Class __£Llzi. 
 
 Book. ' Ij 41 
 
 GopghtN" 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
L. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
ESSENTIALS OF 
 
 AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 P.V 
 
 THOMAS BONAVENTURE LAWLER, A.M. 
 
 " Let us raise a standard to which 
 the wise and the honest can repair; 
 the event is in the hand of God." 
 
 '. ^i ^;: 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 GINN & C OMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 
 d)c .3ltl)cnarum \}vtS6 
 
 1902 
 
TNT'LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 T'»n Cciptts Recsived 
 
 AUG. 21 1902 
 
 S'^~~-»IGHT ENTPY 
 _ Ct/XXc No. 
 
 3> ^ ^ ( « 
 
 CO^Y 8. 
 
 Copyright, 1902, bv 
 TH(3MAS BONAVENTURE LAWLER 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This work has been prepared to give as thorough 
 a knowledge of the poHtical, industrial, and territorial 
 development of our country as the limits of a text-book 
 would allow. It endeavors to show the part played 
 by all the elements, racial and religious, that have 
 made contributions to American history. The author 
 purposed to hold the scales evenly balanced on all 
 questions and to appreciate the true motives which 
 inspired the actions of our national leaders. 
 
 For many valuable suggestions, the Reverend Louis 
 S. Walsh, D.C.L., of Boston, Mass., has the heartiest 
 thanks of the author. He is under especial obligation 
 to Professor Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale Univer- 
 sity ; every chapter of the book has been enriched by his 
 scholarly suggestions and criticisms. 
 
 T. B. L. 
 
 New York Crrv, 
 July 14, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CuAiiKK Page 
 
 I. The Great Xavigaioks i 
 
 II. The Explorers 21 
 
 III. The Karlv Missionaries 37 
 
 IV. The Indians 44 
 
 y. Permanent Colonial Settlements .... 50 
 
 Yl. French Explorations loi 
 
 VII. The Wars of the English and the French 
 
 IN America 108 
 
 VIII. Life in the Colonies in 1763 122 
 
 IX. The Period of the Revolution 130 
 
 X. Physical Features of the United States . 181 
 
 XI. The Period of Union 185 
 
 XII. The Period of Disunion 290 
 
 XIII. The Period of Reunion 327 
 
 XI\'. The Period of Industrial Development . . 346 
 
ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN 
 HISTORY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 
 
 1. The Voyages of the Northmen. — The first Europeans 
 to visit North America were the Northmen, or Norse- 
 men, who were so named because they Hved in the 
 north of Europe. Some of these daring sailors, without 
 a compass and trusting to the stars, cruised along the 
 coasts of Europe, entered the Mediterranean, and pushed 
 as far east as Constantinople ; others sailed westward to 
 Iceland, where they established prosperous settlements 
 as early as a.d. 874. Trading was carried on between 
 these colonies and the continent of Europe. About a 
 century later villages were built along the coast of Green- 
 land, which the Northmen had in the meantime dis- 
 covered. While these settlements were being made, 
 missionaries had converted the people of Norway to 
 Christianity.^ Among the converts was Leif Ericson, 
 
 1 About 1 1 12 Eric Gnupsson was appointed Bishop of Greenland 
 and Vinland. For three hundred years the Church was maintained in 
 this country with a regular succession of Bishops, but disasters befell 
 the people ; the settlements were attacked repeatedly, and finally 
 destroyed by Eskimos ; the churches fell into decay, and at last all 
 traces of Greenland passed from the knowledge of Europe. 
 
 I 
 
2 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 who had come from Greenland to Norway on a brief 
 visit. On returning home he took priests with him, 
 and Iceland and Greenland were soon converted to 
 Christianity. 
 
 2. Leif Ericson discovers Vinland, A.D. looo. — The 
 Norse spirit of adventure was not yet satisfied. Prob- 
 ably about the year lOOO Leif Ericson resolved to 
 go westward in search of a land of which he had 
 heard from Norse navigators. With thirty-five men he 
 sailed to the west and reached an unknown land, beau- 
 tiful and thickly wooded. Cruising along the coast he 
 cast anchor in a favorable bay and, landing, called the 
 country Vinland from the large quantity of grapes found 
 there. Loading his vessel with lumber, he returned 
 home. The exact site of his landing will probably never 
 be known. ^ 
 
 It is probable that two other voyages were made to 
 the shores of Vinland, but at length these journeys 
 ceased. The explorations of the Northmen produced 
 no lasting effect, as no colonies were founded and 
 Vinland was soon forgotten. 
 
 3. Europe in the Fifteenth Century. — The latter half 
 of the fifteenth century is a period of the greatest impor- 
 tance in the world's history. France, which had been 
 waging war with England for one hundred years, was 
 now at the beginning of a stronger and nobler national 
 
 1 Leif Ericson is supposed to have landed in the vicinity of Narra- 
 gansett bay, but there is nothing to prove that this is true. For a time 
 it was thought that the old mill at Newport was built by the Northmen, 
 but it was proved to be merely a stone windmill built by Governor 
 Arnold in Revolutionary times. 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 3 
 
 life. Spain by her victories over the Moors enjoyed 
 the first place among European nations.^ With their 
 strong royal power established, the kings of Spain and 
 of France were now ready to embark in enterprises 
 beyond the limits of their kingdoms. 
 
 4, Need of a New Route to the Indies. — The trade of 
 Europe was largely with the East, and was in the hands 
 of two Italian city republics, Genoa and Venice. This 
 trade was especially valuable, as the East supplied 
 Europe with dyestuffs, shawls, spices, precious stones, 
 ivory, and silks. The Genoese sailed to Constantinople, 
 whence their vessels crossed the Black sea and met the 
 caravans that came overland from the East or up the 
 valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Venetians 
 controlled the southern route, with Alexandria as the 
 chief port. This route through the Red sea and the 
 Indian ocean was almost entirely by water. 
 
 The wealth of this trade was so great that the two 
 republics waged, during two hundred years, bitter war- 
 fare for the supremacy of the sea. In 1453 a great dis- 
 aster occurred in the East. A barbaric Tartar tribe 
 called the Turks, who had overrun Asia Minor for two 
 hundred years and for a century had been intrenched in 
 eastern Europe, appeared before the walls of Constanti- 
 nople. They besieged the mighty city with two hun- 
 dred thousand men, and it fell after a short resistance. 
 The cross, the emblem of Christianity, on the Church 
 
 1 Printing had recently been invented, but books were still costly. 
 The mariner's compass and other instruments for navigation were just 
 coming into use. 
 
ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 of St. Sophia was replaced by the crescent, the emblem 
 of Mohammedanism, and it remains to this day. Thus the 
 gateway to the Black sea was in the hands of the barbaric 
 Turks; the route of the Genoese traders was closed, and 
 
 SOUTHERN ROUTE 
 
 MIDDLE ROUTE ++ + + + 
 
 NORTHERN ROUTE 
 
 Routes of Trade between India and Cities of Southern Europe 
 
 commerce by the Venetian route was made even more 
 difficult by the levy of excessive transit dues in Egypt. 
 
 5. Knowledge of the East ; the Franciscans and Marco 
 Polo. — Men now sought anxiously a new route to the 
 Indies, but their knowledge of the East was very vague. 
 While the merchants of Genoa and Venice had been 
 pushing their trade into Asia they had learned a little 
 of the geography of these lands, and travelers had told 
 of their wonderful experiences in the far East. In the 
 middle of the thirteenth century Franciscan monks had 
 visited the great khan, or emperor, of China and had 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 5 
 
 seen the great ocean that formed, they declared, the 
 eastern boundary of Asia. 
 
 In 1295, Marco Polo, a Venetian, returned to his native 
 city after an absence of twenty-four years. He had spent 
 these long years in traveling in the East, going over- 
 land through Asia to farthest China, where he lived for 
 seventeen years at the court of the great khan. He 
 returned by water to the Persian gulf and then overland 
 to his native city. When he arrived no one knew him 
 after so many years. His clothes were ragged and worn. 
 Presently he drew forth precious stones and gold of great 
 value and related the story of his wonderful exploits. He 
 described India, China, the island of Cipango, or Japan, 
 and told of the marvelous riches of the East. This 
 narrative gradually became known and began in the fif- 
 teenth century to exert a wide influence in awakening 
 the desire of men to reach this golden land. Many plans 
 were proposed, but none were successful until the great 
 discoverer Christopher Columbus announced his belief 
 in a westward route to the Indies. 
 
 6. Christopher Columbus ; his Visit to Portugal. — In 
 the fair city of Genoa, Christopher Columbus, the discov- 
 erer of the New World, was born. At this time Genoa 
 was the center of seafaring life. Her merchant vessels 
 were on every ocean, and her men-of-war were constantly 
 engaged in fighting Turks and pirates. Columbus was 
 the son of an humble weaver and in the midst of the 
 sailor life around him developed an earnest love of the sea. 
 It is said, upon rather doubtful authority however, that 
 he attended the University of Padua for two years, in 
 
ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 which time he became well versed in Latin, geography, 
 astronomy, mathematics, and drawing. At fourteen 
 years of age he became a sailor. For twenty-three years 
 
 CPr.STOFOP.O COiOMJ^Os 
 
 ?/- K,.Ai yjAi 
 
 HC^^-^ I D Y1 
 
 f. 
 
 ./-"^■y-iv^ - .^^-. • 
 
 Christopher Columbus 
 
 he lived the perilous life of the mariner, at times fight- 
 ing the pirates that overran the Mediterranean, at times 
 battling with the Turks. About 1473 he reached Lisbon 
 in Portugal, at that time the chief center of the spirit 
 of discovery and adventure in Europe. The navigators 
 and explorers here told of their wonderful journeys; the 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 7 
 
 State spent large sums of money in spreading geograph- 
 ical knowledge, and the science of navigation absorbed 
 the minds of the citizens in their endeavors to find a new 
 and shorter route to the Indies. Columbus suggested a 
 solution of the problem. ^ 
 
 7. Columbus proposes to sail West. — The world is 
 round like a ball, he said, and by sailing directly west you 
 can easily reach the East Indies. The common people 
 believed the earth to be flat, but astronomers and learned 
 men knew it was round. They had watched the vessels 
 sink beneath the horizon ; they had seen the shadow 
 of the earth in the eclipse of the moon, and they knew 
 that the old Grecian philosophers and astronomers had 
 declared the world to be round. Columbus studied the 
 subject deeply and read what books he could get. He 
 had often heard that wonderful, strange things had been 
 washed ashore on the Cape Verde islands and other 
 places by the waves of the Atlantic, — pieces of carved 
 wood, huge trunks of pine trees, gigantic reeds, and espe- 
 cially the bodies of two strange copper- colored men. 
 
 8. Motives of Columbus ; he leaves Portugal and seeks 
 the Aid of Spain. — Columbus was a man of deeply 
 
 1 While in Lisbon, Columbus had earned a living by making maps 
 and charts. In 1474 he wrote to a great Florentine geographer, 
 Dr. Paolo Toscanelli, for a map which he had made, showing the route 
 to Asia and Japan. This map was based on one made in 1459 by Fra 
 Mauro, an eminent Italian monk and geographer, which may be seen to 
 this day in the Doge's Palace in Venice. Toscanelli sent the desired 
 map to him with letters of explanation. This map would have been 
 .singularly correct had not the continent of America been directly in the 
 way. Columbus used this map on his journey. In 187 1 the Inter- 
 national Geographical Congress in Antwerp gave Toscanelli the title of 
 " Inspirer of the Discovery of America." 
 
8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 religious nature. He had made profound studies in 
 the sciences, but the leading motive of his life was the 
 hope of seeing the Catholic religion believed by all the 
 peoples of the world. He desired to spread the truths 
 of the Gospel among the heathen nations and to plant 
 the cross in distant lands.^ 
 
 In 1 48 1 John n ascended the throne of Portugal and 
 Columbus unfolded to him his plans. The king referred 
 them to a learned council of his court, but they were 
 rejected. 
 
 In despair Columbus now left Portugal. It is thought 
 he visited Genoa and Venice, and finally started for Spain 
 to seek the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella. In i486 he 
 arrived at the royal court in Cordova. At this time 
 Spain was preparing for the battles against the Moors, 
 and the preparations for the war and the excitement of 
 the times delayed his reception by the king and queen. 
 Finally he was invited to appear before them and to 
 unfold his wondrous plans for the new route to Asia. 
 The Spanish sovereigns called a council of learned men 
 at the University of Salamanca to examine the charts 
 and plans. They rejected the scheme as visionary. At 
 length in 1491, five years after his arrival, Columbus 
 resolved to leave Spain ^ and seek the aid of France. 
 
 1 " He freely asserted his conviction," says Tarducci, '^ that he had 
 been chosen by God from his earliest years to carry out two great 
 undertakings: the discovery of a westward route to the Indies and, as a 
 crusader, to recover the Holy Sepulchre from the Turks." 
 
 2 So well known was Columbus that the boys ran after him in the 
 streets and called him a madman. 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 9 
 
 With his son, Diego,^ he started heartbroken on his 
 dreary journey. 
 
 9. Secures the Aid of Queen Isabella. — A short dis- 
 tance from Palos^ he saw the Franciscan monastery of La 
 Rabida.^ Foot-sore and hungry he asked for aid and had 
 the good fortune to meet the prior, Father Juan Perez,'* 
 who had been the confessor of Queen Isabella. Father 
 Perez listened eagerly to the story of Columbus and 
 believed in his projects. He visited the queen at once, 
 and, returning, asked Columbus to go with him to the 
 court. They set out together and soon reached Granada, 
 when a new council was called. In this council sat the 
 confessors of the royal household Talavera^ and the great 
 Dominican Deza,^ for twenty years the faithful friend 
 and protector of Columbus, the Archbishop of Toledo, 
 and many others, all of whom actively favored the enter- 
 prise. But the terms demanded '^ by Columbus were 
 considered too great and in despair he left Granada. 
 Father Santangel,^ however, hastened to Queen Isabella 
 and persuaded her to agree to the terms of Columbus, 
 A messenger was sent on a fleet horse, and Columbus was 
 recalled. The queen granted his demands, offering, if 
 
 1 Diego (Dee-ay'go). ^ Juan Perez (Whan Pay'raith). 
 
 2 Palos (Pah'loce). ^ Talavera (Tah-lah-vay'rah). 
 
 3 La Rabida (Lah Rah'bee-dah). ^ Deza (Dey'thah). 
 
 ' In return for the services he would render, Columbus demanded 
 to be made admiral of the ocean, and governor of the islands and 
 lands he would discover and to receive one tenth of the pearls, gold, 
 precious stones, and other valuables found. Columbus vowed to 
 devote this treasure to the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher from the 
 Turks. ^ Santangel (Sahnt-ahn'hell). 
 
lO ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 it were necessary, to sell her crown jewels to secure 
 sufficient money for the voyage.^ 
 
 10. The Great Voyage. — Many difficulties still beset 
 the daring navigator. Sailors were afraid to cross 
 unknown seas, a distance of two thousand five hundred 
 miles,^ as Columbus believed, inhabited, they had been 
 informed, by fearful monsters. After great efforts he 
 gathered ninety men for his three small vessels, which 
 he called the Pinta, the Santa Maria^ and the Nina. «. 
 On the third of August, 1492, all was ready for the 
 great journey. At sunrise, while the whole population 
 crowded the shore, Columbus received the final blessing 
 of his devoted friend, the prior of La Rabida, hoisted 
 sail, and with his three little vessels went forth on 
 perhaps the most momentous journey of history. 
 
 The first point reached was the Canary islands, where 
 they were delayed three weeks for repairs. On the 
 sixth of September, 1492, they sailed directly westward, 
 and the terrified sailors saw the land disappear behind 
 them and the unknown waste of waters around them on 
 every side. New terrors constantly arose. They feared 
 they might meet the monsters said to inhabit these 
 
 1 Washington Irving declares Isabella to be one of the purest and 
 most beautiful characters in the pages of history. 
 
 2 It is indeed fortunate that Columbus did not know how far away 
 India really was. Had he known it was ten thousand miles distant, it 
 would probably have been impossible to secure ships and men even if 
 he himself had had the courage to face such a journey. 
 
 ^ The Santa Maria (Mah-ree'ah) was a single-decked vessel and was 
 commanded by Columbus. Neither the Pinta (Peen'tah) nor the 
 AHna (Neen'yah) was decked amidships. They were commanded by 
 the Pinzon brothers. 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 1 1 
 
 regions; they believed if the world were round they 
 could not sail up its sides again. Columbus had to 
 cheer their spirits,^ overcome their fears, and rule with 
 a firm hand the crews, daily becoming mutinous.^ Day 
 after day they sailed westward, borne onward by the 
 strong trade winds and the ocean currents. Fortunately 
 after about four weeks they saw signs, indicating that 
 land must be near, and on the evening of Oct. 1 1, 1492, 
 Columbus saw a moving light in the distance. On the 
 following morning the welcome cry, " Land ! " arose. A 
 new world had been discovered. 
 
 11. The Landing of Columbus, Oct. 12, 1492. — Hold- 
 ing in his hand the banner of Spain, Columbus landed on 
 the shore and took possession in the name of the Spanish 
 sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella. He called the land 
 San Salvador (Holy Redeemer).^ It was one of the 
 islands called the Bahamas, but the exact island will 
 
 1 The story that Columbus promised to turn back if land were not 
 found in three days is not in keeping with the resoluteness of Colum- 
 bus' character and is not generally believed by historical students. 
 
 2 On October 7, Pinzon, noticing a flock of birds flying to the south- 
 west, believed these l)irds were headed toward land and urged Columbus 
 to change his course in that direction. He finally consented. It is 
 probable, had he not made this change, he would have drifted with the 
 Gulf Stream northward and sighted the stormy coasts of the Carolinas 
 instead of the Bahamas. By making this change in his course he had 
 only five hundred miles to travel before land would be sighted ; had he 
 continued on a straight course, at least seven hundred miles would have 
 had to be covered and dire results might have arisen from mutiny and 
 other causes. 
 
 3 To the first island I discovered, I gave the name of San Salvador, 
 in commemoration of His Divine Majesty, who has wonderfully granted 
 all this. — Lette?- of Colutnbiis. 
 
12 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 probably never be known. The natives were unlike any 
 people he had ever seen. Believing he had reached the 
 East Indies, he called the natives Indians. He now 
 sailed southward and quickly reached the large island of 
 Cuba, and the island of Haiti, which he named His- 
 paniola. Here his best vessel, the Sa7tta Maria, was 
 wrecked. Desiring to return to Spain, he built here a 
 fort from the timbers of his wrecked vessel and, leaving 
 a small colony of forty men, sailed on his homeward 
 journey. 
 
 12. Return of Columbus. — Columbus reached Palos on 
 the 15th of March, 1493. The fame of his wonderful 
 discoveries spread like wildfire. He was summoned 
 to Barcelona to the presence of the king and queen and 
 was received in triumph. He presented to them some 
 of the wonders of the New World, — gold, birds, beasts, 
 plants, and a few Indians whom he had brought back 
 with him. A solemn Mass and Te Deum were sung in 
 thanksgiving for his great achievements, and the king 
 and queen fell on their knees in homage to God for 
 the benefits granted to their kingdom. On Columbus 
 were showered most signal honors. He was appointed 
 admiral, the king's viceroy in the New World, and was 
 to receive one tenth of all the gold and precious stones 
 found in the new possessions. ^ 
 
 13. Later Voyages of Columbus. — In September, 1 493 , 
 only seven months after his return, he set out once more 
 across the western seas. Those who had scoffed at 
 his first voyage now sought to accompany him on his 
 second journey. He founded a colony on the present 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 13 
 
 island of Haiti and discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico, and 
 the islands of the Caribbean sea.^ In the following year 
 he made a third voyage, discovering the island of Trinidad 
 and the Orinoco river. His efforts to find a way into 
 the Indian ocean had been unsuccessful. The popular 
 discontent at the failure to find gold^ increased daily, 
 and the cost of the voyages was so great that the court 
 lost interest in him.-'^ 
 
 He made one more attempt. In 1502 he sailed west- 
 ward, visiting Honduras and the isthmus of Panama. 
 He died broken-hearted, in neglect, on May 20, 1506. 
 To the hour of his death he believed he had reached 
 Asia by the best and most direct route. He never 
 knew he had given to mankind a new world. 
 
 14. John Cabot's Voyage. — In the meantime the dis- 
 coveries of Columbus stirred other adventurous spirits. 
 
 1 The unfortunate natives, by a system of slavery, were kept by the 
 Spaniards in the mines at hard labor until they perished by thousands. 
 Bartolome de Las Casas, the noble Dominican, with all his power tried 
 to better the condition -of the natives. In this noble work he was 
 assisted by Father Antonio Montesino, another Dominican. The names 
 of Las Casas and Montesino will ever be remembered by those whose 
 hearts beat for a suffering humanity. 
 
 2 When Columbus touched at Santo Domingo he was arrested on 
 false charges by the Spanish governor and, being placed in chains, was 
 sent to Spain. The captain of the ship desired to remove them; but 
 Columbus refused, and he wore them till he reached the court, where 
 Isabella cordially received the old admiral and with tears in her eyes 
 ordered the removal of the chains. Full justice was not done him, 
 however, as he never again obtained the powers granted in his contract. 
 
 3 The Portuguese had been trying for many years to find a water 
 route to India by sailing around Africa. At last Vasco da Gama doubled 
 the cape of Good Hope and in 1498 reached India. As a result of this 
 discovery, popular interest was lost in the achievements of Columbus. 
 
14 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 There resided in England an Italian, John Cabot ^ by 
 name, who was commissioned by Henry VII, king of 
 England, to seek a northern route for the spice trade. 
 Cabot sailed from Bristol May, 1497, in a single vessel 
 and discovered the continent of America, probably on 
 the coast of Labrador, June 24. Believing he had dis- 
 covered Asia, he landed and, erecting a large cross 
 bearing aloft the flag of England, he claimed the entire 
 country in behalf of the king of England. A year 
 later, April, 1498, with his son Sebastian Cabot, he 
 returned and explored the coast as far south as perhaps 
 Cape Hatteras.2 These voyages are most important, as 
 they gave England a claim to the Atlantic seaboard and 
 the right to colonize North America, although one 
 hundred years were allowed to pass before a permanent 
 settlement was made. 
 
 15. Division of the World. — After the return of Colum- 
 bus from his great voyage Spain and Portugal began to 
 disagree as to the ownership of lands yet to be discov- 
 ered. The matter was referred to His Holiness Pope 
 Alexander VI by the sovereigns of the nations. To 
 settle the conflicting claims, the Pope finally divided 
 the world ^ by a meridian line drawn very nearly 
 
 1 Cabot (Cab'ot). His name in Italian was Caboto-. 
 
 - On his return Cabot was called the " Great Admiral " and was 
 dressed in beautiful silks. For giving him the title to North America, 
 the king presented him with fifty dollars and a pension, to be paid for, 
 however, by the port of Bristol. 
 
 2 At first this imaginary line was drawn from pole to pole one hun- 
 dred leagues west of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands, but King 
 John of Portugal was dissatisfied. In 1494 the line was drawn three 
 hundred and seventy leagues from the Cape Verde islands. This 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 15 
 
 midway through the Atlantic. He gave to Portugal all 
 pagan lands discovered by the Portuguese east of this 
 line, and to Spain all pagan lands west of it.^ 
 
 16. The Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India ; Cabral's 
 Journey. — Only five years after the discovery of Amer- 
 ica the Portuguese at last found their long-coveted route 
 around Africa. In 1497 the great captain Vasco da 
 Gama, starting from Lisbon, sailed around the cape of 
 Good Hope and reached India. In 1499 he returned 
 in triumph with his vessels laden with the spices, 
 silks, bronzes, ivory, and precious stones of the East. 
 Da Gama had found the sea route which Columbus had 
 sought in vain. This discovery turned the attention of 
 European navigators to the new route, and for some 
 years no further voyages were made to North America. 
 
 Within a few months, however, in 1499, a Portuguese 
 navigator, Cabral,^ sailed with a fleet of thirteen ships 
 for India. He put out boldly to sea and drifted so far 
 
 change later gave Portugal title to a part of the South American conti- 
 nent. "As between the Christian nations, the Sovereign Pontiff was 
 the supreme arbiter of conflicting claims ; hence the famous bull issued 
 by Pope Alexander \T in 1493." — Wheatun's Elements of Inter- 
 natioual Law, Vol. II, Chap. IV. 
 
 At thistime practically the entire Christian world was in communion 
 with the See of Rome, and all the early great discoverers — Columbus, 
 Cabot, Vespucius, Da Gama, Magellan, Cabral, and Balboa — were 
 Catholics. 
 
 1 Franciscan missionaries came with Columbus to the New World. 
 From time to time their numbers were increased, until they had preached 
 the Gospel from Florida to the Pacific and from the Colorado to Pata- 
 gonia. In the Antilles, in our southwest, in Mexico, Peru, Chili, Para- 
 guay, and Argentina their monasteries were the center whence civilization 
 and religion flowed to the native tribes. - Cabral (Cah-brahF). 
 
l6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 from the African coast that, to his amazement, he saw- 
 land to the west one April morning in the year 1500. 
 It was that part of the coast of South America now 
 called Brazil. If it were east of the Line of Demarca- 
 tion, it belonged to Portugal. He soon discovered that 
 it was east, and sent a vessel back to Lisbon with the 
 news of his good fortune. 
 
 17. Americus Vespucius. — The king of Portugal acted 
 promptly. He fitted out a fleet of three ships and gave 
 the command of it to a Florentine merchant and trav- 
 eler, Americus Vespucius.^ In May, 1501, the fleet 
 sailed westward from Lisbon, sighting South America 
 at cape St. Roque in Brazil. They skirted the coast 
 as far south as the river La Plata. Vespucius now 
 turned southward to keep east of the Line of Demar- 
 cation and sailed until the Antarctic ice fields blocked 
 his way. He then returned to Lisbon. 
 
 18. The Name of America. — Vespucius made another 
 voyage to the southern continent, and in 1504 published 
 an account of what he had seen in the New World. His 
 voyages were of great importance.- They proved the 
 existence of a new continent, secured Brazil for the 
 Portuguese crown, and resulted in giving the name 
 
 1 Americus Vespucius (Amei'icus Vespu'cius) is a Latinized form of 
 the navigator's name, the Italian form being Amerigo Vespucci (Ah-mah- 
 ree'go Ves-poot'chee). Vespucius is said to have been the pilot of a 
 fleet, commanded by Pinzon, one of Columbus' old officers, which, 
 sailing in 1497, visited Honduras, entered the gulf of Mexico, and passing 
 between Cuba and Florida explored the coast as far north as Chesa- 
 peake bay, thus sighting the mainland of the New World before Colum- 
 bus or the Cabots. Many historians, however, do not believe Vespucius 
 ever made this journey. 
 
I? 
 
l8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 America to the western hemisphere. The description 
 of the new world which he had made fell into the 
 hands of a German, Martin Waldseemuller,^ a teacher 
 of geography in a little college at St. Die,^ in eastern 
 France. In 1507 the paper of Vespucius was printed 
 on the college press and contained the suggestion that 
 the new-found land should be named America in honor 
 of Americus Vespucius, as Waldseemiiller supposed 
 Vespucius had discovered it. The name was placed on 
 the maps of that time ; at first only on Brazil, later on 
 South America, and still later was given to the whole 
 western hemisphere. Thus Columbus was deprived of 
 the great honor of having his name given to the new 
 world he had discovered. 
 
 19. Discovery of the Pacific Ocean, 1513. — In the 
 year 1513a Spanish navigator and adventurer, Balboa, 
 hoped to repair his broken fortunes by seeking the wealth 
 of the New World. While exploring the isthmus of 
 Panama, he was told by an Indian chief of a great sea 
 to the west beyond the mountains and of lands whose 
 shores were filled with gold and silver. Balboa thereupon 
 pushed eagerly onward and reaching the crest of the 
 ridge July 25, 15 13, saw ^ before him the greatest of 
 
 1 Waldseemiiller (Valt'zay-muhl-ler). 
 
 2 St. Die (San De-ay'). 
 
 ^ It was a sight in beholding which for the first time any man would 
 wish to be alone. Balboa had his men sit down while he ascended and 
 then in solitude looked down on the vast Pacific. Falling on his knees, 
 he gave thanks to God for the favor shown to him in his being permitted 
 to discover the Sea of the South. Then he beckoned to his men to 
 come up. Both he and they knelt down and poured forth their thanks 
 to God. — Sir Arthur Helps. 
 
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS 1 9 
 
 earth's oceans. On reaching the shore he waded into 
 the sea and claimed possession of this vast body of water, 
 together with all the bordering lands, for the crown of 
 Spain. As the sea was south of the isthmus of Panama 
 where he stood, he called it the South sea to distinguish 
 it from the North sea, as the Caribbean was called by 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 20. The Voyage of Magellan. — Seven years later a 
 native of Portugal, P'erdinand Magellan, having had 
 some differences with his king, offered his services to 
 Charles V of Spain, declaring his ability to find a shorter 
 route to the rich Spice islands than was known to the 
 world. The fleet of five ships was fitted out and sailed 
 westward. Believing that he could find south of the 
 La Plata river a strait leading to the South sea, he 
 skirted the coast of South America until he entered the 
 straits which have since borne his name. 
 
 He soon reached the great waste of waters named by 
 Balboa the South sea, but which he called the Pacific 
 ocean because it was so calm.^ Sailing across this 
 broad ocean, he discovered the Philippines. In an 
 encounter with the natives of these islands he lost 
 his life. The journey was continued under one of 
 
 1 For three months and twenty days ^lagellan sailed on the Pacific 
 and never saw inhabited land. He was compelled by famine to strip off 
 the pieces of skin and leather wherewith his rigging was here and there 
 bound, to soak them in the sea and then soften them, so as to make a 
 wretched food ; to drink water gone putrid by keeping, and yet he reso- 
 lutely held on his course, though his men were dying daily. — Draper's 
 History of Intellectual Development of Europe, Chap. XIX. 
 
 The best authority on Magellan is Guillemard, 
 
20 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Magellan's captains, Sebastian del Cano. He rounded 
 the cape of Good Hope in the only vessel that remained 
 out of the five and reached Spain in 1522, bearing 
 with him Magellan's written report of the expedition 
 and a map of the route. This was the first voyage 
 around the world. It proved beyond question the rotun- 
 dity of the earth, that South America was a continent, 
 and that Columbus had discovered, not Asia, but a new 
 world. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In A.D. 1000 Leif Ericson, with a party of Northmen, visited 
 the coast of New England. No permanent settlements were 
 made and the Norse voyages were soon forgotten. 
 
 In 1492 Christopher Columbus, an Italian, sailing under the 
 flag of Spain, in trying to find a westward route to the Indies 
 discovered the West India islands. 
 
 In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian, sailing under the patronage of 
 England, discovered the continent of North America. 
 
 In 1504 Americus Vespucius, an Italian, after two voyages to the 
 New World, published a description of what he had seen. From 
 this book the name America was given to the western hemisphere. 
 
 In 1 5 13 Balboa, a Spaniard, explored the isthmus of Panama 
 and discovered the Pacific ocean. 
 
 In 1 519 Magellan circumnavigated the world, proving it to be 
 a globe. ^ 
 
 1 No American should ever forget the debt of gratitude we owe to 
 Spain for her early efforts in discovering and civilizing America. The 
 Spanish . . . built the first cities, opened the first churches, schools and 
 universities ; brought the first printing presses, made the first books, wrote 
 the first dictionaries, histories and geographies. ... By 1575, nearly 
 a century before there was a printing press in English America, many 
 books in twelve different Indian languages had been printed in the 
 City of Mexico . . . and three Spanish universities in America were 
 nearly rounding out their century when Harvard was founded. — C F. 
 LuMMis, The Spanish Pioneers, p. 23. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE EXPLORERS 
 
 21. Ponce de Leon, 15 13. — The first Spanish expedition 
 into North America was led by Ponce de Leon,^ who 
 had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, and 
 had been later a governor of one of the West Indies. 
 Hearing from the Indians of a country possessing gold 
 and a wonderful spring that would restore youth to the 
 aged, in March, 1 5 1 3, with three ships, fitted out at his 
 own expense, he sailed from Porto Rico. On Easter 
 Sunday, 1 5 1 3, he came in view of the coast near the site 
 of the present city of St. Augustine and called the land 
 Florida from Pascua Florida,^ the Spanish name for 
 Easter. Eight years later he attempted to found a 
 settlement on this coast but was mortally wounded by 
 the Indians. He returned to Cuba to die, and the first 
 attempt to found a colony within the present limits of 
 the United States ended in disaster. 
 
 22. The Conquest of Mexico, 15 19. — The Spanish voy- 
 agers had heard stories from time to time of the fabulous 
 wealth of an Indian confederacy, the Aztecs,^ in Mexico, 
 
 1 Ponce de Leon (Pon'thay da Lay-ohn'). 
 
 2 Pascua Florida (Pahs'quah Flo-ree'dah). 
 
 ^ This confederacy consisted of three tribes, in a condition of bar- 
 barism. They were without iron tools or domestic animals ; they 
 offered human sacrifices and resorted to cannibalism. The grandeur of 
 the so-called " Empire" of Montezuma is a myth. 
 
 21 
 
22 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 and an expedition under Hernando Cortes ^ set out from 
 Cuba to conquer the country. Landing on the site of the 
 present city of Vera Cruz in the spring of 1 5 19, with only 
 four hundred and fifty men, Cortes started on his march 
 of more than two hundred miles through an unknown 
 country filled with hostile foes.^ The Aztecs had won the 
 
 Spanish Explorations 
 
 undying hate of neighboring tribes because of their inhu- 
 man and revolting cruelty. This fact saved Cortes and 
 his little band, for he soon made an alliance with the ene- 
 mies of the Aztecs, and after two years of desperate fight- 
 ing, in which the Spaniards suffered many reverses, the 
 power of the Aztecs was broken and Spain took possession 
 of the country. 
 
 1 Hernando Cortes (Air-nahn'doh Cor-tace'). 
 
 - To prevent a rebellion among his troops, he sank all his ships. 
 The only hope of safety for the men now lay in conquering the country. 
 
THE EXPLORERS 23 
 
 23. De Ayllon's Expedition, 1526. — A wealthy Span- 
 iard, De Ayllon, who hved in Santo Domingo, determined 
 to plant a colony on the Atlantic coast and sailed north- 
 ward, in June, 1526, with three vessels, containing six 
 hundred colonists.^ He reached the James river and 
 made a settlement on the very spot, it is supposed, 
 where eighty-one years later the English planted their 
 first permanent settlement. He called his colony San 
 Miguel^ (St. Michael). He used negro slaves to do the 
 heaviest work, the first use of negro slave labor within 
 the territory of our present Union. The terrible winter 
 that followed killfed many of the colonists ; others were 
 tomahawked by the Indians ; mutinies arose on every 
 hand, and finally De Ayllon himself died in October, 
 1526. In the following spring the survivors, one hun- 
 dred and fifty in number, embarked for Santo Domingo. 
 This was the only attempt of the Spaniards to found a 
 settlement north of St. Augustine. 
 
 24. De Narvaez's Expedition, 1528. — In 1528 Panfilo 
 de Narvaez,^ hoping to rival the brilliant exploits of 
 Cortes, set out to conquer the land to the north of the 
 gulf of Mexico. Indians had been seen at Mobile bay 
 wearing ornaments of gold, which had come, they said, 
 from a country to the north. With four ships and four 
 
 1 The emperor of Spain, Charles V, ordered De Ayllon (Day 
 Ah-eel-yohn') to carry missionaries with him at the expense of the 
 crown. The emperor wrote : " Our principal interest in the discovery 
 of new lands is that the inhabitants and natives thereof, who are with- 
 out the light of the knowledge of faith may be brought to understand 
 the truths of our holy Catholic faith." 
 
 ^ San Miguel (Sahn IMee-gale'). 
 
 ^ Panfilo de Narvaez (Pahn'fee-lo day Nahr-vah'aith). 
 
24 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 hundred men Narvaez sailed from Cuba and soon reached 
 Tampa bay. Leaving the ships for a short exploration 
 he marched inland ; but disasters quickly overtook him. 
 His treatment of the Indians was so cruel that they 
 attacked him at every point. Narvaez tried in vain to 
 find the ships again and wandered hither and thither 
 along the coast. Some of the expedition at last built 
 boats and rowed along the shore to the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, where Narvaez was drowned ; the expedition 
 was scattered, and four survivors, one of -them an officer 
 named Cabeza de Vaca,^ fell into the hands of the Indians. 
 They wandered from tribe to tribe until, after nine years 
 and a journey of two thousand miles, they reached the 
 western coast of Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca told wonder- 
 ful stories of the immense herds of buffaloes he had seen 
 and of the fabulously wealthy cities in the interior. 
 
 25. Coronado's Expedition, 1540. — The Spanish vice- 
 roy of Mexico, Mendoza, hearing the wonderful tales 
 told by Vaca and his companions, determined to find these 
 rich cities, and sent a Franciscan monk, Father Mark, 
 a native of Nice, to search for them. He penetrated 
 probably as far north as the Zuni pueblo (or settlement) 
 of New Mexico, which he saw from a distance. His 
 little force was attacked, and he returned to Mendoza 
 with an account of his journey. Believing they had 
 found the famous ** seven cities of Cibola,"^ Coronado, 
 
 1 Cabeza de Vaca (Cah-bay'thah day Vah'cah). 
 
 2 Cibola (Thee-boh'lah). It was a tradition that on the conquest of 
 the Spanish peninsula by the Moors in the eighth century, a bishop had 
 fled from Lisbon \Yith his followers across the sea and founded seven 
 rich cities. The Spaniards believed they had now found these cities. 
 
THE EXPLORERS 25 
 
 who was at that time governor of a Mexican prov- 
 ince, was dispatched with one thousand one hundred 
 men to conquer them and bear away their treasures. 
 He attacked and ransacked the first of these cities, but 
 nothing vahiable was found. The rude houses were 
 made of sunburnt clay, and the poverty of the natives 
 showed that gokl was an unknown article. He now 
 roamed over those vast deserts and plains covered with 
 buffaloes,^ discovered the canon of the Colorado, pene- 
 trated as far north as the Platte river and eastward to 
 the Mississippi, where he is said to have erected a cross 
 bearing the inscription : " Thus far came the General 
 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado."^ He returned to 
 Mexico in 1542, disappointed at his failure.^ 
 
 26. De Soto's Conquest of Florida, 1539 ; Discovery of 
 the Mississippi. — In the meantime another Spaniard, 
 Hernando de Soto, who had been appointed governor of 
 Cuba in 1531, decided to try his fortunes in the search 
 for the gold country. In May, 1539, he landed at 
 Tampa bay with about five hundred and seventy men 
 and two hundred horses. He advanced slowly north- 
 ward through the swamps and jungles, suffering bitter 
 
 1 In nine days' march I reached some plams so vast that I did not 
 find their limit anywhere that I went, although I travelled more than 
 three hundred leagues through them. And I found such a quantity 
 of cows [buffaloes] that it is impossible to number them. — Letter of 
 Coronado. 
 
 2 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (Frahn-thees'co Vahs'quaith 
 day Co-ro-nah'doh). 
 
 3 Forty years later (15S2) the Spanish Franciscans founded Santa Fe, 
 the second oldest city in the United States. Some authorities give the 
 date of this foundation as 1605. 
 
26 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 hardships. His way led amongst the most savage Indian 
 tribes, the Seminoles, Choctaws, Creeks, and Chickasaws. 
 In the course of a year, after traversing the states of 
 Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, they reached the 
 "Father of Waters,"^ the Mississippi. Crossing this 
 river, they marched westward through the present state 
 of Arkansas. Finding nothing of value, they turned 
 southward, and in the spring of 1541, two years after 
 they had started, they again came upon the Mississippi 
 at the point where the Red river enters it. Here De 
 Soto died, and to conceal his death from the Indians, 
 who feared him, he was buried in the waters of the great 
 river he had discovered. Nearly half of the expedition 
 had died of fever and of wounds inflicted by the Indians. 
 The survivors built rude boats and sailed down the river 
 to the gulf of Mexico, where they made their way to 
 the Spanish settlements. 
 
 FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 
 
 27. Verrazano's Voyage. — For some time after the 
 division of the world between Spain and Portugal, France 
 did nothing of importance in the way of exploration. In 
 1523, Francis I, king of France, desiring to obtain a 
 share of the territory in the New World, sent Verra- 
 zano, a native of Florence but now in the French service, 
 on a voyage of discovery. Sighting land near cape 
 
 1 The first European to see the Mississippi river was Alvarez de 
 Pineda (Ahl-vah'raith day Pee-nay'dah), who discovered its mouth and 
 spent six weeks cruising upon it. He named it Rio de Santo Espiritu 
 (River of the Holy Ghost). 
 
THE EXPLORERS 27 
 
 Hatteras in 1524, he cruised along the Atlantic coast 
 northward. He soon entered the present harbor of New 
 York, which he compared to a beautiful lake. After 
 cruising along the shores of what is now Long Island, 
 he discovered and entered Narragansett bay and sailed 
 along the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine — probably 
 the first European to trace the Atlantic coast from the 
 mouth of the Chesapeake to the bay of Fundy. On 
 his return he wrote a letter to the French king describ- 
 ing his voyage, which is the earliest description known 
 to exist of the coast of the United States. 
 
 28. Cartier's Explorations. — The war which was now 
 being waged between France and Spain prevented further 
 explorations for some years. In 1534 the ancient town 
 of St.-Malo, with its battlements and turrets frowning 
 over the surging ocean, was the scene of preparations for 
 an expedition which was destined to be of the greatest 
 importance to France. In April of that year Cartier^ 
 sailed to the west and discovered the land since called 
 Newfoundland. Passing through the straits of Belle 
 Isle, he sailed into a gulf which he called the gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, because it was the feast day (August 10) 
 of that saint. As the winter was approaching, they 
 returned to France. 
 
 Cartier prepared at once for another voyage, and on 
 the morning of May 16, 1535, he assembled the officers 
 and crew of his three vessels in the cathedral of St.-Malo, 
 where they received the blessing of the bishop and sailed 
 for the St. Lawrence. Entering this mighty river, he 
 
 1 Cartier (Car-tee-ay')- 
 
28 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 sailed onward, passing the mouth of the Saguenay, and 
 still further the towering promontory with its bold cliffs, 
 rugged against the sky, — the heights where later rose the 
 fortifications of Quebec. Cartier with his Indian pilots 
 pushed on up the river, whose banks were covered with 
 forests festooned with grapevines, and whose waters 
 were alive with wild fowl of every description. They 
 reached Hochelaga, as the spot was called by the Indians. 
 Cartier named it Montreal, or Royal Mountain, and 
 claimed possession of the country for the king of 
 France. 
 
 29. Founding of Port Royal, 1605. — On Cartier's 
 return civil wars so disturbed the kingdom of France 
 that seventy years elapsed before another expedition 
 was fitted out for colonization purposes, although hun- 
 dreds of vessels sailed for fish every year to the Banks 
 of Newfoundland. In 1604 a French nobleman, Sieur 
 De Monts,^ obtained a grant to colonize Acadia, a name 
 given to the region from the fortieth to the forty-sixth 
 parallel of north latitude, or from Philadelphia to Halifax. 
 The expedition sailed in the spring of 1604, cruised 
 along the coast, explored the bay of Fundy, and finally 
 established a settlement at Port Royal,^ now Annapolis, 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 1 Sieur De Monts (See-ur' Ue Mong). 
 
 2 In 1 61 3 an English expedition from Jamestown utterly destroyed 
 Port Royal. Another settlement, St. Sauveur, on Mount Desert island, 
 had been destroyed a short time before by the English. Fathers Biard 
 and Masse, the first Jesuit missionaries on American territory, were 
 seized, the latter being put adrift at sea in an open boat, while the 
 former, with another Jesuit, was taken to Jamestown and was later sent 
 to France. 
 
THE EXPLORERS 29 
 
 30. Champlain founds Quebec, 1608. — Among De 
 Monts's companions was a captain of the royal navy, 
 Samuel de Champlain, a brave soldier, a tireless and scien- 
 tific explorer, whose love of France was equaled only by 
 his desire to Christianize and civilize the Indians. He 
 has been rightly named *'The Father of New France." 
 Sailing up the majestic river, past the wooded banks 
 where the Indian camps sent up their curly wreaths of 
 smoke, Champlain landed on the site of Quebec, and 
 here was established, in 1608, a trading colony, the first 
 permanent French settlement in America.^ 
 
 31. Discovery of Lake Champlain. — Soon after his 
 arrival Champlain joined the allied army of the Hurons 
 and the Algonquins, who were at war with the fierce 
 Iroquois. Moving down the river, called Richelieu from 
 the great cardinal of France, Champlain saw before him 
 the superb lake that now bears his name.^ It was dotted 
 with islands ; its banks were covered with dark hem- 
 locks and pines; while on the eastern horizon rose the 
 Green mountains, and to the west stretched the Adiron- 
 dacks, where roamed the Iroquois. The forces met at 
 the head of the lake, and the Iroquois, panic-stricken 
 at the noise of Champlain's guns, fled for their lives.^ 
 During the next twenty-seven years Champlain journeyed 
 
 ^ The attempt made to found a settlement at Port Royal, Nova 
 .Scotia, in 1605 was a failure. Five years later a permanent settlement 
 was made, but Quebec had already been founded two years. 
 
 ^ Champlain also discovered lake Ontario and lake Huron. 
 
 ^ The victory of Champlain was a costly one for France. From this 
 time the Iroquois, the strongest Indian confederation on the continent, 
 were the relentless, cruel enemies of the French and the allies of Eng- 
 land, a fact the importance of which cannot be overestimated. 
 
30 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 over the vast northern wilds from the Kennebec to the 
 strait of Mackinac, with the aid of the Franciscans 
 and the Jesuits estabhshing missions and trading posts 
 along the rivers and lakes. 
 ''Peaceful, benign, be- 
 neficent," says Parkman, 
 " were the weapons of this 
 conquest. France aimed 
 
 to subdue, not 
 by the sword but 
 by the cross ; 
 not to over- 
 whelm and crush 
 the nations. She 
 invaded but to 
 convert, to civi- 
 lize and embrace 
 them among her 
 children." 
 32. The French 
 in Florida. — In 1562, Coligny,i the leader of the Hugue- 
 nots, or French Protestants, decided to found a colony 
 in America, and John Ribaut^ led an expedition to 
 
 1 Coligny (Co-leen'ye). 2 Rj^aut (Ree-bo'). 
 
 French Explorations and Settlements 
 
THE EXPLORERS 3 I 
 
 South Carolina, where a fort was built at Port Royal. 
 Leaving thirty settlers, Ribaut returned to P'rance. 
 The settlement was a failure. The colonists mutinied, 
 put to sea in a worthless, leaky vessel, and would have 
 perished probably, had they not been picked up by an 
 Ene:lish slave vessel which took them to London. The 
 following year, 1564, a second party of three vessels, 
 under the leadership of Laudonniere,^ built a fort on the 
 St. Johns river in P^lorida and called it Fort Caroline, in 
 honor of the king of France, Charles IX. Here they 
 were joined later by Ribaut with reenforcements. 
 
 33. Menendez destroys the French Settlement. — Spain 
 claimed P'lorida by right of the discovery of Columbus 
 and Ponce de Leon's exploration. Accordingly, an 
 officer of the royal navy, Pedro Menendez,^ was sent to 
 drive out the French. The French saw with alarm the 
 Spanish vessels off the mouth of the river, and at once 
 preparations were made by both forces for an attack. 
 Menendez, however, sailed down the coast a short dis- 
 tance and landing built a fort, which in honor of the 
 day he called St. Augustine (1565). This was the first 
 permanent European settlement within the present limits 
 of the United States.^ Ribaut followed a few days later, 
 hoping to catch the Spaniards unprepared. Just as the 
 French ships were bearing down on the enemy a hurri- 
 cane scattered the squadron in all directions. Menendez, 
 
 ^ T>audonniere (Low-don-nee-air'). 
 2 Pedro Menendez (Pay'dro May-nen'daith). 
 
 ^ Twenty-one years later St. Augustine was attacked by the English 
 under Drake and destroyed, but it was rebuilt. 
 
32 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 in the meantime, had hurried to Fort CaroHne and easily 
 captured it. Every man in the garrison was put to death.^ 
 
 34. De Gourgues's Revenge. — To avenge his country- 
 men, a Frenchman named De Gourgues^ fitted out, at 
 his own expense, a secret expedition of three vessels. 
 Sailing for Florida, he surprised the Spanish garrison 
 that guarded the Spanish fort and hanged every man 
 within it. As no further attempts at colonization were 
 made by France in that section, Spain kept possession 
 of Florida. 
 
 ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS 
 
 35. Drake^s Voyage. — For almost one hundred years 
 after the voyages of the Cabots, the English appeared 
 to lose interest in the work of exploration. In 1576 Sir 
 Martin Frobisher attempted in vain to find a northwest 
 passage to Asia. In the following year, 1577, Sir Francis 
 Drake sailed from Plymouth with four vessels toward 
 South America. He lost three of his vessels, but with 
 the remaining one, the Pelican, passed in October, 1578, 
 the strait of Magellan. He journeyed northward along 
 the western shore of South America and the coasts of 
 Mexico and California, robbing the rich Spanish vessels 
 and plundering the Spanish towns. He sailed as far 
 
 1 The history of these times is filled with the stories of heartless 
 cruelties. When the French took Havana they put all the inhabitants 
 to the sword, while the English corsairs always put to death the Spanish 
 sailors they captured. The shipwrecked mariners of the Armada were 
 butchered in attempting to save themselves on the coast of Ireland. 
 This, however, is no justification for the inhuman barbarities of Menendez. 
 
 '■^ De Gourgues (De Goorg). 
 
THE EXPLORERS 33 
 
 north as Oregon, and then, returning because of the 
 cold, made a landing near the present city of San 
 Francisco and took possession of the country in the 
 name of the British crown, calling it New Albion.^ He 
 returned by way of the cape of Good Hope, and thus 
 made the second circumnavigation of the world. 
 
 In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained from Queen 
 Elizabeth a charter which granted to him any new 
 land he might discover in America. In the colony he 
 intended to found he hoped to give a refuge to the per- 
 secuted Catholics of England. He made three voyages. 
 On the third, in 1583, he touched Newfoundland, and 
 claimed it for the queen, but he and his ship were lost 
 at sea on the return voyage.^ 
 
 36. The Raleigh Colonists. — Gilbert's grant was now 
 transferred to his half-brother, the famous Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, and in 1584 he obtained from Elizabeth per- 
 mission to make a settlement upon any territory not 
 already occupied by any Christian power. The expedi- 
 tion landed at Roanoke island, off the coast of the 
 present state of North Carolina. So favorable were 
 the reports that Elizabeth called it Virginia, in honor of 
 herself. In the following year, 1585, emigrants from 
 England landed, and a town w^as founded. It was a 
 signal failure. All who did not perish from starvation 
 
 1 Albion was the name given to England because of the white (Latin, 
 albus) cliffs of Dover. As the coast here resembled the English shore, 
 Drake named it New Albion. 
 
 2 John Davis, an English navigator, attempted in three voyages 
 (i 585-1 587) to find a northwest passage. He discovered the strait that 
 bears his name. 
 
34 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 returned with Sir Francis Drake, who happened to be 
 saiUng homeward that way. Among the articles brought 
 by Raleigh's colonists to England w^re dried tobacco 
 leaves and potatoes. He planted these potatoes on his 
 estate in Ireland. They did not come into general 
 use, however, before the eighteenth century. In 1587 
 Raleigh determined to send out another colony, this 
 time to Chesapeake bay, under John White as governor. 
 
 The settlement 
 
 was for some 
 unknown reason 
 made again on 
 Roanoke island, 
 and White returned 
 to London for sup- 
 plies, leaving with 
 the colonists his 
 wife, his daughter, 
 and his gran d- 
 daughter, Virginia 
 Dare, the first child 
 born of English 
 parents in America. He was detained in England for 
 three years, probably because of the war with Spain, and 
 when he finally reached the site of the settlement not a 
 trace of the colonists could be found. They had dis- 
 appeared, and the mystery has never been solved.^ 
 
 English Explorations 
 
 1 The only trace of the lost colony was the word " Croatoan " cut in 
 the bark of a tree. This was the name of a small island near by, but 
 nothing was found there, however, to show the fate of the colonists. 
 
THE EXPLORERS 35 
 
 Raleigh's funds were now exhausted. He had spent an 
 equivalent in our money of one million dollars, and his 
 interests were assigned in 1581 to a stock company of 
 merchants, who, however, made no effort to continue 
 Raleigh's work. 
 
 37. The Voyages of Gosnold and Pring. — In March, 
 1602, an English navigator, Bartholomew Gosnold, sailing 
 westward directly across the Atlantic from the Azores 
 instead of following the long, circuitous route by way 
 of the West Indies and Florida, reached a cape which 
 he called cape Cod from the large number of codfish 
 found in the waters thereabout. Passing southward, he 
 landed and built a trading house on one of the Elizabeth 
 islands at the mouth of Buzzards bay. Filling his 
 ships with a valuable cargo of sassafras and cedar logs, 
 he prepared to return, but the colonists refused to remain ; 
 hence all returned to England. Gosnold accomplished 
 nothing except perhaps to show a short route across the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 In 1603 Martin Pring, in search of sassafras, visited 
 Plymouth harbor, calling it Whitsunday bay. Two years 
 later, 1605, George Weymouth cruised along the coast 
 of Maine. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The Spanish. — Ponce de Leon, in 1513, visited Florida and 
 gave it its name. His attempt to found a colony eight years later 
 was a failure. 
 
 Cortes, in 15 19, sailed for Mexico, which he conquered two 
 years later, destroying forever the power of the Aztec confederacy. 
 
 De Ayllon, in 1526, founded a colony on the James river in 
 Virginia. In the following year the colony was abaixioned. 
 
36 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 De Narvaez, in 1528, led an expedition to conquer the lands north 
 of the gulf of Mexico. All the members except four perished, 
 including Narvaez. 
 
 De Soto, in 1539, attempted to conquer Florida. He discovered 
 the Mississippi, but his expedition was a failure. 
 
 Coronado, in 1540, explored the Southwest as far north as 
 Nebraska, discovering the canon of the Colorado. 
 
 The French : In the North. — In 1523 Verrazano explored the 
 coast of North America from cape Hatteras to the bay of Fundy. 
 
 Jacques Cartier, in 1534, discovered the gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 In the following year he discovered the St. Lawrence river and 
 gave the name Montreal to the site of the present city. 
 
 In 1608 Champlain founded Quebec, the first permanent 
 French settlement in America. 
 
 The French: In the South. — In 1562 Ribaut attempted to 
 found a settlement, Fort Caroline, in Florida. In 1565 Menen- 
 dez destroyed the French fort and founded St. Augustine, the 
 oldest city' in the United States. 
 
 The English. — In 1578 Sir Francis Drake made the second 
 circumnavigation of the world. 
 
 In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a charter and made 
 three fruitless voyages. Sir Walter Raleigh took up the work 
 and attempted to colonize Virginia. His efforts were a failure. 
 
 In 1587, under Raleigh's patronage, a colony was established 
 on Roanoke island, with John White as governor. White went 
 back to England for supplies, and on his return after three years' 
 absence no trace of the colony could be found. 
 
 In 1602 Gosnold explored the north Atlantic coast ; in 1603 
 Pring visited the harbor now called Plymouth; in 1605 Wey- 
 mouth visited the coast of Maine. These three yoyages accom- 
 plished little of importance. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE EARLY MISSIONARIES 
 
 38. The Religious Orders in Florida. — While the settle- 
 ments were being- established, the religious welfare of 
 the Indians was not overlooked. In 1566 the Jesuit 
 Fathers, Pedro Martinez ^ and John Kegel, were sent by 
 St. Francis Borgia, superior of the Jesuits, to found a 
 mission in Florida. On arriving off that coast Father 
 Martinez landed to explore the shore. Scarcely had he 
 done so when a gale arose, driving the vessel out to 
 sea. Father Martinez was quickly surrounded by the 
 savage Indians and put to death. Ten years later other 
 Jesuits arrived to establish missions ; they learned the 
 Indian language and opened schools. An attempt to 
 found a mission on Chesapeake bay was 'made by the 
 Jesuits under Father Segura.^ Scarcely had their vessel 
 departed when they were killed by the Indians. The 
 remaining Jesuits throughout Florida were thereupon 
 recalled and sent to Mexico. 
 
 The Franciscans now took up the missionary work 
 in Florida, and Father Pareja^ translated many reli- 
 gious books into the native dialects. Fearful persecu- 
 tions broke out from time to time ; the missions were 
 
 1 Martinez (Mah-tee'naith). 
 
 2 Segura (Say-goo'rah). 
 
 3 Pareja (Pah-ray'ha). 
 
 37 
 
38 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 destroyed, and the missionaries fell victims to the fury 
 of the savages.^ 
 
 39. The Missionaries of New France ; the Recollets and 
 the Jesuits. — In 1614 four Recollets,^ a branch of the 
 Franciscans, arrived in New France to assist Cham- 
 plain in his noble efforts to civilize the savage tribes. 
 They were the first priests to settle in Canada. They 
 established missions along the St. Lawrence river, and 
 preached to the Algonquins and Hurons in the lan- 
 guage of those tribes. In 1625 they invited the Jesuits 
 to share with them the glorious work of teaching. The 
 Jesuits accepted the invitation and were soon carrying 
 the Gospel far and wide in the wilderness and along the 
 lakes and rivers.^ 
 
 In 1629 the English captured Quebec, and the Recol- 
 lets and Jesuits were transported to England. Canada 
 did not remain long in the hands of England, for the 
 
 1 Proceeding to the town of Topequi, the Indians burst into the 
 house of Fathef Bias Rodriguez. The missionary endeavored to show 
 them the wickedness and folly of their conduct, which would entail pun- 
 ishment here and hereafter, but finding his words of no avail, he asked 
 the Indians to allow him to say Mass. They granted his request, 
 moved by a respect which they could not understand ; and the good 
 priest, with his expectant murderers for his congregation, offered the 
 Holy Sacrifice for the last time and then knelt down before the altar to 
 receive the death blow. — Dr. J. G. Shea. 
 
 2 Recollets (Ray-col-lay'). 
 
 ^ They penetrated the Indian towns, lived with the savages, bore 
 unparalleled hardships, ministered to the wretched, instilled the teach- 
 ings of Christianity into the minds of any who would give them a hear- 
 ing, and thought no danger or sacrifice great enough to deter them from 
 carrying on their work. The Indian world was their parish. Wherever 
 they went they made keen observation of all they saw, and reported to 
 their superior in France in a remarkable series of letters called the 
 
THE EARLY MISSIONARIES 
 
 39 
 
 treaty of peace in 1632 secured Canada again to France. 
 The Jesuits resumed missionary labors in Canada the 
 same year. When Montreal was founded in 1644 the 
 Sulpicians established themselves and soon founded 
 schools and seminaries in and near Montreal, but the 
 Jesuits had practically entire charge of the great tracts 
 of land to the north and west. 
 
 40. The Huron Missions ; Father Jogues and the Iro- 
 quois. — Under the zealous Fathers Breboeuf/ Lallemand, 
 and Daniel, all three destined to suffer martyrdom under 
 the most horrible tortures, the Hurons were visited and 
 missions established along the Great Lakes. Fathers 
 Raymbaut and Jogues ^ visited the Chippewas and made 
 plans to journey to the great plains of the far West. 
 On one of the expeditions Father Jogues was returning 
 to his missions from Quebec with his companion Rene 
 Goupil,'^ when they fell into the hands of the ferocious 
 Mohawks. They were treated with inhuman cruelty. 
 Their nails were torn out, some of their fingers sawed 
 off, their bodies burned and hacked, and they were 
 finally compelled to undergo the terrible journey to the 
 Indian settlement on the Mohawk. Here Rene Goupil 
 was killed, but Father Jogues made his escape in a Dutch 
 
 Jesuit Relations. They carefully mapped the scenes of their labors ; 
 they journeyed all over the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi; 
 they discovered all the important lakes and tributary streams of the 
 great valley. Although the fathers served so faithfully, most of them 
 met violent deaths at the hands of the savages whom they had come to 
 help. — Thorpe's History of the American People, p. 27. 
 
 1 Breboeuf (Bre-berf^. 
 
 2 Jogues (Zhog). 
 
 3 Rene Goupil (Re-nay' Goo-peel'). 
 
40 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 vessel and was hospitably received in New York, whence 
 he sailed for France. Two years later he returned to 
 Montreal and was sent to the Mohawks to ratify a treaty 
 of peace. He again returned to Montreal ; but his desire 
 to establish a mission among the savage Mohawks led 
 him to again journey into their country, where he was 
 treacherously seized and killed Oct. i8, 1646. A shrine 
 at Auriesville, N.Y., marks the spot of his martyrdom. 
 
 The Iroquois now spread death and destruction on every 
 side ; their war parties swept along the Great Lakes and 
 the St. Lawrence river, cutting off the trade of the French 
 with the West and rendering the journeys of the missiona- 
 ries impossible. Dissension arose, however, in the confed- 
 eracy, and the Onondagas sought a treaty of peace with 
 the French and asked for the establishment of a French 
 colony. The other Iroquois tribes, except the Mohawks, 
 also made a treaty, and accordingly a colony was founded 
 on lake Onondaga by the French. Four Jesuits accom- 
 panied the colonists, founding chapels and traveling 
 through the tribes preaching the word of God. The 
 missions prospered, and a bright future opened before 
 the faithful colonists, when an Indian plot to destroy the 
 entire settlement was discovered. By a stratagem ^ the 
 French were enabled to withdraw and reach Quebec in 
 safety. The work among the Iroquois had been appar- 
 ently unsuccessful, but the Jesuits were not discouraged. 
 After some severe defeats at the hands of the French 
 
 1 The Indians were invited to a banquet, at which they so gorged 
 themselves that they soon fell into a deep sleep. The French took 
 advantage of their helplessness and fled frorn the colony. 
 
THE EARLY MISSIONARIES 41 
 
 regular troops, the Iroquois sought peace, and in 1667 
 the Jesuits were again in the Iroquois country. Missions 
 were estabhshed among each of the five tribes, but the 
 rivalry between the French and English destroyed to a 
 great extent the work of the good missionaries ; one 
 by one the missions were closed, and the country of the 
 Iroquois was again left a prey to the warring tribes of 
 the confederacy. 
 
 41. The Ottawa Missions. — In 1660 Father Rene 
 Menard set out on his missionary labors to the lands 
 of the Ottawas. After incredible hardships, — fording 
 rivers, penetrating the trackless forests, suffering from 
 heat and cold, — he reached the bay, now called Kewee- 
 naw, on the south shore of lake Superior. Here he 
 founded a mission. "The nearest altar of the living God," 
 says Dr. Shea, " to that raised by this aged and intrepid 
 priest was that of the Sulpicians at Montreal, yet the 
 altars of Santa Fe and St. Inigoes (Maryland) were but 
 little more remote. The aged priest stood alone in the 
 heart of the continent, with no fellow priest and scarcely 
 a fellow man of European race within a thousand miles 
 of him." The following year, in attempting to reach 
 an Indian tribe near the headwaters of the Mississippi, 
 he strayed from his companions and was never again 
 heard from. 
 
 In 1667 Father Claude Allouez,i superior of the 
 
 western missions, carried the Gospel through the present 
 
 state of Wisconsin and the upper part of Michigan. 
 
 He established a mission at Green bay and built up that 
 
 1 Allouez (Al-loo-ay'), 
 
42 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 of Sault Ste. Marie. ^ In every direction the tireless, 
 faithful Jesuit penetrated the forest, preaching the 
 Gospel, instructing the children, and teaching the In- 
 dians the ways of civilization. 
 
 42. The Maine Missions. — Fathers Biard and Masse 
 had established in 1612 a mission on Mount Desert 
 island, but it was destroyed by the English. 
 
 In 1633 the Capuchin Fathers, aided by Cardinal 
 Richelieu^ of France, established missions and schools 
 for the Indians along the coast from the mouth of the 
 St. Lawrence to the Kennebec. 
 
 In 1646 Father Druillets was sent to the Abenakis 
 on the Kennebec river. He was also intrusted with the 
 duty of visiting the authorities of the English colonies 
 in New England to secure a compact for trade and an 
 alliance against the Indians, especially the Iroquois. He 
 was hospitably received in Boston, although the most 
 bitter penal laws were in force against the Jesuits. The 
 following year^ he visited New Haven to meet delegates 
 from the New England colonies, but his mission was not 
 successful. He soon returned to Canada, and during the 
 next thirty-six years there was little or no missionary 
 work among the Abenakis. In 1688 the Jesuits returned 
 and had scarcely resumed their labors when war broke 
 out in Europe between England and Frarice. At once 
 the horrors of Indian warfare swept like a forest fire 
 from the St. Lawrence southward. The Indian settle- 
 ments along the Penobscot were burned and the churches 
 
 1 Sault Ste. Marie (Soo Sent Ma-ree'). 
 
 2 Richelieu (Reesh-le-uh'). 
 
THE EARLY MISSIONARIES 43 
 
 destroyed by the English colonists and their allies. 
 In August, 1724,'Norridgewock was captured by the 
 English, and brave Father Rale,^ the faithful friend of 
 the Abenakis, fell at the first onset. The church was 
 plundered and destroyed, and the English returned in 
 triumph from their errand of destruction. 
 
 1 Father Rale came to America at the age of thirty-two and, after 
 journeys in the West, spent twenty-five years among the Abenakis. He 
 wrote a dictionary of their language and was one of the most heroic of 
 the many brave Jesuits who faced death hourly for the faith. Though 
 he knew there was a price on his head, he never fled from danger, and 
 at last fell at his post of duty. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE INDIANS 
 
 43. Their Appearance, Civilization, and Government. — 
 
 Let us now glance at the barbarous tribes that occupied 
 practically the entire country. These natives were called 
 
 Indians by Columbus 
 because he believed 
 the newly discovered 
 land to be a part of 
 India. 
 
 As a rule, the 
 Indians were copper- 
 
 An Indian Pueblo 
 
 An I ndian Camp jr-vV<. ^ 4( \l 'Ci'*/, V ^ l « 
 
 colored and had S •^i^O/ 
 
 small black eyes, straight 
 
 black hair, high cheek 
 
 bones, and beardless 
 
 faces. When Columbus arrived they had spread over 
 
 all the western hemisphere. The Indians in the far 
 
 West and Northwest were of a ferocious nature, living 
 
 44 
 
THE INDIANS 45 
 
 in wigwams. These wigwams were circular in shape, 
 made with poles joined together at the top. They 
 were covered with skins or bark and had an upper open- 
 ing by which the smoke might escape. They moved 
 constantly from place to place and subsisted on game 
 and fish. They cultivated the soil very little and made 
 no progress in the arts except in the weaving of baskets. 
 
 In the Southwest lived the Pueblo Indians, who had 
 advanced considerably toward civilization. Their houses 
 of sun-dried brick were built on the plateaus or in the 
 cliffs of the vast canons ; hence they were called *' Cliff 
 Dwellers."^ They made cloth and pottery and tilled 
 the soil .2 
 
 East of the Mississippi the development of the Indians 
 was more marked. They raised maize or Indian corn and 
 many vegetables ; they lived in villages, in long houses, 
 large enough to accommodate at least twenty-five families. 
 In these houses dwelt a clan, that is, all who were 
 descended from the same female ancestor. Each clan 
 had its own symbol or mark, called the "totem," such 
 
 1 Throughout the middle West hundreds of mounds and earthworks, 
 large and small, have been found. They were supposed for a long time 
 to have been built by a quite civilized race which had disappeared before 
 the landing of Columbus. This view is no longer held. " It is enough 
 to say," remarks Major Powell of the United States Geological Survey, 
 " that the Mound Builders were the Indian tribes discovered by the 
 white man." 
 
 2 There has been an exaggerated impression of the number of sav- 
 ages at the time when our country began to be settled. How many 
 there were it is impossible to estimate with any approach to exactness. 
 Bancroft judges that the total number on the whole area east of the 
 Mississippi, now covered by the United States, was not far from one 
 hundred and eighty thousand. — Fisher. 
 
46 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 as the wolf or the bear, and they held m great rever- 
 ence the animal whose image was their emblem. The 
 head officer or magistrate was elected and was called the 
 '* sachem." The clan elected also its war chiefs and held 
 all its property in common except weapons and ornaments. 
 The union of many clans formed a tribe, which was ruled 
 by a council of the sachems of the different clans. ^ 
 
 44. Implements, Weapons, and Habits of the Indians. 
 — The early Indians used the bow and arrow and 
 hatchets with stone heads. Later they obtained from the 
 white man firearms and became most expert in their use. 
 They wore furs of various animals and buffalo hides ; 
 on their feet they wore moccasins made of deerskin or 
 the hide of the moose. The Indians were swift of foot, 
 alert, and very skillful hunters ; they knew the habits 
 of every animal and bird in the forest, of every fish of 
 the river ; they could follow a trail with amazing skill ; 
 their life in the woods taught them to be quick-witted, 
 patient, and keen sighted and trained them to endure 
 calmly heat or cold, hunger or thirst ; they bore physical 
 pain with marvelous bravery ; their self-control was won- 
 derful ; under the most horrible torture no cry escaped 
 from the lips of the Indian ; on the contrary, he gener- 
 ally sneered at his torturers. 
 
 1 They [the Indians] have traditions but no history. Civilized 
 people erect monuments of various kinds to commemorate their own 
 deeds and those of their ancestors. Throughout the length and breadth 
 of the United States there does not exist, and probably there never 
 did exist, a monument of any kind deliberately erected by an Indian or 
 a tribe to commemorate an event iii Indian history. — ThoRPE's History 
 of the American People^ pp. 1-2. 
 
THE INDIANS 47 
 
 The Indian treated his captives with merciless cruelty, 
 the Iroquois frequently burning them at the stake.^ At 
 times they adopted a captive into the tribe if he appeared 
 to be brave and fearless. 
 
 45. Method of Warfare ; Religion ; Wampum. — The 
 Indians were always at strife with each other. When pre- 
 paring for war they painted their faces with stripes of 
 yellow, blue, and red ; with unearthly war whoops, they 
 then went forth armed with clubs, tomahawks, spears, 
 and bows and arrows on their path of destruction and 
 bloodshed. 
 
 They wore a lock of hair called the *' scalp lock." To 
 kill an enemy and to tear off that part of the scalp 
 which bore the lock, wearing it later at the belt, was the 
 highest triumph of the Indian. They never fought in 
 the open field, as the red man's idea of military glory was 
 simply to get the scalp of his enemy and to save his own. 
 
 Their religion was a sort of nature and ancestor 
 worship, the rites of which were carried on mainly by 
 medicine men, but they had no temples and no priest- 
 hood. They believed a spirit — the Manitou — dwelt 
 in every plant and tree, stream and lake. They looked 
 to a life beyond the grave, a happy hunting ground, to 
 which only the brave would be admitted. 
 
 To ratify a treaty, the Indians smoked a peace pipe 
 called the ** calumet." In dealing with each other they 
 
 ^ When, for instance, the Jesuit Father Brebceuf fell into their hands, 
 they burned him from head to foot, cut a\Yay his lower lip and jaw, and 
 thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. After four hours of this fearful 
 torture they cut open his breast and tore out his heart. 
 
48 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 used seashells, which they called " wampum." They kept 
 a record of their treaties by means of the belt of wampum, 
 the beads telling exactly what was done. Later the wam- 
 pum became a medium of exchange for the colonists 
 
 
 
 
 '■^ 
 
 Indian Calumet or 
 
 Pipe of Peace 
 
 also, in dealing not only with the Indians but with each 
 other. This was very important, since it allowed the 
 settlers to establish a regular trade in furs and fish with 
 the Indians and to sell them hardware and blankets. 
 
 46. Habits and Industries. — The Indian had no idea 
 of providing for the future. In time of plenty he gorged 
 himself ; in time of famine he starved. While he was 
 
 Wampum, or Indian Money, made of Strings of Shells or Beads 
 
 capable of the greatest endurance, he was by nature 
 indolent and shiftless. While the men fought, fished, 
 or hunted, the women were compelled to do all the 
 hard work, — to till the soil and bear the burdens in 
 moving from place to place. 
 
THE INDIANS 49 
 
 The Indians were very skillful in making bows and 
 arrows, stone hatchets, clothing from furs, and espe- 
 cially the birch-bark canoe, by which they were able to 
 travel easily and quickly over the lakes and rivers from 
 one part of the country to another. 
 
 The Indians taught the settlers many valuable things, 
 — the worth of Indian corn, the modes of hunting and 
 fishing, the value of the canoe, the wigwam form of 
 tent, the use of the moccasin for traveling in the forest 
 and of the snowshoe for walking on the surface of the 
 snow in winter in search of food. 
 
 They also taught the colonists how to make corn 
 grow in the forest by burning or girdling the trees, 
 thereby killing them and letting in the sunshine. Thus 
 the crops grew without the tedious labor of cutting 
 down the trees. ^ 
 
 1 For further reading on the Indians the pupil may consult Grinnell's 
 Story of the Indian, Dellenbaugh's North Aynericans of Yesterday, and 
 G. E. Ellis' The Red Man and the White Man. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 
 
 Virginia, 1607 
 
 47. London and Plymouth Companies. — At the open- 
 ing of the seventeenth century England had profited little 
 by the discoveries of the Cabots. In 1606 she opened 
 a new era in her history by granting a charter to two 
 commercial companies,^ one composed chiefly of Lon- 
 don, the other of Plymouth, merchants, and therefore 
 called the London and Plymouth companies. A char- 
 ter was granted for colonizing purposes in Virginia, at 
 that time the name of the whole territory in America 
 claimed by England. In the charter the king granted 
 to the London Company the sole right to colonize the 
 territory between cape P'ear and the mouth of the Poto- 
 mac — from thirty-four to thirty-eight degrees of north 
 latitude ; to the Plymouth Company he granted a similar 
 right to plant colonies from the Hudson river to the 
 bay of Fundy — forty-one to forty-five degrees of north 
 
 1 The immense financial loss to Raleigh in his attempts to found a 
 colony deterred others from a similar fate. As trading companies had 
 been enormously enriched by their commerce with the East, it was 
 believed a company could better carry on so vast an enterprise. Hence 
 a new company was formed and obtained the charter. 
 
 50 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 51 
 
 latitude. A middle strip from the mouth of the Potomac 
 to the Hudson — from the thirty-eighth to the forty-first 
 degree of north latitude — was open to whichever of the 
 two companies should first colonize it. It was provided, 
 however, that neither company was to establish a colony 
 within one hundred miles of any existing settlement.^ 
 
 48. The Popham Colony in Maine, 1607. — With the 
 charters secured, both companies 
 fitted out ships. The Plymouth 
 colony, under George Popham, sailed 
 (May 31, 1607) foi" the coast of the 
 present state of Maine and, land- 
 ing at the mouth of the Kennebec, 
 made a settlement. It was an abso- 
 lute failure, and in the following 
 year, after intense suffering, the 
 settlement was abandoned and the 
 colonists returned to England. 
 
 49. Settlement of Jamestown, 
 1607 ; a Period of Distress. — The 
 
 colony of the London Company with three ships reached 
 
 1 Among the provisions of the charter were the following: 
 
 1. The settlers were entitled to all the rights and privileges that were 
 enjoyed by Englishmen at home. 
 
 2. Each land grant should extend inland one hundred miles. 
 
 3. The king should have one fifth of all the precious metals discovered. 
 
 4. The colony should be governed by a council, appointed by the king. 
 
 5. Each company might coin money, punish crime, establish custom tariffs, 
 and make laws subject to the veto of the king. 
 
 6. All goods were to be owned in common, the products of the soil being 
 deposited in a public magazine or storehouse. 
 
 7. The king also sent instructions that the Church of England should be 
 established in the colonies. 
 
52 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Chesapeake bay, and named the capes at its mouth cape 
 Henry and cape Charles in honor of the two sons of 
 King James. Entering a broad river, which they named 
 the James in honor of the king, they landed at a point 
 thirty miles up the river. Here they made a settle- 
 ment, which they called Jamestown. TJiis ivas the 
 first permanent EiiglisJi settle^nent in Amej'ica. 
 
 The colony was made up largely of men who were 
 unused to work, — so-called English gentlemen,^ — and 
 instead of building houses, planting seed, and preparing 
 for the future, they looked for gold.^ Fever and famine 
 overtook them. In four months one half of their num- 
 ber was dead. At this critical time a fearless, restless 
 adventurer, John Smith, took charge.^ He procured 
 food from the Indians, built huts, and explored the bays 
 and inlets of the coasts, the rivers, and the surrounding 
 
 1 They were going to a wilderness in which as yet not a house was 
 standing and there were forty-eight gentlemen to four carpenters. — 
 Bancroft. 
 
