting expeditions, horse races, and log-rollings or corn-huskings in Amusements which neighbors met to help each other with their work and sometimes stayed to dance in the evening. The frontier wed- A Well-built Cabin of an Early Settler Brown Bros., N , dings were always times of feasting and of much boisterous merriment. There was little opportunity for education in the back- woods and some of the greatest frontiersmen never attended school. Daniel Boone once wrote that he had "cilled a bar" The first and Robertson was taught to read and spell by his wife, who ^'^'^oo's was an educated woman. In some of the settlements little log schoolhouses were built in which the children were taught to read, write, and cipher. At first there was even less oppor- tunity for the early settler to attend church than to go to school. But heroic ministers who followed the frontiersmen 194 WINNING A FOOTHOLD IN THE WEST into the wilderness kept religious worship alive and in the course of time established churches in the neiy land. The men who first penetrated the western wilderness and founded the first states beyond the Allegheny Mountains were The char- largely of Scotch-Irish stock. Mingled with these Scotch- acter of the Irishmen, however, were many settlers of English or German descent and a few with French Huguenot names. But whatever their origin the pioneers who won the first states in the West from the wilderness and the savages were hardy, self-reliant men of great physical endurance, dauntless courage, and iron will. Only such men could survive the privations and dangers on the frontier. The constant perils in the midst of which they lived made the frontiersmen stern and harsh, and in their treatment of the Indians often ruthless and vindictive. But in their relations with each other -the first settlers of the West were helpful and neighborly, and in their ideas about government they were the most democratic people in America. The following paragraphs from the Ordinance of 1787, the great law in which our territoiial policy was first set forth, indicate the care with which the rights of our citizens were safeguarded in the territories : "No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship, or religions sentiments, in the said territories. "The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; of a pro- portionate representation of the people in the legislature, and of judicial proceedings according to the course of common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offences, where the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land, and should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. And, in the just preservation of rights and property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made or have force in the said territory, that shall, in any manner whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts, or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud previously formed. "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good govern- ment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be LIFE ON THE FRONTIER 195 observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from tune to time, be made, for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them." We owe a great debt to the men and women who first won a foothold in the West. In spite of difficulties and perils that might well appall the stoutest heart, they opened the Our debt to way into the Mississippi valley and began the westward march ^^ pioneers of the pioneers across the continent. The frontiersmen of the Revolution stand in the front rank among the makers of America. CHAPTER X The Federalist Period The first presidential election Washington inaugurated Starting the Government. — As soon as enough states had ratified the Constitution to make it the law of the land, a day was set for the election of a congress and a president. Each state elected its senators and representatives and appointed the presidential electors who were to choose the president. There was no doubt about the man upon whom their choice would fall. Every elector voted for Washington because he was the most loved and trusted man in America. John Adams was made the first vice-president. The fom'th of March, 1789, was the day appointed for the organization of the new government, but traveling was slow and difficult in those days and it was April before a quorum of Congress reached New York which was then the capital of the nation. The first work of Congress was to count the electoral votes and to send a message posthaste to Mount Vernon to notify Washington of his election. The president elect started at once for New York. His journey thither was a triumphal procession. At Philadelphia the church bells rang, at Trenton girls strewed flowers in his path, and the night he reached New York the sky was red with bonfires. On April 30th, on the balcony of Federal Hall, Washington took the oath of office in the presence of a great crowd which shouted, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States." Congress next established executive departments to aid the president in his work. Washington appointed Thomas The Cabinet Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, his first secretary of state. Alexander Hamilton, who had worked so hard to secure the ratification of the Constitution, was made the first secretary of the treasury. General Henry Knox who commanded the artillery in Washington's army during the Revolution became secretary of war, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia was named as the first attorney-general. 196 STARTING THE GOVERNMENT 197 The First Cabinet From left to right — President Washington; Thomas Jefiferson, Secretary of State; Henry Knox, Secretary of War; Edward Randolph, Attorney-General; Alexander Hamil- ton, Secretary of the Treasury. President Washington soon ])egan to ask these men to meet with him from time to time to talk over the pubhc business. 198 THE FEDERALIST PERIOD United States courts The need of money The tariff Direct and indirect taxes This was the beginning of the president's cabinet. Since Wash- ington was president the cabinet has grown from four members to ten by the appointment of a postmaster-general, and secre- taries of the navy, interior, agriculture, commerce, and labor. The judicial department of the goverrmient was the last to be organized. The Constitution says that the judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as Congress shall establish. Before the close of 1789 Congi'ess had created circuit and district courts below the Supreme Court. One of President Washington's duties was to appoint the judges of all the United States courts. John Jay of New York was made the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. Putting the Finances of the Nation in Sound Condition. — When Washington became president the United States had an empty treasury and a large public debt which had been incurred during the Revolution. The credit of the coimtry was at its lowest ebb. The first need of the new government was money to meet its running expenses and to pay the inter- est on the public debt. One of the first laws passed by Congress was an act laying a duty or tax upon various articles imported into the United States. A list of dutiable goods with the rate of tax upon each is called a tariff. A tariff act is a law making such a list, though we often use the word tariff to express the rate of duty upon imported goods as, for example, when we speak of a ''high tariff" or a "low tariff." The average rate of duty laid by the tariff act of 1789 was only a little more than eight per cent, a very low tariff in comparison with the one we have at present. A tax is a sum of money paid by the citizen for the support of the government. It may be direct or indirect. A direct tax is a tax which must be paid by the person upon whom it is assessed, such as a tax upon a house which a man owns and lives in. An indirect tax is one which the taxpayer shifts upon others, as when an importer or manufacturer adds the tax which he has paid, upon the goods he imports or makes, to their price when he sells them and in this way makes his customers pay it. From 1789 until the last few years it was the policy of the United States to raise nearly all its revenue by indirect taxes. FINANCES OF THE NATION 199 In 1791, at the suggestion of Hamilton, Congress laid a tax of a few cents a gallon upon all liquor distilled in the United States. Such a tax upon goods made within the country The excise is called an excise or internal revenue tax. The excise law of 1791 was very unpopular everywhere, but it was especially hated in western Pennsylvania. The farmers of that region ~~ had no market for their grain. It cost too much to haul it to the eastern seaports and the Spaniards who controlled New Orleans had closed the Mississippi to their trade. But the ' whiskey which they made out of their corn and rye found a ready market at ^mC home or in the settlements 'i^ i t ' down the Ohio River. Under these conditions the people of western Pennsyl- vania thought that the excise was very unjust, and in 1794 they refused to pay ^'^>^ it and drove away the men y sent to collect it. A second officer was soundly flogged. Washington promptly sent several thousand militia to restore order and collect the tax. This show of force was The Whiskey Insurrection Flogging a Revenue Officer sufficient, and the troops met with no resistance. The collapse of the Whiskey Insurrection, as the uprising against the excise law in western Pennsylvania is called, taught our people the wholesome lesson that at last they had a government with power to enforce the laws which their own representatives had made. Soon after Washington became president, Congress asked the secretary of the treasury to suggest a plan for the pay- ment of the debt contracted during the Revolution. Hamilton The national found that the United States owed about $40,000,000 to its <^^^* own people and nearly $12,000,000 more in France, Holland, and Spain. A national debt of $52,000,000 would not seem very large now, but it was an enormous sum in those days. For a long time the creditors of the government had been clamoring in vain for their pay. The people had lost faith in 200 THE FEDERALIST PERIOD Hamilton's policy the ability of the nation to pay what it owed and many of them had sold the notes and other certificates of debt which they held for one-fourth of their face value. It was Hamilton's task to restore the financial honor and good name of his country. Hamilton's plan was to borrow enough money by selling new bonds of the government to pay all the old debt. At first there was much opposition to this proposal. Every one agi-eed that the foreign debt ought to be paid in full, but many men thought that the owners of the depreciated notes of the government at home ought to receive only the amount which they had paid for them. But Hamilton persuaded Congress that the only honest course for the nation to take was to keep its word by paying all that it had promised to pay. He suc- ceeded in getting the rich men of the country to buy the new bonds, and with the money thus obtained he paid the old debts. As the new bonds were not due for many years the government gained time in which to save enough money out of the taxes to pay them when they matured. At this time some of the states were heavily in debt. Hamilton next proposed that the debts of the states should be paid by the United States. He said this ought to be done because the states got into debt by fighting for the common cause during the Revolution. He knew also that the assump- tion of the state debts would add to the influence and authority of the national government, whose power he wished to exalt. There was much opposition to this proposal, especially in the South where the state debts were much smaller than those of the northern states. It happened that just at this time Congress was considering the permanent location of the national capital. Both sections wanted it. A deal was made by which enough southern representatives voted to assume the state debts to carry that proposal and in rctinii enough northern men voted for a southern capital to locate it in that section. It was agreed that the national capital should be in Philadelphia from 1790 until 1800 and that then it should be moved to a district ten miles square upon the banks of the Potomac. This was the origin of the District of Columbia. The first effect of Hamilton's plan for paying the debts Public credit ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ government the gratitude of all the established creditors of the nation and of the states. All these people The state debts assumed BEGINNING OF POLITICAL PARTIES 201 ■^ :^;:"^ SJ^s The first Bank of the United States |ife|pi|pLlriiii!t5> %mih were Idndly disposed toward a government which paid them in full the money which they had almost lost hope of ever seeing again. Wliat is even more important, all the rich and influential men who bought the new bonds of the nation became the warm friends and supporters of the government under the Constitution, because the value of their investments depended upon its success. In these ways Hamilton's policy restored the credit of the nation and helped establish its new govern- ment in the confidence of the people. At Hamilton's suggestion a mint was established in Phila- delphia at which the United States began to coin its own money. He also proposed the crea- tion of a national bank to help the government collect and pay out money, to care for its cash on hand, and to issue bank notes which the people used as paper money. In spite of great opposition this proposal was carried in 1791, and the first Bank of the United States was set up in Phila- delphia with branches in other cities. This bank did much to win the business men of the country to the support of the new government. Our country owes a great debt to Alexander Hamilton for putting its finances on a sound basis. His work was so well done that a large part of the financial busi- ness of our government is still carried on very much as he planned it. The Beginning of Political Parties. — Almost every measure that Hamilton proposed in his effort to restore the financial credit of the country was vigorously opposed in Congress and What is a among the people. In the struggle which resulted in the political adoption of his plans we find the beginning of political parties ^ "^ ^' in the United States. A political party is a part of the people who hold the same opinions upon public questions and who work together in politics to make these opinions the policy of The First Bank of the United States 202 THE FEDERALIST PERIOD Our first parties Federalists the government. We have usually had two great political parties in our history and sometimes one or more smaller ones. The Federalists and the Republicans were our first great national parties under the Constitution. The Federalist^ followed Hamilton and favored the adoption of his plans. The men who opposed Hamilton's financial measures, like the assumption of the state debts and the establishment of a national bank, were led by Thomas Jefferson. They called themselves Republi- cans, though they were often called Demo- cratic-Republicans. The early Republican party of Jefferson's time must not be con- fused with the Repub- lican party of the pres- ent which was organ- ized in 1854 to oppose the further extension of slavery. While the Federal- ists and the early Re- publicans fought their first political battles over Hamilton's finan- cial measures, they dif- fered widely in other vital respects. The Federalists distrusted the fitness of the people to govern themselves. They be- lieved -in government of the people, for the people, by "the rich, the well-born, and the able" part of the people, as one of their foremost leaders said. The Federalists were aristocratic. Most of the men of wealth and education were in their ranks. They were strong in the cities and in the com- mercial states. Hamilton, John Adams, and John Jay were their ablest leaders, and President Washington sympathized with their views. John Jay BEGINNING OF POLITICAL PARTIES 203 Loose and strict con- struction of the Consti- tution The early Republicans, on the other hand, were democratic in their opinions. They believed in the good sense of the common people and thought that the government would be Republicans safer in their hands than under the control of rich men, who might put their own interests ahead of the common good. The Republicans were especially strong in the country districts and on the frontier. Thomas Jefferson was the father of this party, and James Madison, Albert Gallatin, and James Monroe were other promi- nent leaders in its history. In the Constitu- tion the people have given certain powers to their government. The Federalists and the early Republi- cans differed widely in their understand- ing of the extent of these powers. The Constitution, for ex- ample, says nothing about the establish- ment of a national bank but it gives Congress the power to tax and to borrow money. Hamilton and his party con- tended that because a national bank would be useful to the government in taking care of its money Congress had the right to establish it. This view, that the Constitu- tion gives the government powers that are not distinctly named in it but that may be implied from wliat is said, is called Zoo.se condruction. Jefferson and his followers, on the other hand, held that because the power to set up a national bank was not mentioned in the Constitution Congress had no right to establish one. This way of looking at the Constitution literally is called strict construdion of it. The Federalists were Albert Gallatin 204 THE FEDERALIST PERIOD A despotic king loose constructionists while the Republicans were believers in strict construction. The two great parties of our country have always disagreed upon this question. The Republicans of today are loose constructionists, while the present Democrats are more favorable to the strict construction views of Thomas Jefferson. But when any party is in power it is apt to favor a more liberal interpretation of the Constitution than when it is out of power, because loose construction tends to exalt the authority of the national government. The French Revolution and War in Europe. — Six days after Washington became president in 1789 a great revolution broke out in France. The French people had long borne many grievous wrongs. The government of their country was despotic and oppressive in the extreme. Their property, their liberty, and even their lives could be taken from them at the whim of the king. The king alone could impose taxes, and most of the kings of France had used this power to squan- der the money of their people in wars of aggression against the neighboring countries and upon an extravagant and wicked court. The reigning king, Louis XVI, was a man of good intentions but weak, irresolute, and utterly unfit for the posi- tion which he held. Nearly one- half of all the land and a large part of all tiie other wealth in France belonged to the nobility and the church. The nobles Yet the nobles and the higher clergy were not required to and the pg^y taxes as other people were, and they lived in ease and luxury upon the rents of their estates. The nobles had many other special privileges. They were proud and often insolent to the common people whose labor supported them in idleness. King Louis XVI of France clergy THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 205 The lot of the great mass of the common people of France was a very hard one. There were some prosperous merchants and professional men in the cities, but the vast majority of The common Frenchmen were peasant farmers who passed their lives in People unceasing toil upon the land only to see the fruits of their labor taken from them by the king, the noble landowners, and the church. If their crops failed for a single season they faced starvation. At this time the condition of the people almost everywhere upon the continent of Europe was little if any better than it was in France. But in France men were learning to think. French Great writers were arousing the people to a sense of the in- thinkers and justice in their lives. "Man was born free and is everywhere in chains," said one of them. Men were beginning to hate these chains and to think of breaking them. The success of the American Revolution encouraged many ardent young French- men to dream of winning freedom for their own people. In 1789 the French government was face to face with bankruptcy. For the first time in one hundred and seventy- five years the king called the representatives of the people The together in the hope that they would find a way to furnish beginning him with more money. But instead of doing as the king wished, Revol^ution these representatives took the government into their own hands, swept away the special privileges of the nobles and the church, and while they permitted the king to keep his throne for a time, they took away most of his power. The other despotic kings in Europe were afraid that the revolutionary ideas of France would spread to their countries. To prevent this and to restore the lost rights of the French War in king and his nobles, many of whom had fled to them, the Europe Prussians and the Austrians invaded France in 1792. Because the French people suspected that their king wanted the invaders of their country to win, they deposed him and declared France a republic. Early in 1793 they brought the king to trial and condemned him to death. The horror felt in England at the execution of Louis XVI helped to bring that country into the war against France in 1793. For the next twenty-two years France and England were at war nearly all the time — a fact that was destined to have a very great influence upon the his- - tory of the United States. 206 THE FEDERALIST PERIOD How Washington Kept Our Country Out of War. — With England and France at war in 1793 our government faced a Neutrality very difficult situation. We had a treaty of alliance with France, and the French, who had aided us during the Revolu- tion, expected us to help them in return. If we did as they desired, our action was certain to bring on another war with England. But the United States was in no condition for war at this time. Its greatest need was a long period of peace in which the government under the Constitution could take root in the confidence and affec- tion of the people. After consulting the members of his cabinet Washington decided that our treaty with France did not bind us to help that country unless her possessions in the West Indies were attacked. Accordingly, the president issued a proclamation of neutrality, in which he said that the United States would not side with either France or England but would treat both of them alike. This action of Wash- ington was not approved by all the people. Many of them still hated England, while they recalled with gratitude the aid of France in the Revolution. Many Americans sympathized with the French in their struggle for liberty and hailed with joy the establishment of a republic in France. This feeling was especially strong among the political followers of Thomas Jefferson who rejoiced to see the French accepting the democratic principles of their party. The Fed- eralists, on the other hand, had little confidence in government by the people anywhere, and they were horrified at the wild excesses of the revolutionists in France. They heartily ap- proved of Washington's decision to keep out of the war. The Our people are divided in opinion From the Portrait by Gilbert Stuart. President Washington HOW WASHINGTON PREVENTED WAR 207 French Revolution and the war in Europe did much to widen the breach between the rising poHtical parties in the United States. Early in 1793 Genet, the first minister to the United States from the new French republic, landed at Charleston, South Carolina. He came to draw our country into a war with The mission England. As he journeyed toward the capital the people °* Genet welcomed him with open arms. He rode into Philadelphia escorted by a vast crowd. The Republicans were wild with enthusiasm for France. They even aped the French revolu- ^'^ •^^'-^^-A^-i'!, Impressing American Seamen tionists in discarding all forms of address except the simple title "citizen," which they gave to every one. Genet's head was turned by the warmth of his reception in America. When he found that Washington was steadfast in his purpose not to enter the war, he blustered and stormed and even threatened to appeal to the people against the president. For a time Washington was very patient with Genet; but when Genet fitted out a ship of war and sent it to sea, after promising not to do so, the president promptly asked the French government to recall him. France soon sent a wiser minister to the United States. 208 THE FEDERALIST PERIOD Trouble with England The Jay Treaty averts war The wisdom of Wash- ington The Farewell Address Washington's firmness kept our country from fighting England to aid the French. In the meantime the conduct of England brought us to the verge of a war with her in defense of our own rights. Ever since 1783 England had refused to give up the posts on our northern frontier. The frontiersmen believed that the British incited the Indians to attack them. After war broke out between France and England in 1793, England began to trouble our commerce. She forbade our trade with the French West Indies and captured our ships anywhere that she could find them if they had French goods on board. Worse even than this, she impressed or seized sailors on our ships on the ground that they were Englishmen and forced them to serve in her navy. For these reasons many of our people clamored for war with England. But Washington knew that the great need of the country was time in which to grow strong, and he was determined that there should be no war if he could prevent it by honorable means. In 1794 he sent John Jay, the chief justice, to England to try to make a treaty of friendship and commerce with that country. Before the end of the year Jay signed a treaty in London in which the British government agreed to give up the northern frontier posts and to pay for American vessels that had been captured illegally. The British also agreed to permit the United States to trade with their West Indian colonies, but under conditions so unjust that this part of the treaty was rejected by our Senate. Nothing was said about the impress- ment of our sailors or about the right of our people to trade with a nation with which England was at war. In the Jay Treaty England fell far short of yielding every- thing that Washington wanted, but he believed that this treaty was better than a war and with some difficulty he persuaded the Senate to ratify it. At first the Jay Treaty was very unpopular, and Washington was grossly abused for making it. But in time nearly every one came to see his wisdom in keep- ing the infant republic out of war. The Two Federalist Presidents. — Washington had reluc- tantly accepted a second term, and as it drew to a close he resolved to retire from public life to the quiet of his home at Mount Vernon. In September, 1796, he announced this decision to his countrymen in his famous Farewell Address, Washington's Second iNAUctrRATiON — 1793 On March 4, 1793, Washington began his second Presidential term by taking the oath of office at the .State House, Philadelphia, which was then the capital of the nation. An eye-witness of the event writes: "A\ashington proceeded to the State House in an elegant coach drawn by six superb white horses. Upon his arrival, two gentlemen with white wands with some difficulty opened a passageway through the throng for the President. ¥, ashington was dressed in black velvet with black silk stockings and diamond knee buckles, and wore a dress sword.'' The building portrayed in this picture now contains the Ferris Collection of American Historical Paintings from which the color illustrations in this book were directly reproduced. TWO FEDERALIST PRESIDENTS 209 /Z-u ^ _^/'^^P ayv^cr^y. ^OiU,^^ ^^^^ ;^^^^ ^^^^?^^,£:2^^, ^y^^i^ ^A-'-io^ i^^-z-^)^ Ci'.fri-u^^^ ^^y^^ ssary to do this, and since the Louisiana Purchase was made no one has questioned the power of the national government to acquire territory. The acquisition of the vast domam beyond the Mississippi opened a great field for western emigration. The Mississippi valley was destined to be the real heart of the country in which true democracy and national spnit were to develop most rapidly. When we thmk of all Its consequences we must decide that the purchase 01 Louisiana was the most important fact in the first half century of our history under the Constitution. MEANING OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 231 Wm. U. Ran, Inc. Desk in the Cabildo on which the Louisiana Purchase Was Signed 232 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE William Maclay, one of the first senators from Pennsyl- vania, has left us this graphic word picture of Jefferson : "Jefferson is a slender man, has rather the air of stiffness in his manner. His clothes seem too small for him. He sits in a lounging manner, on one hip commonly, and with one of his shoulders elevated much ahovc the other. His face has a sunny aspect. His whole figure has a loo.sc, shackling air. He had a rambling, vacant look, and nothing of that firm collected deportment which I expected would dignify the presence of a secretary or minister. I looked for gravity, but a laxity of manner .seemed shed about him. He spoke almost without ceasing; but even his (li.scourse partook of his personal demeanor. It was loose and rambling; and yet he scattered information wherever he went, and some even brilliant sentiments sparkled from him." CHAPTER XII The United States and Europe England and France Trample upon Our Rights on the Sea. — War was resumed between France and England in 1803. The next year Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor of English sea the French. The new emperor had always dreamed of con- Power quest and he was already planning to invade England. "Masters of the channel for six hours," he said, "and we are mas- ters of the world." But Napoleon's plans for the in- vasion of England had to be given up after Lord Nelson, the most famous of English sailors, de- stroyed the naval power of France at the battle of Trafal- gar in 1805. Nel- son fell at the moment of victory, but his words at Trafalgar, "Eng- land expects every man to do his duty," will live as long as the British Empire endures. While the English and the French were fighting at sea Austria, Russia, and later Prussia declared war on the French emperor. Napoleon promptly struck these countries a series The victories of smashing blows. In December, 1805, he defeated the com- °^ Napoleon 233 Lord Nelson 234 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE Commercial warfare between France and England Our trade suffers Our pros- perity in danger billed urmies of Austria and Russia at Austerlitz and forced Austria to sign a humiliating treaty of peace. Tlie next year with equal swiftness he overwhehned the Prussians and overran their country. In 1807 Napoleon defeated the Russians and coniix41ed Prussia and Russia to make peace with him upon his own terms. Nearly all Europe was now in his power or under his influence. England and France were still at war, but for a time it was a war in which there was little chance of actual fighting, l^ngland's control of the sea insured her against invasion, but on the other hand her army could not attack Napoleon any- where with hope of true success. Under these circumstances each nation sought to conquer the other by ruining its trade and starving its people into submission. Ever since the war began, England had been trying to prevent American ships from carrying the sugar of the French colonies in the West Indies to the markets of Europe. She now declared a blockade of all the coast of Europe in the hands of the French. This meant that the ships of the British navy would try to capture any neutral vessels going to ports under French control. In reply Napoleon forbade all commerce with England and said that any ship that obeyed the English orders could be taken by the French. Practically, all this meant that no American ship could safely engage in European trade. If she escaped the English on the sea she was in danger of seizure by the French in the ports of the continent. It is little wonder that President Jefferson declared that England was "a den of pirates, and France a den of thieves," or that a member of Congress compared these two countries "to a tiger and a shark, each destroying everything that came in their way." These restrictions upon neutral trade were a very serious matter to our people. Since the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars began in Europe in 1792, we had developed an immense foreign commerce. There was a great demand for our wheat, rice, l)eef, and pork in the countries at war, and our shipments of cotton were growing with amazing rapidity. Our swift sailing vessels not only carried our own exports but engaged in the rich traffic with the West Indies, South America, and the Far East. Our farmers were selling their products for high priees, our shipyards were busy, our sailors were employed at OUR RIGHTS ON THE SEA 235 high wages, and our shipowners were making huge profits. The country was never more prosperous than from 1795 to 1805. But in Jefferson's second term the efforts of England and France to ruin each other threatened to destroy the pros- perity of the United States. Our people were justly angry with both France and England, but they were especially wrathful toward England because of her greater power to harm us on the sea. In addition to her outrages upon our trade, England claimed the right to search our ships for British-born sailors, and, if she found them, to foi'ce them to serve in her navy. This was Our saUors called impressment. It was lawful in British ports and on impressed British merchant vessels, and the British attempted to justify the impressment of sailors on American ships on the ground that they were British subjects who had deserted from British ships. There was a measure of truth in this claim, for many British sailors did seek employment in the American merchant marine at this time on account of the better treatment and higher wages they received in it. If such sailors claimed to be naturalized American citizens it availed them nothing, for the British government denied their right to become naturalized in another country and declared that if they were once English- men they were always Englishmen. As a matter of fact, many native-born Americans were also impressed and forced to serve in the British navy. This impressment of American sailors was an outrage which would not have been borne if our coun- try had then had a government strong enough to protect its own citizens. The impressment of sailors from our merchant ships was bad enough, but worse followed. In 1807 the British warship Leopard stopped the Chesapeake of our navy off the Virginia The Leopard coast and demanded the right to search her for British deserters. ^"^ *^^ , When the captain of the Chesapeake refused to permit the search the Leopard fired upon the American ship killing three and wounding eighteen of her crew. As the Chesapeake was not ready for battle she was compelled to surrender. The British then searched her and carried off four of her crew. They were all deserters from the British service, but three of them were native Americans who had been impressed. The news of this affair greatly angered the people. "Never," said Jeffer- 236 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE son, "since the battle of Lexington, have I seen the country in such a state of exasperation as at present." The attack upon the Chesapeake was an act of war, and unless followed In- a prompt apology from England it ought to have been answered by a declaration of war against that country. Our Government Fails to Maintain Our Rights by Peaceful Means. — The conduct of England in seizing ships and impress- Jefferson's ing oiu- sailors soon led many Americans to clamor for war in embargo ck'fense of our rights. But President JefTerson and his secretary ^^ ^^ of state, James Madison, who became president in 1809, both thought war an unwise policy for the United States, and tried to maintain our rights on the sea by peaceful means. At Jefferson's suggestion Congress promptly passed the Embargo Act in December, 1807. This law said that oui' vessels must not sail to any foreign port and that foreign ships must not take cargoes away from our ports. Of course the embargo saved our ships, for they could not be captured if they remained at our own wharves. But Jefferson believed that it would also force England and France to respect our commerce. He thought that those countries must have our food products and our cotton and that they would soon agree to treat us fairly in order to get them. The effect of the embargo was not what Jefferson expected. Our minister at Paris wrote that "it is not felt here and in fh'''"^^h°^ I^ngland it is forgotten." In fact, English shipowners a3tually e em argo ^.^■^^^^,^\ \^y j^. j^^, -^ threw more of the world's trade into their hands. On the other hand, the embargo worked great injury to our own people. It angered our merchants and shipowners, who had l)een making enormous profits in spite of their loss of ships. You can imagine their feelings when they looked at their idle vessels and at the great stores of flour, bacon, and salt fish which they could not sell. Many of them evaded the hated law at every opportunity. The loss and suffering was even greater among the other classes of our people. The ship- yards were deserted, great numbers of sailors were out of work, and in less than a year the farmers, who had long enjoyed a ready market and good prices, found that they could not sell their grain at any price. By February, 1809, the discontent of the people became so great that Congress repealed the Embargo Act and passed in "WAR HAWKS" HAVE THEIR WAY 237 its place the Non-Intercourse Act. This law forbade trade The Non- with England and France but permitted it with all other Intercourse nations. A few days after the Non-Intercourse Act was passed ^q better Madison became president. In his inaugural address he said that he should follow the same peaceful policy which Jefferson had pursued. Madison tried in vain to get England to agree to a treaty recognizing our rights upon the sea. The non- intercourse policy proved as useless as the embargo in bringing England and France to respect our commerce. It was aban- doned in 1810. Congress next tried another plan. It permitted trade with both England and France but declared that if either one of these nations would stop seizing American ships we would All peaceful cease trading with the other. This was really an attempt to means fail to get England and France to bid against each other for our prod- rights ucts. Napoleon took advantage of this law to secure American provisions which he needed. He told our minister that he would recall the decrees which interfered with our trade. President Madison took him at his word and once more we stopped trading with England. A little later Napoleon seized every American ship in the French ports and by this bit of trickery stole $10,000,000 worth of American goods. In the meantime Eng- land continued, wherever possible, to capture our ships going to France. It was evident that the efforts to protect our rights on the sea by peaceful means were utter failures. The "War Hawks" Have Their Way.— The United States had good reasons for war with both England and France at any time between 1807 and 1812. Over nine hundred Ameri- Good can ships had been taken by the British, and more than five reasons for hundred and fifty had fallen into the hands of the French. ^^^ Six thousand American citizens had been forced to serve in the British navy. Both nations had treated our remonstrances with haughty disdain. But a nation with a democratic govern- ment does not declare war until public opinion approves such a course, and in 1807 the majority of our people agreed with Jefferson in sincerely desiring peace. By 1812 this feeling had greatly changed. The chief reason for the rising war spirit during the years just before 1812 was the news of the repeated outrages upon jhe risine our ships and our sailors. Then, too, the hard times which war spirit 238 IINITED STATES AND EITROPE the country experienced after the passage of the Embargo Act \vd the people to blame England for their vanishing prosperity. The growing desire for war was strongest in the South and the West. The merchants and shipowners of New England, most of whom were Federalists, steadfastly opposed war because they knew it would ruin what commerce they had left. But in tlio other sections of the country there was a growing number of young Kepublicans who resented the insults to our national honor and were eager for w^ar. The leaders who still clung Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, Leaders of the "War Hawks" to a peace policy called these ardent young men "war hawks." By 1810 the people were ready to follow the "war hawks," and in the election of that year enough of them were chosen to Congress to control that body. Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carohna were the chief leaders of the "war hawks." Each of JiTe -war°^ ^1''''''' ""'"^ '''''^ destined to play a great part in our history for hawks" *"^ ^^'^^ ^«J"^y years. Clay was a brilliant orator and Calhoun a (•oiivincing debater. Clay was a man of winning manners and alwa}-s had a host of friends. He aroused the war spirit in Congress with words of fire. When asked, "What are we to gain l)y war?" he replied with ringing voice, "What are we 'WAR HAWKS" HAVE THEIR WAY 239 not to lose by peace? Commerce, character, and a nation's l)est treasure, honor!" Just as the first session of Congress in which the "war hawks" sat had met in December, 1811, news came which still further exasperated the people against England. The Indian war in Indians of the West, under the leadership of a great chief named *^® ^est Tecumseh, were plotting an attack upon the settlers. Before they were ready to strike they were defeated by General The Battle of Tippecanoe William Henry Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana. The real cause of the discontent among the Indians was the occupation of their hunting grounds by the settlers, but the people believed that the red men were incited against them by the British, and knew that they were supplied with guns and powder by British traders. By 1812 the peace-loving Madison was ready to join the war party. All his plans for safeguarding American rights without fighting for them had failed. Moreover, he wanted War to be reelected president in 1812, and he knew that his party ^lf2^^^^° would not support him if he clung to his peace policy. On June 1, 1812, the president sent a message to Congress in which he summed up our grievances against the British and 240 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE suggest od war. Some days later by a vote of almost two to one Congress declared war against CJrcat Britain. In 1812 the British were devoting every energy to the gigantic task of beating Napoleon. They did not want war The war was with the United States. In their desire for peace they apolo- a misfortune gix^.,! for the attack upon the Chesapeake and returned to that vessel the three Americans they had taken from it; and only two days before our declaration of war the British ministers said they would stop seizing our ships. If there had been an ocean cable in those days our second war with Eng- land might possibly have ])een averted. It is a great misfortune that it ever came. In fighting Napo- leon, as in fighting the Germans in the great war which began in 1914, Eng- land was defending freedom against one of its most dangerous foes. If our people had seen this fact clearly in 1812 they might have joined Great Britain against Napoleon. But the British can blame only thems(>lves for the fact that we did not see it. Their government, which was not yet democratic in any true sense, had long treated us in the most haughty and overbearing way. For years we had borne in peace outrages upon our citizens and our commerce, committed almost in sight of our shores, that England would not have tolerated for a single hour. The War of 1812 was really a second War for Inde- pendence. Our Efforts to Invade Canada.— Wlien the "war hawks" clamored for war against England in 1812 they intended to The Surrender of Detroit EFFORTS TO INVADE CANADA 241 invade and conquer Canada. Henry Clay boasted that the ^g pj^^^ miHtia of Kentucky alone could overrun Upper Canada and to invade take Montreal, and declared that the United States would Canada dictate terms of peace in Quebec and Halifax. At first thought the conditions seemed to favor the success of this proposed attack upon Canada. The years 1812 and 1813 were years of war in Europe. England was intent upon defeating Napoleon and was pouring all her resources into the great war against The Canadian Border in the War of 1812 him. She could spare few troops for the defense of her posses- sions in America. If you look at the map you will see that there were three places on the Canadian frontier of 1812 at which it would be natural for invading American armies to cross the border. The There was the route by Lake Champlain, over which armed Canadian men had sailed and marched so often in the French and Indian ^'^^ ^^^ War and th?- Revolution. Farther west lay the Niagara frontier. The men of our western settlements would find it most conven- ient to strike at Canada by way of Detroit. All the land fighting during the first two years of the war was in these three regions. In 1812 nothing was accomplished on the direct road to Canada by Lake Champlain. An American force which crossed the Niagara River into Canada was defeated with the American loss of a thousand men at Queenstown. On the Detroit frontier failures 16 242 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE tlu' attempt to invade Canada in 1812 ended in a still greater disaster, for General Hull surrendered Detroit and his entire army to the British without striking a blow. The British and their Indian alhes were now in possession of the whole of Michigan Territory. In 181,3 little worth mentioning was done n{>ar Lake Champlain or at Niagara. In the meantime Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, a young Lake Erie officer of the navy, was building a fleet at Erie. This was no easy task. The timber for the ships had to be cut in the forest, and the ropes, sails, guns, and ammunition were brought with great difficulty from Philadelphia. At last the ships were launched, and on September 10, 1813, Perry met the British fleet in a fiercely contested battle near the western end of Lake Erie. When the Law- rence, Perry's flagship, was disabled, he abandoned it and was rowed in an open boat to the Niagara, with which he continued the fight until the English ships were all taken. "We have met the enemy and they are ours," was the famous mes- sage in which Perry reported h i s victory to General ■ jE^KVj ■ 1 ^^HKt> H^^K-jR P Km V^'H 1 It *^^^^^l ^r Y f) " W^L , ■9 r > ^'"l^ s w ^ M MAh^JB pi n I 1 dr .^ifl^HIH HbB Perry Leaving the Lawrence for the Niagara ova losses Harrison, the connnander of the western army. Perry's control of Lake Erie enabled Harrison to retake Detroit. He then pursued the British and Indians into western ^.! \TJir ^^"^wl^i '"1^1 defeated them at the battle of the Tham(^s. Thus Perry and Harrison recovered in 1813 what Hull had lost in 1812. Early in 1814 General Jacob Brown led an army across the Niagara River and fought gallantly at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, but he was unable to win any Canadian terri- tory. All our efforts to conquer Canada ended in failure. THE NAVY IN THE WAR OF 1812 243 The reasons for our failure to carry out the plans with which we began the War of 1812 are plain. The president was timid and lacking in energy, and most of the members The folly of of his cabinet were unfit for their places in time of war. The unprepared- treasury was empty and the people were unwilling to pay higher taxes. It was difficult to borrow money because many of the rich men were opposed to the war and would not lend to the government. There were no good roads by which supplies The Death of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames From an old priiU. could be taken to the distant frontiers where they were needed. Our small armies were without trained officers and were led at first by incompetent generals, who were appointed on account of political influence rather than fitness to command. The untrained militia proved almost worthless on the field of battle. It would be hard to find a better example of the folly of national unprc^paredness than that furnished by our experi- ence in the War of 1812. The Navy in the War of 1812. — The shame and humihation q^^. g^nant of the defeats of our untrained and poorly led armies in 1812 uttle navy 244 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE and 1813 were lightened by the splendid victories of our gallant little navy. Not much was expected of the navy for we had only sixteen vessels of all sizes, while the British navy contained more than a thousand ships. But the fighting spirit of John Paul Jones still lived in our captains and our sailors, many of whom had received an invaluable training in a successful war The Death of Lawrence "Don't give up the ship!" which they waged between 1801 and 1805 against the Barbary pirates on the northern coast of Africa. Not long after war was declared, the American frigate Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull, met the British ship Guer- Our victories ricre off the coast of Nova Scotia. In half an hour after the on the sea Co7hstitution began to fight, the Guerriere with all its masts shot away lay a helpless wreck upon the sea and was forced to surrender. The report of this victory was quickly followed by the thrilling news that the Wasp had taken the Frolic; the United States, the Macedonian; the Hornet, the Peacock; and THE NAVY IN THE WAR OF 1812 245 that the Constitution, now beginning to be called ''Old Iron- sides," had captured the Java. The victorious captains, Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, and Lawrence, were the heroes of the hour. The British were correspondingly depressed. They had been so long supreme upon the sea that they did not know what to make of defeat. The reason for the American victories in these ship duels was plain. The British fought with bull- dog courage, as they always do. The Americans were equally brave, had better ships, and showed superior seamanship and more accurate gunnery. But we did not always win. In 1813 Captain Lawrence in the Chesapeake fought the Shannon off the coast of Massa- chusetts before his crew was properly trained, and lost his life "Don't give and his ship. When Lawrence was carried below, mortally ^P *^® ship" wounded, he shouted to his men, "Don't give up the ship!" "Keep the guns going!" "Fight her till she sinks!" "Don't give up the ship!" became an inspiring war cry in our navy. A few months later Perry carried these words upon his flag when he captured the British fleet on Lake Erie. Very soon after the war was declared, American privateers began to prey upon British commerce. A privateer is a ship owned and armed by private citizens and commissioned by Privateers the government to capture the ships of the enemy. Such commissions are called letters of marque and reprisal. As the captured ships and cargoes become the property of their captors, privateering, though full of risk, was very often profitable. The privateer Perry, for example, took twenty-two British merchant vessels in three months. The Surprise captured twenty-one in a cruise of thirty days. Enormous damage was inflicted upon British commerce in this way. Privateering is really a kind of legalized piracy and has long been abandoned by civilized nations. The United States has not resorted to the practice since the War of 1812. In spite of the fine fighting record of our navy in the War of 1812, we must not think that we won the control of the sea from Great Britain. England had scores of battleships, English sea any one of which was more than a match for our smaller power vessels. One by one our ships were captured or blockaded in ""™P our own ports. The Essex, Captain Porter, was taken by two British ships off the coast of Chili, after a long cruise in the 246 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE Pacific in which she did great damage to British shipping Before the close of the war it was almost impossible for one of our ships to put out to sea. The British Attempts to Invade the United States. — Early in 1814 Napoleon was defeated and forced to give up his throne. The fall of For the first time since 1803 there was peace in Europe. This Napoleon ^^^^ changed the whole character of the War of 1812. England Commodore MacDonough's Victory on Lake Champlain could now send scores of ships and thousands of veteran troops to America. Instead of trying to invade Canada we now had our hands full in resisting the British attempts to invade our own country. In the summer of 1814 a British army of eleven thousand men started to invade New York along the route followed by liurfToyno m 1777. The success of this movement depended vic7o°ry'at' ''l^'^" ^^e control of Lake Champlain. When the British fleet Plattsburg ""^ that lake reached Piatt. si )urs Bay, it was met by the Bay American squadron under Commodore Thomas MacDonough. Mac- BRITISH INVADE UNITED STATES 247 The British capture Washington The British had the stronger force in ships and guns, but in spite of the. odds against him, MacDonough's skill and indomi- table pluck won the day. Every British ship struck its flag and the British army at once fled to Canada. The fight in Plattsburg Bay was the greatest naval battle of the war, and MacDonough is entitled to the first place among the many gallant sailors of the War of 1812. The entire eastern coast of the United States was blockaded during the summer of 1814, and in August a British fleet and army entered Chesapeake Bay. Landing below Washing- ton the British marched toward the capital. The raw militia who had been called out to defend it ran at the first fire. The president and the other officers of the government fled in haste. The British entered the city, burned the Capitol, the White House, and the other pulilic buildings, and then withdrew to their ships. Their fleet then moved up the bay toward Baltimore. After the British general was killed in an unsuccessful attack upon that city the enemy withdrew from the Chesapeake. It was the sight of our flag still flying over Fort McHenry after the attack upon Balti- more which inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star- Spangled Banner." In December, 1814, a great fleet carrying ten thousand British veterans appeared at the mouth of the Mississippi. General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, who had recently shown Jackson at his skill and energy as a fighter by inflicting a crushing defeat New Orleans upon the powerful Creek Indians in Alabama, hurried to the defense of New Orleans. Jackson built a very strong line of The British Campaign against Washington and Baltimore 248 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE The Treaty of Ghent GULF OF M E X I Q breastworks below the city. On January 8, 1815, the British tried to storm these works, but the withering fire from the long rities of the western frontiersmen mowed them down like grass. General Pakenham, the British commander, was killed, and nearly two thousand of his men lay dead or wounded in front of the American lines. Jackson's loss in this assault was only tliirteen men. The battle of New Orleans ended the fighting in the AVar of 1812 and made Andrew Jackson its greatest hero. The attempts of the British to invade the United States in 1814 were no more successful than the efforts of the Ameri- cans to overrun Canada had been in 1812 and 1813. The Results of the War of 1812.— After the return of peace in Europe in the spring of 1814 neither Great Britain nor the United States had any good reason for pro- longing the war between them. Negotiations for peace began in the sum- mer of that year, but as neither side was willing to yield all that the other wanted, it was not until December 24, 1814, that a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent in Belgium. There was not a word in this treaty about the issues which caused the war. Each nation was left just as it was in 1812. At first thought it seemed that the thirty thousand lives and the two hundred million dollars which the War of 1812 cost the American people had been thrown away. But as a matter of fact the War of 1812 had a very great effect upon our people. It taught them to think and feel and act like a nation. It showed them, through a bitter experience, that a nation ought to provide for its own defense. Never since 1812 has the United States been so unprepared to maintain the rights of its citizens as it was then. The skill and the valor of our navy in this war won respect abroad and gave our coun- Jackson's Campaign in the South RESULTS OF THE WAR OF 1812 249 try a better standing than ever before among the nations of the world. Henceforth our sailors and our commerce enjoyed the freedom of the sea. The War of 1812 had a far-reaching influence upon the politics and the industries of our country. The Federalists of New England opposed the war, and this attitude made their Political and party so unpopular that it ceased to exist after the election of industrial 1816. The Republican party turned from timid leaders like ^®^" ^ Jefferson and Madison and began to follow bold and aggressive men like Clay and Calhoun. As the embargo, the non-inter- course law, and the war cut off the supply of European goods, our people began to make more things for themselves. In this way the war won- derfully stimulated American manufac- turing. Wlien the charter of Hamil- ton's bank expired in 1811 the Repub- licans refused to re- charter it. But five y e a r s' experience with the poor paper money of state banks brought them to establish a second United States Bank in 1816. Finally, the sad lack of good roads during the war led to a great demand for turnpikes and canals. The War of 1812 marks the end of an era in our national life. For twenty-five years the French Revolution and the great Napoleonic wars which grew out of it had colored all our The end of history. Our thoughts and our interests were largely deter- ^^ ^r* mined by events across the sea. But after 1815 we turned our backs upon Europe and faced westward. The next generations were chiefly concerned with the problems of their own govern- ment and with the development of the marvelous resources of their own country. The House in Ghent Where the Treaty Was Signed Which Ended the War of 1812 250 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE The Settlement of Our Boundaries.— The War of 1812 left us with some (luestions yet to be settled with our neighbors, Boundary i'^ngland and Spain. The northern and western boundaries agreements (,f ^^^ Louisiana purchase had never been definitely determined. with England ^^^ ^^^^ ^^,^ agreed with England that the northern boundary of the Ignited States from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains should be fixed at forty-nine degrees north latitude. But we also claimed that the country beyond the Rocky Florida acquired An Interview between General Jackson and Weatherford, a Chief of the Creek Indians Mountains which Lewis and Clark had explored belonged to us. England disputed this claim and said that the Oregon country was her territory. By the Oregon country both nations meant the present states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. By the treaty of 1818 England and the United States agreed to the joint occupation of Oregon. Joint occupation meant that for the present this rich region on the Pacific Coast should be free and open to traders and settlers from both nations. For some time our people had been coming to believe that the Gulf of Mexico was their natural boundary on the THE MONROE DOCTRINE 251 south. We gained our first foothold on the Gulf coast when we bought Louisiana. We claimed that Louisiana extended east- ward along the coast as far as the Perdido River. With good reason Spain denied this claim, but between 1810 and 1813 the United States occupied West Florida by force and thus came into possession of the fine harbor of Mobile. The present state of Florida still belonged to Spain, but after the War of 1812 the people of our southern states complained loudly that its swamps were a refuge for pirates, robbers, runaway slaves and hostile Indians. Early in 1818 General Jackson pursued an Indian war party into Florida, captured the Spanish fort at Pensacola, and put to death two British subjects whom he accused of inciting the Indians to murder the settlers across the border. Spain was now given to understand that she must protect our citizens against marauders from Florida or cede that province to the United States. As she could not do the former she sold Florida to the United States in 1819 for five million dollars. The western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase had been in dispute ever since 1803. We claimed that Louisiana included the vast territory of Texas, but this Spain would never admit. Our Mexican In the treaty by which we acquired Florida in 1819 we gave up ^^a"*^?^^ our claim to Texas and agreed to a western boundary which, ran in an irregular line from the mouth of the Sabine River to forty-two degrees north latitude and thence along that parallel to the Pacific. WTien Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 this boundary line became our Mexican border. The Monroe Doctrine. — Spain had possessed a vast empire in America ever since the sixteenth century. The Spanish colonial rule was grasping and tyrannical, and the people Fall of the of Latin America were oppressed by heavy taxes and restric- Spanish tions on their trade. During the Napoleonic wars in Europe America the Spanish colonies on the mainland of America, following the example of the English colonies in 1775, rebelled against their mother country. San Martin and Simon Bolivar were the heroes of this struggle for freedom. By 1820 Mexico and the Spanish countries in South America had virtually won their independence though Spain still refused to acknowledge it. Shortly after the final downfall of Napoleon at Watei'loo ^j^^ jj^. in 1815, the rulers of Prussia, Russia, and Austria signed an Alliance 252 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE agreement to help each other to govern their respective peoples in accordance with "the precepts of justice, charity, and peace." Nearly all the countries on the continent of Europe came into this union, which was called the Holy Alliance. The real purpose of the Holy Alliance was to prevent the growth of democratic ideas and to crush every attempt of the peoples of Europe to win the right to govern themselves. When Spain rose in re])cllion against an oppressive king in 1820 the Holy Alliance suppressed the revolt and restored the tja-ant to his throne. Spain now appealed to the Holy Alliance to help her get back her colonies in the New World. The Holy Alliance was disposed to grant this request, but England and the United States were strongly opposed to such Our interests action. England was developing a rich commerce with the threatened Latin American countries and she did not want to see this trade go back to Spain. The United States shared in this growing trade, and our people warmly sjrmpathized with the young republics to the south. Morever, we feared that if Europe began to interfere with the affairs of America, there was no telling where such interference would stop. Russia already threatened the Pacific Coast. There were rmiiors that she meant to get California and that other European nations might seize territory in America. England suggested that we join her in telling the Holy AlHaiice to keep its hands off the new Latin American states. The Monroe But President Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Doctrine Adams, preferred to act alone. In his message of December 2, 1823, Monroe declared that the American continents were no longer open to colonization by European powers. This was a notice to Russia to keep away from our Pacific Coast. It was heeded by that country, which soon agreed not to settle south of fifty-four degrees forty minutes, the southern limit of Alaska. With the Holy Alliance in mind, Monroe further declared that any attempt by European powers to oppose or to control the destiny of the Latin American states would be considered an unfriendly act by the United States. Europe was warned that it must not try to extend its political svstem to any part of North or South America. The warning was effectual, and the Holy Alliance made no effort to recover for Spam her former colonies in America. THE MONROE DOCTRINE 253 254 UNITED STATES AND EUROPE Washington and Jefferson had advised their countrjinen to steer clear of all entangling alliances with Europe. Monroe America for went one stcp farther, and warned the nations of Europe not Americans ^^ interfere in the affairs of the western hemisphere. Hence- forth America was to be for Americans. The Monroe Doctrine was accepted as the settled policy of the United States. For nearly a century it has guarded the New World against the control of its affairs by the powers of Europe. CHAPTER XIII Life in the Early Republic Then and Now. — There is a striking contrast between our mode of life and that of our ancestors a century ago. We would think it a real hardship to give up our comfortable houses A striking heated by steam, hot air, or hot water, and lighted by gas or contrast electricity, and go back to the open fireplaces and tallow candles of those days. One hundred years ago a bathroom was an almost unloiown luxury, and even in the city the water supply of the family was carried in buckets from the town pump. Few houses are now so poor that their floors are not covered with carpets or rugs. In the early years of the repubhc such floor coverings were found only in the homes of the rich. "The floors were strewTi with rushes, Bare walls let in the cold, Oh, how they must have suffered In those good old days of old." About one-half of our people now live in cities and towns. When the first United States census was taken in 1790, nineteen out of every twenty Americans lived in the country. But life Old-time on the farm in the "good old times" was very different from farm life the rural hfe of today. When Washington was president there was not a grain drill nor a reaper nor a threshing machine in all the land. Grain was still sown by hand, cut with a sickle, and threshed with a flail, very much as it had been ever since the days of ancient Egypt. No one had yet even dreamed of the mowing machine, the hay loader, or the horse fork. Practi- cally all the implements and the machines which now save labor on the farms of our country have been invented within the last hundred years. When judged by our standards, life in the towns and cities a century ago was quite as backward as in the country. The streets were unpaved and badly lighted at night. Street cars City life a and omnibuses were unknown. No city building had an century ago 255 256 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC Changes in ways of travel elevator in it, and such business conveniences as typewriters and telephones were still far in the future. There were no factories in the sense in which we use the word, and most manufactured articles were still made in the homes of the people much as they had been for thousands of years. Perhaps the greatest contrast between our ways of living and those of our ancestors a few generations ago is seen when we compare our methods of travel with theirs. When the nineteenth century dawned the American people were still living in the days of the stage coach and the wayside tavern. Washington in 1800 From an old print. It then took about as many days as it now takes hours to go from Boston to New York or from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Our Ihnited express trains, our millions of automobiles, and the palatial hotels in all our large cities would have seemed strange indeed to the men who made the Constitution of the United States. The first century in the history of the American nation was destined to see more wonderful changes in the ways in ^nrry""*"' ^^"^^ P^°P^^ Worked, traveled, and lived than all the pre- cedmg ages had witnessed. In this chapter we shall see what the old-time American life was like before inventions and discoveries ahnost without number swept it away. In the next OUR PEOPLE ABOUT 1800 257 we shall study the marvelous changes which gave us the world we know today. Our People about 1800. — The growth of our population since the days of our first presidents is no less marvelous than the change in our ways of working and living during the same The settled period. Our country now has about twenty times as many ^o^n^^^"* inhabitants as it had in 1800. The number of people in the United States was a little less than four millions in 1790, some- what more than five millions in 1800, and about seven millions in 1810. We were a rural people in those days. In 1800, Phila- delphia, New York, Baltimore, Boston, and Charleston were the only cities in the land that had a population of more than eight thousand, and the largest of them had only seventy thousand. A vast majority of our people still lived in the thirteen original states upon the Atlantic seaboard. But the call of the rising West was steadily luring the more daring and ambitious people of the older states toward the frontier. If you will draw a line upon the map from Cleveland to Cincin- nati, to Louisville, to Nashville, and thence to Savannah you will mark the limits of western settlement in 1800. When the nineteenth century opened, the most interesting and dramatic chapter in our history — the story of the westward march of our people to possess and subdue a vast, rich continent — was well begun. In all parts of America the people still lived the plain and simple life of colonial days. Yet there was a marked difference between the inhabitants of the different sections of the coun- Life in New try. In New England the scores of busy manufacturing cities England which now fill that section with the hum of industry had not yet grown up, but there were numerous villages along the sea- coast and beside the streams whose swift waters turned many a mill wheel. These villages, "with their neat white houses adorned with green blinds, the gardens, the grassy commons, the graceful elms, the excelk^nt roads, the neat country stores," and the stony but well tilled little farms about them all spoke of the thrift of the people. The New Englandcrs retained many of the traits of th(nr Puritan ancestors. They were a pious people much under the influence of their ministers. They were industrious in their habits and still inclined, like their fore- fathers, to frown upon popular sports and amusements. New 17 258 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC England was more thickly settled than the other sections of the country, but much of the land was poor and many of the people sought their living upon the sea by fishing or in trade. Then, too, an ever increasing number of the sons of New England were leaving their native section to find new homes u\ym the richer lands of the West. The people of New England were mainly of English stock and the greater part of them were members of the Congrega- tional Church, which had been set up in that section by the of the Middle States Broadway, New York, in the Earlier Days of the Republic from an old print. The^people Puritans. The inhabitants of the Middle States, on the other hand, sprang from many races and represented many different religious denominations. Then, as now, New York City was the home of people from every land in Europe. The descendants of the Quaker followers of William Penn and of the German and Scotch-Irish settlers who found safety from oppression in his colony, together with many recent pioneers from New England, made up the population of Pennsylvania. The natural resources of New York and Pennsylvania were greater and more varied than those of New England. Partly because of this fact, and partly because of the various races who settled OUR PEOPLE ABOUT 1800 259 in them, there was a far greater diversity of tastes and habits among the people of these states than among those who hved in the land of the Puritans. Yet life in the Middle States still ran its quiet course very much as it had before the Revolution. Washington Irving tells us that when Rip Van Winkle awoke about 1800, after a sleep of many years, he saw little that was new to him except the strange faces ii; the places of the old familiar ones. The people of the South, like those of the North, were - ,> % ji&JL.^^* 4 \i '^ ^'i-'W -^ ^■jliv /^ t "^ ^ W-,>,: ,^^ i 1 S i^V^^H ¥ « t ^^Tm^sPH^SIrIvBBSI^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I ^■HaBir^''*'^^^^^"**'''.'^'; 'z-'^'*^.^ ^la^y^^xw-^P^milKflj^^niEij^g ^. ,...y./?^ HHI^^^ff?^-? 'Ivifr^ifi^h^S^^^TT^^^^^m!^! J;, : -;^:.-=>f '.U.ie>^j A Southern Plantation House "Along the rivers in Virginia there were many large plantations whose owners lived in fine houses." mainly of English, Scotch, or Irish origin. But the climate and physical features of the South differed from those of the North ; Great and, as alwaj's happens where such differences exist, the people planters and of the South were unlike the men of the North in their habits farmers in and ways of living. A large part of the land in the South was the South still covered with forests, the roads were poor, and in general Ufe was more backward in that section than in the North. There was also a greater contrast between the rich and the poor in the South than in any other section of the country. Along the rivers of Virginia and near the coast in South Caro- lina there were many large plantations, whose owners lived in 260 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC fine houses, owned many negro slaves, and were often men of education and of wide influence in their communities. These rich planters were a proud but sociable and hospitable class, fond of outdoor life and of such sports as horse-racing. But the small farmers of the South, who lived in rude cabins in clearinjiis in the woods, far outnumbered the wealthy planters. They were simple in their lives, very ignorant of the outside woiid, but jealous of their rights and always ready to fight to maintain them. The population of the West was growing rapidly when the nineteenth century opened. This section, which had only Pioneers of about one hundred thousand inhabitants in 1790, had nearly the growing four hundred thousand in 1800. South of the Ohio River the ^^ settlers were largely from the South and some of them had brought their negro slaves with them. You will remember that slavery had been forbidden north of the Ohio River by the Ordinance of 1787. The people of the West came from the old states in the East, but their life on the frontier had a marked effect on their habits and character. It made them hardy, bold, sc^lf-reliant, and sometimes rough and boastful. In the early West all men had to work for a living and as a consequence there was far more equality among them than in the older settled sections of the country. Men became more n(Mgh])orly and more democratic when they became pioneers. One hundi'od years ago nearly all the people in every section of our land lived a hearty and natural life in the open country. Health and Everywhere there was a rude plenty of the actual necessities disease ^f jjf^ Yet we have better health and live longer than our ancestors did in those days, because we have learned truths about hygiene and sanitation of which they were ignorant. A century ago houses were poorly ventilated, food was often badly cooked, and nearly every man drank intoxicating liquor. Little attention was given to the purity of the water supply and typhoid f(>ver was widely prevalent. There were dreadful . epidemics of yellow fever in New York and Philadelphia for several years just before and after 1800. It is now known that this disease, which was then common in the South, is transmitted from man to man only by a particular kind of mosquito, and that it can be prevented everywhere by exter- mmating these mosquitoes. Vaccination was not commonly FARMING IN THE EARLY DAYS 261 practiced until the early part of the nineteenth century, and before it became general thousands died of smallpox every year. On the frontier nearly every one suffered from malaria. It was only through a long and bitter experience with these and other preventable diseases that our people slowly learned the need of discovering and obcjnng the laws of health. Farming in the Early Days of the Republic. — When the nineteenth century dawned the American people were a race of farmers. In all sections of our country the cultivation of A race of the soil was the chief means of making a living. Nearly all farmers the farms in the northern states, and many of those in the South, were small or of moderate size. The small American farm of those days was almost always tilled by its owner with the help of his sons and of an occasional hired man. Sometimes neighbors helped each other by work- ing together at husking bees, log- rollings, or barn- raisings. In the South there were many very large farms or plantations, as they were called, upon which the labor was per- formed by negro slaves. The implements used in 1800 were still those of colonial times. Clumsy wooden plows and harrows were practically the only agricultural machines drawn by horses or oxen. Most Tools and farm work was then done with spades, heavy hoes, wooden implements forks and rakes, and scythes, sickles, and flails. On the western frontier the axe was the tool oftenest in the hands of the settler as he cleared away the heavy forest. The use of such tools made farming the hardest kind of manual labor. Better agricultural implements came into use very slowly. The first iron plow was patented in 1 797 and such plows were gradually introduced during the next twenty-five years. A patent was issued for the grain cradle in 1803, and about the same time the fanning mill for cleaning grain after it is threshed was A Grain Cradle 262 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC Crops and domestic animals A land of rude plenty The age of "homespun' invented. But most of our modern farm machinery, as we shall see, did not begin to come into use until after 1830. Our ancestors one hundred years ago raised most of the common food plants and domestic animals that we grow today. Wheat, rye, oats, and barley, cabbages and turnips, apples and poaches had been brought by the early colonists from their Old World homes. Indian corn, potatoes, and pumpkins were natives of America. The domestic animals, horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep, came from Europe to America with the settlers. These animals were raised in most of the settled parts of the country, though oxen were still more widely used than horses for draft purposes. In the South tobacco was the most valuable crop until 1803 when the first place was taken by cotton. After they had cleared their lands, the west- ern settlers farmed very much as they had in their earlier homes in the East. In the early years of our national life the Ameri- can farmer was handicapped l)y the difficulty of trans- porting his produce to market. But land was plentiful and cheap, and it was easy for every man to acquire a farm of his own upon which he could make a living for his family, even though he had few conveniences and little ready money. With the invention of farm machinery and the building of railroads, after 1830, /Vmerican agriculture entered upon a new period of rapid growtli and great prosperity. Manufacturing and Trade.— The small part of the American people who did not live upon farms in 1800 were mostly engaged m manufacturing, in fishing, or in some form of trade or com- merce. Manufactures were in a very backward condition. The people were still living in the age of "homespun.'' In many sections of the country there was a spinning wheel and a loom m almost every house. A large part of the coarse linen and woolen cloth with which our people were clothed in those Cuttinc; Tobacco in ihc F MANUFACTURING AND TRADE 263 days was made in their own homes. Such necessities as furni- ture, shoes, hats, and many other things, which are now made by machinery in factories, were then made by hand by mechanics in village workshops or on plantations. For cotton cloth, crockery, china and glass ware, the finer kinds of hardware, knives, tools, and a hundred other things in daily use we were still dependent upon the manufacturers of Great Britain. The call of the sea had ever met an eager response from the dwellers upon our Atlantic seaboard. Thousands of hardy commerce A Swift-Sailing Ship New England sailors were engaged in fishing for cod. Thou- Wonderful sands more hunted the whale in the icy waters of the distant f5^^^°„^„°"^ Arctic and Antarctic oceans. Still larger numbers found employment in foreign commerce. The increase of our tonnage and the growth of our foreign trade during the first twenty years of our history undc- the Constitution "has no parallel in the commercial annals of the world." The nations of Europe were almost constantly at war from 1792 until 1814. This war created a great demand for our flour and meat. There was also a growing demand for our wool, cotton, and other raw materials of manufactiu'ing. These eager European demands for our products wonderfully stimulated our trade. Our ship- 264 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC yards were busy building new ships. The tonnage of American vessels was more than six times as large in 1805 as it had been in 1789. American shipowners not only carried an ever in- creasing share of our own exports and imports but at the same time much of the trade between the warring European nations and their colonies fell into our hands. We were also developing a rich "China trade." Swift-sailing clipper ships made their way around Cape Horn to the Far East, where Early trans- portation was slow and expensive The Stage Coach from New York to Philadelphia One Hundred Years Ago they exchanged their cargoes for the tea, spices, muslins, and silks of the Orient. Transportation and Travel. — Before the railroads were l)uilt it was difficult and expensive to carry the products of the farms to the seaports whence they could be shipped to the markets of the world. It was just as hard to bring to the jx'ople of the interior the imported goods which they needed. Tlici(> had long been an active coasting trade, and navigable rivers like the Hudson and the James were highways into the interior of the country. The settlers in the West, who hved near the tributaries of the Mississippi, had in that river an open road to the port of New Orleans. But a waterway to TRANSPORTATION AND TRAVEL 265 market was beyond the reach of many of our people, and for these the opening of roads and the development of means of transportation early became matters of vital importance. In the older states of the East heavily laden wagons crept along the country roads toward the seaport towns or moved homeward with such goods as the merchants of those towns Its offered for sale. Farther west, long trains of pack horses difficulties followed the bridle paths through the forests and over the mountains. Such methods of transportation were slow and expensive. The roads were rough and in the spring the mud made them almost impassable. There were few bridges. The smaller streams were forded and the larger rivers were crossed by ferries. As late as 1803 the freight rate for hauling mer- chandise between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was five dollars per hundred pounds. While Washington was president the people began to build stone roads called ''turnpikes." The first of these roads was the famous "Lancaster Pike" in Pennsylvania, built The age of between 1792 and 1794. Soon many other turnpikes were turnpikes built in various parts of the country. Most of these early stone roads were constructed by private companies which were given the right to collect toll upon them. Sometimes the state gave money to aid in their construction. During the first half of the nineteenth century a large part of the inland commerce of our country flowed along the turnpikes leading to the eastern cities. On them great trains of six-horse wagons bore the produce of the country and along them herds of cattle, sheep, and swine were driven to market. Stage coaches carrying mail and passengers dashed past the slowly moving wagons and herds. At short intervals along the turnpikes wayside taverns provided food and lodging for drovers, teamsters, and travelers. Few people traveled far from home in the early years of our nation's history. Those who did, rode on horseback or took one of the stage coaches which ran between the principal Travel by towns. A long journey by stage coach was a tedious and tire- stage coach some undertaking. The start was often made before daybreak, and with frequent changes of horses the stage toiled on until long after dark. The wQary traveler ate supper at a wayside inn and hurried off to bed in order to be ready to start again at three o'clock the next morning. The journey from Boston 266 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC to Now York took from three to six days. In 1804 a through liii(> of st:ig(> coaches was estabhshed from Philadelphia to Pit(sl)Uif2;h. This trip lasted about seven days and the fare varied from fourteen to twenty dollars. The old-time turnpikes still exist and the general use of the automobile has recently revived interest in good roads. The changes Hut most of the old toll gates are gone, the wayside taverns of a century |,.j^,^. \^^,^,^^ abandoned as public houses, and the long trains of wagons, the driven herds, and the hurrying stage coaches long since vanished from American life. The Intell'^ctual Life. — Thus far in this chapter we have Signs of Intellectual Ufe A Conestoga Wagon been studying the social and industrial life of our people a century and more ago. But the growth of their intellectual life is no less important. The intellectual life of a people is expressed in their schools, newspapers, books, and pictures. Nowadays every community has a free school, nearly every town has a newspaper and a public library, and most of our great cities boast of their fine-art galleries. In the early years of the republic the American people enjoyed few of these advantages. At that time they were too busy clearing away the forest and making farms and homes in a new land to give mucli attention to literature and art. For half a century after the Revolution progress in educa- tion was slow in the United States. School life in the small THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE 267 and uncomfortable schoolhouscs under poorly prepared teach- Schools of ers, who maintained a harsh discipline and taught from dry ^^^ olden and uninteresting textbooks, was very much what it had been '°^^ during the colonial period. In New England and in the new settlements growing up north of the Ohio River the schools were supported by taxes upon all the people, but in the Middle States and in the South it was the general rule that parents should look after tl\e education of their own children. But the mass of the people at this time were too poor and many of them too in- different to the value of an education to maintain the necessary schools. Some of the states, it is true, pro- vided free instruction for those who were too poor to pay for it. These "pauper schools," as they were called, were shunned as de- grading by those who could afford to pay, while attendance upon them was despised by the poor as a pubUc badge of their pov- erty. Under these conditions it is not strange that a large part of the people remained uneducated. Yet even in the earliest years of our national history there were signs of the coming of better days in education. Just after the Revolution new and better textbooks, the most Improve- famous of which w(>rc Wel)ster's 'Spelling-Book," Daboll's J^^^JJ.