 2 Under the charter all the provisions were placed in a common 
 storehouse for the use of those who wished to take them. The result 
 was that the lazy helped themselves generously, and did not work, while 
 the industrious had to labor not only for themselves but for those who 
 were idle. The result was disaster, as any one might have foretold 
 without being a prophet. 
 
 ^ Captain John Smith was born in England in 1580. According to 
 his ow^n story, he was left an orphan at an early age and served as a 
 soldier under the flags of France and Holland. He embarked for the 
 East and was thrown overboard, but saved himself by swimming ashore. 
 After wandering through Europe he again became a soldier to fight 
 against the Turks. He was taken prisoner and treated so cruelly that 
 he killed his master and escaped, finally reaching England in time to 
 take part in the colonization of Virginia. Shortly after his arrival 
 he was captured by the Indians and condemned to death. His head 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 53 
 
 country. Corn seed was planted, and his energy for 
 two years saved the colony from utter ruin. 
 
 50. Arrival of Reenforcements ; Dale as Governor. — 
 About two years after the colony was founded five hun- 
 dred new colonists started from England under the direc- 
 tion of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers. The 
 newcomers were a wretched set of men from the jails 
 and streets of London. While the vessel bearing Gates 
 and Somers was wrecked on the Bermuda islands, the 
 rest of the expedition arrived. Gates and Somers at 
 length reached Jamestown in a boat of their own con- 
 struction. The colony was in a pitiable condition. 
 John Smith had been wounded and had returned to 
 England. Of the five hundred colonists that had 
 arrived a few months before, only sixty were alive ; 
 all were discouraged, and many resolved to return to 
 England. Embarking on June 8, 16 10, they sailed 
 down the James, when they met Lord Delaware, the 
 newly appointed governor, coming up the river with a 
 fleet stored with provisions. Thereupon all returned to 
 Jamestown. Lord Delaware remained a few months only, 
 and for the next five years his successor, Sir Thomas 
 Dale, ruled the colony like a tyrant. He required 
 attendance at the service of the Church of England 
 under the direst penalties, and criticism of that church 
 was punishable with death. 
 
 was already on the stone and a stalwart Indian stood over him with a 
 club to beat out his brains, when Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief 
 Powhatan, begged her father to save Smith's life. The request was 
 granted, and Smith was adopted into the tribe. The best historical 
 students, however, reject the Pocahontas story as a myth. 
 
54 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 51. The New Charter ; Abolition of Communism ; Cul- 
 tivation of Tobacco. — A new charter had been brought 
 over in 1 609 by Lord Delaware, which made many modi- 
 fications of the original one. It provided that the gov- 
 ernment of the colony should be placed entirely in the 
 hands of the council in England ; that the land grants, 
 at first extending only one hundred miles inland, were 
 to run from sea to sea, — from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific ; that no one could settle in Virginia unless he 
 took the oath of supremacy, — that is, to acknowledge 
 the king as the head of the church. This of course 
 shut out many Protestants as well as Catholics from the 
 colony.^ 
 
 One of Dale's first acts was the abolition of the 
 system of placing the products in a public warehouse 
 for the public use. According to this plan the indus- 
 trious worker supported the idler. Hereafter every 
 man must support himself, and to each settler were 
 granted three acres of land. Conditions were improved, 
 and the success of the colony was assured when John 
 Rolfe,^ in 161 2, began the planting of tobacco. The 
 trade was extremely profitable. New settlers arrived 
 daily, and the output of tobacco increased in eight years 
 over four hundred and twenty thousand pounds. In 
 
 1 The penal laws against the Catholics were very severe. They 
 could not hold office, but were punished with a severe fine if they 
 attempted to vote. No priest was allowed in the colony. In a court of 
 justice a Catholic could not be a witness. 
 
 2 John Rolfe had married Pocahontas. She was the daughter of the 
 Indian chief, Powhatan. The marriage of Rolfe to Pocahontas had the 
 good effect of rendering Powhatan friendly to the settlers. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 55 
 
 1670, fifty-one years from Rolfe's first crop, Virginia 
 produced twelve million pounds. So extensive now 
 became its cultivation that a law was passed compelling 
 every man to plant a certain number of acres of corn 
 for the food supply. 
 
 52. Effects of Tobacco Culture ; Introduction of Slav- 
 ery, 1619. — The widespread cultivation of tobacco pro- 
 duced unexpected results. Up to this time there was 
 no commerce of any value with Europe, but the sale of 
 tobacco started a profitable trade. The news of the suc- 
 cess of the tobacco crop induced many to come to Virginia 
 from England to take up its cultivation. Again, the 
 growing of tobacco required many and cheap laborers. 
 Accordingly criminals were sent from the jails of Eng- 
 land, orphans from asylums, and waifs from the streets. 
 
 They were called ''indentured"^ servants, but were 
 virtually slaves, although after a service of years, gen- 
 erally from seven to ten, they were set free.^ In 
 August, 16 19, a Dutch ship came up the James river 
 with twenty negroes, w4io were sold as slaves to the 
 
 1 The agreement with a servant was made by a contract across which 
 extended a cutting like the teeth of a saw. Hence the word "inden- 
 ture," to cut into points like a row of teeth. The paper was then sepa- 
 rated, one part being kept by the master, the other by the servant. If 
 both parts when put together exactly fitted, it was evidence that they 
 were the same contract. 
 
 2 The colony was composed almost entirely of men. To induce 
 them to settle down for life and make Virginia their home, the London 
 Company sent over ninety young women as wives for the settlers. Who- 
 ever could give one hundred and twenty pounds of good tobacco, worth 
 about ninety dollars, could select one of the young women for a wife, 
 if she were agreeable. The plan was successful and later others came. 
 
56 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 planters. This was the beginning of negro slavery in 
 Virginia. Slavery increased until at last there were 
 slaves in every colony in America. 
 
 53. The Establishment of Representative Government. 
 — Difficulties with their governor induced the colonists 
 to ask the London Company for a better form of govern- 
 ment. A new governor, Sir George Yeardley, was 
 appointed. He requested the colonists, who were scat- 
 tered to the number of four thousand through eleven 
 settlements, or boroughs, as they were called, to send two 
 representatives to an assembly. This body came together 
 in a little church at Jamestown, July 30, 16 19. This 
 House of Burgesses, the first legislative body in America, 
 was the beginning of popular, representative government. 
 
 54. Virginia loses its Charter. — King James, how- 
 ever, had become displeased with the London Company 
 and brought a suit to annul its charter. The suit was 
 decided in the king's favor, and Virginia became a royal 
 province, passing under the direct control of the king. 
 Nevertheless, the people continued to make most of 
 their own laws. Before James I had effected a change 
 in the government of the colony he died (May, 1625) 
 and was succeeded on the throne by his son, Charles I. 
 Seven years after his accession the king diminished the 
 territory of Virginia by a grant of Maryland on the north 
 and of the Carolinas on the south. Civil war soon broke 
 out in England, and in 1649 Charles I was beheaded.^ 
 
 1 At this time many sympathizers of the unfortunate king, called 
 " Royalists," or " Cavaliers," emigrated to America and settled in Vir- 
 ginia. From them many illustrious Virginia families trace their descent. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 57 
 
 When his son, Charles II, finally obtained the throne 
 he granted for thirty-one years to two favorites, Lord 
 Culpepper and Lord Arlington, '* the entire tract of land 
 and water commonly called Virginia," with all the rents 
 and revenues. In the meantime, while the people 
 were suffering from a series of oppressive laws, the 
 Indians took up the tomahawk and went on the warpath 
 against the colonists. Upon the neglect of the royal 
 governor, Berkeley, to take stringent measures against 
 the Indians,' Nathaniel Bacon asked for permission 
 to enlist volunteers. His request was refused, and 
 he thereupon organized companies and chastised the 
 Indians, The governor called it treason, but in view of 
 Bacon's popularity with the people he pardoned him. 
 A new assembly met and repealed many of the unpopu- 
 lar laws,^ passing others for the relief of the people. 
 Civil war, however, broke out with Bacon in charge of the 
 forces against Berkeley, who was soon defeated and fled. 
 Jamestown was thereupon utterly destroyed by Bacon. 
 
 In the midst of his successes Bacon died, and the 
 rebellion fell to pieces. Berkeley thereupon punished 
 
 1 Among the laws enacted in England against which the colonists 
 emphatically protested were the Navigation Laws. They first prohibited 
 the importation of commodities into England in any ships except those 
 belonging to England, the English colonies, or the country which pro- 
 duced the commodities. Later certain articles — sugar, tobacco, and 
 indigo among them — were to be shipped to no country but England. 
 Finally it was enacted in 1663 that European products should not be 
 received in the colonies from foreign vessels, thus giving a complete 
 monopoly of the colonial commerce to English merchants, who, pro- 
 tected from competition, could charge high prices on goods to the 
 colonists and pay low prices on goods from the colonies. 
 
58 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 with death twenty of the rebelHous leaders.^ Bacon's 
 rebelUon was a protest against the class legislation and 
 the corruption of Berkeley's government. He attempted 
 to secure for the people their rights against the ever- 
 increasing tyranny of the aristocratic party, which tried 
 to evade taxation while plundering the public treasury. 
 Though Bacon's rebellion failed, we must admire him 
 for his efforts to better the condition of the people. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1607 the first permanent English settlement in America was 
 made in Jamestown. 
 
 In 1 61 9 was held the first legislative assembly in the New 
 World. The same year marked the introduction of negro slavery 
 in Virginia. 
 
 In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon rose in rebellion against the unjust 
 laws and lax administration of the colony. New laws were enacted, 
 but the rebellion failed of permanent results. 
 
 New Netherlands, or New York, 161 4 
 
 55. Henry Hudson and the Dutch. — At the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century the Dutch were one of the 
 foremost commercial peoples of the world,^ and their 
 country, Holland, was one of the most prosperous in 
 
 1 Said Charles II of Berkeley : " The old fool has 'put to death more 
 people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my 
 father." Charles II had executed only six of the fifty-nine judges who 
 had voted for the death sentence of his father, Charles I. 
 
 2 The Dutch in the seventeenth century had one half of the carry- 
 ing trade of the continent of Europe, and Amsterdam was one of the 
 greatest marts in the world. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 59 
 
 Europe. Their sails were upon every sea, and they 
 were anxious for a short route to the Indies, where 
 abounded the spices, silks, and precious stones so eagerly 
 desired in the markets of Europe. In 1609 the Dutch 
 East India Company, the most successful trading corpo- 
 ration in the world, sent Henry Hudson to find this 
 route to the East. He came in sight of the Maine 
 
 
 The Hal/ Moon on the Hudson 
 
 coast and cruised southward to the mouth of Chesa- 
 peake bay. Turning northward again, he entered the 
 present harbor of New York and discovered in 1609 
 the mighty river that now bears his name.^ In his 
 vessel, the Ha// Moon, he sailed as far north as the 
 site of Albany, exploring the banks and looking for an 
 entrance to the Pacific. He received parties of Indians 
 whom he treated with great kindness. They were of 
 
 1 Verrazano had undoubtedly seen the mouth of the Hudson river in 
 1524, when he entered New \'ork harbor, but Hudson was the first to 
 explore it. Hudson called it the River of the Mountains. It was later 
 justly given the name of the great explorer. 
 
6o ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the Iroquois league, the strongest Indian power in 
 America, and ever afterward the Dutch and Iroquois 
 preserved ties of the strongest friendship. From the 
 narrowing width of the river, Hudson knew he had not 
 found the route to the East. On his return he sent to 
 Amsterdam a glowing account ^ of the country he had 
 visited and of the great possibilities of the fur trade.^ 
 At once traders poured in from all parts of Europe,^ 
 and numerous posts were established for dealing with 
 the Indians. 
 
 56. Settlement of Manhattan; the Dutch West India 
 Company. — Along the Hudson river, called by them 
 the North river, the Dutch built trading places, — one 
 in 1 6 14 on Manhattan island, which became the present 
 city of New York, and another at Fort Orange, on the 
 present site of Albany. Southward they pushed their 
 trading posts, one being built near the present site of 
 Camden, N.J., on the Delaware, called by them the 
 South river. They named the country New Nether- 
 lands and claimed all the territory from the Delaware to 
 the Connecticut. A new corporation called the Dutch 
 
 1 Of the country he wrote: " The land is the finest for cultivation 
 that I ever in my life set foot upon and it also abounds in trees of 
 every description." 
 
 2 England sent Hudson later to find a northwest passage. He dis- 
 covered the bay and strait which bear his name, but he and his crew 
 suffered fearfully from the intense cold. At length the crew mutinied 
 and put Hudson with eight companions in a boat and set them adrift. 
 The unfortunate explorer was never again seen nor heard from. 
 
 2 Furs were of the greatest value to the Dutch traders because of the 
 severe winters in northern Europe. Russia had supplied most of the 
 furs up to this time. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 6l 
 
 West India Company took the place of the Dutch East 
 India Company in 162 1, with virtually supreme power 
 over all the Dutch interests in America. 
 
 57. Purchase of Manhattan; the Patroons In 1626 
 
 a colony under Governor Peter Minuit was sent out to 
 the rude trading post on Manhattan island, where a 
 settlement was established. The Indians sold the island 
 for trinkets worth about twenty-four dollars.^ A fort 
 was established, and the Indian name Manhattan was 
 first given to the settlement, but it was later named 
 Fort Amsterdam. This was the beginning of the 
 present great city of New York. 
 
 Three years later the company offered a grant of 
 land on any river or bay to the founder of a settlement 
 of fifty persons over fifteen years of age. The grant 
 gave to the founder, who was to be called a patroon,^ of 
 New Netherlands a tract of sixteen miles frontage on 
 one side of a river or eight miles on each side. The 
 patroon had the right to appoint officers and magistrates 
 and to act as judge in civil and criminal courts which he 
 was permitted to establish on his lands. The settler 
 on his part could not leave the estate to become the 
 tenant of another. He also agreed to bring his grain 
 to the patroon's mill and pay for the grinding ; to culti- 
 vate the patroon's land for ten years ; to use only cloth 
 made in Holland ; to neither fish nor hunt on the 
 
 1 It has been reckoned that this small siim placed at interest at that 
 time would now amount to nearly one hundred and twenty-five millions 
 of dollars. 
 
 2 " Patroon " means protector or benefactor, like our English word 
 "patron." 
 
62 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 patroon's property, and if he died without will, the 
 patroon was to get all his property. 
 
 58. The Dutch Governors ; Peter Stuyvesant. — Under 
 a series of incompetent and corrupt governors the colony 
 fared ill. In 1645 Peter Stuyvesant arrived as gov- 
 ernor. He was a tyrannical, dictatorial man, who had no 
 faith in the people. He desired to rule with absolute 
 authority, and generally succeeded. He insisted on 
 maintaining the Dutch Protestant Church at the public 
 expense,^ and severely punished dissenters. In 1656 
 he attacked the Swedish settlements on the Delaware 
 and annexed them to New York. He also attempted to 
 annex Connecticut, but failed. 
 
 The English claimed the entire coast by virtue of 
 Cabot's exploration, and saw with a jealous eye this 
 Dutch settlement thrust in between the Virginia and the 
 New England colonies. In 1664 a fleet fitted out by the 
 English king, Charles II, appeared before New Amster- 
 dam and demanded its surrender. Stuyvesant^ stormed 
 in great rage and declared he would never surrender. 
 But the town was in no condition for defense. The peo- 
 ple were weary of Stuyvesant's arrogance, and the flag of 
 Holland was hauled down. The province now received 
 the name of New York, in honor of the Duke of York. 
 
 1 A pew was set apart in the [Dutch Reformed}' Church for the 
 City Fathers; and on Sunday mornings these worthies left their homes 
 and families early to meet in the City Hall from which, preceded by the 
 bell-ringer and carrying their cushions of state, they marched in solemn 
 procession to the sanctuary in the fort. — Lamb's History of New York. 
 
 2 Stuyvesant had lost a leg in the wars in Holland and was called " Old 
 Silver Leg " by the English, and " Hard-Headed Peter " by the Dutc-h. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 63 
 
 59. The Duke's Laws ; Governor Dongan. — New laws, 
 called the "Duke's laws," were enacted. These laws 
 assured trial by jury, equal taxation, tenure of lands 
 from the Duke of York, and a recognition of negro 
 slavery. In 1673 war again broke out between Holland 
 and England, and New York surrendered to a Dutch 
 fleet, but it was returned to the English at the signing 
 of the treaty of peace in 1674. 
 
 In 1683 Thomas Dongan, a native of Ireland and a 
 Catholic, was appointed governor, and under his direc- 
 tion the first legislative assembly held in New York met 
 in October of that year. A Charter of Liberties was 
 drawn up,^ guaranteeing freedom of conscience and 
 religious liberty to all Christians.^ Trial by jury was 
 assured, and no tax could be levied without the consent 
 of the assembly. Dongan settled the boundary dispute 
 with Connecticut, made a peace treaty with the Indians, 
 and did all in his power to prevent the southward march 
 of the French. 
 
 60. Leisler's Rebellion. — After the departure of 
 Dongan strife broke out in the colony. On the flight 
 of James II from the throne of England a German 
 merchant named Jacob Leisler seized the government of 
 the colony on the pretense of holding it for the new king 
 
 ^ The Charter of Liberties was sent to England for the duke's 
 approval, but before it was signed Charles II died ; the Duke of York 
 became king, and New York was annexed to New England under a 
 single governor, Andros. 
 
 2 The first Latin school in New York was opened by the Jesuit 
 Fathers in 1683. The pupils were called together by the ringing of the 
 bell in the fort. 
 
64 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 of England. He proceeded at once to vent his hate on 
 the Catholics. Many of the ablest and noblest men in 
 the colony who had refused to acknowledge his authority 
 were thrown into prison on the charge of making alliance 
 with the Catholics. 
 
 Believing that there was danger of an invasion by the 
 French from Canada, Leisler, in 1690, called a congress 
 of the American colonies to attack Canada. This ivas 
 the first of the congresses that finally resulted in the 
 Congress of PhiladelpJiia, where our independence was 
 proclaimed. 
 
 On the arrival of British troops Leisler refused to 
 give up the fort and fired on the king's soldiers, killing 
 a number. He was soon abandoned by the people and, 
 being captured, was tried by court-martial for murder 
 and treason. He was found guilty and was executed 
 (May 16, 1 691). 
 
 61. Persecution of Catholics ; Royal Colony. — A new 
 assembly met after Leisler's death and reenacted Don- 
 gan's charter of 1683 with one important change, — the 
 right of worship according to the Catholic religion was 
 denied. In 1700^ and 1701 laws were passed expelling 
 Catholic priests from the colony; if any remained they 
 would be punished with imprisonment for life. Any 
 priest coming into the province of his own accord should 
 
 1 Rhode Island also passed a law at this time, denying the right of 
 voting to Catholics. "Throughout the colonies at the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century the man who did not conform to the established 
 religion of the colony ... if he were a Roman Catholic, was wholly dis- 
 franchised. To him there was not even the legal right of public wor- 
 ship." — Sxn.LE. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 65 
 
 be hanged. To Catholic laymen was denied the right 
 to vote for any office. 
 
 In 1 74 1 a new persecution broke out. A -depraved 
 woman claimed to have discovered a plot on the part of 
 the Catholics and negroes to burn the town. The latent 
 bigotry now burst into flame, and before the panic had 
 ceased four whites were hanged ; of the negroes seventy 
 were transported, eighteen were hanged, and fourteen 
 burned at the stake. 
 
 From 1685, when the Duke of York ascended the 
 English throne, until the Revolution New York remained 
 a royal colony. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1609 Henry Hudson discovered and explored the Hudson 
 river and gave to the Dutch possession of the country. They 
 called it New Netherlands and founded on Manhattan island the 
 town of New Amsterdam. 
 
 In 1664 the English captured the country and called it New 
 York. 
 
 In 1683 the first legislative assembly was held under Governor 
 Dongan. The Charter of Liberties passed by this assembly 
 guaranteed religious liberty and trial by jury. 
 
 New Jersey, 16 17 
 
 62. Grant to Berkeley and Carteret. — After the Eng- 
 lish had obtained control of the province of New Nether- 
 lands the Duke of York, in 1664, gave the land between 
 New York harbor and Delaware bay to two court favorites. 
 Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Berkeley took 
 the southwestern portion, called West Jersey, while the 
 
66 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 northeastern portion, called East Jersey, was given to 
 Carteret. Carteret had been governor of the island of 
 Jersey, off the English coast, and had defended the 
 island against the Puritan forces during the Civil War 
 in England. The province was therefore called, in his 
 honor. New Jersey. 
 
 The constitution under which the settlers lived gave 
 them a voice in the lawmaking, as no tax could be levied 
 without the consent of the assembly of their representa- 
 tives. Freedom of worship was promised ; but, as was 
 the case in most of the colonies, it was not practiced as 
 regards Roman Catholics. In Newark only Protestant 
 church members could vote. A party of settlers under 
 Philip Carteret, a relative of Sir George, founded in 
 1664 Elizabeth, the first permanent English settlement 
 in the state. In 1667 Newark was founded by emi- 
 grants from the New Haven colony. 
 
 63 . William Penn and the Quakers ; a Royal Province . — 
 In 1673, because of endless disputes between the settlers 
 and Berkeley, the latter sold his share to the Quakers, 
 of whom William Penn was the leading spirit, and nine 
 years later, on the death of Carteret, they obtained the 
 remainder of the colony. In 1688 both East Jersey 
 and West Jersey were added to New York and to 
 New England under the governorship of Sir Edmund 
 Andros. The revolution in England forced out Andros 
 from the governorship, and in the confusion that 
 ensued as to the right of ownership the king took the 
 colony as a royal province, 1702. In this year liberty 
 of conscience was proclaimed for all except Catholics 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 6^] 
 
 and Quakers.^ Fc^r the next thirty-six years New Jersey 
 was under the governor of New York, but in 1738 it was 
 allowed to have its own governor. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1664 the Duke of York seized and granted to his friends 
 Berkeley and Carteret the present territory of New Jersey, which 
 had been claimed by the Dutch. Elizabeth, the first permanent 
 English settlement in the state, was founded in the same year. 
 
 In 1673 the Quakers purchased Berkeley's share of the terri- 
 tory, and in 1682 Carteret sold to them his portion. 
 
 In 1688 the entire colony was added to New York and New 
 England, and in 1 702 became a royal province. 
 
 Massachusetts; Plymouth Colony, 1620; Massachu- 
 setts Bay Colony, 1630 
 
 64. The Pilgrims in Holland ; the Mayflower. — We 
 
 have already seen (p. 51) how Popham, sent by the Ply- 
 mouth Company, tried to found a settlement at the mouth 
 of the Kennebec in 1607, and failed. In 161 3 John 
 Smith of Virginia visited this section, made a map of 
 the coast, and gave names to the Charles river and to 
 two of the promontories, cape Ann and cape Elizabeth. 
 He called the entire section New England. His attempts 
 at settlement, however, in this section were a failure. 
 
 ^ The Society of Friends or Quakers was founded by George Fox in 
 England. He was thrust into prison, but his doctrines spread rapidly. 
 The Quakers taught the equality of man, and they believed there should 
 be uniformity in dress. They recognized no title and kept their heads 
 covered before king or peasant. They refused to give testimony under 
 oath and were unalterably opposed to war and slavery. 
 
68 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 In 1608 a party of English Protestants who were dis- 
 satisfied with the Church of England left the little 
 village of Scrooby. They settled in Holland, at Amster- 
 dam, and a little later in, Leyden. Finally deciding to 
 emigrate to America, they obtained from the London 
 Company permission to settle in New Jersey. Leav- 
 ing Delfshaven in July, 1620, on the Speedwell^ they 
 touched at Southampton, England, where another vessel, 
 the Mayflower, joined them, and together they set sail 
 for America. 
 
 The Speedwell was found to be unsafe, however, and 
 they returned. All who desired to continue crowded 
 on to the Mayflozver, which sailed with one hundred pas- 
 sengers. On November 19 they sighted the shores of 
 cape Cod, far to the north of their destination. As this 
 section was the property of the Plymouth Company, and 
 they were to settle in the territory of the London Com- 
 pany, they started again southward. They were driven 
 back by violent weather, and finally, anchoring in the 
 harbor of Provincetown, they decided to get permission 
 from the Plymouth Company to settle on their land. Some 
 of the members, taking advantage of the fact that they 
 were not landing in Virginia, declared their independence 
 of all authority. The colonists, therefore, drew up in 
 the cabin of the Mayflowei' a compact to enact " such just 
 and equal laws ... as shall be thought most meet and 
 convenient for the general good of the colony." They 
 elected John Carver governor, and explored the coast. 
 
 65 . The Landing at Plymouth ; Treaty with the Indians . 
 — On December 2 1 they resolved to land at a place now 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 69 
 
 called Plymouth. 1 They suffered so severely from the 
 cold winter and scarcity of food that one half of the 
 colony perished during the winter and spring, among 
 them John Carver, the governor. 
 
 The Plymouth Company was dissolved at this time, 
 and its successor, the Council for New England, granted 
 
 Captain Myles Standish 
 
 to the Pilgrims a tract of land between the fortieth and 
 forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and extending 
 from sea to sea, or from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 One of the wise acts of Governor Carver before his 
 death was the peace treaty with the Indians. Early in 
 
 1 This place had been visited by Champlain and called by him Port 
 St. Louis. 
 
70 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the spring there appeared in the colony an Indian named 
 Samoset. He had learned to speak a little English from 
 the fishermen along the Kennebec, and welcomed the 
 English colonists to the land. A treaty was made with 
 Massasoit, the Indian chief, which was faithfully observed 
 for fifty-four years. 
 
 Along Narragansett bay lived the powerful tribe 
 named the Narragansetts, whose chief was Canonicus. 
 They were the enemies of Massasoit. Desiring to terrify 
 the colonists, they sent a rattlesnake skin stuffed with 
 arrows to Governor Bradford, who was Carver's succes- 
 sor. Bradford filled the skin with powder and ball and 
 sent it back. Canonicus became frightened and decided 
 it was best to leave the colonists in peace. 
 
 The military leader of the colony was Myles Standish, 
 the brave, energetic, heroic warrior who spread terror 
 among the hostile Indians. 
 
 One of the most famous institutions founded in the 
 New World by the Pilgrims was the town meeting. 
 Here all the citizens met together and voted directly on 
 all questions instead of through representatives. It was 
 the purest form of democratic government. The Ply- 
 mouth colony grew slowly. Nine years after its estab- 
 lishment it had only three hundred members, and it was 
 finally (1691) absorbed by the Massachusetts colony. 
 
 66. The Puritans ; the Massachusetts Bay Colony. — 
 The Puritans in England now followed the example of 
 the Pilgrims. They obtained a tract of land, stretching 
 from three miles north of the Merrimac river to three 
 miles south of the Charles and westward to the Pacific. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 71 
 
 An expedition led by John Endicott sailed with sixty 
 persons and founded Salem in 1628. In the following 
 year the royal charter was secured, incorporating this 
 colony as the Company of Massachusetts Bay. It was 
 to be managed by a governor, deputy governor, and a 
 council of eighteen assistants, to be elected annually by 
 the members of the comj^any. Only Puritan church 
 members were allowed to vote. 
 
 In April, 1630, John Winthrop reached Salem with 
 one thousand Puritans. He moved later to Charlestown, 
 and still later to a place the Indians called Shawmut. 
 The English named it Tri-mountain, or Tremont, because 
 of its three hills. This name was later changed to 
 Boston, after the English town whence many of the 
 settlers came. A throng of immigrants now poured in, 
 no less than twenty thousand arriving in ten years. 
 Among the settlements were Roxbury, Dorchester, 
 Watertown, and Newtown, or Cambridge. 
 
 The colonists under Endicott shortly after their 
 arrival in Salem had separated from the Church of 
 England. They established separatist churches after 
 the model called Congregational.^ They ordered that 
 *' no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body 
 politic but such as are members of some of the churches 
 within the limits of the same." This caused trouble. 
 
 67. Roger Williams founds Providence. — In 1633 a 
 young Welshman, Roger Williams, pastor of a church 
 in Salem, advocated the separation of church and state 
 
 1 Under the Congregational system each parish has its own inde- 
 pendent, self-governing church. 
 
72 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 and full freedom of religious belief. He also declared 
 that the Indians, not the king, owned the land and from 
 the Indians the land must be bought if they would have 
 an honest and valid title. For such sentiments he was 
 promptly ordered to England but escaped and later 
 founded the city of Providence. At the same time 
 Mrs. Anne Hutchinson was driven out of the Puritan 
 colony because of her peculiar religious beliefs. She 
 
 Watertown*, 3*31 
 Cambridse J*V 
 
 Roxbury Do\ohe3ter ^C.Cod 
 
 ^ /'" ^^^^'"'^^"^ , PraVidcnce ' ^' 7. U 
 ^ ■ Hartford 7 / !r H l|^[t.Hope f, %^ 
 
 fij( 
 
 jsia 
 
 •w>- .- 
 
 ™<."«'^^0^'^. 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 1_ 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 bought the island of Aquidneck, — afterwards called 
 Rhode Island, — as we shall see later. 
 
 68. The New England Confederation. — In 1643 the 
 four colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts bay, Connecti- 
 cut, and New Haven organized a military league, called the 
 New England Confederation, for self-protection against 
 the Indians as well as defense against the Dutch, who 
 still claimed the Connecticut valley. Another reason 
 for the union was the Civil War in England and the 
 necessity of being prepared for the result of that strug- 
 gle. Maine and Rhode Island were not invited to join 
 the confederacy as they did not believe in Puritan ideas 
 and were in consequence looked upon with suspicion. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 73 
 
 The confederacy lasted for forty years and is of impor- 
 tance as it is the first experiment in united action by 
 the American colonies. 
 
 69. Persecution of the Quakers. — In 1656 the first 
 Quakers appeared in Massachusetts. Because of their 
 independent religious views they had already been a 
 source of the greatest trouble to the English authorities, 
 who had tried in vain to crush them, no less than four 
 thousand being in English jails at one time. Their 
 appearance in Massachusetts created the greatest alarm, 
 and they were at once shipped back to England. A 
 law was enacted against them which provided for flog- 
 ging and imprisonment. These laws did not deter the 
 Quakers in the least. They poured into the colony, 
 denounced the magistrates, and defied the Puritan clergy. 
 
 In 1657 another law was enacted that Quakers should 
 have their ears cut off and their tongues pierced with 
 red-hot irons. In 1658 the Massachusetts General Court 
 passed a law providing the death penalty for returning 
 Quakers, and in 1659 four of them were hanged on 
 Boston Common, while others w^ere flogged from town 
 to town, imprisoned, starved, and otherwise maltreated. 
 A reaction soon set in. While the magistrates, led 
 chiefly by Endicott ^ and the Puritan clergy, endeavored 
 to keep up the persecution, the people revolted, and 
 
 ^ No figure in our early history looms out of the past like Endi- 
 cott's. The harsh face still looks down from under the black skull-cap; 
 the gray moustache and pointed beard shading the determined mouth, 
 but throwing into relief the lines of the massive jaw. He is almost 
 heroic in his ferocious bigotry and daring. — Brooks Adams' The 
 Einaucipatioii of ]\[assachiisetts. 
 
74 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 gradually the Quakers enjoyed the rights that belonged 
 to them as free-born English subjects. 
 
 70. *'King" Philip^s War. — The treaty which had 
 been made by the English with Massasoit had been 
 strictly kept until his death in 1660. Massasoit left 
 two sons, who had been given the names Alexander and 
 
 Indians attacking a Settlement 
 
 Philip. Alexander died in 1662 after a visit to Plymouth, 
 Philip believed he had been poisoned and at once set 
 out to make war on the English, who w.ere gradually 
 settling around him nearer and nearer and compelling 
 him to give up more of his land year by year. In 1674 
 Philip let loose his warriors, and for two years the horrible 
 warfare was carried on throughout Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, and Connecticut. At length he was hemmed in 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 75 
 
 in a swamp near Mount Hope, Rhode Island, and was 
 killed Aug. 12, 1676, by an Indian. His hands were 
 cut off and sent to Boston, and his head was set up on a 
 pole in Plymouth. The war had cost the colonists six 
 hundred fighting men and heavy war debts. A vast 
 amount of property had been destroyed, but the Indian 
 power in New England was broken forever. 
 
 71. The Salem Witchcraft. — There had been recurring 
 witchcraft panics in Europe since the fifteenth century, 
 and in England and Scotland there were several in the 
 seventeenth century. In various parts of Massachu- 
 setts the delusion appeared, but the most violent out- 
 break was in Salem. The children of a Puritan minister 
 claimed to be bewitched by an old colored woman. She 
 confessed, and with the children brought accusations 
 against many people in the parish. Cotton Mather, 
 one of the most conservative of the Puritan ministers, 
 had aided by his writings and sermons in intensifying the 
 belief in witchcraft, and his influence was now thrown 
 in favor of the active prosecution of the cases. This 
 soon produced a reign of terror throughout the colony. 
 No one was safe, and before the panic ended twenty 
 persons had suffered death. ^ At length a reaction set 
 in, and those in prison were released. So keenly did 
 the colony feel its shame that a day of fast was 
 
 ^ It seemed as though the bonds of society were dissolving; nine- 
 teen persons had been hanged, one had l)een pressed to death and eight 
 lay condemned; a number had fled, but their property had been seized 
 and they were beggars; the prisons were choked while more than two 
 hundred were accused and in momentary fear of arrest ; even two dogs 
 had been killed. — Brooks Adams. 
 
'jG ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 appointed. One of the judges who had condemned the 
 witches was Samuel Sewall. He wrote a confession of 
 his error with a request for forgiveness, and stood in his 
 pew in the Old South Church while the minister read 
 it to the congregation. 
 
 72. Loss of the Massachusetts Charter. — When 
 Charles II regained the throne of his father he was 
 beset by the Quakers, Baptists, Episcopalians, and 
 others who complained of the intolerance of the Mas- 
 sachusetts authorities. It was represented to him that 
 English subjects had been executed illegally ; that the 
 king's name did not appear in the writs ; that Episco- 
 palians were not allowed to appeal to the king's courts ; 
 that money had been coined illegally ; that the Navigation 
 Laws^ had been broken, and that hundreds of other illegal 
 acts had been committed. Charles had no love for Massa- 
 chusetts, and gladly accepted the opportunity which was 
 now given him to withdraw the charter. In spite of all pro- 
 tests this action was taken in 1684. In 1686 Sir Edmund 
 Andros was appointed governor, and six years later a 
 new charter was given by the English king, William III. 
 
 By this charter, Maine, Massachusetts, and Plymouth 
 became one province. The religious qualification for 
 voters gave way to a property qualification, except for 
 Catholics, who were given no rights whatever.^ The 
 
 1 By these laws the commerce of the colonies must be carried on in 
 vessels owned in England or the colonies, and the export of certain 
 commodities was confined to England. 
 
 2 Some of the worst penal laws on the pages of history were enacted 
 during the first years of the reign of William and Mary. They may be 
 seen in detail in Blackstone, Com?fientaries, Book IV, pp. 55-58. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 77 
 
 king was granted power to appoint the governor, and 
 the people could make only such laws as the king saw 
 fit to approve. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1620 the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth from the May- 
 /lower. 
 
 In 1628 the Puritans reached Salem and later settled Boston. 
 
 In 1633 Roger Williams was driven from the Puritan colony 
 and founded in 1636 the city of Providence. 
 
 In 1643 3. confederacy of four colonies (Plymouth, Massa- 
 chusetts bay, Connecticut, and New Haven) was formed for 
 defense against the Indians and the Dutch. 
 
 In 1656 the Quaker persecution was begun. 
 
 In 1676 the war with "King" Philip ended in his death and 
 the overthrow of the Indian power forever. 
 
 In 1692 the Salem witchcraft delusion spread terror through- 
 out the colony. In the same year a new charter consolidated 
 the colonies of Maine, Massachusetts bay, and Plymouth into 
 one. 
 
 New Hampshire, 1623 
 
 73. Grant to Gorges and Mason. — As early as 1603 
 Captain Martin Pring with two vessels explored the 
 harbor now called Portsmouth, and sailed up the Pis- 
 cataqua river. In 1622 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and 
 Captain John Mason obtained from the Grand Council 
 of Plymouth a grant of land between the Merrimac 
 and the Kennebec, and extending from the Atlantic 
 to the great river of Canada. This tract was called 
 Laconia, ''because of the great lakes therein." 
 
7^ 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 74. Settlement of Dover and Portsmouth. — Settle- 
 ments were planted at Dover and at Portsmouth, but 
 little progress was made for many years, the chief occu- 
 pations of the people being fishing, hunting, and trading 
 with the Indians. In 1629 Mason and Gorges divided 
 their territory. Mason received the portion between 
 the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers and called it New 
 Hampshire, after Hampshire in England, where he had 
 
 lived many years. Gorges took 
 the territory between the Piscat- 
 aqua and the Kennebec and called 
 it Maine. ^ To his colony Mason 
 sent over farming tools and cattle ; 
 but he died in 1635, ^^^^ ^^^ many 
 years the colonists were neglected. 
 In 1635 Rev. John Wheelwright, 
 who had been banished from Mas- 
 sachusetts for his sympathy with 
 Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, settled 
 Exeter. Among the immigrants 
 into this colony was a large number of Irish, who 
 founded Londonderry, 17 19. 
 
 In 164 1 New Hampshire was annexed to Massachu- 
 setts. They were separated and joined a number of 
 times, until in 1679 New Hampshire became a royal 
 province. Henceforth the king appointed the governor, 
 
 1 In regard to the meaning of the name Maine, Bryant and Gay's 
 History says Maine, like all the rest of the coast, was known as the 
 " Maine," the mainland, and it is not unlikely that the word, so much 
 used by the early fishers on the coast, may thus have been given to 
 this part of it. 
 
 nr 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 79 
 
 and all laws made by the colonists were subject to the 
 approval of the king. 
 
 In the meantime Gorges had obtained in April, 1639, 
 a charter from the king which conferred on him the 
 title of " Lord Proprietor of the Province and County of 
 Maine." This charter gave him almost unlimited power 
 and established in the colony the Church of England. 
 The province was divided in two counties, Agamen- 
 ticus, or York, being the principal settlement of one, 
 and Saco of the other. In 1632 Portland was founded. 
 Gorges never visited America, and his province was neg- 
 lected. In 1677 Massachusetts bought the claims from 
 the heirs of Mason and Gorges for about six thousand 
 dollars. By a new charter granted by William and 
 Mary in 169 1 Maine was united to Massachusetts and 
 was controlled by that state until Maine was admitted 
 into the Union in March, 1820. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1603 Martin Pring explored the coast, and in 1622 Gorges 
 and Mason were granted the territory between the Merrimac and 
 the Kennebec. It was called Laconia. In 1629 it was divided 
 and Mason called his share New Hampshire. Gorges called his 
 territory Maine. 
 
 In 1 641 New Hampshire and Massachusetts were united. 
 
 In 1679 New Hampshire became a royal province. 
 
 In T677 Maine passed under the control of Massachusetts 
 and in 1691 was united to it by a new charter. 
 
 In I 719 Londonderry was founded by the Irish. 
 
8o ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Connecticut, 1634 
 
 75. The Dutch at Hartford ; Foundation of Say brook 
 
 While the Dutch had been extending their settlements 
 to the north on the Hudson and to the south on the 
 Delaware, they were also looking for territory to the 
 eastward, and in 1633 they built a fort where Hartford 
 now stands. Two years afterwards John Winthrop, Jr., 
 son of the governor, acting as agent of two Puritan 
 noblemen who had obtained a grant of this section, 
 established a fort at the mouth of the river to shut off 
 the Dutch vessels. He called the fort Saybrook in 
 honor of his patrons, Lord Say and Lord Brooke. 
 
 76. Emigration from Massachusetts. — The intensely 
 narrow spirit of the Puritan leaders, the unrestrained 
 power of the magistrates, and the lack of religious free- 
 dom in Massachusetts had become distasteful to many 
 of the members. Accordingly, in 1635, a large body 
 of colonists set out from Massachusetts. With their 
 families and household goods they drove the cattle 
 before them and reached the fair and fertile valley of 
 the Connecticut. Here they established three towns, 
 Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. Thomas Hooker, 
 the leader of the enterprise, was the pastor of a Puritan 
 church in Newtown, or Cambridge. 
 
 77. The Fundamental Orders, 1639. — A general con- 
 vention of the planters of the three towns of Hartford, 
 Windsor, and Wethersfield was held at Hartford, Jan. 14, 
 1639, ^^d adopted a plan of government called "The 
 Fundamental Orders." 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 8 1 
 
 The Fundamental Orders were modeled on the gov- 
 ernment of Massachusetts, except that the right of vot- 
 ing was not limited to church members but could be 
 enjoyed by all approved freemen who would take the 
 oath of allegiance. The governor, however, must be a 
 member of one of the Congregational churches. 
 
 78. The New Haven Settlement. — In 1638 another 
 colony was founded by a Puritan minister of the 
 strictest type, John Davenport, assisted by a wealthy 
 
 Hadley 
 
 ( SprinjfieldV-^^ ^rookfield t/ 
 
 Cambridge JgPSTON 
 
 Roiburj Dokohfster _C. Cud 
 
 ,5 Plymouth- 
 
 l>M..noi,e ^ 
 .S:^ APiirtsmiiutK 
 i"''Ne«ljurt 
 
 „,a»O^V>/'^- '^ 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 London merchant, Theophilus Eaton. Their plan was 
 to establish a colony to be governed on scriptural prin- 
 ciples. The place where they settled was called Ouin- 
 nipiac, and a year later New Haven. The laws of 
 Moses were adopted at the outset for the colony. Only 
 members of the Congregational church could be voters 
 or magistrates. Trial by jury was not allowed, and it 
 was decreed that ''the Word of God shall be the only 
 rule in ordering the affairs of government." ^ 
 
 ^ Under these laws there were twelve offenses punishable by death. 
 In England in the middle of the eighteenth century there were over 
 one hundred and sixty, and the number increased until the criminal law 
 reform early in the last century. 
 
82 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Several towns were established near New Haven, and 
 in 1643 New Haven, Milford, Guilford, and Stamford 
 were united in one political community, called the New 
 Haven colony. In 1662 this colony was absorbed by 
 Connecticut^ under a charter from Charles H.^ 
 
 79. The Pequot War. — The colonists in the mean- 
 time had been exposed to a serious danger. In the 
 valley of the river Thames dwelt a powerful tribe of 
 Indians called the Pequots. They repeatedly attacked 
 the settlements in the Connecticut valley, and the colo- 
 nists at length determined to break their power. In 
 1637 a company of ninety men from Connecticut, under 
 Captain John Mason, and twenty from Massachusetts, 
 under Captain Underbill, with seventy friendly Mohi- 
 cans^ marched to the fort of the Pequots and sur- 
 rounded it just before daybreak. The sleeping Indians 
 awakened to find the fort in flames and completely at 
 the mercy of the colonists. Of the four hundred 
 Pequots within the inclosure only five escaped the 
 flames and bullets. This defeat destroyed the power of 
 
 1 Connecticut is an Indian word and is supposed to mean " the long 
 river." 
 
 2 Two of the judges who had condemned Charles I to death had 
 found refuge in New Haven. When Charles II ascended the throne, 
 he ordered them to be delivered up to his ofificers ; ,but they were con- 
 cealed by the people, and the search for them was fruitless. This 
 incensed Charles and may have assisted the Connecticut colony in its 
 successful attempt to absorb the New Haven colony. 
 
 3 The Pequots tried to induce the Mohicans and Narragansetts to 
 join them and almost succeeded. Roger Williams, however, returning 
 good for evil, used his great influence with these tribes, and they refused 
 to aid the Pequots in their war against the colonists. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 83 
 
 the Pequots forever. The other tribes were so terrified 
 by this crushing defeat that forty years elapsed before 
 the Indians again raised the war cry against the colonists. 
 80. The Charter and Governor Andros. — The charter 
 of Connecticut, which had been granted by Charles II, 
 was taken away by his brother, James II, when he 
 reached the throne. He appointed Sir Edmund Andros 
 as governor of New England, and in October, 1687, he 
 visited Hartford to obtain the charter. According to 
 the tradition, the charter had been placed on the table, 
 and while the matter was being discussed the lights 
 were suddenly extinguished. When the candles were 
 relighted the charter could not be found. It had been 
 hidden in the hollow trunk of an oak tree, which has 
 since been known as the " Charter Oak." Andros, how- 
 ever, overthrew the charter government. On his down- 
 fall the charter was again produced, and under it 
 Connecticut was governed until the Revolution. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1633 the Dutch built a fort at Hartford. 
 
 In 1635 emigrants from Massachusetts settled Windsor, Hart- 
 ford, and Wethersfield. 
 
 In 1637 the Pequots went on the warpath. The colonists of 
 Connecticut and Massachusetts attacked them, and the tribe was 
 completely destroyed. 
 
 In 1638 New Haven was founded by English Puritans. 
 
 In 1639 ^^^ Connecticut Constitution, or Fundamental Orders, 
 was drawn up at Hartford. 
 
 In 1687 Andros overthrew the charter government; but Con- 
 necticut later regained the charter, under which it was governed 
 until the Revolution. 
 
84 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Maryland, 1634 
 
 81. The Position of the Catholics in England. — After 
 Virginia became a royal province Charles I cut off a 
 territory to the north and gave it to George Calvert, 
 the first Lord Baltimore. He was a rich nobleman who 
 had been secretary of state under James I, but had 
 resigned his position in 1625 on his conversion to the 
 
 Catholic faith. ^ Know- 
 
 ing the fearful hardships 
 of his fellow-religion- 
 ists, he desired a refuge 
 for the oppressed 
 CathoUcs of England. 
 At this time the Cath- 
 olics under the British 
 crown were suffering 
 from a series of the 
 most inhuman laws. 
 According to these 
 laws any priest dis- 
 covered celebrating 
 Mass would be fined two hundred marks ^ and imprisoned 
 for one year, while any person discovered hearing Mass 
 would receive the same imprisonment, with a fine of one 
 
 1 The king continued him as a member of his privy council for life and 
 regranted to him the estates which he had forfeited when he became a 
 Catholic. He also raised him to the peerage under the title of Baron 
 of Baltimore, a town in the southern part of Ireland. 
 
 2 The old English mark was worth about three dollars and twenty- 
 three cents. 
 
 George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 85 
 
 hundred marks. Any person who refused to attend the 
 services of the Church of England was forbidden to hold 
 any office, to bear arms, or to come within ten miles of 
 London. They were also forbidden to travel more than 
 five miles without a special license or to come into court 
 under a penalty of five hundred dollars. No Catholic 
 could teach school under penalty of perpetual imprison- 
 ment, while any Catholic who sent his child abroad to be 
 educated lost all his legal rights and real estate and was 
 required to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. Any priest 
 or bishop, born under the British 
 crown, who returned to England 
 from abroad and failed to renounce 
 his religion within three days, was 
 guilty of high treason, the punish- 
 ment of which was death. 
 
 82. The Grant of Maryland.— To 
 give a place of refuge to his perse- 
 cuted fellow-Catholics, George Cal- 
 vert tried to found a settlement in 
 Newfoundland, but it was too cold. 
 Later he attempted to settle in 
 Virginia, but the colonists there 
 drove him away on account of his Catholic faith. Still 
 determined to carry out his plans, he returned to Eng- 
 land and obtained from the king a grant of that part 
 of Virginia lying between the Potomac and the fortieth 
 degree of north latitude. At the request of the king, 
 the territory was called Maryland in honor of his queen, 
 Henrietta Maria. 
 
86 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 83. The Maryland Charter. — Lord Baltimore was 
 given the most extensive rights and privileges ever con- 
 ferred by a sovereign of England. He was required to 
 pay to the king each year, in token of homage, two Indian 
 arrows and a fifth of all the gold and silver mined. He 
 could coin money, grant titles of nobility, make war 
 and peace, estabHsh courts, appoint judges, and pardon 
 criminals. He was required, however, to summon an 
 assembly of the freemen, who alone could levy taxes; all 
 enactments needed only his signature, and not that of 
 the king, to have the binding effect of law. 
 
 84. Settlement at St. Marys. — Lord Baltimore died 
 before the charter was signed, and his son, Cecil Calvert, 
 the second Lord Baltimore, carried out his father's plans. 
 With two vessels, in charge of Leonard Calvert, brother 
 of the proprietor, the colonists, two hundred and twenty 
 in number, with Father White and two other Jesuits, 
 entered Chesapeake Bay and sailed up the Potomac. At 
 St. Clements island they landed and took possession. 
 Father White consecrated the soil, and the first Mass in 
 English America was celebrated March 25, 1634. A 
 settlement which they named St. Marys was founded. 
 Land was purchased from the Indians, and this gained 
 their good will at the outset. 
 
 85. The Toleration Act. — Cecil Calvert had instructed 
 his brother, on setting sail, '* to be very careful to preserve 
 unity and peace and to suffer no scandal nor offence to 
 be given to any of the Protestants." That this instruc- 
 tion was followed to the letter is evident from the tolera- 
 tion and peace among the colonists. In 1649, however, 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 8/ 
 
 it was deemed best to put the principle of religious free- 
 dom in the form of law, the first enactment in the land 
 that gave equal rights in religion to all Christians. The 
 act read as follows : *' And whereas the enforcing of the 
 conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen 
 out to be of dangerous consequence in those common- 
 wealths where it hath been practised, and for the more 
 
 W^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 ▼ -^^gWl » >^^>^lii' I III I I III 
 
 /I L' MW^- 
 
 The Landing in Maryland 
 
 quiet and peaceable government of this province, and 
 the better to preserve mutual love and amity among the 
 inhabitants, no person within this province, professing to 
 believe in Jesus Christ,^ shall be in any ways troubled, 
 molested or discountenanced for his or her religion or 
 
 1 This provision excluded Jews from the suffrage. It was not until 
 1826 that they were allowed to vote and to hold office. 
 
88 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 in the free exercise thereof." Under these humane laws 
 the colony greatly flourished. Lord Baltimore invited 
 the oppressed of all lands to join his colony, and in answer 
 to his invitation, says Bancroft, "from France came 
 Huguenots, from Germany, from Holland, from Sweden, 
 from Finland, I believe from Piedmont, the children of 
 misfortune sought protection under the tolerant sceptre 
 of the Roman Catholic." ^ 
 
 86. Clayborne^s Rebellion ; Repeal of Toleration Act. — 
 The inflowing of new settlers, many of them Puritans, 
 threatened disaster to the colony. Many Virginia colo- 
 nists, aided by the Puritans, invaded Maryland under 
 William Clayborne. They overthrew the government 
 and drove out Lord Baltimore.^ He returned two years 
 later, however, with a strong force and in August, 1646, 
 regained possession of the government. In 1691 Wil- 
 liam and Mary, who had obtained the English throne, 
 repealed the charter of Maryland, and it became a royal 
 province. Lord Baltimore was stripped of his rights. 
 The Act of Toleration was repealed, and the persecution 
 of the Catholics at once began. They were forbidden to 
 vote or to hold any office ; they were denied the privilege 
 of hearing Mass or holding any religious services. The 
 
 1 Calvert deserves to be ranked among the most wise and benevo- 
 lent lawgivers of all ages. He was the first in the history of the Chris- 
 tian world to seek for religious security and peace by the practice of 
 justice and not by the exercise of power. — Bancroft. 
 
 2 Fathers White and Copley were arrested, loaded with chains, and 
 sent to England for trial. The charge against them was that they had 
 been ordained priests abroad and had come into England, a crime 
 punishable with death. They were acquitted. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 89 
 
 Church of England was established by law and all the 
 inhabitants of the colony taxed for its support.^ 
 
 The land taxes of the Catholics were doubled, and 
 they were compelled to pay tithes amounting to forty 
 pounds of tobacco for the support of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 The capital was removed to its present site and called 
 Annapolis, which became a city in 1708. 
 
 In 1 7 14 Benedict Leonard Calvert renounced his Cath- 
 olic faith, and to his son, Charles Calvert, a Protestant, 
 the province was restored. In 1 729 the city of Balti- 
 more was founded. Maryland remained a proprietary 
 colony until the Revolution. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 • 
 
 Lord Baltimore obtained a grant of land to found a colony in 
 the New World for the oppressed Catholics of England. In 1634 
 the settlement of St. Marys was made. 
 
 In 1649 the Toleration Act, the first measure in America to 
 give religious freedom to all Christians, was enacted. Later the 
 Puritans obtained control. Lord Baltimore was deprived of his 
 colony, and the Toleration Act was overthrown. 
 
 In 1 69 1 Lord Baltimore, who had again obtained possession of 
 his colony, was stripped of his rights under William and Mary, and 
 persecution of the Catholics followed. 
 
 In 1 714 the fourth Lord Baltimore renounced his Catholic 
 faith and his son later regained the property. 
 
 In 1729 the city of Baltimore was founded. 
 
 1 Maryland presented the picture of a province founded for the 
 sake of religious opinion by the toil and treasure of Roman Catholics, 
 in which of all who called themselves Christian, none, save Roman 
 Catholics, were denied toleration. — Rev. Dr. Mawks. 
 
90 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Rhode Island, 1636 
 
 87. Roger Williams founds Providence. — We have 
 already seen (p. 72) that Roger Williams was compelled 
 to flee from the Massachusetts bay colony. In the midst 
 of winter he plunged into the forest and sought protec- 
 tion in the hospitable tent of Massasoit, the Indian chief. 
 Heading again towards Narragansett bay, he began to 
 build a home on the Seekonk river. Scarcely had he 
 done this when the governor of Plymouth^ requested 
 him to leave as he was in the territory of that colony. 
 Departing from his cabin and his newly planted fields, 
 WilHams pushed on. Reaching a favorable site, he 
 established a settlement which he called Providence.^ 
 
 88. Settlement of Portsmouth and Newport. — In 1638 
 friends of Anne Hutchinson bought from the Narragan- 
 setts the island of Aquidneck, afterwards called Rhode 
 Island. Dissensions, however, soon arose, and some of 
 the colonists moved to the southern end of the island 
 and founded a colony which was named Newport. The 
 
 1 I received a letter from my ancient friend, Mr. Winslow, then 
 governor of Plymoutli, professing his own and others' love and respect 
 to me yet lovingly advising me since I was fallen into the edge of their 
 bounds ... to remove but to the other side of the water . . . and we 
 should be loving neighbors together. — Letter of Roger Williams. 
 
 2 Coasting along the stream and round the headlands now known 
 as Fox Point and India Point, up the harbor to the mouth of the 
 Mooshausic River, he landed and upon the beautiful slope of the hill 
 that ascends from the river he descried the spring around which he 
 commenced the first plantations of Providence. — Gammell. "Provi- 
 dence was so named because of God's merciful providence unto me in 
 my distress," says Williams. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 91 
 
 old settlement was called Portsmouth. These different 
 colonies were united afterwards by a charter which Roger 
 Williams secured in England,^ and were called "The 
 Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." 
 
 89. Religious Toleration. — Roger Williams had suf- 
 fered so much for his religious opinions that he established 
 his new colony along broad religious lines. "The state," 
 he declared, " was similar to a ship at sea on which there 
 are many passengers. As on shipboard every passenger 
 is allowed to use his own judgment as to attendance 
 at the ship's prayers, so in the state no one should be 
 compelled to attend religious services against his will ; 
 but should be obedient to the orders of the majority only 
 in civil things." The laws of 1663, therefore, declared 
 "that all men professing Christianity . . . who are 
 obedient to the civil magistrate, though of different 
 judgments in religious affairs, shall be admitted freemen 
 and shall have liberty to choose and be chosen officers 
 in the colony." 
 
 From 1 7 1 9 (when a new arrangement of the laws was 
 made) until the Revolution the Catholics, together with 
 the Jews, were denied the rights of citizenship.^ 
 
 1 Roger Williams was compelled on his trip to England to sail from 
 New York as Massachusetts refused to allow him to cross her soil to 
 reach the port of Boston. 
 
 2 As late as 1762 two Jews applied for citizenship, but the Superior 
 Court rejected their application. The colony, however, in general was 
 extremely liberal in religious matters. When the other New England 
 colonies asked Providence to join with them in persecuting the Quakers, 
 to its honor it refused. 
 
92 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1636 Roger Williams, exiled from Massachusetts, founded 
 the city of Providence. A short time afterward Portsmouth and 
 Newport were founded by the friends of Anne Hutchinson. Roger 
 Williams believed in freedom of worship, and the colony shares 
 with Maryland the honor of establishing the principle of religious 
 freedom. 
 
 New Sweden, or Delaware, 1638 
 
 90. The Swedes on the Delaware. — In 1623 the 
 Dutch West India Company established a trading post 
 
 on the banks of the Delaware, just 
 below the present site of Phila- 
 delphia, and called it Fort Nassau. 
 About the same time Gustavus 
 Adolphus, king of Sweden, formed 
 a company to trade with America. 
 In 1638 the Swedes, though they 
 had no title to the land, erected 
 Fort Christina — named in honor 
 of the queen of Sweden — on the 
 present site of Wilmington, Dela- 
 ware. This territory was claimed by the Dutch,^ and in 
 1655 Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam, appeared 
 with an army of seven hundred men before the fort, which 
 at once surrendered, and New Sweden was-'at an end. 
 
 91. The English Conquest of Delaware. — In 1665 the 
 English, who had taken New Netherlands from the Dutch, 
 captured Delaware. In 1682 Penn, who desired to give 
 
 1 As a matter of fact this territory rightfully belonged to Lord Balti- 
 more as it was part of Maryland. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 93 
 
 his colony an outlet to the sea, bought Delaware — called 
 also *' The Three Lower Counties " — from the Duke 
 of York. For many years there was friction between 
 Pennsylvania and Delaware, but after 1703 Delaware 
 was allowed a separate legislature, although it had the 
 same governor as Pennsylvania until the Revolution. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1623 the Dutch established a trading post on the Delaware, 
 and in 1638 the Swedes made the first permanent settlement. It 
 was captured from the Swedes by the Dutch. Later the English 
 took possession and sold it to Penn, whereby it became a part 
 of Pennsylvania. In 1703 Delaware became a separate province 
 under the governor of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Carolinas, 1663 
 
 92. Grant of Carolina. — South of Virginia St. Augus- 
 tine was the only thriving settlement on the Atlantic 
 coast. In 1663 Charles II made a grant to eight noble- 
 men, among them being his devoted friends ^ George 
 Monk, duke of Albemarle, and Edward Hyde, earl of 
 Clarendon. This grant embraced the fertile tract of 
 land stretching from Virginia to Florida^ and extending 
 westward to the Pacific. As this land had been called 
 Carolina by Ribaut in honor of Charles IX of France a 
 hundred years before, the new proprietors allowed the 
 name to remain in honor of the king of England. 
 
 1 To the Duke of Albemarle Charles was largely indebted for the 
 throne of England, while Clarendon had befriended him in his exile. 
 
 2 In this tract of land are included the present states of Mississippi, 
 Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 
 
94 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 93. Early Settlements ; Foundation of Charleston. — 
 
 The early settlements which had been made on the 
 
 Chowan river were formed (1663) mto a colony and 
 
 named Albemarle. 
 
 In 1665 a wealthy planter, Sir John Yeamans, founded 
 
 a colony on the Cape Fear river. It was called Clar- 
 endon, after one 
 of the proprie- 
 
 tors. In 1670 
 emigrants sent 
 
 -Wan; ._ 
 
 by the proprie- 
 tors settled near 
 the junction of 
 the Ashley and 
 Cooper rivers, 
 but ten years 
 later, in 1680, 
 they moved to 
 the tract of land 
 between these 
 rivers and established the city of Charleston.^ Immi- 
 grants at once flocked to the new settlement from New 
 York, Massachusetts, England, and even from France. 
 
 94. Locke's Fundamental Constitutions. — Among the 
 proprietors was Lord Shaftesbury. His secretary was 
 John Locke, afterwards famous as an English philoso- 
 pher. Locke drew up a constitution for the colony which 
 was called the " Fundamental Constitutions," or ''Grand 
 
 1 The proprietors wrote in regard to the new city, " You are to take 
 notice and call it Charles-Town." 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 95 
 
 Model." This scheme of government hoped to transplant 
 to America the aristocratic ideas of Europe. In order to 
 avoid "erecting a numerous democracy " it provided for 
 a carefully graded society from the higher nobility down 
 to serfs attached to the soil. It decreed that no colonist 
 could vote unless he owned fifty or more acres of land, 
 and that no settler could leave the land without permis- 
 sion of the proprietor. It pretended to give religious 
 freedom, while it denied that freedom to Catholics, and 
 established the Church of England as that of the state.^ 
 The settlers, breathing the free air of the New World, 
 laughed at the scheme, and the Grand Model was a dis- 
 mal failure. Its only effect was to inspire contempt for 
 all forms of government. 
 
 Some years later the colonists obtained the right to 
 make their own laws, while the proprietors were to 
 receive an annual rent of a half penny per acre. 
 
 As slaves were especially valuable for the cultivation 
 of rice and indigo, the two leading commodities, the 
 slave trade in southern Carolina became very active. 
 The principal settlers were English, French, Irish, 
 Scotch, and Germans. Under Baron de Graffenried, 
 the Germans settled Newbern. 
 
 After Charleston was founded a separate governor 
 generally ruled the northern and southern parts of Caro- 
 lina. In 1729 the king purchased Carolina from the 
 proprietors, and North and South Carolina became 
 separate provinces. 
 
 1 By the Act of 1704 to be a member of the assembly one must 
 belong to the Church of I'",ngland. 
 
96 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1663 King Charles II granted to a body of noblemen the tract 
 of land named Carolina. The constitution framed for the colony, 
 and called the " Grand Model " was written by Locke, the philoso- 
 pher. The plan was a failure. Later North and South Carolina 
 were separated and became royal colonies. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 1681 
 
 95. The Grant to Penn. — The foremost man among 
 the Quakers in England was William Penn.^ His father 
 had been a distinguished admiral, to whom King Charles 
 owed about eighty thousand dollars for services to his 
 country. After his father's death Penn asked from the 
 king the grant of a tract of land in America to balance 
 the debt. The king gladly consented to free himself in 
 this easy manner and granted, in 1681, a tract forty- 
 eight thousand square miles in extent, fronting on the 
 Delaware river and practically comprising the present 
 state of Pennsylvania. To this region the name Penn- 
 sylvania (Penn's woods), after Admiral Penn, was given. 
 Penn desired to establish a free commonwealth where 
 the people might enjoy perfect freedom, at the same 
 time rendering strict obedience to the civil authorities. 
 Said Penn, " Liberty without obedience is confusion and 
 obedience without liberty is slavery." The colonists had 
 almost complete power of self-government. Each settler 
 obtained one hundred acres of land for fifty dollars. 
 
 1 While a student at Oxford Penn, being a Quaker, had refused to 
 attend the religious services of the university. It is claimed by many 
 that he was expelled in consequence. 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 97 
 
 The charter of privileges provided that no person beUev- 
 ing in one God should be molested on account of religion, 
 but only those who were Christians could take part in 
 the government.^ 
 
 It also provided that the Indians should be treated 
 with justice and kindness, that every child should be 
 taught a trade, and that criminals 
 in jails should be employed in some 
 useful occupation. He abolished 
 the death penalty except for murder 
 and treason. 
 
 In October, 1681, three ship- 
 loads of Quakers left England, and 
 in 1682 Penn himself sailed with a 
 hundred emigrants. He landed at 
 Newcastle, ^ in the territory which 
 is now Delaware, but which had 
 been purchased by him from the Duke of York in 1681. 
 He was cordially welcomed by the Swedes and Dutch 
 who had settled there. 
 
 1 The colony soon receded somewhat from the broad ground of 
 religious freedom assumed by William Penn. From 1693 ^^ ^775 ^^ 
 one could hold even the most petty office in the province without taking 
 an oath denying the Real Presence and declaring Mass idolatrous. — 
 Dr. Shea. 
 
 2 When Penn reached Newcastle the government was transferred 
 in the following manner: "The key to the fort was delivered to him: 
 with this he locked himself in the fort and then let himself out in sign 
 that the government was his. To show that the land with the trees 
 on it belonged to him, a piece of sod with a twig in it was given to him. 
 Then a porringer (or dish) filled with water from the river was given 
 to him that he might be lord of the rivers as well as of the land." — 
 Eggleston's History of the United States and its People, p. 59. 
 
98 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 96. Philadelphia founded ; Treaty with the Indians. — 
 
 A city was marked out on the Schuylkill in 1682, to which 
 the name Philadelphia (brotherly lov^e) was given. The 
 liberal laws regarding religion and Penn's high character 
 attracted settlers in great numbers, among them being 
 Swedes, Germans, and a very large number of Irish. 
 Soon after his arrival Penn, mindful of his Quaker 
 beliefs, made a visit to the Indian wigwams to secure 
 the good will of the red men. In 1682 a treaty of 
 peace was made with the Delaware Indians. Standing 
 under a wide-spreading elm, Penn and the Indians clasped 
 hands and made solemn promises of friendship. For 
 sixty years, while the Quakers had control of Pennsyl- 
 vania, this peace remained unbroken and Penn was 
 always loved and trusted by the red men. The Indian 
 record of this treaty is a belt of wampum, which may 
 be seen to this day in Philadelphia. So rapidly did 
 the colony grow that three years after Penn's arrival it 
 contained almost eight thousand inhabitants, and Phila- 
 delphia was the largest city in the colonies at the out- 
 break of the Revolution. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The colony of Pennsylvania ^ was granted to William Penn, a 
 Quaker, by Charles II, king of England. In 1681 the first colo- 
 nists arrived, and Philadelphia was founded in 1682. A treaty 
 was made with the Indians and faithfully kept while the Quakers 
 were in power. 
 
 1 The boundaries of Pennsylvania were for many years a subject of 
 dispute. In 1762 Mason and Dixon, English mathematicians and sur- 
 veyors, surveyed the southern boundary as far as the western limit of 
 
PERMANENT COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 Georgia, 1733 
 
 99 
 
 97. The Grant to Oglethorpe. — General James Ogle- 
 thorpe, an English soldier, obtained from George II a 
 grant of land between the Savannah and the Altamaha 
 rivers, extending westerly from the sources of these 
 rivers to the Pacific. Oglethorpe's leading motive was 
 the establishment of a home for the poor debtors of 
 England. Under the English law, for a debt of even 
 one shilling a man could be imprisoned, and the jails 
 were filled with the unfortunates who had not the means 
 to pay their debts. They were subjected to the utmost 
 cruelties, and many died before relief came. 
 
 Oglethorpe formed a company and made arrangements 
 to pay these debts, to free the debtors, and to send them 
 to America. He was assisted by hundreds of charitable 
 people in England and by a grant of fifty thousand 
 dollars from Parliament. 
 
 98. Settlement of Savannah, 1732. — In November, 
 1732, Oglethorpe sailed with one hundred and twenty 
 persons to Charleston, where he was hospitably received. 
 Cruising southward, he entered the Savannah river and 
 laid the foundation of a town, which he named Savannah. 
 A treaty was made with the Indians, the land pur- 
 chased from them, and their good will secured. The 
 laws of the colony provided that the trustees should 
 
 Maryland, marking it with stones one mile apart, every fifth stone hav- 
 ing the Penn arms on the north side and the Baltimore arms on the 
 south side. This was the origin of the Mason and Dixon's line (39"^ 43')* 
 in later years the conventional boundary between the free and slave 
 states. 
 
 fC 
 
lOO ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 rule it for twenty-one years, at the end of which time the 
 king should decree what form of government it was to 
 receive. The laws forbade negro slavery^ and the impor- 
 tation of spirituous liquors. They permitted no one to 
 own more than five hundred acres of land. Catholics 
 were forbidden to settle there, and the Church of Eng- 
 land was established, the people being taxed to support it. 
 
 99. War with Spain. — A second reason for the set- 
 tlement of Georgia was the desire to check any north- 
 ward movement of the Spaniards from Florida. In 1739 
 war was declared between England and Spain, and Ogle- 
 thorpe led an expedition into Florida against the Span- 
 iards. He besieged the town of St. Augustine with two 
 thousand men. The Spaniards made a gallant defense, 
 and Oglethorpe was compelled to return to Georgia. 
 The Spaniards then took the offensive and, entering 
 Georgia, attacked Oglethorpe at Frederica in May, 1 744. 
 They were repulsed and withdrew with heavy loss. 
 
 Under Oglethorpe's laws Georgia made slow progress. 
 Discontent was apparent everywhere. The land laws 
 were unsatisfactory, and at length, in 1752, the trustees 
 surrendered the colony to the crown. It became there- 
 upon a royal colony. Georgia was the last colony planted 
 by England in America. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Georgia was founded by Oglethorpe as a refuge for the debtors 
 in English prisons. Catholics were forbidden to enter the colony. 
 In 1733 Savannah, the first settlement, was founded. 
 
 1 There were, however, many indentured white servants in the colony. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 
 
 100. The Missionaries. — We have already seen how 
 the French estabhshed a settlement on the St, Law- 
 rence in 1608 and called it Quebec. It was a point 
 of the greatest military value, on the highway to the 
 Great Lakes and the valley of the Mississippi. Cham- 
 plain, recognizing the importance of gaining the sympathy 
 of the Indians, invited the Franciscans from France to 
 establish missions among the tribes. One of these 
 Franciscans penetrated as far as lake Huron, ^ where 
 he established in 16 15 a settlement at Thunder bay. 
 In 1625 the Jesuits came to New France. They trav- 
 ersed the forest and established missions during the 
 next fifty years at Mackinac, St. Ignace, Sault Ste. 
 Marie,^ Green Bay, Kaskaskia, and many other places. 
 Father Menard founded in 1661 a mission on the 
 southern shore of lake Superior at St. Teresas bay. 
 He lost his life in attempting to visit some Christian 
 
 1 Jean Nicolet, a brave Norman, who came to New France in 1618, 
 explored the region around lakes Huron and Michigan from 1634 to 
 1640. 
 
 2 Thus did the religious zeal of the French bear the cross to the 
 banks of the St. Mary and the confines of Lake Superior and look wist- 
 fully toward the homes of the Sioux in the valley of the Mississippi, five 
 years before the New England Eliot had addressed a tribe of Indians 
 that dwelt within six miles of Boston Harbor. — BANCRoF"r. 
 
I02 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Hurons. Father Allouez^ at once took up the work 
 and estabhshed a mission at La Pointe, one of the 
 Apostle islands, near the present site of Ashland, Wis- 
 consin. He was later joined by Father Dablon, superior 
 of the Canadian missions, and by the great missionary 
 whose name will forever adorn the pages of our history, 
 — Father James Marquette. 
 
 101. Marquette and Jolliet^ explore the Mississippi, 
 1673. — Frontenac, the governor of New France, 
 desired to find a route to the South sea and chose 
 Louis Jolliet, a Montreal trader, for the enterprise. In 
 May, 1673, Father Marquette and Jolliet, with five com- 
 panions, left St. Ignace mission in north Michigan to 
 seek a great river to the west, of which they had heard 
 many wonderful stories from the Indians. Dragging 
 their light canoes up the rapids of the Fox river, they 
 crossed lake Winnebago and soon discovered the Wis- 
 consin river. Drifting down its beautiful waters, on 
 June 17, 1673, a month after their departure, at the spot 
 where Prairie du Chien now stands, they entered the great 
 river called by the Indians Mississippi, but named by 
 Father Marquette, Conception. *'The first white men 
 ventured forth upon its upper channel in two birch canoes. 
 Five hardy voices raised a shout which was thrown back 
 in an echo from the hills; five caps were whirled as high 
 as paddles could raise them. But Marquette said : * This 
 
 1 In 1899 the Wisconsin Historical Society erected a tablet at 
 Depere to the memory of Father Allouez, the founder of Wisconsin's 
 
 'first Indian missions. 
 
 2 The explorer himself wrote his name Jolliet. The city named in 
 his honor is spelled Joliet. 
 
FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 
 
 103 
 
 is such joy as we can not express.' The men in both 
 canoes silenced themselves while he gave thanks for the 
 discovery. "1 Sailing down the majestic river, amid its 
 awful solitudes, they passed the Ohio, and on the way 
 told the native tribes the truths of Christianity. They 
 soon reached the spot where, according to tradition, 
 De Soto died one hundred and thirty-one years before. 
 Fearing to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, they 
 now set out on the return journey. Ascending the 
 Illinois river, Father Marquette ministered to the Kas- 
 kaskias. Thence pushing onward, they entered lake 
 Michigan and reached Green Bay in September, having 
 traveled no less than two thousand five hundred miles 
 in their light canoes. 
 
 Jolliet and a few companions returned to Montreal.^ 
 One year later Father Marquette set out again to estab- 
 lish a mission among the Kaskaskias. Scarcely had he 
 reached their village when he fell ill, and, desiring to 
 pass his last hours among his faithful companions at 
 St. Ignace, he started homeward. But the days of 
 the saintly explorer and missionary were numbered. 
 While his companions were trying to hurry him upon 
 his journey he died on the shore of lake Michigan^ 
 
 1 Mary Hartwell Catherwood's Heroes of the Middle West. 
 
 2 Jolliet 's canoe was upset in the Lachine rapids, and he barely 
 escaped with his life. All his papers and maps describing his great 
 journey were lost, but Father Marquette wrote a narrative which 
 appeared in Paris in 1681. 
 
 ^ His death occurred near the present site of Ludington. Later his 
 body was transferred to the mission of St. Ignace, where a monument 
 marks his last resting place. A statue of Father Marquette has been 
 placed in the capitol at Washington by the state of Wisconsin. 
 
I04 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 on the 19th of May, 1675, thanking God that he was 
 permitted to die in the wilderness, a member of the 
 Jesuit Order. 
 
 102. Robert de la Salle. — In 1679 Robert de la Salle 
 launched on the Niagara river a vessel of forty-five 
 
 tons, named the Griffitiy 
 to explore the Great 
 Lakes and the Missis- 
 sippi. With three 
 Franciscans he sailed 
 through lakes Erie, 
 Huron, and Michigan 
 and touched at St. 
 Ignace. Stocking the 
 Griffin with furs, he 
 dispatched the vessel 
 back to Fort Fronte- 
 nac for provisions. 
 La Salle ^ now sent one 
 of his companions. Father Louis Hennepin, with two 
 comrades to explore the upper Mississippi. In a few 
 weeks they fell into the hands of the Sioux Indians, 
 who led them captive to the site of the present city of 
 
 1 Second only to Champlain among the heroes of Canadian history 
 stands Robert Cavelier de la Salle, a man of iron, if ever there was one 
 — a man austere and cold in manner and endowed with such indomi- 
 table pluck and perseverance as have never been surpassed in this 
 world. He did more than any other man to extend the Dominion of 
 France in the new world. As Champlain had founded the colony of 
 Quebec and opened the way to the Great Lakes, so La Salle completed 
 the discovery of the Mississippi and added to the French possessions 
 the vast province of Louisiana. — FrsKE. 
 
 Father Marquette 
 
FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 105 
 
 St. Paul.^ Father Hennepin named the raging cascade 
 here falls of St. Anthony in honor of the great saint of 
 his order.2 
 
 La Salle with fourteen men in four canoes sailed south- 
 ward and built a fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph 
 river, which he called Fort Miami. Ascending the 
 St. Joseph river and crossing to the Kankakee, he 
 drifted down this stream and built a fort, which he called 
 Crevecoeur (heartbreak). Here he waited for tidings 
 from the Griffin, but they never came. He determined, 
 therefore, to leave Crevecoeur in charge of his friend 
 Henri de Tonty and to return to Fort Frontenac, a 
 thousand miles away. In the midst of winter, with 
 only five companions he turned backward on his fearful 
 journey. He reached the fort in May, gathered new 
 supplies, and returned with twenty-five companions. He 
 found Fort Crevecoeur in ruins and no trace of Tonty 
 and his companions. After searching in vain for his 
 friend he sailed down the river to the mouth of the 
 Illinois, and before him spread the great Mississippi. 
 
 He left a letter tied to a tree and hoped that Tonty 
 might find it. Then returning to Fort Miami, he was 
 compelled to spend the winter there. During this time 
 he made friends among the Indian tribes. In May 
 he returned to St. Ignace, where, to his inexpressible 
 delight, he met his friend Tonty. 
 
 1 Father Galtier erected (1841) a little chapel here dedicated to St. 
 Paul. It was from this chapel that the city of St. Paul received its name. 
 