*^;!;^^ "Arithmetic," and Morse's "Geography," were pubhshed. A little later Sunday-schools were established to teach boys who were employed during the week to read and write. Outside of a few New England towns there were then no public high Noah Webster 268 LIFE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC schools, but their place was taken in part by academies which wci-e springing up in the East and West alike. New colleges were founded and just before 1800 the first of a long list of state universities was established. Tiie newspapers of a hundred years ago were few in number To the PUBLIC. THE FLYING MACHINE, kept by John Mercereau, at the New Blazing- Star- Ferry, near New- York, few York to Albany, one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two hours, and made the return voyage in thirty, i Most people reject and often ridicule a new idea. But when "Fulton's Folly," as his ncnghbors called the Clermont, Steamboats iiiov(>d up the river against wind and current even those who come into I ] cr i • i general use ''•^'' ^<'<>lt('d were quick to see its value. The steamboat soon came into general use. The first one upon the Ohio River was huilt in Pittsburgh in 1811. There were steamboats upon the THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF 281 great lakes before 1820. The Savannah, a boat using both sails and steam, crossed the Atlantic in 1819, but it was about twenty years later before the first regular trans-Atlantic steam- ship line was established. The importance of river steamboats in promoting the development of the Middle West can hardly be overestimated. That section had always sent much of its produce to market They help down the Mississippi and its tributaries, but it had been very ^° *^^ devel- difficult to bring goods up the rivers. With the coming of the the West* steamboat, traffic in both directions upon the western waters The "Savannah", First Steamship to Cross the Atlantic became easy and profitable. Pittsburgh became the great starting point for the river trade, and more than ever the Ohio River was the great highway between the East and the West. The Protective Tariff,— The War of 1812 had a very great influence in promoting the growth of manufacturing in the United States. The long war in Europe, which had been going The War of on for twenty years before 1812, had created a great demand 1812 pro- for our foodstuffs and made our farming and our commerce American very profitable. But between 1808 and 1815 the Embargo, manufac- the Non-Intercourse Act, and our second war with Great t""°g Britain swept our commerce from the sea. Men who could no longer safely invest their money in ships and cargoes began to build factories and engage in manufacturing. The goods 282 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The return of peace threatened our rising industries Demand for a protective tariff Reasons for and against protection they made found a ready sale at high prices during the War of 1812 because it was then impossible to get the imported wares that we were accustomed to use. We were compelled to do witliout many articles that we had hitherto imported or to make them at home. As this condition arose just at the time that our people were turning their attention to labor-saving machinery it helped to quicken the Industrial Revolution in America. The return of peace in 1815 at once threw open our ports to foreign trade. The Enghsh manufacturers, eager to regain the American markets which they had once enjoyed, promptly sent shiploads of cotton and woolen cloth and iron wares to the United States. These English goods were sold at any prices which they would bring. The people were eager to buy the cheap imported goods, but our "infant industries," which were just beginning to grow, were threatened with ruin. Be- cause of the scarcity of skilled workmen and the high rate of wages in the United States we could not yet successfully com- pete with the British manufacturers. Many of the iron and textile mills on the Atlantic seaboard were forced to shut down and their employees were thrown out of work. The iron mills in western Pennsylvania could still go on, because the heavy expense of hauling the English goods across the moun- tains raised their price. The immediate outcome of this situation was an out- spoken demand for a protective tariff. We have already seen that the word "tariff" is used to express the rate of duty or tax — upon imported goods. In the end such a tax is paid by the consumer of the goods in the higher price which it makes him pay for them. If the tariff is high enough to make the imported goods cost as much or more than they can be made for in this country it is called protective because it enables the home manufacturers to compete successfully with the foreigners. Ever since 1789 the United States had raised a part of its revenue by a tariff act, but the rate of duty had not be(>n high enough to afford very much protection to our manufacturers. The northern manufacturers, the western farmers, and the South Carolina planters, who hoped to build up cotton factories in their own state, all supported a protective tariff after the TURNPIKES AND CANALS 283 War of 1812. Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun were their chief spokesmen. The advocates of protection argued that it would build up home industries and thus make our country independent of the rest of the world; that it would enable the manufacturers to pay higher wages to their workmen; and that the growing factory towns would furnish good local markets in which the neighboring farmers could sell the products of their farms. On the other hand, the merchants and ship- owners of New England and most of the southern planters opposed the new policy on the grounds that it would injure our foreign trade, and that it would make all the people pay more for the protected goods in order to benefit a small number of manufacturers and their workmen. The friends of protection won the day, and in 1816 Congress passed the first tariff act whose chief purpose was protection. The manufacturers were not satisfied with the aid given them Early tariff by the law of 1816, and in 1824 the rates of duty were raised laws by another tariff act. By this time the South was almost solidly opposed to the protective policy. Very little manu- facturing was developing in that section, and it seemed to its farmers and planters that they were being taxed for the benefit of the northern manufacturers. On the other hand, the New Englanders were turning from trade to manufacturing and beginning to favor protection duties. In 1828 Congress passed a still higher tariff law. This act was so badly made that it was called the "tariff of abominations." All these laws helped to stimulate the growth of manufacturing in the United States. Turnpikes and Canals. — Ever since the first pioneers began to push westward in our country there has been a growing need for good roads to connect the settlements in the interior The need for with the seaboard. In the last chapter we saw how turnpike good roads companies, often with state aid, built fine stone roads in the older states, and how the tides of inland trade and travel flowed back and forth upon them. So many of these roads were built during the first quarter of the nineteenth century that it is often called the "turnpike era" in our history. After new states began to grow up in the valley of the Mississippi it became vitally important that the western section should be bound to the East by better means of communication The National and transportation if we were ever to have a real nation. ^^^^ 284 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Recognizing this fact, in 1811 the United States government began to build a fine "National Pike" westward from Cumber- land, Maryland. In time this "Cumberland Road/' as it is often called, was extended to Ilhnois, thus connecting the East and the Middle West by a good highway. The War of 1812 still further aroused the country to the Roads and iioocssity for l)(>tter facilities for transportation. In 1816 bu^u*b7the l^^'^'sidcnt Madison urged Congress to provide for "a system of states roads and canals such as would have the effect of drawing 4 • 'a. iiffefet. ¥ B ' — *.' 1^^ !> -liji'-MiV J 1 ■' PPf^Vs.. JbX^ ^TrXm.3^LL'j ^. ^^^ 3^ ■■■HH|^^^^^Hp^~~7TrT1^^^^-' . >" ! 1 I I2 ^IB^^ "^^*^ The Erie Canal at Lockport, New York {From an old print) more closely together every part of our country." But when Congress, led by John C. Calhoun, passed a bill appropriating a large sum of money for internal improvements, Madison vetoed It. The president did this, not because he did not favor internal unprovements, but because he thought that Congress had no power to spend money for them. As a consequence of this strict construction attitude of Madison and of his suc- cessor, James IMonroe, most internal improvements continued to 1)6 made by the states instead of the national government. The greatest of these state undertakings was carried out by New York. For years DeWitt CHnton had urged the dig- TURNPIKES AND CANALS 285 ging of a canal to connect Lake Erie with the Hudson River. The Erie When he became governor of New York this great work was Canal begun. On July 4, 1817, Governor Clinton threw out the The Old Erie Canal first shovelful of earth, and eight years later the Erie Canal was completed. Far reaching results followed the opening of this great waterway. Goods could now be easily carried between the Great Lakes and New York Harbor. The freight rate from Albany to Buffalo fell from one hundred and twenty dollars to fourteen dollars a ton. The people of the West could now buy the manufactured goods of the East very much more cheaply than ever before. Because it stood at the starting point of the best road into the interior of the country. New York City soon became and has ever since remained the largest city in the United States. But New York was not alone in undertaking a great work of internal improvement. Beginning about the time the Erie Canal was opened, the people of Pennsylvania built a great Similar highway of commerce from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. This J^jJJ"t71^ highway consisted in part of canals and in part of railroads other states © Underwood 6* Underwood, N. Y. The Present Barge Canal at Waterford, N . Y . 286 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION upon which the cars were drawn by horses or by stationary engines. Other canals were constructed in Pennsylvania until that state had a great canal system with a thousand miles of waterway. The other states were not far behind New York and Pennsylvania in under- taking great schemes of in- ternal improvement. The turnpikes and canals con- tinued to be the highways of trade and travel in the nation until the coming of the steam locomotive made the railroad a faster and cheaper means of T-.tur^-Ufe^^'Sfe^---^'^^-^^ transportation. A Sailing Car The Railroads. — While the people wvw spending Jhf first large sums of money in dig- ging canals the building of railroads was begun, and in- ventors were experimenting with tiic steam locomotive which was soon to revolu- tionize the transportation of the world. Short rail- w-ays for hauling stone or coal and operated by hand , Horse-Power Locomotive , or horse power had been used in England ever since the seventeenth century. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century sev- eral railways of this type were built in the United oiivprF.,.e.c. o . States. Between 1825 and Oliver Evans' steam Carriage i oorv -i i i looU ranroads were begun westward from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Albany, and Charles- raiboads THE RAILROADS 287 ton, but only a few miles were actually built before the latter date. Horses were used to furnish the motive power on these earliest American railroads. The honor of inventing the steam loco- motive belongs to George Stephenson, an Englishman who after many experiments made an engina which would "Old Ironsides" (1832) Single pair of driving wheels. Weight about 5 tons. Consolidation Type (1876) Four pairs of driving wheels. Weight 80 tons. miles an hour. In 1829 a locomotive was imported from England, but it proved too heavy for the American track upon which it was placed. A year or two later loco- motives built in the United States began run upon a railway track. In 1825 he put Invention of in operation the first steam the loco- railroad in Great Britain for carrying both freight and passengers. In 1830 Stephen- son built a new and im- proved locomotive which attained a speed of thirty-six Santa Fe Type (1903) Five pairs of driving wheels. Weight 225 tons. to be used on the new railroads. Some of the early American railroads were built by the Triplex Locomotive (1914) Twelve pairs of driving wheels. Weight 425 tons. Pliotographs by courtesy of the BaUhrin Locomotive Workl. 288 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION How early states, but most of them were constructed by private com- railroads were built panics and all of them sooner or later passed into private ownership. The early railways were not the well-built roads over which we now ride. In their construction heavy wooden rails \v(>re laid upon cross ti(^s and thin strips of iron were then spiked on top of the wooden rails. These strips of iron often worked loose and curled over the wheels or pierced the bottom of the cars thus causing numerous accidents. Later, iron rails were introduced, and these in turn gave place to the steel rails now in common use. The first railroad cars were built Railroads begin to displace canals I 1^. 1 ^^^HHIBi'' 'flSM m ' ' ^'"''V CnurtPKy ttie N. Y. C. and II. R. R. R. The DeWitt Clinton and Coaches First steam railway train in New York State, 1831. like the stage-coaches, and the early locomotives were small and weak in comparison with the powerful railroad engines of the present time. The first railroads were built to supplement the canals antl to connect natural waterways like rivers and lakes. No one supposed that they would ever take the place of water transportation. But the advantages of railroads over canals were soon apparent. Canal traffic, while safe and cheap, was very slow and was often interrupted by floods or frost. For example, ice closes the Erie Canal for several months in every year. In mountainous country a railroad can be built much cheaper than a canal, and there are many parts of the country where it is not practicable to build canals at all. When the GREAT CHANGES IN FARMING 289 people began to realize these advantages of the railroads and to appreciate the speed and economy of travel and transporta- tion which they made possible, tlu; country entered upon an era of rapid railroad building. The thirty-two miles of railroad in the United States in 1830 increased to nearly three thousand in 1840, to over ten thousand in 1850, and to more than thirty thousand miles in 18G0. In fact, the growth of railroad mileage in our country has gon(^ steadily on until the prescmt time. We now have about a quarter of a million miles of railroad in the United States. The railroads have played a vital part in changing the old-time world described in the last chapter into the modern world in which we now live. In other words, they have been a The leading factor in the Industrial Revolution which has made influence our life so unlike that of our ancestors who lived a century ago. They saved time, created labor at good wages for many of our people, and made travel possil)le to people of moderate means. The quick and cheap transportation which they pro- vided stimulated business, enabled the farmer to S(?ll his crops for better prices, and incr(>as(;d the value of his land. They made possible the develoimumt of great sections of tlie country which wen; far from all waterways. They gave a better postal service and made cheaper postage possible. Hand in hand with the railroads, and of inestimable value in helping to operate them, came the electric telegraph, which was invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1835 and first used in 1844. The rail- roads and the telegraph have heli)ed to break down sectional • barriers and to bind North, South, East, and West together in one common country. They have thus played a mighty part in making our nation. Great Changes in Farming. — Farming was as completely revolutionized during the nineteenth century as every other kind of industry. But the transformation of agriculture began Farming later than that of manufacturing and of transportation. Tlu; changed more slowly farm life pictured in the last chapter continued with very than other little change until after 1830. When the first railroads were industries begun in the United States, plows and harrows were still the only farm implements drawn by oxen or horses. Hay was still mown with a scyth(! and raked by hand. CJrain was cut with a sickle or a cradle and threshed with a flail. But between 19- 290 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1830 and 18G0 farming in our country passed through a period of marvelous changes and expansion. The invention of farm machinery was by far the most iiniMwtant cause of this wonderful revolution in agriculture. Invention of IXu'ing the generation between 1830 and 1860 many improve- farm uwnis were made in plows and harrows, and a great variety machinery ^^^ cultivators, horse-hoes, grain drills, and corn planters were introduced. The mowing machine and the horse rake began to do much of the heavy manual labor of haying. The first reaper was patented in 1833, and after 1840 reapers rapidly Courtexy of the Intcrt.aHmial Lurv st^J' I o. McCormick's First Reaper, Invented in 1831 came into use. The invention of the reaper and of the threshing machine, which was made about the same time, were two of the most important events in the history of industry. These machines made possible the great crops of grain which have been grown in our country ever since they were introduced. While the invention of labor-saving farm implements was the most important cause of the vast expansion of agriculture S'rr""^*^ in our country during the middle of the nineteenth century, agricSltural '^'^^'^'^1 other causes helped to produce the same result. The development rapidly growing factory towns were giving the farmers a better home market for their crops. At the same tune the peoples of Europe were steadily becoming more dependent upon America MEANING OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 291 for a part of their supply of food. Our farmers could meet these new demands because of the extensive areas of new land which were being brought under the plow in the West and South. During the rapid development of the West, which we shall study in the next chapter, the prairies of the Mississippi Valley began to be occupied. The ease with which these grassy plains could be cultivated as soon as the settler reached them was ia striking contrast to the years of toil which were necessary to cut down the heavy forests and to clear the forest lands of stumps and roots. While the new farm machinery was not C.nrrf, y,i nf tin: l„t, nnitiuiiiil Harvester Co. Reaping by Modern Methods A gasoline tractor drawing two reapers and binders. These machines cut the grain, tie it in bundles and drop them alongside. much used in the cotton fields of the South, the rapid increase in the number of slaves made it possible to grow greater crops of cotton by constantly bringing more land under cultivation. Then, too, the railroads which were being steadily extended made it possible for the farmers to market their crops more easily, and to procure all sorts of manufactured articles of which they had hitherto been deprived because of the difficulty and expense of bringing them into the country. The Meaning of the Industrial Revolution. — The changes in industry which began in England in the second half of the _, . eighteenth century and in our own country very early in the tion in nineteenth century, as the result of the invention of labor-saving industry machinery, have been going on ever since and are largely t^l^^^^ responsible for the ways of doing things and the mode of life mode of life 292 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION tliut vv(> now s('(> around us. Let us examine some of th(! conse- quenees of this vast and far-reaching Industrial Revolution. Before the changes in industry which we have been study- ing in this chapter nearly all manufacturing was done in the It promotes homes of flie workmen or in small shops near at hand. These the growth lionscliold industries could l)e carried on just as well in the coun- of cities ^^^ ^^^, j^^ yj||.,g(.H ,),• ))(,| tor than they could in the cities. Before tlie Industrial Revolution the cities of our country were fewer and very much smaller than at present. But when labor-saving machines were invented, and water power or steam was used 1 m m * s^^a . te ■|M^^| ^^tfl m n Fi;,„i nil iild p i .1 Lowell, Massachusetts, an Early Manufacturing Town to drive them, it was found to l)e more economical to employ many worknu^n in the same mill. For this reason the factories were either located in cities, or towns quickly grew up about them. In these ways the introduction of the factory system of manufacturing h(>lped to change the United States from a land of country dwellers to a nation more than half of whose peopl(> now live in cities and towns. At first thought it might seem that the invention of machiTK's to save labor would throw men out of work. Some- for woTeTs \"'"'' ^^''' '^'•'' ^'""^ ^"^ ^ ^^l^'l^- ^"t, in the long rim the intro- increased duction of labor-saving ma(;hinery created a greater demand for workers lluui ever before. The cotton gin, for example, did MEANING OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 293 the work of many slaves in cleaning cotton ; but it so stimulated the cotton-growing industry that soon the slaves thus displaced and many more were employed in plowing, planting, culti- vating, and picking cotton upon the great plantations of the South. At the same time the labor of many more men was needed to make the gins, to prepare th(! wood and iron out of which they were made, and to transport the cotton crop to the markets of the world. This increasing demand for labor which came with the growth of the factory system was con- stantly drawing the young men and women fi'om th(^ coiuitry to the manufacturing towns. At the same time it was pro- Watch Co. One of Our Early Manufacturing Plants moting immigration. After 1840 great ^lumbers of Evn'opean workers began to se(>k jobs in ilmerica. In the old days of household industry nearly every work- man was his own master, or hoped to be after he had learncnl his trade and saved a little money to set up a shop of his own. But it took a great deal more* money than the workmen pos- sessed to build a factory and fill it with expensive machinery. Accordingly men with money built the factories and then em- ployed the laborers to work in them for wages. In this way the factory system tended to divide the industrial world into capitalists and laborer's, and gave rise to disputes between capital and labor which have often proved trouljlesome even down to the present time. Capitalists and laborers 294 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION After the revolution in industry brought about by machin- ery vastly larger quantities of manufactured goods were pro- Changes in duced than ever before. These goods were so economically the daily life niad(> that they could be sold at a very low price. Cotton of the people ^ j^^^j^ ^^^^. sheeting, for example, which cost forty cents a yard when it was woven by hand could be bought for seven cents a yard after the factory method of making it was fully developed. The masses of the people could now buy many things which formerly they had not been able to afford. At the same time many conveniences and comforts hitherto unknown began to appear in every home. The friction match took the place of the flint and steel, and the iron cook stove superseded the old- time fireplace. There was less work to do in the household than formerly, because many things once made in every house were now being manufactured in factories. In a word, the great revolution in industry caused by the spirit of invention was bringing about a change fully as remarkable in the daily life of the people. The invention of the steamboat and its successful appli- cation to connnercial ships greatly stimulated commerce and transportation generally. The success of Fulton's first trip meant much to industry, and it was not long before steam- vessels on the model of his were plying on American waters. In the following years steamboats increased rapidly in num- bers, both in the United States and Europe. Fulton could feel well pleased with the demonstration of his boat. In the following letter to his friend, Joel Barlow, Robert Fulton gives an interesting account of the trial voyage of the first successful steamboat: "New York, August 2, 1807. "My Dear Friend, " My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has turned out rather more favourable than I had calculated. The distance from New York to Albany is 156 miles. I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty hours; the latter Ls just five miles an hour. I had a light breeze against me the whole way going and coming, so that no use was made of my sails, and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the steam engme. I overtook many sloops and schooners beating to windward, and passed them as if they had been at anchor. "The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning 1 left New York, there were not perhaps thirty persons in the MEANING OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 295 city who believed that the boat would ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility; and while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way, you know, in which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers and projectors. "Having employed much time, and money and zeal, in accomphshing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure to see it so fulh answer mj^ expectations. It will give a cheap and quick conveyance to merchan- dise on the Mississippi and Missouri, and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treasures to the enterprise of our countrymen. And although the prospect of personal emolument has been some induce- ment to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting with you on the immense advantage that my country v.'ill derive from the invention." CHAPTER XV The Rise of the Middle West A New Rush into the West. — The story of the westward march of our people through the gaps of the Alleghanies, across Review the vast valley of the Mississippi, and over the mountain trails which led to the rich country on the Pacific Coast is the most interesting and the most important feature of our history. We have seen how Boone and Robertson led the vanguard in this conquest of the continent and gained a foothold on the eastern margin of the Mississippi Valley in Kentucky and Tennessee. We have followed George Rogers Clark and his heroic frontiers- men as they won the Northwest from the British in the days of the Revolution. We have learned how the western lands were ceded by the states to the United States, how a public land system was devised, and how a territorial form of government was ci-eated by the great Ordinance of 1787. We have traced the lif(> and growth of the early West until we saw Kentucky and Tennessee, and a little later Ohio, enter the Union as the first western states. This first movement of our people into the West occurred (luring the Revolution and the years which followed it. Another Why the and far greater wave of western settlement started just after Sv'aTter *^^® ^^^" ^^ ^^^^- ^^^ ^^^^^ growth of the West during the 1815 ' years following 1815 was due to several causes. In the first place it was easier and safer to go West than ever before. The appcnirance of the steamboat on the western rivers encouraged settlement in that section. The victories of Harrison and Jack- son over the Indians lessened the danger from Indian attacks and opened much new land to settlement. The government sold this land to settlers at two dollars per acre and made it easy for them to pay for it on the instalment plan. In the last chapter we saw how the sale of cheap English goods after the War of 1812 closed many of the mills and factories in our eastern states. Great numbers of the people who were thus thrown out of work sought new homes upon the cheap lands of 296 THE WESTERN SETTLERS 297 the West. At the same time the growing demand for cotton led many planters in the older states of the South to move to the fertile cotton lands in the territories bordering the Gulf of Mexico. The Western Settlers. — The greater part of the settlers of the Middle West were the outcome of a natural sifting that was going on among the people of the older states in the East. The quality The bold, the restless, those who loved adventure, and those ^f^*^^, who were dissatisfied with their condition or prospects at home and hoped to better them in a new country sought the frontier. pioneers The First Mill in Ohio The timid, the home-loving, and all who were contented with their lot remained behind. The stream of immigrants from the East was joined l)y another from Europe. After the close of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 many of the hardy sons of the countries of northern Europe came to America and a large part of them found homes in th(^ Middle West. Sometimes these newcomers from Europe settk^d in groups, like the Swiss at Vevay, Indiana, or the Dutch at Holland, Michigan, but the most of them were scattered among the native Americans and soon became very much like them. Three distinct classes of people helped to bring civiliza- 298 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST Three classes of settlers The frontiers- man The permanent farmer The city builder Influence of geography upon western growth t ion into the western wilderness. They have been thus described by one who Hved among them: "First comes the pioneer who depends for the subsistence of his family chiefly upon the natural growth of the vegetation called the 'range' and the proceeds of hunting. His imple- ments of agriculture are rude, chiefly of his own make, and his efforts are directed mainly to a crop of corn and a turnip patch. A field of a dozen acres is enough for his occupancy. It is quite immaterial whether he ever becomes the owner of the soil. He is an occupant for the time being, pays no rent, and feels as in(l(>{)endent as the 'lord of the manor.' He builds his cabin, gathering around him a few other families of similar tastes and habits and 'settles' till the range is somewhat sub- dued and hunting a little precarious. " The next class purchase the land, add field to field, clear out the roads, thro w r o u g h bridges over the streams, put up hewn-log houses with glass windows and brick and stone chimneys, occasionally plant orchards, build mills, schoolhouses, court-houses, etc., and exhibit the picture and forms of plain, frugal, civilized life. "Another wave rolls on. The men of capital and enter- prise come. Th{> small village rises to a spacious town or city; substantial edifices of brick, extensive fields, orchards, gardens, colleges, churches are seen. Broadcloths, silks, and all the refine- ments, luxuries, elegancies, frivolities, and fashions are in vogue. Thus wave ;ift(T wave is rolling westward." The Geography of Western Settlement. — The physical gcograjihy of every country has a very great effect upon its histoiy. This was especially true of the settlement' of our middle western states. The Appalachian mountain system was a great barrier across the path of the westward march of our people, l)ut once this barrier was crossed the westward flowing rivers hke the Ohio and the Tennessee were natural A Pioneer Family Migrating to the West GEOGRAPHY OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT 299 roads which made it easy for the pioneers to penetrate far into the western country. You will notice that this mountain barrier extends from New England to northern Georgia. Every- where the frontiersmen were finding their way up the valleys and through the gaps of these mountains at about the same time. As the southern Appalachians are very much farther west than those to the north, the Virginians and Carolinians were laying the foundations of Kentucky and Tennessee at about the same time that the men of New England and the middle states were beginning to occupy central New York and western Pennsylvania. Kentucky and Tennessee were a great wedge of early settlement driven deep into' the heart of the West. The country north of the Ohio River, the land which now makes up the southern part of the great states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was the second section of the Middle West to be Settlement settled. This region was occupied by people from the middle ^^ t^^ North- states and a few from New England who made their way over Territory the mountains to Pittsburgh and thence by the Ohio River and its tributaries or by roads through the woods to their destination. To this territory north of the Ohio there came also many Virginians and Kentuckians, especially from among the people in those states who did not own slaves and who wished to live in a land where slavery was forbidden by law. While the states which grew up in the Northwest Territory were being settled many of the more enterprising people of the South Atlantic states were making their way into the rich cotton Cotton lands lands which extend from South Carolina and Georgia to Texas. °^ *^^. South OCCUD16Q The Virginians could reach the Southwest l)y following the valleys of the upper Roanoke, the Holston, and the Tennessee rivers, or they could join the planters who were moving west from the Carolinas and Georgia and follow the easy roads to the West which ran south of the Appalachian mountains. The lower South had numerous riv(^rs which led to the Gulf of Mexico and it was not difficult to make one's way by water along the Gulf coast. We have seen how the early settlers of Kentucky and Ten- nessee sent their produce down the Mississippi to market at First New Orleans. It was natural that these river traders should P^°"®^J!. 1 • r 1 • 1 1 1 west of the hear glowmg reports oi the tertile lands beyond the Mississippi. Mississippi 300 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST Relief Map of the Eastern Half of the United States THE JOURNEY TO THE FRONTIER 301 After we bought the Louisiana Territory in 1803 so many Americans emigrated to New Orleans or settled upon the banks of the lower Mississippi and Red rivers that Louisiana was admitted into the Union in 1812. During the great rush into the West which followed the War of 1812 so many people found their way across the Mississippi into the lower valley of the Missouri River that this section was soon asking to be made a state. Many of the early settlers beyond the Mississippi came from Kentucky and Virginia. Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman and Indian fighter in the early history of Ken- A Flat Boat and Steamboats on a Western River tucky, spent his last years as a pioneer upon the banks of the Missouri. The country about the Great Lakes was the last region east of the Mississippi to be settled. The men of New England who made their way into the West through the Mohawk Valley Later were some years in occupying the good farming land in western develop- New York. When they reached Lake Erie they passed along Se^G^e^aT* its southern shore into northern Ohio. The part of Ohio on Lakes the shore of Lake Erie is often called "the Western Reserve," because Connecticut had reserved a large part of it when she ceded her western land claim to the United States. After the steamboat appeared on the Great Lakes, pioneers from New Y'ork and New England began to go to Michigan, southern Illinois, and later Wisconsin, but these settlements in the coun- try on the western lakes did not begin to grow rapidly until about 1835. The Journey to the Frontier. — A trip from the Atlantic seaboard to the Middle West now means twenty-four hours Going West 302 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST spent in comfort and pleasure upon a fast express train. But to our pioneer ancestors one hundred years ago such a journey was a serious undertaking, lasting many days and often attended with great hardships. Moreover, to "go West" in those days meant the breaking of all the old home ties in the East. Those who started to seek new homes in Indiana or Mississippi knew that it was unlikely that they would ever again see the relatives and friends whom they left behind. Only the stout-hearted, the eager, and the ambitious dared to go. Some of the poorer emigrants to the West carried all their to the new home Going West One Hundred Years Ago worldly possessions in packs upon their backs or in little carts The journey wliich were drawn by hand. But most pioneer families prepared for the journey to their new western home by procuring a canvas-covered wagon into which they loaded clothing, bedding, a few dishes and cooking utensils, some needed tools, and provisions for the trip. This wagon was drawn by horses or mules, or sometunes by a yoke of oxen. The father or one of the sons drove the team. The mother and small children rode. Perhaps the larger boys and girls drove a few cattle behind the wagon. In this way they made fifteen or twenty miles a day. At night they stopped at a wayside tavern, or more frequently camped along the roadside near a spring or creek. THE JOURNEY TO THE FRONTIER 303 The family that moved West in this way was very Ukely to find company upon the road. In fact it was a common thing for a group of such famiUes to join together for the The stream journey. During the great rush into the West after the War ^^ emigrants of 1812 the main highways leading to that section were covered by a stream of emigrants. A tollgate keeper in Pennsylvania reported that sixteen thousand people passed this gate bound west between March and December, 1817. The same year two hundred and sixty emigrant wagons were counted going by one tavern in western New York in nine days. A traveler An Old Pennsylvania Tollgate and Bridge in the South says that he fell in with crowds of emigrants bound for the cotton lands of Alabama. He declares that he counted two hundred and seven wagons, twenty-nine herds of cattle, twenty-seven droves of hogs, and more than three thousand eight hundred people. The following extracts from the diary of a Connecticut girl who traveled with her family to Ohio in 1810 will help us to realize what such fi journey was like in those days. "Every Experiences toll gatherer and child that sees us inquires where we are going. — of a pioneer The bridge over the Delaware is elegant, I think. It is covered ^"^ and has sixteen windows each side. — It is amusing to see the variety of paintings on the inn-keeper's signs. — We are obliged to sleep every and any way at most of the inns now. I have 304 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST learned to cat raw pork and to drink whiskey. .Don't you think I shall do for a new country? — We have been nearly twenty miles today and I have been obliged to walk up hill, till we are all very tired. From what I have seen and heard, I til ink the state of Ohio will be well filled up before winter. Wagons without number every day go on. One went on containing forty people. We almost every day see them with eighteen or twenty, one stopped here tonight with twenty- seven. — We are over the sixth mountain and at an inn at the foot of it. This mountain is called worse than any of them, it is only six mik^s over. We have only come eight today and I have not been in the wagon." When the southern planter moved with many slaves to the cotton lands in Alabama or Mississippi it was necessary How the for him to take tools and work-animals with him in order to southern t;pt the slaves to work at once upon his new plantation. No moved West doubt the journey was a joyous occasion to the slaves, to whom for the time it meant a release from hard work. A traveler who met a pioneer planter moving into the West has given us this charming picture of what he saw: ''The cattle with their hundred bells; the negroes with delight in their countenances, for their labors were suspended and their imaginations excited; the mistress and children strolling carelessly along in a gait that enables them to keep up with the slow-traveling carriage. Just before nightfall they come to a spring or a branch where there is water anfl wood. The pack of dogs set up a cheerful barking. The cattle lie down and ruminate. The team is unharnessed. The large wagons are covered so that the roof completely excludes the rain. The cooking utensils are brought out. The blacks prepare a supper which the toils of the day render delicious; and they talk over the adventures of the past day and prospects of the next." The Life of the Pioneer. — After a toilsome though interest- ing journey the members of the pioneer family at last reached Settling on the scene of their future home. If they were the first comers in orest and j|^^ vicinity the unbroken forest was all that welcomed them. If other settlers had preceded them they were sure to be greeted with neighborly offers of help. In either case their situation was a lonely one. By day they were shut in by the surrounding woods and at night the stillness was only THE LIFE OF THE PIONEER 305 broken by the howl of the wolf and the mournful cry of the whippoorwill. But the newcomers were soon too busy to be homesick. Their inmiediate needs were shelter and food. Their first shelter was apt to be a rude shed called a "half-faced camp." Three The first sides of this camp were built of poles and its roof was covered camp with branches and bark. The fourth side was left open and a fire built in front of it. When Abraham Lincoln was a little boy he lived with his parents for a whole year in such a camp in Indiana. As soon as a temporary shelter for his family was built the The first crop pioneer began a little clearing in the forest in order to plant his first crop. "His echoing axe the settler swung Amid the sea-Hke soHtude, And rushing, thundering, down were flung The Titans of the wood." When a little patch had been cleared the ground was broken up, and corn and potatoes were planted among the stumps and logs. If the new home had not been located near a spring a well had to be dug. During the first few months the settlers depended upon hunting for most of their supply of food. Fortunately wild turkeys, deer, and bears were usually easy to find. But a steady diet of venison and bear's meat must have grown very tirc^- some, and you can imagine with what joy the children welcomed the first roasting ears of corn. As soon as the settler could cut the logs his neighbors helped him raise a substantial log house. The log houses of jj^^ j^ the Middle West were very much like those which had been house 20 A Half-faced Camp 306 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST hiiilt on the frontier ever since colonial times. The tables, benches, and other furniture in them were mostly homemade. The garden seeds brought from the old home in the East were planted near the house. If the settler was a thrifty and indus- trious man his new home soon began to justify the picture of it painted by one of our poets: "His roof adorned a lovely spot, 'Mid the black logs green glowed the grain, And herbs and plants the woods knew not Throve in the sun and rain." After his house was built the settler undertook the heavy task of clearing his land of forest. He began by "girdling" Clearing the the trees. This was done by cutting a ring through the bark '^"^ aroiuid the lower part of the trunk deep enough to prevent the sap from rising. In a short time the girdled tree died. Grain could then be sown among the standing trunks. Later, when the dead trees were so dry that they would burn readily they were cut down. Some of the logs were split into rails to fence the fields. ]\Iost of them, however, were rolled together into pik's and burned. The settlers helped each other in these "log-rollings" which were often festive occasions. It took a lifetime to clear a large farm of heavy timber. When the settlers readied the prairie lands of Illinois and Missouri they escaped this laborious task. By simply breaking up the sod witii a plow the prairie farmer could bring a large farm under cultivation in two or three years. But a prosperous farm anywhere in the forest-covered region of tlie Middle West was the result of the labor of many Growth of a years. It began with a little clearing and a rude cabin in the IhT'WeT''' '"'^'^* "^ ^^^ encircling forest. As time passed the clearing was enlarged, two or three small fields were fenced in, and a corn crib, a stable, and a larger log house were built. Perhaps an orchard was set out. Later still, after a sawmill was set up m the neighborhood, a small frame house and a barn were erected. In the meantime, field was slowly added to field as the forest was cut away. At last we see a fine farmhouse, a large barn, gardens, orchards, and far-reaching fields from winch all the stumps have disappeared. THE LIFE OF THE PIONEER 307 The first pioneers in the region bordering the Gulf of Mexico lived like those of the Ohio Valley in log cabins in little clearings along the rivers. But when the cotton lands of the Develop- lower South began to attract prosperous planters with money ™^"t of a and many slaves the southern frontier came to differ greatly plantation from the northern. The pioneer cotton planter bought a large tract of land, often several thousand acres in extent. He moved to this land with his family carriage, his pack of hoimds, and a long train of slaves. Some of the negroes who were carpenters and masons soon built a house for the master and cabins for the slaves. The possession of many laborers made it possible to clear the land quickly, and in a few years a great cotton plantation was developed. While the pioneers were clearing the land and developing / mmigration, South Dakota A Modern Western Farm their farms and plantations, they were planting the other insti- tutions of a civilized communit}^ From the first the western Local settlers felt the need of establishing law and order. It was goyernment see UD natural that they should set up local governments like those they had known in their old homes in the East. In those parts of the North where most of the settlers came from New England, the township became the more important unit of local govern- ment. In the South looal affairs were managed by a county government patterned after that of Virginia and the Carolinas. In the middle region a mixed form of local government much like that of Pennsylvania came to prevail. The settlers of the West also brought with them the ideas about education and religion which they had cherished in their former homes. North of the Oliio River pul)li<' schools were early estabhshcd, but in the South they made their appearance Schools and churches established 308 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST much more slowly. The earliest religious meetings in the Middle West were hold bj^ traveling ministers called "circuit riders." The camp meeting, a sort of combination of picnic and reli- gious service, was very popular during the early history of this section. In the course of time, as the population grew, all the leading religious denominations organized permanent churches. New States. — Five new states were added to the original thirteen before the War of 1812. Vermont was admitted into First states ^^^^ Union in 1791, Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee in 1796, added to the Ohio in 1803, and Louisiana in 1812. The rapid settlement of Union ^\y^, West which began after the War of 1812 resulted in the formation of a new state each year for six years beginning with 1816. The eighteen states which made up the Union when the war closed had grown to be twenty-four by 1821, just half the number that were in the Union a hundred years later. This rapid increase in the number of states in the Union was due to the marvelous growth of the Middle West at that Rapid growth time. This growth was especially marked in the old Northwest Middk W t ' '''■•''tf>iy- When Ohio l^ecame a state in 1803 it contained about fifty tiiousand inhabitants. In 1820 its population was nearly six Imndrcxl thousand — more people than were then living in the old state of Massachusetts. The population of the Terri- tory of Indiana was twenty-eight thousand in 1810. Indiana bccaine a state in 1816, and by 1820 it had nearly one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, while, farther west, Illinois was beginning to grow rapidly and was admitted to the Union in 1818. Wiien the first American pioneers started to go to Louisiana after its purchase from the French in 1803, some of them settled thri*I)w"*'' on tiie east side of the Mississippi River in the Territory of Solth"^^^ Mississippi. After General Jackson broke the power of the Creek Indians in 1813 there was, as we have seen, a great rush to occupy the cotton lands of the lower South. In 1817 Missis- sippi became a state. Its population doubled between 1810 and 1820. Even more rapid was the growth of Alabama, which came into the Union two years later, in 1819. When the people who were crowding into the Territory of Missouri and Missouri sought its admission into the Union they were delayed Main* fur a time by a great controversy over the question whether the THE RISING WESTERN CITIES 300 proposed state should be slave or free. We shall hear more of this controversy presently when we study the history of slavery in our country. Just at this tune, Maine, which had been a part of Massachusetts, wanted to become a separate state. Massa- chusetts gave her consent and Maine was admitted as a free state in 1820. This made it easier to admit Missouri as a slave state in 1821. Nine of the eighteen states in the Union in 1815 were free states and nine were slave states. In admitting the new states Free states which were added to the Union during the next six years it is ^°d slave evident that Congress was trying to mamtain a balance between l i iii l im g Bi ■ ■ ■i Vi ! i '« aiiJ Cincinnati in 1802 From an (Ad print. the North and the South. The free state of Indiana in 1816 was followed by the slave state of Mississippi in 1817. Free Illinois in 1818 was immediately offset by slave-holding Ala- bama in 1819. Maine in 1820 and Missouri in 1821 still main- tained the equilibrium between the sections. For years after 1821 the new states of the Middle West were filling up with settlers. It was fifteen years before another state was added to the Union. Then in 1836 Congress admitted Arkansas the slave state of Arkansas, and early in 1837 r(^stored thc^ Michigan balance lietween slavery and freedom by making the free state of Michigan. The Rising Western Cities. — While the pioneers were swarming into the new states in the Middle West, towns and 310 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST How a town began ciiios wore springing up all over that region as if by magic. As soon as there was a considerable number of settlers in any locality a store was apt to be opened at some convenient point. Soon a tavern made its appearance near the store. Presently a blacksmith shop, a sawmill, and possibly a grist- mill were sot up. The people who were employed in these places natiiially built their homes near by, and in this way a How some towns grew to be cities From l„,U;Lruod & i ndnwood, S . Y. Traffic nn the Big Rivers The river front at LouisviUe, Kentucky, one of the half dozen important cities on the Ohio. town began. Often a frontier town was named for a leading settler, as Zanesville or Vicksburg. (Jroat numl)ors of these little frontier towns never grew to 1)0 more than villages. But if such a village were the natural niiirkot ancl trading center of a large farming district, and in adtUtion if it were favorably situated upon a navigable river or a main traveled road, it soon grew into a lai-ge town with many stores, a bank, and a newspaper. By and by a railroad came to add to its trading facihties, and a factory was built to give employment to its surplus labor. The Mississippi Valley is dotted with hundreds of thriving Httle cities which have grown up in this way. Because of their favorable situation for commerce some of THE RISING WESTERN CITIES 311 the western towns grew to be great cities. In the early history Importance of the West, New Orleans was the natural market of the whole °* ^^^ Mississippi Valley. The pork, flour, and tobacco of the states ^""^^^"^ drained by the upper Mississippi and its tributaries, as well as the sugar and cotton of Louisiana and Mississippi, came to New Orleans and were carried thence by ocean-going ships to the markets of the world. After the settlement of Alabama, Mobile grew to be a cotton market second only to New Orleans. After the steamboat appeared on the western rivers New Orleans not only bought the produce of the interior, but began to send the western settlers the im- ported goods which they needed. This fact helped to make the inerchants of the eastern cities more eager for the opening of canals and railroads to the West. Pittsburgh, Cincin- nati, Louisville, and St. Louis were the great river ports of the early West. Pittsburgh commanded the entrance to the great- est waterway to the west- ern country, and early began to make the iron wares which that country demanded. Cincinnati was the commercial center of a vast The great and fertile farming region in Kentucky and Ohio. It built a "^^'' PO'^ts larg(^ part of the river steamboats and became the first great pork packing city in the West. Louisville owes its beginning to the falls in the Ohio River which made it necessary to trans- fer flatl)oat cargoes at this point in times of low water. It became the great export center for the tobacco of Kentucky. St. Louis was the natural trading point for the settlers of Missouri and southern Illinois. It was also for many years a great fur market to which came the rich peltries of the far West. Fium Underwood & UndawiHul, A. Y. Unloading Iron-ore Ships at Cleveland 312 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago owe their early growth to their favorable situation upon the Great Lakes. Buffalo was the natural starting point for steamboat cities on the traffic upon these inland seas. The opening of the Erie canal Great Lakes (.,„^t,-il)uted wonderfully to its importance. Cleveland began to grow when a canal connected its harbor with the interior of Ohio and made it the market for the northern part of that state. Nature made Detroit and Milwaukee the great lake ports of their respective states. Chicago owes its preeminence to its superb location near the head of Lake Michigan, at the natural Manufac- ' Ting centers Chicago in 1832 From an old print. meeting place of all the great railroads of the upper Mississippi \'allcy. Chicago was founded later than most of the other cities of the Middle West, but it has far outstripped them all. All the great river and lake ports which have just been mentioned owe their early growth to their natural advantages for trade. But after the factory systcnn of manufacturing was introduced into the Middle West, and when that section was covered with a network of railroads, they all became great manufacturing centers. Their later development has been industrial (jnite as much as commercial. The Influence of the West.— The War of 1812 quickened the spirit of nationality in our country. The growth of this THE INFLUENCE OF THE WEST 313 spirit was further promoted by the rapid settlement of the West which followed that war. The people of the older states in the East had a keen sense of local pride and of state patriot- ism. The movement into the West brought together people from the different states and sections of the country and made them acquainted with one another. It helped to break down their odd local prejudices and to make them realize, as never before, that they were all citizens of a common country. The pioneers of the West rapidly came to feel that they were no longer New Englanders or Virginians but Americans. The settlement of the West made our country more truly democratic. In the states upon the Atlan- tic seaboard people differed greatly in wealth and in social position. But on the frontier, men were judged by what they could do and not by their money or th(nr position. Where all men were poor and all worked for a liv- ing, as they did on the frontier, each man felt himself the equal of every other man. With this feeling of equality in his heart the pioneer believed that every man ought to vote and that the majority ought to rule. These beliefs are the basis of democratic government. Presently the democratic ideals of the West began to influ- ence the older states in the East. In this way the rising West helped to make the whole nation more democratic. Life in a new country had a marked effect upon the man- ners and customs of the settlers. The life of the pioneer was one of great privation and incessant toil. He had left behind him most of the civilizing and refining infhionces of his eastern home — its schools, its churches, and its books. It is no wonder The West helped to make Americans nil A 1 1 \ 1 1 ^^™^^BBSmtehftgBfcifciLL!Ai!^-"* ^^^mBiifMi 'wy|^*f*^^** "^' :^ wf^wJKF '!"""'— WM SB^BE r^^H^^^S ^SBB&.it^y^ ■ ^^ ^i^^ ^y^^M w^. S^WW Frontier life made men democratic © Ki'tjuinne Vifir Co., Hfea-lville, I'n. A Glimpse of Modern Chicago It also made them brave and self- reliant 314 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE WEST that the frontiersman grew careless in dress and speech and sometimes free and easy or even rude in manner. But hfe in the New West gave men more than it took from them. It taught them to think and act for themselves. It made them frank, neighborly, and hospitable. It gave them resourceful- ness, self-reliance, and a broader outlook. In a word, it helped to develop the finest qualities of the American people. Tiie rise of the Middle West in the period between 1815 and 1840 brought our country face to face with several new New and difficult questions. Among these were the crying need for questions internal improvements, the necessity of making the government more truly representative of the people, and, most important of all, the extension of slavery into the western lands. We must next turn our attention to the efforts of our people to solve these problems and others which were pressing upon them. THE MOTHERS OF THE WILST The Mothers of our Forest-Land! Stout-hearted dames were they; With nerve to wield the battle-brand, And join the border-fray. Our rough land had no braver, In its days of blood and strife^ Aye ready for severest toil, Aye free to peril life. The Mothers of our Forest-Land! On old Kan-tuc-kee's soil, How shared they, with each dauntless band, AA'ar's tempest and Life's toil! They shrank not from the foeman, — They quailed not in the fight, — But cheered their husbands through the day. And soothed them through the night. The Mother's of our Forest-Land! Their bosoms pillowed 7nen ! And proud were they by such to stand. In hammock, fort, or glen. To load the sure old rifle, — To run the leaden ball, — To watch a battling husband's place, And fill it should he fall. THE INFLUENCE OF THE WEST 315 The Mothers of our Forest-Land! Such were their daily deeds. Their monument! — where does it stand? Their epitaph! — who reads? No braver dames had Sparta, No nobler matrons Rome, — Yet who or lauds or honors them, E'en in their own green home! The Mothers of our Forest-Land! They sleep in unknown graves: And had they borne and nursed a band Of ingrates, or of slaves, They had not been more neglected! But their graves shall yet be found, And their monuments dot here and there '"The Dark and Bloody Ground." — Gallagher. CHAPTER XVI The Times of Andeew Jackson The Beginning of New Political Parties. — In an earlier chapter we saw how our first political parties, the Federalist Review and the Republican, grew up while Washington was president. T1u> Federalists governed the country from 1789 to 1801. The Reijublicans triumphed in the election of 1800, and for the next twentj'^-four years their three great leaders from Virginia, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, held the presidential office. During this long period of Republican rule the Feder- alist party steadily declined, and not long after the War of 1812, which it opposed, it ceased to exist. Because of this cessation of partj'^ strife, Monroe's administration is often called the "Era of Good Feeling." The first five presidents of our country had all taken an active part in the Revolution. During the^'Era of Good Feeling" Nev/ political a new group of younger political leaders came upon the scene. leaders John (^uincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford, and Andrew Jackson were the most conspicuous leaders of this group of younger statesmen. Adams, the son of the se(!ond president, had been minister to several foreign countries and was the secretary of state in Monroe's cabinet. Webster, the most famous orator in our history, was just entering Congress from Massachusetts. Henry Clay of Kentucky was the Speaker of the House of Representa- tives most of the time from 1811 to 1825. Calhoun of South Carolina, Monroe's secretary of war, was one of the young "war hawks" who with Clay at their head had brought on the War of 1812. Crawford, a shrewd politician from Georgia, was the secretary of the treasury. Andrew Jackson of Tennes- see was the hero of the battle of New Orleans. Before Presi- dent Monroe's second term ended the keen feeling of nationality which swept over the country as a result of the War of 1812 was no longer quite so ardent as it had })een. Men were begin- nmg to think once more of the special interests of their states or sections. While all the new leaders loved the Union, each of 316 BEGINNING OF NEW POLITICAL PARTIES 317 them was a champion of his own section of the country. Adams and Webster spoke for the North, and especially for New England. Calhoun and Crawford upheld the rights of the slave-holding South. Clay and Jackson were true representa- tives of the rising West. The "Era of Good Feeling" soon became a time of very hard feeling in politics. Each of the new leaders named in the last paragraph cherished an ambition Uj be president, and when The election the election of 1824 of 1824 drew near, all of them except Webster be- came candidates for the office. Presently C a 1 h o u n withdrew, content for the time with the vice-pres- idency. The other four remained in the race to the end. As none of them had a majority of the elec- toral vote, the election of a president was thrown into the House of Representatives for the second time in our history. The Con- stitution limits the house in its choice to the three candidates receiving the largest number of electoral votes. Clay was foui-th on the list and so could not be chosen. Jackson had received the largest number of electoral votes, but through Clay's influence the house elected Adams. Jackson and his friends at once charged that there had been a corrupt bargain bctwcnm Adams and Clay. They said that Clay had induced his friends in the House of Representatives Jackson men to vote for Adams because Adams had promised to appoint ^"^ Adams him secretary of state. There was no truth in this charge John Quincy Adams 318 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON Democrats and Whigs The Jacksonian period but many people believed it, especially after Adams gave Clay the first place in his cabinet. Jackson's friends declared that because theii- leader had the largest number of electoral votes he was the real choice of the country. While all the voters professed to be Republicans during Adams' administration they were really divided into two factions, the Jackson men and the Adams men. The followers of Jackson were strong enough in Congress to prevent the passage of nearly all the measures that Adams favored. The Adams men were handicapped by the personality of their leader. Adams was a very able, honest, and intensely patriotic man of wide experience in governmental affairs, but he was cold and distant in manner and utterly lacked the power to arouse enthusiasm or to win friends. In 1828 Adams and Jackson were again rivals for the presidency and this time Jackson won by a large majority. During Jackson's eight years in the White House the two new parties were fully organized. At first the supporters of Jackson called themselves Democratic-Republicans, a name that had frequently been applied to the Jeffersonian Republicans ever since that party began. Presently the word Republican fell into disuse', and the friends of Jackson were called the Demo- crats. This was the beginning of the Democratic party which still exists. After 1828 Henry Clay became the real leader of the Adams men, who began to call themselves National Repub- licans. Before the close of Jackson's administration the National Republicans took the name of Whigs. The Whig party favored a protective tariff, internal improvements at national expense, and a national bank, and beheved in a broader construction of the Constitution than the Democrats did. The Democrats opposed all these measures. The Demo- crats and the Wliigs were our two great political parties for twenty-five years after Jackson became president. Andrew Jackson. — Andrew Jackson was president of the United States from 1829 to 1837, but he so completely domi- nated the country from 1825 until 1841 that this time is often called the Jacksonian period of our history. Jackson was born on the western border of the Carolinas in 1767. His parents were Irish emigrants who had recently settled in that region. Though only a boy he saw service in the Revolutionary War and was for a short time a prisoner ANDREW JACKSON 319 in the hands of the British. After the war he studied law, and Jackson, the in 1788 he settled on the western frontier at Nashville, Tennes- frontiersman see. During a large part of his life he lived on his plantation, the "Hermitage," near Nashville. Jackson was a born leader of men and soon won prominence in politics and as an Indian fighter. He was the first representative of Tennessee in the na- tional House of Repre- sentatives, served for a short time in the United States Senate, and was later elected chief justice of the Supreme Court of his state. Jackson found his great opportunity as a general in the War of 1812. In a brilliant campaign he broke the power of the Creek Indians, and at the battle of New Orleans he inflicted an overwhehning defeat upon the British. His victory at New Or- leans made Jackson the idol of the country and in the end won him the presidency. This tall, slender soldier with his mass of gray hair and his flashing eyes was one of the most remarkal)le men in our his- tory. When on the march against the Indians Jackson could "Old endure so much hardship that his soldiers said he was "tough Hickory'- as hickory," and the nickname "Old Hickory" clung to him all the rest of his life. In times of danger he had the cool head, the quick eye, and the stout heart of the frontiersman. He was a man of tremendous energy, hot tempei, and iron will. Jack- son was sometimes hasty in judgment and never had any patience with men who did not agree with him. He was obstinate in the extreme. There was much truth in the words Andrew Jackson 320 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON which a humorous writer of the time puts in his mouth, "It has always bin my way, when I git a notion, to stick to it till it dies a natural death; and the more folks talk agin my notions, the more I stick to 'em." With all his faults, and he had many of them, Jackson was honest, truthful, kind, and courteous A champion of the com- mon people The "Hermitage" Home of Andrew Jackson near Nashville, Tennessee when he chose to be, and he loved and served his country with a deep and abiding passion. He was our greatest president between Jefferson and Lincoln. Love of the Union and belief in the right of the people to rule had been growing in the hearts of our countrjmen ever since the adoption of the Constitution. We have called these feelings nationality and democracy. The influence of Jackson did much to promote and unite them. Wlien he became presi- dent the clashing interests of the North and the South were already beginning to check the growth of a national spirit. Jackson was devoted to the Union and did all in his power to preserve and strengthen it. All our earlier presidents had wide knowledge and thorough training in public affairs. Jackson knew little of books and was imtrained except as a soldier. But he knew the common people from whom he sprang, and he THE SPOILS SYSTEM 321 believed in their right and fitness to govern themselves. We have seen why the pioneers of the new West were more demo- cratic than the people who remained in the older sections of the country. Jackson, our first president from the West, was a true son of the frontier in this respect and one of the stoutest champions of the rights of the common people in all our history. The people loved him and thronged to Wash', ington to see him in- augurated. Daniel Webster wrote at the time: "I never saw such a crowd before. Persons have come hundreds of miles to see General Jackson and they really seem to think that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger. At the White House the crowds up- set the pails of punch, broke the glasses, and stood with their mud- dy boots in the satin- covered chairs to see the people's presi- dent." The Spoils System.- the great crowd which came to Washington to see General Jackson inaugurated. They wanted the new president to dis- The hope of miss the postmasters and other office-holders under the national the office- government who had not voted for him, and to give them the places thus made vacant. They knew that the earlier presi- dents had selected honest and capable men for office, and had kept them in their places as long as they did their work well. But they also knew that for years it had been the practice in New York, Pennsylvania, and some of the other states for the victors in a state election to replace all the office-holders of the Daniel Webster -There were many office-seekers in seekers 322 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON Jackson in- troduces the spoils system The evils of the spoils system The beginning of national conventions opposite party with their own pohtical friends. They hoped that Jackson would punish his opponents and reward his friends in the same way, and they were not disappointed. Jackson beheved that some of the men who had held office under Adams were dishonest. He knew that many of them had opposed him, and he never could quite understand how anyone wlio opposed him could be a true patriot. He attached little value to training and experience, and tjiought that if men were only honest, one of them could perform the duties of an office quite as well as another. Jackson removed great numbers of office-holders and filled their places with his political followers. This practice thus first introduced into the federal government came to be called the sjjoils system from the words of a New York politician who defended it by saying, "We see nothing wrong in the principle that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy." The introduction of the unwise and harmful spoils system into our national life is a dark blot upon the record of President Jackson. It is a practice for which no good thing can be said. It is unbusinesslike and lacking in good sense. No banker or merchant A\ould think of discharging his experienced and efficient clerks to make places for a set of new and untried men whose politicid opinions he liked better, and it is just as foolish for the goverrunent of a city, state, or nation to do so. More- over, the spoils system has done more than anything else to make our politics corrupt and dishonest. Men are tempted to be unfair or to cheat in elections because they hope to gain or to keep the spoils of office in this way. Of late years the evils of the spoils system in our national goverimient have been greatly lessened l)y requiring oflice-seekers to take competitive examinations before their appointment, and by keeping oflficers in their positions as long as they are efficient. This reform of the civil service, as it is called, is still greatly needed in many of our states and cities. The spoils system was not the only new political practice introduced during Jackson's administration. A new and more democratic method of nominating candidates for the presidency came into use in 1832. Hitherto the candidates of each party had been named by the members of that party in Congress at a meeting called a Congressional Caucus or by the state legisla- THE TARIFF AND NULLIFICATION 323 tures. Now the parties began to hold national conventions to which each state sent delegates. Henceforth the national convention of each party drew up a statement of its principles, called its platform, and nominated its candidates for president and vice-president. The Tariff and Nullification.— After the War of 1812, as we have already noted, the United States began to protect its .■Ira- .B . ■ , ../L , .A :■. - I ■ 1.. - I. , . ^=*^ i.-*' .:,,c ,f*•^. ^^n J 2^^ — » fi © International Film Service The Republican National Convention of 1920 in Session at Chicago infant manufacturing industries against the competition of foreigners by a series of tariff acts, each higher than the pre- The pro- ceding one. At that time nearly all the people in the South tective tariff were farmers and planters, and a protective tariff made them the^outh" pay more for the tools, clothing, and other manufactured goods which they needed. At first some southern men hoped that the tariff might encourage manufacturing in their section of the country, but they soon found out that slave labor could not be employed profitably in factories. Because of these conditions the souiiicrn people felt that the policy of protection was very vmfairtothem and this feeling soon led them to oppose it bitterly. 324 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON Calhoun, the leader of the South The theory of nullification Jackson defends the Union Webster expounds the Constitution John C. Calhoun of South Carolina became the leader of the South in its fight against a protective tariff policy. Calhoun was a statesman of great abihty and high character, and one of the most convincing debaters in our history. He had favored the protective tariff act of 1816 because he was then eager to strengthen the national spirit which had been quickened by the War of 1812. But when he realized that the high tariff laws did not promote manufacturing in his own section, and that they even put a burden upon the planters of his own state, Calhoun opposed them with all his might. After the "tariff of abominations" was passed in 1828 Calhoun advancc^l the argument that Congress had been given no right in the Constitution to lay a tax for the benefit of the manufacturers. He said further that the Constitution was made by the states, and that if Congress passed any law not authorized by the Constitution, any state could declare it un- constitutional and prevent its enforcement within the borders of that state. This theory that a state could declare an act of Congress null and void on the ground that it violates the Constitution was called nullification. Much the same view had been expressed thirty years earlier in the Kentucky and ^'irginia resolutions. The doctrine of nullification was very dangerous, for if any state should attempt to carry it out it might lead to civil war or to the breaking up of the Union. At first there was no attempt to act upon Calhoun's theory, but for the next three or four years nullification was much talked about and the idea became very popular in South Carolina. During this period of debate the Union found two stout defend- (Ms against the state rights men in President Jackson and Daniel Webster. In 1830, at a banquet to celebrate Jefferson's bii-thday several men spoke in approval of nullification. When President Jackson was introduced he gave the toast, "Our Federal Union; it must be preserved." This was a plain warn- mg to the nuUifiers what to expect from a president who was well known to be as good as his word. The same year Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina elo- quently explained and defended the idea of nulHfication iti the Senate. Webster rephed to Hayne in one of the greatest speeches in our history. In burning words that had a deep and aljidmg mfluence throughout the North he declared that the peo- THE TARIFF AND NULLIFICATION 325 pie, not the states, made the Constitution; that it is the supreme law of the land ; and that no authority except the Supreme Coiu't of the United States has any right to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. The peroration of Webster's famous reply to Hayne reads, in part, as follows: "The Union had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, ■iBriini K^WM .M IHIl tea J ■^^;- ^ if TErt '^^ '« r Webster Replying to Hayne From an old print. these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of Ufe. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utihty and its blessings; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national social, and personal happiness. . . . WhUe the Union lasts w(! have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our cihildren. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day at least that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be oi)en(>d what lies behind! WTien my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in 326 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored frag- ments of a once glorious Union; on State dissevered, discordant, bellig- erent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as ' What is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first and Union after- ward'; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, l)lazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" When Congress passed a new tariff law in 1832 which seemed to make protection the settled policy of the country South South Carolina hesitated no longer. A convention in that state Carolina promptly d(>clared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 to be "null tariff laws '^^^^^ void, and no law, nor binding upon this state, its officers or citizens." South Carolina also threatened to withdraw from the Union if any attempt were made to enforce the laws which she had nullified. President Jackson warned the people of South Carolina that "the laws of the United States must be executed," and Jackson's said, "If force should be necessary, I will have forty thousand attitude n^en in South Carolina to put down resistance and enforce the law." When a member of Congress from South Carolina asked the president if he had any message for the people of that state, Jackson said, "Please say to my friends in your state that if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I lay my hands on, engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I can reach." South Carolina prepared to resist the collection of the duties, and the country stood upon the verge of civil war. Smpromise ^^"*^ ^^^'^"^^ ^^^^^^^' ^^^^ ^^^ ^*^'"^'k a blow Henry Clay came forward as a peacemaker. He proposed a compromise tariff law l)y which the rates of duty were to be reduced gradually for the next nine years. Congress passed Clay's compromise, South Carolina accepted it, and thus the threatened danger was averted. But this compromise only postponed the inevi- ATTACK UPON THE BANK 327 table conflict between the state rights men who beheved in nuUification and those who held with Jackson and Webster that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Jackson's Attack upon the Bank of the United States. — At the same time that Jackson was fighting the idea of nulli- fication he was attacking the Bank of the United States. You Rival banks will recall that Hamilton proposed a national bank, which was chartered in 1791 for twenty years, and that a second national bank was set up in 1816, The second Bank of the United States, like the first, received the cash on hand of the gov- errmient on deposit and issued bank notes which the people used as paper money. At this time there were a great many other banks whose notes circulated as money. They were called state banks because they were given the right to do a banking business l.iy the states in which they were located. The state banks were jealous of the Bank of the United States because they thought that it was trying to get all the business away from them. Jackson shared in this dislike of the big and powerful national bank. He feared that it would interfere in politics and possibly control the government. He had long heard many people in the West and South call the Bank of the United States a monopoly, and he hated all monopolies. Jackson began to talk against the bank as soon as he became president. He knew that its charter expired in 1836, and he wanted to prevent it from getting another. In 1832 Jackson Congress passed a bill renewing the bank's charter. Jackson ^^tacks the vetoed this bill in a message in which he called the Bank of the United United States "an unnecessary, useless, expensive, un-American States monopoly." This veto made the bank question the leading issue in the election of 1832 which was just coming on. The foes of the bank rallied around Jackson, who was renominated for the presidency by the Democrats. Henry Clay, the most ardent champion of the bank in Congress, was the candidate, of its friends who were soon to be called the Whigs. Jackson won by a large majority. There was no longer any hope that the bank could get its charter renewed before it expired in 1836. President Jackson was not content with his victory over the national bank in the election of 1832. He was a man of The removal the most intense likes and dislikes, and by this time his wrath deposits against the bank was at white heat. He naturally felt that his 328 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON A time of wild specu- lation reelection meant that the people agreed with him. He ordered the secretary of the treasury to stop putting the money of the United States in the national bank and to deposit it in various state banks. This removal of the deposits seriously injured the national bank and gave some of the state banks a great deal more money with which to do business. The Senate thought that the president had no right to remove the govern- ments money from the national bank and censured him for his action. The state banks in which the money of the United "Pet banks" States was deposited were called "pet banks" because they enjoyed the special favor of the administration. The Panic of 1837. — The country seemed very prosperous (luring Jackson's second term. Men were digging canals, build- ing railroads and factories, and buying public land in the hope of selling it at higher prices. Much of this new business was done with bori'owed money. When the government money was deposited in the "pet banks" they loaned it freely to their customers. It was easier than ever to borrow money, and men were tempted to risk it in new enterprises. Banking seemed to be a very prosperous business, and new state banks, often with very little capital, sprang up all over the West. Because some of these banks were reckless in issuing and lending their notes, which were used as paper money, they were called "wild eat " banks. All these circumstances tended to make men speculate wildly in the hope of getting rich quickly. ]\Iany people were heavily in debt. If anything should happen to make it necessary for the banks to redeem their notes and the people to pay their debts serious trouble was sure to come. The trouble came early in 1837, in the form of the most disastrous financial panic that our country has ever known. Unwise banking and wild speculation were the real causes of this panic, but an action of Jackson's during the last year of liis administration helped to bring it on. The United States was selling enormous quantities of the public land at this time. The income of the government from this source alone jumped from five million dollars in 1834 to nearly twenty-five millions in 1836. Much of this land was paid for with the notes of " wild cat" banks. Jackson began to fear that these banks might not be able to redeem their notes, so in 1836 he issued an order called the specie circular which directed that the public The causes of the panic THE PANIC OF 1837 329 Martin Van Buren lands must be paid for in gold and silver. When the people realized that the government was losing faith in the bank notes they lost confidence too, and floods of these notes began to pour into the banks to be exchanged for gold and silver. Many of the state banks were unable to redeem their notes in coin and were forced to close their doors. Under these circumstances men who could not pay their debts were soon driven into bankruptcy, and presently the business of the country was almost paralyzed. The causes of the panic of 1837 devel- oped while Jackson was president, but as the crash did not come until after he left the White House, Van Buren, his suc- cessor, had to bear most of the blame. Martin Van Buren was a shrewd New York politician, whose enemies often called him the ''Little Magi- cian" because of his cunning political tricks. He was a great favorite with Jackson who forced the Demo- crats to make him their candidate for the presidency in 1836. The Whigs made no regular nomination for that election but divided their votes among General Har- rison, Webster, and two other candidates. Van Buren was easily elected and he announced that he would continue the policies of President Jackson. The effects of the panic of 1837, which came at the begin- ning of Van Burcn's term of office, were severe and long con- The effects tinned. Many bankers and merchants failed, mines and factories of the panic were shut down, and thousands of men were thrown out of Martin Van Buren 330 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON The "log cabin, hard cider" cam- paign of 1840 work. For some years many of our people found it difficult to make a living. The people blamed the government for wliat was largely the result of their own extravagance and reckless speculation. The hard times continued until the peo- ple, by their economy, industry, and thrift, gradually overcame the evil effects of the panic. The Whigs wanted to reestablish a national Ijank, but Van Buren successfully opposed them and in 1840 persuaded Congress to set up an independent treasury system under which the government keeps its cash on hand in its own vaults. A prolonged period of hard times in our country is very apt to be blamed upon the political party in power at the time. This was especially true during Van Buren' s ad- ministration, and the ef- ect of it was seen in the election of 1840. In that year the Democrats re- nominated Van Buren, and the Wliigs, passing over their great leader, Henry Clay, named Gen- eral William Henry Har- rison, the old Indian fighter at Tippecanoe and hero ()f llu> War of 1812 for president, and John Tyler of X'irginia for vice-president. The Democrats said that Harrison was an ignorant old frontiersman who would be more at home in a log cabin drinking hard cider than he would in the White House. The Whigs at once took advantage of this slur upon then- candidate. At their meetings log cabins were built, much hard cider was drunk, and campaign songs in honor of "Old Tip " were sung. The Whig enthusiasm swept everything before It, and Harrison was chosen by a large majority of the electoral vote. On March 4, 1841, the Jacksonian period of our history Cartoon of the Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign THE RISING TIDE OF DEMOCRACY 331 came to an end, and the Whigs for the first time xook charge of our national affairs. The Rising Tide of Democracy. — The right of the people to govern themselves was rapidly gaining ground in both Europe and America when Jackson was president. In 1829 Government the Greeks won their independence from the Turks who had by the people oppressed them for centuries. In 1830 the French overthrew in Europe the old Bourbon line of kings, which had been restored in their country when Napoleon fell, and set up a more liberal monarch. In 1832 a great reform bill was passed in England, which gave the right to vote to many men who had not before possessed it and made the English parliament much more truly represen- tative of the English people than it had been in the days of the Revolution. Democracy was in the air everywhere. The rising tide of democracy in our own country first swept away the numerous restrictions which had formerly kept many men from having any voice in the government. When Jefferson Signs of became president in 1801 some of the states still retained growing religious tests for office-holding, and in many of them a man at home could not vote unless he possessed a certain amount of property. One by one as the country grew more democratic in feeling the states abolished these restrictions. By 1840 all religious quali- fications were gone and in all but a few of the states every white man who was twenty-one years old could vote. While the right to vote was being extended changes were being made in the governments of the states in order to make them more responsive to the will of the people. In our early Popular history only a few officers were elected by popular vote. The changes in judges, most of the state officers, and many county and city ment officials were appointed by the governor or chosen by the legislature. The growing democratic feeling in the country during the first half of the nineteenth century caused many of the states to make new state constitutions, or amend their old ones, in order to provide for the election of nearly all these officers by a direct vote of the people as they are chosen at the present time. As the state governments thus became more democratic they began to change the laws in the interest of humanity and justice. The old cruel punishments such as standing in the Jas^g lu^t^fnd pillory or sitting in the stocks were abolished, the whipping humane laws 332 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON post disappeared in nearly all the states, and imprisonment for debt was stopped. Sanitary prisons were built to take the place of the filthy dungeons in which criminals were kept in the eighteenth century. More thought was given to the care of the poor and the afflicted. Well-kept poorhouses, schools for the deaf and dumb and for the blind, and public asylums for the insane began to appear. Laws were passed to divide inheritances equally among all the children instead of giving the eldest son a special share as had been done formerly. A few of the states began to fix the hours of labor by law. These democratic changes came more rapidly in the new states of the West than in the older and more conservative East. A Period of Progress. — While our country was thus deepl}' moved by new democratic impulses during the times of Andrew A time of .lackson it was developing rapidly along many other lines. Our rapid growth population was ten millions in 1820, nearly thirteen millions in 1830, and seventeen millions in 1840. The bulk of our people still lived in the country but the young manufacturing cities were growing very fast. Settlers were pouring into the new states in the West by hundreds of thousands. The toil of our farmers was rewarded with bountiful crops. An enormous inland commerce was springing up between the different sections of the country. The last dollar of the national debt was paid off in 1835, and during the last two years of Jackson's administration the country was out of debt for the only time in its history. Meanwhile the Indians were driven steadily westward by the oncoming wave of settlement. In 1832 the frontiersmen Our dealings s(Mzed the land of the Indians in northern Illinois. Naturally Lad^ans^ t'lf Indians resented this action, which resulted in a struggle called the Black Hawk war after the chief who led the red men. The Indians were beaten, and northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa were opened to settlement. In 1834 Congress established an Indian territory in the valley of the Arkansas River and forced the Creeks, Choctaws, and the other tribes which occupied the fertile cotton lands of Georgia and Mississippi to remove to it. Some of the Seminoles in Florida refused to leave their old home and waged a bloody war against the whites from 1835 until 1842. At last the remnant of the tribe yielded and were settled in Indian Territory. No doubt great injustice was often done the red men, but it A PERIOD OF t»kOGRES^ 333 was hopoless for them to try to stay the irresistible westward march of the pioneers. But progress during the Jacksonian period was not confined to growth in population and industry or to the conquest of new lands. As the people came to appreciate the meaning of Progress in democracy they began to claim free public education as their education right. Free public school systems were established in the middle and western states. This action was easier in the West than in the other sections of the country, because Congress had Courtesy of Ohrrlin College Finney Memorial Chapel of Oberlin College This college was the first to admit women to its courses. given the western states one section of land in each township for the support of common schools. Not much was yet done for public education in the South, but the New England states had provided free schools for boys ever since the colonial period. Early in the nineteenth century girls began to be admitted to these schools. Under the inspiring leadership of Horace Mann, Massachusetts led the other states in length- ening the school term, in spending more money for education, and in establishing normal schools for the training of teachers. 