 2 St. Anthony of Padua. Father Hennepin and his companions were 
 soon rescued by the hunter Du Lhut. 
 
Io6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 103. Further Explorations of La Salle ; his Death ; 
 New Orleans founded. — La Salle was not yet satisfied. 
 With fifty-four companions he again sailed down the 
 Illinois. Entering the Mississippi, he passed the mouths 
 of the Missouri and the Red river and in April, 1682, 
 
FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 107 
 
 reached the mouth of the Mississippi. Here he erected 
 a cross and a cokimn to which he fastened a metal plate, 
 bearing the arms of France and the date. Claiming all 
 the land drained by the river for the king of France, 
 he named this vast region Louisiana in honor of his 
 sovereign, Louis XIV. 
 
 He soon sailed for France to tell the king of the 
 wonderful country he had explored and the necessity of 
 colonizing it. The king agreed with him, and La Salle 
 returned with an expedition of four ships. In passing 
 he missed the mouths of the Mississippi and landed at 
 Matagorda bay in Texas, four hundred miles west of 
 that river. He searched in vain for the Mississippi and 
 was murdered by some of his followers March 18, 1678. 
 All the colony perished later at the hands of the Indians. 
 
 In 1699 Iberville, who had obtained permission from 
 the French king to found a city at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, entered the river and explored its course for 
 several days. He next built a fort at Biloxi. In 1700 
 Mobile was founded. In 1 7 1 8 Bienville, a brother of Iber- 
 ville, founded the city of New Orleans, thus controlling 
 the great river of the continent. In the meantime the 
 French had been active in the North. A great hunter 
 and ranger, Du Lhut, founded a post which has since 
 been named Duluth in liis honor. In 1701 Cadillac 
 built a fort on the strait which connects lakes Frie and 
 Huron and called it Detroit, and a 3'car later Vincennes 
 was founded. It was the establishment of military jx^sts 
 throughout this vast territory that eventually brought on 
 a life struggle between the English and the I^'rench. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH 
 
 IN AMERICA 
 
 104. King William's War,i 1689-1697.-11 will be 
 remembered that in the charters the grants of most 
 of the colonies stretched from sea to sea. The French 
 had now taken possession of the Mississippi valley, a 
 territory which was claimed by the English. There 
 could be only one result from disputes about this terri- 
 tory, — war, which was declared in 1689. Another 
 cause for war was the fact that James II, who had fled 
 from England, had taken refuge in France, and the king 
 of France was striving to replace him on the throne. 
 Count Frontenac was sent to America to look after the 
 French interests. He at once planned to capture New 
 York. The Iroquois were bitter foes of the French, 
 while the Algonquins were their stanch friends. On 
 his arrival Frontenac learned that the Iroquois had 
 invaded Canada, besieged Montreal, and had burned 
 captives at tiie stake with fiendish cruelty. It was now 
 the turn of the French and their Indian allies. In Feb- 
 ruary, 1690, they swept southward, surprised and cap- 
 tured Schenectady, burned the town, and massacred the 
 inhabitants. Now followed a period of the most horrible 
 
 1 So called from William III, who at that time sat on the throne of 
 England. 
 
 108 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 109 
 
 warfare. Salmon Falls, New Hampshire ; York and Fort 
 Loyal (now Portland, Maine) ; Grot on and Haverhill, 
 Massachusetts, were attacked and many of the inhab- 
 
 North America at Beginning of French Wars 
 
 itants massacred. In 1690 New England organized an 
 expedition of two thousand militia under Sir William 
 Phips which captured Port Royal, Acadia. The war 
 
no ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 closed in 1697. Neither side had gained or lost any 
 valuable territory. 
 
 105. The War of the Spanish Succession, ^ 170.2-1718. 
 — King William died in 1 702, and Anne became queen 
 of England. War was renewed between France and 
 England. The Indians spread death and destruction on 
 all sides, not only on the frontiers but even in the inte- 
 rior of the colonies. They attacked Deerfield in 1704 
 and Haverhill in 1708, putting to death the inhabitants. 
 Two years later an expedition from Boston captured 
 Port Royal (which had been returned to the French at 
 the close of King William's War) and changed its name 
 to Annapolis in honor of the queen. 
 
 A force was led in 171 1 against Quebec. Many of 
 the ships were wrecked in the gulf of St. Lawrence, and 
 the expedition returned an utter failure. The war ended 
 in 171 3. The French lost Acadia, which the English 
 named Nova Scotia. To the English were also ceded 
 Newfoundland and the Hudson bay territory. The 
 French also agreed that the Iroquois should be con- 
 sidered subjects of Great Britain .2 
 
 106. War of the Austrian Succession/^ 1 744-1 748. — 
 Peace lasted for thirty years, when war was again 
 declared. George II was now king of England. The 
 principal point of attack was Louisburg, a strong 
 
 1 This war was so called in Europe because the European nations 
 objected to a French prince's obtaining the throne of Spain. It is also 
 called Queen Anne's War. 
 
 - This provision gave England an opportunity later to claim the 
 entire country over which the Iroquois roamed as English territory. 
 
 3 This war is also called King George's War. 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH in 
 
 fortress on the southeast coast of Cape Breton island. 
 A union of forces from New Hampshire, Connec- 
 ticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts to the num- 
 ber of four thou- 
 
 sand sailed under 
 William Peppercll 
 against this mas- 
 sive granite forti- 
 fication. After a 
 siege of six weeks 
 it was captured in 
 June, 1745. Three 
 years later, by the 
 treaty of peace, 
 Louisburg was returned to the French^ to the great 
 disappointment of the colonies. 
 
 107. The Seven Years' War,'-^ 1756-1763. — We now 
 approach the last great conflict between the French and 
 English in the New World. 
 
 The French had command of the great water ways, 
 the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. A chain of forts 
 had been established along the St. Lawrence and the 
 Great Lakes, on the Wabash and Illinois rivers, and 
 down the Mississippi to the mouth of that mighty stream, 
 where the white flag of France waved over the city of 
 New Orleans. That line of forts — Detroit, St. Joseph, 
 
 1 Louisburg was exchanged for Madras in India, which had fallen into 
 the hands of the French. England paid back to the colonies the amount 
 they had spent in the expedition. 
 
 - This war is frequently called the French and IndianWar. 
 
112 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Vincennes, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Chartres, New Orleans — 
 gave the French control of the vast tract called Louisiana. 
 They were now taking possession, as we shall see, of 
 the Ohio valley in the name of Louis XV, and were 
 building forts along the headwaters of the Ohio, beside 
 the Allegheny river, on lake Erie, and at Niagara. 
 
 The French had the 
 sympathy and support 
 of the entire Algonquin 
 family, but the Iroquois 
 were held for the English 
 by William Johnson.^ 
 The English-speaking 
 colonists were, for the 
 most part, along the 
 Atlantic seaboard. 
 They had now begun to turn their eyes across the Alle- 
 ghenies, but the French line of settlements and forts 
 seemed to present an unbroken front, preventing their 
 westward progress. 
 
 108. The Ohio Company ; George Washington. — In 
 1750 a number of Virginians organized the Ohio Com- 
 pany for the purpose of opening up lands along the Ohio. 
 They obtained from the king a grant of five hundred 
 thousand acres of land, mainly along the Monongahela 
 and Kanawha rivers, and sent surveyors to mark out 
 
 The White Flag of France 
 
 1 William Johnson was of Irish birth and had settled near Schenec- 
 tady to manage his estates. His dealings with the Indians had so 
 endeared him to them that the Mohawks had adopted him into their 
 tribe with the rank of sachem. 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 113 
 
 the land. The French took alarm at this invasion of 
 their territory and immediately erected a fort at Presque 
 Isle (now Erie, Pennsylvania) on lake Erie. Directly 
 south they built a second fort called Le Bceuf,^ and a 
 third named Venango, on the Allegheny. Governor 
 Dinwiddle of Virginia sent a young man, only twenty- 
 one years of age, an adjutant general in the Virginia 
 militia, to order them to cease building these forts on 
 English territory. This young man was George Wash- 
 ington, whose name appears here for the first time in 
 the pages of history. 
 
 109. The French at Fort Duquesne. — The French 
 promptly and firmly declined to yield to Dinwiddle's 
 order. The latter, seeing there was no time to be 
 wasted or the Ohio valley would be lost, sent a force 
 under a trader, William Trent, to build a fort at the 
 junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. 
 This point Washington had marked as of great military 
 value. The French came up as the English were at 
 work and compelled them to leave. Finishing the fort 
 themselves, they called it F^ort Duquesne ^ in honor of the 
 governor of Canada. Washington with seventy-five men 
 hastened to the assistance of Trent, but was informed 
 of Trent's surrender before he had traveled far. He 
 decided to push on, however, and after journeying some 
 days, built a stockade, which he called Fort Necessity. 
 Hearing of the approach of a body of French and Indi- 
 ans, he sallied out and captured them; but the main body 
 
 1 Le Boeuf (Le Berf). 
 
 2 Duquesne (Du-kane'). 
 
114 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 of the French now appeared, and Washington, besieged in 
 Fort Necessity, was compelled to surrender, July 4, 1754. 
 110. The Albany Convention, i754« — Virginia now 
 voted a gift of land to every man who would go to the 
 front, and fifty thousand dollars were appropriated for 
 military operations on the Ohio. At a meeting in 
 
 SCALE or MILES 
 50 160 %) 
 
 Albany, which had been called by the English govern- 
 ment to make a treaty with the Iroquois, Benjamin Frank- 
 lin proposed a "plan of union " for the colonies against 
 the French.^ While the scheme did not succeed, it was 
 of great importance as it gave the colonies a groundwork 
 for future union. At the same time the convention 
 made the colonists better acquainted with each other 
 and paved the way for the later union against England. 
 
 1 In the Pennsylvania Gazette of this time appeared a device repre- 
 senting a snake cut into pieces. Each piece represented a colony and 
 beneath were the words " Unite or Die." Its author was Franklin. 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 115 
 
 111. Plan of Campaign; Braddock's Defeat. — The 
 
 English king now sent over two regiments of regulars 
 under General Braddock. On his arrival Braddock sum- 
 moned the colonial governors to Alexandria, 
 Virginia, to discuss plans for carrying on the 
 war. It was j^roposed to send an expedition 
 against L^ort Duquesne ; a second force planned 
 to take the forts on lake Champlain, opening 
 that route to Quebec and Montreal, while a 
 third army was to sail up 
 the Hudson, to pass along 
 the Mohawk valley, and, 
 skirting the shores of lake 
 Ontario, to attack the forts 
 near the Niagara river. 
 Braddock commanded in 
 person the expedition against Fort Duquesne. Ignorant 
 though he was of Indian warfare, he scorned advice and, 
 looking with contempt on the skill of the Indians in 
 war, pushed his way through the woods toward Fort 
 Duquesne. When within eight miles of the fort he 
 found his troops surrounded by the enemy, who were 
 hidden in the bushes, while from every side poured in 
 the bullets of the French and Indians. His forces were 
 cut to pieces, he himself was mortally wounded, and 
 Washington with difficulty saved the retreating troops 
 by his masterly skill. 
 
 112. The Expulsion of the Acadians. — The province 
 called Acadia — the territory now included in the 
 peninsula of Nova Scotia — had been under the rule of 
 
Il6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 France for a century, but in 17 13 it was transferred 
 to the English. For many years there were end- 
 less disputes about the territory, and in 1755 an expe- 
 dition was directed against the French forces that held 
 military posts there. The inhabitants were nearly 
 all Catholics, who had prosperous farms and happy 
 homes. The English, claiming that the Acadians were 
 constantly plotting against them and in favor of France, 
 resolved to expel them from the country. The cruel 
 measure^ was successfully carried out, no less than 
 six thousand men, women, and children being placed 
 on vessels and dropped along the coast among colo- 
 nists who, while they did not welcome them, treated 
 them kindly. Many of the exiles reached Louisiana. 
 The torch was applied to the homes of the unfortu- 
 nate people, and the fair fields of Acadia were for years 
 a waste. 
 
 113. Battle of Lake George; Fall of Fort William 
 Henry. — The bitter struggle had been in progress 
 two years before the formal declaration of war between 
 England and France. In September, 1755, Dieskau, 
 the French commander, marched with fourteen hundred 
 troops against Fort Edward, near the head of navigation 
 
 1 All the men, young and old, were ordered to meet at the village 
 church of Grand Pre on the afternoon of F'riday, Sept. 5, 1755, to hear 
 the intentions of the king in regard to them. The unsuspecting natives 
 gathered and heard the fearful judgment. All their possessions except 
 money and household goods were forfeited, and they were prisoners 
 of the king. Before they could realize their position the church was 
 surrounded by troops. Longfellow has told the pitiful story of their 
 sufferings in his poem Evangeline. 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 117 
 
 on the Hudson. The Enghsh, marching to meet him, 
 fell into an ambush and suffered terrible losses. They 
 fell back to their camp at lake George, where, defended 
 by a barricade of trees and wagons, they successfully 
 resisted the assault of the enemy. After a fight of 
 five hours the French retreated. Dieskau was severely 
 wounded and fell a prisoner into the hands of the 
 English. 
 
 In the following year Montcalm attacked the three 
 forts at Oswego that commanded the entrance to lake 
 Ontario. They fell easily into his hands and were 
 demolished. The French were now masters of the 
 Great Lakes. In August, 1757, Montcalm turned his 
 attention to Fort William Henry at the head of lake 
 George. With seventy-six hundred men, including 
 two thousand Indians, he besieged this important point. 
 For six days his batteries rained shot and shell on the 
 fort till it surrendered. It was destroyed, and the 
 French were now masters of lake George and lake 
 Champlain.i 
 
 114. William Pitt ; French Reverses. — Affairs became 
 brighter for England when William Pitt, in 1757, became 
 the ruling power there and threw all his energy toward 
 carrying on the war. He planned three expeditions, 
 the first against Louisburg, the second against Fort 
 Duquesne, and the third against Ticonderoga and 
 Crown Point. In July, 1758, Louisburg was attacked 
 
 1 As the English troops were leaving the fort they were attacked by 
 the Indians and sixty or seventy massacred despite Montcalm's attempts 
 to restrain his savage allies. 
 
ii8 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 by fourteen thousand men and surrendered with fifty- 
 six hundred prisoners of war.^ 
 
 In November Fort Duquesne was captured and 
 called Pittsburg in honor of the English statesman. 
 On July 8 Montcalm, in his defenses at Ticonderoga, 
 with only four thousand soldiers, was attacked by Aber- 
 crombie, with sixteen thousand men, the largest army 
 of white soldiers that had ever been gathered on the 
 
 continent. The English 
 were repulsed with fear- 
 ful slaughter, losing 
 almost two thousand 
 men. 
 
 But a succession of de- 
 feats now weakened the 
 French. Fort Fronte- 
 nac on lake Ontario 
 fell, and Niagara was 
 captured by Sir William 
 Johnson. 
 
 115. The Plains of 
 Abraham. — On July 26 
 the French abandoned Crown Point, and a week later 
 Ticonderoga. General Wolfe, who had distinguished 
 himself before Louisburg, led an expedition against 
 Quebec, the strongest fortress in America. Montcalm 
 with a strong army defended the citadel, which was 
 
 Montcalm 
 
 1 In 1760 Great Britain ordered the total destruction of the fortifica- 
 tions, and nothing remains of Louisburg except the ruins and the huts 
 of a few fishermen. 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 119 
 
 built on a rocky bluff, carefully guarded on every side 
 except one, where a steep ravine seemed to defy any 
 approach. After four months' attempt to draw Mont- 
 calm into a fight, Wolfe resorted to stratagem. One 
 dark night, Sept. 12, 1759, he led his forces up the 
 ravine to the Plains of Abraham behind the city.^ 
 When day broke the French were amazed to see the 
 glittering ranks of the English, five thousand strong, 
 drawn u}) in battle array. A fierce battle ensued in 
 which the French were defeated, and both Montcalm ^ 
 and Wolfe were UKjrtally wounded. Quebec passed 
 into the hands of the English, Sept. 17, 1759, and 
 the power of France in America was doomed.^ 
 
 " With the triumph of W^olfe on the Heights of Abra- 
 ham began the history of the United States," says Greene. 
 
 1 While in his boat on his way to the attack Wolfe repeated the 
 verse from Gray's Elegy : 
 
 The lx>ast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike the inevitable hour, 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 
 
 When he had finished he said, "I would rather have written those 
 lines than take Quebec to-morrow." 
 
 ^ Montcalm died on the day after his defeat. He was buried in the 
 chapel of the Ursuline convent. When told that his wound was 
 mortal he said, " I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender 
 of Quebec." 
 
 ■^ On the monument to Wolfe and Montcalm in Quebec are these 
 words : 
 
 Valor gave a united death, History a united fame, Posterity a united monument. 
 As a result of this victory, Parkman says : " England blazed with bon- 
 fires. In one spot alone all was dark and silent ; for here a widowed 
 mother mourned for a loving and devoted son, and the people forbore 
 to profane her grief with the clamor oi their rejoicings." 
 
I20 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 116. The Treaty of Paris. — In the treaty of peace 
 made in Paris in 1763 France gave to England the 
 whole of Canada, except two small islands, with a share 
 in the fisheries, all her possessions east of the Missis- 
 sippi except New Orleans, and an adjacent strip of terri- 
 tory. She gave all the territory west of the Mississippi 
 with New Orleans to Spain ; Spain gave up Florida to 
 
 England in exchange 
 
 for Havana, which the 
 English had captured 
 during the war. 
 
 117. Conspiracy of 
 Pontiac. — The In- 
 dians of the West had 
 been for some time 
 discontented. A con- 
 spiracy was formed by 
 an Ottawa chief, Pon- 
 tiac, a man of great 
 ability and daring, who 
 had brought eighteen Indian nations under his rule. His 
 plan was to attack all the English forts on the same 
 day, May 7, 1763. Although the conspiracy failed, the 
 Indians captured practically all the forts ^ in the West 
 with the exception of Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Pitt. 
 
 ^ The forts captured by Pontiac were Fort Sandusky, Fort St. Joseph 
 at the head of lake Michigan, MichiUmacinac, Ouatonon on the 
 Wabash, Miami on the Maumee, Presque Isle on the site of the city of 
 Erie, Venango, and Le Boeuf, while Fort Pitt was besieged. At MichiU- 
 macinac the Indians played a ball game, driving the ball nearer and 
 nearer the fort, whose gates were wide open while the soldiers looked 
 
 North America at Close of French 
 Wars, 1763 
 
WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 121 
 
 118. The Quebec Act. — In 1774 Parliament estab- 
 lished a system of government for Canada. The entire 
 territory had been earlier divided into four provinces, 
 one of which was Quebec. The new act extended the 
 Quebec province, which in consequence reached to the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers and northward to Hudson 
 bay. One of its purposes was to render justice and 
 protection to the large number of Catholics now under 
 the English flag, who would suffer greatly if sub- 
 jected to the penal laws of England against the Cath- 
 olics. This act aroused at once great opposition among 
 the colonists along the Atlantic seaboard. The Cana- 
 dians remembered this bitter antagonism, and when 
 later the colonists sought their aid against England, 
 they refused to betray the nation that had treated them 
 so justly. 
 
 RESULTS OF THE WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH 
 
 1. Through it France lost practically all her possessions in the 
 New World. 
 
 2. It taught the colonists to unite for a common purpose. 
 
 3. It proved that the provincial troops were as fearless and 
 capable as the British regulars. 
 
 4. It trained a body of colonial officers in the art of war, which 
 served them in good stead at the outbreak of the Revolution. 
 
 5. It left only England to be conquered in the war for inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 6. It created an enormous debt, which caused the levying of 
 new taxes, the direct cause of the Revolution. 
 
 at the game. Suddenly the ball was driven inside the wall, and the 
 Indians, rushing in as if to recover it, raised the war whoop and, draw- 
 ing tomahawks from under their blankets, butchered the English witli 
 horrible cruelties. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 
 
 119. The Colonists and England. — The year 1763 
 marks a turning point in American history. The power 
 of France in the New World was broken forever; Eng- 
 land was mistress of the vast territory stretching from 
 the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river. The colo- 
 nists now numbered about one million six hundred thou- 
 sand, of whom four hundred thousand were negro slaves. 
 They feared no longer the attacks from the French and 
 Indians and, awake to their own strength, began to 
 demand from England the rights which they asserted 
 belonged to them as subjects of the British crown. 
 These demands led to revolution. Before entering on 
 this great struggle, let us glance at the condition of the 
 colonies at the signing of the peace treaty with France 
 in 1763. 
 
 120. Civil Government. — There were three forms of 
 government in the colonies, — charter, proprietary, and 
 royal. 
 
 I. Charter colonies : Connecticut, Rhode.Island, Mas- 
 sachusetts. 
 
 The charter was a contract between the king and the 
 colony, which specified the exact rights and powers 
 which each was to enjoy. It could not be changed 
 without the consent of both parties. 
 
LIFE IN THE COLONIES 123 
 
 2. Proprietary colonies : Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
 Maryland, 
 
 These colonies were governed by a proprietor, to 
 whom the king had granted the land. This proprietor 
 had power to dispose of the land to settlers and to 
 establish a government for his territory. 
 
 3. Royal colonies : New Hampshire, New York, New 
 Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia. 
 
 In these colonies the governor was appointed directly 
 by the crown and was its personal representative. 
 Royal colonies were therefore under the king's direct 
 rule and were protected by no written charter. Each 
 colony had a legislative body, elected by the people ; ^ 
 the right to vote was allowed, however, only to those 
 who had a fixed yearly income or owned land and were 
 members of a Protestant church. 
 
 So marked is the diversity of the physical features 
 of the colonies as well as their interests, manners, cus- 
 toms, and occupations that they may be divided into 
 three groups, — the New England, the Middle, and 
 the Southern. 
 
 121. The New England Colonies. — These comprise 
 Massachusetts,^ New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and 
 Connecticut, with a population of about six hundred 
 thousand. There were slaves, but the number was 
 
 ^ If the acts of the colonial legislatures were vetoed by the governors, 
 they failed to become laws. It was necessary that all acts passed by 
 colonial legislatures except those of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and 
 Maryland should be signed by the king of England to become laws. 
 
 '- Maine was at this time a part of Massachusetts, and New Hamp- 
 shire claimed a large part of X'ermont. 
 
124 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 never large, as they were not profitable. Farming was 
 the chief industry ; but the rugged nature of the land 
 induced many colonists, especially in Massachusetts and 
 Rhode Island, to become traders and mechanics. The 
 forests were valuable in all kinds of timber, and ship- 
 building was consequently one of the greatest industries. 
 The New England colonies carried on a profitable ship- 
 ping trade with the West Indies,^ where they obtained 
 sugar, molasses, cotton, logwood, and slaves, and in 
 return exported rum, salt fish, oysters, and flour. 
 
 The cod and whale fisheries were a source of great 
 wealth, as the waters abounded in fish, and fishing towns 
 grew up here and there along the coast. .Despite the 
 valuable water power throughout the colonies, only a 
 small amount of manufacturing was carried on. Certain 
 kinds of manufacturing were forbidden by England.^ 
 On a small scale, however, were carried on tanning, 
 milling, linen weaving, hat and paper manufacturing, 
 and the distillation of rum from the molasses of the 
 West Indies. The English government wanted to 
 restrict this trade to the English West Indies ; but it 
 was unable to do so, and smuggling was practiced to 
 an enormous extent. 
 
 The political unit in New England was the ''town," 
 a subdivision of the colony, not too large to prevent the 
 
 1 Sixteen hundred vessels were employed at one time in the foreign 
 and coast trade of Boston. 
 
 •^ It was the policy of England to prevent all manufacturing that the 
 English manufacturers might have absolute control. The colonists 
 were in some cases even forbidden to send goods from one colony to 
 another. 
 
LIFE IN THE COLONIES 
 
 125 
 
 New England Colonist 
 
 farmers living in it from attending the same church. 
 The "town" was the reproduction of the English parish 
 with some variations. In these towns 
 the freemen voted in a " town meet- 
 ing " on all questions of local govern- 
 ment, elected executive officers, called 
 selectmen, and the representatives of 
 the town to the colonial legislature. 
 
 The life of the people was guided 
 by rather rigid rules. Absence from 
 church on the Sabbath^ was visited 
 with prompt punishment, and in 
 general all social pleasures were 
 frowned on. Certain grades of society 
 were recognized with distinctions of 
 dress for each grade.^ Seats in church were allotted 
 according to wealth and education.-^ 
 
 1 The Sabbath began at six o'clock in the evening on Saturday and 
 lasted until sunset on Sunday. All work of every description was sus- 
 pended, while amusements and sports, rare enough on week days, were 
 absolutely prohibited. There was no travelling, no movement in the 
 streets, nothing but religious exercises at home and in church. No 
 traveller could be entertained, and if any one was absent from church 
 for more than one Sunday, he was oV)liged to offer sufficient defence or 
 be fined, set in the stocks or in a wooden cage, or whipped. There was 
 no trading, no walking to the water's edge, or even in summer on the 
 common. The streets were deserted except between services, for every 
 one was either at his own home or at the church. — Lodge's A Short 
 History of the E7ii^iish Colonies ift America. 
 
 2 The order of precedence was as follows : gentlemen, yeomen, mer- 
 chants, mechanics, indentured servants, and negro slaves. 
 
 3 For more than a hundred years after its establishment the students 
 in Harvard College were arranged according to their rank instead of 
 alphabetically. 
 
126 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The law was the common law of England amended by 
 legislation to suit the new conditions. In making such 
 amendments the Levitical law of the Old Testament was 
 sometimes followed. In criminal cases branding on the 
 cheek or forehead was resorted to, or a letter to indicate 
 the crime was fastened on the dress or suit of the culprit. 
 The houses were generally built of large logs or boards. 
 They had large open fireplaces at which the cooking was 
 done. Every house had a spinning wheel, and coarse 
 linen and homespun were in general use, for the dress 
 of the New England colonists was severely simple. 
 
 Education was fostered by the New England colonists 
 from the foundation of the colony. Grammar schools 
 existed in some of the towns, and colleges were estab- 
 lished. The Massachusetts colony gave four hundred 
 pounds to found Harvard College in 1636. In 1701 
 Yale College was founded. 
 
 122. The Middle Colonies. — The population of the 
 middle colonies amounted to about four hundred thou- 
 sand and was composed of Dutch, Germans, Irish, 
 English, French, and Swedes. 
 
 The chief industries in the middle colonies were agri- 
 culture and commerce. Wheat, which was raised in large 
 quantities, was ground in the windmills that dotted the 
 hillsides everywhere. New York maintained a thriving 
 commerce with foreign ports, especially with England, 
 Spain, and the West Indies, foreshadowing the great 
 commerce of that port at this day. 
 
 There were few cities. Philadelphia, the largest city 
 in all the colonies, had only twenty thousand inhabitants. 
 
LIFE IN THE COLONIES 
 
 127 
 
 In their social life the Dutch in New York main- 
 tained, through the patroon system, an aristocracy. On 
 their vast estates these patroons followed the lavish enter- 
 tainment and expenditures of the nobility of Europe. 
 
 Pennsylvania and New Jersey were entirely free from 
 aristocratic ideas, the Quakers spending their simple frugal 
 life in tilling their farms and 
 spreading plentyaround them. 
 
 There was little provision 
 in the middle colonies for 
 elementary education. For 
 the higher education were 
 established Princeton in 
 1746, King's College (the 
 present Columbia University) 
 in 1754, and the University 
 of Pennsylvania, founded by 
 Benjamin Franklin, in 1755. 
 
 123. The Southern Colonies. 
 agriculture was the universal occupation. In Virginia 
 immense plantations stretched along the great rivers. 
 Tobacco was raised everywhere in the colony and became 
 the basis of all mercantile life. In South Carolina and 
 Georgia rice and indigo were the leading productions. 
 Slavery was the basis of the industrial life of these 
 colonies and slave labor was used almost exclusively, 
 although '' indentured servants were to be found through- 
 out these colonies." ^ 
 
 Dutch Windmill 
 
 In the southern colonies 
 
 1 Indentured servants were white servants who were bound to labor 
 for a specified number of years to pay for their passage to America. 
 
128 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The ever-increasing size of the plantations removed 
 the planters farther and farther from one another, and 
 in consequence there were few towns. The plantation 
 was a village in itself. Vessels sailing up the rivers 
 touched at its wharf ; it had its own blacksmiths, car- 
 penters, and coopers ; its mills for grinding corn and its 
 warehouses for tobacco. The planter's home, with its 
 
 Southern Colonial Mansion 
 
 scores of servants, was the abode of wealth and hospitality. 
 Here and there were grouped the cabins of the slaves. 
 
 In these colonies the estate passed to the eldest son 
 on the death of the owner, as was the law in England, 
 
 At the end of their term they were free to go where they wished. They 
 generally became farmers. 
 
 Another class of servants were criminals. By an act of Parliament a 
 criminal condemned to death could have his sentence commuted if he 
 bound himself for service for fourteen years in America. If he returned 
 within that time, he would be executed. If convicted of lesser offenses, 
 criminals were allowed to bind themselves for shorter periods. 
 
LIFE IN THE COLONIES 129 
 
 thus preventing the division of estates and aiding to 
 build up a landed aristocracy. 
 
 There were in consequence so few towns that the 
 Virginia legislature ordered towns to be built, but the law 
 had little effect. In all the colonies the Church of Eng- 
 land — that is, the established state Protestant church 
 of Great Britain — was established by law, and fines and 
 imprisonment were sometimes imposed for refusal to 
 support this church. The English governors were indif- 
 ferent to the establishment of schools or the spread 
 of education in the South. Printing was forbidden by 
 law in Virginia in the seventeenth century. Governor 
 Berkeley said in 1670, "I thank God there are no free 
 schools nor printing presses in Virginia and I hope 
 we shall not have them these hundred years." Private 
 teachers were employed by the planters to instruct their 
 children. The only college in the South, William and 
 Mary, was established in 1693. The sons of the planters 
 were generally sent abroad to be educated. For the 
 poorer classes there were no schools. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 124. The Navigation Acts. — The expenses of the wars 
 between the French and the Enghsh in America were 
 so great that the debt of England had been doubled. 
 British statesmen, therefore, decided to compel the colo- 
 nists to pay part of the expenses of colonial adminis- 
 tration. They offered as an excuse that the war had 
 been waged to drive out the French from the valley of 
 the Ohio for the benefit of the colonists, and therefore 
 the colonists should bear part of the burden of defense. 
 At the same time England looked on the colonies, now 
 rapidly increasing in wealth, as a good field for the rais- 
 ing of revenues for the British crown. In pursuance of 
 a policy of protection to English commerce and industry 
 the Navigation Acts had been enacted. According to 
 these acts colonial trade could be carried on only in ships 
 owned in England or in the colonies; certain exports — 
 tobacco, sugar, furs, copper, and indigo — could be sent 
 only to English ports ; no goods might be carried from 
 a port in Europe to America until they had, been landed 
 at some port in England : colonists were forbidden to 
 manufacture the wool ^ raised in America, it being 
 
 1 It was forbidden to export any machinery or patterns of machinery 
 from England. It was hoped that this law would prevent the growth 
 of manufactures in America. 
 
 130 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 131 
 
 exported to England, where it was woven into cloth 
 and returned to the colony. It was forbidden to 
 manufacture iron except in its crude forms in the 
 colonies, and grain exported to England was heavily 
 taxed to aid the British farmer. These laws were 
 seldom enforced. In 1761 the British decided to 
 strictly enforce them and thereby obtain greater reve- 
 nue. The British customs officers therefore asked the 
 Superior Court of Massachusetts for permission to use 
 writs of assistance.^ 
 
 The application for these writs aroused the most 
 intense excitement. James Otis was the advocate general, 
 and it was his duty as an officer of the crown to plead 
 in favor of them. Rather than do so he resigned and 
 for five years opposed the granting of them. ''Every 
 one with this writ may be a tyrant," he thundered.^ In 
 spite of the eloquence of Otis the writs were granted. 
 The colonists knew no way of resisting them as they 
 were perfectly legal ; but the spirit of revolution was now 
 beginning to show itself, and it broke out in full vigor 
 
 1 A writ of assistance was a general search warrant to enter any 
 house and search for smuggled goods. Its great dangers lay in the 
 fact that the officer could search any house at any time, entering by 
 force, if necessary, without specifying previously what goods he was 
 searching for. It was therefore a dangerous instrument in the hands of 
 a tyrannical power. Another vital point at issue between the crown 
 and the colonists was the appointment of judges. The crown main- 
 tained that judges should hold office during the king's pleasure, thus 
 making them merely creatures of the throne. The colonists bitterly 
 opposed this measure. 
 
 2 " Then and there," says John Adams, "was the first scene of the 
 first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then 
 and there American Independence was born." 
 
132 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 when the ministry of England decided to lay a direct 
 tax on the colonies. 
 
 125. The Stamp Act, 1765. — This direct tax was called 
 the ''Stamp Act." It provided that a stamp should be 
 placed on every sheet of legal paper, on every license, 
 on every written contract, on advertisements, and on the 
 paper used for newspapers.^ One of the provisions of 
 the law was that all offenses against the Stamp Act 
 could be tried in any part of the colonies, instead of at 
 the scene of the offense, and in the vice admiralty court 
 without a jury. This was a direct blow at the right of 
 trial by jury.^ 
 
 This tax was passed in the British Parliament without 
 any noteworthy opposition ; but when the intense feeling 
 of the colonies was known, their part was taken by 
 several prominent statesmen, including Pitt, Barre, and 
 Edmund Burke.^ 
 
 The passage of the stamp tax aroused the utmost 
 indignation. It was something undreamed of in 
 American history. As each colony elected its own 
 assembly or legislature, this assembly was the only 
 power that could levy taxes on the people. Virginia 
 was the first colony to raise its voice in protest. A 
 
 1 It was estimated that the stamp tax would prorvide about five 
 hundred thousand dollars a year in revenue. 
 
 2 The court was to consist of a single judge without a jury, and, as if 
 to render justice out of the question, the salary of the judge should be 
 paid by those whom he condemned. 
 
 3 In his speech Pitt said: "The gentleman tells us that America is 
 obstinate, America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America 
 has resisted." 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 133 
 
 young lawyer, Patrick Henry,^ presented the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves or by 
 persons chosen by themselves to represent them who can only 
 know what taxes the people are able to bear ... is the distin- 
 guishing characteristic of British Freedom. 
 
 Resolved, therefore, That the general assembly of this colony 
 has the only and sole exclusive right and power to levy taxes upon 
 the inhabitants of this colony. 
 
 126. The Stamp Act Congress, 1765. — The delegates 
 from nine of the colonies met in New York and wrote a 
 declaration of rights and grievances which were sent to 
 the king and to both of the houses of Parliament in 
 England. The declaration said, among other things, 
 that only the representative colonial assemblies could 
 impose taxation and that the right of trial by jury could 
 not be lawfully denied. The struggle had now begun, 
 and the war cry was, "Taxation without representation 
 is tyranny." On the ist of November, the day on which 
 the act was to go into effect, the colonists showed their 
 violent opposition by mobbing and burning in effigy the 
 officers and destroying the stamp offices. 
 
 Bells were tolled, flags were hung at half-mast, and no 
 one was found in the colonies that dared to sell a piece 
 of stamped paper. The colonists agreed not to buy, 
 sell, or use the articles that had been stamped and to 
 
 ^ In Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry we read : " It was in the midst of 
 this magnificent debate that he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, 
 ' Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and George the 
 Third (Treason ! cried the speaker. Treason ! Treason ! echoed from 
 every part of the house) — may profit by their example. If this be 
 treason, make the most of it.' " 
 
134 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 cease using English goods. To the merchants of London 
 the loss of their colonial trade meant dire disaster, and 
 they joined with the colonists for the repeal of the law. 
 So great was their influence that the law was repealed 
 March i8, 1766, "an event," says Burke, ''that caused 
 more universal joy throughout the British Dominion 
 than perhaps any other that can be remembered." 
 
 127. The Townshend Acts, 1767. — Although the 
 stamp tax was repealed, Parliament did not give up for a 
 moment the right to lay taxes where and when it pleased. 
 The next year, 1767, accordingly, Parliament passed the 
 so-called '' Townshend Acts," three in number : the first 
 prohibited the New York legislature^ from passing any 
 more laws until it had made provision for the royal troops 
 in the city ; the second enforced more strictly the laws 
 relating to trade ; the third placed taxes on glass, paper, 
 tea, lead, and painters' colors.^ This was taxation with- 
 out representation again, and once more the colonists 
 rebelled. Merchants refused to import English goods. 
 British dealers found their orders canceled and their 
 vessels returning with the goods sent to America. 
 
 1 Under the Mutiny Act, New York was obliged to provide the royal 
 troops with beds, fire, candles, salt, and vinegar. The colony proposed 
 to furnish these supplies as it saw fit, regardless of the royal instructions. 
 The suspending of the legislature was a direct blow at all legislative 
 independence in any of the colonies. 
 
 2 From the money thus raised, governors, judges, and crown attor- 
 neys were to be paid, thus rendering them independent of the colonial 
 legislatures ; an army was to be supported and pensions were to be paid 
 if any money was left. The people wisely saw in this an attempt on the 
 part of the British king to compel the colonists to pay the salaries of 
 men hostile to them and working solely for the benefit of the king. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 135 
 
 Massachusetts sent a letter to the other colonies inviting^ 
 them to a conference. Governor Bernard ordered the 
 legislature of Massachusetts to recall the letter. Upon 
 its refusal to do so the legislature was dissolved. The 
 other colonial legislatures were ordered by their gov- 
 ernors to ignore the letter, and, upon their refusal to 
 do so, they were also dissolved. 
 
 128. The Boston Massacre. — In October, 1 768, two 
 regiments of English troops arrived in Boston and were 
 encamped for a time on the common. They planted two 
 cannon, facing the townhouse. The people resented 
 the presence of the troops, and disturbances constantly 
 arose. On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd had 
 gathered around the barracks, and the soldiers were 
 pelted with snowballs. A quarrel arose, a large throng 
 gathered, and the soldiers fired on the people. They 
 killed four and wounded seven ^ of the citizens, two of 
 whom died from their wounds.^ The following day there 
 was an immense gathering of the people in the Old 
 South Meeting House,^ and Samuel Adams demanded 
 the removal of the troops. That evening they were 
 transferred to an island in the harbor. The Boston 
 
 1 Among those killed was Crispus Attucks, a mulatto. A monument 
 to him and his companions who fell stands on Boston common. 
 
 2 The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by John 
 Adams and Josiah Quincy. All were acquitted except two, who received 
 slight punishment. 
 
 3 They had first gathered in Faneuil Hall. This famous building 
 was built in 1740 by Peter Faneuil, a merchant, as a market house for 
 the town. It contains a spacious hall and has always been called " The 
 Cradle of Liberty " because of the numerous meetings held there to 
 protest against British tyranny. 
 
136 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Massacre, as it was called, aroused the whole country. 
 The Revolution was rapidly approaching. 
 
 129. The North Carolina Regulators ; Burning of the 
 Gaspee. — In no section did the tyranny and dishonesty 
 of British officials fall more heavily than in the upper 
 counties of South Carolina. Here the Irish farmers, 
 who comprised the greater part of the population and 
 were called *' regulators," at length, in 1 771, rose in revolt 
 against Tryon, the governor. At Alamance, near the 
 sources of the Cape Fear river, they fought a bloody 
 battle with the British regulars. The colonists were 
 defeated, two hundred of them falling upon the field. 
 This battle, the first of the Revolution, preceded Lex- 
 ington by four years. 
 
 An event occurred the following year which showed 
 still further the daring spirit of the colonists. To 
 enforce the revenue laws, an eight-gun schooner, the 
 Gaspee, was stationed in Narragansett bay. The com- 
 mander overhauled vessels, stole provisions, and acted 
 in so tyrannical a manner that the colonists resolved to 
 take a decisive step. In June, 1772, the Gaspee while 
 chasing an American ship ran aground. On the follow- 
 ing night she was surrounded by a party of disguised 
 men in eight boats and burned to the water's edge.^ 
 
 130. Repeal of the Townshend Acts ; Boston Tea Party. 
 — On the day of the Boston Massacre a bill was intro- 
 duced into the British Parliament to repeal the Townshend 
 Acts, except the tax on tea. This was retained that the 
 
 ^ The British government offered three thousand dollars for the arrest 
 of the guilty persons, but they were never discovered. 
 
Tadousac 
 
 Albany / s ~ -~T^ Z_i«X->^ ^ V 
 
 "y^a 7?. 
 
 
 , Cape Ann 
 'Glouocste 
 
 
 SpringDeld^ \ ■?>° .k\Q\^'^^\^.% 
 
 /U art ford 
 
 
 
 ■^''^ THE REYOLUTIO]!^ 
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND STATES 
 
 (CALE OF MILES 
 
 m= 
 
 10 20 40 60 60 100 
 
 JJEW YOKK CITY 
 
 AND VICINITY. 
 SCA LE OF MILES 
 --0, 1 2 3 4 j 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 137 
 
 right of Parliament to impose taxes could be maintained. 
 Although it was a small tax,i the principle involved was 
 the point at issue. If Parliament could legally tax tea, 
 it could also levy any taxes it saw fit.^ 
 
 The colonists therefore refused to buy or use the 
 tea, even though under the new law it was cheaper in 
 America than in England. Ships full of tea were sent 
 to Charleston, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and 
 other ports. The people of Philadelphia and New York 
 would not allow the vessels to land and sent them back. 
 In Baltimore and Rhode Island the tea was burned. 
 In Boston the British officers would not allow the vessels 
 to be sent back. On the night of Dec. 16, 1773, a 
 party of men, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, 
 ripped open three hundred and forty-two chests, and 
 spilled the tea into the harbor. This was a direct 
 affront to the king, and Parliament at once resolved to 
 punish Massachusetts. 
 
 131. The New Laws of Parliament.^ — The first law, 
 called the " Boston Port Bill," ordered the port of Boston 
 to be closed until the people had paid for the destroyed 
 tea. The customhouse was removed to Marblehead,^ 
 and the seat of government to Salem. 
 
 1 This tax was so small that the royal treasury would not have 
 received more than fifteen hundred dollars a year. 
 
 2 " It is doing nothing to repeal a few scraps of paper or pieces of 
 parchment called ' Acts of Parliament,' " said William Pitt, " but our 
 business is to repeal the ill-will and the animosity unfortunately now 
 subsisting between (ireat Britain and North America." 
 
 3 These laws were called by the colonists " The Five Intolerable Acts." 
 * Instead of seeking profit by the aflliction of Boston, Salem and 
 
 Marblehead generously offered their wharves to Boston merchants. 
 
138 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The second law provided that any magistrate, soldier, 
 or officer of the crown arrested for murder should be 
 tried in England. 
 
 The third law changed the charter of Massachusetts, 
 provided for a military governor, ^ and forbade public 
 meetings without permission of the governor, except 
 for the purpose of electing officers. 
 
 The fourth law made it legal to quarter the troops on 
 the people.^ 
 
 The fifth law established the province of Quebec and 
 granted freedom of worship to the Catholics in that 
 province.^ 
 
 132. The First Continental Congress. — The other colo- 
 nies came to the assistance of Massachusetts. Led by 
 Patrick Henry,'* Virginia passed a resolution ordering 
 the day on which the Boston Port Bill was to go into 
 force to be a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.^ 
 When the governor heard of this resolution he dissolved 
 
 1 Thomas Gage, who had commanded the British regulars in America 
 for some years, was appointed miUtary governor, but he was not recog- 
 nized in any way by the people. 
 
 2 That is, the colonies where soldiers were stationed were required 
 to furnish them, not only with shelter, but also with firewood, drink, 
 bedding, soap, and candles. 
 
 3 As this act extended the province of Quebec southward to the Ohio, 
 the colonies of Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts claimed it 
 violated their charters, which gave them the territory from sea to sea. 
 
 * In his famous speech, Patrick Henry exclaimed : " There is no 
 longer any room for hope. We must fight. I repeat it, sir; we must 
 fight." 
 
 5 The other colonies also observed this date as a day of fasting. The 
 bells in Philadelphia were muffled and tolled, and similar evidence of 
 intense feeling was shown in other places. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 139 
 
 =^y| — 
 
 the legislature. Thereupon a committee was appointed 
 to send letters to the other colonies urging the necessity 
 of another congress. The colonies approved without an 
 exception, and Sept. i, 1774, fifty-five delegates, repre- 
 senting every colony except Georgia, met in Carpenters' 
 Hall, Philadelphia. 
 This w^as the First 
 Continental Con- 
 gress. This Con- 
 gress declared that 
 it was unlawful for 
 Great Britain to tax 
 the people without 
 their consent, to try (' 
 persons without a 
 jury, to dissolve the 
 legislative assem- 
 blies, and to quarter 
 troops on the people 
 in time of peace. 
 An address was 
 
 issued to the people of Great Britain and to the English 
 king. The delegates agreed not to trade with England 
 until the objectionable laws were repealed. It was voted 
 to meet again on May 10, 1775, and take action on the 
 answer of the king to their petitions. 
 
 133. Capture of Fort William and Mary, 1775. — One 
 of the delegates to the First Continental Congress was 
 John Sullivan of New Hampshire. Learning from Paul 
 Revere (Dec. 13, 1775) that a force was coming to seize 
 
 Patrick Henry's Famous Speech 
 
140 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the gunpowder and supplies in Fort William and Mary 
 at Newcastle, New Hampshire, he assembled a company 
 and surprised the fort, hauled down the flag, and carried 
 off the supplies, consisting of one hundred barrels of 
 powder and other stores, to Durham, where they were 
 hidden in the church. These supplies were later sent 
 to Bunker Hill just in time for use by the patriots in 
 that battle. ''For the first time in American history, 
 the British flag was torn down in armed rebellion." 
 
 134. The Battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 
 1775. — General Gage, seeing the warlike feeling of 
 the people, began to erect fortifications around Boston. 
 The colonists collected ammunition and trained sol- 
 diers. Twenty thousand "minute men," citizens ready 
 for duty at a minute's notice, were enrolled. General 
 Gage heard of these preparations and learned that a 
 large quantity of military supplies had been gathered at 
 Concord. He planned to surprise and capture these 
 stores and to this end sent a force of eight hundred 
 regulars to carry out his plans. They were ordered to 
 go by way of Lexington and arrest Samuel Adams and 
 John Hancock, w^ho were visiting there. The scheme 
 was discovered and, by the aid of lanterns hung in the 
 belfry of the Old North Church, Paul Revere learned of 
 the route of the troops. He rode furiously forward, 
 warning the inhabitants and also Adams and Hancock, 
 who fled. When the British troops reached Lexington 
 in the early morning (April 19, 1775) they saw the 
 minute men drawn up on the common to oppose them. 
 "Disperse, you rebels!" shouted Pitcairn, the British 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 141 
 
 commander, and on their refusal to do so, he ordered 
 his soldiers to fire. Eight of the minute men fell dead 
 and ten were wounded. From Lexington the British 
 marched to Concord, where they again met the minute 
 men, who "fired the shot heard round the world." ^ 
 The English were repulsed. After destroying what few 
 military stores they could find, they began the retreat 
 to Boston. But the jour- 
 ney was a difficult one. 
 On every side the minute 
 men flocked in. From 
 behind walls, trees, and 
 fences they poured a 
 deadly fire on the retreat- 
 ing British. Man after 
 man fell from the ranks 
 and, had not a fresh body '^ '' '"^ 
 
 of twelve hundred men met them at Lexington,' the entire 
 command would probably have been destroyed. Even 
 against these new troops the minute men kept up their 
 fatal fire till the British reached Charlestown, two hun- 
 dred and seventy-three of their number having been lost. 
 135. Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775. — On 
 the shores of Lake Champlain, guarding the route to 
 Canada, were two forts, Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 
 They were well supplied with all kinds of military stores 
 
 1 Emerson has immortalized this battle by his famous lines : 
 
 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. 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
142 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 but were feebly garrisoned. Ethan Allen with a band 
 of vigorous youths called the "Green Mountain Boys" 
 resolved to surprise and capture the forts. On the night 
 of May 9 he crossed lake Champlain in the darkness 
 with eighty-three followers, among them being Benedict 
 Arnold. At daybreak he appeared before the fort, rushed 
 into the quarters of the commandant, and demanded the 
 surrender of the fort. " In whose name ? " asked the 
 bewildered commandant. "In the name of the Great 
 Jehovah and the Continental Congress ! " shouted Allen. 
 The fort surrendered, and two days later Crown Point 
 with its immense military supplies fell. The patriots 
 now controlled lakes Champlain and George and the 
 route between New York and Canada. 
 
 136. Second Continental Congress ; George Washington, 
 Commander in Chief. — The Second Continental Con- 
 gress met at Philadelphia, May lo, 1775, the day of 
 the surrender of Ticonderoga. For the next six years 
 it was the central governing body of the nation.^ The 
 most important act performed by this Congress was the 
 appointment, by unanimous vote, of George Washington 
 as commander in chief of the continental army. 
 
 137. Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. — In the 
 meantime stirring events were taking place in Boston. 
 General Gage, the British commander, had been joined 
 by Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, and he now 
 
 1 While the First Continental Congress was merely an advisory body, 
 the Second gradually assumed the powers of sovereignty. It assumed 
 the defense of the colonies, raised armies, directed foreign affairs, and 
 issued money for the troops. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 143 
 
 had ten thousand men. Gage therefore decided to seize 
 Bunker Hill, which overlooked the harbor and his camps. 
 The Americans also recognized the value of the position 
 and on the night of June 16 quietly seized the hill and 
 threw up intrenchments. When 
 the surprised British sawthe 
 heights occupied by colonial 
 troops they at once prepared to 
 assault them. The British column 
 moved up the hill. As the Ameri- 
 cans had very little powder they 
 were ordered not to fire till they 
 saw the whites of the eyes of the 
 enemy. They waited, and at the 
 signal, in a blaze of musketry, 
 the British line was swept away. 
 
 A second line came up and 
 under the deadly aim of the colo- 
 nists was cut to pieces. A third 
 time the British charged, and as 
 
 the Americans had no powder left they were compelled 
 to withdraw. The British loss was more than one 
 thousand, the American less than half that number. 
 While the Americans were compelled to retreat, the 
 battle was of the greatest benefit to them, for it showed 
 the world that the colonists could and would fight to the 
 end for their liberties. 
 
 138. Expedition against Quebec ; Death of Montgom- 
 ery ; Embassy to Canada. — Washington soon arrived 
 in Cambridge and took command of the army, which 
 
 Bunker Hill Monument 
 
144 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 numbered about sixteen thousand men. It was decided 
 to send an expedition against Quebec, and the command 
 was given to Richard Montgomery.^ Hz was ordered 
 to sail from Ticonderoga and, after capturing Montreal, 
 to move eastward against Quebec. Another force, under 
 Benedict Arnold, was sent through Maine to join Mont- 
 gomery. Arnold's soldiers suffered fearful hardships in 
 the Maine woods, but he and his brave men pushed 
 onward. At last they reached Quebec, where Mont- 
 gomery, who had taken Montreal, met them. On 
 Dec. 31, 1775, they attacked the strongest fortification 
 in America and would, probably, have captured the city 
 had not the brave Montgomery fallen mortally wounded. 
 The expedition failed, and the soldiers returned in the 
 following spring to Crown Point. 
 
 Congress now determined to win, if possible, the 
 Canadians from the British allegiance and to that end 
 resolved (Feb. 15, 1776) to send to Canada an embassy 
 composed of Benjamin Frankhn, Samuel Chase, Charles 
 Carroll of Carrollton, and Father John Carroll, later the 
 
 1 Richard Montgomery was born in Ireland, Dec. 2, 1736. In May, 
 1774, he was sent as a delegate to the first Provincial Congress in New 
 York City and in June of that same year was appointed a brigadier 
 general in the continental army. In honor of his "patriotic conduct, 
 enterprise, and perseverance," Congress erected a marble monument 
 to him in St. Paul's Church in New York City. A tablet in the rocks 
 at Quebec marks the spot where he fell. In 18 18 his body was brought 
 to New York. A special boat with emblems of mourning conveyed the 
 body down the Hudson. " Slowly it passed his beloved country seat, 
 the strains of a sad dirge rising softly to the porch where sat his widow 
 quite alone, gazing down upon the coffin of her hero. When her friends 
 came to get her, they found her lying prostrate in a swoon." 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 145 
 
 first Catholic Bishop in America. The mission was not 
 successful, for the bitter attacks made upon the Quebec 
 Act and llie intolerant laws of the colonies led the Cana- 
 dians to expect fairer treatment from England than from 
 the American colonists. 
 
 139. The Evacuation of Boston; Victory at Fort 
 Moultrie. — Washington while drilling his raw troops 
 was tightening the chain of soldiery around Boston. 
 Seeing the advantage of holding Dorchester Heights, 
 which overlooked the city, he suddenly seized the hill 
 (March 4, 1776) and during the darkness of night 
 threw up earthworks. The British in the morning saw 
 the Americans above them, with their cannon firmly 
 planted to sweep their camp as well as their ships. 
 Fearing to attack the intrenched colonists, they sailed 
 away March 17 with all their troops to Halifax. They 
 took with them nine hundred Tories,^ a name given to 
 those who preferred to remain subject to the king of 
 England. "It was," says Edmund Burke, "more like 
 the departure of a people than the retreat of an 
 army." Three months later the English fleet appeared 
 off Charleston harbor, where Colonel Moultrie with his 
 brave troops had built a fortress of palmetto logs on 
 Sullivans island. The British attacked with land 
 forces, while their ships opened a heavy fire on the 
 fort. The British troops were cut to pieces, while 
 their vessels were so badly damaged that only one of 
 
 1 The British left a large quantity of ammunition and heavy guns. 
 A few days later an English ship loaded with military stores entered 
 the harbor and was quickly seized. 
 
146 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the whole fleet escaped unharmed. While the battle 
 was raging the flag shaft was broken and fell outside 
 the breastworks. Sergeant Jasper leaped over the walls 
 and, amid the flying bullets, planted it again upon the 
 ramparts. The fort was now named Fort Moultrie in 
 honor of its brave commander. 
 
 140. Declaration of Independence. — In the meantime 
 Congress saw that an absolute separation from Great 
 
 Britain was inevitable,^ 
 
 1 and steps were now 
 
 - jm_ taken to that end. 
 
 ^W American ports were 
 
 ^ , 5*gM^?H-:^"£"' -'Mgiz^'ir'Z^'k' 1^ opened for free trade 
 
 '0i% i^: f/' Hfin^r^r^iTirS. with all nations except 
 
 „^^;^ :^ r: -L:^-r:j;-^:_ _.;.._ --.^?---rr|g Great hritam. 
 
 y»ii-||pr^-:ie-J:^^^^^ On May 15, 1776, 
 
 I— :l^-. .■■,.^_.i-l„._^.,--^.,_;_:^--, .^ ,__7A£l. Congress decided to 
 The Old Statehouse, Philadel- 'A/A suppress every kind of 
 
 phia, in which the Declaration -^^ ^ authority under the 
 
 of Independence was adopted and the 
 
 Constitution of the United States framed crown, and the colonies 
 
 were asked to make 
 for themselves new state governments. On June 7 
 Richard Henry Lee offered in Congress this resolution : 
 " Resolved that these United States are, and of right 
 ought to be, free and independent states.". The motion 
 
 1 A pamphlet by Thomas Paine, called Coniniott Seftse, was issued 
 (January, 1776) with the approval of Franklin and Samuel Adams. This 
 pamphlet, which boldly declared that the time had come for a separation 
 from Great Britain, had a great influence on the minds of the colonists. 
 Over a hundred thousand copies were sold, and it paved the way for the 
 decisive action of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 147 
 
 was seconded by John Adams, and a committee of five, 
 with Thomas Jefferson as chairman, was appointed to 
 draw up the declaration.^ 
 Action was postponed for 
 three weeks, to learn the 
 opinion of the colonies. At 
 first Pennsylvania, Mary- 
 land, and South Carolina 
 did not favor it, and New 
 York was doubtful. On 
 July 2, however, it was 
 carried unanimously, 
 twelve states voting in its 
 favor. On July 4 the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, 
 written by Jefferson, was 
 adopted by Congress.^ The 
 
 colonies, now the United States of America, were 
 declared to be absolved from all allegiance to the 
 British crown. ^ The joy of the people at the news of 
 
 1 The five members were Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, 
 John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson 
 wrote the entire Declaration, and it was adopted virtually as he pre- 
 sented it except a clause denouncing the slave trade. The Declara- 
 tion was adopted July 4, 1776, but it was not signed until almost a 
 month later, August 2. 
 
 2 Within two weeks a committee submitted to Congress the " Arti- 
 cles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States." They 
 were adopted by Congress and later were ratified by practically all the 
 states. Congress exercised its authority under these articles. 
 
 ^ One of the signers was Charles Carroll from Maryland. When it 
 was said there were many Carrolls in that state he added the words "of 
 Carrollton," in order that he might bear the full responsibility of his 
 
 Charles Carroll of Carrollton 
 
148 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was 
 unbounded. It was read to Washington's army and 
 in all the cities and towns throughout the colonies. 
 Bells were rung and bonfires lighted ; in Philadelphia 
 the royal arms in the room where Congress was sitting 
 were cast out and the great bell rang forth joyfully; 
 in New York the leaden statue of George III was 
 pulled down and melted into bullets. 
 
 141. Plan of the British ; Battle of Long Island. — 
 At the departure of the British from Boston Washing- 
 ton believed they intended to strike New York, capture 
 the Hudson, and thus cut off New England from the 
 other colonies. Washington was right in his judgment, 
 for early in July, 1776, a few days after the Declara- 
 tion of Independence was proclaimed. General Howe 
 arrived with twenty-five thousand men and encamped 
 on Stat en island. His brother, Lord Howe, who had 
 been made admiral by the British government, arrived 
 on July 12. General Putnam, with five thousand Ameri- 
 cans, was intrenched on Brooklyn Heights, a point 
 which overlooked and commanded New York City. 
 General Sullivan guarded, with four thousand men, 
 the approaches to the Heights. Lord Howe attacked 
 the American forces, and the battle of Long island was 
 
 act. Some historians, however, claim that that was the usual way of 
 signing his name. Charles Carroll was born in Annapolis, Sept. 20, 
 1737, and was educated abroad. On his return to this country he took 
 up the fight against the taxation of the people for the Church of Eng- 
 land. In 1776 he represented Maryland in the Continental Congress. 
 He Avas the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. 
 He died in Baltimore, Nov. 14, 1832. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 149 
 
 fiercely fought (Aug. 27, 1776). The Americans, out- 
 numbered by the British, were defeated with heavy loss, 
 General Sullivan being taken prisoner. The British, 
 aided by their war vessels, now endeavored to hem in 
 the Americans by land and sea. The position of the 
 patriots was indeed 
 perilous, when fortu- 
 nately a heavy fog fell 
 over Long island and 
 the waters of the har- 
 bor. Washington took 
 advantage of it and 
 with the utmost secrecy 
 removed his troops to 
 the mainland of New 
 York City.i 
 
 142. The British 
 occupy New York; 
 Washington retreats 
 northward ; Fort Wash- 
 ington taken. — In a 
 few days the British crossed the river and occupied 
 the city of New York.^ Washington had taken a 
 
 1 At the first embarkation of the American troops the wife of a Tory 
 sent her negro servant to inform the British. He met a German sentinel 
 who could not understand him and locked him up as a suspicious char- 
 acter. In the morning a British officer examined him and, hearing his 
 story, rushed off to examine the American outposts. The army had 
 disappeared, and the last boats were then halfway across to New York. 
 
 2 To learn the plans of the British Nathan Hale went into their 
 lines. He was recognized and hanged as a spy. His last words were, 
 " I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." 
 
I50 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 position at Harlem Heights, where Howe attacked him 
 (Sept. i6, 1776), but was repulsed. Hoping to attack 
 Washington in a less advantageous position, Howe 
 moved into Westchester and again attacked the patriots 
 at White Plains, gaining a slight victory. Washington 
 thereupon fell back to the intrenched camp at North- 
 castle and later entered New Jersey,^ 
 
 Howe now turned his attention to Fort Washington, 
 which commanded the Hudson river. Washington had 
 advised the abandonment of the fort to save its military 
 stores and the three thousand troops in its garrison. 
 General Greene, however, who was in command, believed 
 he could hold it successfully. On November 16 the 
 British attacked and took it after a heroic resistance ^ 
 on the part of the patriots. 
 
 143. Retreat across New Jersey. — At the capture of 
 Fort Washington General Washington was at Hacken- 
 sack on the west side of the Hudson with seven thou- 
 sand men. General Charles Lee, with an equal number 
 of men, was on the east side of the Hudson at North- 
 castle. Washington ordered Lee to cross the river, 
 join forces with him, and face the enemy with the full 
 
 1 During the summer of 1776 a British fleet under Carleton moved 
 down from Canada to invade New York. With a hastily constructed 
 squadron in lake Champlain, Benedict Arnold opposed, him vigorously. 
 Though he lost most of his ships, Arnold succeeded in landing his men 
 at Ticonderoga. When Carleton appeared before that fort he doubted 
 his ability to take it, so he returned to Canada. 
 
 2 The British loss was about five hundred. Three thousand patriots 
 fell prisoners in the handa of the British, together with large military 
 stores. Many of the American prisoners were murdered by their 
 captors. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 151 
 
 Strength of the army. Lee, hoping by a brilUant stroke 
 to be raised to the supreme command, disobeyed and 
 marched his troops slowly to 
 Morristown.^ 
 
 Washington was, therefore, 
 compelled to retreat through 
 New Jersey and to cross the 
 Delaware. Cornwallis, in full 
 pursuit, reached this river as the 
 Americans landed on the opposite 
 side. Not a boat could be found 
 to transport the British troops, 
 Washington having captured 
 every boat for seventy miles up 
 and down the river. With keen 
 disappointment Cornwallis was 
 compelled to encamp until he 
 could cross the river on the ice. 
 General Sullivan assumed com- 
 mand of the troops at Morristown ''■^^!!!'^^k?^s^!^ 
 
 1 Lee took up his quarters at a tavern 
 three miles from his lines at Baskingridge. 
 A Tory rode eighteen miles to Brunswick 
 and gave this information to the British. 
 The next morning a force of British dra- 
 goons suddenly appeared and Lee was a 
 prisoner. The British, believing Lee to 
 be the most scientific of the American 
 
 generals, boasted of having taken the American palladium. His capture 
 was a distinct advantage to the Americans as General Sullivan took 
 his command. 
 
 2 This statue of the brave American hero stands in City Hall Park 
 in New York City. 
 
 >^ IK in on 
 
 Nathan Hale 2 
 
152 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 on the capture of Lee, and immediately pushed on to 
 join Washington. 
 
 144. Battle of Trenton. — Washington now deter- 
 mined to strike a decisive blow. Three regiments of 
 Hessians under Colonel Rahl were stationed at Trenton. 
 On Christmas night, while the Hessians^ were cele- 
 brating the holiday, Washington crossed the Delaware 
 through the floating ice. It was bitterly cold, and a 
 blinding snowstorm was raging. After innumerable 
 difficulties he reached the east bank, marched nine 
 miles to Trenton, where he fell upon the Hessians and 
 completely routed them. One thousand men and 
 thirty-two officers were taken prisoners. Colonel Rahl 
 was mortally wounded. The Americans lost only four 
 men. With his prisoners and military stores Washing- 
 ton now recrossed the Delaware. 
 
 145. Robert Morris* Great Aid; Distress of the 
 Troops. — The brilliant victory at Trenton aroused new 
 courage in the hearts of all the patriots. The American 
 troops now saw the people everywhere pulling down the 
 red rags which had been fastened to their doors to 
 secure British good will and protection. Hessians were 
 
 1 The king of England, not being able to secure troops in his own 
 country to wage war in America, sought to purchase them in Europe. 
 He asked Russia to sell him twenty thousand men, but Russia, then, as 
 ever since, friendly to America, declined. At length the prince of 
 Hesse-Cassel and other insignificant German rulers sold him twenty 
 thousand troops. Since that time the word " Hessian " has been a term 
 of contempt. The people of Germany were indignant at the sale of the 
 troops. Frederick the Great ordered, it is said, his customhouse officers 
 to charge toll on each Hessian crossing his territory as they did on 
 cattle going to market. 
 
* 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 153 
 
 marched through the streets of Philadelphia to convince 
 the people of the victory, and a Hessian flag was sent 
 to Congress at Baltimore. The rejoicings of the people 
 were unbounded. Congress bestowed on Washington 
 (December 27) almost unlimited military power for a 
 period of six months, that he might raise and maintain a 
 larger army. This was indeed necessary, for new dangers 
 now beset the patriot army. The enlistments of many of 
 the regiments were expiring, and they desired to return 
 home. They had been without suitable clothing for 
 months, while the paper money was constantly falling 
 in value, till it became practically worthless. Washing- 
 ton saw it was necessary to have *'hard" money. He 
 wrote to his friend Robert Morris in Philadelphia to help 
 him. ** If you could possibly collect a sum, if it were but 
 one hundred and fifty pounds, it would be of service." 
 On New Year's morning Morris went from door to 
 door in Philadelphia, waking up his friqnds and asking 
 for money. By noon he had raised fifty thousand dol- 
 lars, which he sent to Washington. The soldiers reen- 
 listed, and the name of Robert Morris deserves a place 
 among the saviors of his country. 
 
 146. Battle of Princeton. — Cornwallis, hearing of 
 the disaster at Trenton, now rushed on with eight 
 thousand men to attack Washington, who had again 
 crossed the Delaware. The Americans had taken a 
 position near Trenton on the south bank of a small 
 stream — the Assunpink — that flowed into the Delaware. 
 Cornwallis arrived late in the day and postponed his 
 attack until the next morning. With the Delaware full 
 
154 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 of floating ice, Washington's retreat was cut off and his 
 position was extremely dangerous. CornwalUs viewing 
 the situation exclaimed with joy, " At last we have run 
 down the old fox and we will bag him in the morning." 
 But Washington did not intend to be caught. While 
 his men were apparently throwing up intrenchments, 
 and the camp fires were burning brightly, Washington 
 slipped up the little creek, passed behind Cornwallis, and 
 fell on his rear guard at Princeton. ^ The roar of cannon 
 in his rear awoke Cornwallis to his danger. The British 
 were defeated. Washington took a strong position at 
 Morristown Heights, and as this threatened his line of 
 supplies Cornwallis ordered a general retreat of the 
 British to New York. 
 
 Philadelphia was safe, and Washington spent the 
 winter undisturbed at Morristown. The brilliant mili- 
 tary skill shown by Washington excited the greatest 
 admiration in Europe. Many nations, especially the 
 French, now desired to give secret or open aid to the 
 struggling patriots. A young nobleman of France, 
 Marquis de Lafayette, seeking in vain to get help 
 from his country, secretly fitted out at his own expense 
 a ship and came to America to join the forces of Wash- 
 ington without pay.^ His historic words were, " When 
 
 1 Even the English admired Washington's genius. Horace Walpole 
 said : " His march through our lines is allowed to have been a prodigy 
 of generalship. In one word, I look upon a great part of America as 
 lost to this country." It is said that Frederick the Great pronounced 
 these campaigns as among the most brilliant in military history. 
 
 2 On his arrival Lafayette offered his services to Congress. Being 
 impatient at the delay in accepting his offer, he called at the door of 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 155 
 
 first I heard of American independence my heart was 
 enUsted!" 
 
 At this time a number of German and PoHsh officers 
 arrived to aid the patriot cause ; among them were 
 De Kalb/ Baron Steuben,^ Pulaski,^ and Kosciuszko.'^ 
 Baron Steuben had been trained under Frederick the 
 Great and rendered very valuable service in drilling 
 the American troops. 
 
 147. The British Plans of Campaign ; Battle of Brandy- 
 wine ; Howe takes Philadelphia ; Battle of Germantown. 
 — The British plan of campaign for 1777 was as follows : 
 
 1 . General Howe was to seize the city of Philadelphia, 
 the capital of the '^ rebel government," and thereafter 
 move northward to join General Burgoyne. 
 
 2. General Burgoyne with nine thousand men was 
 to come down from Canada, opening the route to the 
 
 Congress. On learning that nothing had been done with his application 
 he sent in the following note : " After my sacrifices I have the right to 
 ask two favors : one is to serve at my own expense ; the other, to begin 
 by serving as a volunteer." This manly note had the desired effect. 
 Congress at once appointed him major general. 
 
 1 John De Kalb was born in Germany and later served in the French 
 army. Coming to America in 1777, he was appointed a major general 
 by Congress and was killed, fighting bravely, in the battle of Camden. 
 
 2 Baron Steuben was born in Prussia. At the close of the Revo- 
 lutionary War he received a large grant of land in New York from 
 Congress and remained in America until his death (1794). 
 
 3 Casimir Pulaski was born in Poland. He served on Washington's 
 staff and fought bravely at Brandywine and Germantown. While in 
 command of the celebrated Pulaski's legion he fell, gallantly fighting, 
 before Savannah in 1779. 
 
 * Thaddeus Kosciuszko was a native of Poland and was an engineer 
 of great skill. He erected the fortifications of West Point. After the 
 war he returned to fight for the freedom of his native land. 
 
J^ 
 
 156 ESSENTIALS OY AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Hudson, thus completely cutting off New England from 
 the other colonies. 
 
 3. St. Lcger with two thousand men was to ascend 
 the St. Lawrence to Oswego and then, coming down 
 the Mohawk valley, enlist the aid and sympathy of the 
 
 Six Nations. 
 
 To carry out his part 
 
 Cherry Valley 
 
 \ 1 
 
 of the campaign, Howe 
 intended to march 
 across New Jersey 
 and, capturing Phila- 
 delphia, turn northward 
 to aid B u r g o y n e. 
 Washington prevented 
 this movement, and 
 Howe decided, upon 
 the advice of his pris- 
 oner General Charles 
 Lee, it is said, to go by 
 water to Philadelphia. 
 On July 23, with 
 eighteen thousand men, he sailed from New York and a 
 week later appeared off the entrance to Delaware bay. 
 Signal fires along the coast told the patriots the posi- 
 tion of the fleet. Washington marched Quickly south 
 with eleven thousand troops. Howe did not sail up 
 Delaware bay, but put again to sea and appeared next 
 at the mouth of Chesapeake bay. Washington marched 
 to Wilmington (Delaware), and Howe, landing his troops, 
 hurried to meet him. They met at Chadds Ford on 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 157 
 
 the Brandywine river ^ (Sept. 11, 1777). The Ameri- 
 cans were driven back, and Howe entered Philadelphia 
 two weeks later. Washington, although driven back, 
 had succeeded in delaying Howe so long that coopera- 
 tion with Burgoyne was impossible. Washington gave 
 the British no peace. A short time later (Oct. 4, 1777) 
 he made an attack on their camp at Germantown, but, 
 being repulsed, went into winter quarters at Valley 
 Forge. ^ 
 
 148. Burgoyne's Expedition; Battle of Bennington, 
 Aug. 16, 1777. — Let us see how Burgoyne had fared 
 in the meantime. Leaving Montreal in June on his 
 eventful march southward with an army of eight thou- 
 sand men, composed of English, Hessians, and Indians, 
 he captured forts Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and 
 pushed on towards Fort Edward (July 5). General 
 Schuyler, in command of the American forces, made 
 his journey a difficult one. By burning bridges, felling 
 trees across the paths and highways, choking up the 
 rivers, and carrying off all the cattle and foodstuffs, 
 
 1 This was the first battle in America in which the gallant Lafayett-e 
 took part. With him was the brave Polish count Pulaski. 
 
 2 The sufferings of the American army at Valley Forge were inde- 
 scribable. The soldiers in their rude huts were exposed to the severe 
 winter weather and were compelled, many of them, to sleep on the 
 frozen earth. They were without suitable clothing, many being bare- 
 footed. Their food was flour mixed with water. Agents of the British 
 were constantly trying to bribe the soldiers to leave the patriot army 
 and return to the king. A conspiracy was formed against Washington 
 to displace him from his command. From its leader it was called the 
 Conway Cabal. It failed in its purpose, and Washington rose higher 
 than ever in the esteem of his countrvmen. 
 
158 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Schuyler caused Burgoyne so much delay that he did 
 not reach Fort Edward until the latter part of July, — 
 twenty-four days to march twenty-six miles. 
 
 Hearing that the Americans had collected large mili- 
 tary stores at Bennington, in the present state of Ver- 
 mont, Burgoyne dispatched one thousand men under 
 
 —1 Colonel Baum to seize 
 
 them. The brave New 
 
 Hampshire militia and 
 
 Green Mountain Boys, 
 
 under Colonel John Stark,^ 
 
 were waiting for them. On 
 
 the i6th of August the 
 
 Americans met the British. 
 
 When Stark saw the enemy 
 
 he cried: "See, men! 
 
 There are the red-coats ! 
 
 We must beat them to- 
 
 6^ 25 io Too day, or Molly Stark is a 
 
 widow." The patriots were successful and took about 
 
 seven hundred prisoners. The American loss was only 
 
 fifty-six men killed and wounded.^ This victory enabled 
 
 1 General John Stark was born of Irish parentage in Londonderry, 
 New Hampshire, Aug. 28, 1728. He had already distinguished himself 
 at Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Trenton. The battle- of Bennington 
 raised him to a front rank in the nation's heroes. He died in Man- 
 chester, New Hampshire, May 8, 1S22. 
 
 2 A farmer who had five sons in this battle who were fighting for their 
 country was told that one of them had been unfortunate. " Has he been 
 a coward or a traitor ? " he asked anxiously. " Worse than that," was the 
 reply. " He has been killed fighting bravely." With a sigh of relief but 
 with a choking voice, the old man answered, " Then I am satisfied." 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 159 
 
 the patriots to get in the rear of Burgoyne and cut off 
 his supplies from Canada. 
 
 149. Fort Stanwix ; Surrender of Burgoyne, Oct. 17, 
 1777' — In the meantime St. Leger had landed at Oswego 
 and, pushing eastward, besieged Fort Stanwix (August 3), 
 the site of the present city of Rome, New York.^ 
 Schuyler, hearing of the distress of the fort, sent Bene- 
 dict Arnold to relieve it. After three days of siege the 
 garrison rushed out and captured five British flags. They 
 hoisted these upside down over the ramparts, and above 
 them raised a flag made of a piece of blue jacket, a white 
 shirt, and some red flannel. In June Congress had 
 adopted as our national flag the stars and stripes, and 
 at Fort Stanwix it was for the first time thrown to the 
 breeze. On the approach of Arnold,^ St. Leger fled to 
 Oswego, and another blow was given to Burgoyne 's 
 hopes. 
 
 Schuyler was now removed from the command, and 
 Gates took his place. Burgoyne, seeing the enemy 
 
 1 General Nicholas Herkimer with eight hundred militia was en route 
 to relieve the garrison in Fort Stanwix when he was attacked in a 
 ravine near Oriskany by Joseph Brant and his Mohawk warriors. Both 
 sides suffered fearful losses, and Herkimer was fatally wounded. 
 
 2 Arnold resorted to a stratagem to frighten the Indians who were 
 with St. Leger. A half-witted Tory boy who had been condemned to 
 death as a spy was promised his life if he would go to the British camp 
 and report the advance of a large body of Americans. Filling his coat 
 with bullet holes, he rushed headlong among St. Leger's Indians. When 
 asked how many Americans were coming he pointed to the leaves of 
 the trees. The Indians, thoroughly terrified, threw down their arms and, 
 after sacking the camp, scattered through the woods in all directions. 
 During St. Leger's retreat these Indians, his former allies, hung on the 
 flanks of his army, killing and plundering the British with true savage glee. 
 
l6o ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 drawing around him, his supphes becoming scarcer 
 every day, and his Indian alHes deserting, attacked 
 the Americans at Bemis Heights near Saratoga Sep- 
 tember 19. An indecisive battle was fought, in which 
 Benedict Arnold showed great bravery. 
 
 On October 7 Burgoyne again attacked the Americans 
 at Stillwater, but was badly defeated by Arnold, whose 
 leg was shattered by a musket ball. Giving up all hope 
 of assistance from Howe, hemmed in on all sides, Bur- 
 goyne surrendered, Oct. 17, 1777, at Saratoga, his whole 
 army of six thousand men and his military stores. 
 
 The battle of Saratoga was one of the decisive battles 
 of the world. ^ It had most important results for the 
 American cause. It completely destroyed the plan of 
 the war, prevented English control of the Hudson and 
 New York state, secured the aid of France, and 
 induced the English to seek reconciliation. 
 
 150. The French Alliance ; the British retreat to Phila- 
 delphia ; Battle of Monmouth. — Congress had sent 
 Benjamin Franklin to Paris in October, 1776, to seek 
 the aid of the French king.^ For a long time he was 
 
 1 No military event can be said to have exercised more important 
 influence on the future fortunes of mankind than the complete defeat of 
 Burgoyne's expedition in 1777 ; a defeat which rescued the revolted 
 colonies from certain subjection and which, by inducing the courts of 
 France and Spain to attack England in their behalf, insured the inde- 
 pendence of the United States. — Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles of 
 the World. 
 
 2 As early as May, 1776, France had sent two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars to aid the American cause and in July of the same year merchandise 
 to the value of almost six hundred thousand dollars. At the same time 
 she allowed American privateers to fit out in her ports. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION i6l 
 
 unsuccessful. The surrender of Burgoyne and the 
 renewed attempts by the king of England at reconcil- 
 iation with the revolted colonies induced the king of 
 France to sign a treaty Feb. 6, 1778. By this treaty 
 the Americans were bound to accept no terms of peace 
 until the British government should recognize the inde- 
 pendence of the United States. Spain and Holland 
 afterwards joined France. A French fleet was now dis- 
 patched to our assistance. Lord Howe had been super- 
 seded in the command of the British by Sir Henry 
 Clinton. Hearing of the approach of the French fleet, 
 Clinton left Philadelphia and marched to New York. 
 Washington pressed behind him and overtook the 
 British rear guard at Monmouth, where he attacked it. 
 At the moment of victory Charles Lee,^ who had been 
 exchanged and had again received a command, ordered 
 a disgraceful retreat. Washington fortunately came 
 up in time to save his army, and the British, having 
 lost two thousand men, hurried on to New York.^ 
 
 151. Battle of Butts Hill, Newport ; Capture of Stony 
 Point. — Washington now hoped to take New York 
 City with the aid of the French ships under Count 
 d'Estaing, but the sand bars at the entrance to the 
 
 ^ For his cowardice or treachery in this battle, Lee was tried by 
 court-martial and suspended from the army. For insulting Washington, 
 he was later expelled, and died in obscurity. 
 
 '^ While carrying water to the tired soldiers, Molly Pitcher saw her 
 husband shot down at his cannon. She at once took his place and 
 loaded and fired the gun during the battle. Washington, in recognition 
 of her bravery, made her a lieutenant, and Congress gave her half pay 
 for life. She died in 1833, and her grave at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is 
 marked by a monument, erected by a grateful people in her honor. 
 
l62 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 harbor prevented their approach. He dispatched the 
 fleet, therefore, to attack Newport, which was held by 
 the British. 
 
 The land force was commanded by General Sullivan, 
 who was aided by Lafayette ; a disastrous storm scat- 
 jtered the fleet, and the Americans were attacked in 
 their intrenchments on Butts Hill (Aug. 29, 1778). 
 The British were repulsed with severe losses. This 
 was the last campaign fought in the North between the 
 two armies. After the British withdrew from Newport 
 New York City was the only point north of Virginia 
 held by them until the war closed. 
 
 Hoping to draw General Washington away from 
 New York, Clinton sent expeditions to ravage unpro- 
 tected places. Marthas Vineyard and New Bedford 
 were swept by fire ; Portsmouth and Norfolk, in Virginia, 
 were burned and the defenseless citizens murdered. In 
 Connecticut New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk were 
 destroyed. These raids were marked with a trail of 
 blood and cruelty, resembling more the warfare of 
 savages than of civilized men. 
 
 Washington, however, had other plans in view. He 
 quietly sent (July, 1779) General Anthony Wayne ^ — 
 
 1 Anthony Wayne was born in Pennsylvania of Irish parentage. He 
 was appointed a brigadier general and fought heroically at Brandy wine, 
 Germantown, and Monmouth. Congress gave him a vote of thanks 
 for the brilliant exploit at Stony Point. He took a leading part in the 
 operations of Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. He was later 
 a member of the convention which ratified the Constitution of the 
 United States and was made a major general. He was given command 
 of the army against the Indians, whom he thoroughly defeated. He told 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 163 
 
 " Mad Anthony," he was called, because of his bravery 
 — up the Hudson to capture Stony Point. This was an 
 important post in the river below West Point, and had 
 been captured by Clinton six weeks before. With 
 twelve hundred men, at midnight July 15, Wayne 
 silently stole up the hill towards the fort.^ Before the 
 garrison was aware of their presence they sprang over 
 the outworks and carried all before them at the point 
 of the bayonet. Wayne destroyed the fort, as he was 
 not strong enough to hold it, and withdrew, taking with 
 him all the military stores. 
 
 152. Indian Warfare ; the Massacres in Wyoming 
 and Cherry Valley. — The Indians were now let loose 
 on the frontier settlements. The Seneca tribe and 
 a regiment of Tories, led by Colonel John Butler, 
 invaded the Wyoming valley in Pennsylvania. Fight- 
 ing against overwhelming numbers, the brave Ameri- 
 can patriots were surrounded (July 3, 1778) and 
 defeated. 
 
 The Indians put their captives to death with the 
 most horrible tortures. The Tories rivaled in ferocity 
 their savage allies. The beautiful valley was left a 
 smoldering desert, and the women and children, driven 
 to the woods, perished miserably. 
 
 them he would rise from his grave against them if they broke the treaty. 
 He died in 1796 and is buried in Old St. David's at Radnor, the church- 
 yard which Longfellow has described so beautifully in his poem, " Old 
 St. David's." 
 
 1 It is said that Wayne killed every dog within a distance of three 
 miles lest their barking might alarm the garrison. For the same reason, 
 not a gun was loaded. 
 
l64 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Another band of Tories and Indians, under the 
 infamous Joseph Brant, ^ came up the Mohawk valley 
 and fell on Cherry Valley (Nov. lo, 1778), where they 
 put to death men, women, and children. Washington 
 determined to stop these massacres and sent General 
 Sullivan against the Indians, whom he met and over- 
 whelmed at Newtown, on the site of the present city of 
 Elmira. With fire and sword Sullivan now swept like 
 a whirlwind 'through the territory of the Iroquois, 
 utterly destroying forty villages. The crops were 
 burned, the fruit trees cut down, and the land left 
 desolate. The power of the Indian confederacy was 
 broken forever. 
 
 153. War in the West ; George Rogers Clark ; Father 
 Gibault. — The British commander at Detroit, Colonel 
 Hamilton, urged the Indians to a united attack on the 
 American frontier settlements.^ A young Virginian, 
 George Rogers Clark, was commissioned to lead an 
 expedition into the West and seize the English forts 
 between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Embarking 
 (June 26, 1778) at Fort Pitt, they sailed down the river 
 to a point forty miles above its mouth. Here they 
 landed and began their perilous journey across swamps, 
 
 1 Joseph Brant was a Mohawk Indian who had been well educated, 
 and became later a missionary for the Church of Englar^d. At the out- 
 break of the Revolution he placed himself at the head of the Mohawks, 
 as thorough a savage as the most bloodthirsty of his followers. With 
 his Tory allies he spread death and destruction wherever he waged his 
 inhuman warfare. 
 
 2 To encourage them in their murderous work, Hamilton paid the 
 Indians bounties only on scalps. As they received nothing for prisoners, 
 they took none. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 165 
 
 through forests and thickets, at times without food or 
 shelter. Kaskaskia fell into their hands, and, a little 
 later, Cahokia, 
 without firing 
 a shot. Here 
 Clark met 
 Father Peter 
 Gibault,^ who 
 joined himself 
 to the Ameri- 
 can cause. Set- 
 
 ting out at once 
 for Vincennes, 
 Father Gibault 
 induced the 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 Boonesboro V 
 
 Clark's Expedition 
 
 French and the Catholic Indians to yield to Clark, 
 who, in consequence, took the fort without firing a 
 
 1 Father Gibault himself, like Clark, had reason to complain of his 
 later treatment. " At one time," says Roosevelt, " he was suffering 
 from poverty, due to his loyal friendship to the Americans ; for he had 
 advanced Clark's troops both goods and peltries for which he had never 
 received payment. In a petition to Congress he showed how this failure 
 to repay him had reduced him to want." " Next to Clark and Vigo," 
 says Judge John Law, "the United States are more indebted to Father 
 Gibault for the accession of the states comprised in what was the original 
 Northwest territory than to any other man." 
 
 Clark's last years were spent in poverty near Louisville. Virginia, as 
 a mark of her esteem, in his declining days sent a committee to him with 
 a beautiful sword. Clark exclaimed : " When Virginia needed a sword, 
 I gave her one. She sends me now a toy. I want bread ! " He thrust 
 the sword into the ground and broke it with his crutch. 
 
 Fran9ois Vigo was an Italian who escaped from captivity and brought 
 Clark news of the weakness of the British garrison at Vincennes. lie 
 was ever the stanch friend of the Americans. 
 
l66 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 shot. The British later took the fort, but could hold 
 it only a short time, for Clark again captured it. This 
 territory was annexed to Virginia and was called the 
 county of Illinois. This heroic march of Clark and 
 the friendly offices of Father Gibault gave us the title 
 to this section. The Great Lakes, instead of the 
 Ohio, became, in consequence, the southern boundary 
 of British possessions at the conclusion of the war. 
 
 154. War on the Ocean ; Barry and Jones. — At the 
 outbreak of the war the patriots were greatly hampered 
 by the lack of a naval force. While no regular navy 
 was available to destroy British shipping, private cruis- 
 ers were built, and during the next four years did great 
 damage to English vessels. These cruisers crossed the 
 sea, hovered around the coasts of England, and captured 
 in three years six hundred vessels. Congress, in the 
 meantime, had appointed Esek Hopkins of Rhode 
 Island commander of a little navy of five ships, but 
 this navy was soon destroyed or dispersed. Another 
 attempt at the formation of a navy was made by the 
 purchase of several merchant vessels. The command 
 of one of these vessels, the Lexingtojt, was given to 
 Captain John Barry,^ who raised, for the first time on 
 
 1 Commodore John Barry was born in Wexford, Ireland, and came 
 to America at the age of thirteen. He rapidly rose irn the merchant 
 marine and at twenty-five was captain of one of the best packet ships 
 of the day. At the outbreak of the Revolution he gave up the best 
 ship in America to serve the patriot cause. Lord Howe offered him 
 command of the best frigate in the English navy and fifteen thousand 
 guineas if he would join the British forces. Barry answered, "I have 
 devoted myself to the cause of America and not the value and com- 
 mand of the whole British fleet can seduce me from it." 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 167 
 
 the sea, the American flag, and shortly afterward met 
 and captured the British man-of-war, Edward, after a 
 vigorous battle. He fought battles everywhere along 
 the coasts, inflicting severe losses on the enemy. In 
 March, 1794, Captain Barry _-^ 
 
 was placed at the head of the 
 list of commanders, with the 
 rank of commodore. He has 
 been called '' The Father of 
 the American Navy." In 
 Captain Barry's squadron, 
 which set out to maintain the 
 American flag upon the sea, 
 was John Paul Jones,^ a lieu- 
 tenant on the Alfred. Later 
 Jones made his name forever 
 illustrious in naval annals. 
 With three vessels he sailed 
 boldly for the English coasts 
 Jiommc Richard, had been given to him by the king of 
 France. Off Flamborough Head, a bold promontory on 
 the east coast of England, he met an English fleet from 
 the Baltic under the conduct of two men-of-war, the 
 
 John Barry 
 
 His vessel, the Bon- 
 
 1 John Paul Jones was born in Scotland, and entered the American 
 service in 1775. He made many cruises and received for his victory 
 over the Serapis a gold medal with the thanks of Congress and a gold 
 sword from the king of France. After the Revolution he became a 
 rear admiral in the Russian navy, and died in Paris in 1792. Pie was 
 a man of remarkable courage and daring. In one of Jones' maneuvers 
 during the great sea fight the British captain asked, " Have you struck ? " 
 " Struck ! " replied Jones ; " I have not begun to fight ! " 
 
l68 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. Although 
 the odds were against him, Jones at once made an 
 attack, and after a hand-to-hand struggle captured both 
 vessels. He transferred his men and stores to the 
 Serapis just in time, for his own vessel soon sank 
 beneath the waves. 
 
 155. The War in the South ; Savannah taken ; Fall of 
 Charleston. — In 1778 the war was transferred to the 
 South, the British hoping to capture each state in suc- 
 cession. Georgia passed first into the hands of the 
 English, and the royal governor was again placed in 
 office. The Americans under Lincoln, aided by the 
 French fleet, attempted (October, 1779) to recapture 
 Savannah, but were badly defeated. They lost one 
 thousand men, among them being the gallant Polish 
 officer Pulaski and the hero of Fort Moultrie, Sergeant 
 Jasper. Lincoln withdrew to South Carolina. Clinton 
 now came down from New York with eight thousand 
 men and was later joined by three thousand others. 
 Encouraged by their successes, they now pushed north- 
 ward and surrounded Charleston, where Lincoln had 
 intrenched himself. The British prepared to assault the 
 city with overwhelming numbers, and Lincoln, seeing 
 how hopeless his position was, surrendered his army of 
 three thousand men with his military stores. It was a 
 fearful blow to the patriot cause.^ The British could now 
 overrun South Carolina; but the militia, under the brave 
 
 1 The English statesman, Horace Walpole, exclaimed on hearing of 
 the surrender, " We look on America as at our feet." But he was 
 sorely mistaken, as events soon proved. 
 

THE PERIOD OP^ THE REVOLUTION 169 
 
 Marion, Sumter, Pickens, and Clark, kept up an incessant 
 warfare, striking first here, then there, until the British 
 forces left the state. 
 
 156. Battle of Camden and Kings Mountain. — Con- 
 gress now placed Gates in command of the army in the 
 South against the recommendation of Washington, who 
 had no faith in him. He pushed into South Carolina, 
 where the British under Cornwallis were intrenched at 
 Camden. Gates attacked the enemy (Aug. 16, 1780), 
 but was completely routed. The brave De Kalb was 
 mortally wounded, and Gates saved himself by fleeing on 
 horseback till he was in safety, sixty miles from the 
 battlefield. This was perhaps the darkest hour of the 
 Revolution, for the three southern colonies were now in 
 the hands of the British. Two American armies had 
 been crushed and no force apparently remained to with- 
 stand the onward march of the British to Virginia. 
 
 But the patriots were not yet conquered. A short 
 time later (Oct. 7, 1780) a force of British regulars and 
 Tories under General Ferguson was attacked in the 
 highlands of South Carolina at a point called Kings 
 Mountain. The patriots were the backwoodsmen, who 
 with deadly aim cut to pieces the British force. Fer- 
 guson was killed and his command annihilated. 
 
 157. Treason of Benedict Arnold, Sept. 22, 1780 
 
 About this time a heavy blow fell on the patriot 
 cause. Benedict Arnold, who had fought so bravely 
 at Ticonderoga, Quebec, and Saratoga, formed a plot 
 to deliver up the most important post in America, — 
 West Point. Two years previously Arnold was in 
 
I/O ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 command of Philadelphia and was involved in troubles of 
 various natures. He was sentenced to be reprimanded 
 by Washington. Remembering Arnold's bravery and 
 moved by deep pity for him, Washington's reprimand 
 was of the mildest sort. Arnold was stung, however, 
 by the disgrace and sought revenge. Six months later 
 he asked Washington for the command of West Point, 
 and obtaining it, at once entered into correspondence 
 with Clinton to betray it. Major John Andre was 
 selected to carry out the details. He met Arnold at 
 West Point, but on his way back^ was captured with 
 the fatal papers concealed in his boots. He was tried 
 and hanged as a spy. Arnold escaped to the British 
 vessel, the Vultiwe. He received for his infamy about 
 thirty-two thousand dollars and a position on the staff 
 of General Clinton. 
 
 158. General Greene in the South ; Battles of Cowpens, 
 Guilford Court House, Hobkirks Hill, Eutaw Springs. — 
 A third army was now raised in the South, with 
 General Nathanael Greene^ in command. Greene 
 
 1 While riding along the wooded road near Sleepy Hollow, Andre 
 was startled by three men who suddenly confronted him. These men 
 were Paulding, Van Wart, and Williams. One of the party wore a Hes- 
 sian coat and Andre, mistaking him for one of the British allies, asked 
 him if he did not belong to the lower or British party. They answered 
 yes, and Andre at once told them he was a British officer on important 
 business. They then declared themselves to be Americans and Andre's 
 heart sank. They ordered him to dismount, found the papers, and led 
 him away to the nearest military post. Andre offered the patriots 
 bribes of all kinds, but they scorned them. Congress voted them a 
 medal and a pension of two hundred dollars a year for life. 
 
 - General Nathanael Green was born in Rhode Island in 1742. His 
 family were Quakers. During the Revolution he took part in the 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 171 
 
 immediately began a series of maneuvers that showed 
 him to be the most skillful general in the American 
 army except Washington. Knowing he had not a suffi- 
 cient force to attack Cornwallis in the open field, he 
 
 
 resolved to wear him out. With the aid of Daniel 
 Morgan, the sharpshooter, William Washington, Kos- 
 ciuszko the brave Polish engineer, Henry Lee, Marion, 
 Sumter, Pickens, and other equally brave officers, he 
 began a series of the most brilliant military operations. 
 Morgan attacked Tarleton, who had been sent against 
 him by Cornwallis at Cowpens (Jan, 17, 1781), and 
 
 battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. His 
 wonderful campaign against Cornwallis in the South gave him a place 
 in our military history second only to Washington. He died in 1786. 
 
1/2 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 completely destroyed his forces, thus cutting off one 
 third of Cornwallis' army. That general now started 
 in pursuit of Greene, who desired to lead him further 
 and further into a hostile country, far from his base 
 of supplies. The chase was maintained for two hun- 
 dred miles, when Greene suddenly turned around and 
 fought Cornwallis at Guilford Court House (March 15, 
 1 781). Greene was defeated, but Cornwallis' forces 
 were so badly cut up that he turned and retreated. 
 Greene now became the pursuer, but Cornwallis hur- 
 ried on to join the British forces in Virginia. Greene, 
 leaving Cornwallis to go his way, hastened southward 
 to clear the British out of South Carolina. At Hob- 
 kirks Hill, two miles from Camden, he was attacked 
 by Rawdon and defeated, but, as usual, fell back in 
 such good order that Rawdon gave up Camden to save 
 his army. Lee and Marion gained victories in many 
 small contests, and Greene, pushing onward, met 
 the British again at Eutaw Springs (Sept. 8, 1781), 
 where he was defeated. The British now held them- 
 selves in Charleston under the protection of their fleet. 
 In thirteen months Greene had practically recovered 
 the Carolinas and Georgia from British rule. 
 
 159. Surrender of Cornwallis. — As we saw above, 
 Cornwallis had abandoned the Carolinas and marched 
 into Virginia, where a British force under the traitor 
 Arnold and Phillips was plundering the country. 
 Lafayette with three thousand men was at Rich- 
 mond and Cornwallis resolved to capture him ; but 
 Lafayette was too clever and retreated skillfully with 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 173 
 
 his weak force. At length Cornwallis, desiring for 
 the sake of his supplies to be near the sea, marched 
 down the peninsula and with seven thousand men 
 took position at Yorktown. Lafayette followed him 
 with five thousand men. Now occurred the supreme 
 moment of the long struggle. On Aug. 14, 1781, news 
 reached Washington that the magnificent and power- 
 ful French fleet of twenty- 
 
 eight war ships and six 
 frigates, under Count de 
 Grasse, had sailed from the 
 West Indies for Chesapeake 
 bay. Washington decided 
 on the daring plan of march- 
 ing four hundred miles to 
 Virginia, joining Lafayette, 
 and hemming in Cornwallis 
 by land, while the French 
 fleet cut off his retreat by 
 sea. Pretending he was pre- 
 paring to attack New York, " ^' "^^ ^'^ 
 Washington, with two thousand Americans and four 
 thousand French soldiers under Rochambeau, who had 
 joined him from Connecticut, left the Hudson and 
 hurried southward.^ Before the British knew what he 
 was about, he had reached Philadelphia and, embark- 
 ing at the head of Chesapeake bay, was approaching 
 
 SCALE OF MfLES 
 
 1 At this time Robert Morris again came to the aid of Washington 
 with money. Rochambeau furnished twenty thousand dollars and 
 from France arrived supplies and half a million dollars. 
 
174 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Yorktown. There he soon joined Lafayette. Sixteen 
 thousand men were now encamped across the narrow 
 peninsula to cut off Cornwallis. In the meantime the 
 French fleet appeared. An English squadron followed 
 from the West Indies and attacked the French fleet, 
 but was repulsed. Cornwallis had no hope of escape 
 left. From September till the middle of October shot 
 and shell fell on the British camp from American and 
 French guns. Day by day the lines were moved nearer 
 and nearer to the British camp. Cornwallis, seeing 
 the hopelessness of his position, surrendered on the 
 19th of October, 1781. His army of seven thou- 
 sand two hundred and forty-seven men and eight hun- 
 dred and forty-seven seamen threw down their arms. 
 The allied troops were drawn up, Americans on the 
 right, French on the left, with Washington and 
 Rochambeau at their head.^ Between these lines 
 the captured army marched out while the band played 
 an old English tune, *'The World turned Upside 
 Down." 
 
 160. Independence acknowledged ; Treaty of Peace. — 
 The news of Yorktown was received everywhere in the 
 colonies with transports of delight. From the hilltops 
 bonfires told the glad news, and fast riders hurried on 
 to the most distant points with the cheerful tidings. ^ 
 
 1 Cornwallis pretended to be ill, and sent his sword by General O'Hara. 
 It was delivered to General Lincoln, who had surrendered at Charleston. 
 A statue to Rochambeau was dedicated May 24, 1902, in Washington. 
 
 2 The courier reached Philadelphia and the watchman cried out, 
 " Past two o'clock and Cornwallis is taken ! " There was no more sleep 
 that night in the city. The old doorkeeper of Congress died of joy. 
 
30 
 
 25 
 
 0\ (S/Q 
 
 s,v M ^ ( I Nashville 
 J$^ N O ; R T H 7y A R 
 
 ,-g^:&-:jfc^;;^ii:^-R=^"^^^pt- 
 
 O 
 
 .Nat7"*^- ^^' ^'i''i? "ntil 1795 
 
 Cape /^ear 
 
 Charleston 
 ''Savannah 
 
 ivS P I A N Tn'S* H~ 
 
 V 
 
 P^-^-.4.- 
 
 30 
 
 i^ 
 
 \St.Augustine 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 MAP OF THE 
 
 ED STATES 
 
 ^rrs 
 
 26 
 
 t) 
 
 At the Close of the Revolution ^ ] <^ 
 
 Showing Western Land Claims of States 
 
 AND THE Boundaries fixed by Treaty of 1783. 
 
 See also Table of Boundaries. 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 ^ 
 
 100 200 300 400 
 
 I 
 
 500 
 
 92 
 
 Longitude 87 
 
 West 
 
 82 
 
 from 
 
 77 Greenwich 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 175 
 
 In Paris the houses were illuminated and a Te Deum was 
 sung in Notre Dame. In England the news created 
 the utmost consternation. When Lord North, the 
 Prime Minister, heard of the surrender he threw up 
 his arms and cried, '* It is all over!" The king and 
 his ministers tried in vain to continue the war.^ 
 Burke, Fox, and Pitt denounced these attempts with 
 such success that the king at last agreed to the 
 acknowledgment of independence, and the preliminary 
 treaty was signed at Versailles, near Paris. 
 
 On April 19, 1783, the eighth anniversary of the 
 battle of Lexington, the army was disbanded by Wash- 
 ington and the heroic patriots returned to their homes. ^ 
 
 By the final treaty of peace, signed Sept. 3, 1783, 
 the United States embraced the country between the 
 Atlantic and the Mississippi. Florida was ceded to 
 Spain by Great Britain. Spain also claimed the 
 
 1 " ^ Anril, 1782, the Dutch RepubUc acknowledged the independence 
 o^ ,ed States, being the second power in the world to do so, 
 
 of course being the first. 
 
 2 After the surrender of Cornwallis Washington with his army 
 returned to the Hudson river, where he established his headquarters at 
 Newburg. The British troops left New York Nov. 25, 1783. Wash- 
 ington then went to New York to bid farewell to his devoted and 
 
 ficers. The latter assembled at noon December 4, and Wash- 
 said, " With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave 
 of you and most devoutly wish your later days may be as prosperous 
 and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." 
 2n journeyed on to Annapolis, where in the presence of Congress 
 • e up his command amid the tears and cordial good wishes of 
 ..triot. He returned at once to his estate in Yirginia a private 
 He had expended sixty-five thousand dollars from his private 
 Tor the cause of independence, but for his services he declined 
 any reward. 
 
176 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 territory at the mouth of the Mississippi. The area 
 of the territory ceded to the United States was about 
 eight hundred thousand square miles. 
 
 161. The Northwest Territory. — Scarcely was the 
 war over when the various states claimed title to lands 
 in the West. We have already seen that under the 
 charters of many of the colonies the grants extended 
 from sea to sea. A glance at the map will show 
 that Massachusetts claimed a large part of the pres- 
 ent states of Wisconsin and lower Michigan ; Con- 
 necticut claimed a strip across Ohio, Indiana, and 
 Illinois, and also a part of Pennsylvania ; New York 
 claimed the territory over which the Iroquois had ruled 
 — practically all the Northwest ; Virginia through her 
 charter and George Rogers Clark's expedition claimed 
 an enormous area. The states, led by New York and 
 a little later by Virginia, which was the largest owner, 
 at last generously gave up the territory to the national 
 government, and it was organized as the Northwest 
 Territory in 1787. This cession had most important 
 results. It bound the newly born states together at a 
 time when through dissensions the confederation was 
 in danger of falling to pieces.^ 
 
 The ordinance provided that no less than three 
 nor more than five states might be formed from the 
 
 1 We are accustomed to praise the lawgivers of antiquity — but I 
 doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has 
 produced effects of more distinct, marked and lasting character than 
 the ordinance of 1787. — Daniel Webster. 
 
 The ordinance followed in many respects one which had been drafted 
 in 1784 by Jefferson. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 177 
 
 territory ; * that freedom of worship should be allowed ; 
 that trial by jury should be granted ; that slavery 
 should be forever prohibited, and that schools and the 
 means of education should be forever encouraged. The 
 provision against slavery was of the greatest impor- 
 tance, as it prevented that system from gaining a 
 foothold in these great states.^ 
 
 162. Shays' Rebellion ; Defects of the Articles of Con- 
 federation. — The United States were now independent, 
 but dangers beset them on every hand. They were 
 heavily loaded with debt,^ and the armies were still 
 unpaid. The paper money was practically worthless, 
 and everywhere there was great distress. In western 
 Massachusetts the farmers were unable to pay their 
 debts. Seeing their cattle seized for debt and their 
 homesteads sold because of the heavy land taxation, 
 they arose in rebellion under Daniel Shays, a captain 
 
 1 The states that have lieen formed are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
 gan, and Wisconsin. A part of a sixth state, Minnesota, was also made 
 from this territory. 
 
 2 The land south of the Ohio was claimed by Virginia, North Caro- 
 lina, South Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina resigned her claim 
 in 1787. In the section of North Carolina west of the mountains an 
 independent state was organized by the inhabitants. Finally, in 1790, 
 North Carolina ceded Tennessee to the United States. In 1792 Ken- 
 tucky was formed into a separate state with the permission of Virginia. 
 Alabama and Mississippi in 1S04 were ceded by Georgia to the national 
 government. 
 
 3 It has been estimated that the total debt contracted by the colonies 
 in the war was one hundred and forty millions of dollars. France spent 
 directly sixty millions of dollars in our service, besides very large sums 
 elsewhere in her war with Great Britain. The debt of England was 
 increased five hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars. 
 
lyS ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 in the continental army. They surrounded the court- 
 houses at Worcester and Springfield, but were finally 
 dispersed. It was now felt that the Articles of Con- 
 federation were too weak to sustain a strong govern- 
 ment. Under these Articles Congress had no power 
 to enforce its laws ; it could not levy taxes for any 
 purpose ; there was no freedom of trade among the 
 states, one state passing tariff laws against another ; 
 trade was prostrate owing to the condition of the cur- 
 rency. Affairs reached such a fearful condition that 
 finally Virginia issued an invitation to all the states to 
 send delegates to a conference at Annapolis. As only 
 five states responded, little was accomplished. Another 
 invitation was thereupon sent to the colonies for a con- 
 vention to be held in Philadelphia in May, 1787. 
 
 The Constitutional Convention 
 
 This convention was composed of fifty-five members.^ 
 George Washington was chosen as the presiding officer. 
 After four months' discussion, a new constitution was 
 adopted Sept. 17, 1787. 
 
 Before going into effect it had to receive the 
 approval of nine states, which was secured June 21, 
 1788. 
 
 163. The New Constitution. — Under the Articles of 
 Confederation there was one House of Congress, but 
 
 ^ The number of delegates chosen to the convention was sixty-five. 
 Ten, however, did not arrive, while sixteen did not sign. The number 
 of signers was thirty-nine. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 179 
 
 no President and no developed system of federal courts. 
 The great weakness of the national government lay in 
 the fact that it could not enforce its decrees. The 
 new Constitution provided for three departments : 
 
 1. The Legislative, to consist of a Congress made 
 up of a Senate and a House of Representatives. 
 
 This department was created to make the laws. 
 
 2. The Executive, to consist of a President and 
 officers to carry out these laws. 
 
 3. The Judicial, to consist of the federal or national 
 courts to interpret the laws. 
 
 Signing the Constitution 
 
 While the legislature of each state could still enact 
 laws for its state, the Constitution became the supreme 
 law of the land, to be obeyed by the national and state 
 governments and by the people. The new Consti- 
 tution thus brought into existence a strong central 
 
l8o ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 government. By establishing the presidency and the 
 Supreme Court, by compelling freedom of trade among 
 the states, and granting to Congress power to levy 
 taxes, the Constitution laid broad and deep the founda- 
 tions of our national life.^ 
 
 In November, 1791, the first ten amendments were 
 added. They safeguarded the rights of the people by 
 securing the freedom of religion, speech, person, and 
 property. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The American Revolution was begun because of the repeated 
 attempt of the British Parliament to levy taxes on the colonists 
 without their consent. 
 
 On July 4, 1776, independence was proclaimed by the colonists. 
 
 On Oct. 17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered. France thereupon 
 openly aided us with money, men, and a fleet. 
 
 On Oct. 19, 1 78 1, Cornwalhs surrendered. 
 
 In 1783 the king of England acknowledged our independence. 
 
 In 1789 the new Constitution went into effect, and we became 
 one of the nations of the earth. 
 
 1 There were many compromises necessary in the convention to 
 secure the adoption of the Constitution. The first question arose over 
 representation. The small states feared lest the large states would be 
 able through greater representation to deny them their rights. It was 
 finally arranged that in the House of Representatives the members 
 should be elected according to population; in the Senate every state, 
 large and small, should have two votes. This satisfied the smaller 
 states. A second question arose on the basis of representation. Should 
 slaves who could not vote be enumerated when the population was 
 taken as the basis of representation ? It was finally agreed that in the 
 enumeration to determine the number of representatives to which a 
 state was entitled, five slaves should count as three freemen. The 
 third question touched the slave trade, and it was forbidden to prohibit 
 this trade before 1808. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 164. The Three Great Geographical Regions. — The 
 
 United States consists of three great geographical 
 regions : the Atlantic slope, the Central plain, and the 
 Western highland. 
 
 The Atlantic slope extends from the Atlantic ocean 
 to the crest of the Appalachian mountains. Good har- 
 bors are numerous ; many rivers furnish abundant water 
 power ; in the Middle and Southern States the bays and 
 rivers afford water ways to the interior. The settlement 
 of this slope proceeded very slowly and at the time of 
 the Revolution it was under the rule of Great Britain. 
 
 The Central plain comprises the territory from the 
 crest of the Appalachians westward to the crest of the 
 Rockies, — an area of wondrous fertility, traversed by 
 the rivers of the great Mississippi system. Intrepid 
 French explorers and missionaries discovered most of 
 this region and over the greater part of it waved the flag 
 of France until the downfall of French power in America. 
 
 The Western highland comprises the territory from 
 the Rocky mountains westward to the Pacific. 
 
 165. The Effect of Physical Features on the Settlement 
 of the Country. — The English made their earUest settle- 
 ments along the Atlantic seaboard. Forests and moun- 
 tains and tribes of hostile Indians tended to prevent 
 
 i8i 
 
l82 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 them from moving westward to the great Central plain.^ 
 This compact grouping of the colonies led to a well- 
 ordered system of government and a harmony of ideas 
 which at the proper time resulted in securing inde- 
 pendence from Great Britain. 
 
 Through the passes of the Appalachians and along 
 the water way of the Ohio a great westward movement 
 began soon after the war of independence. Emigrants 
 from Europe seeking homes on the vast Central plain 
 swelled the number of the colonists. Cities were built, 
 governments were organized, and states were formed 
 until the entire Mississippi basin became the scene of 
 a prosperous civilization. 
 
 The Western highland was less fertile, not having 
 sufficient rainfall except in certain parts of the Pacific 
 coast, but the discovery of gold, silver, and other metals 
 caused a tide of immigration to this region. 
 
 166. The Resources of the United States. — The 
 United States is wonderfully endowed with all the 
 physical requirements of a great civilization. Thus, by 
 means of the water power of the East, manufacturing 
 was begun and this was later developed by protective 
 laws ; the fields of the South produce an abundance of 
 cotton, sugar, and rice'; in the great upper Mississippi 
 basin grow wheat and corn, more than enough for the 
 entire nation ; coal, iron, and other valuable minerals 
 
 1 In fact, George III in 1763 drew a line around the sources of the 
 rivers which flow into the Atlantic. This was the so-called "proclama- 
 tion line." The country west of this line was set apart for the Indians, 
 
 and the colonists for the time were forbidden to settle there. 
 
PHYSICAL FEATURES 
 
 183 
 
 abound ; the Hudson river, the Erie canal, and the Great 
 Lakes form a continuous water route from New York 
 to the heart of the country, while the Mississippi and its 
 tributaries furnish a water way for thousands of miles ; 
 railroads in every direction overcome any natural obsta- 
 cles that would impede the pathways of commerce. 
 
 Relief Map of the United States 
 
 Except Alaska and the tropical possessions, the United 
 States has a temperate climate,^ — the climate of the 
 countries that lead the world's progress. The rainfall, 
 except on parts of the Western plains and highland, is 
 abundant. 
 
 The products of the farms, forests, and mines ; the 
 deep water ways of the bays, rivers, and lakes ; the 
 
 1 The climate of the United States is in its general features like that 
 of the European countries from which our immigrants ha,ve come, 
 
l84 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 excellent water power of the streams, have helped to 
 make the United States the richest and most pro- 
 gressive nation of the world. 
 
 With settlers drawn from every nation of Europe, the 
 United States enjoyed during the nineteenth century 
 the most wonderful progress recorded in the pages of 
 history. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 Washington's Administration, i 789-1 797 
 
 167. The Inauguration; Political Parties. — George 
 
 Washington^ was unanimously elected first President 
 of the United States and John Adams was chosen 
 Vice President. Washington's journey from his home 
 in Virginia to New York was a triumphal progress. 
 Everywhere the people with glad acclaim, with ban- 
 ners, music, and flowers welcomed him. He was inau- 
 gurated April 30, 1789, on the balcony of the Federal 
 Building, which occupied the present site of the Sub- 
 treasury on Wall Street in New York City.^ 
 
 Washington belonged to no political party. Two 
 parties had now arisen in the country, however, — the 
 Federalist and the Republican.^ The Federalists, led 
 
 1 George Washington was born, of English descent, in Westmoreland 
 County, Virginia, Feb. 22, 1732. In his early life he was a surveyor 
 and at nineteen was appointed major by Governor Dinwiddle. From 
 that time he became the leading figure in our national life. He died 
 Dec. 14, 1799, loved and respected by the entire nation. 
 
 2 Washington's first cabinet consisted of Jefferson, secretary of state ; 
 Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; Knox, secretary of war; and 
 Randolph, attorney-general. In this cabinet were men of entirely differ- 
 ent political beliefs. Hamilton was a strong Federalist while Jefferson 
 was an equally strong Republican, as the anti-Federalists were now called. 
 From these Republicans descended the present Democratic party. 
 
 ^ This is not the Republican party of the present day. 
 
 185 
 
l86 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 by Hamilton, believed in a strong central govern- 
 ment ; the Republicans, with Jefferson as their leader, 
 would give the greatest possible power to the individual 
 states. 
 
 168. Payment of the Debts, 1790. — The first great 
 achievement of Washington's administration was the 
 arrangement for the payment of the public debt. On 
 
 account of the extraordi- 
 
 f7 ~-t^r-,^_ 
 
 nary expenses of the war, 
 vast sums had been ex- 
 pended by the Conti- 
 nental Congress, and 
 also by the various states. 
 To foreign countries, 
 especially France, Spain, 
 and Holland, we owed 
 more than eleven mil- 
 lions of dollars. The 
 home debt'-was about 
 forty millions of dollars, 
 while the states had contracted obligations to the 
 amount of nearly twenty-two millions of dollars. 
 
 Hamilton proposed that the United States should 
 pay off all the indebtedness. There was no objection 
 to the payment of the foreign and domestic debts. 
 There was, however, the strongest opposition to the 
 payment of the state debts by the federal govern- 
 ment. It was maintained by many that the states 
 should pay off their own debts. Congress having no 
 authority to do so. The measure became a law finally 
 
 Alexander Hamilton 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 187 
 
 through the efforts of Hamilton/ who made a com- 
 promise with Jefferson,^ 
 
 The national revenue was now largely increased by a 
 tariff laid on imports ; that is, a tax or duty was placed 
 on foreign goods arriving at our ports.^ 
 
 A little later a tax was placed on whisky and other 
 liquors. Hamilton also proposed the establishment of 
 a national bank to act as financial agent of the govern- 
 ment. After considerable opposition, the bank was 
 founded (1791) at Philadelphia. Provision was also 
 made for a mint with the system of decimal currency 
 which had been proposed by Jefferson. 
 
 169. The Appointment of Bishop Carroll. — Until 1783 
 the Catholic Church in America had been subject to 
 the Vicar Apostolic of London. Steps were now taken 
 to make the church in America a distinct body from 
 that of England by the appointment of a Bishop. In 
 1789 the first Episcopal See in America was erected in 
 Baltimore, and Reverend John Carroll "^ was consecrated 
 
 1 Daniel Webster, in recognition of Hamilton's great work in estab- 
 lishing the national credit, said, " He touched the dead corpse of public 
 credit and it sprang upon its feet." 
 
 2 The Republicans, being largely Southerners, desired the capital to 
 be built on the shores of the Potomac ; the Federalists desired it to be 
 built on the Delaware. By the compromise, the Federalists agreed that 
 Philadelphia should be the seat of government for ten years. After 
 that period the permanent capital would be on the Potomac. The 
 Republicans thereupon voted for the payment of the debts. 
 
 ^ In 1790 the first census of the people was taken. It showed a 
 population of 3,929,827. 
 
 * Most Reverend John Carroll was born in Maryland in 1735 and 
 educated for the most part abroad. At the age of eighteen he entered 
 the Society of Jesus. In 1773, on the suppression of the order, he went 
 
l88 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the first Bishop. He founded Georgetown College in 
 1 79 1, which was transferred fourteen years later to the 
 Society of Jesus. 
 
 170. Admission of New States ; Battle of the Maumee. 
 — Acts were passed by Congress, admitting to the 
 Union the new states of Vermont (1791) and Kentucky 
 (1792).^ Four years later Tennessee^ was admitted. 
 The westward movement of the population aroused 
 the enmity of the Indians, already incited by the 
 English against us. Several expeditions were sent 
 against them.'^ At length " Mad Anthony " Wayne 
 of Stony Point fame met them at the Maumee river, 
 near the present city of Toledo. The savages were so 
 
 to England. At the outbreak of the Revolution he came to America to 
 aid his native land in its struggle for freedom. He was a member of 
 the embassy sent by Congress to Canada in 1776. In 1784 he was 
 appointed Vicar Apostolic of the United States. Five years later he 
 was consecrated Bishop, and in 1808 was named Archbishop with four 
 suffragan dioceses : Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Bardstown 
 (Kentucky). 
 
 His saintly life and intense patriotism endeared him to the fathers 
 of the republic, especially to Franklin and Washington, with whom he 
 enjoyed an intimate friendship. Congress unanimously selected Bishop 
 Carroll to deliver the panegyric on Washington (Feb. 22, iSoo). 
 
 1 Vermont was formed from disputed territory. It was claimed 
 under royal grants by both New York and New Hampshire. It was 
 the first state to place in its constitution the prohibition of slavery 
 within its borders. ^ 
 
 Kentucky was formed from territory that belonged to Virginia. It 
 had been settled by the famous hunter, Daniel Boone. 
 
 2 Tennessee was formed from territory ceded by North Carolina. 
 
 ^ The first army under General Harmer was surprised and defeated. 
 General St. Clair was then sent against the Indians. Heedless of 
 Washington's advice to guard against a surprise, he was led into an 
 ambush and his army destroyed (1791). 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 189 
 
 completely defeated that they agreed to leave Ohio and 
 settle further west. The victory opened the Northwest 
 to peaceful settlement. 
 
 171. Settlements on the Ohio ; Prince Galitzin. — A 
 steady stream of pioneers now poured into the land 
 from beyond the Alleghenies. Towns were at once 
 founded along the Ohio, the earliest among them being 
 Marietta (1788) and Cincinnati (1790).^ 
 
 Only seven years after Wayne's treaty with the 
 Indians, so great had been the flood of settlers, Ohio 
 asked for admission to the Union. 
 
 At this time a Russian nobleman. Prince Galitzin,^ 
 was ordained to the priesthood and began his mission- 
 ary labors in the wilds of Pennsylvania and Maryland. 
 He founded (1799) the settlement of Loretto in western 
 Pennsylvania and ministered throughout that unbroken 
 country. 
 
 172. The Whisky Rebellion. — The farmers in west- 
 ern Pennsylvania resented the tax which had been 
 placed on whisky and refused to pay it. They drove 
 away the officers sent to collect the revenue and defied 
 the government. Washington thereupon called out 
 the militia, and fifteen thousand troops moved to the 
 
 1 Cincinnati received its name from the society formed by the officers 
 of the Revolution at the close of that war. Cincinnatus was a Roman 
 noble who was called from the plow to serve his country and returned 
 to the plow after the danger was over. 
 
 2 Prince Galitzin was known on the missions as Father Smith. He 
 was the only Catholic priest ever elected to Congress in this country. 
 On Sept. 29, i8()9, a statue was erected to his memory at Loretto, 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
IQO ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 scene of the riots. As soon as the troops appeared 
 the rioters laid down their arms. The lesson of this 
 
 Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin 
 
 rebellion was a valuable one. The people everywhere 
 saw that the acts of Congress must be obeyed. 
 
 173. The Cotton Gin, 1793. — In the year 1793 Eli 
 Whitney of Massachusetts, who was on a visit to the 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 191 
 
 South, conceived the idea of a machine for separat- 
 ing cotton and its seeds. It was, up to this time, a 
 day's work for a man to clean four pounds of cotton. 
 Hence cotton cloth was very expensive. Whitney's 
 gin from the first enabled a man to clean fifty pounds 
 in one day, and later improvements greatly increased 
 its capacity. As a result of this invention cotton 
 growing became at once one of the leading industries 
 of the country, the exports reaching enormous figures 
 within five years. ^ Immense cotton mills were erected 
 in the North to weave cotton into cloth. This inven- 
 tion had an unexpected result, however. It rendered 
 slave labor very profitable and enlisted the sympathy of 
 northern mill owners in maintaining the slave system 
 in the South. It therefore not only helped to fasten 
 slavery on the country, but prevented its peaceful 
 abolition. 
 
 174. <* Citizen ''Genet. — In 1789 the Revolution broke 
 out in France. In 1793 the king and queen were 
 beheaded, and war was declared with England. 
 
 Edmond C. Genet,^ called ** Citizen " Genet, was sent 
 as minister from France to secure the cooperation of 
 
 1 In 1790 no cotton was exported from the United States. Whitney's 
 cotton gin was introduced in 1793. The next year about one and a half 
 millions of pounds were exported and in 1795 about five and a quarter 
 millions; in 1S60 the quantity had reached two thousand millions of 
 pounds. — Draper. 
 
 To-day the export of cotton reaches the enormous amount of over 
 three billions of pounds. The invention of the gin came at the very 
 time when rice and indigo had fallen to so low a price that they scarcely 
 repaid the expense of cultivation. 
 
 2 Genet (Zhe-nay'). 
 
192 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the United States and to detach the Floridas and 
 Louisiana from Spain. Genet arrived at Charleston, 
 South CaroUna, in 1793. 
 
 Without presenting himself to the government, he 
 began to fit out privateers at once against English 
 commerce. Washington believed the United States 
 v^ras not in a position to interfere in European quar- 
 rels, even if it wished to do so. He therefore issued 
 a proclamation of neutrality. This enraged the Repub- 
 licans. Believing that France had been our steadfast 
 friend, while England had always been hostile to us, 
 they called meetings to express their sympathy with 
 France. Genet acted with great imprudence and 
 endeavored to stir up the people against the govern- 
 ment. His recall was therefore requested. 
 
 175. Jay*s Treaty. — To make matters worse at this 
 time, England not only refused to give up the western 
 posts held by her soldiers, but seized our ships and 
 carried off our seamen on the pretense that many 
 British sailors were enlisted in our navy. To remedy 
 this intolerable state of affairs, Washington sent John 
 Jay to England to negotiate a treaty. By this treaty 
 the king agreed to withdraw his troops from the posts 
 they still occupied — Detroit, Oswego, Mackinaw, — 
 to pay for damages to our ships, and., to allow us 
 to trade with the British West Indies provided the 
 United States would not export the tropical prod- 
 ucts, molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton, to any 
 part of the world. Jay consented to this clause, not 
 realizing the future oi cotton in the United States. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 193 
 
 The king refused, however, to give up the impressment 
 of seamen. 
 
 The treaty was most unpopular everywhere. Jay was 
 hung in effigy. Washington was abused, and Hamilton 
 was stoned while endeavoring to justify it. With the 
 exception of the West India clause, however, it was 
 ratified by the Senate (1795). Practically the only 
 good result of the treaty was the postponement of war 
 with England for twenty years, during which time our 
 population doubled and we were better able to enforce 
 our rights. 
 
 176. Treaties with Spain and Algiers. — An important 
 treaty was made in 1795 with Spain. The Mississippi 
 was thereby opened to trade, and we were allowed to 
 use New Orleans as a port of deposit for three years. 
 
 The same year a treaty was signed with Algiers. 
 To release the American seamen held as captives by 
 these pirates, eighty thousand dollars were paid and 
 an annual tribute of twenty-three thousand dollars was 
 promised to the rulers of Algiers for the protection of 
 American shipping. 
 
 177. Washington's Farewell Address. — As his second 
 term ^ of office was closing, Washington declined elec- 
 tion for a third time and issued a farewell address. 
 In this noble document he asked his fellow-citizens to 
 hold aloof from permanent alliances with any portion 
 of the foreign world, but to preserve *' harmony and a 
 liberal intercourse with all nations." He warned the 
 country against the dangers of party spirit and advised 
 
 1 Washington had been reelected in 1792. 
 
194 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 respect for law, for the national credit, for public and 
 private virtue, for religion and morality. " Of all the 
 dispositions and habits," said Washington, " which lead 
 
 to political pros- 
 perity. Religion 
 and Morality 
 are indispen- 
 sable supports." 
 He left the 
 presidency to 
 return to his 
 beautiful home 
 at Mount Ver- 
 non. On leav- 
 ing the high 
 office Washing- 
 ton could in- 
 deed look with 
 pride on the ad- 
 van ce of his 
 country during 
 the eight years of his administration. The Constitu- 
 tion was firmly established ; the laws were well adminis- 
 tered ; the public credit was secure ; the revenues were 
 increasing daily, and we were extending ^ur commerce 
 on all sides. 
 
 On returning to private life Washington was hailed 
 by all the people with the proudest title a patriot may 
 enjoy, *' The Father of his Country." 
 
 Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 195 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In 1789 George Washington was inaugurated first President of 
 the United States. He was reelected in 1792. 
 
 The payment of the pubhc debt was provided for and our 
 credit established at home and abroad. 
 
 By a proclamation of neutrality Washington preserved the peace 
 of the United States in the war between France and England. 
 
 Three new states were added to the Union, and emigration 
 began to the Ohio valley. 
 
 A new treaty, made by John Jay with England, was confirmed 
 by the Senate. 
 
 Whitney invented the cotton gin, which revolutionized the cotton 
 industry and fastened slavery on the country. 
 
 John x^dams' Administration, i 797-1801 
 
 178. Election of Adams ; Trouble with France ; X,Y, Z 
 Papers. — The Federalists nominated John Adams for 
 President ; the Republicans chose Thomas Jefferson. 
 Adams received seventy-one votes and was elected 
 President, while Jefferson had sixty-eight votes and was 
 elected Vice President. ^ On March 4, 1797, Adams 
 was inaugurated. 2 
 
 1 As the Constitution then provided, the majonty of votes elected 
 the President and the next greatest number of votes elected the Vice 
 President. This provision has since been changed. 
 
 - John Adams was of English descent and was born in Braintree, 
 Massachusetts, Oct. 19, 1735. He was elected a member of the First 
 and Second Continental Congresses and aided materially in the adop- 
 tion of the Declaration of Independence by Congress. After our gov- 
 ernment was established, he worked with great perseverance and success 
 to secure the good will of Europe towards our new repul)Hc and was 
 appointed minister to Great Britain. He died July 4, 1825, with the 
 words, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." But he was mistaken, for 
 that illustrious statesman had passed away a few hours before. 
 
196 ESSENTIALS OP^ AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The Jay treaty had aroused the indignation of the 
 French government, which sent its war vessels to cap- 
 ture our merchantmen. It also refused to receive our 
 minister, Charles C. Pinckney. To settle our diffi- 
 culties. President Adams sent John Marshall and 
 Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney, who was still in 
 France. 
 
 The French government did not receive them, but 
 envoys from Talleyrand, minister of foreign affairs, 
 promised to stop these attacks on our shipping if the 
 commissioners would, give fifty thousand dollars to 
 each director, assist France with money, and disavow 
 some expressions of President Adams towards the 
 French government. 
 
 This proposal was sent to Adams, who submitted 
 it to Congress. Instead of the names of the agents, 
 the letters X, Y, Z were used. Hence the documents 
 were called the *' X, Y, Z " papers. 
 
 This infamous proposal caused a burst of indigna- 
 tion throughout the land, and we were on the brink 
 of war with France. The immortal words of Pinckney 
 were on every lip, '' Millions for defense but not one 
 cent for tribute." 
 
 179. Preparations for War. — In his message to Con- 
 gress Adams said, " I will never send another min- 
 ister to France without assurance that he will be 
 received, respected, and honored as the representative 
 of a great, free, peaceful, and independent nation." 
 The treaties with France were suspended ; a pro- 
 visional army was raised, and Washington was made 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 197 
 
 commander in chief. A navy department was created, 
 and our vessels, fitted out for war, sailed to the French 
 West Indies to destroy French commerce. The Con- 
 stellation, under Captain Truxtun, captured the French 
 frigate Insnrgente. So vigorous a warfare did our little 
 navy wage that the French Directory requested us to 
 send another commission. Adams, anxious to avoid 
 war, sent the commission which made a treaty with 
 Napoleon in 1800. 
 
 180. Alien and Sedition Laws ; Action of Virginia and 
 Kentucky. — The Federalists, aided by the excitement 
 of the times and by the feeling against France, passed 
 two dangerous and unwise measures, — the Alien and 
 Sedition Laws. By the Alien Law the President had 
 for two years the power to expel any foreigner from 
 the country. The Sedition Law provided that those 
 who interfered with an act of Congress, or abused the 
 President, Congress, or any member of the government, 
 could be fined and imprisoned. This bill was to be 
 in force for three years. The Republicans strongly 
 denounced these bills, especially the Sedition Act. 
 Jefferson wrote a series of resolutions which were 
 adopted by the Kentucky legislature^ (1798), and 
 Madison did the same for the Virginia legislature. 
 These resolutions protested that the Alien and Sedi- 
 tion Laws were unconstitutional, and that it was the 
 duty of the states to interpose. In the Kentucky 
 resolutions of 1799 nullification was declared to be 
 
 1 Joseph Hopkinson wrote (1798) his patriotic song " Hail Columbia." 
 It was sung for the first time in honor of President Adams in Philadelphia. 
 
198 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the rightful remedy. This doctrine was destined later 
 to bear fruit and eventually to end in civil war. 
 
 181. Death of Washington; the New Capital. — On 
 Dec. 14, 1799, George Washington died, after a brief 
 illness, at his home at Mount Vernon. The entire 
 nation was bowed with grief at the death of him who 
 had been ''first in war, first in peace and first in the 
 hearts of his countrymen." 
 
 Napoleon ordered all the flags of France to be draped 
 in black for ten days. 
 
 John Adams had been inaugurated in Philadelphia. 
 During his administration the new capital on the banks 
 of the Potomac was occupied by Congress (November, 
 1800). To the territory was given the name District 
 of Columbia. It was a tract of land ten miles square, 
 given by Maryland and Virginia.^ The new city was 
 named Washington, and was laid out on a spacious 
 scale by a French engineer, Major I'Enfant. 
 
 Washington himself when President had ''entered 
 with unwonted ardor into the plans projected for devel- 
 oping the new capital. Not only did he picture the city 
 which bore his name as an instructor of the coming 
 youth in lessons of lofty patriotism, but he prophesied 
 for it national greatness." 
 
 The corner stone of the Capitol was laid Sept. 18, 
 1793. In October, 1800, the government offices were 
 transferred from Philadelphia to Washington. ^ 
 
 1 Virginia's share, which was south of the Potomac, was returned to 
 her in 1846. 
 
 2 A second census was taken this year (1800), which showed that the 
 United States contained 5,305,937 inhabitants. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 199 
 
 182. Election of Jefferson. — At the close of Adams' 
 administration the Federalist party was rent by internal 
 quarrels and weakened in the nation by the passage of 
 the Alien and Sedition Laws. Hamilton, though a 
 ?"'ederalist, used all his great ability to defeat Adams 
 for reelection. Thomas Jefferson was again nominated 
 by the Republicans for President and Aaron Burr for 
 Vice President. The vote, however, was a tie, Jeffer- 
 son and Burr each receiving seventy-three votes. The 
 House of Representatives then elected Jefferson by 
 one vote over Burr, who became Vice President. 
 
 This difficulty brought about a desire for a change 
 in the method of electing a President. The Twelfth 
 Amendment was passed (1804), and provided that the 
 electors should cast a ballot for President and a separate 
 ballot for Vice President. 
 
 One of the crowning acts of Adams' administration 
 was the appointment, Dec. 31, 1800, of John Marshall 
 as chief justice of the Supreme Court. For thirty-four 
 years he held this dignified office. - It is scarcely an 
 exaggeration to call him, as an eminent American jurist 
 had done, "a second maker of the Constitution." 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 At the outset of Adams' administration trouble with France 
 aroused the country. The X, Y, Z negotiations brought us to the 
 verge of war with France. 
 
 The Alien and Sedition Laws were passed and were generally 
 condemned. 
 
 Washinsrton died at his home at Mount Vernon. 
 
 The capital was moved to the District of Columbia. 
 
200 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Jefferson's Administration, 1801-1809 
 
 183. The Republican Party in Power. — On entering 
 the presidential oflfice Jefferson^ showed a democratic 
 rather than an aristocratic spirit. On the morning of 
 his inauguration he walked to the Capitol surrounded 
 by a few friends. He desired the cordial friendship 
 of all the people. The dress of former days was largely 
 changed ; he discarded to a great extent the wigs, short 
 breeches, silk stockings, and buckled shoes ; his motto 
 was, *' A vote for every man, whether he owns property 
 or not." He represented the new ideas of the times 
 and was deservedly popular. 
 
 The Republicans began many reforms. They cut 
 down the army and the navy, repealed many objection- 
 able laws, and conducted the government on lines of 
 the strictest economy, the entire expense being less 
 than four million dollars a year. 
 
 184. War on the African Pirates; Ohio admitted, 1802. 
 — For many years the Barbary States on the north 
 coast of Africa ■ — - Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli 
 — -had made a trade of piracy. Practically all the 
 nations of Europe paid them immense sums of money 
 to leave their vessels alone. These pirates had given 
 
 1 Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Virginia, April 12, 1743. 
 He was of Welsh and English descent. With brillianf'intellectual gifts 
 he quickly rose to a leading position in national affairs. He was the 
 author of the Declaration of Independence and of our decimal system 
 of coinage. He drafted the Religious Toleration Law of Virginia, and 
 secured the abolition of the law of primogeniture, which gave all the 
 landed property to the eldest son according to the English law. He 
 died July 4, 1S26. 
 
THE TERIOD OF UNION 
 
 201 
 
 US a great deal of trouble by capturing our shipping 
 and imprisoning our sailors. We had paid them a mil 
 lion dollars in tribute to allow our vessels to sail the 
 Mediterranean, but they constantly demanded more, 
 until in 1801 the ruler of Tripoli declared war against 
 us.^ In 1803 a fleet was sent against these pirates. So 
 vigorously did our brave sailors wage the war that the 
 ruler of Tripoli was glad to make peace with us in 180$. 
 
 4^ 
 
 Fort Washington (site of Cincinnati) 
 
 In 1802 Ohio was admitted to the Union, the first 
 state formed from the Northwest Territory. It had at 
 
 1 The British government aided the pirates, and a Britisli subject, 
 named Lisle, was admiral of the Tripolitan fleet when war was declared 
 against us. On Oct. 31, 1803, while the frigate PhiladelpJiia of our 
 squadron was chasing a pirate in the harbor of Tripoli, she ran aground 
 and was captured with three hundred and fifteen men, including Com- 
 mander Bainbridge. Not long afterwards Stephen Decatur, in a small 
 boat, stole into the harbor, boarded the Philadelphia, set her on fire, 
 and escaped without the loss of a man. Lord Nelson said of this feat, 
 " It was the most bold and daring act of the age." 
 
202 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 this time only forty-five thousand inhabitants. To the 
 settlement around Fort Washington was given the 
 name of Cincinnati. 
 
 185. The Louisiana Purchase, 1803. — The greatest 
 event of Jefferson's administration was the purchase of 
 Louisiana, the vast territory extending from the Missis- 
 sippi river to the Rocky mountains, and from the gulf 
 of Mexico to British America. 
 
 In 1763 Spain received this territory from France 
 and held it for thirty-seven years. In 1800 Spain 
 ceded it back to France. As the great West relied 
 upon the Mississippi to carry its products to the sea, 
 Jefferson feared the establishment of a strong power 
 like France at the mouth of the Mississippi. Speaking 
 of New Orleans, he said, " There is one spot the pos- 
 sessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy." 
 Jefferson sent an envoy to France to buy New Orleans 
 and that part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi.^ 
 Napoleon had planned the reestablishment of a colonial 
 domain for France ; but, having failed in recovering con- 
 trol of the French colony of Santo Domingo, where the 
 slaves had revolted, he lost his interest in this colonial 
 project and sold Louisiana to the United States for 
 fifteen millions of dollars. ^ The acquisition of Louisiana 
 
 1 Jefferson had grave doubts as to his right under the Constitution 
 to buy territory. He took advantage, however, of his doubts and was 
 sustained by the country. 
 
 2 Although Spain had ceded Louisiana to France in iSoo, it had 
 never been actually given up, and the flag of Spain still floated over the 
 territory. On Nov. 30, 1803, therefore, the Spanish representative 
 delivered up the keys of New Orleans to the representative of France 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 203 
 
 doubled our national domain. Napoleon said, on signing 
 the treaty, " This accession of territory establishes for- 
 ever the power of the United States and gives to England 
 a maritime rival destined to humble her pride." ^ 
 
 186. The Exploration of Lewis and Clark ; the Oregon 
 Country. — As nothing was accurately known of this 
 vast territory, Jefferson sent an expedition under Lewis 
 and Clark to explore it. Leaving St. Louis (May 14, 
 1804) with forty-five men, they pushed their boats up 
 the Missouri halfway to its headwaters, where they were 
 compelled to go into winter quarters for five months. 
 In the spring (April, 1805) they resumed their journey 
 up the river and after twenty days reached the Yellow- 
 stone. Late in May they saw the snowy peaks of the 
 Rocky mountains on the distant horizon. After endless 
 toils they crossed the mountains and embarked on the 
 Columbia. They reached the mouth of the Columbia 
 (November, 1805) after a journey of four thousand miles 
 and saw the beautiful Pacific stretching before them. 
 On their return to St. Louis they published an account 
 of their wonderful journey. 
 
 Captain Robert Gray of Boston in his vessel the 
 Columbia^ while trading with the Indians of the Pacific 
 
 and from the balcony of the old Cabildo absolved the people from their 
 allegiance to Spain. The Spanish flag was lowered and that of France 
 raised. Twenty days later the French representative on the same spot 
 delivered the keys to the American governor. The French tricolor was 
 lowered as the stars and stripes rose slowly over our new possessions. 
 
 1 From this territory have since been formed the states of Louisiana, 
 Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South 
 Dakota, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, a large part of the states of 
 Minnesota and Colorado, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. 
 
204 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 coast (1792), had discovered the broad river to which 
 he gave the name of his vessel, — the Columbia. He 
 claimed all the country drained by its waters for the 
 United States. This gave us our first title to Oregon. 
 The expedition of Lewis and Clark gave us a second 
 title. 
 
 The report of this expedition stirred up the fur traders, 
 and John Jacob Astor founded the Pacific Fur Company, 
 with a line of trading posts extending from the Missouri 
 to the Columbia. Near the mouth of the latter river 
 Astoria was founded (18 11). This was a third title to 
 the Oregon country.^ 
 
 187. Death of Hamilton ; Aaron Burr. — The whole 
 country was shocked at this time to hear that the Vice 
 President, Aaron Burr, had killed Alexander Hamilton 
 in a duel (July 1 1, 1804). The grief of the country at 
 the loss of the brilliant statesman was shown everywhere 
 by marks of profound sympathy. Burr's political career 
 was ended; he formed a project for an attack on Mexico, 
 and he may have intended to separate Louisiana from 
 the United States. On his way to New Orleans he 
 was arrested for treason. He was not, however, con- 
 victed, and after a residence of some years in Europe he 
 returned to New York, where he finished his life in 
 obscurity. 
 
 1 Zebulou M. Pike was also sent in 1806 with an expedition to 
 explore the country of the great West. He discovered Pikes Peak, but 
 suffered terrible hardships and finally fell into the hands of the Span- 
 iards. He was taken as a prisoner to Santa Fe, but was later released 
 and returned home through Mexico and Texas. Pike was killed in an 
 attack on Toronto (April 22, 1813). 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 205 
 
 188. War between France and England ; Right of 
 Search. — War broke out in May, 1803, between Eng- 
 land and France. By the Berlin and Milan decrees,^ 
 Napoleon forbade the ships of any neutral nation to 
 enter British ports. England in turn issued decrees, 
 called ** Orders in Council," forbidding neutral vessels 
 to enter the ports of France or of any nation in league 
 with P^'ance. This exposed our shipping to capture by 
 both nations. England went still further. Relying on 
 her large navy, she maintained the right to stop and 
 search American vessels and to take from them any 
 sailors she decided to be P^nglishmen. Her outrages 
 reached their climax when the British frigate Leopard 
 fired, in 1807, upon the American frigate CJiesapcake 
 and killed and wounded twenty men. The CJicsapeake, 
 being unprepared for action, surrendered and the English 
 took off four seamen, one of whom they hanged as a 
 deserter.^ 
 
 189. Embargo and Non-Intercourse. — Congress now 
 passed an act forbidding American vessels to leave our 
 shores for foreign ports.^ This was called an '' embargo " 
 and was passed to stop trade with England and France. 
 It was thought this would cause great distress in Europe 
 and compel England and P^rance to respect our rights. 
 
 1 They were so called from the cities from which they were issued, 
 
 2 So great was the popular indignation at this outrage that Jefferson 
 declared, " Never since the battle of Lexington have I seen this country 
 in such a state of exasperation as at present." 
 
 ■^ Coasting vessels were required to give a bond that their cargoes 
 would be landed in a United States port before they were allowed to 
 leave the harbor. 
 
2o6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The embargo was not successful. If it injured British 
 commerce, it injured our own much more. It caused 
 great suffering and was highly unpopular in the eastern 
 states. The opposition to the embargo in New England 
 was so great that prominent men in that section began 
 to discuss secession from the Union. The law was 
 repealed in 1809. The NonTntercourse Act was now 
 
 passed. By this act all 
 commerce with Great Brit- 
 ain and France and their 
 colonies was illegal. Com- 
 merce was permitted, how- 
 ever, with all countries 
 not under France and Eng- 
 land. There was at once 
 "} an active trade opened with 
 Spain and Portugal. 
 
 An important result of 
 these acts was to turn the 
 attention of American 
 merchants from commerce to manufacturing, a change 
 destined to bring about wonderful results in our national 
 position and wealth. 
 
 190. The First Steamboat. — As early as 1785 John 
 Fitch had built a steamboat in Philadelphia. In the 
 spring of 1807 the Clermont, a paddle-wheel steamer of 
 twenty tons, designed by Robert Fulton,^ was launched 
 
 1 Robert Fulton was born in Pennsylvania in 1765, of Irish descent. 
 Besides the steamboat he invented the torpedo and designed steam ferry- 
 boats. He died in 1S15. 
 
 Robert Fulton 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 207 
 
 on the Hudson at New York. It was one hundred and 
 thirty-three feet long and eighteen feet wide. It made 
 a successful trip to Albany — one hundred and fifty 
 
 miles — in thirty-two hours, 
 the first long voyage ever 
 made by a steamboat. This 
 wonderful feat opened the 
 way for steam navigation 
 on our lakes and rivers. 
 Three years later a boat 
 was built at Pittsburg to 
 run on the Ohio and the 
 Mississippi, and in 181 8 
 another was speeding over 
 the waters of the Great 
 Lakes. ^ 
 
 191. Importation of Slaves forbidden ; Election of Madi- 
 son. — The Constitution denied Congress the power to 
 
 1 The Atlantic was first crossed by a steamship in 1819. It was 
 the Sava7ina/i, of three hundred and eighty tons. She crossed from 
 Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool in twenty-five days. 
 
2o8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 prohibit the importation of slaves before 1808. Presi- 
 dent Jefferson/ in a message to Congress, recommended 
 the passage of a law prohibiting the importation of 
 slaves. This law was enacted in 1808. Only five dis- 
 senting votes were recorded in the Senate. Thus the 
 first step toward abolishing slavery was taken. 
 
 Although the legislatures of eight states invited Jeffer- 
 son to accept the presidency for the third term,^ he 
 refused, and James Madison was easily elected fourth 
 President of the United States. George^ Clinton was 
 elected Vice President. The Federalist candidate was 
 Charles C. Pinckney. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 During Jefferson's presidency (i 801-1809) Louisiana was 
 purchased from France. 
 
 The expedition of Lewis and Clark explored the Louisiana 
 territory and the great West to the Pacific. 
 
 The pirates of northern Africa were punished and conquered. 
 
 The first steamboat was operated by Robert Fulton. 
 
 The P^mbargo and Non-Intercourse Acts were passed. 
 
 The importation of slaves was forbidden. 
 
 1 Jefferson believed in the gradual abolition of slavery. In 182 1 he 
 wrote, " Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that 
 these people are to be free." 
 
 2 Jefferson had been easily reelected in 1804, receiving one hundred 
 and sixty-two electoral votes, while Charles C. Pinckney, the Federalist 
 candidate, received only fourteen. 
 
 ^ Charles Clinton was born in Longford, Ireland, where he chartered 
 a ship and led a colony of seventy persons in 1729 to New York state. 
 He had two sons, George and James. George Clinton became the 
 first governor of New York, and later Vice President under Jefferson 
 and again under Madison. James Clinton was the father of De Witt 
 Clinton, the famous governor of New York who built the Erie canal. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 209 
 
 James Madison's Administration,^ 1809-18 17 
 
 192. Trouble with Great Britain and France. — The 
 
 English maintained the principle, *' Once an English- 
 man always an Englishman." The United States main- 
 tained the principle, then novel but now generally 
 accepted, that a man may change his allegiance and 
 become a citizen of another country. To recruit her 
 navy, therefore, England sent war ships up and down our 
 coast, overhauling our vessels and taking off seamen 
 whom she claimed to be her subjects. Most of these 
 were probably English born, although frequently they 
 were native American citizens. In eight years almost 
 six thousand sailors had been taken from our vessels, and 
 no less than nine hundred vessels searched. 
 
 Great Britain and Erance were still at war with each 
 other, and the NonTntercourse Act forbade trade with 
 either of them. Soon after Madison's inauguration 
 the British minister in Washington declared that Great 
 Britain would withdraw her "Orders in Council." The 
 Non-Intercourse Act was thereupon suspended. At 
 once hundreds of vessels loaded with goods sailed to 
 sea. The British government, however, did not approve 
 of the acts of her minister and the Non-Intercourse Act 
 again went into effect. In 18 10 Congress declared that 
 
 1 James Madison was born in Virginia, March 16, 175 1. He was ad- 
 mitted to the bar and later elected a member of the Continental Congress. 
 Madison's state papers are among the ablest productions of American 
 statesmanship. The first draft of the Constitution and the first ten 
 amendments embodied his ideas, and hence he has been called " The 
 Father of the Constitution." He died June 28, 1836. 
 
2IO ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 if either France or Great Britain would revoke the decrees 
 against our shipping, the Non-Intercourse Act would be 
 put in force against the country that would not revoke ; 
 Napoleon announced immediately that he would recall 
 the decrees, and Great Britain promised to do the same 
 after Napoleon had acted. Neither France nor England 
 did as they had promised, however, and our difficulties, 
 especially with Great Britain, increased daily. 
 
 193. The President and the Little Belt; Battle of 
 Tippecanoe; Declaration of War. — In May, 1811, the 
 
 Guerriere^ stopped an American 
 vessel near New York harbor and 
 took off an American sailor. The 
 frigate President was sent at once 
 in search of the Gueri'ih-e^ but met 
 instead the British twenty-two-gun 
 ship, Little Belt. 
 
 The President at once opened fire 
 and easily captured the British vessel. 
 
 In the meantime the Indians in the Northwest, incited 
 by the English, had taken to the warpath against the 
 American settlers. The Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, had 
 united in a strong confederacy many of the tribes and 
 had ravaged the frontiers. General Harrison, the gov- 
 ernor of Indiana Territory, was sent against them. The 
 Indians attempted to overwhelm him by a night attack, 
 but he defeated them (Nov. 7, 181 1) with great slaughter 
 at Tippecanoe in western Indiana. Tecumseh fled to 
 the English army. 
 
 1 Guerriere (Ghe-ree-air') means " warrior." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 21 I 
 
 Affairs had now reached the point where war was 
 inevitable/ and on June 1 8, 1 8 1 2, hostiHties were declared 
 against Great Britain.^ 
 
 194. Hull's Surrender ; Battle of Queenston Heights. 
 — The objective point in the campaign was the capture 
 of Canada.^ Three armies were raised for this purpose : 
 
 
 Defiance, 
 
 O H 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 the first one, under Hull, was to march from Detroit ; the 
 second, under Van Rensselaer, was to cross the Niagara 
 river and take Queenston ; the third, under Dearborn, 
 
 1 So bitter was the feeling against England that in some of the states 
 (New Jersey, Kentucky, Pennsylvania) it was forbidden by law to quote 
 in any of the courts any decision of an English judge delivered after 
 the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 2 The vote on the war in the House of Representatives was seventy- 
 nine to forty-nine. The Eastern and Middle States, with two exceptions, 
 were against the war, and the Southern and Western States were in favor 
 of it. 
 
 3 It was thought the Canadians would throw off their allegiance to 
 England and join the United States. In this our statesmen were sorely 
 disappointed. 
 
212 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 was to unite with the other two and capture Montreal 
 and Quebec. 
 
 The plan was a signal failure. General Hull set out 
 from Urbana, Ohio, on his arduous march through the 
 unbroken forests to Detroit. When he reached there 
 he learned that Mackinaw had fallen into the hands of 
 the British. 
 
 He took his position at Detroit, where he was besieged 
 by the British under General Brock and the Indians 
 under Tecumseh. Hull was summoned to surrender. 
 
 Anxious, as he declared, to save the women and chil- 
 dren from the scalping knives of the Indians, he did so 
 without firing a gun.^ Thus, not only Detroit but all 
 of Michigan Territory passed to the British. 
 
 The second army, under General Van Rensselaer, 
 crossed the Niagara river and attacking the British 
 at Queenston Heights (Oct. 13, 18 12) drove them from 
 their position. General Brock was killed. The Ameri- 
 can general, however, failed to receive reenforcements 
 because the New York militia refused to leave that 
 state, and his army was surrounded and captured. 
 
 195. The War on the Sea ; the Constitution and the 
 Guerriere; Other Naval Battles. — Though the army had 
 completely failed in its plan to invade Canada, our little 
 navy upheld gloriously the flag of the republic. In 1 8 1 2 
 we had only seventeen seagoing vessels, carrying four 
 hundred and forty-two guns and about five thousand 
 
 1 Hull was tried for cowardice by court-martial and sentenced to be 
 shot, but the President pardoned him for his distinguished services 
 during the War of the Revolution. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 213 
 
 men. England, "the mistress of the seas," at the same 
 time had one thousand and forty-eight ships, carrying 
 twenty-seven thousand eight hundred guns and one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand men. On the American coast 
 alone England had one hundred and seven ships. 
 
 Despite such odds, our brave sailors went forth to 
 victory. On Aug. 19, 181 2, the Constitution, under 
 Captain Hull, nephew of General Hull, met the British 
 frigate Guciricrc off the coast of Nova Scotia.^ In an 
 engagement lasting less than an hour the Gucrria'-e was 
 destroyed, her men being taken prisoners and carried to 
 Boston. There the citizens feasted Captain Hull and 
 his brave sailors in Faneuil Hall. From that time the 
 Constitntiofi was known as Old Ironsides. It has been 
 said of this victory that *'it raised the United States 
 in one half hour to the rank of a first-class power." 
 
 During this year the British frigate Macedonian was 
 captured by one of our vessels, the United States ; the 
 Frolic was captured by the Wasp in a Hatteras gale 
 off the coast of North Carolina, but scarcely was the 
 battle over when a British man-of-war hove in sight and 
 captured the Wasp and her prize. ^ 
 
 196. The Chesapeake and the Shannon ; the Privateers. 
 — The British ship Shan?ion, learning that the American 
 
 1 On seeing the Constitution, Captain Dacres of the Gnerriere said 
 to his crew : " There is a Yankee frigate ; in forty-five minutes she is 
 certainly ours. Take her in fifteen and I promise you four months' 
 pay." 
 
 2 At the end of his first term Madison was reelected with one hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight electoral votes. De Witt Clinton of New A'ork, 
 his opponent, received eighty-nine electoral votes. 
 
214 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 frigate Chesapeake was in Boston harbor, sent a chal- 
 lenge to her to come out and fight. The challenge was 
 accepted, and the Chesapeake under Captain Lawrence 
 sailed to meet the Shannon (June i, 1813). 
 
 The contest lasted only fifteen minutes and resulted 
 in a complete victory for the English vessel. The Chesa- 
 peake was towed to Halifax. Lawrence died in the 
 action. He was buried with military honors in Halifax, 
 and later in Trinity churchyard in New York City.^ 
 
 Privateers were commissioned by the President to prey 
 on English commerce. In seven months over three hun- 
 dred British vessels were captured. During the entire 
 war over seventeen hundred ships were taken by our 
 privateers. 
 
 197. Raisin River Massacre ; Fort Meigs. — In the new 
 plans for the invasion of Canada the army was organized 
 in three divisions. It was intended that the first should 
 retake Michigan Territory ; the second, the Niagara dis- 
 trict ; the third, the lake Champlain valley. All three 
 divisions were then to invade Canada. General Harri- 
 son, in charge of the western division, moved northward 
 towards Detroit. A part of his forces under Winchester 
 was defeated on the Raisin river (near the present site cf 
 the city of Monroe, Michigan) by the British and Indians. 
 The British general. Proctor, did not adequately protect 
 the American prisoners from the Indians, and some 
 
 1 On his monument are these words : " Neither the fury of battle, 
 the anguish of a mortal wound, nor the horrors of approaching death 
 could subdue his gallant spirit. His dying words were, ' Don't give up 
 the ship.'" 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 215 
 
 thirty of them were massacred. Henceforth the war cry 
 of the Americans was, " Remember the river Raisin." 
 