334 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON Emerson Hawthorne Famous prose writers and Holmes Longfellow Lowell Whiltier Poe poets of the Nineteenth Century. A PERIOD OF PROGRESS 335 In the meantime many new colleges and universities were founded. At first none of the American colleges admitted women, but in 1833 Oberlin College opened the door of higher education to them by admitting them on the same terms as men. In 1836 Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke, the first of the groat women's colleges of our country. Meanwhile more rapid means of transportation, a better postal service, and lower rates of postage gave the newspapers a wider circulation and a wider influence upon public opinion Better papers and magazines were published, and a new group of great American writers appeared. Irving, Bryant, and Cooper began their work at an earlier period, but in Jack- son's time we first hear of those bril- liant poets, Poe, Longfellow, Whit- tier, Holmes, and Lowell, and of our greatest prose writers, Emerson and Hawthorne. Nor was this age of activity and progress lacking on the religious side. The spirit of toleration was growing in the land. Sunday- schools for the religious training of children were organized in nearly all the Protestant churches. The missionary spirit was more fervent than ever before in our country. The Catholic Church had always been zealous in missionary work, and now the various Protestant denominations began to take an active part in carrying the gospel to the frontier and to foreign lands. In such a time of ferment and of new ideas it was easy for strange religious teachers to obtain a hearing and to found new sects. The Second Day Adventists, for example, taught that the end of the world was at hand. The Mormon Church, or more properly speaking, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was founded by Joseph Smith in 1829. New names in literature ) Broini Brotherx, N . Y. The Mormon Temple and Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah Religious development Origin of the Mormons 336 THE TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON He published a new Bible supposed to contain a divine revela- tion wiiich was called the "Book of Mormon." With his fol- lowers Smith settled in Ohio, and later at Nauvoo, Ilhnois, where he was killed by a mob. A few years later Brigham Young, Smith's successor, led the Mormons to Utah where they founded Salt Lake City. Our country enjoyed great material prosperity and was filled with new ideas and with new social activities when Jackson Slavery was president. In that time of growing democracy the aristo- demands ^.j-atic institution of slaveiy stood out in bold relief and chal- lenged attention. Negi'o slavery and the rise of the movement against it are so important and have had such a profound influence upon our history that tliey must have a chapter to themselves. CHAPTER XVII Slavery and Antislavery The Early History of Slavery in Our Country. — Slavery began in the English colonies in 1619, when a Dutch trader brought twenty negroes to Jamestown. For a long time the Slavery in number of slaves increased very slowly, and it was not until the *^® colonies eighteenth century that the African slave trade became an extensive business. At the close of Queen Anne's War in 1713 Great Britain was given a monopoly of the business of carrying slaves from Africa to the New World. Soon British and colonial ship-owners were making large profits out of the infamous busi- ness of buying or stealing negroes in Africa and selling them in America. Slaves were brought to all the English colonies though they were far more numerous in the South than in the North. Few men in the colonial period seem to have thought that slavery was wrong. The Quakers were almost alone in protesting against it. Slavery was recognized and even protected by the Consti- tution. This great law, by which the people created our govern- ment, said that three-fifths of the slaves should be added to Slavery the whole number of free persons in apportioning representa- recognized tives among the states according to their population; it pro- gtitution vided that runaway slaves should be returned to their masters; and it forbade Congress to stop the foreign slave trade before 1808. Yet the men who made the Constitution seemed to feel that slavery was wrong, for they carefully avoided the word slaves and called them "all other persons" or "persons held to service or labor." That the North and the South were already beginning to feel differently about slavery is shown by the fact that two of the references to it in the Constitution were the result of compromises between those sections. Indeed, when our Revolutionary fathers declared that all men are created equal and endowed with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they could not well help Slavery seeing how inconsistent these ideas were with their conduct in abolished in holding black men in bondage. During the generation follow- ® °^ 22 337 338 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY ", ,",i/, I'f tir I'l/ilailil jil.'.a CoDiitiiicial Mustuin A Southern Planter's Home With Colonial verandah or gallery. infr the Revolution all the states north of Mason and Dixon's line cither abolished slavery or provided for gradually freeing the slaves within theii- borders. This action was not difficult in the North where slavery did not pay and where the number of slaves was small. But it was a much more serious matter in the South where nearly all industry was carried on with slave labor. Some southern men like Jefferson hated slavery and voted to exclude it from the Northwest Territory by the Ordinance of 1787. But they did not see how they could live among the mass of uncontrolled negroes in their own communi- ties if the slaves were set free, and in the end most of them gave up the hope of getting rid of slavery in the southern states. After the invention of the cotton-gin slavery became more jirofitable than ever in the far South. When the new cotton The cotton- lands in the Southwest were opened the demand for slave labor fasten ^^ *° ^^'^^ ^^'^y S^'^'^t. But Congress had prohibited the foreign slave slavery on trade in 1808, and no more negroes could lawfully be brought the South f,.,,ni Africa. Traders now began to pa}^ good prices for the surplus slaves in the border states of Maryland, Virginia, and K(>ntucky, and to sell them at a profit to the cotton planters farther south. In this way the cotton-gin tended to fasten slavery upon the slavcholding states that did not grow cotton as well as upon those that did. The people of the South began to defend slavery and to resent any suggestion that it was wrong and ought to l)e al)olished. The Missouri Compromise.— The first serious clash between the North and the South came over a question that was destined Ssh^of*°°^ <<' '^^ '^ bone of contention between these two sections for the sla?er7*'^ "^'^*' ^^^^^ YGSirs. Should slavery be permitted to expand in tiie West? Very early in the history of the nation the Ohio THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 339 River had been made the boundary between free and slave territory. Slavery had been prohibited in the Northwest Territory in 1787, but it was permitted south of the Ohio, and by 1819 all the country between that river and the Gulf of Mexico had been made into slave states. We have seen already how new states were admitted into the Union in such a way that the slave states equaled the free states in number, thus keeping up a balance of power between the sections in the Senate. In 1819 the territory of Missouri asked to be made a state. While the House of Representatives was considering a bill for its admission into the Union a northern member moved Freedom and that no more slaves should be taken into Missouri and that all f^^^^7 ^°^~ children born in the state after its admission should be free Missouri upon reaching the age of twenty-five years. In time this would have made Missouri a free state. This motion made the southern members very angry and led to a hot debate. In the end the house adopted the proposition to exclude slavery from Missouri but the Senate rejected it. Thus ended the matter for that session of Congress. i The whole country was very much stirred up over the ques- tion of slavery in Missouri. Everywhere in the North the people condemned the extension of slavery into the western The territory. In the South the slave-owners declared that the Missouri Constitution gave them the right to settle in any territory of the United States with their slaves. In 1820 the house again voted to prohibit slavery in Missouri. It happened that just at this time Maine was asking to be' made a state. A compro- mise was proposed in the Senate providing that Maine should be admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, but that slavery should be prohibited forever in all the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude. At last both houses agreed to this compromise and it became a law. The Missouri Compromise is one of the most important events in our history. The discussion of it awakened the North and the South to a consciousness of the growing difference Importance between them and began the long struggle between freedom °^ *^'^ and slavery which in the end almost destroyed the Union. No one saw the threatening danger more clearly or stated it more 340 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY forcibly than the aged ex-president Thomas Jefferson. "This ninmontoiis question," he wrote, "hke a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." This continued to be done until slavery, Free and Slave Territory after the Missouri Compromise the real cause of the irritation between the North and the South, was swept away in the fires of a great civil war. Life in the Slaveholding States.— A study of life in the Soutli will help us to understand how slavery was steadily The great making that section more and more unlike the rest of the s aveholders country. We must realize what slavery was like in order to appreciate why so many people in the North wanted to keep it out of the western territory and why the abolitionists hated It and were eager to destroy it. We must not think that all the people of the South were slaveholders. In all that section there were only about eight thousand large planters owning LIFE IN THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES 341 more than fifty slaves apiece. Most of these men lived in the fertile river valleys on the Atlantic Coast or on the rich cotton or sugar lands of the Gulf states. This small group of wealthy planters possessed homes of luxury and were educated gentle- men with great influence in their states. They were the real rulers of the South. Next to the great planters were about three hundred thousand small slave-owners. More than half of them owned less than five slaves each. A majority of these small slave- owners were men of little education who lived in homes lacking most of the ordinary comforts of life and worked hard looking after their farms. They were most numerous in the upland region between the coast plains and the mountains. Aliout three-fourths of all the white men in the South owned no slaves at all. Most of these non-slaveholders were small farmers who lived in little cabins in the hill country or in the valleys of the moun- tains. Some of them, especially those who lived in the pine forests near the coast, were shiftless and degraded, and de- served the name of "poor white trash" which was often given them. But the vast majority of the poor whites of the South were brave and hard-working men. They were poor because the competition of slave labor did not give them a fair chance, and ignorant because their section of the country lacked good public schools. A few of the more attractive and intelligent negroes were employed as house servants or as mechanics. The great mass of the slaves, however, were field hands upon the farms and plantations. These field hands were slow, awkward, and un- skilled workers. They could use only plows and heavy hoes in cultivating cotton, tobacco, and sugar-cane. They lacked the intelligence to work with machinery, and any effort to educate and train them would have unfitted them for slavery. The smal' slave- owners By pcrmi^AKi il Murium I ' t i,i,li,hi,i ( ,,,n A Cotton Field Field hands at work on a large plantation in the Southern Cotton Belt. Most southern white men owned no slaves House servants and field hands 342 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY Masters and slaves Shelter and food The treatment which the slaves received varied with the character of their masters and the part of the country in which they Hved. Some masters were kind and just men who looked thoughtfully after the welfare of their slaves; a few were care- less or even brutal in their attitude toward them. But most men were as careful about the physical welfare of their slaves as sensible farmers now are of their domestic animals, because that was the wa}^ to make them most profitable. The lot of the slaves was very much happier in ^^irp;inia and Kentucky, '/'/("/ //(/ /!, rjiu.-.sion of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum Weighing Seed Cotton where the master and mistress gave them their personal atten- tion, than it was on the great cotton plantations of the far South, where they were often driven to work in large gangs by overseers. The slaves on the large plantations lived in little houses grouped near together and called the "quarters." Many of the slave quarters were comfortable log cabins, others were filthy hovels unfit to shelter cattle. The clothing of the slave consisted of a shirt and trousers, or a dress of the coarsest mate- rial, and a pair of heavy shoes. Slaves were fed at the smallest possil)le expense, mainly upon corn meal and pork. The weekly allowance of food upon one Vhginia plantation was a peck and LIFE IN THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES 343 a half of corn meal, three pounds of bacon, and a little salt. A Mississippi planter gave his slaves one peck of meal, three pounds of pork, and a quart of molasses each week. The life of the house servants was often easy and there were seasons of the year when the negroes on the farms of the border slave states did not have to toil very hard, but the The work of slaves on the cotton plantations were driven for long hours slaves every day. One overseer, who boasted — "I do better by my niggers than most," when asked by a traveler about their Rpprodvced by permission of the Philadelphia Commercial M^iseum Bales of Cotton on a Wharf at New Orleans, hours of labor said: "Well, I don't never start my niggers 'fore daylight, 'less 'tis in pickin' time, then maybe I get 'em out a quarter of an hour before. But I keep 'em right smart to work through the day." A slave could not be expected to work so hard unless he were driven to do so by the hope of reward or the fear of punishment. Some masters gave each slave a certain amount of work to do each day and permitted him to stop working when he had finished the daily task. But in most cases the slave worked from the fear of punishment. On many of the large plantations white overseers or negro slave-drivers armed with whips were sent to the fields with the gangs of 344 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY slaves to keep them steadily at work. Whipping was the common punishment for laziness or misconduct. A slave belonged by law to his master, like a horse or a dog. He could be bought or sold like any other property. One Buying and i)f the worst features of slavery was the fact that it made it selling slaves impossible for the negro to have a real family life. The father, the mother, or the children might be sold and taken away at any time. Humane masters avoided, as far as possible, such breaking up of slave families, but this was not uncommon. " Negroes for sale," and "Cash for negroes," were common adver- tisements in southern newspapers. For example, an auctioneer in South Carolina announces that he will sell one hundred valu- able negroes, among whom are "twenty-five prime young men, forty of the most likely young women, and as fine a set of children as can be shown." A firm in Natchez, Mississippi, advertises "ninety negroes just arrived from Richmond, con- sisting of field hands, house servants, carriage drivers, several fine cooks, and some excellent mules." The best young men were often sold for twelve hundred dollars each, and young women brought from eight hundred to a thousand apiece. The life of the slave was a mere animal existence. It was not commonly filled with cruelty or actual distress, but Slavery was it was marked by fear and uncertainty. The slaves lived in botrices '''"^"^'^^ ignorance and moral darkness. The laws of most of the slave stat(>s made it a crime to teach a slave to read or write. Idle and neglected, while children and when very old, the slaves spent all the active years of their lives in unpaid toil without hope of anything better in future. Slavery was almost as great a curse to the white people of the South as it was to the negroes. It made the masters proud, passionate, and overbearing. White children who grew up with negro playmates learned much that was evil from them. Ignorant, unskilled, and unwilling slave labor retarded the mdustrial development of the slaveholding states, in which they were very backward when compared with the free states. Later we shall see that after the South got rid of slavery its mdustries grew as they never could have grown with slave labor. We have seen how some of the early leaders of the South wanted to rid their states of slavery, but could not find any LIFE IN THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES 345 practicable way of abolishing it. After the invention of the The defense cotton-gin made slavery more profitable in the South the °^ slavery slave-owners began to make excuses for it and ended by attempt- ing to justify it. It was proclaimed from the pulpit that slavery is a divinely ordained institution sanctioned by the Bible. The newspapers and the politicians declared that the nogi-oos © Keystone View Co., Meadville, Pa. A Modern Textile Mill, Spinning yam and winding it on thousands of bobbins were utterly unfit to be freemen and that they were happy and contented as slaves. A governor of South Carolina, after declaring that the slaves were comfortably clothed and well fed, and that they worked fewer hours than the workmen of other countries, said: "And as it regards concern for the futm-e, their condition may well be envied even by their masters. There is not upon the face of the earth, any class of people, high or low, so perfectly free from care and anxiety. They know that their masters will provide for them under all circumstances, and that in the extremity of old age, instead of being driven to 346 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY beggary or to seek public charity in a poorhouse, they will be comfortably accommodated and kindly treated among their relatives and associates." The Rise of the Antislavery Movement. — The Revolu- tion was followed ]\y a rising hostility to slavery. We have Early seen how this feeling brought about the abolition of it in the opposition North. This dislike of slavery was shared in many parts of to slavery ^j^^ South, and a few slave-owners in that section freed their slaves and tried to persuade others to do likewise. In 1816 the American Colonization Society was formed to send the freed negroes back to Africa, and six years later the colony of Liberia was established for them. About the same time Ben- jamin Lundy, a gentle and unselfish Quaker, devoted his life to the cause of the slave. Lundy traveled widely making antislavery speeches, organized antislavery societies, and published an abolition newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation. His work met with slight response. For ten years after the passage of the Missouri Compromise there was little agitation against slavery. When Jackson became presi- dent in 1829 the antislavery cause seemed hopeless. Slavery was steadily increasing its hold on the South, the leaders of that section were beginning to defend it, and abolitionists like Lundy were in despair over the fact that the northern people appeared to have lost all interest in the matter. But about 1880 the movement against slavery suddenly blazed up more fiercely than ever. Just at that time the New interest thoughts of freedom and of humanity seemed to be in the air L'bout''i830 '^^^ ^^''^'' ^^^^ ^^'"*'l^^- Slavery had recently been abolished in all the Latin-American countries excepting Brazil. In 1833 the slaves were emancipated everjnvhere in the British Empire. In our own country, as we have already noted, a kindlier spirit toward the weak and the helpless was leading to better treat- ment of convicts, paupers, and the insane. The renewed in- terest in abolition found a leader in 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison began to publish the Liberator, the most famous and influential antislavery paper. Two years later Garrison and other abolitionists formed the American Antislavery • Society. The founders of this society maintained that no man has a right to enslave another, to hold hun as a piece of merchandise, RISE OF THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT 347 or to brutalize his mind by denying him the means of improving The it. They declared that every man has a right to his own body, American to the products of his own labor, and to the protection of the society law. They proclaimed that the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and pledged themselves to work with voice and pen for this end. They planned to organize antislavery societies in every community. The agitation to which the abolitionists pledged themselves was carried on with zeal and devotion, but it was so extreme and radical that it did not win many converts. It did, however, j^^ie effects make the people think about slavery. Its first effect was to of anti- arouse the wrath of the South. A Virginia slave named Nat ^^^.^^'".y Turner had recently led a slave uprising in which sixty white people were killed before Turner was caught and hanged. It was natural that the people of the South should look with horror upon abolition teaching which might stir up more slave insur- rections. They demanded that the abolitionists be silenced by force. At first many northern people S3Tnpathized with this demand of the South. The politicians who wanted to curry favor with the South, the merchants and manufacturers who Northern feared to lose their southern customers, the timid and conserva- hostility to tive people who thought that the agitation of the slavery ^jo^^fstg ^' question might break up the Union, and the unthinking rabble who hated the negro were all bitter against the abolitionists. Mobs broke up their meetings, destroyed their printing-presses, and attacked their leaders. Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston, and finally put in jail to save him from the fury of the mob. Pennsylvania Hall, the meeting place of the abolitionists in Philadelphia, was bm^ned. Instead of silencing the aboUtionists, all this persecution only deepened their hatred of slavery and hardened their purpose to destroy it. Some of the abolitionists wished to form a new political party to oppose slavery. Others like Garrison refused to have anything to do with politics, took for their motto: "No union The Liberty with slaveholders," and said that the Constitution was "a P^^ covenant with death and an agreement with hell" because it recognized slavery. In 1840 the political abolitionists formed the Liberty party and nominated James G. Birney for the presidency. Birney received only seven thousand votes, but 348 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY Garrison and the Liberator the rapid growth of the Liberty party is indicated by the fact that when he ran again in 1844 more than sixty-two thousand antislavery men voted for him. Three Great AboUtion Leaders. — Wilham Lloyd Garrison was the foremost editor of the antislavery cause. When he began to publish the Liberator in Boston he was an unknown young printer without money or influence. Lowell gives us this picture of him at work: "In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, Toiled o'er his t3^pes one poor, unlearned young man The place was dark, un- f urnitured, and mean, Yet there the freedom of a race began." Garrison was a re- markable writer, and he hated slavery with all the force of his ardent nature. In the first number of the Liberator he said, "I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch— AND I WILL BE HEARD!" Garrison was true to this promise, and although few agreed with his radical opinions, he wielded a profound influence because he forced people to think about the evils of slavery. But with all his zeal for freedom, Garrison was a one-sided and prejudiced man who denounced slavery and the slaveholders in the same scathing terms. He was unable to understand that while slavery was wrong many slaveholders were good men. William Lloyd Garrison Abolitionist leader and publisher of the "Liberator" THREE GREAT ABOLITION LEADERS 349 John G. Whittier was the poet of the aboHtion movement who most closely touched the hearts of the people. His many antislavery poems were widely read, and they exerted a deep The poet of influence in arousing public sentiment against slavery. Whittier abolition voices the feeling of the enemies of slavery about one of the worst features of slave life in the following lament of a Virginia slave mother whose daughters have been sold to a South Caro- lina planter: "Gone, gone, — sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, Where the noisome insect stings, Where the fever demon strews Poison with the falling dews, Where the sickly sunbeams glare Through the hot and misty air; Gone, gone, — sold and gone, To the rice-swamps dank and lone, From Virginia's hills and waters, — Woe is me, my stolen daughters!" The cause of abolition found its greatest orator in Wendell Phillips. In 1837 Elijah P. Lovejoy, the editor of an anti- slavery paper at Alton, Illinois, was killed by a mob that The fore- sought to destroy his printing-press. At a meeting of the ^°^* *"**" citizens of Boston in Faneuil Hall, held to express their horror orator at this murder, the attorney-general of Massachusetts con- demned Lovejoy and excused his murderers. Wendell Phillips, a young and unknown lawyer, at once ascended the platform and answered the defender of mob violence in one of the most brilliant speeches in our history. From that hour until slavery was abolished, Wendell Phillips was its most eloquent foe. Two sentences from his first great speech in Faneuil Hall will help you to feel his power as an orator. Early in the speech he said, "When I heard the gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American — the slanderer of the dead." A moment later Phillips declared that Lovejoy died for a greater 350 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY Abolition papers in the mail The rule' gag cause than that of the Revolutionary fathers. When the audience resented this statement he retorted: "One word, gentlemen. As much as thought is better than money, so much is the cause in which Lovejoy died nobler than a mere question of taxes. James Otis thundered in this hall when the king did but touch his pocket. Imagine, if you can, his indignant eloquence had England offered to put a gag upon his lips!" The Slavery Question in Congress. — The action of the abolitionists in send- ing their literature through the mail to people in the South was very displeasing to that section. One night in 1835 some of the citizens of Charleston, South Caro- lina, broke into the post office in that city, searched the mails, and seized and burned all the antislavery papers which they found. The postmaster-general was next asked to exclude abolition matter from the mail. He replied that, while he wished it might be done, he had no legal right to do it. Never- theless, the postmaster in New York refused to forward anti- slavery publications, and some southern postmasters would not deliver them. In his annual message of 1835, President Jackson asked Congress to prohibit the circulation in the southern states of papers "intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection," but when John C. Calhoun brought forward a bill to carry the president's suggestion into effect it was defeated. The pro-slavery men were more successful in an attempt to exclude petitions concerning slavery from the House of Representatives. For years the Quakers had been in the habit of petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the District of From F. GuUkuiist Co., Phitnd ilphia. Fa. Wendell Phillips The greatest orator for the cause of abolition. SLAVERY BECOMES THE QUESTION 351 Columbia. As the agitation against slavery grew, the number of the signers of such petitions increased from thirty-four thousand in 1835 to three hundred thousand two years later. The impatient southerners determined to stop this flood of petitions. Through their efforts the House of Representatives made a rule in 1836 forbidding the reading or printing of any petition or paper about slavery. This rule is often called the "gag rule," because its purpose was to stop the discussion of slavery in the house. After he retired from the presidency John Quincy Adams rounded out his distinguished public career by serving for seventeen years in the House of Representatives. When the The vote was taken on the "gag rule" Adams said, "I hold the "old man resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of the ^ °1"®^t United States, of the rules of this house, and of the rights of my constituents." From the moment the "gag" policy was adopted, the "old man eloquent," as Adams was called, became the champion of the right of petition. Able, experienced, and a born fighter, no man was better fitted for the task than the venerable ex-president. He declared that the "gag rule" sacrificed the rights of the people guaranteed by the Constitu- tion, and persisted in offering petitions against slavery in the face of efforts to censure him for violating the rules of the house. At last, after a fight which lasted eight years, he succeeded in having the hateful rule repealed. That night the old Puritan wrote in his diary, "Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God!" The efforts of the friends of slavery to suppress the right of petition and to prevent any discussion of the slavery question in Congress utterly failed in their purpose. In fact, they won The result of more men to the cause of antislavery than all the appeals of trying to the abolitionists. Many people who had Uttle sympathy for spg^gch" the extreme views of Garrison resented the effort to limit discussion in Congress. Slavery Becomes the Question of the Hour, — Before Jackson retired from the presidency, slavery was rapidly becoming the most important question before the American Growing people. The abolition leaders were slowly winning followers, bitterness An ever-increasing number of people in the free states who "®^^®^ii ^^e were not abolitionists were alarmed and disgusted at the 352 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY efforts of the pro-slavery forces to suppress freedom of speech and of the press. In the South, hatred of the aboHtionists and fear that the slaves might rise against their masters made the people more irritable and more assertive of their rights. Cal- houn called the petitions of the Quakers against slavery "a foul slander" on his part of the country, and another spokesman of the South declared that "slavery is interwoven with our very poHtical existence." The southern states passed more severe laws to keep the slaves in subjection, and the young men of the South ])anded together to enforce these laws and to defend their section and its institutions against any possible aggression. When the Constitution was first made, the feeling of nation- ality was weak in our country. Men loved their states better The national than they loved the nation. For fifty years this feeling had been spirit in con- giowly changing. The influence of Washington, pride in the state^rights f^pk'ndid achievements of our gallant navy in the War of 1812, the winning of the West, improved means of communication, the national spirit of Jackson, and the matchless eloquence of Webster were all leading our people to exalt the Union above the states. They were coming to feel that they were all Ameri- cans with common interests and a splendid destiny. For a time all sections shared in this growing feeling of national unity. But when slavery began to divide the country, the people of the South felt that they must look to their own states to defend them against attacks upon their' peculiar institution. This feeling checked the growth of nationality in their part of the country and revived and strengthened the belief in state rights. The growing difference of attitude toward slavery of the South and the North is illustrated by the following statements: In a message to the Legislature of South Carolina in 1835 Governor McDuffie of that state said: "It is the obvious interest of the master, not less than his duty, to provide comfortat)le food and clothing for his slaves; and whatever false and exaggerated stories may be propagated by mercenary travelers, who make a trade of exchanging calumny for hospitality, the peasantry and oi)eratives of no country in the world are better provided for, in these respects, than the slaves of our country. . . . "... They habitually labor from two to four hours a day less than the operatives in other countries, and it has been truly reriiarked, by some SLAVERY BECOMES THE QUESTION 353 writer, that a negro cannot be made to injure himself by excessive labor. It may be safely affirmed that they usuall}' eat as much wholesome and substantial food in one day, as English operatives or Irish peasants eat in two. And as it regards concern for the future, their condition may well be envied even bj^ their masters. There is not upon the face of the earth, any class of people, high or low, so perfectly free from care and anxiety. They know that their masters will provide for them, under all circum- stances, and that in the extremity of old age, instead of being driven to beggary or to seek public charity in a poorhouse, they will be comfortably accommodated and kindly treated among their relatives and associ- ates. . . ." The Liberty party which was organized by antislavery men who beUeved in attaining their ends through constitu- tional methods and aboHtionists received enough votes in 1844 to draw the election away from Henry Clay and give it to Polk, whose policy of expansion apparently greatly strength- ened the slave power. A Liberty Convention in 1845 offered the following advice to the North : "Carry then, friends of freedom and free labour, your principles to the ballot-box. Let no difficulties discourage, no dangers daunt, no delays dishearten you. Your solemn vow that slavery must perish is registered in heaven. Renew that vow! Think of the martjTs of truth and free- dom; think of the millions of the enslaved; think of the other millions of the oppressed and degraded free; and renew that vow! Be not tempted from the path of political duty. Vote for no man, act with no party polit- ically connected with the supporters of slavery. Vote for no man, act with no party unwilling to adopt and carry out the principles which we have set forth in this address. To compromise for any partial or tem- porary advantage is ruin to our cause. To act with any party, or to vote for the candidates of any party, which recognizes the friends and supporters of slavery as members in full standing, because in particular places or under l)articular circumstances, it may make large professions of anti-slavery zeal, is to commit political suicide. Unswerving fidelity to our principles; unalterable determination to carry those principles to the ballot-box at every election; inflexible and unanimous support of those, and only those, who are true to those princijjles, are the conditions of our ultimate triumph. Let these conditions be fulfilled, and our triumjjh is certain." In the meantime, as we shall see in the next chapter, the ambitious and land-hungry frontiersmen were pushing their way across the continent to the Pacific Coast. The southern 354 SLAVERY AND ANTISLAVERY loaders saw that they must create new slave states in the West if they were to keep their power in the national govern- An all- inent. Their attempts, between 1840 and 1850, to extend important slavery into the West and the efforts of the free North to thwart them, made slavery the all-absorbing question before the country. By 1850 Senator Seward of New York could say witli trutli, "Every question brings up slavery as an incident, and the incident supplants the principal question. We hear of nothing but slavery, and we can talk of nothing but slavery." CHAPTER XVIII The Winning of Texas and the Far West President Tyler Quarrels with the Whigs. — On March 4, 1841, William Henry Harrison was inaugurated president of the United States, and for the first time in its history the Whig Inaugura- party came into control of the government. The Whigs were ^'g^^j^^*^ jubilant, but their joy was soon turned into mourning. Presi- Harrison dent Harrison was sixty eight years old and not robust. He was worn out by the excitement of the noisy campaign which preceded his elec- tion and fatigued by the long journey from his home to the capital. The swarms of office- seekers which beset him day and night gave him little opportunity to rest, and careless expos ure brought on pneu monia of which he died just one month after entering the White House. The Whigs intended to reestablish a national bank like the one which Jackson fought and to raise the tariff, but they were thwarted by John Tyler, the vice-president, who became president when Harrison died. The Whigs Tyler was a state rights Democrat who had quarreled with Jack- desert Tyler son. He was nominated for vice-president by the Whigs to win the votes of discontented Democrats like himself. President Tyler vetoed two bank acts which Congress passed, and he 355 William Henry Harrison 356 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST Our north- eastern boundary established Rival claims to Texas would not sign a bill raising the tariff until 1842. When the Whigs found that Tyler meant to prevent the reestabhshment of a national bank they deserted him, and all his cabinet officers except Webster resigned. During most of his term John Tyler was a president without a party. When Tyler's other cabinet officers left him in disgust at his refusal to support the policy of the party that elected him, Web- ster retained the office of secretary of state for a time in order to complete a difficult ne- gotiation which he was carrying on with Eng- land. Ever since the close of the Revolution we had been disputing with England about the exact location of our northeastern boundary. The irritation between Maine and Canada over this matter was becom- ing so great that it threatened war. For- tunately, trouble was averted by a treaty which Webster and Lord Ashburton made in 1842. Each side sensibly gave up a part of what it claimed, and the present northern boundary of Maine was agreed upon as the dividing line between the two nations. When this question was settled Webster also re- signed. No doubt Tyler was glad to see him go, for the presi- dent had sot his heart upon annexing the vast and fertile country of Texas and he knew that Webster was .opposed to such action. The Story of Texas.— The territory comprised within the present state of Texas was once claimed by both France and Spain. When we bought Louisiana in 1803 we acquired anyrights winch France had possessed in that region. President' Jeffer- John Tyler THE STORY OF TEXAS 357 son declared that the Rio Grande was the southwestern bound- ary of the Louisiana Purchase, but Spain never admitted this claim. When we bought Florida from Spain in 1819 we agreed to accept the Sabine River as our western boundary on the Gulf coast. Clearly we had no lawful claim to Texas after that date. All this time Texas was an unsettled wilderness. But in 1819 the rush into the West which followed the War of 1812 was at its height. Hardy frontiersmen were exploring all our American western border in search of good land, and they found the fertile Pjo^^eers in plains and mild climate of Texas wonderfully attractive. In 1820 Moses Austin and his son Stephen asked Mexico to grant them land in Texas and to permit them to settle upon it. The Mexicans, who were just winning their independence from Spain, were eager for the development of their unsettled territory and readily gave the Austins a large tract of land. Similar grants were made to other Americans who asked for them. Moses Austin soon died but Stephen F. Austin led many immigrants into Texas and became the real founder of that state. By 1830 there were twenty thousand American pioneers living in Texas, and its broad acres were being rapidly converted into cotton plantations and cattle ranches. The American settlers in Texas soon became dissatisfied with the efforts of the government of Mexico to control their affairs. The Mexicans on the other hand became alarmed at Trouble the growing strength of the Americans in one of their states, j ^^^^"^ j They forbade the admission of any more immigrants from the Mexico United States, stationed Mexican garrisons in Texas, and vexed and oppressed the settlers in that state in other ways. In 1829 slavery was abolished in Mexico. Most of the American settlers in Texas came from slaveholding states, and many of them had brought their slaves with them. Americans continued to go to Texas in spite of the effort of Mexico to exclude them, and the Texans paid no attention to the Mexican law prohibiting slavery. Foremost among the later American settlers in Texas were Sam Houston, a former governor of Tennessee, and David Crockett, a famous frontiersman whose skill as a hunter was a proverb all along the border. The Texans soon began to desire their independence. The Texans They hated the Mexicans, who they felt to be quite unfit to f^depend-^'' govern themselves, much less to rule any one else. In 1835 ence 358 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST The Alamo the American settlers in Texas took up arms and drove the Mexican garrisons out of the country. Early the next year they adopted a declaration of independence in which they asserted that their political connection with the Mexican nation was forever ended, and proclaimed Texas a free and indepen- dent republic. In the meantime General Santa Anna led a large force of Mexicans into Texas. At first the Texans met with disaster. One hinidi-ed and eighty-three of them under Colonel Travis ^ Keystone View Co., Meadville, Pa. "Remember the Alamo!" The old Spanish fort which became the Texas Cradle of Liberty. The Massacre enacted here led directly to the Independence of the "Lone Star State". were l)esieged in the Alamo, an old Spanish fort at San Antonio. For thirteen days they held out. But at last the walls of the Alamo were breached by the Mexican cannon, and thousands of Santa Anna's soldiers rushed to the assault. A desperate hand-to-hand fight with bayonets and clubbed rifles lasted until the last Texan was slain. Old David Crockett was one of the last to fall. Shortly after the great fight at the Alamo the Mexicans took three hundred prisoners and shot them all in cold blood. Battle of San These acts of the Mexicans were soon avenged. In April, Jacinto 1836, General Sam Houston with seven hundred Texans met THE STORY OF TEXAS 359 Santa Anna at San Jacinto. Charging with the cry "Remember the Alamo!" the Texans utterly destroyed the Mexican army and won the independence of their country at a single blow. Less than a year later the United States recognized Texas as an independent nation. Hunger for the rich lands of Texas was the chief motive which led American settlers into that region. But the desire of the southern leaders for more slave states, in order to main- Texas tain the power of the South in the national government, led desires them to encourage the settlement and conquest of Texas in to the United the hope of soon annexing it to the United States and then of States making several slave states of it. Nearly all the people in Texas were American citizens before they were Texans, and it was natural for them to look forward to the day when their country would become a state in the Union. At first the United States had been just as eager to acquire Texas as the Texans were for annexation. Both Adams and Jackson had tried to buy Texas from Mexico only to meet the Our attitude answer, "Not for sale." No sooner had Texas declared its toward independence in 1836 than it asked to be admitted into the Union as a state. But the rising antislavery sentiment at the time made the North unwilling to grant this request. Webster voiced the feeling of his section when he said in 1837, "Texas is likely to be a slaveholding country, and I frankly avow my entire unwillingness to do anything that shall extend the slavery of the African race on this continent." Then, too, Mexico did not acknowledge the independence of Texas, and annexation might easily bring on a war with that country. For these reasons no steps were taken toward annexing Texas while Jackson and Van Buren were presidents. John Tyler was a southern man and a slaveholder. He sympathized with the desire of his section to extend slavery in the Southwest and was eager to add Texas to the Union in his A treaty administration. He could take no steps to bring this about, 2P"^^*??. . Tgx3s i3ii^ in as we have seen, until after Webster withdrew from his cabinet, the Senate In 1843 the desire to get Texas was quickened by the rumor that England was planning to acquire it. The next year John C. Calhoun, then Tyler's secretary of state, made a treaty of annexation with Texas, but the feeling against this treaty was so strong in the country that it failed to get the necessary two- 360 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST thirds vote in the Senate. The question of annexing Texas then became a leading issiie in the presidential election of 1844. The Settlement of the Oregon Country.— We have already seen how P]ngland and the United States both claimed the vast domain west of the Rocky Mountains between CaUfornia and Joint Alaska. In 1818 these nations had agreed that for the present occupation the Oregon country, as this of Oregon i i rich region was called, should be free and open to both English and American traders and settlers. This joint occupation arrange- ment was renewed in 1827, with the understanding that either party to it could end it by giving the other party one year's notice. The joint occupation of Oregon by England and America really meant that eventually the country would belong to the nation whose people actually occupied it. Lewis and Clark had first shown the way across the continent to Oregon. American trappers and fur The Oregon Country traders Continued the work of exploration which they began. These roving frontiersmen found the best passes tiu-ough the Rocky Mountains and marked out the trails leading to them. The first actual American settlements in the Oregon country were made by missionaries to the Indians about 1835. The glowing reports of the country which the traders and missionaries sent home soon tempted parties of settlers to follow the long trail which led to the Pacific Coast. Dr. Marcus Whitman, one of the early missionaries to the American ^^^ians, is the l)cst known of the Oregon pioneers. In 1842 settlers in *^^^ heroic man rode alone across the continent from Oregon Oregon to Boston on business for his mission, and the following year Exploration of the far Northwest (V THE ELECTION OF 1844 361 when he returned to the valley of the Columbia River he was accompanied across the plains and through the mountains by a large party of settlers. In 1844 a thousand more settlers went to Oregon. In the meantime only a few British trappers and fur traders had entered the Oregon country. In 1843 the American settlers in Oregon organized a government to manage their affairs until the United States should make their country a territory. A few men in Congress laughed at the idea of governing the far distant Pacific Coast, but by 1844 a majority of the American people were eager to have their country acquire all of the Oregon region. Thus the expansion of our country by the annexation of Texas in the Southwest and the occupation of all of Oregon in the far Northwest became the burning question before the American people when the time came to elect a president in 1844. The Election of 1844. — The Democrats in their platform of 1844 declared in favor of annexing Texas and of holding all of Oregon. This gave them a popular issue in each section of The the country. In the South, which was eager to acquire more J^^mocrats slave territory, their campaign cry was "The reannexation of expansion Texas." By this slogan they meant that Texas had once belonged to the United States, that it had been unwisely given up in 1819, and that it ought promptly to be recovered. In the North, which cared more for securing the land we claimed on the Pacific Coast than it did for annexing Texas, the Demo- crats shouted, "Fifty-four forty or fight!" By this cry they meant that they would go to war with England before they would give up a foot of the Oregon country south of 54° 40'. north latitude. At first it seemed certain that Martin Van Buren would be the Democratic nominee for the third time, but his objection to annexing Texas led his party to pass him by and make James K. Polk of Tennessee their candidate for the presidency. The Whigs unanimously nominated their great leader Henry Clay. There was not a word in their platform about Texas or Oregon. But the Whigs had unbounded confidence Clay and the in Clay, and his position upon any important question was Whigs certain to win the approval of his followers. Only a few days before his nomination Clay had written a letter in which he expressed the opinion that the proposed annexation of Texas 362 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST Texas annexed Other new states was sure to bring on a war with Mexico, and added, "For (^ne, I certainly am not willing to involve this country in a foreign war for the object of acquiring Texas," This was almost exactly the position which lost Van Buren the Democratic nomination. Before the campaign closed Clay began to fear that the southern Whigs in their desire to get Texas might vote for Polk, and to retain their support he wrote another letter m which he said, " Far from having any personal ob- jection to the annexation of Texas I should be glad to see it, without dis- honor, without war, with the common consent of the Union, and upon just and fair terms." Prob- ably Clay lost more votes than he won by this letter. After read- ing it many antislavery Whigs refused to vote for him. The Democrats won in a very close elec- tion, and on March 4, 1845, James K. Polk became president of the United States. The election of 1844 led to the immediate acquisition of Texas. Before President Tyler left the White House both houses of Congress passed a resolution offering Texas annex- ation to the United States. The people of Texas welcomed this proixjsal with joy, and before the close of 1845 Texas became a state in the Union. Florida was admitted the same year. Texas ami Florida were the last slave states ever admitted to the I nion. The balance between the free and slave states was soon restored by the admission of Iowa in 1846 and Wisconsin in 1848. President Polk did not succeed in making good the bold declaration of his party about the Oregon country. Early in 1846 he made a treaty with England which provided that the James Knox Polk OUR WAR WITH MEXICO 363 boundary line between the United States and the British How the possessions should be continued westward alone; the fortv-nmth Oregon . Qusstion parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the middle of the channel ^as between Vancouver Island and the mainland and thence along settled the middle of the channel around the southern end of that island to the Pacific. There were no American settlements north of the I forty-ninth parallel. By this treaty the United States retained the present states of Oregon, Washing- ton, and Idaho, and con- ceded British Columbia to Great Britain, It is much to the credit of both Eng- land and the United States that they settled their long and vexing controversy over the ownership of the Oregon country without bloodshed. Our War with Mex- ico. — Just south of the Oregon country lay the large Mexican province of California. In 1845 that region was inhabited chiefly by Indians with here and there a Spanish mission station or the home of a Mexican cattle rancher. At San Francisco and San Diego it possessed two of the few good harbors on the Pacific coast. California and the other Mexican territory between it and Texas lay directly west of the United States, and American statesmen were beginning to say that it was the destiny of this vast region in the Southwest to fall into our hands. As yet our people knew little about the wealth of California. But if the daring and ambitious among th(>m ever heard that there was gold in that distant region or learned of its wonderful possibilities as a lanfl of grain and fruit, Mc^xico could no more have kept them from possessing it than the Indians could Fremont in the Rockies We desire California 364 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST John C. Fremont, "The Pathfinder' Polk's purpose to get California stop the frontiersmen from overrunning the Mississippi Valley. Sooner or later California was sure to repeat the history of Texas. Already steps had been taken to find the best routes to the Pacific Coast. Between 1842 and 1845 John C. Fremont, a young officer in the army, led several exploring parties into the Fremont's Explorations in the West far West. With the help of Kit Carson, one of the most famous hunters and scouts in the history of the West, Fremont sought out the best passes through the Rocky Mountains, explored the basin of Great Salt Lake, and twice reached the Pacific Coast. The spring of 1846 found him with his party in the mountains of northern California. Fremont's work in locating the trails through the great mountains of the West won for him the name of "The Pathfinder." James K. Polk began his administration in 1845 with the purpose of winning the Mexican province of California for the United States. He shared the national desire for expansion OUR WAR WITH MEXICO 365 and feared that if we did not acquire California some foreign power would. Moreover, as a southern man, Polk was as eager as the other leaders of his section to get new lands which might be made into slave states. The antislavery men charged that this was his real purpose in trying to acquire land from Mexico. Lowell best expressed their opinion when he wrote in the Biglow Papers: "They jest want this Californy, So's to kig new slave-states in. To abuse ye, an' to scorn ye. An' to plunder ye like sin." President Polk meant to fight for California if necessary, but first he tried to get it by peaceful methods. Just at this time Mexico owed citizens of the United States several million His efforts to dollars which she had no money to pay. Then there was a dis- "^Fi?*^^^^ • . . witn JVlexico pute about the boundary line between Texas and Mexico, fail Texas claimed all the land east of the Rio Grande River from its mouth to its source. Mexico said with just as much reason that the Nueces River was the southern limit of Texas. Polk sent John Slidell of Louisiana to Mexico to try to settle the boundary trouble and to offer to pay all just claims of our citizens against Mexico and give that country twenty-five million dollars besides, if it would cede California to us. The government of Mexico refused to have anything to do with Slidell, who wrote that nothing could be done with the Mexicans "until they shall have been chastised." Failing to get the territory he wanted by peaceful negotia- tion the president next tried war. Early in 1846 he ordered General Taylor to advance with an army to the Rio Grande. War with When Taylor obeyed, Mexico warned him to withdraw from the ^^**^° disputed territory. He paid no attention to this warning, and a few days later Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande, attacked a part of Taylor's force, and killed several men. Polk at once informcHl Congress that Mexico "had invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil" and declared that war existed "by the act of Mexico." It would have been just as true to have said that war had been provoked by the United States. Congress agreed with the president and authorized him to wage war against Mexico. 366 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST Taylor's campaign We seize California Scott captures the City of Mexico The actual fighting in the Mexican War lasted from May, 1846, until September, 1847. It was marked by skill and daring on the part of the officers and men of our army. General Zachary Taylor, a plain but capable old soldier whose men called him "Old Zack" or "Old Rough and Ready", fought his way across the Rio Grande and invaded northeastern Mexico in a brilliant campaign in which he won every battle. Soon after war was de- clared another army under General Kearney marched across the plains and seized New Mexico. With a small force, Kearney pushed on to California, only to find it already in the hands of the Americans. There were a few settlers from the United States in California in 1846, and be- fore they heard that war had begun they revolted against Mexico and set up a little republic of their own which was called the "Bear State" because of the pic- ture of a grizzly bear upon its flag. John C. Fremont, who was in California at this time with an exploring l);iit y, aided lliis revolt, and our naval officers seized the towns on the Californian coast. All the territory which we coveted was now in our posses- sion, but Mexico refused to make peace on our terms and it was decided to strike at the capital of that country. In 1847 General AVnifield Scott led an expedition against the City of Mexico. Scott had won his laurels in the War of 1812. He was \v:iU> Alto 'V^P(. Isabel Vl rW Salt.llor-,^ , "^ ^' OF The Disputed Territory and the Campaigns of Taylor and Scott. THE RESULTS OF THE MEXICAN WAR 367 a skilful and confident leader, but so fond of pomp and parade that the soldiers called him "Old Fuss and Feathers." Scott landed his army at Vera Cruz and marched into the interior of Mexico defeating the enemy in every battle. In September he stormed and captured the capital of the country. Mexico could resist no longer and must accept any terms of peace that we proposed. The Results of the Mexican War. — With Mexico at our mercy most of the members of Polk's cabinet wanted to take J^^!S=S=3 .^ ^ ■if* X'J. Swtov "» ^ -%>^ ^- ^ The Battle of Chapultepec all of it, but the president refused to destroy the existence of an independent nation by conquest. Early in 1848 he made a Territorial treaty of peace with Mexico in which that country agreed that g^"^^ the Rio Grande should be the' southern boundary of Texas and ceded New Mexico, California, and all the land between them north of the Gila River to the United States. Our country agreed on its part to pay the claims of its citizens against Mexico and to give Mexico fifteen million dollars for the ceded territory. In 1853 we paid Mexico ten million dollars more for the strip of land between the Gila River and the present southern boundary of Arizona, This acquisition is called the Gadsden Pm'chase from the name of the American agent who bought it. 368 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST A new outlook on the Pacific The breach between the North and the South widened The years from 1845 to 1848 are very significant in the history of the territorial growth of our country. During this short period of time we annexed Texas, our largest state, gained a clear title to the territory in the far Northwest now com- prised in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and conquered the enormous Mexican cession which in the course of time was cut up to form the large states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. This winning of the Pacific Coast gave [The Territory Acquired from Mexico our people a new outlook. They had long faced Europe. They now looked toward Asia also and were ready for more direct trade with the Orient. The war with Mexico increased the growing discord be- tween the North and the South. The South hoped that this war would result in the making of more slave holding states. Tlie North felt more strongly every day that further extension of slavery ought to stop. Soon after the war began tlie president asked Congress for money to pay Mexico for the land which he meant to take from her. While Congress was considering a hill to grant this request, David Wilmot of Penn- sylvania moved to amend it by providing that slavery should never exist within any territory acquired from Mexico. This THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA 369 The Wilmot Proviso Fighting in Mexican Streets Wilmot Proviso, as it was called passed the House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate. The next year the House adopted the Wihnot Proviso a second time and again the Senate rejected it. The long and bitter discussion of the Wil- mot Proviso in Congress and in the newspapers only deepened the antagonism between the North and the South and brought the nation nearer the verge of civil war. At the same time the Mexican War gave our people reason to be proud of their enemy and trained the soldiers hke Grant, Lee, Sherman, Jackson, and a host of others, who were destined to lead the forces of their respective sections in the coming conflict. The Rush to California. — Only a few days before the treaty ending the Mexican War was signed, a man who was digging a mill-race for Cap- Gold found tain Sutter in the in California valley of the Sacra- mento River, no- ticed some yellow grains which proved to be gold. The news of this dis- covery spread like wildfire, and from all parts of Califor- nia men hastened to the new gold field. Farms and shops were abandoned, The diseovery of «°if./J^hj^'^;2„!«*^ '° ^^ "^^^ °^ ^^^ the sailors deserted Sutter's Mill 370 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST The "Forty- niners" the sliips that came into San Francisco harbor, and by mid- summer four thousand men were in camp along the Sacramento washing the gravel in a mad scramble for the precious metal. It took news from the Pacific Coast a long time to cross the continent in 1848, and that year had nearly passed before the most of our people heard that gold had been found in California. Everywhere the report aroused intense excitement. Many people at once decided to seek their fortunes in the far West. They were joined in this quest by adventurers from all parts of the world. "The Forty-niners," as the swarm of men who went to the Californian gold fields in 1849 were called, found their jour- ney to the golden West a dangerous undertak- ing. Some of them sailed by the long water route around Cape Horn. Others went by sea to the isthmus of Panama, made theii* way as best they could across that bit of fever haunted country, and when opportunity of- fered took ship along the coast to San Fran- cisco. But the majority of (lie gold hunters followed the long trail across the plains and through the Rocky Mountains to the distant West. The overland journey to California in 1849 was a daring The overland adventure. Those who chose this route gathered at starting pcmts on the Missouri River and thence began their long and toilsome march across the continent. They traveled with large covered wagons called prairie schooners, and when they were DuuUi'da'j Page and Co., N. Y. A Gold Miner Primitive gold mining and washing can be carried on with such a small equipment that it can all be carried on one packhorse. journey THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA 371 crossing the plains they must have looked like a moving army. "In the day their trains filled up the road for miles, and at night their campfires glittered in every direction about the places blesssd by grass and water." The faint-hearted turned back, the weak died of hardship and disease and were buried beside the trail, but the greater number successfully braved the perils of the mountains and the desert and reached the land of their desire. An officer of our navy who was in California in 1849 gives San Francisco in 1849. US this graphic description of the way in which the "Forty- Niners" washed gold from the soil: "The most efficient gold-washer here is the cradle, which resembles in shape that appendage of the nursery, from which it takes its name. It is nine or ten feet long, open at one end and closed at the other. At the end which is closed, a sheet-iron pan, four inches deep, and sixteen over, and perforated in the bottom with holes, is let in even with the sides of the cradle. The earth is thrown into the pan, water turned on it, and the cradle, which is on an inclined plane, set in motion. The earth and water pass through the pan, and then down the cradle, while the gold, owing to its specific gravity, is caught by cleets fastened across the bottom. Very little escapes; it generally lodges before it reaches the last 372 WINNING OF TEXAS AND FAR WEST m '•^•A^ ™\ — s. gi^^^'r^rn^fe^r^ San Francisco As It Looks Now ® Evnrtg Galhioay, N. Y. THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA 373 cleet. It requires four or five men to supply the earth and water to work such a machine to advantage. The quantity of gold washed out must depend on the relative proportion of gold in the earth. The one worked in this ravine yields a hundred dollars a day ; but this is considered a slender result. Most of the diggers use the bowl or pan; its lightness never embarrasses their roving habits; and it can be put in motion wherever they may find a stream or spring." During 1849 more than eighty thousand persons arrived in CaHfornia. The Sacramento valley was filled with mining camps, and San Francisco was rapidly becoming a great city. California Many of the "Forty-niners" were rough and lawless men, and seeks for a time there was little protection for life and property in into the the new gold field. But the better class of citizens organized Union into "vigilance committees," punished the criminals, and soon established law and order in the new community. Before 1849 closed they made a state constitution forbidding slavery and asked Congress to admit California into the Union. CHAPTER XIX Disunion Delayed by Compromise The Slavery Controversy. — Ever since they freed their slaves just after the Revolution, the people of the northern Shall the states had been anxious to prevent the extension of slavery into West be free ^|^g j^^.^y lands in the West. In this purpose they had been partly territorj-? successful. The Ordinance of 1787 excluded slavery from all the land north of the Ohio River. By the Missouri Compromise of 1820 it was forbidden in that part of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30' except the state of Missouri. In 1848 it was prohibited in the new territory of Oregon. At this time the whole country was much agitated over the question whether slavery should be permitted or forbidden in the vast region just won from Mexico. Four answers to this question were suggested and each had its ardent adherents. Many northern men believed that Four Congress ought to keep slavery out of all the territories of the ?his^q"es\^on ^^'"^^'^^ States. Such men had been earnest supporters of the Wilmot Proviso. Most southern men agreed with Calhoun, who held that a wuthern man had just as good a right to take his slaves into the territories of the United States as a northern man had to take his horses. Some people were in favor of making the line of 36° 30' the boundary between slave and free territory all the way to the Pacific. This would have divideJd California into two states, one slave and one free. Others wanted to leave the question to the decision of the actual settlers in each territory concerned, and let them make their state slave or free as they pleased. This idea was known as "popular sovereignty" and is sometimes called "squatter sovereignty." The territorial question was not the only bone of conten- tion between the North and the South at this time. Many ISr "''•■^^^^''■n .nien thought it a shame that slaves were bought and .sold m the capital of the nation, and some of them wanted to abohsh slavery in the District of Columbia. The South complained that it was very difficult to recover runaway 374 THE UNION IN DANGER 375 slaves who reached the northern states. This was true, because the abohtionists had a regular system of helping fugi- tive slaves to escape. The agents of the "Underground Rail- road," as this system was called, hid the fugitives in their houses The "Under- or in secret places during the day, and at night carried them ground Railroad" in their wagons to another "station" on the road toward Canada. When the runaways reached Canada they were safe, because slavery was forbidden by law in all parts of the British Empire. The presidential election of 1848 was held while the people were deeply concerned about the question of slavery in New Mexico and California. Neither of the two great parties dared The election to take sides upon this question. Each of them had many °^ ^^'^^ members in the North and in the South, and it was impossible to get the men from both sections to agree about slavery. General Zachary Taylor, the popular hero of the Mexican War, was nominated for the presidency by the Whigs. Taylor was a Louisiana sugar planter who owned many slaves, but he had never urged the extension of slavery in the territories. Lewis Cass of Michigan, the Democratic candidate, favored letting the people in each territory settle the slavery question for them- selves. He hoped that "popular sovereignty" would please the Democrats in both sections of the country. Many northern antislavery men refused to vote for either Taylor or Cass. These men now formed the Free-soil party, declared that they favored "free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men," and made Martin Van Buren their candidate for the presidency. The Whigs won for the second and last time in their history, and on March 4, 1849, Zachary Taylor became president of the United States. The Union in Danger. — When Congress met in December, 1849, the continued agitation of the question of the extension of slavery into New Mexico and California had stirred up so The slavery much bitter feeling between the North and the South that question it could no longer be disguised or denied that the Union was in ^j^g union danger. The demands of both sections were being stated with a temper which could not be mistaken. The legislature of Virginia declared that the exclusion of slavery from the new territory would compel the people of that The position state to choose between "abject submission to aggression and °^ *^® South 376 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE The attitude of the North outrage" and' 'determined resistance at all hazards and to the last extremity." This sentiment of Virginia was widely approved all over the South. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, who was soon to succeed Calhoun as the leader of the South, called upon every southern man to help maintain the political power of his section. Robert Toombs of Georgia said to the northern representatives in Congress, ''We have a right to call on you to give your blood to maintain the slaves of the South in bondage," and added, "If you seek to drive us from the territories of Cahfornia and New Mexico, purchased by the common blood and treasure of the whole people, / am for dis- union." At a dinner to Senator Butler in South Carolina, toasts to "Slav- ery" and to "A South- ern Confederacy" were received with wild en- thusiasm. The people of the North were no less out- spoken in their demands. Nearly all the northern legislatures declared that Congress had the power, and that it was its duty, to prohibit slavery in the territories. Horace Mann spoke for the radical free soil men when he said in Con- gress, "Better disunion, better a civil and servile war, better anything that God in his providence shall send, than an ex- tension of the l)oundarics of slavery." Representative Baker of Illinois declared, "In the name of the men of the North so rudely attacked, and speaking what I know to be their senti- ments, I say a dissolution of this Union must be, shall be, impossible as long as an American heart beats in an Amer- ican bosom." Zachary Taylor CLAY PROPOSES A COMPROMISE 377 Clay seeks to save the Union Clay Proposes a Compromise. — In 1849 Henry Clay was still the best loved man in America. He had retired from public life some years before and was then Hving quietly on his planta- The peace- tion in Kentucky. Clay was seventy-two years old at this time "^^^^r and broken in health, but when the mutterings of disunion were heard, the legislature of Kentucky unanimously elected the old peacemaker to his former place in the Senate. He accepted this election as the call of duty and re- turned to Washington to devote his last years to the service of hit^ country. Clay believed that the Union was in peril and felt that he was the man to save it. He thought that the only way to avert disunion was by compromise, by each section giving up a part of what it desired. "Let me say to the North and to the South," he said, "what husband and wife say to each other : we have mutual faults; neither of us is perfect; nothing in the form of humanity is perfect. Let us then be kind to each other, for- bearing, forgiving each other's faults, and above all, let us live in happiness and peace together." In this spirit Clay proposed a series of measures which he hoped would bring peace and quiet to the country by removing the slavery question from the field of politics. His plan included His concessions to both sections. To please the North he proposed measures^^ to admit California into the Union as a free state and to abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. To win the approval of the South he wanted to pass a fugitive slave law that would Horace Mann An educator who spoke for the Free Soil Cause. 378 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE make it easier to recover runaway slaves, to pay Texas to give up her claim to that part of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande River, and then to organize territorial governments in the region between Texas and Cahfornia without saying any- thing about slavery. This would leave the settlers in New Mexico and Utah to decide the slavery question for themselves. A Great Debate in the Senate. — The Compromise of 1850, as Clay's plan is called, was debated for months in Congress. The The leaders" Senate of that time was a particularly able body of men. Webster, in the Senate Clay, and Calhoun, who had been the great leaders in American politics for forty years, met in it for the last time. Calhoun died while the compi'omise was before Congress, and Webster and Clay survived him only two years. WiUiam H. Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Jefferson Davis of Missis- sippi were younger senators who were destined to play a great part in the history of their country for the next twenty years. All t hese men and many others in both houses of Congress took an active part in the great debate upon the proposed compro- mise, but the speeches of Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Seward are worthy of special study because they best express the convictions and feelings of the American people at that time. Cla.y, a southern Whig, urged the adoption of the compro- mise of which hejj,was the author in one of the most persuasive Clay's plea speeches of his life. In words of moving eloquence he pictured for the Union ^j^^ g^^^^ ^f ^j^^ country, called upon the North and the South to make mutual concessions for the sake of peace and harmony, and pleaded for the perpetuation of the Union in the hearts of the people. Love of the Union was an absorbing passion with Henry Clay. "Let us," he said, "think only of our glorious Union and swear that we will preserve it." Calhoun, a southern Democrat speaking for the proslavery men of his section, opposed the compromise with all his might. Calhoun "The South," he declared, "asks for justice, simple justice, SoutS ^"*^' ^^^^ ^^^ °"Sht not to take. She has no compromise to offer but the Constitution; and no concession or surrender to make." "I have," said Calhoun, "believed from the first that the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measure, end in disunion." He then went on to declare that the only way in which the Union could be saved was for the North to stop talking about the A GREAT DEBATE IN THE SENATE 379 slave question, to return fugitive slaves to their masters, and to concede to the people of the South the right to take their slaves into all the territories of the United States. On the 7th of March, Webster, who was a northern Whig, made what he regarded as the greatest speech of his life in support of Clay's compromise. Webster, like Clay, passionately Webster's loved the Union, and he was dismayed at the open talk of seces- seventh-of- sion. "I speak to-day," he said, "for the preservation of the gpegch Union. 