 In the spring of 18 13 Proctor, with the aid of Tecum- 
 seh, besieged General Harrison at Fort Meigs on the 
 Maumee river. Two attacks were made without suc- 
 cess; thereupon the British turned and attacked Fort 
 Stephenson on the lower 
 Sandusky. This fort 
 was defended by one 
 hundred and sixty men 
 with a single six-pound 
 gun. A young Kentuck- 
 ian, twenty-one years 
 old, Major Croghan,i was 
 in command. The at- 
 tack was an utter failure, 
 and the enemy retreated. 
 Michigan, however, was 
 still in the hands of the 
 British. These reverses led the Indians to lose faith in 
 British prowess, and many promptly deserted. 
 
 198. Battle of Lake Erie. — Our little navy which had 
 won so many victories at sea now achieved a most signal 
 triumph on lake Erie. 
 
 On Sept. 10, 1 81 3, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry ^' 
 with nine vessels, half of them built on the lake shore, 
 
 ^ Croghan was asked to surrender and thereby escape massacre at 
 the hands of the Indians. His answer was, " The fort will be given up 
 when there is not a man alive to defend it." 
 
 2 Perry was born in Rhode Island of American and Irish parentage, 
 his father having been born in America and his mother in Ireland. 
 
 Oliver Hazard Perry 
 
2l6 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 attacked the British fleet. Perry's ship, the Lawrence} 
 was quickly riddled. Leaving her in a sinking condi- 
 tion, Perry transferred his flag amid a shower of bullets 
 to the Niagara. The battle was a complete defeat for 
 the British. Perry sent to General Harrison this mes- 
 sage : " We have met the enemy and they are ours : two 
 ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." As we 
 now controlled lake Erie the British were compelled to 
 abandon Detroit, and the territory surrendered by Hull 
 
 was recovered. 
 
 199. Battle with the 
 Creeks ; Harrison's Vic- 
 tory on the Thames. — 
 The Creek Indians in 
 the South now went on 
 the warpath. They had 
 been aroused by Tecum- 
 seh and supplied with 
 arms by British agents. 
 " ^'^ ^'^ Fort Mimms, forty miles 
 
 from Mobile, was attacked and all its occupants, five 
 hundred men, women, and children, massacred. With 
 troops from Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee, General 
 Andrew Jackson marched against them. He attacked 
 (March 27, 18 14) the Indians at Horseshoe Bend, or 
 
 His brother was Commodore M. C. Perry, who induced the Japanese to 
 open their ports to our commerce. For the victory of lake Erie 
 Perry was made a captain and was voted a gold medal by Congress. 
 
 1 Perry's vessel was named Lawrence after the hero of the Chesa- 
 peake. Over his vessel floated a flag with the words, " Don't give up 
 the ship." 
 
 
 
 ^" Ai? 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 /^ 
 
 \ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 ^f c ^ 
 
 y""'*''''^ 
 
 
 
 ^^\±Ft.MalJen / 
 
 ^Battle./ LAKE 
 Lake Lrie e^ 
 
 V ■*" fi^R I E 
 
 P 
 
 /' 
 
 V^^svT 
 
 
 
 x,ja 
 
 /Ft^i-'P^icnson 
 
 ^^>\t<'^ 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 ) ' 
 
 \] 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 I 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 217 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 Tohopeka, on a branch of the Alabama river. The 
 Indians were completely defeated and their power 
 broken. Many fled into 
 Spanish territory, and the 
 United States took posses- 
 sion of their lands. 
 
 General Harrison took 
 advantage of Perry's vic- 
 tory to invade Canada. On 
 the banks of the Thames 
 (Oct. 5, 181 3) he routed 
 the English forces under 
 Proctor and Tecumseh. 
 The latter was killed, and Proctor escaped by flight. 
 By these victories of Perry and Harrison we controlled 
 
 lake Erie, Michigan, and 
 upper Canada. Ohio was freed 
 from the danger of invasion, 
 and the Indian confederacy 
 was destroyed. 
 
 200. Battle of Lake Cham- 
 plain. — The American army 
 under General Brown crossed 
 the Niagara river, captured 
 Fort P>ie, and defeated the 
 English at Chippewa (July 5, 
 1 8 1 4) . Three weeks later the 
 Americans attacked the strong position of the British 
 at Lundys Lane (July 25) within sound of Niagara 
 falls and carried the works. Three times the British 
 
2l8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 tried to retake the batteries, but were driven back with 
 great loss. 
 
 The British now planned an expedition down lake 
 Champlain, following the route of Burgoyne. Sir George 
 Provost with a land force of fourteen thousand men 
 marched southward to Plattsburg, while a naval force 
 of seventeen vessels sailed down the lake. The British 
 fleet, sweeping proudly around Cumberland Head, met 
 (Sept. II, 1 8 14) the American squadron of fourteen 
 vessels under Commodore McDonough. 
 
 The fight lasted two and one-half hours, when the 
 whole British fleet surrendered. In the meantime the 
 British land forces met General Macomb, who had taken 
 a position on the banks of the Saranac. The British 
 tried in vain to cross, the fire of the Americans sweep- 
 ing their ranks at every point. At last, hearing of the 
 disaster to the fleet, they retreated in such haste that 
 the sick and wounded as well as large military stores 
 were left in the hands of the Americans. 
 
 201. The Burning of V/ashington ; Battle of New 
 Orleans, Jan. 8, 1815. — In the meantime, in retalia- 
 tion for a raid into Canada during which private prop- 
 erty was destroyed. Vice Admiral Cochrane gave orders 
 to destroy and lay waste the coast towns. On Aug. 24, 
 1 8 14, General Ross entered Washington and burned the 
 Capitol and other public buildings. He next marched 
 to Baltimore, while his fleet sailed up the bay and bom- 
 barded Fort Mc Henry, that guarded the approaches to 
 that city. For twenty-five hours shot and shell rained 
 on the fort in vain. At the end of the bombardment 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 219 
 
 ''the flag was still there." ^ The land forces attacked 
 the city, but were repulsed. Ross was killed and the 
 British retreated. 
 
 The English now gathered a large force under Sir 
 Edward Pakenham, a brother-in-law of Wellington, to 
 
 
 
 - ii.( 
 
 
 General Andrew Jackson at Battle of New Orleans 
 
 attack New Orleans and secure control of the Mississippi 
 and to offer the inhabitants the opportunity of resuming 
 their dependence upon Spain. General Andrew Jackson 
 
 1 Francis Scott Key was detained that night on one of the British 
 ships whither he had gone to secure the release of some prisoners. By 
 the flash of the guns, while watching eagerly the flag still flying over 
 Fort McHenry, he wrote our national hymn, " The Star Spangled 
 Banner." 
 
220 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 marched to meet them. The EngHsh to the number of 
 twelve thousand were trained soldiers, many of them 
 having fought against Napoleon. Jackson had six thou- 
 sand men behind breastworks, mostly undisciplined 
 troops but superb marksmen. The British moved forward 
 Jan. 8, 1 815, The deadly fire of the Americans broke 
 their ranks. . Forming a second time, they advanced; 
 but the Americans sent their bullets with fatal accu- 
 racy. Pakenham fell mortally wounded, and the British 
 retreated thoroughly defeated, with a loss of two thou- 
 sand six hundred men. Only eight Americans were 
 killed and six wounded. 
 
 202. The Treaty of Peace ; Results of the War. — The 
 treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United 
 States had been signed at Ghent, in Belgium (Dec. 24, 
 1 814), but the news of this action did not reach the 
 United States until after the battle of New Orleans, 
 as the telegraph did not exist at this time and the news 
 was brought in sailing vessels. In the peace treaty 
 nothing was said about the matters that caused the war. 
 The impressment of our sailors was not mentioned, and 
 England did not bind herself to give up the right of 
 search. Our naval victories, however, had rendered that 
 l^roceeding so dangerous that for the future our ships 
 were not molested. 
 
 While the war cost two hundred millions of dollars 
 and the lives of thirty thousand men, it produced bene- 
 ficial results. 
 
 Europe learned that we were well able to take care 
 of ourselves, and our ships and sailors could hereafter 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 22 1 
 
 cross the seas in peace. Another effect of the war was 
 the development of manufactures. The war tariff, the 
 embargo, the non-intercourse laws, and the high price 
 of freights had turned the capitalists from commerce to 
 manufactures, which had increased to a wonderful extent, 
 especially in cotton goods. ^ Francis C. Lowell in 1814 
 introduced the English power loom into America and 
 established at Waltham, Massachusetts, a cotton mill. 
 Other large factories were built at Lowell, Lawrence, 
 and Fall River. To protect these industries from 
 English competition at the close of the war, a duty 
 of twenty-five per cent was laid on cotton and woolen 
 goods imported from abroad, and the protective system 
 was thereby established.^ 
 
 During the war the necessity for better communica- 
 tion by means of good roads and canals between the 
 sections of the country was plainly seen. This need 
 led to a renewed demand for "internal improvements," 
 with money to be raised from increased tariff rates, and 
 further developed the growing protective system. 
 
 The War of 1 8 1 2 has been called the " Second War 
 of Independence." We were at last becoming inde- 
 pendent of Europe, not only in political ideas and 
 theories but also in our industrial life. 
 
 1 There were only four cotton factories in the United States in 1S03. 
 In 181 5 there were no less than five hundred thousand spindles in 
 operation, while the consumption of cotton had risen from five hundred 
 bales in 1800 to ninety thousand bales in 1S15. 
 
 2 This was the tariff of 181 6, practically the first of our protective 
 tariffs. It was bitterly opposed by Daniel Webster, who felt that it 
 imperiled the commercial interests of New England. 
 
222 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 203. The Hartford Convention. — While the war was 
 in progress it had been violently opposed by many of 
 the New England Federalists. Under the influence of 
 these men the legislature of Massachusetts invited the 
 states of New England to send delegates to a convention. 
 Twenty-six delegates met at Hartford (1814). 
 
 The meetings were secret, and it was believed,that the 
 delegates were plotting a disruption of the Union. In 
 the end the convention merely suggested amendments 
 to the Constitution, designed to diminish the influence 
 of the South in national politics and to make the sus- 
 pension of foreign commerce or the declaration of war 
 by Congress more difficult. 
 
 The bitterest feeling was aroused throughout the 
 country against the Federalists. Nothing resulted from 
 the convention, as peace soon followed, but it brought 
 about the ruin of the Federalist party. 
 
 Louisiana (181 2) and Indiana (18 16) were admitted 
 to the Union during this administration. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The second war with Great Britain began in 181 2 and ended 
 in 181 5. It was caused by the impressment of our seamen and 
 the violation of our rights of commerce as neutrals by Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Our national hymn, " The Star Spangled Bannef," was written 
 during this war. 
 
 The Hartford Convention aroused great indignation and ruined 
 the Federalist party. 
 
 Louisiana (181 2) and Indiana (18 16) were admitted to the 
 Union. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 223 
 
 James Monroe's Administration/ 18 17-1825 
 
 204. Era of Good Feeling ; the Cession of Florida. — 
 
 James Monroe, the fifth President, ushered in the "era 
 of good feehng." The country was entering on a period 
 of peace and prosperity. FCoads were built, canals were 
 dug, the great lands 
 of the West began 
 to attract numerous 
 settlers. In 181 7 
 Monroe vi sited 
 New England and 
 many of the north- 
 ern states. His 
 journey was a tri- 
 umphal progress 
 and was of the 
 greatest benefit in 
 breaking down sec- 
 tional lines and 
 uniting the 
 country. 
 
 At this time 
 
 James Monroe 
 
 Spain owned Florida. There were very few settlements, 
 and the Indians, runaway slaves, and outlaws who 
 roamed through the land caused endless trouble for the 
 
 1 James Monroe was born in Virginia of vScotch descent, April 28, 
 1758. He was United vStates senator (1790), minister plenipotentiary 
 to France (1794), and governor of Virginia (1799-1802). lie defeated 
 Rufus King for the presidency. Daniel U. Tompkins was elected Vice 
 President. 
 
224 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 neighboring states. In 1817 Andrew Jackson took 
 command of the forces of the United States. Acting 
 with his usual vigor,' he seized a number of Spanish 
 forts and towns, hanged two British traders who were 
 accused of furnishing arms to the Indians, and in three 
 months had the country virtually under his control. His 
 actions threatened to cause us trouble with Spain and 
 England. Fortunately Spain was induced to sell Florida 
 for the amount we offered — five millions of dollars. 
 
 Sixty thousand square miles were added to our domain 
 by this cession. 
 
 205. The Question of Slavery. — Slavery existed in 
 all the thirteen colonies which belonged to Great Britain. 
 At the adoption of the Constitution, Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire were the only states in which slavery 
 did not exist. It was, however, gradually abolished in 
 the northern states. By the ordinance of 1787 slavery 
 was prohibited in the Northwest Territory, and in 
 consequence the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
 which had been formed from the Northwest Territory, 
 were admitted as free states. During this time Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana 
 had been admitted as slave states. In 1820, therefore, 
 there were in the Union eleven slave states and eleven 
 free states, giving to each section exactly the same 
 power in the national Senate. In the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, however, the free states, because of their 
 rapidly increasing population, were obtaining the mas- 
 tery. The slave states, therefore, resolved to hold 
 their power in the Senate by refusing to admit a free 
 
THE PKRIOD OF UNION 225 
 
 state unless a slave state was admitted at the same 
 time. 
 
 Up to this period the new states had, except Louisi- 
 ana, been established in territory entirely east of the 
 Mississippi. The large emigration, however, had now 
 crossed that river, and the settlers asked the admission 
 of this new section as the state of Missouri. 
 
 206. The Missouri Compromise. — - This request brought 
 on a crisis. Should Missouri be admitted as a free or 
 slave state "^ Upon the decision of that question prac- 
 tically depended the fate of slavery and freedom in 
 the entire Louisiana Purchase. Other questions were 
 involved in this problem. The South, in raising tobacco, 
 cotton, and rice, felt the necessity of slavery to secure 
 cheap labor. It also desired to buy its goods where 
 they cost least ; in other words, they desired free trade 
 with Europe. The North, in consequence of the War 
 of 181 2, had given up the carrying trade to some extent, 
 had established manufactories, and desired a tariff placed 
 on foreign goods. This would largely prevent their 
 importation and would build up home industries. 
 
 There was thus a conflict of interests between the 
 North and the South. In the North, too, gradual 
 emancipation was rapidly bringing about the extinction 
 of slavery, and the disposition to prevent its introduc- 
 tion into new territory was growing. Most of Missouri 
 is north of the lower Ohio river, which was the bound- 
 ary between the slave and free states. As the prohi- 
 bition of sjavery in Missouri would give the free states 
 a majority in the Senate, and would be a discrimination 
 
226 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 against the right to hold slaves, the South vigorously 
 opposed any such restriction. At this critical point a 
 compromise was proposed. It was suggested that Mis- 
 souri should be admitted as a slave state and Maine ^ as 
 a free state, thus maintaining the equality of power in 
 the Senate ; also that slavery should be prohibited in all 
 the rest of Louisiana north of 36° 30'. This plan, 
 known as the *' Missouri Compromise," was accepted 
 (Aug. 10, 1 821), and the question of slavery was settled 
 for nearly twenty- five years. 
 
 207. The Monroe Doctrine. — Spain had lost as the 
 result of revolutions her continental colonies in the 
 New World. ^ They had become independent republics. 
 In 18 1 5 the sovereigns of Russia, Prussia, France, and 
 Austria formed a union, called the '' Holy Alliance," to 
 uphold ''religion, peace, and justice." In 1822 this 
 was supplemented by a secret treaty, by which they 
 agreed to act together to put an end to representative 
 institutions in Europe and to suppress the liberty of 
 the press. In 1823 they intervened to restore absolute 
 rule in Spain and planned to recover the revolted colo- 
 nies for the Spanish king, and it is likely that France 
 and Russia expected to secure Mexico and California 
 for themselves. We had at this very period a question 
 to settle with Russia on the Pacific seaboard, for she 
 
 1 Maine had been a part of Massachusetts since 1671. With the 
 consent of the latter state, she now applied for admission to the Union 
 as a state. 
 
 2 Mexico, Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Peru, and Chili were the col- 
 onies that had successfully rebelled and were acknowledged as inde- 
 pendent republics by the United States in 1822. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 227 
 
 claimed that coast from Bering sea to the 5 ist parallel.^ 
 If her claims were good, we should be shut out entirely 
 from the Pacific coast. 
 
 At this juncture Monroe declared in his message to 
 Congress in 1823 "that the American continents . . . 
 are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for 
 future colonization by any European powers." This was 
 aimed at Russia. Referring to the Holy Alliance, he 
 further declared '' that we should consider any attempt 
 on their part to extend their system to any portion of 
 this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," 
 and that any hostile interference with the South Ameri- 
 can republics would not be regarded '' m any other light 
 than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition 
 toward the United States." 
 
 This message, reenforced by the opposition of Eng- 
 land to intervention in South America, produced the 
 desired effect, and the republics of Mexico and of South 
 America were allowed to work out their own destiny. 
 In the following year Russia made a treaty with us, 
 abandoning all her claims to the Pacific coast south 
 of 54° 40', which is the southern limit of Alaska. 
 
 208. Reelection of Monroe ; Visit of Lafayette. — At 
 the end of his first term President Monroe was reelected 
 without opposition, receiving the electoral vote of every 
 state. One New Hampshire elector voted for Adams 
 on the ground that he did not wish any President to 
 
 1 Two years previous to this time the czar of Russia had forbidden 
 foreigners to come nearer than one hundred miles of the Pacific coast, 
 north of 51°. 
 
228 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 enjoy the honor, which had been paid to Washington, 
 of receiving a unanimous election. 
 
 In 1 824 Lafayette arrived as the guest of the nation, 
 to visit once more the land for which he had fought so 
 valiantly. He was received everywhere with the cor- 
 diality his bravery and generosity merited. At Bunker 
 Hill, exactly fifty years after the battle, he laid the cor- 
 ner stone of the monument which marks that glorious 
 height. Congress voted him two hundred thousand 
 dollars and twenty-four thousand acres of land. He 
 visited Mount Vernon to pay his affectionate respects 
 to the ashes of his beloved friend Washington. 
 
 209. Emigration to the West. — The West was now 
 attracting the attention of the nation, and over the 
 mountains poured a stream of settlers. Steamboats 
 began to ply on the large rivers. Towns were built 
 on the banks and forests cleared away for farms and 
 plantations. This movement was aided by the influx of 
 settlers from Europe. In the desire to render easier 
 the communication between the East and the West, a 
 highway was begun, stretching from Maryland west- 
 ward. It was called the Cumberland or National Road. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The chief events of Monroe's administration were : 
 
 1. The purchase of Florida. 
 
 2. The slavery debate and Missouri Compromise. 
 
 3. The Monroe Doctrine and settlement of dispute witli Russia 
 concerning the northwestern boundary. 
 
 4. The emigration to the West. 
 q. The visit of Lafayette. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 229 
 
 John Quincy Adams' Administration, 1835-1829 
 
 210. The Election of Adams ; the Tariff Question. — 
 
 At the close of Monroe's administration Adams, Jack- 
 son, Crawford, and Clay were the candidates for the 
 presidency. No one received a majority of the electoral 
 votes,^ and the House of Representatives elected John 
 Quincy Adams of Massachusetts.^ John C. Calhoun was 
 elected Vice President with practically no opposition. 
 
 The question of the tariff became one of the leading 
 problems of Adams' administration. The advocates 
 of protection believed that the tariff should be placed 
 so high that foreign goods could not compete with 
 domestic manufactures. 
 
 1 Jackson received ninety-nine votes, Adams eighty-four, Crawford 
 forty-one, and Clay thirty-seven. As the House of Representatives, 
 voting by states, was compelled under the Constitution (Twelfth 
 Amendment) to choose from the three highest candidates, Clay could 
 not be voted for. He used his influence, however, for Adams, who 
 was elected. 
 
 2 John Quincy Adams, the son of President John Adams, was born in 
 Braintree, Massachusetts, July 11, 1767. He served the country abroad 
 as minister to Holland (1794) and Germany (1797). He was elected 
 United States senator by the Massachusetts Federalists (1803) and six 
 years later was sent to Russia as minister. In 18 14 he was one of the 
 commissioners who signed the treaty of peace with Great Britain at 
 Ghent. He was appointed minister to England (18 15) and Secretary 
 of State under Monroe (1S17). After his presidential term had 
 expired Adams was elected as an independent to the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, where he was an earnest defender of the right of petition, 
 and was a strenuous opponent of slavery and secret societies, earning 
 the title of " Old Man Eloquent." 
 
 He was stricken in his seat with apoplexy (Feb. 21, 184S) and died 
 two days later. His last words were: " This is the last of earth. I am 
 content." 
 
230 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 This, they claimed, would keep our mills and factories 
 running at full speed, would maintain a high rate of 
 wages, and would make the country prosperous and 
 independent of foreign markets. 
 
 In opposition to this view were those who believed in 
 "free trade," — that one should be allowed to buy his 
 goods where he could get them cheapest. Another 
 class believed in a "tariff for revenue only," — that a 
 tariff should be levied only to raise money to carry on 
 the government, and should not have for its principal 
 object the protection of any industry. In 1816 a pro- 
 tective tariff had been levied, and the great struggle was 
 begun between the friends and opponents of protection 
 that continues until the present day. 
 
 In 1824 a still higher tariff was levied. Henry Clay 
 was an earnest advocate of high protection, which he 
 called the ''American policy." The South, however, was 
 gradually changing its earlier ^ ideas and was now opposed 
 to a protective tariff, while the North was strongly in 
 favor of it. The South, being an agricultural section, 
 had no factories and believed that the high tariff dimin- 
 ished foreign trade, and consequently the market for 
 cotton in Europe, and also compelled them to pay higher 
 prices for the goods they bought. 
 
 The North maintained that a protective tariff estab- 
 lished a home market where cotton would bring a higher 
 
 1 In 181 6, while John C. Calhoun favored a protective tariff to 
 encourage domestic industry, Daniel Webster opposed the tariff as 
 hostile to the shipping interests of his state of Massachusetts. In 
 1828 the positions of these statesmen were exactly reversed, Webster 
 advocating protection and Calhoun opposing it. 
 
 i 
 
HENRY CLAY 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 231 
 
 price. Believing the tariff of 1824 did not give them 
 sufficient protection, a bill was introduced by the high- 
 tariff advocates, raising still higher the duties on 
 imported goods. This bill was passed (1828) and was 
 signed by President Adams.^ 
 
 211. The Erie Canal; Steam Railroads. — The year 
 1825 witnessed the opening of the Erie canal by 
 
 Erie Canal 
 
 De Witt Clinton, governor of New York. This canai 
 was begun July 4, 181 7, and its successful completion 
 was due to the energy and determination of Clinton, 
 who despite ridicule and discouragements kept to 
 the work. The canal, three hundred and sixty-three 
 miles in length, extended from Albany to Buffalo. 
 It was a stupendous undertaking. It traversed for- 
 ests, crossed rivers, and by means of locks overcame 
 the differences of level, revolutionized the carrying 
 
 ^ This has been called the "Tariff of Abominations," " a result," says 
 Professor Sumner, "of the scramble of selfish, special interests." 
 
232 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 trade, 1 reducing the price of transportation of a ton of 
 
 goods from one hundred and 
 twenty to fourteen dollars. 
 
 The vast fertile tracts that 
 were of little value because of 
 their distance from markets 
 became at once attractive to 
 settlers, and they flocked in 
 from all sides. The building 
 of the canal made New York City, which had been 
 second in population and third in commerce, the first 
 
 city in the country. 
 To prevent New 
 York from securing 
 all the traffic to the 
 West, Pennsylvania 
 
 Stagecoach 
 
 
 Early Tramway 
 
 
 built a chain of 
 
 canals and roads 
 
 from Philadelphia 
 
 to Pittsburg. Balti- First Steam Railroad 
 
 more also took up 
 
 the work, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton turned 
 
 1 At the opening of the canal the boat carried a load of thirty tons ; 
 at the present time they carry as high as two hundred and fifty tons. 
 Over four hundred millions of dollars have been received by the state 
 from freight passing through the canal. At the present day, however, 
 most freight is carried by rail. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 233 
 
 (July 4, 1828)^ the first spadeful of earth of the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Railroad, which was to extend at that time from 
 Baltimore to Ellicott City, about thirteen miles distant. 
 This was the first passenger railway in the United States. 
 The cars were at first drawn by horses. The first steam 
 locomotive built in America 
 
 was probably designed by |(S^i»i~^S^'^-S'^l' 
 Peter Cooper. ^ „,^^^^»tPI»L%^ 
 
 Railroads were soon built f '^'/M/W'"^ 
 from Albany to Schenectady '^^^^~ 
 
 in the Mohawk valley, and ^ 
 
 Modern Express Train 
 
 from Charleston to Ham- 
 burg in South Carolina. At the end of 1830 the extent 
 of railways in operation was twenty-three miles ; in 1840 
 it had risen to two thousand eight hundred and eighteen 
 miles. At the present time there are about two hundred 
 thousand miles of railway in the United States. 
 
 At the close of Adams' administration Andrew Jack- 
 son was triumphantly elected President of the United 
 States, receiving one hundred and seventy-eight electoral 
 votes to eighty-three for John Quincy Adams. John 
 C. Calhoun was reelected Vice President. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of John Quincy Adams' administration were : 
 
 1 . The tariff discussion. 
 
 2. The opening of the Erie canal. 
 
 3. The building of the first passenger railway in America. 
 
 1 Charles Carroll remarked on this occasion : " I consider this among 
 the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the 
 Declaration of Independence, if second to that." 
 
234 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Andrew Jackson's Administration/ i 829-1837 
 
 212. His Strong Personality ; Removals from Office. — 
 
 The election of Andrew Jackson showed a marked 
 change in the poHtical thought of the country and fore- 
 shadowed the leading part which the young and growing 
 West was destined to play in national affairs. 
 
 Unlike his predecessors, Jackson had had no early 
 advantages. From Washington to John Ouincy Adams 
 the presidents had been well educated, while many of them 
 had ample fortunes. Jackson's early education had been 
 brief ; his success had been obtained only by the most 
 strenuous efforts. His triumph at New Orleans, his 
 victories in the Seminole War, and his rugged, sterling, 
 honest character had endeared him to the people. They 
 felt he had come from among themselves. He was 
 especially beloved in the new West, and in his case a 
 western man was for the first time elected President. 
 
 Jackson began his administration by removing many 
 office-holders. He believed that the continuance in office 
 of the same persons, year after year, would create an 
 office-holding class. At the same time some office- 
 holders had not only opposed him but had been guilty 
 of partisanship in their official positions. 
 
 1 Andrew Jackson was born of Irish descent, March 15, 1767, in 
 South Carolina. His early life was spent in the direst poverty. At the 
 age of thirteen he was in the army fighting Great Britain. He studied 
 law and later moved to Tennessee. In 1796 he was elected to Congress. 
 He soon resigned and was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of 
 his native state. In the War of 181 2 he became famous throughout 
 the land, and " Old Hickory," as he was called, reached the presidency 
 in 1828, and was reelected in 1832. He died June 8, 1845. 
 
JOHN C. CALHOUN 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 235 
 
 To turn out his foes and reward his friends seemed to 
 him a laudable action, and he removed about two thou- 
 sand persons during the first year of his presidency. 
 Only one hundred and sixty had been removed during all 
 previous administrations. 
 This pernicious system has 
 been followed ever since, 
 although within recent 
 years a great improvement 
 has been made through the 
 Civil Service Law. It is 
 called the ''Spoils Sys- 
 tem " ^ from a speech in 
 the United States Senate 
 by Marcy, in which he de- 
 clared that he could "see 
 nothing wrong in the rule, 
 that to the victor belono^ . , , , 
 
 ^ Andrew Jackson 
 
 the spoils of the enemy." 
 
 213. Nullification; Webster and Hayne. — The tariff 
 acts of 1824 and 1828 aroused the South and brought 
 to the front, through John C. Calhoun and other South 
 Carolinians, the idea of nullification, or the right of a 
 state to declare any act of the federal Congress which 
 was believed to be unconstitutional null and void. In 
 1830 Senator Hayne of South Carolina proclaimed this 
 doctrine in the United States Senate. He was answered 
 
 1 Jackson did not originate the " Spoils System." It had already been 
 highly developed in the state governments of New York and Pennsyl- 
 vania; Jackson may be said to have introduced it into national affairs. 
 
236 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 by Daniel Webster, who, in a masterly oration, upheld 
 the Constitution and the Union and denied the right of 
 nullification and secession.^ 
 
 In 1832 a state convention was called in South Caro- 
 lina. This convention, which was under the influence 
 of Calhoun, declared the tariff acts of Congress to be 
 null and void, prohibited the payment of the duties, and 
 threatened to leave the Union if force were used to 
 collect these duties. 
 
 It was indeed fortunate for the country that Andrew 
 Jackson was President. He acted promptly and decid- 
 edly. "The laws of the United States must be exe- 
 cuted," he said in a proclamation to South Carolina, 
 and at once General Scott was sent to Charleston, 
 Lieutenant Farragut with a naval force to Charleston 
 harbor, while the collector was ordered to collect the 
 duties. 
 
 Henry Clay, desirous of maintaining peace, suggested 
 a compromise. He proposed a gradual lowering of the 
 tariff of 1832 ^ for ten years, until the duty would be as 
 low as it had been in the tariff of 18 16, — twenty per cent 
 of the value of all imported goods. This compromise 
 
 1 The effect of this speech upon the country . . . it is not easy for us 
 at this day to measure. Vast numbers of Mr. Webster's speech were 
 . . . published and circulated in pamphlet editions after all the principal 
 newspapers of the country had given it entire to their readers. ... A great 
 majority of the people of the United States, of all parties, understood, 
 appreciated and accepted the view maintained by Mr. Webster of the 
 nature of the Constitution and the character of the government which 
 it established. — Curtis, Life of Webster. 
 
 2 This act modified the tariffs of 1828 and 1830 and brought the 
 duties back to the rates of 1S24. 
 
DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 237 
 
 became a law in 1833, and South Carolina repealed its 
 ordinance of nullification. 
 
 214. The Abolition Movement. — In 1 8 3 1 the Liberator 
 appeared in Boston. It was a weekly paper published 
 by William Lloyd Garrison, a young man twenty-six 
 years of age. As the organ of the abolitionists, it 
 advocated the immediate abolition of slavery in all 
 parts of the Union. Antislavery societies began to 
 be organized ^ and increased rapidly. They caused the 
 greatest alarm, not only in the South but also in 
 the North, where the mercantile and manufacturing 
 interests were opposed to political or social agitation 
 that would exasperate the South or diminish its pros- 
 perous development. 
 
 During this same year an insurrection broke out 
 among the slaves of Virginia, who murdered sixty whites. 
 The responsibility for this massacre was unjustly placed 
 by the South on the abolitionists. As the agitation con- 
 tinued and increased, popular indignation was more and 
 more stirred, and in 1835 Garrison was dragged through 
 the streets of Boston with a rope around his waist, and 
 his life was barely saved. '^ 
 
 1 These societies were aided by the fact that Great Britain (1833) 
 freed the negro slaves in her colonies in the West Indies. English 
 territory was now free from slavery throughout the world. 
 
 2 It was this sight that led Wendell Phillips into the ranks of the 
 abolitionists. Antiabolitionistmobs nowdestroyed the printing presses of 
 the abolitionists in Philadelphia, and Alton, Illinois. In the latter city 
 Elijah Lovejoy was killed in the attack on his office. Many abolitionists 
 dissenting from Garrison's policy of abstaining from political action 
 decided to form a party called the "Liberty party," and in 1840 they 
 nominated a candidate for the presidency. 
 
238 essp:ntials of American history 
 
 215. The Right of Petition. — Petitions now began to 
 pour into Congress asking for the abolition of slavery 
 and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The 
 southern leaders asked Congress to refuse to receive 
 such petitions and after prolonged discussions Congress 
 so voted, though John Quincy Adams protested that the 
 right of petition was secured by the Constitution (First 
 Amendment). These were the famous "gag" resolu- 
 tions, intended to shut off debate on the slavery question. 
 
 At this time the abolitionists began to send their 
 publications in large numbers through the mails to the 
 Southern States. 
 
 The South asked the federal government to refuse to 
 forward such literature as it was incendiary ^ and tended 
 to inflame the slaves to rebellion and violence. The 
 postmaster-general ruled that he had no authority by 
 law to exclude such matter from the mails, and on the 
 other hand he would not instruct postmasters to forward 
 or to deliver abolition documents. 
 
 The opponents of slavery thereupon claimed that two 
 sacred rights under the Constitution were attacked, — 
 the right of petition and the freedom of the press. 
 Antislavery ideas spread more rapidly than ever; new 
 abolition societies were formed throughout the Northern 
 States, and the North and South drew ever nearer to the 
 final struggle between freedom and slavery. 
 
 216. Jackson overthrows the United States Bank. — 
 President Jackson's attention was now turned to the 
 
 1 At Charleston, vSouth Carolina, the abolition papers were taken 
 from the post office and burned in public. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 239 
 
 United States Bank. This institution was located in 
 Philadelphia and, with its branches in many cities, trans- 
 acted the financial business of the national government. 
 
 Jackson believed the bank to be an un-American monop- 
 oly, unsafe and badly managed. He resolved, therefore, 
 to overthrow it. Although its charter would not expire 
 until 1836, the friends of the bank introduced and passed 
 a bill ( 1 832) to renew the charter for another twenty years 
 from 1 836. Jackson promptly vetoed it. In the following 
 year the Secretary of the Treasury was ordered to remove 
 the government deposits from the bank and to distribute 
 them among the state banks. A bitter contest arose over 
 this action, but Jackson was successful and the Bank of 
 the United States ceased to be a governmental bank. 
 
 217. Indian Wars in the West and South. — In the 
 West and South at this time Indian warfare spread 
 destruction far and wide among the settlements. In the 
 West the Sacs and P'oxes under the Sac chief. Black 
 Hawk, went on the warpath, but were finally over- 
 whelmed on the banks of the Mississippi. In Florida 
 the Seminoles under Osceola burned and ravaged almost 
 all the settlements in Plorida. It was not until 1842 
 that they finally yielded and were removed to the West. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Jackson's administration were: 
 
 1. The removals from office. 
 
 2. The nullification question and Jackson's defense of the Union. 
 
 3. The abolition movement. 
 
 4. The overthrow of the United States Bank. ' 
 
 5. The Indian wars of the West and South. 
 
240 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Martin Van Buren's Administration/ 1837-1841 
 
 218. The Crisis of 1837 ; the Era of Speculation. — In 
 
 the administration drawing to a close Van Buren had 
 been Vice President. He was Jackson's intimate friend 
 and adviser, and it was through his influence that Van 
 Buren was elected. A New Yorker by birth, he was 
 the first Democrat from the North to be elected. 
 
 The last years of Jackson's administration . had wit- 
 nessed an astonishing growth in the nation : the 
 development of the great West,, the wonderful indus- 
 trial progress and prosperity of the country had aroused 
 to a fever pitch the spirit of speculation, especially in 
 government lands ; towns were laid out on all sides, 
 sometimes even in the wilderness ; great enterprises 
 were undertaken without regard to cost or reason, and 
 the entire nation seemed to be rushing on in a mad 
 race for wealth. The causes of this wonderful mania 
 for speculation were twofold : the United States was 
 now free from debt, and at the same time money above 
 expenses to the amount of thirty-five millions of dol- 
 lars was flowing into the national treasury from the 
 
 1 Martin Van Buren was born of Dutch ancestry in Kinderhook, New 
 York, Dec. 5, 1782. He was an able lawyer and guided for many years 
 the politics of the state of New York. He was senator of the United 
 States (1821-1828), governor of New York (1828 and 1829), and Secre- 
 tary of State (1829-1831). In the latter year he was nominated by 
 Jackson as minister to England, but was not confirmed by the Senate. 
 In 1832 he was elected Vice President by the Democrats and four years 
 later was elected President, defeating General William Henry Harrison. 
 In 1848 the Free-Soil party nominated him for President, but he received 
 no electoral votes. He died in 1862. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 241 
 
 customhouses and land offices. As the opponents of 
 the administration beHeved that the deposit of the pubHc 
 money in the private banks was a source of poUtical 
 corruption, they proposed to distribute the surpkis to 
 the states. A compromise was effected, and the surplus, 
 to the amount of 
 
 twenty-eight mil- ^^^ -^ 
 
 lions of dollars, ^^, ^ 
 
 was "deposited " 
 with the several 
 states. This money 
 the states used for 
 education and for 
 internal improve- 
 ments. The states 
 also borrowed 
 money from abroad 
 and began exten- 
 sive enterprises, 
 and, relying on the 
 increase of wealth 
 
 to come from the improvements, they recklessly con- 
 tracted enormous debts. ^ 
 
 219. The State Banks and Wild-Cat Money. — A 
 second cause for this wild speculation was the ease with 
 which money or loans were obtained from the state 
 
 Martin Van Buren 
 
 1 Two states were admitted al)out this time. Arkansas (Ark'an-saw) 
 had been part of the Louisiana Purchase and became a state June 15, 
 1836. Michigan was formed from the Northwest Territory and was 
 admitted to the Union Jan. 26, 1837. 
 
242 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 banks with which to buy pubHc lands. We have seen 
 that the Bank of the United States had failed to secure 
 a renewal of its charter. This led to an increase in 
 the number of banks established under charters from 
 the states. Many of them had little capital. In 
 banks of this kind was now placed the money formerly 
 deposited in the Bank of the United States or its 
 branches. Many of these state banks ^ issued large 
 amounts of banknotes or promises to pay gold or silver ^ 
 when they really had neither gold nor silver. As the 
 banknotes were used to pay for government land, the 
 President became alarmed and demanded specie, or, in 
 other words, gold and silver, for the land. This stopped 
 the speculation; men tried to sell the lands for what 
 they could get, and a widespread crisis ensued at the 
 very outset of Van Buren's administration. Banks sus- 
 pended everywhere ; mills and factories were closed, and 
 tens of thousands of workingmen were thrown out of 
 employment. Many states and territories which had 
 borrowed money from foreign countries were unable to 
 pay their obligations. Seven of them failed to pay the 
 interest to their foreign creditors, and one refused to pay 
 either principal or interest.^ For many years afterward 
 Europeans looked with disfavor on American securities. 
 
 1 The slate banks in which government money was deposited were 
 nicknamed ** Pet Banks " because they were favored by the administration. 
 
 2 A bank in Michigan issued notes with a picture on them of a wikl- 
 cat or panther. When this bank failed its notes were called "wild-cat 
 notes," and hence banks that were either insolvent or likely to become 
 so were called " wild-cat banks," and their notes " wild-cat money." 
 
 ^ Such an action is called " repudiation." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UxMION 243 
 
 220. The Subtreasury Plan. — To bring about a 
 better state of financial affairs, Van Buren favored a 
 plan to establish a subtreasury for the money of the 
 United States. Instead of depositing its money in 
 state banks, the government nov^ proposed to keep its 
 own deposits. To this end, the bill established the 
 Independent Treasury of the United States, in the 
 Treasury Building in Washington, with branches at 
 the mints of Philadelphia and New Orleans. Sub- 
 treasuries were to be provided for at Boston, New 
 York, Charleston, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and 
 Baltimore. 
 
 The project did not meet with favor until 1840, when 
 it became a law. Although it was repealed in the fol- 
 lowing year, it was again enacted in 1846 and has since 
 been an important part of the government's financial 
 system. 
 
 221. The Antirent Agitation in New York. — Under 
 the patroon system, as we have seen (p. 61), vast estates 
 came into the hands of a few families. One of these 
 vast tracts of land belonged to Livingston. It extended 
 ten miles along the Hudson river and was eighteen 
 miles in breadth, containing one hundred and sixty-five 
 thousand acres. The estate of Killian Van Rensselaer 
 extended twenty-four miles on each side of the Hudson 
 and twenty miles back into the country on each side. 
 Many of the tenants on these vast farms, believing the 
 War of the Revolution had destroyed the title of the 
 patroons to this property, failed for years to pay their 
 rent, and when it was finally demanded rose in arms 
 
244 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 (1840) and drove out the rent collectors.^ For about ten 
 years discontent and disorder prevailed throughout these 
 districts. Finally, after the courts had recognized the 
 titles of the patroons, a compromise was effected (1850) 
 by which the proprietors sold the lands to the tenants at 
 a reasonable price. 
 
 222. The Mormons. — At this time a new religious 
 sect arose in western New York. Joseph Smith, Jr.,^ 
 the leader, announced that he had received from an 
 angel a book composed of golden plates. This book, 
 Smith declared, told the story of the early inhabitants 
 of America and the truth of a new gospel. He called 
 it the Book of Hlormon, from the name of the alleged 
 writer of the book. Smith and his followers moved 
 from New York to Missouri, where he came in conflict 
 with the state authorities. They moved from place to 
 
 1 There were many objectionable features in the leases of these 
 estates. Besides paying the rent the tenant was compelled to have 
 his corn ground at the patroon's mill, giving the patroon one tenth 
 for grinding, to plant orchards, clear the forest lands, build barns, and 
 pay all the taxes. He was also required to contribute to the support 
 of the minister of the manor church. He could not keep a tavern or 
 carry on a trade on the farm, and if he sold his lease he was required to 
 pay to the landlord one third of the amount received. 
 
 2 Joseph Smith, Jr., was born in Vermont and moved with his 
 parents to Palmyra, New York, when he was ten years of age. He 
 was a well digger, "a man of no standing and no influence." Of the 
 golden plates Smith said : " Each plate was six inches wnde and eight 
 inches long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled 
 with engravings in Egyptian characters. . . . With the records was 
 found a curious instrument . . . which consisted of two transparent 
 stones, set in the rim of a bow, fastened to a breastplate. Through the 
 medium [of these stones] I translated the record by the gift and power 
 of God." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 245 
 
 place and were finally driven out, settling at last on the 
 banks of the Mississippi at Nauvoo, Illinois. While not 
 a part of their original belief, polygamy soon became an 
 article of their faith. ^ Their peculiar doctrines soon 
 aroused their neighbors, at that time plain backwoods- 
 men. Smith refused to obey the laws of the state, 
 claiming he was superior to them. He destroyed the 
 printing office of a paper which exposed his crimes. 
 Soon armed strife broke out ; Smith and his brother 
 were placed in jail at Carthage, Illinois, where they 
 were murdered by the mob. His followers now deter- 
 mined to get a new home in the far West. Under 
 the leadership of Brigham Young they crossed the 
 prairies and the desolate plains of eastern Utah and 
 finally reached the beautiful valley of the Great Salt 
 lake. Near its banks they founded (1848) Salt Lake 
 City. 
 
 223. Development of the Express Business. — William 
 F. Harnden, who had been a conductor on the Boston 
 and Worcester Railroad, announced (1839) ^^^^ he 
 had arranged to carry money, valuables, and packages 
 between Boston and New York. For some months 
 a valise or two sufficed to carry the goods intrusted 
 to him, but in a year the business had grown to goodly 
 
 1 Polygamy was condemned by the Book of Mormon. In 1852 
 Brigham Young read a copy of a " revelation " given to Smith nine 
 years before, which opened the way for polygamy. The doctrine of 
 polygamy was abandoned by the Mormon Church in 1890, as the result 
 of a law passed by the United States (1887) declaring its property for- 
 feited inasmuch as the Mormons practiced polygamy, which is contrary 
 to our national laws. 
 
246 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 proportions. Alvin Adams and P. R. Burke established 
 (1840) a rival express under the name Burke & Co., 
 which became later the great Adams Express Com- 
 pany. Twenty years later the pony express was estab- 
 lished to reach the 
 Pacific coast. Sta- 
 tions were located 
 ten miles apart be- 
 tween St. Joseph, 
 Missouri, and Sac- 
 ramento. Mounted 
 on a fast pony, the 
 messenger started 
 across the plains 
 to the first station, 
 where a fresh 
 horse was taken and the journey continued. At every 
 third station a fresh rider took the mail. In eight days 
 these riders traversed two thousand miles of prairies, 
 deserts, and lonely mountain passes ; often they perished 
 in the raging snowstorms, but oftener they fell victims 
 to the Indians. It cost five dollars to send a letter by 
 this express. 
 
 The Pony Express 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Van Buren's administration were : 
 
 1. The great crisis of 1837. 
 
 2. Tlie establishment of the subtreasury. 
 
 3. The antirent agitation in New York. 
 
 4. The rise of the Mormons. 
 
 5. The beginning of the express business. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 247 
 
 Harrison and Tyler's Administrations, 1841-1845 
 
 224. The Election of Harrison and Tyler, 1841-1845.— 
 As Van Buren's term drew to a close the Whigs ^ 
 determined to take advantage of the distress of the 
 times and prevent, if possible, his reelection. They 
 nominated as their candidate for President, William 
 Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, and for Vice 
 President, John Tyler. The contest was a most spirited 
 one. A Democratic paper 
 had contemptuously re- 
 ferred to Harrison as liv- 
 ing in a log cabin, drinking 
 hard cider, and skinning 
 'coons. The Whigs at 
 once took up the cry and 
 called him the log-cabin 
 candidate. Log cabins 
 were erected as the head- 
 quart ers of the Whigs. 
 With cheerings for ''Tip- 
 pecanoe and Tyler too," 
 
 processions filled the streets, .bearing models of log 
 cabins with 'coon- skins hanging at the door; immense 
 meetintrs were held out of doors, at which thousands of 
 
 William Henry Harrison 
 
 1 After Jackson's administration his supporters, who had been called 
 Democratic Republicans, dropped the latter word and became known as 
 Democrats. Their opponents took the name of Whigs. The Whigs 
 in England were opposed to the king. In this country the enemies of 
 Jackson claimed he was as tyrannical in his methods as any king could 
 be, and hence they opposed him under the name of Whigs. 
 
248 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 people gathered. The enthusiasm of the people carried 
 Harrison to victory by a large majority, no less than 
 nineteen states giving him their electoral votes. Van 
 Buren carried only six states. 
 
 225. Death of Harrison ; Tyler and the Whigs dis- 
 agree In the midst of the Whig rejoicings Harrison ^ 
 
 suddenly died, a month after his inauguration, and Tyler 
 became President .^ It was the first time in our history 
 that a President had died in office. Tyler was a states' 
 rights Republican of the type of Jefferson, and his views 
 were in important respects different from those of the 
 party that had elected him. The Whigs desired to 
 reestablish the Bank of the United States, and a bill 
 was passed to that end. Tyler vetoed it. Another bill, 
 framed to meet the President's objections, was passed, but 
 he vetoed that bill also. Tyler was thereupon deserted 
 by the Whig party, and his entire cabinet resigned 
 
 1 William Henry Harrison was born Feb. 9, 1773, ^^ Berkeley, 
 Virginia. His father was one of the signers of the Declaration of 
 Independence and governor of Virginia. Harrison entered the army 
 and served under "Mad Anthony" Wayne. In 1795 ^^^ ^'^^ appointed 
 captain and took command of Fort Washington, on the site of the 
 present city of Cincinnati. He was appointed (180 1) governor of Indiana 
 Territory. He was later elected to the House of Representatives and 
 Senate of the United States. He became minister to Colombia (1828) 
 and on his return spent the years until his election as President on his 
 farm at North Bend on the Ohio. He died April 4, 1841:' 
 
 2 John Tyler was born in Virginia in 1 790. His father was governor 
 of that state for some years. Tyler was a lawyer, served in both houses 
 of Congress, and was governor of Virginia. In 1861 he tried to bring 
 about peace between the North and the South and, when these measures 
 failed, he followed his native state out of the Union. He died in 1862 
 while attending the sessions of the Confederate Congress in Richmond. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 249 
 
 with the exception of Daniel Webster, who remained 
 to conchide his labors on the new treaty with England. 
 
 226. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty. — The treaty of 
 peace, signed at the close of the Revolution, had left 
 in question a large territory — twelve thousand square 
 miles — on our northeast boundary. England and the 
 United States both claimed it, and war was imminent 
 as Maine had sent troops into the disputed territory. 
 England now sent a commissioner. Lord Ashburton, to 
 arrange with Daniel Webster, secretary of state, a new 
 treaty. The boundaries were satisfactorily adjusted, 
 Maine securing about seven thousand miles and Eng- 
 land the remaining five thousand.^ Our boundary line 
 to the west as far as the Lake of the Woods was also 
 determined. The treaty easily passed the Senate, and 
 war was averted. This work being finished, Webster 
 resigned from the cabinet. 
 
 227. The Dorr Rebellion, 1842. — The people of 
 Rhode Island had been living under a constitution, 
 granted as far back as the time of Charles II, which 
 allowed only landowners and their eldest sons to vote. 
 Unless a man owned real estate he could not act as a 
 juror nor bring a suit in any court of law until a property 
 holder indorsed it. The representation in the legis- 
 lature was absolutely unjust, as a struggling village had 
 as great a representation as a flourishing city. 
 
 1 The United States paid three hundred thousand dollars to Maine 
 and Massachusetts for the territory yielded to England. Provision was 
 made in this treaty for the extradition of criminals and the maintenance 
 of cruisers to put down the African slave trade. 
 
250 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Having tried in vain to secure a change in the con- 
 stitution, the people rebelled, formed a convention, and 
 elected Thomas W. Dorr governor. As most of those 
 who voted for Dorr were not legally voters, the existing 
 state government refused to recognize him. 
 
 Both sides took up arms, but little bloodshed ensued. 
 Dorr was finally arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 
 
 imprisonment for life, but 
 
 he was soon pardoned. 
 His work was not in vain, 
 however, for a new consti- 
 tution was adopted (1843), 
 containing most of the 
 reforms Dorr demanded. 
 
 228. The Electric Tele- 
 graph. — In 1837 S. F. 
 B. Morse secured a patent 
 =\ for sending messages by 
 electricity. Few believed 
 in its worth, and the in- 
 ventor struggled on in 
 poverty for years. In 
 1843 he asked Congress to appropriate thirty thousand 
 dollars for a telegraph line between Washington and 
 Baltimore, a distance of forty miles. There was bitter 
 opposition to the h\\\,^ one member remarlcing that a 
 
 X . '-^;;>-^- 
 
 Samuel F. B. Morse 
 
 1 While the bill was pending Morse was a spectator in the House of 
 Representatives, and said to a friend : " I have spent seven years in 
 perfecting this invention and all that I had. If it succeeds, I am a 
 made man ; if it fails, I am ruined." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 251 
 
 railroad to the moon would be as reasonable. At mid- 
 night on the last day of the session the bill was carried, 
 and the work was begun. Professor Morse sent the first 
 message, which read, "What hath God wrought." In 
 an office in the Capitol at Washington Morse received 
 tidings of the convention at Baltimore and the news of 
 the nomination of Polk. Said one who was present : 
 '' This talking with Baltimore was something so novel, 
 so strange, so extraordinary, and upon a matter of such 
 interest that we could hardly realize 
 the fact. It seemed like enchant- 
 ment, or a delusion or a dream." 
 Here was begun the telegraph 
 system that crossing the lands and 
 passing under the oceans now 
 girdles the earth. 
 
 229. The Annexation of Texas. 
 — The burning question during 
 Tyler's term was the annexation of 
 Texas. In 1821 Mexico granted a tract of land in Texas, 
 which subsequently formed part of the state of Coahuila-^ 
 Texas in the Mexican Republic, to Moses Austin, a native 
 of Connecticut, on condition that he would found a 
 settlement. In 1835 Mexico was changed by President 
 Santa Ana from a federal to a centralized republic, by 
 which the states lost their state rights. Difficulties arose 
 with Texas out of this change,^ and the Texans rebelled 
 
 The " Lone Star " Flag 
 
 1 Coahuila (Co-ah-whee'la). 
 
 - The Texans did not look for independence at first. They merely 
 desired to become a separate state within the Mexican Republic. 
 
252 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 and formed a new constitution,^ permitting slavery.^ 
 The Mexican government attacked the Texans, but was 
 finally badly defeated at the decisive battle of San 
 Jacinto^ (1836). Texas thereupon became a republic, 
 and her independence was recognized by the United 
 States, England, Belgium, and France. At once she 
 applied for admission to the Union as a slave state. She 
 was unsuccessful. In 1844 President Tyler negotiated 
 a treaty with Texas providing for annexation. It was 
 rejected by the Senate, thirty-five to sixteen.* The 
 South desired the annexation of Texas that she might 
 increase the slave territory ; the North opposed it, 
 believing from this vast tract sufficient slave states 
 would be formed to give the slave power control of the 
 republic. The question was made the leading issue in 
 the presidential campaign of 1 844, and Polk was elected 
 by the Democrats,^ defeating Clay, the Whig candidate. 
 
 1 It was called from its flag the " Lone Star Republic." The Texans 
 declared their independence March 2, 1836. 
 
 2 In 1S24 Mexico forbade the importation of slaves into her territory 
 and declared free all children thereafter born of slaves. In 1S29 all 
 the slaves in Mexico were freed. The settlers who had come from the 
 United States, however, refused to free their slaves and openly defied 
 the laws of the land. 
 
 •^ San Jacinto (Sahn Ha-theen'toh). The leader of the Texans was 
 Sam Houston of Tennessee. He had fought under Andrew Jackson. 
 
 * Clay, speaking in the Senate, said, " Annexation and war with 
 Mexico are identical." Mexico had officially warned us tha!t the annexa- 
 tion of Texas would be considered a cause of war. 
 
 ^ The Democrats took for their campaign cry, " The reannexation 
 of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon." Referring to the pending 
 Oregon dispute, the air resounded with cries of " The whole of Oregon 
 or none! Fifty-four forty or fight!" — 54° 40' being the southernmost 
 point of Alaska, at that time of course a Russian possession. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 253 
 
 The result of the election President Tyler interpreted as a 
 verdict of the people in favor of the annexation of Texas. 
 He proposed to Congress that Texas be treated like a 
 territory applying for admission to the Union, and be 
 admitted by a joint resolution. This was done, and 
 Texas, having accepted this method, became a state 
 Feb. 19, 1846, with the provision that with her consent 
 four other states might be formed from her territory. 
 Texas was the last slave state admitted to the Union. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Harrison and Tyler's administrations 
 were : 
 
 1. Death of President Harrison. 
 
 2. The Webster- Ashburton treaty. 
 
 3. The Dorr rebellion in Rhode Island. 
 
 4. Morse's electric telegraph. 
 
 5. The annexation of Texas. 
 
 Polk's Administration,^ 1845-1849 
 
 230. The Settlement of Oregon. — Since the treaty of 
 1 8 18 the United States and Great Britain had occupied 
 Oregon as a joint possession. As we have seen. Captain 
 Gray of Boston , discovered and named the Columbia 
 river in 1 792 ; Lewis and Clark later explored this 
 
 1 James K. Polk was born in North Carolina in 1795. Eleven years 
 later his family moved to Tennessee. Polk studied law and was elected 
 to Congress in 1824. He was chosen governor of Tennessee in 1839. 
 Because -he favored the annexation of Texas he was nominated for 
 President by the Democrats, defeating Henry Clay. Polk died in 1849, 
 three months after his term as President had expired. 
 
254 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 territory, and John Jacob Astor established here his 
 fur-trading colony, which was named Astoria. 
 
 The Hudson Bay Company had posts throughout the 
 territory, especially north of the Columbia river. Their 
 principal station was Fort Vancouver, nearly opposite 
 
 the mouth of the Willa- 
 mette. Here resided 
 Dr. John McLoughlin,^ 
 the "chief factor" or 
 agent for the company 
 throughout the Pacific 
 Northwest. The Cana- 
 dian settlers and Indians 
 had asked for priests to 
 minister to them, and in 
 1838 Fathers Blanchet and Demers left Montreal for the 
 Oregon country, where they established many missions. 
 Two years later Father De Smet,^ the famous Jesuit 
 missionary, started from the Missouri river with a large 
 party of emigrants. He founded (1841) his first mission 
 among the Flathead Indians on the Bitter Root river 
 and later established many others. 
 
 1 Dr. McLoughlin was born in Quebec of Irish parentage and was 
 thirty-nine years of age when he arrived in Oregon. " White men and 
 red alike revered him," says II. H. Bancroft. " He prevented wars, 
 upheld right and justice and ruled with a strong, firm liand." 
 
 2 Father De Smet sailed for Europe and returned with four priests, 
 and six sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, who opened a school for girls. 
 So rapid was the spiritual growth in Oregon that Father Blanchet was 
 appointed Bishop Dec. i, 1S43. "Father De Smet was a worthy 
 member of his order. Young, handsome, intellectual, educated and 
 energetic, he was well fitted to make a favorable impression upon the 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 255 
 
 231. The Adjustment of the Oregon Question. — The 
 
 resources of the Oregon country in the years following 
 1842 attracted thousands of settlers who in long cara- 
 vans toiled through the passes of the Rockies. ^ Through- 
 out the West the people began to demand the absolute 
 possession of Oregon, that is, all the territory from 
 California as far as the southern boundary of Russian 
 America (Alaska) .^ 
 
 England, on the other hand, claimed that Drake had 
 discovered this coast and that settlements had been 
 made by English colonists. She declined to yield up 
 this vast tract of rich country and thereby cut herself 
 off from the Pacific coast. 
 
 She finally proposed, as a compromise, a division of 
 the territory at the forty-ninth parallel. This was our 
 northern boundary from the Great Lakes to the Rocky 
 mountains, and it was now extended to the Pacific. An 
 
 savages and to succeed in a field which others had either shunned or 
 abandoned." — II. II. Bancroft, Oregon. 
 
 1 The statement that Marcus Whitman, a missionary of the Ameri- 
 can Board of Foreign Missions, first discovered the danger of our losing 
 Oregon and in the depth of winter hurried to Washington, where he 
 acquainted our government with the worth of the country, has been 
 utterly disproved. As a matter of fact, he came east to settle the 
 troubles that had arisen among the missionaries themselves and to 
 prevent the closing of certain missions which had been decided upon 
 by the board. He had little, if any, influence on our authorities in 
 Washington, who already well knew the value of Oregon. On his return 
 Whitman joined a company of emigrants who were already on their 
 way and assisted them with his valuable knowledge of the route. He 
 was later cruelly murdered by the Indians. (See Legend of Marcus 
 Whitman in Essays in Historical Criticism, by Prof. E. G. Bourne.) 
 
 2 The boundary was 54° 40', north latitude. Hence arose the famous 
 cry, " The whole of Oregon or none ! Fifty-four forty or fight ! " 
 
256 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The Mexican War 
 
 agreement was reached on this basis, and Oregon was 
 
 made a territory with the prohibition of slavery ^ (1848). 
 
 232. The War with Mexico; Battles of Palo Alto, 
 
 Resaca de la Palma, and Buena Vista. — Texas, on her 
 
 1 Twenty-four years before, a member of Congress opposed the 
 accession of Oregon because of its great distance. " He ridiculed the 
 idea of a senator from Oregon to Washington going and coming in less 
 than a year, whether he travelled overland or by sea around Cape Horn 
 or through Bering's Straits around the north coast of the Continent. ' It 
 is true,' he said, ' this passage is not yet discovered except upon our maps, 
 but it will be as soon as Oregon shall be a state.' " — Bancroft, Oregon. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 257 
 
 admission to the Union, claimed the Rio Grande ^ as her 
 southern and western boundary, while Mexico maintained 
 that the Nueces river ^ formed the boundary/^ President 
 Polk, however, agreed with the Texans^ and ordered 
 General Zachary Taylor to seize the disputed territory. 
 Taylor did so, advancing to the Rio Grande, where he 
 built Fort Brown. Directly opposite was the Mexican 
 city of Matamoros. The conflict was not long postponed. 
 The Mexicans crossed the river and attacked a band of 
 United States soldiers. Taylor at once attacked the Mexi- 
 cans and in the battles of Palo Alto^ (May 8, 1846) and 
 Resaca de la Palma (May 9, 1846) defeated them.^ 
 
 He thereupon crossed the Rio Grande and took Mata- 
 moros. Four days later war was declared against Mexico, 
 and fifty thousand volunteers were called for. 
 
 1 Rio Grande (Ree'o Grahn'day) means "great river." 
 
 '•^ Nueces (Noo-ay'thayce). 
 
 3 The southern boundary of Texas when it was part of one of the 
 states of the republic of Mexico was the Nueces river. As part of 
 the Louisiana Purchase, however, the Rio Grande was assumed to be 
 the southern boundary. 
 
 * General Grant, who served in the Mexican War, said in his memoirs : 
 " I was bitterly opposed to the measure [the annexation of Texas] and 
 to this day regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever 
 waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It is an instance of a 
 republic following the. bad example of European monarchies, in not 
 considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory. . . . 
 The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican War. 
 Nations like individuals are punished for their transgressions. We got our 
 punishment in the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times." 
 
 5 Palo Alto (Pah'lo Ahl'to) means " tall tree " ; Resaca de la Palma 
 (Ray-sah'cah day lah PahPma), " ravine of the palm." 
 
 ^ Congress was informed that " Mexico had shed American blood 
 upon American soil. War exists and exists by the act of Mexico 
 herself." Congress accepted this view and declared war. 
 
258 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 233. The Plan of Campaign. — The plan of campaign 
 was threefold : General Taylor was to control the Rio 
 Grande and move southward ; General Stephen W. 
 Kearny was to conquer New Mexico and California ; 
 General Winfield Scott, the commander in chief, was to 
 advance from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico. In the 
 autumn of 1 846 Taylor captured the town of Matamoros 
 and then moved against the city of Monterey,^ which 
 he won after a four days' battle (Sept, 24, 1846). 
 
 He was now ordered to send all but five thousand of 
 his troops to General Scott. In this weakened condi- 
 tion he was attacked at Buena Vista ^ by the Mexican 
 general, Santa Ana,^ who had a vastly superior force. 
 Taylor won a decided victory (Feb. 23, 1847). 
 
 234. New Mexico and California. — In the summer of 
 1846 General Kearny had marched from Fort Leaven- 
 worth to conquer New Mexico and California. He 
 easily made his way to Santa Fe,^ which surrendered 
 without opposition. The flag of the United States was 
 raised, and New Mexico passed under our rule.^ 
 
 1 Monterey (Mon-tay-ray'ee) means "king's mountain." 
 
 2 Buena Vista (Bway'nah Vees'tah) means " beautiful view." 
 ^ This name is often written in its English form, Anna. 
 
 "* Santa Fe (Sahn-tah Fay) means " holy faith." It had been founded 
 probably in 15S2 and is the second oldest town in the United States. 
 
 ^ A part of these troops were then dispatched under Colonel Doni- 
 phan to join our forces in Chihuahua (Chee-wah'wah). This city is in 
 the midst of a burning desert, and the troops suffered untold hardships 
 through thirst and heat in their march. On the route they subdued 
 (Dec. 25, 1846) the Navajo (Nah'vah-ho) Indians, defeated a force of 
 the Mexicans at Bracito (Brah-thee'toh) (Feb. 28, 1847), ^^^ ^^o^i a 
 victory over a large force at Chihuahua. He then joined his forces 
 with those of General Wool at Saltillo (Sahl-teeKyo). 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 259 
 
 In the meantime, under the advice of Captain John C. 
 Fremont/ who had been sent by Congress on three 
 exploring expeditions and was at this time in CaHfornia, 
 the American settlers in the Sacramento valley declared 
 California to be an independent republic. Commodore 
 Sloat, however, had taken Monterey, on the Pacific 
 coast, for the United States (July 7, 1847) ^^^^^ raised 
 the flag of the Union. He ordered Captain Montgomery 
 of the United States sloop of war, PortsmoiitJi, to seize 
 San Francisco. Commodore Stockton, who replaced 
 
 
 ^ioit:!' 
 
 
 Chalco 
 
 .^"OUTE 
 
 
 OF 
 
 PmLU 
 
 rfi^,^' Perote 
 
 Orizalia, 
 
 ^•u; 
 
 Jalapa 
 
 CeiTo Gordo 
 
 Vera Cruz\, 
 {Furlreiauf 
 San Juan de L'lluay\ 
 
 Route of General Scott 
 
 Sloat, captured Los Angeles,^ and soon the United 
 States colors were floating over all the territory. 
 
 235. Scott's March to the City of Mexico. — After his 
 defeat at Buena Vista, Santa Ana hastened to attack 
 
 1 John C. Fremont was born (1813) in Savannah, Georgia, of French 
 descent. He was called "The Pathfinder" because of his explorations 
 of the far West. He represented California in the United States Senate 
 when that state entered the Union. 
 
 2 Los Angeles (Spanish pronunciation, Loce An'hell-ace ; American 
 pronunciation, Los An'gel-es) means "the angels." Its full Spanish 
 name was Nuestra Seiiora la Reina de los Angeles, " Our Lady, the 
 Queen of the Angels." 
 
26o ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Scott, who had landed at Vera Cruz.^ This port was 
 defended by a fort called San Juan de Ulloa,^ at that 
 time a position of great strength. For four days Scott 
 rained shot and shell upon it until it surrendered. Scott 
 now started for the city of Mexico, about two hundred 
 and sixty miles away. The road led through mountain 
 passes. At Cerro Gordo,^ one of the higher spurs, the 
 Mexicans, fifteen thousand strong, awaited Scott, but he 
 defeated them (April 18, 1847). 
 
 The beautiful city of Puebla* next fell into his hands. 
 He waited here almost three months and then started for 
 the capital. He soon met the Mexicans and defeated 
 them (August 20) at Contreras.^ They thereupon fell 
 back the same day to Churubusco,^ where they fortified 
 themselves in and around the old monastery. Here 
 another battle was fought, ending in the defeat of the 
 Mexicans. Our troops pushed steadily onward, fight- 
 ing the battle of Molino del Rey'' (September 8). 
 At last they reached Chapultepec.^ On this strongly 
 
 1 Vera Cruz (Vay'rah Croos) means "true cross." Its full name was 
 Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, " The Rich City of the True Cross." It was 
 founded by the intrepid explorer Cortes, whose route to the city of 
 Mexico was followed by Scott. 
 
 ^ San Juan de Ulloa (Sahn Whahn day Ool-yo'ah). 
 
 3 Cerro Gordo (Ther'ro Gor'do) means "large hill." 
 
 4 Puebla (Pway'blah). 
 
 ^ Contreras (Con-tray'ras). '' 
 
 ^ Churubusco (Choo-roo-boos'co). 
 
 " Molino del Rey (Mo-lee'no del Ray'ee) means " king's mill." This 
 was a grain mill, strongly garrisoned and surrounded by a wall. 
 
 ^ Chapultepec (Chah-pool-tay-peck') means "the hill of the grass- 
 hopper." Besides the military school, on this hill stands the beautiful 
 summer residence of the President of the Mexican Republic. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 261 
 
 fortified height was the National Military School. It 
 looks over the great valley in which lies the city of 
 Mexico. The young cadets, many of them only four- 
 teen years of age, joined heroically in the defense of 
 
 Scott entering Mexico 
 
 the hill, but in vain. Chapultepec fell (September 13), 
 and the next day our army entered the city of Mexico. 
 
 The fall of the capital ended the war. We had won 
 every battle. 
 
 236. The Peace Treaty, 1848. — A treaty of peace 
 was signed (Feb. 2, 1848) at Guadaloupe Hidalgo,^ by 
 
 1 Guadaloupe Hidalgo (Gwah-dah-loo'pay Ee-dahrgo) is a suburb 
 of the city of Mexico and contains the famous shrine of '• Our Lady 
 of Guadaloupe." 
 
262 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 which Mexico ceded New Mexico and CaUfornia to 
 the United States. As we already possessed Texas, 
 with the Rio Grande as its southern boundary, an area 
 about nine hundred thousand square miles in extent 
 was added to our domain, — a territory nearly five 
 times the size of France and twenty times as large as 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 In return we paid Mexico fifteen millions of dollars, 
 and assumed the claims of our citizens against Mexico, 
 amounting to three and a quarter millions of dollars. 
 We also assumed the debt of Texas, amounting to seven 
 and one-half millions. An important result of the war 
 was the education of many officers who were later to 
 figure prominently in the Civil War.^ 
 
 237. The Wilmot Proviso, 1846. — During the Mex- 
 ican War, David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, 
 proposed (1846) a measure, called from him the Wilmot 
 Proviso.^ It sought to exclude slavery from all the 
 territory to be acquired from Mexico. As Mexico had 
 abolished slavery in 1827, Wilmot desired to prevent the 
 reintroduction of the slave system into the area that 
 Mexico might cede to us. The Proviso led to earnest 
 and bitter debates on the slavery question, the North 
 warmly favoring the measure, the South as strongly 
 
 1 Grant, Lee, Thomas, Sherman, McClellan, Beauregard, Shields, and 
 Jackson were some of the officers trained in this war. 
 
 2 A bill had been introduced into Congress appropriating two millions 
 of dollars for the purchase of the disputed territory from Mexico. It 
 was to this bill that Wilmot moved to have added his proviso, "that 
 neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of 
 said territory except as a punishment for crime." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 
 
 263 
 
 opposing it. It passed the House of Representatives 
 but was defeated in the Senate. 
 
 238. Great Inventions ; the Reaper and Sewing Machine. 
 — During this and the following administration a num- 
 ber of great inventions ushered in a new industrial 
 
 '^iV//> 
 
 
 McCormick 
 
 and 
 the Reaper 
 
 
 u:^^ 
 
 
 
 ^^r^^4 
 
 ^^'i 
 
 era. Obed Hussey of Maryland patented (1833) a 
 reaper. Six months later Cyrus H. McCormick of 
 Virginia secured a patent on his reaper. For some years 
 McCormick tried in vain to sell his machines. At 
 last the farmers of the great West recognized the value 
 of the new invention, and the leapers came into general 
 
264 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 use. They have rendered possible the profitable culti- 
 vation of the western wheat fields and greatly reduced 
 the price of bread. 
 
 Elias Howe,^ who lived in the direst poverty, watched 
 his wife one day while she toiled with her needle and 
 
 conceived the idea of building a 
 machine to do the arduous work 
 of sewing. He toiled for many 
 years and took out his first 
 patent (1846) with money he 
 had been compelled to borrow. 
 Howe's ideas were developed by 
 others until sewing machines 
 
 were in practically every house- 
 hold. They were introduced 
 (1862) into factories, under Mc- 
 Kay's patent, for sewing shoes 
 and brought about a great reduction in the price of shoes. 
 239. Goodyear's Discovery ; the Use of Ether. — The 
 year 1844 witnessed the great discovery of Goodyear^ in 
 the treatment of india rubber.^ Various attempts had 
 
 Elias Howe 
 
 1 Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts. His first machine 
 was operated by a hand wheel. The foot treadle came in later (1S51), 
 and still later steam power. Unlike many inventors, Howe amassed a 
 large fortune from his invention. 
 
 2 Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven (iSoo) and toiled in 
 abject poverty for years. The Emperor Napoleon of France conferred 
 on him the " Cross of the Legion of Honor," and it was brought to 
 him while he was in prison in Paris for debt. It has been said that the 
 rubber shoe has done more to preserve the health of the human family 
 than any other single article of apparel. 
 
 2 India rubber is the juice or sap from a certain tropical tree. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 265 
 
 been made for years in the manufacture of goods from 
 rubber, but they were unsuccessful as the heat melted 
 the goods in summer and the cold cracked them in 
 winter. Goodyear, after working for years, at last acci- 
 dentally discovered vulcanization, a process by which 
 sulphur is mixed with the rubber gum and then sub- 
 jected to great heat. In this way rubber could be 
 made not only hard or soft but durable, and the secret 
 was thus discovered by which rubber goods became so 
 important a part of man's life. 
 
 The greatest boon in the history of the world for the 
 relief of suffering humanity came in the years 1844 
 to 1846. Dr. Wells of Hartford, in 1844, had nitrous 
 oxide gas (laughing gas) administered to himself for the 
 extraction of one of his teeth and discovered that it 
 produced insensibility to pain. Dr. Morton, a dentist in 
 Boston, and Dr. Jackson, a chemist, discovered in 1846 
 the value of ether for producing absolute insensibility 
 with safety. This wonderful discovery rendered possible 
 the most delicate and vital operations while the patient 
 remained in profound unconsciousness.^ 
 
 240. The Early Explorations of California. — An event 
 now occurred that was destined to exert a great influence 
 on our history, — the discovery of gold in California. 
 Before considering this event a brief sketch of the 
 early history of California is necessary. The fearless 
 
 1 Among the other inventions about this period were the Hoe 
 printing presses (1845), which led to the mammoth octuple press " that 
 prints, cuts, pastes, folds and counts newspapers at the rate of sixteen 
 hundred a minute," Colt's revolver, Ericsson's screw propeller, and the 
 steam fire engine. 
 
266 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 explorer Cortes discovered (1535) the gulf and penin- 
 sula of Lower California.^ Seven years later Cabrillo^ 
 explored the Pacific coast of California, entering the 
 harbor of San Diego ^ (1542). In 1602 Sebastian Viz- 
 caino* with three vessels sailed from Acapulco and dis- 
 covered the bay of Monterey, which he so named in honor 
 of the viceroy of Mexico. In 1697 the Jesuits began 
 the work of spreading the Gospel and civilization among 
 the native Indians.^ Mission after mission was founded 
 in Lower California until the society was expelled from 
 the Spanish dominions in 1767. For many years Cali- 
 fornia had been neglected by Spain. Two causes at 
 last served to awake the mother countrv : first, the 
 fear that the coast would be seized and occupied by 
 another power ; second, the need of harbors whither 
 the richly laden ships coming from the Philippines could 
 seek safety from storms or pirates. 
 
 1 The name California was derived, it is believed, from a Spanish 
 romance published in 1510 which described a very rich island called 
 California " on the right hand of the Indies." As California was at 
 first thought to be an island and this romance was published not many 
 years before the expedition of Cortes, the name was applied to the 
 newly discovered land. The upper part was later called Alta (Upper) 
 California, and the lower Baja (Lower) California. 
 
 2 Cabrillo (Cah-breel'yo). 
 
 ^ San Diego (Dee-ay'go) means '' St. James." 
 
 ■* Vizcaino (Veeth-cah-ee'no). 
 
 ^ This work was planned and carried out under Father Salvatierra, 
 assisted by Fathers Kino, Riccolo, and others. " Father Salvatierra 
 taught," says Blackmar, "the natives to till the soil, to construct 
 houses, to learn trades ; and he practised them in the observances of 
 the Church. Their children were instructed in the rudiments of learning. 
 He looked out for their physical comfort, endeavoring to make them 
 happy and contented as he taught them the arts of a new civilization." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 267 
 
 241. Foundation of the Missions. — Spurred on by 
 orders from Spain, the viceroy of Mexico now deter- 
 mined to push the occupation and civilization of Cah- 
 fornia. The Franciscans were invited to extend their 
 aid in converting, civiUzing, and educating the Indians. ^ 
 The superior of the order, Feather Junipero Scrra,^ per- 
 sonally led in the good work. San Diego was the first 
 of the California missions established (1769), and "the 
 pilgrims there sang the first Christian hymn heard on 
 California's shores." Monterey was founded in 1770, 
 and in rapid succession San F^rancisco (1776), Santa 
 Clara (1777), San Jose^ (1797), Los Angeles (1781), 
 Santa Barbara (178 i), and many others, until an unbroken 
 line of missions, twenty-one in number, joined San Diego 
 to San F^rancisco, spreading on all sides the truths of 
 the Gospel and the blessings of civilization. 
 
 242. Decline of the Missions. — In 18 13 the first step 
 in removing the missions from the care of the Religious 
 Orders was taken by the Spanish government, but the 
 decree was not carried out. In 1833 the Mexican govern- 
 ment decided to enforce the earlier decree, making the 
 missions state property. It was the beginning of the end 
 
 1 The Franciscans had come to Mexico in 1524 and established the 
 mission of San Fernando, that became the mother of all the Franciscan 
 missions in Mexico and California. The Jesuits came in 1572, having 
 already established missions in Havana and among the Seminole Indi- 
 ans of Florida. The Carmelites arrived in 1585, and the Benedictines 
 in 1589. 
 
 2 Junipero (Hoo-nee'pay-ro). A monument, the gift of Mrs. Leland 
 Stanford, was erected (1891) to the memory of this brave and noble 
 priest at Monterey on the site of his landing j^lace. 
 
 3 San Jose (Sahn Ho-say') means " St. Joseph." 
 
268 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 of the system. 1 Gradually the missions decayed ; the 
 natives were scattered, until in 1845 ^he property that 
 had not been stolen or squandered by the officials was 
 actually offered to the highest bidder. Before this step 
 could be carried out, however, the flag of the United 
 States was raised, and General Kearny decreed in 1847 
 that the missions and their property should remain in 
 the hands of the Religious Orders until the legal title 
 could be decided. 
 
 243. Discovery of Gold. — About this time the whole 
 aspect of affairs in California was changed by the world- 
 famous gold discovery. Some years before, a Swiss 
 settler named Sutter had established an estate and 
 fort on the Sacramento river in California. While one 
 of his workmen, named Marshall, was building a saw- 
 mill on a fork of the American river about forty miles 
 from the fort, he noticed (Jan. 24, 1848) shining parti- 
 cles in the mill race. He took them to Sutter, who 
 tested them and found them to be gold. The secret 
 
 1 Speaking of the work of the Franciscans, Dwindle says : " It was 
 something, surely, that over thirty thousand wild, barbarous and naked 
 Indians had been brought in from their savage haunts, persuaded to 
 wear clothes, accustomed to a regular life, inured to such light labor as 
 they could endure, taught to read and write, instructed in music, accus- 
 tomed to the service of the church, partaking of its sacraments and 
 indoctrinated in the Christian religion, and this system had become 
 self-sustaining under the mildest and gentlest of tutelage ; for the 
 Franciscan monks w^ho superintended these establishments were from 
 Spain and many of them were highly cultivated men, soldiers, engineers, 
 artists, lawyers and physicians before they became Franciscans. They 
 always treated the neophyte Indians with the most paternal kindness 
 and did not scorn to labor with them in the field, in the brickyard, the 
 forge and the mill." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 269 
 
 could not be long kept,^ and soon a wild rush began for 
 the mountains. 2 
 
 244. The Emigration to California. — From every side, 
 north and south, east and west, the miners poured in. 
 Some came overland across the prairies and deserts, 
 where thousands perished from thirst, the cholera, and 
 attacks of the Indians ; others rounded cape Horn in 
 sailing vessels, while many came by way of the isthmus 
 of Panama. 
 
 San Francisco at the time of the gold discovery 
 was a collection of mud huts, with seven hundred 
 inhabitants. It soon became a city of twenty thousand 
 inhabitants. No less than ninety thousand immigrants 
 arrived within two years of Marshall's discovery. These 
 were the famous *' Forty-niners," as the miners were 
 called. 
 
 So great now became the number of settlers and so 
 desperate w^ere many of the gold seekers that it became 
 necessary to frame some s^tstem of laws to protect 
 life and property. At first vigilance committees were 
 
 1 " One of the workmen came to San Francisco," says H. H. Bancroft, 
 and " holding up a bottle of the gold dust in one hand and swinging his 
 hat with the other, passed along the street shouting * Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! 
 from the American river.' . . . The judge abandoned his bench and the 
 doctor his patients ; criminals slipped their fetters and hastened north- 
 ward : their keepers followed in pursuit, if indeed they had not preceded, 
 but they took care not to find them. Soldiers fled from their posts ; 
 others were sent for them and none returned. Valuable land grants 
 were surrendered and farms left tenantless ; waving fields of grain stood 
 abandoned . . . and gardens were left to run to waste. The country 
 seemed as if smitten by a plague." 
 
 2 The news quickly spread to the Hawaiian islands, British Columbia, 
 Oregon, Mexico, Asia, South America, and Australia. 
 
270 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 appointed, and later a convention ^ was called to frame a 
 state constitution. A clause prohibiting slavery was 
 passed unanimously. This constitution was adopted by 
 the people (November, 1849), and application was there- 
 upon made for the ad- 
 mission of California as 
 a state of the Union. 
 
 245. Election of 
 Taylor. — The ques- 
 tion of the extension of 
 slavery was daily be- 
 coming" more trouble- 
 some. In 1848 the 
 Whigs nominated Gen- 
 eral Zachary Taylor, 
 the hero of Buena 
 Vista ; the Democrats 
 nominated Lewis Cass 
 of Michigan. Neither party made any references to 
 slavery. The Whigs were successful and Taylor was 
 elected. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Polk's administration were : 
 
 1. The adjustment of the Oregon question. 
 
 2. The Mexican War. 
 
 3. The Wilmot Proviso. 
 
 4. The discovery of ether and development of great inventions. 
 
 5. The discovery of gold in California. 
 
 1 Von Hoist speaks of this convention " as the most magnificent 
 illustration of the wonderful capacity of this [American] people for 
 self-government." 
 
 Zachary Taylor 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 27 1 
 
 Taylor and Fillmore's Administrations, 1849-1853 
 
 246. The Compromise of 1850. — Scarcely had Taylor 1 
 been inaugurated when there arose the question of the 
 admission of California. As this state extended both 
 north and south of the parallel of 36° 30', it was pro- 
 posed that the question be settled by extending the 
 Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific. At this time 
 the balance was evenly maintained between the free and 
 the slave states, each having fifteen.^ 
 
 The admission of California as a free state would 
 upset that balance and give the free states control of the 
 Senate. They already controlled the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. The South, therefore, opposed the admission 
 of all of California as a free state and urged delay or, at 
 least, the extension of the Missouri Compromise line. 
 
 There were many other difficult problems to be 
 solved. In the territory ceded by Mexico, besides Cali- 
 fornia, some form of government had to be established, 
 and the question of slavery there had to be settled in 
 some way. Again, Texas claimed that part of New 
 
 1 Zachary Taylor was born in Virginia in 17S4, and soon removed 
 with his father, who was a Revolutionary officer, to a plantation in Ken- 
 tucky. He entered the army, rose to distinction in Indian battles, and 
 in the Mexican War gained fame for his successes. He was loved by 
 his soldiers, who called him " Old Rough and Ready." He took little 
 interest in politics and did not vote for forty years. He was a slave- 
 holder, but did not desire to see the system extended to territory where 
 the people opposed it. He died July 9, 1850, after a few days' illness, 
 universally beloved and respected. Of his death Seward said, "I 
 never saw public grief so universal and so profound." 
 
 2 Florida, admitted in 1845, ^^"^^ offset by Iowa (1S46), and Texas 
 (1845) by Wisconsin (1S48). 
 
2/2 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Mexico which lies east of the Rio Grande, a claim the 
 New Mexicans contested. The North, too, objected to 
 slavery in the District of Columbia, while the South 
 demanded a better law to regain slaves that had run 
 away to the North. At length Henry Clay once more 
 appeared as peacemaker and proposed a scheme to 
 settle the difficulties. His bill, known as the Compro- 
 mise of 1850, or the Omnibus Bill, made the following 
 provisions : 
 
 1. The admission of California as a free state. 
 
 2. Territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah 
 without reference to slavery.^ 
 
 3. The payment to Texas of ten millions of dollars 
 for her claims to part of New Mexico. 
 
 4. The prohibition of the slave trade, but not of 
 slavery, in the District of Columbia. 
 
 5. A stringent fugitive slave law. 
 
 This compromise led to an earnest debate, in which 
 Calhoun, ^ Clay, Webster,^ and Seward took leading 
 
 1 This bill provided that the people in each territory should deter- 
 mine for themselves whether their territory would be free or slave. 
 This was called "popular " or " squatter " sovereignty, the word " squatter " 
 meaning " settler." Lewis Cass of Michigan was the author of this idea. 
 
 2 This was Calhoun's last appearance in the Senate. He was so 
 weak his address was read for him. 
 
 ^ This was Webster's famous 7th of March speech, which sorely 
 disappointed many of his friends in the North. A meeting was actually 
 held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, where he was likened to the traitor 
 Arnold. On the other hand, immense meetings in Boston, New York, 
 Philadelphia, and Cincinnati testified to the joy of the people that the 
 .slavery discussion had been apparently adjusted to the satisfaction of 
 all. It was felt later by most people, however, that Webster had con- 
 scientiously sought by the Compromise the preservation of the Union. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 273 
 
 parts; the three former favored while the latter 
 denounced the bill, which finally (September, 1850) 
 became a law. California, under the Compromise, was 
 admitted to the Union, Sept. 9, 1850.^ 
 
 247. The Fugitive Slave Law; Personal Liberty Xaws; 
 Death of President Taylor. — The passage of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law aroused the deepest excitement in the North. 
 According to the provisions of this law. United States 
 officers on the oath of an owner or his agent could seize 
 a colored person anywhere and turn him or her over to 
 the claimant. Even years of residence in a free state 
 gave the negro no rights whatever. As soon as the law 
 was enacted thousands of negroes, therefore, fled across 
 the border into Canada. The slave could give no testi- 
 mony and could not demand trial by jury, while heavy 
 penalties could be inflicted on any one assisting a slave to 
 escape. The attempts of the officers to arrest runaway 
 slaves provoked the bitterest feelings in many northern 
 cities.2 In some places the captured slaves were rescued 
 
 1 A treaty between the United States and Great Britain went into 
 effect July 4, 1850. It was called the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, Clayton 
 being Secretary of State and Buhver British minister at Washington. 
 In its leading features the treaty provided that neither country should 
 exercise any authority over any state of Central America nor any exclu- 
 sive control over any ship canal that might be built, nor should any 
 fortifications be erected controlling the canal. 
 
 A convention signed Nov. 18, 1901, by the United States and Great 
 Britain "provided for a complete abrogation of the Clayton-Buhver 
 treaty and assured to the United States the sole right to construct and 
 maintain " the canal across the isthmus. 
 
 2 In Boston (1851) a negro named Shadrach was taken from the 
 courthouse by a body of negroes and dispatched to Canada. In Syra- 
 cuse a fugitive slave named McHenry was arrested. An alarm bell 
 
2/4 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 and sent into Canada. Friends of the slaves secretly 
 helped them from city to city till they reached the 
 northern border. This method of rescuing the slaves 
 was called the "Underground Railroad." 
 
 One of the worst features of this bill was, it was 
 claimed, the arrest of free negroes and their transfer to 
 slavery again in the South. 
 
 The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law led, in prac- 
 tically all the northern states, to the enactment of laws, 
 called " Personal Liberty Laws," to protect the fugitive 
 slaves. These laws in many cases really amounted to 
 nullification, as their object was to defeat a national law.^ 
 
 During these exciting times President Taylor died 
 (July 9, 1850). He had been in office only sixteen 
 months. Millard Fillmore^ at once assumed the presi- 
 dential office. 
 
 notified the citizens, and two thousand people attacked the courthouse 
 and rescued McHenry. Similar cases occurred in Ohio and Pennsyl- 
 vania. It cost the United States government one hundred thousand 
 dollars to return a fugitive slave named Burns from Boston to his owner 
 in Virginia. 
 
 1 In most of these laws were provisions forbidding the use of jails 
 for the detention of fugitive slaves; forbidding state judges and officers 
 to aid claimants or to issue writs for the arrest of fugitives ; granting to 
 the slave the right of trial by jury and an attorney for his defense, and 
 punishing with severe penalties the attempt to seize a free negro and 
 return him to slavery. 
 
 2 Millard Fillmore was born in Cayuga county, NeW York, Feb. 7, 
 1800. He learned a trade, and later studied law and secured a successful 
 practice in Buffalo. He was elected to Congress as a Whig in 1832. 
 He supported the "compromise measures" of Clay, but his signing of 
 the Fugitive Slave Law won for him strong opposition in the North. 
 He was nominated by the Know-Nothings for President in 1856, but 
 carried only one state and retired to private life, dying in 1874. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 275 
 
 248. Uncle Tom's Cabin; the Gadsden Purchase. — 
 The intense feeling in the North against slavery was 
 increased by the publication of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle 
 Torn s Cabiji, a story dealing with life in the South. 
 The sales of this book reached millions of copies, and 
 more than any other single force its publication stirred 
 up the antislavery feeling and increased the ranks of 
 those opposed to the extension of slavery. The South 
 maintained that the book depicted unusual and extreme 
 cases and was not a true picture of southern life. 
 
 As difficulties arose in adjusting our southwestern 
 boundary, a new treaty was made (December, 1853) with 
 Mexico by which the United States purchased the land. 
 This purchase added about forty-four thousand square 
 miles to our domain in the territories of Arizona and New 
 Mexico, between the Gila^ river and our present bound- 
 ary. The price paid was ten millions of dollars. It is 
 called the Gadsden Purchase after James Gadsden, United 
 States minister to Mexico, who arranged the matter. 
 
 In the election of 1852 Franklin Pierce, the Demo- 
 cratic candidate, received the electoral votes of every state 
 except four. The Whig candidate was General Winfield 
 Scott. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Taylor and Fillmore's administrations 
 were : 
 
 1. The Compromise of 1850 and slavery discussion. 
 
 2. The Fuijitive Slave Law troubles. 
 
 3. Tlie publication of Uncle Toft's Cabin. 
 
 4. The Gadsden IHnchase. 
 
 1 (;ila (llee'lah). 
 
2^6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Pierce's Administration/ 1853-1857 
 
 249. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill ; the Republican Party. 
 
 — Scarcely was Pierce inaugurated when the slavery 
 discussion was once more to the front. By the Missouri 
 Compromise of 1820 slavery was not allowed outside of 
 Missouri, north of 36° 30'. In 1854 Stephen A. Douglas 
 of Illinois introduced the Nebraska Bill to organize a 
 new territory in the region north of the Compromise 
 line and west of Missouri. Douglas' bill provided for 
 the right of the settlers to decide for themselves whether 
 this territory should be slave or free.^ This was Cass' 
 doctrine of popular or squatter sovereignty, which has 
 been applied to New Mexico and Utah in the Compromise 
 of 1850. This Compromise of 1850, Douglas declared, 
 had rendered null and void the Missouri Compromise of 
 1820, which excluded slavery forever from this territory. 
 
 He later amended his bill to provide for two terri- 
 tories.'^ It is therefore called the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 
 
 1 Franklin Pierce was born at Hillsboro, New Hampshire, in 1804. 
 He became a successful lawyer and was elected to the House of 
 Representatives and to the Senate. As President he opposed all anti- 
 slavery measures, being an advocate of the doctrine of states' rights. He 
 supported the Union during the Civil War and died in 1869. 
 
 2 Douglas declared that the "legal effect of this bill is neither to 
 legislate slavery into the territories nor out of them but to leave the 
 people to do as they please. If they wish slavery, they have a right to 
 it. If they do not want it, they will not have it and you should not 
 force it upon them." 
 
 ^ Kansas was to extend from 37° to 40°, north latitude, and Nebraska 
 from 40° to 49°. It was thought Kansas, as it lay west of Missouri, 
 would become a slave state, while Nebraska, adjoining Iowa, would 
 become a free state. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 277 
 
 The act also declared that the Missouri Compromise of 
 1820 was repealed. In spite of the most earnest oppo- 
 sition, the bill became a law (May 30, 1854). The 
 Missouri Compromise of 1820 had been the law of the 
 land for thirty-four years, and every one had felt that 
 the area north of the line had been dedicated to freedom 
 for all time. 
 
 The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska^ Act upset these 
 ideas, and the whole slavery question was open again for 
 discussion. The great and fertile lands west of the 
 Mississippi were the prize to secure which the North 
 and South now entered the contest. 
 
 An immediate consequence of the Kansas-Nebraska 
 Act was the formation of the Republican party. This 
 party was made up of Free-Soilers, antislavery Demo- 
 crats, and antislavery Whigs, and it selected the name 
 "Republican" as standing for human liberty and the 
 rights of man as the Jeffersonian Republican party did. 
 
 250. The Struggle for Kansas. — The struggle for 
 Kansas was now begun. From the neighboring slave 
 state of Missouri settlers poured .over the border, 
 hoping by force of number to make a slave territory. 
 
 1 It is safe to say that in the scope and consequences of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Act, it was the most momentous measure that passed Congress 
 from the day that the senators and representatives first met to the out- 
 break of the Civil War. It sealed the doom of the Whig party; it 
 caused the formation of the Republican party on the principle of no 
 extension of slavery. ... It made the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter 
 at the North ; it caused the Germans to become Republicans ; it lost 
 the Democrats their hold on New England ; it made the Northwest 
 Republican ; it led to the downfall of the Democratic party. — Rhodes, 
 History of the United States. 
 
2/8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 They established the town of Atchison. But the anti- 
 slavery forces were also thoroughly aroused. Societies 
 were organized to send settlers to the territory, one of 
 which — the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society — 
 equipped a number of expeditions and established the 
 town^ of Lawrence. Violence reigned everywhere,^ and 
 civil war virtually ensued. Both sides were guilty of 
 crimes of violence and bloodshed. The new town of Law- 
 rence was burned by the slavery men, and John Brown 
 made up a party and attacked a small settlement of 
 proslavery squatters, murdering five of them. On 
 the election (November, 1854) of a delegate to Con- 
 gress the great struggle began. Armed bands of slavery 
 men from Missouri roamed throughout the country 
 taking possession of the polls. A slavery delegate was 
 elected. Four months later (March, 1855) the election 
 of members for the territorial government was to occur. 
 This was the crisis of the struggle, as success for the 
 slave men meant a slave state of Kansas. The slavery 
 forces won, and at a convention held at Lecompton 
 slavery was formally established. Congress, however, 
 refused to seat the delegate that had been elected on 
 the ground of fraud at the polls. The antislavery men 
 held a convention at Topeka, declared the Lecompton 
 convention an illegal body, made an antislavery consti- 
 tution, and submitted it to a popular Vote. As no 
 
 1 The leaders of this movement were Eli Thayer of Worcester, 
 Massachusetts, and Amos Lawrence. The first town was named in 
 honor of Lawrence. 
 
 2 This struggle gave to the territory the name of " Bleeding Kansas." 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 279 
 
 slavery men voted, this constitution was adopted, and 
 thus two governments were organized. This strife 
 lasted until 1858,^ when the numbers of the free men 
 were so great that the slave men gave up the struggle, 
 and, three years later, Kansas was admitted to the 
 Union. 
 
 251. Perry's Expedition to Japan. — One of the great 
 events of Pierce's administration was the opening of 
 commercial relations with Japan. At that time the 
 only port open to the outside world was Nagasaki, and 
 even here only the Dutch were allowed to land. In 
 the summer of 1853 Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 
 brother of the hero of lake Erie, anchored in the waters 
 of Japan not far from the present site of Yokohama, at 
 that time a collection of fishing huts. He bore letters 
 to the government of Japan asking for a treaty and the 
 opening of the ports. He was asked to go to Nagasaki 
 as foreigners were forbidden to approach that part of 
 the Japanese coast, but he refused to depart. At length 
 the Japanese received his letters and promised to con- 
 sider the matter. Perry replied that he would return the 
 following year for an answer. He sailed to China and 
 at the appointed time returned to Japan, where his perse- 
 verance was rewarded. A treaty was signed (May 31, 
 
 1 President Buchanan recommended to Congress the admission of 
 Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, that is, as a slave state. As 
 this constitution had been rejected by the people, it was contrary to 
 Douglas' ideas of popular sovereignty, and he vigorously and success- 
 fully opposed it. His action caused a bitter feeling between him and 
 Buchanan, which later led to a split in the Democratic party and to 
 its defeat. 
 
28o ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 1854), by which certain ports were opened for trade with 
 the United States. This was the beginning of the won- 
 drous development which Japan has made in the last 
 fifty years. ^ 
 
 252. The Know-Nothings. — The year 1854 was 
 marked by the rise to power of the Know-Nothing or 
 Native American party. This was a secret, oath-bound 
 organization that was based on hostility to foreigners 
 and especially to Roman Catholics, native or foreign.^ 
 
 For some years immigration had been increasing with 
 wonderful strides as a result of the development of ocean 
 steam navigation, of the revolutions in Europe, and of the 
 fearful famine in Ireland. American politics at this time 
 were in a condition of unrest and turmoil. The leaders 
 of the Know-Nothings took advantage of this condition 
 to organize a bitter opposition to Catholics. A disgrace- 
 ful period of rioting and bloodshed followed. Mobs, led 
 by fanatics, attacked the churches, convents, orphan 
 
 1 As a result of Perry's expedition, within seven years Japan made 
 treaties with practically all the countries of Europe. 
 
 2 Hostility to immigrants and also to Catholics has appeared at 
 various times in our history. The Alien Act of 1798 lengthened the 
 naturalization term to fourteen years. The Hartford convention in its 
 proposed amendments to the Constitution included the following reso- 
 lution : '• No person who shall hereafter be naturalized shall be eligible 
 as a member of the Senate or House of Representatives of the United 
 States or capable of holding any civil office under the authority of the 
 United States." Acts of violence soon marked the progress of these 
 ideas. A Catholic church in New York was robbed and burned in 
 1831, and three years later the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown was 
 destroyed by a mob and the defenseless Sisters and girls driven into the 
 street. Ten years later its violence again wreaked its fury on Catholic 
 churches and convents. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 281 
 
 asylums, and houses of Catholic citizens. Archbishop 
 Bedini, the Papal Nuncio, was visiting America at this 
 time ; he was burned in effigy in Baltimore, and the militia 
 was needed to quell the riots when he visited Cincinnati. 
 A stone, sent by the Pope for the Washington monu- 
 ment, was destroyed. Catholic churches were burned in 
 Cobourg, Dorchester, Bath, Philadelphia, and Louisville, 
 while the homes of Catholics were destroyed in many 
 cities. At Ellsworth, Maine, Father John Bapst, the 
 Jesuit missionary, was tarred and feathered. It became 
 necessary to entirely suspend public worship in the 
 Catholic churches of Philadelphia. The Know-Nothings 
 obtained their first political successes in 1854.^ 
 
 In that year they carried Massachusetts and Dela- 
 ware, polled one hundred and twenty-two thousand 
 votes in New York, and elected seventy-five members 
 of the house of representatives. ^ In the following year 
 they were victorious in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
 Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and Kentucky. 
 In the presidential campaign of 1856 they nominated 
 Fillmore and carried only one state. Lord Baltimore's 
 
 1 At the outset they conducted all their proceedmgs so secretly that it 
 was impossible to tell who were members and who were not. In answer 
 to every question about themselves they answered, " I don't know," 
 whence arose the name of Know-Nothings. By means of grips, pass- 
 words, and countersigns the members recognized one another. By pieces 
 of white paper stuck along the streets, on fences or lamp-posts, members 
 were notified of meetings. Later they gave up their secrecy and held 
 public meetings ; in 1856 they had a national convention in Philadelphia. 
 ^ In Massachusetts they elected the governor, every member of the 
 state senate, and three hundred and seventy-six out of three hundred 
 and seventy-nine members of the state house of representatives. 
 
282 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 former colony, Maryland. After this crushing defeat 
 their power began to wane, and they merged themselves 
 with other political parties. 
 
 253. The Attack on Sumner ; Election of Buchanan. — 
 To add to the bitter sectional feeling, an event occurred 
 (May 22, 1856) which deeply moved both the North 
 and the South. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was 
 a leader of the antislavery forces in the Senate, and in 
 an address on Kansas he made not only an attack on 
 South Carolina but also bitter personal allusions to 
 Senator Butler of that state. A kinsman of Senator 
 Butler, Representative Preston Brooks, determined to 
 avenge the insult. Walking up to the desk at which 
 Sumner was at work, he repeatedly struck the senator 
 on the head with a cane. Sumner fell to the floor 
 seriously wounded, and for almost four years could not 
 resume his seat in the Senate. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives attempted to expel Brooks, but could not 
 secure the necessary two-thirds vote. Brooks there- 
 upon resigned and was reelected, almost unanimously, 
 to his seat. 
 
 As the time approached for the election of a Presi- 
 dent to succeed Pierce the old parties were radically 
 changed. The support of the Compromise of 1850, the 
 P'ugitive Slave Law, and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had 
 turned thousands of northern Whigs against'' their party, 
 and Webster and Clay were no longer alive to advance 
 its fortunes.^ Many of the antislavery Democrats 
 
 1 Clay died June 29, 1852, and four months later (October 24) 
 Webster passed away. 
 
THE I'KRIOD OF UNION 283 
 
 had resolved to leave their party because of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill. The new Republican party held its first 
 national convention at Philadelphia, June 17, 1856. John 
 C. Fremont was nominated for President. The Demo- 
 crats nominated James Buchanan, who was elected with 
 one hundred and seventy-four electoral votes to one 
 hundred and fourteen for P'remont.^ 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Pierce's administration were : 
 
 1. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 
 
 2. The struggle for Kansas. 
 
 3. Perry's expedition to Japan, 
 
 4. The Know-Nothing movement. 
 
 Buchanan's Administration, 1857- 1861 
 
 254. The Dred Scott Decision. — Two days after 
 Buchanan's inauguration ^ the United States Supreme 
 Court rendered the famous Dred Scott decision. 
 Dred Scott was a slave whose master had taken him 
 from Missouri to Illinois, a free state, where he resided 
 four years. Later he was taken to Minnesota and 
 returned after a time to Missouri. Scott now sued his 
 
 1 The Know-Nothings nominated Fillmore, who received the eight 
 electoral votes of Maryland. 
 
 2 James Buchanan was born in Pennsylvania, April 23, 1791. He 
 was a lawyer and was elected to Congress in 1820. President Jackson 
 appointed him (1832) minister to Russia. He was elected to the United 
 States Senate (1834) and entered (1845) ^^e cabinet of Polk as Secre- 
 tary of State. He became minister to England (1853), which position 
 he held when elected to the presidency. He died June i, 1868. 
 
284 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 master for his freedom, claiming that his residence on 
 free soil had made him a free man. His case reached 
 the United States Supreme Court, which decided that 
 Dred Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in the 
 United States courts;^ that his residence on free soil 
 did not make him free ; that Congress could not pre- 
 vent slave owners from taking their slaves with them 
 
 [%-%\ ^ S>^ O,^ MNSAS TERRITORY 
 
 Area of Free and Slave States 
 
 wherever they desired to go, as they would their cattle 
 or other property ; and, finally, that the Missouri Com- 
 promise was unconstitutional and therefore null and void, 
 as it prohibited slavery in that part of the Louisiana 
 
 1 The decision was read by Chief Justice Taney and was concurred 
 in by all the nine justices except two. Judge Taney had freed all his 
 own slaves. He was distinguished by his " accurate knowledge of law, 
 clearness of thought and absolute purity of life." — Rhodes, ///story 
 of the United States. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 285 
 
 territory which lay north of 36° 30', and consequently 
 prevented slave owners from carrying their property 
 (slaves) into the territory. This decision opened all 
 the territories of the United States to slavery, and 
 made Douglas' theory of popular sovereignty a farce. 
 Great indignation arose throughout the North at the 
 decision, while the South believed it had won a great 
 victory, and two years later, in a commercial convention 
 of nine southern states at Vicksburg, the repeal of all 
 laws, state or federal, prohibiting the African slave 
 trade -^ was approved by a vote of forty to nineteen. 
 
 255. The Crisis of 1857 ; New States. — Five months 
 after Buchanan's inauguration an Ohio bank failed. It 
 was the beginning of a widespread crisis, which in the 
 main was occasioned by excessive investment in railroad 
 building. Factories were closed, men by thousands 
 thrown out of employment, and distress reigned every- 
 where. For two years there was great suffering, but 
 at last business again revived and the country became 
 prosperous. The discovery of gold in Colorado, of 
 silver in Nevada, and oil in great quantities in Penn- 
 sylvania were important factors in restoring prosperity 
 to the Union. 
 
 At this time Minnesota was admitted to the Union 
 (1858). Oregon became a state in 1859 with a consti- 
 tution which excluded from the state free negroes. 
 
 256. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. — In 1858 the 
 Democrats of Illinois renominated Douglas for United 
 
 1 After the decision Dred Scott and his family were freed by 
 their owner. 
 
286 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 States senator. Abraham Lincoln was chosen by the 
 RepubHcans as their candidate for the same position. 
 Both candidates made a tour of the state, and Lincoln 
 challenged Douglas to a series of seven joint debates. 
 These debates, relating as they did to pojoular sover- 
 eignty, slavery, and the Dred Scott decision, aroused 
 the interest of the whole nation. Lincoln was defeated, 
 that is, the Democrats won control of the state legis- 
 lature, which insured the election of their candidate as 
 senator; but the prominence which these debates gave 
 him made him a leading candidate for the nomination 
 for the presidency in the ensuing Republican national 
 convention. 
 
 257. John Brown's Raid. — The bitterness of feeling 
 between the slavery and antislavery men was intensified 
 by the John Brown raid. John Brown had emigrated 
 from Connecticut to Ohio and thence to Kansas, where 
 he took part in the fierce struggles in the settlement of 
 that territory. He later settled at Harpers Ferry in 
 Virginia,^ and arranged a plan to seize the United 
 States Arsenal, and with the aid of armed negroes 
 to establish a refuge in the mountains for runaway 
 slaves. With nineteen followers he seized (Oct. i6, 
 1859) t^6 arsenal, expecting the slaves would rise and 
 join him. His enterprise was a failure^ He was 
 besieged and compelled to surrender after the death 
 of a number of his followers. Brown was tried for 
 murder and treason and was found guilty and hanged. 
 Six of his companions were afterwards executed. 
 
 ^ This part of Virginia afterwards became West Virginia. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 287 
 
 Brown's raid had no support at the North beyond his 
 personal friends, but it created a feeHni^ of bitter resent- 
 ment in the South, where it was believed to be the 
 beginning of a general movement for the liberation of 
 the slaves. This movement would be aided, they 
 believed, by the national government if the Republi- 
 cans should come into power. 
 
 258. Election of Lincoln. — In 1861 Buchanan's term 
 would expire, and a bitter struggle for the presidency 
 now began. The Democratic convention met (April, 
 i860) at Charleston, South Carolina, but the northern 
 and southern delegates could not agree on the slavery 
 question and the convention dissolved. Another con- 
 vention, made up of northern Democrats, met in 
 Baltimore and nominated (June 18, i860) Stephen A. 
 Douirlas for President. 
 
 The southern delegates a few days later also met in 
 Baltimore and nominated John C. Breckenridge of 
 Kentucky. The remnants of the Whigs and the Know- 
 Nothings nominated John Bell of Tennessee. The 
 Republican convention at Chicago nominated Abra- 
 ham Lincoln and demanded chiefly the admission of 
 Kansas as a free state, the maintenance of freedom in 
 the territories, and a railroad to the Pacific, while they 
 rejected the principles of the Dred Scott decision. 
 Lincoln ^ was elected with one hundred and eighty 
 
 1 Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, Feb. 12, 1S09. His 
 parents were very poor. He moved with them to Indiana and later 
 to Illinois. Taking advantage of what few opportunities he had, he 
 studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1S46 he was elected to 
 Congress. He was a candidate against Douglas for United States 
 
288 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 electoral votes, Breckenridge receiving seventy-two, Bell 
 thirty-nine, and Douglas twelve. 
 
 259. The Beginnings of Secession. — The election of 
 Lincoln was soon followed by the secession of South 
 Carolina. A convention passed (Dec. 20, i860) an 
 ordinance of secession in the following words : '* We, 
 the people of the state of South Carolina, in convention 
 
 Star of the West 
 Battery 
 
 assembled, do declare and ordain, . . . that the Union 
 now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, 
 under the name of the United States of America, is 
 hereby dissolved." 
 
 South Carolina thus declared itself to be an independent 
 nation. Events came to a crisis rapidly ; Mississippi, 
 
 senator in 1S58. He was defeated, but two years later was elected to 
 the highest office in the gift of the people. 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was elected Vice President. Of the popu- 
 lar vote Lincoln received 1,857,610; Douglas, 1,291,574; Breckenridge, 
 850,082; and Bell, 646,124. 
 
THE PERIOD OF UNION 289 
 
 Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas seceded, 
 and delegates from six states gathered (Feb. 4, 1861) at 
 Montgomery, Alabama, formed a new government, drew 
 up a provisional constitution,^ and called themselves the 
 "Confederate States of America." Jefferson Davis 
 was elected president.^ United States arsenals and 
 forts had been seized, but Fort Sumter in Charleston 
 harbor was held for the Union by Major Robert Ander- 
 son. As he was short of supplies, the federal govern- 
 ment dispatched a steamer. The Star of the West, with 
 supplies for Anderson. The South Carolina batteries 
 at once opened fire upon the vessel (Jan. 9, 1861), and 
 it was compelled to return. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Buchanan's administration were : 
 
 1. The Dred Scott decision. 
 
 2. The panic of 1857. 
 
 3. The Lincoln-Douglas debates. 
 
 4. John Brown's raid. 
 
 5. The beginnings of secession. 
 
 1 The leading features in which this constitution differed from that 
 of the United States were : the "sovereign and independent character" 
 of each state ; the prohibition of a protective tariff ; the recognition of 
 negro slavery; the right of members of the cabinet to speak in Con- 
 gress ; and the ineligibility for reelection of the President and Vice 
 President, to whom a six-year term of office was given. 
 
 ^ Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808, and was graduated 
 from West Point in 1828. He fought in the Mexican War and served 
 in both houses of Congress. He withdrew from the Senate when his 
 state, Mississippi, seceded. Alexander H. Stephens was a native of 
 Georgia. He was serving his sixth term in Congress when he was 
 elected Vice President. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 Lincoln's Administration, i 861-1865 
 
 260. Lincoln's Inaugural. — In his last message Presi- 
 dent Buchanan had declared that although the right of 
 secession ''was wholly inconsistent with the history as 
 well as the character of the Federal Constitution," it 
 was his belief that he could not lawfully coerce a state 
 or compel it to stay in the Union. The nation now 
 waited with anxiety for the new President. 
 
 President Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861. 
 In his inaugural address he declared that he had "no 
 purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the 
 institution of slavery in the states where it exists ; 
 that the P\igitive Slave Law should be executed ; that 
 no state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out 
 of the Union," and as he considered the Union unbroken 
 and perpetual that he would '* hold, occupy and possess 
 the property and places belonging to the government." 
 
 261. Fall of Sumter. — Lincoln determined to send 
 men and supplies to Fort Sumter at once. Hearing 
 of this, General Beauregard immediately demanded the 
 surrender of the fort. Major Anderson, who was in 
 charge, refused to deliver it up, and before sunrise on 
 April 12, 1 86 1, the Confederate battery fired the first 
 shot at Sumter. For thirty-four hours shot and shell 
 
 290 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 291 
 
 rained on the fort. At last Major Anderson, seeing the 
 uselessness of further delay as he was without food or 
 powder, surrendered the fort and marched out with the 
 honors of war. The fearful Civil War had beirun. 
 
 262. The Strength and Weakness of the South. — Let 
 us now consider the resources and advantages that each 
 side possessed at the outbreak of the war. 
 
 In the matter of population the South was at a great 
 disadvantage. There were in the free states nineteen 
 millions of people, in all the slave states twelve mil- 
 lions. As the slave states of Maryland, Kentucky, and 
 Missouri, with three millions of people, remained in the 
 Union, the North had twenty-two millions, while the 
 seceding states had only nine millions, of inhabitants, 
 and three millions of these were slaves. The South 
 had the advantage of fighting on smaller defensive 
 lines and in a country with which they were thor- 
 oughly familiar. They were enthusiastically united, 
 because they felt they were fighting for their homes 
 and against invasion. Accustomed to the use of fire- 
 arms, they were skilled marksmen. They suffered 
 great disadvantages because of their industrial condi- 
 tion. They had few manufactories or machine shops, 
 few navy yards, and no seafaring population to draw 
 from in manning any vessels they might build. Their 
 coal and iron mines had been undeveloped, and almost 
 every article of food or clothing was imported in exchange 
 for cotton. Cotton was the foundation of the wealth of 
 the South. By cutting off, through the blockade, the 
 export of cotton the South was dealt a vital blow. 
 
292 KSSKNTIALS UF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The negro slaves tilled the soil, while every white man 
 went to the front. There was practically no reserve 
 force, and the losses in battle told heavily, as the places 
 of the men, killed and wounded, could never be filled. 
 
 263. The Condition of the North. — The North had 
 a great advantage before the world in being in posses- 
 sion of the established government and the historic 
 flag of the United States. It was waging a war for 
 the integrity of its national life, although freedom and 
 slavery were the real causes behind the struggle. It 
 had a large population of free men, almost four times 
 as many as the seceding states. This allowed it to 
 continue uninterrupted its manufactories, and to recruit 
 constantly the armies in the field. It had numberless 
 machine shops, foundries, gun factories, and shipyards, 
 with a large supply of skilled machinists. Its merchant 
 marine and fisheries had raised up a race of hardy sailors. 
 It had numerous railroads to move the troops easily 
 from point to point, and soon had gunboats to ply the 
 great rivers and penetrate the heart of the South. It 
 quickly secured vessels of all descriptions to maintain 
 an effective blockade. Both sides were mistaken in 
 underrating their opponents. The North thought it 
 would be a ninety days' affair. Fremont declared he 
 could march from St. Louis to New Orleans with forty 
 thousand men, and Sherman was derided when he said 
 it would take two hundred thousand men to open the 
 Mississippi valley, but events proved he was farseeing. 
 The South believed that the North would not and could 
 not fight ; that their mercantile life had unfitted them 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 293 
 
 for soldiers, and that they would never be united in any 
 policy that looked to the coercion of the South. 
 
 264. The Border States ; European Hostility to the 
 North. — The first great problem was the future of the 
 Border States. They were slaveholding states and con- 
 tained naturally many southern sympathizers. Possess- 
 ing the Border States, the South could make the Ohio 
 and the Potomac its northern boundary, a very effec- 
 tual barrier. Of these Border States, Delaware at once 
 declared for the Union; Virginia^ joined the Confed- 
 eracy, but Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, for a 
 time doubtful, remained loyal to the Union. The area 
 of the seceding states was equal to the combined area 
 of Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Spain, and 
 Italy. The South had many sympathizers in Eng- 
 land, and from Louis Napoleon received covert sup- 
 port. The French emperor, at that time planning to 
 establish an empire in Mexico, looked upon the suc- 
 cess of the South as more favorable to his enterprise. 
 The southern leaders believed that the manufacturing 
 nations of Europe would interfere to break any block- 
 ade that might be established and to secure the cotton 
 so essential to their existence. In this they were sorely 
 disappointed.'-^ President Lincoln sent Thurlow Weed 
 
 1 Forty-eight counties in the western part of Virginia declared for 
 the Union and asked for admission as the state of Kanawha. It was 
 admitted in 1S63 under the name of West Virginia. 
 
 - The declaration of Alexander II. Stephens at this time, making 
 slavery virtually the corner stone of the Confederacy, may have tended 
 to prevent the nations of ICurope that had already abolished slavery 
 from openly aiding the South. 
 
294 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 to England and Archbishop Hughes of New York to 
 France to influence pubhc opinion by presenting the 
 Union cause from the standpoint of the North, and both 
 rendered great service to the national government. 
 
 Chdmbersbure/ — ^_^^j3^rk • '^ 
 
 P E N N S f ^^h "^A ^ ■ 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 265. The Plan of the War. — A glance at the map 
 will show that the Southern Confederacy" was divided 
 in its physical features into three sections by the 
 Alleghenies and the Mississippi. The plan adopted by 
 the national government was : first, to blockade the 
 entire coast, thus cutting off all supplies and exports ; 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 295 
 
 second, to capture Richmond ; third, to force the Union 
 army like a wedge through the southern lines between 
 the Alleghenies and the Mississippi, and thereby dis- 
 member the Confederacy ; and fourth, to regain control 
 of the Mississippi, cutting off the great Southwest and 
 attacking the Confederacy on its left flank. Much to 
 the disappointment of the United States, at the very 
 outset of the war, even before a battle had been fought, 
 Great Britain acknowledged (May 13, 1861) the bel- 
 ligerent rights of the Confederacy. This proclamation 
 forbade Englishmen from taking part in the war on either 
 side. It did not acknowledge the independence of the 
 Confederacy, but declared that war existed between 
 the sections. France quickly followed with a similar 
 proclamation. 
 
 266. The Call to Arms. — At the news of Sumter 
 the mass of the people in the North, without regard 
 to party, religion, or color, rose for the defense of the 
 Union. 1 Throughout the South there was an equal 
 outburst of patriotism for the stars and bars, as the 
 new southern flag was called. President Lincoln 
 called for seventy-five thousand troops, and three hun- 
 dred thousand volunteers came to the front. The Sixth 
 Massachusetts Regiment was hurried to Washington. It 
 was attacked on the streets of Baltimore, and several 
 of its men were killed (April 19, 186 1). This was the 
 first blood shed in the Civil War. It was the eighty- 
 sixth anniversary of Lexington. 
 
 1 Ex-Presidents Pierce and Buchanan stood by the Union, as did 
 Stephen A. Douglas. Tyler went with his native state, Virginia. 
 
296 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 267. Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas Junction. — The 
 
 Confederate government moved from Montgomery to 
 Richmond, and the cry throughout the North became, 
 "On to Richmond ! " General Winfield Scott was in com- 
 mand of the Union army. He ordered General McDowell 
 with thirty thousand men to attack the Confederates, 
 under Beauregard, stationed at Bull Run,^ or Manassas 
 Junction, about thirty miles south of 
 Washington. The battle was fought 
 Sunday, July 21, 1861. At the 
 outset the Union forces drove back 
 the Confederates, but the latter were 
 ^ , , ^, rallied by General T. J. (Stonewall) 
 
 Confederate Flag ^ -' ^ ' 
 
 (the stars and bars) Jackson.^ At the Critical moment 
 fresh troops under General Johnston 
 arrived for the Confederates and struck the Union 
 forces on the flank. The latter broke and fled, 
 demoralized and panic-stricken, to the defenses of 
 Washington. The defeat caused dismay throughout 
 the North. There was great rejoicing in the South, 
 and many southerners, believing the war to be over, 
 returned to their homes. 
 
 268. Appointment of McClellan ; the War in Mis- 
 souri. — The defeat was probably a blessing in disguise 
 for the North. They now saw that the war would not 
 
 1 Run means a small stream of running water. 
 
 2 In the thick of the fight a Confederate general pointing to Jackson 
 rallied his men exclaiming, " There stands Jackson like a stone wall ! " 
 F'rom that time he was known as Stonewall Jackson. He was born in 
 Virginia (1824), was graduated from West Point, and served for two 
 years in the Mexican War. 
 
THI-: PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 297 
 
 be a ninety clays' affair,^ and that the South would not 
 only fight but fight valiantly. Congress voted two 
 hundred and fifty mil- 
 lions of dollars and 
 five hundred thou- 
 sand men.^ General 
 George B. McClel- 
 lan,^ who had practi- 
 c a 1 1 }^ driven the 
 Confederates out of 
 western Virginia, was 
 appointed to succeed 
 Scott as commander 
 in chief of the United 
 States armies. 
 
 In the West the 
 loyal citizens of Mis- 
 
 General George B. McClellan 
 
 souri,** very many 
 
 of whom were Germans, had overthrown the state 
 
 1 The feeling of the North at this time may perhaps be illustrated by 
 the story that a northern ofHcer declared to General Scott, " With ten 
 thousand men armed with laths, I could march to Richmond." " Yes," 
 answered Scott, " as prisoners of war." 
 
 ■^ As there was practically no money in the national treasury, Congress 
 increased the dutiats on imports and placed taxes on liquors, spirits, 
 tobacco, bank checks, on trades, professions, and, to the amount of 
 three per cent, on incomes of more than eight hundred dollars per year. 
 
 ^ General George B. McClellan was born in Philadelphia (1826), was 
 graduated from West Point, and served in the Mexican War. 
 
 ■* Among the leading men who held Missouri for the Union were 
 Francis P. Blair, Franz Sigel, and Nathaniel Lyon. General Lyon was 
 born in Connecticut, was graduated at West Point, and served in the 
 Mexican W^ar. 
 
298 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 government, which was strongly secessionist. The Con- 
 federates were attacked at Wilsons Creek by General 
 Nathaniel Lyon, but he was defeated and killed. At 
 Lexington on the Missouri twenty thousand Confed- 
 erates attacked Colonel James A. Mulligan, who held 
 them at bay with twenty-eight hundred men until he 
 was overwhelmed. The Confederates now took a stand 
 at Pea Ridge in southwestern Missouri, where they were 
 cut to pieces (March 7, 1862). Missouri was now safely 
 in the grasp of the Union. 
 
 269. The Blockade. — One of the most difficult tasks 
 before the federal government was the blockading of 
 the southern coast, a stretch of nineteen hundred miles. 
 In April President Lincoln announced to the nations of 
 the world that the coast from the Potomac to the Rio 
 Grande was blockaded, and vessels of all nations were 
 forbidden to go in or- out. To enforce the blockade 
 armed vessels were stationed along the entire coast. 
 This measure was of great importance^ in carrying 
 on the war. It prevented the export of cotton,^ and 
 thereby reduced the revenues of the South ; it rendered 
 difficult the purchase of arms and munitions of war, — 
 a vital blow, as the South had few gun factories or 
 machine shops. To overcome the blockade fast vessels 
 were built. They were called "blockade runners." 
 
 1 It was the blockade rather than the ravages of the army that 
 sapped the industrial strength of the Confederacy. — Schwab, The 
 Coifederate States of America. 
 
 2 The value of the cotton exported in 1862 was about four millions 
 of dollars, a falling off in two years of one hundred and ninety-eight 
 millions of dollars. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 299 
 
 They were mostly English, manned by English sailors, 
 and made their headquarters at Nassau in the Bahamas. 
 
 270. The Trent Affair. — In November, 1861, an event 
 occurred which brought us to the verge of war with 
 England. Mason and Slidell, two Confederate com- 
 missioners, bound for England and France, sailed from 
 Havana for Europe on the British steamer Trent. They 
 were sent to secure the aid of England and France for 
 the Confederacy. Captain Wilkes of a United States 
 sloop of war stopped and boarded the Trent, and took 
 off Mason and Slidell.^ Great indignation was expressed 
 throughout England at the act, and war was imminent. 
 President Lincoln disavowed the act, however, as the 
 United States had always strenuously opposed the so- 
 called "right of search." The commissioners were 
 therefore placed upon another English ship and sent to 
 England. 2 
 
 271. The Privateers Public opinion in England, 
 
 especially among the upper classes, in the early days 
 of the Civil War, was very hostile to the federal gov- 
 ernment. Many of her statesmen^ favored the Confed- 
 eracy, Gladstone hailing the secession of the South 
 as the birth of a new nation. Although England had 
 abolished slavery throughout her ow^n dominions, her 
 
 1 Mason and Slidell had been senators of the United States and 
 were men of ability. 
 
 2 By her action in this matter England gave up forever her earlier 
 doctrine of the " right of search." It was therefore a diplomatic victory 
 for our government and for Secretary Seward, especially, who managed 
 the affair with great tact and ability. 
 
 ^ John Bright and Cobden favored the Union cause. 
 
300 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 attitude helped to maintain the institution in the western 
 world. One of the most injurious consequences of the 
 indifference of the English government was the building 
 of privateers in English shipyards. At the outbreak of 
 the Civil War our merchant vessels were sailing every 
 sea, bearing merchandise to every part of the world. 
 To cripple this source of revenue and strength the 
 Confederate government issued " letters of marque " to 
 privateers, who thereupon went forth to destroy north- 
 ern vessels. The first privateer, the Sumter, under 
 Captain Semmes, escaped the blockade (June, 1861), 
 and for six months swept the seas, when she was block- 
 aded by Union vessels in the port of Gibraltar and was 
 sold to evade capture. In the English shipyards the 
 building of privateers was hurried by the Confederates. 
 The Florida was launched at Liverpool and escaped 
 capture for a year. The fate of the most famous of all, 
 the Alabama, we shall see later. In the meantime the 
 Union vessels had captured the forts at Hatteras Inlet 
 and Port Royal, South Carolina, thus regaining a part 
 of the Atlantic seaboard. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The War in 1861. — i. The battle of Bull Run, or Manassas 
 Junction, was won by the Confederates. 
 
 2. The Union army was defeated at Wilsons Creek, l)ut Mis- 
 souri was held in the Union. 
 
 3. The blockade was established along the southern seaboard 
 and became very effective. 
 
 4. Mason and Slidell, Confederate commissioners to Europe, 
 were taken (November 8) from the Trent, and England prepared 
 for war. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 301 
 
 The War in 1862 
 
 272. The Plan against Richmond. — The plan of cam- 
 paign at the opening of the year 1862 involved chiefly 
 the capture of Richmond and the control of the Missis- 
 sippi. To carry out the first part of the plan McClellan, 
 with the army of 
 the Potomac, was 
 directed to march 
 
 across Virginia to 
 
 Richmond. By 
 
 this arrangement 
 
 the northern army 
 
 would always be 
 
 interposed between 
 
 the Confederates 
 
 and Washington. 
 
 McClellan preferred 
 
 to move up the 
 
 James river. Finally it was decided to station a small 
 
 force under Banks and Fremont in the Shenandoah 
 
 valley to prevent the southern troops from sweeping 
 
 through it into Washington. McDowell was ordered 
 
 to march from Washington to Fredericksburg and 
 
 thence to Richmond. McClellan was to sail up the 
 
 York river to Yorktown and marching up the peninsula 
 
 join McDowell and capture Richmond. 
 
 273. The Peninsular Campaign. — McClellan, who had 
 spent many months drilling and organizing his troops, 
 landed at Yorktown with about one hundred thousand 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 10 
 
302 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 men to begin his march up the peninsula formed by the 
 York and the James rivers. Here he was confronted by 
 General Johnston, who delayed the progress of the Union 
 forces for a month. Johnston then drew back towards 
 Richmond. At Williamsburg (May 4-5) the Confederates 
 again held the Federals in check. The position of the 
 Union army was a most unfortunate one. The country 
 was swampy, the rains had swollen the brooks into tor- 
 rents, and progress was attended with great difficulty. 
 At every step McClellan had to fight 
 his way. With one part of his army 
 on the southern side of the Chicka- 
 hominy and the remainder on the 
 northern side, McClellan awaited the 
 arrival of McDowell, who was posted 
 at Fredericksburg with forty thou- 
 sand men to guard the road to the 
 national capital. In the distance 
 McClellan could hear the bells of Richmond and see 
 the spires of the churches. As a result of the heavy 
 rains, the Chickahominy suddenly began to rise and 
 widened into a lake. Johnston now fell upon the 
 Union forces south of the river and virtually defeated 
 them at Fair Oaks ^ (May 31-June i). In this battle 
 Johnston was severely wounded, and Robert E. Lee 
 took command. 
 
 In the meantime Stonewall Jackson with sixteen thou- 
 sand men suddenly appeared in the Shenandoah valley 
 and demoralized the Federal forces, defeating successively 
 
 1 This battle is also called Seven Pines. 
 
 Stonewall Jackson 
 
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 303 
 
 Milroy, Banks, Fremont, and Shields. Washington was 
 thrown into a panic, and McDowell was immediately 
 recalled to save the capital while Jackson hastened to 
 join Lee before Richmond. This was exactly what Lee 
 wanted, and he at once attacked McClellan, forcing him 
 to fall back to the James river. It required seven days 
 to carry out this movement, the Union forces losing 
 fifteen thousand men.^ At the last fight, at Malvern 
 Hill (July i), Lee was repulsed with heavy loss. The 
 campaign against Richmond was a failure. 
 
 274. Battle of Cedar Mountain ; Second Battle of Bull 
 Run. — President Lincoln (July 2) issued a proclamation 
 calling for three hundred thousand more volunteers. 
 General Halleck, now in command of all the Union 
 armies in the field, ordered McClellan to leave the James 
 and, taking his forces to the Potomac, to join them to 
 the army under Pope. Lee, no longer fearing for Rich- 
 mond, now hastened to attack Pope, who commanded the 
 Union forces in northern Virginia. Jackson defeated 
 Pope's right wing at Cedar mountain. McClellan's 
 troops now came up, and against the united force sta- 
 tioned on the old battlefield of Bull Run (August 30) 
 Lee hurled his army. Pope was defeated and retreated 
 
 1 Lee sent General J. E. B. Stuart with one thousand cavalry to 
 swing into the rear of McClellan's forces. He did so and destroyed 
 military stores worth seven millions of dollars, took a number of pris- 
 oners, and escaped safely. 
 
 The Seven Days' Battles were fought at Mechanicsville (June 26), 
 Gaines Mill (June 27), Savage Station (June 29), Glendale, or Fraziers 
 Farm (June 30). In these battles the Confederate loss was about twenty 
 thousand men killed and wounded. 
 
304 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 toward Washington, resigning his command, which was 
 again given to McClellan.^ 
 
 275. Battle of Antietam. — Lee now determined to 
 invade the North and crossing the Potomac entered 
 Maryland. Stonewall Jackson seized Harpers Ferry 
 with its military stores. Eleven thousand men fell 
 prisoners into his hands. McClellan hastened to head off 
 Lee, and the forces met (September 1 7) at Antietam creek 
 near Sharpsburg. A bloody battle was fought, each side 
 losing about twelve thousand men, killed and wounded. 
 Although both sides suffered equally, McClellan won 
 the victory as he stopped the advance of Lee, who 
 now retired across the Potomac. McClellan' s failure 
 to follow up his victory by pursuing Lee displeased 
 the government, and Burnside was appointed to suc- 
 ceed him. 
 
 276. Battle of Fredericksburg. — Burnside now started 
 for Richmond. He reached the Rappahannock and saw 
 before him, on the heights of Fredericksburg, Lee 
 posted in a commanding position. The Confederates 
 were strongly intrenched on a hill called Maryes heights, 
 and Burnside ordered (December 13) an attack. The 
 troops crossed the river and charged over the level 
 plain to the foot of the hill and up the steep height, 
 while the Confederate batteries tore their ranks with 
 shot and shell. Among the assailants was Meagher's 
 
 1 In this campaign General Philip Kearny was killed at Chantilly 
 (September i). For his bravery in the Seven Days' Battles he had 
 been made a major general. The Union loss in killed and wounded 
 in these battles was about twelve thousand, the Confederate ten thou- 
 sand five hundred. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 305 
 
 Irish Brigade. " Six times," says Longstreet, " in the 
 face of a withering fire, before which whole ranks were 
 mowed down as corn before the sickle, did the Irish 
 Brigade run up the hill — rush to inevitable death." 
 The attack was a disastrous failure, twelve thousand 
 Union soldiers falling on the field. The Confederates 
 lost about five thousand. Burnside retired across the 
 Rappahannock and yielded his command to Hooker. 
 
 The Monitor and the Merrimac 
 
 277. The Monitor and the Merrimac. — When the 
 Union forces abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard at the 
 outbreak of the war they sank a frigate called the Aler- 
 riniac. The Confederates raised it, covered it with 
 plates made from railroad iron, and named it the [7;- 
 ginia. She sailed out into Hampton Roads (March 8, 
 1862), and attacked and sank the Ciu/iberlimJ, whose 
 shot and shell fell harmlessly on her sides. The Coji- 
 gjrss was next doomed, and the flames, lighting up the 
 sky, told of her fate. The Mcrriiuac now cast anchor in 
 the channel for the nijjht. The news of the destruction 
 
3o6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 wrought by the Merrimac struck terror to the North. 
 On this very night a strange-looking craft came into the 
 harbor. It was the Monitor, designed by the Swedish 
 engineer, Ericsson. She resembled, it was said, a 
 cheese box on a raft. She was built of iron, one fifth 
 of the size of the Merrimac. Her turret revolved, and 
 she carried two eleven-inch guns. 
 
 The next morning (March 9) the Merrimac steamed 
 out to complete her work of destruction, when the little 
 Monitor appeared. The Merrimac tried in vain to run 
 her down. A fierce battle ensued for four hours, when 
 the Monitor withdrew to the shallow waters offshore. 
 The Merrimac, somewhat damaged, thereupon returned 
 to Norfolk. Neither vessel had been able to destroy the 
 other, but the Monitor had saved the Union shipping 
 from destruction.^ This battle gave the death blow to 
 wooden war ships and rendered necessary the entire 
 rebuildinsf of the navies of the world. 
 
 278. The War in the West ; Capture of Forts Henry and 
 Donelson. — The Confederate line of defense stretched 
 along the northern boundary of Tennessee from the 
 Alleghenies to the Mississippi and was commanded by 
 General Albert Sidney Johnston.^ It was the plan of 
 the North to break this line. A point of great impor- 
 tance was Cumberland Gap. To secure this, General 
 
 1 The commander of the Merrimac was Commodore Franklin 
 Buchanan ; of the Monitor, Lieutenant John L. Worden. The Merri- 
 mac was destroyed (May 11, 1862) by the Confederates before Norfolk 
 fell into the hands of the Union forces. The Monitor was lost in a 
 gale off Hatteras (January, 1S63). 
 
 2 General Johnston was one of the ablest Confederate generals. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 307 
 
 George H. Thomas ^ attacked the Confederates at Mill 
 Spring (Jan. 19, 1862) and defeated them. The upper 
 Cumberland was now lost to the South. To hold the 
 two great rivers, the Cumberland and the Tennessee, 
 was of the utmost importance to the South, as these 
 water ways penetrated as far south as Mississippi, Ala- 
 bama, and Georgia. A glance at the map will show that 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 200 
 
 300 
 
 the two rivers almost join each other in northern Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky.2 To control these rivers two 
 forts were erected, Fort Donelson on the Cumberland 
 and Fort Henry on the Tennessee, and against these the 
 
 1 General George H. Thomas was born in Virginia in 181 6 and was 
 graduated from West Point. His love for the Union was greater than 
 his devotion to his native state. His commanding talents were of 
 incomparable service to the Union cause. 
 
 2 They are only twelve miles apart. 
 
3o8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Union forces were now directed with seventeen thousand 
 men and seven gunboats. Grant and Foote moved up 
 the Tennessee and quickly captured Fort Henry (Feb. 6, 
 1862). The garrison escaped to Fort Donelson, where 
 they were besieged by Grant and Commodore Foote. 
 For three days the fighting was maintained. At day- 
 break, February i 5, General Buckner asked for the terms 
 of capitulation. Grant replied : *' No terms except an 
 unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. 
 I propose to move immediately upon your works." 
 Buckner thereupon surrendered with fifteen thousand 
 men. As the Confederate line was now moved southward, 
 practically all Tennessee was opened to the Federals, and 
 Andrew Johnson was appointed military governor. 
 
 279. The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing.— 
 Grant now took his position on the Tennessee river at 
 Pittsburg Landing, a few miles from Shiloh, to await 
 reenforcements from Buell. Johnston, anxious to crush 
 Grant before Buell should arrive, made a sudden attack 
 at sunrise, Sunday, April 6. The Union soldiers were 
 driven back toward the river, losing three thousand 
 prisoners. Johnston was killed, and Beauregard assumed 
 command. On the following day the battle was renewed. 
 Buell's fresh troops now began to arrive, and late in the 
 afternoon the Confederates fell back to Corinth. The 
 loss of life was appalling,^ almost ten thousand men 
 
 1 Says General Grant : " I saw an open field . . . , over which the Con- 
 federates had made repeated charges . . ., so covered with dead that it 
 would have been possible to walk across the clearing, in any direction, 
 stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 309 
 
 being killed and wounded on each side. On the same 
 
 day of the battle of Shiloh the Union fleet on the 
 
 Mississippi captured Island Number 10. Fort Pillow fell 
 
 June 5, and the great river was opened as far south as 
 
 Memphis. The 
 
 Union fleet at 
 
 once attacked 
 
 and completely 
 
 defeated the 
 
 C on f e derate 
 
 ironclads here, 
 
 and Memphis 
 
 fell June 6. 
 
 With the fall of 
 
 Memphis the 
 
 Mississippi was 
 
 open to Vicks- 
 
 burg. 
 
 280. The Cap- 
 ture of New 
 Orleans. — In 
 the meantime 
 Farragut and 
 Porter had been 
 
 sent from P^ort Monroe to capture New Orleans. This 
 city, with its one hundred and seventy thousand inhabi- 
 tants, its large workshops, and its commanding position at 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, was invaluable to the South. 
 It is about one hundred and ten miles from the Gulf 
 and was defended by two strongly fortified posts, Fort 
 
 Admiral Farragut 
 
3IO ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Jackson and Fort St. Philip, about ninety miles below 
 the city. A raft, made of schooners joined with cables, 
 had been stretched across the river to prevent war ships 
 from coming up, and a fleet of armed vessels, fire rafts, 
 and floating batteries was anchored above the forts. 
 Although Farragut bombarded the forts for five days 
 and nights, it seemed to do them no serious damage, 
 so he resolved to pass them. It was necessary, however, 
 to break the cables before he could get by. On the 
 night of April 20 a small gunboat silently crept up to 
 the line of boats supporting the cables. The boats were 
 quickly boarded, the cables cut, and amid a storm of shot 
 and shell the gunboat escaped. A path was now opened, 
 and Farragut started up the river (April 24) at two 
 o'clock in the morning, under the fearful fire of the 
 forts. He 'destroyed twelve Confederate armed steamers 
 and appeared before the city (April 25). New Orleans 
 was delivered up, the forts soon surrendered, and the 
 Union army entered the city. Farragut then sailed up 
 to Baton Rouge and Natchez, both of which he captured. 
 The only important posts on the Mississippi now held by 
 the Confederates were Vicksburg and Port Hudson. 
 
 281. Battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro. — The 
 Confederates now determined to break through the 
 besieging line and invade the North. In October 
 General Bragg left Chattanooga and hurried across Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky, threatening Louisville. Buell 
 pursued him, and at Perryville (October 8) a battle was 
 fought. It was indecisive, and Bragg retreated in good 
 order to Chattanooga. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 311 
 
 Grant had sent large reenforcements to Buell, and the 
 Confederates thinking to overwhelm Grant's left wing 
 under Rosecrans made an attack at luka (September 19) 
 and at Corinth (October 3-4). The Confederates were 
 driven back. Rosecrans was now appointed commander 
 of the army of the Cumberland to replace Buell. At 
 Murfreesboro (Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 2, 1863) Bragg 
 and Rosecrans met, and a fearful battle ensued. ^ Ten 
 thousand men, killed and wounded, fell on each side. 
 Bragg retreated, and the last attempt to recover 
 Kentucky had been made. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The War in 1862. — i. The Peninsular Campaign, under 
 McClellan, failed of success. Pope was defeated in his efforts to 
 reach Richmond. 
 
 2. Lee attempted to invade the North and was repulsed at 
 Antietam. Burnside invaded Virginia and was overwhelmingly 
 defeated at Fredericksburg. 
 
 3. In the West the Confederates lost Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 4. New Orleans fell. The entire Mississippi except between 
 Vicksburg and Port Hudson was now controlled by the Union fleet. 
 Of the seaboard towns only Mobile, Charleston, and Wilmington, 
 North Carolina, remained under the Confederate flag. 
 
 The War in 1863 
 
 282. The Emancipation Proclamation. — When the war 
 began it was not the intention of Lincoln nor of the 
 North to attack the institution of slavery. The pur- 
 pose of the North was the preservation of the Union. 
 
 1 This is also called the battle of Stones River. 
 
312 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 As the war progressed, however, the antislavery feeling 
 in the northern states became stronger day by day. 
 The slaves were very valuable to the South, as they 
 raised the crops necessary for the support of those at 
 home as well as the soldiers in the field. They were 
 also used extensively in war operations, digging trenches 
 and raising fortifications. To destroy slavery, therefore, 
 would greatly weaken the war strength of the South. 
 There still remained the fear, also, that England might 
 interfere in behalf of the South, her mills being closed 
 for want of cotton, while tens of thousands of her opera- 
 tives were almost starving. In consequence there was 
 an increasing pressure upon the government to intervene 
 to break the blockade. This action would be favorable 
 to the Confederacy. If slavery were now abolished, the 
 issue would be very clearly drawn between the North, 
 establishing freedom, and the South, maintaining slav- 
 ery. England would therefore find it difficult to justify 
 her course in aiding the cause of slavery after she 
 herself had abolished the institution throughout her 
 dominions. 
 
 On Sept. 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a proclamation 
 announcing that if the seceded states did not return to 
 the Union before Jan. i, 1 863, "■ all persons held as slaves 
 within any state . . . the people whereof shall then be 
 in rebellion against the United States shall be then, 
 thenceforward and forever, free." The seceded states 
 not having returned, the Emancipation Proclamation 
 was issued Jan. i, 1863, declaring the slaves in all 
 territory held by the Confederates to be free. The 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 313 
 
 proclamation, however, could be carried into effect only 
 as the conquest of the Confederacy advanced, 
 
 283. The Battle of Chancellors villa. — After the defeat 
 of the Union forces at Fredericksburg Burnside was 
 removed, Hooker assumed command, and both armies 
 went into winter quarters. In the spring Hooker led 
 his forces, one hundred thousand strong, against Lee 
 and Jackson, who were posted at Chancellorsville with 
 forty-five thousand 
 men. Hooker was re- 
 pulsed (May 1-4), with 
 the loss of seventeen 
 thousand men. The 
 victory was a costly 
 one for the Confeder- 
 ates, as Stonewall Jack- 
 son was accidentally 
 shot by his own men.^ 
 
 284. Battle of Get- 
 tysburg, July 1-3. — 
 Confident now of vic- 
 tory, Lee hurried past 
 
 Hooker, entered Maryland, and crossed the line into 
 Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washing- 
 ton were threatened, and the people of the North were 
 
 1 Seated on a cracker box, Lee and Jackson planned this battle 
 before daybreak. It was the last council of the two great southern 
 generals. After nightfall Jackson's men mistook him and his party in 
 the dark for Federal cavalry and fired. Jackson fell with his left arm 
 so badly injured that it was amputated. In his weakened condition 
 he contracted pneumonia and died a week later. 
 
 General Meade 
 
314 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 thoroughly alarmed. Hooker was removed from his 
 command, and Meade took charge of the army. The 
 forces met at Gettysburg. Here a fertile valley is 
 bordered by two parallel ridges. The northern or 
 Cemetery ridge was seized by the Union army, while 
 the Confederates held the southern or Seminary ridge. 
 The first day's fighting was, on the whole, favorable to 
 
 the Confederates. The Federals, 
 however, with ever-increasing new 
 forces, gradually seized the best 
 positions. On the third day (July 3) 
 Lee decided to strike, if possible, a 
 decisive blow. About midday he 
 opened on the Federal lines a terrific 
 cannonade from one hundred and 
 thirty cannon and after an hour 
 ordered a charge of Pickett's bri- 
 gade, seventeen thousand strong, upon the center of the 
 Union line. Onward across the plain swept the gray 
 column, while against them cannon and musket poured 
 their deadly fire. Pickett's ranks were torn to pieces. 
 Lee, seeing the hopelessness of trying to break the 
 Union lines, now fell back and retreated across the 
 Potomac.^ 
 
 285. The Fall of Vicksburg. — On the following day 
 (July 4) an irreparable loss came to the southern cause 
 
 1 It is estimated that the Union army at Gettysburg numbered about 
 eighty-eight thousand. In killed, wounded, and missing they lost twenty- 
 three thousand. The Confederate army numbered almost seventy-seven 
 thousand, and the loss in killed, wounded, and missing was twenty-eight 
 thousand. 
 
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 315 
 
 E E 
 
 in the fall of Vicksburg. Up to this time Vicksburg 
 and Port Hudson alone prevented Federal control of 
 the Mississippi. Between these points the Red river 
 entered the Mississippi, and through it the great states 
 of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas poured supplies into 
 the Confederacy. Grant had determined to open the 
 Mississippi, but 
 Vicksburg was 
 heavily fortified 
 on a bluff two 
 hundred and fifty 
 feet above the 
 river and was 
 deemed impreg- 
 nable. General 
 Pemberton com- 
 manded the for- 
 ces in defense of 
 the town. Grant 
 dropped down 
 on the west side 
 of the river and 
 
 recrossed below Vicksburg. At Port Gibson he defeated 
 the southern forces (May i) and then hastened to head 
 off Johnston, who was marching to the aid of Vicksburg. 
 The armies met at Jackson, Mississippi, and Johnston 
 was defeated (May 14). Pemberton 's forces were now 
 besieged in Vicksburg. For seven weeks the besiegers 
 shelled the doomed city. Cut off from food and ammu- 
 nition, Pemberton at last surrendered July 4. No less 
 
3l6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 than thirty-seven thousand men and one hundred and 
 seventy-two cannon were deHvered up. Port Hudson 
 was now helpless and surrendered four days later. The 
 Union forces now controlled the entire Mississippi river, 
 and Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas were virtually cut 
 off from the Confederacy. 
 
 286. Battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20. — In 
 the autumn of this year Rosecrans forced Bragg to 
 abandon Chattanooga. Receiving reenforcements, how- 
 ever, under Longstreet and Johnston, Bragg turned on 
 Rosecrans at the valley of the Chickamauga, where 
 a fearful battle was fought September 19 and 20. 
 The Confederates defeated the Union forces, driving 
 the right wing from the field ; but the left under 
 General Thomas, from this day called the " Rock of 
 Chickamauga," held its ground and the Union army 
 was saved. In these awful charges the Federals lost 
 sixteen thousand men, the Confederates eighteen 
 thousand. 
 
 287. Battle of Chattanooga, November 24-25. — Bragg, 
 confident of victory, sent Longstreet against Burnside at 
 Knoxville, but he was repulsed. Bragg now besieged 
 Rosecrans in Chattanooga, taking his position on Mis- 
 sionary ridge and Lookout mountain, cutting off the 
 Union source of supplies. The Federal army was in a 
 most dangerous position, and Rosecrans was superseded 
 by Thomas.^ Sherman's forces were brought from 
 
 1 Grant's first telegram to Thomas was : " Hold Chattanooga at all 
 hazards ; I will be there as soon as possible." Thomas replied : " We 
 will hold the town till we starve." — Fiske. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 317 
 
 Vicksburg. Hooker arrived with twenty-three thousand 
 fresh troops from Virginia, and Grant assumed command.^ 
 The Union troops chajged (November 24) the heights 
 of Lookout mountain, where Bragg's forces were posted. 
 The clouds had settled over the mountain, and hence the 
 engagement is called the ''Battle above the Clouds." 
 The Confederate forces on Missionary ridge were also 
 attacked (November 25), the Federal soldiers sweeping 
 up the heights and carrying all before them. Bragg was 
 totally defeated and retreated, while Sheridan pursued 
 him, capturing thousands of prisoners as well as artillery 
 and munitions of war. Johnston now assumed command 
 of the Confederates. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The War in 1863. — i. The Emancipation Proclamation was 
 issued by President Lincoln. 
 
 2. The invasion of Virginia under Burnside was repelled at 
 Chancellorsville. 
 
 3. Lee invaded the North and was defeated at Gettysburg.^ 
 
 4. Bragg defeated the Union army at Chickamauga but was 
 later routed by Grant at Chattanooga. 
 
 5. Vicksburg fell and the entire Mississippi passed into the 
 hands of the Union forces. 
 
 1 In this battle, for the only time in the Civil War, Grant, Sherman, 
 Sheridan, and Thomas were present together. " The Battle of Chatta- 
 nooga," says Badeau, " was the grandest ever fought west of the 
 AUeghanies. It covered an extent of thirteen miles." Grant had over 
 sixty-five thousand men ; the Confederates had about forty-five thousand. 
 
 2 As there were very few enlistments for the war at this time, the 
 government decided to force men into the service. This was called 
 "drafting." Opposition to the draft resulted in riots in New York 
 City (July 13-16), which were quelled bv the troops after considerable 
 bloodshed. 
 
3l8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 The War in 1864 
 
 288. Sherman takes Atlanta. — The Confederates had 
 now only two large armies in the field, one under Lee 
 in Virginia, the other under Johnston in Georgia. 
 Grant was appointed lieutenant general in command of 
 all the armies of the United States.^ He now deter- 
 mined to push without 
 ceasing the military oper- 
 ations. While he attacked 
 Lee, Sherman was to 
 attack Johnston, thereby 
 preventing the two Con- 
 federate forces from unit- 
 ing at any time to help 
 each other. On May 4 
 Sherman began his march 
 with one hundred thousand 
 men. Johnston, who led 
 the Confederate forces, 
 slowly fell back before him, burning bridges, fighting, 
 and bearing off all the provisions. He met Sherman at 
 Resaca, Dallas, and Kenesaw mountain, but did not risk 
 a pitched battle. Sherman on advancing was compelled 
 to leave parts of his army to guard his base of supplies 
 from Nashville, three hundred miles away. Johnston's 
 retreat was cleverly planned, but Jefferson Davis did not 
 
 General J. E. Johnston 
 
 ^ Only Washington and Scott had held this rank. Farragut was 
 given the rank of vice admiral, a position in the navy equal to that of 
 lieutenant general in the army. 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 319 
 
 believe in the policy of constant retreat and removed 
 Johnston, appointing Hood in his place. Hood at once 
 attacked Sherman and was repulsed with heavy loss. 
 Sherman swung around to the rear of Atlanta, and 
 Hood was compelled to withdraw. Atlanta with its vast 
 military stores fell into Sherman's hands September 2. 
 
 Map of Sherman's March 
 
 289. Thomas destroys Hood's Army. — Hoping to 
 draw Sherman again into Tennessee, Hood marched 
 northwestward. Sherman followed for a short distance 
 and then returned. Hood, however, pushed on and 
 met Thomas' army at Franklin (November 30), where 
 a stubbornly contested battle was fought, Hood losing 
 in a few hours six thousand men,^ and Thomas two 
 thousand three hundred. Thomas now intrenched 
 
 1 Among those killed was Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, "the 
 bravest of the brave," says John Fiske, " the ablest division commander 
 in all the Confederate army, west of the Alleghanies." 
 
320 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 himself at Nashville, where he was besieged by Hood. 
 Suddenly Thomas burst out of the city and utterly 
 destroyed Hood's army December 15-16. 
 
 290. Sherman's March to the Sea. — In November 
 Sherman started on his famous march to the sea. He 
 
 cut the telegraph wires 
 to the North, burned 
 Atlanta, and with sixty 
 thousand veteran troops 
 moved onward. His 
 army swept through the 
 country, cutting a swath 
 sixty miles wide. Every- 
 thing of use to the Con- 
 federacy was seized. 
 Railroads were torn 
 up, and the rails heated 
 and bent; bridges and 
 public property were 
 destroyed. There was no force to oppose the invading 
 column, which early in December approached Savannah. 
 With the aid of the blockading fleet Sherman stormed 
 Fort McAllister, which guarded Savannah, and Savan- 
 nah fell. Sherman sent a telegram to President Lincoln 
 (December 22), presenting '*as a Christmas gift the 
 city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns, and 
 plenty of ammunition." 
 
 291. The Fate of the Alabama; Fall of Mobile.— 
 One of the vessels fitted out in England against the 
 protests of the United States government was the 
 
 General W. T. Sherman 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 321 
 
 Alabama. Handled with great skill, and being a swift 
 vessel, she did enormous damage to northern shipping, 
 no less than sixty-three merchantmen falling into her 
 hands. The United States war ship Kearsarge met 
 
 Chambersburgy^ — ^ 
 
 E N N S fj,gh 
 •—Yr^-i 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 her (June, 1864) off Cherbourg, France. In the bat- 
 tle that ensued the Alabama was sunk, her officers 
 escaping on an English yacht. In August Farragut, 
 with his fleet of four monitors and twenty-one wooden 
 ships, attacked the Confederate forts and war ships in 
 Mobile bay. He compelled the forts to surrender, and 
 
322 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 destroyed the war ships. This closed the last southern 
 seaport. 
 
 292. Grant attacks Lee ; Battles of the Wilderness. — 
 
 Let us now see what Grant was doing in the North. 
 According to the plan arranged with Sherman, Grant's 
 force was to move to Richmond the same day that 
 Sherman started towards the sea. Grant crossed the 
 Rapidan (May 4) and entered a desolate region known 
 as the *' Wilderness," a tract of country covered with 
 scrubby pines and thick undergrowth. Here Lee 
 attacked him. The fighting was incessant. In two 
 months, in the battles of the Wilderness (May 5-9), 
 Spottsylvania Court House (May 9-20), and Cold Har- 
 bor (June 3), Grant lost fifty thousand men. Lee's lines 
 were still unbroken, however, and Grant abandoned 
 the direct attack. He now marched his forces around 
 Richmond, across the James, and attacked Petersburg. 
 
 293. Sheridan defeats Early. — In July General Jubal 
 Early started with twenty thousand cavalry to make 
 an attack on Washington. He came within sight of 
 the city and then turned into the Shenandoah valley. 
 Sheridan was sent to attack him. They met at Win- 
 chester (September 19), and Early was driven back. 
 On October 19 Sheridan was in Winchester and heard 
 the reverberation of heavy cannonading. Mounting his 
 horse, he hurried to the scene of battle. He arrived 
 just in time to save his troops that had been surprised 
 and routed by Early. Sheridan, dashing up, turned 
 back the fugitives, and soon Early was fleeing before 
 the victorious troops. Grant now ordered Sheridan 
 
THE PERIOD OF DISUNION 
 
 323 
 
 to lay waste the Shenandoah valley. Everything that 
 could be of any use to the Confederates was gathered 
 up or destroyed. It was as if a wave of flame had 
 swept down the beautiful valley. 
 
 294. Grant before Petersburg ; the Reelection of 
 President Lincoln. — In the meantime Grant was besieg- 
 ing Petersburg twenty miles south of Richmond. Here 
 Lee was intrenched with sixty thousand men. As 
 a part of the 
 defenses of 
 Richm ond, 
 Petersburg k 
 was of the ut- Jp' 
 most impor- 
 tance. Grant 
 tried to storm 
 it but in vain. 
 A mine was 
 therefore 
 secretly dug 
 under the 
 Confederate 
 fortifications. 
 