'Hear me for my cause.'" Webster told the men of the North that it was unnecessary to prohibit slavery in New Mexico because it was already excluded from that region by the law of physical geography. He meant that slavery could only exist where slaves could profitably be employed in agri- culture, and that this would never be the case in the arid regions of the Southwest. Webster admitted that the complaints of the South about the difficulty of recovering runaway slaves were just, and declared that the North had failed to do its duty in this matter. He closed with an eloquent plea for the Union. Instead of speaking of the possibility of secession he said, "Let us enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union. Let us make our generation one of the strongest and brightest links in that golden chain which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the people of all the states to this Constitution for ages to come." The zealous antislavery men of the North were sorely displeased with Webster's seventh-of-March speech. They were especially angry at him for scolding them for their failure The anti- to return runaway slaves. "By this speech a blow was struck slavery men at freedom which no southern arm could have given," said webs?er^ ^ one. "I know no deed in American history done by a son of New England to which I can compare this but the act of Bene- dict Arnold," declared another. But Whittier best voiced the antislavery indignation against Webster when he wrote: "Of all we loved and honored, naught Save power remains; A fallen angel's pride of thought. Still strong in chains. All else is gone; from those great eyes The soul has fled; When faith is lost, when honor dies, The man is dead!" 380 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE This bitter denunciation of Webster was very unjust. I'lie men who uttered it thought that he was trying to curry favor with the South in the hope of winning the presidency, but patriotic devotion to the Union was his real motive. Webster was an old man who did not hate slavery as much as many younger men were coming to hate it. The conscience of the age had outgrown him. Seward, a northern Whig, spoke for the antislavery men. He believed that slavery would soon disappear before the Seward, the influences of humanity. "I am," he said, "opposed to any spokesman g^^.j^ compromise as that proposed because I think it radically slavery wi'ong and essentially vicious." He plainly told the South that it was entitled to no more fugitive slave laws and that such laws would be useless. "Has any government," he asked, "ever succeeded in changing the moral convictions of its subjects by force? We cannot be true Christians or real freemen if we impose on another a chain that we defy all human power to fasten on ourselves." Seward declared that the Constitution devotes the territory of the United States to union and to liberty, and added, "But there is a higher law than the Constitution which devoted it to the same noble purposes." The Compromise of 1850 Adopted. — For a long time the adoption of Clay's proposed compromise was in doubt. Presi- The dent Taylor was known to be opposed to it, and there seemed becSne™ aw '^^^^^ ^^ ^" passing a measure that he was sure to veto. But Taylor died in July, 1850, and Vice-President Fillmore who succeeded him was more inclined to favor the measure. Even then Congress would not pass the scheme as a whole, but when each part of it was voted on separately all were adopted. Its terms The Compromise of 1850 included the following acts: 1. The admission of California into the Union as a free state. 2. The fixing of the present boundaries of Texas and the payment to that state of $10,000,000 for its claim to New Mexico. 3. The organization of the territories of New Mexico and Utah without mentioning slavery in them but with the declara- tion that when admitted as states they "shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as then- constitutions may prescribe at the time of their admission." THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 381 4. The abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. 5. A very strict fugitive slave law which denied to the runaway negro the right of trial by jury, punished anyone who aided a slave to escape or hindered his arrest, and commanded all citizens to help in the return of fugitive slaves if their aid were asked by the officers. The Compromise of 1850 was a truce, not a real peace between the sections, but it is probable that its passage post- poned secession for ten Secession years. This delay of the y^"""'^ ^^\ postponed coming conflict between the free states and the slave states was a decided gain for the cause of the Union. Our country grew very rapidly in population, wealth, and power during the decade^ between 1850 and 1860. Much the larger part of this gain was in the North. That section was far better able to defend the Union in 1860 than it would have been ten years earlier. The Fugitive Slave Law. — The adoption of the Compromise of 1850 MiUard Fillmore was hailed with joy by Both parties accept the a majority of our people, who hoped that it meant the begin- compromise ning of a new era of good feeling in the country. Both of the great political parties proclaimed that all the troublesome questions growing out of slavery were finally settled. In 1852 the Whigs said that they deprecated all further agitation of the slavery question as dangerous to our peace, and the Democrats resolved that they would resist all attempts to renew such agitation in Congress or out of it. In the presiden- tial election of that year the Whigs made General Winfield Scott 382 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE The election of 1852 Antislavery men denounce the fugitive slave law Attempts to rescue fugitive slaves their candidate for the presidency, and the Democrats nominated Frankhn Pierce of New Hampshire. Pierce was elected by a large majority and succeeded Fillmore in 1853. But no great moral issue like the slavery question is ever finally settled until the right has won. Such questions cannot be successfully compromised, as our people very soon dis- covered. From the first the new fugitive slave law met a storm of opposition in the North. In all parts of that section the antislavery men re- fused to obey it. A meeting of citizens in Ohio resolved, "That any man who in any way aids in the execu- tion of this law should be regarded as false to God and totally unfit for civilized society." A judge in New York whose duty it was to enforce the fugitive slave law said, "I will trample that law in the dust; and they must find another man, if there be one, who will disgrace himself to do this dirty work." Henry Ward Beecher, the most eloquent preacher of the time, maintained that returnmg a fugitive slave "comprises every offense it is possible for one man to commit against another;" and Emer- son, one of our greatest men of letters, said in a public meeting, "The fugitive slave law is an act which every one of you will break on the earliest occasion." Sentiments similar to these were heard in every one of the free states. The actions of the antislavery men spoke even louder than their words. The Underground Railroad did a larger business than ever before. Sometimes runaway slaves were Franklin Pierce YEARS OF GROWTH 383 arrested and carried back into slavery, but in many instances the enforcement of the law was thwarted and in some cases mobs rescued fugitives from their captors. Some of these rescue cases were famous. In 1851 a Maryland slave owner accompanied by a United States officer tried to arrest a runaway slave at Christiana, Pennsylvania. Some of the people in the neighborhood rallied to the defense of the slave, and in the fight which followed, the owner was killed and the fugitive escaped. About the same time a negro named Jerry McHenry was arrested as a fugitive from slavery at Syracuse, New York. That night a mob broke into the court-house in which Jerry was confined, carried him away in triumph, and finally sent him safely to Canada. In 1854 some people in Boston tried to rescue Anthony Burns, a runaway from Virginia who had been arrested in that city, but this time the police were too strong for the mob and, with the aid of a company of militia, Burns was carried back into slavery. Many northern people who had no desire to interfere with slavery in the South sympathized with the fugitives who had fled from bondage and were trying to reach a land of freedom. Growing The efforts to return these runaways to their masters only feeling strengthened the growing antislavery sentiment in the free skvery • states. In time this feeling became so strong that some of the northern states passed personal liberty laws which made the execution of the fugitive slave law still more difficult, by giving the runaway the help of a lawyer and the right of trial by a jury. The literature which was written in the North during the years when the agitation of the slavery question was dividing the country into two hostile sections played no small part in promoting that movement. Whittier and Lowell poured forth their souls in verses of passionate indignation against slavery. But Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the most powerful literary force of the antislavery days. This famous literature book was published in 1852, and during the next five years half a million copies of it were sold in the United States. Its northern readers laid it down with an increased hatred of slav- ery. Few books have ever done more to arouse public opinion. Years of Growth.— While the agitation of the slavery question was the most important movement in our history ^ period of between 1845 and 1861 we must not think that our peoph^ rapid growth 384 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE The rising tide of inunigration Immigrants help to develop the free states were absorbed in it all the time. Then, as now, most people were interested first of all in their own business affairs. More- over, the new-found wealth of the marvelous gold fields of Cali- fornia was quickening every line of business. The great mass of the people willingly accepted the Compromise of 1850, because they were eager to turn from politics to the task of de- veloping their farms, opening new mines and factories, inventing new machinery, and building new railroads. The years from 1850 to 1860 were a time of very rapid growth along all these lines. Our population, which was seventeen millions in 1840, grew to twenty-three millions in 1850 and to thirty-one millions in 1860. This rapid increase in the number of our people was due in part to the large number of immigrants who were flocking to the United States from Europe. America has ever been the land of hope and promise to the people without a fair chance in the Old World. The tide of immigration had long been slowly rising. It reached one hundred thousand in a single year, for the first time, in 1842. About this time the establishment of steamship lines across the Atlantic was making it easier than ever before to come to the New World. A terrible famine in Ireland in 1846 drove swarms of Irishmen across the sea. More than a million of them came to America in the next ten years. In 1848 the people of Germany tried to establish a free government in that country. They failed in this attempt, and during the following years many thousands of freedom- loving Germans fled from the tjTanny in their own land to seek homes in democratic America. The discovery of gold on the Pacific Coast, our cheap western lands, and the steady demand for laborers in the United States, all helped to stimulate immigration between 1850 and 1860. The Irish immigrants found employment in the factory cities of the East or in building the new railroads whose con- st runtion was being pushed rapidly at this time. Many of the German newcomers joined the stream of home seekers which was pouring like a flood into the Northwest. Between 1850 and 1860 the population of Illinois and Wisconsin doubled and that of Iowa increased more than threefold. Meanwhile the frontier was moving steadily westward. Minnesota became a state in 1858 and Kansas in 1861. The more adventurous pioneers followed the long trails across the plains and through YEARS OF GROWTH 385 the mountains to the distant Pacific Coast. CaHfornia grew to be a populous state and Oregon was admitted to the Union in 1859. The same year gold was found near Pike's Peak, and the eager treasure hunters who rushed thither founded the first towns in the territory of Colorado. Nearly all the European immigrants who came to our country during these years of rapid growth settled in the free states. Labor was the badge of slavery in the South, and the immigrant who brought Emigrants Crossing the Plains little with him but his willingness to work naturally went where toil was respected and well paid. Some people disliked the foreigners who were coming here in such large numbers in the early fifties and feared that they were a menace to American liberty. Such men formed the The "Know "American Party," a secret political society which sought to Nothing" prevent foreigners from being too speedily naturalized and to elect only native Americans to office. Because the members of this party said ''I don't know," when asked anything about their purposes or plans, they were called the "Know Nothings." The fears of the "Know Nothings" were groundless, and although they cast a large vote in one or two elections their 2d 386 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE party quickly disappeared. There is no place for a secret political society in a free country. Our growth in industry during the decade following the Compromise of 1850 was even more marked than the increase The develop- of our population. Farming .was still the leading occupation ment of ^^f q^j. people. The pioneers who were rapidly bringing the fertile land of the upper Mississippi valley under the plow were raising large and ever-increasing crops of corn and wheat. The cotton planters of the Southwest were doing even better than the farmers of the Northwest. The cotton crop of the South more than doubled between 1850 and 1860. In the meantime our manufactures were growing faster than our industry New labor- saving machinery From Un,l,'ru:,Mu A L ,uU A Big Corn Crop in the Mississippi Valley )d, .\ew York. agriculture. The mining of coal and iron was steadily increas- ing. During every year of the fifties our gold miners poured $55,000,000 into the world's supply of that precious metal. In 1859 the first productive oil well was bored in Pennsylvania. This marks the beginning of the great petroleum industry in the United States. The amazing growth of industry in our country about the middle of the nineteenth century would not have been possible without the constant invention of new labor-saving machinery. More than twenty thousand new inventions were patented Ix'twecn 1850 and 1860 alone. The increased use of grain tlrills, mowers, reapers, horse-rakes, and threshing-machines enabled the farmers to cultivate more acres and grow larger crops. Even more marked was the wider use of planers, steam YEARS OF GROWTH 387 An Early Sewing Machine hammers, and a great variety of other new or improved machines in manufacturing. Among the more notable inven- tions just coming into use were EHas Howe's sewing- machine, which reheved women from much of the drudgery of. sewing and soon began to be used in factories in the making of clothing and of all kinds of leather goods; Richard M. Hoe's revolving printing- press, with which news- papers and books could be made in larger quantities and at less cost than ever before; and Charles Goodyear's process for vulcanizing rubber, which made possible its use for waterproof shoes and clothing. The develooment of the means of trans- portation was keeping Changes in pace with the growth transporta- c • ii If tion and ot agriculture and ot tj^g^j. manufacturing. The influence United States had more seagoing craft — swift clipper ships and ocean steamships — between 1850 and 1860 than at any other time in its history prior to its entrance into the Great War in 1917. During the same per- iod twenty thousand mil(^s of new raili'oad was built. The first railroads were mostly short lines built to carry goods to the canals and rivers, but during this decade great trunk lines were completed from the upper Mississippi Cmirtrsy of the Goo'lymr Tire mvl Tin''!'- r Co. Goodyear Discovers the Process of Vulcanizing Rubber 388 DISUNION DELAYED BY COMPROMISE YEARS OF GROWTH 389 valley to the seaports on the Atlantic coast and much of the trade that once went down the Mississippi to New Orleans now began to follow the railroads to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. This weakened the ties which had connected the Middle West with the South and helped to bind the East and the West more firmly together. The progress of our country in the fifties was not limited to industry and commerce. In fact, advancement was even more conspicuous in what we may call the higher life of the people. Progress in Orphan children, the aged poor, the insane, and the inmates "u™a^ity, of the prisons were better cared for than ever before. In the and northern states, public schools for the education of the children literature of all the people were well established by 1860. Congress had made large grants of land to the new states in the West to help them support free schools. In the South the public school system was not so well developed, but there were many good academies and colleges in that section. The ten years immedi- ately preceding the Civil War have been well called the "golden age" of American literature. At that time Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, Hawthorne, and Emerson were doing their best work. CHAPTER XX Slavery Divides the Union The Quarrel Over Slavery Renewed. — In less than four years after the statesmen of the country declared that they Douglas had finally settled the slavery controversy by the Compromise reopens the of 185Q the quarrel over slavery in the territories blazed up controversy ^'^en more fiercely than before. The rich corn and wheat lands west of Missouri and Iowa were begin- ning to attract set- tlers, and it became necessary to organize territorial govern- ments in the vast expanse of Indian country. Accordingly, early in 1854 Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, introduced into the Senate a bill to create the territories of Kan- sas and Nebraska. Both Kansas and Nebraska were north of 36° 30', in a region from which slaver}^ had been excluded by the Missouri Compro- mise. Great there- fore was the surprise and greater still the wrath of the people of the North when they learned that the Kansas-Nebraska bill proposed the re- peal of the Compromise of 1820 and left it to the settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether these territories should grow into free states or slave states. Senator Douglas said that the right of the people of a territory to make their own 390 Why Douglas took this step Stephen A. Douglas THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS 391 laws about slavery had been recognized in the Compromise of 1850. Douglas was ambitious to get the Democratic nomination for the presidency in the next election, and with that end in view he was eager to win the favor of the Demo- crats in both sections of the country. He knew that the slaveholders in the South wanted more slave territory. They were so anxious to buy Cuba at this time that some of them went so far as to declare that it would be right for the United States to take that island by force if Spain persisted in refusing to sell it to us. Under these circumstances Doug- las hoped that he would gain favor in the South by opening new territory in the West to slaveholding settlers, and he thought that the Democrats in the North could not seriously object to his doctrine of "popular sovereignty," because that simply meant letting the people of a territory manage their own government in their own way. The antislavery men in Congress opposed the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill with all theu' might. They showed that it would open all the unorganized territory of the country The passage to slavery and called it a bold scheme against American liberty. ^ ^^^ Senator Chase of Ohio, who led the free soil men, appealed to Nebraska the Senate to defeat the hated bill because it was "a violation bill of the plighted faith and solemn compact which our fathers made, and which we, their sons, are bound by every sacred tie of obligation sacredly to maintain." But in spite of every- thing that the friends of freedom could do, Douglas persuaded Congress to pass his measure and it became a law in 1854. Judged by its consequences the Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the most important laws in our history. It stirred up strife between the North and the South as nothing else ever The conse- did. The slaveholders were delighted with it. The anti- J^g"^^^ °^ slavery men were indignant that slave labor was given an opportunity to compete with free labor on the prairies of the West. The Kansas-Ne})raska Act led to civil strife in Kansas, destroyed the Whig party, created the Repu])lican party, and in the end brought about the downfall of the Demo- crats. Its passage in 1854 marks the beginning of seven years of bitter sectional strife which led straight to the outbreak of a great Civil War between the North and the South in 1861. The Struggle for Kansas. — The first effect of the passage 392 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION Both sections send settlers to Kansas of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to transfer the quarrel over slavery from the halls of Congress to the plains of Kansas. As the people in that territory were to decide the slavery ques- tion for themselves it was clear that the section which sent the most settlers to Kansas would win the state. The race for its possession began as soon as the act was passed. At first the South was confident of victory in this race. Kansas lay directly west of the slave state of Missouri, and many Missourians promptly moved into it. At the same time a multitude of free soil men from the North poured into the new territory. An Rival govern- ments in that territory K-^^^^i,' .$:« j^/'W^' '^\(, The Rush into Kansas to Vote Emigrant Aid Society was formed in New England to encourage free state people to go to Kansas and to supply them with money to help them on their way. Under these circumstances a clash between the rival factions in Kansas was sure to come. When the first election was held liundreds of armed men from Missouri came into Kansas, seized the voting places, and elected a legislature which promptly passed laws to establish and protect slavery in the territory. The settlers from the free states refused to recognize a government which had been set up by violence and fraud, and presently they held a meeting of their own, drew up a constitution forbidding slavery, and asked Congress to admit THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS 393 Kansas into the Union as a free state. There were thus two rival governments in Kansas each claiming to be the rightful one. The bitter feeling between the slave state and the free state pioneers in Kansas led to frequent brawls and shooting affrays between them, and soon they were practically at war with each Civil strife other. Both sides were guilty of robbery and murder. On ^^ Kansas one occasion the pro-slavery party plundered and burned the free soil town of Lawrence. In retaliation for this act John Brown, a fanatical antislavery man, and his followers murdered in cold blood five pro-slavery settlers. These lawless acts led to a fierce outburst of guerrilla fighting in which bands of armed men from both factions roamed over the country burning houses and destroying crops. This civil strife in Kansas lasted until nearly two hundred lives were lost. In the end the anti- slavery men won and made Kansas a free state, but its admis- sion into the Union was delayed until 186L In the meantime the struggle for Kansas was causmg the quarrel over slavery to rage more fiercely than ever in Congress. Many northern members were eager to admit Kansas as a xhe assault free state. The representatives of the South were determined upon that, if admitted at all, Kansas should be brought into the ^"""^^"^ Union as a slave state. In 1856 Charles Smnner, a radical free soil senator from Massachusetts, made a speech on "The Crime against Kansas" in which he attacked the South in the most abusive and insulting language. The southern members were wild with fury. Two days later Preston S. Brooks, a representative from South Carolina, assaulted Sumner with a cane as he sat at his desk in the Senate chamber and beat him into insensibility. The people of the South declared that Brooks had given Sumner only what he deserved. To the antislavery men of the North the assault upon Sumner seemed an act of the basest cowardice. The struggle for Kansas and the controversy in Congress which grew out of it did much to increase the growing discord between the slaveholding and the free state sections of the Growing Union. The North and the South were steadily becoming discord unduly suspicious of each other. The people of the North were sections coming to think that the purpose of the South was to introduce slavery into all the territories. On the other hand, the men of the South were becoming convinced that the real intention of 394 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION the North was to destroj' slaver}^ even-where in the nation. Each side resolved that the other should not accomplish its purpose. The Beginning of the Republican Party, — The formation of the Republican party was a direct result of the passage of A new party the Kansas-Nebraska Act. A majority of the southern WTiigs organized ^^^^ nearly all the Democrats from that section favored the passage of this law. All the northern Wliigs and many northern Democrats voted against it. It was clear that both of the great political parties of the time were hopelessh' divided upon the question of slavery. But the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the organization of Kansas and Nebraska upon the basis of popular sovereignty' made the extension of slavery into the territories the burning question of the hour. Many men in the free states felt the need of a new part}-^ to oppose the further spread of slaver}', and promptly took steps to form one. A convention held "under the oaks" at Jackson, Michigan, named the new party Republican. Similar meetings in other western states approved this name, denounced slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, and declared that Congress ought to shut it out of all the territories of the United States. Within a year the young Republican party grew into a vigorous and aggressive organization. The new party enlisted in its ranks all the Free Soilers, many northern Democrats, and sooner or later nearly all the All anti- northern ^\^ligs. It thus fused into one body all the anti- nnTt^H- -l^fi," slavery- elements in the countrv. The earlv Republican leaders united in the i, . j > i • ,'.,., new party ^^'^'1 represented the various groups which united to form their party. Sumner came from the Free Soilers, Chase had been a Democrat, while Seward and Lincoln were old-time Whigs. It is to be remembered that this new party was sectional. With the exception of a very few in border states like Delaware and Maryland, there were no Republicans in the South. The Whig party soon disappeared. :\Iany of its southern members joined the Democrats, whose party was now the only one with members in both sections of the country. The Republican party waged its first presidential campaign in 18.56. In that campaign the Repubhcans demanded the Im856"^°° exclusion of slavery- from the territories and nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency. Fremont was called the THE DRED SCOTT DECISION 395 "Pathfinder" because of his splendid service in exploring the mountains of the far West. The Democrats approved the Kansas-Nebraska Act and named James Buchanan of Penn- sj'lvania as their candidate. The Know Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore. As we have seen, their party was formed to oppose foreign influence in American life, but it was now largely made up of men who were unwilling to take sides on the question of slavery. After a spirited contest the Republicans carried all but four of the northern states, but these states with a near- ly solid South were enough to give victory to the Democrats and made Buchanan presi- dent of the United States. The Dred Scott Decision. — Two days after Buchanan's in- auguration in 1857 the Supreme Court gave its decision in the fam- ous "Dred Scott" case. Dred Scott was a negro slave in Missouri. His owner, who was an army surgeon, had taken him to the free state of Illinois and some time later to a fort in the territory of Minnesota, a region in which slavery had been prohibited by the Missouri Compromise. After two years' residence in this free territory Dred's master had brought him back to the slave state of Missouri. Several years later Dred Scott became dissatisfied with his treatment as a slave and sued for his freedom on the ground that living upon free soil had made him a free man. The lower Missouri court in which the suit was first tried decided in Dred's favor, but the case was appealed from court to court until at last it reached the Supreme Court of the United States for final decision. The story of Dred Scott James Buchanan 306 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION The Dred Scott decision opened all the terri- tories to slavery The effect of this famous decision The challenge The Supreme Court decided that a negro could not be a citizen of the United States and consequently could not bring a law suit in its courts. This disposed of the case as far as Dred Scott was concerned. But the court went on to say that the facts relied upon by Dred Scott to win his freedom had no value because Congress had no power to exclude slavery from the territories. This meant that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had always been an unconstitutional law and hence without effect. The Dred Scott decision made it very clear that negroes had only such rights as white men were willing to give them and that slavery could not lawfully be kept out of any territory of the United States. The American people have always held their Supreme Court in the highest esteem, and its decision in the Dred Scott case was accordingly^ received with high glee by the men of the South. " Ai-e you going to respect and obey the decision of our highest. court?" they tauntingly asked the Republicans, who had just banded together to do the very thing which the Supreme Court in this decision said that Congress could not do, namely, to exclude slavery from the territories. The Repul)licans soon made it plain that they did not respect the decision and that they did not intend to let it control their political conduct. Their attitude was best expressed by Al)raliam Lincoln, who was soon to be their greatest leader, when he said, "We offer no resistance to the Dred Scott decision, but we think it is erroneous and we shall do what we can to have it overruled." The chief effect of the Dred Scott decision in the North was to harden the determination of the anti- slavery men to do everything in their power to stop the spread of slavery. Instead of finally settling the controversy over slavery in the territories, as President Buchanan had said it would, the Dred Scott decision only widened the growing breach between the North and the South. The Debate between Lincohi and Douglas.— In 1858 Stcpluni A. Douglas, the author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill and tiie l(>ader of the northern Democrats who believed in lettmg the people of each territory settle the question of slavery for themselves, was the candidate of his party for reelection to tlie Senate from Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, a great Illinois lawyer wiio had risen from an early life of extreme poverty on DEBATE BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 397 the frontier, was selected by the Republicans of his state to run against Douglas. Early in the campaign Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates throughout the state upon the burning question of the hour. The challenge was promptly accepted, and the debate which followed has been called "the most momentous speaking duel ever fought upon our conti- A Lincoln-Douglas Debate nent." It was destined to have a far-reaching influence upon the nation's history. It would be hard to find two men more unlike than the rivals in this great contest. "The Little Giant," as the follow- ers of Douglas called him, was a short, broad-shouldered man The debaters of tremendous force as a speaker. He was quick to see the contrasted point of an argument, ready with a terse and vigorous answer, and wonderfully skilled in making the worse appear the better reason. At first sight the tall, gaunt, and awkward Lincoln seemed no match for the brilliant Douglas, but he proved to be quite his equal in clear and convincing speech and far superior in honest and sincere thought. It has been finely 398 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION The great issue Slavery in the terri- tories said of Lincoln that "he did not seek to say merely the thinp; which was best for the day's debate, but the thing which would stand the test of time and square itself with eternal justice." There is no better way to understand what the men of the North thought upon the question of slavery less than three years before the outbreak of the Civil War than to listen to Lincoln and Douglas in this famous debate. They speak not for themselves alone but for the Republicans and Democrats of the northern states. Lincoln. — '"A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." Douglas. — "In my opinion our government can endure forever, divided into free and slave states as our fathers made it — each state having the right to prohibit, abolish, or sustain slavery, just as it pleases. The Union was established on the right of each state to do as it pleased on the question of slavery, and every other question, and the various states w^ere not allowed to complain of, much less interfere with, the policy of their neighbors." Lincoln. — "I insist that our fathers did not make this nation half slave and half free, or part slave and part free. I insist that they found the institution of slavery existing here. They did not make it so, but they left it so because they knew of no way to get rid of it at that time. When the fathers of the government cut off the somxe of slavery by the abolition of the slave trade, and adopted a system of restricting it from the new territories wIkmv it had not existed, I maintain that they placed it where thc^y understood, and all sensible men understood, it was in the course of ultimate extinction; and when Judge Douglas asks me why it cannot continue as our fathers made it, I ask him why he and his friends could not let it remain as our fathers made it?" In the d(>bate at Fn^eport, in reply to a question from Douglas, Lincoln said, "I am pledged to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States territories." He then asked Douglas the following question: "Can the people of a United States territory in any DEBATE BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 399 lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution?" Douglas. — "In my opinion the people of a territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a state constitution. Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere unless it is supported by local police regulations. If the people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives to the local legislature who will, by un- friendly legislation, effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst." Lincoln. — "I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any abolitionist. I contemplate slavery as a moral, social, and Attitude political evil, and desire a policy that looks to the prevention toward of it as a wrong, and looks hopefully to the time when, as a ^^^ wrong, it may come to an end." Douglas. — "It is none of our business whether slavery exists in Missouri or not. I do not discuss the morals of the people of the slaveholding states. It is for them to decide the moral and religious right of the slavery question for themselves within their own limits. I do not believe that the Almighty ever intended the negro to be the equal of the white man. He belongs to an inferior race and must always occupy an inferior position. I do not hold that because the negro is our inferior therefore he ought to be a slave. The negro should have every right consistent with the safety of the society in which he lives. What rights are consistent with the public good? This is a ques- tion which each state or each territory must decide for itself." Lincoln. — "There is a physical difference between the white and black races which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon a footing of perfect The rights of equality. But there is no reason in the world why the negro negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is not my equal in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowments. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." This debate between Lincoln and Douglas marks an 400 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION the raid epoch in the history of American politics. Douglas won the election and returned to the Senate stronger than ever with The impor- the Democrats of the North. But he lost the support of the tance of this South when he answered Lincoln's question at Freeport. The ***''**® slaveholders beUeved that it was the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the territories, and the popular sovereignty idea urged by Douglas was becoming almost as distasteful to them as the Republican hostihty to slavery extension. Without the support of the South Douglas could never be president. Lincoln was sorely disappointed by his defeat. With his quaint wit he said that he felt "like the boy that stumped his toe — it hurt too bad to laugh, and he was too big to cry." But out of this seeming defeat came Lincoln's real triumph. His debate with Douglas won him the leadership of the Repub- lican party and made possible his nomination and election to the presidency two years later. John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry. — In October, 1859, the country was startled by the report that the United States The story of arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, had been captured by a band of men who sought to incite an uprising of the slaves, in a day or two the news came that the attempt had failed, and that nearly all the men engaged in it had been killed or captured. John Brown, the ruthless antislavery fighter whom we have met in Kansas, was the leader in this harebrained plot. Brown was a stern old Puritan who had dreamed for years of hl)('rating the slaves. He planned to seize the arsenal in order to secure arms, and then to free the slaves in the neighborhood and take them to some stronghold in the near-by mountains from which raids could be made to rescue more slaves. He seized the arsenal without opposition and made prisoners of some of the citizens of the vicinity, but the people quickly rallied, the mihtia was called out, and in a few hours Brown was besieged in the building which he had taken. The next morning a com- pany of marines broke in the door and captured Brown and his few surviving followers. He was promptly tried, convicted of nmrder and treason against Virginia, and hanged. In the North there was every shade of opinion about the raid at Harper's Ferry. Many agreed with Douglas, who called Brown "A notorious man who had recently suffered death for his crimes." To the abolitionists, on the other hand, Northern opinion of John Brown JOHN BROWN'S RAID 401 John Brown was a hero and a martyr. Emerson called him a romantic character living to ideal ends. Garrison declared that "John Brown is as deserving of high-wrought eulogy as any man who ever wielded sword or battle-ax in the cause of liberty." Most of the antislavery men in the North thought Brown's act ill-advised and foolish, but they sympathized with his spirit and could not help admiring the fortitude with which he met Keystone View Co., Meailctllc, Pcunsi/lvania. John Brown's Fort, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia his fate. Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, the most influential Republican paper in the country, wrote of Brown and his men, "They dared and died for what they believed to be right, though in a manner which seems to us fatally wrong." Perhaps the good Quaker poet, Whittier, best expressed this feeling about John Brown in these lines: "Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good! Long live the generous purpose unstained with human blood! Not the raid of midnight terror, but the thought which underlies; Not the borderer's pride of daring, but the Christian's sacrifice." 402 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION the South The growth of disunion The people of the South heard of the raid at Harper's Ferry with horror and burning indignation. John Brown has The anger of "whetted knives of butchery for our mothers, sisters, daughters, and babes," said the governor of Virginia. Jefferson Davis called Brown's act, "The invasion of a state by a murderous gang of abolitionists who came to incite slaves to murder helpless women and children." The northern approval of Brown's conduct further enraged the South. Many southern men who had not favored secession in the past now began to question whether it was possible for the people of their section to Uve much longer with safety in the Union. Such was the state of mind in which our people came to the most fateful presidential election in their history. The Election of 1860. — "Disunion," Calhoun had once declared, "must be the work of time. The cords which bind the states together in one common Union are too numerous and too powerful to be broken by a single blow." By 1860 the long-continued agitation of the slavery question had snapped most of these cords and weakened all the rest. It had divided nearly all the churches into northern and southern branches. It had swept away all national political parties except the Democratic, and at last the time had come when that party too was to split upon the rock of slavery. The Democratic National Convention of 1860 met in Charleston, South Carolina, the hotbed of disunion. The northern members of this convention stood squarely by the doctrine of popular sovereignty, but said that they were wilhng to abide by the Dred Scott decision. The men' from the South wanted the convention to declare that no territorial legislature could take away from any citizen of the United States the right to take his slaves into that territory. They also demanded that Congress protect slave property in all the territories. In other words, the southern Democrats asked the northern Democrats to say that slavery was right and ought to be extended. When the northern men answered firmly, "We wall not do it," the delegates from several of the southern states withdrew from the hall. Both factions held later meetings, at which the northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for the presidency and the southern Democrats named John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky as their candidate. Slavery splits the Democratic party THE ELECTION OF 1860 403 In the meantime a large body of citizens, who hesitated to take sides on the question of slavery and who wanted to cry peace, peace, when there was no peace, organized the Constitu- The Consti- tional Union Party. They declared that they stood for "the tutional Constitution of the country, the Union of the states, and the °*°" " ^ enforcement of the laws," and nominated John Bell of Tennessee for the presidency. The Republican Convention met in Chicago in a great "Wigwam" which held ten thousand spectators. In emphatic language this convention denied "the authority of Congress, The of a territorial legislature or of any individual, to give legal nomination existence to slavery in any territory of the United States." ^^ ^^"<^o^° William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln were the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, and after a spirited contest, Lincoln was chosen on the third ballot. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for the vice-presi- dency. There were thus four political parties contending for the presidency in 1860. Each of them had stated its position upon the great issue of the time in the plainest terms. The Repub- Party licans said that slavery must be excluded from the territories. Positions The southern Democrats were equally positive in declaring in the terri- that Congress must protect it in them. The northern Demo- tones crats wanted to let the settlers in each territory decide the matter for themselves. The men who voted the Constitutional Union ticket dodged the question altogether. The Republicans carried on their campaign in 1860 with great enthusiasm. They organized marching clubs, called "Wide-awakes," whose members carried torches in great Lincoln Lincoln demonstrations. Lincoln's early frontier occupation ^^^^ted of rail-splitter was glorified, and men carried fence rails in every procession. The cotton states threatened to secede if Lincoln were elected, but the Republicans refused to be frightened by these threats. They felt that they were fighting the good fight for human freedom, and they knew that the split in the Demo- cratic party brought victory within their grasp. The result on election day proved that their confidence was well founded. While the combined popular vote for the other candidates exceeded his by nearly a million, Lincoln received more electoral votes than all of them and was elected. 404 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION South Carolina secedes The Con- federate States of America A time of hesitation The Coming of Disunion. — The free North had spoken in the election of Lincoln. It declared that there must be no more slave territories and hence no more slave states. The answer of the South came promptly. The southern threats of secession in the event of Lincoln's election were not mere idle words. As soon as the result of the election was known, South Carolina called a state convention. On December 20, 1860, this convention passed an ordinance of secession declaring that "the union hitherto ex- isting between South Carolina and the other states is hereby dis- solved." Disunion, so long threatened, had come at last. The cotton-growing states of Georgia, Flor- ida, Alabama, Missis- sippi, Louisiana, and Texas promptly followed where South Carolina led the way. These states quickly seceded from the Union and then sent representa- tives to Montgomery, Alabama, to form a new confederacy. The con- stitution of the Confed- erate States of America, asth(> new union was called, was similar in most respects to the Constitution of the United States, but it safeguarded negro slavery and forbade the passage of protective tariff laws. Jefferson Davis was chosen president of the Confederate States, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia was made vice- president. While the seven cotton states were leaving the Union and forming a new nation, the rest of the country was hesitating between two opinions. The people in the remaining slave states loved the Union, but most of them loved their own states Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States. THE COMING OF DISUNION 405 more and had been taught to beheve that the highest duty of the citizen was to stand by his own state. Some northern men hke Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, were wilhng to let the seceding states go in peace. But most people in the North had learned to believe with Webster in a Union, "one and inseparable." They felt that all men must be loyal first of all to the United States, afterward to their own states. To men who cherished this strong national sentiment, seces- sion was treason, and the people of the seceding states were in rebellion against the government of their country. Presi- dent Buchanan denied that a state had a right to secede, but declared that if it did he had no authority to compel it to stay in the Union against its will. Through- out the country Union- loving men were disap- pointed and disgusted with Buchanan's weak attitude, and opinion cul- minated in the remark, "0, for one hour of Andrew Jackson!" Congress spent much time during this winter of hesitation in discussing various plans for a compromise. Moderate men in Last efforts both sections believed that the Union had been saved by com- to compro- promise in 1850 and hoped this might be true again. But neither the ardent secessionists on the one hand nor the triumphant Republicans on the other were in any mood to yield anything, and all the efforts to compromise came to nothing. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln assumed a tremens dous responsibility. He became president of a divided ountry. Ctnirtesy of Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Alexander Stevens Vice-president of the Confederate States. 406 SLAVERY DIVIDES THE UNION Lincoln, discussing the doctrine of the right of a state to secede, said: "This Government is a great and powerful Gov- ernment, invested with all the attributes of sovereignty over the special subjects to which its authority extends. Its framers never intended to implant in its bosom the seeds of its own destruction, nor were they, at its creation, guilty of the al)surdity of providing for its own dissolution. It was not ijitonded by its framers to be the baseless fabric of a vision, which, at the touch of the enchanter, would vanish into thin air; but a substantial and mighty fabric, capable of resisting the slow decay of time, and of defying the storms of ages. Indeed, well may the zealous patriots of that day have indulged fears that a government of such high powers might violate the reserved rights of the States, and wisely did they adopt the rule of a strict construction of these powers to pre- vent danger. But they did not fear, nor had they any reason to imagine, that the Constitution would ever be so interpreted as to enable any State, by her own act, and without the con- sent of her sister States, to discharge her people from all or any of their Federal obligations." CHAPTER XXI The Civil War The North and the South at War. — In his inaugural address President Lincohi declared that "no state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union"; and added, " I shall Lincoln's take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in appeal for all the states." Lincoln closed this noble address with a touching ® appeal for peace. "We are not enemies," he said, "but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, !Hr HI U! Ill I.I \UJlUilM Fort Sumter "The attack on Fort Sumter roused and united the North like a bugle call." it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." But the Confederate leaders were in no mood to listen to this appeal. It was evident that any attempt to enforce the laws of the United States in the seceded states would mean The attack war. The first blow was struck at Fort Sumter in Charleston gumter''^ harbor. The Confederacy was eager to possess the forts and 407 408 THE CIVIL WAR The call to arms The border states are kept in the Union other property of the United States within its borders. It occupied some of them, but Fort Sumter was still held by- United States troops under Major Robert Anderson. It was known that Major Anderson could not hold out much longer without supplies. When they heard that the govermnent at Washington was sending these supplies the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter. For thirty-four hours a hail of shot and shell M\ upon the doomed stronghold. With the fort in ruins and his amnmnition exhausted, Major Anderson surrendered and was permitted to withdraw with his men. The attack on Fort Sumter roused and united the North like a l)ugle call. On April 15th Lincoln asked for seventy-five thousand men to maintain the Union. It would have been (luite as easy to enlist several times that number. Soon the land was filled with the sound of preparation for war. The call of President Davis for one hundred thousand volunteers to defend the South met the same eager response. Compelled to choose between fighting for or against their southern neighbors, \'iiginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas quickly seceded and joined the Confederacy. The southern capital was then moved from Montgomery to Richmond. The border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri halted between two opinions. Delaware's business relations were chiefly with the North and she had Httle inclina- tion to leave the Union. Eastern Maryland, like Virginia in its life and industry, sympathized with the South, but the western part of that state, like Pennsylvania in its physical geography, had no desire to secede. As Maryland was early occupied by Union troops hurrying to the defense of Washington she had no opportunity to withdraw from the Union even if a majority of her people had favored such a course. The western counties of Viiginia were far more like the neighboring section of Ohio than they were like Virginia east of the mountains, and their people refused to follow the rest of the Virginians into the Confederacy. During the summer of 1861 the Confederates were driven from this region by Union forces under General McClellan, and two years later it was made the state of West Virginia. Eastern Kentucky, with its rugged country, small farms, and few slaves, was loyal to the Union. Western Ken- tucky with its tobacco plantations worked by slave labor, THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH AT WAR 409 4 g, 1 ' J and the South compared inclined toward the Confederacy. In the end a majority of the Kentuckians decided against secession. Missouri was also divided in sentiment and both 'factions took up arms. After some hard fighting, the Union element prevailed and drove the Confederate forces from the state. While the border states were thus all held in the Union, it must not be overlooked that many of their citizens served in the southern armies. Neither side was prepared for war in 1861, but the North possessed certain marked advantages over the South. There were four times as many white men in the states that were loyal The North to the Union as in those that formed the Confeder- acy. The South was largely dependent upon agricul- ture, and the prosperity of its agriculture was chiefly due to the cotton crop. It possessed few rhills and factories and imported nearly all its manufactured goods from the North or from Europe. The North was rich in corn, wheat, coal, and iron. It pos- sessed a highly developed industrial life. It was a land of farms, mills, and factories; and it numbered among its inhabitants a multitude of skilled workmen. The North had more and better railroads than the South and was in control of nearly all the shipping of the nation. These advantages of the North were offset in some measure ])y the facts that the larger part of the men of the South were accustomed to the use of firearms and to living an outdoor life, and that they were fighting near home upon ground with which they were familiar. The fact that the work of the South was done by slaves enabled the Confederacy to put nearly all its white men of military age into the army, while in the North large numbers of men must stay at home to work the farms, mines, and factories. But where both sides were A Confederate Flag 410 THE CIVIL WAR The blockade equal in courage and in patriotic devotion, the larger numbers and greater resources of the North were sure to win in the end. The Work of the Navy. — The southern leaders knew that their section produced the bulk of the world's supply of cotton. They hoped to exchange their cotton in Europe for the military stores which they could not make at home. It was of vital importance to the cause of the Union to prevent this trade. When the war began, President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the coast of the Confederacy and used the navy to enforce it. Day and night for four years the blockading vessels watched the soutiuMU haihors to prevent any ship from entering or leav- ing thcni. At first it was impossible to stop all traffic, and occa- sionally a swift blockade runner would escape with a cargo of cotton or run into a southern port with a load of sorely needed su])i)lies. But as time passed and more ships were added to the navy, it became increasingly difficult to enter or to leave the southern states by sea. The blockade played a very impoi-tant part in the ultimate downfall of the Confederacy. Late in 1861 the United States was brought to the verge of war with England. When Mason and Slidell, the representa- tivcs of the Confederate States to England and France, escaped to the West Indies on a blockade runner and thence sought to make their way to Europe on the British mailship, Trent, they were seized by Captain Wilkes of the American warship, Snn Jacinto, and bi-ought back to the United States. At first the North was jubilant over this act. Great Britain was indig- nant. She demanded the return of Mason and Shdell and began to prepare for war. President Lincoln said that the searching of our ships was one of the causes of the War of 1812, and that we must not do unto others what we would not have them do to us. The Confedei-ate agents were given up and war with Great Britain was averted. Throughout our Civil War there was much sympathy for the South in England, especially among the upper classes and The attitude the manufacturers and merchants who needed cotton and hoped "S ^" for a good market for English goods in the Confederacy. But ^yhen the conmion people of Great Britain saw clearly that the South fought to preserve slavery, they wished the North to win. Early in 1862 the South tried to break the blockade of her ports bv building an ironclad vessel to destroy the wooden The Trent affair THE WORK OF THE NAVY 411 Merrimac ships of the blockading fleet. For this purpose she raised the The work Merrimac, a ship which had been sunk at Norfolk before the ^^„*_^1, Confederates seized that city, covered her with a roof of iron, and armed her with heavy guns. On March 8th this dangerous craft attacked the Union fleet in Hampton Roads, sunk the Cumberland, and burned the Congress. The remaining wooden ships were in deadly peril, and men feared that the strange ironclad might even steam up the Potomac and bombard Washington, But when the Merrimac returned on the following morning to finish her work of destruction she was met by the Monitor, The Battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac in Hampton Roads a new ironclad invented by John Ericsson, which had reached The Monitor the scene just in time to save the Union fleet. The Monitor ^^^^^^ was a queer looking little craft, aptly called "a cheese box on a raft." The cheese box was really an armored revolving turret in which were two heavy guns. The little Monitor fought the Merrimac to a standstill and sent her back to Norfolk, where she was later blown up by the Confederates to prevent her capture. This fight revealed how powerless wooden warships were before the new ironclads. Soon all the great powers began to replace their old-time wooden navies with modern armored ships. 412 THE CIVIL WAR Besides blockading the Confederate ports the Union navy- assisted in miUtary operations along the southern coast and The Con- on tho western rivers. It also had its work cut out for it in federate hunting down the swift Confederate cruisers, which inflicted cruisers ^^^ _^^ damage on the commerce of the United States. The most dangerous of these commerce destroyers was the Alabama, a ship built in England for the Confederacy. After an eventful career in which she destroyed nearly seventy merchant vessels the Alabama was at last brought to bay at Cherbourg, France, and sunk by the United States ship Kearsarge, in a famous fight off tliat port. "On to Richmond!" — At Lincoln's first call for troops the militia of the North hurried to the defense of the national capital. The military lUif the North could not win the war by merely acting on the North °^ ^^^ defensive. It must invade the South and defeat its armies before it could hope to restore the Union. The Confederacy, on the other hand, had only to repel the invading armies of the Union in order to maintain its independence. These facts largely determined the nature of the war. When summer came in 1861 the whole North rang with the cry, "On to Richmond!" In July Lincoln ordered General ^he McDowell, who commanded the Union army at Washington, campaign ^'^ advance on the Confederate capital. Al30ut thirty miles south of Washington, McDowell met the Confederates under (ieneial Beamegard and Ix^gan the battle of Bull Run. Both sides fought bravely for several houi'S, but when reinforcements joined the Confederates in the afternoon, the raw northern troops suddenly became panic-strick(^n and fled in wild con- fusion l)ack to Washington. The Confederates were ahnost as badly disorganized ])y victory as the Federals were by defeat and made little attempt to pursue their fleeing enemies. The battle of Bull Run made the South confident of final success and taught the North that it faced a long and trying war. The government of the United States now began in earnest to g(>t ready for the gigantic struggle before it. Congress Both sides voted to raise an army of half a million men, and Lincoln pearwa?' * ''^""".^ General McCleUan from his early successes in western \irgmia to command the troops around Washington. In the meantime the southern people were also preparing for the coming contest with energy and enthusiasm. In the autumn "ON TO RICHMOND!" 413 of 1861 the people of the North again clamored for an advance on Richmond, but McClellan, who knew the difficulty of the task before him, refused to move and spent tlie entire winter in organizing and drilling his army. In the spring of 1862 McClellan was ready to begin his campaign. A glance at the map of Virginia will show that he might have tried to advance across the country from Washington McClellan's toward Richmond or to take his army by sea to Fortress Mon- campaign roe at the mouth of the James River and thence move up peninsula the Peninsula between the James and York rivers. He chose the latter route because it gave him the support of the navy and made it easy to bring up his supplies by water. This plan made it necessary to leave a strong Union force under McDowell to defend Washington. Union troops under Banks and Fremont were also stationed in the Shenandoah Valley to pre- vent the Confederates from approaching Washington from that direction. The Confederates in front of McClellan delayed his ad- vance as long as they could, but he slowly made his way up the Peninsula until he was within a few miles of Richmond. Here he waited for the arrival of McDowell, who was now advancing across the country, to join him. During this delay a part of McClellan's army was attacked by the Confederates, and the bloody but indecisive battle of Seven Pines was fought. Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate leader, was seriously wound(^d in this battle, and Robert E. Lee, the greatest of southern generals, henceforth commanded the Confederate army. In the meantime "Stonewall" Jackson, another brilliant soldier of the South, was carrying on a whirlwind campaign Court, s:! „S l)i, l'\ (jtiUkiinut Co., I'hila., Pa. '■General "Stonewall" Jackson 414 THE CIVIL WAR Stonewall in the Shenandoah Valley, in which he drove the Union forces Jackson in j,,^^]^ towards the Potomac and threatened Washington from doah Val^y Harp?r's Ferry. Alarmed for the safety of the Federal capital, Lincoln stopped McDowell's advance toward Richmond and sent him to the Shenandoah Valley to oppose Jackson. This The Eastern Campaigns of the Civil War was just what Jackson wanted. Having prevented McDowell The Seven from joining McClellan, he slipped away from the Union forces before * '.'''^'"^ "' "1^^*" 1""^' and hurried to rejoin Lee near Richmond. Richmond ^-^'^ then promptly attacked the Union army in front of him and m seven days of furious fighting forced it back to the James River, twenty miles below Richmond. McClellan con- "ON TO RICHMOND!" 415 ducted this retreat with great skill and on the last day his men repulsed the Confederates with heavy loss at Malvern Hill. The authorities in Washington now united all the Union troops in northern Virginia into one army under General Pope. They next decided to withdraw McClellan's army from the The second Peninsula. McClellan protested in vain against this order. -^"^^ ^"° Lee was quick to seize the opportunity to defeat Pope before all of McClellan's men could join him and promptly marched northward. In the campaign which followed Lee was greatly campaign A Charge at Antietam aided by the daring and skill of "Stonewall" Jackson. During ,the last days of August, 1862, Pope was disastrously defeated at the second battle of Bull Run and retreated to Washington. McClellan, with the last of his army, reached the capital about I the same time. I Lee now resolved to carry the war into the North. He believed that the people of Maryland were at heart loyal to the South, and his soldiers crossed the Potomac singing, "Mary- Lee's first land. My Maryland." The Confederates were disappointed at JJ^^^^V^ their reception. The Maryland farmers did not prove quite so f^jig ^^ friendly as they expected. In the meantinu; McClellan was put Antietam in command of all the Union troops around Washington, and 416 THE CIVIL WAR Bumside's advance on Richmond fails at Fredericks- burg Hooker's defeat at Chancellors- ville The war in the West started in pursuit of Lee. On September 17, 1862, the two armies fought at Antietam the bloodiest single day's battle of the entire war. The Union troops were repulsed on the field, but Lee's invasion of the North was checked, and he leisurely made his way back to Virginia. MeClellan failed to pursue him vigorously and was soon ordered to hand over the com- mand of the Army of the Potomac to General Burnside. In December, 1862, Burnside led the Union army in a third advance on Richmond. He found the Confederates in a very strong position behind the Rappahannock River at Fredericks- burg. Burnside built pontoon bridges across the river under fire, marched his army across them, and attempted to storm the hills on whose crests Lee had posted his men. Time after time the Union troops rushed to the charge with the utmost bravery, but every assault was beaten back with awful slaughter. At last, Burnside saw that victory was impossible and withdrew his army. Thus 1862 closed in Virginia with the Union army under the gloom of a bloody defeat. During the winter, General Hooker — "Fighting Joe" Hooker, as the soldiers called him — replaced Burnside in com- mand of the army. Early in 1863 Hooker crossed the Rappa- hannock above Fredericksburg and fought a great battle at Ghancellorsville in the early days of May. Again the daring of "Stonewall" Jackson helped Lee to win a splendid victory, but it was dearly paid for in the death of this pcnn'less soldier who was shot by mistake by his own men. After the battles Hooker withdrew north of the Rappahannock. Like McDowell, MeClellan, and Burnside before him, he had failed to go "On to Richmond." Opening the Mississippi.— The Appalachian mountain sys- tem divides the field of the Civil War into two parts, Virginia in the East, and the lower Mississippi Valley in the West. We must now see what was happening in the West while the army of the Potomac was vainly striving to capture Richmond. During the first two years of the war a large part of the Union effort west of the Alleghanies was directed toward securing control of the Mississippi River and thus cutting off Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. In 1861, as we have seen, there had been some fighting between the two factions m Missouri. Early in 1862 the Union forces in that state drove OPENING THE MISSISSIPPI 417 the Confederates into Arkansas and there defeated and scattered them in the hotly contested battle of Pea Ridge. The first Confederate line of defense in the West ran through southern Kentucky. Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland were the important Breaking the points on this line, because they guarded two navigable rivers f^^^ ^?"'i- which were pathways into the heart of Tennessee. In February, of defense 1862, General Grant led a Union army against these forts. With the help of the river gunboats under Commodore Foote he From thr „:i,j,wtl dnuiinu l>!J •/■ SiirpU: Davis The Attack on Fort Donelson easily captured Fort Henry. Fort Donelson made a stouter resistance, but after a desperate battle its garrison of nearly fifteen thousand men was forced to accept Grant's terms of "unconditional surrender." This was the first serious reverse of th(^ Confederates in the war. They now abandoned Kentucky, and the Union forces soon occupied Nashville and overran a large part of western Tennessee. This made it impossible for the Con- federates to hold their upper strongholds on the Mississippi. They had built a great fortress on Island No. 10 in that river, but the Union general, Pope, captured it in April, 1862. The P'ederal gunboats now controlled the Mississippi from Cairo to Memphis. 27 418 THE CIVIL WAR Tlio Confederates established their second hne of defense in the West along a railroad which ran from Memphis to The battle of Chattanooga and Charleston, thus connecting the East and Shiloh ^j^g West. At Corinth, Mississippi, a north and south raiboad crossed this cast and west Hne. Most of the Confederate troops were gathered at Corinth to defend this important raih'oad junction. Grant moved his army up the Tennessee River to Pittsburg Landing, where he awaited the coming of General Western Campaigns in the Civil War Bucll who was leading another Union force across the country from Nashville. Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the ablest Confederate generals, saw his opportunity to destroy Grant before Buell could arrive. On April 6, 1862, he struck hard at Grant's army near Shiloh. Grant's men fought stubbornly, l)iit they were forced back and when night fell they were in a perilous position. During the night Buell's army arrived on ^le field and the next morning Grant renewed the fight, recov- ered the ground lost the previous day, and at last drove the Confrdciutes away. Shiloh was one of the most hotly contested OPENING THE MISSISSIPPI 419 « i^L\^^ J3 -^^'.^ ^m ^I^^M fVI|gp|^ /^■^'plliy ^^^.S" Farragut captures New Orleans Painting by ./. Stnplf Duns Death of General Albert Sidney Johnston Confederate leader, at the Battle of Shiloh. fields of the whole war. Both sides lost heavily, and among the Confederate slain was Albert Sidney Johnston, their great leader. In the meantime a powerful Union fleet under David G. Farragut, the most famous sea fighter of the war, was sent against New Orleans. After bombarding the forts below that city for six days with little effect, Farragut daringly ran past them in the night, destroyed the Confederate gunboats, and proceeded up the river. New Orleans was now at his mercy, and before the end of April, 1862, the flag of the Union floated once more over the chief seaport and greatest cotton market of the Confed- eracy. The forts below New Orleans soon sur- rendered, and thence- forth the navy was in control of the lower Mississippi. After the battle of Shiloh, General Halleck, in command of the The second united armies of Grant, 9°^f ^^^^^^ line is Buell, and Pope, cau- broken tiously advanced upon Corinth. When Halleck was ready to assault this important strategic point, the Confederates Harris &• Ewing, WaMngton, D. c. abandoned it. After General H. w. HaUeck the chief railroad which 420 THE CIVIL WAR The Con- federates invade Kentucky supplied Memphis was thus cut at Corinth,"that important river port soon fell into the hands of the Union army. The second Confederate Hne of defense in the West was thus broken, and \'icksl)urg became the last remaining stronghold of the South on the Mississippi. There was some indecisive fighting in northern Mississippi during the fall of 18(52, but the more important movements of that season took place in Kentucky and middle Tennessee. General Buell was or- dered to regain east Tennessee, whose people had remained steadfastly loyal to the Union. Before Buell was ready to move, Confederate General Braxton Bragg invad- ed Kentucky with a strong force. Buell hurried northward and both armies raced for the Ohio River. Buell reached Louisville first, where he found plentiful supplies and reinforcements. He now turned upon Bragg and fought him at Perryville. After this indecisive battle the Confederates slowly retired to Chattanooga, carrying with them an enormous quantity of supplies which they had gathered from the rich The battle of fields of Kentucky. Because he failed to follow Bragg, Buell Murfrees- ^^as n^noved from the command of the Union army and Rose- crans i)ut in his place. On the last day of 1862 the two armies in Tennessee began a bloody three-days' contest at Murfrees- boro on Stone River, but neither of them gained any decided advantage from this battle. After the soldiers of the Union occuDied New Orleans and Keystone View Co., MeadriUe, Pa. An Assault at Vicksburg, Mississippi OPENING THE MISSISSIPPI 421 Memphis the Confederates heavily fortified Vicksburg, strong position left them on the Mississippi. Late in Grant and his famous lieutenant, Sherman, moved against this stronghold, but all their efforts to take it that year proved futile. Early in 1863 Grant marched his army down the west bank of the Mississippi until it was south of Vicksburg. Meanwhile the Union supply boats and transports under Com- modore Porter ran past the city in the night with slight loss, in spite of a terrific fire poured upon thorn from the batteries on the one The siege 1862 of Vicks- burg From Uw jiaintLni] by J. Stc The Surrender of Pemberton to Grant near Vicksburg the shore. Grant now crossed the river with his army, speedily occupied Jackson, the Capital of Mississippi, and then defeated the Confederates and drove then back into Vicksburg. He then besieged that (;ity. Day after day a rain of shot and shell was steadily poured upon the doomed town. The Confederates bravely repelled two assaults upon their defenses, but at last they were starved into submission. On July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered and nearly thirty thousand Confederates became prisoners of war. A few days later the Confederates gave up Port Hudson, lower on the river, and henceforth the "Father of Waters flowed un vexed to the sea." 422 THE CIVIL WAR the North The armies meet at Gettysburg The Story of Gettysburg.— We left the opposing armies in \'irgiiiia facing each other across the Rappahannock River after Lee's second the battle of Chancellorsville. Lee now determined to try once invasion of ,,j(^,.p ^o invade the North. His splendid army was flushed with victory, but it was daily becoming more difficult to provide it with food. Lee coveted the suppUes which existed in great abundance in the North. Moreover, a decisive victory on noithern soil might offset the Confederate losses in the West and end the war. Starting early in June, 1863, from Fredericksburg, \'irginia, Lee's army, eighty t housand strong, marched westward through the gaps of the Blue Ridge into the xalley of the Shenandoah and then swept rapidly northward across Maryland into Pennsylvania. Cham- bersburg and York were occupied and Harrisburg was threatened. In the meantime Hooker's army of ninety thousand men was moving northward in such a way as to keep between Lee and Washington, Balti- more, and Philadelphia. Near the end of June General Meade succeeded Hooker m the command of the Union army. On July 1st the axilvance guard of Meade's army met the Confederates near Gettysburg and began the most famous battle ever fought in America. In 1863 Gettysburg was a peaceful little town in southern 'vania. Just west of it lies Seminary Ridge, extending toward the southwest. On its southern border rises Cemetery Hill, which IS prolonged southward as Cemetery Ridge. Three miles south of Gettysburg this low ridge rises suddenly into a steep, rocky hiU called Little Round Top. Just beyond is a called Round Top. Cemetery Hill curves back CuurCviaflh /•'. (iiilrkiuiHt Co., Fhila., General Meade The battle- field of Gettysburg Pennsv higher hill THE STORY OF GETTYSBURG 423 The first day's fighting toward the southeast into a rocky cliff called Gulp's Hill. Between the two ridges lies a beautiful valley widening toward the south and dotted here and there with farmhouses. Many roads radiate from Gettysburg like the spokes of a wheel. Along these roads the Gonfederates were approaching the town from the west, the north, and the east, while the Union army was hurrying up from the south. The battle of Gettys- burg began on the morning of July 1st. For hours the fighting raged furiously west and north of the town. Because they were marching toward a com- mon center the Gonfed- erate troops reached the battlefield sooner than the widely scattered divisions of the Union army. Late in the afternoon the superior numbers of the Gonfeder- ates compelled the Union forces west and north of Gettysburg to abandon their position and withdraw to a stronger one on Geme- tery Hill south of the town. Here a new battle line was From the original rai- ting hy H. a. Oodm formed by General Han- The struggle for Little Round Top cock, who had been sent forward to represent General Meade. Fortunately, the Gonfederates were content with occupying Gettysburg and did not continue their attack until the next day. All that night Meade's men came swarming in from the southward, and by morning the Union army was in much better condition to resist an assault than it had been the previous Hard evening. Both generals spent the morning of July 2nd in fighting on studying the field, and there was no fighting until the afternoon, ^ay During this time General Sickles, who led the Union left wing, advanced his troops to a peach orchard in the valley west of 424 THE CIVIL WAR Pickett's famous charge Little Round Top. This was the weak part of the Union Hne, and soon Longstreet, Lee's great lieutenant, struck it hard. For hours the tide of battle ebbed and flowed at the peach orchard and through the wheat field and the rock-strewn woodland behind it. At last the troops of Sickles were driv(>n back to Cemetery Ridge, but here the line stood firm and repelled the last Confederate assault. Meanwhile there was a desperate struggle for Little Round Top, which dominated the Federal position, but, by the utmost valor, it was held by the northern sol- diers. Toward night the Confederates charged in vain up the eastern slope of Cemetery Hill. As night fell they were more fortu- nate in gaining a foothold on Culp's Hill, but early the next morning Meade drove them from this posi- tion. The Union army still held its strong line on the hills south of Gettysburg. Lee had failed in his attacks on both wings of Meade's army. On July 3d he tried to break its center on Cemetery Ridge. About one o'clock in the afternoon a hundred Confederate guns opened fire upon the center of the Union hne. The Fed- eral guns replied, and for two hours the earth trembled under a terrific artillery duel. Then fifteen thousand men of the South, led ])y Pickett with his division of Virginians, charged the Union c-enter. There was no more heroic feat of arms during the whole war. With undaunted courage Pickett's men came on in the face of a withering fire, and a handful of them under Armistead surged over the stone M-all which marked the Union line. But th(>y were too few to hold what they had won and The Battlefield at Gettysburg THE STORY OF GETTYSBURG 425 were soon beaten back with awful slaughter. The cause of secession here reached its high water mark and began to recede. Two days later Lee began to withdraw and had little difficulty in regaining his old lines in Virginia, where he was not seriously disturbed during the remainder of 1863, The After the losses at Gettysburg were twenty-three thousand on the Union t>attle side and almost as many in the southern army. The wounded ^'xi«?^ M.. a' W0^Bp:^ik^^'mi\ Kcystjiir I ■('>'((■ Co., Mcaih ille. Pa. General Hancock and Staff at the Battle of Gettysburg were tenderly' cared for in the hospitals of the North. Later the bodies of the Union slain were gathered into the beautiful cemetery which Lincoln dedicated in the fall of 1863 with his immortal Gettysburg Address. The battlefield of Gettysburg is now a splendid national park, upon which each northern regiment has marked the place where it fought. The survivors of the northern and the Gettysburg southern armies h(>ld a glorious reunion at this inspiring shrine ^^V years of patriotism during the first three days of July, 1913, the fiftieth anniversary of the battle. This wonderful meeting made 426 THE CIVIL WAR The Chicka- mauga campaign Courtcsu uf llie F. Gukkunst Co., Fhila., Pa. General William S. Rosecrans orn sections of the Con- fed(M-acy. The capture of Chattanooga would inako it difficult to send men and food from the region west of the Allc- ghanies to Lee's strug- gling army in Virginia. It would also give the Union forces a starting point from which to push deeper into the heart of the South. General Bragg defended this vital strategic point with a strong Confederate army. Rosecrans, the L^nion leader, skilfully manoeu- vred Bragg out of Chat- tanooga and occupied the town. On September 19 and 20, 1863, the two it very clear that the bitter^ ness of civil strife was gone and that the men of both sections rejoiced that Liber- ty and Union are, in truth, "one and inseparable." From Chattanooga to the Sea. — In the summer of 1863 the Union army in Tennessee, which had done little since the battle of Murfreesboro, resumed operations. Its first aim was to seize Chattanooga, a place of great importance because it commanded the railroads connecting the eastern, southern, and west- General George H. Thomas "The Rock of Chickamauga" FROM CHATTANOOGA TO THE SEA 427 armies met on the fiercely contested field of Chickamauga, twelve miles southeast of Chattanooga. On the second day of the battle a part of the Union army was swept from the field in confusion, but General Thomas with the left wing held his ground until nightfall with a steadfast valor which won for him the name, "The Rock of Chickamauga." After the battle of Chickamauga the Union army fell back to Chattanooga, where it was quickly besieged by the Confed- erates. For a time its position was one of peril, but soon The battle of Hooker and Sherman arrived with strong reinforcements, and Chattanooga Grant came from his triumph at Vicksburg to take command. Supplies were quickly brought up and the army prepared for another battle. On November 24th and 25th Grant won a great victory before Chatta- nooga. On the first day, in a battle above the clouds, Hooker drove the Confederates from Lookout Mountain south of Chattanooga, and Sherman attacked Missionary Ridge east of the city. On the second day the troops of Thomas stormed the Confederate lines on Mis- sionary Ridge, climbed to the crest of the mountain four hundred feet above the plain, and swept the Confederates before them. The pursuit did not cease until the Confederates had been driven far southward into Georgia. Grant now promptly relieved Knoxville in East Tennessee, which the Con- federates were besieging and drove the last southern forces from that loyal region. This ended the fighting in 1863. Early in 1864 Grant was put in command of all the armies of the Union, When spring came he took the field in Virginia, leaving Sherman to finish the work in the West. It was Sher- Sherman's man's first task to capture Atlanta, an important railroad campaign center and doubly valuable to the Confederates because of the Atknta sorely needed supplies made in its mills and factories. Starting General William T. Sherman 428 THE CIVIL WAR in May, Sherman manoeuvred and fought his way through the mountainous country in northern Georgia until he stood before Atlanta. Johnston, the Confederate leader, had wisely with- drawn before him, but Hood, who now took Johnston's place, turned furiously upon the Union army, only to meet defeat in three bloody battles. Then Sherman soon captured Atlanta and destroyed all its factories and machine shops. This was a serious blow to the Confederacy. Operations along the coast Farragut in the Battle of Mobile Bay Throughout the war the navy was tightening its blockade of the southern coast and giving valuable assistance to military expeditions sent against the more important southern ports. These expeditions were not always successful, but every time one of them accomplished its purpose it made it more difficult for the Confederacy to get the foreign supplies its armies so much needed. In 1864 Mobile was the favorite resort of the blockade runners on the Gulf coast, and Admiral Farragut determined to close it. Lashed to the rigging of his flagship, Farragut at fil>f>v(^ the smoke of battle, Farragut boldly ran past the forts Mobile Bay at the entrance to Mobile Bay as he had passed those below New FROM CHATTANOOGA TO THE SEA 429 Orleans in 1862, destroyed the Confederate ships in a hot fight, and thus sealed up the important port of Mobile. After Hood abandoned Atlanta he led his men toward Tennessee, with the hope of compelling Sherman to fall back in order- to defend Nashville. But Sherman refused to The last be diverted from the conquest of Georgia, and sent General campaign in i. 6Iin6SS66 Thomas back to oppose Hood. A better choice could not have been made. Thomas retired before Hood until he reached Sherman's March to the Sea and through the Carolinas Nashville. Then, after thorough preparation, he turned upon the Confederates in December, 1864, and in the battle of Nash- ville, he utterly defeated and scattered Hood's army. This was the last serious fighting of the war in the West. Meanwhile Sherman was making his famous march from Atlanta to the sea. Breaking off all comnumication with the North, Sherman started fi'om Atlanta in November with sixty "Marching thousand veteran troops. During the next month his army J?^°"S^„ laid waste a strip of covmtry sixty miles wide from Atlanta to Savannah. The railroads were torn up, barns and mills burned, Georgia' 430 THE CIVIL WAR Sherman's last cam- paign Bloody fighting in the Wilder- From Spott- sylvania to Petersburg anH Richmond and a vast amount of other property destroyed. Every day foraging parties scoured the country bringing in loads of bacon, pouhry, corn meal — in fact, everything that could be used for food. There was much truth in the song of Sherman's men: "How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found, , How the sweet potatoes almost started from the ground. While we were marching through Georgia." Sherman met little opposition while engaged in this work of destruction. On December 22, 1864, he sent President Lincoln this message : "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammu- nition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton." But Sherman was not content with what he had done. He soon started northward, driving the Confederates before him and sweeping a wide path of ruin and desolation through the Carolinas. It was Sherman's purpose to join Grant before Richmond, but while he was still in North Carolina the news came that Grant's work was done and the war practically over. Grant and Lee. — In the early days of May, 1864, Grant began the last "On to Richmond" campaign in Virginia. He soon found Lee's army in "The Wilderness," a region of wood- land and tangled thickets south of the Rapidan River. Grant had one hvmdred and twenty thousand men; Lee not more than half that numl)(>r. But the Confederate leader was one of the world's greatest soldiers, and he knew every road and path in the wild country which lay between the Union army and Richmond. After two days of bloody but fruitless fighting in the Wikkn-ness, Grant marched around Lee's position, only to find the skilful adversary again confronting him at Spottsyl- vania Court House. Here assault followed assault for days, but all in vain. The southern lines could not be broken. It was during this time of hammering the Confederate position at Spottsylvania Court House that Grant wrote the character- istic words, "I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." From Spottsylvania Court House Grant again marched around the enemy whom he could not defeat. At Cold Harbor aiiotluM- assault upon the Confederate position was beaten back with frightful slaughter. But Grant was not to be turned from » The End of the Civil War — 1865 The Civil War virtually ended on April 9, 1865, when Lee sur- rendered his army to Grant at Appomattox Court House upon the most generous terms. In his Personal Memoirs Grant thus describes the scene in the picture: "\\'hen I left camp that morning I had not expected so soon the result that was then taking place and con- sequentl}^ was in rough garb. I was without a sword, and wore a soldier's blouse for a coat. When I went into the house I found General Lee. What his feeUngs were, I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. ^. My own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at tlie downfall of a foe who had suffered so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause." GRANT AND LEE 431 the Shenan- doah Valley his stern purpose. He again moved by the left flank, crossed the James River, and settled down to besiege the Confederates in Richmond and Petersburg. Grant was constantly searchmg for a weak place in the Confederate defenses, but Lee was wary and alert, and foiled him at every turn. During the summer of 1864 Lee tried to break Grant's remorseless grip upon the Confederate capital by sending General Early down the Shenandoah Valley to threaten Wash- Sheridan in ington. Early reached the gates of the national capital, only to be repulsed and driven away by its garrison with the aid of troops hurriedly sent from Grant's army. Grant then sent his dashing cavalry leader, Sheridan, to drive the Confederates from the Shenandoah Valley. Sher- ridan defeated Early at Winchester and Fisher's Hill in September, 1864, and then proceeded to lay waste the rich valley which had so often served the Confederates as a pathway to the North. Seventy mills and more than two thousand barns filled with hay and grain were burned, and all the live stock driven away. Sheridan said that his work of destruction was done so thoroughly that "a crow flying over the country would need to carry his rations." But Early came back while Sheridan was absent from his ai'my and, in a gallant attack at dawn, surprised the Union troops at Cedar Creek and drove them from the field. Sheridan heard the sound of battle at Winchester, and riding rapidly southward he rallied his flying men and led them back to a victory which swept the Confederate army from the Shenandoah Valley forever. The story of this brilliant action is stir- StaHieby Gutzon Bory'tim i-- WasliinQton, D. C. General Philip H. Sheridan 432 THE CIVIL WAR ringly told in Thomas Buchanan Read's famous poem, "Sheri- dan's Ride." I'p from the south, at break of day. Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, The affrighted air with a shudder bore, Like a herald in haste to the chieftain's door, Tlie terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, Telling the battle was on once more. And Sheridan twenty miles away. And wider still those billows of war Thunder'd along the horizon's bar; And louder yet into Winchester roll'd The roar of that red sea uncontroll'd, Making the blood of the listener cold, As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray, And Sheridan twenty miles away. But there is a road from Winchester town, A good broad highway leading down; And there through the flush of the morning light, A steed as black as the steeds of night Was .seen to pass, as with eagle flight. As if ho knew the terrible need; He strctch'd away with his utmost speed; Hills r()s(> and fell; but his heart was gay, Willi Sheridan fifteen miles away. Still sprang from those swift hoofs, thundering south, The dust, like smoke from the cannon's mouth. Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster. Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster. The heart of the steed and the heart of the master \\ ere beating like prisoners assaulting their walls, Impatient to be where the battle-field calls; Every nerve of the charger was strain'd to full play, With Sheridan only ten miles away. Tender his spurning feet, the road Like an arrowy Alpine river flow'd And the landscape sped away behind Like an ocean flying before the wind; GRANT AND LEE 433 And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, Swept on, with his wild eye full of fire. But, lo! He is nearing his heart's desire; He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, With Sheridan only five miles away. The first that the general saw were the groups Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops; What was done? What to do? A glance told him both. Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath. He dash'd down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas, And the wave of retreat check'd its course there, because The sight of the master compell'd it to pause With foam and with dust the black charger was gray; By the flash of his eye, and the red nostril's play He seem'd to the whole great army to say, "I have brought you Sheridan all the way From Winchester down, to save the day." Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! Hurrah! Hurrah for horse and man! And when their statues are placed on high, Under the dome of the Union sky. The American soldier's Temple of Fame, There with the glorious general's name Be it said, in letters both bold and bright: "Here is the steed that saved the day By carrying Sheridan into the fight. From Winchester — twenty miles away!" Meanwhile the siege of Richmond and Petersburg dragged on through the fall of 1864 and during the long and weary winter months which followed it. As spring drew near. Grant The fall of began to seize the railroads by which supplies reached Rich- Richmond mond. At last Lee could hold out no longer. Earl}' in April he abandoned the Confederate capital and marched away toward the southwest in the hope of joining the southern forces in North Carolina. Grant followed in hot pursuit, and in a few days Lee's army was hemmed in at Appomattox Court House. Further resistance was useless, and on April 9, 1865, Lee sur- T AA CI It*— rendered his army to Grant upon the most generous terms, jg^ders at Lee's devoted soldiers were free to go to their homes upon their Appomattox 434 THE CIVIL WAR promise not to fight any more against the United States. They were not to be punished in any way, and those of them who owneil horses or mules were permitted to take the animals home with thcMi because, as Grant said, "They would need them to work tiieir little farms." Grant permitted no rejoicing over the fallen foe, and his men shared their rations with the starving From, the painiing by H. A. Odgen General Lee's Farewell to His Soldiers Confederates. Lee bade his men good-by with the w^ords, "I have done the best I could for you," and rode away toward Richmond. Within a few weeks all the other Confederate forces in the field laid down their arms and once more the nation was at peace. CHAPTER XXII The Country in War Time Life in the Army. — In the last chapter we traced the mihtary history of the Civil War. In this we shall study the life of the people during the trying days from 1861 to Numbers 1865. To many the war was a time of service in the army. More than two and a half million men in the North and over a Hr^ ' IH k' 1 M iSj^^Wf^'WI^ WJ\ ibs... ._ ' "'*'^ The White House of the Confederacy The home of Jefferson Davis in Riihmond during the Civil War million in the South wore the uniform of the soldier. This means that nearly one-half of the northern men of military age put on the Union blue, and that more than nine out of ten of such men in the South were clad in Confederate gray. The first calls for troops were answered with enthusiasm in both sections of the country, and large numbers of eager and patriotic young men hastened to enlist. But as time passed it Volunteer- grew more and more difficult to keep the ranks filled. Early 'J^lffj^g in 1862 the Confederate Congress passed a draft law which made 435 436 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME all citizens between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five liable to military service. From time to time the age limits were extended until at last it was said that the South was "robbing the cradle and cheating the grave " to get soldiers for its armies. In 1863 it became necessary for the Congress of the United States to pass a draft act under which men were drawn by lot for miUtary duty. This law was very unpopular, and the first attempt to enforce it led to a great riot in New York City in which hundr(xls of people were killed. Besides drafting soldiers for the Union armies, the federal government, and many north-: em states and counties as well, encouraged men to volunteer by paying them bounties in cash when they enlisted. In the end the South failed for lack of men and supplies, but the armies of the Union were larger in 1865 than at any previous time during the war. We must not think of the life of the soldiers in the Civil War as one of constant fighting. After men were mustered Drill and the into the service they were kept usually for weeks and sometimes ^^ ° ' for months in camps of instruction where their days were given to military drill. Sometimes when the need was great they were hurried off to the battlefield with very little training for the work before them. In many instances the officers knew little more about the art of war than the men they led. In time many of these officers from civil life became skilful soldiers, but most of the men who rose to high command in both the Union and the Confederate armies were graduates of the United States military academy at West Point. The life of the soldier in the field was marked by exposure to all kinds of weather, by long and toilsome marches often in \h^^ "^^ through rain and mud, by days of drill and work in camp, and battlefield sometimes by months of tedious inactivity in winter quarters. Yet the men on both sides bore the hardships of army life with stout hearts. The soldiers of the Union sang "John Brown's Body" or "The Battle-Cry of Freedom" as they marched, and the music of "Dixie" often rang out around the campfires of the Confederates. Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is the noblest of the many songs inspired by the Civil War. We may be sure that the days when letters came from home were awaited with eager expectation by the soldiers of both armies. The exposure and hardships of army life LIFE IN THE ARMY 437 caused much sickness and many died of disease. Men were often in danger when on picket duty or out on scouting service, and when the great battles were fought, thousands were killed or wounded or taken prisoners. The prisoners on both sides suffered great privations and many of them perished in the prison camps. The wounded were cared for as tenderly as possible in In the field hospitals and in large general hospitals in cities far in the hospital rear of the armies. A great deal of the suffering and death among the wounded of the Civil War was due to the fact that the surgeons of that time had not yet learned the use of antiseptics. The suffering in the Confederate hos- pitals was especial- ly severe because of the serious lack of medicines and other hospital supplies in the South. Two northern societies, the Sanitary Com- mission and the Christian Com- mission, helped to care for the sick and wounded, and looked after the moral welfare of the Union soldiers much as the Red Cross Society, the Young Men's Christian Association, and similar organ- izations worked for our men in the Great War with Germany which we entered in 1917. The Civil War was a struggle in which the men on both sides were equally sincere in fighting for what they believed to be right, though all men can now see that it was best for both sections that the Union should be preserved and slavery abol- Julia Ward Howe Her song, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," was one of the most inspiring songs of the Civil War. 438 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME Priceless memories Home support The North prospered in war time ished. The time has come when all Americans alike can cherish as a priceless heritage the memor}^ of the devotion, the fortitude, and the splendid valor of the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gra3^ The soldiers of Grant and Lee who survived the Civil War were the leaders in rebuilding and reuniting our country. Of the multitude on both sides who fell on southern battlefields it may be said with equal truth, "On Fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread, And Cilory guards, witli solemn round, The bivouac of the dead." The Folks at Home. — Not all the burdens and privations of war are borne by the soldiers who do the fighting. The armies of a free people cannot long wage war unless they have the ardent and loyal support of the folks at home, for those who stay at home nnist produce the food, manufacture the supplies, and, above all, give the moral support and encouragement with- out which any war would soon fail. In our Civil War the fighting men on both sides were fortunate in having such support in full measure from the people behind them. Tlie industi'ies of the North were very prosperous during the Civil War. The loyal states suffered little from invading armies and their people could sell at high prices everything that they produced. The northern farmers raised great cjuantities of food for the Union army, and any surplus that they had left found a ready market in Europe. The factories were Ixisy making clothing, shoes, blankets, and arms for the soldiers. New mines .were opened and the forests were rapidly converted into Imnber. So many men were in the amiy that those who remained at home easily found employment at high wages. Indeed, tlu^ demand for workers was so great that inven- tion was stiinulated, and labor-saving machines hke the reaper and the sewing machine were rapidly coming into general use. Never before had the people of the northern states been so Inisy, and never l^efore had they acquired money so easily or spent It so freely. "Commerce, business, manufactures and labor," said the leading newspaper of Chicago, "are going on as m a profound peace save with a more impetuous and whirling activity than peace ever knew." THE FOLKS AT HOME 439 In striking contrast to this war-time prosperity in the North were the poverty and ruin which the Civil War inflicted upon the South. The invading armies of the Union destroyed its Privations railroads, burned its barns, mills, and factories, and left a path ^^ *^^ South of desolation behind them. The old South was an agricultural region, but the blockade made it well-nigh impossible for its people to send their cotton, tobacco, and sugar to market. It was equally difficult for them to procure many of the common necessities of life for which they had always depended upon A Consequence of War the outside world. Tea and coffee disappeared, salt was scarce and hard to get, and in the latter part of the war the men in the Confederate armies were in sore need of shoes, blankets, and warm clothing. After the railroads of the South broke down, food grew scarce and very expensive in the cities. Lee's soldiers did not surrender until they were on the verge of starva- tion. Yet all these privations were borne by the people of the South with a cheerful fortitude made possible only by an intense devotion to the "Lost Cause." •The white people of the South have never forgotten the wonderful fidelity of the slaves during the Civil War. While Fidelity of nearly all the southern white men were in the Confederate *^^ negroes 440 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME Common experiences War-time literature The cost of the war armies, their wives and children were safe at home though surrounded by thousands of negroes. Uiider the direction of the old men and the women, the faithful slaves continued to cultivate the plantations. Though most of the negroes desired freedom and well understood that Union success would give it to them, such was their respect and affection for their masters' families that few slaves ran away except in those sections where they followed the invading northern armies. In spite of the great contrast in material prosperity between the North and the South, both sections had many war-time experiences in common. In both, life was exciting. The women of both parts of our country watched with the same sorrowful foreboding as the soldiers marched away, and toiled with the same passionate devotion to provide the lint, bandages, and clothing needed in the hospitals. The folks at home on both sides knew the same anxious waiting for news from the battle- fields and the same bitter grief for those who were slain. The heavy losses of war fell upon the North and the South alike, but because of its larger population and its greater resources the North was far better able to bear them. The intense feelings of wrath, sorrow, and exultation stirred by the war for the Union find their best expression in the wi itings of the time. The years just before and during the war are tiie golden age of American literature. Our greatest poets, Longfellow, Whittier, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, and Whitman did much of their best work during this period. The outcome of the Civil War inspired Lowell's "Commemoration Ode," con- sidered the noblest poem ever written in America. Paying for the War.— It is impossible to tell exactly how much It cost our country in men and money to save the Union and to free the slaves. About seven hundred thousand soldiers, counting those who perished on both sides, were slain in l)attl(' or died of wounds or of disease. The health of many thousands more was permanently wrecked by the exposure and the hardships of army life. The Union government spent three and a half billion dollars in carrying on the war. If we add to this amount the waste and destruction of property in the South, the loss of four million slaves who were worth at least two billion dollars to their owners before the war, the interest on our war debt, and the foiu- billion dollars paid in PAYING FOR THE WAR 441 pensions since 1865, the loss in money inflicted upon the people of the United States by the Civil War will probably reach the enormous total of ten billion dollars. Money is often called the sinews of war. It requires a vast amount of it in war time to pay the wages of the soldiers and provide them with food, clothing, arms, and ammunition. The War taxes government can procui'e money only by taxing the people and by borrowing, and both of these methods were freely used during the Civil War. The duties on imported goods were raised from (5) Script or Fractional Currency Issued by the Confederate States time to time until, in 1865, our people were living under a very high tariff, which had a marked effect in promoting the growth of manufacturing in the North. Heavy taxes were also imposed upon many goods made within the country. It was said at the time that there was a tax upon "every article which enters into the mouth or covers the back or is placed under the foot; upon everything which is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste." There were taxes upon all incomes above six hundred dollars; stamps were required upon checks, receipts, and legal papers; and special taxes were imposed upon articles of luxury like gold watches and pianos. In spite of its large income from the war taxes, the federal government frequently found it necessary to borrow money. 442 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME Borrowing money Bonds Greenbacks and their effect The national banks It did this in two ways, by selling bonds and by issuing treasury notes. Both were promises to pay, but. they differed in two important respects. The bonds bore interest and were payable at the end of a definite term of years. The treasury notes, which were often called "greenbacks" because of the color of the ink with which they were printed, did not bear interest and were not payable at any specified time. These greenbacks were paid out by the government for the supplies which it purchasied and were used as paper money by the people. Of course, if the government would pay gold coin or specie for them whenever it was asked to do so, the greenbacks would be worth just as much as the gold. But early in the war the government suspended specie payment; that is, it stopped paying its notes in gold on demand. The value of the green- backs then depended upon the faith of the people in the future al)ility and disjiosition of the United States to redeem them in gold. Greenbacks were issued in such large quantities that the people began to fear that the government might never be able to redeem them. This feeling grew especially strong when Confederate victories made it seem that there was small hope of saving the Union. For these reasons the greenbacks depreci- ated in value until they were worth much less than their face value in gold.- But the government had made them a legal tender by law; that is, a creditor was required to accept them whenever a debtor offered them in payment of a debt or for a purchase. As the people had to accept this cheap paper money for tlieir goods, they raised the prices of the goods, until before the war ended it took nearly three dollars in greenbacks to pay for what could be bought for one dollar in gold. We still use the greenbacks as money, but ever since 1879 they have been worth just as much as gold, because, at the beginning of that y(>ar the government began once more to redeem them in gold on demand. This act is called "the resumption of specie payment." In 18G3 Congress passed a national banking act. This law provided that, if a bank would invest at least one-third of its capital in gov{>rnment bonds, the government would permit it to issue Ijank notes to the value of ninety per cent of these bonds. The government kept in its possession the bonds belong- mg to each bank as security that the bank would pay its notes. THE END OF SLAVERY 443 If a national bank failed, the United States would use its bonds to make its notes good. This law made national banking profitable, because the bank drew interest on its bonds and also on the bank notes which it loaned as money. The purpose of the national banking act was to make it easier for the govern- ment to borrow money by encouraging the banks to buy its bonds, and at the same time to give the people the use of the good paper money issued by the national banks in place of the unsatisfactory bank notes formerly issued by state banks. The state banks soon stopped circulating their notes as money because the national government put such a heavy tax on state bank notes that the state banks could no longer afford to issue them. We still have a large number of national banks in the United States and much of our paper money consists of the notes which they issue. The Confederacy had far more difficulty than the Union in procuring money with which to carry on the Civil War. It was impossible to raise very much money in the South by taxation. Finances of One law required the southern farmers to hand over one-tenth the Con- of what they raised on their farms to the government. Some ^ ^''^'^y bonds were sold, but the chief financial dependence of the Con- federacy was upon paper money which it issued in great quan- tities. This Corifederate currency depreciated in value so rapidl}^ that a year before the war ended it took one hundred and fifty dollars of it to buy a pair of shoes. When the Con- federacy fell, its bonds and notes became worthless. After the war the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States provided that "neither the United States, nor any state, shall assume or pay anj'- debt or obligation in- curred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States." The End of Slavery. — The southern people loved their states more than they did the United States and fought for the right of each state to withdraw from the Union if it pleased. The real The men of the North beheved that they owed their highest cause of the allegiance to the whole nation and rushed to arms, not to ^^ destroy slavery, but to save the Union. But slavery was the real cause of the Civil War. The discussion of it and the conflict over its extension into the West had sectionalized the country and arrayed the North and the South against each other. 444 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME Anti-slavery clamor Lincoln's policy At the outbreak of the war, however, neither side was willing to admit that it was fighting over slavery. Early in the war the radical antislavery men in the North began to cry that slavery must be destroyed if the Union was to be saved. They pointed out how the slaves strengthened the South by cultivating its plantations and building its forts. At first President Lincoln paid little attention to the growing anti- slavery clamor. This was not because he favored slavery in any sense. On the con- trary he hated it as much as any abolition- ist. "If slavery is not wrong," he once said, "nothing is wrong." When he was inaugu- rated, Lincoln thought that he had no right to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed. After the war began, he saw that he could strike at it as a military measure, but he decided to wait un- til he was sure that the people would support him. Moreover, he was especially eager to hold the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri in the Union, and their people were slaveholders who might be driven into the arms of the South if he acted rashly. In all that he did, Lincoln's first thought was to save the Union. To those who complained that he was slow to act against slavery he said, "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." By midsummer of 1862 Lincoln was convinced that freeing Fromlhe statue bu ^lu(/»^/./^ ^^ (mn Abraham Lincoln A famous statue in Lincoln Park, Chicago. THE END OF SLAVERY 445 the slaves in the seceded states would help to save the Union and that the people of the loyal states would approve and support such a measure. On July 22nd he read the first draft The Emanci- of an Emancipation Proclamation to the members of his cab- P^tioj^ Proc- inet. One of them suggested that he wait until the Union army won a victory. This was wise advice and Lincoln laid his proclamation aside until after the baitle of Antietam. Then he said, ''I have made a vow that if McClellan drove Lee across the Potomac I would send the proclamation after him." Lincoln kept this vow, and on September 22, 1862, he issued a proclamation declaring that on January 1, 1863, ''All persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the peojjle whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The states in the Confederacy paid no attention to this warning, 5ind on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the promised Emancipa- tion Proclamation naming the states and parts of states in which all slaves were declared. free. The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the immortal documents in the history of the long struggle of men everjrwhere for liberty. It made free men of three and one-half million Its effect slaves. At the same time it made sure the preservation of the Union. The people of the South hoped that England would interfere in their behalf because of her great need of their cotton. Most of the upper classes in England, as we have seen, did sympathize with the South. But the English common people hated slavery, and when they saw that the North was fighting to destroy it, there was no longer any danger that their govern- ment would help the Confederacy. Without such foreign aid to break the blockade, the cause of the South was hopeless. Moreover, the freeing of the slaves quickened the zeal of the antislavery men in the North, and henceforth they fought with greater energy and determination than ever. We must remember that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves in the border slave states which remained true to the Union, or even in those parts of the seceded states The where the authority of the United States had been restored, thirteenth Early in the war Lincoln tried to persuade the slaveholders in ^q t^e Con- the border states to free their slaves on the condition that they stitution should be paid for them by the federal government, but they 446 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME The great leader refused to listen to this proposition. After the Emancipation Proclamation the states of West Virginia^ Missouri, and Mary- land abolished slavery within their borders. In January, 1865, Congress proposed the thirteenth amendment to the Constitu- tion. This amendment provides that: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States, or in any place subject to their jurisdiction." By December, 1865, three-fourths of the states had ratified this amendment, and it became a part of the supreme law of the land. Slavciy thus passed away in the United States forever. Abraham Lincoln. — Edwin Markham, one of our Ameri- can poets, fitly calls Lincoln "the Captain with the mighty heart," and says of him that "When the step of earthquake shook the house, Wrenching the rafters from their ancient hold, He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again The rafters of the Home." Side by side with Washington, the father of our aountry, our people will always honor Lin- coln because he preserved the Union and gave it a new birth of freedom. When he became president in 1861 Lincoln was an untried and little known man. Many Lincoln and people doubted his fitness for the great task before him. But the people the strength of the tall, homely Westerner who had grown to manhood on the frontiers of Indiana and Illinois, was soon apparent. Lincoln's three chief advisers, William H. Seward, secretary of state, Sahnon P. Chase, secretary of treasury, and Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war, were all able and forceful men, yet they quickly discovered that the president was the master spirit of the administration. Some of th(.^ politicians found fault with Lincoln, but the common ©Keystone View Co., MeadvUle, Pa. Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln As preserved in the Lincoln Memorial, HodgensviUe, Kentucky ABRAHAM LINCOLN 447 people soon learned to love and trust the honest, tactful, and patient yet resolute man in the White House, and their confi- dence in his wisdom and in his patriotism grew as long as he lived. When the time came for the presidential election of 1864 a few dissatisfied Republican politicians wanted to set Lincoln aside, but the people would not listen to them and the president The election was renominated almost without opposition. The supporters of Lincoln in 1864 called themselves the Union party. This party, which includec manv war Democrats as well as the Republicans, declared in the plainest terms for the restoration of the Union and the destruction of slavery. Andrew Johnson, a loyal Democr-at of Tennessee, was named for the vice-presi- dencj^ The Democrats said in their platform that the war to preserve the Union was a failure and that it ought to be stopped. But General McClellan, thei^candidate for the presi- dency, declared that he could not look his old comrades in the face and say that, and insisted that no peace could be permanent without Union. The campaign of 1864 resulted in the triumphant reelection of Lincoln. On March 4, 1865, Lincoln took the oath of office as presi- dent for a second time. The short address which he made on that occasion is one of the most beautiful in all literature. Lincoln's Speaking of the North and of the South he said, ''Both read second the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes ^^ggg His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged." Of the approaching end of the war Lincoln said: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 448 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME The death of Lincoln on to finish the work we arc in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Just a month after Lincoln began his second term, he walked through the streets of Richmond after the Confederates aban- doned that citv. The end of 3 CITlTr © Keystone View Co., Meadville, Pa. Ford's Theatre in which Lincoln was shot, Washington, D. C. the war was at hand. In a few days there came the news of Lee's surrender. But in the midst of their joy over the coming of peace, the people whom Lincoln had led through four awful years of war were suddenly called upon to mourn him "with the passion of an angry grief." On the evening of April 14, 1865, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln went with two young friends to Ford's Theatre in Washington. During the play a dissipated and fanat- ical actor named Booth entered the president's box from the rear and without Lincoln through the head. Leaping upon Sic semper tyrannis." The uncon- to a house across the street, "Now he belongs to the warning shot Mr the stage he shouted scious victim was carried where he died the next morning ages," said Stanton, Lincoln's great war secretary, as he stood in tears by the bedside of his fallen chief. The deep national sorrow caused by Lincoln's death is best pictured in Walt Whitman's noble poem, "0 Captain! My Captain!" O Captain! My Captain! Our feai-ful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; ABRAHAM LINCOLN 449 But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain Ues, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths — for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here, Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck You've fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring O bells! But I, with mournful tread. Walk the deck my Captain lies. Fallen cold and dead. Many writers have told the fascinating story of Lincoln's rise from the rude log cabin in Kentucky in which he was born to the foremost place in our nation in the most critical "The first hour in its history. No American biography is more inspiring. American" Among the numerous estimates of Lincoln's life and character in prose and verse perhaps the finest is that of Lowell in his immortal "Commemoration Ode." Such was he, our Martyr-Chief, Whom late the Nation he had led, With ashes on her head, Wept with the passion of an angry grief: Forgive me, if from present things I turn To speak what in my heart will beat and burn. And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan. 450 THE COUNTRY IN WAR TIME Repeating us by rote: For him her Old- World moulds aside she threw, And, choosing sweet clay from the breast Of the unexhausted West, With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, \^'ise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. How beautiful to see Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, \\'ho loved his charge, but never loved to lead; One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, Not lured by any cheat of birth. But by his clear-grained human worth. And brave old wisdom of sincerity! They knew that outward grace is dust; They could not choose but trust In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill. And supple-tempered will That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. Great captain's with their guns and drums. Disturb our judgment for the hour, But at last silence comes; These all are gone, and standing Uke a tower, Our children shall behold his fame. The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American. CHAPTER XXIII The Recovery of the Nation The Home-Coming of the Soldiers. — When the Civil War was over the soldiers on both sides returned to their homes. The defeated Confederates were permitted to go home at once The armies upon their promise not to fight any more against the Union, disbanded The huge Union army was disbanded more slowly. The troops of Grant and Sherman were brought to Washington, where for two days they marched in triumphal review through the streets of the national capital. Then as rapidly as the work could be done the men who had saved the Union were mustered out and sent to their homes. For months the trains were filled with returning soldiers. Every nook and corner of the North welcomed the home-coming veterans. Within a year nearly a million men had gladly turned from the ways of war to the peaceful pursuits of civil life. The nation did not forget the men who had borne the heat and burden of battle. The government gave generous pensions to those who were disal^led by wounds or by the hardships of The "old army life. Many ''old soldiers" became the leaders in the soldiers industrial and political life of their communities. Soon associa- tions of veterans, like the Grand Army of the Republic, were organized to continue the comradeship formed in the army and to keep alive the memories of the war. We have seen how the industries of the North had prospered during the war. There was work for all, and most of the return- ing Union soldiers soon found places on the farms or in the work- In the North shops and offices of their section. Those whom life in the army had unsettled and given a taste for adventure w^ent to the West where they established new homes on the frontier or helped con- struct the Union Pacific Railroad, which was built just after the war to connect the valley of the Mississippi with the Pacific Coast. Far different was the home-coming of the soldiers of the South. Slowly and painfully they tramped homeward through a land ravaged by war. Upon their arrival they faced poverty. In the South for the war had taken from them everything that they possessed 451 452 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION The plan of the President except the land. It required the toil of years to rebuild the industries of their section. Their former slaves were free, and the two races must learn the difficult less6n of how to live and work together in their new relation. Practically all authority except that of the victorious Union army had ceased to exist in the South, and there was pressing need for the reconstruction of state and local governments that could maintain law and order and protect life and property. The Reconstruction of the State Govern- ments in the South. — Lincoln had begun the work of reconstructing the state governments in the South before his death. He held that the war had been fought to prove that states could not lawfully withdraw from the Union, but he said that the states of the Confederacy were out of their right relation to the Union. His great heart was filled with the spirit of forgiveness for the southern people, and he wanted to bring the se- ceded states back to their old relation to the Union as gently and quickly as possible. For the most part Andrew Johnson, the new president, carried on Lincoln's plans. As soon as the war was over, the southern ports were opened to commerce, the duties were collected in them, and the United States postal service was n^sumed. Johnson appointed provisional or tempo- rary governors in each conquered state under whose direction the white voters— with the exception of the leaders in secession who were not permitted to take part in the work of recon- struction—elected state conventions to revise the state consti- tutions. Then elections were held at which local and state Andrew Johnson RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH 453 officers and members of the national House of Representatives were chosen. The new state legislatures met promptly, ratified the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery, and elected United States senators. When these things were done President Johnson thought that the work of reconstruction was complete and that the representatives of the southern states ought to be allowed to return to their old places in Congress. But when Congress met in December, 1865, it refused to admit the representatives from the southern states. There Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner Leaders in Congress during the reconstruction period. were several reasons for this action. The members of Congress Congress declared that the president had exceeded his authority in what rejects ^ he had done. They said that it was the right of Congress to ;^oi.^ decide how the state governments in the South should be reconstructed. They felt that men who were officers in the Confederate army in March ought not to be members of the national Congress in December. The leaders in Congress, like Thaddeus Stevens in the House of Representatives and Charles Sumner in the Senate, lacked Lincoln's forgiving spirit and wanted the South to suffer for what it had done. Then nearly all the new southern representatives were Democrats and the Republican majority in Congress was not eager to see its control 454 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION threatened by the admission of so many members of the opposite pohtical faith. The wise and kind Ljncohi might have per- suaded Congress to accept his plan for reorganizing the South, but the tactless, quarrelsome, and obstinate Johnson soon lost all influence over that body. Moreover, when Congress met in 1865 the people of the North were especially indignant at the recent acts of the new The rights of state governments in the South. No sooner were these govern- thefreedmen nients formed than they faced the serious task of controlling the negroes to whom the war had given their freedom. Many of the freedmen, as the former slaves were now called, refused to work and wandered aimlessly about the country or drifted into the towns where they were often disorderly and sometimes criminal. In their alarm at this condition of affairs the southern people promptly passed laws to restrain the negro population. Young negroes were assigned to guardians, usually their former owners, for whom they must work for a time in return for their board and clothes. Vagrant negroes or tramps were fined and compelled to work for the man who paid their fine. The southern white people thought that such laws were absolutely necessary in order to protect their country from the lawlessness of a large body of idle negroes. To the people of the North these laws looked like an effort to restore slavery under another name, and Congress resolved that the states of the South should not return to their old places in the Union until the rights of the freedmen were adequately protected. In carrying out this purpose Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill, which gave the freedmen the protection of the The ^ federal government. The substance of this law was soon made amendment ^ P^^"^ °^ ^^^ fourteenth amendment to the Constitution. This amendment began by declaring that, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." This made it clear that the freedmen were citizens. The fourteenth amendment then went on to say : "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- erty, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It PRESIDENT JOHNSON-CONGRESS QUARREL 455 was the plain intention of this amendment to protect the freedmen in all their civil rights. The fourteenth amendm(>nt did not give the freedmen the right to vote, but it did say that if any state refused them that right its representation in Congress should be proportionally The South reduced. The southern states were given to und(>rstan(l that if rejects this they would ratify this amendment to the Constitution they would be restored to their places in the Union. Nearly all of them, however, rejected the fourteenth amendment, and in 1867 Congress took their reconstruction entirely into its own hands and began that work all over again by passing the Reconstruction acts. Under the plan of reconstruction provided in these acts, the seceding states, except Tennessee which had been restored already to the Union, were divided into five military districts, The plan of each of which was put under the command of a general in the Congress army. This military governor was to hold an election in each state at which all male citizens, white and black alike, except those excluded for engaging in rebellion against the United States, were to vote. At these elections the people were to choose delegates to state conventions which were to make new state constitutions giving the negroes the right to vote. Later, to make negro suffrage certain and permanent, it was put into the Constitution of the United States in the words of the fifteenth amendment: "The right of citizens of the United The fifteenth States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United »™^" "^^" States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was not until 1870 that the last of the southern states was finally restored to its old relation to the Union under this plan of Congress. The Quarrel between President Johnson and Congress.— In time of war the president exercises greater power than usual because he is the commander-in-chief of the army and navy. Jhe^.^^^^ Congress is apt to be jealous of this increased authority of the ^^^ president and to try to deprive him of it upon ihv return of Congress peace. This jealousy of the power of the president was one reason, though not the most important, why Congress reject(>(l President Johnson's plan for reorganizing the southern states. Johnson was very angry when Congress failed to agree with him in this matter and denounced that body in coars- and violent 456 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION Johnson's conduct language. Though he was honest and patriotic, the president was narrow-minded and headstrolig. Unfortunately for the country, he lacked Lincoln's patience, wisdom, and power to feel sympathy for men who differed from him, and to win them to his support. President Johnson's quarrel with Congress, which began in 1865, continued with growing bitterness on both sides throughout his term. Johnson believed in the rights of the states and wanted to defend them against the encroachments of the federal govern- The Tenure of Office Act A Ticket to the Impeachment of President Johnson ment. He had risen from a very humble position in the moun- tains of East Tennessee, and like most poor white men of the South, he despised the negroes and had little sympathy with the purpose of the North to protect the rights of the freedmen. He vetoed the Civil Rights Bill and the Reconstruction acts, but Congress passed those measures over his veto by a two- thirds vote in each house. In a further effort to limit Johnson's power, Congress likewise passed a Tenure of Office Act in spite of his veto. The Constitution gives the president the power to appoint, with the consent of the Senate, nearly all the important officers of the government. Our presidents had always had the power to remove from office any appointive officer except the judges, who serve for life or during good behavior. But by the Tenure of Office Act, the consent of the Senate was required for RISE AND FALL OF THE CARPETBAGGERS 457 removals as well as for appointments. By tliis law Congress hoped to prevent Johnson from removing the officers who were favorable to its plans in the South. President Johnson believed that the Tenm-e of Office Act was unconstitutional, and when Edwin M. Stanton, the secretary of war, disobeyed his orders, he removed him from Johnson office. In 1868 the House of Representatives impeached John- impeached son for this act. After a long trial in the Senate, at wliich acquitted Chief Justice Chase presided, thirty-five senators voted for conviction and nineteen for acquittal. As a two-thirds vote is required to convict in cases of impeachment, a single vote saved Johnson from conviction and his consequent removal from office. It is now generally thought that his conviction would have been unwise, because it might have encouraged future Congresses to try to remove by impeachment presidents with whom they failed to agree in politics. The Rise and Fall of the Carpetbaggers.— When the Civil War was over, a few northern men went to Uve in the South because they liked the country, wanted to have a hand in The "carpet- rebuilding it, and hoped to profit by the development of its baggers" rich resources. After the negroes were given the right to vote, man}^ dishonest Repu})lican politicians in the North hastened southward in the hope of winning offices and money for tiiem- selves through the aid of the illiterate freedmen. Most of the newcomers from the North were poor, and the southern people scornfully called them all "carpetbaggers" l)ecause it was said that they brought all their possessions in a valise made of carpet. The great mass of the new negro voters were densely ignorant. Few of them possessed the intelligence and good judgment to manage their own affairs wisely, much less the Carpet- public business of the communities and states in which th(\v Jjg^es*° lived. Under these circumstances the carpetl)aggers and a few control the unscrupulous southern white men, who were called "scalawags", South in contempt, by their neighbors, found it an easy matter to con- trol the negro vote. They taught the freedmen that t heir former masters would make slaves of them again at the first opportu- nity, and that the onlv way in which the negro could guard his freedom was to vote the Republican ticket. For several years the carpetbaggers and their negro followers were in complete 458 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION control of most of the states in the South. The white poUticians held most of the higher positions, but many negroes were elected to office. The evils of carpetbagger rule in the South are almost beyond description. The illiterate negro office-holders had no Their rule understanding of the duties of their positions. There were was ignorant counties in Mississippi in which not a single justice of the peace could write his name. Only twenty-two out of one hundred and fifty-five members of one legislature in South Carolina and corrupt A Carpetbagger Legislature in Session could read and write, and more than two-thirds of the same body were so poor that they paid no taxes. Many of the carpetbaggers were dishonest, and the negro politicians quickly learned to profit by their example. The local and state govern- ments were filled with foolish extravagance, bribery, and graft. The members of the legislatures voted themselves large salaries, in some cases spent excessive amounts to furnish the state Capitols and other public buildings, and th(ni stole the furniture, and, in one instance at least, maintained a restaurant at the capitol at which they could get food, cigars, and expensive liquors at public expense. All this shameless extravagance and waste had to be paid RISE AND FALL OF THE CARPETBAGGERS 459 for by the taxpayers and taxes were soon excessively high. In five years of carpetbagger rule in Mississippi the state tax rate It meant increased foui'teenfold. In many cases there was a similar in- ^'^^ *^^®^ crease in the county tax rate. When the farmers and planters who were impoverished by the war could not pay these heavy taxes their land was seized and sold to get the money. One- fifth of all the land in Mississippi, for instance, chang(>d hands in this way. The greedy politicians who were robl)ing the state bought such land, often almost "for a song." Besides the large amounts which they raised by taxation, the carpetbagger governments borrowed vast sums by selling the bonds of the states. Most of this borrowed money was wasted or stolen in connection with schemes for internal improvements, and in the end the states had little to show for it. In a few years the carpetbaggers and their negro followers brought most of the southern states to the verge of financial ruin. But the white people of the South found the social humilia- tion of the reconstruction days harder to bear than their poverty. Under the influence of their leaders from the North, the negroes And race began to think that they were the social equals of their former ^atjed in the masters, and to demand the right to ride in the same cars, to live at the same hotels, and to send their children to the same schools as the white people. The white men of the South furiously resented every suggestion of .social equality between the two races and fought against it with every power which they still poss(>sscd. The flames of race hatred were kindled and deeds of violence were done on both sides. If a tree may be judged by its fruit, the action of Congress in giving tiie right to vote to all the freedmen in the South at once was one of the most unwise and harmful policies ever adopted in our country. At last the time came when the white people of the Soutli could no longer endure the misrule under which they lived and they resolved to stop it at any cost. As the United States The^^^^ troops, still stationed in their midst, prevented open attacks ^^^ upon the carpetbagger governments, the southern people wen^ driven to accomphsh their puipose by other means. Secret societies were formed whose object was to protect the people from the lawless element among the negroes, keep the freedmen from voting, and drive the carpetbaggers out of the country One of these societies, the Ku-Klux Klaii, gn>w to be a gr(>at 460 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION The white race recovers control The solid South The recon struction of industry A change in southern farming organization which spread over several of the southern states. Disguised in long robes and hideous masks, the members of the Klan rode about the country at night frightening and threaten- ing the superstitious negroes and warning their white leaders to leave. When these methods failed to accomplish their pur- pose, harsher ones were used, and men were flogged and some- times shot or hanged. Angered by these acts of violence, Congress adopted severe measures against the Ku-Klux Klan. At the same time many of its own members, who saw that its methods were breeding a spirit of lawlessness in the South, abandoned it, and by 1873 the order had ceased to exist. Though the Ku-Klux Klan was short-hved it accomplished its purpose. Many of the negroes were so intimidated by it that they no longer took any part in politics. About the same time many southern white men, who had been denied all voice in the government because of their participation in rebellion, regained the right to vote. One by one the control of the southern states fell into the hands of their white inhabitants, and when the United States troops were finally withdrawn from the South in 1877, the last carpetbagger government dis- appeared. Because the carpetbaggers and negroes were Repub- licans, nearly all native white voters in the South became Democrats, and the South has continued solidly Democratic ever since the close of the reconstruction period. The Growth of a New South. — By 1877 the work of political reconstruction was finished and the last carpetbagger had been driven from power. By that time the Union was fully reestab- lished and the white people of the southern states had recovered complete control of their local and state governments. But the task of rebuilding the ruined industries of the South, and of restoring business prosperity in that section, lasted a great deal longer. For ten or fifteen years after the return of peace in 18G5, times were hard for many of the people in the states which had formed the Confederacy. Then better days began to dawn, and slowly there grew up under free laljor a new and more prosperous South than the old slave times had ever known. In the first years after the Civil War a few of the planters tried to work their plantations as they had before 1861. But most of them either had no money to hire labor, or found the work of the freedmen very unsatisfactory. In the course of THE GROWTH OF A NEW SOUTH 461 time most of the large plantations were broken up in- to small farms and sold or rented. The poor white men of the South who had never been able to com- pete with slave labor now began to buy land, and in time many of them became prosperous farmers. A few of the more thrifty negroes also became land-owners, but most negro farmers were "croppers," that is they raised cotton on rented land for a share of the crop. This system of farming is still widely prevalent in the cotton states. As years passed, moi'e aci-es were biought under the plow, fei-tilizers weie used, and better methods of cultivation were introduced, with the result that our country is now producing about three times as many bales of cotton annually as it ever did in a single year with slave labor. Before the Civil War, cotton, tobacco, and sugar were the staple crops of tlic Diversified South. But witii smaller agriculture farms and the wider us<^ of farm machinery agriculture began to be diversified. Sugar-cane Growing Morc corn was raiscnl and From Underwood & Underwooi, .Veil' York. Ring Spinning-frames in a Cotton-miU 462 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION more domestic animals were kept^ Some rice had been grown since colonial times in South Carolina. Now great quantities of it are raised in Louisiana and Texas. Florida is famous for its oranges and its grapefruit. The climate of the South Atlan- tic states is peculiarly favorable to the growth of vegetables of all kinds, and truck-farming is widely prevalent in them. The northern cities furnish a market for vast quantities of south- ern strawberries and watermelons long before these delicious fruits ripen in the higher latitudes. The New South is no longer a land Lumber, ou, JIMIM «^>r.»-»»i^M^- of a single industry coal, and iron i^^^mSM" i^^^^HrL The mountains which extend from Maryland to north- ern Georgia and Alabama are cov- ered with splendid forests and under- laid with a wealth of coal and iron. Oil and gas abound in many places there. Their rivers provide abundant water-power which can be easily con- verted into elec- tricity. One of the richest oil fields in America is located in Oklahoma and Texas, and all the Gulf states are rich in timber. Phosphate rock of inestimable value for fertilizer is found in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida. The existence of most of these natural resources was well known before the Civil War, but their development was not seriously undertaken until a new industrial life, based upon free labor, began to grow up in the former slave states. Now the South mines its own coal and iron, while oil-wells dot the plains of Oklahoma and From Unrlervonil t J' inhru-ood. New York. A Coal Miner at Work THE GROWTH OF A NEW SOUTH 463 Texas, and busy sawmills cut the pine of the Carolinas and Georgia and the cypress of Mississippi and Louisiana into the finest lumber. With its wealth of such raw materials and sources of power, as cotton, timber, iron, coal, and wat(M--iwwer, the south(M-n section of our country lacked only free labor and railroads in The rise order to become a great manufacturing region. The Civil of manufac- War set its labor free, and a few years later the South entered the S^outh upon an era of rapid railroad building. Soon iron foundries and cotton-mills began to spring up as if by magic. By 1900 the Carolinas spun more than one-half of the cotton grown upon their plantations. Sleepy villages grew to be bustling towns, while Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Nashville became great manufacturing cities. Twenty years after the Civil War closed, Henry W. Grady, an eloquent Georgian, said, "We have found out that the free negro counts for more than he did as a slave. We have challenged your spinners in Massa- chusetts and your iron-workers in Pennsylvania. We have fallen in love with work." This marvelous growth of a New South has not been confined to business alone. Free pubhc schools for both the white people and the negroes have been established in all the Progress in southern states, and illiteracy among both races has been ® greatly diminished. The old colleges and universities of the South have grown sti'onger, and many new ones have been founded. Higher schools for the negroes, like those at Hampton, Virginia, and Tuskegee, Alabama, have done a useful work. While part of the negroes are still in a backward condition, many of them, have become intelligent and industrious citizens. The negroes in the South have acquired considei-ahle property during their first half century of freedom, but for many years they have had little part in the political Hfe of the Jj^Jj.^^5^°^^ country. After the carpetbagger governments were overthrown, ^^^^^' the freedmen were kept from the polls by threats or cheated in counting the votes if they persisted in voting. After a time the best white men of the South saw that so much violence and fraud in elections was debasing their own race, and they resolved to disfranchise the negroes by lawful means. The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution said that th(^ right to vote should not be denied "on account of race, color, or previous 464 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION The election of 1868 condition of servitude," but it did not forbid educational or property tests for voters. Since 1890 nearly all the southern states have deprived the mass of the negroes of the franchise by such tests. In some states the qualifications for voting have been so worded, that while applying to all negroes, they do not apply for the present to all white men. Politics After the Civil War. — We have already noted how the Republicans in Congress quarreled with President Johnson over the political recon- struction of the southern states and failed in their attempt to remove him from office by impeach- ment. The Republicans eagerly looked forward to the election of 1868 be- cause it would give them a chance to choose a president in sympathy with their policy in the South. When the time came they unanimously nominated General Grant for the presidency, and his popularity as the hero of the Civil War made him an easy victor over Horatio Seymour of New York, his Demo- cratic opponent. Grant was one of the greatest generals in our history, but his years in the White The "Liberal House added nothing to his fame. He carried out the ruthless Republican" reconstruction policy of his party, but before the close of his first term, many Republicans began to question the wisdom of that policy and to cherish a kinder feeling for the long-suffer- ing people of the South. Other Republicans were dissatisfied with the high tariff which had been imposed during the war and wanted to reduce it, and still others were eager to attack the evils of the spoils system which had been growing steadily Ilarr ct" Eu'ing, Washington, D. C. Ulysses S. Grant movement POLITICS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR 465 worse ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. In 1872 all these discontented elements called themselves "Liberal Republicans," and tried to form a new party. The Democrats joined them in nominating Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, for president. Greeley was one of the greatest editors that our country has ever had, but he was visionary and unpractical, and lacked nearly every qualification for the presidency. He was easily beaten by Grant, who was renominated by the regular Republicans. Grant's second term in the presidency was even less creditable than his first. The years of carpetbagger misrule in the South were a time of much dishonesty in the political life of the whole nation. The governments of many of the rapidly growing northern cities fell into the hands of ignorant and corrupt politicians. In New York a gang of such men, led by "Boss" Tweed, con- trolled the government for some years and robbed the city of millions of dollars. President Grant was as honest a man as ever lived, but he was a poor judge of men and more than one unworthy politician imposed on him and secured an appointment to office. The misdeeds of some of these corrupt pubhc servants resulted in several political scandals durnig Grant's second term in the presidency. Even his secr(>taiy of" war was impeached for accepting bribes. These dish(.n»>st oracticesof some officials injured the Republican party, and the Democrats won the House of Representatives in 18/4 and cherished high hopes of electing the next president. In 1876 the Republicans nominated Clovernor liulhcrlord 3U Corrupt politics in Grant's ad- ministration Horace Greeley 466 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION election of 1876 B. Hayes of Ohio for the presidency. Samuel J. Tilden of The disputed New York was the Democratic candidate. Hayes was a quiet but able and honest man who had been a brave general in the Civil War. Tilden was a brilliant lawyer who had won fame by the successful prosecution of the notorious "Tweed Ring" in New York City. The election was very close. Tilden had one hundred and eighty-four undisputed electoral votes and a decided majority of the popular vote. Both parties claimed to have carried the states of South Carolina, Flo- rida and Louisiana. If the electoral votes of all these states were coun- ted for Hayes he would have Ode hundred and eighty-five and would be elected. The two houses in Congress could not agree as to which were the rightful votes from the three states in question, and finally the matter was left to an Electoral Commission composed of five senators, five members of the House of Representatives, and five justices of the Sup- reme Court. It hap- pened that eight members ot the Electoral Commission were Republicans and that seven were Democrats, and by a vote of eight to seven it decided that the Republicans had carried all the disputed states. By this narrow margin Hayes became president in 1877. Our Relations with Foreign Countries. — The years when our country was just recovering from the shock of the Civil War were a critical period in our relations with other nations. Shortly after the war l^egan in 1861, France, England, and Spain, joined in sending troops to Mexico to protect the rights The Electoral Commission Rutherford B Hayes The French in Mexico OUR RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES 467 of their people in that country. As soon as their purpose was accomphshed, England and Spain withdrew; but Napoleon III, the ruler of France, overthrew the Republic of Mexico, and set up an empire in its stead. He placed Maximilian, the brother of the emperor of Austria, on the throne, and maintained his authority with French bayonets. This action was a sei-ious violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but with a civil war on its hands, the United States could do nothing at the time but protest. When the war was over in 1865 our government told Napoleon III in the plainest words that the United States would not tolerate a foreign monarchy in Mexico and that he must The Alaska Purchase of 1867 withdraw his troops from that country. A large army under The Monroe General Sheridan was sent toward the Mexican frontier, and ^octrme^^^ Napoleon soon promised to withdraw his forces, \\hen tlu! last French soldiers left Mexico in 1867, the Mexicans promptly captured the Emperor Maximilian and executed him. The same year that the French withdrew from Mexico Russia unexpectedly offered to s(>ll Alaska to tlie I nited States, and Secretary Seward promptly acc(>ptrd the P--P'f' ;;" Jhej,,,, ,, Not much was known of this vast northern region at t"'it j^^gka time, but it was supposed to be a barren waste of litte value except for its fur trade. Some people found fault with tlu> gov- ernment for buying a "vast area of rocks and ice, but^ as Russia had been a warm friend of the Union during the ( nil 468 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION The "Alabama Claims" War there was little serious objection to ratifying the treaty of purchase. In acquiring Alaska we made a better bargain than we knew, for its furs, fish, gold, coal, and timber are worth many times the $7,200,000 which we paid Russia for the country. We have seen how the Alabama and other commerce- destroying cruisers built in England for the Confederacy inflicted great damage upon American shipping during the Civil War. The United States declared that Great Britain I The Arbitration Court at Geneva Where the "Alabama Claims" were settled by a tribunal of five men The Geneva award had violated her neutrality in permitting these ships to be built for the South, and insisted that she ought to pay for the damage which they did. For some years the British govern- ment refused to Usten to this demand, but in 1871 the two nations made a treaty at Washington in which it was agreed that the "Alabama Claims," as they were called, should be submitted to arbitration. A tribunal of five men — one appointed by the United States, one appointed by Great Britain, and one each by Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil, met at Geneva, Switzer- land, and after listening to arguments by both sides decided that Great Britain should pay the United States $15,500,000 OUR RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES 469 Umltru^Miil A- U'idrrwood Gold Miners at Work in Alaska 470 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION for the losses our ship-owners suffered from the Alabama and other cruisers. This decision was verj^ unpopular in England, but the British government promptly paid the money. By arbitratmg the "Alabama Claims," and other disputes then and since, Great Britain and the United States have shown the world that there is a better way than war to settle differences between nations. CHAPTER XXIV New Ways of Working axd Living The Age of Machinery.— In an earlier chapter of this book we studied how the Industrial Revolution, as the transition from hand labor to machine production is called, WTOught The great changes in our ways of making things and in our mode Industrial of life. We saw how manufacturing was steadily transferred ^^° ^^°^ from the home and the small shop to the factory, how cities grew up around these factories, and how the men engaged in industry began to be divided into capitalists and laborers, each striving for a larger share of what they jointly produced. Wliile these changes in the industrial life of our country' began more than a century ago, the}' have been going on during the last fifty years more rapidly than ever before, and most of the important questions in our later history have grown out of them. An Enghsh traveler who visited the United iStates in 1865 was astonished at the way in which .\mericans were making machines to do all kinds of work. "We find," he said, "a Machines fui machine even to peel apples; another to beat eggs; a third p^^^^ to clean knives; a fourth to WTing clothes." This American spirit of invention has been more active than ever in recent years. It has given us machines to milk cows, to dig ditches, to sweep floors, to record sales, to add columns of figures, and to do a thousand other things which were done by hand in the days of the Civil War. This ever-widening use of inachiner>^ is found in every department of our industrial life. For the last half century the invention of new agricultural tools and machines has gradu- Farming ally freed farm hfe of much of the hard work of earlier days. The progressive farmer now plows his fields with a sulky plow, fertihzos them with the aid of a manure-sproader, plants the seed with a drill, cultivates the growing crops with a riding cultivator, and har\'ests the grain with a self-l)inding harvester. The threshing-machine, the cotton-gin, and the corn-husker prepare the various crops for market. The mower, the hay- tedder, the horse-rake, the hay-loader, and the horse-fork do 471 472 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING Manufac- turing the heavy work in haymaking. On many farms, pumping water, sawing wood, cutting fodder, shelhng corn, making butter, and many other things which were once done slowly and labori- ously by hand, are now done quickly and easily by machinery. But it is in manufacturing that machinery has come to reign supreme. Here the human hand now does little but guide the material to the machine, while the work is done by the tireless energy of steam or electricity. The various spinning- machines and power-looms, whose introduction began the revo- Baling Hay on Irrigated Land in Arizona 'il Lt Lndiiaood, ^. Y lution in the textile industry one hundred and fifty years ago, have been greatly improved by more modern inventors. Nearly every article of clothing that we wear is made by a machine. Other machines make pins, screws, nails, and many other household necessities in countless numbers.. Simple old-time tools like the shovel, the hammer, and the plane have been greatly enlarged and driven by steam. New tools have been invented for almost every conceivable purpose, and then machines have been made to make these tools. THE AGE OF MACHINERY 473 Nor has this marvelous development in the use of machinery been limited to the farm and the factory. The business office is equipped with dictaphones and typewriters. Typ<' is set hy Business machines, and daily papers are printed upon presses which print, cut, paste, fold, and count six- ty thousand six- teen-page papers in a single hour. The paper upon which the news is printed is made of wood which passes through great pul{) mills and paper mills on its way from the forest to the printing-house. moving-picture machine; have their part in the amusement and the education of the people. The general use of machinery in every line of industry has created Iron and an enormous demand ^*^^' for the iron and steel out of wliieli most of the machines are made. Foitunatel}' our coun- try is very rich in de- jK)sits of iron ore. Hut it would be diriicull to utilize this wenltiiof ore without the lielp(»f ma- chinery. Htcam shovf'Is load it upon the cars or boats which carry it from tlie mines to the mills. \n the iron and steel mills great blast-furnaces reduce the ore to pig- h'fum i'lilrwji 1 Jt: Uiuinwuud. X. Y. Electric Milking-machines at Work The phonograph, thestereopticon, and the CuaiUny oj Fcdtral ^HuiAiuilduiy Co. Making Steel Hot bars passing through the rolling-mill. 474 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING Early sources power of Oil and gas iron, some of which is converted into steel by other processes. Powerful machines draw the steel into rods or roll it into sheets. In recent years great quantities of steel have been used in build- ing ships, railroads, bridges, and for the framework of buildings. Hoisting machines and traveling cranes are used in handling this heavy structural material. Truly, the latest years of our history may well lie called the age of machinery. New Sources of Power. — But the modern age of machinery would have been impossible without power to drive the machines. Many small tools and machines are worked by hand and most agricultural implements are still drawn by horses, but from the first the machinery in factories was run by water power or by the steam-en- gine, and steam still drives the wheels of most of our factories and locomotives. At first, wood was used as fuel for the steam-engine, but coal gradually took its place, and for many years the coal miner has provided the source of the greater part of the power which has made possible our manufac- tures and our commerce. About forty years ago, petroleum, nat- ural gas, and electricity began to be used to run machinery. Now they rival coal as sources of power, and they are destined to play a still larger part in the industrial life of the future. The first oil-well in the United States was bored in north- western Pennsylvania in 1859. Since then, petroleum, or coal- oil, has been found in nearly every section of the country. The oil fields of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and California are especially rich. By the process of refining, the crude petroleum is separated into kerosene, gasoline, and many other useful Bri/ant Studio, Fort Worth, Texas A Texas Oil Field Each derrick covers an oil-well from which the oil is pumped through pipe-lines to the refinery NEW SOURCES OF POWER 475 substances. The kerosene lamp came into use soon after petro- leum was put upon the market, and the gasoline stove a few years later. From the beginning natural gas was frequently found in boring for oil, but at first it was allowed to go to waste. After 1870 it began to b(> used for heating houses and lighting streets, and some years later as a fuel in mills and factories. Crude petroleum is now coming into use as fuel in locomotives and steamships. ' After experimenting for more than a century, European inventors made the first practical gas-engine about fifty years ago. The first successful one in the United States was built The gas- in 1873, and these engines have been constantly improved and engine increasingly used since that time. In the gas-engine the explo- sion or ver}^ rapid burning of a mixture of gas and air in the cylinder drives a piston which turns the wheels. The gas burned comes from gasoline, though alcohol can be used for the same purpose. The gas-engine has several decided advantages over the steam engine. It is simpler, safer, cleaner, can be started without tedious preparation, and can be operated l)y those who lack the knowledge and skill to run a steani-(>ngine. The gas-engine has a great variety of uses in factories and upon farms. Because of its small size and light weight it is especially fitted to furnish the motive power for driving automobiles, trucks, motor boats, and aeroplanes. Electricity is the most important of the new sources of power. We have seen how Samuel Morse's electric tele- graph was invented in 1837. In 186G Cyrus W. Field, after The age of years of patient effort, succeeded in establishing p:M-manent electricity telegraphic communication between ICurope and .America. A few years later the dynamo, a machine for making electricity cheaply and on a large scale, came into use in America. It was soon found that the new force could be utilized in many ways. It was first extensively used for lighting puriioses. In 1879 Thomas A. Edison gave us the first practical incandescent light. At that time gas made from coal had taken the place of the kero- sene lamp for illuminating purposes in cities, but since t hen wiier- ever the electric light is availabl(> it has steadily displaced all other methods of artificial lighting. About the time the electric light began to be used, Alexander Graham Hell nivenl.-d the electric telephone. It quickly came into connnon use. and ui 476 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING a few years men were talking from city to city. In 1899 an Italian named William Marconi brought to America a device for sending telegraph messages through the air, and three years later the first wireless message was flashed across the Atlantic. In 1885 the first electric trolley lines were built, and fifteen years later it would have been difficult to find a street-car drawn by horses in any American city. Soon electric railways were con- structed from town to town, and recently elec- tric locomotives began to be used on the railroads. Electric motors are also used in automobiles and for driving machinery in factories. The dynamos for generating electricity are driven by steam or .<;as-engines or by water power. Our supply of water power is almost unlimited, and it is cer- tain to be more and more widely used in the form of electricity in the fu- ture. Electric power has the peculiar advantage that it can be easily car- ried long distances by wire to the place where it is needed. It seems will be called the age Thomas A. Edison The greatest inventor of modern times. probable that the twentieth century of electricity. An Age of Railroads.— We have called the last fifty years of our history the age of machinery. It is just as truly an age The develop- of railroads. The ever-increasing products of our farms and ment of our factories, due in large part to the constantly widening use of railroads ^^^^ labor-saving machinery, would have little value if we did not have enough railroads to distribute them among the people of our own country or to carry them to the seaports from which they can be sent to foreign markets. There were about AN AGE OF RAILROADS 477 thirty thousand miles of raih-oacl in the United States in lS(i(). The Civil War did much to show our people their need of more and better facilities for transportation, and when peace came in 1865, they quickly turned their attention to this problem. The earlier railroads, many of which were short, were joined together to form great railway systems, so that for the first time it became possible to take long journeys without changing cars. New roads were built so rapidly that by 1880 the railway mileage of the country was more than three times as great as it had been when the Civil War began. © Keiislotie View Co., Mmdrillr. I'n. Power Dam and Locks in the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa The greatest undertaking of the y(>ars just after llic ("ivil War was the building of tiie first railroad across tlie continent. Ever since the gold seekers rushed to California in 1849 ni<«n Thejrst had dreamed of a railroad to join the Pacific Coast to the l',asl. ^^^^^^ ^^^ In 1862 Congress encouraged two private compaiues to under- continent take the gigantic task of Ijuilding such a road by lending then, large sums of monev and giving them vast tracts of land along the line of the proposed roadway. The first rails w<>iv laid on this road in 1864 and after the war the work progress.-,! more rapidly. One company worked westward up the valley ot the Platte River and the other eastwar.l across the SijM-ra IVevada Mountains. With infinite patie.we and great skill both com- 478 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING panies pushed steadily forward across deserts and over the passes of the Rocky Mountains until they met near Ogden, Utah, where the driving of a golden spike in May, 1869, marked the completion of the greatest feat of American engineering in the nineteenth century. In later years other railroads were built across the western mountains until now at least seven lines of steel bind the Far West to the rest of the countr3^ For some years after the Civil War prices were high, money was plentiful, and men were tempted to engage in all sorts of The Joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads This event marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad system. The panic of new enterprises in the hope of getting rich quickly. Much of IS'7^ this speculation was done with borrowed money, and when the high prices of war times fell, the people found it more and more difficult to pay their debts. The new railroads had been largely built with borrowed money, and at first some of them, especially in the West, did not have income enough to pay the interest on what they owed. Under these circumstances their bonds fell in value, and it became difficult to sell them. The greatest banking house in the country, that of Jay Cooke & Co., held great quantities of such bonds, and when it could not sell them it had to close its doors because it could not pay its debts. AN AGE OF RAILROADS 479 This failure marked the beginning of the disastrous panic of 1873. Soon other banks closed, business houses failed, factories were shut up, and many men were thrown out of work. Rail- road building almost ceased during this period of hard times. As the country recovered from the effects of the panic of 1873 the building of new railroads was resumed, and it has gone steadily forward ever since. Our ninety-three thousand miles Improve- of railroad in 1880 had doul^led by 1900, and within two decades ^''^^"ts in about 75,000 additional miles of track had been added to the tio^ A Trunk-line Railroad railroads of the United States. The improvement of railvyay service has kept pace with the growth in mileage. Parlor, dining, and sleeping cars add to the comfort of travel, aiu the air-brake and other inventions of George Wcstinghous.! have greatly increased the safety of fast trains. The refrig.-rator car makes it possible to S(^nd vegetables, fruit, meat, and (.Her per- ishable products long distances to market. The w<..k of the rail- roads in handling the bulk of tlHM.n<,r.nousi.nan< commerce ^^^ our country is supplemented by coastwise ships uh.cli ply f. on port to port, by vessels which carry vast ciuantities of ore, 480 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING The expansion industry Our enormous wealth The rate industrial progress wheat, and lumber on the great lakes, by numerous interurban trolley lines, and later by motor trucks which carry freight upon the public highways. Our Growing Wealth. — The last fifty years have witnessed a marvelous expansion in every line of industry in America. Every section of our country has shared in this growth. The of factories of the eastern and middle states have made more goods than ever before. A more diversified industry under a system of free labor has brought prosperity in a flood to the New South. The wheat, corn, hogs, and cattle of the prairie states have been pour- ing to market in an ever widening stream. The rich mineral resources of the Rocky Mountains have been revealed. Enterprise and industry have changed the Paci- fic Coast from a region of rough mining camps to a land of fertile grain fields, fruitful orchards, and splendid cities. The unparalleled industrial activity and expansion of the last half century have piled up wealth in our coun- try beyond anything ever known before in the history of the world. The United States, "with seven per cent, of the earth's area and six per cent, of its population, produces seventy per cent, of the corn, sixty per cent, of the cotton, thirty-five per cent, of the tobacco, and fifteen per cent, of the cattle. It leads in the production of coal, petroleum, copper, and iron." The total wealth of the country is now more than two hundred billion dollars, and it is growing by many billions every year. A careful study of the figures, page 482, will give a vivid im- pression of the wonderful industrial progress of the United States since the Civil War. In that table the numbers are all millions. Couih - / '■/ 1/ lona,!,, ( ,,ii;iir Mining Co. A Copper Mine in Butte, Montana America leads the world in the production of copper. OUR GROWING WEALTH 481 The progress of the United States in industry and the arts has been shown and wonderfully stimulated by th(> splendid displays of farm products, machinery, manufacturing goods, World's and the fine arts in the great expositions or world's fairs which Fair have been held at various times since the Civil W:u-. Tiie first of these was the Centennial Exposition at Philad(>lphia in 1870. At the Centennial Exposition a chorus of a tliousand voices sang Whittier's "Centennial Hymn." "Our fathers' God! from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand, We meet to-day, united, free. And loj'al to our land and Thee, To thank Thee for the era done, And trust Thee for tlic opening one. "Here, where of old, by Thy design. The fathers spake that word of Thine Whose echo is the glad refrain Of rended bolt and falling chain, To grace our festal time, from all The zones of earth our guests we call. "Be with us while the Now World greets The Old World thronging all its streets, Unveiling all the triumphs won By art or toil beneath the sun; And unto common good ordain This rivalshii) of hand ami brain. "Thou, who hast here in concord furled The war flags of a gathered world, Beneath our Western skies fulfill The Orient's mission of good-will. And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece, Send back its Argonauts of peace. "For art and labor met in truce. For beauty made the bride of use, We thank Thee; but, withal, we crave The austere virtues strong to save, The honor proof to place or gold, The manhood never bought nor sold! 482 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING "Oh make Thou us, through centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong; Around our gift of freedom draw The safeguards of Thy righteous law: And, cast in some diviner mould, Let the new cycle shame the old!" Other notable fairs of this kind were the Columbian Exposition or World's Fair at Chicago in 1893, the Pan-American Exposi- tion at Buffalo in 1901, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. A Scene at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Held in San Francisco, California 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 Millions uf population 39 50 03 7u 92 110 (estimated) Thousands of miles of railroad 52 93 160 194 244 265 Value of farm products in millions. . . . $1,958 $2,212 $2,400 $3,764 $8,900 $21,386(1918) Value of manufactured goods in millions $4,232 $5,369 $9,372 $13,014 $20,600 $24,246 (1915) Value of imports in millions $435 $667 $789 $849 $1,356 $3,100 (1918) Value of exports in millions $392 $835 $857 81,394 $1,744 $0,100(1918) Tons of steel made in millions 1 4 10 26 44(1918) Tons of coal mined in millions 29 63 140 240 411 085 (1918) Gals, of petroleum produced in millions 220 1,104 1,924 2,072 7,649 13,800 (1918) CHANGES IN OUR MODE OF LIFE 483 Louis in 1904, the Alaska- Yukon Exposition at Seattle in 1909, and the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915. The reasons for the rapid industrial development of our country in its later years are not hard to find. The United States is a vast and greatly diversified land. Nature has given Reasons it a rich soil, clothed it with splendid forests, and iiiddcn \^^ °"^. beneath its surface immense supplies of coal, iron, copper, and growth' oil. But the greatest reason for our unparalleled material prosperity is found in the character of the American people — in their intelligence, energy, inventive genius, daring enterprise, and eager absorption in business. ^HHiH a A ^it^mi 3v ^2 w alHI 4 S^^ "^ Li^pyifii '^-2IM HHL^"°^'"°^y|*7r '-^''^^■^.