 It was exploded (July 30), and the Federals, rushing for- 
 ward to enter the city, were repulsed with fearful loss. 
 Grant now fell upon the Weldon Railroad, by which 
 supplies entered Richmond from the South. Fierce 
 fighting ensued, but Grant held it firmly. In the 
 fall of 1864 the Republicans, joined by all in favor of 
 prosecuting the war, renominated Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Sheridan's Famous Ride 
 
324 ESSENTIALS UF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 for President on the Union ticket. Andrew Johnson 
 was nominated for Vice President. The Democrats 
 nominated General George B. McClellan for President. 
 McClellan carried only the states of New Jersey, Dela- 
 ware, and Kentucky. Eleven states that had seceded 
 did not vote. Lincoln was reelected. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The War in 1864. — i. Sherman drove Johnston before him, 
 defeated Hood, and took Atlanta. He then began his march to 
 the sea, capturing Savannah. 
 
 2. Thomas annihilated Hood's army before Nashville. 
 
 3. Grant began his march through the Wilderness, fighting 
 constantly, but gradually drawing in the Hnes around Richmond. 
 
 4. The Alabama fought the Kearsarge off Cherbourg, and was 
 destroyed. 
 
 5. President Lincoln was reelected with Andrew Johnson for 
 Vice President. 
 
 The War in 1865 
 
 295. Sherman marches northward. — One month 
 after the capture of Savannah Sherman began his 
 northward march across the state of South Carolina. 
 Columbia, the capital, fell into his hands and was 
 accidentally burned. Johnston had been again placed 
 in command and tried to block Sherman's onward 
 march. After entering the state of North Carolina 
 Sherman met Johnston at Goldsboro (March 19). 
 
 The end of the Confederacy was now at hand. 
 The federal government held every seaport. Grant, 
 Sherman, and Sheridan were drawing closer and closer 
 
thp: period of disunion 325 
 
 to Richmond. The Union ranks were being filled up 
 daily with fresh troops, while the southern armies 
 could not replace the men that had fallen. 
 
 296. Fall of Richmond; Lee's Surrender. — Sheridan 
 had now come east from the Shenandoah valley. He 
 destroyed the canals and railroads that brought supplies 
 to Lee's army. At Five Forks he took five thousand 
 prisoners. Lee in lengthening his line to defend his out- 
 works weakened it to such an extent that Grant broke 
 through the intrenchments. On April 2 Lee sent 
 word to Jefferson Davis that Richmond and Petersburg 
 must be abandoned, and on April 3 the Federal troops 
 entered Richmond. Lee fled westward, hoping to join 
 his forces with Johnston's, but Sheridan outmarched 
 him and planted his troops across the route. Lee, see- 
 ing his position was hopeless, surrendered to General 
 Grant his army of twenty-six thousand men at Appo- 
 mattox Court House, April 9. The most liberal terms 
 of surrender were given. Lee was not asked to give up 
 his sword nor his men their horses. " They will need 
 them for the spring plowing," remarked Grant. As Lee's 
 soldiers were on the point of starvation twenty-five 
 thousand rations were issued to them. On April 26 
 Johnston surrendered to Sherman. Jefferson Davis, 
 with his cabinet, fled southward on the fall of Richmond, 
 but was captured (May 10) at Irwinville, Georgia. He 
 was confined at Fort Monroe for two years and then 
 released on bail. He was never afterwards disturbed. 
 
 297. Cost of the War ; Results of the War. — It is 
 probable that the war cost the country the lives of 
 
326 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 seven hundred thousand men. The debt of the nation 
 rose to nearly three bilUons of dollars, to which must be 
 added the debts incurred by states and municipalities. 
 When to this is added the amount paid for pensions, 
 and the loss of property and wages, the total cost is 
 simply beyond calculation. The war settled forever the 
 slavery question, for the Thirteenth Amendment to the 
 Constitution, adopted December, 1865, abolished slavery. 
 It also settled the question of secession. No state there- 
 after can claim the right to secede from the Union. 
 
 298. Assassination of President Lincoln. — The joy of 
 the nation at the return of peace was suddenly turned 
 into mourning. On the night of April 14, 1865, Presi- 
 dent Lincoln was shot in the head while in his box 
 at Ford's Theater in Washington by an actor named 
 John Wilkes Booth. The assassin leaped from the box 
 to the stage, shouted " Sic semper tyrannis ! " ^ and 
 although his leg was broken in jumping, he escaped to 
 Virginia, where he was later shot in a barn.^ President 
 Lincoln never regained consciousness after the fatal 
 shot and died the next morning. Secretary Seward 
 was stabbed while on a sick bed by a man who forced 
 his way into the room. The wounds were not fatal, 
 however. 
 
 1 Stc semper tyrannis (Ever thus to tyrants) is the motto of the 
 state of Virginia. 
 
 2 A court-martial sentenced four persons to death for assisting in the 
 plot to assassinate the President, and they were later executed. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 THE PERIOD OF REUNION 
 
 Andrew Johnson's Administration, 1865-1869 
 
 299. Accession of Andrew Johnson ; Review of the 
 Troops. — Within three hours of the death of President 
 Lincoln, Andrew Johnson^ took the oath of office as 
 President of the United States. On May 23-24 the 
 armies of Grant and Sherman, a cohmm thirty miles long, 
 were reviewed by President Johnson and his cabinet. 
 
 An amnesty proclamation was issued by the Presi- 
 dent (May 29, 1865), offering pardon to all former 
 Confederates, except certain classes, on condition of 
 their taking an oath to support the Constitution of the 
 United States and to abide by the laws and proclama- 
 tions made regarding slaves. 
 
 300. Johnson plans Reconstruction. — The South was 
 at this time in a most demoralized condition. ^ War had 
 
 1 Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina in 1S08. He was 
 too poor to receive an education and became a tailor. His wife, how- 
 ever, instructed him, and he rose gradually to distinction. He was 
 elected congressman in 1843 ^^^ ten years later governor of Tennessee. 
 He was United States senator and opposed secession so strongly that 
 he was appointed military governor of his native state in 1862. He was 
 elected Vice President in 1864 and succeeded to the presidency on the 
 death of President Lincoln. 
 
 2 Henry W. Grady vividly describes the southern soldier returning 
 from the war to find " his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves 
 free, his stock killed, his barn empty, his trade destroyed, his money 
 
 327 
 
328 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 spread ruin far and wide ; there were practically no state 
 governments, nor revenue collectors, nor courts, and no 
 mail service. Johnson sought to bring order out of chaos 
 by establishing at once all the federal offices and courts. 
 He also raised the blockade from the southern ports. 
 Believing the power of reconstructing the states rested 
 in the President rather than in Congress, he appointed 
 a governor over each of the seceded states and allowed 
 a convention to be called. These conventions repealed 
 the ordinances of secession and agreed never to pay 
 the debt contracted by the Confederacy. They also 
 abolished slavery and accepted the Thirteenth Amend- 
 ment. State officers and senators and representatives 
 to Congress were elected. 
 
 301. The Thirteenth Amendment The Emancipa- 
 tion Proclamation of Jan. i, 1863, had declared the 
 slaves to be free in such parts of the country as were 
 in the control of the Confederates and had not been 
 recovered by the Union forces. It did not, however, 
 destroy slavery, and slaves could again be purchased. 
 Moreover, some of the slave states had never left the 
 Union,^ and hence the proclamation did not apply to 
 them at all. To abolish slavery everywhere in the 
 
 worthless ; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; his 
 people without law or legal status ; his comrades slain-; and the burdens 
 of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very tradi- 
 tions gone ; without money, credit, employment, material training ; and 
 besides all this, confronted by the gravest problem that ever met human 
 intelligence — the establishing of a status for the vast body of his liber- 
 ated slaves." 
 
 1 Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 329 
 
 Union forever, the Thirteenth Amendment was sub- 
 mitted to the states in February, 1865. The neces- 
 sary three fourths of the states ratified it, and it was 
 adopted Dec. 18, 1865. The institution of slavery was 
 now destroyed forever in the United States. 
 
 302. Civil Rights Bill. — When Congress assembled 
 it refused to recognize Johnson's scheme of reconstruc- 
 tion and denied admission to the representatives and 
 senators elected by the Southern States. Congress 
 believed that the seceded states should not be allowed to 
 return to the Union until the negro should be intrenched 
 in his rights. What confirmed Congress in this view 
 was the fact that certain Southern States had passed 
 labor laws which Congress believed would place the 
 negro in slavery again. By the new state constitutions 
 only white men could vote or hold office. Congress 
 therefore passed the Civil Rights Bill, giving to the 
 negro the rights of a citizen of the United States and 
 power to sue in the federal courts. This, however, did 
 not make him a citizen of any state, neither did it 
 give him the right to vote. The President believed the 
 South would deal fairly with the ''freedmen," as the 
 negroes were now called, and vetoed the bill. It was 
 passed over his veto and became a law (April 9, 1866). 
 
 303. The Fourteenth Amendment; the Freedmen's Bureau 
 Bill. — To make permanent in the national Constitu- 
 tion the provisions of the Civil Rights Bill, Congress 
 passed (June, i S66) the Fourteenth Amendment. This 
 amendment gave citizenship to the negro ; forbade, 
 except under certain conditions, the Confederate leaders 
 
330 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 to hold office ; guaranteed the vahdity of the debt 
 of the United States and forbade the payment of the 
 debts of the Confederacy; the refusal of any state to 
 grant the franchise to any of its citizens would result in 
 cutting down the representation in Congress from the 
 offending state. This amendment was adopted July 28, 
 1868. Congress passed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, 
 giving military protection to the negroes and to the 
 whites of the South who had opposed secession. The 
 President vetoed the bill, and it was at once passed over 
 his veto (July 16, 1866). 
 
 304. The Reconstruction Acts. — The strife between 
 the President and Congress had become very bitter. As 
 the Republican party had two thirds majority of each 
 house of Congress, it could enact legislation regard- 
 less of the President's wishes. In 1867 it passed the 
 Reconstruction Acts over the President's veto. These 
 acts provided for the military government of the ten 
 seceded states. Tennessee had complied with the 
 requirements of Congress and had been readmitted to 
 the Union (March, 1866). Each seceded state was now 
 required to make a new constitution which should grant 
 the suffrage to the negroes, and to acknowledge the 
 Fourteenth Amendment. At first all the Southern 
 States rejected this amendment, but finally North and 
 South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas 
 accepted these terms and were readmitted (July, 1 868). 
 
 In the unsettled conditions in many of these states 
 unprincipled men joined with the illiterate negro voters 
 and secured control of political affairs, setting up in 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 331 
 
 many cases governments that were a disgrace to 
 Republican institutions. Enormous debts were con- 
 tracted, and money was spent lavishly and corruptly. 
 Many of these men came to the South with practically 
 nothing except a valise or carpet bag, as it was called. 
 Mence the name " carpetbaggers " was applied to them. 
 
 305. The Tenure of Office Act; General Amnesty. — 
 To decrease the power of the President Congress now 
 passed the Tenure of Office Act. As the consent of 
 the Senate was necessary for the appointment of certain 
 officials, this act required the same consent for their 
 removal. Johnson believed the act to be unconstitu- 
 tional and removed Stanton, secretary of war, whom he 
 cordially disliked. The Senate refused its consent to the 
 removal, but the President would not reinstate Stanton. 
 
 Congress consequently impeached Johnson in Febru- 
 ary, 1868, of high crimes and misdemeanors. The trial 
 lasted from March 5 to May 16, and was exceedingly 
 bitter. Although the Republicans had more than two 
 thirds majority in the Senate, eleven Republicans refused 
 to vote for his conviction and he was acquitted.^ 
 
 On Christmas Day, 1868, full pardon and amnesty was 
 extended to all who had participated in the war against 
 the Union. 
 
 1 The vote stood thirty-five to nineteen. Eight Democrats joined 
 with the eleven Republicans in voting not guilty. The President was 
 acquitted by one vote. 
 
 History has already pronounced her verdict that they [the senators 
 who voted " no "] saved the country from a precedent big with danger 
 and vindicated the wisdom of those who made the Senate a court for 
 the trial of impeachments. — Foster. 
 
332 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 306. Atlantic Telegraph Cable. — The telegraph laid 
 under the Atlantic in 1858 failed after a few hundred 
 messages had been sent. Another cable, laid in 1865, 
 parted in mid ocean. Cyrus W. Field, who was the prime 
 mover in these enterprises, organized another company 
 and successfully laid a cable (June, 1866). The Great 
 Eastern, the mammoth steamship, was used for the pur- 
 pose. Since that time a dozen cables have been laid to 
 Europe, and to-day under the oceans of the world the 
 messages speed on the wings of the lightning to the 
 uttermost parts of the earth. 
 
 307. Purchase of Alaska ; Treaty with China. — The 
 Russian government suggested to Secretary Seward that 
 it would be willing to sell its American possessions. Our 
 government, glad of the opportunity to secure so valuable 
 a territory, offered seven million two hundred thousand 
 dollars for it. The offer was accepted, and Alaska was 
 transferred to the United States, Oct. 18, 1867. 
 
 About five hundred and thirty thousand square miles 
 were added to our domain. Alaska is rich in furs, espe- 
 cially of the seal, and in timber and gold. It was not until 
 1 884 that a territorial form of government was framed. 
 
 In the following year (1868) a Chinese embassy under 
 the direction of our former minister to China, Anson 
 Burlingame, arrived to make a treaty with the United 
 States. They were most cordially received, and the 
 Senate ratified (July 16) the treaty drawn up by Sec- 
 retary Seward. China and the United States agreed to 
 aid each other in promoting between the two countries 
 good will and friendship. 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 333 
 
 The leading events of Johnson's administration were : 
 
 1 . The violent quarrel between Congress and the President. 
 
 2. The adoption of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments 
 to the Constitution. 
 
 3. The Civil Rights Bill, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, the 
 Reconstruction Acts, and the Tenure of Office Act. 
 
 4. The impeachment of the President. 
 
 5. The proclamation of general amnesty. 
 
 6. The laying of the Atlantic cable. 
 
 7. The purchase of Alaska from Russia. 
 
 8. The treaty with China. 
 
 Grant's Administration, 1868-1876 
 
 308. The Alabama Claims. — While important home 
 problems were to be solved, our government did not for 
 an instant forget the part which Great Britain had taken 
 against us in allowing the Alabama and other vessels 
 to be built in her ports for the purpose of destroying 
 our shipping. When the claims were first brought to 
 the attention of the government of England in 1863, it 
 positively refused even to consider them. Two events, 
 liowever, now occurred which caused England to change 
 her mind. W^ar broke out between Germany and France, 
 and England, fearing she might be drawn into the con- 
 flict, desired the friendship of the United States. The 
 second event was a message which President Grant sent 
 to Congress, asking for an appropriation to pay the claims 
 of private individuals for losses from the Alaba^na and 
 other cruisers. England at once saw that she would 
 soon have to deal with a debt due to the United States 
 
334 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 government instead of to private citizens and that 
 President Grant was in earnest in the matter. 
 
 309. Settlement of Difficulties. — England therefore 
 asked for a commission to settle the differences between 
 the countries. This commission met at Washington and 
 concluded a treaty (May 8, 1871). It was agreed : 
 
 1. That the Alabama claims should be referred to a 
 commission at Geneva. This commission ^ met at Geneva 
 and decided (Sept. 14, 1872) that Great Britain should 
 pay to the United States fifteen million five hundred 
 thousand dollars in gold. 
 
 2. That the fisheries dispute should be referred to 
 a commission. This commission met at Halifax and 
 decided (Nov. 27, 1877) that the United States should 
 pay five million five hundred thousand dollars for the 
 privilege of fishing on Canadian shores for twelve years. 
 
 3. That the question of our northwest boundary 
 should be referred to the emperor of Germany. He 
 decided in favor of the United States, giving it *<the 
 important archipelago of islands lying between the 
 Continent and Vancouver island."^ 
 
 The truly great result of this Alabama question, how- 
 ever, was the adoption of arbitration instead of war for 
 the settlement of differences between nations. 
 
 1 The commission was composed of five members, named by the 
 President of the United States, the queen of England, the king of Italy, 
 the president of the Swiss Confederation, and the emperor of Brazil. 
 
 2 The settlement of this question left us, said President Grant, "for 
 the first time in the history of the United States as a nation without a 
 question of disputed boundary between us and the possessions of Great 
 Britain on this continent." 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 335 
 
 310. Civil-Service Reform. — The first bill for the 
 reform of the civil service became a law in March, 
 1 87 1. This led to the appointment of a commission 
 to put the law into force. An important step was thus 
 taken toward securing the appointment of worthy men 
 to office through competitive examinations rather than 
 on the recommendation of a political leader. Not until 
 the Pendleton Bill was passed (1883), however, did civil- 
 service reform become an established policy of our 
 government. 
 
 311. The Transcontinental Railroad. — Until four years 
 after the close of the Civil War passage across the 
 plains between the Missouri river and the Rocky moun- 
 tains led along one of two routes : the Oregon trail by 
 the Platte river valley, or the Santa Fe trail along the 
 Arkansas river to the old town of Santa Fe. The former 
 or northern route was taken by emigrants intending to 
 settle on the Pacific coast, especially in Oregon. The 
 southern or Santa Fe trail was mainly a route of trade 
 by which all the region from Santa Fe to old Mexico 
 was supplied with goods from the eastern states, and in 
 return furs, buffalo skins, gold, and silver were brought 
 to the Mississippi valley. The Civil War had impressed 
 strongly on the nation the necessity of some better 
 means of communication between the East and the great 
 West and California. Two companies were formed to 
 build a railroad from the Missouri to the Pacific. The 
 great work was finished, and the train from the East 
 met the train from the West (May 10, 1869) near 
 Ogden, Utah. 
 
336 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 312. The Great Fires of Chicago and Boston. — On 
 
 Sunday evening, Oct. 8, 1871, a fire broke out in the 
 west division of Chicago and spread with fearful rapidity. 
 It leaped across the Chicago river and until Tuesday 
 morning swept all before it. More than seventeen 
 thousand buildings were destroyed, with a total loss of 
 about two hundred millions of dollars.^ Not only our 
 nation but foreign countries sent relief to the people of 
 the afflicted city. A little more than a year later (Nov. 9, 
 1872) the business section of Boston was destroyed by 
 fire. Property to the value of eighty millions of dollars 
 was swept away. 
 
 313 . The Fifteenth Amendment ; Reelection of Grant . — 
 The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution made 
 the negro a voter, as it provided that no law should be 
 passed to prevent citizens from voting on account of 
 race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Three 
 fourths of the states having approved it, it was pro- 
 claimed March 30, 1870. In the following year all the 
 states that had seceded were again in the Union, with 
 representatives in both houses of Congress. 
 
 At the end of his first term of office President Grant 
 was renominated and was elected, ^ defeating Horace 
 
 1 The fire burned everything in an area covering three and one-third 
 square miles, rendering nearly one hundred thousand persons homeless. 
 It is estimated that the indirect loss was two hundred and ninety million 
 dollars. At the same time fearful forest fires swept through the tim- 
 ber districts of Michigan and Wisconsin, causing great loss of life and 
 property. 
 
 2 Henry Wilson of Massachusetts was elected Vice President. Before 
 the electoral vote was cast Horace Greeley died. 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 337 
 
 Greeley, who had been nominated by the Democrats 
 and liberal Republicans. 
 
 314. An Era of Scandals. — The Civil War and the 
 careless and extravagant use of public money developed 
 an era of betrayal of trust by public officials. The city 
 of New York was robbed of millions of dollars by the 
 infamous Tweed and his associates, while the state of 
 New York was despoiled by the Canal Ring, — the 
 country thieves as distinct from the city thieves ; gov- 
 ernment officials^ planned with distillers in the West to 
 defraud the United States of the revenues on whisky, 
 no less than a million and a half of dollars being stolen 
 in ten months by this Whisky Ring; the company 
 organized to build the Pacific railroad was shown to 
 have secured legislation by bribery ; the Secretary of 
 War, Belknap, was impeached for accepting bribes ; the 
 Indian agents in the West robbed the Indians and 
 were even aided in their rascalities by those in Wash- 
 ington who should have protected the Indians. It was 
 a dark picture, on the eve of the centennial of our 
 independence. 
 
 315. The '< Salary Grab.*' — Congress passed a law 
 the last day of the session, March 3, 1873, increasing 
 the pay of senators and representatives from five thou- 
 sand to seven thousand five hundred dollars a year, at 
 the same time allowing themselves the increase for the 
 entire term, which was to end the following day. This 
 
 1 Eighty-six officials under the national government were implicated 
 in this corrupt affair, including the President's private secretary. Bristow, 
 the honest and brave Secretary of the Treasury, exposed the ring. 
 
338 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 law aroused such opposition among the people that it 
 was repealed by the next Congress.^ 
 
 316. The Weather Bureau. — One of the most impor- 
 tant events of Grant's administration was the establish- 
 ment (1870) of the Weather Bureau.^ This bureau 
 established stations throughout the country and is able 
 to forecast with considerable accuracy the coming of 
 storms, dangerous winds, cold waves, and heavy frosts. 
 By means of signals vessels are warned when gales are 
 expected. The warning that severe frosts and storms 
 might be expected has saved to the farmers and to the 
 shipping interests billions of dollars. Thousands of lives 
 might have been lost at sea were it not for the warning 
 signals displayed along the coast. 
 
 317. The Crisis of 1873. — The amazing growth of 
 industries of all kinds after the Civil War and the suc- 
 cess of the first transcontinental railway led to the 
 building of railways in all parts of the country. A rail- 
 road — the Northern Pacific — was planned to extend 
 from lake Superior to Puget sound. New enterprises 
 
 1 In this bill the salary of the justices of the Supreme Court were 
 increased from eight thousand five hundred dollars to ten thousand five 
 hundred per year for the chief justice ; from eight thousand to eight 
 thousand five hundred per year for the associate justices; from twenty- 
 five thousand to fifty thousand per year for the President of the United 
 States. The salary of the Supreme Court justices could not be reduced, 
 as the Constitution provides that their compensation "cannot be dimin- 
 ished during their continuance in office. The salary of the President 
 also could not be reduced, as he had begun his new term March 4, 1873, 
 and the Constitution provides that his salary shall neither be increased 
 nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected. 
 
 2 The organization of the Weather Bureau is chiefly due to General 
 Albert J. Myer, chief signal officer of the army. 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 339 
 
 were begun on all sides, and an era of the wildest spec- 
 ulation soon developed. Unfortunately at this time 
 (Sept. 18, 1873) a prominent Philadelphia banking house 
 failed. At once a panic followed. Banks were com- 
 pelled to suspend, the doors of factories were closed, 
 workmen were thrown out of employment, and wide- 
 spread suffering ensued. The crisis lasted for at least 
 five years and was probably the most severe depression 
 in the hi.story of our country. 
 
 318. Financial Legislation. — In 1 873 Congress passed 
 a law dropping the silver dollar from the coins to be 
 minted^ and making gold the only standard of the cur- 
 rency. The silver dollar at this time was worth more 
 than gold and was used very little.^ Two years later 
 (1875) Congress passed an act declaring that on Jan. i, 
 1879, the greenbacks or paper money issued during 
 the Civil War would be redeemed in gold. This paper 
 money had been worth much less than gold. This 
 action caused the price of the greenbacks to rise to the 
 value of gold. In 1878 Congress repealed the act of 
 1873, practically restoring silver to its former position.^ 
 
 1 This was called the demonetization of silver, that is, its withdrawal 
 from use as money, as the United States would no longer coin silver 
 dollars. The silver dollar was used in business, but would not be 
 accepted in payment of customs duties, nor in payment of the public 
 debt or the interest thereon. 
 
 2 The silver dollar at this time was worth one dollar and two cents 
 in gold. 
 
 ^ This was the so-called Bland-Allison Bill, which required the gov- 
 ernment to coin not less than two nor more than four millions of dollars 
 monthly. A silver dollar was now worth much less than a gold dollar, 
 and President Hayes vetoed the bill, but it was passed over his veto. 
 
340 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 On Jan. i, 1879, a gold, silver, or paper dollar was 
 accepted interchangeably as of equal value,^ and the finan- 
 cial credit of the nation was established before the world. 
 
 319. The Centennial Exhibition. — In 1876 an inter- 
 national exhibition was held in Fairmount Park, Phila- 
 delphia, in honor of the hundredth anniversary of our 
 independence. Not only all the states of the Union, 
 but thirty-three foreign governments, sent exhibits that 
 showed the wonderful industrial and social development 
 of the world in the preceding century. About ten 
 millions of people visited the exhibition. Colorado was 
 admitted to the Union this year, and hence is called the 
 "Centennial" state. 
 
 320. The Indian Wars. — In 1872 trouble arose with 
 the Modoc Indians of southern Oregon, who had 
 undoubtedly been defrauded by government agents. 
 The Indians went on the warpath, and for a year war 
 was waged in the far West, until the Indian power 
 was broken, and these tribes were removed to Indian 
 Territory. In 1876 the Sioux (Soo) or Dakota Indians 
 were asked to surrender some of their lands and to 
 enter a new reservation. Their leader, Sitting Bull, 
 refused and prepared for war. He was encamped on 
 the Little Big Horn river. In an endeavor to surprise 
 him General Custer separated himself with "his regiment 
 from the main body of the army and stole around to 
 the rear of the Indian encampment. But the Indians, 
 
 1 This was called " resumption of specie payments." It was the 
 first time since January, 1862, that a gold dollar did not command a 
 premium. 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 341 
 
 informed of his movements, suddenly attacked him with 
 overwhelming force, and Custer and his entire command 
 perished. Sitting Bull retreated later into Canada. 
 
 321. The Electoral Commission. — At the close of 
 Grant's administration the Republicans nominated 
 Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio for President, while the 
 Democrats selected Samuel J. Tilden of New York as 
 their standard bearer. At the close of the polls Tilden 
 was apparently elected by a large majority. The 
 Republicans, however, claimed to have carried certain 
 southern states, which, if true, would elect Hayes. 
 The country was in a turmoil, and at last an electoral 
 commission composed of five justices of the Supreme 
 Court, five senators, and five representatives was 
 appointed. Of the fifteen members eight were Repub- 
 licans and seven Democrats, and by a party vote of 
 eight to seven Hayes was declared elected. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Grant's two administrations were : 
 
 1. The Alabaina awards. 
 
 2. First law for civil-service reform. 
 
 3. Opening of the transcontinental railroad. 
 
 4. The great fires in Chicago and Boston. 
 
 5. Adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment. 
 
 6. The scandals in national and municipal affairs. 
 
 7. Establishment of the Weather Bureau. 
 
 8. Crisis of 1873. 
 
 9. Financial legislation. 
 
 10. Centennial Exhibition. 
 
 11. Indian wars. 
 
 12. The electoral commission. 
 
342 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Hayes' Administration,^ 1877-1881 
 
 322. Withdrawal of Federal Troops from the South ; 
 Labor Troubles. — The war had now been finished for 
 twelve years, and in most of the states of the South 
 the southern leaders had been able to regain control of 
 the state governments. Federal troops, however, still 
 remained. President Hayes believed no permanent 
 
 peace could be secured in 
 
 the South under such con- 
 ditions, and he promptly 
 ordered the removal of the 
 troops. In the states of 
 South Carolina and Louisi- 
 ana the carpetbag govern- 
 ments fell with the with- 
 drawal of the Federal forces, 
 and the South was once 
 more allowed to rule itself.^ 
 Serious labor troubles 
 broke out at this time 
 throughout the country 
 among the employees of railroads, caused partly by the 
 reduction of wages. Riots of a most serious nature 
 
 Rutherford B. Hayes 
 
 1 Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822, was graduated from 
 Kenyon College, and was admitted to the bar. At the outbreak of the 
 Civil War he enlisted and rose to the rank of major general. He repre- 
 sented his district in Congress, and was elected governor of Ohio. He 
 died in 1893. 
 
 2 President Hayes appointed as his Postmaster-General a former 
 Confederate officer. 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 343 
 
 broke out in Chicago, St. Louis, and Pittsburg, the rail- 
 road station and freight houses in the latter city being 
 completely destroyed. The rioters controlled more than 
 six thousand miles of railway. The state authorities 
 of Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois, 
 believing their force inadequate to quell the trouble, 
 asked the President for aid. The troops at last brought 
 the turmoil to an end, but not until many lives had 
 been lost and millions of dollars' worth of property 
 destroyed. The loss in wages was also very great. 
 The strike was unsuccessful. 
 
 323. The Bell Telephone; Edison's Inventions.— 
 Although for many years the sound of the human 
 voice could be transmitted from one point to another 
 by means of a wire or cord, it remained for this admin- 
 istration to see the idea put into practical use. At the 
 Centennial Exhibition a telephone was exhibited. In 
 the following year (1877) a telephone line was put 
 into use between Boston and Salem — a distance of 
 sixteen miles — by Alexander Graham Bell. Another 
 line, operated under the plans of Professor Gray, was 
 erected between Chicago and Milwaukee, a distance 
 of eighty-five miles. These tests showed the practical 
 nature of the telephone, so that it spread rapidly and 
 is now an essential part of our business and, to some 
 extent, our social life. The wire in use for the tele- 
 phones in the United States alone at the present day 
 would encircle the world eighty times. It is probable 
 that in a few years one may speak from Boston to San 
 Francisco or from New York to London. 
 
344 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 At this time Thomas A. Edison began his wonderful 
 career as an inventor. Among the greatest of his 
 
 inventions are the incan- 
 descent electric light and 
 the phonograph. 
 
 324. The Eads Jetties; 
 Yellow Fever in the South. 
 — The mouth of the Mis- 
 sissippi was being gradu- 
 ally filled up by the vast 
 amount of mud brought 
 down by the river. The 
 loss to commerce was as- 
 suming vast proportions 
 I when James B. Eads, who 
 had designed the 
 .^^^^..^ bridge across the 
 Mississippi at St. 
 Louis, offered a plan to 
 Congress. He proposed 
 to build jetties or banks 
 through which the river 
 would run with rapidity, 
 and by the force of its 
 own current prevent 
 the sand and mud in 
 the water from settling 
 and filling the channel. Congress voted an appropri- 
 ation, and the plan was successfully carried out. Large 
 ocean steamers now reach New Orleans with ease. 
 
 Edison and his Inventions 
 
THE PERIOD OF REUNION 345 
 
 At this time the South was visited by an appalling 
 visitation of yellow fever. New Orleans and Memphis 
 were the chief sufferers. Aid was sent to the afflicted 
 cities from all parts of the Union. 
 
 325. Resumption of Specie Payment. — It will be 
 remembered that Congress voted to pay in gold all the 
 obligations of the United States, Jan. i, 1879. On that 
 day, therefore, Secretary Sherman was ready to pay all 
 demands in gold. Few, however, desired gold when it 
 was worth no more than silver or greenbacks.^ Our 
 national credit was now so secure that we were enabled 
 to borrow money to pay off our debts at a much lower 
 rate of interest, thus saving millions of dollars to our 
 treasury. 
 
 At the close of Hayes' administration the Repub- 
 licans nominated James A. Garfield of Ohio, while the 
 Democrats nominated Winfield S. Hancock of New 
 York. Garfield was elected. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Hayes' administration were : 
 
 1. Withdrawal of the Federal troops from the South. 
 
 2. Labor troubles in the West. 
 
 3. Development of the telephone. 
 
 4. Eads jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 5. Resumption of specie payments. 
 
 1 " When the day (Jan. i, 1879) came, it was found that the Treasury 
 was fully prepared, and the gold coins which had borne a premium for 
 seventeen years of specie suspension were not now demanded even by 
 those who had been hoarding legal tender notes for that express 
 purpose." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Garfield and Arthur's Administrations, i 880-1884 
 
 326. 
 
 1\^ 
 
 Assassination of the President. — President Gar- 
 field^ had been in office 
 scarcely four months 
 when he was shot in a 
 railway station in Wash- 
 ington by a disappointed 
 office seeker.^ He lin- 
 gered until September 19, 
 when he died at Elberon, 
 New Jersey, whither he 
 had been brought to 
 profit by the ocean 
 breezes. The Vice Presi- 
 dent at once assumed the 
 
 James A. Garfield office of President.^ 
 
 1 James A. Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831 and was graduated from 
 Williams College in 1856. He became a teacher and studied law until 
 the Civil War, when he entered the army and rose to the rank of major 
 general. He was elected to Congress in 1863 and in 1880 was chosen 
 senator, but never took his seat as he was elected President. 
 
 2 Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin, was hanged for the crime. 
 
 ^ Chester A. Arthur was born in Vermont in 1830. He was educated 
 at Union College and became a lawyer. He was collector of the port 
 of New York for seven years and in 1880 was elected Vice President. 
 
 346 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 347 
 
 327. Revision of the Tariff; Civil-Service Bill. — A 
 
 high tariff had been placed during the war on goods to 
 secure the immense sums of money necessary for miU- 
 tary purposes. As these expenditures had ceased, it 
 was thought unwise by many to collect so much money 
 beyond the necessities of the government. It was there- 
 fore proposed to reduce the tariff, and a commission was 
 appointed which reported a bill that lowered somewhat 
 the duties on foreign articles. The bill became a law 
 in 1883. 
 
 Another bill was passed by Congress in 1883, called 
 the Pendleton Civil-Service Act, which placed the civil 
 service upon a firmer foundation. It was the real begin- 
 ning of the movement which has grown until, at the 
 present time, over two hundred thousand persons are 
 secure from removal except for cause. 
 
 328. The Edmunds Antipolygamy Bill ; the Chinese 
 Exclusion Bill. — The growth of the Mormons in Utah 
 and the adjoining states and territories called public 
 attention to the practice of polygamy among them 
 and the necessity of its suppression. A bill to this 
 end became a law, and eight years later the Mor- 
 mon church abolished polygamy as a practice of their 
 religion. 
 
 The overcrowded population of the Asiatic seaboard 
 of China looked with longing eyes to the fair fields of 
 California and began to come in large numbers to that 
 state. As a Chinese laborer worked for low wages and 
 lived in a very frugal manner, the working men of the 
 Pacific coast demanded a law to prevent Chinese from 
 
348 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 coming to our country. In response to this demand a 
 law was passed in 1882 prohibiting Chinese immigration 
 for a period of ten years. 
 
 329. The Brooklyn Bridge ; Cheap Postage. — In 1883 
 the Brooklyn Suspension Bridge which spans the East 
 river in New York City was completed after thirteen 
 years spent on its construction.^ At the opening of the 
 bridge (May 24, 1883) President Arthur and the mayor 
 of New York walked across to the opposite side, where 
 they were met by the mayor of Brooklyn, 
 
 In 1883 the postage was reduced from three cents to 
 two, for each half ounce. Two years later the rate was 
 fixed at two cents per ounce, the price at the present 
 time. For this small sum a letter will go from the 
 city of New York to Manila in the Philippines, halfway 
 around the globe. 
 
 330. The Alien Contract Labor Law; Exhibitions in 
 the South. — Many corporations found it profitable to 
 send agents abroad to hire foreign workmen to come 
 to this country under contract at a low rate of wages. 
 To prevent this growing evil the Alien Contract Labor 
 Law was passed, forbidding the importation of such 
 contract laborers. 
 
 In 1 88 1 a Cotton Exposition was opened in Atlanta, 
 Georgia, and in 1884 New Orleans invited the nations 
 to a World's Exposition. The wonderful development 
 which cotton had effected in the South was shown by 
 
 1 This bridge is eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine feet 
 long, one hundred and thirty-two feet above high tide, and cost sixteen 
 millions of dollars. 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 349 
 
 the enormous exports of that staple.^ At the same 
 time the coal fields and iron mines had given life to 
 new manufacturing centers like Atlanta, Chattanooga, 
 and Birmingham. 
 
 331. The Democrats regain Power. — In the national 
 convention held in 1884 the Republicans nominated 
 James G. Blaine of Maine for President, while the 
 Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland of New York 
 for the same high office. The Democrats were success- 
 ful, and for the first time since Buchanan a Democrat 
 was seated in the presidential chair. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of the Garfield and the Arthur adminis- 
 trations were : 
 
 1. Tariff revision and Civil-Service Bill. 
 
 2. Antipolygamy Law. 
 
 3. Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. 
 
 4. Alien Contract Labor Law\ 
 
 5. Expositions in the South. 
 
 Cleveland's Administration, 1885-1889 
 
 332. The Washington Monument and the Statue of 
 Liberty. — The monument to the memory of George 
 Washington was begun at the national capital in 1848, 
 and the work continued for eight years, when it ceased. 
 In 1878 construction was resumed under Lieutenant 
 
 1 In 1784 about one bale of cotton was exported from Charleston, 
 South Carolina. At the present time, about a century and a quarter 
 later, the cotton crop of the United States is ten and one-half million 
 bales, or nearly five billion pounds. 
 
350 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Colonel Casey of the United States engineers. This 
 massive monument was finished in 1885. It rises over 
 the city of Washington to a height of five hundred and 
 
 fifty-five feet, — the highest 
 monument in the world. 
 
 The French Republic, to 
 show its kindly feeling toward 
 the sister republic in America, 
 presented to the United 
 States a bronze Statue of 
 Liberty. This statue, one hun- 
 dred and fifty-one feet high, 
 was made by the great sculp- 
 tor Bartholdi. Congress gave 
 Bedloes island, a military 
 post in New York harbor, 
 as a site for the gift. Amid 
 great rejoicing the statue was unveiled Oct. 28, 1886. 
 
 333. Important Legislation ; the Presidential Succes- 
 sion; the Electoral Count ; Interstate Commerce. — From 
 1792 the succession to the presidency in case of the 
 death of the President and Vice President would pass to 
 the president of the Senate, and on his death to the 
 speaker of the House of Representatives. By the new 
 law, passed in 1886, the succession passes to the 
 members of the cabinet in the order ^ in which the 
 
 Grover Cleveland 
 
 1 This order is: (i) Secretary of State, (2) Secretary of the Treasury, 
 (3) Secretary of War, (4) Attorney-General, (5) Postmaster-General, 
 (6) Secretary of the Navy, (7) Secretary of the Interior, (8) Secretary 
 of Agriculture. 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 351 
 
 departments were established. The chief reasons for the 
 passage of this law were : first, the desire for the con- 
 tinuity in the presidential office of the party that had 
 elected the President,^ and second, the necessity of 
 preventing the possibility of the country's being without 
 a ruler .2 
 
 To prevent a repetition of the troubles caused by the 
 disputed election returns of 1876, a bill was passed 
 providing for the counting of electoral votes. By this 
 bill, all votes are legal to which both houses of Congress 
 agree ; in a disagreement of the houses, those votes shall 
 be counted which are certified by the governor of the 
 state from which the disputed electoral votes come. 
 
 A third law was the passage (1887) of the Interstate 
 Commerce Bill establishing a commission to secure uni- 
 form passenger and freight rates on the railroads between 
 states. 
 
 334. The Chicago Anarchists. — Throughout the coun- 
 try at this time strikes were very numerous, especially 
 in Chicago, where the workmen demanded a reduction 
 in the hours of labor from ten to eight hours a day. A 
 large meeting was held (May 4, 1886) at Haymarket 
 
 1 If, for instance, the President and Vice President had been Repub- 
 licans and the president of the Senate was a Democrat, l)y the death of 
 the two former the entire policy of government would be changed from 
 Republican to Democratic. This was not considered just to the voters 
 of the country. 
 
 2 This was a real danger. When President Garfield died there was 
 neither a president of the Senate nor a speaker of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. Had Vice-President Arthur died before President Garfield, 
 the country would have been without a legal ruler, a condition which is 
 impossible under the new law. 
 
352 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 square in Chicago. So violent were the methods sug- 
 gested by the speakers that the police ordered the crowd 
 to disperse. A bomb was thereupon thrown into the 
 group of policemen and, exploding, killed or fatally 
 wounded seven and injured sixty. The leaders of the 
 outrage were tried and four were hanged. 
 
 335. Tariff Discussion. — The United States govern- 
 ment at this time was receiving over one hundred million 
 more dollars each year than it needed to pay its lawful 
 debts. President Cleveland believed it to be unwise to 
 take, largely through tariff taxation, so vast an amount 
 of money from the people beyond the requirements of 
 the government. He sent, therefore, a message to Con- 
 gress recommending the reduction of the revenue by 
 taking off the duties from many of our imports. The 
 House of Representatives was Democratic and passed 
 a bill reducing the duties. The Senate, which was 
 Republican, refused to pass it, and the tariff became 
 the leading issue in the following presidential election. 
 President Cleveland was renominated by the Demo- 
 crats, while the Republicans chose Benjamin Harrison 
 of Indiana as their candidate, and he was elected. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Cleveland's administratiQn were : 
 
 1. The dedication of the Washington Monument and the Statue 
 of Liberty. 
 
 2. Important legislation regulating («) the presidential succes- 
 sion, (^) the electoral count, (c) interstate commerce. 
 
 3. Labor strikes and the anarchist troubles in Chicago. 
 
 4. The tariff discussion. 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 353 
 
 Harrison's Administration,^ 1889-1893 
 
 336. Oklahoma. — In 1888 Congress bought from 
 the Creek and Seminole Indians a tract of land about 
 forty thousand square miles in area, which formerly was a 
 part of Indian Territory. 
 
 This tract was thrown / ;;<^#**^ 
 
 open to settlement April 
 22, 1889. At noon of 
 that day tens of thou- 
 sands were waiting in the 
 line for the bugle blast 
 which announced the 
 opening. Thereupon a 
 wild rush took place for 
 farms. Towns sprang 
 up on all sides, and in 
 five years there were a 
 quarter of a million of 
 inhabitants where formerly the prairie stretched with 
 a few cattle grazing upon it.^ 
 
 337. The Johnstown Flood ; Admission of New States. 
 • — In a deep valley in western Pennsylvania lies the 
 
 1 Benjamin Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry 
 Harrison, was born in Ohio in 1833. ^^ ^^^ graduated from Miami 
 College, studied law, and at the outbreak of the Civil War entered the 
 army, leaving at the close of hostilities with the rank of brigadier 
 general of volunteers. He was later United States senator from 
 Indiana. He was defeated for reelection to the presidency in 1892 and 
 died March 13, 1901. 
 
 2 Guthrie was established in one day and by nightfall had ten thou- 
 sand inhabitants. 
 
 Benjamin Harrison 
 
354 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 city of Johnstown with the Conemaugh^ river flowing 
 through it. The river at its headwater was held back 
 by a dam. The freshets and rains of the spring so 
 weakened the dam that it gave way May 31, 1889. 
 The flood swept villages and towns before it until it 
 struck Johnstown, where it wrought fearful destruction. 
 Thousands of lives and millions of dollars' worth of prop- 
 erty were lost ; but the country generously came to the 
 aid of the stricken city with donations of food and 
 money. 
 
 The territories of the West were anxious to reach the 
 dignity of statehood, and in 1889 North Dakota, South 
 Dakota, Montana, and Washington were admitted to 
 the Union, In the following year Idaho and Wyoming 
 were admitted, and in 1 896 Utah completed the present 
 list of states, forty-five in number. 
 
 338. The Pan-American Congress ; the New Tariff Bill. 
 — A congress, called the Pan-American, ^ was held in 
 Washington in the autumn of 1889. It was composed 
 of delegates from the Central and South American repub- 
 lics. These delegates traversed the country from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific viewing our wonderful resources. 
 The congress was called to establish peace relations and 
 business intercourse between the republics of the New 
 World, and resulted in the promotion of a closer political 
 and commercial union between the American peoples. 
 
 The defeat of the Democrats resulted in the Repub- 
 licans gaining control of the presidency, the Senate, 
 
 1 Conemaugh (Con'-er-maw). 
 
 2 Pan is a Greek word, meaning " all." 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 355 
 
 and the House of Representatives. They soon (Oct. i, 
 1890) passed a law, named the McKinley Bill, which 
 materially increased the duties in some cases, took off 
 many articles from the free list, and added a few to it. 
 It provided for reciprocity or the reduction of duties to 
 countries which granted a similar favor to the United 
 States. 
 
 339. New Laws ; the Pension Bill ; the Sherman Act. 
 — A new pension bill was passed, raising the number of 
 pensioners to almost a million, with an expense to the 
 country of more than one hundred and forty millions 
 of dollars yearly. 
 
 A new financial law, called the Sherman Act, was 
 passed in 1890. It provided that the Secretary of the 
 Treasury should buy four and a half million ounces of 
 silver each month if that amount were offered. Payment 
 was to be made in treasury notes that would be legal 
 tender. This silver was not to be coined into dollars ^ 
 until it was needed to redeem any treasury notes that 
 might be presented. 
 
 340. The Homestead Strike. — In the summer of 1 892 
 a serious labor trouble arose at the Carnegie steel works 
 at Homestead, Pennsylvania. A band of armed Pinker- 
 ton detectives was sent to the works, but was fired on 
 by the strikers and compelled to return. After weeks 
 of the bitterest feeling the strike ended. It had a 
 very important bearing on the country, for in the next 
 presidential election it undoubtedly turned thousands of 
 
 1 The bullion or metal value of the silver dollar at this time was 
 eighty-one cents in gold. 
 
356 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 laboring men from the Republican party, which was 
 identified with high tariff protection,^ to the Democratic 
 party. 
 
 The Republicans renominated President Harrison, and 
 the Democrats chose ex-President Cleveland, as their 
 candidate for President. Cleveland was overwhelmingly 
 elected. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Harrison's administration were : 
 
 1 . The opening of Oklahoma. 
 
 2. The admission of new states. 
 
 3. The Pan-American Congress. 
 
 4. The McKinley Tariff Bill. 
 
 5. The new Pension Bill and Sherman Act. 
 
 6. The Homestead Strike. 
 
 Cleveland's Second Administration, 1893-1897 
 
 341. The Wilson Tariff ; the Columbian Exposition. — 
 
 The Democrats, believing the result of the elections 
 indicated a desire on the part of the people for lower 
 
 1 Among the other events of this administration were : 
 
 1. The dispute with Italy resulting from the killing of Italians in the 
 parish jail of New Orleans by a mob. The chief of police had been 
 assassinated, and the evidence pointed to the members of a secret society 
 called the Mafia as the murderers. At the trial they were not convicted, 
 and the infuriated citizens took the law into their own hands. The United 
 States government paid the families of the victims of the mob, and 
 Italy expressed its satisfaction. 
 
 2. Troubles with Chili over the killing in the streets of Valparaiso 
 of sailors from the war ship Balti??io7'e. There was also a dispute with 
 Germany concerning Samoa, but these difficulties were at last satisfac- 
 torily adjusted. 
 
 3. The celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the inauguration 
 of Washington in New York, April 29, 30, and May i, 1889. 
 
PERKJD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 357 
 
 tariff duties, passed the Wilson Tariff Bill, lowering many 
 duties and putting on the free list much raw material 
 used in manufactures. Among the free goods were 
 lumber, salt, and wool.^ 
 
 To commemorate suitably the four hundredth anni- 
 versary of the discovery of America by Columbus, a 
 World's Fair was held in Chicago. It was the largest 
 and most beautiful exposition ever known in the world, 
 no less than twenty-seven millions of people attending 
 it. Two years later a great exposition was held in 
 Atlanta. The beautiful buildings and grounds and 
 the interesting exhibits showed the wonderful progress 
 which the South had made since the close of the war. 
 
 342. Hawaii. — On Jan. 14, 1893, a revolution was 
 begun in Hawaii to overthrow the existing monarchy. 
 By the aid of the marines from the cruiser Boston it was 
 successful. A provisional government was organized 
 which negotiated a treaty of annexation with the United 
 States. This treaty was sent to the Senate by Presi- 
 dent Harrison but withdrawn by President Cleveland 
 when he took office as President. 
 
 On July 4, 1894, the republic of Hawaii was estab- 
 lished and was recognized by President Cleveland. Four 
 years later Hawaii was annexed to the United States. 
 
 1 Among the provisions of the bill was a tax of two per cent on 
 incomes which yielded more than four thousand dollars a year. This 
 provision was declared by the United States Supreme Court to be 
 unconstitutional. This bill, despite the declaration of the Democratic 
 platform for a "tariff for revenue only," was essentially a protective 
 tariff measure, and President Cleveland declined to sign it. He did 
 not, however, veto it, and it became a law without his signature. 
 
358 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 343. The Bering Sea and Venezuela Questions. — One 
 
 of the most vakiable possessions of Alaska is the seal 
 fisheries. The United States claimed that the purchase 
 of Alaska had given her the right to control the fisheries 
 of Bering sea. England denied this and claimed the right 
 to hunt for seals three miles and more from the shore. 
 The dispute was referred in 1 893 to a commission which 
 decided that Great Britain was right, but that the seals 
 should be protected. 
 
 A little later (1895) a dispute arose in South America 
 over the boundary between Venezuela and British 
 Guiana. It was believed that Great Britain was trying 
 to deprive Venezuela of territory that belonged to the 
 latter country, especially as gold was supposed to exist 
 in the disputed region. President Cleveland, seeing 
 that Great Britain showed no disposition to arbitrate 
 the matter, believed the Monroe Doctrine should protect 
 the weaker state. He asked Congress to give him power 
 to appoint a commission to find the real facts in the 
 case. Congress so voted and Great Britain soon after- 
 wards arbitrated the question. 
 
 344. The Crisis of 1893 ; the Repeal of the Sherman 
 Act ; the Federal Elections Bill. — In 1 890 there began 
 a business depression in Europe which would have had 
 an immediate effect on the United States had not the 
 crops, to a certain extent, failed in the countries of 
 Europe. This caused a large export of food products 
 from the United States. Soon, however, European 
 nations were compelled to withdraw the money which 
 they had invested in the United States. At this very 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 359 
 
 time the silver and tariff questions were agitating the 
 country. As a result President Cleveland had been in 
 his seat hardly three months when a crisis swept through 
 the land. It was believed the large purchase of silver 
 under the Sherman Act was one of the leading causes 
 of the troubles. A special session of Congress was 
 called (1893), and the law was repealed, without pre- 
 venting the crisis, however. 
 
 Immediately following this crisis a great railroad 
 strike occurred in the West. Four thousand workmen, 
 employed by the Pullman Company, struck for higher 
 wages. Riots ensued and the state and national troops 
 were called out. The strike lasted three months, with a 
 loss to all interested of about eighty millions of dollars. 
 
 The Federal Elections Bill, commonly called the 
 "Force Bill," which allowed the federal authorities to 
 use, if they desired, military forces at the polls, had been 
 the source of much bitter feeling and strife in the South. 
 It was repealed in 1894, having been on the statute 
 books foi* twenty-four years. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of Cleveland's second administration were : 
 
 1. The Wilson Tariff Act. 
 
 2. The Columbian Exposition. 
 
 3. The establishment of the republic of Hawaii. 
 
 4. The Bering sea and Venezuela questions. 
 
 5. The crisis of 1893 and the repeal of the Sherman Act. 
 
 6. The repeal of the Federal Elections Bill. 
 
360 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 McKinley's Administration,^ 1897-1901 
 
 345. The Silver Question ; the Dingley Tariff The 
 
 chief issue in the presidential campaign of 1896 was 
 the demand of the Democratic party for the free and 
 unhmited coinage of silver and gold at a ratio of 16 to i. 
 According to this plan a silver dollar would weigh six- 
 teen times as much as a gold dollar. William J. Bryan 
 was nominated on this platform. The Republicans 
 opposed the free coinage of silver except by interna- 
 tional agreement. They nominated William McKinley, 
 who was elected. 
 
 In the beginning of his administration the new Presi- 
 dent saw the necessity of securing more revenue to meet 
 the needs of the government, as our expenses were far 
 greater than our income. He therefore called a special 
 session of Congress, which passed a tariff act called the 
 Dingley Bill. The principal features of this bill were 
 the placing again of duties on wool ; hides, which had 
 been on the free list for a quarter of a century, were 
 again taxed ; higher duties were placed on woolens, flax, 
 silks, and linens. Reciprocity was again provided for as 
 well as the regulations against " trusts " or combinations 
 in restraint of lawful trade. ^ 
 
 1 William McKinley was born in Ohio in 1843. ^^ enlisted in 
 the army and served through the Civil War, rising to the rank of major. 
 He was later admitted to the bar and in 1876 was elected to Congress 
 by the Republicans. In 1891 he was elected governor of Ohio and was 
 reelected in 1893. ^^ ^'^'^^ elected President in 1896 and was reelected 
 in 1900. He died Sept. 14, 1901, from the bullet of an assassin. 
 
 2 The Dingley Bill was so named from the chairman of the Ways 
 and Means Committee. It became a law July 24, 1897. 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMf:XT 361 
 
 346. The War in Cuba ; Destruction of the Maine. — 
 
 From 1868 to 1878 war had existed in Cuba between 
 the Cubans and their Spanish rulers. In 1895 a new 
 revolt broke out, and the waste of life and property so 
 near our shores led many to ask our government to inter- 
 fere. Our government refused to take this step as we 
 were at peace with Spain, 
 
 a friendly nation. We 
 even tried, frequently in 
 vain, to prevent armed 
 expeditions from leaving 
 our shores to help the 
 insurgents. 
 
 To see that American 
 lives and property were 
 secure, however, the 
 battle ship Maine was 
 sent to Havana. On 
 the night of Feb. 15, 
 1898, the Maine was 
 destroyed at her anchor- 
 
 William McKinley 
 
 age. Two of her officers and two hundred and fifty-eight 
 of her crew went down with the unfortunate vessel. 
 
 A court of inquiry, after investigation, declared its 
 belief that the Maine was blown up by a submarine mine. 
 The court did not, however, lay the blame on any one. 
 Spain at once expressed her regret for the sad occurrence 
 and asked for arbitration. 
 
 347. Declaration of War against Spain. — The feeling 
 against Spain in the United States, resulting from the 
 
362 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 loss of the Maine, became so intense that Congress 
 passed (April 19, 1898) resolutions declaring that "the 
 people of Cuba are and of right ought to be free and 
 independent ; that it is the duty of the United States 
 to demand that Spain should give up Cuba and withdraw 
 its forces from the island ; that the President is directed 
 and empowered to use all the forces of the United 
 States and to call out the militia in order to carry out 
 
 these resolutions; that the 
 
 United States disclaims 
 any intention of control 
 over said island except for 
 the pacification thereof and 
 asserts its determination, 
 when that is accomplished, 
 to leave the government 
 and control of the island to 
 its people." These reso- 
 lutions caused the Spanish 
 government to give to our 
 minister in Madrid his 
 passports, and April 25 Congress declared war to exist 
 between the United States and Spain. 
 
 348. Battle of Manila Bay. — The United States 
 Asiatic Squadron, under Commodore George Dewey, was 
 at this time in the harbor of Hongkong. At once a 
 message was sent to him to capture or destroy the 
 Spanish fleet in the Philippines. Dewey sailed imme- 
 diately and Sunday morning. May i, before daybreak, 
 he passed the entrance to Manila bay and slowly drew 
 
 Admiral Dewey 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 363 
 
 Rear Admiral Sampson 
 
 near the city. When the sun arose the Spanish fleet 
 
 was seen off Cavite/ a peninsula which is eight miles 
 
 from Manila, across the bay. 
 
 Dewey had four cruisers, two 
 
 gunboats, and a dispatch boat, a 
 
 fleet superior to the naval force 
 
 of Spain. The battle began at 
 
 daybreak, and the American 
 
 squadron, passing and repassing 
 
 five times before the Spanish 
 
 boats, aimed its guns with deadly 
 
 effect. Every Spanish vessel was 
 
 destroyed, with large loss of life. 
 
 The Americans lost neither a vessel nor a man. Con- 
 gress gave Dewey a vote of thanks and a sword, and 
 
 the President appointed him rear 
 admiral. He was later given the 
 highest rank in the navy, — that 
 of admiral. 
 
 349. The Santiago Campaign ; 
 Hobson's Brave Exploit. — About 
 this time another Spanish fleet, 
 under Admiral Cervera,^ left the 
 Cape Verde islands. Its destina- 
 tion was for a long time unknown, 
 but it was at last discovered in 
 
 the harbor of Santiago. Before this harbor a large fleet 
 
 of war ships of the United States now gathered. 
 
 1 Cavite (Ca-vee'tay). 
 
 2 Cervera (Ther-veh'rah) 
 
 Rear Admiral Schley 
 
364 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 As the entrance to the harbor of Santiago^ is very 
 narrow, it was thought possible to shut in the Spanish 
 fleet beyond possibiUty of escape by sinking a vessel, 
 called the Merrimac, at the entrance. A brave 
 southerner, Richmond P. Hobson, volunteered to go on 
 this perilous mission. The Merrimac entered under a 
 
 hail of shot and 
 shell from the 
 batteries and was 
 sunk, but not at 
 a point to choke 
 up the channel. 
 Hobson with his 
 seven brave com- 
 panions was res- 
 cued by Admiral 
 Cervera and was 
 treated by him 
 with extreme 
 kindness. 
 
 350. Battles of 
 Caney and San 
 Juan ; Destruction of Cervera*s Fleet. — In the meantime 
 our army had landed in Cuba and now drew near the city 
 of Santiago. On July i and 2 the Americans attacked 
 the Spaniards at Caney^and San Juan^ and drove them 
 back, not without considerable loss, however. 
 
 1 Santiago (San-tee-ah'go). 2 Caney (Cah^nay). 
 
 ^ San Juan (San Whahn'). In these battles our regular troops had 
 the valuable assistance of a regiment of cavalry largely recruited by 
 Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt and called "The Rough Riders." 
 
 Rescue of Hobson by the Spanish Admiral 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 365 
 
 ^ 
 
 i.f.. 
 
 f^' 
 
 % 
 
 i^^J^'- 
 
 
 
 
 The Dewey Arch 
 
 On the following Sunday, July 3, Captain Sampson, 
 the commander of the blockading fleet, sailed on his 
 flagship, the Nezv York, to visit General Shafter down 
 the coast, Commodore Schley becoming the ranking 
 
366 ESSENTIALS OP^ AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 officer of the squadron. Scarcely had Sampson dis- 
 appeared on the horizon when the Spanish fleet came 
 out of the harbor. The Spanish vessels were no match 
 for the powerful American battle ships with their guns 
 manned by superb marksmen, and every Spanish vessel 
 was quickly destroyed. Admiral Cervera and twelve 
 hundred of his men were made prisoners, while the loss 
 of life on his vessels had been fearful. The American 
 loss was one man killed. Not a vessel was seriously 
 injured. Two weeks later (July 17) the city of Santi- 
 ago surrendered. Porto Rico was captured by General 
 Miles with practically no resistance. 
 
 351. Terms of Peace ; War in the Philippines. — The 
 Spanish government now sought terms of peace, and 
 commissioners met in Paris. On December 10, 1898, 
 the treaty was signed. As a result of the war Spain 
 lost Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, and Guam 
 in the Ladrones.^ For the improvements in the Philip- 
 pines twenty millions of dollars were paid. The treaty 
 was ratified February 6, 1899. 
 
 The Filipinos in the meantime had organized a 
 republic under the dictatorship of Aguinaldo,^ their 
 military leader. They declined to recognize the right 
 of Spain to sell their country to the Americans, and 
 war finally broke out February 4, 1899, between ^^^ 
 Americans and the Filipinos. For several days the 
 Filipinos presented a strong front to the American 
 troops, until Malolos,^ their capital, fell. They then 
 
 1 Ladrones (Spanish pronunciation, La-dro'nace). 
 
 2 Aguinaldo (Ah-gee-nahl'do). ^ Malolos (Mah-loh'loce). 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 367 
 
 broke into small detachments and for a time maintained 
 a species of guerrilla warfare. 
 
 352. The Trans-Mississippi Exposition. — An expo- 
 sition was opened at Omaha, Nebraska, June i, 1898, 
 which was designed to show the wonderful progress 
 made by the states beyond the Mississippi in fifty 
 years. Representatives of twenty-five Indian tribes 
 showed the customs and methods of living of the red 
 men in the early days on the plains of the West. There 
 were also exhibits of the mineral and industrial wealth 
 of the great commonwealths that have been formed 
 from the lands where four decades before the buffaloes 
 ranged by millions. 
 
 353. The Hague Conference. — The czar of Russia 
 invited (August 24, 1898) the nations of the world 
 to a conference, to secure if possible the abolition of 
 war and the reduction of standing armies. In answer 
 to this invitation the nations sent representatives to 
 The Hague, in Holland, where the conference opened 
 May 18, 1899. Many plans were adopted for relieving 
 the horrors of war, and it was decided to establish an 
 International Court of Arbitration, in which fifteen of 
 the greater nations of the world are represented. 
 
 354. The Gold Standard Act. — The discussion over 
 the relative merits of gold and silver as the standard of 
 value had been the burning question in the presidential 
 election of 1896. Congress finally took up the matter 
 and passed a bill making the gold dollar the standard 
 of value and providing for " the maintenance at a parity 
 with that standard of all forms of money issued or coined 
 
368 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 by the United- States." This bill was warmly opposed 
 in both the Senate and House of Representatives, but 
 it became a law March 14, 1900. 
 
 355. Freedom of Trade with China. — The leading 
 nations of Europe, in their desire for further colonial 
 territory, secured from China on one pretext or another 
 portions of her territory. It seemed probable that all 
 China would be divided among the European nations, 
 who would probably place heavy customs duties on all 
 goods entering the ports of China under their control. 
 As this would shut out our goods, the United States 
 asked (Sept. 6, 1899) Great Britain, Germany, Russia, 
 France, Italy, and Japan to grant free trade to all 
 the world in the Chinese ports under their control. 
 The nations gave immediate and hearty consent to this 
 request, which secures the so-called '' open door " for 
 our trade in China, ^ and in all probability will prevent 
 the partition of the Chinese Empire and its conquest 
 by the armies of Europe. In the presidential election 
 of 1900 President McKinley was reelected. Theodore 
 Roosevelt was elected Vice President. The Democratic 
 candidate was William J. Bryan. 
 
 A leading issue of the campaign was again the free 
 coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to i. Another 
 issue was ''imperialism." The Democrats maintained 
 that the permanent increase in our military forces and 
 
 1 By a cession signed by the native chiefs and by a treaty with 
 England and Germany we secured (April 17, 1900) Tutuila, with the 
 excellent harbor of Pago-Pago, and a few other islands of the Samoa 
 group. 
 
PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 369 
 
 In the following year (1901) 
 a law was passed to increase 
 the standing army of the nation. 
 According to this law the total 
 enlisted force shall not exceed 
 one hundred 
 thousand 
 men. Con- 
 gress passed 
 at this time 
 another law 
 giving the 
 Pr es ident 
 power to 
 establish 
 civil govern- 
 ment in the 
 Philippine 
 islands. 
 
 the establishment 
 of a colonial form 
 of government in 
 the Philippines 
 were not in accord 
 with the spirit of 
 the Constitution. 
 The Republicans 
 demanded a gold 
 standard as opposed to 
 free silver ; they declared 
 that as soon as the inhabit- 
 ants of the Philippines 
 could maintain a stable form 
 of government it would 
 be granted to them. On 
 these issues the Republicans carried the election. 
 
370 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The leading events of McKinley's administration were : 
 
 1. The Dingley tariff. 
 
 2. The war with Spain and in the Philippines. 
 
 3. The Trans-Mississippi Exposition. 
 
 4. The Hague Conference. 
 
 5. Freedom of trade with China. 
 
 McKlNLEY AND RoOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATIONS, I9OI- 
 
 356. The Pan-American Exposition ; Assassination of 
 President McKinley. — In the spring of 1901 the Pan- 
 American Exposition was opened in Buffalo. The pur- 
 pose of the exposition was to show the development of the 
 states of North, Central, and South America, and to join 
 in bonds of friendship the republics of the New World. 
 
 On September 6, while President McKinley was giving 
 a public reception, he was shot by an anarchist.^ He 
 died September 14 and was buried at Canton, Ohio, 
 while the whole nation grieved the loss of its foremost 
 citizen. Vice President Roosevelt ^ at once assumed the 
 office of President. 
 
 1 Leon F. Czolgosz (Chorgosh) was executed in the state prison at 
 Auburn, New York, Oct. 29, 1901. 
 
 2 Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City, Oct. 27, 1858, 
 and was graduated from Harvard University in 1880. He served in the 
 legislature of the state of New York for three years*' and in 1889 was 
 appointed United States civil-service commissioner. He became later 
 police commissioner of New York, and in 1897 was made Assistant 
 Secretary of the Navy. At the outbreak of the war with Spain he 
 resigned this office to organize the " Rough Riders." At the close of 
 the war he was elected (1898) governor of New York. Two years 
 later he was elected Vice President of the United States. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 
 
 Sections 1-20. Who were the Northmen ? Find their home on 
 the map. Describe the voyage of Leif Ericson. Were there any lasting 
 results from these voyages ? What was the condition of Europe in the 
 fifteenth century ? Tell of the routes to the Indies. Why was a new 
 route necessary .!* What knowledge of the East did Europe possess at 
 this time.-* Marco Polo and his book. In what country was Columbus 
 born? Under what flag did he sail .^ Why did he wish to sail west- 
 ward? The great journey of Columbus. How many voyages did he 
 make ? John Cabot and his voyages. W^hat country secured a claim 
 to America from his discoveries ? What was the Line of Demarcation ? 
 How did Portugal secure Brazil ? What did Vasco da Gama's voyage 
 prove ? The name of America. Who discovered a water route from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific ? Describe Magellan's great voyage. Which 
 of the discoverers were Italian ? What religion did they profess ? 
 Trace on the map the routes of Columbus, Cabot, Cabral, Magellan, 
 and Vasco da Gama. 
 
 21-37. W^hat was the object of Ponce de Leon's voyage ? Why 
 was Florida so named ? Cortes and Mexico. Tell about De Ayllon's 
 expedition. De Soto and his journey. With what great river is his 
 name associated ? Tell about Coronado, De Narvaez, De Vaca, and 
 Father Mark. Which is the oldest city in the United States ? Under 
 what flag did Verrazano sail? Who was Cartier, and where did he 
 explore ? What was the first permanent French settlement in America ? 
 Champlain and his great explorations. Where did the French settle in 
 Florida ? Were they successful ? Tell of Frobisher, Drake, and Gil- 
 bert. Under what flag did they sail ? Describe the Raleigh colonies. 
 Were they successful ? Where did Gosnold and Pring explore? 
 
 38-42. What religious orders attempted to convert and civilize the 
 Indians in Florida? Tell about the Huron missions and the Jesuits. 
 Where did Father Menard found a mission ? Describe the Maine 
 missions and the work of Father Rale. 
 
 43-46. Why were the Indians so named ? Describe their appear- 
 ance. Find on the map the principal Indian families or groups. What 
 was the clan ? the totem ? Habits and industries of the Indians. Tell 
 about wampum. What did the white man learn from the Indian ? 
 
 47-54. What territory was granted by charter to the London Company? 
 to the Plymouth Company ? What were some of the leading features of 
 
 371 
 
372 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the charter ? For what is Jamestown noted ? Why was it so named ? 
 John Smith and the Jamestown colony. Who were th^Cavaliers ? The 
 introduction of slavery. Tell of the establishment of representative 
 government. Was this important ? What caused the Bacon rebellion?- 
 
 55-61. To what nation did Henry Hudson belong? Under what 
 flag did he sail? Describe his voyage. What was he trying to find? 
 What great river did he explore? The Dutch West India Company. 
 What did the Dutch name the country? Where were the first Dutch 
 settlements ? Tell about the purchase of Manhattan. The patroons. 
 Tell about Peter Stuyvesant and his relations with the Swedes and Eng- 
 lish. How did the English finally obtain this province ? Why was it 
 named New York ? Who was Thomas Dongan ? Describe his first 
 legislative assembly and his Charter of Liberties. What was the 
 Leisler rebellion ? 
 
 62-63. Why was New Jersey so named ? Who first settled it ? 
 Describe the grant to Berkeley and Carteret. East and West Jersey. 
 Where was the first English settlement? Who were the Quakers? 
 When was New Jersey united to New York ? When did it become a 
 separate royal province ? 
 
 64-72. Who were the I'ilgrims ? Why did they come to America? 
 The Mayflower at Plymouth. Describe the relations between the Pil- 
 grims and the Indians. What was the town meeting? What finally 
 became of the Plymouth colony? Who founded the Massachusetts 
 Bay colony? Where was the first settlement in this colony? Describe 
 the founding of Boston. P.oger Williams and the Puritans. Describe 
 the New England confederacy. What was the result of " King " 
 Philip's War? When did the colonies of Massachusetts bay and Ply- 
 mouth become one province? Was religious freedom allowed in these 
 colonies ? 
 
 73-74. Describe the grant to Gorges and Mason. Tell of the first 
 settlements in New Hampshire. With what colony was New Hamp- 
 shire frequently united? When did it become a royal colony? By 
 whom was Londonderry settled ? Name an early settlement in Maine. 
 With what colony was Maine joined ? When was it finally separated ? 
 
 75-80. What title did the Dutch have to Connecticut ? Describe 
 the grant to Lord Say and Lord Brooke. The migration to Connecti- 
 cut. What caused it? What towns were founded? What is the 
 importance of the Connecticut constitution ? Describe the New 
 Haven colony. The Pequot War. What was the result of this war ? 
 Governor Andros and the charter. 
 
 81-86. Describe the position of Catholics in England. What did 
 Lord Baltimore wish to do ? The Maryland charter. Where was the 
 first settlement ? Describe the Toleration Act. What was the Clay- 
 borne rebellion ? What happened to Maryland when William and 
 Mary ascended the throne of England ? 
 
 87-89. Who was Roger Williams ? What was his purpose in 
 founding Providence ? Religious toleration. Tell about the other 
 settlements in Rhode Island. 
 
APPENDIX 373 
 
 90-91. Where was the first settlement in Delaware? By whom 
 was it made ? Tell about the Dutch and Delaware. Describe the 
 English conquest of Delaware. 
 
 92-94. To whom was Carolina granted. Describe Locke's Grand 
 Model. When was the province divided .-' 
 
 95-96. How did Penn secure his land in America ? What does Penn- 
 sylvania mean ? Describe the first settlement. Penn and the Indians. 
 
 97-99. What was Oglethorpe's purpose in founding Georgia? 
 Describe the trouble with Spain. The founding of vSavannah. Was 
 Oglethorpe's plan successful ? How did Georgia become a royal colony ? 
 
 100-103. Who first explored the West ? Find on the map the 
 French missions. Describe Father Marquette's exploration of the 
 Mississippi. Who was La Salle ? Tell about his wonderful journey. 
 What did he name the country? Who founded New Orleans? With 
 what great city is Cadillac's name connected ? What part of the 
 country did the French claim ? What great rivers did they hold ? 
 
 104-118. How many wars were there between the French and 
 English in America? What was the cause of King William's War? 
 Had it any lasting results? When did it end? What was the result 
 of the War of the Spanish Succession ? By what other name is it 
 known ? What was the third war between the French and the Eng- 
 lish ? When did the last war begin ? Trace on the map the French 
 forts. The Ohio Company. What was the importance of Fort 
 Duquesne ? What city now stands on its site ? Describe Washing- 
 ton's first military experience. What was the Albany convention ? 
 Tell of the expulson of the Acadians. Describe the fall of Fort 
 William Henry. When did the English prospects become brighter ? 
 What was the result of the battle on the Plains of Abraham ? Show 
 on the map the possessions of England in 1763. What did Pontiac try 
 to do ? What was the Quebec Act ? 
 
 119-123. Which were the charter colonies ? the proprietary colonies ? 
 the royal colonies? What was the difference in the three forms of 
 government? 
 
 124-145. What was the direct cause of the Revolutionary War? 
 Give the leading features of the Navigation Acts, the Stamp Act, the 
 Townshend Acts. When and where was the First Continental Congress 
 held ? When was the battle of Lexington and what were its results ? 
 When was the Second Continental Congress ? Tell about Montgomery 
 at Quebec. Describe the battle of Bunker Hill. What was the 
 Declaration of Independence ? What were the results of the battles 
 of Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton? Who was Robert Morris? 
 
 146-163. What aid did France render us ? W^ho were Lafayette, 
 Rochambeau, Pulaski, and Steuben ? What was the importance of 
 Burgoyne's surrender? Describe the treason of Arnold. Tell about 
 Cornwallis and Greene in North Carolina. The surrender of York- 
 town; its results. When was the treaty of peace signed? What was 
 the Northwest Territory? Where was the new Constitution framed? 
 What were some of its chief features ? 
 
374 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 164-166. What geographical divisions are there in the United 
 States? Describe the effect of the physical features on the settlement 
 of the country. Tell about the resources of the United States. 
 
 167-177. Where was Washington inaugurated? Where was the 
 national capital? What city became the capital ift 1791? What 
 important financial measures were adopted ? Who took a leading part 
 in these measures? Who invented the cotton gin? Why was this an 
 important invention ? Tell about " Citizen " Genet. Why was Jay's 
 treaty unpopular? 
 
 178-182. Of what party was Adams the candidate ? What were 
 the X, Y, Z papers ? Tell about the trouble with France. Why did 
 France expect us to aid her? What were the Alien and Sedition 
 Laws? What was the significance of the Virginia and Kentucky 
 resolutions ? What was the difference between the Federalists and 
 the Republicans ? 
 
 183-191. To what party did Jefferson belong? What was the 
 greatest event of his administration ? Why did Napoleon desire to sell 
 to the United States the territory of Louisiana ? Tell about Lewis 
 and Clark's expedition. What difficulty arose between England and 
 France ? Describe the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts. Tell 
 about Fulton's great invention. What action did Congress take on 
 the slavery question at this time ? 
 
 192-203. How did the wars between England and France affect 
 us? What was the Tecumseh conspiracy? Tell about the battle of 
 Tippecanoe. What were the causes of the War of 1812? What was 
 the objective point of the war? Tell about Hull's surrender. The 
 Constitution and the Giierriere. Describe the battles of Chippewa and 
 Lundys Lane. Tell of McDonough's great victory. Who won the 
 battle of lake Erie ? Describe the burning of Washington. When 
 was the battle of New Orleans? Who led the American forces to 
 victory? What were the results of the war? What did the Hartford 
 convention aim to do? What was its chief result? 
 
 204-209. What was Monroe's administration called? What ter- 
 ritory did we acquire during his presidency ? Give a sketch of the 
 history of Florida up to the time of its purchase by us. What was the 
 Missouri Compromise? WHiat is the Monroe Doctrine ? What caused 
 it to be proclaimed ? Tell about Lafayette's visit. Emigration to the 
 West. 
 
 210-211. What happened in the election of 1824 ? The tariff 
 question. Tell about the Erie canal and its results. Where was the 
 first railroad in America ? 
 
 212-217. What was President Jackson's policy in regard to office- 
 holders ? Why did he end the United States Bank? South Carolina 
 and nullification. Tell about Webster and Hayne. How did the Demo- 
 crats differ from the Whigs in regard to the doctrine of states' rights ? 
 
 218-223. What caused the crisis of 1837 ? What financial meas- 
 ure did the government adopt ? Who were the Mormons ? Tell about 
 the development of the express business. 
 
APPENDIX 375 
 
 224-229. How long did Harrison live after his inauguration ? Who 
 succeeded to the presidency ? Tell about the Webster-Ashburton treaty. 
 What was the cause of the Dorr rebellion? The electric telegraph. 
 Tell about the annexation of Texas. 
 
 230-245. What was the Oregon question .'' Give the cause of the 
 Mexican War. What were the principal battles? What territory was 
 ceded to the United States as a result of this war? What states 
 and territories have been made from the ceded section? What was 
 the Wilmot Proviso? Tell about the discovery of gold. By what 
 party was Taylor elected ? 
 
 246-248. What compromise did Clay propose in 1850? Tell about 
 the Fugitive Slave Law. What was the influence of Uncle Totti''s 
 Cabin ? What was the Gadsden Purchase ? 
 
 249-253. Describe the provisions and results of the Kansas-Nebraska 
 Bill. Tell about Perry and Japan. Who were the Know-Nothings ? 
 
 254-259. What was the effect of the Dred Scott decision ? What was 
 the cause of the crisis of 1857? What was John Brown's raid? What 
 were the results of the election of i860? Tell about the beginnings of 
 secession. Which was the first state to secede from the Union? 
 
 260-281. How many states seceded ? What advantages in respect 
 to the war had the North ? What advantages had the South ? What 
 slave states remained in the Union ? What part of Virginia refused to 
 secede ? Where was the first Confederate capital ? What city later 
 became the capital ? Tell about the battle of Bull Run. What was 
 the blockade ? The Tretit affair. Describe McClellan's peninsular 
 campaign. Give an account of the battle of Cedar mountain and 
 the second battle of Bull Run. Who won the battle of Antietam ? 
 Tell about the battle of Fredericksburg. Describe the battle between 
 the Alonitor and the Merrimac. Who captured Fort Henry and 
 Fort Donelson? Tell about the battle of Shiloh. Who led the 
 expedition against New Orleans ? Who won at Murf reesboro ? 
 