\ 1^ ^^j3Hj^«^ j^sL Kl Wl! m" ' The Old Way When one man performed by hand all the operations necessary to make a pair of shoes. Changes in Our Mode of Life.— Tiu> changes in industry during the last half century have influenced our ways of living even more than they have promoted our material progress and Our people prosperity. In the days when men manufactured goods in their ^^^^^^ own small shops, each workman who made a pair of shoes, or a workers wagon, or a watch planned the thing he was to make, fasliioned all its parts, and then fitted them together- to form iUo finished product. His daily task made him a more intelHgent. lli(»nglit- ful, and self-reliant man. With the coming of tlie larg(> factory all this was changed. The use of machinery brought (hvision of labor. The factory worker sp(Mids his days in operating a machine which may perform only one small part in turmng 484 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING out the completed article. Many of the machines are so simple that women and children can run them quite as well and more cheaply than men; and consequently large numbers of women and children have come to be employed in factories. Running simple machines for long hours every day tends to make mere machines of those who do it. If the large number of our people who now work in factories are to lie as good men and women as their ancestors were, they must have a short working day and wide opportunities for recreation and education to offset the deadening effect of their monotonous round of daily toil. The transition from hand labor to machine production The New Way Under the factory plan a worker performs but one operation in making the complete article has also wrought great changes in life on the American farm. Old-time In earlier days the farmer and the members of his family — in farm life addition to planting, cultivating, and harvesting the crops and caring for the domestic animals — churned butter, made cheese, canned or dried fruit and vegetables, slaughtered animals and cured meat, and made many of the tools and utensils used upon the farm or in the house. The boys and girls knew how to do many different kinds of work, because the old-time farm was a great school of manual training. The village shoemaker, the blacksmith, and the neighboring gristmill and sawmill furnished the farmer with most of the necessities of hfe that he could not make for himself. CHANGES IN OUR MODE OF LIFE 485 The rapid dcvolopment of the Industrial Revolution in the twentieth century has nearlj' destroyed the old-time farm life. The creameries and cheese factories, the great meat-packing Present-day establishments of Chicago, Kansas City, and Omaha, and the ^^"ning mills and machine shops of a hundred cities have taken over household industries. Shoes, flour, and lumber no longer come from village shops and mills but from the shoe factories of Massachusetts, the flour-mills of Minneapolis, and the sawmills of the Gulf States and of the Far Northwest. The farnicr no longer tries to produce everything that his family needs, but devotes himself to growing the staple crops best adapted to his soil and his market. These he sells for money, wdth which he buys the various neces- sities of life. As a result of this change each section of the country has dev(>l- opcd the kind of farming for which it is best fitted; truck growing on the Atlantic Coast, dairying near the great cities, the raising of cotton m the >outh, and the growing of winter wheat, corn, and live stock m the Middle West, and of spring wheat in Minnesota and the Dakotas. While a large part of the work of making things has been going from the farm and the villag<' shop to the factory, many farmers' sons and daughters have been following it m order to The growth secure employment. At the same time many newcoincrs from of Europe have settled in the manufacturing towns wh<-rc they found the greatest demand for their labor. As a result of these movements, many factory towns have growij to be large nUos '. Lumber Mills at lone, Washington 486 NEW WAYS OF WORKING AND LIVING car lines, elevated railroads and subways, and the increasing use of automobiles have quickened the growth of cities by enabling people to live at greater distances from their work in stores, offices, and factori(^s. Where it has not been easy for cities to expand over more territory they have grown up into ©flruin, /!r„.-<.,N. Y. A Picturesque View of Bellows Falls, Vermont A large manufacturing town that developed from a few small plants. the air by erecting "skyscraper" buildings from twenty to fifty stories high. New York City which is noted for its picturesque skyline with the outstanding great buildings is the home of the "sky scraper". Among the tall buildings which tower above the ordinary structures in that city are the Woolworth Building which is fifty-one stories and reaches a height of seven hun- dred and ninety-two feet, the Metropolitan Life Building Avith its fifty stories of seven hundred feet and the Singer Building of forty-one stories of six hundred and twelve feet. CHANGES IN OUR MODE OF LIFE 487 The factories have vastly muhiplicd and cheapened goods of every kind, and the raih'oads have made it possible to distribute General them to all parts of the social country. We have a far I a I Progress greater variety of food and many more comforts and conveniences in our homes than people enjoyed fiftj' years ago. In many instances the people of our growing cities have provi(l(>d themselves with beautiful parks, public libraries, and hospitals; while theaters, music halls, and moving-picture shows offer them anmse- ment at every turn. At the same time, free rural mail delivery, the inter- urban trolley car, the telephone, and the auto- mobile have been bringing country peoi^le nearer to- gether and making life on the farm far less lonesome than it was a generation or two ago. © Kci/.ituiu ritic Co., Miwlcillf, Pa. Woolwnrth Building, New York The tallest office building in the world. CHAPTER XXV The Vanishing Frontier The making of our country Westward march of the pioneer Occupying the Mississippi Valley The Conquest of the Continent. — The history of our country began when httle bands of Europeans first gained a foothold upon the eastern coast of America three hundred years ago. Behind these first settlements there lay a vast untamed conti- nent. Pushing ever westward, our people have steadily con- quered the wilderness, clearing away the forests, cultivating the fields, opening the mines, building roads, and laying the founda- tions of towns and cities. During the last fifty years this con- quest of the continent has been completed. It is no longer possible for a young man to go west, settle upon cheap public land, and grow up with the country. The frontier in the United States has disappeared forever. Before we read the last chapter in its history let us briefly review the story of the long and heroic westward march of the American pioneer. The Appalachian mountain system confined the colonists to the Atlantic seaboard for more than a century. Just before the Revolution, Boone, Robertson, and other bold frontiersmen, led the vanguard of a swarm of pioneers through the gaps of the Alleghanies into the forest lands in the upper valleys of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio. These hardy back- woodsmen and the steady stream of settlers which followed where they showed the way, built log cabins, fought the Indians, set up new governments, and in the course of time, added to the young nation the great states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Year after year the restless and the ambitious sought their fortunes in the West. Just after the War of 1812 a great wave of pioneers poured into the Mississippi Valley. The wheat and corn lands of the North and the cotton fields of the South began to be developed. Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, and Missouri were admitted into the Union between 1816 and 1821. During the next thirty years the other great agricultural states in the heart of the Mississippi Valley were occupied, and American pioneers crossed the border into Texas, which they won from Mexico and at last added to the United States. 488 MINING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION 489 In the meantime, roving fur traders, devoted missionaries, and adventm-ous army officers were finding the best trails across the continent. Soon after IStO a few pioneers began to make Winning the theii' way to the attractive lands in western Oregon, and the ^^ ^^^t discovery of gold in 1848 caused a rush of settlers to the Pacific Coast. California entered the Union in 1850, and Oregon became a state before the Civil War began. For a long time the vast region between Missouri and Cali- fornia w'as believed to be a land of dry plains and barren moun- K,l/^!o,u r-„. Co., M,:.,.h,ll.. I'.i A Silver Mining Camp Nestled in the Mountains of Nevada tains, and was called the great .Vmerican desert. But this sup- Myth of the posed desert has been found to contam much fertile farm land ^^^^^ pasturage for unnumbered cattle and sheep, great forests ol desert the finest timber, and a wealth of minerals of almost every sort The story of the occupation and the dev(>lopment of th(| great plains and of the Rocky Mountain region is the last chapter in the history of the pioneer in the United Stat(>s. The Growth of Mining in the Rocky Mountain Region.— We have seen how the discovery of gold drew g.vat i.u.nl.crs ol 490 THE VANISHING FRONTIER Prospectors for gold New gold fields developed men to the Pacific Coast. Before long some of these men began to wonder if the precious metal which they sought might not be found in the vast mountain ranges which they had crossed on their way to the Californian gold fields. Lured by this thought, venturesome men wandered far and wide through the western mountains in search of gold. Most of these prospectors found little but hardship and disappointment, but here and there a few of them lo- cated deposits of gold, silver, and other val- uable metals. In 1859 a rich de- posit of silver was found in the western part of the present state of Nevada. When the news of this discovery reached California a throng of miners rushed across the Sierra Nev- ada Mountains. Pres- ently gold was found in the same locality, and in later years rich gold deposits were dis- covered at various places i n Nevada. About the time that the first mining camps ^ ,, ^ o . ^ AT- were establshed in Ne- Doithledmj, Page & Co., ^. 1 . Panning Gold Vada, gold WaS dlSCOV- Only a few simple and inexpensive tools are needed ered near the present for U.is ki.iu of niirJiiii. . '^ Site oi Uenver and soon rich finds were made at other places in Colorado. The report of this discovery started a new rush across the plains,much like that of the "Forty-niners" to CaUfornia. The discovery of another rich gold field on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in 1861 led to the rapid development of the mining town of Helena in Montana. Sooner or later, prospectors found the precious metals in all the Rocky Mountain territories, and in 1874 gold MINING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION 401 was discovered in the Black Hills in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. The more recent finding of rich gold deposits in the Klondike region and at Cape Nome in Alaska hius attracted swarms of treasure hunters to that northern land. The first gold found in the West was mingled with sand and gravel which the streams had carried down from the mountains and deposited in the valleys. Th(i minor put this How gold gold-bearing earth into a pan with water, and shook the pan. is mined As the particles of gold were many times heavier than the rest of the material they sank to the bottom of the pan where it was easy for the miner to gather them. Nuggets, or pieces of gold of considerable size,Avere sometimes found. A man needed only a few smiple and inexpensive tools to engage in this kind of mining for himself. Gold, silver, and other metals were later found in veins of rock in the mountains. This rock was dug out of mines which were often hundreds or thousands of feet deep. There are various ways of extracting the metals fioni the ore taken from the mines. In some cases it is crushed into powder by powerful stamping machinery, and then the metal is extracted from the powdered rock by chemical processes. In other cases the ore is put through a blast furnace in a i)lant called a smelter, and the metals are separated ])y means of heat. As a great deal of money is needed to buy tlie expensive machinery used in operating the mines and in extracting the metals from the ore, this kind of mining soon fell into the hands of great mining companies for whom the actual miners worked for wages. Great stamp-mills and smelters may now be seen at Denver and Pueblo, Colorado, at Anaconda, Montana, and at many other mining centers in the Rocky Mountain states. The early mining camps of the Far West giew hk(^ mush- rooms, and the life in them was always rough and sometimes lawless. A visitor to one of these camps describes its appear- Western ance in the following words: "Frame shanties pitchetl together m^»ng as if by accident; tents of canvas, of blankets, of brush, of potato sacks, and old shirts, with empty whisk(>y bairels for chimneys; smoking hovels of mud and stone; pits and shanties with smoke issuing from every crevice; piles of goods and rub])ish on craggy points, in the hollows, on the rocks, in the mud, in the snow— everyAvhere— scattered broadcast in jx-H- mell confusion." Sometimes a mining field was clisapp<.inlMig, 492 THE VANISHING FRONTIER Pack-trains and freight- ers' wagons and then such camps vanished almost as quickly as they came; but when the new mines proved to be permanently profitable, law and order were soon established, more substantial houses were built, and the rude camp grew into a thriving town. The early Rocky Mountain mining camps were far away from the settled parts of the country, and at first their growth was hampered by the lack of facilities for transportation. The prospectors and early miners carried their tools and supplies upon packhorses, but the establishment of permanent settle- ments at once created a demand for a regular freight service to bring in food and other needed supplies and to carry the output of the mines to market. Soon, men began to engage in the business of hauling goods from points on the Missouri River, in western Missouri or eastern Kansas, to the new mining camps in the Rocky Mountains. Long caravans of covered wagons, each drawn by several yoke of oxen, continued to be the freight trains of the plains until the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Ever since the first rush of settlers to California the need of a quicker mail and passenger service to the Pacific Coast The overland than that by way of Panama or the longer sea route around ^l^^,f f^£.l^o ^^^iP6 Horn had been keenly felt. When mining towns began to spring up in the mountain country this need became greater than ever, and by 1860 overland stagecoaches were carrying passengers and the news of the East from Missouri River points to California in less than twenty-five days. But California wanted a faster mail service than this, and early in 1860 the pony express was established to carry letters across the conti- nent. With the mail in light saddlebags, riders on relays of fleet horses rode day and night, through rain and snow, across the plains and over the dangerous mountain trails. The horses were changed every few miles and the riders at longer inter- vals. On one occasion a boy named William F. Cody, who was later known to the whole country as Buffalo Bill, rode three hundred and twenty miles without resting. The best time made by the pony express from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, was a few hours less than eight days. When the first overland telegraph line was ready for business in 1861, the pony express service was given up, but the overland stage con- tinued to carry the mail across the plains until the coming of the pony express THE CATTLE RANCH AND THE COWBOY 493 railroad, and both the stagecoach and the freighter's wagon continued to serve the remote mining towns in tlie mountains until branch railroads were y)iiilt to them. The Cattle Ranch and the Cowboy. — For several hundred miles cast of the Rocky Mountains the plains have too little rain for profitable farming, but enough to make them good The pasture lands. The first white; men who saw this region were slaughter of astonished at the vast herds of buffalo which roamed over it. A Spanish explorer of the sixteenth century says, " I saw such _i KcysUjiic View Co., MtadvUl', l''i. "Making a Drive" on a Texas'Ranch a quantity of cows in these plains that it is impossible to number them." A traveler who visited western Kansas in 1868 tells us that the plains were blackened with buffalo and that more than once the train had to stop to allow uiinsua lly large herds to pass. The Indians had always huntinltl.e bulbil.., and during the years just after the Civil War, white hunters killed great numbers of thcMU for sport or for Ih.Mr hides winch were made into robes. This slaughter went on so rut hlcssly that in twenty years the last herd of buffalo was exterminated. 494 THE VANISHING FRONTIER The cattle country As the buffalo disappeared, herds of cattle took their places on the grassy plains. Ever since colonial days many cattle have been raised on the frontier, but when the pioneers reached the great plains they engaged in cattle raising on a far larger scale than. ever before. The first western cattle ranches were in Texas, but the pasturage was better farther north, and the Texas cattlemen began to drive their herds in that direction. During the last fifty years the dry plains extending from Mexico to the Canadian border have become a vast cattle country. In the early history of the cattle business in the West the Keystone View Co., Meadville, Pa. Method of Throwing a Cow stock of each rancher was branded with the owner's mark and The cowboys permitted to roam freely over an open range many miles in extent. Hard-riding cowboys on fleet ponies looked after the herds, branded the calves, kept the cattle from wandering too far, and saw that they had water. Sometimes the cowboys had to fight cattle thieves, and they often quarreled with other ranchers over the extent of their ranges and with sheep herders whom they especially hated because their flocks of sheep injured the pasturage for the cattle. In the autumn the cowboys rounded up the cattle, separated from the herd the animals that THE CATTLE RANCH AND THE COWBOY 495 were to be sent to market, and then allowed the rest to wander back on the range. In the early da3's the western cattle were often driven long distances to market, but after the railroads reached the cattle country they were shipped to the farms of Iowa or Illinois to be further fattened or sent directly to the slaughter houses of Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City. In the early history of the cattle industry on the westcn-ii plains, little care was given the stock in the winter. The cattle p , lived upon the dried grass and had only such shelter fr•o^v boys^ introduced better breeds of cattle, built barns and sheds tx) shelter them in bad weather, and cut hay to feed them in winter. 496 THE VANISHING FRONTIER With these changes the rude ranch house became a farm home, civil government was estabUshed in the cattle country, schools were opened, and in the course of time the roving cattlemen and picturesque cowboys of the earlier days on the plains became substantial and prosperous citizens of organized communities. The Farmers Occupy the Far West. — In 1865 the frontier , ran across the prairies of southern Minnesota, northwestern march of Iowa, and eastern Nebraska and Kansas. During the next the pioneers twenty-five years pioneer farmers pushed steadily westward © Keystone View Co., Meadvillc, Pa. A Round-up on a Kansas Cattle Ranch upon the treeless plains, until by 1890 they occupied nearly all the fertile land east of the Rocky Mountains that can be cultivated profitably without irrigation. Several causes stimu- lated this rapid settlement of the prairie country. It had always been the policy of our national government to sell public land to settlers at a low price, but in 1862 Congress passed a Home- stead Act which gave one hundred and sixty acres of land to any citizen who would live upon it for five years and pay a small fee. After the Civil War many discharged soldiers, as well as other ambitious young men from all parts of the country, THE FARMERS OCCUPY THE FAR WEST 497 took advantage of this law to secure new homes in the West. Then the raih'oad companies, which built roads across the plains ahead of the pioneers, did everything they could to attract settlers to this region in order to make business for themselves. As a result of all these causes, land-hungry pioneers quickly populated the present states of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. In fact, the rich wheat lands of Rapid settle- the Dakotas were settled so rapidly that sometimes a whole ^^^* °[ . county without an inhabitant at the beginning of a year would country"^ A Pioneer City, Gayville, South Dako; . be filled with settlers before its close. For years the frontiers- men had coveted the attractive district of Oklahoma in Indian Territory, but it had been reserved for the Indians,an(l mtrudcrs upon it were driven off by United States soldiers. Fmaliy thi.s region was purchased from the Indians by the government and at noon on April 22, 1889, it was thrown open to settlers. Droves of them were already camped upon its borders awaiting the hour to enter. " Whole outfits for towns, inclu.hng portable houses, were shipped by rail, and individual families in pi<-- turesque, primitive, white-covered wagons, journey, forwan stretching out for miles in an unbroken line. Ihe blast ot a JZ 498 THE VANISHING FRONTIER Pioneer life an the praiiie bugle at noon on a beautiful spring day was the signal for a wild rush across the borders." Before nightfall thousands of farm claims were entered and several town sites were laid out. Thriving cities grew up in Oldahoma with astonishing rapidity. Similar scenes attended the opening to settlers of other Indian reservations in the following years. Wliile eager settlers were thus securing the last available farm lands on the plains, and even pushing across our northern border into the wheat lands of the Canadian Northwest, other pioneer farmers were bringing under cultivation vast wheat-fields in California, Oregon, and "Washington and planting the orchards which now bear the fruit for which our Pacific Coast is justly famous. At first the hfe of the settlers on the western prairies was very unlike that of the fron- tiersmen in the wooded country. The pioneer in the forest-covered lands had to spend a life- time of hard labor in felling and burn- ing the trees and in clearing the fields of stumps. The owner of a prairie farm could bring it under cultivation as fast as he could break the heavy sod with his plow. On the other hand, the settlers on the open prairies seriously missed the timber which the earlier pioneers found all about' them. Ofttimes there was not a single tree in sight on the plains as far as the eye could reach. Many of the pioneers on the prairies built the walls of their first houses of blocks of sod. When the railroads began to bring lumber to these treeless regions, the sod hovels were gradually replaced by more substantial houses. Then school- houses and churches were built, and in a Kttle while the new communities in the West grew to be very much like the older places farther east from which the settlers came. Courtesy of the Advanre-Rumehj Thrcshrr Co., Inc. Plowing by Oil-Power This powerful tractor, using kerosene oil as a fuel, pulls a 4-bottom plow and does the work of many horses. THE FARMERS OCCUPY THE FAR WEST 499 Most of the farms in the new West, like those in the older parts of the country, are of moderate size, and the greater part of the work upon them is done by their owners. But in the Farming on a wheat lands of the Dakotas, California, and Washington, some large scale men began to cultivate enormous tracts of land, oftcMi thousands of acres in extent. Large numbers of farm-hands were employed upon these great farms, and in the course of time some very wonderful machines came to be used upon them. Great traction engines draw a row of plows, harrows, and drills so Cmirtixy nf V. ^. Rrclamalinn Sirvicc The Roosevelt Dam in Arizona , ., « _ Dams like this transform the desert lands of the West mto fertile farms. attached to each other that the ground is plowed, pulverized, and seeded by a single operation. When the wheat is ripe, combined harvesters and threshers, sometimes drawn by a large number of horses and sometimes driven by steam, cut and thresh it and deliver it in bags ready to be haule.l to market. We have seen how the country between Kansas and < ali- fornia was first occupied by the miner and the cattle rancher So Uttle rain falls in most of this vast region that fo^; a t'" ; it seemed to offer no inducements to the farmer. But tlu 500 THE VANISHING FRONTIER Irrigated land Mormons, who settled in Utah in 1847, had proved that when the water from the rains and snows in the high mountains was made to flow upon the dry plains below, they would produce abundant crops. When public land with sufficient rainfall for farming purposes grew scarce, men began to reclaim some of the arid land on the plains or in the mountain valleys by irri- gation. This is done by bringing the water from the rivers in large ditches and distributing it by means of smaller ditches to the cultivated fields. Much of this work is in the hands of General Custer's Last Fight, June 24, 1876 irrigation companies, which build dams in the rivers to retain the water until it is needed, dig the main ditches, and sell to each farmer the right to use a certain amount of water. In 1902 the United States organized a Reclamation Service to aid in reclaiming the arid lands. The picture of the famous Roose- velt dam in Arizona on page 499 is a good illustration of the kind of work our government is doing to transform the deserts of the Far West into fertile farm lands. The farmers who buy the land irrigated by the United States must pay back to the government the cost of the irrigation works, and the money they pay is then used to reclaim more land in other dry regions. \ THE LAST INDIAN WARS 501 The Last Indian Wars. — When the Indian tribes of tlic Far West saw white buffalo hunters, cowboys, and raih-oad builders invading their country and killing or driving away the Trouble with game, they fought to keep these frontiersmen from theii hunting- ^^^ western grounds, as the red men had fought the pioneers ever since the early colonial days. Between 1865 and 1880 there were numer- ous Indian wars in the West. The most serious of these bloody contests were waged with the Modocs in northern California and Oregon, with the Comanches and Apaches in western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and with the Sioux in the upper valley of the Missouri. The last great war with the red men was fought in 1876. By a treaty the Sioux had been given the right to live in th(; western part of South Dakota and to hunt in what is now eastern The Sioux Montana. After gold was found in the Black Hills, miners ^^ began to flock to that region. The Indians protested against the coming of these intruders, but httle attention was paid to their complaints. One Sioux chief said: "If you white men had a country which was very valuable, which had always belonged to yovn- people, and which the Great Father had prom- ised should be yours forever, and men of another race came to take it away by iorcv, whtU, would your people do? Would they fight?" The Sioux resolved to fight, and eaily in 1S76, troops were sent against them. Led by Sitting liull, one of their chiefs, the Indians fought fiercely. In a battle on the Little Big Horn Iliver in Montana, CJeneral George A. Custer, who had won fame as a dashing cavalry oflicer in the Civil War, was surrounded, with two hundred and sixty of hismen,l)y an overwhelming force of Indians. As they rode their ])onies m Custer's last a circle around Custer and his heroic band, the Indians poure.l fight a deadly fire upon them until the last soldier was slain But this Indian victory only prolonged the war a little. In the end the Sioux were conquered and promised to give up their luintintr- grounds and live upon the land assigned to thein. Sit t mg Bull and some of his warriors fled tc Canada, but a few years later they too agreed to return to the reservation. , , , - For fifty years before 1870 our government had been trymg to get the Indians to five upon reservations as the tracts of land assigned to the various tribes wer.> called. 1 h^ plan had never worked very well. The Indians were restless 502 THE VANISHING FRONTIER Later treat- ment of the Indians A group of western states The Mormons in Utah and discontented, and in many cases the agents who were appointed to care for their interests abused them and cheated them shamefully. After the last great Sioux war an effort was made to deal more justly with the red men. In 1878 the first Indians were sent to a famous normal and industrial school for negroes at Hampton, Virginia, and the following year a great Training and Industrial School for Indians was established at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Other industrial schools were opened at various places in the West, and soon thousands of Indian children were learning the arts of civilized life. In 1887 the government began to give each Indian a farm of his own. Edu- cation in civilized ways of living and the possession of land are steadily transforming the three hundred thousand Indians still left in our country from their former barbarous condition into peaceful and prosperous citizens of the United States. Our Newest States. — You will remember that the terri- tories of New Mexico and Utah were organized by the Com- promise of 1850, and that Kansas and Nebraska were given territorial governments by the famous Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. When the cattlemen began to occupy the plains, and the miners to settle in the mountain regions of the West, other ' territorial governmeni.s were created as they were needed, and when Congress thought that these territories ought to become states, they were admitted to the Union. Thus Kansas entered the Union the year the Civil War l)egan, and Nevada was made a state in 1864. Nebraska was admitted in 1867, and in 1876 Colorado became "the Centennial state." In the territories near the Canadian border, population grew more slowly, but in time they too began to clamor for statehood. South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington entered the Union in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming followed them the next year. Under the leadership of Brigham Young, the Mormons found their way into Utah as early as 1847. There they began to settle at the western foot of the Wasatch Mountains. The country was very dry and the pioneers could not long support themselves in it without irrigating their fields. Fortunately they found never-failing streams flowing out of the near-by mountains. With patient industry the Mormon people dug ditches, watered their crops, and in time made a barren region productive and prosperous. Eventually the Salt Lake Valley OUR NEWEST STATES 503 and the adjacent regions were made to literally "blossom like the rose." Coal and silver mining also developed great wealth in the territory. Its population increased steadily and in 18(30 Congress made Utah a state. The territory of Oklahoma, whose astonishing growth we have already noted, soon had enough population to justify it in asking for statehood, but its request went unheeded for several The latest years because the Republicans who controlled Congress did states not want to create another Democratic state. At last (Jkla- homa w^as united with Indian Territory and made a state in 1907. New Mexico and Ari- zona grew more slowly than the other -western territories and were not admitted into the Union until 1912. The admission of these two in- creased th3 number of states in the Union to fortjMMght. The mines, forests, grazing lands, and irrigated farms of our newest states are sufficient to account for their steady growth in wealth and population. But in addition to their permanent residents, thou- sands of visitors are at- tracted to these states every year by their health ^jm^ The climate .vv\ scenery . the Far . est J © Kri/stori' Vitw Co , Mxi.l illi. I'ii. G'ant Geyser Cone The largest geyser in the world, Yellow- stone National Park, Wyoming. giving "'climate and by the splendor of their scenery. Large numbers of invalids, especially from among those m the early stages of tuberculosis, seek the mountain states of the West because of their clear, dry, and invigorating air. Even larger numbers of tourists are drawn to the sanu; reguMi by tlu> mag- nificence of its mountains and by the fame of such natural wonders as the falls of the Yosemite VaUey in California or the matcWess Grand Canyon of the Colorado River )n .Vrizona. Some of the grandest areas in the western mountains have been reserved by our national government as perpetual v\v^^B- ure grounds for the people. ^'-'-^''^ ""-"«• ^^'^'^^ ''''' ^'^'^ Notable among these ar( 504 THE VANISHING FRONTIER The Famous Yosemite Valley The high white cliff at the left is El Capitan phi. 1^1 r. S. Forest Service OUR NEWEST STATES 505 Rocky Mountain Park near Denver, the Mesa Verde in Mon- tezuma County, Colorado, with its historic cliff dwellings, Crater Lake National Park in the Cascade Mountains, Ore- gon, with its crater lakes and extinct volcanic cones, a curious example of a crater within a crater, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, the Yellowstone National Park in north- western Wyoming, with its interesting hot springs and geysers, and the new Glacier National Park in northwestern Mon- tana, with its towering peaks, mighty glaciers, and lovely mountain lakes. CHAPTER XXVI Big Business and Social Unrest Twenty years of Republican rule Hayes Garfield Parties and Presidents. — The Republican party played a leading part in saving the Union and in freeing the slaves during the Civil War. Naturally this party was very strong when that war was over, and for the next twenty years all our presi- dents belonged to it. You will recall how the Republicans put General Grant in the White House for two terms, and elected Hayes to succeed him in 1877, after the closest political contest in our history. President Hayes gave the country a good administration, but the Democrats sneered at him because they thought he had not been fairly elected, and the Republican politi- cians dishked him be- cause he would not do their bidding. By with- drawing the Federal troops from the South, where some of them had James A. Garfield been stationed ever since the Civil War, Hayes did much to bring about a better feeling between the sections. In 1880 some Republicans wanted General Grant to run for a third term, while many others favored James G. Blaine of Maine, but in the end the Republican convention nominated James A. Garfield of Ohio. Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsyl- vania, a gallant soldier with a brilliant record in the Civil War, was the Democratic candidate in this election. After a close 506 PARTIES AND PRESIDENTS 507 Arthur contest the Republicans won, and Garfield became president in 1881. Few of our presidents have been so well qualified by training and experience to fill the highest office in tlie land. The story of Garfield's life is one of the most inspiring in our history. After earning his way through school and college he became successively a college president, a fearless general in the Civil War, and for many years a prominent leader in the national House of Representatives. The people expected great things of Pn^sidcmt Garfield, but in less than four months after his inauguration he was shot by a dis- appointed office-seeker. At first it was hoped that he might recover, but after weeks of suffer- ing he died in September, 1881. The vice-president, Chester A. Arthur of New York, at onc9 suc- ceeded to the presidsncy. Arthur was not widely known before his election to the vice-presidency, but he proved to be an able president and gave the country a clean and wise administration. In 1884 the brilliant Republican leader, James G. Blaine, won the presi- dential nomination which he had sought for years. Grove.- Clovelaad Cleveland, a lawyer of Buffalo who had recently l)een elected governor of New York by a large majority, was the Demo- cratic candidate. After a close and bitterly contested cam- paign, Cleveland was elected, and in 1885 the country had a Democratic president for the first time since the days of James Buchanan. During his first term, President (leveland nrg.-d several much-needed reforms upon Congress, but ho fnilcd to get most of the new laws which he wanted because tiu^ Senate Chester A. Arthur 508 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST Harrison Cleveland's second term New ways of doing busi- was still controlled by the Republicans. In 1888 President Cleveland sought a second term. Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, an able lawyer and a gallant general in the Civil War, was the RepubUcan candidate in this campaign, Harrison won the election and served as president from 1889 to 1893. In 1892 Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison were again rival candidates for the presidency, and this time Cleve- land won. His second term, which ended in 1897, was filled with bitter political strife. Grover Cleveland was one of the most fearless and independent presi- dents in our history. It has been truly said of him that he was a man of "unflinching integ- rity and robust common sense." The story of his efforts to promote the welfare of the people will be told in succeed- ing sections of this chapter. The Coming of Big Business. — The period covered by the presi- dencies of the men Benjamin Harrison ness named in the last section was the time when the use of new machines, the discovery of new sources of power, and the rapid development of the natural resources of the country were making marvelous changes in the life of our people. During the last thirty years of the nineteenth century men were beginning to carry on business on a scale never known before in the history of the world. Groups of railroad companies were j oined together to form a few great railway systems, each controlling thousands of miles of track. Meanwhile, many small telegraph companies were consolidated into the great Western Union Telegraph Company. THE COMING OF BIG BUSINESS 509 But most of the big business concerns wliicli grew up during the latter part of the nineteenth century were formed by uniting manufacturing enterprises which were engaged in making t he same thing. When all, or nearly all, the producers of a certain article combined their various plants into one great business concern the combination was called a trust. The Standard Oil Company was one of the earliest trusts. At first this company was only one of many firms engaged in the business of producing and n^fining petroleum. But Iw get- The origin of ting lower freight rates from the ]-ailroads than its competitors *^® trusts paid, and by other unfair methods, it secured control of its rivals, or drove them out of business. At the same time it made great improvements in the methods of transporting and refining Courtesy of Armour d- Co., Chiaiyo. A Bird's-eye View of a Large Meat-packing Establishmeat petroleum. By 1882 the Standard Oil Company practically controlled the oil business of the country and had become a great trust which paid enormous profits to its stockholders. The success of the Standard Oil Company led to the formation of similar combinations in other fields of industry. The dis- tillers established the Whiskey Trust, the sugar refiners united in the Sugar Trust, and in a few years the producers of coal, of iron, and of many kinds of manufactured goods formed gigantic trusts each of which tried to handle all the l)usincss in its line. The trusts soon proved that there are many advantages in doing business on a large scale. A much wider use of lalK)r- saving machinery is possible in a big factory than m a small J^e^^^^^^^ place. The])ig business can often get its raw materials at lowci ^j ^^gjg prices than smaller concerns are forced to pay, because it buys 510 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST them in enormous quantities. The trust can also save money in seUing its products, because a few bookkeepers and travehng salesmen can do the work which required many men when the companies which united to form the big business were com- peting with one another. Much material which goes to waste in the smaller business is made into valuable bi-products in the larger. The great meat-packing houses, for example, make a considerable part of their profits from the soap, fertilizer, buttons, mattresses, and other useful articles made from the blood, bones, hoofs, horns, and hair of the animals killed in their slaughter houses. On the other hand, the coming of big business was attended and followed by some very serious evils. Frequently the organ- The evils of izers of the trusts acted very unjustly toward the companies trusts which did not want to join them. Of course, the chief purpose in combining all or nearly all the producers of an article into a trust was to control the production and the price of that article. When a trust is able to control all or nearly all the business in its line it is said to have a monopoly. If a trust has a monopoly of some needful article it can charge an unfair price for it and in this way make great profits at the expense of the helpless consumer. The trusts made enormous fortunes for their owners, and many people came to believe that these fortunes were won by tricky and dishonest means. It was also com- monly believed that some of the trusts resorted to bribery and other corrupt political practices in order to control public officers and to secure laws giving special favors to big business. Because of these beliefs men soon began to say that big business combinations ought to be broken up or at least to be firmly controlled and regulated by the government. The Organization of Labor. — The growth of big business tended to develop two distinct classes of people in our country, The unrest the men who own the capital invested in mines, factories, and of labor railroads, and the laborers whom they employ. In the earlier days, when business was carried on in a small way, the employer often worked with his men, as he still does on farms and in small shops. Under such conditions it was easy for the em- ployer and his employees to be friends and to settle quickly and easily any differences that might arise between them. But when countless toilers in great factories took the places of the little THE ORGANIZATION OF LABOR 511 groups of workers in the small shops and mills of earlier days, the old kindly relation between the employer and liis worknien began to pass away. With the coming of big business the employer and his employees became strangers to each other, and soon suspicion and distrust crept in between them. When the workingmen saw the vast fortunes which the trust builders were piling up, they began to feel that they were not getting a just share of the wealth which their toil did so much to produce. This feeling has led to a long series of disputes between capital and labor, which have continued to our own time. At first the individual workingman could do little to defend his interests. If he worked at all he must accept such hours of labor and such wages as his emploj^r offered. But the workers The rise of soon came to see that in union there is strength. Early in the ^^^^^ unions nineteenth ceiltury, men working at the same trade or in the same factory began to form local trade unions. Later, local unions of men in the same trade began to unite in national unions. The printers formed the first national trade union in 1850, and by the close of the Civil War, the carpenters, the cigar makers, the locomotive engineers, and many other trades had formed national organizations. When the great business combinations which we call the trusts began to appear, efforts were made to unite; tlic working- men in all lines of industry into one great organization powerful The enough to force respect for the rights of labor. The first society p"\^"^f"„ of this nature was started m Philadelphia in 1869. I'or a time of Labor it grew slowly, l)ut by 1880 it had developed into a great order, called the Knights of Labor, with nearly a million members, A little later the American Federation of Labor, an organization which joins in one body all the national trade unions of the country, began to take the place of the Knights of Lal)or, and for the last twenty years the Federation has been the most influential body of organized workingmen in Amei-ica. It is the aim of the trade unions to secure higher wages for their members, to shorten their hours of labor, and to improve the conditions under which they work and live. Sometimes Labor unions they do this bv collective bargaining with the employer. Some- ^^^^^.^^^^1% times, when this method fails, the inc'inbers of the union strike; that is, they refuse to work until their employer grants their demands. There have been many strikes, large and sin.ili. 512 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST Differing opinions in our country during the last fifty years, and among them the great railroad strikes of 1877, of 1886, and of 1894 were espe- cially notable and far reaching in their influence. All these railroad strikes, as well as many others in the mines and fac- tories of the country, have been attended with lawlessness and violence. Disorder, rioting, the destruction of property, and loss of life have been common in conflicts between the strikers and the police. In spite of all this strife, however, the labor unions have steadily ifnproved the condition of the workers. One hundred years ago the hours of toil were from sunrise to A Scene in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 sunset. Now the average length of the working day in America is about nine hours, and in many lines of work an eight-hour day prevails. Wages are higher than ever before, and the conditions under which men and women work in shops and factories have steadily improved. The workers of the country have won these important gains by standing by each other in their various labor organizations. The Tariff Question. — We have already studied the origin and early history of the protective tariff in our country. During about "a high ^^® Civil War the duties on imports were made higher than tariff ever, partly in order to raise more revenue to pay the THE TARIFF QUESTION 513 growing expenses of the government, and partly to counter- balance the high taxes levied on our own manufactures. After the Civil War was over, the high taxes on domestic manufac- tures were removed, but the high war tariif was continued, partly because the money which it brought into the treasury was needed to pay the national debt, and partly because many people beUeved that a high tariff helped the farmers and manu- facturers to get better prices for their products, and to pay higher wages to their workmen. As time passed, an increasing number of our people began to think that the high duties were unnec- essary and unjust, and some men said that the tariff helped to promote the upbuilding of the trusts. But as the Re- publican party, which favored high protection, was in power for twenty years after I860, v(My few changes were made in the tariff during that period. When Grover Cleve- land became president in 1885, the tariff was producing a great deal more revenue than was needed to pay the necessary expense ^ of the government. As a consequence, a surplus of many mil- lions of dollars was piling up in the treasury every y^^'J^'^ money could not well be used at that tune to pay off mou o the national debt, because most of the bonds of the Rovernmc>n were not yet due, and their owners would not ^^ve the up unless they were paid more than then- face value for them. Some people want'ed to spend the surplus in -'P-vrng he 'vers and'harbors of the country and .n P^^^^^^^^^ ^;^^^ to the old soldiers, but President Cleveland said that tlu only Grover Cleveland President Cleveland and the surplus 514 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST The McKinley Tariff Act The Wilson Tariff Act Complaints against the railroads sensible thing to do was to reduce the tariff and thus reheve the people of a part of the heavy taxes they were paying. The president urged his views upon Congress so strongly that, in 1888, the Democratic House of Representatives passed a bill lowering the tariff, but the Senate, which was controlled by the Republicans, refused to consider it. President Cleveland's bold action in insisting upon tariff reform made that question the main issue in the election of 1888. Cleveland was defeated in this election, as we have seen, and in 1890 the victorious Republicans passed the McKinley Act which gave the country the highest tariff it had ever known. The McKinley Act, like all the other tariff laws in recent years, takes its name from the man who was chairman of the Com- mittee on Ways and Means in the House of Representatives which considered it. One interesting feature of the McKinley tariff law was a provision for admitting the goods of other coun- tries into our ports free of duty, or at lower rates of duty, if those countries would extend similar favors to goods coming , to them from the United States. Such an arrangement is called reciprocity. The reciprocity feature of the tariff of 1890 was especially intended to build up our trade with the South American countries. When Cleveland became president a second time, in 1893, he continued to urge Congress to reduce the tariff, and as the Democrats then had a majority in both branches of that body, they passed the Wilson Tariff Act in 1894. This measure had so httle tariff reform in it, however, that the president said his party had failed to keep its promise. Cleveland would not sign the Wilson l)ill, but he permitted it to become a law without his signature. Neither side was yet satisfied with the tariff, and, as we shall see, that question has been a bone of contention between the Republicans and the Democrats down to the present time. The Railroad Problem. — The new railroads which were built so rapidly during the years just after the Civil War played a large part in promoting the marvelous growth of the industries of the country at that time. At first, this improvement in trans- portation was welcomed with joy, but soon after 1870 grave complaints began to be heard that the railroad companies were treating the people very unfairly. It was said that the railroads THE RAILROAD PROBLEM 515 The western farmers at the mercy of the railroads frequ(!ntly charged higher freight rates for a short distance than they did for a much longer haul over the same route. Even more serious was the complaint that freight rates were not the same for everybody. It was charged that the great corporations and trusts which shipped their products in large quantities were getting lower rates tlian the smaller manu- facturers, and that this unjust discrimination tended to drive the latter out of business and thus to strengthen the grip of the trusts upon the country. The growing indignation against the railroads was espe- cially strong among the farmers of the prairie states of the West. The people of that section of the country were peculiarly dependent upon the railroads for nearly everything they had. The lumber of which they built their houses, the tools with which they cultivated the soil, and nearly all the household supplies they needed had to l^e brought to them long distances ])y rail. The wheat, corn, hogs, and cattle they grew upon their farms had little value unless they could ship'them to mar- ket. In the seventies and eighties the western farmers were rapidly coming to believe that the railroads were making it impossible for them to prosper, by charging excessive freight rates upon everything they bought and sold. When the people came to feel that railroad practices were unfair, and that railroad rates were often excessiv(>ly iiigh, they began to demand the passage of laws to correct these alnis(>s. The demand In the early seventies such laws were enacted by several of the [I'J^^^"^ w^estern states. But it was soon found that this did not iielp railroads matters very much, because most of the railroads were engaged in doing business in several states while the laws of any one state had no effect outside of its borders. The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to regulate com- merce "with foreign nations and among the several states and^ From liniirn lirns.. A'. Y. Fine Cattle and Hogs near Caldwell, Idaho 516 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST The Interstate Cdmmerce Act This law fails to stop rail- road abuses The Sherman Anti-Trust Act Attention is diverted to the silver question with the Indian tribes," and when it was seen that state laws were inadequate to correct raih-oad abuses the people began to clamor for the regulation of the railroads by the national government. The First Attempts to Control Big Business. — By 1887 the demand that the United States government should try to stop railroad abuses had become so insistent that Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act. This famous law required the railroads to print and make public their freight and passenger rates, and declared that these rates must not be excessive and that they must be the same for every one. It also provided for the appointment of an Interstate Commerce Commission of five members to investigate the rates charged by the raih'oads and to say when they were unreasonable. At first the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission were so limited that it could do little to cure the gross abuses in railroad management. While the commission could declare that freight rates were too high, it had no power to fix fairer prices. The railroads pretended to give the same rates to all, but they continued to favor the trusts and other big shippers by giving them rebates and by breaking the spirit of the law in other ways. They were also continually interfering in politics in order to secure special favors from the state legislatures and from the courts. As a consequence of these evil practices the wrath of the people waxed hotter against the railroads every year. In 1890 Congress took the first step against the trusts by passing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which forbade all combina- tions in restraint of trade between the states or with foreign nations. The hope of the people that this law would check the growth of trusts was doomed to disappointment. For some years no effort was made by the national government to enforce the anti-trust act, and big business continued to do very much as it pleased until after the dawn of the twentieth century. The Campaign for Free Silver. — The social unrest caused by the unfair practices and the exactions of the railroads and by the growing power of the trusts was becoming so intense in the years just after 1890 that many of our people were ready to unite in an effort to regulate and control the big business interests of the country for the common good. This feeling THE CAMPAIGN FOR FREE SILVER 517 was especially strong in the labor unions and among the farmcra of the West and the South. But unfortunately the attention of the people was diverted just at this time from the needed reforms in our industrial life and fixed upon a demand for the free coinage of silver. In order to understand the silver cjucs- tion, which played a very important part in our politics during the last ten years of the nineteenth century, we must trace the history of our coinage from its beginning. In 1792 Congress provided for the free coinage of both gold and silver. This meant that anyone might take either gold or silver to the mint and have it coined into money. As gold is Free coinage more valuable than silver, Congress made the silver dollar of gold and fifteen times as heavy as the gold in order that each of them might have exactly the same value. If the gold dollar and the silver dollar are worth exactly the same, it will make no differ(>nce to anyone which he uses, and both kinds of coin will circulate freely. But gold and silver are constantly changing in value. The value of each of them, like the value of nearly everything else, depends mainly upon the demand for it and upon whcthfT it is scarce or abundant. If the metal in one of the dollars l)ecomes more valuable than that in the other, the people will naturally make their purchases and pay their debts with the cheaper and keep the better dollar or use the metal in it for other purposes. For this reason the cheaper dollar will soon drive the dearer dollar out of use. Soon after the first coinage law was passed, it was found that the silver dollar, which was fifteen times as heavy as the gold dollar, wasthccheaper dollar of the two, and consequently How one^^^ httle else than silver was coined for many years. In an ettort ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ to bring both metals into use as money, Congress vot(>d in of use 1834 to make the silver dollar sixteen times as heavy as the gold dollar, and for a while after this law was passed, both gold and silver were coined. But after the discovery of gold m California in 1848, the yellow metal grew so abundant that it soon became cheaper than silver at the coinage ratio of sixteen to one \\Urn this happened no more silver was sent to the mint and the silver coins steadily disappeared. In 1873 Congress passed a new coinage law. As silvtr dollars had then been practically unknown for twenty years, the act of 1873 made no provision for their coinage in the fiitmt. 518 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST The demand Hardly had this law been passed, however, when rich mines for the free ^f gi]ver began to be worked in the mountain states of the West. silver The flood of silver which these new mines pom'ed upon the market quickly made silver cheaper than gold at the old coinage ratio of sixteen to one. But this cheap silver could not be coined into money because the doors of the mint had been closed against it by the law of 1873. The silver mine owners and many other men who wanted cheaper dollars with which to pay their debts at once began to clamor loudly for the restoration of the free coinage of silver at the old ratio of sixteen to one. The Bland- Allison Act United States Treasury Building, Washington, D. C. In response to this demand, Congress passed the Bland- Allison Act in 1878. This law required the government to buy not less than two million dollars' worth, and not more than four million dollars' worth of silver every month and to coin it into dollars. This was not free coinage of silver, but the silver men had to be content with it for a time. The Bland-Allison act was in force for twelve years, and several hundred million silver dollars were coined under it. If you will look at the date upon the next silver dollar 3^ou see, you will be likely to find that it is some year between 1878 and 1890. THE CAMPAIGN FOR FREE SILVER 519 In order to please the silver mining states and to satisfy the people of the South and West who thought that the country needed more money, Congress passed the Sherman Silver Pui- chase Act in 1890. This law, which took the place of the Bland- Allison Act, required the secretary of the treasury to bu>- four and one-half million ounces of silver every month. Tiiis was nearly twice as much silver as the government had been purchasing imder the Bland-Allison Act. But instead of coining all this silver it was stored in tlu^ treasury, and paid for with new treasury notes, that is, with new paper money. Any paper money is just as good as gold as long as the people know that they can get gold coin for it on demand. But by the time G rover Cleveland be- gan his second term as president, "in 1893, so much new paper money had been issued to pay for the monthly purchases of silver that people began to wond(-r whether ' the government could continue to rede(>ni all its notes in gold, and to think that possibly it might have to pay them in silver dollars which were then much less valuable than gold dollars, hy x.rrown.g large amounts of gold. President Cleveland managed to keep enough of it on hand to make every dollar of our paper money just as good as gold, and in 1894 he persuaded Congress to stop the purchase of any more silver by repealing the Sh.M-man Silver Purchase Act. , r.,.„K.nf The repeal of this law increased the popular di.cont, n . The friends of silver complained that there was "^; ^''-''f^'' money in the country to carry on its busmess and that, a a consequence, prices were low and dc^.ts were '-< P; ; ' the other hand, many of the people fc-ared ha ^ ' '' ^ ; in which the silver was worth only about half a. n.u. 1. ..^ the The Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1:3) I/arris A Ewhiu. \V n.- dei)endetl upon the success of the big business concerns of the country. Accordingly, he favored big business and did nothing to make the railroads and the trusts respec-t the rights of the people. The Repulilicans have always favored the protection of our CouTtesu F. Gulvkiiiist Co., Phila. William McKinley William McKinley The highest industries by high duties on miported goods, and one oi i rebi- ^^^■^Q j^ ^^j dent McKinley's first acts was to call Congress in special session history I 522 BIG BUSINESS AND SOCIAL UNREST The gold standard permanently established to revise the tariff. The result was the passage of the Dingley bill, the highest tariff act m our history. The Dmgley tariff was in force for twelve years, and the Payne-Aldrich tariff which took its place in 1909 only slightly changed the rates of duty. The believers in high tariff claimed that these laws gave the man- ufacturers large profits and thus made it possible for them to pay high wages to their workmen. The foes of protection, on the other hand, declared that such high tariff laws made all the people pay more for the necessities of life and helped to tighten the grip of the trusts upon the business of the country. The year that McKinley became presi- dent the coun- try was excited by the news that gold had been found in large quantities in the Klondike region in Canada near the Alas- kan border. The next year another new gold field was discovered at Cape Nome in western Alaska. Many people rushed to these far northern regions, as they had hurried to California in 1849, and during the next few years a large addition was made to the supply of gold. This fact robbed the advocates of the free coinage of silver of their best argument, namely, that there was not enough gold in the country to provide a basis for a good system of money, and when Bryan ran for the presidency against McKinley a second time in 1900, he was easily defeated. The same year Congress passed a law making the gold dollar our standard coin and providing that all other forms of money t-prudureil by jji'rmis':ion of the Philadelphia Museuma Pouring From the Ladle into Molds A scene in one of our many large steel mills. THE TRIUMPH OF BIG BUSINESS 523 shall be kept as good as gold. Of course, this can only be done by paying gold for them on demand. President McKinley's administration was a time of rajiid development in every line of industry. Our farmers were raising great crops of wheat and cotton, our railroads were prosper- The growth ing, and our manufacturers were seeking foreign markets for °^ *^^ trusts their surplus goods. With the government of the nation in the hands of their friends, the trusts grew and multiplied. When the twentieth century opened, such important industries as the making of steel, the refining of sugar, and the manufac- ture of paper were in the hands of trusts, and many new trusts were being formed with the purpose of controlling every im- portant line of manufacturing in the country. There was great social unrest because of this condition, but the government was making no effort to enforce the law against the trusts and no one seemed to know what to do about it. CHAPTER XXVII New Social Ideals and Recent Progress Theodore Roosevelt Our Latest Presidents. — About six months after beginning his second term, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist The death of while he was shaking hands with the people at the Pan-American McKinley Exposition in Buffalo. At first the people hoped that the wounded president might recover, but this hope proved vain, and in a few days he died . For the fifth time in our history a vice- president succeeded to the presidency. Theodore Roosevelt was already justly fam- ous as an upright and courageous pubhc ser- vant when McKinley' s death made him presi- dent in September, 1901. Since early man- hood he had striven for purer politics and more efficient government. In 1900 Roosevelt was governor of New York, and the leaders of the Republican party in that state who did not Kke his zeal for reform, managed to have him nominated for the vice-presidency in order to prevent his reelection as governor. They Httle dreamed that by this act they were making him the leader of the nation in its struggle for a square deal in business and for higher social ideals. The new president was a vigorous, bold, enthusiastic, and outspoken man of rare ability and the highest integrity. He was unselfish, ab- solutely fearless, and a born leader of men. No other Ameri- can since Abraham Lincoln has had so great an influence for good upon the thought and the life of our people. 524 Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Theodore Roosevelt OUR LATEST PRESIDENTS 525 The election of Taft The time was ripe for such a loader as President Roosevelt, He felt the growing mir(>st among the people, and he knew that his countrymen would not permit the railroads and the trusts The policy of to rule them forever. He believed that the right way to avoid *^® y^square trouble in future was to enforce all the existing laws regulat- ing big business, to make new laws for its further control in the interest of all the people, and to give to rich and poor alike what he called a "square deal." While this policy won for Roosevelt the bitter hatred of the trust magnates and of the self-seeking politicians who served them, it made him very popular with the people, and in 1904 he was elected to the presidency by an overwhelming major- ity over Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate. Roosevelt's second term was a continual struggle for the rights of the people against the big business interests of the country. Several trusts were prose- cuted for breaking the laws, and new laws were passed for the better regulation of the railroads. The confi- dence of the people in Roosevelt continued to grow, and in 1908 his influence led the Republicans to make his secretary of war, William H. Taft of Ohio, their candidate for the presid(>ncy. P^or a third time William Jennings Bryan was the defeated Democratic candidate. William H. Taft, our president from 1909 to 1913, was a wise and experienced statesman who shared some of the pro- gressive views and carried on most of the policies of his pre- The rise decessor. But Taft was an easy-going man who lacked the ^^^J^^^^^^ fighting qualities of Roosevelt, and he soon fell under the movement influence of the old-fashioned or conservative Republicans who disliked Roosevelt and his reforms. These conservative RepubHcans or "standpatters," as they were called, planned Harris ,t Ewing, Washinijtun, D. C. William H. Taft 526 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS to renominate Taft in 1912, but the progressive members of the party who wanted to carry still further the reform pohcies of Roosevelt refused to vote for Taft and tried to nominate Roosevelt for another term. After a close and bitter contest in the Repul^lican national convention, Taft was nominated. The progressive Republicans declared that Taft's nomination was made by unfair means and refused to support him. A little later they held another convention, organized the Progressive party, demanded a long list of political and social re- forms, and named Roosevelt as their candidate for the presidency. The result of this split in the Republican |,arty in 1912 was the elec- t ion of Woodrow Wilson by the Democrats. Woodrow Wilson, who became president in 1913, was a famous teacher and author who had been presi- dent of Princeton University and more recently governor of New Jersey. He was a progressive and forward- looking man, and during his first term the power of the trusts and of the great financial combinations was further restricted. In 1916 Wilson was reelected over Charles E. Hughes, the candidate of the Republicans. The history of his second term is the story of the entrance of our country into the great war with Germany in 1917 and of the part which we took in bringing that awful contest to a victorious end. New Ways in Politics and Government. — In an earlier chapter we saw how the spoils system tended to corrupt our The spoils political life. Yet for half a century after Andrew Jackson system introduced this bad practice into our national government, whenever the party in power was defeated in a presidential Woodrow Wilson © Harris & Eming, Washington, D, C. Woodrow Wilson NEW WAYS IN POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 527 election, all the appointive office-holders except the judges were turned out and their places given to the politicians of the victorious party. About fifty years ago a few earnest men began to urge a reform of the civil service, but at first very httle attention was paid to them. After President Garfield was shot by a disappointed office- seeker, the evils of the spoils system could no longer be over- looked or denied, and in 1883 Congress passed th{> Civil Service civil service Law. This act provided for the appointment of a Civil Service reform Commission of three men. It is the duty of this commission to give competitive examinations which must be taken by those who seek places in the civil service. When a pul)lic officer has been appointed after passing such an examination he cannot be removed except for just cause and then only after a fair hearing. The passage of the Civil Service Law marked the beginning of a change from the spoils s.ystem to a merit system. The president has the right to name the offices for which competitive examinations must be taken. At first the number of offices on this list was small, but the later presidents, espe- cially Cleveland, Roosevelt and Taft, have added others to it until now fully two-thirds of all the persons in the ci^■il serv- ice had to pass examinations before they were appointc^d. Similar efforts have been made to introduce the merit system into the governments of some of our states and cities, but in many of them the evils of the spoils system are still very grave. The organization which manages each political party is sometimes called the party "machine," and the leaders of the "machine" are often called the "bosses" of the party. Until Political recent years candidates for office in our counties, congressional ^^j^^p^y^" districts, and states were nominated by party conventions. The ««bosses" members of these conventions were supposed to be elected by the voters of the respective parties, l)ut as a matter of fact they were often chosen through the influence of the party "bosses" and they usually voted as the "bosses" directed. By paying the campaign expenses of the party "machines", and sometimes by bribing the "bosses", the corporations and trusts which were trying to get the business of th{^ country into their hands often managed to have men selected for office who would do their bidding. About twenty years ago some of the western states began to try to destroy the influence of the "bosses" 528 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS Direct primaries Initiative and referendum The seventeenth amendment Woman suffrage and of the political rings by providing for the nomination of candidates for office at party elections called direct primaries. The change from party nominating conventions to direct pri- maries has spread from state to state until nov/ nominations for office in nearly all our states are made in this way. When they noted the growing influence upon the govern- ment of the country of the big business interests and their creatures, the political "bosses, "many of the people began to feel that their state legislatures no longer truly represented them. As a result of this feehng, some of the western states, whose people are less afraid than those of the East to try a thing merely because it is new, sought to protect the lawmaking power of the people by adopting two devices known as the initiative and the refer- endum. By the initi- ative a certain per cent, of the voters of a state may propose a law, or force the legis- lature to do so, and then submit it to the people for their approv- al or rejection. The referendum provides that when enough vot- ers demand it, an act passed by the legisla- ture must be approved by a popular vote before it becomes a law. The popular distrust of the influence of the moneyed interests and of the political "bosses" also helped to bring about the adoption of the seventeenth amendment to the Consti- tution in 1913. This amendment took away from the state legis- latures the right to elect United States senators, and provided for their choice by the direct vote of the people. Another movement to make the government more truly rep- resentative of all the people is the extension to women of the right to vote on equal terms with men. Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw were leading advocates of equal suffrage for women, and the Rocky Mountain states were the pioneers in its adoption. In 1919 Congress proposed an amendment to the Civiiie.ty of George B. Post cfc Sons A Typical State Capital at Madison, Wisconsin NEW LAWS FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD 529 Constitution giving women the right to vote on the same terms as men. This amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the states in 1920,.and the women of the whole countiy voted for the first time in the presidential election of that year. The rapid growth of cities during the last fifty years has brought many new political problems in its train. The streets must be paved, lighted, and cleaned; policemen and firemen Reforms must be employed to guard the people and their property; an in city adequate supply of pure water must be provided; and the health gove'"^™^"* and welfare of the inhabitants must be looked after in other ways. For a time, these things were verj^ badly done in many of our cities. Political "bosses" controlled the members of the councils and the other city officers, and bribery, graft, and cor- rupt politics ran riot. In their efforts to reform these shameful conditions, hundreds of our cities have adopted the "commis- sion plan" of government during th(^ last dozen years. Under this plan the voters elect a small body of men, often five in number, and put the government of the city into their hands. Still more recently a few of our cities have adopted the "city manager plan" of government, in which one man is put in charge of all the city's affairs and held responsible for the results. All the newer ways in politics and government named in this section are an improvement upon the older methods which thej^ displaced, luit they have fallen far short of lidding our Intelligent country of the influence of political "l)osses" and selfish busi- ^"^^.''.^^^ '". . ,-s 1 • 11 1 • xi i xi public affairs ness mterests. Our people are rapidly learning that they can "^ have good government in a democracy only when all the voters take an intelligent interest in public affairs, and are willing to giv(^ a part of their time to seeing that honest and competent men are selected to manage the public ])usincss. New Laws for the Public Good.— By the dawn of the twen- tieth century the trusts and other great corporations employed vast numbers of our wage earners, and all our p(>ople depended Freedom upon these big business concerns for some of the necessities of in peril life. Under these circumstances it seemed to many of our citizens that their freedom was in grave peril. How, they said, can we be free when our labor and the prices we must pay for the means of life arc controlled by the masters of big business? It is true that some men denied that thei-e was anything wrong Conserv- in this situation. Such mon pointed to the Inisiness prospeiitv atives 34 530 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS Socialists of the country, claimed that all the people shared in it, and declared that it was best to let well enough alone. At the other extreme were those who thought that the way in which industry was carried on was all wrong, and that it must be revolutionized if we were not to become a nation of slaves ruled by the big busi- ness interests. Such men declared that the land, the mines, the railroads, the factories, and all me other means by which wealth is produced ought to belong to all the people and be operated by tlie government. Those who hold this view are called Social- ists. Their number grew so fast during the first decade of this century that they cast nearly a million votes in the election of 1912. But the majority of our people held neither of the views just described. They knew that the great railroad com- Progressives panies and the trusts were guilty of evil practices, but they also believed that these big business concerns had grown up naturally in our country, and that if they were properly controlled and reg- ulated by law they would be of great service to the people. In other words, they did not think a business was bad j ust because it was big. This was the position of President Roosevelt, and under hun and his successors, Taft and Wilson, many laws were passed to regulate and restrict big business for the public good. The business of the country is so dependent upon the railroads that it is vitally important that they should be managed in the interest of the public welfare. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 was intended to secure this end, but as we have seen, it was a weak law which the railroads easily evaded. When President Roosevelt tried to enforce this law he soon saw that new legislation was necessary before the railroads could be compelled to deal justly with all the people. Through his influence and that of President Taft, the law' regulating commerce between the states was greatly strength- ened by a series of acts passed between 1903 and 1910. These new laws enlarged the Interstate Commerce Commission from five to seven members and gave it jurisdiction over express companies, telegraph and telephone companies, and oil pipe lines, as well as railways. They also provided severe punish- ments for giving or accepting rebates, and gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to reduce railroad rates when they were too high and to permit them to be raised when an increase was shown to be just and necessary. Regulating the rail- roads NEW LAWS FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD 531 the law From the beginning of his administration, President Roose- velt told Congress that the control of the trusts by the federal government was the most important business before the The trusts country. At first Congress paid little attention to his sugges- ™"st obey tions, but in 1903 it created th(^ D(^i)artnu'nt of Connuerce and Labor and authorized it to collect infoi'uiation about the conduct of corporations. You will recall that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act had been passed in 1890, but that it had never been vigorouslj^ enforced. As soon as Pre;^idcnt Roosevelt secured evidence that any trust was violating the Sherman act he brought suit against it in the United States courts, and the same policy was followed by President Taft. The most famous of these "trust busting" cases, as they were called, was the prosecution of the Standard Oil Com- pany in 1907. After a long legal battle the Supreme Court decided in 19 11 that this famous trust must be dissolved because it was vio- lating the law; but as a little group of ten or twelve men controlled nearly all the comixmies into which the grc^at corporation was l)roken up, the people gained little by this decision. In 1914 Congress passed the Clayton Anti- Trust Bill, which further restricted the power of the trusts, but they have not yet been brought fully under public control. Tiie Democrats have always favored lower duties than the Republicans, and soon after their leader, Woodrow Wilson, became president in 1913, he called Congress together in special The tariff session to revise the tariff. The result was the passage of the ^^ " Underwood Tariff" Bill. This act, which is still in force, reduced the average of duties about one-third and admitted a number of the necessities of life free of duty altogether. It was hoped that this law, while providing moderate protection for our manu- II,. ;\,,M,:,il Cm' fiaui, .<*■ New York One of the largest financial institutions in the world. 532 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS Federal Re- serve Banks Many laws for the public welfare Wasteful- ness of our people facturing industries, would insure cheaper goods for all the people. Another very important law passed during the first year of President Wilson's administration was the Federal Reserve Bank Act. This act divided the country into twelve districts and established a Federal Reserve Bank in some important city in each district. Every national bank is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of its district. The purpose of the Federal Reserve banking system is to prevent the undue con- centration of the money of the country in one great financial center like New York, and to provide for issuing new paper money whenever the business needs of the country require it. If you will examine the next pieces of paper money that you see, you will probably find that some of them are the notes of Federal Reserve banks. During the last fifteen years both the states and the United States have enacted a great many other laws intended to promote the welfare or safeguard the health of the people. The postal service has been extended by the creation of postal savings banks and by the establishment of a parcel post to carry packages of merchandise. A pure food and drugs act forbids the adulteration of these articles, and another law pro- vides for the federal inspection of all meat products in the in- terest of the pul)lic health. Labor has been safeguarded by laws to prevent young children from working in factories, and to limit the number of hours of labor on the railroads and in some other lines of work, and by the establishment of a separate Department of Labor in 1913. Other laws enable farmers to borrow money of the government for a longer time and at a lower rate of interest than the banks will allow, and provide for the establishment of farm bureaus to promote instruction in agriculture and to advance the interests of the farmers in other ways. New Movements for Social Betterment. — While conquering the wilderness and building up the industries of the United States our people acted as if there were no limit to the resources of their country. They made vast desolate areas by destroying the forests in regions where the land is only fit to grow timber; they were wasteful in mining and using coal and the metals; and worst of all, they depleted the fertility of the soil by careless MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 533 methods of farming. One of the greatest of President Roose- velt's many valuable services to his country during the event- ful years of his administration was in calling attention in his forceful way to this threatening waste of th(> l)()unties of nature and in inspiring a movement for their conservation for the future. The conservation of the natural resources of the country has various meanings. In the case of coal, oil, and gas, which when once used are gone forever, it means the elimination of An Oil Poul, Texas waste in their production and economy in their use. Tn the cas- The^con- of the metals, which, like coal and oil, are limited in amount, ^^^^^^^^ but unlike them, can be used again and again until they are worn out, it means the reduction of waste in mining the ore and in extracting the metal from it, and then a careful use of the metal to make it last as long as possible. The use of water on the other hand does not destroy it, and so it is l)i>st ccuiserved by using it as far as possible for navigation, for IrrigMtioti. and as a source of power. It also means that big corporations shall not be permitted to monopoli25e the water power of the country, 534 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS but that this important resource shall be kept in the hands of the people and managed in then- interest. The soil and the forests, unUke fuels and metals, when exhausted or destroyed may be slowly renewed. The farmers can conserve the soil by handling it in such a way as to restore and preserve in it the elements which are necessary for plant food. Much waste land may also be made useful by the drainage of swamps and the irrigation of arid regions. The forests are conserved by not using lumber more freely than it can be grown. To secure this end young trees must be planted ; forest fires must be prevented or fought; and only such timber must be cut as is ripe for use. It has been found that the best way to conserve the forests is to keep them in the hands of the national government. In Forest 1891 Congress passed a law authorizing the president to reserve reserves forests lands for the use of the nation. Presidents Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley began to establish forest reserves, and President Roosevelt reserved the larger part of the great forests in the Pacific and Rocky IMountain states, which were still a part of the pul^lic lands, as national forests to be held forever as the property of the people and managed in their interest We owe a great del)t of gratitude for our splendid forest reserves to Theodore Roosevelt and to Gifford Pinchot who was chief forester of the United States from 1898 to 1910. The protection of the lives and health of the people is even more important than the conservation of the natural resources Safety first of the country. For a long time neither the nation nor the .states paid much attention to these vital matters. Accidents were very common in factories, mines, and on the railroads. But in reccMit years many of the states have provided by law , for the inspection of mines and factories to see that they are properly ventilated, and that dangerous machinery is so covered as to prevent injury to the workmen; and the United States has required all railroads which are engaged in interstate com- merce to safeguard their employees by using air brakes and automatic couplers on all their locomotives and cars. But in spite of all these laws there are still many accidents in industry, and many of the states have passed workmen's compensation acts under which the employer or the state pays an injured workman a part of his wages while he is recovering, or gives him a fixed sum or a pension if his injury permanently disables him. MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT 535 During the later years of our history, improvements in hygiene and sanitation, new discoveries in medicine and surgery, and better care of the sick have done much to conquer disease Health and to prolong life. Vaccination, where practised, has ])aii- "leasuies ished smallpox; cleanliness has driven out cholera, a terrible disease of years ago; antitoxin has conquered diphtheria; typhoid fever has practically disappeared in cities where the water is pure and proper sanitary regulations are observed; and the dreadful scourge of yellow fever is no longer known A Consolidated Country School The "Jackson" school in Jackson Township, Randolph County, Indiana. Thirteen transportation vehicles bring the pupils from all parts of the township. where the mosquitoes by which, it is transmitted from one person to another have been exterminated. All our cities and many of our smaller towns maintain excellent hospitals for the care of the sick, and ampl(> provision is mad(> m hospitals and schools for the treatment and education of \hc insane and the feeble-minded. r * i Tlie movement for the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors has grown with ama/ing rai)idit.v during the last few years. The Prohibition party first organized The^.^.^.^^ in 1872, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, u>hUi ts ^ inspiring leader, Frances E. Willard, teaching the effects of th movement 536 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS The eighteenth amendment Improve- ments in the common schools Develop- ment of high schools use of alcohol to the boys and girls in our public schools, the work of the anti-saloon leagues against the drink traffic, the realization that drunkenness was diminishing the industrial efficiency of our workmen, and the coming of the World War in 1917, all played their part in stirring up the people against strong drink. Some of the states adopted local option laws by which counties or townships were allowed to decide by popular vote whether saloons should be permitted within their limits, and other states were made "dry" by state action. State-wide prohibition spread rapidly in the South and the West. In 1917 Congress l-)roposcd the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution for- bidding the manufacture, sale, transportation, importation, or exportation of intoxicating liquor for beverage purposes, and early in 1919 this amendment was ratified by more than three- fourths of the states and thus became a part of the fundamental law of the land. Progress in Education. — During the last half century of our history, marvelous improvements have been made in our schools of every grade and kind. The free common school system has been extended to every corner of the country. The schools in this system have been carefully graded, and just now the one room scliools in the country are being consolidated into a smaller number of larger schools with better facilities for good school work. Better schoolhouses have been built; the annual school term has been lengthened; new branches of study have been introduced; the quality of the teaching has been very much improved; and in many of the states compulsory attend- ance laws compel all children between certain ages to go to school. But perhaps the most striking feature of recent educational progress in the United States has been the growth of our high schools. Half a century ago there were only a few small high schools in all the land. Now every city and town has one or more of these schools and nearly a million and a half young Americans attend them. Great nmnbers of our high schools are housed in splendid new buildings well equipped with labora- tories, libraries, shops, and workrooms. The old-time high- school course of study, which consisted chiefly of Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, has been enriched by the addition of the natural sciences, modern languages, history, social science, and PROGRESS IN EDUCATION 537 literature. Technical, commercial, and agricultural high schools in ever-increasing numbers give boys and girls a trahiing for the work of life in their respective communities. It is now possible to get a better education in any good high school than could be obtained in most of our colleges one hundred years ago. The development of Amer- ican colleges and universities / j^' ^^I^H^ \ Growth of since the time of the Civil War / ^^-. ^^ ^ \ univfrsities"^ has been almost as remarkable as the growth of our high schools. Old institutions, hke Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania, have grown from little colleges to great universities attended by thousands of students. Splen- did new universities, like Johns Hopkins at Baltimore, the Uni- versity of Chicago, and Leland Stanford in California, have been Frances e. wiuard richlv endowed by some of our Founder and first president of the world's infill J »_in.i<_>vv«-vi J Woman's Christian Temperance Union. wealthy men. Most important ot all, the states of the Middle West and of the Far West have developed great state universities, like those of Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, and California. Many of our universities have enlarged their field of service to the people by offering ex- tension and correspondence courses which students may take at their own homes. In the meantime provision has been made for professional training by the estal)lish- ment of numerous normal schools, agricultural col- leges, and schools for the study of law, medicine, and engineering. Vocational schools in ever increasing numbers are teaching trades and giving instruction in home economics. Nor have our people neglected to provide opportunilics for further education for those whose regular school life is over. Boston Public Library One of the many libraries open to the public 538 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS Education Many of our cities and towns maintain night schools in which for life those who must toil during the day may be taught in the evening. In some places the schoolhouses are open in the evenings for social gatherings, concerts, and instructive lectures. Every year more parks and playgrounds are provided for the recreation of the people. Nearly every town has its public library, and our large cities maintain public museums and fine art galleries. In all these ways we are seeking to make the education of our people continue throughout their lives." Our later men of letters Mark Twain John Fiske Our great humorist and one of our foremost historians Achievements in Literature, Art, and Science. — The progress of our country during the later years of its history has not been limited to the upbuilding of our industries and to political, social, and educational reforms. Every year an increasing number of our people devote their lives to literature, science, and the arts. Newspapers and magazines are more numerous and more widely read than ever before, and hundreds of able writers in all branches of literature are pouring forth a constant stream of new books. Perhaps none of these later writers quite equal such men of letters as Emerson, Hawthorne, ACHIEVEMENTS IN LITERATURE, ETC. 539 and Lowell. But Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, and F. Marion Crawford are famous novelists; Walt Whitman and Sidney Lanier are poets of power, and James W^hitcomb Riley is popular and widely read; Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is our greatest humorist; John Fiske, John Bach McMaster, and James Ford Rhodes are foremost among our later historians; while Theodore Roosevelt and WoOdrow Wil- son are almost as well known as writers as they are as statesmen. Our recent achievements in the fine arts have been even Anna Howard Shaw Clara Barton An influential advocate of equal suffrage for women and a great philanthropist who organized the American Red Cross Society. more notal)le than our progress in literature. Among many brilliant American painters of the last fifty years, special men- tion may be made of the great portrait painter, John S. Sargent, x^e fine art: and of Edwin A. Abbey, whose pictures adorn the walls of the Boston Public Library and of the capitol of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose noble statue of Abraham Lincoln stands at the entrance to Lincoln Pnrk in Chicago, is perhaps first in a little group of great American sculptors. But since the time of the Civil War most Americans ot 540 NEW SOCIAL IDEALS, RECENT PROGRESS Business, invention and engineering great ability have devoted their energies to business, or to invention, architecture, or engineering. The Wright brothers, who gave the world the aeroplane, will take their places in history side by side with Fulton and Stephenson. The archi- tects who planned our "skyscraper" buildings, our palatial hotels, and our splendid railroad stations, like the Pennsylvania Station in New York and the Union Station in Washington, are worthy to rank among our greatest artists. The engineers who deepened the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi, who constructed the railroads across the Rocky Mountains, The Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York City who tunneled the Hudson and built the Brooklyn Bridge, and who dug the Panama Canal are among the greatest ben(>factors of our people. Theodore Roosevelt is the best representative of the newer social ideals of service. He speaks in the following sentences: " The test of a man's worth to the community is the service he renders to it, and we cannot afford to make this test by material considerations alone. "There never yet was a service worth rendering that did not entail sacrifice; and no man renders the highest service if he thinks over much of the sacrifice. "Let us pay with our bodies for our souls' desire! "Let the woman be trained in all the ways that will fit her for her work in peace or war. Give to man and woman equality of right; base the privilege thus secured on the service each must render; and demand ACHIEVEMENTS IN LITERATURE, ETC. 541 from them, not identity of function, but, as a matter of ohiiffation, the full performance of whatever duty each can best perform. "It is simply common sense to recognize that there is the widest inequality of service, and that therefore there must be a reasonably wide inequality of reward, if our society is to rest upon the basis of justice and wisdom. "Bring your children up not so that they will shirk difficulties, but so that they will overcome them; not so that they will try to have a soft time of selfish ease, but so that they will have the greatest joy that comes to mankind — the satisfaction of knowing whenever the end may come, that they have led worthy lives." CHAPTER XXVIII Americans in the Making The "Melting Pot." — The most important work going on in our country throughout its history has been the making of The making Americans of the people who have been constantly coming of Americans to its shores from the Old World. Since early colonial times men and women have been flocking to the New World from every land in Europe, and in our earlier history multitudes of Africans were brought here without their consent. A famous writer once called the United States a "melting pot" into which races from all lands were cast to be fused into one people. With the exception of Indians, all Americans have come out of this "melting pot," for we are all the descendants of immi- grants from the Old World. Some of us have had ancestors in America for centuries; others belong to families which came only yesterday; but if we are true Americans we love and serve the United States before any other country. In one of the early chapters of this book we learned that many European peoples made contributions to the American Our "melting pot" in the old colonial days. The freedom-loving immigrant j^^j^ home-making English sent the largest number; but the sturdy and enterprising Dutch and Swedes, the intelligent and upright French Huguenots, the plodding and thrifty Germans, and the hardj'^ and aggressive Scotch-Irish, all helped in making the first Americans. Many Irish came to America just before the Revolution, and after that event the number of immigrants from the countries of western Europe grew slowly but steadily until it reached one hundred thousand in a single year for the first time in 1842. Since that date there have been only four years in which less than one hundred thousand foreigners entered our ports. We have already seen how the famine in Ireland in 1846 and the revolution in Germany in 1848 drove many of the sons of those countries to America during the next few years. The greater part of the Europeans who have come to America since its earliest settlement have been earnest and 542 THE "MELTING POT' 543 in the World New ambitious men and women who brought with them the best The influ- traits of character found in their home lands. Many of the f"*;^ °U'^® good quaUties they brought have been improved, and some now ones developed by the experiences of life in the New World. The privations and hardships which the colonists and pioneers endured while they were conquering the wilderness weeded out the weak and inefficient, but made the survivors more hardy and persevering than ever. The invigorating climate of America, its greater freedom, and the wider opportunities to make the most of their lives which it has ever offered newcomers from the Old World have all played their part in changing Euro- pean immigrants into bold, energetic, and self- reliant Americans. Most important of all are the beliefs and the ideals which must ^MpP^ . >^B^?^-J^' 'Wj^ • iX American find their way into tha i»r^^,.v>-^iyli T-f'?.^- B^Ch,. ^ ideals minds and the hearts of those who are cast into the "melting pot" be- fore they become true Americans. The gen- uine American believes © Puhh'slin-s' Phnto Service, N. The Promised Land Immigrants from Europe catching their first glimpse of America, in which they see the statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World," in New York Harbor. that all men have equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By equality he does not mean (Mniality in con- dition or in possessions but in privileges and opportunities. He holds that the people should choose theu* own rulers and that all just government depends upon the consent of the governed. To the American, freedom does not mean the right to do anything that he pleases, but rather a life governed by law, ord(>r, and fair play between man and man. Every dweller in our country who cherishes these ideals and stands ready to work for tiiem, to pay 544 AMERICANS IN THE MAKING Growth in population The incom- ing tide of foreigners Immigrants from north- western Europe taxes for them, and if necessary to fight for them, is a real Amer- ican regardless of the land of his birth or the color of his skin. Our Later Immigrants. — The rapid growth of its popula- tion is one of the most striking facts in the history of our country. We have seen that the United States had thirty- one million inhabitants in 1860. This number grew to thirty- nine millions in 1870, to fifty millions in 1880, and to sixty- two millions in 1890. The seventy-six million people with which we entered the twentieth century in 1900 had become ninety-two millions in 1910, and the census of 1920 shows a a population of more than one hundred and five millions in the United States. The population of our country is fully three times as great today as it was at the close of the Civil War. A great incoming tide of immigrants is largely responsible for this remarkable growth in population. Fully twenty-five milhon Europeans have sought their fortunes in America during the last half century. The flow of this incoming tide of foreign- ers has not always been uniform. When business has been prosperous and work has been plentiful it has risen rapidly. In periods of hard times it has fallen off somewhat, but always many have come. In 1873 nearly half a million newcomers entered our ports. The panic of that year caused a decline in immigration for some tim(% but l)y 1882 the yearly addition to our population from this source had climbed to eight hundred thousand and in 1905 it passed the million mark for the first time. At the present tirrie at least one person in seven living in our country came here from a foreign land. Before 1885 the vast majority of the immigrants to our shores came from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. These were the lands from which the ancestors of most Americans had come in earlier days, and con- sequently the newcomers resembled the people already here, in language, religious beliefs, habits, customs, and ways of thinking. Moreover, the British, Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians came from lands which had progressive agriculture, thriving manu- factures, skilled labor, and a considerable measure of self- government. It was an easy task to make good Americans of such people. But about thirty-five years ago large numbers of people began to flock to America from the countries of southern and OUR LATER IMMIGRANTS 545 eastern Europe. In recent years more than three-fourths of our Immigrants immigrants have come from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Poland, ^'""^ south- and Russia. These newer immigrants differ widely from those Europe who came earlier, in race, language, religion, customs, and habits of thought. Much of th(nr labor is unskilled; their standard of living is lower than ours; many of them cannot even read and write; and they have had little experience in governing themselves. Wliile many of theses later comers are hai'dy and industrious people who are helping to build up our country, the l^<»>^--» Showing Immigration to the United States Before and After 1885 problem of Americanizing th(>m is more difficult. Some of them have no intention of remaining permanently in our country, but hope to make their fortunes here and then return to spend their later years in ease and comfort in their home lands. The first settlers in America fled from political tyranny or religious persecution in their own countries, or came because they hoped to improve their condition in life in the New Worl( . Why people The latest immigrants have sought our shores for very much ^j^jg^ica the same reasons. Many Germans and Italians have come to escape giving the best years of their lives to compulsory mili- 35 546 AMERICANS IN THE MAKING tary service at home. Ai'menians and Syrians have fled from the tyranny of the Turkish government. Many Jews are in America because of the persecution of their race in Russia. But probably the hope of making a better hving in the United States than they have ever known at home has hn-ed the greatest number. Wages are low m southern and eastern Europe, and when venturesome young men who have migrated to America from those lands have written home about earning Coiirtrgi/ of the Ford Motor Companij. Americanizing the Alien An open-air class at a great manufacturing plant, as much money in a day as they had formerly earned in a week, it is little wonder that many of their relatives and friends have followed them to the land of promise. Then, too, the passage across the ocean could be made more quickly, cheaply, and safely than in earlier times, and the steamship companies have maintained agents in Europe who were constantly inciting and encouraging people to go to America. The task of Americanizing the great host of recent immi- grants would have been easier if they could have been scattered to all parts of the country, but most of them went quickly THE NEGROES IN OUR MIDST 547 to the great centers of industry where they could most easily Where find employment. Years aa;o when the work of the South was newcomers done by slaves, free laborers naturally shunned that section, cJuntrv°^ and up to the present time comparatively few immigrants have sought homes south of Mason and Dixon's line. ]\lany of the Germans and Scandinavians who came in large numbers about forty years ago settled upon the land in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne- sota, and the Dakotas, but only a few of the Irish or of the later comers from the countries of southern and eastern Europe have become farmers in America. Vast numbers of these later immigrants and of their sons and daughters work in the factories of New England and New York, in the mines of Pennsylvania and of the Rocky Mountain states, in the steel mills of Pitts- burgh, in the packing houses of Chicago and Kansas Citj^, and in repairing the railroads, digging the sewers, and doing the heavy labor in all sorts of construction work. More than one-half of the foreign born inhabitants of our country are in the five great manufacturing states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. The process of making Americans of our later imniignuits is further hindered by the fact that th(\v too often herd together in communities of their own in our manufacturing cities and Difficulties mining towns. In such communities they continue to use theii- l^i^^the*^^"' own language, rarely come in close touch with real Americans, i^ter comers and often live much as they did in tlunr home lands. Too often the nature of their work tends to prevent them from becoming better men. When the earlier immigrant became a pioneer farmer he had to plan his own work and then do it alone or in cooperation wnth his neighbois. His daily fife helped to make him an independent and self-reliant man. But most of the later immigrants who live in our great centers of industry, work under a boss and spend their lives in a monotonous round of daily toil which tends to make them mere cogs in a vast in- dustrial machine. The Negroes in Our Midst.— In addition to the horde of recent immigrants from southern and eastern I^urope we havc^ in the United States over ten million native American citizens The gulf of of African descent, many of whom are still very imperfectly ^^"^^^^ fused in our great national "melting pot." The European pioneers who developed our country represented the most highly 548 AMERICANS IN THE MAKING civilized races in the world, and they brought with them the best things in their home lands. The negro slaves who were brought to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies were barbarous pagans who had been captured or stolen by wicked slave-traders in the jungles of Africa. They were not only far beneath their masters in all civilized ways of living but they were divided from them also by a great gulf of race difference which to this day keeps white people and black people from living together upon a footing of perfect equality. Two centuries of slave life upon our southern plantations did much to lift the negroes out of their original barbarous The condition. It taught them to wear clothes, to live in houses, influence ^^^^ ^^ work in a lazy and inefficient way. It gave them the English language in the place of scores of African dialects, and it changed them, in name at least, from a pagan into a Christian race. On the other hand, the evils of slavery were far greater than any ])enefits it conferred. It kept the negroes in ignorance and superstition and prevented the development in them of truthfulness, honesty, industry, and thrift, the fundamental virtues without which no race can travel very far along the road which leads to civilization. Over fifty years ago the Civil War gave the slaves their freedom, but a life of slavery had done little to fit the negroes The negro as to use this priceless gift. In an earlier chapter we have seen a freedman |^q^ ^\^q freedmen fell under the influence of unscrupulous poli- ticians, what woes the resulting carpetl^agger rule inflicted upon the South, and how the white men of that section at last overthrew it. Since that time the white people of the South have been steadfast in their determination to keep the political and social control of their communities in their own hands and to prevent l^y every means in their power the fusion of the white and the black races. But Booker T. Washington, the wisest and most influential leader that the negro race has ever had in America, insisted A great that his people could be good and loyal Americans without negro leader j-^-^^j^^jjj^g jj^ r^j^y gocial way with their white neighbors. "In all things that are purely social," he told a white audience at Atlanta in 1895, "we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." In the belief, as he said in the same speech, that "the opportunity to ' KEEPING OUT THE UNDESIRABLE 549 earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house," Booker T. Washington devoted his life to training negroes in industry in a great school which he built up at Tuskegee, Alabama. But the negroes who are getting an excellent training at Tuskegee, and in other schools like it, are only a handful among the millions of their race in America. Still, some The race progress toward the day of better things for the black man is problem being made. Some negroes have acquired property and a fair measure of education, and many more, though still poor, are decent and hard-working men and women. But too many black men in our country are still ignorant, lazy, and thriftless. The task of training the members of this backward but brave, cheerful, and affectionate race for intelligent and useful American citizenship is one of the greatest problems that con- front our people at the present time. Keeping Out the Undesirable.— For a long time no effort was made to shut out any foreigner who wanted to come to the United States. Instead, laws were passed to encourage Our earlier immigration and to protect the newcomers upon their arrival, pol'cy Most Americans felt, in the words of the poet Lowell, that their country had "room about its hearth for all mankind." We still welcome healthy, honest, industrious, and intelligent members of the white races; but when the great tide of immi- grants began to pour into our country forty or fifty years ago, we began to see that it brought many worthless and dangerous people who ought to be excluded. It was also felt that there ought to be some resti-iction upon the coming of the yellow races of Asia, whose members did not readily become like our people in their ideas, habits, and ways of living. The Chin(>se began coming to America soon after gold was discovered in California. They readily found (employment on the Pacific Coast in building railroads and as gardeners and The house servants, and a few of them became laundrymen in ^^^^^^^J^^^^ other parts of the country. Because they were accustomed to laborers living upon a few cents a day, the Chinese worked for very low wages, and soon the white lal)oring men of California began to complain that the time was coming when they could no longer find work at living wages. As the Chinese continued 550 AMERICANS IN THE MAKING Our under- standing with Japan The restric- tion of European immigration The literacy test to come, many people in all parts of our country began to fear that some day we would have a Chinese problem as serious as our negro problem. For these reasons Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion act; in 1882. This law, which has been renewed from time to time, excludes all Chinese laborers from the United States, but permits Chinese students, travelers, and merchants to enter. When the first law shutting out Chinese labor was passed, there were one hundred and thirty thousand Chinese in the United States, but at the present time there is only a little more than half that number. The Japanese began coming to a considerable extent to our country in the latter years of the nineteenth century. After 1900 the number of them in our Pacific -states gi'ew rapidly. At first they were looked upon more kindly than the Chinese, but soon organized labor began to demand their exclusion on the ground that their presence reduced wages and tended to lower the standard of living. In 1906 San Francisco tried to keep the Japanese out of its puljlic schools, and a little later California passed laws intended to prevent them from owning land in that state. We now have an understanding with the government of Japan that it will not permit Japanese laborers to come to America, and since this arrangement was made very few Japanese have entered the United States. The same year that we began to exclude Chinese laborers, Congress passed an act to prevent the admission of undesirable persons from Europe, and several other laws with the same pur- pose have been passed at various times since 1882. It is the aim of these immigration laws to exclude from the United States all those who are physically, mentally, or morally unfit to mingle with our people. Accordingly, we shut out persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with any loathsome or contagious disease; paupers and persons likely to become paupers; laborers who were under contract to work in America before they came here; all insane and feeble-minded persons; criminals; persons who intend to engage in immoral practices; and anarchists or those who want to destroy the government by violence. These restrictions upon immigration have kept out some undesirable and dangerous persons, but they have not much lessened the vast number of aliens who enter our gates every year. For a long time many of our people have believed in AMERICANIZING THE NEWCOMERS 551 shutting out all adults who cannot read, bccauso this would exclude a large number of immigrants who l)olong to the more backward races of Europe. Three times Congress has adopted this literacy test, as it is called, only to have its action vetoed successively by Presidents Cleveland, Taft, and Wilson, on the ground that it was not right to close our doors to imn)igrarits of good character and al:»ility, simply because they had never had an opportunity to learn to read. But early in 1917 Congress succeeded in passing the literacy test over President Wilson's veto, and since that time, with a few exceptions, no foreigner A Congested City Quarter over sixteen years of age has entered the United States unless he was able to read. This law will tend to reduce the number of immigrants from Italy, Hungary, Russia, and the Balkan States. Americanizing the Newcomers. — When we sec the over- crowded quart(>rs and unsanitary surroundings of the recent immigrants who throng the slums of our great cities, or the Difficulties sordid conditions in the midst of which many of tliem live ni our mining districts, we may well wonder if it is possibl(^ to make good Americans of them in such unattractive and unhealthful places. It is true that the task would he far easier if we should improve housing and living conditions in thest^ places, as we ought, but even ni tl'.e midst of (lie most un- 552 AMERICANS IN THE MAKING The influence of American life favorable surroundings many influences are at work changing the ahens who come to us into Americans in thought and hfe. The newcomer from a foreign land cannot walk our streets or go about his daily work without seeing American ways of living and feeling something of the American spirit and of American ideals. The moving picture tlieaters and other popular places of amusement give him some American ideas, and the public playgrounds help to bring his children and American children together. Even if the immigrant never learns the language of his adopted country his children are sure to speak English. The trade-unions of our country have played a very f^ A ft fi. 1 ■I^Tfrr''- i « -•■ft '■ Cnirttsy of t),e Bu Playground in a School Yard id of Rtcrtatiull important part in leading the adult immigrants to desire The work of American ways of living and to strive after them. For example, the trade- ^\^q United Garment Workers, a large part of whose members in New York City are Jewish immigrants, succeeded in abol- ishing the sweatshop system in that city and managed to secure higher wages for its members and to shorten their working day. Likewise the United Mine Workers, ninety per cent of whose members are of foreign birth, improved working con- ditions in the mines, reduced the hours of labor, and greatly increased the wages of its members, thus helping many a poor immigrant to adopt an American standard of life. The trade-unions also bring the newcomers into touch with American AMERICANIZING THE NEWCOMERS 553 workmen, urge them to become naturalized, and lead them to think and act as Americans. In his labor-union the new citizen learns to take an interest in public affairs, gains courage and self-confidence, develops foresight, and is taught to elect and to obey his own officers. He thus learns the first principles of good citizenship in a self-governing country. But the public school is the most far-reaching and influential of all the agencies that are helping to make Americans. It begins by giving the children of the immigrants of every race a The public common language, the English speech of their new country, ^gric^s^^ It tends to remove any hostile feelings that m.ay h-^^'" fvisted E. E. Bach, Director of Americanization, CommonweaUh. oj Fcnnsylwnia. Schoolroom for Foreign Children Teaching American customs and the English language to children of aliens. between nationalities that formerly (juarreled or clashetl with one another in the Old World and to make all the children think of themselves as Americans. It teaches them the songs of American patriotism, the stories of American heroes, and the history of American institutions. It quickens and enlarges their minds, stimulates their ambitions, and inspires in them higher aspuations and nobler ideals. In all these ways our public schools are training a vast host of young Americans, native and foreign-born alike, for loyal and useful citizenship when they become men and women. Of the many addresses on Americanism, this one from Henry van Dyke on the Americanism of Washington, is prob- ably the best. He says Americanism is this: 554 AMERICANS IN THE MAKING "To believe that the inalienable rights of man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given by God. "To believe that any form of power that tramples on these rights is unjust. "To behave that taxation without representation is tyranny, that government must rest upon the consent of the governed, and that the people couM choose their own rulers. "To believe that freedom must be safeguarded by law and order, and that the end of freedom is fair play for all. "To believe not in a forced equality of conditions and estates, but in a true equalization of burdens, privileges, and opportunities. "To believe that the selfish interests of persons, classes, and sections must be subordinated to the welfare of the commonwealth. "To believe that union is as much a human necessity as Uberty is a divine gift. "To believe, not that all peoi:)le are good, but that the way to m.ake them better is to trust the whole people. "To believe that a free state should offer an asylum to the oppressed, and an example of virtue, sobriety, and fair dealing to all nations. "To beheve that for the existence and perpetuity of such a state a man should be willing to give his whole service, in property, in labor, and in hfe." i CHAPTER XXIX The United States and the World Our American Neighbors. — In his Farewell Ackhess Wash- ington urged his coiintrynien to steer clear of all entangling relations with other nations, and for many years our people^ The Pan- were so absorbed in developing their own country that it was American easy for them to follow his advice. But as the nineteenth The Latm-American Lands about the Caribbean Sea century drew to a close, we began to cultivate closer relations with the Latin American countries south of us in the hope of increasing our trade with them. James G. Blaine was espe- cially interested in this policy, and when he was secretary of state in President Harrison's cabinet, a great Pan-American Congress, or meeting of delegates from all the countries of North and South America, was held in Washington m 1889. Since that time similar conferences to promote friendship 555 556 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD among the nations of the New World have been held in the City of Mexico, in Rio Janeiro, and in Buenos Aires, and now these nations maintain a Bureau of American Republics at Washington to help the people of their respective countries to become better acquainted with each other and to encourage commerce among them. One hundred years ago the United States warned the nations of the Old World to keep their hands off the states of The Monroe North and South America. In all our later history we have Doctrine shown a steadfast determination to maintain the Monroe maintained and discussed * The Pan-American Union Building The international organization maintained by the twenty-one American Republics. Doctrine. When a dispute arose in 1895 over the location of the boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and Great Britain refused President Cleveland's request to arbitrate the matter, Cleveland promptly sent a message to Congress declaring that the United States ought to investigate the question for itself, and that when it had determined what was the rightful boundary of Venezuela it ought to maintain that boundary by every means in its power. Great Britain j'ielded before this forceful stand and agreed to arbitrate her difference with Venezuela. In 1902 Great Britain and Germany blockaded THE WAR WITH SPAIN 557 the Venezuelan ports to collect claims of their subjects against that country, and only the positive warning of President Roosevelt kept Germany from landing troops in Venezuela. But by this time it was beginning to be seen that if we did not let European powers interfere with small American nations we must not permit the little American states to defraud their European creditors. Accordingly, when the little negro repubhc of Santo Domingo would not pay its debts we took charge of its financial affairs, and by an agreement with that island state we still manage them. In 1911 we made a similar financial arrangement with Nicaragua, and two years later that country practically put itself under the protection of the United States. As the American people and their Canadian neighbors speak the same language and are very much alike in their industrial, social, and political life, it is natural that the relations Friendly between them should be peculiarly intimate and friendly. ^^l^^^cL&da Neither fortresses nor soldiers guard their common boundary line of more than three thousand miles. Many Canadians have migrated to the United States, and large numbers of American farmers have found new homes in the wheat-growing provinces of the Canadian Northwest. Differences over the right to fish off the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, about the right to catch seals in Bering Sea, and over the boundary line between Canada and Alaska have arisen from time to time between Canada and her mother country, Great Britain, on the one side and the United States on the other, but these matters have all been peaceably settled by impartial arbitration. The War with Spain. — We have seen how the Spaniards colonized the West Indies and conquercnl IVTcxico and a large part of South America during the fu"st half of tli(^ sixtcentli The Cuban century. Early in the nineteenth century the Spanish colonics j^;^^||'^^°' on the mainland won their independence, and the island prov- inces of Cuba and Poito l^ico were all that Spain retained of her once vast empire in America. In 1868 the Cu])ans began to fight for their freedom, but after struggling for ten years they were forced to yield. By 1895, Spanish misgovernment in Cuba could be borne no longer, and a second revolt broke out in that island. In the war which followed, ]K)th sides were guilty of glaring outrages. The country was laid waste, and finally the Spanish captain-general required the inhabitants of 558 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD with Spain Cuba to gather in the towns held by the Spanish troops where many of them starved to death. Our people sympathize with a struggle for liberty any- where in the world, and in this case their hearts were touched Causes of by the stories of Cuban suffering, and their anger was aroused our war j^y ^^g reports of Spanish cruelty. Then it was natural that Americans who had invested large sums of money in sugar plantations in Cuba should want to see peace prevail in that island. In February, 1898, our battleship Maine was blown up while at anchor in the harbor of Havana, and a large part of its crew were killed. Though the author of this act was unknown, public opinion in the United States held the Spaniards responsible for it and the demand for war grew intense. For a time President McKinley tried to avert war by negoti- ations with Spain, but without success, and at last he laid the whole matter before Congress with the suggestion that American interference to stop the destructive con- flict in Cuba was justified by humanity and by our national interests. On April 19, 1898, Congress declared that the people of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent, and demanded that Spain at once withdraw from that island. Spain treated this demand as a declaration of war and hostilities soon began between the two countries. The contest opened with a brilliant naval victory in the Dewey's Far East. When war was declared, Commodore George Dewey victory at ^^g ^^ Hong Kong with a small American fleet. He sailed at once from that port for the Philippine Islands, Spain's chief © Keystone View Co., Meadville, Pa. General view of the wrecked Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. THE WAR WITH SPAIN 559 possession in the Orient. On May 1, 1898, Dcnvey boldly entered the harbor of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and destroyed the Spanish fleet which he found there, without the loss of a ship or a man. Dewey could have taken the city of Manila at once, but he did not have enough men to occupy it. Troops were sent to his aid from the United States, and after their arrival Manila was captured and Spanish ruk; in the East came to an end. Meanwhile our home fleet under Admiral Sampson began to blockade the Cuban ports and to watch for a Spanish The Battle of Manila Bay Co., .\fc:i(JiUle, Pa. squadron which was reported to have sailed for America. The Santiago Cervera, the Spanish admiral, managed to slip into Santiago campaign harbor unobserved, but he was soon blockadcnl in thnt port by the American warships. A few days latw- Lieutenant Hobson, with a crew of seven seamen, in a gallant attempt to bottle up the Spanish ships, sunk the collier Merrimac in the entrance to Santiago harbor. This heroic enterprise failed of its purpose because the Merrimac did not sink at the exact spot selected, and Hobson and his men were taken l)y the 560 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD Spaniards. It was then decided to send a military force against Santiago, but the expedition was delayed by the lack of prepara- tion and by bad management in the army. At last, General Shafter landed on the Cuban coast east of Santiago with about sixteen thousand men. On July 1st the Americans fought the land battle of Santiago, in which they captured El Caney and San Juan Hill. The Rough Eiders, a volunteer regiment of cavalry led by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, won fame by its conduct in this fight. After this battle the American army threatened the city of Santiago. To escape capture in Santiago harbor, the Spanish fleet made a dash for the open sea, and on July 3d it was destroyed to the last ship in a great running fight off the southern coast of Cuba. Two weeks later Santiago surrendered, and soon after its fall, Shaffer's troops, who were suf- fering severely from malarial fevers, were brought north to Long Island. In the meantime General Miles led an American force against Porto Rico, but before the occupation of that island was completed the news came that Spain had agreed to make peace. A treaty of peace between Spain and the United States was signed in Paris in December, 1898, and ratified by our The treaty of Senate early the following year. By this treaty, Spain gave up peace her claim to Cul^a and ceded Porto Rico and the island of (luam in the Pacific to the United States. She was also forced to sell the Philippine Islands to us for twenty million dollars. The Spanish War made oiu" people justly proud of their navy, and at the same time it revealed a sad lack of preparation Results of ill fhp army. There was much confusion and inefficiency in the the Spanish management of the war department, and the sanitary condi- ^ tions in the camps were so bad that many more soldiers died of disease than were slain in battle. This war gave us territorial possessions whose inhabitants were not yet ready for self- government and imposed upon us the task of fitting them for it. At the same time it bound the North and the South more closely together, won for our country the respect of foreign nations, and opened a new era in our historj^ in which we were destined to play a larger part in the affairs of the world. Our New Possessions. — After the Spanish War, Porto Rico and Cuba were occupied for a time by the armies of the Porto Rico United States. Porto Rico, which had been ceded to us bv Spain, was soon given a form of territorial government, and in OUR NEW POSSESSIONS 561 1917 the Porto Ricans were made citizens of the United States and given a larger share in the management of then- own affairs. Porto Rico has prospered under American control; many- schools have been established; good roads have been built; and the sugar crop of the island is five times as large as it was in the da,ys of Spanish rule. In 1917 the United States })ought from Denmark a small group of islands just east of Porto Rico, in order to strengthen its grip upon the West Indies. When our country en- tered the Spanish War, Congress declared that we had no intention of annex- ing or controlling Cuba, but when the war was over it was necessary for our troops to occupy the island until the Cuban people could set up a government of their own. General Leonard Wood, our military gowv- nor in Cuba, was very suc- cessful in restoring order in that distracted island, in cleaning up its cities, and in preparing the way for a return to prosperity. Tiie Cubans agreed to let the United States supervise their foreign affairs and their finances, and keep or- ^ „^ ^ , . ,, . , .- ., Major General Leonard Wood der m their country it they failed to do it themselves. With this understanding our soldiers were withdrawn in 1902, and the Cubans establisiied a repul)hc of their own. In 1906 there was an uprising against the presi- dent of Cuba, and we were forced to enter the island to restore order. When this was accomplished we withdrew again, and since that time the Cubans have succeeded in governing th(>mselves. The Philii^pine Islands, which we acciuir(^d as a ic^sult of the Spanish War, contain about eight million inhabitants divided into more than eighty tribes, some of which are civili/cd, 36 Our relations with Cuba 562 THE tJNITED STATES AND THE WORLD Insurrection in the Philippines Progress under American guidance Balintang Channel iq ^f''cio^, while others are Uttle better than savages. The Fih- pinos, hke the Cubans, had rebelled against Spanish tyranny; and when they learned that our govern- ment, which thought that they were not yet fit to rule themselves, did not mean to recognize their indepen- dence at once, they rose in angry revolt against the United States. Under their leader, Aguinaldo, they held out for two years, and even after Aguinaldo was cap- tured, his people carried on a guerrilla warfare for some time longer. But after much hard fighting the insurrec- The Philippine Islands ^Jqu was at last Stamped out and the authority of the United States was firmly estab- lished throughout the islands. Since peace was restored in PALAWAN ly/^ NEGROS lj/g//v \ti . ^f ' S E A ^Aa ^ Zamboang iMTvh^ »■■■■• '*» ■ R,'l, tlu> Chinese objected to this procedure, but as they had neglected to make any preparation to defend their country, they were at tii(^ m(Tcy of its greedy neighbors. Our people looked with gr(>a< (hsfavor 564 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD The Boxer uprising in China Later devel- opments in the Far East upon the possible partition of China. They did not want to take any part in it, and they saw that if it went on there would be little Chinese trade left for them. John Hay, our secretary of state, in- sisted that the citizens of every country must have equal chances to trade in China. This he called the poHcy of the "open door." Early in 1900, while the nations concerned were still dis- cussing the "open door" policy, a serious outbreak occurred in China. A Chinese society called the Boxers secured control of the government at Peking, ordered the foreign ministers to leave the country, and tried to kill all the foreigners they could find. The German ambas- sador was murdered in the streets of Peking, and the representatives of all the other nations were closely besieged in the British em- bassy. The}^ made a gallant resistance and finally were rescued by a military force sent by the United States, Great Britain, France, Rus- sia, and Japan. The Boxer uprising was suppressed and China was compelled to pay heavy damages to the na- tions whose citizens had suf- fered losses in it. Our share of this money was twenty- four million dollars, and when we found that our real damage was only eleven millions we returned the balance of the money to China. This act won the gratitude of the Chinese, and they are using the income from the returned indemnity to pay the expenses of Chinese students in American schools and colleges. During the negotiations which followed the Boxer uprising, Secretary Hay succeeded in persuading the European powers to accept the "open door" policy in China. This diplomatic victory saved China from further partition. In 1904 the rival interests of Russia and Japan in northern China led to a war in which Japan was brilliantly successful. The next year peace Fratn Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Loading for South America, Japan and China. THE PANAMA CANAL 565 was brought about between the warring nations through the intervention of President Roosevelt. As time passed, the Chinese, who had made their country a repubhc in 1912, began to reahze that they had more to fear from Japan than from the powers of Europe. During the World War, which began in 1914, Japan seized the German territory on the Chinese coast and made demands upon China which leave that country little better than a vassal of its island neighbor. Our countrj'- can- not help but look with disfavor upon these encroachments upon the rights of the Chinese. The Panama Canal. — Men had dreamed of a ship canal to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific ever since Balboa planted the flag of Spain at Panama, but for cen turies nothing came these dreams. In 1882 French companj^ headt by Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had dug the Suez Canal a few years be- fore, began to cut a canal across the isthmus of Panama; but after spend- ing two hundred and seventy-eight miUion dollars this company could no longer pay its bills and its work . . stopped. Our people had long talked of a waterway o jom he two oceans, and when, in the war with Spain, the battleship Oreoon had to steam thirteen thousand miles from our western coast to join the American fleet in the West Indies they began to think seriously of the project. When the bpan.sh \\ar ended our new territories and growing commercial interests m the Pacific seemed to make an interoceanic canal a necessity. Several preliminary steps had to l)e taken before we could actually begin to dig an isthmian canal. In 1S..(), when John Hay Through the efforts of Secretary Hay, the "open door" poUcy in China was accepted. The idea of an inter- oceanic canal the 566 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD Getting rush to the CaHfornian gold fields first turned our attention to ready to dig ^ possible waterway across the isthmus of Panama, we had made a treaty with Great Britain which gave that country an equal interest with our own in any canal that might be built to join the two oceans. In 1901 this treaty was set aside by a new agreement, that the United States might build and control the canal and that it should be open to the ships of all nations on equal terms. Next we had to select a route for the canal. Some engineers preferred a line across Panama while others wanted to construct the canal through Nicaragua. Congress decided in favor of the Panama route if we could come to terms with Colombia, across whose territory the canal was to be located, and with the French company which had already done much work upon it. In 1903 Secretary Hay drew up a treaty with the representative of Colombia by which our govern- ment agreed to pay that country ten million dollars in cash and a yearly rental of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a strip of land six miles wide across the isthmus. The Colombian government rejected this treaty in the hope of getting more money from the United States. Fearful that the United States might turn to the Nicaragua route the people of Panama declared their independence of Colombia and set up a govern- ment of their own. President Roosevelt promptly recognized the new state of Panama, and quickly made a treaty with it by which the United States secured control of a canal zone ten miles wide on practically the same" terms that we had offered to Colombia. Then it was an easy matter to buy the right of the French company for forty million dollars. Before we did any actual digging upon the canal a vast amount of work was done to make the isthmus a healthful "Making the place for the workmen. Its cities were cleaned up, its swamps dirt fly" drained, and other preventive measures were taken against malaria and yellow fever. When everything was ready we began, in the language of President Roosevelt, to "make the dirt fly," and in spite of innumerable difficulties, the work was pushed with such vigor that the canal was opened to the world in 1914. The Panama Canal is the greatest triumph of engineering in modern times. Starting from the Atlantic Coast this canal Description runs at sea level for eight miles. Then an immense dam turns of the canal the valley of the Chagres River into a lake twenty-two miles THE PANAMA CANAL 567 long, and ships of the largest size are lifted to the level of this lake by means of the famous Gatun locks. After proceeding across the lake and through the deep Culebra cut, they are lowered by other locks to sea level near the Pacific end of the canal. The success of this great undertaking was due in large measure to the skill and leadership of the army engineer in charge of it. Colonel G. W. Goethals. I'holo by lirown lirus. The Panama Canal The U. S. Battleship "Wisconsin" passing through Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus. Ships are towed through the locks by the electric locomotives seen on both sides of the lock chamber. The opening of the Panama Canal was an event of gicat importance in the history of our country and of the world. It almost doubled the value of our navy by enabling our warships Importance to pass quickly back and forth between our eastei-n anil west- ^^^^his great em coasts. It brought New York and San Francisco more than eight thousand miles nearer by sea than they were before, quickened trade by giving all our Atlantic and Gulf cities easier access to the Pacific, and lower(>d freight rates between our eastern and our western coasts. It particularly benefited the 568 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD n, great shipyards were created almost as if by magic. In the ineantiine our 582 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR We send fighting men to France navy joined that of Great Britain in keeping the paths of the sea open to the commerce of the world l)y hunting submarines and by convoying ships through the danger zone. We gave our men as freely as our wealth to save the world from the brutal ambition and autocratic power of Germany. As soon as we entered the war, our navy and our small regular army were recruited to their full strength and the national guard of the various stat(>s was called into the service of the nation. Presently a "selective draft" law was passed, under which ten million young men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one were en- rolled, and as fast as provision could be made for training them, they were selected by lot from this list and sent to the training camps. Later the draft law was extended to include all citizens between eight- een and forty-five years of age, and over thirteen million more men were enrolled under it. Thirty-two great train- ing camps or canton- ments were built in various parts of the country. In a little more than a year and a half after we declared war against Germany we had two million men in Europe and as many more were in the camps at home getting ready to go. The splendid spirit of this mighty host is best expressed in one of its stirring songs: "The Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming, The drums rum-tumming everywhere, We'll be over, we're coming over, And we won't come back tiU it's over over there. i 4 1 m I ISt fsi 1 1 ' J m i f I./"-- S5® '' 'w* 1 5*^ ..bilL.^ '^^ta^KKtt&m^ Jl General John J. Pershing Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Force. FIGHTING IN FRANCE 583 We must next follow our soldiers "over there" and see what they did to help win the war. Fighting in France. — Notlongafter we declared war, General John J. Pershing, wiio had been selected by President Wilson to lead the American Exp(^ditionary Force, established his head- Preparation quarters in France. A little later the first American troops "^ France landed at a French port, where they were welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm. As fast as American soldiers reached France they were taken to training camps where they at once began intensive preparation for the grim work ahead of them. ( '. S. (l:''r:.i: li.oliiyriiiih In the Trenches in France The American soldier on the right is preparing to throw a hand grenade. In the meantime we wen; astonishing the world by what we were doing in France to support and care for the mighty host of Americans who were coming. Great docks were built; rail- roads were repaired and equipped; vast warehouses were con- structed and filled with supplies; extensive hospitals were pro- vided; and everything else was done that could minister to the health or to the efficiency of our men. While all this work was going forward, more American soldiers were crossing the Atlantic. By the beginning of 1918 we had three hujidred thousand in training behind the western battle front. 584 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR Changed methods of warfare Our soldiers in the World War found that the progress of science and invention since our Civil War a half century earlier had changed methods of warfare quite as much as it had trans- formed industrial life. They crossed the Atlantic in great transports which were convoyed by warships to protect them from the lurking submarines of the enemy. They grew accus- tomed to seeing aeroplanes giving battle in the clouds above them. Like their French and English allies and their German enemies, they were armed with repeating rifles, with machine guns firing hundreds of shots a minute, and with cannon which U. S. Official Photograph An American Heavy Gun on the Western Front One of the huge long-range guns on railway mounts used by the American forces in blasting their way to Sedan. threw the heaviest shells many miles. They were forced to wear gas masks to protect themselves from the poisonous gases which the enemy threw into their lines, and they were taught how to hurl still more deadly gases and liquid fire against the foe. When the time came they took their places in a battle line hundreds of miles in extent, all parts of which were con- nected by telegraph and by telephone. Observers in scouting aeroplanes watched the movements of the enemy and photo- graphed the country behind his lines. The generals quickly passed from place to place in automobiles, the wounded were FIGHTING IN FRANCE 585 carried to the hospitals in motor ambulances, and supplies of all kinds were brought to the front by great trains of motor trucks. The collapse of Russia had greatly strengthened the Germans by permitting them to transfer large numbers of Terrific their soldiers from the Hussian to the French front. By the German spring of 1918, however, the rulers of Germany saw plainly western" ^^ that if they were ever to win the war they must do so before front U. S. OjHcial I'hotoornph Commanders of the Allied Annies In the foreground, Marshal Petain, France. In line in the background, from left to right. Marshal Joffre, Marshal Foch, France; Field Marshal Haig, England; General Pershing, America; General Gillain, Belgium; General Albricci, Italy; General Haller, Poland. many more of the coming host of Americans arrived. Accord- ingly, they began a series of terrific drives against the British and French lines. In March they advanced toward the important city of Amiens which they tlireatened but could not take. Just after this drive General Foch, a brilliant French soldier who had played a great part in winning the battle of the Maine in 1914, was put in supreme conmiand of all the allied forces. In April the Germans pushecl foiward (owMrd the 586 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR Channel ports but were checked with heavy losses. In May they launched an attack which carried them to the Marne and enabled them to threaten Paris once more. For some months after our soldiers arrived in France they were kept in training camps or stationed in quiet sectors of Our first the long Hne from Belgium to Switzerland. Sometimes small battles in detachments of them fought in company with British or French troops. But it was not until the great German drive toward France ZV"^^"" The Five Great German Offensives of 1918 the Marne in May, 1918, that American troops took a promi- nent part in the fighting. At Cantigny they won a small battle in a clean-cut way which gave the enemy a foretaste of what was coming. A few days later, at Chateau-Thierry, they hurled back a charge of the Prussian Guard and drove the Germans before them in a fierce counter attack. This victory was promptly followed by a brilliant action at Belleau Wood. Never have Americans fought more gallantly than they did in June, 1918, in their first battle in France. FIGHTING IN FRANCE 587 On July 15, lOTS, the Germans began their last great drive in France. Their first rush carried them across the Marne, but they were soon stopped by the French and the Americans. The second Then the allied forces drove the Germans back across the ^^"'^ °^ ^^^ Marne and, in three weeks of stubborn fighting, recovered all the territory that had been lost in May and June. Our soldiers took an active part in this great struggle, and toward its end they especially distinguished themselves by taking and holding the town of Fismes. c A" / \>5r MIHIEL ^^Z '2'^ or b'i^ The Battle of St. Mihiel The numbers refer to the divisions of the American army engaged. This second battle of the Marne was the beginning of General Foch's great offensive movement, an attack wliich never relaxed until the Germans begged for peace. Evciywlicrc The allied on the western front the British, French, and Americans ham- offensive mered the German line so that the enemy had no time to rest or to reorganize his defense. By this time a cpiarter of a milHon Americans were pouring into France every month. Hitherto our men had fought as a part of the French ainiy but in September the American army, under the direct connnaiMl 588 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR Argonne campaign of General Pershing, won a great battle at St. Mihiel. In this St. Mihiel battle we captured nearly fourteen thousand prisoners, took hundreds of guns, and released many French villages which had been held by the Germans since early in the war. In the general attack which Marshal Foch was now waging against the whole German line, the part assigned to the Ameri- The Meuse- cans was to drive the enemy down the Meuse Valley and out of the great Argonne forest which lies west of that river. If this movement succeeded it would cut one of the main railroads by which the Germans were supplied and put their entire army in a most dangerous position. On September 26, 1918, our army began the task with a dashing attack, and from that time until the end of the war it was constantly engaged. The covmtry over which we fought was broken, densely wooded, and strongly fortified. Every point of vantage was held by the Germans with ma- chine guns. The enemy resisted stubbornly, but free Americans proved more than a match for the highly disciplined soldiers of autocratic Germany. This was especially true when men fought singly or in little groups, as it was often necessary to fight in the dense forest of the Argonne. Day after day, in spite of heavy losses, the Americans pushed ahead until their task was accomplished. With one of their main roads to Germany cut, and knowing that the Austrians, Bulgarians, and Turks had already given up, the Germans asked for an armistice, and on November 11, 1918, the actual fighting of the world's greatest war came to an end. War Work at Home. — The heroic and victorious service . of our soldiers in France was made possible by the constant purpose^and ^^^ ardent support which they received from our people at effort home. We were very slow to realize that our honor and our Briefly at Rest in the Argonne American "doughboys" grouped about the entrance to their dugout. WAR WORK AT HOME 589 future safety required us to join in the war against Germany, but when we once saw this fact clearly we threw ourselves into the struggle with all our hearts and with all our vast resources. Never before in our history had we been so united in purpose The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne The numbers refer to the divisions of the American army engaged. and in effort as we were during the trying days of 1017 and 1<)18. There had been doubt about the stand of millions of our people of German birth or German parentage in case of war witli thcir fatherland, but when the war came most of them proved that 590 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR Raising money to carry on the war Working to win © Underwood & Underwood, a. 1 . A Glimpse of the American Battleship Fleet they were — in the words of President Wilson — "as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance." Our government, as we have seen, appropriated immense sums of money to equip and maintain our army and navy, and to help our allies. It could only get the money by taxing the people or by borrowing from them. Both these methods were used. Soon after the war began, very heavy taxes were imposed upon the profits of industries and upon the incomes of individuals. In addition to the vast revenues from these taxes, many billions of dollars were borrowed from the people by selling them interest-bearing bonds. In every one of the five great "Liberty Loan" campaigns, as the bond-selling efforts were called, the people promptly loaned their money to help our government carry on the war. As a con- sequence, millions of Americans, rich and poor alike, became the owners of Liberty Bonds. Our people were equally prompt in meet- ing every other demand made upon them by A Liberty Loan Drive their government. s'u^lwfptlons!'*""** *^^"°^° submarine to get more r^^^^ accepted without HOW PEACE WAS MADE 591 Caring for the men in the army complaint many unusual restrictions upon their freedom to carry on business as they pleased. Early in the war the presi- dent took control of all the railroads in the country and oper- ated them as one system in order to make them better serve the war needs of the nation. For the same reason all ships were seized for the use of the government. Prices were fixed upon wheat, sugar, coal, and steel, in order to prevent selfish men from making excessive profits upon these essential commodities. Workers flocked to the shipyards and munition plants, tliousands of war gardens were planted, and the farmers of America toiled as never before to produce food for our armies and for the peoples warring against Germany. Many of our business men and our scientists gav(^ up their own work in order to serve their country without pay. Our people were equally zealous in their support of all the humanitarian societies which sought to pro- mote the welfare of the soldiers. They joined the Red Cross by mil- lions, and all over the land patriotic women workcKl in this society day after day to make the hospital supplies which were ncHnled in vast quantities. At the same time th(> peojile gave freely of their money to support the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, the Knights of ('olum])US, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish Welfare Board, all of which were untiring in their efforts to be of real service to our men in camp and on tiie l)at tic- fields of France. . . How Peace Was Made.— By the terms of tlic arnustice which was signed on November 11, 1918, the Germans agreed to evacuate France, Belgium. Alsace-Lorraine, and that P^^'t Jerms_of the of Germany west of the Rhine, and all these regions were quicklv occupied by the allied troops. The Germans also agreed to withdraw within the borders of tiien- own country / ". .V. (I'll, -ml fhul With the Salvation Army in France Making doughnuts for the "dough boys." 592 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR on the eastern front and to renounce the treaties which they had imposed upon Russia and Roumania. Germany further promised to send home tlie prisoners she had taken, to restore the money she had stolen, to repair the damage she had done, and to surrender vast quantities of arms and war materials. Finally she agreed to give up all the submarines and the greater part of her fleet. In a word, by signing the armistice, the Germans acknowledged that they were thoroughly beaten. Soon after the armistice was signed, a conference of all © Ii.lin.atioi.al Fiuii ::,.. aici Surrender of the German High Seas Fleet to the Allied Fleets at Scapa Flow, December 5, 1918, one of the Greatest Naval Events in History. the nations allied or associated against Germany was called at The Peace Paris to determine the terms of peace. The United States, Conference Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan were represented at this meeting by five delegates each, while the smaller associated nations and British dominions each sent from one to three men. President Wilson decided to represent our country at the Peace Conference in person and appointed as his associates, Robert Lansing, his secretary of state; Edward M. House, Henry White, and General Tasker H. Bliss. The Peace Con- ference was a large body, but its most important decisions HOW PEACE WAS MADE 593 were made by a Council of Four, consisting of President Wilson, and Prime Ministers Lloyd George of Great Britain, Clemenceau of France, and Orlando of Italy. The Peace Conftn-ence assembled in January, 1919, and spent about four months in drawing up terms of peace with Germany. At the beginning of its work the conference resolved The term:; to include in the treaty of peace a plan for a league of nations. °^ P®**^® It then decided to require Germany to return Alsace-Lorraine to France, to give up all her colonies, to rec- ognize the independ- ence of Poland and of the small nations into which Austria-Hungary was broken up, and to cede to Poland thos? parts of Prussia which were inhabited by Poles. Germany was also required to give up most of her shipping and to promise to build now ships for tli<> Allies in order to re- place the merchant ves- sels that her submarines had sunk during the war. Moreover, siie must pay for all the damage caused by her wanton conduct in Belgium, France, and other countries. She nuist agree to make a first payment of five biUion dollars in gold on tiiis account by 1921 and later to pay such further amounts as might justly be charged against her after investigation. In order to prevent Germany from again distur])ing the peace of the world she was compelUnl to destroy many of her fortifications, to stop making war mater- ials, to abolish her old military system, and to keep only a few ships of war and a small volunteer army in future. 38 Leading Figures at the Peace Conference From left to right, President Wilson, Premiers Clemenceau, France; Lloyd George, England; Orlando, Italy; Marshal Foch, France. 594 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR Germany accepts the terms of the Allies Signing the treaty The covenant of the league Its preamble The organi- zation of the league Early in May, 1919, the representatives of Germany were invited to the Peace Conference and asked to sign the treaty which was handed to them. They objected to the hard but just conditions which the treaty imposed upon their country and spent several weeks in pleading for easier terms. Some minor changes were made in the treaty, and on June 16th the final conditions were presented to the Germans, who were told that if they did not accept them the Allies would resume oper- ations against their country. When faced with this possibility, Germany gave way and agreed to accept the terms of the Allies. In 1870 Germany unjustly invaded France, captured Paris, and compelled the French to submit to humiliating terms of peace. On January 18, 1871, the grandfather of the German ruler who led his people in their wicked war of aggression in 1914-1918 was proclaimed German Emperor in the famous Hall of Mirrors in the old royal palace at Versailles near Paris. In the same room, on June 28, 1919, the representatives of Germany and the members of the Peace Conference signed the treaty which ended the German dream of world conquest. The League of Nations. — One of the results of the terrible World War was the growth of a feeling that nations ought to do everything in their power to avert war in the future. This feeling led the Peace Conference to include in the treaty of peace a plan for a league of nations. The aim of the league is best stated in the preamble of its covenant. "In order to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just, and honorable relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as to actual rule of conduct among governments and by the main- tenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obliga- tions in the dealings of organized peoples with one another, the high contracting parties agree to this covenant of the League of Nations." The covenant of the League of Nations provides that its affairs shall be managed by an assembly, a council, and a secretary-general. Each member of the league may send not more than three representatives to the assembly, but shall THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 595 have only one vote in that bod3\ The council shall consist of one representative each from the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan, together with the representa- tives of four other members of the league to be designated from time to time by the assembly. The secretary-general is appointed by the council with the consent of the assembly. It is his duty to keep the records of the league, and for this purpose he shall establish a permanent office at Geneva, Switzerland, which is to be the capital of the league. The original members of the league are named in its covenant, and other specified states are asked to join it at once. Any state not named in the covenant may be admitted to the league in future by a two-thirds vote of the assembly. After giving two years' notice of its intention so to do, any state may withdraw from the league. The League of Nations undertakes to presei*ve the inde- pendence and territorial integrity of its members. It seeks to prevent wars in future by reduction of armies and navies How the to the lowest point consistent with national safety, and by league providing for the settlement of disputes between nations by prevent war arbitration or by conciUation. The covenant of the league provides for the establishment of a permanent court of inter- national justice, and the m(Mnl)crs of the league agfee to submit suitable questions to arbitration and to accept and carry out in good faith the decisions that may be rendered. If disputes which they are not willing to submit to arbitration arise between members of the league, they agree to submit them to the council, which shall investigate such disputes and shall do everything in its power to settle them according to the prin- ciples of right and justice. If any member of the League of Nations resorts to war in disregard of the promises it made when it accepted the cove- nant of the league, it shall be deemed to have committed an What the act of war against all other members of the league. In sudi j^^fue^ 1°^^ case the other members agree to stop all trade and intercourse war with the covenant-breaking state. If the council recommends such action, the military and naval forces of the states in the league may be used against an offending niemlxM-. The council may also expel from the league any member who has violated the covenant. 596 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR The Senate rejects the treaty of peace The first draft of the covenant of the League of Nations was pubhshed when President Wilson came home from Paris in February, 1919. It was criticized in some of its details in our country, and after the president returned to the Peace Conference in March it was revised to meet these criticisms and particularly to safeguard our interest in the Monroe Doctrine. Early in July, 1919, the covenant of the league as a part of the treaty of peace was submitted to the Senate for ratification. After months of discussion, during which many objections were urged to the League of Nations, the Senate re- jected the treaty and re- turned it to the Presi- dent. This action de- layed the formal making of peace with Germany. Meanwhile ratifications of the treaty were ex- changed by the other allied and associated powers and Germany, and peace became effec- tive for all the nations with the exception of the United States, January 10, 1920. The refusal of the Senate to approve the covenant of the League Harris & Ewing of Natious made the League an issue in the presidential election of 1920. The Democrats advocated the immediate ratification of the treaty and nominated Governor The election James M. Cox of Ohio for the presidency. The Republicans denounced the covenant proposed by President Wilson but declared that they favorecl an agreement among nations to preserve the peace of the world. Upon this platform the Republicans named Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio as their candidate. The election resulted in a great victory for the Republicans. Harding carried thirty-seven of the forty-eight I Warren G. Harding of 1920 FACING THE FUTURE 597 states, received a popular plurality of over six million votes, and was elected by four hundred and four electoral votes to one hundred and twenty-seven cast for Cox. As a result of this e' ^' ion it seemed probable that the covenant of the League of V lons would be very much modified or a new agreement pr osed by our country. The ratification of the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution in 1920 made the election of © Lwl.rirowl X- Ln.Urau.,.1. A. 1 . Return of the Victorious American Armies Parade in New York of the famous First Division led by General Pershing. that year the first one in our history in which the women of the whole country voted on the same terms as the men. Facing the Future.— The World War marks the entl of an epoch in our history. The frontier which has had a profound influence upon American life from its beginning is gone fmvver. Our^n^ew^ The development of our vast natural resources has made our fg^^ership nation the richest in the world. We grow two-thirds of the world's supply of corn and cotton, and lead all other countries in the production of those essentials of modern industrial life: coal, petroleum, copper, and iron. For the present, at least, our country is the granary of the world. Men come to us from all lands when they desire to borrow money. \N e have 598 OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR advanced from our former isolation to a position of leadership in the world. We have a great part to play in world affairs, and if we play it worthily our future will be even more glorious than our past. With the close of the World War our country tu. d to the work of reconstruction. Our soldiers in Europe -^re The tasks of brought home, the army was demobilized, and nearly lour peace million men were returned to the walks of civil life. The com- ing of peace brought certain definite tasks. We must continue © Underwood ifc Underwood, N . The First Transatlantic Flier The American Seaplane NC-4, commanded by Lt. Commander A. C. Read, which flew from America to England via the Azores and Portugal, reaching Portugal May 27, 1Q19. to produce surplus food in vast quantities in order to help feed the starving millions of the Old World. The war also taught us the vital importance of taking prompt steps toward Americanizing the millions of foreigners who live among us. During the war the, airplane was found to be invaluable in military operations. When peace came, aviators promptly The turned their attention to making air craft useful in travel and development transportation. In less than a year after the war, men had flown across the Atlantic three times. The honor of making the first transatlantic flight belongs to Lieutenant-Commander Albert C. Read of the United States Navy. In May, 1919, with a crew of four men, he flew in a sea plane, NC-4, from America to England by way of the Azores Islands and Portugal. A month later Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur FACING THE FUTURE 599 Whitten Brown of the British army made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland in sixteen hours. The following month a Britisii dirigible balloon carrying twenty-nine men made a round trip from the British Islands to America and return. These air flights across the Atlantic suggest wonderful possibihties in the use of airships in the near future. It seems clear that in the years just ahead, our people must give serious attention to two unportant questions. The problem of social unrest growing out of the relations between Social and capital and labor is ever becoming more threatening. Democ- |nir duty, to throw off .such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these ("olonics; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The liistory of the present King of Great Britain is a history of rejieated 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 pres,sing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his A.ssent should be obtained; and when so .soispended, h(> has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large di.stricts of people, unless those people would reliiuiuLsh the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative l)odics at places umistial, luicoiiifortable, and dist;uit from Ili<' depository of their public Records, for the .sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has di.s.solved Representative Houses repeatedly, for oppo.sing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dis.solutions, to cause others to Ik? elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. , o f I 4 He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States: for that rxirpose obstnicting the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pa.s,s Others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. 601 602 APPENDIX He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Jud-?iary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace. Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the MiUtary independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our loss; 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 the.se Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all ca.ses 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 destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous 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 amongst 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 imfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions 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 cir- cumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed 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 of 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 authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; APPENDIX 603 that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; una that as Free and Independent States they have full Power to levy War. conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish (^ommerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the sui)i)ort of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Colony. Occupation. Born Birthplace. Died. Ags Adams, John Adams, Samuel Bartlett, Josiah Braxton, Carter Carroll, Charles Chase, Samuel Clark, Abraham Clymer, (Seorge Ellery, Williani Floyd, WilHam Fraiikhn, Benjamin Gerry, Elljridge Gwinnett, Button Hancock, John Hall, Lyman Harrison, Benjamin Hart, John Hewes, Joseph Hey ward, Thomas, Jr. . Hooper, William Hopkins, Stephen Hopkinson, Francis . . . Huntington, Samuel. . . Jefferson, Thomas Lee, Richard Henry . . Lee, Francis Lightfoot. Lewis, Francis Livingston, Philip Lynch, Thomas, Jr. . . . McKean, Thomas Middleton, Arthur Morris, Lewis Morris, Robert Morton, John Nelson, Thomas, Jr Paca, William Paine, Robert Treat . . . Penn, John Read, George Rodney, Cssar Ross, George Rush, Benjamin Rutledgo, Edward Sherman, Roger Smith, James Stockton, Richard, . . . . Stone, Thomas Taylor, George 'i'hornton, .Matthew Walton, (icorgc Whipple, William Wilhams, William Wilson, James Wither.siX)on, John Wolcott, Oliver Wythe, George Mass. Mass. N. H. Va... Md.. Md . N. J.. Pa... R. I.. N. Y. Mass. Ga... Mass. Ga ... Va... N. J.. N. C. S. C N. C R. I N.J Conn. Va... Va... Va... N. y. N. V. S. c. Del , s. c . N. Y. Pa.. Pa. . . Va... Md , Mass. N. C. Del . Del . . Pa .. Pa .. S. C. Conn. Pa... N.J.. Md. . Pa. . N. H. Ga... Conn Conn. Pa. . N.J.. Conn. Va Lawyer. . . Merchant. Physician. Planter. . . Lawyer. . . Lawyer.. . Lawyer . . . Merchant. Lawyer. . . Farmer . . . Printer. . . Merchant. Merchant. Merchant. Physician . Farmer. . . Farmer. . . Lawyer. . . Lawyer.. . Lawyer. . . Farmer. . . Lawyer. . . Lawyer. . . Lawyer.. . Soldier Farmer . . . Merchant. Merchant. Lawyer. . . Lawyer. . . Lawyer. . . Farmer. . . Merchant. Surveyor. . Statesman Lawyer. . . Lawyer. . . Lawyer. . . La wj'cr . . . General . . . Lawyer . . Physician . Lawyer. Shoemaker Lawyer. . . Lawyer . . . Lawyer. . . Physician . Phy.sician . Lawyer. . . Sailor Statesman . Lawyer . . Minister. . Physician . Lawyer . 1735 1722 1729 173ti 1737 1741 1726 1739 1727 1734 1706 1744 1732 1737 1731 1740 1715 1730 1746 1742 1707 1737 1732 17-13 1732 1734 1713 1716 1740 1734 1743 1726 1734 1724 1738 1740 1731 1741 173t 17.30 17.30 1745 1749 1721 1710 17.30 1742 1716 1714 1740 17.30 1731 1742 1722 1726 1726 Braintree, Mass Boston, Mass Amesbury, Mass Newington, Va Annapolis, Md Somerset Co., Md Elizabethtown, N. J Philadelphia, Pa Newport, R. I Setauket N. Y Boston, Mass Marblehead, Mass England Braintree, Mass Connecticut Berkeley, Va Hopewell, N. J Kingston, N.J St. Luke's, S.C Boston, Mass Scituate. Mass Philadelphia. Pa Windham, Conn Shadwell, \'a Stratford, Va Stratford, Va LlandafT, Wales Albany, N. Y Prince George's Co., S. C New London, Pa Middleton PI., .S. C Morrisania, N. Y Lancashire, England Ridley. Pa York, Va Wye Hall, Md Boston, Mass ('aroljne Co., Va Cecil Co., Md Dover, Del New Castle, Del BerlMTry, Pa Charleston, S. C Newton, Mass Ireland Princeton, N. J Pointoin Manor, Md Ireland Ireland Frederick Co., Va Kittcry. Me I/cbanon, Conn St. Andrews. S<'Otland Yester, Scotland Windsor. Conn Elizabeth Co., Va 1826 1803 1795 1797 1832 1811 1794 1813 1820 1821 1790 1814 1777 1793 1784 1791 1780 1779 1809 1790 1785 1791 1796 1826 1794 1797 1803 1778 1779 1817 1788 1798 1806 1777 1789 1799 1814 1788 1798 178.3 1779 1813 1800 1793 1806 1781 1787 1781 1803 1804 1785 1811 1798 1794 1797 I80e WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS Extracts from His Address Counselling the Maintenance of the Union. — Con- finement of the General Government to its Constitutional Limitations, and Avoidance of Relations with Foreign Political Affairs. To THE People of the United States on His Approaching Retire- ment FROM THE Presidency. Here, perhaps, I ought to stop; but a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review some sentiments, ivhich are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be afforded to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel ; nor can I forget, as an encourage- ment to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. Preservation of the Union. The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence— the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed — it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; matching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever .liay suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of America, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appella- tion derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of differences, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. Encroachments by the Government. It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a free country> should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department, to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. 604 APPENDIX (505 A just est ate of that love of power, jind proneness to abuse it which pre- dommates , the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. 1 ■ necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal, against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments, ancient and modern ; some of them in our own country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change or usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit, which the u.se can, at any time yield. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, en- lightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of times and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? Entanglements with Foreign Powers. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealou.sy of a free people ought to constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful, must be im- partial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil, and even second, the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con- fidence of the people, to surrender their interests. The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extend- ing our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primarj' interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate our.selves by artificial ties, in the ordinary lacissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation invites and enables ua to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take snich an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulou.sly respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the gi\'ing us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, giiided by justice, shall counsel. Parting Counsels. In offering to you, my countrvmen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend. I dare not hope that they will make the strong and lasting impn-ssion I could wish; that thev will control the u.'^ual current of the pa.ssions, or prevent ♦ur nation from running the course which hitherto has marked the destiny of 606 APPENDIX nations; but if I may even flatter myself that they may be prodn ive of some partial benefit; some occasional good; that they may now and len recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the misch Is of foreign intrigues, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. United States, September 17, 1796. GEORGE WASHINGTON. LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG SPEECH Address at the Dedication of Gettysburg Cemetery, November 19, 1863. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this conti- nent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here«gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. THE MONROE DOCTRINE "The Monroe doctrine" was enunciated in the following words in President Monroe's message to Congress, December 2, 1823: "In the discussions to which this interest has given rise, and in the arrange- ments by which they may terminate, the occasion has been deemed proper for asserting, as a principle in which rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power. . . . We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to oiu- peace and safety With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowl- edged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any Europeon power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States," APPENDIX 607 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES Preamble. — We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, estabhsh justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the'blessinKS of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I. Legislative Powers. — Section I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. House of Representatives.— Section II. I. The House of Representa- tives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. Qualifications of Representatives. — 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. Apportionment of Representatives. — 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, threo-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subse- quent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The num- ber of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until .such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose .3; Massa- chusetts, 8; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1; Connecticut, 5; New York, 6; New Jersey, 4; Pennsylvania, 8; Delaware, 1; Maryland, 6; Virginia, 10; North Carolina, 5; South Carolina, 5, and Georgia, 3.* Vacancies, How Filled.^^. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. Officers, How Appointed. — 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Sitcakcr and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. Senate. — Section III. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be com- posed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.f Classification of Senators. — 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as ecjually as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall hv vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resigna- tion, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Execu- tive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, whicli shall then fill such vacancies. Qualifications of Senators. — 3. No i)erson shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall V)e chosen. , r., , in President of the Senate.— 4- The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided. ^ , . , « ■ i » -« 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. ♦See Article XIV, Amendments, t See Article XVII. Amendments. 608 APPENDIX Senate a Court for Trial of Impeachments.— 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in Case of Conviction. — 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. Elections of Senators and Representatives. — Section IV. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to places of choosing Senators. Meeting of Congress. — 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall- be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. Organization of Congress. — Section V. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller num- ber may adjourn from daj' to daj', and may be authorized to compel the attend- ance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide. Rule of Proceedings. — 2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the con- currence of two-thirds expel a member. Journals of each House. — 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its pro- ceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. Adjournment of Congress. — 4. Neither House, during the session of Con- gress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Pay and Privileges of Members. — Section VI. 1. The Senators and Rep- resentatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place. Other Offices Prohibited. — 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the emolu- tnents whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. Revenue Bills. — Section VII. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills. How Bills Become Laws. — 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House 'jf Representatives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered; and if approved by two- thirds of that House it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays and the names of the per- sons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively, If any bill shall not be returned bv the President witii*. APPENDIX 609 ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, m like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return; in which case ii shall not be a law. Approval and Veto Powers of the President.— 3. ICvery order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of'Reijresentatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be pre.sented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect shall bt approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the ease of ;i hill. Powers Vested in Congress.— Section VIII. 1. The Congress shall havt, power : To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debta and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States. 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the severaJ States, and with the Indian tribes. 4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States. 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States. 7. To establish post-offices and post-roads. 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries. 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. 12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. 13. To provide and maintain a navy. 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of tlie United States, reserving to the States respectively the api)ointnient of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of ])articular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of Government of the United States and to exercise like authority over all places jmrchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, ar-senals, dry-docks, and other needful buildings. 18 To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitu- tion in the Government of the United States, or in any department or oHicer there of Immigrants, How Admitted.— Section IX. 1. The migration or importa- tion of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousan*. eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be impo.scd on such iniport*- tion, not exceeding ten dollars for each i-erson. v. ii ^. k„ Habeas Corpus.— 2. The privilegi' of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be Buspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 39 610 APPENDIX Attainder. — 3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. Direct Taxes. — 4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. Regulations Regarding Customs Duties. — 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another, nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. Moneys, How Drawn. — 7. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. Titles of Nobility Prohibited. — 8. 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, emolu- ment, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. Powers of States Defined. — Section X. 1. 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. 2. No State, shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any impost or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or com- pact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II. Executive Power, in Whom Vested. — Section I. 1. The Executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: Electors. — 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall be appointed an elector. Proceedings of Electors. — Proceedings of the House of Representatives. — 3. The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person ha\'ing the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the vote shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote. A quorum, for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or APPENDIX 611 more who havp pqual votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.* Time of Choosing Electors. — 4. The Congress may determine the time of choosmg the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throuKhout the United States. Qualifications of the President. — 5. No person except a natural-horn citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligihhr to the office of President; neither shall anv person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. Provision in Case of His Disability. — 6. In case of the removal of the Presi- dent from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-Presi- dent and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed or a President shall be elected. Salary of the President. — 7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. Oath of the President. — 8. Before he enter on the execution of his office he shall take the following oath or affirmation: '"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the I'nited States. Duties of the President. — Section II. 1. The President shall be Com- mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respec- tive offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States except in cases of impeachment. May Make Treaties, Appoint Ambassadors, Judges, etc. — 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and cotis(>iit of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators prc^scnt concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise pro- vided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the Presi- dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. May Fill Vacancies. — 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacan- cies that may happen during the recess of the Senate by granting commissions, which shall expire at tlie end oi their next session. May Make Recommendations to and Convene Congress. — Section III. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expeclient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in ca.se of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. . How Officers May Be Removed.— Section IV. The President, \ ice-Presi- dent, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimca and misdemeanors. ♦This clause is superseded by Article XII, Amendments. 612 APPENDIX ARTICLE III. Judicial Power, How Vested. — Section I. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. To What Cases it Extends. — Section II. 1. The judicial power shall ex- tend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State, claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects. Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. — 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before-mentioned the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Con- gress shall make. Rules Respecting Trials. — 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. Treason Defined. — Section III. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving theni aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. How Punished. — 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punish- ment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV. Rights of States and Records.— Section I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. Privileges of Citizens. — Section II. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. Executive Requisitions. — 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. Laws Regulating Service or Labor. — 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. New States, How Formed and Admitted. — Section III. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union, but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress. Power of Congress over Public Lands. — 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Con- stitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. APPENDIX 613 RepubUcan Government Guaranteed.— Section IV. The United States Shall guarautee to every State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V. Constitution, How Amended. — The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- posed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may l)e made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner afTect the first and fourth clauses in the Ninth Section of the Plrst Article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI. Validity of Debts Recognized. — 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation. Supreme Law of the Land Defined. — 2. This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, anfl the judges in every State shall.be bound there- by, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary not- withstandhig. Oath: of Whom Required and for What. — .3. The Senators and Repre- sentatives before mentioned, an^l the ineiiilxrs of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to supijort this Constitu- tion; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE VII. Ratification of the Constitution. — The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be suffici(;nt for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Done in Convention bj-^ the unanimous consent of the States present the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of Amer'ca the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto sul)scribed our names (^i«: W.\SHI.\C;T()N. Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION Articles in addition to, and Amendment of, the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several states, pursuant to the Fifth Article of tbe original Constitution. ARTICLE I. Religion and Free Speech. — Congress shall make no law respecting an establishr.ient of relifrion, or prohibiting the free oxeriise thereof; or abridging the freedom of si)e<-ch or of the press; or the right of the p( o|.!e peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ARTICLE II. Right to Bear Arms. — A well-regulated militia being npcr.ssar>' to the security of a free State, the right of the peoplr; to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 614 APPENDIX ARTICLE III. Soldiers in Time of Peace. — No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV. Right of Search. — The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE V. Capital Crimes and Arrest Therefor. — No person shall be held to answer for a capital or other infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against hims«lf, nor be de- prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. ARTICLE VI. Right to Speedy Trial. — In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. ARTICLE VII. Trial by Jury. — In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE VIII. Excessive Bail. — Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. ARTICLE IX. Enumeration of Rights. — The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X. Reserved Rights of States. — The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ARTICLE XL Judicial Power. — The judicial power of the United States shall not be con- strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States, by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. ARTICLE XII. Electors in Presidential Elections. — The electors shall meet in their re- spective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make distinct APPENDIX '615 lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- President, and of the uunibor of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the Government of the United States directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose imme- diately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two- thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessarj^ to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-Presi- dent, if such number be a majority of the whole iminlxT of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. ARTICLE XIII. Slavery Prohibited. — ^1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis- lation. ARTICLE XIV. Protection for all Citizens. — 1. All persons born or naturalized in the L'nited States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wlxTein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the pri\ileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State dejirive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pro- tection of the laws. Apportionment of Representatives. — 2. Representatives shall be appor- tioned among the several Stat(!S according to their respective numbers, counting the whole immber of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the execu- tive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being of twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation ^fx^rein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. Rebellion Against the United States.— 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and \'ice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congre.ss, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or a.M an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support th.' Constitution of the United States, .shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. ^, ., . „, . The Public Debt.— 4. The validity of the public debt of the United RtatcB. authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and 616 APPENDIX bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. ARTICLE XV. Right of Suffrage. — 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce the provisions of this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XVI. Income Taxes. — The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or enumeration. ARTICLE XVII. Election of Senators. — The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies, provided that the Legislature of any State may empower the Executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct. ARTICLE XVIII. Liquor Prohibition. — 1. After,one year from the ratification of this article, the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. ARTICLE XIX. Woman SufiFrage. — 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of sex. Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the pro- visions of this article. RATIFICATION OF THE AMENDMENTS Articles I to X were declared in force in 1791; Article XI in 1798; Article XII in 1804; Article XIII was proclaimed in December, 1865; Article XIV was proclaimed in July, 1868; Article XV was proclaimed in 1870; Article XVI and Article XVII were proclaimed in 1913; Article XVIII was proclaimed in Jan- uary, 1919, and took effect in 1920; Article XIX was proclaimed in 1920. APPENDIX 61V PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES President. State. Term of Office. Elected by Vice-President. George Washington 1789-1797 1797-1801 1801-1809 1809-1817 1817-1825 1825-1829 1829-1837 1837-1841 1841 1841-1845 1845-1849 1849-1850 1850-1853 1853-1857 1857-1861 1861-1865 1865-1869 1869-1877 1877-1881 1881 1881-1885 188.5-1889 1889-1893 1893-1897 1897-1901 1901-1909 1909-1913 1913-1921 1921- Whole People. . . Federalists Republicans' . .. I Republicans' .A Republicans' RepubUcans' Democrats. < Democrats Whigs Massachusetts. . . Virginia Virginia Virginia Massachusetts. . Tennessee New York Ohio Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe John Quincy Adams Aaron Burr George Clinton George Clinton Elbridge Gerry Daniel D. Tompkins John C. Calhoun John C. Calhoun Martin Van Buren William Henry Harrison v JohnTyler^ James K. Polk Zachary Taylor' Martin \ an Burcn Richard M. Johnson John Tyler Whigs Tennessee Louisiana New York New Hampshire Pennsylvania . Illinois Tennessee Illinois Ohio . Democrats Whigs Whigs George M. Dallas Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln' Andrew Johnson' Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes ... Democrats Democrats Republicans . . A Republicans RepubUcans. . . < Republicans Republicans Republicans Democrats Republicans Democrats Republicans. . . < Republicans Republicans. . . . Democrats Republicans .... William R. King John V. Breckonridge Hannibal Hamlin .\iidrew Johnson Schuyler Colfax Henry Wilson William A. Wheeler Ohio Chester A. Arthur Chester A. Arthur' Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland William McKinley' Theodore Roosevelt' . William H Taft New York New York Indiana New York Ohio Thomas A. Hendricks Le\i P. Morton Adlai E. Stevenson Garrett A. Holart Theodore Hooee\clt Charles W. Fairbanks James S. Sherman New York Ohio Woodrow Wilson Warren G. Harding New Jersey Ohio Thoraa? R. Marshall Calvin Coolidgc 1 Not the present Republican Party. 2 Died in office. » Vice-Presidents who succeeded to the Presidency. 618 APPENDIX FACTS ABOUT THE STATES Name. Date of Admission into the Union. Land Area in Square Miles. Population, 1920 Census. Delaware Pennsylvania. . . New Jersey Georgia Connecticut .... Massachusetts. . Maryland South Carolina. . New Hampshire. Virginia New York North Carolina. . Rhode Island . . . Vermont Kentucky Tennessee Ohio Louisiana Indiana Illinois Alabama Maine Missouri Arkansas Michigan Florida Texas Iowa Wisconsin California Minnesota Oregon Kansas West Virginia. . Nevada Nebraska Colorado North Dakota. South Dakota. Montana Washington Idaho Wyoming Utah Oklahoma New Mexico. . . Arizona [1787 1787 1787 1788 1788 1788 1788 1788 1788 1788 1788 1789 11790 1791 1792 1796 1803 1812 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1836 1837 1845 1845 1846 1848 1850 1858 1859 1861 1863 1864 1867 1876 1889 1889 1889 1889 1890 1890 1896 1907 1912 1912 1,965 44,832 7,514 58,725 4,820 8,039 9,941 30,495 9,031 40,262 47,654 48,740 1,067 9,124 40,181 41,687 40,740 45,409 36,045 46,362 56,043 51,279 29,895 68,727 52,525 57,480 54,861 262,398 65,586 55,256 155,652 80,858 95,607 81,774 24,022 109,821 76,808 103,658 70,183 76,868 146,201 66,836 83, .3.54 97,594 82,184 69,414 122„503 113,810 223,003 8,720,017 3,158,900 2,895,832 1,380,631 3852,356 1,449,661 1,683,724 443,083 2, .309, 187 10,384,829 2,559,123 604,397 352,428 2,416,630 2,337.883 5,759,394 1,798,509 2,930,390 1,790,618 6,485,280 2,348,174 768,014 3,404,055 1,752,204 3,668,412 968,470 4,663,228 2,404,021 2,632,067 3,426,861 2,387,125 783,389 1,769,257 1,463,701 77.407 1,296,372 937,629 645,680 636,547 548,889 1,356,621 431,886 194,402 449,396 2,028,283 360,3.50 333,903 TERRITORIES , ETC. Alaska 590,884 70 210 6,449 436 114,400 3,435 77 132 54,899 District of Columbia 437,571 13,275 Hawaii 255,912 Panama Canal Zone 22,858 Philippine Islands 10,350,640 1,299 809 8 056 Virgin Islands 26,051 Total 3,689,923 117,857,.509* ' Including 117,238 persons in military and naval service abroad. POPULATION OF CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES HAVING MORE THAN 25,000 INHABITANTS CITY. Alab\m\. Birmingham Mobile Montgomery Arizona. Phoenix. Arkansas. Little Rocli Fort Smith Californu. Alameda Berkeley Fresno Long Beach Los Angele.s Oakland Pasadena Sacramento San Diego San Francisco San Jose Stockton Colorado. Colorado Springs. . Denver Pueblo POPULATION. Connecticut. Bridgeport town* Hartford town* Meriden town, including Meriden city New Britain New Haven town* New London town* Norwalk 1920 178,270 60,151 43,46-t 29,053 61,997 28,811 28,806 55,886 44,616 55,593 576,673 216,361 45,354 65,857 74,683 508,410 39,604 40,296 1910 132,685 51.521 38,1,36 11,134 45,941 23,975 23,383 40,434 24,892 17,809 319,198 150,174 30,291 44,696 39,578 416,912 28,946 23,253 30,105 29,078 256,369 213,381 42,908 44,395 143,538 102,054 138,036 98,915 34,739 32,066 59,316 43,916 162,519 , 133,605 25,688 19,659 27,700 24,211 CITY. Norwich town Stamford VVaterbiiry . Delaware. Wilmington District of Columbia. Washington pLORroA. Jacksonville. . . . .Miami I'cnsacola Tampa GtORTlA. Atlanta Augusta Columbus Macon .Savannah Illinois. .Aurora BInomiiigton Chicago Cicero town Danville Decatur East St. Louis. . . Elgin Evanston Joliet Moline Oak Park village Peoria Quincy Rock Island ' Coe.xtensive at each of the two censuses with city of same name. ' Coextensive at each of the censuses with city of same name. 619 POPI'LATION. 1920 29,685 40.057 35,086 91,110 IIO.IGS 437,571 91,558 29,549 31,035 51,252 200,616 52,,548 31,125 52,995 83,252 30,397 28.725 2,701,705 44,995 33,750 43,818 66,740 27.454 37,215 38,406 30.709 39.830 76.121 35,078 35,177 28,219 28,836 25,138 73,141 331,069 57,699 5,471 22,982 37,782 154,839 41.010 20,551 40,665 65,061 29,807 25.768 2,185.283 14, .557 27,871 31,140 58..547 25,976 24,978 34,670 24.199 19,444 66,050 36.587 24.335 620 POPULATION OF CITIES OF MORE THAN 25,000 CITY. Rockford Springfield Induna. Anderson East Chicago. . . . Evansville Fort Wayne Gary Hammond Indianapolis Kokomo Muncie Richmond South Bend Terre Haute Iowa. Cedar Rapids Council Bluffs Davenport Des Moines Dubuque Sioux City Waterloo Kansas. Kansas City Topeka Wichita Kentucky. Covington Lexington Louisville Newport LCUISUNA. New Orleans Shreveport Maine. Bangor Lewiston Portland Maryland Baltimore Cumberland Hagerstown POPULATION. 1920 1910 65,651 45,401 59,183 51,678 29,767 22,476 35,967 19,098 85,264 69,647 86,549 63,933 55,378 16,802 36,004 20,925 314,194 233,650 30,067 17,010 36,524 24,005 26,765 22,324 70,983 53,684 66,083 58,157 45,566 32,811 36,162 29,292 56,727 43,028 126,468 86,368 39' 141 38,494 71,227 47,828 36,230 26,693 101,177 82,331 50,022 43,684 72,128 .52,450 57,121 53,270 41,534 35,099 234,891 223,928 29,317 30,309 387,219 339,075 43,874 28,015 25,978 24,803 31,791 26,247 69,272 58,571 733,826 558,485 29,837 21,839 28,066 16,507 Massachusetts. Boston Brockton Brookline town Cambridge Chelsea Chicopee Everett Fall River Fitchburg Haverhill Holyoke Lawrence Lowell Lynn Maiden Medford New Bedford Newton Pittsfield Quincy Revere Salem Somerville Springfield Taunton Waltham Worcester Michigan. Battle Creek Bay City Detroit Flint Grand Rapids Hamtramck village . Highland Park Jackson Kalamazoo Lansing Muskegon Pontiae Port Huron Saginaw Minnesota. Duluth Minneapolis St. Paul POPULATION. 1920 748,060 66,138 37,748 109,694 43,184 36,214 40,120 120,485 41,013 53,884 60,203 94,270 112,759 99,148 49,103 39,038 121,217 46,054 41,751 47,876 28,823 42,529 93,091 129,563 37,137 30,915 179,754 36,104 47,554 993,739 91,599 137,634 48,615 46,499 48,374 48,858 57,327 36,570 34,273 25,944 61,903 98,917 380,582 234,595 1910 670,585 56,878 27,792 104,839 32,452 25,401 33,484 119,295 37,826 44,115 57,730 85,892 106,294 89,336 44,404 23,150 96,652 39,806 32,121 32,642 18,219 43,697 77,236 88,926 34,259 27,834 145,986 25,267 45,166 465,766 38,550 112,571 3,559 4,120 31,433 39,437 31,229 24,062 14,532 18,863 50,510 78,466 301,408 214,744 POPULATION OF CITIES OF MORE THAN 25,000 621 CITY. MtSSOCRI. Joplin Kansas City St. Joseph St. Louis Springfield Montana. Butte Nebraska. Lincoln Omaha New Hampshire. Manchester Nashua New Jersey. Atlantic City Bayonne Camden CHfton East Orange Elizabeth Hoboken Irvington town Jersey City Kearny Montclair New Brunswick Newark Orange Passaic Paterson Perth Amboy Plainfield Trenton West Hoboken town. West New York town New York. Albany Amsterdam Auburn Binghamton Buffalo Elmira Jamestown POPLXATION. 1920 29,855 324,410 77,939 772,897 39,631 41,611 54,934 191,601 78,384 28,379 50,682 76,754 116,309 26,470 50,710 95,682 68,166 25,480 297,864 26,724 28,810 32,779 414,216 33,268 63,824 135,866 41,707 27,700 119,289 40,068 29,926 113.344 33,524 36,192 66,800 .506,775 45,305 38,917 1910 32,073 218,381 77,403 687,029 35,201 39,165 43,973 124,096 70,063 26,005 46,1,50 55,545 94,538 11,869 34, .371 73,409 70,324 11,877 267,77!) 18,659 21,550 23,388 347,469 29,630 54,773 125,600 32,121 20,550 96,815 35,403 13,560 100,253 31,267 34,668 48,443 423,715 37,176 31,297 CITY. POPULATION. Kingston Mount Vernon New Rochelle New York City Manhattan Borough. Bronx Borough Brooklyn Borough . Queens Borough Richmond Borough Newburgh Niagara Falls Poughkeepsie Rochester Rome Schenectady Syracuse Troy Utica Watertown Yonkers North Carolina. Ashcville Charlotte Wilmington Winston-Salem Ohio. Akron Canton Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dayton East Cleveland . Hamilton Lakcwood Lima Lorain Mansfield Marion Newark Portsmouth Springfield Steulwnville. . . Toledo Warren Youngstown . . . Zancsville 26.688 42,726 36,213 621,151 284,103 732,016 ,022,262 466,811 1 15,9.59 30,366 50,760 35,000 295,750 26.341 88,723 171,717 72.013 94,1,56 31.285 100,226 28,504 46,338 33.372 48,395 208 87 401 796, 237 152 27 .39 41 41 37 27 27 26, 33 OO 28 243 27 132 29 1910 25.908 30,919 28,867 4,766,883 2,331.542 430,980 1,634,351 284,041 85,969 27,805 30,445 27,936 218.149 20,497 72,826 137,249 76,813 74,419 26,7,30 79,803 18,762 34,014 25,748 22,700 69,067 50.217 .363,591 560.663 181,511 116,577 9,179 35.279 15,181 30,508 28.883 20,768 18.232 25,404 23,«8l 40,921 22,391 168,407 11,08! 79.06« 28,020 622 POPULATION OF CITIES OF MORE THAN 25,000 CITY. Oklahoma. Muskogee Oklahoma City Tulsa Oregon. Portland Pennsylvania. Allentown Altoona Bethlehem Chester Easton Erie Harrisburg Hazleton Johnstown Lancaster McKeesport New Castle Norristown Philadelphia Pittshurgh Reading Scranton Wilkes-Barre Williamsport York Rhode Island. Cranston Newport Pawtucket Providence Woonsocket South Carolina, Charleston Columbia South Dakota. Sioux Falls Tennessee. Chattanooga Knoxville Memphis Nashville POPULATION. 1920 30,277 91,2.58 72,075 258,288 29,407 30,255 64,248 237,595 43,496 67,957 37,524 25,176 57,895 77,818 162,351 118,342 25,278 64,205 18,182 207,214 73,502 51,913 60,331 52,127 50,358 12,837 58,030 38,537 33,813 28,523 93,372 66,525 75,917 64,186 32,277 25,452 67,327 55,482 53,150 47,227 45,975 42,694 44,938 36,280 32,319 27,875 ,823,158 1,549,008 588,193 533,905 107,784 96,071 137,783 129,867 73,833 67,105 36,198 31,860 47,512 44,750 21,107 27,149 51,622 224,326 38,125 58,833 26,319 14,094 44,604 36,346 131,105 110,364 CITY. Texas. Austin Beaumont Dallas El Paso Fort Worth Galveston Houston San Antonio Waco Wichita Falls IItah. Ogden Salt Lake City ViRGINU. Lynchburg Newport News Norfolk Petersburg Portsmouth Richmond Roanoke Washington. Bellingham Everett Seattle Spokane Tacoma West Virginia Charleston Clarksburg Huntington Wheeling Wisconsin. Green Bay Kenosha La Crosse Madison Milwaukee Oshkosh Racine Sheboygan Superior POPULATION. 34,876 29,860 40,422 20,640 158,976 92,104 77,543 39,279 106,482 73,312 44,255 36,981 138,076 78,800 161,379 96,614 38,500 26,425 40,070 8,200 32,804 25,580 118,110 92,777 29,956 29,494 35,596 20,205 115,777 67,452 31,002 24,127 54,387 33,190 171,667 127,628 50,842 34,874 25,570 24,298 27,644 24,814 315,652 237,194 104,417 104,402 96,965 83,743 39,608 22,996 27,869 9,201 50,177 31,161 54,322 41,641 31,017 U,236 40,472 21,371 30,363 30,417 38,378 25,531 457,147 373,857 33,162 33,062 58,593 38,002 30,955 26,398 39,624 40,384 INDEX Key to Pronunciation ate, sen3,te, rare, cat, local, far. ask, parade; scene. Svent, Mge, nov51,ref5r; right, sin: cold, 6bey, cord, st6p, cSmpare; unit, unite, burn, cut, fociJs, mentl; b(53t, fdist; f )und; boil; function; chase; Kood; joy; thon, thick; hw = wh as in when; zh =^ z as in azure: kh = ch as in loch. Abbey (5b'I), Edwin A., 539 Acadia (d-ka'dl-d), 88, 99 Adams (ad'dmz), John, 123. 130, 134, 135, 152, 166, 184, 196, 202, 217, 219, 221 administration of, 211-215 character of, 212 portrait of, 211 Adams, John Quinzy (kwln'zl), 252, 316- 318, 351, 359 portrait of, 317 Adams. Samuel, 114-116, 118, 120, 122, 123, 128, 130, 1.54. 166. 169 Africa (af'rl-kd), 52 Agriculture, in the colonies, 49-51 in the early republic, 255, 261-262 changes in, 289-291 rapid growth of, 386 in the New South, 460-462 use of machines in, 471^72. 482-485 on a large scale, 497-499 Aguinaldo (a"ge-nal'do), Emilio, 562 Alabama {aPd-bii'md), 303, 304, 308, 309, 404, 488 Alabama, the, 412, 467 Alabama Claims, 468-470 Alamo (a'la-mo), the, 358 Alaska (d-las'kd), 467, 522 Albany (ol'bd-nl). 30, 2S6 Albany Plan of Union, 101, 150 Albemarle Sound (arbS-marl), 33 Alcock (6rk6k), Captain John. 597-598 Alexandria (al'eg-zan'drl-d), 5 Algonquins (al-gfih'kl-anz), 46, 88 Alien and Stidition Acts. 215, 217 Alleghany Mountains (3,rS-ga'nI), 45, 65, 93. . 5 Association, American, 123-125 Astor (Ss'ter), John Jacob, 228 Astoria (Ss-tc'rl-d), 228 Atlanta (5t-ian'td). campaign against. 427 growth of. 463 Atlantic seaboard (it-ian'tlk). 45. 93, 99, 176 resources of, 69-70 Austerlitz (ous'tfr-llts). 234 Austin (6s'tln). Moses. 357 Austin. Stephen F., 3.57 Austria (6s'trl-d). 223. 2:J.3-234, 251, 573 Austrlans (Os'trl-Snz), 205, 223, 675, 576. Aviation, (a'vl-a'shflu). development of, 597-598 623 624 INDEX B Bacon (ba'kn), Nathaniel, 55-56 Bacon's Rebellion, 55-56 Bahamas (bd-ha'mdz), 8 BaJnbridge (ban'brlj), Commodore Wil- liam, 245 Baker (ba'ker), Col. E. D., Representative from Illinois, 376 Balboa (bal-bo'd), 9 Balfour (bal'foor), Arthur J., 580 Baltic Sea (bol'tlk) , 38 Baltimore (bol'tl-mor) , 247, 257, 286 Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, Lord, 23, 39 Bank, first United States, 201, 249 second United States, 249 Jackson's attack upon, 326-327 Banks (banks), Nathaniel P., General, 413 Baptists (bap'tlsts), 83 Barbary Pirates (bar'bd-rl), 244 Barre (ba"ra')._ Isaac. Ill Beauregard (bo're-gard). General P. G. T., 412 Beecher (be'cher), Henry Ward, 382 Belgium (bel'jl-um), 573, 574 Bell (bel), Alexander Graham, 475 Bell, John, 403 Belleau Wood (bel-lo'). 586 Bennington (ben'Ing-tun) , battle of, 143 Berkeley (burk'll) , Sir WilUam, Governor, 55-56 opposes free schools, 80 Berkeley, Lord John, 34 Bill of Rights, 168 Bird Woman, 227 Birmingham (bir'mlng-dm), Alabama, 463 Birney (bur'nl), James G.. 347-348 Bismarck (bls'miirk). North Dakota, 227 Black Hawk War, 332 Black Hills, 491 Black Sea, 5 Blaine (blan), James G., 506, 507, 555 Bland- Allison Act (bland=ari-siin), 518- 519 Bliss (blls). General Tasker H., 592 Blockade, the, 410, 428-429 Blue Ridge Mountains, 44, 130 Bolivar (b5-le'var), Simon, 251 Bonhomme Richard (bo-nom re"shar') , the, 148-149 Boone (boon), Daniel, 177-179, 193, 296, 301, 4X8 portrait of, 178 _ Boonesborough (boons'biir-5) , 179, 181, Booth (booth), John Wilkes, 448 Border Warfare, 95-98, 102 "Bosses", party, 527-528 Boston (bSs'tiln), 26, 43, 58, 73. 78,125, 257 siege of, 129, 132 Boston Massacre, 118-119 Boston Port Bill, 121 Boston Tea Party, 120-121 Boundaries, settlement of, 2.50-251 Braddock (brad'6k), Kxpedition of, 101- 102 Bragg (brag), General Braxton, 420. 426 Brandy-wine (bran 'dl- win"), battle of, 142 Brazil (brd-zll'), 10-11 Breckenridge (brek'Jn-rlj), John C, 402 British C^olumbia (brIt'Ish=ko-lQm'bT-d), 363 Brooks (bro6ks), Preston S., 393 Brown (broun), Lieut. Arthur Whitten, 597-598 Brown, Jacob, 242 Brown, John, 393, 400-401 Brown University, 82 Bryan (bri'dn), William J., 519-520, 521, 524 portrait of, 519 Bryant (bri'dnt), William CuUen, 269, 332, 388 Bryn Mawr (brin mar), Pennsylvania, 65 Buchanan (bu-kan'dn), James, 394-395, 396, 405 portrait of, 395 Buell (bii'el). General Don Carlos, 417- 418, 419, 420 Buflfalo (biif'd-lo). New York, 312 Buffalo, the. 493 Bulgaria (b651-ga'rl-d) , 573, 588 Bull Run, first battle of, 412 second battle of, 415 Bunker Hill (bunk'er), battle of, 131-132 Bureau of American Republics, 556 Burgesses, House of, 23 Burgoyne (bur-goLn'), General John, 141, '246 his campaign in New York, 142-143 Burke (burk), Edmund. 121 Burns (burnz), Anthony, 383 Burnside (burn'sid). General Ambrose E., 415. 416 Burr (bur), Aaron, 217 plot of, 228-230 Butler (biit'ler). Senator Andrew P., 376 Butte (but), Montana, 491 C Cabinet, 196-198 Cabot (ka'bot), John, 15 Calhoun (kal-hoon'), John C, 238, 249, 283, 284, 316, 317, 323-324, 350, 359, 378-379, 402 picture of, 238 Calicut (kal'i-kut), 6 California (ka"lI-for'nI-d) , 15, 252, 363- 365, 366, 367, 368, 374, 380, 384, 474, 489, 492, 498 the rush to, 369-371 Cambridge (kam'brlj), Massachusetts (mas"d-cho5's§ts) , 82 Camden (kam'den), battle of, 151 Canada (kan'd-dd), 91, 94, 98, 99, 108, 117, 118, 122, 152, 557 invasion of, 1775, 132-133 efforts to invade in War of 1812, 240- 243 Canals, 283-286 Cantigny (kan"te'n8"), 586 Cape Breton Island (bret'iin), 98 Cape of Good Hope, 6, 9, 15 Cape Nome (nom), 491, 522 Cape Verde Islands (vurd), 10 Capital. 293 Caribbean Sea (kar'I-be'an) , 12 Carlisle (kar-lll'), Pennsylvania (pSn'sIl- va'nl-d). Indian School at. 502 Carolina (ka'ro-ll'nd), 33, 42, 44, 46, 49, 63, 65, 137, 1.50, 184 Carpenter's Hall (kar'pen-ters) , 123 Carpetbaggers, 457-460 evils of their rule, 457-459 their downfall, 459-460 INDEX 625 Carranza (ka-ran'za) . Venustlano, 570, 572 Carson (kar'sfln), Christopher, ("Kit"). 364 Carteret (kar'ter-et). Sir George, 34 Cartier (kiir'tya), Jacques, 87 Cartwright (kiirt'rit), Edward, 274 Cass (kas), Lewis, 375 Cathay (kd-tha'). 5 Catholics (kath'o-lllis), 14, 17, 24, 39, 65, S3, 86, 95, 335 Cattle ranches, 493-495 Cavaliers (kav^-lers'), 32, 39 Cayugas (ka-yoo'gdz), 46 Cedar Creek (se'der), battle of, 431 Central America, 8, 13 Cervora (ther-va'ra) , Admiral Pascual, 559 Chambersburg (cham'berz-burg) , 422 Champlain (sham-plan'), Samuel de, 87-89 portrait of, 89 Chancellorsville (chan'sel-erz-vll), battle of, 416 Charles I (charlz), 25-26, 32, 39, 107 Charles II, 32, 34, 36. 42 Charleston (charlz'tun), 33, 43, 120, 147, 149, 151, 1.53. 207. 257, 2S6-2S7 Charter Oak (char'ter), 56 Chase (chas), Salmon P., 378, 391, 394, 446, 457 Chateau-Thierry (sha'to'tya'rS') . 586 Chattanooga (chafd-noo'gd). 417, 420, 425, 463 battle of, 426-427 Cherokees (cher'o-kez) . 46. 180-181. 189 Cherry Valley (cher'I val'I). 181 Chesapeake (ches'd-pek) , 235-236, 240, 245 Chesapeake Bay, 23, 141, 151, 247 Chicago (she-ka'go), 2, 312, 495 Chickamauga (chlk-d-mo'gd), battle of, 426 China (chi'nd), "open door" in, 563-565 Boxer uprising in, 564 Chinese (chi-nez'). Exclusion of, 549-5.50 Chippewa (chlp'S-wa), 242 Choctaws (chok'toz), 332 Chowan River (shoo'an), 33 Christiana (I'a.) riot (krls-chSn'd), 383 Christian Commission, 437 Churches, in the colonies, 83-86 on the frontier, 308 Church of England (In'gl.and), 24-25 Cincinnati (sin-sln-a'tl), 311 Cities, growth of, 202 in the West, 309-312 government of, 52!) Civil Rights Bill, 4.54. 456 Civil Service (Commission. 527 Civil Service Reform, 527 Civil War, 407-433 life during the, 43.5-440 finances of the. 440-443 home-coming of the soldiers, 451-452 Clark (kliirk), George Rogers, 182-184. 185. 188. 296 Clark. William. 226 Clay (kla). Flcnry. 238-239. 241. 249. 283. 316-31S. 320. 327. 330, 361-362. 377- 378 picture of, 238 Clavton Anti-Trust Act (kla'tiSn), 531 Clemenceau (kla'miih'so'). Georges, .593 Clemens (kI6m'enz), .Samuel L., see Mark Twain. Clermont (kler'mSnt). 280 Cleveland (klev'lind). Ohio (6-hi'6). 312 Cleveland. CJrover. 507-508. 513-514, 519. 527, .534. 550 portrait of. 513 Climate, influence of. 71 Clinton (klln'tQn). DeWitt. 284-285 Clive (kliv). Robert. 109 Clothing, of the colonists. 73-74 Coal, 279. 380 Cody (ko'dl). William F.. 492 Coinage, history of, 517-520 Cold Harbor (kold hiir'ber), battle of, 430 Colleges, colonial, 82 Colombia (k5-16m'bl-a), 566 Colonies, and the Mother Country, 58-61 rivers of, 70 mineral wealth of, 70 game, fur. and flsh in. 70-71 French and English contrasted. 93-95 unrest in. 111-127 growth of Union in, 121-125 Colonists, motives of. 37-41 hardships of. 42-43 relations with the Indians. 45-49 what they brought from Europe, 65-69 what they found in America, 69-71 homes of, 71-75 social life of, 75-78 schools of, 78-83 religious life of, 83-86 Colorado (kol-o-rii'dS). .385. 491. .502. .528 (^)lumbia River (k6-lum'bl-d). 227. 228 Columbia University. 82 Columbus (k5-liim'bus). Christopher. 6-8. 45 Comanchcs (kS-man'chPs). 501 Commerce, colonial. ."iS (il under the (Confederation. 163-164 rapid growth of. 263-264 regulation of. 530 ('ommerce and Labor, Department of. 531 Committees of Correspondence. 122-123 "Common Sense", l.'<:i 134 Commons. House of. 109, 110. 111. 113 Compromise, in the Constitution. 166-167 Compromise of 18.50. 377-381 terms of. 3,80 381 Concord (k6n'k6rd). fight at. 128-129 Confederate States of America. 404-405. 408 finances of. 443 Confederation. Articles of. 160-161. 174 nature of. 161 critical years under. 161-164 Congregational Church, S3, 270 Congress, Albany, 101, 122, 1.59 Stamp Act. 112-113. 122. 1.59 First Continental. 123 125. 1.59 Second Continental. 130. 159-100 of the United States. 169-171. 190 Congn'.s,sional Caucus. 322 (■Congressional reconstruction. 455 Connecticut (kfln-n6t'I-knt). 2S-20. 43. 4S, .55, .56, 125, 129, 157. 1H4. 185 Connecticut River. 2H. 29. 31. 32. 44. 96 Con.servatlon. .532 .534 Conservatives, .529 Constantinople (kOn'stftn-tl-no'pl). 5 626 INDEX Constitution, 244, 245 Constitution defined, 158 Constitution of the United States, 164-175 its formation, 104-167 its ratification, 167-169 its contents, 169-174 sources of, 167 objections to, 168 amendments to, 168, 170, 174 preamble of, 169 the supreme law of the land, 174 construction of, 203-204 Constitutions of the States, 157-158 Constitutional Union Party, 403 Convention, the Constitutional, 164-167 origin of, 164-165 membership of, 165-166 dilBculties confronting, 166 plans and compromises in the, 166-167 Conventions, national, 322-323 Cooke (lioolt). Jay and Co., 478 Cooper (koop'er), James Fenimore, 269 Copley (kop'll), John Singleton, 269 Corinth (kor'lnth), Mississippi (mls'Is- slp'pl), 417, 419 Cornwallis (korn-wal'Is) Lord Charles. General, 141, 151_ Coronado (kor"6-na'do), 11 Cortes (kor'tas'), Hernando, 10 Cotton, 277 Cotton gin, 275-276, 277-278, 292-293, 338 Country, in the South, 53-54 in the West, 307 Courts, in the colonies, 58 of the United States, 172, 198 Cowboys, 494-495 Cowpens (kou'penz"), battle of, 151 Crawford (kro'ferd), F. Marion, 539 Crawford, William H., 316, 317 Creeks (kreks), 46, 247, 332 Crockett (krok'et), David, 357, 358 Crompton (kromp'tfln), Samuel, 274 Cromwell (krom'wel), Oliver, 32 Crown Point (kroun point), 100, 103 Crusades, 4-5 Cuba (ku'bd), 8, 10, 391, 560 revolutions in, 557-558 fighting in, 559-560 our relations with, 561 Cumberland (kum'ber-land) , 100 Cumberland Gap, 178 Cumberland River, 180 "Cumberland Road", 284 Cumberland Valley, 44 Custer (kus'ter). General George A., 501 D Daboll's "Arithmetic", 267 Dakota (dd-ko'td), 2 Dale (dal). Governor Thomas, 21 Danube (dan'ub), 3 Dark Age, 3-4 Dartmouth College (dart'mflth), 82 Davis (da' vis), Jefferson. 376, 378, 401, 404 Davis, John, 16 Debt, national, 198-201, 332 Debts of the States, 200 Decatur (de-ka'ter), Stephen, Commo- dore, 245 Declaration of Independence, 133-136, 137 Deerfleld (der'feld), attacked by Indians, 96-98 Delaware (del'd-war), 63, 168, 185, 408 Delaware, Thomas West, Lord. 21 Delaware River, 31, 36, 42, 63. 66. 78, 140, 279 Democracy, triumph of, 217-219 leader of, 219-221 principles of, 220 growth of, 269-272 rising tide of, 331-332 Democratic-Republicans, 202-204 Democrats, 318, 328-329, 361-362, 375, 381-382, 391, 394, 395, 402-403 Denmark (den'mark) 561 Denver (den'ver), 491, 492 Desert, Great American, 489 De Soto (de so'to), 11 Detroit (de-troif), 117, 163, 177, 182, 183, 241, 242, 312 Dewey (du'i), George, 558-559 Diaz (de-az'), Porflrio, 569 Dickinson (dik'5n-sun) , John, 112, 114. 116, 123, 130, 154, 160, 165 portrait of, 153 Dinwiddle, Governor of Virginia (dln- wld'i), 100 Direct primaries, 527, 528 District of Columbia (ko-liim'bl-d), 200, 374, 381 Dorchester Heights (dor'ches-ter) , 132 Douglas (dug'lds), Stephen A., 390-391, 396-400, 402 Dover (do'ver), 28 Drafting, in the Civil War, 435-436 in the World War, 582 Draft riot,_436 Drake (drak), Francis, 15, 17 Dred Scott Decision, 395-396 Dunmore's War (dun'mor), 180. Dutch (duch), 34. 42, 49, 63, 65-66, 79. 297, 542 in America, 30-32 E Early (er'll). General, 430, 431 Edison (ed'i-siSn), Thomas A., 475. portrait of, 476 Education, in the colonies, 78-83 in the earlv republic, 266-268 progress in, 333, 389 in the Now South, 463 progress in, 536-537 Edwards (ed'wdrds), Jonathan, 83 El Caney (el ka'nl) , 560 Elections, presidential, (1789) 196, (1796) 212, (1800) 215, 217, (1804) 217, (1820) 217, (1824) 317-318, (1828) 318, (1832) 327, (1836) 328-329, (1840) 329-330, (1844) 361-363, (1848) 375, (1852) 381-382, (1856) 394-395. (1860) 402-404, (1864) 446-447, (1868) 464-465, (1872) 465, (1S7G) (465-466, (1880) 506, (1884) 507, (1888) 508, (1892) .508, (1896) 525, (1900) .522, (1904) .525, (1908) 525, (1912) .525-526, (1916) 526 Electoral Commission, 466 Electricity. 475-476 Elizabeth (e-llz'd-beth). Queen, 15, 24, 25 Elk River, 141 Ellsworth (elz'wHrth) , Oliver, 165 INDEX 627 Emancipation Proclamation, 444-445 Embargo Act, 23G, 275, 281 Emerson (em'er-sun), Ralph Ualdo, 129, 334-33.5, 382, 389, 401, 440, 539 Emigrant Aid Society, 392 Endicott (en'dl-k6t), John, 26 Engineering, 540 England lin'gland), 4, 62, 87, 152, 163, 205, 206, 223, 224, 252, 466 rivalry with Spain, 15-18 rivalry with France, 87-105 American attachment to, 108-109 fails to keep settlers out of the West, 1 77 trouble with, 208 Jav Treaty with, 208 tramples on our rights on the sea, 233- 237 Industrial Revolution in, 273-277 Parliamentary reform in, 331 attitude of during our Civil War. 410. 445 in the World War, 573 English (In'gllsh), 34, 58, 62-63, 65, 66. 194, 580 ideas of government and law, 68-69 contrasted with French, 93-95 Episcopalians, 83, 270 Era of Good Feeling. 316-317 Ericsson (er'Ik-siin) , John, 411 Erie (e'rl) , 242 Erie Canal, 284-285, 288 Essex (es'eks), 245 Europeans (u"ro-pe'anz) who became Colonists, 62-65 Evans (ev'anz), Oliver, 286 Excise, 199 P Factory system, 275 influence of, 291 Fairfield (far'feld), 147 Falmouth (fal'mflth), 147 Farming, see Agriculture Farm machinery. 290, 471^-472 Farragut (far'd-gut), David G.. 418-419. 427-428 "Federal Reserve" banks, 532 "Fprtpralist". The, 168 pXaTists, 168. 202-204. 217. 218, 238, faU of. 214-215 our debt to, 216 , c, • Ferdinand (fur'dl-nand) V, King of Spain. Field (feld), ("vnis W., 475 Filipinos •nin-pe'noz.. 562-563 Fillmore (ffi'mor). Millard. 380, 395 FlnSftroubL under the Confeder- atlon. 161-163 Fine Arts. 530 Fiske (ffsk), John, 539 portrait of. 538 Fismes 'fern), 587 Fitch (flch). John 279-280 Five Intolerable Acts, 121, izi ^i^XH^t^ 105, 152, 230. 362 acSe^iy^U^i^d^tates. 2,50-251 West, 229, 251 Foch (fosh), Ferdinand. Marshal, 585- 587. 588 Food, of the colonists, 74 Foote (f(56t). Commodore, 417 Forbes (forbz). General, 102 Forest reserves, 534 Fort Donelson (d6n 'el-sun). 416-417 Fort Duquesne CdSo-kan'). 100, 101, 102 Fort Frontenac (fr6n't6-nak). 100, 102 Fort Henry (hgn'rl), 416-417 Fort Lee (le), 139 Fort McHenry (m5k-h6n'rl0, 247 Fort Moultrie (moo'trl, mool'trl), 147 Fort Nassau (nas'6), 30 Fort Necessity (n6-s6s'l-tl). 101 Fort Niagara (ni-ag'd-rd), 100, 102, 103. 117 Fort Pitt (pit), 102. 117 Fort Stanwix (stan'wiks). 143 Fort Sumter (sum'ter). 407-408 Fort Washington (wosh'Ing-tfln). 139 Fort William Henry. 102 "Fortv-Niners", the, 370-371 Fox (f6ks), Charles James, 121 Fox River, 90 France (frans), 4, 62. 66, 87, 104, 161-162, 199, 206, 223, 224. 4G7. .563, 504, 592 rivalry with England, 87-105 helps America in the Revolution, 145- 147 revolution in, 204-205 our trouble with, 212-214 tramples upon our rights on the sea. 233—236 in the World War, 574, 580 Franklin (frank'lln). Benjamin, 101. 108. 113. 122. 130. 135, 148, 159, 165. 184, 269 in France, 146, 152, 1.54 portrait of, 146 FrankUn, State of, 189 Fredericksburg (fr6d'er-Iks-bQrg'). battle of, 416 Freedmen, the, 454-455 Freeport question, 398, 399 Free-soil party, 375, 394 , . ^ _. . Fremont (fre-m5nt'). Gen. John C. 364. French^'rench), 34, 49. 63, 66, 194. 331, 580 motives of, 89-90 . in the Mississippi Valley, 90-93, 176 contrasted with English, 93-9.5 sympathize with Americans. 145-146 in \Texico. 466-407 French and Indian War. 90-106, 108, 109, 117, 176, 223 cause. 99 , „r, . in geographic influences In. 99-100 inilitarv events. 100-104 n.sults. 105 106 French Revolution. 204-205, 249 Friends, scr Quakers Frobisher (rr(il>'Lsh-er). Martin. 16. 17 Frolic. 244 Frontier, ISH, 495 life on the. 190-195, .304-308 journey to the, 301 304 the vanishing. IHK .505 Fugitive Slave Law. 381 .383 Fugitive slaves, 374-375 Fulton (fflCrtfln), Hobort, 280 Furniture, 73 Fur trade, 90 628 INDEX G Gadsden (g&dz'den), Christopher, 112-113 Gadsden Purchase, 367 Gage (gaj), General Thomas, 125, 128 "Gag rule", 351 Gallatin (gal'd-tln), Albert, 203, 220 portrait of, 203 Gallipoli (gal-le'p5-lS), 576 Gama (da gii-ma), Vasco da, 6 Garfield (giir'feld), James A., 506-507 portrait of, 506 Garrison {gar'I-siln), William Lloyd, 346- 348, 401 portrait of, 348 Gas engine, 475 Gates (gats). General Horatio, 143, 150- 151, 153 Genet (zhe-ne'). Edmond Charles, 207 Geneva (jS-ne'vd), 595 Geneva Award, 468 Genius of Universal Emancipation, the, 346 Genoa (j6n'6-d), 5 George III (jorj), 109-110, 111, 133, 152 portrait of, 109 George. David Lloyd (jorj, loid), 592 Georgia (j6r'jl-d), 33-34, 42, 44, 63, 71, 83, 93, 123, 137, 149, 184, 188, 404, 462 Germans, 34. 37, 63-64, 66, 79, 83, 194, 384, 542, 544, 547. 574, 575, 577, 578, 585, 588, 591-592 Germantown (jQr'man-toun), battle of, 142 Germany (jiir'man-I) , 556-557, 563, 573 574. 576, 577, 578-579, 592, 593-594 Gerrv (g§r'I), Elbridge, 213 Gettysburg (gSt'tls-biirg) , battle of, 421- 425 Ghent (gent), treaty of, 248 Gilbert (gll'bert). Sir Humphrey. 16 Gladstone (glad'stfin). William E.. 167 Goethals (go'thalz). Colonel G. W., 567 Gold, in California, 369-370 in the Rocky Mountain region, 489-490 Goodyear (g68d'ySr). Charles. 387 Gorges and Mason (gor'jes. ma'sun). 28 Government, of the colonies. 53 town in New England, 53-54 county in the South, 53-54 mixed in middle colonies. 54 beginnings of our. 157-175 federal defined, 157 from colonial to state, 157-158 our first national. 158-160 under the Articles of Confederation, 160-164 need of a stronger, 164 Governor, the colonial, 5.5-56, 108 Grady (grad'I). Henry W., 463 Grand Army of the Republic, 451 Grand Canvon, .503 Grant (grant), U. S., 369, 416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 426, 427, 506 and Lee, 430-434 elected president, 464 his administration, 464-465 portrait of, 464 Gray (gra). Captain Robert. 228 Great Britain (brit'dn), at war with American Colonies, 107-156 OUT second war with, 233-249 dispute with Venezuela, 556 in the Far East, 563-564 in the World War, 577-578. 592 Great Charter. Magna Charta, 107 Great Lakes, 89, 90, 118, 184 Great Salt Lake, 364 Greece (gres), 574 Greeks (greks), 2, 4, 331 Greeley (gre'U), Horace, 401, 405, 464 portrait of, 465 "Greenbacks", 441-442 Green Bay, 90, 91, 177 Green (gren), John Richard, 110 Greene (gren). General Nathanael, 129, 132. 151. 153 Grenville (gren'vll). George, 110, 113 Griffin (grif'ln), 91 Guam (gwam), 560 Guerriere (gar'ryfi.r') , 244 Guilford Court House (gll'ferd) , battle of. 151 Gwynedd (gwln'ed), Pennsylvania, 65 Haiti (ha'tl), 8, 9, 10 Hale (hal). Nathan, 140 Halifax (hal'I-faks), 99, 132, 241 Halleck (hal'ek). General, 419 portrait of, 419 Hamilton (ham'Il-tun) , Alexander, 164, 165, 168, 169, 196-197, 202, 203, 229 financial policy of, 198-202 portrait of, 169 Hamilton. Henry. British governor. 183 Hamlin (hSm'lIn), Hannibal, 403 Hampton (hamp'tfln), Virginia (vlr-jln' I-d), 463, 502 Hancock (han'kok). General Winfleld Scott. 423, 425, 506 Hancock, John, 128 Harding (hard'Ing) , Warren G., 596 Hargreaves (hiir'grevz), James. 273-274 Harlem Heights (har'lem), 138 Harpers Ferry (har'perz), 400-402 Harrisburg (har'Is-biirg) , 422 Harrison (har'I-sun) , Benjamin, 508, 534 portrait of, 508 Harrison, William Henry, 239, 242, 296, 329-330, 355 Harrodsburg (har'iidz-burg), 179, 182 Harte (hart), Bret, 539 Hartford (hart'ferd), 29 Harvard (har'vdrd), John, 82 Havana (hd-van'd), 105 Hawaii (ha-wi'I), 563 Hawkins (ho-kinz), John, 15, 17 portrait of, 15 Hawthorne (ho'thorn), Nathaniel, 332- 335, 389, 539 Hay (ha), John, 564, 565. 566 Hayes (haz), Rutherford B., 465-466, 506 portrait of, 466 Havne (han), Robert Y., 324-325 Health, 260-261 protection of, 534-535 Hebrews (he'brooz), 2 Helena (hel'S-nd), Montana (m6n-ta'nd), 490 Henry (hgn'rl), Patrick. 111-112, 123, 125, 126. 130. 154. 166, 169, 182 Herkimer (hQr'kl-mer), General Nicholas, 143, 153 INDEX 620 Hessians (hgsh'anz), 133, 141 Hobson (hob'sn). Lieutenant, 559 Hoe (ho), Ricbard M., 387 Holland (hol'and), 17, 62, 119, 149, 161- 162. 199, 577 Holmes (homz). Dr. Oliver Wendell, 334- 33r,, 3S9. 440 Holy Alliance, 251-252 Homestead Act, 496 Honolulu (ho'no-loo'loo) , 563 Hood (ho5d|, General John Boll, 427, 428 Hooker (hook'er). General Joseph, 410, 422, 426 Hooker, Thomas, 28-29. 63 Hoover (hoo'ver), Herbert C, 581 Hopkins (hSp'kInz), Captain Esek, 147 Horn book, 81 Hornet, 244 House (hous), Edward M., 592 House of Representatives, 166, 169-170, 173-174 Houses, in the colonies, 71-73 Houston (hus'tiln), General Sam, 357.358 Howe (hou), Elias, 386-387 Howe, General William, 138. 141. 142 Howe, Julia Ward, 436 portrait of, 437 Howells (hou'elz), William Dean, 539 Hudson (hild'sun), Henry. 16. 30 Hudson Bay, 46. 99 Hudson River. 30, 31, 42, 44, 63, 66, 78, 79, 99, 118, 138, 140, 142, 149, 280 Huerta (wer'til), Victoriano, 569-570 Hughes (hiiz), Charles E., 526 Huguenots (hii'ge-nSts) , 34, 63. 66. 193, 542 Hull (hul). Captain Isaac, 244, 245 Hull, CJeneral William, 242 Hutchinson (huch'In-sun), Anne, 28 Hutchinson, Governor Thomas, 122 Idaho (i'dd-ho), 250, 363, 368, 502, 528 Illinois (Il-U-noi': -noiz), 184. 187, 299, 301, 309, 332, 384, 488 Illinois River, 91 Immigration, 293. 384-385 later. .544-.')45 restriction of, .549-551 Impeachment, 172-174 of President Johnson, 457 Impressment of sailors, 208, 235, 237 Independence Hall. 136, 165, 168 Independent treasury system, 330 India (In'dl-d), 8. .30, 109 Indiana (In-dl-an'd), 184, 187, 299, 308. 309. 488 Indians, 8, 11, 4.5-19, 55, 65, 110, .332 their treatment by the Spaniards, 13 life of the, 45 races and tribes of, 46 nature of, 47 and the white men, 47 wars with the, 48-49, 190, 239, 247, 332. 501 relations with French and English, 94 in the Revolution, 180-182 later treatment of. 502 Indian Territory. 331-332 Industrial Revolution, 273-294, 471 meaning of, 291 294 effects of, 485-487 Indu.strie.'3, in the colonies, 49-53 changes in, 273-294 during the Civil War, 438-439 growth of, 479-483 effect of changes in upon life, 483-485 Initiative, the, 52K Intercolonial Wars, 95-106 Internal Improvements, 284-286 Inter-State Commerce Act, 516, 530 Inter-State Commerce Commission, 516. 530 Inventions. 261-262. 273-281, 286-291. 386-387 Iowa (i'6-wd). 331, 362 Ireland (ir'13,nd), 17, 62, 64 Irish (i'rlsh), 65, 384, .542, 544, 547 Iron, 278-279, 386, 473^74 Iroquois (Ir'5-kwoi') , 46, 49. 88-89. 100. 145. 181. 185 Irrigation, 499-.500 Irving (Or'vlng), Washington, 259, 269, 335 Isabella (Iz'd-bel'd) I, Queen of Spain, 7, 8 Island No. 10, 417 Italians, 544, 576 Italy (It'd-U), 223, 573, 580, 592 Jackson (jak'sfln), Andrew, 247-248, 251, 296, 308, 316, 317, 318-321, 322, 324, 326-327, 328, 350, 359 portrait of, 319 Jackson, Michigan, 394 Jack.son, Mississippi, 420 Jackson, General 'Stonewall", 309, 413- 414, 415, 416 portrait of, 413 Jamaica (jd-ma'kd), 10 James I (jamz), 20, 25 James II, 34, 56, 107 Jamcis River, 20, 78 Jamestown .(jamz'toun) , 20, 43, 09 sufferings of the settlers, 21 burned, 56 Japan (jd-pan'), 8, 549, 564, 565, 573, 592 Japanese (jip'd-nez), 550 Java (jii'vd), 245 Jay (ja), John, 123, 1.52, 1,54, 108, 1,84. 198, 202. 208 portrait of. 202 Jefferson (j6f'5r-s0n). Thomas, 123. 1.54, 166, 196-197, 203, 204, 200. 212, 21.->. 234, 235-2,30, 249. 2.54. 270. 310. 357 writes Declaration of Independence. 134-136 the leader of democracy, 217-221 inauguration of, 219-220 characU-r and cann-r, 220-221 on the Mis.souri Compromise, 340 Jesuits (jfe'Q-rts), 90 Jewish Welfare Board, 592 Jews, .544 Joffre (zho'fr). M.irshal J. J. C., ,575, ,5S0 Johnson (jfin'sfln). .Andrew. 447. 4.54. 463 rec-onstruction plan of. 452-4.53 quarrels with (\>ngrcss, 455-456 imp('Ach(!d, 457 portrait of, 452 Johnston (jftnz'.stQn), General .Mbert Sid- ney, 4 IS, 419 Johnston. General Jcxioph K., 413, 427 Jnllet (jo'lI-Ct). 90. 91 Jones (Jonz), John I'aul, 147-149. 153. 244 630 INDEX K Kalb. De (kalb' de), 145-146 Kansas (kan'zds), 2, 11. 227, 384, 474, 496, 502 the struggle for, 391-393 Kansas City. 495 Kansas-Nebraska (kan'zds nS-bras'kd) Act, 390-391, 394 Kaskaskia (kas-kas'kl-d) , 182, 183 Kearny (kar'nl). General Philji), 366 Kearsarge (ker'sarj), the, 412 Kennebec (ken'e-bek). 28, 44 Kentucky (ken-tuk'I). 130. 177. 178-179, 180. 181. 185. 188-189, 190. 224. 296. 299. 308. 408-409. 488 resolutions of. 215 Key (ke). Francis Scott. 247 King George's War. 95. 98 King John. 107 King's College. 82 Kings Mountain, battle of. 151 King William's War. 95. 98 Klondike (klon'dik). 491. 521 Knights of Columbus. 591 Knights of Ijabor, 511 "Know Nothing" Party, see American Party Knox (noks). General Henry, 153, 196-197 Knoxville (noks'vll), Tennessee (ten'nes- se') , 427 Ku-Klux Klan (kii'klttks'') , 459-460 Labor, in the colonies. 51 and capital, 293 the organization of, 510-512 laws protecting, 532 Department of, 532 Lafayette (la'fa-yet") , Gilbert Metier de, 142, 145, 151, 153 Lake Champlain (sham-plan'), 89, 99, 100, 118, 142, 241, 242, 246 Lake Erie (e'rl), battle of. 242 Lake George (jorj). 99. 102 Lake Huron (hu'r6n). 89 Lake Michigan (mish'l-gdn), 91 Lake Ontario (6n-t.a'rI-5) . 100. 102 Lanier (la-ner'). Sidney. 539 La Salle (la sal'). Robert Cavelier, Sieur de. 92-93. 176 Land claims of the states. 160 Lansing (lan'sing). Robert. 592 Latin America. 12-14, 251, 252 races of, 13 life of the people in, 13 government in, 13-14 missions in, 14 Lawrence (16'rens), 242 Lawrence, Captain James, 244, 245 Lawrence, Kansas. 393 Laws, how made. 170-171 League of Nations, 594-596 Leclerc (le kler'). General Victor Em- manuel, 223 Lee (le). Richard Henry, 134 Lee, Robert E., 369. 413, 414, 415, 416, 421, 422, 423. 424 and Grant. 430-434 Legislature, the colonial, 54-55 Lenni Lenape (len'I len'a-pe), 46 Leopard. 235 Lesseps (la'seps') , Ferdinand de, 565 "Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer", 116 Lewis and Clark (loo'Is- kliirk), 226-228, 250. 360 Lewis. Meriwether, 226 Lexington (leks'ing-tun), fight at, 128 Kentucky, 130 "Liberal Republicans". 464 Liberator, The, 346. 348 Liberia (IT-be'ri-d). 346 Liberty Bell. 136 Liberty Bonds. 590 Liberty party, 347-348 Lima (le'ma), 14 Lincoln (llng'kun), Abraham, 305, 394, 405-400, 410. 424. 443, 445 debates with Douglas, 396-399 elected president. 402-403 first inaugural. 407 calls for troops, 408 issues Emancipation Proclamation, 444- 445 re-election of. 446--i47 second inaugural. 447 death of. 447-448 estimate of. 446-448 statue of, 444 views on reconstruction, 452 Lincoln-Douglas Debate, 396-400 Lincoln, General Benjamin, 149 Literature, American, 332-333, 539 Little Big Horn, battle of. 501 Livingston (liv'ing-stim). Robert R., 225 Lloyd George (loid jori), 593 Locomotives, 286-288 Lodge (loj), Henry Cabot, 210 London (lun'dun), 40 London Company, 20, 22-23 Longfellow (16ng'fel-o), Henry Wads- worth. 128, 334-335, 388, 440 Long Island, 32, 44 battle of, 138 Longstreet (long'stret) , General James, 423 I^ords, House of, 109 Louis XVI of France (loo'Is), 204, 205 portrait of, 204 Louisburg (loo'is-burg) , 98, 99, 102 Louisiana (loo''e-ze-a'nd) , 93, 152, 222, 223, 229, 251. 404, 416. 461. 462. 466 purchase of. 224-225, 250. 356-357 occupation and exploration of, 225-228 admitted to the Union. 226. 301. 308 meaning of purchase of. 230 Louisville (loo'I-vil). 182. 311 L'Ouverture (loo"ver'tur), Toussaint (too" sail'). 223-224 Lovejoy (liiv'joi). Elijah P., 349 Lowell (16'el), Francis C, 275 Lowell, James Russell, 334-335, 348, 365. 383, 389, 440, 539 Loyalists, in the Revolution, 136-137 Lundy (liin'dl), Benjamin, 34() Lundy's Lane (lun'dlz Ian), 242 Lusitania (liTsI-ta'ni-d), 578 Lutherans (loo'ther-anz), 83 Lyon (li'iin), Mary, 335 M McClellan (md-klel'an) , General George B., 408,412. 416 campaign on the Peninsula. 413-414 in the Antietam Campaign. 415 candidate for president, 447 INDEX 631 McCormick (md-k6r'mlk), Cjtus H., 290 MacDonough (mak-d6n'6), Thomas, 246- 247 McDowell (mak-dou'el) , General Irvin, 412, 413, 414, 416 McHenry (mak-hen'rl), Jerry, 383 McKinley (md-kln'll), William, 514, 620, 521, 522-523, 524, 534, 558 portrait of, 521 McMaster (mak-mas'ter) , John Bach, 539 Macedonian (mas'e-do'nl-an), 244 Machinery, labor-saving, 386-387 age of, 471-474 effects of, 483-487 "Machines", political. 527-.528 Mackinac (mak'I-no), 90, 91 Madero (ma-da'ro), Francesco, 569 Madison (mad'i-sun), James, 164, 165, 166, 168, 203, 215, 218, 236, 237, 239, 249, 284, 316 Magellan (md-jel'ldn), Ferdinand, 9 Magellan, Strait of, 15 Magna Charta, Great (^harter. 107 Maine (man). 44, 71, 309. 339 Maine, the, 558 Mandan Indians (man'dan). 227 Manhattan Island (man-hat'tdn), 30 Manila (md-nll'd), 105, 559, 562 battle of, 559 Mann (man) , Horace, 333, 376 portrait of, 377 Manufactm-es, in the colonies, 51-52 restricted. 59 in the early republic, 262-263 rapid gro^vth of. 386 in the New South. 462-463 development of. 472 Marconi (mar-ko'nlj. William, 476 Marco Polo (mar'ko po'lo), 5 Marietta (ma'rl-ef'd), Ohio, 189 Marion (mar'I-fln), General Francis. 149- 150, 1.53 Markham (miirk'dm), Edwin. 446 Mark Twain (miirk twan), 539 portrait of. 538 Marne (miirn) . first battle of, 575 second battle of, 587 Marquette (miir'ket"), Jacques, 90-91, 176 Marshall (miir'shal), John. 213, 219 Maryland (mer'I-15,nd), 23-24. 42. .52. .55, 63, 65, 83. 100, 164, 185, 408, 445 Marj'. ■»"fe of William IV. 58 Mason (ma'sSn), 410 _ „ „„ Massachusetts (mfis'd-choo'sets) , 26-28, 43, 48, 53, 56, 82, 86, 112. 184, 185, 309 education in. 78-79 punished by Parliament,' 121 committees of correspondence in, 122 minute men in. 125 126 ratifies the Con.stitution, 169 Massachusetts Bay C'ompany, 26 Massasoit (miis'd-soit'), 48 Maximilian (mak'sl-mn'yin), 467 Meade (med). General George G.. 422. 423. 424 portrait of, 422 Mediterranean Sea (mgdT-ter-ra'nS-an), 2 Memphis (mem'Hs). 417. 419 Merrimac River (mPr't-mak), 28, 44 Merrimnc. the, 410-411 in the Spanish War, 559 Methodism, 83 Meuse-Argonne (m0z-ar'g6n'), campaign 588 Mexican War, 303-369 Mexico (m6ks'I-k5), 10, 11, 12, 13, 228, 229, 251 conquered by Spain, 10 invaded by U. S.. 3G6-367 treaty of peace with, 367 French in, 466-467 our reflations with, 569-572 Mexico, Gity of, 10, 14, 366-367 Mexico. Gulf of, 12, 92, 93 Michigan (mish'l-gdn), 184, 187, 242, 301 309 Miles (milz). General Nelson A., 560 Milwaukee (mll-wo'ke), 312 Mining, 386 growth of, in the West. 489-492 Minnesota (mIn'nS-so'td). 227, 384 Mint e.stablishcd. 201 Mississippi (mls"ls-slp'pl), 304, 308, 309. 404. 4.5S. 463, 4.SS Mississippi River, 11, 46, 91, 93, 176, 184. 222, 226, 227, 230, 279, 281. 299, 416- 421 Mississippi Valley, 45, 65, 69, 105. 195, 230, 283, 291, 296, 310 French In, 90-93 Missouri (miz-zoo'rl), 226, 301. 308-309. 339-340, 409. 445, 488 Missouri Compromise, 338-340, 374, 390, 396 Missouri River, 91, 93, 226-227, 301 Mobile (mo'bel). 311, 427-428 Modocs (mo'dOks). ."lOl Mohammedans (m5-hrim'M-5nz). 4 Mohawk River (mo'hok). 44. 100 Mohawk Valley, 63, 99-100. 118, 142, 301 Mohawks, 46 Money, in the colonics, ,52-.53 during and after the Revolution, 162- 163 history of, 516-521 Monitor, fights the Merrimnc. 411 Monmouth (m5n'muth), battle of. 14j5 Monongahela River (ni6-n66'gd-he'ld). 100, 182, 278 Monroe Doctrine (mun ro'), 251-2.'>4. 467. 556-557. .596 Monroe. James. 203. 212. 218, 225. 252. 284. 316 Montana (mOn-tii'nd). 501 Montcalm (moh'kiini'), L. J. St. \ .. Marquis de. 102, 103 Montenegro (nifin'tri-na'grft). 573 Montgomery (mftnt-gum'?r-n. Alabama (ai'd-ba'md). 404. 408 Montgomery. Richanl. 132-133 Montreal (m6irtrC-01'). 87. 93. 104. 132. 241 Moore's CYeek (moOrz). flght at, 137 Morgan (mQr'gin). General i Danlul, 161. 1.53 Mormons. 334. .500. .502 .503 Morris (mfir'Is). fJouverneur. 167 Morris. Robert. 154. 162. 165 Morristown (mfir'Is-toun). 141 Morse (niArs). Samui-1 F. B.. 2.89. 476 Morse's "(!eogniphy". 207 Mount Uolynke (hol'yok). 33.5 Mount Vernon (vOr'nQn). 153. 164. 106, 208 INDEX 633 Parties, political, beginning of, 201-204 Federalists. 202-204 Republican or Democratic-Republican. 202-204 Paterson (pat'er-sun). William. 10.5 Pawtucket (p6-tuk'et) , Rhode Island, 275 Peace Conference, of Htl'.t, ,')'J3-.'J'J4 Peacock (pe'kok"). the. 244 Peale (pel). Charles Willson, 209 Pea Ridge, battle of, 410 Pemberton (pem'ber-tun) , General .Tohn C, 421 Peninsula campaign, 413-414 Penn (pen). Admiral Sir William, ,30 Penn, William. 35-37, 39, 49 03 portrait of, 30 Pennsylvania (pen'sll-va'nl-d), 3.5-37, 42, 44, 49, 54, 55, 02, 03, 04-05, 79, 83, 86, 100, 129, 137, 145, 158, 108. 181. 185, 188, 190, 199, 299 schools in, 80 Ufe in, 258-259 coal in, 279 internal improvements in, 285-280 Pennsylvania. University of. 82 Pensacola (pen'sri-ko'ld). 251 Pequots (pe'kwots), 40. 48 Percy (per'sl), Lord, 129 Perdido River (per-de'do). 251 Perry (per'I), Oliver Ilazzard. 242. 245 Perry ville (per'l-vll), battle of. 420 Pershing (per'sMng) . General John J.. 572. 583. 588 portrait of. 582 Peru (pe-roo'). 10. 12, 13 Peruvians, 10 "Pet Banks", 328 Petersburg (pe'terz-bflrg) , Virginia, 430 431 Petroleum. 380, 474-475 Philadelphia (nrd-derfT-o). 35. 43. 05. 73, 79, 120, 130. 130. 140, 141, 142, 190, 200, 201, 207. 257. 280 Philip II (Ol'Ip). 17 Philip. King (Indian), 48 PhiUppine Islands (fU'i-pIn), 558-559, 500. 501-503 PhUllps (fll'Ips), Wendell, 349-350 portrait of, 350 Pickett's Charge (pik'et), 424 Pierce (pers), Franklin, 382 portrait of. 382 Pike (pik). Zebulon N.. 227-228 Pilgrim Fathers, 24-25. 48 Pinchot (pin'sho). Gifford. .534 Pinckney (pink'nl), Charles C. 212-213 Pinckncy. Thomas. 222 Pinckneys. 165 Pioneers, quality of. 297-298 influence of frontier upon. 312-314 on the prairies. 498 Pitcairn (pit'kam). Major .lohn. 128 Pitt (pit). William. 102. 109. 113 Pittsburgh (pits'burg). 102. 177. 190. 222. 279. 2.S0. 2X1. 311 Pizarro (pl-zar'rO). Franci.sco. 10 Plains of Abraham (a'brd-ham), 103 Plattsburg Bay (plats'bilrg), battle of. 246-247 Plymouth (plTm'flth), 25, 48, 09. 78 Poo (po), Edgar Allan. 334-330 Pokanokets (pd'kd-no'kCts), 48 Poland (po'land), 593 Polk, .lames K. (p5k). 361-302, 364-365 Pontiac (p6n'tr-&k). 177, 180 Pope (pop). General John, 414-415, 417, 419 Popular Sovereignty, 374, 375, 390-391 Population, 257, .544 Populist Party, .521 Port Hudson (hud'sOn), 421 Porter (por'ter), Captain David, 245 Porter, Commodon; William David. 420 Porto Rico (por'to re'ko). 10, 557, 560- 561 I'ort Royal (ro['ai) . 88, 98 Portsmouth (ports'mflth) , 28 Portugal (p6r'tu-g51)^ 6, 10, 11, 38, 574 Portuguese (por'tQ-gez), 5-0 Potato. 17 Potomac (p6-t6'mak), 44. 78. 100. 164. 200 Power, sources of, 474-476 Presbyterians, 35, 64-05, 83, 108 Prescott (pres'kilt). Colonel William. 131 President, the. 170-172 election of. 171 duties. 171-172 Prince Henry the Navigator, 5-6 Princeton (prlns'tiin) , 82 tjattle of. 141 Printing. 14. ,S2-83. 387 Privateers, in the Revolution, 147 in the War of 1812, 245 Progressive party, 526 Progros-sives, 530 Prohibition, .53.5-.530 Protective Tariff, 281-283 Protestants, 17. 24. 95. 334 Providence (pr6v'I-dens), 28 Prussia (pru.sh'd). 233-234. 251 Prussians (priish'ans). 205. 234 Public Land System. 18.5-187 Pueblo (pwa'bl6). Colorado. 491 Pulaski (pfl-las'kl) , Count Casiniir. 145- 146. 149 Puritans. 24-25, 02, 78, S3, 108 Putnam (put'nam), Israel, 129 Quakers, 3.5-37. 39. 49, 62. 83. 86. 108, 136, 3.50 Quebec (kwS-b6k'). 88, 91, 93, 98, 99, 184, 241 siege of. 103-104 attacked by Americans. 132-133 Quebec Act. 121, 184 Que<;n Anne's War, 95, 98 Queenstown (kwenz'toun) . 241 R Railroads, 286-280. 3S7 influence of. 289. 387-389 ago of, 470-479 first transcontinental, 477 probhiui of the. 514-515 regulation of, .530 Ral.iKh. Sir Walter (rfi'lD, 1«-17 Randolph (riVn'dftlf). Edmund. 196-197 Wlimrr. the, 148 ^ -„ , Kc'id (red), Lt. Commander Albert C, 69/ Itcad. Thomas Buchanan. 431 Hiciprocity, 5U Reclamation Serv1ct>, 500 Recoastniction of the Southern States. 452-455 634 INDEX Red Cross Society, 437, 591 Red River, 226 Referendum, the, 528 Republican party, 391, 396, 506 beginning of, 394-395 in the election of 1860, 402-403 Republicans, early, 202-204, 214-216, 217-219, 238, 249, 316 Resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, 215 Revere (rS-ver'), Paul, 128 Revolution, American, causes of, 107-127 true character of, 107-109, 137 war of, 128-156 British plan of attack in, 138 British plan in 1777, 141 fighting in the South, 149-152 end of the war, 152-153 men of the, 153-154 influence on France, 205 Revolution, French, 204-205 Revolution, in England, 32, 56, 95, 107 Rhine (rin), 3, 63 Rhode Is and (rod), 28, 43, 55, 56, 79, 83. 86, 129, 157, 165, 169, 185 Rhodes (rodz), James Ford, 539 Richmond (rich'mund), 408, 412, 416, 430, 431, 433 Riley (ri'll), James Whitcomb, 539 Rio Grande (re'o gran'da), 228, 365, 366 Rivers, influence of, 43 Robertson (r6b'ert-sun) , James, 180, 189, 193, 296, 488 Rochambeau (ro'shanHbo'), J. B. D. de v.. Count, 152 Rocky Mountains, 93, 227-228, 230 Roebuck (ro'buk), John, 278 Roman Empire, 2-3 Romans, 2, 3, 13 Roosevelt (r6'z§-velt) , Theodore, 524-526, 527, 530, 531, 533, 534, 557, 560, 565, 666, 598 portrait of, 524 Rosecrans (ro'ze-kranz) , General William S., 420, 426 portrait of, 426 Roumania (roo-ma'nl-a) , 574, 576 Rumsey (rum'zl). James, 280 Russia (rush'd), 233-234. 251, 252, 468, 563, 564, 573, 574, 575, 585 Rutledge (rut'iej), John, 123, 165 Safety first, 533 St. Clair {klar'). General Arthur, 189-190 Saint-Gaudens (sant go'denz), Augustus, 539 St. Ignace (en'yds'), 91 St. Lawrence. Gulf of (16'rens), 87, 99 St. Lawrence River, 89, 93, 99, 105 St. Leger (sant-16j'er). General, 142, 143 St. Louis (loo'Is), 227, 311 St. Mary's (ma'riz), 23 St. Mihiel (san'me'yei'), battle of, 587-588 Sabbath keeping, 84 Sacramento Valley (sak'rd-mSn'to) , 373 Salem (sa'lem), 27, 68, 78 Salvation Army, 591 San Diego (san de-a'go), 363 Salt Lake City, 33.5-336 Samoan Islands (sa-mo'5n), 563 Sampson (samp'sun). Admiral, 559 San Francisco (san fran-sls'ko) , 2, 363. 373 Sanitary Commission, 437 San Jacinto (san jd-sln'to), battle of, 359 San Juan Hill (hwan), 560 San Martin (mar'tin), 251 Santa Anna (san'ta a'na), Antonio Lopez de, 358 Santiago (san't6-a'go) , battles of, 559-560 Santo Domingo (san'to do-mln'go), 223- 224, 5.57 Saratoga (sar'd-to'gd), battles at, 143 Sargent (sar'jent), John S., 539 Sault Ste. Marie (soo" sant ma'ri). 90 Savannah (sd-van'd), Georgia (j6r'JI-d), 33, 149, 151, 153, 429 Savannah, the. 281 Saybrook (sa'brook), 29 "Scalawais", 457 Scandinavians (skan'dl-na'vl-anz), 544, 547 Schoolbooks, of the colonists, 81 Schoolhouses. in the colonies. 80 Schools, in the colonies. 78-82 on the frontier, 307-308 Schuyler (ski'ler), Philip, 1.53 Schuylers. 63 Schuylkill River (skool'kfl), 142 Scotch (skoch), 34, 64, 65 Scotch-Irish, 37, 64-65, 66, 79, 83, 108, 194, 542 Scotland (skot'land), 35. 62, 65 Scott (skot). General Winfleld, 366-367, 381-382 Secession, 404^05 Second Day Adventists, 335 Seminoles (sem'I-nolz) , 332 Senate, 166. 169-170. 172, 174 Senecas (sen'e-kaz), 46 Separatists, 24-25 Serapis (.se-ra'pis) , the, 148 Serbia (sOr'bl-d), 573, 576 Servants, indentured, 51 Sevier (se-ve-'), John, 180, 182, 189 Seward (sQ'erd), WilUam H., 354, 378, 380. 394, 403, 446, 467 Sewing machine, 386-387 Seymour (se'mor), Horatio, 464 Shafter (shaf'ter). General William R., 560 Shannon (shan'un), 245 .'^haw (sh3i, Anna Howard, 528, 539 Shawnees (sho-nes'), 46, 180 Shays' RebelUon (shayz), 163 Shenandoah (shen'an-do'd), 44 Sheridan (shSr'I-dan), General Philip Henry, 430-431, 467 Sherman Act (shdr'm n;, 516, 531 Sherman, Roger, 165 .Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 519 Sherman, General W. T., 369, 426, 427, 428 marching through Georgia, 428-429 portrait of. 427 Shiloh (shi'16). battle of. 417-418 Sickles (stk'lz). General Daniel E., 423 Silver, free coinage of, 517-521 Sioux (soo). 500-501 Sitting Bull. 501 ■Slater (sla'ter). Samuel, 275 Slave life, 340-346 Slave owners, 340-341 Slavery, 51, 337-3.54 introduced in Virginia, 22 causes differences in the Constitutional Convention, 166-167 INDEX 635 early history of, 337-338 life in tlie slaveholding states, 340-34G in Congress, 350-351 becomes the question of the hour, 351- 354 controversy over, 374-376 the quarrel over renewed, 390-391 the end of, 443-445 Slaves, 13, 51, 340-344. 439-440 Slave trade, 167, 338 Slidell (sli-del'). John, 365, 410 Smith (smith). Captain John, 20-21, 63 Smith, Joseph, 335-336 Socialists, 530 Sons of Liberty, 113 South, life in the, 259-260, 267 solid, 460 the growth of a new, 460-463 South America (d-mer'I-kd) , 8-9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 234 South CaroUna (ka'rS-li'nd) , 33, 46, 51, 52, 63, 125, 149, 150, 188, 404, 458, 462, 466 South Dakota (dd-ko'td), 497, 502 Spain (span), 4, 10, 38, 87, 105, 149, 152, 199, 222, 252, 466 rivalry with England, 15-18 sells Florida to United States, 251 at war with United States, 556-557 Spaniards, 9, 557-560 win an empire in the New World, 9-12 control the Mississippi, 199 Spanish Armada (ar-ma'dd), 17-18, 87 results of its defeat, 18 Spanish War, 557-560 Speaker of the House, 170 Specie circular, 328 Specie payment, 442 Spoils system, 321-323, 464, 526-527 Spottsylvania Court House (sp6t"sll-va'- nl-d), battle of, 430 Stamp Act, 111-113 resistance to, 113 repeal of, 113 Standard Oil Company, 509 Stanton (stan'tun), Edwin M., 446, 448, 457 Stark (stark). John, 129, 143. 153 "Star-Spangled Banner", the, 247 States, first governments in, 157-158 selfishness of, 163 ratify the Constitution, 167-169 powers forbidden to, 171 Steamboats, 279-281 Steam engine, 275-277 Steel, 473-474 Stephens (ste'venz), Alexander H., 404. 405 Stephenson (ste'vgn-sfin). George. 287 Steuben (stu'b^n), Frederick William, Baron von, 144 Stevens (ste'vSnz), Thaddeus, 453 portrait of, 453 Stony Point, 145 Stowe (sto), Harriet Beecher, 383 Strikes, 511-512 Stuart (stu'Srt), Gilbert, 269 Stuyvesant (sti'v6-s&nt), Peter, 31, 34 Sugar Trust, .509 Sullivan (sul'I-vin), General John, 145, 1.53, 181 Sumner (sum'ngr), Charles, 393, 394, 4.53 porti ait of, 453 Sunday scliools, 267, 335 Superstition, 67-68 Supreme Court, 172. 198 .Sussex (sus'fiks). 578 Sutter (sut'er). Captain John A., 369 Sweden (swe'den). 62 Swedes, 31, 42, 63, 65-66, 542 Swiss (swis), 297 Syrians (slr'l-&nz), 546 T Taft (taft), William H.. 525, 526, 527, 530, 531 portrait of, 525 Talleyrand (tai'I-rand). Prince Charles Maurice, 213, 214 Tariff, 198, 281-283, 323-324 of 1789, 198 of 1816, 283 of 1824, 283 Of 1828, 283 of 1832, 326 compromise, 1833, 326 differing opinions on, 512-513 during the Civil War, 512 Cleveland and the. 513-514 McKinley Act. 514 Wilson Act. 514 Dingley Act, 522 Payne-Aldrich Act, 522 Underwood Act, 531 Tarleton (tiirl'tfln) , Colonel Sir Banastre, 151 Taxation, without representation, 110-111 second British attempt to tax, 113-117 the tea tax, 119-120 in Washington's administration, 198- 199 during the Civil War, 441, 443 Taylor (ta'ler), General Zachary, 365-366, 375, 380 portrait of, 376 Tecumseh (tS-kum'sS), 239, 243 Telegraph, 289 Tennessee Mn'ese'). 177, 179-180, 188, 189, 190, 224. 296, 299, 308, 408, 462, 488 Tennessee River, 182. 298-299 Tenure of Office Act, 456 Teutons (tu'tfins), 3-4 Texas (tSk'sds). 93, 229, 251, 356-362, 368, 380, 404, 416, 461, 462, 474. 488, 494 Thames (t6mz), battle of, 242 Thomas (tOm'ds). General George H.. 426, 427. 428 portrait of. 426 Ticonderoga (ti-k6n'd6r-6'gd). 100, 103, 132, 142 Tilden (tll'dSn), Samuel J., 466 Tippecanoe (tlp'S-kd-noJi'}, battle of, 239 Tobacco, 17, 22. .50, 51 Toleration, 25, 27-28, 270 in Maryland, 24 lack of In the colonies, 86 in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, 86 Tools, of the colonLsts, 50-51 Toombs (tclOmz), Robert, 376 Tories, see lyoyalLsts Toussaint LOuverture (t00'86b'155'v6r'- tUr'), 223-224 Townshend Acts (toun'z5nd), 113-114 Townshend, Charli*. 114 Township, In New England. 53 in the West. 180-187. 307 636 INDEX Trade, colonial, 52 down the Mississippi, 221-223 suffers at the hands of England and France, 234-235 in the early republic, 263-264 Trafalgar (traf'al-gar'). 233 Transportation, early, 264-266, 387-389 early Western, 492 Travel, in the colonies, 77-78 in the early republic, 256. 264-266 Travis (trav'is). Colonel, 358 Treaty, of Utrecht, 98-99 of Paris. 1763, 105, 109 of Alliance with France, 146 of Paris, 1783. 152-153 Jay's, 208 with France (1800), 214 Pinckney's, 222 of Ghent, 248 Webster-Ashburton, 356 of peace with Mexico. 367 of Washington, 468 of peace with Spain, 5G0 of peace in 1919. 592-593 Trent Affair (trgnt), 410 Trenton (tren'tfln), 196 Trenton, battle of, 141 Trumbull (trum'bfll), John, 269 Trusts, 509-511, 523, 525, 529-531 Turkey (tQr'kl), 573 Turks (turks), 5, 331, 588 Turner (tQr'ner), Nat, 347 Turnpikes, 265, 283-286 Tuskegee (tus-ke'gS), Alabama, 463, 549 Tutuila (too"to5-e'la) , 563 Tweed (twed), William M., "Boss", 405 Tyler (tl'ler), John. 330, 355-356, 359, 362 U Uncle Tom's Cabin, 383 Underground Railroad, 375. 382-383 Union, growth of, 121-125 early attempts at, 122 Union Pacific Railroad, 451 United Garment Workers, 552 United Mine Workers, 552 United States, 1-2, 18. 54, 62, 87. 105. 109, 230. 244 in the World War, 573-594 Utah (u'to), 336, 368, 380, 502, 528 Utrecht (u'trSkt). Treaty of, 98-99 Valley Forge, 142 the camp at, 143-144 Van Buren (van bu'rSn), Martin, 329-330. 361, 362, 375 Van Rensselaers (vS-n r6n'se-15rs) , 63 Vasco da Gama (da ga'ma), 6 Venezuela (ven"e-zwe'ld), 556, 557 Venice (vSn'Is), 5 Vera Cruz (va'riL kroos'). 367. 570 Verdun (v^r'dun'). 575 Vermont (ver-m6nt')> 188. 308 Verrazano (vgr'rat-sii'no), 87 Vespucius, Americus, Vespucci (v6s-poo'- che), Amerigo (ii'ma-re'go), 9 Vice President. 170 Vicksburg (viks'barg), 310. 419. 420, 421 Villa (vel'la), Francisco. 572 Vincennes (vln's6nz). 177, 182, 183 Virginia (ver-jin'l-d), 17. 37, 42. 43, 44, 49. 51, 52, 63, 72, 86, 100. 120, 129, 130. 134, 104, 166, 177, 181. 184-185. 188, 189, 190 settled by the English, 20-23 tobacco in, 22 unfree labor in, 22 growth of government in, 22-23 Indian wars in, 48 schools in, 79-80 protests against Stamp Act, 110-111 appoints committee of correspondence, 123 revolutionary fighting in. 151-152 ratifies the Constitution. 169 resolutions, 215 secedes, 408 Virginians^ 62, 83, 100 Viviani (ve-vya-ne'), Rene, 580 W Wales (walz), 62 War of 1812. causes, 233-240 campaigns, 240-248 navy in, 242, 243-247 results of, 248-249, 275, 281-282, 312 "War Hawks ', 237-240 Washington (wosh'Ing-tun) , Booker T.. 548 Washington, City of, 247 Washington, George, 100, 101, 102, lOG, 123, 130, 164, 165, 196, 262, 214, 219, 254, 555 takes Boston, 132 campaign in New York, 138-140 campaign in New Jersey, 140-141 in the campaign for Philadelphia, 141- 142 at VaUey Forge, 142-143 in the closing years of the Revolution, 145 at Yorktown, 151-152 character of, 153, 211-212 in the Constitutional Convention, 166 administration of, 196-210 Farewell Address of, 210-211 Washington, State of. 250. 363, 368, 498, 502 Wasp, 244 Watauga Settlement (wd-to'gd), 180 Watt (w6t), James 276-277 Wayne (wan). General ("Mad") Anthony, 145. 153. 190 portrait of, 189 Webster's "Spelling Book",(w6b'ster), 267 Webster, Daniel, 316, 317, 321, 324-325, 356, 359, 378, 379-380, 405 portrait of, 321 Welsh (welsh), 65 Wesley (wes'll), John, 83 West, pioneers, of, 260 rise of the Middle, 296-315 reasons for rapid growth of, 296-297 geography of settlement in, 298-301 journey to, 301, 304 pioneer life in. 304-30S rising cities in, 309-312 influence of, 312-314 West. Benjamin, 269, 280 West India Company (In'dl-d), 30, 31 West Indies (In'diz), 13, 15, 52, 53, 59. 118, 206, 234 West Point. 145 1 3 INDEX 637 West Virginia (ver-jln'l-o^ « H *