 282-298. When was the Emancipation Proclamation issued ? 
 Describe its provisions. What was the result of the battle of Chan- 
 cellorsville ? Describe the battle of Gettysburg. Who captured Vicks- 
 burg? Describe the battles of Chattanooga and Chickamauga. Who 
 became general in chief of the Union armies at this time ? Describe 
 the battles of the Wilderness. Tell about Sherman's march to the sea. 
 When did General Lee surrender? What did the war settle? When 
 was President Lincoln assassinated ? 
 
 299-307. What was Johnson's plan of reconstruction ? What 
 was the Thirteenth Amendment ? What caused the contest between 
 the President and Congress? What was the Fourteenth Amendment? 
 What was the result of the impeachment of the President ? Tell about 
 the Atlantic cable. From what nation was Alaska purchased ? What 
 was the Homestead Act ? 
 
 308-321. What were the Alabama claims ? How were they settled? 
 What is meant by civil-service reform ? Describe the building of the 
 transcontinental railroad. What was the Fifteenth Amendment? 
 
3/6 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 What was the " vSalary Grab"? The Weather Bureau. Describe the 
 crisis of 1873. What was the financial legislation of this time? For 
 what purpose was the electoral commission appointed ? 
 
 322-325. Describe the withdrawal of the Federal troops from the 
 South. Tell of the invention of the telephone and the electric light. 
 What does " resumption of specie payment " mean ? 
 
 326-331. How long was President Garfield in office before his 
 assassination? Tell about the revision of the tariff and the Civil- 
 Service Bill. What was the Edmunds Antipolygamy Bill ? What was 
 the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Bill ? Describe the provisions of 
 the Alien Contract Labor Law. 
 
 332-356, What are the provisions of the Presidential Succession 
 Act, of the Interstate Commerce Law, and of the Chinese Exclusion Bill ? 
 Tell about Oklahoma. Describe the celebration of the Washington 
 Centennial. What were the provisions of the vSherman Silver Purchase 
 and Coinage Act ? Describe the McKinley Tariff Bill. Tell about the 
 secret ballot. What great exposition was held at this time ? What 
 was the cause of the crisis of 1893 ? Describe the provisions of the 
 Wilson Tariff Bill. What was the Venezuela question ? Tell about 
 the republic of Hawaii. Describe the Dingley Tariff Bill. What was 
 the cause of the Spanish-American War ? Describe the battle of Manila 
 bay. Tell about the destruction of the Spanish fleet off Santiago. 
 What was the result of the war? Give the provisions of the Gold 
 Standard Act. What does the "open door" in China mean? What 
 was the purpose of the Pan-American Exposition ? When and where 
 was President McKinley assassinated? Who succeeded him? 
 
APPENDIX 
 
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37^ 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 TABLE OF STATES AND TERRITORIES 
 
 No. 
 
 Name of State 
 
 Date of 
 Settle- 
 ment 
 
 By whom 
 Settled 
 
 Date of 
 Admis- 
 sion 
 
 Square 
 Miles 
 
 Popula- 
 tion IN 
 1790 
 
 Popula- 
 tion in 
 I goo 
 
 I 
 
 Delaware ^ 
 
 1638 
 
 Swedes 
 
 1787 
 
 2,050 
 
 50,996 
 
 184,735 
 
 2 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 1683 
 
 English 
 
 1787 
 
 45,215 
 
 434,373 
 
 6,302,115 
 
 3 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 1617 
 
 Dutch 
 
 .787 
 
 7,815 
 
 184,139 
 
 1,883,669 
 
 4 
 
 Georgia 
 
 1733 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 59,475 
 
 82,548 
 
 2,216,331 
 
 5 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 1633 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 4,990 
 
 238,431 
 
 908,355 
 
 6 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 1620 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 8,315 
 
 378,717 
 
 2,805,346 
 
 7 
 
 Maryland 
 
 1634 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 12,210 
 
 319,728 
 
 1,190,050 
 
 8 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 1670 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 30,570 
 
 249,073 
 
 1,340,316 
 
 9 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 1623 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 9,305 
 
 141,899 
 
 411,588 
 
 lO 
 
 Virginia 
 
 1607 
 
 English 
 
 1788 
 
 42,450 
 
 748,308 
 
 including 
 
 W. Va. 
 
 1,854,184 
 
 II 
 
 New York 
 
 1623 
 
 Dutch 
 
 1788 
 
 49,170 
 
 340,120 
 
 7,268,012 
 
 12 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 1663 
 
 English 
 
 17S9 
 
 52,250 
 
 393,751 
 
 1,893,810 
 
 13 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 1636 
 
 English 
 
 1790 
 
 1,250 
 
 69,110 
 
 428,556 
 
 14 
 
 Vermont 
 
 1724 
 
 English 
 
 1791 
 
 9,565 
 
 85,416 
 
 343,641 
 
 15 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 1774 
 
 English 
 
 1792 
 
 40,400 
 
 73,077 
 
 2,147,174 
 
 i6 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 1769 
 
 English 
 
 1796 
 
 42,050 
 
 35,791 
 
 2,020,616 
 
 17 
 
 Ohio 
 
 1788 
 
 Americans 
 
 1803 
 
 41,060 
 
 
 4,157,545 
 
 18 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 1700 
 
 French 
 
 1S12 
 
 48,720 
 
 , 
 
 1,381,625 
 
 19 
 
 Indiana 
 
 1702 
 
 French 
 
 1816 
 
 36,350 
 
 
 2,516,462 
 
 20 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 1716 
 
 Frencli 
 
 1817 
 
 46,810 
 
 
 1,551,270 
 
 21 
 
 Illinois 
 
 1682 
 
 French 
 
 1818 
 
 56,650 
 
 
 4,821,550 
 
 22 
 
 Alabama 
 
 1702 
 
 French 
 
 1819 
 
 52,250 
 
 
 1,828,697 
 
 
 1 The heavy-faced type indicates the thirteen original states. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 379 
 
 TABLE OF STATES AND TERRITORIES {Concluded) 
 
 No. 
 
 Name (jf State 
 
 Date of 
 Settle- 
 ment 
 
 By whom 
 Settled 
 
 Date of 
 Admis- 
 sion 
 
 Square 
 Miles 
 
 Popula- 
 tion IN 
 1790 
 
 Popula- 
 tion IN 
 1900 
 
 23 
 
 Maine 
 
 1625 
 
 English 
 
 1820 
 
 33,040 
 
 96,540 
 
 694,466 
 
 24 
 
 Missouri 
 
 •7«9 
 
 French 
 
 1821 
 
 69,415 
 
 
 3,106,665 
 
 25 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 1670 
 
 French 
 
 1836 
 
 53,850 
 
 
 1,3 1 ',564 
 
 26 
 
 Michigan 
 
 1670 
 
 French 
 
 1837 
 
 58,915 
 
 
 2,420,982 
 
 27 
 
 Florida 
 
 15^5 
 
 Spanish 
 
 1845 
 
 58,680 
 
 
 528,542 
 
 28 
 
 Texas 
 
 1685 
 
 French 
 
 1845 
 
 265,780 
 
 
 3,048,710 
 
 2q 
 
 Iowa 
 
 1833 
 
 Americans 
 
 1846 
 
 56,025 
 
 
 2,231,853 
 
 30 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 1669 
 
 French 
 
 1848 
 
 56,040 
 
 
 2,069,042 
 
 31 
 
 California 
 
 1769 
 
 Spanish 
 
 1850 
 
 158,360 
 
 
 1,485,053 
 
 32 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 1819 
 
 Americans 
 
 1858 
 
 83,365 
 
 
 1,751,394 
 
 33 
 
 Oregon 
 
 1811 
 
 Americans 
 
 1859 
 
 96,030 
 
 
 413,536 
 
 34 
 
 Kansas 
 
 1854 
 
 Americans 
 
 1861 
 
 82,080 
 
 
 1,470,495 
 
 35 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 English 
 
 1863 
 
 24,780 
 
 included 
 in 1790 
 in Va. 
 
 958,800 
 
 36 
 
 Nevada 
 
 1850 
 
 Americans 
 
 1864 
 
 110,700 
 
 
 42,335 
 
 37 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 1847 
 
 Americans 
 
 1867 
 
 77,510 
 
 
 1,068,539 
 
 38 
 
 Colorado 
 
 1859 
 
 Americans 
 
 1876 
 
 103,925 
 
 
 539,7'^o 
 
 39 
 
 North Dakota 
 
 1857 
 
 Americans 
 
 1889 
 
 70,795 
 
 
 319,146 
 
 40 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 1857 
 
 Americans 
 
 1889 
 
 77,650 
 
 
 401,570 
 
 4« 
 
 Montana 
 
 1861 
 
 Americans 
 
 1889 
 
 146,080 
 
 
 243,329 
 
 42 
 
 Washington 
 
 1845 
 
 Americans 
 
 1889 
 
 69,180 
 
 
 518,103 
 
 43 
 
 Idaho 
 
 1862 
 
 Americans 
 
 1890 
 
 84,800 
 
 
 161,772 
 
 44 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 1867 
 
 Americans 
 
 1890 
 
 97,890 
 
 
 92,531 
 
 45 
 
 Utah 
 
 .847 
 
 Americans 
 
 1896 
 
 84,970 
 
 
 276,749 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 Ix Congress, July 4, 1776 
 
 A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OE THE 
 
 UNITED STATES OE AMERICA, IN CONGRESS 
 
 ASSEMBLED 
 
 When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary 
 for one people to dissolve the political bands which have con- 
 nected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of 
 the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
 nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the 
 opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes 
 which impel them to the separation. ^ 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident: — That all men are 
 created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
 tain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, 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 ;f: that, whenever any form of govern- 
 ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the 
 people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new govern- 
 ment, 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, j Prudence, indeed, will dic- 
 tate, that governments long established should not be changed 
 for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experience 
 hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils 
 are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms 
 
 1 The original cop\- of the Declaration of Independence is kept in the 
 Department of State in Washington. The Declaration was adopted July 4, 
 1776, and was signed by the members representing the thirteen states Aug. 2, 
 1776. John Hancock, whose name appears first among the signers, was presi- 
 dent of the Congress. 
 
 381 
 
382 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 
 and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a 
 design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
 it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new 
 guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suf- 
 ferance of these colonies ; and such is now the necessity which 
 constrains them to alter their former systems of government. 
 The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of 
 repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the 
 establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove 
 this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 
 
 He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and 
 necessary for the public good. 
 
 He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and 
 pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
 assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly 
 neglected to attend to them. 
 
 He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of 
 large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 
 the right of representation in the legislature — a right inesti- 
 mable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 
 
 He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, 
 uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public 
 records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance 
 with his measure. 
 
 He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, 
 with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 
 
 He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause 
 others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of 
 annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exer- 
 cise; the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the 
 dangers of invasions from without, and convulsions within. 
 
 He has endeavored to prevent the population oi these States; 
 for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of 
 foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 
 hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of 
 lands. 
 
 He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his 
 assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 
 
I 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 383 
 
 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 sub- 
 stance. 
 
 He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, 
 without the consent of our legislatures. 
 
 He has affected to render the military independent of, and 
 superior to, the civil power. 
 
 He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction 
 foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws ; 
 giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : 
 
 For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; 
 
 For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any 
 murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 
 States ; 
 
 For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; 
 
 For imposing taxes on us without our consent ; 
 
 For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; 
 
 For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended 
 offences ; 
 
 For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbor- 
 ing province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and 
 enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example 
 and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into 
 these colonies ; 
 
 For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable 
 laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; 
 
 For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 
 invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 
 
 He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his 
 protection, and waging war against us. 
 
 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our 
 towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 
 
 He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign merce- 
 naries 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. 
 
384 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 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 insurrection among us, and has endeav- 
 ored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless 
 Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistin- 
 guished 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 char- 
 acter is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, 
 is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 
 
 Nor have we been wanting in our 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 circumstances of our emigra- 
 tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their native jus- 
 tice 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 consan- 
 guinity. 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 knd by the authority of the good people of these 
 colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That these united Colo- 
 nies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states ; 
 that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, 
 and that all political connection between them and the state of 
 Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved : and that, 
 as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, 
 conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do 
 all other acts and things which independent states may of right 
 do. And, 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. 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 385 
 
 The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, 
 engrossed, and signed by the following members : 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE 
 JosiAH Bartlett 
 William Whipple 
 Matthew Thornton 
 
 massachuse:tts bay 
 
 Samuel Adams 
 John Adams 
 Robert Treat Paine 
 Elbridge Gerry 
 
 RHODE ISLAND 
 
 Stephen Hopkins 
 William Ellery 
 
 CONNECTICUT 
 
 Roger Sherman 
 Samuel Huntington 
 William Williams 
 Oliver Wolcott 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 William Floyd 
 Philip Livingston 
 Francis Lewis 
 Lewis Morris 
 
 JOHN HANCOCK 
 
 NEW JERSEY 
 
 Richard Stockton 
 John. Witherspoon 
 Francis Hopkinson 
 John Hart 
 Abraham Clark 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Robert Morris 
 Benjamin Rush 
 Benjamin Franklin 
 John Morton 
 George Clymer 
 James Smith 
 George Taylor 
 James Wilson 
 George Ross 
 
 DELAWARE 
 C^sar Rodney 
 George Read 
 Thomas M'Kean 
 
 MARYLAND 
 Samuel Chase 
 William Paca 
 Thomas Stone 
 
 Charles Carroll, of Car- 
 roUton 
 
 VIRGINIA 
 
 George Wythe 
 Richard Henry Lee 
 Thomas Jefferson 
 Benjamin Harrison 
 Thomas Nelson, Jr. 
 Francis Lightfoot Lee 
 Carter Braxton 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 William Hooper 
 Joseph Hewes 
 John Penn 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 Edward Rutledge 
 Thomas Hayward, Jr. 
 Thomas Lynch, Jr. 
 Arthur Middleton 
 
 GEORGIA 
 
 Button Gwinnett 
 Lyman Hall 
 George Walton 
 
 Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several 
 assemblies, conventions, and committees, or councils of safety, and 
 to^the several commanding officers of the continental troops: that 
 it be proclaimed in each of the United States, at the head of the 
 armv. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Preamble 
 
 We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
 perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide 
 for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure 
 the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
 and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
 America. 
 
 ARTICLE I. — LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 
 
 Section i. — Congress 
 
 All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Con- 
 gress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
 House of Representatives.^ 
 
 Section 2. — House of Representatives 
 
 The House of Representatives 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 qualifica- 
 
 ec ion tions requisite for electors of the most numerous 
 
 Members. , 1 r , r. t • , 
 
 branch of the State Legislature. 
 
 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 ir^ which he shall 
 
 be chosen. 
 
 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
 
 the several States which may be included within this Union, 
 
 1 The term of each Congress is two years. It assembles on the first Monday 
 in December and " expires at noon of the fourth of March next succeeding the 
 beginning of its second regular session, when a new Congress begins." 
 
 386 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 387 
 
 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, three-fifths of all other persons.^ The actual 
 Apportionment. g,^^j^^g,.^^tion shall be made within three years after 
 the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within 
 every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall 
 by law direct. The number 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 three; 
 Massachusetts, eight ; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
 one ; Connecticut, five ; New York, six; New Jersey, four; Penn- 
 sylvania, eight ; Delaware, one ; Maryland, six ; Virginia, ten ; 
 North Carolina, five ; South Carolina, five ; and Georgia, three. 
 When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, 
 
 the executive authority ^ thereof shall issue writs of 
 Vacancies. 1 ■ . /-n 1 
 
 election to fill such vacancies. 
 
 The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker ^ and 
 
 Officers. other officers ; and shall have the sole power of 
 
 Impeachment, impeachment. 
 
 Section 3. — Senate 
 
 The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
 Number senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature 
 
 of Senators: thereof, for six years ; and each senator shall have 
 Election. Qne vote. 
 
 Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of 
 the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be 
 into three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class 
 shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year ; of the second 
 class, at the expiration of the fourth year; of the third class, at 
 
 1 The apportionment under the census of 1900 is one representative for every 
 193,291 persons. 
 
 2 The word "persons" refers to slaves. This paragraph has been amended 
 (Amendments XIII and XIV) and is no longer in force. 
 
 3 Governor. 
 
 4 The Speaker is one of the representatives; the other officers — clerk, 
 sergeant-at-arms, postmaster, doorkeeper, etc., — are not. 
 
388 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen 
 every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or other- 
 wise, during the recess of the Legislature of any 
 Classification. ^ i • i i r ^ 
 
 State, the executive ^ thereof may make temporary 
 
 appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall 
 
 then fill such vacancies. 
 
 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the 
 
 age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of 
 Qualifications. , tt • i r- i i in 
 
 the United States, and who shall not, when elected, 
 
 be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 
 
 The Vice-President of the United States shall be president 
 President of of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they 
 Senate. be equally divided. 
 
 The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a presi- 
 dent /fro teinpore, in the absence of the Vice- 
 Officers. , 11 
 
 President, or when he shall exercise the office of 
 
 President of the United States. 
 
 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments : 
 When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirma- 
 tion. When the President of the United States is 
 Impeachment tried, the Chief-Justice shall preside : and no per- 
 son shall be convicted without the concurrence of 
 two-thirds of the members present. 
 
 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further 
 than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and 
 Judgment enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the 
 
 in Case of United States ; but the party convicted shall never- 
 
 Conviction. theless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, 
 
 judgment, and punishment, according to law. 
 
 Section 4. — Both Houses 
 
 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators 
 Manner of ^.nd representatives shall be prescribed in each State 
 
 electing by the Legislature thereof ; but the Congress may 
 
 Members. ^X any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, 
 
 except as to the places of choosing senators. ^ 
 
 1 Governor. 
 
 2 This is to prevent Congress from fixing the places of meeting of the state 
 legislatures. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 389 
 
 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
 Meetings of ^ such meeting shall be on the first Monday in Decem- 
 Congress. ber, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. 
 
 Section 5. — The Houses separately 
 
 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 
 
 Organization. ^^^^^^^^ ^^y adjourn from day to day, and may be 
 
 authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such 
 
 manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide. 
 
 Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish 
 
 its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the 
 
 ^^^^^' concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 
 
 Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from 
 time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in 
 their judgment require secrecy, and the yeas and 
 Journal. ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ members of either house on any ques- 
 
 tion shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered 
 on the journal. 
 
 Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without 
 
 the consent of the other, adjourn for more than 
 
 Adjournment. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ pl^^.^ than that in 
 
 which the two houses shall be sitting. 
 
 Section 6. Privileges and Disabilities of Members 
 
 The senators and representatives 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 
 
 Pay and cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, 
 
 Privileges of ^ privileijed from arrest during their attendance at 
 Members. i' » <^ j • • 
 
 the session of their respective houses, and m gomg 
 
 to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in 
 
 either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 
 
 1 Five thousand dollars a year and twenty cents for every mile of travel each 
 way from their homes at each annual session. There is also an allowance of 
 one hundred and twenty-five dollars for stationery and newspapers. 
 
390 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAxN HISTORY 
 
 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, 
 
 Prohi itions ^^ ^j^^ emoluments whereof shall have been increased, 
 
 on Members. , . , . , i i t rr 
 
 durmg such time ; and no person holding any office 
 
 under the United States shall be a member of either house during 
 his continuance in office. 
 
 Section 7. — Method of passing Laws 
 
 All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 
 
 Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or 
 Revenue Bills. .. 1 . ^u i -n 
 
 concur with amendments as on other bills. 
 
 Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representa- 
 tives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented 
 
 to the President of the United States; if he approve, 
 How Bills ^^ gj^^^ gj J. ^^^ j£ ^^^ j^g gl^^jj return it, with 
 
 become Laws. , * ' . , . , . , 
 
 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 reconsidera- 
 tion, 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 persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on 
 the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be 
 returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after 
 it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in 
 like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their 
 adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 
 Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of 
 the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary 
 
 (except on a question of adjournment) shall be 
 ' presented to the President of the United States ; 
 
 and before the same shall take effect, shall be 
 approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed 
 by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, accord- 
 ing to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 391 
 
 Section 8. — Powers granted to Congress 
 
 The Congress shall have power: 
 
 To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay 
 the debts and provide for the common defense 
 owers ^^^ general welfare of the United States ; but all 
 
 Congress. , . ^ . , . , ,, , -r 
 
 duties, nnposts, and excises shall be uniform 
 
 throughout the United States; 
 
 To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 
 
 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
 several States, and with the Indian tribes; 
 
 To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws 
 on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 
 
 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, 
 and fix the standard of weights and measures ; 
 
 To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities 
 and current coin of the United States ; 
 
 To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 
 
 To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, 
 for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to 
 their respective writings and discoveries ; 
 
 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 
 
 To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the 
 high seas, and offenses against the law of nations ; 
 
 To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal,^ and make 
 rules concerning captures on land and water ; 
 
 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money 
 to that use shall be for a longer term than two years ; 
 
 To provide and maintain a navy ; 
 
 To make rules for the government and regulation of the land 
 and naval forces ; 
 
 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of 
 the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions. 
 
 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, 
 and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the 
 service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively 
 
 1 Letters granted by the government to private citizens in time of war, 
 authorizing them, under certain conditions, to capture the ships of the enemy. 
 
392 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the 
 militia according to the disciphne prescribed by Congress ; 
 
 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over 
 such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession 
 of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the 
 seat of the government of the United States,^ and to exercise like 
 authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legis- 
 lature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection 
 of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful build- 
 ings ; — And 
 
 To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for car- 
 Implied ^y'^^S '^^^^ execution the foregoing powers, and all 
 Powers. other powers vested by this Constitution in the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, or in any department or officer 
 thereof. 
 
 Section 9. — Powers forbidden to the United States 
 
 The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
 
 States now existing shall think proper to admit. 
 
 Absolute shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to 
 
 -n „ „.„ the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, 
 on Congress. ■' ® o ' 
 
 but a tax or duty may be imposed on such impor- 
 tation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. ^ 
 
 The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus ^ shall not be sus- 
 pended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
 safety may require it. 
 
 No bill "of attainder^ or ex-post-facto law ^ shall be passed. 
 
 No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in propor- 
 tion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 
 
 1 The District of Columbia. 
 
 2 This refers to the foreign slave trade. " Persons " means " slaves." In 1808 
 Congress prohibited the importation of slaves. This clause is, of course, no 
 longer in force. 
 
 3 An official document requiring an accused person who is in prison awaiting 
 trial to be brought into court to inquire whether he may be legally held. 
 
 4 A special legislative act by which a person may be condemned to death or 
 to outlawry or banishment without the opportunity of defending himself which 
 he would have in a court of law. 
 
 5 A law relating to the punishment of acts committed before the law was 
 passed. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 393 
 
 No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any 
 State. 
 
 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. 
 
 No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in conse- 
 quence 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. 
 
 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, 
 emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, 
 prince, or foreign state. 
 
 Section 10. — Powers forbiddek to the States 
 
 No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation ; 
 
 grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; 
 Absolute gj^^i^ l^illg Qf credit; make anything but gold and 
 
 Prohibitions , ^^.^^ ^ tender in payment of debts ; pass any 
 
 on the States. '^ ^ , , ... 
 
 bill of attainder, ex-post-faeto law, or law impairmg 
 
 the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 
 
 No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
 imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be 
 
 absolutely necessary for executing its inspection 
 Conditional j^^^g . ^,-^^ ^\^q ^et produce of all duties and imposts, 
 
 Prohibitions ^ g^^^^ ^^ imports or exports, shall be 
 
 on the States. -^ ■' ^ ^ ^ r 1 tt •. j o^ i. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 compact with another State, or with a 
 foreio-n power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in 
 such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 
 
394 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 ARTICLE IL — EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 
 
 Section i. — President and Vice-President 
 
 The executive power shall be vested in a President of the 
 
 United States of America. He shall hold his ofifice 
 Term 
 
 during the term of four years, and, together with 
 
 the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as 
 follows : 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature 
 thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole num- 
 ber of senators and representatives to which the 
 State may be entitled in the Congress : but no 
 senator or representative, or person holding an ofifice of trust or 
 profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 
 
 [^ 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 cer- 
 
 Proceedings of ^j£ ^^^ transmit sealed to the seat of the govern- 
 Electors and ^ . , ^^ . . ^ .. . . *., 
 
 of Congress ment 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 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 arianner, choose 
 
 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 necessary to a choice. In every case, after tlie 
 
 1 This paragraph in brackets has been superseded by the Twelfth Amendment. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 395 
 
 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 more who have equal votes, the Senate shall 
 choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.] 
 
 The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, 
 Time of ^.nd the day on which they shall give their votes ; 
 
 choosing which day shall be the same throughout the United 
 
 Electors. States.^ 
 
 No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the 
 
 United States at the time of the adoption of this 
 
 Qua 1 ca ions Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of Presi- 
 of President. ® 
 
 dent; neither shall any person be eligible to that 
 
 office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, 
 and been fourteen years resident within the United States. 
 
 In case of the removal of the President 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-President, and the Congress may by law pro- 
 vide 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. 
 
 The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services 
 
 a compensation - w^hich 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. 
 
 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 
 
 United States." 
 
 1 The electors are chosen on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in 
 November, preceding the expiration of a presidential term. They vote (by Act 
 of Congress of Feb. 3, 1887) on the second Monday in January following 
 for President and Vice-President. The votes are counted, and declared in 
 Congress on the second Wednesday of the following February. 
 
 '- The President now receives fifty thousand dollars a year ; the Vice-President, 
 eight thousand dollars. 
 
396 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Section 2. — Powers of the President 
 
 The President shall be commander-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 
 Military ....... ^ 
 
 Powers. States; he may require the opmion, m writmg, of 
 
 the principal officer in each of the executive depart- 
 
 Reprieves and ments, upon any subject relating to the duties of 
 
 ^^ °°^' their respective offices ; and he shall have power to 
 
 grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United 
 
 States, except in cases of impeachment. 
 
 He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of 
 
 the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators 
 
 present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and 
 Treaties. . 
 
 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 bv law: 
 
 ments. ' •' 
 
 but the Congress may by law vest the appointment 
 of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President 
 alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 
 
 The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
 
 may happen during the recess of the Senate, by 
 
 granting commissions which shall expire at the end 
 
 of their next session. 
 
 Fill 
 Vacancies 
 
 Section 3. — Duties of the President 
 
 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 
 Message. j- ^ i ^ j- • 
 
 expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, con- 
 vene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement 
 
 1 The President gives this information by sending a message to Congress at 
 the opening of each session. Washington and John Adams read their messages 
 in person to Congress. Jefferson, however, sent a written message to Congress 
 by his private secretary, and this custom has since been followed. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 397 
 
 between them with respect to the time of ^di""--"™^"*' .|;^ 
 may adjourn them to such t.me as he shall think 
 convene „roner : he shall receive ambassadors and other 
 
 congress. V ,^^^^ ministers; he shall take care that tl,e laws 
 
 be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the ofhcers of 
 the United States. 
 
 Section 4. — Impeachment 
 
 ThP President Vice-President, and all civil officers of the 
 The P-s.dent,^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 Removal of impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bnb- 
 
 Officers. ^^^^^ ^j. Q^^g^ high crimes and misdemeanors. 
 
 ARTICLE III. -JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT 
 Section i. — United States Courts 
 The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one 
 supreme Court,'and in such inferior courts ^^^^J^^ ^ > 
 from time to time ordain and establish. 1 he 
 courts . ^^gg boti, of the Supreme and inferior couits 
 
 established. J^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^.^ ^^^^^ ^^^ng good behavior, and 
 J^<ig^^- shall at stated times, receive for their services a 
 
 compensation^ which shall not be diminished during their con- 
 tinuance in office. 
 
 SECTION 2. -JURISDICTION OF UNITED STATES COURTS 
 
 The iudicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, 
 
 Federal their authority ;- to all cases affecting ambassa- 
 
 Courts in ^^^.^ other public ministers, and consuls ; — to an 
 
 °"'"^'- case's of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction •. — to 
 
 controversies to which the United States shall be a party ;- 
 to controversies between two or more ^W'<==* \7'^"'^^''" if.^ ;„, 
 11 citizens of another State --between cituens of ditferent 
 
 , ,,. chief iusf,ce of .he Supreme Court „ceives.^n thousand hve hundred 
 dollars a year; the associate justices, ten thousana dollars. 
 
 2 But compare the Eleventh .\mendment. 
 
398 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 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. 
 
 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 other 
 Supreme 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 Congress 
 shall make. 
 
 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 
 
 Tri3.1s 
 
 not committed within any State, the trial shall be at 
 such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 
 
 Section 3. — Treason 
 
 Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying 
 Treason war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, 
 
 defined. griving: them aid and comfort. 
 
 No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testi- 
 mony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in 
 open court. 
 
 The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of 
 treason, but no attainder of treason shall work 
 corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during 
 the life of the person attainted. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. — RELATIONS OF THE STATES TO 
 EACH OTHER 
 
 Section i. — Official Acts 
 
 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. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 399 
 
 Section 2. — Privileges of Citizens 
 
 The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
 
 immunities of citizens in the several States. 
 
 A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other 
 
 crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in 
 
 Fugitives another State, shall, on demand of the executive 
 
 from Justice. , , , ^ . , • 1 1 n i 1 1 i- 
 
 authority ot the State from which he fled, be deliv- 
 ered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 
 No person^ held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
 
 thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence 
 Fugitive ^£ j^j^y i^^y Qj- regulation therein, be discharged from 
 
 such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
 claim of the party to v>hom such service or labor may be due. 
 
 Section 3. — New States and Territories 
 
 New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; 
 but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdic- 
 tion of any other State ; nor any State be formed 
 Admission ^ ^^^ junction of two or more States, or parts 
 
 of States. -i •* . , , r .1 t • 1 x 
 
 of States, without the consent of the Legislatures 
 
 of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 
 
 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 
 
 needful rules and regulations respecting the terri- 
 Territory ^^^y qj. other propertv belonging to the United 
 
 Unttrrsta'tes''* States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be 
 
 so construed as to prejudice any claims of the 
 United States, or of any particular State. 
 
 Section 4. — Protection of the States 
 
 The United States shall guarantee 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. 
 
 1 " Person " here includes slave. This was the basis of the Fugitive Slave 
 Law. It is now superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment. 
 
400 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 ARTICLE v. — AMENDMENTS 
 
 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 
 
 proposed. 
 
 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 proposed by 
 °^ the Congress ; provided that no amendment which 
 
 may be made prior to the year one thousand eight 
 hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth 
 clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, 
 without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the 
 Senate. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. — GENERAL PROVISIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
 Supremacy of United States, shall be the supreme law of the 
 Constitution. . . ^ 
 
 land; and the judges in every State shall be bound 
 
 thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 
 members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and 
 Official Oath judicial officers, both of the United States and of 
 the several States, shall be bound by oath or afiirma- 
 e igious Tes . ^j^^ ^^ support this Constitution ; but no religious 
 test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or 
 public trust under the United States. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 401 
 
 ARTICLE VII.— RATIFICATION OF THE 
 CONSTITUTION 
 
 The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be 
 sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the 
 States so ratifying the same. 
 
 Done in convention, by 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 America the twelfth. 
 
 In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our 
 1 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 President, and Depitty from Virsjiuia. 
 
 names. 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE 
 
 John Langdon 
 Nicholas Oilman 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 Nathaniel Gorham 
 RuFus King 
 
 CONNECTICUT 
 
 William Samuel Johnson 
 Roger Sherman 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 Alexander Hamilton 
 
 NEW JERSEY 
 
 William Livingston 
 David Brearlev 
 William Paterson 
 Jonathan Dayton 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Benjamin Franklin 
 Thomas Mifflin 
 Robert Morris 
 George Clymer 
 Thomas Fitzsimons 
 Jared Ingersoll 
 James Wilson 
 
 GOUVERNEUR MoRRIS 
 
 DELAWARE 
 
 George Read 
 Gunning Bedford, Jr. 
 John Dickinson 
 Richard Bassett 
 Jacob Broom 
 
 MARYLAND 
 
 James M'Henry 
 
 Daniel of St. Thomas 
 
 Jenifer 
 Daniel Carroll 
 
 VIRGINIA 
 
 John Blair 
 
 James Madison, Jr. 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 William Blount 
 Richard Dobbs Spaight 
 Hugh Williamson 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 John Rutledge 
 Charles C. Pinckney 
 Charles Pincknev 
 Pierce Butler 
 
 GEORGIA 
 
 William Few 
 Abraham Baldwin 
 
 Attest: WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 
 
 1 There were sixty-five delegates chosen to the convention : ten did not 
 attend ; sixteen decUned or failed to sign ; thirty-nine signed. Rhode Island 
 sent no delegates. 
 
402 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 AMENDMENTS 
 
 Article I.^ — Congress shall make no law respecting an 
 Relieion establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 
 
 Speech, Press, exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of 
 Assembly, speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people 
 
 Petition. peaceably to assemble, and to petition the govern- 
 
 ment for redress of grievances. 
 
 Article II. — A well-regulated mihtia being necessary to the 
 security of a free State the right of the people to 
 keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 
 Article III. -^ No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quar- 
 tered in any house, without the consent of the 
 Soldiers. . . ^ , , , 
 
 owner ; nor in time of war but in a manner to be 
 
 prescribed by law. 
 
 Article IV. — 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. — No person shall be held to answer for a capital, 
 
 or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indict- 
 ment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the 
 
 _, .. land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in 
 
 Prosecutions. . ' ] 
 
 actual service in time of war and public danger ; 
 nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice 
 put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any 
 criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor to be deprived 
 of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
 private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. 
 Article VI. — In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall 
 enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by ari impartial jury 
 
 1 These amendments were proposed by Congress and ratified by the Legis- 
 latures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth article of the Constitution. 
 The first ten were offered in 1789 and adopted before the close of 1791. They 
 were for the most part the work of Madison. They are frequently called the 
 Bill of Rights, as their purpose is to guard more efficiently the rights of the 
 people and of the states. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 403 
 
 of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been com- 
 mitted, which district shall have been previously ascertained by 
 law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusa- 
 tion ; 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 defense. 
 
 Article VII. — In suits at common law, where the value in 
 
 controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right 
 
 Suits at q£ ^j.j^j Y)y jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
 
 J tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in 
 
 any court of the United States than according to 
 
 the rules of common law. 
 
 Article VIII. — Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
 Bail, excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual 
 
 Punishments. punishments inflicted. 
 
 Article IX. — The enumeration in the Constitution of cer- 
 tain rights shall not be construed to deny or dis- 
 Reserved parage others retained by the people. 
 
 Rights and A V ^u T ^ 1 ^ j ^ *i 
 
 pjj^gj.g Article X. — 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 XI. ^ — The judicial power of the United States shall 
 Judicial ^lot be construed to extend to any suit in law or 
 
 Power equity, commenced or prosecuted against any of 
 
 granted. ^\^q United States by citizens of another State, 
 
 or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 
 
 Article XI I. ^ — The electors shall meet in their respective 
 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 lists of all persons 
 voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Mce-Presi- 
 dent, 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; — 
 
 1 Proposed in 1794: adopted in 1798. 
 
 2 Adopted in 1804. 
 
404 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 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 Presi- 
 
 Method of dent, if such number be a majority of the whole 
 
 clcctin&r 
 
 President and number of electors appointed ; and if no person 
 
 Vice-President, 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 immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choos- 
 ing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the repre- 
 sentation 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. 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-President, if such number be a majority of the 
 whole number 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 pur- 
 pose 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 XII I. ^ — Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary 
 servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof 
 
 ayery ^ party shall have been duly convicted, shall 
 
 abolished. r j j 
 
 exist within the United States, or any place sub- 
 ject to their jurisdiction. 
 
 Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
 by appropriate legislation. 
 
 Article XI V.^ — Section i. All persons born or naturalized 
 in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are 
 
 i Adopted in 1865. 
 2 Adopted in 1868. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 405 
 
 citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they 
 
 reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall 
 
 abridge tlie privileges or immunities of citizens of 
 
 egroes ma e ^|^^ United States ; nor shall any State deprive any 
 
 person of life, liberty, or property, without due 
 
 process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction 
 
 the equal protection of the laws. 
 
 Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the 
 several States according to their respective numbers, counting 
 the whole number 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 executive or judicial offi- 
 cers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is 
 denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being 
 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 therein shall be reduced in the 
 proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to 
 tlie whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
 such State. 
 
 Section J . No person shall be a senator or representative in 
 Congress, or elector of President or Vice-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 Con- 
 gress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of 
 any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 
 State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have 
 engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given 
 aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a 
 vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. 
 
 Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, 
 authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pen- 
 sions and 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. 
 
406 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Sections. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro- 
 priate legislation, the provisions of this article. 
 
 Article XV.i — Section i. The rights of citizens of the 
 Negroes United States to vote shall not be denied or 
 
 made Voters. abridged by the United States, or by any State, 
 on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 
 
 Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
 appropriate legislation. 
 
 1 Adopted in 1870. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abolition societies, 237. 
 
 Acadia, 1 10. 
 
 Acadians, 1 1 5. 
 
 Adams, John, administration of, 
 195. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, administra- 
 tion of, 229-233. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 135. 
 
 Alabama, 177. 
 
 Alabama, the, 320. 
 
 Alabama claims, the, 333. 
 
 Alaska purchased, 332. 
 
 Albany (Fort Orange) settled, 60. 
 
 Albany convention of 1754, the, 
 114. 
 
 Albion, New, 33. 
 
 Alien and Sedition Laws, the, 197. 
 
 Alien Contract Labor Law, the, 
 348. 
 
 Allen, Ethan, takes Ticonderoga, 
 141. 
 
 Amendments to the Constitution, 
 the first ten, iSo; the Thirteenth, 
 328; the Fourteenth, 329; the 
 Fifteenth, 336. 
 
 America, voyages of the North- 
 men to, I, 2; discovered by 
 Columbus, 1 1 ; continent of, dis- 
 covered by Cabot, 13; origin of 
 the name, 16; Spanish explora- 
 tions in, 21-26; PVench explo- 
 rations in, 26-32 ; English ex- 
 plorations in, 32-35 ; Spanish 
 
 settlements in, 12, 21-26, 31; 
 French settlements in, 28-31, 
 107 ; English settlements in, 52, 
 62, 66, 68, 71, 78-79, 80, 86, 90, 
 92, 94, 98, 99 ; Dutch settle- 
 ments in, 60 ; Swedish settle- 
 ments in, 92 ; first permanent 
 Spanish settlement in, 31 ; first 
 permanent French settlement 
 in, 29; first permanent English 
 settlement in, 52; the wars of 
 the English and French in, 
 108-120. 
 
 American, Native, party, 280. 
 
 Americus Vespucius, 16. 
 
 Anarchists, the Chicago, 351. 
 
 Andre hanged, 170. 
 
 Andros, Governor, 76, 83. 
 
 Annexation of Texas, 251. 
 
 Antipolygamy Bill, 347. 
 
 Antirenters, 243. 
 
 Antislavery movement, 237. 
 
 Appomattox Court House, 325. 
 
 Apprentices, white, in Virginia, 55. 
 
 Arkansas, 241. 
 
 Army, review of, at close of Civil 
 War, 327. 
 
 Arnold, at Ticonderoga, 142 ; 
 expedition against Quebec, 143; 
 at Fort Stanwix, 1 59 ; at Sara- 
 toga, 160; treason of, 169. 
 
 Arthur, administration of, 346- 
 
 349- 
 
 407 
 
4o8 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Articles of Confederation, 177. 
 Ashburton treaty, 249. 
 Astoria, 204. 
 Atlanta Exhibition, 357. 
 Atlantic telegraph, 332. 
 Aztecs, the, 21. 
 
 Bacon's rebellion, 57. 
 
 Balboa discovers the Pacific, 18. 
 
 Baltimore, founded, 89 ; in the 
 Civil War, 295. 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, 84. 
 
 Bank, the United States, estab- 
 lished, 187 ; Jackson ends the 
 United States, 238. 
 
 Banks, national, established, 243 ; 
 state, and w^ild-cat money, 241. 
 
 Banner," " The Star Spangled, 
 219. 
 
 Barry, Commodore John, 166. 
 
 Battle of Antietam,or Sharpsburg, 
 304; Atlanta, 318; Bennington, 
 157; Brandywine, 155; Buena 
 Vista, 258 ; Bull Run, or Manas- 
 sas Junction (first), 296; Bull 
 Run (second), 303; Bunker Hill, 
 142; Butts Hill, 161; Camden, 
 169; Caney, 364; Cedar Moun- 
 ^ tain, 303 ; Cerro Gordo, 260 ; 
 Chancellorsville, 313; Chatta- 
 nooga, 316; Chapultepec, 261; 
 Chesapeake and Shannon, 213; 
 Charleston, 168 ; Chickamauga, 
 316; Chippewa, 217; Churu- 
 busco, 260; Cold Harbor, 322 ; 
 Concord, 140; Constellationdi\\6. 
 Insurgente, 197; Constitution 
 and the Guerriere, 212; Con- 
 treras, 260 ; Corinth, 308 ; Cow^- 
 pens, 170 ; Crown Point, 142; 
 
 Dallas, 318; Eutaw Springs, 
 170 ; Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, 
 302 ; Flamborough Head, 167 ; 
 Fort Donelson, 308 ; Fort 
 Duquesne, 113; Fort Henry, 
 308; Fort McAllister, 320; Fort 
 McHenry, 218; Fort Moultrie, 
 145; Fort Stanwix, 159; Fort 
 Sumter, 290 ; Fort Washington, 
 149; Fort William Henry, 117; 
 Fort William and Mary, 139; 
 Franklin, 319; Fredericksburg, 
 304; Germantown, 155 ; Gettys- 
 burg, 313; Goldsboro, 324; Guil- 
 ford Court House, 170 ; Hob- 
 kirks Hill, 170 ; Horseshoe 
 Bend, or Tohopeka, 216; Island 
 Number 10, 309 ; Kearsarge and 
 the Alabama, 321 ; Kenesaw 
 Mountain, 318; Kings Moun- 
 tain, 169; Lake Champlain, 
 218; Lake Erie, 215; Lake 
 George, ir6; Lexington and 
 Concord, 140 ; Lexington^ the, 
 and the Edxvard, 1 67 ; Long 
 Island, 148 ; Lookout Moun- 
 tain, 316; Louisburg, iii; 
 Lundys Lane, 217 ; Malvern 
 Hill, 303 ; Manila, 362 ; Mis- 
 sionary Ridge, 316 ; Mobile 
 Bay, 321 ; MoUno del Rey, 260 ; 
 ATonitor and Merrimac, 305 ; 
 Monmouth, 160; Monterey, 
 258; Murfreesboro, 310 ; Nash- 
 ville, 320 ; New Orleans (War 
 ofi8i2), 218; (Civil War), 309 ; 
 Oriskany, 159 (note); Palo 
 Alto, 257 ; Peninsular Campaign, 
 301; Perry ville, 310; Peters- 
 burg, 323; Pittsburg Landing, 
 
INDEX 
 
 409 
 
 or Shiloh, 308 ; Plains of Abra- 
 ham, 118; Port Hudson, 316; 
 President and Little Belt, 210; 
 Princeton, 153 ; Quebec (1759), 
 119' (1775) ^435 Queenston 
 Heights, 211; Resaca, 318; 
 Resaca de la Palma, 257; San 
 Juan, 364; Santiago, 366; Sara- 
 toga, 160; Savannah, 168; Semi- 
 noles, 239 ; Seven Days before 
 Richmond, 303 ; Shenandoah 
 Valley, 322 ; Shiloh, or Pittsburg 
 Landing, 308 ; Spottsylvania 
 Court House, 322 ; Stony Point, 
 161 ; Ticonderoga, 141 ; Tippe- 
 canoe, 210; Tohopeka, 216; 
 Trenton, 152; Tripoli, 200; 
 Vera Cruz, 260 ; Vicksburg, 315 ; 
 Wilderness, 322; Williamsburg, 
 302 ; Wilsons Creek, 298 ; Win- 
 chester, 322; Vorktown, 174. 
 
 Beauregard, General, 290. 
 
 Bering sea dispute, 358. 
 
 Bell, Alexander Graham, 343. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, 57, 129. 
 
 Berkeley and Carteret, 65. 
 
 Bienville, 107. 
 
 Black Hawk, 239. 
 
 Bland-Allison Silver Bill, 339. 
 
 Blockade, the, in the Civil War, 
 298. 
 
 Boone, Daniel, 188 (note). 
 
 Boston, settlement of, 71; Mas- 
 sacre, 135; Tea Party, 136; port 
 of, closed, 137 ; siege of, 145 ; 
 evacuation of, by the British, 
 
 Braddock's defeat, 115. 
 Bradford, governor of Plymouth, 
 70. 
 
 Bragg, General, 310. 
 
 Brant, Joseph, 164. 
 
 Brooklyn Bridge, 348. 
 
 Brown, John, in Kansas, 278 ; raid 
 
 of, and execution, 286. 
 Bryan, William J., 360, 368. 
 Buchanan, administration of, 283- 
 
 289. 
 Buchanan, Captain, 306. 
 Buckner, General, 308. 
 Bunker Hill Monument, 228. 
 Burgesses, House of, in Virginia, 
 
 56. 
 Burgoyne, expedition of, 1 57 ; 
 
 surrender of, 159. 
 Burke, Edmund, 132, 134, 145. 
 Burnside, General, 316. 
 Burr, Aaron, 204. 
 
 Cabeza de Vaca, 24. 
 
 Cabinet, members of Washing- 
 ton's, 185 (note). 
 
 Cabot discovers the continent of 
 America, 13, 14. 
 
 Cabral, 15. 
 
 Calhoun, John C, 235. 
 
 California, name of, 266 (note) ; 
 exploration of, 265 ; the missions 
 in, 267 ; discovery of gold in, 
 268 ; emigration to, 269 ; admitted 
 to the Union, 270. 
 
 Canada settled, 29. 
 
 Canal, the Erie, 231. 
 
 Canonicus, 70. 
 
 Carolinas, the, settled, 93-95 ; con- 
 stitution of the, 94 ; nullification 
 in South Carolina, 236 ; seces- 
 sion in South Carolina, 288. 
 
 Carpenters' Hall, i 39. 
 
 Carpetbaggers, 331. 
 
410 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Carroll, Charles, 147 (note), 233 
 (note). 
 
 Carroll, Bishop John, 144, 187. 
 
 Cartier's explorations, 27. 
 
 Carver, Governor, 68-69. 
 
 Catholics, position of, in England, 
 84 ; persecution of, in New 
 York, 64. 
 
 Cavaliers in Virginia, 56 (note). 
 
 Census, the first, 187. 
 
 Centennial Exhibition, 340. 
 
 Cervera, Admiral, 366. 
 
 Champlain, the explorer, 29. 
 
 Charleston, South Carolina, set- 
 tled, 94. 
 
 Charter Oak, the, 83. 
 
 Charter of Liberties, Dongan's, 63. 
 
 Charters, colonial, 122. 
 
 Chattanooga, siege of, 316. 
 
 Cherry Valley, 164. 
 
 China, " open door " in, 368 ; treaty 
 with, 332. 
 
 Chinese Exclusion Bill, 374. 
 
 Cincinnati, 189. 
 
 City of Mexico, fall of, 261. 
 
 Civil Rights Bill, 329. 
 
 Civil-service reform, 335. 
 
 Clark's victories in the West, 164. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 230, 236, 272. 
 
 Clayborne rebellion, the, 88. 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, first adminis- 
 tration of, 349-352 ; second ad- 
 ministration of, 358-359. 
 
 Cliff Dwellers, 45. 
 
 Clinton, De Witt, 208 (note), 231. 
 
 Clinton, George, 208. 
 
 Coinage, decimal system of, 1S7, 
 200. 
 
 College, Georgetown, founded, 188; 
 Harvard, founded, 126; Kings, 
 
 founded, 126; Princeton, found- 
 ed, 127; William and Mary, 
 founded, 129; Yale, founded, 
 126. 
 
 Colonies, life in, 122-129; resist 
 taxation without representation, 
 133 ; declare themselves inde- 
 pendent, 146. 
 
 Colorado, 340. 
 
 Columbia river named, 203. 
 
 Columbia, South Carolina, burned, 
 
 324- 
 
 Columbian Exposition, 356. 
 
 Columbus, birth, voyages, and 
 death, 5-13. 
 
 Commerce, restrictions on colonial, 
 130; embargo on, 205. 
 
 Common Sense, Paine's, 146. 
 
 Compact, the Pilgrim, 68. 
 
 Compromise, the, of 1850, 271 ; 
 the Missouri, 225. 
 
 Compromises of the Constitution, 
 180. 
 
 Confederation, the New England, 
 72 ; articles of, 177. 
 
 Congress, the Albany, 114; First 
 Continental, 138; Second Con- 
 tinental, 142. 
 
 Connecticut, settled, 80 ; constitu- 
 tion of, 80 ; Andros and the 
 charter of, 83. 
 
 Constantinople, fall of, 3. 
 
 Constitution, the .,United States, 
 386; adopted, 179; first ten 
 amendments to, 180; Thirteenth 
 Amendment to, 328 ; Four- 
 teenth Amendment to, 329; 
 Fifteenth Amendment to, 336. 
 
 Constitution and Guerriere, 213. 
 
 Convention, the Albany, 114. 
 
INDEX 
 
 411 
 
 Conway Cabal, the, 157 (note). 
 Cornwallis, 151, 153, 154, 169, 171 ; 
 
 surrender of, 172. 
 Coronado, expedition of, 24. 
 Cortes, 22. 
 
 Cotton gin invented, 190. 
 Crisis of 1837, 240; of 1S57, 285 ; 
 
 oi 1873, 33^-^ of 1893, 358- 
 Croatoan, 34. 
 C uba, discovered by Columljus, 1 2 ; 
 
 revolutions in, 361 ; destruction 
 
 of Maine \n Havana harbor, 361. 
 Cumberland Road, 228. 
 Custer, General, death of, 341. 
 
 Dale, governor in Virginia, 53. 
 
 Davenport, Rev. John, 81. 
 
 Davis, Captain John, 33. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, president of 
 Confederate states, 289. 
 
 De Ayllon, 23. 
 
 Debts, payment of the, 186. 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 146, 
 381. 
 
 De Gourgues's revenge, 32. 
 
 De Grasse, 173. 
 
 De Kalb, 155. 
 
 De la Salle, 104. 
 
 Delaware, Lord, 53. 
 
 Delaware, settled by the Swedes, 
 92 ; captured by the Dutch, 92; 
 taken by the English, 92 ; bought 
 by I'enn, 93. 
 
 Democrats, name of the, 247 (note). 
 
 De Narvaez, 23. 
 
 De Soto, expedition of, 25; dis- 
 covers the Mississippi, 25. 
 
 Detroit founded by Cadillac, 107. 
 
 Deza, 9. 
 
 Dewey, Admiral, 362. 
 
 Division of the world, 14. 
 
 Dongan, (iovernor, 63. 
 
 Dorchester Heights, 145. 
 
 Dorr rebellion, the, 249. 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., and Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill, 276; supports the 
 Union, 295 (note). 
 
 Drake, voyage of, 32. 
 
 Dred Scott case, 283. 
 
 Duluth founded, 107. 
 
 Dutch in New Netherlands, 58. 
 
 Eads jetties, 344. 
 
 Early's raid, 322. 
 
 Edison's inventions, 343. 
 
 Electoral, commission, 341; count, 
 bill, 351. 
 
 Electric telegraph, the, 250. 
 
 Emancipation Proclamation, Lin- 
 coln's, 311. 
 
 Embargo, the, 205. 
 
 Emigration to the West, 228. 
 
 Elndicott, Governor, 71, 73 (note). 
 
 English explorations, 32-35 ; first 
 permanent English settlement, 
 52. 
 
 Era of good feeling, 223. 
 
 Ericson, Leif, i, 2. 
 
 Ericsson, John, 306. 
 
 Erie canal, 231. 
 
 Ether, discovery of, 264. 
 
 Exeter, New Hampshire, 78. 
 
 Exhibition, the Atlanta, 357 ; the 
 Centennial, 340 ; the Chicago, 
 
 356. 
 Express business established. 245. 
 
 Faneuil Hall, 213. 
 
 Farragut captures New Orleans, 
 
 309- 
 
412 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Federal Elections Bill, repeal of, 
 
 358- 
 
 Federalists, the, 185, 195, 197. 
 
 Field, Cyrus W., 332. 
 
 " Fifty-four forty or fight ! " 255. 
 
 Fillmore, administration of, 271- 
 275. 
 
 Fires, great, ^3^. 
 
 Fisheries dispute, 334. 
 
 Fitch, John, 206. 
 
 Flag, American, adopted, 159. 
 
 Florida, discovery of, 21 ; Narvaez 
 in, 24; De Soto in, 25; French 
 in, 30 ; purchased by United 
 States, 224 ; admitted to the 
 Union, 271 (note). 
 
 Fort Amsterdam, 61 ; Caroline, 
 31, 32; Crown Point, 157; 
 Donelson, 306; Duquesne, 113; 
 Henry, 306; McAllister, 320; 
 McHenry, 218; Meigs, 215; 
 Moultrie, 145, 146; Necessity, 
 113; Niagara, 118; Orange 
 (Albany), 60; Pitt (Pittsburg), 
 118; Stanwix, 159; Sumter, 290; 
 Ticonderoga, 118, 141, 157; 
 Washington, 150; William Henry, 
 116; William and Mary, 139. 
 
 France, explorations by, 26-33 ; 
 first permanent settlement by, 
 29; wars between England and, 
 in America, 108-121 ; recog- 
 nizes our independence, 161 ; 
 aids us in the Revolution, 
 160 (note), 161 ; trouble with, 
 197 ; sells Louisiana, 202 ; pre- 
 sents Statue of Liberty, 350. 
 
 Franciscans and Marco Polo, 4; 
 the, 15 (note), 25, 37, 39; in 
 California, 267, 268 (note). 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 114, 127, 144, 
 
 160. 
 Free trade, 230. 
 Freedmen's Bureau, 329. 
 Fremont, 259. 
 Friends, the, or Quakers, 73, 97, 
 
 98. 
 Frobisher's voyage, 32. 
 Fugitive Slave Law, 273. 
 Fulton's steamboat, 206. 
 Fundamental Orders, The, 80. 
 Fur trade, the, 204. 
 
 Gadsden Purchase, 275. 
 
 Gage, General, 138 (note), 140, 
 142. 
 
 Galitzin, Prince, 189. 
 
 Garfield and Arthur, administra- 
 tion of, 346-349 ; assassinated, 
 346. 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 237. 
 
 Gaspee, the, destroyed, 136. 
 
 Gates, General, 159, 169. 
 
 Genet, " Citizen," 191. 
 
 George III, 133 (note), 148. 
 
 Georgia, settlement of, 99. 
 
 Gibault, Father, 164. 
 
 Gilbert's voyages, t^Z- 
 
 Gin, the cotton, 190. 
 
 Gnupsson, Eric, i. 
 
 Gold, discovery of, in California, 
 268. 
 
 Goodyear and India, rubber, 264. 
 
 Gorges, Sir F., 77. 
 
 Gosnold's voyage, 35. 
 
 Grant, General, in Mexican War, 
 262 (note) ; in Civil War, 308, 
 3^5' 316, 317. 322, y-Z\ admin- 
 istration of, 333-341. 
 
 Green Mountain Boys, 142, 158. 
 
INDEX 
 
 413 
 
 Greene, General, 170-172. 
 Guam annexed, 142. 
 
 "Hail Columbia," song of, 197 
 (note). 
 
 Hale, Nathan, 149, 151 (note). 
 
 Halleck, General, 303. 
 
 Hamilton, first secretary of the 
 treasury, 185; pays United 
 States debts, 186; killed in duel, 
 204. 
 
 Hancock, General, 345. 
 
 Hancock, John, 140. 
 
 Harmer, General, 188. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, administra- 
 tion of, 353-356- 
 
 Harri.son, General W. H., at Tippe- 
 canoe, 210. 
 
 Harrison and Tyler, administra- 
 tion of, 247-253. 
 
 Hartford convention, 222. 
 
 Hartford founded, 80. 
 
 Harvard College, 126. 
 
 Hawaii, independence of, 357 ; 
 annexed, 357. 
 
 Hayes, administration of, 342- 
 
 345- 
 Hayne, Senator, 235. 
 
 Hennepin, Father, 104. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 133, 138. 
 
 Herkimer, General, 159 (note). 
 
 Hessians, 152. 
 
 Hobkirks Hill, 170. 
 
 Hobson, 364. 
 
 Homestead strike, the, 355. 
 
 Hood, General, 319, 320. 
 
 Hooker, General, 314. 
 
 Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 80. 
 
 House of Burgesses, 56. 
 
 Houston, Sam, 252 (note). 
 
 Howe, Elias, and sewing machine, 
 
 264. 
 Howe, General, 148. 
 Hudson's voyage, 58. 
 Hughes, Archbishop, 294. 
 Huguenots, 30. 
 Hull, Captain Isaac, 213. 
 Hull, General, at Detroit, 212. 
 Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 72, 90. 
 
 Iberville, 107. 
 
 Idaho, 354. 
 
 Illinois country, Clark's expedi- 
 tion to, 164. 
 
 Impeachment of President John- 
 son, 331. 
 
 Impressment of American sea- 
 men, 209. 
 
 Indentured servants, 55. 
 
 Independence, Declaration of, 
 146, 381. 
 
 Independent Treasury system, 
 
 243- 
 Indiana, 222. 
 
 Indians, the, 44-49. 
 
 Indies, the, 3. 
 
 Interstate Commerce Act, 350. 
 
 Intolerable Acts, The Five, 137. 
 
 Inventions, great, 263-264. 
 
 Iowa, 271. 
 
 Isabella, Queen, 9, 10 (note). 
 
 Jackson, (ieneral, at New Orleans, 
 219; administration of, 234- 
 
 239- 
 Jackson, Stonewall, 296, 302, 304, 
 
 3^3- 
 Jamestown, 51, 52. 
 
 Japan, treaty with, 279. 
 
 Jasper, Sergeant, 146, 168. 
 
414 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Jay's treaty, 192. 
 
 Jefferson, drafts Declaration of 
 Independence, 147 ; administra- 
 tion of, 199-209; on slavery, 
 208. 
 
 Jesuits, the, in Florida, 37 ; in 
 New France, 38, 39, 40, 41, 1 01 ; 
 in Maine, 42, 43 ; in California, 
 266. 
 
 Johnson, administration of, 327- 
 
 33-- 
 Johnston, General A. S., 306, 308. 
 
 Johnston, General J. F., 316, 318. 
 
 Johnstown flood, 353. 
 
 Jolliet and Marquette, 102-103. 
 
 Jones, Paul, 167. 
 
 Kalb, Baron I)e, 155. 
 Kansas, struggle for, 276, 277. 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 276. 
 Kearny, General Philip, 304. 
 Kearny, General Stephen, 258. 
 Kearsarge and Alabama, the, 321. 
 Kentucky, settled, 188; admitted 
 
 to the Union, 188. 
 Kentucky resolutions, the, 197. 
 " King " Philip's War, 74. 
 Know-Nothing party, 280. 
 Knox, General, 185. 
 Kosciuszko, I 55. 
 
 Labor Law, Alien Contract, 348. 
 
 I^abor troubles, 342. 
 
 Lafayette, General, in Revolution, 
 
 154, 157 (note), 162, 172; visits 
 
 America, 228. 
 Land cessions by the states, 176. 
 La Salle, 104. 
 Las Casas, friend of the Indians, 
 
 \\. 
 
 Laudonniere, 31. 
 
 Lee, General Charles, 150, 151. 
 
 Lee, General Robert E., 302, 303, 
 304> 3^3^ 314, 318. 322,325. 
 
 Lee, Richard Henry, 146. 
 
 Leif Ericson, i, 2. 
 
 Leisler, Jacob, 63. 
 
 Leopard and Chesapeake, 205. 
 
 Lewis and Clark's exploration, 
 203. 
 
 Liberator, the, 237. ■• 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, debate of, 
 with Douglas, 285 ; administra- 
 tion of, 290-326 ; assassination 
 of, 326. 
 
 Lincoln, General, 168. 
 
 London Company, the, 50. 
 
 Londonderry, settlement of, 78. 
 
 Longstreet, General, 305. 
 
 Louisiana, purchase of, 202. 
 
 Louisburg, fall of, 1 1 1 , 117, 118. 
 
 Lovejoy, death of, 237 (note). 
 
 Lyon, General, 298. 
 
 McClellan, General, 297. 
 McCormick reaper, 263. 
 Mcl'onough, Commodore, 218. 
 McD well, General, 296. 
 McKin.'y, administration of, 360- 
 
 370 ; assassination of, 370. 
 Madison, administration of, 209- 
 
 22'^. 
 
 Magellan, 19. 
 
 Maijie, destruction of the, 361. 
 Maine, settlement of, 78 ; ad- 
 mitted to Union, 79, 226 (note). 
 Manhattan, purchase of, 61. 
 Marco Polo, travels of, 5. 
 Marietta, settlement at, 189. 
 Marion, General, 171. 
 
INDEX 
 
 415 
 
 Mark, Father, or Friar Marcos, 24. 
 
 Marquette, Father, 102. 
 
 Marshall, John, 199. 
 
 Maryland, grant of, 85 ; settle- 
 ment of, 86 ; Toleration Act of, 
 86. 
 
 Mason and Dixon's line, 98 
 (note). 
 
 Mason, Captain John, 77. 
 
 Mason and Slidell, 299. 
 
 Massachusetts, Plynnouth settled, 
 68; bay colony settled, 70. 
 
 Massasoit, 70, 74. 
 
 Mayflower^ the, 68. 
 
 Meade, General, 314. 
 
 Menendez in Florida, 31. 
 
 Merrimac, or Virginia, and Moni- 
 tor, 305. 
 
 Mexico, war with, 256-262. 
 
 Michigan, 241. 
 
 Mint, United States, established, 
 187. 
 
 Mississippi river discovered, 26 ; 
 explored, 102; opening of,, in 
 Civil War, 309, 310 ; Fads jet- 
 ties, 344. 
 
 Mississippi ceded to United States, 
 177. 
 
 Missouri admitted to the Union, 
 226. 
 
 Missouri Compromise, the, 225; 
 repealed, 277. 
 
 Mobile founded, 107. 
 
 Monroe, administration of, 223- 
 228 ; Doctrine, 226. 
 
 Montana, 354. 
 
 Montcalm, General, T17, iiS, 119. 
 
 Montesino, Father Antonio, 13. 
 
 Montgomery's expedition against 
 Quebec, 144. 
 
 Montreal named, 28. 
 
 Morgan, Creneral, in Revolution, 
 171. 
 
 Mormons, the, 244. 
 
 Morris, Robert, 152, 173. 
 
 Morse invents the electric tele- 
 graph, 250. 
 
 Morton discovers surgical use of 
 ether, 265. 
 
 Moultrie, Colonel, 145. 
 
 Mound Builders, 45. 
 
 Mowing machine, 263. 
 
 Mutiny Act, 134. 
 
 Napoleon, 202, 210. 
 Narvaez, expedition of, 23. 
 National banks, 243. 
 National Road, 228. 
 Navigation Acts, 57, 130. 
 Nebraska, 276, 277. 
 Negro rule in South, 330. 
 Negro slavery, introduction of, in 
 
 Virginia, 56. 
 Negro slaves emancipated, 311, 
 
 328. 
 Neutrality proclamation, 192. 
 New Albion, 33. 
 
 New England Confederation, 72. 
 New Hampshire, 77. 
 New Haven, settlement of, 81. 
 New Jersey, settlement of, 65-67. 
 New Mexico, 262. 
 New Netherlands, 58. 
 New Orleans, 107, 309. 
 New York, 58. 
 New York City, 61. 
 Newport, attack on, 161. 
 Non-Intercourse Act, 206. 
 North, the, in the Civil \Yar, 
 
 292. 
 
4l6 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 North Carolina, 95. 
 North Dakota, 354. 
 North, Lord, 175. 
 Northmen, the i, 2. 
 Northwest Territory, 176. 
 Nova Scotia, no. 
 Nullification in South Carolina, 
 235- 
 
 Oglethorpe colonizes Georgia, 
 99. 
 
 Ohio Company, the, 112. 
 
 Ohio, first settlement of, 189; 
 admission of, 201. 
 
 Oklahoma, 353. 
 
 Omnibus Bill, 272. 
 
 Ordinance of Northwest Terri- 
 tory (1787), 176. 
 
 Oregon, exploration of, 203, 204 ; 
 settlement of, 253. 
 
 Osceola, 239. 
 
 Otis, James, and writs of assist- 
 ance, 131. 
 
 Pacific ocean, discovery of, 18 ; 
 
 name of, 19 ; railroad, 335. 
 Paine's Common Sense, 146. 
 Pan-American Congress, 354. 
 Panic of 1837, 240 ; of 1857, 285; 
 
 of 1873, 338 ; of 1893, 358. 
 Paper money, 153. 
 Paris, treaty of, 120, 366. 
 Patroons, the, 61. 
 Peninsular Campaign, the, 301. 
 Penn, William, 96. 
 Pennsylvania, settlement of, 96 ; 
 
 University of, founded, 127. 
 Pension Act, 355. 
 Pequot War, the, 82. 
 Perez, Juan, 9. 
 
 Perry's victory on lake Erie, 215; 
 
 Commodore M. C, treaty with 
 
 Japan, 279. 
 Personal Liberty Laws, 273. 
 Petition, right of, 238. 
 Philadelphia settled, 98. 
 Philippines, purchase of, 366. 
 Philip's, " King," War, 74. 
 Phonograph, the, 344. 
 Physical features of the United 
 
 States, 181-184. 
 Pickett, General, 314. 
 Pierce, administration of, 276- 
 
 283. 
 Pilgrims, the, 67. 
 Pinckney, Charles C, 196. 
 Pitt, William, 117. 
 Pittsburg, 118. 
 Plymouth Company, the, 50. 
 Plymouth settled, 68. 
 Pocahontas, 54. 
 
 Polk, administration of, 253-270. 
 Polygamy, laws against, 347. 
 Ponce de Leon, 21. 
 Pontiac, conspiracy of, 120. 
 Pony express, 246. 
 Pope Alexander VI, 14. 
 Pope, Demarcation Line of the, 14. 
 Pope, General, 303. 
 Popham colony, the, 51. 
 Port Hudson, 316. 
 Port Royal, 28, 29 (note). 
 Porto Rico, annexation of, 366. 
 Postage, cheap, 34S. 
 Powhatan, 53 (note), 54 (note). 
 Presidential Succession Act, 350. 
 Pring, Martin, voyage of, 35. 
 Privateers, the, 299. 
 Protection, 229, 230. 
 Providence, settlement of, 90. 
 
INDEX 
 
 417 
 
 Pulaski, Count, 155, 168. 
 Puritans, the, 70. 
 
 Quakers, the, 73. 
 
 Quebec Act, the, 121. 
 
 Quebec, founding of, 29; Mont- 
 gomery's attack on, 144; cap- 
 ture of, 1 19. 
 
 Railroad, the first, 233 ; transcon- 
 tinental, 335. 
 
 Raisin River Massacre, 214. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, ^t,- 
 
 Reaper, McCormick's, 263. 
 
 Reciprocity, 355. 
 
 Reconstruction Acts, 330. 
 
 Republican party, the first, 185 
 (note) ; the present, 277. 
 
 Resumption of specie payment, 
 
 345- 
 Revere, Paul, 14. 
 Rhode Island, settlement of, 90 ; 
 
 religious toleration in, 91 ; Dorr 
 
 rebellion in, 249. 
 Ribaut, John, 30. 
 Rice culture in South Carolina, 95. 
 Richmond, capital of Confederacy, 
 
 296; evacuation of, 325. 
 Road, National or Cumberland, 
 
 228. 
 Rochambeau, General, 173 (note), 
 
 174; statue to, 174 (note). 
 Rolfe, Captain John, 54. 
 Roosevelt, administration of, 370. 
 Rosecrans, General, 316. 
 Rubber, vulcanization of, discov- 
 ered, 264. 
 
 St. Augustine settled, 31. 
 St. Marys, founding of, 86. 
 
 " Salary grab," the, 337. 
 
 Salem, Massachusetts, settled, 71; 
 
 witchcraft in, 75. 
 Salt Lake City, 245. 
 Samoan dispute, 356 (note). 
 Sampson, Rear Admiral, 365. 
 San Francisco, 269. 
 Santa Fe founded, 25, 258. 
 Santangel, 9. 
 Savannah, settled, 99 ; captured 
 
 by the British, 168 ; taken by 
 
 Sherman, 320. 
 Scandals, era of, 337. 
 Schenectady burned, 108. 
 Schley, Rear Admiral, 365. 
 Schuyler, General, 157, 158, 159. 
 Scott, Dred, 283. 
 Scott, General, in Mexican War, 
 
 258. 
 Search, right of, 205, 299 (note). 
 Secession, of South Carolina, 288 ; 
 
 of Southern States, 289; the 
 
 war and, 326. 
 Sedition Law, the, 197. 
 Sew^ard, W. H., 299 (note). 
 Sewing machine invented, 264. 
 Shays' rebellion, 177. 
 Shenandoah valley, Jackson in, 
 
 302 ; Sheridan in, 322. 
 Sheridan, General, in Shenandoah 
 
 valley, 322 ; famous ride of, 
 
 322. 
 Sherman, General, march to the 
 
 sea, 320 ; in the Carolinas, 324. 
 Sherman Act, the, 355 ; repeal of, 
 
 358. 
 Silver, Bland-Allison Act, 339 ; 
 Sherman Act, 355 ; repeal of 
 Sherman Act, 358 ; free silver 
 question, 360. 
 
4l8 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Silver, demonetization of, 339. 
 
 Slavery, introduced into Virginia, 
 56; in all the colonies, 56; pro- 
 hibited in Northwest Territory, 
 177; discussion of, 224; aboli- 
 tion of, 311, 328. 
 
 Sloat, Commodore, 259. 
 
 Smith, Captain John, 52. 
 
 Smith, founder of Mormonism, 
 244. 
 
 Soto, De, 25. 
 
 South Carolina, settlement and 
 colonization, 93 ; fundamental 
 constitutions, 94; nullification 
 in, 236 ; secession of, 28S. 
 
 South Dakota, admission of, 354. 
 
 Spanish explorations, 21-26; set- 
 tlements, 12, 21-26, 31. 
 
 Specie payment, resumption of, 
 
 345- 
 Spoils System, 235. 
 Squatter sovereignty, 276. 
 Stamp Act, the, 132. 
 Stamp Act Congress, 133. 
 Standish, Myles, 70. 
 Star of the West, the, 289. 
 Star Spangled Banner," "The, 219. 
 Stark, General John, 158. 
 Stars and bars, the, 296. 
 Statue of Liberty, 349. 
 Steamboat, the first, 206. 
 Stephens, Alexander H., 289 (note), 
 
 293 (note). 
 Steuben, Baron, 155. 
 Strike, great railroad, 343 ; the 
 
 Homestead, 355. 
 Stuart, General J. E. B., 303 
 
 (note). 
 Stuyvesant, Peter, governor, 62. 
 Subtreasury plan, 243. 
 
 Sullivan, General John, 162, 164. 
 Sumner, Charles, 282. 
 Supreme Court, the, 180 j deci- 
 sions of Marshall, 199. 
 Sutter, Captain, 268. 
 Swedes in America, the, 92. 
 
 Talavera, 9. 
 
 Taney, Chief Justice, 284 (note). 
 
 Tariff act, the first, in 1789, 187; 
 of 1816, 230; of 1824, 230; of 
 Abominations (1828), 229-231 ; 
 of 1833, 237; of 1861 (Morrill), 
 297 (note); of 1883, 347; of 1885 
 (Mills), 352; of 1890 (McKinley), 
 355 ; of 1894 (Wilson), 356; of 
 1897 (Dingley), 360. 
 
 Taxation without representation, 
 
 Taylor, General, in Mexican War, 
 
 257- 
 
 Taylor and Fillmore's adminis- 
 tration, 271-275. 
 
 Tecumseh, 210. 
 
 Telegraph, the electric, 250 ; the 
 Atlantic, 332. 
 
 Telephone, the, 343. 
 
 Tennessee, ceded to United States, 
 177 (note), 188 ; admitted to 
 Union, 188. 
 
 Tenure of Office Act, 331. 
 
 Texas, emigration to, 251 ; inde- 
 pendence of, 252 ; and Mexican 
 War, 252 ; admitted to Union, 
 
 253- 
 Thames, battle of the, 217. 
 Thomas, General G. H., 316, 319, 
 
 320. 
 Ticonderoga, Fort, 141. 
 Tilden, nomination of, 341. 
 
INDEX 
 
 419 
 
 Tobacco in Virginia, 55. 
 
 Tories of the Revolution, 145. 
 
 Toscanelli, 7. 
 
 Town meeting, the. 70. 
 
 Towns, absence of, in the South, 
 129. 
 
 Townshend Acts, the, 134 ; repeal 
 of, 136. 
 
 Trade routes to the Indies, 3, 4. 
 
 Trade with the Indies, 3. 
 
 Treaty of France and England 
 
 (1763), 120; with France (i77^)» 
 
 161; of peace (1783)' ^7S'' the 
 
 Jay (1795), 192; with Algiers, 
 
 193; with Spain, 193; of Ghent 
 
 (18 14), 220; Webster-Ashbur- 
 
 ton (1842), 249; Oregon (1846), 
 
 255; with Mexico (1848), 261; 
 
 with Japan (1854), 279; with 
 
 China (1868), 332; Washington 
 
 (1871), 334; with Spain (1899), 
 
 361-366. 
 
 Tn-nf affair, the. 299. 
 
 Tripoli, war with, 200. 
 
 Tyler, administration of. 247-253. 
 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, 275. 
 
 Underground railroad, 274. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 founded, 127. 
 
 Utah, Mormons in, 244 ; admis- 
 sion of, 354. 
 
 Valley Forge, 157 (note). 
 
 Van Buren, administration of, 
 
 240-246. 
 Vasco da Gama, 13, 15. 
 Venezuela controversy, 358. 
 Vermont admitted, 188. 
 Verrazano, 26, 59 (note). 
 
 Versailles, treaty of, 175. 
 
 Vespucius, Americus, 16. 
 
 Vicksburg, fall of, 314. 
 
 Vigo, Francois, 165 (note). 
 
 Vinland. 2. 
 
 Virginia, settlement and coloniza- 
 tion, 50. 
 
 Virginia and Kentucky resolu- 
 tions, 197. 
 
 Virginia, the, or Merrimac, 305. 
 
 Waldseemiiller, 18. 
 
 Wampum, 47. 
 
 War, King William's, 108 ; of 
 the Spanish Succession, no; of 
 the Austrian Succession, no; the 
 Seven Years', in; on African 
 pirates, 200 ; with Spain, 362. 
 
 Washington, capital of United 
 States, 198; burning of, 218; 
 state of, admitted, 354 ; monu- 
 ment, 349. 
 
 Washington, General, in colonial 
 wars, 113; in Revolution, 142- 
 174; in Constitutional Conven- 
 tion, 178; administration of, 
 185-195; death of, 198. 
 
 Wayne, General, at Stony Point, 
 162; and the Indians, 162 
 (note). 
 
 Weather Bureau, 338. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, replies to Hayne, 
 236; on tariff of 1816, 230; 
 favors protective tariff, 230 ; 
 and Calhoun, 230 ; on Fugitive 
 Slave Law, 272 (note). 
 
 Webster- A shburton treaty, 249. 
 
 West, settlement of, 228. 
 
 West Virginia admitted, 293. 
 
 Whigs, the, 247. 
 
420 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Whisky rebellion, 189 ; ring, 237- 
 Whitman, Marcus, 255 (note). 
 Whitney, Eli, 190. 
 Williams, Roger, 71, 90. 
 Wilmot Proviso, 262. 
 Winthrop, Governor, 71. 
 Winthrop, John, Jr., 80. 
 Wisconsin, admission of, 271. 
 Witchcraft, the Salem, 75. 
 Withdrawal of Federal troops 
 from the South, 342. 
 
 Wolfe, (reneral, at Quebec, 119. 
 World's Fair, the, at Chicago, 
 
 356- 
 Writs of assistance, 131. 
 Wyoming, admission of, 354. 
 
 X, Y, Z papers, the, 196. 
 
 York, Duke of, and New Nether- 
 lands, 62 ; and Delaware, 93. 
 Yorktown, surrender of, 172. 
 
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